HHHHAAARGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! power's been out since Saturday and Connecticut Light and Power got it back on in the next town over, but something blew and they're out again. we've been told not to expect power to be back until this weekend/early next week, AND I LOST THE DAMN PACKERS PHOTO CONTEST!
kicks everything…
went about 25 miles outa town to find a n internet connection and they're still having problems out here. their traffic lights are working though, that's a good sign. i mean it's like a Romero movie here. there were a few fist fights that started at some gas stations becuase places were running out or had lines of 60 cars waiting (not an exaggreration) the backuppower for the pohne lines ran out the other day so those are done too. cell towers are down.

ozoneocean wrote:
Lonne, Windows 7 is worth it. It's way more stable than XP ever was. I think the “pro” version has compatability with most xp stuff…? Through emulation or something? But then you could always run XP on a virtual machine maybe and have your older programs on that?

Heh… I could do that, but why change operating systems when the one you're still using is still being supported? I'm all for new tech and all, but I don't jump into it right away. I guess I'm going to be one of the last holdouts…
heh… wrapped my CPU, the fan, both memory sticks (I found out they both still work) and stowed them away. Hopefully I can find a good main/motherboard that can support them all. I'd hate to have to buy new hardware, but I will if I have to (it'll just take me a little longer to get back up to speed). Still no idea if the video card is really fried or if it's just the mainboard slot that's malfunctioning, though… :(
Well… time to finish updating the software on this old machine so I can start drawing. Only there's little time to draw now since today is a work day. T_T

Lonnehart wrote:
why change operating systems when the one you're still using is still being supported? I'm all for new tech and all, but I don't jump into it right away. I guess I'm going to be one of the last holdouts…

THIS

Maybe we're showing our age, Lonnehart, but I for one don't have the ambition or finances for replacing all my ancillaries and software to “get up to speed” every time the Microsoft gods decide to play another round of musical chairs. It's a pain in the ass to locate every patch and driver so the scanner still works, and my camcorder still connects, and my beloved microphone . . . it goes on. I'm completely up-to-date with xp now (and it's my fault that that update became a 9-month nightmare to achieve because I didn't like giving automated access to Windows to blast a non-ending stream of MBs for “this” and “that” – but I've learned it's a necessary evil when I was at sp1 and sp2 was no longer supported. *insert Your favorite expletive here* But I Prevailed, and now I have a loverly, fully-updated sp3 that continues to update every time I even glance at the PC. WTF!!)

yeah, so I sound like an amazing curmudgeon right now. apologies. but the house has been in disarray since our flooding back on 27 August and I've capped OUT!!! Right now it appears that we're at the beginnning of the end. The carpet guys are here, banging away, getting ready to lay down a coat of something-or-another because the ruined tiles my husband picked up off the basement floor were indeed asbestoes tiles and, for re-sale value, we need to prove that we remedied to the fullest extent. Meanwhile, my husband and I look at each other: “lungs?”

as my brother the computer-programmer-for-auto-pilot-navigation says: fuck em if they can't take a joke.

and so this rant ends with my heart going out to PIT_FACE. Go ahead and scream, rip into a pillow – you're situation SUCKS! but it will get better, eventually. Reminds me of the ol Steven Wright joke:
we had a quicksand-box when I was growing up. I was an only child. eventually.

don't play in the quicksand-box.

Ugh…And I thought I had it pretty bad having to install and update WinXP on this old machine. Didn'ttrust the automated updates myself for a while ‘til I got a nasty computer virus that the updates could’ve stopped… Of course now it's on all the time. I want to install AVG as well, but my limited memory and CPU power make me loathe to do so, especially as within a month or two my machine will be upgraded (if memory standards haven't changed all I'd need is a good video card and mainboard… and my upgrade time will be short assuming my vid card isn't broken).


As for what Pit is going through, I've gone through a month without power thanks to Supertyphoon Pongsona showing up here around9 years ago (causing the fuel tanks supplying our power plants to catch fire somehow). I was pretty lucky though. Installed in my car right now is a 300W power inverter. Couple with an LCD screen and my PS2 I wasn't too bored, but my coworkers hated me for it (I could play games and DVDs at work and no one would know as long as I stayed alert for the arrival of my supervisors). Still, being without the internet sucked pretty bad. -_-

I already know I shouldn't post this cuz I'm in such a Bitch mode - but Lonnehart, darlin, did you have snow at the time you didn't have power?
Guam, right?

mind you, I'd hate to be without AC and a bug zapper in the tropics, but a fireplace (if you have one) and extra blankets don't always cut it when you're hands are shaking from the cold as you try to light the kerosene

Heh… we all want to be comfortable no matter where we are, but Mother Nature can be one really mean spirit when she wants to be…

edit: There's a five letter word I want to use to describe Mother Nature, but I don't curse very much and I'm afraid she'll drop another Supertyphoon with a pinch of Earthquake on top ofme if I do… O_O

yeah - don't taunt mother nature. she's not known for having a sense of humor

—

on other news: I just called my husband “one friggin joke asshole”.
and he laughed.

Im a feelin' a certain kinship with that thar mother nature.

*o - I should be OK. sometime soon-ish. IF I COULD SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugh… drawing with the tablet is slow going with this machine. I just got finished with my permanent cover for a comic I wanted to do. And I'm trying to start with the first pages, but my computer keeps slowing down when I do anything. Maybe I should wait 'til I get the new motherboard before I start drawing again. -_-


I guess while I draw i can listen to the quackcast. :)

Something isn't right and I know what it is but is it worth fixing for just one scene? Ugh.

can you photoshop it?

ahhh thanks. hell we're all gettin through it anyways. kinda nice going to sleep at night by the fire or readin by flashlight. long as i got batteries in my cd player, we're all good.

So I went and printed out a cool looking pattern that looks like those semi-carpet floor matts and glued it on the supports and it looks like semi-padded seats. But I drew the line at tiling the floor. Now it's time to make up some more pirates.

Couldn't resist and bought some stuff to add to some other stuff. All of Lonnehart's talking about gaming got me thinking about model-building. Yeah, I'll bite the bullet and buy two more kits I sold on ebay three years ago so I can build them. But then I only got one so I could build another I found in storage and had forgotten I had.

Anything not to work on the next production. And the wife is healing and hurting and I'm running hither and yon doing the home health aide part of my marriage vows. You know in sixteen years I've done a lot of that. Too much of that. But then I've been knocked low plenty of times and she's been there for me. Sickness and health, better or worse. And Kim Kardashian couldn't make it to 90 days? Rather than a sports star she should marry the geek who viewed her sex video the most times on line. She'd probably be happier.

How many times can you forgive someone for doing the same thing? I told myself the next time would be the last time and the next time has happened. Trust is shattered and I have no idea what to do. Would be easier if she had cheated on me but this is financial. The money isn't the issue it's the deciet, and the fact that it could have cost us our home.

@Genejoke - I don't think there's a standard answer for that question. hope it works out.

—
found a funny site: http://animalsbeingdicks.com/ (page 13 had me laughing til I cried)

So….I didn't die. I just didn't have internet for quite a while. But I'm back now. Also, the Radio Play turned out AWESOME. Totally bummed out that I wasn't around for the finishing touches on it.
I think….I'm itching to write another script now… :)

Spoke too soon about my storage hard drive. It's FAILING… it's got that “click of death” going on now. Being six years old it should've been replaced last year. Oh, well… I'll be taking care of that once I've got my new mainboard.

Brainstorming for a slice of life comic can be a real headache sometimes. Especially those skits involving beer… at least one of my characters is a very heavy drinker. Heavy enough to go out and have drinking contests at the local tavern (and it's how she gets most of her drinking income)…

I may try animating it. It's pretty tempting to try. I'll probably go for it once my computer is back up to speed and shouldn't be too much of a headache. I'd just be animating short skits instead of full blown stories.

I can dream, can't I? :)

So I got up and finished my costuming the extras. Then I printed out some stuff for the wife. And now I'm back on line wasting time rather than shooting the next scene.

@genejoke: Time for tough love. When I first got married as I spent a lot of money that I didn't have and my wife ended up forcing me to destroy the cards and close all my credit accounts after paying them off. Soldalot of stuff on ebay and cashed in all my savings bonds. When it comes to paying debts and you own a lot of stuff? Sell the stuff. Doesn't matter if it hurts as much as cutting off a limb. Sell the stuff.

Its not spending so much as stealing to feed a gambling habit. I have the financial stuff covered (i think) but it was hard. Her boss is a saint and hasn't sacked her on the condition she gets help, which she has begun. The plus side is that she has finally admitted she has a problem, something she never did before. I just can't believe she stole from all those closest to her to gamble, again. it's not the first time, nor the third. It was however the worst, rather than being a little here and there this was big. If her boss had sacked her or pressed charges… we would probably be homeless in a few months. Things are still a little iffy but I think they are managable.

My dad was an alcohilic when I was growing up. We were in so many tight spots. I remember one time my mom came to me and handed me the biggest wad of cash any little kid had ever seen and told me to “hide it in your glow-worm (A glow-worm is a kind of stuffed animal that lights up when you press on it's stomach) and don't let daddy know it's there”. We were always down and out because of his habits.
It was eleven years before my dad actually got sober. He would go through cycles of “getting help” and then relapsing again.
I don't know if gambling is similar at all, but don't be too surprised with some relapses. There are a few people that quit an addiction cold turkey, but for most people I've met it's a long journey to getting better.
Sincerely hoping it does get better for you and your family, and soon.

It's addictive behavior and as such the characteristics are broadly similar. Shopping, eating, drinking, gambling, sex addictions are all similar in how the behavior presents itself and how it can be handled.

However substance abuse has an added physical dimension that makes it considerably worse and far harder to get over.

Then there's creative procrastination and where every activity that wastes time saves one from having to do something one fears or dreads doing. Yeah, anything to avoid having to shoot the next scene.

I've noticed something… I'm becoming bored, itrritable, impatient… and I'm not feeling very happy about it. Why? This machine is slow. SLOW!!! I miss the old high speed machine I had before having to resort to this piece of junk!!! I also miss coming home to my computer so I can surf the web and watch weird Youtube videos at high speed… and I hate waiting 60 seconds for the videos to load enough to be played and having to deal with the lag between my tablet pen and the screen!!! ARRRGH!!! I want my machine back NOW!!! I don't want to be patient, but I don't got a choice now.

I shouldn't worry… I should be patient. In timemy machine will be upgraded and I don't have to go through this much longer… heheh… hehehehe… hehehehehehehehe…

*cries so much the sea level rises 100 feet…*

my mom's in the hospital right now-appendicitis. so she'll be in there for a couple of days getting surgery and recovering… really if it's not one thing it's another, i really hope she'll be okay.



she also requested fanart.

Not the easiest decision, but with my old machine not having the power that I need to run games like The Sims 3 and my desire to keep what data I can on the drive, I've decided to keep my failing data drive powered off. Right now it's sitting in the computer with the power cord disconnected. Hopefully when I power it up again it'll still run and I can transfer most of the stuff on it (that I want to keep) onto a new (hopefully with a higher capacity) hard drive. Then I can relax for the next five years…

I wonder what would happen if the hard drives for the XB360 and the PS3 started failing. How old are those consoles now?

Starting yet another new game in Mass Effect. This time as Female Shepard. And again I'm going with the default look, but making her some kind of space hero who's lived on ships all her life. And again no romance as well… after all, “true” heroes have no time for romance. Especially when the fate of the galaxy is at stake.

And I'm pretty sure since ME3 is the final story for Shepard, he/she will probably die in some glorious sacrifice at the very end of the game. However, it would be nice if you played the next ME trilogy and you meet your custom Shepard, now old, wrinkly, and maybe a bit senile… heh… I can see it now. You with your new character running into Shepard…

Shepard: “Yeah, I remember you. You made me go where you wanted and forced me to do things. You even made me fall in love with an alien! (only said if you went on a romance path with an alien). You had your fun with me. And now you're controlling another poor sod who has no idea he's being controlled by some outside force. Everyone thinks I'm senile. Crazy even. But I know the truth about you, PLAYER!”

Responses-
Paragon- Humor Shepard (say some kind words along with advice to take meds)
Neutral- Ignore Shepard (slowly walk away)
Renegade- RESPOND, DAMMIT!!! (take your biggest gun and…)

rokulily wrote:
my mom's in the hospital right now-appendicitis. so she'll be in there for a couple of days getting surgery and recovering… really if it's not one thing it's another, i really hope she'll be okay.



she also requested fanart.

Hopefully she/ayes gets better. I'll send some good Icelandic neck wibes…for Odin's sake,my neck is killing me.

Why, might you ask? Well went to my first real metal concert last night (technically I've been on few but never really was in the pit, head slammed etc.) and guess taking an allnighter in order to finish of a eassay or two isn't that helpfull…

My boss made me so mad today. An aboriginal couple came into the store. They were perfectly pleasant, but she kept shooting them accusing glances the entire time they were there. When they left, she said "You have to keep your eye on those people. They're the ones who will steal from you.“ I said ”What?!“ And she said ”Well, you should never take your eye off of any customer."

I know that's not what she meant. >: (

She's done this before, too…last time it was a kidwho I was helping. A very polite boy who bought a collar for his cat.

I've made it pretty clear to her that sort of thing's not alright with me. Less than a week ago I asked her not to say “indian”. I've also told her that I have family living on a reserve up north. It's hard to believe people still have that attitude in this day and age.

Owch, Van. Unfortunately, some people will always be wary of others whether there's a reason or not. It's pretty much everywhere and has been with us since our history began.

Wow… first my computer, now my car. One of my tires now has a lump in it. Usually not a problem. Except it is Sunday, and every tire shop is closed. I have one tire I can use, but it's so leaky that I have to keep an eye on it every few hours to make sure it doesn't go completely flat; the tire pump I have won't be able to pump it up due to all the leaks. *sigh*

Oh, well… at least I can get NEW tires tomorrow. And that means delaying buying parts for my computer. ugh…

I've made it pretty clear to her that sort of thing's not alright with me. Less than a week ago I asked her not to say “indian”. I've also told her that I have family living on a reserve up north. It's hard to believe people still have that attitude in this day and age.

My first thought was, whats wrong with calling people from india indians, it's like not calling the french french… then of course the whole native american thing occurred to me. People still use the term indians… surely not.

rokulily wrote:
my mom's in the hospital right now-appendicitis. so she'll be in there for a couple of days getting surgery and recovering… really if it's not one thing it's another, i really hope she'll be okay.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! D:
Get well soon Ayes!!!!!!!!!!
Shiza… Poor Ayes :(

———–

Hippie Van wrote:
An aboriginal couple came into the store.

It's ironic that “Aboriginal” has now become the NON-correct term in Australia for our native people, we're now expected to use the term “indigenous Australians”.

thanks ozone and gullas! surgery went well- managed to juuuust get the appendix out before rupture. few more hours and we would have quite a problem. she'll be in the hospital for a couple of days and then probably won't be on for a bit. gotta rest and all that.

Genejoke wrote:

I've made it pretty clear to her that sort of thing's not alright with me. Less than a week ago I asked her not to say “indian”. I've also told her that I have family living on a reserve up north. It's hard to believe people still have that attitude in this day and age.

My first thought was, whats wrong with calling people from india indians, it's like not calling the french french… then of course the whole native american thing occurred to me. People still use the term indians… surely not.

Yeah the names changing get people confused some time. I had a classmate from Hong Kong and it took a while to explain the difference between Mexicans and Spaniards. Add in Amerindians (the term my teacher was using for native Americans/indigenous people what not) and it was a very long lecture. I think I went as far back in history as the great ice bridge or something.