Bloglovin'

Congratulations to AbsentElemental who won my 6th month giveaway!


I sold out to Bloglovin', maybe. As you may or may not have noticed, several days ago I followed a large number of blogs on Bloglovin'. Most of these are the blogs that I read. Not as surprising how I get so behind now is it? I decided to try it out. I've been using InoReader. I like that InoReader allows you to read the entire post (unless they have declared otherwise in their feed) without going to the blog. However, it is nice seeing everyone's blog every once in awhile. I do like that Bloglovin' shows everyone who you follow and who follows you. With Bloglovin' you can "connect" to other bloggers better, and I like that. The only other feed reader I'm familiar with is the blogger reader. I think that that reader is a terrible thing. The only reason I use it is to connect through Google Connect with other bloggers. It subscribes them to a feed automatically, but I use InoReader and now Bloglovin' to actually keep up with their blogs. Feedly, a reader I am not familiar with, I've heard a lot of people use on 20SB.

I can't say Bloglovin' is coded the best though. This has already happened:

Oops.

I know I said I was going to start trying to stick to one topic, but this seems to be rather pressing. This includes information and what we want/don't want to hear. And people disappearing on me when they have information that they think I won't want to hear. If I ask, then I want to know. Period. I don't ask a lot of questions. Asking questions terrifies me. So, again, if I ask, then I want to know. Doesn't matter if the answer is "good" or "bad" - I'm curious.

But at the same time, if you don't want to answer, that's okay. But tell me! Say "I prefer not to answer" or "I don't wanna say." And I will accept it and move on. If you don't answer I will probably pursue again. I respect not wanting to share information, I do. But I don't respect vanishing on someone. So please, please, don't do this. Especially not to me.

The Unveiling of the Bird

I guess I've been absent for awhile. I don't really have an excuse.

But, if you have not already signed up for my giveaway, I suggest you do that now. You know you want tea.

In other news, I got an emotional support cat. So that's cool.

I'm also behind in reading everyone's posts. I go from obsessive to procrastinating with this blog and just about everything else in my life. I get annoyed because no one is posting anything. And then next thing I know I have 75+ posts to read. When there gets to be that much I get a little overwhelmed and then I start by reading the ones I don't think I'll like as much first. Which of course leads me to reading the ones I actually want to read so late that it's almost embarrassing to comment on them. I'll get there eventually. I will.

I saw on Facebook a link on how to fold a fitted sheet. I tried it. I don't think it turned out that badly. Which means I'm making progress on my 25 by 25 list. If you forget that half of it towers over the other half, it's really good. Just saying.

b-e-a-utiful

I feel like I need to tell a story to convert this from a list of updates (which I'm sure you care so much about) to an actual post.

This past Christmas my sister demonstrated more emotional range in under a second than I think I have ever had in my life.

She is a little materialistic. And the "big" present to her is no joke. "Santa" was a little sassy this year and gave me a pot holder making kit for my big present. Although that might have been because it was one of the only ones I didn't know about. Anyways, enter my little sister, my younger sister, me, my older sister, my mom, and my dad. Note: we all know what the present is except for the two youngest. My little sister has been waiting a whole year for this moment. She's handed her present. And she drops it. Embarrassedly she struggles to picks it back up. She's not so pleased that everyone is laughing. She opens her present, expecting something amazing. It's bird seed. In an instant her face falls. She looks betrayed, heartbroken, and confused. As she's blinking back tears, a "bird seed?" makes its way out of her mouth. My father jokes "so you can feed the birds!" We all crack up. She is absolutely nonplused. My mom says "you know how we sometimes wrap something that means something else?" She looks, nonunderstandingly (which is so a word) at the bird food. "Something bigger?" My mom says trying to defuse her. We're all (not very successfully) trying not to laugh. Seeing the words "parakeet" on the food I try asking her "what kiiind of bird seed is it?" She doesn't get it. She looks devastatedly (which should also be a word) down at it. My other younger sister from across the room says "is there a bird?" I nod as my little sister shook her head in despair. She looks at us utterly confunded (spell check has no soul) as my dad and I went up to my room to get the bird. By the time we come back she is crying because she can't take it and everyone is evil. We're all playing some trick on her. She merely got bird food for her big gift and the world is a cruel cruel place. As soon as she saw the bird more feelings crossed her face than have names. In short she went from tears of pain to confusion to disbelief to tears of joy so quickly I wish we had video taped it. As we set it down she stared at it with all of those feelings on her face and in her soul. It was a beautiful thing. She then proceeded to not leave the bird's side for several hours.

Do you have any memorable stories from the holiday season?

Giveaway Update!

Remember my Giveaway! post? Well, I discovered Rafflecopter since then.

So, new rules. Use Rafflecopter to enter to win!

To my lovely readers, I will be giving away a sample bag of my favorite loose tea from Adagio Teas. (And, if you ever want to order something from them - let me know. I can give you a $5 discount.)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway!

Okay, it's after midnight. I can officially post this!

Today marks the sixth month anniversary of this blog. Honestly, I'm a little proud of myself for keeping it up so long. So yay me for keeping up with this blog. And yay you for reading.

Anyways,
To my lovely readers, I will be giving away a sample bag of my favorite loose tea from Adagio Teas. (And, if you ever want to order something from them - let me know. I can give you a $5 discount.)

To be considered, email me at cassandra.cassandrascurse@gmail.com with a screenshot of how you follow me (I will be checking!). Unfortunately, Facebook does not count. It's really finicky about who it shows posts to. Although, I will add your name in an additional time if you like me on Facebook and/or if you comment on any post between now and when I announce the winner next month! Also include if you do not like black tea (and if you don't, which is your preference).

I've also recently updated my blogroll. So check it out! You might be there.

Edit: To enter go to this post.

Thoughts...

When people say "wife, mother, sister,..." why do they say daughter?? If you're female of course you're a daughter. What else would you be?

When playing Candy Crush why do they tell you which error you ran into? Why do you care? No matter what error it is, you have to refresh it to fix it.

Why is hearing about the government spying on us so scary? Google knows much more about us than the government does, but people don't worry about that nearly as often.

One more....

Until very recently I thought buffalo chicken was big chicken. Like how shrimp chicken was small chicken.
I was then informed that shrimp chicken does not exist, and buffalo chicken does not mean big chicken.

I also completed goal number 17 on my 25 by 25 list today.

Reminder: on my sixth month anniversary (1/7) I will be posting a giveaway.

"Art"

I drew the political cartoon in the car a few days ago and the other picture some time a few weeks ago. Since everyone is posting recaps of the year, I decided I need to share my art.

Best way to control someone.

Except really.

Don't quit my day job, I know. Speaking of that, last night I sort of had a meltdown/crisis and decided that I need to drop out of school and become an artist. I know, I'm already so fabulous there's not much left to do. Then I decided I need to stay in school and take all of the classes until I'm a good enough artist to leave school - so basically take every class they offer. Twice. I decided that I never want to be in charge of ethics, and I don't want to be leading it because I know technology will get out of hand, if it hasn't already, and life as we know it will be like a dystopian book. I'm afraid this will happen in my lifetime. I don't mind documenting it, as an artist. But I don't want to be the one making the decisions, as a researcher.

I think I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and post either my most popular or favorite post for each month.

July - Hair Yoga and Other Stories
August - Best Tattoo Artist - Part One
September - English Brain vs. Science Brain
October - The Stigma
November - Cooking Fails Part Two
December - Goals and Disappointments and Obligatory Holiday Post (they have the same number of views, shut up)

If there's any of those you haven't read, I would remedy that real quick.

Also stay tuned for my sixth month anniversary giveaway.