I'll give you a topic...discuss!

Here are some random thoughts of mine floating around the massive space that is my noggin.

I think I could handle having a child who was addicted to drugs easier than one who wanted to be vegan. I could, however, handle a vegan better than a conservative.

I am considering going to see United 93, even though I have never watched or read anything about 9/11 since I finished watching 36 straight hours of CNN following the event. Curiosity is compelling, but the 30sec commerical alone makes me all choked up.

I went to a Filipino party this evening and realized the Philippine national dance is the Electric Slide.

At the same party, I realized I may just have to allow line dancing at my wedding. Limit 2.

Best Bag EVER

Most laptop bags are boring. Black leather, serious, business-y. If they have any color they're "designer" and cost over $50. And the fun colored ones are usualy for Macs only, and those are too small for my laptop.

What to do? Make one!

But I don't know how to sew or even operate a sewing machine. I have a Handy Stitch somewhere and the only thing I ever made with that was a bag to hold the Handy Stitch (which, for my coworker, is a never ending source of ridicule for me). I didn't take Home Ec in 7th grade. I took Tech Ed and made a crappy car and my teacher had halitosis. I took Home Ec in 8th grade and we cooked. Like I needed to learn to do that.

So, I asked my coworker to make me a fabulous laptop bag. Since I make her lots of jewelry, she was happy to teach me how to sew a few weekends ago while her husband was away at a big cancer meeting and she needed company. She taught me to knit months ago, too. We're crafty! That is a mildly nauseating thought. Well, arts and crafts fairs are nauseating. When I start looking forward to those things, someone punch me in the face.

Anyways, I picked out a pattern from McCalls and she showed me how to follow it and cut out pieces and how to customize stuff (because my laptop is wider than the pattern calls for). And she showed me how to use the sewing machine, which kind of intimidated me. However, I didn't do a stitch of sewing. I was too nervous anyway. I didn't want the bag to look like crap. But at least I understand where the thread goes around the machine now and how not to break the needle. Also, sewing it together proved to be a challenge because I chose a hell of a fabric to use. We went to JoAnn's and I chose canvas because it would be sturdy. In retrospect, I think I chose stuff that is supposed to be used for outdoor furniture and awnings. And once you put the lining and padding and the ouside fabric together, it's basically bulletproof.

We didn't finish it that weekend but she finished it up a couple of weeks later. It is everything I wanted. I am soooo pleased. It's bright and has lots of personality. And it is sooo ME. I love it. And if I ever get shot at, I have a shield.

Whoo! Look at that fabric. I could stop traffic!

Of course it's bright red inside. The laptop fits as snug as a bug in a rug. Width-wise anyways. The blue pocket gapes a bit, but the design called for it to be sewn to the lining at intervals for more pockets. However, I wanted a big pocket for paper notebooks. Perhaps we could add some velcro. The one downside about messing with the size of the bag is that it doesn't open flat. The zipper we bought was too short and we had to add a bit of fabric on the bottom so that the two zippers would meet at the top, and that prohibits open flatness. Still rocks though.

Here's the one bit I did do - awesome matching zipper pulls. Look at how those match the fabric! I have had those cylindrical beads for like a year! I'm so glad I got the opportunity to use them and they work so well!

The end of an era

As of yesterday, I stopped going to Jenny Craig. Just as quickly as I started, too. I tend to do make decisions on the spur of the moment. But, the cost was no longer worth it. And most of all, I was dead tired of the food. I had been on the program six months and 22 days. Went down about 2 pant sizes, depending on who made the pants. I had a net loss of 29lbs (lost at most 32 lbs, gained some back in the stressful days of March). I lost pretty much all of the weight in the first three months. February and March were up and down and up. April was good and lost most of the up. I was obviously getting bored.

However, this is not the end. Faaaarrrrr from it. But at least now I'm more conscious of what I eat and know what I have to do to continue. Eating 6 times a day and buffering meals and curbing late night hunger with tons of veggies is a habit now. Exercise isn't a punishment; it actually makes you feel good! Imagine that. I still plan on eating out of a box, only this time it'll be Lean Cuisines, mostly. And a lot cheaper. You have no idea how happy I am to be able to eat something new that isn't a "cheat".

Here's the 1500 Calorie menu:

Breakfast
Something under 220 Calories + 1 cup fruit + 1 cup lowfat milk product

Snack
Multivitamin + yogurt + 1 cup fruit

Lunch
Green salad with 2tbs dressing (60Cal/tbs)
Something under 300 Calories

Snack
1 cup fruit

Dinner
Vegetables (i.e steamed or sauteed or roasted w/Pam)
Something under 300 Calories

Dessert
Something under 170 Calories (e.g. jerky, baked Cheetos, tons of stuff in the cookie aisle) + 1 cup milk

Unlimited Extras (anything under 20 Calories/serving):
All non-starchy vegetables
All seasonings and broth
Jello
Sugar-free gum (has really been helping lately. I love Orbitz orange mint)
Sugar-free drinks

Limited three servings a day :
Anything 30 calories/serving
e.g. sugar free candy, cool whip (yay!), dressing, margarine, jelly (Polaner makes a good one with Splenda)

I don't run...

...but Sara does (see her post script at bottom)! Donate and help find a cure for boobie cancer.

Lord knows, I don't have the cure. My job is hard.

"When you've seen one cancer, you've seen THAT cancer." - Stanley Hamilton

Ohh! Something shiny!

I went to a gem and jewelry show this weekend and of course spent too much money. I realized that haven't put a single piece of jewelry on my blog. Crazy! All the people at work think I'm nuts for being in science and not selling jewelry on the internet. I really enjoy making stuff in my free time to relieve stress, but I hardly ever wear any of it. I make a lot for my co-worker in the guise of "test driving" my pieces; she makes sure the links are strong and the whole thing doesn't fall apart, etc. If I do ever wear what I make, I like wearing bracelets most because I can actually see it and appreciate it myself.

So for your viewing pleasure, here is some jewelry that I've made in the recent past. Let me know if you want something (and if you want it made with gold filled or sterling silver wire or earring hooks, as opposed to cheap craft/base metal wire, I'll need some $$$. Labor's free, though!).

This is my Asian-y watch-style bracelet. The flower was made with gold seed beads and round red and green faceted beads all strung together with clear nylon fishing line. The clover thingies were made with gold filled wire and the rest of the bracelet is made of red satin cording, a.k.a rat tail. eewww.

Here's the matching necklace. I've been recently inspired by the book Beading Fantasies by Takako Samejima. I love the intricate and gorgeous stuff made with tiny little seed beads.

I love these earrings. They're ginko leaf/fan/art nouveau/deco inspired. They're made of gold filled wire and glass beads (clear seeds and gold bugles). I also got the instructions from the Beading Fantasies book, but I used bugle beads instead of seed beads. I also saw a pair shaped like these at a little store called Francesca's. A lot of costume jewelry is actually super simple to make by hand and I only buy something in a store if I can't make it myself. But it's true, I "borrow" ideas from stores.

These were made for a friend of mine. They're made of sterling silver 22gauge wire and round faceted green/blue fire polished glass beads.

This is a really fun bracelet on stretchy cord. It's fun to look at when you're bored at a seminar or waiting for someone. I got more of these flat square glass millefiori beads at the show and probably have enough to make 4 more.

I got the idea to make these from a necklace I saw in a hippy store in the mall. Except I like mine better because I used clear nylon string instead of black to join the shell pieces together. I wear this one a lot because of the neutral colors.

WWWWWHHHHHHHHHYYYY?!?!?!

Why, neighbor with the beige Dodge Intrepid, WHY???? Why can't you learn to park properly between the lines? Do you have only one eye? Is everything just a little off-kilter for you? Do you have your ear glued to your shoulder?

Damn you, neighbor with the beige Dodge Intrepid. Damn you and your fake lei hanging from your rearview mirror.

I'm so irritable. I think I need to eat.

Hot

Ahhhhrrrrrrrgghhhhh!!!! It's 90 degrees! I'm gonna have to use the air conditioning soon! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bye-bye $30 electricity bill.

Obscene

This really made me laugh. Don't worry, it's safe for work.

Thurston Howell, III; Aerosmith; the inventor of haute cuisine and first celebrity chef

I am not big on board games. I do however LOVE Trivial Persuit and other triva games (although Simpsons trivia is crazy hard). I was on the It's Academic team in middle school, ya know. Only middle school competitions don't get aired on TV and we didn't get points deducted if we got wrong answer. I distictly remember getting the pop culture questions right (Who was the millionaire on Gilligan's Island? and What band released Toys in the Attic, Pump, and Permanent Vacation?) and thinking "I am so much cooler than all these nerds". It was also the one time I was grateful that Edward made me watch Gilligan's Island all summer long. 'Cuz ya know, once you've seen one, you really don't need to see any more.

What the hell was the point of this post?

Oh yeah, I like trivia.

I also like food, if you haven't noticed.

So, I'd like Foodie Craze, a trivia board game about food. It'll probably be hard and ask questions like, "Who was Antonin Careme?" but it would still be fun!

P.S. I also like Connect Four and Hungry Hungry Hippos

nerdiest gang sign ever

Buy the shirt here. Threadless is a pretty cool site, by the way. Make a tshirt design. People comment and score it. If it's any good, it'll get made and sold.
The gang sign was apparently ripped from this guy, whoever he may be. I saw it on Boing Boing.

Insomnia

Crap, I cannot sleep. I am mighty tired though. Stress. RAWR. Grrrrr. Arf!

I could take some benadryl, but I don't want to make that into a habit. I've already taken it to sleep about 3 of the past 6 nights. It usually goes NO sleep, exhausted sleep, NO sleep, exhausted sleep. Or drugged sleep, groggy day, drugged sleep, groggy day. Boring blog entry either way.

Action figure ashtanga

I know most of you don't do ashtanga yoga, but maybe this (via dooce) is funny anyway. I think it's freakin' hilarious. And I totally needed a good laugh after working another long ass day.

Mildly interesting

So I finally went to see Body Worlds with my free tickets. They expired today so I had to go. It was ok. I went with a med student who had already seen the exhibit, so neither of us were terribly thrilled. Overhearing the reactions of people were more interesting than the human specimens. The plasticized horse was also more interesting. I hear the artist/preservationist guy is working on plasticizing an elephant. That should be cool.

I also saw more penis than I really wanted to today. I guess that's pretty interesting.

P.S. The Mutter Museum of freakish medical oddities in Philadelphia is way more fun.

Jumped on the MySpace bandwagon, sorta

I have a Friendster profile (but at the moment I don't recall my login info). And now I have a MySpace page . Neither interest me much but I like to be found by old friends and whatnot. But don't expect me to update those pages. I have this blog and update it pretty often. Well, as often as mildly interesting things occur, and sadly, that ain't too often. *sigh* sad. LOL.
And you, dear reader, don't have to sign up to read this.

So if you have found this blog through MySpace or whatever, howdy to you. And if you're surprised that I never told you about the blog before this, well, you probably already know I like to keep things to myself. Ok, so the internet isn't the greatest place to be secretive, but hey, it worked this long.

Cool!

A little bird, called Ma, told me something really cool.

So a while back, my brother Edward worked on Off Mikes, a webcast thingy for ESPN, when he worked for Animax. A few days ago, that webcast was nominated for a Sports Emmy !!!

Sorry to scoop ya, bro, but I just had to post this. So proud!

HOLY MACARONI

July 27, 2007

And you thought Pottery Barn Kids was bad...

Remember when the coolest kid's bed was the car bed on Silver Spoons? Like this one which retails at $1500 at Posh Tots :

Yeah, well, this one blows that dinky matchbox car out of the water at $47,000.