Hi everyone! It may look like I rarely update this, but in reality, most of my posts are friends-only, or behind various filters. I'm not particularly choosy about who I add as a friend, but this account is for personal posts that I don't want to open up to the entire world.

If you're looking for something that receives public posts on a regular basis, the journal on my website receives regular posts of general interest. It's also available here on LJ, as lupinia_studios.

Oh, and if you're wondering who this is, this is not my original LJ name. I changed it in October 2008. If you were on my friends list before then and don't know who this is, PM me and I shall enlighten you :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Tags: journal-related

For several years now, I've talked about how badly I want to get out of this middle-of-nowhere town, but I've never taken a whole lot of pro-active action toward that goal. I've constantly been waiting for some golden opportunity, and/or a perfect financial situation, but after so many years of depressed stagnation, I've finally assembled the motivation to make my own opportunity. But I can't do it alone. I'm not asking for money, I have plenty of that, but if you live in the DC metro area (northern Virginia, DC, or Maryland), I need your help.

My big plan since about October has been to save up enough of a nest egg to survive without income for a couple months, to allow me to job-search without a temp job getting in the way, and without being tethered to where I currently live. In order to make this work, however, I need a place to stay in the area while I job search, and if I get a job, while I hunt for my own apartment. Unfortunately, while I have plenty of talent in my field, I'm a bit lacking in experience to back it up, so job-hunting probably won't be as simple as sending out a round of resumes and scooping up interviews. Since my nest egg will last a few months at best, rather than a year or more, I really don't want to sign a lease, because I want to be able to fall back on my current living situation if I have to, without increasing my debts.

When I Need This
Since I'll be picking up my Rover from the mechanic next week, and I'm currently training a replacement for my paper route, I'm looking to get out of here and start job searching within the next 2-3 weeks.

What I Need
I'm pretty much just looking for glorified crash space. I'm not bringing much stuff, preferably not more than I can carry in one trip of my truck. But, I do need a little bit more than just a place to sleep, so here's a quick list:

-A place to sleep, whether it's a couch, or a floor spot for my twin-size air mattress.
-A place to hang up work/interview clothes; not necessarily a closet, a hook on a wall would do the trick. I don't have much.
-Access to a kitchen, to store and prep my food and drinks. I won't leech off your food, that'd be terribly rude, but my budget won't allow me to eat out constantly. My culinary skills are very limited, so I won't be whipping up anything super-fancy.
-A wired ethernet connection for my VOIP phone line, since it's my primary phone line for conducting business, and my cellphone plan doesn't have a ton of minutes. Plus, my cellphone's ringer is incapable of waking me up.
-A place to park my car. It's a compact SUV, so it doesn't need special parking or anything, but I know some urban apartments have somewhat restrictive parking policies, so it's worth mentioning.

That covers the crucial necessities, but there's one other thing. While I can theoretically work from my laptop, it's much easier to work from my desktop PC, so if at all possible, I'd prefer to have a spot to set it up. I have a compact, portable desk to use with it, about 4' x 2.5', or it can go on a table or something, it's a small case.

As far as a time prediction, I'm looking at a maximum of two to three months. Financially, I could last longer than that, but that's the most I'm willing to go before I have to give up and try to find more temp work back in mom's town. It could be less, but it definitely won't be longer; that's why I want to do things this way in the first place, so I don't end up in a situation where I'm leeching off friends or unable to support myself. That sort of situation is unacceptable to me.

It's also worth mentioning that I won't be sitting around playing video games all day while pretending to find work, in typical furry roommate horror-story fashion. I'm serious about this, and I'll have plenty to do. In addition to some projects that will help my portfolio, and the typical job stuff (writing letters, finding jobs, adjusting resumes), I plan/hope to maintain a contractor relationship with a couple companies I already do some work for here in Harrisonburg, so I'll have a bit of telecommuting to do. Plus, I don't even really play games that much.

What I Can Offer
For starters, I'm a pretty low-impact roommate. I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, and while I tend to stay up late, I can be very quiet at night. I won't hog your internet connection with downloads. I'm not the most organized person, but I absolutely can't stand actual messes/grime (leftover food, scattered trash, piles of laundry, etc), so while I'm a little prone to clutter, I wouldn't call myself messy. And, I won't be camping out in your house 24/7; between other friends in the area, job-hunting, and my innate desire to spend as little time indoors as possible, I'll have other places to spend my time.

Unfortunately, my nest-egg budget doesn't really allow much for rent. It's taken months to save up enough pennies to make this a reality, having to pay a full share of rent would drastically reduce the amount of time I can spend job-searching before I'd have to give up and return to mom's house with empty pockets. But, I will offer this: If I successfully find a job in the area, I will pay for the time I spent crashing with you.

In lieu of rent, I'll happily help you out in other areas; cleaning, running errands, pet care, etc. Just let me know what I can do for you.

That said, there is one living expense I'm planning on. For a number of reasons, I take very long showers, as much out of necessity as luxury. And, the aforementioned desktop PC draws more than a trivial amount of electricity. So, I will gladly pay a fair split of water and electrical bills for the time I spend living with you; whether I simply cover the above-average difference, or we do an even split of some sort, I'm sure we can work something out.

In the event of a financial emergency on my part (medical expense, major car problem, etc), I'll simply pick up and go back to Harrisonburg.

---

If you might be able to help me out, it would really mean a lot to me. This is a major step toward getting my life in order and getting my career back on track, and I'm more than ready for it. So, if you live within a reasonable commuting distance of DC, and have a little extra space for a puppy, please contact me so we can work out some details.

Thank you :-)

Recap: I own a 2003 Land Rover Freelander SE3, which is a 2-door half-convertible SUV. The roof it came with is the standard hard-top, which is awesome because it's well-insulated, but it weighs over 60 pounds and it's basically the entire rear quarter of the truck, so removing it is a pain, especially by myself.

Well, yesterday was a pretty beautiful day, and the urge to drive around with no roof was particularly strong, so I decided to take the roof off in the afternoon, in time for a bunch of afternoon errands. Unfortunately, despite the air temperature being relatively decent, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the removable part of the roof is made of aluminum. Painted flat black. And the back of the truck faces southeast when parked. So, it was hot enough to cause genuine burns if I handled the outside of it for too long. Ouch!

I managed to get it inside my apartment, and I have a perfect spot for it, between the couch and the wall next to the door. Except, with the roof so hot, I couldn't get a proper grip on it to get it into place. When I initially set it down, it was too close to the door for the door to close, and I couldn't get my hands on it long enough to move it to the side without scratching it. Finally, out of desperation, I grabbed one of the clamps to use as a handle; I wasn't planning to put a full amount of force on it, I just needed something to hold onto, to help lift and slide. Unfortunately, I didn't make it that far; it seems the clamps are held on with a flimsy plastic hinge, and the material is heat-sensitive (which explains why the roof rattles so badly on a hot day). The simple act of pulling on it in the same direction it's pulled on when the roof is attached caused the clamp to snap off like a toothpick.

Crap.

Now, if this were any other vehicle, my first step would be to check used parts dealers, Ebay, and other assorted places. Even for a Land Rover, a pretty oddball/exotic make in the US, parts usually can be found if you're an enthusiast and know where to look. However, the Freelander SE3 was an extremely rare version; less than 2000 were ever made, worldwide, and while I can't find exact figures, I know it was a popular option in Australia, so I'd guess that maybe half of that 2000 made it to the US. If that. On top of that, anyone parting out an SE3 model isn't going to want to disassemble the roof, since that would kinda make it useless. Sure enough, a cursory search yielded absolutely zero results, so I called the dealership.

I've dealt with the dealership before, with my old Discovery, and it was never a particularly useful experience. They're the most friendly car dealership I've ever had the pleasure of working with, awesome customer service, but their prices are so nightmarish that even BMW owners would make rape jokes about it. This is the same dealership that wanted over $800 for an alternator, $350 for a windshield wiper switch, and $250 to install a pair of headlight bulbs. So, for a rather complex roof latch on a vehicle that even makes Land Rover enthusiasts say "WTF is that thing??", I was expecting a pretty painful price quote, if they could get it at all.

The parts guy I talked to was awesome, but as I expected, he had no idea what I was talking about, and hadn't seen one of these in-person since they were new (Fun fact: Land Rover Richmond has only ever had 1 Freelander SE3, the showroom demo). So, while it took over an hour to find the roof clamp in their catalog (and confirm that it was the part I was looking for, thanks to Rover's cryptic component names and diagrams), we did eventually track it down, and by some miracle, they even had one in their warehouse (the alternative is to have it ship from England, which can take weeks, as I discovered with the aforementioned wiper switch). Yay! I went ahead and ordered it, and it should be here around Wednesday. The price? $100. Not that I could afford $100 right now, but I was able to borrow enough to cover it. And, really, that's an acceptable price. Still kinda high for a plastic lever-thingy, but for a dealer part that I can install myself and that I can count on receiving in a few business days, it's not too awful.

I initially thought this meant I'd have no roof until Wednesday, which was rather nice today, and I figured I could cover it in a tarp if needed. But, after examining the clamps in greater detail, it looked like I might be able to get the broken one to close; all that silly-looking design complexity turned out to be useful after all! I figured it was worth a try, since we'll have rain on Tuesday and painfully-hot temperatures until then, so with my mom's generous help, we put the roof on and tried to clamp it down. Nearly an hour of struggling later, I finally got the darn thing to latch, yay! Definitely still getting the replacement clamp, I like taking the roof off too much to deal with that every time, but it'll hold until I get the replacement.

All this got me thinking about the soft-top kit again. It was an option that the previous owner of my truck either didn't get (I don't think she even removed the roof the whole time she owned it), or kept and sold separately when she traded it in. Either way, I don't have one, and with the rarity of the vehicle combined with the initial expense of the soft top, they're essentially impossible to find. When they do come up, they typically cost upwards of $500. But, it's tempting, especially if I do end up keeping this truck long-term (it's my current plan). The hard top is quite nice, and very comfy; it's well-insulated, so it's considerably quieter than a convertible rightfully should be. However, it's such a pain to remove, and it obviously can't be stored in the truck, so I can only take it off when I'm at home and have a safe place to put it. If I want to go out to the woods with the top open, for example, I have to leave the roof at home. And, even if I had triple the strength I do, it'd still be near-impossible to install it myself, due to its bulk. With as much as I love opening the roof, the soft top would be really fun, even with as complex as it is. Plus, I could sell it later for probably what I paid for it or more. I just don't have that kind of money right now, or likely anytime soon.

Tags: cars/rover-freelander

I was going to make a list, because I've had a number of supervisors who did some pretty crappy things, but only one really stands out. When I worked at a small local ISP, my boss there seemed, on the surface, to be a pretty cool guy. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

-He was a massive hypocrite about work ethic; he was either never there or locked in his office to play games or run his porn business(es), while he'd get pissed off at me if I spent a couple minutes looking out the window or did anything on our computers that was even remotely non-work-related, no matter how minor. Even the fast-paced temp job I had this winter didn't mind if I took a couple minutes to rest and look at a news site or something. Oh, and did I mention that we were always completely dead, seldom even having a computer on the bench to work on or a phone call? It was incredibly frustrating to have hours upon hours of downtime and, at the same time, to be yelled at if I had downtime.

-He was a big-time voyeur, to rather creepy levels. What I knew about was that he had a camera in the back office for the specific purpose of keeping an eye on me (I was the only employee), and that he monitored my internet usage. What I didn't know until after the company folded was that he had a number of hidden cameras throughout the office, including in the bathroom. I imagine he got more than he bargained for with that one. The phones were tapped, so he also probably got some interesting conversations with my boyfriends over the course of working there. And, I'm pretty sure he cyber-stalked me; in fact, years later, it wouldn't surprise me if he's reading this now.

-The company couldn't afford to fix/replace a cheap window-unit air conditioner to keep the server equipment from overheating (the office was over a hundred degrees one day when I came to work), yet we almost purchased a large plasma TV for the sole purpose of sticking it in the window to play a PowerPoint presentation for advertising. And this was in 2005, when plasma TVs were pretty pricey.

-He drove the company into the ground, through a combination of mis-management, personal use of business assets (like hosting his gaming clan servers and sex toy sales sites on the company's OC3 lines), and outright embezzlement/tax fraud. For about my last 1-2 months, there were a number of occasions when I was genuinely uncertain whether I'd get a paycheck.

On the plus side, the company's main investor later became one of my most lucrative (though frustrating) tech support clients for my personal side-business. In the process of the company going under, I also managed to snatch up a number of our clients for one-off work shortly afterwards.

==================

I do realize I've been neglecting this, and I apologize. I plan to start writing more, it's just been difficult to find the motivation, since I usually spend upwards of an hour on a post. But, Twitter is insufficient for much detail, and I loathe Facebook, so I imagine I'll start posting again soon.

Tags: qotd, work/career

A bit of a recap: I'm a huge fan of the Twitter Ponies. If you're not familiar with them, they're basically a group of RPers who do an exceptional job playing the day-to-day adventures of the cast of My Little Pony. Such an exceptional job, in fact, that even knowing full-well that they're just regular people behind the characters (and even knowing a few of them outside their characters), interacting with them feels like I'm really interacting with the MLP characters. Which is just awesome, on so many levels.

That magical interaction leads to some special moments, too, which I've posted about before. The special moment I posted about in that linked entry? It happened again, on a larger scale :-)

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in the ER at the local hospital again recently, and I was there for a considerable about of time, almost 14 hours total. My phone died within the first 2 hours of waiting, so I was left completely disconnected from Twitter, and unable to tell anyone how I was doing.

When I came home, and caught up on all the Twitter posts I'd missed, I was treated to a wonderful surprise. In addition to all the sweet messages from all my friends, my dear friend Syme did something else, he informed Twilight Sparkle on Twitter that I was in the hospital. What happened next was both overwhelming and touching beyond words. Not only did Twilight send a get-well message, but a ton of the other pony characters did too! The outpouring of support made me cry happy tears for quite some time, and to read through them still makes me tear up. It was very special receiving in-character well-wishings from the entire cast of a show that's very dear to my heart, but beyond that, a fairly large group of people who barely know me took time out of their RP project to tell me to get well soon. As cheesey as it sounds, friendship really is magic :-)

( Here are the messages they sent, in the order I received them. )

There were more than this, mostly out-of-character messages, and they kept cheering me on all the way through Friday's surgery. I simply can't find words to express how moved I am by all this. These ponies really are special, in so many ways, and I'm rather honoured that they took the time to give me so much love when I was sick.

Thank you, ponies :-)

Tags: health, mlp, yay

On a lighter note, here's a conversation from a forum I admin that was rather amusing. It's a furry site, and it's somewhat traditional to have "Species Change Week" at some point in the spring, where everyone picks a different fursona species for a week. For example, last time they did it, I was an otter :-P

Anyway, a thread came up asking when it would be, and no one had any ideas. I generally don't even participate, but one of the other admins jumped into the thread, so I figured I'd let him do it. Having just seen a bunch of My Little Pony episodes, I was feeling a little silly, so I posted this:

I, Princess Softpaw, decree that the lion known as Spaz shall be in charge of Species Change Week. :-P

Thankfully, he's a pony fan too, and didn't miss a beat:

Dear Princess Softpaw,

Should I run a poll to assign the date? Or just go BADASS ADMIN and assign it myself?

Always, your faithful student,
Spaz.

Not sure if we'll keep this going, but I wanted to preserve it, because I was very amused. And I posted this:

My faithful student Spaz,

I trust your judgement, do as you see fit. Report the details back to me when you've come to a conclusion.

-Princess Softpaw

Tags: humour, mlp

I've been wanting to post for days now, but I really haven't had the time. I still don't, in fact, but I wanted to get *something* up. So, here's a teaser of the post I'll be writing soon :-)

Tags: cars/rover-freelander

Everyone who owns a car has their own limit of how much car maintenance they're willing/able to do on their own. Some people prefer to do everything on their own, and will only go to a mechanic for problems of the "engine falling out" calibre. Others couldn't find the oil dipstick if it were bright orange with a big "check oil here" sticker; in fact, that's how the oil dipstick is usually marked in a car. And, as someone with decent knowledge of car maintenance but little practical experience (I don't like getting dirty, eww!), I don't criticise anyone who prefers to let others do the work on their cars. Self-maintenance is awesome, and I have unending respect for those who can be their own mechanic (I hope to join such people someday), but it requires considerable passion and effort, and for many people, that outweighs the cost savings. And that's just peachy.

However.

Anyone who takes a car to a mechanic for a dead bulb, or even allows a mechanic to fix a dead bulb when the car's there for something else, is indefensibly throwing away money. In 90% of cars, it's the easiest possible thing to fix, ranking somewhere between checking the fuel gauge and checking the tires. You don't need tools to do it, detailed instructions are in the owner's manual (along with a comprehensive list of the bulb types used in the car), or the internet, or a book/computer in the store, and thanks to bulb base/socket designs, you usually can't do it wrong. Even headlight bulbs, which are fragile due to the high gas pressures used, are usually pretty easy; just make sure to write "Don't touch the glass!" fifty times before starting. It's like taking your car to a mechanic to have the tire pressures checked, it's a stupid waste of money that really can't be defended with the usual time/effort/eww-dirt/skill reasons.

And for the other 10% of cars, that require tools and/or strange hand contortions to replace some of their bulbs? It's still easier than changing a tire, and as I said above, detailed instructions are always in the owner's manual. So there's no excuse there either.

This thought brought to you by the fact that my car needs a new reverse bulb, and I'm glad I noticed it before taking it for inspection tomorrow, because I can replace it for $2, while my mechanic would charge upwards of $35 (minimum .5 hour labour, plus markup on the bulb) for it.

On a related note, if you buy a car, the first thing you need to do once you get home (or wherever you're going from the lot) is read the owner's manual cover to cover. If you already own a car, and haven't read the manual, go get it and read it tonight. No excuses. I don't care if you've had the car for ten years, or if the dealer spent an hour telling you how the various doohickeys work. If you don't read the manual for your car, it's my opinion that you don't deserve to even own it, because the manual contains every detail of every feature in the car. It also contains basic maintenance information, operating tips (especially for vehicles with unique capabilities, like 4WD or adjustable suspensions), and other details that you may not have even thought about. "Read The F***ing Manual" really shouldn't be a meme, it's truly important advice for everything from a frying pan to a Ferrari.

For example, my sister bought a 2004 Grand Prix a couple years ago, and even though it's a relatively ordinary sedan, it has a pretty nice set of features, including things that weren't in her previous car. Plus, "Read The Manual" is my personal motto nowadays, especially for cars. So, when I delivered her car, I grabbed the owner's manual and strongly encouraged her to read it. She never did. So, in a car she's owned for two years, she can't figure out how to turn on the fog lights, fold down the rear seats (she didn't even know it was possible, but I did, because /I/ read her car's manual), or do anything in the little computer display thingy that every car has now. It took months for her to figure out how to open the trunk without the remote. And I love her, but after this much time, I have no sympathy whatsoever for her lack of knowledge of the features of her own car.

So please, go get the book out of your glove box, get comfy, and have a nice read. You just might learn something about the engineering marvel that moves you around. And if not? At least you'll know for certain that you already knew everything there was to know about it.

Oh, and replace your own bulbs, it's not worth paying someone else to do it, ever.

Tags: cars

For various reasons, I pretty much haven't been up to the mountains at all since autumn (I actually can't remember my last trip), so I've really been pining for the trees lately. Last week, which was miserably gross weather-wise, I saw that the morning clouds were extra-low, and decided to try driving up to a nearby peak to get above them, a waste of a trip. Not only were the clouds higher by that point, barely enough to make the road foggy 700 feet from the summit, but the upper road was covered in a few inches of snow, and I opted to take my car instead of mom's truck.

The trip may have been a bust, but the bit of scenery I could see reminded me of how much I love the forest, so I decided to head up on a day when the weather would be more cooperative. Today was the day I chose, and at the last minute, I decided last night to skip sleeping and take my trip in the morning, to catch a sunrise and have my fun before I got tired. Excellent decision.

I headed out around 6:30am, and started by ascending Reddish Knob, one of my favourite overlook points. It's one of the highest peaks anywhere around, the former site of a fire watchtower on the VA/WV border, and it offers a panoramic view of all the mountains as far as the eye can see. I reached my destination a few minutes after 7am, just in time to catch the sunrise and a few pre-sun shots. But it was more than just that, the view was truly breathtaking. The ridges to the east were a lovely shade of blue, highlighted by the sunrise, the clouds were just barely present, and there was a light layer of fog covering the Shenandoah Valley. To the west, the valley was still dark, with quite some time left before it would see sunrise. Simply stunning.

After getting a bunch of pictures, and nearly freezing my fingers off (the mountain tops were at least 20-30 degrees colder than the valley floor this morning), I started to leave, but turned around when I spotted something awesome; sunrise in West Virginia. From the top of the mountain, it was already pretty sunny, but the mountain hid the sun from the valley floor to the west, so there was a considerable delay in its sunrise. And I got to watch it from above. I'd never seen anything like it before, but watching the sunlight slowly work its way across the valley floor just might be the coolest thing I've ever seen :-D

Usually, when I do this sort of trip, I'm chasing sunset, which means I have to make sure I get to the end of the trip by a particular time. There was no such deadline today, since my big photo-goal was at the beginning, giving me a pleasant, relaxing freedom. So, I spent my day leisurely exploring off-road trails. I mainly stuck to the fire road that connects Reddish Knob to my other favourite spot, Switzer Lake, since it's a beginner-level trail; rough enough to pose an occasional challenge, but well-defined enough that I can take someone else's vehicle on it without worrying about damage. I did a bit of exploring, too, and found a nifty trail I'll have to check out someday when I'm not using a borrowed truck; as much as I love exploring, it's less exciting when it's someone else's property I'm risking by doing it. On the plus side, even though I've run that trail so many times I could practically do it without light, I don't think I've ever run it in reverse (peak to lake vs lake to peak), and it's been awhile since I was last on it at all, so it was far from boring. In fact, it was quite exciting! I was a little out of practice at first, but with the first mile or so of trail, I got my rhythm back and had an awesome time. It's always helpful to practice my snow-wheeling skills, too; as long as I have a 4WD available, snow on paved roads presents no problems whatsoever for me, because even last year's Snowmageddon posed no challenge compared to a snowy jeep trail :-)

That said, I wouldn't take just any vehicle back there, and the capabilities of mom's Blazer never cease to impress me. I never considered the Chevy Blazer to be a serious 4x4, or even deserving of the label "truck", but it proves me wrong time and time again. Its drivetrain and steering performance on the trail are top-notch, and while it's a bit lacking in ground clearance, it has full undercarriage armour, a fact that caught me by surprise when I slid the frame on some rocks on a freshly-eroded switchback turn. When I checked for damage, I was relieved and a little mind-blown to see heavy panelling covering pretty much the entire underside of the vehicle. I can't imagine that's factory equipment, not even the mighty Hummer H1 was quite as well-equipped in that area, but it's equally unlikely that the previous owner (a little old man who just drove it around town) would install such a thing. Either way, I was impressed and relieved to find that mom's suburban grocery-getter was equipped for severe boulder-surfing. The only area where it underperforms is the suspension; with leaf springs in the rear (*gags*) and pavement-tuned shocks all around, it's a pretty rough ride on a dry, rocky trail, though thankfully not as tooth-rattling as her Nissan Pathfinder was.

Despite my experience at this, there were a couple of close-calls, as there usually are. Unfortunately, two out of three were a product of rusty skills and mental wandering, problems made worse by a lack of sleep. So, note to self: If I'm going to do a morning/sunrise trip like this, get more than a couple-hour nap first. Aside from the aforementioned rock-sliding incident, a trouble spot I didn't see far enough in advance because I was thinking about other things, I also nearly rolled it in the same obstacle. When I came around the switchback straight into the washed-out section of trail, I instinctively aimed for the side to avoid the wheel-sized rocks in the middle, without seeing the muddy trench I was steering the other side of the truck into. Thankfully, I didn't roll, and probably didn't come close, but it was a very disconcerting sideways angle, and was a major reminder that this isn't normal driving. All the experience in the world doesn't mean anything if you're even a tiny bit distracted (it's probably a good thing that cellphones don't work out there, there'd be a lot more dead off-roaders). The other mishap was earlier in the day, and minor by comparison, I tried to turn around on a snow-covered trail (a familiar story for Dusk), and got stuck, a situation remedied by 4-Low combined with a braking trick I always try (which actually worked for a change).

The conclusion of the day was a peaceful visit to my favourite lake. The lower altitude and higher sun warmed the 23-degree temperatures to a more pleasant 39 by then, so I just sat on the tailgate for awhile, nibbling carrots and enjoying the natural beauty. Since it was about 11am, with a tired puppy and incoming clouds, I decided to call it a day and head home.

Overall, a spectacular day, which brought back pleasant memories and reminded me how much I love off-roading. I love hiking too, and while I've often called off-roading "hiking for lazy people", they're really nothing alike, nor is there anything "lazy" about off-roading. It's less physically intense, but the mental intensity more than makes up for it (for the driver, anyway).

And yes, I'll be posting pictures, but I've been too worn-out to mess with Lightroom today.

Tags: cars, off-roading, yay

Recently, a group of in-character account popped up on Twitter, consisting of people playing the roles of various cast members from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Pretty much every character is represented, including the main cast, supporting roles, and fan characters like "Dr. Whooves". And yes, even Derpy (*eyerolls*). They primarily interact only with each other, which is interesting to watch, if not particularly engaging. But, occasionally they'll interact with their followers, which is fun, and can be very endearing if executed well. This is why I'm an even bigger fan of this project than when I first found out about it.

Since this is a public post, I'll give a little background info: I have a moderate case of seasonal depression, so sunlight (and lack thereof) has a very strong effect on my mood. Usually, it's manageable, I'm fortunate enough to have a home office with amazing sun exposure (the few weeks I worked in a windowless office during the day were downright torturous), and skies are pretty clear around here during most of the year. However, winter is often rough on me, and while I've definitely had plenty of less-abstract reasons to be depressed this year, the weather hasn't helped. It's bad enough that there's less sun every day, but when the skies are cloudy for weeks at a time, it's hard to keep my head straight.

The last few weeks have been unusually emotionally turbulent for me, but earlier this week, we had the clearest skies I've seen here all month. It was absolutely beautiful, but only for about two days. Then we went back to icky, cloudy days, and on Wednesday, I was feeling downright miserable. So, Wednesday night, I posted this on Twitter:

Why am I so emotionally unstable? Just days ago, I was feeling great, and now I'm back to wanting to cry again. I hope sunlight is to blame.

It led to this conversation with Rainbow Dash:

mlp_rainbow: .@lupinia Sounds like your weather pegusi are slacking! I'll give 'em a kick for you, send some nice sunshine your way to cheer you up.
lupinia: @mlp_rainbow Hehe! It's been dark, cold, and rainy ALL day, bad news for a season-sensitive girl. But I live in the Everfree Forest :-\ {a lame reference to living in a mountain/forest town, as well as living in the "real world"}
mlp_rainbow: .@lupinia Okay, well that kinda sucks. The weather still change there, though! Just... Really... creepily. >.<
lupinia: @mlp_rainbow Yeah, I don't get the luxury of awesomely-talented pegasi clearing the clouds and showing off their rockin' flight skills :-P
mlp_rainbow: .@lupinia I know, I am pretty awesome! Hey, I gotta go, long day sky clearing ahead. You feel better else I'll come kick the sad out!
lupinia: @mlp_rainbow *squeaks* Yes ma'am, I'll try :-)

Overall, a pretty silly conversation, but you know what? It made me feel a lot better. More than that, it really warmed my heart, and even brought that so-happy-I-could-cry feeling to my eyes. Not only did it clear up my depression that night, it did it so well that I felt like writing, and actually did it, something I've been struggling to motivate myself to do for weeks. To say it was a special evening is an understatement.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn't last much beyond sunrise (I've been nocturnal this week); the weather was miserable, and it was the sort of day where not a single thing went right. But, for a few hours that night, I might as well have been in the Carribean. I don't even know anything about the people involved in this, and to be honest, I like it that way, it makes this all the more magical.

So, I highly recommend checking them out, the accounts are linked below. I don't know if they're some super-organized RP group, or a bunch of random pony fans from an obscure IRC chat, but whatever the case, they're doing a great job of bringing already-vivid characters to life in a way that all the fanfics and artwork haven't been able to. Plus, it can lead to special moments for pony fans like me.

And, if Rainbow Dash reads this, thank you. You may not be able to jump dimensions and clear the Virginia skies, but you definitely cleared the clouds of my emotions.

==============
( The list of accounts associated with this project )

Tags: mlp, sad/emo/depressed, yay

I drive a retired police cruiser, which looks like this. In Virginia, we have local tax decals, which are stuck to the windshield to indicate that the city or county taxes were paid on the vehicle, and they can look like anything since they're designed individually by each municipality. For the town I live in, the sticker takes the form of the city's seal, overlaid on a brightly-coloured shield, with strong borders and a white background.

The shield used in these stickers, combined with the city seal and little other information, looks almost identical to what most people picture in their minds when they envision a police badge. In fact, the insignia for the local police department and fire department are both perfectly indistinguishable from these stickers.

And since Virginia is bizarro-land when it comes to stuff like this, not only do we have these city tax decals that virtually no other place has, but they're required to be displayed right in the centre of the windshield, instead of off to the left like most states.

In short, I'm required to very prominently display a highly-visible sticker on my Police Interceptor's windshield that is indistinguishable from a police insignia sticker when viewed by people who don't live here. There isn't even anything to indicate what the thing is, just the city seal on a shield with a year (plus an expiration date and serial number in smaller print). This wouldn't be so bad, except that the colours change every year, and while the choices sometimes are innocuous (brown, yellow, green, purple, etc), there are years when the colour choice is truly unfortunate for someone who already gets a lot of scrutiny from cops who think someone who drives a Crown Vic is an impersonator waiting to happen, and needs to be taught a lesson.

For example, two years ago, the stickers were bright blue. Like, police blue. I'm not sure how often they cycle the colours, but I've lived here 25 years and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a bright blue shield used on the city stickers (they used navy once). It was certainly interesting, though, to follow the eyes of bystanders when they examined my car as I went by, and it got me out of at least one parking garage fee. It also led to some very uncomfortable scrutinizing looks from cops in Pittsburgh, among other cities/states.

This year, they're extra-bright fire engine red. They've been red before, but it's usually more of a brick tone. Not this year; apparently, the plan is to make all Crown Vic, Explorer, and Charger owners look like firefighter impersonators in 2011.

Admittedly, this is a pretty minor thing to post about in my journal, and there isn't a single thing I can do about it while living here, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable. When I first got my car, I was harassed multiple times a day for several solid days by local police trying to claim I was a police impersonator based solely on the car I chose. I was stopped for as long as they could get away with (I was working as a delivery driver at the time, and this always happened during work, to the point that I was nearly fired for it), searched or threatened with searches (I let them do it the first time, in hopes that it'd be the end of this sillyness), threatened with everything from tickets to arrests, and followed through town on numerous occasions. And, while I never had any intentions of ever doing such a thing, I was really into flashy lights at the time, and planned to put a few toys in my car at some point; nothing illegal (except the headlight flasher I already owned), just some well-concealed amber lights for parking lot fun and the occasional practical use in my work as a delivery driver. Well, not only did the cops kill any such ambitions, but ever since, I feel like I haven't been able to even enjoy the reactions people have to my car. Everyone else sure gets a kick out of driving it, or even riding in it, but I've been trying for years to shake the paranoia that if I get any such amusement from it, some cop is going to pop out from the nearest blind corner and arrest me for it. Irrational, I know, but my car still gets a great deal of police scrutiny, to the point that a hot-headed lead foot driving a bright red Miata would probably get fewer speeding tickets than me.

...This turned into far more of a post than I intended to make, so I guess I'll wrap it up here. I guess the point was "my city's design choice for its local tax stickers is awkward and worrysome for who's desperately trying NOT to be seen as an impersonator when travelling to other states".

Tags: cars, cars/crown-vic, venting/rants

The cutest cavalry squadron ever!


More Photos

Tags: humour, legos/toys, mlp, random/misc

About a month ago, I mentioned that I wanted to sort my collection of Lego parts, so that I'd be able to actually do some custom building in the future. Since then, I've been working on this project for a couple hours a day every day or so (that's about all I can handle of standing in my bedroom and fishing through parts bins), and the scope is a little overwhelming, but I've finally reached a major milestone.

Since I started with three large plastic containers of completely unsorted parts, and the number of different parts is beyond overwhelming, I'm doing this in a series of stages. First comes the "rough sort", going through the Bins of Chaos and breaking everything into major groups: bricks, plates, Technic, and other elements. Since the last group is the most random, and consists of the smallest and most tedious to sort pieces, I also sorted them into precise categories during the rough sort.

The big milestone is that I finished the rough sort today. I no longer have bins of completely random Legos, I've split everything into categories. I have large boxes/bins containing bricks, plates, Technic (which are already partially sorted), windows and doors, and wheels. Additionally, I have an entire table covered with little containers, each holding pieces I've already sorted. I have over 100 element types that are already finished, including lights, flags, antennas, 1x1 plates, jet engines, cannons, vertical wings/fins, steering wheels, money/coins, plants, animals, and so on. It's really quite something, here's a picture if you're interested.

My next step will be to tackle the categories one at a time. Technic pieces will probably be my next target, since it's one of the smaller boxes, but also has a lot of variation and a lot of tiny parts.

The big question is how to store all these once they're sorted. Based on similar projects in the past, and feedback from others who've tried sorting their legos, I decided to sort first and store later, once I have a better idea of how many compartments I need and how large they need to be. My initial idea was to use plastic parts-storage drawers, and I intend to use them to an extent, but since I'm just getting started and have already filled two of them, I don't think that'll be an option for the entire collection. I'll be exploring a number of options, but the cheapest idea is to put my least-frequently-used parts in individual ziploc bags and stick them in a plastic bin or something. For example, I rarely use things like jet engines, castle balconies, sharks, or ship rigging, so there's no real need to keep them in easy-access organizational drawers next to things I use frequently, like lights, clips, and hinges.

Anyway, that's my Lego fun recently. It seems like a lot of time put into a relatively trivial project, but as I said before, the only thing keeping me from building custom designs like I used to is lacking the patience to sort through the giant, chaotic tubs looking for specific pieces. It was frustrating 10 years ago, and time has only made matters worse, especially since I can't spend several solid days just playing with legos anymore. So, this way I'll be able to really enjoy my legos for many years to come; once they're sorted, I don't need to repeat this process :-)

Tags: home improvement, legos/toys, projects

It seems I made quite a goof in a recent computer part purchase. My laptop, which I've had for a couple years now, came with a smart card reader. I did some cursory research on the subject, and decided to pick up a smart card at some point so that I could use the reader. So, over the weekend, I bought a smart card.

Unfortunately, I completely failed at my research, because I was under the assumption that it would come pre-configured somehow, and all I'd have to do was stick it in to use it for cryptography, signing, Windows login, and server-authentication stuff. Several problems:

-The card is essentially blank "out of the box"
-I can't find any software to configure it, the manufacturer's administration tool is $180
-It's incompatible with Windows 2003 and XP, so it doesn't matter anyway, I can only use it on two personal machines, not my server or any other computer in the house.

So, I made a stupid purchase. I'm willing to just cut my losses and stick the thing in a drawer, but I figured I'd offer it up if anyone wants it. It's this model, and all I've done with it is to plug it into my laptop a couple times and try to read its credentials. As I type this, it's been in my possession about three hours. It's never been written to or used for anything.

If you want to play with it to see if you can do something with it, or you're already set up for smart cards and want another one, it's yours. I paid $36 for it, and I'll take any reasonable offer. Email me if you're interested.

Tags: computers, for sale/freebies
Current Mood: stupid

I was gonna post this two days ago, but the doctor gave me a TDP (Tetanus, Diptheria, Pertussis) vaccine, and apparently I reacted to it, because I spent almost literally all of Wednesday in bed. Which meant I had to spend all of Thursday running around, trying to finish all the stuff I wanted to get done on Wednesday. So, here's my weekend report, a week late :-P

Simply put, the Rally to Restore Sanity was the most awesome thing I've been to in a very, very long time! Definitely worth the extra effort to go to it in-person, rather than watch it on TV.

The trip actually started Friday, I came up to stay with Syme so that I wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn just to have a shot at making it on time. On the way, I decided to be a smart puppy and refill my Smart Trip card (DC Metro's spiffy RFID farecards, faster and more durable than the paper ones), so I stopped at a Metro station along the way and quickly ran in. I also taught a few newbies how to use the farecard machines, apparently I looked like I knew what I was doing because I had my card refilled and done in the time it took them to push the "Start Here" button.

Saturday morning, we began our epic journey into the city. With no Starbucks, because the one near Syme's house was crazy-busy :-(. It turned out that refilling my card in advance was a Very Good Idea, because the line for the farecard machines stretched out of the station, down several hundred yards of sidewalk, around the parking deck, and possibly even into the parking deck. The line for smart people who bought farecards in advance was nonexistant, so we got right onto the platform and caught the first available train, yay! Of course, it was standing-room-only, but it got continually worse as we got closer to our destination, gradually resembling a Chinese commuter train, or perhaps sardines; Syme was pressed against the train wall, I was pressed against him, and several other people were pressed against me. I really felt sorry for the three people in our train car who weren't going to the rally, they were trying to get to work or something :-P

On a related note, the Metro trains were more crowded than they were for the Obama inauguration; this rally broke a ridership record that's stood for 19 years. Unfortunately, Metro apparently decided to pretend that this rally didn't exist, because not only did they miss out on some revenue opportunities as described in that article, but they also decided that this would be a wonderful weekend for a bunch of track maintenance. 'Cause, ya know, delaying a track/platform by 20-30 minutes when trains are beyond 100% capacity is just spectacular, and really paints the system in a good light when there are hundreds of thousands of newcomers on the trains.

Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination, shuffled out of the station, and entered The Crowd. The overall atmosphere was so fun! Everyone was in a good mood, with silly signs, interesting costumes, and a general aura of friendliness, it was amazing. So, once we got our bearings and figured out where stuff was, we decided to try to track down friends who we knew would be at the rally. And, since AT&T is just the most awesome cell provider around, Syme's iPhone was effectively a brick upon exiting the train station, so we used my phone. Much to my surprise, not only did I have awesome calling coverage there, but I also had perfect data service, yay Sprint! We called up Drakien, and found out that he was just a couple blocks from us, but on the opposite side of the Mall. Unfortunately, there was an event volunteer claiming that the street we wanted to cross at was blocked (it didn't look blocked, but I got tired of her yelling every time we tried to walk down it), so we back-tracked a block and a half and crossed a different way. We finally made it to where Drakien said he'd be, and...no big blue dragon (he and Loki were fursuiting :-P ). Oh well, we tried. We tried calling other people, but couldn't get a call through to anyone, possibly because of the aforementioned iPhone/AT&T issues, so we decided to just find a spot for ourselves. After getting breakfast; a hot dog, a polish sausage, two bottles of water, and a Coke for $18, yay captive audiences.

We shuffled through the herd for awhile, and finally found a good spot with reasonable visibility. Then the smokers started. I'm not sure what goes through the mind of smokers to make them think that a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of a million or more people is a great place to light up, but people kept doing it! Gah! We moved around a little as I desperately tried to preserve my ability to breathe (had at least two minor athsma attacks in the process), but it didn't take long to realize that there'd be no avoiding the god-damned smokers, short of shooting them. But, Syme was gracious enough to lend me his scarf for the event, which provided enough filtration that, combined with using him as an occasional windbreak, I was able to enjoy the event and still be able to breathe. And people wonder why I so strongly support every anti-smoking law ever proposed.

Judging from the occasional scents floating in the breeze, tobacco wasn't the only thing being smoked in the crowd :-P

Anyway, air pollution was the only real negative about the event, everything else was great! Jon Stewart put on a great show, and while I generally despise Steven Colbert, he managed to be genuinely entertaining a few times. The guest-stars were pretty darn awesome too, with great music and entertaining personalities.

What really tied it all together, though, was the speech Jon Stewart gave at the end. You can view a video of it here, and the best way I can think of to describe it is awesome, in every way. He makes some very good points, in a nicely inspirational speech, and I could listen to it over and over :-)

After the event ended, we walked the full length of the Mall back to the Smithsonian, to try to meet up with Kelby, since he was working nearby, but we couldn't find him. So, with AT&T working again, we called Drakien, and found out he and some other furs were by the stage. So we walked the length of the Mall again :-P. Finally found everyone, and met up at Drakien's car (by some miracle, he parked a block from the main stage), where we hung around for a bit, then had some dinner. Drakien was even nice enough to give us a ride, and spare us the headache of the Metro :-)

So, that was my Rally experience! Even though it's unlikely, I'd kinda like to see this happen again. And what's really cool is that, despite how some interpreted it before it started, it really wasn't a political event, and didn't seek to denounce or even address the political views of any group (though there was a strong anti-tea-party sentiment in the signs and among rally-goers, which I can totally support). Instead, it was a call for the news media (including, but not limited to, Fox) to quit using fear-mongering tactics, and start using their powers for good. Which is a cause I think we can all get behind :-)

Tags: furmeets/parties/events, music/movies/tv, politics, travel

Well, I'm not convinced society as a whole could function without time-keeping devices, and computers definitely couldn't, so I won't even bother speculating about that part.

So, what would my life be like if I had no clocks? In a word, chaotic. For reasons unknown to me, I seem to lack the ability to judge the passage of time. At all. When I don't have a timekeeping device around, or some other method of tracking time (TV or music, mostly), I have no idea how long things take or how much time is passing. For example, when I take a shower, I can rush through it and be done in a half-hour if I really have to. Or I can shower at a natural pace and take an hour or more. What's weird is that both showers will feel like they lasted the same amount of time. Or, if I'm out in the wilderness somewhere, out of cell range, the movement of the sun is the only way I can even guess at how long I've been out there.

This is why I'm surrounded by clocks most of the time; unlike most people (or so it seems), I have no natural sense of the passage of time, so I need tools to tell me what time it is. Without them, I'd never get anything done or get anywhere on time (and by on time, I mean before the event/appointment/whatever has ended), at all. Case in point, I once roomed with someone at a tech convention who had some aversion to clocks, and kept putting stuff in front of the hotel room's alarm clock. By the time I realized I hadn't seen a clock in awhile, I had slept through most of the day, spent the rest of it showering, getting dressed, and talking on the phone, and I had missed every single class/panel I wanted to go to that day. And I thought it was still morning, or at least afternoon.

Unfortunately, I still tend to be late for most things, but I try, I really do And with an array of ever-present clocks in my apartment, I can make up for lack of time-senses regardless of what room I'm in, what I'm doing, and where I'm looking.

Tags: qotd

I listen to a lot of music. I like a lot of different genres, and within most genres, I'll listen to pretty much everything that comes up in a playlist, no matter what the song is or who performs it. However, there are a small number of exceptions, artists that will cause me to do whatever I can to avoid listening to their music. For example, while I like pretty much every rock/metal song to ever come out of the 80s, I loathe Motorhead. And while I've heard pretty much every song that's considered "classic rock", the only band that causes me to change the channel every single time is the Rolling Stones.

In country music, the artist that makes me spine tingle, and the artist I despise more than any other artist in any other genre, is Dwight Yoakam. If you're not familiar with him, picture this: You have a dude friend who's completely plastered drunk, possibly doing karaoke, and he decides to make fun of country music by poorly singing about his wife leaving him in his pickup truck and running over the dog, using a heavily-exaggerated nasal twang. Now give that friend a multi-million dollar record contract, and you've got Dwight Yoakam. Don't believe me? Here's a link to his biggest hit. Yet, for some reason, he's a massive country star, and has been around forever. Having grown up with country music, I've become accustomed to blocking out his music, and I've never heard a country artist who grates on my nerves as badly as he does. Until today.

I was watching CMT videos, since they make nice background noise, and I occasionally discover new music I like. Tonight, however, they started playing a song from a band called "Trampled by Turtles", which made me wonder if that was the name of the band or the treatment they gave the video before playing it. Instrumentally, it was ok-ish, aside from making the thrash-metal fallacy of confusing playing speed with musical skill (which sounds downright bizarre with banjos and fiddles). However, the vocalist utterly destroyed any enjoyment or even tolerance I might've had for the song. To put it simply, it sounded like bad karaoke, the vocalist did pretty much everything wrong that could be done wrong. He was frequently off-key, couldn't keep up with the instruments, couldn't hold a steady rhythm, couldn't even hold steady notes (nor could he cover this up with vibrato), and on top of that, his voice sucked and the lyrics were awful. I mean, Dwight Yoakam's voice may be the most nerve-grinding sound ever created by humans, but he's at least capable of basic musicianship.

Naturally, I did a little searching afterwards, mostly to find a video to go along with this post, and I discovered that Trampled by Turtles is from Minnesota. No offense to anyone from Minnesota, but that could part of the problem, they're trying to be a bluegrass band from a state that's about as far north as you can get without getting into Canada (which, ironically, has produced some pretty good country singers in the past). Thankfully, they're not likely to be successful, at least not for long.

So, here's the video I saw that made me dislike them so much, which is supposed to be their "big hit". Even if you don't like country music, give it a listen, it might make you like other country or bluegrass songs by comparison :-P

Tags: music/movies/tv, venting/rants

Let's see here... *opens*

-Bottled water
-Root beer from a semi-local brewery
-Two bottles of Mexican Coke, I need to get more. I should also probably drink them one of these days, since I bought the case in 2008.
-A six-pack of ordinary American Coke in glass bottles, because it's the least-gross way to get it without owning a soda fountain
-A few cups of chocolate pudding

My refrigerator is boring :-P

Tags: culinary, qotd

This weekend, after yet another depressing week of nothing happening, I decided at the last minute to take up Dusk's offer of hockey tickets to a pre-season Washington Capitals game. As y'all know, I'm really not a sports fan of any sort, but I've never been to a pro sport event (excluding NASCAR races, which are considerably less engaging than watching grass grow to a 10-year-old girl), and I've never watched hockey at all. Plus, I needed to get out of this town and be social for awhile :-)

So, I arrived at Dusk's house that morning, and we took the Metro to the Verizon Center in downtown DC (I was pleased to discover that my Smart Trip card, which hadn't been used since Obama's inauguration, still had $12 on it :-P ). I'd been to the Verizon Center before for concerts, so it wasn't really a new experience in that regard, but it was a bit trippy to see a brightly-lit ice rink instead of a stage and seating in the middle of the arena.

The game started at 12:30, against the Nashville Predators (why do so many hot-weather states have hockey teams?), and to my surprise, it was genuinely enjoyable to watch. Unlike all the other sports I've watched, it was simple enough for my hippy-girly brain to comprehend, yet also very entertaining and engaging to watch. Not sure I'd go so far as to call myself a hockey fan just yet, but I could probably get into this. Although, there were some weird moments when my usually-repressed testosterone-driven urges took me full force, and I found myself thinking things like "Kick his ass!" when players were being overly aggressive. Kinda trippy, I generally don't think things like that :-)

Somewhere around 4pm, the game ended unexpectedly, since I thought all sports had 4 quarters/periods; apparently, hockey has 3, and I was the only one who didn't know this, so while everyone else was dissapointedly leaving, I was optimistic that the Capitals would pick up some points in the last quarter. But, there was no last quarter, so the Capitals lost 0-3. Oh well, it was still a fun, new experience. Plus, most of the furs I like to visit in DC were there, so it was great so see everyone again!

After the game, we went to a nearby restaurant, where I had my first actual meal of the day, and tried to figure out what was happening on the TV while everyone else in the group cheered for a football game (a sport I don't think I'll ever quite understand or enjoy). Apparently, the Redskins were doing well, but that's about all I could pick out.

We parted ways at the Metro station, and I spent the rest of the evening at Dusk's house before heading home. Overall, a pleasant trip :-)

=============

Little else has been happening, my home life is dull and meaningless. However, I may have some good news soon, and while I don't want to jinx myself, my financial crisis could soon be under control. I'll know more later today.

Tags: furmeets/parties/events

Originally posted by neo_prodigy at Spirit Day

Tags: lgbt, politics