Nicole Alderman

I'm pretty sure I found the ads and took them down. If you spot any other out-of-date tiny ads (or banners), please report them and I'll see if I can make them *poof* disappear!

Thank you for spotting and reporting that. I'll see what I can do!

The learning curve on being a V.A. is huge. I had a "leg up" from being a moderator for years before being a V.A., and there was still a ton to learn.

The permies forums are complicated, and take a while to learn the behind-the-scenes stuff. And, understanding permies is only a small portion. Learning how to manage rentals, Bootcamp, kickstarters, weird emails, etc takes a ton of time. So does making/fixing graphics and websites and permies threads. And, then there's being creative enough to find new ways to promote stuff and bring in income. It's hard.

You need marketing, graphic design, web design, SEO, forum management, basic BB coding, email writing skills, and more. If you don't already have those (and most people don't), it takes a long time to learn. I can see why Paul has kind of given up on trying to hire people for this.

You can also use the stems to make a coil basket. It takes a while to make, but it is a cute, nice-smelling way to use up the stems!



For the buds, you could dry it and use it to make lavender-scented pillows or sachets.

You could also make little eye-pillows/heat packs. Fill a sock/bag/pillow/etc with lavender and lentils/buckwheat/dried peas. You could make them of different dimensions for a keyboard or mouse wrist support, or a larger or smaller heat pack, or an eye pillow. I did this craft with my kids--it's pretty simple. We used old sheet fabric that we cut into two rectangles and sewed them together, turned it inside out, and then filled with lavender and dried lentils. (Lentils were cheaper and easier to find compared to buckwheat).

Do rats even have bones in their ears? I'm pretty sure most animals just have cartilage for their ear supports.

That's probably why the rat ear bones look funky. They're not supposed to be there.

It kind of reminds me of these "spider skeletons" I saw in the store last fall:

Spiders don't have skeletons. They have exoskeletons...

From what I'm seeing, hypocausts were usually in the homes of wealthy, or in public bathhouses.

From History Extra:

The hypocaust began as a public luxury, eventually exported to private homes. The earliest examples appeared in the great bath complexes (thermae) of the late republic and early empire. Roman baths were vast public leisure centres and required consistent, large-scale heating.

...

“To have a hypocaust system in one’s house was a big sign of wealth. It would generally only have been present in examples of really opulent and wealthy dwellings: dwellings that, for example, might have their own private bathhouses.[/url]

No, it wasn't efficient and did take a lot of resources. There were a lot of ways they could have made it more efficient. But, it was also a thing for the wealthy, to show how rich they were.

Burra Maluca wrote:Possibly discussion of toxic gick, artificial fertilier, that sort of stuff, which is a strict no-no here.

I remember, *years ago,* before I was a moderator, I had a post put on probation for talking about how I didn't want to use Round-Up. I had my post put on probation, and I thought, "Why is it on probation? I was talking about how I didn't want to use it and that it was bad!"

But, now I realize that the mention of said yucky chemicals could get people debating as to whether or not they were yucky, or it might persuade people to use "just a little," or make people aware of it that weren't. We don't talk about the yucky chemicals outside of  The Cider Press forums. We just talk about the good--not the bad.

It's kind of like when I taught preschool. We told the kids to "Keep their hands to themselves" or "Put your hands on your hips" or "Put your hands in your pockets," rather than saying, "Don't hit your friend," "Don't touch the wall," "Don't pull your friend's hair," etc. If we mentioned what they shouldn't do, some might get the idea to do it that never had the idea before. Suddenly, the kid might start touching the wall or pulling hair. It's better to focus on the right behaviors than tell people about the bad stuff they shouldn't do.

r ransom wrote:
I've been very down on myself and my painting this week.  The better I am at copying masterworks, the worse I feel about composition skills.  I need to spend a few months focusing on this skill.

So, with the understanding that i will probably fail, maybe that freedom could help me try and paint the death of rats?

Composition is so hard! It's something I've always struggled with, maybe because I can't visualize things.

Recently, I was trying to help make a logo for my friend's school. They'd made an A.I. version, and I thought their school might get more traction with something more hand made. First, I just remade the design with painting. But, the design itself still looked like A.I., so I thought. "I'll try to make a new sign for their school! It shouldn't be too hard."

Bwahahaha, poor, naïve me from before did not know what I was talking about! I tried sketching out a bunch of designs. I did three or four, and they were all bad. Then I tried water coloring some sketches. Also bad. Then I got disheartened and gave up.

I honestly find it easier to sketch out components separately and then put the pictures in photoshop so I can move things around on different layers to get something that looks decent. I hate spending time drawing something...only to realize it looks terrible in the composition.

Having said all of that, I think this picture was really eye-catching: