picked a handful of violets in my name

I am granting myself dreamroll amnesty. I will never catch up and I'm just going to have to be okay with that.

Because, I shit y'all not, I have not been around since shortly after Con.txt. I was eaten by an unfortunate combination of Analog Life (mostly work, now work + class), tumblr (so low-effort!), fic on AO3, and a grue.

( Major things happening for me right now: work, school, nerdy games, relationship, fandom )

Clearly nerdy games are the bright spot in my life. Pretty sure that group are my BFFs.

I also revived my abandoned twitter account tonight. Whee, back on the social media wagon.

So, two things to conclude:
1. If there's anything you need me to know that has happened since, like, mid-June, comment or email me or something? :)
2. If you are in or near Boston, come to the Anarchist Bookfair. Especially come on Sunday, November 11, at 11:00! Most of my Community Archives class (including me) will be on a panel about community archives.

Con.txt was a great experience, although I did make the mistake of booking such an early flight home that I missed all the Sunday panels.

Since getting back to Boston, I have taken over as GM for the Shadowrun campaign. I moved our setting to New Orleans. The party composition is very different this time; all the players have chosen different character types from what they played in the last campaign, and so we've got only one magic user and no hackers (last campaign had three/four magic users).

I cleaned all the things today in preparation for my parents' arrival tomorrow evening, and my allergies exploded in response to the dust I kicked up. I had to make room to unfold the futon so they have somewhere to sleep. They'll be here for about a week and a half.

I also bleached a couple of chunks of my hair and gooshed some more purple Manic Panic all over - a little of my usual Purple Haze/Ultra Violet mix, and a bunch of Electric Amethyst. I just washed the dye out and my hair hasn't dried yet, so I don't know how it'll look, but I feel pretty optimistic. (It had been a very long time since I bleached any new growth, which meant the existing purple streaks kicked in about halfway down the length of my hair. Accidental ombre.)

My weekend has come to a satisfactory conclusion, with all work completed on time, even with social media sanity breaks. \o/

Ellie has decided to Clean All The Things. The apartment totally needed it, but it was a little stressful to come in from Special Work Event after lunchtime and find Even MOAR Stuff in my bedroom.

Also, today I talked to my mom about getting a new computer. My Macbook is five years old!* It's still a perfectly adequate computer for my needs, except for two problems:

1. The fan makes loud angry noises whenever the computer is sleeped/hibernated/shut down, carried in my bag, and woken up again.
2. The plastic case around the screen and keyboard/trackpad has begun to chip off. Including right under where my right wrists rests when I'm mousing.

But, as my mother needs a new computer (hers is so old she can't update past Firefox 2, and she's understandably worried about Bad Shit From The Internet), we have decided she can have the Macbook, since she won't be moving it around or using the trackpad.

So now my goal is to locate the best Macbook for the least money. We have determined that it is a worthwhile investment to get a better computer than I need Right Now, because said computer will serve me for more years.

* I have been pretty impressed with the longevity of the Macs I've owned. 6 years, 4 years (would have been longer but Evil Ex stepped on it and refused to admit it was his fault the screen died), over 6 years (since AFAIK the iBook I gave to Cameryn is still kicking), and 5 years. Mom's iMac is 7.

I got my hair cut today. Still not sure what it'll look like after I wash it and don't volumize it with five different products, a round brush, and a hair dryer. (I lack the brush, the products, the skills, and the time and give-a-fuck to actually do it myself.) But right now it looks awesome, even after I went shopping all after noon and tried on a bunch of tops and dresses that went on over my head. (Still don't know what I'm wearing to the wedding this summer. Still don't know what I'm supposed to be wearing to the wedding this summer.)

My D&D group hasn't played in a couple of weeks. :( But Shadowrun is meeting regularly. We've switched to playing mostly at MIT instead of in JP. This past Thursday, we were wrapping up the run from the previous week, and we finished pretty early. Instead of starting something new or going home early, we played Cards Against Humanity. My Shadowrun group is the perfect group of people to play that with; we're all on the same wavelength so it's consistently funny-terrible and not awkward-terrible or rage-inducing-terrible.

It's cool, though. I did manage to dig the suitcase out and I have a list of everything I should need.

Note to throat: you're on notice. This better just be post-nasal drip irritation.

Went to Loraine's birthday party Friday and had a blast. I'm also joining her 3.5 campaign on Wednesday nights (Nathaniel had to drop out due to an attack of real life, although he's staying in the Shadowrun group).

Speaking of Shadowrun, the Yakuza blew up my character's kitchen. Apparently this is what happens when you run against Mitsuhama and aren't super-careful about covering your tracks. (Daly is moving the big picture plot along.) The kitchen was the Thursday before the Flea, figuring out what to do about it was this past Thursday, and I'm not sure whether we'll need more than one session to resolve the mission that'll hopefully get us a bit more safety/protection.

It's been a very uneven start of the semester for me - everything usually just feels kind of off (although I do have stretches of time where everything is going well and making sense, too).

So I've been doing so much ordinary stuff and feeling so weird so much of the time that I haven't been posting.

I'm going to try and attend the Louisiana Historical Association annual meeting, because there's a lot of things that mesh really well with my interests. I'll have to miss at least one class session (conference begins on Thursday, I have class on Thursday, sigh) - I'll talk to my professor tomorrow and see how to work it out.

( my semester )

I have decided that from now on I should only take 9-12 classes. Any other time of day interferes with my work schedule and/or my ability to have a few empty blocks of time in my week.

Ellie kinda sorta taught me to ride a bike today (I never actually learned, as a kid). I can stay upright and I don't fall over when making turns, but I can't yet choose the angle of the turn or which direction I go - the bike still controls those. I'll keep practicing on Mom's bike while I'm here, and when we get back to Boston, I'll have to learn hills and shifting on Ellie's bike (assuming it's not too icy). Once I'm at least competent to ride up and down Green Street, I'll get my own.

Anybody want to advise me on how much clothes I should bring to New Orleans? I'll be there for three weeks but I'll be staying with my parents and my mother does laundry pretty much continuously. (I could probably get away with two pairs of pants and four shirts, but I'd get bored.)

things I need to do before I leave:

PACK!

clean out the pantry

clean off the countertops as much as possible

clean the stove

check in for my flight

take out the trash and recycling

load and run the dishwasher

EDIT: Okay, I have figured out the lower half of my body, mostly. Very flouncy trumpet-shaped skirt in aubergine or tiered olive green skirt?

Yesterday, I went to a Wyrding Studios jewelry party hosted by shadesong. Getting there was an adventure - I didn't take a close enough look at the map before leaving (so I didn't know how to get from the bus stop to her house) and then I got on the wrong bus. Fortunately, my parents bailed me out with Google-Maps-over-Voice-Protocol, also known as "I called them and asked them to read directions to me over the phone." *facepalm* But I was right on time and the party was great.

It turned into crazy necklace day. I got a necklace with a small silver leaf, some dark peacock and purple beads and pearls, and a hammered-and-folded copper leaf. One of the other guests got a fantastic necklace she named Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff. I don't think Kythryne has put any of the photos up on her flickr yet, but she said they'd be up there eventually.

Lunch with stultiloquentia today. We're planning on being airplane buddies for Con.txt (at least for the return trip - I may be couchsurfing with relatives in the area for a couple of weeks beforehand).

Before lunch, I went to CVS for assorted necessities; the self-checkout stations were all behaving badly. After lunch, I dropped off a bag of donations and went thrifting. I have acquired a cardigan! It is burgundy.

I had to go to campus to work on an assignment that's due tomorrow, and then I wound up going grocery shopping to pick up a couple of things that'll get me through this week. Which apparently includes flowers. (For the latter half of my high school career, particularly while I was living in Atlanta, I always had a vase of small roses in my room. They're pretty much the only cut flowers I buy, because they're inexpensive but lovely and understated.)

Once I hand in this assignment in class tomorrow, I only have to write a fairly short final paper for my history class to complete my school stuff for this semester. Wheeee.