The Little Things that Excite Me

-Getting a "new" laptop at work. My old one was almost 5 years old. Ancient in Laptop talk. I got a newer one. Put a lot of my stuff back on there. It's so much faster and happier. And I have space.

-Two TV shows that let out my inner geek. Doctor Who and Torchwood. I'm borderline obsessed with them like I was obsessed with Buffy and Angel back in the day. It's great to have another couple Sci-Fi series to love <3

-Bookstores, If I go in one I come out with something. Bad habit to have.

-Panera Breads Cinnomin Crunch bagel. went there for lunch on Monday. It was great, a late night snack was the bagel.

-Did I mention the laptop already?

-Goals for 2008 coming slowly, and it looks like I'll not be making one of those goals. Not traveling anywhere this March :-(

That's all for now.

Nicole

Meme

Part 1

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.) Torchwood, Another Life

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.
-Next to each bed were either fitted cupboards or cheap but sturdy chests of drawers.

4. Post the next three sentences.
There were bedside lamps small family photos, sometimes of parents sitting on sofas or in gardens, while others showed young women grinning at the camera, their complexions bleached and flattened by flash photography. Shower rooms contained single cubicles in a row, and a separate room housed washing machines and dryers. " didn't think the facilities would be like this,' she told their escort. 'It's less... well regimented than I'd expected."

5. Be sure to answer Part 2.
6. Link back to the person who tagged you. Got this from Carla in an email.
7. Tag five people.
5 people who read this blog.


Part 2 Answer these questions:

1. If you could do anything you want to, what would it be?
I'd travel the world, ride lots of rollercoasters, and work on the sets of some of my favorite TV shows.


2. If you could paint the whole world 1 (one) colour - what would it be?
that would make the world ugly. The world needs to be multicolored like it is now.

3. Would you rather be an animal or a person?
Both

4. If you said animal - which one?
I'd like to be a dog in my family, just to see what they would think.

5. Do flowers talk?
not that I know of.

6. Have you ever known that a spirit from another realm was nearby?
Not really, though I've felt some spirits before in haunted places.

7. Add your own question here.
What is your favorite book, author, movie or TV series?
-Catcher in the Rye
-No favorite author
-Movie: LOTR, POTC, Disney Animated
-TV: Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, Torchwood

Pottstown

Pottstown Mercury

Check out the video to see the fire that happened in downtown Pottstown on Saturday. Amazingly no one was injured, lots of damage done.

I really hope that this will be rebuilt. As crappy as parts of Pottstown are they really were trying to revitalize the downtown area. This is a major blow. I just worry that it will sit there boarded up for decades just the the Slack Shack lot. The Slack Shack was a fire that happened in the same area of Pottstown, just on the other side of High St. at least 15 years ago. It is still a boarded up lot.

BTW, I went there to take pictures of it today. I'll have stuff up tomorrow night. As I was getting ready to go, I got interviewed by a reporter of the Reading Eagle Newspaper.

Well that is all for now.

Jeff Dunham

Reading Level

Fast Payday Loans

The Hooters

These guys are my most favorite band ever.


The Hooters - I'm Alive Unplugged

Add to My Profile | More Videos

January 7, 2008 Progress Report

1a. Gather Idea for SF and plan ahead
- Using two characters who are friends, and move away, keep in contact via IM, use flashbacks and current ways to make a story interwoven.

2. Start playing the Flute again
-Took flute out of my closet, played for 5 minutes yesterday, my mouth cramped up. I need to build up my muscles and hands again. Must go and order that Pirates of the Caribbean flute solo book.

3. Read the Pile of magazines that has accumulated in my apartment
-Started to do this over Christmas and New Years. Haven't done any reading since then. But I will organize them into a nice pile.

5. Finish the crocheting projects I have started. (1 blanket for my friend who is pregnant, and 2 blankets for a co-workers wife who is having twins)
-Baby blanket 1 for one of the co-workers twins is almost halfway done. The blanket for the other twin is started. The blanket for my friend's baby is also started. So All projects are started.

9. Become better at my job by getting more work done and getting more work done
-Work in progress. I'm procrastinating now by typing this update, but I'm working at the same time because I am searching for old emails I will need.

10. Look into some kind of continuing education class or a class I can take for fun. I miss learning a lot and I never want to stop.
-For now I bought myself a Latin book. To re-teach myself items and to enhance my vocabulary. I feel that I am in a profession where sounding intelligent is a must.

11. Find clothes that fit me, and if need be spend the money on clothes
-Starting to find clothes, took some pants to the tailor today. She laughed at how long they were.

13. Pay off my credit cards so I can do 6, though, I think I'll be doing 6 before they are paid off.
-Started to pay them off. I can put a little more on my card this week since last week was a pay day

14. Keep my apartment CLEAN
-My friend Kate is coming over this weekend. I haven't seen her since Homecoming. This week is a great week to hang out with her because of what we all went though last year.

15. Make sure I can walk into my closet and not have to worry about what the hell I am stepping on.
-Went to Walmart today, bought a little shoe rack to get some of my shoes off the floor. Bought cloth bins to get my craft projects in some sort of storage.

17. Attempt to keep in contact with friends
-Hanging out with Kate is a start

20. Maybe start learning Spanish again?
-Not Spanish right now, but diving into Latin.

21. Try not to get sick
-Hell of a lot harder then it looks.

25. Write more in general, fun, journal entries. I am doing NaNoWriYe (National Novel Writing Year). This gives me reason and motivation to write every day.
-NaNoWriYe, NaNoCoMo, and Wannabee Writers are helping me with this.

What's your Name Mean?

I had seen this quiz on someones LiveJournal. I figured I'd see what it's about, I generally don't believe stuff like this but it really seems to describe who I am.

But in other news This next week is going suck ass. I will probably be one big emotional wreck. I'm pretty sure on Friday I will be working from home as I don't need to be an emotional wreck at work. I miss Nikki, and I miss her a lot. It got slightly easier, but the holidays sucked and now sucks as well.

Ok, happy stuff. I saw my friend Eddie's piano recital today. I haven't seen him perform since he was a freshmen in High School. He's now almost graduating college. The kids got talent, and made me realize how much I miss being involved with music.

I may add onto to my music playing goals and say I want to relearn items of music history and get me some new classical music CD's. Music is my passion. I can't live without it.

What Nicole Means

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

BFS Year Updates

I wrote 250 words today. A Yahoo Writing group I joined out of NaNo, a member gave me a prompt and 10 minutes to write. It may have been only 8 minutes though, because I was packin to go home but I still wrote something and just wrote and didn't think about it.

I've updated my picture blog, http://nlforst-pics.blogspot.com every day for the new year. Hopefully there will be 366 pictures on there.

Crocheting is going well. I'm going off to work on my crocheting now.

Nicole

Music Blogger

http://www.themusicblogger.com/woodwind-sheet-music-giveaway/

Any of you musicians out there, check this out. It's a fairly decent blog with music giveaways.

Progress Chart

I am only going to post what I have started

3. Read the Pile of magazines that has accumulated in my apartment
-I have started to read the pile of magazines. Over Christmas

4. Read the pile of books that magically keeps getting bigger and bigger
-Books are started but not finished yet.

5. Finish the crocheting projects I have started. (1 blanket for my friend who is pregnant, and 2 blankets for a co-workers wife who is having twins)
-All current crocheting projects for babies are started. Nowhere near finished but they are all started.

11. Find clothes that fit me, and if need be spend the money on clothes
-Found a pair of pants at Old Navy. This is a slow process. But I think as the seasons change I might be able to find some deals.

13. Pay off my credit cards so I can do 6, though, I think I'll be doing 6 before they are paid off.
-I paid off $400 on my credit card, still have a little more to go

25. Write more in general, fun, journal entries. I am doing NaNoWriYe (National Novel Writing Year). This gives me reason and motivation to write every day.
-started writing, wrote one little story, not much, haven't done much else cause my main focus right now is crocheting.

Welcoming in 2008

Alrighty I am participating in The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together on the NaNoWriMo site. I had posted my goals on their forum and my MySpace, but I figure the more places I post them the more accountable I can be to accomplish these items on my list. So without further adieu here is my Big, Fun, Scary, Things list for 2008.

These are in no particular order :)

1. Complete Script Frenzy
1a. Gather Idea for SF and plan ahead
2. Start playing the Flute again
2a. If I get good at the flute again, join the Montgomery County Band
3. Read the Pile of magazines that has accumulated in my apartment
4. Read the pile of books that magically keeps getting bigger and bigger
5. Finish the crocheting projects I have started. (1 blanket for my friend who is pregnant, and 2 blankets for a co-workers wife who is having twins)
6. Travel to a place I have never been before
7. Finish writing my NaNo 2007 Novel "Out with a Bang"
8. Plan for NaNo 2008 by having some ideas and outlining them, outline in detail, and come up with characters and some backstory before Nov. 1
9. Become better at my job by getting more work done and getting more work done
10. Look into some kind of continuing education class or a class I can take for fun. I miss learning a lot and I never want to stop.
11. Find clothes that fit me, and if need be spend the money on clothes
11a. Accept my body for what it is. Be glad I have curves. Accept that I am short though I did grow last year.
12. Start exercising, I have Comcast and On Demand use the exercise TV to it's advantage. In the summer I will walk around my complex again.
12a. Sign up for a 5k later in the summer if there is one near me and walk it, and see how I do.
13. Pay off my credit cards so I can do 6, though, I think I'll be doing 6 before they are paid off.
14. Keep my apartment CLEAN
15. Make sure I can walk into my closet and not have to worry about what the hell I am stepping on.
16. Take full advantage of my Six Flags Great Adventure Season Pass, and possibly get the parking thing as well, cause $15 a pop for parking will be more than the season pass after 4 trips.
17. Attempt to keep in contact with friends
18. Write for Helium.com
19. Make sure I donate more canned goods to the 6abc/Boy Scouts food drive in the fall
20. Maybe start learning Spanish again?
21. Try not to get sick
22. Use the apartment complex's swimming pool in the summer
23. Scrapbook my New Orleans trip from 2005, when I volunteered there
24. Upload and back up pictures to CD and put my pics on MySpace/Webshots.
25. Write more in general, fun, journal entries. I am doing NaNoWriYe (National Novel Writing Year). This gives me reason and motivation to write every day.

1 / 60000 words. 0% done!

This is my NaNoWriYe progress Bar. This will be updated in different posts throughout the year, also my final total goal might increase if I find I am successful :-)

Well here's to a kick ass 2008. It can't be any worse than 2007 was so here's to new beginnings and living life to the fullest.

Nicole

End of Year

Where did 2007 go?

January
-One of my best friends Nikki, passed away
-Two of my best friends from high school got married (mind you two days after my college friend passed away)

April
-Knoebels, opening weekend to see the band and ride the Phoenix till my heart was content

May
-1 yr. anniversary of employment

Summer
-Sick most of the summer, never totally figured out what was wrong with me. But I did find out I have anxiety and now that is being treated.
-Also did get to go to Great Adventure and meet up with some cool people from the RollerCoasterCentral.net message board
-Got to go to some Phillies games

September
-I turned 25

October
-Phoenix Phall Phunfest (Yep riding the Phoenix at night. Even better then in the day time)
-Toronto

November
-The Hooters concerts
-Fall Out Boy concert (My cousin is in Gym Class Heroes, so I went to see them perform.
-National Novel Writing Month (50K in 30 days, not so much this year, only 30K, but I can do it next year)

December
-Holidays
-New Phone, new Digital camera

If you have MySpace, you can see some of my goals for next year. I am participating in Big, Fun, Scary things over on the National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo) site. My goal is to get to accomplish most of that list. If I do I think 2008 will be one hell of a year.

On that note good bye 2007, it's been real.

Nicole

Long Time No Post

Really not much to update.

Still working, got to go to Toronto for some fun, a couple weeks ago. If you know me on MySpace you can check out the pics.

I was just at Homecoming this weekend. I must say the BU campus is gorgeous. I kind of wish I was still there.

But that's a small update on me.

Nicole

Time

Where does it go?

No I'm not trying to ponder that, but I mean here it is pretty close to September and Summer has passed me by.

I didn't get to do anything too exciting except for Great Adventure. (Go ride the tallest and fastest coaster if you haven't done so yet. It's awesome!)

I also find myself wanting to learn more about many different things, but yet the feasibility to take a class, just isn't possible.

Ah well, time goes on, and I basically wanted to post just to say "I haven't fallen off the face of the earth."

Hope everyone has a great last bit of their summer and a good Labor Day Holiday.


Nicole

Webspeak

Article on Webspeak

I found it very interesting that I had never heard of half of those terms in the article, and yet I work in a technology related field.

Ah well the interesting things you find when you are at work waiting for clients to get back to you.


Nicole

Knoebels

So this year was my first year in years to not be playing with the band during opening weekend of Knoebels. So I went up anyway just to see all my friends and ride on the Phoenix.

I'm pretty sure the few who read this know I love roller coasters, and know that the Phoenix is my all time favorite wooden coaster. (Remember how many times I rode it during summer 05??)

Good food and hanging out with friends made this day really fun. I'm being lazy and making a repost but here is my Trip Report I posted in the Yahoo! Group Roller Coaster Talk.

I arrived right around noon, and met up with my two friends and we
went straight to the ticket booth/handstamp line. It was a little
crowded but a 2 for 1 deal couldn't be beat as the weather was
wonderful out. So we are now all equipped with our wrist braclets
and hand stamps so we go to Cesari's for our pizza.

Our first ride was on the haunted house and I must admit, haunted
houses creep me out but my favorite part is the skull room. Next
ride was my personal favorite, The Phoenix. I was a little
disappointed in the fact that they had the Yellow train running
instead of the orange train (because at least for me I get more air
time riding on the orange train). I must say The Phoenix gets better
every year. After The Phoenix we went to Gasoline Alley (The Antique
Cars) my one friend had never gone on them so we let her be
the "driver" and drive the rest of us around the track. It was a
nice relaxing ride, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the
Phoenix going while on the Antique cars.

Next we walked past the construction of The Flying Turns. They look
like its going to be an interesting ride to say the least, but there
is a lot more work to be done then I thought there was. (I mean from
all I had heard from friends up there was there wasn't that much to
do, but from what I saw there is still a lot to be done.) Hopefully
they will be open later this summer and I can take another trip up
to Knoebels.

Then came The Twister. Again they only had one train running and
for the length of the ride I would have thought they would have had
two trains running. At some points the line for The Twister was
ridiculously long, but we waited and it was a half decent ride. I
got more air time then I had in previous years, and at some spots it
was rougher than usual. Hopefully it will get better as the season
progresses.

After The Twister we got in line to ride the Grand Carousel. I love
that ride. I love trying to grab the rings and feeling like I'm
going to fall off the horse. My friends and I decided to see who
could grab more rings, we ended in a tie.

Next was a little refreshing ride on the Pioneer Train. I like this
just for the simplicity of the ride and it's a break from doing all
the other bigger rides.

My friends and I parted ways after the train so I headed back to The
Phoenix for my second ride on the coaster. I sat in the front as I
try to sit in the front at least once. I got a little more air time
this time around but still not as much as I would have gotten if I
were on the Orange train.

I then walked over to visit Hattie and Henry the Bald Eagles, and
one was sitting on a makeshift nest and the other was splashing
around in the water.

I then went over to get my funnel cake, as I always get funnel cake
before watching the Jazz Band performance. I caught up with some
friends and we had a good time. While the Jazz Band was still
getting ready I snuck over to the Phoenix one last time to get a
final ride in before the end of the day. It was the shortest wait I
had for The Phoenix but it was still busier then I had seen around
that time of day in recent years on opening weekend.

After that I went back to watch the rest of the Jazz Band
performance and visit the rest of my friends who I didn't get to see
before the Jazz Band took the stage.

All in all it was a good day at Knoebels.

Now to leave you with some pics of Knoebels:





The under construction of The Flying Turns



Henry the Bald Eagle



The Phoenix





Signs around the Phoenix that I hadn't noticed before or they were just put up or redid...



BU Jazz Band

CAC Spring 2007

This was my first opportunity to be apart of CAC since graduating from the IIT program in May 2006. I admit I was a little nervous to be going back and being on the other side of those presentations.

All of the presentations were really well done and I was impressed with their solutions. Second Life or any 3D environment seems like a learning wave of the future. I think if something done with time and effort a two phased solution like those that were provided could greatly benefit a learner, and a transfer of knowledge would increase because they are getting to see how things would happen "first hand" in a 3D environment.

It was also great to see so many people at CAC. I've forgotten how many people I know, and how good it was to be back in Bloom.

I'm also giving a shout out to Dr. Kapp, because now I know there is at least one person who reads my blog here. :-)

My only wish is that I could have been at CAC for all three days but seeing the presentations is well worth the trip.

A non CAC highlight was showing my boss around campus. He didn't recognize it at all. Heck, a lot has changed since I was there and that was only last year...

Well that about sums up this entry

Nicole

PS- I will try and update this blog more often, but I'm not making any promises. If you're really that interested about my life find me on MySpace :-P

First Post of 2007

For a while I forgot I had this Blog. I do need to update gnomette's travels as well. I've just been busy.

2007 has been an interesting year.

Janurary started off, kind of crappy. I lost one of my best friends from school.
February was Ok. I got to go on my first big business trip. Yay for Tampa, Florida. It was all nice and warm and I missed the snowstorm in Pa :-)
March I don't think anything too interesting happened.
Which brings me to April. Not much has happened in these first 12 days.

I'll post more of an update later.

Check out my other blog on here to...


Nicole

1 Year Ago

One year ago today I was in New Orleans, we probably had been out working on gutting houses for about 2 hours at that point. I can't believe it's been a year since I was down there helping out.

It was an amazing experience to help these people that couldn't gut their houses because of medical condtions. These people were so greatful for the help.

By the way the picture is of Tammy Ann Winn and I.

Nicole

PS: Check out Tammy Ann Winn's music at http://www.tammyannwinn.com