Postcards, Letters, and Vistaprint?!

Ah... it's the holiday season!  Which means it's time to bust out the stationery and write to my out-of-state (and some in-state) friendlies.  I already to write handwritten letters to keep in touch with them, but there's something about sending special holiday ones that makes me extra happy.  I believe that keeping in touch with my friends via handwritten letters is well worth the stamp that sends it.

I'd already received a couple of Halloween cards from some friends.  They're really cute!  One of them was in the shape of a ghost.

Wanting to replenish my postcard and thank you card stock, I decided to waltz on over to Vistaprint to see what I can get.  I love this site!  Though, I should have waiting a few days before placing my order.  :(  It seems that Staples is currently running a deal wherein you can get 100 standard sized postcards and 10 holiday cards (4" x 8") for free in-store (or ~$9.95 shipped if done online).  Why does this make me sad?  Because they have the same templates a Vistaprint.

Anywho, for $17.83, I got the following (via 21-day "slow" shipping, though my orders typically arrive in 10 days...):

(100) postcards w/ 100 envelopes (extra $4.99 charge) & free uploads

(10) holiday cards w/ envelopes

(10) blank note cards w/ envelopes

(10) flat holiday cards

(10) folded thank you cards w/ envelopes

I've been wanting these cards for so long!  I wish they had that design in postcard form  :(  I'm now limited to only 10 of these cards.  I'd much rather not order more of them on future orders simply because I like having a variety of designs on hand.

(1) rubber stamp w/ red ink (extra $1.99 charge)

The holiday cards were the first things I'd ever ordered that wasn't generic.  I wanted to use them for an upcoming holiday party that I'd be hosting.  The stamp will be for a friend who wanted it to stamp her tickets for upcoming shows.  The rest are just generic cards that I'll be using to write thank you letters and notes to friends and family, both near and far.

I'd found a lot of teacher blogs who posted up their creative ideas for using Vistaprint items too.  They're really neat and I think I'll be passing that along to my teacher friends.  If I still taught Sunday school, you'd bet I'd be all over Vistaprint to figure out ways to incorporate their products into my classroom!

Welp!  It's time to head on down to Staples and pick up some more postcards!  I can't wait to have so many more postcards to choose from!

P.S.  Everything was free unless noted as an extra charge; the rest of the total is purely shipping costs.  At $17.83, this has got to be my most expensive order yet.  Simply because of the upgrades... usually my orders are around $6.00 or $7.00.  :)  Yeah, the cost kinda hurts me, but considering all the stuff I got, it'll last me quite some time and satiate my desires for more stationery.  Plus, the only reason I bought these more or less on "impulse" was because my friend needed the stamp for work.  Otherwise, I'm SURE I would have waited a lot longer before putting my order in (as always!).

** UPDATE:  (07 November 2011)
I got an e-mail on 03 November 2011 telling me that my order has shipped early.  It's scheduled to arrive on 10 November 2011.  Yay.  :) 

** UPDATE:  (13 November 2011)
As promised, my package came the morning of 10 November 2011.  Nothing was missing from my order and everything is perfect.  My only gripe is that the back of the folded cards came with "www.vistaprint.com" printed.  I only wish I could go on a Vistaprint shopping spree!  I did however, put in another order a couple of days after for Christmas time this year.  I'd personalised a bunch of items for my friend since she also likes to send out cards and handwritten letters to her friends.  :)

The Floppy Disk "Save" Icon + Other Ramblings (Tinders/Firestarters)

Couldn't sleep.  So by all means, my mind is all over the place!

Ah.  The beloved floppy disk.  I was a 90's kid.  I grew up with those HUGE, extremely floppy, floppy disks that went into the Apple computers at school where we played Word Munchers and Oregon Trail.  Fast forward a couple of years, and we got zip disks, affordable CD burners, and then after that, the beloved flash drives/thumb drives that everyone has now - except that back then, the simple little 64mb ones cost $20.00 and change, at least!  (I wonder if they ever had anything below a 64mb... I don't recall, but I do know that I still have a 128mb laying around.  Actually, not laying around - I still use it for school; essays in MLA format do not take up that much space.)

This has been on my mind for quite some time now.  Though I've never really questioned my contemporaries...  Anyway.  Technology has changed greatly over the years.  But has anyone ever noticed that even though these methods of saving our computer files have changed, that little icon in the corner has not?

Go check.  Your little "Save" or "Save As..." all around you still hold the same icon; the floppy disk.  I've grown up with it and am just used to it.  But the majority of the younger generation who grew up with flash drives and "clouds" have never heard of or even seen a floppy disk (trust me, I've asked).  I'm not sure if they even pay attention to it, let alone inquire as to what that little icon is.  They just seem to accept it for what it is; the picture that means "to save" and nothing more - it has no name to it.  Just the "save icon" at best, I presume.

Will this little icon ever change?  I couldn't think of any other icon to use in place of it should it go in that direction.  A picture of a flash drive doesn't really make sense; we usually associate that with the USB icon.  The new thing now is the "cloud."  Would that ever catch on as an icon?  Maybe add a smilie face to it; I like the ones from Super Mario.  :)

That's it for that topic.  On to the next!

So I've been playing with my firesteel a lot since it came.  I've been looking into different tinders that I could keep in my SAR pack.  The most popular homemade one seems to be the old cottonball + Vaseline trick.  Seems great, but I'm not sure if I want petroleum jelly all over the place; even if kept in an airtight container.  I fear that if I had a smidgen of that stuff on my hands, the sparks from my firesteel might burn me.

Then I read about the whole wax + cottonball trick.  It seemed like a great idea.  But I found a few things "wrong" with it.  For one, if you engulf the thing in wax, then it'll be hard crack open, let alone fluff up, which means the sparks won't catch to create an ember.  For another, we're using this as a firestarter, so having that much fuel on hand just seems to be a waste of wax.

I was watching this video on YouTube in which the guy (Craig) compared commercially available tinders (Tinder Quik, Wet Fire) to the cottonball + Vaseline.

My main focus was on the Tinder Quik and cottonball + Vaseline; the WetFire was of no interest to me.  Basically, what I noticed was that he said that the Tinder Quik worked very similarly to the cottonball + Vaseline and that the Tinder Quik had a bit of a waxy feel to it.  Upon watching the video further into the comparisons of the tinders under wet conditions, I saw that the cottonball + Vaseline fails under extreme wet environments whereas the Tinder Quik did alright under the same conditions so long as most of the water was wrung out.  It seems that the waxy coating allowed it to withstand some water absorption and keep the innards dry enough that you could fluff it up.

With that said, I figured, why not combine the two ideas? 

1. incorporate the Vaseline into the cottonball as normal and shape it a bit
2. dip it into melted wax to create a waterproof barrier

By doing so, in theory, we should be able to create a waterproof version of the cottonball + Vaseline that will still fluff up.  Crack open the thin, waterproof wax shell and expose the fluffy Vaselined goodness inside.  Plus, both the Vaseline and wax will serve as fuel; neither will go to waste.

In my mind, you can still condense the cottonball + Vaseline a bit before dipping into the wax, creating a smaller pellet.  I hope to find a wax that will harden enough that I won't have to worry about it melting in the car or something (I keep my go-bag in the car).  That would kinda suck if it melted and melded all of my pellets together while in the container.  Not the biggest of issues, but something to think about.

I'll be trying this out in the morning after getting some cottonballs and will report back in a later post.  :)

Improving My Firesteel

I love "bushcraft" fun.  There's something about it that just makes me really happy.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, while checking my RSS feed for FatWallet, I'd happened upon a posting for a $0.69 firesteel/"ferro rod" from MeritLine after coupon + free shipping.  I figured it was worth a try.  I'd never ordered from MeritLine before, but I do trust the people of FatWallet; when a deal seems too good to be true or if it's a not-well-known seller, there's always someone who is willing to "test" them out and report back with findings.

Anyway, MeritLine is similar to another site that I used to use, DealExtreme.  They are based in Asia (I'm sure all in China) and have very inexpensive items for sale, all boasting free shipping.  The only "downside" (not going to be bringing politics or economics into this, people!) is that it takes a good 3 weeks or so for your items to arrive.

A couple of days ago, I'd come home from school to find that my firesteel had come home.  At first I couldn't get it to strike with the striker that it came with.  So I went ahead and scraped off the black "coating" of the firesteel itself with my knife to get to the sweet metal under.  The striker still had some problems; it would create great sparks on one side (the shorter side) but would not scrape diddily squat on the other (longer side).  I tried scraping the green paint off of it to see if creating a coarse edge would work, but to no avail.**

After a quick nap, for whatever reason, I woke up and decided to run it through my Smith's knife sharpener/honer.  The result?  The striker works like a charm on both sides!  If out in the wilderness, I would much rather use the intended striker with these firesteels than the blade of my knife.  I don't think any of my knives have a usable backside of the blade for the firesteel; much too thick/rounded.

:)  I'd read a lot of people buying the Chinese made firesteels and be happy with their rod but not the striker itself.  Maybe this is the solution?  Happy firesteeling.  :D  Please be careful.

** I think it's intended that you use the toothy end of the striker to strike the rod, but I find that using the straight sides give me better grip and emits greater sparks; heck, I don't think I've ever been able to create sparks using the toothy side.  I'd figure that since you could use the straight blade of a knife (or its backside) to create sparks, there's no reason that the straight side of the included striker wouldn't work.  :)

Rock Climbing Shoes?! :)

The other night, upon arriving at the most recent G.I. Joe Search and Rescue meeting, Sis surprised me with a gift!  The weekend prior was the REI used gear sale.  I hadn't gone for whatever reason... I think I was doing homework.  But anyway, at dinner one night, she told me she'd gotten me something.  I didn't think it was anything REI related.  A couple of nights later, before heading out for a movie (Real Steel, which was AWESOME, by the way!), I'd asked her if she'd found anything interesting at the used gear sale.  She just smirked and said that I couldn't see it yet.

I had no idea that that smirk was referring to my gift.  Next thing you know, she surprises me with rock climbing shoes that she'd found at said sale in my size!  And in red, at that!  Perfect for G.I. Joe training.  :)
.

The right one was a little tight in one tiny section, but after stuffing them with socks for a night or two stretched them out perfectly.  The left one had always fit fine.  But sweet!  New rock climbing shoes!  Well, new to me.  But they were kept in pretty great shape; probably only used a handful of times at most.

Green Apple "Moisturizer" Lip Balm from ChapStick!

I'd gone to Walmart after training tonight to pick up some shampoo.  Waltzing down the aisles, I'd noticed the little ChapStick display at the endcap.  I'd recently discovered the awesomeness that is the "moisturizer" I guess, "line" of lip balms from ChapStick.  Upon closer inspection, I'd noticed their "new flavor," green apple!  :D  I was happy considering green apple is one of my more favored scents for almost everything (particularly the hand sanitiser from Germ-X along with the orange scented one).

I'd immediately grabbed it, only to also find vanilla mint flavor.  I took both and went onwards to get my shampoo.  Once I got home, I showed my older brother who, in turn ripped open the vanilla mint one (after taking but then rejecting the green apple in favor of the vanilla mint) after ~ 3 seconds), put it on, and told me it tasted like Christmas.  <_<  Thanks a lot.

I'm not sure how I'll take to the fruity-ness of this lip balm, as I'm so used to the original flavor (with the slight hint of vanilla as mentioned in the previous post).  But I'm sure I'll be happy with its performance if not its flavor.  :)

Lip Balm Addiction???

I've never liked using lip balms before. But I was getting tired if the constantly dry and chapped lips. Putting on tinted glosses or lipstick only highlighted the dry, flaking skin on my lips and it was disgusting.

Over the years, I've used probably the entire line of what Blistex and Carmex had to offer. But none worked for me. They would fix the lips temporarily, for maybe a day, but that's it; out hours back to bring dry and flaky after I stopped using the product. Even so, I fight like the flavor that Blistex imparts either.  It's just weird. The tinglyness of the Carmex was nice, but it always felt so heavy on my lips.

I've also tried off brand balms, vitamin e sticks, Soft Lips brand, among others and none seemed to work.

Desperate for relief from cracked lips one day, I reached for the regular old ChapStick brand "Moisturizer" stick (in the blue label) and it's become my go-to balm since. I'd even bought the multi-pack of the stuff so that I could have out in all of my bags, room, and car. I can't seem to be without it. Best part? Very little reapplication needed; usually only after meals.

My lips have never been smoother. It's very light and not at all waxy. It's even got a light hint of vanilla flavor to it.

Sweet! I'm now a happy child. :) With smooth, soft lips too!

Little Debbie's Fall Pumpkin Delights: Filled Cookies

Ya know... there's just something about these cookies that make me happy.  Perhaps it's the smile (albeit a little ominous looking, some of them)?  The taste of the fall season rearing it's head?  The soft and tenderness that is a Little Debbie's sweet?

Whatever it is, I love it.  These Pumpkin Delights only come 'round once a year.  Their cakes and other snacks merely get a make-over.  (Seriously... their "new" Fall Tree Cakes are merely differently sprinkled Christmas Tree Cakes - both have got the same shape, yellow cake innards, chocolate creme fillings, and enrobed in chocolate flavor.)  But these pumpkin filled cookies... you can only get them once a year.

I recall only ever having this once as a kid.  More than a decade later, at age 21, I see them again at Target and it brings back memories.  I never used to purchase sweets, but it's a good pick-me-up during long lectures courses where food isn't allowed and I had left the house without my usual  piece of fruit or trail mix.

These cookies really hit the spot.  I don't believe I've had absolutely every single Little Debbie's sweet, but I really like this one as well as their brownies (so dense and chewy!) and their oatmeal filled cookies now and again.  Like I said, it's not often that I purchase sweets, but when I do, it's probably a Little Debbie's brand snack (or Oreos, but there had best be milk around).

Oh yeah... and don'tcha think my little cookie resembles Sack Boy from Little Big Planet?  I've also been told one of the characters from the movie 9 and Sam, the Halloween Spirit.  :)  Cute.

Why Purchase Individually Wrapped?

I was at the store a little while back and overheard a mother telling her son to get ONLY the individually packaged snacks to pack for his school lunches.  Really?  REALLY?  In some cases, I can see doing this, but in others, not so much.

For one, the price of getting pre-packaged, individually wrapped, snacks costs a whole lot more than buying in "bulk" and portioning them out yourself.  You're just paying for the extra packing material with the brand name slapped on in pretty colors.  The only time I could find this useful is to keep foods that I know I don't eat too much of, fresh.  Others would argue that it takes too much time out of their morning (WTF???) to pack them.

Anyway.  How do I combat this?  I purchase items that I know will be eaten before their "best by" date and portion them into smaller containers for easy, grab-n-go awesomeness.  I personally use the "Small Rounds" (1/2 cup) containers from Glad.  They hold up pretty well and I find them to be a great size for snacks.  Waste of time?  Nah.  It takes but 2 minutes to portion everything out.  o_O  Don't be lazy.

This week, I have honey mustard pretzel bits and trail mix.  For less than $2.00 for either, I was able to get 4 servings of trail mix (only because I bought the more expensive, non-raisin type of trail mix)  and 6 servings of pretzel bits.

Unfilled Void

It's been six months since Joe Le passed. These past six months have flown by and plenty had happened since. But the pain of not having him around, not seeing him, and not hearing his voice still hurts just as much as the first day of hearing the news, if not more.

The void will never be filled and the pain never lessens as each day passes. Not one bit.

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