Some of you may know that I recieved a new sewing machine for XMas. I am so thrilled to be sewing again on my Viking Platinum 775. It's a bit of a step up from my Brother but easy enough to figure out...especially when you read the manual. Still stuck with the same old ruffler foot (universal fit, my butt) I'll be trading up to an actual Viking ruffler soon. The old one, however, did yield some nice looking ruffles which can be seen on my latest Victorian outfit.

( Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (with 2 big pics) )

/brag on/

From my online World Literature professor:

I wanted to honor you for the high quality discussions you have prepared throughout this course. In my view, you certainly deserve nine weeks of bonus points for the effort you presented. Your discussions are inspirational to your class peers and also add to the intellectual quality of this course.
Thanks for making an effort and improving not only your learning, but that of your class members.

I'm sure that you will be academically successful in any course you choose to take and will continue being a leader in the eyes of your class mates.

Finally, I would also like to express my gratitude for your moral compass.



Damn straight!

I'd also like to add that I had so much extra credit I didn't have to do the final exam. I'm beyond an A at this point. Niiiiice.


/brag off/

The fall semester is almost finished with less than 2 weeks of classes left for me. Yay. Then I get a break from school for 8 months until my program of choice resumes next August. Hmmm...what to do with all that free time?

1. sew LOTS of Victorian dresses
2. get a job (part-time, of course)
3. do both!

We'll see how things go...I'm not looking for a career...just something to fill my days and maybe my pockets with some scratch...enough so that I can buy fabric when I need to. I'd love to start a new dress and I have the perfect design already planned out. Just need some patterns and some "filler fabric" to compliment my already-purchased "inspiration fabric".
The last updatey thing to mention is that we're planning (you see how I said "planning"?) on starting an intensive exercise program very soon. It's called Power 90 and it murders people. Then after those people have died, they usually go onto P90X to die again and get wicked ripped. The guys (and some gals) who do the 300/Spartan costuming live by this P90X so we figured we'd give it a go. I may post weekly updates on my progress with the program here...maybe even with gruesome pictures!!

Until then...

I know you're not going to believe me when I tell you this...but, this week in World Lit (my online class), there have been two, TWO people plagiarizing!!  One guy just c&p'd another guy's entire post.  Another guy jacked my title, 2 sentences and a works cited reference.  Okay...so the works cited may be hair-splitting...but I made a unique punctuation error in my citation, so that's how I know he just copied mine.

Seriously...wtf?

The first guy I kinda called him on it basically saying, "Your post looks just like that guy's post."  Other students have now taken notice and are commenting...but they're keeping it general.  I guess no one wants to say "cheater!!"

I really don't know what to say about all this.  Now I really do look like a tattle tale but...you know what?  I average a good 6 hrs a week (at least!) on assignments for that class...and it pisses me off when someone comes along and thinks, "Oh, she's a 5-star student.  I'll just read what she's posted and transpose it into my post."  Well, guess what jerkface?  Next week, I'm waiting until the last friggin' minute to post my assignment so no one can use MY post as a template.  Do your own damn work!!

I'm under the assumption that no one found out about me ratting out the girl who plagerized her entire assignment a few weeks ago.  I'm also assuming she's no longer in the online class because I haven't seen her post since then. 

So, why the funk is everyone ignoring me?! 

Okay...it's probably all in my head but...for reals. 

Here's how it works:  We post our weekly discussions online and it's expected that everyone does a Peer Review on your post.  This involves saying a few words about the post, then giving a star rating  (1=suck, 5=awesome).  In the past 5 weeks, I've had the highest rated Peer Reviews for 4 of those weeks.  That means I got an extra 5 points for each of those weeks.  Fabulous!  Except, now I feel like I have a huge BULLSEYE on my cyber-back.  And this week?  Not a single review on my post.   For the record, it's my classmates who gave me those 5 extra points nearly every week...I can't rate my own posts. 

So, this week I emailed my classmates and mentioned how, since we have this big poetry chapbook thing due next week, it might be a good idea to buddy up and critique each other's works and maybe get some ideas/help one another.  Not only that... but the professor asked us to do it in the video lecture she gave us...and there's a friggin' Peer Review Checklist she wants us to use for that very purpose.  Does anyone respond to my email?   Noooo.  Freakin' crickets, man!  I'd actually posted this idea in our "General Forum" last week but no one replied.

I suppose I'm being too...Goody Two-Shoes about this. (And maybe a touch sensitive.)  I got that the 1st day of Psych class when we were given an assignment that required walking around and talking to the room full of strangers we were in.  I took the initiative and was the first one up and doing it because....#1, we had 2 hrs of class to kill and #2, the professor was IN the class as a "student" so he'd see who did the work.  Hello people, it's just school.  It ain't gonna bite you.  Five weeks later, I'm only 1 of a handful of people who participate in, what has to be, one of the easiest and most entertaining classes I've ever had.

At this point, I shouldn't really fuss about it.  It's the grade I earn for myself that matters.  But it sucks to wind up alienating yourself when you're just trying to be a good student.  I LIKE being a good student in college.  Maybe because I was such a poor one during most of high school?  Maybe I just have shitty social skills?   I didn't think I'd have to sacrifice smarts for like-ability.

But hey, ain't that what school's all about?  :\

So, it's week 2 of my world lit class and it's pretty tough stuff. All the reading, then researching to post an online discussion of what I've read...very tiring and sometimes boring stuff. My 2nd assignment took me 6 solid hours to complete.

Anyway...we're asked to read/rate/review our classmate's posts about what they've written and while reading, one girl had some oddly placed sentences in her write-up. Like they were from a worksheet or bulletpoints or something. So I replied to her post and called her on it (nicely).

Then I took one of the weird sentences and Googled it because I had a feeling she didn't write the post. Sure enough, she cut and pasted someone's blog and slapped her name on it! So, what do I do? I emailed the professor and gave her the link to the blog.


Do you think I was wrong to tell the professor....who had even commented on the girl's post but didn't seem to notice the plagerism? There's a big ol' disclaimer for the class (and college) that plagerism is not tolerated. Plus, I feel like...hey, I racked my brain to come up with a good discussion of the poem, what gives this girl the right to steal someone else's work and call it hers?


What would you have done?

Finally got the over 400 pictures loaded into my Photobucket. Probably 50% of that's simply the parade...and I gotta wonder why I continue to take pictures of the parade? I guess it's in the event I see a great costume but that's rarely the case...at least, in the parade. Everyone knows the best costumes come out after dark. So, without further chit-chat:

( MOAR PIKS HEER!!!1! )


Dial-up beware!!!

Well, Dragon*Con 2009 (and visiting ATL) was a weekend of highs and lows.

High: Mornin' Sunshine! Meeting Robin Meade from HLN's Morning Express. She's such a doll! And Rafer totally blushed at the "Free Enterprise" reference!

Low: Standing in a line to get a ticket to stand in another line to get a picture with William Shatner. "No touching! No talking!" (we did this again for his autograph)

High: Standing in a line and getting a Charlaine Harris autograph in my 9th Sookie Stackhouse book even though the D*C staffer said she was only going to sign 100 books and I was too far back in the line to get any love. I even have a (blurry) pic to go with it!

Low: Friday 11am, getting yelled at by D*C staffers about blocking exits and fire marshal's shutting us down. Really? Cuz the con just started AN HOUR AGO!!!

Super High: Everyone telling me how "awesome" my Yeoman Rand wig was.

Low: Not getting to see ANY costuming panels. :(


D*C pics are uploaded but are waiting for BF approval. Will post them soon.


Started my online World Lit class. Hey, here's an idea: If you, as the instructor, want us to format our discussion posts a certain way...TELL US BEFORE OUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT, NOT AFTER THE SECOND ONE!!!!11! kthx


Meeting Dirk "Faceman" Benedict got the BF on a kick to start eating macrobiotically. Dude, like, for reals? Cuz...you can't even stand couscous. At least buy me some macrobiotic cookbooks so we're not stuck eating brown rice and miso soup everyday...cuz that'll get real boring, real fast.

Okay, long overdue promised Vegas Trek Convention pictures are here. I've just uploaded these and rotated most of them. I'm not happy with how my dresses came out. I seriously hate the pattern for the TOS dress and after this one I'm currently working on (Nurse Chapel) I hope to never have to make another. It's been a b*tch to fit these, mostly in the arms. I suppose the best model for this pattern would have a very large chest and stick arms. Naturally, I have neither.

Sorry for the link...I'm too lazy to put a bunch of the pics behind a cut.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/CreedsGalBirdy/Vegas%20Trek%202009/


Enjoy.