I have been addicted to Etsy for the past week. It keeps me up late at night whether I’m online or not. Either I’m endlessly browsing through pages of cute handmade crafts, or I’m dreaming up my own ideas and sighing about creating my own shop someday.

I only have two issues that keep me from starting now. One is that I don’t have the time or space to do any major projects. I have classes and homework to keep up on if I’m going to graduate in three years. (Yes, I’m going to be in college for five years total… stupid requirements.) The other issue is, I don’t have a steady address near a post office, and that is basically essential when running an online business where you need to send customers a product. If I lived at my parent’s house, that would be possible, since we live quite literally, two blocks from the post office. But I’m at college, where I change apartments once or twice each year, and tiny college apartments are not easy to work out of, trust me. Especially when you have to share that tiny apartment with a roommate.

Still, I love Etsy. I’ve found so many great things, made my first purchase, and met some great people as well. I love the seller’s attitudes on Etsy. They have a passion for what they do, and all things handmade, and love to support their community of artists and crafters. Hopefully I’ll be able to be a part of that someday as well. I mean, it’s making me contemplate dropping out of college. If that’s any indicator of my passion, I will have a shop someday! Haha!

A: amazon.com – What girl doesn’t love online shopping??
B: banking site (not posted for security reasons) – Because one needs to manage their money.
C: google.com/calendar – I like to know where I need to be.
D: dpreview.com – I’m the go-to gal in finding good cameras for other people. This site has the best in-depth camera reviews.
E: e.ggtimer.com/10minutes - I make mac & cheese a lot. Takes 10 minutes to cook.
F: facebook.com – Big surprise, eh?
G: gvsu.edu – Uni’s homepage.
H: hulu.com – Yay, free TV!
I: imdb.com/title/tt1440379 – IMDB page for the movie I was an extra in, “What’s Wrong With Virginia?”
J: jigsawdoku.com – Some Sudoku anyone?
K: Surprisingly, nothing was really turned up here, but is suggested searching for Kohl’s which is one of my favorite clothing stores, so here: kohls.com
L: last.fm/user/yoha_ahoy – My last.fm user page. Keepin’ track of my tunes!
M: maps.google.com – Great for finding places to eat or finding out how far away you are from Hawaii…
N: nanowrimo.org – Only one of the most awesome writing sites ever!
O: sketch.odopod.com – Awesometastic drawing site. Great practice if you have a tablet.
P: portfolio.ellenlundgren.com – My portfolio site. Still under construction, sadly. Not much to see. Anyone wanna help?
Q: qe.ringorang.com – A fun hourly trivia game.
R: ridetherapid.org – Bus system website. Gotta double check those weekend times!
S: search.twitter.com – Comes in handy.
T: twitter.com – But of course.
U: happytape.bigcartel.com – I have no idea how this made it in first… cool site, though I’ve never ordered from it.
V: victoriassecret.com – Girl’s gotta have nice clothes! Or at least wish for some…
W: google.com/wave – Need an invite? I still have 10!
X: opensourcemac.org – Awesome programs for Mac OS X.
Y: youtube.com – Duh.
Z: zazzle.com – Cool printing site.

New favorite website! Not that I really had a specific favorite before, but I think I have one now: sketch.odopod.com This site is SO much fun. You just sit there and sketch… whatever the hell you want. The canvas is your browser window (Want a smaller size? Shrink the window!), the brush your mouse or trackpad. Or in my case, this site made me bust out my Wacom Intuos Tablet and play for a few hours. :P

Things I love about this site, is the textured background. It has that grainy paper feel that just gives it that little bit of realism rather than the obviously generated, perfectly white computer screen you get most of the time. Another thing I love, is the texture of the colors. I can’t decide if it’s like marker or like chalk. But the properties of the utensil (whatever it’s supposed to be) are very intuitive, with slower motion bringing it to a smaller point for detail work, and the fattest width when you scribble quickly. The other thing I love is the limited palette. Whoever made the color choice, made it very interesting. The colors aren’t loud or vivid and they all work very well together. It gives every users work just a little bit of professionalism because it takes away any garishly bright colors your average 14 year old would first pick.

Overall, I love the Indie feel of this site. I just don’t know what it is about it other than the above mentioned that makes it so homey. Great job Odosketch creators! Check out my sketches!

If you’re anyone, you’ve heard of Google Wave. The revolutionized new way of thinking and using the internet. It’s like e-mail and IM in one with live typing. Yes, you watch the other person make typos live! You can turn that off though.

Anyway, I’m writing this because I have Google Wave, and I love Google Wave, and I have free invites to Google Wave! Invites are how you can get GW, since it’s in beta right now. Sneaky, sneaky, Google…. Anywho, if you would like a GW invite, you can DM me on Twitter, or shoot me a comment below with the e-mail you’d like to use. Just be aware, that it may take a while. I waited 2 weeks after being invited to get in.

Also, it’s not amazingly fantastic just now. I mean, they don’t even have Settings page yet. That’s why it’s in beta testing. So if your patient and can wait for the full blown awesomeness, this is for you. If you’re looking for a full featured product wait a few more months or years. And in the words of Dr. Wave below, Happy Waving!!

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” ~What Is NaNoWriMo?

So, I love NaNoWriMo. This is my 5th year participating in the madness. I began my sophomore year of high school when a friend told me about it over the summer. I idly blew it off. But then when she started getting excited for October to start when the NaNo forums open, I decided to check it out and I was hooked. I stayed up late that night, refreshing the NaNoWriMo home page on October 1st, 2005, the first available day for new sign-ups to start that year. And every October and November since have been filled with novel writing goodness.

The first two years I completed NaNo with two sci-fi novels in a series. The third year, I tried to continue the series, but I think they ran out of steam, and I was also swamped by my senior year of high school and college applications, etc. Similar story with my freshman year of college. I was simply too busy with the new load of homework and social life I was unused to. But this year I have more free time, a lighter class load, and my own apartment to escape and write in. I’m determined to finish this year with a new slightly sci-fi/adventure novel. Catch my synopsis under Novel Info on my NaNo Profile.

This year I started my free trial of Scrivener for Macs (which is recommended for large research papers and writing projects, even if you’re not doing NaNoWriMo). And there’s a special offer in the forums that gives you 50% off the purchase price if you win and would like to buy it after NaNo! Definitely a great motivator for me this year, because I love this program already and I’ve had it a week. Also, there is an offer from CreateSpace to give you one free printed proof of your book if you reach 50k. That’s right, you can hold a copy of your book, for FREE! I’m definitely doing that as well. (Keep in mind, these offers are only for registered NaNo users who reach 50k and validate it on the website.)

This year I donated $25 to The Office of Letters and Light that runs NaNoWriMo! $5 for every year I have participated. And if you’re a NaNo Participant on Twitter, be sure to add this Twibbon to your avatar! Made by me!!