xerinmichellex

I spent a week trying to code a winter/holiday layout and failed miserably, and I'll be damned if I have a temper tantrum over a fucking LJ layout. So, I just threw this up and to hell with everything else. It's from thefulcrum; no modifications, what you see is what you get. (There are a lot of pretty, fancy layouts over there. This one may make an appearance sometime next year.)

I can't believe Christmas is 19 days away. (Although, from the weather here you wouldn't know it's supposed to be winter. We've had 60° temperatures over the past 3 days. I hope this doesn't mean a harsh winter is on the horizon.) With that in mind:

-Technically it isn't the holiday season yet because I haven't had a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks (see funky, spring-like weather above). I should rectify that. Mmmm, peppermint-y mocha. Also signs that it isn't the holidays: our Christmas tree isn't up, no snow, I don't want to strangle anyone who's blood related, and I'm not sick of seeing red, green, and white together.

-I still need to buy presents. Like, all of them. By "all of them" I mean two: one for my mom and one for my brother, both of whom have given me no gift ideas. Zip, zero, nada, nein. So guess what? GIFT CARDS FOR EVERYONE!!!

-Ovation is running their annual Battle of the Nutcrackers. (I've mentioned my obsession with The Nutcracker, right?) Compared to last year, I'm actively avoiding the marathon because anytime I hear the opening bars of "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" it triggers scenes from the Nutcracker retelling I'd thought about doing, and then I spend half an hour thinking, Well, maybe I could salvage it by...NO! No, you've put it to bed. LET SLEEPING NUTCRACKERS LIE!!! (I've also had to avoid most holiday commercials, too.) Which is okay, because I've already seen the ones they're marathoning and my favorite--the one from Germany--is not included in the line-up.

-I'm ready for the new year. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I hope the new year brings about a fresh start for anyone who needs it. I know I'm ready to leave all the crap of 2012 behind. (Pretty sure I said the same thing about 2011. Oops.)

1). Yes, another layout change. No, I don't have to explain myself to anybody.

Layout Credit: Layout made by midenianscholar at scholarslayouts (here)

2). I think I finally have my world building set after spending 5 hours looking at close-ups of Chicago streets on Google Map, checking and re-checking the neighborhood boundaries, printing out said maps, buying markers so I could outline the neighborhoods in different colors (What, Mom? There's nothing strange about a 24 year old buying coloring markers!), and yelling at myself when I outlined a wrong boundary because nobody can agree on what the boundaries are! What I'm saying, I nearly lost my eyesight (no lie, I couldn't see out my periphery and my vision blurred from staring at the computer screen for so long); but in return I've figured out how the world works, so I can stop stressing about that.

I still need to do many things in lines of engineering/machinery components. My engineering capabilities begin and end with fixing up my TV so I can record my shows on my VCR (old school VHS, FTW!). (Not that that skill will get me far anymore, since our cable provider switched all their channels to digital, so I can't even record on the VCR anymore.) However, I have some basic knowledge that will at least carry me through a first draft. All the tiny details I fix/integrate during edits.

I've also set a RIDICULOUS! deadline to get a first draft done. It's so RIDICULOUS! that there's no way I could complete it in the time frame, while maintaining my sanity. But--and I think this is where my problem has been--I haven't been as strict with myself as I was four years ago. Four years ago, I was so disciplined: I was at the computer by 10/10:30 am and I worked non-stop until about 5/6 pm. Back then, I had no problem writing a chapter or two a day. Now, I'm lucky if I get 1K. So, with this RIDICULOUS! deadline, I'd be forcing myself to just. go. and get it done. And though it's a RIDICULOUS! deadline I want to meet it because I hate to lose.

And finally 3). Guess who a). finally learned how to screencap automatically and b). because of said new skill stayed up until 3 in the morning screencapping all her Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter trailers and featurettes? ME! For no other purpose than because I COULD and I DID and now I have, like, twenty shots of the Washington Monument; but I DON'T CARE because I can finally screencap things automatically when manually it's a bitch (although, manually I'd [usually] get the shot I really wanted) and I didn't blow-up my computer in the process!

(Oh, god, I'm so screwed when AL:VH comes out on DVD.)

(Send help!)

(No, not really. I'm fine.)

(I think.)

So I made a deal with myself that, if I wrote 5K of anything, I could change my layout. I know, I know; I've changed my layout three times in as many months. But this one is my favorite (not in the least because it was stressful as hell to get the coding correct).

Here are the details:

Layout credit to songstressicons at citadel_icons; modified by me. Original can be found here.

Header and default userpic made by using a photograph copyrighted by Viona-Art; more of her stuff can be found at her website.

Also, thanks to scholarslayouts for her helpful FAQ for installing customizable layouts. I never would've tried using one without her detailed instructions.

Okay, now that I've wasted my time on that, back to writing!