My sewing machine arrived last night!
It's a Brother XL 2600 that I got for $90 on Overstock.com (yeah, I was shocked by the price, too. I had budgeted around $400 for this, but..). I've taken it out of the shipping box, but not out of it's plastic bag yet, but it looks great. It's refurbished, but appears to be in good condition.
I'm so excited! I'll be really unpacking it this weekend, after I get my midterm paper done. I've got some material I picked up at a yard sale that I'm planning to use to make an apron as a warm-up project, plus a couple of pillow covers that need finishing, a t-shirt I'm going to turn into a pillow cover, some mending & taking up, etc. Then, after finals are done, the real projects will begin!
I decided to get back into sewing again because it's so difficult to find clothes that fit me, look nice on me, are comfortable, and don't cost an arm and a leg. Skirts and pants are especially hard to find. I've been trying to find some new clothes, a very frustrating task, and wandered into the fabric store. The new owner was very friendly, coming right over, asking about what kind of sewing I do, was I planning any projects, etc. I told her about my dilemma, and she showed me some nice patterns, etc. Next thing I know, I'm dragging my mom down there to consider things further, and then buying a sewing machine and all the sewing supplies, planning what skirts I'm going to make, looking at fabric, etc. And here I am. I plan to add at least two more skirts, a pair of pants, and possibly a couple of dresses or jumpers to my wardrobe this summer. We found the cutest skirt and jacket pattern that will be perfect for work once I graduate. I never wear tight skirts (if it has a slit, it's too tight) or anything much shorter than mid-calf, so finding an actual suit that I like is usually a case of mix & match & make do, but this will look so nice. Sooo excited! Can you tell?
And, since most of my equipment budget is still left, I might even get a serger. I remember how wonderful they are, but now that I've got such a good price on the sewing machine, I've suddenly turned into a pinchpenny, lol. Besides, I'm not exactly sure what kind of serger I need, since I've never had one before. The sewing machine was easy, we used to do a lot of sewing when I was a kid, and mom helped me decide on the right one, but neither of us has ever owned a serger, although I used one in Home Ec. in High School. There are so many choices! All I want to do is finish seams and maybe do rolled hems, but the machines look so complicated! Maybe I'll just spend the money on more outfits instead. We'll see.
A side effect of this is that I might become more social. The more pretty outfits I see, the more I want a reason to wear them! Sewing - #1 reason not to become a hermit.

Because it has been quite a while since my previous Firefox extension posts (see them here), I thought it might be time for a new one. I have been using Firefox for over two years now, and I still love it. In fact, it is probably the single most important and most used application on my computer. All told, about 95% of my computer time is spent in Firefox. Over time, extensions have come, extensions have gone, yet through it all, Firefox remains eternal.  I now present a list of extensions that have passed the Tests of Time, becoming so much a part of my browsing habits that I won't even consider switching to Firefox 3.0 until these extensions are fully compatible. And, to round it all off, I will list the Bookmarklets I use and add some nifty screen-shots of my current setup. I am currently using the Firefox 2.0 nightly builds, FYI.
( On to the Good Stuff )

Well, I have finished The Project that suddenly and abruptly decided to take over my life: I have moved all my bookmarks, including my collection of how-to's, to del.icio.us, and integrated del.icio.us into my browsing life. 876 bookmarks total. Done!
This may not seem like a big deal,  since there are quite a few ways to import bookmarks into del.icio.us. I chose not to use them, however, preferring to do it by hand. Why? Because I had tried wholesale importing in the past, and found it too be both slow and confusing. Folders simply don't translate to tags very well. So, I did it all by hand, opening each bookmark, posting it to del.icio.us with the proper tags, deleting it from the original source, lather, rinse, repeat. First My Google Bookmarks, then my local Firefox Bookmarks, then my Google Notebook Collections. All done, done, done! Yippee. I can finally find what I'm looking for quickly. Hee hee.
Strangely, I found that none of the Firefox extensions intended to integrate del.icio.us into Firefox really worked for me. Either key features didn't work with my setup, or they didn't offer features that I needed.  In the end, I used bookmarklets and one extension to get the most out of del.icio.us.
Bookmarklets:
Post to Del.icio.us - The official del.icio.us bookmarklet, takes you to the post page with url & title pre-populated, returns you to bookmarked page after posting.
Quick Post with 'toread' tag - unoffical. This auto-posts a page to delicious, pre-tagged as 'toread', and returns you to a xml error page (some sort of coding error here, however, the bookmarklet does work). I tweaked this one a little, substituting 'toread' for the tag that was originally programmed. I use this to quickly save stories that I don't have time to read right away. Suddenly, I have time to do my homework! Imagine that!
Extension:
del.icio.us IncSearch - this totally rocks. I use All-In-One Sidebar to load it in the Sidebar so it's always handy. Remember to sync it after you post lots of links.

Title: Life Ain't No Vid Game
Author: BookwormDragon (bookworm_2005)
Beta: bitterfig
Characters: Mal, The Operative, the Crew mentioned
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Summary: Mal's thoughts on the Operative.

 

( Read the Story )

Title: Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
Author: BookwormDragon (bookworm_2005 )
Characters: Simon, Jayne, River
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Summary: Simon contemplates his revenge on Jayne in Trash.
 ( Read the Story )

I just updated my Post Apocalypse Survival Slash Thematic List. I still have several stories left add, so expect another update soon.

Stolen from wishwords:
A Quaker thinking about social class wrote up a set of "how privileged was your upbringing" questions, and made it into a meme. She based it on an exercise by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University, who ask that their copyright be acknowledged by anyone doing this meme.
( My Answers )

Well, that was disturbing and rather embarrassing.
I was one my way home from school today, went to turn into our driveway, and ended up in the ditch instead. First time that's ever happened to me. Fortunately, the ditch is rather shallow. Unfortunately, it is also full of snow, so I got stuck. But, there is a benefit to living out in the country, in the same county that you were born in. Our neighbor and a perfect stranger driving down the street both stopped to help me. Together, they towed me back out of ditch and got me back into my driveway. Funny thing, the stranger who stopped was someone who knew of my Dad (he's a Radio Technician, has ran his own business since before I was born). Small world, huh? The nicest thing of all was that neither of them even suggested that I call a tow truck or wait until Dad got back home to pull me out. They just assumed that they should and would help me, and were very cheerful about it. It was very nice, and definitely reminded me of how nice people can be. Now, I just have to remember to send my neighbor a nice Thank You card. Not sure how I can thank the Stranger, since I don't know his name, so - Thank You. I really appreciate your kindness. Next time I see someone who needs help, I'll be sure to stop.

Disclaimer: Neither Ghost Rider nor any of the Characters in the Ghost Rider Universe belong to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.
Johnny stared at the boy sitting on the other side of the picnic table, hardly able to believe what he had just heard.
"What?" he asked, feeling rather dazed.
"So, you're basically the Devil's babysitter, right?" the boy repeated, innocently. "I mean, you keep his little brats out of trouble, so they don't end the world ahead of schedule, right?"
Johnny couldn't help it. He threw back his head and laughed until he cried.
"I've never looked at it quite that way before, but I guess you're right," he managed to gasp out eventually, wiping away tears of laughter. "That's exactly what I do."

So, I was thinking rather smugly about the fact that I don't have any OTP's (Only True Pairing), when I realized that, oops, they snuck up on me. Drat! When I first got into fan fiction, five or so years ago, my first fandom was Buffy The Vampire Slayer, followed by Harry Potter. I still don't have any real OTP's in those fandoms, but as I gained more fandoms, I guess I acquired some OTP's without meaning too.

Star Trek Original (Classic)
Kirk/Spock - although I can occasionally enjoy seeing either Kirk or Spock (or both) paired with Dr. McCoy if it's well written, I really prefer Kirk/Spock. It just seems right and proper, somehow. I definitely don't like to see them paired with anyone else. It just seems wrong when they're not together.

The Sentinel
Jim/Blair - perhaps one of my strongest OTPs. Separating Jim and Blair is so wrong that it makes me feel sick. I don't mind threesomes or foursomes, but Jim & Blair need to be together. Still, there's some good Gen and mild Het out there that I can tolerate, because Jim & Blair are still very close, and I can tell myself that they're still doing it off camera.

Due South
Fraser/Kowalski - while I can enjoy a well-written Fraser/Vecchio piece, I still have a strong preference for RayK. I would never consider writing anything but Fraser/RayK, and I don't really want to see Fraser paired up with anyone other than one of the Rays.

Starsky & Hutch
Starsky/Hutch - my newest fandom and my strongest OTP. Pairing them with anyone but each other is so wrong it's indescribable - even more wrong than separating Jim & Blair in The Sentinel would be. Plus, I'm surprisingly resistant to kink in this fandom, especially BDSM. Considering the level of trust required between particapants in a good BDSM scene/story, you'd think that Starsky & Hutch would be the perfect fandom for it, but it just feels wrong to me when I read it. I like Hutch & Starsky's relationship to be expressed very tenderly, with an almost transcendental bond between them and I like the balance of power in their relationship to be clear and equal. I'm sure I'll get over the kink aversion in time, but they will probably always be my strongest OTP.

Highlander
Methos/Duncan - They just seem right together, although adding someone else into the mix doesn't bother me that much. Since they're both Immortal, it totally changes the dynamics between them, IMHO. As long as they eventually get together, and their friendship with each other remains strong, it's all good.

Huh. Considering the number of Fandoms that I'm into, maybe 5 OTPs isn't such a big deal after all.

So, I just finished watching the first season of Starsky & Hutch. Let me just say that it is THE slashiest show I have EVER seen. It's even slashier then The Sentinel. No slash-tinted glasses required! You can practically see the strong bond between Starsky & Hutch right on the screen. The depths of feeling they have for each other is very, very clear. Wow.
And the Fan-fiction pretty high quality, too. After having watched the first season, I now understand just why it's such a popular and well-loved slash fandom.

As promised, here are the updates for my Plot bunnies collection.
Google Notebooks is really well suited for publishing something like this. Did you know that you can subscribe to a public notebook via RSS, and receive the latest entries/posts in your RSS reader, just like a blog?

For those who care, I just finished transferring my Plot Bunnies to a Public Google Notebook. See it Here. Expect some updates soon.

Well, I've done my civic duty. I just finished serving as a juror on a civil case. Boring, boring, boring. It did have its interesting moments, though. All I can say is: Read the contract all the way through before you sign it, even if you think you already know what it says. Oh yeah, and get your own lawyer before entering into any binding agreements. Never assume anything. Each party involved in a contract or agreement should have their own lawyer, for their own protection. Lawyers aren't like toys, they can't be shared. But even if you do have your own lawyer, it still doesn't absolve you of the responsibility to read that contract before you sign it.
On the positive side, now that I've served, maybe I won't be summoned again for a while.

The things I do because I love my brother and I love a particular book....
I am undertaking the recording of Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Why? Because it's not available in audio format, my Brother hates listening to books that have been converted to audio by running them through a Reader, and I really want him to read this book. We've already had several discussion on topics raised in the book, and he really wants to read it, but no audio. So, I'm recording the whole thing. I've just finished the first part of chapter 1 (19MB & 21 minutes of reading), and man, you never notice how much 'fat' an author has left in his book until you are forced to read it word-for-word! When I read to myself, I tend to skim and 'snapshot' through a lot of the 'fat', and thus I don't really notice it unless it's overwhelming (Anne Rice, you need a more ruthless editor), but reading aloud means slogging through all that stuff. Also, Stirling has peppered this book with Gaelic and Norwegian words, which adds nice flavor, true, but it also means lots of research and pronunciation practice for me - not something I'm looking forward to. Still, I'll chip away at it, bit by bit, and before you know it, it'll be done.

So, I've been re-watching due South, and I have come to a conclusion: I DESPISE that red uniform! Not because of what it represents or anything, but because of what it does to Fraser and how it effects the way others see him. During the first few seasons, we see him in his field uniform (the brown/gray one) quite often, and he appears human, flawed, passionate, and approachable. The field uniform helps to bridge the gap between Fraser and the American cops - it makes him look like just another cop. When he's wearing the field uniform and he makes suggestions or deductions, people (especially cops) listen to him and take him seriously - they respect the experience and work that the uniform implies, and expect him to have the faults of any other human being. But stick him in that red monstrosity, and suddenly everything changes. No longer do people respect him as a person or think of him as another hard-working cop. Instead, he becomes a cross between an Icon, a Mascot, and a Superhero. They expect him to be perfect, to do no wrong, to be saintly. At the same time, he is to feel no pain, to have no emotions. People stare at him, they mock him behind his back and to his face. He's not human to them anymore. And as the seasons go on, Fraser spends more and more time in that @#&^ red  uniform and less and less time being human. His interactions with the other characters become more and more stilted, he smiles and relaxes less and less, and he loses that cutting tongue (pilot episode, he really lets Vecchio have it, anyone else notice?). The passion that he shows in the first season disappears. In a way, it's as if that Red Uniform is slowly strangling the life out him. By the end of the fourth season, we almost never see him in the field uniform and he's lost nearly everything that makes him Benton Fraser to me. Mind you, I'm a big fan of Fraser/RayK (OTP), but the Fraser of seasons 1 & 2 is much truer to the essential Benton Fraser, as far as I'm concerned. Yes indeed, I despise that red thing! Kill, Kill, Kill!
And that's another thing: many authors' insistence on writing Fraser as an extremely civilized, rule-bound man, who has never had a dark thought in his life, and who wouldn't hurt a fly to save his own life. In my opinion, that is not Benton Fraser. Yes, he's very courteous, thoughtful, and forgiving of the people around him, but when you live in small community in the middle of nowhere in an implacable land filled with daily danger, that's nothing more than enlightened self-interest: you never know when your very life may depend upon the goodwill of your neighbors. And yes, he often seems overly concerned with the letter of the law, but consider this: he's in a strange land, among a strange people with strange customs, and he has little knowledge of how they apply their laws in real life. Of course he is concerned with the letter of the law, it's the only concrete guidance that he has. As for civilized - I think of Fraser as a man who would like to believe in the inherent goodness of man and in the justice of the system, but deep down he's a pragmatic man who will do what is necessary to survive. How can he not be, given where he grew up? No, Fraser is not a hidden rapist or serial killer, but he is just as capable of making hard choices and having dark thoughts as anyone else. He's just better at hiding it. In my opinion, Fraser is a dangerous but disciplined man, not a goody-goody two-shoes.

Hahaha! LOL! ROFL!
I'm listening to Chris LeDoux's Bareback Jack, and, man, have I got a dirty mind! Apparently, I've been reading to much porn recently, 'cause what I'm hearing and what the song's saying: two totally different things!

:)