Will answer for friendship

So, Sierra doesn't think she had any friends to tag with this questionnaire thing. That just isn't true, so I tagged myself.  Here are my answers:

 

1. What was your first job? – My very first job was babysitting.  I watched this kid who was like 6 years younger than me while his mom went to her club meetings or something.  He was the greatest kid.  Not hard to watch or anything.  I would let him stay up, and then 5 minutes before his mom would get back we would rush him to bed.  after a while, he would decide to go to bed at his bedtime.  He said that he would be too tired in the morning otherwise.  See?  You don't have to be a hard ass to get kids to do what you want!

My first "real job" was as a youth leader and lifeguard at the YMCA.  I taught swimming lessons, and a youth leadership program.  It was one day a week, and it paid pretty well.    

2. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you hate Nickelback?  40+.  But, Fox You (Very Much) loves them; and I can't figure that out.

3. Dumbledore gives you a cloak of invisibility. Where do you go with it? – Lately, I've been thinking about celebrity couples.  Not the lame ones, but the really fabulous ones.  I wonder if Laurence Fishburne and his wife Gina Torres walk around professing their fabulousness.  So I guess I would use it to spy on celebrities.  And the ones I don't like, you bet I'd sell those stories.

4. Who are your celebrity crushes? – Um, none really.  I love Brandon Flowers, but a lot of people don't know who he is, so more for me.  He's a little unkempt, but that's how I like my boys.  I like them to look a little homeless. Besides, he's a musician.  They are far superior to actors.  Movie stars give me the creeps.  I mean, you don't know who they will be when you are talking to them.  They make their living lying to people.  How can you know that they are ever sincere?  Trust?  I doubt it. 

5. Would you rather be the top scientist in your field or get mad cow disease? – Top scientist.  Have you seen the movies?  They always get into cool adventures, and have awesome romances.  Mad cow disease just gives you... I dunno... cramps?

6. Zero ramifications: who do you wish you could punch in the face? – Just one?  Or one a day?  I need more details here.  Can I throw one punch and line a bunch of people up on the other end of it then run down the line?  If so, then Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.

7. How do you prefer your coffee? – One spoon of sugar, and enough soy milk until it is the same color as my skin.  That's what I tell people when they pick up coffee for me.

8. Have any books inspired your spirituality recently? –The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood talks about an elaborate religion ("called the gardeners") based on environmentalism; and that was pretty intriguing.  After I read it, I changed my Facebook profile to note that my religion was ecology.  I think that's the closest I have ever been "spiritually inspired."  What do you want?  I'm an atheist. 

9. What color light saber would you chose in a battle with Jar Jar Binks? – Pink.  I've never seen a pink one and its about time.

10. Are you original? Are you the only one? Are you sexual? – No.  The costumes in that video did rock though.  And if we're being honest, I did learn that dance routine for a recital.

11. YOU BETTER ROCK YO BODY NOW (EVERYBODY, YEEEAH)- Ok.

I answered the questions in hope that you will consider me a blog friend.  So, what d' you say, Sierra? 

Bassability Books: E-Read-a-thon!

For Christmas, I got  tablet.  A pretty fancy one: I got an ASUS Infinity Transformer.  It is a tablet, and docks into a keyboard to become a netbook-like thing.  It is by far, one of the coolest gadgets I have ever had.  But cool gadgets are one of the great things about living in the future.

I've been thinking more about this: all the classic sci-fi I read mention these years as the future.  It is so cool what people thought would be available now, and what our world would be like.  Think about it: 1984 by Orwell thought that England would be under totalitarianistic government; Alas Babylon by Pat Frank thought the world would have had the 3rd world war by now; and who could forget what the movie Back to the Future thought about 2013 (Side note: January 4 2013 was the time that Marty travelled to.  This January was back... to the future!)

ANYWAYS, because of my new tablet thing, I have been reading like a machine.  I like to read every night, and now I don't have to wait to get to the bookstore.  This has been good and bad; good because I have been reading a lot more and learning more.  Bad, because my bank account is taking a hit buying all these e-books.  Good thing I like the classics which are largely free! 

So, this Bassability Books post may be a little long. Because I have a few books to get through.  Luckily, I've been reading a lot of trilogies.  So I will treat those as one.  Got to give you a bit of a break so that you can go out there and read some books!

As always, the rating scale:

*** 3/3 - Couldn't put it down.  I may have taken a day off work to finish it.

** 2/3 -  I read it.  Passed the time, probably won't read it again.

* 1/3 - Finished it.  Still don't know why I bothered

0/3 - Didn't finish it.  Life's too short for bad books.

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E.L. James: Welp, I read it.  I guess as someone who is not shy or hindered by her sexuality, I didn't think that the sex in this book was a big deal.  It should probably be said that as an editor (a past career of course) I edited more than my fair share of erotica fiction.  So this was no big deal.  I would talk to a friend (who recommended this book to me) and she was shocked that I wasn't scandalized by these books.  Above all, it was a romance novel.  And I don't usually read those.  It wasn't the best written book; the metaphors were labored and repetitive; and I totally didn't see the appeal of the protagonists.  The girl was consistently demonstrating her own self-hatred; and the message of trying to save a partner who was border-line abusive is not one that I found entertaining.  So I guess what I'm saying is: I don't see why these books were so popular.  They weren't terrible; but not worth the hype either.  

(**) <--- My grade for this book looks like breasts!  That's funny.  And fitting.  What can I say? I have a child's sense of humor sometimes.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson: This book made me want to move to Sweden.  Imagine: a place where journalist actually discover newsworthy information!  Where they have an interest in their society!  Where they are invested and involved in making the news!  Here in North America, journalists haven't really discovered anything amazing since Watergate.  Step it up, newsies!  Otherwise this book had enough intrigue to keep me attached to these books.  I read the whole trilogy, over 1500 pages in 5 days.  That is saying something. (***) 

Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood: I actually had no idea that atwood had started a new trilogy.  I came across these books while browsing the Kobo site, and I'm glad I did.  They are really good.  The story is one I read a lot, since I am strangely fascinated with the apocalypse; it is about the end of the world, but from the point of view of an ecologically based cult.  I'm always happy to find these things; a new twist on an old trope.  (***)

Amped by Daniel H. Wilson:  This is the second book that Wilson has written that I have read.  It is very clever.  If you know your American history (and current events) you can find a lot of commentary on American society.  That's one of my favorite things about reading sci-fi; its meant to teach us about ourselves and our world.  (***)

I've started some new books (surprise, surprise), so there should be more book talk coming in the future.  One idea I've had is to do a type of book club-- but one that is no obligation, and no pressure.  You can read whatever you want, and there would be some questions to discuss if you wanted to.  I think it sounds like fun.  Does someone else have that?  If you do, can I join?

Not the best start to 2013: A list

I know it seems that I've been AWOL around here for a while.  Truth is, I haven't had the best January.  There has been some good with the completely annoying though.  Here are the highlights:

• Government declared our strike illegal.  Morale lowered.
• I started knitting again.  I made some mittens and a hat. 
•  I got MRSA (antibiotic resistant staph infection) from a kid at school.  Was really sick and in the hospital.  Feeling better now.  I'm so done with child-carried plagues.  
• Started looking for a house.  Found 2, but lost out on both of them.  Sigh.
• Read 13 books this month.  It is so much easier to track them using an e-reader.  
• While I was working, I walked through a doorway, and a cockroach fell into my mouth.  I'm still not over that and its been almost a month.  I ate hand soap after it happened.  I am now weary of ALL doors.

It doesn't seem like much, but work and house hunting has been taking up all of my time.  Those things and trying to live my life avoiding doors. 

25 Thing Fat People Shouldn't Do: Sit in a booth, Eat in Public & Drive

Here is the saddest thing I will admit in this post:  I used to NEVER eat in public.  I had tons of reasons for not eating in public; but they all stemmed from an experience I had as a kid.

I was a fat kid.  It happens.  And I was eating a funnel cake at a fair.  It was the best thing I ever tasted.  But as I was sitting, minding my own business, eating, a group of women who were in line for their own food, started commenting.  I can still remember EVERYTHING they said.  It was hurtful, and made me feel ashamed.  So as a way of protecting myself, I didn't eat in public for a long time.  Not even with my family.  Not even with my friends. I figured that if I didn't put myself in these situations, then people would have no right to make comments.  Clearly being fat wasn't my fault; I never ate out. 

The problem with my line of thinking was that my body was something to be ashamed of.  And by not doing things I wanted to, I was punishing myself for not fitting in.  It was like penance for being fat, and taking up so much space. 

Screw that.

Now I eat out all the time.  Its one of D's and my favorite things to do.  We like to try new foods and cuisines, and restaurants.  But sometimes, we just go out for an old-fashioned McDonald's breakfast.  And its great.  One thing we've been checking out lately is diners.

The awesome thing about diners is that the one we love is all booths!  And for this response on that stupid list, this place was perfect. 

 
And how did we get there?  I drove.

Now this is one thing on the list, I truly don't understand.  Driving?  Really?  I even have a little car.  And how am I supposed to get places?  Walk? Oh, maybe I'm not supposed to go anywhere at all. Whatever, listman. 
 



** Here are the 25 things I've already completed: Ride a bike; Wear a mumu; Make art of themselves; Jump in an elevator.  And you can find the list here.

Roundup 2012

Well well well... Here we are at the end of another year.  I didn't think that I would last 2 years on this here blog, but I'm glad I did.  This year was pretty busy, and had tons of changes and events for me.  And let's not forget the personal growth.  And the friends I made.  Here are my favorite posts from this year:

Why I Will (Probably) Never Have a Popular Blog...

The Code of Kindness

My Two Halves

Conquering Art Fright

I'm Pro GLBTQ rights.

25 Things Fat People Shouldn't Do (And Why I'm Doing Them)

The Politics of Teaching

I also enjoyed these posts I wrote:

• What I learned from Bill and Ted
• My Fat Girl Army Manifesta

And from around the blogosphere I enjoyed:

•  The Militant Baker's Womanifestos Challenge
•  Learning about Athens GA with Grits and Moxie
• Awesome Self Portraits from Miles From Ordinary
• Life in Sunny California with stephanie alena
• Yesiree Petunia's Mobile Shop
• Young Georgia Love's Engagement
• Cult Stories with C'mon Fatso
• Fox You (Very Much)'s (confusing) love of Nickleback

It was a great year for blogging.  Here's to another in 2013!  Happy New Year everyone!

Ringing in a new year

I love the idea of New Year's Day!  A new start, time to make good on all those things you've been promising yourself.  It seems so hopeful to me.  And I'm a girl who loves hope.  So naturally, I see New Year's as a time to re-imagine what the upcoming year could be. 

I have a secret superpower: I am able to make and keep my new year's resolutions. 

Ok, its not really a superpower, its just knowing yourself enough to know how to set some realistic goals.  I don't usually set goals that impossible, no need to make myself feel like a failure.  Instead, I choose a few things that I want to improve about myself, and work on those.

Also, I make my list of resolutions really pretty so that I can hang them up on my bulletin board to remind myself what I'm working on.

This year, the list is kind of short, but still a challenge:

My resolutions are never overwhelming, and always something I think I can achieve.  So, this year I will:

1. Find an active hobby.

I have many hobbies that are stationary hobbies.  I love crafts, and knitting and sewing-- but not much movement happens there.  I need to find an activity that I like, that is active.  I run, but I don't ever enjoy that.  As a result, it is easy for me to go 2 weeks (like I have over the holidays...) not running.  I need something that is sorta social, active, and kinda fun.  And I need to be able to do it in the winter. 

Why an active hobby?  I think of it as a kind of test for myself.  I am starting to really like my body.  and one challenge for me is to take my body and do something active with it where other people will see me.  I run alone, inside, on a treadmill.   I want to love my body as it jiggles and wiggles while I'm moving. 

2.  Do one new thing.

This resolution is vague on purpose.  I don't really know what that new thing will be.  But, I really like to challenge myself, and I haven't done that recently.  I've been wanting to do something that scares me for a while.  No I'm not a masochist, I like trying to conquer some of the fears I have.  And one way I can do that is by facing them.  One year, I walked on the glass floor of the CN Tower, to face my fear of heights.  Its 1, 122 feet off the ground.  It did it.  And I felt awesome after I did it.  So I would like to do something like that again.  Maybe something to do with spiders...

3. Be self- affirming.

Honestly, this one will be the hardest.  I am the queen of self- depreciation.  I make jokes at my expense all the time.  And I never stop to think what it does to my state of mind.  Isn't that awful?  I seem to worry about everyone else's feelings but my own.  And then, when people don't consider my feelings, instead of being about to move past it, I fall apart.  I figure, that if I started to be nicer to myself, maybe just maybe, I can handle when other people are not as nice to me as they could be.

This is the resolution that will need the strictest game plan.   How will I know that I am being self-affirming?  Should I do a checklist?  A routine?  I may keep a journal, and write one thing I like about myself everyday.  I'm not sure how I will set it up yet. 

Do you have any practice that you use to protect your feelings of self appreciation?  I would love to hear about them...

12 posts of Christmas: Handmade Gifts

Dude.  I love Christmas.  I'm not talking about the religious aspect of the holiday, I'm not into that part.  I'm into the gift-giving, meal-making, goodie-baking, fun-spirited aspect of the holiday.  So, in honor of the holiday season, I'm going to have 12 posts dedicated to the things I love about Christmas.  

*****************************

Isn't giving presents the best?  I love giving my friends and fam pressies, but often people are weird about it if there's no special occasion.  Every once and a while I will find something that I HAVE to buy for a friend, and they would give me a hard time about getting them something.  With some friends its goes so far as I wait for their birthdays, and then give them all the things I found along the way.   What happened to us as a society, where a friend can't give another friend something to perk up their day without bringing on the Inquisition?

ANYWAYS, one of my favorite things about Christmas, is that I can give gifts, and no one gives me the third degree about it.  One of the things I love to do is make the gifts I give to people.

I've always been crafty, but I never really gave handmade gifts at first.  I didn't have many people in my life who appreciated all the effort and time that went into making something.  So I kept most of the early things I made.  But I'm a knitter, and you can have entirely too many hats, scarves, mitts and sweaters so, one Christmas I gave away something I made.  And it was a hit!


There is a practical side to handmaking your gifts too.  A few of our Christmases were heavily budgeted for me and D as I was unemployed, then underemployed for a couple of years.  I made almost every present I gave that year.  Not only were they not costly, they were deeply personal to each person who received a gift.

Of course, pulling off a handmade Christmas takes a lot of planning.  I started thinking about Christmas gifts I wanted to make in August.  I searched for patterns, and started making gifts even if I didn't know exactly who they would go to.  And, if I made something and liked it too much to give away, there was time to find something else to make, or to make another one.  Not that I have ever done that, or anything.

For gift giving, I tend to stick to small things- hats or mitts and the like.  This way I don't have to worry about sizing, and you can never really have too many of either of these living up here in the "great white north."

Here is one of the gifts I made for a friend this year (Oh I hope she doesn't read this blog...):

I didn't knit this.  I was on a weaving kick for a while, and this is one of the scarves I made.  A friend commented on how much she loved it, so she's getting it for Christmas!

Another gift I've made for this year:

A Sunflower Tam!  I love this hat, and I have one for myself.  A great thing about being a knitter is that knitted gifts are in high demand usually.  But I have given other types of crafty gifts too.  A few years ago, I made some quilts for my grandmother, my mother and my mother-in-law; and I have made quilted makeup bags in the past.

But it really doesn't matter what kind of handmade gift you give; its really just the fact that you took some time, and thought about someone enough to give them not only a present, but you time too. And this is how I know that handmade presents best represent what I am trying to give to my friend and family; because I am always grateful when someone will spend their time on me.

What handmade gifts have you given? Why did you give it?

12 posts of Christmas: DIY Star Ornaments

Dude.  I love Christmas.  I'm not talking about the religious aspect of the holiday, I'm not into that part.  I'm into the gift-giving, meal-making, goodie-baking, fun-spirited aspect of the holiday.  So, in honor of the holiday season, I'm going to have 12 posts dedicated to the things I love about Christmas. 

 

I love my tree.  Every year, D and I have an argument about what colors we are going to decorate the tree in.  He likes multi-colored lights and tinsel; essentially he likes it if the tree looks like a carnival threw up on it.  Each year I lobby for something a little classier.  Up until this year, I lost the battle.  It was fine though, I like decorating the tree and having it up, so it didn't really matter what it looked like to me.

But this year... D reminded me that we made a deal; if we did the tree how he liked it last year, he would let me choose the colors this year.  So I went for the classy white-lighted, red and gold decorated tree.  And it looks so nice!  There was one small problem, we didn't have that many red and gold ornaments.  We had tons of balls, but not anything else.

Well, thank goodness I'm crafty y'all.  I made most of the ornaments on the tree.  These ones are my favorites though.  They are fast, cheap and you can make them in any size and color you want.

And who doesn't love a tree full of stars?

These paper stars are great.  They are light, and pretty easy to make.  They are really fast too, so you can make 10 of them in no time. 

Materials:

Fancy paper (one sided is fine)- cut into 4 inches square. 
Scissors
Glue, I used white glue
Ruler
Pencil
Folder if you are using card stock

How to:

Turn your paper over (right side down) and fold your paper in half diagonally.  With the decorated side of the paper facing up, fold in half length-wise and width-wise. 

Turn the paper over again (right-side down) and mark just over an inch on the non diagonal seams that you folded.

Mark the same distance from the edge, all around your paper.

Cut along the seams to the point you marked.  You should have four cuts in your paper.  Fold the corners in towards the diagonal folds.  Do this for all four corners.  On ever other triangle, put some glue on, and over lap the triangles to create the points.  While you are waiting for it to dry, repeat these steps again to make the other half.

 Glue the halves together back-to-back to create an 8 pointed star!  Let it dry.

To hang the stars, I used a needle and some invisible thread and poked a hole in one of the points.  Ready to hang, and perfectly matched for my tree. 

I also made a bunch to hang off of gifts and stuff.  I've made these before, but larger and hung them from a window.  They are a pretty handy craft!

I'm thinking or crocheting some snowflakes or something...  What kind of ornaments have you made for your tree?