An Explanation

...No, not why I haven't blogged in awhile.

It's about my next blog post!

It's something for a scholarship, and as it's a bit different from my usual chattering, I wanted to give a quick explanation. Way this works is I pick an apartment on Vacancy.com and then I tell (on my blog) why it's so perfect for me. It's for students (so I'm eligible) and it's 500 dollars. :)

Rants and Cats

Ever ranted about anything? Okay, imagine that, but with programming as the subject instead.

More seriously - my cat has been driving me crazy! She's a tabby, with orange stripes. Yoda. I didn't name her, my grandmother did. Although I'm the one that tamed her. Yod's is on a diet, cause she won't leave my room (the other cats and the dog intimidate her) and she likes to eat more than she moves around. So every morning I give her a small amount of food in an empty peanut butter jar (it's got a hole in it's side, and she pushes it around to get the food out), and from late afternoon to the next morning she pesters me for more food.

Lately, she's been waking me up between 6 and 8 am, and if I happen to wake up early, she comes up and purrs all over me. When she's happy, she purrs really, really hard, and the more she purrs and the louder she purrs the more she drools, from her nose and her mouth (eww....).

It's cute, but sometimes I just want to go back to sleep. I wake up early enough as it is for school twice a week... I guess I just have to make her stop napping during the day.

Fiverr, Transcribing, and Work

Got two orders on Fiverr!

Well, eight, really. Two separate buyers though. They each ordered an hour, so that makes eight 15-minute chunks.

I had to take a break from transcribing while play rehearsal was going on (and I was (still am) going to school) but once October hit, I started up again. Activated my fiverr transcribing, writing, and editing gigs, and my non-fiverr employer (is that the right word?) sent me two and a half hours last week. He pays better than I can get on fiverr (someone once called those "slave wages") so I always jump at the opportunity to work off-fiverr. (Side note: that particular person is awesome.)

Incidentally, that's why I've now got a Facebook page (see sidebar), so I can get a bit more than four bucks an hour. Fiverr's great for training purposes (it's where I learned now to transcribe), but you can't make a living or pay for school doing it.

There's no rehearsal this week. I think I'm feeling a little lost :D.

Little Prince Play and School

Our fourth show is done! Only six more to go!

This last one was especially exciting to me as my parents were there, and it's my mom who taught me the southern accent I use. (And it's an accent, a real accent, and it doesn't mean uneducated. Irritates me to no end that the director (who's an English teacher) has me say "ain't" instead of "have not" or "it's not.") My little part went well, although I'm starting to think that I really ought to take an improv class. I'm terribly weak at that; panic's the first thought that comes to mind whenever the Prince doesn't give me the correct cue lines.

The more I act, the funner it gets. Maybe sometime I'll be brave enough to take an improv course at school.

I kind of wanted to chatter about my classes, but there's not much to say: I like my "about theatre" class except for the kids (I think they're high school) who won't. be. quiet, I've got one computer science teacher who's way too fond of conspiracy theories ( I mean, they're fun and amusing, but... - and my Java class is - well, I'm better at theory than programming. And over the summer I'd forgotten how to speak Java... it's frustrating. And not my thing.

I like physics, understanding the "real world" (not computers), and I like to create. I think I'd go crazy without creating, whether or not I can make a living doing it. Wouldn't it be funny if I did make it as an actress, after having gotten my (very hard-earned) B.S. in physics?

Acting and Halloween

Couple of exciting things - first off, the play Little Prince opened and it's going well. We've done two days thus far (8 more to go!) and apparently have got happy reviews, though I haven't seen them. It's so weird preforming in front of an audience! But I'm not feeling stage-fright or anything - I'm loving it! (okay, so I'm on stage like, 10 minutes. but still!)

It's fun. The other bit of news is that I've recently completed another crocheted 'bug', but this one's for Halloween. Now, I'm not really one for Halloween (I'm a Christian, see) but as a business owner, I simply couldn't pass this chance up. Check out this little guy:

Ain't it cute? (eye of the beholder and all that...) I've got arachnophobia really, really bad, but I still like this guy (as you'd know if you've seen my post on twitter (speaking of which, if you're not following me, come on over! I'm friendly, I promise).

Kern County Fair Part 2!

I talked about what I entered in the fair last time; here's something about what else the fair has. One of my family's traditions is to get kettle corn at this particular booth - it's absolutely, absolutely wonderful. I don't know what they do to it, but it's actually made in a kettle and the end result has some sort of sweet coating on it. The first time I tasted it - some years ago now - I actually didn't like it, cause it was so different from regular buttered microwave popcorn. It's grown on me now.

I also purchased a bonsai tree - a bonsai juniper, I believe. It's a little one, about the size of my hand, in a dark pot with a gray rock and little bits of grass - I have to keep it 'gardened.' I love bonsai plants in general, and it's fun to maintain a mini garden. Right now it's inside the house where it doesn't get any direct sun, and I'm supposed to water it every other day (I ran out of the house without watering it this morning, so I'll have to take care of that tonight), so I'm watching it to make sure it stays happy and alive. I lost one of these awhile ago, when I was still learning how to care for plants.

One of my favorite booths to visit are the glass-making ones. I love watching the glass-maker create intricate pieces of art. During this particular visit, I watched him finish up a tiny ballerina. Sometime, I'd really like to learn how to do that myself.

Kern County Fair Contests

Once again, I find myself on the fairgrounds multiple times throughout the week. I've been attending the Kern County Fair since before I started high school (excepting when I was away for college, in a different state). When I was younger, I stuck to showing sheep, but now I'm doing (and have done) poetry, baking, and crocheting.

I've actually only done poetry once, and won second place. In general though, my poetry isn't really weird enough to fit in with that sort of forum, so I haven't done it since. Maybe some other year :).

With baking, this was my second year entering the apple pie competition, and I tried a different recipe this year - but I think it needed to have more flour. Too juicy. Tastes good (both of 'em), but neither won.

This year, in addition to the pies, I entered the sugar-free dessert contest. My parents have Xylitol, a sugar alcohol, to replace sugar (which adds fat to our bodies), and sugar-free chocolate chips (sweetened with maltitol, another sugar alcohol). Using these, I made a Pillsbury chocolate chip crescent roll copycat (not my recipe). Now yeast - single cell bacteria - when combined with sugar and water, eat the sugar. It won't eat sugar alcohols. For this recipe, the yeast and sugar are separated. So this particular recipe works fine with Xylitol. Taste-wise, there's no difference when Ii use sugar versus Xyloitol, and cooked maltitol chocolate chips are the same as regular ones. I think they're tasty little things, though they didn't win :(.

As I've been creating more and more crocheted items, I decided to go ahead and enter one this year. My latest completed project is a dragonfly barrette - here's a picture.
It was a bit of a spur of a moment entry (I was entering online), but as cute as it is, I really was hoping for something. And apparently, someone agreed with me, cause I got an honorable mention !!!! (glee!!!!) It's also for sale on at etsy.woolranch.com, if anyone's interested.