A Safe Space for Moogles

Well, my graduation ceremony went off without a hitch on Friday - well, as non-hitchy as could be expected. It ran a bit long, and the guest speaker they had was some former coach from not-even-our-school-for-heaven's-sake, and he seemed to have forgotten that we were not a) his grandkids or b) football players. It was either screaming in our faces or "When I was your age blah blah poverty blah blah mastodon for breakfast." Oh, and he did a magic trick with a newspaper. I passed the time by contemplating Rodimus/Starscream ghost porn.

But in the end, it was worth it to walk across the stage. And dance off it. (I told you I would.) And toss my hat up in the air. ^_______^

And now? Now, ladies and gentlemechs, I am taking a nice long well-earned rest. My therapist told me today that I look much more relaxed, and yes, lifting that weight from one's shoulders will do that to a person. I spent a little of my graduation money today, and squeed over presents, and now there's just an Extended Family visit to get through before we officially move. Once I'm settled there I'll start looking for Jobs.

Speaking of Family, the day after I graduated, my grandmother (the one in Poor Health) fell and broke her ankle. Like, through-the-skin break. She was going to come down for Dad's retirement ceremony, but now it's a toss-up whether she'll be out of the hospital by the time we come up to see her in a couple of weeks. So, there's that going on.

Also, I just beat Magical Starsign, which is really good for me considering I only bought it a couple months ago. I would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of quirky RPGs. *checks off list* One down, seven million and three to go.

Got my grades today.

B- in Interface Design.
B+ in Computer Graphics 4.
A- in Senior Project.
A in Portfolio.

And I get my diploma tomorrow.

EEEEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEEE. *flailyarms* So going to dance off that stage. ^______^

Also, my nails are painted a pretty light blue. *waggles them so they sparkle and shimmer*

...this has been Pepper Is Kinda Hyper Today Theater.

I ARE DONE.

*turns stereo up and dances around in underwear*

I swear this last couple of weeks I've become a misanthrope.

( Just bleeding out some aggression before I explode. )

Basically, aside from a certain group of people (all of whom are on my flist), all who approach the moogledragon are at risk of getting torched. *grumbles* *huffs smoke* *retreats to cave and curls up in a scalyglowering moogledragonheap*

I just want this to be over, dammit. I don't mind the work, I just hate everything that goes with it. Why can't I just stay in my cave and make pretty things without having to deal with people?

One more project.*










*And fixing up a few other things, but don't ruin my moment here.

Dear Flash, my computer's OS, and anything else in the entire world that might be considering acting up,

I am graduating in a week. I do not have time for your shit. I swear to any gods/devils/avatars/forces that might be listening that if I get another crash, I will go stark raving mad. And possibly beat the hell out of this damn machine with a baseball bat.

Love and kisses,
Pepper

(Also, my parents' anniversary is today. Guess who doesn't have anything for them. :D... oh my god i can't take much more of this.)

The last steps of my journey to graduation seem to involve a mess of corporate bullshit. I have to write a 'marketing statement' and pimp myself out to a panel next week. I'm not fluent in marketing speak and I don't want to be. If I ever am, I'd appreciate you all shooting me.

*glares at requirements again*

...I may be violently ill. -_-

Well, I stayed at school until nearly six today to do it, but my portfolio - is - DONE. *collapses* I just have to put various things in folders and it'll be ready to hand in. And my professors have okayed everything so I know it'll at least pass. You have no idea how much of a weight off my back this is, people. I still have a couple hurdles to get over, but this was The Big One, the one that has been sucking up most of my time for the past month and a half or so. I am so freaking relieved.

...I meant to do some drabbles tonight but my brain has hit its limit for the day. -_- *collapses in nearest lap and snoozes*

- During in-class critique, concerning a video game interface I had designed:
Classmate: The buttons are very... touchable.
Me: *.....................*
Classmate: ...sorry.

- I got complimented on my shoes the other day. From a complete stranger. That always takes me by surprise.

- 'Nother dream: I had to rescue an old friend of mine from Alabama from a capricious faerie who'd turned her into a small fluffy dog, via faerie-style trickery/manners/wordplay. I had gotten in very close with the faerie, and was just running away with my dog-shaped friend when I woke up. *baps alarm with pillow*

- Saw Kung Fu Panda today. I include this in the 'strange and odd' category because it is a Jack Black movie, and everything Jack Black touches turns to WTF. ( Spoilers herein. )

- Lastly, I don't mean to bring anybody's hopes up since it's all still two weeks and a metric buttload of work away, but, um... I actually think I might graduate. I mean, I think I've started to let myself believe it. ...Okay, look, I wasn't going to do this graduation ceremony, right? My high school graduation was a complete load of horseshit. The highlight was when I stuck my tongue out at the camera right as Dad was taking a picture. But today someone from The Office called because I haven't gotten back to them about buying a cap and gown, and when Mom told me this I pictured it and pictured my name on the announcement and something... just snapped into focus for me, I guess. I've worked my ass off for this, I thought, why shouldn't I stand up there with everyone else? Why shouldn't I be proud? And that's when I started to believe. Despite myself, I started to believe.

Yep, I was right. Steaming pile of horseshit.

Well, I got my portfolio finished today. All cut out, glued, assembled, mounted and everything. All that's left is to turn it in.

I fully expect to be told that it's a giant steaming pile of horseshit, but considering a week ago I was certain I wouldn't be able to get to this point, I consider it a job well done. In any case, I'll still have about three weeks to work on whatever needs fixing. And tomorrow I can use my lab time to work on all the stuff I've been slacking on in order to get this done.

Who knows? I might actually not crash and burn.

EDIT: You'd think I'd be sick of Making Stuff right now.



...I'm going to hell for this, aren't I?

I'm going to die.

*puts head in hands and shakes*

I'm pretty much ready for my portfolio progress assessment on Tuesday, so I plan to get some senior project work done tomorrow and Saturday (as well as my regular class work). So, still argh, but not as argh as last night. We'll see how long it lasts.

In other news, things I found while tooling around the webbernets:

This list is hilarious. I can imagine Ratchet using some of those terms. Or some of his own. UPTWDT (UnPlugged The Wrong Damn Thing), anyone? ;D

Monkeys Control Robot Arm With Their Minds. No, really.

Internet hugs helped a lot, you guys. Possibly more than they should considering the lack of actual physical human contact. Perhaps I'm evolving in a 'netwardly direction. This time next year I'll have figured out how to hook my brain up directly to the Internet, and I will never leave my house again. They'll find me still twitching in a puddle of my own drool, a lolcat still hovering before my eyes.

...The hamburger thoughtfully provided by my school this afternoon probably helped my mood too. I'm a college student, I never turn down free food. Of course, this is all contingent on whether I manage to slog through the metric utter fuckton of work I still need to do before graduation. I've got nothing but sketches for my senior projects, for fuck's sake, what have I been doing the past six weeks? *is going to die* ...At least my portfolio's past the halfway point, I guess. Or it would be if my professors would quit finding little nitpicky things that mean I have to reprint the whole shebang. -_- (No lectures, people, please. My inner Mom Voice has got that Covered.)

My current crochet project is a shrug made with Satin Sport, which is quite softandsilky for an acrylic yarn and I love it very much. I've only got about half the left sleeve done so far. The directions tell me to work it flat, s to keep track of which is the outside and the inside, I've got the sleeve closed with a twist tie from some toy packaging. Thus my addictions feed into each other. Pictures later, maybe.

Dear Universe,

*deep breath*

TO WHOM MUST I SACRIFICE A SMALL CHILD TO GET RID OF THESE CRUDDY LITTLE SLIMEMONGERING RAT BASTARD SPAWN OF SATAN'S CROTCH LICE OTHERWISE KNOWN AS BEDBUGS?

Since, y'know, three bug bombings doesn't seem to have been enough. Didn't even make the little bastards sneeze, judging by the sheer numbers I faced when I stripped my bed. Am I living on top of a Hellmouth?

Scrubbing my skin raw, thank you very much,
Moogle Girl

***

Dear Local Newspaper,

The time to print a cautionary article about how for-profit colleges (like the one I'm going to) are all Evil and Un-Academic and no reputable academic institution will accept their credits and many respectable employers won't hire people from them? Was about two years ago, before I devoted two years and all my hopes for not dying destitute in a ditch somewhere on OIP&T.

Resigning myself to being one of those useless, pathetic people who never move out of their parents' basement,
Moogle Girl

"Shawn," I called plaintively, "help?"

My favorite professor came running to my aid - and winced when she saw the state of my monitor. "Ooh," she said, "that's not good. That's a kernel panic."

That wasn't reassuring at all, but even as I resorted to a hard reboot, my Zen reaches into its memory and pulls out Eric Idle. "Always look on the bright side of life..."

So I went and got some animal crackers. Nom nom nom.

(I didn't lose any data, so don't panic.)

Which level of hell am I going to if I think Evil!Tommy is much, much sexier than Good!Tommy?*

...In the first season, anyway. He really does get hotter with time. (DinoThunder!Tommy, rowr. I would hit that with the fist of an angry Megazord.)

Besides perving on people in spandex, today I: completed my fourth dinosaur and paid off the majority of my mortgage in Animal Crossing, designed a logo and got concrit on a booklet, cooked dinner (noodles and spices out of a box, okay, but I added the chicken and veggies, darnit!), got to level 52 on FreeTetris.org (I really don't know why I play this. You never win, you just stave off the inevitable losing.) and wrote three drabbles. And sprawled out in the cool grass, said hi to some flowers, and did Stuff around the house that made me feel like a Big Girl. ^_^

*Although the Woobie Moment he shares with Jason right after the spell is broken is the woobiest of all Woobie Moments. /slash goggles

So the homicidal attack geese that have been camping by my school's front entrance have even more reason to be homicidal now - their eggs hatched! I saw at least three little goslings when I came in this morning, before Mama had a chance to herd them all back into the nest again. They're so cute - wobbly little yellow fluffballs! ^_^ I'll bring my camera tomorrow and see if I can't get a few shots of them without getting pecked to death by their parents.

((Yes, I know Canada geese are vicious, evil beasties. I don't care. ICKLE BABY GOSLINGS.))

That was the crackiest dream quite possibly EVAR. I'm still giggling over it.

I dreamed that Megatron (G1 version) got infected by the Internet. No, not just he picked up a little touch of the e-chlamydia, I mean the entire Internet. He was a walking repository of - well, you all know what the Internet is like. XD

It didn't seem to dull his effectiveness, though - while the Autobots were all standing around going LOLWUT, Megatron managed to enact his Evil Plan and turned Prowl and Hound into Decepticons. (They made worryingly good Decepticons at that.) I didn't see Starscream anywhere, oddly - you'd think he'd have something to say about Megatron spouting lolisms. Maybe the mighty tyrant rented him out to a porn site.

That'd make a good story, actually. If a brainbreaking one. (Megatron as an avatar of the Internet, I mean, not... oh, never mind, y'all are gonna take that last thing and roll with it anyway. XD)

EDIT: ...Oh my god. My professor is listening to Monty Python on her iPod. WIIIIIN.

First, Mom and Grandma locked themselves out of the house at around 9:30 this morning and had to wake me up via cell phone and many, many doorbell-ringings so I could let them back in. That last, sweetest half-hour of sleep was denied me! ;_;

Second, Photoshop decided to freak out while I was working on one of my many, many projects. When I re-opened the file, it had corrupted pixels! ...Yes, there was much panicking and re-opening and re-closing and flailing, as I had done way too much already on this picture to lose it now to the whims of the technology gods. And my advisor was on break and Not To Be Found. ...finally, I guess I opened and closed it enough times that the pixels sorted themselves out, and I saved that sucker absolutely everywhere. ...My poor heart can't take much more of this. -_-

Third, I talked to my Other Prof and she said that my packaging project was in fact fabulous and portfolio quality, but that I might want to change the text so that it is not in fact packaging for a sex toy. Now I just need to think of something that could conceivably be made by a company called "Moongarden" and have a picture of Venus de Milo on the front. (And no, I don't think feminine hygiene products would exactly solve the basic underlying problem here.)

Fourth, I totally kicked ass playing Mom and Grandma at Phase 10. It's all about the strategy, yo. ^_^

Fifth, I finished LilMegatron's body and tail today. It kinda looks like a fat purple sperm.

Sixth, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ratchet is going to be on the rag.