New Year....New Possibilities????

Anyway, it's the New Year, and a new decade (though, it's a new decade every moment, isnt it?).

I try to advoid using the word "resolution/s" b/c it makes me feel I am obligated to do something, and if I end up either not doing it or falling short of the inteded goal, I feel like a total failure/loser....well being more of one than usual.

This is what I intend to do for the forthcoming year:

1. Drink more water. You can never drink too much of it!
2. Get off at a further Metro stop from work.
3. Get coffee at work rather than the box store (or if I have time, make it at home and bring it with me)
4. Actually apply to FT jobs that I would enjoy doing and know I'm qualified to do
5. Take dance lessons. The Venetian Waltz strikes my fancy.
6. Regularly do tarot
7. Socialize more! Maybe I can find that "someone special" - but I'm just wanting to socialize more.
8. Visit more of the free stuff DC has to offer
9. Build upper body and core strength
10. Stretch!

Tuesday Ten - Bring it!

Ok, I'm getting into the idea of doing something like a 10-list every Tuesday. Gets me on here and writing.

Speaking of which, with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) ending not TOO long ago, I thought of listing a few novels/books I've enjoyed reading (and continue to enjoy rereading for some!):

1. The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan.

This series is a love/hate relationship. I enjoy reading it, but the copious amount of details in the series can be a little mind-numbing at times (but in the same hand, when there is a "lack" of detail....). It's a sci-fi fantasy that deals with the everlasting battle of "good" vs "evil" with some romance thrown in. Over all I like the series.

2. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Even though this is a "kid" or young adult series, I found it to be a good read. What I thought was nifty, was the the way the series was written. Something along the lines of age appropriateness? As in, starting of "easy" and (when they were being published) aged with the audience, (more details/etc). I've always been interested in reading about wizardry, sorcery, and other similar sci-fi books.

3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

I read this book recently and couldn't put it down! Its a historical fiction book, about Dinah (one of Joseph's children). It deals with a switch from a matriarchal to patriarchal society, and touches briefly on the role of women have changed. But beyond that deep and philosophical whatever. I really enjoyed this book.

4. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

A light romance novel. Has some fantasy thrown in as well. I would definitely recommend this one. The whole axis of the novel revolves around a family's apple tree.


5. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, Talking to Dragons)

Granted, this too is a young adult/kids book, but I really do like the fantasy genre and this is written well. I was surprised to find out that the supposed 4th book in the series was written first and the other 3 books were written as prequels. Who knew?


6. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (the No Fear Shakespeare version)

This is my FAVORITE play to watch and also, I really enjoy reading it! (no surprise there) What's nice about the No Fear Shakespeare versions of the plays and the sonnets is that you can get the "orig." text and modern English of the same text on opposing pages. Very nice!


7. Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd

Granted, with the self-help/diy books one can become too over enthused about things. But I like this book b/c it allows you to make an informed decision and have access to alternatives of daily life (from household cleaners to laundry detergent, etc). Definitely a good resource/starting point.


8. Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

Oh another romance novel! I particularly liked this one b/c not only was it a romance novel, it involved knitting! Enough said.


9. The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, Battle of the Labyrinth)

A young adult series, who's premise revolves around the Greek gods and their demigod/mortal kids. Enjoyable if you like your Greek lore and enjoy a light adventure story.


10. Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie

What is it with the romance novels, eh? Well, they're can be addictive and highly enjoyable. A nice book about how someone later in life can find romance and have a love life.

Tuesday Ten - Only b/c They Have the Same First Letter

Ok. So, I'm going to highlight some blogs I like to read. Please note, this is a non-linear list.

1. Cake Wrecks is a blog I stumbled upon when I was VERY fascinated with Ace of Cakes on the Food Network (a show highlighting an unusual cake bakery in Baltimore, MD called Charmed City Cakes). The blog highlights, more often than not, cakes gone horribly wrong for one reason or another.
2. The Tipsy Baker is a good blog about food. I found this little gem when I was listening to NPR's Open Table. A mother who is cooking her way through a couple cook books and feeding the results to her family. On NPR, they were talking about the hens she is raising, the garden she has, etc. And how she's trying to use non-store bought items (i.e. using the eggs from her hens as apposed to the ones from the store). She even has a bee hive.
3. Tough Pigs is one of three Muppet based blogs I read. It's aimed at "Muppet Fans Who Grew Up". It has interviews with the different puppeteers, reviews of different Muppet things (like the one on the main page is of the Muppet Show comic book. Has little updates on different things (like Miss Piggy's appearance on the Wendy William's show)
4. Post Secrets. 'Nuf said. Well, a little more about it. A guy in Germantown, MD, about 5 years ago, started having people send him their secrets, sort of as a prank/joke. Now it's a web phenomenon (or so I think). Every Sunday, the blog is updated with new secrets. Also, more often than not, Frank (the guy who does the Post Secret site), posts Saturday Secrets - a couple of secrets that don't quite make the Sunday's cut, purely for space reasons (He limits it to a certain number)
5. Mother Cake is a blog of a friend of mine. I like keeping in touch with my friends and following their blogs is a good way to keep tabs on them.
6. The Muppet Mindset is another Muppet blog I follow, and it's all about Muppets!!! *Giddy Happy Dance* This one is more of a blog than the first one. This is a little excerpt from the blog about what it does: "The Muppet Mindset is dedicated to providing in-depth reviews of Muppet products, television appearances, and more. We will also feature opinion articles, interviews, and other creative outlets for Muppet fans to enjoy."
7. The Muppet Newsflash is the final Muppet blog I follow. What that site says about itself: "This blog is dedicated to informing Muppet fans and Jim Henson enthusiasts all over the world with all the news and information that they crave and desire. "
8. Upon the Purple Moor. Like I said, sometimes it's nice to know what friends are doing via their blog. She has another blog for her stage personality, Lyrical Venus, that highlights female musicians, but more about that later.
9. It's Easy Being Alone. An interesting blog from yet another friend.
10. Lyrical Venus. Here is the blog that highlights female musicians from a friend of mine. Good stuff and good musicians.

The Thursday Ten

Hello!!!!!

I have resurected from the dead! *insert evil laugh* Oh wait, that was a couple weeks ago. *smirk*

Anyway, today is thursday. And it being a random day of things, I thought to make a list of 10 random things either about today or what ever.

Here goes.

1. It's a day that kind of makes you feel as sexy as a wet cardboard box. Seriously.
2. A person asked me (a teenage girl) why the box office was called the box office
3. One of my bra's underwires decided to pull an escape artist move. My boobs feel lopsided.
4. I busted out some of my limited Spanish to say "you're welcome"
5. Some how the ticketing system at work charged the restoration fee but somehow refunded it w/o my knowledge of it
6. Had an overwhelming feeling (VERY VERY strong, I might add) of wanting (almost needing) to snog someone
7. Was scoping out the new National Park Ranger (what little I saw of him, I liked)
8. Had an influx of German people today. Usually it's British. *shrug*
9. Wore my high heels....as in the 4.5" high heels. I'm glad I'm sitting down for most of the day. But damn, I love feeling tall.
10. Took photos of my Amigurumi Octopus at the Ford's Theatre.

It seems like it's one of those days to cuddle up with someone infront of the fireplace.

Mrs. Jones, I Must Like Them BIG!!!

I've recently discovered a Farmers Market only blocks from my work (literally 2 1/2 blocks) when I decided to go to a knitting meet up in the area one thursday. I guess it was destinay for me to discover it and discover one of vendors had some roving for sale. The last couple of Thursdays I've walked by their stall and eyed their roving but never inquired about it until today.

I am happy I did. :)

I discivered their HUGE ball of roving was only $20 for something 2-3 times the size I have found online. Granted, it's all one color, but even for a solid color it's an awesome bargain.

Thinking about it, it might be closer to 3 -4 times the size, I'm use to getting from online (typically I see 4oz of roving for $12).

Anyway, here are the photos of the ball of roving next to my head to show size.

Tuesday Ten

I saw this on another blog and thought it was kind of nifty. Basically have like a top 10 list of something once a week (or maybe once or twice a month???). Anyway. I want to try it out. I am thinking of Tuesday Ten themed style.

For today's ten, I was thinking about Fall today and why I like it.

1. The cooler weather - I love the cooler weather. This means I'm not sweating as soon as I step outside. DC is notorious with its uggy muggy weather. Also, it's allot easier to ADD layers when it gets chillier than it is to remove layers
2. There is something about the cooler weather that makes me want to knit more stuff. Maybe it's the hibernating gene?
3. The changing of colors in the tree's leaves - always inspiring.
4. I can bust out my hats and scarves I made (as well as my jackets I bought from a store) - somehow I enjoy wearing scarves and hats)
5. Tourist season essentially ends - also, at work this means selling tickets for performances vs just passing out timed tickets and repeating the same 4 words a good 1,000 times a day
6. Getting ready for Halloween (granted that's only 1/2 way through fall, but still, a great reason to like Fall)
7. Fall some how makes me feel more independent
   
8. I like how fall is a great time to be outside w/o worry of getting over heated (too easily)
9. Also, soups/stews are more appealing to eat (my mom makes soups year round it seems and during the summer, it's not they're not tasty, just it's too hot to eat)
   
10. Fall is a romantic time time of year. A time to get snugly. Here's for the best

Fair Results.

Well, I got my items back from the fair. All of them got ribbons as follows:

1. Green hat - first place


2. Matching hat & gloves - first place


3. Fish hat - fourth place


4. Fingerless gloves - honorable mention


That is all for now

County Fair 2009

It's that time of year, where the herald of county fairs appear on every babe's lips....


.......well, at least some of them.

This will be the third time I've entered in my county fair with knitted items (crocheted in the previous two). I've been lucky enough to have everything I've enter win some sort of ribbon (even if it's 6th place).

Also, it seems that every year what I enter gets smaller....either I'm knitting too much of the same or its collecting dust in a random corner.

I have one last item I "need" to finish to enter the fair this coming Friday.

Anyway. I had gotten some of the new Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool colors: Oatmeal, Maple Tweed (their Natures Brown with a thread of their Natural running through it), and Oak Tweed (their Natural with a thread of their Natures Brown running through it).

I am planning on making a couple Morgan's from Knitty's Fall 2008 online pattern collection - at least one in each color. I'm thinking x-mas gifts for the brothers and the dad.

That is all for now.

*I like my men like I like my coffee.......COVERED IN BEES*

*Gasp* It's Another One!

Holy Cow!

It's another knitter's contest!

This one's a little more involved, but just as worth it.

Darcy's Knotty Knitter is a sauve blog that's giving away 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn (one's green color and the other one is yellow) AND a new sock pattern! Nifty stuff in my book.

You can have up to five (yes FIVE) chances to win!

Check out the blog post about the nifty contest that ends midnight of July 12th! Make sure you let them know who sent ya!

Love y'all!

Wandering Cat Studio

I stumbled upon this blog called the Wandering Cat Studio and discovered they were having a contest! Cute little blog. :) Anyway, they have some nummy stuff on their Etsy site, Wandering Cat Yarns that you should check out.

The rules are:
1. Check out their Etsy store
2. Leave a comment on their blog post
3. Blog about in in your own blog!


So simple!

Contest ends midnight of July 13th and winners will be announced/contacted on July 1q4th.
Enjoy everyone!

Extreme Herding

Ok. This was too cute to pass up (thanks to the girls in my knitting group who brought this up).

This is extreme herding (or maybe too much time on one's hands)

Hammer Time!

I've always been a little fascinated by flash mobs. This one is no exception! The following is a video of people in Hammer pants doing a flashmob in an LA store somewhere.

Crop Circles Creatures

Crop circles seem to be of interest to a fair number of people across the globe.

This one is no exception. Well, it's probably the exception to your normal crop circle.

You see, it's a Jellyfish. Yes, that's right, a jelly fish crop circle.

Check it out here.

Desires

This sort-of/kind-of a cross post from my other blog (Do, Live, Feel) in only that I'm posting my desires of what I want.

My theory is that the more I put my desires out there, the more likely I'm going to attract what I want to me.

Here's my bucket list per se:

1. Have a car that runs on Biodiesel (and where I can make my own fuel from vegitable oil from my local fast food joint)
2. Be in a long-term relationship / get married (I put both of them on the same goal line b/c marriage is a long-term relation ship, just the title of attachment changes)
3. Have a kick-ass Full-Time job that gives me the flexibility to work when and how I want, and that includes great medical, dental and eye health care, perks, and great co-workers
4. Have a place of my own (to own and not rent) - a house would be good thats far enough away from the city that I dont have the crazyness that goes with it, but close enough that I could use public transit to get in
5. Start a vision board for all of the above

Life and Times

Hrm. I don't know if it's something karmic I need to work through or if its just something in the stars (or what), but lately (well, maybe longer than lately) I've been feeling sort of at a disjunct with my life. Today especially, I feel like my life has no purpose, direction, or what ever.

I don't know if its b/c I don't have a definite long term plan for myself or what. Yes there are things I desire to have and have as goals, but with no dead line. Maybe if I have an actual timeline, things might be going better for me??? Who knows.

It would be great to be married by the time I'm 30 (granted it would be just as totally awesome to even get a date, but marriage would be even cooler), have my own place (own, not rent), have a full-time job I love doing that has benefits (like health care, dental, etc), be at the point where it's only my student loans as my only debt, have a new fuel efficient car and have it be 100% paid for (it'd be cool if it could run on biodiesel, so that way I could get my gas for free, granted I would need to have a system set up to convert the vegetable oils into biodiesel), and so on and so forth.

In terms of a job, I want it to be fairly flexible as to what I do, and how I set up my schedule (i.e. if I'm suppose to put in a 40 hr work week, I could do 12 hrs one day and 4 the next, or what ever).

*le sigh* I am just hoping and praying that it's something karmic I'm working through and everything will be better (emotionall and financially) for me VERY VERY soon.

I should probably be doing a vision board to help me with this. Even if it means drawing on it with markers or what ever (instead of just waiting to get photos from magazines or newspapers).

Well, blogging about it does help me feel a little better, but it's definately not the end solution.

Interesting commercial

I remember seeing this Prius commercial on TV recently and wondered how they did it. The scenery the car "drives' by is completely made up of humans. Whether they were dressed up to look like grass, trees, flowers, etc, it was really well done.

This Youtube video shows how the commercial was done and showing the end result at the end of it.

The Case of the Jumping Cat....

I saw this and thought it was too cute not to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdhLQCYQ-nQ

Song Around the World

This was on Yahoo!'s main page as a Viral video. I thought it was good enough to share with you.

Playing For Change: Song Around the World | Stand By Me @ Yahoo! Video

Ping Pong Anyone???

Excessive Ping Pong Celebration @ Yahoo! Video

The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices

Sham-wow: The Musical

ShamWow Song (lyrics from Vince Offer) @ Yahoo! Video

Give Me Some Uke!

Ukulele that is.....















And finally.....

Cracks Me Up Every Time....

....for now at least

Psh....Beards.

Was looking at what videos were featured, etc, on Youtube's main page and came across the flollowing video. It's clean. It's people friendly. No blood. No Gore.

Enjoy.

Knitting Graffiti

I've "rediscovered" knitting graffiti and have been inspired.

Here are some links:
http://deputy-dog.com/2008/11/urban-knitting-worlds-most-inoffensive.html
http://knittaplease.com/ABOUT.html
http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2007/10/knitta---urban-.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/knitting-graffiti

FINALLY!!!!

I finally uploaded some photos from my camera to my computer.

Here is the GIANT Abe Lincoln that was at work (it was Abe Lincoln's 200th b-day that day)

Morris: A Life With Bells On

I was just listening to NPR and they had a program from Canada's NPR. On the program they were talking about Morris Dancing. The radio host was interviewing this guy from England about a documentry of sorts, he did on Morris dancing called "Morris: A Life with Bells On". Something I would go see in the theatre.

I found it intriguing to watch at least (various videos on Youtube).

Here are a couple of clips for your enjoyment.

Revamping and Renewal

Ok. Last year I challenged myself to do 100 hats by the end of 2008. Ambitious, yes. Fool hearty, quite affirmative.

But now, I've basically wiped the slate clean and started the challenge anew. So, hopefully by the end of February, I'll have 16 hats finished. So far, I've got one. But granted it was a little more involved since it was a fish hat.

Now that I broke the daunting task of making the first hat, I feel I can do anything! Well, more like I've got the hat thing under control and can crank out 15 more hats by the end of the month.

The hopes are that they'll be all different and unique hats. Towards the end I may fudge that rule a little to include the meaning of different including making the same hat but out of a different yarn.

WIP Where I Need to Be.

So, for those who arent in the knitting terminology know how, WIP is short for Work In Progress.

It always feels that I have at least half a dozen projects going on and a gazillion things I want to make. (Let alone the fact that my bedroom is slowly being taken over by my yarn stash).

Right now I'm knitting up a hat that was giving me problems. The orig directions seemed a little wonky when I first scanned though them, assuming that the hat, like all the other hats I've knitted from patterns, would be done in the round! I started the pattern, and the changing of the colors were giving me issues of making the change over smoothly.

I had realised that the pattern had you knit the first 3 rows in the round THEN switch to working flat (going back and forth as if on two needles as apposed to continuing in the round). I thought it was a bit poor for the designer to have you start in the round and then switch it up so soon into the pattern. At that rate, it should have been just straight up two needle pattern (non-cicrular needles) and then have you sew the seam up - you'd still have to sew a seam up in any event might as well make it all one seam.

Weird weird weird.

I am also knitting up two pairs of Fetching, fingerless gloves that has cables at the writsts and just below the knuckles (the cables make it snug enough to keep your wrist warm with out cutting off cirulation to your hand). Its more of a wrist warmer than fingerless glovess.

Also, I'm working on pair of socks (just bound on and no other progress).

I'm scheeming about knitting a vest for myself. Something that's professional enough to wear to work but can be a casual dress up vest as well.

Well enough of my ranting for the moment as I go off and print more hat patterns (as if i need more patterns! ha!)

To Us, With Love

I don't know how many people are aware of this or how many more will know b/c of my blog. But there is legislation being put forth by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA for short).

What it is, in short, is that all toys must go through testing to see how dangerous a toy is for children to play with. Granted, it is good to have standards for toys, (like all the cases/issues we've heard about the toys from China that were causing problems for kids (and I'm sure their parents) - dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick)

Here is an article from Handmade Toy Alliance (found here) about it:

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA

Who Are We?

We are not some pretend group sponsored by big companies trying to appear grassroots. We are an alliance of toy stores, toy makers and children's product manufacturers from across the country who want to preserve unique handmade toys, clothes, and all manner of children's goods in the USA.
See our faces on facebook.

The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small toy makers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $300 - $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes cloth diapers to sell online must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of children's goods that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys, clothes, and accessories made by small businesses where the owners are personally involved in the creation of their goods. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade children's products will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys and children's products. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

There is also an excellent blog about this on Mama Is.

Please help! I am sending my representatives a letter as soon as I post this.

What do you think the world needs now?

Today, the USA has sworn in it's 44th president.

Many of the news people on the TV were talking about the palpable feeling of hope and of possible change. They alluded to it being positive change (in not so many words).

It seems the world, at least the US (well, mainly my feelings), wants a change for the better, more peaceful world. A smoothing of feathers to enable the first steps towards peace.

That's what I think the world needs now. A reality, an existence, that is a bit more peaceful.

Granted, that doesn't mean we have to agree with each other 100% of the time. Just something where we can live our lives with out hurting others or having ourselves or our loved ones hurt (emotionally, mentally, or physically). Life with out fear.

Yes, contrast allows us to know what we like, milkshakes vs black coffee, hot summer days vs cold winter nights, so on and so forth. Without contrast, we wouldn't be able to evolve and grow as humans, regardless what path we walk.

With the swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th president, the feeling of things being righted has been renewed in me. That things are back on the right track, at least for this country. But we will see how things pan out. Sometimes things or events don't pan out the way we want them, initially at least, or as quickly as we would like them to. It is a bit of an uphill battle for President Obama to efficiently execute the changes we need, but I feel things will unfold as they are needed.

A Second Christmas!!!!

Ok. Today I came home to a package of stuff that I had bought trough ebay. I was so excited! Like a second x-mas. The package contained 22 circular knitting needles (1 pair of 11 different sizes - this makes things easier/simpler for me to knit - like socks or mittens, things that usually require pair of something - so they are the same tension and i can make the same changes in the exact same spot on each item).

My dad didnt know what I had gotten and from the way they were packaged, he kept ranting and hooting that I had gotten a dildo in the mail. (Granted it did come in a simular shape to what a dildo may look like packaged).

My mom was giving him dirty looks from the phone call she was on with one of my dad's good friends from childhood.

But part of the reason why I was so happy about the needles, I figured out that I had spent less that $1/needle ($.91/needle to be exact), INCLUDING shipping (shipping was free, but still....)

*does a happy butt dance*

And the Winner is.....

Turtle!

Congrats!
I'll be contacting you via e-mail soon

All the stories were good ones! Thank goodness for Random.Org!

Deadline Tomorrow!

Ok. The last day to enter for my blog contest is TOMORROW!!!

Yep. Wednesday, Jan 14th is the last day to enter my contest (to get specific - 11:59:59pm EST on Jan 14th is the latest latest one can enter).

Contest Reminder!

Remember the contest ends on Jan 15th! You have a week left to enter!!!!

Contest can be found here!!!

Current Projects

Ug. I guess this goes hand in hand with the "Ambition" post.

But it always feels like I have at least 10 projects going on (as in actually on knitting needles) and at least double that of what I have planned/want to do!

Right now I have:

1. An endless granny square afghan (purple hues - an on again, off again love affair)
2. A seemingly endless wool sweater (which has been hibernating in the closet since forever)
3. A smattering of small projects (including chap stick cozies)
4. Fingerless gloves for a belated x-mas gift
5. Fingerless gloves for a birthday gift
6. Hat for belated x-mas gift

And that's just the short list

Ambition

Why is it that I always want to do more than what I can do? AND that I still think I can do it all?

I dont know. It baffles me.

Animagus

I was researching blog topics one day (included in that search was writing and journal topics as well), and this was one of the topics: What kind of animal would you like to be and why? It made me think of the Harry Potter series and a select few in that reality that could change themselves into another animal/creature.

In the past I gave this topic some thought and came up with a short list of different animals I might enjoy being - real and possibly imaginary.

Here's my short list:

1. Ladybug
2. Bear (either Grizzly or Brown - mood depending)
   
3. Otter
4. Griffin
5. Phoenix
   
6. Fox
7. Giraffe
8. Hippogriff
   
9. Jaguar
10. Kangaroo

Some of them (those beyond #5) were some that I have thought about in more of a fleeting thought than anything else (the top 5 are the top 5 simply b/c they're the ones I think about the most).

I would say that the Ladybug and Bear are almost interchangeable in terms of personal preference. I've sort of had a fascination with ladybugs pretty steadily for ages (it would be apart of a tattoo if I was going to get one) and the bear - but a little less.

I dont know if its possible for someone in Harry Potter's world to be able to change into more than one animal (from what I understand, it's hard enough to be able to change oneself into ONE thing to begin with). But heres to wishful thinking.

Worldly Travels

I wish I had the chance to go back to Greece again and to see more of England. While I'm in England, it would be nice to see Ireland and Scotland to boot.

It would be fun to spend at least a month in each place I go (roughly 5 months including travel time). Getting to explore a specific region more in detail.

I hear CouchSurfing.com is a website to find inexpensive lodging. Granted, I've never tried this website nor do I know how "safe" it is. Though a couple people (indirectly) greatly recommended using this site for one reason or another. Also, I dont know if it's limited to one continent or if its international.