Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in mythdefied's InsaneJournal:

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Saturday, November 9th, 2013
8:54 am	Fic and Essay guide ( A complete (more or less) guide to my writings posted here. ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
11:59 pm	crap My computer froze two nights ago and when I rebooted it, it came up with the helpful message of "hard drive failure imminent." Of course I thought it meant the main drive, so I went out and spent more than I cared to for a good drive with more memory for start up. Unfortunately, after fiddling with things I realized the warning was for my secondary drive, the drive where I store all my important files. The drive that no longer functions and acts as though there's nothing on it. It could be a lot worse than it is. More programs than I thought were on my main drive. I back up my fanfic files in triplicate on thumb drives and at least one place on the net, so that's all safe. Those are the files that I don't think I could get over losing because, even if I'm not writing at the moment, I've put too much of myself into those to not feel as if part of my soul was cut out if I lost them. All of the programs files can be replaced, that's just going to take time and be annoying. My music and video files are all on my iPod. Unfortunately, there is no good way of pulling files off an iPod, that I know of, but at least I still have access to them and I can make a list of all the files from the iPod for later replacement. (Which is also possible, just even more unbelievably time consuming and annoying than replacing program files.) I do not, however, have backups of my photos and graphics. A few are on my iPod, but family photos and cats who are no longer with us and photos of the garden, our jewelry shows, etc., those don't have backups. In retrospect of course I should have dumped them on a CD or something, but I (stupidly) never thought there'd be a problem with the drive. I lost my iTunes folder as well, along with all the progress I'd made on the music project I was working on. I assume my iTunes library is also gone, but I won't know for sure until I redownload it. I also lost the TV show files I'd converted to iPod format. I didn't lose the files themselves, but that was a few hours of work down the drain. I'm more annoyed about that than anything else. Really, it's just the music and the photos that are bothering me, and the music I at least have a chance of replacing. The photos really bother me. I don't think any photos of Cat are left except the scanned ones on the drive. The photos I took of Sasha during his last month were all there and not all of them went on my iPod. I'm going to take the drive up to the local mom & pop computer place tomorrow. We've known the owner for ages and I'm sure he knows more about this than I do; maybe he can do something. I'm very good with basic computer stuff, getting into files, working with them, etc. And I can swap out drives, video cards, etc. But the detail work, trying to salvage stuff and all that, I got nothing. I don't think there is much hope, but I'll still take it in and see if anything can be done to recover the important stuff. I actually had Semagic on a thumb drive, which is how I'm posting this. Now I need to go find some programs. And ignore this miserable cold. ETA: I'm a hell of a lot more lucky than I deserve to be. I found ten CDs where I backed up my entire computer in September of '06, right after Sasha died. No, I don't have the pics from the garden from the last two years, but I have all of the pics of Sahsa and Cat and my family. That was more important than garden pics. I also seemed to have gotten lazy the past year or so and most of my programs were on the main drive instead of the secondary one. Including iTunes. I still have my iTunes library and the TV shows I'd been converting, and I lost nothing of the music project I was working on. I don't know if there's a way of pulling music off of the iTunes library, but if there is, I'll find it. I was able to download my website off the server so I have nothing to worry about there, and while I don't have all of my graphics, I really hadn't added too much over the past couple years, so I have most of them. There are a few things I'll miss if I can't get them back, but I'm in so much better shape than I have any right to expect after not backing up things the way I should've. That's a mistake I won't be making again. Current Mood: sick (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 8th, 2009
11:43 pm	The sound of music So I've started in on what has to be the biggest timewasting, nitpicky project I've thought of yet. I'm taking all 3000+ songs on my iPod and inputing as much detail for them as I can find, along with searching up all the album covers that iTunes can't automatically find. It's doubly hard because I sort my music on my computer by artist "last name, first name." However, iTunes doesn't care for that format and refuses to find album covers half the time. So I've already spent a few hours changing every song to artist "first name last name." That finally done, now I'm concentrating on fixing a problem that's been bugging me for a while anyway. Anyone else have TV show themes on their playlist? I have a few dozen but other than a handful by Mike Post (guru of 80s TV themes), I have nothing else identifying them but a song title. So now I'm over on Amazon perusing the CDs of TV themes to find artist names. Whatever CD I find them on goes on the song info as the source CD, because only two or three of these TV themes ever came out on CDs of their own with artwork I can actually find. This is probably going to take me a month or two, but when it's finally done, I'm sure my perfectionist brain will be very satisfied by my iPod pulling up info and an album cover for every single song it plays. On a related subject, I've switched my listening habits. It feels unwilling, really. I mean, I haven't listened to pop soul/R&B in well over a decade because, well, it sucked. I really thought I'd reached that time that seems to come in many adults in life where I'd end up listening only to certain music from a certain time period and end up wallowing in musical stagnation. The only thing that prevented that is the slow trickle of new hard rock/metal I added to the collection every year. Then, after playing classic rock for over two decades one of the stations switched format. The local hard rock/metal station's been my default radio channel for a very long time now, but I give others occasional listen when my favorite goes on commercial break/DJs talk out their collective asses too long/songs suck harder than a twister through a trailer park. I wasn't pleased to hear pop/R&B/Soul/Rap/whatever coming out of what had been the best of the two classic rock stations. So I ignored it for a while, skipped over it or only went to it when there was no other choice on the radio. Until I found myself actually listening to it a couple weeks ago. And suddenly the hard rock/metal station is my second favorite and I spend my time listening to this stuff. I don't actually want to like it, it just seems...unfaithful to good taste, somehow. But they're all so catchy, and some of them even good. My music collection is now interspersed with names like Pink, Snow Patrol, The Veronicas, Katy Perry, Little Wayn, and more American Idol contestants/winners than I ever thought I'd touch. Seeing those songs in my collection is still giving me an eyetwitch, but I'm slowly getting used to it. However, if I ever find myself adding a Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus song, I may commit seppuki out of general principle. My cat just slid down between me and the chair back. Instant pillow. Current Music: Chris Daughtry - Home (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
11:23 pm	Something of a Christmas present, maybe? Herc/Strife the last chapter. I'd planned to have this posted nearly a year ago but so many things got in the way. RL has been so rough this year and I've ended up not doing much of anything in fandom or on LJ. I regret that and I really regret not posting this sooner. I kept thinking that I'd edit it or something, but I'm not going to get to that and I don't hate it the way it is, so it's getting posted. I know anyone reading this has to have given up on it by now, but I hope one or two people might see it anyway. This will be called "Shackled" on my site. Enjoy. Part 22 ( Part 23/End ) Happy Holidays everyone! (Comment on this)
8:33 pm	Happy holidays to everyone! Hope everyone is having a good holiday, whichever one you might celibrate. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
7:20 am	Vote! I just stood in line for a little over an hour to vote. We got there a few minutes before six and found a block and a half waiting line. But we stood in it anyway despite a cold wind and Mom's replaced knee, and we finally got in. We got a chance to talk to people we probably never would have, watch the sun rise, debate local politics, have copters and stringers take photos/video; it was actually a much shorter wait than I expected. No matter the turn out, I was proud to be there because so many people decided to show up. I've never had to stand in line before and to see that there are people who care also about making their voice heard was very cool. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 11th, 2008
9:29 pm	Book reviews: "Claymore"series by Norihiro Yagi; "Cirque Du Freak #1" by Darren Shan This one is from a few months back, but I'm still reading the series and my opinion hasn't changed at all: ( Claymore: Good action and plot. ) The author of this next one is coming this month to speak at one of our public libraries. I'd already checked out this book figuring that if it was so popular, maybe I should take a look at it. Realizing that the author would be here pushed it up on my (way too long) reading list. ( I wanted to like this book but... ) (Comment on this)
Monday, September 29th, 2008
6:00 pm	Survived this weekend's Oktoberfest with our jewelry booth. It was way hotter than the forecast predicted and even with the tent up we roasted. We made a couple hundred though, so it's worth going back next year. Heat is always preferable to freezing or sitting there watching the coming of the second great flood. I didn't get the job I applied for which, by now, is no surprise. I'm not skinny so I won't ever be working a front desk in this library system. I'm going to be looking for work in other library systems nearby and hope for better luck. Not much else going on right now except for work and gaming in my off time. I really love Guild Wars and right now it's doubling as my social life. Which is sad, yeah, but I don't have the energy for anything else right now. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
11:37 pm	I'm finally getting over a two day migraine. Anyone have any advice on making those go away faster? I hate when I'm off LJ for a while. I lose touch and then I feel all bummed out about it. I'd get more into fandom, but I never finished watching all of last season's eps of stuff. I didn't even know SGA had started its new season. I need to get in touch with things again. And now I'm really down because SGA is on its last season. That just sucks. I liked my John and Rodney show. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
3:49 pm	B-Day and Recipe Happy Birthday spikedluv! Blue Cheese Dip (family recipe) 1lb blue cheese crumbles 3lbs sour cream onion salt hot sauce worcestershire sauce milk (optional) Using a wooden spoon or something similar (spatulas don't work well with thes large quantities) and mucho upper body strength, stir the blue cheese and sour cream together until well mixed. Next (and this is the only time I don't use exact measurements when I cook) toss in whatever amount of onion salt you feel like and do the same with the worcestershire and hot sauces. Just keep in mind that those are all seasonings and use appropriately. Everyone's tastes being different, I can't tell you how much of each you'll want. Personally, I prefer the worcestershire sauce to be the prominent flavor. If you want to thin out the dip add a bit of milk, but otherwise you won't need it. Refrigerate for a couple hours and enjoy! Makes enough for a small party or in our case, two people who think blue cheese is a major food group. (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
10:28 pm	Quiz thingy The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below. 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicise those you intend to read (skipping this part, cause... I can.) 3) Underline the books you LOVE. 4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them. ( I is literate! ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 1st, 2008
11:22 pm	Happy Birthday to terrie01! In other news, I forgot what happens when I open a package of Wild Berries Gummies Lifesavers. I have one of the cats' litterboxes in my room. My room now smells like Wild Berries litterbox. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
10:03 pm	Disappointment in fic recs I love reading stuff recced on my flist because for the most part, it's wonderful stuff that I otherwise would've missed out on. People on my flist dig up things I'd never know to look for in the first place and it usually ends up as a few night's entertaining reading for me. It's taken me a bit to realize -- I think I've been in denial -- that one section of recs I've been following are just overall bad and they're not going to get any better, no matter how much I peruse the list. It sucks, and it's surprising because I've always liked the reccer's writing and she has interesting points/discussions on her LJ. Just...not so much good taste in Spander. ( In which I whine. ) (Comment on this)
Friday, July 25th, 2008
11:56 pm	Semi-incoherent mea culpa Okay, so I'm trying to get an online life again. Things haven't been all that smooth in RL, but that's no excuse for not answering feedback from five months ago. I really, really never planned on leaving it sitting that long. I've never done that before and I apologize to everyone who had to wait that long for me to get my ass in gear and thank you for it. I haven't been writing, but as always, I still have ideas. I just really need to find the time to sit down and watch some eps so I can get a handle on characterization again. But I don't know when that will be. Things in RL are stable enough, I suppose, but I've had it with my job (sooo many issues there) and I'm looking for a new one. I don't know when that will happen, but when it does, my schedule will be in upheaval again. I caught some sort of mystery virus a couple days ago which made me lose work since I couldn't get far out of bed. I'm hoping I'm over the worst of it now. But sitting here, fiddling on the computer, I just realized that I needed to get back in touch with everyone and I couldn't believe I'd been out of touch this long. I think I've caught up on my thank yous and I'm working on things at the strife lust list. I need to read more through everyone's LJs, too. I just feel like I've let part of my life slip away and now I'm trying to catch it again. I know I said I'd try to post last time, but this time I'm going to make myself because I hate this falling out of touch thing. Again, I'm very sorry to everyone who should've had an email/post from me months ago. I'll be doing better from now on. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
10:57 am	Uhh.... Apparently a spam bot or a virus or something got hold of my personal email addy this morning and sent a bunch of crap out to everyone on my contacts list. A list that hadn't been cleaned out in over ten years. (Which means that the White House just got spammed.) I apologize to anyone who received that junk. I've changed my password, I'm running a virus scan and I've just finished cleaning out my contacts list. Hopefully this won't happen again. Oh, and yeah, I'm still alive. Just really, really busy. I'll try to update soon and maybe, you know, post the last part of that Herc/Strife story that was supposed to be posted back in December. Right. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Jerry Goldsmith - Mulan's Decision (Score) (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
1:59 am	I'm trying to get myself on LJ at least once a day here, even if I just do a little post and read a few flist entries. I see others are going through some serious RL things and *hugs* to you guys. I hope you all pull through well. Checking my email (which I hadn't looked at in weeks), I see I missed a couple birthdays. So happy (very late) B-Day wishes to marinarusalka and luthien. I'm sorry I didn't get those out more on time. I just got my paycheck that covers the week when I was pretty much entirely gone due to the flu. It's one of those paychecks that you just cringe when you look at it and start counting the days until the next one shows up. I got my other eyebrow pierced last Sunday. I still wasn't feeling great, but I have a vision for how I'd like my face to look and I wasn't feeling so bad that I wanted to put that on hold. Unfortunately, the piercing was just the tiniest bit off and had to be repositioned, which meant repiercing the hole at a different angle. That actually came pretty close to my definition of pain. My eyebrow's been very sore since then and yesterday it was pretty red around one of the balls. But tonight the pain is mostly gone and the swelling is really down. I'm guessing it should be fine now. I don't have any extra work scheduled for this week, and other than dying my hair green on Monday, I don't plan on doing much except going to work, doing housework when I have to and just relaxing the rest of the time. Hope everyone on my flist managing all right. ETA: I replaced my "Heroes" wallpaper with SPN wallpaper. Dean is now staring at me. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
8:36 pm	Still here. Sort of. I owe many of you many apologies for not responding to the FB for the story I posted here and on the lists. I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to get back to the net and I'll try to get replies out in the next few days. The flu hung on pretty tight these last few weeks (I managed to finally go one day without coughing yesterday), and then some sort of stomach virus hit me last week. I picked up extra hours of work this week (backshifting, the 700s, massive art books) which has left me utterly exhausted. I knew I should get online and see how everyone was doing, talk, etc., but I couldn't find the energy. I don't know if I'll find more energy now, but I'm going to try. Again, I'm very sorry for being totally uncommunicative here. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
11:59 pm	Fic: Learning Curve (HtLJ, Cupid/Strife, R) I was going to post this on Valentine's Day, but I had something, likely the flu, and I wasn't in any shape to do anything but lie in bed and drool on the pillow. I really don't remember much beyond that. Anyway, no, I didn't write anything new (still getting over said flu), but it's only a month and change old. ( Comments and Disclaimers ) ( Learning Curve ) (Comment on this)
Monday, February 18th, 2008
10:25 pm	My insane workload ended last week. I got my left eyebrow pierced. Unfortunately, for the first time in two years I've fully come down with...something. I have no idea what it is. I started getting sick Tuesday and by Thursday I was barely dragging myself into work. I spent all of Friday (literally) in bed running a high enough fever that I was hallucinating and I simply couldn't make it into work this last weekend. I was a little too busy coughing up blood and losing my voice. I thought it was a simple cold because I'm hungry enough to eat nearly anything and there're no muscle aches. But since when does a cold run a high fever (one I'm still trying to fight off) and have me coughing up so much mucus that it's bloody? I'm hearing about something new going around that's not a cold but some odd new strain of flu. I had a flu shot, but whatever I have, it just can't be a simple cold. I tried going into work this afternoon, but I only made it for half the time. When I asked my boss if anyone would mind if I just went home, he was relieved that I'd finally decided to go. No one wanted to be near me and there's a good chance I can still get other people sick. Maybe I'll be better tomorrow, but I'll have to take it hour by hour. I haven't been well enough to concentrate on much of anything; reading's been a total bust. But I can stare at the TV just fine, so I downloaded and burned both seasons of Dexter to DVD and watched all of that. I'm so hooked now. I also caught up on Supernatural and although I ran out of DVD-Rs, I'm well enough now to sit here at the computer and watch stuff, so I'm currently working my way through SGA. I have a ton of other series to catch up on, but not too much stamina in one go. I'll probably do a couple more eps tonight (just finished "Mortal Coil" and I loved the ending scenes -- actual character development! What a shock! This is starting out to be a good season for a change) and then just go to bed. I'm sleeping a whole lot right now. Although, watching all these shows and then sleeping so much is giving me weird dreams. I don't know where the hell my subconscious came up with the one where Rodney becomes a vampire, but manages to hide the fact so he can seduce half of Atlantis -- I haven't watched/read anything with vampires in months and no SGA fic in weeks. I do remember it being a cool enough plot that when I woke up, I just turned over and for the first time ever managed to will myself into continuing a dream. Too bad I can't write SGA, or I'd give that a try as a crackfic or something. Damn, I'm so so tired right now. I think I just used up all my brain power for the night. I'll stare at another ep and go to bed. Ep shiny. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
12:06 am	What the meteorologist says: Three to four inches of snow today. What they really mean: We never did get all this metric stuff on the instruments, but we're pretty certain that millimeters is the same as inches. (Comment on this)