I have put up my very first craft swap on Craftster as an organizer. What if no one joins?! I know there was interest on the new themes idea board, and it's a third round of an established swap, but still. Eeep! I'm not actually concerned about the organizing part - I can be an incredibly organized person, though you wouldn't know it from the state of my house. Which reminds me, I need to get a few craft projects out of the way this weekend so I can focus on the swap. I only have a little left to do on my last Dotee to send for that swap (hopefully I'll get stuff packed up to send on Tuesday - I was aiming for Monday, then I remembered what the post office is like on Mondays).

I've accomplished a few crafts this year, but mostly have been playing computer games and... believe it or not, doing more "art" (yes, that should be in quotes, I'm... not an artist). My friend is taking a journaling class and insists on me doing it with her. So, over a glass of wine I did knock out page one (it's supposed to list our good traits - I realize it's screwed up, I had "wit" and she said it should be "witty" so half are nouns and half are adjectives, but whatever). And I will share it with you, so you can laugh at me and maybe get me out of lesson two, which is goddess light side/goddess dark side, because so help me I want to use duct tape as part of the art...



Also, remember that fortune cookie post I put up on Facebook? My fortune read "Someone in your life needs a letter from you". Three people decided to be smart-asses and responded with letters. So they got: ( Under a cut because it's a wide picture )

I started with the Q, decided I didn't like it so much (I like color, but... I only had highlighters at hand, so...) and moved on to the K. The J is a more intricate version of the K with a doodle. The Z is a complete departure, and was not requested but was used for something else but I included it because it was a letter. The Q, K, and J have the words listed on the backs (whatever words I could think of that started with that letter). The Z is made up of those words (uh, yeah, I needed to read the dictionary to get enough of those... OH CRAP! I just realized I could have used zaghareet! Not an English word, but would have been PERFECT for the recipient! Drat).

Anyway, my hand and arm are KILLING me (I hold the pen too tightly) and I still need to finish hand-sewing that last dotee, I should get to it. And maybe do some laundry. Ergh.

So my phone updated, yesterday.

Today I get a call, and they've changed the way you answer the phone. Completely.

Why the hell would you change something stupid like that? Why can't I roll back the update? (Because while I'm at it, I'd like to get rid of the English/Spanish language button on my keyboard that shrank my space bar) Why?!

Of course, between this and the missing vent cover on the house that is apparently not exactly replaceable, I'm just annoyed. I'm sure, just like everything else, I'll eventually get tired of being pissed off about it and just accept it.

*grump*

Melodramatic as the post title is, this won't - can't - be a serious post. Not when what I'm talking about is composting.

I've long thought I was going to start composting. I'm environmentally friendly, I recycle and reuse, but I've never really gotten the hang of composting. Yes, there was that one giant leaf pile that rotted down to that lovely soil, but they was just laziness on our part. But it was amazingly good soil, and how hard can it be to get things to rot on purpose?

The answer is, of course, quite.

There's having the appropriate container/area for it, there's maintaining the appropriate mix of 'brown' and 'green' compostable material, there's properly turning and aerating the pile...

In short, it's a lot of work. And I'm not against hard work (I live in a house with a white tile kitchen floor, I know hard work!) but I think the time has come to admit that this particular work isn't important enough to make me motivated enough to learn how to do it properly, buy/make the right kind of area to do it, and take care of it.

Maybe someday I'll decide it's something I want to tackle, but for now... I'm officially giving up on the idea.

Today's random swype words are:

Biotech, Health, Thatch, Kingfish, Irish

Bonus points if you can work all of those into a drabble...

I got some crafting done this weekend! Not as much as I'd have liked, but it is progress! I turned a button-down shirt into an apron, and made little tassels for some flash drives. I also finished a small cross-stitch piece, but it's not really a completed craft because I don't know what I'm going to do with it now.

Also, our roof is done! No more hideous red shingles! Yay!

In other news, I dropped my (frozen, thankfully) soup on the way to the car and cracked (ruined) the container, then had to make a choice between trying to use the heater to stave off frostbite (the heater in the car is hit-or-miss these days) and risk the soup defrosting and leaking all over the car, or just freezing. I mostly picked freezing, though when I was almost to work I did turn it on for a bit. Yesterday I was outside in a short sleeved t-shirt! Today, freezing! (And last night, a short but fairly violent thunderstorm harolded the arrival of the cold front. Ah, well, it is mid-January, I suppose the amazing weather couldn't last.

The technology gods also hate me today, my program has crashed half a dozen times already, and I haven't even asked much of it. It's going to be a long day...

I left my first "fortune crane" in the wild today, maybe pics of that later.

I'm on schedule with the tickybox polls, and I have yet to bring home a plastic shopping bag this year. I've also played through 6 of the games I have stashed.

Craft-wise, I haven't done crap.

I also realized today that if I count walking the dog in my "walk 50 miles" goal (a ridiculously easy goal, I know, 50 miles per month would have been a real goal!), that pretty much takes care of it. That silly little walk around the block, that thing we do pretty much every day (unless it is storming and she doesn't want to go), that thing that... doesn't even seem like a walk... adds up to 142 miles in a year. Maybe I need to amend that goal slightly to make it something of a challenge? Lunchtime exercise walks? Even at that, our typical walk, twice a week, was 2.5 miles (sadly I did lose my walking partner, she got a new job). Or just chalk it up as one of the really easy goals to reach and be happy I can utterly fail at another and still be right at 50%!

I've also already won 16 games of spider solitaire - well on track to ave that one!

#2) Which is worse: failing or never trying?

Depends on what it is... I think I'd rather never try to climb Mt Everest than die in the attempt, but it's silly to let the fear of failure keep you from, say, trying to learn how to knit. Sometimes the fear of failure is self-preservation in disguise, so both are probably about equal... depending on the circumstance.

#3) If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don't like and like so many things we don't do?

Necessity. Who likes cleaning toilets our taking out the trash? (okay a few people, maybe) Now, how many people want to live in a world where no one ever cleans a toilet our takes out the trash? Would you rather starve, or get money at a job you don't particularly like?

As for the second part, lack of funds, liking too many things, and a complete and utter lack of ability are three big reasons.

Should you spend your life miserable? No. Is it reasonable to expect to never do anything you don't like and always get to do what you want? No.

#4) When all is said and done, have you said more than you have done?

Almost certainly, unless you're a mute or a monk who has taken a vow of silence.

Yes, I know this question is more aimed at the idea of all talk and no action, I just couldn't help myself. Still, it's somewhat telling that people would ask this question in a bit of an attempt to... poo-poo those that don't do, without regard to the fact that it's not always possible to do things. Financial and physical limitations are very real and understandable reasons people can't always do.

#5) What is the one thing you'd most like to change about the world?

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a Miss America pageant? Anyone with half a brain realizes there's not one thing, really, on its own that you could change and really improve the world. Everything is so interconnected. You can't stop world hunger without making changes to economic and political systems, and people won't stop killing each other... well, probably not for anything. And let's not forget how sometimes, the solution can be worse than the original problem (voting irregularities, for example, could be eliminated by forming a dictatorship...).

Okay, that's enough for today. Still not feeling any freer, perhaps a bit baffled at the fawning over how insightful these questions are... But your mileage may very. Criticism and comments are welcome.

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

Exactly as old as I am. Knowing my age has no bearing on what it is: a set amount of time had elapsed since my birth.

Okay, you say, semantic snarkiness aside, you know they mean something more along the lines of "how old do you feel?"

But even that can't be quantified. What does 25 feel like? 35? 75? It depends on you. My 38 probably feels like some people's 22 and other people's 51. Not surprisingly, it feels exactly like 38 to me.

All in all, I have to say this one of those questions people like to ask because it seems deep, but really is very pointless when you actually stop to think about it.

Age isn't a matter of mind. It's a very constant matter of the passage of time. And, sadly, no one can change that (yet).

So to answer the question, I feel exactly as old as I am. And, shockingly, that's not a huge mind-freeing revelation.

At 7pm I suddenly decided that I should ring in the new year with a clean office. So I furiously cleaned for about an hour, and now I'm procrastinating. I did get the gift-wrapping stuff put away, though, so that's a win. Still a really, really, really long way to go...

( Year End Meme )

Well, that was a waste of time. I suppose I should get back to cleaning, but the urge has rather passed. Blergh.

My work computer crashed a dozen times.

My home computer refuses to burn a CD for me, and wouldn't send an email earlier.

So @&%#&%& frustrating.

My last hope is my laptop, though now I have to try to import all the songs I JUST put on my desktop.

Is 7:00 too early to just go to bed?

EDIT: ...and, of course, I still cannot post comments AT ALL in Firefox on LJ unless I muscle it into ?style=mine and have the custom pages enabled (which I don't like, but beats not being able to do ANYTHING).

7:11 now, bedtime, right?

One of the things I was going to do for one of my 50 goals was to answer "the 50 questions that will free your mind". I mean, there it was, a list of 50 things already made up. But... despite all the fawning, I really don't see the questions as all that interesting. And they certainly don't "free my mind", whatever the hell that means.

But I don't know what else to put on there. I'm out of ideas that won't set me back too much, time-wise. I know if I try to draw the questions out (one a week) like I planned, I will most certainly lose interest (maybe I already have...).

Argh!

This is why "thinking of 50 lists of 50 things" was #1 on my list...

Christmas is over, time to start thinking of resolutions for the New Year! Or, as I prefer to think of them, "unrealistic goals you don't have a snowball's chance of actually making, but insist on getting excited about even though in your heart of hearts you know you're doomed to disappointment and failure".

I have a whole slew of them, 50 to be exact, of 50 items each. So. 2500 goals, some absurdly stupid and easy, some more challenging. And I'm aiming for a 50% success rate. A year of 50/50, as it were. Crafts play a big part, but so does cleaning up and getting organized.

One of the 'goals' is 50 random presents (rather necessary, probably, with all the craft-based goals). If you'd like to be in the drawing for a random present over the next year (might be crafty, might be a box of crap from my junk drawer, you never know, it's a surprise!), let me know.

Snowfall no one predicted + car from hell = a commute to work more thrilling than an E ride at Disneyland.

Probably a good thing I did oversleep, at least the main roads had some ruts in the snowpack. And it seems to be clearing off nicely with the sun, so the drive home should be fine. Note to self: buy 400 lbs of salt for the trunk.

Teaching class last night went much better, I taught the zombie dance we did at the October show.

My swap package I sent is currently MIA, which would be devastating, because I couldn't re-create it if I wanted to, since I don't know where I'd get another clock like that. Hopefully it turns up...

Still not signed up for any swaps, none seem that interesting. And I really should be working on my house...

Man, I have nothing of interest to say. Disregard this blog post, move along, nothing here to see...

Today is not my day for dealing with people, at least not over the internet. It started by attempting to read a post on my FB feed (I really just need to give that place up, or filter a LOT more) that I felt bad about being so annoyed at. Yes, we all make typos. I understand that. But on this (very sad) post about a family member with cancer, I was stuck trying to muddle through such gems as "unoprobial" and "raked havoick". I do understand people's argument that as long as you are understood, being perfectly grammatically correct all the time is not necessary. We all use abbreviations and language does change. BUT! The problem here is that I don't immediately understand you. In fact, it took me quite awhile, EVEN IN CONTEXT, to understand (I think) "unoprobial". It's not even phonetically spelled!

AND THEN! Sprint Chat help - I signed up for AutoBill Pay, but somehow my account was past due... I'd received the confirmation both by e-mail and paper mail, and logging into my account on-line showed that I was, indeed, set up.

Rep: I can see that you have signed up for automatic payment on 11/10. It may takes 1 to 2 bill cycle to get it effective. By the time I request you please make payment manually.
Me: I had to wait because it wouldn't let me sign up when I paid the bill the last time. I thought receiving the paper confirmation meant it was set up. How will I know when it has gone into effect? I don't want to wait for it to be overdue, but I also don't want to pay it manually and have it deducted automatically, as well.
Rep: Yes, your account has successfully set up for automatic payment however it takes 1 to 2 bill cycle to get it effective.
Me: My question is - will it work next month? Or is it the month after?
Rep: As per our system record, everything is fine so as you are facing with network, please contact technical team and I have also mark location from here. The issue should resolve verry soon.
Rep: *very

Yes, because verry=very is the hardest thing to understand about that chat.

*sigh*

The last of Craftember! Many, many, many pictures ( under the cut )

Part of me really doesn't want to bother sending this year. I've sent cards to my friends and relatives faithfully for over 20 years. I even sent everyone a handmade gift one year! And... I barely get even an acknowledgement in return. Not from you guys - you guys are awesome. Mostly from the people I'm related to. Oh, I hear how they love them and all, and there are a few that are awesome, but... the larger majority doesn't even acknowledge my existence most times. So.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I WILL send to you guys, if I have your correct address. I'm hoping to write some holiday-themed flash fiction in each card, but... time is against me now. That might have to wait until next year. I know I missed at least one sign-up post and I hope I'm not too late to go back and put my name down, we'll see. If you've had my address at any point in the last five years, it hasn't changed. And yes, it's a brand of china, only not spelled exactly the same way.

ON TO CRAFT SWAPS! The post office says Gelsey received, and I did post the rest of the pictures on FB, but I'll make a post here as soon as she lets me know she's home and has opened. I really hope she likes it! I liked it enough that once I overcome my "aaaaaahhhhhh!" reaction to cross-stitching again (my eyes are getting old, it's depressing). I know you are all eagerly awaiting the exciting conclusion of Cratember!

I AM NOT CURRENTLY SIGNED UP FOR ANY SWAPS.

This feels wrong. There is a board game swap I've been waffling on, but I... just don't know. Sign-ups end today, I don't know what time. Unless I hear good reasons why I shouldn't, I'll probably sign up mid-afternoon, unless they've closed the swap and the universe decided for me.

I succeeded in my 30 days 30 crafts endeavor, though it feels somewhat less accomplished than I expected. It might just be that I'm tired and a little burned out. I have more pictures to post, but I want to wait until Gelsey gets her swap item and I don't even have the energy to take the rest of the pictures now.

Today's hair alternated frighteningly between 'librarian' and 'homeless drug addict'. I don't know what I did to it last night, but every time I let it out of its bun it arranged itself in some seriously deranged tangle around my face. And while that normally might look a little dated and 80s, today it was... truly horrid. Though I would never be mistaken for a faces of meth billboard, since I still have a pudgy face. And haven't picked all the skin off of it. Anyway...

There was a third point, and it was something important. But I don't remember what it was. Too sleepy. Maybe it was about the odds of running into someone you know from work at an elementary school ethnic festival in the other corner of the county right after you'd just performed with your bellydance troupe and are dressed as a pirate. Yeah, about 100%. Good times, good times.

Off to bed, I have an asphalt paving seminar tomorrow! And it's being help on campus, so I can see all the young kids and feel old. Yay! Of course, I can also try really hard and remember what college was like, and be thankful I'm old(er).

( LOTS AND LOTS OF CRAFT PICTURES! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! )

Not only did I get to watch the episode of Castle that my DVR inexplicably did not record, in the movie section they also had Zombie Strippers! I don't know if you recall, but it was one of those movies that made the 'best of the worst' horror film lists, but wasn't in the library.

I would say it was so bad it was funny except there was a huge amount of political crap. HUGE. And not clever, either, but whiny, stamp-your-feet mockery that was... pathetic. Plus there was a little bit of... I don't know what you'd call it, but they had a Mexican cleaning man and they made some of the characters 'omg so funny racist!' Only, not, since it was the same trite crap, 'oh, look, you have brown skin, you need to clean up the mess'. Now, that didn't ruin the movie, because... well, it's hard to ruin complete and utter crap, but it did make it more distasteful.

And when you can bring down the classiness about a film about zombie strippers, that's bad.

Other than that, it was what you would expect, with the twist (oh, spoiler alert, because I know you all will want to watch this movie!) that the girls wanted to become zombies, because it made them dance better and they got better tips. But they did eventually start to fall apart and chaos ensued and in the end it was all a military plot to... something blah blah blah. I admit, I started to doze towards the end. They did have a few gratuitous 'commando girls get their shirts ripped off while fighting the zombies' scenes, but in a movie with that much nudity, a girl in a bra is... nothing.

On a completely 'you took way too much time thinking about this' note, supposedly their dancing got way better when they were turned into zombies, but... I didn't see it. I thought they were way better alive, and not just because limbs weren't turning black and falling off (not to mention the lack of covered in blood). They got more jerky and manic, and I don't really see why the 'audience' liked it more. But it had to be that way, the plot said so.

I wouldn't really recommend the movie for anything, it's not a 'so bad it's good' movie (watch Plan 9 From Outer Space or Mega Piranha for that!) and while it has Jenna Jameson in it, she's just a stripper, and if you're watching a movie for her, there are others out there that would probably.... interest you more.

I'm all for small businesses. In fact, if no one ever bought anything made overseas, the US would have to start making more things. We'd have to make due with a lot less, because things would be much more expensive, but we're a pretty spoiled country (not that I'm complaining, I do like my stuff).

But the quote on the stop black Friday website pissed me off.

The credit cards the 99% will overcharge will allow the 1% to enrich themselves...

No, let's not require people to take any personal responsibility and, oh, I don't know, maybe not overcharge?

This 99% crap is so... mercurial. Occupiers were quoted as saying the miscreants and thugs that created havoc at protests "aren't part of the 99%"... which apparently means they are now protesting only the richest 0.5% and the bottom 0.5% dregs of society.

I'm not part of the 1% (either way, top or bottom!), but neither am I really part of this 99%, which means I guess I don't exist.

This is comment I got, translated from Russian by Google and with the urls (links noted in italics) removed:

( under the cut, for profanity and whatnot )

I like some of the seemingly random text in the middle, especially (for whatever reason) "Mr. Cates, your table is free." I feel like that should be the opening line of a drabble. And the picture is, at least for now, pretty and innocuous. It's a flower... no, a thistle? But I don't think they could have fit the word 'sex' in there any more than they did. It's like... a desperate last gasp at NaNo, when all that's coming out is complete gibberish. Man, I kinda miss NaNo. I got nothing crafty done today, unless you count baking cookies. Which I might, if it comes to that...