A Reprise

Handwriting Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . I wasn't kidding about the handwriting thing.

Mocha valencia Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . Guess where I am again: I couldn't stay cooped up in there all night. I have decided to make a serious effort to improve my handwriting. I want to buy a book on it, but I don't know what I should buy. A primer will be lined to write large, and I never quite made the conversion to ruled notepaper. My handwriting is awful. I tried to write up the log book in cursive and it's so outstandingly different from my usual pared-down print I'm ashamed. I really can't write in cursive, and I came to the realization today that if I am to learn, I've got to get serious. I'm not going to grow out of it. I long gave up on that.

The quality is bad, but it is playing, at least! God-- I am so stressed-- forgive me for talking of such shallow things lately. I have to: I can't speak of the real things now. Anyway, it is so magical watching Scarlett O'Hara flounce around in the palm of my hand. She pulled Suellen's hair and they made faces at each other right in the palm of my hand: I felt like I was holding a couple of little fairies. Now that I have seen this I see I'm going to have to get a lot of Victorian movies for my Treo. I love to see fancy girls on my little screen. I've got to get the Snow White DVD. I think recording from the Tivo further reduces quality. This should have looked better than Phantom and looks much worse. There's a lot of artifacts. But I think this has a lot of potential. My silent films may do better since it won't have to work as hard with black and white. I've noticed they fill up DVD's less than color movies. I hope, at least, I can get them to w...

. Drive home . Sleep well . Wake at 12, shower right away . Call Carol W. . Do light delicate load . Upload Phantom to Treo . Try out Lathe encoder . Finish A Raven . Put up Blanche . Sew green shirt . Brown jacket . Pink shirt . Encode The Scarlet Letter . Camille . Dark Shadows . Get MP3 headphones . Rip MP3's in smaller file size . Thanks for the Ether . Fallen . Immortal Beloved . Fly . Phantom of the Opera . Transcribe Hugh Worthington . Get 4 GB SD card

I am halfway there on my Treo expansion: I can record movies now with mMovie (http://www.motionapps.com/). I have not yet exported them to PC to really look at them but they look comparable to those from my first camera, or perhaps my second. Gah-- I can't believe I'm on my fourth camera, to think of it. I installed a DVD ripper which is probably not the best: FairUse, it takes 6 gigs per movie, and that's too much. I left it compressing my file: that also takes hours to do. There is another one I will seek: the name eludes me, but apparently it compresses as it rips, which might leave me with a 250 mb file on my hard drive instead of a 6 gb one to delete. I will see how Phantom of the Opera looks with FairUse first though. I am using TCPMP to play movies, free also, and it's perfect. I bought a SD card reader since I will need that to transfer the movie. Still not writing or anything, but I am starting to want to again. I also find I am terribly hungry, and I wonder if...

www3.iath.virginia.edu/elab/

I am so glad I looked up the things about the iPod: just as I feared: you have to buy additional stuff to convert the movies: it only plays in Quicktime, so I will have to convert all of my Tivo recordings, which apparently takes hours, according to reviews. They offer ABC and Disney TV shows for purchase on their website. These are the only hassle-free shows to watch. What bull! On the other hand, I feel further inspired to further hack Rose. I can record sound, as I proved at that interesting poetry reading. Now I'm ready to take it to the next level and record and play back video. I guess it's that thing where the box said it could, so I'm determined to make it happen. I love my MP3 capabilities even though it's useless without headphones. There is freeware to record mini-movies, and software to play movies that is reportedly good. I'm going to give it a try. It will probably be as difficult as setting up movies for the iPod, but at least it will be free/cheap a...

Modern art museum Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . We are eating in the cafe before our movie. I loved the Karl Struss photographs particularly-- there is a definite difference in composition from 1910's and 1970's: I like both. It is raining hard; this place looks wonderful in the rain.

I have been greatly desiring some time with my site tools. As usual, there is the problem: I know vaguely how to employ the scripts and vaguely what I want to put on a site, but when it comes down to it, I just end up screwing around with no direction. That's why I gave it up; but it obsesses me in the middle of the night when I'm here at work. All of a sudden I wish I was doing these things.

I am having such trouble completing A Raven. The last chapter is too short. I think tomorrow I will take it to Coffee Haus. I also have a desire to do a character inventory: that is, list every character I have ever made and describe him to the best of my ability. I have grown fonder of characters than anything else lately. I want to know how many I have written about. I have a feeling it is a large, large number. Making more feels a little like having too much cake or too many babies: maybe I should just enjoy what I have. But Jasper and Alice are growing more vivid in my mind. Okay, I wrote the above two nights ago and was interrupted in my office by an interesting phone call and my life hasn't been the same since, but I am coming back to normal, and I have to say, normal is starting to feel very sweet indeed. I am not on the same train of thought as before.

Every time that song is played, Snow White cries, and the little forest animals gather round to console her.

With flute. She's every mans dream She's Gods gift to Earth Women they love them too That's what you call a womans worth See I love all the strippers Because they show me love They know I never pay It's free whenever i hit the clubs But I can't even lie The girls in here so fly She slide up and down that pole Got me mesmorized Mike Jones gon never trip But god damn she thick I can't lie I must admit I'm in luv with a stripper [Chorus x2]

1. Finish editing my footage from River Legacy; try it with Windows Movie Maker; add narration and a sound clip, probably "Sister Sleep" by Rasputina. I started it during lunch and had fun. It looks good but I may go re-shoot with the camcorder. I was just doing it incidentally to see how it would work. It was a really windy day, and that looked great. 2. Make a stylesheet for my Multiply site. That site is the awesomest best-kept secret out there. I don't bother using my web space because this is so much better. But it is very ugly, and I'm going to have to use my own design. 3. I need to start my spring planting! I've got to get some seeds when I next go to Wal-Mart.

Johnny and Shelley. Sugar cubes with rosebuds on top. Chocolate butter. Grass stains on my jeans and dirt on my tripod. Not this, not this, not this.

It is so nice to come to Summer Party on a rainy night. Here I am, writing bravely, even though I am apprehensive and melancholy. I must keep my spirits up. Today I did scarcely anything, and I feel so depressed for it. On the one hand I feel like I have realized so many things, and I have a lot of good work to which I must devote myself. The thought makes me very happy. And on the other I never know what to do. To do anything, I guess I must put myself into it. I must not be worried about making a mess or leaving things half-finished. It must all happen a little at a time. I feel so frustrated that my days are so short, but really I pass through them and don't do anything at all. Well, actually over breakfast I cried over my Victorian Trading Co. Catalog. One of the statues they advertised was made by an artist who stayed by a lake. A swan lost her mate and waited in the place by the lake where he died for a very long time. The park rangers had to take her away when the lake iced ...

The fruit of my labors Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . Yesterday I worked literally all day long sewing two shirts. The one I had the most hope in came out really well. The other one I'm not so sure about, and I'm tempted to toss it, but I always regret it later when I throw away my handmade clothes.

I did not do much today except think and dream. I guess that is not bad, is it? I thought and dreamed of sewing and made some notes, cut some doll-size patterns, and nothing else, really. Tonight at work I am dreaming of Columbia: the image of America in a lady's form, a white flowing gown with robes of blue and red, a torch and a crown. I am thinking of making it for Ophelia. It is really hard to say why I am still so attracted to Lady Liberty's form. I am not very patriotic; I see something different in her image, the power of the female.

Princess misses her Daddy Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde .

Livejournal, I could post by email, which would make my Treo journal obsolete, and that would be kind of sad, especially since this is my oldest journal. Fiction Press, to support the site, and I'd get to add a picture to my profile Backpackit, maybe. I really like it. I wish I could make a website like this for myself for free, because it really is handy. This weekend I want to go through boxes in the storage closet, put some things in, take some things out. It ought to be really nice Saturday so I'll do it then. Sunday is supposed to rain, so I'll stay in and cross-stitch, or maybe sew. I've had such a desire to sew lately, and I'm determined to work out a way to have that machine out on the dining table.

I am cold, tired and hungry but bleaker still are my spirits after going through 338 images of Irag on the Yahoo news page. I guess it is not the thing to do at 3 a.m. But I felt too anxious to read or work on Cambriel. Now my curiosity has been sated, and I know what is happening, but not why? What is so important to these people and to our government? Why won't anyone say it clearly? "And when the wars were over, no one could remember what they were about," said Ashley Wilkes. Now that I won those things from Ebay I am ready to work on Cambriel. I am excited but nervous about buying these things. I have never had a story that existed so much in the physical. It is thrilling when I buy or make the things I need for it, but I worry about spending such money over it.