crosshaire

Some folks mentioned on Twitter how tonight's especially cold.

I've been caught up in finding Mylene Farmer songs, so here is one that should be particularly warming: Mylène Farmer - L'amour n'est rien (English subtitles), "Love is Nothing."
(EDIT: I hate to mark it as such, because I really think the song's pretty and the video's classy--but well, NSFW. :P Especially after about a minute in.)

I love how the song's part nursery rhyme and part commentary; cute and playful and even a little coy. Mylene exudes so much natural confidence that she could command a battleship in the nude. She looks and sounds like she's genuinely having fun throughout the entire song and she invites the listener/viewer to do the same. Talk about charisma.

It's a very different feel from Lady Gaga. Both are highly theatrical performers, very smart, but Mylene is much...gentler? More empathetic? Socially aware? Classier? Something.

Let's see, smart crazy cute beautiful-no-ultra-hot French singer with red hair and voice to die for? Does that sound like anyone else I'm crushing on? HMMM. (dragon age) *cough* (leliana) wheee!

Anyhow, I don't know what I'm getting at here, but I'm grasping at some sort of theory. Just not sure what it is yet. :P

**

Mylène Farmer "Appelle mon numéro" is safer. Moderately so, anyhow. ^_-

Sorry for the long absence folks. It's actually been a rough couple of months, for various reasons that I won't go into. Just personal stuff, nothing having to do with family or friends really. :P

Then I've been sucked into being a damn Tweep or Twit on Twitter or whatever it is that it's called. It's hard to have coherent rambling in 140 char. or under. Often that's a good thing, I'm sure, but it's...limiting.

On top of that has been the unyielding obsession with Dragon Age.

So I promise to get out very late New Year's cards at some point to certain people. :)

Pictures under the cut. Amazing how makeup & hair color can make someone look completely different. And yes, depending on the light/angle/distance, she'll look like three different people as well! :P

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Latest version. Nearly there. I gave up on my other ideas. After I made the comparison image under the cut, I realized how different my version is from the original. OH WELL!

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...at least I'll stop obsessing over remaking Leliana's face. Maybe.

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but I am obsessed. Been poking around the Dragon Age Origins toolset to see about changing Leliana's face.
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OMG I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN NEARLY A MONTH!!! bleh

Late night football games, both high school and UH, have taken a toll. Lots of other stuff happening at work too.

Got first Ebates payment via Paypal last month. It was only $12, but I'm happy to see it working smoothly.

Also got Dragon Age Origins (PC) in the mail recently, and been completely distracted with that.

Screenshots!


My entry-level rogue character Tierce Cousland, left, and her mabari war-mutt Sausage.


NPC Daveth, with my rogue character Tierce Cousland, discussing a flower found in the Kocari Wilds. The flower may have beneficial effects against darkspawn taint.

I can already feel myself becoming obsessed... :P

**
Below from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tierce

tierce (tîrs)
n.
1. also Tierce (tîrs) or terce or Terce (tûrs) Ecclesiastical
a. The third of the seven canonical hours. No longer in liturgical use.
b. The time of day appointed for this service, usually the third hour after sunrise.
2. A measure of liquid capacity, equal to a third of a pipe, or 42 gallons (159 liters).
3. Games A sequence of three cards of the same suit.
4. Sports The third position from which a parry or thrust can be made in fencing.
5. Music An interval of a third.
[Middle English, from Old French, from feminine of tiers, third, from Latin tertius; see trei- in Indo-European roots.]

Flash flood warning. It was gorgeous earlier, but that was just the "calm before the storm."
Now it's pouring buckets.
Skipping stair workout tonight.
I really should just accept that if I miss my morning workout, it's not getting done. :P
Therefore, I can't miss it in the morning.
Gotta sleep earlier tonight and wake earlier. Maybe there'll be a break in the rain tomorrow before work.
@_@

Wrote this for a friend, perhaps you all reading this can also benefit if you're so inclined.
Setting up Bing cashback account and reading through all the rules is a pain, but once it's set up, here's how I've been able to stack cashback on eBay purchases through Bing cashback and Ebates.
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The biggest caveat to using Bing's 8% cashback for eBay purchases is that your're currently limited to just 20 eBay transactions per eBay account. So it's probably best to save those for bigger purchases.

I have read that if you use Bing for purchases from other sites, the keyword you search with affects the amount of cashback you get. For instance, "shampoo" and "soap" may turn up different rebate amounts from the same storefront. THIS IS JUST A RUMOR I HAVE NOT CONFIRMED. Would be interesting to see if it's for real though. These sites are always changing their rebate amounts. o_O

Posting here so I can remember what my strategy was for this particular level.
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From Patrick.net: Interesting take on current housing prices, including the idea that higher interest rates are more ideal.

Still doing Wii Fit, though I've "graduated" to the Plus version. It has the ability to set up a personal routine which is awesome--now for the next version, WF++, I'd like to see the ability to set up multiple routines, turn off the trainer voice, keep the training cues and use my own music! Would be nice if the routines could incorporate the activities too, not just the strength and yoga exercises.

Today's a strength maintenance day, if I can get off my butt. At least the laundry's done.

Wheee...finished the first run-though of PvZ's adventure mode!
On 2nd play-through: Crazy Dave--item salesman & hint-giver--makes you use three plants he's selected. You pick the remaining five or six.
There are a ton of awesome mini-games too...too many...zzz...

Tried reinstalling from Microsoft Windows Update. Same problem with high tones clipping & overwhelming the system. Disabled "enhancements" in Sound panel. That seemed to help! Now getting good sound AND the tone controls software work. (Quick launch tone control keys still don't seem to work though.)

Also, it appears the mute button is back to normal, showing red when muted. o_O

Only the Digital Persona Windows logon tone seems to be overwhelmingly LOUD... but I guess that's okay. @_@

Mute button stopped changing color. It's supposed to be red=mute and white=sound. Still works, though. Is this because of the BIOS update? blargh.

Just uploading my brain right now. :P

... not a BIOS update, switched back to the old one and that didn't fix the problem.
...also not Microsoft Visual Basic C++ 2005 Redistributable, or Avira.

Speaking of Avira, it keeps finding two HP files to be viruses. They're actually false positives as far as I can tell, and even adding them to the Exceptions list doesn't seem to avoid them on the next scan. Have switched to AVG for the time being. Wish I could run Avast! without issue, though. Boot-time scan FTW. :P

If anyone has any freeware antivirus suggestions, lemme know...

Also, I haven't installed a firewall to block outbound connections on Win 7 yet. Just using the built-in Windows Firewall & Defender. What are you all using these days?

Up all day/nite trying to figure out why ImageReady 2.0 and Photoshop 5.5 wouldn't work properly on my laptop under Windows 7 Home Premium, although they work perfectly on my old laptop under Windows 7 (Ultimate) RC1 without adjustment.
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Looking forward to a couple of six-day workweeks, whee! :P

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...but not the stuff that I really should be doing...



DX = Dealextreme.com
Because I can't resist cheapish Chinese made goods. :P

But I would only hesitantly recommend sku. 27156, the black mouse in the middle. It has a "rubberized" coating that feels nice and the shape is convenient for left or right handers. Tracking sensitivity is also comparable to the Kensington and Logitech mice. It works fine on light-colored kitchen tables, for instance. Resolution leaves a lot to be desired, however.

The two tiny ones to the left are a waste of cash--they don't track at all on light-colored surfaces; the retractable cord is iffy; the scroll wheel doesn't protrude enough for easy use; and they're are far too small except for little children. Resolution is just as bad as the black mouse, probably around 800dpi, which not that great for heavy mouse use. The only thing I really like about them is the glowing blue LED light refracting out of the translucent scroll wheel.

They are kinda fun because they're so small, though. Fun for short periods of time, that is.

Lesson learned: best to purchase a mouse at the local shop. The Kensington and Logitech mice have battle scars but still work fantastic.

A true scientist always experiments on herself first!
Not that I'm a scientist in any sense of the word, but when you're lacking guinea pigs... *oink*

Ate a couple chunks of ginger and had Bii put me on an Xbox 360 and (somefreakinhuge) LCD TV to play Left 4 Dead. Got into the second room and nope, couldn't do it.

She took the controller, started running around gleefully and blam instant nausea on my part.

"Are you sure it's not like, the placebo effect?" she asked. xD

Ginger was most certainly not the magic panacea I'd hoped for, but it did help a little. >_>;

*~*~*~*

In other news, the laptop is HERE! Everything seems good so far...except that the 90w charger comes with a power connector that's different from the one used for HP's (previous?) standard 90w "Smart" power charger. It's also different from ALL the tips included in my generic universal 120w power charger. DAMN HP & ANY MANUFACTURER WITH PROPRIETARY POWER CONNECTORS! 90w power oughta come with a 90w standard connector! Ugh.

I'm going to be really pissed off if the stock charger starts burning up like the one for my Compaq did because HP thought it would be a good idea to give new buyers an underpowered power brick. This one seems to be getting pretty hot under load. Maybe I ought to call right away and see if they'll send me a 120w brick instead--looks like the next model up uses a 120w with the same power connector. >:P