This makes sense. I'm glad she admitted to it too. I can now finally say that somebody else out there has to also keep their fingers busy if they want to concentrate on something boring.

I like to read the little TomGeeks comic strip from time to time, but I doubt I'll ever frequent the forum again. Tried twice, both times ended with some girl being snarky. Tends to be a problem on "female and proud" boards.

Oh well, I find it's best to ignore females under the age of 65. My neighbor encourages me to get out more often, but I can't really get the interest up for it. Never had much luck with people my age. It always ends up with me being called "weird", "freak", and anything I say being dismissed as unimportant because I'm "unusual" or "out there". Or so how it goes with those who consider themselves less intelligent than me. Those who consider themselves smarter than me dismiss me because I'm too "sheltered" for them to bother with. I don't really understand it. I'm more interested in playing games, telling jokes, or enjoying the outdoors than to bother with a round of Who's Better. Which is why I try to visit my neighbor every so often.

Besides, she's a feisty Catholic widow. Her dog is absolutely adorable, but I know she enjoys having some human company. We fuss about the landlord, the current generation, the medical system, and the strange language barrier we have. She's from a state directly north of mine. Indiana or Michigan, I think. Maybe a bit to the left and from Illinois instead. One of those states where they pronounce every consonant in a word and use short syllables. Down here, nah-ah. Some of our words will lose a few syllables, some will gain a few, and some words will have extra emphasis on a syllable than it should. Her favorite example is "business". Our pronunciation? "Biiiiiiz-nss." Heheh. I struggle with "husband". It turns into "huuuus-b'nd". Another funny language blooper is simple phrases. Around here, it's common to here somebody say "I'm fixin' to go to the store". My neighbor says it threw her for a loop the first time and she thought they believed the store was broken. I'll admit some stuff makes me raise an eyebrow too, I'm just lucky enough to have grown up around it so I usually know what they mean. Although phrases like "Monday week" throw me off. Last I checked, Monday only lasts for a day, not a whole week. Oh well. Anywho, I try to modify my accent a bit around her and actually pronounce things properly. Being silly is much more effective if they understand you on the first go. She gets quite a kick out of my plans as an old woman. I will be the cookie grandma! Yup. That's my goal when I get old. I want to be that little old lady with the baked goods.

I really don't see why some of the other tenants don't like her. She can be fun to be around. Well, I do understand it, I just think it's a dumb reason. She's a 30-year veteran of eight operating rooms. She is military-strict about keeping her apartment clean and she has no acceptance towards smoking, drinking, and especially towards illegal stuff, and she prefers there to be as little violence in the area as possible. Big deal. I can't blame her for wanting people to show some civility and actually be responsible with their lives and surroundings. If somebody gets way too loud or starts crossing aline, she's not shy about calling the police. So I hear. It hasn't happened in my few months here. But apparently there have been some nasty arguments before that needed some help being broken up. Fine by me, I'd rather not find out the hard way if somebody is trigger happy around here.
Similarly, she asks me often if her dog is a disturbance. The little guy is quite well behaved, so there's no worries. In fact, I don't mind his barking. If he's doing his "oh I'm having so much fun" bark once a week or so, I know she's fine. Thankfully he hasn't done his "uh oh" bark yet. Every so often he'll growl at the big dogs that roam around here, but that's few and far between.

I just hope I'm as much a delight to her as she is to me. Her company is rather comforting right now and she even dropped by one day simply because she hadn't seen me outside in a while. Another reason why I started visiting. Didn't want to worry the ol' gal. This whole "good neighbor" thing is pretty new to me. =)

As soon as I get around to scanning in and editing the current pages, I'll be three weeks ahead of schedule. Haven't accomplished that in months.

Mookie of Dominic Deegan recently announced he'll be ending the story a year from now. That will mean he had an eleven year run. Dang. Not bad if ya ask me. It's been a good read so far and I'm curious as to how he'll end it. Being a bit of a hopeless romantic, I know it'll end on a happy note. I like happy endings.

Mine has a planned run of eight years. I reckon that means there's have a minimum of another five and a half years to go before I get to the current stopping point. Not that the story fully ends there. I'm fiddling with the original storyline from 2004 and seeing if I can't rework it to a more tasteful arc. Believe me when I say it was very scary anime. Maybe six years from now a certain brain-dead fandom will be gone so I can release it without a hassle.

Ah, reminds me, I went exploring yesterday! I'm still really skittish about being around strangers for extended periods of time and the laundromat had three other people in it. So I decided to check out the neighborhood.

Dropped by the library. It's a small library, but we're a small town. Honestly, the only big library I've ever been in was one in Rome, Georgia. Or near Rome. It's been a while, so I don't rightly remember. But I like our little library. I was surprised to see it full of Macs. Even more surprised that there were quite a few people in there. A big plus over the library close to where I grew up. Back when I went there, it was normal for there to maybe be one other person in there when I was. I didn't rent any books though. It was a bit of a recon mission, if you will. I might go back for one book. Some animal fantasy book about a badger warrior who must unite the local woodland rodents against... I forget. Other rodents? It looked like it would be a good story, whatever it was. Should've wrote down the author's name.

Found the community park! Disappointing. It was just a playground, not actually a park. It'll be a ton of fun for my son when he's a few years older, but it wasn't what I was looking for. About four or five soccer and baseball fields, a swimming pool, two jungle-gym playgrounds, and some bike and skateboard area. I didn't see a walking trail or anything that I'd constitute as a real park.

But on the bright side, if we're still in the area a few years from now, I have a way to entertain my son. Take him down to wear himself out and get as dirty as he pleases, take him by the shaved ice stand afterward if I have some spare change, and then take him home for a bath. Or let him go swimming before we go home. I think he might like that. I know what few times I got to do that as a kid I loved it, as did other kids I knew. I'm sure there will be some accusations about how I'm a bad mom for not hoarding him in the house lest the evil sun fry him to a crisp, but I'll be keeping sunscreen and water on hand, so I'm not worried about him. Maybe he'll even get lucky and make a few friends. Good friends, not the "do what I say or you're not "my best friend"/"in my club"/etc. kind. Those kids are bloody annoying. I always found somebody better to hang out with or just played by myself when those kids came around. And they never offered anything in return! If somebody is going to do what you want, it's only fair you then do something they want. Otherwise you're just a pimp.

Near the park was one of the other two plants in the area. A tidbit scary. You could see a large, blazing fire from the road. (Ignore the fact the road was about two feet from the building.) Well, I think it was fire. It was either fire or lava. Why do I say lava? It's a steel plant! Granted, lava is molten rock and a steel planet deals in molten metal, but it's more fun to say it was lava. Heehee. Thankfully every huge door and window was wide open. I'd hate to think what it would be like for those poor workers if it wasn't.
Right across the road from it was a stove company. Mighty convenient for them, no? "Hey Bob, got a sheet of metal for this wood burning heater?" "No, gimme a sec and I'll get one from next door."

Hrm, maybe my husband has good reason to threaten to have my head examined.

Anywho, running around all over the place was enough time for the laundromat to clear out so I could do my laundry and read in peace. Current book is Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I only found out within the past few months about the book. I grew up watching the movie from 1980. It really is a sweet little book. I have an odd fascination for books written in the late 1800's. Dunno why.

889 pageloads today on the Comic Dish mirror, according to StatCounter. Dang. That's definitely a record for the comic. I'm sure it'll be broken again if I get a few new readers a year or two from now. The archive presently has 240 pages not counting the chapter covers, so if a new reader dropped by and plowed through they'd easily bump up the stats for a day.


I really wish I knew a good way to help my husband destress. I understand WHY he's stressed and it's not unexpected. There's a lot resting on him. First-time father, his wife currently completely dependent on him financially since she's out-of-commission for a few years (by choice, neither of us want our son in daycare), and work. Of course, work wouldn't be considered work if it wasn't frustrating, stressful, and generally unpleasant to do.

Researching and asking around doesn't really help because I already know the general suggestions. Don't take the anger bursts personally, take over their household chores (although he has none, it was our agreement that if either of us had to stay home then they would maintain the house), make or buy special treats they enjoy, give them a massage, etc. Already doin' that stuff, although the handling of anger bursts could be better. By nature I'm confrontational and aggressive, so sometimes it gets a bit... tense. Eh, it's a work in progress.

I think most of the problems will die down soon. His boss says he's going to put him on night shift after his probation period is up, which will really help since he's nocturnal. And once the baby is here he'll be able to get into the routine of having the baby around and see first-hand we'll both be fine as parents. So perhaps just a few more weeks and all will be good. =)

May 23rd. Today is the first estimated date I got. Well, as it's presently 11:30 PM, it's safe to say that's a no-go.

May 24th, tomorrow, is my main estimation. While I can feel and see a lot of preparation, I'll be surprised if anything happens.

May 28th is the "set in stone" one according to the jackass that thinks a resting heart rate of 132bpm is nothing to worry about.

May 30th is the begrudging estimation from the guy that wasn't happy he was mislead by how internal the baby was and had to admit I wasn't lying about when I conceived.

Mid-June is the final estimation from the same guy that was mislead by how internal the baby was and said I was lying about when I conceived.


So, ANY DAY NOW!

Preferably without any more weird bouts with insomnia. The past two nights my hips have done a really good job at keeping me up. About the time I get ready to doze off, a bone will start throbbing and I have to change positions. Rather bothersome. Changing positions at night has given me a steady limp for the past few months since my muscles still haven't adjusted to the extra 20-25 lbs I've put on. So after 46 hours of being kept up, I finally was able to get in six hours of sleep. Felt pretty good.

Another strange development is now a very audible pop from the back of my hips. I'm used to creaky joints. Fingers, toes, wrists, ankles, elbows, knees, collar bone, spine, hips, jaws, all quite normal to hear snaps and pops from. (Makes it bloody hard to sneak up on people sometimes.) But my BUTT?? Maybe a little bit from those waiting room chairs from past office jobs, but with everything unhinged I'm getting some loud bone feedback now. It's weird. I'll be glad when things start fusing back together. 0__o;

I finally, finally found the screen that let me close my Paypal account! Took clicking on "close account" across four different screens along with an essay on why Paypal sucks, but I finally got the stupid thing CLOSED. Now to give it a few days to clear the system and I can put that email address into use again. This time I'll be setting it up with my art name since now I know Paypal likes to send copies of your data to everybody you do a transaction with. I don't want to know where the people who commission me live and I really don't want them to know where I live!

Art
I've done two art trades lately. Oddly enough, they were both under the same timeframe I'd have if I'd done it through MAX. Well, MAX has a definite deadline. Private trades tend to be whenever we feel like getting stuff done, but it ended up being under a two-week basis anyway.

First one, I drew for TantzAerine and she drew Kadin for me.

Second one, I drew for Sinako777 and he drew Jakko for me.

I've noticed a problem with the things I draw leaning to the right. I need to start practicing more again.


School
Ordered my books for my summer semester. Not sure when it starts. Roughly around May 30th, I think, but it might be sometime in June.

First class is Microcomputer Applications.

This course is an introduction to the most common microcomputer software applications. These software packages should include typical features of applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets, database management, and presentation software. Upon completion, students will be able to utilize selected features of these packages.

The books? "Microsoft Office 2010: Introductory" and some random project book. So "Microcomputer Applications" is a fancy title for "Microsoft Office Crap Again". Ugh. I hate Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is an easier program. Why? Menus! None of that button crap. Can't anybody read anymore? Dumb question, I know. Nobody can spell anymore either. Grammar, punctuation, and proper use of capitalization is completely out of the question too.

Second class is some weird "Orientation to College" class.

This course is a graduation requirement for all degree or certificate-seeking students, and it should be completed during a student’s first semester enrolled. The course emphasizes personal responsibility through the exploration of campus regulations, campus facilities, and student services. It is also designed to help students develop effective study skills, critical thinking, and career goals. Upon completion of this course, students should be prepared to successfully manage learning experiences to meet educational and career goals.

So basically, "don't cheat, do your homework, no drugs or misbehaviour while on campus, here's how we will help you, here's how we won't, and this is what your punishment will be if you do such and such" and probably some promises they have no intentions of keeping. Been there, done that, I'm probably not going to pay attention.


Dreams
Going through an odd stage again where my dreams are very vivid and for the first hour or so if I'm able to lay in bed instead of jump up I can remember more than just the general feelings I felt during the dreams. Thankfully most of them are boring adventures, or where I'm at a great feast with hundreds of dishes that all taste very good (And actually taste different. Some like to claim you only taste one thing and see in one color when you dream, but I tend to have a full spectrum on both.), and not so many violent ones. This also works out well for my husband, because I've been told multiple times in the past from more than one person that I'm not safe to be around when I'm asleep. Heehee.

What? YOU have big teeth, sharp claws, knives, bombs, guns, monsters, demons, dragons, falling boulders, and submerged trees on a regular basis and we'll see how still you stay at night! I'm finally up to winning or at least pulling the fight to a draw in over half of the violent dreams now. I used to lose, and usually die, in all of them.

One of the funniest ones I was being chased by... something. I don't remember what, but it had lots of teeth. Mid-chase I got really angry, stopped in the middle of the field, stamped my foot and shouted "Wake up NOW!", and it actually worked. I kinda lay there in shock for a bit before having a good laugh and going back to sleep. Second dream was safer.

The adventures are some of the best. Exploring jungles, caves, and the outdoors in general is great. Been in space a few times, but the ship always blew up or the planet went to war. Flying isn't so much fun, I usually end up in power lines or thunder clouds. Swimming is tricky. Sometimes I go too deep and nearly drown before finding out I can breathe underwater. Not a fan of swimming and flying. Shapeshifting dreams are great. Body-switching dreams are... weird. I'll start off seeing somebody from a distance and then the next thing I know I'm looking through their eyes. Really freaky when it's somebody I know. Lots of fun when it's an animal. Downright strange when it's one of my characters. Shanku's only 5'8" as an adult, but when I meet her she's always 6'6"+. Maybe her wingspan is throwing off my sense of height?

They say pregnancy is supposed to make you have weird dreams. Mine have run their usual gauntlet. The only thing new is sometimes I'm taking care of my son as a baby or teaching him when he's a kid. *shrug* One time I did dream he was made of Legos. That's been the only weird one. But I'll take a Lego baby over a lot of the other things that I could be dreaming about.
Oh, yeah, blood is new. My dreams are finally spewing blood. Not cool. I could deal with them a lot better when it was just muscle, guts, and bones. Now we have the liquid factor. Yuck.

Finally fixed a few navigational glitches on Raven-Wing.net and updated the sitemap.

Also finished chapter twelve and got it uploaded.

I'm trying to make all the chapters available for download, but it's not easy. The PDF creator I've got is glitching almost constant nowadays. I'll tell it to change the "paper" size to 7"x8", but it wants to change it to a C5 size. Normally I'd be able to ignore their annoying pop-up that refuses to be minimized and always stays on top of ANY active window and their annoying extra pop-up of more advertising of their junk with an IE window (what moron defaults their program pop-ups to IE?), but my patience is wearing thin. Earlier today I forgot to double-check their shoddy printing and ended up losing half of my receipt where I ordered my books for school today. Quite annoying.

Anywho, all of the chapters are currently available on the Extras page. So as of right now, you have a chance to read next week's update early! (People on Drunk Duck probably already have. The Duck's system glitched again.)

One guy was fussing a bit about the downloads only being in pencil. *shrug* These downloads are higher resolution than the online pages since they're my print-ready pages. That's why they're only in pencil right now. I won't be able to put out the colored version for a long time. And that bugs the heck outta me. I don't even have chapter one fully colored! Ack! Oh well, someday, someday...

Right now I'm scripting out chapter thirteen. It's mostly finished. Still have no clue what to do about the chapter cover.

World of Warcraft, I reckon. It makes my husband happy and I enjoy the game too. It's one of our odd ways of bonding.

I took a six-month break and just recently started playing again. My main character is a Troll Hunter, but I haven't touched her since I started playing again. Mostly I've been focusing on a Tauren Druid, Worgen Hunter, and Dranei Mage. Got a Dwarf Rogue I'm gonna finish at one point.

Last class, thank goodness.

And it was the scariest class. "Postpartum care". More like "Nightmare on Elm Street" if you ask me. Tour of the hospital and shown the gear that would be used on us. I am NOT looking forward to the two-day prison sentence. I've got my work cut out to keep him safe, that's for sure. Maybe the three of us will luck out and these people won't be as bad as they keep bragging they are, but I'm expecting a full fight and at least one person to get decked. Whether because they try to take my son away or that bimbo is going to be trying to crush my stomach after I deliver, I'm not sure. Perhaps both. Preferably neither will happen.

The only good thing that came from this week was finally getting a timeframe on when the baby could take a full bath. Easy enough. No tub baths until all his open places heal up.

If you're not allergic to any of it or something, that is -> http://www.momswhothink.com/quick-and-easy-dinner-recipes/greek-style-pasta.html

I had to do some improvising though because I have to shop at Save-a-Lot. Some ingredients weren't available. Like, using mozzarella instead of feta cheese. BUT, improvisations aside, it was good!


The movie is Ong Bak 1, 2, and 3. I think it's completely set in Thailand, so if you don't like subtitles, maybe not the movie for you. The first one I came across was 2. Helluva tear-jerker at the end, although it was the fight scenes that made me track down 1 and 3. Never heard of the Muay Thai fighting style before, but man is it beautiful to watch! A little painful to watch too. Lots of elbows and knees.
I liked 2 and 3 much more than 1, and I think they were a bit of a prelude to 1. 3 was definitely the funniest because of the poofy-haired guy that was... mentally off? Very sweet, very simple, and had some great lines.

...I'm horrible at reviewing movies. Anywho, muscles, blood, some humour, a little love and emotional depth, and a touch of Buddhism. I'd watch 'em again. =)