tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32215796521528963852024-03-11T00:36:28.829-07:00Epic ThingsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-67504049277722597762014-03-08T18:31:00.001-08:002014-03-08T18:31:33.279-08:00Hello! Goodbye!For anybody paying attention (basically Anna) I'm officially moving to Tumblr. I added a follow button over there -------> and I won't be posting here anymore. On the bright side, I'm massively more active on Tumblr, so I'm worth following ;D I'm even taking the name and my special banner with me, and I'll be moving some of my posts over too. If somebody wants my url I'm not sure how it works but I can try changing it!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-9761443706635394482013-02-03T19:40:00.002-08:002013-02-03T19:40:36.633-08:00Stress and Shopping<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In my opinion, shopping causes more stress rather than relieving any. Just sayin'. I've been incredibly stressed out the last couple of week, mainly because of homework and finances. There were multiple misunderstandings and miscommunications about when my financial aid was going to be available, so a lot of the things I planned to do with the money didn't pan out. In a way, this was a really good thing, since I was able to continually review and refine my wishlist until I knew exactly what I needed, and what was just extra fluff. But at the same time, it was intensely frustrating to see sales end and items go out of stock as each day passed and the money still isn't released. The combination of this frustration and the fact that I overloaded myself with 15 credits meant that I became deeply depressed last week. I don't mind admitting that I don't have the best control over my attitude at all times, but it does make me sad that I can't really take care of my husband when I get into a funk like that :(</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">If only it was as fun as this looks...</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thankfully the money is scheduled to be released tomorrow, and I'm also planning to drop my class with the heaviest workload. Yay! As soon as I decided that I would drop a class, I was so relieved that I could actually feel myself balancing back out and getting my normal good mood back. As often as I seem to mention being depressed, I really do have a very cheerful and positive base level! I think I was more excited about dropping a class than I am about finally buying the things I've been shopping for...To be sure, I could probably do without a lot of things, as long as I have food and a roof overhead; but I'm talking about stuff to make me presentable and comfortable for work: mainly, makeup and clothes. And for the amount of money I'm planning to spend, I'm getting a heck of a bang for my buck!!! Not to mention not needing makeup or shirts for about a year XD</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Sometimes, they do overlap :)</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's exciting to think that I'll be pretty much set on cute stuff for work, but I'll still need to buy a couple things in a few weeks. Why? Because I'm planning to lose a TON of weight (okay, 20lbs) and I'll definitely need new pants :D I know, I've been planning to lose some weight for a while now, but it's actually in the works now! Davey and I have successfully cut out soda from our diets since New Years, and I've lost about 5lbs already. I got a book from the library that has a detox plan that's supposed to let you lose 21lbs in 21days, so we'll be starting that once we have the money to buy all the right foods. I'll certainly be doing a post to let you know how it goes :) Oh, and another fun plan for the financial aid: we'll be joining the YMCA so that we can start going to a gym on a regular basis. Now if we can just get ourselves motivate to take walks...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So yeah, that's my quick update for now! I still adore my job, I really love all of my other classes, and I'm looking forward to creating my new, grown-up & professional work look with my new clothes and makeup XD It will give lots of material for posts, so keep an eye out!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-34146974968866324872013-01-18T10:45:00.001-08:002013-01-18T10:48:53.329-08:00And back again...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm starting to be really okay with my sporadic posting habits. If I don't feel like posting, I just don't post: nothing wrong with that. I do feel bad that I never got around to writing about Dracula, but I have a partial draft saved so that I can make sure I post it at some point :) In the mean time, I will try to get this blog caught up on everything I've been doing for the last month! For starters, one of the reasons I didn't feel like posting any sooner was the fact that my lovely music widget has been shut down. I came to my blog a couple weeks ago to see how things were doing and maybe write a post, but found that all the hard work I put into that playlist was wasted because the entire company was shutting down!! So that's a sad thing :/ I may work on making a playlist on youtube and embedding it somewhere, but since I don't have access to my old Mixpod playlist I don't really feel like starting from scratch....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Another reason I haven't been posting is because I've been busy working :D *so proud of having a real job* I know, I only work 15 hours a week, so I can't be that busy; but it takes a lot out of me, even just working a three-hour <strike>tour</strike> shift, just because I haven't worked in so long. My poor, soft, lazy body is having a hard time keeping up :) Other than being a little tiring, I really love my job!!!! It's a lot of fun, the people I work with are super nice, and the kids that come to the library are hilarious. I hear the cutest things, seriously :) One sort of "bad" thing about the job is those dang book carts... They don't like to go the direction you want them to, so I find myself twisting my body to get them to turn :P I'm looking forward to finding a chiropractor, and really hoping I don't jack up my body too much. I'm doing all the proper lifting, though :)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Two months later...</span></i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ok, I started this post quite a while ago but I'm just going to pick up where I left off instead of starting from scratch :) Lots of fun times (and drama) over the holidays, but we got through it all in one piece, with lots of plans for being healthier and stronger this year. One of the reasons for the drama was a delay in my financial aid paperwork coming together smoothly, but as of Tuesday it all got worked out and I'm officially a student again! I'm already really enjoying my classes so far, but since I'm taking a total of six different courses in one semester, I'm basically giving up on the idea of blogging more than once a month. Sad face, I know, but I think it will all work out. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I was going to post about nails and makeup has kinda become irrelevant just because of the amount of time that's passed, so sorry about that :( On the other hand, I'm excited to see what I can share of what I learn in class!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Nothing this glamorous, sadly :)</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">SO, that's about the size of it! I'll be around, but not frequently; when I do post it will probably have something to do with my classes, since that and work will be the bulk of my life for a while. I'm sooo super excited (no sarcasm here(or here either(gosh darnit I'm serious!!!))): I get to read the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the bible, in the next couple of weeks! And by the end of the semester, I'll have read the entire Old Testament, plus my 7 textbooks, plus 2 more books to write a paper/bookreview for each. Doesn't sound like too much, right? Well there's more :D Discussion boards, weekly quizzes, several major exams, and another paper should just about cover everything. Of course, that's just for the four classes that already started this week... I'll be starting a one-month class in February, and then a mini-term class that goes from March til the end of the semester. See why I won't be blogging?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Something like this, but with more typing XD</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">OH! But I do intend to get around to at least posting the pics of how I cut my own hair XD and doing a couple of quick reviews on some of the beauty tools I've bought in the last couple of months :) Man, I gotta keep reminding myself of that... Plus, I have fun plans for my financial aid once it's released: including a working phone! I'm so tired of my sad little phone that barely works as an alarm-and-email device. For now, though, it's time to get back to my homework! I'm far too easily distracted... XD</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-67055358558969223762012-12-11T14:14:00.001-08:002012-12-11T14:17:09.538-08:00Quick report on... things.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I have two posts that I'm in the middle of, but a couple of technical issues</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(besides life in general)</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> 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 </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">will</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> be posting soon!!!!! Soon is just an indefinite measurement of time :O</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-12609861722103158112012-11-10T19:26:00.001-08:002012-11-10T19:28:05.084-08:00Laziness and other stuff<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 </span><a href="http://youtu.be/kRfc4ujEf6A" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">really nice tutorial</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> 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:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIkrFLlQBy7W4bRh0nZeOVPsTkp09sbugfTZ0dH8Nt9adMQ84P74NNKeiQXxFr68ZVk7FvJza5xvCqEx_Q2nihGq7O4b7AXqW82bWWIt6S1PB2JHmvfy1zI__KZFiyE_UU9p46vt7RLs/s1600/2012-11-10_00-46-12_249.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIkrFLlQBy7W4bRh0nZeOVPsTkp09sbugfTZ0dH8Nt9adMQ84P74NNKeiQXxFr68ZVk7FvJza5xvCqEx_Q2nihGq7O4b7AXqW82bWWIt6S1PB2JHmvfy1zI__KZFiyE_UU9p46vt7RLs/s200/2012-11-10_00-46-12_249.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3-KAcojkTM4HwRRET1WJbENXe8mv_sk_Go2rIOPC2icMdEYvnPbCbVk-S5qPYPoeAZJe4-uxvAYg6kkRLs6cv_iSCGMfLRlJNI9D2vFAv-UFfJRo9Go6S1kJrCSdq5VsI_QEKZOxowk/s1600/2012-11-10_00-44-41_918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3-KAcojkTM4HwRRET1WJbENXe8mv_sk_Go2rIOPC2icMdEYvnPbCbVk-S5qPYPoeAZJe4-uxvAYg6kkRLs6cv_iSCGMfLRlJNI9D2vFAv-UFfJRo9Go6S1kJrCSdq5VsI_QEKZOxowk/s200/2012-11-10_00-44-41_918.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Please excuse my gorilla hands :) Honestly, I was pretty happy with the neatness level of the Gunmetal, since I usually slop the polish all over the edges, but those tips were almost impossible. You can see I gave up when I got to my thumbs and just did a side stripe, which actually looks rather fun when my thumbs are bent like that, since the stripes all line up XD I've done stripes along the side on all of my nails before, too, and it looks really nice. But after I get off work on Monday I'll do a "</span><a href="http://pandaloveseyeliner.blogspot.com/2012/11/manicure-mondays-and-sunday-fotd.html" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;" target="_blank">Manicure Monday</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">" post with the results of the tutorial, probably in the same colors unless I figure out something else to try. I'm missing some of my nail polishes because I forgot them in Idaho at my mom's house, or else I would try a traditional French tip with white and pink :( But on to the next fail!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwFn_cxWEhl8R1qbD00VxPB_NVdDvNqQKQP-qrxDRsyrRlQ-5isNEw1dX83DhbBfc-jo0P9PqMFdN5s3Ye5Bu7gYAN0hq7GfcLeswFDxmSVvzPopNuROJsWctMFtvkPfRxY5mKz8huHk/s1600/2012-11-10_16-15-35_899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwFn_cxWEhl8R1qbD00VxPB_NVdDvNqQKQP-qrxDRsyrRlQ-5isNEw1dX83DhbBfc-jo0P9PqMFdN5s3Ye5Bu7gYAN0hq7GfcLeswFDxmSVvzPopNuROJsWctMFtvkPfRxY5mKz8huHk/s200/2012-11-10_16-15-35_899.jpg" width="111" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3IJNqrqikxOjtLmHPAqQinIF9jOJaskGWTCfcY9o_wPUudV-o_BxeSNBdup6Gum3KRdKdn0t4CeAP_m452yZtVZAXG1Ud5CekR-Qr8iPkD9RMPQlKRoCke0Rv2f5zSu01MWnDztarjY/s1600/2012-11-10_16-15-47_47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3IJNqrqikxOjtLmHPAqQinIF9jOJaskGWTCfcY9o_wPUudV-o_BxeSNBdup6Gum3KRdKdn0t4CeAP_m452yZtVZAXG1Ud5CekR-Qr8iPkD9RMPQlKRoCke0Rv2f5zSu01MWnDztarjY/s200/2012-11-10_16-15-47_47.jpg" width="111" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Again, please excuse my Saturday grunge (I would have at least put on eyeliner, but I'm almost out and trying to save it for work :)). And no, the fail isn't actually those pics... I felt like I did I decent job with the "cocoons" after watching </span><a href="http://youtu.be/RAPHSAPshJE" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">this tutorial</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> several times, although it was super tricky. I think I need to practice a bit more, especially at getting the cocoon started higher up on my head, but for my first try I was happy enough to not start over. In the video she says she left them in about 5 hours... I tried 2 hours, just to see how it looks. I didn't want super tight telephone cord curls, and I'm impatient XD Sadly, the ends of my hair are in dire need of a trim, so even while putting my hair up I could tell (and you can probably see in the pics) that they would not be very neat by the end of the Experiment. Unsurprisingly, I was right:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMR8bJDh5lpsQ5wSbVN4EVogtc20wFtshdXdcGSQNHx2QUQwb8FPf3_A-63kLgk2tTQyBMdd0nVeskllZk5Ey3gp0LGt5ICopl8sihpMQ89mOrQNwXZRl4L46gJvK12ZX8A2VwmuipdVA/s1600/2012-11-10_18-20-00_179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMR8bJDh5lpsQ5wSbVN4EVogtc20wFtshdXdcGSQNHx2QUQwb8FPf3_A-63kLgk2tTQyBMdd0nVeskllZk5Ey3gp0LGt5ICopl8sihpMQ89mOrQNwXZRl4L46gJvK12ZX8A2VwmuipdVA/s200/2012-11-10_18-20-00_179.jpg" width="135" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIknSsA4u8EibGZDu42o6SLiRSBrD5w3yZvWff1DULIFg_cLZOLJ47Wz_iX4fZ3KIWd3TdUT2VT4dSZUwagBRlGe3bI1Shklb9JOwYUVzpupa9pKeHgU5-eosc7wxy6lSm8l9FdbulG1U/s1600/111012183205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIknSsA4u8EibGZDu42o6SLiRSBrD5w3yZvWff1DULIFg_cLZOLJ47Wz_iX4fZ3KIWd3TdUT2VT4dSZUwagBRlGe3bI1Shklb9JOwYUVzpupa9pKeHgU5-eosc7wxy6lSm8l9FdbulG1U/s200/111012183205.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I should have started way higher up on my head, since my hair isn't very long, and the ends are basically pure frizz XD The pigtails were my husband's styling suggestion, once he stopped laughing at me of course! I laughed pretty hard myself, though :) I don't think I'll be trying this again any time soon: I need a haircut and some longer hair before I think my hair will respond well to cocooning. I'll just stick to my flat iron, thank you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alright, I've promised a post on Monday at the very least, and Dracula will be forthcoming as well... Time to go find some dinner! XD</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-43374777376299447372012-11-08T20:54:00.003-08:002012-11-08T20:54:42.518-08:00I Vant You To Read A Booooook...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPkS__d03w" target="_blank">Google</a> 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 :)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Velcome!</i></span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-35747733510274299962012-11-07T19:13:00.000-08:002012-11-07T20:14:07.136-08:00Widget Gadget<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've gone <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=widget&allowed_in_frame=0" target="_blank">widget</a> happy. Or <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gadget&allowed_in_frame=0" target="_blank">gadget</a> 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? :) </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBT5439q-QKN0TXkkQ9H5cvrMBlZu2K51pqKAteO_Vg8OCq9aQFUwZBBsLR_KcqSIbhtIgjW3Ct7r5UXeNWv4Lj-XVpC9M__L_aBWQh4nqsFdJyq4UMMxEGAqKhT8LJOSE7bQrAwTw49k/s1600/bestworst3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBT5439q-QKN0TXkkQ9H5cvrMBlZu2K51pqKAteO_Vg8OCq9aQFUwZBBsLR_KcqSIbhtIgjW3Ct7r5UXeNWv4Lj-XVpC9M__L_aBWQh4nqsFdJyq4UMMxEGAqKhT8LJOSE7bQrAwTw49k/s200/bestworst3.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">At least my blog doesn't look like this!</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As the ticker says, the music is really just a test right now, although I can tell you </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> loving it. I've started just opening a tab with my blog and letting my music play while I do other things; I could do the same thing with a youtube playlist, Pandora station, or even the music on my computer, but I just really like the fact that it's connected to my blog :) The test portion comes under two heading: a test to see if anybody else likes it, and a test to see if anybody will tell me one way or another! Yep, it's that again... I know I've said it before, and it's working with a few, but I really do love feedback. I'd like this to be less of a monologue and more of a conversation. But that's all I'm gonna say! You don't want to hear me talk about how I want to hear you talk :D</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwLdYFkoVRZM_vrPk6KG0p4Ymv2k1xQL0frW1VZcjfE4ZhoOhwgP6dYrlG3TDwWqyTdpHFK3LmySJMORtPQdgFNfTpkoYHzvm7ek8zuVRuXajEl0MpFdXM4RsiwBoytvtORkgTY6F1CEw/s1600/quality-of-life-world-urban-forum-prof-santiago-caprio-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwLdYFkoVRZM_vrPk6KG0p4Ymv2k1xQL0frW1VZcjfE4ZhoOhwgP6dYrlG3TDwWqyTdpHFK3LmySJMORtPQdgFNfTpkoYHzvm7ek8zuVRuXajEl0MpFdXM4RsiwBoytvtORkgTY6F1CEw/s200/quality-of-life-world-urban-forum-prof-santiago-caprio-12.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I'm sure everyone has something to say :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What I'm sure you'd like to hear about is my new job, which I adore! I've officially completed two 4-hour shifts, and man is my body feeling it XD Lots of squatting and standing and lifting (with the legs, not the back!) is a great workout, but because I have been otherwise </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sedentary</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> for many months, it's pretty harsh for me. So glad I have nice short shifts for now :) I get to do lots of fun things: pulling books, shelving books, processing and shelving holds, checking books in... It's lovely! And I really like everyone I work with, too: they're all very nice and friendly, and make me feel very much at home. This morning was crazy busy, but I love having lots to do. Working quickly is hard to do when I'm still learning but I don't think I did too badly at all, for my second day :D</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0URsRJm4dghiaDr_kLjA8384k7Bs4x80EJVrt7W0rRHBOrIBb6kS6dAn7dWBTdBVRcjZiJd9vrZEvQQPWKO9WlojNkpDWJoRcKPHsD6-KDNfTHjqcBB1jebAzzoxERFOEggByKOae2Mk/s1600/RTEmagicC_ksiazka_02.jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0URsRJm4dghiaDr_kLjA8384k7Bs4x80EJVrt7W0rRHBOrIBb6kS6dAn7dWBTdBVRcjZiJd9vrZEvQQPWKO9WlojNkpDWJoRcKPHsD6-KDNfTHjqcBB1jebAzzoxERFOEggByKOae2Mk/s200/RTEmagicC_ksiazka_02.jpg.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Cute pic, but not an efficient way to work!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Oh! Back to my little </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">spiel</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> about widgets :) I wanted to share my sources, again, since I think the little things I find are really cool. The music widget is from <a href="http://www.mixpod.com/" target="_blank">Mixpod</a>, and the reason I chose this particular player was because it doesn't make me find and put in a bunch of mp3 urls, like most of them do. Instead, it lets you search for songs on youtube and plays them from there! What this means for you: anything on youtube is a possibility, unless the owner of the content has "disabled embedding" which means most popular thing don't work. However: cool covers and more obscure stuff totally works :) As you can tell by my playlist, there's still a ton to choose from, even if I can't play Journey or Il Divo (sadface). The playlist creation interface is super slick, but a caveat if you make your own: there are a bunch of skins to choose from, but they don't work. The skin titled "Mixpod" is the only one that supports the youtube videos, and since youtube insists that the video be played with the audio... yeah. But there is an option to add urls for the other skins, so that's cool! I would totally use the little bear if I had a good source for urls. The websites I can find all look so shady...But yeah! Mixpod: lots of color options, settings, all of youtube to work with = good stuff in my opinion.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcin4DEqfrAFQNN4ZVi1MqxpuaL3tTtRxiNQP64pJsyYQPjaJe-w6-eKr66OYEQlloAicBwIUJZLTvDl3Ip-F6BW6g0JByvYClnQsqWInVows4ElY6mZeJ34JRTBQMH4xRa9C2H1IQ6mE/s1600/sillohette_dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcin4DEqfrAFQNN4ZVi1MqxpuaL3tTtRxiNQP64pJsyYQPjaJe-w6-eKr66OYEQlloAicBwIUJZLTvDl3Ip-F6BW6g0JByvYClnQsqWInVows4ElY6mZeJ34JRTBQMH4xRa9C2H1IQ6mE/s200/sillohette_dance.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Tunes: you know you want them :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My desktop gadgets are also pretty sweet: I have two now, as I mentioned :) <a href="http://www.morningbible.com/gadget/" target="_blank">The first one</a> is similar to my verse-a-day widget... well okay, it's basically the exact same thing XD It has TONS of different Bible translations available, and you can choose different sizes. I like the medium and small versions because they just have a clean dark blue background, whereas the large has some pictures (which are nice, but I have a theme going, so, y'know). The weird thing is, I've tried all three sizes and for some reason, longer verses don't fit on the medium gadget. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wha??</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> The large, obviously, has plenty of room, but I'm looking at the small right now and <a href="http://www.morningbible.com/11-07-2012-acts-2035/" target="_blank">Acts 20:35</a> fits just fine: not true of the medium! So now you know :)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-MDgZjvlhl6stYgT6HK458NZdFx3BEyEHwGsr8BOEYz-rkZ0bLnWLo3X4WTp-3j_YfZ_LZzttO44OjYBCTc8KHs4QS76ZBFWsCw5_BYwEuMZYHyMW4nWds87Hgppl3X63CujInlF_lQ/s1600/e48fcb3e-00c7-4daf-8973-bc9f287ff74e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-MDgZjvlhl6stYgT6HK458NZdFx3BEyEHwGsr8BOEYz-rkZ0bLnWLo3X4WTp-3j_YfZ_LZzttO44OjYBCTc8KHs4QS76ZBFWsCw5_BYwEuMZYHyMW4nWds87Hgppl3X63CujInlF_lQ/s320/e48fcb3e-00c7-4daf-8973-bc9f287ff74e.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One last gadget and I'm done (for now), I promise. Since my phone is on the fritz, I've had hard time keeping up with my email, because I use Windows Live Mail and for some reason, it runs slow on my computer. I don't like checking email in a browser, either. So tonight I had the bright idea to look for an email gadget: nothing fancy, I just want it to tell me when I get an email so I can decide if it's important without opening WLM. Ta-da! I found <a href="http://www.wp-corp.kujala.name/index.php?Download=MailPreview&DownloadVersion=1.8.0.1&page=productinfo.php" target="_blank">this neat little guy</a> and set up the account and options in about 2 minutes (it only took that long because I got a little confused in the middle). No missing important emails, and no sluggish loading of the <i>entire</i> inbox just to see what I got. On the plus side, it does tell me the total number of emails in my inbox, which encouraged me to clean everything out into folders or delete it. I went from 288 messages to 31 :D Hopefully I'll get it down even more, but I didn't want to look at any more emails X)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Now that's service!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Music, widgets, works... Seems like there was something else I wanted to mention, but I'm sure I can cover it in another post, when I remember :)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-65796388980188524352012-11-05T16:13:00.001-08:002012-11-05T16:15:32.878-08:00The Redesign<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8HnBKFEmMiN6cV2lFTHd0e8_hHuAHkeLvtOiaS7J_pXJfoCRPGsd49U1sy2VBJovttTWaRkdmHBt6xopyM29sthJjhi-LwERDpakWHsI7JZB8l_sHUYWCrb9_VBEI1abIgmuVFAaJUQ/s1600/4caaaa8f-f64b-4f10-a817-cd8fb4eba5c6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8HnBKFEmMiN6cV2lFTHd0e8_hHuAHkeLvtOiaS7J_pXJfoCRPGsd49U1sy2VBJovttTWaRkdmHBt6xopyM29sthJjhi-LwERDpakWHsI7JZB8l_sHUYWCrb9_VBEI1abIgmuVFAaJUQ/s200/4caaaa8f-f64b-4f10-a817-cd8fb4eba5c6.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To begin with, I had to choose a blogger template that I could personalize, and since the one I was using before was rather chunky, I went for a template that could support transparency in a few places without being hard to read. I personally love the look of the posts floating over the background :) It looks just a little more special, and I can choose a background that has a focal point. There are a couple of templates that would work, but I chose Picture Window because it was easier to read the text. The templates come with their own color schemes and pre-assigned fonts, but I always change them XD Trebuchet is my favorite font, so that's my main choice, but I like an accent font to mix things up. I chose Calligraffitti for the post headers and I think it's a nice touch :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR48ePJXYOcPZIobATUZjjK90ZwOr_B4Pf0AxPwgCuGl4GP7ekIlsVhuPyNQI3jpDWXocqIC0QkhiuRQPCOEJK4ro_GNdJ-v5-TM53Dun94BMQLSw-fCm1WeNNQSLwqfyktRWnkMK7e2E/s1600/5-free-fonts-for-web-20-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR48ePJXYOcPZIobATUZjjK90ZwOr_B4Pf0AxPwgCuGl4GP7ekIlsVhuPyNQI3jpDWXocqIC0QkhiuRQPCOEJK4ro_GNdJ-v5-TM53Dun94BMQLSw-fCm1WeNNQSLwqfyktRWnkMK7e2E/s200/5-free-fonts-for-web-20-logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Fonts say as much as the words they make!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Along with the fonts, I always change the colors; I prefer to keep it at 3-4 colors and the presets are just too busy for me. But I can't choose the colors until I know what my background (bg for short) is, for two reasons: I obviously want it to match the bg, or at least not clash), and I also need it to be readable! There were several pre-loaded bgs that I liked and could have used; but again, with presets there's always a catch. In this case, the majority of the preset bgs have color schemes assigned to them, so selecting them also resets any colors I picked out :P So frustrating! But that's alright, because picking my own bg is more personalized anyway :) However, it's not as easy as it sounds: for a "full" bg, blogger recommends an image that is 1800x1600, but the file size must be under 300kb. That is nearly impossible to find in google images!!!! (unless you want a tiled/repeating image, and then you're alright; but that's boring) Turns out, it's a </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lie</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. My current bg is 1528x928; odd measurements, I know: I kept cropping until it was under 300kb.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwMU3lU4CD-1jiO3VePdOVH6YpReBFWFHxsGQsqnZrf6eGqeKXxHvYB92oOpcczorp7hIhSp0YwbMAbdp5WCzvQIONqhhC76oKOpdimUajwLRuO3-kxYMAnktdoU_lIrXInPgcLbdxsw/s1600/6a00d834535ff869e20147e0492ddb970b-500wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwMU3lU4CD-1jiO3VePdOVH6YpReBFWFHxsGQsqnZrf6eGqeKXxHvYB92oOpcczorp7hIhSp0YwbMAbdp5WCzvQIONqhhC76oKOpdimUajwLRuO3-kxYMAnktdoU_lIrXInPgcLbdxsw/s200/6a00d834535ff869e20147e0492ddb970b-500wi.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Some things don't look very good when cropped...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But with my screen maximized, there is only a tiny border on either side of the image, and it doesn't look bad at all in my opinion :) And since I went with a nice rainy day pic, it made my color scheme very, very simple: black, white, dark grey, and a very light beige. In hex codes, that's 000000, FFFFFF, 717171, and d9d1c5. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Huzzah </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for copy-paste on that last one :) At any rate, once I knew I was using a rainy background, I need to pick a favicon. What's a favicon? Look up in the corner of any tab in your browser. Yep, up there. On most blogger sites, you're going to see an orange square with a B in it, because most people (in my experience) don't know what it is. It's pretty easy to find one: just do an image search for anything you'd like to see up there, and then filter the results to "icon." Or you can put the word icon in your search terms. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Or </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you can be cool like <a href="http://pandaloveseyeliner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Anna</a> and <a href="http://www.favicon.cc/" target="_blank">make your own</a> :D I found my little raincloud just by searching, and I love it because of the transparency.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFkWdGksKRGlIHVPOfsbPv7OBpLvtq5wnwdHRLZ5QMiUGkqDS-pxB3rv0acMRkwl5hokXHIOCEgpT9CxCQWTeDubOdtIdeIhuKRoK_IpyUT8mGL_2d3wlHGmHoBgljJcpCuu8pe6ESEzw/s1600/green-38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFkWdGksKRGlIHVPOfsbPv7OBpLvtq5wnwdHRLZ5QMiUGkqDS-pxB3rv0acMRkwl5hokXHIOCEgpT9CxCQWTeDubOdtIdeIhuKRoK_IpyUT8mGL_2d3wlHGmHoBgljJcpCuu8pe6ESEzw/s200/green-38.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>My first favicon :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Searching is not always that simple, of course (I forgot to mention that I spent many, many hours searching for my background image). This is especially true in the case of looking for widgets or gadgets! I'm not sure which is the correct term, but I'm going to use widgets for now. Again, unless you're using something like Clearly, you've seen my blog and the nice little widgets I have for my Amazon wishlist and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12277763-leslie" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> "currently reading" list. Again, I'm picky and don't like my blog to be too busy, so I try to keep the number of things on one page to a minimum. But I wanted to add at least one thing that would change every day, even if I never finish Don Quixote and only post once a month. My first idea was to (manually) add a quote under the blog header every day. Then I realized that I'm lazy, and there's technology in place already that will take the work out of it for me XD Hence, widgets!!! I spent many more hours looking for the perfect widget for my blog.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfl53eZpzMSPoIxl4Psk3jfn3unJF0lh7omZWYY95ZZVjYElyU_WaaRzudcZalhDES4JLJrXHtRluhpl-1_WGG57vW0l1utyU-KQ1kVX40h7MeV4pTjz8RW5x0HMzCtMHJLoTIi7b30dw/s1600/3d_orange_man_magnifying_glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfl53eZpzMSPoIxl4Psk3jfn3unJF0lh7omZWYY95ZZVjYElyU_WaaRzudcZalhDES4JLJrXHtRluhpl-1_WGG57vW0l1utyU-KQ1kVX40h7MeV4pTjz8RW5x0HMzCtMHJLoTIi7b30dw/s200/3d_orange_man_magnifying_glass.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I don't think an oversized magnifying glass <br />is always helpful, but it is cute!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I did look for some quote widgets, but it was pretty early on that I realized I wanted a verse-of-the-day instead. Since my phone freaked out on me a few weeks ago, I've really missed the two apps I was using. It's amazing how 5 minutes a day in the word of God can help with issues like fear, bad attitude, and depression :) But I digress! The point being, I finally found a really nice site called <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widgets/" target="_blank">Widgetbox</a> that has hundreds of widgets. I found many that I could customize, but some had ads, others were only in portrait orientation, and the worst ones had strange images; I want sleek, landscape, simple. I found it :) I changed my original plan to put it under the header, so it is now at the bottom of the page, but I think it looks really nice, and most importantly it matches the blog!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIYpTTlco8BIZK5hhhfawB72BvIFvku_Ts_tyFE5K3TPyWNlAMbAcNtq2OGTwwXqKtEE98fpLi62dggK1xgsAWDIq-O6pTIesy8-1cCty42-625pkjb8s2SQ6nGkPhqtaB_MWftE68kSs/s1600/custom_color_matching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIYpTTlco8BIZK5hhhfawB72BvIFvku_Ts_tyFE5K3TPyWNlAMbAcNtq2OGTwwXqKtEE98fpLi62dggK1xgsAWDIq-O6pTIesy8-1cCty42-625pkjb8s2SQ6nGkPhqtaB_MWftE68kSs/s200/custom_color_matching.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Making sure everything matches is fun!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The last part of the redesign was the banner. Holy. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cow</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. It took about half the day to finish it, and I had lots and lots of help from my dad :) Usually, my darling husband makes my headers because he's very handy with Photoshop; you can see lots of his handy work at Seven Serpents. At the moment, though, neither of us have Photoshop, and my dad is a <a href="http://mediaconcept.us/" target="_blank">design pro</a>. Seriously. He's made logos for me before, too. I am eternally trying to start a <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/LEsquared" target="_blank">jewelry business</a>, and at one point we made some business cards... but that's another story :) Long story short (too late!), I wanted a banner in the same basic style as the skull banner, but using my new accent font Calligraffitti and a different image. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm picky and google images can't read my mind, so find the image? Needle in a haystack. Found my needle, though!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Click to see the details :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It started with just a sketch I found, and turned into a very long search for the perfect silhouette pic. After a while, I realized that if I could just find the shape I was looking for, my dad could turn it into a silhouette for me (which also takes care of those nasty stock photo watermarks). It still took quite a bit of reworking once I finally found the images to make the base, but my dad was really awesome about it and I don't think I'll need to change my banner anytime soon! Honestly, I don't think I'll change anything on my blog for a long time; the only thing I could think of that I might want to do is add music, and I know that can be annoying sometimes :( I'll probably make a poll about it, see what everybody thinks about it... I might be able to find another widget! :)</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-41825335297180052972012-11-02T09:38:00.001-07:002012-11-02T09:38:07.168-07:00My First Webinar<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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 :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDt7kYDH_ZSrAC5T2d0UerJQ9XS3g43dA8otbolVVqrmR3XxGKY1GWcugJ-m8Ly-qhTvP5JJF5839Uisujt99iA1EJ6ZKLTQEy0zMYDgMVdy33H_mI4jXBFmwQecY5qtcZ-40XzMhdyw/s1600/calendar1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDt7kYDH_ZSrAC5T2d0UerJQ9XS3g43dA8otbolVVqrmR3XxGKY1GWcugJ-m8Ly-qhTvP5JJF5839Uisujt99iA1EJ6ZKLTQEy0zMYDgMVdy33H_mI4jXBFmwQecY5qtcZ-40XzMhdyw/s200/calendar1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Until now, my schedule has been wide open.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I know I mentioned in my last post that I had to go to an orientation yesterday, and so I did! Just realized that I forgot to actually tell you what the webinar is about, but I promise to get back to that... Orientation was really, really fun, and that's actually how I even found out about the webinar! I got up pretty early yesterday, too: which was awesome, because I found out the location was </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> at the Gig Harbor branch, but at a center in Tacoma (about 40 minutes away). God was definitely at work because I had no reason to triple-check my letter telling me when it was, but I did decide to check it again and wound up getting there right on time :D I would have definitely been late otherwise :(</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTqm5fbdOgxAIhsCpcHs_11Cit3Y6XHe92xBKM5t4uU1XU63TFvoIdOjF0rokYoSWjCRag20YwsfTFSqKrQwvi2cxDnZ3TCZJe2En3qMuO1QoVWlsoDedqkzL21X4r_Cz-fQv5VrpeC4/s1600/late_to_work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTqm5fbdOgxAIhsCpcHs_11Cit3Y6XHe92xBKM5t4uU1XU63TFvoIdOjF0rokYoSWjCRag20YwsfTFSqKrQwvi2cxDnZ3TCZJe2En3qMuO1QoVWlsoDedqkzL21X4r_Cz-fQv5VrpeC4/s200/late_to_work.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I felt very "white rabbit"</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But! Everything turned out great and I spent about five hours with some really cool people, doing all kinds of paperwork and learning some of the ins and outs of the job. Out of the 5 employees being orientated, 4 of us were pages for the Gig Harbor branch, so I even know a few of the people I'll be working with! More excited about this job every day... As I said, we did a ton of paperwork, including some stuff about our union, and after a lunch break we had "technical training," which was really just an overview of the web resources for employees. There was a lot of information, though, so I made sure to take notes, and even signed up for a webinar as soon as I got home! I noticed it while we were being shown around the website, and since it was for this morning, and free, I wanted to give it a shot.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Aw, so cute!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've been hearing about webinars since I started looking into working at libraries over a year ago, but I never really thought about just signing up for one. Since many of them are free, I have no idea why I wouldn't; maybe I thought they would be on topics that would be </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">irrelephant</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to me until I got a job... The point being, I got excited when I saw the post about a webinar on Evernote. It's a note-taking and -sorting program that works a bit like a cloud system, so you can access your information in lots of places. My thinking was, if I'm really going to attempt 15+ credits in a semester, I better improve how I take notes. Especially since my classes are all online, keeping track of my homework online in a searchable database makes a lot of sense. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86HwI6k_D6Fm4tIfzLmYeE0znngZfCy83OC6Ee9aONT5VLfMnvJ-PnjiFM1JuX49lBBgqYBzFy7NzXT-T7agYhvMMoSWpuy-UE7e3TFPSvt6K9otS8B_MN0gFaCVOgKnfRzF6TvmmUZ4/s1600/your_argument_is_irrelephant-148696.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86HwI6k_D6Fm4tIfzLmYeE0znngZfCy83OC6Ee9aONT5VLfMnvJ-PnjiFM1JuX49lBBgqYBzFy7NzXT-T7agYhvMMoSWpuy-UE7e3TFPSvt6K9otS8B_MN0gFaCVOgKnfRzF6TvmmUZ4/s200/your_argument_is_irrelephant-148696.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sadly, just now the webinar was canceled (to be rescheduled) because of technical difficulties, but I'm looking forward to when they try again because webinars look like fun :D So, o</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rientation was great, webinars are awesome, and I'm up early! God is good, and I'm posting with no schedule at all. Seems like trying to hold myself to schedule doesn't work at all, but saying "I don't care how often I post" suddenly gives me lots to write about; who knew? :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvegVUhQR2ocgMoDaIqDbPbYsik1XTMecH2kpkPq6TB2hpZyU9L7_SuuRhzwHSwLzHgbgVUbZjzaubgG15K729pj-4Cbd13Vyht_-S0HleK8pi60i2RxxDiNT6tG1gCodJ1wVD1z3cVQ/s1600/fall-road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvegVUhQR2ocgMoDaIqDbPbYsik1XTMecH2kpkPq6TB2hpZyU9L7_SuuRhzwHSwLzHgbgVUbZjzaubgG15K729pj-4Cbd13Vyht_-S0HleK8pi60i2RxxDiNT6tG1gCodJ1wVD1z3cVQ/s200/fall-road.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Our roads really look pretty close to this!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Have I mentioned what beautiful weather we've been having? The fall colors are absolutely amazing, and it's been wonderfully rainy and cold: I am SO happy! It's all </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">autumnal. </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So awesome. We've even had some fog, which (while being crap for driving) gives a lovely, isolated effect to the view outside our bedroom window :D It's definitely the kind of weather where reading is a must, and since I'm still working through the Shannara series, I'm a happy camper. But I'm working on expanding my reading horizons, as always, so I've actually started making some notes for newer books and authors to check out. Evernote has a </span><a href="http://evernote.com/webclipper/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">web-clipping tool</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> that I'm finding very handy for making a reading list.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHK7_1FehSPMNajQAxlzboRcLjlzSZZWdE0DT8_-bOADiSZRVgQsGYTpogAPjF5mUEdSJuaF5fGfmKAPzUJpyI4NI6ZnsXJJVsK0LjKP5_sg1AHl0ScVBWKLMfBOcMmc9o0F_C9ddGOc/s1600/woman-reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHK7_1FehSPMNajQAxlzboRcLjlzSZZWdE0DT8_-bOADiSZRVgQsGYTpogAPjF5mUEdSJuaF5fGfmKAPzUJpyI4NI6ZnsXJJVsK0LjKP5_sg1AHl0ScVBWKLMfBOcMmc9o0F_C9ddGOc/s200/woman-reading.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Wishful thinking says I look like this while reading :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I seem to have a hard time wrapping up my posts in a nice way... I feel like the last paragraph would be the right place to ask my readers about something, or address comments on the last post, but... Yeah. You know it. No readers, and no comments. I think 75% of my page views come from Google Images X( I do have a lot of fun finding pictures for my posts, and I feel like it makes them more interesting, or at least attempts to do that; but I do still crave feedback o.o </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What do you think about that?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-59323902355220477642012-10-31T16:28:00.000-07:002012-11-02T12:00:31.522-07:00An update, in general<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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 <i>am</i> 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!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHxjMXG8sDLRD2dtMgzwQr6TztKKeMK8AQd-e3EUr8ZUYZD6xj_ooeS_ZQqXzDMjX3q3FUS4q_uADEl5TlSnjYRUoAS0U71Vhkq6X8PMHKA3ZZJs4kWUJoeE63EDweKem28Ij7_LAlGE/s1600/STOP+SPENDING+MY+MONEY,+OBAMACARTOON.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHxjMXG8sDLRD2dtMgzwQr6TztKKeMK8AQd-e3EUr8ZUYZD6xj_ooeS_ZQqXzDMjX3q3FUS4q_uADEl5TlSnjYRUoAS0U71Vhkq6X8PMHKA3ZZJs4kWUJoeE63EDweKem28Ij7_LAlGE/s320/STOP+SPENDING+MY+MONEY,+OBAMACARTOON.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>...says my brain.</i></span></td></tr>
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<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Especially in the last few months, I've been becoming more and more fashion conscious (for lack of a better term). Mostly in the area of makeup, since I intend to always do whatever I want with my hair and clothes, but even in those areas I'm still trying to get a little creative and figure out what my "look" should be. The other night my friend <a href="http://annapandabear.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Anna</a> took me window shopping and we spent a long time browsing the makeup aisles. She spends a lot more time doing research on girly things than I do, so I've designated her as my personal fashion consultant :D Most of the things I need help with are figuring out colors for various products, so Anna is giving me lots of little tips (most of which I will never remember).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG592u1kCbxJIJLsob9k8wVdpa_RX-DD1Xn0XEL0fNtCKaCh9VU0tHJxVahKI0Hu8MnblfK0Q5bb9cIeax8LJjPozJrKXV7AunUh16zHwxbAGwEt1tNZsPaW6wYFIi0-XdKeATLMUwi00/s1600/87756-600x398-Fall_makeup_ideas_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG592u1kCbxJIJLsob9k8wVdpa_RX-DD1Xn0XEL0fNtCKaCh9VU0tHJxVahKI0Hu8MnblfK0Q5bb9cIeax8LJjPozJrKXV7AunUh16zHwxbAGwEt1tNZsPaW6wYFIi0-XdKeATLMUwi00/s320/87756-600x398-Fall_makeup_ideas_5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Anna will make me look like this, right? :D</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In other news, I'm seriously trying to go to school next spring. I still need to send a transcript and a couple other things before I'll know if I've been accepted to LRU, but I already have my classes picked out. I decided that, if I can handle 20 credits in a quarter, I can probably handle 15 credits in a semester (somebody tell me that makes sense, please?). So in that case, these are the classes (all of them 3 credits each) that I want to start with:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Contemporary Ethics</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Old Testament Survey</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Biblical Interpretation</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Theology Survey I</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Personal Evangelism</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's also a "Intro to Theological Research and Writing" that doesn't count for credit but appears to be required, so I will have to see if I need to take that, too. It's supposed to only take a month to complete, so if I can take all six classes I might go for it, though I'm kind of hoping that I can get it filled with transfer credits... Even at 15 credits a semester, it will take about 2 years to finish this degree. But I definitely think that the end result (B.A. in Religion) will be really sweet!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW4jplXRA6fXQ-rmtIGACZJDLyJFqEJH7RWKAKxL6KtsF_jFAmglT3fL7z2ZthrLRr1_WWrh9-aurpPRIhvt-82jTc2tzZvDpsoizFHTXyHswIdRMY5CCWB2xjDdLDbUdScziS0Ga3P0w/s1600/322919_8_e5af7d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW4jplXRA6fXQ-rmtIGACZJDLyJFqEJH7RWKAKxL6KtsF_jFAmglT3fL7z2ZthrLRr1_WWrh9-aurpPRIhvt-82jTc2tzZvDpsoizFHTXyHswIdRMY5CCWB2xjDdLDbUdScziS0Ga3P0w/s320/322919_8_e5af7d.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I'll be doing more than just cracking my Bible open, finally!</i></span></td></tr>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Speaking of sweetness, it does happen to be Halloween today. I'm all for the fun dressing-up and getting candy part, but I've never enjoyed the scaring part. My parents took my sister and I to "harvest parties" when we were growing up, and as homeschoolers we did research on the origins of the holidays. I have to say, Halloween freaks me out in general, but Jack-o-lanterns? Holy cow! I did some more research while writing this, and while the stuff I read about growing up was (thankfully) disproven, but most of the stuff I read talks about carved pumpkins being a symbol of a "damned soul." Creepy! Although I guess that's the point of the whole event, I don't really think it's something that should be promoted so casually. That's just me, of course :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLe55f9i5zga5t42TUwVI86KRs5dbrNTjf9b30vgBZz_qMbLgvfowswoAV3qoSS7-C6ma85R8KWVd1VBu1h_sbKR7012iCZ_IZ5zutsw71B7j_zo0j0xXTCm9S7UAO4cfmeyvYYaBXYis/s1600/pumpkin-skull-20101028-172737.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLe55f9i5zga5t42TUwVI86KRs5dbrNTjf9b30vgBZz_qMbLgvfowswoAV3qoSS7-C6ma85R8KWVd1VBu1h_sbKR7012iCZ_IZ5zutsw71B7j_zo0j0xXTCm9S7UAO4cfmeyvYYaBXYis/s320/pumpkin-skull-20101028-172737.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This one is really cool, though :D</i></span></td></tr>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let's see... I've covered my new job, new school, the holiday, and fashion/makeup! I'd say that is fairly good work for one post :D</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-85425385097320201052012-10-27T13:25:00.002-07:002012-10-28T14:05:14.996-07:00God makes the grass grow!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 :)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjlnJDwHKIQaIpU63OqBusnztCArJXu86LitdLhS0S-cL1RbOLvxdci9-s7sWL8kb2BAJCO5nIiQocRHdFngC1S_LVFd5QWHOKPmMasEu2BYndaSeSpkCDE4xeBcz78WSZGsX2IZOk-4/s1600/grass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjlnJDwHKIQaIpU63OqBusnztCArJXu86LitdLhS0S-cL1RbOLvxdci9-s7sWL8kb2BAJCO5nIiQocRHdFngC1S_LVFd5QWHOKPmMasEu2BYndaSeSpkCDE4xeBcz78WSZGsX2IZOk-4/s200/grass.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>so pretty...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm sure I'll need to back up a bit here </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQG3-geJM74a3_i9zV_r55rzSwuEdHvT6RiMYL5IvrOQvoeYNonAJDlNcs059yPluWnPkt2sZpOOlpNpVNItaQC35QUHAaExucEbLSyd2aAqVg8OHgoQyj4hYnKIjWyghFb3FW5Z9joA/s1600/sneaky+devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQG3-geJM74a3_i9zV_r55rzSwuEdHvT6RiMYL5IvrOQvoeYNonAJDlNcs059yPluWnPkt2sZpOOlpNpVNItaQC35QUHAaExucEbLSyd2aAqVg8OHgoQyj4hYnKIjWyghFb3FW5Z9joA/s200/sneaky+devil.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Small as in using small things to trip us. Also see: petty, trivial.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To start off with, I knew right away what I was going to make for Danielle, my cousin whose birthday was the main event: I'd been scarf-happy for a few days, very excited about the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs15olhK3ps" target="_blank">honey-comb pattern</a> I found, and I had very cute yarn to use to make a squishy, cuddly scarf. I decided not to start working on it for about a week, though, because I was in the middle of another scarf (reasonable enough) and I knew it wouldn't take that long to make (also reasonable, but counting chickens, etc.). Next was the accessories, and I think I hit my first snag here... For a couple of months, we had a pile of things to take to Goodwill, including several purses and hats that would have been great for the exchange. But as it turns out, just a few days before I found out about the party, we finally got around to donating the pile! I had to get creative, but I did manage to pull together a handful of hair clips and belts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY1cXZ_RYYNrDGjf7Hvq8dd4rRvtnyW3Zi5NMUc9SoSMi8OWuKwCr4mHuGxSq6PSqvrW9Bfd7k0JLhRczM368ov9lm7iIR6c31HGUa9oPdDC82LtkeKbGhh6-PIaz9w5jx8i5T7WOcZw/s1600/Women-Accessories-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY1cXZ_RYYNrDGjf7Hvq8dd4rRvtnyW3Zi5NMUc9SoSMi8OWuKwCr4mHuGxSq6PSqvrW9Bfd7k0JLhRczM368ov9lm7iIR6c31HGUa9oPdDC82LtkeKbGhh6-PIaz9w5jx8i5T7WOcZw/s200/Women-Accessories-1.jpg" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Girly things are actually a lot of fun :D</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The next snag was the ride. As I'm sure my few readers know, I still can't drive, so I have to hitch a ride to go anywhere. But like the scarf, this didn't seem to be a problem to me: after all, my sister-in-law (who lives across the hall, lol) was also invited, so after a quick discussion I had my ride. No problem! Well, until you fast-forward a few days... You see, sis-in-law Jenni was recently blessed with a new job, and they called her in to work last night, which I didn't find out until about 24 hours before the party. Not a problem, I completely understand that a new job takes priority, and I was pretty sure I could get my darling husband to take me. Just an accumulation of little things which eventually gets you down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">See, as of about 2 days ago, I had 1/3 of a scarf, the accessories, and a "probably" ride. Not to mention the various little things kept putting me in a bad mood... In fact, I took a day off this last week: I didn't do anything all day, just slept and zoned out on the computer, refusing to do anything else. Not exactly a great way to deal with a bad mood, but in my defense I felt that it was the only way I could avoid saying something I would regret. Ever been in a mood like that, where everything is just incredibly <i>bad</i>, but it's nobody's fault so getting mad at anybody is unfair? I had to explain to my poor Davey that I was extremely mad, but not mad <i>at him</i>. He is so patient with me :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBniDz5P2FZ8OxmGNf8ue3Fml5if8JD1rkQMat6FJebml2V1czyjGgrV4MkXc4j0XHJdX3IqlaguqWUcFz-AhEcI7ko98iKT6tjBOerN4DKBn6XDGbFDLnuKB4rvtubnf2JhEAslEn1U/s1600/nevergiveup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBniDz5P2FZ8OxmGNf8ue3Fml5if8JD1rkQMat6FJebml2V1czyjGgrV4MkXc4j0XHJdX3IqlaguqWUcFz-AhEcI7ko98iKT6tjBOerN4DKBn6XDGbFDLnuKB4rvtubnf2JhEAslEn1U/s200/nevergiveup.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>An image search for "giving up" found this gem.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Alright, so we've come to yesterday now. I've got a long list of things to do, and (sadly) I seem to be a bit weepy. I had to do a load of laundry because the cat put my bra in the litterbox X( and I had <a href="http://youtu.be/3dolNKk00BY" target="_blank">big plans for my hair</a> so I wanted to make sure I washed it. The scarf is still only about half done, and I had about 6 hours to manage everything (since I didn't know when I needed to be ready, I just planned to be ready by 5:00). Well, my mood was terrible. I was completely ready to give up and just not go to the party, every time something went wrong. With the encouragement of my sweet husband, I managed to get a grip and get myself ready without too much trouble, although I didn't finish the scarf until halfway through the party itself XD</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16-ZgOhvM_19-xMqjTHKy8w2C7esu9GVimcC4yVoGY0sBEmPcKfFgE9wQyeVTTcLp2pxSz5JLyj4JN8jOwiWOgI_qJh1ntog5F4dhuHIoBB8cB27kX6sBIV7X2xE85FehyRHWMKLlF74/s1600/getting-ready-ganev-smallwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16-ZgOhvM_19-xMqjTHKy8w2C7esu9GVimcC4yVoGY0sBEmPcKfFgE9wQyeVTTcLp2pxSz5JLyj4JN8jOwiWOgI_qJh1ntog5F4dhuHIoBB8cB27kX6sBIV7X2xE85FehyRHWMKLlF74/s200/getting-ready-ganev-smallwood.jpg" width="154" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I didn't look this classy when I was getting read XD</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I could go into a lot more detail about the things that went wrong, why I was weepy, etc., but that wasn't really the point of this post. What I'm trying to get at is that I was very, very discouraged, my attitude was bad, and I was given lots of opportunities to throw in the towel and not go to the party; and what I realized in the course of the evening was that God had planned a very nice night for me, including a reminder of His awesome power: He makes the grass grow. Hindsight being what it is, I can of course see </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">now</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> why the devil would want to keep me away!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TJWfLMelfjAWmAol5WgPcd2LpYU7rXjUIVZdXZ6q_mcxOXN1Je3eYvVZ8vPl8BLb94sw1Ry-Q5ePE288sqhM2QwUJxDBzobGdIaP_GN0Sjsa28BLVX-9ujAaSrePOFgo9qxUlGnL5RY/s1600/PS815CA2_Pink-Lady-Bug-Birthday-Party-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TJWfLMelfjAWmAol5WgPcd2LpYU7rXjUIVZdXZ6q_mcxOXN1Je3eYvVZ8vPl8BLb94sw1Ry-Q5ePE288sqhM2QwUJxDBzobGdIaP_GN0Sjsa28BLVX-9ujAaSrePOFgo9qxUlGnL5RY/s200/PS815CA2_Pink-Lady-Bug-Birthday-Party-02.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>It was an adorable, girly party! (not a pic from the actual event)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had a lovely evening with five of the sweetest ladies I've ever met, chatting and laughing and getting to know each other. I felt like a part of the group, even though I'd only met my cousin a couple times before, and knew nobody else. It's truly a blessing for me to feel that way, since I'm used to being the odd one, and almost never feel like I fit in :) But I should get back to that grass... </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A few years ago, during a one-on-one meeting with one of my Chi Alpha leaders, I had this amazing thought that continues to bless me every time I remember it (which is sadly less frequently than I would like). God makes the grass grow! Seems simple enough, but let me expand on that though: He </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">makes. it. grow.</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> He doesn't, as <a href="http://www.facebook.com/officialfrankperetti?fref=ts" target="_blank">Frank Peretti</a> says, "set the world spinning and then go out for coffee." </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBN8TY7IidpPZFmvF0yFHNI839aQ6xi3jZt65M8Vnc4qWgUVmjvw_UyRsnE7U76Ck2_pEquujHoJpJeayloDJZ6vJlGRBrQL-w-Dm26ALU7Lh4Kqi76g5bGQVT-Oecb-omK0d3A5u9Eg/s1600/bible-bible-verse-christian-god-grass-Favim.com-228458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBN8TY7IidpPZFmvF0yFHNI839aQ6xi3jZt65M8Vnc4qWgUVmjvw_UyRsnE7U76Ck2_pEquujHoJpJeayloDJZ6vJlGRBrQL-w-Dm26ALU7Lh4Kqi76g5bGQVT-Oecb-omK0d3A5u9Eg/s200/bible-bible-verse-christian-god-grass-Favim.com-228458.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He's there, every millisecond of every moment of every day ever, guiding and controlling each individual atom and quark exactly where he wants them to go. This is awesome to me! Because, if you think about it, how much more guidance and protection do we have from Him than the grass?? He makes the friggin' grass grow, guys. Every blade in existence has been touched by Him. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm sure this comes under the same heading as knowing the names of the stars or the number of grains of sand, but my point is the same in any case. He's there, and He's got it all under control, all the time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pretty sweet, guys :)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-80155075228839159402012-09-12T13:04:00.000-07:002012-09-12T13:17:58.508-07:00Noom, LRU, and other stuff<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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 <i>have</i> 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.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXGPuIYeByp2VVUvt23KKS5rz5_263a0rQ9wXv2jOp15ZI06BmNvFnq_ZD7DloQm5YwB59MQ_JZTTQbVKWbElOK-yiGx78q27R8A-eBg3KOHaC2pn1HIZvfpN_AfA0SwYj_QfFw3U8TU/s1600/polished-nails-typing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXGPuIYeByp2VVUvt23KKS5rz5_263a0rQ9wXv2jOp15ZI06BmNvFnq_ZD7DloQm5YwB59MQ_JZTTQbVKWbElOK-yiGx78q27R8A-eBg3KOHaC2pn1HIZvfpN_AfA0SwYj_QfFw3U8TU/s200/polished-nails-typing.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Little bright spots that draw the eye...</i></span></td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But to get back on the topic of goals: Noom! My sister introduced me to this cool free app, and I really like it. It's a "weight loss coach" that lets you log meals, exercise, and your weight, and has daily tasks for you to complete. It actually manages to make these things really fun because when you do tasks (or pretty much anything) you earn points and you can actually level up! I'm at level 3 :D Like my sister says, it's great because it makes you more aware of what you're eating and doing. Did I mention it functions as a pedometer? Which is great, because of course I take my phone everywhere X) My goal weight is at the top end of the healthy spectrum for my age and height, 160lbs. Yesterday I estimated my current weight was 215lbs, but after actually weighing in this morning, I'm only at 208lbs! Woot for being ahead of schedule on at least one goal :D Now if I can start getting some walking in every day...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAUUiau2CnplP8Z2ChzMGTwuEIqTXw8Da9r7dK0-Nje4vmbhF0aWcXHbsbscTksigLHzkw5cXGNLXnuELs1FULkxc5P3RgBVrNN5Yc5WiLR-c1NFmDG-hd3JBYCexo-4a0mqGRQym6nA/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAUUiau2CnplP8Z2ChzMGTwuEIqTXw8Da9r7dK0-Nje4vmbhF0aWcXHbsbscTksigLHzkw5cXGNLXnuELs1FULkxc5P3RgBVrNN5Yc5WiLR-c1NFmDG-hd3JBYCexo-4a0mqGRQym6nA/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Weight conscious, not weight obsessed :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I'm behind on blogging, ahead on weight loss, and completely flummoxed about school. Yes, that's right, I'm talking about school <i>again.</i> But here's the thing: so far, I can't find a job; my loans are going to coming up due pretty soon; and I can't help but think my mom has a point when she says I might have a better time of it if I finish my bachelor's degree (for those of you keeping track, I have an A.A. and a certificate so far). Part of the reason I haven't wanted to do this, besides being burned out on school, was because I didn't want to go further into debt. Another reason is that I didn't know what I would want to study; given the residency requirements of most schools, I would need to take 50-60 credits in only one subject to finish a degree. Ouch.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBJ8m-qpPb_rfaAyIGXa7C0Mjhyphenhyphenisvg-FGA4XqWUcgzX4df8UlaTomlEIUjk_j10Gll2EnRfz3hBRgS7jN71g5bBTFs39bBfKPoYOhVJ_9mOCAibKFOcq12vPcYAclPezLkNmWiqsl65Y/s1600/shutterstock_61581190_blog_debt-is-debt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBJ8m-qpPb_rfaAyIGXa7C0Mjhyphenhyphenisvg-FGA4XqWUcgzX4df8UlaTomlEIUjk_j10Gll2EnRfz3hBRgS7jN71g5bBTFs39bBfKPoYOhVJ_9mOCAibKFOcq12vPcYAclPezLkNmWiqsl65Y/s200/shutterstock_61581190_blog_debt-is-debt.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>So not a good thing...</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, if I could find something I enjoyed to study, didn't go into (more) debt, and could defer my loans a little while making myself more employable... that sounds like a pretty good deal, right? So this is what I'm considering: LRU has a <a href="http://www.lru.edu/Content.aspx?page=bar_christian_worldview&tool=quicklinks" target="_blank">Religion & Christian Worldview</a> degree online, and I could just about pay tuition with just grants, and not take any loans. Being in school defers my loans (although the interest still accrues) so I could still look for work while I finish my degree, and actually even work and go to school at the same time if I found something part-time! So, financially, this seems like a good choice. But even more than that, the course of study really and truly interests me. I've always wanted to have a better foundation of biblical knowledge, and and I know I could still do a Master's in library science later if the need arose. All this is very exciting to me, so I'm hoping I can get them to waive the application fee :) I'm too late to start this fall, but by spring I hope I can figure this all out...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vDij8n22yY5DzYE1fVR71cABEn_lOtUlwPObOXzvw1ijRvhpEqkhVsZBjS3q5Nfe84Qkj2VhkJm4SFXdmm8Ug3uJF0C17m6t2L8BzYqg1vqBiDiV9hK80t4mkFqtjkZiGao67DCWOUA/s1600/back-to-school1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vDij8n22yY5DzYE1fVR71cABEn_lOtUlwPObOXzvw1ijRvhpEqkhVsZBjS3q5Nfe84Qkj2VhkJm4SFXdmm8Ug3uJF0C17m6t2L8BzYqg1vqBiDiV9hK80t4mkFqtjkZiGao67DCWOUA/s200/back-to-school1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Maybe?</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Heh, almost got all my pics to color-coordinate :) Back to my books now... I've been slowing down a little and I'm wanting to pick up the pace again. Later!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-47856929532589974832012-09-05T21:13:00.002-07:002012-09-05T21:13:48.284-07:00A quick break from the books...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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!</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As my currently reading widget (which I love) says, I'm starting The Gypsy Morph tonight, and I am so excited about it! I mentioned in my last post that I'm reading the Shannara series, and my lovely maternal unit brought it to my attention that I should not refer to the newer books as prequels. I'm not sure what else to call them, but suffice it to say that if you have never read any of the Shannara books before, you should go with the order they were published in first, then try chronological :) With that piece of business cleared up, I just have to say: I am </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">loving</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> this series!!! I was very curious how the books all tied together, and Brooks does a great job of making it all makes sense, but even more than that, I just can't put them down :D</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Nothing like a good read :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now, not being able to put a book down is nothing new for me. The difference I want to point out here is the fact that these are basically modern literature, and my usual bent is for much older, wordier stuff. I'm not saying (by any means) that they are flawless, but reading 5 books in a week is (in my opinion) a fair indication of a captivating plot with characters that can hold the reader's interest. My biggest concern right now is being able to keep up that pace, since I really need a job still! My interview on Monday went really well, and I think they'll probably call me as soon as the have an opening for me, but at the same time I really love having all this free time to read. Also, one of the best side effects of getting my nose stuck in a book is my lack of interest in Facebook games :D I still play one on a daily basis, but it's not like before where I was dedicated to at least 6 games at any given time. Whew!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4X_YEHkU1spnEChY9S_i2nmYKAv0wd-gEkmuMG50-PP-fRprYwQTP5IJHeeZgQLiktf9sDntmtB2R1cp-SdsMW-SJw7CT7pEAhXNdKStX8aVF3Za2a8BVzztoRypWwyKq60nwZAW600/s1600/24202035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4X_YEHkU1spnEChY9S_i2nmYKAv0wd-gEkmuMG50-PP-fRprYwQTP5IJHeeZgQLiktf9sDntmtB2R1cp-SdsMW-SJw7CT7pEAhXNdKStX8aVF3Za2a8BVzztoRypWwyKq60nwZAW600/s200/24202035.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Something like that XD</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As always, comments are appreciated, but I think I've made it pretty clear that I'll keep writing no matter what :) Back to my wonderful books I go!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-65515038591087136322012-09-01T18:22:00.000-07:002012-09-01T18:24:39.383-07:00We now return to our regularly scheduled... um... hmm... what is this, anyhow?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">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? :)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKarNiB4w7yPMZJY6xOb-BxxIWwNOD4Y6OtkDgzK6a1ZE5Cnuqf4dXhJvoonDxwDF6Mr8_Gi24SMgRyr3o2sDTk8gkEMcRsMuIoqYUF2tg1qFXxVoZt0YamSz02y0uz7HMCSj2FxdIQG0/s1600/2012-06-21_19-56-03_23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKarNiB4w7yPMZJY6xOb-BxxIWwNOD4Y6OtkDgzK6a1ZE5Cnuqf4dXhJvoonDxwDF6Mr8_Gi24SMgRyr3o2sDTk8gkEMcRsMuIoqYUF2tg1qFXxVoZt0YamSz02y0uz7HMCSj2FxdIQG0/s200/2012-06-21_19-56-03_23.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Treats from my favorite pastry shop in Seattle</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">That being the case, I do have some news! It's a bit of a mixed bag... My darling husband has a job now (though this means he'll be taking a quarter off of school), and I have an interview on Monday (nothing solid, though). We're all moved into our new place (technically Davey's <i>old</i> place), and with a job (or two) I'll probably have a car and get my driver's license soon! If-all-goes-well-fingers-crossed-knock-on-wood-etc... At any rate, I'm optimistic on all fronts :D If I can get myself back on a regular course of blogging, reading, and working, I feel that my mental health will be 100%, and I'm sure everybody is happy about that!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wchealthandwellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/positivitysmile.jpg?w=384&h=288" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://wchealthandwellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/positivitysmile.jpg?w=384&h=288" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Think happy thoughts :)</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Speaking of reading brings me to my next happy new thing: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12277763-leslie" target="_blank">Goodreads</a>!!! Oh my goodness, I love this site so much, for so many reasons. Keeping track of what I read (or <a href="http://www.anime-planet.com/users/MasayumeKyuu" target="_blank">watch</a>) is really handy, and helps me to set goals. I've been wanting to join a </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">book club</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> for a while now but I had no idea where to start with looking for a book club; now I'm in three book clubs and planning to get lots of reading done! Which, in turn, will probably give me lots to think and write about (yay!). The problem will be balancing work and play...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOekPmyyjsc06GzFyKTEC__75UdFGGJKDwtqAIHuuZMmzDoAEX0vO4ToW49CEpe0z2vd7HgugMyZ0NNlfX3e7a60MT3w8yvXdVJGuTeGfc-ddG9qsGBex4b8JXvE7eL8UaW4OGeRzspWn0/s1600/life-balance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOekPmyyjsc06GzFyKTEC__75UdFGGJKDwtqAIHuuZMmzDoAEX0vO4ToW49CEpe0z2vd7HgugMyZ0NNlfX3e7a60MT3w8yvXdVJGuTeGfc-ddG9qsGBex4b8JXvE7eL8UaW4OGeRzspWn0/s200/life-balance.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Oh! WIDGETS!!! I'm sure I mention this before, but I finally got my Amazon-wishlist widget to work, and now I have a shiny new Goodreads widget so you can see what I'm reading! I even got them to match my blog: squee! It's the little things :) And since you can see what I'm reading, all my lovely readers can keep me accountable if I go on a tangent or skip over a book, etc. :) For instance, I'm currently reading "A Knight of the Word" by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9629.Terry_Brooks" target="_blank">Terry Brooks</a>. I joined a lovely book club call Read By Theme, and it's just what it sounds like, so I won't go into detail, but this month's theme is Teenage Protagonists. Usually, I think I would have a problem figuring out what to read in this theme, but the Shannara series is helping me out.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioinYUm1z0rsmz1R-wbSKqmMrva2IiOVNoJgNnKr5PS-8jwZ_9XQ5yrFv6Ow7vRT8ixk6czEfo5d4r0Ca4mhjYkQ9CmFKQv-NCsYUdKpNA4h1AyX8akj6FeVqA7tAUjzU0h_mCW4IB0Q/s1600/The+Sword+of+Shannara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioinYUm1z0rsmz1R-wbSKqmMrva2IiOVNoJgNnKr5PS-8jwZ_9XQ5yrFv6Ow7vRT8ixk6czEfo5d4r0Ca4mhjYkQ9CmFKQv-NCsYUdKpNA4h1AyX8akj6FeVqA7tAUjzU0h_mCW4IB0Q/s200/The+Sword+of+Shannara.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">I know this looks like LOTR, but it's not :)</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've read about half of Terry Brook's Shannara books before, but I, uh, *ahem* got them taken away from me... Yes, that happened. At any rate, he's written several more since then, including a few prequels, and I've managed to get my hands on about 20 of them in ebook format. I'm reading them in chronological order, beginning with "Running With The Demon" which I finished a couple days ago. Very interesting way to "begin" the series since I started with "The Sword of Shannara" way back when, so I'm very excited about it. The writing style and subject somehow reminds me a lot of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5544.Frank_Peretti" target="_blank">Frank Peretti</a>'s writing,which intrigues me since I imagine them to be very different authors. However, it's been a while since I read any of Peretti's work (sadface) so I'm not sure; it's just reminiscent to me.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.signandtrade.com/nba/images/applesandoragesscale_ist2_7010066-comparing-apples-and-oranges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://www.signandtrade.com/nba/images/applesandoragesscale_ist2_7010066-comparing-apples-and-oranges.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Comparing authors is not something I usually do...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I want to get back to my book now, but I won't gone long again, I promise :D</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-69425002928680074382012-07-01T19:41:00.004-07:002012-07-01T19:41:32.067-07:00eep.... I was AFK!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 <i>have</i> 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!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-89559690260641678902012-06-20T00:16:00.004-07:002012-06-20T00:16:43.142-07:00Job applications and cover letters<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/1692046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/1692046.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Seattle Public Library - my future?</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the other hand, I'm applying for a bunch of receptionist/office assistant jobs that I really don't want, and I'll probably use the same basic cover letter and resume for all of them. I don't want to get a job outside of a library, but I need a job -any job- now. The plus side is that I'll have some more experience if I get one of these jobs; and if I can work in Seattle I'll probably make a decent amount of money, too. Still, I don't expect to get any of those jobs just because, again, minimal experience is really not in my favor. Seattle probably has hundreds of people more qualified than me, actively searching for the same jobs.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.cartoonwork.com/job_experience_sjpg138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://www.cartoonwork.com/job_experience_sjpg138.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ah, Seattle... I'm doing a reconnaissance trip there tomorrow (since I haven't been to any libraries in Seattle), and I'm a little nervous. I don't think of myself as a small-town girl until I think about going to a huge, busy city like that, all by myself. I'm sure the worst thing that I can expect is walking too slow and needing to wait an hour for the next ferry, but still, it gets to me. I </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">am</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> excited because I'll have my Kindle on the ferry, and I can work on Don Quixote some more. I'm also going to take my camera and maybe play tourist a little :) I'll post some photos if I get any good ones!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/024/cache/seattle-queen-anne_2487_600x450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/024/cache/seattle-queen-anne_2487_600x450.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I don't think I'll get pics like this!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-78188036018864643202012-06-16T18:45:00.001-07:002012-06-16T18:46:11.433-07:00I hate school...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 <i>another</i> school is the last thing I want to do right now.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.superiorsilkscreen.com/275-320-large/i-love-college-it-s-the-studying-and-tests-that-i-hate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.superiorsilkscreen.com/275-320-large/i-love-college-it-s-the-studying-and-tests-that-i-hate.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To recap: I have a 2-year degree from a 4-year university, and a certificate from a 2-year community college. If I transferred all the credits I have to another school, it would probably only take me a couple terms to complete a bachelors degree. But I'm tired of school: why would I even consider it? I've even found a fabulous job to apply for, at the Seattle Public Library. I'm fully qualified, and the position doesn't even require a degree. But while my husband is in school, he gets more financial aid if we're both students: and so do I. That's why I would even think about it. Ugh.... I hate it when things get complicated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The worst part of this is that I started looking for online schools (nothing local would work) and already gave out my contact info a few times: yay spam email and unwanted phone calls :P I wish schools would just put everything online and make it easy, but nooooo: I'm probably too stupid to figure anything out without their help, so they have to <i>call</i> me, which is annoying and a waste of time. Oh well... I'll have to see how this job application goes, and if that falls through, I'll work on my AmeriCorps scheme. School will be my last resort!</span></div>
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<a href="http://chzhistoriclols.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/funny-pictures-history-usually-right-around-now.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://chzhistoriclols.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/funny-pictures-history-usually-right-around-now.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In other news, I started re-watching my favorite anime, One Piece. It's a wonderful show, basically an action-comedy about pirates with super powers :D Ahhh, it makes me happy just thinking about it! My favorite character hasn't shown up yet (I'm only on episode 57, out of over 500 eps) but she's wonderful: her name is Nico Robin, she's a kind of archaeologist-pirate and she's always reading. Her "power" is the ability to multiply any part of her body so that she can, say, make a chain of arms and then put an extra eye on the last hand so that she can see around a corner XD She rarely has to do any actual fighting because she can make her extra arms on an enemy and put them in a full-body cage from a distance.</span></div>
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<a href="http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/3bb8977ea2aef4eeb0e30886693898b4/http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a123/risachantag/robin-arms-screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/3bb8977ea2aef4eeb0e30886693898b4/http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a123/risachantag/robin-arms-screenshot.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I bring up One Piece because I'm really excited about my new ringtones! I was able to find a couple good ones on </span><a href="http://www.phonezoo.com/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Phonezoo</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and I'm just </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">waiting</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> for a text to come :D I haven't had my phone off vibrate in a couple years, it seems. I'm so used to being in places where it needs to be quiet, so I'm enjoying the idea of a phone I can hear XD I've got to wrap this up though: it's time for burgers, and I'm in charge of the delicious bacon!!</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-43950153604836294912012-06-15T22:52:00.000-07:002012-06-15T22:52:29.124-07:00Done with finals!!!<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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....</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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!!!!</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-10085477323056563402012-06-14T16:41:00.001-07:002012-06-14T16:41:06.570-07:00Finals are hard... Bunnies are cute!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLD418D1BDD0456BEC&hl=en_US" width="640"></iframe></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-20132851598033925112012-06-09T20:31:00.002-07:002012-06-22T15:48:20.745-07:00Pretzel Dogs (pics or it didn't happen!)<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pretzel Dogs</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Makes: 16</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Prep time: 90 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cook time: 20 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ingredients:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2 tablespoons brown sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 teaspoon salt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 1/2 cups warm water (110F)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">4 cups all-purpose flour</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 tablespoon white pepper</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">16 hotdogs (Nathan's are best!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2 cups warm water (110F)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2 tablespoons baking soda</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Coarse salt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Directions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In a 2-cup measuring glass, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mix together flour and pepper in a large bowl, and stir in the liquid. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUv4W_KcJnzgH9y3irJ3-2P-sJ3GSTnKeE0ADJ63jtu-XtlrwNBKzTNUKwtB3znQv-qvxoszZ4e2tCAn_Iq3SZ-EWIXt0l422N3h9C78MsK9w9caINmKYZqeCj1B7H9tM8e8-kmrTMZ4/s1600/CIMG1443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUv4W_KcJnzgH9y3irJ3-2P-sJ3GSTnKeE0ADJ63jtu-XtlrwNBKzTNUKwtB3znQv-qvxoszZ4e2tCAn_Iq3SZ-EWIXt0l422N3h9C78MsK9w9caINmKYZqeCj1B7H9tM8e8-kmrTMZ4/s200/CIMG1443.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I neeeeeeeed you~ to knead me...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Place in a greased bowl (I just rinse the one I used to mix everything, and spray it with Pam), and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1scG4naG50Ad4LXZ-nCP3izr2pB6Ppidz7jr8SS258dT_6fFI-BI_o6J9n4OXVQO2RElpDNTqiO8viVVo9XairBtZycDyo9Mx6KfpaYF3HbH4UYVhS7mleYm6iWr-CtSJ7-3jvatwoOY/s1600/CIMG1445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1scG4naG50Ad4LXZ-nCP3izr2pB6Ppidz7jr8SS258dT_6fFI-BI_o6J9n4OXVQO2RElpDNTqiO8viVVo9XairBtZycDyo9Mx6KfpaYF3HbH4UYVhS7mleYm6iWr-CtSJ7-3jvatwoOY/s200/CIMG1445.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>d'oh!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While the dough is rising, drain the hot dogs and pat dry with a paper towel, and clear your work surface. Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in a pan or bowl that you can dip the pretzel dogs in. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAyhxIYIRDt4VfVJXHs7g2_Zx7uLLuQ5zOOO7sPou0sahgAMAvexpJwd_ouHTjjx8JpKSATbXFwpXEYaTWt6mxvfkWkUU8Bw85Y7AZpWTOvjROXut6PIr_XEvB9JJdkyb1Cz3Uijf5bY/s1600/CIMG1450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAyhxIYIRDt4VfVJXHs7g2_Zx7uLLuQ5zOOO7sPou0sahgAMAvexpJwd_ouHTjjx8JpKSATbXFwpXEYaTWt6mxvfkWkUU8Bw85Y7AZpWTOvjROXut6PIr_XEvB9JJdkyb1Cz3Uijf5bY/s200/CIMG1450.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">dry dogs and baking soda</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When the dough is done rising, punch it down and then cut or tear the dough into quarters. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyuczTkNY-GPNO1UJh5n_YfaMwYTA_L2CYWWUak5IuSn10zdoW4RxwuUvpkClqjsYgVvuHE7j96QaJVx5OGAZPUCJONzyOUE-ErVWr0P4LjDX59iLGIYXHDfqXzx1iGrpiFzFgaamB2U/s1600/CIMG1453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyuczTkNY-GPNO1UJh5n_YfaMwYTA_L2CYWWUak5IuSn10zdoW4RxwuUvpkClqjsYgVvuHE7j96QaJVx5OGAZPUCJONzyOUE-ErVWr0P4LjDX59iLGIYXHDfqXzx1iGrpiFzFgaamB2U/s200/CIMG1453.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1hs043OpQPRAdrqIdGhztpA8oFuQi1_uClr5OMOD-jtLQmbharpoRJ12bj-nElkZ6Ct3A7iOLXFMZJOwLYjSjeJVGTXiL72vWLJY5UqJnChgw11LPG2B8x792Fw7W-8PVE3rlbrq-O74/s1600/CIMG1456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1hs043OpQPRAdrqIdGhztpA8oFuQi1_uClr5OMOD-jtLQmbharpoRJ12bj-nElkZ6Ct3A7iOLXFMZJOwLYjSjeJVGTXiL72vWLJY5UqJnChgw11LPG2B8x792Fw7W-8PVE3rlbrq-O74/s200/CIMG1456.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Working with 1/4 at a time, cut or tear each 1/4 into quarters again, and roll into snakes.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoHr8_OgaSrUcYLLv4FowqKk9OCG5cRjCtpgmh5TUAfunNNe6FhJkY5htwwnSefyVK0l8yxp66dv5JSG7xyeWAJ2lZgIE_lr8FaTVvqEgFXYZ8_WhQbdvb9KD4XtJ37XTkdazjxplq7I/s1600/CIMG1459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoHr8_OgaSrUcYLLv4FowqKk9OCG5cRjCtpgmh5TUAfunNNe6FhJkY5htwwnSefyVK0l8yxp66dv5JSG7xyeWAJ2lZgIE_lr8FaTVvqEgFXYZ8_WhQbdvb9KD4XtJ37XTkdazjxplq7I/s200/CIMG1459.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzc_fL51FvXN6mRb03EfePpdLP6jn65khEUmzfTtGDOjSWGow02TkoEJEmFdwfZ9juDsKdEsKFU78dn-wd8yMLQ6CDpiA8Yn9NEcMbFGZfvnP2-UxwencNKT0ZdL09hjup5hp1_G62HY/s1600/CIMG1460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzc_fL51FvXN6mRb03EfePpdLP6jn65khEUmzfTtGDOjSWGow02TkoEJEmFdwfZ9juDsKdEsKFU78dn-wd8yMLQ6CDpiA8Yn9NEcMbFGZfvnP2-UxwencNKT0ZdL09hjup5hp1_G62HY/s200/CIMG1460.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Spiral a piece of dough around each hotdog (a quick roll with your palm will seal up the cracks and even out the shape), dip in the baking soda bath, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt, and let rise for another 10 minutes. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzM8oX3NoBKt3f0dfjAmBCj0yOEm7tILu7HYGSC5Woye9PTvIw4MkZwzXHNoIJdu15lz-2jMWpAe8BQxITw4q3GraEUGaYCN0Q0oNo30CehI1qdnIjuedPhUesO_sOadn1rcbBHCpQJfI/s1600/CIMG1461.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzM8oX3NoBKt3f0dfjAmBCj0yOEm7tILu7HYGSC5Woye9PTvIw4MkZwzXHNoIJdu15lz-2jMWpAe8BQxITw4q3GraEUGaYCN0Q0oNo30CehI1qdnIjuedPhUesO_sOadn1rcbBHCpQJfI/s200/CIMG1461.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-stx4Z1R6aE7s0fX7ZffGO_morxe4xNqwTj_UpnEWWS01AobLoAil-kPDu7IPyUclgUBU2DzF8TWKn4L4DdwMbUTpuImlrtGTreISux4DQ7pdCnn1RBueT7Dx96ekTxnJd5Yk_DKh2KU/s1600/CIMG1465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-stx4Z1R6aE7s0fX7ZffGO_morxe4xNqwTj_UpnEWWS01AobLoAil-kPDu7IPyUclgUBU2DzF8TWKn4L4DdwMbUTpuImlrtGTreISux4DQ7pdCnn1RBueT7Dx96ekTxnJd5Yk_DKh2KU/s200/CIMG1465.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Bake at 425F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Serve with cheese sauce or mustard. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My Notes:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you don't have a candy thermometer or another way to measure it, the water temp should be hot but not painfully hot; I just use hot water from the tap.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dough should rise in a warm place, so I turn my oven on to the lowest temp and put the dough in there to rise, with the door cracked open. If you plan to do the same, make sure your bowl is oven safe! I also let the dogs rise in there before turning the temp up to finish cooking them.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I only have one cookie sheet, and it fits 8 of the pretzel dogs, so by the time the first batch is done, my baking soda bath AND the other half of the dough is cold :( I would suggest, if you have a similar setup, putting the bath into a container that can be microwaved. Wrap the 2nd half of the dogs, but don't dip them until just before they go on the sheet, and wrap them in a towel to keep them from getting too cold. It hasn't been a huge problem, but I can tell they don't puff up as huge as the first batch.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is personal preference, but Nathan's hotdogs are seriously the best. They are stupid expensive at Safeway, but we found them at a decent price at Winco :D Also, even if they are a little expensive, the rest of the ingredients cost almost nothing, so it really evens out :D</span></li>
</ul>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-8712287299330527452012-06-06T22:53:00.002-07:002012-06-06T22:54:58.985-07:00Old emails & "getting the word out"<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I discovered <a href="http://www.wordle.net/" target="_blank">Wordles</a> 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 <i>amazing</i> and I love them so, so much. I made about a dozen of them, I just couldn't stop XD </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you play around with your own Wordles, I'd love to hear what you did! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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(</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Oh, you know those annoying ads on Pandora for Vistaprint? The ones that offer you 250 FREE* (*shipping) business cards? I decided to see if I could find a card I liked, and wound up designing a very sweet two-sided card with all my contact info, and of course my blog name :D But while I was putting in my info, I got to my email and had to pause. It's been bugging me for a long time now, but with two school emails and a person email that was really hard to spell, I've been having a really hard time tracking which accounts I used for what! My school emails are mine "for life" whether I want them or not, so both get forwarded to my personal email. I've used that old hotmail address for almost ten years, so I really didn't want to have to change it. On the other hand, I've learned recently that "anything@hotmail.com" doesn't exactly give off a professional vibe... Does anybody else have an old email like that? The one you took forever to choose, and it really says who you are? Only it's a decade later and you don't really want to keep spelling your-name-translated-into-a-fictional-language for everybody XD</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>You know it's awesome</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Well, I sure had one of those... up until about an hour ago! I went into my hotmail account setting and changed my email to my-name-@live.com, which makes me quite happy since now my twitter and facebook and email all have my first and last name :D So the blog-ness cards I just ordered have my name on them in four different places: no confusion about who they're for, eh? And the very best part is that I used one of the Wordles I made for the "front" side, and the contact info is on the "back." It's going to be sooooo pretty, and advertise my blog in the best way! I won't have many opportunities to hand them out, so 250 will be plenty for now, but it makes me very happy that I won't have to write down my email (or phone or blog name) anymore!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">the Wordle I used on my card</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I forgot to mention in my last post, but I did get an email back from the gal at AmeriCorps. It wasn't exactly helpful, though, so I'm going to try asking some questions on the LinkedIn group they have. What I do know for now is that I can't sign up until August, and the "year" is actually 11 months, from October to September (hence the need for a summer job). Oh, and I'm done with my internship, as of this morning: YAY!! It was so much fun, and I learned a lot, but I'm ready to be done with school, and since it was technically for credit I'm very glad to be done :) I'll turn in the paperwork next week, and after the 14th, or whenever I finish my "finals," I get to sleep for a week! Not really, but I'll at least be able to sleep in :D I'm going to make a daily schedule for myself, so that I can get more things done and spend less time procrastinating. Housework, job searching, and blogging will be my priorities, starting tomorrow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-66566886342439756582012-06-04T22:10:00.000-07:002012-06-04T22:39:04.687-07:00Anime and reading, stress escapes<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">never</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> 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 <b>you</b> do when you're stressed out? I could use some alternatives :)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>One of the results for "stress eating"</i> XD</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I actually get a lot done when I'm procrastinating, just not homework or anything. For instance, reading seven books in a week was only possible because I pretty much didn't do anything else! Although, I did actually turn in all my homework on time that week... This last week, I also turned everything in on time, and also read Dracula and watched a 50-episode anime series. Maybe I <i>do</i> work better when I allow myself to have fun? Heh. This week I'm reading Don Quixote (which I am <i>loving!</i>) and I'll probably watch some more anime. I watched one called "NANA" last week, and it was pretty good, but a little sad. It's was basically a soap opera anime, but it had some amazingly funny moments, so I liked it XD I think I'll watch a pretty short (only 12 episodes) series next, called Aoi Bungaku; as far as I can tell, it's a collection of classic Japanese literary works translated into anime for the younger generation, to make them more accessible. Think Hunchback of Notre Dame by Disney :) Probably not super-accurate, but it could be entertaining!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Cowboy Bebop</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I used to watch a huge amount of anime, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do well in college if I kept that up, so I've done very little anime watching in the last four years. Other than over the summer, I just haven't allowed myself to get into that kind of groove again, so I have a very long list of things I want to watch! My favorite genres are action comedies (like One Piece or Trigun) and the slice-of-life ones (like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star). But I also watch dramas and fantasy stuff. Pretty much anything besides porn I'll try at least once, although I don't really like the mind-warp ones. Don't mess with my brain, man!! I guess what I'm getting at here, though, is that anime has lots of different genres and shouldn't be compared to American cartoons. Just sayin'.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Squee! Shakespeare FTW!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I like how my resolution to do short, frequent posts instead of long posts has turned into long </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> (relatively) frequent posts! If I can keep this up, I'll be really happy with myself :) I love talking about what I'm reading, and besides that I'm going to try to keep everybody up-to-date about my job searching and volunteer work. For tonight, I'm going to call it quits because I have a long day tomorrow (just two days left on my internship!) and I have to wrap up some cataloging homework :D SO for now: how do you deal with stress? What do you think of my blog so far? What are you reading, and what's on your to-do/read/watch list??</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-36497322864105348412012-06-01T14:41:00.003-07:002012-06-01T15:00:03.738-07:00And we're back!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 <i>really</i> 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!</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the reasons that I was so crabby yesterday was because I was super stressed out about one of my classes. My "Employment in Libraries" class is taught by my favorite teacher, and she was going to call me to do a mock phone interview. I really really really hate talking on the phone (lack of eye contact = bad) and I've never done a phone interview; heck, I've only had two real interviews in my life. Anyway, it wasn't awful, but I could have done a lot better. Two of my favorite teachers (the one for this class and my cataloging teacher) did a tag-team thing and asked me questions for about 15 minutes, and then I got to ask them some questions about the job, and finally they gave me some feedback. The whole thing took less than half an hour, but it was nerve wracking!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">No, I didn't use a corded phone</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm reading Dracula again, and I'm already at something like 88% (btw, I use percentages because that's what my Kindle uses: there are no page numbers!). I know it's not nearly as impressive as reading seven books in a week, but older (and better) books take me longer to read. The writing isn't as simplified, and I have to concentrate: I love it :D I always wonder why there aren't more people reading Dracula, and then I get towards the end and I remember that I have a theory about that. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">See, they talk about God a lot. It's set in a time when most people, especially in Europe, are Christians, and a faith in God is completely normal. And it's not like Twilight, where there's a possibility that vampires have a soul. Undead = no soul, end of story. I'm not sure if that counts as a spoiler or not, so my bad if you were planning to read either story. I really think more people should read Dracula. He's messed up, but the humans in the story: they're what the book is really about. Not how cool and sexy vampires are, but how much humans can overcome with goodness and faith and moral strength. Mina Harker is totally one of my heroes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So much for keeping this short! I'm going to go back to my homework before this gets any longer, but I might post again tonight: I still need to mention the new look of my blog, and get some feedback/interaction from my "readers." Quit stalking me and comment on stuff! (Please!)</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-36827265482003822712012-05-27T17:06:00.001-07:002012-05-27T17:15:37.045-07:00Seven books in a week...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">...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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As much as I've been talking about books lately, I don't really want this blog to become a book review site. That being said, I'll try to focus on other things too, but I'll probably still give an overview of my opinion for whatever I'm reading. I'm not sure what to read next, though. I need to finish The Republic, but I think I want to put off that and things like War and Peace until school is officially out. Just a few more weeks! If you don't know, I'm in my last quarter at Highline Community College, getting my Library Technician certificate. I love my teachers, but I have been tired of school for a couple years now, and I'm </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">really</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> tired of most of my fellow students; Comic Sans will always be a painful memory for me. I'm eager to start applying what I've learned, helping people in libraries, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've even taken a step towards that goal: yesterday I emailed one of the ladies at Kitsap Community Resources, inquiring about the AmeriCorps program. If I volunteer for a year, I get monthly "compensation" as wells as a small chunk at the end that can go towards school loans. Plus the obvious resume boost and the fact that I could do what I really love: help people without getting paid! I hate getting paid for stuff, I never feel like I earned it. It's something I've struggled with for a long time, and part of the reason that I can't just get any old job. I have to love my work for me to be okay with getting paid for it. Sigh... I can't wait to get my first library job :D</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221579652152896385.post-41092815824324755432012-05-25T17:44:00.001-07:002012-05-30T13:28:26.998-07:00Books vs movies, and pride<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">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 </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">just</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> 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 </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">really</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> messed up! Sigh... So, let's just sum this up so I can be done with it:</span><br />
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Acting = awful</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Music = awful</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Plot accuracy = middling</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Timeline accuracy = awful</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Special effects = awful</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Overall appearance = awful</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Flow = awful</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">That's all I've got. The actual story contained in the books, the basis for all the films, was barely even there. A movie based on my intended re-write of the books would be unrecognizable if compared it to these. And the part that burns the most, and probably colors my other opinions just a little? Emmett. My favorite character, the only one I was actually excited to see in the movies, was ruined. Absolutely ruined. If you looked for him in a crowd based on his description in the book, you'd never find him. Sad, sad day. I have to talk about something else now...</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Gah. So wrong.</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How about those Hunger Games, eh? I just finished the first book, started it last night after those catastrophes, and I have to say I <i>was</i> impressed. The first-person perspective trend is getting really old for me, but the present tense is definitely something I don't think I've read before. I really didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much as I did, though. Ah, my poor pride... I really need to just give it up, but it's a little hard :) Hunger Games is easily better than Twilight; though that's not saying much, it's still true. Again, I'm not a huge fan, but I'm genuinely interested in the movies now, and I can actually understand a little of the craze about Katniss: that's something I could never say about Jacob and Edward. The issues I have are these: first, the first-person perspective makes it really hard to feel any kind of fear for the main character. Kind of the same as knowing that there's two more books, but they could be about different people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My second issue is that I felt slightly manipulated into cheering for Katniss. She's... too likable, for lack of a better word. Not saying that she's perfect, but most of the things we know about her (trying to avoid spoilers here) make you either feel sorry for her or admire her. There's not likely to be a lot of people who actually understand how she feels or what she's going through, so it feels like the alternative is to through a bunch of unfamiliar stuff at her to make the reader go "omg she's so brave, I could never do that, she's my hero, blahblahblah..." I don't know if anybody has picked up on it yet, but I'm certainly seeing a trend on what I do and don't like in a character. I find it impossible <b>not</b> to see them as role models, so I want them as realistic as possible, but at the same time, they need to be good, too. I guess that's a hard thing to balance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Either way, I stifle my pride as I say, I'm looking forward to blazing through the next couple books, cuz I'm a Hunger Games fan :) I have to work on being more careful about voicing strong opinions before I know what I'm talking about... Something I should be doing anyways, I guess!</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189767005456632361noreply@blogger.com4