My life in error

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:51:58 GMT

Back from my long weekend at GenCon Oz. Well, I got back Sunday night, but stuff, it is always happening. The con was good. I played my first freeform in a really long time and still managed to get a character set on finding a husband. proxy_ryan was a great talking head style speaker. He and his posse of guys almost made me think about gm-ing something or at least writing a game. Almost. The fiction writers who were there mostly annoyed me with their speaking skills, but did inspire me to write. If only to do better than one of them.
A larger review, with much horror at cosplay, to come.

Bike!

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:07:31 GMT

I have a shiny new hybrid bike, a helmet, pump, gloves, a fancy cycling top and wrap around sunglasses. Now to start riding.... after my holiday.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:57:23 GMT

So my meeting went perfectly fine, which the sane part of my brain knew it would. My robot boss is the type of person to tell you problems the moment the arise rather than saving them up for my end of probation period meeting. But still, I'm paranoid apparently. Result was I am good, but need to use this "down time" to learn all the things that I'll need to know for the busy time at the end of the year. *blink* I shall talk to other person in my job about what I should be knowing tomorrow. But yes, perhaps I do fill idle moments with things other than re-reading the manual 1001 times.

I have been considering riding a bike to work. It's about 10km each way, so a good work out once I get up to riding that far. Problems with this plan include (1) no bike (2) haven't ridden in traffic ever so paranoid (again) (3) no shower at work. Point (3) is no longer an issue. I asked another team if there was a shower up their end of the building. General Manager happened to be in the vicinity, told to ask him, did so. An hour or so later passing his office he called me in to say that I'd inspired him to fast track putting in a shower for people. In a couple of weeks we shall have a shower at work. Now to cure my paranoia.....

But I really need to start exercising more. A girl at work is a cook. She often gets paid to make manymany cupcakes and things for weddings. On Monday there was chocolate ganache tart and a nut crumble tart from her weekend of learning pastry secrets from the pastry chef from brunetti's. Today was green scones. Pandang I think, with bits of nut. Not precisely scones but very tasty. And there was coconut honey jam stuff. Oh. My. God. Yum. Must find! *ahem* so yes, need to get some more exercise happening.

My friends page is very quiet

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:50:39 GMT

Not many people are updating lately so I thought I'd stop whining about how nothing happens when I hit refresh and write something myself.

Last week I worked on my own as the other girl was off having minor surgery. This meant last week was good. Apparently I enjoy autonomy. I'm not sure I'd be good at working for myself, but given a modicum of direction and left to my own devices apparently I get the job done.

I've had a lovely two weeks off of school. Last weekend I went to Spotlight and helped people with sewing and then had many drinks. Sunday was breakfast at the lovely Fig Jam Cafe on Koornang Rd. This weekend just past started with shopping with the girls on Friday, breakfast at the Fig Jam on Saturday, then coffee back at the Fig Jam when we met people while grocery shopping. Yes they laughed at us. But they also do great coffee. Then I made pizza from scratch using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It was hailed as a success. Then a birthday party and more drinking. Hangover breakfast at, you guessed it, The Fig Jam and much chores to prepare for the coming week.

A large portion of my preparing for the week was in making hard boiled eggs in moulds like these and yaki onigiri shaped like this
Is food shaped like an animal's head cute? Apparently it is in Japan.

Challenging myself

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:32:52 GMT

I'm going to participate in a 5km run/walk on Sunday. www.runmelbourne.com.au. I'm trying to raise money for the WWF. Which is a great cause. But my online donation page Because sponsoring the Sea Shepherds wasn't an option is actually secretly wanting to sponsor the Sea Shepherds. Which wasn't an option. So can I raise my target of $100 by Sunday? I have no idea! Can I actually make it 5km? No idea! I'll tell you Sunday night while clasping my race kit containing the Sunday Age and some Corn Thins.

Due to popular demand

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:17:02 GMT

Well, due to mysterymandy's demand, here are pictures of my first millinery assignment - a felt hat.

The design brief said it had to be for a 20 something professional woman.

It's hard to see but the buttons are actually pierced with that pattern in what I think is a very steampunky way. I like it, though I'm unlikely to wear it anywhere as (1) it's too tall to wear in the car, (2) nowhere to store it at work and (3) it cost over $100 in materials and nearly 24 hours in labour. I need to forget how much hand sewing went into it before it makes it out of the hatbox.

Final mark? 90%

Wed, 27 May 2009 07:28:30 GMT

I have another job interview on Friday. At Clayton Monash Residential Services. A realm of little/no parking. It's an okay walk from the bus loop on campus, but my usual interview shoes are heels. Going to have to be interviewed with my runners in my handbag. Tres classy.

In other news my gluten allergy seems to have wandered off someplace, which means I've been BAKING! There was rock cakes and tea cake and pizza base and a boiled chocolate cake. The pizza base was from Smitten Kitchen's blog (yum!). It was easy and awesome and I am so making it again. The chocolate cake is delicious. Except that most of it decided to stay in the pan because I was lazy and didn't line it. Still good though.

Soon (probably Monday) I shall have my first ever hat marked and returned to me so I can show it off. Yay! Corset making is a slow process (too slow, the whole class has been given an extension). But only a fortnight or so away I think. Stay tuned....

Neighbours

Wed, 13 May 2009 07:36:33 GMT

In the beginning of the year I moved house. It's a perfectly nice house, if a little 70s mission brown trimmed to be perfect. It's actually half of a duplex! Yay! Double yay when the kids next door are learning to play the piano and the cello. Woo! I think it's good to teach kids music. I put my parent's neighbours through violin, flute, piano and clarinet, so frankly, I figure i'm owed some scales at 7am on a Sunday.

BUT OH MY GOD STOP PLAYING SILENT NIGHT!

My Monday

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:20:25 GMT

Today I had a job interview at CLayton Monash for general customer assisting and adminy goo. It went okay I suppose. My new interview outfit was good, which is important I think. Then after lunching with Monash people I came home and my mobile phone rang. It wasn't job people (*sad*) but was someone from TRUenergy. I feel bad. I was snarky at him and it turns out they were giving me money. But from the house I lived at before I moved in with mousebane and jilavre, so about five years ago. So while I am cranky at myself for being mean to the soft spoken Indian boy, HE WAS A SOFT SPOKEN INDIAN BOY!! From a company that has had my money for five years apparently!
But I have chai now, so am feeling calmer.

This post was brought to you by the two coffees I had today, which is two more than usual.

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:49:04 GMT

Hat making continued.... can you see my stitches?

and no the blue stitches don't count

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:35:56 GMT

I have my first couture sewing class today. I'm a little nervous as my old sewing teacher didn't think much of my new teacher *gulp* But I have ideas (which is good) and a cold (which is bad) and all of my stuff (which is good). In fact, both my classes need so much stuff I'm driving to both of them. Wah! I fail at using my car less.
Though I do walk to work three days a week but *sigh*

{post class edit} Whee! My patternmaking teacher from last year is taking the Saturday class out of guilt that we had no teacher. Yay for guilt!
Also, I started making a corset pattern. It's not a corset in the way people on my friends list wear them, more an item of clothing tham structural support. Whee!

Meme

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:31:37 GMT

from thekit
1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit "random" or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days

Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

I got:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackwell_House
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1907.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irregexp/3330224857/

and wound up with

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:29:11 GMT

Yes, it was an earthquake - not me falling down and making things shake! What am I godzilla?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:35:58 GMT

The BBC allegedly believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books listed behind the cut below.

How do your reading habits stack up? [bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish]

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D?Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller?s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker?s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli?s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid?s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones?s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight?s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte?s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

only 24, but I lied to a lot of people when working at the bookshop and said I'd read #3,5,19,20,43,51,59,60,64,69,80,84,88, and 93 and successfully sold ~90%. "It won _blah_ prize" usually worked. Which is probably why they are on this list.

I went to San Churro's. I had flourless chocolate cake and suddenly my milkshake didn't taste very chocolatey. I have have a piece of cake in my bag. So chocolatey.....

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:08:15 GMT

Today I went on a spree at the Asian grocery. I found GLUTEN FREE frozen peking duck breast. Now I just need to find some gluten free pancakes to go with the hoisin sauce I found and nomnomnomnom

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:40:47 GMT

I have moved. I have the internet after having to get a phone guy to poke the phone wires. I built a desk! Bleh.

Awake again

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:57:51 GMT

I'll say one thing for the long days of Arc.... it made me tired enough not to notice the hottest night Melbourne has had in years. Woo! Am I the only person last night without air conditioning that got a good nights sleep?

I spent some time at Arc hanging with Dice Boy and his dad. Yes they have names, but I forget them and Dice Boy and Dad sound funnier. I mentioned that I make stuff and was thinking about making dice bags. They offered some table space at Conquest. Very tempted.

This idea tempts me for two reasons... I like making stuff and study making stuff so at some point I'm hoping I'll be able to make money making stuff (at least enough to support my making stuff habit) AND I got my booklists. Bleh. The millinery equipment is mostly not awfully dear (gladwrap, butter knife etc) but the couture class needs books. Books that aren't any cheaper second hand (which at least shows they'll last).

This leads me to pose a question to all you nerds out there....
What do you want in a dice and/or gaming bag? Traditional pouch style? Zippered pouch? Dice shaped dice bags? Would book covers to protect those expensive roleplaying books interest you or aren't they cool until they look beaten up? Would YOU buy a d4 beanbag (like the one mousebane has? Would you want a tote bag of some sort that's not from Safeway to transport your gaming goods?

Arc

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:22:55 GMT

Arc starts today. If you were cool, you'd go. If you're uncool (like me) you'll go to work first. Bleh.

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:08:03 GMT

Bacon brownies. Bacon wrapped tofu. A world of bacon....

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:46:37 GMT

Don't you hate it when you do an exam and end up finishing really early? I was the first one out the door and at least one mistake had already been circled by my teacher as I left. Oh well. I'm still surprisingly confident.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:34:51 GMT

Arc propaganda. We have dice with Syd on and rego closes soon or something like that Hi all -

Arcanacon 2009 is now a little over a week away! Have you got your punk
on?*

ONLINE REGO CLOSES SUNDAY 18 JAN

AON will be closing for our usual pre-con printout on Sunday night. As always, you can still sign up for games at the convention proper. But, if you are thinking of picking up some more sessions, or if you have a friend who hasn't signed up yet, it's much easier to jump on it now!

http://aon.arsimagica.net/aon <http://aon.arsimagica.net/aon>

EXTRA FREEFORM GOODNESS

Due to popular demand (we've always wanted to right that, but it's true, we tell you) we have added an extra session of the three loosely-linked freeforms: Tonight, Into the Darkness and Division of Labour. These look like the hits of 2009 in the making, so sign up now.

GAME CANCELLATION
With regret, the Major D&D is no longer on offer, but we hope it will return in 2010.
D20 fans can still get their polyhedral fill from our slate of Living Games.

ROLL A FAT SYD
Syd dice have arrived! They are supercool and a mere one dollar apiece. We expect them to sell like... like.... well, like dice with a Syd on them! We may impose a limit-one when we are down to the last 50, so get in early.

MERCHANDISE BONANZA
We've gone Syd crazy this year - you'll also be able to drink your fill from a stylish Syd coffee mug, and tote your gaming swag in a swish executive Syd conference bag (limited edition of 25 only). Stockbroker Syd says "Buy now, bailout later".

TRADE STALL AU-GO-GO
We are pleased to welcome a brand new suite of traders to Arcanacon this year, plus some old favourites. Nasim will be back with a multi-coloured haul of his high-rolling Dice By Nasim; new Croydon store Realm of Legends will be setting up in the 40K area with a huge range of D20 gear
and everything cool in miniatures gaming; and new Melbourne store Good Games will be along, featuring a 20% discount on all of their Games Workshop line. Stay tuned for more trader announcements!

IS IT HOT IN HERE?
We don't know what the forecast is for the Australia Day weekend, but just in case, here's a reminder that Arcanacon is a summer tournament:
please be sensible and bring sunscreen and hat when you're hanging outdoors, a water bottle that you can refill, and for those at the gamier end of the gaming spectrum, a little deodorant is much appreciated by all. (We don't mean to be cruel. Even ice cool George Clooney gets a little whiffy when it's 30+ degrees.) You can also feel free to bring electric fans and extension cords to keep your gaming room chill, like your playing style.

That's all for this update. Please swing by the Arc website and add a few more sessions, wrangle your recalcitrant buddies, and get ready for a summer of gaming fun!

Cheers,

The Arc Orgs

orgs@arcanacon.org

ARC XXVII 2009

http://www.arcanacon.org/ <http://www.arcanacon.org/>

* Punk available in steam or cyber; may contain nuts.

In other news, 86% so far in pattern making! That's like a H2A or something. So odds of me beating the majority of my uni subjects seems quite high. And teacher seems extremely positive about me doing "styling and couture" the follow on subject, where I get to make corsets and ballgowns (no pre-orders please unless you are a STANDARD size 8 or 10 according to australian guidelines, if you are, we'll talk). Making stuff class is also going well with 100% on some of the mini assignments so hurrah for keeping up my average.
Making stuff at home is on hold until my sewing machine gets over it's issue with tension. Possibly I will aid this getting over it period with something blunt and heavy.

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:24:01 GMT

I wasn't going to but this amused me too much and was almost pretty close to some of my actual resolutions *g*

In 2009, delphaeus resolves to...

Get back in contact with some old cartoons.
Volunteer to spend time with parties.
Backup my sunshine regularly.
Connect with my inner cheese.
Spend more time with my movies.
Give up anthonybaxters.

Happy new year

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:41:12 GMT

Happy new year everyone! Special thanks to

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Happy new year everyone! Special thanks to <lj-user="miss_rynn"> for sharing the joy that is the honey vodka. That is awesome stuff.

Still don't know how to use facebook!

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:13:48 GMT

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=46838735931

Event InfoHost:
Australians Against Internet Censorship
Time and PlaceDate:
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Time:
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location:
Outside the state Library
Street:
328 Swanston Street
City/Town:
Melbourne, Australia

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:52:32 GMT

I went to the circus and it was AWESOME!