Packing is going along as well as packing can. Still need to get a few things on Craigslist, still need to try to pawn some items off on friends as well.

Recently spent a glorious couple of days watching Boogiepop Phantom. I really liked the series and need to find more anime like that to watch. Would also love to cosplay as Boogiepop if I get the chance.

Drew and I went to Fallout last night, the theme was "Rain". Sprinklers and a hose were set up at random places on the ceiling, and lots of people danced around in swimsuits, which was really fun. Then, there was the rather large guy with black swastikas taped to his nipples. Later, I noticed he had a friend, wearing a t-shirt with a swastika on it. Both of them seemed to be socializing quite normally with random other people. Every time I noticed this, I kept thinking of this random pin I got back in high school from some college or another that was trying to recruit me. The pin said, "Don't be so open minded that your brains fall out." Fallout, being a private fetish-type club, is a safe space for people to express themselves in ways that they might not normally be able to openly express themselves in other circumstances. It seems that this isn't always a good thing, and I really hope it's not housing a burgeoning neo-nazi subculture.

And on a final note, we have gone from two cats to one cat. Velutha died this morning, from feline AIDS. She's been sick for awhile, but it wasn't until a few days ago that this actually became apparent. It's hard to tell when you have cats: there's been more food in the bowl lately, so we knew either one or both of them was eating less. I thought it might have to do with it getting warmer, though, and maybe them eating less to compensate for the heat. Velutha has also been sleeping a lot lately, but she's always slept a lot. It's kind of just what cats do. She's gotten thinner, but it's only been recently that we've noticed that it was significant, as she's always been thin and didn't really have all that much weight to lose in the first place. Then she started oozing something from her mouth the other day, and Drew took her to the vet. They confirmed the AIDS (along with lymphonia, I think), and he brought her home along with several medications. This morning, we go to find her to administer the medications and she is nowhere to be found. After an hour of searching we find her dead, under the bed. I suppose at least she got to be close to us as she died, even though we had no idea she was under the bed. Apparently, this might have been something she started out with. She was the last cat in a litter born in a barn, the rest of her siblings eaten by dogs. She was slightly mangled herself and covered with fleas when Drew's cousin took her in. We only got her four years ago, and she was eight or nine years at death. Anyhow, it's sad, but it's probably for the best that it happened now. She would have had to spend about three days in a car pretty soon, which wouldn't be fun for even the healthiest of cats.

First off, For anyone who wants to better understand how bra sizes really work, I recommend reading this rather amusing article.

Also, as I am moving sooner then later, I have various objects who would love to have new homes. First off: the aloe plant. I have a rather overgrown aloe plant that I really don't want to have to take with me, and it would be a great companion for someone who wants to repot it. It would also be a great companion for a person/family who burns themselves on a regular basis. Would anyone be interested in adopting it?

Second, I have random pieces of furniture to get rid of, including a desk or two and many bookshelves, as well as small pieces of end table type furniture. All are varying degrees of used...but they're free! If you can come pick them up, they're yours!

So I've now managed to secure two interviews, one on the 6th and one on the 7th, both with recruiter-types, and both for Colorado Springs positions. Admittedly, my target area was more for Denver, but I'm just looking forward to being employed at a place that gives me dollars which is in Colorado. I really do want someplace as bike-friendly and non strip mall/big box store as possible, we shall see how things go. At least there seem to be positions springing up for my sorts of skills, which is a good thing.

Zinc status: no cramps so far. We'll see if this lasts.

So I start my period in four days. And thus, I start taking zinc today. According to various things I've been reading online, I can all but avoid the evil painful cramps I generally have by taking 30-90 mg of zing starting a few days before my period begins. The unfortunate side effect of this is the nausea. I just took a pill not too long ago, and my stomach is already churning and I kinda want to throw up. Ah, zinc. However, if this works, having 15 minutes of nausea a few times a day for 3-4 days is significantly better then having 48 hours of incapacitating pain!

I finished the series, finally. It was addictive to the end. In some ways satisfying, in other ways rather frustrating. I wrote a rambling review of it on Goodreads, should anyone care.

I will include a brief snippet here, something that in scanning over reviews of the books I just hadn't seen touched on at all.

"One thing about the books that I do appreciate is this: In many fantastical pieces of fiction, there's a central character who ends up being the savior (Harry Potter, Frodo/LotR, Neo/Matrix, Rand/Wheel of Time, etc etc). That character is usually "different" in some way or another that ends up saving everything, and that character is consistently male. It was a breath of fresh air to read something where the character with the awesome powers who saves the day is actually female."

I've been finagling around with fiddly stuff on my art/design website, trying to make it prettier as well as more functional. As it was pretty much the first site I tried building with php, it was chock full of obfuscated logic and gobbly-gook and having to snout around entirely too much to find what I'm looking for in order to make quick edits. So I cleaned it up and made the structure more intuitive and the php more legible. And I added a gallery, yay! Need to explore more possibilities with Joomla, as it is making me like javascript more. The gallery randomly freaks out on me in Google Chrome, which is rather unfortunate, but as Chrome also randomly freaks out on me, I'm not too concerned. I've got a small collection of different CSS styles, and I tried to make them look not as tacky as they used to be. It's a weird line I feel like I'm trying to walk: I want to have this range of different CSS styles that a user can switch back and forth between, to see my design ability. Thing is, I don't want to make the styles *too* different from each other, as I don't want insane server requestage to happen. So I'm just keeping many things in neutral or b/w, to keep from having too much clashing occur. I also rescanned in a few things, and scanned in a few new things. New art, yay!

Anyhow, feel free to check out my updates at varoper.com!

First off, here's a question for anyone who knows more about cars then I do: I have a 2002 Kia Rio, and my spare tire's rim is busted (along with the tire itself). I recently got new tires put on my car, and I've got the nicest of the old ones in my trunk, as the shop told me that I just need to get a new rim, and they can put the old tire on the rim for my new spare. Thing is, I have no idea how one goes about getting a tire rim: a junkyard maybe? I poked around buying rims online, but what I found seems like they're either a.) Meant for cars far more blinged out then mine will ever be (and priced as such) or b.) sold in sets of four, and I only need one. I just want to get a basic rim! Any suggestions?

In other news, I've been spending money lately. First off, I bought a monitor! See, for awhile, I've been using this weighty bastard. I actually found it in the trash about three years ago, and it was an excellent upgrade at the time, especially considering it was free. However, at 50 lbs, I was not looking forward to trying to move with it. So, I got this baby. I'm really enjoying having a widescreen monitor, as I am the sort of person who likes to have a large assortment of small windows open that I flip back and forth between constantly. It is also very pretty, takes up much less space on my desk, has built-in speakers so I can get rid of my clunky separate speakers, and weighs 15 lbs. Even better: I checked retailmenot.com and found a $10 off coupon to use when buying it, yay!

I also ordered a netbook, which has not arrived yet. As I am unsure of what the internet situation will be like when we get to Colorado, I wanted to get something that would give me wifi access so I can keep up on email and necessary job search stuff. It's pretty basic, and I figure that I can upgrade as needed.

So I'm wasting time, as I am want to do when I sit down in front of this computer, and I end up reading some article regarding 90's fashion making a comeback. It mentions scrunchies, and how they're totally coming back. And here I am thinking, "They went away at some point?" See, my hair is massive. It officially reaches my waist now, and is thick in an obnoxious way. I cannot wear many hair accessories as much more then accessories, as they're either too cheap (I've broken many a crappy plastic hairstick in my day) or too insufficient (I've about given up on most clips to do anything major on my head). The same is true for elastic hair bands - not only do they not hold my hair particularly well, but they tend to pull in rather uncomfortable ways. Scrunchies, on the other hand, are stretchy and soft and supportive and super comfortable on my hair. Their elastic is thick and is up to the task of restraining any size mane, as it were.

In any case, I have scrunchies in all sorts of colors, to match whatever outfit I happen to be wearing, and I look forward to wearing them for the next 50-60 years or so.


And now for something completely different: Turbo Heather!



I wish I had one when I was a kid!

First off, here is a rather disturbing version of Tetris (click the on red bar that begins with "Jogar"). I cleared a few lines, then could not take it anymore, and let all the blocks pile up to the top.

Now here's an article for your "being entertained by stupid people" quotient for the day":
Reasonable Consumer Would Know "Crunchberries" Are Not Real, Judge Rules

So here's something exciting: Forrest's card game (Furoticon) is now live, and I have art in it! Yay! So this means that I now have two instances of illustrative artwork that is published, neither of which I can put on a resume, especially together. One is art in an erotic furry card game, and the other is art in a book titled "Jesus, Priceless Treasure".

In other news, I made a super snazzy dance mix CD. It is strategically designed to be played loudly in your car in order to get your booty a-shakin'. While sitting in a car, but pretending that you are actually in a club with light-up floors and John Travolta. In fact, it will cause you to see all of the other drivers around you as actually being John Travolta. Such are the benefits of such a mix CD. Here are the songs, in order (with my way awesome TI-99/4a Winamp skin), on the mix CD:



I'd love to make extra copies and swap with people if they feel so inclined. I will also accept baked goods in lieu of mix CDs.