Scribbles in the Dark

today i learned about the ampersand, and other letters no longer a part of the English alphabet.

http://blog.dictionary.com/ampersand/
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/theampersand.html
http://blog.dictionary.com/letters-alphabet/

as a result of this, i'm determined to put a proper calligraphic et into my handwriting from now on, instead of the sloppy-backwards-3 i've been using instead.

burned the BLAZING HELL out of myself today.

we went to galveston today for mother's day; we being myself, my mom-in-law and dad-in-law, my sis-in-law, and her fiance. My hubby (mom-in-law's son, obv.) had to work so we were not a complete set. D: anyway - had breakfast, went to beach, flew kites, waded in surf (very weedy this week...), lolled about on beach, went to dinner (seafood!)..... and all this time i forgot to put on sunscreen.

i am red as a lobster from hip to neck, except for the outline of my bikini top.

in other news, i still have SO MUCH TO DO for my thesis publication draft, due tomorrow, it is NOT EVEN FUNNY.

vicodin is AWESOME.

so i got two wisdom teeth out yesterday morning. ( it was an adventure! )

so! i received a startling education about acting and foreign roles, just now, as cait and i were talking about the deplorable lack of non-white people as main characters in the live-action avatar movie that's coming out. okay, so the whole fire nation is going to be the same race as dev patel, ie indian (disregarding the fact that the fire nation was modeled on japan, and china a little bit, cait adds). but they're the bad guys.

anyway, my education: http://vejiicakes.livejournal.com/254810.html conveniently linked here.

and here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=99D263D1B8B2558D&search_query=the+slanted+screen

jim and i went to circuit city (liquidation sale!) and best buy today to price computers, since i desperately need one- a laptop would be best, so i can get the mobility of bringing it to studio to work with my professor. i got $400 christmas money towards that end, and my budget is $500 (before tax)- depressingly, i still need to pay for my wedding this year too.... *sighs* anyway, jim gave me a run-down of the relative merits of everything we looked at, and we came down to three options:

desktop #1:
Compaq #SR5710Y
processor: AMD Athlon 4450E dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 250 GB
graphics card: Nvidia GEForce 6150-SE
includes keyboard and mouse
price: $369
(and nearby, a shiny flatscreen monitor for $149; i have an older monitor, but it's a big clunker... that totals to $520 before tax)
http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/2988/category.htm
http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/9175064/reviews.htm
(a similar machine) http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/PresarioSR5550f.htm

desktop #2:
HP Pavilion Slimline (it's freakin' tiny! i could put it in a lunchbox!)
processor: AMD Athlon X2-5000 dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 320 GB
graphics card: GEForce 6150-SE
price: $429
(another related machine) http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/HPPavila6600f.htm
(closer to the one i was looking at) http://compreviews.about.com/od/sff/gr/HPPavils3120n.htm

laptop:
Toshiba Satellite L305D
processor: AMD Turion X2 dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 250 GB
graphics card: Radeon 3100-S29
price: $529
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L305D-S5904-15-4-Inch-Processor/dp/B001GXR0UI
http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetnote/gr/SatelL305DS5874.htm

AutoCAD 2009 sysem req's:
processor: AMD 64 or Intel EM64T
64bit (what??? i'm reading jim's notes here...)
ram: 2 GB
hard drive: 750 MB for installation (and those files get big, too; but i do already have an external hard drive for those)

so my thoughts are as follows:
-i want a laptop for the mobility of having it in studio (i am the only person in my class who doesn't bring their laptop to work in class, and it's gotten me in trouble before.)
-i am already used to working in the computer lab and borrowing time on other people's computers to make do
-i want to not exceed my budget but still have a decent machine
-i want to get the best i can for the price i pay

so... i think i want to get the compaq desktop. and i should probably get the monitor as well, because i'll need a good one anyway... but on the other hand, i do already have a functional monitor, and i also have a wedding to pay for. thoughts?

whatever i buy, its name will be Hoffnung auf Zukunft.

(i don't know whether to be ashamed of or take pride in the fact that i had to look up those lyrics. deutschland uber alles! *lol*)

msn.com ( continues to be entertaining. ) and in other news, i'm making good progress on my first model- all the walls are cut, my floors are traced out and i'm just waiting for the shop to open so i can cut them up, and i've started on the columns. the only other thing inside the building is the bookshelves- which are gonna suck, but whatever- and then i can glue it all together, add the window mullions, and hit my head against the wall trying to figure out the roof. joy.

interesting article on msn.com again, yay! ( secret toddler languages. )

~

in studio today we discussed the phenomenon of the gimme generation, and why we're in it. *headdesk*

okay, it's kind of weird how helpful the msn.com featured stories are. seriously.

( tips for pregnant women going green. )

~

in other news, i bought my first magazine today at the heb, and it was a bridal magazine called "the knot". sara and i looked at all the dresses, and then we got online and i signed up for an account at theknot.com. that website is badass. i mean, it's amazing, fantastic, fun, and incredibly helpful. it has so many organizational features and tips, i couldn't believe it at first.

i'm still so giddy about all this- i haven't even been engaged a week! but here's one downer: i was talking to don on the phone just a little bit ago, and he looked up the 2009 calendar. it turns out, dec 29-31 of next year falls right in the middle of the week, tuesday thru thursday. which isn't that big a deal since it IS basically new years' eve, so it's not like it's too much of a hassle, but still.... most weddings are weekend weddings, you know? and i'm not actually sure if anyone would be willing to do a new years' eve wedding. we might have to have it on the 30th. *shrugs*

well, anyway, i have work to do. ttl!

on heroes from yesterday: jim says that future!claire is the sharpest bulb in the drawer.... cause she's the broken one. *rofl* god, i love that one!!!! and future!gabriel- omfg awesome!!!!! i love him. and his son's name was noah. SO MUCH LOVE for future!gabriel.

so, i watched the second presidential debate tonight. it was alright. previously i've been pretty dead-set for obama, because early on in pols last year i compared policies, and i matched most closely with him. and also because i like his energy policies better. but after watching the debate.... i learned three things:

-barack obama is kind of an assole
-mccain is experienced and level-headed
-obama is an idealist

so basically, mccain would be the better president, regardless of policy... but i disagree with him more than i disagree with obama. so i think what i'm gonna end up doing is vote for mccain and then research the hell out of the congressional candidates for this election. cause congress writes the laws, y'know. *sighs* this does not make me happy. (for the record, i'm a liberal.)

crap! it's already 10pm. *shocked*

ETA: wow. i had no idea that this post would prompt so much discussion in just... twelve hours. i'm impressed, y'all!!!! ^___^

so, i've been up since 4am tending to a pair of male 2-day-old baby chinchillas. their mother died after giving birth sometime before saturday morning, probably due to complications in birthing, and cait volunteered- or was volunteered by her boss, i'm not clear on those details- to take the little guys home and feed them every hour or two. one of them is a bit of a runt and hasn't been able to hold his head up since yesterday evening.

i have new and increasing sympathy for mothers of newborn babies. and human babies aren't born with teeth. and evaporated milk has possibly the most noxious smell of any non-fecal matter i've ever encountered. i think i'll be breast-feeding my children, thanks all the same.

it's a painstaking process, making kinky (the bigger boy) stop squirming long enough to eat, and then holding the little guy at the right angle and gently pulling his mouth open- he can manage swallowing, barely. we've been feeding them with a dropper, and kinky can generally take a good squirt of formula milk and lick it off his whiskers, but the littler one is taking one drop and one painful, hard-won swallow at a time. they're both napping in my lap- i found the little guy sleeping upside-down on his head earlier. *eyeroll*

after the 6am feeding kinky widdled on me. little rat. *glares* he likes sitting on my shoulder. i call him kinky because there's a little kink at the end of his tail. chinchillas look kinda fun- like some kind of rat-gerbil hybrid. they have gerbil-like fluffy tails and a huge puff of fur on their heads, it makes their skulls look two or three times the actual size, SO funny. they're big, though- these guys are literally newborns and they're bigger than adult mice, about the size of a small young rat, but fluffier. i don't doubt chinchillas have color morphs, but these two are a gorgeous salt-and-pepper coloring, with white on their bellies and tails. they have really long kangaroo-like back legs, though.

oops, it's 9am- time for food, little guys!!!!

EDIT: 10:55am. the little one's dead. i fed him at 10 and curled him up with his brother on the heat pad, and when i got out of the shower he wasn't breathing anymore. *sighs* his body curled up in my hand is still warm, and it almost seems like i could be mistaken, but one look at him and it's obvious he's not breathing. still....