So far, my summer seems to be going well. I’m partipating in the eFiction Project actively for the first time in a long while, though probably not as much as I could be. (Actually, I’m probably being downright annoying.)

One of the large sites must have pissed people off again, my site has had a massive surge in visits and new authors. I keep checking my stats, but I can’t tell what site is referring them. I’m actually very glad I brought in all those extra moderators. I’m used to the sudden hush the RL/AR used to get; all this activity is a tab unnerving. ^^;

eFiction 3.0 is going to be very very cool, but I’m dreading switching us over. I’ve added so many extras there is going no easy way to upgrade. ^^;; But… ooh, it is awesome. There’s just so many new things in this release, it’s just going to be pure awesomeness. (Is that even a word??)

My Kiwi layout has hit a bump, since I don’t remember what I wanted to do with it anymore. I can’t find my original design sketch either, so I can check my plan. XD I might just trash it and work on Green tea instead.

While I’m thinking about it, I need up re-do my blog. I’ve begun posting my eFiction junk to it, which is kind of cluttering it. I also want it to have a more professional look, since I’m going to put a portfolio and my resume on it. (I probably should clean up the language too *grimace, laugh*)

For the first time in years, we have a garden. It’s nothing special, just some tomatos, strawberries, and some flowering plants that I’ve planted in pots so if I need to move again they can come with me.

Local news has me feeling a little more optimistic:

Google to bring 1000 jobs to Michigan

LANSING — High tech - and high-tech jobs — hits Michigan with Tuesday’s announcement that Google will open a facility in Ann Arbor.

At a morning press conference, Governor Granholm officially unveiled the project that will add 1,000 jobs to Michigan’s workforce.

The new facility involves Google’s AdWords unit, which handles “pay-per-click” advertising to Google’s users. To sweeten the deal, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation gave Google a high-tech business tax credit worth more than $38 million over 20 years. (more…)

I sincerely don’t want to move to Ann Arbor, that’s way too close to one of my mom’s aunts… who is just way too much like Sheba for my tastes. BUT if it means I can get a good job doing what I enjoy doing, then by the Gods of warfare — I’ll do it! (What Karla doesn’t know won’t hurt her me.)

Other than that, we’re holding on. Mom blew a tire last night on her way to work and had to get a ride from our neighbor, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The local tire shop quoted her about $80 for a new tire plus installation, but then the owner decuded ti only charge her $50. ^___^

DTE Energy keeps calling, demanding their money. Maryann still wants her $600 back, plus we keep getting letters from collection agencies for some of the bills we incured trying to get out of Alpine Medows… so we’re not out of the woods yet. The pressure has just been let up a bit.

I’m trying to work with a lady who bought one of my books off from Amazon.com. There were 4 audio chapter review CDs that came with the book and I said they were included in my post. I remember putting them in the envelope with the book and so does mom and Jasson, but apparently the CDs didn’t make it there. The envelope was apparently intact, so they didn’t fall out. *sighs* Being good, I retraced my steps to see if I lost them on the way to the post office. Nothing in lost and found. I called the publisher and distribution center to see if could buy new copies, they’re only part of a bundle deal.

I’m more than a little dubious about the whole thing. First of all, she waited a month to e-mail me and is now taking anywhere from 5 days to weeks to write me back each time. She says she absolutely has to have those CDs for her class. I’ll admit that they were helpful in allowing me to study during the eviction and while moving, but they weren’t that helpful nor essential. I have no idea what’s going on. I finally offered her a refund and it’s going on about two weeks since I last heard from her.

Mom has come right out and wondered if she isn’t trying to weasel copies of the CDs out of me so she can have two. She’s also wondered if they CDs aren’t/weren’t in the bottom of the envelope. *shrugs* Her guess is as good as mine.

I swear, if I sell anything else on Amazon — they only thing I’m writing is the book’s condition. No information on infotrac or anything extra that comes with it. And then I’m going to mummify the damned thing so nothing falls out.

Anyroad, that’s my summer so far. Much love to everyone.

Well, my english class is finally over. So far I’m getting a straight A, but lets see what happens after my final paper is graded. I wrote my proposal about geothermal furnaces and suggested that more people got them for their homes - then maybe they wouldn’t pay so much to heat their home. (I’ll post it sometime, once my grade isn’t hinging on it.) I put WAY too many quotes and citations in it, but I’m not sure how else I could put in ALL those government statistics. Of course, when dealing with government anything there’s no easy way to do it. The names of their various agencies have to contain — at minimum — 5 words? 10 words? 12 words? And the various statistics you’d think would be in just ONE place will be spread out across nearly every office in existence. >_>

So ah well, at least I didn’t try to save the world in a 7 page paper like some of my classmates. ^^;;

Tried to purchase my math book off from Amazon.com, but it looks like the bank decided our debit card didn’t exist anymore. Actually, we have no idea what’s wrong, only that we can’t check our balance or buy anything with it. So we get to call the bank tomorrow morning to figure out what’s going on. I’m really tempted to skip math this semester - I seriously didn’t want to take it anyway. The fact that it’s math aside, I really don’t want to burn $123 of my financial aid on a silly book. Not that I wanted to burn $45 on Amazon either. But damnit, just when we think we’ve finally found a bank that won’t screw with us too badly, BOOM. *shakes her head* Anyway, I’ll let mom take care of that - thank you much.

Dropping math wouldn’t be too bad either, so far I’m holding a perfect 4.0, so it’s not like I haven’t made satisfactory progress. I would be taking the exact number of credit hours I took this semester, so I wouldn’t be short there either. Besides, that would leave me with a little more time and money to concentrate on my other classes . . . and well, life in general. Seriously though — I’m dreading math. I can’t pass it to save my life and I’d REALLY like to keep that 4.0 for as long as I possibly can. But I’m running out of classes that don’t need it. All the real Web design and programming classes have it listed as a prereq, so I’m going to have to take it sometime in the next couple semesters. I really thought I’d get it taken care of right away, but the more crap I go through to get this damn book, the more I’m dreading it.

*sighs*

Found a kick ass program today, makes a wee calendar with a to-do list appear in the corner of my screen. It’s called Rainlendar - stupid name, very nice program. ^__^ Taken by a sudden urge to be fashionable, I’ve been hunting for skins sets for my other desktop programs. WinAMP is easy and so is Rainlendar, but Trillian is a bitch to find good skins for. Everything is either outdated or uses impossible-to-read fonts. Haven’t found anything I’ve really liked so far.

With finals, I haven’t had a chance to do much with eFiction other than read their forums on my breaks. I really need to edit my template so it uses HTML 4.0 Transitional instead of my usual XHTML Transitional and adhere more to their templates. I still haven’t gotten an answer back yet on how they want blocks done, so I’m going to assume they don’t want custom blocks and go from there.

I’m trying to be on chat more, but I can’t guarantee anything. I’m really not used to it anymore. Unless I’m talking with a very good friend, all I can think about is “Can’t I turn it off already?” Doesn’t help that people are just plain weird. How the hell should I know why I’m on your contact list? You’re the one who put me there. Yeah, I went and wiped out most of my contact list. Nearly killed me deleting my old Guide contacts, but I doubt I’ll probably hear from them. I rarely spoke to anyone outside EQ when I was participating, thanks to the old machine’s quirkiness. *sighs* But I miss everyone terribly. I don’t dare rejoin or even begin any new games until I’m done with school. I know myself and new games far too well.

Anyway, I think I’ve done more than enough rambling for tonight. Here’s hoping the bank didn’t just screw us over.

Well, we didn’t go to the hearing. Turns out either we weren’t supposed to or didn’t have to. *rubs her face* I don’t know anymore… I really don’t. So I’m just going to concentrate on school and not try to think about anything. Hopefully God will come through and let us stay here until we can fulfill our promises. My head just hurts trying to go over everything that’s happened in regards to this park.

So, I spent all day yesterday and today working on a quick 4th of July layout.

The title, Magnalium, is a fireworks term. It’s the most common chemical mixture used in modern fireworks (Aluminum + magnesium for those interested) and makes their colors more vibrant.

Since I really didn’t like my original floral layout, I used the same technique I used there to blend five different photos together into one unit. (A cookie to anyone who can find all five. ^_~) I made those damned stars by hand, since I couldn’t find anything I really liked to make them for me.

I’m going to start offering my sets for download once I’m done with them (Poison Paradise is already available), so my actual blog title is on a separate graphic. That way I can delete all mention of “Stone Circles” when I go to distribute it.

The textbooks haven’t arrived yet, so we’re sweating it out. The classes they’re starting us out on look like they’re going to be tough. We already have homework due on Saturday, which needs at least one of the books. -_-;; I’m really tempted to go back to Amazon.com and see if I can’t order another copy of my textbook and place it on express. Otherwise, I’m going to have to bluff my way through my homework. (That should be fun…)

I’ve done as much promotion as I can for now on my website. I’m partially hoping they’ll give me HTML programming next semester so I can MAYBE learn how to write PHP. I’d like to customize and consolodate the archives into three coheasive units, instead of having to watch and maintain the library, gallery, and oekaki separately. But, the promotion has been working. This month I’m up to 2500+ unique visitors and a gig of bandwidth. I’m probably going to have Jass get his own Photobucket account, so we can stop using our bandwidth for our LJs and forums.

Anyway, with promotion for Lunaescence as complete as I’m going to take it for now, I’ve moved on to promoting Arise. It’s hard, though. What do you say about it? What do you put when a directory wants a short description and then a long promo? For my domain, I just peek at my source, cut, and paste my site’s decription into the short one. Then, I just go into the site in depth for the large. So, I dumped Arise in a few directories and called it good until it gets going again.