The Future is Now!

Yesterday, I attended a baby shower in Canada, from my comfy chair down in the US.  It was kind of awesome.  My sister and I hooked up our computers and I was able to watch her open all of her presents via Skype.  It was more than a little awesome.

I remember, growing up, when video phones were a thing of sci-fi movies.  It was a crazy thought, that anyone could use videos to have conversations.  And now?  The newest iPhone does it portably!  Holy cow!

I'm all about the technology - I've been online since... well, let's not admit how long I've been online.  Point is, I love the way tech is evolving, and I can't wait to see what's next, even if I can't quite afford all of the latest toys.  Funny thing is, though, the more time I spend around hi-tech gadgety bits, the more time I spend on the rather low-tech crafting hobbies I have.

And speaking of crafting, here's the blanket update:

Section A: 10/10 rows complete
Section B: 90/90 rows complete
Section C: 11/111 rows complete
Section D: 0/90 rows complete
Section E: 0/10 rows complete
Percentage complete: 35%
Total length: 16.5 inches

Finally! Finished a few!

This week has been, well, crazy.  I'm feeling pulled in a dozen different directions, and I've been multitasking beyond my standard capacity at work, but that's okay.  I went out shopping last night, and in addition to buying the pillowform I needed for one of my projects (see below!), I bought a new notebook.  There's just something that feels good about a new notebook.  I used to be a Moleskin gal, but lately, I've been using the Ecosystem notebooks and loving them.  I'm feeling the need to write by hand, and I'm about to start the re-write on HEA, and it just felt right.  So the new version will start out hand-written in a pink notebook.  Very princess.

I've put the blanket for Otter/Baby Bear on hold, mostly because I tried doing the color-blocked section, hated the way it was turning out, and ended up frogging ten rows of blanket.  Otter, you'll appreciate this - I'm using Grandma's needles for the blanket!  Our grandma was notorious for getting almost all the way done with a project, realizing she had made a mistake somewhere earlier, then ripping out the whole thing and starting again.  I didn't rip out the whole thing - I kept the first 100 rows, so it's not too bad.  But I'm waiting until I have time to go to the yarn store and ask for advice on how to proceed.

In the meantime, I've actually finished two other projects.  The first was a birthday present for a friend - Matt bought a sock monkey for Brie, and wanted her name embroidered into a tattoo on its arm (like those commercials where the toys went crazy - do you remember them?).  I've been putting it off for months, but tonight, I finished it!  It wasn't hard at all, and it didn't take long to do, but I just didn't get around to it.  Now, though, it's off the list!

The other project I finished (at 10:30, which is after I wanted to be in bed, and has delayed this post) is a sweater-turned-pillow.  I started this one YEARS ago after finding this awesome yarn.  Unfortunately, I didn't get enough to actually finish the sweater I started, but I really liked the pattern. So I modified it, and voila! Years later, a knit/crochet pillow cover.  I'm pretty happy with it.  And there's just enough of the yarn left to make a simple scarf or something small.  Maybe.

So that's what I've done while waiting impatiently for the weekend.

More POV musings and a new tracking thingy

After writing about possibly trying the first-person POV last week, I feel like the universe is sort of conspiring to make me try... In my blogroll today, I came across this post about first-person.  The whole thing has been marinating all day as I've been working on other projects at work, and I think I'm going to do it.

Well.

I'll try the first chapter or so.  We'll see how it feels.  The thing is, I've already started mentally rewriting it, and it feels good.  I just need to try it on paper and share it with someone else, I think.

In other news, with Otter's maternity sweater done, I've moved on to Baby Bear's blanket.  However, I work best when I feel pressure, so I'm creating pressure by posting my progress here.  Until it's done, at the end of each blog post I'll be including the current progress of each section of the blanket, the number of balls of yarn used up, and frequent photos.  If that doesn't motivate me... well, then the blanket won't get finished :)

Day 3:
Section A: 10/10 rows complete
Section B: 32/90 rows complete
Section C: 0/111 rows complete
Section D: 0/90 rows complete
Section E: 0/10 rows complete
Balls of yarn used up: 1
Total length: 7 inches
Percentage complete: 13.5%

A few more things crossed off my lists

I've finally finished listening to the Librivox recordings of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. That took... a while.  Five volumes, each with 40-70 recordings.  Yowza.  As I listened to it, I remembered why it took me an entire summer to read the book while I was in high school.  It wasn't that I'm a slow reader.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Hugo tends to be more of a historian than a story-teller, which results in a book that isn't particularly interesting to me for large chunks.  There were, like, nineteen chapters on the battle of Waterloo.  And three on the history and anatomy of the sewer systems of Paris.  All I really needed to know was that Jean Valjean was in the sewers.  It didn't make any difference to the story that he was in the section that was built under... um... someone's reign.  See how much it mattered to me?

But the heart of the story was good, and when he got on a roll with story instead of history, I was captivated.  There were times that I would sit in my car for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes after I got home, just to hear the rest of the section.  I think, though, that it will be another fifteen years before I reread it again.

I also finally finished the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.  Wow.  I've been working on this series since I picked up the first book almost fifteen years ago.  I reread the series every time a new one came out, up until the last three.  At that point, I knew that the series would be wrapping up, so I waited until it was finished to read the whole thing once more.  I started again over the summer, and this weekend, I finished the last book.

I'm feeling a bit, well, ambiguous about it.  The ending fit the rest of the books.  It worked out well, and it tied together whole chunks from the beginning that I was wondering about.  There were some bits that didn't make sense, and all of the characters have a tendency to deliver monologues rather than actually having discussions with one another, but aside from that, I enjoyed the series.  It wasn't nearly as over-written as I found the Wheel of Time series to be - I stopped reading at book 7, and I've had no desire to pick it back up.  At the same time, it's sad, because I've waited so long to find out what happens, and now that I know, well... hmm.

Can you tell I've been making up for lost reading time?  I also finished Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.  It was in the cupboard at work, so I picked it up and read it during my lunch breaks.  It was okay.  It wasn't as if it were poorly written.  It was actually the story that I didn't like.  She wrote it well, don't get me wrong!  Rebecca (the MC) just made me uncomfortable.  I think it was the situation that she had managed to get into that didn't sit well with me.  Please, don't skip this book just because I didn't enjoy it - as I said, it was very well written, and the characters were nicely developed, and it is clearly a book that many others have enjoyed.

I've started reading Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.  I read Wicked years ago, and loved it.  Of course, I also loved Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister and Mirror, Mirror, so I'm expecting to enjoy this one.  I'm only about 50 pages in, but I'm liking it.  I'll give you a final verdict when I'm done. :)

I was going to start listening to another audiobook, but I found the most random-ass mix cd in my car, and I can't stop listening to it.  I'm pretty sure that Otter made it for me - it's labeled "Princess/Disney Mix," and I was expecting a few songs from The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.  Instead, it's got the standard princess songs, mixed with the soundtrack from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, Shrek, Peter Pan and some other craziness, all in one.  There are 148 tracks!!  So I'll be listening to it for a while before I switch back to a book.

And that's what I've been up to!  (Well, partly.  But you have to wait until Friday to hear about the secret I'm keeping.)

Be It Resolved That...

Hello bloggy friends!  (Or blogglings - I kind of like the idea of having blogglings.  Like minions, only with less servitude.)  Yes, after an extended blogging vacation, I have returned.  And I'm bringing along a change in schedule, too!  I realized that trying to blog on Sundays just didn't work well for me, so I'm switching up to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.  Hopefully that will work better for my lifestyle.  But if it doesn't, I'll try something else.

I hope you all had a fun holiday season, with just the right amount of family and friends and food and drinks.  I think I had a perfect balance this year.  My parents and Otter and Panda (and their dog, Bella) came to stay with me for just over a week, which is part of the reason for my blog silence.  After all, I only get to see them a couple of times a year, so I want to make the most of our time together.  This was the first time that Otter and Panda had come down to see me, so we had to do a bunch of typically Southern things (like golf in December), and we had to hit all of the shopping possible.  Have I mentioned that my ENTIRE family loves to shop?  It's a great bonding activity!

I had a semi-quiet New Year's Eve, with my SO and a couple of friends.  We ate brie and drank champagne.  Okay, that sounds WAY more sophisticated than we actually were!  In addition to the brie and champagne, we had an awesome cheesy, meaty, salsa dip of delicious, and chips and dip, and moose milk.  Moose milk?  Yes, moose milk.  It is made of awesome, with some egg nog, ice cream, and alcohol mixed in.  But it's a secret recipe... well, not so much.  You can Google it, but none of the recipes that turn up are quite the same as mine.  Still, if you don't mind a good, strong drink, I'd recommend giving it a try.

And since it's a new year, it's time to revisit last year's resolutions...

• Keep writing in my blogs. I'm not going to insist that I write every day, but I've really enjoyed it. It's generally the last thing I do before bed, and it's a nice part of my routine. However, I have this blog and my craft blog and my 'Take Five' blog, and I'd like to spread out the time between the three a little bit more.  
• Well, I've continued this blog, and I'm occasionally popping in to my craft blog, but 'Take Five' totally fell off the radar.  Still, I've kept writing regularly, so I'll call this one a WIN!

• Finish editing 'Happily Ever After.' I finished the story. It has an ending. However, it needs work. I'm thinking of signing up for a course on editing your own novel, because I really feel that this story has potential. I've pitched it to a couple of girls who fall into my target audience, and they're really excited about reading it (go alpha-readers!). I want to edit, send out to readers, and re-edit, then start looking more seriously at potential agents/publishers.
• Not so much.  I edited the first chapter.  Then I got distracted.  The problem is that I hate editing.  Also, I've got other ideas that I want to work on.  But I'm still planning to edit it.  Really.  But this is a no.

• Lose 20 lbs. I know, I know, I failed at this one last year. But I'm going to keep trying, dammit, because I'm just not comfortable in my body right now. I've already started keeping track of what I'm eating, and that alone tends to help me. Back when I was doing Weight Watchers, I found that part helped more than anything else. So I'm giving it another try. I've got a really cute pair of jeans that I want to wear again.
• Hahahahahaha.  No.

• Get together with Mooselings. For the past several years, my NaNo group here has said, "Yeah, we'll totally get together outside of November!" and failed miserably. I'm going to make it happen this year!
• YES!  We did manage to meet up during the winter and spring.  Things sort of trickled off in the summer, but really, we've got too many people with too many things going on.  Between theatre stuff and jobs and kids' sports and school vacation and everything else, summer's just not practical.  But the important thing is that we kept in touch.

After looking back at last year's 'meh' result, I had to ask myself, "What do I want to resolve this year?  Do I even want to make resolutions?" 

OF COURSE I DO!  I like goals.  More importantly, I like lists!  Without further ado, here is my list of resolutions for 2011:

1. Drink more milk.  I usually only drink milk when my parents are here (or I'm visiting them), and we drink milk at every dinner.  Specifically, I will drink milk with a meal once a week.
2. Cook dinner.  And I mean really cook, not just reheat leftovers or zap a TV dinner.  Specifically, I will cook myself at least one meal a week.  
3. Use 'so' less.  I use the word 'so' an awful lot on this blog.  So much, in fact, that it's started sticking out to me.  I will use it less.  But I have no specifics on how much less. ;)
4. Be on time for work.  I am really bad about clocking in at 8:02.  All I have to do is wake up 2 minutes earlier (in theory).  Specifically, I will clock in to work at 8:00 or earlier at least 4 days a week (which is an improvement over my current one-day-a-week trend).
5. Drink more water.  Over the last few weeks, I've been drinking a lot of pop.  A LOT.  Like, 3 or 4 cups of Dr. Pepper at work, then a Cherry Coke with dinner, and a Dr. Pepper later in the evening.  That can't be good for me.  But I got a fancy new plastic cup with my initials on it, and I find that I drink more water when I'm drinking out of that.  Specifically, I will have more water than pop while I'm at work (even if that means guzzling two glasses of water in the last ten minutes of my day!).
6. Finish Partners.  I HAVE to finish this play.  I've run it through the critique group once, and I've made some major changes, but I need to finish this next draft and submit it to the theatre if I want to have a chance of having it produced next season.  Specifically, I will finish this draft by the end of January and I will have it to my crit partners by mid-February.

There you go! You'll notice that this year, I haven't resolved to lose weight.  I figure by drinking more milk and more water (and also by cooking rather than eating out), I'll probably lose some weight without frustration and calorie counting.  And even if I don't, those things will make me healthier, which is important, right?

Have you made any resolutions?

Side note: I edited out at least 7 'so's before posting today!