December 30, 2015

Today was a lot of the same. I woke up, eventually ate lunch, and practiced sewing. I used batting for the first time today, making a small version of the coasters I eventually want to make. It turned out surprisingly well. Far from perfect but it could have been a lot worse. I also tried using the foot pedal without a shoe on. I don't know if it was that or the batting but it seemed a lot easier to control the speed today. It would be sweet if it was the lack of shoe and not just the batting because it would be nice to feel more in control of the sewing speed. Maybe tomorrow I'll make a first attempt at an actual coaster.

Yesterday I watched Pixels and today I watched the new Fantastic 4. If I remember correctly, both were pretty well hated but I didn't mind them. Pixels was definitely an Adam Sandler movie but it wasn't his worst and I actually thought it was entertaining. I thought Fantastic 4 was a good origin story movie. I would say a lot of the hate was probably people not wanting another origin story movie. I think there is potential for a sequel but it doesn't seem likely given the reception of this one.

Tonight Chipotle night was a little bit delayed because I lost track of time but we'll say it was worth the delay because my burrito was alright. After dinner I watched The Goonies and it has been way too long. It is such a good movie. I watched it on TV and after that, Dazed and Confused was on. And for some reason they are playing it a second time but I'm still watching it. It doesn't really make me nostalgic for high school necessarily because I didn't really do any of that stuff in high school, but it does make me nostalgic for hanging out with friends until the sun came up. I also like that it makes talking to girls look so easy. I need to channel that sometime. I'm only getting older here.

While watching movies, I played Tera. The friend I added last night was on but we couldn't go on any dungeon runs. Yesterday they were a level behind me but they must have been power leveling most of the day because they were up to level 60 tonight and I was only almost at 54. I think I made it midway through 55 but dungeons in my range only go up to level 58, I think, so a level 60 isn't allowed in. My best chance of getting the mount has disappeared. I was so close. Hopefully they slow down a little bit so I can catch up. Although I imagine the next set of dungeons cover 60 to 65. I'm going to try and ignore side quests for a bit and focus on the story quests because those have the highest XP rewards at the moment. My odds of getting the mount are back to next to nothing but I'm not giving up hope yet.

December 29, 2015

Last night I put the new sheets on my bed and pillowcases on pillows. I got them for Christmas and they are kind of a fleece-like material. And they are really nice. The night before last my feet got really cold and it woke me up. Last night I was perfectly warm and comfy the whole time. I'm a fan.

When I woke up I read from a couple different books and then had lunch. This afternoon I practiced on my sewing machine again. Everything is still working, so I can only conclude that it was in fact loose bobbin thread that was giving me so much grief yesterday. Today I continued working on straight lines but I also worked on starting and stopping exactly where I wanted to on the fabric. My technique for stopping is to run it until it is close to the end and then manually turning the wheel to stitch the last few stitches. It's working out pretty well. Along with getting better overall, my main concern is getting better with the foot pedal. It is still zero to a hundred most of the time. It feels like I am pressing it down as slowly as possible and then it hits the magic spot and just takes off on me. I'm getting a little better at predicting this and then backing off enough that it slows down but doesn't completely stop. Practice makes better.

Along with doing laundry and helping my mom set up her new gadget, I played Tera tonight. I ended up getting in a party pretty quickly with a random person from Brazil and we ended up running together most of the night. Their English was way better than my Portuguese (not counting the fact that I don't speak Portuguese). They said they had been an exchange student in Wisconsin and that have given them the chance to practice. That's pretty cool. We went through several quests and ran through a dungeon twice and managed to get our bonds of friendship up to 26. They plan on being on tomorrow so hopefully we can party up again and hit a few more dungeons. None of my other friends have been online and this new one seems to be my best chance at the moment to get to 50 bonds of friendship and getting the Moon mount. It is my final achievement and I only have a couple weeks to get it. Which sounds like a long time to run through five dungeons with the same person but I'm trying to do it with completely random strangers who I have no communication with outside of the game. I'm definitely earning this mount. And hopefully it ends with me getting the mount.

Soon I will be going to bed so I can wake up and read and sew and do whatever else. It kind of sucks that tomorrow is already Wednesday. This week is disappearing and soon I will have to go back to work. And school. I still need to check on that and look into ordering my textbooks. Hooray.

December 28, 2015

Sometime last night I woke up and my feet were freezing and I couldn't warm them up. I ended up having to put another blanket on the end of my bed and put on a pair of socks. I never sleep with socks on but it did the trick.

I managed to sleep until almost noon, which is ridiculous, and woke up to a text from the lady who cuts my hair reminding me that I had a haircut at one o'clock. Thank goodness for that reminder because I had completely forgotten. The last time I got my hair cut I got a card with the next haircut on it, rather than putting that information directly into my phone. Not good. But I had time to take a shower and get ready, and I actually went early because she had a lot of cancellations due to the weather. Or most likely, the forecasted weather. I think we were supposed to get a lot more snow but instead we got maybe an inch, and there was so much wind that not much stuck. The roads were a bit slick, though. On my way down the curvy road by my house I slid a bit and performed an unintentional, yet sweet one-handed drift on one of the curves. One-handed because I was changing the radio station at the time (with my eyes on the road, so I wasn't being irresponsible). I'll once again credit my video game skills. I learned a lot about driving in video games.

After my haircut I came home and had lunch. Then I set up my sewing machine. I cleaned up all my cross stitch stuff and made room on my desk for the sewing machine. Next I started going through the manual, starting with getting thread on the bobbin. That was fairly straightforward. As was threading the top thread through the machine. I hit my first hurdle trying to thread the bobbin up from the bottom of the machine. After spending way too much time trying to figure it out, I discovered I just wasn't letting the needle go far enough. I was stopping it when I thought it should have been done but when I let it go a bit further, the bobbin thread popped up.

The first couple of practice stitches went well and then I started to mess with things, like the type of stitch and the length. Even that went pretty well at first but then it started going downhill. I went through many more attempts and I just kept getting really loose stitches, no matter what knob I turned. It became very frustrating. I took a break for dinner and video games and when I came back to the sewing I had a little moment of genius. Maybe. I pulled the bobbin thread out from the bottom and re-threaded it. After that, I was able to create stitches that didn't have big loops on the underside. I also noticed that the thread coming from the bobbin was much tighter after I re-threaded it. Before dinner it was really loose and I am assuming that was the issue. Hopefully. That will be the first thing I check the next time it starts screwing up.

I played Tera tonight and ran through a new dungeon a few times. I think I only have one or two instance-matched dungeons to go in order to get the achievement. Getting the mount is looking less likely because the bonds of friendship achievement. Having to go on five dungeon runs with the same person is a tall ask, especially when I don't actually know anyone in the game. It doesn't help that it is currently the holiday season and people aren't in the game as much. I haven't seen any of the people online that I already have bonds of friendship with since before Christmas. The only people that seem to be online are the hardcore guys that are already max-level (65) and I'm only 51. When I get more desperate I might see if I can get one of them to go through some dungeons with me. I'm not sure if you are blocked from dungeons if you are too high a level for them. Maybe we'll find out.

Tomorrow, who knows. Probably more sewing practice and video games. Hopefully some reading, as well.

December 27, 2015

This morning I got up at 9:30AM, took a shower, and then put my grandma's cross stitch in a hoop. Then I packed up my car and headed to my Dad's house. I sat and talked with my Dad and aunt for awhile and then we ate lunch. After lunch there was a lot more sitting around and talking before we opened gifts.

My dad and brother both liked the books I got them and my grandma liked the cross stitch I made her. I got a pair of fabric scissors and my dad had my brother wrap it and then surround it in zip ties. That wasn't as bad as the gift completely encased in duct tape, and they gave me a pair of wire cutters to free the scissors. In the last day or two I managed to misplace my old, kind of crappy scissors, so getting the fabric scissors was good timing.

When I got home I worked on emptying the food box I got. I brought a few things down to my room but managed to get most of the stuff in the kitchen. An hour or so later I went to go have dinner with my friend, his parents, and our other friend's mom. The original plan was to meet at our other friend's mom's house but when I was almost there my friend texted me and said to meet at a certain restaurant. I had heard of it before but I don't eat out much so I had no idea where it was. I ended up going to our friend's mom's house, parking in the driveway, and looked up the restaurant on my phone. And I found the place on my first try. Success. It was a beer and meat kind of place, neither of which I partake in, but I ended up getting another grilled romaine salad. This one didn't have the obvious meat-flavored char on it like the one from yesterday, but it was still pretty good thanks to the dressing. We ended up sitting and talking after the meal until about nine o'clock.

On my way home I stopped and got gas because I was getting low and the weather is supposed to get a little less than pleasant tonight. I have no plans on leaving the house until Wednesday but you never know.

I spent the rest of the night playing Tera. I logged in the last couple of days but that was only long enough to get log-in rewards and to check the trade broker. So it was nice to actually play it today. I got into a couple matches of Corsairs and managed to win one of them. That was most likely due to having a good leader and the team actually listening to the leader. The other team also probably sucked, but we can ignore that part. Out in the wild I found a few big Santas and a couple small Santas. One of the big ones dropped three or four presents which was awesome but out of all the presents I didn't really get anything worthwhile, which sucked. I had fun though, and that's what matters.

It is coming up on two o'clock in the morning so I'm going to go to bed now. Sometime, maybe tomorrow, I'm going to start exploring my sewing machine. I would also like to get some more reading done. I should be able to finish at least a couple books this week, so fingers crossed for that.

December 26, 2015

I forgot to mention that throughout the day yesterday I managed to watch all three Nativity movies. That includes Nativity!, Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger!, and Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?!. All three are super cheesy, only more so as the movies progress, but I think they're pretty great. All three definitely need to be a new Christmas tradition. I also watched Goosebumps last night, and I was not disappointed. I was worried it was going to be too cheesy but it was actually good. Having read so many of the books it was cool seeing all the references.

I didn't make it to bed until almost 3:30AM last night and I didn't wake up until almost 11:30AM this morning. And I had three or four text messages from my friend asking if I wanted to have lunch. Thankfully I got back to him in time. After getting back to him, I got ready, and then headed over to his parents' house to pick him up. We went to a taco place we went to a couple years ago and it's still good. Rather than figuring out veggie tacos, I got a grilled romaine salad. I had never heard of grilling salad before but it worked. It tasted really good, and part of that was probably being grilled on a grill that also grilled meat. I can't prove that veggies don't have their own special place on the grill, and I'd rather not find out they're grill with the meat, because that salad was really good and I would like for it to still be an option in the future. Ignorance can be vegetarian bliss.

After lunch we went next door to a bar, which is connected to the restaurant, and continued talking until maybe 4:30PM. While we were there an old friend from Scouts stopped in with his wife so we briefly spoke with them. It was really nice getting to hang out with my friend. I should probably make more friends so I can hang out with people more often. Face-to-face conversation doesn't happen enough in my life.

On the way back to dropping my friend off his mom called and it was the first time I have used a phone paired with my car before. I've never paired my phone but my friend paired his today so we could listen to a few songs on it. It was kind of cool but I don't really use my phone for phone calls, and even if I did, I wouldn't answer my phone while driving. Anyway, his mom called to see if we could stop at the store and pick a couple things up for her, so we made that brief detour before I dropped him off.

I spent the rest of my night working on getting Linux on my sister's husband's laptop, and finishing the cross stitch for my grandma. I somehow managed to do both. The Linux thing turned into a a more complicated project than it probably should have been. I created and deleted partitions several times, messed with boot stuff, and troubleshooting random problems. It became a pain in the butt, mostly because I also wanted to work on the cross stitch. I eventually got it working though. At least as far as I know.

I was also able to finish the cross stitch, with only one minor mistake that isn't actually noticeable. No one would know until they had the original pattern and scrutinized it pretty closely. So I said screw it and didn't go back to fix it. I was worried because the dark red thread I was using was rubbing off on the cloth and turning it pink. Thankfully, when I washed it all the pink came off and it looks like nothing ever happened. In my head I came up with a simplified version of the pattern that I was going to “quickly” make using a different color if the pink hadn't come out. I'm glad it didn't come to that because it probably would have been another really long night.

Soon I will be going to bed. We're doing Christmas with my dad tomorrow but the weather is supposed to be getting worse so there is a possibility my aunt and grandma won't be coming up. It was rainy today so it was nice having the coat from my sister's husband because it kept me dry. I'm not sure if the rain is supposed to get worse or maybe turn into something else. Right now it sounds pretty windy. Guess we'll find out in the morning.

December 25, 2015

Today was Christmas and it was a good day. I'd like to say it was the best Christmas in recent years. To be fair, without going back and reading my entries from past Christmas days, I can't accurately recall my feelings. But I do know that I enjoyed this Christmas.

I went to bed late and woke up early. I moved one of my TVs out to the family room (or living room, I can never remember) and hooked it up to my laptop. I downloaded several Christmas-themed wallpapers and then set it to a slideshow and had that play on the TV throughout the day. On my laptop I had Spotify. Then I took a shower and started working on figuring out a cross stitch pattern for my grandma. I made one based on a pattern I found online and then worked on tweaking it until it was time to open presents.

With my Christmas tree lit up, the fireplace going, the slideshow on the TV, and the Christmas music courtesy of Spotify, it felt very Christmasy. Last year we didn't get to use the fireplace because it still wasn't working, but this year I really think it made a difference.

We took a break halfway through opening presents to go up and eat brunch. Then we came back downstairs to finish with the presents. My mom and sister both really liked their cross stitch gifts, which made me happy. The unofficial theme for my mom this year was the Minions because along with the movie and the cross stitch from me, she also got a calendar and stuffed toys from my sister. My sister's unofficial theme was Linus from Peanuts because she got a few things related to him. My unofficial theme was Eeyore, which tends to happen, because I like Eeyore. I got a small stuffed animal and two ornaments, which I added to my collection beneath my tree.

Two of the coolest gifts I got were from my sister. The first was an old card from a library card catalog for van Gogh, with a a portrait of van Gogh painted on it, in the style of van Gogh. My sister found a person who does this and it is really freaking cool. The library thing was a given but my sister also knows that one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, possibly even tied for first, is the one where they meet van Gogh. It was kind of the perfect storm of a gift. The second gift was a small hand loom because she knows I am always on the lookout for another hobby. She's the one that got me my first crocheting book years ago. I've actually spent some time looking into looms because I have always thought it looked really cool. And now I have a tiny one that would be perfect for making coasters and possibly other things. The instructions it came with were pretty sparse so I'll need to look around online, but I'm exciting to play with it.

I also look forward to messing around with my sewing machine, which I finally got to take a proper look at. And I like it. All the knobs and bits and bobs are a little intimidating but hopefully it doesn't take too long to figure out. Little kids learn to sew all the time so surely I can figure it out. Little kids also pick up second languages without much effort, and I do not, so lets hope sewing isn't like a foreign language.

My mom got me a new green hoodie, which might be too big, and my sister's husband gave me a hoodie he bought for himself but it wasn't quite long enough in the arms. It fit me pretty well and it is really nice. It is designed for colder weather and to block the wind, so now I have another options if I don't want to wear my coat.

In the break before dinner I came up with another possible pattern for my grandma's cross stitch. I found a silhouette of a bird and turned it into a silhouette of a Cardinal. Then I couldn't make a decision on what color to make it. I asked my mom and she proposed something completely different. That had me double guessing again and she suggested something else, like a flower. I have a silhouette of a rose I did a long time ago so I thought maybe I would recreate that pattern but not do the entire stem so it would fit in a hoop. Right before doing that, however, I switched to a flower pattern I found yesterday or the day before. I got that laid out before dinner. I also had enough time to install the new micro SD card I got for my mom's phone.

For dinner we had homemade pizza, which has kind of become a tradition. My mom made her mushroom and olive pizza, which is a sure-fire way not to have to share her pizza. I had my usual: artichoke hearts, fake hamburger, tater tots, and a creamy garlic sauce that my sister makes. It was delicious as always and I wish my stomach would have allowed me to eat the entire pizza.

Along with making the pizza crust and sauce, my sister also made me biscuits, apple butter, pitas, and hummus. And she made my mom fruitcake based on our grandma's recipe. It was heavy as a brick and my mom loved it. I did not partake and we'll say it was because I didn't want to rob her of fruitcake, not because they idea of fruitcake grosses me out.

Before dinner I did a little research about Linux because my sister's husband asked me about it because he was thinking of putting it on his laptop. I put it on my netbook many years ago so I had a rough idea of what was going on. After dinner he gave me his laptop so I started the process my downloading Linux Mint onto a thumb drive. I put Ubuntu on my netbook because I liked the look of it and it was the most popular version or distribution at the time, and I think it still is. Mint seems a little more user friendly, especially for people coming from Windows, thanks to having a more traditional desktop look. I plan on installing it as a dual boot option so he can mess around with it and see if he likes it, rather than wiping the computer and fully committing to Linux only to find out he doesn't like it.

Most of my night was spent cross stitching. I went until just after two o'clock after using up around twelve feet of string, possibly more. I'm getting closer to finishing but I'm a little worried I'll have to do the whole thing again tomorrow. The dark red I chose for the flowers is rubbing the cloth around it and turning it pink. I'm worried about what will happen when I wash it. Best case scenario, I can get the pink color out of the cloth. Worst case scenario, the color just bleeds more and doesn't come out of the cloth. Possibly okay solution, washing it turns the entire cloth a pinkish color and it looks purposeful. I should be able to finish it in a few hours tomorrow and we'll see what happens. It would be nice if I didn't have to make a completely new one but I'm not dismissing that possibility.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is three o'clock in the morning and I am tired. With all the cross stitching I can't really afford to sleep through the day. My Navy friend is also in town and we're going to try and hang out sometime tomorrow. Hopefully not too early in the morning because I plan on sleeping in at least a little bit. We'll see.

December 24, 2015

Forgot to mention the old house was officially sold yesterday. The buyer signed all the papers and my mom stopped by later to pick up the check. It is a bittersweet moment for us. My mom had lived on that cul-de-sac for thirty-five years and I had always lived there. It's kind of weird knowing that it is officially over. It is also really nice that it is officially over. My mom can stop stressing out about not only worry about the house selling, but also keeping track of things going on in the house, like the latest water in the basement. Overall, the good outweighs the bad. Someone has a new house and we no longer have to worry about it.

Today my main goal was to wrap presents. And I did it. I started before lunch and didn't finish until almost four o'clock. I bought way too much crap, which was part of it, but the big issue was that I wrap things multiple times. About half of the presents were wrapped twice and the other half were wrapped at least three times. That obviously extended the process. I also wrapped my sewing machine, which took awhile because it was a big box. I obviously saw the box but I made a point of not actually “seeing” the box, if that makes sense. I didn't really attend to any of the pictures or read any of the text. I'm saving that for tomorrow.

Tonight I made a pattern for what will hopefully be a cross stitch for my grandma. I'm not entirely convinced by it yet because it is too big for the three inch hoop and I think it might look weird in the four inch hoop. I made a rough layout that turned it into a circle, cutting off the extra, but I'm not sure how it will look if I didn't get it quite right and it ends up slightly too big and cut off by the hoop or too big here and not quite to the edge there. And I'm running out of time so I can't really afford to fiddle with it. Hopefully I'll have enough time to work on it tomorrow. Ideally I would get the whole thing stitched, washed, and pinned out tomorrow so I can put it in the hoop on Saturday. We'll see how that goes.

While wrapping and working on the pattern and even later while playing Tera, I watched Christmas things. It still doesn't quite feel like Christmas (even though it is almost one o'clock in the morning on Christmas day, currently) and that is probably because the weather is not very Christmasy at the moment. We'll see how it goes after I wake up on Christmas day. I'm looking forward to hanging out and opening gifts. I am happy with the gifts I bought and made and look forward to seeing the reactions, which will hopefully be positive. I also have no idea what I will be getting. Nothing is always a possibility. My mom didn't ask for a Christmas list this year and when my sister asked I just told her “food”, which doesn't really narrow it down because she makes so many good things. So the only thing I know for certain is the sewing machine, because I bought it. The one plus of not having a list is that I don't have to worry about not getting something I asked for, because I didn't ask for anything. Everything will be a surprise and a bonus.

Tera tonight was pretty deserted. I have several “friends” in the guild and none of them were online and only a few of the other guild members were online. I tried to get into Corsairs' Battleground several times throughout the night but there weren't enough people to even get a match going. That was surprising. I did manage to get matched for two dungeon runs, bringing me up to five out of ten instance-matched dungeons for that achievement. It was the same dungeon both times and it was the first time I had been in it. I hadn't even been near the place on the map before. It was also the highest dungeon I had been in. I might have barely been a high enough level to do it, possibly even a level or two below. Thank goodness for healers. I managed to level up twice tonight because after the first level I got another experience scroll that gave me the full experience to get to the next level. I think I hit 45 in the dungeon and then the experience scroll moved me immediately to 46. Or it might have been 46 to 47. Doesn't really matter. Point is, I leveled up and got some cool gear in the dungeon. I also came across a couple big Santas and a couple small Santas throughout the world. The big ones have the potential to drop cool stuff, like the antlers my character is currently wearing, but whether a drop even happens is random and neither of the big ones dropped anything, which was a bummer, because they don't spawn that often. From one of the little ones I got a scroll that turned me into a tiny snowman. It was kind of funny but it only lasted until I interacted with the world again. I'm not sure how long the Christmas event will be going on in the game but hopefully I can get some cool things before it is over. I think there is the possibility of getting a Christmas-themed mount, which would be really cool.

Now I'm going to bed because it is one o'clock in the morning and if I don't go to bed Santa can't come. I think that's how it works. I'm not sure when we're doing stuff tomorrow but I think it is around brunch time. So I need to wake up somewhat early and actually get out of bed. I want to set up one of my TVs (that I use as monitor for my computer

December 23, 2015

This morning I woke up, and things probably happened. I actually can't remember what I did. Which is a little concerning. Oh well. Eventually I took a shower and had lunch and then waited for my friend to be read to hang out. Originally it was supposed to be noon but we bumped it back thirty minutes, and I probably didn't get to her house until closer to one o'clock.

When I got there we spent quite awhile hanging out in the living room with her family and her boyfriend. I talked with her mom a lot about crocheting and other crafty things. I enjoy any chance to talk to people about crafty things and more often than not those conversations happen with grown up ladies. Unless it is woodworking stuff, and then I can talk to my dad or male friends. But crocheting and knitting and cross stitch tends to fall on mothers and the ladies at work.

After however long my friend and I went to get slushies and I was able to get my Powerball ticket (I'm still not a millionaire). Then we swung by and picked up her new glasses before heading back to her house to watch Dexter. I know we got through at least two episodes, which isn't that bad for us. We're now more than halfway done with season seven. I think. I can't remember how many episodes are in a season. Either way, we're getting closer. We'll probably be finishing it in the nursing home.

Tonight was Chipotle night and I also picked up Jimmy Johns for my Mom. After dinner we drove around town to look at Christmas lights. My Mom usually drives but tonight I volunteered to drive her car so she would have a better chance to see the lights. We went all over the place and there were some decent houses.

After we got home I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and played Tera. I wasn't really in the mood to try dungeons so I did a few side quests while queued for Corsairs' Battleground. I played that three times and lost every time. In one match I managed to kill four people and got 48 assists. Not bad. Not enough to win but at least I kind of pulled my own weight. There is some strategy involved but I really think it has more to do with luck. It is also really laggy, which is especially awful for a melee class. It is even worse for a class like the Brawler, which has a block move. It is really hard to block people that are teleporting all over the place because of the lag. The best part about the battleground is probably the chat. I still don't quite understand everything and need to watch a video or two to figure things out, but everyone in chat is an expert. And as soon as things aren't working out it is always everyone else's fault. It's entertaining. Sometimes I like to jump in and add to all the caps lock with “SHOUTING REALLY HELPS!!!” or “CAPS LOCK IS FUN”. Anything to help the team.

I just spent the last hour looking at cross stitch patterns so that messed up my bed time a little bit. I'm thinking about making my grandma a small cross stitch because she and my aunt are coming to town for Christmas at my Dad's on Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to start wrapping presents and hopefully finish all of them. While working on that I will be thinking about the cross stitch. I can't decide if I want to do initials or birds or flowers or something else entirely. I've come across several ideas that I like so I just need to settle on one.

But not tonight because it is half past one in the morning and I need to go to bed.

December 22, 2015

I didn't get up early enough to go shopping before lunch but I did take a shower before lunch, so that's something. I also had time to fiddle with a cross stitch pattern. There is one I found and wanted to make that had inappropriate words in the shape of an ornament. It turned out to be the perfect size for a small hoop but I wanted to get rid of the top ornament part and make the words fill the whole circle. That required stretching the top up a bit and that was a little trickier than I originally thought. I had to make a circle on another layer in Gimp and just kept tweaking things so the words filled the whole circle. It took awhile but I'm pretty happy with the results. I even started playing with my own pattern based on the same idea, using another inappropriate word. After lunch I fixed the Christmas lights outside, which had started to sag in three or four places. Hopefully it'll hold out for another week or so.

When I was done with that I went to Jo-Ann's. I was able to get a few bundles of fabric, batting, and a couple more small hoops. I wanted to get four hoops but they only had two, so yeah.

The rest of my day was filled with watching things and playing Tera. I watched Elf, so I can check that off my list. I still need to watch more stuff before Christmas, though. I need to get on that. In Tera I leveled up a few times. I'm level 43 now, I think. Getting to level 41 from level 40 was a gimme because I got a thing for reaching level 40 that had enough XP to get me to 41. That was strange but I'll take it. I also discovered after I got two guild members to join me for a dungeon run that the bonds of friendship achievement has to be done with a single friend. So I have to reach 50 bonds of friendship with one friend, not total across all friends. That's kind of annoying because I blew past fifty today. I message one of the people I did the dungeon with today and let them know what was up and we agreed to try and go on dungeon runs whenever we're on at the same time. We're at 17 bonds now so that means four more dungeons. Dungeons are worth 10, so that'll put us over but I think it takes thirty minutes in a party to get a single bond, and I don't know if time in a dungeon counts. Guess we'll find out.

Tomorrow I am supposed to hang out with my friend in the afternoon and watch Dexter. We'll probably end up talking the whole time, which is what usually happens, but maybe we can make it through an episode or two. It is also Chipotle night. Sometime tomorrow, and definitely on Thursday, I need to wrap gifts. I have so much crap to wrap.

Now I'm going to bed. I'm freaking tired.

December 21, 2015

Today was much of the same. I woke up and read a from a few different books. One of the best ways to start a day, I've got to say. It would be nice to finish at least a couple books before break is over. Reading was pretty much my morning.

This afternoon I worked on my Minions cross stitch and listened to music. After dinner I was able to finish the cross stitch, wash it, and get it blocked out so it will dry straight and without wrinkles. Tomorrow I'll be able to put it in a hoop. I'm really happy with how it turned it. It looks really good.

Tonight I played a bit of Tera. I leveled up once and got three kills in Corsairs. I'm pretty sure that was only because they had been mostly drained by my team and I was lucky enough to get the last hit. I'll take it regardless. I lost a couple matches but won the the third, which was my third overall win, giving me the achievement I needed. I also cleared a dungeon, so I only have six or seven left of those, along with something less than ten bonds of friendship. So I need to party up with a friend and hit a dungeon to finish up the bonds of friendship, and then focus on clearing dungeons with randoms. And then I will finally have the wolf mount. For the last few days I've had a different wolf mount because I had a code good for three days and it looked pretty badass. I'm looking forward to getting a permanent one.

Tomorrow I would like to get up at a decent time and maybe go buy some fabric. I don't see that happening until after lunch but I could be optimistic and shoot for the morning. I also need to fix the outside Christmas lights in a few places because they have come unclipped. I started watching Christmas stuff today, including Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year and Love Actually. I would like to keep that rolling tomorrow. I still need to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, and Surviving Christmas. I watched Grinch yesterday but I was kind of distracted so I might watch that one again. I also just need to watch stuff on Netflix. There is so much stuff that I want to see but haven't had the time.

And one last thing. While playing Tera I had Home playing on my TV. I didn't really pay that much attention to it but they really nailed the animated hair. The main girl's hair was incredible and the cat hair was also really good. When I was waiting for something to happen in Tera I found myself just watching the hair and not really paying attention to the storyline of Home at all. Maybe someday I'll actually go back and watch the movie. Probably not because Jim Parson's character was kind of annoying in the snippets I caught, but maybe.

December 20, 2015

This morning I slept in and then read from a couple different books for a little while. Then I jumped back into Fantasy Life on the 3DS for the first time in a really long time. I have pretty much forgotten everything about that game. I didn't even remember I was currently leveling Alchemy. I need to just run around for awhile and get on the internet and figure things out again. I still really like the look and feel of the game, I have around 85 hours in the game from when I first got it, and have almost hit the Hero level on my third life. So I think it is worth getting back into. Although as soon as I do school will start again and then I'll forget everything all over again. So we'll see.

I played a tiny bit of GTA5 today. Just a little bit of driving around. At one point there was a hacker on the server and I think he accidentally killed me when I was riding a motorcycle. I think it was an accident because as soon as I respawned he dropped a completely tricked out chrome car next to me. So I drove that around for awhile before logging out.

I got started on a Minions cross stitch today. The goal is to get it done before Christmas as another present for my mom. I also ordered the Minions DVD for her to go along with it, so hopefully I finish it. And I should be able to do that. I finished the yellow part on two out of the three bodies tonight and I have all the thread ready for the rest of it, so I just have to thread the needle and go for it. It would be nice to finish it tomorrow, get it washed, and pinned out. Tuesday at the latest but Wednesday also works. Possibly even Thursday.

Speaking of Christmas things, I ordered the last of my Christmas presents today. That included a sewing machine thanks to the gift cards I got at work. It should be here on Wednesday and I might just wrap it up for Christmas. I'm thinking of going out sometime this week and pick up some fabric so I'll be ready to do things.

My sister came over for dinner and later on in the night I played Tera, which has definitely become a thing lately. I leveled up at least a couple times thanks to knocking out some story quests. I also played a dungeon I had never played before and jumped into Corsairs' Battleground. During my first match I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on. I pretty much just ran around the whole time and only saw two enemies the entire time. About halfway through the second match I got into I got a better idea of what was going on. I'm still not entirely comfortable with all the mechanics, and I'm really awful, but it is fun. My team won the first two matches I was in, no thanks to me, and in the third match we got obliterated. There is definitely a strategy involved in PvP and I don't have it. I think everyone gets leveled evenly but I seem to go down immediately in every encounter. The lag also becomes ridiculous when a million people are on screen and everyone is just skipping all over the place so I just start clicking and hoping for the best.

I need to win three battleground matches to get the achievement that goes toward getting the mount I want and with the two immediate wins today I only need one more. I think the hardest thing will be finishing the bonds of friendship and clearing ten dungeons with random parties. I'm up to two or three dungeons but I should just focus on that one day. Just immediately queue up after each clear and knock them out. The tricky part is that the dungeons are based on level so if I level up too fast I have to find another dungeon. As for the bonds of friendship, I just need to clear a dungeon with two more friends, or two dungeons with one friend. That shouldn't be too hard if I can find a time when a lot of my guild is online and there are enough that are within the level range of whatever dungeon I can get into. I've still got a few weeks to work it out.

Tomorrow will probably be much of the same. At some point within the next few days I'm supposed to hang out with my friend. Possibly get some slushies and marathon Dexter, the show that never seems to end. I don't even remember what season we're on. And after so many years I don't really care about getting to the end of the series anymore. It's still a good show and I enjoy watching it, but if we never make it to the end I probably wouldn't care. So yeah, tomorrow will probably be filled with reading, video games, cross stitching, and maybe some friendship time.

December 19, 2015

I forgot to mention that the new sixth grade teacher gave me a pear yesterday. She said people give apples to teacher and she thought a pear would be just as good. I thought that was pretty funny. I tried eating it with my dinner but it turns out I apparently don't like pears unless they are from a can. The mixed texture of the skin and the inside fruit was very off-putting.

I woke up this morning and read a book for a couple hours. A book for fun, not a textbook. That is not a bad way to start the day. This afternoon I put the Batman owl in a hoop, finally. I also researched sewing machines. In the past when I was looking I had the idea of getting a more expensive one, at least around $150, because I figured I might as well. But I also don't want to spend that kind of money and then end up never really using it. Now I'm looking at less expensive models, ones aimed at beginners. Beginners who always seem to be little girls, at least according to the reviews. I narrowed it down to a Brother and a Singer and I think I'm going to go with the Brother because I have seen more positive and less negative things said about it, relative to the Singer. Even though I like the look of the Singer better. The gift cards I got will cover the price of the sewing machine. So in theory I could get the more expensive one for the price of the cheaper one if I wanted to spend more of my own money. I could also wait a little bit because I think my dad is also going to give me a gift card. But again, I don't really want to go all out if I don't end up sticking with it.

I'm going to do some more research but I might buy it tomorrow. I think it would be cool if I got it early enough that I could make drink coasters as thank you gifts to the people who gave me gifts, like the kindergarten teachers and librarian who are basically paying for the sewing machine, one of the ladies in the kitchen for the really good zucchini bread she made me, and the parents of one of the third graders who have given me a small gift every year. The dad works for the district and he is very nice and well respected. It would be nice to give something back. And to learn how to sew in the process.

Tonight I played Tera. I'm still enjoying it. Tonight I leveled up at least a couple times thanks to a major focus on the main story quests. I also did a couple dungeon runs. The first with one of my guild members and we almost died because it was a five-person dungeon and it was just us without a healer. But we both survived and I got ten bonds of friendship for it. I only need about twenty more, which could be a single dungeon if I could get two guild members to join. I also discovered that to get the achievement for clearing ten dungeons, it does in fact need to be through random matching. None of the dungeons I have done with my guild members have counted. But the one I did through instance matching tonight did count. So now I need to do nine more. I am also high enough level now to try the arena battleground thing, which I need to win three times. I vaguely remember trying it once with my other character and I don't think it went well. I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be doing and I think I just died a lot, when I wasn't lost. Hopefully it goes better this time. Or I at least get put on the winning team a few times.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is late and sleep would be nice. Tomorrow I would like to cross stitch some Minions for my mom. I made the pattern today based on a pattern I found online. I don't think I'm going to record it but I may get the Batman owl video put together and get that rendering while I work on the Minions.

December 18, 2015

Today was the last day of work before winter break and I dressed really festive. I hadn't originally planned on that but last night before going to bed I checked on the status of my Snoopy sweatshirt, got out a red and a green shoe, and got my Santa Creeper off my Christmas tree. I ended up pinning the Santa Creeper to my green hoodie and I got way more comments on it this year than last year when I had it on my Santa hat. So I'm glad I decided to add it.

A large portion of my day was spent making word searches. I actually ended up staying about thirty minutes later than usual just so I could get them done and not have to worry about it after break. I'll have to count how many I did when we go back because I lost track, but I know it is a ridiculous number. Hopefully some of them will get used.

This afternoon was the all-school sing-along. In music the kids have been practicing all of the Christmas songs, which is good because the projected lyrics aren't actually big enough for anyone to see.

One of the paras, the one who wears different headbands every day, dresses up like a Christmas tree every year and dances around the gym, picking people to dance with her while Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree plays. My worst fears came true when she picked me this year. I was standing next to a resource teacher in the back and she called it two songs earlier and I tried my best not to make eye contact. It didn't help. She pulled me out into the middle of the gym and we “danced” for what seemed like an eternity in front of the whole school and a bunch of parents. The librarian showed me the video she took afterward and it was actually really short. Time does funny things when you're in an intensely uncomfortable situation.

After the assembly I uploaded new pictures of kids into the library program so when they are checking out books an updated picture will show up. My first attempt didn't work because the metadata wasn't correct. I wasn't sure of the exact format so I went back to the lab and downloaded five different versions. When I went back to the library to try again, the first version worked, so five was overkill, but whatever.

I got a few gifts today and really raked it in with gift cards to Amazon and Chipotle. I think I might use the Amazon gift cards toward the purchase of a sewing machine. It would be cool to get one and then make some small project as a 'thank you' to the kindergarten teachers and the librarian for the gift cards. The librarian also got me a big cup and made me a microwave-safe hot pad for it. It's a square of fabric that is sewed in such a way that the corners lift up a little bit so you can easily pick up whatever is sitting on it. It's really cool. I need to make some hot cocoa or something and send her a picture of it.

Tonight after dinner I played Tera and I had a lot of fun. I want to get a mount that is free but has several requirements in order to get. They include: killing 100 of a certain type of monster, adding friends, getting 50 bonds of friendship, clearing ten dungeons through instance matching, and winning three times in an arena. I killed the monsters and added the friends and tonight I wanted to work on the bonds of friendship. You get ten every time you party up with a friend and clear a dungeon. I put it out in the guild chat that I was looking to party up for some friendship time and got an invite to a dungeon. It was just the two of us but I think I was a little over leveled so it wasn't too hard. Awhile later someone else was looking to run the same dungeon and I ended up teaming up with four other people, including the person I had just cleared the dungeon with. That should have been enough to put me over the 50 bonds of friendship but I forgot to add two of the guys in the second run as friends so I missed out on twenty points. Kind of annoying but I'll get it next time. I think to get the ten dungeon clears for the mount I have to get matched up with randoms and not be in a party with guild members. I'll have to look into that. But it was a lot of fun running through the dungeon with people. When I played Tera previously I was going solo so it is an interesting experience being apart of a guild.

Now it is late so I am going to go to bed. Tomorrow, who knows what I'll do. I want to read at least a little bit of a book or two. I want to finally put my Batman owl in a hoop. I want to watch Christmas things. I want to enjoy not having to worry about work or school. It'll be a good Saturday I think.

December 17, 2015

This is going to be a short entry.

Today at work it felt like I mainly made word searches. I lost count of how many I made but it was a lot. I worked on those when I didn't have classes in the lab. I was joking about the crosswords with the second grade teacher who I originally started making them for, and ended making an impossible one for her so she can mess with kids or our coworkers. After generating it I went through and changed one letter in all the words except for the word 'nonsense'. So people may think they have found a word from the list but will then be disappointed. I was bored. And I imagine I will be bored again tomorrow because most of the classes will probably be having their class parties instead of coming to the lab.

When I got in my car after work the low tire pressure light came on in my car. I went home and texted my dad to see when he was free so I could use his air compressor. I used to go to the gas station but then all of them started charging for air. I headed over to his house and my sister was there so we all sat and talked for a little bit. Then my brother got home from work and my dad ended up having him go out and run the air compressor. Only one tire was really low and two others were a couple pounds under. After that we sat around and talked for awhile longer until I had to leave to go eat dinner.

After dinner I spent the rest of my night watching YouTube videos and playing Tera. I had planned on putting the Batman owl cross stitch in a hoop before dinner but because of the tire thing that didn't happen. And I wasn't in the mood to do it after dinner. I wanted to play Tera. I killed a bunch of things and leveled up a couple times. I wanted to finish one more quest but in the middle of it I got killed by a random player. I then made the mistake of immediately respawning. You can get scrolls that allow you to respawn where you died or you can just respawn in the nearest town. I should have waited until they got bored and left but I didn't and got killed again. The cooldown on the respawn scroll is an hour and you automatically get spawned in the nearest town after thirty minutes. So I was screwed. After killing me a second time the player sat down on my corpse. I guess that is the equivalent of teabagging in Tera. I think you lose a little XP when killed by another player, and maybe a crystal on a weapon or armor breaks, but you don't lose your whole inventory, so it really doesn't seem too bad.

Now I am going to go to bed because I am tired and sleep sounds very appealing to me right now. Tomorrow is the last day of work before our two week winter break. I am excited to be lazy for a little while. No school or work obligations will be really nice.

December 16, 2015

This morning before work I briefly played Tera in a party with Turps. I ended up breaking the party up because I was a few levels higher than him and apparently that completely wrecks the XP gain for both the lower and the higher character. It's also apparently not like it was on the PvE server I was on before where whoever gets the first hit gets the credit for the kill. Or maybe they've just changed it. Now it is based on whoever does the most damage. I was letting him hit mobs first but then I would wreck them and end up getting the credit. Oh well. It was fun to run around and play for a bit.

I really didn't have much to do at work so I made word searches based on Words Their Way. I decided to make one word search for each sort or list of words in the green book, because that is the one my second grade group are using. I used a website where I could pick the size of the puzzle and then typed in all the words in the list to make the word search. It was basically typing practice with a more productive output. I ended up making it through list forty today, and each list has twenty-four words, so that's a lot of typing.

I helped out for the first part of literacy centers in kindergarten this morning and I am glad I didn't have to stay for the whole time. My group wasn't the best and it would have been really frustrating trying to keep them on task for thirty minutes.

The SPED teacher who has been waiting for her laptop to be fixed for over a month finally got it back today. And then couldn't log into it. They say they check these things before giving them back but they obviously don't. They need to actually have the teacher get on the computer and make sure everything is working. She brought it down to me, even more upset than when she was waiting for it to be fixed.

The first trick was getting onto the computer, because you can't log into any of the school computers, laptop or desktop, if it isn't connected to the network. This is especially annoying when the internet goes down and the computers can't be used at all. After being unable to connect to the wireless (which is why the teacher had been unable to log in) I hardwired it into the network and was able to get in. Going through the troubleshooting thing I got an error that the “wireless network connection” had an invalid IP configuration, or something like that. I tried several things to resolve this issue but didn't want to do too much just in case I messed something else up. I then had a thought and tried connecting to the Guest network instead of the regular school wireless. And it worked. It actually let me connect to the internet. So it's not an ideal solution but it is at least a temporary fix until we can get the laptop fixed again.

There was a band and orchestra concert this afternoon. Orchestra apparently has a greater learning curve because compared to the band, there is a very noticeable difference. It's interesting. I also thing a lot of music played on a violin or cello requires confidence. A player's lack of confidence is magnified by the timid movement of their bow across the strings.

Along with the word searches and the SPED teacher's laptop, I also printed a picture for one of the fifth grade teachers, recreated and fixed one of the third grade teachers' class Christmas card, added a printer to one of the office ladies' temporary laptop, and later made a few adjustments on her desktop computer.

After work I picked up Chipotle and then headed home. I forgot all about getting a Powerball ticket. When I got home I cut out a piece of cloth and got all the threads ready for my Batman owl cross stitch. And then it was time for dinner. My burrito was good and the videos went over well.

I spent the rest of my night cross stitching. It took me about two and a half hours to finish, which is kind of what I was expecting. I streamed it again in order to record it and I plan on making another time-lapse video, maybe this weekend. When I finished I washed it and pinned it out to dry so I can put it in a hoop tomorrow. Then I'll have to figure out my next cross stitch.

December 15, 2015

 Today was pretty boring. I'm running out of things to do at work and it is so close to Winter break that I don't want to send out an email asking for stuff to do. Mainly because there really isn't anything to do. The kids have kind of checked out and are ready for break, while the teachers are just trying to wrap things up.

I had enough classes in the lab throughout the day that I didn't have too much downtime to kill. I had my second grade spelling group this morning but it was just the one girl because the other one had a meltdown first thing in the morning and spent the day in the office. It was the first day with a new list and the girl still that came to the lab still had to cut her words out so I helped with that and then we both kind of worked on the sorting together because she was lost and I didn't quite understand the concept at first. I ended up having to get the book to find examples. After the words are sorted she gets to pick one activity based on the words and after that she gets to play games on Spelling City. The one activity she really wanted to do was a word search but we didn't have one so I helped her arrange everything in alphabetical order. While she was writing those down I found a website where I could put the words in and have it make a word search. I printed that off and put it in the folder for next time.

I got a few emails from one of the professors I had this semester (who I also have next semester) about a scholarship and conference grant. The conference is based on managing electronic resources and that is what the class is about next semester, so she sent it to the whole class. She then sent me an individual email saying she thought I would be a good fit for both opportunities and that she would help me apply if I needed help. I looked into the scholarship, which covers the cost of the conference and $3000 for school. That would be really nice but when I was reading the eligibility it was for people who had twelve or less credits. I have surpassed that, so that sucks. I'm eligible for just the cost of the conference though, so I might consider that. I'll probably look into it more tomorrow and email the professor back.

My throat is starting to feel a little sore, which is concerning.

After work there was a test coordinator meeting for state assessments. It's usually just me and the principal but this time one of the fifth grade teachers and the math enrichment teacher also came, possibly because they are both in a leadership master's program right now. The math enrichment teacher drove herself but I carpooled with the principal and the fifth grade teacher. We took my car because the principal had car seats in her van and the fifth grade teacher had piles of books or something. My car had a windshield visor, so I volunteered. The meeting was the same old thing. The test will be a little different this year, hopefully easier on me, but we'll see when the time comes.

When I got home I didn't really have time to do anything before dinner. After dinner I was going to cross stitch but I got pulled into Tera again. The main hiccup with the cross stitch is just the prep stuff. Measuring and cutting the cloth, getting the strings ready, and figuring out where to start on the cloth so the pattern is pretty much centered. Maybe I can do that tomorrow. I really want to see what my design looks like for real.

Tera was fun. It is the same time-sink I remember it being, just running around, killing things, completing quests. This new server I joined is PvP and tonight I experienced my first taste. While standing off to the side of the trail after turning in a quest, looking at my inventory. Two people ran by and I think they were fighting but they ran right through me and I basically got one-shoted. Quick and painless. Now that I got that out of the way I'm not as worried about it. I imagine at some point it will occur at a less opportune moment, but tonight it wasn't that bad.

I'm probably forgetting stuff, and I can almost guarantee that I am, but I'll end with this. On my way home I got behind a car with the license plate: IPRAYD4U or maybe PRAYD4U. Either way, there was praying. On a slight bend in the road they almost ran into the curb and had to jerk the wheel a little to the right in order to avoid it. Too busy praying to pay attention I guess.

December 14, 2015

 This morning I fixed a printer by plugging the ethernet cable back into the router. Starting the day with a win. This afternoon I fixed a projector with weird color by securing plugging it in and tightening the screws. Another win. When I went to clock out for the day the time clock wasn't working and when I asked if it was the office lady, who had heard about my plug-in fixes, said it probably just needed to be plugged in. Instant classic.

Other things I did today that were productive. I helped with literacy centers in both kindergarten classes this morning. One was a little less trying than the other but I survived. Sometime after that I added a printer onto the loaner laptop one of the office ladies currently has to use. Thankfully it went smoothly and I didn't have to download anything.

All of my free time today, when I wasn't out of the lab or in the lab watching classes, was spent editing pictures for the end of the year slideshow. I went through the recent sixth grade pictures that I got for the yearbook and edited the ones I thought would work with the slideshow. When we get back from break I'll have the sixth grade teachers send home a letter so I can start getting baby pictures submitted. It would be nice if I could get the majority of them in and edited before my classes start to pick up again next semester.

Tonight I kind of wanted to cross stitch but I ended up playing Tera instead. This morning before work Turps was streaming Tera because they are currently doing a sponsored thing with YouTubers. It is supposed to end with some big even on January 14^th, which I don't really care about but I have been looking for an excuse to get back into the game. The main reason for the sponsorship stuff is to promote the new Brawler class. I generally go with ranged characters in games but this morning I decided to change things up and try out the Brawler.

I only had time to set up my character this morning but tonight I actually started playing. I joined the guild that Turps started (because that plays into the promotion thing) and that was kind of cool because with my previous character I was completely solo. The guild chat is a lot less hectic and more helpful. At some point when I have more time and I've leveled up a bit I should be able to party-up and have some fun doing dungeons and stuff. If I keep up with the game. It is a lot of fun just running in and beating things up so hopefully that remains interesting.

Tomorrow I might cross stitch. I really want to make the batman owl and see how it turns out. And maybe make another time-lapse video. The one I made is seizure-inducing but it's also pretty cool. So maybe that will happen tomorrow. Unless I get sucked into Tera again. I can't make any promises. I also want to jump into GTA5 again, so who knows.

December 13, 2015

 Yesterday I played one and a half matches in Black Ops 3 before my internet crapped out on me. I ended up in a game with Xcal, a YouTuber/streamer that is really good at FPS games. Thankfully he was on my team because he wrecked house. I somehow managed to make it into the top three, most likely due to the other team being completely distracted by Xcal being all over the map destroying them. I lost my connection halfway through the second game, which is probably good because I wasn't doing nearly as well.

This morning I woke up and finished reading The Tao of Pooh. I really enjoyed it.

Before lunch I washed the cross stitch owl I made last night for my sister. Then I pinned it down to dry. Throughout a good portion of the afternoon I worked on making the time-lapse video of the owl process. Last night I exported the video chunks from Twitch to YouTube. Today I downloaded them from YouTube and put them together in Sony Movie Studio. I cut out the pauses where I went to do laundry and then sped it up as much as possible. The maximum is 400% which got me from three hours to something less than that. To kind of cheat the system I rendered the video as a new track and was able to speed it up again. This got it down to just under twelve minutes. I added music to that one and rendered it. I liked it but wanted to make a shorter version so I brought it back in and shortened it even more, so it runs the length of a song. If someone is likely to get seizures it probably isn't the best thing to watch but it looks pretty cool.

Before dinner I framed my mom's owl in a hoop and I did the same for my sister's after dinner. I cut out a piece of the fabric I bought and put it over the back of the cross stitch before putting the outer ring on the hoop so that it covers up the behind-the-scenes stuff. After I got it in the hoop I went around and cut the excess cross stitch cloth and fabric. I am happy with how they turned out. They look even better than I was expecting. I learned I could really use some better scissors while trying to cut the cloth and fabric. Like maybe some scissors designed to do that sort of thing.

I had an idea and redesigned the owl pattern to look like an owl wearing a Batman costume. I like it. I took a break from cross stitching today but I might start working on it tomorrow and see if it looks as good in real life as it does in the pattern I made.

I got a grade on my collection assessment assignment, the last grade I've been waiting for. And I got 100%. That left me with a 99.85% in the class. It should have been 100% but the damn one point off for not putting ISBNs in the selection list. Oh well. The professor had really nice things to say about my paper and that made me feel good to see. All the stress was worth it.

With all the rain there was water in the basement of the old house. Apparently the fix that was done after the last time didn't actually fix the problem. My mom went over and pulled up the carpet and the carpet pad, vacuumed up the water and put down towels to catch any water still coming in. My sister's husband brought over a fan to dry the carpet. We went over after dinner to check on things and it seemed like the water had pretty much stopped. The towels were soaked and there was some standing water but there wasn't any water coming in. My mom vacuumed and put down fresh towels and I emptied out the water in the shop vac. My mom's realtor told the buyer's realtor to keep them informed and hopefully that doesn't result in the buyer backing out. It was disclosed in the paperwork that there had previously been water in the basement, so the buyer should have known that it was a possibility before he started signing stuff. The house is currently under contract and is supposed to close on the 23^rd. Hopefully that doesn't change. The buyer is getting a really good deal so hopefully things continue as planned.

Tonight I played about an hour of Black Ops 3 and leveled up two or three more times. I think I'm at level 47 now. Maybe. I also finally unlocked a camo for my rocket launcher that has been a long time coming. I can't remember the numbers or the exact requirements now but the two challenges I had left involved killing five flying drones and killing ten turrets or ground drones. Or something like that. I managed to finish one of those challenges and only have one more kill left for the second one. It is a pain in the butt. I'm getting there, though. And I'm doing it legit. I got into a game recently where a guy on my team had friends on the other team and they were working together to get launcher kills. For one, I don't have friends, but two, I wouldn't want to get the camos that way even if I did. Once I get gold on the second launcher I'll go back and work on getting there with the first launcher. I think it would be cool to have diamond camo on my launchers because the only thing I'm really good at is shooting stuff out of the sky. Mainly because that requires very little skill. But it's useful.

Now I'm going to go to bed. We have one more week of work before Winter break. I'm looking forward to sleeping in.

December 12, 2015

This morning I woke up and spent the time before lunch reading The Tao of Pooh. I've got about forty pages left and plan on finishing it tomorrow. Then I can move on to the book I borrowed from the fifth grade teacher.

In one of the third grade classes the teacher handed out an activity to figure out how many gifts were given during the 12 Days of Christmas song. And how much it would all cost. I had some time today and it was an intriguing problem, so I figured it out. I created a table and included the sources of where I got prices. There were 364 gifts unless you count the pear trees and partridges separately, and then there are 376 gifts. I came to a total of $1,661,961.52. The vast majority of that total, 93.6%, came from the Maids a-Milking, which I figured as the yearly salary of a farmhand in Iowa. My favorite part was the Lords a-Leaping, which I calculated using the price of a ticket to see Lord of the Dance. During my research I discovered the song itself actually has a double meaning. I didn't actually read that far into it because there were several websites that had already calculated the price and I didn't want to risk a spoiler. From what little I saw, the real meaning of the song had to do with religion. Maybe publicly talking about whatever religious views was barred so they hid them in the song? Interesting.

This afternoon I did several tests to figure out the right sound levels for streaming. I also came up with a cool BRB screen that says “brb” using my Gimp cross stitch brush, and it has a slightly opaque background so you can still see my work area. I like it.

After dinner I did laundry and streamed myself cross stitch another owl. Not counting the prep work like measuring and cutting the cloth, and getting the string ready, it took almost three hours for me to make the tiny owl. That's pretty incredible. It's roughly one inch by an inch and a half. I powered through and finished it, though. Tomorrow I'll be able to wash it and possibly get it framed in the embroidery hoop. I washed my mom's today and pinned it out to dry. I'm still worried about it being just barely big enough on one side for the hoop. Hopefully I can get it to work. I imagine it being a pain in the butt trying to get it in the hoop but I'll find out tomorrow.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is just after midnight and I am tired. At least I think I am. It might just be my eyes from staring at my cross stitch for three hours.

December 11, 2015

It was another slow day at work. I did things that I now forget and the rest was pretty much the same old thing. I helped one of the resource teachers with her spreadsheets again. I ended up having her send them to me so next week I can format them and make them look better.

This afternoon one of the third grade teachers dropped half her class off in the lab to take reading tests and left me to write down the scores. They were horrible the second she walked out the door. I tried several times to get them to settle down and stop talking but I was ignored. I wrote a note to the teacher and sent it back with the first kid who finished. The level of disrespect was on par with a lab full of kindergarteners at the beginning of the year. The teacher stopped by later to apologize but I don't know if there were consequences for the kids. She's the strict teacher so I would think so but I don't know.

I was talking with the fifth grade teacher when her class was in the lab and learned of near disaster. Her boyfriend is graduating tomorrow and he is borrowing her graduation gown. She graduated several years ago and put the gown back in the box afterward so it was really wrinkly. She hung it up in the bathroom to see if the shower steam would help but it didn't so she tried the steamer on her iron. I can't remember exactly what happened but it involved getting a little too close with the iron and melting a small hole in the front of the gown. She was able to sew it but said it now looks like there is a little kink in it. And it is still wrinkly so we discussed strategies for getting them out. We also talked about school stuff and she said that after putting in a lot of work to finish all her assignments that she was given at the end of the semester, she got another one this week. It really seems like the professors forgot they were supposed to be giving out assignments.

In my free time I worked on some cross stitch stuff with my new Gimp brush. Exciting stuff.

After work I went to Hobby Lobby to get fabric for the back of the embroidery hoops. When I got home I didn't really do much before dinner. My dinner included a frosty and the new cheesy fries from Wendy's. The fries were interesting but I don't know that I would try them again.

Tonight I tested a cross stitching setup that would allow me to record the process. I really wanted to use my phone as a webcam because of the superior quality but it wasn't working out. I want to stream it so I don't have to worry about taking up space on my computer. Until later when I download the recordings and edit them. Maybe that doesn't make sense but I'm worried about how much space the raw recordings would take up and it's fun figuring out the streaming thing.

I switched over to my webcam and it actually worked out pretty well with the setup I made. The quality isn't as good but I think it is passable. And the setup. It involves two stacks of DVDs on either side of my cutting mat with a piece of wood trim to hang my webcam from. When I was trying it with my phone I used two pieces of trim to lay my phone on. It's very MacGyver'ed but it works pretty well. At least when it comes to visibility when I'm not working on the cross stitch. We'll see how it looks when I'm actually stitching.

I also played a little Black Ops 3 tonight because it is a double XP, 24/7 Nuketown weekend. So not really 24/7 but whatever. It has been awhile since I've played and it was the first time I have played with my new mouse. It didn't go well. Some of it was lag, some of it was the mouse, and some of it was just be being awful at the game. I ranked up a couple times though so it was alright. I'll have to try it again tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I want to play some video games, read a book, and cross stitch. All of the embroidery hoops I got had sticky labels on them so I used Goo Gone to clean off the residue. I also continued rubbing it all around the outside of the hoop so it had an even consistency. It actually made them look a lot nicer. I won't get to the point of putting the cross stitch in the hoop tomorrow because I still need to wash the owl I've already finished and pin it out to dry. So maybe washing the finished owl and starting a new owl for my sister will be on the agenda.

And one last thing, speaking of my sister. As a thank you for helping with the bed the other day she dropped off two homemade loafs of bread. Freaking delicious. I had two pieces when I got home and I could probably eat an entire loaf in one sitting. She said it is also good as toast so I'll have to try that out.

Alight. No more things. It's almost 1:30AM and I need to go to bed.

December 10, 2015

Today was fairly laid back. This morning before work even started one of the paras came in with a request from one of the first grade teachers. She wanted me to scan a small paper snowman hat and make twelve copies. Instead, I found one online and printed out twenty-five to cover the whole class because I figured it would look better if they were all the same hat, instead of twelve “real” ones and twelve scanned ones. I never heard anything about it so I'm assuming it worked out.

Then one of the kindergarten teachers came in and wanted to take a PDF and print it twice on a piece of paper to save space. I messed with the printer settings for a second but nothing immediately worked so I downloaded the PDF, opened it in Gimp, saved it as a PNG, dropped it into a landscape Publisher document, resized it to half the page, copied it to the other side of the page, and printed out twenty-four copies. Maybe a little convoluted but it worked.

And that was pretty much the peak of my work day. I had classes in the lab and helped with a printer issue and a sound issue on a laptop, but I think that was it. Oh, and I watched a couple more MAP videos and installed the new MAP link onto all of the computers in the lab. That went surprisingly fast.

In my free time I emailed my grandma and sent her a picture of my Christmas tree and a short video of the train running. I also made a couple more pictures with my new cross stitch brush in GIMP. I'm still liking it and I will probably end up playing with it more tomorrow. I think I could make some cool stuff with it.

After work I went to Jo-Ann's to buy embroidery hoops. I decided rather than getting the small owl framed, or making it twice as big, I could put it in a three inch hoop and turn it into an ornament, or just a small thing to put somewhere. I should have picked up some fabric to cover up the back but I didn't so I might go to Hobby Lobby tomorrow and see if they have scraps.

After dinner I finished the owl cross stitch and it looks pretty good. I took a picture of it and I don't know what happened but parts of it look like it is in 3D on my phone. It's really weird. It ended up being slightly off-center and it might just barely fit in the three inch hoop. I started with a scrap so and didn't have the idea for the hoop yet so it's my own fault. But if it doesn't work I'll just make another one.

I discovered that I can use my phone as a webcam and it looks way better than my webcam. Thanks in large part because the phone can focus a lot closer than the webcam. That might become a thing. I just need to figure out how to mount it above me.

Soon I will be going to bed. Tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to it. I'm thinking I might start watching Christmas stuff tomorrow.

December 9, 2015

It's already after ten o'clock and I should have started this earlier because I'm tired. Let's move on.

Today was an early release day and I didn't have much going on. I had three classes in the lab this morning and one in the afternoon, so it was a full, short day but not a very exciting one. In the free time in between classes I made a cross stitch brush in Gimp. A few actually. I started by searching the web for the same thing but couldn't find anything that matched what I was seeing in my head. Most of the stuff I came across was about making patterns or turning pictures into patterns. I just wanted a stitch. So I ended up making one. I made one that is 64x64 and a couple that are 32x32. It took me forever to get the smaller ones to allow color. At first they would only come out black, which was inconvenient. But I got it figured out. The only thing I don't like is that they aren't really scalable. I have to use them at the specified size because if I change the size they start looking wonky. But I think they will serve the purpose I want to use them for. If I have some time tomorrow I'll see what they look like in an actual pattern.

After work I bought stamps and a Powerball ticket before heading home. Then I took advantage of the early release and trimmed my Christmas tree. In the sense of adding ornaments. I put on most of my grandma's and most of the ones my sister made this year. I also set up my houses and the other random decorations I had. It looks really good, I've got to say. Tomorrow I'm going to email my grandma and attach a picture. It's got her ornaments, the houses I used to put up for her, and the train that not only I played with as a kid but also my dad when he was a kid. So there's all sorts of history there and it's awesome.

At Chipotle for the last while the price of my order has been the year I was born. The girl at the register tonight commented when she saw the total on how it would be cool if I was born that year. She couldn't believe it when I said it actually was. It was kind of funny.

My burrito tonight was delicious and the videos I showed went over well, almost all winners. After dinner I showed off my tree. Then I went back to working on my owl cross stitch. I finished the lighter inside color and the beak, leaving just the eyes and feet. I also wanted to read but I got sucked into the cross stitch. I also tried out a possible setup for recording the process, with the goal of making a sped up video of an entire project. I think it would be interesting to see it come together. My webcam isn't the best when it comes to getting close to it with the cross stitch. It either isn't focusing or it can't focus. Either way, it's unfocused. I also have to hold it farther away than I normally would to keep it in frame but it is doable. I might try it with the next project.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is almost eleven o'clock. I feel like there was something I wanted to write about that I forgot about yesterday. And if that is the case I have forgotten about it again, so oh well. Anyway. Bed time.

December 8, 2015

Somehow in the giant entry I wrote yesterday I forgot to mention something. The poster I made for the SPED teacher for her birthday. The ridiculous photoshop job of her standing in a field with a clown dress, wearing a birthday hat on top of the hard hat she was already wearing, and holding a piece of paper with a smaller version of the same picture, which was holding and even smaller version. I heard random references to it throughout the day and at the end of the day the SPED teacher walked in and said a little birdie told her I was good at photoshop. I ended up sending her the digital copies of the poster and just the picture itself and she emailed me back and loved it because she hadn't seen the color version of the picture yet. So I'd say the whole endeavor was worth it. It was also a good distraction from homework.

Today at work I had a lot of free time. I briefly helped with kindergarten literacy centers in between classes in the lab. And I had all the usual classes in the lab, but that wasn't enough to fill my day. Thankfully, one of the SPED teachers wanted a blank bell curve because she had to sketch one out during a meeting and it annoyed her. I couldn't find and good ones online but I did find a tutorial about how to make one in Excel. I adapted it to my needs to get the graph how I liked it, then I copied it and pasted it into Gimp, erased the white background, saved it as a PNG, imported it to Publisher, added the vertical lines, added in text, re-did the numbers so they matched the text and didn't look slightly blurry like they tend to do in pictures, and added in a legend off the page with dots and all the different categories that would make up points on the curve so the teacher can just copy the ones she needs onto the curve. I think it turned out pretty well and she really liked it. A success.

One of the third grade classes came to the lab today and it reminded me of something the teacher said yesterday that I wanted to include here. She put a twist on an old phrase when talking about the kids in her class. “You can give them a fish and they'll eat for a day. Or you can teach them to fish, and they'll probably fall in the lake.” Hilarious.

When I ran out of things to do near the end of the day I made an owl pattern in Gimp based on one I found online. In cross stitch form it is only about an inch by an inch and a half, so I made a second one where I used four squares to make up one square of the pattern. I was also able to read a few pages in The Tao of Pooh.

After school I stopped by Hobby Lobby to get string for cross stitching. I can't even remember the last time I went to Hobby Lobby. It has been a really long time, though. When I got home I got the train track board out of my car and cleaned it off before taking it downstairs. Then I got out all of my Christmas stuff, including the small tree which I put in the middle of the train track board. It is going to take me awhile to figure out ornaments so I moved onto the train instead. It probably hasn't been used in at least twenty years and that worried me. What worried me more was after plugging it in and hearing that it was on, the train didn't move. I messed with it a little and it eventually started working. Maybe it just needed to charge up or something. Regardless, I've got the train from my childhood around the base of my Christmas tree now. It's pretty cool.

I put a new protective screen on my mom's phone after dinner and then I started the owl cross stitch. I decided to start the small one first just to get an idea of the color scheme and see if it worked out. I made it through one color and then called it good for the day. I'll finish it tomorrow. Maybe.

Then I finished a chapter in The Tao of Pooh before jumping into Minecraft for a little bit. And now I am going to go to bed because I am determined to get to bed before midnight tonight. My late nights are catching up with me. I'll be in bed before eleven o'clock tonight and that sounds amazing.