Winter holidays, finally!

No, I did not get the swine flu and die.

No, I did not drown in my new bathroom.

No, I did not have an heart attack because of my high blood pressure caused by the ridiculous amounts of caffeine I’ve been taking for the past months to make it through university.

No, I did not die in yesterday’s earthquake.

This blog has been completely abandoned for well over a month now, which is horrible because I love writing in it, it’s cathartic and fun and feels productive in some way… I didn’t die or anything, I was really just very busy and absorbed in real life stuff to be able to do this little thing of mine. Now that we know I’m not dead, let’s go over that in detail.

I did not get the swine flu and die. Because I’m still as paranoid as I was in the beginning of the semester.

More.

I did not drown in my new bathroom either. If you remember, I mentioned we were having some work done there, and that things got pretty scary, for me at least. The bathroom is pretty much completed. “Pretty much” being the key expression. I did want to be happy with it and take nice pictures and post them here. But yeah. I knew something was going to be left unfinished, but the truth is the entire bathroom looks horrible because of little things that could have been fixed in a day, had we hired some help. A bare hole where a grid should be, a very poorly treated door (when we already own the new one even), small towels covering pipes and small holes in the sink and shower where water drips from. It’s a completely new bathroom, and although I never expected it to be perfect, it just looks cheap. And it’s a pity really, but I’ve given up on it and moved on. At least I get a drawer for myself.

As terrifying and deadly as the shower is, I haven’t died there yet. Yet. It’s a scary little cubicle, with bright blue lights that make it look like the Blu-ray section of some movie store. Sometimes, the water stops going down the drain, and it starts filling in. It’s never gotten to the point of overflowing, but there’s definitely something wrong there. Though it wouldn’t really overflow, it would trap me inside and drown me.

Moving on.

I did not have an heart attack because of my high blood pressure caused by the ridiculous amounts of caffeine I’ve been taking for the past months to make it through university. Coffee, caffeine pills, a very nice natural supplement which happens to include caffeine in it, and Coca Cola Zero. I secretly measure my blood pressure with a little machine we own and hope no one finds out through the thing’s memory, because then we’d just have unwanted stress. But it’s been a bit high. These past weeks where particularly horrible. The semester is more like a trimester now because classes end earlier, but the work load is exactly the same. Less time, same work, equals all work at the same time. So it’s very difficult to stay on top of everything. I think I managed, but the grades will probably only be released in the beginning of January. I’ll have to wait till then.

Lastly.

I did not die in yesterday’s earthquake. We don’t experience many earthquakes here, but yesterday we did, my very first one! And it was awesome! I was studying Shakespeare most of the day and planning on doing it most of the night, when I decided to go lie down for a few minutes. At 1:37AM, it happened. Strong enough to shake everything up, bed included, but not strong or long enough to cause damages. A 5.7 magnitude earthquake that lasted between 5 and 10 seconds, felt all over Portugal. After checking on my mom, I ran to Twitter. I couldn’t find anything on TV about it, which was a bit stupid. A little foot note started going around some news channels at about 2AM, but only at 6AM was there a decent piece about the earthquake. It was Twitter who reacted first, with people checking all the locations where it was felt, making sure everything was okay, sharing the links that eventually started popping up about it, and then making jokes about the situation when it was known everything was okay; all in #sismopt. I was a bit scared at first, but then the whole thing just became funny.

So there you have it. My life as of late. I no longer have classes now, only an oral and maybe an exam or two in January, and then I’m free again till February, when the second semester starts. That will be my last semester hopefully, when I get my degree, but what I plan on doing afterward is a completely different topic for a completely different post. For now I’m back. Time to catch up on sleep, friends, online communities (oh DeviantArt, I’ve missed you so!), and… yeah, sleep. Night!

Dry schnozzle…

…is what I would name this photo if I were to put it on DeviantArt.

Result of me trying to photograph Menino and him not staying still for one second, which made me frustrated and inclined to try and see if I could get less blurry photos with the camera on full automatic mode. I did get a less blurry photo, but with the focus a little bit misplaced. And hence, dry schnozzle. Which to me turned out cute anyway, so I’m good.

Free shipping on DeviantArt.com – Results

Also feel like I need to share this, the result of what I mentioned on my last post, on DeviantArt.com and its free shipping promotion…

From this announcement:

[...] In 5 days we sold more prints and paid more royalties to artists than in the previous two months combined!

Our production took a major hit with the flood of orders, but we’re happy to report that as of today everything is caught up and functioning as usual, and thousands upon thousands of prints and art gifts are making their way to homes and workplaces around the world.

This free shipping sale was in direct response to numerous requests from deviants to lower shipping costs. We heard your cries for more affordable shipping, and with the success of this sale we’ve heard you louder than ever before.

[...]

To that end, and in direct response to the success of this shipping sale you can expect changes in the weeks and months to come not only to how much it costs for your prints to be shipped to customers, but also to the cost of the actual products and the overall structure of the pricing and profits for artists.

This is so wonderful! They will change permanently! And you see, this is why I love this place so much. Besides the wonderful Art to look and drool at, you truly feel like part of the community. I’m really happy I got to order even just those six small prints and help do this. Besides getting those wonderful six small prints – by *faboarts by the way – I got to help.

Ignoring any dArama that comes my way too, because when these changes take place, I’m covering my house in Art, and it’ll be beautiful.

Free shipping on DeviantArt.com!

Because really, I feel bad not sharing this. A short excerpt of what I’ve already written on my own DeviantArt journal (which in full is basically just me thanking DeviantArt, but anyway):

Why have I not gotten some of my favorite pieces from here, if I like this Art community so much? Well, it’s not that I don’t want to, and it’s not even that I can’t afford the said Art, because you can actually find some pretty amazing things at pretty cheap prices. It’s that I can’t afford the shipping fees.

Forget about Art, that’s completely out of reach. Even merchandise. A Fella plushie for example, an item that costs 20$ (or 13€ ), will turn into a 40$ item (that’s 27€ ) with the shipping fees for Portugal added. Regardless of the physical size of the item you’re trying to buy, the shipping fees will double or triple its cost.

[...]

A couple of days ago came the announcement that, until the 27th, all shipping to everywhere in the world will be free. Free shipping, until the 27th. All of a sudden, no warning and no special occasion that I’m aware of.

[...]

I’m hoping that if this is successful, if DeviantArt realizes that free shipping promotions every now and then – or just more reasonable shipping fees – will actually earn them more money than simply going with whatever delivery service is available (which I hear in America is usually FedEx), I’m hoping they’ll change permanently and all this amazing Art will become more available for everyone.

The original announcement, in case you missed the link above, is here.

I’m not exaggerating on how much the shipping fees are. And I used to complain about Amazon and its Postage and Packaging and VATs. Ah.

So, free shipping, from the biggest online Art community. That’s pretty amazing. Although I’m very extremely tight on money, I am going to try and get something I’ve had my eyes on for a while. Because like I said, it’d be great if they changed their delivery services permanently, but it’s impossible to know if that’s going to happen.

So far, I’ve decided on six pieces I’d like to have, which all add up to 8€ (or 12 dollars). Which is absolutely nothing if you were to compare with what it would cost with shipping included.

Are you going to take up this opportunity?

Blog Action Day 2009

I love Blog Action Day and its intention. The idea of trying to bring many individual voices together in order to bring attention to one important issue.

This year’s topic is Climate Change. And to be honest, that means very little to me and I’m a bit disappointed. 2007’s topic was Environment already. And I understand they’re different, but they’re still very closely related. Couldn’t we find a more pressing issue? Maybe it’s me being selfish, but the economy and the employment market worry me a lot more than climate change right now.

I believe that no matter what we do, there’s really not much of a difference we can make. You can lower your carbon footprint, change simple things and habits to be more environment friendly… But it’s all mostly politics. And unless the ones in charge make the important decisions and the changes that must happen for them to work out, anything you do isn’t really going to have much of an effect.

I’ll still do my part, the simple things and habits that are within my power to change. But I don’t think it’s really all that helpful. Actually, some of those are more helpful to me personally on a financial level that anything else, I believe.

That being said, it is important to keep pressuring the said ones in charge. And for that, I’m all for.

Sorry I don’t have much more to add or contribute, it’s just not my thing, I guess.

Early Halloween, featuring scary bathroom photos!

I got a lot out of my chest when writing my last post about how stressful our bathroom renovations have been/are being. Today I thought a little visual representation would be a good thing to add to it. I’ve been taking photos since the renovation started. Not many to be honest, because I’m plainly scared of that place and also because the idea of a pipe bursting out of nowhere while I’m in there with my Nikon is both terrifying and very, very conceivable. But anyway, it should be easy picking a couple of photos to post here.

But as I looked through them, I decided I didn’t really want to. They’re just pictures of a very badly destroyed bathroom. Not exactly special or interesting, and not exactly something to be proud of. And then I thought, October, Halloween, scary bathroom, Photoshop. And there you go.

This one is more or less from the beginning. You can see the toilet that no longer exists. The big pipe coming out of the wall – the wall that, by the way, no longer exists either – was the one that led to the sink. Now it’s just there, leading nowhere, dripping occasionally and plotting to kill me.

Traces of our last bathroom renovation. You can see the older, incredibly ugly tiles underneath the most recent ones that have now been removed.

When I say the bathroom “looks like a horror movie waiting to happen”, this is how I see it. Look at it, can you imagine that little room all submerged with me downing in it? Because I can. Granted, this isn’t the most horrible it has looked. You can’t see it very well, but the new floor is already placed here and the walls have some cement covering some of the pipes already. I don’t care, it’s still scary as hell. The big hole on the floor, that’s where the toilet should be. The big hole on the wall, I have no idea. There was nothing there before and there’s not going to be anything there in the future. It’s probably just there to scare me.

I’m hoping and praying to Ceiling Cat that the bathroom will be completed by the end of the month. So I’m making this my Halloween post, even if it’s a little early.

I’m only posting three photos because like I said, there’s only so much to that place, and I’m scared of being there too long. I don’t care if you don’t find it “that scary”, that’s my nightmare right there. So please just enjoy, thanks. Photoshop wise, most of what I did is based around color balance, curves, gradient maps, blending options, texture or noise, and always with a little vignette effect. Ask if you’re curious about anything, I can direct you to some good tutorials.

Bathroom renovations underway… DOOM

I recently mentioned the newly acquired drama and stress on this house and how it’s been affecting me. Let me start my rant slowly. It is a rant, you’ve been warned. I don’t remember one single time in all of my life – childhood, adolescence or young adulthood – when there hasn’t been some sort of renovation or construction work in this house being done. Not one single time. There was always, always, always something. If something wasn’t being done at one given precise moment, then there was an improvised station set up – mostly a bunch of power tools stacked together in the middle of the house – ready to start whatever “needed” to be renovated or fixed.

Never has the house been decent, and the excuse when guests come over is always the same. Sorry for the mess, but you understand, we’re renovating. We’ve been renovating for a least twenty years now. I blame two people. One for having the mindset that that sort of thing is acceptable, and the other for allowing it to happen in her own home.

This time, it was the bathroom. Now, I have problems with bathrooms. I don’t like water or pipes or strange noises caused by the water coming from the pipes. It freaks me out. I have nightmares about exploding toilets and clogged bathtubs making me drown in a locked bathroom. And think about it, it’s a possible scenario, don’t try to convince me otherwise.

Again, this time, it was the bathroom’s turn to be renovated. The bathroom that, last time, years ago, on its last renovation, was left unfinished. By unfinished I mean a hole on the floor exposing a pipe, broken cabinets and constantly dripping faucets kind of unfinished. It was decided that now, after all these years, was the time to fix all of that and renovate the whole bathroom while we’re at it. But hey, why hire help and go for quick and definitive when we can do it ourselves?

It’s been nearly a month now. No walls, no floor. The toilet is working, barely. No bathtub or sink whatsoever anymore. Point being, the thing looks like a horror movie waiting to happen.

How do I manage my daily hygiene? I use baby wipes for the smaller things, like removing makeup or just cleaning my hands. I brush my teeth in my bedroom, though don’t ask how, because it’s just too crafty for words. And I exfoliate and do my skin care routine (things that usually required running water) in here as well. I can shower too, all it takes is some containers with water – which I won’t even bother trying to heat up because the water would go cold immediately - body gel, my sponge and some towels. Very old school, and while not ideal, it’s doable and I end up clean in the end. It’s all very annoying and inconvenient, but doable. One thing I definitely can’t do in the bedroom is wash my hair, so for that I need a hairdresser. Which sounds nice and pamper-y, except it’s money that’s been going to waste every time my hair gets oily, for over a month now. All because, why hire professional help when we can do it ourselves.

I hate all of this, it’s beyond stressful and embarrassing now. Neighbors start and finish their renovations and this house remains the same mess. And now, instead of a bathroom with leaking exposed pipes and imminent doom come from hell to drown me, I have no bathroom at all. Just a toilet in which I can pee about once a day if I’m brave (because the pipes are still all there, waiting to kill me and giving me stage fright in the meantime), or twice if I have classes and can use the bathrooms at university (and then again, refer to last post for fear of germs and viruses). Me, a one kidney, three to four liters of water a day drinking, caffeine pill eating person. It has not been easy, and I can’t wait for it to be over. Will it ever though?

Rant over, I feel a bit better now. Thanks for reading.

Back to University, swine flu

University started a week and a half ago for me. The first semester of my third and last year of university (unless I decide and go for a Master’s Degree). That hit me a few days before classes started, that I’m a third year student. It’s pretty cool, I’ve actually made it near the end. Now it’s just a small stretch until I’m actually done. Scary too, because I have no idea what I want to do afterwards.

More on that to come later. As usual, things got complicated and I’m still adjusting my schedules and trying to figure things out.

The swine flu is what I want to get off my chest. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, specially now with university. In order to get to university, I have to take the bus and the train. Now, on the bus, when getting in or out, you need to use the bars and handles to steady yourself. It’s impossible not to touch anything there. And on the train, even just to get in you need to push the little open button on the automatic doors. Considering the amount of people who use those public transports every day…

And at the university itself. There are a few new rules now, for example, when a professor is in the classroom teaching their class, either the door or the windows must be open for the air to circulate – which I’m guessing will be incredibly fun during Winter. There is still no soap (or toilet paper for that matter) in our bathrooms, but there are new antiseptic gel dispensers on the elevators. You get in and your eyes and throat burn a bit because of the alcohol smell. And then you get out smelling like an alcoholic. Which is cool, I guess. But still, it’s a very busy university.

This as all made me incredibly paranoid. And I know it’s all a bit blown out of proportion, and that there’s really no need to be so scared about it, but I’m much more aware of everything I touch and do, too aware I think.  The hands have been driving me particularly crazy, because I bite my nails and fingers a lot. So I have an antiseptic gel I carry around with me now, and it does make me more comfortable when realizing I’ve been nibbling on a nail inadvertently and without even noticing. But the paranoia is still present.

I don’t care if it’s more or less like a regular flu. My reaction to the regular flu is to tough it up anyway. I don’t like going to the doctor, and a cold or a flu never seem serious enough. Some paracetamol, a menthol spray for the sore throat, and I wait it out. This one seems a bit more serious… Quarantined for over a week with great potential for complications kind of serious. I don’t want to get sick.

Here’s hoping I survive this next week. I will write more about it later, but there’s so much drama going on around here I don’t even know. If the swine flu doesn’t make me sick, this stress will.