Livejournal had taken sort of a backseat to Facebook these days. So... news:

- I finished book one finally. Several people have copies of it to read and let me know what they think. It's ~114,000 words. Yesterday I printed out a hard copy for Joel's grandma to read (I'm giving her a copy because I know she'll tell me it's the best thing she's ever read xP which will counter-balance the brutally honest reviews I hope to be getting form everyone else).
- I'm studying for the LSAT now. Planning to apply to UCI's new law school come October.
- Looking for part time work. I'm starting to think maybe I'll have to work retail again. Hm. :/ I'm thinking maybe I'll try to find a specialty store (i.e. clothes, shoes, etc) rather than a general store like Target.
- Car's A/C is out and I'm putting off fixing it because of money.
- Joel and I have nothing planned for our anniversary (a week from Thursday) and that makes me sad. :(
- Money is stupid.

And that's about it.

Last night I dreamt that I was diving into water I wasn't sure was deep enough.

I found out this morning from a friend that my website had been marked as an attack site by Google, so naturally I went to go check that out. Turns out that some hackers got my FTP password (probably through packet sniffers) and injected a bunch of javascript into most of my html files, creating invisible iframes that download malware. Grr. Webhost says that this problem is totally not on their side (all modifications are done by "users" via FTP, so it couldn't possibly be their fault), and that it's probably because of a virus infecting my FTP software. I boot up in safe mode and run Norton.

It took more than EIGHT HOURS to run the full scan. Norton found a couple of trojans, one of which was really, really old (and I have no idea if it's been active or not, although I've never had trouble before :/). Everything got quarantined and then deleted. I cleared out my temp files. I restarted. Installed an FTP client that uses secure FTP protocols.... Discovered that my webhost DOES NOT ALLOW people to FTP in securely unless they pay for premium hosting (not their fault my ass!! If they allowed users to FTP in securely, packet sniffers would not steal FTP passwords and corrupt websites on their servers!). So I have to use the web interface (which is slow and cumbersome) to fix my website (which is large). In the process of fixing, I accidentally pulled up an invalid URL and viewed the 404 page, which had apparently been infected. So now I get to run all my antivirus software AGAIN.

I hope that all hackers everywhere DIE IN A FIRE!!!

Oh yes I also forgot to mention that when I opened a support ticket to have my FTP password reset (they do not allow me to reset it myself for some reason) I got a lecture from the customer service rep about how my account was compromised because my password was not strong enough and that I need to make a more secure one in order to stop this sort of thing happening in the future. The only problem with this logic is: I have always used the RANDOMLY GENERATED password that THEY assigned me! Also, they have to know as well as I do (or at least as well as I do now) that FTP transfers passwords in plain text format!!! There is no decoding required! Password strength is irrelevant if the hacker doesn't NEED to break it!

ARRRGH!

FML -.-

I feel a little bad saying it, but out of the whole Rhode Island trip (including staying in cute little bed and breakfast, historical colonial town, wedding, etc.) the best part was curling up with Joel in the middle of the king-sized bed at the Comfort Inn right next to the airport in Providence and watching reruns of The Deadliest Catch while eating seafood subs delivered by chain pizza joint Papa Gino's.

Last night Joel and I tried to watched the movie adaptation of The Man of LaMancha, and it was horrible. The acting was good, but it turns out that Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren couldn't sing to save their own lives, and apparently by the 70s studios had given up on overdubbing actors who can't sing. And I'm sorry--even amazing actors can't pull of a musical if they can't sing. It's part of what makes the movie adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera unforgivable (although that film has several problems, from awful acting to completely unnecessary story changes). But anyway... We turned it off about 20 minutes in. Loren's Aldonza is so flat that it's actually painful to listen to, especially when I'm used to hearing Joan Diener sing it with so much emotion. And it's not that I'm married to the original broadway voices (although everyone in the original is amazing)--I'd happily listen to anyone who could sing like they actually had a soul while performing it.

The worst part about fixing a plot hole (in my experience) is cranking out a chapter and a half of content and then suddenly realizing that something else should have happened (i.e. "Wait----this would be way better if instead of doing x here, she did y and if character C wasn't there--holy shit that's epic, why did I not think of that before?!") and then you have to re-write that 50 pages or whatever. Again. For like the fourth time.

Why can't I have all my epiphanies at once?! That would make this a whole lot easier!

But unfortunately free writing is the way I come up with good story devices. D:

Ah well, I think I finally got it right this time. Finally.

Now I just have to write it out.

A Blagborne is a rate of damage over time. 1 Blagborne = 70dmg/rnd (OR 35penguins/rnd OR 1.52 Smedbergs/rnd)

There's a song in Avenue Q called "I Wish I Could Go Back to College." It pretty much sums up all my feelings over the last couple of years (except for the living in a dorm and meal plan part, cause I never did that :p). When we saw the show on Wednesday and they sang this I actually teared up.

Joel and I went to see Avenue Q on Wednesday (Joel's birthday). We really enjoyed it. I would rank it the second best musical we've seen (because face it--it's hard to top A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). Big set pieces like The Phantom of the Opera are cool and everything, but I've found that I tend to enjoy simplistic shows more. The staging in Forum and Avenue Q are pretty similar, and they both have small casts. They're also both hilarious, so maybe I just enjoy comedies more than dramas. :p I also really enjoyed Kiss Me, Kate when we saw that in Denver and it had large set pieces, a relatively large cast and was a comedy so... (but it was also about Shakespeare, so...). :p

We're planning to see Fiddler on the Roof later this year and I'm really looking forward to that. (But if Topol has an understudy the night we go I will be very sad! D:<)

And for anyone who is even slightly interested: the worst musical I ever saw was Cats. Just buy a copy of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. It's cheaper and you won't mistakenly expect the poems to have any sort of overarching plot to tie them together (and be disappointed when you find out they don't).

I was actually kind of hoping that Krod Mandoon wouldn't totally suck but...yeah, that didn't work out. The funniest joke in the whole one hour premier was about how much of a whore the rogue is ("You gave it up for the time of day?! We were standing under a clock!").