[May 8 2008......9:41pm]
I've got a virus that even McAfee can't help me with |
Argh.. this weekend is going to be no fun. I just want to curl in a ball and sleep the whole weekend.
[May 8 2008......12:22pm]
Doctor, tell me the news (or not?) |
Normally, I wouldn't care and I would just deal with it, but tomorrow we are driving up to North Carolina for Joe's graduation. I really don't want to be worse. I'm okay with being the same, but I'd like to get better.
Should I go see a doctor/walk-in clinic? It'll cost me money, but more importantly, it'll cost me time. And some of the stuff I'm reading says that bronchitis just needs to heal on its own, and that antibiotics aren't really helpful.
I've been taking echineccia everyday but I don't know if that's helping. Also, I've been drinking lots of tea (you don't need to tell ME twice!) as well as herbal tisanes. I've also been drinking orange juice for the vitamin C (but not too much - because there still is a lot of sugar). I got 10 hours of sleep last night.
Thoughts?
[May 6 2008......5:09pm]
Sins, and the people who wash them |
Open to: All, results viewable to: None
So if I were to ask you, "What can wash away my sin?"... what would you say?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus, silly.
3 (21.4%)
Um.... holy water? 0 (0.0%)
You will never wash away your sin... muhahahaha!! 1 (7.1%)
How the heck should I know?! 1 (7.1%)
Good ol' soap and water. 4 (28.6%)
I know what you want me to say, but I don't really agree with the response 5 (35.7%)
What religion were you raised as (including denomination)?
[May 1 2008......7:55pm]
I believe I can fly (out of the garage). |
Eventually, with the power of two garage doors, I was able to scare him out. I was worried he would be in there forever :(
[April 29 2008......5:18pm]
Oh-Oh soda, let me love you till the morning comes |
However, one thing I'm not proud of, is the fact that I had a lot of soda. Okay, not a lot. Certainly not a can or more a day, like my usual pre-diet fare. But, it was more than just my usual "once in a while". The problem is soda is so easily accessible. I don't want to drink at the table when I'm gambling and while I did drink a lot of water.. I couldn't resist the soda. It called to me.
Plus - I drink soda with the excuse that the caffeine will keep me awake. This is a very stupid excuse. I drank an expresso at 7:30 at night, but I was still very tired. Caffeine does not affect me in the way that I wished it did. If I want to stay up, I really just have to get over the "tired" hump. And I usually do.
So now that I'm back from vacation, it's time to get back on track. Which, hopefully, shouldn't be too hard. I'm going to try to avoid soda all this week. I did have some leftover root beer from last night, but that's because it was in the fridge and I wanted to finish it off. It was so flat it was hardly worth it.
I've gone months without soda, so this shouldn't be that hard. I've been really good about not having soda for the past few months. The only exception is premium root beer. My philosophy is, if I'm going to splurge, it's not going to be on the high fructose corn syrup crap. Soda will never be out of my life completely. But, it should be like alcohol. An occasional treat. And never the whole can. Yeah, it's a waste, but that's how it goes. I can't drink a whole can anyway anymore.
[April 26 2008......12:31pm]
Yo from pdx |
Portland is cool and full of hippies. Joe has said his catchphrase, "Fuckin' hippies" many times on this trip. I am preparing Joe for our eventual trip to Berkeley. That place will make portland look conservative.
Traffic is stupid. As it usually is downtown anywhere. Also, our hotel is not as impressive as we thought. We're not snobby, but we did have high hopes for a 4 star hotel.
But today is a new day definitely full of tea, beer, donuts, and pizza. I need to make up for the fact that I stuck pretty close to my diet in Las Vegas :-p
[April 22 2008......11:32am]
Next weekend is Portland.
The weekend after that is SaviorFest ;)
The weekend after THAT Joe and I drive up to Duke for his graduation.
Zomg my weekends are way too eventful. I am sure after this they will be back to boring and normal.
Also, if you couldn't tell I am having a great time in Vegas. I can't believe it's only Tuesday. It's going to be really hard to go back to work.
[April 18 2008......7:56am]
Joe packed my things |
He sends me this picture with this note:
"Your cat just barely fit in the suitcase. Why did you want me to pack him in there?"
:-D
[April 15 2008......11:16pm]
mood.. 
ZOMGEXCITED!!!!
OMG SLICK!!! |
2pstart had a "name that game" contest, and check out what image they used!!!
http://www.2pstart.com/2008/04/15/n
How obscure - but OMG this is my icon that I made like, 6 years ago when my livejournal layout was all q*bert themed. Aww.. memories.
Also, this was the icon that brought Matthew and I together. He was the only other person I ever met in my life who knew who this was and what game it was from. I had to date him after that, I mean - how can't you?
Thanks, Daniel, for sending me this awesome link!!
[April 2 2008......10:14pm]
April fools... again. |
A couple years ago, I posted something that was fairly believable. This year, I thought I would do something a little more outrageous. Some of you fell for it, but most of you caught on ;)
I found it funny that the majority of my LJ friends got the joke, but the majority of my Facebook friends actually fell for it. How come people are willing to so blindly accept that I just randomly got married one day? Seriously... me?!
I'll post details and such at a later date. Sorry for those of you that I fooled. As I said on Facebook, I'm too boring to be that spontaneous. I'll still gladly accept presents :)
[April 1 2008......1:34pm]
We're married!! |
Joe and I officially married now. We had been talking about it for a while, but didn't really want to go through all the hassle of planning a full wedding. So, we just did it the "quick and legal" way. Sorry for not telling people about it, but I just wanted to get it over with.
Here's a picture of us right after saying "I do!"
Eventually we'll plan a traditional wedding, but we just don't have the time right now. This was a good way for us to finally tie the knot without all the anticipation or preparation. Plus, we just got really tired of people nagging us!
[March 26 2008......9:29pm]
Boyz II Men... ABC ... BBD .. the east coast family! |
I was watching an archived "Don't Forget the Lyrics" show on my DVR when they were on. And they're so awesome, even if they are missing their 4th member.
Did you know they have a new album out? It's true! Even if it is just covers.
Boyz II Men's "II" album was the very first CD I bought with my own money! I remember buying it on sale at Circuit City for $10. I also bought Brownstone's "From the Bottom Up" in that same purchase. If anyone remembers who they were, I'll be impressed ;)
[March 20 2008......9:07am]
mood.. 
I need a food related lj icon
Misconceptions about my diet (the long lost entry) |
Over the past 6 months, I’ve had a lot of people make incorrect assumptions about the kinds of things I eat. I thought I would just like to clear the air and get a chance to explain a little more about how I eat. Yeah, this entry is kinda long (and I even split off some parts into a future sub-entry). You don’t have to read it. Or you can just read the bolded important points. See, I’m so nice :) That's technical writing in action.
Points I would like to clear up about my "diet":
1. I am NOT a vegan/vegetarian – Nope, I’m not. Although, as I started writing this point, it turned out to be whole nother entry, so I’m going to save it for another post.
2. Everything I eat does NOT have to be organic – Oy! No matter how many times I tell people this one, they still don’t understand. Organic food does not always mean its healthy. Organic crap is still crap. Here’s my thought process on organic things: I’m willing to pay a little bit organic food, if it is a comparable price. For instance, if a pound of regular baby carrots are $1.50, but organic carrots are $2.00 – I think that’s worth it, especially since I think organic carrots taste better (a mental thing? Maybe). But seriously, I’m not going to pay $5 for a pound of organic apples or $7 for organic butter. If you want me to buy your organic food, you’re going to have to make it a worthwhile price.
With that said, there’s a couple of things worth mentioning about organic stuff. Organic anything is almost always better for the environment, so if you really care, that’s a good reason to make all of your stuff organic (but who can afford that?). Don’t do it just for health, though, because it may not be worth the investment. Also, remember that when you buy organic produce, you still have to wash it off. Just because it’s free of pesticides doesn’t mean there’s not other junk on it. And when you buy organic produce, be aware of its placement in regards to other organic things at the store. It should be separated and far away from “conventional” produce. I’ve noticed Publix is usually pretty good about this sort of thing, but I’m not sure about other stores.
3. I’m NOT starving myself – Yeah, right. I’m eating way more now than I did before. Do you know how hard it is to go from eating two large meals a day to eating five meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, with two snacks in between)? In fact, I was convinced I couldn’t lose weight because I ate so little. But it really comes down to not just how much you eat, but what kind of foods you are eating.
4. NO food is completely forbidden – Nothing is forbidden on this “diet”.. and I mean, nothing. Take red or processed meat, for example. I try my best to avoid it, and I choose other sources of meat/protein whenever possible. But, when I went over Joe’s mom’s house for her birthday, the only meat entrée was meatballs. Or when I was at the Gator game (go Gators!) I really wanted a hotdog. It’s special occasions like these I put my “food differences” aside and chow down. I mentioned this in another entry, but as long as 90% of my meals are nutritionally sound, 10% of it can be something I wouldn’t necessarily eat. I sometimes go months without eating certain foods, but the minute you cut yourself off permanently from a food you really like, that’s when the trouble starts.
Oh, and as a side note, after I ate that hot dog at the Gator game, I burned it off (and then some) by power walking up, down, and around Ben Hill Griffin stadium.
5. I do NOT keep a food journal/I do NOT count calories, carbs, grams, etc – I don’t keep a food journal. I really should .. but I don’t. But, I do mentally keep track of everything that I ate throughout the day, and I’m very honest with myself. Food journals are a really good idea, especially if want a way to hold yourself accountable, and I recommend keeping them at least for a while. I kept one in the very beginning, but it just wasn’t for me. Also, I don’t “count” nutritional items in the traditional sense of allowance. Meaning, I don’t have a quota of carb points, or exchanges, or whatever that I try to fill. I just check the nutritional information of everything, regardless. If certain bad numbers look big (or visa versa).. I don’t eat it. Anything high in saturated fat, unnatural sugars, or “secret” trans fat usually gets tossed. I probably should be keeping better track of my fiber intake, but eh.
Also, keep in mind that I don’t really keep track of a lot of other important things I should – my credit card bill, for instance. Yeah, I just kinda look at that at the end of each month and make sure all the purchases are mine, but I don’t really “budget” or “balance”. I just tell myself, “Don’t go crazy!” and it’s worked well so far. I really don’t recommend this type of management for anyone other than myself. It has bitten me in the ass a lot of times. You’re better off just writing everything down.
The only thing I really “count” (but not really) is my vegetable intake. I try to have at LEAST one serving of vegetable at every meal (except breakfast, because it’s extremely difficult – I have fruit instead). I usually have more than one around lunch and dinner, but I try to have at least one – and potatoes do NOT count. You could also say I “count” my water. I’m trying to have the recommended 8 glasses of water (or whatever it is) a day. That’s about 2 and a half fills of my big water bottle (stainless steeel, of course, because I am a hippie). But usually I just try to have as much of both as I can. Counting just makes a lot of things seem like a chore.
6. This IS permanent – That means this is for life. This is why I hate using the word “diet”. In the traditional sense, diet just means what you normally eat. We all have a diet, even if it’s just sweets and soda. But today, “diet” has come to mean something drastic, popular and temporary that usually involves doing extreme things like depriving yourself and/or eating excessive amounts of something else. And there’s usually some sort of counting involved, and we all know how I feel about that (see #5)
I remember a conversation that I had with Joe’s family in the car. His aunt asked, “Are you ever going to go back to normal eating?” and I had to explain to her that this was a way of life. She then exclaimed, “But if you keep eating like this – you’ll just lose more and more weight!”. Well, that’s goal. Also, I reassured her that I will never be underweight, especially considering my not-so-small frame. The day I’m underweight, I will be dancing in the streets. And then I’ll put some more weight on :-p
I never did this to lose weight, I did this to be healthy. I didn’t even think I would lose weight. I was hoping I would, but I wasn’t really expecting to. I was just convinced that I was the weight I was, end of story. I look at my healthy eating as an investment in my future, similar to my retirement fund. The real benefits of it I won’t see until I’m much much older. I could easily stand to eat nothing but crap for another 10-15 years and I’d be fine. But, when I am in my late 30’s/early 40’s .. that’s when I’m sure a lot of the stuff would catch up to me. I’m sure I’d have diabetes .. who knows what else :(
7. All of my “diet” rules are NOT set in stone – If nutrition was black and white, things would be so easy. If they would just decide if food was good for us or bad for us, my days would be so much better. I wouldn’t need to constantly be researching or staying up on the latest health news. I could eat a certain way and stay locked into it for life. But, that would be unrealistic. There are foods that are always under scrutiny, and you have to be prepared to adapt. Remember when margarine was supposed to be better for us than butter? Oops – the trans fat in margarine ended up being worse than saturated. And now we’re back to butter (we probably should have just chosen guns in the first place).
There are certain foods that are always controversial, but here’s a basic rundown of what I currently think of each: Eggs are fine, but only one per day. Cow’s milk is bad (but tastes so good) and almond/soy milk is probably better for me (still not sure about this one, though). Yogurt and cheese are great as long as they are low in fat and very low in added sugar. Red meat is probably bad and should be eaten sparingly (plus, chicken and fish taste better). Potatoes are so very delicious, but should also be eaten sparingly. Dark chocolate tastes way better than milk chocolate and even has some health benefits – so I’ll be eatin’ up! I don’t trust artificial sweetener at all; I use raw sugar when I absolutely have to, but I try my best to avoid sweetening something in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with wheat or gluten in my food – until I find out I have an allergy, I’ll just keep eating it. And finally, I don’t care if red and yellow peppers are better, I still like green peppers the best. The end!
The only sure foods are vegetables and water. No matter what diet you’re on, 99.9% of them are going to tell you to eat a lot of vegetables and drink a lot of water. Of course, it becomes convoluted again when you start getting into what kind of vegetables, how they are prepared, what kind of water, etc. So yeah… constant change. I am not an expert. Let me repeat. I AM NOT AN EXPERT. I am still learning just like all of you are. The best I can do is work with the knowledge that I have available.
8. I do NOT eat perfectly all the time and I have had “bad” weeks – Oh, how I wish I was perfect. I slack off a lot, especially when I’m outside of my comfort zone (i.e. home). Ever since Halloween, there has been candy ALL over the office. Chocolate is everywhere!! One or two or even five pieces is okay. But… yeah, I had quite a lot more candy than I should have. I would take a few pieces, eat them, and then go back for more. I probably ate MORE candy than I usually did when I wasn’t even eating well. I was sure I was going to gain weight, but surprisingly I didn’t. I have no idea how. Thanks, metabolism.
Also, there are a couple weeks where it seemed like I wanted to sabotage myself. I know it sounds bad – and my other successful weight loss friends might understand – but there were just some weeks where I purposely ate badly (or is it bad?). It was almost like I didn’t want to make myself succeed. I’m not sure if it was triggered by anything, but it was there. I noticed that the hungrier I am (like if I go longer than 3 hours without eating something), the more I start to crave not-so-healthy stuff.
For the most part, I’ve been pretty good though. And that’s really impressive for someone like me, who has made a lot of empty promises about diet and nutrition, but has never really followed through.
[March 14 2008......8:38am]
Happy Pi Day |
I was going to post this exactly at 1:59, but that whole "work" thing makes that difficult.
Here's Pi to 10,000 digits. I only know the first 18 of these (and I'm a little shaky around #19-24)
[February 26 2008......6:38pm]
Latke Crisps? WTF?!! |
Look what I found on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart today:
Has anyone even heard of these things? This was so crazy, I just had to buy them (THAT - and they were 50 cents :-p)
( Bigger picture and my cat under the cut )
I haven't tried them yet, but I'll keep you updated.
And for those that don't know what "latke"s are, Wikipedia is your friend
[February 25 2008......4:17pm]
Yo. |
It's been a while. I'm still reading, but I've been slacking a bit on my posting. I have a few things to post on - including my long-winded entry about my current diet situation. I don't know who is going to read it, but we'll see.
Also, I want to travel everywhere this year. How come now that I'm working full-time I want to travel the most. When I had more free-time as a student I didn't travel much.
Well, I guess I have to do something with this
[February 7 2008......9:20pm]
Yay Tea! |
How funny that this was the Livejournal prompt for yesterday. I figured it would be a good time to share with everyone my newfound interested for tea.
Not a lot of people know this, but in the past six months, I've become really passionate (dare I say - obsessive) about tea. Like, really passionate. I wasn't really into tea growing up, but since I've been on the whole "eating right" thing, I've also been learning about tea. You'd be hard-pressed to read up on the latest nutritional research without running into something about how awesome tea is.... and it IS pretty awesome.
Originally I started drinking it for the health benefits, but over the past six months I've become really into it. There is loose tea all over the house, and I have way too many varieties that I will even admit to. I've invested in some pretty serious tea hardware (that I use regularly). I have tea books, tea magazines, and tea websites that I read regularly. I trade teas with other people. I heavily considered going to THE tea conference in Vegas this year, but decided not to because of conflicts :( ... I've considered making my own tea blends and starting a tea blending business. About 75-80% of my enjoyment purchases are tea.
I'm in the process of writing a blog about my tea experiences. I wanted to keep it separate from this LJ, because I didn't know how many people actually cared.
Yeah... I'm obsessed. But, that's me. When it rains, it pours. And I drink it all. Flavored, orthodox, green, black, white, red, etc. I don't discriminate. And I'm trying not to be a tea snob. Although I prefer loose tea, I still bring bags around with me to drink out of when I need to. And I prefer my tea straight - no sugar, cream, or lemon. It wasn't always that way, but the closer to natural you can drink it, the better.
I'm planning a vacation with Joe this year, and one of the major factors is tea. I'm heavily considering going to Boston/Cape Cod. Not just for ROFLcon, but for all the tea in the area. I also really want to go to Portland, too.
Although, ironically, of all these tea things .. I don't have a tea set. I generally drink tea alone so I didn't see a need for one :'( ... I would host tea parties, but that requires a clean house ;)
So, I just thought everyone should know. I know I've talked with a few of you about how awesome tea is, but for the most part - a lot of my friends don't know how much this consumes my life. So... I'm telling you all now. Yay, tea!
[February 5 2008......10:26am]
Awesome Weekend |
On Monday I saw Elango, who I haven’t seen in a year. I also went to Carabba’s which I haven’t been to in a year. Yay.
Yesterday was my birthday and my BFF 4EVA! Tarisa came into town for Sunday and Monday. I ended up taking Monday off of work and just hanging out. I haven’t seen Tarisa for 6 years, so this was really exciting. Typically, though, when we see each other, it’s for two weeks at a time. This time, it was only for two days, so that was kind of a bummer. I would have liked to take her to less tacky Orlando places than just I-Drive. But, I am really glad I got to see her, and she finally got to meet Joe.
Maybe one of these days I will post pictures when I’m not so lazy. These things do take time, though.
Even though I only had a 3-day weekend, it felt really long. I did so much more stuff than I normally do, and I barely had any “do nothing” time. Of course, Joe will be out this week, so I will have plenty of that now. Actually, my dad is visiting on Saturday, so I am going to try and clean up. But... I’m lazy, so maybe I won’t.
Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes. And for those who forgot, it’s okay.. I’m sure I’ve forgotten your birthday too ;)
[January 30 2008......7:16pm]
Say, Microsoft Excel just doesn't have that same ring. |
It is so tempting to title my class "Say, Microsoft Word!" .. But I'm sure only three people in my company would vaguely understand that.
But it is tempting.
[January 28 2008......11:05pm]
Board Bangers - Cause the Beat's Hot |
Yes, that IS the meow mix jingle they are sampling over a hip-hop beat. Oh, rap music.
Actually, it's not that bad. A little repetitive, but still waaaaaaaaaay better than Soulja Boy (can he go away now.. please?)
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