Holiday music... stuck... in my head... *chortles* Not that I mind. Did the whole "singing to myself" thing again this year, and found out I actually managed to correct the erroneous words I had memorized so that now I sing the right lyrics. Yay me!

Hey, little things brighten up the season, so I'll take 'em. Now that my sibling and his girlfriend have vacated the premises, and I once more have access to the computer - at least as infrequently as normal, which is better than not at all - a small update.

Hope all of you, my friends, had a good Christmas, or individual holiday of choice. I decided to duck out of traffic school on Christmas Eve. Bad me, I know, but I found out I can rent videos from the rental place, call in to take quizzes, and that suits me much better than what I had had in store for me. I am well content.

Actually, I had a damn good holiday thanks to my friends. Thank you, AL, for being my anchor, not just for this time of year, but for damn near every day. Running across you will forever disprove what I say about minotaur's luck. Maybe it gets good every now and then. ;)

Though they're never going to see this, I must make note here of my folks. They gave me a lot this year, and I owe them a great deal. Masquerade was all I asked for, but they also gave me two damn cool minotaur T-shirts, and a more practical, but dearly needed gift of car maintenance. Tomorrow, I take the old Topaz in for a tune-up, an oil change, and a radiator flush, on them. For this, I'm deeply appreciative.

Thank you Tanamin, and Kishma and Ed, for the glorious presents given to me - not only the figurines, (links here - the one beside the centaur and here - only gray, not brown, with the fingers of the open hand not splayed like that, but curled, as promised!) but for what is undoubtedly the Best Damn Present of the Holiday (aside from Masquerade, of course) -- World of Warcraft. Tauren, baby! I've read the manual about five times now, and am soooo looking forward to the time when I can finally play! *hoots* THANK YOU!

As to the plans for hosting the minotaur panel at Further Confusion, I've had a few more emails with the Folks in Charge. It may still be on - but I'm not sure yet. I apologized for being a bit snarky, they apologized for not being clear, and we're now seeing if there isn't a way to do this. Someone's stepped up who may be willing and able to be a panelist (Thanks Greg!) along with me, if the dates/times mesh. If they don't, I'm tempted to put it off until next year. It'll give me more time to amass shtuff, I'll make certain I have other panelists, and maybe with those others there will be more ideas of what can be done during the panel. Admittedly, I had never had more than informal plans for it - discussion mostly, a rather plain list of resources, perhaps a bit of a debate depending on the people who attended. I didn't think there'd be a huge draw, but I thought there might be enough to just have a good time talking minotaurs. Now, even if the other panelist comes through, I'm not so sure there would be anyone attending - because of the mix-up, the panel won't be listed in the program or booklet for the con, just in the newsletter and maybe on the website. Not very good publicity, according to others I've seen post on the subject. So, while the people running the con have said they'd be willing to see about accommodating my panel even if I don't wrangle another panelist, I'm wondering if I should. I suppose it couldn't hurt - I'd just hate to show to an empty room, y'know? Making flyers and plastering them over the hotel is a possibility... *ponders* Heh. Could always hang one between the horns of my mask and walk around the con like a bovine billboard. Just have to wait and see what happens with the other panelist.

On a more personal level, I've decided to pick up a couple of weights from work. Just a five and ten pounder, I figure. PCOS or not, I can't really wait until can afford that surgery, and so am going to try a little organized exercise. Not at a gym - can't afford the money and it's not really an environment I feel like subjecting myself to. But using weights, even a little, should help somewhat. Besides, I'll need the upper body and arm strength to wrangle with dogs when I start my internship during the summer. I'm also trying to cut back on the Pepsi. I meant to limit myself, and was doing all right for a while, but slipped a month back. Got to try and keep that going. I'm hoping that by writing it instead of just "kinda meaning" to do it, I'll keep it fresh in my head. Setting goals and all that. A New Year is coming, and while I haven't bothered with resolutions for a long time, I believe it's time to change that. I'll even start early.

So, here's hoping everyone's had a good holiday, and I hope you have a Happy New Years too!

Holidays come, and holidays go, sometimes with presents, and sometimes with snow.

No white stuff here, but there is presents! Well, to be more exact, I have received presents. AL, thanks for the card, it's lovely. You did so have reindeer! Ha! *hugs* Leif, thanks for the color versions of those pics, they're really great. Love 'em.

*takes a deep breath, and starts running around in circles, squealing in glee* Thank you thank you thank you Kishma, Tanamin, and Ed! They're so damn cooool! Of course I love figurine-type things, and you're so right, they're -really- well done! They're so awesome! By Kaz standards ;D - almost perfect! I'm gonna give you guys such a hug when I see you! Thank you!

For those of you wondering why there's a minotaur spazzing out, the above wondrous people sent me a Solstice gift of a collectible/toy figure of a World of Warcraft Tauren Shaman (he's fricken' huuuuuuge! Woot!) and a Narnian minotaur. I'd been drooling over those since I'd seen pictures of them. Happy Kaz.

Now, in regards to my minotaur panel at Further Confusion 2006, what's pissing me off.

As most of you know, I was planning on hosting a minotaur panel at the coming convention in January. I emailed the events person back in August, got a few replies, and then nothing. Well, I operated on the assumption that it was going to happen, since the letters had given me that impression. As such, I've been gathering shtuff for the panel. The announcement that the schedule of events would be coming out happened a little bit ago, and I was thinking "Hmm. Haven't heard much out of them. I'll email and make sure it's happening, and ask about details again. You see, I hadn't really gotten any details, though I had asked about them. Little things like date, time, and anything I needed to get. There's no such info on the website, just "Want to do a panel? Mail the events people!" on the website. Which I had done. Admittedly, I probably should have poked them before this, especially since it's the first time I'd even thought about doing something like it, but I thought sure they'd send me info. Especially after the four or so letters I'd written back and forth with one of the Folks-Apparently-In-Charge. Even posted a "remember me?" on the forum. To which I got reply saying mail the person I'd mailed originally again. Which I did. A week goes by. No response. And in the meantime, the schedule is posted. You guessed it. No minotaur panel listed. I posted another "Hey, remember me?" on the forum. This got a response by one of the head honchos, saying send info, oh, and by the way, you need at least 2 panelists.

...Klaheken hlesss nir ca-! *ahem*

I am not pleased. Where the hell am I going to get another minotaur panelist at this late date? None of the minotaur-folks I know (and I say "know" as in "know of") are even -going- to FC this year! So I've been prepping for nothing. I wager I'll get an email back saying "So sorry, there was a breakdown in communication, so busy and all, terribly awful inconvenience, won't happen again, but you don't have 2 panelists anyway, so it won't be scheduled, try again next year" sort of thing. *snorts*

Minotaur's luck strikes again.

Well, in other news, school is out, finals are over, *whew* and I think I did fairly well on them. Pretty happy with that, I already know I got an 85% on my Anatomy and Physiology final. Won't know on the others for a while yet. I'm all registered, and yeesh, is it a lousy schedule this semester. All 15 units of it. As follows;

Comparative Pathology and Pharmacology
Animal Care and Management II
Applied Animal Care
Animal Health Enrichment
Principles of Microbiology
Clinical Procedures I

...erg.

Don't even get me started on being stuck working in retail during the holiday season. I'll spare y'all the horror stories. *ponders* I get to spend Christmas Eve in traffic school from 7:45 a.m. (Meaning I'll be getting up at 6:30. Blarg.) until 4, then run home, hop into uniform, and drive to work, then be submerged in the insanity from 6p.m. to 10. Joyous.

However, I have received another gift this year. Masquerade. She's a mouse. She was part of the lab animals section of one of my classes, and if my mother hadn't graciously allowed (bent under the weight of big brown eyes and pleading) me to bring her home, she'd have been snake food after the semester was over. And she's too sweet to be eaten. See?

Masquerade
And again.
Last one!

Also, I managed to get a couple scans of art-things! Though unfortunately not of any of the ones I really wanted to show you all. One's just a toss-away sketch, though I liked the face, and the other was done at work... as the more conventional drawing of the santa-hatted minotaur looking grumpy (I was at work, gimme a break.) can clearly illustrate. The tribalish design thingy was actually a mistake that, since I was using pen, I couldn't erase, so proceeded to try to cover up in a fancy manner. I kinda liked it, and noodled the other two versions. I think that they may be the basis for my next tattoo. Not the finished product, obviously, but an idea in a direction to go. Maybe.

Lounging minotaur sketch
Tribal-minotaurs... and a scrooge minotaur.

Happy Holidays everyone!