Thursday 13: Super Double Deluxe “Goodbye, Oregon!” Edition

It’s been forever since I’ve done one of these, but the format seemed appropriate. So, seeing as though 90% of my things have been unpacked and put back into order, without further ado: the Super Double Deluxe “Goodbye, Oregon!” Edition of Thursday 13!

Part 1: Things I Learned in my Undergraduate Years of College (In No Particular Order)

1. If you straighten your hair the night before, you don’t have to brush it the next day.
2. If you find the cheap lunch deals at restaurants around campus and only eat 1.5 meals a day like I do, it’s actually cheaper to get takeaway every day than it is to buy groceries and cook. (It is not as helpful for your waistline or health as it is for your wallet.)
3. When you get back from the bar, always triple-check that you didn’t leave your keys hanging in the front door.
4. Don’t take classes with discussion sections if you can help it. You’ll regret it in the end, particularly if your discussion section is on Friday.
5. Do laundry selectively: when doing a load of towels, for instance, throw in jeans and a few pairs of underwear. This let me wait about another week before having to do an actual dark load of clothes. (Maybe this just means that I have too many clothes?)
6. If after you’ve been drinking you feel like coughing or hiccoughing, do it near a bucket or toilet of other vomit receptacle if possible. 9 times out of 10 you will be fine, but it’s that 10th time out of 10 that totally sucks.
7. If you are going to throw up and you’re drunk, the bathtub is a bigger receptacle than the toilet.
8. Invest in a shot glass. When you order a drink at a bar, the bartenders are excellent at measuring how much alcohol they pour. When I poured them myself and “eyeballed” it, I always added either not enough alcohol, making for a weak and unimpressive drink, or way too much, turning my 2 martinis into 3.5 or 4 drinks. Whoops!
9. If you’re going to wash any dishes right away, wash the ones that have tomato sauces or eggs on them. nothing takes more scrubbing than dried spaghetti sauce or scrambled egg bits. At the very least, soak them if you’re not going to wash them directly.
10. Always, always, ALWAYS back-up your papers and projects. Flash drives are good, I always carry one in my purse just in case. Also, e-mailing yourself a copy so it is in the cloud or whatever is helpful, and it can be accesses from just about any computer.
11. Pancakes are the best pre-drinking food ever, and dirt cheap at most places. Also, maybe the best post-drinking food ever, too.
12. From my mom: even if you are a girl, you should own a basic toolbox. Something with a tape measurer, a little hammer with a nail-removing side, a multipurpose screwdriver (or at minimum, one Phillips head and one flat head), and maybe a pair of pliers. Bonus points for a little level, if you are as OCD as her about hanging pictures and tacking up posters straight.
13. From my dad: when you are driving around big trucking trucks (which in Oregon can legally have up to 3 sections, not just 2 like in California!), it’s generally safe to slip into the lane in front of them when you can see one (or preferably both) of their front lights in your side mirror.

*Mom and dad, if you’re reading this, 6 and 7 were things I learned from other people, I swear. 

 

Part 2: Things I Will Miss About Oregon

1. No sales tax. My $5.99 lunch really is just $5.99.
2. The Smith Family Bookstore (campus location). The place is freaking huge, they have reasonable prices for used books, and I can (and have) spent hours just wandering around, poring over choices. Plus, Emerald City Comics is right next door.
3. The lady at the hot dog stand across from the Duck Store. She’s just so freaking nice, and she’s out there most days, rain or shine. And in Oregon, that tends to be more rain than shine. Her yellow rain jacket sees a lot of use.
4. Caspian’s $5.95 double cheeseburger lunch special – double cheeseburger, fries, and a soda.
5. The view from the 8th floor PLC window at the end of the hall on a sunny day, overlooking the corner of Kincaid and 13th – where Taylor’s and the Duck Store are located.
6. The jade pagoda in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Also, the courtyard there just past the entry desk, particularly the shimmering gold ceiling at the far end, above the statue of Prince Lucien Campbell.
7. The walk from campus across the Willamette River on the footbridge to Autzen Stadium. It has to be the prettiest walk to a college football stadium, with the water and the streams of fans, and the tall trees growing over the path, and all of a sudden you round the curve in the path and BOOM – Autzen Stadium, with its huge freaking O.
8. In Willamette/Klamath hall (right at the start of Klamath, I think, inside where the two meet) there is a Periodic Table of Elements with samples of most of the elements on display. It’s pretty cool; I usually found myself staring at it for a couple minutes whenever I was in the building.
9. Portland’s OMSI is pretty freaking awesome. California has some awesome museums, too (the California Academy of Sciences, for instance, and the Legion of Honor and the de Young in San Francisco), but I really enjoyed my trip to OMSI junior year. There was a t-rex skeleton, and lots of fun machines to play with, and it has a very pretty setting, right on the water.
10. Portland also has La Andina, the second-ever Peruvian restaurant I’ve managed to find, which makes an excellent rendition of lomo saltado – beef and onions and tomatoes and cilantro and other spices and an awesome sauce, with french fries thrown in the mix, all served over rice. It’s amazing. And Portland being Portland, La Andina’s version probably uses non-hormonal, grass-fed beef and organic onions/tomatoes/potatoes.
11. Barry’s Deli in Eugene, on the corner of Alder and… 12th, I think (?) makes ‘Magic Bars,’ which apparently are this relatively common recipe (one example here), with a graham cracker cookie crust and just tons of stuff piled on: chocolate chips, butterscotch, toasted coconut, walnuts, and clearly a large amount of sweetened condensed milk. They were DELICIOUS. They also left huge greasy spots on the paper bags they sold them in, so, you know, probably not all that healthy. But totally worth having at least once a term.
12. Fresh-squeezed orange juice was all over town. Espresso Roma and Cafe Siena both had great pulpy versions; the Original Pancake House had a filtered/pulpless version that was also yummy.
13. The Science Library on campus was way less busy than the Knight Library, even if it was a farther trek from my apartment. Also, they rent video games, and that is awesome.

Thursday 13 – 13 Random Plinky Prompts

Plinky is an excellent website if you’re a blogger and you can’t come up with something to write about. They come up with a new prompt every day that you can use as a jumping-off point! I didn’t have an awesome unified theme for today (one of these days I need to sit down and draft a new list to work from for days like this), so I’ve grabbed 13 questions from Plinky for today.

1. What major sporting event do you get most excited about? (25 January 2011) That’s easy – the Super Bowl! I don’t care anything about basketball (too boring); while soccer players have excellent bodies, the game itself puts me to sleep; and baseball is only fun when you watch it live, primarily because of the garlic fries. I like hockey, and the Stanley Cup is fun to watch, but football, the Super Bowl, and the hilarious commercials definitely win out. (Although I really wish the Jets had beaten the Steelers.)
2. If only there were more hours in the day. What are your tips for saving time? (19 January 2011) Multitasking! Watch downloaded TV shows while doing the dishes, take out the trash on the way to the laundry, drop in at the grocery store for fresh fruit in the process of taking my morning walk. (But not doing homework while watching TV, because that just makes me take 4x as long to write a paper.)
3. Have you ever thought about starting your own business? (17 January 2011) I would love to own a little bakery and sandwich shop someday. Nothing huge, not a restaurant, but coffee and pastries and sandwiches and soups. A corner place, lots of windows, mismatched furniture inside – lots of big, squishy chairs.
4. Name something intangible you never want to lose. (15 January 2011) My curiosity and desire for learning. Picking up random facts, reading, watching trivia shows and playing trivia games. Learning new words.
5. Do you prefer to talk or text? (8 January 2011) Text, or talk in person. 90% of the time I loathe talking to someone on the phone.
6. What does your home say about you? (29 December 2010) That I love cooking – food prints on the wall. That I’m organized – term calendar on the door. That I love books – a packed bookshelf. That I love video games and other “nerd” things – Xbox 360, Rock Band equipment, Watchmen and Marvel posters on the walls.
7. What are your favorite holiday beverages? (24 December 2010) Martinelli’s apple cider, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes and peppermint mochas, Baileys Irish Cream.
8. Would you ever get an e-book reader? (14 December 2010) Never. I understand the ease (portability, carrying lots of books at once), but there’s nothing like physically owning a book, turning (real paper) pages, and then having bookshelves full of things you own. Plus, I’ve never found a $20 tucked into an e-reader. I’ve found a couple used as bookmarks in my actual books. (The Penny Arcade comic at the end of the post amuses me on the subject.)
9. What charities do you support, and why? (2 December 2010) Child’s Play, because I can’t stand the claim that video games make people violent. And I like supporting animal charities, and support no-kill shelters, but I don’t like the crazy publicity stunts groups like PETA pull – paint on fur coats and stuff like that.
10. What’s the most romantic thing someone has done for you? (1 December 2010) A long time ago, a boy once brought me a single gardenia bloom, a tiny box of chocolates, a pizza and a DVD because he knew I wasn’t big on Valentine’s Day. (I like to think he chose Van Helsing because he knew I love Kate Beckinsale, too, but that’s unverified.)
11. You find a big spider in your bedroom. Your next move is to… (6 November 2010) If I’m in California, my next move is to call one of my parents into my room to find it. In Oregon… my ceilings are really high. I don’t know, I’d call someone else to take care of it, probably.
12. List 5 of your top dating deal breakers. (27 October 2010) Smoking. Being late. Prejudice or bigotry, including but not limited to homophobia, racism and misogyny. An overly controlling personality. Not liking a girl who orders a bacon cheeseburger and cheesecake at dinner instead of a salad.
13. Your house is on fire. What keepsake items do you grab, and why? (11 October 2010) My baby blanket. My notebooks. My stuffed dog, Macaroni. My boxes of photographs and letters.

Thursday… 49?

Here’s a fact: I love Smitten Kitchen. It’s my favorite food blog, and I read quite a few of them. If there’s something I want to cook that I don’t already have a fantastic go-to recipe for, it is the first place I look. It introduced me to blueberry crumb bars, which are my trademark bring-to-a-BBQ-or-dinner-party dessert for all of summer. It’s brilliant, and the photography is beautiful – five of her prints currently adorn my kitchen walls.

Here’s another fact: before Deb had Smitten Kitchen, she had another blog called, quite simply, The Smitten. I do not remember how I stumbled across this time warp… a link at one point on Smitten Kitchen, perhaps. In any case, when I found it I was entranced and proceeded to read the archives through quickly. I adore the way she writes.

Yet another fact: I keep a folder on my desktop called “Digital Clippings.” It’s where striking images are saved into their appropriate subfolders (Home + Garden, Food + Baking, Art + Fashion, etc.) and where blog posts or other web pages that strike my fancy get saved as either PDF files or web archives. I found a web archive of this post tucked away in there last night, and it seemed appropriate for Thursday!

tl;dr Today I’m doing 49 things instead of a mere thirteen. Seven smaller categories of seven items each.

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:

1. Hike the Appalachian Trail.
2. See Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
3. Visit Italy and finally put those two-years-and-change of language study to use.
4. See South Korea. I mean, it’s where I was born, and I hear it’s totally beautiful. It’s probably worth a visit.
5. Bake a souffle.
6. Spawn offspring.
7. See the Northern Lights.

Seven Things I Can’t Do:

1. Win at Scrabble. Ironic considering my vocabulary, I know.
2. Drive a manual car.
3. Dance with any kind of grace.
4. Enjoy an apple martini after Seattle last summer.
5. Finish reading Gibson’s Neuromancer. I’ve started it at least four times, no joke.
6. Say anything meaningful about politics.
7. Fold my laundry the same day it comes out of the dryer.

Seven Things That Attracted Me To Blogging:

1. Having a place to write that wasn’t private-private (like my journal) or academic-for-school.
2. Letting people read what I write – especially people I’ve never met face-to-face.
3. A digital dumping place for interesting links and YouTube videos.
4. Narcissism.
5. I’d read a lot of awesome ones and was feeling inspired.
6. Every so often I do like to rant, and it’s nice to have a place for that stuff.
7. It’s just a fun word, isn’t it? Blog? Blaaaaaawg?

Seven Things I Say Most Often:

1. like
2. totally
3. oh my god
4. mostly (thanks a lot, Jason)
5. gracias (gotta love my Spanglish)
6. dammit
7. Shut up!

Seven Books That I Love:

1. Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
2. The Stand (Stephen King)
3. House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
4. Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
5. It (Stephen King)
6. Shibumi (Trevanian)
7. This Lullaby (Sarah Dessen)

Seven Movies I Watch Again And Again:

1. Palo Alto
2. Armageddon
3. Clerks
4. Heathers
5. Mallrats
6. Bones (TV)
7. Veronica Mars (TV)

Bonus Round: Seven… Things I Am Considering For This Weekend While My Parents Are Visiting (Not Sure About The Rain, Hrm)

1. Seeing the Benedictine monastery in St. Benedict, OR – Mt. Angel Abbey
2. Visiting the Oregon Zoo
3. Having dinner at andina (Peruvian food!)
4. Visit Powell’s Books
5. either Voodoo Donuts or saint cupcake
6. a visit to Florence to see the beach
7. re-hiking Spencer Butte

Thursday 13 – 13 New Year Resolutions (Or: Here We Go Again…)

Yup. It’s that time of year again. Starting on January 1, 2011, I’m going to begin my 101 Things in 1001 Days goal… there’s a handy dandy new page dedicated to it helpfully linked into my header, if you feel like following along. But it’s also a Thursday today, and almost the end of year, so have a handful of more general goals and resolutions I’d like to work towards in 2011. Then, keep reading my blog throughout the year and watch me fail at them.

1. Cut back on the soda intake. Let’s be honest: I’m not going to give up my Diet Coke fixation any time soon. But I can try to limit myself to one can/glass/whatever a day.
2. Weigh less at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year. I know better than to attach any solid number to this goal, but yeah. I feel like this is vague enough to be manageable.
3. Read (at least) 52 not-for-school books this year. I’m a quick reader, and that’s an average of 1/week, which is pretty doable. This might overlap with my desire to read all of Shakespeare’s works and all the Pulitzer Prize fiction winners for 101/1001, but as long as it’s not also a title I’m reading for class/credit, it’s fair game.
4. Start purging my belongings. I’m going to be moving from my Oregon apartment back home for the summer and then (barring not being accepted to any of the schools I applied to) to graduate school. It’s time to start going through my belongings and getting rid of (or donating) everything I don’t need or absolutely love.
5. Make an honest effort to do at least 50% of my assigned reading this term.
6. Cut back on my sugar intake. Not quite entirely, because that would make me hate everyone and everything on the planet. I NEED MY FIX. But try to limit it to something reasonable. Like, I don’t really need to consume three bags of Haribo gummi bears while writing one essay, even if it is a term paper.
7. Cut back on WoW time and get back into console gaming. I have a stack of Xbox 360 games to work through, and honestly, WoW is getting (gasp) a little boring at this point.
8. Keep my drinking to about 2 nights a week, maximum. Actually, this is about average and where I am anyways, but it’s a good thing to maintain.
9. Start cooking at my apartment again instead of eating basically every meal out.
10. Donate at least a couple hours this year to community service or a charitable cause of some sort. In high school, it was mandatory. Now, it’d be good for my soul, or karmic balance, or something.
11. Get to the gym at least 4 times. That’s once per quarter. If huge freaking companies can put out reports that often, I can make it to the gym that often.
12. Keep up on my agenda/planner/diary/journal/scrapbook/thing. As it stands now, I let it go for a week and then rack my brain filling in past days. I’m pretty sure I could scrape 20 minutes a day together to keep up on this.
13. Write more in general. Fiction, non-fiction, a pseudo-autobiography, limericks, blog posts (!), whatever. Just… write more things that aren’t for school.

Thursday 13 – 13 Random Bits and Pieces

I was going to try to come up with a thematic list, particularly something Christmas-y, but I just can’t. I’m tired, exhausted with finals, and just counting down the hours until I get to go home for Christmas break. (Roughly 26 1/2, if you care.) So, have a list of 13 little thoughts, observances, and anecdotes from the last week or so, give or take.

1. Little kids are exhausting! I shadowed a guided tour for a class of fourth-graders today at the museum, and it was a little overwhelming.
2. Kids are adorable, too. The class gets split into two smaller groups, and the one I was following was filing into the exhibit hall as the other group was filing out. One of the first questions asked was, “Can anyone tell me what that big animal fossil that is up there on display?” One of the kids leaving nudged one of his friends in the group that was entering the hall and said, “It’s a saber-tooth cat. Say cat, not tiger! That’s important.” His friend nodded soberly.
   
3. 8 am finals are cruel. I’m a fairly early riser, usually awake by 7:30 or 8 in the morning even when I don’t have early classes or exams, but a test that is worth a quarter of my final grade should be given when I’m, you know, awake.
4. I’m terrible at eating healthy, but I make vague attempts towards it. Like, when I get pastrami/salami/cheese sandwiches instead of turkey and lettuce, I get them on whole-wheat. When I drink soda, I drink diet. When I get frozen yogurt, I top it with mountains of gummi bears, but also fresh fruit. It’s a give-and-take thing.
5. I bet if I actually went to all my lectures and did all the reading required for class, I would be way less stressed out about finals.
6. The character of Zack Addy on Bones is absolutely adorable and cutely socially awkward.
   
7. Pomegranate sorbet is seriously delicious, and if you ever get a chance, you should try it. It’s tart but not off-puttingly so, and awesome topped with mandarin oranges.
8. I don’t understand why everyone hates hyenas. There’s a quest in the WoW Cataclysm expansion pack that requires you to kill 12 mangy hyenas. It’s titled something like “Do the World a Favor.” I think they’re cute and less disgusting than other people. Actually, they’re my favorite animal. 
9. I really enjoy reading DIY manuals and instructions, even if I know that I’ll never make them. Things like electric skateboards, backyard ice skating rinks, and how to make your own photobooth.
10. Speaking of Cataclysm… the expansion pack is AWESOME. I’ve basically been playing a ridiculous amount of WoW lately. My priest is already level 84.
11. Some random guy handed me a book today as I was walking to get lunch after the tour at the museum. I took it automatically. It’s called “Wild Animus” and it’s by some guy named Rich Shapero. It’s like a legit book, too, professionally bound and everything, not just some photocopied crazy pages or anything. I’ll probably read it, cause I’ll give anything a try. From the back: Wild Animus tracks the reckless quest of Ransom Altman, a young Berkeley graduate who–roused by his literary heroes and love for his girlfriend, Lindy–resolves to live in a new world of “inexhaustible desire.”
12. I really, really like Midori Sours. Melon liquor, where have you been all my life?
    
13. I ran out of new Bones episodes to watch, so I just started re-watching them from Season 1. I have a problem.

So, next week I should have a nice, thematic, carefully put together Thursday 13 list. Because I’ll be on vacation and level 85 in WoW. So, yeah. At least this way there’s a post today!

Thursday 13 – 13 Amazing (Sad/Depressing/Non-Traditional) Christmas Songs

Here’s one of my deep, dark, dirty secrets: I love Christmas music. I officially claim to hate it whenever I hear it before Thanksgiving, but I start building my annual Christmas playlist sometime around mid-November, usually.

Traditional Christmas songs are… okay. There’s some versions I really like (like Liz Phair’s version of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”), and that’s what next week’s installment is going to be. But for THIS week, I wanted to pick some of my favorites from my second Christmas playlist.

That’s right, I’m such an overachiever that I have two: one is labeled with a “<3″ and the other with a “</3″. The second is my favorite – it’s my collection of sad and/or slightly subversive Christmas songs. Because I love them, but I figured having a second playlist of them would be a better idea, because when a song talking about the little boy that Santa Claus forgot comes on between happy, bell-filled versions of more traditional songs, people look at you funny.

So! Here’s 13 of my top picks for carols for those that can only take so many department-store renditions of songs. If this stuff isn’t your type, check back in a week, because next Thursday 13 will be focused around more… normal versions of songs.

1. St. Patrick’s Day – John Mayer
   No way November will see our goodbye / When it comes to December, it’s obvious why / No one wants to be alone at Christmas time
   
2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Bright Eyes
   This one isn’t so much the lyrics (although if you read into them, they are a little sad) as the tempo of the song.
   
3. 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night – Simon & Garfunkel
   The version of Silent Night that they sing is the standard version (unlike #8 on this list), but it’s the way that it’s layered over the faux newscast that makes this song utterly depressing: particularly the mention of Richard Speck murdering student nurses.
   
4. Don’t Shoot Me Santa – The Killers
   Don’t shoot me, Santa Claus / Well, no one else around believes me / But the children on the block, they tease me / I couldn’t let them off that easy (PS: The official music video is around on YouTube, but you have to sit through a commercial for it, so I picked a different video to link here for the example. But if you want to watch it, you can totally do a search for it!)
   
5. Christmases When You Were Mine – Taylor Swift
   I love T-Swift. Here she has a pretty little sad song about reminiscing about Christmases with an ex: When you were putting up the lights this year / Did you notice one less pair of hands?
   
6. Winter White – A Fine Frenzy
   Another song about remembering an ex around Christmas time, this one is a little more… fun than the Taylor Swift version, with a little more anger and bitterness: Dismiss the urge to reminisce / To miss your stupid kiss / The shot at happiness / It never did exist / And I don’t care if it did
   
7. All That I Want For Christmas (Is To Give My Love Away) – The Rescues
   This song isn’t actually super sad if you listen to it. I’m pretty sure it has a little happy ending in it, actually. But I first heard it on a Grey’s Anatomy episode last season (their holiday episode), and the situation was sad, so that’s why it ended up on this playlist instead of the happy one. It’s actually a beautiful song.
   
8. Silent Night (Bonus Track) – Damien Rice
   I listed this as Damien Rice, because it’s one of the bonus tracks on his CD O, but according to the video it is Lisa Hannigan – which totally makes sense, as it clearly isn’t Damien Rice because it’s a female singer. Unlike the Simon & Garfunkel version as #3, the lyrics are changed here, in  a majorly depressing way.
   
9. Xmas Cake – Rilo Kiley
   Move into your car / Change where you park / Too bad that job caroling department stores fell through / But the New Year is right in front of you / Cry into your Christmas cake / Don’t know what else to do
   
10. That Was The Worst Christmas Ever! – Sufjan Stevens
    Sufjan Stevens has some amazing Christmas albums. Every song I’ve heard from them I would highly recommend. Our father yells / Throwing gifts in the wood stove, wood stove / My sister runs away / Taking her books to the schoolyard, schoolyard
    
11. The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot – A Girl Called Eddy
    I love Erin Moran’s voice. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and her self-titled album (2004) is beautiful and definitely worth picking up. This song has been around for awhile (1937 is what Wikipedia informed me), but I love her version if only because her voice makes it even sadder.
    
12. The Man in the Santa Suit – Neil Halstead
    The video below is the version by Fountains of Wayne. It is not half as good as the version by Neil Halstead (which is available for free download HERE), which you should absolutely download and listen to. It kind of makes you feel bad for the department store Santas.
    
13. Christmas Night of Zombies – MXPX
    Christmas night of the living dead / My face is green and the snow is red / Christmas night of the living dead / We won’t rest until you’re dead!
    

SUPER AWESOME BONUS TRACKS

Because the holiday season really extends from Thanksgiving to New Year, I’ve included two bonus songs: one to cover Thanksgiving, and one to cover the New Year! I’m so thoughtful. (Both of these are by Death Cab For Cutie, also, which I really like on the playlist – a kind of circling back to the very first track.)

For Thanksgiving: Styrofoam Plates
Standing in line for Thanksgiving dinner at the Catholic church / The servers wore crosses / To shield from the sufferance plaguing the others / Styrofoam plates, cafeteria tables / Charity reeks of cheap wind and pity

For the New Year: The New Year
So everybody put your best suit or dress on / Let’s make believe that we are wealthy for just this once / Lighting firecrackers off the front lawn / As thirty dialogues bleed into one

Friday 15 – 101 Things in 1001 Days

I fail at New Year’s resolutions every year. I’m not exactly sure why, but by the end of January, I’ve always given up on at least 50% of my goals.

A little while ago I became aware of an online project: to complete 101 things in 1001 days. The idea behind the project, from the website:

The Challenge:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple challenges such as New Year’s resolutions or a ‘Bucket List’. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips, study semesters, or outdoor activities.

It sounds like fun! It’s structured enough that a list-making control freak like myself doesn’t feel unnerved by the open-endedness, which is probably at least part of the reason why I always fail at New Year’s resolutions. It’s also open enough that I shouldn’t feel stressed as if I’m on a super strict schedule, not managing a task in a couple days and getting depressed enough to quit overall.

So! Yesterday was Thursday and I completely spaced on it. Maybe because I only went to one class yesterday, whoops. So, have a belated Friday 15 – here’s 15 things that are going to go on my 101 list.

1. Be vegetarian for a week.
2. Tour a vineyard and go wine tasting.
3. Brew beer.
4. Cook and eat a lobster.
5. Learn how to shoot a gun.
6. Try snowshoeing.
7. Make a snow angel.
8. Take a flight in a hot-air balloon.
9. Go whale watching.
10. Get flexible enough to touch my toes.
11. Finally learn the US state capitals.
12. Finish a 500+ piece jigsaw puzzle.
13. Donate 1,000,000 grains of rice through this website.
14. Donate hair to Locks of Love.
15. Obtain an original piece of art (not a print).

It sounds like a really fun and challenging project. And me being me, I can’t wait to pick up a plain (no lines, no squares) Moleskine and get to making a project journal/diary/scrapbook out of it. I have a feeling it’s going to involve a lot of Fujifilm Instax Mini prints, my childish sketches and drawings, stickers, and other goodies.

…Also, this would mark my fifth Moleskine. I have the cahier I’m using for my Nov/Dec 2010 journal, the bright red daily planner I bought for 2011, the (Picadilly knock-off) book I use for my personal notebook/commonplace book/catch-all notebook, and the book I bought… 2-3 years ago as a “less-lame scrapbook” full of movie tickets and other flat, tape-able inserts. I have a feeling that last one is going to get shelved in favor of my Project Book for the 101/1001 project and the daily journal which will replace it, but still…

I might have a little addiction.

Thursday 13 – 13 Quotes About Writing

Yup! It’s Thursday again! Which means another Thursday 13. I chose to pick out some awesome quotes about writing, because it’s still November, which means it’s still National Novel Writing Month!

1. There’s nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.  (Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith)
2. Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.  (E.L. Doctorow)
3. Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. (Mark Twain)
4. Easy reading is damn hard writing.  (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
5. Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money. (Jules Renard)
6. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. (C.S. Lewis)
7. Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman’s name out of a satire then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to a writer – and if so, why? (Bennett Cerf)
8. If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. (Isaac Asimov)
9. Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public. (Winston Churchill)
10. Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent. (Ernest Hemingway)
11. Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie. (Stephen King)
12. If I’m trying to sleep, the ideas won’t stop.  If I’m trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness. (Carrie Latet)
13. It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. (Robert Benchley)

Thursday 13 – 13 Bizarre Halloween Costumes

Halloween is a time for girls to be sluts and get away with it. If you’re a girl, don’t try to deny it, and if you’re a guy, don’t even admit you don’t love it. I mean, when you’re a kid it’s all about candy and trick-or-treating and stuff, but when you get older, really, it’s about getting to be a tramp once a year because everyone else is doing it, too.

I combed through HalloweenCostumes.com to pull thirteen of what I believe to be the weirdest “sexy” costumes for women from their collection. Then I read Cracked like I do every day, and found out they pretty much did the exact same thing, except with 26 instead of 13. Psht. Overachievers.

(Also, if you clicked on that and noted that it was published on October 24, you’re right. I’m not always awesome about remembering to update this thing, but occasionally I feel contradictory and prep and write posts almost a week in advance. Don’t judge me.)

I almost didn’t post the list, thinking it would be too similar. (I ended up with a few of the same costumes they did.) Then I figured, what the hell, mainly because I didn’t want to have to come up with a completely different idea for this week’s post, considering this was already written. Also, it’s Halloween-y and festive! So, enjoy.

Also: If for any reason you do want to purchase any of these, clicking on the pictures will take you to the page to buy them! Although I don’t know why you’d want to.

1. Sexy Ghostbuster: Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd are not sexy, sorry. 
2. Bathing Beauty: I think she’s supposed to be a shower? A sexy shower? I mean, showers can be sexy, but not a shower personified. The rubber ducky bracelet is kind of cute, though. 
3. Sexy Mrs. Potato Head: Do I even have to explain why this is weird? 
4. Sexy Guitar: Hey… she’s a musical instrument. That’s really weird. 
5. Sexy Girl Scout: Okay, this is just bordering on pedophilia. They’re LITTLE KIDS. 
6. Sexy Minnie Mouse: I mean, some cartoon characters are hot. Like Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She’s also human. But Minnie Mouse? 
7. Sexy Nemo (Finding Nemo): First of all, Nemo was a boy. Secondly… Nemo was a clownfish. 
8. Sexy Crayon: Apparently, people have serious interests in objects like Mrs. Potato Head… and crayons. 
9. Sexy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Oh, hey. You can be a weapon-wielding mutant turtle that lives in the sewer and eats pizza. Cause that’s my definition of sexy. 
10. Sexy Green M&M: Okay, I know the green one was the girl one, and she was sexy to the other M&Ms. But they were at least all the same… species? This is just weird. 
11. Sexy Freddy Krueger: He kills people in their sleep. He’s a crazy psycho serial killer. Now, he’s a sexy costume involving a creepy hand glove! 
12. Sexy Twister: You can be a board game! Granted, of all board games, Twister is probably the sexiest, cause you’re contorting into weird bodily shapes with other people, but still… (Unrelated side note: I kind of want those boots.)
13. Sexy Spongebob: Okay, Spongebob was annoying. His voice made me want to punch things. He’s spastic and weird, and he lives in a pineapple under the sea. What the hell is wrong with people? 

Thursday 13 – Cleaning Closet

It’s Thursday! That means a quick break from my 10 days of list for… another list.

I keep a folder in my bookmarks that is simply titled “BLAWG Stuff.” It’s full of things I would love to base posts around, or mention on here, except I rarely get around to actually making said posts. I thought I would dust off the cobwebs from some of the articles and things and share a sampling of them with you, my faithful readers.

1. All those times your parents or your annoyingly cheerful locker neighbor told you that laughter is the best medicine? Apparently they were right.
2. Star Trek has been watched in space. How awesome is that?
3. This was shot shortly after Spain won the World Cup. It makes me unbearably happy.
4. Dolph Lundgren is fucking HUGE. Also, he’s apparently a super genius with a 180 IQ and a master’s in chemical engineering. His house was broken into and his wife was tied up by the burglars – who fled the house upon realizing who it belonged to. Awesome.
5. John Scalzi published a thought-provoking list about things he is privileged enough not to have to think about on a daily basis.
6. Deb from Smitten Kitchen posted this story about cake from Hyperbole and a Half on Twitter a few days ago. I was literally in tears by the time I finished reading it – and I mean literally in the literal sense. I was laughing so hard I was crying. “I had tasted cake and there was no going back.  My tiny body had morphed into a writhing mass of pure tenacity encased in a layer of desperation.” The illustrations are really brilliant and definitely make the story.
7. This is a collection of 400 love letters. I think they’re incredible: we all have some sort of voyeuristic interest in other people’s lives, I think, and this feeds that interest. There’s also something that makes it so much more person that they are scanned copies and not simply transcripts of the words… something about seeing the handwriting and the paper and the pen used make them that much more real.
8. This is kind of a love story.
9. notebookism is a blog for people like me who love stationery of all sorts. God knows when I see a beautiful journal or pen, I have to pick it up. I have a massive collection jumbled in piles on my desk, in boxes, and in closets. (It’s run by the same guy that used to run the moleskinerie blog!)
10. My friend Jeremy shared this with me and my group of friends this summer. Things keep going from bad to worse, oh my god, it’s like a train wreck, you can’t look away.
11. This list from Cosmo, “40 Girlie Moves That Make Guys Melt,” has been a part of my bookmarks list for years. I’m pretty sure it followed me from my old laptop.
12. “I remember you from trains” is a short story that, like the above entry, has followed me for years. This one dates back to before I even had my laptop – I think I had it bookmarked on the old desktop computer upstairs. It’s funny how some words just haunt you for years, no?* I think it would make a lovely short film.
13. Speaking of short films… 

*There was another story on DeviantART that I used to have bookmarked, but I lost it somewhere along the years. It was about a paramedic or firefighter and the ghosts he dealt with. He was at the dunes with his friends one day and he saved a girl from a rolled vehicle. They enter into a relationship, and it isn’t until months later that he realized she died in the accident and he was loving a ghost. There’s a line, something rather like “Oh, she thanked me… but always for trying” in reference to him saving her. If anyone knows the story and has a copy, I’d love a link to it or something… it was one of my favorites.