battle of the bulge

So my imovie for class is all about my continual fight with my scale and the same damn 3 pounds I have been trying to lose for good! I go up, I go down. Ever since I got back from my trip home to Detroit at Christmas time, I have been fighting with these same 3 pounds. It might not sound like a lot and why should I worry about 3 measly pounds?!?! Well, since January 2005 I have lost 33 pounds...and I have ten more to go. So it seems that these last 10 are the hardest to lose, and I am sooooo close to my goal, it is killing me that it is not faster. But, I will keep going, keep running (10 miles this week so far), and keep eating healthy and see where it gets me. I know I am healthier than I was, so don't care too much about the numbers on the scale, but when you are so close to your goal, whatever it is, it all of a sudden becomes your focus. At least for me! And since I don't want to gain any while in school, I keep moving. I have already done the whole freshman 15 thing in undergrad and look how long it took me to lose it!

The Jester Has Lost His Jingle

The Jester Has Lost His Jingle is a book that was sent to me when I was working at a television station as a health producer. The author of the book is David Saltzman and he wrote the book while attending Yale, and the book was published after he died. He had Hodgkin's disease and died 11 days before his 23rd birthday. This book is about a jester who has lost the ability to make the king in his kingdom laugh, so he sets out with his helper Pharley to find the laughter. He tries and tries to find the laughter but everyone is wrapped up in their own little world, until he finds a little girl in the hospital who says "Here I lie, I have a tumor, and you ask me 'where's your sense of humor?'" He tells her that whenever he feels like crying, he turns his sadness upside down. He encourages her to laugh, and the laughter spreads throughout the land and back to his kingdom. He tells the King:

"We've found where it's been hiding
We've discovered where it's been.
It's hiding inside everyone!
It's buried deep within."

He ends the story with:

So when you're feeling lonely
or sad
or bad
or blue
remember where laughter's hiding...
It's hiding inside
of you!

This is one of my favorite books and I read it quite often, whenever I am feeling sad about something. It was sent to me two months before my mom died and reminds me that laughter doesn't disappear, and its not something you forget how to do. You just need to look deep inside to find it...its always there.

hooray for maintenance!

So today at my regularly scheduled spring maintenance appointment, turns out my water heater was leaking. So, flash forward to this afternoon, an hour before I need to leave to get to campus and hopefully get a parking spot, the maintenance guy STARTS replacing my water heater. At some point, I hear him say 'I'll be right back' and he runs out of my apartment. Why is it that before he left, I never heard the water gushing?!? So I go back to the water heater closet (its in my bathroom) and there is GALLONS OF WATER leaking all over the closet floor! And he is nowhere to be found. About 10 minutes later, as I am trying to figure out if I should get out some towels to clean up all the water (which was brown and gross), he pulls up in his pickup truck. And slowly walks back to my apartment and then takes the old water heater out to the patio and lets it empty pretty much all over my carpet from the bathroom to the front door. It proceeds to empty the rest of the way down through the slats in my patio floor. Good luck to the neighbor who lives below me. I swear there was at least 10 gallons of water that 'somehow' emptied itself from the floor of the cabinet. I checked of course after he left. Apparently, all is fixed...although the water in the kitchen is spouting at me and spraying everywhere. Oh the joys of apartment living! All I can say is 'thank God for spring maintenance checks'. What if they didn't check? I would have NEVER found the leak, that's for sure. So, that's my drama for the day...oh, and I did make it to campus in 15 minutes flat AND got a parking spot within the first 2 minutes of circling the lot. Phew.

homemade breakfast - yummy!

So today I am sitting in Megan's parents' living room watching a western on tv, trying to do some homework, and watching the dogs play crazily! Megan's dad is making breakfast and I am so excited because he is making bacon, eggs, potatoes and toast. I cannot remember the last time I had a homemade breakfast...and am even more excited because her dad actually likes his eggs the same way I do! FRIED! No runny yolk.... not soft in the middle at all. I am so excited. I have never met anyone else who likes their eggs that way. Its like a bonding moment here in Indy.

This trip and the last week in general (I was in New York for four days before coming here) I have eaten like crazy and just about anything and everything I want. Lets just say that the scale in my imovie, Battle of the Bulge, is going to be the star in my show and I won't have any problems getting some shots of the scale going up!

Pretty glad I still have some coupons to my weight watchers meetings...Last semester I was able to actually lose 12 pounds in the first semester of grad school and I am not quite sure how I did it. Now, this semester?!?! Forget about it...I think I found the lost 12...or at least 3 this week!

Oh well. Before too long, it will be sandwiches, soup and salad once again. Since I don't have time to cook anymore, its the simple stuff and I am sure before May, the weight I gained on this trip will be gone and then some.

spring break destination '06

So I am sitting in the Paradise Cafe in Carmel, Indiana for spring break. Megan invited me to come home with her to Indy and I am having a great time. The drive was great and went by really fast actually. It is weird though to be somewhere other than Baltimore. I have been in Baltimore just over 7 months and it feels really strange to me when I look back on where I was a year ago, where I am now in life, and where I am now in this coffee shop that just feels so random. A year ago, my life was so predictable and I knew what I was doing each day, with a little bit of room for spontaneity. But most days were the same...one after another, just like Groundhog Day. Now, every day is different and every day is a struggle to keep afloat and get it all done...Especially since it is spring break, and while I do feel like it is a break since I am somewhere new, it is not a break since I have soooooo much to try and get done! It is THURSDAY already, and my blogs are about all I have gotten done. I don't even want to think about my interactive multimedia class and the things on my to-do list for that class. I need a vacation.

NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade

So I went outside the hotel in NYC and it was a large staging area for all of the people who were waiting to walk in the parade. I began taking pictures of the Sanitation Department's band...All of the men were in kilts! It was fun and as I was taking photos an older gentleman saw me and lifted his kilt...Check it out. I was flashed by an old guy. Only in New York.

Anyways, I began talking to some ladies in front of the hotel, asked them if they were there to watch the parade and they said, no, they were walking in the parade. I asked how do you get to walk in the parade and asked if you needed to be invited. Mary and Maureen (sisters) mentioned that they were alumni from Fordham University and that Fordham walks each year in the parade. They asked if I would like to walk with them! I can't believe I was invited to walk in the parade. At first I said no, since I only had an hour to get some food before my next seminar. But they said 'You can get food anytime. When else will you be in NYC for the St. Patrick's Day parade AND get an invitation to walk?!' Of course, they convinced me to walk with them. And I DID! 6 whole blocks...down 5th Avenue from 45th to St. Patrick's Church. And they made me walk on the green stripe painted down the street for good luck.

Hope I get some this year! What an awesome experience...and of course, no one was there to enjoy it with me...but enjoy the pictures.

weekend

Just got home around 2 hours ago from a quick 3 day trip to New York City for a conference for college publications...some of the staff of the ub post went. It was good. We stayed in the Roosevelt Hotel and they upgraded us to a suite! We had a living room and everything. We had a lot of seminars to attend, but we were able to break away for dinner and a show Thursday night to see Tony and Tina's wedding, which was great! I ended up inadvertantly walking in the St. Patrick's Day parade down 5th avenue too...more on that later! And pictures too :)

flu

Anyone had the flu yet this year? I am not sure if that's what I have or not, but felt horrible at work all day yesterday. Felt like throwing up, had a fever, etc. I came home last night around 8p and laid on the couch for hours. Had some soup around midnight. I checked my temperature and it was 103...today it is 101. What a waste of a gorgeous day! Now I am stuck inside and on the couch trying to 'power through' and get some homework done for my class tonight. And to top off last night, I caught ANOTHER little mouse in my house. Cried again...I just wish I could cohabitate with them and not be grossed out! But they are pooping all over my counter and walking all over my kitchen counters and it is really grossing me out. I can hear them too, squeaking and moving around. I am so surprised that my dog has not caught them...she does know they are there though!

bubble car

I saw the policeman in his bubble car again! He was parked at the statue by the lyric on Mt. Royal. I could see him from the third floor window of the student center. He was reprimanding some kids who were skateboarding. Now, I have a lot of respect for policemen, but it is hard for me to believe that those kids took him seriously standing next to his bubble car. It just struck me as such a funny picture. Wish I had had my camera so I could post a picture of it.

picture worth a thousand words

My picture worth a thousand words is a picture from one of my coffee table books, National Geographic: The Photographs. It is a picture that I first remember seeing when I was about 13 years old. The girl in the photo was about my age when the photo was taken. It is an image of a war refugee from Afghanistan taken in the mid 80s. Here is the photographer's website: Steve McCurry

Here is a link on the story of when the photographer found the woman in the photo: Sharbat Gula

In 2002, NPR did a story on the photographer's search for the woman as well.

funny tidbit

The other day I was on campus reading in the new student center. What a cool place to hang out. I think I would be really mad if I was graduating this year and JUST NOW got a student center. But, anyways, I was sitting there with Meg and reading for class, actually, when I looked out the window and saw one of the university policemen. He was driving, no joke, a tricked out golf cart! It looked like a bubble car. It was outrageously funny! To see him trying to look so important on campus, with such authority, in a GOLF cart. I did notice, however, that he was wearing a seatbelt. And it looked safe enough to drive, bug shield and all. I was quite amazed at the pickup it had, as the light turned green and he took off ahead of the pack, leading the way around the curve on Mt. Royal by the Lyric. It was quite a sight...just thought I'd share :)

power through

This just happens to be one of those days that one of my favorite sayings was the phrase of the day..today was all about 'powering through'. But, it is now 10:45p and I made it :) I've been thinking alot since we had to come up with our favorite words about my favorite sayings...i guess now that I'm thinking about language in a way I don't normally, I have a list of favorite phrases I'd like to share:

balls to the walls
power through
pony to the pavement (my friend Angelo's favorite, as in, 'I'll take her pony to the pavement' when angry with someone)
good times
que sera, sera (what will be, will be)
breathe
I love you
if you always think what you always thought, you'll always be what you always were
whatever you can dream, begin it. Boldness has strength and power in it
make a wish

words I like/dislike

So, I had fun thinking of words I like and dislike. Here are some I like, and they are not in any kind of order:

• appreciate
  
• thank you
  
• frantic
  
• frenetic
  
• fanatic
  
• floozy
  
• bienvenido (welcome in Spanish - pronounced BEE-N-VEN-E-DOE)
  
• guajira (peasant in Spanish - pronounced WAA - HE - RA)
  
• lava
  
• morph
  
• leisure
  
• bug
  
• coffee
  
• fret
  
• crass
  
• abscond
  
• pontificate
  
• upchuck
  
• modicum
  
• flub
  

Here are some words I don't like, and again, they are not in any kind of order:

• disrespectful
  
• um
  
• like
  
• totally
  
• yeah
  
• mistake
  
• naive
  
• globo (means Balloon in Spanish - pronounced GLOW-BOW)
  
• agua sin gas (means bubbly water like Perrier - pronounced AH-GWA-- SEEN-- GOS)
  

I had a harder time coming up with words that I don't like, but I am sure there are others. So there they are and I am sure as soon as I post this I will think of some more!

flash animation

So I am sitting here at home trying to understand how to hand code flash animation...it seems like an easy enough assignment. Have a random image fade in and fade out at a designated time. I picture it kind of like photography. My camera has a setting where you hold down the shutter and it will take multiple pictures every half a second until you release the shutter.

Why is flash so complicated? I think the people who created action script just wanted to feel important and the logic behind the code is so convoluted. I think that it would be absolutely great to have a web presence and include some animation in my blog, but am not sure I will ever get to that point. I do a lot of photography on the side and enjoy it immensely. I even submitted some photos for the Welter contest.

Does anyone know action script? Can I interest anyone in a swap for photography lessons if you can help me understand this stuff? Let me know....I wait with bated breath.