Voice mails, crochet, and procrastination... story stuff!

For my next project, I am going to make this. And I am going to make a cowl that can be worn with it or separately. Truth be told, I kind of want to make a hooded cowl that has either cat ears or bear ears on top. I know, I'm a 31 year old woman, but cowls like that are so cute!

All of this crochet talk stems from me getting on facebook today and asking one of my Stich n Witch friends about the picture above. She sent me to the actual pattern on Ravelry and then I spent the next hour or so chatting with her and looking at Halloween and Gothic patterns. I would really like to make some shawls and I found a really adorable vampire Amigurumi pattern.

Of course, I haven't made anything like that before, so it will probably take some time and practice. 

Since I have been chatting with a friend about crochet and perusing Ravelry, I've kind of pushed off my homework for the day. And... I am still doing so by writing this blog. But then again, I am still getting something I want to be doing done, so it's worth it to me. 

However, my adviser from SNHU called and wanted to catch up. I only know this because I listened to the voice mail he left when I didn't catch the call. Anyway. He s concerned about my grade in my photography class. I'm not. I will get everything caught up and turned in before the class is over. Actually, I'll probably get it all done early next week. I don't care if I get an A, I just want to pass the class. 

Back to the subject of voice mails. I sometimes miss calls from my Mom, so she will leave a voice mail message for me. I generally keep a couple of her voice messages because I haven't seen her in over a year and even though I talk to her over the phone a couple times a week, I still miss her. So, if I have a moment where I am missing her a lot, I go listen to the messages she left. I have one from my Dad too. I know it's sentimental but sometimes, it really helps on a bad day, especially when I am not able to call my parents. Which has become a little tricky since my Dad is working the night shift. 

Okay, story stuff. I need to write a short story with Witches or a Witch as the theme that's young adult to submit to a magazine in September. I also have to rewrite, add to, and polish an adult Witch theme story I have for submission to another magazine.  Aside from that, I have a lot of work I need to do on one of my novels (well okay, I have a lot of work to do on all three of my novels but I am focusing on this particular novel at the moment). I basically need to get my shit together, write out all the notes, make diagrams, charts, timelines,  and family trees, and tack them all over the tri-fold display board I bought for this project. Then it will be available for easy reference when I need it. 

Yeah, it's a lot of work and on top of all of it, I want to work in making tarot bags, crochet more, get my sewing going, and do some art stuff too. Meh. I'll get it all done in my own time. Except for the writing, that needs to happen asap. 

For now, though, I am going to take a nap before dinner. I made a veggie-hamburger stew and used tomato juice for the, I guess you call it a broth. It smells good. 

  

Oh Twitter, Oh Facebook *sigh*

I am going to make this quick because I am waiting for Skoora to edit the Christmas/yule story I wrote to send out in our cards this year.

Twitter: I logged into my twitter account yesterday only to find out that my account had been suspended. Now since I don't really like Twitter in the first place, mostly because all I see is a bunch of #  hash tag nonsense from strangers and hardly anything from the people I am actually following. I also don't like that there is a bunch of this hash tag nonsense to begin with. People go crazy with it. Just say what you want to say and leave it at that.

Well, so as I was saying, I found that my account was suspended. I was a little pissed especially since after I filled out a little form they sent an e-mail back telling em to go read their site rules. *insert annoyed face* I read the rules twice and sent back a reply that was very police and even nice, basically stating that I didn't appreciate it and if I really had done something wrong then I apologize and am glad that I was able to use their service for the months I had it. I received a response stating that they had accidentally caught me up in a spam filter and that my account should be active again. The only reason I started a Twitter account was so I could follow a few celebrities, authors, musicians ect... and then have it available should I ever get a book published. Writers have to do a little marking for themselves.

Facebook: I was finish up my breakfast in the living room and Skoora's Dad had one of the seems like 10 news stations on. One was talking about how the folks at Facebook can see all your messages, even the ones you erase and there was some chatter that sounded like they be able to see what your doing while you have Facebook open on other sites or doing other things on your computer. They apparently keep track of your keystrokes. AND the lady who works for Facebook who was talking about this seems to think that's perfectly all right. WHAT?! I don't think so!

If I actually post a message on my Facebook, that's fine, obviously I want what I am saying to be seen otherwise I wouldn't have posted. And I'm miffed about them being able to see what I started to post but decided to erase, simply for the fact that I erased it and it's a little disconcerting to know that someone might be watching what I am writing as I am typing it. Enter creeped out factor. But what really pisses me off is that they think they have any right to monitor what I am doing on other sites or my personal computer just because I have Facebook open!

The only reason I even got Facebook in the first place was so I could keep in contact with friends from High School, some family members, and yes, even to play mindless games from time to time. As a person who has worked in two call centers and now hates talking on the phone (no, actually, I loathe it), and I live half way across the country from most of said friends and family, Facebook is the easiest way for me to keep up with them. Especially since most of them don't like to use snail mail or even e-mail. You don't know how many times I have e-mailed someone and they don't reply, it's very annoying. And like I said with Twitter, assuming I ever get a book published, I will need to do some Marketing on Facebook.

But there is something else that is bothering me. In that little news segment they said that the FBI can turn on your computer's webcam and spy on you. As if having the NSA spying on everything wasn't bad enough! So my post to Facebook recently was "Heard on the news that the FBI can turn on my webcam. Hope they like watching me pick my nose".  Nope, won't deny it, I pick my nose occasionally while reading stuff online. I also occasionally chair dance if my back isn't hurting too badly and I talk to myself as well as my characters. If I'm playing Guild Wars, I cuss out the NPCs and sometimes chew fellow alliance members out under my breath. Oh and sometimes Skoora and I talk about Yaoi. *gasp!*  So scandalous! I'm not saying that they do watch me or that they are, it's the fact that they can that really pisses me off.

All of that unpleasantness aside, I am hoping to get the Christmas/ Yule letter finished, the Christmas/ Yule Story edited and revised, and get them both in our cards and in the mail by the end of the day. But somehow, I have a feeling that won't entirely be the case for it seems that today is a very slow moving day. Why? Because Skoora is the biggest procrastinator that I know. She's not even dressed yet. Before I joined my life with hers six years ago, I used to be 15 minutes early to everything, now I am luck if I am on time at all. This is not something I am thrilled with, in fact most of the time it puts me on edge, but what can I do? I've often thought of getting a cattle prod but she might enjoy that too much.

Heh heh heh, it's snowing! It puts the lotion on it's skin or it gets the whip... I think?

A coat from Elle

I don't know where "It puts the lotion on it's skin or it gets the whip", came from or if I am even quoting my friend right, but I thought it was semi appropriate for the time of year it's becoming. It's snowing again for this morning and at the moment it's not really sticking, but melting. I am, of course, happy to watch it fall although it is getting a bit colder faster than I expected it too. That's not really a problem for me except that I don't have a coat or even a jacket. In fact the only think I have is a tartan I for my Irish SCA garb for my Senior Project and a wrap around shawl-like-thing fro wal-mart. They will get me by, for now.

I've decided that I am going to make myself a coat instead of trying to find one that fits. I am fat and we don't have a lot of money so I am not going to order a coat from a catalog only to have send it back because it doesn't fit. On top of that I inherited my Dad's long arms and quite frankly, I am so tried of sleeves not fitting. Oh and did I mention that I am pear shaped and have a short torso on top of that? Yep, anything I buy has to fit me in the hips and then of course it's too big for my shoulders. Not even my boobs compensate. Yes, I want to make myself a coat that is tailored to fit me properly. I have a pattern but it needs to be expanded and Skoora's mom told me she knows how to do that sort of thing. Yay for me. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that it's going to take holding a figurative gun to her head to make sure she hold up her end of the deal. She knows all she had to so is show me how to do something or explain it to me and I will do it. That's what we did when making my skirts for my Halloween costume.

The coat above is what I am hoping to make, but because of my shape, I'm thinking about making the coat fitted to my waist and then bell it out from there. Not too much mind you. And I might make it have a steampunk flare.

Yesterday was a cooking day and oh boy was it! I think we started around 1 in the afternoon and didn't finish until after 9 or 10 pm. Needless to say we have some food for awhile and I can still make a roast and also chicken enchilada soup. Of course it took us so long to do make everything because most of what we made had to be baked and Kaiser rolls take up to  two hours to make and bake and Bierocks take about the same. I also made breakfast burritos and those about an hour or so. Add in that I have a bad back and had to sit in an office chair in the kitchen to cut cabbage (I ended up getting some on the floor much to my annoyance), and that I had to make dinner during all of this too, and it took awhile. But despite the pain it was fun. Skoora and I pretty much got flour everywhere. We are going to need to mop the kitchen floor to get all of it up.

Of course I am paying for working in the kitchen yesterday, today. I hurt so bad, even with taking medicine and sitting with the heating pad. I'm not going to be doing much of anything today. But I have edited some pictures that were on my camera and managed to get dressed. I have to put away some laundry, the easy stuff that goes in the dresser, and get the dirty stuff that's in the hall into the laundry bucket (when I get the clean stuff out). I'm kind of procrastinating. Yoda is curled up next to me and I just don't feel like moving. I just want to spend the day writing and cuddling my kitties. I doubt that's going to happen though, especially since I need to get up and move.

Into the exciting life of... You're kidding me right?

So! I've completely and utterly been procrastinating on my homework. You'd think, one class, no big deal, just sit down and tackle that beast... of three chapters and a group project. Right? No. The truth is, I tried to do my homework yesterday evening and upon not being able to answer the first question of my homework assignment, I slammed the textbook shut and neatly and very orderly put everything away and picked up my computer to watch episodes of The Guild on Netflix.

*sigh*

I know, I know, I'm horrible. There's only a few weeks left to go in this stupid class. I should just do it and get it over with. But I have this annoying mental block that's driving me crazy. Half of me wants it done and over with, all homework and labs turned in, group project (my part of it) finished, and just sit back and study for the final. The other half of me wants to just throw in the towel and deal with it later. Can't do that. It's just so weird! All my homework is a B+, I just got caught up and turned in most of my labs so that should bring that portion of my grade up, and my first big test in the class got a C+. I should have a pretty good grade but I don't and it's really beginning to drive me crazy! I really just want to get this over with so I can get on to more exciting things. Things that actually pertain to my degree.

Back to The Guild. I've really enjoyed the show. I definitely want to see more. Sorry, no spoilers for those who haven't seen it. I'm not a total kill joy. Needless to say, it's invoked the inner nerd in me and now I want to play Guild Wars tonight... I'm waiting until my Dad is finished watching The A Team with my mom so we can get some of our outstanding quests taken care of. I haven't played in over a month. This of course just facilitates my procrastination but I really don't care. I want to kill monsters and have my lacking sense of accomplishment rectified in game since I seem to fail at it in life.

Oh, but I did start the drawing on the mock up design for the kitchen. I have to do everything on a sketch pad since I don't have a drawing tablet and nifty software like all my friends. Working on that. Anyway, that's kind of satisfying the inner interior designer in me and the artsy part of me that longs to come out. Now if only I could find my paint... And for that matter my brushes.

That reminds me, I need to pose my idea for thank you cards to our Service Men and Women to my DAR Regent and have some mock ups ready for when DAR gets started again. It's an idea that spawned from my own social phobia and not being able to walk up to a Service Man in the air port a couple of weeks ago.

Well, off to try and post for my other blog. See ya later.