maristu

Hi!! Ok, I don't think anyone remembers me anymore... Heck, it's been years, I guess. But hey, I just wanted to drop a word to you guys and tell you that I'm living in Washington, DC! Well, only for a few months, but still. I'm thinking of getting a masters degree next year, so maybe I'll be here longer. Also, I'm taking a video editing class, and might be coming back to vidding, although I have no idea what's been going on with the vidding community in these last couple of years...

I don't know if I'll be good about posting. Probably not... Lately I haven't even answered many of my emails. So much has happened... I got my new apartment completely remodelled, but never actually got to live in it, since my stepdad passed away a month after I'd moved out of my parent's house, and so I moved back in to help her through her grief. And then the opportunity arrived to come here, study, and put together an all-woman percussion band in Washington, DC. So I came... And seriously, I have no plans at all for my life anymore. Things just don't work out according to plans, in my experience, so I just gave up planning altogether.

So yeah, I'm back. And I'm rambling, so I'll stop now. If anyone reads this, give me an update? I really miss you guys and want to know what's been going on...

Oh, and this is my band's website: http://www.batalawashington.com

Very apropriate to my current mood... Four lovely new Calvin & Hobbes icons made by sunnysky.

I got my paid account! Don't have 100 icons yet, I figure I'll get that once I use up my fifteen slots...

tresca made this for me, plus three other lovely icons. Thanks, hon! And oh so true... Half of me is a volcano, totally out of control...

More updates soon. Just got back from my trip to Peru, and am still trying to organize everything, paying debts, doing laundry, organizing photographs, all that fun stuff. Hopefully I'll have more time this weekend for a decent update.

Was looking around for mood sets (that was before I discovered that you can't have mood sets if you don't have a paid account, so... Well, I'll just have to go back to paying LJ again :) ), and I discovered this. Don't know what use it has, but still, I thought it was interesting...

Darn. I'd just finished writing the longest post, and my machine crashed and I lost it all. The amazing machine that I paid a tidy amount to have, with 200GB of disk space, a DVD-RW, 1GB of RAM, all the works, crashed. That's not fair. *pout*

Oh well. I'll just rewrite it. In Word, so that I can save it *g*

Anyway - HI!!! Hi everyone! I'm back! How have y'all been?? What's everyone been up to? I want to know everything! :-)

Okay, I'll start *g*. First off, I'm single now, officially. Have been so for a year, actually. It's been a good year, all in all, lots of fun, dancing, traveling, partying, lots of good friends, lots of work. And now things are still hectic, but I have a 'net connection, and I missed you guys! Really! *g*

Let's see, I'll try doing this in topics and see if it works.

Traveling: I did the Camino de Santiago (Saint James Way, in English) in April. For those who don't know, it's a pilgrimage crossing Spain from the french border to the city of Santiago. It's about 870km long, and I walked another 100km from Santiago to Finisterre, which is on the coast (Finisterre means, literally, the "end of the earth" - in ancient times, people believed that the earth ended there, and they built a lighthouse, really beautiful place). So, that's almost 1000km, which is about 620 miles, I think. I walked it in 33 days, an average of 17-18 miles a day. I recommend it to anyone who'd like to a) test their limits; b) learn more about themselves; c) meet interesting people; d) learn about a different culture/language; or e) all of the above. It was the most intense experience I've ever had.

Sports: Well... I stopped practicing Aikido for a while, but am thinking of returning. Also, I started playing squash (really cool!) and running in the mornings, and am actually thinking of entering a half marathon next year. And to top things off, I'm starting sailing lessons on weekends, and might even buy a boat with a few friends sometime soon. Very athletic, my life of late!

Fandom: Not much to talk about there. I missed most of the 3rd season of SV, haven't been home much lately. The shows I see are mostly on DVD, I bought Sex and the City (only two seasons), Dawson's Creek (I know, I know! It's my guilty pleasure...), and the first three seasons of Buffy, which I got hooked on after watching "Superstar" (don't remember the vidder's name, but that is one cool vid!). I'm anxiously waiting for season 4 to come out on DVD here in Brazil.

Vidding: I haven't vidded much, fandom-wise, but I'm working on a big editing project for our end-of-the-year party at work. What we're doing is, taking scenes from famous movies, like Thelma and Louise, The Godfather, Schindler's List, and so forth, and dubbing over them as if the characters were the people at work. It's hilarious, especially the dubbing sessions. Lots of fun, but also lots of work. I'm dying to see the finished product *g* Although it's taking up most of my time (not to mention disk space!) to make it. We have a tight deadline (October 30), so I'll be off fandom vidding until then. But I plan on making a big return! Stay tuned!

Okay, I think that's about it... Don't know if I forgot anything that I'd written on the other post, but oh well. If I remember anything, I'll just repost *g*

How about you guys? What have y'all been up to?

Hey, new friends! Look at that *g*

*waves* Hi there! Welcome! :)

And now I'll stop spamming LJ.

First off, ::hugs:: for Rhi. I sent you an email, but I really have no idea what to say, so forgive me if I said anything that might have hurt you. I've been thinking of you a lot in the past days...

~*~
Also, happy (late) birthday to alejandradd! Hope you had a blast :) And, um, I'm kind of late in my birthday presents (*hides from bonibaru*), but you'll get yours... eventually *g*

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I'm going crazy here... We're starting our first project in my new job, and I've been assigned Web Designer. *hides face in hands and weeps* I have *never* designed anything in my life! I stole my webpage design from Blogger! I have no idea where to start! Someone? Please? Help? Just, you know, point me in the right direction (*any* direction, actually) and shove me a little and I'm pretty sure I'll get... somewhere. I have technical knowledge of HTML, Javascript, ASP and all that stuff, but other than that, nada. misswindy? Anyone else?

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Just finished re-reading Blueprints.

Easy like being seated ten people down from Lex and yet in perfect line of sight to see that the gorgeous brunette next to Lex had every intention of making some sort of claim on him tonight. Who was she again? The Duchess Mariana or some such thing?

Hee! Gorgeous brunette? Woohoo! I'm even Lex's type!

And this:

Clark barely listened. He knew enough about the market to keep up with their conversation and he would be able to comment if Lionel decided to turn on him again. In the meantime, he concentrated on the conversation between Lex and Mariana. The latter's clipped accent made it easy to zero in on their discussion.

"Really, Lex, if you enjoy the back door so much, you simply must try mine. I've been told it's exquisite."

... made me laugh (and blush) so hard that people at work thought I was crazy :)

And damn! Lex must be *really* in love with Clark, to turn down an offer like *that*! A threesome, even!

Thanks, Rhi. This made my week ;)

*looks at the list of things to write in LJ*
*chooses one randomly, or maybe not that randomly, but still*

Okay, vidding. What to say about vidding? I like doing it :) It drives me crazy sometimes (actually, most of the time), but crazy in a *good* way.

( Cut out because it's waaaay too long. )

There are so many things I want to work on in the future. I want to make more *art*. Be braver and bolder. Less technical. Use the "slow" feature to bring out specific clips in the songs (instead of just using it so that the clip fits a specific part of the song), using different effects, stuff like that. Keeping a color theme or a camera theme *on purpose*, instead of unintentionally. The thing is, I’m too afraid of making a mistake, of people not liking something I made (and my very rational mind is now reminding me that this has probably already happened, but still).

I’m a strange person. I don’t like taking chances. I don’t like losing, erring, making a fool or myself. Most shy people are like that, I think. Shyness is just a way of not letting yourself be open to criticism. I practically *cried* the first time Social Services took my baby in The Sims. I just don’t like people (even virtual people, like the Social Services lady in The Sims) telling me that I haven’t done a good job. It’s scary being like this, *knowing* that I’m like this, and at the same time not being especially able to change it.

Then again, I *am* changing it, in a way. By writing here, and posting my vids. See? Fandom makes you grow as a person! :)

*sob*

I can't do this. I just can't.

It's not possible to keep up with three mailing lists (one of which sends a total of 100 posts a *day*), read my entire friends list here at LJ, beta for the people I promised I'd beta, read all the great fanfic and watch all the great videos in three different fandoms, develop all the programs I said I'd develop (just got myself into another one-- I don't understand how this happened, I was sitting quietly in my corner and the next minute my hands had written an email volunteering), write all the stuff I want to write in my journal and, you know, work. And have a life. And all that *other* stuff that exists offline.

Yup. This is me, having a breakdown.

So. I put all my lists on digest, which doesn't *really* change anything, since I still read all the emails, except that I don't get depressed when I see the "You have 253 unread emails" on my mailbox. I've made a list of the things that I still need to do, so that at the very least I can keep organized. And I unfriended a few people. Sorry, guys, but really, there was no way I could keep up. I might unfriend a few more today, because I see absolutely *no* difference on the length of my friends page...

On other (not so good) news, my old hard drive has apparently died. This time it was *my* hard drive, not my mom's. All my Premiere projects? Gone. All my Smallville eps? Also gone. All my mp3s, installed programs, downloaded fanfics, *everything*? GONE.

I think I'll go cry in a corner now...

But before I go... ( name quiz )

That's eerily accurate. Scary. Rhi, you'd better choose wee!Rhi's name carefully :)

Cool things that have happened in this past week:

* I started back on Aikido. Yay! I'm sore all over, but it'll pass soon (hopefully). Practiced for the first time with a stick (jo), lots of fun! Keep broomsticks away from me, people ;)

* I also rejoined Aikido-l, which is... daunting. One hundred emails a day, give or take. I'm trying out the digest mode, to see if I can keep up.

* Janet from aikido-l named me Brazillian Bombshell BudoBabe :) I'm so tempted to put that on a t-shirt... Or maybe an LJ icon? Hmm...

* I got my first credit card! I feel so proud of myself. I even used it today. I'm all grown up now! And I can also buy stuff from the 'net :)

~*~

Someone's using one of my LJ icons, and that's bugging me to no end. Which is silly, since the person seems perfectly nice, and probably didn't know it was mine anyway (or maybe s/he did and just didn't think I'd mind). It's not one of my most used icons, but it's one of my favorites...

Gah. I'm just being silly. Let it go already!