December 11, 2012

Quick report on... things.

So I have two posts that I'm in the middle of, but a couple of technical issues (besides life in general) have kept me from finishing+posting them. I'm trying to figure out how to get pics off of my extremely buggy phone, and I have to figure out a way to fix my tunes. I will be posting soon!!!!! Soon is just an indefinite measurement of time :O

November 10, 2012

Laziness and other stuff

I'm putting off the Dracula post yet again, for two reasons: first, I really want to do it justice and write the best post I can; and second, I'm just tired :) I worked 15 hours this week, for the first time in well over a year, so I think I have a right to be slightly lazy this weekend. But in lieu of talking about a book, I do have some awesome crappy photos of my nail and hair fails! I attempted a version of a French tip manicure, and, since I don't have the steadiest of hands, the result was kinda awful... I used some of my favorite polish (Sally Hansen Hard As Nail Xtreme Wear) in three different colors: Gunmetal for the base, Black Out & Disco Ball for the tips. Great color combination, but quite poor in execution. However, I found a really nice tutorial that has me excited to clean them up and try again tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't find this video until after I finished the tips the hard way, so this was the result:

November 8, 2012

I Vant You To Read A Booooook...

So, Google just let me know that it's Bram Stoker's 165th birthday! I'm too lazy to do it tonight, but I wanted to let everybody know that I'll be doing a review/fangirl moment for Dracula tomorrow :)
Velcome!

November 7, 2012

Widget Gadget

I've gone widget happy. Or gadget happy, whichever you like :) I knew I liked my widgets on my phone (I have a Droid, until I get an upgrade soon) but nobody told me I could have them on my desktop and my blog! I have a total of five blog widgets now, two desktop gadgets, and I don't even know how many on my phone. I truly don't know about my phone, though, because it went and freaked out at me. I had to do a factory reset, and haven't had the heart to try and reinstall all my old stuff when I'm just going to get a new phone in a few weeks. But anyhow, you can see I've added music to Epic Things, and in an effort to keep the appearance clean I stuck it at the bottom of the page. I felt that this was a little cruel, though, because I hate sites that make you search for the source of the noise that suddenly starts playing when you go to the page. I could just turn off the autoplay, but then would anybody really give my music a shot? :) That's why I added the text ticker, just to give you all a heads up about where the player is, and it should be gone soon. My dad says scrolling text "went out with IE 3" so I'll probably take it down after about a week. 
At least my blog doesn't look like this!

November 5, 2012

The Redesign

As anyone who follows my blog will have noticed, I've been working very hard on the appearance of Epic Things in an effort to make the site more worthy of its name :) And since I did work so hard on it, I wanted to share a little about how I went about it, and link to some of my resources. It was a little frustrating at times, but I think it was well worth the effort I took to find the "baby bear" look :D This is hopefully going to be helpful to anybody trying to design or redesign their own blog, but it's going to be a long post, so stay with me!

November 2, 2012

My First Webinar

I feel like the title of this post should be in chunky letters, possibly primary colors, to go along with the whole "my first, etc" theme :) I am, however, currently attending my first ever web seminar, or webinar! There's a bit of a problem with the speaker/presenter's internet; so while I'm waiting for the thing to actually begin, I thought I'd get started on today's post. I'm pretty darn happy with myself for getting up at 7am today, but before anybody gets all impressed I should mention that I will probably take a nap later XD At any rate, it's progress, right?! Which is good, since I have less than a week before I will have to be at work by this time... Yes, that's right: I have my work schedule finally! I'm not sure if it's my permanent schedule, but it looks like I work Tuesday evenings, Wednesday afternoons, and Thursday mornings. A bit of a mixed bag on that, but I do appreciate that my work days are all in a row :)
Until now, my schedule has been wide open.

October 31, 2012

An update, in general

A few things have happened since my post-before-last, besides that super fun party I mentioned :) In particular, I finally have a job! For anybody that doesn't see this blog via facebook, I have an orientation tomorrow morning for a page job at our local library: yay! I'm super excited about finally working in a library, and I think having a set schedule every week will encourage me to get more done when I am home. At any rate, I'm looking forward to finding out what my hours will be like, since it's just 15 hours a week. I'm hoping for three 5-hour shifts in the afternoon :D I'm also looking forward to having a little spending money!
...says my brain.

October 27, 2012

God makes the grass grow!

I went to a very nice birthday party last night, and it reminded me of the wonderful fact that God actually makes the grass grow :)
so pretty...
I'm sure I'll need to back up a bit here and explain what I mean, but first I want to describe a little bit of the kind of day I had before the party, and even a bit of my attitude all week. You see, I'm pretty sure that the devil was trying to prevent me from going to the party. In the two weeks leading up to last night, I had to arrange to get a ride to the party, figure out what I wanted to make/take for the birthday girl, and dig up a few items for an "accessory exchange" (awesome idea for a party, honestly! I scored the cutest purse :D). It doesn't seem like all that would be hard to do, especially in two weeks, right? I find it incredible how small and sneaky the enemy is...

September 12, 2012

Noom, LRU, and other stuff

My goals seem to be all over the place lately... first off, I know I was going to post every five days, which was two days ago, but I didn't get around to it Monday, and yesterday I kind of avoided it because I felt obligated to mention 9/11 if I wrote a post on that day, and since I didn't have anything to say (and I hate feeling like I'm being forced to do something), I just put it off. Ironically, I'm mentioning today, but I'm going to just see that as my own choice :) Also, sorry about that run-on sentence...  I'll try again to be on a schedule, but since I'm really just not that uptight about being punctual for myself, it probably won't happen XD Another side note: typing with bright pink-red nails is very distracting and feels mildly retro somehow.
Little bright spots that draw the eye...

September 5, 2012

A quick break from the books...

I'm almost neurotic about posting now, after being gone for 2 months (I realized I lied in the last post, when I said a month and a half or so: it was exactly 2 months!). I think 5 days is a nice number... It's not a specific day of the week, nor a week apart, but it does mean "once or twice a week" if I'm consistent :) Still just working on forming good habits, I guess... But that applies to every area of my life. Did you know, I consider myself very easy-going, but I've found that a few things have sprung up lately that make me realize that I still need to work on my temper and having patience! I suppose it would be a bit foolish to think I was done growing in those areas, but the extent of the problem (or the shortness of my fuse) really surprised me. Stay humble, me!

September 1, 2012

We now return to our regularly scheduled... um... hmm... what is this, anyhow?

Well, I've had longer sabbaticals, so a month and a half or so isn't too bad! I have been busy, too, so although I can't really see myself picking up where I left off (with promises to tell about my trip to Seattle, etc.) I do have lots to talk about :) First off, I do have to apologize to whoever was getting used to my semi-regular posting. I know I dropped off the face of the blogging planet, and the main reason for that was a mean bout of depression. Multiple rejections and dead-ends in the job search just started to get to me, so I went on an anime binge and didn't come out of it until we found out we were moving. My bad, completely :S In my defense, I also spent a couple weeks packing and moving and unpacking, so it wasn't all avoidable... right? :)
Treats from my favorite pastry shop in Seattle

July 1, 2012

eep.... I was AFK!

Soooo, I went to Seattle and had a lot of fun, and then totally didn't post about it or anything after that. I've been gone for over a week: sad face!! I haven't gotten a lot of complaints about the lack of posts (none, actually: isn't anybody paying attention? lol) so I haven't been too stressed about it, but I have been making mental notes of what I want to talk about when I get back to blogging, especially how topic-less I seem to be. I don't mind blogging about everyday stuff, but I'd like to have more of a focus to this, and I'm having a hard time coming up with material along those lines... So bear with me, I'll get back to posting on a semi-regular basis and keep trying to promote my blog as much as possible :) As always, some feedback would really help me decide what direction I should go with this!!!

For now, I'm going to leave this short and sweet, but in the next few days I'll post about Seattle, my job searching, and whatever else I can think of :D

June 20, 2012

Job applications and cover letters

I just turned in the application, resume, and cover letter for my dream job :D It took me almost a week to do it, because I worked so hard on perfecting the wording and researching everything I needed to get it all right. Whew. Part of me is just glad it's done, but the other part of me is kind of feeling like "holy crap, what have I done?!?" It's hard to describe... I really, really want this job, but I have minimal experience in the required areas (besides customer service) and it's super competitive in the library field right now. People with twice my education and 3 times as much experience are having a hard time finding a job: why should I get the first job I apply for?
Seattle Public Library - my future?

June 16, 2012

I hate school...

I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but I do: I hate school so much. Learning is fabulous, but grades, fees, deadlines, and the innumerable rules, are disgusting. This vent has nothing, believe it or not, to do with the fact that I finished finals yesterday. It does have to do with the fact that I have loans, and I don't even have a 4-year degree yet. My mom, life-giver and teacher that she has been to me, had to bring this up today, just when I was feeling really good about the future. Now I have doubt: not because that was what she was trying to do, but because she's usually right >.< And trying to find another school is the last thing I want to do right now.

June 15, 2012

Done with finals!!!

Yep, finished with school (as far as I know)!!! Now for the check-my-grades-every-two-hours portion of the school year XD but until then....


Woooooooo! I didn't get everything done that was on my to-do list for today, but the homework and movies with my husband was the really important part :D I'll post tomorrow about the whole job-application thing I mentioned on Twitter, and I have a pic of my business cards to show off! Hmm, was there anything else I needed to mention?  Nope!!!!

June 14, 2012

Finals are hard... Bunnies are cute!

I'm almost done with finals!!! But until tomorrow night, please enjoy this short playlist of super-cute videos about a kitty and a bunny :D

June 9, 2012

Pretzel Dogs (pics or it didn't happen!)


I've been making these a lot lately: three times in the last two weeks! They're very easy, and while it does take a while to make them, about half of the time is just waiting. I'll totally be making these when I have kids: they can help roll out the dough, or "practice" with some playdoh :) I would have just posted a link to the recipe, but I changed enough things that it's really not the same recipe anymore. Besides, I took a bunch of pictures! Hope it makes you hungry >:D

Pretzel Dogs
Makes: 16
Prep time: 90 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

June 6, 2012

Old emails & "getting the word out"

I discovered Wordles the other night, just after posting my last... post (How do you avoid repeating post if you posted a post? What else do you call it?!). They are amazing and I love them so, so much. I made about a dozen of them, I just couldn't stop XD If you play around with your own Wordles, I'd love to hear what you did! I used my blog, a book of the Bible, a Shakespeare play, a French play, and a few others. So. Beautiful. I absolutely love words, if you didn't know :) They are thoughts, ideas, languages, books, speech, names, actions, feelings: everything you can think of! I guess, even more than just words, I still love linguistics; I just don't want to make a career out of it. Working in a library will be the best thing, ever. I can't wait to find a library job! And I wish I didn't have to find a just-for-the-summer job X(



June 4, 2012

Anime and reading, stress escapes

What do you do when you're stressed out? I tend to shut everything out, not realize that I'm stressed, and find something fun to do. My favorites are mindless facebook games, reading, anime, and eating. Not exactly original choices, but they sure make me feel better! I know, procrastination usually backfires and you're more stressed because now there's even less time to get stuff done. But I usually don't have that problem, in large part because I understand that I'm in charge of my choices and it's not going to help anything to freak out when I realize I'm running low on time (not saying I never freak out, just not usually). That's when I get more munchies and buckle down to work... until I shut things out again and go back to playing XD But really, what do you do when you're stressed out? I could use some alternatives :)
One of the results for "stress eating" XD

June 1, 2012

And we're back!

Hey everybody that reads this, sorry about the lack of posts lately! I've been really overwhelmed, the end of the quarter is almost here and I've been trying to start thinking about job hunting: ick. I started a post yesterday, but I was really grumpy, so I didn't publish it (or even finish) and I'm trying again today. I'm going to keep it short, but I'm definitely in a better mood now!

May 27, 2012

Seven books in a week...

...and almost as many blog posts! Whew! I feel like I've gotten so much done lately. Although, I suppose it would be a little more impressive if I'd actually done some housework somewhere in there, but hey! It's a start :) I've finished the Hunger Games trilogy, and I think the first one is definitely the best. They went a little downhill for me, especially 95% of the way through Mockingjay, but it resolves beautifully. The writing is far more skillful than Twilight, the first person perspective is quite well done. There's much less contradiction, and the character actually grows like a real person. There were still a couple of things that I felt were unresolved by the end, but it didn't detract from the whole, just minor plot points that I would have liked to see pursued. I'm not sure what to expect of the movies, really. I'll have to come back to that later.

May 25, 2012

Books vs movies, and pride

I watched the first three Twilight movies last night. Ick. I'm not going to say much,  just because if I got going, it wouldn't be over quickly. Kind of like the movies... Argh! I was in so much pain! It took me several hours to finish the first one, and then I sped up the playback on the next two, just enough that I could still hear the dialog. Horrible, awful, stupid movies! Having just read the books, I can say with certainty that only about 10 percent, total, was from the books. That means a handful of lines, the names, and some of the appearances of the characters. It can't be easy to mess up that badly, honestly. What's worse is that the writing and directing are so bad that it makes stunningly talented actresses like Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard (one of my all-time faves) look stupid, stiff, and unconvincing. Can you tell that I'm just a little annoyed about this? And keep in mind, I'm not even a huge fan of the books, so that's really messed up! Sigh... So, let's just sum this up so I can be done with it:

May 24, 2012

Reading and popularity

When I posted my impossibly long thing about Twilight on Sunday, I was already halfway through the first book. I finished the fourth one today :D I love reading like that! Good heavens, it's amazing how much reading I can get done in a sitting... After all that, though, I stand by what I said before: it needs a serious editing job, and there are a few major structural flaws in the plot (such as an over-use of dei ex machina) that would be really fun to re-write. I can easily compare it with Harry Potter, though I need to read all of those again before I try. My biggest peeve about the books are the views on marriage and the poorly constructed reasons for them to abstain from pre-marital sex (as long as the books have been out, I don't think I need to worry about spoilers), and even then, my issue is not the fact that I disagree with the author's views. My issue is that these characters are hugely popular, and they are horrible role models! I cringe to think of so many young girls reading these books. But I'd better not go off on a tangent :) Suffice it to say, I enjoyed reading them, but it will be a very long time before I read them again, and they'll fall under the category of mature reading when I have kids.

May 21, 2012

To clarify, and continue

I realized after posting my thesis on Twilight yesterday that I forgot another thing I was going to mention: despite my intense desire to simply dismiss them as rubbish because of reviews and how popular they are, I'm planning to give the Hunger Games books a try. After I finish Twilight, of course :) And again, after the books, I'll probably have to watch the movies, if merely for the ability to say "yes, I have" when somebody says "you don't know, you haven't seen them!" Ah, lemmings...

While I'm talking about hugely popular book series,
I should write something about Harry Potter...

May 20, 2012

Things I Don't Like

How do you learn to be open-minded while still standing for what you believe in? Maybe that's a little too deep for what I'm actually talking about, but it's worth considering. Something I've been learning more and more in my library classes is that I need to be able to discuss any subject with a straight face (as opposed to the face above this post: let's not make that face). What do I mean by that? Well, for instance, the things I feel negatively towards (like Apple products, gay marriage, or Twilight) should be things I can talk about without being negative. And to be fair, I should be able to make things I dislike equal with the things I adore: like cheese, opera, and Charlotte Bronte. It's not my place to judge anyone: EVER. Inside a library or outside. And I certainly can't force my own opinions on others, even if I wanted to. While I'd like to be able to influence people in a positive way, I can do that much better through my attitude. Amazingly, I'm actually learning to consider things more carefully, with less bias one way or another. Some things are, naturally, a matter of right and wrong, and are not up for discussion. But matters of opinion... I'm surprising myself with how flexible I can be. For instance, I've always loathed Apple products, but my husband talked me into looking at iPods to replace my Zen Mosaic (which I still love, it's just dying). Now I love my iPod Nano almost as much, and I can use the speaker dock to play my music, too. 

What are the rules on photo credits
when you get it from Google Images?

May 19, 2012

Form and content

I've noticed that three of my recent posts begin with "So," and that bugs me. I hate repeating myself, especially within the body of a single paper, essay, post, etc., but even beginning the posts the same way is lame. I'm going to work on finding a new way to introduce topics :) And aside from introducing topics, I need to actually be more consistent about which topics I talk about! So far, this blog is a series of disconnected, rambling posts interspersed with an odd poem or two. Not exactly professional-looking. At the same time, I don't want to restrict myself to a certain set of topics. This is my blog, and it's going to be about my life: work, play, church, family, friends, and everything else. But I also want it to be interesting XD We'll see how that goes.


In the mean time, I want to seriously consider the format of this blog. It's the internet, so I've got a few options: audio, video, pictorial, plain text, or a combination. You might notice that I've been trying to break up blocks of text with images, and that's a start. My sister commented on my recent Kindle tutorial and it really stuck with me: she said, first, that I had a sexy voice (lol) and second, that she could see me doing a vlog. That's an interesting concept to me, but, since I don't know how often I could actually record myself, I wouldn't want to try and make it a regular thing anytime soon. School, busy busy, etc. It could be fun, though :) I would want to make it a combination thing, though: video and text. It seems to me that it would defeat the purpose of talking about libraries and literacy if I translate it all into a format that doesn't require reading!

May 18, 2012

Relativity

So, I think that frequency, like so many other things, is relative. I posted earlier this week and said I was going to post more often, and then a few days went by. But, considering that I sometimes let full months go by, posting twice in one week is actually awesome: yay for me! XD Somehow, even knowing that I've given myself permission to make little posts, it's just so hard to make the time to blog. That should change when I'm done with school, though.


Moving right along... Over the last week or so, I've been working on getting more connected. How? Well, after my dad sent me an invite to Klout, I was really made aware of which social media sites I use, and how, and how often. I think I can blog, tweet, and (insert verb for facebook here) more effectively now, and that's exciting to me! On top of that, I joined LinkedIn. Before today, I had no idea what it was, so that's certainly a step forward :D My next step will involve hunting down like-minded bloggers, and actually building an audience. Right now, nobody reads this XD

May 13, 2012

Posting!

So, one of the reasons that I don't blog very often is the length of time it takes for me to come up with something worth reading. With that in mind, I've decided that I'll be trying something new: posting frequently in small amounts, just a paragraph or two at a time. I don't need to write a whole page to just get a few thoughts out. 


What's on my mind right now: literacy! I want to get involved, teaching people to read, helping them understand how amazing a good vocabulary can be, and how many cool ideas there are stowed away in books. I did some research already, and while looking for local literacy groups, I found out about AmeriCorps and I think they're probably the way to go. I can work locally, and if I give a year as a volunteer, I can even get a little money to pay off school loans: heck yes! Win/win/win :D I'll be doing some more research when school is out, so I'll keep posting what I find out.