Break

I am taking a break for now as my computer is currently down (using my mom's laptop to post this). I made an error when trying to install a driver and now I can't get Windows to boot up. My uncle is working on fixing the problem and I should be back within the next couple of weeks.

7: Ukulele.

At the beginning of this year, after watching videos of Amanda Palmer playing the ukulele for several months and hearing about how easy it was to pick up on, I decided I wanted to give it a go. I looked around for a while, trying to find a ukulele that was at a decent price. I eventually settled on this one because it came with a case:

The uke was ordered, and I got excited to receive it. I'd been wanting to play the guitar for several years and tried to learn it but I never really got it down. It just took too much time to learn and was too complicated. Sure, you could say it's because I'm lazy, but really, I didn't want to devote a lot of time to learning an instrument that was meant merely as a hobby. That was what happened when I learned piano as a young girl - I spent several years and my grandparents spent lots of money on lessons, and what did I learn? Pretty much just the basics, and after I quit lessons I lost interest in playing for years until I picked it up again as a hobby.

So the uke seemed like a good balance - kind of like a guitar, can be used to play a lot of the same songs as you could play on a guitar (but not a piano), and apparently very easy to learn. Seemed like a good hobby instrument.

So I got the uke in the mail and by the end of the first day I had it, I could already play probably about ten chords and five or six songs. The first song I learned, naturally, was "Creep" by Radiohead, because Amanda Palmer's ukulele cover of it was what inspired me to play the ukulele in the first place. Four chords, a simple song. But a crowd pleaser, for sure.

I started recording videos of me playing with my webcam and posting them on my YouTube account, which, at the time, had just a few videos of basically random things. The first uke video I posted was this:



All The Small Things, by blink-182 - they're one of those bands that most people kind of got over but I still listen to years later. That cover is not a very good one. At the time, I'd only been playing for a week.

Time went on, and I continued playing and learning more songs. I got better and better, but the uke sounded sort of... well, cheap. It made sense, because it was cheap. I didn't intend to get one that was much better. I put some pretty stickers on it to make it look more interesting.

One day, I got a private message from a guy who went by the username "deach69". I had no idea who he was, but he had been commenting on and rating a lot of my videos recently with pretty positive reviews. The message, in essence, said that I was pretty good but I could use a better uke. He said that if I wanted him to hook me up with a nice uke to just ask.

Confused, I asked if he worked at a music store and could get me a discount, or something similar.

No, he said, he just gives free ukes away to people he thinks deserve them.

Naturally, this startled me. Who does that? I mean, honestly? But he told me to look him up on Ukulele Underground, as proof that he was legit. (Ukulele Underground, by the way, is pretty much the biggest internet forum for ukulele lovers.)

So I searched his name, and found lots of people writing thank you posts and all sorts of other stuff about the ukes that he had given them. I also found videos on YouTube of people opening packages from Deach that, of course, contained ukes. He had become so notorious for these random acts of kindness that the act of giving someone a ukulele became known as "to deach" - so if you get a ukulele from him, you are said to have been deached.

I was stunned. This guy - who knows who the hell he is - he just gives these things away for free. And they're nice ukuleles. I didn't get it. So it was legit, but I was still thinking, who does that?

The answer to that question is, of course, Deach.

We continued our conversation and eventually we had it set so that a Mainland concert ukulele would be mailed to my grandma's P.O. Box (my mom was still a bit skeptic, and didn't want me giving him our home address). The next week, my grandma came over carrying a large box.

And I recorded this video.



I have a really difficult time getting my emotions through to a web cam, but I tried. I was truly touched by his generosity. I knew it wasn't like it was a special case just for me, he'd done this lots of times, but I don't think that's the point. The fact he does it at all just shows that he is truly a kind, generous person with a heart of gold. He still continues to watch and comment on my videos as I get better and better.

The new uke majorly improved my ability to learn and play. The strings weren't loose, so it didn't need to be tuned as often. The frets were a bit wider, so it was easier to do strange finger placements for chords. And, of course, it sounded much better than my old one.

I named it Amanda, after my hero and inspiration. I decided to name the other one Brian, so I would have a matching set.

On the day I met Amanda Palmer, I had both her and Jason Webley sign the ukulele.

Not the best picture of me, or the signatures, really. But that isn't the point. It made the ukulele even more special to me. The ukulele has become my best friend, my inspiration, and my distraction. (My Facebook page says I am dating my ukulele. So it actually says I'm dating "Amanda Palmer," but when you click to go to the profile it's a profile I made for my ukulele. That is how much I love my ukulele.)

A few weeks ago, I did something I'd never really done before, thanks to my ukulele and some inspiration from my cousin. I wrote a song. A full song, with actual chords to back it up. When I was younger I used to write lyrics and tunes, but they weren't very good and they were never actually finished. They also never had instruments to accompany them.

If it weren't for the ukulele, I probably never would have written this song. It's titled "That's What I Said," and it's sort of about a lot of things rolled into one. But it's mostly about Amanda Palmer - both the person, and the ukulele.

6: Papercraft.

I discovered the art of papercraft accidentally one day about two years ago while I was looking on Google Images for a picture of the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. Instead of a regular picture of the cube from the game, I found this:

I wanted one. I had to have it. So I downloaded the template and went about trying to cut and glue the pieces together with regular scissors, super glue and a pair of tweezers.

This was a bad candidate for a first papercraft, I soon found. It was tiny and complicated. I learned very quickly that papercraft is not as easy as it looks. My first paper Companion Cube was a failure that got thrown out. But I was determined, so I went on my way, looking for other templates. I soon found myself looking at blogs all about papercraft, and finding that there were more than just paper Companion Cubes. There were all sorts of things - characters, food, animals, toys - you name it, there is probably a papercraft of it.

I read different tips and found that an X-acto knife with a cutting board is generally considered the best method for cutting out pieces of papercrafts, and learned that super glue isn't really your best bet when it comes to putting them together. I bought some good old-fashioned Elmer's and an X-acto knife, and I went crazy. Soon the top shelf of my desk was filled with all sorts of characters, all made out of paper. Eventually that was too full and I had to start putting them on my printer. I got more and more skilled and started making more complicated things.

Two years later, I'm still papercrafting. I've had a few failures here and there, mostly due to poor design on the creator's part. But the top shelf of my desk is now a random pile of papercrafts. You can't even see a lot of them. Some of my favorite ones, or the newer ones, are on my printer so that they are more visible. These include a complicated model of American McGee's Alice and a detailed Companion Cube that's about five inches tall. I've given away papercrafts as gifts to several people. Although the work is not fully mine, I think the effort that goes into it makes it special.

Currently, I am working on this papercraft of Osaka and Chiyo from Azumanga Daioh:

It's fairly complicated, and I've run into a lot of problems along the way, both mine and the designer's faults. I've been working on it for a couple weeks now (I do have other things to get done, you know) but I'm very close to being finished. Osaka has been done for well over a week but Chiyo has been going very slowly. I just have to finish up her arms and legs and I can put her on the base next to Osaka and it will be complete.

5: WKAP?

And once again, one blog leads to another. My last post was about Amanda Palmer, and this post is also about Amanda Palmer. It's about a different Amanda Palmer, though - a fictionalized version.

I first heard about alternate reality games a few years back when I was browsing Wikipedia. I read about I Love Bees, which was a promotional ARG for Halo 2. The concept fascinated and frightened me at the same time. I actually had nightmares for a while about the whole idea. It was just creepy.

An ARG, if you don't know, is sort of like a roleplaying game. Well, not exactly; it's more complicated than that. It's a game that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. You have contact with the characters and help them solve a mystery or problem. There are usually lots of fictional websites involved and there are always insane puzzles. It's really part of the whole viral marketing thing, as most ARGs are made to promote something or other.

Right after the Amanda Palmer concert I attended in December, I was browsing the Shadowbox (the Dresden Dolls forum) when I found a thread titled "leaving the light on? WKAP secrets..." It was pretty far in, but it chronicled the mystery from the start. I was late, but the clock was still ticking.

ARGs start with a rabbit hole of some sort. For this one, it was a URL hidden in several places related to the album: on the album's website blinking in morse code, in thank you messages sent out through e-mail to those who purchased the record digitally. The URL was this: lostandfoundthings.tumblr.com.

At first, it just looked like an interesting blog that was a collection of odd art and quotations. Then on September 16, the owner, Laura, made a blog post that changed things and made people realize there was something more going on here.

The post told the story of Laura's walk along the train tracks that day, and how she found a cookie tin in a rabbit hole. She opened the tin and found it full of strange pictures. Many of these pictures featured the same girl (Amanda) who appeared to be dead in every single one. She turned the photos over to the police.

Eventually, other websites were revealed. There was the website for WKAP-FM, a radio station owned by Jack Fox, the last person to speak to Amanda. Alexa Webb Report, a news website that featured stories about Amanda's disappearance from her friend's house in Acton, Massachusetts. Monolith and Sky, the website of Amanda's former Manager, Koosh Nall. Joie de Vivre Salon, a strange art gallery owned by five suspicious sisters. And Fans of Robert Johnson, owned by the mysterious RJ.

There were other characters that came to the surface with MySpace pages later on. Beth, Amanda's real-life assistant, was a character. Melody, a friend of Amanda who is desperately looking for her. Jude, Amanda's ex-boyfriend. Sheila, a hard-partying girl with a rude attitude. Sam, the Guitar Hero addict.

But the most significant, and most enigmatic, was The Stranger.

The Stranger does not have a real name that we know. All we really know about him is what he looks like, and that he was watching the night Amanda disappeared.

He is one of the few characters we actually have direct contact with, and he has given us the most information.

I think when the game became really, really interesting was when he instructed us to e-mail him and request something to be hidden. These so called "secrets" were sentences, quotes, information, that we were to hide in art for someone else to find and share. Initially, these were hidden in the physical world, but that made things move very slowly and so the hiding moved to Twitter, where information got around much faster.

The secrets slowly revealed bits of information about all the characters. The mystery still hasn't been fully worked out, but it's clear that there is some sort of voodoo or other trickery about that's allowing Amanda to die and be reborn multiple times, and that the Joie de Vivre sisters are behind it. It's also highly likely they did the same for RJ, who may have been Robert Johnson himself in a previous life. We're not even really sure anymore if the correct question is "who killed Amanda Palmer?"

But the fascination goes beyond that, even - there may be more philosophical layers than I can chew on. It's amazing, how this game has made people really think. I'm too tired to go and find some of the quotes, but there has been a lot of musing from certain "players" about the true nature of this ARG and the meaning of it. It's not just a game, and it's not just promotion. It's art.

The connections between characters and the mystery of it all have become like a second life for me and several others. The only downfall are the lulls in activity that occur every once in a while, when there are no new secrets, no new messages from The Stranger, and no new blogs from any of the characters. Eventually, though, it will pick up. Things will start moving again, and I'll get sucked in. That's just the way the game is played.

WikipediaWictionaryChambers (UK)Google imagesGoogle defineThe Free DictionaryJoin exampleWordNetGoogleUrban DictionaryAnswers.comrhymezone.comMerriam-Webster

4: Amanda Palmer.

Today's entry is the happier offspring of yesterday's. One thing leads to another, it's the way things go.

When I first became enamored with Panic!, they were touring with a band I'd never heard of called The Dresden Dolls. They made a video together while on tour, a music video to the Dolls' song "Backstabber" from their new album. This is that video (warning, strong language - though I doubt anyone who's reading this cares):



I found it pretty amusing, but I was only getting half of the laughs because, at the time, I was only familiar with the personalities of the Panic! members. I knew nothing about these "fucking mimes", as Spencer called them. But I liked the song, so I decided to try out the album.

I absolutely loved Yes, Virginia..., and wound up listening to their older albums as well. I soon found myself learning how to play their songs, playing the piano for real for the first time in probably six or seven years. The music was inspiring, moving, but my main focus was still Panic!.

Then the whole story I recounted in the last blog happened. Right before Hannah came to visit me, the Dolls' new compilation album, No, Virginia... was released. I got it but didn't get a real chance to listen to it before she got here. The Dolls weren't really her thing, so listening to them together wasn't really an option.

She left, broke my heart, yada yada, you already know the story.

No, Virginia... was there.

I fell into a deep depression, but this music was there for me to cling to. Amanda's voice, her words, her sounds helped put the pieces of me back together. When I was at the lowest I'd ever been, this record saved me.

I soon found out that Amanda's solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer was scheduled to come out a couple months later, that August, right around my birthday. I got really excited. I stopped paying so much attention to Panic!, and somehow, Amanda became my new obsession.

No, it was more than that; Amanda became my hero.

Her music has moved me in ways that no one else's ever has. I think "Strength Through Music" is one of maybe three songs that has ever made me cry.

She was going on a tour that fall to support the album. Tickets went on pre-sale in September. I'd found out earlier that day that my new friend Tyler liked The Dresden Dolls, and I asked if he'd go to the show in Portland in December with me. It was on his birthday, but he planned on it. My mom pre-ordered the tickets and December 12th was constantly on my mind as it approached ever so slowly.

During this time I also made a new friend over the internet named Katie. She lives in Ireland and she told me she had just seen Amanda play in Dublin, and that she had met Amanda and gotten a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

I was in shock. I had no idea Amanda did signings and meet and greets after every single show. I was going to meet her! I was going to meet my hero! The anticipation for December grew even larger.

We went to the show. We got there very early, and were second in line behind two girls named Catilin and Ellery. We spent the next two hours or so talking to them and, of course, waiting. The doors finally opened.

There were opening acts.

Jason Webley is an amazing accordionist from Seattle and one of Amanda's best friends. He got us drunk in a very legal way and had us sing a drinking song. He was good, but I wanted Amanda.

The Builders and the Butchers are a local band. They were good, but I wanted Amanda.

Zoe Keating is a brilliant cellist. She was good, but I wanted Amanda.

Amanda was carried on to the stage in a veil, rising from the audience, rising from the dead.

I actually started crying. I was in the front row, and she was mere feet away from me. I had my new camera. I was supposed to be taking pictures, video. I tried, but I couldn't. She was right there. Why should I be watching her through a camera?

The show was magnificent. You should, in fact, try to find videos of her and the Danger Ensemble. It was easily the best concert I have ever been to (and lucky for Tyler, because it was his first concert - and on his birthday too!). Moving, like the music, but more interactive, more real. Incredible. There are simply no words that can accurately describe it.

I went to the merch table and bought a poster and The Virginia Companion (the sheet music from Yes, Virginia... and No, Virginia...). My intention was to ask her to sign them.

Then someone shouted, "THERE WILL NOT BE A SIGNING TONIGHT! THE VENUE IS CLOSING."

My heart broke again.

We left, dejected. I figured, "it's okay, I'll meet her next time."

I found out the next day over Facebook, from Caitlin, that Amanda came outside later and talked to everyone that got kicked out but had waited around anyway. I was filled with so much regret that we didn't stay. It ate at me for months.

But I got my chance.

Amanda opened me up to the world of Twitter (yet another thing I'll have to blog about... ironically). Her Twitter account is very active. She uses it to make announcements of all sorts, chatter, and, more originally, be a ninja.

Sometime in either May or June, she started announcing ninja ukulele gigs wherever she happened to be if she had some spare time. She'd go to a park or some other public place, and announce over Twitter that she'd be there. People could show up. They could donate money if they wanted to, but it wasn't necessary. The point was connecting with fans.

In July, she started tweeting that she was in Portland at a hotel. I was surprised that she was there at all, as she really had no reason to be from what I could tell, but excited that she was so close. On the night of July 8th, she tweeted that she was having a random get together in a strip club in Portland. I was 18, so technically, I could have gone, but I had no way of getting there because no one I knew that could have driven me from Woodland to Portland (over a half hour drive) wanted to go to a strip club. I was disappointed, but I knew I'd get my chance.

The next day, she tweeted that there would be a ninja uke gathering. I rushed to figure out plans. I ended up catching a ride with my friend Sam, who lives even further north in Washington, and loves Amanda just as much as I do. I brought my ukulele and the WKAP DVD for her to sign. Tyler and Andrew were already in Portland and went there as well.

They got there early and were able to grab a good spot near Amanda when she showed up.

We, however, got there late. Sam's friends didn't know their way around Portland and we got very, very lost. But we made it.

I showed up in the middle of Amanda playing "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" on her ukulele. There was a pretty large crowd sitting around her. I stood there looking for Andrew and Tyler, and was shocked to see them sitting right next to her. I snuck behind her and sat down next to them. She was sitting just a couple feet away from me. It was pretty surreal, but I didn't cry, not like the first time. I think I had better prepared myself, somehow.

She finished the song and had apparently noticed me sitting down behind her. She turned around and said "hi." Somehow, I said "hi" back. She told me I had a nice ukulele. I thanked her. And she went back to playing.

The whole thing was really great. She played a lot of songs, there was a lot of chatting, she read from the (not yet released) Who Killed Amanda Palmer book (stories by Neil Gaiman, pictures by many, many people). Jason Webley showed up. They played "Elephant, Elephant" together on top of an elephant statue in the park. Jason played his own "Last Song". Just as he was about to leave, I caught him and asked him to sign my ukulele. Instead of actually signing it, he just drew a little picture of himself. Adorable, actually. I also asked Amanda to sign it really quickly. My previously awesome ukulele was now a million times more awesome.

Jason left. Amanda stood around and went, slowly but surely, through the crowd of people, giving hugs, signing, talking and taking pictures. She got to me.

I calmly, somehow, told her that she's my hero and that No, Virginia... brought me out of a major depression. She said that was interesting, that she'd never heard anyone say that before because that was such an odd record (it was all B-sides and leftover recordings from Yes). I had Tyler ask her to sign my DVD (I felt weird having her sign two things) and she talked to Andrew as well. She gave us hugs and took pictures. I think one of the strangest parts for me was when she laid her head down on my shoulder. It was so affectionate and... I don't really know how to describe it.

See, here's the thing about Amanda: she's not like most other artists. She really cares about her fans and wants to connect with them, regardless of how famous she gets. There aren't many musicians left that will do that; there are too many people at the show to have a meet and greet, signings only happen once in a blue moon, hugs, what are those? I think that's a huge part of what's drawn me to her so much - she's just so real.

My obsession with Panic! was an entirely different thing. They were real people, sure, but they felt like fictional characters. They were very far away, disconnected, out of reach, and I think that's part of why the whole fanfiction thing was okay with me. I didn't feel like they were real. I could slash them just like I could slash any anime character.

That's not to say I couldn't write fanfiction about Amanda, but it would be a very different thing. It would most likely be a WKAP story. They actually encourage that sort of thing - there's a website, http://wekilledamandapalmer.com that takes submissions of pictures and stories inspired by WKAP. I've actually gotten a picture up there and Andrew has as well. Andrew, Tyler and I (as well as a couple other friends here and there) started our own Who Killed project, at http://whokilled.deviantart.com.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that Amanda Palmer has changed my life drastically. Her music and art has inspired me like no other. She's changed me for the better. She's made me try new things I may not have tried before. It's because of her I started playing piano again. It's because of her I took up the ukulele.

And it's because of her that my heart is no longer broken.

3: Panic! At the Disco.

This is part one of a small series. I have to start here to explain how I got to the next couple of posts.

In 2006, my taste in music was fairly limited - most of what I was listening to was the same stuff I was listening to in 2003. I didn't listen to any music that was on the radio. Popular music? What was that?

A couple of my friends were listening to this band, Panic! At the Disco. I didn't know what their music sounded like, but their name made me automatically assume they were ridiculous and not worth my time. (They actually were kind of ridiculous, I found out later, but not in the ways you would expect.)

Rachel, one of my best friends who liked the band, told me about their stage show. The lead singer was very suggestive with the lead guitarist. There was even a scene where they acted like they were going to kiss, but faked out on the audience. This, naturally, got the fangirls screaming. It also had me intrigued. Potentially gay boys are an easy way to get me into any fandom.

If you're wondering where my head is, it's difficult to explain. I'm one of many, many girls who find the idea of homosexual relationships between men exciting. I don't really know what, specifically, about it catches my attention, but this is besides the point. I had to investigate.

So I started watching live videos of the band. I started listening to their music.

And then I found the fanfiction.

I'd never really been a member of a fan community that obsessed over real people. It was all very new to me. At first I felt a little bit ashamed - people would ask me, "you're slashing REAL people?!" and I felt bad but I continued to do it anyway. The guilty feelings went away slowly as I read more and more and even wrote some of my own.

I became obsessed past the slash; I got interested in who these guys really were, why they wrote the music they did, what made them tick. I watched and read interviews, saved pictures, listened, listened, listened, obsessed. It was a strange fandom to be a part of, and it was full of interesting people who had a lot of the same interests and feelings as me. I made some new friends and re-kindled relationships with old friends.

I posted fanfiction and fanart of the band on my deviantART account (ShiversTheNinja.deviantart.com, if you're wondering) and made some new friends there as well. One particular friend and hit it off fast and couldn't seem to stop talking. Next thing you knew, we were constantly chatting on AIM and I used AIM to text her while she wasn't home.

This is where it starts to get a little bit difficult to talk about, but I'll continue anyway. I'm straying a bit from the original subject of this post, but Panic! was really what brought us together and kept us together.

Her name was Hannah, and she was the first person I ever fell in love with. She lived on the opposite side of the country, in Connecticut. My feelings for her gave me the ability (and a couple of times, forced me) to come out as bisexual to several people who had not previously known this about me. Eventually, I was able to tell her my feelings and she replied with enthusiasm that she felt the same way. We started making plans for her to come visit me so we could see Panic (they had dropped the exclamation point at the time) in concert together in Portland that June.

Also heavily involved in this whole thing was my good friend Elise. She completed a triangle between the three of us; we all liked the same things, we had good conversations, we were all friends. She also gave me the confidence to ask Hannah out.

So for months and months, there were chats, inside jokes. Things developed outside of the Panic fandom that were personal to us, but still connected. I was happier than I'd ever been before. Things seemed to be going so well.

Then she came to visit, and things got weird. She stayed for a whole month. We had some fun, but neither of us was agressive enough to make a move (I still hadn't had my first kiss) and nothing ever happened except for occasional hugs. I didn't even say "I love you" in person to her until we were at the airport and she was actually leaving. All I got was a muffled response.

Why? Because over the course of that month, she realized that she was still in love with her ex-girlfriend. After leaving, she avoided the internet (and me) for three weeks before finally sending me a message to tell me that it wasn't going to work out.

So, my first love, and my first heartbreak. That was probably the hardest summer I've ever had. But it brought me into the subject of my next post... which will, well, be covered in my next post.

My interest in Panic faded as activity from the band slowed and the fandom became quiet. I still paid some attention to what was going on, but I stopped reading fanfiction.

Earlier this year, I heard the news that the band split. Ryan Ross and Jon Walker were leaving the band to form their own new band. It wasn't that much of a surprise - they hadn't been talking to the other two, visibly at least, for months. So they left, and Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith were left alone to continue Panic! (they re-instituted the exclamation mark) and take on the tour with blink-182.

I was upset. I cried. It was difficult. But the new music gave me hope. I liked it better than any of their previous material. It wasn't as original as their first album, nor was it as unoriginal as their second album. It was somewhere in between, and it was perfect for me.

The third album still hasn't come out yet - they're working on new songs for it. They've released one single and a clip of a demo of another song. I will wait, patiently for the new album. And even though the obsession is gone, I'll still be very excited when it comes out. When I enter a fandom, I'm in it for good, even if the fixation isn't there. I will always care.

2: Paper stars.

I've enjoyed origami since I was young. Folding paper and making neat little figures always amused me.

When I was 12, a classmate introduced me to origami "lucky stars". You take a strip of paper, fold it into a pentagon and puff it up, like so:

(Lucky star instructions by carriephlyons.deviantart.com)

I thought these were the coolest origami I'd ever seen. Most of the origami I'd done was two-dimensional, flat, and, well... kind of boring. These were not only 3D, they were cute! I had my mom take me to the import store so I could buy a canister of strips to fold them out of.

I have no idea what happened to all those stars I folded when I was 12. There were probably about 100. I don't really know how many strips were in that can. But after that little fit of folding fun, I dropped the whole idea and forgot about it.

Until two years ago.

I started papercrafting (yet another post will be made for that) and I found that at times I wanted to make things out of paper but I wasn't in the mood for glue or cutting out complicated pieces. I just wanted something simple that didn't take a lot of thinking.

I remembered those origami stars.

I, once again, bought strips for making them. I folded every single one. I got better and better at it as time went on. Unfortunately, there wasn't much time for that; I went through all the strips very quickly.

Then I found out you could print lucky star strips. Print them?! What nonsense, I thought!

How wrong was I?

I bought scrapbook paper and cut it down so I could run it through the printer and get the template on the paper. Then I cut that down so that I had lots of strips made out of scrapbook paper in various patterns. I spent a lot of time in December 2007 folding stars. I bought a large plastic lidded container at the Dollar Tree specifically for storing the stars.

While at my grandma's house, I hit 1,000 stars.

(That's actually a picture of some of my stars, in case you were wondering.)

Even though I'd hit 1,000, I still kept going. Everyone asked me the same thing: what are you going to do with those stars? I really didn't know. I thought maybe I'd give them to friends, maybe I'd leave them in random places for people to find. I did a little bit of both for a while. My friend Ashley suggested I hang them from my ceiling, and I ended up with about 100 up there. But they still weren't really going anywhere... until recently.

Another hobby (and another entry) that I have is making jewelry out of polymer clay. I've had the fortunate opportunity a few times to sell it online. Each time I sell jewelry, I package it with some stars, like so:

I think this is going to be the final resting place for a lot of my stars. It's a good compromise; they're not getting thrown in the trash, they're being given to friends and valued customers as an extra little surprise. They don't feel like such a waste of time anymore.

Except for this beauty, which I made last week:

Yeah, do you see my hand there? This thing is over a foot wide. It's hanging from my ceiling, right in front of my window. I made it by taping together a lot of pieces of printer paper, end to end. I think I used 16, but if I did it again, I'd probably use 18 to make sure it was strong enough to actually puff it up more properly. I had to use tape in several places to hold it together. But I think it was worth it. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile. It feels like the culmination of my star-making habit.

That doesn't mean, however, that I'm going to stop; I'll probably be making paper stars for a long time.