Morning mashup: Complaints, Books and the Insanity that is Life

Ok, so yes, I'm still working on that whole updating regularly, but, in my defense, My computer's charger died, so I was forced into exile.

This seemingly forced exile exposed me to something that truly worries me.... how absolutely addicted I am to technology. Now, fortunately I went out and about this weekend, I got to see some of my closest friends (and cuddle!). But what if i hadn't? When i got home i just sat, wondering what to do. I needed another escape. That is what I'm addicted to, escaping. I read a total of four books( which I shall review later). But i needed to remove myself from the boredom that was my life, and NOT BE PRODUCTIVE.
SO here is my new plan. I'm starting small, but I have developed a 6 week plan to better myself. Starting Tomorrow (not today because well... I already missed my chance) I will begin to slowly better myself, both in my mental and physical discipline. I have a list of things I shall do, out of this list I must choose to do at least 2 every day, and then there are other things that are non negotiable.

Now, The first 2 week2 will consist of:

- WAKE UP consistently early: No matter at what time I go to bed I will attempt to wake up at the same time every morning(6:30 am) I can do whatever I want between the times of 6 and 8, read, watch tv, draw, sew, but I CANNOT SLEEP.

- STUDY for 1 hour minimum per class each day: Right now I am taking two classes. That's two hours a day, If i have a test ill study more, but my minimum will be one hour, making sure I review and read.

-EAT: I fail at this, I miss meals and skimp on food. I either forget or put it off. gotta stop doing that so.... I'm going to eat at least two times a day, properly, a full meal. (See K? I'm trying to be healthy!)

- DO two of the following for 1.5 hours every day:
          Read
          Sew
          Draw
          Ride bike (or other exercise)
          Paint
          Write
          Meditate
          Clean
This plan will continue this way for the first two weeks in an attempt to form a kind of routine, afterwards I shall change studying to 1.5 hours a day per class and make physical exercise and cleaning a permanent part of my day.

Where can I get a discount dino?

Ahem. yep, that.s the plan....
Now aside from that I have other things going on, like not having a job.
See last I heard of, I was happily employed here at my university as the assistant glassblower, but apparently, upon the beginning of the new fiscal year i was not placed on their budget. Oh yeah and also I WAS NOT TOLD, nor was my boss. So my boss comes back from her trip, I return from mine and lo and behold, When I go to hand in my hours for the week at the office and suddenly I'm told 'hey, you aren't working for us!'.
How is it so difficult to email someone?  To tell me.... to TELL MY BOSS, that hey! you don't have an assistant right now! So of course I asked what I could do. I like my job, I work hard and I'm good at it.. also I NEED IT. but alas, the answer to that question is "I'll talk to the department chair and see what we can do". Golly gee willikers; It has been a week, I haven't heard from them, I haven't been paid for the hours i worked and I don't know if I'm even going to return, so what not? look for a job and pray that my savings hold.  I mean, its not like i have to pay for.. umm.. lets see,  food, school, gas, everything...


ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I have a bike, thanks to a dear friend of mine whose family has a tendency to hoard seemingly useless things!

As I mentioned earlier, I read quite a bit in the absence. Now I want to warn you, I LOVE BOOKS. Once I begin something, I hardly stop until I'm done.  Books are like drugs, and if the weren't so expensive I would be the worlds most literate junkie. Now the books I'm going to quickly review are Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, by Robin Mckinley, and The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner.
Both are considered children's fantasy and both are easy but wonderful reads.

First off, Beauty.

Grace, Hope and Hounour are the three young daughters of a wealthy merchant in the city. Honour, who is known to everyone as Beauty, is the 'cunning one' in the family. Without the beauty that both her sisters have she has dedicated herself to learning and books, but when her father loses his fleet of merchant ships at sea, they are left with nothing. Forced to move into the country to survive, they move to a small town on the edge of an enchanted forest. After her father accidentally meets the Beast he is forced to make a deal to sacrifice himself or one of his daughters to the beast. Beauty, upon seeing her father's predicament decides to take his place and go with the Beast and begin her new life.




SO GOOD, I read it much too quickly and I shall read it again. The characters are so well built you can't help but love all of them, unlike most retellings of this story, the antagonist isn't a character but a situation.  The hardships that the family goes through aren't caused by some nefarious villain, but by nature itself. This turns the story into one where you grow and hope with each character. You become immersed in a story that is surprisingly human, there is no evil villain out to get anyone, there is a family that you love and that you now deserves well trying their best within different (and yes, magical) situations.

Next is The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner;

 Gen is a thief, and a good thief at that. After going to jail for bragging about, and stealing, the seal of the King of Sounis. He is enlisted by the king's chief adviser, The Magus to go steal a legendary stone from a neighboring country. Gen, seeing this as his chance, goes along with the Magus, his two assistants Sophos and Ambiades, and by Pol, a soldier. But Gen is a trickster with his own plan, as the Magus soon learns.

Gen is one of my new favorite main characters. The best part of this book is, usually when you have stories about thieves and fantasy, the author will focus on the details of their craft. you see each calculated move that the character makes. Now In this book Turner focuses on the characters and the story. As you follow gen you realize that stealing and pickpocketing are so natural to him that you don't even know he's stolen something until he pulls it out. This has the unique characteristic of just making the character more believable. Instead of proving his worth through exhausting descriptions, his talents are taken as a given.

And with this I end my post for the day.. I'm too tired to write anymore.
But remind me later that I have to review the Show White Collar, because it rocks my colourful socks...

Do it Yourself~

I have been doing Do It Yourself projects for a long time. I love the idea of wanting something, working on it, and then enjoying the results. When you work on a project its your love child, you search how to do it, what are the best materials, the best design, how to customize it... how to make it yours. Now I never would have gotten into DIY if it weren't for a cool website called Instructables. This is a website where you can post your DIY project, but now just show to show them off, but to show people how to make them.
As you sure the website you find things as simple as Mother's Day cards, cupcake recipes, or a simple how to sew; but you can also find things as complicated as arudino, House building, grill making, metal smithing, wood carving, solar power,.. ect 

Not exactly like this....

Its a lot, but fortunately they have things divided into handy categories:
-Food
-Living
-Outside
-Play 
-Technology
-Workshop

All of these are pretty self explanatory, food for recipes, living for house hold projects and kid projects, living for projects to better your life, outside project, play for games and game modifications, technology for tech stuff, and workshop for more crafted instructables. Each one has its own subdivisions, so i suggest you go explore for a while! 

Don't take it too far...

Now, as I sadi earlier, this website got me started on DIY projects, so I rounded up some simple projects for you to try and see if you like it... 

1) Customizing Headphones {these are links by the way...}
This is an example of one of the simpler instructables, it shows you how to take something like your headphones and make them a bit more 'you'. its a nice way to start with DIY, changing things like notebook covers or painting a design on something is a nice way to help you get out of your shell and see that you can make things yours.
2) Secret Candy Dispenser
One of the most important things to look at in an instructable is its materials. Do you have them?  Can you afford to get them? Sure I want to make my house green, but do I have the money for all of the solar panels? This is an example of a simple instructable that uses things you find in the house, while still managing to be really cool~
3) Cheap and Easy iPhone cover
Here's another thing DIY aims to do (aside from please) it aims to give you home-made alternatives. This instructable is just that, an easy and cheap option to something that's pretty expensive on the market.

And can be a bit useful...

4) Origami Envelope
This instructable shows you how to add a personal touch to something you're gonna send to someone else. Its an extra feature to make sure you a remembered, its also a very nice way to save paper and look cool doing it.
5) Altoids Tin Watercolors

I come prepared..

In the strange world of DIY altoids tins are an oddly prized possession. They are sturdy and well made, the perfect size to carry along with you, and INCREDIBLY versatile, to the point of almost being a sin. From flashlights to survival kits, you can look up entire pages worth of altoid related instructables.  This one teaches you how to make a portable watercolor kit for an altoids box, but really its just a great example on how versatile they can be.


6) Make Your Own Sketchbook
Well, youve got some watercolors, so why not a sketchbook. There are many different options on how to make sketchbooks, I picked this one randomly, but you can go looking for a better one. Once more you are using things you have at home to make something that is completely yours.
7) Keyboard Long Cat
Since you've obviously been reading this entire post, then your hands have definitely been on that computer for too long, its probably hurting by now, so why not make a little comfy kitty to lay your arms on? This instructable requires you to go buy some things, but its a cute an easy project to do and it gives you a handy item as well. You can take this design and customize it too. Don't like cats? Change the face and tail and make a dog, or a bunny! its really all up to you.

One day he'll be long enough..

8) Bath Bombs
Youve been working so hard on all of these projects, why not reward yourself with a warm bath and some fizzy bath bombs to add aroma and fun to your otherwise boring bathing situation?  I <3 Bath bombs. They are fun and cool and this tell you how to make them, and I think that's epic.

Now, another thing that really helped me figure out where to get started were the guides. Sometimes there are topics that are so repeated that they choose their favorites and make downloadable guides filled with different instructables. Here's a few that I swear by:

Your robot will never be this cute though...

- Your First Robot
Make your own tiny robot and learn the basics for making more complicated beasts. 
- Origami
Beautiful origami made easy, both fun and functional items to keep you entertained. 
- LED projects
LEDs are the base of so many projects, they're cheap, simple and they are shiny when lit. Whats not to love?
- Pinhole Cameras
Who knew that making pinhole cameras was co easy? go ahead and take a picture with a camera you made yourself!

Now at times all of these options seem too complicated, but look around the website and you'll see that it really has a little something for everyone, adults to kids to cooks to programmers, its all there, and if it isn't make it your self and post it! That is the best part, after a while you aren't limited by what you can or cannot buy, what you can or cannot do. Whatever you want, make it. Even if you don't know how, it teaches you to think outside the box and look for different ways of making things.