Babble of a Distant Star

My computer seems to be in the process of dying the final death, BSOD x3 yesterday. (It’s behaving now, but for how long?) I’ve tried a lot of diagnostic things and repairs over the last week but I am at a point of worrying that it’s a hardware problem. (My laptop is 7 years old, so it has lasted over twice the warranty time! But also it’s also in constant use and I have to use an external keyboard because I’ve typed so much the sensors for they keys barely work.)

So even though I’m back there’s a good chance I’ll disappear again because computer.

I do have new fic to share! Over the past year and a half I've been working on a series of past lives AUs with various different YowaPedal characters.

Reaching back
Characters: Midousuji Akira & Kishigami Komari
Words: 1755
Warnings: none
Summary: Past lives AU. As far as he knows, Midousuji is the only person who goes around seeing ghosts of the world as it was. He has never seen evidence of a past life on another person’s face.

( Read more... )

Other fics in the series since I never posted here (links lead to AO3)

Rivals Reborn
Characters: Kinjou Shingo & Fukutomi Juichi
Warnings: Past/referenced violence
Summary: Kinjou appreciates the chance to meet with his old rival. After all, he's been facing off against Fukutomi far longer than one short lifetime.

Storytime
Characters: Tadokoro Jin & Makishima Yuusuke
Warnings: none
Summary: Makishima asks about Tadokoro's past lives. Tadokoro is never sure if Makishima believes him or not.

The Things They Don't Talk About
Characters: Arakita Yasutomo & Toudou Jinpachi
Warnings: A lot of past/referenced death, past violence, implied/referenced child abuse, drowning, psychological trauma
Summary: From the first time he touches Toudou's hand, Arakita dreams of dying.
In which meeting the person who unlocks your past lives is Not Fun, but they're also the only person you can turn to.

This Life Only
Characters: Manami Sangaku & Onoda Sakamichi
Warnings: Past/referenced death, current injury
Summary: No matter how many lives he lives, Manami just wants to feel alive.

After two weeks of battle, ranging from cosmetic changes to thwarting intense stupidity to turning off superfluous features to getting vista to recognize my CD drive again (and not only am I not kidding, but considering the number of help files I found on the subject, it seems this is a fairly common problem in Vista), I think I've gotten Vista in a halfway livable condition.

Except for one thing. Any because I'm apparently really fucking picky, it is a "cosmetic" thing.

I hate, and I mean HATE the new toolbar Vista has in "My Computer." HATE. Lots. And no matter where or how I search I can not find out how to get rid of the damn thing!

The "new toolbar" (srsly, damn thing doesn't even have a name), is the one that says "Organize, View, etc." with the "etc." changing depending on what you have selected. I also want to get rid of the thing below that, that re-arranges your files according to "name; type; total size; etc." I have managed to get rid of everything but "name," which I am not allowed to get rid of, apparently. By the way: Who the hell re-arranges their files so often that they need that thing RIGHT THERE, as if View->Sort by->Something wasn't an easy enough route? Who?

Anyway, the fact is, since I figured out how to restore the original menu bar, that thing is a waste of space, and quite frankly it's ugly and the fact that I'm stuck with its uselessness pisses me off. I can't figure out how to remove it, and I'm starting to think it can't be removed and I am, in general, not a happy clam about this. I'm still trying to decide if I dare post on a tech support forum asking for help with a cosmetic change.

Oh, and I found out that I am most likely not entitled to free tech support for Vista, since it was FORCED on my by virtue of it being on my new computer instead of me being so stupid as to install it myself by choice. Does not compute!

On the plus side, now that I've gotten Vista to recognize my CD drive again, I can install Corel Wordperfect and move my writing to the new computer. (And finally get used to the new keyboard, yay) Especially now that I've got it set up so that I can finally FIND my damn files, I can actually start writing on the new computer. Since that's about the number one thing I even HAVE a computer for. Yeah. Sheesh! What a pain in the ass.

Still not happy, but I least now I can do writing and internet on the same computer. Plus, I may have gotten the Vista partition into a livable state, at least long enough for me to learn to use freakin' Linux. *Is sending away for a more recent and hopefully more n00b-friendly version*

... Please excuse the swearing. Now that I have the CD drive working, I shall watch a movie on my big-large-freakin' huge laptop screen, write something with my OMGYAY shiny new Corel software, and learn to love the new computer.

... And possibly post fic before morning if it will help y'all forgive my alternately silent and ranty behavior.