So, I finished another sewing project. This one was based on the Morsbag. I added fusible interfacing and a second almost-liner on the inside. Again, the bag is far from perfect, but I think it's pretty damn good. The seams are a lot straighter than my first attempt(although a few are still wonky), and my handles are somehow completely different lengths, but the bag is still very usable, and that's the most important thing.( Photos below the fold... )

Okay, so last night I was all prepped and ready to start sewing. I've been slowing getting everything I needed: workspace, fabric, supplies. I actually manage to thread the top and then I hit a snag. The sewing machine will not bring up the bobbin thread from the bottom. Will not. At first I thought I was just sewing-impaired, but my mom couldn't do it either. We finally decide it's just the machine. It will have to be replaced:

( So, I replaced it and actually succeeded in making something! )

Oh, and so I've been exploring Twitter and Facebook recently. I remember to check more often than I remember to post, so it's a lot like livejournal. Haha. However, I've been loving Twitter because of a couple people I've been following: Nathan Fillion, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Fry, and Misha Collins. Especially Misha Collins, he is one weird, but entertaining guy. I'm 90% sure that the accounts are legit, so I've been very amused the last few days.

Oh, and I've been loving Facebook because I'm beating my mom at Scrabble! Haha and woohoo!

Seriously, if you've ever seen Gundam Wing, please check out the fandub parody of Gundam Wing: The Abridged Series. It had me in stitches for most of last night. I especially loved any scene with Treize. Just hysterical.

I have to say, I liked it more than I thought I would. ( In case of spoilers... )

I finished my first two projects! The first was a neat necklace, the other is a simple string bag that I'll be using to hold my yarn. If you're on Ravelry my projects with a couple of photos are here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kiyuchan. I'm very happy with my finished products, even if they're not perfect. I'm working on another necklace now, and I'll be starting soon on an actual amigurumi figure, as well. I want to make a bunny for Emily. :)

Also, I'm loving Ravelry. It's a really well designed website. Searching for patterns is easy. Keeping track of projects is easy, plus it's super easy to update your progress. The only thing I really wish was a bookmarking system for projects you like but don't want to queue or favorite. But that's a really minor complaint. It's just so...easy and sleek. I would use MySpace or Facebook if it felt more like this. :)

Snagged from shiroiko:
( The Steampunk Style Test... )

My sister Aimee gave birth on Saturday to a beautiful little girl they've name Emily Christine. She was born at 12:14 pm at 7lbs11oz, and 21 inches long. And a full head of hair.

For pictures, check out my dad's blog:

http://kohnzone.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-emily-is-born.html

It's amazing that one can feel like crying both out of happiness and depression all at the same time. Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. This greatly improved my estimation of humanity. Unfortunately, that didn't last long as both Prop 8 of California and Prop 2 of Florida passed. This makes me even more determined to make my way northward come this next June.

So, in summary:

"Yay!" for Obama, "Boo!" and a "FUCK YOU" to all the damn homophobes in the country.

It's called Planet Fitness and is a "judgment-free zone", meaning it's not a gym just for body-builders. I'm on a cheap and monthly plan, so that I can leave at any time without penalty. No year-long contracts for me.

I also have access to a sort of trainer...she offers a 'consultation' class, which I went to today. So, since I'll only be going 2-3 times a week, I should do a 'full body' workout, all in one day, with breaks in between, followed by 30 minutes of cardio work. On Monday and Tuesday, I'll be in a class where she shows us how to properly use all of the machines. Once I've learned all of that, I'll probably go Mon/Wed/Fri and do full-body on Mon/Wed and a 'cardio day' on Fri. Maybe I'll be able to work up to more later, but for now that sounds hard enough!

I'm hoping that this will help in my decision to really lose some weight. I'm too heavy, and I'm feeling unhealthy. My eating habits aren't great, but they're not horrid, either. It's my lack of movement that's killing me. So, hopefully this should put me into better shape. I'm hoping to have lost at least 30lbs by the time I move, next June. I'm also hoping that I'll lose more than that, but I'll be satisfied with 30lbs.

ALSO:
That Dir en Grey ticket is still up for grabs. No charge as I've already paid, so I just want to make sure it goes to someone who who wants it. :) The concert is a week from today.... *puppy eyes*

Granted, it's with a computer program.

I downloaded the free trial of Liquid Story Binder, and I think I'm hooked. I'm going to see how it works for my actual writing during NaNo, but so far it's a dream. Also, it runs using Wine on my Linux-based Eee Pc, which was great to find out. I was mostly going to use my Eee when I was out and about, and now I know I can keep it all in one file on my flash drive.

I've been playing mostly with Dossiers and the Timeline. I just love how easy it is to organize everything. If I notice it really helping, I will go ahead and purchase it, even though it's a little more than I'd usually spend on a noveling program. If it gets me writing, then it's worth it. :)

In addition to the passive charity of my last Nano post, if you have an extra couple of dollars and would like to give me an incentive to finish, please sponsor me for National Novel Writing Month. The money will be donated to the Office of Letters and Light, which will help Nano next year and with their Young Writer's Program.

ALSO, if anyone wants to go with me to the Dir en Grey concert in Orlando, please let me know. My sister will go if no one else does, but she's not dying to go, or anything. It's the evening of Friday, November 7th. If you need a place to stay, you are welcome to stay with me. We have very comfy couches and a few air mattresses laying around. :) I MIGHT even be able to get a Universal ticket for someone...(I just need to see if my sister or brother-in-law has a free one).

To everyone doing Nano this year:

If you leave a comment on this post with your Nano name or number, LJ will donate a dollar to the Young Writer's Program if you win. I think it's a pretty nice thing to do, and it's easy enough for our end of things. :)

That said, who's ready! I'm not, but I don't care. I'm excited, and really thinking I'll win this year. November is busy, but I won't be worrying about school or family health crises, so that helps. No finals, no hospitals, no weddings(in the family). I do have 5 birthday, Thanksgiving, a concert, a friend's wedding, and a Doctor Who event, but those are all fun things.

I think I'm doing a sort of soft sci-fi piece this year. Mostly it'll be about people. However, it'll be people in space. So: science fiction. It'll take place on a ship of people going out to start a colony on a planet a few years away. I haven't decided if I'll do the story around just a couple of characters, or a bunch of characters and how their stories interact. That might be too much planning for Nano, but it'll give me a chance to change direction if I get bored. That can be useful. I do know that the focus of the ship(and thus the story) will be the large aeroponic garden in the center.

As an aside: I voted last Monday! WhooHoo! It felt so awesome seeing Barack Obama's name on the ballot. Something about it just gave me a thrill. Maybe it was the knowing that I was participating in something historic, and the knowing that being a swing state means my vote truly made a difference.

I just need to say, I think I have a little bit of a celebrity!crush on Rachel Maddow. She makes me smile. :)

Warning: rambling fannish squee and musings

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm usually a slasher when it comes to fandom. I know it, and most of you know it. But, I have slowing becoming a hardcore Sheldon/Penny shipper. They're characters from "The Big Bang Theory", a sitcom about geeks. I'll admit, the characters are fairly stereotypical, but only in the way that sitcoms usually are. Penny is the typical 'pretty girl' who lives across the hall from the two main characters, Leonard and Sheldon. I've been a fan of Sheldon from the beginning.

Now, the show is setting up Leonard/Penny, but I find Sheldon's interactions with her much more interesting. I think that the two of them can learn much more from each other. However, tonight's episode clinched it for me. Penny is introduce to MMOs, gets addicted, and bugs Sheldon. But it was the scene of her sneaking into his room to ask advice and him freaking out over having someone in his room that made me actually want to attempt fanfic.

Now, while I'm always planning original fic, I've never tried fanfic. However, the complete lack of any Sheldon/Penny fic is making me contemplate a change. I just don't know if I could get Sheldon quite right... :\

Please, tell me I'm not the only one... *puppy eyes*


Commercial oddity:

I just saw a car commercial use Bowie's "Space Oddity" to emphasize the whole take-off space-age thing. However, did these people not remember that the end of the song is the whole thing not working and Major Tom, you know, dying. I just thought it a weird choice, even though I like the song.

More celebs than the Emmys and the Oscars combined:


Those who are in Florida, or in Canada but once lived in FL, you have until OCTOBER 4th. Just a couple of days. But, try your best. Especially if you're rooting for Obama. :)

I had to share this:

http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free/1089629.htm

Six pages discussing milk. Milk in a bag. It's so ridiculous, and yet so wonderful. So, tell me, my Canadian friends, do I get to look forward to bagged milk when I finally get my butt up there?

:)

Oh, by the way, I actually have a bit of a timetable for my move. My boss has a wedding to go to towards the end of May, so I've decided my last day will be May 29th, after she gets back. That will be followed by a week of packing and stuff, and then I will haul me and my Mom and my stuff up to Toronto. I'll have visited before that looking for a job and an apartment and stuff, most likely in April. Maybe another short trip in May, depending on my success. I'll be able to do this because starting in January, I'm going to try to avoid buying...well...anything, really. I want to save as much as possible, so that the move will go as smoothly as possible.

This image sums up half the weekend for me:



The rest was sitting in line. :)

Okay, I kid. Slightly. I did sit in line A LOT, but it was fun, anyway. Except for the one Firefly panel, at least the lines were inside, so that's one up on the theme parks? ;)

Okay, so, to begin, Gareth David Lloyd was adorable and hot. And did I mention hot as hell. Seriously, he's cute and attractive in Torchwood, but in person he kind of knocked my socks off. Plus, he loves Labyrinth. That just made me happy beyond all reason, and I'm not even really sure why. He was witty and fairly insightful in the panels, and was great when paired with James Marsters. I think he must have found the whole thing slightly overwhelming. At least when he as at Comic-con, JB was there to take more of the attention. This time it was him. Or him and James, depending on the day.

The first Stargate panel I went to seemed a little lackluster. However, Tori Higginson was adorable and awesome. Weir was never my favorite character(although I thought they did a grave disservice to her), but Tori is now one of my favorite Stargate actors! I loved her. David Nykl wasn't terribly loquacious, but you could tell he was having fun.

The next panel was greatly improved, especially with the addition of Jewel Staite and Morena Baccarin. I had seen them in two of the previous Firefly panels(which I'll get to next), and they continued their comraderie here. I also think that the questions were more interesting in the second one. Also, we were answered a burning FIREFLY question. Yes, in the Stargate panel. I was greatly amused. Anyway, the question and answer essentially boiled down to (spoilers follow) Inara's mysterious syringe box in Serenity was supposed to be medicine of some sort because she was DYING. Not she was going to kill herself, but that Inara had some sort of disease that was killing her. Oh, Joss.

I went to two Firefly panels, and both rocked. Both the ones that I saw were Morena, Jewel, Alan, and Nathan. They were especially great because you could tell that they were all having at least as much fun as the audience. They truly seemed happy to be there. Alan and Nathan had most of the audience in stitches for much of the time. Alan with his "this is a card with our images. We've signed the card..." to every person who asked a question. Nathan had some sort of sound-effect device or program on his phone and would use an appropriate sound after someone spoke. It was much funnier than it sounds. Go to youtube, I'm sure there's video!

Sunday night I went to the Stargate Slash panel, and had great fun. I ended up chatting with two lovely women until 5 in the morning. It was nice to find, not just Stargate fans, but Stargate slash fans. Well, it's easy enough online, but I don't often have the chance to talk to others face to face. We talked about a lot more than just the slashier aspects of the show(although we did discuss those), but also things like the ambiguous morality, and its intentionality, inconsistent characterization, and the lack of ability for SG writers to write women. It was great fun. We also talked about Torchwood, because who doesn't want to?

I did a few other things...like have a couple of drinks with some Spartans, go to a damn fine Shindig, and catch a small bit of British telly. :)

Okay, I will talk about DragonCon this weekend(totally rocked), but first I have a question:

Is there anyone willing to go see Dir en Grey at the Firestone (in Orlando) in November? I missed them once before, so I'm not going to, again! If no one on my flist wants to then I'll drag my sister Karen. She might even enjoy it. ;)

If anyone knows anyone going to Dragoncon who still needs a place to sleep, PLEASE send them this way: http://community.livejournal.com/dragonconrooms/58635.html?mode=reply.

I ordered an Asus eeePC 2G Surf last night, and should be receiving it tomorrow afternoon! Yay! It's a very scaled back machine, but it will perfectly serve my needs, which consist of internet access and a word processor. I have my Kindle for reading, my phone for communication, my A2 for movies/music. The only thing left is a DS Lite...which I might consider getting later this month. I'm not quite decided, yet. Either way, I'm looking forward to my notebook!


And now, from daemonfan :
( Book meme! )