Sorry I can't contain myself. The Leaky Cauldron has finally officially announced LeakyCon 2009 which will be held May 21 to 24, 2009 in Boston, Mass.

Here's the website.

I've just been skimming blogs recently, rather than reading. I feel sad that I don't have time to blog much anymore. I rearranged our whole apartment, I've spent a good deal of time working on Christmas gifts, I've been getting ready for a trip this weekend and for school which starts next week, and we've been on mandatory overtime at work all of December...and now all of January.

I'll be working about 55 hours/week the first three weeks of school, which is going to be really hard. I wish I didn't live so far away from work and school. It's 20.5 miles from home to work, 19.5 miles from work to school, and then another 19.5 miles from school to home.  My sister and I hope to move in August, but apartment housing is scarce to non-existent in the area south of school (on the Kansas side) where I really want to live. It's full of million dollar houses.

Probably won't be online much, but it's not because I don't love you guys. I'll have to log into the computer everyday still. It's hard not to when you're a computer science major, especially since one of my classes is being offered especially to me online by the same professor I took an online class from last winter.  *sigh* I'll miss keeping up with what everyone is doing, but hopefully somehow I can survive this semester.

mood: bouncy tags: school work

I knew this was coming. I just didn't realize how happy it would make me. This has been a great week, and this is just another thing to add to the happiness...

1. Entertainment Weekly
They have articles in both the online and print versions of their magazine this week, featuring The Leaky Cauldron as #2 out of 25 top fan websites. The Chamber of Chat, which I worked for in 2005-2006 is also mentioned in the short explanation about what Leaky has to offer.

Scan from the magazine
Online article

2. Jo of course was on PotterCast this week, as well as next week.

3. Jo updated her website, including a fan award honor going to The Harry Potter Alliance.

Yes, it's been a good week.

mood: accomplished tags: harry potter

Yesterday I worked my first day on the day-shift, plus I put in overtime. I was at work from 6:30am to 6:30pm. Today I only stayed till 3:30pm because I wanted to get home as soon as possible to transcribe my segment of PotterCast episode 130. Yeah, the first of two where the PotterCast trio (Melissa Anelli, John Noe, and Sue Upton) got to interview author J.K. Rowling. The episode was out in time this morning for me to upload it to my iPod before heading off to work. I got my assignment during lunch and was able to put in about 30 minutes of transcribing (by hand) during breaks at work. I've listened to the whole thing three times, plus my segment another kazillion times.

It's a bit of an understatement to say I was excited to learn about the interview on Sunday afternoon. I wasn't too surprised though. Jo's daughter seems to be techno-savy and I'm pretty sure she listens to podcasts. No idea if Jo does. Infact, the last week or so I figured it was only a matter of time now that "Deathly Hallows" is complete and "Beedle the Bard" has successfully sold at auction.

I had a wonderful time transcribing, and each time I typed "JKR" it was a bit nerve-racking and thrilling all at the same time. I found myself typing as fast as I could and stumbling over my words. I finally had to slow myself down because I was making a garbled mess of the transcript.

mood: cheerful tags: transcribing

I don't think I'm going to Days at work on Monday. There are desks and computers for us, but not chairs. I asked my supervisor about it last night twice and then asked him a third time to let me know by phone tonight about what time I'll work on Monday, but I've still not heard anything. Maybe I'll get to go the following week. And I cut my finger pretty badly on the edge of a file folder, so I can't type with my middle right finger.

Anyways, it's the middle of the night when I come home home every day, so I'd noticed previously noticed that in my room in the dark I can see less light with my left eye than with my right eye. There must be less rods in my left eye, or something is wrong with the rod cells.  Last night I had a dim light on in my room and I noticed something else. I was getting "Deathly Hallows" off my bookcase and as I reached toward all the colorful fiction books in my bookcase I noticed that colors are more dull and orange out of my left eye than my right. Reds are more orange, green and blue are more brown, and even white is not a pure white like it is out of my right eye. It has an slight orangey-brown film to it.

Anyone else have this problem?

And I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I had Bell's Palsy on the left side of my face when I was 18.

music: "Mansard Roof" - Vampire Weekend mood: artistic tags: eyes