Mood: neutral-to-good
Music: Seether - Rise Above This
It's one of those days where I'm just plugging along and puttering around. Playing a little Holy War, listening to some music, and waiting to get over this stupid congestion that's taken up residence in my chest. So not amusing - I've filed eviction papers, but you know that takes forever... *chuckles*
Being sick isn't fun, per se, but it can get interesting when your defenses are down a bit and things come to play. Little crawly things that speed around at the edges of vision, darting for cover when I turn my head. Fear and paranoia that are not my own, but thrust upon me from some outside source. I'm not amused by that, either, but at least it seems to have stopped.
So. It's three days to Christmas and I have nothing wrapped, and still have shopping to do. Nothing new there. I'm supposed to take the kids shopping so they can buy presents for people. I'm supposed to bake a gazillion Christmas cookies. Hmm....now that one might get done, since I've had a vicious craving for sugar cookies for days now. And not just any sugar cookies, but the ones we used to make in my mom's little pie shoppe/restaurant. Incredibly yummy. I'd share the recipe, but I'm not allowed - family recipe, proprietary info, etc. So, I'll just make a batch and think of all my friends while I eat every delicious morsel. *wicked laughter*
On a more sober note, my cousin is supposed to get test results back today - they did a biopsy and a scan of what they suspect is a tumor on his chest. Mom says that he could be in surgery before Christmas if it comes back as malignant. Scary stuff - he's one year younger than me. We grew up together, a set of four cousins; he and his brother, and my sister and me. Our mothers are sisters, and it seems our families were always together. In any case, I'm crossing my fingers for him.
And on goes the day, just plugging along....
Showing posts with label Odds N Ends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Odds N Ends. Show all posts
Cleaning up the blog
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Mood: industrious
Music: the backyardigans (on TV)
Well, I've spent some time converting my old template from HTML to XML, and am in the process of doing little tweaks. I tried lining the header up with the body, mostly because some part of me said it must be aligned, and decided I didn't like it that way. Since I'm unconventional to begin with, this way suits me just fine. ::grins::
So anyway, I was going through my comments, weeding out the bits of spam, and I discovered a comment from 2005 that really surprised me. Well, the comment didn't surprise as much as the author did. Back in 2005, I had no idea who Gena Showalter was, and read the comment without giving it a thought other than "why, thank you". Now, though, I know who she is, having recently read her Lords of the Underworld series (which is great, by the way - go read it!). You can find her blog here.
How cool is that? ::happy dance::
On a sadder note, I discovered that one of the people I regularly communicated with in the blogosphere seems to have disappeared. His blog has sat inactive since 2006. Of course, I can completely relate - the whirlwind of life just has a way of picking you up and tossing you to places where blogging is the last thing on your mind or what you have time for. So, I hold out hope that he'll return, much the way I keep doing.
I have again come to the conclusion that my blogging is mostly for my own amusement, and that putting that into some narrow topic like all the blogging 'experts' recommend is counter-productive for me. I am eclectic, and my blog reflects that. Works for me. ::smiles::
Time to go play with some more of the new Blogger toys that didn't work with the HTML!
Music: the backyardigans (on TV)
Well, I've spent some time converting my old template from HTML to XML, and am in the process of doing little tweaks. I tried lining the header up with the body, mostly because some part of me said it must be aligned, and decided I didn't like it that way. Since I'm unconventional to begin with, this way suits me just fine. ::grins::
So anyway, I was going through my comments, weeding out the bits of spam, and I discovered a comment from 2005 that really surprised me. Well, the comment didn't surprise as much as the author did. Back in 2005, I had no idea who Gena Showalter was, and read the comment without giving it a thought other than "why, thank you". Now, though, I know who she is, having recently read her Lords of the Underworld series (which is great, by the way - go read it!). You can find her blog here.
How cool is that? ::happy dance::
On a sadder note, I discovered that one of the people I regularly communicated with in the blogosphere seems to have disappeared. His blog has sat inactive since 2006. Of course, I can completely relate - the whirlwind of life just has a way of picking you up and tossing you to places where blogging is the last thing on your mind or what you have time for. So, I hold out hope that he'll return, much the way I keep doing.
I have again come to the conclusion that my blogging is mostly for my own amusement, and that putting that into some narrow topic like all the blogging 'experts' recommend is counter-productive for me. I am eclectic, and my blog reflects that. Works for me. ::smiles::
Time to go play with some more of the new Blogger toys that didn't work with the HTML!
Labels:
Odds N Ends
Monday *yawn* Morning
Monday, April 21, 2008
Okay, okay. I'm outta bed. I have an eye peeled open and am working on consuming enough caffeine to power the other one. Why am I so tired? Because I was up until 3am-ish working on a slide show.I discovered the other day that Adobe Photoshop Elements does slideshows. So...I hadta do one, just 'cause. That's how I do.
Apparently, how I do also includes staying up obnoxiously late on a Sunday night to finish one of these little projects. I so totally ignored the fact that I have to drag my ass out of bed by 7:45 to drive the kids to school at 8:00...*yawn*....
Good news is, I got it done. Bad news is, the file's too big to send it in email. So I guess it'll have to wait for distribution. That's okay - it's just pics of me and some music, so I'm sure some poor unsuspecting soul will be glad they can't be ambushed with it!
Well, that's all I'm writin' for now. Tough cookies. *yawn* I'm gonna go rest my eyes....
Labels:
Odds N Ends
The Tween Years
Friday, April 11, 2008
Today is picture day at school, and late last night, I had the girls pick out what to wear. Middle daughter (from here out, D8) had little trouble finding something suitable to wear. Oldest daughter from here out, D11) ended up crying when I asked her if she had a pair of black pants.
Nonplussed, I asked her what could be so awful about black pants that made her cry. Come to find out, it wasn't the pants at all (I didn't figure it was, but you have to start somewhere). She was feeling like there was too much pressure about how she was going to look for the pictures. I wanted her to dress one way, and she felt that it was going to be very different from what other kids were doing. She said 'you can't understand how I feel'.
Well, we had a heart to heart on that one. I showed her pictures of me at her age - glasses, bad hair, the beginnings of teenage skin...it was painful for me, but I wanted her to see that I DO understand. I know a lot of parents seem to forget what it was like to be a kid, but I'm not one of them. Maybe it's because it was so rough for me. I don't know. But talking to her was a little funny, because I remember my Mom giving me some of those same pieces of advice. Things like "you might want the same haircut some other girl has, but it might not look as good on YOU as it does on her" and "fads are fine, but classics are timeless". And I laughed at myself and TOLD her that my mom had said some of those same things to me, and that, like D11, I wasn't willing to listen.
I think there's a difference, though, and I told D11 this, too. My mom would just deliver a statement and not discuss the reasoning behind it. So it always felt like she was making arbitrary statements rather than taking ME into consideration. But with D11, I made sure that I took the time to talk to her about how these things relate to HER - that while Skye has a cool haircut that looks great on her, getting the same cut wouldn't make D11 look like Skye. And I explained to her that while the Hannah Montana t-shirt is cool, it doesn't make for very good portraits. And I backed that up by showing her the section in my photography lessons on portraiture that deal with backdrops and subjects, and simplifying. She didn't have much to choose from in the way of solid color shirts without distracting graphics, but we came up with a black polo shirt and black pants. And when I did her hair this morning, she looked fabulous!
I hope this teaches her to trust me a bit more. I know kids think they know everything - I've been there, I remember. And being 11 is SO awkward for a girl. Not a little girl, not yet a teen...hence the name they've come up with for it - tween. I just want to get her through these years with some semblance of self-confidence. It will be my gift to her - and something I never had. Rather than hide wounds behind false apathy, I want her to be armored against them with a solid sense of who she is and what she's worth. I want her to be able to shake off comments from rude brats, and also be able to accept a compliment with grace. She deserves to be happy - I want SO badly for her to be a happy, confident young woman. Maybe I feel that something good will have come of my own messed up youth if I can use it to make things better for her. It kills me to see her suffer such self-doubt..it's too much like looking back at myself at that age. I can't reach back and help that version of me, to tell her it will be okay, that she will survive even when she doesn't want to. But I can maybe head that all off for D11, and let her not only survive, but thrive.
I think maybe guiding her through this is helping to heal me a little. She is so terribly much like me in some bad ways, and if I can just steer her in a better direction....she can have a better life than me. I might be able to stop her from becoming bitter and shutting herself off from any real friendships or relationships. Maybe she won't be afraid to love, and won't suffer from a lack of it. Maybe she'll be confident enough not to marry the first (and second) man that comes along. Maybe she'll have the courage to be true to herself, and to speak up for what she needs or wants.
I was going to say you couldn't pay me to go through my tween years again...but through her, I am.
Nonplussed, I asked her what could be so awful about black pants that made her cry. Come to find out, it wasn't the pants at all (I didn't figure it was, but you have to start somewhere). She was feeling like there was too much pressure about how she was going to look for the pictures. I wanted her to dress one way, and she felt that it was going to be very different from what other kids were doing. She said 'you can't understand how I feel'.
Well, we had a heart to heart on that one. I showed her pictures of me at her age - glasses, bad hair, the beginnings of teenage skin...it was painful for me, but I wanted her to see that I DO understand. I know a lot of parents seem to forget what it was like to be a kid, but I'm not one of them. Maybe it's because it was so rough for me. I don't know. But talking to her was a little funny, because I remember my Mom giving me some of those same pieces of advice. Things like "you might want the same haircut some other girl has, but it might not look as good on YOU as it does on her" and "fads are fine, but classics are timeless". And I laughed at myself and TOLD her that my mom had said some of those same things to me, and that, like D11, I wasn't willing to listen.
I think there's a difference, though, and I told D11 this, too. My mom would just deliver a statement and not discuss the reasoning behind it. So it always felt like she was making arbitrary statements rather than taking ME into consideration. But with D11, I made sure that I took the time to talk to her about how these things relate to HER - that while Skye has a cool haircut that looks great on her, getting the same cut wouldn't make D11 look like Skye. And I explained to her that while the Hannah Montana t-shirt is cool, it doesn't make for very good portraits. And I backed that up by showing her the section in my photography lessons on portraiture that deal with backdrops and subjects, and simplifying. She didn't have much to choose from in the way of solid color shirts without distracting graphics, but we came up with a black polo shirt and black pants. And when I did her hair this morning, she looked fabulous!
I hope this teaches her to trust me a bit more. I know kids think they know everything - I've been there, I remember. And being 11 is SO awkward for a girl. Not a little girl, not yet a teen...hence the name they've come up with for it - tween. I just want to get her through these years with some semblance of self-confidence. It will be my gift to her - and something I never had. Rather than hide wounds behind false apathy, I want her to be armored against them with a solid sense of who she is and what she's worth. I want her to be able to shake off comments from rude brats, and also be able to accept a compliment with grace. She deserves to be happy - I want SO badly for her to be a happy, confident young woman. Maybe I feel that something good will have come of my own messed up youth if I can use it to make things better for her. It kills me to see her suffer such self-doubt..it's too much like looking back at myself at that age. I can't reach back and help that version of me, to tell her it will be okay, that she will survive even when she doesn't want to. But I can maybe head that all off for D11, and let her not only survive, but thrive.
I think maybe guiding her through this is helping to heal me a little. She is so terribly much like me in some bad ways, and if I can just steer her in a better direction....she can have a better life than me. I might be able to stop her from becoming bitter and shutting herself off from any real friendships or relationships. Maybe she won't be afraid to love, and won't suffer from a lack of it. Maybe she'll be confident enough not to marry the first (and second) man that comes along. Maybe she'll have the courage to be true to herself, and to speak up for what she needs or wants.
I was going to say you couldn't pay me to go through my tween years again...but through her, I am.
Labels:
Family,
Odds N Ends
Dice!
Monday, April 07, 2008
My 1-pound bag of D&D dice arrived today! Ninety-seven new polyhedral dice in a variety of colors and sizes. Way too cool!
After plucking out a few choice ones to augment the 56 dice I had from my college days, I put the rest in a clear divider box for the gaming table. I now get to keep my original dice (my pwecious) to myself to use as a DM set. Never realized DMing took so many dice! To make it easy on myself, though, it helps to have enough 10-siders for all the monsters' initiative rolls, etc. I assign each baddie a different colored die and roll 'em all out at once.
What kind of geek am I do be doing a happy dance over dice? Well, a happy one, of course!
I have to say, most of the dice in the bag were not what I would have picked, but for bulk dice they're okay. The kids like them - good thing, too, because they're going to be using the speckled buggers! I'll keep my pretty marbled ones, my glittering ones, and my gem-like transparent ones.
Roll a Life's Little Delights check.
After plucking out a few choice ones to augment the 56 dice I had from my college days, I put the rest in a clear divider box for the gaming table. I now get to keep my original dice (my pwecious) to myself to use as a DM set. Never realized DMing took so many dice! To make it easy on myself, though, it helps to have enough 10-siders for all the monsters' initiative rolls, etc. I assign each baddie a different colored die and roll 'em all out at once.
What kind of geek am I do be doing a happy dance over dice? Well, a happy one, of course!
I have to say, most of the dice in the bag were not what I would have picked, but for bulk dice they're okay. The kids like them - good thing, too, because they're going to be using the speckled buggers! I'll keep my pretty marbled ones, my glittering ones, and my gem-like transparent ones.
Roll a Life's Little Delights check.
Labels:
Odds N Ends
It's Raining Caterpillars and Frogs
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Well, it's raining here, and it seems to have brought out tons of fuzzy caterpillars and billions of baby frogs (okay so maybe not that many..). The kids and I keep trying to identify the caterpillars; Mom got the kids a 'Butterflies of the Carolinas' field guide, and about 80% of them show small photos of the larva stage. Our little fuzzballs seem to be in that 20% that aren't pictured. Of course.
We had to rescue a baby frog from the cat last night. Oliver was extremely interested in one spot of the kitchen floor near the back door, and when we investigated, there was an itty bitty baby frog (fwog) hopping frantically around. You could almost hear the "oh shit! oh shit! oh shit!" that had to be running through the poor thing's head. The look on Oliver's face was, of course, "I wonder how he'll taste...."
Not getting much done lately, but I don't feel that bad about it right now. I started DMing an AD&D campaign for hubby and the girls, and it's been a little hectic. I haven't run a game before, so I decided to use modules I got for free from www.dragonsfoot.org to get me going. They were designed for 1st Edition AD&D, but I'm having no trouble using them with AD&D rules. The XP and gold values are a little screwy, but they're easy enough to alter. My main thing was needing the basic story and the maps, and this is working out great for our little first-level group. Right now, they've just solved a murder and are about to go on the chase. It makes a DM proud. *sniff, sniff*
Maybe next gaming session, I'll throw in some caterpillars and frogs...
We had to rescue a baby frog from the cat last night. Oliver was extremely interested in one spot of the kitchen floor near the back door, and when we investigated, there was an itty bitty baby frog (fwog) hopping frantically around. You could almost hear the "oh shit! oh shit! oh shit!" that had to be running through the poor thing's head. The look on Oliver's face was, of course, "I wonder how he'll taste...."
Not getting much done lately, but I don't feel that bad about it right now. I started DMing an AD&D campaign for hubby and the girls, and it's been a little hectic. I haven't run a game before, so I decided to use modules I got for free from www.dragonsfoot.org to get me going. They were designed for 1st Edition AD&D, but I'm having no trouble using them with AD&D rules. The XP and gold values are a little screwy, but they're easy enough to alter. My main thing was needing the basic story and the maps, and this is working out great for our little first-level group. Right now, they've just solved a murder and are about to go on the chase. It makes a DM proud. *sniff, sniff*
Maybe next gaming session, I'll throw in some caterpillars and frogs...
Labels:
Family,
Odds N Ends
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