Credit is the new sexy?

The New York Times threw me for a loop today.  The only time I've ever looked up anything to do with my credit was when I needed to check how many of my 16 different ridiculous student loans were past due and by how many days. I still don't actually know my score because i refused to pay $7.99 for that irrelevant piece of information. I know, I know... very important blah blah. Apparently...

 according to the article featured on NYT today I should not have mentioned any of the above as I am a single female in the dating market. Because now no one will want me.

Apparently.

Ok if you don't want to read the article, essentially the newest topic to be broached in dating conversations has to do with your magic number. No. Not how many sexual partners you've had- not THAT number. Your score.

"Hey you look really lovely. I'm so glad we found each other on FindMeADate.com."
"Thanks, I'm really happy too. But before our dinners come I just want to ask you something."
"I don't have any STDs, I've only been with two long term partners, and there is no history of diabetes or cancer in my family."
"No.... that's..."
"Then?"
"Have you been making consistent payments on your bills and debts? Gosh I'm so embarrassed to ask this but... What is your credit score?"

I mean.... that is just the sexiest conversation I've never had. Oh. My. God.

In case there are interested parties out there I'll tell you something right now. My credit score is SHIT. because i pseudo paid with a GIANT credit card for an education that cost me WAY more than everything i own put together times 4. but that's cool. because as i said before, my credit score is irrelevant. Why? because i'm not planning on buying a house anytime soon. or a brand new car. why? because i can't afford any of that shit BECAUSE I HAVE TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON MY GIANT CREDIT CARD.

Until i'm ready to buy a house, I feel that my credit score is really just.... another number to add to the list of numbers that define who i am in a system i'm not really a part of.... and that's ok. for me.

I guess all i can say is- if anybody asks me what my credit score is on the first, second, third, or however many dates before this sucker's getting on one knee, I will be taking the "what's your sexual number" attitude with my answer.

Until then, my analysis is this: perhaps these people featured in the article (minus the lady who was blindsided by "the question" in the opening) are still single BECAUSE they keep asking this stupid question to people who are complete strangers! I, for one, am glad to have read this article because now i know that there are people like this out there in the world and i must hone my skills in identifying these D-bags from afar before they come near me and infect my soul with their number-ccentric ways of life. But on the bright side, i'll just use this topic to deter the OTHER D-bags who try to pick me up with a line and a drink; probably as sexy as talking about pregnancy and babies... heh heh.

My newest inspiration

I am very far from avant garde when it comes to music preferences.  I don't go seeking for the latest anyone and I still listen to my favorite tracks from the 90's on my current playlist. Unless I hear it perchance and fall in LOVE with it I don't really go looking for it. Don't get me wrong- there are new songs that come into my life on the daily but they've usually been known and loved and used up and tossed like a condom by other music enthusiasts by the time I get around to hearing it for the first time.

It's not that I don't care for music. I absolutely need to have music in my life. Constantly. I just don't need constant musical revelations in my life. I never really felt like my music library was lacking some one ridiculous band that is a must have on any and every playlist. Again, don't get me wrong- my library is extremely limited. I have friends who have several separate hardrives full of just music and I can barely fill up my 8 gig ipod. I've just never felt that musical drive to collect more, have more, experience more.

Until now.

Chris Owyoung is amazing. Amazing. He's not even a musician. He's a photographer. And he makes me want to know more about every band and musician he has ever done a portrait of.

His photos are amazing. I can't think of another word right now that's all I've got.

Just go look.

Be sure to look at the galleries page too. Maybe you're thinking yeah well lots of photographers take great portrait shots in studios with ridiculous equipment. But check out his concert photos.



photo by Chris Owyoung

I swear if i couldn't see the screaming fans I'd have thought those were done in studio too. They are SO sharp!! Holy crap. Seriously If I could practice and practice and somehow eventually, maybe, by some stroke of fortune, with a minor revelation of hidden talent, take photos like any one of his. That's just where my sentence ends.



photo by Chris Owyoung

He is definitely my newest inspiration. Now if you will excuse me. I will be poring over everything and anything his name is attached to so I can maybe absorb some of his skill through my eyeholes.

Winter is here!

With only four days of fall in between Summer and Winter. My fingers are freezing off at a speed of really really fast. :/ My NaNoWriMo assignment is... failing to say the least though i DID start. i did i did. But why? Because my mommy bought me a christmas present early and tis is... tis is.... YES!! IT'S A CAMERA!! remember?

And my god I can say that though i've always said it i've proven myself right in that when I know myself, sheesh I know myself. Despite completely forgetting about my "Camera Wish List" post, I ended up getting pretty much exactly what I wanted. Seriously-

Introducing: My first DSLR

Like my car it is dependable, beat up, used, completely endearing, stock, and RIDICULOUSLY functional. Exactly like I wished for. Only difference is I didn't get the Canon T3, I got a Nikon D70s. Uh-mazing.

For $250 I got this lovely used camera body with the kit 18-70mm lens just like everybody else. Though because I bought it from a very good friend of mine, Kellen, I got a great deal to include a few CF cards, an extra battery, the pretty little manual, and just the happy feeling of not having to worry if i'm being ripped off with a shit product.

that's meeeeee! taken at Frenchman Coulee where i climb the day I got my D70s. photo by Kellen Harrel

Then, as a treat to me-self, I got a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G prime to go with my pretty little camera!! Though not the Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM (for obvious reasons) I will say that I pretty much got everything I said I'd get. And for a grand total of $410.

Learning so much already- I'll post a photo of my little dear as well as a photo of my OTHER little dear (Mori) so you can see how much he's GROWWWWN!! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

One thing I regret is that I did not have this camera sooner so that I could have taken some very pretty pictures of Bungae for us to remember him. As it is, there are no frameable photos of Bungae to hang in our house in his memory :'(

The Maltese Falcon

So I finally finished reading Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh) that I'd been reading for an inordinate amount of time and then.... well basically I was in shock for a while. Yes. The book was horrifying in the most ordinary way and so i followed it up by watching the film. While the film was jarring and visually assaults the audience attempting to do justice to the novel, the monstrous images that grow in your mind from the words you are forced to read cannot be visually portrayed because everyone knows somebody like what is described, or has heard of someone like whose story you're witnessing, in real life. But everyone knows Begbie to look differently. Everyone has heard of a Mark but he doesn't necessarily look like Ewan McGregor....

Next adventure: The Maltese Falcon. The path I took to discover this mystery novel was a little odd and took many months to get there though i didn't know i was going there at the time. I re-purposed my super movie watching mission and added several more films to the list- one of which was the movie Brick (2005). I loved the style of the film so much that i went to the director's site to learn more about his inspiration and reason for stylizing it the way he chose. Then through a forum, I was led to more reviews and more discussions of this film. Which led me to the vocabulary words "film noir," "hammett," "chandler," and a few others that I have chosen to study a bit of. Researching "hammett" in conjunction with "film noir" led me to "Sam Spade" which led me to "The Maltese Falcon" which happens to be on my Ultimate Reading List as WELL as one of the additional lists of films to be watched and categorized. Bam and bam, wheeeee!!

As you can imagine, i've been knocking several things off of many lists and that makes me abundantly happy (see "wheeeee" above).

What does not make me happy is that The Maltese Falcon story was very much less exciting than I had hoped it would be based on my exciting and fruitful journey that led me to that end. Perhaps it is that being written in 1930, and I being of very late 1980's, I just expect a different kind of mystery novel. However I will say this I have never read a mystery novel that has so much mystery and such precise development and plot revelation as this novel.  There were so many details that just never led anywhere and i guess having details like "i'll ring the bell four times long short long short" and then not ever having it occur or come to light is what confuses me. I've read most of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries and I've been spoiled by the champ at tying up every loose end and seemingly detached detail. This novel seemed a little loosely created and very quickly twisted to come to a clean ending where Sam Spade is bad ass private detective of the century.

And boy is he!

When I finished reading The Maltese Falcon the next logical step was obviously to track down the original film rendition of the novel and hellooooooooooooooo Humphrey Bogart :)


Well. The film was no different. Which speaks volume of the film for being so true to novel without making a mockery of film or novel. But the sense of unfinishedness and "wtf" was also still there from the novel. And Humphrey Bogart was very bad ass as Sam Spade although.... kind of short? Strange. Either way watching this film some deem the first of the film noir era and watching the novel come to life in a time that I have never seen for myself was definitely something for a Sunday afternoon.

NaNoWriMo

Do you know it? A friend of mine told me of it a few years ago and I've decided that this year I will definitely do my best to participate. This will be hard work as I've got several other things I'm working on at the moment.... But keeping busy is better than staying idle, that's the truth of it.

If you don't know what it is you can visit the website here. Basically you spend the entire month of November to push out whatever piece of writing you've been putting off forever. You literally push it out like the child you never wanted.

Not too difficult, there are only the few rules below (copied from the site) that you must adhere to:

Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.

Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people’s works).

Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you’re writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!

Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.

Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.

Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.

With only two weeks to plan I have no ideas as to what I want to write. I've had ideas for short stories and fairy tales before but none of which have come to fruition. They say on the site that it's ok not to know what you're doing as you begin this quest. That's good because my "novel" is going to sound like a bunch of brainstormed gibberish for the first 160 pages I'm sure. Followed by three amazingly coherent pages and then the last twelve pages reading like a rogue keyboard having a seizure of sorts.

They say you're allowed to brainstorm an outline and develop characters so I guess that's what I'll have to do.... what a crazy idea... just a month of massive free-writing with hundreds of thousands of minds coming together to write and write and write some more. I gotta say. I like it.

You know what I like doing?

I like making lists. (I know I know... everyone likes making lists.) But I mean it in the literal sense. I like writing lists. It's never just good enough to print out a list and then cross things off, if I see a list I want to make a sheet of paper with properly spaced rows and columns and write them in by hand.

Today my list is of the Top 100 Canadian Films as picked by the Possible Worlds Film Festival people.  They've got the list online, but I've now got my OWN list. the same list in the same order and even with LESS information than the fancy reviews and summaries that are on the site. But it's mine and it's in my hand and for some reason the list is more real because I can touch it. Like the 100 films that have been put down onto three sheets of paper are now a unit and it belongs to yours truly. I've just now finished it.

see?

Yeah but what about those other lists that I've put on my blog? You better believe that I've got that shit on paper, stored away, and preserved in its greatness.... Even the list of Empire's 500 movies. Written out. By hand.... That one actually hurt my wrist....

The one I'm working on next is Time Out Paris Top 100 French Films. Can you see a trend here?

Who is Starbuck?




Only $6 and a 40 minute drive :P




look at this face. look at that name. how could you not?

Hey Girl. -Love, Ryan

Everyone has seen the Ryan Gosling memes floating around on the interweb, yes? I mean he's gorgeous, stops your heart with a smile, dresses in that "i'm really too cool to care because i'll still look amazing" way, and has a ridiculously adorable dog (named George, go figure) that somehow seems fitting to make this stud appear to be the complete opposite of the douche-bag we girls who can't have him would love to imagine that he is to make ourselves feel better about the missing Ryan in our lives.


(interesting fact: if you read that massive sentence out loud in one breath you should start feeling a tiny bit of the heart pain we Ryan-less girls feel every time we see a picture of this man.)


Prepare your panties ladies and gents- behold the glory that is RG:




of course he would carry his dog up the escalator.... and his expression: that's love shining out of his eyeballs there, people. This photo left in giant size for learning purposes only..







</uncontrollable drooling>



so back to what i was saying... Take photos of this man, add quirky - sometimes pithy - captions all around his face and you get:

if you're new to this... SHAME ON YOU! but seriously, you can find out more about this HERE and if you ACTUALLY read the article, you'll see that you can buy a BOOK of these images! For the coffee table... or night stand.. or you can just keep it under your pillow.. like i would.. whatever...

well when you look at me like that Ryan...

It's gonna be hard but... for you?

I died!! AAHAHAHAHA

So supportive..

George making another guest appearance.... Basking in RG love.

Stop~!!!

that hair, that smile, that stubble. swoon. <3

I'm dying..

wood watching...

photo props: http://oldphotoguy.com/p333085964/h3A8CA1BC#h2a557460 Oh hey I'm just.... Chillin. In a TREE... NBD.

^   this guy....  ^

LIKE THIS!!! RAWWWRRR! also.. apparently eating?

On top of all this awesomeness you can feel even better about your purchase because WeWood is partnered with American Forest's Global ReLeaf on a mission to "restore Mother Nature- one watch at a time." For every WeWood that is bought, a tree is planted somewhere in the world to help clean air and water and generally bring natural goodness to our lives. Now that's what I'm talking about!! Of course I could never just settle for any old watch like some Rolex or something......




But seriously- how can you say no? At only about $120 per watch (which comes with a TREE included!!) that's a steal and you don't even need to dig the hole!




Seriously though.. Outfitted in your favorite Toms, grab your Jatalo bag full of your specific type of seed bombage, have your Falling Whistle ready at your lips, (don't forget your Charity: water Kor delta bottle of water), and now with your choice of WeWood, you're more than ready (and guaranteed to be super punctual as well) to save the planet Earth- Captain Planet style... remember that show?.







Pictures of my WeWood will be posted soon :)




Harvest Fail...

Remember all those crops I planted? yeah so this was definitely a "first year farmer" experience. Some crops were beautiful, some crops never were, and some crops were taken out by Moribear before their time :(

Tomatoes: destroyed in their green with not even a chance to cry for their lives. Mori discovered that he rather liked the tartness of green tomatoes. Two today, three tomorrow.. an entire bush vine of tomatoes annihilated in less than a month. There were only three survivors who later became amazing tomato basil pasta sauce in memory of their late vine siblings. Next year, vines will need to be Mori-proofed before he realizes what the tomato plants are. Challenge accepted.

he's doing it again.... contemplating which one will be dinner...

Eggplants: my mom's were singled out by Mori for early devouring. We never even saw them pass. Each morning we would wake up to realize one had been taken in the night. But who? But how?? They weren't even ready..... only pieces of soft purple flesh and bits of stem could be recovered... littering the sleeping place of the monster.

Luckily, he hasn't figured out where my eggplants are growing. So they are in hiding and steadily growing. They're a bit late for the season but they are survivors. They will be delicious.





Frig peppers: also late, also surviving. Will report back once tasted.

Rhubarb looked to be dying but bounced back full force! It has made a healthy recovery and will be ready for pies and co. come next summer. Leaves are big, stalks are red; expecting a nice harvest next year.

Cucumbers: ducked out early on. Seemed to be getting with the crew but decided they wanted to go elsewhere. Hopefully we will be revisited for lemon cucumbers next year.

Bok Choy: was amazing. Those things were relentless. Grow ANYWHERE seriously. they were nice, juicy, and very crisp- most disgustingly, full of earwigs. I absolutely hate earwigs. {shudder} but the harvest was good, and was shared with all.

Strawberries were dropped like dominos one by one. Every time one turned red, it was disappeared into the maw of Morizilla. By the time July rolled around to start having some nice ones, he was definitely big enough to start poking his nose into the little berry bush. It was all over from there.

My purple snaps yielded much... but they were not so yummy. I think next year I will have to strategize better.

Artichokes.... out of six, three remain. Technically four but the one is off on its own and winter survival is highly unlikely. The other three i will protect with utmost care. If i can just save ONE......

Nectarines were amazing this year- pruning is the key!!!
Plums are still on the tree: They look pretty good, decent yield, fairly sweet. Should be ready here soon..

Potatoes blue and red: surprisingly I had a lot of little potatolings!! but i confess, i didn't keep up with my vertical potato planting so that's all I had... potatolings. however they're perfect for planting next year and I now know, the location was an ill choice for these particular babies.

Sweet potatoes: well well.... the vines were amazingly lush. I would grow sweet potatoes just for their aesthetic appeal as the little tubers grow. I have yet to unearth and see whether any potatoes grew underneath. Meh... that's not as heartbreaking for me, they were beautiful to see grow. Plus my tomato vines and the sweet potatoes are literally choking each other out. we'll see who the victors are!

So many others didn't make it :( Too little sun, too much water, too much sun, too little water, random torrential rains, giant starving monster... What's left is left and I'm glad to have had the little that I got and next year I will be prepared. Strawberries on the fence- HIGH on the fence!

Day 5

This is my best friend ... took me over a month to capture the essence.

Bovine Envy

STOP WATCHING THE HONEY BADGER VIDEO!!!

my problem is...

I always stop and obsess over recipes that are dips or casseroles of some kind! Why why why!? there's only two in my house who will eat anything i make therefore considering dips are not adequate sources of nutrition and sustenance and casseroles require multiple days of eating the same thing or multipe people of eating it once, neither kind of recipes are practical choices for me.

Mori update~

My how he's grown again... from this:

giant apple coma... "don't look at me! i'm UGLY!!"

I hope he stays little forever... because any bigger and he'll actually be able to take out my knees when he comes to a sliding stop... not just pop it :/ tooooooo big!

to be a champion...

If only I could keep this in mind when I'm actually in the process of suffering. Then I would be a champion too....

The creature grows...

Day 4

If you don't know what I mean it's because you don't know me and I forgive you.

A little late but DAY 3

If you know what it is... let's be bffs! I make my own homemade :)

A different rendition of me..

I gotta say I'm likin the cape! However I maintain ... a tutu is in order. Always.

Day 2

My favorite animal...

Day 1 bitches.....

This me.

30 day drawing

I'm embarking on a 30 day drawing challenge. Observe:


blog.allisonlehman.com

Tomorrow is Day 1.

Today is the funeral of one of my friends. I can't express all of the regrets that I have about this last year when I thought about and could have visited at any time but didn't.

Remember how we met? I was definitely too cool for you... i know you agree that the benefit was on your end that we became friends- especially as you wouldn't have gotten home from the airport without me :) I hope you get to rest in peace listening to lil wayne and running circles around everyone where ever you may end up. I'll look out for some kid in a few years, who seems to have your particular sense of humor (or lack thereof), lives off of popsicles, and runs all day- just because that's the only speed they know. I'm sure I'll find him around Franklin park sometime soon and everyone who saw you as the fixture of the park that you were, will know you've come back :P

Miss you kid. Love you.

Mori!

Lots of new things happening! New phone, new recipes, new PUPPY!! new turd messes all over the house... :(

..........and strawberries

yeah i went there.. two strawberry plants: berries galore and loran.

I have a problem.

I just wanna be a foodie~

Is that too much to ask for? I want to read about food, look at food, definitely make the food, then eat the food, then talk about food, and take pictures of food, and write about food! I want to do all of these things! WHY? WHY WHY?!  It's just... that I don't have to time to devote to being a total food junkie.
I don't even have time to be an anything junkie. I just... can't be a junkie of any kind. I consider this a huge failure and a gaping hole in my life. sad.

Cooking like a maniac!!

Yesterday was my day to cook for the week (remember? Mondays?) and did. i. cook! I was all over the kitchen making rhubarb-beer jam; spicy coconut sauce; green onion oil; quinoa, asparagus, garbanzo bean salad; and fajita burritos for the week! I think there were other things involved, but i can't remember.

Decisions and more decisions

I have to rein in my life and get a handle on my shit for the next couple of months. Like my garden, my life is out of control right now. I've got too many things going on and a ridiculous number of ideas and wants and craziness just stockpiling in the back of my over cluttered, already exploding, little brain.

Gasworks then B&O

What a weekend~ super busy finishing up my patio and then some!

Friday night I went out!!! and picked up rocks for my yard... of course. What did you think I meant out to party? pshaw! that's something only young people do. Didn't I mention I'm already in my EARLY TWENTIES!? {sigh} it disturbs me how much my granny-like tendencies don't disturb me. To ask "what's wrong with me" wouldn't even begin to scratch the surface so.... I went to pick up rocks, brought back a small pickup full and on the way, I went to another random person's house who was giving away free raspberry plants! How could I resist?!?! So I went and dug up some spindly raspberry canes to plant in my garden that has already run out of room {sad}. Got home, unloaded half of the rocks, checked on my plant babies, put down a few patio pavers, got tired, and went inside....

IT'S SUMMAH!!! and an update... and it's long. and that is what she said.

The weather has been getting SOOOOOO nice here and I've got projects lining up around the block! First things first of course- gotta finish my patio. It's moving on to its second summer.. i think it's time. Actually, I'm only three rows from finishing it up and sadly, because it is near the end, it is also the most complicated rows. This is where the shit hits the fan. Where all the ugly is exposed. Where everyone gets naked. And dance around a bon fire... wait, what?

farming~~~

I wish I could be a farmer. Not just the backyard garden kind- the multi-acre kind. I've been planting little seeds and my babies have been growing! I haven't had this much fun in forever. Climbing is thrilling, buying is thrilling, reading is pleasurable, sleeping is euphoric, but gardening and seeing the fruits of your labor... it makes me giddy like a child in a candy store. The funny thing about it is I didn't have to do anything but pop the seeds in, water it, and very occasionally put a cover over the tray so that the wind doesn't cool the soil too much. The plants basically just grow on their own and what's more, it went from a week of not seeing any changes in the soil to four sprouts shooting through in one day!! I'll be posting pictures soon but crazily, when I took pictures at 7 am Saturday morning, only one of the tray pods had a little sprout but when I came back from working at about 11 am, there were four! How did that happen?! It was so amazing that randomly I catch myself sitting next to the tray and staring at the soil as if I'll be able to see the damn things actually pop out of the ground.... Don't laugh.

Camera Wish list~

I am not the ambitious kind. I have simple wants and just enough drive to get them- most of the time. When I load things to do onto my little plate, it's not because I want to do these things to get someplace, it's just because I want to do them.
As such, I've researched and researched, and I've got a wish list that is slowly developing. Simplicity is key. And fancy is not.

I would like my first DSLR to be like my first car: dependable, beat up, used, completely endearing, stock, and highly functional. I think I'm going to go for a Canon T3. I've been told Canon is the most overpriced camera out there, but from what I can see, they all pretty much cost the same once they're about a year old. I'm ok with this. My Canon T3 is going to be AMAZING!! At about $400, it's completely affordable.... until I add the lens that I want...

I would like my first lens to not be the kit lens that usually comes with the camera. Which is why I'm looking only for a cheap Canon T3 body. The lenses that I would like to start with are either the EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM which will hit me at about $320 or the Canon 28-135 mm f/3.5 IS which will set me back about $300. Through my research I've definitely learned is to invest in the lens, the body be damned! Ok, well not that dramatic maybe but definitely worry more about the lens than what kind of super high-tech body you've got going on. That is why the lenses that I've chosen cost almost as much as the actual camera that I want to buy.... but after reading around a bit, I think I'd rather invest a little more to begin with and not have to upgrade later. The lens will stay a better quality lens no matter where my photography takes me... so, if you're going to spend the money to begin with, why not just spend it upfront and get something that's actually worth the money, right?

Hopefully my photo-taking skills are only so desperately meager because of the limited powers of my slightly dysfunctional point-and-shoot.... Though I must say, there are photographers out there who do a ridiculous amount of things with a point-and-shoot worse than mine... :(

Maybe I shouldn't get the camera and stick with my point and shoot for a while... And really develop some basic skills...
...
...
BUT I HATE ITTTTTT~

Really though, I hate my little digital camera. It makes me upset.

Well anyhow, the DSLR won't be coming for a bit so I've got time, but until then..... as always donations are welcome! :P

Laundry!

Yesterday was my home-maker day. I found a recipe for making home-made laundry detergent and decided I must try it. First of all, as all of those who ever posted about home-made detergent will say, it is RIDICULOUSLY cost effective to make it yourself. My house pays on average between $20-30 every month and a half for a Costco sized 75 load container. Of course, the estimated load number varies greatly depending on who is actually doing the laundry but $25 for 70 loads is a good estimate. Simple math says we pay about $0.36 every load of laundry that we run. Or, if we are doing sheets or a particularly large loads (like every single one of my brother's loads) then we double or triple the amount of detergent to spend almost $1.10 per washing! Why is this relevant?

Because I made approximately 150 loads worth of home-made detergent yesterday for about $9.75. What does that MEAN, math-challenged friend?! That means we're now spending $0.07 per load of laundry. That's still less than a quarter even for every superload of laundry that we do!

Ah, how petty, you're thinking. Why cry over 75 cents (per superload), a dollar's not all that much to pay for laundry.

Au contraire mon ami. Let me show you- I feel up to some calculating today.

$25 for 70 loads every 1.5 months lands you at about 560 loads a year costing $200.

Rounding the number up to assume that my household does 600 loads of laundry a year, the formula that I made yesterday costing $9.75 will make 4 batches of 150 loads worth of detergent. Follow? So that will cost a total of $39 to make. Which means.....

$161 of saving money on SOAP. What a small number yes? False. There is no such thing as a small amount of savings because that is money that you would otherwise be spending when you don't actually HAVE to. And the best part? It takes about 15 minutes to make. What is the start-up cost for all this {you squint your eyes in suspicion)? Ready? $8. Use any bucket or container you have laying around your house to put the detergent in, buy a rotating cheese grater. That's it. If you buy one of those standing cheese graters, your start-up will be $4. If you live in a giant city, your soap will cost about $0.50 bringing your ingredient cost down to $7.75....

How can you say no?

excuse me while i go dance a jig. WINNING!

Home-made Laundry Detergent

Step 1-
Mix in a bucket:
2 parts grated commercial grade laundry bar soap (I.e. Fels-Naptha, Zote)
1 part Borax
1 part Washing Soda

Step 2-
Save money!

Unbelievable. Isn't it? Some people say use a cheese grater to grate the soap. Great idea, if you're super strong, never tire, and have that kind of time. I say cheese grater is an AMAZING idea... if you use the superfast rotating kind that Olive Garden uses. $8 Walmart. Purchase once, save hours.

Lottery or Paycheck?

Sitting at work I came across one of my favorite songs for the first time in a long while. One of the lines rang out from the song and got me thinking. It wasn't the first time this line struck me but today I really began to consider what the words would entail beyond just thinking that the line is really sweet...

He sings:
so if you want to be with me
with these things there's no telling
we just have to wait and see
but i'd rather be working for a paycheck
than waiting to win the lottery

Most of the time I agree. Relationships are hard and I am one to believe that it's better to work at a relationship that you have and try to make it great than wait around hoping for perfect to come along. And aside from relationships I believe in working at something to get what you want instead of sitting around hoping it will happen. I definitely believe in making things happen for yourself when it comes to everything to do with you as an individual. Nobody is out to get you but nobody is out the help you either if you're just sitting around expectantly. But in relationships? A relationship is something that can have you working really hard to end up with a check that really wasn't worth the hours. A relationship is also something that can come out of nowhere and out of the most unexpected chance meeting to reward you with a life full of a happiness you couldn't even imagine before it happened. Which one is better? Sometimes you hold onto something believing that the check will be worth it and pass up the opportunity to spend one dollar on a lotto ticket. Sometimes you spend every waking moment, every possible expendable dollar on lotto tickets when diligence and patience would have rewarded you beyond belief. Suddenly I'm not so sure if I agree with the song. It still touches my heart as a quaint ideal but I no longer believe it is the preferred option. Hmm.

Scaling Back

What's happened since then, hm? Since when, hm?

I haven't bought a DSLR but I am researching on how to do it effectively and cheaply. Tick that off at about an estimated $500.

My work schedule is sinking in and waking up at 4:45 in the morning is become less and less like a life threatening feat. Schedule is filling up though- not enough hours in the day. Headaches of the splitting kind seem keen to pursue me- why? I don't know. I guestimate dehydration as per usual and try to consume much water. Yet processing paperwork and vocal requests at such early hours beg me to reach first for the bean and second for the hydox. By lunch, I'm still working on the coffee and haven't yet touched my water. My eyes are over drying now. Haven't worn contacts in a week- feel weird about it but i'd rather not push it.

Eye problems are constant, for me and my mom. Lasik is being considered. At about $3500 a person, it is somewhat reasonable to think of getting it done. Mom's health insurance will definitely not cover it. Will mine? We'll see.

Picking up rock climbing again- but this time on real rock. It's absolutely awesome! Met up with some people I met on a climbing forum for the cascades and had an amazing time. Just ordered shoes and a harness which should get me up and climbing at least for a while. Eventually I'll have to get a rope and clips. Did my first lead on Monday~ of course it was a SUPER easy climb that you can basically walk up but it was definitely good for learning to lead. Hopefully the equip gets here soon!

Signed up to volunteer at a horse ranch that uses horseback riding as a method of therapy for those who have certain physical and some mental handicaps. I signed up to go volunteer on Mondays but it looks like those are the days I'll get to climb. Horses? Rocks? Which should I choose? Maybe I'll keep up with this rock climbing crowd until I get the hang of it and then volunteer at the ranch for the next session. Does that make me selfish?

Acting classes are picking up. Not sure how I feel about my teacher because he seems like he has a wealth of knowledge but takes the class somewhat more seriously than most of the participants. At least that's what I feel... He also stops the improvs and tries to make adjustments a lot more than my last teacher ever did which really stops the flow of improv and the emotions that are coming out of the scene. Sometimes it's good for the scene to be stopped and redirected but sometimes he literally just walks RIGHT into the scene and stops it multiple times in a row- maybe he should give off stage direction and shout adjustments and wait for them to arise... but he seems to want all of his changes implemented immediately regardless of natural fit into the scene. Oh well, this week i'll just have to keep all of this in mind and work around it. I got the scene i'll be working on for the rest of the course and my scene partner is with Crystal! Woot! she's pretty cool, i gotta say. It's too bad i don't live closer to federal way or i think i'd have a lot of fun hanging out with her. So the scene she and I are doing is from the play called "middle of the night" by Paddy Chayefsky and I play the part of Betty, a blonde 25 year old who is going to divorce her husband. great. I am none of those things :) But alas, only in a perfect world is one cast as what one already is. that's why it's acting, no? So anyhow, our scene is going to only be about 3 pages of text which is probably less than ten minutes but lucky for me, Crystal wanted to be Marilyn who has way more giant chunks of lines so the memorization for me should be fairly easy!

This Sunday, I think I may drive to Seattle extra early and meet up with Levi and Crystal to romp around the city before class. The weather is supposed to be phenomenal this weekend!

I visited the packing plant yesterday and tried packing some apples... I would SO be fired the first day! I don't think i've been that stressed out in a long time. Gotta check for bruises that are near invisible, russet, and punctures, on top of decay, all while the line is just continuously moving. stress stress stress!! these ladies get MAJOR props for being there for as long as they are and doing this for as long as they do. But then again, my company is rumored to be the best pay and best position for packing facilities in the state of washington because once you're in, you're solid, and the pay is higher than most places and the BIGGEST benefit is that we pack all-year long. Other facilities only pack during the season. I'm proud of the fact that I work for a company people want to be with... but dear god if they ever tell me i have to pack fruit, i will give up the pay and just stick to waitressing forever! ;P I'm going to go today and try one of the slower lines again...

Ok enough of all that. I've decided I need to scale back on my spending plans. Basically I have reduced everything down to priorities. I've bought plenty of seeds to plant this summer, and my harness and shoes are hopefully on their way. that will keep me occupied for the summer in terms of needing to spend money for things to do. Everything else, like floating the river and tanning and whatnot will be free essentially. The motorcyle may have to take a backseat to the lasik. Depends. I'm going to meet my birthday deadline no matter what so I'll have to see how much those school loans are going to kick my butt and then start putting money aside. Entonces, my ridiculous spending spree plans are being put aside to make way for the necessities this summer- gas for classes, lasik for me and my mom, my bike, and sadly but lastly, my DSLR....

The Good, The Bad, and the Pricey of the News~

So I've got a job! Whooooo!!! Actually I've got two jobs. And for the most part, they are baw-lerrrrr!!! For one, they pay me pretty well. And I'm developing my brain on the constant... at least in terms of fine dining and apples- separately. You don't know what I'm talking about, but I do and that's all that really matters anyway. Yeah, I've got these two jobs that take up a lot of my time and pay me pretty handsomely to do so. I'm ok with that. The only problem is, now I've suddenly got so many things to BUY?! like what?!?! When I was broke ass trying to coast my car in neutral to save on gas, I was like "i've got not a want in the world but a full tank of gas" and now it's like... mmm yes, new gym pants. mmm yes, and make up! lots of it!! Given, these were all things I needed before, I was just being strong and pretending I could go without. But seriously, the wants just increase. Mostly it's for things I want to buy my family. All the things I had been thinking of to buy them but now I actually have some money and STILL not enough to buy them all but GODDAMMIT i've now got a stronger resolve to try!!!!

Update 2: Though not exactly on my blog-bucketleist, I've fulfilled my dream of learning to drive/owning a manual trans~ WHOOOOOO!! And I'm super badass with it now. Needless to say, I strut around now like I've got a BIG ol' dick. cuz i'm pretty sure I dooooo heh heh. AND AT THE SAME TIME BECAUSE I'M SO AWESOME---- I've fulfilled my OTHER unofficial dream of owning a pickup truck. I really am just so ridiculously awesome I don't even know how to handle it. Oh, you know how i handle it? by putting in a sweet little system in my sweet little pickup with my sweet GIANT first check!!! I'm not bragging but... really. How many times in one paragraph can I sing my own praises? At least one more time, I'm sure.

Update 3: I'm buying myself a DSLR finally. I'm doing some research and I must say I definitely lean toward Canon and Nikon. We shall see. And then it's photographer Jangles being UNLEASHED!! ............................................. into the office. for that is where i now spend the majority of my days :P makin the big bux. because i'm super awesome... heh heh.

Update 4: Horses. I'm also going to be getting into horse-back riding. that is- if i can find someone who'll let me get on one. ARRGGG!!! life-long mission of mine. Status: incomplete.

Update 5: Hey.... remember about that motorcycle? Yeah. Looks like i'll be picking that sucker up sometime late this summer. oh, what did you say? I'm a super badass? what? stop~~ i'm blushing. heh heh.

Needless to say all of this will cost me a lot of money but for this year, I think I'm ok with spending much of my earnings. There are things I need to catch up with in terms of accomplishing life goals. But then, it's save save save and then BOOM! I'll blow it all on something humungo!!! heh heh~ Then we can chat some more about what a badass I am. You're welcome.

Oh Bridget, you silly prat!

In the midst of my crazy Sherlock Holmes obsession (in which I began to slightly fantasize about a cocaine sniffing master of deduction several times throughout each day) I picked up a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary that I had laying around my room since I bought it for a dollar years ago passing by the Strand Bookstore. Then I watched the movie minutes after I finished. I don't know which is better but that  is really not the debate at hand! What I want to know is, when did romcoms and their "And they lived happily ever after" endings cease to be enough for my romantic imagination?! I find myself filled with elation at the final getting-togethers of the main characters in question but then the story ends and the elation becomes muddled by toxic twangs of "and then!?" followed by a futile search for more pages knowing full well they don't exist. {sadness} the twangs become pangs and the wistful smile becomes bittersweet and then a pathetic shrug ensues. The End. Now, each romcom ends in a burst of happiness but eventually as a quiet tragedy in my mind. Goddamn it Mark Darcy! Why are you just so damn cute and why are Bridget's stupid misunderstandings and ridiculous assumptions so much like real life that it almost seems as if some form of real life Mark Darcy is going to pop up anytime soon now...? While not all that exceptional as a literary piece, the book definitely outlines the gist of a life that I think every woman who has ever felt like an idiot, felt completely embarrassed in front of everyone important in life, had too many units of alcohol, shared a group of ridiculously same-wave psychotic friends, felt like every day is some form of crisis, felt like every day some form of mind blowing happiness is coming, felt like they haven't had a fag or a shag in far too long, tried and failed at any form of dieting, or all of the above, can relate to on a deeply personal level. And as such, Helen Fielding has reintroduced every woman who has read this book to a more real and life sized version of Mr. Darcy, or better known later as Prince Charming, who is still, after all of the time since Jane Austen through early Disney to now, completely not real and completely unattainable. Fuckwittage, indeed.