Saturday, September 30, 2006

another collegerecruiter.com post

This week I met with a woman at RPI's family housing to talk to her about a free scrap booking program. To my surprise she had actually heard of Creative Memories before and was enthusiastic about it. Our meeting only lasted about fifteen minutes, but I got myself a gig at the community center hosting a get together. Residence Life is sponsoring the program so I don't even have to put out fliers, which is good because no one is responding to the ones I posted. The day that we have scheduled isn't until mid-October so I still have to work hard to find people who would be interested in memory books, but at least I have some hope now. I have to admit, if you couldn't tell, that I was beginning to become discouraged.

After doing nothing for a day, I remembered how lazy and boring things get when you do not want to assert yourself. As a result, I got myself motivated and prepared a list of places that I want to visit on Monday. Taking time to revisit my goals and plan out a strategy looks like something that I’ll have to keep doing to keep my little engine running. I did not spend four years in college to waste away on the couch watching TV.

So if you're feeling a little in the dumps like I was, try taking time to relax and recharge. Get your goals back in sight and try again. As New Found Glory says "Failure's not flattering."

I'm addicted to Veronica Mars

Okay so yesterday I did absolutely nothing but watch Veronica Mars. I was the biggest bum in the world. I hadn't even gone into the kitchen until late last night. I did manage to get out though to go to dinner and the women's hockey game with Ed. It was our two year anniversary so we felt, well I felt, likt we should go out on a "date". The game was pretty cool even though we lost.

Today we went to the RPI football game and they beat Becker 56 to 6. We actually cheered when the other team made their touchdown. I also found a Veronica Mars squeal partner in my high school friend Abby. I'm very excited as Ed says that I loose brain cells watching the shows. I argue that I like the mystery not the acting. It's in it's third season now and the ratings aren't good. Everyone start watching!!!!

A new room!


Okay so I've been slacking on my Harry Potter rooms. Here is my newest room. Oh, just so you know, I post these all before they go through the editing committee so if you see mistakes they will be gone before the game gets fully published. And for those of you who don't know, the extended descriptions at the end are key words that players type in to see more of the objects in the game. This particular room doesn't have any echoes. Okay, so this one is one of my creepier ones. You probably shouldn't read this to my little cousins for bedtime stories. Well unless you want them to turn out to be scared of everything for the rest of their lives. Ooh! And this picture is from the upcoming movie that comes out on July 13th!!!

Bestia Turris Cell

Hands protruding from the floor hold lumos lit wands sporadically along a floor of magically bound hands. All wands are directed towards the east where the only exit lies. Glowing green wires tie the helpless wrists together in a tight-nit surface of soft flat palms. The small bright wand lights glare into the bulging eyes embedded into the walls and ceiling. Hundred’s of eyeballs swivel in stone sockets, emitting a squelching sound as each spins rapidly, guarding against intruders. Once an unfamiliar object is spotted, the eyes immediately cease movement to focus on the incoming trespasser. The eyes follow with an intense interest as the intruder enters the grotesque surroundings. As if on cue, the soft floor ripples to life. Each hand reaches to tear at the ankles of the newcomer, shredding the tender skin beneath the green bindings. Fingers crumple when stepped upon, like a spider withering in pain, curled and frigid.

Extended Description


Hands Wrists Glowing Green Wire Fingers Palms: Beneath the glowing wire, deep scars are visible from previous protests. As the hands come to life, the scars are reopened and torn once again. As the green wire is imbedded deeper into the skin, the wire begins to glow with a stronger intensity. Small wisps of smoke rise from the abrasions and the hands move furiously against the pain. The reek of burning flesh permeates in the air, triggering the trespasser’s gag reflexes.

Eyeballs Stone Sockets Swivel: The lidless eyeballs are bloodshot from their inability to blink. To avoid the pain, the eyes resort to spinning rapidly in their stone sockets in hopes of wetting themselves. Some of the more unfortunate are missing pupils as if they had been burned out; only their whites remained. Others were plagued by the clouded vision of cataracts. Each perfectly circular ball protrudes from the wall slightly, for a better view of the room. No eye has a matching mate.

Lumos Wands: The bound hands hold lit wands directing the intruder towards the exit. No spell can be cast with these wands as there are no mouths in the room.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

trapped like a rat

mouse number two done and gone. bye bye.

more pictures

Here are the rest of the pictures that I promised. It took forever because I kept getting an error message. I think that blogspot was having a hard time with something.





mousy number two

Well our little critter had a friend because he scared the ba-geezes out of me when I walked into the kitchen so the traps go out again.

collegerecruiters.com post

Now that I've started with Creative Memories, I have to find people who want to come to my sessions to learn how to scrapbook. I'm feeling a little apprehensive about it all. I'm in a town full of geeky tech college students. There are way more guys here than girls, so I don't know if anyone will really be interested. I've posted fliers and sent out some email, but haven't gotten any responses back. One club, which consists of mostly guys, was not interested at all. That is pulling my hopes down a little.

I have an appointment with the program coordinator for the dorms at RPI tomorrow. I'm hopeful for that, but still a little uncertain. What if she decides that this isn't a good thing for the students? If I can't get the ball rolling I'm afraid that I'll crash. My consultant continues to be really supportive so at least I have her, but I'm surrounded by people who are utterly uninterested in scrapbooks.

On top of that, the product that I was planning to make a killing on isn't going to be released until Nov. 1st instead of Oct. 1st. I'm supposed to make a certain retail min. in order to get a successful start. I'm pretty sure that once I can get a good client base I'll be set, but right now I'm feeling pretty blue. It would help if I knew people out here, but with the move, I know about five people and two of them are my fellow consultants. They obviously are doing well in this company, but I just feel lost and frankly, scared that I won't be able to make an income. I just don't want to be loosing money on this. I of course love scrapbooking so the tools won't be a waste, but I really want to be able to support myself.

the mousy is gone

Edward told me that we caught the mouse last night. :( But I guess it had to be done.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Okay here it is

Alrighty, well since Austin keeps complaining about me not posting, here it is. Okay, so I've been pretty busy with all of my scrapbooking stuff. I finally signed my contract last Thursday and was very excited to get my first products from my upline. She gave me a little head start by giving me pretty much everything that is in my starters kit. She keeps an inventory, so it was nice to be able to get started on my demo book right away. Depending on when she faxed my contract in, I'm supposed to get my kit tomorrow. When I get it, I'll just give her back all the stuff that she gave to me. I also went to a workshop that she held. I really enjoyed it. Six straight hours of scrapbooking with people who are as enthusiastic as I am. It was nice getting some positive feedback from some of her clients. On top of that, I was able to take a bunch of her stuff and just put it on a list so that I could pay her back. And guys, they have some seriously awesome tools. There is this thing called a "pick" that helps you put tiny little stickers on and also takes them off without tearing your stickers. It is totally awesome. Here are some pictures of what has been keeping me busy the last few days. Okay, so some of them are at a weird angle because I didn't want to take off all of the plastic sheets so I had to get at a weird angle so that there wasn't too much glare.

Allison's Demo Scrapbook






















These aren't all of the pictures, but Ed can't play Battle Field II if I'm uploading them all so I'm going to do them on a later post.

Okay, so after doing all of my scrapbooking stuff, I almost got caught up in a scam! So most of you know that I post my resume online. I got an email asking for a middle man for a company in the UK. I asked Ed if he thought it was okay to do and he said that he thought that it could be okay since they didn't ask for any account numbers or anything. He had also said that he had heard of people doing this before and that there are some legitamate companies who do this kind of stuff. So I applied. Well, after I applied I recieved two checks in the mail for $5000 each. I was like whoa! I thought that it would be checks for like $100 or something, not $5000! I was supposed to get 10% of whatever I transfered so that was going to be like $500 for some guy I didn't know. As soon as I opened this, I text message Ed because he was in class. He told me to not do anything until he got home. So I called my dad instead. I forwarded the email that the guy sent me to him, but he wasn't home so he couldn't look at it right away.

After studying the checks, they did look real and also had a website for Navy Fenderal. So I looked them up online and then called their local branch. The lady told me that it was definitely a scam. Se asked me to send her the checks, which I did. Then today, I got a call from her saying that it was a scam and that there is nothing that I can do now. She gave it to Navy Federal's security section. They told her that this guy was flagged for a scam for some mail order bride or something. She told me not to email him anymore, so I blocked his email address. Now, my problem is that he keeps calling me with an anonymous number. He's left a couple of voicemails but they were really really hard to understand. So I just ignore him.

Okay, so now that I've updated you about that, we have a mouse. We see poop all over and if we ever forget to clean up and leave some crumbs, they're gone by morning. We set out a trap and Ed just told me that he stole the bait but didn't get caught. He's a smart little cookie! I wanted to catch him and keep him as pet, but Ed said that they're bad because they have diseases. But they're so cute! Oh well. He said that it's little and gray. I guess it ran under our sink. I just don't like knowing that it's running all over my disifected counters.

I just finished "The Confessions of a Shopaholic" By Sophie Kinsella. I loved it! It's kinda scary, but I have a lot in common with the protagonist. Although she does frustrate me a lot, I love her character. I've bought the other three books to the series and can't wait for them to show up. Heheh. I suggest reading it.

I think this wraps it up. Oh, I got a suggestion from one of the scrapbook consultants I met about InvinciBob. She said why not call him InvinciBill, like Invicible. I looked up the name, and some guy has that as his username for a comic book website. I changed InviciBob to InvinciBill, but I'm not sure if I want to keep it like this. What do you think?
Austin! It's only been two days since I last posted. Hold your horses!

I've been pretty busy


Okay, so lately I've been pretty busy with this scrapbooking stuff. On top of almost being caught up in an online scam, I've been busy trying to get my demo book together. The other night I went to my consultant's workshop and got to scrapbook for six hours! It was pretty exciting for me. Anyways, I'm going to try to write in more detail tonight so that you all can see what's going on here. Hopefully I'll get to it. Austin, patience is a virtue.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

storybooks

Okay, so you know how I said that there were those cool books in the last post? Well here is my general speal for the details. I'm sure some of you have already heard this from me and will probably hear it again because I'm so excited about them. Here it is:

Hey, I’ve just started working for this company called creative memories. It’s a scrap booking company. They have this new thing coming out on October 1st that I thought would be something great for you to do if you have a ton of pictures that you want to put in an album, but don’t have time to do it. It’s called a "storybook". Basically what it is a book of your pictures. You can choose which pictures go in and what backgrounds you have. It’s similar to iphoto's album maker, but there are waaaayyy more templates and you can mix and match. I tried using iphoto and all I could use was one template and then I think you had to print it out yourself. With storybook they print it out for you on really nice glossy acid free paper. They bind it too with what is called a "stitch" binding, so no matter how many times you show it to people, it won't fall apart because it's only glued together. The best part is, is that you can download the software free as of Oct 1st and then put your book together. You don't even have to pay for it until you are done and decide that you really want it. I went to a meeting in New Jersey yesterday and these things are seriously cool. I’m thinking of making a bunch for all of the vacations that I've been on lately. It’s cool too because if your friends like what you made, all they have to do is go online and have the same one printed. I thought that was totally cool. And with all the events and get togethers that you do, I thought this was the perfect opportunity for you, well, anyone really. In it you also get to journal so that you don't forget all of the little things that happened at that event. It’s really cool. I can't express that more. The books start at 20pgs and I think they're $39.99 plus shipping and then like 2.75 per page, which pays for the sheet, so it's front and back. Let me know if you're interested. I'm just so excited about this I’m trying to tell everyone and I thought that this would be a great thing for you. Another thing that is cool is that you can scan stuff in too. So if you have like a cool comic strip that you drew you can put that in too! Okay sorry this is so long. Let me know if you have any questions or if you're interested. I’m just sooo stoked about this. I’m going to get a whole bunch myself. Haha plus if you want to get creative memories products you can get it though me also. Hehe. Man, I just read through this and it totally sounds like an ad you’d pull out of a magazine, but it’s not. I promise. Just think, holidays are coming. Parents and family would eat this up and you'll be their favorite for eternity. Seriously.

Okay so that's the whole thing. Pretty rad isn't it? anyways, they don't come out to the public until October, but I can get them. So if you want to get started on them, you can send me pictures and I can start them. For me to do them for you I'm going to charge $8 an hour, but I don't think that it should take more than two hours. I haven't actually made one yet so I don't know, but I'll let you know. I think I'm going to tackle my sample book tomorrow.

So yesterday I went to New Jersey to a CM meeting. It was pretty cool. Some of those women make major bank. Some of their husbands even quit their jobs to help them with business. I don't think I'll get that into it, but I would like to get some people under me so that I can work towards their big trips and of course earn money. It's totally cool because anyone can move up as long as they want to. If anyone wants to become a consultant let me know and I can get you started. Don't worry, I wouldn't be taking any of your earnings away. I just get rewarded by the company for bringing you in and training you. Plus being a consultant, you get a 30% discount on all of the stuff. And believe me, they have some pretty cool stuff. Well, let me know. Woo Hoo! This is so exciting. I'm actually getting paid for something that I love doing and get to write off all of the products I use to demo and stuff. I even can write off my living room if I host things there. Cool huh?

my interning post

I've started a new job. It's a real money-paying job! None of this volunteer stuff; not that I don't like to volunteer, but I'm actually getting paid now! After reading a suggestion from a response I got from one of my recent posts, I emailed my local Creative Memories consultant and asked if I could be a consultant. It was as easy as that! I'm about to sign my contract and everyone I've met is really nice and very helpful. The company is on a pyramid system, but there is plenty of room to move up and not a lot of competition for positions. It's one of those kinds of things that you benefit from the people under them, but don't take money from them. The leaders train the new consultants and get rewarded for recruiting as well as training. It's a very friendly environment. The best thing about it, is that you can do it anywhere. I was having a hard time trying to figure out what I was going to do after my move to New York because I plan to go back home to California for two months to stay for the holidays. This is great because I can virtually do it anywhere!

Not only is the company made to make scrapbooks, but they also help clients organize all of the their pictures and teach them how to do everything digitally if they want to. I just think it's great because they really encourage their consultants to try their hardest to motivate their clients.

As well as doing CM, I've also been hired on by an out of country company who sells products to the United States. I'm the middle man who tells them that the customer has paid on this end and that it is okay for them to send their product. After, I forward them the money and get to keep 10% of the profit. I haven't actually started, but it sure sounds like an easy way to make money. It is a plus because this is also a job that I can do from anywhere.

I recieved and email today from the man in charge saying that he would send me the packet giving me instructions. When I had applied, I didn't even think that my application went through because I recieved one of those Mailer-Demon messages directly after sending. It was definitely a nice surprise. More income! Woo-hoo! That's always a plus. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm curious myself. I was a little wary at first, but the application didn't ask for any really personal information, so I thought it was okay. I wouldn't have sent anything in if they asked for my ssn or any account numbers.

Today I found the local post office and on the way I stopped in at the library and applied for volunteer work in the children’s center. I'm hoping that these three new things will keep me busy here.

I’m really looking forward to CM because I love memory books. There is also a cool product that they are offering that I’m totally stoked about. You can actually make your own picture book of memories. It’s so great for people who don’t have time to make their own memory books. I was even wondering if you could publish children’s books this way, but I’m not sure. It seems like you could since you write your story and have your picture. I guess I’ll have to see. I supposed it wouldn’t really be published, but it would be a nice hardbound book of whatever I write. Now I’m curious if that’s a good way to go for children’s picture books… hmmm.

When the new school semester starts after the holidays I also plan to go take some classes at the local junior college. I hate to say it, but I miss school. K-Bachelors Degree really puts you in a routine.

Monday, September 18, 2006

pictures

ah ha! it's working again

hall way/laundry area




new bathroom frame

A smaller one at Walmart is like 12.99 and I got this for 14.99 at goodwill! woo hoo!



Edward being a manly man and drilling stuff for me


new harry potter room



This is a new stairwell that I just wrote.

A cold draft ripples through the air from the top of the damp stairwell. The sea just beyond the stairs batters the stone with the wrath of an angry Hippogriff. The smell of salt permeates the air as the walls tremble and bits of moisture spray into the dark enclosure at each rhythmic thud. The soft rumbling echoes down the north exit, disappearing into the unknown. Small salt crystals shimmer in the corners of the low ceiling. A trickle of water falls down the steps in an even stream, rippling along the rough stone surface rolling towards the slanted south exit. Two salt encrusted sconces are imbedded in the rough gray wall. Narrow in depth, the slippery stairs lead up towards the sound of crashing water.

addecho 1 23 1 :A soft howl of wind echoes through the cold stairwell and down the south exit. The wind is chilling.

Salt Smell Air: Walls Tremble Water filled with sodium chloride burns nostrils as the chemical compound adheres itself to the tiny follicles on the tender inner skin. The salty mist comes from the overflow of seawater that terrorizes the stone structure. To the touch, the walls feel sandy from dried saltwater.

Trickle Water Stream: The tiny stream of water flows in an even line down the steps towards the south exit. From the bottom step, it is not discernable where the water comes from, though it most likely is from the pools of seawater that lay ahead.

Sconces Encrusted Imbedded: Two rusty faux gold sconces hang on either side of the stairwell. Salt is caked on to the glass panels from the incessant onslaught of seawater. Only a dim orange glow is emitted through the dirty glass, providing an incoming visitor little to see by. The light fixtures looked to have once been elegant and beautiful, but currently reflect the dismal atmosphere of Azkaban.

Christopher started playing the game, but I don't think that he is to interested in it because there are to many commands and actions that you have to remember. If you like this kind of stuff, please play and let me know how it is. The other writers here are really talented. I've gone around the place just looking at how well everyone else writes. I stopped doing that because it made me feel sorry for myself.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

more pictures

Well, here are more pictures of our humble abode. I am in the process of recreating some old chairs. They are turning out pretty snazzy, if I may say so myself. I have to go get more paint for them, but otherwise, they were very easy to do.

My cool chairs





Well, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow a lady is coming to our place for tea and to interview me for a position in her scrapbooking team. I told her that I don't know anyone around here so I wouldn't be able to bring in any new clients for scrapbooking parties and she said that there are other things that can be done. She seems really laid back and flexible so I'm hoping for the best. She even offered to take me aroudn the Troy/Albany area to show me around. That was nice of her. Well hopefully everything goes well. I'm sure it will.

Okay, well the internet is being dumb, so only the chairs are going on tonight. I don't have the patience to wait for it to do what I want it to. Goodnight all.

jack black syphony commercial

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tC5P7mBu_XY

Saturday, September 16, 2006

I did it!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOO! I managed to upload pictures. I had a hard time before, but it looks like I figured it out.

Friday, September 15, 2006

first days of NY

Well, so far I've spent a whole lot of money on things that we need for our place. You should see this place. It has pink walls! And I mean pink. The landlords painted the textured wall paper too and didn't do such a great job with it. I went out with Kati and Dan, our new friends, and had a little shopping spree for furniture and drapery. I've never had to shop for that kind of stuff before and have to admit that it is quite boring. I couldn't find any gray curtains for our bedroom, so it's all pink right now. The place is really nice for the price, though it is definitely a fixer upper.

Last night Edward helped me put together my desk from Goodwill, the behind the door shoe rack, and a billion curtain rods. The place looks a lot better, but the weird walls from the landlords are difficult to color coordinate. For instance, our family room has nice wood paneling on two walls, shingles on one and a half walls and a plain primer color white wall. On top of that the fireplace has a pinkish slab of marble in front of it. Needless to say, I'm pulling for color schemes for our place. Here's what I have planned:

Family room: red and creamish brown
Living room: dark brown
Entrance: beige
hallway: red and beige
bathroom: blue and black (the toilet, sink, and tub are blue and the walls is black and silver foil from like an eon ago)
office: blue
bed room: gray
Kitchen: green and yellow

This is why I've spent so much. I haven't even done our room yet because I can't find gray curtains!! I've also been trying to get rugs so that it isn't so cold here during the winter. I also decorated a couple of lampshades with nylons like I saw on Design Star. They turned out pretty well. Anyways, on with the going-ons.

We had gone to a movie session called "Dance Movies 5", which is a production of independent dance films. Most of them were pretty cool, but I have to admit that Modern Dance is kind of weird. When we got out it was pouring. After we finished putting up the curtains and it stopped raining we went for a walk to the pizzaria down the street. It is literally a block away. We got our slices of pizza, but since there were a lot of people there we decided to go walk and eat. The streets were all wet and the restaurant has a big mural of the Statue of Liberty so I felt like we were in a scene from a movie. Juni, that was my first Sex and the City experience. I don't think that the actually had an episode like that, but they could have! There were no cars our or anything. Edward even said that if we were in a movie we would be saying a really cheesy line. To burn off the late night pizza we walked up the steepest hill I've ever encountered in a city. The hill/mountain was even steeper than the ones in San Francisco.


Today I tried to get more stuff done around the apartment while Ed was a school. When he got back, we went to Walmart to get me boots for our caving trip. Let me tell you, that was the coldest I've been in a long time. We were wade though waist high water and at the end we even had to go all the way under the water to get out. Edward said that the last caving trip that he went on was a lot better because they got to see a lot more and they didn't get nearly as wet. The funny thing is that I actually burned myself on my Carbide head lamp, which is a little flame that you put on your head so that you can see, because my hands were so cold I tried to warm them with the flame. Since it was on my forehead I couldn't see where the flame was. I found it when I burned my wrist. Needless to say, I didn't try to warm up my hands that way again. I hope that's the closest I ever get to hypothermia. It was soooo cold! Plus we were wiggling our way through places that were only about a foot high. It's a good thing I'm small. I don't know if I’ll be doing that again. If I feel adventurous then maybe I'll go with the leaders that Ed had the first time lead again. But as for now, caving is not on my good side.


My Lamps







Family room





Living Room






Entryway






Bathroom

I don't know if you can tell, but that sink is definitely blue!





Laundry Area




Kitchen








Bedroom






Okay, so the pictures are a little out of order, but I'm sure you can figure out the before and after. Basically anything with pink was the before. We also put up that nice rack above the toilet. There was no storage space in there at all!