100th Blog Post!

Reflecting on the last three years.
    That's right! It's taken me almost three years to reach 100 blog posts. And this is because I took so many hiatuses, and they were so long. All my fault. But I'm here now!
    And I have to say, I'm happy with where my blog is now. I've been doing really well in the past few months, sticking with my two posts per week (except when life gets crazy, like this week). I think that's just enough for me to handle. And I like my subject matter right now - Monday being whatever I want and Thursdays being beauty/fashion related.
    Lately, I've been toying with the idea of changing my blog name and url, mostly because someone owns the url dangwrite.com, and I'd like to have something more original to me. Also, my blog isn't just about writing anymore, especially since I don't have time to just sit and write my heart out. I have books to read, schoolwork to do, and writing isn't my only love. I have so many other passions and I don't want to limit my blog to only one thing. Dang Write just doesn't cover all my bases anymore.
    However, if I did change the name, I'd want to register an actual domain name, and pay for it and everything. And although it's a small fee each month, what with saving for the wedding I don't know that I'd want to worry about that as well. Plus I'd want to ensure that everyone knew what was going on before I changed the name so I wouldn't lose any of my meager audience - I value you loverlies too much!
    But I digress from what's most important here - my 100th blog post! I want to thank all the people who have been reading my blog for the last three years. There aren't a lot of you, but I really appreciate your dedicated reading, even through the time I would disappear for a few months. It's because I realized I did have a small following (read: 13 people), that I wanted to be better about blogging. If thirteen people in this world think I'm worth reading twice a week, by George, I'm gonna give them something to read! So I've really tried to do better. And personally, I'm pretty proud!

 

So do you all like where the blog is going? Do you miss any old features? Do you have ideas for new ones you'd like to see? Are you intimidated by my questions? If you have any opinions at all, please comment below, because I'm not just writing for me, lovely readers. I'm writing for you, too! Let me know what you like, what you don't, and what you want to see!

Fall Fingers

Listening to Ingrid Michaelson - The Chain
Avoiding another paper. Like a boss.
    I had a different post planned for today - this one was a back-up (I normally have one or two planned). I was going to do this gorgeous fall tutorial with purple and amber, but 1) I'm out of eggplant eyeliner... and money, and 2) this happened:

    Sorry, it's gross. I know. Moral of the story, children: don't yank out your hangnails. Your finger will get infected and DIE. I've played "yank out that hangnail" multiple times, and lost an equal number of times. Yet I still try my luck. This time, I learned my lesson. I pulled it out last night and woke up this morning to a hot, oozing, throbbing finger that hurt so much I couldn't bend it any more than you see in the picture. So I really didn't wanna spend time doing my makeup and taking photos to edit later. I didn't even edit this photo.
    Since I started you off with a close-up of my fingers, I thought I'd do a little post of my favorite fall nail polishes. That way at least the post will finish on pretty fingers, not my swollen angry sausage. (All photos are from my Face and Hair board on Pinterest.)

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Gold Roses

Fun story. Ingrid from missglamorazzi on YouTube mentioned this polish in her September favorites. I am obsessed with rose gold. Like most people are right now. But let me tell you. I'm not just on the bandwagon. I'm riding bareback on the horse that's pulling the bandwagon. She said that this color was limited edition and I went to not one, not two, but five stores before I found it at Target. Mock my desperation, but even with an oozing wound my fingers look awesome.

Essie Nail Polish in Chinchilly

This is one of the first "big girl polishes" I ever bought. I decided a few years back the first year I started this blog) that I should stop wearing bright blue and orange and green and wear grown up colors. Somehow this translated to gray. Funny thing is, I absolutely love this color. I've repurchased it numerous times since I first bought it and still think it's the perfect warm neutral gray for fall and winter.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Pat on the Black

No lie, the entire reason I purchased this was because of the clever name. I happened to love it once I put it on, but come on. "Pat on the Black." 'Cause it's almost black? But not quite? I can't get over how clever that is. And I've never actually worn straight-up black on my nails. I just don't like it. But I love this deep almost-there wine color. Like Pinot Noir. Perfection.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Sheer Me Now

If I don't want to go crazy dark for fall, and I want something lighter and more natural, I always grab this one. Honestly, it's perfect year-round, but it's a nice alternative if you were a big fan of white nails over the summer since white can be a bit too much for fall or winter. I've gone through at least two bottles of the stuff and am in need of a new one. Highly recommended.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Grey Area

This one was given to me with two other polishes as an engagement present from Robin. The other two are a bright blue and purple, much more summery colors, but this one I think is perfect for fall. I have absolutely loved it every time I've worn it. Plus it was so thoughtful that she bought me nail polish - she said, "I gave you the ones that I've liked the most because we're so alike I know you'll like them, too." She was right, of course! They've all been gorgeous!

 

    Sorry if I disappointed you with my lack of a tutorial. I don't know if anyone actually likes them, but I like doing them. My finger just hurt way too badly today to do the post I wanted. I hope this one has been a worthy substitute!

 

I'm always looking for new nail favorites. What are your fall finger faves? Leave a comment and let me know!

 



Unsolicited Advice 10/14

Listening to the soundtrack from Ever After. So romantic. Sorry, I'm sappy tonight.
Munching Dove Cookies and Cream Promises
    I don't know that this will become a permanent feature or anything, but I sort of like the idea. I'm young; I haven't experienced much in my life yet. But that doesn't mean I don't learn lessons that are worth sharing. And maybe it will be helpful coming from someone who's just learned this lesson rather than a parent or teacher who's repeated the story over and over. Today's lesson:

Listen to Your Professors

Even if you don't respect them.

    Something I've noticed in my classes - and I'm guilty of it, too - is students not respecting their professors. I don't know why this is happening, but it really drives me nuts since I'm going to be a teacher at some point in my life, and I know I will lose it if my own students act this abhorrently.

    Surely you're thinking, "Well, she admitted to being guilty of it, too..." Yes, I did. But I'm not vocal about it. I'm not outspoken in my lack of respect; I don't tell them to their faces they're not good teachers, even if I think it's true. But there's the rub. I do think it. Which is just as bad. I just didn't realize it was until this past week.

    I'm going to tell you about two of my professors (no names, of course). One teaches a lit class, and the other an education class. The lit class professor - Prof. Lit, we'll say - assigned a paper two weeks ago. Prof. Lit said that there had never been so many disappointing papers in one of his/her classes before. Three quarters of the class had to rewrite their papers, myself included, which almost never happens. See, we were given six prompts to choose from, all very specific. What I think happened is that Prof. Lit was looking for something very specific in these prompts and if we didn't give it to him/her, we failed. Now, I don't think of Prof. Lit as unqualified by any means, he/she is just looking for something specific and isn't getting that across to the class in the best way possible. Of course, many people in the class were quick to blame him/her and also to blatantly ignore what he/she instructed at the beginning of the class on Tuesday (i.e. if you have something you would like to address in your paper in particular, email him/her and set up an appointment). This got me super pissed because, again, no respect for what Prof. Lit had requested.

    Jump to Thursday in Prof. Ed's class. I can honestly say that I had not learned anything in this class up to this point. Nothing of use to me as a teacher, anyways. We were supposed to have a guest speaker who had a family emergency, so he/she had to come up with an alternate assignment so our class time wasn't wasted. Prof. Ed instructed us to choose a text we'd like to teach in our future classes and formulate a writing prompt for our students based on a specific portion of the text. This wasn't a problem for me. That's not what I learned that day. Offhandedly, when giving advice about making writing prompts for students, Prof. Ed said, "If in the future when you get papers from your students and they all bore you to tears or no one is giving you the papers you want, look at your prompt. Maybe you're being too specific and not leaving room for creativity." Of course, I immediately thought of Prof. Lit and wanted to replay that moment for him/her (I promise, if you'd let me come up with my own topic for my paper, it'd be a billion times better), but then I thought of something else. Inwardly, I have little respect Prof. Ed. I haven't learned anything to help my in my teaching career and I think he/she repeats the same useless information over and over. But I learned something about respect - you don't have to respect someone to learn something from them. I normally have the worst time trying to focus on listening in that class, because I dismiss every meandering story as next to useless. But if I hadn't been listening to that one comment, I could have easily fallen into the same ditch that currently held Prof. Lit in my future teaching career. And now I won't.

    Moral of the story: Listen anyway. Their meandering nonsensical useless tale may lead you to your own epiphany. Don't let your insolence keep you from inspiration.