Daeseage

I think my New Year's Resolution each year for the past few years has been to keep better records -- a planner, a journal, a budget. Anything, really. And yet again this year I am attempting to journal. We'll see how it goes. Feelings don't really belong here, in public, where people might read them, but longer updates and things can be fun to write, so I shall try to keep better track of them.

For the record, today is January 3rd, 2013, I haven't posted since July, I finished my undergraduate career several weeks ago, and I am attempting to stave off boredom, now that the holidays are over and there is still another week minimum before I will start working. In the last week, I attended several performances of the Reno Chamber Orchestra's annual Nevada Chamber Music Festical with EB, finished Rose Macaulay's "The Towers of Trebizond" and Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter's "The Long Earth", and didn't mail off thank you cards or finish very belated Christmas presents for my sisters and EB. I should maybe work on that...

I think I've really enjoyed the holidays this year, although there has been the looming worry of un/underemployment hanging over my head since about October. That's when things started to unravel, as my dad was avoiding me after coming out, midterms were picking up, EB was getting sick, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I ended up quitting rugby after spraining my ankle on Halloween at practice, and I'm still glad and sorry that I did so -- I was starting to make friends, and now I will have to start all over again with another group. But that's okay, since that's one of my Resolutions!

By Thanksgiving, I was practically in a panic -- sister the younger was having issues at home with my dad and in danger of failing some classes, and I was stressing about possibly moving her up here for her last semester and never being able to go home again. My dad still wasn't speaking to me, so the plan to go home for the long weekend to dogsit and keep him company while sister 2 and my mom were at a soccer tournament was scrapped, as was going back to the seed company, since I wouldn't have any place to live while I got settled. I ended up sleeping most of it and eating some of EB's family's Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. I don't know how she handles not being out to them and their apparent craziness. My family does some infuriating things sometimes, but I couldn't handle them not loving me for who I was. Even my dad's silent treatment was more him trying to process things, and the rest of my family has been incredibly supportive. I knew that graduating would be a surefire way to prove that I am still who I have always been and to make him proud, and I did barely scrape this semester together with straight Ds, and he did start calling again and everyone but sister 1 who is stuck in New York came up for graduation and went out to lunch and met EB and now I feel like I have a family again for sure.

Maybe that's why Christmas at home was such a relief.

And there I go, calling it home again, when it's not really. I only spent 4 days there, and yet I was itching to be back in Reno, where I belong, before we even got Christmas dinner on the table. I missed the quiet of my apartment and curling up with EB and all of the little things that I've become to used to. I left her my keys, since my roommates were out of town with their families so she could sleep somewhere safe and quiet and warm between overtime shifts, and she was there when I returned on the 26th, and that was like coming home. She then spent the best part of the last week staying at my apartment, and it felt so right. She found a house in midtown that we're going to look at soon. Together. To live in. The both of us. Together. I am so excited I could about burst!

The last few years have been nervewracking, and I don't really expect 2013 to be a walk in the park, but the first few hours of the New Year were some of the best of my life, and I think that makes for a really auspicious start! Here's to a new home, new friends, and a new job in the New Year!

pectinouscube just let me know about an artist friend of theirs in need of some funds to pay for a new tablet pen and her school tuition. The offer is $20 for a very pretty, colored digital sketch (no background/full-body sketches; see the banner above for examples). xiiau's got some gorgeous pictures up on her tumblr and deviantart that you should totally go check out. Right now! For more details or to commission Xiiau see her post on tumblr. Although she's accepting payments through paypal, I understand that she'd rather discuss the commission first through tumblr. Now if I can only decide what I'd like to ask for/determine if I can afford something... =/

As added incentive (as if the artwork alone wasn't enough!), pigeonsoup is offering free prints/buttons/paper crafted piece of your own work if you commission Xiiau. I'd also like to offer short-ish recordings of podfic (or the phonebook. Whatevs.) if you're able to commission her. Or a recording of any length if you're able to track down a replacement Intuos4 pen that can be sent to Hungary (or the equivalent in donations/commissions). [I'll take care of any author negotiations if it's not your own work or by someone who has given blanket permission.]

Title: ThEy CaN FiX mE PrOpEr WiTh A bIt Of LuCk :o(
Fandom: Homestuck
Text: AO3
Author: rainbowbarnacle
Reader: daeseage
Rating: PG (by author, for content. Be warned, however, that Karkat and Gamzee have two of the foulest mouths in any universe.)
Length: 00:19:35; 18 MB
Summary: In which Gamzee falls victim to food poisoning and Karkat has to do some quick thinking in order to help pay the bills on time. Another bit of fluff set in Emily Hu's 4Chords AU.

Mediafire Download

Points: 5+2+10+10+0=27

I first recorded this back around New Year's, when I was sick as a dog with some foul kennel cough my sister brought back with her from basic training. I wanted podfic to keep me company so bad (and I'd been reading my favorite sickfics on repeat), I sat down and read through the whole thing using just the built-in speaker on my laptop in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure I was feverish, and ought to have been in bed, asleep. This copy, riddled with coughs and nigh unintelligible from feedback and a poorly placed, overworked fan noise, is no longer among the living. Sometime later in January I re-read the whole thing, this time after unearthing an actual microphone and with fewer coughs, although I guess it was when my ears were still wonky because the pacing is totally overcompensating for the fact that I had to concentrate waaaaaay too hard on the enunciation. I still think that it's a bit too slow (and I just realized that I can hear the clock ticking in the background at the beginning. *headdesk*), but hopefully that's alright. =]

I have a bunch of favorite parts in this fic (*cough*thewholedamnthing*cough*), but I had to keep re-doing Gamzee's lines because every time I tried them, I'd bust out laughing. I mean really. Motherfucking Prego.

I would also like to recommend that you don't do the bulk of your editing while sitting in a crowded Starbucks with peppy jazz playing in the house speakers. It's distracting, to say the least. =T

Crossposts: fillapod; amplificathon; homestuckpodfic

As usual, please leave any feedback you have in the comments! I would really love to hear your opinion of the recording, especially areas for improvement!

This has been one of the most interesting weekends I've had in a while: my parents and sisters were out of town for a soccer tournament in Las Vegas so I had the whole place to myself for the long weekend. Well, myself and three dogs and a cat. All of whom are very needy individuals. =]

( Let's take a look at the poor choices I made, shall we? )

( if you'd just like some poly fic recs, start here )

Well, there's still technically a few minutes left of Friday in my timezone, so here's a quick Five to keep me on track.

1. I finally got to release my very first podfic, and the author, vulturer, seems to really like it. =] I know I shouldn't be so proud, but I totally am. Mostly because they really liked it, and Star, Heart, Horseshoe is one of my very favorite fics. I'm working right now on a Big Bang Theory short series by shinysylver, and trying to decide which fic I'm going to try to get permission for for the Podfic Big Bang. Soooo excted!!
2. I finally got my prereqs cleared for physics at the community college! Yay me!! Unfortunately the last seat was filled while I was waiting, but I'm confident that someone will drop or I can get an override. I NEED this class!

Since it's already Saturday here now, the rest of these are going to be recs. Please click the links, and I hope you love them as much as I do!!

3. "Frontierstuck", by ShinjiShazaki. It is pretty much just amazing, with Rose and Kanaya being badass flighty broads, and crossover crazyness with some Full Metal Alchemist-style alchemy. I first found it searching for podfic (the author has recorded the first few chapters, and you can find them here, here, and here. It is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
4. "With the Door Wide Open, No One Can Leave", by angerliz. I can still hardly believe how invested in this one I was. It's Jade, Rose, and Kanaya (with the rest as support floating in the background and generally being secondary-awesome) after the game. This was written for Ladystuck, and as such includes cannon through the latest intermission as history, if you're worried about spoilers. I think I can best describe it as fluffy sadstuck, without giving too much away. And that makes it the very best kind of sadstuck!
5. Last one for today is "A very Important Day", by cambion. It's a Dave/John fic, and it's really rather remarkable the shear number of fics about he two of them, since I don't really ship it. I mean I do, in the sense that I don't not ship it, but if pressed I would have to say that I don't really see the two of them working out together. THAT SAID there are some abso-bally-lutely fantastic Dave/John fics out there, and this is the most heartbreaking of them all. If you've read Brodad's "Rings", I honestly think this one may top it for shear, aching, totally perfect, there's-nothing-else-I-can-do-about-it levels of sad. =[ Normally I'm all about the lighthearted fluff and the crazy-intricate plot-based fics, but this is an absolutely incredible Dave character-study, and you should go read it right now. Seriously, stop reading this journal entry and click links.

Why are you still here????

Title: star, heart, horseshoe
Author: vulturer
Reader: daeseage
Fandom: Homestuck
Pairing: Equius Zahak/Jade Harley/Nepeta Leijon
Rating: General
Length: 0:07:35; 6.96 MB
Link: Mediafire
Summary: Adventure Log, Day 13: today they swam in a lake.

This is my very first podfic, and I could really use whatever sort of feedback you can give me!! There's a serious dearth of Homestuck podfic, and I hope that other folks decide to get into this. =]

I'm also crossposting to amplificathon and amplificathon.

The last month has been one of the most hectic in a while. There was the near break-down in mid-December, related to finals, the knowledge that I was failing classes, and the fear of not being able to pay for school and living expenses, etc. In the course of 36 hours I made the decision to withdraw from school and move back home for a little while. Although it was kind of ridiculously rash in retrospect, the relief that I felt at being able to shuck a few responsibilities, namely a full course-load and club leadership, was tangible, and honestly the best and least-stressed that I'd felt in weeks. I still had to coordinate moving home with my mom and get through explaining my apparent temporary failure to my dad, but everyone seems glad to have me home, and I'm soooo glad to be here. I miss Reno, and I miss my friends, and I miss some of the independence that I had living on my own, but this seems to be the right choice for me.

I've picked up a couple hours tutoring ESL to a pre-schooler who just moved back to the states from Egypt, and it's really interesting, and a lot of fun!! I'd never really thought of myself as a teacher, and I know that I don't get along with kids as well as my middle sister does (she's got some magic charm where she can get them to do pretty much anything, and they adore her for it. It works on a lot of adults, too. =/ ), but my student seems to like me well enough, and he's learning really quickly! I would actually like to spend more time with him, but his parents enrolled him and his little brother in a Montessori preschool, and really want him to get used to hanging out with other kids his age in a school environment. I still want to go to grad school and be a research Biologist, but I'm leaning more and more towards getting my teaching creditial when I settle somewhere and maybe spending a few years as a middle/high school science teacher. I have this fantasy where if I ever get together with EB, she'll go off to be her wonderful film-library self, and I can follow along to look after the house and make sure that she sleeps enough every night. I think I could do that as a teacher.

And this is where I do a 2X FACEPALM COMBO for being a romantic sap where people I know aren't looking, because I haven't even talked to the woman in a week, and I don't know if she even still wants to be friends. =/ It's totally my fault for not responding to a text last Saturday, but I was sick and had to take care of New Year's fireworks-panicked dogs, and then spent nearly all of last Sunday sick in bed with the worst headache I've had in years. I could have started up the conversation Monday, but I made the excuse that I had to help S pack up and get ready to go back to the army. And Tuesday she texted me to say she got my package, but I was too wrapped up in worrying about my interview and nervousness at talking again that I didn't respond. Wednesday I stared at my phone and went to work, and Thursday I hung out with Chloe and talked about Ladystuck and shared the best works that we've found so far. Friday, I worried some more, but decided that it was time to start in earnest on the housework I decided I'd put myself in charge of as part of compensation for living at home rent-free; I also got a text from EB saying she sent me the package of mix-CDs she'd been putting together since I left Reno. (OK, so maybe she does want to be friends...) and I made goulash for dinner. It was really good, too! Today I sent a her a "sorry I'm a moron" text explaining my tendency to panic over interrupted correspondence (I am the QUEEN of whatever nonsensical panic kingdom, which is why I rarely maintain friendships with people when we stop seeing each other regularly). I haven't heard back, but I'm going to try to keep my end of it up this time.

In other news, as mentioned above I've decided that I'm going to make an effort to keep the house and yard nice. Part of this includes a couple of large projects, like reseeding the back lawn and getting the garden ready for planting. Other parts include daily things like staying on top of the laundry (it's amazing the amount of laundry four people can produce!!) and the dishes. I also want to keep my room and bathroom neat. The latter may be more difficult since I share it with my youngest sister; she's a good kid, but she likes to look nice, and sometimes the counter looks like a hurricane ripped through when she's done getting ready in the morning. I also want to visit my grandma more often, finish a baby blanket for an old friend who's due in April, knit a whole bunch of things for a whole bunch of other people, participate in the podficbigbang, do more podficcing in general, get an A in physics (although first I have to jump through flaming hoops at the community college and UNR to prove my prereqs and actually register for the damned class), and not go crazy being back in my hometown. It helps that I've got my own room this time around (my granmother's old room) and have my own space for the first time in about forever. All in all,. I'm looking forward to this year and this term, and I really hope that I can keep my stuff together this time so I can graduate next December and get my grown-up show on the road!

Yeeeahh!

=D

1.  I'm getting back on track with all my school stuff, and it feels sooooo great.  I let myself get behind, blaming the con and then being sick, and it was wrong and it was lazy, and while I enjoyed catching up on the Homestuck and Sherlock fandoms (oh I nerrrrd so hard) it's been seriously detrimental to my actual, required productivity.  I've let a few more assignments than I really should have slide, but I'm able to pretty much start fresh right now, just in time for midterms so I should be okay. =]

2.  My grandma's in the hospital after an MS flare-up and some really bad eating/self-medicating choices, and I'm really worried about her.  I'm driving home this weekend to go see her (when depends on whether not someone can take over my shift tonight.  Stupid homecoming bonfire.).  I can't really afford it, and my mom says she'll probably be fine, but I'd never forgive myself if she took a turn for the worse and I didn't take an opportunity to see her.  If anyone knows any nice florists in the Sacramento Area please let me know so I can pick up something pretty for her on my way there.  Otherwise it's Raley's flowers.  I'm also thinking of trying to find some Rita Mae Brown or Poirot audiobooks at the library.  I'm pretty sure the local one has some; I just hope they're not on the wrong side of the county!

3.  S is doing better at Basic Training, and I'm so happy that she's coping better.  I haven't heard from her directly, but she called home again this past Sunday and my mom played relay and updated me on her letters.  I wish the one that she said she sent me would come -- it's been almost 2 weeks!  I want to know what she thinks of His Dark Materials.

4.  I updated my iPhone to iOS 5 the other day, and I actually really like it!  I don't watch videos through iTunes very often so the the split of music and videos doesn't affect me much (I may change my mind if I ever put those genetics and ecology video lectures from iTunesU back on, but meh.)  I really like the addition of the Reminders app -- I'm awesome at ignoring To-Do lists, but this one is always right there, and items slide right off once I check them, so there's not a horrid mess of crossed-out words obscuring the remaining tasks.  I wish that Apple would allow you to remove stock apps that you have no use for, though.  I have no use for Stocks, GameCenter, Compass, or Notes, and I just want them to go away!  It's not like there couldn't be a stored copy in iTunes in case I ever changed my mind.

5.  I have read an incredible number of fabulous Homestuck fan fiction in the last couple weeks, and I'd really like to pimp a few of my favorites: