Ólöf Arnalds – Innundir Skinni
“They say
May 12th, 2010 -
if you get far enough away, you’ll be on your way back home.” – Tom Waits
Just another garden-variety case of wanderlust.
too many repeatings
April 22nd, 2010 -
It’s not that I’m not writing things, it’s just that I’m not posting them. It’s not that I don’t have things to say, it’s just that I don’t have things I want to hear myself say. A rare state, indeed.
Usually when I write these posts, I’m on one platform or another. I’m either writing your “basic life update” sorts of things, which feel silly and trite (since most of you who care already know about my “basic life updates”). The other platform is the platform of “things that are in my brain,” which after I put them to paper, seem silly and trite (since they are floofy musings and ramblings, with little intelligent grounding, and make me sound, if possible, more ridiculous than I actually am). There is a third platform, and one that I aspire to: the platform of intelligent discourse and fascinating links and arguments. The platform of parsing through the internet and returning with the “best of the crop” — providing a filtered perspective on the internet. A “here’s what I find interesting, and maybe you will too” sort of thing. There are thousands of examples of just this sort of “platform three” blogger. It’s what started the advent of personal blogging; it’s why I started blogging, in theory. I mean, I actually own books on the subject. For years I’ve wanted terribly to be a good blogger, but like many such intelligent-but-artistic endeavors, it requires discipline, and once a blog becomes a chore, it usually becomes an abandoned blog.
But really, everyone is okay until they end up in platform-four blogging: bloggers who blog about blogging. It’s the one place I hoped I’d never end up, but here we are, I guess.
I do have one interesting thing to share with you. I found it on the inside of my Pineapple-Orange-Guava juice bottle cap. Here it is:
“Hundreds of whales live around the island of Nantucket.”
There. Are you fascinated?
let the seasons begin
March 16th, 2010 -
If any holiday ever deserved its own week, it’s definitely St. Patrick’s day. This time last year, I was in Ireland. This time this year, I’m living vicariously through that old self by attempting to work my way through the best of my Irish recipe collection. A few favorites:
Irish Soda Bread – But please, guys, not the raisins.
Corned Beef and Cabbage – First tried this last night. It isn’t quite as good as the one I remember from my childhood, but then, overcooking the cabbage will do that.
Irish Cream Creme Brulee – Only because “Irish Whiskey” by itself doesn’t really count as a recipe.
Have any Irish foods you can’t resist this time of year?
one of these mornings
March 7th, 2010 -
I have been longing to post something witty and well-crafted; an amused ramble of an update providing both clever insight and intelligent discourse. But then I thought, why start now? So you will get the usual pointless, rambling-without-really-going-anywhere blog, maybe with a photo of something, if I feel like it. I’ve been learning enough new tricks lately.
I switched jobs two weeks ago. I’m working with M33 Integrated in Greenville now, doing software development with lots of new things to learn — the environment is very, very different from Eaton. I’m enjoying the work and the team a lot so far. The system is web-based, and I’ve always wanted to do more web programming, so the work is actually really fun. Even the drive hasn’t been that bad; it’s given me a lot of time for prayer and Bible study (via podcast; I’m not reading and driving…), and catching up with new music, but then I also feel like I’ve seen my lovely roommates and my house for a total of about forty minutes this past week. Even Sylvie has forgotten me!* I’m already kind of eyeing apartments and houses in the area, but not sure what will happen yet.
I have made an interesting (disturbing?) observation since I have started my job. I have only ever encountered someone else in the ladies room on our floor four times. Three of those times, the woman in question was on a cell phone. Of these three women, two were crying. (The third was yelling angrily.) What is to be learned from this? I think that most of the offices on our floor, like ours, are pretty male-dominant (I’m the only female in my office), so that explains the rare population, but what about the phone calls? Or the tears? I mean, I know none of you needed to know this, but it’s made bathroom trips at work pretty, well, depressing.
I was doing a pretty good job at cutting back my eating-out budget until the new job. It takes a lot of planning when two to three of the day’s mealtimes (five if you count “bonus” meals… second breakfast, anyone?) fall either during work or commute hours, and wow. I’ve really got to work on this. Keeping dried fruit and nuts in the car works great if I leave Greenville right after work, but when that doesn’t happen, I end up at Moe’s ordering a burrito deluxe.** Breakfast is less of a problem since I’m usually in too much of a hurry to stop anywhere, but missed breakfasts just make me eat more at lunch. So I would love any suggestions for good, healthy, travel-friendly meals and snacks that can be purchased or prepared in advance, and preferably, stowed in the car. Please comment with anything you’ve got.
I kind of miss being as busy as I was in college. I miss going to Mexico in the summer, and never having time to be tired when I didn’t get much sleep. I’m starting to think that having “free time” is something best left to other people. I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of it, so I’m planning on, well, planning more stuff over the next few months. Time to get busy again.
Spring is coming and I’m so excited I can’t stand it. One more week until daylight savings time, guys…
Listening to: Sarah Siskind — Lovin’s for Fools
* Last week, Wendy spied my dear kitten slipping into the neighbor’s house. Alright, Sylvie. I see how it is.
** Eating a Moe’s burrito while driving is, I have discovered, a bit of an art. One that I’m starting to get pretty good at, even though the smell of tomatillo sauce might linger in my car forever.
If you promise spring
January 26th, 2010 -
First, a couple of new songs. Joanna Newsom is releasing a new triple-LP next month, and her label has a new song streaming (click the link on the right). I’m a bit of a fan, and thought maybe you were too.
Ferraby Lionheart has a new album coming out soon, too, and Harry and Bess is a fun song from that.
It’s almost February. What’s even up with that. That being said, I’ve somehow managed to get Christmas (mostly) put away in various closets, daily and weekly schedules (mostly) back to their norm, and plants (mostly) brought in from the winter cold. Here is the lesson I have learned from that: mid-January is, in fact, too late to bring in most plants for the winter season, since the first frost has likely already happened. As is my gardening style, I waited until after the plants were already looking pretty rough, dragged them en masse to the dining room/nook (arranging furniture as necessary to accommodate such a jungle), and tried to place them strategically near windows based on each plant’s individual light needs. A for effort, right? No. Heating vents, combined with a new kitten, sparse/sporadic watering, and what turned out to be poor lighting for even the most dismal of plants, I now have a dining room full of overturned flowerpots, clumps of soil, and primarily dead brown greenery. It doesn’t even come close to the verdant, elegant, herb-scented wonderland I’d imagined. Once I’m finished mourning properly, I suppose I’ll sweep the whole mess out the front door. Maybe I’m just doomed only to buy annual plants.
I finally pulled out my Wacom drawing tablet last night, which I honestly hadn’t touched since my senior art project at Lander. My macbook / CS4 package are newer than that, and so I’d never tried the Wacom on my mac. It’s a lot more fun than I remember it being. I managed to piece together a little cartoon for a retiring co-worker within a couple of hours, and while I’ll always prefer messy “real” art to click-and-drag anything, I’m reminded of what it is that fascinated me about vector design in the first place.
In the spirit of one of the last post’s resolutions, I’m batch-uploading a bunch of photos to Flickr (ok, so most of them are 2009 photos, but still!). You can see them on the photostream to your right over here: –>
listening to: Andrew Bird – Souverian
Here goes 2010!
January 4th, 2010 -
Before I get to the actual resolutions, I think I should mention my resolutions about my resolutions this year (I know, I know — it’s just that I really like this holiday).
1. I am only making a few important resolutions, as well as a few self-improvement (but slightly-less-relevant) resolutions. Goal-setting is an art, I’ve discovered, and while I want to challenge myself, I’m not going to kill 2010 before it even gets started.
2. I am not going to feel guilty about neglecting things that didn’t make the list. (Spotless house didn’t make the cut, for instance. I’m going to allow myself to enjoy an occasionally-messy kitchen.)
2010 Resolutions:
1. Be more gracious to others
2. Re-learn / practice Spanish to a conversational level
3. Volunteer
4. Daily focus on prayer and scripture reading
5. Simplify
6. Stop biting fingernails
7. Budget efficiently
8. Take more photos
I’m excited about 2010 for a lot of reasons. A year really isn’t that long, so it always surprises me to realize how many surprises can happen in just twelve months. I don’t really have anything planned for 2010. Maybe I should be nervous. In general over the past several years, most of my plans have more or less fallen into place — there has always been an obvious next step to take. It’s something that I’ve taken for granted, but at the same time, seeing two of my roommates graduate this past month has made me curious and a bit envious of their post-graduation experience. I signed a job contract before my senior year of college even started, so my experience was different, and having a blank slate ahead, with limitless undiscovered possibility, looks so inviting. Of course, I’m sure it’s not really as exciting as all that, especially during an economy that doesn’t exactly scream “limitless undiscovered possibility,” but what I’m trying to say is, I’m realizing that just because I’m already going down a certain path, and just because I’ve never practiced “going out on a limb” before, doesn’t mean I can’t.
Troy blogged about his resolutions, too. My favorite of his list:
“Live in the moment. But don’t be afraid to wonder what it is like to do great things anymore.”
Maybe 2010 is the year where I wonder about doing something great.
And speaking of something great, Abby brought this back for me from Ohio. I love it.
If you haven’t blogged about your resolutions (or even if you have), what are they? What do you have planned (or hope to plan) in 2010 that you’re excited about?
Goat tears and a summary of resolutions — Final Best of 2009 Challenge Post
December 31st, 2009 -
December 30 Ad. What advertisement made you think this year?
Hmmm. It’s honestly been a pretty ad-free year for me. We don’t have cable, So for the most part the only television ads I’ve seen are those inserted into the Thursday-night NBC shows I watch on Hulu. I can’t think of any web ads I’ve seen this year that have been spectacular, either. I consider this a victory. One ad I have seen this year, however, and which I found delightful, is one that Jessi showed me: Goat Tears.
December 31 Resolution you wish you’d stuck with.
I know I made a few resolutions last year, nothing too significant. I wish I could find a definitive list of what they were (I know I had one somewhere, but apparently it wasn’t web-based — so much for accountability, eh?). All of them were based on trends I saw in myself in 2008, didn’t like, and wanted to correct. What I can recall are these:
1. Eat healthier. Weight loss wasn’t my goal; a balanced diet with more energy was, and I think I’m more or less there. Two things, I think, helped with this — I have been exercising more this year, which makes me crave exciting things like salads and fresh fruit. Also, i’ve been trying to buy more groceries lately, and to make those groceries primarily fresh produce, juices, and dairy (yogurt / eggs).
2. Stress less. I feel sometimes that it’s an ongoing internal battle with me, fighting my tendency to be anxious, overwhelmed, irritated by things outside of my control, and difficult in general. I can’t say I’ve made leaps and bounds in this area, but I think I’m finding it much easier to relax and stop worrying about things than I did this time last year.
3. Stop eating out so much. This is the one — the one that I would say, out of all of these, I “failed.” There were a couple of months where I made it home for lunch at least two or three times a week, and a couple of other months where I tried to cook dinner every night, but what an obnoxiously well-ingrained habit! It’s just too easy at work — my dad and I go out to lunch somewhere, and I always feel sort of like I’m abandoning him if I go home to heat up leftovers instead. And then after work, when I’m both hungry and craving social stimulation, dinner with friends just seems obvious. That being said, I did manage at least to bring the budget down a couple of notches (the primary incentive for eating-out-less has been financial), leaning much more heavily towards Subway and eliminating The Village Grill almost entirely (this is depressing, actually). But I could have done better, really.
4. Stop buying clothes. This was more of a commitment than it was a resolution. I started working full-time in 2008, which led to somewhat of a need for a new “professional” wardrobe, and also led to a bit of discretionary spending money. But by the end of 2008, buying new clothes had turned from necessary to a fun thing to do when I was bored, and I felt convicted about it. It wasn’t that I was a shopaholic, or that I was spending half of my paycheck on clothing, but I felt like financially, I wasn’t being a good steward. When I would buy something new that I didn’t necessarily need, I couldn’t help but to think of how much good that money could do in the right places. So for 2009, with a couple of minor and truly-deemed-necessary exceptions (hiking gear back when the Grand Canyon was a thing, and some charity-shop used purchases for good causes), I didn’t buy new clothes. Turns out that everything that I already had, along with some borrowed pieces from a beloved roommate (sorry, Abby), got me through the year just fine. I took the money I would have spent on clothing (based on some 2008 average spending figures — thanks again, mint.com! and sent some donations to Atlanta Union Mission, a great homeless shelter / recovery program in Atlanta. It wasn’t as painful of a sacrifice as I thought it would be, for the most part, and it was actually a relief when I would go shopping with other people. Not once this year did I have the internal “I-love-this-but-do-I-need-it” debate that chronically indecisive people like myself struggle with. It was a year of window-shopping. I can love it or hate it, but I know I can’t buy it, so no worries. And Atlanta Union Mission is truly a great Christian-based, fiscally-responsible organization that is doing amazing things for Atlanta’s homeless population. I’m hoping I can continue to support them in 2010, if there’s enough left over after the massively excessive shopping-spree I’m planning in January (only kidding, folks). I didn’t advertise this resolution much, save a couple of close friends for accountability, and I debated even mentioning it here, because I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging, or like I’m looking down on anybody who spends their extra money on things they don’t “need.” For me, it was based solely on a personal conviction. But it’s probably the 2009 “resolution” I’m most proud of myself for seeing through until the end. And besides, this blog is about me. (See my name up there at the top? In the url bar? mmm-hmm.)
—–
Aaaaand (drumroll, please!) this concludes Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge!I enjoyed the prompts, and remembered that I actually enjoy blogging, rather than putting it off and making a chore of it. I can say that I’ve never felt so narcissistic in my life as I have this past month, writing exclusively about myself every couple of days for an hour, so that’s been kind of a downer. Maybe one of my 2010 resolutions could be “blog more relevant and interesting stuff?” We’ll see. I am making resolutions this year — something I was undecided about for a while, but all of this reflecting on 2009 has convinced me that there are still changes I want to make. I think I’m saving it for a future post, though, if I decide to post them at all.
So for those of you who have been reading through December, thanks — seriously. I know I ramble a lot. (2010 — “blog more concise stuff?” so many options.) Happy New Year!
listening to: Bush – Glycerine (found 16 Stone for 99 cents at Salvation Army. Bought it, of course. 90’s flashbacks are the best.)
Sushi-nery? Best of 2009, continued.
December 29th, 2009 -
December 28 Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?
For years, stationery has been an area of my life which needed some reigning in. Sadly, I don’t write paper-letters often enough, and don’t mail thank-you notes or cards often enough, but this is a truth which remains well-disguised by my supply stock. My collecting goes through phases. For a while, it was vintage papers and envelopes, then trendy themed sets (Sushi-nery and Pink Panther fold-and-mails among my favorites). This year, the draw has been to all sorts of cards — handmade paper cards from around the world, clean-lined letterpress cards, delightful story cards, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Some of them don’t even make it to the stationery shelf, and instead get pinned to the wall somewhere.
December 29 Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?
There have been dozens, and 90% of them took place at Santa Fe Mexican restaurant here in Greenwood, as part of our household semi-regularly-scheduled dinner outings. Something about the combination of Wendy, Michele, Abby, me, and those tortilla chips make everything very, very funny. And good memories.
aha! and other things
December 27th, 2009 -
Not only a really big batch, but a lot of difficult questions. No wonder I put these off for so long. They’re long, rambly, and without pictures, so if you ever picked a post to skip, pick this one. Here goes…
December 22 Startup. What’s a business that you found this year that you love?
I’m almost always skeptical of startups, mostly because so many new businesses claim to have a “revolutionary” or “innovative” business model, but for the most part, they’re either recycling something that has already been done, or embarking on something that just doesn’t add up financially (and folding a year or two later). I mean, I’m certainly no business expert, but we all knew where ChaCha.com was headed long before they got there. That being said, I have always been fascinated by businesses that use micro-targeted marketing, especially as an integral part of their revenue system. I guess the real attraction is due to the fact that technology plays such a big role in tracking the trends and mining the data to support such marketing, and it’s something that I think still has a lot of unexplored (and sometimes ethically debatable) potential. So while I haven’t used this business enough yet to know if I “love” it or not, I’d definitely say that the most fascinating startup I’ve seen this year is Alice.com, which sells basic household products (non-perishable grocery, toiletry, cleaning, etc). Its business model sort of expands on the logic behind the “bonus” cards grocery stores give out — they get to track and analyze our spending habits, and in exchange they offer us discounts and targeted coupons. The difference is that Alice not only offers targeted coupons, they also ship everything you order for free, saving an actual shopping trip, occasional (targeted) free samples (beats coupons, no?), and prices that are comparable to Food Lion. Their selection is sort of hit-and-miss right now, presumably since they’re so new, but they do have a lot of interesting smaller brands and organic / green products I wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. The customer reviews are useful, too. Alice stores a list of your products, and allows you to schedule an order frequency, emailing to remind you when it’s time to re-purchase something. It’s not something I think I’ll use exclusively (I’m the kind of person who doesn’t realize she needs more deodorant until she’s completely out, for example), or even all that often, but I’ve already found a couple of new favorite brands to keep me coming back occasionally at least, and I don’t think I mind trading my shopping trends for a few free samples.
December 23 Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn’t live without it.
Mint.com is an easy answer. I have been using this site for a couple of years at least, but this is the first year I’ve really put it to work. This tool is truly incredible. It organizes all of my online banking — checking, savings, credit cards, investments, 401k, property values (well, I have a car, a bike, and a macbook — those count, right?), and keeps up with all of it. It automatically categorizes every transaction on all of my cards, and remembers my settings (”checks in amount x are always category y,” for example). It sends me alerts when my accounts are running low, credit card bills are due, or large transactions hit my accounts. It graphs my spending by category, lets me create my own categories, and lets me set budgets for my spending. I never have to think about how much money I “actually” have between my checking account and credit card bills — it figures all of that out for me. As for 401k / investments, it tracks each stock and its trends, like a little WSJ ticker or something. Being slightly obsessive-compulsive, charts and graphs are exciting to me anyway, and these are so well-laid out and useful.
I saw someone balancing his checkbook at work last week, and was shocked to realize that some people still actually have to put time and effort into keeping finances straight. I know I am a spoiled child of the 21st century, but I honestly can’t fathom why anybody these days isn’t using online banking and finance management. I itemize my taxes, and this is going to make it (almost) painless.
(And for those of you wondering what Mint’s business model is, yes — they’re also on the “micro-targeting” end of things. Their privacy policy protects you from anything too intrusive, but they are collecting aggregate trends and data to provide you with “targeted” sponsor offers along the lines of checking accounts, credit accounts, savings, etc. where they think you will maximize your savings, and they probably make additional profit selling such statistics. Again, this is somewhere I don’t mind trading a little bit of my generic spending trends for a valuable service.)
December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?
I think I’m always learning something. This has been a big year of “learning” for me, at least if I try to remember what I was like a year ago, but it’s kind of hard to put my finger on specific “lessons” that I’ve learned. I think a big one (and one that is still very much a “work in progress”) is this:
“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” – Psalms 46:10
If I were to list my top favorite words of all time, “productivity” would be in the top half. I am a chronic Type-A personality. I don’t deal well at all with boredom, waiting on people, not having a set schedule, or days where I don’t accomplish much. I have had many days where I have actually cried because I slept past ten in the morning. When I am feeling stressed, I don’t take a nap or schedule a break — I make a to-do list, which I somehow find delightful and calming. (Just reading this makes me question my own sanity, honestly.) In short, “being still” has never been a strong point of mine. But reading about Mary and Martha, or Jesus’ time with His disciples, or even just Paul’s words about the fruits of the Spirit, it’s obvious that I’m missing out when I let myself get stuck into thinking that my value comes from how many check marks I can put on the to-do list each day. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about and are thinking “wow, she’s crazy, what a ridiculous problem to have,” you are probably right, but I know that there are others of you out there (somewhere? hello?) who understand the battle against a misguided sense of accomplishment. So that’s the lesson I’m fighting learning the most lately.
December 25 Gift. What’s a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?
Materialistically, you mean? I finally allowed myself to buy a reliable car, which is somewhat unlike me, and probably a sign that I am growing up / getting old.
If I allow a more broad interpretation of “gift,” I have spent a lot of really fun time with friends this year. Probably my favorite relaxing “activity” this year has been over at Anna and Justin’s with the game crew, playing Balderdash or Gin or Catch Phrase or Rook or whatever seemed fun.
December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?
… I don’t actually care about politics. I mean, I used to, a little bit, and then I for a while I was pretty opinionated on it. But this year, it just started seeming so irrelevant, when compared with the “big picture.” I don’t consider myself un-patriotic, and I stay informed enough to vote intelligently. But in so many parts of the world, people are living under governments so much worse than ours. Don’t get me wrong — I am not taking issue with anyone who enjoys or is involved with or opinionated about politics. I’m just saying that when I really started considering myself as a child of the Kingdom of God, I feel outraged for those suffering all over the world, and a lot of the pressing debates here in the states seem pretty trivial in comparison.
December 27 Social web moment.
After forgetting its existence for months at a time, only to log in and find myself aghast at the tasteless spam gracing my profile page, I finally deleted my MySpace account. Boo yah.
listening to: Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance (Yep, the whole album. Turns out this “reflecting back in time” thing took me a bit further back than just January 2009…)
