Updated:6/19/2008

Hello and welcome to my revamped 101 things list! As stated in previous versions of this here list, I reserve the right to tinker, futz, fidget, and otherwise redo and rethink my list as time goes on. YAY self determination!

For more info, or to oogle other lists yourself, go to the original site, or take a look at LJ's Mission101.

Date Begun (the first): August 14, 2007
Date Begun Again: 01/01/2008
Date Due: March 21, 2011

Ok, so anyone paying attention may have noticed I have mangled the dates, giving myself 1176 days to do 101 things. The reason? Well, the completion date is more significant for me. Which would also then mean I would start the new 101 things on my birthday as well, so all in all it works out real good in my head. That I have a little extra time also works out for my procrastinating ass. So while still in the spirit of the original idea, I have modified it to work for me better. Word.

Completed: 17
In Progress: 14
To Do: 72

17 / 101 goals. 16.8% done!

( The Listy Goodness )

Updated:6/19/2008

...About Hope.

I've been a little down of late. Some hormonal thing, partly, but also it has much to do with the news I am listening to whilst driving thither and yon. ...And rather than chew on the things that have brought me low, I have decided to post the thing that has brought me up, that has made me think there is hope, the thing that has saved this day from being hormonally brought low, and reality driven into the ground.



It's old, I know. But it really made a difference to my day. There are people out there fighting the good fight - the good fight is not something in history or stories. It's in our backyard.

( The lyrics, and some thoughts... )

So I've been tracking the books I've read so far this year, which is something I have never done before. It's a 101 Things thing. So if you care, this here is my list of thingies I done readed so far!

Updated: July 4, 2008
42/101
2 in progress
Yeah, I bit the bullet and started two books at once. It's a habit I have tried to get out of, due to the lack of finishing what I started, but the book at home is heavy and I don't want to lug it around, so I started an easier to tote book. I'm smrt sometimes. :/

( I'm SMRT! )

Work, life, blah blah, you know how it goes. So I done decided to ape a new Flist member and try my hand at the following, since you know, been dead, it might be nice to refresh y'alls memories:

You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy mine below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out :)

( And the monkey throws the switch... )

This is sort of a round about thinky post, so either bare with me, or skip it all together. Here we go!

So the other day I was talking to the PiCt's oldest kidlet and he was basically regaling me with the trials and tribulations of his life as a 19 year old. To which I shook my head and said something along the lines of "Shit, I am SO glad I am not there any more!" And then made some off hand joking remarks about if I knew then what I knew now, I would have made out with a lot more people.

Which is true, but not the point. The point was that I started to think about my life and if I knew then what I know now, would I have lived my life differently?

To some extent, yeah.

( If I knew then, what I know now... )

Anyway, there has been thinky things happening and I am much more happy in my head space. *grin*

In an effort to save her life, the doctors decided to operate. Two teeth, one with a cavity the size of Manhattan, were pulled from her jaw, leaving her aching, somewhat empty, and open for attack. Attack came from an unexpected place: her bowels. It seemed Hades himself was up to no good, forcing all she ate or drank out her rectum at speeds unheard of even by the demons themselves. He had several days of good fun, but eventually she expelled even Hades. She was left feeling queasy more often than not, but without Hell's Wrath spawning forth from her rectum.

It had been a good day.

She had vanquished the bug monsters of ByBeta Hill, securing for herself a firm foothold on BugBash mountain. A secure base camp had been established and the summit, beautiful in the afternoon light, was visible and clear. The way to the top was treacherous and most certainly fraught with danger, but to ensure her place in the Halls of Honor, she must press on. Without the blessings of the Air Conditioning Goddess, however, she found herself loitering in the Offices of Doom, afraid to venture forth into the sweltering heat of a mid May day.

( A meme would keep her cool, she thought. )

But we knew that.


I also find it funny to note that there are oodles of Neil Gaiman books on here that people have not read. I think that's weird, as the first book I read by him was Neverwhere, thought it was totally amazing, and only THEN was I introduced to the Sandman and told that Neverwhere started life as a TV show. I guess I am just amazed that people would put Gaiman on their shelves and NOT read him.

I have come to accept that weird shit is to be seen and experienced on my commute to work. I rides the BARTs, I am in a sea of people, and people? They are just fucking strange. Granted, there are the more benign oddities (or what I think of as odd, I guess): the woman who always does her makeup on BART, always; the very interesting and sometimes very sad clothing choices people make; to weird bad hair days (everyone has those). Then there are the mildly annoying weirdnesses: dood who hasn't showered and smells ewwy; loud-earphones-guy who seems unaware that everyone in his immediate area can hear every word of the song he is listening to, and the song sucks; and very irritating mobility-impaired people who are rude about demanding seating and preferential treatment (please note, I do not have a beef with the mobility-challenged people; I have a beef with the ones who are fucking dicks about it).

And then there are just the WTF moments, which I admit it: I live for these. These are the stars and sparkles of my morning, those moments of complete and utter oddness that make the day just seem that much more delightful for their strange intrusion into my life.

Enter the chicken.

a. List seven of your habits/quirks or seven facts about yourself.
b. Tag seven people to do the same.
c. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say you tag 'whoever wants to do it.'

1. I recently discovered that if I do personal writing in the morning before work, I feel better about going to work, being at work, and having to work on shite that doesn't make my soul sing.
2. I LOVE power tools. Like, LOVE. The PiCt and I put together furniture this weekend and I got to use the power drill and power screw driver and OMG LOVE. MMMMMMMtools.
3. I have way too many books I need to read. I need another head or something to be able to read them all.
4. I am intimidated about starting yoga, hence my procrastination, but I think once I start it, I will feel better and do it more.
5. I have to have a tooth extracted. I'm afeared about it.
6. Sierra and I have decided to become mermaids.
7. I currently hate my hair. It is boring, and makes me feel boring. No bueno.

And I tag: quiz_show, blueeyedguy, suckmylolly, deadendkid, kat_food, opentil12, and zakipu.

Whilst surfing the Flist, I came across this, and fuck, just had to share: BodyTechnologyInterfaces

From the Flikr photo goodies: "... a fun commentary on how attached and concentrated on technology we are, and to highlight the lack of movement that happens when we're engrossed in our laptops, keyboards, PDAs, etc."

...

AAAAAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHHHAHAHAHAH!!!

I just keep looking at it. I JUST KEEP LOOKING!! And laughing. And looking. And snickering. HEE!

Ok people. HOW DO YOU DO IT?! I can't do it. I wish I could, but I can't, or don't, or in some other way lack the mojo to make it happen. HOW?!

Oh right. How do you do WHAT, you are asking. HOW, great and gentle and otherwise kickass readers, HOW do you keep up with the interwebz, and more importantly, subjects you like?! How do you make connections with interesting and fabulous peoples like yourself when you are somewhat inpaired in your ability to connect to certain interwebz sites, and also somewhat lack the bandwidth to pay attention?

Here's the problem as I am experiencing it: I am an interwebz based kinda girl - I look at the computador most days, make my living typing into the thingie, and in general enjoy surfing the info wave and seeing what's out there. The thing I am lacking, where my mojo is failing me and making me grump-tastic is here: I want more peoples to chat with on the interwebz, since I spend much of my life there, but am having a hell of a time making it happen.

For example, I am part of this great site called Ravelry. It's all about crazy ass bitches and their stiches (knitting people, knitting!). RIGHT UP MY ALLY! But jesus, there are tons of boards and there are tons of people, and I would LIKE to connect and make friends and do all that shite, but I feel like I am missing some essential part of the machine. I read things, I am part of groups, I look at threads, but many times I feel I have nothing to say, and other times can't keep up with the responses to this that and the other thing. I feel like I am either not interested enough to comment, or I am too slow in responding because I have things like MY JOB to pay attention to, or other insundry things.

Which also chaps my hide because 1. when working at the work office I have no access to things like IM or YouTube or OKCupid or other fun and distracting type sites (*majorsadface*) and 2. when NOT working at the work office, I have to log in to the work systems, which there by block things like IM and YouTubes! Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Also compounding this problem is that when the work day is done, you would think I would lookit things that were previous denied me during the day, BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG! When the work day is done, I kinda want to not look at the goddamn computer, or I want to interact with real humans, or BOTH (or knit, let's be honest), NONE OF WHICH helps me deal with the intrinsic problem that I would like to connect with more people and simply am not.

My mojo done failed me. Suggestions?

To be honest, I have not really focused my thoughts on the boards in Ravelry. Perhaps I should try that for a week and see what happens. I don't know. Ideas, people, I need ideas!

Had the officially official talk with my boss today about my review and subsequent promotion and raise. The raise part will happen in June, as will the notification of the new shiny title. And while I would like to say I don't care, I kinda care about the title. I can now take that damn title to another company and demand a higher wage, and get a little respect, and yeah, woo. Finally. FINALLY. I have the title I know I have deserved for years, and with it I can get more moolahs.

Not that moolahs is everything, but moolahs certainly helps to get other things done, like a month off from work, and presents for loved ones, and time not at work! YAY!

Speaking of moolahs getting other things done, let's talk about the month off!

Some days I have the ability to open my mouth and insert my entire rectum (this would be along the lines of open mouth, insert foot, you fuckin' sickos).  Today it was by chat, but the same idea applies. *facepalm*

On a happier note, I saw Ryan today for like 5 seconds. Some weird whirlwind of a business trip brought him down to the Bay and we hung out and had coffees. Went to the place around the way, which is like my house (ooooooodles of toys) but larger and with coffee and a band. It was good to see the Ryanator and talk of things not related to my retardation earlier in the day. Booted him to the curb at the airport with promises of future whirlwind trips and hang outs, which would be swell.

So while having dinner with Kellie the other night, we got on the subject of FAIR. What is fair, how do you act fair, when do you act fair, and what does it mean to be FAIR? Usually, we think of being fair as a situation that should be fair for US. But what happens when the situation, while being fair, is not in our favor? The example she used was someone finding a 5 dollar bill at work, and thinking it was hers. She took it, but later discovered that no, she had all her money, this fiver was not hers. She found the guy the next day and returned the 5, saying something to the effect of "This wasn't mine, and you were finders-keepers, so here!"

Most people would have kept the 5. It's 5 bucks after all. But would that have been fair? Probably not. I guess it got me thinking about the little moments of when we don't do the right thing (being fair, whatever you want to call it). This makes it easier down the road to make the same decision about perhaps something bigger than 5 dollars. Is that the person I want to be? Just something to think about.

Also, I found this great little article on Ways to Be Nice (that don't cost you anything at all). It was a nice reminder of simple things we can do to make our interactions with other people better, nicer, more pleasant, less annoying, all that. Enjoy!

Ok! Now that I am not on the sore tip anymore, and now that my hands work again, I can list what I done did all weekend!

Me=Machine (Saturday)

• Swept and mopped kitchen
• Cleaned kitchen cabinets
• Moved spices to where the tea is and tea where the spices were
• Got new swanky bar table and set it up
• Expanded other little table and cleaned the shit out from under it (woo more storage!)
• Got new rugs for in front of sink and stove
• Organized under kitchen sink (OMG I have so many sponges WTF?!)
• Put up over-the-stove holder thingie (mmmlevel and drill!)
• Got more of the stain from the last fridge off the floor (I am pretty sure the old fridge was rusting into the floor. Ew!)
• Pruned back tree in backyard
• Staked and tied the rose bush the gardeners thought should be killed by hoses
• Wound three hoses (need to throw away one)
• Removed weird root ball from side of path (it was in the way and I kept tripping on it, so it had to go)
• Emptied pots of old dirt and dead plants (12)
• Dug out dead plants from big tub thing, found it had good dirt on the bottom, put dirt back in! It's now ready for Basil and Mint planties.
• Started digging out the raised bed thing I want to plant, but my hands gave out (couldn't grip the shovel anymore)
• Took shower!
• Took Nap
• Cleaned bathroom cabinets
• Organized under bathroom sink
• Organized linen closet
• Killed some of the mold living in the linen closet
• Thought about painting the bathroom, but decided I was too fucking tired.

And? I did all that IN ONE DAY. Saturday to be precise. I was just on a roll! I was in the mood to get some shit done, and so I did! And then I went to watch the premier of Battle Star Galactica with Andrew and some peeps. It was fun and yet late and yet good and I got In-n-Out, which was yummy.

AND THEN?! I did some more shit on Sunday:

Me=Slower Machine

• Slept til noonish or 1ish. And it was good.
• Got storage boxes for closet/office
• Got rid of weird shit in my office I didn't need anymore (need to make a run to ThriftTown)
• Covered the rest of the shelves with contact paper thingies (mmmstripey)
• Reorged shelves into more coherent manner
• Put up shoe organizer thingie and put shoes away
• Put server behind desk, so it's out of the way
• Went through stationary drawers and repacked into smaller more stackable boxes. Got rid of plastic drawer thingie.
• Swept and vacuumed
• Made bed, cleaned carpets, and in general spiffed up my room (did not put away cloths, stupid cloths)
  
• Knitted
• Slept

So yeah! It was all good stuff to get done, I just wish I hadn't hurt my arms quite so much. But then again, it was also good just to move around and know that my strength is not gone and I can in fact do everything I set my mind to. Except when I can't grip the shovel any more. :/

Things hurt. I hurt. Maybe I did too much yesterday.

Just for the record? I AM A MOTHERFUCKIN' MACHINE. Oddly, I am also using "motherfucker" a lot lately. WTF?

Why? Because I just spent nine hours (9 HOURS) working on my goddamn house and it is KICKASSer now!

But now I am tired. So I will talk about it tomorrow.

I cleaned the kitchen like a MOTHERFUCKER TODAY! ... Ok, so I don't really know how a motherfucker actually cleans a kitchen, but the way I did involved CHEMICALS and mops and brooms and SPONGES and elbow grease and some EW moments and then HA! moments and then finally I lost steam and said: good enough for today.

In the failing light of twilight, my kitchen looks like heaven. *happysigh*

Bought me a new shiny TALL table for the kitchen, so that I might avoid the stooping and the BENDING that the back is quite against. Also procured some drapes for my bedroom that are lovely and I even hemmed them. Ok, so I hemmed them not to MATCH but at least the elephant covers the difference and they look nice none the less. Fuck straight; straight is for losers.

ALSO got me some organizey boxes to help with the continuing saga of the office closet and its struggle against the evil Clutter Gnomes of Doom. I did not happen to open or utilize said boxes, as I was busy PWNING the kitchen, but I plan to depose the Clutter Gnomes tomorrow some time, perhaps decapitating them in the process, then roasting them on a spit in the backyard. Anyone for Doomy Gnome BBQ?

Next on the list of thingies I done need to get is some sort of wine rack dealie. I got me some wine! It's under the dining room table at the moment. This is silly, as I like to drink it but never remember it's there because hello, dining room table in the way.

Also also, my back is tired. Stupid back. This old thing sucks it.

The sunset out the BART window this evening begged to be painted, or pictured, or in some other way recorded because of the winsome, almost nostalgic way it caressed the sky, kissed the clouds goodnight, and gently brushed the wrinkled brown cheek of the lady gazing in the other direction.

My brain feels old. It doesn't work like it used to and that is mildly annoying, but also somewhat interesting. I've been trying to get back into writing - here and other places - and it's kinda ... hard! It's hard to switch gears between The different types of writing I want to do: technical work writing, creative writing, blog/journal writing, marketing writing for other people... It's all good stuff and I can do it, it just takes a lot of my brain power, which sometimes feels in short supply lately. :/

Worked on copy writing this evening with the snappy swtalmnd  . She done feeded me yummy fishes and veggies and we hashed out some of the content for her new swanky site. We are bartering services - I help her out with some content spiffing, while she makes me some swanky logo and perhaps a web site for the showcasing of my excellent writings. Shut up I have some! Of all kinds! Just need a little more...

I am also kinda stoked that she will be making me a logo of some sort so I can put it on my knitting patterns. I have some original toy things I've made that other people said they wanted patterns for - but I haven't gotten around to writing the stuff down. So! I will get the patterns in order AND also have a brand type thing to put on them so I can offer PDFs for sale! YAY! I am excited. :)

While we are not done with the spiffing of her contents, I feel good about what I got done today. It feels good to focus and get something accomplished. And? Her portfolio rocks it hard, yo! WOOOHOOO! *grin* Ok, there might have been some wine drinkin' tonight too...