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By kilax, April 3, 2013 6:23 am

Woo hoo! Good news!

I can join the proud, and the few, who can say…

I actually get paid to do something I love!

Heh heh heh. Okay, hopefully more than a “few” can say that. 

I got my first paycheck for teaching strength class this week. I still can’t believe someone pays me to do something I love! And that I get a partial workout while doing it! SCHWEET! Dreams do come true!

It sounds like I am being a sarcastic a-hole, but I am not trying to be (unlike I usually am). I have had a few adult “role models” in my life who absolutely despised their job and I vowed never to be like that. I don’t despise my full time job, but that doesn’t mean it’s my passion. Being active is something I am passionate about, and to get to do that, and get paid for it? WHAT THE WHAT?! That rocks!

Do you get paid to do something you love? If yes, what is it? If no, what would that be, if you did?

Comments (46)

By kilax, April 2, 2013 6:28 am

Nothing specific inspired me to write about this. It’s just something I think about often as a blogger, and as someone who reads blogs/visit social media sites. The topic is… validation.

There are two situations which seem to bring me back to thinking about validation.

Situation #1 is an argument I have in my head a lot (and sometimes with friends). I’ll notice a not-so-nice comment on a blog or Facebook, and think “Why bother commenting if you have nothing nice to say/useful to add/etc.?” “Why are people such trolls, blah blah blah?”

But then I start to argue with myself – if we only receive positive confirmation on our blogs (and other social media) that… is not a realistic representation of life. And truthfully, social media never will be! But! Is it healthy to let constant positive conformation validate our actions?

Here’s an example – I wrote in my training post this week that I did a double (including speedwork) the day before a long run over 20 miles… and had heart issues on that long run. GUYS! THAT WAS (somewhat) STUPID OF ME TO DO! I need you to call me out on my sh*t! No one did! (Granted, that post was long and boring…) But didn’t you think that was somewhat stupid?! Why didn’t you say something?! I can take it!

Heh heh heh. It’s hard to know how to comment on people’s blogs when you don’t know them well, especially when it’s so dang difficult to display tone online. But I feel sometimes it’s important to leave that comment that doesn’t validate what the person is saying, but asks them to think about it some more. And I’d like to think you can do that in a non troll-like manner. Maybe? Feel free to practice it here, if you’d like. 

Situation #2 is more straight forward. Do you ever find yourself more excited about blogging about doing something than actually doing it? Gosh, I hope not. But I sometimes get the impression that people do feel like they have to do certain things so they can blog about them. Please! Do what you want! Blog about what you want! Don’t blog about what you don’t want! But never feel like you have to do things, then blog about them, for your life to be validated. You are alive. Your lifestyle choices are validated… uh, as long as they are mostly legal. Heh. 

Reading this, it seems like the two situations somewhat contradict one another – we shouldn’t expect everything we do and say to be validated online, but then… we should do what we want because we don’t need online validation? Huh? Here we go – we don’t need it, so don’t always expect to get it. 

What do you think?! 

Comments (27)

By kilax, April 1, 2013 7:15 am

I’m way behind on blogs and might not have a chance to read until Friday, but I will catch up!

Are you crafty? I sure… am not. My mom and sister are though. But not me. I can’t cut a straight line, tie a ribbon, or write nicely. But! I can make a glass paperweight!

Okay, okay, in FULL disclosure, that is NOT the paperweight I made. Sigh. It’s what mine should look like. We’ll see when I pick it up on Thursday! Fingers crossed!

Early in the year, I saw an Amazon Local Deal for an introductory glass working class (at Patterson Glass). I was curious to learn how glass work is done, and asked Erin if she wanted to try it (since she is that awesome friend who’s up for anything). Of course she said yes, so we signed up and just took the class yesterday!

Confession – I was a little bit scared of burning myself. Guys! It wasn’t until college that I stopped being afraid of using the oven! Ha ha! Would you be scared/nervous at all of taking a glass working class?

All my worries went away when I saw how the shop was set up. There were three stations you went through to make the heart-shaped glass paperweight, and an instructor helped you at each station. Phew! After we watched a demo of the entire process, we went through the stations one by one, so it was never crowded (there were about nine people in our class).

Confession #2 – they told us terms for all the equipment and steps, and showed us all the different ways to color glass, but I am too lazy to look that up for this post.  

The first station – glass & color

We (instructor and me) got some glass on the end of a pole and made it in to a cylindrical shape. 

Then we added more glass, and made it in to more of a tapered cone shape, and dipped the top of it in to a plate of colored pieces (we were given 8 color choices and the choice for a dot or swirl design – I went with the dots). 

After that, we put it in the glory hole – the one term Erin and I thought you guys would like to know. Heh. As I turned it in the glory hole (heh), the colors went in to the glass. One of the interesting things about making this paperweight was that you were almost always turning it to keep it even – the warm glass will start to droop to one side if you don’t!

The second station – shaping

After adding the color, we added another layer of glass on top, then put it in a heart mold. Then we sat in a chair with a medieval looking device (below) to begin to separate the heart off the pole. 

There was an option during this station to burn hair off of your arm, but only Erin chose to do that. 

The instructor used an air gun on the heart, then we began to saw at it to loosen it off the pole even more. 

The third station – separate, smooth, and in to the kiln

For the final station, we tapped a butter knife against the extra piece of glass keeping the heart on the pole to knock the heart off. Then the instructor used a torch to smooth down the part where it broke off. Then it went in to the kiln! Here is what mine looked like before going in:

What’s interesting is that the glass doesn’t show its true colors or get clear until it’s removed from the kiln. So they all look orange until they are done. And like I said… I get to see my final product on Thursday! I hope it looks cool!

I was surprised how easy the instructors made glass work seem. I was seriously nervous I was going to end up with a blob paperweight, but I think I will actually have something nice that I can display and be proud of! I hope to go back and take a class* with Steven. I think he would really enjoy it. 

*They offer a lot of classes, and sell some cool stuff too – like memorials for people and pets (with ashes or hair in them).