...and knee-deep in laundry. And boxes. And, er, well, all kinds of stuff that needs to be done.

(snurched from meghan1313 and zsof )

Where are you camping, and where else will you be findable? Camping: as a guest of Furies Keep, part of Willow Point N.A. in E19, near the lake. Otherwise findable: Oh, here, there and everywhere.

When are you arriving? Planning to be there for Sunday the 26th and part of Monday the 27th, returning to Cleveland that afternoon/evening, and then back for the whole second week, beginning on either the evening of Thursday the 30th or on Friday the 31st.

What fun things are you planning to do? Take a few classes, wander about with friends, enjoy bardic activities and other things.

And, if there's any chance I haven't connected LJ names and SCA names, what's your SCA name? Ana an Locha.

Obtained new apartment, and we are in the process of moving in. About 75% complete, still need to move some gym equipment, the piano, and a few other items. Eeep. Help!

Just now got the router configured so as to get online and check email and stuff. Cantankerous router is cantankerous.

Oh, and I wonder if I will find all the Pennsic stuff in time, and also if I will finish sewing in time?

...lots going on. Will post when I have actual stuff to say and time to say it.

First off, a question for the LJ mind:

What does everyone here do when they begin to feel completely overwhelmed, near to mental paralysis, by events and/or circumstances in their life? Quite frankly, I'm about there. Oh, I know that "this too shall pass", at least intellectually, but that doesn't make the present any easier to deal with, nor lessen the stress. Not to mention that I'm more than a little concerned with what manner of things may occur between now and said passing.

It isn't as though there aren't any bright spots at all: I just had a phone call from a staffing agency about a possible part-time position. It doesn't pay much, but it would be something, assuming the company selects me from all the candidates, which is by no means certain. And I had a good job interview on Monday, where it looks like I have a good chance at being hired, but I won't know for sure until early next week, nor do I have any idea how many hours per week I'm going to get and how much I'll make. It's a restaurant job, because that is virtually all that is available here at present. My husband, buckeyehoppy , actually is employed in the same industry, across the street from the place where I interviewed, and his job is good, if underpaid, and - we fervently hope - will remain stable throughout this current recession. I'd love to find a good full time office support position again, but there are very few advertised here of late, and probably several hundred applicants for each one that is, especially in light of so many other businesses closing or downsizing in Northeast Ohio.

So it's back to waiting tables I go. Okay, I can deal with that. I also have communications going with a collector who is interested in purchasing some items my father has been collecting for decades, but I'm not sure when we will be able to get together to do business (he's in Lexington, Kentucky, I'm in Northeast Ohio, and the transaction will involve his coming here for a physical meeting and bringing a van).

But what worries me right now is being able to eke out the next three weeks between now and when I begin to hit my stride in terms of earnings and also may have sold that collection. I've just looked at my bills, and my bank account, and there's a gap I'm not at all comfortable with.

So now, something I really haven't wanted to do, but am going to anyway; namely, asking for a little help. Among other things, I make beaded jewelry (example here), I sew, and I do various handicrafts for household ornamentation. We do need help, but I also believe in giving back something of value. If anyone at all is willing to help get us through this patch, I do have a Paypal account and I will gladly design and make an item for you in return.

And now, just some general observations:

The stuff above is all short term. The long term is that I had really, really, wanted to be on a reasonable career path by now. I'm nearly 45, I've done general office work for years, along with some occasional retail or restaurant work, and none of this is what I want to do long-term. But given the current economy, and the fallout of some spectacularly bad decisions made in my earlier years - some solely my own doing, others made for me by family members or other loved ones who misguidedly thought they were doing the right thing but weren't - I don't even have an opportunity at the moment to begin making a change in the direction I'd like to go. And, of course, looking back at my own decisions, both long-ago and recent, I am beginning to feel that almost every one of them has been wrong. That whenever I am faced with a choice, I ought to choose the opposite of the one that feels right to me, because going with what feels right has so often in the past turned out to be wrong in the long run. Of course, the decision to begin going in the opposite direction from what I usually do might well be wrong in itself, so...

The result of all this is that I'm feeling very, very stuck. Trapped. As though the situation in which I currently find myself, or one similar to it, is likely to keep repeating itself throughout my future, because I can't get a handle on changing my life enough to make a difference. Intellectually, of course, I know that I can probably find a way, but right now that lizard hindbrain that only knows raw, emotional reaction is overwhelming the rest of me.

Go here.

(Thanks to thesaucernews .)

Well, summers-place is now up and running over at Dreamwidth.  Thanks to casacorona for the invitation.  I'll set my account there to mirror what I'm doing here, then add to it as I go along.

This looks like it should be interesting. ;-)

1. Been noodling around with GiMP, a free computer-graphics program I've played with off and on for the past while. Last night and today I've used it to colorize a couple of my favorite webcomics. Sort of like an electronic coloring book for grownups, I guess. Some results:




(larger version)

(Note: each of these images is a link which, when clicked, will take you to the webcomic from which is was borrowed. I heartily recommend you give these comics a read, and support them, as they are wonderful and their authors deserve it.)

2. I should be sewing or something. Maybe I'll start some later on this evening, as I'm planning to just stay in and watch TV.

3. Speaking of TV, I'm currently watching Primeval on BBC America. Still trying to wrap my brain around it.

4. Blargh. Jaw hurts, mainly because I keep clenching it. Stupid stress.

5. What happened to the warm weather?

Snurched from meghan1313:


visited 16 states (32%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I could probably add the Carolinas to that list, as I think I may have passed through them enroute to Florida one year, but I don't recall anything about spending appreciable time in them; possibly no more than the time it took to eat lunch and visit the restroom, so I'm leaving them off. And the Missouri/Kansas thing was basically a two-day business trip to Kansas City back in 1999.

I loves me some SG-1 fanfic. Just sayin'.

Ganked from elessa

Your Brain is 60% Female, 40% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

I followed a link from something else I was reading today, and it took me here. Click that and find out why I'm fuming. I'll wait. For those unsure of why they ought to read the material at the link, there is a snippet below. (I accept no responsibility for increases in blood pressure. Caveat lector.)

One snowy February afternoon in 2007, I flew into St. Louis and ended up on the Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot looking for my car. There, I was met by an engaging young woman identified by her name tag as Lyndsay. St. Louis being my hometown, I asked Lyndsay about her background and learned she had recently graduated from a nearby university with a marketing degree.

Lyndsay competently completed all the basics that day, noting the mileage and checking the car for damage. But her job required no advanced skills. The entire transaction took only a minute or two, required no calculus, no deconstruction of Hemingway. Nothing Lyndsay did that morning required a college degree.

[...]

College has become the new high school. Soon after my St. Louis trip I called Enterprise and learned that with a few exceptions for military it hires only college graduates for Lyndsay's position. The ability to multitask and communicate with customers, skills that years ago high schools supplied, are now found almost solely among those with two- or four-year degrees.

Okay. If you're anything like me, you probably agree that this is getting ridiculous. On the one hand, I'm the last person likely to play down the value of an education. On the other hand, there's no good reason why anyone should have to get a bachelor's degree simply to be able to carry out the sort of basic tasks necessary for jobs like renting out cars to travelers. It doesn't - or shouldn't - require a bachelor's (or even an associate's) degree to function as, say, a receptionist, or an administrative assistant, or even to manage a small office. I should know: I've done those things, and without a bachelor's degree. Although I do hold an associate's, I had most of the requisite skills for entry-level general office work right out of high school. I could relate to people, and I could multitask. Hell, if I hadn't been able to multitask, I'd never have gotten through high school. Was high school really so much more difficult 27 years ago than it is now? Yes, I do mean that as a serious question.

More importantly, what does it say about us as a nation when we set up our K-12 educational system, the one that's free for everyone to use, in such a way as to graduate students who lack (or at least will be assumed to lack) even the basic skills to do more than assemble burgers and fries behind a stainless steel counter? And what does it say about us that we think it is okay to have a system in which an expensive college degree is necessary to get an interview for a job that pays anything even close to a living wage?

And before you object to my blanket characterization of higher education as expensive, reflect that right here in my own city, tuition rates at the local public university are over $300 per credit hour. To the many prospective students whose families are feeling the pinch of our current abysmal economy and who yet may not qualify for Pell grants and the like (believe me, there is and always has been a huge gap in which it is possible to neither qualify for aid nor be able to afford tuition out-of-pocket), $300 per credit - over $7k per year, full time - is expensive. Expensive enough to place a BA or BS out of reach, unless the student qualifies for student loans, which is also a dicier proposition these days. And even if loans are available to the students, is it really fair to dictate that anyone who wants to earn a living wage needs must embark upon his or her career already in debt? Not to mention, of course, that adding student loan payments on top of living expenses increases the amount of money that qualifies as a living wage in the first place. It's a vicious cycle, people.

And what of those adults who perhaps did not complete their BA or BS in their youth, and are now struggling to compete in a job market where college degrees are increasingly required, but who have only their experience on which to rely? Oh, they might have a fighting chance if they are fortunate enough to be able to remain in whatever career field they have worked and gained that experience in over the years, but in today's economic climate and tough job market, an awful lot of people are finding that they have no choice but to change careers. When you're forty-something and have a family to provide for, are faced with dwindling employment prospects, lack a degree and the money to acquire one, what exactly are you supposed to do? I've heard that question on the lips of more than a few people lately.

But getting back to the crux of my ire: what, exactly, is the purpose of undereducating our youth at the high school level, and of devaluing a college education? I mean, it used to be, even as recently as thirty years ago, that a high school diploma meant that you had the basic skills to go out and work in the world, and to singlehandedly support yourself (if not, perhaps, a family) with the proceeds from that work... and a college degree was supposed to be a step up, the key to a more specialized, possibly more lucrative career. If in today's world a college degree is the bottom rung, the minimum requirement even for jobs paying less than $10 per hour, then what, pray tell, becomes the next rung? Requiring everyone to spend $50,000 to $100,000 or more getting a Master's degree or a PhD in order to make a measly $25,000 a year? And if we start expecting that, then aren't we really just creating a permanent underclass of poverty-stricken serfs from those who, for reasons of financial constraint or family obligations or simply not being cut out to spend until age twenty-whatever in the halls of academia, simply never will acquire an advanced degree?

I want to know who is behind this trend, and what their real purpose is, because it smells.

Click on the image below to be taken to the full-sized comic:



Keith Robinson rocks. Hard and hilariously.

Specifically, Cleveland Indians baseball. Which needs to get better, NOW.

Went to my first game of the season yesterday with my friend Jeff. Indians rallied in the 9th, then managed to still lose the game by 1 run. Memo to Eric Wedge: you're supposed to work the bugs out in spring training, not the first two weeks (or more) of the regular season. Either get this through your head, or go coach in the minors and let someone who knows what he's doing take charge of the Tribe.

Bleh.

A necklace and earrings set I made the other day...

One view:


Another view:

Penny Arcade

This. Yes. Yes!

Just go and read it. You know you want to.

(Blame stargatedragon.)

ETA: By the way, the link is NSFW, in part but not only because your coworkers may look at you strangely as you snort various ingestible substances from your nose while reading it. No, it's not quite lubeck -quality, but I bet he'll be amused by it.

Apparently, Earth just had a near-miss from an asteroid about the size of the one that struck the Tunguska region of Siberia a century ago. According to this AP story, the asteroid, known as 2009 DD45, whizzed past Earth at about 48,800 miles distance early on Monday, or only about twice the altitude of some of our telecommunications satellites, or around one-fifth of the way to the moon.

Yeesh.

Although we're not scheduled for a closer visit from any of the known celestial objects in near-Earth orbit until 2029 when an 885-foot asteroid called 99942 Apophis (cue Stargate SG-1 theme music) comes within 20,000 miles of Earth, I for one would feel a heck of a lot more secure about the future of civilization if we had not only a complete catalogue of  said objects, but also a well-constructed plan for dealing with any that look to come close enough to do real damage.