Busy Busy Busy!

My summer went okay. I didn't get to move out West, but I'm okay with that. The week of exams, my grandmother had gone back into the hospital. When she came home, and my exams were over, there was a daily onslaught of tornados through the middle of the country... where I needed to drive, no thank you. Then, as if that wasn't enough to discourage me, Phoenix, Arizona was blanketed by a severe duststorm!! Okay, truth: duststorm was not enough to dissuade me without the terrifying weeklong drive through tornado alley at peak season! So, I settled in with my folks for a long summer.... and enrolled for fall classes here.

School started for me on a Wednesday. Two days later, my grandmother passed. I had been expecting her departure for a long time. Watching her ability to take care of herself steadily decline was hard. She is missed, but I have peace in my heart. Just hours after her graveside service, there was a great earthquake! ('Great' for this area is anything that people can actually detect!) I laughed, because I was musing that if that EQ had hit during the service, we might have been digging some more holes!! LOL (okay, sorry, that isn't funny to everybody... but I still crack myself up!) I happened to be in structural geology lab at the time of the event, and we momentarily got off topic, but that's another story!

Family, school starting back, Fall Break planning, deciding on graduate programs, whether to file for a second Bachelors (not a bad idea, as it solidifies concepts by having to complete more classes, but   it would add more than 2 semesters to plan), moving... stay with folks or move closer to school.... need a job... want relevant work experience (in geology), not cashier at grocery/retailer (not that there's anything wrong with those jobs, but I need experience on my resume!) OH! AND.... I've been adding to my etsy.com listings (www.etsy.com/people/andiroth) ... and eBay (and_ankhira)... so I am feeling very busy busy!

Voices in my head

That is nothing new. Voices in my head, I mean. Only, they don't usually all try to speak at once. I am stressing over registering for the Spring semester. As much as I love my new home business, it is that: a home business. I can only get out of it what I put into it, and if I am not putting in some time several days every week, the returns will not be earthshaking. So I am worried about paying for tuition next semester. I SHOULD be worried about paying insurance premium, cell phone, and student loan payments after next month. So I looked at my immediate inventory, you know, the stuff I have sitting around that I could part with. Hmmm. A few licensed items I could post on eBay. Nothing worth $50 or more. So what about crafts? I like to sew (I broke my sewing machine), and crochet, and I just recently taught myself to knit. How quickly (in my "spare" time) can I crank out some liquid inventory? Set up account on etsy.com to sell handmade items.

So now on to studies: optical mineralogy. We did some heavier math situations today. To find the birefringence of a mineral, and use that data to determine the mineral, you find some 2V angle which is the difference between the Optic Axes (plural) and look that number in the table to start narrowing your options. This might take a few days to sink in.

Then, I read an article in our campus newspaper about some 30 year study that links the ratio of a nation's debt to their GDP (gross domestic product) to establish a "tipping point" at which the economy of that nation will start to decline... like a debt-to-income ratio for individuals. Turns out, 0.77  is the magic number. Just like in the real world, when your DTIR exceeds 75%, you are failing! (falling, failing...). You are already out of control. The US debt-to-GCP ratio is currently 84%. But "this shouldn't be overinterpreted," claims Thomas Grennes, professor in department of economics at NCSU. He states, "When the country spends more than it has, it will issue bonds." That will fix everything! Everyone, let's go out and purchase government bonds at low interest rates. Congress must get our budget under control (pay cuts in the Capitol are a start, I don't see how any of them deserve the obscene salaries they make! How many houses, cars, boats, vacation homes... do you have? )

Okay. Enough rambling. I must get to work on crocheting some quick crafts so I can post a few sell-able items . I need to take pictures of the 4 items for eBay ... pathetic... 4 items? that's it? I need more yarn!