Maid To Order March 30, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
This Knicknackery Ain’t Gonna Dust Itself You Know
I’ve figured out a new way to spend money! I’m going to hire somebody to come over and clean my stuff for me. About darned time too – I’m tired of doing this myself. I’ve been getting these flyers in the mail for a maid service for a while now and I gotta say they really got me to thinking about hiring them. I detest house cleaning. I have no aptitude for it at all, and I slack on it all the time. A while back my parental units mentioned that they were considering getting one too, so I gave Mom one of the flyers I got. Today she finally called them and arranged for a one-time all-over deep cleaning at their place, after which the company will do a quote to come back to periodic maintenance cleanings. It’s only $130 for the one time thing and their house is considerably larger than mine, so you know the same job for me will come down a fair bit from that. I gotta say that’s totally do-able for me. The older I get the more I value my time and I’ve got better things to do with it than scrubbing sinks and whatnot. We’ll see how well this company does over at the Parental Units’ place and if they do a good job I’ll get them to do mine.
It occurs to me that maid services could probably really use the business these days, so doing this is helping to stimulate the economy. Hell, you could even say it was patriotic to do so! Well, ok – maybe YOU wouldn’t, but I would. This will probably mean that I’ll need to cut back on buying stuff to pay for it, but that’s ok. I’ll start doing that soon. Right after I buy a kiln. And a ceiling fan for my bedroom and the electrician to install it. I totally need one of those for the summer coming up. But after that, my budget goes on a diet! Yessireebob.
Butterflies Aren’t Free March 29, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Art, Home.comments closed
They Cost About 18 Bucks Each
It must be springtime, when a young(ish) man’s fancy turns to nifty home accentuinarity:
From another neat catalog/website: Signals.
These are going to go great in my living room with my new coffee and end tables.
Shrooming March 27, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Art.comments closed
Check Out My Stool Sample
I love mushrooms, both the shape and for eating. And now for sitting!
I’ve mentioned this item before, but last night I actually ordered it and it should be on its way here soon. This will be a great addition to the Casa de Yorl. I ordered it from Viva Terra and now is a great time to get one since they are on sale for $40 off.
Trance Thursday March 25, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Food, Health, Music, Never Give Up, Never Surrender!, Trance.comments closed
Even as we mull the relative immanent damnation or salvation of our country there is still time to pause and enjoy some of the cool things we have now. One of which is a trance hit from a couple years ago – Who Will Find Me by DJ Shah featuring Adrina Thorpe. This is the soft acoustic version, so even if you’re not a big fan of the heavier beat dance / trance stuff you’ll still like this one:
One of the things I like about this genre of music is the tendency for artists to make multiple versions of their best songs. This one has at least seven that I know of, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find still other versions out there remixed by other artists as well. I always enjoy listening to different takes on songs that I really like.
Thanks for the visits and I’ll type some more at you later.
The Litany Against Cake*
I must not eat cake.
Cake is the diet-killer.
Cake is the big-sugar that brings total obliteration.
I will face the cake.
I will permit it to pass by me but not through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its pudgy path.
Where the cake has gone there will be nothing.
Only the diet will remain.
*Apologies to Frank Herbert
OK, That’s Enough of That Shit March 24, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Never Give Up, Never Surrender!.comments closed
The time of “Oh Woe Is Us” & “We’re All Doomed” is done. The communist rats eating away at our freedoms would love nothing more than for us to roll over and die. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
In the immortal words of Commander Taggart: “Never give up! Never surrender!”
It’s time for us to get off our butts and do something about this. It’s not enough to sit around and post snarky stuff on blogs and forums. And thinking of new ways to say “Fuck you!” to liberals, while amusing and cathartic perhaps, doesn’t really do anything to advance our causes. This isn’t meant as a slap at anyone, so don’t think it’s directed at you. This is as much as a call to action for myself than for anyone else. Perhaps things have gone too far to be pulled back, but we HAVE to try. We HAVE to fight! For far too long our side was willing to merely play defense against the relentless attack by the Left. We can’t do that anymore. We can no longer rely on simple inertia to resist the cancerous Change that the socialists want to inflict on our society. Things are too mobile for that now, too fluid. We have to harness this fluid dynamic for our causes: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Evil never rests, and neither should we. To give in to despair is to give Evil a home in our souls. Root that shit out and dedicate yourself to actually doing something about this. Sniping from the sidelines is no longer an option.
Remember that even the very wise cannot see all ends. And who knows – maybe an intrepid, plucky hobbit will defy all odds and drop Barack Obama into the fires of Mount Doom and save us all from the soul-crushing evil he and his minions have planned for us.
R.I.P. USA 1776 – 2010 March 21, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Health, Home, Politics.comments closed
Cause of death: suicide.
Like someone in Ace’s comments said, “234 years was a good run.”
On the plus side, The United Socialist State of the Americas was born today. All hail our Marxist socialist overlords!
Soon our lives will be no better than anyone else’s in the world. The Democrats will helpfully explain how this is better for everyone. And we’ll all get to enjoy our free healthcare! Or, failing that – our free deathcare. We’re in a Brave New World now comrades. Learn to love it, or at least pretend to do so.
Art Post March 17, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Art.comments closed
Sorry, nothing much to put up lately. Today I’m absolutely bone-weary and I’m counting the minutes until I get off of work. I’m also blowing off the gym tonight – everything is sore and I need to recover. I’ll put up what I did in class last weekend a bit later. Until then, check out this guy’s site: Henry Yan. He does some really amazing figure drawings. I bought his book a little while ago and just recently finished going through it. If you’ve got 30 bucks laying around there is no better way to spend it.
Type at y’all later.
Later
Behold – Bell Peppers!
The teacher has been sick. She cancelled the class before this last one and still wasn’t feeling well last week. She just put a few bell peppers out on the center table, put some lights on them and said “Have at it.” I wasn’t really feeling these peppers so I kind of phoned it it here. Unlike the last drawing, this paper is very smooth. It’s also very thin and the charcoal picked up the texture from the drawing board. This week is Spring Break so no class, but I’m still going to draw something. Hopefully I’ll be able to apply some of the techniques from Henry Yan’s book. Which really is amazing by the way. I can’t recommend it highly enough – even if you’re not interested in learning to draw yourself, you can learn a lot about Art from it. Go buy it.
Watch Denied! March 12, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
Well, well. It seems that I didn’t buy the watch last night after all. I checked my e-mail this morning and it had a message from the the place where I ordered it saying “Thank you for your order, but that item isn’t in stock. You are sorry for any inconvenience. Would you like any of these others?” I said “Thanks, but no thanks. Just cancel it.” Just as well. I reconsidered the whole thing this morning and I think I’ll just hang onto my money for now. Besides, for that kind of scratch I can get something a LOT more practical. Like a gun. I still don’t have my 1911 pistol.
Grr – credit card bills are coming up I just noticed. I guess I’ll get those paid off. I got my annual bonus check a little early this year so whatever is left over I’ll pop into the savings account. Saving money is fun too right? Whee!
Why Can’t I Like Cheap Things? March 11, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Art.comments closed
I am going to get a pocket watch. I have my heart set on it now and I want one so bad I can taste it (almost like strawberries if you’re curious). I’ve looked at probably over a dozen sites and went through hundreds of watches on eBay, looking for That One that makes me go “Aha!”. I almost said Aha! at one on eBay – a nearly 100-year-old antique silver one with an Art Nouveau design on the case for $450. Gorgeous. Alas, not a skeleton style so I passed. If it was, then I’d probably be willing to give your first-born for it. After looking at all this stuff I’d pretty much settled on one of the first ones I started looking at which was the Charles Hubert manufacture. This one to be precise:
Beautiful! Skeleton. Silver. Reasonably affordable on various sites for about $400. Yeah, that’s more than the stuff I was looking at in the earlier post but I decided to upgrade from the $200 steel watches to real sterling silver ones. I like silver. Both the color and the metal. I mean, what are you gonna do if you’re ever attacked by a wolfman? If you have a steel watch you’re pretty much SOL. With a silver one you at least have a fighting chance. Um, but I digress…
Anyway. After looking for Charles Hubert watches specifically, I came across a site that has that exact watch for just about $300! Perversely, this actually made me want it less. If I’m going to pay $400 for a watch, then by golly I want a $400 watch. I don’t want a $300 one now. So I started looking again. The more expensive watches are inevitably Swiss ones. I don’t know what it is about Swiss movement, but just the fact that they’re Swiss adds at least $300 to the price of a watch. On eBay they sell just the old Swiss movements to be used for parts for $300. I’m sure there is a difference in the quality of these parts, it’s just that I’m not quite willing to cough up that much money just so I can say “Like my watch? It’s Swiss.” Well – that is, until I found this one:
As I said on McGoo’s place today: “It’s silver. It’s skeleton. It’s Swiss. And it’s Seriously on Sale.” It’s also $660. That’s a hefty chunk of change more than what I was looking to pay. But it’s on sale at 56% off! By Grabthar’s Hammer – what a savings! I am so sorely tempted. It’s my birthday coming up and hell, you only turn 40 once right? Right?
I can hear myself now. “Like my watch? It’s real sterling silver. And it’s Swiss.”
Recession Just Got Worse for the Big & Tall Clothing Store March 10, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Food, Health, Shrinking.comments closed
100 POUNDS!!
As of this morning I finally cracked the three digit barrier on my weight-loss journey! Technically, it’s 100 and 1/2 pounds, and yes, I celebrate each 1/2 pound victory. Oh sure, 100 is just another number and doesn’t have any real significance outside of a base 10 numerical system, but it is an important psychological achievement nevertheless. The last few weeks were very frustrating for me since I wasn’t making much significant progress. Hell, I was at the 98 pound mark for about three weeks and the complete inability to lose even 2 measly pounds in that time was extremely discouraging, even after really going at it that last week. I had hit the dreaded “plateau”. As far as I’ve come in the months since last summer I still have way too far to go to fracking plateau. Obviously, I needed to make some changes – what had worked pretty well so far just wasn’t working anymore.
I Had To Get Medieval on My Ass
The rules of the diet and weight loss game aren’t really all that hard to understand: shovel less food into the pie-hole and move the butt more. If calories in < calories out then weight goes down. Easy peasy! Of course, it’s the implementation part that trips us up and serves as the basis for a multi-billion dollar industry. The mind is willing, but the flesh is very, very weak. Particularly when you’ve got so much of it laying around like I do. The first thing I decided to do is take a hard look at the pie hole end of the the equation.
Over the last few months I let a lot of little things back into my diet. Little snacks that I used to have occasionally were now much more common or a lot bigger (hell, sometimes even both) than what I used to eat. A tablespoon of ice cream every couple days was now several teaspoons every day, for instance. All that had to go. And bread. I LOVE my sourdough bread and it was hard to give up previously. So I started eating it again. Just a slice here and there at first you know, but now it too was pretty much every day. That’s gone again. I’ve been eating too much fruit as well, so I cut that way back. Anyway, you get the idea. Less food overall and WAY fewer carbs than I was indulging in. I have to be a carb-hawk anyway because of the Diabeetus, but my blood sugars have were behaving so I wasn’t as disciplined as I was when I started. I’m back to non-starchy veggies, lean protein, moderate fats (it will be a cold day in Hell indeed before I give up my cheese) and what sugar/carbs I get from some fruit.
New Butt Moves
Next I reasessed my exercise routine. Previously, 5 days per week of grinding it out for 41 minutes on the treadmill was sufficient. Note that I’m moving it pretty good while I’m on there – this ain’t strolling. I have it jacked up to the highest incline and I averaged around 4.75 mph. According to the calorie computer on the treadmill that’s good for over 1,000 calories per trip. I’m usually too tired afterward to do much else and don’t have much time anyway so that’s pretty much all I would do. It used to be good enough. I think my body got used to this routine and I don’t get the big calorie bang anymore. Now I cut the treamill down to 26 minutes, but do it at a higher intensity and use the rest of the time getting to know the weight machines and another 10 minutes of body weight exercises at home. And I get away from my desk for about 15 minutes at lunch and do some juggling with my set of juggling balls that weigh 3 pounds each.
I started all this on Monday. I’m now hungry and sore. I also kicked out 3 pounds in two days.
BOOYEAH!!
The Center of the Anomaly 