A few thoughts

9 September 2008, 9:58 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Science & Tech, Venting, Work

Some person, for some strange weird reason, changed the ports on my server and so for more than a month, my website was not sending out e-mails. I like it to send me notices when someone comments just so I know what is going on, but that’s just a nice thing. What’s really important about those e-mails is that, because I require people to register and have a password to comment, the website needs to be able to send them an e-mail with that password. That should be working again now.

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I love PBS. Tonight I’m watching a show called “Brain Fitness.” One of the things they pointed out was that exercise, physical activity, helps your brain stay strong longer than doing crossword puzzles. So that means the run I went on this morning could have easily done more for my brain than the two hours I spent in class tonight. That makes me smile.But they are also using this show to raise funds for PBS. If you donate $365, they will give you a computer program that will supposedly help your brain stay active and healthy. Now, I’m sure that things such as that computer program will help, but why don’t they throw in a jump rope or something to help promote physical activity?

Earlier they were talking about how babies learn and how their brains develop. I’m going to be a weird mom, watching my kids grown and learn and analyzing them. I’ve had a few professors who have admitted to doing just that with their kids. Piaget developed his theories watching his own kids. I don’t know that I’ll come up with any new theories, but I’ll have fun.

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Smelly people should not be allowed on the bus. And I’m speaking specifically of people who smell because they smoke things. Or maybe we could make a smelly section of the bus and a section of the bus for people who don’t want to stink. I’m enjoying riding the bus because I don’t have to worry about finding a place to park. And a tank of gas in my car lasts several weeks now. I’m also getting a lot of reading done in the hour I’m on the bus each day I go down to campus.

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I believe that the government is changing to digital TV signals in February because the cable companies are making them do it so that we’ll all get fed up with free TV and start paying for it. I have the digital converter thing and an amplifying antenna, but if the guy upstairs decides he wants to pace, my signal dies.

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Now, does anyone know where I put the box with all the fun decorations from my classroom? I’m trying to set up a real cool office on campus, and it looks a bit clinical right now.

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And you – you are cynical. And you – you are not ethical. And you, you aren’t stable and consistent, unless you are talking about being consistently unstable. There might be more on that coming later. But for now, I just had to get that out. And I’m willing to bet that neither of the “you”s read this either, so no, it’s not you.

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Everyone needs a blankie

7 September 2008, 4:50 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

My family all has a lot of blankets from me, of a lot of different kinds. I made my nephew a total of 4 receiving blankets, 14 burp rags, and 7 bibs, all out of flannel. I figured babies spit up a lot, so having a lot of burp rags would come in handy. And I’ve been told that they are being used, but not all for spit up.My nephew will not be without one. They put one over him when they change his diaper or give him a bath. He has to be grabbing it or have it in his mouth all the time. And they are the perfect size for him to hold on to. So all 14 of them are in random places all over their apartment so they can always find one for him.

My mom says she’s never seen a baby that young (he’s barely one week) be so attached to a blanket like that. I think he’s just a smart baby and knows his aunt makes good blankets.

I have the cutest nephew ever.

I saw some pictures of him wrapped up in my blankets. I told a friend that I’d made everything in the picture but the baby.42D

I’m glad he’s enjoying my stuff.

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What a day!

6 September 2008, 10:13 pm by Giggles
Categories: Venting

At 6am my closet crashed. I didn’t know it could drive. But it crashed. I thought just a box had fallen. There isn’t a shelf on the top of half of my closet, so I have a few empty boxes precariously perched on the bar. Every now and then one of them gets off balance and falls. Well, one of them did fall, but that was the least of the crash.

The bracket holding the bar up broke, so the boxes, the bar, and all my clothes on the bar, all fell. And it was a crash. I will be complaining to the office about it on Monday. Until then, all of my shirts are hanging in the only two doorways in my apartment, bedroom and bathroom. Urg. Not how I want to start a Saturday.

It is also always interesting to spend time with others. And that’s about all I think I’m going to say about that here I think. You can learn a lot by listening.

Every week some people come through the apartment complex and spray the weeds and use huge loud blowers to “clean” the sidewalks. They used to come early in the morning. And having someone stand on your patio and blow all the dust around, is not a fun way to wake up either. Less fun I’d say than a crashing closet (until you get up and have to deal with the closet), because they are there making a lot of noise for a longer time than just a single crash. This week, after they “cleaned” my patio (and yes I’m using quotes around the word clean for a reason), I went out to look at my patio.

They’d blown a lot of the dust into the corner where my front door and storage door meet. I bought an outdoor broom a few weeks ago. So I opened my storage door, and saw a whole pile of icky dusty garbage ugly butts that the “cleaners” had blown into my storage room under the door. Ick! I swept it out and then swept the rest of my patio and got it a lot less dusty than after it had been “cleaned.”

Now, why they can’t just use a quiet broom that doesn’t produce noise or air pollution, and actually cleans the walks, I don’t know. Plus, a broom is going to be easier on your back than hauling around one of those big noisy smelly blowers as well.

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15 Minutes of Fame

4 September 2008, 9:08 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Exercise, Gospel, Learn Something, Life, Random, Work

I enjoy the show “Mad About You,” and have managed to find it in reruns at night here. One of the episodes I saw a while back was Our Fifteen Minutes.

The premise was that Paul and Jamie set up cameras everywhere in their apartment. They were then supposed to turn them on for fifteen minutes straight and go about their normal life. The idea was that there would be a 15 minutes in the lives of several different directors, turning the cameras on them, and Paul was chosen as one of them.

Through the course of the show they keep trying to turn them on and keep restarting them, not pleased with how those 15 minutes represent them.

Watching it though, I started thinking about what 15 minutes of my life would look like. And then I started thinking about what would I like to be on a 15 minutes of my life. And then I got real philosophical and started wondering why they are so different.

I don’t waste all the time in my day. But I wonder if I were to randomly select any fifteen minute segment during a 24 hour day, what would be the odds of picking a fifteen minute segment that would be me doing something.

So I’m going to make a table and see how the percentages work out for each week.

There are 96 fifteen minute segments in each day. Because none of my days are anything like any of the others, let’s look at a whole week, or 672 segments.

Activity Percentage Comments
I spend about (hopefully) 32 segments each day sleeping. 224/672

33.333%

 Those would be boring segments though because I am a very boring sleeper – no moving or talking at all.
The odds of finding me traveling: On a day when I have school, I spend about 8 segments on the bus. It’s another 4 segments driving to church and back. 28/672

4.167%

 The bus segments would be interesting, but not watching me. Have you seen some of the people that ride the bus?
The odds I’m in class: On Tuesday I am in class for 20 segments. Wednesday I am only in class for 8 segments. And on Thursday I am in class for 12 segments. 40/672

5.952%

 Those could be interesting segments. I do like my classes.
I’m supposed to spend 40 segments of each week at work 40/672

5.952%

 I grade papers. Depending on the answers some kids give, it can really be quite entertaining. I’ve actually laughed out loud grading papers before.
Studying the Gospel with others. Wednesday you might also find me in institute, which would be 8 segments. Sunday I’m in church for 12 segments as well as meeting with Brett to study the scriptures for 8-12 segments.42D 32/672

4.762%

 Now some of those would be good segments to catch.
Studying the Gospel by myself. Between studying the scriptures, the Ensign, and writing in my journal, I probably have 36 segments each week 36/672

4.672%

 Quiet, not exciting to watch.
I probably spend 4-6 segments in the bathroom showering or primping or something each day. 42/672

6.250%

 Not terribly interesting I’m afraid. Also not suitable for filming.
I spend roughly 32 segments a week doing homework. Traveling time, when on the bus, not driving, is often spent studying as well, but I’m counting those separately. 32/672

4.762%

 Doing homework is not always the most entertaining, I can’t imagine watching someone else do it is any better.
Running takes up another 4 segments or so roughly four times a week, sometimes more. That would be 16 segments each week with some rounding error. 16/672

2.381%

 Not interesting, but I find them relaxing.
Laundry would be 4 segments each week and cleaning the house another 4 (it’s a small house). 8/672

1.190%

 But that wouldn’t be good entertainment.
And 4 segments each week buying milk and stuff. 4/672

0.595%

 Not too exciting.
What if I spend about 3 segments each day eating. 21/672

3.125%

 Me cooking is not that exciting. That’s why I don’t do it more. It’s not even that exciting to me. I much prefer eating.

If I did the math right, that’s 478 segments accounted for, 71.131% of my week, 119.5 hours, not quite 5 days (5 days being 120 hours). So then what do I do with the rest of those segments? Of course there is a bit of rounding error on all of that, but still. I really should stop complaining about not having enough time. Because I’m pretty sure a lot of those segments are spent on the computer checking email and writing real weird blog posts.

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It used to require intelligence

2 September 2008, 10:17 pm by Giggles
Categories: Science & Tech, Venting

Sometimes “new and improved” isn’t really so much improved. Sometimes it’s just new. And sometimes it goes so far as to be worse. Using a computer used to require knowing at least something about computers. It made it easy to personalize them and get them to do exactly what you wanted. Now they are making them easier for idiots to use. This results in making them harder to tweak and harder for me to use. Let me tweak! And stop taking away my hot keys. This “user-friendly” stuff is driving me crazy! It’s a computer for crying out loud! It’s not supposed to look fluffy and cutsey. Let it look like the technology that it actually is. I am not looking forward to the day when I have to “upgrade” a few things.

What is the deal with people not letting others sit in the back? I have been fighting for the right to sit there for the last two years. (Before then nobody every gave me any grief about it.) It feels a bit ridiculous at this point. That is where I am comfortable gosh darn it! Let me sit there!

Also, why do so many people worry about things in my life that I don’t worry about? I’m not worried about my social life, but that seems to be the main thing so many people worry about with me. Me, I’m worried about my financial situation this school year, not my social situation. If you’re going to worry about me, worry about that!

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He’s Here!

29 August 2008, 10:17 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things

Love,
Aunt Giggles

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Happiness is…

29 August 2008, 8:49 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Happy Things, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Relationships

I remember my mom playing a song on the piano called “Happiness is.” I looked on line for the lyrics and the ones I found seem to be a little different than the ones I remember. Maybe my mom will find them and add them here in a comment.

I felt a bit snarky after writing that book post. This week has had some real snarky moments for me. And trust me, there’s another snarky post in the works. But I wanted to take this moment and write about some of the little things that define moments of happiness for me. Guess I need to pause and count my blessings a bit more often.

So here’s my list.

Happiness is…

Hershey’s Bliss – I got a bag of the dark chocolate for my birthday. They are aptly named. Bliss. For they truly are. I’ve been saving the last one.

Pot roast with potatoes and carrots – I love coming home to that smell. Especially because it means I didn’t burn the house down leaving the crock pot on while I went to church (something I always worry about in the back of my mind when I’m using the crock pot). There are few things that taste as good and as much like home. And the one I cooked last Sunday was so moist and tender it practically fell apart on your fork. And the potatoes that are in the pot too are seasoned so wonderfully. It’s been great as left-overs too. Yummy. I don’t cook many things, but I like to think that the few things I do cook, I cook very well.42D

New school supplies – Yes I went and bought a new package of pens and pencils for this new school year. I even bought a package of white board markers because it always seems like the class I’m teaching in never has any good ones. So these ones are mine and will stay in my back pack.

Making new clothes that turn out exactly how I want – I bought a yard an something of a tannish linen fabric more than a year ago. I think I was going to use it to make pants. But I never did. Lately I’ve been thinking I wanted a knee length khaki type skirt. So I pulled out the fabric Saturday night. I had an off-white invisible zipper in my stash (this is why I buy the basic colors of zippers whenever they go on sale). I really like how Simplicity 5914 turns out (I’ve made it twice before, a long one in a printed corduroy and a short one in a stretch suede). So I whipped out a skirt Saturday night and I love it. It’s my new favorite skirt. It reminds me of the skirt Meg Ryan wears at the end of You’ve Got Mail. I’ll get a picture of the actual skirt after I do laundry.

Sewing in general – I had so much fun getting my nephew’s quilt done in one week. And while work on my hand quilting hasn’t moved forward much lately, I like that I’m leaving it up. It’s brightening my living room. And I’ll get it done eventually so it can brighten my bedroom. I do need to figure out if there’s another way to position the frames so it’s easier to get in my front door though. Sewing is my therapy. And I love it.

Yo-Yo makers – More specifically on the sewing thing, I love my yo-yo makers. They are so much fun. And easy! I have the small, large, and extra-large circle ones. I can sit down with a pile of scraps and whip out a bunch of them. I need to figure out what to do with all of them. I’m going to be using a bunch to embellish a wall quilt. And I’ve added buttons to the middle of some of them and put pins on the back and pinned them to my bags.

Finding pants that fit, on sale – You wouldn’t believe how hard that is for me. Most styles don’t even come in my size. Or if they do, they are petite, so they’d be far too short for me. And then the ones that do come in my size and my length either sit below my hips or at my hips which feels weird, or they sit just above my hips which means they are big and gappy at the top. It shouldn’t be so hard to find pants that are my size, my length, and sit at my natural waist. But it is. I’ve only found one brand of jeans that actually does that, and I’m always looking. And they were on sale again last weekend. Which was good, because one of the pair I bought three years ago is starting to wear out where it wouldn’t be good to.

My new journal – I love the feel and smell of the leather on it. And I’m real excited that my cursive is doing real well too. I decided I wanted to do this new one in cursive and I was a bit worried about how that would work out since I haven’t really written in cursive more than to write a check in, um, probably close to twenty years.

Pandora – I love that I can listen to exactly the music I want, without having to listen to music I don’t like, commercials, or stupid DJs.42D

And my friends here in Tucson and elsewhere – I love all ya’all. Thanks.42D

I’ll count more blessings later.

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