Notes From the End of the Year

Hello all. Since it's the last day of 2008, I thought I'd just throw out a few observations/thoughts/rants about the past year.

1) It's been a pretty good year for me in many ways. I got baptized, and I just turned 20. Hooray!

2) TV was good this year. I wasn't horribly disappointed by any of my favorite shows... even if Doctor Who staged a bit of a dues ex machina at the finale. (But hey, what's new about that?)

3) The economy is going down. Things look bad for the system. Again, I repeat: hooray!

4) Heath Ledger died. That's the first time I was bothered by something like that. I don't know why, it just felt... weird. You don't expect that sort of thing to happen to a young person. Makes your own (young) existence feel even more fragile by comparison.

5) This was a great year for music. And I can't think of the summertime without hearing songs from 'Viva la Vida' It's like some weird, psychological connection.

6) A nice summertime at home, spent with a good book, good food, good people, and a lot of naps. I didn't even know I liked naps until this year.

7) I went (mostly) vegan, and I've stuck to it pretty well. And, tomorrow: 2 years of being a vegetarian! Maybe I'll make some vegan cupcakes to celebrate. :)

8) I've learned some songs on the piano, which, despite my lack of rhythm and inability to read sheet music, makes me feel just a little bit cooler.

9) I have nearly finished 'Crime and Punishment.' (Nearly finishing it is an accomplishment in itself, believe me. I started reading it in August.)

10) I now have this and this. My Geekness is complete.


Hopefully, 2009 will be just as good as 2008, and include: a job with benefits, pioneering of some sort, making more artwork, a driver's license, and lots more cookies.

So. Your thoughts on the past year?

Hating the season, wishing for Spring.

I feel like I've already been through the weekend. Today is simply a lazy Sunday (despite it being Saturday) and tomorrow I'll go to work (though I won't).

So: I hate Christmas. Let me just put that out in the open, that I'd love December if it weren't for Christmas. I can't handle the Salvation Army pots and the bells.... oooh... those bells. Sometimes, going into Wal-Mart, I get the urge to kick one over and run away, laughing. I don't, of course, not only because I'd be put in jail, but also because I always feel a shred of sympathy for the people standing there in 25 degrees, in their little hats and gloves and coats, ringing a bell. They always seem to be grinning, and I'm not sure if they're trying to look happy, or if their faces have simply frozen over.

It's a bit like guilting people into charity, isn't it? I think that a better tactic would be that when someone puts money in the pot, the bells stop. As it is now, it's more like psychological torture. As if the bells weren't bad enough, I also get the sense that I'm supposed to smile at these people when they say 'Happy Holidays' or whatever they say. I don't, if i can help it. I usually keep my head down and hurry into the store. And so their 'happy/frozen' veneer drops and I can seriously feel them glare at me all the way inside. Ugh.

Good grief, I can't wait until it's all over. I'll be very thankful to not have to hear bells every December.

Favorite hated part of the season?

Pooh Bear

I don't care how much they went for; aren't these drawings cute?

Mein erste Deutsch schriftlich (My first German writing)

Hallo! Ich bin lerne Deutsch. Es ist schwerig.
Ich werde lesen ein gut buche von es. Ich sehr vielen drinke kaffe. Also tschüss, freund!
=
Hello! I'm learning German. It is Difficult.
I'll read a good book of it. I drink lots of coffee. So bye, friend!
----
That was fairly difficult, actually. I usually type my German phrases, and then copy them into a translator to see if I'm getting my sentences across correctly. Usually my writing needs tweaking (the word order in German is different than ours). But I'm listening to lessons in the morning, and that's helpful.
But... wow, talk about needing humility to learn a language. I sound like I'm speaking the German form of 'Engrish.'

Return of the Blogger

Hi. I am alive, obviously, simply worn out and feeling like I should go crawling back into my bed until spring. I got a lovely 4 hours of sleep last night (applause, please!); this is, of course, my own fault, since Rebecca and I stayed up until 4:30 watching 'Doctor Who.'
Best. Night. EVER.
(Well, morning....)
So there's bookstudy tonight, and I must pull myself out into the cold and try to look awake.
Keep an eye out for a (slightly) more coherent blog post soon.

An idea! Uh oh....

Mom and I have been considering doing a cleanse diet this winter, either starting in the middle of December or the start of January. I found this article interesting, but I'm a little worried about the possible side effects. I know when I went off of dairy, my system freaked out a bit and for a while, my skin and my stomach got worse. This was also interesting, just because it's a good outline for a simple detox, and seems simple enough. I don't know how effective something like this would be though, or how I'd feel doing it in the wintertime.

My brother and his wife did a cleanse diet for a while. I don't remember the specifics, except that they bought special supplements and had to drink a mix of water and something nasty that they called 'fish food.'

My will is not that strong. After a day of fish food, I'd probably run screaming to Dunkin' Donuts.

I've been kicking around doing a macrobiotic diet for a while. (For some reason, just the word macrobiotic makes me hungry for miso soup with seaweed. Strange.) The idea of eating with the seasons seems like a smart idea.

Any of you guys ever done a cleanse or detox diet? Or macrobiotic? Or fish food? let me know.

My name in Russian

My name in Russian is Сабрина

Cool, huh? :) Try out the Google translator and comment to say what your name is in another language.

"Honey, does our insurance cover this?"

This news article has completely destroyed my future. Forget marriage; I still want to be able to listen to my iPod.

Some cheap amusement

Hey folks, I'm still around, just been sort of... well... it was a weekend. I don't do much on weekends besides move a coffee mug back and forth from my mouth.
So now I'm at work. Here are a couple of quick things you might enjoy.
Savage Chickens. I love this guy's cartoons.
And now: a silly job interview.

Oh, those silly scientists

Hadron Collider 'needs warning system'
Hmm, do you really think so??

Mind control (your own, actually)

I've always been told to think about what you want to dream about, and this has pretty much never, ever gone well. On top of it, I have a weird history of dreams. Beginning in 2006, I was plagued by dreams involving Jeff Goldblum. He didn't even have to be the central character in the dream; sometimes he'd just walk by. And I usually irritated him half to death. (Yes, folks, you may use this as blackmail.)

I had about 13 of these dreams altogether, 8 of them in a row.

Needless to say, I didn't watch many of his movies for a while. (That didn't help, considering I was thinking about him all the time, now that he was invading my brain at night.)
But trying to control what I dreamt was not working out. So my own personal experience is: don't bother. Either your dreams will just get weirder, or you'll stop dreaming and experience a real-life version of this Star Trek episode.

However, there are websites that supposedly teach you 'the art' of lucid dreaming, meaning controlling your dreams, using them for problem-solving (Yay! Thinking in my sleep will take off two whole work days!), and being able to stop nightmares. On my part, I think it would be great fun just so I can stretch out those dreams where I'm hanging out with Joe Strummer or piloting a spaceship.

My verdict: you may as well try to control your dreams. But don't get your hopes up. (Also, if you run into Jeff Goldblum in there, tell him hello.)

Have any of you ever managed to control your dreams?

And so...

...life goes on. *yawn*
I'll have a post up about dreams soon, so that should be fun. I have plenty of time to do research between now and 5 PM, when I can go home.
I sleep now.
*headdesk*

My book pick for the week

So, I'm nearly halfway through 'Leave it to Psmith,' by PG Wodehouse. ("The P is silent, as in ptarmic, psychic, and ptarmigan," says Psmith). It's a fun little Wodehouse novel, full of silly characters, mistaken identities, and a planned crime that must go awry. Psmith reminds me of Jeeves, except younger and with a sense of humour; he's sharply dressed and eloquent, and also a bit conniving.
Good fun, after reading so many 'serious' books. I recommend it.
(And if you haven't read any Wodehouse books, go get 'The Inimitable Jeeves' right now. Right now! I have never laughed so hard at a story.)

The Art of the Quiff/Fauxhawk

This is how I fill my days with excitement: walking a fine line between 'cool' and 'just woke up.'

The quiff/fauxhawk: that's how you do it.

Benefits(?) of Green Tea

Okey-dokey, here goes:
Apparently, green tea is supposed to help you with weight loss, cholesterol, mental alertness, aging, cancer, and being an all around cool person.
The reason is mainly the antioxidants in the tea, which basically corrals all the free radicals. Free radicals just potter around in your body, not really contributing anything but being a bother nonetheless, stealing other cells' electrons and setting off a nasty chain reaction.

This is bad.

(Hey, this science stuff is easer than I thought. Woohoo!)
All right, so antioxidants fight against... um... something to do with the cells that are oxidized. This is where it all gets a bit confusing and I begin to bungle up my science. (Einstein, I am not.)
However, I do know that green tea contains the polyphenol EGCG, which is a wicked cool antioxidant that you will be glad you found out about, when the rest of your friends are fat, have high cholesterol, cancerous, aren't alert, and really aren't that cool anymore, either.

Anyway.

Green tea helps take care of those nasty little radical cells. A lot of people say you should drink a ton of green tea a day; other studies say only two or three cups will do. I like tea, so I'll probably be having about twenty three cups a day. Everyone is different. :P
Also, I was watching TV this morning and a doctor was saying that green tea is also super for your skin. Makes sense; if it renews the stuff on the inside, it'll help what's on the outside, too.

But a new study came out recently, informing people that antioxidants can't slow aging. As far as I'm aware telomeres are what really control aging and if the scientists want to throw their money at something, that'd be what to throw it at. But that's another blog post.

Also, I've seen it mentioned several times that the people used as studies for the benefits of green tea usually have healthy lifestyles, anyway. Yes, it'd be a bit silly to see if green tea is good for marathon running, pilates practicing, all organic vegans. But this is how the world works, in case you've forgotten. Scientists don't solve starvation in third world countries; they build supercolliders and threaten the existence of the known universe, giggling all the way.

So, my verdict: drink green tea. It can't hurt, as far as I know, and you might even like it.

So, that was fun. Next topic! :D

(This post sponsored by Joellyn. Hug her. Love her. Bake her cookies.)

I'm supposed to be doing SOMETHING....

What was it?
Oh yes.
Cleaning the house.
So in the spaces between blog posts, here's a job for you people: what would you like to see most in my next blog post? Ninjas? Muppets? Muppet ninjas? Swedish pirates? Tacos or turfurky? Dinosaurs? Anything you can think of, silly or serious, and I'll write about it.
Comment, let me know, and I'll make your (blog) dreams come true.

Hello, world

I'm having a weird day. Slept in a bit, not enough to actually be late for work but enough to be late for service. I had cake for lunch (which was not my fault), and now I'm at the office, which has been completely rearranged. I feel a bit like I'm in one of those funhouse things where the floor turns. Everything is different, and it's quite a strain on my poor old self to have to turn around and grab the phone with my left hand.

So unfair, I tell you. Life is hard.

In other news: I must finish my novel by tomorrow evening. It's long and novel-worthy, but it doesn't actually have an ending yet. This is the first time I've ever written a novel where I reached the word count before I had an ending. It's... weird. I'm not one for endings; I've written an absurd amount of unfinished stories/poems/songs, etc. And when I do manage to finish something, it breaks my heart, like I've just killed it or something. Weird.
Although I'm glad it's nearly over, since I'm just coming apart with ideas for more things.

I'm having a hard time typing right now, since my nerves are shot from playing this game.
Painful for someone who can type quickly without looking at the keyboard, yet types with four fingers instead of the correct ten.

I went to see 'Australia' on Thursday. Great fun, but very long. I expected it to be over at five different instances. (It reminded me of the style of movies from the 1940s, though, so that was cool.)

I spent a wonderful, geek-tastic, fangirly evening last night with Rebecca, watching about 5 hrs of Doctor Who in a row, from this episode (which was scary) to this episode (which was silly). I feel worn out now, strangely. It was awesome, nonetheless.
No, no: fantastic. ;-)

Now I must work. Someone has inadvertently created more work for me to do. Bah.

NaNo winner

See this?

Take that, world. I rock. ;-)
Now... must... sleep.

Some cool geek news

Joellyn mentioned Star Trek: TNG on her blog, and it reminded me.
So, who cares to geek out with me?
http://www.startrekmovie.com/
Now who would like to cry with me?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/17/douglasadams
That story, right there? It's practically grave robbing. GRAVE ROBBING.

Alone and sleepy

How is everybody today? I'll be by myself at work today, since mom took dad to the hospital for a morning procedure. It'll be interesting being by myself at work. The parents are gone, and I'll eat chocolate, and organize office relay races, and try to empty out the espresso machine by noon. Yes! :D
So Rebecca's coming over tomorrow. Thank Gordon I'm off work for two days, otherwise I don't know when we'd be able to get together.
See my little last.fm widget on the right? Isn't it cool?! It makes me a bit paranoid, actually, thinking that it remembers everything I've been listening to. Yes, folks, Big Brother is watching. However, he's a cute little blue widget. Mostly harmless, I think.
So now, off to put my face on and get dressed, then out into the cold. My weather widget says it's supposed to be a muggy 45 degrees today, but somehow I don't believe it.
(edit: This page works best if you use Mozilla Firefox.)

Test post #2

Because the first one bungled up my computer settings. *sigh*
Again, just post a comment if you can see this.

Office, winter, and internet problems

Back in the office finally, after a long weekend (not the fun kind of long weekend, just one that seemed to last too long).
I am currently slogging through: NaNoWriMo, the Book Club book (almost...done! *grunt*), and winter, in general.
It's too cold for my old bones. I whine all summer long about how much I hate summer, and then whine all winter about, "Ooh, it's cold, I can't feel my hands, do we HAVE to do walking territory??" I descended from the English. Maybe it's just built into our DNA at this point.
I just turned up the heat at the office. Yesssss. :D
Quick check: if anyone can see this post, please leave comment. You can mention my whining or just type "Alakazam!" I just want to know who can see the blog and who can't, since there have been a couple of bugs going on.
Okay, cheerio then.

Hoodies and English politeness

Interesting thought... correct me if I'm wrong though:
It seems to be that in the UK, hoodies are apparently a wonderful way to announce, 'Hallo, I'm going to knife you and take your wallet.' In the US, they're just something that teenagers horde.
It's strange that in the UK, there's a dress code for muggers; here, criminals just tend to wear a stocking over their heads. Over there, you just have to guess whether or not the guy coming towards you is planning on mugging you or if he's just cold.
Should there be a basic uniform for criminals?

The status quo

Some facts about me today.

1) I got an amazing 4 hours of sleep last night.

2) It's a lovely 35 degrees out. Perfect picnic weather. :-|

3) Yesterday, I had an espresso and then a coffee. I turned into a chihuahua.

4) This weather makes me feel like I'm falling apart.

5) So does the soft rock playing in the next room.

6) I've found the funniest thing in the world. Don't bother to tell me any jokes ever again.

History repeated

Apparently the 1980s are cool again, instead of a being regarded as a big, pop-culture black hole without any style or substance.
I blame the gradually imploding economy.

Exhibit A: Oh, no, just... no.

Exhibit B: This look might take some getting used to....


Exhibit C: Never mind, I quit. It's too much already. I think I've been blinded by the flashing lights.
You know, I thought this 80s revival was dead and buried two years ago, quashed by the forward thinking masses. And now....
Oh, well. I love David Bowie despite the 80s. I can probably survive anything.

If you ever want to buy me anything....

Yes, please.
I'll take this.

Two monkeys and a piano

Grace and me, playing the piano last Summer. Badly? Mmmm... you decide. I can't.

Working and blogging

I thought this BBC article was kind of interesting; neat to see the history behind the show.

So, it's my (officially) 2nd day at work today. Nice office, good environment... and an espresso machine. :D
This blog will most likely be written during coffee breaks, slow spells of the day when everyone has passed out from exhaustion, and at home, lamenting the dirty dishes and NaNoWriMo. If you like it, please follow it. It'll be fairly active, and much more efficient than me sending out the same email to a zillion people every day.
What's everybody up to this week? I have: work, a get-together, work, learning to make a layer cake, work, an anniversary party including said cake, work, and field service.
Wow.
Thank Jehovah for weekends. He really knew what he was doing with that idea.

Some music and an explanation

Moved this from the Hooded Chef. This blog will be where all my non-food related rants take place. :)
---This is amazing. One of the best singers I've ever heard, and absolutely beautiful music.

If you don't own Keane's 'Hopes and Fears,' you're really missing something special.