Heehee. Latest Facebook status update for kicks:

"Finding out gradually that people seem to be a little confused about my sexual orientation. Apparently there is the misconception that I am bisexual/lesbian when I'm and always have been straight. So, in an effort to be more clear about my preferences, my profile has been updates to clearly indicate that I am gay; that I am a Male interested in Men. Hopefully this should remedy any confusion I may cause."

Really now. People can be so incredibly presumptuous of things like this. Why on earth would anybody think I have any interest in women? I've already got a female body that I have plenty of self-loathing for, so it doesn't really interest me. Now, that's not to say that I'm not open to the possibility that I might be interested in one particular woman at a later date, I just haven't found anyone of the female gender that genuinely attracts me in that way.

I'm kind of a gender-ambiguous, gender-confortable person. I read Misfile and El Goonish Shive and I adore Host Club, all comics & anime that make fun of gender differences and/or smooth the lines between. I've joked about a sex change in the past and I don't think it would be an unreal consideration for me or anyone. The idea just doesn't bother me as much as it apparently does other people, because I'm all for gender equality and I don't have any illusions about one being superior to another, or being better suited for a particular job. Note that I said equality, not male-subservient-bitch-feminist bullshit.

Besides, I'm waiting for the right guy. My goal in life is not to date as many guys as possible, because frankly that's just stupid. I don't rate myself on the number of boyfriends I've had, in fact I wish that number was much smaller to weed out the soul-crushing assholes in my life. I don't go to bars and collect numbers or go home with drunk strangers that might potentially have a clever-enough pickup line that catches my attention. I sit, wait, and observe.

The biggest attraction for me is personality, with the second being a clearly defined concern for others. For personality, they have to be clever and able to laugh at themselves in all aspects of their life. For concern, it can't be some thinly-veiled 'you-help-my-best-friend-so-she'll-tell-me-how-great-you-are' that my stalker-ex is so incredibly famous for. It has to be real and believable and consistent. Help some old lady with her bags, not because some girl is watching, but because it's the kind thing to do.

Starting this post at 5:13pm my time. We'll see how long this takes.

My life is wonderful, isn't it? Almost five months to the day I finally get a job and have another lined up, with orientation for the first tomorrow taking most of the day and the interview/meeting for the second taking place right after. The craft project I mentionned in the below post involving water bottles I attempted to start last night with an unfortunate accident (Though I'm not too bad now).

Last night I was cutting the little plastic rings (You know the part that's attached to the cap on Coke/Pepsi bottles until you spin it free?) off of some bottles I was soaking in my sink. I thought I was being smart cutting away from myself, but neglected to realize the bottles were still wet and slippery. I was holding the knife in my right hand, mouth of the bottle facing me, with my left hand gripping the bottom. I was having trouble getting the ring off of one bottle when my hand slipped and gouged my left hand rather deeply with the knife.

I instantly reacted, licking the wound and putting pressure on it while half-running to my bathroom and swearing the whole way. I don't have any traditional disinfectants, or really any first aid supplies besides a box of band-aids, so I soaked some balled up toilet paper in blue Listerine and pressed it to the wound. It was bleeding rather quickly and I knew it was serious. Also I lost feeling in most of my index finger, so I know I did something to a nerve. I panicked, and not wanting to deal with hospitals and clinics for the long wait times and the possibility of stitches, I grabbed my cellphone and called my friends who live in my building for help while pressing my Listerine-soaked makeshift bandage down on my hand with my chin.

My friend and his wife are my angels. They came immediately to my apartment with gauss, tape, and polysporin. They first aided me up and I talked to them for a bit with my damaged hand held high above my head. At one point in the conversation I felt extremely dizzy and leaned against the wall, they instructed me to sit down so I walked myself to my couch and my balance was restored almost immediately. I didn't lose a whole lot of blood, maybe an ounce or two's worth, because I got to it so quickly. My friend's wife got me some juice from my fridge and after they left I ate the last of my tuna sandwich stuff I made in my fridge for the iron.

I was jittery and bored after they left XD My hand was really hurting but I couldn't take any painkillers for the risk of them thinning my blood, so it was distracting me a bit. Maybe I was still a little woozy too. I tried focusing on my text book and ended up reading the same page five times, absorbing nothing. I called my best friend and told her my plight, laughing at myself as I did, and she said she'd stop by later. So I went to my computer trying to find something to focus on. I ended up making a castle in Sims 2, complete with four towers, battlements, and a moat.

My best friend and a friend of ours came to my messy apartment to dote on me. This friend should be a feaking chef, and he brought me salmon he'd stuffed with crab and put lemon and some dill sauce on. It was pretty good. My best friend bought me orange juice, which I had requested in a text of her for "new blood" XD, and I drank that pretty quickly. It was really nice of them to visit me, we talked about work, my craft stuffs which my best friend is excited about, and I put on an episode of Host Club at my best friend's request XD

This morning my hand hurt a lot. Fully extending my left arm lead to a shooting pain that left me reeling. I still haven't taken painkillers, though when I changed my bandage when I got up it was mostly sealed, so I could probably get away with it. My finger is still numb, and I'm thinking I may have to end up going to a clinic after all. Getting dressed was a chore, I couldn't tie my hair back for the heat, and my dishes will have to remain behind for a while ^-^;; Then, of course, I have two job-related things tomorrow, the latter of which involves copious amounts of typing (Why I'm timing myself, really). Right now it's just distantly sore, finger's still numb, but some spots still have feeling (I ran every part of it along a cold pop can to test), and I'm at least able to type with the last two fingers of that hand, so it's not too bad. Now, tonight I have to study and read three chapters because I won't be able to tomorrow XD Finishing this at 5:38, so I guess I'm not too bad, just a little slower than normal.

New Etsy ideas I'd like to pitch to anyone who reads this.

So, I've been collecting glass containers with screw-on lids for a little art project I've thought of, in the same vein as the vases. I figure I could cut little squares and shapes out of tissue paper and glue them on the sides of the glass container, cover the edges with lines of black paint, seal with modge podge and decorate the lid. I think this would create a very nice stained glass effect, so I would be including a tealight or two with each (Modge podge is also fireproof). Could also be used for storage or jars of pennies (One exists in every Canadian home).

Then I got to thinking; I have these empty Coke bottles I've been rescuing from my mom's recycling bin whenever I visit, I could do that to them and even be able to sell them for cheap - $3-$4 a bottle. They could be reused, which is like the epic form of recycling, and once my vase test is done I could include that they're dishwasher safe (I have a crappy vase I want my mom to throw in the dishwasher, just to see what happens). But I stopped myself, thinking "Isn't that a bit of a stretch? Won't people look at it and say 'Oh my gawd, is she using every empty container she has in a feeble and clearly desperate attempt to make money?'"

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21567455
If this sells for $20, no, I'm not desperate. Read the description.
(I like most of the OTHER stuff in her shop, but this one I think is a little on the pathetic side. The skyscraper necklace is cool)

Sooo yeah, whenever I happen to get money again, I've got a couple pet projects to start on for my store. As for knits I ended up making three hanging towels, which I sewed the buttons onto last night, only to find that none of them are the same size. Yay tension! There's two that are close, but there's STILL a ton of yarn left, so I could always make more. The buttons I used cost like a dollar something. Once I get my hands on some money, I will do up one of the glass containers or a bottle for show, so that you, denizens of the internet, can tell me what you think.

Got a little bit of time before school, so I felt like yammering on about goals.

At my games store interview (Never got a call back, nor got the courage to call them, so nadda) the guy got me onto the subject of goals. He asked me what I saw myself doing in two years, five years, and ten years. In five years, I know I want to have made a decent living off of my leet computer networking skillz, so I would then return to school to learn programming, in whatever language is current. In ten years I said at the interview I wanted to be working as a computer programmer. Well, I've put some thought into this.

In ten years, I want to go to university for physics. My best friend on the interwebs and I frequently get into heavy scientific discussions, mostly involving areas that would be covered by physics (energy, motion, matter, etc). So I decided that I want to aim to learn all the math behind this, because I know I have a logical enough mind that can crunch equations. It sounds kinda dull on the surface, but I'm genuinely excited about this.

Oh, and in ten years, I still want to be living off of Godiva chocolates and own my own home & motorcycle. I'd also like takeout to be a viable meal option 2-3 nights a week and not leave me gawking at my budget.

Had a math test relating to subnet masks, subnets and hosts today. I did study a great deal yesterday, I had a solid 2 hour stretch that allowed me to tear into chapter 2 of my Server 2003 Infrastructure book. I took my time about it and made sure I understood the formulas presented to me, but there was a problem.

The book has an excellent formula for calculating the number of hosts per subnet, but not the number of subnets. And most of the questions wanted to know number of subnets. I drew a total fucking blank on most of the test. Not good. It was open book & open computer, but I resisted the temptation to punch the numbers into a subnet calculator on the Internet. Instead, I wanted to figure out for myself how to calculate that shit out.

I came across a nice equation that does subnets rather easily.
S (for # of subnets) =              (# of total possible hosts (Based on class))
                                     ---------------------------------------------------------
                                  (# of desired hosts rounded up the the nearest exponent of 2)

So say you have a class C address (Default subnet mask is 255.255.255.0) and you want 64 hosts on each subnet. The number of total possible hosts for a C address is 2^8, because only 8 bits are left off for the host IDs. 2^8 = 256. I'm not gunna knock 2 off of that because it fucks with the equation, I know about default gateways and broadcast IDs and crap. Anyhow, so you get this:

S = 256/64 = 4 subnets

So you get 4 subnets with 64 (62) hosts each.

Then, I invented a handy little chart that makes things even easier.

To figure out the value of the last octet in decimal from this crap, consider that .128 is the first subnet mask you come across. .128 is half of 256, and allows for two subnets, and has the first bit turned on for the network ID. It's next partner in crime down the list is .192, with 4 subnets available for use and 2 bits on. I noticed a pattern.

.128 is 1 bit on for 2 subnets (128 hosts each)
.192 is 2 bits on for 4 subnets (64 hosts each)
.224 is 3 bits on for 8 subnets (32 hosts each)
.240 is 4 bits on for 16 subnets (16 hosts each)
.248 is 5 bits on for 32 subnets (8 hosts each)
.252 is 6 bits on for 64 subnets (4 hosts each)
.254 is 7 bits on for 128 subnets (2 hosts each)
.255 is 8 bits on for 256 subnets (1 host each)

You can figure out the decimal subnet mask aswell as the / notation mask with this. Say it's a class B address with 3 extra bits on. Class B starts at /16 so you add 3 to make it /19, and your decimal is 255.255.224.0. Class A starts at /8 and Class C starts at /24 - multiples of 8 because of your 8 bits in each octet.

Ohyeah, the formula I was using for hosts: C = 2^(32-n) - 2. n is the number of bits on with the slash notation, so like /22 would yield C = 2^10 - 2 = 1022 hosts. I had to modify this formula when he started specifying classes, because 2^(32-11) for a class C gives a lot of big numbers. I'm not sure I got that part right, I used my best judgement so we'll see how it goes.