Lost: A Sense of Proportion

Also, my head hurts and I may wind up with a permanent scar on my forehead.

Negatives:
- Figuring out how to wash my hair tonight is not going to be fun
- Ow
- That was stupid
- Possible permanent scar on my face

Positives:
- Will be mostly hidden by my hair once it heals
- Being in possession of a scar... caused by a sword.

If only the story behind it could be more "Cami was involved in a dramatic fight, in which she was injured by her opponent's sword!" and less "Cami is her own worst enemy and needs to be more situationally aware, especially when she's tired."

I'm just lucky I didn't hurt my foot as well, kicking the wall that hard afterward. *headdesk**gently**because... ow*

Paypal's made some changes to their policies, which mean that you automatically agree not to take part in any class action lawsuits that may come against them, unless you go and opt out. So, if you're a Paypal user, you may want to go and check that out. You can see the details - and how to opt out - here. (Link's to a Facebook post, but I think it should be visible for everyone.)

I hate it when companies do this. :/

The good news: cut on my left hand's healing nicely, doesn't hurt so much anymore, should only leave a small scar, I think. The bad news: I have impaled myself on a fork. It takes a lot of force to draw blood with a fork, y'know? Think I need to avoid the kitchen for a while. Or at least stop putting away dishes.

Nah, it's not serious, but ooowww. And my right hand this time, too. Phooey.

(NOTE: I feel like declaring right up front here that, while this post might be said to have something of a fishy theme, it has nothing whatsoever to do with April Fools day. While I'm most definitely not immune to amusement at a well-played prank - yes, even ones of which I'm a victim - and have quite enjoyed those which I've come across via the internet today, I'm not generally one to perpetrate such things myself. And I'm not really in the mood to think up anything today, anyway. So - no need to look deeper than the surface, wondering if there's a joke, here. ;) )


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Well, I've been snowed in for the last two days. Unfortunately, life has not been particularly kind of late, so rather than the couple of peaceful days to catch up on stuff that I might've expected, things have been rather crazy, culminating today in a marked increase in my recent computer woes, complete with virus (which I am still not entirely certain I have dealt with effectively). And I burnt my fingers while cooking. Heh.

So, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I have decided to post some cool stuff I've come across recently.

( Prank-free zone - just random neat stuff.  )

I believe I mentioned a while ago that I was going to play an offertory for church? Yeah, did it yesterday. It... miraculously managed not to be a complete disaster? No, seriously, it came pretty close to becoming one. First off, I was only able to try out the piano at church for the first time last Sunday. Since it's a keyboard, instead of an actual piano, the touch is really different, and I had a hard time transitioning to it. Then, instead of coming on Wednesday, our piano teacher wasn't able to come until Friday, so I couldn't get any last-minute advice/changes on my playing until then. Which was okay, 'cause I've been playing the song for a while, but... Then, Sunday morning, I found that, oddly enough, nothing in my closet matched anything else. Okay, yes, logically impossible, but when I'm already nervous? Can not concentrate on clothes. Then I couldn't get makeup on without smearing it, which is... embarrassing. But somehow, I still managed to get ready on time! And then our car wouldn't start. And since Dad and Eric had already left for church early... we didn't have another car. And no one else from church who lives around here would have room for three more people. But somehow, between us, and with advice over the phone from Dad, we managed to charge the battery and get it started. However, instead of getting to church early, we got there just seconds before the service started. So I didn't have time to run through the song again even once. Even so, with much fear and trembling (lots of trembling - and dizziness, trouble breathing, pounding heart, threatening nausea... :P), and a whole lot of praying, I carried on. And I didn't make any really terrible mistakes! (And, as an added bonus, somehow even managed to avoid tripping over my purse and landing on my face, like I did in the middle of the church financial meeting last week...) Thank You, God! *is ded of relief*

Thus ends my highly over-dramatic and pitiful tale of woe. Yes, I know, it's absolutely pathetic how worked up I get over playing the piano in public. But... I can't help it, and have no idea how to change, despite the fact that I really, really want to. Doing it more often does not help. Just gives me recurring nightmares, actually. :P

Aaand I've finally nearly finished up the arts grant application! Whole lot of veeery complicated forms to fill out, of which they need eight copies. O.o I only hope I've gotten everything right.  Now... I wait. It'll be a month, at least, before I get any response. So.

Oh, oh, and we're going to see Pirates of Penzance on Friday, performed by the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players! Can. Not. Wait. *is sooo happy*

In not-so-good news... I'm sick again. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SICK AGAIN! Ergh. Why is it that some winters I'll only get sick maybe once, while others I barely seem to get well? Just when I was finally over that ridiculously long-lasting lingering losing-my-voice-in-the-mornings stuff, I manage to pick up yet another cold, complete with very sore throat and... starting to lose my voice. Hazards of spending so much time with young children, I guess. Wah.


Clicks for my dragon babies?




Heh heh, really hoping to get at least one male stone dragon. I mean, four females in a row? Seriously? ;P

Meh. I'm kinda whiney today, aren't I? Sorry...

Yeah... apparently I'm a failure as a foster mom for birds.

Think I told most of you that a pair of our friends' parakeets started nesting. So, they asked if we'd be interested in taking them for a while, to help raise the babies and tame them when they hatch. Being the animal person around here, and the one who's the most read up on the subject, I've been kind of the head of operations.The parents are so absolutely sweet together, and they'd already laid two eggs - the usual number for parakeets is 3 to 5. Raising three or four little baby birds sounded like so much fun, and I was so excited. I was even more excited when the momma bird just kept laying... and laying... until she wound up with a total of seven eggs. It was so cute, seeing her try to spread such a small body over so many eggs - not to mention the way the male would just hover over her and sing to her. 

And then suddenly she just stopped sitting on the eggs, threw them all out of the box, and punched holes in their sides. Needless to say, we were... upset. But then after a couple days she started laying again - a total of three this time. I wanted so badly to get things right this time around, was so careful not to let them get disturbed, and everything seemed to be finally going well. Until, after about a week of sitting on them, she did the same thing again. 

I know there was likely nothing I could have done to change it, and she probably did it for a reason, knew they weren't viable anyway, something. But I still can't help wondering if there was something I did, or didn't do, or... *sighs* And I feel so sad over ten baby birds that never even had a chance at living. Maybe I'm being overdramatic, and I shouldn't get so upset over losing animals, but... I just feel like crying.

In other news... my cousin was hit by a semi while biking this morning. A hit-and-run, since the driver didn't stop at all, but with a truck that big it's possible they didn't realize what had happened. She's alive, and should recover well, but she's already had one surgery today, and needs another within the next few days. So... yeah. Since they're in Arizona, there's so little we can do for them, and news is kind of limited. Yet more unsaved family members I would very much appreciate prayers for - both her, and her mother, my dad's sister.

Heh, we've got so few relatives, I'm starting to suspect that they're all going to go into crisis at once...

In happier news, the meteorologists are saying we might get some snow today. That'd definitely be nice. *looks out at the rain hopefully*

Gotta get back to work.

Yes, I've been home from vacation for a while now. No, I haven't been too insanely busy. And yet I've dropped off the face of the earth. Why is that? BECAUSE OUR STUPID INTERNET HAS BEEN OUT FOR DAYS!

Seriously, this internet service seems to be getting  worse by the week. Used to be it'd cut out briefly every once in a while, not really a big deal, and it'd be back in a few seconds or minutes. Then it started going out for hours at a time. More and more frequently, until it was doing so every couple of days. And now it's graduated to just stopping entirely for days at a time.

And yet they keep telling us they can't really find anything wrong, don't know what's happening, it should be working. We don't even bother trying to go through the company anymore - we've got the repairman's and his supervisor's direct numbers. By this point, it has gone so beyond, "Heh, bit addicted to the internet, maybe? Guess I'll find something else to do for a while..." to, "Give me internet, or give me death!" AUGH!

It's not just inconvenience, it's not just being cut off from friends for a while, we're trying to run two small businesses here, my mom's book/website and my editing, and they both rely almost entirely on the internet, and I have deadlines/time pressures on several things at the moment, and even the primarily non-internet things I'm working on require internet for a lot of fact checking, and even the dictionary on Word won't work without internet, and - *deep breath* This. Is. Not. Working. I think I really am going to cry if it doesn't get sorted out soon.

Heh. Can you tell I'm a tad upset at the moment? :P At any rate, we had three repairmen here for most of the day, and things seem to be working again for now, so... we'll see. If you don't hear from me again for a while... yeah.

*sighs* Gonna go get some work done while I can.

Wah. Apparently both Nef and I have caught whatever it was that one of the children we've been watching had. Which I didn't know he had until he was in my arms coughing in my face and handing me a very used pacifier. Heh heh. Nef's actually got it worse than me at this point, as I seem to be taking the slow build-up route rather than the one-hour-you're-well-the-next-you're-dying way, but... Bleh. Doctor thinks it's some adult version of croup, and virus = no treatment, gotta live with it and get better on your own... eventually. :P

But I'm still heroically working away at writing. Heroically, I tell you! I won't be held entirely responsible for the quality of said writing, but I'm so close to finishing this part I refuse to be conquered. *stabbity at stupid virus with pen of d0om*

Wah, though Ashley's baby is due in just barely over a week, and if we don't get better quickly... there's no way we can risk passing this on to a newborn. *cries*

... and I hate stupid internet connections even more!!! ARGH! *fumes*

Connection cut out the other day in the middle of downloading an update to Norton, and I could not get it to download properly after that, even waiting a couple days for the internet to be in a better mood and going to a part of the house with a better connection, so I e-mailed them about it... They've got great, really prompt tech support. Unfortunately, I had to talk with them on the phone. (Why, oh why, do I have to have such a weird phobia as one of talking on the telephone? Making phone calls, even with people I know and like, with the very rare exception = bizarre nervousness, heart speeding up, shaky, flustered, brain deserts me completely... Not as bad receiving calls, but even then... *sighs*)

Naturally, the guy's got a really thick Indian accent, which always makes things more complicated, but he was really nice and patient, so it was okay. So he was going to remote access the computer to fix it for me, which was really wonderful since I'm not all that great with computers, and they're not all that great with me, either... (Anyone remember my article about Chrysophylax? Even if Caudimordax is nicer... yeah.) And then, suddenly, the internet connection decides to go really bizarre.

It had been working great. But suddenly, no matter what I did or where I went to get a better connection, it didn't want to connect to their program, and when it did it would almost immediately disconnect. Then it decided to simultaneously tell me that my connection was "Excellent" and virtually non-existent. So I'm trying to work with this guy on the phone while my internet connection goes all funky... Finally he gave up, and  he's going to e-mail me a solution so I can try fixing it myself. *bangs head on wall and cries*

And randomly switching topics, as long as I'm talking about my general computer hate/ignorance... Um, can someone tell me how one uses animated icons? Is the download/upload process the same as for regular ones, or are there more steps involved? *feels really, really stupid*

So yeah, I haven't accomplished very much writing done today. Gonna try to do some more now. Bleh, I don't wanna. I actually pretty much know what I'm gonna do for this next part, even down to phrasing in some places, but somehow I just can't seem to make myself do it. Yeah, this icon is very appropriate.

So. Life has been... busy. Seems like I'm always tired lately. I almost fell asleep during our Bible study last night. Several times. While we were singing. I've also taken to drinking about twice as much Mountain Dew as usual. (I need caffeine. Very much. Heh heh, so yes, drinking Mountain Dew. No, despite the odd way that sentence sounded on re-reading, I haven't been driven to drink in that way. 'Sides, it's another nine days before I could do that legally anyway. :P I'm tired. And rambling. *headdesk*) Universal consensus is that we're way overbooked at the moment. Unfortunately, there is also nothing we can do about it for a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to April being over. (Not least because a certain week in May is going to be Totally. Awesome. :) ) But yeah, I'm too tired to even list it all right now. So on to happier subjects...

First off - Mom upgraded my LJ account to a paid one as an early BD present! Yays, I finally get more icons :D So I've grabbed some awesome ones from Niro and shall be looking for more. I need some LOTR ones. I also need one for when I'm feeling crazy and hyper. :)

And as of today I'm officially finished with my big editing/rewriting project for the trucking company! Yes, I was supposed to have it done nearly a month ago, and yes, I did get the work done and sent to them several days before the deadline. But the man who hired me has been in Washington DC for the last month, and the company's content expert has also been out of town for over a month, so it's been kinda crazy, and there've been additions and changes and more proofreading... And I've been nerve-wracked, waiting this long to find out what they think. BUT the content expert loves the way I re-worked the manual, and everyone seems to be happy, and I just got my check, and the man who hired me has officially "declared victory" - his words *g* - and I'm DONE! Unless they hire me for the next project. But they're in the middle of some reorganization, and it'll likely be a bit before I hear anything on that, so... :D

And the temperature got up into the 40s today, so I have worn short sleeves with no sweater in celebration! I'm ready for spring, but springs here tend to be... indecisive. On Monday we got six inches of snow. Normally I'd be delighted, and it was beautiful and fun, but I'm ready to be done now. :P

And... my karate teacher keeps reminding me that I'm neither a ballet dancer nor a singer, so I need to actually shout and look intense and mean. I'm not sure I have a mean and intense look. And it seems mildly annoyed just doesn't cut it. BUT apparently I'm improving, because today she was really, really happy and said she was impressed, and... she wants us to compete in some upcoming regional karate tournament. Like, seriously wants us to. O.o

On a not-so-happy note, I have IMed Nef to inform her that I hate her now. I was writing really, really well and actually being prolific for days in a row and then she distracted me. Good, fun distraction, but still. Now I have writer's block and Can. Not. Think. So yeah. I hate her now. Though considering we're still on speaking terms and I've been drawing lots of stuff for her book (the new one) and helping her and I didn't actually punch her during karate despite having plenty of opportunity... she doesn't seem to be taking that fact too seriously.

I need more Mountain Dew. *trudges off to try to pretend like she can write*