My Da

more animals


In other news, manual cameras are ungodly expensive. I need a 35mm fully manual film (duh) camera for my Photography 1 class this semester, and after getting some pointers at a local film shop and doing some online searches, Da & I bought me a used Nikon F3 yesterday. Used price: $350, price new: about $1000. I quease. I'm really looking forward to the class though, even though this prof allegedly thinks his class is the only one you have, and gives you a workload appropriate thereof.

2.5 more days of packing left. Today I start disassembling things. Also, I have some work to do on my portfolio from Drawing 1; the drawings all slid & curled under at the bottom while sitting in the portfolio, so now I need to tape them by the cover-sheets to cardboard pieces and that should get them straightened out. Four of the pieces in particular I think are quite nice for beginner work, and I intend to submit the allowed number in the school's juried show in January.

~Brill

More lolcats

more cat pictures

I have been renamed.



more cat pictures

Thankfully not on the listed side effects of any of my meds....


more cat pictures

And this is for Monkey (what I look like, not her).
I really should sleep, but this is so much more fun than some of my recent dreams.

What I do when I should be doing other things

more cat pictures


This is me were I a cat, at least attitudinally. lolcats make me extremely happy, and it's a very good distraction from all the packing I should be doing.
School starts back on Sunday, and I'm only half packed. On a positive note, I'm half packed! This time last year I wasn't even that. Of course I also have a birthday party and a doctor visit in the interim, but it's still less.

The kids returned to school today, and it was blissfully quiet, and I got a massage. Le Batard has taken it upon himself to learn the art of massage, and both Monkey and myself have volunteered/were asked to be his practice dummies. I was quite happy.
Then I went to pick up Buster this afternoon. The High School decided that just before the year started was a great time to tear up a quarter of the main parking lot, right where kids usually wait. So now, instead of 4 lanes of traffic at the main pickup point and two lanes at the main road entrance, the whole shoot and match is now two re-routed lanes.
The people who drive in this town and especially at the school do not need this; the majority of drivers in that lot are blithering imbeciles who do not need construction to garnish their perfected massacre of the practice of driving.
I came down the road towards the school, had to pass two cars stuck behind another who refused to turn before I could finally get back into the correct lane, and pulled into the second (main) entrance. Buster saw me (our vehicle would be hard for a blind man to miss, it's so huge), and got in as soon as I stopped. The administrator they had trying to direct traffic motioned forward the car ahead of us. Nothing. More frantic motions. Nothing. The driver is sitting in the only lane in this direction waiting for his/her/it's spawn.
It's 20 minutes after school finished, but more people than usual still remain, and this car is holding up traffic. Finally another admin comes over and much gesticulation and exchange later, the car s l o w l y moves forward and trundles off into the doldrums of the parking lot.
I passed him/her/it and proceeded to freedom. Neither Buster nor I is amused at this point. Because of construction there's a large, very legible, noticeable sign that says cars in my lane must turn right, with adequate room given to switch around an island to the left turn. When I pass this sign, what do I find but a DIFFERENT driver from the original incompetent who decides that manners and common sense do not apply to him; his tail end is in front of me, blocking my escape from the hellgrounds when he noses his front in front of another oncoming car... and sits. Passes up an opportunity to go, and rather a lot of traffic goes by before he can next leave, freeing us.
Have I mentioned that I hate the HS parking lot?!?!?

Hazard pay

Gently insert fingers into hair.
Massage lightly to ensure maximum intertwine-age.
Take a deep breath.
...
Let it out at the highest possible volume as you yank the ever-loving daylights out of your cranium.
Rinse and repeat.

Mum and Da left yesterday for a five day camping jaunt at a much higher latitude and elevation. Just the two of them, no kids. Well, plus the large group with which they're camping, but no kids for which they are responsible! And I'm in charge while they're gone.

Really Kleptomaniac Demonspawn isn't that bad when she's left alone, but Hypersonic Hyperactive Demonspawn sees it as his honor-bound duty to incite mayhem and discord wherever he walks... and he ran out of Ritalin.

We went to the library yesterday, all four of us, though Buster didn't get anything. Klepto continually confuses me. She's not at her grade level with reading, but was motivated (by forces unknown to me) to get a large book on the life and music of Beethoven and a slightly smaller volume on Harriet Tubman. And she's actually reading them. It's good; confusing, but good.
We all return to school at various times near the end of the month, and I'm having my belated BD party as well.
I'm taking the kids to a local river today to swim and, as Hyper said, "work off our energies!"

Laters!
~Brill

Hello? Anybody out there?

I love A/C. Really. I just don't understand why the dash is in there....
Anywho, I'm house sitting again, a short span this time, and I'm bored enough to blog. There's only so much SciFi I can read before my mind starts shorting out.
However, I come upon the problem of having nothing of any import to report; all major events are covered in Mum's blog, or if I DO have something about which I think, "hey, I should blog that," I invariably forget.
High points in my life:
+I have fewer than 365 days left as a teenager. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Neither Mum nor Da could say, either.
+I may, possibly, if there's room on the schedule, have gleefully gained gainful employment at a local pizzeria. Until I have to move back to Sburg.
+I have enough money to go to Anime Weekend Atlanta in September! I still need to get the ticket/reservations, but baring unforeseen fiscal disasters, I have sufficient funds. Which means more specialty manga, T-shirts with smart (-ass) sayings --see Mum's blog on Dad's Xmas gift-- lots of sugar, and possibly posters. We (Monkey, S if he does actually go, and some other friends) will probably stay in the motel/hotel we did last year. The only problem is transportation, and that may be solved if our other roommate, Sunshine, goes.

I saw Le Batard recently. He's doing much better, has his back brace off, and has been working out quite a bit to get back in shape. He lost a lot of strength in the accident and has been building it back up. Done a good job, too. He, Monkey and I went to see The Dark Knight the day after my birthday, and it RULED. Took almost 3 hours to do so, too! I love long, intense movies (NOT horror, that's Monkey's department), so that was an excellent movie.

E-chan gets back from Japan on the 8th, and the Flower gets back into town from summer classes on the 13th, so I'm having a birthday celebration a month late. All my siblings go back to school 1 week before I do so I have a week in which to hold a demonspawn-free party. Woot.
I cleaned the living room recently and got the kitchen a bit tidier (uphill battle, that room), so if I can keep them clean I should be able to have said get-together at home.

Mum looked at my schedule for next year (5 classes, if you don't count the class I intend full well to drop) and observed that the entire semester is nothing but art. I made the darn thing and I hadn't noticed that. I have Theatre, Art History (NOT with the Monotonous Teacher from Heck), and THREE Studio classes (Photog. 1, Ceramics 1, & Drawing 2). I also have nothing before lunch on Tu/Th, and nothing after on Fri. However, I am spending a collective 19 hours per week IN AN ART CLASS. Having had two of these teachers before and having heard horror stories about the workload from the third, I don't know whether to giggle maniacally or start rocking back and forth muttering incomprehensibly.

Well, for nothing that filled up a lot of space. One day when I have a VERY long span of uninterrupted time I think I may assemble a post on the subject of the perfect house. There will be lots of pictures, probably from houses around town. As oppressive as the town is sometimes, it has some real gems of architecture.

Ta-Ta!
~Brilliance and Light

(BTW, Spellchecker says 'manga' should be 'mange')

So...Damn...Hot

Well, our AC has decided to take its summer vacation again. For the past 3-5 days the entire system has been in an interesting cycle of Nada punctuated by burps of Semi-Cool.
Right now it's cooler outside than in here, humidity be damned.
Oh, and "nobody" broke the shower in the pink (hall) bathroom to the point where it won't go to shower mode all the way. C alleges that you "have to twist the middle handle, but not too far," and it will work, but so far that hasn't worked for me, so no cool showers to stave off the heat.

On a slightly less whining note, a good friend of Monkey's and mine from High School is currently on the other side of the planet. E-chan left for Japan Wednesday morning and won't be back until early August. She's staying with a missionary family, a career she herself has expressed interest in. (Japanese culture is another BIG point of interest for her, Monkey, and Monkey's and my future roommate, about as much as Harry Potter with me.) I'm happy for her, but all the same I'm going to miss her these weeks that she's gone.

The Klepto Demonspawn has managed a feat of epic and, to me, hilariously saddening proportions. She got herself kicked out of SUMMER SCHOOL. Tuesday morning I woke
to a call --on my cell phone-- from the school where the district holds the summer school program, informing me that me sister was in the principal's (or counselor's, I was a bit woozy) office. Said principal-or-counselor proceeded to rattle off an impressively long list of transgressions committed by said spawn that morning, including but not limited to death threats and written profanity. In her handwriting. That the woman on the other end of the line said, "looked just like her handwriting when she wrote, 'I did not write that.'" O. M. Effing. G.
Seriously, if you're gonna do something like that, child, learn to disguise your handwriting.
The phone cut out (Verizon: "You can hear me anywhere but your house or dorm room!") and they called the house phone. I had by this time woken up enough to wonder why that hadn't happened in the first place, but apparently the phone was busy.
Long story short, the principal-or-counselor talked to Mum, Mum got pissed, Mum picked up the miscreant, both Demonspawn have been hell for the ensuing time periods, causing much emotional, physical, and aural distress to all involved.

Tonight, Klepto got sick. I heard some weird noises from that end of the house (I'm on one end, though, so EVERYTHING is 'the other end of the house). Found out it was her. Poor thing. Projectile vomit isn't fun for anyone. I wonder what she ate.

Mum has given me a potentially VERY addictive link, so I'm going to stop there. I have more to say but it is less immediate, more nagging, and mostly less transient.

No, I'm not in a very upbeat mood, howdja guess?

'Night,
~Brill

I feel SOOOOOOO special

Mum and I went out shopping this morning. Along with some clothes for the interminably picky Hyperactive Hypersonic Demonspawn, we got me 2 5-shelf cheap-&-nasty shelving units. I just assembled the permanently affixed elements of one of them. That included screwing in by hand with a teeny, tiny screwdriver fourteen screws and hammering in heaven knows how many nails to tack down the backing. I sat the shelf up to put in the second and fourth (movable) shelves....
And I'd put the sides of the shelf on VERY PERMANENTLY with the insides facing out!!!
I feel special today. I swear it took Da (the *design engineer*) a full 3 minutes to really stop laughing at me.

On the bright side, at least it's put together sturdily for a $25 shelf, and I know what to do on the next one!