I was going to do the list-thing like some have done, but I just don’t have that many items for it. I’m very easy-going and easy to get along with.

But:

DO NOT TEXT-MESSAGE ME!
-I don’t care if it’s how you usually use your phone
-I don’t care if it’s free for you
-I don’t care if it’s cheaper for you than calling
-I don’t care if you’re not in a place where you can call (you shouldn’t be texting, either, in that case)

Bottom line, I don’t care what the circumstances are. Words cannot describe how much I loathe text messaging, and if you send me one, the only response you’ll get (if any) is a canned “I don’t know who you are, but don’t ever send text messages to this number again” template that I have just for such situations.

I say this every year, but every year, someone fucking does it anyway, and it’s usually someone who reads my LJ. So, take note of this now, never send me text messages. Ever.

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I’ll be posting my cellphone number and Westin room number once we check in. Everyone is welcome to call me, of course, if you need information from me or something. I’m not a fan of social calls, except with certain people, but I don’t mind people calling me during the con. Just don’t text me.

After a long hiatus, and many people wondering if it would come back at all, the artist behind Venus Envy says that the comic will be returning after her post-graduation vacation.

WOOT!

EDIT: I misread the announcement, it’s a one-week vacation, not three

I am afraid of….

[ ] the dark
[ x ] staying single forever
[ x ] being a parent
[ ] giving birth
[ x ] being myself in front of others
[ ] open spaces
[ x ] closed spaces
[ x ] heights (Unless I feel safely protected from falling)
[ ] dogs
[ x ] birds
[ ] fish
[ x ] spiders (And other insects)
[ ] flowers or other plants

Total so far: 7

[ ] being touched
[ ] fire
[ x ] deep water
[ ] snakes
[ ] silk
[ ] the ocean
[ x ] failure
[ ] success
[ ] thunder/lightning
[ ] frogs/toads
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad
[ ] boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[ ] rats
[ x ] jumping from high places
[ ] snow

Total so far: 10

[ ] rain
[ ] wind
[ x ] crossing hanging bridges
[ x ] death
[ ] heaven
[ ] being robbed
[ ] falling
[ ] clowns
[ ] dolls
[ ] large crowds of people
[ ] men
[ ] women
[ x ] having great responsibilities
[ ] doctors, including dentists
[ x ] tornadoes

Total so far: 14

[ x ] hurricanes
[ x ] incurable diseases
[ x ] sharks
[ ] Friday the 13th
[ ] ghosts
[ x ] poverty
[ ] Halloween
[ ] school
[ ] trains
[ ] odd numbers
[ ] even numbers
[ ] being alone
[ x ] becoming blind
[ x ] becoming deaf
[ ] growing up

Total so far: 20

[ ] creepy noises in the night
[ x ] bee stings (I’m severely allergic, so…)
[ x ] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[ x ] needles
[ ] blood
[ ] dinosaurs
[ ] the welcome mat
[ ] high speed
[ ] throwing up
[ ] falling in love
[ ] super secrets

Final Total: 23

… if you wish to post this in your journal, it’s been requested that you title it “I’m afraid of _ out of 72 common fears”

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I’m such a wuss…

EDIT: Just a note, for those who get this from me, the comments in parenthesis are my own personal comments, they’re not part of the meme.

For many years, despite not doing much pen-on-paper writing, I’ve always had a fondness for fountain pens. I guess it’s partially my fetish for uniqueness, but something about the beauty and precision of a fountain nib just feels nice to use.

Several months ago, fox_cub started making pens on his lathe, and he made me an absolutely beautiful purple and gold fountain pen. Not only is purple my favourite colour, but the pen he made for me looks and feels much, much nicer than the black-and-gold Cross pen I paid $50 for in high school. It came with blue ink, which is ok, but having a purple-bodied pen gave me a great idea. In high school, I had one of those Pilot gel pens with purple ink, and I loved it. I haven’t been able to find them in recent years, and the ones I had have long since dried out (and not refillable, of course). So, since fountain pens are readily refillable, I decided to try to find purple ink for my new one.

The idea remained just an idea for a long time, mostly due to the limited amount of writing I actually do. But, with AC coming up fast, I decided to look around and see what I could find. I went to the local art supply shop, and picked up a container of purple acrylic ink, based on the uncertainty of the lady working there as to whether it would work or not. I figured it was worth a try due to a lack of other options, and the fact that my Cross pen kinda sucks (so I could test with it), and if I caused any permanent damage to my nice hand-made pen, the nib could be easily replaced (though not exactly cheap).

Well, the results were less than stellar in the old pen. It worked great as long as I was actively using it, but once I capped it and set it aside for awhile, it needed a little help from the cleaning fluid I bought to get going again. However, that pen has always had flow issues, for reasons unknown to me, while my nice new one has shown itself to be much more shelf-stable. So, I tried the new ink in the new pen. The results were much more promising, but it still tends to dry out a bit quickly. I tried diluting the ink with a small amount of cleaning fluid, which seemed to help a bit, but I didn’t want to thin it out too much, at the risk of having an entire 2oz bottle of unusably thin ink. Plus, I’m not sure it’s chemically possible to change the properties of acrylic ink without turning it into coloured alcohol (or whatever that stuff’s made of).

So, does anyone with experience in pens have any recommendations of how to have purple ink in mine?

EDIT: While typing this post, I also did some searching, and found a very high-end brand of ink with a ton of colours (including several shades of purple) that lists Weldin’s as a supplier. If I’m not mistaken, that’s one of the nice art supply shops near the convention center in downtown Pittsburgh, right? I can just drop by on Wednesday before I head to Fox’s house

EDIT 2: Right after posting this, gravity and physics decided to gang up on me for daring to have pretty pen ink, and spontaneously knocked over the container of cleaning fluid that my pen parts were soaking in, spilling purple-tinted mystery solvent all over my desk. Thankfully, nothing major was damaged; I lost a cheap notepad and the entire $5 bottle of cleaner. Somehow, the ink reservoir for my old pen managed to get cleaning fluid behind the plunger, and there’s no way to get it out that I can see (how’d it get there in the first place? o.o). Considering the weird semi-sticky sensation this stuff leaves behind, and what it does to acrylic ink, I don’t dare use it for water-based ink in that condition. So, if I want to use anything other than the crappy blue-black cartridges that Staples sells, I’ll have to find a new reservoir (or get another awesome Foxie-made pen from fox_cub for black ink).

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve received two bits of very disappointing news from two different European car brands, and I haven’t posted in awhile, so I figured I’d share.

First off, Volkswagen, the hallmark of affordable, yet brilliant, German engineering, doesn’t seem follow the “make a car better every year” philosophy that every other brand does.

Given the recent engine/transmission problems of my Crown Vic, the fact that it’s still not back to 100%, and its utterly abysmal fuel economy (normally not a factor in vehicle purchases, nor do I plan for it to be, but damn, < 12mpg hurts), I’ve started idly thinking about replacing it. And, since I’m still working on/hoping for a real-paying job, I’ve been toying with the idea of making my next vehicle the first brand-new car anyone in my family has had in almost 20 years. Problem is, I’m probably the pickiest person ever when it comes to cars, and my biggest factor when buying a car is uniqueness; whether that comes from distinctive features, interesting history, or just general rarity. Basically, if I see a car more than once every couple of days, I don’t want it, because a car is a LOT more than just a transportation tool for me, and I want something I’m going to take pride in driving. Other factors include comfort, appearance/design (another area where I have peculiar tastes), performance (the definition of this depends on what the vehicle is built to do), and reliability, in that order.

So, I’ve been looking at the Volkswagen Eos. It’s a cute little two-door convertible, with a hard-top, and a huge sunroof. It’s very distinctive, I’ve never seen one in person, it looks very beautiful both inside and out (in my opinion), and it looks like it’d be lots of fun to drive, without being uncomfortably tiny like a Miata or Z3. Now, the Eos currently comes with two different engines. The base engine is a 2.0L turbo that has oil burning problems after 5,000-15,000 miles, and has very notable turbo lag, causing it to feel very underpowered at low RPM. Oh, and it requires 93 octane gas at an absolute minimum, which is very hard to find around here. Then, there’s the 3.2L V6 that’s naturally aspirated, used on several Audi models, less picky about fuel, more powerful, and nearly identical in fuel economy (19/30 for the 2.0, 19/26 for the 3.2, both a significant improvement over what I have now). It doesn’t burn oil, it doesn’t have the complexity of factory turbos, and it’s an overall superior engine that’s better suited to the car.

Now, for the disappointing part. For the 2009 model year, VW is making some significant changes to the Eos. They’re phasing out the 3.2L engine entirely, replacing the 2.0 with a different 2.0 turbo that’s only marginally improved (if at all), removing fog lights (WTF?), and removing some wheel options. The only positive improvements they’re making are to make the fancy-schmancy adaptive HID headlights available as an option on all packages, and upgrading the navigation system. I can understand changing the options around, because the V6 model had a ton of exclusive options that weren’t available on the others, but phasing out the engine entirely is just unacceptable to me, and the alleged reason they did it (improve average fuel mileage numbers across all models) seems rather ridiculous, considering the miniscule difference between the two.

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Disappointment #2 comes from Ford, or more specifically, their recent plans to sell Jaguar and Land Rover. This doesn’t affect me directly, since any Rover I get would be too old to matter, but I’ve always really liked both brands, and the rich history/prestige associated with them. Unfortunately, neither company has been particularly profitable, so they tend to get bought and sold a lot.

When Ford acquired Jaguar, and then Land Rover, I wasn’t overly thrilled, since Ford isn’t exactly the pinnacle of luxury (I couldn’t think of a non-offensive analogy to illustrate this, so use your imagination). But, they’ve been around for over a century, and they at least have half a clue about how to build a nice car (see: Lincoln Towncar), so I figured they’d be able to do some good things with both nameplates.

Well, just a couple years after buying Land Rover, Ford is now selling both it and Jaguar. Unfortunately, neither company has shown significant improvement since the Ford acquisition, so all of the corporations higher on the “ladder” than Ford aren’t interested. Who does that leave? The trashiest car company big enough to afford it: Tata Motors.

This company is based in India, and their primary markets cover the middle east, southeast asia, and parts of africa. They sell a large volume of heavy-hauler trucks, and apparently those don’t suck nearly as bad as their passenger models, which list “low fuel indicator” as a feature, and airbags are a luxury option. Now, I admit, there’s nothing inherently wrong with selling dirt-cheap cars that rival the Yugo in “features”, developing countries need that niche to be filled, and a lot of people in the US and Europe would buy a car that falls apart after 100,000 miles if it was $6,000 new. But, this is not the kind of company that should be making $80,000 luxury cars and SUVs, even if it’s indirect. I shudder to think what will happen to engineering masterpieces like the Jaguar XK-R with the brand under the control of a company that can’t even keep up with other current-year econoboxes. Tata’s current-year 4-door sedan (the nicest of their passenger cars) isn’t even equipped comparably to a late-90s Honda Civic, let alone something currently on the market.

Sad.

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