Well. I'm so bad at NaNoBloMo that I already missed two days and it's only day four, but I'm gonna keep trying.
I was mostly offline over the weekend because I was visiting my mom. I don't listen to a lot of podcasts but it takes me a few hours to get to her house so it's a good time for me to get caught up.
The only two that I listen to consistently are Spilled Milk and the Bad Yogi Podcast. They both had fairly recent episodes on meal planning. Since these particular podcasts don't have much overlap, I couldn't resist listening to the episodes back to back.
Both of them were interesting. The Spilled Milk podcast was a little more real for me though. They both had good tips and helpful information though.
IF you haven't listened to either of them before, Spilled Milk is sort of a food comedy podcast and The Bad Yogi podcast features Erin Motz (aka the Bad Yogi) interviewing people about different health and wellness topics. I recommend both of them.
Do you do any meal planning? I try but I'm not great at it. It's definitely something I want to get more on track with, not just for health but also for budgeting. I am not good about keeping organized. I walk through the grocery store and think about what looks good, but then I get home and it doesn't really come together into meals. Like...what do you even do with Napa cabbage,guys? I don't know, but I bought it. It's sitting in the fridge, judging me, right now. I can feel it
Do you meal plan? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you have any podcast recommendations or, more pressingly, a favorite podcast app? Since I switched to an iPhone I've been using the podcasting app it came with and it's not...very good? I still can't figure out how to make a playlist or if I even can so if you have either instructions for that or you know...just a less terrible app, that would be great.
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Thursday, November 1, 2018
crankypants is trying
So I am terrible at social media. Almost as bad as I am at blogging. Nevertheless, I have ventured into the world of Instagram. This probably means it isn't cool anymore so expect any and all teenagers to abandon the platform immediately. You can find me there under crankypants makes: https://www.instagram.com/crankypantsmakes/. No matter how much the world changes I will pretty much always be cranky so it seemed like a good name to stick with.
I have been making stuff lately. I had a summer of making. Took classes at the local extension office and learned to make baskets and dye fabric and got inspired to get back into sewing. That's been a little bit of a hard row to hoe because my sewing machine, an ancient and blessed Singer that my mom handed down to me, died. I hope to find a repairman to revive it, but so far it's resting peacefully in the guest room closet. I bought a replacement which turned out to be a lemon, and was once again without a machine I have recently purchased a refurbished Juki.
A refurbished Juki was the only way I could afford one and keep both my kidneys. They are supposed to be great machines and absolute workhorses but the fact that it doesn't come with a manufacturer's warranty makes me sweat a little as even refurbed it was a liiiiiiitle bit painful.
So far I have been working on Christmas presents and projects. I have started my first quilt but I'm so nervous about messing it up that it is going very slowly. It's a Christmas tree quilt and at the current rate I expect it to be done sometime next Christmas.
My next small projects are making draft stoppers for my doors and windows attempting to make a yoga bolster.
I am also going to attempt to celebrate the now (mostly) defunct National Blog Post Month by keeping up here for at least a month. I should probably figure out how to do this on my phone so I don't miss weekends.
Happy November to anyone who's still out there!
I have been making stuff lately. I had a summer of making. Took classes at the local extension office and learned to make baskets and dye fabric and got inspired to get back into sewing. That's been a little bit of a hard row to hoe because my sewing machine, an ancient and blessed Singer that my mom handed down to me, died. I hope to find a repairman to revive it, but so far it's resting peacefully in the guest room closet. I bought a replacement which turned out to be a lemon, and was once again without a machine I have recently purchased a refurbished Juki.
A refurbished Juki was the only way I could afford one and keep both my kidneys. They are supposed to be great machines and absolute workhorses but the fact that it doesn't come with a manufacturer's warranty makes me sweat a little as even refurbed it was a liiiiiiitle bit painful.
So far I have been working on Christmas presents and projects. I have started my first quilt but I'm so nervous about messing it up that it is going very slowly. It's a Christmas tree quilt and at the current rate I expect it to be done sometime next Christmas.
My next small projects are making draft stoppers for my doors and windows attempting to make a yoga bolster.
I am also going to attempt to celebrate the now (mostly) defunct National Blog Post Month by keeping up here for at least a month. I should probably figure out how to do this on my phone so I don't miss weekends.
Happy November to anyone who's still out there!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time I started watching Once Upon a Time. I got about a halfway through season one. I have this problem, sometimes. I start a series and I get...bored. This happened with Grimm, too. Which is funny. Because I love fairy tales my goodreads.com profile reflects that. I will read any number of fairy tales and retellings, whether they are good, bad, or as is generally the case, just totally mediocre. Sadly, as many books as I read, not all of them are standouts, and in fact, most of them fall squarely in the middle. I suppose this is the case for TV shows, as well.
Once Upon a Time had me captured at the beginning but truth me told, by the time Prince Charming was being hauled in for questioning, my attention was flagging. The characters that had drawn me in were still interesting, but we just weren't spending enough time with them.
Grimm had the same problem. There were some interesting characters - but none of them were the main guy. Unfortunately, I found him about as interesting as watching paint dry. It turns out that no matter how good looking you are, if you have the personality of milk, you're not gonna do it for me. It was very disappointing to me to have Once Upon a Time and Grimm not engage me immediately because they should have been right up my alley.
This happened with Firefly, too. So many of my friends love it and wanted me to love it to. And I like science fiction and I like westerns. I should have been ALL OVER IT. But I could not get engaged with the characters.
By that same token, sometimes I will watching a really not the fantastic show because the characters work well for me. As much as I love Stargate, the early episodes got off to a rough start, plot wise. But the characters, individually and as a group, worked pretty much from the first moment.
When it comes to television, or even books and films. One of the things that bothers me is that lack of characterization. The Anita Blake series is a former favorite, but long about book 7, the characters...changed. Who they were, hwy they did what they did? It didn't matter anymore. It could have been a totally different series. Why build these characters only to throw it away and say "nope! not anymore?"
Be true to your characters and be invested in them.
Once Upon a Time had me captured at the beginning but truth me told, by the time Prince Charming was being hauled in for questioning, my attention was flagging. The characters that had drawn me in were still interesting, but we just weren't spending enough time with them.
Grimm had the same problem. There were some interesting characters - but none of them were the main guy. Unfortunately, I found him about as interesting as watching paint dry. It turns out that no matter how good looking you are, if you have the personality of milk, you're not gonna do it for me. It was very disappointing to me to have Once Upon a Time and Grimm not engage me immediately because they should have been right up my alley.
This happened with Firefly, too. So many of my friends love it and wanted me to love it to. And I like science fiction and I like westerns. I should have been ALL OVER IT. But I could not get engaged with the characters.
By that same token, sometimes I will watching a really not the fantastic show because the characters work well for me. As much as I love Stargate, the early episodes got off to a rough start, plot wise. But the characters, individually and as a group, worked pretty much from the first moment.
When it comes to television, or even books and films. One of the things that bothers me is that lack of characterization. The Anita Blake series is a former favorite, but long about book 7, the characters...changed. Who they were, hwy they did what they did? It didn't matter anymore. It could have been a totally different series. Why build these characters only to throw it away and say "nope! not anymore?"
Be true to your characters and be invested in them.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
You can't fix stupid
So I got sucked into a debate on the internet tonight, like an idiot. I know better, but...he was SO WRONG. So this is just a reminder to everyone, don't get involved with the trolls. Because no matter what, this remains true: You can educate the ignorant, but you can't fix stupid.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
THE POWER OF CRISP COMPELS YOU
This is just a reminder:
Cooked carrots are an abomination.
Thank you, that is all.
Cooked carrots are an abomination.
Thank you, that is all.
Monday, November 11, 2013
I am a lady, not a child. I am especially not a lobotomized child.
...Although it did take me a couple tries to remember how to spell lobotomized.
So here is the issue with things that are marketed to ladies - the assumption that ladies need to be marketed to at all.
I think everyone has seen these ridiculous Bic for Her pens. And they have been soundly (and rightfully) mocked. But although I am annoyed by the idea that I need a special lady pen, that is not what I'm talking about. In this case, I am talking about crap like a cookbook I read recently.
The Meat Club Cookbook: For Gals who Love Their Meat. Y'all. I wanted to like it. I wanted to find some recipes that worked for me (and I did copy a couple of recipes out before I shipped it back via Interlibrary Loan) but...I didn't like it. I found it to be stupid and patronizing and full of tips like how to use a marinade to make a less expensive cut of meat tender because then you could still afford those cute shoes you saw! Teehee. And also how we like pork because pigs are cute and also pink! TEEHEE.
I was making notes as I was reading and after that part my notes read "please die" so there's that.
Listen, I think a cookbook with lots of straightforward recipes for preparing meat is a great idea. I don't even think a meat cookbook with women as it's primary audience is a terrible idea because I know a lot of people men and women who are afraid of pretty much everything but a boneless skinless chicken breast. This cookbook doesn't get the job done. The over the top nonsense. The idea that we need a meat club for girls because we can't eat meat in front of men? That's stupid and I hate it.
So here is the issue with things that are marketed to ladies - the assumption that ladies need to be marketed to at all.
I think everyone has seen these ridiculous Bic for Her pens. And they have been soundly (and rightfully) mocked. But although I am annoyed by the idea that I need a special lady pen, that is not what I'm talking about. In this case, I am talking about crap like a cookbook I read recently.
The Meat Club Cookbook: For Gals who Love Their Meat. Y'all. I wanted to like it. I wanted to find some recipes that worked for me (and I did copy a couple of recipes out before I shipped it back via Interlibrary Loan) but...I didn't like it. I found it to be stupid and patronizing and full of tips like how to use a marinade to make a less expensive cut of meat tender because then you could still afford those cute shoes you saw! Teehee. And also how we like pork because pigs are cute and also pink! TEEHEE.
I was making notes as I was reading and after that part my notes read "please die" so there's that.
Listen, I think a cookbook with lots of straightforward recipes for preparing meat is a great idea. I don't even think a meat cookbook with women as it's primary audience is a terrible idea because I know a lot of people men and women who are afraid of pretty much everything but a boneless skinless chicken breast. This cookbook doesn't get the job done. The over the top nonsense. The idea that we need a meat club for girls because we can't eat meat in front of men? That's stupid and I hate it.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
no one understands my feelings
People often deplore the use of vague and/or passive aggressive posts on Facebook and Twitter. This is just and right. Those posts are as annoying as crap.
My favorite version of those posts is when they post something like "feeling sad...feeling alone...feeling down" etc etc and then when people rush in to fill their apparent void respond "I don't really want to talk about it." Listen, bud. If you want to keep your feelings to yourself, here's a suggestion: don't post your feelings on Facebook. You are not legally obliged to share every feeling and emotion that you have on Facebook just because it's there.
Similarly, posts that refer to "certain people" who "know who they are." The rest of us do NOT know who they are. But Twitter and Facebook both have the ability to message someone directly. So if you only want to address one person, ADDRESS THAT PERSON. Otherwise, what you are doing is a kind of B.S., indirect public shaming and that is a crock. Be a grown-up and have a conversation, or shut it.
HOWEVER. I want to clarify something for the youngsters. This is not a behavior that Facebook invented on the internet. Back in the days where everyone had a Livejournal, you saw it there. Indeed, even in the days of the BBS, it ran rampant.
Although of course, none of this nonsense was invented by the internet at all. So to everyone who is like "ugh. facebook" just remember Facebook didn't invent this, it just made it easy.
Now get off my lawn.
My favorite version of those posts is when they post something like "feeling sad...feeling alone...feeling down" etc etc and then when people rush in to fill their apparent void respond "I don't really want to talk about it." Listen, bud. If you want to keep your feelings to yourself, here's a suggestion: don't post your feelings on Facebook. You are not legally obliged to share every feeling and emotion that you have on Facebook just because it's there.
Similarly, posts that refer to "certain people" who "know who they are." The rest of us do NOT know who they are. But Twitter and Facebook both have the ability to message someone directly. So if you only want to address one person, ADDRESS THAT PERSON. Otherwise, what you are doing is a kind of B.S., indirect public shaming and that is a crock. Be a grown-up and have a conversation, or shut it.
HOWEVER. I want to clarify something for the youngsters. This is not a behavior that Facebook invented on the internet. Back in the days where everyone had a Livejournal, you saw it there. Indeed, even in the days of the BBS, it ran rampant.
Although of course, none of this nonsense was invented by the internet at all. So to everyone who is like "ugh. facebook" just remember Facebook didn't invent this, it just made it easy.
Now get off my lawn.
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