neat gren things: environmental graffiti

I'm trying out for a position posting for Envintonmental Graffiti, and here's my first / sample post! It came out a little long, and perhaps a bit formal, but i'm pretty proud of it.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/energy/news-5-ways-algae-will-save-world

The website is pretty awesome, and I really hope they like my post-- I can think of several more weird and wonderful topics I can post on.

fat girl goes slim: i joined a gym

World Gym is having a tenth anniversary thing where they're only charging 10$ a month, and that's a steal. There's one not far from here, so J and I joined up.

We've been twice-- we're due to go back again, but I'm Girl Timeing, so I might hold off a few more days, or just go and stroll on the treadmill or something.

But already, I feel stronger. My muscles are sore, but not debilitating, and I've already lost another pound. And my hips are an inch smaller than the last time I measured them, but I don't think that's from working out. It was ages ago when I measured them last. It's not nice to see what 43" looks like when you unloop the measuring tape!

According to the Spark People App on my iPad, if I lose a pound a week consistently through the holidays, I can reach my goal weight somewhere around the end of January, which means I'll be almost there when I go to school at the beginning. If I can lose just a little more a week, I'll make it by New Years which would be awesome-- it'll be the first year I DON'T have to resolve to lose weight!

I've been trying to pay more attention to what I'm eating, trying to make better choices. According to the scale in my room, which is the one I can read easier, I hit 140 this week! It's amazing. That's officially half way there, 20llbs less than when I started, back down almost where I was when I graduated college, on my way to where I was when I started college.

So I'm hopeful again.

random thoughts: chairs

I love sitting in chairs. It makes me feel like human history has led to something tangible-- we no longer have to sit in the dirt or on a bare floor: we have chairs. I'm a cross-legger. Usually, no matter what seat I'm sitting in, I'll pull my legs up Indian-style and stay that way until my feet fall asleep. I used to be the sort to cross my legs one over the other-- in high school I could cross them at the knee and then loop my foot back around and cross at the ankle, too, and it was comfy. I'm too chubby for that now, but sometimes I still try.

I like deep chairs with a lot of space for my legs and somewhere to prop my feet. I like soft chairs that I can sleep in when I get nap-tired and need a little downtime. Which is pretty often when I don't have anything else to do, since I'm basically a cat on my own schedule. I like chairs with good back support and good arm-rests.

I like curling up with a book and settling in. I could live in a chair if it was comfy enough.

inspiration: piercings

I'm also craving piercings, specifically surface piercings:

I love facial-dots-- if I ever get my eyes lasered or suddenly don't need glasses or something, I'm getting something by my eye, and probably a nose piercing.

Shiny boobs!

When I have collarbones again (and if I stay on track with my plan, I should reach my goal weight by the end of december or beginning of january, if Holiday Eating doesn't do me in), I want these-- or maybe three under the left collarbone. Something. Haven't decided yet.

inspiration: tattoos 2

More pictures from all over the web that strike me as something I'd like to have permanently ingrained in my skin-- or make me think in the direction of something that I would... I think I want the previsouly mentioned tatt to have a paisley sort of thing going up over my collarbone, to match a spiral on the left shoulder. This is, of course, still all just conjecture. I need new stars and my wings first.

inspirations: tattoos

I'm contemplating something on my shoulder that would incorporate things representing all four elements: kelp for water, feathers for air, ferns for earth... and I don't know what for fire, other than fire, which doesn't seem right for me. Fireworks? Something.

Anyway, here's inspiration for that, borrowed gratefully from all over the webs:

And also, there's these:

penpals

In better news, I have new penpals! A girl in Brooklyn and a lady in Chicago, one from 16 Sparrows and one from SendSomething.net! It's just lovely. I get to hear all over the place about what's going on in the world and in the lives of these people I've never met. And there's such a niceness to it-- people who sign up with the purpose of sending letters really like to do it, and send nice letters on nice paper.

And two personal letters on a bad day-- that's just wonderful.

continuing drama: lost wallet

I talked to my friend who lost his wallet recently, and we decided that I should hold off slipping out and calling the whole world for a day or so. According to the scary things online, I've got two days before I'm liable for whatever losses anyone gives me, and since there's a weekend here, that gives me till monday-- since weekends don't count as business days. If I'm reading those articles right.

So I'm going to wait and see if it appears magically over the weekend while I'm doing other stuff, and then... well, if it doesn't, I'm going batshit crazy on all those calls.

new drama: lost wallet

Somewhere between signing up for a gym membership around 2 yesterday and going back around 6 to actually use my membership, I lost or someone stole my wallet. There was definitely enough stuff in there for someone to go all identity fraud on me, so now I have to call all the banks and get new cards, call the credit agecies and put a new-credit hold on all my scoresheets, maybe sign up for an identity theft watchdog service so if someone tries later, I'm protected, report it to the cops so there's a flag in the system, get a new ID card, get a new SS card (which I didn't carry for, like, 10 years and then put in there because I needed it for school, and then forgot to take out again), and on and on and on. It's such a hassle. I had my purse stolen once when I was in High School, but I didn't have a bank account or any credit cards at that point, and now it's both harder and more expensive to deal with this crap.

So that's my drama right now.

I'll make a clearer post about it all when I know how it all goes.

This is the sort of weekend we've had.

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robin mckinley reminds me of more life requirements

I want to live somewhere...

close enough to it's natural and pastoral heritage to have decent agricultural fairs, preferably of something I like, like corn or strawberries or bread. Or all of the above.

where I can have a huge garden to build my little writing cottage in, and where roses will grow without me having to constatly worry about them.

where the cats can go outside without having to worry about fleas too much, and where they won't be squashed by cars, in-rabied by squirrels, or attacked by dogs.

with a proximity to something not-writing-related where I can dive in and really get into it-- beekeeping, silversmithing, jam-making coops, a tea plantastion, an old library of rare finds that needs a curator and archivist, something. Something I want to do and can't do here for whatver reason, so I can love it as much as she loves bells.

link: Sonora, Twain Harte, Mother Lode, Lake Tulloch Area Homes for Sale, Real Estate Company serving the Mother Lode of California

Sonora, Twain Harte, Mother Lode, Lake Tulloch Area Homes for Sale, Real Estate Company serving the Mother Lode of California

"A Balanced Approach to Time Management:

1. Show up.

2. Be all there.

3. Have a plan. (Write it down.)

4. Stick to your plan.

5. Do the hard stuff first. (Don't put off.)

6. Factor in interruptions.

7. Keep your cool.

8. Schedule in free time.

9. Take pleasure in a good day's work.

10. Ask another person to point out blind spots in your approach."

relationships and issues

I've recently been navigating the daunting minefield of my own relationship issues, and aside from coming to the conclusion that no one can ever be exactly what I want, and will therefore annoy me more than anything should be able to, I've also come to the conclusion that probably I'll never have what I want, and therefore I want someone I can care about but who will leave me alone when I need it.

Maybe I'm just feeling pessimistic because I woke up to an overcast day, or maybe it's hormones or stress talking, but... yeah. Not so much with the happy today.

And I've found the following links today that have all turned up on my various f'lists of their own accord:

How to Make a Woman Happy (this is my favorite of the quotes):
"If your woman has had a hard day at the office, run her a hot bath and hand her a glass of chilled wine whilst you put the kids to bed and prepare dinner. Don’t ruin it by expecting sexual favors in return. In a recent survey, when women were asked what would make them happy, one of the most common answers was to be kissed without being groped!"

Ten Things Every Man Should Know About A Woman's Brain:
"She is easily turned off

"A women's sex drive is much more easily upset than a guy's," Brizendine said.

For women to get in the mood, and especially to have an orgasm, certain areas of her brain have to shut off. And any number of things can turn them back on."

"For guys, foreplay is everything that happens three minutes before insertion. For women, it is everything that happens 24 hours beforehand,"

"The female brain is not only more responsive to small amounts of stress but is less able to habituate to high levels of stress, said Debra Bangasser of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, describing her recent research"

"She hates conflict (but lack of response even more)"

"She changes every day based on her cycle

Affecting up to 80 percent of women, PMS is a familiar scapegoat. But women are affected by their cycles every day of the month. Hormone levels are constantly changing in a woman's brain and body, changing her outlook, energy and sensitivity along with them."

How to Make a Woman Happy:
"SECURITY. Beyond the basic needs of food, water, etc., security is one of the most important requirements for a woman to be happy. Security of health, employment, family, and partner."


"women need peace. They are happiest when they can be in the same room with their partner and have a peaceful feeling."


"PERSONAL SPACE. Women need personal space too! They need to breathe, to think, to plan, to grow. Be secure in your relationship with your partner, and give her space of her own."

test run for life

My day job is going to spend most of the rest of September renovating the other store, which means that this store has to give partial hours to two stores' worth of employees, which means I'll probably get less than half time at least twice and as many as four times over the next six to eight weeks. I was bummed, since money is already tight with H in China, but I've decided not to worry about the money just now.

I've decided that I'm going to use this time as a test-run for the sort of life I want to have in the future, when I don't need a day job to get me through the bills.

I know I don't have enough other income to make up for it, and I know I'm not nearly organized or disciplined (no matter that people keep saying I'm so laser-like in my focus) enough-- but what other skills do I need to work on? How will I pattern long strings of days when nothing is required of me but self-determination?
- Will I write more story, more articles, more proposals?
- Will I look for other work and follow up on it?
- Will I have time to craft, to photograph it and to get it up on Etsy? Will having that time even actually matter to my sales and my income?
- Will I be able to effectively budget and keep myself out of the hole?
- Will I keep ahead at school and maybe get more involved?
- Will I have time and spending money to get the jam business off the ground, and will I be able to convince anyone that it's as tasty as I say? Will anyone want to buy it?
- Is there anything in the community that I'd like the Garden, the Historical Society, the Archaeological Society?
- Will I have time to cook and clean and keep house the way I want it?
- Will I get back on track with eating correctly and lose the rest of my weight to my goal?
- Will I be able to keep up on paperwork and filing and all the rest?
- Will my social life pick up when I'm not working an endless string of mids and nights?

These are a lot of questions, and I know that a week off won't tackle all of them, but I can at least test the waters, as it were, and see about getting it done, you know? See if I really want a life without a day job (which I'm pretty sure I do) or whether what I want is a different day job with more flexible hours or something like that.

Wish me luck!