accomplishing things

This blog's been sitting here unused and paid for, so I might as well use it.

After a series of eye-opening events over the past few months, I have realized that 1. I am not doing a whole lot, and 2. I am not doing a whole lot for myself. Fortunately, I want to do things, and I want to do things for myself, so these problems are easily remedied. In theory. Just getting around to doing things has always been a problem of mine. I've decided to use this blog to keep track of things I accomplish, no matter how trivial, in hopes that people will read it, thereby embarrassing me into accomplishing more.

Today, I think the most exciting thing I accomplished was... well, if there's some technical term for it I don't know what it is, but I stuck a bunch of seeds in some little pod thingies, courtesy of my mother. I picked them up at our local Ace Hardware because I liked the picture on the front. The seeds will turn into striped "jolly jester" marigolds, presumably through some kind of witchcraft and magic.


I'll let you know how that goes. They should start sprouting in 4-10 days, upon which time I'm meant to put them somewhere sunny, set the lid at a jaunty angle to allow air in, and then ask my mother what to do next because she knows more about plants than I do.

I've also composed a short mental list of things I want to accomplish, probably over this summer:
-learn some violin, using my oldest brother's student violin that doesn't tune very well
-learn how to knit so I can knit a Doctor Who scarf (my mother once tried to teach me how to knit and I unknitted what she'd started for me)
-practice the piano more
-take more pictures, because I have a nice camera sitting around that I don't use often enough (maybe I'll get an Eye-Fi card so those pictures actually make it onto the computer)

I think that's it for today. Oh, except for my 'virtual accomplishment', as I've affectionately labeled them. I unlocked all of the levels in Formula Racer. I mention this because I'm trying to spend less time accomplishing nothing, which is essentially what playing online games is. I try to justify it by saying it's good brain exercise. Usually it isn't. It could be worse, at least - it could be Farmville.

downtown (and 100 posts!)

It's my 100th post! Have I really done 99 posts? I need to stop neglecting this blog. I went downtown recently to take pictures for the Discover Gloucester travel guide (yeah, that site's a bit bare) and here are some highlights.



Down near the docks at the Maritime Heritage Center. I have no idea what it is but it looks rather out-of-use.



This is Fitz Henry Lane's old house/studio. It was built around 1850, which I think is remarkable. And it's Fitz Henry Lane, not Fitz Hugh Lane, which is how a lot of people erroneously refer to him.



Back near the docks at the Maritime Heritage Center (which is actually but a few steps from where I took the above picture). There's a lot of old stuff down there. Anchors and buoys and metal things whose purposes I have yet to discover, besides looking artsy and sad and illustrating the decline of the fishing industry here. I might go sneak back and take pictures when the lighting is better (or, even better, bring my own lighting - how fancy).



This is terrifying, isn't it? His name escapes me, but I believe he's a vintage... thing that blows up balloons. If there's a better name for that, I'm not aware of it.



He's less terrifying from a distance. You can find this guy at Mark Adrian Shoes in Gloucester, which doesn't seem to have a website, so there's their page on Yelp.



Saw this on a door downtown, near Bananas (one of my favorite places in this town, a vintage clothing store). Isn't that the Illuminati symbol? Lady Gaga is an Illuminati pawn, you know. I know it's true because I read it on the internet.



A beautiful painted window down at Local Colors, which is a great store downtown that showcases and sells art by local artists. I'm afraid I didn't make a note of who made this.

They have all sorts of things down at Local Colors - paintings, photographs, stained glass things to put in windows, jewelry - if you're looking for a gift for someone, don't go up the line, just swing by Main Street and stop here. You'll find some beautiful, funky thing, and you'll be supporting local artists!

Some of my favorite stuff at Local Colors is done by Tin Can Sally, whose website doesn't appear to completely reflect her work, as she does a lot more than just plates for light switches and outlets. You can find anything from bracelets to earrings to clocks made of vintage tin containers.





(I too contain chocolate right now.)





How cool is that? Come on, how can you not love that stuff. Much better gift than some cheap plastic jewelry from Claire's, right?

As always, you can see more of my photos here at my Flickr photostream. You can see the rest of the photos from this trip downtown in the set here.

things we found at my great-uncle's house

There were a bunch of company-specific cook books (an orange juice company, Arm & Hammer baking soda, Crisco) and a few regular cook books, all from the 20s, 30s, and 40s.





No idea what those parking tokens are for. I didn't notice the science emblem until I'd taken the first picture.

clearing off the memory card

Four copies of my book sold at the Cormorant Shop downtown. I nearly cried (happy tears!) when I heard.

At work

“You sell bathing suits, right?”

“No, sorry.”

“(looks upset, points to an oil painting of a beach on the wall) But this is the beach."

- a customer and I.

On that note, the customer is not always right.

cloud watching

Finally, finally, finally, my book 'cloud watching' is available for sale. You can purchase it here. It should be up on Amazon.com within the week.

because I need to update this more often

This is from a game at the bowling alley.



Swinging on the rope swing over the winter.



Pleasant Street Tea Company.



I have a habit of getting a croissant and dark hot chocolate there (no matter the season).

Free: PC + monitor, television, printer, flatbed scanner, CD player w/ 5-disc changer (for pickup)

Just head on down to Dogtown Common. First come, first serve.

Jell-O

To whomever placed the Jell-O in my mailbox:

Thank you for making my day.

I love you.

<3

Important questions

(from Wiki.Answers.com)

"Where can you cheat on algebra 2 Chicago math?"

"What is different about nepal?"

"Should women play hard to get?"

"Can you give me three sentences with abstract noun?"

"Who is the current batman?"

"That is so unfair my sis has the iphone so unfair lol?"

Finally: Part Two

Here's a few photos from my January 11th trip to New York.



As soon as I sat down on my hospital bed, I heard talking. No, yelling. No...chanting. I went to the window and was quite surprised to see there was a protest going on. It explained the many groups of police my friend and I passed on the way to the hotel.



The building across from the hotel (with my reflection in the window, which was unfortunately unavoidable).

Sam and I went to the giant Toys'R'Us, where there were Lego sculptures and superheroes hanging from the ceiling and a giant Ferris wheel.



Oh, and GIANT animatronic dinosaurs.



Sam and I went to Juniors before the show (Spamalot) and I tried cheesecake from the first time. I know...I know. It was good, but way too rich for me to finish (and we only had one piece for the two of us).



One of the last photos I took outside Spamalot. My friend and I attended the closing show, where we saw (among others) Clay Aiken, Eric Idle, and David Hyde Pierce. I shook hands with David Hyde Pierce! It was awesome.

On another note, I've been in a funk about posting to my blog and I promise I'll post more, starting tomorrow! I've got plenty of photos to post.

Finally!

My apologies for the massively long absence - I've been so busy traveling and loving 2009 that I haven't had time to update. On January 7th, myself and a Broadway-enthusiast friend of mine went to see one of the last performances of Gypsy on Broadway starring Patty LuPone. I took plenty of pictures.



Leaving Gloucester at 5:00 AM. The show was at 2:00 PM and we were getting tickets at the box office, so we had to get there early.



Astonishingly, a lot of people take the 5:00 AM train to Boston on a Wednesday. I did not know this.



Here's a sneaky shot from our seats. Didn't want the ushers to take my camera away.



After the show (since we had a few hours 'til our bus back to Boston), my friend and I went to Juniors, a restaurant steps away from Gypsy that apparently has the best cheesecake in New York, or possibly the world. I would not know, having - wait for it - never tried cheesecake in my life. As seen above, instead of bread for an appetizer, we got...I'm not even sure what it is, and I didn't feel like finding out.



We split a grilled cheese (since it was $9!) and a side of fries. It was a very filling and delicious grilled cheese. As you can see, the bread was very thick.

I hesitate to post the rest of the pictures (I really did take a lot) because most of them include my friend and I should probably get permission before I put her face on the internets for everyone to see.

Oh, one last picture from the day (er, night):



My friend slept over when we got back and the power went out (and came on) maybe three or four times. I kept lighting and blowing out candles. I got this little lantern at IKEA and was dying to use it.

Coming soon: my other trip to New York and...various assorted other things!

Trojan again

My apologies...again...about the lack of updating. That trojan we had and thought we got rid of, well, turns out it just went into hiding and now it's back. Dad's working to get rid of it and in the meantime, I'm stuck with a laptop without a card reader.

Expect photos of my Wednesday trip to New York, once the PC starts working.

New Year's Eve and the sunrise

For New Year's Eve:



My mother re-decorated the tree for the new year.



We ate Chinese food.



I played with the cat and got some horrifying action shots.



Yeah, you get that thing, Mistoffelees!

My oldest brother suggested I try to take a neat photo of the fire. After about 500 tries and him messing with the controls (I really should read the manual) I managed to snap this:



Much thanks to my Gorillapod for holding the camera still and all that.

In other news, it's 2009.

What? Huh? It didn't even occur to me on New Year's Eve. I was too busy thinking about celebrating New Year's Eve that I didn't even think "oh, right, we're counting down to 2009, not just because counting down is fun".



The second sunrise of 2009.



I could've gone up to the roof deck to get a better angle but it's probably ten degrees out so I'm thinking maybe not.