Blogging 2012

First of all, obviously I have not been blogging about losing weight!  Honestly, I think I've scrapped the idea.  My weight has been the same for a few months now, so I think maybe I'm plateauing, which hopefully means I'll be on the way back down soon as long as I actually try not to overeat.  It's a challenge sometimes, because god I just love food, but I also like feeling good about myself.  It's not that I need to feel skinny to feel good, because honestly I don't buy into that nonsense (well, more on that later, I suppose!  There's really too much on the subject that irks me to go into it now...)  Anywho, it would be really good for me to build up some more self control in my eating habits, plus it just feels good to eat better.

So, my plan here is to try and make a post for every day of the year.  I would ideally like to post every day, but I will have to do it at least once a week, more likely a few times a week, especially after the semester starts and I get busy.  I did not come up with this idea, however; I owe it to my good friend Amber, who has a blog called Photo a Day 2012.  I think it will be good for me to do it with her, though, so she can stay accountable.  Plus, I really need to be writing more.  I'm working on a book right now, so I really need to be practicing every day (like all good writers should), but of course I'm lazy about it.  Maybe not so much lazy as flaky with my hobbies.  I'm a swinger when it comes to hobbies.

There have been a few changes since I last posted on this blog, namely that I started my associates degree.  I've already finished the first semester and numero dos actually starts tomorrow.  The degree is in computer technology and my concentration is Internet/multimedia which pretty much means web design!  I already posted a few months ago (yikes!) about my reasons for starting the degree, so I won't go into it again.

Let's see about what's happened so far this year.  New Years:  Jamie (that would be my boyfriend of 6 years) stayed over at my house because we have better food for New Years (i.e. there was sauerkraut at his house : P)  Now don't be offended if you like the stuff; I've actually never tried it but I can tell you, it smells pretty gross.  We had a hard time sleeping at my house because it was hot and my dachshund Teddy insisted on taking up the entire bottom half of the bed.  I normally stay over at his house (about half my time is spent there) and we have no trouble sleeping (usually).  Anyway, he won't want to stay the night again any time soon, I can guarantee it.

Jan 1-4 (Sun-Wed):  I stayed at home for a few days and mostly hung out with Teddy and watched tv and played the Sims 3.  I started a new game which is like The Bachelor.  I got the idea off of one of those forum thingies (I'm not much into those but James uses them all the time).  Pretty much I made a dude Sim and a bunch of lady Sims (6 of 'em) and put them all in the same house.  I set all their relationships with him to zero and then tried to get them into socializing situations like the hot tub and dinner, going to the movies and touring the movie studio, etc.  Whoever has the highest relationship with him after the "group dates" gets a one-on-one.  Well, I haven't gotten to the first one-on-one yet, but I'll let you know how it goes.

I worked some more on trying to knit (I started to learn on Christmas because I asked for needles), but I'm having a lot of trouble with it.  Whenever I drop stitches, I have a lot of trouble picking them back up - it's a lot easier with crochet!  I think I'll get better, but I don't think I'll knit as much as I crochet.

Jan 4-Jan 7 (Wed-Sat):  Jamie picked me up and we spent a few hours at my house, but he wasn't feeling well so we went back to his house earlier than usual.  I like to stay for dinner at my house, which is usually kinda late, because my mom works until 8:30.  I finished this book:

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


View all my reviews



And I started this book:

Persuasion by Jane Austen


View all my reviews





Which I am liking so far.  I've been reading a lot of Jane Austen books lately and have a newfound respect for them.  For example, the first time I read Pride & Prejudice, I rated it 2/5 stars ("it was ok" on Goodreads).  I had just seen the 2005 version of the movie, which I absolutely loved and which is still my favorite movie.  Anyway, there were several scenes from the movie that I really liked which were not in the book at all, so I was quite disappointed in the book overall.  When I read it again, though, I hadn't seen the movie in a while and I could enjoy the story for what it was.  I ended up rating it 5/5 stars this time around:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews




Oh, in related news (but I really am getting off topic by now; please bear with me), I reached my reading goal for last year of 31 books (one of the books I read was actually a novella, so I added one for good measure).

Back to the subject!  I really haven't been doing much of anything this week.  I start classes tomorrow, so I've been trying to just relax and enjoy my vacation.  I've been oversleeping a lot, which pretty much blows the rest of the day, so now I'm trying to wake up earlier so I can actually function.  I started watching The Bachelor - it was pretty interesting to say the least.  I'd like to see where the whole "lady lovers" thing goes.  I may actually have to start thinking these shows are scripted.  I've also been watching James play the God of War games (all 3), which are really cool and very good-looking in my opinion.  I can overlook the (often minor) discrepancies from the myths (I took a class 2 semesters ago on Greek mythology).  He's also been playing the Uncharted games, though not nearly as much.  He just got a PS3; he's an XBOX guy.

Other than that, we went up to Mentor yesterday, which was a change.  I usually sit at home and am happy about it, but it's nice to go out once in a while.  We went up to Sears so his mom could buy some new work shoes.  They had soo many clothes I wanted to buy and some very cute boots.  *sigh*  If only I had some money!  Then we went to the Home Town Buffet, which I haven't been to in a while.  It was pretty good, but Jamie's nephew gets antsy when he has to go on long car rides and sit still at restaurants.

Alright, well I will post later about today because this post is already really long.  If you made it this far, congratulations.  You get a prize!  Not really, but if you did actually read the whole thing, please comment and let me know and I will honor you as a very diligent blog reader.

Love,
Christen

My Life and Weightloss

There are a few things on my mind today, so I'll outline first.  1. I'm going to be blogging about losing weight (I know!  The horror!), even though I'm sure there are like a bajillion blogs out there about people trying to slim down.  The bottom line is, I think it will help me actually commit and lose the weight.  So bear with me, or not.  I'm not even sure anyone reads this blog, so it can just be for me.  2. I'll give you a little update about what I'm up to.  3. I'm going to talk a little about my novel, but really, if you hate hearing about peoples' novels, feel free to skip that part because I often find it annoying myself.  But, if I'm going to talk about me and what I'm doing, well I'm going to talk about the novel.


And, we're off!  I guess I'll talk about the book and other things I'm up to first.  So, I started this book last summer and got pretty far (at least for me) until the steam started running out.  Once I started the fall semester, though, my progress came to a standstill and I probably wrote less than a few pages the entire school year.  Now, I've started working again, but I'm kind of doing it randomly, just picking out separate scenes and working on them independently.  I actually think this is easier because I was having a lot of trouble with the section I had gotten to in the book and hopefully I can write out the major scenes and connect them together at the end.  


Now, when I started the book, I was writing in 3rd person, but I think I've decided to write in 1st person now because it was sounding impersonal.  I've never written a novel before, so I'm really trying to get into this character and make her unique.  I don't want her to be generic, and I want her to have her own failings, weaknesses, disturbing past, etc., just like any real person.  The other problem I'm having right now is that I want the book to mean something.  I want it to make people think or give them insight or affect them in a real way.  I don't want it to just turn out to be some generic novel with flat characters and no real, deep meaning behind it.  I don't want it to be like one of those best seller's factory line novels.  (You know how some authors do it when they're really successful - pumping out books every few months like there's no tomorrow). So it has to be special and it has to mean something.  I might even cross over into gritty.  I just want it to be real and not apologize for it.  I think I should try to explore this idea of lies and deception.  Maybe I should do a study on pathological liars and people who successfully hoodwink people into trusting them.


Alright, that was a lot about the book.  Well, other than that, I finished up a little ipod pouch for my boyfriend and I'm working on a ribbed hat for him, too.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this on here, but I've recently been crocheting quite a bit and I've already made a scarf and an ipod pouch for myself.  After I'm done with my current projects, I'd like to make myself a make-up bag, as well.  I'll try to post pics of my projects when I can.


Other than that, I'm planning on starting a peacock painting.  I've done some sketches, but still need to make some tweaks before starting out.  I like to paint more cartoon-y or at least less realistically.  I'm guessing if I gave it enough time I would do fine with more realistic paintings, but I think it would detract from the fun of it.  I find  is surprisingly relaxing.  Ahhh...


So, the weight loss thing.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet.  I think I'll outline my goals and my plans and then write out my progress each day (or every few days) - like, what I'm eating and what exercising I've done.  However, this post is a little long already, so I think I'll start this out another day.


<3 Christen

Clumsiness and Comics

So far, today has been a bad luck day.  Fortunately, I don't believe in luck, just clumsiness.  The first thing was not my fault:  a rogue shampoo bottle leaped off of the shower shelf and fell on my big toe.  Next, I cut myself with the razor, then I spilled a bottle of foundation (at least not the whole thing), and lastly, I just spilled my boyfriend's drink everywhere (including on myself).  


Nevertheless, I've decided that I'm going to look at the bright side of things!  First of all, I didn't break my toe.  I didn't even get a bruise.  My cut didn't bleed.  I didn't spill the whole bottle of foundation, and was able to mostly scrub it out.  Also, at least my boyfriend had a cup full of melted ice and not something stainy like grape juice or Hawaiian punch.  So there.  I'm not going to let my day of clumsiness get me down.  I'll just have to focus harder on not spilling anything else today.


In other news, I've discovered a new webcomic:  Savage Chickens.  I'm pretty much addicted to webcomics.  Actually, I don't think I've ever spoken of my love for webcomics on here, so I'll list my favorites which I check every day, plus some other ones I'm working through the archives on.  Check them out; they're all really funny! 


(These are listed in the order that I read them every day.  However, not all of them update every day.)


xkcd - updates Mon, Wed, Fri


Cyanide & Happiness - updates every day (Can be a little shocking, but very funny)


Bug - updates Mon-Fri


Amazing Super Powers - updates Mon, Wed, Fri (Might not be to everyone's taste)


Robot Beach - updates Mon, Wed, Fri


Sinfest - usually updates every day (This is one of my very favorite comics!)


Ones I'm still working through the archive on:


Space Base 8 - updates Mon, Wed, Fri


Road Apples Almanac - updates Mon, Wed, Fri (Very creative story on this one)


Slither and Friends - updates Mon, Wed, Fri


Other than that, you may have noticed that I've changed the layout of the blog a little.  I moved the blog posts over to the left for better flow.  Enjoy!


<3 Christen

A Change of Heart

I think I need to go in a new direction with this blog.  Since I started, I've pretty much written about political and social issues, but to be honest, I'm not super interested in writing about that stuff all the time anymore.  I'm not getting the paper while I'm at home (and probably won't next year, since I'm going to a branch campus) and I'm not watching political shows, either.

I think what I need to do is get back to the heart of this blog - why I started it in the first place.  The blog is supposed to be all about how writing things out is the best kind of therapy.  So maybe it's time to make this blog more personal and write about my actual life!

I guess I could start somewhere a bit obvious.  If you've read this blog before, you may have noticed that it originally stated on the homepage that I was an aspiring therapist.  That is now gone because I've changed directions and am going back to school next year to get a degree in computer technology!  I know, it's a big change.  I had been so sure about wanting to be a therapist for a really long time, but I had a change of heart this past year.  The thing is, I'm really not that great with talking to people.  It seems like an odd career choice for someone who has felt socially awkward her whole life, right?  Well, the thing is that when I got into the one-on-one counselling situation, everything changed for me.  I just relaxed, got down to business, listened, and let those wheels in my brain spin.  

I have to admit, counseling was very fun for me when I was at Johnson.  Once I got to Kent, however, it was like reality striking.  I was ready to go to grad school for 5-7 years to get a fancy doctorate for a while.  Then I realized that was a huge waste and was going to get my master's in counseling.  The problem is, counselors don't make much!  However, I am willing to do what I love for less money.  I think the most important thing is that you love what you do.  The thing is, I lost my enthusiasm for psychology and counseling!  Somewhere along the way, reality struck me hard and I realized this job was going to be taxing, emotionally draining, stressful, rarely fruitful, and I decided it wasn't worth it.  I can't imagine going in every day to try to help broken people and not feeling broken myself!

So, I was searching for other options and came across this computer program at Kent Ashtabula.  The concentration is Internet and Multimedia and I'm hoping now to become a web developer/ web designer.  It's a way different field than psychology, I know.  I'm a little scared that I won't fit into the field, besides already knowing the psych field so well!  But the thing is, I have always been interested in creating web pages.  When I was younger, I spent hours and hours planning and working on web pages.  And, as you can see, I'm obviously still into it, since I have two blogs!

I think this job will fit me better.  I think it's going to be a good mix of problem-solving, technical work, and creativity.  I love that I'm going to be able to (hopefully!) be creative in my job every day.  In my spare time, I'm always painting, drawing, writing, crocheting, and just expressing my creativity.  And I love love love solving puzzles!  I've recently found a great site with a bunch of matrix puzzles:  www.puzzlersparadise.com.  Plus, I love doing cross-words, hidden object games, sudoku, word puzzles, and more.  As far as the technical side, I've had a web design course before, and I kind of like the coding.  The other elements are more fun, of course, but I wouldn't mind doing that every day.  Another plus for this job is that I can possibly work from home in the future.  We'll have to see if that would be a good or bad thing!

Well, I think this post is already pretty long.  I'm going to try to write on here more often and write about my life more.  I'm thinking most of my life is a little boring to blog about, but I'll try to find interesting things to talk about!  Hopefully I still have some readers or maybe people who stumble on this site will find it interesting.  I'm thinking a mix of personal posts and issues posts will work out best.  Oh!  I almost forgot.  I'm writing this post on my new laptop and it is fantastic!!  Yeah, I'm pretty sure I made a great decision!  Love love love it!!

Thanks for reading!

Christen <3

It's on the Way!

I found out yesterday that my new laptop has already shipped.  It's actually coming in from Shanghai, so hopefully it won't be stuck in customs for a long time.  The estimated ship date is June 2nd - next Thursday.  Needless to say, I'm really excited about it.  Unfortunately for my boyfriend James, I had been complaining about it quite a bit since I ordered it last week.  I can't help it; three weeks is a long time to wait!  Luckily, though, I only have to wait about four more days!!

Other than that, we went to Geneva on the Lake today.  I wrote a little about on the Design Destination blog.  We mostly walked around and looked inside all of the cool shops.  They had some pretty amazing stuff there.  We also got some amazingly good cherry maple smoked turkey jerky and Dairy Queen.  YUM!

I'll let you know when my computer gets here!  Here's looking forward to my first post on the new laptop!!