So! I dyed my hair with Creative Image Adore hair dye in Forest Green and, later, Purple Rage. Here are my experiences:

first time:

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second time:

I just dyed the purple over the brown, but there were some bleached streaks left over from ages ago. (You can see those in the first-time picture, as well as tons of other pics of me here.) It turned a lovely pinkish bright raspberry purple on the bleached bits and gave the rest of my hair a really pretty almost auburn-y shine.

The green is much darker this time, probably because I rinsed it in achingly-cold water! I'm so impressed with this brand of dye. I'd never heard of it before but it's given me fantastic results.

My thoughts on it after using another color and a second time:
- I wish the bottles were designed differently. It's messy. They've got a sort of push-top design, like this: http://i1.ebayimg.com/05/i/001/2d/fc/6687_1_sbl.JPG And so the dye gets all over the bottle.
- The green is fairly thin and liquidy. The purple is thick, like hair gel. They seem to soak into the hair at about the same rate, though.
- The color pictured on the bottle is definitely not the color you will get. Putting the dye on a piece of plain white paper, though, and blotting it a little, will give you a nearly-exact swatch (over bleached hair, at least).
- Something I forgot from last time is that my hair feels absolutely amazing. I can't stop touching it.

I'm going to stick with this brand to try and get more pictures of its color range out there. I'm also going to keep track of how the purple fades, and see if it'll last as long as the green did. The green lasted 8 weeks and was still a pretty light lime by the time I dyed over it. (If not for St. Patrick's Day I probably wouldn't have bothered redyeing...but, I also wanted to add the purple, too.)

Clichés suck. They’re overused, hence the reason they are clichés. They are stock phrases with generic meanings and connotations. Occasionally bits of odd or outdated terms pop up in the stew. If they’re so overused, why are they still around? Because they’re useful. A few words can sum up an otherwise-lengthy situation into a handy ball of well-defined goodness. These phrases are overused because they work.

“Well, this is a fine kettle of fish,” Madame Example mutters to herself, yet there is not a single salmon or sardine in sight. Entirely unrelated to any sort of cookery (usually), Madame Example is just in a pretty frustrating or awkward situation. Maybe ninjas are attacking, or she just dropped her favorite china, but these have nothing to do with cauldrons of seafood. Prior to this paper, I had no idea, but after searching the internet, I found that it probably came from the practice of throwing live fish into boiling water. Supposedly after the fish had been boiled enough, they made a rather messy sort of stew. This is just one theory, and it may not be correct, but there are plenty of other phrases that have entered our language through literal actions turned figurative that it makes a good example. More importantly, it gives some spice to the otherwise-limited options of describing the happenings. In a way similar to the large variety of swears in the world, there are thousands of overused idioms available to talk about almost any sort of situation or thing. It’s just more interesting that way.

While on the subject of interesting things, the ninjas have accidentally stepped on the broken crockery at Madame Example’s house. The head ninja quietly steps up to the Madame, starting to explain in very vague and uncertain terms that he may, perhaps, need some form of medical assistance, possibly in the form of an adhesive bandage strip or some other sort of pre-prepared first-aid supplies. “Stop beating around the bush,” Madame Example snaps, “I haven’t got all day!” Unless the Madame is a horticulturist, there are no bushes in the house, and the poor ninja just wants a band-aid for his foot—no beating for him. This common phrase is derived from ye olde practise of hitting at bushes to make the birds fly up in order to catch and eat them. By beating around the bushes, instead of directly on them, there was a lot of work without much purpose. It’s not a far leap to see the figurative meaning’s evolution to simply “avoiding the point.” This phrase adds to our repertoire so that we don’t have to say “stop telling me things that are not the thing you mean to tell me!” and such, or even just “just say it” all the time.

These terms are just fine, but the real magic happens when you’re so familiar with them that they can be changed and still understood. “There’s a silver lining to this fine kettle of fish,” Example exclaims as she finds a brick of gold underneath the shards of her tea set. After all, a silver lining is the good side of a bad thing, and the kettle of fish is still an awkward situation. They’re easily combined into one new phrase that succinctly tells us what the Madame thinks of the new discovery. The established meanings of the phrases we learn in childhood allow us to construct new forms of idioms in adulthood, which thereby expand our range of colorful language to new lengths. Apart from giving us more ways to describe things, mixing metaphors can result in such amusing phrases as “the icing on the kettle of fish” or “birds of a feather cry wolf.” It’s funny because two logical happenings combine to make one that’s totally absurd in a literal sense, yet because of their separate meanings, they still make sense metaphorically.

Idioms can be poetic, simple, odd, or merely quirks of everyday language, but they give variety and allow more freedom of expression than merely literal phrases could provide. They can be a little overused, but there’s nothing wrong with airing them out every once in a while. They help to make the English language fun and fresh every day.

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Sources:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ket1.htm

http://www.takeourword.com/TOW191/page2.html

This is an essay I wrote for a class that got rejected for being too informal. I'm still fond of it, so I thought I'd put it on the internet. Please don't use this essay as your own work, ever, and link back to the permalink page if you choose to quote or otherwise use it. 

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I do all my drawings on plain paper first (sometimes lined notebook paper for rough sketches, usually normal white printer paper for nice sketches), in pencil. Sometimes I ink them with pens (especially if I want to color it in). Then I color if I'm going to do that. The khaki-colored lolita skirts to the left were sketched, inked, and colored, but I never bothered to clean them up more. (I actually never even finished the one I got started... ;_; )

Afterwards I scan it into my computer and use Paint.NET's line tool to trace over all the lines. I usually use a width of 2 or 3 pixels for outside lines and get finer widths as the details get smaller. Since I can't really go smaller than one pixel wide I usually try to figure out how many levels of detail I want and then use that number for the first width line.

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The important thing is to use a layer above the sketch to trace (I like to trace different levels of details on different layers so then I can adjust and change my design more easily) so then when it comes time to color you can just turn off the sketch and add another layer under your lines for your color. Again, I like to have multiple layers so that I can adjust single colors as needed. It especially helps if some colors specifically go over others-- like in my

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It's kind of long and a little bit complicated, but it's really not too bad. Once it's all colored I save it as a .pdn file to preserve the layers, then a .png to show it off to the internet! :)

The best part is that once it's done I can  modify it thanks to the multiple layers if I change my mind or decide it needs something else added. You can see the changes made to my Pirate Hello Kitty design as it got improved through suggestions by forumgoers on Cosplay.com.

So there you have it! How I make my weird little illustrations! They're rather simple, but they work for my needs.

(If I ever decide to scan in my current project's design note drawings, I think I would be busy for a week with all the detail I put in. The pencils kept getting too dull to do the tiny details. <_<;;)

Well I've been up to a lot! And yet not much. I dressed as Sarah Palin for Halloween, got to get to a real knitting store, as well as doing loooots and lots of other stuff that I can't remember.

First thing: I have a Twitter feed now! Go there and revel in the minutae of my uninteresting life.

http://twitter.com/babelglyph

Second thing: I'm working on a niiiice big project now, cobbled together from four patterns.

Third thing: holy shiznat batman the English Gothic & Lolita Bible rufflytieredskirt from the second volume? Yeah the pattern is pretty much shite. It's far too short (my petticoat sticks out like four inches from the bottom), the directions are extremely incomplete (um...where does the zipper go?!), and it's basically turning the skirt of my dress into a slight mess. I'm having to add on another layer in order to make it long enough and I'm just not sure where it needs to go...Argh, argh, AAARGH!!!

Fourth thing: I have to be insane, because I am using a doll pinafore pattern for Blythe to make me a pattern piece for the top of my apron for this Big Project.

Fifth thing: Must..keep...working...@_@ Can't stop to blog...

Sixth thing: oh yeah and I keep running out of ruffle. BUGGER. It's expensive too, $4.49 a yard. :<

I'm trying to be more organized, and I'm doing pretty well, I like to think. I still really need to work on time management (>_<) but as far as keeping track of tasks and dates, it's not bad!

My first big tool is Google Calendars. I love how I can color-code and organize the events themselves. It's easy to use and pretty powerful. My favorite parts of Google Calendars, though, are the repeating events (I can add it once and it'll go on for however long I want it to, at whatever interval I like!) and the notifications. I run a twice-a-week showing of Sailor Moon but I tend to forget on the days I'm supposed to run it. I added it to my calendar, turned on email notifications, and now I never forget! It emails me three times in the hour before showtime just in case -- I can be quite absentminded at times.

My second tool that I'm just starting to use is a lovely pink DayOne planner. It was a gift from a very good friend of mine and I love it. Although I haven't gotten everything in it yet, it will eventually have all my important phone numbers and addresses, as well as all my offline appointments and dates and such. It's great for seeing my schedule at a glance when I'm away from my computer.

My third tool is Ta-Da List. These are simple to-do lists that are really easy to organize and arrange on the computer. I love making notes to myself about things to do and buy, but I've never had a really good system for keeping up with them. I used to use my school notebooks but then I'd lose them or forget about the lists. Then I most recently used gmail and just emailed things to do to myself, but that was way more complicated than it should have been. I remembered about Ta-Da just a little while ago and I'm already keeping up with everything I need to do!

My fourth tool, one that's specially for my knitting projects, is Ravelry. I can keep track of projects in-progress, see my notes on finished projects, queue projects I have in mind, tag all projects, look up new patterns, see info on yarns, make notes of what kinds of needles I have...it's a knitter's dream come true. I especially love this one because I soon won't have enough extra space to stash yarn and printed patterns -- it's helping me to choose what I really want to do (tagged with "definitely"), what I probably want to do but aren't totally sure (tagged "maybe"), and ones I would like to do but just don't think I have the knowledge, talents, money, or time to do (tagged "someday").  Of course, its pattern database is giving me all sorts of projects I want to do, so it's not totally helping...but hey, at least the stuff I make will all have uses. ^_^ It's also a bit of a social networky site for knitters and crocheters but I've not explored that. If you have an account, though, feel free to add me -- I'm Babelglyph.

My fifth tool is OnlineClock.net, a super-simple alarm clock that's great for one-time things. I like it to remind me to check on uploading videos or boiling water. It's a good alarm for a quick nap, too -- it's obnoxious and impossible to ignore. Simple and easy to use.

My last tool is, oddly enough, Vox! I like to post on Vox about all the things I have in mind for future projects and such. I don't do it often enough, but it really helps when I do.  So now I think I'm going to get caught up on my knitting projects thus far and go write that post!

(teehee, I wrote this before the knitting one below it, but I posted the knitting one first. This one feels incomplete. But I can't remember anything else I use...so here it is for everyone to read!)

Been cooking a fair bit recently.

I tried the Tuna Croquettes recipe from Alton Brown:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tuna-croquette-recipe/index.html

I omitted the green onions since I didn't have any, and I used two three-ounce cans of tuna instead of a pouch. I also made my own bread crumbs from leftover dinner rolls since I had them on hand. They turned out fabulous, although some pieces had too much mustard! >_< I'd cut it back to one and a half teaspoons and make sure to mix it thoroughly.

I also made blondies:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/blondies-for-a-blondie/

I added one cup each of semisweet chocolate chips and walnut pieces. I baked them for 20 minutes and they are DIVINE, if a bit crumbly. Something is missing, though -- I'm thinking maybe I'd add a half-cup or so of butterscotch chips next time? They're sweet already so I'm hesitant to add white chocolate. It seems wonderfully adaptable though, so I'm going to play around with more add-ins later.

And finally, couscous!

http://www.smartspot.com/about/foods/other/near-east

I use plain couscous and cook it with chicken broth to make a simple savory starch. Right now I've got some with herbs that's cooking as I type; I'll post again if that turns out nice!

I used tuna croquettes, couscous, and cauliflower to make myself a cute bento!

It's beach-themed. <3 Yay! You can click the pictures to go to my Flickr to see more about the bento itself.

So, I've recently decided to track what I eat, when I eat it, and how much nutrition I'm actually getting. I'm anemic (and should be taking iron pills, although I suck at remembering to take them) so nutrition is pretty important. I also want to start making some good habits so I eat well enough when I'm living on my own.

Anyways, there's a free online service that'll track what you eat (it's meant for weight loss/gain but it has options to maintain weight too, which is perfect for me!) connected with Livestrong.com. It's called The Daily Plate and it's really really easy to find the things you eat! It also suggests healthy choices, so that's awesome. I'm having fun with it! There are some other systems out there too, but I haven't tried them.

I'm finding out that I have a LOT of sodium in my diet. Like, a lot. Also, I could probably eat more than I do! This is encouraging to me. I'm really trying to balance out my good nutrition with the bad -- sodium's really my worst. x_x But, it's only been a few days, so I'm going to keep logging what I eat and do my best to stay healthy!