Thursday, August 29, 2013

State of the Blog
 summer 2013

the little prince

Odie's construction of gender is such that he loves wearing his sparkly tiara, but politely requested that I trim the -SS off the end with my utility knife.

When we last spoke at the beginning of summer, I was only going to post what overflowed out of my brain. I thought it would be a spotty summer, fits and starts of writing spattered with holes in between. What it was instead was a solid six week run, not even punctuated by egressions for the first three weeks, then two more days and then BAM, the wall, then dark for four weeks. Which in hindsight I think I could have predicted, given how I generally do. Well.

I've grouped my State of the Blog and State of the Biz posts both under the state of the biz label, and also by the way bout day, business development, and Sunday breakfasts all under the bout day breakfast label. More and more I'm firmly pushing myself toward the idea that my blog is a good servant but a poor master. Or that my blog is a good tail but a poor dog. I am the dog. If I need to express myself, I have this tail. Full stop. That's what this is for. For me. Not hating on anybody who blogs for different reasons and with different results, because hey, different strokes for different folks. I just don't want to mix up what I'm doing with what other people—whom I avidly follow—do.

Here's my thing: I think, maybe, this month I am in the black (by $25.00) for the first time since my sister got sick and I started this whole life change. Not menopause, I mean getting certified to be a personal trainer. Also, I say "maybe" because I have to make it to September 6th without spending any money. Anyway my really simple life goal is to get back to where I was, i.e., making a sustainable living that supports my current lifestyle, i.e., the one where I don't have the doorknob. Well, I guess that's not my life goal. That's my current goal. I suppose when I get to that goal, I will set my sights on another goal. This here goal, though.

So first of all, I don't care about being internet famous, I mean not to put it too finely, but I'd want to be internet rich insofar as I'd want to be internet anything. Back to my goal, right? Okay so, I realize that being internet famous is connected to being internet rich. I realize that blogging for a living is a thing and does happen. I mean, you can do anything for a living. And anything you do for a living, you're doing ...things. When you're looking at doing a thing for a living, don't look at the Idea of the thing: look at the To Do List of the thing. Because what isn't awesome about the idea of blogging for a living, it's just that the actual to do list for blogging for a living is actually densely populated with things I don't like to do.

Whereas I really like training folks, I'm discovering more and more. I don't want to say that happily it pays more, because I don't know how much blogging pays when you actually apply yourself to making blogging pay. I can tell you that I am up to $36.22 in my Google AdSense account after fourish years. So I will just say that I happily apply myself to working with my clients, and hey, they give me checks! That I can pay my bills with!

Which means what, I've thought about the different paths I could take and I've decided not that path. So I can close my eye to that path and look around more at this other path, the one that I've mostly been on. See what takes shape on this path.

Oh and, I've started loading my old posts from this blog's previous version into this version. I thought about it and didn't do it forever because some of those old entries are so bad and sad, but that's how it was and I might as well put it all in one place, and really nobody but me cares.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

My Friend Who Does Drag Once Said To Me, Honey, I Am A Retail Queen
 which I apply to a lot, including this

p: i have to tell you something else.

m: okay.

p: i'm reading this article about feta cheese.

p: it says that feta is one of the easiest to make cheeses.

m: yay.

p: here is the recipe:

p: one gallon goat milk

m: ...

m: we can get that at the goat milk store.

p: one eighth teaspoon lipase powder

m: what?

p: lipase. powder.

m: ...

p: L-I-P-A-S-E

p: one quarter teaspoon direct-set mesophilic starter

m: i'll get that at the 7-11.

p: one quarter teaspoon liquid calcium chloride

p: one half teaspoon liquid rennet

p: and a bunch of kosher salt

p: we have that.

m: how did cheese ever get invented if this is one of the easiest?

m: it really makes you appreciate the ancient greeks.

Remember Up?
 seahorses forever

p: so there's this 96 year old guy who wrote a song about his late wife and entered it in a songwriting contest.

p: and the studio was so touched, they professionally recorded it for him.

p: and now there's this video of him.

p: and you know what?

p: no way am i watching this video.

p: no way.

m: ...

m: ...i think that's a sound decision.

Phantoms

p: sigh.

m: whatsa matta?

p: ben affleck.

p: i'm really trying.

p: it's not that ben affleck can't be batman.

p: anybody's mouth can be batman.

p: bruce wayne, though.

p: i just can't.

m: i can't believe you're obsessing over ben affleck when miley cyrus...

trails off because he has no idea what about miley cyrus

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Forty Six

forty six

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Bout Day Breakfast
 WCR Third Coast vs Peoria Push

trader joe's rice medley, chinese ground pork, kale, fried egg, avocado, OJ and water

Trader Joe's rice medley, chinese ground pork, kale, fried egg, avocado, OJ and water.

More bout day breakfasts!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Pastime Wear
 skinny jeans

new to me skinny jeans

Here is the dealio with my pastime wear, a) one pair of jeans, b) t-shirts, c) furthermore, t-shirts that I pick up from the free pile at the practice space, and d) sometimes I cut them up. I have my work and home and play wear calculated per my (n x 2) + 2 = x formula, but pastime wear is a catchall for worn-out leggings and the aforementioned free t-shirts. Because it's nice to have uncounted areas in a mostly counted life, and also because I don't go out much. Or dress up when I do.

And on top of that the last time I cleaned my bearings, I spilled acetone on my one pair of jeans so my one pair of jeans has a big bleached out spot on one leg. And also they're too big, because I lost weight. I bought a belt, actually a pretty cool belt.

But!

This doesn't normally happen, but last week on the free pile there was this pair of fury orange skinny jeans! I'm never looking for jeans in the free pile, why would I need jeans, I already have this pair of too big bleached out jeans. I don't know why I grabbed these up, I mean I guess because orange. Because orange and skinny, maybe these could be my nice jeans? I have never owned skinny jeans before, I couldn't imagine how I would even put them on; but these were size 10 and maybe that's how, that's probably what I was thinking.

Now I know, the fabric is super stretchy. And apparently I am a size 10 in skinny jeans, they pretty much fit perfectly. They go on, they're actually comfortable, and I don't have cameltoe.

Meh these Dansko sandals are okay with this, better than my Converse All-Stars that I've been wearing all summer with everything since I sprained my ankle. I may not have told you that I sprained my ankle at the beginning of summer, somewhat badly, from—wait for it—falling off the sidewalk, yay me. It healed quick enough to be back to skating, in a brace, within four days and back to walking normally in about a week or two. But it was like getting sent down a chute in chutes and ladders for my balance work, tch I was up to brushing all my teeth standing on one foot with my eyes closed, and that sent me right back down to zero. Anyway I've been happier this summer to have my feet as flat on the ground as possible. Even though these jeans really want to be worn with heels, oh well, I don't do heels.

This t-shirt with matching headband is an old Hanes t-shirt that came in a three-pack, it's been one of my favorite sleep shirts forever and then I needed a shirt I didn't care about to wear in the tomato fight, and as long as I was going to ruin it in the tomato fight, I might as well cut it up, it has a cylon back like my golden bowl t-shirt and I tied off the shoulders to make it drape better.

tomato t-shirt

Here's what the back looks like, uh, covered with tomatoes. Photo by Dinah Party.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Eat Fish and Vegetables for Dinner
 three times a week

eat fish and vegetable for dinner

So this is the first habit that I'm talking about that isn't fait accompli, I'm down with salmon and broccoli once a week so far. If you're keeping track of my proteins, it's eggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch, meat, vegetables, and rice for spacefood dinners four times a week, and now fish for dinner three times a week, and also nuts for afternoon snack, and yogurt for post-workout evening snack, it's like a rainbow of protein.

The Cue

The cue for my fish dinner is getting home from work and not having anywhere else to go. I might sit down for a bit of a rest, and in the past that might have meant GAME OVER and PIZZA PIZZA.

The Routine

My salmon and broccoli recipe is so easy though...

The Reward

...and it's so good, so it's its own reward. And the sweetie man likes it a lot, which is rewarding, and we get to eat together, which is also rewarding.

Really this is a perfect example of a how a habit loop is formed: it took a few tries to work out this salmon and broccoli technique, it's easy, but perhaps more saliently it's so practiced. By which I mean, I have practiced it and have it down. And it's good and it has been praised, thereby ensuring I will do it again and again. Achievement unlocked!

That leaves two more fish dinners I have to come up with. Too bad Taco Burrito Express doesn't have fish tacos, I would take those and run with them. Sometimes after a Tuesday Third Coast practice, we go out to The Beetle for $2 tacos and they put fish tacos on lettuce for me; they're so good. Where can I send the sweetie man that's not too far for fish tacos. Then that leaves one more fish dinner to think up and try out, tickety tock...

Status: IN DEVELOPMENT

Friday, August 2, 2013

Egressions #70-73


70. Tuna puttanesca. Via Food Network.
71. Tuna casserole. Via Simply Recipes.
72. Super simple fish tacos. Via A Beautiful Mess.
73. Mexican-style fish tacos. Via A Mom Not A Professional.

I am on the hunt for fish recipes, specifically tuna and fish taco recipes. You will find out why on Monday but for today, why not.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Scrambled Eggs and Peaches with Salt and Cayenne

scrambled eggs and peaches with salt and cayenne

Salt on fruit is sooo amazeballs. Like you know about salt on watermelon, right? Salt on peaches is so good! And you know chili powder is amazing on mango, peach wants to get in on that action.

Breakfast doesn't have to be a production, it can just be scrambled eggs with some fruit. So easy, so good, so good for you. Win win win.