Laura Highcove

Chapter 4.2

September 7, 2010September 7, 2010 Laura Highcove

“Isn’t he great?” Kyanosa grinned.

“That was amazing.” Kaye said.

“She wasn’t that tough.” Canopus shrugged. “Didn’t take long to see through her style.”

Dirk glared at Canopus. Though he didn’t consider it a real magical ability, Dirk had the uncanny power to make people know he was glaring even through the sunglasses. “You’re not saving your abilities for later matches.”

Canopus returned to his usual stance, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “Yeah, how about that.”

No one in the group’s name showed up over the next several battles, so they fell to talking, only looking up when Canopus found something interesting enough to mention it out loud.

One such occasion came at the start of battle twelve.

“It’s a dragon.” Canopus stated.

Sundays

August 31, 2010August 31, 2010 Laura Highcove

Apparently the pure freedom that now exists in my weekend has made it impossible for me to actually remember that Sunday is my update day. After three weeks of trying, I am now giving up and switching my update night to Tuesdays, which is a day I always spend a the local game store. Since I have my laptop here, and usually work on my writing, I should be able to remember to actually update.

Anyway, now for Canopus’ fight. Rilen is actually a character of mine from long long ago. Now she’s just a fight in this tournament. >.>

Chapter 4.1

August 31, 2010August 31, 2010 Laura Highcove

The cheers and whispers of the crowd passed in one of Canopus’ ears and out the other. His entire focus was on the foxgirl eyeing him from the arena. He walked silently up the steps and crossed his arms, nearly glaring at her. His attitude didn’t seem to faze her in the least, as she neatly glared right back as he stopped on the other side of the arena.

He looked over her entire body, memorizing how she stood, what muscles she tensed, the movement allowed by her clothing, everything he could just from a rest stance. He nodded. “Are you planning on using that sword?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see won’t you?” she replied.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter for the result. I just wanted to give you an appropriate opponent.”

Her eyes narrowed even more, if that was even possible without them closing completely. “You’re right. Won’t change the results.”

The State of Things

August 26, 2010August 26, 2010 Laura Highcove

So yesterday, after a particularly tough day at work, I decided to risk putting my computer together. The motherboard showed up at some time on Tuesday without the need for the signature that so delayed my first shipment. I guess replacement parts aren’t considered as valuable as the original shipment?

Anyway, I pop in all the parts, hook them up, all the time thinking ‘Man, I am going to press this power button and the darn thing isn’t going to turn on.’ A problem which has plagued me on more than one occasion, but was particularly dreaded this time, not only because of the previous problems, but because I was generally just too tired to stick my face in the case and try and figure out which wires I had crossed, or accept the possibility that something else was broken.

So I finish up, put the case in place, and low and behold, the power turns on when I hit the power button. (Ah technology.) The motherboard blurb pops up on the screen as I stick in the Windows 7 disk I have. It loads for five minutes and everything pops up all fancy as is Windows wont.

I tell it, it’s going to install Windows for me, and it displays the drives on which this is possible. All of them, except for the one on which Windows already is. I stare, for a moment, at the only 2gigs remaining free on my C drive, wondering where the heck the ‘reformat and install on this drive’ option is…

Well as far as I can tell, there isn’t one. So I figure I’ll have a better chance trying the only other install option, which is an upgrade while Windows is running. So I pull out the CD, restart, and get the fun ‘You’ve changed something, you have to reactivate.’ message. I try to get past it only to find out that the ps2 keyboard and mouse I have plugged in (when a computer has no OS, it has trouble reading usb keyboards and mouses as what they are, so I have a backup.) do not work. Nor do the usb keyboard or mouse.

After a few moments of disbelief and a restart (just in case) I shut down the computer and pull out the hard drive that has the C drive on it. I then proceed to my husband’s computer, where lots of fun and boot drive setting later I clean off the drive with a shift-delete. NOW I put the hard drive back into my computer and get the installation going.

When it’s finally ready for human input it starts up and of course there’s immediately the message for ‘activate windows’. I click on the activate, forgetting that I have not yet installed the drivers for my motherboard, meaning the Internet does not work and the gosh darn OS blue screens on me. Once I ignore the activation thing I actually get to Windows, am able to install my drivers and everything is peachy.

So the moral of the story is: Everything works forever except Windows 7 is dumb in some ways that will likely never matter again.

Canopus is next

August 22, 2010August 22, 2010 Laura Highcove

Kind of a little in-between post, but there you go.

Chapter 3.3

August 22, 2010August 22, 2010 Laura Highcove

Kyanosa walked back around the arena, grinning at the cheers of the crowd and specifically his group in the front row. He sat where he was before, between Kaye and Canopus. Kaye grinned and patted him on the back. “Dirk taught you to fight like that?”

“Dirk and Cowboy Bebop.”

“See. I told you you’d do great. What did you think Canopus?” She had glanced at the white haired man a few times during the fight, but was not able to figure out what he was thinking.

“Mostly what I would have done. But you’re too flashy. Should go for the simple, effective attacks over what looks better.”

Kyanosa threw up his hands. “You use your style, I use mine.”

“Neither of which is mine, I hope.” Dirk looked at them both.

Canopus stared back at the ring. “Don’t worry. We’ve learned more than that.”

You never know

August 19, 2010August 19, 2010 Laura Highcove

You never know what the world will throw at you. On Tuesday I had to WD40 a broom.

So I’m still on my old computer. My motherboard came in DOA so I had to send it back. It went out on Tuesday, so I am expecting the replacement sometime next week. It’s really the first DOA anything I’ve had in the…three computer’s I’ve built over the years, so that’s a pretty decent record. I’ve also never gotten dead pixels on my monitors. /knockonwood

Now if I can just survive the rest of the week without becoming waterlogged from all this rain…

Otakon 2010

August 8, 2010August 8, 2010 Laura Highcove

So as my husband pointed out, this is actually my 11th year of going to Otakon. That makes me feel so old! But I still remember Otakon of 2000 when my friend Anne decided with some of her other friends maybe two days before the con, that we were going, and getting up at 4am to drive up there on the Friday of the con, and having a hotel outside the city, and not being able to find parking, and walking a mile in a downpour. It’s a wonder I ever went back.

So if you want to see all the pictures, I had Picasa make one of those instant web pages here.

As for my swag pictures:

So in the back are Hope and Lightning figures. My favorite characters from FFXIII. I also wanted to get an Ashe, who I felt was the only really worthwhile character from FFXII (except Balthier, though I didn’t really like him) but alas, I didn’t see her. In the middle is my Otakon badge. The rest of the stuff was actually from our day at the Towson Mall the day after the con. A Pride and Prejudice comic (yeah it’s weird, plus I’m so used to seeing the characters from the A&E series that I can’t remember who is who.) the latest Mercades Lackey book in paperback, a fancy covered notebook, and yummy treats from Harry and Davids.

A print from Otakon’s Artist Alley of all the Eevee evolutions. It’s just so darn cute.

I’m a fan of Flaffy, and since we had a free print to pick out (Buy two, get one free and James got the other one.) I picked this one for fun.

Stuffed animals galore. In the back, the blue, pink, and green things are from Shugo Chara! One of my most favoritest series. Then Lugia, who I did not see a plush of the entire weekend until our last trip through the dealer’s room when we technically weren’t supposed to spend any more money. The green thing is Ai-kun from Macross Frontier. One of my other favoritest series. Then of course growlithe and lapras.

Lots and lots of manga. No need to list out all the series as you can read them if you really want to know.

And if you’re interested in seeing my room immediately post Otakon: Clicky. The ‘ghosting’ and any crookedness you see is from my using the panorama option on my camera. It automatically takes three pictures and puts them together. Doesn’t work as great on things this close, but it served my purpose.

Remember the Double Update!

August 8, 2010August 8, 2010 Laura Highcove

I guess a failing of this website design is that if I do, do a double update, you have to click the little back button to see the first of the two. However, life goes on, and it ended up working really well as the second update gets you right into the first battle involving our heroes.