As a general note to the world, I am again basically without my computer. My Windows decided that, due to the hardware changes, it needed to be reactivated.

The activation key I'd been using, no longer works, Windows says I've used it too many times.

We can't find Tom's activation key, and even if we could, it's actually his *father's* activation key, and if I've worn mine out, I'm sure the two of them have exhausted that one.

So, I poked everyone in my family, and tried a few of their keys. No luck. Matt sent me a list of like 40 keys, and none worked, most were "incorrect" and one had also exceeded its number of uses. STUPIDFUCKINGMICROSOFT! I see why they instituted this pain in the ass crap, even *I'm* half-tempted to just buy another damn copy so I can get back at my computer.

BUT, being that I'm poor, and still pretty stubborn about giving in to the Microsoft Empire, I've instead taken Matt up on his offer for a nice happy clean lovely install cd of XP Pro.

Which means, of course, that I'll have to wipe my drive AGAIN and reinstall everything, as Windows installs have a tendancy to eat Linux partitions. Just as well, I still can't get Linux to not crash my monitor, so I've barely even updated it (also, Tom wants to get me going with Ubuntu Studio anyway, a new multimedia-creator centric flavor of Ubuntu). Windows, all I'd put on was a few neccessities, and luckily, I've got my second drive all set up for pure storage, so I just flung what random things I'd downloaded over on there, I'll be all set to just unplug (the RIGHT one this time) and go.

Pain in my freaking ass, but thankfully, there's a bit of a loophole when Windows won't let you log in 'til you activate. When you get the window telling you you've got a wrong number and try again, there's a little link to go to their site to check out options for buying a new code or whatever. Well, that brings up internet explorer. BWA! Thus C:\ in the address bar and I'm in to my harddrive, where I can get at anything I damn well please, as well as have internet access. So, really, I'm good temporarily, only ie starts bogging down and locking up rather often (though it may be limited to gmail, I'm starting to think). And Tom's at the lab nearly 24/7 anyway, so I've been doing all my work on his cards up on his computer - really, it's nicer using the wacom up there, he has a much more spacious setup around his computer. All my photoshop brushes are backed up on a cd anyway, so I just brought that up with me and was good to go.

I did up sketches yesterday for the face cards for Tom's Sabacc game, then wandered over to the lab to make Tom pose while I refined them, and got his feedback. I actually wound up staying much longer than planned.. but it was a really, really nice time, I'd forgotten how much I love being there with everyone. Also got some good feedback on the cards, people generally like them, and had some good suggestions, this one kid basically solved our dilemna on what to do with the Ace cards, and Tom and I batted ideas back and forth pretty steadily for like half an hour 'til we'd nailed down not only the drawings themselves but also the color scheme and things. I'd been thinking royalty, Tom'd been thinking god-like, and it actually wound up a nice blend of the two. (Also, google image searching got us the most amazingly inspirational picture for the Mistress card yay.) So I'm really excited about those.

Unfortunately, I do have work today, and (hopefully) tomorrow (trying like anything to switch with someone so I can get to Transmedia Fest Friday night - I've got two "maybe"s on covering for me, but the one girl I haven't been able to get hold of, I could actually switch with, which'd be SO much better given that I only have 28 fuck hours this week >_<###), so that cuts back a bit on my work-time, but, I have the staff suit drawn, just need to make the cards (which'll be really quick since I saved each card in the flasks suit as psds yesterday), and the coin I'm nearly done with, then the cards for those.. Should be able to hash those out today easily, and maybe the aces as well, hopefully start on the face cards. (For now, we're skipping the random special cards, The Fool, Air and Darkness, etc.)

Tom's very nearly done with his coding for it, basically working out the kinks now, and fixing a few smaller issues, then swapping out the graphics. He's got a bit of leeway though, since he's not showing this in video form, thus there's no real reason for him to turn it in to Eliot before Transmedia Fest. (They have to compile a dvd and adjust for brightness and things on all the video work.) After tomorrow morning, he'll be done with everything but capstone and 3d (which he claims will only take an hour to do, which I doubt).. so today's going to be pretty frantic. I'm actually a little surprised he's still here - but I think he's studying some for his game theory final tonight.

So I have cards to do and still need to clean the house before his parents get here on Friday/Saturday, and I still have a cake to bake him without him knowing it for graduation (got most of the ingredients though), and there's work, and I still need to take the time to wipe out the bunches of carpenter bees that are inhabiting my back porch. I was almost ready to ignore them for a bit, now that I know the males can't sting and the females are non-confrontational, and really they're only annoying every few days... but as I was going through my sketchbook yesterday, enjoying the late afternoon sun on the back porch, a bee pooped on my sketchbook. I kid you not. No I didn't know they pooped either, but I read online that that's what the dark drippy-looking stains are all over the wood above the porch, and it really wasn't a drop of honey or anything pleasant. god that was gross. gah. To really get rid of them though, I need to get this dust-stuff and somehow get it into the bees' holes in the wood, to get the babies as well as the adults. Not sure if I'm going to bother or not, though I should, but regular beespray will knock out the adult males, which are the really annoying ones.

Lord am I doomed when I someday have an entire house to take care of! But maybe by then I can get Tom to help out once in awhile, and without me nagging him for a week first. :p I hate nagging, I do, but he really doesn't take out the garbage unless I poke him for a day about it, even when there's like three smaller bags piled next to the garbage can. And we'd agreed that he'd do garbage if I did dishes (which's really unbalanced anyway, but I don't mind dishes quite as much as he minds garbage). I haven't said a word to him this week, I know how busy he is, but once the madness is over, I think we're having a chat, I always feel so overwhelmed, and then I get resentful, and that's not good.