Earning My Calories

Over the weekend, Jeff and I broke down and bought a tablet. We had been discussing an iPad for over a year and finally the time seemed right (well maybe not right, but not wrong either). Right would have involved us not spending a couple grand on a new air conditioner. But the point is that we bought one. And so far I've been enjoying it for one aspect more than any other. The moment we brought the iPad home, I installed My FitnessPal on it.

About seven years ago, I managed to lose 60 pounds by tracking what I ate and walking more. I had used a printed food journal at the time and loved it. Now, in the age of digital, I'm using an electronic food tracker and am hopefully that I can repeat my results from the past. I have about 60 pounds to lose.

So far the program has helped me make some smarter decisions. Of course I've only been using it for  a couple days now. But I'm optimistic. I went for a long walk yesterday so I could eat a good dinner and still be under calories. Today I spent 5 hours shifting books at the library. The program tells me that I burned a ton of calories enough for a great dinner and plenty left over. It even allowed me a glass of wine. So if I use the iPad for nothing else, at least it might help me lose a bit of weight. And that would be worth it.

The Only Animation I Don't Like

I'm going to sound like an anti-progress curmudgeon with this statement but I hate animated gifs. Hate them! Nothing will get me to leave a webpage faster than an animated gif. I see that movement and I'm already clicking on another link to get away.

This shouldn't really be a problem for me but I'm seeing them more and more frequently. A drawing blog I follow has had two or three posts including animated gifs recently. A couple bloggers I follow have used them. It's a good think I don't follow any of the cute cat websites anymore because they seem to be the number one producers of them. It hasn't happened yet but I could see myself narrowing down my blog list if I find the author uses them frequently. I hate them that much.

You would think I'd be okay with them (not love but at least be okay) because I'm such an animation fan. Okay I'm really more of an animation junkie. I can't stay away from the stuff. Given my choice of movie it's always animated. But there is something about the repetitive movement that turns me off. The ads that use them will never ever ever receive a single click from me. And the artists who create animated gifs, even if they do amazing work outside of that, will never end up profiled on this blog. I know it sounds grouchy of me. But the next time you see one, just watch it for a couple minutes. Tell me if you feel nauseated. Tell me how fast you click off the site.

New Toy

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I just got new toys in the form of two typewriters. And that is true. But this new toy is a bit more high-tech. And I bit more likely to affect the blog.




I've been wanting a scanner for years now. I'm not sure why I held off on buying one since they have become pretty reasonably priced. Rather than taking pictures of images that I wanted to add to the blog I figured with a scanner you wouldn't get as much distortion of image. So Jeff and I had been pricing them. We figured that since our printer was in good shape we wouldn't want one of those all in ones.



That is until we saw the HP Photosmart Plus (pictured below). And then we saw the price. We finally bought it two days after Thanksgiving when the stores were still doing big sales. This beautiful piece of technology (note the touch screen) was 50% off. We simply couldn't pass up a deal like that.

It is a printer, scanner, and copier all rolled into one. I don't think either of us need the copier although that aspect will be nice for photocopying recipes or knitting patterns. I had done a late night copier run just recently to copy a list of books out of a library book before returning it. So it will be nice to no longer have to pay for those. But what really sold us was the wireless printing. Our current printer requires that we bring one of the laptops over to the printer to be plugged in. If I was working on my desktop, which I normally am, that meant transfering the files to the laptop to be able to print. With this new toy I can just hit print and done. From across the room!! It's like magic.

And of course now I can scan things. Which means you guys will get to see things with a lot less distortion. It also means that you might be subjected to more of my artwork. Which could be scary. So not only will you have to deal with images of my amateurish drawing or painting attempts but they will have more clarity than before. Sadly that means you can no longer say things like, "That's a great....elephant? pig? I'm so sorry with the terrible picture quality I can't quite tell." So be prepared.

Keeping busy

I had originally planned to post every day or every other day but life appears to be getting in the way. Shocker of all shockers I haven't even had time for any World of Warcraft. The guild is beginning to wonder where I am. The same cannot be said for Jeff, who spends most of his waking non-work hours playing. 

Work has been crazy with training and learning since we rolled out Office 2007. I may be incredibly naive but I have to admit I really like the changes. It seems more user friendly and far more understandable. And I may be the only person in the world who enjoys tech training sessions. Last fall I did three days of GIS training and you would have thought I was in heaven. When I was at the library recently I picked up a book on webpage design through HTML and CSS. I'll be reading that at the same time as The Five Laws of Library Science. Yeah, you're jealous.

Home has been full too. We have a party we are hosting tomorrow night so I have been cooking and making centerpieces since I got home, which was about 8:30 after running errands. The centerpieces actually turned out semi-decently. I'll try to post a picture later. I'm pretty proud. 

My big excitement is that I have finally stopped attacking myself for not writing and gone with the more nature way. Telling myself stories. With a tape recorder. I have told myself stories since I could talk. I would most often just think of the stories but as I got older I found that I flesh out the story more if I talk it aloud. Now days I most often tell them in the car. I think it's a little easier for Jeff then a wife who is constantly talking about characters or making up conversations. So now I simply drive along and talk to myself. I'm sure the neighboring drivers think I'm insane. But it has been a constant diversion for me and a chance to reinvent myself and my characters. I had never really thought to capture those on tape before. I dug out my old tape recorder (yes the kind that still uses mini-cassettes) and a couple AA batteries and am now a crazy lady who talks to herself and tapes it at the same time. I'm excited to see how much of a story I can generate this way.