my heart is a glorious machine;

Status of the house: AHHH RUN RUN PACK WASH CLEAN PACK MORE oh help. Status of my bedroom: oh help. There's a suitcase in the middle of the floor, mostly packed, but draped over with things. My bed is a nest of library books and blankets and the long chequered jacket I shed after church this morning. Oh, and a cat. Status of my brain: ...

Ah, yes: we leave on Tuesday evening, and I am still holding out a vague and trembling hope that the computer speakers I ordered from Amazon will arrive by then, but seeing as they haven't shipped yet... *sigh* Not pleased: they were in stock and still haven't shipped. Which is absurd. In better things-that-came-for-me-in-the-post news, new power cord came the other day to replace the one that went bad on me after a month, internet tells me that this is a common Dell problem. (Before you rag on Dell, I've really enjoyed this computer other than that, and some other things that really weren't its fault.) It's been powering but not charging the battery, which has made things very irritating. At first I thought this one didn't work either, but I reckon it had to get acquainted with Yvaine first, because after a day or so of not-working, it suddenly... has been. I've tested it multiple times: and oh I am so happy. Going on holiday with a laptop that must be plugged in at all times would have been beyond frustrating.

Abandoned Battlestar Galactica for two days to re-read War for the Oaks, and oh my oh my, I had almost forgotten how much I adore that book. It makes me happy and hits so many of my storytelling buttons so very well. If my first novel turns out anywhere near as marvellous, I will be well satisfied. (Okay, no I won't: I'm a writer, and we are notoriously never satisfied with our own work.) Now sucked back into space, and ack so much tensionnnnn. ADMIRAL CAIN I LOATHE YOU SO MUCH. Adama, you continue to get awesomer.

I saw some photographs of the house we'll be staying in in Cape Breton, and it looks exactly like something out of L.M. Montgomery. ♥! It's on several acres of property, and there's a lake near the house with a dock for swimming, and great masses of trees... My one regret is that I couldn't afford a nicer camera before this holiday. Alas.

She's here, she's here!

I was flailing all of yesterday, and woke up early this morning -- well, drifted to a shore of semi-wakefullness -- and thought, oh dear, my computer's coming to-day! and squirmed in delight underneath the bedclothes. (And then I drifted off to sleep again off and on for a while, because it was seven in the morning.) 

I read a bit, and did silly things along the lines of actually eating breakfast, and cleared up my desk (again), and had my earbuds in, jum[ping up to look out the window every time I heard anything that sounded remotely like a truck, wondering when in the window of our local UPS delivery time my parcel would actually be delivered -- any time between about ten and two, I believe, which doesn't narrow things down nearly enough for a neurotic, desperately eager girl who has been waiting five years or more for this moment. (I don't know when I consciously thought, I want my own computer; when we got our first, half my life ago, I was nine, and pleased enough about actually having one, and there wasn't nearly so much battle to be on it, nor things I needed to do alone, or files of mine that take up massive amounts of space...) 

Anyway, Dad came in to tell me he was going to work, which was a little odd, because usually he just shouts up the stairs to anyone who doesn't happen to be by the door when he's leaving (I mean, he does it nearly every day),  and I took off my earbuds, and he asked if I had anything exciting planned for today. "Oh, well, my computer's supposed to come today, so I'll be... doing that, mostly," I said. I seem to remember following him downstairs, for some reason. "I checked the UPS tracking, and it's in the truck for delivery right now." 

Dad said, "I don't think it's in the truck." By this time we'd reached the bottom of the stairs.

I was about to think, or say, furiously, why is everyone so pessimistic? (I've been warned several times by several people "oh, don't get your hopes up, it could be delayed, it mightn't necessarily come on Monday even though UPS says it will", and I've just been kind of like "...okay, and? Thank you for your dose of cynicism, go away!") But Mum, sitting on the couch, was smirking, and -- I think there must have been something else that cued me in? I don't even remember now. Someone may have even said, "Go look on the dining room table," which was really superlative advice, because sitting in the middle of it was a very large box.

Well, you can probably guess what that led to. (A lot of it was my mother cackling wickedly, and telling me that it had come over an hour ago, and she was sure I would have heard the doorbell and come running, but I hadn't, and she was waiting to see how long it took... *facepalm*)

So I've got her, and oh, she's ever so lovely, and I have already watched an entire film (The Illusionist) on her mostly by accident -- I meant to test the DVD player and how well things looked on the screen and forgot to, um, stop? -- and the contents of my iPod are nearly finished transferring to my roomy new hard-drive, and oh dear. I still don't quite believe that I have a laptop at all. I love the keyboard: it has a very nice firmnes; the screen is so glossy and bright and clear and sharp and not broken; everything works so quickly (well, I did pay for 3GB of RAM) and smoothly; and her dark blue glossy lid and black glossy insides are immensely pleasing to the senses. I am happy and I love her. She's elegant and sophisticated and altogether brilliant.

Her name, by the by, is Yvaine. I didn't mean to, but about two or three days before she arrived, it came to me and wouldn't go away, so that is her name, and it does suit now that I've seen her. Her rich dark blue colour may have a bit to do with it -- it isn't far from the shade of film!Yvaine's lovely blue dress -- and it's pretty and Gaimany and, well. A toast to Yvaine! 

As the more astute among you have likely noticed, I have not been especially present lately. (Which is probably an understatement.) I've been scanning the f-list and ranting a lot on Twitter, and trying to keep up with comments... sort of... mostly... but the current state of computer affairs is rather a mess. The laptop screen not only must be propped up at all times, but it's gone terrifically dark and won't be brightened unless the screen is shut to about an inch above the keyboard. And the wireless stopped working, so it's tethered to an ethernet cord in the living room, and since the computer has no battery power to speak of and is fragile as all get out (it's sort of like one of those elderly ladies who takes great joy in telling you about all of her arcane medical woes in great detail, except the computer's stories go more like, "one time I had a stroke, which led to amnesia, and a coma, so this guy who used to actually pay attention to me took me back and replaced my old brain with Ubuntu and then I was sort of better in a wheelchair-bound sort of way") -- anyway, it's not very safe or comfortable to move it to, say, the dining room table. So it's been on top of a short bookshelf for nearly a month now. I pull up a folding chair, and it's... well, it's really uncomfortable and the shelves dig into my legs and the keyboard is just slightly too high, and... It's doing the best it can. Poor thing. But you can see why this might completely unravel my ability to concentrate on things, or do anything remotely approaching a project. (Such as posts I mean to post, and pictures I mean to post especially, only I can't see them properly....) 

So that's that. Just so as you don't feel abandoned or shutnted off to the side or some such -- there's the State of the Laptop Address. I guess I could probably say that I'm on a half-hiatus until Monday.

Why Monday? Why, Monday is the day that UPS tells me that my shiny new laptop of my very very own will be arriving at my doorstep! (It's a Dell and very pretty with plenty of RAM and hard drive space and a 15.4" screen and a DVD burner, hurrah!) Yes indeed! My debit card finally showed up in the post, and I went off to activate it at the nearest ATM straightaway, and a few hours later I bought a computer, and this afternoon I recieved a shipping notification and a scheduled arrival date. I am possibly daydreaming about this constantly. Um. Yes. It will have to be named, of course, when it -- she, rather -- arrives. It's a she, I know it is, because it looks like a she, and all of my inanimate objects have been male thus far. I have a name in mind, but will have to see if it suits when I see her. (I didn't think of the name, either; it thought of itself. Harrumph. I said no fandom references!) 

And when the computer and I are united, I shall become re-acquainted with the internet (and Roller Coaster Tycoon) with a vengeance! 

Been feeling terrifically topsy-turvy of late -- more an hour-by-hour thing than "yesterday was rubbish but today is rather nice". Lots of whoosh. I don't like it very much; I'd like to be simply and effectively clear-headed. Then I feel like a rational creature and I get things done. (Although I worry that if I get too clear-headed I realise the full magnitude of sundry worries, failures, and faults, and get horribly sick ... ) 

Jonathan fixed the laptop I was using last summer, so here I am interneting in my bedroom, carefully propping up the screen with pillows, so that if the velcro stick gives way, the screen won't fall backwards and turn the computer off and possibly destroy it forever, it'll just -- slump a little. Anyway, the bedroom laptop is good, because as I recall last time things were thus, I spent less time on the internet, but got more done. (There is the initial "INTERNET!!!" phase in which one spends too much time at Tv Tropes and posts on Twitter every ten minutes, but that wanes, eventually.) I may even show up on instant message clients ever so often. You never know. (Also I am using an OS that is not Windows for the first time in my life. It is quite curious, but surprisingly not very difficult to get accustomed to.) 

But really I am hoping to get some writing done. I am writing a short story which I will not describe, because talking about anything I happen to work on seems to lead inevitably to its premature demise, but I am wavering between liking it a lot and not liking the direction it's taking (my narrator's voice isn't as good as it as it started out; I actually have no firsthand knowledge of how high school works, and since high school is, by requirement, a large part of this poor story, I am floundering miserably). At least I am writing, though, yeah? Perhaps I might even take a very very deep breath and plunge back into the Evangeline story ...

The Day Off has been a moderate success: books came in for me at the library, and I went out to fetch them -- and, ah, the local candy shop is right on the way home; it was utterly unavoidable. Look, if peppermint truffles were whispering your name, how well could you hold out? I THOUGHT AS MUCH. And I have just finished the task that I end up having every day off: cleaning the bedroom. What with work and being profoundly depressed a lot lately it has been getting into its disaster state more quickly and thoroughly than ever of late.

Is anyone else having trouble with Firefox crashing somewhat frequently? I've never had any trouble with it until just recently. Some kinks in Firefox 3 that need to be worked out, perhaps?

I should be writing about the general hobnobbing and adventures that have been going on lately, but I tried and they're so muddled together in my head (quite comfortably, sort of like my bookshelves) that I can't quite figure out which pieces go where and it's too late at night to bother, so I shall just set down some pertinent facts.