Ramblins

I don't even remember when I wrote this, but I think it was sometime in high school. Came across it while going through some old files and thought I'd share.

The text of the poem is copied below for those with visual disabilities.

Ramblins

You may as well be wonderin'

Why this rose is here.

Well, I ain't gonna tell ya

If you're guessin' very near.

So you might just as well go home

And leave me to myself.

For I am very tired and

Would like at least a shelf.

-Darcy Smittenaar

Hi, it's been a while. Not sure if anyone's following me or not, but...

 Crafty people of the world, please take my survey!

Have you ever made anything by hand? What was it?

I am a great proponent of learning to make things by hand.  Often, things made by hand are better quality and last longer, because of the maker’s attention to detail and potential weaknesses.  I have made a couple of wooden storage boxes by hand, as well as knitted products such as sweaters, socks, gloves and hats.  I even knitted myself a dress once.  There have been various plastic canvas and cross stitch projects, and when I was younger, my grandma helped me to make a short-legged, short-sleeved jumpsuit.  When I write, I prefer to do a draft by hand, especially for fiction, before revising and typing up the story.  Maybe one day, I’ll be able to build an airplane or something from a kit.  I wonder if there’s such a thing as a motorcycle kit, or if I could just build one out of my imagination.

How do you feel about diets? Have you ever tried one? Did it work for you or did it backfire?

A “diet” is the combination of the types of foods someone eats and the amount they eat of each type.  Even eating junk food and ice cream is a diet.  It’s a bad one, but it’s still a diet.  Each different diet has a purpose.  There are diets to help someone lose weight—or to gain it—diets to help build muscle, diets that include or eliminate a certain type of food, and diets that only include one type of food.

That said, I have never tried a specific, named diet, like vegetarianism or the Atkins Diet, but I have tried to keep track of an adjust my own generic diet to try and lose some of the extra fat on my body.  It would probably work better if I actually used enough self-discipline to stick to that plan though.

Would you ever sign a prenuptial agreement? Would it upset you?

A lot of people think that prenuptial agreements are defeatist and show a lack of faith in one’s partner and the potential longevity of the relationship.  I am not one of those people.  When done properly, a prenuptial agreement is a safety net.  The signers do not expect divorce, nor do they anticipate wanting it.  Instead, they plan for the possibility that—despite all of their efforts to keep a marriage together—it may still fail.

The prenuptial agreement is there to help them avoid some of the heartache involved in the allocation and separation of assets during a divorce.  It is done before the marriage is solemnized so that the agreement on the necessary terms is made while the couple is still in love and wanting to provide for each other as well as themselves, whereas in most divorces in which a couple did not have a prenuptial agreement, either one or both parties tends to try and take everything from the other, or to stab them in the back to get revenge.

A prenuptial agreement can at least curtail the possibility of one partner actually getting more than their fair share of a marriage’s assets.  That is why I signed my prenup: to protect both my husband and myself from possible—if unlikely—future backstabbing.

Describe your perfect cup of coffee or tea.

Depending on my mood, I drink either tea or coffee.  The coffee, whether hot or iced, is almost always the same: no surgar and at least one ounce of half-and-half per cup of coffee.  My perfect cup of tea changes depending on what’s available, whether it’s a caffeinated or uncaffeinated tea, and the flavor of the tea itself.

The best hot tea I have ever had was the Oolong brew at Chong Yet Yin Chinese restaurant in Mount Airy, Maryland.  The lady who served it had made it nice and strong, as I like all teas, and the flavor was excellent; I would drink that tea with no additions all day long if I could.  A good, someone expensive substitute that I drink sparingly as a treat is Teavana’s Four Seasons Oolong, also without additions.

I usually drink English Breakfast with half-and-half, herbal teas containing either mint, chamomile or both with lemon juice and honey, and green tea with either lemon or nothing.  Depending on the blend, I may or may not add half-and-half, or I may try something else entirely.

I’m not a tea snob, but I do like good tea, preferably hot, though iced is good too.

Could you ever live at the beach, or do you just feel it's a place to visit?

I have only ever been to six beaches in my entire life, but that is more than enough for me to have learned that every beach is different.  Ocean City, for instance, I would not like to visit or live near, because it is too crowded and commercialized.  The two beaches I have visited in Michigan were either too cold or too full of trash to enjoy, despite their isolation.  The beach at a lake in Utah that I visited when I was seven doesn’t count as a “real” beach to me, because it was on a lake and not on the coast of an ocean or sea.  Even so, it was too crowded for my taste anyway.  Miami beach is a fine place to visit, but the large city so close by and the high price of living in that area would prevent me from wanting to live there.

Would I ever want to live at a beach?  If the circumstances—and the beach, of course—were just right, then I absolutely would love to live at a beach.  I even have the perfect beach in mind: Waihi Beach, on the eastern shore of the northern island in New Zealand.  If I could either make more than one trip back to the States to visit family and friends every five to ten years or find some way for all of them to be there with me, I would absolutely live at Waihi Beach, particularly at one of the more southern stretches, where there aren’t as many people who go there even in the summer months.  I would like to live a mile or two just south of the town of Waihi Beach itself, within a block or two of the water’s edge.

Why Waihi?  Well, the water is clear and a perfect temperature in the summertime, the people are very friendly, and it doesn’t get too cold in the winter.  Also, in the few places I have travelled outside Maryland, Waihi was the only place I have really been able to feel comfortable enough to talk to and make friends with perfect strangers.  On our honeymoon, my husband and I stayed at a small bed and breakfast in Waihi run by an older couple.  They were the nicest people I’ve ever met, and I would gladly move to Waihi Beach (as long as I could still be near family, of course) in order to be able to call Greg and Ali neighbors.

Do you think there is a secret to success? How would you describe success?

Most people describe success as making a lot of money, but I disagree.  Success is getting to the places you want to be in life, whether that means having a career, starting a family, or even just finishing a personal project or being a good parent.  Even if two people have the same goals, the steps they take and their definition of success when they accomplish those goals will most likely be different.

There is no real “secret” to achieving success either.  In other words, you can’t just do something specific, or take a shortcut that will result in success.

The real path to success has three steps.

The first step is knowing your goals.  You can’t be successful unless you know what constitutes success.

Second, you have to do your homework.  Find out what you know and what you still need to learn, or what organizations and people can help you accomplish those goals.

Finally, in order to be successful, you have to have the discipline to keep working toward your goals, learn the skills and knowledge you need, make the contacts you have to make, and—most importantly—do the work that has to be done in order to get where you want to be.

If you were to start a new business right this minute, what would it be? Describe it.

If I were to start a new business right now, it would be a home-based, online, knit goods shop.  I would need to create a business plan and figure out how much money I would need to start the shop, but the way I would do business initially would involve keeping as few supplies as possible in my house.

First, I would purchase a knitting machine and setup an online store, probably on a site like Etsy to start with.  Once business picked up, I could hire someone to design a separate website with a catalogue and shopping cart system for me, but I won’t need that to begin.  I would list off all of the products I am able to knit, and include an option for customers to get a quote on the cost for a custom item by email.

I would charge, for each item sold, an amount of money equal to the cost of the yarn and other items (buttons, zippers, etc.) used, plus a flat rate for my having to use my knitting tools and the federal minimum wage for one quarter of the number of hours it would have taken me to make the item with just my hands and knitting needles.

I would buy yarn and other supplies as needed for each new order.  When I could not fulfill orders in a reasonable amount of time anymore, I would buy a second knitting machine and hire a second person on commission to help me fulfill them.

Describe what common sense means to you.

Common sense is almost never based on fact, but is usually used to explain away "things that we've always done" as normal or more acceptable than the alternatives.  Rarely, common sense actually aligns with whatever research may or may not have been done on any given topic, and that is "good" common sense.

Often, and unfortunately usually, however, people don't bother to ask themselves why what they think is right, and will not listen to arguments against their own beliefs.  Or, they will listen to the arguments, but then respond with a completely illogical answer, such as, "My religion says it has to be this way, so you can't do it another way, even if you don't believe in the same things I believe in."

In other words, "common sense" is often neither common, nor sense.

What was that about the days of the week?

I went to Barnes and Noble last week and bought a book called 500 Writing Prompts. Every once in a while, I am going to write responses to random prompts from that book and post them on here. They won't be in any particular order except the order in which I respond to the prompts. You can find them grouped together by clicking the link at the right labeled "500 Writing Prompts."

Describe each day of the week as food.

Monday is the cold leftovers of an experimental meal that was only eaten when it was first made because there was no alternative.

Tuesday is a cold-cut sandwich, tasty but without much effort in its preparation.

Wednesday is the meal made by someone else to get you over the hump of the week.

Thursday is a hearty pasta, the comforting realization that work is nearly over for this week.

Friday is a dinner made just for you, in celebration of survival for another arbitrary span of time.

Saturday is a lazy, slow-cooked casserole, and Sunday is a four-course meal, laboriously prepared in hopes that the early effort will make the rest of the coming week less arduous.

New stories and essays!

I have added a new fan-fiction category: Doctor Who fan-fiction, and added a story to it.

Also, I have added the essays I wrote for college between Fall 2012 and the present.  Have a look if you're interested.

I may or may not have a new original short story eventually--I started writing something this past week, and I'm not sure how long it's going to get.  If it's short enough, I'll post it instead of trying to get it published.

On a similar note, the original story I was working on turned out to be a novel over 40,000 words long!  I have had it revised by a trusted advisor (Thanks, Dr. Taft!), done the necessary revision and/or rewriting, and am now working on finishing up some supplemental material (maps, timeline, lexicon, etc.) before trying to get the whole thing published.  You won't see it in any of my online accounts, but once it's published I should have copies of the book to sell, lend or give away.

Finally, I have plans to publish a book of knitting patterns, but work on that is somewhat stalled.  I've just got too much to do at the moment to do so much swatching, graphing and pattern writing.

For those of you who don't know, I have completed my Associate of the Arts degree in English/Literature from Frederick Community College.  Last November (2013), I started on a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Applied Linguistics from Ashford University.  The classes are challenging, but the work is made easier due to the fact that I only take one five-week class at a time--and it's all online.

My credits from FCC finally transferred over last month (thank goodness!), and I should receive my B.A. by the end of October 2015.  That is, unless I go for the option that AU offers--working on my Master's degree while I'm still going toward my B.A; then it'll take a bit longer, though I don't know how much.

What D&D Character Are You?

I Am A: Lawful Neutral Human Sorcerer (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-10
Constitution-11
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-12
Charisma-10

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

And because they're kind of interesting (to me, at least) here are the detailed results: Alignment: Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Law & Chaos: Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8) Chaos --- XXXXXXXX (8) Good & Evil: Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15) Evil ---- (0) Race: Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6) Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8) Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12) Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8) Half-Orc - XXXX (4) Class: Barbarian - (-27) Bard ------ (-23) Cleric ---- (0) Druid ----- XX (2) Fighter --- (0) Monk ------ (0) Paladin --- (-23) Ranger ---- (-4) Rogue ----- (-2) Sorcerer -- XXXXXXXX (8) Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6) It's good to know I don't have an evil bone in my body. Though, how I scored almost as high on Halfling as I did on Human, I have no idea. I thought I'd at least get a bit of Bard too, but woah, -23!

302

That is currently the number of photos I have taken in the Netherlands.  Tomorrow, I will have some more to add from the train stations and the airports, and hopefully the views from the planes after takeoff and before landing.

Today, I didn't leave the hostel until the "walking tour" started around eight p.m.  One of the hostel staff showed us the river and one of the bridges, and we walked over the "Walk of Fame."  I took a few pictures of the Walk, including Ray Charles's panel, as well as Johnny Cash's and someone else's--I can't remember whose though.

Around ten, I went back to the hostel and tried to call the states using Euro coins in the pay phone, but it wouldn't let me.  So I went and got my computer and called Anna via Skype before uploading the pictures from the "tour" onto Facebook.  I'll put them on my portable harddrive later--I didn't feel like bringing that downstairs again too.

Tomorrow after breakfast, I will pack up and check out of the hostel.  They store luggage for you if you ask, so before I head to the train station, I will have them store my luggage long enough for me to get some treats for everyone back home at the market on the corner.  Then, I will put that in whichever bag it will fit before heading to Rotterdam Centraal.

From there, it'll be about an hour's train ride to Shiphol, where I will check in, check my suitcase, and go.  Though I think I'll have at least a couple of hours before the flight even boards, so I will take a better look around the airport than I had on the way in.  I'll also have a better look at the Keflavik airport too.  I wonder if they take Euros, or some other form of currency?

. . . Nope, not Euros, Krona.  If I want food or something in the airport, I'll have to go somewhere that takes American Express then.  No big deal.

From there, it's just another six-hour flight back to Dulles, where I will have to go through Customs before I can get out of there.  I anticipate getting home around 10 p.m.

Thank goodness I have Friday off work too.

Ooh, purdy flowers . . .

After checking the weather, and the hours and entrance fees, I went to the Trompenburg Gardens and Arboretum.  Of course, there was a lot of going up and down the stairs--for breakfast, to get my computer, to put the computer away and have a shower, etc.  Plus, every time I go upstairs, I have to lay down for a bit, because I'm so winded.  But the sinus infection seems to be going away at last, even though the effects still linger.  Right now, it's bark is worse than its bite.  I still have a nasty cough, but I don't have to blow my nose nearly as often as I did even just yesterday.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the arboretum, then I paid my 6 Euros.  I walked to the tea house straight away, because I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and was practically starving by then.  I had a sandwich with salmon and cheese spread, which I think was sort of like a bagel with lox--only the bread wasn't a bagel.  I also had some coffee, which was very tasty.  I think they had real cream or something.

After lunch, I wandered around some more before heading back to the entry building.  There, I bought yet another umbrella (this time, one with a plaid pattern and a slip-on cover which cost 14,95 Euros, so it had better not break in a strong wind) and a small hardcover notebook with a small "map" of Rotterdam on the cover.  There are 54 pictures in the "Vacation in Holland" album on my Facebook profile from the arboretum alone.

Both on the way there and on the way back (as well as during some other walks I'd taken this week) I kept seeing posters for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers LIVE.  These puzzled me, because that particular movie came out ten years ago, so why even try to have a live version so late?  Plus, why only do the second movie in the trilogy?  And how is it live, anyway, when the posters have pictures of the same actors as in the films?  Too bad I couldn't understand all the Dutch on the posters--at least I got a picture of it, so someone might be able to figure it out and tell me eventually.

That was a lot of walking, so I went straight back to my room for a while and just listened to my iPod before coming down to eat something for dinner and posting all the photos and an account of my day.

I don't know whether or not I actually will go to either Arnhem or Volendam tomorrow.  The way I figure it, I believe I have just enough for train fare back to the airport on Thursday morning, plus a bit more to buy gifts for everyone.  I can easily get what almost everyone requested (stroopwafels, cheese and chocolate sprinkles) at the market on the corner after I check out of the hostel.  Besides, I think I've thoroughly enjoyed myself, and every time I add new pictures to the Facebook album dedicated to this vacation, the upload slows down exponentially further than the last time.  There are 273 photos in there, after all.

I almost bought some slippers shaped like wooden shoes for Dylan on Saturday while I was at Madurodam, but he already has slippers, so I decided against it.  Maybe I'll find something at the airport that he'll like, or on the way to Rotterdam Central train station.  I also contemplated the slippers as gag gifts for some of the adults, but also decided not to do that.

15,840

. . . That's how many words my story has gotten to so far.  I just typed up the bits that I'd written most recently, and it's now 54 pages (typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font) and 15,840 words.  I think I'll save writing anymore of it for after I get back home.

It's raining again!

I got up this morning, saw it was raining, had my breakfast downstairs, and went back to bed.

Why sleep more, you ask?  Well, because I'm pretty sure my rampant allergies have now become a full-on sinus infection.  I can hardly breath for the coughs choking me, and getting all the way upstairs to my room takes the wind out of me.

I was planning on going either to the Open Air Museum in Arnhem or to Volendam today, but it's raining in both places, as well as here in Rotterdam.  The Open Air museum will cost me 14,95 Euros, along with the more than thirty-eight Euros for train fair.

Turns out, I'd have to take a train to Purmerend Overwhere, and then a taxi (yikes!) to Volendam.  The train ride alone (both directions, total) will take 35,40 Euros, and I have no idea how much the taxi would cost both ways.

So, I could pretty much go to one or the other--not both--since I have only about 100 Euros left.  Tomorrow, I'm definitely going to the Arboretum Trompenberg and having lunch, even if I have to slog through the rain with that silly umbrella.  Today, I might walk up to the market on the corner for some cough syrup or some Dutch equivalent of DayQuil.  Don't really need Sudafed, because the moisture in the air is doing a good job of draining my sinuses as it is.  Too bad it's not this wet and rainy in Maryland.  (Just kidding!)

Checking something. . . . Perhaps if I bike the last leg to Volendam?

. . . It would take 34 minutes, one way, by bicycle.  But both trips together would still cost me nearly 80 Euros.  Bah.

Arnhem or Volendam?  Volendam or Arnhem?  I can't decide.  And it will have to be either tomorrow after lunch or I'd have to get back before the walking tour of Rotterdam on Wednesday.

I'll decide later.

Vacation Update

I just talked to Susanne over Skype.  For some reason, no matter whether I'm calling home or somewhere in Holland, the connection is always bad.  There's a lag, and also both parties in the call get cut off mid-word often.

It was a ten-and-a-half-minute phone call, and we managed to sort out the confusion about church.  Apparently, her daughter is in the Rotterdam First ward, but she goes to Spijkenisse.  *shrug*  The people in the ward here were nice enough anyway.  One girl translated for me in Relief Society, and then they had someone translating over headphones during Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting.

Susanne asked about my plans for the rest of my vacation, and I told her I didn't really have any, that I've been kind of making them up as I go along--which is true.  Pretty much every morning, I get on my computer here and go through the (short) list of places Grandma recommended to me to see where I want to go that day.  Then I look up and write down directions from either the hostel or the nearest train station to that particular place.

Since the connection was so bad, and we'd been talking for more than ten minutes, we both hung up after saying goodbye.  She said to have fun and be careful, and that if I need help I can call her.

Now, I think I'll go upstairs and get my blanket--it's chilly down here, and I can work on my story without needing wireless internet access.

Okay, so that wasn't her ward.

Those of you not religiously inclined, please feel free to skip over the next five paragraphs.

I called Grandma last night, and she said that Susanne actually goes to church in Spijkenisse, even though the Meetinghouse Locator at LDS.org says that she's assigned to the Rotterdam First Ward.  Whenever I search anything in Hellevoetsluis, it always comes up as Rotterdam First Ward--doesn't say a single thing about the Spijkenisse Ward, even though there is definitely a meetinghouse there, and it's about halfway between here and Hellevoetsluis.  Weird.

Yet, the people at the church today knew her name when I said it, so they've probably at least met her, which is even more puzzling.  Grandma thinks that the building I went to today is the Stake building, but it's so tiny, how could it be?  Sure, the Stake President was there today, but that could have just been because that ward was getting a whole new bishopric.

Oh, well.  At least I packed my Kindle (which I have copies of the scriptures and the hymns on)--not even my mini-quad and my mini hymnals would have fit in either bag I packed for this trip.

Anyway, I got up and got dressed, surprisingly, at 8 a.m.  One of the other people in my room snores, so I figured it would be easier just to get up, especially since I had a long walk ahead of me.

After breakfast, I headed out, and it was pouring down rain.  I had that umbrella I bought at Madurodam yesterday, but the wind blew so hard that the umbrella turned inside out, and half of the extender arms broke!  Both my jacket and the bottom half of my dress were soaking wet by the time I got there.  The rain stopped long enough for me to get back after church though.  Oddly enough, their meetings are in reverse order of the ones back home.  We had Relief Society first, then Sunday School, and then Sacrament Meeting.

So now I'm back, and I'm hoping to do some laundry later, because I didn't pack nearly as many t-shirts as I thought I had, and I've run out of clean, full-length pants.  In other words, all I'm left with are warm-weather clothes, and it's pretty chilly here right now.

Or maybe I'll try calling Susanne in a little while, and do laundry tomorrow.  Though that might not be a good idea, for the same reason I just said above.

I didn't take any pictures while I was either walking or at the church, since I was just trying to stay warm, and my camera was inside the jacket.  Opening the jacket to get the camera would have been dumb--not to mention, my hands were already pretty frozen as it was, carrying the umbrella and the Kindle.

That's about it for now.  Maybe I can get some more of my story typed up or something.