Friday, July 30, 2010

Aloha Friday # 145


Thank God it's Friday.  I'm ready for two days off and hopefully, unlike last weekend, I won't spend the entire time sick and sleeping most of the time away.  While I love sleep, there was absolutely no productivity of any kind. 

For those new to Aloha Friday:  In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too.  I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

On my way to work I was catching up on the Nerdist podcast, which is one of the many I adore, and it got me to thinking about the world of podcasts.  How addicted I've become to a lot of them.  How certain people are able to use podcasts to create a following and get published (Scott Sigler) or just entertain their fans (Kevin Smith).

Do you listen to podcasts?  If so, what are some of your favorites?

A few of my favorites:  The Nerdist (as linked above), Doug Loves Movies, Smodcast, and even though it no longer exists, I love relistening to all the old Jillian Michaels podcasts.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wishcasting Wednesday - I could nourish my soul, but that's not where my head is...

It's Wednesday.  Not only is it the hump day to the work week, but it's Wishcasting Wednesday.  I love doing this exercise as I'm definitely one of those people who believes that what you put out into the universe is what awaits you, maybe not how or when you expect it, but I believe it happens.

This week's wishcast:  How do you wish to nourish your self?

It's always a little strange how well these questions and wishes fit in with what's been on my mind.  I know that I should focus completely on the mental nourishment, which I do want, but my immediate answer goes to food.  Food has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember - an enemy, a friend, but never really just nourishment.  I've slowly been learning over the past year as I strive to get healthier that a huge step for me is accepting that food is nourishment for the body the way that words and music nourish me in other ways.  It's neither enemy or friend, just how I choose to think of it.

I have to admit that I don't always nourish myself properly when it comes to food.  Another thing I've been learning on this journey.  I was raised with a mother who harped on every single thing I ate and my weight since I was little kid (even though looking back, I don't think it was necessarily warranted until I was older), but never taught me the proper way to eat or view food.  I'm only now, in my early thirties, learning that the body needs fuel to survive and it's all about what type of fuel I choose to put into it that will help give me energy and make me happier and just provide me with the knowledge I'm doing everything I can not to follow in my parents' footsteps and to live a long life.

My wish is to understand that food is simply nourishment, nothing more.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Aloha Friday - Week # 144


It's another Aloha Friday, a day where we can all keep it simple and ask interesting, but not-too-difficult questions.  A bunch of my friends are currently at Comic Con and it got me to thinking about television shows/movies/authors and it brought me to this question:

If you could meet the cast of your favorite television show, would you want to do it?

I'm actually torn on this myself.  Because what if the people turn out to be jerks?  What if it goes horribly and I come across like an idiot?  Of course, this tends to be my own issue as I go right for negative, negative, negative...something I'm working on.  I think maybe I'll stick with my current system where I randomly bump into celebrities (sometimes literally) quite by coincidence.  Unless I get a trip to Comic Con next year because, who am I kidding?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 390



Week 390

  1. Deals ::  
  2. bargains
  3. Alive :: 
  4. living
  5. Smooth ::  
  6. smooth operator...
  7. Materials ::  
  8.   paperwork
  9. Arrest ::  
  10.   Arrested Development - how I miss that show!
  11. Locker ::  
  12. gym...i need to go to the gym.  Eep.
  13. Evidence ::  
  14.   crime
  15. Operation ::  
  16.   surgery
  17. Opal :: 
  18.   stone
  19. Investigation ::  
  20.   Donald Strachey, P.I.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wishcasting Wednesday: Envisioning

It's Wishcasting Wednesday.  I've been so crazy with time and stuff the past few weeks that I didn't take even a few minutes for myself for something as small, yet lovely as this exercise. 

This week's questionWhat do you wish to envision?

It's funny this question arises right after I had a therapy session on lunch where this was actually discussed.  Mostly, I just want to be happier and that involves me being able to look at myself without all the negative and simply do more of the things I love without worrying about what it looks like or how it comes out.  I want to be more involved in life and get back to working out and writing on routine...and I think all of that will help me be happier.  I really want it, it's sometimes just hard convincing myself that I deserve it.  And I do.  We all do.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Book Review: My Fair Lazy by Jennifer Lancaster

This book works for double whammy for both the Read Your Name Challenge (M-A-R-E) and the Non-Fiction Five (Book 3/5)...


My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

Summary:  Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces.

In Jen's corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing's for certain: Eliza Doolittle's got nothing on Jen Lancaster-and failure is an option
 
My review:  The length of time it took me to finish this book is in no way due to the actual book and more to my own ongoing life and craziness. This is the second book by Jen Lancaster that I've read and I have to say that she's one I will continue to read. I really enjoy the way Jen Lancaster writes. She comes across as someone I would want to be friends with (even though we don't share political ideologies, but she barely ever brings that up). Her writing style is unique and all her own, like she's having a chat with you about whatever she has learned or has happened to her. And it's always amusing, with an overall story from beginning to end. She's one of those writers who makes the banal bits of life enjoyable to read about, not boring in the yeah-we've-all-been-there sort of way.

This book focuses mainly on her decision to become more culturally aware by opening herself up to new experiences with theater, literature, food, etc. I found it quite interesting as someone who, while I've always loved theater, has her own issues with coming out of her own comfort zones. And it's nice to see that others struggle with the same things, just in different ways.

If you like memoirs or books about life lessons and opening up to the world, this a book for you.
 
Overall: highly enjoyable - 4 stars

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Unconscious Mutterings - Week # 389


Week # 389

  1. Dickens ::
  2. Charles
  3. Collection ::
  4. works of art or books
  5. Weekends ::
  6. happy time
  7. Travel ::
  8.   need to do more of it
  9. District ::
  10. District 9 - very good movie
  11. Vampires ::
  12.   Team Jasper!
  13. Peep show ::
  14.   eyes
  15. Crochet ::
  16.   knitting is better
  17. Lion ::
  18.   Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
  19. Fetch ::
  20.   a way to boss around a dog

writing prompt - opinion piece - another evil of BP


This week's prompts both elated and terrified me.  I knew it would push me out of my comfort zone.  And not because I'm not often telling jokes that don't go over well - I have a twisted sense of humor at times and it's always been my coping mechanism - but because to relive such things in an easy way seemed near impossible.
 
I decided to go with prompt 1:  Choose a headline from The Today Show website and write up an opinion post based on the story you chose.
 
I avoided all things Mel Gibson as I don't find it funny so much as sad.  The man is obviously crazy and this woman and her child could be in serious harm.  So many women go through these struggles behind-the-scenes and I fail to see the humor in that at all.
 
And then I spotted the headline, BP to drill for Libyan oil despite Lockerbie bomber furor, and immediately it had my attention.  I had a friend who died on that flight.  She was thirteen years old, same as me.  And to let a terrorist go under false pretenses for profit and oil makes my normally pacifist self want to go all crazykakes on these people.  I just don't understand how anyone can reach that point in life where money tops the value of human life. 
 
I'll be the first to admit, even if it were true, I don't care that the man, this terrorist,  was dying.  I don't think he deserved a peaceful death when he offered anything but to his victims.  I guess it was nice of the Scottish authorities to take compassion on someone who couldn't provide it to others, but I wouldn't have done it. 
 
But now, BP won't even answer the questions arising about the whole situation.  I'm not saying medicine always get it right and the man could possibly be one of those who lives way longer than expected (my mom-mom did that).  However, call my cynical, but when I read things like this:
 
BP signed a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya in May 2007, the same month that Britain and Libya signed an agreement that paved the way for al-Megrahi's release from a Scottish prison.
BP has admitted that it lobbied the British government over a prisoner transfer deal with Libya in late 2007, but denied playing any role in the actual decision to release al-Megrahi nearly two years later.

I am much less likely to believe what has gone down.  And after everything with the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I think it only drives home further how much big corporations/businesses don't seem to care about anyone or anything that gets in the way of profits.  And then they try to guise it as something else when finally called to task on it (barely).

I think it says so much about the world, or at least the United States (as that's all I can really speak for) that more people aren't up in arms, pushing their senators and congressmen to do something, to fight harder for us.  Unfortunately, it doesn't say anything good.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Unconscious Mutterings - Week # 388



Week # 388


  1. Authorized :: allowed
  2. Flirting :: 
  3. i always do this without even realizing it
  4. Bad ::  
  5. girl
  6. Digit ::  
  7. "give me your digits" - the lovely Jersey guy pick-up line
  8. Sexy ::  
  9. Justin's bring Sexy Back!
  10. Combinations ::  
  11. mixtures of strange things by an evil chemist
  12. Guard ::  
  13. always on my guard
  14. Retina ::  
  15. eye
  16. Motion :: 
  17. moving
  18. Concert ::  
  19. great music

Friday, July 9, 2010

Aloha Friday - Summer Reading


I'm a total bibliophile.  I grew up in a family of readers and I'm convinced love of words is in my blood.  But summer is always my favorite time for reading.  Maybe it's just the memories of days when I had summers to myself and my books...but there is something wonderful about a summer read, especially if it's fun and cheesy, preferably read on a beach.

My question:  What's a great summer read you've recently enjoyed?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Life changes...


This week's prompts for Mama Kat's writer's workshop were quite intriguing.  I thought about a few of them.  In fact, I've started a life list, but I'm not up to 100 things yet.  I think part of my problem is that I think of the 100 things as events rather than what could be a simple, happy moment.  I think that pretty much sums up my psyche at the moment.

Prompt:  1.) What would you change about your life if you could?

This is both a really hard and really easy question for me.  Immediately, the answer that springs into my head be healthy and lose weight.  It's something I'm working on, it's something I've worked on for years with yo-yo success, but was really driven home into me after my mother passed away last year.  She died so unexpectedly and it reminded me of how short life really is.  it's a cliche for a reason - we don't know how much time we get and why spend it miserable?

However, on my weight loss journey over the past year, the one thing I've finally realized, even on those horrible, bad days (of which there have been plenty) is that if I don't deal with other things in my life, the other reasons I'm so unhappy, losing weight loss won't change things.  It leads me to think that what I most need to change about my life right now, aside from the always hope of winning the lottery and running off to Bora Bora, is how I view myself.  I think simply changing that would change my life in so many wonderful ways.  And yet, it's probably the hardest challenge I have ever undertaken.  I didn't grow up in a house where I was supposed to be positive about myself.  I didn't grow up around people who made me feel positive about myself.  And once I was an adult, I never did anything to change that way of thinking and living. 

It's something I'm working on, one of those two-steps-forward-eight-steps-back sort of things, but I know that it can be accomplished.  Maybe it's because, at my core, I'm an eternal optimist.