Anyway, since the last time I posted here, I’ve been to Chicago to see my son graduate from Navy boot camp. That was so cool, but the scary part is that being a country girl, those big cities don’t do much for me. And I’m here to attest to the fact that having a GPS in your vehicle doesn’t always mean you’ll get to where you’re going. LOL. We spent 3 days in Waukegan, Illinois and was never able to find Lake Michigan. (Stop laughing).

I’ve also been pursuing the Internet for new places to write. I love to find new places and check them out to see if they’re worth talking about or not. And I did find one place that I’ve really enjoyed writing for called Info Barrel. I’ve only been there for a couple of weeks, but so far they’ve been a great site.

This is a revenue sharing site for article writers. The main reason I love this site is because of the community behind it. The admins are super nice, the other writers go out of their way to help out, and everything about the site is designed to make the whole process fun.

Another thing I like about this site is that not just anyone can jump on and start pumping out articles. Well, they can but they don’t get published right away. Every writer goes through a short probation period. In order to get to a point where you can post articles without being pre-approved, you’ve got to have a minimum of 10 articles okayed by the admins and have been a member of the site for at least 14 days. You’ll know when you’ve made it because the admins will send you a letter telling you so. I’m almost there. Just a couple more articles and a couple more days to go. I’m not in a big hurry as the site is based in Canada and this is a long weekend for them. (Happy Victoria Day weekend to any Canadian readers out there).

I’ve also found a neat little site for promoting yourself called Red Gage. This is a site like I’ve never seen before. It’s not a blogging platform or anything of the sort. It’s a site that pays you for doing all the stuff you do online anyway. Upload your photos, add links to your articles or blog posts, add documents and/or blog posts. The more you add and the more you get seen, the more you make. It’s that easy. Well, easy may not be the right term as it does take a little getting used to. But, once you get it figured out, it’s pretty easy.

I’m still looking and probably will on a regular basis. I love being a writer and am going to do everything in my power to continue to do so. My little experiment may not make a millionaire, but if I can keep food on the table and soap/shampoo/laundry and dish soap on hand, I’ll feel as though I’ve accomplished quite a feat. And if I can get to a point where I can take over the cell phone payments from the hubby, I’ll be gloating about it for years to come. LOL

Have a great day!!!!!

First of all, I found a cute quilt block pattern that was supposed to be used as an edge.  I liked it very much, and gave it my own twist.  I call it Love Links.  Here’s the first one I ever did.

I totally dig the colors I used in this one.  The problem was that I had no idea what I was going to do with it once I finished.  It just kind of sat there staring at me, going “Don’t ignore me.  I thought you loved me”.  Then I got an idea to turn this into a purse pattern.  I had a cool idea and did what I could to put it together.  Here’s the finished product.

Laying flat

Upright position

Though it didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned, I’m pretty happy with it.  I’m going to use it for my daughter’s Easter Basket.  She’s 16, and loves the little purse/bag thing.  I told her she could have it, but not till after Easter.  LOL.  She knows she’s getting it for Easter, so this post isn’t going to give anything away.  Besides, she never reads my posts anyway.  I’m just mom, I never do anything cool.

Anyway, there’s a couple of the things I’ve been working on.  I have a whole crap-load of other things, but not nearly enough room here.  Let me know what you think, but please be kind.  I don’t take rejection well at all.  LOLOLOL!!!

Anyway, my wonderful mother-in-law was kind enough to give me a whole tote full of fabrics, 2 boxes of ribbons, and a huge bag of lace.  But the biggest prize in my new lot was the whole box full of crafting books and magazines she gave me.  My mother-in-law is as craft crazy as I am, maybe more.  And though she has 3 daughters of her own, none of them are really into the whole crafting thing.  So, I get all her crafting hand-me-downs.  Whoo Hoo for me.  LOL

As I began going through this box full of books, I was shocked to see just exactly what I had in my hands.  She gave me books and magazines that go back to the late 40’s-early 50’s.  Here are a few pics I took just to prove how cool my mother-in-law really is.  She’s awesome!!!!!

Craft Works, Pack O’ Fun, and Family Circle magazines

As you can see, this one was issued in 1969 and only cost 20 cents

This is a huge pile of Crafting Traditions magazines from 1996-2003

2 books published in the 60’s on how to recycle things you already have around the house.  And you thought the whole Reuse/Recycle thing was a new idea.  LOL

A massive needlework book from McCall’s-Fall/Winter issue for 1964-1965-it cost a whole 60 cents.

And now for my favorite

This is a book that my mother-in-law put together herself when she was in college.  It’s full of little character drawings from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.  It’s so cool.

From food and drinks

To scenes of various emotions.

Needless to say, I’ve had a ball the past couple of weeks.  I’ve found a ton of ideas to work with, some of which came from days gone by and I’ve come up with ways to give them a modern twist.  Now, if I could just finish one whole project, I’d be doing great.  LOL

After updating to the newer version, I noticed that it took forever to even get online. Now, it could be that I did something wrong, or because I live in the middle of nowhere and our Internet connection pretty much sucks. Whatever the reason, all hell broke loose last night. In the middle of what I was doing, FireFox totally broke down and crashed. I couldn’t even get back online with this browser. So, I said screw it and decided to use IE.

I haven’t used IE in a very long time, so I kept getting messages to update to the latest version. Finally, I gave in and updated. That was a huge mistake. After completing the update and restarting my computer, I found that I couldn’t get online at all. IE doesn’t work at all now and I still have problems getting on with FireFox. So, what’s a country girl to do??? She joins the 21st century and downloads Google Chrome.

So, I am now using Google Chrome. It’s kinda cool, but I’m having trouble getting used to a few things. Finding all my favorite sites is a little annoying, but I’m getting the hang of it. It’s a lot faster than either of the other browsers, but I’ve noticed that some of the pics on certain sites don’t load completely. Not sure why, but haven’t completely ruled out operator error. LOL

I’m not exactly advocating Google Chrome, but I can say that out of the three, it is the only one that has allowed me to get online in the past 48 hours. I have to use it for awhile before I can truly say whether or not I really like it. For now, I’ll use it and see if I can’t figure out all the in’s and out’s. And if I can’t, I’ll have my kid come in and teach me how to use it. LOL

Ok, maybe it’s because I’m at an age now where every time I land a new writing client, I feel like a million bucks. “What, you want me to write about tree bark toilet paper? Sure, no sweat. Been writing about it all my life”. I know I’ve never written about it before, but I still have to make my clients look and sound like genius’s. That’s the life of a ghost writer. But I’m thrilled to be writing anything. So I’m not writing the great American novel. Yes, I tried but I have these strange beings in my house who seem to think they have to eat everyday AND wear clean clothes. Man!!!

I like to rummage through the various sites for writers all across the Internet. Most writers forums are basically like walking into a bookstore full of those uppity-ups that think their smarter than you because they use big words. Hey buddy, read my lips, unless you’re making a million bucks telling everyone else what they’re doing wrong, shut the hell up. I have no patients for people who think their better than everyone else, especially when they’re 20 years younger than I am. No, I didn’t go to Harvard or Yale, but I pushed two living, breathing human beings out of my body and I did it without drugs. I wanted drugs, but that’s a different story.

I guess I’m just getting old. I hate getting old, but at the same time I’m starting to see some advantages to it. I now understand all those weird sayings that used to come out of my father’s mouth. I’m finally at an age where I can look forward to my children moving out on their own, and actually enjoy the idea. I’m almost old enough to qualify for life insurance without a medical exam, and I can finally tell my mother to quit complaining because “I have the same problem and bitching don’t help”.

I guess my problem isn’t with the pieces that these young writers are putting out there, I have an issue with the way they do it. I never thought I’d be the “old chic” sitting in the back of the room wondering why the hell I came to this show. I always imagined myself the young, hip chic who knew it all. Well, I finally do know it all. Too bad I lost all the damn questions.

These kids are depriving themselves and/or other kids of air, simply to pass out. This little game is video taped then uploaded to the Internet to be seen all around the world. If you’ve got kids in the house, you’ve got to talk to them about this. I couldn’t believe the things I saw these kids doing on TV. Choking each other, pressing against their chests until they pass out. Then laughing about it when they regain consciousness.

As I sat there and watched that episode, I could only see the face of my own daughter in those videos. I couldn’t even imagine coming home to find my child dead because of a game. This isn’t something that can be ignored. Even if you’re the coolest parent in the world, this isn’t something you can overlook.

Please, if you have kids, take this seriously. I’m not the kind of person who gets up on a soap box about a lot of things, but this one just kinda got to me. My daughter may end up hating me, but we will be discussing this issue when she gets home from school today. I never want to come home and find my baby gone.

So, this morning I decided to put my plan into effect.  I have this little stair stepper thing that I use once in a while.  I got it out and put it right next to my bed.  No problem.  But one of my biggest problems is the little mommy pooch I have.  And, I know that the only way I’m going to overcome that is by doing sit-ups.  So, I got down on the floor, and OMG.  When the hell did the floor get so far down and why the hell did it hurt so bad to simply sit up.  I did 25 sit-ups and I thought I was going to hurl.  I am not a large woman by any sense of the meaning, but What The Hell!!!!!

I know that if I keep at it, it won’t be such a big deal, but that whole first time thing sucks.  I’ll keep going, whether I like it or not, and hopefully I’ll be a little more graceful.  Oh hell, who am I kidding, I’ve never been a graceful woman before, and it ain’t gonna happen now.  But, if I can still fit into my jeans, I’ll at least know I did something good for myself.

Anyway, that’s not really what I wanted to write about here today.  I wanted to talk about the little challenge that I’m taking on this month.  I joined the NaNoWriMo challenge last month, but didn’t get very far.  Then, I found a site that is dedicated to NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month.  Although this usually takes place in the month of November, they also have it set up so that you can work the challenge on any given month of the year.  I’m going to try and complete the challenge for the month of December.  Like I don’t have enough other things to do this month.  LOL

Why did I choose December?  Mainly to see if I can do this in the busiest month of the year.  Not only am I in the process of getting things ready for Christmas, a couple friends and I are in the process of opening up our own store.  Not only will it be online, but it will be a real shop right here in our little town.  The name of the shop is Calico Acres Thrifts and Gifts.  It’s going to be a classy thrift shop and a place for us to sell our handmade craft items.  I personally do quilts and quilt pillows.  Once we get our poop in a group, I’ll post the link to the site.  We already own the domain name, but I haven’t done anything with it yet.

Then, on top of all that, I’m still ghost writing for another blogger.  As of right now, there’s only one client, but that’s ok.  Sometimes, it’s better to only work for one person than a bunch of people.  You don’t get quite as confused with the orders.  LOL.  With all of this, I’m really hoping that I’ll have enough fodder to gab about for the whole month of December.  I don’t know how it will work out, but let’s all go along for the ride.  If nothing else, someone is sure to get a good laugh out of all this at my expense.  LOL

Ciao for Now,
Christine

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the site, but I’m pleasantly surprised. To start out, I was asked to enter either a song title or artist’s name into the text box and click. Being a huge lover of Paul McCartney, I went with him. The site put up one of his songs and I had the choice of giving the song a thumb’s up or down. I gave it a thumb’s up and from there, the site looks for similar choices and plays them. You decide if you like the song or not, and go from there.

Another nice thing is that you can set up different radio stations for all of your tastes. I have days when all I want to listen to is my hair bands of the 80’s, while other days I’m in the mellow mood for my 70’s soft rock. I can create different stations for each of these.

Pandora also gives you the option of searching through genre stations, setting up your profile, and even has a way of setting music up on your cell phone. However, this site does not allow you to download music. Which for me isn’t a problem. I usually only listen to my tunes when I’m at my computer anyway.  Also, due to the licensing the site owns, free members are limited to 40 hours of listening time per month.  Once that limit is reached, you’ll see a box that allows you to either wait for the 1st of the next month to have your hours reset, or you can pay .99 cents to get unlimited listening for the rest of the month.

I’m still in the learning phase of this site, but so far I’m very happy with what I’ve found. If you’ve ever dreamed of creating your own radio station that plays only the music that you enjoy, I recommend Pandora Radio. There is even an upgrade option for those who don’t want to have to deal with ads.  This upgrade costs $36 for an entire year, and comes with some really cool options.  It’s worth looking into.

Tonight was the 2-hour premiere of the newest installment, and so far it’s not bad, but it’s not great. However, I have to give it a chance as they have to establish a storyline for the characters. I will be disappointed that we won’t get a chance to see Dr. Daniel Jackson, but I think this show has potential. Unlike the last show I reviewed, I think this show might have a shot.

I was a little bummed to find out that Lou Diamond Phillips won’t be a regular member of the cast, but I love the idea of having a math whiz kid as one of the team members. He adds a little normalcy to the show, and a touch of humor. That’s the one thing I loved about both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. They had enough adventure to keep the story moving, but just enough humor added in to make them enjoyable to watch.

I think the reason I’ve always loved these shows is that I was also a huge Star Trek fan as a kid. The idea of going off to new worlds and finding new life forms has always been exciting for me, even if it is all set around totally fictional ideas. Maybe it’s the writer in me, or the urge to live in a fairy tale world, but I love these types of shows.

I’ll keep watching the new Stargate series, just to see where they go from here. I do hope they get better than the pilot episode, even though it wasn’t all that bad.