Mission 101

I'm participating in Mission 101, a project where you make a list of 101 things that you want to have done in the next 1001 days. Many people, myself included, are starting this on January 1st. I'll be updating on my progress here and on my Livejournal and I recommend that people give it a look. We're probably going to get a group up on ravelry as soon as we have enough interest, so if you're participating, let me know!

My list:

Hygiene/health/body

 

1.  Loss weight to 110 ibs  (100) (90) (consider complete if 100)

2. Drink 32 ounces of water a day for a month (0/30)

3. Mouthwash every night (4/1001)

4. Take a vitamin every day for a month (and on) (0/30)

5. Shower once a day for three weeks (0/21)

6. Use my eye drops as directed every day for six months (and on) (0/180)

7. No soda (except in alcohol)

8. Eat only one candy bar/equivalent a week (as reasonable)  (1/143)

9. Stop eating when I’m not hungry

10. Wear make-up at least three times a week (2/429)

11. Join the Y

12.  Eat breakfast every day for three weeks (0/21)

13. Whiten teeth with Whitestrips

14. Get salad at lunch every day for two weeks (even if it’s chicken finger day) (0/10)

15. Try more foods/ be less picky

16.PRIVATE (5 /1001)

17. Get rid of unhealthy food in room/don’t get candy

18. Keep both legs from getting swollen as much as possible by using pump as soon as swelling starts

19. Straighten my hair every day for two weeks and keep going (0/14)

20. Use retainer consistently for a year (at least) (4/365)

21. Buy comfortable shoes

22. Only eat popcorn once a month or less

 

Friends/Spiritual

23. Go to a party and have a really good time

24, Call my friends from home, one once a week (0/’142) (quite obviously not in effect when I AM home)

25. Go to church every Sunday for two months (0/8)

26. Be nicer to my father/call him semiweekly

27. Join a knitting group and go on my own

28. Write in my LJ at least three times a week (2/429)

29 Blog at least once a week (143)

30. Go to Bible study at least once a month

31. visit friends in NYC

32. Make plans to go out with friends at least twice a month

33. See one of my Avignon friends again

34. Buy/wear a cross that I really like

35 Go to swing dancing twice a month in the summer (0/18)

36.. Go to therapy

37. Speak in a more classy way/more intelligently

38. Be better at keeping up with pen-pals

39. Print pictures more consistently/add to albums

 

Experiences:

40, Dye my hair at least four times (0/4)

41. Get cartilage pierced

42. Relearn to swim

43. Learn Italian

44. Travel all over Europe (Rome, Amsterdam etc)

45. Get my tongue pierced

46. Get my first kiss

47 Have a private dance party in my room once a week

48. Learn to sing better

49. Get something different every time I go to Starbucks for a month

50. Start Carly and my web magazine

51. Buy something from my Amazon wishlist once a month for a year (0/12)

52. Wear skirts at least once a week (1/143)

53. Buy pretty tights to go with skirts

54. Try one new recipe biweekly (alternate baking/cooking) (0/64)

55. PRIVATE

56. Do something with all stash yarn so that I can buy prettyful new yarn.

57. Use MARTA more than once a year

58. Go to concerts of artists I like when they are in town

59. Make my wardrobe reflect me more

60. Learn how to spin

61. Write to JKR

62. Buy a new laptop

63. Get recipe book made

64. Bake bread from scratch

65. Make one significant donation to a charity (>$20)

66. Have a psychic reading

67. Get album art on all iTunes

68. Knit five pairs of socks for myself (0/5)

69. Use more creative swear words

70. Knit three sweaters (0/3)

71. Learn to double-knit socks

72. Make a list of the places that I want to see in my life

Books:

73. Write and polish four presentable short stories (0/4)

74. Edit ’07 NaNo

75. Pick a manuscript and edit it and work exclusively on getting it publsihed

76. Get a manuscript in the hands of an agent

77. Read a book a week (not for classes) (2/143)

78. Write in a journal every night for at least three months (0/90)

79. Read Anna Karenina

80. Finish all the books I have to read before buying new ones

81. Write something once a day for a month (not NaNo) (0/30)

82. Memorize one Shakespeare verse a month (0/32)

83. Memorize one Bible verse a month (1/32)

84. Memorize four poems (0/4)

 

Important things:

85. Listen to all the songs in my iTunes and delete any I don’t want any more

86. Get my driver’s license

87. Apply for a service dog

88. Put at least $100 dollars in savings every month for a year ($1200)

89. Pay off my credit cards

90. Get a 4.0

91. Apply/get into grad school

92. Get social security figured out

93. Order out less/spend less when I eat out

94. Vacuum room once a month

 

95. Saved for 2009

96. Saved for 2009

97. Saved fir 2009

98. Saved for 2010

99 Saved for 2010

100 Saved for 2010

101\. Make a new list

 

 

 

 

So That Was Christmas

Christmas is over, and it was probably the best one I've had in years. I did not ask my parents for anything, and they got me everything I would have asked for.

Knitting-wise, all I got was a copy of The Knitter's Companion which is pretty awesome. I got several books off of my Amazon list, one of which is Small-Batch Baking which I'm excited about, because it will let me try new recipes without having loads leftover.

The best gift in my whole family, though, was Holly

She was a gift for my little brother, who was so convinced that Santa would bring him a puppy that we couldn't NOT get one. She's precious, and he's learning how to play with her. I have to watch out for her though, so she doesn't accidentally bite or scratch me, but thus far she's just been very loving. She howls when she's in her crate though, and I have difficulty tuning stuff out, so that's not cool. Oh well, such is the life of a puppy!

I tried to start my friend's Odessa today, but I need bigger beads. So, tomorrow I guess! :)

Book Review: Enchantment

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

I first read this book in my sophomore year of high school, after my Chemistry teacher lent it to me and bought it for myself this week after being reminded of it by the new movie Enchanted. Very far removed from Card's Ender series this book still shows his calling cards especially in the beginning when the reader is introduced to Ivan, a precocious ten-year-old. The rest of the story, though, bears little resemblance to the space-based world of the other tales. Card explores a different world in this tale, the fantasy what-if of: "What if Sleeping Beauty was awakened in Russia in 1992?"

What I find amazing in this book is the incredible mix of Russian folklore, Jewish and Christian history, contemporary politics and just good story telling. The classic Russian arch-nemesis, Baba Yaga is after the kingdom of the gorgeous princess Katerina. Ivan, who just happens to be a scholar of ancient tongues, understands her proto-slavic, and is taken back to her time, 900 AD, to become her husband.

A modern athlete, but not suited for medieval living, he works hard to fit in with her time while also wishing to go home. He is not immediately attached to his fiancée either, and they do not really fall in love until he brings her back to the US in 1992 where his family emigrated. They make the plans needed to attempt to defeat Baba Yaga's army with the help of his mother (a witch, which he only finds out when Katerina recognizes it)

Although some of this feels a bit contrived, within the novel it works well, is woven together with just a hint of mystery at the end to imply that there is more under the surface that the reader is not allowed to know. It may be the case that Card himself didn't know, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. I love this book for it's wonderful mix of fairy tale and modernity and highly recommend it.

Book Review: Pledged (The Secret Life of Sororities)

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins

I picked this book up the other day, buying a copy for a friend for Christmas and then buying one for myself, just to read it.

It focuses mainly on West Coast sororities, at big schools which I don't doubt are party schools in the first place. The book follows four girls, three in the same sorority and one in another, through a year of school. Throughout the narrative, the author cites different accounts and studies also having to do with sorority life. It seems to be a well-researched and in-depth description of sorority life.

Except... not much of it rang a bell with me. I'm a sorority girl, yes. I party more than some college students, maybe. I have chapter once a week, ritual, recruitment. There's girl drama, of course, but... we don't haze. We have eight girls tops in the house, not a hundred. We dn't turn people down because they're not tall and blue-eyed, or if they're disabled. We have girls of many nationalities, we have girls that don't drink.

Even the one sorority on campus that probably most closely resembles the ones in the book has girls that I adore; that work hard in school and aren't necessarily just party girls. And, really, the service, co-ed, fraternity that I pledged this year had more work for only pledges to do, and more that could be seen as "hazing" than my sorority did.

So while I am sure that the book is a good investigation into many sororities, I did not find that it is a good generalization of all Greek life. So, don't judge us all by Legally Blone, or this book either.

Happy Times and an FO

The hat still needs pictures, but on the way home from school I finished this:

It's Rowan Cotton, and it started out as Quant from Knitty, but the drape wasn't right. I kept the i-cord and the triangle increase and decrease and then just garter stitched the rest. Worked nicely. I may make my sister one for Christmas out of the leftover yarn



I'm home for Christmas, and it's fantastic. The last few weeks were full of drama, both over classes and friends. To put it in knitting terms, the hat I was working on since Thanksgiving and was only about a quarter done, was finished in two days of having nothing to do.

It's funny, normally on holidays my family drives me nuts, but so far so good and I've encountered most of them. My sister moved today, from the low-income housing the mental health facility had her living in to a nicer duplex across town. We drove off to help her and mom and my brother loaded all of her bags and boxes and the washer-dryer into Brother's trailer. Helping, were a guy named Jonathon who had on a Superman shirt, and six little kids playing in the parking lot.

My brother is a boat captain, who has a huge-ass pick-up truck and listens to country music. He has a six year old, who's too smart for his breeches (that's a technical term).

We went and saw my nana, who's gotten so she doesn't want to leave the house (except to go get her hair done every Friday) in her old age (which she often reminds everyone is eighty-two, similar to the Eddie Izzard sketch, which I would link to, but it seems to only be on this cd: Definite Article track 4)  and this is sad, because she was always independent.

Mom is amazing, if a product of her one-town Southern roots. My baby brother wants a puppy from Santa, which is precious. Our house smells like Christmas tree, a rather good feat for our tiny tree.


Maybe it's because I don't want anything but payments on my cards for Christmas.... (I'm definitely going to London and want them paid off from last year). Mom insisted on buying me stuff from Amazon, but that was her call. I'm just happy to be home with my bear nativity in the bathroom:


And time to read and knit.

I think I want to learn how to double knit socks.... just a thought.

Being home has never been so happy.

Yarn Packing

Going through my stash to pack for home has been interesting. (I'm sitting here in my finished-but-not-blocked hat and my pajamas. It's classy). I'm destashing, trying to get rid of odds and ends so that I can purge and start my stash with yarns I really like.

So in my backpack is the yarn for the hat I'm making my friend for Christmas (didn't have the needles for it up here), two one-skeins for headbeands, one sock yarn and some yarn that I need Mom to wind.

When I get back I'm going to give some stuff I'll never use away, make a scarf from the Phildar yarn that isn't enough for socks and then probably knit the Central Park Hoodie from the yarn I got for that. I have some really bright sunset-y sock yarn that I got in a swap and I'm not sure if I'd ever wear it, so we'll see where that one goes.

Gotta go get the laundry and finish packing for home!!!

Book Review: Starbucked

Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

I'm not too into non-fiction, not gonna lie, but I decided to read this as soon as I saw it, because as many know, I am addicted to Starbucks. This book was very interesting, and I learned a lot about the history of coffee and about the company which was mainly why I bought it. It was clear in reading it that the author, a journalist, set out rather biasedly to speak against Starbucks, but was not really able to succeed.

Yes, there were a few things to speak negatively about, free trade, expensive coffee, paying mostly for milk and so on. However, he had to admit the differences between Starbucks and other chains such as McDonald's and other things that were mostly ambiguous. It definitely would not stop me from getting Starbucks and it was educational as well.

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha
I know, who hasn't read this, what with the movie and everything, but I admit that I hadn't. I borrowed it from a friend in September and have been reading it off and on since. It's a good book, and a really good introduction to a culture i didn't know much about. The characters are well developed and interesting, and it's not too confusing. It had been a while since I saw the movie, but having seen it helped me picture things well too.

However, I lost interest a little bit in the book at the same point as I had in the movie, around the part when they are worried about Chiyo's virginity. the action dies down a bit, but I really liked the ending. It definitely fit better than the movie.

Overall, I liked the book, but it's probably not one I'll reread too many times, but it was a good read.

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!

Y'all are going to see a lot more of me over the next few weeks I do believe. Finals ended this week, and I would have updated earlier, but I was fighting this beast, which equals what happens during finals:


And in that picture you cannot even see the huge pile of dirty clothes against the side of the wall because my clean ones were in the hamper. Anyway, that battle was fought and I spent today knitting. I've been working on the Cable and Bobble hat from Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter and it's funny because knitting it during classes I'd get a few rounds done. Today I got up to the decreases.

I also finished the headband I was working on a while ago, and here's teddy bear posing with it.




I've also discovered the joys of having Windows media Player open and sticking on top of all windows. I'm watching Look Who's Talking :)

I am also a dork. My reward for finishing finals was watching DVDs of The 1900 House and tomorrow I'm gonna watch The Muppet Christmas Carol - Kermit's 50th Anniversary Edition

Finals went okay, there were a couple of hitches with a paper, some drama with my friend the night before two major finals but other than that things went okay...

More when I finish the hat and such. :)

Book reviews soon too

Finals

Dear Carly,

School is eating me. I've got so much to do, and of course have to be careful not to completely wear myself out. It's a difficult balance that people don't always understand. I mean, I'm sorry if I don't want to go to something after dinner, but it means having to walk further to get to my room.

And what I am really looking forward to at the end of the semester is no longer having to climb up three flights of stairs every Tuesday and Thursday morning to get to class in a building sans elevator. I know, I know, that's a battle I should have fought. Trust me, I know. But sometimes it is more trouble than it is worth. I've made it, and if I had not I would have spoken to my professor. I save my battle-fighting for getting study abroad money and enrolling in ridiculous amounts of classes.

Forgive me for wanting to make an impression with my academics and not just be the girl with a disability who causes trouble. For some reason I just cannot see how that is more likely to get people to make changes. I feel like I should make a wonderful impression the first way first and then be like, by the way it would make things better for me if, and then people would be more likely to accommodate.

What are your thoughts on this?

I should go study!

Chelsey