State of the AJ :: 13 April 2011

[ariestess]

Yeah, so I haven't been posting a whole helluva lot lately. I know... I've had things to say, but just didn't know how to say them or have the wherewithal to say them for various reasons. I could try to get into the ramblings in my brain for reasons, but really, y'all probably just don't want to hear that shit anyway, so I'll just do my State of the AJ in bullet format, since that's the easiest way for me to actually make sure I get everything listed here...

• LJ & the DDoS attacks :: Okay, first off, y'all need to check out this map of the IPs participating in their DDoS attack and check to see if your IP address is listed there [apparently it only shows the first 1000 IP addresses] and make sure you're running your malware and anti-virus software on a regular/daily basis. And then, you really should read this post from
  synecdochic, if you haven't already. And if you've been bitching and blaming "the Russians" for all of the shit going down due to the DDoS attacks, you REALLY need to read that post. In fact, everything I wanted to say about this, I already have in my comment on the post, but suffice it to say that I have changed my mind regarding the whole situation and SUP in general. No, this doesn't mean that I'll agree with everything that SUP rolls out for LJ, because what I need from LJ and what the Russian LJers need from LJ are two completely different animals, and SUP is going to go with their strongest userbase, which isn't English-speaking LJers. And you know? I'm mostly okay with that. If it weren't for the Russian-speaking LJers and SUP, there wouldn't be a LiveJournal to be bitching about now.
  
  This doesn't mean that I want y'all to do a complete change and never bitch about LJ again. That's bullshit. I know I won't do it. But at least consider that "the Russians" that you may be angry with are the reason you HAVE your LJ still, when 6A would have killed it. And while I'm at it, I'll echo
  synechdochic's comments re: bashing of either LJ or DW. I really don't like the blatant bashing. I like both sites and I use both sites. End of story. Yes, DW is my primary journal, but I still have more friends and journals that I follow over on LJ. As of right now, I don't plan to stop living in both places. I know there are people who are firmly entrenched in "choose one or the other, and NEVER change your mind", and that's fine. But it's not where I'm at...
  
  In fact, now that I think about it, I've only been trying to post my poems and the femslash_today updates during this whole DDoS attacks situation, partially so that I don't contribute to the server overloading on LJ.
  
  
• Charity Auctions :: So I've completed both of the tarot readings for my winning bidders. I'm in the middle of finishing up the two hats to be sent out to those winners. And I've got to work on the original fiction winners yet. I've heard from one, and have her 11 pages of background info percolating in my brain for an idea that will be decent. And I'm STILL waiting to hear from the other winner, so I can start working on ideas for that person. All told, the 6 winners I had donated a total of $40 US via help_japan and £40 via
  help_japan. Apparently, there might be either a lightning round or a second round over on help_japan. There's currently a poll about that. And you know what? I'm probably going to make offers again for the tarot readings and original fiction, as well as some poetry. Tho the original fiction is going to have some restrictions. I'm actually having a really hard time with the one winner's 11 pages of info. She's got some really detailed info in that 11 pages about her created world, but there's also a lot of world-building info that's missing, and I'm leery about writing a good m/m story based on what she wants. I'll still uphold my end of the deal and write her the best story I possibly can, but I am questioning my abilities atm in that regard... If I offer original fic again, I think I'm going to have to put in a proviso of not trying to take on someone else's world/universe for a story that's potentially only 1000 words long. I dunno...
  
  
• Writing :: If you haven't noticed, I'm participating in
  napowrimo's whole writing poetry for National Poetry Month thing. I've not missed a day yet. And my main goal, after making sure to write a poem each and every day, has been to try out different poetry forms. So far, I have repeated one form, but it just felt right to do it at the time. And they've all been short forms so far. I may branch out to longer forms, and I may not. I don't know.
  
  I have a lot of fic to be working on, and yet the writing mojo isn't quite there atm. I'm working on getting that motivation back. But I think it's been drained by the on and off bleurghy of the last couple of weeks in particular.
  
  
• Health :: Well, as mentioned above, I've been fighting some sort of cold thing for the last two, maybe three, weeks now. It's been very on and off. And yes, I've named it a bleurghy, for how it's made me feel. One night a couple weeks ago, I went to bed at like 1900 or 2000 and passed the hell out until
  shatterpath got me up at like 1000 or so the next day. I still felt like crap, but I got up. It lasted for a couple of days, then I was okay for a few days. And that's been the M.O. for the last couple of weeks :: okay for a few days, crappy & wanting to die for a day or two. Lather, rinse, repeat. And each time has been slightly different symptoms, but I've run the gamut of slight fever, chills, bloody noses, sore throat, earache, stuffed up, sniffles, etc. Throwing in my 5-weekly visitor into the middle of that mix was a special kind of hell, let me tell you... *sighs*
  
  
• House & Gardens :: Been going in spurts with the dishes and kitchen cleaning. That's my primary job. I am still not doing a lot of cooking, which I really need to get back into. I do love cooking when I do it, but I just don't do it all that much. Am going to be making Gramma PeeWee's chili tomorrow again. And, as is my wont, I'm fucking with the recipe again. Gonna use dried beans, which I have to get soaking before I head to bed tonight. We'll see how this new twist works out. I don't know that Gramma ever used the dried beans, but I'm not sure about that. And given how often she apparently threw meals together on the fly, which I'm REALLY good at, I'd be surprised if she never experimented with the dried beans at all. So we'll see how that goes tomorrow, once
  shatterpath gets home from spending approximately 24-36 hours in Seattle with her dad, her step-mom, and her aunt.
  
  The gardens? Yeah, not a lot happening there yet.
  shatterpath and amyrayh have gotten a few new things to plant, mainly veggies, as the various flowers and trees are still in the process of really taking root, so to speak. I'm curious to see if we'll actually get any grapes off the vines this year or not. This is the second or third summer since they've been planted, so I'm hoping we get some, as I'd LOVE to be able to eat some of our own grapes. And hopefully, we'll have a bigger crop of cherries and apples this year, too. I know the columnar apple gave us a wonderful first crop last year. I believe there were 13 or 14 total apples on that baby! Woot! As for what else we're growing this year? No clue atm. That's mostly the purview of
  shatterpath and amyrayh. I just reap the benefits. LOL!
  
  
• Pets :: So about three or four weeks ago, after Mami passed away suddenly,
  shatterpath decided to consolidate the remaining fishes into Mami's tank in an attempt to curb the weird algae in their tank. She did an appropriate water transfer to the other tank, but none of the little fishies made it. Either there was something more than the algae in their tank, or the stress of the move did it. So we've been fishless for the last month for the first time since like August 2007. Very strange feeling. The tank that got cleaned out has been turned into a terrarium. We're working on setting it up and keeping it healthy with the three plants we have [ivy, african violet, and bromiliad (?)]. Once we know it's stable, we'll be adding some hermit crabs in there. I'm kinda anxious to get them, but also want to make sure everything is perfect for them.
  
  The cats are being their usual selves. Tho we're starting to wonder if Gabe doesn't fall somewhere on the feline autism scale. If there is such a thing, of course. He displays a lot of qualities that autistic children tend to, thanks to all of the exhaustive research
  shatterpath has done on Autism and Asperger's Syndrome over the years. So we have Leo, the "feral", cranky old man; Elphie, the almost 3yo bouncy baby in charge; Stasia, the former street stray who I will swear has some sort of feline MPD; and Gabe, the potentially autistic 4yo bully. Oh, and amyrayh has Zena, who really doesn't socialize with the rest of the household, tho she and Stasia have koffee klatches thru amyrayh's door.
  
  
• Divination :: So this coming Sunday is the full moon, which means I'll be doing my free one-card readings then. Since it's Sunday, I'll most likely start Saturday evening and go for 24 hours again. I've been thinking about crowd-funding a lot lately, and am going to try an experiment that I first heard mentioned by either
  miintikwa or stonetalker [I'm really not sure which atm], which is offering a raffle of sorts for tips. You know, anyone who tips gets their name in the drawing for a more in-depth reading, and if a certain amount of tips is raised, more people can be added to those who get the free reading. I'm going to see how it goes...

Original post @ Dreamwidth with
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