Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Squat Thrust FAIL

So I was going to follow up Poppy and Busty's 600 Pushups in 6 Weeks with Poppy's 600 Squat Thrusts in 6 Weeks; but I only managed fifty squat thrusts in three days, before straining my back from that or from hanging upside down in the movie theater at the Whip It preview.

I mean, my back is fine now. Maybe I should start the squat thrusts again.

I sort of hate squat thrusts.

I have put on my skates to help me think about this.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Vegan Mofo III

So I am, by the way, participating in Vegan Month of Food. Even though I don't write about food every day. And even though I'm not strictly speaking vegan, which is to say not vegan. But nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little is my motto, or actually Edmund Burke's motto.

3930562108_f07c8dec17Some little things that I'm doing:

Eating in

  • no eggs
  • no milk
  • no cheese
  • no ice cream
  • And,
  • no non-vegan recipes on my blog

Eating out

  • no visible eggs

So if I'm at Hollywood Grill, I will have french toast but not scrambled eggs. But if I'm at Handlebar or Earwax, I will have vegan french toast.

I'm seeing about no meat at home, too. I mean, I already don't eat meat at home except for tuna. Oh and, rotisserie chicken. I have to figure out my protein. I have crazy blood sugar that I pretty strictly manage with protein. This is why I'm scrupulous about not judging other people's food choices, because it's pretty plain that humans evolved to eat whatever food sources were most available, and yes, I do buy the vegan argument that modern humans have more choices, and can act consciously and with conscience; but there's software and there's hardware, is all I'm saying. And I'm not saying never the twain shall meet, just that it has to be figured out.

An obvious thing for protein, anyway, is tofu. I like tofu. I like tofu right out of the box. I grew up eating tofu, back in the day before tofu came in little boxes. You got it fresh from the Korean store, who got it from... my dad. My dad had a GIANT pot like out of Macbeth that fit on all four burners of the vintage stove in the basement, and a crazy stirring stick that clamped to the side of the pot and that was powered by, like, an outboard motor.

Also insofar as I'm eating vegan, I want to eat "naturally vegan" —i.e., foods that are what they are, and not tofu trying to be scrambled eggs. I can just have a Korean tofu and rice breakfast, after all. But it turns out that scrambled tofu is pretty good, and it's really good with potatoes. I'm still working out my own recipe, based on The Ultimate Scrambled Tofu and Easy Breakfast Potatoes because also what I need is fuel for skating—

Monday, September 28, 2009

Fall Blog Plan

Monday: Systems
Tuesday: Food
Wednesday: Fitness
Thursday: Write
Friday: Fashion

Friday, September 25, 2009

Five Old Pants

20090912_blackdress 20090912_tandress 20090912_brownwool 20090912_browncord 20090912_tancord

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Ariadne's Thread

20090921_plot1
Though this is Arachne, different thread.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cancer Who?

I shouldn't only unburden myself of bad news. Because yesterday we had good news, my sister's tumor markers are going back down. So hooray for now.

I Like To Orbit Orbit: Full Throttle

I revamped my Orbit program, partly because I think my endurance has improved. But I think it's mostly because I switched my wheels from Radar Mojos (88A) to Atom D-Rods (95A), which are less work and faster to skate in.

Thirty minute stroking practice
Skate for thirty minutes without stopping, broken down as follows:

  • Two minutes easy, two minutes LOW, two minutes easy, two minutes LOW, two minutes easy
  • Two minutes easy, two minutes QUICK, two minutes easy, two minutes QUICK, two minutes easy
  • Two minutes easy, two minutes LOW AND QUICK, two minutes easy, two minutes LOW AND QUICK, two minutes easy
I added that killer third ten minutes just last week, and only got through the first set of LOW AND QUICK.

BREAK
Stop and drink some water.

Thirty minute counterskate stroking practice, optional

If it's okay with the other skaters, do it all over again in the other direction.

Thirty minute swizzling and slaloming practice
Skate for thirty minutes without stopping, broken down as follows:

  • One minute stroke, one minute easy swizzle, one minute stroke, one minute easy swizzle, one minute stroke
  • One minute stroke, one minute wide swizzle, one minute stroke, one minute wide swizzle, one minute stroke
  • One minute stroke, one minute fast swizzle, one minute stroke, one minute fast swizzle, one minute stroke
  • One minute stroke, one minute easy slalom, one minute stroke, one minute easy slalom, one minute stroke
  • One minute stroke, one minute wide slalom, one minute stroke, one minute wide slalom, one minute stroke
  • One minute stroke, one minute fast slalom, one minute stroke, one minute fast slalom, one minute stroke

BREAK
Drink water, don't forget!

Thirty-minute falling and stopping practice

  • One minute skate, one minute two-knee falls, one minute skate, one minute two-knee falls, one minute skate
  • One minute skate, one minute t-stops, one minute skate, one minute t-stops, one minutes skate
  • One minute skate, one minute one-knee falls, one minute skate, one minute one-knee falls, one minute skate
  • One minute skate, one minute plow stops, one minute skate, one minute plow stops, one minutes skate
  • One minute skate, one minute baseball slides, one minute skate, one minute baseball slides, one minute skate
  • One minute skate, one minute turn or hockey stops, one minute skate, one minute turn or hockey stops, one minute skate
I haven't done this one yet. I have just diabolically thought it up.

BREAK
Drink water, don't forget!

This actually brings you to ninety minutes if you didn't get to counterskate, but here's another one:

Thirty-minute alternating crossover practice

  • Two minutes skate, two minutes three-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate, two minutes three-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate
  • Two minutes skate, two minutes five-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate, two minutes five-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate
  • Two minutes skate, two minutes seven-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate, two minutes seven-stroke alternating crossovers, two minutes skate
I love doing this at Orbit because you actually have room to do seven strokes of an alternating crossover.

Thirty minutes of tricks!

  • mohawks
  • spreadeagles
  • shoot the ducks
I'd actually like to get a lot better at mohawks and spreadeagles, so I may think up a serious drill for them.

Orbit Skate Center, 615 S Consumers Avenue, Palatine IL. Open derby skates Monday 9-11 PM for fall. $6 admission, skates are available for rental. Skates and gear are also available for purchase in the pro shop.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Popsicles

20090902_popsicle Made in Tovolo Yellow Groovy Pop Molds. There's also Blue Rocket and Green Shooting Star, which is what Sarvi has. Sarvi got me started on popsicles, when I was in LA.

You just fill the mold with juice, silk, whatever & freeze for four hours. Who knew that juice was so delicious frozen. Just straight up orange juice, frozen, is the bomb. I think this pink one is raspberry lemonade, and limeade is also good. Vanilla and chocolate silk are also very good.

Also these pretty much make giving up ice cream a non-issue for me. So baby chicks and ice cream cows are safe from me, anyway. And I hardly have cheese, except on pizza. I tried a slice of teese pizza this weekend, and it was good. Actually I like pizza without cheese, but nobody else does and pizza is social. No milk. I don't love dairy mainly because I used to be lactose intolerant. I'm not anymore, which is another story. So also cheese cows, pretty safe. Just not yogurt cows or, you know, hot dog cows—

Monday, September 21, 2009

Fall Meal Plan

Breakfast
Monday through Friday - Yogurt and Blueberries, Banana, and Almonds
Saturday - Muesli with Yogurt, Blueberries, and Banana
Sunday - French Silk Toast or Tofu Scramble

Lunch
Monday through Saturday - leftover rice bowl or pasta
Sunday - Peanut Butter Sandwich & Very Vanilla or Chocolate Silk

Snack
Monday through Saturday - Apple with Peanut Butter
except Thursday - Chex Mix & Diet Coke
Sunday, at practice - OJ2O

Dinner
Monday - Rice Bowl
Tuesday - pit crew dinner
Wednesday - Vaguely Beans or Curried Vegetable Stew
Thursday - Peanut Butter Sandwich & Very Vanilla or Chocolate Silk
Friday - Taco Burrito Express
Saturday - Creamed Vegetable Soup, unless we go out
Sunday - Choppers!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

9.3.13

SUN 20 MON 21 TUE 22 WED 23 THU 24 FRI 25 SAT 26
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
squat thrust
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
squat thrust
MORNING
 
MORNING
 
  Man-Kzin IV Man-Kzin IV Man-Kzin IV ...    
French Silk Toast
WORK
Grocery & Cooking
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Banana
Coffee n Silk

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee n Silk

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee n Silk

WORK
Office
Muesli n Yog
PLAY
shop for costume
PB Sw & Silk
WORK
Cooking
Rice Bowl
WORK
Office
Cur Veg Stew
WORK
Office
Potbellys
WORK
Office
Pit Crew Pasta
WORK
Office
Pit Crew Pasta
WORK
Office
Lunch
WORK
Laundry & Cleaning
OJ2O
PLAY
Derby Lite
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
 
WORK
Office
DC & Chex Mix
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
HOBBY
Review & Plan
  Man-Kzin IV Man-Kzin IV Man-Kzin IV ...    
Pizza
PASTIME
WCR vs. MRD
Cur Veg Stew
HOBBY
Write
Pit Crew Pasta
HOBBY
Write
 
PLAY
Whip It
PB Sw & OJ2O
PLAY
Derby Lite
Pizza
PASTIME
 
leftovers
PASTIME
 
Cookies
EVENING
Man-Kzin IV
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin IV
Pecans TLC :P
EVENING
 
PJ Clarkes
EVENING
 
Popsicle
EVENING
 
Popsicle
EVENING
 
Popsicle
EVENING
 

Friday, September 18, 2009

Three Old Skirts

20090912_blackcalf 20090912_brownprintbelowkne 20091003_redblackstretch

Thursday, September 17, 2009

More About Story Structure

Well basically, you have three-act screenplay structure. If you don't know, I totally failed at writing a novel from 1992 to 1997. Right, I know, that's five years. What's more, it was five years of writing the same nine pages over and over. There were two years before that during which I totally failed at writing short stories, too. So now you know when I say that it took two years for me to write INTROVERT, I'm talking about blazing speed. And also, a measure of sanity. In any case, I'm sure that I took to writing screenplay like a duck to water because of the ever-loving structure. You get that I love structure, right?

It basically breaks down to, and there are any number of writing-your-screenplay books that you can read this in:

  • 90-120 pages
  • divided into three acts
  • the first quarter is the first act
  • the second and third quarters are the second act
  • and the fourth quarter is the third act
Though I read this really helpful thing in Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 that the length of your second act depends on the length of your third act: if your story ends in a rush to the finish, the third act will be shorter and the second act will be longer. If your third act takes longer to unwind, it will be longer and the second act will be shorter. Than the guidelines, I mean; the third act isn't going to be longer than the second act.

A note about books on writing, I've been indiscriminately addicted to them as a substitute for, you know, writing & I've rationed myself to only the classics as if I was trying to curate the Harvard of self-help libraries & now I'm back to using them indiscriminately, but less reverently and actually to write with. As a matter of fact, I picked up this Lew Hunter and two others out of a box marked FREE on the sidewalk.

But I digress:

  • the first act ends with the Big Question
  • the second act ends with the Big Gloom
  • the third act starts with the Big Gesture
And because a screenplay basically times out at a minute per page, you practically know what page you have to hit with the Question, the Gloom, and the Gesture. And if you think that's intense, when you get to actually writing scenes, a page pretty much times out at fourteen lines; so you know how many lines you get to get whatever scene across. Joys of creative constraints, holla. What writing a novel gave me was agoraphobia. Please, fence me in—

So I start with an Excel worksheet that lays out the three-act story structure. I roughly block out a 96-page or -minute story with two-minute scenes across the board; the scenes will ultimately vary in length from a quarter of a page to, say, five pages & the whole story may end up a bit shorter or longer, but not less than 90 or more than 120 minutes. In addition to the Bigs above, I have little turning points spaced out every twelve minutes.

But you get that when I say "start," I don't mean that you start at point A and go on to point B and finish at Z. Like I had to have an idea, right? And what about characters? But you also don't think of your idea, and then your characters... and then you write your story, the end. I don't. I mean, I started with two weeks of Gilles Deleuze. Actually, it started with Sarvi saying let's make a short film & me watching the only short film I had on hand, Hal Hartley's "Opera No. 1" and liking the loft that was set in.

Also if you think Sarvi should name her baby Poppy, check this box [ ].

So anyway I started with that loft, and then I put people in the loft, and then Sarvi and I talked about the people, and we also talked about Time, then there was the two weeks of Gilles Deleuze, and then I worked on the people a little bit, and then I developed some new rules for time travel. And then I set up my three-act story structure, started filling it in and got to the second act three-quarters turning point (scene thirty, sixty minutes) right away almost. And right now, I'm stuck on the Gesture. Because I realized that I don't know whose gesture it is, which means that I don't know who the protagonist is.

So it's back to tickle the people with my pointy stick...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Behind the Eight Ball

Okay so, in general, I will link to stuff that I like and not link to stuff that I don't like; so I'm not linking to this personal development blog that I have on my feed, where he says that it's stupid to have a fixed income, "fixed income" meaning a regular wage rather than a "variable income" where you manage multiple income streams. It's not that I'm closed to the idea of multiple income streams, I'm just not into calling other people's choices stupid and am pretty almost politically committed to the idea of everybody doing your own thing. I guess it helps you to get your point across if you make it, you know, pointy. If you care more about your pointy stick than the people at the end of the stick, which I don't. Care about the stick more. I mean, I care about people more than about not eating eggs.

Also food for thought was evil plans & english cut, all but the last line which I liked. But last lines are super hard, it's hard not to say something that you don't mean & I have a theory why that is, but nevermind that for now. I'm just saying, I'm trying to cultivate this attitude that whatever I do well is as much a privilege and as a virtue. It doesn't hurt to be thankful, you know? But anyway, I dig the English tailor guy & I dig the gaping void guy, he's the guy that does the cartoons on business cards. Now he's retired to Texas, not where I would retire to. But, retirement. Is what I'm getting at.

Finally, I really dug How Weekend Projects Can Free Your Inner Rock Star on Lifehacker. Though isn't Beck already a rock star? Still. I think I said in an earlier post that I'm basically against perfectionism. I will add, its evil spawn paralysis. Though soon it will go without saying that nothing is always bad in my book, god knows that I've been in the midst of chaos that fttt! a little dart of curare in the right neck would have helped a lot.

I'm trying to turn into something, I'm trying to turn into something that pays...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Rice Bowl with Marinated Vegetables (beet) roots, greens, stems

20090914_roots
20090914_greens
20090914_stems
 

Ha well, the problem with photographing my rice bowls is going to be that it's getting dark around dinner time. By the time I put the bowl together, I had lost my natural light. So it goes.

I had a different bowl planned, actually. But pit crew brought home bunch beets from the grocery, so I decided to make it an all-beet production. The actual beets were to be peeled and cubed, and roasted with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt. Then there's usually a leafy thing dressed with rice wine vinegar, that could be the beet greens. Then I had these stems, and what, they're edible, if nothing they could stand to be a vehicle for garlic, and they did pretty nicely for that.

Poppy and Busty's 600 Pushups in 6 Weeks: FINAL!

20090914_poppybusty-pushups

Monday, September 14, 2009

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

On the one hand, I got my fall shopping done. I don't tend to make time to shop for clothes, and what I was wearing to work was getting too bad. I like wearing clothes, I like putting together outfits out of my closet, I just don't love to shop. Like how some people enjoy food, but don't like to cook. Actually I'm sort of that way with food, also. Anyway, I got six new skirts and straightened out my whole closet.

On the other hand, I could feel the unspent energy collecting in my hands and in all my nerve endings. I ate because my stomach was empty; but on a cellular level, I felt like that was just piling up more energy to go bad quicker than I could use it up. If you think of sleep as layers, I was only able to sink to the warmish foamy top layer instead of the cool silent deep.

Hard practice led by Helsa yesterday afternoon, and I feel sore in the right places (glutes and abs) and fine in the places that, are you listening, do not need to get any bigger (quads). I slept like a stone. I'm ready for more tonight.

I'm out of the weekend with almost none of my chores done: no lunches packed, dishes piled in the sink, bathroom getting kind of gross now, bills unpaid. It's going to be a week behind the eight ball. It's time to change it up, make things exciting again—

Sunday, September 13, 2009

9.3.12

SUN 13 MON 14 TUE 15 WED 16 THU 17 FRI 18 SAT 19
MORNING
GLASSES ON
MORNING
stretch
MORNING
stretch
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
10K
  Man-Kzin III Man-Kzin III Writing Short Films Man-Kzin III Man-Kzin IV  
French Toast
PASTIME
...
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & Bagel

WORK
Office
Earwax
WORK
Cleaning
PB Sw & Silk
PASTIME
...
Vaguely Beans
WORK
Office
Vaguely Beans
WORK
Office
Potbelly
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Rice Bowl
WORK
Office
Pit Crew Pasta
WORK
Office
Pit Crew PAsta
WORK
Cleaning
OJ2O
PLAY
Derby Lite
DC & Chex Mix
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
WORK
Office
PB Apple
HOBBY
Review & Plan
WCR vs. ARRG
  Man-Kzin III Man-Kzin III Writing Short Films Man-Kzin III Man-Kzin IV  
Choppers
PASTIME
Eastern Regionals
Veronica Mars
Rice Bowl
PLAY
MOD Skate
Pit Crew Pasta
HOBBY
Review & Plan
Rice Bowl
HOBBY
Alla Poppy
Eternal Return
PB Sw & Silk
PLAY
Derby Lite
Sultan's Market
PASTIME
get race packet
get cords?
Choppers
PASTIME
Veronica Mars
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin III
 
EVENING
Man-Kzin III
Pecans
EVENING
Man-Kzin III
Tea & Silk
EVENING
Man-Kzin III
 
EVENING
Man-Kzin III
Popsicle
EVENING
 
Popsicle
EVENING
L.D.W.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Six New Skirts

20090912_bluemini 20090912_blackwoolmini 20090912_purplewoolmini 20090912_blackpleatedknee 20090912_redpleatedknee 20090912_blushknee

Tweaking: Monday and Thursday

20090911_mj Dagnabbit, I had a plan for what to do instead of skating this week: I went shopping for clothes.

I said elsewhere that I would totally pay somebody to shop for me; but let me revise and say that it isn't so much that I hate shopping for clothes, just that it's an immersion experience for me. I have to block out the time, be in the zone. Then I can mow through the racks like a machine. And not like a machine. I sort of let the Force be my guide. I guess it took me about an hour to get home with six new skirts, in a little bit of a surprising style for me. I'd been thinking the miniskirts that I've been wearing to work were a little bit too mini, and three of the six solve that problem none.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tweaking: Tuesday and Wednesday

It's funny —and you know, neat!— how writing informs work, and work informs writing. Learning to sit down and work like I'm able to sit down and write. And if I were writing this two years ago, I would also have something to say about how skating informs writing; actually I did write about this two years ago, in my basically defunct livejournal. And actually, I do have this to say: it's like skate and counterskate. These are the directions that you skate around a track or rink, if you don't know; skate is counterclockwise, counterskate is clockwise. Most people are more comfortable skatewise than counterskatewise; but not me, I am backwards! I've finally learned to skate comfortably skatewise like I was comfortable skating counterskatewise. Paying attention to how I was doing it in the one direction, and applying that to the other direction.

How I work is, it says on my to do list: Pay Fed Withholding. It's in Title Case; so I know it's something that I do either weekly or monthly, and I know that I don't pay federal withholding tax weekly. If you were wondering, Sentence case means it's something that I do either daily or quarterly, UPPERCASE means biweekly, and lowercase means random. You are probably sorry that you wondered.

Anyway I look at Pay Fed Withholding like Leonard Shelby seeing John G. raped and murdered my wife for the first time for the fifieth time, and I reach for the purple binder. Under the Monthly Tasks tab, some nice person (me) has written:

In QuickBooks
1. Select Home > Payroll Center.
...so I look in QuickBooks, select Home and then Payroll Center. And I pretty much follow the instructions until I'm done with this task.

I sort of want instructions like that for writing a screenplay. So when I wake up with no memory of who I am and a dead hooker in my bed, I can reach for the purple binder on the nightstand & some nice person (me, again) will have written:

In Excel
1. Select ETERNAL RETURN story.xls.

This is me writing this screenplay and figuring out a few more instructions for writing a screenplay in the process, picking up from the instructions I left off with. Was I ever lost in the wilderness when I started INTROVERT, I particularly painfully remember careening between index cards and white boards and supermagnets to stick the index cards to the white boards & also managing to wipe my credit card in the checkout line with aforementioned supermagnets. What I finished INTROVERT with were these two Excel worksheets: INTROVERT story.xls and INTROVERT scenes.xls.

INTROVERT story.xls is the story broken down into scenes, per three-act screenplay structure. INTROVERT scenes.xls are the scenes broken down into lines, nevermind that for the moment—

You hear a lot about story cards for writing screenplays; but you know, databases used to be done in index cards & they aren't anymore. If I really need to get physical, I break out the sharpies and the index cards, and actually, I keep my to do list on index cards; when the software comes out that can manage my to do list, I will know that we are living in the future. A screenplay: a lot simpler than my to do list. In an Excel worksheet, the cells are the cards and the worksheet is the whiteboard. You can drag and drop the cards all around the whiteboard, and also you can edit the cards.

So the past two nights, I laid out the story for THE ETERNAL RETURN up to the second three-quarters turning point. I think it took me a year to get to that point with INTROVERT.

More about story structure coming up, and the things that feed into that...

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Tweaking: The Blind Spot

I rewrote that sentence from 43 Folders:

In the time you set aside each day to work, ignore anything else that stops you from doing just that.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Poppy and Busty's 600 Pushups in 6 Weeks: Week Six

20090907_poppybusty-pushups

Rice Bowl with Marinated Vegetables lettuce, cucumber, and spinach

20090907_ricebowl20090907_lettuce
20090907_cucumber
20090907_spinach

For the rice:
Short grain white rice is what I grew up on, but I'm trying to eat more whole grains and they don't have short grain brown rice at Jewel. So for long grain brown rice: combine one part rice plus two parts water in a covered pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and let simmer about thirty minutes, then remove from heat and let rest about thirty minutes. All of this is basically going on while you are preparing the vegetables.

For the vegetables:
This time I'm mostly using up salad greens: lettuce is a little odd, but cucumber and spinach are pretty traditional for a Korean rice bowl. Also at the moment I don't have some of the usual ingredients for this, like sesame oil or crushed red pepper. Or red pepper paste, which is really the bomb.

But anyway, this is my real right home cooking & more about improvisation and making do than anything else I cook. So I pick any three vegetables, season them with varying proportions of oil, vinegar, sometimes spice, sometimes soy sauce. Also onion, green onion is more usual but instead I used up a Grampa Simpson onion that's been moldering in my pantry. You just play with the balances. I thought the lettuce should be crisp and lightly dressed. I like cucumbers very vinegary and a little bit spicy. I blanched the spinach, rinsed and squeezed it dry, and carmelized whatever onions I had left in a bit of olive oil & tossed the spinach and onions together with a little bit of soy sauce, for a rich effect.

For the tofu:
The tofu got sliced in eighths, and the slices fried in the pan that I carmelized the onions in. I'm out of practice, so most of the crust stuck to the bottom of the pan. I removed it in pieces, with violence, because it is nom and good.

I thought about not mentioning that the traditional thing that goes on top of a rice bowl is a fried e-g-g, but I can do without. Oh and also little bits of meat, but I never bothered with that. I like tofu, and actually I like tofu sliced right off the block. I made lunch bentos with the leftovers, with just fresh tofu; so that's an option, too.

I guess I'll post pictures of my different rice bowl combinations as I make them, and maybe start a list of all the vegetables I've used and how I've prepared them for reference...

Monday, September 7, 2009

Tweaking: Saturday and Sunday, also Friday

20090905_wcf_p2
Photo by Pit Crew

Slouching Toward Veganism

A few things turned:

  • Summer decided that it was just too much work, and turned itself into fall.
  • I burned right out on green salads.
  • I saw the video where the leftover baby chicks got ground up alive.
All in all it's a good time to refresh my diet, which is reasonably easy to do being that I'm eating about the same ten things in any given period. There's just not that much to change, whether it's for the season or to lose weight or because I'm thinking about ...not quite turning vegan. But say, "veganizing" here and there.

Let me say that a person who eats chili cheese dogs is not any kind of vegan, and I'm not making that claim. Like I said, I'm not about purity or perfection. It's about small choices for me. Not even "baby steps," because I'm not necessarily planning to grow up or go anywhere. Whatever the word is for not cooking with eggs at home is, and also maybe not milk, butter, or ice cream. But still yogurt.

Truthfully, I already hardly have eggs, milk, butter, or ice cream at home. And I eat a ton of yogurt. But I basically don't think two things: one, I don't think that being a 95% unregenerate stubborn bastard invalidates the little positive changes that you do undertake. Two, I don't think these little positive changes are invalidated because you picked all the easy stuff to do. All it really invalidates is any nascent sanctimoniousness, so it's all good.

Coming soon, then: tempura and marinated vegetable rice bowls, silk french toast, adventures with butter substitutes, popsicles, and frozen banana ice cream. And I have to be able to get it all at the Jewel. Not so much because I'm on a warpath with Whole Foods, but because the Jewel is two blocks away from my house & also I'm on a budget, it's always nice to remember that eating organic food is more a privilege than a virtue.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

9.3.11

SUN 6 MON 7 TUE 8 WED 9 THU 10 FRI 11 SAT 12
MORNING
GLASSES ON
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
stretch & crunch
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
MORNING
sleep
    Man-Kzin I Screenwriting 434 Screenwriting 434 Man-Kzin II  
AW & OJ
WORK
Cleaning
 
WORK
Cooking
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & AW

WORK
Office
Yog n Fru
Coffee & Bagel

WORK
Office
Muesli n Yog
WORK
Grocery & Cooking
Dollhouse
PASTIME
B and Doll
Handlebar
PASTIME
Bigs and Spots
Rice Bowl
WORK
Office
Potbelly
WORK
Office
Rice Bowl
WORK
Office
Rice Bowl
WORK
Office
Pit Crew Pasta
HOBBY
Alla Poppy
OJ2O
PLAY
Derby Lite
 
PASTIME
Gamer
DC & Chex Mix
WORK
Office
Chex Mix
WORK
Office
DC & Chex Mix
WORK
Office
DC & Chex Mix
WORK
Office
Star Fruit
Lovely

PASTIME
Renegade
    Man-Kzin I Screenwriting 434 shop Man-Kzin II  
Choppers
PASTIME
Veronica Mars
Rice Bowl
HOBBY
Review & Plan
Vaguely Beans
HOBBY
Eternal Return
Pit Crew Pasta
HOBBY
Eternal Return
Pit Crew Pasta
PASTIME
Fight Club
Tac Bur Exp
PASTIME
Veronica Mars
Vaguely Beans
PASTIME
Eastern Regionals
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin I
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin I
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin I
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin II
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin II
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin II
Popsicle
EVENING
Man-Kzin III

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Big Sleep: Monday and Thursday

So Monday I swapped skating for writing, and Tuesday I swapped writing for getting my hair cut. Which is to say, I swapped skating for getting my hair cut. When I got home, I had not good news: my sister's cancer showed up more in her lymph nodes in her latest scan. If you don't know, she's had this cancer for six years & she feels great; it isn't making her sick, but it makes itself known every now and again. It's like the worst knock knock joke ever. It was only nine o'clock, but I went to bed. It was too early to go to sleep; so naturally I was awake at two or four in the morning, grumpily telling pit crew that I dreamed he had gotten the attention of some girl by dragging a ribbon on the ground. What. He was already awake!

Skating four times a week, for sure you feel stretched. To suddenly have skating only once this week, it's like somebody just dropped the other end of the string. I do not like it. I don't want to pick up with more writing or watching television. I want to skate, write, watch TV, and go out with friends balanced. Or as my dad used to say, "Too much of anything is no good," which when I was eleven I would equivocate with Like what, vodka? I'll say this for myself, I drink balanced. There's no doubt that I am my father's daughter, though. Though the black sense of humor is Mom.

In the end, I decided to make the carrot oatmeal cookies from 101 Cookbooks, only I made mine with coconut instead of walnuts. The carrots don't do much for me, I'd just as soon leave them out & maybe add chopped dates. I was extremely pleased to find the Nutiva coconut oil at Lincoln Park Market, after my haircut. I am avoiding Whole Foods. And no, I don't know that Jewel supports single-payer healthcare or that Stanley's doesn't sacrifice small children under the harvest moon. I mean, I'm pretty sure they don't. I'm not pure, I'm actually basically against perfectionism. But if the CEO of Whole Foods is going to bray in the Wall Street Journal that health is not a human right, I know not to give my money to the loud donkey at least. I'm also thinking about not cooking with eggs anymore. Because of the baby chicks.

I'm not going to be perfect. I'm not going to be preaching, I just read a piece in GirlieGirl Army where the guy starts that he's going to bust the myth about vegans being "vegangelical" and then proceeds to get pretty evangelical. I know better vegans than that. Look, this is alla Poppy: I ain't telling you what to do, just telling you how I do... and I'm telling you, I'm a big weirdo. You don't have to be like me.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Big Sleep: Tuesday and Wednesday

Well, I didn't actually think I was going to write about sleep in every post this week! Tomorrow's post will have a little bit about sleep, as a matter of fact.

By "Tuesday and Wednesday," I mean Monday and Wednesday. No MOD skate this week, so I wrote Monday night. I will tell you what I did Tuesday in tomorrow's post.

Like I said, I'm not having trouble sitting down to write for these two nights. Having the weekend helps, a ton. Having already done this also helps, also a ton. I used to be quite bad about doing other things during writing time, like bills or livejournal. Or the thing that I spent the most time on, making up systems —that, perhaps, has paid off. In fact I start with bills, then the day's blog. I don't know how much longer I'm going to keep writing posts like "then I did this and then I did this..." they're easy to do, though. Though they're crowding out my recipes. By the time I think that I'm going to have to psych myself into actual writing, I'm already writing, actually writing, and not just filling up my sweet tooth with philosophy.

And actually writing is what?

Oh, I also used to be quite bad about clockwatching. But that is part of the discipline that you learn: if you do nothing else, you sit at that desk for your three hours & you can get up when your time's up; frequently I did just that, nothing else. But now I seem to be getting to my desk easily by 7:00 PM, sometimes even earlier, and then I've been totally absorbed and entertained until midnight, or as the case may be, 2:00 AM, which leaves me a little too sleep-deprived.

I will probably not write about the thing that I'm writing. Because I'm an artist, and I'm sensitive about my shit.

Wherever I've worked, I've written up a binder with work procedures. I am the Johnny Appleseed of work binders. If it doesn't turn out to be too boring or time-consuming, I will write up a binder for my writing process.

Zzzzz.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Big Sleep: The Blind Spot

Number of people on this morning's facebook feed complaining about poor sleep: six.

Just a data point! Pit crew and I both slept poorly, too. So, eight. I think it got warm during the night, and it got too warm with all the blankets on. Assuming that everybody had blankets on.

From 43 Folders: Fake Rocks, Salami Commanders, and Just Enough to Start. Which I totally identify with, but in the reverse. I don't have trouble starting creative work, I have trouble starting regular work. So I don't know if all that stuff about fear applies; but anyway it's immaterial, because I agree with his conclusion:

The answer? You do the hard thing. No matter what it takes. You stick with it at the time you’re most tempted to run away.

Like I said in the talk, developing those invaluable tolerances... requires the exercise of some very small muscles. The muscles are super-hard to locate, and once you do find them, they hurt like a bitch to exercise. But, doing that exercise repeatedly will pay you back ten-fold.
Just like for skating, yeah? Here is yet another benefit of play that is work, it helps you understand other kinds of work (work that is work, work that is play). Particularly, I think, if it takes you out of your normal mode, like how skating gets me into my body and out of my brain. It's a false dichotomy, which is the point. Your brain is part of your body; and if you've seen me teach, my brain is very involved with my skating. In fact I have a friend who convincingly argued that we have brains distributed all throughout our bodies, but I digress—
Because that next time you’re in the studio or the library or office or the cafe or the living room or the what-have-you, and you start to feel the fears building barriers, you’ll know what to do. And you’ll know how to do it. Because you’ve done it before.

There’s no trick here, guys. No system. No diagram. No hack. No tips, no webinars, and no Digg-able bulleted lists. It’s simply work.

You sit, you work, you tolerate. Then you do it again.
Just like for writing. It's hard to express how this is something that I know, for writing. Or, I guess I just expressed it. And if we're going with false dichotomies and if my body can inform my brain, I think my right brain can inform my left brain. There was never any other answer except: just do it.
Creative work, summarized: In the time you set aside each day to work your ass off, ignore anything that makes you consider stopping.
Any work, summarized. And pay attention to the bit about "the time you set aside," that's the unsung key to it all.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009