Life Update

I actually forgot to update the last post, haha. I do plan to continue that, of course, especially since my hair has done a number of color transformations since then. :)

Romantic relationship-wise, I have gotten back together with my ex, after about half a year's separation? Anyway, some niggly wiggly squiggly feelings of uncertainty remain, but I'm dealing with them as they come. And by dealing I mean ignoring them, haha.

Travel stuff: my friends and I went to Taiwan! A blog post on our experiences there is in the works.

Crafty crafting: In stark contrast to last year's challenge of a project a month, I barely made anything at all this year. :( The good news is, the crochet bug has bitten me again! So late in the year, but at least there is itching for something to be made. Crochet crochet crochet!

Which reminds me, the lack of crafting might have to do with the spot of wrist pain I endured months back. I had to brace it for a week. Went to the doctor and as soon as she heard what my job was, concluded it to be carpal tunnel syndrome. I took her diagnosis with a grain of salt, as she did not even make me do wrist things lol. I thought if it did not go away, I'll get a referral for a specialist, but thankfully, it went away in a couple of weeks.

In connection with that, I have had so many health problems these past months. :( I haven't been seriously sick my whole life and never take any medications except for that UTI episode years back that now I think my body feels deprived haha and really determined to get as many antibiotics crammed down my throat.

(One of those episodes left a really, really ugly deep scar in my nose right between my eyes. They told me I should sport a black dragon tattoo on my arm and call myself Hiei, ahahaha.)

And that's it for the 'Hello, I'm alive' post.

DisastHAIR!

I don't really do much with my hair, just letting it grow and grow and grow. Usually. Every now and then, I just get tired of it all and do something different, maybe an out of the ordinary haircut or dyeing it a bright color or both.

I don't regret any of it, as I make sure I have the crazy done on hair I could cut off. Literally, haha. I get tired of the crazy, or want a change, and then I just tie my hair up and hack at it with my scissors, the one I use for crafting haha. I'd sport the hacked cut for a couple of days before finally giving up and having it fixed at whatever salon I happen to pass by at the time.

When my hair hits my shoulders is when I get frustrated at it. So a few years ago, I got the idea to have it permed so I would look like a hot mess instead of just a mess. Digiperm was the trend back then, at the phase of popularity where even small salons offer them.

I found a salon through Metrodeal offering digiperm for only Php 999.

TO BE CONTINUED (off to my next job huhu)

Waving, Not Drowning

Some days are more bearable than others. I know it's going to get better, that I'm going to be fine, so here I am, hanging on. :) I don't have a lot of close friends, but I am super grateful for the few I do have.

Craft-wise, I am in a limbo. I have six crochet projects I am working on, but I tend to frog and restart and on and on, with the result of not finishing anything at all.

I seem to want to just make and start something new every time. =/

Just Keep Swimming!

My boyfriend broke up with me. I won't talk about it in length, don't worry. :)

I was talking to my friend J – the only person I told about the break-up, and only because she was the only person to ask, haha – about the loneliness, and all this free time I suddenly have, and I mentioned how I was thinking of enrolling in some weekend classes to keep my mind busy.

In high school, I took up French language as an elective, and was lucky enough to be sent to Paris, France for a brief learning tour. My first course in university was BA in European Languages, with Russian as my major, minoring in French (don't question my life choices, lol). I did not finish that degree, switching out for an allied medical field (nursing and pharmacy, both of which I did finish).

J is learning Spanish on her own, which is all kinds of amazing, and she encouraged me to get back to learning languages again. I was actually thinking of basic mechanics thing or sewing, but she's made me realize I miss languages. I do not have the discipline for self-learning so I decided to look into non-degree language courses offered in the university close to my workplace (my very first university, as a matter of fact).

The good news is, they do offer them, 30 hours for each level. The not-good news is the class cycle is already underway and the next batch of classes would be on December or January. So J recommended that I sign up at Duolingo for now, a self-paced web resource for learning tons of new languages. I did, and have started with basics of Russian again.

People gym, I language. (After a heartbreak.)

The Dark Side of Crochet

Dramatic title for effect, lol. Maybe how crochet eats up yarn compared to knitting? XD

This is basically a post whining about crochet-related stuff I dislike, in no particular order:

Blocking. One of my WIPs is a skirt made up entirely of separate pieces, 16 pieces, in fact. It's driving me crazy figuring out how to get them all the same dimensions. I don't have any fancy stuff for blocking. I just bought a 10-pc set of those interlocking children's play mats and very ordinary pins. I'm thinking it's better to print a sort of guide but then I end up thinking of how exactly I can use it over and over, since I'm using wet blocking method (then drying it with my hair dryer, which is used for everything except actually drying hair, haha.) And the pins! They're ending up all decapitated, I'm running out fast.

Sewing. You know why I crochet? Because I cannot sew. I'm always sulky when I need to sew pieces together. I have lots of unfinished amigurumi, all parts completed except I lose all willpower when it's time to attach them. I power on with grim determination now that I'm mainly doing garments. But ugh, the pain and suffering every time.

My Adventures in (Ordering from) China

People have been tagging me of a lovely turtle ring on facebook. I decided to do a quick image search and check if any local seller has it; none does, but AliExpress kept coming up, and the prices were quite affordable, too.

The prices were so tempting I had to know if AliExpress was legit; consensus says yes, it works like Amazon and eBay, so just do as you normally do when buying online and exercise due caution. Investigate the shop you're buying from as thoroughly as you can, as well as the product you are buying.

Shop ratings are available. I considered only those with feedback score above 95%, preferably with thousands and thousands of ratings, if possible. XD And then I looked at the reviews of the products themselves.

My first order was a test, something cheap so if it fell through, I won't cry about it, haha. It went through but when I placed another order from a different shop, the transaction was blocked and I was required to send an appeal to have my credit card approved in their system again.

I read somewhere that it's one of their security features to flag suspicious activities usually associated with credit card fraud (ordering something inexpensive and if that goes through, start ordering more). Their requirements include bank statements for the credit card and valid IDs. I used a prepaid credit card so it was no biggie for me but phishing/identity theft is a real concern.

Since it's a prepaid card, I have no statement; I just took a screenshot of the last five transactions with minimal identifying info, available on the bank's site. For the copy of credit card, I blocked out the numbers except for the last four digits, the validity, and my name. I blocked out most details from my passport scan, as well as the main photo.

I think the appeal took a couple of business days to go through and be validated, so I went ahead and ordered again. :D

Since I chose the cheapest shipping available ($0.21 USD from the first shop and free shipping from the second), I was looking into one to two months of waiting. I did get a tracking number, but only for China Post, none for when it's left China.

I totally forgot about my AliExpress orders, they took so long, haha. When I remembered and checked their site, I found out that the Buyer Protection thing for my first order was going to expire in one day! I contacted the sellers but after work ended, I decided to just go wait for the post office to open and inquire if there was any way to check if the packages have arrived (I work nights now).

The post office usually sends a notice that I have packages but I didn't get any this time. When I got there, the lady at the counter said that I need to get a tracking number, so I handed her my printouts but she said that they can't use the tracking number indicated there, and showed me a sample.

Sample of tracking page (number at the bottom)

I was at a loss, but then she asked me if they were mailed via ordinary mail. I said yes, and she said I could look up if my name is on their September logbook for ordinary mail. Yay!

For the record, I am appalled at how antiquated our postal system is. Everything was handwritten. There is no database where they can easily search and look up parcels.

I spent a good half-hour sweating my way through the log (it was hot and I refused to remove my hoodie). And finally found entries in my name! Apparently, I would've not received notice for the second package since my address written there was incomplete (I thought it was my fault or the seller's at first, but when I saw the package, the address was split between first and second lines, and only the second line was recorded on their book, so it was their miss); address for the first was correct and complete, though, so I don't know what's their excuse for that.

I paid Php 112.00 handling fee for each package, and so I have them now. Yaaaay!

I was disappointed with the cat pendant, since there are cloudy areas especially on the cat's face so you can barely see its eyes. The ring was a surprise; I was expecting it to look somewhat different being a knockoff and all, but it was actually quite good. I just don't have any idea if the black color will wear or fade (I had a The One ring, it was originally gold but there's no trace if the color now haha).

Cat pendant

Turtle ring and earrings (bought separately)

The earrings came in a small box, which was nice. The posts can be easily bent, but with the price, I'm not expecting anything else, lol. I've had more expensive earrings do the same.

Overall, aside from the wait time, exacerbated by our very slow PhilPost, I call my AliExpress experience a success.

Crochet or Die 2: Doomed to Fail

The challenge was off to a decent start. I managed to finish the bust part within a few days, spent the weekend doing and re-doing the filler, started one part of the lower torso. crashed and burned pretty much after that.

A week's worth of work (I am a *very* slow crocheter); the point where I gave up

I normally crochet for an hour or two most days, maybe three hours when I couldn't sleep yet, with frequent breaks for reading or playing games or surfing the net. There are times when I zombie-crochet, though, not stopping until my arm or back aches.

For this project, I crocheted for a minimum of four hours everyday, with almost no break. I developed a callous on my palm.

A week of this and I got tired. I got bored. I couldn't sustain the focus necessary to get this thing done.

I failed. It's not an utter defeat, since even if I did not meet the major challenge of finishing the project on the specified date, I have been mostly successful at interpreting and following the charts.

Weeks after the deadline, I am chipping away at the dress. Since the dress is made up of several pieces, the matching up part frustrates me so. The pieces are of different sizes, with fillers to connect them.

I am determined to finish the dress, but not so keen on being hell-bent about it now.