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Friday, February 4th, 2005
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Another rare update...I've been reading LiveJournal a bit more lately, although I hear it's on a real downswing, so I don't know if many other people are even reading posts here... But I've been chatting with a couple of friends who have journals recently, so I figured, what the heck, I'll post an update. :-)
As usual, I'm busy with work...finishing one transcription job, with a couple more already on the way. I need the money, though...business declined markedly toward the end of last year and I'm still waiting for it to pick back up again. Unfortunately, I seem to be coming down with something...hopefully a little orange juice will fend it off...
I've gotten involved in trading concerts with people online...I really love the "weed" system, and I've picked up quite a few Yes concerts via yesfans.com. There's a surprising amount of material out there, and I'm particularly excited about the pro-shot video now traded on DVDs. Now if I could only find places devoted to my OTHER favorite bands... I'm considering setting up a Yahoo mailing list devoted to trading CDs and DVDs of progressive rock bands and the like. Not that I really needed another hobby. :-)
It's been a depressing year, snow-wise, as we're still waiting for our first significant snowfall...despite people all around us getting plenty of snow (sigh). Sometimes I think I should live elsewhere...a lake effect region would be nice...
Well, back to transcription. Tonight I'll be sorting Magic cards...hopefully Betrayers of Kamigawa will go over better than Champions of Kamigawa did!
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Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
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I haven't posted for a while, so I'm grabbing a chance today. :-) There's always more work to do, interviews to transcribe, comics to sort, cards to sort, books to sort, online obligations of various kinds to be met, etc. Of course, Hurricane Ivan added to the work recently. This house is near the top of a hill, so it doesn't really flood here, but half of the first floor is underground, and when there's a LOT of rain, it can seep in and make the carpet wet. That also includes making anything sitting on that part of the carpet wet, which included some comics and cards. D'oh! The clean-up from that took a while.
I also found out my one grandmother has terminal cancer. The funny thing is, she seems to be okay with it. Indeed, she says she knew something was going wrong, but chose not to tell anybody until it was too late. It's hard to know how to feel...we weren't really terribly close, but it's still sad to think of her passing...except that she's okay with it, which makes it seem less sad because it was her choice, effectively...
Most recently I've been dealing with virus/adware/spyware issues on my computer. There's some pernicious stuff out there! I had to reboot my computer every couple of hours because it slowed down so drastically. Installing Sygate and then following more specific instructions for getting rid of TVMedia and other things seems to have taken care of the problems (fingers crossed!).
Now it's back to transcribing again... I HAVE found a little free time in which to finally watch the Two Towers DVD I got for Christmas. I was amazed all over again. I'm surprised how many important scenes got cut from the regular versions of the Lord of the Rings movies. I only buy the extended versions on DVD because I don't want the abridged version, I want the full film. I've also been watching a Rush DVD...great filming and song selection, but the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. Oddly enough, it sounds better in stereo than it does in 5.1, which is a first!
One problem I cannot seem to rectify is my new receiver's annoying tendency to cut the first half-second off each song when playing most CDs. It does it about 75% of the time, and it's very annoying. I know it's not the DVD player or the CDs that are the problem, since they worked fine for years until I added the receiver. I was only able to find one other mention of such a receiver problem online, and that person basically said he wasn't going to worry about it because he's switching everything to DVD-A anyway. Most people seem never to have even heard of this problem, so I'm really not sure how to fix it. I'm hoping the new DVD player I eventually plan to get fixes the compatibility problem, but there's no guarantee. Ah well.
Well, I just wanted to let my LJ friends know I still exist. :-) Hope you're all doing well!
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Friday, January 23rd, 2004
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The new dentist I saw yesterday took a look at the tooth that's been hurting so badly for a few weeks now. For the last six or eight months, I've been aware of a little cavity at the back of one tooth. Unfortunately, the dentists I've seen opted to ignore it, since it wasn't hurting or anything. I kind of thought that it'd be better to fill it BEFORE it started hurting, but they just weren't interested. So now it hurts, I saw a new dentist, and I now have an appointment for a root canal next Thursday. D'oh! Ah well...
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Friday, January 16th, 2004
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Well, my friends listing kicked back in as soon as I posted an update to my journal...since it's frozen again, I guess I'd better post another update. Another editor has sent me some tapes this week...I've also begun work on the book I'll be editing. I'm swamped! A friend told me, "At least you're not getting complaints." Which I suppose is true...I can't imagine what complaints would be like. I just wish I could clone myself or something. Or at least manipulate time to give myself more hours in each day. I kinda feel like I'm overextending myself, but it's hard to turn anybody down...ah well. At least it snowed now, so it's beautiful outside rather than being brown and ugly. That cheers me up. :-)
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Thursday, January 8th, 2004
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Thank you to Amber and Saskya for welcoming me back. :-) I have a question about LJ...I've been logging on to check my friends' recent entries, but was puzzled when everyone stopped updating their journals a few days ago. That didn't seem likely, but even hitting the refresh button for my friends page didn't bring up any more recent entries. I finally went directly to a couple of my friends' journals tonight and discovered that they had, in fact, updated their journals more recently. Anybody have any idea what's going on here? I'd like to be able to go to Journal - Friends again and read all the latest updates... Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
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Tuesday, December 30th, 2003
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Hello, LJ buddies! Sorry I've been absent for so long. I'm still trying to adjust to being constantly busy. My transcription workload continues apace. In addition, I'll be guest-editing an issue of one of the magazines I'm doing transcriptions for, so that will be additional work, although I'll very much enjoy it, and am thankful for the opportunity. :-) I really don't envision myself doing transcription for the rest of my life. Heck, I'm considering upgrading my musical equipment...if there's anything to which I'd like to dedicate my life, it's music. I may get some recording equipment...I've written lots of things over the years, but they exist only in my memory or on various scattered sheets of scrap paper with musical notation hurriedly jotted upon them.
So that's what I've been up to. My fingers are crossed that I'll be able to post more often now!
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Hi, LJ folks...just checking in again, amid the blur of business and transcription that is now my life. I can't say I'm particularly satisfied with this state of affairs, but it seems to have a self-perpetuating momentum...I do feel an urge to break free of it all, though...(shrug) I hope everybody is doing fine and enjoying the summer. And I hope to finally find enough free time (ha!) to post something more often than every couple of months.
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Yes, I still exist...but I've just been way too busy to keep up with LiveJournal. The enormous amount of transcription work combined with my store being busier than typical this year (which, mind you, is a GOOD thing) has kept me too busy for anything extra. Not to mention from having a life, d'oh! You know, I used to be in the "time but no money to do anything fun" category instead of the "money but no time to do anything fun" category...seems like ya can't win... Anyway...I hope all my LiveJournal friends are doing well! :-)
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Wednesday, February 26th, 2003
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Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted to the journal. I've just been totally swamped. I just finished a rush transcription and have another on the way tomorrow, as well as a semi-rush transcription and another of those in the mail as well. Once I finish those, I have another six tapes of non-rush material. I'm also putting a proposal together for a production company (tonight's project). I have to tackle the monthly order form for my store by Tuesday, and I have a doctor's appointment Friday. I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed... Heck, my DVD drive quit working and I don't have time to figure out how to fix the darned thing.
Then yesterday a new kitty showed up at the door. She was very skinny and her tail was full of ice and snow. How she got here, I don't know. She's not yet fully grown and so is full of pep and energy. She's a tiger-striped calico with a white stripe on her underbelly, white front feet, and white back legs, so she's very striking to look at. Unfortunately, the other two cats (especially Gooby, who's a scaredy-cat and easily upset) are not too happy about the new addition. Poor Gooby's been hiding most of the time. I hope she'll get used to the new kitty soon. Heck, I hope I have a name for the new kitty soon. :-)
So that's what's new with me...if I don't post again for another month, it's because I'm either still totally swamped or all the work has finally killed me. :-)
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Friday, February 7th, 2003
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Well, I'm going to be quite busy for the next few weeks...my main editor finally sent me ten tapes he needs transcribed (and yay, he's found 100-minute tapes somewhere...grrr...), and one of my other editors really wanted me to do a transcription for him, so I have three more tapes on the way. Meanwhile, a national magazine has expressed an interest in publishing some articles (the editor was interested in almost all of the ideas I pitched to him, actually), so I may also be researching and writing those as well. Yikes! With all this work, I wonder if I'll find time to watch the DVDs I got for Christmas before THIS Christmas rolls around. :-) Fortunately I can work on these things while still keeping an eye on my store!
Anyway, that's why I've been kind of scarce...not much time for reading LJ entries and responding, though I'm taking a bit of a break this afternoon. This could be an interesting year for me, it appears...
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Monday, January 27th, 2003
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Thank you all for the kind words and good wishes! Gooby JUST showed up...here she was inside the house the whole time...it appears she somehow injured her leg and decided to hole up somewhere, as cats are wont to do when they're injured. So the good news is, she's back! Bad news is, she's injured...but this is definitely better news!!
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Gooby has disappeared. She got outside and nobody realized she hadn't returned all day until late tonight. Of course, it's very cold out and we got a teensy bit of snow. I did find cat tracks outside just now, but no sign of Gooby... I hope she found someplace warm to stay, but I'm quite worried. :-(
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Sunday, January 19th, 2003
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Well, it looks like the missing message is not going to make an appearance, so I'll try again. This year has been pretty darned uneventful for so far, although maybe that's not a bad thing. I haven't had much to say recently because, well, nothing has been happening, and I've been kind of in emotional neutral or something and thus lacking the emotional extremes that often provide impetus for journal postings.
I'm about to become very busy, though...I spent much of the past week preparing the latest comprehensive update to the D&D monster file posted at my website...the project became much bigger than I expected, and I ended up interviewing the writer of Kenzerco's monster books (the interview will be posted with the update), and both the writer and the company provided their exclusive production files for me to use for research purposes. Sometimes a project takes on a life of its own. :-) Now, if only scrolling through Excel didn't trigger my motion sickness...
At any rate, it's a good thing I have that largely finished, because not only is my regular editor sending me three interviews to transcribe, and not only has my newer editor sent me an interview this very weekend, Friday I was contacted by yet another editor. He'd heard great things about my transcribing skills (he said my regular editor told him that I'm the best transcriber the company has), and has three tapes for me (an interview with Alan Moore, actually, probably the best writer in the business). It's nice to know that my work is being appreciated! I have to be careful not to take on too much work at a time, I guess...but it's hard for me to turn anybody down. Still, with upward of ten tapes either here or on the way, I'm liable to be pretty swamped for a while. I hope I haven't overextended myself!
So apologies in advance if I respond less frequently to comments in journals...I'm probably frazzled and out of it and up against a deadline and couldn't formulate an intelligible response anyway. :-) I hope all my LJ friends are having a good (or at least better) year so far!
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Saturday, January 18th, 2003
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Well, I wrote a nice, long entry to my journal, which it claimed was successfully updated but gave me a blank screen...however, when I attempted to read it, no entry appears...which means the whole thing vanished into the aether (sigh)...:-( Well, I'm not typing the whole thing up again...who knows, maybe it will magically appear from nowhere or something. Suffice to say that thanks to an increased transcribing workload, I'm going to be very busy for a while...
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Friday, January 10th, 2003
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It appears the illness from the other night was indeed a brief one and I successfully fought it off (thank goodness!). It's nice to have my brain functioning again. :-) Although I'm still getting headaches...strange... Anyway, thanks to all my friends for the good wishes, I really appreciate it!
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Wednesday, January 8th, 2003
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I've been wondering as today's gone on why I've been getting progressively less and less mentally coherent and why my mood's been getting kind of weird...and then why I started to get sleepy much earlier than usual... Now my throat is burning and my nose is getting runny, and I fear I have my answer. D'oh! I hate being sick... Here's hoping I'll somehow fight it off overnight and feel better tomorrow...blech...
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Friday, January 3rd, 2003
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Well, the new year is here at last...it rang in kind of badly, with tons of rain on Wednesday. I hate rain, particularly in the winter when it (a) could be snow, which I LOVE, and (b)it melts whatever snow IS there. Kind of depressing, but I held onto my hopes that this will be a (gasp!) good year and didn't let myself get too down. Now today it's snowing again! Woo-hoo! We've already had much more snow this year than we had all of last year. So I'm pretty cheery in general. :-)
I haven't posted anything in so long because, well, things have pretty much managed to be both busy and uneventful at the same time. Now that things are back to normal, I expect more interesting things to be happening once again...hopefully GOOD things. :-)
In the meantime I want to send out a thank you to all of my LJ friends...I may not have many, but you're all very special to me and I value your contributions to my life!
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Wednesday, December 25th, 2002
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It's still snowing...yikes! I've really enjoyed today...and it's a good thing, because this may never happen again! To be able to sit there with the family, opening gifts...and to glance outside the window and not only see snow, not only see PLENTY of snow still decorating all the trees, but to see it actually snowing even as I watched...my ultimate Christmas dream! :-) The only thing better was watching my sister's kids enjoy their gifts. So what do you know? A truly wonderful Christmas. Dare I hope this is the start of a lucky streak? Perhaps 2003 will be a decent year? Okay, I know that's not terribly realistic, but hey, after today, anything's possible. :-)
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Yay! After all these years I finally got the only thing I ever say I want for Christmas...snow!! We have at least eight inches and it's still coming down, even though it quit snowing a few hours ago just west of here...the storm kind of came to a halt while it re-intensifies. Lucky us!! :-)
So I'm happy. :-) We're having out traditional family get-together despite the weather...I got to go out driving in the snow with Christmas music playing on the radio. It was so perfect! :-)
Christmases don't get any whiter than this, I daresay... And this makes us three for three for snowy holidays. This is definitely a Christmas to remember. And heck, nobody's even opened any gifts yet. Although I guess I got my biggest gift of all. :-)
I hope everybody else out there is having a great Christmas, too!
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Tuesday, December 24th, 2002
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Christmas Eve...no snow, but a Nor'easter predicted for overnight into tomorrow...which the Weather Channel says could drop two FEET of snow in some areas. Yow! Well...I guess if we do get snow, I can't complain about travel problems...not after all these years of telling people all I want for Christmas is snow. :-)
Nephew Adam was sick over the weekend and has stayed here for the past couple of days. He's good now, but niece Ashley is really sick and throwing up today, and her father is suffering the same ailment (and today's his birthday!). Poor Ashley...sad to be a kid and so sick on Christmas Eve. :-( Hopefully she'll feel much better tomorrow!
Things have been pretty uneventful lately. Customers have been almost completely absent for the last week and a half, probably because all roads leading here now have "road closed ahead" signs because they're installing pipes at the intersection just down the road. This means that it's impossible to get here from two directions, and the only direction that DOES work has a sign warning people away. D'oh! So I'm missing out on people shopping for Christmas gifts (sigh). Hopefully they'll finish it in time for people to spend their Christmas money here... Why's it taking them so long in the first place? Sheesh!
At least I closed that Magic card deal online...thank goodness for the Internet! Also, that new editor contacted me again last night and has another interview he'd like transcribed, so that's good news.
I never did figure out that mp3 conversion thing...I think I should probably just download the older version of Winamp, Winamp3 seems to be full of bugs.
Merry Christmas to all my wonderful LJ friends, I hope you all have a great day tomorrow! :-)
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suchasun's journal
cheerful.