Characters: Cloud/Tifa, Barret, Reno
Word Count: 1500ish
Rating: T
Warnings: Crackish silliness and a little bit of language
Prompt: Written for
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6){kind=small}
hakuen, who had the winning bid on my FFVII Help Japan auction. No specific prompt was given, I was just told to keep doing what I do... so I hope this works. (I owe you another 1500 words, too.)( Language Drift )
Had a check-up this week. The verdict is that I'm not well, but I am better. I will be continuing the nasal steroids and antibiotic washes, and then going back for another check-up next month. I'll also be starting allergy shots (joy).
In other somewhat freaky put possibly good news, I'm also going to be checked to see if there might be an auto-immune condition that is making this more of an uphill climb than it should be. I've been on medicine for something called Hashimoto's thyroiditis for twelve years now -- that's when your immune system attacks the thyroid gland. (I imagine my immune system as a bunch of extremely dedicated but keyed up and stressed-out soldiers who think everything is Godzilla. It's a vision that explains my allergies and joint problems, too.) My family has a history of auto-immune whackiness, so it seems reasonable to check.
Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and patience! <3
On February 12th, I finished the latest in a string of 30-day courses of antibiotics. (I think it was the 3rd 30-day, and the 5th prescription overall since the end of August.)
On February 13th, I saw my doctor, and she confirmed what I already knew: my sinuses showed no improvement.
On February 21st, I had my first appointment with an ENT. He did a CT scan of my head, seemed impressed by the degree and extent of infection revealed, and referred me to an allergist.
Today I visited the allergist. After making me breathe in a tube to test my breathing, turning my right arm into a field of hives, and making me blow my nose on some sort of special tissue, he sent me away with the following instructions:
(1) A 30 day course of prednisone (steroid), starting with five pills a day for five days and tapering off from there.
(2) A 30 day course of Augmentin (antibiotic)
(3) An 8 week regimen of nasal washes using a saline-and-bactroban solution (this would be similar to neti-pot, except using an antibiotic)
(4) A prescription for rhinocort aqua (nasal steroid) which I am to use for the foreseeable future.
In four weeks I go back for a check-up, at which point if I'm not any better, sinus surgery will be the only remaining option.
So... clearly, there is a lot going on in my head, and none of it is condusive to writing.
- Mood:
sick
I'm trying to be a good little author and finish my way way way overdue auction stories. But they're all difficult and require world building and brain power which I've been lacking. ;_; On the other hand, it's time for the FF Kiss Battle, and those tend to be short but sweet one-offs.
To give myself a treat, I'm going to try to write five final fantasy kisses. Trouble is, there aren't five prompts over there that I can write at present. There aren't any, actually, except maybe the Zack/Aerith one.
That's right, there aren't any cloti prompts!
But if someone were interested in leaving some.... (hint hint)
The battle is on Dreamwidth, but all participants -- to prompt or to respond -- are welcome. You can use your LJ openid if you want. The announcement and such is here:
http://ff-exchange.dreamwidth.org/17789.h
In a nut shell... I want to have someone organize an estate sale, in the UK, but do it incorrectly. That is, they've approached it in much the same way a person holding a garage sale would: they went through their stuff and picked some things to sell and then slapped prices on them. Nothing has been appraised or marketed or managed. Someone else is then going to come along and say (essentially): 'Whoa, you've got some really gorgeous and valuable pieces here, we need to do this properly.'
To do that, however, I need to know the proper terminology. For example, in the US this second person -- the one saying they need to do things differently, with appraisals and such -- could suggest the owner call an 'estate liquidator' to come out and give them an opinion. In the UK, however, it appears that the terms 'estate agent' or 'estate liquidator' or 'estate professional' all deal strictly with the house and the land, not with the personal belongings. And that doesn't even consider if there's a special term used only in Wales. So who would you call? What would you look up in the yellow pages? Do you want an 'auctioneer'? Is that the correct term? Or maybe you would look for a company that does 'valuation'? Or would you just look for an antiques dealer or an antiques appraiser? (Which seems like you're presupposing the value of your goods, but maybe that's ok?)
Is 'valuation' preferred over 'appraisal' in the UK? Or are they used for similar but slightly different things? (Perhaps appraisal is only used with antiques, whereas valuation is used for all goods?) It's something of a new term for me, and it came from some UK sites.
Since the term 'estate sale' seems to apply to the sale of the house, what term is used to refer to the sale of the goods? Are such sales (whatever they're called) advertised in the newspaper? (I'm guessing yes, but thought I'd check.)
Is 'garage saling' (or 'sailing') and antiquing popular in the UK? Here there are people who get up early every weekend in order to spend the day driving around to garage sales and yard sales and antique sales. Is the same true there? In many areas of the US, if you put an add in the paper about a garage sale or some such, you are guaranteed to have customers because of this behavior; no matter how small your sale or how far into the backwoods you are. So I'm just wondering if they cancel the improperly planned 'estate sale' in order to reschedule and plan an auction, will there be lots of unhappy people showing up?
Thanks in advance for any insights!
For example, I'm absolutely stunned at what constitutes first-class travel on a commercial Emirates Airline or Oman Air flight. It's like your own personal little travel pod! Seriously, it's practically a cubicle with a pull-out in it. However, I only discovered the first-class amenities because I was trying to find out about in-flight internet on trans-Atlantic flights. Surely, I thought, in this day and age someone offers such a thing.
As it happens the answer is both yes... and yet also no.
Back in 2001 we were there. Delta, American, United and Lufthansa all partnered with Boeing to develop Connexion, an in-flight internet service which was based on leased satellite service. However, after 9/11, all but Lufthansa backed out of the agreement. Boeing continued to offer the service to the European and Asian markets, but Connexion eventually shut down at the end of 2006 due to a lack of sufficient customers.
Somewhat ironically, Row 44 -- a company formed in 2004 as a competitor to Connexion -- is still in operation. Customers include Southwest Airlines, Alaska Air, and Norwegian Air Shuttle. That's good news for customers who want a broad-band in-flight internet connection... but means nothing in terms of trans-oceanic flights as none of these airlines make them. (i.e. These airlines could offer it... if only they flew from here to there.)
Then there is the satellite company Inmarsat. Inmarsat offers a communications service called Swiftbroadband. Other companies then bundle the service to provide internet on commercial flights -- kind of like very focused ISPs. OnAir is one of the biggest of these, but there are others such as Panasonic's eXConnect and ARINC's Cabin Connect. (Lufthansa actually uses Panasonic's eXConnect to provide internet using their original Connexion by Boeing equipment; the end product is called Flynet.) In addition, Inmarsat is currently working -- in conjuction with Boeing, which again smacks of irony to me -- to build the next gen of Inmarsat satellites. The three satellites together will comprise a new network dubbed Global Xpress. Inmarsat has tapped both OnAir and GoGo/Aircell to distribute the service beginning in 2013.
So the technology is there, and has been for some time. Since 2010 at least, even if you don't count Connexion in 2001. What's holding things up today is that the airlines -- in direct contrast to the gung-ho attitude of 2001 -- are being slow to adopt it. OnAir has a list of about 25 customers, but most are only using the service in a very limited capacity (British Airways, for example, only offers it on flights from London to JFK) or are for providers that primarily operate domestic and/or international flights outside the English-speaking world. It's been especially big in the Middle East -- Oman Air's claim to fame is that it was the first airline to provide the service back in March of 2010, and Emirates' entire fleet is supposed to be using the service as of June of this year.
Which is all really impressive to know, but was a lot of work and techno-babble to wade through in order to determine that there really isn't an airline, right now, that offers in-flight internet access between the US and Cardiff. Therefore, Kaoru will not be working during the flight, which was the sole reason I wanted to know if internet were available. ~.~
I am SUCH a geeky nit-picker.
However, maybe someone else will need to know in the future, and now you won't have to hunt so much for the info.
Just to show that I'm alive and have been working on my RK fic set in Wales, I thought I'd present this list of interesting things I've learned while doing research in recent weeks. (A few of these will be familiar to some of you...)
Rushlights: Thanks to hysterical historical romances I'd always known they were akin to the candle, but now I know exactly what they were and how they were made. I have also learned about the special stands made to hold them, which is important when you have an antique dealer going to Wales.
Rushes: They aren't what many of us think they are. Rushes and bulrushes (or cattail in the US) are not, in fact, the same thing. Neither is a plant called 'sweet flag'. This is interesting because when you read about 'rushes' being used as a floorcovering (again, historical romances ftw), the text is probably referring to 'sweet flag', with the second most likely meaning being bulrushes. Also, there's a company in the UK today that makes rush floor mats as an alternative to carpet, and I think that's cool.
Sycamore: The 'sycamore maple' or 'celtic maple' was (and is) a popular wood for carvings and ornaments in Wales.
Footman: Although usually used in reference to a male member of the domestic staff, a footman was also once a type of furniture! It was used to keep dishes hot where they were kept in front of the dining room fire. I now wonder if I've read the word as the servant when the table was intended.
Royal Mines: The mining of gold and silver has a very interesting history in Great Britain, as all such ore producing mines were considered to be the property of the crown after a ruling in 1568.
California Gold Rush: The gold rush was so instrumental in the forming of the western states that it changed the way the US government handles mineral rights. In some such states, mining companies were even granted powers of eminent domain!
International Flights: It doesn't appear to be possible to fly directly from the US to Wales. If you're lucky, you can get a connecting flight from Dublin. If you're unlucky, you get to go way out of your way and connect in Amsterdam. Also, it's ridiculously difficult to find out how much it costs to charter a private flight. (No, I don't want to provide my info and let you call me. That would be a waste of your time as I will never, ever, actually charter a private plane. I just want a ballpark figure of what it would cost my fictional characters, thanks!)
Empty Leg: This phrase refers to an empty flight generated due to a chartered flight. For example, if you charter a one-way flight from A to B, then the return flight from B to A would be an empty leg. Since the charter has to make the flight regardless, passengers can sometimes purchase discounted tickets on an empty leg. Which would be useful to know if only I could figure out what the rate would be...
Bangor: There's a Bangor in Wales. I was disappointed to learn the town of Bangor, Maine was not named for it, because it would be the first such Welsh-named town I'd ever heard of. Bangor, Maine is instead named for a hymn, which in turn was named for a Latin manuscript, which was named for the abby in which it was written, which was named for the town of Bangor, Ireland.
As a fan of Cloud, AC/ACC, and knitting, how could I not like this? I even feel compelled to make one, although I don't know anyone who would wear it. Well, I think
kitsune13_tam has cosplayed as Tifa in Cloud's clothing, but clearly she already has a sweater or the cosplay would not have been successful.Should anyone be interested in checking out the pattern, it can be found here.
Also, if anyone else knits, crochets, plays with string, or otherwise has a ravelry account and would like to friend me, here I am. I spent a fair amount of yesterday uploading my yarn stash and now I feel all organized.
Finally, I finished the scarf I was working on. Pictures are uploaded on ravelry or:
http://www.sekiharatae.com/Yarn%20Stash/k
http://www.sekiharatae.com/Yarn%20Stash/k
(Kasumi is the name of the yarn I used.)
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