March 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Figures. I just installed WordPress on byHol.com the other day, and now the new version's been released! Flippin' hilarious.
I saw Horton Hears A Who again today and attended a free guitar workshop for beginners. :) It'd been years since I'd pulled my guitar out of the closet before this morning. I managed to sort of tune it before leaving, and then re-tuned it better when I got there as everyone was being taught how to do so. I actually remembered that part semi-okay, but couldn't remember any chords I'd known for the life of me. Now I do. My fingers hurt though, and even though I clipped my nails down very far last night, they still didn't seem short enough. Whoever invented the guitar did not take into account that it's unhealthy to cut your nails down to where there's no white. Now all this has me thinking:
I really like the way the guitar sounds (especially electric), which is why I bought one in the first place. I totally think I could learn it and be decent at it, but it would take a lot of time, be a big commitment. Most instruments are. That's all fine and dandy, but my big commitment should be writing, and I'm having enough trouble with that as it is, there's no way I could add another large, time-consuming commitment to my plate. And I shouldn't. So, I don't know if I'll continue to learn the guitar, and to that end am actually contemplating the idea of selling my guitar. Too early for me to decide difinitively, but I'm leaning toward the not continuing side. Plus, I'd prefer not to have my nails that short nor calluses on my fingers. lol
Friday, March 28, 2008
byHol.com is back up in it's new state! :) I made a theme, and I did the layout without using tables! I have conquered much the last few days. Okay, okay, it wasn't that hard, but the first time I tried out WordPress, it did not go nearly so well, so I've a right to be excited now, I think. Please go check out the new site. I even have comments enabled over there. Speaking of which, someone just recently told me they wished I had comments enabled here. If you'd like to see comments here, let me know via the tagboard or an e-mail and I'll think about it. :) (P.S. I always just figured the tagboard could be used for comments, but I guess that really only works for short comments...)
The snow from the other day was all melted and gone by the time I got up. It has been snowing off and on since then though, but not really sticking. It looks pretty just to see it coming down though, so I'm happy. Still hoping for a little flurry on my birthday.
That's really all I have to post about today. I've spent most of my time getting everything at byHol.com going (which was fun). Now that that's finished, hopefully I will put my time toward writing. *sigh*
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
There's snow on the ground! I am filled with glee, and now there is slight hope that we may actually get snow on my birthday. Very slight, but still, now there's some. ;) Huge clusters of flakes were falling with the rain late last night, but nothing was sticking. Now, there's probably almost an inch. Yay!
Yesterday, a lady who had contacted me about my laptop came to see it. She was really nice and offered me the exact amount I was hoping for! :D I wasn't even sure I'd get that since it's four years old, but I think since it was a Sony, it held it's worth a little more than another brand might. I only put it up for sale on Saturday and now it's already gone, and for the amount I wanted, so I am very thankful to God. :D I think that was my best selling experience so far.
Today, I went out with mom. She had an appointment to go to, so she dropped me off at a mall while she was there. I didn't indend to buy much, but I got some little journal things for a buck each, then Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion from one book store, and two castle books (complete with lots of lovely color pictures) and a book on heraldry from another book store. I'm quite happy with the purchases though, and they weren't really impulse buys as I was planning to get most of them at some point. The heraldry one I just happened to see, but it was a good price and has TONS of images and talks about the history behind it, etc. It should turn out to be a very good writing resource, I expect.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Years ago, my mother had an investment account in my name, to help save money for school, etc. It's been cleaned out for a while now, but a few months back I received a letter from the company. It informed me that a lawsuit had been brought against them for some issue about who they invested their customer's money with (I don't understand any of that stuff). Most of it was legal mumbo jumbo, but basically it said I didn't have to do anything and that I might receive money from a settlement at some future date. Yeah, sure. I recycled the paper. Hey, they said I didn't need to do anything!
Today, I got another letter from them in the mail. Jokingly, I said, "Hey, maybe it's a check for money!" Haha. I opened it; and low and behold... a check! Now jump up and down and get all excited... guess how much it was for! $18.33. BOOYAH! I'm rich now.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter everyone! :) I hope you all had a great day. Mine was good. Started out with church, which was quite full this morning. Always like that sort of thing. The message was good, too, which was important since I heard it twice as today was my volunteer Sunday. lol Got to see a few people I don't normally see and chat with them some, so that was nice as well.
After church I came home and ate, then set about planning what movie to take myself to and what time to go. I ended up going with a third viewing of Jumper. It's out of the closer theatres already, so I had to dive a ways extra, but I figured I'd best get in one more viewing before it's no longer in theatres and I have to wait for the DVD to come out. It was good, but for some reason, I don't think I was really in the right mood for it today, so that soured it a tad. Rawr. Came home after that and got to packaging the items that sold on eBay. Yay for a tiny amount of extra cash and getting rid of junk. Haha.
An update now, on the laptop situation as mentioned in a previous post. So, I did good; I refrained from buying the laptop. I really wanted to a couple times during the week, but managed to talk myself out of it each time (praise God!). Now the sale is over so I don't have to keep refraining. At least, from that specific one anyway. I've decided to sell my current laptop first before I buy a new one and see what I can get for it. Then, if a really good sale comes along, I may buy a new laptop. Right now I really don't need one, though. The only thing it'd be needed for would be a vacation so I could update my work sites, but there doesn't seem to be one of those in my near future.
I really want to go to Disneyland again. Every time I'm at the grocery store they have the five-day park hopper passes and I'm just itching to buy one. However, while one, maybe two days, alone in the parks can be rather fun, more than that is not, as I discovered the last time. I've no one to go with. The people I know who'd want to go don't have the time and/or money. Those that have the time and/or money don't want to go. It is indeed a kunhundrum. Mom and I are tentatively planning a trip to Disney World, but when that would be, we don't know. It was going to be about this time of the year, but sadly my mom's been having some back problems so going on theme park rides right now would not be a good idea. I need to find me some rich friends with nothing but time on their hands who are as crazy about Disneyland as myself! lmao
On a final note, I'm in the process of a tentative re-imagining of byHol.com. Yes, I know I just put it up a few months back, but already I'm dissatisfied with what it is and want to make it something more, perhaps different as well. It's just kind of sitting there now, and it's not interactive. So, don't be surprised if you go there one day and there's a note saying I'm changing things around.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think it's time for a nice, cold, glass of milk. Mmm.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Mom and I just finished watching our new copy of The Ark of Truth a little while ago. It came today, and it is scratch free and plays beautifully! Yay! :D I think the radest part is the replicator skelleton. Totally cool! Though, of course, if that was real and I was Cam, my initial thoughts wouldn't be on it looking cool, they'd be more along the lines of trying to figure out how to beat the thing and live. Ya know?
I'm no longer upset about the eBay thing from the previous post. Just had to get it out of my system, you know? They sent me back a reply today and it was satisfactory to me. It was fairly form, but at least addressed all of what I had said and even applauded me for one of my suggestions, though if I actually want to suggest it, I have to e-mail it to a specific address. lol We'll see if I feel like doing that or not. The good news is that I re-listed the problem item (minus the problem, of course) and it's got the same number of bids it did previously already, so I'll still sell the item, which is really what has made me happy. lol
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Warning, this is a rant. Stop reading if you don't like those sorts of posts.
eBay just PISSED me off! On Saturday I listed a bunch of items, and as of yesterday evening, only four had gotten bids on them so far, so I was relying on those ones and hoping for the others. Well, I login to my account today to see that I have an "alert" from eBay. Wondering why the heck I would, I opened the message. Apparently it's illegall to put the words "like new" in the title of your listing on eBay now, even if the item(s) you're selling are, in fact, appropriately given that term (aka unused, but perhaps missing tags or something). Oh, it's perfectly okay to write that stuff in the body of the listing, but heaven forbid you put it in the title because then eBay ends your item without ANY prior warning message before doing so. Had they sent me an automated e-mail yesterday informing me I had violated one of their policies, I would have immediately removed the two problem words from the title and then it would still have bids and get sold. Now I've had to re-list the item and HOPE that it gets bids on it again otherwise eBay has just caused me to LOSE A SALE because they're STUPID.
I sent them a reply in an "elevated tone" of writing and now I've ranted here, so I feel somewhat better, but it will probably still be a bit before the anger runs its way through my system and dissipates. Grr. The only nice thing I have to say about them right now is that it appears they've at least refunded me the listing fee for the item they canceled and they didn't close my account like they once did to my cousin Don (it's a long story, but he didn't do anything wrong and also received no warning of their actions. They re-opened his account and had to apologise to him. Ha.).
Monday, March 17, 2008
Briefly, I had in my possession a copy of Stargate: The Ark of Truth. Briefly. It arrived on Saturday (finally), and when I pulled the disc out of the package, I noticed all these little dots that I thought were dust. So, I carefully attempted to clean them off, but they were still there, meaning they were scratches. I thought, "oh great, I get it and it comes with scratches on it." Put it in that evening for mom and I to watch and it seemed okay for a while (minus the beginning scene having some color fluctuation, which now I'm hoping was another defect on my disc). However, it skipped. I let the first one go as it was short and could have been a change over to the other layer. But then there were three more and one of them froze the screen for a good 8-10 seconds. At least we managed to get through the whole movie before I boxed it back up and went through the return process. It was a pretty good movie with some interesting parts, for sure. Stupid ideot guy created a replicator! LOSER! lol Mom got a good laugh over my yelling at that character on the screen when that happened. ;) And, the ending gives us a very large hint to a possible plot in a future movie (if they so decide). But yes, hopefully my replacement copy will come soon and then mom and I can watch it again.
In yesterday's store ads in the paper, I noticed quite a lovely laptop on sale at Office Depot. I decided that if I get a new laptop, I want a 14.1" screen so it will be a good deal smaller than my current one, and that's what the one in the ad had. Plus, it had all the specs I put in my head as the defaults plus extra. It's really a very nice looking laptop, and the price is pretty darn good too. But the problem is, should I buy a new laptop? I have one, and I almost never use it now. I vastly prefer working on a desktop, actually. However, laptops can come in handy sometimes and for my website job I discovered on my last vacation that I kind of need one. I don't want the laptop I have anymore. It was nice for a while, but I just don't like it anymore. I've been thinking of selling it for a while now and was going to just sell it and not buy a laptop at all until I thought about the website job and the regular updates I have to do with that. I could sell the current laptop and use what I get to go toward a new one, but the sad fact is that I can't even get half of what I originally paid for my laptop if I were to sell it now, even though it's in perfect condition (working and cosmetic). Blarg. I guess I should see about selling my laptop and see what I can get and then look into a new laptop possibly. But then there's the "will there be as good of a deal?" or "what if I suddenly need one for some reason?" questions that roam through my head. There's also the possibility, though, of prices going down more or there being even better sales when graduation season rolls around. Gah! I can't make any decisions! lol
Mom and I watched Oprah tonight and Terry Fator, the ventriliquist who won America's Got Talent last season, was on. I happened to say that if he ever comes up here we should totally go see him perform because he really is amazing. Well, it happened that toward the end of the show there was a commercial saying that he'll be performing in Seattle a week after my birthday. lol Wha da ya know? So, mom and I purchased tickets this evening. :D We hardly ever go out to such things, so we figured we might as well splurge a little and take ourselves. Should be very entertaining and hopefully funny, too.
Well, must be off now. Will I work on my writing some before I go to sleep? It would be good, but my track record really isn't that great. Or maybe I'll try to finish the chainmaille project I'm working on at the moment. I shall occupy myself with something, I am sure. But, before I leave, I mustn't forget what an important day it is: Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Drat, I forgot to blog yesterday. Hopefully I will remember most of what I planned to write.
Mom and I went and saw College Road Trip on Wednesday. It had some pretty funny parts, and I must say I thought the "magical pirate" pig was pretty hilarious, but overall it wasn't as funny as the trailers led me to believe. Isn't that generally the case though? I'm hoping to go see Jumper again soon, and our theatre's opening Horton Hears A Who today, so eventually I'll go watch that, though I'm not terribly excited for it.
Also on Wednesday, we all got our notices from the IRS about the additional checks going out in May to people who qualify. I think I'll get the full amount, but the table they have for figuring it out confused me. Haha. I shant complain about getting extra money back, but as my mom mentioned, a max of $600 extra back (per individual) isn't going to do much for most people. Hopefully it will be of some help to those that really need it at least. For me, it's basically, "now I really need to go on a vacation!" Being that I don't have a lot of bills to pay, I can choose to throw around the extra money, or be good and stick it in my savings, but that just wouldn't be as fun and mom and I are still hoping to make our first ever trip to Disney World sometime this year. :)
I've had some success writing twice this week, which is fabulous, but I also said I'd write more than that and did not. It's not as if I don't have the time (there's plenty of that), so it's that something is still managing to hinder me. Mostly I find it'd difficult to sit down and open the word processor or grab a pen and paper. It must be clear to me now that I'm capable of writing because I have done it and what I've written is good (not perfect, but it never should be on a first draft), so what is preventing me?
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Site Update: I've added a links page under the site section of this site. Actually, it's pretty sad right now because there are only three links. Most people I've known online don't have sites anymore, or if they do, they're at some new URL that I'm not aware of. That being said, I'd love to get more links posted, so if you have a site (personal/blog related) and want to exchange links, let me know and I'll consider it. :)
Truly, not much has happened this past week for me to write about. The main thing was that I had the pleasure of seeing the Matsiko Children's Choir perform. ICN is a charity based here in WA dedicated to helping children around the world. A lot of people from my church are quite active in helping them, and my parents sponsor a child in Uganda through them. It's the best sponsorship program, in my opinion, because over 95% of the money goes to your sponsor child and we get letters from her and picture updates fairly regularly. :) They also have like a "shopping list" of extra things you can buy for your child so I've bought her a number of things through that. It's really fun to go on sort of a shopping spree for your child. They always send us a picture of her with all the things we bought for her, too, so that's neat to see her actually receiving everything. :) Anyway, that Matsiko choir is made up of children from Uganda and they're performing all over the US for the next year. It's an amazing experience to see them, so I highly recommend you checking out their calendar at the above URL for ICN and going to see them when they're near you. :) I had tears leaking out through much of their performance, part from being happy and part from some sadness, but it was just amazing.
In other news, I'm counting points on the Weight Watcher program and am doing pretty well. :) I also wrote on Sunday night, so that made me very happy! I sent it to Sam over AIM just a bit ago and she said she really liked it, so happy day! :D lol Now if only I can continue and write some more today. Must make that a goal. :) And, like I said at the beginning of this post, not much going on, so this is all I have to say.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
I've spent many hours the past few days researching chainmaille related things online. Oh yeah, Holly's just a tad obsessed with this new creative project. Man, if only I could be this way with my writing... *sigh* Anyway, I'm very exited about making stuff with chainmaille, but the pre-made links I ordered just shipped yesterday. Gah on wait time! So, last night I found some info about people finding certain types of wire at Ace, etc. So, today I went to Ace and got two different gauges of copper wire as well as some brass rods for coiling the wire on. I made my first few jump rings when I got home! :D Need to make a little rig to help with the winding though, and it would be truly helpful to drill holes in the rods so I can insert the end of the wire into it and have it stay fast while I turn the rod to make the wire coil. lol Also, I used a pair of my dad's wire cutters to clip the coil into rings and sadly they make a terrible pinch cut, as was said they would in my research. Therefore, I'm going to order a jeweler's saw over the internet soon for cutting them. Then I'll have to have my dad help me make another little rig to hold the coils while they get cut. Good thing my dad has lots of tools and knows more about this stuff than I do. ;)
Anyway, after Ace and before we came home, my mom and I went out and ran some other errands. I had gotten a plastic storage box for under my bed at Target the other day and it's just a tad too high, so I returned that today. Then, we went over to Michael's so I could get some proper pliers and return the mini pair I'd gotten on Friday. I also got some bead things for working into the chainmaille stuff. See, told you I was a tad obsessed.
After my brief intro foray into making my own jump rings, my parents and I went and saw The Bucket List. It was pretty good. Starts off a little slow for my liking, but there are a few REALLY hilarious lines in there, and towards the end it made me cry, which generally means I liked it okay. Landon blamed me for problems at the beginning though! Ungrateful boy! lol I help him with concessions and he blames me for there being a larger crowd than normal and a boo-boo on the trailers that the person who built the movie caused! *rolls eyes* They keep claiming problems always occur when I come down. Not always... lol
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Late Thursday night, I finally remembered to look into making my own chainmail bracelet. I got one a few summers back at a medieval fair and it's just so cool, so first I thought I'd see if I could get another one, but couldn't find any online at the time so forgot until Thursday evening--not sure what reminded me. Anyway, had bucketloads of success finding info online and was excited to buy the stuff and try it out. Well, it turns out that not many stores around here sell jump rings, and if by chance they do have them, there's only a very small variety. But more on that in a bit.
Yesterday (aka Friday), mom and I went out to run errands and hang out for the day. We went to Wal-Mart, then headed to a Neovita to check into getting me some orthotics. I think this place might only be in Washington, but I'm not sure. We've been hearing their ads on the radio for a good year or so now and kept saying we should look into it and find out what their pricing is etc. since I no longer have insurance to get new orthotics from the doctor. Went through this whole process where they measured my feet and checked my step, etc. First curious thing is that I think the lady remarked that I don't have flat feet. I'm hoping I just misheard her because at least three different podiatrists have told me I do, and I don't think they'd all be wrong. lol (Mom said later she thought she affirmed that I did, so perhaps I did mishear.) She said I had a lot of pressure in my [incert fancy word for ball of my foot here] among a few other things. So, she went into the back and brought back shoes (rolled my eyes at that) along with some of the orthotics. Lady was nuts, man. I told her I wear a size 10-11 in women's depending on the brand, and the first pair she brought me was an 8. Talk about way too small and rather painful. She goes, "okay, I brought some nines, too." Also not the right size. *rolls eyes* Maybe her little measuring thing is broken (even though it's a manual one)? lmao She said I just had really narrow feet, and I thought, "yep, thanks!" :D I love my skinny long feet. *hugs them* So after I finally stuck the "corrective" orthotics in my own shoes I asked how much they run and the answer? About $550. !@(&^# WHAT?! They're not even custom made to my feet like the ones I've gotten from podiatrists for LESS. Well, that's the price for two different kinds... the corrective ones you only wear for short periods and the maintaining ones you can wear all the time. Still. A while later my feet started to ache while in the car, so I'm pretty sure I won't be getting anything from that store. I was so hopping they'd be decently priced and work out, too. *sigh* Oh well. Now I have some pretty ink impressions of my feet, though. Maybe I'll scan them and put them on here... lol You can majorly tell where my right foot is messed up from my last evil orthotic though because the ink is far more concentrated than any other part of my foot and than my other foot as well. Okay, I know some people are silly and think feet are gross (they are the foundation of your body people, and to be cherished), so I'll move on now. lol
It was at the stop at Michael's that I found some jump rings. They had a pack that contained two different sizes, so I went with that and got these cheap mini pliers and a jump ring opening tool so I could get started right away. Turns out (at least for me) that the ring opening tool is a joke. Far more trouble than it's worth and just using two pairs of pliers would work a whole lot better. The tiny pliers I got work okay, but normal sized ones would be much more comfortable, so I think I'll return those and buy some better ones. Not too big of a rush though because I have to wait for the jump rings I ordered to come before I can really do much else anyway. But yes, I made my first bit of chainmail last night in the form of a keychain (didn't have enough of the rings for a whole bracelet). I made a weave that's called a Half Persian 4 in 1, as that's what I discovered the bracelet I bought a few years ago was. It was difficult at first, but once I got a few more links added and figured out the pattern I was starting to go at a smoother pace. Let's see... I think it took me around four hours or so? Not really sure, but I'd say that's a fair guesstimate. I'm really excited to do more of this though. :D
After Michael's we went to Target so I could get a long plastic storage thing for under my bed. Thought it would fit okay, but in the evening when I finally got around to checking it, I discovered it's about half and inch too high. Rawr. They only had two different ones there, and it was the shorter one, too. *sigh* Return.
We made it back in time for me to go to the theater and watch Atonement. I would not recommend it. Some of the music at the beginning with the added typewriter sounds was rather cool and appealed to me as a writer, but I think that's all I liked. Too much back-tracking, and it felt incomplete to me.
Today, Emily and I went to check out this new used bookstore, and I sold a few things, then in turn got a few books since you get more "money" from what you sell if you take it in store credit. I got a writing related book, and Ireland travel book that's a few decades old, but still shows a lot of interesting places I can add to the ones I want to visit someday, and then also a copy of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle. The latter is somewhat funny in that I had been thinking recently of buying it as I've not read it for a long time. Emily and I got coffee (for her) and hot chocolate (for me) afterward and sat and chatted for a bit before she had to leave for work. Then I came home and pretty much didn't accomplish anything. Perhaps tomorrow will be better on that front.
