Wow. Blogging Fail.

Yeah so it's been a while since I posted eh? Probably the longest I've gone without posting since I started here on blogger. I am sorry that I have failed you. All two of you. Lol.

So let's see...

I have a Thanksgiving post I started... but I haven't finished. Mostly because I feel like I should be thankful for everything I have everyday. Not just because there's a holiday saying we should be thankful. So yeah... Maybe I'll finish it someday, but here's the thing. I have a LOT to be thankful for. And for that, I am thankful. :D

So school is out. Which is awesome. I haven't gotten much done though. I started a novel for NaNoWriMo and have yet to finish it, which was one of my goals for break. Take the two weeks of November that I missed and finish my novel. Instead I've been working on the other one I started earlier this year. >.< So I have two novels I'm writing. Which means both will probably forever be "in progress". I suck.

I have however been doing some reading. I finished Tempted and now I'm sad that I have to wait until April for Burned. I cried so much at the end. It was ridic. I loved it. There were parts I didn't like but that will all be discussed in a podcast I hope to do tomorrow. I keep promising but it's hard to have a conversation with yourself about a book, lol. Well actually this is me we're talking about and I have conversations with myself all the time, lol. I figure as long as I don't start start telling myself jokes I've never heard then we're good to go. ^w~

Christmas was great, even though it only felt half like Christmas. I dunno why, I was listening to Christmas music all the time but I just couldn't get in the mood. Then Christmas was just so... uh I dunno. I didn't even see my grandparents, which was depressing. Mom had to work nights so she was sleeping during the day, but she did get to join us with Cody's parents for Christmas dinner (which was what we normally have on Christmas Eve) then because of weather we missed my Mom-in-law's parents Christmas get together. It just didn't seem like Christmas.

I did get some awesome gifts though, Cody got my more of the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine, Mom got me the first Night World book, an I <3 my dachshund sign for Ichigo & a hematite crucifix. In-laws got me a turtle neck and a super warm hoodie and then "santa" brought me sparkly nail polish, a ladybug necklace, and way too much candy. There was other stuff I'm sure but my rememories are failing me. I was stoked.

Been reading Dark Lover by JR Ward and I'm loving it. I spent most of yesterday nose deep in it. Definitely gonna have to get this series. Then I gotta read the first 3 Sookie Stackhouse before I get lynched, lol. Then into my next three Morganville Vampire books. Likely with Burned thrown in there somewhere as I'm sure school will keep me busier than a one legged man in an ass-kickin contest. We shall see.

I've been an RPing mad-woman. I'm loving it. I'm on two Twilight RPGs, one of which I run - Deja Vu in Forks (if you like to RP plz, Plz, PLZ check us out, I'm currently temping way too many people as there are only three of us that are active) and I have three charies in another, prolly about to be four. Then someday soon I hope to open a House of Night one as well, but it may have to wait until summer. I just love RPGs, it's fun to play someone else, and it takes like 5 minutes for each character and you can post once a week to everyday (everyday is WAY more fun for everyone though) and everything in between.

Last week I worked a full time week. It will be nice come payday but holy hell it was murder going from not working all week to working a full time work week and now only 2 days. O.o Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for my job but I feel like a yo yo. >.< But what can ya do? That's right, nothing other than go with the flow!

Anyway. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was good to you. I saw him at work and I put in a good word for ya. ;)

Books I Can/Want to Sink My Teeth Into (aka My To Read List)

I decided to write a To Read list, mostly to remind myself. ;) It's huge... and growing. (That's what she said!) *shakes head at that's what she said joke* I will update it when I find new books to read and finish books. ^w^

House of Night by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast I discovered these one day at Barnes & Noble and had all that was out (first 4) within a week & that was only because I had to wait til I got paid to get 2-4. They are amazing and I share Zoey's love for Count Chocula. (But I'm not afraid to admit I love Star Trek)
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned - Currently Reading

Morganville Vampire Series by Rachel Caine Margarita is to blame for this one!
Glass Houses
The Dead Girls' Dance
Midnight Alley
Feast of Fools
Lord of Misrule
Carpe Corpus
Fade Out
Kiss of Death (coming early 2010)

Anything by Ursula K. LeGuin I was forced to read the Earthsea series by LeGuin in middle school and I ended up LOVING them. I want to re-read them soon and check out some of these others she's written. (This is NOT a full list of her novels)
Earthsea novels
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
The Other Wind, 2001
Earthsea short stories
"The Word of Unbinding"
"The Rule of Names"
Tales from Earthsea, short story collection
Hainish Cycle novels
Rocannon's World
Planet of Exile
City of Illusions
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
The Word for World is Forest
Four Ways to Forgiveness
The Telling

Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward Kat is to blame for this one!
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine

Divine by P.C. Cast
Divine by Mistake
Divine by Choice
Divine by Blood
Divine Beginnings

Mysteria Anthologies by Mary Janice Davidson, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter, & P.C. Cast
Mysteria
Mysteria Lane

Blue Bloods by Melisa de La Cruz Also blaming Margarita for these.
Blue Bloods
Masquerade
Revelations
The Van Alen Legacy

Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare Margarita's fault... again.
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels (coming out March 2011)

The Lens Fiasco of '09

So I should most definitely be studying for my Nihongo final but I'm not. Haven't been all night. You'll know why I failed. So here is a tale, that I wish were just a tale and not being told from first hand experience. However, highsight is 20/20 and there are no time machines (Though Sheldon would argue that going back in time to fix something like this would merely eliminate the need to do and... oh dear... off track... um in any event the past is the past.

So I have a Pentax SLR (Two in fact, 1 is a model Sears put out years ago that my Daddy got my Mommy) and after hearing that you can use Pentax SLR lenses on a Pentax DSLR I was like hell yeah, well that and my Pentax (though most pro photogs hate them with a passion but can never really say way) has served me quite well. So after I, a beginner in DSLRs, read an amazing review from Pop Photo saying it was perfect for beginners and found out that there was an amazing deal on B&H Photo and Video on the set (with the kit lens was cheaper than without kind of deal) all with how good Pentax has been to me thus far in my photo career had me sold.

I want to start off by saying I love my Pentax K2000. It is not just a piece of equipment, it is a friend. To most that may sound weird as hell but as you work with a camera like this and you enjoy photography and constantly learning (are we ever really done learning?) you become very attached to your camera and even some lenses, yes, lenses. This is why tonight I was absolutely heartbroken at one point.

My Mom had also gotten quite a few lenses over the years (maybe Dad got 'em for her at the same time as the camera... not sure) A few smaller lenses and then my favorite, the zoom lens. So tonight I get the balls (or lose my mind, who knows) and try some of the lenses on my DSLR. Now all of these have been used with ease on both of my SLRs so I wasn't worried. It's all Pentax or made for Pentax. DUMBEST ASSUMPTION EVER! So I get to my dear old zoom lens put him on and go to click it into place and he clicked in an odd spot. So I'm like WTF? Then I try to take him back off to examine the issue and THE DAMN THING WON'T COME OFF!! So I'm freaking, wriggling it a bit, but also scared to break either of my lil buddies. So I search the interwebz and find nothing. I am pretty well dying at this point. Tears are streaming down my face and I'm wondering later how I even have the tears anymore as hard as I was crying. Also surprised I didn't wake up Cody with my sobbing.

So I search for a while, then fiddle with the camera, then set it down and search some more, fiddle, search. Then finally I really get to looking at one of the initial sites I found (hey I was not in the state of mind to be thinking rationally, I had just fucked over two of my friends- my DSLR and one of my fav lenses) and then I really start freaking when I see this guy's solution:

http://erdener.org/pentaxlensremoval/

I was horrified. NO I CAN'T DO THAT TO MY BABY! I kept screaming in my head while bawling some more, mumbling incoherently. Then I realize the site I gotten this site from had a better solution, though it was still very scary and I wasn't sure I could accomplish it before I had to shoot my next hockey game.

http://moyworld.com/StuckLens/Stuck_Pentax_Lens.html

So I'm still crying, telling myself how horrible of a photographer I am and how I don't even deserve to own my camera or any of my equipment when I finally calm down enough (or rather I think my tear ducts finally went on strike and said "screw you drama queen, we're outta here") to read thoroughly and still think it's a lot of work. But wait. He got the first idea with the little feeder gauges from a different site.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19214685

Honestly, I could kiss this man. I want his address in order to send a thank you card, maybe with some cookies. Hell, maybe I'll send a hot stripper to his door with cookies and thank you card in hand! So then my next mission was finding something small enough to get between the AF and pesky pin on the lens when it hits me. The cheap-ass palette knifes I got with my paintbrush holder. So I figure out where the AF pin is (like the second guy, I marked it with a silver sharpie and that mark will stay there, a kind of badge of honor for my little camera buddy for having survived my stupidity) and work to get it in between the two and about 5 minutes later I think I have it. I carefully reach around (Heh, reach-around) and turn the lens and....
.
.
.
.

OFF HE COMES!!! I literally danced around the room with lens in hand. No really, I kid you not. The furkids were scared to death at my sudden change in mood. So the moral of the story kids? Only Pentax brand lenses should be trusted and while those made for Pentax will likely work, research to make sure. Oh and the funny part? The last site where I found the solution? That is EXACT SAME ZOOM LENS!! O.O Which makes me feel better to know that I am not the first to have this problem and that luckily, enough people have screwed up that by the time I came along there were several solutions to try and even more luckily, the least destructive worked.

So that my dear friends, is the story of The Lens Fiasco of '09. Please take care of your little camera friends and face-snuggle them extra close tonight. Also, with that I am off to remove the pesky little pin from my lens so we don't have another Lens Fiasco of '09 or of '10 as well as come up with a name for my camera. I think I owe her that much after all that we've been through. Enjoy your night and I hope you got a laugh or two at my expense, I know I did.

Art History Final- Survived.

So our professor for our Art History class is also a professor at CSU and they're still in classes this week or he had a final there at the same time or something so he said we'd have a sub. "So if you walk in and someone else is standing here, don't freak out." Lol. This prof was awesome but the material and tests were a total bitch. Like stab yourself in the eye just to have an excuse for sucking on the test, hard kind of tests. We're jamming tons of artwork, artists and art periods all on one test. This final was over- 17 art periods (all of which we need to know the time period for), 80 artists and 82 artworks (there were more talked about but slides to study was only 82). Yeah, pain.

So our tests are a bunch of multiple choice of identifying an artworks either art period, date, or artist as well as a few multiple choice of just random info like "What psychiatrist's work inspired the artists of the ___ period?". Then there is the dreaded essay in which we have two artworks which we much compare and contrast in addition to knowing the artist, art period and dates.

So our sub was Chip, who is probably the most hilarious prof in the entire university, no joke. He collects shoes. Yes HE collects shoes and he has quite the impressive collection of funky colored sneakers. I once watched him teach a student how to knock on a door. He opens the door, tells her to stay right there and then do what they talked about. He shuts the door and she knocks. Then he opens the door and says "Hey! How are you, come on in!" Then says "See how that works?" and I almost fell of the floor in laughter. It was nothing less than amazing.

With that being said, here (finally) is the funnies from today's final. Chip cracked a few jokes here and there "oh this is definitely Monet" on works that weren't, etc. Then the best comment all day was made.

One of the multiple choice questions was this work by Jeff Koons:



And Chip says "Oh those Italian pornstars" and the entire room erupts into laughter. Some of us are even giggling three slides later. It was epic.

Then comes the essay and yay I knew both of the works, their time period and their date and one of the artist's name. Crap. So I shit you not this is what I wrote:

The first work is a feminist work by a woman whose name escapes me at this point and time. Heh, oops. So then I just kept referring to it as "the feminist work" and then as I'm finishing the last paragraph, BAM! Barbara Kruger! So I go back and go to change it and realize how lengthy my little sentence was, and hoping that my prof and his sense of humor can appreciate my intial effort merely cross out (with one line) my orginal statement from "a woman" on and write her name above it. Hope he gets a laugh out of it anyway, I know I sure did.