I made gravy!!!!!
I know, it's something people do every day. BUT, my mother can't make gravy to save her life. Her gravy was, at best, a lumpy, salty, mess, and at worst, a seperated, lumpy, salty mess. I figured that I, too, would have the same affliction, especially since I have difficulty with dishes that require a similar cohesion (like any cheese sauce involving parmesian). However, tonight, i am proud to say that i made awsome turkey gravy from the drippings that we froze over thanksgiving. yayy!!!!!!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Charity rocks, but it's not cheap.
Every year since I can remember, I have done some manner of donation to charity. When I was little, my mother would pick out an angel from the tree and we would shop together. When I was older, mom would pick one for her and one for me, and she would give me the money for it. Once I got old enough to earn my own money, I started doing them myself. For two years I was unable to do anything like this because of our financial situation. The first year I donated some hand-made jewelry to toys for tots. Last year, I donated some hand-made items to the YWCA and I gave 20% of Christmas jewelry sales to Child's Play. I raised $100 by just donating 20% of all non-show sales from thanksgiving until Dec 20th.
This year, I actually have money, so I'm spreading it around. I got more extravagant gifts than I would normally get for family, I bought myself some seriously kickass winter clothes and snow boots (which have been well worth it so far), I donated $50 to an adolescent boys home per the request of my uncle, and I just spent about $275 on clothes, toys, etc. for a homeless family--and that was pretty much just for winter essentials and only a handful of toys. The point of this is not for you all to go "wow, vo0 rocks", but so you understand how much this stuff is needed. I spent approximately $325 for charity and I barely put a dent in what the world needs-- I barely bought clothes for a family of four and one or two small toys for each kid, and sent enough money to a teen boys home to feed them for a night. People need help and one person alone can only do so much.
This year, I am donating 20% of my Christmas jewelry sales to Child's Play again, and so far all we have is approximately $30. I would really like to be able to top last years figure of $100. This is part of the reason for the pushy, soapboxy, holier-than-thou statements about how your help is needed. If I am going to get the figure up around $100, then I need some help. My website is http://hippybeads.com . You don't have to do anything special to have the charity money deducted, I automatically take it out of every order. Child's Play is a great charity designed to help kids while proving that gamers aren't a bunch of heartless murdering assholes. I know some people are thinking "that's great, vo0, but doesn't the other 80% go into your pocket?" Yes, it does. I won't deny it for a second. I personally like the idea of being able to get shiny things that I, or someone else, will enjoy AND donating to charity at the same time. However, if you don't want the shiny things, or don't want me to have the money, then donate directly. Even if you don't like that charity, donate to something, it's really needed, especially this time of year.
Even if you don't buy things from me, you can donate directly to them.
This year, I actually have money, so I'm spreading it around. I got more extravagant gifts than I would normally get for family, I bought myself some seriously kickass winter clothes and snow boots (which have been well worth it so far), I donated $50 to an adolescent boys home per the request of my uncle, and I just spent about $275 on clothes, toys, etc. for a homeless family--and that was pretty much just for winter essentials and only a handful of toys. The point of this is not for you all to go "wow, vo0 rocks", but so you understand how much this stuff is needed. I spent approximately $325 for charity and I barely put a dent in what the world needs-- I barely bought clothes for a family of four and one or two small toys for each kid, and sent enough money to a teen boys home to feed them for a night. People need help and one person alone can only do so much.
This year, I am donating 20% of my Christmas jewelry sales to Child's Play again, and so far all we have is approximately $30. I would really like to be able to top last years figure of $100. This is part of the reason for the pushy, soapboxy, holier-than-thou statements about how your help is needed. If I am going to get the figure up around $100, then I need some help. My website is http://hippybeads.com . You don't have to do anything special to have the charity money deducted, I automatically take it out of every order. Child's Play is a great charity designed to help kids while proving that gamers aren't a bunch of heartless murdering assholes. I know some people are thinking "that's great, vo0, but doesn't the other 80% go into your pocket?" Yes, it does. I won't deny it for a second. I personally like the idea of being able to get shiny things that I, or someone else, will enjoy AND donating to charity at the same time. However, if you don't want the shiny things, or don't want me to have the money, then donate directly. Even if you don't like that charity, donate to something, it's really needed, especially this time of year.
Even if you don't buy things from me, you can donate directly to them.
Monday, December 5, 2005
Comments on anonymous postings.
So, when I came home from work Friday, someone had posted a "tell me a secret anonymously" thread on a forum that I frequent. This became one of the single most engaging threads I have ever read.
There's also now a live journal group for the same type of thing
Lots of people were commenting on the fact that some of the things discouraged them and made them feel like the human race was deteriorating. I thought it really showed our diversity and it was a good exercise in letting people know they are not alone. Several people confessed to childhood abuse, quite a few confessed to not knowing what to do about the relationships they're in, some confessed to being more in love than they ever had been, and a few confessed secret fantasies. I think it's amazing that you can have a group of people with so many similar things going on in their lives without a single one of them knowing.
There's also now a live journal group for the same type of thing
Lots of people were commenting on the fact that some of the things discouraged them and made them feel like the human race was deteriorating. I thought it really showed our diversity and it was a good exercise in letting people know they are not alone. Several people confessed to childhood abuse, quite a few confessed to not knowing what to do about the relationships they're in, some confessed to being more in love than they ever had been, and a few confessed secret fantasies. I think it's amazing that you can have a group of people with so many similar things going on in their lives without a single one of them knowing.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
yay!
I've been whining off and on about various things related to not being able to establish regular exercise/dance routines. I have felt moody and crappy and fat for a couple months now because I couldn't get myself back into a regular dance class and regular at home exercise. This Saturday, I discovered NIA
Yes, it's as new age, hippy, liberal and crazy as it sounds, but it's a fucking blast. It's kind of like creative/modern dance without the actual "instruction and technique" section... you just kind of follow along with the teacher and occasionally improv. I'd still love to get into an actual dance technique class regularly, but I'm too stubborn to go to the "other" dance school still and the classes at my chosen school are all too early. So for right now, I'll do NIA at least once a week and then dance or play DDR or something at home on other days. Today I actually worked on some dance choreography. Why the hell I'm doing that, I don't know, since I can't go to the choreography competition, I have nowhere to perform, and I don't teach, But, fuck it, it felt good and it's actually healthy for me.
Yes, it's as new age, hippy, liberal and crazy as it sounds, but it's a fucking blast. It's kind of like creative/modern dance without the actual "instruction and technique" section... you just kind of follow along with the teacher and occasionally improv. I'd still love to get into an actual dance technique class regularly, but I'm too stubborn to go to the "other" dance school still and the classes at my chosen school are all too early. So for right now, I'll do NIA at least once a week and then dance or play DDR or something at home on other days. Today I actually worked on some dance choreography. Why the hell I'm doing that, I don't know, since I can't go to the choreography competition, I have nowhere to perform, and I don't teach, But, fuck it, it felt good and it's actually healthy for me.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Christmas trees and XM radio
I forgot to mention yesterday that we put up the tree last weekend. It's small but it's beautiful. And it has ornaments *I* made on it.
Here's a Picture of the tree topper, which I also made.
Okay, now that all the warm fuzzies and bragging are out of the way, it's time for some good old fashioned whining. XM in it's infinite wisdom decided to make certain stations Christmas from thanksgiving on. I am not a big fan of this idea because, I don't like 24/7 Christmas music on any day except MAYBE Christmas. Normally, I would shrug and change the channel because XM has like 200 other channels. HOWEVER, they put this Christmas music on instead of some of my favorite channels. They're playing novelty Christmas songs (hellooooo Dr. Demento) on what is normally the seriously kickass electronic station, and they put COUNTRY CHRISTMAS on what is normally a kickass Latin jazz station. They have 7 country stations, and other categories with more than 7 stations... They couldn't pick another type of music to pre-empt? There are 4 stations in the electronic category and one of them is disco. There are 5 stations in the Latin section. Where does it make sense to pre-empt the stations that are 95% unique because there only 4-5 to a category versus the stations in categories where there's constant overlap and you can't tell the difference easily between switching stations? I am missing two of my favorite stations for a month so they can play fucking Christmas tunes of an unrelated type of music?
Maybe I should stop whining and take the time to make a serious note to XM's programming director:
YOU ARE OFFICIALLY ON THE FUCKO LIST.
Thank you,
--Vo0do0chile
Here's a Picture of the tree topper, which I also made.
Okay, now that all the warm fuzzies and bragging are out of the way, it's time for some good old fashioned whining. XM in it's infinite wisdom decided to make certain stations Christmas from thanksgiving on. I am not a big fan of this idea because, I don't like 24/7 Christmas music on any day except MAYBE Christmas. Normally, I would shrug and change the channel because XM has like 200 other channels. HOWEVER, they put this Christmas music on instead of some of my favorite channels. They're playing novelty Christmas songs (hellooooo Dr. Demento) on what is normally the seriously kickass electronic station, and they put COUNTRY CHRISTMAS on what is normally a kickass Latin jazz station. They have 7 country stations, and other categories with more than 7 stations... They couldn't pick another type of music to pre-empt? There are 4 stations in the electronic category and one of them is disco. There are 5 stations in the Latin section. Where does it make sense to pre-empt the stations that are 95% unique because there only 4-5 to a category versus the stations in categories where there's constant overlap and you can't tell the difference easily between switching stations? I am missing two of my favorite stations for a month so they can play fucking Christmas tunes of an unrelated type of music?
Maybe I should stop whining and take the time to make a serious note to XM's programming director:
YOU ARE OFFICIALLY ON THE FUCKO LIST.
Thank you,
--Vo0do0chile
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)