Why Nutang Sucks.

1. It's buggy: As a writer, one of the hardest things for me to do is get myself to sit down at the computer and write. When the host site that I am supposed to be writing at only works half of the time, this presents a problem because the likelihood of my being ready to write at the same time that the site is being cooperative is not very high.

2. It's not pretty: I think nutang is a newer site. I think this because it is difficult to navigate and sometimes the coding on the homepage itself is messed up. I only visit pretty websites that are easy to use and look like someone who is over 5 years old did the coding.

3. It's not user friendly: When you sign up to nutang you get the ugliest of ugly templates already applied to your blog. You can change it, but not easily. Unless you know how to fiddle with HTML on your own, you are stuck with their pre-built templates. Even the pre-built templates end up looking like you tried to write the code yourself without knowing how. The text boxes don't line up, modules don't show up at all, your header is halfway down the screen etc.

Also, just when writing out a post you have to know codes in order for pictures to show up. It takes me a good hour to and hour and a half just to write a post there if it happens to contain pictures. It is such a pain because you have to keep hitting preview to see if they are lined up, then go back and fix it, then preview it again and on and on and on.

Plus the comments are a pain. Trust me.


So, family and gentle readers, this is why nutang is the suckiest of suck when it comes to blog hosting sites. Even if they do 'pay' you (I have earned 18 cents so far...)

I tried to deal with it but...no, it's just not worth the struggle. Writing is supposed to be the hard part, not fighting with the hosting site.

I am going back to moongazing4beginners.blogspot.com. Because it loves me there.

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"I remember once writing in a journal when I was little. I was writing about how I had decided that I wanted to be a famous singer and how I would be able to tell Jay Leno the exact day that I decided to be a singer because I had written it in a journal. Isn't that ironic? Even when I wanted to be a singer, I actually wanted to be a writer.

I don't know what day I decided to be a writer. I never wrote it down."

-Quote from the black journal with the ribbon, April 17th, 2007.

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Hey guys, it's been a while. Sorry about the hiatus, I know you were all just weeping at your computers over it. It turned out to be a bit longer than I had anticipated but I am definitely back now.

So what's been going on? Not a whole lot really. One thing that was pretty cool is that I got to see my mom. She lives in Missouri but she drove up to Seattle for my older brother's graduation, on her way she stopped at my house for a bit, leaving my little brother to stay the night (Ian and I spend most of the evening scaring ourselves brainless with alien videos on youtube. For those who don't know, I have an intense fear of aliens. It was fun though, we slept with the hall light on.) She was only in Seattle for a day and when she was coming back through Dalin and I met her at my uncles house for a jam session. Dalin brought his guitar for his first ever band experience. He did an awesome job even though he told me later that he was nervous as brains.


I was sitting on the floor so all of my shots were at weird angles. Haha. This is Dalin getting ready to play and looking very serious.


There is the whole gang. It got pretty steamy with all those people in the room.


Dalin was warmed up by this time. Looking pretty sexy, if I do say so myself.


And there is my uncle, as he usually is, hidden in a forest of microphone stands.

It was a really fun night, I got to eat hamburgers and banana cream pie! I had a panic attack towards the end of the session and on the drive home, but it was good to see my family.

Speaking of which, I have had three panic attacks in 4 days. I don't know why they randomly started up again but I will keep track of how many I have in the coming weeks (Hopefully none) and if it gets to be unbearable I will take the dreaded and expensive trip to the doctor to see what can be done.

I haven't been doing a whole lot of sewing and other such stuff. I did start on a GORGEOUS knitted top. I have already knit quite a bit of it. I figure I'll post pictures when it's done because it doesn't really look like anything yet. It's going to look fab on me though, I guarantee it. I am knitting with Caron Simply Soft, which is my go-to cheap yarn. It's soft and shiny and can be run through the washer and dryer.

Which leads me to things that CAN'T be run through the washer and dryer. Like my cell phone. It was no ones fault (Actually it was Dalin's fault...but it's okay. Not really, it's not okay, but I'm not mad at him , it was an accident) but it is definitely broken. I was going to get a cool new one but it turns out that I'm not eligible for an upgrade for another month. Mom is sending me her ugly old one to use in the meantime. I am pretty well bummed out about it.

Hmm..that's pretty much it. It's too bad I couldn't have had a more interesting homecoming post.

Oh, I also drew this guy a few days ago. Someone said they wanted to see pictures of my drawings. That aren't that good, but I am getting better. This was my first experiment with my new ink pens. I dig the hair, but the eyes...not so much.




Later folks.

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Hey guys, i'm sorry to say that I am going to be taking a bit of a break from blogging. So much is going on right now, i'm planning my wedding and trying to keep up with Dalin now that his friend is in town. I don't know when i'll be back, but I will!

So keep checking back and watching out for me. I think it will probably be a week or two, possibly more, but no more than a month, I think.

Just, honestly, i don't feel like writing anything. Sorry folks. I still love you!


Int he meantime you can follow me on twitter. Look up AlekMiller

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Hey guys, I know, I said I was going to post this like...days ago. But at any rate, here it is.

I saw this book at Borders, initially, and after flipping through it I knew we were destined to be together. Dalin finally broke down and bought it for me not long ago. The book is called Let's Make Cute Stuff and it is by a duo from Osaka, Japan who call themselves Aranzi Aronzo. It is narrated by White Rabbit and Brown Bunny, who both have funny things to say as they go through the steps to sewing the projects in the book.

The projects in this book are freaking adorable. They include tons of bags and pouches, a water bottle holder, 'long doll' bags and scarves (Which are bags and scarves in the shape of animals with loooong torsos. Very cute.) key chains, book covers, and so on and so forth.

Each project comes with complete step-by-step tutorials. Though the pictures are at times rather small, as a beginner at sewing, I can assure you that this book assumes no prior knowledge about sewing or construction. I have so far only completed one project from the book but none of the others intimidate me out of doing them, it's just that I lack the fabric =]

The project that I completed was the hair tie. I did the black sheep hair tie, it took me about 20 minutes from start to finish and used only a tiny bit of felt. I named him Dexter. When I don't wear my hair up, I have him on my wrist because he is so cute and I can't bring myself to take him off yet.


Dexter in action.


Dexter posing with the book.


The obligatory size-reference shot.

I should also note that many of the applique designs could easily be adaptable for all sorts of projects. All in all, I recommend this book to all beginner to advanced sewists (Sewers?) who have a love for all things cute, or have daughters or nieces who do. It's a pleasure to flip through and the projects are fantabulous.

Let's Make Cute Stuff! gets an A+!


On an unrelated note, when posting comments, please mention who you are! Nutang doesn't automatically prompt you for your name, so it's easy to forget, but I like to know who is saying what!

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For those of you who did not follow me here from my previous blog Moon Gazing For Beginners, hey, how's it hanging?

For those who did follow me, sorry about all the hassle. I just couldn't pass up the possibility of making some monies. Though I have changed the name of the blog I promise to continue on in the same vein as I have been doing. YAAD posts will continue (new people, you may want to visit my previous blog to find out what that is) in the same sporadic fashion along with ramblings about all my crafty exploits.

I am still settling down into this new hosting site. In the top-right corner there you will see that I now have a gallery section and a reading section. The gallery is exactly what is sounds like, a place to put all my pictures so you can look at them and smile. The reading section is (I think) an area separate from the blog in which to put other pieces of writing I may work on, I forsee it consisting of some fiction, poetry, and maybe some crafty tutorials.

The last big change is one that I am super-duper excited about. I recently got myself a camera. As some of you may know I have been wanting one for AGES and the one on my phone...well..it sucks pretty hard. Which, by the way, does not mean that I don't appreciate the cell phone, mom.

It's a fugifilm J20, it's cute and black and small and has about a gajillion settings. A good digital camera has been at the top of my wishlist for quite some time but my impending trip to Seattle is what inspired me to go for it sooner rather than later.

With this new toy in my utility belt, I promise to actually take pictures of my crafty exploits and make tutorials for my designs. I also plan on doing some book reviews.

That said, I have a book review pretty much ready to go, and I will probably be posting it later today. I am still feeling my way around all the settings, but expect photo quality to go up in the next few weeks.

Anyway, hello new friends and old friends. I hope you totally dig my blog.

Love, Alek.

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