I had a major case of the Sundays today. I hadn't been inspired by my homework, STILL, this morning, but I had to get it done today, so I turned in something I'm pretty sure I will have to re-submit at least once. But it's turned in on time, and resubmitting is perfectly acceptable, so I shouldn't feel so pouty about it. Too bad I do anyway. I have continued to food-photo-blog, but I'm going to spare you the pictures unless it's something noteworthy. You can still go to my Food Photoblog set on Flickr if you really want to. It's been about 5 days without coffee, soda, or juice. I think it's a good start, and I feel much less...puffy. I think that's the word I'm looking for. I hope I can get through tomorrow without having the little breakdown I had last Monday when I realized how much work I had to do after working on my homework all weekend. I just have to realize it's going to seem impossible on Mondays and doable by Wednesday. Really. It's going to be okay. I'm totally sure of it. Well, pretty confident. Or..."fake it till you make it" is a good backup plan anyway.

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

I think I actually managed to photograph everything I ate today, save the many many glasses of water. That was entertaining. I also kicked my ass really hard with my workout today, and tried to sort of start my Sessions homework. Not feeling particularly inspired by the assignment, and I generally keep myself on a schedule of "at the last minute" so I can't wait for lightning to strike. Hope I can at least b.s. it tomorrow. Basically, I started two assignments instead of making good progress on one. Better than nothing, at least!

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

Still haven't quite gotten into the habit of photographing what I eat. I did better today than yesterday at it, and some of the pictures were even worth sharing. My favorites were the ginger peach tea I drank in my fornicating rabbits mug, and the chai and toasted homemade cinnamon raisin bread I had for dessert. Delicious. I tried to hold out and not eat anything more after dinner, which was overcooked broccoli (oops) and half a single-serve margherita pizza, both of which I forgot to photograph. Obviously I succumbed to the charms of spicy chai and warm homemade bread. Carole's been feeding me well the last two days. I helped inspire a dish of beans, beef, rice and salsa which was delicious for last night's dinner and again as today's lunch with a little cheese on top. I drank LOTS of water today, two cups in the form of decaf tea. Go me!

I won't be posting every picture taken in a day, probably just one that I particularly like. If you're really bored, or actually interested, I started a Food Photoblog Flickr set where you can see all the pictures for every day I manage to keep this going. Enjoy!

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

The mission: No coffee, soda, or juice for two months. LOTS of water. Like, at least the minimum recommended amount, which I have been lax on for months.

The reason: I know for a fact that when I only drink water or tea, I retain less water and weigh less - I can't really explain but carbonation somehow makes me carry around a little something extra. Last but not least, many calories saved. Oh, also, I want to wear a pretty pretty dress to a holiday party, so this is part of my overall hardcoreness for the next two months.

The larger reason: I depend way too heavily on coffee especially and to a lesser degree flavored beverages & "junk" drinks, to get me through the day. I was feeling like it was a necessary evil because of my workload right now - I needed something to at least give me the sugar, caffeine, reward, or placebo effect necessary to plow through. But it long ago reached a plateau of effectiveness on all counts, and I've been trying to be healthier, fitter, a bit more aware of the quality of food I am consuming. As part of my re-commitment to nutritional awareness, it was time to cut the crap, pun intended (though I apologize).

Why I am posting this here: Two reasons. One, accountability. Two, I am trying a new thing where I photograph what I eat so I can more accurately document it, and I may occasionally post those photos and any comments here for the aforementioned reason one. Writing it down, counting calories, those are decent, but it takes a lot more time than snapping a photo with either the camera that is always in my bag or my iPhone. And it's more fun to post to a blog ;) I have been going to Weight Watchers for almost 2 years now with marginal success, dropped out for about three months, and I'm still trying to get enthused about it, or at least consistent with journaling, again. Maybe if I find the right format, I'll stop having such a "fuck it" attitude about keeping track of what I'm eating. Guesstimating, it is not working.

Wish me luck!

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

I've had a ridiculously busy week, the second in a row. Somewhat-luckily, starting in September my hours have been cut at work so that I have an extra 4.67 hours off on Fridays. Carole and I went to Mt. Sugarloaf so I could take some pictures for a Photoshop course assignment. I also wanted to show off some of the food culture around the area, and at the mention of Local Burger, we pretty much had to go there. The food, as usual, was orgiastic. Hand-cut fries & grass-fed beef, how could it not be? Today I am trying to do as close to nothing as possible. Other than waking up at 9 to go swimming (which was pretty much just wading in my case) & doing some grocery shopping & a couple other errands, I'm doing a pretty good job. I have a slight problem with relaxing - I'm either too busy or bored - I find it hard to find the middle ground. If only I could "catch up" on sleep, that's what I would do for most of every Saturday.

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

Carole and I went to Hope & Olive this morning for a birthday-ish brunch (her birthday is this week). We got there too early for the jazz-guitar guy so we heard Beatles on some Sirius/XM radio station, which was fun. I know more Beatles songs than is...natural. The food was excellent, and I'd definitely go again, maybe even for dinner. It's a bit of a drive, though. It was worth it today for the amazing tomato, cheddar, avocado, basil pesto panini. Great Pierce Bros. coffee, too.

Originally published at spacecrafty dot org.

I am trying really hard to keep my digital life in strict order, & it's kind of overwhelming. I am always seeking the most intuitive and efficiently-labeled file system, the most fail-safe backup system(s), the most effortless synchronizations between all my gadgets, the happiest, most medium of happy mediums between taking low-quality pictures on my 2mp iPhone and breaking my back carrying my supremely awesome Nikon D40 around just in case something photogenic should happen - and then, also important, is not being too impulsive and spending money on another gadget, software package, or online membership that will make my life & digital crusades that much easier...

Let's just say I haven't done very well with the impulse thing this month...and I'm kind of underwhelmed with the returns so far. I'll post my ultimate reviews of my new technologies in the next couple of weeks...

-- Posted from Mercury (my iPhone)

Technology is way too addictive...hopefully now that I've found a blogging app that I like, I'll actually post things (albeit short things) to this lj more often. I might also cheat & just post photos sometimes too. But, hey, I'll be posting something!

-- Posted from Mercury (my iPhone)

I've been working on starting the gargantuan task of creating a grad school application portfolio - I say "working on starting" because I've been kind of stuck in the mud the last two weeks trying to make actual headway in creating my first drupal theme.
( This entry is one big ETA! )

Woke up with a start at 2am...was disoriented from being rudely ripped from deep sleep - probably slow-wave - anyway, after a few seconds of wondering what had cause me to wake exclaiming "WHAT!" - when I felt a huge cold wet spot in my bed. I was appauled and feared that I had somehow wet the bed - but upon further investigation, it smelled slightly chemical and my outer cover was wet while my inner cover was not. but there was this sizeable wet spot and my clock was covered in water droplets and my glasses were as well. In my stupor I went out to the bathroom to make sure that I wasn't leaking water or having some sort of medical emergency (not that that made any sense, but I couldn't for the life of me think where the hell the water had come from). On my way back to the room, I got lightheaded and had to lie on the floor for a while. The hypochondriac in me was going a bit mad.

Upon turning on the light, I could see a large piece of wallpaper/paint was sagging from water-log, and my wall hanging, luckily waterproof, was dripping water all over the place. Several other places on my ceiling and wall appeared to be drenched. Ewww!

After much hauling and rearranging, it was back to bed on my mattress on the floor. The vertigo and all that was simply a product of being startled awake, I suppose.

So - I'm bone tired...contractor, landlord, & roofer are in & out of my house while I'm at work...fun.

Can't talk - an iPhone has attached itself to me and I can't escape its magical lure. Hopefully it will lose its power over me and my free moments long enough to allow me to procrastinate via lj in the near future...

Everyone has said meaningful, astute things already, so I'm going to be brief:

VIRGINIA!!! WOOO!! USA!! HOLY SHIT I'M ACTUALLY FEELING PROUD OF MY COUNTRY!!

1. I'm in love with Neil Patrick Harris. I'm holding a fag-hag torch for him.
2. My pipe-dream theory that the second week back in my routine would magically find me motivated to do work...was, unshockingly, a pipe-dream
3. The Connotations performance last night was super-awesome!
4. I'm sure there's more I could list, but my brain can only count to 4 right now...get it? think about it.

ETA: 5. 30Rock rocks. Alec Baldwin is f-ing hilarious. Even if he does associate with crack-pot men's rights advocates.

Okay. So I CAN count higher than four. But I love counting to 4!

Before you start, do not tell me all the different ways in which ordering a Dell is a bad idea. I have gone through several alternatives b/c I thought Dell was doing a crappy job and found that there were even more problems, for me at least, with these alternatives (I bought a Mac - it died. And was ridiculously expensive to even think about repairing and it was their own battery flaw that killed it and then they wouldn't pay for repairs anyway. Had a system custom built locally to my specs, and the sound card was incompatible with every piece of software I installed until it just stopped working except out of one channel and now it only shows the cyan channel on the graphics card which makes it useless to me...etc. OMG I haven't even gotten started...)

This time I decided to go back to Dell despite all the issues I had last time I bought one because of aforementioned problems AND since I work for a University I get the most hefty discount from Dell of any branded computer. And it is still biting me in the ass.

( But I should say a few things in their defense... )

I am starting to get very freaked out about the Presidential Election. Sure, I may have already lost my faith in humanity at large AND the conservative half of the country - but I sincerely believe that this election will be won or lost based on the liberals who don't vote simply because they don't think it will matter (especially the youth who are doing so much lip service and t-shirt wearing) or because they don't think that Obama is "their candidate" - because he's not liberal enough.

I do understand why people don't want to vote for some one who they don't whole-heartedly agree with - I don't agree with Obama 100 percent on most of the issues - but I don't understand how they can see what's at stake and still choose to hold fast to their ideals. You're putting your ideals before the country at large - and don't you claim to be an instrument of The Greater Good and Social Justice and all that is (secularly) Holy?

REALITY CHECK: The system is flawed. Abstaining will not fix it. Voting Green on a national level will not fix it. You are acting voting like this is the best of all possible worlds and both sides play the game the same way - they do play the same game, which is not an admirable game for sure, but in the Real World, bad is bound to win because of entropy and the fact that good (better) isn't willing to play (as) dirty. I applaud a candidate or a voter being the bigger person, but here the Dems are, not throwing as low punches as the Republicans are willing to throw, AND the liberal voters are over here thinking "Well, he's liberal, but he's not liberal enough" - do you think there are as many conservatives that are abstaining from the vote b/c McCain isn't conservative enough?

They are unified in their hate and fear, and we are divided in our good intentions and personal yearnings and interpretations of Pure Being - blah blah blah - and we can't see the voting process for the highly-flawed thing that it is without getting cynical or complacent.

The Bottom Line is, we can't get exactly what we (the uber-liberals & semi-socialists) want and never will be able to do that in a nation where there are two seemingly evenly-divided factions & with most people somewhere in the middle, but that doesn't mean we should pout or refuse to play the game or blindly deny that the rules are written to make the game unfair. We won't get anything but losses of civil liberties and more war!!

</rant>

My bento collection as it stands: ( behind a cut for those who don't care! )

Whee! Retail Opiates! Very dangerous drugs...

I have now received all of my bento purchases except for those from jbox. It's exceptionally annoying that they not only don't tell you when they shipped your package, but also there's no tracking or delivery estimate that's better than "2-4 weeks from ship date" - um, what ship date is that?

Now I have an awesome supply of boxes and divider cups and whatnot. I just need a kick-ass lunchbox to carry the boxes in, so I can keep them together in my giant-ass backpack that is waiting for me when I get home this afternoon :D I went with the High Sierra Mammoth. I'll let you know if it fulfills my (rather large) expectations!

I'm going to post a rundown of my bento collection, but I should do some work first...

So, as was all but inevitable given my Cute Addiction, I am presently investigating all the bento box sites and supplies on the intarwebs. I will grace you all with my exploits and adventures! But first, I have to actually compile the links and figure out what reviews to give them. Huzzah!

++++++++
Here are some super-awesome links!

BentoTV { bentotv.com } - although i'm not that interested in watching most of the episodes, even the titles gave me some good ideas for lunch items. also, there's an ebay store with a lot of nice items. i did purchase something from here I then saw for much cheaper per-item from the manufacturer, but i would have had to buy 12 instead of two, so...

Ichiban Kan { ichibankanusa.com } - very inexpensive compared to anywhere else i've seen. not that impressed with their actual boxes, but great prices on molds and other accesories. Ships from the US.

J-box (J-list) { jbox.com } - overpriced, but pricelessly cute stuff! Ships from Japan, so be prepared for larger shipping costs. J-box is the "PG" version of J-list, which offers more "adult" japanese products as well. If you click on "all products", even from the jbox identity, you may get more than you were prepared for! ;)

ebay, of course! { ebay.com } - search for "bento box" or  "children's dining"!

Reusable Bags { reusablebags.com } - they have some great bento-type gear, such as the laptop lunch kits, the sandwich wrappers, and the To-Go Ware Stainless Steel Food Carrier. Also check out the sigg containers, the recycled insulation insulated lunchboxes, & the rest of their swanky reusable bags cause i really like them :D Ships from the US.

I love OBento! { http://shop.iloveobento.com } - a great collection of boxes, bags, bottles, books - all a bit pricey, but if you're looking for something you can't find at the other places, like a lot of french bento stuff, go here! Also, ships from the US.

Lunchsense { http://lunchsense.com } - a really good, no-nonsense bento-like idea. I like the nonsense and cuteness of the kiddie bento stuff, though!

Essentials { http://www.shopessentials.net } - actually local to Northampton, this store has some very cute bento stuff - nothing that suited my tastes, but then again, i'm really picky.

Lunch in a Box { http://lunchinabox.net } - a lovely bento blog, with this page of links to online bento sellers, a bento store locator, all sorts of tips to getting started or livening up your bento lunches...

why don't i post more about all the things I'm up to, crafty-creative-wise? i guess i'm too busy doing them and then i don't have any steam left to recap for everyone else, or posterity or whatever. BUT, here's yet another list of things I would be writing about it I found the time and will. I have the best of intentions of writing all of these entries sometime soon. I have a domain name I purchased several months ago into which I plan on incorporating this here blog. which segues nicely into the list:

PLANS!

• teach myself the ins and outs of running and customizing the drupal cms
• create sundart's herbal creations (like tea and soaps and such, jack-asses) website using said cms
• create some of my own herbal creations
• create a cms home for my blog and creations of all sorts, including buttons, t-shirts of my designs, web services, etc.
• use my freaking sewing machine, that sits there all plugged in and ready to make Copper a new Fuzzy Blue Triangle toy
• use my new awesome CMYK printer to make the zine i've talked about making since high school...and started at least 4 times...
• use my xyron magic tool to make magnets, bumper stickers, etc.
• make a site chronicling my west coast tour for my family & friends (meaning it will be censored a bit, but you guys will have the inside scoop on protected content) - like an online scrap-book. actual physical scrap-books are so last-century.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

• I'm in an a cappella group! and I designed our website!
• made some awesome cakes with sundart and we took pictures!
• have been teaching myself Adobe Illustrator!
• am getting even more awesome at css!
• am getting super-buff!
• am doing lots of creative web- and computer-based learning activities instead of doing the pile of work i have! (i'm getting everything done, it's just a "i need to eat my veggies BEFORE I have dessert" sort of issue)
• have made and continue to make lots of bulleted lists!

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle - Just go there.

Skreened - Custom T-shirt Printing that exclusively uses American Apparel shirts

Remember the Milk (beta) - this site brings me too much joy

Blik - If I actually had any wall space left over...