Tag Archives: lists

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Some Goals For October

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Most of the past week of my life or so has consisted of sleeping (horribly, I might add), staying in bed until the afternoon, feeding myself, thinking about doing work, frantically running around either doing errands or going to dance classes, forgetting to feed myself again, watching YouTube, and going to bed way too late.

While it might seem like the perfect life, it does have its drawbacks, and I need to get.stuff.done.this.month.

So, a goal list is in order.

While I have my thoughts collected here goes my loosely-defined some goals for October.

  1. Read/go through ~4 books a week for research.
  2. Write 3-5 pages a week.
  3. Translate 7 scenes a week (roughly 1 a day; if there is a short one, I can do two in a day)
  4. Go through stuff in my closet/on my desk/in my car.
  5. Read 100-200 pages a day (for pleasure)
  6. Limit: YouTube, Facebook, Words with Friends, Secret Society, constantly checking email, other distractions.
  7. Go to bed by 2 AM.

Come on Jacob, you can do this.

Any encouragement would be appreciated.

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All About That Bath

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Nope, not a post about Meghan Trainor, but about the fact that I finally live in a home with a bathtub after 4 years, and tonight I used it for the first time.

This might not be the most scintillating info ever, but I think it deserves to be recorded for posterity.

  • Start to fill the bathtub with hot water.
  • Go to the next room and pick out clothes.
  • Go into the bathroom, and realize that the water is scalding hot.
  • Let out some water, and put in cold water.
  • Stir thoroughly.
  • Put in Dusty Rose bath bomb.
  • Turn on Seth Meyers.
  • Wonder why bath bomb isn’t working. Realize it’s still wrapped in plastic.
  • Retrieve a pencil and poke holes in bath bomb so that it starts to fizz.
  • Realize that you’re not getting clean, and remember to soap and shampoo up.
  • Fiddle with YouTube and computer screen until the hot water merely becomes tepid.
  • Wash yourself, realizing that you were going to have some wine and cookies but totally forgot.
  • Let out the water, get out of the tub, and dry off, wiping off mostly sweat.
  • Despite the constant getting up and sitting down again, tell yourself it was worth it.
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Things Adults Should Get A Medal For

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This is either a statement of me accepting my reality, or getting way too into The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo.

So, here’s the preliminary list.

  1. Putting on pants before 3 PM.
  2. Shopping before midnight.
  3. Paying a bill with a check in an envelope with a stamp.
  4. Finishing a bag of lettuce before it all goes bad.
  5. Eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables each day.
  6. Drinking the recommended amount of water each day.
  7. Keeping plants alive for more than a week.
  8. Complimenting other peoples’ children even when they don’t deserve it.
  9. Resisting the urge to eat all the desserts (no medal for me today).
  10. Deleting dating apps from your phone.
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Blogiversary + Book Reviews!

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Can’t believe I forgot about my blogiversary, which was this week. So, happy blogiversary to me! I wouldn’t be here without all those who read/follow me (1,722 and counting! Tell your friends!) so a great big thank you to all of you.

I’ve been getting quite a lot of reading done this month, in between playing apps, watching Twin Peaks, and trying to avoid any and all responsibility. I’ve actually managed to finish a grand total of 17 books. Here’s the list, and the ones in bold I will post about (or already have, so stay tuned.

  1. Gisela Konopka, Courage and Love
  2. Amulya Malladi, The Mango Season
  3. Scarlett Thomas, Bright Young Things
  4. Esme Raji Codell, Sahara Special
  5. Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
  6. Joseph Gangemi, Inamorata
  7. Catherine O’Flynn, The News Where You Are
  8. Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
  9. Tom Miller, The Panama Hat Trail
  10. Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven
  11. Aatish Taseer, The Temple-Goers
  12. Conor Grennan, Little Princes
  13. Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
  14. Gail Tsukiyama, A Hundred Flowers
  15. Masha Hamilton, The Camel Bookmobile
  16. Madhur Jaffrey, Climbing the Mango Tress
  17. Prem Kutowaroo, In Search of Love

So, see you next month! (Which is in about five minutes.)

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Things We Shouldn’t Care About, But We Do Anyway

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  1. What random people think of us on the Internet.
  2. The Kardashians.
  3. BPAs.
  4. The word “organic”
  5. The fact that the seasons change in many parts of the world.
  6. Having useless things like a bag of 5000 plastic forks in the house, but only when you don’t need them.
  7. The existence of bugs in the world.
  8. College sports.
  9. Our sodium intake.
  10. Going back to check to see if the door to the house or car is locked, when, of course it is.
  11. Making lists and wondering whether you’ll actually have enough energy or inspiration to write something of good quality on the blog.
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Fantasy Concert Song Sequence

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If I were a better singer, I would definitely want to give concerts. Not to be famous, maybe at a small pub or something. I’d like to mix genres, from easy listening to disco, from Israeli to remixed pop, from R&B to classics.

Every so often, I come across a sequence of songs on my iPod that blend into one another so seamless despite crossing genres that it almost feels like the same people could be singing. I usually forget those combos, but tonight I decided to change that, so behold, my first ever Fantasy Concert Song Sequence post. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but these songs sure do.

The first song, is “House on the Lake,” from the Black Cadillac album by Rosanne Cash. It has a nice little gentle flow to it, not quite soporific, but soothing – a light, easy listening/country/folk number. After it faded out, the next song to come on was from the 90s R&B girl power song “Don’t Let Go” by En Vogue. It’s a similar tempo, but a with a little more punch to it, and would most likely wake the audience back up, especially with the rapid genre change. As I was getting into the shower, that song ended and the next one began. It was from the same era and genre, but it fit nicely just the same, “Words” by Anthony David & India.Arie. These are not my three favorite songs in the world, but they loop together quite nicely, so take a listen.

Hopefully this will be the start of an interesting new series of posts.

13

What I Read in 2016

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You’ve been forewarned – even though this is my first post of 2017, it will most likely be on the boring side.

So how are you? I’m doing fine, kind of FOMO right now, since I’m always in the wrong city, state, or country, as the occasion merits. This week in Madison, I’m missing Salsa Saturday, a number of dance classes, as well as a few get-togethers, and for New Year’s Eve, I was sitting at home with my parents rather than at a party in Madison or doing the midnight toast song with brothers who stayed in Pittsburgh. I am, however, enjoying just taking it easy for once after a stressful December (well, more like a stressful November, but a return-to-human December, as well as other household and teaching-related tasks that piled up on me) and trying to recoup and regroup for the coming year. I’m scheduled to fly back to Madison on Sunday, via Atlanta. Hopefully 2017 will be a zen time for me, to make up for the craziness of 2016 – not all bad, but just intense. Part of me is enjoying being lazy (I’ve either slept late or taken an afternoon nap every day this year/week), but another part of me really just wants to get back to Madison and figure out the rest of my life.

Anyway.

2016 was a relatively good year in terms of reading. According to Goodreads, I read 46 books totaling 13,716 pages. My shortest read was 129 pages and my longest was 560. My favorite books of the year were Hush, The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, and What Was Lost. From my Giant Reading List (approximately 248 fiction and 195 nonfiction/theatre), I read Hush, A Breath of Fresh Air, Life is Not a Fairy Tale, Spider Web, and We Are On Our Own. The most interesting stat? I read exactly double the number of books I read in 2015, and slightly more than double the pages, so that’s something.

Right now, I should go and finish a book that I’m about halfway through but want to get rid of tomorrow.

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Ten Things I Don’t Understand About Myself/Things I Do But Don’t Know Why

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I haven’t made a good list in a while, and it’s like having a good cry, so here goes.

Ten Things I Don’t Understand About Myself/Things I Do But Don’t Know Why

  1. I do laundry, but I cannot fold it until I know that there is something online or on TV that I want to watch so I can multitask. I can’t fold laundry without doing something else at the same time, and since laundry-folding requires two hands, TV just requires my two eyes.
  2. I wash dishes…in the morning, while my coffee is being made. Yep, that’s the only time I will hand-wash dishes. Usually I am still in pajamas so if I get splashed it’s not such a huge deal. That’s somewhat logical, but why not just wash them right away? And today I got Starbucks before going to work rather than making my own coffee, so…sorry, sink full of dishes.
  3. I can’t play Words with Friends while walking. Doesn’t work for me. Must be either seated, standing, or lying down.
  4. I never have any clothes, and then when I go on shopping sprees and spend a lot of money on clothes, they all seem to disappear. Currently, I’m down to two pairs of khakis, two pairs of dress pants, and ONE pair of jeans. Jeans don’t seem to last long, especially if you have an active life and are walking around campus all day.
  5. I tell everyone that I keep my car clean, but it’s really not clean. I mean, the front seat is okay, sometimes has some papers or pens on it, and the backseat isn’t bad, but I throw stuff in the trunk and have no idea how much has accumulated back there until I have to squish things to get my groceries in.
  6. I can’t ever have just one piece of gum. Right now, for example, I’m chewing four pieces, like some kind of barbarian.
  7. I have an order of how I read books, but I’m constantly forgetting it/changing it.
  8. I have shows I watch religiously online, but I’ve never seen an episode of said show live/on TV. Yep, the Late Show, Colbert Report, Late Late…and I’m usually awake, too. Watching clips on YouTube.
  9. I never use anything handicapped, except bathroom stalls. I feel like it’s just a bad omen, from parking spots to using ramps instead of steps. I think I walked up the ramp to get into my building once, because I was talking with someone, and I had a split-second anxiety attack. Handicapped bathroom stalls are fair game, because it would be quite rare for me to be using the stall when an actual handicapped person might need it, and if I’m in there, I’m usually out pretty quickly.
  10. I wait all day to post something, just before midnight. Even though I sometimes come up with multiple ideas a day, it takes me until the witching hour to get it down. It doesn’t matter whether I have a free hour for lunch or something, it doesn’t get from brain to blog until this time of day, when I’m already tired and stressed.
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Some Goals for December

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Hey y’all!

Okay, so now that the hellish month known as November is dunzo, and school/work is tapering off as winter break gets closer, and other stuff, it’s time for a comeback, and instead of lamenting my lack of quality ideas for posts, I’m just going to make this goals list for December and see how it goes:

Goals for December 2016

Blogging

  • Write something every day, or at least as close to that as possible.
  • Think of a new blogging project/game/blogsperiment for 2017.
  • Update/fix up some half-finished posts.

Real-Life Stuff

  • Work on finding new place to live.
  • Go through closet and determine what clothes need replacing.
  • Deep clean kitchen/bathroom.
  • Read more books, especially library books.

Finish strong!