Taking numbers

This past weekend I went down to Gotheburg to cheer on/at/for my eldest sister who was partaking in her very first ½ marathon. Dunno if there's a proper word for that distance *scratches head* Anyway. The plan was to stand somewhere along the way and cheer as she passed by. Younger sister would take on the role of #1 (*giggles at Star Trek reference*) assistant while I and the elder sister had in mind to position ourselves near the finish line.

But let's start at the beginning of the day so you guys'll get an idea of how the day went. Because I'm trying to make an effort with this post here >.> Gotta work on my sluggishness when it comes to getting around to doing things and doing them more than half-assed!

My sister was set to start roughly 4 in the afternoon, so I hopped on a train to Gothenburg around 1 o'clock. Had to switch trains once which forced me to wait 40 minutes for the connecting train. No biggie. The only setback with the ride was a group of youngsters who I'm guessing had been to a party during the night and was now on their way to another one. They weren't rowdy by any means but there was constant sounds from them. For example, two girls spent quite some time with a "I'll sing and you guess the song" game. It would've been fun to listen to if they'd picked good songs >.>

Upon arrival in Gothenburg dad called and suggested, through very bad reception, a route to get to my elder sisters' apartment. I managed to find the right tram station pretty fast, though getting to it was a challenge in itself since the road was blocked off for the runners.... Called dad in hopes of finding out how he'd gone about getting around. Bad reception and no real insight had my anxiety rising a notch or two... Thankfully there was a helpful functionary on hand to explain how to get across. "Across" meaning a good 10 minute detour going in a large half circle (which was actually more like a bent ellipse) o.O

Following that hurdle was knowing which tram number to catch.... and in which direction, since many had been re-directed due to the event xD Another phone call with dad (with more "I can't hear you!" from me) had me somewhat more confident that I'd be able to reach my destination but it wasn't until my stop was called out that the feeling of "phew" settled.

Though seeing a rad marching band playing sweet tunes helped me feel better, because it reminded me of many people around theOtaku, lol. (There was a lot of music played live in various places. Cool idea to keep the runners going.)

Dad met me at the stop and we walked up to the apartment. The sister had gone out to cheer on an acquaintance so she wasn't there but her cats were!!! .... And I now realize I don't know where my camera is. Or wait, I do. Can't be bothered to upload the photos right now. Or maybe it'll get done somehow later... Bah. Tomorrow! zzzzzzz.....

So yeah. Said hello to the sleeping kitties, sent dad off with my camera so he could hopefully snap a picture of the running sister at an earlier point, then hung at the computer playing Solitaire Mahjong until the elder sister came back. Though the younger sister managed to get there before her, haha. She had some time to kill before heading to the finish line and the three of us sat down to look at photos of my jewelry, with me picking their brains on how to price the stuff. Right now I'm gonna stick with selling directly to people* in an attempt to probe the market, if you will. Then we'll see about looking into some kind of internet operation :p

* ie, to people at mom's workplace, friends of my sisters and if anyone here is interested ^^;

Then it was finally time to go cheer on the mad woman sprinter sister. Younger sister made her way to the finish line, while I and the elder sister + her boyfriend assumed the waiting position where we'd calculated she'd run past and waited. Dad was on his way over, thinking he'd be able to make it there in time to snap a photo, but he never made it. Scouring the mass of people flushing past us we were first side-tracked by two friends of my sisters and then some woman in front of me decided to pick up her kid and rock back/forth, essentially blocking my view completely. And just as I turned to my sister to complain I hear her boyfriend shout "Hey!! Over here!!".

........ Yep. I missed her by a split second -.-;;

It took some time to get over the bitterness of going through an ordeal for what amounted to slightly more than nothing but then I realized that it didn't matter too much that I didn't see her. Important thing was that she knew we were cheering her on /sap

The very uphill climb back prolonged that thought, though >.> It's something like a 30 degree incline. It also felt kind of awkward waiting around in the apartment since the sister who lives there had invited people over for a get-together. My poor brain wasn't quite up to the jumble of events >.> Other two sisters showed up (the sprinting one showing off her battle scars (bleeding ankles o.O) before hitting the shower) and then it was more or less time for dad and me to hit the train back home.

Because there was such a vast amount of people, coming in and out of town for the half marathon, the train company had attached a second train to the one we were going on. Going down the cars it looked pretty filled up everywhere but we got some nice seats with a decent group of people. No screaming kids or annoying drunks *bliss* Talked with dad during the ride, surprising myself by actually partaking in conversation about math xD!!! It was more about mathematicians working on Pythagoras and Fermat's theorems than the usual "hey daughter here's a problem how do you solve it lol?" though, otherwise I'd cut him short >.>

We got home in one piece (and with my sanity intact despite having subjected it to math for a longer period of time!), got some grocery shopping done before the store closed and happily settled into our dwelling shortly after 10 in the evening. The End :p

This has been a messy post and I'll make up for it tomorrow with pictures of the kitties and a gift dad got me :o

Cut! Let's do another take.

I wonder how much my eyesight has worsened in the past couple of weeks xD Many intense hours at the crafts table must've caused my oogles some misery, surely. Added to that is the constant re-taking of photos, trying to capture the necklaces best I can. Which is really hard when you don't know what you're doing :< Dad found the missing part to our tripod so hopefully that'll help me get some sharper results!

Printing said pictures from the home printer is hit-and-miss. It's also costly if you make mistakes. Thusly I've looked into the nifty idea of a photo book. There was a display with a few sizes in the shop where my would-be id card was taken (turns out it had to be done at the police station because the bank in this town is a branch-off from the one I'm registered with, lawl) and after looking into the specs it's really coming off as the best idea to physically display my stuff. Besides, it's more fun to flip through a book than a stack of photos, eh?

Aside from the aesthetic aspect I've tried my hardest to put prices on everything. Mom was nice enough to go through almost all of the backlog with me and give her opinion and hopefully the siblings will all be in the same place on Saturday so's they can give me theirs. It's always good to sound off with at least a handful of people to see if your financial take is feasible, amirite?

Speaking of finances, it seems my income will turn out more humane shortly. A lot of people have found themselves without jobs lately (poor Volvo peeps) so it's taken a long time to get my unemployment aid application looked at. I've not been able to pay full rent to the parental unit since February (something that doesn't sit right with me at all) and it's really a relief to have things fall into place piece by piece ^_^

Parting thought: Katana's buddy is hawt >.>
(I'm not being illegal saying that, right?)

Mo!

Long time, no post! ... nor commenting *ashamed* Sorry about that! ^_^;

Let's see here now. What's happened since last.... Well, mom and Eleine came back from NY. Long story short, my sister sadly phailed to take care of mom and while there were glimpses of good things, most of it were negative. Poor mama was pretty much shell shocked by the experience so I devoted 101% of my focus to her over the first couple of days. The trip had roughed her up pretty bad physically, too, resulting in me doting on her 24/7. Which I totally didn't mind. Spoiling loved ones is something I take great pride in ^_^;

Now she's better and back to work so I've re-charged my batteries somewhat. Been making lots of new necklaces, totally surprising myself by feeling very pleased with the latest group of newcomers xD! Sometimes you just get on that ball whilst it's rolling jolly across the wheat fields :p

I uploaded some of the older stuffs (ear rings only) not too long ago, prompting me to ponder how to go about posting my creations. It's frustrating to have a limit on photos, especially since it can go quite some time between "photo sessions". Another thing is the inconvenience of having to go back and forth between posts to see everything. I'll look into it some more, possibly resorting to ImageShack's slide show thingy in the mean time.

Aside from doing a visual inventory of my back log I've also calculated their individual manufacturing costs O.o;; That took me a while, haha. It was interesting as well as enlightening. Now I just need to figure out what their 'retail price' should be. Kinda tricky since my stuff is nigh impossible to compare against what they've got in boutiques.

What do you guys reckon would be a fair percentage or # of dollars to add to the manufacturing costs?

Sudden end of post :O!

Commence lazy anime post

Ok, so there are a ton of new shows I'm trying out and since everyone else is talking about which ones they've seen... so will I! The title of this post should be pretty indicative of on how in-depth things will run :p

(Pstt! Shinmaru's place is where you want to go for quality writing, my friends.)

*****

Asura Cryin' - On the fence about this one. I'll give it an episode or two more but for some reason it reminds me of Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (the art, possibly? O.o) and that immediately put a bad taste in my mouth >.>

Basquash! - This one looks to be a lot of fun and the boob-boing is so ridiculous it doesn't even bother me, lol. It has the same kind of vibe as Gurren Lagann so obviously it's appealing.

Cross Game - Not too sure about this one. Nothing really speaks against it but it doesn't compel me to feel excited about it either. But it's interesting enough to warrant a few more episodes.

Hanasakeru Seishounen - The premise sounds like fun and Li Ren is pwetty :3

K-ON! - YES. Definitely a keeper. It feels like a mix between Hyakko! and Manabi Straight! (I enjoyed both) and with only 13 episodes it's short enough to hopefully maintain a leveled quality until the end.

Natsu no Arashi! - Time travel is fun. Although I'm not too drawn to this one. However, it's not like it'd steal/waste too much of my attention if I stick with it :p

Pandora Hearts - O.o It's intriguing for sure. Very much so. Gonna keep up with this one.

Ristorante Paradiso - This show reminds me of Bartender, both in art and general feel, so I was instantly drawn to it. I also found Nicoletta's bold move at Claudio awesome! xD Wonder how this one will go, fufufufufufu >.>

Shangri-La - Oooooo, pretty. Great characters xD Another keeper ^_^

*****

The only two shows still on my "to watch list" are Eden of the East and Valkyria Chronicles, which I'll get to sooner or later. There's been a lot to see ^_^;

Ronery?

Soooooo. On April 1st my mother and eldest sister flew off to New York. Since they chose that particular day I couldn't post about it since it'd just come off as a prank ^_^;

They were planning on going somewhere together, with the initial plan for it to be somewhere sunny and warm, but then Eleine finally realized a life long ambition and got off to NY last year, rendering her incapable of thinking of going anywhere else. Mom decided to be a good sport, so back in November they booked a flight.

I was tempted to tag along, only to make sure mom was looked after (yes, I'm overprotective of my mom/rest of the family >.>) since ... well, Eleine's been pretty much focused on what she wants to get done while they're there (she's gonna look for a teaching job, for one) and it all looked like it'd be a trip geared towards Eleine mostly/entirely, with mom tagging along. Hopefully Eleine'll step up to the plate and think beyond herself.

[PS: It's incredibly strange to think mom and I aren't even on the same continent....]

So other than trying to think positively on mom's big journey I've been having interesting dreams lately. In one I was (once again) in Canada, hooking up with James and Alexa. We just hung around in different places, having a great time, leaving me very disappointed when I woke up xD In another one I dreamt that I had to pay $565 in unpaid taxes but once my envelope came in the mail (for real, that is) it turned out I'd get roughly that amount back :O!

And then there was the one where the Jonas' Brothers showed up O_O I blame that one on the Yahoo Gossip page.

In the jewelry department I've made 7 new necklaces and have run out of toggles/clasps so, unless I make really long ones, further creations will have to wait for now. Speaking of the most recent creations, there were these purple beads that irked me due to the way they didn't seem to quite match or work with anything else I had (and who wants to admit they bought something useless, eh?) BUT once the idea of making something pretty with them was abandoned I managed to make a kitschy thing, not entirely to my disliking xP It looks bad enough to have the potential to look decent. Maybe. You guys will have to judge on that once I get around to taking photos of them. Which won't be until mom gets home because she's borrowing a new camera I bought and Eleine has my other one ^_^;

*slaps face* Oh man, I forgot to write Liam a letter today .... again ._. Poor guy has had to wait far too long for me to get on top of that >.>

Ehem. Dad and I will be going to Gothenburg next week to hang with the rest of the family, maybe do some shopping and that's about all I have to throw into this post :D

Disjointed but not broken, this has been a Mimmi post :3