Yummy Fashion

Ahhh. The world of fashion. I watched The Devil Wears Prada over the holiday weekend and wow. It really was a good movie, and the insults and acting were hilarious.

The best thing though was getting to see all the amazing fashions. I feel like a total novice when it comes to haute couture or any of the good fashions out there, but this really opened my eyes to some of the possibilities. I realize now that I want to be fashionable, and right now I don't spend enough money to buy really quality fashion. Hopefully, this will change in the future.

Right now, I certainly am not of the size that any of that would look good on me. But the beautiful things they were wearing were just breathtaking.

On the bright side, I have lost 5 pounds in about a week simply from cutting out snacking and eating sensible meals. It will only be a matter of time before I get to the weight I want to be.

Christmas went pretty well overall. No fighting, no fuss. I spent much of the day organizing the iPod again. I am sooo looking forward to this weekend and New Years! I am nearly bursting at the seams in anticipation.

Oh Mercy

Thankfully, I have been feeling better. Things seemed to pick up yesterday and today was a good day. The last thing I needed was to have a sucky Christmas.

Last night, I went out with my friend Jen to get a bite to eat after work and we had a good time chatting and then went out to peek at video games nearby.

I also spent much of the day today organizing and adding songs to my iPod. It's amazing how many this thing can fit. It's quite tricky organizing them as a lot of my music doesn't seem to have the artwork for the albums show up and I have to then go out and find them somwhere. Then I had to rename like a hundred or so of them because they were all messed up as well.

Finally, I got depressed looking through some old cassettes I used to own. I had a huge pack of tapes called "Awesome Songs 1-4". Looking at them now, they were far from awesome. It was a melange of tragic glam rock and literal music garbage! What kind of crack was I smoking back then? That music was just bad, bad, bad!

Chemical Blah

I had been doing so well the past few weeks...even months, but for some reason, last night, all of that came crashing down. I had a huge bout of depression and an evening of suicidal thoughts that really was unhealthy...so unhealthy I turned in around 8 pm to try to just sleep and forget about the feelings.

It's got me wondering if there is some underlying depression that I need to take care of that is aside from my hormonal treatments. Or maybe it's seasonal?

Either way, today I feel like crap as well and I hope it picks up. It could be the fact that it's rained for 3 days straight here too. Who knows?

Goldfrapp

I seem to be one of those people that only stumble onto music they like by hearing it in various obscure places. I only found out about Imogen Heap through an NPR episode on her music. This time, it was the Target commercial that I found Goldfrapp through. I was typing away on the keyboard and ignoring the commercial when I heard this beautiful voice and melody. Hmmm...who could it be?

Anyways, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can find artists by simply googling the commercial. I found out the band is called Goldfrapp and the song was "Fly Me Away" from their Supernaturae album. I listened to some more of the music from the album and wow it is really good stuff...electronic heavy, and almost ethereal and yet with a rich dancing beat to it.

One of the sad things though is that I wish I knew about these artists earlier. Her and Imogen have been out for awhile and yet I seem to stumble on very late to music I late. I guess better late than never, but I wish I could find more music like this!

Beyond the Limit

Last night a great Discovery Channel show, Everest: Beyond the Limit ended. The story showed the epic struggle of climbing this mountain and how horrible things turn once you hit the Death Zone above 8,000 meters.

The last show went over the tragic death of climber David Sharp. The Discovery crew filmed some of his last harrowing moments as they tried to help him out, but to no avail. There has been a big controversy over how expeditions are run lately...and that summiting has become more important than rescuing those along the way.

Mt. Everest is no joke. The top of the mountain is riddled with the corpses of well over fifty people easily visible from some of the standard climbing routes. Many other bodies are buried or lie off the trail. At these altitudes, it's impossible to bring people down do to the terrain and the fact that every second you spend up there above 8,000 meters your body is literally dying. Most people end up with really bad cases of frostbite and end up losing quite a few fingers and toes. Only a couple people escaped frostbite on the Discovery series' expedition.

I find mountain climbing to be very fun at much lower altitudes. It does bring a sense of accomplishment when you get to the top and the view is always worth looking out over the horizon. However, I'll never understand the curious thrill that many of these climbers must get by risking life and limb near the top of the world.

Christmas Shopping

I've come to the conclusion that stores suck! Yes most of them jack their prices up to high hell before Christmas. There are no deals or no sales anywhere you look. I guess I was dumb for not going earlier, so I have to pay the price! Yesterday was simply ridiculous to see the prices on some of the things.

I went to Best Buy and they had monitors that normally go for $99-$150 jacked up to over $200. Similarly, I was looking for some neat gadgets for my iPod. Oh no no no! That certainly wasn't happening either as simply a cheap plastic case to cover it was well into the $30 range.

And clothes? Forget about that too! Thankfully, most of my gifts can be gotten after Christmas, so I don't have to get bent over too often by stupid stores. This year, I only did a little shopping online and that seems to make a big difference since you can get good deals there if you are hsipping to people out of state.

So next week I will update this and see what I can find during the after-Christmas sales.

A Lowfat Feast

So last night I finally got to watch Feast. It was quite an interesting movie considering the budget of it. There were some pretty good humorous moments and I really loved the way they analyzed the Life expectancies of each of the cast members as they were introduced.

I also have to admit I am a big fan of all the squishing and blood that went on. Movie carnage can be quite fun if done properly. Also, a lot of people died that you wouldn't expect to live and people that you usually assume would get offed, made it out alive. Thus, nothing was too predictable.

The creatures were kind of weird and the whole origin behind them was never explained in any real detail. Though, this didn't hinder the movie in anyway, and leaving it with a mysterious edge was probably a good choice!

Failed Gender Test

So this poor Indian athlete failed a gender test at the Asian Games recently.

I remember having to study real hard for my gender test. I spent quite a bit of money on pre-Gender Test tutoring, hoping that passing it would help me get a scholarship to the prestigious Girl State University. I can remember the few nights beforehand I spent cramming, trying to keep the facts straight about dress sizes, wedding planning, and sandal etiquette. It was hell. I think I went through a case of Jolt cola that night trying to stay alert.

That morning at the test, I was so scared! The multiple choice parts were killers! I mean how many shades of skirts go well with a pair of silver Manolos?! What is the income cut-off for a prospective husband if you are aspiring to be a trophy wife? Needless to say, after the carnage was over, I think I scraped by with a D+ and had to settle for a budget community college.

So be sure to pass your gender test if you ever have to take one!

The Joys of Dieting

So, I'm trying to lose weight and it's not as easy as it looks! I put on a few pounds after Thanksgiving and spent way too many lunches gorging on Taco Bell. Over the past week I have taken the herculean step of stopping snacking, drinking mostly only water, and changing my eating patterns significantly. My dad sent me a regimen that's supposed to help you lose 10-15 pounds in a week if you stick to it, but you have to eat this horribly disgusting cabbage soup! I made a batch of it and nearly croaked. Sorry cabbage lovers, there is nothing delicious about a cabbage soup.

So I resorted to my own concoction:

Breakfast: 1 small bowl of mixed fruit or Grapenuts/Skim Milk
Lunch: 1/2 of a turkey Subway sandwich on wheat bread or a bowl of Hot & Sour soup
Dinner: Other half of the Subway sandwich
Snacks: A bowl of sliced apples, handful of lowfat pretzels

So far, this lovely diet has stabilized my weight, and I've only lost like 1-2 pounds. Also, my tummy seems a little bit less fat and I find myself less huungry. However, I'm not sure this diet is very healthy in the long run. I think I may need to add more protein to the mix.

I am always open to good suggestions for a healthy diet that is easy to eat.

Champions of Norrath

I finally finished Champions of Norrath today. It is a pretty good game, for a console game, especially if you are playing with friends. I definitely recommend this as a great time to sit around with someone. It's hard to find good games you can play on the same screen with someone.

The old Commodore 64 was wonderful for having lots of neat games you could play with someone, but it seems as though with the advent of the PC, games became more of a solo experience until MMORPGs. So now you can either play with bunches of people online, or you get to play by yourself. Thankfully, consoles have a abilitiy to play with another person, but the RPGs for the console are mostly of the Japanese fantasy variety. Sadly, I don't find that variety very fun and the way that combat is done drives me crazy.

Now, I'll have to get the second part of this game soon to see what it is like. I've actually heard from lots of friends that the sequel is even better than the first. What a blast!

A New Beginning

Some of you may have wondered what the heck happened to my old blog? Well. I have been thinking lately that I should start anew with a different theme.

Also, my last blog had a lot of personal issues from the very beginning which didn't reflect my changes--personal issues I would like to keep and reflect on as more of a journal of things in the past.

Therefore, this is a new beginning, but with the same me and hopefully more conversations and journaling of my life interspersed with more commentary on daily life.