Summer and Stuff

*WARNING: LARGE BLOG DUMP*

Here's a list of things that happened over the summer.  Perhaps you can spot some good reasons why I haven't put up much art during these last few months.  Among them, Ill include a couple rants:

Rant 1:  The Curse of the Technology Vampire

You see before you the typed-out words of the technologically accursed.  Virtually everything electronic I touch breaks down either immediately after purchase or just after the warranty expires.  I went through numerous tape players and one CD player (not including my little sister's, which really did break down immediately after I touched it) before I advanced to the systematic but unintentional destruction of MP3 players.  An RCA Lyra managed to last a couple years before the only freaking moving parts on it (the joystick menu control and the volume control) broke down.  I then bought an iPod Nano the day they first came out.  That one went back to the store within a week.  Apparently, since I've managed to outsmart the whole "moving parts" problem inherent in everything else I spread my curse to (such as electric fans, fish tank pumps, and K-Nex motors), fate decided to add digital glitches to my affliction.  Must've happened a while ago, given how many computers break down once I've used them for a while (all my favorite comps at the school computer lab are constantly plagued by out-of-order signs).  As for my current iPod, it started glitching and then stopped when I began taking steps to send it in for repair.  Now, I'm not exaggerating on this one.  The VERY DAY the warranty expired, the problems started up again.  *crashes to floor*  Oh, and let's not discuss how many pairs of ear-bud headphones I've been through.  I usually have to buy several every year.

Now to get to the point I've been leading up to.  Just after Spring Quarter, my @$!@#! tablet broke. Something wrong with the cord, it seems (at our house, we call it "corditis"). Of course, the warranty expired a couple months before the problems began.  It's been on the fritz during spring (contributed to the lateness of some strips, but just a little) and then decided to just up and DIE. Well, it can throw itself off a bridge for all I care, because I bought a new last week! It's silver and has two programmable buttons and...wait for it...a scroll wheel! Wheee! And the clear cover is SO much easier to take off so it's not nearly as much of a hassle to customize the background photo. Since my comic strip had evolved into something that I really needed the tablet for, I was rather helpless without it. I could've used the mouse, but it'd have been sloppy and would have taken twice as long.  I need the tablet for my art too, so that was also out of the picture.

Next item on the agenda is our thrice-cursed computer. If you've been following my comments on my website for a while, you might have an idea just how unreliable our family comp is. After fighting it all summer I still can't run Photoshop effectively (once a file reaches a certain size in graphics, the comp's reaction slows considerably despite the good quality graphics card we have on the thing and the should-be-suitable amount of memory). I'd really like to swear this isn't my fault, but for all I know, I could be sucking the effectiveness from this piece of junk just by living near it.  Once I get my check from Financial Aid, I'm SOOOO getting that laptop I've been looking for. I have to keep putting it off for various reasons, but it's getting closer. I can feel it.  But please don't break down...

Rant 2:  I'm worried about my Mommy!

On a more serious note, another problem this summer brought on would be with my dear mother. She badly ruptured three disks a few months ago (OUCH!), just below her neck, and lost a lot of strength and feeling in her right arm. I've had to help out around the house more than ever before since she hasn't been up the job (not for the lack of trying; this woman just can NOT sit and do nothing). She's doing better, the pain has subsided somewhat at least, but she hasn't improved as much as the doctor would like and he's concerned her arm will atrophy permanently if she can't get her strength back. She's had two injections to help stop the inflammation, but it's not doing the trick. The doctor is now recommending surgery.  He just told Mom this a couple days ago.  Mom's putting on a brave face but Dad says she's scared.  I really hope she gets better.  If she does end up going in for surgery, I hope she recovers alright.  So, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you all to keep Mom in your prayers, OK?

Rant 3:  Will Somebody Just HIRE Me Already!?

Job hunting. Again. As usual. Every summer. With the same result: NOTHING. Oh! But there's one good thing! I was actually called in for an interview! Nobody's even given me that much of a chance before! It was for GameCrazy, but they hired someone else before the big boss had time to go over the recent applicants. -_- A totally awesome job and I missed it.. I don't think people like my resume because I haven't held a job since 2001 due to my inability to work and go to school at the same time, but I can't GET any more work experience if nobody hires me! I may have a chance this quarter, though, with my school's workstudy program (now that I'm finally eligible). I've tweaked my schedule so that I only have two days of classes, so I hope to be able to work part-time and still have time for study and the webcomic. Assuming, of course, I get a job.

Rave 1:  Vacation Time!

Vacations! Yeah, I went on a few.  Just the usual trips for my family. One was to the ocean where we flew our kites (my family is getting really into kites and growing dahlias). I tried out my new "Alpha +" delta stunt kite that Mom and Dad gave me for my birthday and it just about dragged me down the beach. That thing's big! We enjoyed the hot-tub at the chalet we rented, went for walks on the beach, and watched a lot of cars, trucks, and a monster RV get stuck in the sand during high tide. Here's some advice: never drive a vehicle the size of a small house onto loose sand unless it's a monster truck, a CAT, or some kind of tank.

We also took my twin sister back down to her school, so that took up a week too.  I got to see her new apartment and meet all her cool roommates.  We tried to visit the Mt. Timpanogas (sp?) Caves, but the tours were all sold out.  That BIT.  So instead we visited this hunting gear store (was it Cabella's?  Carbella's?  The name is foggy) and looked at their museum of real live...er, ex-live stuffed animals.  Man, this world has some wild and crazy critters in it.  My twin sis and I beat each other over the head with stuffed fish (toys this time, not real ones) and I bought some keychains to add to my keychain collection.  We hung out mostly at my Dad's parents' place, and they're really awesome people.  I also spent the day at the home of one of my sis's friends and had a real blast.

Oh yeah, did I mention that our van started overheating during this trip?  I SWEAR it's not my fault!

Rave 2:  Do the Puyallup and Other Fairs!

In addition to vacations, we attended several fairs. The first one was the Scottish Highland Games, which as SO incredibly awesome. It felt good to get in touch with the Scottish part of my heritage (I come from at least four clans!). I bought some cool stuff, including a cool dagger and a sword-shaped pin with the MacMillan clan's crest on it.  We also heard an army of bagpipe bands perform.  I love the sound of bagpipes and the performance was awesome...but listening to them all warm up and practice AT ONCE has to be one of the greatest audio nightmares ever.  I still loved it, though.

I also went to the Puyallup Fair (the official Western Washington fair and the biggest fair in the nation) a few days over the course of a couple weeks with my family to show off our dahlias in the Novice category. We did awesome, and even took "best in show for single bloom flower" in the second and harder round (and with a mysterious magenta ball flower that we question the origin of). After next year, we'll be able to move up to the Amateur category.

Rave 3:  I Dream of Dahlias

Speaking of dahlias, here's a quick explanation.  My mom likes dahlias.  Therefore, more than a few years ago, Dad bought a few tubers from Costco.  They grew, they were pretty, and we enjoyed them.  Then Mom and Dad started looking at dahlia farms.  The rest is history.  I swear, growing dahlias has to be right behind drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in the list of the most addictive activities.  We've converted two sides of our backyard into dahlia gardens armed with well over a dozen varieties with plans on buying even more next year.  They're taking over our backyard!  Well, so is the giant pumpkin plant, but that thing isn't staying in its' bed and prefers to covet all areas where people are guaranteed to trip over it.  I was just about to accuse the flowers of being the alien invaders, but I think the pumpkin is more malicious on a second thought.  Anyway, we have so many flowers my littlest brother started selling bouquets and has made a killing.  Meanwhile, the rest of us bring flowers to just about everyone wherever we go.  To church, to work, to school, to visit friends...we've given them to family, friends, church leaders, Dad's boss and coworkers, teachers, and my mom even gave a bouquet to this nice man who works in a neighborhood Bartell's.  These things will NOT stop blooming.  They're like the flower equivalent of zucchini.  Dad says they'll stop after a couple frosts, though, and then next spring we can work on splitting a million mutated tubers apart and have enough tubers to redraw the state boundary lines in this country with flowers.  Or so it seems.

OK, so that's it for my Blog of Boring Doom.  Hope you weren't too bored reading it.

My twin sis:

The clubs I have joined: