Well that sucked

November 26, 2006

Well Saturday sucked arse, and no that isn't just a figure of speech I'm using, it's the bitter truth. My day started at approximately 4:30am when I was rudely awakened by a pounding headache that would just not cease. I lied in bed for about an hour before I gave up the concept of sleep and went in search of some Advil. Unfortunately there was no Advil to be had, so I was forced to use Wal-Mart's generic brand of aspirin. You know the kind you pop into your mouth and it starts dissolving right away and tastes absolutely horrible? Yeah, it was that kind of aspirin. So after swallowing that vile stuff I lie around waiting for it to take affect, my cat Isis decides to jump up on the bed and make herself comfy by laying on the un-tucked portion of the covers and effectively pinning me, not that I minded…at the time. About an hour or so later my mother brings me a cup of jatole (like Cream of Wheat), well she hands me the cup and leaves and I'm kind of pinned beneath the covers as a result of Isis not to mention I'm groggy as hell. As I struggle to sit up I spilled the hot drink all over my self. Most of it fell on my nightshirt, but a good portion of it hit my arm. It was a pretty nasty burn and it took forever to get it to stop hurting. After that fiasco I thought it better to just get my day started and to stop lazing around so I gathered up my supplies and went outside to get a pit dug and a fire started so I could begin working on the coyote. I knew it was going to take longer doing it outside than inside, since if I was doing it on the kitchen stove the flame would be regulated and continuous where as outside the flames are subject to irregular height, heat, and wind. I knew though that there was no way my mother was going to let me do that in the kitchen so outside I went. I got a nice toasty fire roasting got the pan of water going and I had just gotten the coyote started when I noticed Big Momma was running around all over the place. This was weird since she'd been staying by her baby and refused to leave it for a second. Concerned I went over to her bed to see if maybe she had moved the baby without us noticing, Miro (we ended up naming him Miro which is short for Mirocollo) was still lying there and he wasn't breathing. Miro passed away sometime in the late night or early morning. Big Momma is still distraught over it all and is still looking for her baby. We're going to have to get a stuffed toy or something that she can substitute for the baby. It's easier to say "the baby" then to say his name, less personal that way. I had already gotten attached to the little guy, he was so cute and it was just amazing that he had come into this world in such a stealthy and secretive manner. While I am sad for the loss, I think the baby's passing hit both my mother and her dog a lot harder. You could tell that Big Momma was utterly proud of her achievement and it was equally obvious that my mom was proud of her. After the ordeal with the puppy my headache returned again, I popped more aspirin and went back to work, only to find Denali all over my workstation sniffing and trying to get at the coyote's remains. Denali is definitely the most vicious, and cruel, cat I have ever had. When she hunts she takes the expression "like a cat with a mouse" to all new levels. She actually enjoys paralyzing her prey and watching them struggle or leaving them to die on their own. She's especially fond of crippling crickets and leaving them lying around. But to think she'd actually eat coyote? Carnivorous little thing! Needless to say I spent the next hour chasing Denali away from the work table and the boiling pot. Did I mention she's not afraid of fire and has caught her tail on fire while trying to steal cooking food from the stove? While trying to tend to the fire and keep an eye on Denali I strayed a little to close to the flames and when I added kindling to the fire flames roared up and I had to jump back in order to avoid joining the coyote. I tripped over Denali, and while that impeded my escape I didn't get burned, per say, but my left arm was a little too close and felt the full heat of the flames. My left arm, the same one that had just gotten burned that morning, needless to say the heat irritated the burn all over again and caused some blisters to rise. I spent the next ten minutes giving a live demonstration of my knowledge of languages and acrobatic skills while Denali sat on the work table and watched. In the mean time my headache has broken through the pain medication and makes it's presence known once again. To make matters worse the smell from the coyote is thick and cloying and smells really rank. Combining the smell, the noxious smoke from having to use wood on the fire that was not completely dried out, and my headache I began to feel queasy and nauseous. Being the stubborn girl that I am I vow to stick it out and continue working. A little past noon the smell is too much, the headache (which I'm thinking was really a migraine) is only getting worse, and as the fire dies down (again) I just let it go out and head back inside to try and get the smell off of me and to clear my head. I stuck it out for about four hours before I just couldn't handle it anymore, at any other time I know the smell wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much, but combined with the headache it was just too much. Two hours later, after much scrubbing and washing I finally got the smell off of me and lo and behold the headache began to clear up. I couldn't stomach much of anything for awhile but I did feel better. About 25% of the coyote was actually finished when I gave up. I had already cleaned the caudal bones, the tarsals and medatarsals, as well as the tibias and fibulas. I'm debating right now whether I want to try and finish the coyote or just bag the project. I didn't wake up with any trace of a headache today, but I don't exactly want to invite another one on. Not to mention that after being thawed and essentially half cooked the coyote is going to smell even more rank this time around. One interesting side effect of my suffering is that the neighbors are being very nice and friendly now. I think they got the wrong idea when they saw me working on the project yesterday, not sure if I want to correct their misconceptions. Thank you: Julie, Dhi, Brittney, Jane, Annie, Luna, and Monique @ 3:19pm

Puppy Says Moo!

November 22, 2006

I am still in a complete state of shock. I just cannot believe what has just happened. My grandfather went outside to feed the dogs and he came back in, not two minutes later to make this startling revelation. Our oldest dog, Big Momma, had just given birth to a beautiful little puppy. Big Momma, the same dog that had all sorts of complications when she was born, and the same dog who was declared infertile by our old vet, gave birth to this little sweetheart: Isn't it just adorable? The really frightening thing is that she never gained weight, nor did she give us any clue that she was pregnant. This birth came as a total surprise! It's too soon to be sure, but we think it's a boy. The puppy is solid white except for two patches of black on its ears that extend to its eyes. Personally the puppy reminds me of a cow, so I wanted to name it after a character from an anime series that turns into a cow (Hatsuharu or Haru for short). My suggestion got vetoed. We're currently thinking of naming it Secreto (secret) or Ghost.Does anybody have any suggestions on names? Here's some pictures of the baby with its mommy: Unfortunately Big Momma decided to have the puppy next to some dead logs and when we try to move her she immediately takes the puppy right back where she had it. She won't stay inside, and she won't go inside the dog house either. So we're going to have to put a bed out there for her and construct a lean-to for some shelter since she's being so stuborn. But I can't be mad at her, her baby is just too cute!! More puppy cuteness : I want to keep the baby, but we do already have two dogs so I'm afraid we'll probably have to give the baby up. My grandfather has a friend who has been wanting a dog and so we'll probably give the puppy to him when it's weaned. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be working on the preservation of a coyote specimen for the comparative collection at NMSU. I'll be working on it this Friday and Saturday, maybe Sunday too. I'll be sure to take pictures of the whole procedue and blog about it. Should be fun! Thank you: Julie, Angela, Liinda, and Lisa Marie @ 5:28pm

The Holiday Begins

November 19, 2006

I have been eagerly anticipating this week for sometime now, and finally it has arrived. One entire week off from the pressures of school, it's a humongous relief. Unfortunately I'm still stressing a bit over school none the less. I've slacked off in some of my classes, but an A is still possible in all of them, provided I study my little arse off, which I plan to do this week. The primary concern for me though is what adverse affects staying another semester is going to have on me. I've applied for some extra scholarships and grants but with no luck so far. I sincerely hope Finacial Aide will cover my added semester, because if they don't I seriously don't know how I'll continue to go to school. With no jobs lined up after graduation, taking out student loans right now would not be the smartest thing to do. My mother has offered to pay for my last semester if it turns out that way, but as she's going back to college as well and working on her second degree accepting her help smacks of wrongness. I need o talk with a financial advisor and find out what the deal is going to be. NMSU is sadly known for jerking people around when it comes to finacial aide and workstudy, I just hope I won't be yet another victim. I should be alright since I haven't completed a degree yet, but you never know. I've, sadly, known too many people who had their finacial aide jerked out from under them their senior year, or final semester. I've got a lot of things to get done this week too, besides studying. A bunch of little projects were put on the back burner to simmer until this week when I would have a chance to finish them up. New chapters need to be written and sent off to my beta, tidying up the site, straigtening my room, working on my car. You name it, I've got to do it. Ooh, not to mention I still have to prepare my donation to the Anthropology department. That should be fun. The Anthropology's comparative collection is running pretty low on specimens, especially since as time passes specimens are damaged, lost, or stolen. So students are asked to prepare and preserve specimens and donate them to the department. It comes out cheaper that way, the department doesn't have to beg the college for more money, and students get hands on experiance identifying species, cataloging them, and preparing them. Taking advantage of the fact that I live out in the boonies, I'm donating a coyote (Canis latrans). Most of the other specimens being donated are deer and cottontails, so my contribution is a little more unique at least; not to mention the extra credit will be nice. I have to wait until no one is around so that I can work on preserving the coyote, my mom loves wolves and coyotes so she's been making a lot of 'tsk tsk' noises about my morbid classes, morbid intended career, and even more morbid interests. Of course, if I'd said I was preparing a rodent of some sort for the comparative collection she wouldn't have batted an eye, but since it's a coyote I'm being morbid again. Gotta love her though. Eh heh, I confused Julie so let me clear up my ambigous entry. No I didn't kill a coyote, that would be the crazy driver who was driving in front of me that fateful day, I just took advantage of the situation. Thank you: Julie, Nile, Kelly, Tuyet, and Emma @ 3:54pm

Not Good

November 15, 2006

Thanksgiving vacation is just around the corner, as in next week, and typically this is a good thing. Not for me this time though. I'm just so eager to get this silly semester over with that I've pretty much become apathetic to my school work. I don't even want to go to class today and I seriously condsidering skipping it. I've had more absences in a month this semester in one class than I've had for an entire semester for all my classes combined! It's really crazy. I chalk some of the attitude up to working with SCI, it was sucking up so much time that I began to view school as a hassle. I started the semester off wrong and now I cannot seem to get back in the rythm. One thing is for sure, there will be no 4.0 this semester, at the rate I'm going I'll be lucky to keep a 3.0. I think the fact that I have to stay an extra semester now, as a result of my last needed course not being offered (see previous post for details), that I'm kind of slipping into a rut. To say I've got a bad case of "I don't give a damn" is an understatement. Contributing to my foul mood as of late are the assholes on campus. I returned to my car on Monday after class to discover the rear tire on the driver's side was flat. I live in the boonies and I have to commute to school everyday. It's not impossible that I picked up a nail or bit of glass or something. So I just popped my trunk and took out portable air compressor (I love this thing) and started filling up the tire to see if I could make it to Big O Tires or something. Funny thing is, the tire started airing up just fine. No air leaks that I could see and no escaping air that I could hear either. I went ahead and drove it home and I kept a close eye on the tire all of yesterday and today as well. Guess what, that tire is just fine. Same amount of air pressure and everything. I had begun to suspect a slow airleak but as the pressure remains stable I am of the opinion that some assholes deliberately let the air out of my tire! The jerks! I cannot believe someone would do that, let alone for the fun of it. I know I sure as hell haven't pissed off anyone lately, so that just leaves some jerks doing it for kicks. That totally pisses me off. So I have absolutely no idea who did it, but at least the tire is okay since tires aren't cheap. I'm just glad I had the air compressor or I would have had to change the tire and droven home to air it back up. My air compressor's battery needs to re-charged again though. It took everything that little guy had to fill up the tire, that's how much air they out. The thing was literally flat. I'm jus lucky there's no damage done to the tire for sitting like that while flat. I swear if I ever find the assholes responsible flat tires will be the least of their concerns. So let's talk about something else because these topic is bound to lead me to even more depressing and detrimental thoughts. Lets talk instead of a recent success; my online store! I just launched it already business is booming! Okay, maybe not booming, but I am getting sales and that's what matters. Books & More has already filled two orders and that in and of itself is impressive. The two orders combined have already covered the expenses of the store and so now anything that comes in is pure profit. I'm loving this, it's so nice to have a little extra cash coming in. Either way, when it comes time to renew the domain or purchase more space N-I.net is taken care of. So yeah, so good news on that front :) Another good thing is that I recently adopted Allie's black nail polish fanlisting. The fanlisting is already up, I just need to add the member's list now. If you would like to join or view it you may visit Ebony now, as everything is up and ready to go. I've still got my fingers crossed on the application I sent in for Ruki Makino (Digimon Tamers) I hope I get it, she is a major favorite character of mine, but I know at least one of the other applicants is a big fan as well, and if she gets her instead I won't mind too much. I'll be sad, but at least I'll know the fanlisting is in good hands. Thank you: Julie @ 10:01am

Sabatical leave is evil

November 10, 2006

So here I am nibbling on a lemon poppy seed muffin and feeling all angry and depressed-angsty-wanna-kill-something. And it's not because the muffin tastes bad or because I don't like lemon poppy seed muffins. Quite the opposite really, I love lemon poppy seed muffins and this one is humongous, fresh and tasty. No I'm depressed for a completely different reason and no amount of peach tea and lemon poppy seed muffins will make it better. I got to register my classes for next semester today. Next semester, you know my last semester of my senior year? Well if I want it to really be my last semester I now have to drop both my Anthropology minor and my Forensic Science minor, which means I'd graduate with just my Criminal Justice major. I do not want just a BS in CJ, especially not after all of the hours I put into my minors, so if I want my minors I'm forced to stay one more semester after that. So instead of graduating in the Spring of 2007 I'll be graduating in the Fall of 2007. This totally bites! So why can't I graduate on time? Here's the gist of the problem: I could graduate next semester if I took an 18 credit semester, one of the classes being ANTH 355 (Physical Anthropology), problem is it isn't being offered next semester after all. I need six more credits (two classes) to complete my Forensic Science minor and I need six more credits to reach the required minimum of eighteen for my Anthropology minor. Now for the Anthropology minor there is a list of certain courses of which I can select three to take, I've already taken ANTH 315 Introduction to Archaeology and I plan on taking ANTH 301 Cultural Anthropology next semester. Of the listed choices only ANTH 355 Physical Anthropology will also fulfill the last three credits I need for my Forensic Science minor. Logic dictates that not only is it a useful class but since it would take out two birds with one stone I should definitely take it. Alas, ANTH 355 is taught by either Dr. Monte McCrossin or Dr. Wenda Trevathan, apparently Monte is taking on some extra duties next semester and Wenda Trevathan is on sabbatical leave so she won't be covering for him. So ANTH 355 got dropped for next semester, so okay I can't take ANTH 355, then suck it up and pick another class Joana! Problem is I still need to take a total of twelve more credits to complete my CJ major and you can only take a total of eighteen credits per semester unless you can get the dean of the college to sign off and give you special permission to take twenty-one, which is not an easy feat to do. So I need to take twelve credits for CJ and two Anthropology classes, as one will count to both of my minors, and I'll have an eighteen credit semester. It's what I had planned! But now if I take another anthropology class to fulfill the Anthro minor requirements then I have to take a third Anthro class to fulfill the Forensics minor. I could try to go to summer school, except that I would have to pay for it myself and I can't afford it without a loan, which I'd have to turn around and start paying off in six months anyway, so my only option would be to get special permission for a twenty-one hour semester. Even I'm not crazy enough to take twenty-one hours my last semester. Now here's the second roadblock. Yes you read that right, a SECOND roadblock, as if one wasn't enough. To meet the final requirement for my Forensics minor I need one more class and I can choose from the following course; ANTH 355, ANTH 388, ANTH 451, or BIOL330. That's a pretty good selection isn't it? Too bad none of them are offered next semester! So here's the dilemma I face. Take two Anthropology classes, Probably Medical Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology, my four CJ classes, and drop the Forensic Science minor. This would allow me to graduate next semester. I can also drop both minors and graduate next semester as well. Or the third and hardest choice, wait one extra semester and graduate with both minors and my major. There's a saying that nothing is ever easy and that the best things in life you must work for, so I have opted to take the harder path. I could stop now and walk away, throw away all of my hard work just to graduate on time, or I could opt to have patience and determination and get what I have wanted and worked for all this time. The decision was actually harder to make then what it should have been but I'm going to stay one more semester so that I can get both my minors. The bright side of this is that it will give me the time to do an internship with an agency (assuming I get one) or to at least enter some of their programs which I wouldn't have been able to do as a result of my graduation date. I've got one frigging more semester to go after the next one. It bites but that's life right? Next semester I'm only taking twelve hours this way I have two instead of one more class to take, it doesn't seem so sad that way, for my last semester. I'm taking two online courses, one once-a-week class, and one Monday/Wednesday class. That schedule gives me plenty of time to put hours in at work. Money Money Money! Or if I get an internship…Experience Experience Experience! The Monday/Wednesday class is going to kill me though; it's from 8:30 to 9:45am. Not only am I not a morning person but I haven't had a morning class since…my sophomore year! It's going to be a little hard to adjust to that schedule, believe it. Okay, so this entry doesn't wind up being completely depressing let me mention something that I'm completely proud of. I recently created a 75x50 button rotation for all listings. It doesn't matter if you own a fanlisting, hatelisting, taboolisting, namelisting, or whatever, all listings are welcome to join! The site is called Love & Loathe and it is already up and running. So if you own a listing and want to generate more hits to your site please consider joining! Thank you: Hannah @ 3:27pm

I'm So Bad

November 8, 2006

So for my Police Ethics class we received the assignment to watch the movie Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, and to write up a paper on all of the ethical dilemas that arrise in the movie. Hell within the first five minutes there were six different dilemas that arrose so it's not exactly hard to list them. Since it's a fairly large class and we're each responsible for renting the movie on our own class for this week is essentially cancelled. Now since my ethics class is before my bug class it makes it hard to drive all the way to Las Cruces, fight for a parking space, just for an hour and some odd minutes. Gas might be going down in price finally but it still isn't all that cheap! Meh, well in order to finish my experimental faunal analysis paper that was due Tuesday as well as everything else that was due in other classes that same day I skipped my bug class (Human, Insects & the Environment) and just stayed home. That was Monday, fastforward to Wednesday and what happened? I ended up just staying home again. GAH! I'm so bad, I should have gone to class but I just couldn't get myself to go. Then to make matters worse I didn't even get a lot of studying or homework done either. I could have had the paper for my ethics class typed up today, it's due Friday, but I didn't even touch it. The day wasn't a complete waste of time though. I did get my classes for next semester picked out, though I can't register till Friday, and I did some sprucing up on N-I.net. Wow, you would not believe the huge amount of deadlinks the site had accumulated. A handful of cliques, webrings, listings, and what not had either gone belly-up or had removed me from the members list due to lack of updates. I spent a good two hours cleaning that mess up! I also did a little sprucing to the page layouts and as you may have noticed I tinkered with the font and headings. All in all the site looks much better and not so dead. That's always a good thing! Yesterday I ran up to Barnes and Noble after Faunal Analysis let out around 5:30pm, yes I had to fight the rush hour traffic. It was well worth it though since I was able to finally nab a copy of Mercedes Lackey's Jinx High, the third book in her Diana Tregarde series. It's an old series and the books have always been hard to come by since they were out of print, they've been re-released again but it's still hard to find them in stores. I managed to snag the last copy and then, instead of checking out like a good bookworm, I wandered into the DVD and Music section. There before my eyes I beheld the beauty of X-Men Evolution season three on dvd. Needless to say I bought it. So my excursion that was previously supposed to cost me no more than ten dollars, with my member's 10% dicount plus my coupon for an added 15%, costed me nearly thirty dollars. Thank all that is good for credit cards! Thank you: Hannah @ 6:10pm

What's This?

November 6, 2006

Well what do you know, the blog has been revived. I cannot believe that I practically abandoned everything the way I did. I really haven't had such large periods of time when I withdraw from everything like that since, well, since high school. That's been what four maybe five years at least? A lot has happened since I last blogged. I don't even know where to begin! I know I have some posts at my Myspace account that you can view and a few at my DeviantART account, but they really don't cover everything that has happened to me these past four months. There I said it, I abandoned the site and my blog for four months, terribly horrible of me, yes, but it happened. I really needed to get my head together and if it truly offends you that it took me four months to get better than bite me, you're not wanted here anyway. For all the people that emailed me demanding that I hurry up and get my shit together, to fucking update my fics, or post new blog entries just so they could read them without concern as to what had caused my absence to begin with, ya'all can go sit on a pin and rotate. Personal issues kept me away, personal issues that had to be addressed and dealt with. And if you cannot comprehend that, well too bad for you. So yes, please stop with the "hurry up and post/come back/whatever" emails. They're not flattering and just really annoy me and make me want to do the exact opposite of what they ask for. End Bitch Mode. Okay so yeah, new look for Nanashi-Inc.net. I wanted something new since the site has been dead for so long, something that would scream "She's baaaack!" I don't think I succeded too well but oh well. Since I didn't log into haloscan for more than three months I've lost all my previous comments for my blog entries. They're supposed to return within 24 or 48hrs, we'll see. This has been the week from hell for me, and it's technically just barely started. It's because I have a lot of stuff due and I'm running out of time to get it done. Right now I'm taking a much needed break from writing my Faunal Analysis experimental paper to type up this entry. I've still got to write a chapter analysis for CJ449, study for tomorrow's exam in CJ360, write up a paper/exam thingy that is due on Friday for my CJ425 class as well. I think I've got some articles to read for my Faunal Analysis class (ANTH 477/577) on top of the paper which is due tomorrow. It's enough to drive me crazy. I've been working on some new fanfiction, one of which still hasn't made it to my beta reader since I'm nitpicking it to death. I'm trying for factual accuracy in the portrayal of the music world, politics, and university system in Japan. Am I succedeing? Only time will tell. The second one is much easier for me to write as it just seems to flow from my fingers everytime I sit down to write up a chapter for it. I need to finish up chapter three of it and get it posted online soon too. I'm delaying that though since I've got a backlog of schoolwork and I don't want to fall any further behind than I already am. Thank you: @ 10:15am