Room to Think

Today's post is about money! Fifteen years ago, on December 16th, 1995, the word "euro" popped up on the map, terrifying coin collectors all across the globe. Four years later, 17 countries switched over to the euro in January of 1999, and by June 2002, those currencies completely passed out of use.  They became what I would call "dead money".  (and no, I'm not referring to Fallout. =P) I am one of those coin collectors.  My auntie used to be a traveling nurse when I was younger, and she'd bring me money (my favorites are coins) from each of the countries that she had worked in. I still have it all.  And I have it organized.  =) I actually think I have a bill of 1000 Lira from my uncle, although I could not tell you why he had Lira after coming over from the Philippines.  >.< Anyway, one of my concerns when I travel abroad is obviously going to be the exchange rate.  From what it sounds like, the change over to the euro was smoo...

So...I don't know if you've noticed, but I've become rather irregular in my posting.  (yes, I've missed two whole Florence Fridays in a row! Shameful.)  But it's hard when you get so many priorities you can't think straight, and I think that's where I'm at right now. This quarter is going to be a busy one--I can already tell. I'm taking classes from two of the toughest graders I've ever taken classes from, but I think they're among my top 3 favorite professors here.  Editing and Publishing with Kate Trueblood , and Multigenre Dream Writing with Bruce Beasley .  They make up 10 of my final 15 credits. I'm also the new Outreach Intern for The Old Foundry, and Shadi will doubtless keep me very busy.  Knowing me, I'm going to volunteer for extra projects in my internship class, just so I can gain as many skills as I can in one quarter.  I wouldn't put it past me to turn this 5 credit class into a 10 credit class. ...

Hello, my wonderful readers! At the beginning of Spring break, before  I got sick, I promised you all I would show you what crafts my sister and I ended up making together.  I'm a little late on the uptake, I realize. Well, due to my untimely illness, I only accomplished half of what I said I was going to...But here are the final results! A handmade book for my roommate's birthday  A jewelry board to hold all my earrings (and necklaces too) And just another view of the jewelry board.   Yep, I used thumb-tacks to hold everything.  I do kinda wish it was drilled into the wall, though. Unfortunately, my apartment forces me to secure everything to my walls with Command Strips and prayers. All my projects were terribly fun to make, if not kind of mindless... But now I've started the countdown to my dreaded graduation day, and I have to set these things aside for a little while.

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone--I've been sick lately, and every time I go to blog, I can't seem to look at the screen long enough to finish a post I'm happy with...until today. Lately I've been listening to a lot of TEDtalks, since I haven't been able to watch them.  It's been hard to filter out which ones I want to talk about the most!  Chris Anderson, TED curator, has been up to a lot of things since the TED conference in Cali ended a little while ago. Not only have they posted a ton of new videos from TED 2012 for me to catch up on, but Chris has begun this new project called TED Ed.  So far, I've only seen animated webcasts narrated by Chris, and short TEDtalks given by children and teens on their accomplishments.  As far as I can tell, Chris is trying to reach out to kids and inspire them to learn and become our future.  How sneaky.  He's trying to save the future by educating our youth.  He seems to be in the perfect position to do s...

I'm at home with my family this Spring Break.  At this moment, I'm trying to decide if I'd rather be at home in Bellingham or not.  I've been going back and forth on the answer since yesterday.  On the plus side, though: my sister and I went on a 2hr excursion to JoAnne's and bought supplies for some DIY projects I've had on my list for half a year.  If I'm looking forward to anything this week, it's how many crafts I get to do with her.  I don't do them on my own.  >.< The craft list: a jewelry board  to hang, organize and display my wonderful feather earrings, rather than stuffing them in boxes. a handmade book to serve as my "Dream journal" in class next quarter, and use up remaining supplies from my final project, and improve the design. another handmade book to give to my roommate as a belated birthday present, because, despite all my complaining, she's not so bad.  =) Hunger Games nails  to celebrate the fact th...

All right everyone.  Finals are over, and despite my new effort to get to bed at a decent hour (as my new schedule doesn't enable me to sleep in until noon anymore), I suppose I can pull out a Florence Friday that's more of an update.  It's about time.  =) In my last Florence Friday, I told you all that 2 of 2 emails that I sent out after Mr. Franco's response to me have been answered. Since my letter to Mr. Franco was so carelessly responded to, I decided not to put too much effort into the email to his superior in Washington D.C. Mind you, I just copied and pasted his name from somewhere else. I didn't even make the effort to insert that special symbol over the "a" in his name. I actually don't know if Mr. Carlo here is Mr. Franco's superior--in fact, I'm almost sure he isn't.  But just because I emailed someone in D.C. sure made me feel like I was contacting Mr. Franco's superior.  =P I did, however, give Mr. Carlo the...

So...I'm not done with my finals yet.  As a result, I'll let you all know my thoughts on this TEDtalk on Thursday--when I'm done with finals.  =) Until then, aren't you curious about what Susan Cain has in her suitcase? Susan Cain on "The Power of Introverts"