Morbid Romantic

bringing you quality randomness since 1981

The W.H. Stark House was built in Orange, Texas in 1894 for the residence of William H. Stark, an industrialist big in the lumber and iron industries, Miriam Lutcher Stark, and their young child. The house encompasses 14,000-square-feet and is built in an elegant Queen Anne Victorian architectural style. The Stark family, avid philanthropists and antique collectors, lived in the house until death. It has since been restored and is now open for tours and visits.

The W.H. Stark House has been given the title of Recorded Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. It was also added into the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976 (reference number 76002056).

The house is absolutely beautiful. Boasting rooms such as a Library, a Breakfast Room, a Music Room, and a Tower Room, the house is full of beautiful and rare antiques that transport you back in time to the Victorian Era. The W.H. Stark house is truly taken directly out of the past, frozen in time. The antiques, the design, and the furniture are gorgeous. I would love to have just one piece of that house! Imagine how lovely it was when it was fresh and new for the Stark family. It stands a gorgeous three stories high. Included with the house is a Carriage House that includes extra antiques and beautiful pieces of history that were once a part of someone’s life. The history major in me just loves the idea of standing among all of these things.

All sorts of events are held at The W.H. Stark house. In addition to tours, held Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m, you can visit and take part in The W.H. Stark House Lecture Series. That’s not all that’s held at The W.H. Stark house, so check their calendar to see what is upcoming to plan the perfect visit.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Okay, so I am getting around to cleaning. I’ve been wanting to/meaning to for about a year now (don’t think less of me!), but I have had absolutely no time. Thanks to my last (class) semester in college, I was swamped with work over the fall. So much so that I could barely get in two/three hours of sleep each night.

But my cleaning-fu is not strong. And neither is my motivation. I cleaned the worst room, the downstairs bathroom. I still need to do some serious scrubbing on the upstairs one. Then, the kitchen. And then, last but not least, my own bedroom. I have too much stuff and no where to put it. I wish people would stop buying me stuff, no joke. My mother always gives me small useless things and I have no place to put them. So, they wind up junking my living space up.

I have too much junk but I can’t get rid of it! My mother would give ma guilt trip that is unimaginable if I tried.

Does anyone have any good, cheap storage hints? My closets are full, my shelves have no more space, but I have more junk to store!

Oh, and if you haven’t, join Icon Buffet! I want to start referring people.

Popularity: 9% [?]

SocialSpark is a new and exciting project aimed at creating a community for bloggers while helping them make a few dollars writing about interesting products and services. When you join SocialSpark, you instantly become part of an online community where you can make friends, interact with other bloggers, and create your own Sparks for other bloggers to just have fun with. I already have 20 friends on SocialSpark to trade comments with; also, when I want to surf the net, I can visit my friends sites and support them. This is what my profile page looks like:

I even made this little icon here to link to my SocialSpark profile with so that other members of the network can find me and friend me. So, feel free to take the little icon and use it on your site to link to your SocialSpark profile and spread the word. This way, over this vast world wide web, we can find each other.

SocialSpark also has another great purpose… you make money! When you see an opportunity you like and that you are qualified for (SocialSpark makes it easy to find open opportunities that you are qualified for thanks to their filter option), you put yourself in line by clicking the ‘wait for slot’ link to wait for the opportunity to have an empty spot. When it does, it is free for you to reserve and write about. SocialSpark will even send you a message to let you know that they have a spot waiting for you!

SocialSparks code of ethics makes it very appealing and blogger friendly:
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I especially like the 100% search engine friendly aspect since I have dealt with my fair share of search engine rank issues. You don’t have to worry about your important rankings dropping.

So join! Become a part of the community!

Popularity: 10% [?]

I totally stole this meme from Saitaina. But, I know that she won’t mind. I took out the ones that relate to livejournal since livejournal is not my main platform but it instead my backup and ‘feed.’

1. My username is ______ because ______.

My username is Morbid Romantic because I am a huge Anne Rice fan and it was my pen name when I wrote Vampire Chronicle fanfiction… the name just sort of stuck.

2. My name is _____ because ______.

My name is Valorie because that is the name my father chose and my mother decided to spell it with an O so that I could be called Val or Lorie if I wanted… I go by neither.

3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.

My journal is titled Morbid-Romantic.net because that is the name of my domain and I am very unoriginal.

4. My journal subtitle is ____ because ____.

My journal subtitle is ………….transcendental maggot…………. because I relate and I also like the book Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I can’t even begin to write a complete to-do list of all the stuff I have/want to do. Stuff online and offline. There are some sites that need to be overhauled, some sites that need to be reopened with all fresh content and stuff, and some sites that just need to be cleaned out. I am in the process, for example, of reopening the BL TCG and taking out all of the myspace/facebook/fotolog/etc links from my fanlistings. I don’t make it a habit of link checking for the fanlistings, but I know from experience and the link checking that I have done that people on those sites never link back. So, I am just banning them entirely from adding their website.

Saitaina made me a lovely congrats graphic for my graduation! It’s really lovely and an honor to be given such a beautiful gift from a friend. I love making graphics and fansigns for people, so it makes me even more super happy when others make them for me.

If YOU like fansigns on your birthday or on a holiday, you should sign up for my birthday / holiday fansign list. That way, on any holiday (US holiday) or your birthday, I will send you a fansign. Yes.

Popularity: 10% [?]

LA Police Gear sells police and security gear to the paying public. If issues of security are an interest to you, check out LA Police Gear and their selection of deal priced goods. LA Police Gear sells a wide variety of goods such as under armour jackets, Galco holsters, Blackhawk gear and goods and Surefire flashlights.

Popularity: 10% [?]

One more day left.

Today in my first block AP World History class, I let an observer come in and watch me. The guy looked young and he’s a substitute teacher in training. In order to get a substitute license, you have to have some classroom observation. And I certainly don’t mind someone sitting in the back watching me do my thing up there. I mean, I figure he’s the one suffering through an AP World History lesson on World War II and the Holocaust.

My self-deprecation usually gets a few laughs, so he wasn’t for want of the occasional laugh. But, I never make a joke about myself that isn’t true. I don’t think many people would find me too terribly exciting, for example, for having read Harry S. Truman’s diary during WWII. I can admit this and I realize this about myself.

Let me tell you, though, I think I should have warned my last block, my second AP World History class, that today was my last day. When we told them this fact today, absolute anarchy erupted. I mean, those kids took my leaving personally. They were seriously upset at this sudden and abrupt news. One student, one I really like because he’s so smart and sweet and religious and anti-communist, came up to me afterwards and told me that he’s going to miss me, that he likes my lessons because he’s not tired afterwards and I’m more interesting to listen to. It really made me feel good to hear. I had to promise a few of them that I would try to come back and see them before school ended in order to get them to settle down and begin class.

My third block World History (level 2) wanted to have a party for me. I told them we could party by taking notes. One student forced a hug on me, so of course I told him to get off of me and go away. I hate emotional goodbyes.

Those kids are special to me. Especially my second block AP World History. That was my favorite block. Though my third block AP World History class is pretty special to me, too. A couple of students in that one really made the entire thing worth it. I get to say goodbye to all of them tomorrow. My fast and final day. Ever.

Popularity: 15% [?]

It’s almost over. Yes. My stint as a student teacher is over. Three more days to go. When Friday, 2:39 pm hits, I will be free of this entire experience and can look forward to graduation. And, you know, this is the longest week of my life. This final week feels like it is taking forever. I want it to be over but it’s only Wednesday! How can this be!? I’m so, so close. Everything is turned in!

Today I had my final evaluation, which I passed with flying colors. I turned in my portfolio, which I got the highest marks on. I also turned in my stellar Assistant Principle evaluation and my Time Record with all of the hours I’ve pulled… which, including classes and planning, top a whopping 1060.5 for three months of work. Incredible, huh? No wonder I am so tired with absolutely no free time to do anything. This has definitely been the busiest I have ever been… though when I really weigh, it seems about equal to my final semester in classes. Senior Seminar almost did me in. I almost lost it then.

I’ve almost lost it a few times now.

When I reflect, though, I think of all the things I wish that I had done or could have done right. I almost wish that I had more time to do things right. Yet, the larger and more dominate voice in my head is screaming at me to stay alive until Friday and then get the hell out of there. Yes. Friday. Of course, I decided to attend the school play on Friday as a last farewell to some of my AP students, at least I’ll know that when Monday comes, no more school. What I am going to do then is clean, refine my portfolio even more with new artifacts (such as my guest speaking stint and a movie I made that I am hoping to find when I clean) and get together everything for my teaching license application, as well as putting together application packs for different school districts to try and get myself a job.

If anything, I can get my foot through the door by subbing, which is what I will do come the start of the new year (school year, not the start of 2009) if I still haven’t landed an actual teaching job. I’ve got a plan. Hopefully it will all work out. I know my luck, though, so I don’t expect anything to be easy. It never is easy when it comes to me. There’s always something in the way, or something that goes wrong, or something that threatens to undo everything I’ve done. I have to compete with so many different obstacles, I never expected to leave this experience with everything that I wanted in place. It just doesn’t happen that way.

I want some sleep. I don’t want to be exhausted anymore.

I know it’s sort of wrong, but I was hoping that something would get messed up with my cap and gown so that I would not get it and I would not have to attend graduation. I was disappointed when I got the tracking notification last night that said it will arrive tomorrow.

I am kind of hungry at this point. And tired. I am going to find something to eat quickly and then go to bed. I just wanted to share my accomplishments with the world. And then let people know that I will be back to writing and replying and doing the business I love very soon.

Also, I renewed yuki-eiri.com for another year.

Popularity: 17% [?]

As a blogger, it’s pretty hard to get noticed in a sea of millions and millions of blogs. You want to be unique, you want to be different, you want a way to drive traffic to your site. Well, that’s not an easy thing to do. Sure, someone can easily come to your site and like what you have to say, but it’s all too easy for your link to get buried in a bookmarks folder and for the viewer to forget the existence of your blog after viewing hundreds more.

That is why a service like Zookoda’s email newsletter will help bring your traffic and keep it. Now your visitors will know when you have put up a new blog post and can return easily. Using this newsletter service is an excellent way to drive traffic back. I think I speak for many bloggers when I say that it’s a good thing to bring in a visitor and keep them as a visitor rather than it being a one time thing.

The newsletter service offered by Zookoda takes care of all the form creation for you. All you do is insert a bit of code and you’re off to gathering subscribers. And for all of you who are worried about your web company’s terms of service regarding SPAM, Zookoda is SPAM compliant, so there shouldn’t be any issue with your newsletter. There is even a double opt-in feature to make sure your users definitely want to join.

You can design the newsletter, add personal graphics, and make it just right to fit your style and the mood of your site.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally sucked up the fact that I have to spend money to graduate and purchased my graduation announcements and cap/gown. Boo. Crap, I hated it. As I typed in my credit card information, I told myself, “this is enough money to pay bills for two months.” Now, I have to be especially frugal with my money until I can recollect what I spent. I kept telling myself as I typed in my credit card number, “you’re doing this for your mother, you’re doing this for your mother.”

So, the damage done…

You see those shipping & handling costs!? That’s a whole lot of money for something as light as paper and cloth. It’s not like anything big or heavy is being shipped. Those costs are absolutely too high. I don’t know how that company can justify making people spend so much money on stuff that is surely, SURELY, not worth so much.

This has been a really expensive month for me.

I have too much stuff to do. At least I have one more day before a week of Spring Break. True, I have a lot to do, but at least I can do it on my own time and after I get some sleep. I’m so tired that tired is out of reach. I’m way past that point now.

Popularity: 20% [?]