Monday, April 02, 2007
The New Last Post: Verisyse
So, I lied. I'm writing another post here. But this is just to tell any passing bystanders that I've been talking about getting a Verisyse implanted into my eye on my blog over at http://www.amichopine.com/blog. ¶ 8:12 AM 0 comments
So, I lied. I'm writing another post here. But this is just to tell any passing bystanders that I've been talking about getting a Verisyse implanted into my eye on my blog over at http://www.amichopine.com/blog. ¶ 8:12 AM 0 comments
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Last Post on Granola Rules
IF you want more of The Granola, THEN GOTO www.amichopine.com/blog.
This is it.
The last post I'll be making here now.
I'll be putting all of my thoughts on my new original blog. If you are linked to me here, I would appreciate it if you would link to me at www.amichopine.com/blog. ¶ 10:34 AM 0 comments
IF you want more of The Granola, THEN GOTO www.amichopine.com/blog.
This is it.
The last post I'll be making here now.
I'll be putting all of my thoughts on my new original blog. If you are linked to me here, I would appreciate it if you would link to me at www.amichopine.com/blog. ¶ 10:34 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Ami's Musings about Blogging
Warning: Unless you know me, the following is probably boring. It might be boring even if you know me. If all you want to know is if I'm still alive and happy, then read no further. Okay, read the very end paragraph where I tease you with things I will be writing within the next few days.
I am torn. I am not sure I want to give up ‘the granola’ but I’ve also wanted to consolidate. Why have two spaces when I could only have one? But why mix things up too much? But then, why make it so complicated for friends to hear my voice? And back and forth it goes.
The real problem is that I like the idea created by the title ‘the granola rules’ and being ‘the granola’. It rings a lot with what I want to say in that blog. I’m playing with changing around my categories to reflect it. Maybe posting as multiple people. One is the author breaking into publication and considering screenplay writing (or rather, being begged by her husband to do it), the other is the science observer and pseudoscience critic. And what about Amka on poor ‘testing the cultural divide’? Well, all the posts in that blog have been transitioned over into amichopine.com/blog. Those words come from a woman caught in the middle of living earth life, and especially between two cultures. Suddenly, after being far enough away from an intense and difficult encounter with Russian culture, I have something to say there now too.
Writers block is not my problem right now. Time and not letting myself really post until I get at least the blog at amichopine.com up in good form are my foes here.
Here are some personal updates: I’m getting a tonsillectomy. Yay. I guess that means no more chips and salsa for a while. But I had to do it before I went ahead and got my eyes fixed, which is happening in March. That makes for a total of three surgeries within about 2 months. The eyes are done one at a time. I'm also in physical therapy. On one level, I'm feeling a bit overmedicalized. (Is that a word?) And yet, isn't this moving forward? By the beginning of April I will be completely healthy. I will see better than I've ever seen. I will run faster than I've ever run, and more safely too. And I'll be able to smell my baby's poopy diapers better than I ever have before.
I can't wait!
Topics I'm dying to write about, either here or at amichopine.com/blog: fibromyalgia. Doc around the Clock has some interesting posts on it and I have a bit more to say. And mothering as a demanding career not to be taken lightly. ¶ 10:23 PM 1 comments
Warning: Unless you know me, the following is probably boring. It might be boring even if you know me. If all you want to know is if I'm still alive and happy, then read no further. Okay, read the very end paragraph where I tease you with things I will be writing within the next few days.
I am torn. I am not sure I want to give up ‘the granola’ but I’ve also wanted to consolidate. Why have two spaces when I could only have one? But why mix things up too much? But then, why make it so complicated for friends to hear my voice? And back and forth it goes.
The real problem is that I like the idea created by the title ‘the granola rules’ and being ‘the granola’. It rings a lot with what I want to say in that blog. I’m playing with changing around my categories to reflect it. Maybe posting as multiple people. One is the author breaking into publication and considering screenplay writing (or rather, being begged by her husband to do it), the other is the science observer and pseudoscience critic. And what about Amka on poor ‘testing the cultural divide’? Well, all the posts in that blog have been transitioned over into amichopine.com/blog. Those words come from a woman caught in the middle of living earth life, and especially between two cultures. Suddenly, after being far enough away from an intense and difficult encounter with Russian culture, I have something to say there now too.
Writers block is not my problem right now. Time and not letting myself really post until I get at least the blog at amichopine.com up in good form are my foes here.
Here are some personal updates: I’m getting a tonsillectomy. Yay. I guess that means no more chips and salsa for a while. But I had to do it before I went ahead and got my eyes fixed, which is happening in March. That makes for a total of three surgeries within about 2 months. The eyes are done one at a time. I'm also in physical therapy. On one level, I'm feeling a bit overmedicalized. (Is that a word?) And yet, isn't this moving forward? By the beginning of April I will be completely healthy. I will see better than I've ever seen. I will run faster than I've ever run, and more safely too. And I'll be able to smell my baby's poopy diapers better than I ever have before.
I can't wait!
Topics I'm dying to write about, either here or at amichopine.com/blog: fibromyalgia. Doc around the Clock has some interesting posts on it and I have a bit more to say. And mothering as a demanding career not to be taken lightly. ¶ 10:23 PM 1 comments
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year
New Years Resolutions?
Don't have any. Not anything that I've coined as such anyway. But I do have general goals in mind for the coming months and days.
1. Maintain my exercising, including participating in a couple of 5Ks. I'm not sure I would bother putting it down as a goal, but a couple of things have made me feel the need to focus energy on this. I've had mutinous tonsils (they've attempted a coup 4 times this past year) and a whiny knee that started having a tantrum.
2. Finish rewrites for a short story and submit it somewhere. This is a short story I wrote for a Halloween contest at Codex.
3. Finish a novel by June. Have a couple outlines for it somewhere, but I think I'll just write a new outline. Outlines, by my definition and for my use, are chapter summaries.
4. Other things, that are important to me but none of your business.
5. Start a real personl/professional website. After only a few month stay, I'm leaving blogger behind. Testing the Cultural Divide has died due to server problems, but the posts in it will still be at the new place. I've been working on this a bit here and there, and husband is currently working on it. I'll keep this up, for posterity's sake, but in the coming days I'll stop posting here. So, to my handful of readers, get your RSS feeders ready for the move, to be announced soon. ¶ 6:42 PM 1 comments
New Years Resolutions?
Don't have any. Not anything that I've coined as such anyway. But I do have general goals in mind for the coming months and days.
1. Maintain my exercising, including participating in a couple of 5Ks. I'm not sure I would bother putting it down as a goal, but a couple of things have made me feel the need to focus energy on this. I've had mutinous tonsils (they've attempted a coup 4 times this past year) and a whiny knee that started having a tantrum.
2. Finish rewrites for a short story and submit it somewhere. This is a short story I wrote for a Halloween contest at Codex.
3. Finish a novel by June. Have a couple outlines for it somewhere, but I think I'll just write a new outline. Outlines, by my definition and for my use, are chapter summaries.
4. Other things, that are important to me but none of your business.
5. Start a real personl/professional website. After only a few month stay, I'm leaving blogger behind. Testing the Cultural Divide has died due to server problems, but the posts in it will still be at the new place. I've been working on this a bit here and there, and husband is currently working on it. I'll keep this up, for posterity's sake, but in the coming days I'll stop posting here. So, to my handful of readers, get your RSS feeders ready for the move, to be announced soon. ¶ 6:42 PM 1 comments
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Faith through Adversity
I can't get the picture of her out of my head right now. It isn't just her face, it is her holding her little baby, a tube coming out of his nose and taped to his head.
"He looks so good," I said stupidly. He did look healthy, except for the tube, but we all knew that in a few weeks he would be dead of the brain tumor he had been born with. A baby hoped for, prayed for, another one gone. Three of her children had died of cancer, and a pair of twins had died from complications of premature birth.
And now she is gone too, along with two more children. The family was hit by a drunk driver early sunday morning.
All that is left is the father, Gary Ceran, and two kids. In total, he has lost his wife and 7 children. Do you want it to get worse? His mother died two years ago, and one of his brothers just a few months after that.
And after all of that, after everything, he forgives the drunk driver and is praying for the man. It is is faith in God that is carrying him through this. ¶ 9:45 PM 2 comments
I can't get the picture of her out of my head right now. It isn't just her face, it is her holding her little baby, a tube coming out of his nose and taped to his head.
"He looks so good," I said stupidly. He did look healthy, except for the tube, but we all knew that in a few weeks he would be dead of the brain tumor he had been born with. A baby hoped for, prayed for, another one gone. Three of her children had died of cancer, and a pair of twins had died from complications of premature birth.
And now she is gone too, along with two more children. The family was hit by a drunk driver early sunday morning.
All that is left is the father, Gary Ceran, and two kids. In total, he has lost his wife and 7 children. Do you want it to get worse? His mother died two years ago, and one of his brothers just a few months after that.
And after all of that, after everything, he forgives the drunk driver and is praying for the man. It is is faith in God that is carrying him through this. ¶ 9:45 PM 2 comments
Monday, December 25, 2006
Writers of the Future Semifinalist
Today, I got a new laptop. One of the first emails to read on it was my semifinalist notification for the Writers of the Future contest.
What does that mean? Basically, that out of about 1800 entries I was in the top 12-20 or so.
Okay so yeah, I was jumping up and down and screaming just a little bit today. ¶ 10:54 PM 2 comments
Today, I got a new laptop. One of the first emails to read on it was my semifinalist notification for the Writers of the Future contest.
What does that mean? Basically, that out of about 1800 entries I was in the top 12-20 or so.
Okay so yeah, I was jumping up and down and screaming just a little bit today. ¶ 10:54 PM 2 comments
Who needs graphics anyway?
Sorry about the graphics folks. I'm having some technical difficulties that have been overwhelmed by the holidays. ¶ 10:52 PM 0 comments
Sorry about the graphics folks. I'm having some technical difficulties that have been overwhelmed by the holidays. ¶ 10:52 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Fear Tactics in Advertising
On the whiteboard in the women's workout area:
The average American gains 8-11 pounds during the holiday season.
WRONG. Not only is this wrong, it even exaggerates the 7-10 lb here and here for that. These all use different calculating methods. They are still not quite as good as using a scale in water(runs usually around 300 dollars), or caliper measurements (technically difficult) but much closer than the devices that measure electrical resistance to estimate body fat.
Just losing weight will make you a smaller version of what you are now. You will just be a skinny FAT person.
Please note that this sign is in the women's weight training room of a gym. The women who will read this sign aren't just dieting. They are exercising. This simply is not true of this population. Not only that, but the statement encourages the culture of anorexia.
The rest of the sign is about seeing the in house personal trainers for a free one hour consultation. I have plenty to say about that in another post. But for today, the point is that this advertisement isn't about encouraging these women to reach a little farther, be a little stronger, a little better, and most certainly more confident. This advertising is telling them that if they don't sign up with these guys, they will gain weight or if they lose it, they will still be fat. It is all about fear.
Guess what, women (and men). You don't need them. They aren't worth your time or money. Need some encouragement? Get a friend. Need some knowledge? There are plenty of books, magazines, and websites out there that will tell you everything these guys will teach you, and more. The last thing getting fit should be about is being afraid of failure.
I'm printing this out, along with the references, and bringing it in tomorrow. ¶ 11:44 AM 3 comments
On the whiteboard in the women's workout area:
The average American gains 8-11 pounds during the holiday season.
WRONG. Not only is this wrong, it even exaggerates the 7-10 lb here and here for that. These all use different calculating methods. They are still not quite as good as using a scale in water(runs usually around 300 dollars), or caliper measurements (technically difficult) but much closer than the devices that measure electrical resistance to estimate body fat.
Just losing weight will make you a smaller version of what you are now. You will just be a skinny FAT person.
Please note that this sign is in the women's weight training room of a gym. The women who will read this sign aren't just dieting. They are exercising. This simply is not true of this population. Not only that, but the statement encourages the culture of anorexia.
The rest of the sign is about seeing the in house personal trainers for a free one hour consultation. I have plenty to say about that in another post. But for today, the point is that this advertisement isn't about encouraging these women to reach a little farther, be a little stronger, a little better, and most certainly more confident. This advertising is telling them that if they don't sign up with these guys, they will gain weight or if they lose it, they will still be fat. It is all about fear.
Guess what, women (and men). You don't need them. They aren't worth your time or money. Need some encouragement? Get a friend. Need some knowledge? There are plenty of books, magazines, and websites out there that will tell you everything these guys will teach you, and more. The last thing getting fit should be about is being afraid of failure.
I'm printing this out, along with the references, and bringing it in tomorrow. ¶ 11:44 AM 3 comments
