springading.com

Today, I rediscovered the joys of surfing around on You Tube, an old love of mine. But like most of my loves, it was not super-passionate and faded when I got distracted by something else. Sometimes, anything else.

Um, this doesn’t apply to my love for Jim, by the way. In case it needs to be said.

But you know what? I forgot how much stuff is on the Internet, just waiting to be found. I found a video on how to make amigurumi.  Specifically, I watched these ones:

You guys! I KNOW THIS STUFF. I didn’t even know I knew this stuff! When I was teaching myself how to crochet in a circle, I had inadvertantly started something similar to what she is showing here. It was with yellow yarn and everything. Sadly, at the time, I was trying to make a flat circle to make a way less cool coaster, and at first, I couldn’t figure out why it was curling up like a bowl. It only took me a couple of tries to figure it out, though.

I’m excited. After I finish Jim’s Lego Pirate Ship Blanket (incidentally, I think fabric glue will be my savior–just sayin’), I want to make a cthulhu to go with Jim’s cthulhu that I bought from Ruth. I seriously did not give a rat’s ass about crocheted little critters until I bought one of those. I had no idea how cute they would be. And trust me, I’m not a girl who normally falls for cute.

I just hope mine turns out half as awesome as hers. I wouldn’t want Jim’s cthulhu to have a floppy-looking mate or something, heh.

Anyway, the videos did two other things for me: 1) make me appreciate that we have so many awesome tutorials on the web. When I first taught myself to crochet, it was from a very outdated-looking book, and while Internet existed, it was back where people having it was more the exception than the rule.  Also 2) it led me to the site crochetme.com. Oh, yeah.  I’ve signed up.

My You Tube searches weren’t limited to crafting, though. I found a cute, little video by a guy about girls who play D&D:

I don’t mean “cute” in a condenscending way, by the way. I just can’t help it. They’re so young and seem cute to me. I guess that does come off as condenscending. Sorry, but it is what it is.

At first, I was like, Why is it such a freakin’ shock that girls play D&D? Even before I started playing it, I knew that there were girls that played it. I just didn’t really want to hang out with those girls, heh. Two stand out in particular. One was a girl from high school who made me listen to her really bad Star Trek fan fic that involved her as a captain and threesomes with the male crew that were more than twice her age. (I never let her invite herself to my house again.) The other was a girl in college that wrote the worst fantasy stories I’ve ever read. Admittedly, they were creative. But, wow. Badly written.

Hey, is there a correlation between gamers and bad writing? In my defense, I started writing long before I ever gamed. And I write literary fiction. Because, apparently, I’m a snob in every sense of the word and don’t even deserve it. D’oh!

But back to the gamer girl video! I was wondering why the video even existed, until I read that the guy was making the video for a class of “non-geeks” (GEEKS IN THE CLOSET, I SAY!), so I decided to watch. What I liked? For starters, these are very normal girls. Likable. Not weird like the girls that I knew, that’s for sure.

I would like to put out there that as more girls game, the greater my chances are of finding girls that don’t freak me out. I’ve already “met” a couple online that I think I would totally like in real life–if I weren’t so freakin’ anti-social, heh.

Second, the boy said he wanted to show that D&D is a game that can be enjoyed by anyone. Oh, breath of fresh air! If you don’t get the geek-bashers, you usually get the geek-elites. You know, the geeky snobs who wants to keep stuff like D&D an exclusive , must-own-a-pocket-protector club. (Did anyone ever actually wear a pocket protector in the first place?) I hate geek-elites almost more than I hate the geek-bashers. Guys, I know people shoved your heads in toilet bowls when you were in high school, but get over it. It doesn’t mean D&D (or Warcraft or gaming or whatever) is exclusively yours because you suffered worse than zits at 16. Take the higher ground.

Or invite that football player to a game and beat the snot out of him in combat. I don’t care. No one said you had to be a freakin’ saint, either. Just quit the “uR a n00b” crap. Ugh.

Finally, I found this girl. Also very cute. Seriously, she should model. Incidentally, I was looking up organizational tips, found one she did about closets, and found she had beauty stuff as well. Another good thing about the Internet? Used to, plain-old girls like me wondered what the pretty girls did to get the perfect hair or the flawless skin. Now, because the pretty girls like to see themselves on camera and make how-to videos, we get to learn their tricks! BWAHAHAHA, PRETTY GIRLS, WE NOW KNOW YOUR SECRETS.

Er, yeah. In particular, I liked this one:

Now, watching this kind of thing is pretty out of character for me. I’m not usually a health and beauty kind of person. But I did try her mask, figuring I might as well do something “girly” and stupid while Jim wasn’t around to witness it. (Also, there’s only so much Warcraft a girl can do in a day.) I didn’t have a lemon for the egg white one, though, and I did a variation of the egg yolk moisturizer, doing egg yolk and honey instead, and wow. GREAT STUFF. Immediate difference. For the curious: Beat one egg yolk with one tablespoon of honey. The only bad thing about it is that it kept running down my face and trying to drip in my mouth. Gross.

But I had a point.  My point is SEE? Look how much stuff I learned today from the Internet! Who said the Internet was for porn?

Although I’m a little worried that some guys will use that last video for just that…

I’m taking a moment’s pause from Warcraft to update.  Not that I have much to update.  I mostly wanted to whine.  My vacation is nearly over.  Wah!  Back to work on Monday, and on the new schedule to boot.  Instead of working 9 AM – 5:30 PM, I’ll be taking calls at 8 AM – 4:30 PM.  I’m excited about the change, but in reality, as long as there is overtime, my schedule won’t look very different.  Currently, I go in early at 8 to get in an hour of overtime before getting on the phones at 9.  Now, assuming I’ll still be given the opportunity to do overtime, I’ll just be doing it at the end of my shift, from 4:30-5:30 PM.

Still, I like that I have the option of going home an hour earlier. 

And, good god, I hope I can still get overtime.  Recently, overtime’s gotten limited, so you have to put in for it, but not everyone gets selected.  And right now, I’m gonna need it.  After bills, including the dentist bill that I wasn’t quite expecting (and that I sure as hell didn’t budget for), I have maybe $30 to last me until next Friday.  Thankfully, Jim’s doing pretty well with his bank account, partially because we’ve been particularly awesome in the frugalness department as of late, so it’s not like we’re gonna go hungry or anything.

Let’s see, what else?  Speaking of money, I’ve been stashing money away since July for Jim’s birthday in November.  There’s a little part of me that’s like, Spring, if you REALLY need money, you DO have some, you know…I have to tell that voice to shut up.  No, Evil Spring Voice.  That money is for Jim’s birthday present, which is going to be SUPER AWESOME, and I’m so excited for his birthday to come.  No, I’m not telling you what it is because he reads this blog.  Pretty religiously, actually.  The other day, when I mentioned I needed to update my blog, he said, “Yeah, you haven’t updated since September 4th.”

Damn.  Even I didn’t know that!

On the subject of blogs, Jim updated his yesterday, and he plans on putting another post up today.  (If you’re not savvy to the subject of Jim’s blog, it’s about his D&D world of Valt, which is where our D&D game, a.k.a. “Homebrewed,” is set in.)  He wrote about how he didn’t expect for Phil and me to decide that escaping Fasset via the Underdark was our best solution.  I love it when we do shit he doesn’t expect.  Jim’s a very good DM and just plain clever in general, so he’s usually pretty good at thinking of all angles and figuring out what people are going to do.  Still, he always seems pleased when his players come up with a solution that he hasn’t thought of.  I remember, for example, when Natalia ended up getting thrown into jail–this was waaaay back, in the beginning–and instead of having her try to capture a guard who passed by and getting the keys, like he thought I’d have her do, I had her use her Soften Earth and Stone spell to get through the building and then Obscuring Mist to cover her and Grugor as they escaped.  It was quietier and didn’t even involve combat.  Also, it was a little more understated, which is definitely Natalia’s style–and my own.

Also, Jim is pleased with himself for making Fasset seem so awful that we’d be willing to go through the Underdark.  Keep in mind that Phil hates drow with a passion, similar to my severe hatred for cockroaches.  At least he doesn’t have to ever deal with his nemesis in real life.  Although, admittedly, I don’t have to deal with mine either.  For an apartment full of college kids, this place is surprisingly bug-free.

Speaking of gaming, Jim and I talked about going to a gaming convention yesterday.  I think he’s a little hesitant about DMing a game at a convention, but he said if he did, he would want it to be a bigger convention.  So we’re thinking about going to Gen Con next year.  Part of me is kinda reluctant because, well…people.  Lots of people.  Ugh.  Also, I already know that while I’m on the geeky side, I’m never “geeky enough” for conventions.  I had that issue at ACen, too.  I mean, I watched and enjoyed anime, but I wasn’t running around, speaking Japanese or claiming Pocky was the best food ever.  (Incidentally, Pocky is way freakin’ overrated.)  I was not one of those anime fans who thought just because it was Japanese, it was better.  I just liked good TV, period.

But, still, I’m gonna do this because I’m excited to see Jim in his element.  I hope he does decide to run a game there–I want to show him off.

Something I haven’t mentioned too much lately:  The Lego Pirate Ship blanket.  I’m not sure how happy I am with it.  I’m still progressing, but this is 1) the first non-scarf I’ve ever crocheted, 2) the first thing I’ve ever crocheted where it involved a lot of color-switching, and 3) the first thing I’ve used a pattern for.  Well, sorta.  The pattern is actually for the latch-hook that I did, so I’ve made some alterations to it to make it big enough for a blanket.

Because I’ve never done crochet where I switch colors in the middle of a row, I wasn’t sure how to carry the yarn.  At first, I did what everyone says to do:  Crocheted over the old color while working with the new.  Guess what?  It shows through.  And that looks fine in the section that’s supposed to be water, but that’s not going to work when I get to the part where I do the moon.  The blue yarn will go right through it.  So I decided to hell with what everyone says, I’m going to cut it and weave in the ends.  Painstakingly slow, yes, but better result.

And some parts of it look really good.  Others, I think, are starting to look messy, and I think it’s because of another issue I have:  You’re supposed to know which side is the “right” side and weave in the ends on the “wrong” side, and I’ve no clue which side is which.  See, I started to crochet it, turned my work a couple times, and then realized, “Oh, yeah, I’m left-handed, which is why I’m about to do it backwards.”  So I fudged the pattern a bit to make it match, and now, I’m left confused as to which side should be the “right” side. 

I explained to Jim that this won’t be the best thing ever.  I knew this before I started it.  I’ve never attempted anything other than a striped scarf (oh, wait, once, I made my mother a lingerie hanger, but that was very small and only involved one color), so this is new to me, but hey–we gotta start somewhere.  I figured it wasn’t going to be perfect.  Luckily, Jim doesn’t care, thinks it looks great, and is excited about it getting finished.  I guess that’s really what matters.

Also, it’s a blanket.  What really matters is that it keeps him warm.

Interestingly enough, I already have a couple other projects planned after this blanket gets done.  One is a hat for Jim to go along with the scarf that I made him last winter.  (Which, I have to admit, looks damn good.)  I’ve never done any circular crocheting before, save for the coaster that’s in my bedroom.  That, incidentally, wasn’t intended to be a coaster–I was just trying to practice making circles and decided it made a great coaster, heh.  But my point?  Yeah, that hat will probably be another learning curveball.

Especially when you’re left-handed, learning this stuff on your own, and all the patterns are backwards for you.  Grrr.

Anyway, I do have pictures of what I have on the blanket so far.  Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera have died, so posting pictures of the work in progress will have to wait.

Oh, shoot, I probably should go wake Jim up.  He’s gotten to where he doesn’t like to sleep in too late on weekends either.  My guess is pretty soon, I’ll have to give the laptop up so he’ll can work on his next post.  Make sure to look for it at his blog now, ya hear? 

Yesterday, at 5 AM, I made the executive decision to call in sick.  I had a MASSIVE headache, the kind where even your cheekbones hurt, and stomach pains.  I had been trying to horde my PTO, but no way was I talking to people all day with that kind of a headache.  After Jim came home, he felt my forehead and announced that I also had a slight fever.  I didn’t even know that.  I just thought it was a little warm, but we’ve been having a heat advisory, so I didn’t think much of it.  So much for my theory that my issues were blood sugar related.

Today?  Day two of staying home.  It’s not nearly as bad as yesterday, and I had a heated debate with myself whether or not I’d go in.  I feel better but still not 100%.  I decided, hell, I still have 1 unscheduled PTO day left, I should be getting another one back tomorrow and a few more hours back sometime in November.  (I was late to work around then due to a flat tire.)  I’d rather just stay home and get completely over it rather than go in, drag whatever this is out, and end up calling in sick later in the week anyway.

But staying home sick is boring.  Okay, yesterday, I didn’t have much problem because mostly I slept.  A LOT.  I guess I should have been clued in that something was up over the weekend when I took a nap Saturday afternoon.  I never nap.  But I slept all yesterday afternoon, went to bed early last night, and slept until 9 this morning, which is late for me.  Even for sickness, I think I’m all slept out.  I feel kinda spacy, so I’m glad I didn’t go to work (keeps me from screwing up and getting an error), but now I’m in strange place: Well enough to be bored but not really well enough to feel like doing anything about it, either.

I really wanted to use my unscheduled PTO for something like, you know, deciding out of the blue to ditch work and go to the zoo or something, not for actually being sick.  Oh, well.  I guess that’s why we tend to call them sick days.

So, right now, I’m writing in here (I always feel like writing, even when I am sick) and watching Supernatural.  The comments to last entry has convinced me that I really must watch Firefly.  According to Kyle and Ruth, it’s a must-see.  Like I said, I’ve always wanted to see it, I just never got around to it.  Maybe I’ll ask for it for my birthday, which is only a couple months away.  If I ever pick up knitting again–and you know I will–I might try doing that Jayne hat, even if I’ll never, ever wear it.  Why?  Because, apparently, other people would.  Maybe I’ll make one for them.  Like I said, it does look fun to make.  I just can’t fathom why anyone would wear it, but those people who would would at least give me an excuse to make it.

Thanks to Kyle’s wife Nikki, by the way, for linking me a pattern to it on our forums.  I have bookmarked it.  In fact, I think I’m going to put that as a planned project on a site I just found yesterday, during the time I was actually awake.  The site is called Ravelry.  I still haven’t sorted out what all you can do there, but I guess you can get patterns, keep a “notebook” of your current projects, keep inventory on your needles, stuff like that.  Interesting stuff.  Well, if that’s the kind of stuff you like.

I did a lot in the short time I was awake yesterday.  I opened an account on Etsy, for one.  I like the homemade stuff idea.  Plus, I saw on Ruth’s blog that she’s opening a shop up there to sell cthulhus, and I’m thinking of buying one from her.  I want to see what those things look like in real life; I think I might try my hand at one.

Of course, this will be after I finish Jim’s pirate ship blanket.

What else?  Oh, yesterday, I tried to get into Live Journal to read someone’s blog and saw the username I wanted was taken.  Surprised, I looked up the journal and realized that my username was taken by ME.  I had opened an account there in 2004 and forgot about it.  Surprisingly, I remembered the password!  So I logged into LJ and joined some communities.  I’m also going to move my Myspace posts there, since Myspace seems to have a glitch where private blogs are no longer private.  (Way to go, Myspace.  And you wonder why everyone is making the jump to Facebook.)  Also, I’ve had some personal stuff pop up that I don’t want to post on a public blog.  So, hey, if you have a Live Journal, add me–http://chaoticspring.livejournal.com/.  You can hear me complain about stuff there.

Most of my posting will remain here, though.

Well, I guess since I’m all slept out, I should look at the Savage Worlds PDF that Kyle linked for us in our forum.  I think even I can manage that.  Besides, I would like to not be late at getting my character created.  I was late for the first character concept because I missed seeing the deadline on our forums, and I felt bad about it.  I don’t want to be late again. 

I wish Jim were here, though.

Sometimes, it would be better if weekends with Jim weren’t so amazing.  Then Mondays wouldn’t be so awful in comparison.

This weekend wasn’t particularly eventful or anything.  We cancelled our game on Friday and had Phil over instead; Saturday, Jim had his game and I enjoyed some much needed “me” time while working on the latch hook and watching Avatar again; and then Sunday, Jim and I drove around, and I finished the pirate ship latch hook!  Well, mostly.  I got the latch hooking done, but I still need to finish off the edges and get a dowel to hang it up. 

This is the part where it gets tricky because, uh, I’ve never done this part of latch hooking before.  The other latch hooks I’ve made in the past were grabbed up by other people and finished by them.  So I was hunting on the internet last night for how to finish one off, but most everything I found was for if you wanted to turn your latch hook into a rug.  Damn it, I don’t want a rug; I want a wall hanging.  All I know is that you have to baste the edges.  And I was like Baste?  That’s what you do to turkeys.

Of course, I’m a vegetarian and have been for thirteen years, so I’m a little fuzzy on that kind of basting, too.

(Okay, I’m kidding.  I do know that basting is a sewing thing.  But I’m not kidding when I say I had to Google how to baste because…well, what kind of sewing is it?)

At any rate, I need to get it figured out and up because Jim is excited.  I never thought he’d get so excited about a latch hook wall hanging, but…well, I guess he really likes pirate ships.

But, really, who doesn’t?

Jim and I are both already eyeing the pattern that came with the latch hook kit and debating what other things we could do with it.  Jim had suggested a pillow, but honestly, I think latch hook pillows are more for show than actual use.  He also suggested a big latch hook blanket, but yeah…not a good idea.  And then I was like, “Wait–why can’t I just sort ‘blow’ up the pattern and crochet a blanket with that pattern?”

Jim LOVES the idea, but we’ll see.  I’ve never taken a pattern and “blown” it up before.  I don’t even know if I can do that, but I don’t see where I can’t.

But whatever.  Since this project is almost done, I’m debating what I’m going to do for the next one.  Because my apartment’s floor is just ugly tile, I’ve been debating making a rug.  But I don’t want to latch hook one; it’s not the style I want.  So I’ve been reading up on something called locker hooking and rug hooking.  The problem is that I don’t know how to do either.  Do I really want to learn something new?

The answer is yes.  Yes, I do.  I will keep finding things and keep bugging Jim about it.  Like last night:

Me:  Jim!  Look at this!  [I turn the laptop toward him, showing him locker hooked rugs.]  What do you think?  I’ve never seen this before!  I want to do this.

Jim:  That looks really nice–

Me:  How about this one?  This one isn’t locker hooked.  It’s done by something called “rug hooking.”

Jim:  That one is good, too.

Me:  OH MY GOD.  Look at THIS RUG.  This one is done by a LOOM.

Jim:  Wow, now that one is really nice.  How much does a loom cost?

Me:  Er…nevermind.  I just read that one for the size I’d want would be over $500.

Jim:  WHAT?

Me:  But you can BUILD one!  Oh–wait…It’d be, like, 9 feet tall.  There’s really no place to put that in a one-bedroom apartment.  I want to learn how to do all this stuff, though.  HEY.  What about BASKETWEAVING?  Would you learn how to basketweave with me?

Jim:  I’d TOTALLY learn how to basketweave with you!

Any man who says they’d learn basketweaving with you is the best man ever.  They also make every weekend the best one ever.  But, damn, do they make you hate Mondays.

Sadly, my own boyfriend won’t get the joke of the title.  (It’s a programmer thing.  You know, I kind of miss programming.  Sometimes.)

So!  I’m happy to see my internet is working now, although it didn’t appear to be earlier this morning.  And immediately after I sent a text to Jim complaining about it, it popped right up.  Well.  Hadn’t expected that.

The past couple of days have been rough.  Something has been making its rounds at work, and now I think both Jim and I got it.  I keep losing my voice at work, which makes it very difficult when you talk on the phone all day.  But it’s really not bad enough to ask my supervisor to pull me off the phone, so I keep on trucking. 

The weird thing?  My voice comes back when I get home.  I don’t get it.  Jim suggested that I’m already a little under the weather and talking on the phone all day is aggravating it.  When I get home, I don’t talk as much, so it comes back.  Right now, I have my voice; here’s hoping that it doesn’t go out again at work.

Other things: The moment I realized that my internet was working, I hopped over to our forums and checked on our play-by-post D&D game that Kyle is running for us.  I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of a play-by-post, but you know what?  It really does help when 1) you’re forgetful and you need to re-review what happened, 2)you want to see how a 4e game works without spending money on the books, and 3) you’re super shy and like D&D but are too bashful to play with people in person.

Also, it’s pretty much the only way to play with your friends who have all since moved out of the area and gotten bored of Warcraft.

I have to say, I’m finding so many differences between 3e and 4e.  I can see Kyle’s point where it is more streamlined.  I can see Jim’s disappointment that it seems to take some of the randomness out.  However, that being said, from what I’ve seen, I like both. 

I’m also happy to see there are still druids in 4e.

Other than the play-by-post and our D&D games now on Fridays, the only other thing I’ve been up to is latch-hooking like mad.  Over the weekend, Jim and I were at Hobby Lobby.  I was actually looking for something to help me with cross-stitching.  As I’ve gotten older, it’s getting harder.  But we passed the latch-hook aisle, and Jim said, “Hey, do you like latch-hook?”

“Yeah,” I told him.  “I did several when I was about 18 or 19.”  I was surprised he had asked because when we were up north, I had shown him the latch-hook of a white tiger that I had made for my dad when I was 19.  It’s been hanging on his wall since.  So I thought Jim already knew that I knew how to do it.

“I really like latch-hook,” Jim said.  “My grandparents had a bunch of them hanging on their walls.”

So I asked Jim if he wanted me to do one for him, and he snatched up a latch-hook kit of a pirate ship he’d been eyeing.  And that’s what I’ve been working on the last week.  Jim and I have been having a Charmed marathon while I work on his pirate ship and he’s building mosaic tiles for his Warhammer terrain.  The latch-hook is a little over half done, and if I really work at it this weekend, I could probably get it done by then.  However, if you know anything about me, you would also know I don’t like doing any one thing for any length of time during my free time.  I’m a little ADD like that.

Bah, I need to get ready for work.  See ya.