Skylar’s Blog

Well, more than 7 months after my first post, perhaps it is time to update a bit on things that i have accomplished from that original list. I’m just gonna list things that i did do, and not worry about the rest, some of those things were pretty long term goals anyway .

As of now, i have:

Baked bread from scratch. many times over now. I love it, cooking, baking, it’s fun!! So i have baked white bread, wheat bread, and banana bread, and while i was still at my dad’s house, i had been baking the wheat bread on a fairly regular basis. very tasty! Not hard to do, just mix the ingredients, let the yeast make it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, bake it, and walah! bread! dash gone good bread too Now that i am in own apartment, haven’t begun the baking yet, but i do have the ingredients .

This year i did help immensely with the home garden, and i have been enjoying the fruits of labor since the beginning of summer. now that i am out of the house, i don’t have as easy access to the tasty plants, but i have tried to have some on every visit to my dad’s house. I also built several planters out of the same boards i made that crazy sled out of during winter, and have the planters set up at the new apartment on the balcony. haven’t planted anything yet… soon soon….

The learning of Russian hasn’t been a real hardcore thing, but i do feel like have learned a lot, and have become at least a little familiar with the language. i hear… like… every 3rd or 4th word .

At the end of this spring, i finished up an associates degree! word, not that it will get me far, but i am working on the next step here at OSU in the fall. New goal: B. S. in two or so years.

Remember that t-shirt thing? well, never did actually make a t shirt for cameesa, but did put that stuff on Cafe Press, and… have so far sold 2 tshirts!!!! woot woot! made 5 bucks… split between me and Oksana. wow, profits just rollin in…..

Totally made a white wings.

I was working on Learning the night sky pretty hardcore at one point, but then kinda slacked. I learned a lot, and feel pretty familiar with several of the major constellations, but i would definitely say my knowledge is incomplete. a little harder to keep up with here in Corvallis too, but i think i can handle finishing this one up in the near future.

Though i haven’t really reaped any profits from a website, i have started a project in the direction, in collaboration with my good friend Tom, with Goji Berries Facts. I may consider putting google ads here at this blog as well in the future. At this point the blog does get regular traffic, but not much, and mostly for insignificant and un-focused keywords. Certainly, won’t be pulling in more than a few dollars anytime soon, but money is money.

So, that’s the story. I pretty happy that i could say all that had been done actually. Perhaps the next blog will be an updated list and what i see for myself in the near future.

In other news, I am engaged! And getting married within the month! It’s craziness, but i am filled with Joy

Well, made some headway towards another one of those goals from oh so long ago.  Though i have not yet found that perfect design to submit for competition on cameesa, with oksana’s help i have started a tshirt shope on cafepress.com.  Yes that’s right! if you have ever wanted a sweet ass tshirt with original art and perhaps some eastern european influence, all you have to do is go to http://cafepress.com/skyoksy and pick your favorite.   All for less than 25$!!!  Hehehe, I think its a great start to creating something that could go far on cameesa, but in some ways i am more impressed with the workings of cafepress.com anyhow.  So check it out.  I may actually try and create something very specifically “skylar related” and incorporate some of the shopping directly here on the blog.  And while I’m plugging websites, I added the link to Gadget Geek Blog, which has devoloped into a content filled website for those who are geeks with a love for gadgets.  I owe the hosting of skylarmarvin.com to more than one of the websites plugged on the bottum left of the page, and feel free to check them all out at your convience.

Also, i have been kinda thinking about my presence on the web.  It is interesting to think of all the footprints i have created here and there, myspace and facebook being obvious ones, but also now a tshirt shop, twitter, youtube, and even the less obvious ones like photobucket and vkontakte.  Makes me happy to have this blog to tie everything together.  Most awesomely, if you are to search “skylar marvin” in google, this website is the first to come up.  Point being, expect this blog to look cleaner in the near to middlin future, and links to and from other various efforts being put forth on the internet, everything being more organized.  So far i had basically taken for granted having a youtube or twitter page, but i now plan to integrate them more completely with the blog.  Word.

Life in Ukraine continues un-abated.  Wow, i think the jet lag was really getting to me when i posted that last blog… Sorry for the poor writing.  Nothing too crazy here, no bar-fights or anything.  I am quite satisfied with how far a dollar can go here.  At the bar, figure a dollar stella artois at most restaurants and even cheaper vodka shots.  Hehehe, i also had the opportunity to partake in some absinthe, the green fairy!  It really does practically glow, and it probably tastes like you expect.  Now if i can just find some cuban cigars…

Yay snow! It snowed Friday night, stuck through Saturday, and is still on the ground as of now, Sunday night. I feel kind of sad, because I really don’t feel the same fascination with it from when I was kid. Its exciting, but its also cold, wet, and slippery. When I was a kid it was like a whole different world out there after it snowed. Every familiar place needed to be re-explored in response to the snow. These days… I just think brrrrrrrr. What a wuss. Ah well, at least its beautiful, as well as an excellent excuse to light the wood stove, which I also love.

Current weather restricts the star gazing, and I don’t really want to go out when its not coming down, because its freezing! Seriously, It’s not that I couldn’t go out, its just that I don’t really want to. So just trying to keep up on Stellarium, as the winter sky slowly changes. I’m still very much looking forward to observing Saturn, should be right around the corner.

So, I have a few things to note towards achieving some of my other goals. Something I have failed to mention previously is that I have had an ongoing, albeit small, effort towards learning Russian. I like the idea of simply broadening my horizons with this project. I purchased several beginners language books, including Russian several years ago. It’s nice to finally actually be going through one of the books. I am also fortunate, and grateful, to have an extra resource in this matter from a special friend .

Previously, I had found an introductory free audio course in Russian on Itunes called A spoonful of Russian. While definitely qualifying as introductory, it was very helpful in presenting various aspects of Russian speech as well as information on Russian culture. The author is of Russian origin, and quite friendly. However, even though I found the program interesting, it is also simplistic. Very recently I came across another free audio course at www.book2.de. The audio recordings are much more traditional, and not nearly as personal, but they were just the kind of thing I needed to increase my vocabulary beyond saying hello and thank you. I really haven’t gotten that far with this goal, but I would really like to persevere, just a little bit here and a little bit there. It was such a rush when I learned how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, even if I didn’t understand the words. I am really looking forward to hearing simple conversation and being able to understand what is being talked about.

Also, I have been thinking about making that cameesa t-shirt design. I’m really not much of an artist, but that’s just more motivation to flex my unused artistic muscle. All I have to do is come up with something simple, using a minimum of colors, and make it appealing to the eye. I’m not sure where the actual idea will come from, but I’m sure something will find me. Something I have realized over the years, is that I often tend to have friends that are far more creatively inclined than me. Always drawing, writing, singing, dreaming, and being creative. Its funny, but it seams like many of the most important people I have met in my life seem to have this creative penchant, whereas I feel relatively uninspired. Funny thing, dunno what to make of that. Anyway, point being, I think I will have to consult with some of these friends if I want to get anywhere in this matter.

I also keep telling myself to go make white wings! But I keep not getting to it. It’s not like I have a busy life right now, but no time for making paper airplanes? It’s a sin! Things happen though, work continues on the addition to the homestead, here and there. Other things come up, daily boring life things I guess. Well, not all boring ))).

Scott, one of those creative people I was talking about earlier, has invited me to his work’s Christmas party in Seattle. I’m psyched!!! Not everybody gets to go to a SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) Christmas celebration! And I’m not even a huge video game nerd! Only a medium sized nerd. Makes me feel like a pretty lucky bastard. Thank you Scott. Word!