Saturday, January 28, 2012

An update

I feel like I should blog. But I don't know what to write about. Bulleted lists help me, so here goes.
  • Hayley updates her blog more, so if you want to know what we're up to, you should check out her blog or the project life blog
  • I'm on the healthy bandwagon again. It took two little competition thingers where I didn't try too hard to actually get me to where I wanted to do it. I paid money to be in those other "be healthy and lose weight" contests, but it wasn't quite enough to motivate. Why is that?
  • I actually JOGGED on the treadmill last night, not just walked briskly
  • The fitbit app on iPhone iPod Touch is pretty awesome. Not sure if they let you use the website for free, but the app is free. It's very similar to WeightWatchers
  • Orange is still my favorite color
  • I kind of want to eat an orange now...
  • I just clipped my fingernails
  • I haven't talked in person to anyone I work with in MONTHS. On the phone, IMs, and emails sure, but not in person. Weird
  • You don't get a whole lot of steps in (you're supposed to get 10,000 per day) when you work from home and have a 2 bedroom house
  • I'm not feeling especially creative today
**I didn't finish this blog post until Saturday morning. I thought I better add a few bullets from today**
  • I lost 5.5 lbs this week!
  • I'm not starving, and don't feel deprived
  • I'm going to kick some butt in the FGI8 competition this time
And here are a couple pictures of my family (that won't be new to anyone who reads Hayley's blog or her Project Life blog). Neener neener.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Quick tip No. 13

Just avoid using the third person on your facebook status.

*disclaimer: this is going to be a long post about grammar
*nuther disclaimer: this only mildly irritates me enough to write a blog post about it. If you're guilty of changing voice in your status updates (and I may very well be as well), we can still be friends. This is just a quick tip. And I'm not your grammar police, even if I DID get a badge for it in 7th grade English.

The problem with changing voice in facebook statuses stems from the olden days of facebook, when your status automatically defaulted to "So-and-so is..." and you put your text after that, and the text appeared right after your name. Folks, the automatic and forced "is" is gone now. There's no reason to use the passive verb, and no reason to think you need to default to third person.

The biggest problem here is that people don't understand that they have started in a passive, third person voice, so as their sentence progresses, they switch to the more common and comfortable first person.

Here's an example. THIS IS WRONG:
Sally Schnawz
is really excited about my nose job surgery! I love it!

First, take a look at your facebook news feed and notice that facebook has now put the text under your name. That way, we all get that the next bit of text is from you, and Facebook is not forcing you to start a sentence with your name anymore! Secondly, when you update similarly to the example above, it sounds like you are saying that a third party person with your name (Sally) is excited for you, and you love that she is excited for you. What you really tried to say is that you, Sally, are excited about and love your nose job. So you should just say that. THIS IS RIGHT:
Sally Schnawz
I am really excited about my nose job surgery! I love it!
Don't get it yet? here are a couple actual examples from people with whom I am friends on facebook, complete with an explanation of what English tells us they said, my understanding of what they tried to say, an example of what they should have said had they really wanted to continue in the third person, and and example in first person. I make learning fun!

Helen Hungrypants
really wants Cafe Rio for lunch... wish it wasn't far away! I have a free meal!
  • What it really means: Person A knows someone named Helen. Helen wants Cafe Rio. Person A wants to use his or her free meal card to satiate Helen's desires for a salad, loaded with more than the daily allotment of calories for the average person. And a soda. Because free meals come with a soda.
  • What Helen tried to say: Helen, herself, is craving Cafe Rio and wants to use her free meal card to get something for lunch, but Cafe Rio is far away. Shucks.
  • Third person example: Helen Hungrypants really wants Cafe Rio for lunch and wishes it wasn't far away! She has a free meal!
  • First person example: I really want Cafe Rio for lunch. I wish it wasn't far away; I have a free meal!
Theresa Therapist
Thinks I am going to like this semester. Love my play therapy class & hope I can learn a lot in my marriage & family therapy class!
  • What it really means: Person A knows someone named Theresa. Theresa thinks Person A is going to like school this semester. Person A loves Play Therapy and is looking forward to Marriage and Family Therapy. The rest of us aren't sure why Theresa has anything to say about Person A's class schedule.
  • What Theresa tried to say: Theresa, herself, thinks she is going to like the semester and wants to give some key examples to demonstrate why.
  • Third person example: Theresa Therapist thinks she is going to like this semester. She loves her play therapy class and hopes she can learn a lot in her marriage and family therapy class!
  • First person example: I am going to like this semester. I love my Play Therapy class and I hope I can learn a lot in my Marriage and Family Therapy class! Also, I need to take a basic grammar class as soon as possible!
There are countless additional examples. As you can see from the given third person examples, third person doesn't quite flow because no one talks that way (except maybe The Jimmy). Just stick to talking in the first person, because you're naturally going to flow that way anyway. It'll save us all the trouble of struggling to figure out what you're really talking about.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Quick tip No. 12

If you don't immediately rinse out oatmeal from your bowl at breakfast, it will become so rock hard, you may believe it could rival cement. If you want any tiny rolled oats to be removed from the bowl after they've been allowed to dry, it will take AT LEAST two tries in the dish washer, or an hour soaking in the sink.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Toddler Brain

This may only be funny if you have a toddler... Since my kid is just starting to toddle, it's kinda funny. Maybe less so to Hayley, who has to deal with the worst parts of the tantrums, whining, "no," and all the rest much more than I do.

Image from graphjam.com

Below I have given a few updates to this graph for the Mikey brain:
  • He has yet to develop the play-doh center of the Worthwhile-Food Cortex
  • His Muppet-Appreciation lobe is not at all developed
  • Instead of "Daddy's shoes" in the Toy-Recognition Cortex, he has developed a section for measuring cups and large serving utensils, especially spoons
  • His Cartoon Addition Lobe is not fully developed 
  • His Endless-Repetition Stem does not contain "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Goodnight Moon" is only part of his nighttime brain function. "No!" is definitely the dominate section of this area
  • Surprisingly, his Acceptable-Medicine Center is completely normal. No aversion to actual medicines, except shots, of course
Do you see any changes you'd make? OR additional brain centers in the kids with whom you interact?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

We'll get 'em next year!

Remember when I said I would try to write a novel in a month? Remember how it didn't go so well? Well, the honest truth is I quit. It was hard! I couldn't figure out what to make my characters do before they got to the big stuff I had planned for them. I would get behind and then freak out at how many extra words I'd have to write the next day to catch up. Then, I decided to bag what I had started, and do something else entirely. That didn't pan out as well as I hoped would.

image from toothpastefordinner.com

On top of the book writing stress, there were a few other things requiring my attention and they were also stressing me out. When I decided I wasn't going to write my book anymore, It was a big relief. But I do want to write that book. So as part of my resolutions for the new year, I am going to attempt NaNoWriMo again in 2012.

So there. That's my update on the writing.

In unrelated news, I figured out that I'm still logged into Hayley's YouTube account on my phone, so I posted a BUNCH of videos of Mikey there. Click the button over there on the right to see 'em.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is how our Thanksgiving started (sort of).

It was a very pretty start to the day, but by the end, I was pretty tired, and ready to see what tomorrow  had in store. But I get ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

Mikey woke up at 2:00 a.m. He has a raging diaper rash, and also has diarrhea, which then irritates his little bum even worse. So when he woke up at two, it was because he had pooped, his bum was hurting, and he needed a new diaper. Changing the diapers when his bum is so bad (seriously, it's got bleeding sores and blotchy redness all over) is quite and ordeal. We use sensitive wipes, then cloth wipes with soap to really clean it all off, then a cloth wipe with just water to rinse it all off, then either air dry or use Hayley's hair dryer to get it good and dry, then put on the diaper, then some Nistatin cream, then this concoction made of plain yogurt (to help get rid of yeast that is making the rash worse) and Malox (to help get rid of the acid that is eating away at his bum).

Anyway, so he wakes up, we change him, I snuggle him back to sleep, then he starts crying half an hour later, we check, he pooped AGAIN, we change the diaper again, and this time he's way less inclined to sleep. I had to sit and rock him for another half hour, and at abut 3:30 a.m., I went back to sleep. Then, he woke up a little before 6:00 a.m., and we had to do another diaper change. Hayley and I tag team these diapers, because it's nice to have someone go get the soapy wipe, warm water wipe, and yogurt/Malox concoction while the other starts getting him out of pajamas to change the diaper, do the wiping, etc. The 6:00 a.m. wake up time wouldn't have been so bad, except for the issue of being up from 2-3:30 the same morning. We were tired, but still looking forward to the day!

While Mikey was up, Hayley made her super awesome green bean dish (having already made deviled eggs and a killer cheese cake the night before), and I made mashed potatoes. Sometime between Mikey's 6:00 a.m. diaper change and starting to make the food, Hayley said something to the effect of "Let's make sure we have a really good day today, ok?" To which I responded with a smile and whole-hearted agreement. My mashed potatoes were awesome, by the way.

Later, Mikey wouldn't take his nap at 9:00 a.m. like he usually does, even though at 8:30 he was beside himself, he was so tired. We wanted him to wake up at 11:00 a.m. so we could head to Tiffanie's for Thanksgiving. Well, he finally went down at about 10:30, and slept until we woke him up at noon. Because there is a huge ordeal with diaper changes, we had all sorts of stuff to take with us, and because he's getting a cold on top of the horrid diaper rash, we took the pack-n-play thinger so he would have somewhere to take a nap, so he wouldn't be such a monster all day. That totally worked and he took a great afternoon nap.

The meal at Tiff's was awesome. The turkey was great, the stuffing was great, the sweet potatoes were great, the green beans were great, the appetizers were great. It was all great. The deserts... everything! The semi-nap on the couch while watching movies and TV was good, too. Mikey started fading at about 6:30 p.m., so we started packing up all our baby things, and somehow left with more food than we brought. At home, we unpacked, then started getting Mikey ready for bed.

As I was changing his clothes, I was greeted with a treat. Mikey had a blow out. There was poop everywhere. Hayley came to help, we got him, his clothes, and the changing table cleaned up, put in the wash, gave him a bath, and got him ready for bed. After I got his diaper on, I noticed that the cotton balls that we used to dab on the yogurt/Malox had fallen behind his bed, so I bent down to get them, and while reaching under the bed, I knocked the stand that was holding the yogurt/Malox concoction, and it fell on the floor. So I had Hayley help me again with wet rags so I could clean that up, too. Then, we FINALLY got Mikey to bed!

While I was getting Mikey ready for bed (and spilling yogurt/Malox on the floor, then cleaning it up), Hayley was reclaiming the kitchen. We had left dishes from all our cooking endeavors in the sink, and the kitchen wasn't it's cleanest; not a TOTAL wreck, but not clean. Hayley was on a roll from helping with the blow out, getting things in the laundry, putting things away from the Thanksgiving visit, so she kept being productive in the kitchen. She also decided the microwave needed to be cleaned. She did this little trick where you microwave a little water with lemon oil, which helps break up all the junk in your microwave. After she had wiped down most of the microwave, she asked me to get the back wall of it, because doing so was hurting her back. I happily jumped in on the productive measures, and wiped it down. We decided that because the microwave was so gross, we'd do the little trick with the water and lemon oil again, and do a final wipe down. Well, after the stuff had been in the microwave for about 30 seconds, the door opened, the glass tray jumped, and the water and oil spilled. It scared me to death! I may or may not have cursed, and wanted toss out the thing right then and there.

After the microwave explosion, Hayley said, "What a night!" But even with the early morning wake ups, struggling naps, messy kitchen, diaper blow out, and microwave explosion, we had a great day. I had a good time with Hayley and Mikey, Tiffanie was a great hostess, and visiting with her, her family, my mom and dad, and McKay was nice. Mikey loved Tiff's dogs and hanging out with Nana and Papa, a fellow red-headed cousin, and some aunts and uncles. We had some great food. And we were thankful. It was a full day, but a great day. It goes to show that if you decide you want a nice day, you can have one. It was a really good day. Hope you had a good one, too!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Writing marathon?

I saw this on graphjam.com. I don't know if NaNoWriMo is "high-stakes" per se, but this is how I've spent the last 5 or 6 days in relation to this little writing marathon.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Day... what is it, 6 now?

So my novel writing is not going well. It is not nearly as long as it should be by now, and I'm finding I lack motivation to do this. I am finding that my story is more of a short story than a novel. I think of ways to add to it, but I lack the desire to write about those added situations. This is all much more difficult than I thought! ...not that I thought it would be a breeze...

I start to write, but I get sick of it, get itchy all over, or can't figure out how to move the story along. I wrote a paragraph like eight times tonight and deleted it just as many times. My target should be 1,667 words per day, but I'm nowhere near that. I didn't write at all the last two days, and it is looking like I won't do much tonight, either. If I look at the word count I need to make up, it's a bit daunting. If I spread it out over the whole month, it just means I have to write 1,888 words per day instead, which is less daunting, but if I can't get 1,667 words out, how do I add 220-ish words each day from here on out??

I keep thinking maybe I should scratch this story and try something different. Something where I don't have any idea of what will happen, so I can sort of make it up more as I go along. It will mean all this writing I have done so far is wasted, but maybe it's worth it??? Thinking about it is making me itchier...

***update at 12:06 a.m. I restarted. Or rather, started something new. And I wrote over 1,900 words tonight! I might stick with this new novel. But I'm even more afraid to tell you what it's about than the last story I was working on, so... we'll see how it goes and how I feel about it in the morning.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Day 2

My second day of novel writing did not go great. I wrote more than the first day, but I'm still not at the word count I should be. I do have the excuse of stomach flu the day before yesterday and recovering still yesterday, but I need to get moving on this. I've got 1,932 words. I should be at 3,334. That means I have to catch up 1,402 words, including the additional 1,667 new words I need today. Maybe I should get one of those meter thingers to put on my side bar...

My problem right now seems to be that I don't really want to do the character building that is necessary. I want the reader (if there ever will be a reader) to already understand the characters. I'm not sure how to give them experiences that explain their thoughts and actions, so you get to know them as they exist in my head. There's a really big event going to happen at the end of Kathy's work day, but I really need to get through her work day first, giving situations that let you know what makes her tick. And I just want to skip to the event...

If any of you want to help, can you give me a description about what it's like to work in retail? Maybe working in a clothing department of a store, or something like that? That might help, actually. And I'll name a side character after you if you help. :) Hmm... maybe I'll just come to the interwebs when I need help with what to do next. So if you can, PLEASE HELP!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

I think I'm doing it...

Writing that book, I mean...

My friend is also doing NaNoWriMo, and she did a post about how day one went. In order to get 50,000 words by the end of the month, you need to write 1,667 words per day. My end-of-day word count was 721. I need about a thousand more words, which means I need to make that up today. Considering everyone in my house had the stomach flu yesterday, I think I get a pass on that, but that doesn't mean I get to be the only one that writes 49,000 words in this little competition/activity. I'm having trouble getting through the first day and figuring out who these characters are and how they interact. Once I get that down, I think writing about them will be a little easier.

To tell you about my book, I don't think it's going to be a happy book. It might be a little depressing. And I'm not sure if I'm going to share it with anyone. I get very self-conscious about fiction writing. I am just fine showing what I've done for work or school, but anything I write for fun, I suddenly don't want you to not like it, because that will mean you don't like me.Or I'll take it personally, and it will create some wedge between us. Or you will like it, and will somehow know secrets about me I didn't intend to tell. But I think by the end of the month, I'll get over that. I'll let you know how things go, and if anyone really wants to read it, I'll let you. I think.

So my story. There are two main characters. Kathy and Jonathan/Jon. I keep wanting to change Jon's name, but because there has been so much advice to NOT edit and just write, he's going to be Jon at least through the end of November. So far, I have almost written John, Steve, Mark, and one other name that inspired this blog post, but now I can't remember it. They're a couple living together in Chicago who have been together for a while and it's comfortable. They might get married. But it's still a depressing story, trust me.

Is anyone else out there writing for NaNoWriMo, or doing any other writing at all? Care to share?