Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

My Internet connection died royally last night, when I was sparring with a buddy on the MxO, and I couldn't get it back up for hours. This morning it would only connect for a half an hour, and right now, it's still acting sickly. I don't trust it, and this might be someone's way of telling me to bite the bullet and get DSL. Not that I'm really looking forward to paying three times what I'm paying for Juno, but the pluses are really outweighing the minuses right now: Faster connection (I'll be able to download/upload videos and music files and MxO patches in a jiffy), plus the MxO will run a lot smoother. And most importantly: Dad and I won't have to bicker over the phone line! So, if I disappear again for a while, I assure you, the wait will be worth it, since you'll seeing me on here a lot more often, since I won't be having to unhook to let someone use the phone.

To everyone I was IM'ing last night, and wondered why I suddenly disappeared: I wasn't having computer troubles, though at first that's what I thought it was (since it's been especially pissy lately, probably since it knows its days with me are numbered...). Nope! It was a rolling black out that hit the area, due to the high winds that have roared in. The power came on this morning, thank goodness (which is obviously why I'm able to type this now).

Adds to the list of computer gadgets I need: One uninterruptable power source (one of those boxes that you plug the comp into and then into the wall socket, so that you get enough time to save your work and shut down the machine).

I finally vacuummed my room, which I meant to do when I dusted it so many weeks ago, but then Easter and other things intervened. The only downside to that was churning up some of the dust, which twigged my allergies, but it warmed up today, which gave me the oppurtunity to open the windows in my room and let in some fresh air.

My reward to myself for finally taking care of that was to *finally* figure out those videos I downloaded yesterday. Turns out the QuickTime movies will play on my machine, but not the WMA files, for some odd reason, which takes a load off my mind that I couldn't get the massive theatrical trailer for the MxO to download since it was taking too dang long, and that was another WMA file. So, all in all, not a total loss.

And work proceeds on "The Other Half of the Equation", the DegSep tie-in I'm working on. I'm well into Chapter Two of it, and I might start typing Chapter One tomorrow night after I get home from work. We'll see what happens.

I managed to have a good trip into Lowell, despite the high winds and drifting snow -- at least the sun was shining, though it was cold as the inside of a frigid person's heart and thus I had to bundle on three shirts and two pairs of pants to stay warm. I managed to update the AIFFOA, which didn't get done last week since I wasn't able to stay long in the city, due to my work schedule. Plus, I discovered a "Constantine" fanlisting, and joined it/added the button for it to my Userinfo page here. And I also bought the novelization of said demon-hunter movie (Yes, I'm a little obsessed; Hey, I gotta do some research for the fanfic I'm writing).

I mentioned that I was going to take a class in how to get your writing published (Only the second one like this that I've taken, but the first one I took, over at the Middlesex Community College, wasn't very helpful). Well, tonight was supposed to have been their first class, but come to find out that they'd had two snowdays they'd had to make up, so tonight's class was the last of the bone-head creative writing class that preceded the publishing class. I sat in on that -- only one other guy showed up for it! -- and got a good brush-up course in writing. The class I signed up for is supposed to start not next week, but the week after.

I had a later appointment in Lowell today, but I was planning on ripping some "Matrix" music files from Don Davis's website and burning them onto CD-R... but the computers at the CyberCafe wouldn't let me install MusicMatch Jukebox. Anyone else know about any other programs like it that I might be able to sneak onto those comps?

Also discovered to my anNOYance that the fanfiction.net links on my "A.I." fanfiction site no longer work since ff.n changed the configuration of the web addresses, and thus the old addresses no longer work. So rather than comb through aaaallll those links recopying them, I went in and edited the html, correcting them to their new configuration. I'm about three-quarters finished: I just have three pages left to fix and then I'm DONE with that! What a pain...

I went to the Lowell library: I got out a couple of books on Hallowe'en, to get some ideas for how to decorate the house inside on Hallowe'en night. Unfortunately the Lowell library seems not to have any more volumes of the "Sandman" series, unless they're all out... I'll have to check back next week or start ordering them from amazon.com.

And I also had to go to work: a short shift, since I came in late (3 hours, nonetheless).

Baked orange cinnamon rolls: okay, they were Pillsbury, but man, they are *GOOD*!

I've got yet another "A.I." fanfic idea in my head, so I'd better get off here and start working on that... I can't say much more, as it's a highly unusual crossover...

Yaaayyy!!! The Cybercafe opened today! Now I can edit all the pics that I've been trying to tinker with; for some odd reason, Paint appears to have screwed itself up on my comp at home... No matter! The CC has MS Photo Editor, so I can tinker with pics to my heart's content. For instance, my default Joe icon up there. Like how I fixed it? I might do something similar with the "Merovingian" icon...

I was coming up with evil plots to try and buck ff.n's newest act of fanfiction subversion: I was thinking of archiving everyone's fics onto the AIFFOA, but that would be tampering with other folks' literary property... So, I plan to leave my fics on ff.n, but I'm going to be archiving copies onto the AIFFOA and canceling those links first... Then in two weeks when the new URLs for everything else goes into effect, I'll start the loooong haul of reconfiguring all the other links.

Whoever is the patron saint of Web design, pray for me!