Tight Lacing

Tomorrow is going to be an expensive day, but hopefully fun. Karaoke in the afternoon(8), dinner(10) bellydance in the evening(25+6 transport).

I have to load up my Suica again. Argh. And I'm going to TGS this weekend, which will be awesome, but that's going to cost money too. Argh...!!! Where does all the money go??? How can people(as in everyone else, it seems) afford to go do things? All I'm doing is eating, school and bellydance(which, admittedly is 6200 yen a week...maybe I should only go once a week.... ;.;????), I'm not even shopping or buying magazines or purikura all the time or anything like I used to do in Obihiro! o.O

You'd think 100 bucks a week would cover everything, but I'm scraping by by the end of my two weeks when I can go get more money out. And I get about $50 a week from my job, too, which covers belly dance at least.

When I think about how much belly dance costs, maybe I should not go twice a week... -.- But I love it so much!

Bother.

Guys i just saw a short note in Der Spiegel to the effect that after yesterday's losses the Fed is debating entering the credit market directly in order to provide companies with much needed liquidity. This amounts to an admission that the privately owned banking system has failed and that the state needs to runs things directly. RIP Capitalism ...

Please follow the link to read why:  Do Not Buy EGL Gothic Lolita Shoes From Ling Lam 

• 09:59 First day of the diet is going well, so far! #
• 11:08 BANKRI has a promotion for CDs: choose which party wins for president and you get an extra 1 percent return. #

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According to the Girly Girl, if one of your loved ones has become a zombie, that loved one can be saved! I can hear you asking the question, "But how can that be?" I have to admit, I was a little stunned myself. In fact, I wracked my brains (Braaains!!) to figure out if what she was saying might be true.

Truly, my friends, this is an age of wonder! An age of better living through chemistry abounds!

The Girly Girl's Miracle Cure for Zombieism is "69% Cocoa" Dark Chocolate!

Yes, you read it correctly! Good, healthy dark chocolate! Maybe the secret is the anti-oxidants? Hmmm, I may have to do more research into that.

So the next time a loved one says, "Braiiins!! Om nom nom!" Grab the dark chocolate and feed it to them!

When I have new friends on my F-List, I let them know and remind everyone else about my opt-in filters. So if you don't mind me yattering on about my gender issues, feel free to speak up about it. And, as always, if you want off of a filter, all you have to do say something too. You're not going to hurt my feelings by doing it. Honest. :)

Kink - The name says it all really. Typically these are conversations that generally qualify for the TMI stamp of approval.
Weight Loss - I chronicle my attempts at over-coming my Dunlops Disease. Yes, it just dun-lops over the belt. (Is that my redneck roots showing again? Damn it!)
Growth - I talk about my gender identity and the search I go through to find balance. This filter also includes the Puberty 2.0 adventures.

You may ask yourself, "How do I know if I'm on one of these lists?" It's easy and I'll tell you how. I adopted a practice that I observed lovecraftienne doing and thought it was useful enough to emulate--that and Cait is full of awesome to boot--which is to put curly-braces, the { and }, around a word or two in the subject to let people know how I have locked a post.

For example, putting the curly-braces around "Friends" in the subject line, like this {Friends}, indicates that I have locked the post for friends only. Along those same line, {Kink} is used for my Kink filter, {Growth} for Growth, and so on.

Today my sports ethics teachers suggested a field trip to the Special Olympics. It would be on a Saturday, and it wouldn't be required, but if you went, you could then write a paper about the experience and earn extra credit. So I asked if there would be an opportunity for students who couldn't go to earn extra credit as well. The teachers said "um...we can probably work that out." Why yes, you can! Because that's the fair and right thing to do. Now, it happens that the reason I cannot go is because I am attending a party where I will be seeing someone for the first time in 10 years, someone who was a dear friend but whom I lost touch with. I am not missing that! It also happens that I've gotten A's and A+'s on all the work in this class so far, so I probably don't need the extra credit, but I am going to hound them and make sure they make the opportunity available.


Also, I got my grade back on a video essay for my Deaf Culture class. Gee, I got 95 out of 100 points. See, I knew I didn't do C+ work like that teacher suggested my first semester.

Okay, austerity measures are now on. I have allocated a certain amount of resources to three upcoming birthday celebrations, as well as known household expenses (like paying to reticulate the backyard). Along with bills and car loan, everything else can wait.

I'm putting my studies on hold for another 12 months, waiting to see if UWA are going to be offering a graduate entry program to my chosen course, with their reconfigured degree structure. The difference between a six year and three year program (full time - add another four years to each for part time) is quite marked.

No more going to Must for meals or dessert. No more buying heaps of croissants at the markets. No more eBay, no more jewellery. No more Lush or L'Occitane, no more bespoke clothing. Back to non-organic, discounted food. Con membership will be forgone, save for perhaps a day. I will reacquaint myself with the public library. I will empty my freezers. I may even grow out my hair.

I'm going to London in May. For this. I feel like I've been waiting all my life to see them. And I'm not missing out now.

It's going to be hard. It's going to be expensive. And I'm going to make it happen.

So here let me make it official - anybody thinking of doing anything to mark my birthday or Christmas, please consider donating to my Dream Trip costs instead. I'll thank you immensely.

I am stressing and angsting about my decision. As rocket_jockey put it, it IS me. And it's actually a huge decision, especially in THIS economy. I've been waffling about Grad School for years, and it took a HUGE event to make me finally kick me in the behind and decide to go for it. Doesn't mean it's not scary, though.

And as could probably be expected, I've indulged one of my compulsive stress reactions. I've cut my hair again.

Raven's DEFINITELY gonna earn his car payment this month.

Does anyone have a live size skull model I may borrow? Archimedes has gone walk-about and I can't find him...

There is nothing like pregnancy.   I am sitting with an icepack on my vagina.

Too much sitting today at my desk at work with no lunch break and the pressure down there is intense.  I read somewhere it can come from blood pooling and an ice pack can help.  Seems to be working a bit, but not completely.  Part of me thinks thisi s just how its gonna be from here on out - feels like the baby is gonna fall out.

Just spent a lovely weekend with the fam and got some new clothes, games for my classroom, etc. and picked up my classroom library which had been stored in my parents' basement. I feel like it shrunk. Spent today "out sick" visiting my aunt's elementary school in a couple of the 3rd/ 4th grade classrooms. On my way home I picked up big sheets of thin, dense foam to make letter tiles, like the tiles used in Scrabble. I'm going to make up a few baggies with instructions for several different games and a set of tiles. (My aunt had one at her house called "Bananagrams" -because the tiles and directions are stored in a fabric banana - and is way, way cooler than Scrabble. It's like what you always wanted to do in Scrabble - change the letters and words around to fit the letters you have.)
In addition, I have two metric tons of dishes my dear, darling Sir has left me to do.

Tomorrow is my penultimate day at Hell Middle School. I will tell students I'm leaving & then bring a huge load of stuff back Home. (To my third-floor, north-facing classroom that probably is too full of furniture and contains nothing else. Frustrating, but familiar.) I'll just have time for a chorus rehearsal and nap before it's back to Doomsday at HMS. I'm not expecting anything beyond the usual "Mrs. --- sucks!" at the end of the day. And maybe having to go to a staff meeting instead of loading up my car and peeling out on my way out.
A performance of Hamlet at the FAC that night and I'll be ready to start setting up my room!
Bronchitis is on the retreat. Still sniffly & coughing, but I don't sound like I'm dying nearly as often.

Ideas for word tiles -
*solo banagrams - use all the tiles, starting with 11 and using up all of them
*cooperative bananagrams (need another name besides bananas!) - work together to use all the tiles
*competitive bananagrams - all players start out with 11 tiles. Someone shouts "GO" and all the players work independently to arrange their letters Scabble-style into words. When someone uses all the tiles, they shout "PEEL" and *everyone* has to take another tile. This continues until there are fewer tiles in the middle than players. At any time players are allowed to trade in one tile and take three and say "SPLIT". If there are fewer tiles in the middle than players and you use all your tiles, shout "BANANAS" - you win!
*specialty challenges - build x words using "br" (or "nk", "sh", etc.) together, find words that use all the L's, all the W's, etc.
*spelling practice - spell out your spelling words using tiles


Any other ideas?

We have updated Candy Violet with a new Dark Classic color. the bustiers, skirts and dress sets are now available in BLUE as seen in the Gothic and Lolita Bible issue 3!

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I think this set has a mysterious look in this new color?

Sizes are still limited for these items, only going from a S to a XL, but we will have a full range of sizes S to 2XL available in our new fall items.

Grah. Is it really Monday? At least it's a short week (break on Thursday and Friday).

For the past couple of weeks it feels like I've been cheated a weekend. There's just too much crap to do, it seems. This weekend had the added bonus of there being a bunch of stuff to do but family coming over to keep us from doing it. Luckily, in the mix, Jon and I got a good portion of the house all clean-like and that's a mood improver by itself. But this also means I'm studying for three midterms...right now. = P

Of course my mom had to tell me she was spending the night as she was driving up to visit. Then made a big stink about how we didn't have any food (1. we did too, and Jon cooked it. 2. When have we been able to go grocery shopping?). Then just as she was going to leave, she told me I had until the end of the year to get a job in a threatening voice. Two things here: 1. I get the sense of direness without your effort to make it seem like a big deal. 2. Or what? You'll stop paying for all my stuff? Oh wait, that's right. You haven't given me a lick of money in months, and nothing above $20....ever. (My mom luckily doesn't do shit like this anymore, but she once went to pay my rent, went out and bought cigarettes and told me that she had indeed paid it at the office. A few weeks later I get a screaming call from my step-mother, who was my co-signer for that apartment, because she'd gotten billed with the cost of that month's rent. Mom's excuse? "Oh,I guess I forgot." ) And up until that little quip I'd been having a good time hanging out and seeing my brother.

Anyhow,I have to get a shower and type up a bunch of bullshit and then sit through a review in French and try and do other homework.