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

I've been doing more than just moving into my new comp -- I just loaded the MxO software, and I might activate it after I've browsed around GAFF for a bit and posted to a few threads there: We've been putting up Hallowe'en decorations. I hunted up the branch for this year's Hallowe'en tree (for you new folks, I have this custom of putting up a dead tree branch decorated with pumpkin lights in our house. I got the idea from Ray Bradbury's children's novel "The Halloween Tree"), and my dad helped me anchor it to the bookcase in our living room. And while I had my nose buried in computer activation, he strung up more pumpkin lights outside in the yard, including a string around the railing of the deck, and along some of the trees in the front yard. He even got a light-up plastic jack o'lantern which he stood up under one of the trees, plus he stretched out some of the pumpkin lights by taking the housings off a damaged string and putting them on a string of amber lights, with one pumpkin put on every third light.

I've been listening to the "Lost 45's" show on the local Golden Oldies station: they were playing all kinds of spooky songs, which made the perfect backdrop for re-re-reading "The Shadows Between the Neon". I love that fic: it's one of the best out of the "Cecie Martin" series of "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" fics I wrote.

And I had an early Hallowe'en treat last night at work: I was between orders, chatting with the cashier (one of the seven or eight girls named "Sarah" or some variant thereof), when I happen to glance over toward the main aisle in time to spot a guy and a gal dressed as respectively Batman ("Batman Returns"-version) and Catwoman (the Eartha Kitt version, I think -- she didn't look as cool as Michelle Pfeiffer's, and she certainly was more covered than Halle Berry's!). Ten minutes later, guess who came through the lane where I was bagging, but Batman and Catwoman! I couldn't help joking with them: said I "Even comic book heroes gotta do their grocery shopping somewhere, sometime!" Said Batman to Catwoman, re: the bag of ice and cases of root beer they'd bought, "Come on, we'd better get this home and put it in the bat-cooler." Priceless!

They won't be the only DC Comics hero (well, make that ANTI-hero) to show up at that store: I'm dressing as Constantine tomorrow. I heard from "Martha", one of the supervisors, that if you work the front end, you can wear your Hallowe'en costume to work, as long as it isn't anything offensive or wierd. Well, considering that my costume is liable to offend only Alan Moore, and he's over in England, I should be safe. Martha herself is supposed to be dressing up as a witch; I asked her if she was a good witch or a bad witch, to which she replied, "I'm definately a bad witch".

"This is the last entry I'll be typing on the old computer. Once I unhook in a few minutes, I'll run the data transfer of my old files and then shut down the comp for the last time (probably, if everything goes well). I might be offline for a day or two, as I get the new comp set up and my ISP software installed, or I could be back online later tonight; we'll see what happens. Technical and emotional glitches are always a possibility: remember what happened when I reinstalled Juno after this thing got repaired following the spyware horror, and I ended up getting knocked offline for a week while I tried to figure out what in heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo or on earth was going on with the dumb thing.

See you on the other side...

Renee M.

I'm typing this from the old machine.

The Flash drive decided to stop cooperating in the middle of it all. Not because it was full: there's barely a handful MB on it, and the thing is supposed to take 512 MB worth of data. I should have started with the important stuff (Drafts of WIPs, chat logs, etc) instead of starting with the picture files.

I feel like I'm trying to move out of a structurally instable house, but I can't get out since my furniture won't fit through the doors. What is it that hates me and won't let me progress?! I'm tired of setbacks, because I feel like that's all I'm getting.

EDIT: Octobe 28, 1.09 a.m. -- Well, I managed to get the Flash drive to work. The important chat logs seem to be on there now, but it gagged on the picture files, so I backed those up on Photobucket. Tomorrow night, we'll see about setting the new comp up...

...and I'm suddenly jittery over the idea of setting up the new comp. Connecting the cables, etc. always makes me nervous... though first I'll have to unhook the old computer, pack that up and set up the new one here in the study. My mom suggested taking this box and using it downstairs, but do I really want to inflict this thing and all its bugs on her? I'm tempted to ask my dad if he can get his friend the computer whiz at work to come over and give me a hand, just as some moral support.

Got the Flash drive earlier this evening, and on the way back, my dad got it into his head to go up the Loop Mall again and see if he couldn't find more of a series of toy classic cars he's been collecting. So while he was doing that, my mom and I nipped into the Borders bookstore there. Man, they've got a bunch of Neil Gaiman's miscellaneous (ie. non-DC/Vertigo) graphic novels. I almost bought "Harlequin Valentine", but I need the cash to buy a black tie for my Constantine costume. I'm almost all set for the big night: I just need the tie and to make a stencil for the (temporary) arm tattoos: I ran across the perfect image to use, so I'll take that into Lowell on Tuesday and blow it up to the right size before I print it out and use it for a template to trace onto some waxed paper.