Bridgie

I do not like my teachers this semester.

The teacher for my Medical Terminology class seems like a perfectly lovely person, but all she does is read powerpoint slides right out of the book. This is incredibly boring. Now, it doesn't matter to me if she can teach well on this subject, because it's just memorization and I know some of it anyway. So I'm going to ace that class, no problem. But still. Sitting through two hours of it every Monday night is not my idea of a swell time.

Of course, last time we did play a brief game for Halloween candy. It made me feel like I was in the sixth grade again. I'm not sure this was a prime example of a teaching technique for college students, either. Ah, well. She's a sweet lady.

By contrast, I'm starting to think my other teacher is a sadist. This one teaches an internet course on Health Information Management, and she keeps asking us for detailed business writing in regards to subjects we haven't...quite...covered. So we're all scurrying over to Google and the AHIMA website, which returns approximately 1117 relevant results for everything you type in, and desperately picking out little bits of information to include in our assignments. Our book is over 700 pages and so dense light does not escape from it. I'm sure there is good information in it, but it is badly written. Sometimes punctuation is missing. Sometimes things are misspelled or there are obvious grammar mistakes.
SOMEBODY MORE CAREFUL THAN THIS BETTER BE MANAGING HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE EHR. LERN 2 RITE, LOL.

I just spent an hour looking up business rules for EHR disclosure, when all the teacher had to tell me to do was read page 187 of my book. I'm just annoyed.

Wow, so I'm reading other peoples' journals and they're doing all this stuff. I want to go places and do things.

Actually, that's not true. We went to church yesterday and the botanical gardens on Saturday, so I have no right to complain. And I have been busy with school. The medical terminology class is so easy it's boring. All we do is go through Power Point presentations taken right out of the book. Then I go home and memorize stuff. There's almost no theory. By contrast, the Health Information Management class is so boring and dense it's incredibly difficult, and it's ALL theory. We just learned how hospitals function, and now we're working on the financing of health care.

Most of my spare time is taken up with writing. I've finished The Mirror and a second story, a children's story based off the Courtney Crumrin Water Thing fanfic I wrote a while back. I'm writing about 1000 words a day, give or take, and trying to read, as well.

I bought a book called 'Thanks, But This Isn't For Us' but Jessica Page Morrell. It's a writing guide, and it's very useful and readable. I intend to use it to revise my stories from now on. It's more for novels than short stories, but the stylistic advice rings true. I also checked out a couple children's books from the library. One is called 'The Mer-Child' and is an incredibly sweet faery tale I read once when I was in high school. The other is called 'Blackbriar' and the jury's still out on it. I'm about 6 chapters in. It's very atmospheric, not terribly action-packed. I didn't like the characters at first, but the protagonist is growing on me.

Meanwhile, Froggy has found a tissue and is shredding it all over the floor. Yes, she's doing just fine.

Right, so, this has gone through three revisions and I'm at an unnerving point in its development where the grammar is mostly fixed and it's time to question big things like characterization and plot. It would especially help me if anyone who's willing to read could tell me whether the pacing is all right, whether Dena's characterization is sufficient, and whether I should add more interaction with her family. I'm also concerned about the ending. Any comments or critiques are welcome, and anyone who even takes the time to read this story, which is 3,384 words long, is a wonderful person as far as I'm concerned.

xposted to a couple comms

( The Mirror )

Froggy is trying to bully Squeaks. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Whenever Squeaks, who weighs eight or ten pounds, is around, this one-pound ball of fluff puffs up, arches her back like a Halloween cat and charges her. Squeaks obviously recognizes this is no threat, but doesn't seem to know quite what to make of it. She'll growl and hiss if Froggy gets too close, but has yet to take a swipe at her and has in fact run away rather than have a real confrontation. Unfortunately, this just eggs the kitten on. She thinks she's big and bad and has Squeaks on the run.

Ideally, I'd prefer for them not to have conflict at all, but if there's going to be conflict, I don't want poor Squeaks to be bullied by something that's a tenth of her size. It's humiliating. Any ideas?

I has a kitten. Her name is Froggy. She has huuuuuge eyes that kind of bulge a little, but she's already growing into them. They're stormy-colored, gray with a little blue-green. She looks so much like Spider it's uncanny.

She'll never replace my Spider, of course, but it's good to have a kitty again. See reymonkey's latest entry for pictures.

I've been doing a lot of writing exercises the past few days. I wanted to take a creative writing class this fall, but it doesn't look like the money will be there, so I got some books out of the library and I'm using them to sharpen my skills. Not as good as a workshop, I suppose, but it's something, and at least it's gotten me practicing. So there'll be a lot of flashfics, story fragments, and exercises posted in this journal for a while. They'll all be behind cuts. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Idols
Word count: 113
Rating: G
( Read more... )

The Empty Room
Word count: 352
Rating: G
( Read more... )

Superhero
Word Count: 515
Rating: G
( Read more... )

The Swan Maidens
Word Count: 694
Rating: PG
( Read more... )

Today I had to say goodbye to my cat, Spider. She was a beautiful blue cream tortoiseshell, only seven years old. She'd always been a sickly cat, but over the past week her condition had deteriorated to the point where she weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces, staggered when she walked, and refused to bathe.

She still had an appetite and was drinking water, and she made it up the stairs this morning to see me in the bathroom. I thought there was still a chance for her when I took her to the vet this morning, but they couldn't tell me what was wrong with her. She's had test after test ruling out diabetes, hyperthyroidism, feline leukemia, FIV, etc. They said they could try to get her healthy enough for exploratory surgery, but something told me it was time to stop and let her go.

She didn't even flinch when they put the needle in her leg to give her the drugs. She must have been ready to go. It was quick; I'm sure she didn't feel a thing.

I'm going to miss her. There will never be another cat like her.

If you have a pet, hug him or her for me. Unless it's, like, a goldfish or something.

PS: For heaven's sake don't link me to that Rainbow Bridge thing. It always makes me cry, and I've done enough of that today.

I have been busy with school and stuff, but in my spare time I have been working on those darn Dr. Schreber dolls I've been promising and finally here they are:

( Schrebs One and Two )

One of them will be winging his way to you soon, Sarah-mun.

Things are okay. It turns out I have some bonds, and I'm getting my tax refunds soon, plus I just got my last paycheck, so between all those things we're set for this month. I'm getting a nice weekly amount from unemployment, for 25 weeks, so once that starts I should be covered for a while from there.

I've decided to work on an associate's degree once I get another job. Something in the administrative area, since that's where I have experience. People are always telling me it's a shame I don't do something with my creative talents, but you know, one has to pay the bills first. And these same people never offer to buy me gallery space, so... ;) I can always write and draw in my spare time.

I've been reading the comments in Rey's journal, and I want to thank everyone for their support and sympathy. I really appreciate it. You guys are awesome.

It's a definite sign that the new meds are working, that I actually feel pretty good despite the stress of the current situation. Much better, in fact, than when I had a job. Maybe I should have quit on my own, months ago, I don't know. It'll be nice to get a new start.

I live. Sorry for vanishing, but I have been going through a very rough spot with a changeover in medication, which just plain did not work. So now I'm back on the same old medication as before, plus some Cymbalta for added fun. I'm doing a lot better now.

I feel like a convalescent, which I guess is what I am. It's so frustrating to go through these things periodically, and I hate knowing I'm genuinely dependent on these tiny pills for my mental well-being.

Life's not fair, but I guess it's better than the alternative.

So, one of the medications I've been on appears to have been raising my blood sugar, and I've been cutting back on it.

The past couple days I've felt like crying more than is normal for me, and I'm feeling lethargic and generally not so good.

I've got to get off this medication, but I don't think I can do without something in place of it.

Argh.

I'm not sure if I can legitimately laugh at this, seeing as I play on one of them multiversal RPs where equally bizarre crossovers occur. But I saw this on the Neoboards the other day and had to share (don't ask what I was doing on the Neoboards, okay? >_> I get bored.) It is edited slightly for spelling.

( _Literate_Doctor Who/ House/ Monk/ Pokemon/ Psych/Twilight role play_Plotted_ )

So, I haven't been posting or keeping up with friends' journals all through my vacation, and I'm sorry for it. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. My holiday was very peaceful, involving a lot of naps and sleeping in, going to parks and generally having a good time with my family. But it's actually nice to be back to work, too.

I got a lot of lovely homemade things for Christmas, including a White Stag brooch made of white sculpey painted iridescent to look like moonstone. I owe various people gift art, and I'm working on Schreber plushies, so I've got a busy month ahead of me. I do not know how long these things may take, but I will do my best to get them done soon.

Meanwhile, I'm up to date on Courtney Crumrin at last. I bought, um, two copies of 'Courtney Crumrin and the Prince of Nowhere'. The first one I ordered from Oni Press' website, but I Just. Couldn't. Wait. When Rey turned up a copy at our local comic store, I snatched it up and had read the whole thing before we got home. Then I read it again.

Anyway, Mel, I'm sending the extra copy to you, if you want it.

( A Few Spoilers )

As far as relating to roleplay, I have no idea what to do with this yet. It couldn't happen quite the same way to the Courtney I play, which may be a sign I've strayed too far from canon, but that's how these things go. I fully intend to do fanart and possibly fanfiction related to these latest chapters in Courtney's story, because I am an obsessive little monkey.

ETA: Newsarama interview with Ted Naifeh, re: Courtney Crumrin and the Prince of Nowhere.

That "ka-POW" sound you heard yesterday was my head exploding from Christmas stress. I'll be largely absent online for a few days.

However, I have my first bred dragon egg:



I am proud.

ETA: Also grabbed this from the Abandoned Eggs page :3 :

From reymonkey:

( Big Xmas Meme )

I had a bad doctor visit today (depressing), so to cheer myself up I went looking for virtual Christmas trees to decorate. I found not one, not two, but four on the first google page.

I thought I'd share:

One

Two

Three

Four

Some of 'em are kind of ugly, but they are cheerful!

When I was in Middle School, one of our art class assignments was 'draw yourself playing your favorite sport'. I was a chubby, uncoordinated little girl and I HATED sports, so I was at a loss. Finally I came up with the idea of drawing myself playing "dodgeball". I drew, in oil pastel, myself in my ugly green gym suit, blindfolded and tied to a pole in the gym, with the silhouettes of other children approaching me holding bowling balls. Standing next to me, wreathed in flame, was my P.E. teacher at the time, extending a pointed figure at my bound personage.

My art teacher thought the drawing was hysterical. My P.E. teacher, when she found out about it, did not.

I actually didn't hate dodgeball that much, though. I could dodge pretty well, I just didn't like throwing the ball at people.

*dances*

So, yesterday my father picked me up from work and we went to a used electronics store to see if they had a VCR. My VCR just died, and we were thinking maybe we could get a cheap one for Christmas. I was also sort of looking for a word processor, because sharing the computer for NaNo has been kind of trying, and that way one of us could write while another played online (or also wrote). It's kind of late in the month to have thought of it, I guess, but it would come in handy for role play, as well, and I intend to keep working on my novel even after NaNo's over. So I wanted one, but I didn't want to pay too much for it (not that I have too much to pay for it).

We asked about the VCR at the shop, but the proprietor said he only had TVs, computers, and laptops. Dad got the brilliant idea to ask the price range on the laptops and...to make a long story short (too late) he bought me an early Christmas present.

I has laptop.

It's not a spectacularly nice or new laptop, but it runs well and it will do just fine for word processing, which is all I wanted it for anyway. My parents spoil me.

Also, one of my dragon eggs hatched:

Last night I dreamed Sarah Palin came to my office and she and my former boss took my computer away.

I have no idea what the deeper psychological meaning of this might be.