Rachel's Livejournal

Happy New Years!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:01:17 GMT

So...it's my first post in 2010 and I don't really have anything to say. Just wanted to post because I could.

Yesterday evening was great! Dave came over to hang out with us. We ate and watched stuff and had fun.

I might think of something more to write later, but right now I still have a wicked headache left over from trying to watch some home videos this morning. Handheld camera work= motion sickness...blech.

Holidays!

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:38:17 GMT

Leave it up to me to be lax in posting over the holidays. Work was fairly hectic between my last post and the 23rd. I took the 24th off, and they're closed until Jan 4th so I have a week of paid vacation!

I don't remember how much I've said about Kelly and Dave, even after reading some recent posts. They've been engaged for a little over a month now, and mom was upset at them for a long time for various reasons. They finally sorted all that out and Dave came over for a bit Christmas morning along with Amy and Danny. Christmas went really well and it was very laid back for me. I got several things, though only a few things were surprises. The main things that I really like are the space pen stuff that Kelly got for me: a Space-Tec pen, a burgundy refill and a cross refill. I actually was hoping for a purple refill, but somehow they sent a burgundy one. Not sure entirely what happened, but the burgundy one is pretty too. The cross refill actually doesn't fit any of my pens (or not any that I've tried so far) so I'll save that one for later. The space-tec pen is pretty awesome though. It's lightweight and retractable, so perfect for carrying around.

The weekend went by quickly and I didn't do much yesterday. I'm thinking about possibly working on my story today, but we'll see if I actually get around to it. I'm not sure if I want to try to keep writing where I left off or if I want to revise/rewrite what I have.

Anyway, hopefully one of these days I'll be able to have a "Christmas" visit from Dad, but he still doesn't have a car so it's going to be tricky. We've invited Dave over for New Years Eve, so that should be fun. I hope this week doesn't go by too fast, because next week I have to go back to work!

FOOD

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:48:47 GMT

Today there's a breakfast/snack thing in the chancellor's office. I was surprised by the amount of food there was when I went over there, and it's still not everything! I guess I'm just used to these kinds of things within my office and not inter-office ones. Whatever the case, I so have to drop back again later.

Anyway, it wasn't so bad setting up for graduation. It took about 2 1/2 hours and from what I've heard everything went well. I was a little late to church, but I made it.

I can't believe Christmas is next Friday! I need to assess what gifts I've bought for who so I can figure out what else I need to buy. And I also need to wrap stuff. Dad's probably going to come this weekend, so I'll deal with his stuff then. I never know what to get him so I usually just buy him something while he's around.

Oh and we had to have our cable/internet fixed because the outside cord was damaged. I'm pretty sure it's the city's fault because they came by and trimmed our tree. Looks like they whacked the cord, because it was all torn up and cut through in one spot. So a guy came out and replaced the cord, and I also went and bought a new router. The router we were using was a decent one, but it was a little older and only broadcast G. The one I bought is an N 150 (which I guess is a step down from normal N, but I wasn't about to pay $30 more for the other one), and so far it's been working great. My download speed (according to a speed test website) has significantly improved, and the wireless signal is much stronger. I think my download speed was previously around 8 Mbps and now it's like 26 Mbps. (The wired computer is like 39 Mbps)

Also, I finally got an invite to Google Wave. It seems pretty cool so far :)

So. Today's a busy day in the office, so I need to try to get some stuff done before we get slammed later this afternoon.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:55:33 GMT

I ended up staying home yesterday, which was just as well. I slept most of the day and by the time 5 came around I was feeling well enough to go to church. I had to go with Kelly, so we got there at 6 because she has to practice with the worship team.

I feel a lot better this morning, though my stomach is still a little uneasy. I came to work, though, and I really hope I won't regret it. I'm pretty sure I'm over the bug, I just need to take it easy as much as possible. The thing that is really annoying me is today is pizza day. Yesterday was the last day of finals and final grades are due at noon today (though there are always some stragglers and mistakes), so most of today is going to be trying to manage the grade sheets. The front counter is going to be swamped, and I might have to help out there, too. Then I also need to try to get everything ready for graduation setup tomorrow, which will no doubt involve a chat with Linda. (Not that she's so scary, but it's going to be a lot of info)

...okay, scratch that. I just found out that I am probably going to have to wait until Sunday morning to do setup! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That's going to SUCK. Overall it's probably going to be better for graduation because the stuff won't have time to fall down if it's going to, but STILL. SUNDAY MORNING. Which probably means 8, if not earlier...and I'm going to have to miss church.

*sigh*

It's almost 8 now, so I'd better scram...

BLEARGH

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:15:40 GMT

I still feel sick. I stayed home from work the past two days, even though this is the most important/busy week of the fall semester. I woke up Monday at like 2:30 and had to throw up (and continued to do so several more times that morning) and was just really out of it all day. I just laid on the couch and slept most of the day. I actually felt a little better yesterday but stayed home because I was really tired. I tried eating regular food yesterday and it seemed to mostly be okay...but I'm not so sure it's agreeing with me this morning. I'm feeling nauseated again, and it took me a looong time to eat a small piece of toast with some tea. Now I'm just wondering if I'm going to be regretting THAT. The thing about going to work is I'll pretty much be stranded unless I make mom leave her job and drive me all the way home.

And...it's already 6:15! If I'm going to go, I have to HURRY!

Uh-huh.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:31:24 GMT

So...I believe I'm at 30,600. I pretty much stopped writing a few days after my last post. I just hit a wall and couldn't figure out what to do with the story, and I was really tired. I was hoping to get a bunch of writing done over Thanksgiving, but only got in about 300 words. I'll still be working on the story (eventually) but I definitely am not going to win nano this year.

Meanwhile, I'll post what I did write in a google group if anyone is interested.

Day 15 = halfway mark

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:55:30 GMT

25100 / 50000

And I am actually at the halfway point! 100 words ahead, in fact. I might possibly squeeze in some more writing tonight, but I think for the most part I'm done. I wanted to try to go to bed early tonight, but I'm expecting a call so I'll be up for a little while longer to see if my friend remembers to call haha. (And also, if Kelly gets home in the next 15 minutes or so I might do some stuff with her for a bit, assuming my friend doesn't call)

It's been a great weekend! The reason why I'm not significantly ahead in my word count is I took a break to deal with some stuff.

Friday
As I noted in my last post, dad came by yesterday so I went out with him and Kelly after I got off work. I didn't get home until late.

Saturday
On Saturday morning mom wanted to go out and do some yard work so I went to go help her out. She wanted to get all the leaves off the lawn, which is accomplished one of two ways: raking and picking them up into bags or raking and running them over with the lawnmower. We tried using the lawnmower but it keeps having problems because it needs a tune-up. Someone at my mom's work said her husband could come and tune it up sometime. Until then, it's pretty much broken. It keeps spewing black smoke and stalling and not starting again easily. When we were about halfway through it died for like the fourth time and we decided to just pick the rest up by hand. By the time we were done we had like 10 bags, and there were 10 more bags from last week that we hadn't had the chance to get rid of. Mom was planning on taking them down to the brush recycling center off of Amnicola, but it wasn't open that day. So anyway, right when we were just getting done tying up the last bag, one of the neighbors came by and said he was going to come over and take care of our leaves because he wanted to collect them for his compost pile. So we were like WHAT?! We did all that for nothing? He took the bags of leaves and said he'll come by another time when more fall.
Then I went with mom to my sister's in-laws' house because mom wanted to get some clippings from their bushes to try to grow them. Mom and Marilyn spent a long time talking, but we finally left. Then mom took me to a bicycle store because I wanted a new seat for my bike. (I HATE the little skinny one that came with the bike!) I bought a new seat and the guy attached it to the pole. Then mom and I went to Walmart and a dollar store and ended up not getting home until after dark. I rented The Proposal from Redbox, so we saw that. Then Kelly came home from Dave's house and I was talking to her for a bit. I tried writing a little but didn't really get much done because I was SO TIRED. I somehow ended up staying up until like 1:30 in a zombie-like state even though I was falling asleep.

Sunday
This morning I was hoping a friend of mine would come to church with me, and was planning on asking her to come over to my house afterwards. I got up early and was cleaning up and stuff, but at the last minute she e-mailed me and told me she couldn't come. So I was kinda upset and then I was nodding off a bit in church. Amy had brought me the SNES games so I could test out the new system. I went home and had lunch, then was testing out the games. The system works fairly well, though there are a few small things that are a little annoying. At least for now, the good outweighs the annoying bits so I'm keeping it.
The annoying things:
- It doesn't have the level to push to pop out the cartridge, so you have to just pull it out and hope the game doesn't break or something
- The controllers it comes with feel light/cheap (and are a little screwy with Kirby's Avalanche...when I press down it's supposed to make the blobs fall straight down. It keeps not dropping them so fast and then moving them to the right at the last second, though not entirely consistently, so it's hard to predict and adjust)
- The Game Genie was a little screwy at first and seemed like it wasn't going to work, but it did after a few tries. I'm not sure if it's going to do that all the time. Also, it tends to fill in all the spaces with a repeat of some random code and you have to clear it all out and re-enter the right ones.
- Amy threw one original controller in with the games and the start button refused to work. I tested it with Kirby's Avalanche and it seemed to work fine as long as you didn't need to press start (I had to use it as second player because I couldn't get past the title screen without pressing start). I'm not entirely sure if it's just the machine being screwy or the controller is just old. I am thinking it's just an old controller, because I am pretty sure I can remember one of the controllers' start buttons starting to go.
- Amy didn't give me the SNES mouse to test with Mario paint, so I'm not sure if that will work correctly. Never had any problems with it so as long as it's compatible with this new system it should be fine.

I think that was it in the way of annoyances. I tested all the games I have (though Amy said there might be one more still in the old system...she didn't check) and they all seemed to work fine.
So then after I was done testing the games, I went to go ride my bike for a bit. The weather was fantastic and perfect for biking. It took a little while to pull out the air compressor and get the right amt. of pressure in the tires, but I finally got it. I did a couple of (nonconsecutive) laps up and down my street, then finally decided to stop because it was really tiring. I had a quick dinner and then wrote a little to make it to the halfway point, then went to church. Church was REALLY good tonight! It was exactly what I needed to hear.

So now Kelly is coming, and since I spent a lot of time writing this I might as well stay up a bit more to show her how the new SNES works. After tonight I'm going to put it away until Christmas. And I guess my friend isn't calling...

Day 13

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:16:06 GMT

24300 / 50000

I am so close to being halfway through! At least I know I'm still ahead of the game. I wrote during lunch but my dad came to visit after I got off work so I was hanging out with him all evening. We saw The Time Traveler's Wife, which I thought was really good. I need to read the book!

Also, I bought a Retro Duo 2 in 1 System SNES/NES and I'm going to go test it out at Amy's house on Sunday because she has all the SNES games. If something's screwy, I have a week to return it for a full refund.

Day 12

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:07:51 GMT

23200 / 50000

Stopping a little shorter than I intended tonight. I kept getting distracted and now I really need to get some sleep. TGIF tomorrow though!

Day 11

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:44:57 GMT

21000 / 50000

I made it to 21,000 over lunch, but wasn't able to write more at night. I went to church last night and then stayed up way too late talking to an old friend on the phone and talking to Kelly afterward. Going to try to get another 1,000 during lunch today!

Day 10

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:58:19 GMT

20000 / 50000

Yesterday I made it to 20,000 over lunch, but then I didn't write any more at night. I somehow got sucked into watching Walk The Line. I totally wasn't intending to, as I dislike Johnny Cash, but mom started it and I watched a little and ended up watching the whole thing. Go figure. I'm still ahead, though, so it's all good. I'll write more at lunch, but tonight I probably won't write again because it's a church night.

And there are a bunch of students waiting outside for us to open because it's freshman registration day. (Which means I probably will have to help out with that...)

Day 9

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:36:49 GMT

19000 / 50000

Just a quick post before I head off to work. I got up to 19,000 over lunch, but then decided not to write at night because Kelly was home. I ended up staying up past my bedtime talking to her, lol.

Day 8

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:06:09 GMT

18000 / 50000

I got a lot done today! And church was amusing because Allen (the associate pastor) was preaching today. He was pretty good and really funny.

And now it's time for bed!

Day 7

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:31:29 GMT

15000 / 50000

So I managed to get 3,000 words today! I'm happy. And tired.

Today was a pretty good day, though. I helped mom out a bit this morning, then ran some errands with Kelly, then Amy came over and hung out for awhile. We watched the new Anne of Green Gables movie, which was...odd. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't all that good. And it seemed so freaking LONG. It wasn't nearly as long as the original movies, though. But anyway, it was nice to hang out with Amy. And mom trimmed my hair, so it's a little shorter.

And now it's time for bed because I have church tomorrow.

Belated Day 6

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:34:19 GMT

12000 / 50000

So I got to 12,000 last night but forgot to post because I was SO SLEEPY. I was like falling asleep while I was writing. Anyway, not sure how much time I'm going to have for writing today. I have to go help mom with some yard work and then Amy is coming over later and bringing the new Anne of Green Gables movie....ARGH. Kelly broke my favorite glass! And it was the last one :( But anyway...so there's a new Anne of Green Gables movie that doesn't have Meagan Follows, and it's supposed to be Anne when she's older and trying to solve a mystery about her birth parents, or something like that. Amy got it from Netflix. So...she'll be over here to watch that and hang out, then we'll see how much time I have to write afterwards. It's getting a bit harder to write because I don't really have much going on in the way of plot. I'll figure something out, though.

Also, my dad was in a car wreck yesterday around 2 pm (central time). He was crossing an intersection and some lady ran the light or stop sign and t-boned him on the driver's side. He said it took firemen 30 minutes and the jaws of life to pry him out. They thought he had broken ribs but they like popped back into place or something and are now just bruised. So he's okay, but sore and without a car. We were thinking about going up to Nashville to visit him (Amy, Kelly and I) but he said not to because he had a lot of things to do.

Anyway, I'd better hurry up and get ready to do stuff before mom sees me on the computer. And I need to drop by the post office before noon. I got a Netflix movie yesterday but it was broken, so I need to send it back. They're sending another one but it'll probably be here Monday or Tuesday.

Days 4 and 5

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:59 GMT

10000 / 50000

Posting it now just in case I don't have a chance tonight. Wrote 1,000 over lunch on both days :)

Day 3

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:28:49 GMT

8000 / 50000

That's a total of 2,500 for Day 3! Tomorrow I'm only going to be able to write at lunch because it's a church night. Thursday I have a dentist appt. at 6:45pm, but I might be able to squeeze in a bit of writing afterward.

Anyway, it's time for bed now.

Day 2

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:14:37 GMT

5500 / 50000

So that's a total of 2,000 for Day 2! :D Yay!

Day 1 is over!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:31:24 GMT

3500 / 50000

And it's time I got to bed! I wrote a lot more than I was expecting, so that was a nice surprise :)

Nano has started!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:52:29 GMT

400 / 50000

I wrote a bit tonight, but I need to go to bed really soon because of church in the morning. Good thing is that I get an extra hour of sleep! I hope I'll have some time tomorrow to write uninterrupted...we'll see.

Feels like Halloween should be today

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:24:38 GMT

I keep getting my days mixed up this week...it feels like it's Saturday, mostly because yesterday felt like Friday somehow. It's really slow at work today, and we were supposed to dress up (though most people didn't really, and several people are out). But we did bring in snacks, so there's a slew of cookies and doughnuts and other random food items in the breakroom. I do have a bunch of stuff to do today and I'll actually get around to it, but for the moment I'm still trying to get my act together. Kelly helped me dye my hair last night and I didn't get much sleep. I don't necessarily feel like a zombie but I do feel like I'm still trying to wake up. (On a random note, when I take a short 10-minute nap right before work starts I keep having these weird work-related dreams where I feel like I'm half-asleep and can't wake up/talk/move/etc...)

Anyway. I'm not celebrating Halloween this year. I only "dressed up" for work because we were supposed to. (And by dressed up I mean I'm only wearing my Moosetrix shirt, black jeans, leather jacket and sunglasses) Tonight my church is supposed to be doing this thing called Faith Fest where they have a bunch of fun carnival-ish stuff and trunk-or-treat, so I'll probably go to that if it doesn't rain. My dad is probably going to come around tomorrow so I'll get to hang out with him most of the day.

As far as nano is concerned, I'm probably just going to jump in and start writing because I really don't have much time left to prepare. With that in mind, I'm sure it's going to be really rough and incongruent, but I don't really care. I just need to get it out and I can kick it into shape later.

(Seems like I've said "probably" a whole lot in this post!)

...and now that I've essentially wasted an hour and a half (minus a short Banner meeting), I should get to work.

Nano

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:11:02 GMT

I did an intro post over at wrimobuddies.

I'm not sure when I'm going to find time to write...I'm still trying to get everything figured out so I'll be able to start on time. I should just jump right in and start writing, but I like to be prepared and have some plot goals and other details set ahead of time. I know a couple of general goals I'm aiming for, but at the moment most of those are a little too vague. (I'm also not sure if I'm going to jump back to my previous story and try to update based on what comes out of this prequel or if I'm going to stick with the prequel and also work on the second prequel...)

In any case, there's always work to be done and I also keep getting distracted with various movies/shows. Between youtube, Hulu and Netflix, there at least 11 shows I'm trying to keep up with/watch/re-watch. And there are also movies on/from Netflix, on tv, and ones that I buy or borrow. And then there's some evenings when I don't get home right away (especially Wednesday nights, because of church until 8) so I don't even have time to watch much anyway.

And now I have to start work.

Quick post

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:15:39 GMT

4am Bible study isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It doesn't feel like I'm losing any more sleep than usual, though that may change. Meantime, I'll keep it up and see how it goes. I really should try to get to bed earlier. It does help that I've actually been going to sleep around 9:30 instead of getting into bed around then and reading for awhile. I can always keep up with shows online (hulu), though House episodes are going to be a problem because of its 8-day delay.

I just got Netflix and my first DVD is coming in the mail. I'm really liking the view instantly online, but it would be nice if the selection was bigger.

I really love Farmville on Facebook, though it's a bit time-consuming when I need to harvest/plow/plant new stuff.

As I've probably mentioned before, I'm doing nano this year. I'm still working with the same story, but this time I'm doing a prequel. It's basically going to be about the grandparents of the characters in my agent story. I've been trying to work on backstory/history but it's taking forever to try to figure things out. I have a couple more weeks to work out a few more kinks and then I just have to start writing.

Yay for new stuff!

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:08:19 GMT

The glasses are fine now. They're very similar to my old prescription now and if there's a difference making them a little worse it is hardly noticeable. Now my only issue is the arms seem to be a little loose...unless they just flex that way. I'm not sure and it's a little weird, but I do have a 1-year warranty if they happen to break.

Also, I got the "new" phone in the mail today. Kelly had time to drop it off before her class so I have it with me :D It's working well so far. I can't test call quality/speakerphone/ringtones/etc. yet though.

But YAY anyway :)

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:19:55 GMT

I can't think of a decent subject line that doesn't involve how fast time is flying by, so I'm leaving it blank for now.

Grooveshark is awesome, you should check it out: http://listen.grooveshark.com . If you're a fan of female-fronted symphonic rock like I am, try the band HB. They're Finnish but a few songs are in English. They're really good, and Christian. :)

I got the catalog thing done a day late, but it was fine. I started to work on catching up with filing and then had to stop and help one of the bosses with another Banner project. This one isn't hard, but I'm just sleepy this afternoon so it's taking longer than it should. At the moment I'm taking a quick break to try to wake up a bit so I won't make a mistake.

I went back to the eye doctor on Saturday and told them how I couldn't see quite as well with the new ones. They did the eye chart test and said I could see 20/20 with the new glasses and 20/15 with the old. One of the guys compared the prescriptions and said one of the axis was off (or both?) and he'd tweak it and it should help me see better. I'm not sure if/how that works, but they called and said the glasses are ready so I'll find out soon. (An hour and a half till I get off work!)

One boss brought in "breakfast" today and there's still some left I think, so I might try to take some home with me if I remember on my way out.

Oh and apparently Kelly and her boyfriend are planning to get married. He hasn't proposed yet, though. It's SO WEIRD because she's my little sister...