Yearly Archives: 2009
busy busy busy
I know, I know, I know. I am a horrible blogger. But in my defense, I have been fairly busy and every time I think I’ll write a post I come up with something better and usually more important to do.
So why is my life oh so busy that I can’t even write in my blog when I sit at work in front of a computer all day? Well, the main reason is, I’m moving to Nashville. Soon. Like, before the end of January, probably sometime mid-January. The exact date isn’t known yet as we (Chris and I) are looking for a house, hopefully to buy but possibly to rent, and I am looking for a job. A job that pays well, that doesn’t suck too much, and that preferably requires my degree. Sad thing is, this type of job is apparently hard (maybe impossible) to find. I’ve actually only applied to a few places because there is just nothing out there. I was under the impression that having my B.A. would give me more opportunities even if it’s a worthless Liberal Arts degree, but everything I’ve found either requires only a high school diploma/GED, a Bachelor’s in a very specific oftentimes technical field, or a Master’s. Nothing here for this little linguistics major.
Since I’m sort of at a standstill when it comes to finding a real job, and I’m not sure if I want to go back to school, I’m actually considering going into teaching. Nashville has two programs where you can get accelerated licensure and then work for your Master’s while teaching, at a greatly discounted rate. This is very appealing to me, except both programs service Metro Nashville Public Schools and I have some reservations about that. Mainly, teaching at one of these schools would be extremely tough, and extremely frustrating. I like the idea of helping out those who really need it, but working my ass off to try to help kids who don’t want the help, in an environment where I may not feel entirely safe, doesn’t sound altogether pleasant. Then again, I’ve mostly heard that this is a big problem with the high school kids. Maybe elementary students would be better. (Which is somewhat ironic, because I thought that I’d much rather teach high schoolers than little kids, but I guess it really depends on where and what kind of students I’d be teaching.) I’m still very interested in these programs, despite my doubts, but applications are due in a few weeks so I’ve really got a lot of thinking to do.
My other option would be getting my ESL certification at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. It wouldn’t guarantee me a job, and I wouldn’t be getting my Master’s, but it sounds a lot nicer than teaching kids who may just cuss me out and threaten me. It also only takes a couple of months to get and is a bit cheaper, and I think the environment would be a lot more enjoyable. Even if I decide against the ESL certification, I’m still planning on taking foreign language classes there, definitely Spanish because I’ve decided it would be very practical for me to learn it (and probably fairly easy), and maybe Japanese since I’d rather not throw away all that I’ve learned so far. Classes are a bit pricey but they offer volunteering opportunities in lieu of paying for classes, so I may try to take advantage of that.
Aside from searching for jobs, looking into schools and teaching programs, and starting to pack up my stuff for the move, I’ve also been working on my crocheting. I’m trying to come up with an amigurumi animal that works up quickly and can be sold for relatively cheap, that will sell really well. Other people have accomplished this, so I figure, I can, too (though it’s easier said than done, apparently). I’ve wanted to do a line of maneki neko (lucky cats) for a while, and I did come up with a pattern for them. Here are the ones I’ve completed so far:
Here are some close-ups of the white one and the green one. The white one is the first one I made and has rounded ears, and the green one has flatter, more triangular ears.
They’re definitely cute, but they are incredibly time-intensive and I hate to sell them for less than what is equal to the amount of effort I put into them. The problem is, people tend to not want to pay a whole lot for crafts, especially something that is essentially a stuffed animal. Sooo, I need to think of something else I can do. I’m kind of burned out from the kitties, though, so I’m going to take a break and work on some things like hats for Christmas presents.
Well, this has certainly been a long post. I’ll try to post more often so I don’t end up writing a novella next time.
ziggy stardust
One of my friends decided to give her birthday party a rock star/musician theme, and so of course I had to be David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. I had some doubts, mostly in the weight department, but I think the costume turned out pretty well and I’ve gotten a lot of praise for it. Which pleases me, because I put a lot of effort into my costumes, despite having no sewing ability whatsoever.
The costume consisted of this hideous sparkly black strapless jumper thing that I found whilst thrifting; a sparkly black long-sleeve shirt to which I attached some big ol’ space-age shoulder pads (made with fabric sewn around foam board); my awesome knee-high red hooker boots; and the mullet wig. The wig I found on eBay (called the Judith wig), and I thought it was going to be perfect but I had to end up modifying it by trimming it down a bit and then I colored it with an orange Sharpie to make it redder.
I try to be as accurate as possible when it comes to costumes, but I wasn’t about to shave my eyebrows for this one. So, I turned to the internet for help, because I was sure that there had to be some way to conceal eyebrows. And sure enough, I found some helpful tutorials on YouTube. There are products you can buy to do a really good job, but if you’re short on time or money, you can use a gluestick and some regular powder, concealer, and foundation. My results weren’t terrific, even though I did exactly what the videos said to. I guess I’d be a really bad drag queen with my subpar makeup skills, haha. But it got the point across for the party, in any case.
costume: leeloo from the fifth element
Took me a while to get this entry up. I just wanted to make it as detailed as possible and with pictures included.
The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies, and I got the idea to be Leeloo for Halloween (orange suspender outfit, not the white bandage one, obviously). The costume seemed doable. I figured I could lose weight and look good in it. Well, the costume was doable, though frustrating. Didn’t do too well with the weight loss, but I suppose I could’ve looked worse…
I put a lot of effort into what looked like should be a relatively easy costume. Cropped white shirt, beige-gold pants, belt, boots, orange hair, weird suspender things. Other than the suspenders, everything else was rather basic. Still took a lot of time and money, though.
For the shirt, I found a stretchy white ribbed t-shirt at a thrift store, cut it short (a bit too short by accident) and brought in the seams to make it fit better. It was a horrible sewing job, all done by hand and quite crappily, but it worked.
Like others, I looked for a pair of gold leggings for her pants. Initially I found a pair of shiny metallic gold leggings at Spencer Gifts on sale for $5. Then I found a pair of leggings in a more subdued metallic gold at Target for $13. I was going to use these, but wasn’t sure how to attach the stripes. While out thrifting, I found some beige pants with no pockets that I thought would be easier to work with than the leggings. They were quite wide-legged so I brought them in around the calves to make them tighter. Then I glued on piping-type ribbon for the stripes. (The ones around the knees were too tight and I had to rip them off when I later took off the pants. I bought some elastic ribbon for the next time I wear the costume.)
The black belt was harder to find than I would have expected, but apparently simple, wide black belts with a plain buckle aren’t all that common. I ended up finding one at Kohls that worked. The boots are combat boots that I got at an army surplus store.
The hair was definitely a pain in the ass, mostly because I used a synthetic wig and they’re hard to work with. I took a blonde page boy wig (used for my Kelly costume a couple of years ago) and dyed it orange with acrylic ink+rubbing alcohol (regular hair dye won’t work with synthetic hair). It looked great while wet, but once it dried, the orange faded to a gross dull pink, and I didn’t feel like try to dye it again. So, I ended up recoloring it with an orange highlighter, haha. Then I trimmed it, and tried to dread it with gel, which does not work, so I used fabric glue. It turned out pretty decently, I suppose.
And then there were the suspenders. These bastards were the trickiest part. You can buy them online for $100-300, or you can try to make fairly accurate ones with silicone rubber–both expensive, and the latter time-consuming and probably easy to screw up. I turned to the internet for help. Others had had luck with duct tape; I did not. Too sticky, not the right look, and the tape was too bright. Then I tried foam sheets, which looked better but ended up ripping in a few places. I was going to retry the foam by reinforcing it with a double layer of foam, but then, while out thrifting, I found this ugly beige rubbery material. I have no idea what it’s purpose is, but it ended up working pretty well. Cut it with scissors, painted it with orange acrylic craft paint, and sewed the ends together. It ended up looking good, aside from me accidentally make it too wide and the circles too big. I have some of the material leftover so I may try to remake them if I ever decide to use the costume again (which I hopefully will). Also, to keep them attached to me (since they weren’t very elasticy), I used sticky-backed velcro.
I also Sharpie’d the four elements tattoo on my wrist, and I was going to make a multipass but I ran out of time. I’ll definitely make one when and if I use the costume again.
some things i liked and disliked about japan
So, I promised more entries about Japan. Since I’m sitting here bored at work, I guess now would be a good time to write one up. Thus, I present my list of some of the things I liked and disliked about Japan in the ways that it differs from the U.S.
- Likes
- Public transportation system: Public transportation systems in the U.S. tend to suck, overall. There are places with subways and trains, but not many. Buses are everywhere, but it seems like middle-class society avoids them. We have cars, why would we take the bus? In Japan, though, everyone uses the public transit. It’s fast, reliant, and fairly cheap. Why can’t we have that here?
- Designated smoking areas/rooms: As someone who really hates cigarettes, I really liked this aspect of Japan. In many places in Japan, it’s illegal to smoke outside. Instead, you have to go to a little smoking area or into an actual room to smoke. I did notice that a lot of restaurants, even McDonalds, do allow smoking, though, and don’t even have non-smoking sections, which is disappointing.
- Konbini stores: I love Japanese convenience stores. They make eating cheaply in Japan possible, and also easy, because they are everywhere. We got meals at konbinis all the time, rather than going to restaurants or packing a lunch, and for the most part, they were pretty good and not too expensive.
- Tiny cars: I like tiny cars, and I like how Japan is full of them. Rarely did I see a big truck or an SUV. Lots of vans, but I guess those are unavoidable.
- Crepe shops: Japanese crepes are awesome. You can get them with warm foods, like teriyaki chicken (I even saw hot dog ones and spaghetti ones!), or desserty ones with fruit, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Both types are sooooo good! They roll them up to look sort of like ice cream cones, so they’re portable, too! They almost make me want to open up a Japanese-style crepe shop of my own.
- Takuhaibin: Takuhaibin is a delivery service, sort of like UPS or FedEx. The great thing about this service is that you can use it to have your luggage sent ahead of you instead of having to take it on the plane. This is probably available in the U.S., but I’ve never heard mention of it, whereas it’s a very common service to use in Japan. We used it instead of taking our suitcases on the plane, which cost us about $30 instead of the $80-100 in oversized luggage fees we would’ve had to have paid.
- Dislikes
- Bicycles everywhere: I’m all for people riding bikes, really, I am. But the amount of bikes on the sidewalks in Japan is just insane. I seriously feared for my safety sometimes.
- Expensive fruits & veggies: Produce in Japan is expensive, I guess because most of it’s imported. Vegetables weren’t too bad, but fruit was ridiculous. Almost $9 for a cantaloupe! I saw a SLICE of cantaloupe for $2! Insanity! I was hoping to eat healthy during my trip but it totally did not happen because of how expensive the produce was.
- Disregard of other pedestrians: Not only are the bikes scary, but sometimes the throngs of pedestrians are, as well. I understand that the Japanese sense of personal space is the total opposite of ours; but completely disregarding that someone is walking toward you and not moving to the side is ridiculous. There were several occasions where I had to move to the side in order to avoid being walked right into.
- Lack of recycling: I am extremely pro-recycling, and I thought that Japan would be, too. But it seems like most of their trash is separated into things that are burnable and things that are not. Sometimes there were bins just for cans and plastic bottles, so maybe those actually were recycled, but I’m really not sure.
- Dryers: I can’t vouch for all dryers in Japan, but the two (yes, two) at the apartment I stayed at were HORRIBLE. It took them both like 4 hours to actually dry everything. I would’ve just hung my stuff outside in the sun but there wasn’t anywhere to do so.
- Unlabeled streets: This was probably one of the most infuriating things about Japan. We got semi-lost a couple of times and had the HARDEST time trying to figure out where we were because none of the streets were labelled.
- Shopkeepers: Oh. my. god, I wanted to kill some of these people. The teenage workers in the malls were the worst. It was like they were having some kind of contest to see who could stretch out “irasshaimase” in the loudest, shrillest voice for the longest amount of time. The term is supposed to welcome you in to their business, but it made me want to run far, far away. Especially when I was the only person in the store and they kept yelling it. SHUT UP.
Though there are many other things I liked and disliked about Japan, these were some of the things that really stuck out. There were some other things that I neither really liked nor disliked, but that I thought were just strange, like host and hostess clubs (especially the hosts’ crazy anime hair, haha, and how they were trying to sweet talk us white girls), and all the weird/adorable mascots and signs that are everywhere in Japan (you can’t just have a sign with words, no no, it must have some cutesy thing on it, like a dog looking ashamed that it pooped on the sidewalk).
busy as a bee
Ack! I am so bad about posting in this thing. I’ve been pretty busy the past week or so working on my Halloween costume and crocheting things for people. I made another beard hat for someone’s Halloween costume, I’ve started another for one of my friends, and, best of all, I have finally sold some things on Etsy (yay!). Someone purchased a donut pin cushion, which I had to custom make, and then someone else requested a custom order of three mesh bags, two of which I’m in the process of making. I am very excited about this and hope that I’ll get more sales once I’m able to make and put up more items.
I’m going to write a post about my Halloween costume (Leeloo from The Fifth Element), but I’m waiting to see if people at the party got better pictures of me than what I have.
I also have another Japan entry in the works, it’s just taking me forever to actually finish it up and get it posted. I keep finding more exciting things to do than work on it, haha.