Elusive Ink

...but occasionally, procrastination overcomes me and I buckle. This one, I admit, was fairly enjoyable. "Create Your Band"

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click here.
The title of the first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click here.
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click here.
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

So...this is what I came up with:

Currently Listening
So Sorry
Feist



So I finished the re-design, for now at least. I have some other ideas I might try out soon, though. This one is pretty representative of my life right now, however, so it shall stay - at least for a while. It has been a week since my first "healthier living" post - and I haven't kept this thing updated like I'd hoped. Oh well, I'm doing alright, I've had a couple of things I probably shouldn't have in the past week but nothing too terrible, and I've exercised at least three times since my last post. Not my ideal situation - but most certainly better than I had been doing. And life is all about progress.

Things have been chaos around here for the past few weeks: Dad has hurt his back so he's been stuck at home for almost a week now. Which, I know is causing Mom a lot of stress. I don't know what (if anything) I can do about it though. So I'm just trying to help out where I can, but not to the extent that I stop making progress on my own to-do list. (Which, on Monday, had 187 things on it.) Last weekend I went to tour the Corcoran School of Art + Design, the college I had held as my ideal for quite some time. I was surprised to find that the open house did not impress me at all, quite the opposite actually. The school struck me as a bit pretentious, and their "selling points" were lackluster. They were very liberal, to the point that if you were conservative, or even moderate - you would most likely feel very out of place. They were not nearly as career based as I had expected, and the speaker's main "pro" for the school was that the seniors have the opportunity to hang the work of famous artists in the Corcoran Gallery. How is that going to help you in real life? "Oh, Annie Leibovitz told me to move a painting a little to the left once..." Sure. That'll look good on a resume. I decided, that I would give the school another chance rather than to make a snap judgment. So I went into the atrium where they were having the directors of different departments doing portfolio reviews. I was able to be towards the front of the line to talk with the director of the photography department...and her feedback was not impressive at all. She complimented my work quite a bit, but provided almost no feedback. She asked me "What I wanted?" and when I told her I wanted feedback on my portfolio the only advice she had to offer was that I organize it differently. On one hand, it was flattering, but on the other hand if the director of the photography department had no constructive criticism then what benefit is the school going to have for me? In fact, I told her I had always been very intuitive as far as how things should be composed but I didn't have a lot of knowledge in the technical side of photography. (I know the basics: f-stop, iso, etc...but it's all self-taught and not in-depth at all.) She looked at me and said "Well I guess that's a reason you would need to go to art school..." My reaction was "What? What does that even mean?" Does she think I shouldn't be going to art school? If she thinks I can make money as it is - please, do tell me how. Because I obviously haven't discovered the bottle of magic famous artist elixir in my medicine cabinet yet.

Despite all of this, I am glad that we made the trip - Molly was a joy all that day, and it definitely resolved in my mind that the Art Institute of Washington is where I'm supposed to be. In fact, I've got my application, and my admissions essay, and my scholarship essay notes all spread out on the table around me. I talked with my admissions person the other day and he's SO nice, and very enthusiastic. He seemed really optimistic that I would be eligible for a federal grant, as well as their senior scholarship. I must say...all of this has gotten me very excited.

Unfortunately, I have to actually finish my highschool courses first. Grr...just gotta push through for another couple of months and make it work. Just, slog through the last few chapters of Chemistry, and the last few tests for US history. It's do-able, but being so optimistic about my classes this fall has caused the motivation to finish my current classes to disappear from the face of the planet.

Academic things aside, life is chaos as usual. I'd hoped to post more - but I don't really have time at the moment. I have some brainstorming to post later though so hopefully it won't be so long between posts this time.

A few weeks ago, I attempted an entire Chinese meal and was very pleased that everything turned out. It was a hit and everyone said it was the best chinese food they'd ever eaten, and have requested that I make it again since.

I made everything from scratch: fried rice, and egg drop soup. Then I paired it with these beautiful red grapes (a Costco find!) and green tea.




Some tips for Fried Rice:

Always make the rice ahead of time, at least a day, let it sit out (spread decently thin) for a while before storing it in a Tupperware container in the refrigerator. This is *essential*, if you use fresh rice, it will become a mush when you try to fry it.

Also, fry all of the ingredients separately before tossing it together, and use olive oil instead of peanut oil. I've had no problem with the smoking point of olive oil, and it gives it a richer flavor!

Shrimp fried rice is pretty basic, and intuitive. Fry the thawed shrimp until they're about 80% done, then set in a bowl to the side of the stove (easily accessible for later) then toss in some eggs and scramble them where they come together but still have a slight "runny" consistency, and then set them aside with the eggs. Wipe out the hot wok with a paper towel. (Carefully, don't catch anything on fire!! ) Then spread the rice on the bottom and flavor it with sesame oil and soy sauce drizzled over, leave it for about four minutes spread out, until the rice begins to sizzle and pop, then turn and leave again. Don't stir it constantly or the rice will start to separate!

Once you have fried and turned the rice a few times (should start to brown a little) toss in the shrimp and egg, and let it fry for a few minutes, turn once more and it should be ready! Fairly simple and quick once you get the hang of it!

Egg drop soup is equally simple, the key is to keep some chicken broth aside to blend with the corn starch, and don't overdo the corn starch. It's basically four cups chicken broth, + 1.5 Tablespoons cornstarch + 2 full eggs whisked together with one egg yolk. Heat the 3.5 c. of the chicken broth until it's boiling, then pour in the extra half cup that should be blended with the cornstarch and make sure it's still very hot. Then, with a fork or whisk, drizzle ("Drop") the egg into the mixture, it should cook instantly.

Feel free to boil in some chives for flavor, and add in corn for texture.

I'm working on redesigning my website - but I'm having to stop halfway - which is why it looks so cruddy at the moment.

I'll fix it tomorrow, and hopefully actually blog.

So, I've been trying for the past few weeks to start eating better, and living a more active lifestyle - but I've found it's really difficult when things get stressful. I tend to stress eat. So I figure - I have have the accountability of posting my progress it'll help. My goal is to be down to a healthy size, and feel comfortable in a dress by the end of the summer. I want to be able to get a really cute swing dance dress to wear the last day of Bop on the Lake in September. I feel like that's definitely a realistic goal - because I want to keep my focus on staying healthy, not "losing weight."

I feel like, by building these habits in now, I'm improving the quality-of-life for my future husband, and children. That's really important to me.

So...to kick it off, my starting weight is 174 -- I'm usually somewhere between a size 12 and 14. My goal is to get down to an 8/10 ish.

Today I've eaten...a bowl of cheerios/banana, half a chicken salad sandwich, half a cup of fried rice, and a couple of bites of pizza. I haven't had enough water, but I only had one cup of coffee (which is an improvement) and no coke at all.

I'm about to head off to the gym to go to zumba class.

I hope to continue to keep this updated.