06 February 2014

I'll Be Your Shelter

Currently pushing: This post from Melissa Beck, ex-Real Worlder and writer of one of my favorite blogs of all time, Princess Melissa. She doesn’t update much anymore but this is a 5,000+ word doozy with a great ending. And yeah, it's about babies.

Last year at this time I was putting my thermals and new-ish collection of scarves to good use. Despite the cold I was out as much as possible, trudging around Manhattan, going anywhere even if it was freezing out. One memorable night, I trekked from LES to Hell’s Kitchen, even though it was snowy and slippery all over.

By the time December rolled around however, I was ready to resume my usual snowbird ways. After experiencing one weekend of nastiness in New York -- when my hi-tops were so filled with slush that it felt like I was walking on the beach -- I jetted back to San Diego and was greeted with eighty degree weather upon arrival. I stripped off my thermals in the airplane restroom, tossed my jacket in my suitcase, and pulled out my sunglasses. Usually when I get home I’m a bit resigned and wondering when I’ll leave again. This time I was like, "Why do I ever leave San Diego, it's so dumb!”

I've still been checking New York weather every day, mainly to well, schadenfreude. Sorry winter sufferers, my only contribution to your struggles is to suggest shacking up with a winter boo. So here’s the post from a few years ago about winter boos. Stay warm friends! (This will sound like #warmweatherproblems to you but my drafty house is freezing all the time and I’m basically draped in blankets twenty four seven. And I've used the heater once or twice. True story.)

Mentally I’m still trapped in the tail end of 2013 and trying to catch up on everything. I thought I would be ready to move into 2014 by now but it’s past Chinese New Year and I’ve barely got my shit together. So many things to wrap up online and offline. I was making a priorities list for the upcoming year but at this point I better just get to it.

A new strategy to be a super productive person is to do things in two hour blocks. It’s too easy to get sucked into something but if I can limit myself to two hours doing any one thing, I think I’ll be making progress. Thus, two hours of Internet, two hours of reading, two hours for a movie, two hours for eating, two hours to write something, two hours for Hearthstone, etc. This new plan will hopefully force me to do varied things instead of my days ending up in the traditional "I just spent ten hours online, what the hell happened?" rut.

My favorite term for the new year is “personal admin.” When people ask me what I’m doing, it’s usually catching up on email, updating online stuff, organizing, etc. The shorthand way to say all that is just “personal admin.” Don’t you love it? It sounds important and overcompensatory at the same time. Below I’m going to dump some items of stuff I’m doing, or did. Am doing. Whatevers.

  • fiftyfifty.me: Year three of Lilly and I’s books and reading challenge. We’re adding another goal too, thus the +PLUS. Lilly is doing recipes, I’m doing I don’t know yet. However, I am going to read fifty books this year, it's a promise.
  • Rich in Color: Audrey and Crystal started this blog focusing on diversity in YA books last year and I helped set up the site but then totally fell off. I vow to contribute more this year. Here’s my first post for the year, "Splashes, No. 1."
  • The End Starts Today: I kind of fell off music somewhere near the back end of 2013. I mean, somehow I was five months late on Lorde. Five months! This year I’m back in and scouring for new music for my Select Sundays.
  • Oodles of Noodles: I kept track of all the soup noodles I ate last year. Why would I do this? Why not? Anyway, it was fun and looking at the archive will make you drool. I’m stopping the noodle diary for this year as I’ve got too many blogs, Tumblrs, everything already going on. I'm never going to stop eating noodles though, never!
  • Kinda Messy: Oh yeah, I also have been building websites since last year. Nothing fancy, just basic sites for good people. (Who knew folks still paid for websites?) Anyway, here's a portfolio section and everything! Get at me if you need a website.
If you haven’t heard about Soylent, it's a food replacement shake that is blowing up. Okay that "blowing up" might be relative but with over two million dollars in crowdfunding and another million or so in seed money, it clearly has a market. And that market could be me! I have long wished for a magic pill that would replace regular meals so I'm in on this. I don’t know if Soylent is safe but I’d like to give it a shot for a few weeks at least. For one, it’s gotta be better nutritionally for me than the massive amount of ramen, burritos, and junk food I consume. For two, it's cheap. For three, it's obviously the future! I don’t think I would want to live on just Soylent but as a supplement/replacement it seems like a fabulous idea.

Over holiday break we were hoping to have a miracle fruit party but that never happened and I feel so incomplete. Can life go on?