A Penny for Your Thoughts, and a Quarter Back

This semester I was enrolled in Jewelry and Metal Working I. We went through many assignments and my first one i do not have a picture of.  The second assignment was wire and i made a snowflake coin that i attached with a chain i made from wire and a clasp from larger wire.

Next i balled two ends of a strip of wire and made it into a cuff.

Third came the bezel wire. I used a Crysopraze stone with bezel wire that i saudered onto a crescent moon.

My last assignment was just finished. It took the most work but is my favorite by far. I used 26 pennies. 12 of them were domed and saudered together to form beads, the rest were drilled through and then all put together with jump rings i got from Walmart.

I just finished my pennies today and I am so excited! it looks just like i wanted it to! Can't wait to wear it for graduation!


A friend of mine told me this when he saw it: What do you know, a penny for your thoughts and a quarter back. That should be worn, as a reminder of self worth. That every thought is valuable, even your own.

Rest In Piece Squirt

 Squirt, my Jenday Conure, passed away this morning on April 25, 2015. He was one of the best birds a girl could ask for.  I hope he knows that I love him and will see him again one day.

He hasn't been doing well and yesterday he went downhill. This morning I came up to check on him. I held him gently, petting him as he made his soft noises at me, and then he started shaking. When the shaking ceased... he was gone.

My heart hurts so much right now, I can't calm down, can't be happy. I am just to angry...

We took him down to Dublin Animal Hospital where they cremated him for us and gave us a free wing print.. I play to take it, the feathers they cliped for him, pictures of him, and his favorate bunny and put it all in a shadow box for him.

I love you so much Squirtlle.... and I hope you are finally at peace and happy where you are now. Know that i love you and did all I could for you...

You will be deeply missed.

The Trouble with Being Gifted

I think that sometimes, having a disability is easier to admit then being gifted or smart.

The funny thing is, while going through school I always thought I was stupid, and lazy. I hated myself at times, wondering why I couldn't just be smart like everyone else, why couldn't i just do my homework and get good grades?

Now that I am almost through College I have come to slowly realize, I was smart.

Teachers focus on the children with disabilities and the outgoing students. Those like me who were smart and gifted, who they should have pushed harder, giving harder work, just slip through the cracks. I was always bored in school. The work was easy and so boring, I wasn't motivated to do my homework. What was the point?

When I got to high-school (when we moved to Colorado) my grades plummeted. Teachers at my high-school didn't really see me, didn't think to ask why i wasn't doing my work? why was I failing? Instead they ignored me and pushed me to the side as a 'lazy kid'. I would go home and be treated by my dad like i was stupid, worthless, good for nothing so i believed it.

It's only in college that I know have a chance to flourish, its a subject I am good at and love. I am a quick learner, show me something once and usually I can do it from then on. I am a quick reader as well.

I always wanted to be smart, now that I know i always have been, I've found it a kind of hollow victory.

A friend I had made told me I was TOO smart, that when I talked, I just sounded "like the book" and never gave anyone in my group a chance to feel out the questions and get it wrong or right on their own. Anytime we were put together anything I said she would argue and it would turn into world war III.

Last night was the last night of a short 5 week class. We were asked what we had learned in class this semester. Most of the students said the objective voice, or detail. They had all learned something.  I was off in my own corner thinking of SOMETHING to say, because for most of it I already knew or was good at. I can't say, "well I'm smart, or I already knew all of this" because it would be taken wrong no matter what wording I used.

I felt like I was always on the outside looking through a window at everyone else. I thought, 'if i was smart I would be with them' but now that I realize I always have been, and that I am smart, I find myself on the opposite end of the house, looking back through another window wishing to be slower, and not such a quick learner.

People are open and willing to accept someone with a learning disability or something else. But if you tried to explain your problem was that your gifted, that your smart they would just assume you were a know it all or bragging.

I cannot say I was wronged by all my other teachers, but I feel like I was a little. That if my teachers had payed more attention to me, and noticed why I struggled, and helped me succeed I would have flourished and ended up differently.

To ALL GAMERS:

Alienware is crap! I have been told that: "We've reviewed your case and since there's been no replacements or repairs on the system in over 2 months (since the beginning of November we're unable to send you a replacement for the entire unit. At this point, we're only able to provide a replacement for the defective parts through onsite or depot." are you kidding me? that would be just BARELY over 2 months, and I've had almost every part replace, and you decide you can't fix it because its been at the most a week over 2 months since my motherboard was replaced and now you wanna replace it again? I am done with alienware, They do not care about their customers, they only care about money. ALL GAMERS AVOID ALIENWARE, go to MSI INSTEAD! At least with them you will get a quality computer that wont break! I have had almost everything replaced in this computer and because its been just a little over 2 months they REFUSE to give me a computer that will work! I say again AVOID ALIENWARE AT ALL COSTS! I will be now trying to talk up the line, if i have to try to get to the main boss I will, but if they insist on this crap, then I will not stop putting out there that alienware needs to be avoided, and not stop calling till i get my $1000 back or a new computer!!!!!

My brother-in-law took an Msi gaming computer to Afghanistan and he has not had a single problem. I have had 4 hard-drives, 2 optical drives, 3 monitors, 2 motherboards, chords for my monitor, 2 power supplies, 2 chargers, and they say my motherboard (with my graphics card attached) has to be replaced again. And they wont exchange a system that is obviously defective because its just been barely over 2 months! they are in it for nothing but money and Alienware does not care about their computers or gamers, go to MSi where at least you will be able to have a quality computer that wont break every few months.

To those with concerns of how i treat my laptop, i do everything right. I JUST use it to game at home at the desk, or i carefully take it to school to take notes on, I do NOTHING else. I am not ruff with my computer in anyway or doing anything to it i shoulder, their parts are faulty and their systems are faulty. DO NOT GO TO ALIENWARE GO TO MSI USA!

I am done. My warranty expires in the beginning of February, and i was told already they cannot extend it, I may eventually suck it up and let them fix my computer one last time before it runs out then just let it die out. I wont have money for another one but will still look into how much an MSI USA computer would cost for a computer of their that's compares for theAlienware 14. Alienware was my dream computer, but they've managed to crush my dreams and I am just done. I am done with them and their crappy company that cares nothing about their customers. I have posted on every gaming forum I know plus a blog to avoid alienware and go to Msi. AN i will keep posting when i remember more forums i haven't been to in a while. I may have been willing to give them another chance but i have had my computer repaired to much to be told that its been just over the 2 months so they wont exchange my system for one that works. Alienware has permanently lost my business, and if I can help it, all the business of every last gamer i know.

Computer... again

so.... fun times... my relationship with alien-ware tech support continues, i was having trouble with geforce experience and apparently it was my drivers, which apparently is my video card which means the mother board would need to be replaced. They decided to submit my case to the other people who will determine if i am eligible for a system exchange, which he decided when he realized the replaced my motherboard about 2 months ago. So they are hopeful that the process will hopefully start soon and i will have a computer that works.


I am told that they will call me Tuesday to let me know if they have approved the system exchange. I am sure they will, I've had almost every part replace and they wanted to replace my video card.. which is attached to the motherboard... which as i said was replaced 2 months ago....


Keep your fingers crossed that all of this will be over soon.

I am sick of them all

Been left alone again with dad.

Did not get to spend Christmas morning with mom because as soon as she was up my sister was all over her bed, no room for me. So I had to just sit out in the living room alone. of course mom didn't tell me what was on isn't somethings he wanted to watch so she was just going to stay in her bedroom. I would have changed it.

Then i get in trouble because when I ask if i can have more dinner, mom tells me to ask dad and make him some to. What did they expect? Pretty much no stuffing left and of COURSE its what he wanted, not really enough to split for two so I just gave it all to him then I am in trouble for giving it all to him and not eating.

Now mom has been gone all day, so didn't get to spend time with her today either, and she just gets home and mandi is dragging her shopping and wont let me go along. So i am once again stuck alone with dad. On the way out she tells me I am not going to be able to watch MY tv tonight ( yes it is my tv, I bought it with my money, i own it, like i own the ps3 we watch dvd's with, and I own the sound bar) because she has a movie she wants to watch and she is GOING to watch it on the big screen.

And yet its all MY fault. For how i "treated" them last night, according to my sister. YOU got upset at me when i said i was fine. kept pushing till i exploded. yet its MY fault??

Whats the point of even trying to get up anymore? whats the point of being here when i am trapped with a man who thinks of me as nothing but a servant and causes trouble all the time? When i don't get to spend anytime with my mom because my sister has decided she needs her all to herself or not at all?

I hate the world, and I hate my family.

A Gift From a Friend

Okay, so the last day of my Exceptional Child class the older lady who sits next to me, Yong had a gift for me, a giant kiss. Yong is originally from Korea and is really sweet. she'd bought it from the commissary. There on Fort Carson by the campus.

Well it accidently went home with her and she called me and got my address to come give it to me but she never came by and i thought maybe she forgot.

Well, I came home today to find this. Apparently she came by today and gave them to my sisteri while i was gone. For some reason she added this 2 lb box of chocolate pretzels. She is so CUTE!

I am so excited, I can't remember ever really getting a gift from a classmate before. Never really had friends in class like that before. She is so sweet and I am so grateful that I got to know her! Yong is a wonderful lady that I hope she has a wonderful Christmas and finds herself blessed!