Elin's Journal

It's crazy busy. I am working my normal shifts at the comic shop day job, we have a passel of deadlines sitting on our heads and making us cranky, and there aren't enough hours in the day. Today, I had to spend a couple of hours of my after-work Radio-time dealing with the new PCI DSS compliance certification thing that all merchants who accept credit cards have to deal with now. Here's hoping our online store gets certified, because otherwise our credit card processing company will tack an extra charge onto our bill every month. (And this of course comes *after* ViSA and MasterCard raised their rates for everyone... ah, to be a retailer, all of the risk, none of the enormous wads of lovely money.) I'm peevish about this because we have an SSL certificate, use solidly secure hosting for the online store and have good encryption going on. On top of that, in the four years we've had our online store set up to take credit cards, we have had exactly *ONE* attempted charge-back, which was reversed in our favor thanks to tracking on the package. (We used to be PayPal-only before the new store went live, until they instituted their snarky "nothing mature ever" policy- which is when we promptly cancelled our account with them...) Anyway, this new certification thing has me all nervous, because I am worried they will think we don't do enough to safeguard our customer information, though we have taken every precaution possible and I know our hosting company is exceptionally good about security. It's still worrisome. Because if the credit card companies decide they don't approve of your PCI DSS certification? They can *fine* you- to the tune of $1 million! (Which, really, good luck trying to get that from me, har har...) And naturally, the regular quarterly certification service is going to possibly cost money as well- not 100% sure or clear on that yet. Cost of doing business...

In other stuff, we are beating our heads against these deadlines. Three books we're working on- one of which is Furrlough #187, so if you have goodies for that, let willworks know! (that email again is willworks (at) gmail (dot) com!) Remember also, we have the larger page count limit in Furrlough, because of the new 48-page format! That means stories can be up to 22 pages long! Woot! We just got Furrlough #186 in from the printers, so I'll be updating the Radio online store tomorrow, most likely. Oh, and we sent off the solicits to Diamond for the March 2009 books, and I have been getting more trib copies packed up for people (but far too painfully slowly for my liking...).

Tonight there is a midnight release for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Because I still have that monkey on my back, I have been saving my pennies for months so I can buy my copy tonight. I won't get to play it until next week-ish sometime though, if then. Work comes first. (My new "wake up at 6 am every morning with the husband" sleep schedule doesn't help things either... though I get a lot done in the three to four hours I am awake before I go to work... the downside is being exhausted by 11 pm, which makes me feel like a grandma!) I still seem to be working 12-13 hour days most days, if you add up the day job shifts and the Radio work time. So, it's a reduction of my former 16-20 hour days of the past. Yay?

And finally, of course, I have new auctions up! I have lots of stuff to clear out and need money for various sundry things I am saving up for (fun things, like taxes and convention expenses!), so please feel free to take a look! Lots of comics, manga, magazines, etc.
New eBay auctions are here!
(I'd like to post more FurBid auctions too, since I have a bunch of stuff that can only go there, but I have had no time...)

Now, to finish up an editorial for the next Radio Waves, and then eat something for dinner.

Our phone is being used as some sort of early-morning torture device, as spam faxes keep trying our number starting in the wee hours of the AM. This does not please me, and all numbers are being reported to the government's Do Not Call list, which we are already a part of. This does not stop the telemarketers and spammers, however.

I seem to be over the worst of my cold, now I am just getting spring allergies months early, as the weather is unseasonably warm and humid this year. Yay?

Yesterday was filled with work, as we went to the post office. Lots of orders, subscriptions and auction packages went out. Also, the payment for Genus: Male #7 went out to the printers. Here's hoping it is done in time for Further Confusion! Today, we have to go pay the storage rent and work on the solicitation information for May 2008 books. We also have to buy yet another batch of ISBN numbers, since we are using them up on the comics, while we wait for our barcode stuff to come in. Yay again. Also to do today: work on the other comics that need to go in (Furrlough #179 and Genus Greatest Hits #4), start packing con stock for shipment, order processing and paperwork.

I finally got to play WoW again for the first time in weeks (actual playing, that is, not just logging in to manage the guild bank), and discovered that playing WoW now makes me incredibly sleepy. Painfully sleepy! What the hell? My main, Zugs, is now level 68 and I would really like to get her to 70, but it's hard when I can't stay awake while playing! (I can only really play after all my work is done, so well after 10-11 pm. That may be my problem...) So, last night's questing with willworks ended fairly quickly, and instead we watched an episode of Gilmore Girls Season 4 before heading off to bed.

I have auctions up again, since we are still trying to save up money for various large expenses that are upcoming (taxes, credit card processing fees, our lease is up in May, etc.) plus, I just paid for my FC plane ticket, ouch. So, every little bit helps!
eBay auctions are here!
FurBid auctions are here!

Awesomesauce. dustmeat, the troll on bass is totally cool. And I think the Blood Elf guy is channeling Skwisgaar Skwigelf, which is just awesome.

You can download the mp3 on the WoW site, too!

In other news, still itchy and eating Benadryl like they are candy.

It's become quite irksome. I work for a few hours, then sleep for a few hours, then work some more, then sleep some more. I am tired of it already! Got the October solicitations sent off today, and did a bunch of mail order work and inventory before I got too tired out to keep going.

In WoW news, I finally got my Captured Firefly pet on Zugs. We killed 462 Bogflare Needlers to get it. Not all at once, oh lord, no. I killed 25 per day, and that was pretty much my WoW time each day. willworks and PD helped too (PD killed about 100 himself, mages are overpowered powerful), and it was Will who killed the final one that got me my firefly. As a Joss Whedon fan, I am very happy to have this pet added to my collection. I now have 21 non-combat pets on Zugs. Collecting the pets is probably my favorite part of the game.

Now I am going to lie down and drink some more juice and wait for the NyQuil to kick in for more sleeping. Excitement!

Anime and World of Warcraft related, skip if you ain't interested! :D

Watch this one first (EVA opening):

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgATlhZFAfs

Watch this one second (WoW EVA Opening):

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wszzNg6zJeE

That guy is a genius. I laughed and laughed!
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Mostly posted as a loose guide of things I learned about the warlock class in World of Warcraft, posted mainly for the benefit of darklilith69.

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Anyway, there's my warlock tips. Hopefully, they make sense and will be helpful to those who want to play warlocks.

Also, I am surprised how quickly I was able to write this up. I am a complete nerd. -_-;