It's September (not that anyone didn't already know that) and autumn is here! It is, technically, a little too early to start on Halloween decorating, not that that stops people. Almost every store is drenched in orange, brown, red, and yellow in one corner, and Orange, slime green, vibrant purples, and black. There's pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, leaves and creepy looking dead trees, empty fields and full grave-yards.
Now, I am a huge fan of Halloween. I love acting, love dressing up, and love an excuse to watch dorky kid movies (Scary Godmother! It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Spookable Pooh! The Nightmare Before Christmas!...good for two holidays, that one!) So Halloween, with costumes, candy, and a decent number of kiddie movies, is brilliant! This year, I won't be able to take part in my favorite tradition of passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. I love passing out candy to kids in costumes! So cute. Any way! Not the point!
The point is, my favorite season swiftly approaches. The annual torrential down-pour we get every winter hasn't started, the humidity has blessedly retreated. (This fact can make even hardened atheist praise God). The weather cools off and I can wear long sleeves, cardigans, sweaters, and leggings without risking heat stroke.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the beginning of the Christmas season (which, in my mind, officially begins at the end of the Thanksgiving Day parade because that's when my mother would permit Christmas carols and movies to be dusted off and brought out for our enjoyment.) all come in autumn.
Also accompanying autumn is Christmas shopping, frantic knitting, school (SCHOOL! *sobbing*) and an over abundance of sweets that demand to be tasted.
I love food. And the foods that are best for the colder months, soups, stews, roasts, heavy pastas, and almost anything with pumpkins or potatoes are my favorites. This is why I fight year round to maintain my (fairly) slim figure. I've already mentioned my great love of Irish food, which tends, as a general rule, to be hot, heavy on potatoes, and made with (really yummy) cheap cuts of meat. Although I may argue that last point on the basis of the price of stew meat the last time I went to the store.
My point is, autumn is here! (basically) and there's a lot to love about the wonderful season we find ourselves in. There's also the impending birth of my sister, the birthdays of both my parents (within a week of each other) and plenty of time to bake as many desserts with pumpkin as I can stand.
This has been an ode to autumn from your friendly neighborhood blogger. Regular posting will resume tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.
Yours always,
Tara Hills
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Knitting, music boxes, and missing Sunday mass
Let's start with the last point.
I missed mass on Sunday. Actually, I missed the last half of mass on Sunday, due to indigestion. My breakfast, consumed as I dashed out the door 1 hour and 10 minutes before mass, just did not sit well, and I had to leave. I absolutely hated it, especially given the fact that I had no problems for the rest of the day. However at the time, while I suspected that was the problem, I wasn't sure, and felt it best I go home.
I hate that I missed mass. The entire thing irritates me just a tad, because I genuinely look forward to mass every week. I plan my Wednesday around being able to attend the morning mass, and my Sunday around the 10am mass. RCIA classes are starting soon, and my Tuesdays will be planned around RCIA. So missing, even if it's necessary, is not something I like doing.
Now, of course, on a weekday morning, I don't have to leave quite so early, only 40 minutes. I also don't have to drive around for 10 minutes to find a parking spot on weekday mornings, and traffic (though having slower speeds in some areas due to school zones) is better. Truthfully, if I just wanted to drive past the Cathedral it would only take 30 minutes. The extra time is to park, get inside, and have a few minutes to pray, meditate....and locate today's entry in the missal.
In other news, I'm still working on the baby blanket. I've made some slight adjustments to my mental plan for the next square, and hopefully it'll knit up faster, allowing me to move on to the next squares. I think I only need four more squares. I might do six more squares, plus the edging, but it depends on how it looks and how long it takes.
I also got my music box movements in the mail today. I ordered two music box movements in white cases the other day, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "Puff the Magic Dragon". I'm going to get two of those boxes that look like books, and cut a slit in the "binding" for the windup knob to stick out. Then I'll build a little cover so that the movement doesn't rattle around, and it's hidden. Finish it with a little decorating and voila! a lovely little music box. Puff the Magic Dragon is for Little Bird...or maybe I should say it's for Mom? either way, it's for them. I'm shamelessly admitting that "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" is for me. I love that song, and I think it'd be lots of fun.
Aunt D is back in town. I'll see her Wednesday at mass, which will be nice. I also have to stop by the college afterwards to see about registering for classes in the coming mini-mester. I don't know what all I'll need, and I hate calling them because I can never get through! And I'm not the only one! Sometimes they take weeks to get back to you....sometimes they never get back to you! Absolutely infuriating!
I'm hoping to stick to online classes, since I can work on them at work. They also tend to be a little easier in regards to quizzes and essays. I'll be honest though, I don't like school. I hate how people build college up, I hate how political it can be, I hate how many terrible professors have tenur (WHY?!) and how many of them can make your life miserable, and I hate how many people don't listen before they shoot off their mouth! I'm not speaking Greek, for crying out loud! We're in college! I shouldn't have to hold your hand and lead you through what I just said!
It's a pet peeve that was born in college-level English, when one of my class-mates would literally try to argue with me while saying the exact same thing that I was saying! I mean, okay, so sometimes I sound like I swallowed a thesaurus, but I do try to keep the more advanced words back because there's only so many times you can say "elucidate" before you realize that, apparently, this word was removed from the common lexicon. ("Lexicon" has probably been removed as well, come to think of it.)
It also doesn't help that the teacher had terrible tastes in short stories. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. Ugh! And we had to write an essay about an underlying theme! There is no underlying theme in that story! There's not enough in it for there to be an underlying message or theme. I apologize if any of you like it, but it's really not a good choice for that. Especially since she said she didn't want "thirty papers about the same thing"! Pick something else for the love of all that is good! Edgar Allen Poe would have been brilliant. Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, for crying out loud Aesop's fables have more meat to their stories! At least with those you can go with the main plot, or with the symbolism (the fox being chosen because it is commonly believed to be a "sly" animal, ect.)
The other problem is simply that people with degrees get better jobs, and get paid better, but I've met people with Doctorates and masters degrees and they're dumber than a brick! They have no common sense or practical knowledge. They test well, and maybe can bullshit a good paper (be honest! If you have ever written a 6 page+ paper, it's about two paragraphs of real information and six or more pages of utter tripe!) but they are completely unable to operate beyond that. But these people manage to get, and keep, good jobs with good pay!
Meanwhile, my dad knows a guy who's taught people to do a job for 10 years, and worked in that job in the military for 20+ years, who's being let go because he "does not met the required qualifications" because now, after 10 years, they require a college degree! I just don't understand. I really don't. He knows what he's doing, he knows better than any one, and he's good at what he does. He's not that old, and he's in great health!
I don't understand a lot about our world. I don't understand why people can't pay their employees what they need to live, and not just survive. I don't understand why people make a big deal out of small things, and treat big things like they're trivial matters. I don't understand our world.
Anyway, I'm signing off for now. I'll talk to you tomorrow.
Yours always,
Tara Hills
I missed mass on Sunday. Actually, I missed the last half of mass on Sunday, due to indigestion. My breakfast, consumed as I dashed out the door 1 hour and 10 minutes before mass, just did not sit well, and I had to leave. I absolutely hated it, especially given the fact that I had no problems for the rest of the day. However at the time, while I suspected that was the problem, I wasn't sure, and felt it best I go home.
I hate that I missed mass. The entire thing irritates me just a tad, because I genuinely look forward to mass every week. I plan my Wednesday around being able to attend the morning mass, and my Sunday around the 10am mass. RCIA classes are starting soon, and my Tuesdays will be planned around RCIA. So missing, even if it's necessary, is not something I like doing.
Now, of course, on a weekday morning, I don't have to leave quite so early, only 40 minutes. I also don't have to drive around for 10 minutes to find a parking spot on weekday mornings, and traffic (though having slower speeds in some areas due to school zones) is better. Truthfully, if I just wanted to drive past the Cathedral it would only take 30 minutes. The extra time is to park, get inside, and have a few minutes to pray, meditate....and locate today's entry in the missal.
In other news, I'm still working on the baby blanket. I've made some slight adjustments to my mental plan for the next square, and hopefully it'll knit up faster, allowing me to move on to the next squares. I think I only need four more squares. I might do six more squares, plus the edging, but it depends on how it looks and how long it takes.
I also got my music box movements in the mail today. I ordered two music box movements in white cases the other day, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "Puff the Magic Dragon". I'm going to get two of those boxes that look like books, and cut a slit in the "binding" for the windup knob to stick out. Then I'll build a little cover so that the movement doesn't rattle around, and it's hidden. Finish it with a little decorating and voila! a lovely little music box. Puff the Magic Dragon is for Little Bird...or maybe I should say it's for Mom? either way, it's for them. I'm shamelessly admitting that "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" is for me. I love that song, and I think it'd be lots of fun.
Aunt D is back in town. I'll see her Wednesday at mass, which will be nice. I also have to stop by the college afterwards to see about registering for classes in the coming mini-mester. I don't know what all I'll need, and I hate calling them because I can never get through! And I'm not the only one! Sometimes they take weeks to get back to you....sometimes they never get back to you! Absolutely infuriating!
I'm hoping to stick to online classes, since I can work on them at work. They also tend to be a little easier in regards to quizzes and essays. I'll be honest though, I don't like school. I hate how people build college up, I hate how political it can be, I hate how many terrible professors have tenur (WHY?!) and how many of them can make your life miserable, and I hate how many people don't listen before they shoot off their mouth! I'm not speaking Greek, for crying out loud! We're in college! I shouldn't have to hold your hand and lead you through what I just said!
It's a pet peeve that was born in college-level English, when one of my class-mates would literally try to argue with me while saying the exact same thing that I was saying! I mean, okay, so sometimes I sound like I swallowed a thesaurus, but I do try to keep the more advanced words back because there's only so many times you can say "elucidate" before you realize that, apparently, this word was removed from the common lexicon. ("Lexicon" has probably been removed as well, come to think of it.)
It also doesn't help that the teacher had terrible tastes in short stories. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. Ugh! And we had to write an essay about an underlying theme! There is no underlying theme in that story! There's not enough in it for there to be an underlying message or theme. I apologize if any of you like it, but it's really not a good choice for that. Especially since she said she didn't want "thirty papers about the same thing"! Pick something else for the love of all that is good! Edgar Allen Poe would have been brilliant. Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, for crying out loud Aesop's fables have more meat to their stories! At least with those you can go with the main plot, or with the symbolism (the fox being chosen because it is commonly believed to be a "sly" animal, ect.)
The other problem is simply that people with degrees get better jobs, and get paid better, but I've met people with Doctorates and masters degrees and they're dumber than a brick! They have no common sense or practical knowledge. They test well, and maybe can bullshit a good paper (be honest! If you have ever written a 6 page+ paper, it's about two paragraphs of real information and six or more pages of utter tripe!) but they are completely unable to operate beyond that. But these people manage to get, and keep, good jobs with good pay!
Meanwhile, my dad knows a guy who's taught people to do a job for 10 years, and worked in that job in the military for 20+ years, who's being let go because he "does not met the required qualifications" because now, after 10 years, they require a college degree! I just don't understand. I really don't. He knows what he's doing, he knows better than any one, and he's good at what he does. He's not that old, and he's in great health!
I don't understand a lot about our world. I don't understand why people can't pay their employees what they need to live, and not just survive. I don't understand why people make a big deal out of small things, and treat big things like they're trivial matters. I don't understand our world.
Anyway, I'm signing off for now. I'll talk to you tomorrow.
Yours always,
Tara Hills
Thursday, August 28, 2014
When the end of a knitting project feels like a miracle...
You know you've been working the same six stitch cable pattern for much too long.
Thankfully, I've finally finished the stole, complete with reverse single crochet edge (kill me now) and washing and blocking. It goes off to it's owner on Sunday, and good riddance I say!
In a rare fit of productivity in my knitting, I finished the second bootie today and got started on my Irish Ale socks! Finally! I've been dying to cast these bad boys on since I got the pattern! I'm hoping I've got enough yarn, though I've been eyeing my ball of brown yarn suspiciously this entire time, and, as always, I'm more than a little worried that they won't fit right. They should, mind you. The sizing is for a women's medium, which is like a 7-9 or so, which means that they should fit perfectly on my size 8 feet. But I'm still nervous.
But that, dear readers, is sort of my default setting.
I rescheduled my appointment with the tattoo artist today. I think I mentioned yesterday that I'm going to be working full time again? Well, that means that I can't get the tattoo this week. Which works out alright because that gives me more time to squirrel money away for it. I don't know if I'll drop back to 32 hours when I start having Tuesdays off, or if I'll be switched to working Saturdays, but if the later is true I'll have to take that first Saturday off, because my appointment is before the end of the work day. I suppose, if worst comes to worst, I can always call again, but I really hate rescheduling things, and it took us quite a while to find a date and time that worked for both of us as it was so....
Anyway, I did that earlier. I also got my earrings in today. I finally broke down and bought two pairs of Sterling silver earrings. Now my ears won't turn green. Overstock.com was a great help. I got two lovely pairs of earrings (a pair of silver four-leaf clovers and a pair of Celtic crosses) for the price of a pair at Claire's. This means that I can wear earrings in both of the piercings in my lobes without having greenish-gray skin.
See, the only pair of nice earring I owned were gold hoops, which is a problem (and not just because I'm not a huge fan of gold-tone jewelry), because there's enough danger of ripping my earrings out of my lobes with simple studs, never mind these dangly hoops!
Besides, I prefer to wear studs, unless I'm dressed like a pirate.
True story: During the Spring semester I was taking the Comp. 1000 course and it was the most boring class I had ever taken with the worst professor ever (well, tied with the Sociology professor from the previous semester). In a form of passive rebellion (i.e. would not get a black mark on record or such) I decided to attend this class in various pirate-inspired outfits, complete with Sharpie Jack Sparrow Tattoo (the baby powder tattoo thing does not work very well in my experience) and various colorful scarves.
I passed the class with a C, which is hardly surprising given the number of times the program we were using for quizzes and tests would glitch and the general level of apathy that pervaded...well, everything.
That was actually the harshest review I've ever given a professor in my life. She was literally never there! She'd call roll 15 minutes late, and then vanish for 30 minutes (or more!) at a time! She googled every little question and I'll be honest, I'm surprised she even knew how to turn the computer on!
And don't get me started on the curriculum! Talk about going around your ass to get to your elbow! They literally showed you the longest way to do a series of actions within the programs (Microsoft Office) and the book! Worthless! Not only is it published especially for them (meaning you spend $50 on a book that you can't sell back or buy used or rent), but it is the worst book I've ever used! The glossary was joke, the index was pathetic, the instructions might as well have been written in Hebrew for all I could understand of it, and there was no "handy things to know" or anything!
I'm so glad I passed that class, even if I do feel like that grade was robbery. I'm just glad that I never have to take it again! And the program? Yeah, there was a disc so we could install it on our computers and work at home. I had to uninstall it after two weeks because I had so many viruses on my computer. I uninstalled it, ran anti-virus, haven't had any more problems with it. One of my friends from English the previous semester lost two computers after installing that program on it.
Anyway! You really don't want to hear me rant about the problems I had last semester, especially with the mini-mester right around the corner! I'm planning on picking up an on-line class or two, since I can work on those at work. And! Since I'm not at the Campus with He-who-shall-not-be-named I can work on it without someone breathing down my neck.
Seriously, I don't know what that guys problem is, but the people who have the most issues with him all seem to be white women.
Not like sexual issues. He's just an ass.
But yeah....either way, not taking that class, or any other classes at that campus again. I'd just about prefer to gouge my eyes out.
I'm going to sign off and get back to my socks! I'm hoping to finish them up by Sunday, so wish me luck!
Yours always,
Tara
Thankfully, I've finally finished the stole, complete with reverse single crochet edge (kill me now) and washing and blocking. It goes off to it's owner on Sunday, and good riddance I say!
In a rare fit of productivity in my knitting, I finished the second bootie today and got started on my Irish Ale socks! Finally! I've been dying to cast these bad boys on since I got the pattern! I'm hoping I've got enough yarn, though I've been eyeing my ball of brown yarn suspiciously this entire time, and, as always, I'm more than a little worried that they won't fit right. They should, mind you. The sizing is for a women's medium, which is like a 7-9 or so, which means that they should fit perfectly on my size 8 feet. But I'm still nervous.
But that, dear readers, is sort of my default setting.
I rescheduled my appointment with the tattoo artist today. I think I mentioned yesterday that I'm going to be working full time again? Well, that means that I can't get the tattoo this week. Which works out alright because that gives me more time to squirrel money away for it. I don't know if I'll drop back to 32 hours when I start having Tuesdays off, or if I'll be switched to working Saturdays, but if the later is true I'll have to take that first Saturday off, because my appointment is before the end of the work day. I suppose, if worst comes to worst, I can always call again, but I really hate rescheduling things, and it took us quite a while to find a date and time that worked for both of us as it was so....
Anyway, I did that earlier. I also got my earrings in today. I finally broke down and bought two pairs of Sterling silver earrings. Now my ears won't turn green. Overstock.com was a great help. I got two lovely pairs of earrings (a pair of silver four-leaf clovers and a pair of Celtic crosses) for the price of a pair at Claire's. This means that I can wear earrings in both of the piercings in my lobes without having greenish-gray skin.
See, the only pair of nice earring I owned were gold hoops, which is a problem (and not just because I'm not a huge fan of gold-tone jewelry), because there's enough danger of ripping my earrings out of my lobes with simple studs, never mind these dangly hoops!
Besides, I prefer to wear studs, unless I'm dressed like a pirate.
True story: During the Spring semester I was taking the Comp. 1000 course and it was the most boring class I had ever taken with the worst professor ever (well, tied with the Sociology professor from the previous semester). In a form of passive rebellion (i.e. would not get a black mark on record or such) I decided to attend this class in various pirate-inspired outfits, complete with Sharpie Jack Sparrow Tattoo (the baby powder tattoo thing does not work very well in my experience) and various colorful scarves.
I passed the class with a C, which is hardly surprising given the number of times the program we were using for quizzes and tests would glitch and the general level of apathy that pervaded...well, everything.
That was actually the harshest review I've ever given a professor in my life. She was literally never there! She'd call roll 15 minutes late, and then vanish for 30 minutes (or more!) at a time! She googled every little question and I'll be honest, I'm surprised she even knew how to turn the computer on!
And don't get me started on the curriculum! Talk about going around your ass to get to your elbow! They literally showed you the longest way to do a series of actions within the programs (Microsoft Office) and the book! Worthless! Not only is it published especially for them (meaning you spend $50 on a book that you can't sell back or buy used or rent), but it is the worst book I've ever used! The glossary was joke, the index was pathetic, the instructions might as well have been written in Hebrew for all I could understand of it, and there was no "handy things to know" or anything!
I'm so glad I passed that class, even if I do feel like that grade was robbery. I'm just glad that I never have to take it again! And the program? Yeah, there was a disc so we could install it on our computers and work at home. I had to uninstall it after two weeks because I had so many viruses on my computer. I uninstalled it, ran anti-virus, haven't had any more problems with it. One of my friends from English the previous semester lost two computers after installing that program on it.
Anyway! You really don't want to hear me rant about the problems I had last semester, especially with the mini-mester right around the corner! I'm planning on picking up an on-line class or two, since I can work on those at work. And! Since I'm not at the Campus with He-who-shall-not-be-named I can work on it without someone breathing down my neck.
Seriously, I don't know what that guys problem is, but the people who have the most issues with him all seem to be white women.
Not like sexual issues. He's just an ass.
But yeah....either way, not taking that class, or any other classes at that campus again. I'd just about prefer to gouge my eyes out.
I'm going to sign off and get back to my socks! I'm hoping to finish them up by Sunday, so wish me luck!
Yours always,
Tara
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