Metallic Odyssey

1:57pm: ramblyramble

What have I been up to lately?

Let's see. NaNoWriMo is almost at its end.
I'm a little behind where I should be, but I don't think I'll have too much trouble catching up for the last three days. I have a feeling that there's going to be some massive editing involved; I really don't know how much of what I've written is any good. We'll see come December, though!


Thanksgiving was good, though I have returned to my apartment with a cold. Bah. Yesterday was the start of the sore throat, which kept waking me up last night. Salt helps, but I cannot gargle with saltwalter because I have the worst gag reflexes ever*. So I put salt directly onto the back of my throat. DIE, BACTERIA, DIE! I will dehydrate you so hard with my salty minions. This method, however, probably does not help my health, as it equates to eating salt after two days spent eating too much food. Oh well. It's better than spewing it all over my bathroom in an attempt to gargle. (I couldn't even do plain water for more than 10 seconds.)

Contemplating a nap, or something. Today is definitely a take-it-easy day, as I'd rather rest and beat this damn cold before it gets bad. I had to go out earlier to the post office to get a preordered book (new Codex Alera! Hooray!) and I've done some cleaning, and I'll do some decorating, so I can still be productive even if I just stay here now and chill out. Yay.

Alright, off I go.


*Go ahead, make the lewd comments.

3:03am: I'm a man, without conviction


( This is for Kalen. Because he's the only one who will understand. )

11:44am: One of those rare Life Updates. (Mostly horses.)

Things have been going pretty well lately. I'm currently behind on my NaNoWriMo word count, so I should probably be writing for that instead of here, but I intend to do some writing after this. I will catch up, dammit!

Last night I had a great lesson on Parker. I used to ride him back when he was slightly crazy and only two people-- me and some other girl-- could ride him half decently, but then they realized that, hey, turn-out calms him down! Who'd have thought? In any case, he's a good boy, now, but that also means that he got put into more regular use.
In any case, last night, once we got to jumping, he was feeling more like his old self and was getting into those courses. It was a ton of fun, and though we had some slight miscommunications, it was also a good reminder about how not every horse is like Atticus.

Went on a trail ride last Saturday, that was a ton of fun. I'd love to start working with War, my friend's horse, more. He's greener than we thought, but he's a good boy and not dangerously-green. I think he's a good match for my skill level while still providing the challenge of a mostly-clueless horse. He was a champ on the trail, and never got tired even at the end, after hours of riding when the other two horses were like, "please, let us stop". Haha, maybe he'd be good for endurance ;)

Sarge had his annual checkup yesterday, and he's in fantatic shape. When I went to thank Dr. McAlister, his reply was "Thank YOU for taking good care of Sarge." I felt so warm and fuzzy inside; particularly as a first-time horse owner, sometimes I worry that I'm missing details here and there. But, no, my muffin is doing great. And he was adorable after being sedated for the teeth-floating.

In other, non-horse related news, Christmas is coming! I know I'm a bit crazy, but I adore Christmas. Now, don't worry, I won't put up any decorations until after Thanksgiving. But I'm starting the preparations-- planning a trip for shopping in New Hope, organizing & wrapping the presents I've already got, making the card list, etc. And holiday_wishes has begun, so I'm already looking through lists to see what I can grant. I really love this time of the year, and I love giving. Yeah, yeah, sounds like one of those cliches, but I really do adore surprises-- both getting them myself, and seeing others' reactions. I really love the moment when a friend or loved one opens a gifts and finds something unexpected that they completely adore. It makes me so happy, and so I always have the quest to find those unexpected-but-perfect gifts.

Alright, I should go up that NaNoWriMo word count of mine.

9:25pm: !!!!


OMG GUYS THEY TAUGHT THEIR HORSE TO REAR!!
THAT IS SO UNSAFE OMG





Sorry; I just couldn't resist ;)

( More here, and a few photos. )

6:29pm: One girl's dream is another girl's nightmare...


I'm not going to lie.
I am so weirded out when people my age start pumping out babies, intentionally or not.

5:58pm: NaNoWriMo


Whee! So, I'm still a little behind on the suggested word count, but--



NaNoWriMo is going well. Most importantly, my plot is still chugging along quite nicely with no severe writer's blocks kicking in. Oh, I'm sure December will be Hardcore Editing Month (after I finish the novel, because I'm fairly certain it'll be more than the 50,000 words NaNoWriMo challenges) but I'm quite pleased with the way it's going.

I may meet up for some sort of impromptu Write-In tonight, but the other person never really got back to me about that, so meh. Either way, I'm content with how this is going. Certainly more successful than past attempts! Yay!

12:43pm: I love my minion.

So, on occasions in the past I've been talking to people about Sarge, and they ask me my plans for backing him and stuff. And it would come up-- "Oh, have you put a saddle on him yet?" My response was typically, "Nah, but he'll be fine with it."

At that point, they would make the assumption that my horse is like other crazy two-year-olds they've known or heard about that will freak out the second you girth them. The would offer me all the advice-- "Oh, do it like this, don't tighten it right away, go superslow, he won't like it, be prepared for him trying to get it off, etc etc etc etc". And I've politely nodded, thanked them for the advice.

Because, at the end of the day, I know my horse.

I put a saddle on him yesterday and he did precisely what I knew he'd do.

He stood there and didn't give a damn, even when I tightened the girth, treating him like any of the lesson horses I ride. (Tightening it in increments, of course, but without pussyfooting around the task.)


"Mom, you tied me too short and I can't reach the grass. Oh, is there something on my back? I didn't notice."

The biggest issue was that the girth was too short, and the girth extender made it a bit too long, and I didn't adjust the other side before lunging him, and he was full of himself and bucking a bit...


Wearing A Saddle- ur doin it rong

After some lunging, in the three seconds I took to turn around and find the lunge whip, Sarge decided it would be cool to pull down the fence to our little riding/working area.


That's my boy.

All in all, a productive day, fence aside. My horse is awesome.

2:27pm:
Most songs are about extremes in emotion. Love, hatred, sadness.

I adore the fact that these particular two Wolfsheim songs (Find You're Here & Find You're Gone) are not. They cover the realm of indifference; an often-overlooked song topic.


When I wake up, I find you're here
I should feel joy but I am not even near
I dunno where you've been tonight,
I guess you've been with someone else but I don't care if I'm right
I do not feel
no jealousy
if I would lose you now I'd simply say it's destiny
destiny, destiny

I find you're here, you're moving on
you're just doing what you want, and I can't find it wrong
I know for sure, you would be gone
you wouldn't stay with me if something better comes along
I do not feel anxiety
I wouldn't be alone for long, it's destiny


There's this certain cockyness to the song that is particularly German. I love it.

5:19pm: Woot.







Still a bit bloody, because I didn't want to rub too hard while washing 'em. Quite happy with how they turned out. :)

9:45am: ( Horseback Riding Babbling )

4:22pm:
Watching Untamed & Uncut on Animal Planet.

How the fuck does "Wild Horse Racing" comply with animal cruelty laws?

Fucking idiot deserved to get kicked in the head. A shame he didn't die. But hey, he went back to the sport, so we can only hope another of those poor horses finishes the job.

Ug, humanity, you are such a disappointment.

7:11pm: <3








I love my beast.

6:06pm: Dreamcatcher Complete!

So, I finished up a dreamcatcher today. Woot! Granted, the ring was already wrapped & most of the webbing done from a previous time, but still. Got it beaded and feathered and whatnot.



It's up for sale on Etsy at the moment, woohoo. Along with a candle that never sold. We'll see how things go with that. I need to balance out another purchase I recently made, haha...

( More dreamcatcher photos under the cut, if anyone cares to see. )

10:54am: Whee.

So, let's see. Life.

Got one more weekend of Corner of Chaos. The end of that also heralds the end of work until Christmas Tree season starts up. I'm not really worried about that, though I should probably be more concerned about earning money. But in all honesty, I could use the break. (I say that, but I've been off a lot this week due to rain and stuff... ha. Yeah, I'm getting lazy/burnt out.)

So, since I'll have just about all of November totally free, I'm going to embark on the NaNoWriMo mission once again. In the past, school and stuff always got in the way, but this time around there's no excuse. I have the characters. I have a vague idea of plot, and an outline for the first bit. So let's hope I can actually manage to finish a novel for the first time ever, instead of just starting one and then not writing for huge stretches.

I'm also going to be trying to get back into crafting. It would be awesome to have some dreamcatchers or candles or both to put up on Etsy in time for the holiday season. Not sure how much interest there would be, but still! I like making them, so I really do actually do that instead of just saying I will. Oh, the procrastination. It must end.

In vaguely-related news, I'm already gearing up for Christmas. Anyone who knows me should have been expecting that. But don't worry, I won't break out the music until after Thanksgiving.

Last horse show of the year is November 7th. I'm hoping the weather is nice and that we do well. I think Jacob's coming, which is cool, as it'll be the first time he sees me ride. Hooray! On that note, though, he came to meet Sarge and the got along well. Yay! My pony approves of my boy! A necessary thing.

Alright, since the rain today means no work, I should get some stuff done here. Maybe work on dreamcatchers? Gasp!

11:42am:
Yeah, I'm bad about updating.

Life has been really busy, mainly with work. The stand is getting tiring; I love my bosses and coworkers, but dealing with bitchy customers is really tiring. You wouldn't think people could get so nasty over produce and flowers, but oh, they do. Ug.

Corner of Chaos, at least, is more fun since my job is to be 'mean' to customers. (Well, to scare the hell out of them.) Last Saturday we didn't get out until after 1am, and it was cold and I wasn't in my comfy jeans and I was pretty miserably, but on the whole it's good. On Sunday, I got to break character to escort out some poor hyperventilating girl.
I've met some cool people working there, though a lot of the others seem to fall into the "townie" category, and they almost exclusively just talk about smoking pot and drinking. Way to have meaningful lives there, guys. My 'favorite' obnoxious coworker ("Hey Tory, want to have vampire babies? hahah!") got fired, so the mood is slightly improved, at least ;)

I'm already gearing up for Christmas, because I'm psychotic like that. Oooh man, need to get to New Hope to do some shopping. Excitement!

Horse show tomorrow, should be freezing and rainy and possibly miserable, but we'll see how that goes.

Alright, that's enough for now, as I should be spending this day off cleaning.

4:49pm: Today, I left work early.

Time spent in a field is time well-spent, I'd say :)




Sarge & War, racing around and enjoying the good weather :) My boy is massive...

12:48am: Points of Interest:

1. Love is wonderful.

2. Corner of Chaos opens on Friday! COME!


3.


I have fangs. :D

8:21pm: ponies-chaos-fangs-tattoos

So, had a good few days off though there's still a ton of stuff I should do, cleaning-wise. Must get it done as Jacob will likely be coming over Friday/Saturday.


Riding last night was good. Atticus and I had a great last course; got the speed & shorter distances. He's so much fun, particularly when he puts his game face on. They won't have my division in the show this weekend (sadface!) but I suppose it's good, because it'll be a packed weekend.

Went into NYC and spent the night at Jacob's place Monday. Met some cool dogs. Ate pancakes. Good times. Before I went in, we had a meeting at work for the Corner of Chaos. Man, it made me feel old, because so many of the other kids are in the let's-smoke-cigarettes-and-blast-metal-from-our-cars mode. Someday, they'll realize that it's not as hardcore as they probably think it is. And also that lung cancer sort of sucks.

The night before, John took me out to see the trails, and oh man, pretty sweet. (Also, it was like an amusement park ride, flying down the trails on the Gator. That thing is like a golf cart on steroids.) I know I want to be on either the Devil's Den or the Trail of Treachery path, in the woods somewhere. The third trail, the Barbaric Barnyard, will be around the house. That'll be the more clown-freaky-animal trail. I'll probably shoot for woodsy Devil's Den.

On a related note, I think I'm finally going to spring for a pair of Andrew's fangs. I'm starting to pull together a costume idea for the CoC, and it would work better with fangs. And hey, I've been wanting them for a while, and I finally have the money, and he's got a sale thingy going on, so why the heck not?

Also, I'll probably be getting my two other tattoos soon. Just need to figure out where I'll go to get them. Tattoo parlor recommendations, anyone? I have one, but it's in Tom's River, which is sort of far. We shall see.

Alright, I really should stop procrastinating, and just go clean my apartment...

10:12am:
I am of the opinion that 8 years is long enough to dwell on the present and future instead of the past.

11:38am: Help the Mustangs in the Pryor Mountain Range!

Now, normally, I don't post stuff like this or ask for help in a cause, but this is something I feel strongly about.

For anyone who watches PBS, you might have seen a show about a herd of wild horses in the Pryor Mountain Range, featuring one named Cloud-- his journey from foal-hood to stallion. The herd has been found to be descended from Spanish conquistador horses, and as such, they are unique, genetically important creatures.

Living in the mountains of Montana, the horses number around 190, and have been studied extensively by The Cloud Foundation. The range where they live is designated land for wild horses-- something that's taken quite a bit of effort to get. The herd is a beloved group, and the TV documentaries featuring Cloud have allowed so many people a wonderful glimpse into the world of the American Mustang. The next show will air October 25th.

By that date, if nothing can be done, Cloud's herd might very well be decimated.

 

The Bureau of Land Management is planning to round up the entire herd on or after September 3rd. (It was supposed to be today-- September 1st-- but a judge is currently overseeing the court case filed against the BLM on this issues.) A group of horses (including foals) will be kept aside to be sold, and the rest re-released. In theory, it sounds fine.

However, the roundup is done with helicopters-- as it stands, a 2% (or around 6 horses) death rate is expected. Likely, it'll be the foals. Terror from being chased by a helicopter is a fantastic way to break a leg. This is a stressful event for the horses. Old horses will be culled-- thus removing the knowledge from the herd; these horses are the ones who know where to go for grazing and water.

The roundup will leave only 120 horses-- some given infertility drugs. Researchers involved do not think this is an adequate number to safely preserve the genetics of these Spanish-decent horses.

Not to mention, this roundup goes directly against a Horse Protection bill currently pending before Congress.  In the words of Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker for the Cloud show and head of the Cloud Foundation, "Is BLM just trying to do as much irrevocable damage to America's wild horses as fast as they can before the Senate can act?"

The BLM is closing off roads, and making this roundup extremely private, not allowing any of the observation that usually would be fine. The circumstances seem to be more suspiciously shaky than necessary, and they certainly seem to be rushing in.

Hopefully, the judge will grant the herd more time-- perhaps a compromise can be found, but this dramatic of an approach is bound to do more harm than good.

For anyone who wants to help, contact any of the following to speak your opinion.

(The following is copied & pasted from The Cloud Foundation website)

 

1.  Call/write/fax President Obama as often as you can—this herd is a national treasure and should not be wiped out by a  government agency.  Please flood the phone lines with calls! Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000 Fax: 202-456-2461
E-mail Obama

2. Ask Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to stop this round up
Call: 202-208-3100

3. BLM Director Bob Abbey, tell him to halt this round up-- he must reconsider his agency's actions
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242

Robert_Abbey@blm.gov

4. Call and write your own Senators and Congress people- tell them that Montana is allowing the destruction of Cloud’s unique and historical wild horse herd. Politely express your outrage and ask them to help stop this round up.

Find your state offices here

 

 

It just makes me so angry and frustrated to see that the BLM is so determined to get rid of these horses. A symbol of American freedom, and we have to fight just to let them stay free... it's a shame. Let's hope that some better solution can be found.

1:17am: We don't want zombies on the lawn.

What have I been up to lately?

Well, mostly work. The other girl that worked up at the front with me quit, so I'm basically the only one (besides a more part-time-ish 15 year old) who can sell the produce. My boss is almost always in back now, working on the trails for the Corner of Chaos Halloween thingy.
As for that-- I can't wait. After going to so many of those haunted trails throughout highschool, I can't wait to be on the other side of one. My boss better not try to stick me on register. The thing is going to be big-- he's doing three separate trails, plus a non-scary corn maze for the younger kids, and your expected pumpkin-picking and such. At least it gives me something nice to look forward to in fall.

As for the job now, meh. It's not stressful, and I like my coworkers, and the pay is decent. I can read a book when there aren't customers. I really shouldn't complain. But working 10.5 hours a day, five days a week, is exhausting. I feel like I get nothing done, because by the time I come home at 7pm, I'm too tired to really want to clean/run errands/etc.

Riding has been going well; Atticus is a star. He was a bit insolent last night, but I think in part it was because there were no big-enough martingales left, so I rode him without, and he spent much of the flatwork doing his finest giraffe impression and fighting contact. Jumping was fine, though, but I certainly could have ridden better.

And then, coming home, I got a flat on a small road near the barn. Oh, glee! Luckily, Carole, my superawesome trainer, comes that way anyway to go home, so she helped me change the tire to my donut. Got it fixed today... ug, driving 35mph on Route 1 sucked a lot. Dude, if the car in front of you is in the slow lane with flashing hazard lights, please, just pass them in the EMPTY LANE to your left, instead of riding their ass. Kay? Kay.

Apparently, since my tires were only a few months new, they were covered by some sort of Road Hazard Warranty, so getting a brand new tire was totally free. Sweet deal, PepBoys.

Spent some time with Sarge today, too. Got him to jump over a low pole. No halter, no lungeline or any of that. Just a handful of grain and the cues he already knows. He's such a good boy. But then the other horses were all "OH HAI" and it was getting later, so I headed out. But my horse is awesome.

In other news, I met a boy. Haha, yeah, yeah. It happens a lot, I suppose. This one is pretty damn awesome, though. A lot of matching interests and such. And he managed to convince me to watch a horror movie AND anime on the same night, and I actually enjoyed them, so that's something.
Hoping it does not explode in my face. He makes me feel incredibly comfortable.

Aside from that, not a whole lot going on, I suppose.

11:55am: Itty Bitties @ Briarwood with Atticus, 8/16/09

Have I mentioned that I love this horse?

Arthur came along and took photos and video of our last course & the jump off. Man, I thought I was going faster... I can definitely get away with more speed, now that we've got the turns down. Atticus is such a star.


Course #3


Course #3's Jumpoff

(And yes, my form isn't perfect throughout. This is why I don't ride Equitation.)

I wish the standards weren't blocking the view of the last jump in the jumpoff... he saw it, got his go-face on, and took it huge. You can hear Carole laughing in the background as he does so.

I love this horse so much. At the end of the day, we got a blue (along with who-knows-how-many others) for the Touch Class. (I wish they'd change the way those are-- having everyone that completes it without rubs and in the time get a blue ribbon makes that 'win' feel sort of cheated. I liked it better when it was timed-with-jump-off and a definitive first-second-third placement.) We got sixth place in the 2nd and 3rd courses, and with 12+ other competitors on some [dangerously] fast-looking horses, I was quite content. Now that I know he has no problems giving me the tight turns, I can really focus more on going for speed.

Yay for Atticus!

9:54pm: My cat is weird.

8:00pm: I went to the barn today

"Oh hai, it's hot! Let me hose u down k?"

"Oh hai, yes plz the water feels nice on my front half... OMG IT IS EETING MY BUTT THO"
*dance dance*

"No is nawt. Plz to be standing still?"

"NO I RUNS AWAY"

"Ew. Lead rope covurd in durt. I HOSE UR BUTT"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE fine."

"okie is clean and cooled off, lemme just get dis scrapr and i scrapes the water off--"

"I ROLL IN DIRT NAO YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAAYYYY!"

"..."

"NAO I RUB MYSELF ON U! We be dirttwins!!!"

"...sigh."

6:23pm: <3 forAtticus!



Atticus n' me


We are teh winners.

Have I mentioned that I love this horse?
(Hell, have I even mentioned on here that I stopped showing Snickers, and started showing Atticus instead? Much better match.)

Granted, it was just Itty Bitty Jumpers, and there weren't many people at the show, but STILL. We are awesome. We got the 3rd course first place in the pouring rain.