Hi, Fluffsters!

Today I’m finishing up my “Celebrate Fall” basic set of posts. And I encourage you to play with some leaves today!

After all, Fall is traditionally called such because the leaves fall from trees. And if you’re basically anywhere not where I am, you’ll actually get some pretty colors in your leaves.

No matter where you go, though, the leaves still crunch quite satisfyingly when you step on them.

So, have fun stepping on leaves!

If that’s not your preferred style, though, there are some other things you can do with leaves. For example, you can use them to decorate your wall. (You don’t need to add your own doodles to them, though… That’s entirely optional.)

Or you can even make crafts with your leaves!

I hope you have fun!

Hello, Fluffsters!

So. Yesterday I mentioned a few ways of trying to stop missing friends by keeping in touch with them.

Staying in touch with people isn’t always the best way to deal with missing friends, though. For example, if you’re between sending letters or emails, and your friends are unable to talk real time, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to write another letter.

So here are some ways to try to stop missing friends that are generally solitary activities, anyways.

1) Write. This works especially well if you’ve got stories you want to tell.

2) Research. Learn something new! And then, you’ll be able to share something with your friends.  Possibly. At the very least, you’ll have learned something. And that’s worthwhile.

3) Read a good book. This is one of my personal favorite options. Especially if it’s a favorite book you haven’t read for a while. Then it’s like visiting an old friend again. And it’s also something you wouldn’t want to do if your friends were around. So savor it! You’ve got opportunities to do fun things on your own!

4) Take a nap. This of course is only a temporary fix. But it does sometimes help- especially if you’re missing people because you’re tired.

5) Play a computer game / video game / something you can do on your own. I don’t have as much experience with this, except for online flash games. But even so, once again that’s something you probably wouldn’t have done with your friends as much, so it’s something you can do on your own, and not feel guilty about doing.

So there you go. I hope that helps!

Hi, fluffsters!

As some of you know, I’m in time of transition in my life. One of the biggest transitions is that a number of my friends are in a very different place from me. (VERY different. For instance, they’re going to get LOTS of snow and rain. I’m not. I’m jealous…)

Anywho. So, I miss my friends not infrequently. And it’s really hard. But I’ve found some ways of dealing with that. This part will focus on ways of getting in touch with your friends.

1) Write letters to your friends. This works primarily if you know their address. One of the advantages of letters is that you don’t know if your friends have even received the letter, so if you haven’t heard from them for a while in response to your letter, it’s possible that one or the other of the letters got lost in the mail. It’s also really fun and exciting to get a letter in the mail- wouldn’t you want your friend(s) to get a surprise note?

2) Call/skype/real-time-contact them. Advantages: You (might) talk with the friend you’re missing, in real time. That’s a major plus. Disadvantages: You can’t always do that, especially if there are timezones involved and you especially miss your friends at a time when they’re not awake. Also, there’s the risk that they wouldn’t actually want to talk with you, and then things get awkward. (Missed calls. Bleh.)

3) Email them. This has the advantage of being faster, and less expensive, than letter writing. It does not, however, have the built in excuse of “they just didn’t get my note/email/whatever” if they your friend doesn’t reply. But it does have archive abilities, which letter writing does not (unless you take pictures of or photocopy everything you send.)

So there you go! Three ways of contacting friends. I hope that helps!

Hello, Fluffsters!

Happy 4th of July! Especially to any Americans out there. I mean, happy 4th of July to everyone, but it’s a bit more of a holiday for Americans than for others. You know.

So in honor of today, I came up with

Some activities you can do that require no prior planning:

a) Sit in a corner and think. Unless you don’t have a corner. In which case, just find somewhere else to sit. You might, if you have the materials, even take a picnic blanket and some food and go down to your nearest park, especially if it’s walking distance. Otherwise, don’t bother- the parking probably isn’t worth it.

2) Read a book. Now, you might be thinking this requires some pre-planning. But it does not. You are looking at this blog post on the internet, so therefore you have internet access. If you have internet access, you have Project Gutenberg access. You therefore also have access to a large, free library. Enjoy your free ebooks!

That’s actually about what I can come up with for activities that require no pre-planning, and that are actually different from each other. I mean, seriously. I could mention think about story ideas, or imagine something, but that’s essentially the same thing as sitting in a corner and thinking. So, yeah.

Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend!

Hello, Fluffsters!

It’s SATURDAY!!! You know what that means, right?

It’s the Weekend! You have time for things, like reading this blog! Yay! And reading!

And that brings me to the topic of today’s post: The-

You stole my header.

…

Well, you’re right.

Dangit, you’re right. Hmpf.

Well, yeah. Hazards of being able to read quickly. I’m getting there. Here are some hazards

1) It’s hard to find enough reading material. Especially when you’re as picky as I am about what you like in novels.

2) You stay up way too late to finish the book. When your reading rate for the average book is between 80 and a hundred pages an hour, you can get through books fairly quickly. And you know that you can get through the book fairly quickly. Chapters usually take less than a quarter of an hour, so you surely have time for that next chapter! And you know you do, too… Similarly, when you’re close to the end of the book, you know that you can, in fact, stay up and finish the book. You might be up a bit later than you want, but only by a couple of hours. And you’ll actually be able to finish the book…

3) Sometimes, you get bad habits. At least, I do. I have some really bad reading habits. Much of my reading is fiction, and at that level of readability. It’s hard to readjust to nonfiction and harder reading levels. Therefore, there are some times when I’m trying to read more academic-y or knowledge-based things, and it doesn’t go as quickly in terms of comprehension, but my fingers get into reading autopilot. And I hardly even notice sometimes… It’s a bit bad.

So, there you go! Three hazards of being able to read quickly.

Have a great weekend!

Hiya, Fluffsters!

Happy Sunday!

So, today I figured out a new trick. You can very easily have lunch for less than a dollar. Yes, I mean it!

It’s doable in only two steps.

First, find something that costs less than a dollar and eat it. A gumball does not work, since you don’t actually eat it. An apple pie from McDonalds does, though. Call that your lunch.

2) Call anything else you eat at that time a “snack.” Or between then and dinner / breakfast / whatever.

Voila, you’ve now had lunch for less than a dollar!

Happy Sunday!