News and such
First off, those who visit Ynys Afallach? It -is- up and running. The sysadmin is having some serious issues with her internet connection. She can connect out fine but a router somewhere in Oregon or Washington is having refusal issues and no one seems to know where it is. If you connect and you get a message that says connection refused or host not found, try and reconnect. I can usually get on with one or two tries, but I have spent up to twenty minutes just hitting reconnect before the router will accept the connection.
Once you are connected, everything works just fine, promise. It's just that first, initial connection that has issues.
Debating buying myself a new computer. I want something for school (this netbook is starting to come apart at the seems, and I was never too pleased with it). I was considering a tablet, but I think I want an out-and-out computer. A netbook wouldn't be a -bad- idea, per se, especially with long battery life, but I think I may purchase a new laptop. Haven't decided.
School stuff is all done. I'm just waiting to hear my schedule for first semester. August is going to be tough, but if I can make it through there, I should be okay.
Received 'suggested summer reading'. None of the books are required, exactly, which is good because it's three pages long and some of the books will take more more than the three weeks of summer I have left to read alone (Crime and Punishment, for example). Also, local bookstore and entire state library system do not have more than half of these books. On the other hand, one of them is A Civil Action, a 'true fiction' book about a lawsuit involving two large companies dumping a severely noxious chemical into the Woburn, MA drinking supply. Book is fantastic and making me feel a lot happier about being a lawyer (and happiest about not being the kind of lawyer any of the characters in the book are).
This is especially good as I needed something to read. I tried to read a Game of Thrones and it just pissed me off. I hated every single character except for two and I already know they're going to die (protip: ease up on the foreshadowing -just- a bit, yes?). Not just hate, mind. Despised. That the writing is really dry and slow is not helping, either. I was also reading the Dresden Files books, but I'm honestly revaluing whether I want to continue on with those after certain issues were raised and the author suffered criticism meltdown without actually addressing any of the legitimate issues. I can read books by authors who I personally dislike, but when they can't face criticism and respond to actual, legitimate problems that people have with their writing with anything other than a temper tantrum, I'm not sure I want to keep giving you money. And at least Card keeps his insane views out of his writing most of the time.
D&D game was cancelled for tonight, which may be for the best, as we're currently playing the Dresden Files RPG and I'm not sure I can stomach that tonight. When I move for school, D&D schedule is going to go from once a week to once a month (if it doesn't die entirely). Not sure what we're going to end up playing then, but I might look into a new D&D group somewhere in the Tristate area (fenris_lorsrai, worlddancer, either of you two interested in some sort of roleplaying game on some sort of regular basis? I'll be a lot closer to you than to the guys in my D&D group, at least).
Um. What else.
Been going over finances with fine-toothed comb. I'll have all but one credit card paid off, but I won't have to worry about student loans until I graduate (I think--I still need to figure out how some of the unsubsidized loans work; there was something in the paperwork about getting deferrals on the interest, but I might just pay it to keep the loan amount down). Rent will be dropping substantially, but I'll probably end up picking up more of the car payments. Any one of the scholarships I applied for would mean the difference between scrounging for money at every possible opportunity and living comfortably for the next four months, even if I used most of the money to pay off the remaining credit card. I haven't decided if I'm going to apply for any part time jobs. I'm hoping to find something at the school--in the bookstore, perhaps--but I'm also considering selling stuff I create for spare cash, instead. I could knit--$25-$30 for a hand-made scarf isn't a terrible price, I don't think, and there's not a massive overhead--but I'm not sure there's enough interest to keep it up for long. Plus it's kind of time consuming and I'm going to need to spend a lot of free time studying and like.
In other news: lost a fair amount of weight, thanks to eating better (or at least less) and walking to work every day. Been focused more on stabilizing my weight for the past few weeks instead of taking off the remaining few pounds I want to. I think once I move I'll focus more on getting my weight to where I want it to be (around 180 to 190). I'll be able to dedicate some actual time just to exercise, as well as have some room to move around, instead of my cramped living room. :)
Going to yarn store today, -maybe- going to pick up the yarn necessary to start on afghan I'm going to attempt, but I want to price it out. The picture I've patternised is relatively complex and the afghan will be pretty big (as it's, y'know, an afghan), so it might take a lot more yarn than I want to purchase at one time. On top of that, I'm still working on the scarf I started last week, and probably won't finish soonly. I'm also going to see the final Harry Potter movie this week at some point, and should save up enough money for tickets for me and toffeefox.
That's about all the news I've got at the moment. Maybe more later.
Once you are connected, everything works just fine, promise. It's just that first, initial connection that has issues.
Debating buying myself a new computer. I want something for school (this netbook is starting to come apart at the seems, and I was never too pleased with it). I was considering a tablet, but I think I want an out-and-out computer. A netbook wouldn't be a -bad- idea, per se, especially with long battery life, but I think I may purchase a new laptop. Haven't decided.
School stuff is all done. I'm just waiting to hear my schedule for first semester. August is going to be tough, but if I can make it through there, I should be okay.
Received 'suggested summer reading'. None of the books are required, exactly, which is good because it's three pages long and some of the books will take more more than the three weeks of summer I have left to read alone (Crime and Punishment, for example). Also, local bookstore and entire state library system do not have more than half of these books. On the other hand, one of them is A Civil Action, a 'true fiction' book about a lawsuit involving two large companies dumping a severely noxious chemical into the Woburn, MA drinking supply. Book is fantastic and making me feel a lot happier about being a lawyer (and happiest about not being the kind of lawyer any of the characters in the book are).
This is especially good as I needed something to read. I tried to read a Game of Thrones and it just pissed me off. I hated every single character except for two and I already know they're going to die (protip: ease up on the foreshadowing -just- a bit, yes?). Not just hate, mind. Despised. That the writing is really dry and slow is not helping, either. I was also reading the Dresden Files books, but I'm honestly revaluing whether I want to continue on with those after certain issues were raised and the author suffered criticism meltdown without actually addressing any of the legitimate issues. I can read books by authors who I personally dislike, but when they can't face criticism and respond to actual, legitimate problems that people have with their writing with anything other than a temper tantrum, I'm not sure I want to keep giving you money. And at least Card keeps his insane views out of his writing most of the time.
D&D game was cancelled for tonight, which may be for the best, as we're currently playing the Dresden Files RPG and I'm not sure I can stomach that tonight. When I move for school, D&D schedule is going to go from once a week to once a month (if it doesn't die entirely). Not sure what we're going to end up playing then, but I might look into a new D&D group somewhere in the Tristate area (fenris_lorsrai, worlddancer, either of you two interested in some sort of roleplaying game on some sort of regular basis? I'll be a lot closer to you than to the guys in my D&D group, at least).
Um. What else.
Been going over finances with fine-toothed comb. I'll have all but one credit card paid off, but I won't have to worry about student loans until I graduate (I think--I still need to figure out how some of the unsubsidized loans work; there was something in the paperwork about getting deferrals on the interest, but I might just pay it to keep the loan amount down). Rent will be dropping substantially, but I'll probably end up picking up more of the car payments. Any one of the scholarships I applied for would mean the difference between scrounging for money at every possible opportunity and living comfortably for the next four months, even if I used most of the money to pay off the remaining credit card. I haven't decided if I'm going to apply for any part time jobs. I'm hoping to find something at the school--in the bookstore, perhaps--but I'm also considering selling stuff I create for spare cash, instead. I could knit--$25-$30 for a hand-made scarf isn't a terrible price, I don't think, and there's not a massive overhead--but I'm not sure there's enough interest to keep it up for long. Plus it's kind of time consuming and I'm going to need to spend a lot of free time studying and like.
In other news: lost a fair amount of weight, thanks to eating better (or at least less) and walking to work every day. Been focused more on stabilizing my weight for the past few weeks instead of taking off the remaining few pounds I want to. I think once I move I'll focus more on getting my weight to where I want it to be (around 180 to 190). I'll be able to dedicate some actual time just to exercise, as well as have some room to move around, instead of my cramped living room. :)
Going to yarn store today, -maybe- going to pick up the yarn necessary to start on afghan I'm going to attempt, but I want to price it out. The picture I've patternised is relatively complex and the afghan will be pretty big (as it's, y'know, an afghan), so it might take a lot more yarn than I want to purchase at one time. On top of that, I'm still working on the scarf I started last week, and probably won't finish soonly. I'm also going to see the final Harry Potter movie this week at some point, and should save up enough money for tickets for me and toffeefox.
That's about all the news I've got at the moment. Maybe more later.