Saturday, January 23, 2016

Boho Decor LED String Lit LARGE LANTERNS

So, even tho' my computer was slain by vicious malware... I did manage to do other things... besides watching YouTube and being obsessed with all things Star Wars, and Snapchat...

Well, I do have photos of these with a candle in one... but I'll post that on a different entry.

Anyways, I've been obsessed with lanterns lately... I already wrote 2 long blog entries about that...

I ended up getting 2 because they and UPS screwed up in multiple ways. And, since I shopped from EBATES from Pier 1 Imports and also Sephora which also botched an order I ended up getting THIS:

A $10 giftcard from Kohl's. All of these long strings of SNAFU events always ended up being some sort of dumb luck in the end.... 1 after the other!

So, I'd been wanting to go get some LED string lights, and  I just KNEW that Kohl's STILL had some in the store if I could just manage to get there and hunt them down...

Anyways, if you want to know the whole bargain story about how I got the LED Lights for practically FREE plus got a $1 back in CASH, you can read it here:

$50 #retailvalue worth of 10 ft #LEDlights from #Kohls for $9.01! #frugal #bargain #clearance So, I've been wanting #lights like these since the #fall, n at my last job 1 location my brand had me work was Kohl's. I saw these and WANTED THEM! They kept going on sale, and even the website sold out! I was going to get them several times, but spit happens! Then, right before #christmas I got a Kohl's #giftcard for $10 from #EBATES! U should check that out! It's for real! So, I kept wanting to head over to #derbystreetshoppes n go grab 'em. But, Mr. Wang has issues n we hadn't gone... So, Kohl's emails me w a #coupon for additional %15 off. So, I made him take me there today! He kept saying that all month, but I held him to it today! I pretty much remembered where they were n figured everything was moved around, which it was. But, I found both of them still there. 1 package was already opened like I saw it before. Whatever. I just want the lights, so who cares? Last 2 left! 😍😄😊😀 So, is swaggered on over the the register, pulled out my iPhone , then whipped out my coupon. I said, " I don't know whether the coupon will work on these, since they're already marked down a lot. If they're not applicable I still want them." They were marked down from $24.99 to $4.99 each. So with taxes that's over $50 to about $10. The coupon actually took off another $1! Then, I swiped the giftcard which came to $9.01! They had a NEW policy that small change on a giftcard gets treated as tho' it were cash, so she's like "If u give me a penny, I'll give u a whole dollar back." #WIN! So, I did! #KohlsHaul #haul
A photo posted by Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman 任思麒 (@blackunigryphon) on

If u are NOT using EBATES, I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY yet! Klick my link and just buy ANYTHING. You could even return it, and u will still get the credit for it.


So, I got the lights... Mr. Wang was a punk to me throughout the whole process, and kept delaying to take me to Kohl's even tho' he kept promising... a ton of excuses: I'm tired. the bad weather. When good whether, he's either tired, or not enough time, or traffic, or tomorrow... We'd make a plan, and he'd break it...

Anyways, he just couldn't delay it anymore, and i didn't feel like fighting, so I do the whole nag thing instead, and suck-up thing.... like do favors, be extra sticky sweet nice, and if its still not happening i become a broken record... so, when he finally stops blocking it, i say: May i have the keys to the minivan?

Mr. Wang has some kinda stress mental malady... so, it causes him to have paranoid delusions of imaginary scenarios in his mind that he thinks will come true... he's convinced himself that i'll crash the minivan, get crashed into, have a breakdown, or that I'm incompetent... it's not even worth arguing about because it just makes him more sick.... then I have to take care of his skin even more, and he self attacks as his own form of therapy, like scalding himself in hot water in the shower. He thinks it helps him, but it makes his hives worse. Then, i have to apply the medicine to his back even more...


Well, he was so resistant, and abrasiveness to the entire process because he doesn't understand my vision. he's been like this over several issues for a while now... only to change his mind once he realizes what I'm doing or what I'm going for... So, just like the story of how I got these lanterns, there's a lot of that in how I got the lights as well...


-he'd gotten me some candles... but the wrong ones, and also ONLY 1 large one... I have TWO large lanterns.... pointing this out to him, would make him upset... so, i said nothing, and just burned 1 candle... which IMHO looks stupid...

Plus, it will stress him out, he'll say that I'm ungrateful, give himself more hives, and berate me AGAIN for being unemployed, etc...

At this point stress is SO HIGH here that even my daughter has bleeding & scabbing scalp psoriasis as well....


Anyways, when I'd gotten the LED lights, I'd assumed he would be pleased that I saved money, got cash back, and didn't use my credit card, since he seemed to be paranoid that i'd go on some sort of shopping spree... which is totally illogical... but, then man is severely afflicted, so what did ya expect? He's kinda like this.... Just gotta live with it....

Anyways, i was in a GOOD MOOD, got my LED string lights, and got home to unpack them, and try to figure out the battery pack.

It wasn't anything difficult to understand, but unscrewing them was needlessly complicated, and difficult. So, i asked him for a screw driver...

So, of course, that leads to him calling me dumb or stupid, or can;t do anything without him.... but, if I'd tried looking in the closet myself, he'd stress out over that and possibly start yelling about going through the closet and messing up his stuff as tho' it were somehow organized (it's not).

He grabs makes it sound like it's easy to find... but takes forever finding it, then hands it to me, and walks away telling me i can;t do anything without him...

But, I still couldn't get it open. So, he's teasing me.... then, finally, I asked him to help me, so he teases me some more, same kinda thing, and then takes over the entire project, and starts doing it all himself. Once I have 1 the first string lit, and uncoil it, he's still shaking his head at me, like I'm a weirdo.... but, once I placed it into a lantern.... his mood, tone, demenor, and attidtude totally changed.

Oh, THAT'S what this is! 

Um... yeah dude...

Once I had the lanterns all set up, I stuff them by my window.





Well, once Mr. Wang realized all this lovely lantern creativity happening, he suddenly decided he had better ideas, and insisted I put them on the Coffee Table.

So, that's what he did. I cleaned off the whole coffee table, and he put them there.


Then, he kept commenting about how he had such great ideas, and it looked so good, etc.

( .....er... um.... they're my lanterns, and it was my idea to use them to decorate the house... that's why I wanted them so badly... )

The rest of the night, he kept coming out to admire the beautiful lanterns (like an art gallery attendee) lit up by the LED lights and commenting on how "pretty" he thought they were. He also tore the house apart looking for better batteries, and succeeded.

He did this throughout the rest of the week, and would even suggest when I ought to turn them back on.

Somehow, I figure there's a joking reference to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", somewhere... 
 If u didn't catch that, then sorry it's over your head...





Well, this is it for these photos. I shot these on my iPhone. But, I also did a photo shoot on my DSLR CANON. maybe I'll post some of those here. Or, perhaps on my Photography blog. 

We'll see...






Devastating NEWS: Computer Malware


This month I was attacked by a VICIOUS malware Trojan virus. I was infected approximately around January the 7th (2016), and battled it from the 8th (a Friday) until the 11th (Monday Night). I'd beaten it several times, only for it to pull dirty tricks on me, by resetting my startup, rewriting my operating system, altering my restore points, and somehow broke through my firewalls. it also behaved differently when the computer was connected to the internet.

I'd beaten it on that Sunday night when I installed a 3rd virus scanning program, with addition firewall protection, and removed it from my entire system. However, this was when it pulled a dirty trick of removing my windows start-up entirely, and also removed safe mode's ability to even run a program at all.

It wiped my entire drive by Monday, even tho' everything had been resolved. It seemed to have rewritten the shut-down & start-up, and switched restore points.

It also destroyed my new video card, the GPU, and overheated it.

So.... I lost EVERYTHING pretty much dating back to at least 2011, and also as far back as a lot of my data dating back to 2009.

It wipes all of my photography, my artwork, my audio, my programs, my video projects, and since my DVD ROM was broken since 2011 there was no way to save and back up THAT MUCH DATA.

I had about 800 gigs worth at least. Much of that was my prized audio and music collection some of which were backed up archives from 2001-2007, and not all of that was saved to disks, or are currently misplaced.

So, whatever I have left is either on my Yahoo/Flickr archive online, my Google/Picasa/blogger Archives, or possibly on other cloud or data archives.

I was smart enough to have at least published several of my photographs and blog entries as drafts, and still have several more in the Blogger archive or the Google archive.

However, I literally lost ALL of my RAW files of my photography. EVERYTHING.

I also have several pieces of my digital artwork in the PDF files which are COMPLETELY LOST FOREVER. Irreplaceable stuff.

And, also photos and videos of old friends whom have vanished from my life that cannot be replaced, as well as tones of documents, and evidence archives.

My computer was in the shop from January 12th until January 22nd. They claimed that data could still be retrieved, but could find nothing, just  blank drive. They also took my video card without telling me. So, I had to get it back, and they also put in a new one, and a new DVD ROM. It cost me $150, and the reformatted the computer, and installed Windows 10 which i could not get to install during 2015.

I still have photos in the google archives which I can still publish since I had quite a bit.

But, my plans to publish all of it are now void.

I will still be publishing more content, especially the drafts I saved.

I've been trying to redo my computer, and adjust to the new OS.


This was a VERY odd experience for me. My skills/knowledge of computer science has it's limits. I have a degree in Computer Animation which involves Computer Science, but I'm Not a Computer Science major nor an expert, nor a true blue blood programmer. I also graduated in 2001. So, there's a limit to my knowledge and skills. generally, if i don't know I can look it up, try to figure it out, or ask someone whom is more knowledgeable than I.

I really felt I handled it rather well, but it really pushed me to my own personal limits, which was farther than I'd ever gone in matters like this. I'd been hacked before several times, since 2011 pretty bad, but nothing like this.

i really began to see and recognize that I probably couldn't do any more than i already was doing, and I'd need outside help. But, since i was broke, and jobless, and pressure from my spouse to get paychecks, I didn't know what to do. He kept nastily telling me that if I didn't fix it that it was just too bad, and Oh well... (has has severe stress issues including skin hives, stomach ulcers, hyper tension, and severe acid reflux, and at one point we thought he had cancer, but didn't... so when I have a problem, that makes him another level extension of a problem)

so, once my computer just died, I was really in a state of shock, and befuddled like it was unreal.... I seriously needed to get a new job, but i couldn;t do that until i could rewrite my resume.

So, I was expecting him to jump all over me like a jerk, and berate me for my hard drive having been slain by a vicious malware... but, instead, i came over to my computer, unplugged it, pulled out the wires and began lecturing me about how i had to pay for it to be looked at on MY credit card, and not his... which was yet ANOTHER source of his stress... paying down the debt balance on MY credit card, and he, himself, has a large credit debt also. Plus, I also still have student loan debt.

Anyways.....

When i went to the shop, it was a local small business that he'd apparently been to before...

the men their, seemed about my age, and altho' they seemed friendly, they didn't not really want to talk, and were often terse, and ended conversation quickly, and said: Thank, I'll see you later...


It was a bit off-putting, or semi-jarring... but, I didn't take it personal....

I was trying to explain some things, but they didn't really seem to want to here it, plus Id had a massive psoriasis/acne problem exploding all over my face, and no makeup on...

I noticed this unwillingness to chat or talk each time... and each time I had to remind myself they weren't interested in socializing even tho' they came off as friendly... I could give examples of this... but, they're not that big of a deal...

I did feel that they assumed that since i was female that I didn't understand anything, and kept assuming it was my husband's computer, and that HE didn't know anything, since HE would often defer to me... plus, i'm chubby, getting old, and having skin issues....

Well, I had to go there several times, and it was frustrating since they were never finished, and also didn't call us. Or, on the phone, they would say one thing only to get there and find that it was incorrect...

So, on Thursday, which was supposed to be THE last day  *FOR REAL THIS TIME*, I had to go to a meeting for my daughter because of her struggling in school... so, I decided to put on some makeup, because my face looked HORRID, and I noticed that they treat me better, or received me better at her school when i did my makeup....

Well, it went well... but I was anticipating that.....

What I was NOT anticipating was the difference in how we, and especially MYSELF, were received at the workshop regarding my computer.

The MOST important thing, I think is to at least have your eyes done, but I went with an orange motif which was on the warm yet still neutral tone.

I noticed that they ALL came over to speak to me. And, they would LINGER THERE. They KEPT speaking to me, and would look me in the eye...

it was VERY noticeable. Even tho' I dressed like crap, bundled up in layers in the sub freezing cold, and my hair was messed up... I had MAKEUP ON.

They would also try this authoritative, somewhat mild dismissive thing, but didn't realize I understood the tech. it was subtle... they're, in their mind, the experts, and I'm just some helpless woman...

well, I paid greatly... $150, and I am a businessman.

So, as they would disagree, and I could counter, it was obvious to me that these guys were more educated than they acted, and would realize: Oh shit! I'm being an ass!
I caught them in a number of these subtle instances, and they seemed to actually have a conscience, and apologized to me.

So, I decided to come back on Friday. I was rather gracious, and magnanimous.

I said: Don;t rush, just get it done, and I'll be back.

Well, when i showed up, on Friday, I decided to see what it would be like if i wore a stronger makeup, especially more RED. there is something about RED LIPSTICK that often makes people, especially males, pay attention to you, but also to be less pushy. (Not that they were)

Well, the reaction was incredibly better.

But, again, they took out my video card. It was a dual screen, NVIDIA geForce in the highest model in that series, and it was NEW because I got it in September, at a discount of about $80. but, that's still like $80!!!!! The original price was WAY OVER THAT since it's NVIDIA which is VERY HIGH END.

I also did NOT authorize them to remove it. So, when I thought everything was finally taken care of and put it in my minivan, I had this feeling to inspect it... and sure enough, that's when I noticed it was missing.

So, I carried it back into the shop and asked: Hey! Where's my video card???

they kept trying to make excuses about it... but told me it already had a video card...

I said: yeah, but that video card can't handle the graphics work i do: art, video, photography, and I went on about RAM, GPU, rendering, etc...

What did u think I did with it? I told u I was an artist and photographer. Did ya think I just played games on it???? I did tell u I came here because i'd reached the limits of my knowledge in Computer Sciences...

You could see the guy's face, like: Oh shit!

The other guy, realized, yeah, this wasn't ethical...

So, I had to leave AGAIN, and come back later...

They found my old original video card, and gave me a replacement NVIDIA video card for 3D rendering.

i need this kind of card because the other video card in the computer can;t plug into my screen and I don;t have an adapter, plus, I need something like that to handle the graphics work...


So, I think I've learned quite a bit from this experience...

WEAR RED LIPSTICK. 
And, makeup makes people pay attention to you...

Superficial as it is... that's what's up... 


I will definitely have more entries to publish...

Tribal Fusion Bellydance December 2011 - Day Set With 001

I have gotten more compliments on this specific set of self portraits than ANY OTHER SET I HAVE EVER PRODUCED.

I've been complimented on the MAKEUP the most, but also the earrings, the tribal silver jewelry, the earrings, my photography, my cleavage, my composition, etc.
I think these are probably one of the few things actual pro photographers, whom are generally snobs, would actually talk to me.

People have also asked to use my photos for school projects, or posters, and even did fan art of it, including my friend George, I think TV's Kyle might've doodled some practice sketches of my photography also in his practice sketchbooks. he compulsively sketches a lot. I wish I still did.

As for the makeup, the majority of it is by Maybelline New York, I do have some L'Oreal on (but I hate them), Covergirl, Physician's Formula, and my Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, I think I'm also wearing some discontinued Revlon eyeshadow from Walmart I got on clearance, and a Rimmel eyeliner pencil.

The pants are by Melodia.
The earrings are by Charlotte Russe.
The coin bra is by Miss Belly Dance





 




Some goofed up frames