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Table of Contents
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Specific Dates Known
- August 31 School Starts
Reality/General Disclaimer.
Note: Activity is Tenuous and Subject to Change
I've come to terms with the reality that I don't always have time for games. In fact, I don't even have a lot of time for games. But I'd rather play when I can then not play at all, and if that's okay with the admins/my fellow players, that is what I'll do.
When School is Active, my work load is usually very heavy. I take 12-15 credits a semester, and I am pursuing a really rigorous BFA. It takes a lot of focus. I am also part of a few school groups, I volunteer sometimes, and I need to hang out with RL friends to cool off from school stress. **I may, realistically, be one of those players that pops in a few times during the school year, and RP's the most during breaks. **
When school is off I usually have more time, but not always. I frequently go places or sometimes get a summer job. This is when I have the most time to play, usually speaking.
These games are NOT my priority. I'd like to say they were, but I've got too much else going on. School, Work, Art, my social life, Resting.. all of those take priority. Similarly, though this is less of an issue, please don't be offended by my activity level on multiple games. Some of my favorite games I'm slowest on, just because they make me think more and require more concentration in my posts.
I may be gone for weeks at a time, and I may be gone without notice. I'd like my away awareness thread to function as an encompassing LOA, but if that's not fair, that's you [the admins'] call. If it's ever not okay that my presence is off and on, please tell me, and I will remove myself from the game. <3 Nothing personal, either; I know how it can be when someone isn't around a lot. For this reason also, I ask anyone to please consider giving me any kind of rank carefully.
Sometimes, #$%# Happens. I've learned the hard way that I can't make promises as to when I'll be active, because Things Come Up. Take summer '11. I was sitting around thinking I'd have all summer, and then my apartment became infested with bed bugs. The infestation was supposed to be cleared in 3 weeks, but it ended up taking my entire summer to deal with, during which I had no computer. ._. So.
I will make the following promise: If I'm around, I will play to the best of my ability. That's all I really can promise.
If I'm not around, chances are that I'm dealing with school or RL. If you really need to contact me, bluemist.wikidot.com has my information. Facebook or email is my best bet if I haven't been on messengers in awhile.
Specific Updates
Newest at the top
Fall 2011
9/9/11
It's teh second week of school, and I'm already freaking out pretty hardcore. This is not really a good sign, considering that things typically only get heavier from here.
As usual, I'm going to try my best to be around. There will probably be periods later in the semester where I'm not around, but I'll be back on breaks. Bear with me. <3
Here's my list o' obligations:
Sunday: afternoon obligations, that may go into the evening. Hopefully light. This is my recharge day.
Monday: 11am to late evening. I have no idea.
Tuesday: 7am to evening, but I'll probably be bra**indead.
Wednesday: 11am to late evening.
Thursday: 7am to evening, probably be braindead.
Friday: 12pm to evening. Will be on in evenings, but probably not posting.
Saturday: Evening obligation.
So yeah. NOT a lot of time this semester. I like to try to get up early on days where my stuff starts at like 11, and post some in the mornings.. but rarely can I get to everything, and I also like to sleep in sometimes, which interferes with the getting up early thing. ._. I also have some kind of issue with exhaustion, that I'm trying to get diagnosed, so… yeah.
BUT I WILL TRY, and where I fail, I will miss you guuuysl
Summer 2011
8/15/2011
More bad news.
Before leaving for pittsburg it became obvious that the bugs weren't quite gone. Severely diminished, but still present. I killed two live ones, and four more managed to trap themselves in the traps we have under the posts of our bed. To anyone dealing with or who has to deal with bed bugs in the future, climbup traps are useful. At the very least, they let your exterminators/management company know where they're coming from (which they'd've known if they had listened to me from the first place, but now we have proof.)
This means more sprays, and that means longer until I can get my main/art computer out. I'm going to try not to be as scarce, because I'm not quite so concerned with them infesting my electronics now that there's so few of them, and thus I'm willing to have my laptop out. Also, I need the moral support/the distraction of playing pern games. At this point, school starts in two weeks, and I'm pretty severely freaking out because there isn't a space in our apartment right now that can comfortably accommodate a 18x24 pad of paper— kind of a problem for an art major.
Anyway, because of this, and the fact that this supposedly 3-week process has ended up taking 3 months, and some other BS from my management company, we're going to move out. That's the real purpose of this update. The next week at least, we have appointments with apartment complexes nearby here in the afternoons to come and see what they'll offer us. That may affect my posting. We're also hopefully going to get to unpack some before school, which will probably result in a minor disappearance since it'll be a bit of a crunch- and that's if we're lucky and we can unpack at all. I'll probably be able to drop a specific update when that happens, though.
8/4/2010
I have tentative good news! We may be bed bug free.
A week and a half ago they came and did an inspection, four days after the last spray, and found no live bugs. We hadn't been bitten. :D They told us to wait 1-2 weeks, and then we could consider ourselves in the clear and unpack. They also gave us these little traps to help us monitor them.
It's still tentative for a few reasons— 2 weeks aren't quite up. We haven't been itching because of the bugs WE THINK (no welts— so maybe just itching because it's been outragiously hot and sweaty. Bed bugs have made me paranoid.) But, we're almost there, so— knock on wood— I will be able to unpack soon. It's also tentative because the reinfestation rates in multi-unit dwellings are so high… but if they come back in that scenario, it'll be a few months at least before we have to do all of this again. X.x here's hoping they're gone for good…
Unpacking is probably going to be a to-do, but I'm hoping that at some point, either after we're done or while we're doing it, I'll have the time and energy to post. I'd really really like some time to relax on my pern games, after all of this meh-chaos that basically ate my entire summer.
Also, though I don't know if this will be relevant, I'm probably going to be out of town between the 12th and the 15th. I don't know if I'll have internets.
My fingers are crossed, so maybe in the short term, the updates you'll be seeing from me won't be my LOA thread, but my "PLZ RP WITH ME" plotting thread. :D
7/17/2010
I haven't been around all summer.
I'm still undergoing bed bug treatments. We still can't have any freaking technology out in our apartment. tom's risking his computer, but I can't afford a new one if mine gets infested, and I can't be on Tom's computer for hours on end every day.
At this point, the supposed-three-week process of bed bug treatments has taken six weeks. They've been here six times, they've only sprayed 3 times. This is because the company is incompetent, as is my leasing office. We were supposed to be able to break out our tech, too, a week ago- but no cigar.
There are seven weeks back in my summer. We are getting a treatment at least one more time (apparently this week, but they haven't told us when, and if the way these people operate is any indication, they'll simply show up at our door without telling us when they're coming and then we'll have to wait another week because I can't up and take my cats away on that short notice.) Very likely, we'll be getting two more treatments and a follow up, which means 3 more weeks of this freaking chaos. And then, of course, we have to unpack the apartment, which will be a weeks process.
So, bed bugs have eaten my summer. Hoorah. And my leasing company is talking about trying to make us pay for it, which is A: BS, and B: something I'm going to fight, with lawyers if necessary— which will mean even more time, since anything you do with lawyers takes weeks. stabby stabby.
At this point, I'm not even going to bother giving y'all an estimation of when I come back, because every time I do, Something Happens. It's really, really frustrating. I was REALLY looking forward to relaxing this summer and spending a lot of time roleplaying.
Just know that y'all are in my thoughts, I WANT to be RPing, I miss y'all, and I will [hopefully?] be back eventually.
6/23/2010
The meh news: We had our first bed bug treatment. It went… meh. We had less? activity the first few nights. but they were back by the end of the week. We have two more treatments to go.
The bad news? We can't pull out anything yet. That means my computer.
this infestation is a lot lot lot worse then we thought. We were hoping to have things unbagged after the first treatment, but we had to wait until the second for the PCO to approve it. He didn't; he said we have to get rid of some furniture and we have to keep the eletronics locked up for at least another week. At least. at least, at least, at least.
I am not handling this so well. ._. The only thing we have out is my xbox 360, because it's under gamestop warranty and because we have two 360;s. Tom has his computer out, but it's only when he's using it for his summer class, and I can't just grab it for several hours. Thus, I am basically completely without internet. I can check google mail and facebook every once and awhile, but that is literally about it. And I have absolutely NO idea when it will be safe to pull out my computer or even my laptop again. I was REALLY hoping this summer would be a period of relaxation after an incredibly hectic year, full of 4 moves and a hard first semester at a new school, but that's life for you.
This is because bed bugs are really good at infesting such electronics, and since there's no room without an infestation, there's no safe place to use them. Rather then risking replacing my stuff (my college budget), I'm going to go ahead and listen to the guy's advice. I'm already throwing out a couch, a handful of tables, a really nice antique chair and possibly even the freaking bed, so our losses are already astronical.
We have our next treatment next tuesday. It's the last one scheduled, but the guy is going to come back if there's still a problem- and he sounded really dubious about whether it would be solved, so. I'm hoping that by next tuesday it's at least loosened up enough that I can bring my electronics out. My writing withdrawal hurts.
If there's a hatching coming up, please please please do me a favor and try to contact me over gmail or facebook? I may just have to miss it entirely. However, if you're willing, and you send me the conditions (what time it is, if it's raining, if the candidates have to bow, ask permission, what have you), I'll go ahead and TRY to pre-type a post and send it to you, so my character's at least present. X.x If I have a plot-important-character or something, feel free to take control of it for a little while, staff. I do choose to retain teh rights, though, so it's just puppeting-with-permission.
Wish me luck, I have a feeling I need a whole lot of it. I am now going to go back to not-sleeping.
Oh, but there is a spot of good news. :D We got a kitten. she's adorable. So it's not all COMPLETELY unbearable.
6/8/11
Hokay. So. My apartment has bed bugs.
For those of you who don't know, bed bugs are tiny bloodsucking parasites that dont' give a crap who you are or how clean your apartment is. They can hide anywhere- in the pages of books, in flakes of paint, in electronics, in alarm clocks, in anything upholstered. Ours live in the carpet and the walls, at least. They bite you to eat your blood, and are mostly noctournal. You get them by either traveling, or they move in from your neighbors. Their bites are itchy, and frequent. Some people don't react. I'm not one of those people.
They were here before we moved in, apparently, but at first it wasn't so bad so I thought it was a rash or something.. until I started seeing them. And killing them. In droves, on the wall. I called the management Co who sent over exterminators, who confirmed instantly. We are now in the process of getting treated.
How is this relevant? Well, in three ways.
First, I'm really reactive to these creatures, and they start biting within ten minutes of my laying down. So, I get really itchy, really fast. And can't sleep. Thus, I've been staying up for days on end, until I'm so exhausted I can sleep within ten minutes. When that's the case, I usually wake up 4 hours later, too itchy to sleep. Thus, I've been braindead, and probably will be for awhile.
Second, the treatments for these little bastards are really intensive. I have to take ALL of my belongings— books, everything— put them into plastic bags. I have to take all of my furniture, and move it to the center of the room. I have to take my eletronics— which means my computer— and pack them away in bags too. Because the bed bugs could be in them.
Now, they're relatively unlikely to be in objects I use a lot, but I still have to bag up my computer to be safe. However, I've put my laptop in a quarentine bag (a ziplock that they can't crawl into, basically, and I only take it out when i need to use it, ever.) so I'm not going to be totally cut off from the computer.
Everything needs to stay this way for three weeks at least, and more likely four, because we're getting 3 bed bug treatments and then a followup.
What that means? I'm going to be really really busy with this insane preparation for the next week. After that? Well, there really isn't going to be much else to do, really, except go on the computer. But we'll play it by ear.
Also, I'll be honest here. I'm really not feeling all that great, emotionally. Of all the crap I've been through— and there's been a fair amount, including homelessness and family issues- this is the worst thing that I have ever gone through. In the past, I've always had an area at least that I could relax in, and I could always sleep. Now? Sleep is not really a reprieve, and there is nowhere safe that I can relax. Home is not safe. So, I'm feeling rather upset about the whole thing.
This has been effecting my posting in the past. I dunno what it will do now.
Third, and this is something of a PSA. Our infestation got as bad as it did because we moved into it while it was active and because we had no idea what it was. We didn't know the signs. So. If you're waking up with multiple itchy spots, usually in some kind of weird pattern, or you see little black dots on your walls/stuff/bed/headboard, you should look into bed bugs. There's plenty of info on the internet. If you suspect an infestation and you can afford to, call exterminators and/or report it to your management co. This REALLY, REALLY sucks, and if you catch it early, you won't have to suffer as long.
