November has included one of my longest absences on Vox, and after all this time has passed, I'm starting to wonder what even happened to November. It was here and now it's almost gone.
I have a lot to catch up with and a lot to say, so I thought I'd sum up how my month has been going through a series of little snippets from my life. I feel like I often share huge chunks of my life at Vox, and switching a post around to a small medley of events might be fun for a change.
Kawaii design. I thought I'd start off by introducing my new banner. Kawaii (at) Vox (dot) com finally has a new look and feel to it. I've been struggling with what kind of banner I wanted my blog to have. I'm extremely picky and very obsessive over the appearance of my Vox. The content is important, yes, but the whole look of my personal space at Vox is just as essential as the rest of it. The usual routine for making and choosing a banner for my Vox usually consists of: having a photoshoot, editing old photos, experimenting with color schemes, finding fun brushes to use (if needed), and then either trashing the results or actually settling on using a banner. The entire process usually takes a couple of days. I don't like switching around my banner a lot, so whatever I decide on means that it will be around for a while. After a lot of work on this last banner, I finally decided on Kawaii Pink Medley:
I wanted to include a lot of the elements in my life, especially ones that I love right now. I figure that Lola the fawn stands for my plushies; Yukimo shows for my love (of Yukimo!) of pets; and Plum represents my adoration (for Plum!) for dollies. Being the narcissist that I am, I like including a photo of myself to kind of, I guess, represent my blog as a whole. (After all, I'm the voice, tee hee.)
The kitties. As I mentioned in a past post, Beth and I decided to keep our sister kitties. Falling in love with them took a little longer than usual-- a lot longer than it usually takes me to fall for a cat. Even though it took a while, the wait was worth it. Both Edgar (Ed) and Isis are pretty awesome companions, and although they're a little insane, I like their craziness around the apartment (sometimes). After all, unpredictability is priceless.
As much as I hate to admit it, Beth and I have had an easier time bonding with Ed. Even though the sisters were raised the same, Ed has a much more friendly personality, and she's a lot more willing to be happy. She's the only cat I know that will pur for no reason at all. I'll walk into a room and Ed will be purring so loudly that I can feel the floor shake.
Isis, on the other hand, has really stayed in her shell-- and not in a good way. An example of this is when I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen. I won't even be heading towards where Isis is laying down on the floor, yet she'll see me coming and run away and hide under the bed for hours. If I get up and go to the kitchen when Ed's around, she'll either follow me or affectionately rub against my legs. Beth and I are still giving Isis the same amount of attention as Ed, but it's hard having such an unfriendly kitty around the house, especially one that hates to be held and scratches. (I have some painful pieces of evidence on my stomach if there's any doubt about Isis.)
Despite their differences, Beth and I love Ed and Isis. It's great having built-in friends. ^__^ More of Ed and Isis can be seen in my My Kitties collection.
The work load. I wish I could say that the stress wasn't as much of a problem anymore, but to be completely honest, it's about the same. I've been working my butt off at school. On the days that I'm not in classes, I'm either working or doing schoolwork (projects, papers, presentations, etc.). On the days that I do go to school, I'm working in between the classes. This time of the year is always crazy, and this November is no exception.
Blog, blog, blog! One of the benefits of working and being a Professional and Technical Writing major is that I can have some fun by combining both worlds-- that of school and that of work. Throughout the semester, I've been doing a lot of interviews for papers and projects with fellow bloggers, friends and co-workers. Like a lot of the projects that I've chosen to do, one of the last projects I worked on focused on blogging. My Technical Writing professor assigned the class a huge project where each person had to write a technical description. I chose to focus my descripion on networking at Vox.
As long as I've been at Vox, I've noticed that a lot of the articles and people who help others expect the new people at Vox to be familiar with everything blogging has to offer. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. A lot of new Vox members are often unfamiliar with what blogging is and how it can be used as a networking tool. They sign up for an account but then never return because no one explains to them what they can do to get their blog "out there." Bloggers not only want to write, but they want to meet people and share their thoughts with them. Because of new members' lack of networking know-how, I decided to create a description on how people can get to know the ropes of Vox for networking uses, whether it be for social or business reasons. Some of the results can be seen here:
Here are little pieces of my project. The entire technical description was several pages long, but as long as it took to create, I found that I really had fun when I wrote this. I'm a huge fan of screen shots and creating tutorials for helping people, so I guess that's why this project didn't seem as painful as some of the other ones I've had to do. Plus, I was able to focus on a topic that I love: blogging!
I'm currently working on an article that involves many Voxers and their thoughts on blogging. The article is for my Creative Nonfiction for Publication class. I'm thinking about posting it here once I have it completed (which should be sometime later this week).
Mapling it up with gaming. So after my long days of work, work, work, I realized that I needed some sort of release. I resorted to one of my on and off obsessions: Maple Story. I decided to pick up where I left off with my very first character, Minkka. Instead of going out every weekend, I've been sitting in my cozy apartment, zoning out by playing MS and finally leveling Minkka to 50. *grin* I couldn't be happier with her level right now. MS is great for not only relaxing, but for socializing as well. A lot of my old online friends started to slowly come back to the game, and I've been able to get a lot of energy out just by chatting with them through the game.
... And when I "socialize" on MS, that also means that I'm spending money on making my character super kawaii. I hate to admit it but I've spent a good chunk of change on Minkka-- her appearance, her accessories, and her pet(s). This last round of playing has resulted in a lot more clothes for Minkka. (I decided to go pink this time.) Her outfit includes: the Starry Pink Beanie, the Pink Sunglasses, the Pink Camo Hoodie, the Brown Plaid Pants, the Pink Ogg Boots, the Heart Tattoo Gloves, the Bunny Doll Cape, and the Seal Pillow Weapon.
The above screen shot shows Minkka in action: kicking some Master Chronos ass by using her Holy Arrow power.
My month. November has been a long month. The main thought that's keeping me going at this point is the middle of December-- when all of my classes end and some of the stress is gone. I'm so pumped for the holidays and my birthday right now. As much as I hate to admit it, I love this time of the year.
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