Where Have I Been?

Wow...this hasn't been updated since May!

Where have I been?

Short answer: Around

Slightly longer answer: Let's just say it wasn't a very fun summer.

Nothing particularly bad happened. It was just a difficult summer.

There were a few good things:

Spent the 4th of July in Marquette, MI with my parents, brother and aunt & uncle and their families. The last time I was in Marquette was about 10 years ago. That trip really made me realize that Marquette and my aunt & uncles' house on Lake Superior had a huge impact on me and my childhood memories. I can stand in the middle of their lake house and tell you the view from the windows and where things are in the house.

Finally hit 300 finds! Find 100 was in the Outer Banks, find 200 was on Mercer Island in Washington and find 300 was in Chanhassen, MN. About time I have a milestone in the state I actually live in.

School has started again. I'm taking two classes: Management of Libraries and Information Centers (yuck!) and Preservation and Conservation (yay!). The Preservation and Conservation class is the first of the archiving classes and is absolutely fascinating. That class makes me excited about school again. The Management class is the last of the "required" classes that I have to take, so I can't wait until it's over!

The LTC at the top of the page is "Lotus Blossom". It's one of my stress relieving cards, meaning just use materials that I have on hand when I'm feeling frustrated and just need to do something fun (which happened a few times this summer). It didn't scan very well, but I like it. I used three different patterns of origami paper for the background.

The Age Old Question

Last year, I sent out a postal that attempted to answer one of the greatest questions known to man: Who would win in a fight, pirates or ninjas?

After crisscrossing the country, visiting letterboxers, attending gatherings, and avoiding traps by the various anti-pirate and anti-ninja factions, it has returned home!

Here are the results:

Pirates would win in a fight: 19 votes
Ninjas would win in a fight: 21 votes

And one write-in vote for dinosaurs eating them all.

Read on for the highly scientific and totally based in fact reasons for voting.

Pro-Pirate:

"They have no moral code...while the ninja is whipping around, the pirate will use his cutlass." -Dewberry

"We may be drunks, but we are deadly! Slow of wit but sharp of blade, we shall rule the world!" -Kittenwithoutmittens

"Ninjas require a full face mask, but pirates can make do with but an eyepatch. And besides, pirates have a kick-butt flag!" -wassamatta u

"They have way cooler outfits and get to sail around in awesome ships!" -Bikercats

"Rat Queen says that if a ninja was after her, she'd run away. But if a pirate was after her, she would run away screaming. Mr. M7 says that the pirates would win because they have no honor. We all agree that dinosaurs would eat them all." -Murray7

"Pirates have the best music! Jigs, reels, hornpipes and Wages of Sin is a cool pirate-punk band!" -dbltall

"While the ninjas have the turtles, the pirates have Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Plus pirates have cannons, guns and swords." -Team MTpt101

"They are like the Peter Pan of the sea. Stealing from the colonial powers who were stealing from the natives." -Anthrogradjess

"Mama Fox and Baby Fox are on the pirate side and it has nothing to do with Johnny Depp as Capt. Sparrow-ok, well, a little. And pirates have much cooler clothes and get to hang out at the beach-what more do you need?" -The Little Foxes

"With pirates as good looking as Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, we'll always win!" -Mama Bear

"The clothes say it all...one has style, the other is boring! And the weapons...little flying discs vs a cutlass & a black powder pistol." -Feather

Pro-Ninja:

"My sons are adamant that the ninja is the superior fighter-they think it's no contest!" -Dewberry

"This Jedi votes ninja-training is everything!" -SHH/The Inky Jedi

"I'm with the Jedi. My heart is with the pirates, but the ninjas have ruthlessness and discipline. A scary combination." -Dale End Farm

"Ninjas are sneaky. Pirates are drunk. Ninjas have stars and can attack from afar. Pirates are drunk and fumble for a sword. Ninjas are quiet and can stay that way for a long time. Pirates are always singing about drinking while they are drunk." -Littlemonkey

"The pirate might put up a good fight, but ninjas are scary, deadly dudes." -Celtic Quinn

"The pirates would be drunk and the well-trained ninjas would quietly take out each pirate till they were all 'dealt' with." -NeNe

"The pirates would be more fun at a party, but in a fight, the well-trained ninjas would win." -The Box Hunters

"1. Ninjas are mammals. 2. Ninjas fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people." -AfghanPenguin

"Ninjas have way better movies. Also, you only need one ninja to defeat a whole crew of pirates." -Lucky Charm

"Ninjas are awesome!" -DK

"While I think it would be great fun to hang out with Orlando Bloom (*wink*), I do think the ninjas could win battles-so ruthless and deadly." -Scrapper

"Foxy boy is convinced Ninjas would win...they are much sneakier and more elusive." -The Little Foxes

"Ninjas are totally cool!" -Baby Bear

"Ninjas would win-with the power of the cat." -Team BearCat

"I visited a ninja house in Japan and know that they are disciplined, sharp and STEALTHY." -Cat Eyes

"Ninjas are best because they wear black and they don't have to worry about getting seasick." -PAWS

"Stealth, agility, grace and incredible bodies-ninjas all the way! Besides, with all that rum pirates drink, they're too pickled to win!" -mudflinginfools

"Ninjas all the way! They are too quick for any pirates to get their swords or guns out!"-Gargoyle Girl

"They are better at distance and stealth fighting. Ninjas do have a code of honor, but that does not mean they are slow or weak! It is an advantage to be organized and disciplined." -The Gillespie Tribe

More Schoolin'

The class I'm taking this semester is about user instruction, which means it's really an introduction to teaching theories and methods. And, of course, some actual teaching. I avoid getting in front of a crowd to speak whenever possible and even if you meet me on a one-on-one basis, I'm really quiet. Needless to say, I'm counting down the days until the class is over.

I'm in the process of working on my final project for the class. It's a 45 minute lesson on something involving the library science field I want to go into once I graduate. Since my areas of interest are special libraries and archives (which, coincidentally, has the least amount of user instruction) it's a bit harder to figure out what I want to teach. The other people in my class are all going into school media centers, academic libraries or public libraries (which all involve lots and lots of user instruction), so they've been doing the usual "This is how the catalog works, etc, etc." The only other archives student in my class made up an archive (that specialized in artifacts relating to pirates, yar!) and went over the rules and how to use a finding aide. I'm going to focus on corporate libraries and do a re-interpretation of a presentation that I've sat through at work.

And because of my procrastinating ways, I have two weeks to pull it together. I'm hoping to get a large part of it done this weekend while the weather is certainly un-springlike. As I type this, I'm watching the falling snow being whipped around by the wind. It's April! At least the snow isn't sticking. If the weather was nicer, I'd be seriously tempted to go out and find my first letterbox of the year now that most of the snow has melted. I have a serious itch to go letterboxing, but haven't been able to all winter since we've had a continuous snow cover since December. If I get enough work done this week, maybe I'll escape out to the woods next weekend and find a box or two. If not, then I'll get my fix at the Northern Iowa gathering in May and the Great Lakes gathering at the end of May. I don't know how much 'boxing I'll get to do as the host of the gathering, but that whole week is going to be like one big party for me. There's Memorial Day on Monday, my birthday on that Thursday, and then the gathering on Saturday. Maybe I'll finally break 300 finds for my birthday!

Enough procrastinating for now...

My First LTC

Yes, I've gotten into the whole LTC (Letterbox Trading Cards, although I think Letterboxer Trading Cards makes more sense since letterboxers are the ones making them and the stamp might not end up in a letterbox. But what do I know?) craze. It's not surprising really when you consider my little paper fetish. It gives me yet another excuse to buy pretty paper and carve stamps.

The one above can be blamed for getting me hooked on LTCs. It was created for a tea-themed swap last summer. I love carving Asian images and I love how this stamp came out. It's one of those that I just stare at every time I come across it while rummaging through my stamps and think "Did I really carve that?" I hate having it sit in my drawer o' homeless stamps, so I'll have to find a suitable place to hide it. Maybe in or near a Japanese garden. There are six different origami paper backgrounds to this card and I got quite the kick out of asking people which background they received. I had no idea which one I would would receive back, but this red one is one of my favorites. It was one of the patterns in a package of origami paper that I bought at Uwajimaya when I was in Seattle last July. I also love the T'ien Yiheng quote on the back:

"Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world."

Coming Soon...

As SpringChick announced on the Great Lakes Yahoo! board this morning, I will be hosting the Great Lakes Gathering 2008 in Minnesota. This is the first year that Minnesota has the gathering and will definitely be the biggest gathering in Minnesota letterboxing history (at least so far). The one this past October was about 30 people. Attendance at the annual "Big" gathering is usually 100+. So if anyone is looking for some place to visit the weekend of May 31st (hey, that's right after my birthday!), Minnesota is lovely that time of year. This weekend I'll be working on finalizing the location (probably what I'm most worried about right now) and will announce the location hopefully by Wednesday.

I'm excited about it, but definitely very nervous. It will be the biggest gathering I've hosted and I plan on enlisting the help of Minnesota letterboxers.

Those of you who have hosted large gatherings, do you have any advice?

The Sculpture Garden

A visiting letterboxer made her first plant at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden a few blocks from my apartment. It took me two trips to find it, mostly because it's one of those "hidden under a rock in a pile of rocks" clues that I always have problems with. Not that I minded going to the Sculpture Garden. It's always fun getting lost there.

But success!

I walked there early this morning, thinking that there wouldn't be the clumps of people that are always wandering through the garden. There were a few families, but it wasn't too bad.

Of course, there was a crowd around the Spoon Bridge.



It felt really good to get out and letterbox on my own. Lately it's either been too hot or I've had my parents (and less than enthusiastic brother) tagging along. I spent probably about an hour wandering around the garden and visiting all my favorites.

Has it been that long already?

Yesterday was my four year anniversary with Evan. Four years! It really doesn't seem that long. We met in a Shakespeare class and started dating the summer before I left for Wales. The "Has-he-popped-the-question?" questions have pretty much died down by now. They resurface around Christmas and Valentines, but we're happy not being married or engaged, thank you very much. Yeah, we'll probably get married eventually, but I just started grad school and Evan just got his first "adult" job, so we're in no hurry to change things just yet.

We stayed in last night, mostly because both of us had to work early today, and had one of our "Asian Stereotype" nights. Meaning we ordered in Chinese, drank sake, and watched anime. Last night's selection was some of the first season of Avatar. Ok, so maybe a Nickelodeon produced show that has it's own Happy Meal toys doesn't technically qualify as anime. It's still a damn fine cartoon.

The best part of all though was what he got me as a present-a gift certificate for Stampeaz! While I do appreciate the gift card, it's more the fact he actually paid attention. Evan puts up with letterboxing. He knows I love it and will go out letterboxing to spend time with me. He's also been known to be amazed by some of the postals I receive. He does complain about the coffee table being my carving table and the little bits of rubber that seem to get everywhere, but he doesn't get too upset because he knows it makes me happy.

I'm really lucky.