This is just a brief check-in post to notify anyone who might care that I had no internet access for the past two weeks. The ethernet port on my cable modem gave up the ghost, and it took me this long to figure out the problem and get it fixed. Needless to say, those two weeks have not been fun. ( Read more... )

Btw, I have only been back online for a few hours and haven't had a chance to look at much. I do plan to scroll back through those two weeks of flist and catch up with everyone - but, of course, that will take some time. So if anything momentous happened to any of my flisters since August 20th, I am blissfully unaware of it for the moment. Of course, I was able to check my private email at work - but LJ is simply one of those sites I never access from the office (just to be safe, since I have very little privacy due to my computer screen at work facing the open space between the cubicles, as well as the corridor). So I have been utterly deprived.:/ Same goes for all other fannish stuff. So if I'm quiet again for the next week or two, it probably means I'm busy catching up.:)

Not that I could keep from posting for too long - as this entry clearly proves (I barely got my connection back, I have TONS of stuff to read/look at/respond to, and what do I do first?... make an LJ post, of course :D). Yes, it's an addiction, and yes, I felt absolutely miserable without it. I don't even want to go into the amount of anxiety I experienced from not knowing how or when I was going to get my internet back. It would be ridiculous if it wasn't rather sad, really. But that's a topic for a whole another post. Now I have a huge pot of vegetable stew simmering on the stove, and my stomach is growling. So I'll be back later. *scurries off*

Apparently, my deep and thoughtful posts aren't any more interesting than the shallow, mundane ones.:| Oh well. I'm used to talking to myself, so yeah. *shrug*

In absence of any momentous news, here's the next installment of the A-Z meme. ( M is for Modern Life... )

Again, the weekend went way too fast for my liking... but at least it was kind of productive, as weekends go. Yesterday, I did a big load of laundry in addition to the grocery shopping, as well as watched a movie (on streaming!... yay!... I can watch movies directly online through the Netflix website again!... and the picture quality is perfectly smooth, with no stops and starts!... I LOVE my new PC!!!...:D). Today, I went on a quest for new shoes, because my favorite pair of black sandals - actually, make it my ONLY relatively comfortable pair of black sandals - has started coming apart at the seams. So it was an urgent mission, lol. I wear black a lot, especially to work - I have this gorgeous, flowing, Gypsy-style black skirt, bought a few months ago, that I wear at least twice a week. So I need stylish black sandals to go with it. And I have an old pair, which is still in very good condition, as well as very pretty - but, for the life of me, I cannot walk in them.:/ Not any more. I could, perhaps, wear them to a party, provided I was planning on sitting in a chair with my legs crossed, sipping a drink the entire time.;) For everyday walking to the bus stop, I need shoes that don't transform every step into a study of pain.:/ And I think I found some (I won't be 100% sure until after I've worn them for at least a few hours...). For a reasonable price, too. And while I was at it, I also found two nice tops (a lacy black one, perfect for work, and a very casual "faded" olive green one for the weekends), a cute cardigan (also in olive green - I love that color) and a pretty tribal-style necklace (a set of wooden and/or bone disks in shades of brown/beige - it will go perfectly well with a number of my summer outfits). All for about eighty bucks total. So definitely a successful venture.:)

And now, before I turn in for the night, here's another installment of the A-Z meme. ( L is for Looks... )

Finally. I have both the time AND the means to post something in here... lol. For the past week or so, this has not been the case.:D

First and foremost, my new PC is here. It's an HP Omni 200 all-in-one with a wireless keyboard and mouse... and it is a thing of beauty, let me tell you. When I first took it out of the box, I just kinda stared at it for a few minutes, before I even attempted to find the power cord etc. Because, you know, it's BIG. 21.5" across. Now, you have to understand I've spent the past 8 years glued to a laptop screen which was no more than half the size - and our monitors at work were only recently changed from old-style, square ones to more modern, rectangular ones. Which at first seemed overwhelmingly huge... but now, my computer screen at home is actually BIGGER than the one I have at work. O_O It's absolutely MASSIVE. It looks like a small plasma TV. Which was exactly what I wanted. ( Read more... )

Btw, there were some connection issues in my area over the past few days, and I hear LJ was down, too - not that I had much opportunity to notice, since my old laptop did a number on me last weekend and lost "display functionality" again. This time permanently, it seems. It might amuse some of you to know what caused this final crash. Namely, I was trying to watch the online trailer for A Dangerous Method. Yes, surreysmum - if you are reading this, know that it was all your fault.;P You posted that link to an article about Viggo's latest movie projects... and I went, OMG there's a trailer!!!, and clicked on it, even though I knew my old laptop couldn't really handle streaming video anymore. So of course it crashed, and even after several reboots the screen resolution remained ridiculously low. It took forever to load any webpage, even as simple as a plain text email - forget LJ or other fancy html stuff. Of course, it didn't really faze me much, since I knew the new computer was already on its way here via FedEx, and I can check private email at work. But still - I could have waited a few days to see that damned trailer, couldn't I?... *headshake*

Anyway... the old laptop had a severe case of death by Viggo, apparently.:P Or, you know... by Keira Knightley, if you prefer.:D It never fully recovered. So after I had set the new one up, I shut down the poor old thing, packed it up in its black laptop bag and tucked it away in a closet. Which seemed, strangely, like a funeral. Yes, I was emotionally attached to that ancient piece of junk - why do you ask? Do you know anyone else who uses the same computer for eight years?... But I am already deeply in love with the new one, so I think I'll be fine.:D (Yes, I have issues, no need to tell me as much, kthxbai.)

In other news... what other news? If there was any, I forgot. I am behind on emails, comments and such - but I will get there eventually. I'm not ignoring anyone on purpose.;) Just feeling a little preoccupied with my new toy.:P Btw, I just downloaded a few new icons, some of which were made specifically for me by roxicons. I love the one I'm using now - so calming and hopeful, isn't it?... Most of the stuff roxicons makes on request is shareable, so snag away if you like it.:)

Apparently, when I complained about the heat before, I had no idea what I was talking about. It is 94F/34C today, and it's supposed to actually get HOTTER around the middle of the week. O_O And yes, I live in a stuffy third floor apartment with a single, old, creaky A/C unit that has seen better days. I feel... half-cooked, for lack of a better expression. Ventured outside briefly yesterday (grocery shopping, ATM), felt on the verge of heatstroke by the time I got back home. So today I've just been lounging around, drinking glass after glass of iced water and going to the bathroom every hour or thereabouts.:/ I also made a salad, which was exhausting. A very light, quick salad - but you have to understand that there is NO air conditioning in my kitchen. There is only a window fan, and a big standing fan, which I had placed right against my back - and yet, I had to wipe the sweat off my stomach with a paper towel every once in a while...

In more exciting news, I finally did order my new PC. *yay!* I just realized that my antivirus software subscription is going to expire sometime in August - and it makes no sense to renew it for this computer, which is dying slowly and most likely wouldn't last another year anyway. In fact, I don't think I'm going to be renewing it at all, since I can download the full Norton Security Suite from Comcast (it is included in the price of my internet subscription). And, of course, it wouldn't make sense to download it now on this old computer either. I'll just get it for the new one. It's supposed to arrive sometime during the first week of August. I'm having it delivered to my sister's art studio, which is located a few blocks from here - because I'm not at home during the day, and I don't have a car, so picking it up from the post office might be a problem. For my sister & brother-in-law, it will be no big deal to drop it off at my place on their way home from the studio. *crosses fingers for everything to go according to plan*

Now, how about the next installment of the A-Z meme?... I am skipping over G, which was for Geography (no, I no longer live in the town where I was born, and I have written a lot here about my current location/neighborhood, so I didn't feel like doing that one), and H, which was for Hospital (luckily for me, I haven't had much experience with hospitals, so there isn't much to talk about). ( I, however, is for Internet.:D )

It is oppressively hot today, and my brain feels fried. I should be writing emails to several people, but it seems like too much effort right now - so instead I'll just do the next installment of the A-Z meme.:)

( E is for Eating... )

So I've been pondering all these nuances of human psyche, relationships, sexuality etc. And I find I am still quite confused about a great deal of it. For example, I wasn't aware that "physical" and "sexual" attraction are not one and the same thing. I had always used these two words as synonyms in that context - but recently I've seen a comment where someone differentiates between them, saying that asexual people often experience physical attraction which is NOT sexual in nature. I am not absolutely sure what this means - finding someone aesthetically pleasing, I suppose, or having a preference for a certain physical type even in platonic/non-sexual relationships. Which reminds me that I am also confused about the distinction between "romantic" and "platonic". I had always assumed that "platonic" meant "romantic, but without sex" - but I have recently seen someone describe friendships and family relationships as "platonic", as opposed to romantic ones (which can be either sexual or not). All of this makes me realize how important words and definitions can be when we are trying to convey our experience to other people. If we use different definitions of a certain term, we might not even realize we are/aren't talking about the same thing. A great example would be the word "queer", which can mean a thousand different things to a thousand different people...

( Read more... )

Just got back from seeing my parents, which turned out to be a very brief visit due to the fact that I missed the first early afternoon train to the northwestern suburbs and had to wait almost 2 hours for the next one (the suburban rail service doesn't run very often on Sundays). Not my fault, btw - the bus was late - so I don't even have to feel guilty about showing up for less than 3 hours.:P I took tomorrow off, btw, but they don't know it - so there was no mention of me staying overnight. And no one questioned why I was leaving already - because, well, the train won't wait. When I stil had the car, I kept telling them how bloody hard it was to find a parking spot on my street on Sunday nights - and still, my mother would often give me this wounded look when I got up to leave. Now, I didn't have to offer any explanations, and I didn't have to spend 30 minutes looking for the damned parking spot either. It's a win-win situation... lol.

And here is the first part of an alphabetic meme stolen from my new friend goddessofchaos:

( A is for Adulthood... )

Again, I'm suffering from an abundance of "thinky thoughts" and total inability to prioritize when it comes to putting them down.:/ I've been traipsing all over LJ reading tons of interesting stuff, checking out new potential friends and communities and generally just expanding my horizons, in a way. Which is very exciting, but also frustrating in that I have no time to PROCESS all this new information - by which I mean, TALK about it ad infinitum.:) It seems I can afford to either read stuff or discuss/write about it - and I want to do both. Badly. Why is "real life" such a mean, selfish, inconsiderate, time-consuming pain in the nether regions, dammit?... *grumbles*

Yes, work is going to be very distracting over the next few weeks, because I am preparing training materials for the new hire (still anonymous, so far, but the boss has been interviewing candidates for the past few days) - in addition to the regular stuff, which currently happens to be our biggest annual media guide getting ready for print. Yeah. Talk about timing.:/ Why, oh why couldn't the new hire wait till after we're done with this massive book?... I can multitask to a degree, but if there is too much going on at once, my brain tends to switch into panic mode. Or at least into angsty/whiny mode, which isn't fun either.:/

At least the parking ticket situation seems to have been resolved. The current owner of my former mode of transportation emailed me back, saying he will take care of it. Right on time too, because after two unsuccessful attempts to reach him by phone I was almost ready to start calling the City of Chicago Department of Revenue's customer service and begging them to please believe me that I did sell the car, even though I can't provide a single piece of evidence to that effect. *headdesk* Now at least I have his email as proof that the car is no longer my responsibility - should I receive any further correspondence from the City in the near future. Which I hopefully won't. *crosses fingers*

Now back to reading, because obviously it's too late to write more today. *sniff*

OMG where do I start. I feel like my brain is exploding with stuff I need to say, but I just don't have the time and/or energy to put those thoughts into any semblance of order, and it's frustrating beyond belief. Also, stupid mundane problems keep getting in the way. *sigh*

1) The weather has been positively insane for the past two weeks or so. ( Read more... )

2) The boss is planning to hire a new part-time work-at-home person, who will be trained and supervised mostly by yours truly. ( Read more... )

3) I received notice of a parking violation from May 20th. Not my violation, obviously, since I sold the car on April 25th. However, I don't have any proof that I did so, and it would appear that technically, according to the City of Chicago, I am still the registered owner of the vehicle (since I am the one who got the notice). ( Read more... )

4) I watched another great film last weekend - The Man of My Life (French, directed by Zabou Breitman). ( Read more... )

5) My "quest for (sexual) identity" goes on. Apparently, as I just discovered a few hours ago, in addition to asexuality there is also a thing called "demisexuality", defined as being attracted ONLY to people with whom you share a deep emotional connection. As in, falling in love with someone FIRST, and ONLY THEN wanting to sleep with them. Not to be confused with refraining from casual sex for any sort of religious/cultural reasons. The term "demisexuality" refers to people who have NO DESIRE for sex unless - and until - they love someone. And that, dear friends and casual readers, is me RIGHT THERE. ( Read more... )