Dreamwidth saved a draft for me from June, 2012. Thanks, DW, that was nice of ya.

Updated my profile to reflect the fact that I'm not really here anymore- but I figure I should sweep the cobwebs off the lintel once in a while.

Life continues apace; I live in Ohio with the girlfriend now and I work for a mental health nonprofit, while juggling some part time retail and market research bullshit on the weekends.

I haven't written anything in over two years, and I do miss it. There are still stories in my head, but they're much quieter than they used to be. And I'm happier than I have been in a while, I think. Or maybe I'm too busy to notice if I'm unhappy, but I'm pretty sure what I'm feeling these days is contentment. So maybe my words will return now that my life is a little bit more stable.

Shit, maybe I am back- I've been lamenting the fact that tumblr is just no good for proper, instrospective, navel-gazing nattering. In the event that I do end up posting here more than once a decade, it'll probably be under limited access, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens, I suppose.

So, I made this peach cake yesterday; I'd bought some local peaches on Friday, and they unfortunately went from tart and sassy to gently sweet by the time I got around to baking.

I mostly chose this recipe because that picture is so incredibly gorgeous- of course, my cake did not come out looking anything like that, but I wasn't expecting it to.

( cake notes )

The sky was full of heat lightning tonight, and the swamp smells like honeysuckle and rotting debris. It's actually surprisingly pleasant; the trees and the water do make things a bit cooler, which is a godsend given how horribly, disgustingly hot and humid it was today.

I realize now that I've been living here for over a year, and my parents have been here for over two years, and I still haven't taken any pictures of the swamp. (My father insists it's a wood. It isn't. This is central New Jersey- it's a friggin' swamp.) Maybe if it's less deadly outside tomorrow I'll go for a wander with my camera- or I'll wait until the weekend, and go out in the early morning.

Watching an episode of Franklin and Bash right now, because smarmy lawyer shows are a particular weakness of mine. Kind of full of mental illness fail and little bits of racefail, and sexism everywhere but. Smarmy lawyer shows. We'll see how long this one entertains me before I have to stop watching it. *misses Boston Legal*

( video games! )

I keep seeing people doing the 21 Days for DW meme, but no one links to the actual meme. >_< So I'm sticking it here for my own reference. And now I have a whole bunch of days to catch up on, so I guess I'll do that, too.

( 21 days for Dreamwidth )

( 1. Why did you sign up for Dreamwidth? )
( 2. Why did you choose your journal name? )
( 3. Do you crosspost? )
( 4. What do you do online when you're not on DW? )
( 5. And when you're not on your computer? )

I went on a bit of a jewelry making rampage this past weekend- I tried out a new style of wire-bendy-y earrings, and they're a great deal of fun to make. Uploaded a bunch of pictures of things to flickr.

Also! I've put a pair up for auction over at con_or_bust! And there's a lot of neat stuff up for auction over there, if you happen to not be enticed by my awesomesauce earrings. (Okay, I think they're awesomesauce, at least.) Go! Look! Bid! And Con or Bust just announced they're branching out into helping people of color attend any con, not just Wiscon, which is also pretty awesomesauce.

And speaking of things that are awesome, you know what's exciting for me? The fact that it won't be February anymore in about half an hour. I am so done with this month, y'all have no idea.

I keep wanting to like Harry's Law- Kathy Bates! Shoes! Hilarious lawyer antics!- and I suppose I do enjoy it, because I really am something of a sucker for hilarious lawyer antics (moreso after having lived through a number of them when I was working for $LAWOFFICE). But. ( vague, brief spoilers ) So, my feelings are mixed. It's a smart, funny show, and it has its awesome moments, but it leaves a bad taste in the back of my brain sometimes.

The new season of White Collar has been pretty frickin' sweet, though, so at least there's that.

I've started playing FFVIII again! This is because a nice, repetitive, level-grindy old-school-style RPG is about all my brain can handle when I am afflicted with the Dripping Misery and General Malaise. (After a week and a half of mildly flu-like awfulness, I am finally getting better. I haaaaaate being sick.)

( booyaka )

Right, so.

( school things )

( other things )

Somebody remind me why I thought it was a good idea to take three language classes?

*sigh* I need to email the department chair to see about fulfilling my senior seminar requirement; there is, of course, only one senior seminar offered this semester, and it is with a professor I hate, and due to the scheduling up-fuckery that has plagued my tenure as a student at this ridiculous institution, I was unable to register for it before it closed.

But right now I'm signed up for the following:

Elementary Hebrew 1
Intermediate Arabic 2
Intermediate Persian 2
Islamic Law and Jurisprudence
Modern Persian Literature

( mumblemumble scheduling blarg )

Goodbye, 2010! You were...pretty uneventful, really, apart from that bit of excitement with the wedding in England in the middle there.

A good year, though. Took a lot of classes, did a bit of traveling, reconnected with an old friend, made a few new friends. Got more involved with fandom than I ever would have expected, but that's been a largely positive experience, and I'm glad for it. Read a lot more books than I have in previous years. Got a lot of shiny new toys. No one died! That was a plus. Made a lot of jewelry, and sold some of it.

I did close up both my old writing blog and my livejournal (which saddens me a little, but it was more than time to move on from both of them); I'm still here, though, and intend to remain here for the forseeable future. Going to make a definite effort to post more; probably going to reevaluate what I'm using this journal for, generally.

I'm hoping to get a bit more writing done next year, but if I'm too busy to get any writing done, that would also be good. Want to reconnect with a few more people, but I'm rather notoriously terrible at that. Really, I think I just want to do more in 2011- read more books, craft more things, study more languages, talk to more people. Be more confident and less apathetic.

I make these kinds of goals every year, and I'm never entirely sure if I succeed at improving upon the year before. I like to think I do, at least a little bit. Baby steps, but forward movement nonetheless. That's all I can really ask for.

Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to hoping it's a good one.

My camera battery died yesterday, hence the lack of update. So, three things today: yesterday's necklace, and two pairs of earrings.

( shinies! )