Wish Apon a Moon

Dream Catcher Beaded Tapestry

I built a tent out of my blankets yesterday. And then I spent the whole day in it, avoiding everything. It was nice. Too bad I can't do that every day.

Over the Moon

Moon Phases Bracelet

I had some poignant observation about family I was going to blog about today, but now I can't remember what it was.

I guess...hey! I know! It's almost rabbit shedding season, and I can tell because my rabbit looks really quite scruffy today!

Okay, yeah, that's not very exciting.

Uh...I almost have a group of friends now? I find that exciting. 

I made almost $50 on Etsy last month. That's nearly enough to buy something exciting there. Nearly.  Well, I guess it depends what thing I find exciting.

I dunno. I guess I don't have anything interesting to talk about today. Maybe I'll just go water my orchid instead.

Something Witty

Floating Boxes Bracelet

It's raining. A dreary, dark and somewhat cold rain. Not Fun. But yet a fitting day for the one on which I realized Borders is forever closed. I think it *actually* a few days ago, but I didn't notice, so today it's like the whole world mourns the passing of a great bookstore with me.

My friends, a moment of silence

...while I go look up directions to Barnes and Noble.

Ladybeetle

Ladybug Pendant

I think I need to change some of my descriptions on this blog, since several things in my life seem to have changed.  I'm not longer single, for starters. And I seem to have gotten a (very) part-time job. I'm still living with my parents, though, and my job isn't quite enough to help fix that, so I'm still 'broke' for the most part (and if I ever do manage to get monies, the first significant chunk of it goes to fixing my car, sadness).

I've also got a bike helmet and permission to borrow one for the summer. I was a little unsure about buying the bike helmet, because I hate spending more than $20 on anything, and the helmet was $40, but then I looked at it in two ways: A) this is my brain we're talking about and B) It's still less than a tank of gas.

I rather like my brain. And I hate buying gas, so I got the helmet. It's a decent one, too, and I've no regrets.

I do have a misgiving, though, and that is the fact that we live on the top of a large hill.  Most of the time I do not think about this, but, while it makes going to anywhere surprisingly easy, it means I have difficulties getting back.  Just yesterday a mere ride around the block necessitated a 20-minute nap for recovery. I managed to avoid the nap today, but my legs...let's just say they are not used to the exercise.  But hopefully in a few weeks going around the block won't kill me, and maybe after that I'll be able to ride to work--which is at the farthest, lowest other end of this hill.  So really, my hope is that eventually I'll be able to ride from work.

Blink

Owl Pin

I read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell last night. It must have been good because I stayed up until 2am reading it--something I usually only do with fiction books.

Blink is all about thinking without thinking. Like how you might make a snap judgement of someone--and how you might be right about it. I was really, really interesting.  And it made me reflect a lot on my previous-to-this-one relationship.

It wasn't a wonderful relationship, but it wasn't horrible, either. It was just filled with scenes that could comprise a list of 'you know your relationship is dull and not going to last when...' anecdotes.  One of these was that we didn't fight--except over flowers.  Specifically, over proper flower identification.  Even more specifically than that, over the fact that I could point to one very prevalent roadside wildflower and identify it going past at 65 mph, and he never believed me.

I cannot do this with everything, but for a while I would practice my plant-identifying skills every day, and this particular flower (birdsfoot trefoil, although I did have the name wrong at once point) has a very distinctive color and growing pattern. I can identify ginkgo trees from the road, too, and I think I can tell oaks from maples (although it's harder to double check). To my ex this was inconceivable.

According to Blink all I was doing was looking at something and taking a 'thin-slice' view of what I saw and subconsciously coming to a conclusion of what the flower was. I've always called it 'pattern recognition,' and trusting my gut in cases like that (or when figuring out book plots ahead of time, among other things) is a large part of how I'm intelligent, so when my ex would question that I knew what the flower was, he was doubting a huge chunk of my intelligence, which was why I was unwilling to back down on it.

Then he claimed I wouldn't back down because I always had to be right, but I think it had far more to do with the fact that he couldn't handle being wrong, since I'm not always right (although I could be wrong about that) and when I'm not, I admit it.

Blink also had a section about couples, and that one of the best predictors of whether a marriage will work out is the presence of contempt in a relationship. I didn't mean to hold my ex in contempt, but after he doubted my flower-identifying skills (among other things) it just sort of happened. I'm much happier now; good riddance to bad relationships.

Still Watching

Fairy Ninja Bracelet

I probably shouldn't have relisted an inside joke, but I did, so whatever. Besides, I still think it's funny.  Also, you know how I always talk about how no one can tell what the fairy ninjas are, or they get the wings, but not the essential ninja bit, well, my new boyfriend actually recognized the fairy ninja as being a ninja, but since what he said was 'this ninja's not very good at hiding' I was more focused on that slight slight than on the fact that he recognized what it was.

He was looking at the fairy ninja beaded 'tapestry' at the time, but there's a chance that he'd seen it on my computer screen (I have all sorts of pictures on constant slide-show in my google sidebar), where the photos of the ninjas are easier to identify. Or I might have mentioned the fairy ninjas before, but I'm fairly sure that I didn't.

So...I think he's a bit of a keeper, really. I mean, anyone who can recognize a ninja when he sees one, is someone to keep around, right? Even if its seeing in th efirst place that's the tricky part.

Artic Wind

Adorable Penguin Bracelet

I had not one but three sales yesterday. It's very exciting, because I've almost made back the money I spent on books yesterday!  (um, whoops?)

Part of me hopes that this becomes a trend, and part of my is grumpily unhappy that it might, because it would mean I'd need to make more things and I've been really lazy about beading lately.  I am working on one beaded project for myself, and I almost have another tapestry to put up, but I'm nowhere near producing something to sell every day.

And I can't sell the thing I'm making for myself because the technique is a new one, and it's awful.  Most people won't notice, but I can see all the flaws--actually, they might be bad enough in this case that others can see them.  Also, it will involve my collection of turtle-shaped beads, and those are MINE, and no one else can have them, even if I make them into a awesome bead-covered dream catcher.  Actually, especially if I make them into a 'catcher.

I'll post pictures if I ever manage to finish it.

Penguins Again

Penguin Pin

I feel like we've been here before...

And it's a bit silly, since this is now spring. Do people buy penguins in the spring? I usually associate them with winter, but I suppose they might be a year-round thing. Especially in Antarctica.

Did you know that Antarctica is the only continent without invasive species? That's pretty neat, when you think about it (unless you count humans, but we're only visiting and can't truly survive there). Although I guess if I was an invasive species, I wouldn't even try to live on a continent that freaking cold. Brr.

But, due to plate tectonics, Antarctica is slowly drifting away from the froze south pole, and some day--in about 70 million years, give or take--it'll be inhabitable for the rest of us. I look forward to that day. Very exciting.

The Other Blog

Beaded Rose Pin

Most people don't know this--and really, how could you--but I've started a second blog.  It's the Stuff I Own Blog, where I talk about the objects that I posses (or that posse me), and once a week I've started blogging about other blog articles about owning too much, or too little, and what a horrid toll that takes on our souls.

So far I haven't gotten very much up--well, there's slightly over a hundred objects, but only a few non-item posts, and only one of those is about another article.  And it wasn't even a good article, either, it was a bunch of correlated data mixed with a dash of pseudo-science to sound like it was saying owning lots of stuff leads to mental illness.

I'm hoping to find better material this Wednesday, but I list a few new objects every day, so you can feel free to check out all the glittery bits of my soul right here.

Sunshine and Moonshine

Sun and Moon Choker

When I worked at my outdoor ed place (the one I liked), we would teach classes each week. For the most part these classes already existed before we taught them, so we'd read the description in one of the Binders, and then we'd teach it.

But nothing at that place was set in stone, and we were encouraged to make our own classes, change the classes that we got from the Binders and also sometimes we'd have a class fall-through at the last moment and replace it with something from our heads.

I came up with one--I only taught it maybe four times, because I usually saved it for a rainy day activity with my non-classes groups. I also knew that if I taught it a lot I'd get bored with it, and the kids wouldn't enjoy it.

Because in summary it doesn't sound that fun.  In summary it is: 'create an energy map of everything on Earth.' Which does not sound fun, and I've heard some unfun things in my life.

But in practice I would sit all the kids down, pull out my rainbow of dry erase markers and a large whiteboard, then I'd start with "where does almost all energy on Earth come from?" We'd get the sun, which gives energy to the plants, then herbivores, then carnivores, then back to the earth, which is basic stuff, and I'd draw colorful and...simple pictures of each step. 

I'd also take it beyond just the food chain, and go out to "What else gets its energy from the sun?" We'd add solar panels, and the water cycle/weather, we'd talk about the energy from decaying plants going into fossil fuels, which would go back into powering our daily things, and if I remembered, I'd connect it back to fossil fuels putting out CO2 and affecting the weather (it's not strictly energy it's putting into the system, but it's a good teachable moment).

Eventually we'd have this crazy and colorful whiteboard of things, and then I'd have the kids draw the images onto cards (either copying from me or their own), we'd tape the cards onto posterboard, and then I'd have them connect everything with string again.

It was fun, and the kids generally got a lot out of it, and also were proud enough of their energy poster that they'd gleefully hang it in the dining hall for the rest of the week.

April Fool's Day!

Beaded Rose Bracelet

I'll be 28 in 24 days. Now that's what I call a joke.

Although it isn't nearly as funny as the SNOW we had this morning. Some of which is still clinging in the shadows of the yard. Oh, man, the weather totally punk'd us.