Birds on the Wires

I was just browsing on Flickr, looking at some pictures of Pasadena, when I came across a photo of birds on a power line. One of the comments had a link to this blog entry with a video (Birds on the Wires). So beautiful!
Yep, I'll be looking at birds on power lines a different way from now on as well!

101: reach 600 sent and 600 received cards in postcrossing

I reached this goal on July 20 when I received my 600th card. I just love postcrossing! It's so much fun to send postcards to people around the world and receive postcards from random places and people around the world. To find out how postcrossing works, read more about postcrossing.

For my whole list of goals, view 101 things to do in 1001 days.

101: Crochet a Potholder

A few days ago, I saw the documentary "The Boys of Baraka". One of the boys there crochets in his free time at the school in Africa. That motivated me to try crocheting, too. The last time I did this, I was in school like him, I think. So I was going to see what I could remember. A week later, the potholder on the picture was finished. I used cotton yarn. The yarn has sections of three different colors, so I didn't have to change yarns to come up with the stripes.

So I still remember enough to crochet a simple potholder. But I still want to learn how all the stitches work and what their names are, so that I can read patterns and do more difficult projects. So I feel that I reached part of my goal for my 101 goals list, but haven't accomplished the full goal.

101: Sell magic videos on ebay

My husband has a lot of videos and DVDs with instructions for magic tricks. He has some duplicates that he asked me to sell on ebay. Well, I've tried and I guess about half of them sold. The other ones nobody seems interested in. Some sold right away, some when relisted. I listed them over several weeks. I'm not sure what to do with the ones left over.

101: Freecycle

Freecycle is a great concept. So far, in just one month, I've already given away:

• a couple of fish tanks that I didn't think I could sell anymore,
  
• a big batch of bottles for recycling (The little recycling center in our area always has problems, so that we've given up on exchanging them for money there. So I'd rather help someone else out.)
  
• some bottled sodas that my husband doesn't want anymore
  
• our old set of phones
  
• some Ethernet cables.
  

They were all items with small flaws that we therefore didn't want to sell, but other could still use them.

See also my post about 101 things to do in 1001 days.

Bookcrossing top 100 list

Someone is making a top 100 list on bookcrossing of the top 100 favorite books of bookcrossers. Each bookcrosser can vote for their top 20 in a survey until December 15.

These are my top 20 that I came up with:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Mister God, This Is Anna by Fynn (Sydney Hopkins)
Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes
Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther by Ginger Garrelt
The Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
Three Men in the Snow by Erich Kaestner (Drei Männer im Schnee by Erich Kästner)
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell

101 things to do in 1001 days

I got the idea for this list from a postcrosser I sent an official card to. Her name is Marta and her list is at fotograffarte. It took me almost three weeks to come up with my list. I'm starting the 1001 days tomorrow since today is already more than half over. So, the 1001 days will be Monday, December 15, 2008 to Sunday, September 11, 2011.
I did a search and found Day Zero, the home of the 101 things to do in 1001 days project.

- Learn some Spanish (probably with the CD course I bought)
- visit my family again
- organize the job search advice that I have at hand so that I can easily reference it
- get a job that I like
- get all the junk out of the second bedroom
- set up the second bedroom for crafts etc.
- play my cello
- play my trumpet
- learn the basics of playing the harmonica
- try out other little instruments
- finish the Israel scrapbook
- plan a Los Angeles scrapbook
- make Los Angeles scrapbook
- put good info into the Los Angeles Citybook
- add my other visits to the German scrapbook
- plan an Australia scrapbook
- make an Australia scrapbook
- make a Pasadena notebook/scrapbook
- make a list of what other scrapbooks I should do
- make at least one of them
- Read the Bible again (The Message translation)
- make some jewelery
- lose weight
- exercise more regularly
- get rid of the unused Mac
- buy a new laptop (probably a small one...)
- release one book on bookcrossing on average every month (controlled releases count; overlaps with the next two items)
- read and release some (at least 3) of my general bookcrossing books
- read and release (maybe as ray or bookring) some (at least 3) of my Christian books
- get all my postcards in order
- scan all my received postcrossing cards
- scan all my Moomin postcards
- get all my small items in order
- Read at least one of my books that are written in German
- visit the Grand Canyon
- ride a bike
- ride the bike to something nice such as Huntington Library and Gardens
- sell magic videos on ebay
- sell large fishtank
- sell and donate other things that I/we don't need
- figure out a fast that works for me and do it
- Get furniture for the bedroom (bed, dressers)
- join a small group
- make nice backups of all online photos (include a simple index)
- reach 600 sent and 600 received cards in postcrossing
- make up a process that works for recycling
- go to a classical concert
- finish my state quarters collection and the one for my dad
- sell something on etsy
- send 12 postcards to my nephew
- learn to soak stamps to separate them from the paper
- bring my collection of stamps in order
- put my small souvenir sheet collection in a nice album
- learn to use the GIMP
- have guests at the apartment
- freecycle something
- relearn and crochet something
- relearn and knit something
- knit or crochet for a project that helps children (hat?)
- take care of the shoes, maybe with a shoe rack or something
- learn to paint metal and paint at least one metal tin
- figure out the best way for me to keep a prayer journal and then do it
- also figure out theme journals I may want to keep or send around (e.g. gratitude journal, attributes of God)
- sort LAC notes (throw those out I don't need anymore etc.)
- sort job search related notes
- write down old memories
- select 6 special small images for my desktop frame
- make envelopes by hand
- grow something edible (e.g. indoor herb garden)
- light a candle and enjoy
- try keeping a mini moss terrarium
- get more educated about fair trade and then buy accordingly
- make/swap a whimsy jar
- make a Christian whimsy jar with the items I got at different events
- learn to knot (hemp/floss) bracelets e.g. How to make a Friendship Bracelet
- enjoy some nearby fireworks
- figure out whether to become US citizens or not and start the process
- visit Pasadena City Hall
- store/display my notebooks in a way that makes is easy to pick up and enjoy them
- make a mini earthquake kit to take around anywhere
- put fresh items in earthquake kit
- organize my favorites/bookmarks online (including blog subscriptions etc.)
- make my desk a real workspace
- find if there's a nice guided tour for Pasadena and do it (if there isn't one, find out about self-guided tours)
- walk Arroyo Seco trail (especially the restored section...)
- find out about old pen pals if they are still interested in corresponding
- figure out the old sewing machine
- bring choir CDs and music in order
- organize my art and craft supplies
- try all the different kinds of pens, pencils, and markers I have
- find what a good black artist marker/pen is that is not water-soluble and get one
- make my own professional website
- add more useful pages to the wiki
- visit Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (April)
- go through the old notes I did when a student and re-evalutate what to keep etc.
- go through the old conference proceedings and similar items and re-evaluate what to keep
- make a blogging plan (Which of my blogs do I want to keep? What do I want to write there? How often? etc.)
- blog there regularly
- update my braces blog with after photos and facts
- For what has God made me? (main purpose(s) at this time in my life)
- in everything, remember that God is in control of everything

d.v.

Earthquake

It's been a long time since I posted anything.
Today we had the second earthquake that I could feel since living here in Southern California.
The epicenter was near Chino Hills, California, so I guess just about 20 miles from here. Magnitude 5.4. What we could feel here was not very much, though. A second after I had realized it was an earthquake and had jumped under my desk, the shaking was already over. Official info on the earthquake on the USGS site

Back and on the road again

I've returned from Australia. But I'm already on the road again. Berkeley is different from Pasadena in many ways. I'll blog about that in more detail later.

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