Bethesda Made Me a Hoarder

If the gaming world were reality, I'd be in a lot of trouble...
You see, I am a hoarder. An item hoarder.

For anyone who has played Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you are well aware of Bethesda's usual gig: TONS of in game items strewn about the environments, and the ability to have a house of your own.
When I was introduced to my first Bethesda game by Jon (which just happened to be Oblivion), I immediately was amazed by the sheer number of items laying about. Much to his entertainment, I began picking up items I thought were interesting and cluttering up my inventory. He had played the game for hundreds of hours so he knew which items were common and which were harder to come by, but everything was new to me. I WANTED IT ALL.

I kept nearly EVERYTHING. My house in Bruma was small, but after painstaking hours of item placement, I had a dreamhouse. As a member of the Dark Brotherhood, I had lots of questionable items. Jon was slightly horrified when I picked up a rotten, severed head of a woman, and placed it on a shelf facing my bed. (It was a unique item, why wouldn't I keep it?!) I also stacked books I had gathered in my bookshelves, collected one of every gemstone and displayed them on a shelf, and placed various weapons all over my house.

In Fallout 3, my addiction to collecting and decorating only got worse.
When first I got my house in Megaton, I spent nearly 20 minutes rearranging my items. Just plain entertainment, or a bit of womanly instinct? Who knows. Either way, I decorated my room with items remniscent of old Americana. A baseball, baseball bat, baseball mitt, Nuka-Cola truck, Nuka-Cola, and toy car are just a few of the items I had placed around.
The need to decorate my house with things I found throughout my adventures only grew when I went through my second playthrough as an evil, mohawked Raider-wannabe named Rodd. I brought mutilated body parts, teddy bears, and lots and lots of knives back to my suite in Tenpenny Towers, which made Jon question my sanity a bit. (I swear, it was all in good fun! I'm not crazy!)

For Fallout: New Vegas, I actually have SCREENSHOTS.
I decorated my Old World Blues base with all of my favorite items, which wasn't easy at all.

Some collectables, plasma axes, a Tesla Cannon, animal skins, and my favorite headgear.

Every animal egg, items from different DLC, all of the different scientist gloves, and those awesome blue headpieces.

Animal parts and other collectables.

 My dinosaur collection (the ones that make noise, not Dinky the Dinosaur), my teddybears, and other items.

So yes, you can see I had a lot of fun with New Vegas. You wouldn't exactly call it hoarding, more like... "collecting."

(...Okay, so those boxes were filled with tons of useless stuff, but nobody would know that unless they checked, right?)

Skyrim, however, is where the true hoarding began.

On my main character, Rakta the Khajiit, I got to the point where I simply had so much money that I didn't NEED to sell ANYTHING. I could afford anything I wanted, had everything I needed, and generally was at a loss of what to do with all my items.

So I began to hoard.

I guess you can't call me a true hoarder. I don't keep just anything... just gems, soulstones, and jewelry. It's started to become somewhat of an obsession though. I can't leave behind any gems or stones without thinking "That could go into my house! YEAH!"

The result? This.

So thanks, Bethesda.

YOU MADE ME A HOARDER.

And I'm only going to find MORE gems...

Observations about this blog

I've been looking at some of my older blog posts lately, and I just realized how this blog has degenerated from a personal blog to one that just updates when I put new things in my shop.
Things have been busy with the holidays... Work has been quite brutal, I'm almost constantly tired, and generally just haven't felt like writing anything at all.
That being said, I don't want this blog to become... well, boring. Updates to the shop is nice and all, but I know that you could just check our Facebook or Twitter page for those things.

It's going to be my goal to update this blog a bit more often, and give glimpses into my crazy life once again. After all, that's how this blog gained so many followers in the first place. Views have really been dropping off since I stopped updating regularly, and I can understand why.

Also, spell-check doesn't recognize "Facebook." You would think...

This Is Why Skyrim Is Awesome

The Battle of Talking Stone Camp.
Below is a chat transcript I told Maddie about a battle I had witnessed and fought in, on the plains of Skyrim, Tirdas, 8th of Heartfire, and 10:34am.

The battle took place on the plains/river area between Talking Stone Camp and Orotheim (West of Whiterun).


The Good: Oh
The Good: Let me tell you about my epic dragon fight
The Bad: Oh! I forgot!
The Bad: Yes, you must tell meeeee :D
The Good: I'm playing as my Orc, and I finally kill the first dragon at Whiterun's watchtower
The Bad: hehe
The Good: and I get the note from the courier telling me about a Wall at Eldersblood Peak
The Good: So I decide to travel there. I know there is a mountain pass that I can use near the Ancient Nordic ruin there that can make my journey shorter
The Good: so as I'm climbing the mountain trying to find the pass, the Blood Dragon guarding the Wall noticed me
The Good: So I decide to run around the mountain to try to evade the dragon and find the fucking pass.
The Good: Well, finally I get to the foot of the mountain, and I'm smoldering a bit because this Blood Dragon wants some barbecued Dovakiin......
The Good: and then the dragon sees a Giant camp nearby and decides to attack them for a bit
The Bad: Oh gawd lol
The Good: So he flies over there and starts to burn the mammoths and giants, while I shoot arrows at him
The Good: Finally I think I got his attention and he flies back to me, but he flies over me
The Good: as I turn around I see like 5 bandits all fighting mudcrabs and I'm like "WTF? O_O"
The Good: The dragon does a strafe and and starts to attack the bandits, but they shit themselves and start to run back to their cave across the river
The Good: I follow them and as I turn a corner the bandits start to fight with the mudcrabs again
The Bad: Hahahaha
The Good: and then the dragon come by and KILLS ALL OF THEM with one breath
The Bad: Well maybe they're hungry for mudcrab :P barbequed mudcrab
The Bad: HAAHAHA
The Bad: Epic
The Good: It gets better
The Good: so as I run to quickly loot their bodies and evade the dragon
The Good: I hear a Bear
The Good: Apparently we had woken it up, and he decided to go after me
The Bad: LOL
The Good: so I run across the river to try to put some distance between me and the bear so I can focus on the dragon, which is now going after me again,
The Good: and as I try shooting arrows at the dragon, the bear hops across the river, so i'm like "fuck this" and dual weild my axe of whiterun and a dwarven sword to make quick work of him
The Good: but the bear tore up my health a bit so i use my last 2 potions
The Bad: Uh ohs D:
The Good: You with me so far?
The Bad: Yeah lol
The Bad: This is one crazy tale, haha
The Good: At this point I figure I should head back towards the giant camp to see if they will help me fight the dragon, since I have no potions
The Good: So I run back across the river and towards the camp, the dragon follows and starts to breath fire over the camp
The Good: and i see 2 ice shards shoot past me
The Good: now I'm completely caught off guard by this
The Bad: Oh gawd lol
The Good: So I look around and see a necromancer running at me, with a mammoth behind him
The Good: and the mammoth totally fucks up this dude and kills him in one hit
The Bad: HAHA
The Good: So I'm like okay that was completely random
The Good: by now the dragon is back on me, but he was weak enough to where I finally got him to land and I finalllllly killed him X_X
The Bad: lolololol
The Bad: And this is why Skyrim is fucking amazing


I will add photos of the aftermath when I can, and I will write my own summary of the story so you all don't have to deal with a chatlog.

On the other side, finals are finally upon us so life is hectic.
Keep warm. Keep safe. As the Starks say, Winter is Coming.

Gaming Geekery Update!

I've just updated our Etsy shop with 5 gaming-related items!
(3 styles of earrings, and 2 charms.)

Click on the photo below to see the other 4 items!

TURKEY WEEK SALE

Gobble Gobble!
Okay, so Thanksgiving is over, but I'm sure you're all munching on leftovers.
There's also another little "leftover" that you might want to check out...

Up until November 29th, Hello Interloper is having a TURKEY DAY SALE!
By using the coupon code TURKEY upon checkout, you get 15%!
Remember, there are only 4 days left, so make sure you check out the store to see if there is something you like!

Also, I have to apologize for the general lack of updates, both in shop inventory and blog updates.
My job had officially gone from part-time to full-time with the upcoming holidays, and I've been having trouble feeling motivated to make things. (After washing dogs for nearly 6 hours at work, the last thing you want to do is make something with your hands!)
I still have a batch of earrings waiting to be glazed, and I have some candy cane earrings ready for listing.
Keep an eye out! As work slows down, I'll be able to get the shop updated with lots of new goodies.

Happy Halloween! + Shop Update

Well, it's the 31st of October, and you know what that means!
It's Halloween, and I'm sitting here in my PJs without a costume. That seems to be the pattern every year since senior year of high school ended... while during my super senior year, I hid behind a tree on Mischief Night with a garden hose, hell-bent on spraying anyone who came to egg our house with ice-cold water.
Yes, I'm a maniacal person.

BUT I'm also here to bring you another shop update!

Roma has been hard at work to bring you even more handknit hats and scarves, and I just finished posting all of the new items in the Etsy shop!

Yes, we finally have hats for BOYS!

In addition to some stuff for kids, I also posted some earrings last week.

Mario, anyone?

Check out the shop to see all of the new items! (Link is at the top of the page, can't miss it!)

Roma Joins the Team!

As you may have heard in the past, Hello Interloper isn't entirely my project alone... My boyfriend, Jon, occasionally writes a blog entry here, and my mother, Hanna, has donated a necklace to the April's Army collective charity shop on our behalf.
This time, we're directly featuring the handmade products of another person... My grandmother, Roma!

Roma is from Warsaw, Poland, and has a passion for knitting sweaters, hats, and scarves.
When she heard about my shop and Etsy, she decided to try her hand at selling as well!

Since the winter months are approaching fast, now's the perfect time to shop for some nice and warm clothing.
Sweater and Hat Sets and Hats have been added to the store, with scarves being added shortly.

Here's a couple photos of my personal favorites!

Laziness and LazyMuffin

I've been kind of lazy... well, busy, but lazy regarding updating.
Been working, putting earrings on those little hanging earring cards, hanging out with Jon, (with whom I celebrated our 2 year anniversary with on the 4th!) and playing large amounts of Team Fortress 2.

So, since I've been so lazy, I thought I'd share a little Flash animation from one of my favorite animators.

Earrings and Zombies Galore

Finally got my new eye-hooks in the mail today! Having them arrive pushed me to do a bit of craft-related work, so I finished gluing some earring backs, and took out my camera.
It was a bit hazy out, but there was enough light to take some good photos of my new things.

So, without further ado, here are some of the things I just put up in my Etsy store!

Click HERE to see all of these items and more in my Etsy shop!

WE'RE BACK! (and ready to craft!)

Yep, you heard right! Hello Interloper is back from haitus at last!
Going to give you guys all a quick update to tell you what's currently going on, and in store for the future.

First, we've been featured on the blog Trina's Clay Creations! (Click the link to see the blog post!) As a part of the Polymer Clay Enthusiasts Team, our "Hullo Thar" bird was chosen to be a part of the post.
Thank you Trina! :)
Also check out the blog post to see some other amazing polymer clay artists!

Secondly... ZOMBIES!

Our latest addition to the Etsy shop has been a batch of little needle-felted zombie animals!

The yellow rabbit has already sold, but I've made two more that I will be posting near the beginning of October.

Thirdly... is that even a word...? Anyway... We have NEW STUFF IN THE WORKS!
No preview just yet, but the next batch of crafts are going to be "sweet", hehe!
I've made lots of lollipop earrings in both studs and hanging styles, as well as some geekery for gamers.

I leave you with this little screencap of a Facebook post...

I was reading an article on MSNBC about the Wall Street protests, when I realized that the man in this photo was holding up a sign with lyrics from "Havoc B" by Enter Shikari. Of course this made me really excited, because I love seeing fans of my favorite bands out in the wild. I decided to post it to Enter Shikari's  Facebook page, and within a couple hours they took notice and reposted it.
How awesome is that?

Until next time!

WE'RE ON VACATION!

We will be back in September!
Until then, check out the zombies in our Etsy store!

This Month's Contributions - August

I just sent in the information and photos for this month's charity contributions!
If you don't know already, every month April's Army on Etsy opens up a collective shop for charity. The proceeds go towards a fellow Etsy seller in need.
(To get information on past recipients to get an idea of what we do, check the Notes section of the Facebook Page!)

Hello Interloper has been a contributor for the past two monthly sales, donating a total of $22 worth of crafts.
Our ultimate goal is to donate a total of $75 worth of crafts by the end of 2011.
This month we're upping the ante and donating two items to the shop!

First is a needle-felted set by me, Maddie. :)

Based these little guys off of the expression "A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush." Why not have two birds AND a bush?

The second item is a classy coral necklace made by my mother, Hanna! She has decided to join the cause this month, which is always a welcome gesture!

Pink and red bamboo coral with silver spacers and clasp... and don't forget the magnetically attached removable pendant!

Keep an eye out for these two items in this month's charity sale!

I'm almost positive the shop opens August 29th, so mark your calendars... items in the shop usually go FAST!

(If you want to take a look at the previously sold items in the April's Army collective, or see the great feedback given for these items, check out the April's Army Etsy Shop!)

Yellow Needle Felted Cat - Work In Progress Photos!

Thought I'd do a quick post showing the work-in-progress photos I took while making my newest addition to the Etsy store, the Yellow Cat!

The cat had humble beginnings... as a head!

Beware the souless, empty stare! And yes, those are arms!

Excuse the crotch shot... I work on my lap in front of the TV. Anyway, the cat's face has been further formed, and now he has a body!

More crotch... sorry about that. Well, either way, the cat is almost complete, save for the eyes and footpads! And don't forget the tail!

The finished result! He still needed to be trimmed in this photo.

Trimmed, and ready for his photoshoot! Here he is complete at last, sitting on my dragon fruit cactus!

Wait, did I say DRAGON FRUIT CACTUS?
Oh yes, I did...
And THAT, my friends, is for another blog entry. ;]

SOLD! + PREVIEW!

Well, I'm happy to say that my donation to the April's Army charity collective has SOLD!
Yep, that's $8 to a great cause!
That brings Hello Interloper's total amount of contributions to $22 for the year so far!
My personal goal is to donate $75 worth of crafts by the end of the year. I love what I do, and if I can help other people in need with my artwork, it makes everything so much more worthwhile!

In addition to my regular monthly contribution next month (which has yet to be made!), my mother, Hanna, will be donating some of her necklaces as well!
They have all been designed and put together by her using semi-precious stones, beads, and other authentic materials.
They're extremely beautiful, so keep an eye out for them at the end of August!

(Want to find out more about AA and the monthly charity shop? Visit the April's Army Blog for more info!)

Also, I realized that compared to the Hello Interloper Facebook Page, you blog followers have been missing out on previews of my new works and works-in-progress!
I'd advise anyone who is hungry for updates to check it out, as it's usually updated daily with a Twitter post, and also is easy to send my previews to from my phone.
You might be able to get my latest Twitter announcements at the top of the page here, but making a new blog post for a preview is a hassle, especially because I can't do it from my phone!

Since I'm already writing a post anyway, I'll show you guys my latest creation!

He still needs to trimmed of fuzzies, and my phone is a measly 1.3 megapixels so a lot of the details and shadows are lost.
In reality he's a bright yellow kitty with skyblue eyes! He stands about 4-5 inches tall I'd guess, so he's my largest needle-felted project yet. (I'm very stingy when it comes to my corriedale wool... It cost me my first paycheck from my fro-yo job, so I want it to last!)

He'll be put up for sale possibly next month, when I have more things made.
I prefer to photograph and list all of my new items at once rather than whenever they're finished... I find it saves time.

I also go back to work tomorrow... Eek! With these poked up fingers from needle-felting... it's not gonna be fun.

Until next time!

Oh my freaking fudgebuckets.

First of all, I want to announce...

THE APRIL'S ARMY SHOP OPENS TODAY!!!
The theme this month is "the natural," so I donated this pin to the cause!

ALSO, STOP LEAVING ME SPAM COMMENTS.

I had to delete 8 comments yesterday because they were all literally copy-and-pasted, word for word from my posts, with a link to crappy prescription websites in their name.

PEOPLE COME HERE FOR CRAFTS, NOT VIAGRA.

MASSIVE Shop Update!

My vacation started on Monday, and since then I've been hard at work making new things!
So, I present to you the LARGEST SHOP UPDATE YET!
Twenty new items ranging from $3-9!

Here's some of my favorites from this update!

Take a look at these and even more at the Etsy Shop!

Back to School... and back to fear.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit UConn Stamford to figure out when and how I'm going to go back to college.
I'm not going to lie... I'm PETRIFIED.

I've had a bad relationship with education.
I grew up bullied in school for being creative and "different" in a snobby town full of clones, but excelled in almost everything.
That all changed when I hit my teenage years.
I started noticing that I had to wrestle with my mind to keep focused. I became easily distracted, and gained a hatred of long-term things, like projects and essays.
Short-term things, I continued to do well at... math problems, standardized tests, short answer questions, and the like.

When I turned 16, it was apparent that something was extremely wrong. Nobody goes from being a straight A student to a kid struggling with their grades without something happening.
Turned out I had two things... major depressive disorder, aka depression, and ADHD-PI.

What's ADHD-PI?
For starters, the PI stands for "predominantly inattentive."

Wikipedia can explain the rest:

ADHD-PI is different from the other subtypes of ADHD in that it is characterized primarily by inattention, easy distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, forgetfulness, and lethargy - fatigue, but with fewer or no symptoms of hyperactivity or impulsiveness typical of the other ADHD subtypes. In some cases, children who enjoy learning may develop a sense of fear when faced with structured or planned work, especially long or group-based that requires extended focus, even if they thoroughly understand the topic. Children with ADHD-PI may be at greater risk of academic failures and early withdrawal from school. Teachers and parents may make incorrect assumptions about the behaviours and attitudes of a child with ADHD-PI, and may provide them with frequent and erroneous negative feedback (e.g. "you're irresponsible", "you're immature", "you're lazy", "you don't care/show any effort", "you just aren't trying", etc.).

The inattentive children may realize on some level that they are somehow different internally from their peers. However, they are also likely to accept and internalize the continuous negative feedback, creating a negative self-image that becomes self-reinforcing. If these children progress into adulthood undiagnosed or untreated, their inattentiveness, ongoing frustrations, and poor self-image frequently create numerous and severe problems maintaining healthy relationships, succeeding in post secondary schooling, or succeeding in the workplace. These problems can compound frustrations and low self-esteem, and will often lead to the development of secondary pathologies including anxiety disorders, sexual promiscuity, mood disorders, and substance abuse.

And there you have it. Me in a nutshell.
When I was officially diagnosed, I was floored. It was like somebody had observed my life and behaviors, and wrote a description of it.
I tried ADD medications, and had horrible heart-related side effects, leading my psychiatrist to scrap the ADD treatment altogether, and go straight for the neck of the depression.
Two years later, I was depression free, and have been ever since.

But what of my education?
I ended up failing classes in high school, and having to take 5 years to graduate what normally takes 4 years.
And if you've been following this blog at all, you know what happened to me in college... my lack of focus and frustration led to getting tons of incompletes, and eventually it was anemia that screwed me completely over.

Like I said, I'm not going to lie...
I'm scared to death of going back to school.
I have nightmares every week about school... elementary school, middle school, high school, college, you name it.
I either am failing, can't remember my schedule, late to class, missing a test, being kicked out of school, having to escape school, being yelled at by a teacher, being tortured by classmates, or the like.
Don't get me wrong, my life is great right now. I'm not depressed at all. At night while I'm asleep, however, my mind likes to dig up crap from the past and taunt me with it. It's like school-induced PTSD.

I'm wrestling right now about going back to college.
I know I can't ever get a job better than dog-washing without a degree, and it's not fair to Jon to not finish college while he works so hard to do so.
But I haven't changed. I can't focus, I hate projects, I drive myself crazy with my forgetfulness and inability to pay attention to things.
I think I need to try medication again... but I'm scared of side-effects too.
It's one evil or another. Failure, or the discomfort of having your brain go haywire from side-effects... a tough choice.

It all scares me.
Life never gets easy, does it?

What Kind of World Do We Live In?

Friday I drove to my friend's house in Jersey after work. On the way there I had to make a left hand turn, and it was a one-lane street. I slow down, turn on my signal, and get as close to the center line as I can without crossing it, so someone could pass on the shoulder. But to my knowledge it doesn't look like there's enough room for someone to pass me using the shoulder(it was a narrow street). There is another car coming the opposite way, so I decide to wait rather than book it across. Some hotshot prick who as been behind me for while, continues to speed, and is too impatient to wait and tries to drive on the shoulder to pass me. The guy realizes he can't fit in, so he shoves his fist on the horn. At this point the other car just passed so I begin to make my turn. But this asshole next to me made me lose it. He said something through his window and I screamed at him and then he sped the hell away. The whole event, from when I slowed to make my turn and from when I actually did turn must have taken 7-10 seconds. Some people are just impatient.

From there I made it to my friend's house without incident. We hung out for a while, watched Goodfellas at his house, went to his friend's sister's birthday party, hung out with them, watched Insidious there, and it was 1:15am by time we rolled out of there.
From his friends house, we(my friend, his brother and our other friend) went to a nearby diner for a meal. We drove up, parked, they place was pretty much empty, save for a group of 4 in another booth, which left a few minutes after we arrived. The waitress came up and we ordered our drinks. When she came back with our drinks and placed them in front of us we said "Thank you" and thought nothing of it. She turned to go away, then she turned back and said, "You boys are very polite, thank you".

Here's where I see a problem. She thanked us for being polite. For being nice. For having common courtesy. She shouldn't have to thank us for something like that. She can be thankful that we said thanks, but she should not actually have to thank us for being polite. My friend and I discussed, that she must have to serve the most shit kind of people if we have that kind of impact on her. We're no saints, but we're not douchebags either. What kind of world do we live in where common courtesy is a rare sight? Are most people so focused on themselves that they can't spare a thought for another person? Are we in such a hurry we can't wait 5 seconds for someone to make their turn? I can ramble on and on but I don't want to get carried away. I'll leave you with this: What kind of world do we live in?

New Items Up on Etsy!

I was able to photograph and list some items today!
New needlefelted birds are available, as well as the long anticipated animal rings!

Visit the Etsy Shop to see all of the new items!

Notice! Please Read

Hello!
This is just a quick announcement to tell you that I'm not dead, just extremely busy and exhausted.
I've been working 6 days a week for the past two weeks, and as a result I've been very tired. I'm not a very strong person physically, being only 110 lbs and never having exercised, with the exception of Physical Education back in high school. Working with dogs for 3 to 6 hours a day, some weighing as much as I do, can be a huge drain on my energy and strength. After work I always immediately take a shower, and most days take a nap immediately after that, leaving me to wake up at around 3 or 4pm.
In other words, my free time has been cut back a lot, and I've been feeling a lack of motivation to create lately. I feel more like vegging out and relaxing than working some more.
My boyfriend also spent the last week visiting, so most of my free time (which wasn't much to begin with because of work) was dedicated to spending time together.

This doesn't mean that this blog is going to die, or I'm going to stop creating things!
It just means that updates will probably be less frequent for a while.
I have a 9-day vacation coming up, and I have a day off tomorrow as well. I'll be needlefelting and finishing up the glow-animal rings I glued a few days back. If the weather wills it, I might also be able to photograph everything for posting.

Thanks for your patience!

The Last Week in a Post

Okay, okay, I know. I've been slacking horribly on updating this blog.
I KNOW WHAT I AM GUILTY OF.
Thing is, life goes on, and problems arise, problems get solved, and baby birds leap out of nests.

I'll start with the crafts, because that's what most of you followed me for in the first place.
This past week I got my earring posts, so I was finally able to glue my little clay owl heads and paw prints. I'm saving them for my next shop update, which will probably be near the end of next week.
I've also been needle felting a lot, since I got a custom order I need to finish. My thumb and index finger on my left hand look like they have a miniature case of chicken pox, but hey, diabetics deal with pricking their fingers all the time.
Still waiting on the adjustable ring blanks, but once they arrive I'll have about 10 rings to post.

And now for some really great news... I'm employed again!
Craigslist is a blessing, I swear. I managed to find a place in the next town over that needed a dog bather/fluffer that was drug and drama free. I jumped on that offer faster than you can say "wet dog smell."
Let me tell you... It is THE BEST job ever. I come in at around 9am in the morning, wash dogs, and leave at about 1pm.
The dogs are obedient, though sometimes fidgety, but never growl or bite.
My boss is a quirky and eccentric woman who is the main groomer in the facility, though also a dog masseuse.
I'm paid per dog, which is based on its size and difficulty. On most days, it comes down to $10-13/hr, which to me is miles better than the minimum wage I made at the frozen yogurt job.
Best of all, I come home satisfied and happy, though tired and smelling like a wet dog. Nothing a shower and a nap can't fix.
Plus the money I make means more craft supplies! (Next in line are clay pendant necklaces, by the way.)

I'll end with our little bird saga.
For the past few days, my mom and I have been checking up constantly on a cardinal nest in a bush near our driveway.
See, normally we wouldn't go up to a nest and disrupt the natural cycle of bird life, but there's a problem... a little feathered problem.
The only egg that hatched has grown up into a rebellious little fledgling that no matter what, does NOT stay put in the nest.
Again and again, we've found him sitting in our driveway, sitting under the bush, or otherwise in a place where he can easily be spotted, peeping away like he honestly doesn't know how he got there.
BUT HE KNOWS. He jumps out, the little bugger. Then mommy and daddy cardinal call him incessantly, can't figure out where he is. They just end up calling for him until we find him for them, and put him back in the nest.
(And trust me, I've watched the mom confusedly hop around the whole bush trying to find the baby. She couldn't realize that he was not only on the GROUND, but also hidden in a plant.)
We've probably relocated him five or six times now.
Also, did I note the fact that he can't fly at all? He can flutter about a foot forward, but can't gain any real ground or generate any lift. He's pretty much an easy lunch no matter how you look at it.
I'm hoping that he either gains some sense soon, or learns how to fly. The first doesn't seem to be happening, so let's hope those little flying feathers of his grow in soon.

Lastly, the April's Army Shop is OPEN!!!
It opened up at 11am yesterday.
I finally was able to make and submit a donation item before the deadline this month. My donation was a little needlefelted bird, and it sold earlier today for $14. I'm so glad that I was able to contribute to a good cause. :)

Until next time!

So Where Are the CREATURES?

It's been forever since I posted about my Creatures 3/Docking Station worlds, so thought I'd do an update on those little morons.
Why do I say morons? Because they've become stupid from overbreeding... but they breed like CRAZY.
They're also lots of pretty colors!

But anyway. I have been conducting a Feral Run for a while now, after many failed runs.
They're on generation 315 as of today, have an incredible lifespan of 24+ hours, and come in every color of the rainbow.
Here are some screenshots to show you their color development!

A full color spectrum of Norns!

A few hours after the picture above was put together, these two new colors appeared in the population!

They tend to crowd together and keep breeding repeatedly.

The crowd at a different time.

Until next time!

New Shop Items, AT LAST!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Today was thankfully sunny, so I was able to photograph my new items and list them!

Click on the flower pin to check out everything new!

So Where Are the CRAFTS? + GAME TIME!

I know what you're thinking.
It's been a while since I've posted some new things to Etsy.
Have I been slacking? Lazy? Really lazy?

None of the above, in fact!
I have been working like crazy to make lots of new things.
The problem is, I'm still waiting on my earring posts and adjustable rings so I can start putting things together!
I like photographing my things and posting them all at once, and right now less than half of my new items are complete, so to speak.
Once they arrive, I will be having a massive posting of all of my new items.
Be on the lookout for some awesome things.

Also, watch me play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat!
http://www.livestream.com/hellointerloper/video?clipId=pla_0321583a-1241-4478-ab75-93f0375ee6bc&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
Will have a Youtube link later.
WARNING: I swear. A LOT.

Etsy, Rovio... WHAT THE HELL?

I woke up this afternoon (yes, I'm aware my sleep schedule is messed up) to this email in my inbox...

"ETSY INFRINGEMENT NOTICE"

Dear hellointerloper,

We have deactivated some item listings in your shop per Etsy's Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy.
We kindly request that you read the following information carefully. Do not reactivate these item listings or relist these items until the issue has been resolved.
This is a confidential matter, and we request that you not discuss this issue in the Etsy Forums or otherwise violate the confidential nature of this email.

...no, to hell with your confidentiality.

The following item listings have been deactivated:
74985810 - Loud and Angry Little Guy - Polymer Clay Bird Figurine or Decoration

Wait wait wait... what? That doesn't infringe on anything! That was an original figurine! Who could have complained?

Etsy received a notice from Jussi Hakanen (piracy@fondia.fi), Legal Counsel for Rovio Mobile Ltd. The notice said that "The game Angry Birds is developed and published by a Finnish company Rovio Mobile Ltd. All intellectual property rights to Angry Birds are owned by Rovio Mobile Ltd, including but not limited to copyright to the game characters and internationally registered trademarks. Rovio Mobile Ltd's copyright to the Angry Birds game characters and international trademark registrations of the word "ANGRY BIRDS" and international trademark registration of the graphical representation of the game characters provides Rovio Mobile Ltd with certain proprietary rights. This includes the right to restrict the use of copyrighted works and/or trademarks, or a confusingly similar works or trademarks, in association with confusingly similar products or services. Rovio Mobile Ltd's trademark registrations include, but are not limited to registration of graphical representation of game character by European Union Community Trademark (no: 009205221) and international trademark registration in several jurisdictions (no: 1052865) including United States (WO 1052865) and China (WO 1052865). According to the notice, certain material on Etsy is not authorized.

The letter stated that these listing(s) incorporate designs, symbols, language, images, or photographs that infringe upon the concerned party's copyright or other intellectual property right.

What the flying fudgebucket?! ANGRY BIRDS?
Let me put this simply... I did not make a clay representation of anything from the game.

I made a bird. A bird that is angry. You know, A COMMON ANIMAL, AND AN EMOTION THAT EVERYBODY CAN DISPLAY.

I did not, however, take anything from Angry Birds.

This was my clay piece:

And lets take a look at the Angry Birds.

(This is from The Oatmeal, because finding a picture from Rovio would be a bad idea at this point.)

First of all... MY BIRD HAS FEET.

My bird is not a legless ball whose only forms of transportation are hopping, and of course, slingshot.

He also has wings, which the Angry Birds lack.

NONE of the birds have any purple, anywhere.

Oh, but there is a blue bird you might say? Well guess what. THE BLUE BIRD ISN'T EVEN ANGRY.

The Angry Birds don't have yellow eyes either.

My bird is just a bird. A bird that is angry.

NOT AN ANGRY BIRD.

Honestly Etsy, honestly Rovio...

WHAT THE BLOODY HECK.

Is this little figurine really all that threatening to you guys?

You'd think that THESE would be a little more dangerous, wouldn't you think?

But no.

Thanks for picking on me, bastards.

Demented Doodles!

Just in case you haven't heard yet, I have a new blog called Demented Doodles that I've started posting to on Wednesday!
No, this isn't the end of this blog!

Demented Doodles is a blog for... well, some pretty weird doodles!
Between 2007 and now, I have drawn a lot of strange, wacky, and crazy doodles on MSPaint.
Since they aren't doing any good sitting around in a folder, I thought I'd share the insanity!

I will be posting a doodle every day until I run out of doodles, at which point I will start making new ones just for the blog!

Please visit Demented Doodles by clicking HERE!

Fellow Crafters and Art Fans... Have you seen this piece of embroidery?

Have you seen either of these art pieces?

These two works were stolen from The Drake Hotel in Toronto following an art exhibition called Wrap Your Head Around This. The artist, Jenny Hart, has obviously put a lot of hard work and love into these two pieces, and her attempts to find them have been fruitless.

If you have seen either of these art pieces, you can contact Jenny at jenny@jennyhart.net.

Her original post is here: Embroidery as Art

If you are attending any art shows, keep your eyes open for these two pieces, and know they are stolen material!

A Taste of What's to Come!

I'm back from visiting Jon in Delaware! I had a great time, as usual!
We went to the mall, the supermarket, went for walks, watched the first two Lord of the Rings movies, and played videogames.
I didn't get to catch any frogs sadly, but we got to watch egrets, barn swallows, geese, red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds, and turkey vultures! We even saw a lone killdeer.

But don't worry, it wasn't all fun and games and bird-watching.
While we were there, we also visited craft stores.

Now that I'm back at home, I can finally put the supplies I purchased to good use!
So, what am I going to be working on next?
Here's a teaser list!

• PINS!!! Yes, I bought a nice bag of pin-backs to attach to two clay flowers that I've already made, and will be making more soon! Don't worry, I'm not going to just make more flowers... Expect some fun and possibly geeky pins too.
• ACEOs!!! I got my blanks in the mail, complete with protective sleeves! They're sturdy and nice quality paper, so they'll be perfect for whatever I decide to do with them.
• MORE EARRINGS!!! I bought some more dangling earring hooks, all silver-plated and ready to attach clay charms to! Since summer is here, expect more fruit and bright things. Even better, thanks to the awesomeness of eBay, I will soon be making post-style earrings! The posts will be silver-plated as well, so no worries about nickel allergies.
• NEEDLE-FELTED ANIMALS!!! I have two that are ready to sell already, but I'm waiting until I have a good bunch before posting them. The bluebird that I originally made for Jon will be sold, since I stupidly forgot to bring it with me to Delaware, and ended up making a whole new one on the train ride there. I also made a turtle while I was in DE, and started a parakeet on the way back home.
• AND MORE CLAY THINGS!!! Jon, being the awesome person he is, bought me a nice set of colored clays! I finally have black, brown, and tan clays to work with, so I may finally make some animals. In addition to that, I also bought some glow-in-the-dark clay that was on clearance. I'm going to have a ton of fun with all of those clays. I also just made my first clay cane today! It features a glow pawprint with a purple and blue border. I need a razor blade to cut it with, but hopefully I'll get one this week.
• PRINTS!!! I still have to finish my owl-person drawing, but after that, I will be scanning in some of my old drawings and editing them on the computer to add color, and also to eliminate any imperfections. Once I figure out the best method for printing (and most cost-efficient, seeing that I'm just a fledgling crafter and all) this will finally become a reality!

To put it simply, keep your eye on this blog for new crafty developments! :)
Until next time!

Pokederp #4

We'll start this post of Pokederp with a few plushes that aren't messed up. Look at them closely, because you'll need this for comparison.

In birds, the soft, fleshy part above the beak is called the "cere." It usually has two holes, which are the bird's nostrils.

This Pokemon, Pidove, clearly has a pink cere.

Now...

Here are the offending plushes.

Chinese bootleggers don't really care about facial features, as long as they are there. Pink blobby things above the beak? Can do, and we'll attach them with one piece of pink thread. Who cares if they look like facial testicles.

How much for one of these? $8.



Where does its face end, and body begin? Honestly, who knows? This cheaply made Pikachu will put an $8 dent in your pocket, if you have a thing for awful toys, that is.

This Pokemon is Munna. Nothing wrong with this plush.

BUT...

...you see, Chinese bootleggers are greedy people. If their items are defective, they still want to sell.

This, too, is supposed to be Munna. You can see the outline of where the head-gem-thing is supposed to be, but there is nothing there. In other words, this thing is just a light pink blob with eyes.

The worst part is that these morons have the balls to ask $9 for this piece of trash. I guess they assume it'll be your next DIY project, or something.

Until next time...

YOU'RE FIRED!

Sooo, yeah. I got fired yesterday.
BY TEXT.
(Technology, what have you done? People don't even have the decency to call anymore.)

I could rant about how bad the management was there, how they are technically breaking laws, and how that job was close to being slave labor... but I would end up ranting for ages.

Let's just sum up everything to some life lessons I have learned...

1) Ask more questions about a job before you sign anything.
If I had known that I would be mopping floors until 1am whenever I had the closing shift, I wouldn't have taken the job. Heck, I wish they would have at least told me I was going to be a janitor. Looking back now, I probably should have asked what exactly the job entailed before signing all the necessary papers. Because I didn't ask, I got stuck doing backbreaking work nearly nonstop for 7-9 hour shifts for minimum wage... I could have just been sitting on my butt and managing phone calls and appointments as a receptionist somewhere, to the sweet tune of $12 an hour. Instead I was on my feet all day, cleaning sticky yogurt and toppings.

2) Stupid people don't like it when you make them look stupid... especially when that person is your manager.
I'm going to be blunt... my manager was an idiot. The very first weekend I worked, he changed my shift without notifying me, and proceeded to blame me when I didn't show up. This led to him being scolded at our employee meeting by the owner himself. You see, the manager was supposed to email us the schedule every single time there was an edit made. He didn't do that, and the owner embarrassed him in front of all of us by telling us it was "his mistake" and to do that next time. I believe this was the beginning of his grudge against me. When I tried to take a sick day and he accused me of all these crazy things, like not working for two days the previous week, and calling "every day" to take a day off (neither of which were true at all), I emailed the owner to clear up any problems. That must have embarrassed him again, seeing that he probably was getting his own employees mixed up. Pointing out discrepancies between what he said about breaks and the Employee Handbook was probably the last straw. People just don't like being wrong, and I guess being upstaged by someone more than ten years younger than you AND someone lower on the employee ladder probably led to some anger.

3) Customer service is the key to success, and good tips.
During my short employment, I was astounded how much a good attitude could affect the behavior of your customers. If you took the time to explain how the shop worked to new customers, greet them as they approached the register, and told them to "have a nice day" after their transaction, they were a lot more likely to leave tips. They also were more likely to return, recognize you the next time, and even talk to you while you were getting them their change. Incredibly enough, neither the owner or manager cared about customer service. They were more focused on cleanliness and how much money they made. After a lot of observation though, it was easy to see the difference in behavior between the customers who interacted with a bored cashier, and those that I was tending to. Making the kids happy was the most important part. Kids are sometimes intimidated by people who are older than them. If you can break down that barrier by asking them what flavor they got, commenting on their stack of gummi worm toppings, or just being nice, they start gaining an attachment to the store. One kid whose family I had spoken to on a few occasions exclaimed to me that he was at the store 4 times already, and it was his favorite place. Customer service really is where the money lies, not in having the store spot-free.

At least I learned something from being fired, haha.

Back to looking for jobs... and hey, at least I have cashiering experience now. That'll hopefully open up some more avenues of employment.

In other news, I'm going to Delaware to visit Jon tomorrow!
Hey, it's not like I have to worry about a work schedule anymore, right?
This is exactly what I needed... a nice, relaxing break with my favorite person in the world! <3
Definitely looking forward to it.

Until next time!

A Little Birdie Told Me

Yes, it finally happened... A STORE UPDATE!
I have just added all my bird figurines to the Hello Interloper Etsy shop for you to view and enjoy! (And hopefully purchase? Hehe!)

Here's my personal favorite...

Isn't he cute? (and a bit crazy...)

Here's one that was inspired by... what else? Father's Day!

The little guy wants to grow up to be just like his dad! Don't worry, you'll one day have a fancy head-crest like your father... or not, since you're made of clay.

Also, my needle-felted tiger in a tie that I mentioned earlier is also up for sale!

He's ready for SRS BSNS.

 Check out the rest of the clay insanity by visiting my Etsy shop!

-=Click HERE to take a look!=-