it's been a while ....
for all my gamer friends: winter war 35 will be held february 8-10 2008 at the hawthorn suites in champaign. right now I planning on taking that saturday off work to spend at the con. if something amazing is happening either the friday or the sunday, I might take that day off too/instead.
I'm really looking forward to it. : D
in other news: my holiday present to myself (lame, I know) is a 10 gallon salt water aquarium. so far it's cost about $200 to set up, but I think I have everything done (I just need to maintain it). I've got two blue legged hermit crabs and a three spot damsel fish in there right now. I would rather have red legged hermit crabs, but I couldn't find any in our tank ... if we do get some in, I might switch out the blue legged ones (the blue legged crabs are much prettier, but they're not as good at cleaning the tank). once I start to get algea growth I plan on putting in a turbo grazer snail. and that's about it .... it was a lot of fun to set up, I like my fish a lot (it's really fun to watch him zoom around the tank at feeding time) and it'll help when I'm talking to customers about salt water set-ups. unfortunately I don't have a reef tank (no corals) which might change if this does well, but I wanted to start easy and, if I enjoy it, work my way up to difficult.
ooh, and for those of you who enjoy random information: my 10 gallon tank is a standard size (20 inches long by 10 inches wide by 12 inches tall) and weighs approx. 100 lbs (10 lbs live rock + 10 lbs live sand + approx. 8 gallons of water that weighs ~10 lbs a gallon [remember, there's salt in the water which makes it heavier than fresh])
I've been messing around with jewelry again. I started with making chain mail jewelry, which I still enjoy quite a bit, but since then I've learned some weaving and "knitting" techniques which are really fun. so far I've almost finished several thing (mostly bracelets that need gluing) but I have completed a copper ring. it's a little big, but I like it a lot. I've also been playing with painting the tubes that I use to join two ends of a ring or bracelet with enamel and lacquering them. it looks really nice, I'm still working on making sure the paint isn't gloppy. but I think, once I get more practice, it'll look really nice. so that's been fun. and I managed to get my grandfather's work table out of the basement and into the main room (yay for having strong friends who are willing to humor me) so I have a nice place to work and it reminds me of dzia-dzia.
the only thing that angers me is that the metalwork and jewelry I class at parkland is closed .... I was thinking of taking it this semester. ooh well. there's always the next (and that's supposed to be a roman numeral 1 after "metalwork and jewelry" but it doesn't look like it in this font. just so you know).
time for me to get up, shower and dress, muck about with my salt tank and jewelry, then go off to work. good times.
I'm really looking forward to it. : D
in other news: my holiday present to myself (lame, I know) is a 10 gallon salt water aquarium. so far it's cost about $200 to set up, but I think I have everything done (I just need to maintain it). I've got two blue legged hermit crabs and a three spot damsel fish in there right now. I would rather have red legged hermit crabs, but I couldn't find any in our tank ... if we do get some in, I might switch out the blue legged ones (the blue legged crabs are much prettier, but they're not as good at cleaning the tank). once I start to get algea growth I plan on putting in a turbo grazer snail. and that's about it .... it was a lot of fun to set up, I like my fish a lot (it's really fun to watch him zoom around the tank at feeding time) and it'll help when I'm talking to customers about salt water set-ups. unfortunately I don't have a reef tank (no corals) which might change if this does well, but I wanted to start easy and, if I enjoy it, work my way up to difficult.
ooh, and for those of you who enjoy random information: my 10 gallon tank is a standard size (20 inches long by 10 inches wide by 12 inches tall) and weighs approx. 100 lbs (10 lbs live rock + 10 lbs live sand + approx. 8 gallons of water that weighs ~10 lbs a gallon [remember, there's salt in the water which makes it heavier than fresh])
I've been messing around with jewelry again. I started with making chain mail jewelry, which I still enjoy quite a bit, but since then I've learned some weaving and "knitting" techniques which are really fun. so far I've almost finished several thing (mostly bracelets that need gluing) but I have completed a copper ring. it's a little big, but I like it a lot. I've also been playing with painting the tubes that I use to join two ends of a ring or bracelet with enamel and lacquering them. it looks really nice, I'm still working on making sure the paint isn't gloppy. but I think, once I get more practice, it'll look really nice. so that's been fun. and I managed to get my grandfather's work table out of the basement and into the main room (yay for having strong friends who are willing to humor me) so I have a nice place to work and it reminds me of dzia-dzia.
the only thing that angers me is that the metalwork and jewelry I class at parkland is closed .... I was thinking of taking it this semester. ooh well. there's always the next (and that's supposed to be a roman numeral 1 after "metalwork and jewelry" but it doesn't look like it in this font. just so you know).
time for me to get up, shower and dress, muck about with my salt tank and jewelry, then go off to work. good times.