Saturday, March 26

Couch Potato-ing

I think the living room couch officially has an indentation of my big fat tush permanently embedded into it on one side. The good news is that I've planted myself in a different spot lately to, you know, even things out a bit. >_> Right. I'll just keep telling myself that. I'm actually nestled in right now because I couldn't sleep because I feel like crap. Good enough reason, aye?

I feel like I haven't updated in forever. I had a few ideas and would forget them by the time I had a chance to sit down and then couldn't think of what to write other than two or three sentences once I was ready. Maybe my handy dandy and mildly neglected camera can help jolt my brain.

Alright, now that they're uploaded to my laptop... um... I guess that's something to work with. Lol.


Do you see this? It's a tiny cup of ice cream completely with it's own plastic "spoon" inside the lid. How is that for a quick chocolate fix? I saw it at a Walgreens or something, died a little from joy and how cute it was, and knew I had to have it. So satisfying and yet I still want more now...
This is what we caught of the Super Full Moon last weekend after we ate out with the family. It was indeed bigger and brighter!
Slowly but surely, I'm still practicing my knitting. I still do not know how to purl nor do I know how to cast off or end my project because I am that awesome. :P That's on top of my directions on how to do all of the above and that sneak peek of owl is the book I got to learn how to make little toys via a technique called amigurumi. The beauty of that is: it's crocheting. The thing that I'm not learning how to do. This is also due to the fact that I am amazing like that. >_<
I went on a little adventure across town on Monday for some work stuff. I decided to be brave and take the city bus and then walk home. I neglected to remember the fact that the first half of this southerly walk would be uphill. Then, I discovered that all the wind we've been getting was blowing north that day. It was wonderful... 
The sidewalk foliage provided some amusement. That's a baby mesquite tree with it's crazy thorns and three different kinds of flowering weeds.

Look at the line of little cacti! 
Um... I think they're barrel cacti but I have little to no idea of what I'm talking about. 

As uneasy as the trek home made me, at least the scenery tried its best to be cheery. I loved how they've stayed separated on either side of the sidewalk. Oh yeah, I was told that the pinkish-purple magenta flowers on the right were planted there on purpose. Some of them were nearly 4 feet tall!

I worked a little more on my digital recipe scrapbook and hit a bit of a mental road block with a particularly tricky technique. I wish I could share a page, but none of them are 100% done yet because I'm still missing information or pictures. Hm. Oh, who cares? I'll go grab something.

 This is what my page looks like after I input and arrange the recipe components.

And this is more or less a finished page.

Nothing too stellar or mind-blowing here but I'm glad I'm getting it done in a way that gives me all of the information I'll ever want about recipes we've loved. Pain-stakingly detailed steps, generous times and conservative serving estimates, ingredients listed in order of appearance in the recipe, where/ who I got the recipe from and when I obtained the recipe, and a quick fun story about the dish. It's a lot to fit into a 8 x 8 inch page! I can't wait to print out my first completed pages and sliding them into page protectors. 

I've also taken over this section of the living room for project and card making. *Looks around at the chaos* Ugh. The projects are all prepped and tucked into individual manila envelopes and I got many cards done and added to my stash. As I typed that I realized that I have yet to take pictures of any of them... Sigh. 

I think I'm going to go cuddle with mister kitty man until I feel a bit better instead. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you soon!

Friday, March 18

Up In Figurative Flames

Yesterday, I was so mad.

For the past few nights, I had been working on the digital manifestation of the recipe book I've been griping about lately. I've invested in a few digital kits that I adore too. So, I go to open it up yesterday, since I did not have to go into work, and after going to add one element, the program I use suddenly shut down!

Alright, I think, this stuff happens all the time on my laptop. I'll just open up again and hope that it doesn't happen again. Just like everything else.

No dice.

A little background about how my brain and I work, in cases like these, I'm usually making my own backup files and taking screenshots. But of course, the decision that was made after 2 in the morning was that I didn't need to so early on into project. I'll be fine, I thought. Ugh.

Suddenly, the file is corrupted and there's an error message that tells me I should call customer support to learn how to open up the backup file. Excuse me? I searched myself online for the process and imo, it's more complicated than it should be. Within an hour, I manage to open up the program's backup file of my project. Much to my great dismay, none of the content was saved. Only empty boxes that marked where various text and elements once where. Hours of work and designing reduced to mere skeletons.

I was pissed, to say the least.

I was a bit grateful to at least have the frames because calibrating them in the first place was quite tedious since I was such a noob. I've reassembled those pages of recipes and have worked out a basic system to speed up the process as a whole but you bet your bottom that I'm taking screenshots every few steps and saving like mad and physically saving my own backup file, on top of what the program does.

I wanted to write about this the night it happened, but I was so friggin' steamed. I'm fairly content with how the pages are coming along now and hope to get much more of it done soon. Even though "done" doesn't really mean done because I'm missing a few bits and pieces of information such as preparation and total times or I need to take a better picture of each dish. Eh, life's always a process, lol.

I'll see you soon. <3

Sunday, March 13

AGAD Music Playlist

While I'm trying to work on prioritizing and my time management skills so I stop freaking out as much, I'm watching the amazing men of "A Gay A Day" the YouTube collaboration channel.

During the first week of this year (I just realized -again- that I don't quite comprehend what year it is right now. It was the first week of last year), they challenged each other to create a quick soundtrack to their current lives and I wanted to belatedly join in! The biggest challenge for me is to choose songs without overthinking it too much. I feel I should emphasize the fact that I'm choosing these songs off the top of my head and I have plenty of songs that would fall under the categories but I'll stick to one each. I will, however, let myself choose mostly recent mainstream songs. :D


1. A song that makes you happy:
"Everything" by Michael Bublé

I can listen to it constantly and it turns into a duet in my head. 
I love listening to it as I'm flying home to see the SO again. <3
 

2. A song that makes you sad:
"Heaven" the 9/11 Remix by DJ Sammy

Such a tragic event coupled with the fact that I was 
recovering from minor surgery and coming 
down from the anesthesia in my darkened 
room lit up by a lava lamp the first time I heard it. 

I was a hot sobbing mess. 

I still have a physical reaction to this song every time I hear it.


3. A song that makes you nostalgic:
"Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani

It's not even about the content or the fact that I appreciate 
this song teaching the masses how to spell "bananas". 
I heard this song several times during my high school senior year prom: 
getting ready, riding in the limo, at the prom, when we got back into the limo, 
etc. It pretty much gives me snapshots of all of those fun moments 
and even though prom wasn't perfect, it was still another 
good time with friends, and that's what growing up is pretty much about.


4. A song that makes you want to dance:
"Marry You" by Bruno Mars

This was actually a really hard song to choose. 
There are plenty of songs that I obsess over and love to jam to 
(surprise, surprise, right? XD) but the typical song 
I love to dance to tends to be something raunchy, loud, trashy, 
and ridiculous. I could not really think of one that was currently 
filling that space in my life right now. However, that dang Glee 
turned me onto this song and it makes me want to kick up my heels 
and go prancing around the room/ public venue. 
Not too many make me just want to celebrate and 
that's why this song was the winner. 


5. A song that no one would expect you to like:
"Game On" by The Guild

Alright, if you learn a few things about me, know that you 
should never be surprised by anything that comes up in my iTunes.
I'm pretty sure I've shared this already because it's so awesome,
but here we go!


Too much fun. I'm going to keep browsing for digital pieces for the recipe scrapbook I've been meaning to work on and children's books because I'm an oddball like that. :D I hope you have fun and would love to hear/ see your soundtrack.

See you soon. <3

Friday, March 11

Overseas

I wanted to take a moment and say that our thoughts and prayers are with those that are affected by the earthquake-tsunami events in Japan and Hawaii. <3 Hang in there, may you get in contact with your loved ones soon, may recovery and rebuilding begin as soon as possible, and I hope that all of your foresight has served you well.

Thursday, March 10

Choked Up

It's kind of nice to know that this is somewhere I can still turn to for a little extra venting room.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day for me mentally and I was debating posting by the end of the night and realized that I was really looking forward to sleeping and sleeping in. So, once I realized that, I went crawling as fast as I could into bed and I think it helped so much (finally catching up on sleep).

It was the little man's 5th birthday though! He got a few treats and a quick trip outside with his daddy. According to the internet's various cat age calculator/ converters, he's about 36-37 years old in human years. There was something about giving cats 15 years after their first year of live because that's around the time we respectively reach sexual maturity and then another 9 years to the age after the second year because that's roughly when we respectively reach physical maturity, and then 4 years for every subsequent year. This was mostly according to an article on eHow and I more or less confirmed it with various calculators that I found. What an old man Mr. Fuzzbutt has become! As distinct of a personality he has, it seems that he's still growing, changing, and learning something new every day and it's pretty rewarding to be a part of. :P Pet parenting, aye?

I guess I must be going through some existential crisis or something right now that led me to flipping out and having a little breakdown yesterday. Started up a giant To-Do list of all the things that I've meant to do over the past few months and have yet to get done. Not very like me to let it get to this point and it's pretty intimidating. Luckily, I've felt my drive seep back into my life and I have a better and natural attitude about tackling each task and project steadily. Doing my best to take care of my unfinished business and it's promising thus far.

Another tip that I have learned, I forget from where now, is a way to discourage getting discouraged over a to-do list. You know when you make a list but by the end of the day only have maybe two things crossed off and you wonder what the heck happened? Usually, you just end up taking care of other things that happened not to cross your mind when you made that list or just came up but had to be taken care of right then and there. Well, you did them, so just add them to your list and cross each of them right off. That way, you have proof that you did accomplish a couple things that day.

I have found that this helps a tremendous amount. I used to have a list of 15-20 things to do a day (some could be done through out the week) but that's kind of the crazy person I am. I would start to freak out about only getting two and a half things done and questioned how I was able to waste entire days on doing nothing when I was trying so hard to do something. I realized that whomever gave me this advice was totally right, I was getting a whole bunch of things done, it just wasn't my stuff, things I hadn't considered writing down, or junk that life just felt like throwing at me that day.

Hm. As nice as it was getting that out of my system (for the umpteenth time today), it's that time again when my bed is calling my name. I'll see you soon. <3

Monday, March 7

Bought A Book

I bought a big ole workbook today because I have no idea what I'm doing.

I was upgraded from subbing as a teacher aide to subbing for the teacher at the last moment and luckily I had one simple assignment planned and prepped out since Friday. I did not enjoy scrambling around trying to figure out where potential lesson plans were at, let alone attempting to figure out how to alter it for the wide range of abilities while taking into account the aptitude for kids I barely know.

Deep down or somewhere in the archives of my mind, I have made and tutored kids of all elementary school-ages at appropriate levels but I've been pursuing the toddler-preschool-leading into kindergarten so diligently for the past year that I'm incredibly rusty on what's appropriate for which grade level. The new class that I've been incorporates different grade levels and I really want to do best by them.

I've been trying to catch a few teachers that I've gotten to know (who teach at varying levels) quick/ last minute advice on what I should be covering but after that period of class is done, I'm back being a deer in the headlights pulling out mediocre and over-simplified ideas out of my bum and that doesn't fly by me for more than one activity.

Doing the responsible thing aside, I don't want to do homework! /stampfeetandwhine. I'm tired. I'm trying to run a side business, help keep the house clean, run errands, and help out in other aspects of the school. Then, we add on my impulsive need to take on a million other projects or new obsessions that I just simply cannot handle or control in a timely fashion. I am some sort of insane since I keep doing this to myself and subconsciously expect a different result when I know better than that.

Getting back to my new book (of which I'm pretty sure sapped the new paycheck I've earned from all of this), I chose a grade level on the lower end so I wouldn't have to downgrade too many of the activities but had a chance to take them higher by personally adding a critical thinking aspect to it in person. I'm really happy with what I've scanned from it so far in terms of looking for a generic foundation for me to use as a reference point to create my own lessons. A springboard, if you will. Even if you don't, that's what it is for me. :P I'm so drained, but I think I made a funny. XD

Once all is said and done and I get to vent in fairly appropriate venues, I really am happy with how things have picked up lately. I really am grateful and excited for things to come. Whether or not I'm satisfied with the effort I've put in and the results are a different matter that I'm learning to cope with or improve. Lol.

Alright, I need to sit down and figure out what we're going to tackle over the next couple of days. See you soon. <3

Saturday, March 5

Squeaky

After a long day and much elbow grease from everyone, I really do believe that common areas of the house are as clean as they ever has been since I've been around. :D Very liberating and fresh-feeling. I hope that we can continue to all pitch in and keep it up.

On that note, my poor room is still a trash hole. I hope to address that with a passion during the week. XD

We went all out today because of the little workshop-party we're having tomorrow afternoon but we were wiped from work during the week. We'll be having all sorts of people coming in and out all day long so I hope I survive. Lol. Once the floors were all mopped, our kitty went insane. It was as if the floors no longer smelled right so it was his job to claim it all as his. Rolling all over the like he was on some sort of acid trip. It was absolutely hilarious. Dragging himself across the floor on his side and rubbing all over toys and the floor for nearly an hour. Play fighting with all of us and even his kitty cousin- who had no idea what to do with the situation and tried to either mimic our kitty or stare in complete confusion.

Our kitty is usually just so... cat-like. Aloof and stand-offish. Snooty and dignified. And personality-wise, he's fairly timid and easily distressed with changes around his home. For the past year, with all of what has gone down, he has handled it incredibly well. And now, as I'm staring at him as I'm writing this, he is passed out on his back, legs stretched out, with his paws curled up on his chest. He is beyond comfortable and secure and I love that.

Alright, I can hear the bed calling my name and I cannot wait any longer to keep catching up on sleep. :P I'll see you soon. <3

Friday, March 4

Not Counting

It feels really weird not numbering my posts. D:

Today has been full of... disturbances in the force. I am so very glad that it's a weekend and yet it still does not mean I get to catch up on any sleep. Gotta whirlwind clean the house with FMIL so it's nice and ready for the workshop and I'm making a few bracelets any chance I get because I'm obscenely behind on a few requests. Pictures shall come once the entire batch is finished, for sure.

I also am a horrible influence. FMIL and I went to Michaels today and I finally caved and picked up my first skein of yarn and my first pair of knitting needles. I mentioned the other day that I was trying to not learn about Amigurumi (ugh, I can never remember what it's called- let alone pronounce it easily) just yet but... I don't have much self control when it comes to learning and crafts.

So, she taught me how to cast-on and knit. I haven't tried to purl or cast-off yet. Here is a picture summary of how that has gone:




It took many tried for me to get the first stitch, then I kept casting-on over and over and unraveling it to keep practicing. The first photo is my first dive-in effort to cast-on and knit. I think I somehow added in a button hole as shown up close in the second pic. :P I think I may have... "dropped" a stitch. Or added one. Who knows? The next one shows what I kept doing over and over again to keep practicing. Plus, it really fun to keep tugging on one end to make everything disintegrate. The final picture shows my latest and bar far the best attempt  I made this evening before I messed something up at the end of the row and couldn't figure out how to ignore it and keep going. Not to shabby, aye? I'm slow to pick-up initially but then I keep learning really quickly. :D Handy habit to have, yes.

I'm so excited. It actually looks like something already! I haven't tried to read any pattern yet so there has not been any need for me to keep track of the amount of stitches I've made. Hopefully, I will find the repetition to be soothing for this activity as well.

Mmk, I'll see you soon. <3

Thursday, March 3

One Year Blog-aversary!

Wow. It almost feels like I'm blogging incorrectly because I'm choosing not to number this post. Bah, now that I've typed it too, it's not driving me nuts. Wonderful. Lol. I'll figure something out.

Well, I can't believe I did it. It really does not feel like it has been an entire year of blogging every day. I do save my blog in pdf form, which is lovely because all of the pictures and links are preserved. The only thing that I have to work around is manually hunting down the links to videos and posting those in where the embed code is located in the live version of this blog.

Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure that I've made little to no progress in my life in the past year. At least, that is my feeling and I find that incredibly disappointing. It nearly feels like the first year that I have not taken a big step in my life. Is not taking a step qualifying as taking a step? Alright, I'm honestly so wiped right now my eyeballs feel like they are about to either dry up into sunless raisins or melt out of my head.

My idea to "celebrate" this achievement was to do a little summary by numbers. It won't be as in depth as I would like, but we're both just going to have to deal with and makes the best of the circumstances. I cannot wait until the weekend hits. Okay, maybe Sunday afternoon, but we'll get to that another time.

According to me (and my tags):

48% of my posts were mostly me ranting (173/365) 
I'm surprised that the numbers are that low.

35% of my posts mentioned some hair-brained project 
I was working on that day (128/365) 
I need to slow my roll.

31% of my posts have some sort of photo/ picture (114/365) 
I did not know that!

29% of the time, I was fixated/ obsessed with something (106/365) 
At least it wasn't 106 different things...

19.5% of my posts talked about some sort of crafting (71/365). 
That seems kind of low too but it's my most specific topic.

I discussed some sort of current event that 
was bigger than me in 63 of my posts. 
That's really surprising because I usually try 
not to talk too much about my opinions on such matters.

I gave thanks in 52 posts, 
which helps me work towards my personal goal of 
being more humble and grateful.

During 14% of my posts, I talked about our pets. 
I thought that number would have been much higher, lol.

I have 38 posts that have videos and 29 that discuss music, 
so there's significant overlap there.

I think when I get a chance to breath soon, I'll want to bunker down and do an further in depth analysis of things like the types of photos I posted and the kind of music I ended up sharing. : ) 

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share a bit of myself and my world with you. I hope that I've been able to either make you smile or make you think about something you may not necessarily have otherwise. Much love and gratitude to you all. 

It may be a little hard to break the habit of daily blogging now since I've gotten used to this consistent venue for venting, but I'm sure it'll feel liberating and terrifying at the same time. I'll most likely still post often just because I like to hear myself talk, but only when I definitely have some substance to contribute. :) 

Phew, this feels bittersweet but I think that's mostly because of the nonstop action going on in my life right now. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. Tomorrow's Friday- hooray! I'll probably see you then! <3

Wednesday, March 2

365. Fixation

Another title that I think I've already used. Darn. Do I have enough energy to go and look today? Nah! :D

Day 2 of the new part time job and it was a learning experience being in an unfamiliar classroom. I'll be back at my old stomping grounds tomorrow and that should be fun seeing as how it will be picture day for the kids. Yeah, that sounds like fun. Breaking the routine to herd the class to the cafeteria to sit still in front of a bunch of bright lights and strange people who have a lot to do and little time to do it in. Wish us luck! Lol.

I have been tweaking FMIL's classroom website and beating my brains numb over streamlining the process of ordering books through Scholastic online. It is a pain and a half to do it in a way that best benefits the classroom. The company keeps pushing for more and more online orders but it's a truly frustrating and befuddling experience and I was sure to let them know what I thought in great detail. I managed to order books and test that all out though, so I conquered what I could. Mission accomplished, I suppose. I ordered the Very Hungry Caterpillar for a mere $3 and I think a 5 pack of those "If You Give A ___ A ___... " books for $12. It's either four or five books in that set. I am so excited.

The biggest personal downside to this week is that I've barely slept the past few days. I am so loading up on caffeine to make it through the day but I've gotten to the point that I'm so tired I don't become hungry. Go figure that I choose now to become productive again so I have about three big projects going on that I can't dedicate 110% of my attention to in order to crank them out in one session. I have to force myself to stop after doing a portion and repeat the process for something else. Ugh, it almost sounds like I'm forming some sort of normal life. I don't like it. /pout+sulk. :P

I really need to do some laundry. I also need to hardcore help out with tidying up the house for the workshop-get together we're hosting this weekend. Oh dear gracious me. My oral fixation has kicked into high gear and any progress I have made in the past few weeks has gone out the window in one evening. :( I also have some sort of serious problem with not being able to resist eating M&M's. I'm sure it's border-lining some illness by someone's standards.

It will get done, daggumit. I'm not sure when and how much it'll suck to do, but it will get done! Got to love the honesty, aye? I need to drag my sorry butt to bed asap. I feel like I should count today as my one year blog-aversary, but I won't. :D

Mmk, see you tomorrow! <3

Tuesday, March 1

364. Bookmark

Alright, I'm only vaguely sure how this works. Tomorrow will be my 365th day of daily blog writing. There are 365 days and 6 hours in a year. So, I'm pretty sure that makes not tomorrow but the day after my one full year anniversary of blogging. Somehow.

For my sanity and safety's sake, I'll stick with that line of thinking.

Lol, anyways. I can't even remember if I mentioned going to two bookstores on Saturday. I'm fairly certain I did. Ugh, I'm going to go look before I give my worn out self a headache trying to think. Yes, I do believe that there is smoke coming out my ears. Oh wait, I actually didn't mention it. Well, FMIL and I ran a few errands after the CPR and First Aid certification classes. I had the attention span of a gnat in those bookstores. I wanted to look at nearly every book in those places. I even got book-shelf-neck. Where instead of dealing with reading the sideways spines, I tilt my head until it's all straight and quickly read with my noggin cranked sideways. I couldn't decided on what to get, so I decided not to settle on any one thing.

Boo for doing a sensible thing. Alright, if nonsensical is a word, "sensical" should be do. Dagflabbit. Grr. Lol.

I realized that I really want a nice reference book about owls. I adore owls, if you couldn't tell from the recent remodel. :D I loves it and flipped out when I saw it. I really want to learn about Amigurumi knitting and needle-felting. Then I have my love for origami and polymer clay and drawing as well as my interests in watercolors, cross-stitching, making accessories, and such. Then I love things that resemble encyclopedias about pretty much any animal. Then there are the language learning books, new age stuff, travel guides, fantasy, mystery, and so much more. Ugh! Oh and children's books. Lol. Hoo boy. I could get into a lot of trouble at Target, any office supply store, craft store, or big bookstore.

I thought I saw a few good deals in the school's Scholastic flyer, but when I looked it up on my own at home online, not so much. Sigh. It's probably the universe's gentle way of telling me to take a chill pill and not buy things with my non-existent spare money, even if they are books that I have no room to store where I currently live... Sigh. I'll survive. Barely. :P

I'm not quite sure what I'm talking about now. It's been a long day of subbing that involved chasing and a general state of confusion. :D

Heehee, I'll see you tomorrow. <3
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