Monday, May 21, 2012

May 21-23: Walking Down Memory Lane

Sophisticated Lady

Sophisticated Lady by bunni711 featuring genuine leather handbags

I've just finished with a frustrating redesign of Crochet Goddess.  Unfortunately, Google kept going kaput on me while I was making changes and I had to redo them a few times.  It looks a lot different now, and I think, more sophisticated than before.

From the beeping coming from James' room, it seems one of his consoles has gone haywire.  Hopefully it isn't anything serious.  

On Monday, James came over again and we had a pretty good day.  We walked down to Dollar General and later on took Teddy for a walk in the woods.  DG seems to be hiring, so I might apply there.  It would be really nice to have a job.

I'm still doing pretty well with my new portioning, and today James and I went for a 2 mile walk down the trails near his house.  It was really nice.  At first, I felt pretty tired and wasn't sure if I wanted to walk that far, but once we got started it got a lot easier and it felt really good.  I just need to keep that in mind when I feel tired or lazy!

Yesterday, James and I watched Footloose (the new one).  It was pretty bad.  Apparently it didn't get that terrible of a score on Rotten Tomatoes, but I have to say it was pretty awful. Blech.  We didn't do too much yesterday - I read and hung out with James for the most part.  I took a short nap, too, but that's about it!  It was a pretty boring day, but I'm always happy when I can just spend time with James.  I feel warm fuzzies for him.  <3

Today I crocheted and finished my book:


The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and BetrayalThe Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"A quick, fun read. I liked the language and imagery, but the book would have benefited from primary sources."

View all my reviews

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next.  I put a hold on Tehanu, the fourth Earthsea book, but after that - I'm not really sure.  Most likely, I'll have to put a hold on another book since my library doesn't have a lot as far as selection goes.  I have to order a lot of books in from other libraries connected to ours.

James and I had pancakes for lunch today and watched The Adventures of Tintin.  I thought it was really cute and the animation was amazing - like nothing I have ever seen before.  The characters were so life-like - the lighting was stellar, too.  Plus, I thought the movie was funny and interesting and a lot of fun to watch.  I loved the clueless Thompsons and Snowy was very cute and a great partner in a pinch.

Let's see - other than that, I watched one of those VH1 countdowns for best songs of the 90s.  It's always fun to look back at the music I grew up with.  I should go look up the songs they had in the show and write down the ones I liked!  I always mean to and forget.  (What else's new, amirite?)

I'm really glad we went on the walk earlier.  We also played a little basketball, so I'm pretty happy with the exercise I did today.  Hopefully we'll keep the walking up and hopefully play some tennis when we head back to my house tomorrow.

By the way, you may have noticed that I've stopped doing the word of the day thing.  I'm not sure if I'll pick it back up or not.  Let me know what you think in the comments!

Love,
Christen

Sunday, May 20, 2012

May 10-21: Big Decision and Such

Batman Fangirl

Batman Fangirl by bunni711 featuring slim boot cut jeans

I know, I know, it's been a long time since my last post again!  I've just been taking advantage of my new summer freedom for a while.  I actually hadn't realized it has been quite so long since the last post, but indeed it has been almost two weeks.

So, the biggest news since the last post is that I decided to finish my degree in December instead of August.  There were a few reasons for this, including that the class I had been planning on taking in the summer was closed.  What actually happened was that there was only one spot in the entire class (I have no idea why!) and the class actually started the day I went on to register.  There was another class I could've taken, but it was on Microsoft Expression, which I've already had experience with; I just didn't feel like it was worth taking.  So now I'm going to be finishing up a few months later, but I'm signed up for classes I'm excited about.  I think they will both actually be helpful for my career.  I'm taking an dynamic html class that will also go into advanced css and javascript.  I'm also taking a class in graphic design which I had really wanted to take for a while.  Plus, of course, the seminar (it's like a capstone class).

I e-mailed the prof of the graphic design class to see what program we're going to be using.  He uses GIMP in his classes, which is an open source program.  I was kind of disappointed since Photoshop is so big in the industry, but he said it's very easy to translate skills to Photoshop and other programs.

I've also been reading a bunch and finished the next Earthsea book, The Tombs of Atuan:


The Tombs of Atuan (The Earthsea Cycle, #2)The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews




Then, I read the next one, The Farthest Shore:


The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, #3)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars






If you click the link, I think it will show all the quotes I liked from that book.  There were a bunch that I really liked and that hit home with me.  Now I'm reading this book:


The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and BetrayalThe Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich




View all my reviews


I just started it today, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through it.  It's a pretty quick read.  It's a bit different from the movie (which I really liked), but there are still differences that are interesting to read.

Teddy is doing really well and doesn't even seem sick anymore.  He only has two antibiotic pills left, so he is doing well.  He's laying on my bedroom floor right now and staring at me cutely.  I love my puppy dog.  <3

Jamie, however, is sick now.  He was having some pain in his ear and found out he has an infection.  We're not sure if it is related to the one I had, but he's on some antibiotics now, too.  I finished mine up a while ago and he actually finished his up the other day.  They were making him sick, though, so that wasn't any fun.

James' parents are getting on his case again about getting a job even though he is trying.  We live in the middle of nowhere, so there isn't a whole lot to choose from.  James is trying, though, and it's pretty frustrating when it's not his fault.  Anyway, as a result of this and other things brought up, I'm staying at home on the weekends now.  I guess buying food for me on the weekends was a deal or something, but I don't really care.  It makes me feel stressed, though, to think that I'm not really welcome at their house.  I feel like I just want to stay at home more, though.  I've been going back and forth every week and I'm getting kind of tired of it.  I just want to be in one place.

Since we're switching where I'm staying on the weekends, I've been at my house for a while.  I got here on Sunday as usual, but I'm staying until tomorrow.  So it's actually been over a week.  It's been nice, but I do miss James a lot.  He visited me the other day (Thursday), so it hasn't been forever since I've seen him.  I'm still glad to be seeing him again tomorrow, though.  Meghan and I are not always getting along, either, but it's not an ongoing theme or anything.  I guess I'm just a little particular about my alone time.

I'm trying to get my eating in order, now.  I've been doing pretty well since I've been home.  It's mostly just giving myself realistic portions and reminding myself that if I'm hungry later, I can always get something else to eat then.  I'm feeling pretty good, too, and I'm really hoping that I'll be able to keep this up long-term.  I've been trying to get out more, too.  I took Teddy on a long walk yesterday to the park in town.  He saw some dogs, though, and barked a lot.  He also saw some Amish buggies and had to bark at the horses (there are pretty much never Amish people out here, but I got lucky, I guess).  He also had to bark at the people walking by and people on bikes, and everything else!  I love him, though.  We were both good and tired when we got back, so it was still worth it.

Another thing that will probably help my eating is that I won't be going out to dinner with Jamie's family every weekend.  I'm not upset about it; actually I don't really like going out all the time.  It makes me feel guilty and it's just not pleasant to eat that much over-processed food.

Today, me and Meghan went over to my grandma's house to see our cousins.  We also go to see SpotBot and Aphrodite.  She's been having some health issues, though.  She has a bad infection and cysts all over.  She's on a bunch of medication, though, and doing a lot better.  We're still not supposed to touch her without washing our hands really thoroughly afterward.  Meghan held her for a while and she was so happy to get the attention!  I got to hold SpotBot, and he is so much bigger now!  I'm really surprised by how much he has grown, but I guess it's been a long while since I went to see him.  My grandma said it has been six weeks since he was having those seizures.  I'm glad he's doing a lot better.  My grandma made him a little helmet to wear since he has that big soft spot on his head, and it is really hilarious.

Oh!  That reminds me of something really funny that Teddy has been doing.  I've been eating yogurt a bunch lately and he likes to lick the cup out, so I put it on the end of his nose and he stands looking at it almost cross-eyed, licking it out while it's on the end of his nose!  It's pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

So, life is going alright.  I've been feeling so much better since I registered for classes.  A huge weight is off of my shoulders now.  It's so weird that I was carrying all that anxiety around about registering and when I did it, all the anxiety went away!  Now I really wish I had just done it sooner, but I think I was more conflicted about what to do than I was really letting on.  After last semester, I think I really needed a break.  I still feel like everyone might be disappointed, but I know that it's really me that might be disappointed; no one else thinks delaying it is a bad thing.  Plus, it's really not that much longer until I will graduate for good this time.  Now me and James can actually graduate together - that thought makes me really happy!

Other than that, I've been working on my portfolio a lot, experimenting with new CSS techniques.  I think it looks really, really good now; it's the best thing I've made yet.  I've also been reading a lot and crocheting some, and I finally got to play the Sims 3 again.  I finally found out why it was freezing all the time.  The way my switchable graphics were set up, the high performance card wasn't being used for the type of application that the game is, so I had to switch it so that the computer switches from the regular card to the high performance card when I plug the computer in.  This way, I can play the game using the high performance card and it doesn't freeze on me anymore!  I'm so happy that I don't have to worry about it crashing on me.  Hooray!

I'm just trying to relax and enjoy myself, as well as learn some valuable skills for my future job.  I'm learning a lot about CSS and I'm hoping to get more skills in Expression Design and new languages like PHP and SQL (that's what the summer class I had wanted to take was about).  I hope it's just a relaxing summer and a productive one.

Love,
Christen