Last week's challenge ended in such delicious failure, but this week I'm determined to see it through. My goal this week? Saving animals by going vegetarian. I don't eat a whole lot of meat (no 24oz caveman steaks for me), but I do eat meat all the time. There are very few meals I have that are vegetarian.
So this week, I'm going Starter Vegetarian: no meat, but fish and eggs are still allowed. I'm also going to see if I can't cut back on how much dairy I consume, especially cheese. Hopefully this will all add up to some money saving and some pounds-losing.
Now, it's off to the Teets to buy some hummus and olives and stuff like that. Mmmmm. Hummus.
- Kid
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
04_The Write Thing To Do
Yes, I failed this week's One Week Challenge. I am admitting it so freely because I knew it was happening and I wanted it to happen.
Here's why.
To say that this has been a tumultuous time for my group of friends is an understatement. I was the trendsetter, having ended my relationship on the (almost) exact stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Since then, all sorts of Hell have been breaking loose.
A few days ago, my BFF Gator called me and told me that she could come up from the capitol for dinner. I knew that that would conflict on my One Week Challenge to only eat food that I had personally prepared, but I took it anyway. I knew I'd need it.
To be honest, I accepted my failure knowing that it would be a bandaid on a bullet wound.
The only way I will overcome my Breakup (caps intentional. It should probably be "Divorce" but still) is to put it in writing. Same with this rocky period that we're all going through.
They say that you should only write what you know and that, I think is poorly worded. They mean one of two things: 1) Write what you are knowledgeable about and can accurately portray, or 2) Write what is closest to your heart so that you don't have to (emotionally) lie. Right now, I am coming to know a lot and it is disconcerting. Eventually I will be able to write about it, and that will make it OK. That will make it manageable, and that is the true meaning of "write what you know": Write that which you need to digest so that others may digest it as well. It does little service to others to try and make them understand their own lives by lying. So be honest. Names, dates? Those can change.
Emotions cannot. So write what you emotionally know.
- Kid
Here's why.
To say that this has been a tumultuous time for my group of friends is an understatement. I was the trendsetter, having ended my relationship on the (almost) exact stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Since then, all sorts of Hell have been breaking loose.
A few days ago, my BFF Gator called me and told me that she could come up from the capitol for dinner. I knew that that would conflict on my One Week Challenge to only eat food that I had personally prepared, but I took it anyway. I knew I'd need it.
To be honest, I accepted my failure knowing that it would be a bandaid on a bullet wound.
The only way I will overcome my Breakup (caps intentional. It should probably be "Divorce" but still) is to put it in writing. Same with this rocky period that we're all going through.
They say that you should only write what you know and that, I think is poorly worded. They mean one of two things: 1) Write what you are knowledgeable about and can accurately portray, or 2) Write what is closest to your heart so that you don't have to (emotionally) lie. Right now, I am coming to know a lot and it is disconcerting. Eventually I will be able to write about it, and that will make it OK. That will make it manageable, and that is the true meaning of "write what you know": Write that which you need to digest so that others may digest it as well. It does little service to others to try and make them understand their own lives by lying. So be honest. Names, dates? Those can change.
Emotions cannot. So write what you emotionally know.
- Kid
Thursday, March 22, 2012
03_Weekly Goals Update: Winning
This week's challenge has proven to be easier than I imagined. Well, except for last night when mid-shift I got famished and couldn't order myself anything to eat. I just did what anyone else would do: had a few drinks, went home and whipped up a late-night curry. Outstanding.
Monday night was Shepherd's pie and Tuesday I made this beauty:
I present to you the Anti-Salad. Sure it's got bacon, fried potatoes and hard-boiled egg, but it's got lots of green stuff! And a homemade mustard vinaigrette. That makes it healthy, right? Right.
More food porn to come throughout the week.
I really am enjoying these little weekly goals. It's because it is, when compared to writing, the exact opposite schedule. When writing you can take your time, bang out a draft in a day (depending on the length of the story), work on it bit by bit, etc. The only real "goal" is completion of a story, but that's a very vague and nearly impossible goal. How do you really know when a story is complete? And say you do reach a point where it is, if not 100% "complete", it is certainly publishable. So you send it out and wait...four to six months while you do...what?
So having a goal for each week, having something clear-cut and well-defined to focus on is a nice break from the ill-defined, bad-habit inducing "schedule" of writing. Now I have something to accomplish during the week that I can do easily while I continue to tell myself that I'm on-schedule with my writing without really knowing what that means, or what it would mean to be off-schedule.
- Kid
Monday night was Shepherd's pie and Tuesday I made this beauty:
More food porn to come throughout the week.
I really am enjoying these little weekly goals. It's because it is, when compared to writing, the exact opposite schedule. When writing you can take your time, bang out a draft in a day (depending on the length of the story), work on it bit by bit, etc. The only real "goal" is completion of a story, but that's a very vague and nearly impossible goal. How do you really know when a story is complete? And say you do reach a point where it is, if not 100% "complete", it is certainly publishable. So you send it out and wait...four to six months while you do...what?
So having a goal for each week, having something clear-cut and well-defined to focus on is a nice break from the ill-defined, bad-habit inducing "schedule" of writing. Now I have something to accomplish during the week that I can do easily while I continue to tell myself that I'm on-schedule with my writing without really knowing what that means, or what it would mean to be off-schedule.
- Kid
Monday, March 19, 2012
02_The One Week Challenge: Week 2
A good friend of mine was giving me some life advice last week when she recommended that we restart the One-Week Challenge e-mail chain. The concept is simple: every week you come up with a challenge for yourself, tell everyone else on the list, and do your best to see it through. The idea is that if you tell people other than yourself, you'll be more motivated as you are now accountable to your friends. Last week I (successfully) swore off cigarettes for the entire week. That wasn't too hard.
This week will be different. This week I am not eating anything I don't prepare myself. Now, to say I eat out a lot is to say that blogs have the potential to become pretentious. It's glaringly obvious. So this will be something of an organizational challenge for me.
Am I a good cook? Yes. Do I love cooking? Double yes. Do I ever do it? Well...
And so with a budget of $100, I set off to Harris Teeter to do some shopping. The results:
AND, I came in under budget by almost $40. I gotta do this more often! Now that I have Technology and can easily upload pictures, I hope to put up lots of really nice food-porn photos of what I've created to win this challenge.
- Kid
This week will be different. This week I am not eating anything I don't prepare myself. Now, to say I eat out a lot is to say that blogs have the potential to become pretentious. It's glaringly obvious. So this will be something of an organizational challenge for me.
Am I a good cook? Yes. Do I love cooking? Double yes. Do I ever do it? Well...
And so with a budget of $100, I set off to Harris Teeter to do some shopping. The results:
- Kid
01_We Meet Again
Oh, hello, The Internet. It's nice to see you again. It's been a while. I feel like I'm dusting off an old journal and cracking the spine again. Except this dusty journal has a really cool stock-photo background! Soon to change, I'm sure.
I am a writer. I admit to that fact. I love doing it, I have been doing it all my life, and I don't intend on stopping anytime soon. "Blogger" isn't necessarily something that I consider myself to be, but I'm not entirely uncomfortable with the idea. I tried it out once before with an admittedly awesome concept, but the reality of it didn't pan out. You can probably find it floating around on the Wordpress archives somewhere in the e-attic of unused websites.
And now here I am for a triumphant return. So a few things first. First, let's be clear: while this blog is mostly for my musings on writing and literature and all, I am also a human and my personal life may happen to spill over from time to time. I know right? Terrible. Second, the layout will change from this super-cool stock-photo background. I promise. Third, I will be using this as a platform to whore myself and my writing out. Shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone.
Take a second to re-read all that. Don't I sound like a blogger already? Not convinced? How about this: I'm writing this at a coffee shop/wine bar. Yeah. That's right.
All jokes aside, I'm excited about this. It's been a long time coming and it feels good to have finally done it.
That being said, enjoy. And I promise to try not to post drunk.
- Kid
I am a writer. I admit to that fact. I love doing it, I have been doing it all my life, and I don't intend on stopping anytime soon. "Blogger" isn't necessarily something that I consider myself to be, but I'm not entirely uncomfortable with the idea. I tried it out once before with an admittedly awesome concept, but the reality of it didn't pan out. You can probably find it floating around on the Wordpress archives somewhere in the e-attic of unused websites.
And now here I am for a triumphant return. So a few things first. First, let's be clear: while this blog is mostly for my musings on writing and literature and all, I am also a human and my personal life may happen to spill over from time to time. I know right? Terrible. Second, the layout will change from this super-cool stock-photo background. I promise. Third, I will be using this as a platform to whore myself and my writing out. Shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone.
Take a second to re-read all that. Don't I sound like a blogger already? Not convinced? How about this: I'm writing this at a coffee shop/wine bar. Yeah. That's right.
All jokes aside, I'm excited about this. It's been a long time coming and it feels good to have finally done it.
That being said, enjoy. And I promise to try not to post drunk.
- Kid
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