It's a new year, which means it's time for all those resolutions I'll have forgotten about by next week!!

So we made it to 2013.  It's amazing how fast time goes.  Was it really ten years ago that I spent New Year's Eve in El Salvador??  Was it really almost a decade since I finished high school?? Was the first Christmas Dinner that Kasia and I hosted really twelve years ago?!?!

Wow.  I feel like all this time has gone by and I haven't noticed.

Regardless, in the spirit of it being a new year, I figured I'd be cliched and come up with some goals for the year.  I don't want to call them resolutions, since that title is just begging for me to break them ASAP, so goals works for me.

Anyways, here they are, in no particular order:

1. Get a real job.  Not a temporary, for now, or in the meantime type of job, an actual full-time, permanent position.  With benefits.  The whole temp thing just isn't working out for me.  I need something with a little more security and longevity.

2. Move out.  I'd love to have my own place, and it'll have to happen this year.  Currently, I live at my mom's, but she'll move in with her boyfriend soon, which means I'll definitely have to find somewhere.  Somewhere in Sauga, I think, not downtown.  And I don't want to look for a roommate, I'd rather have my own place. As for moving in with Matt, well, I have no idea.  I like the idea of seeing him every day and sleeping next to him every night and waking up to him every morning, but I also like the idea of having my own space and decorating how I want to and getting the chance to live on my own.  Plus, I have no idea how he feels about moving out with me anymore, since I tossed us aside.  Twice.

3. Go on vacation.  Not camping, but somewhere that I can lay on the beach, drink lots, and not have to worry about a goddamned thing.  Cuba, maybe??  Or somewhere different, like St Maarten??  Just somewhere that if I wanted to do nothing for a week, I could.  Even El Salvador would be good, although that would be much more heartbreaking to leave than anywhere else.

4. Go somewhere new.  Similar to the vacation one, but with more doing.  Maybe sightseeing or a tour or hiking or whatever.  Machu Picchu??  Thailand?? Somewhere new and interesting and awesome.  Honestly, I'd even settle for somewhere closer and less exotic, but till new.  New Orleans??

5. Learn a new language.  Or possibly work on the two half languages I know (Spanish and French).  Maybe learn some new Polish words??  The last few I learned were a few years ago.  Time to add something to my mental translator!!

6. Finish a story.  I've been stuck for the last while and haven't been able to write too much, even tough I have an incredible amount of ideas.  Maybe I can work on getting them out??  I've still got some up on my FanFiction profile, and I've got maybe 20 pages of another. I've also got like 35 pages of an original story, and a bunch of stories left anywhere from 2 to 5 pages.  I really should work on those.

7. Find a new hobby.  I keep saying photography or painting, but I do neither.  So I need to give them my all or get off the pot and find some new ones.  I can't imagine me knitting or anything.  Cooking??  Maybe more event planning??  I do love me some planning.  I could definitely make that into something fun!!

8. Pay off debts.  Honestly, I need to do this.  If I'm smart about it, and I find a job soon, I should technically be able to pay off all the people I owe money to, and fix quite a bit of my credit, this year.  I obviously can't finish OSAP this year, but I could do almost everything else.  Or, quite possibly, everything else.  Let's aim for as much as possible and hope it goes well, okay??

9. Lose weight.  I have to find a way to get rid of at least 60 lbs.  HAVE TO.  I can't use any machines or go crazy (stupid back), so I've gotta take up swimming and an aerobics class. Maybe I'll join Kasia in  Zumba, as much as I don't like it.  I've also gotta do yoga or something to help stretch out my back.

10. Relax.  Be healthy.  Smile.  Honestly, I need to just learn to enjoy life and laugh it off when it goes wrong.  I need to not blow everything out of proportion and I need to not over think everything and stress myself out to the point I get panic attacks.  I need to be on the offensive much less and not bite everyone's head off.  I need to think less for me and more for others, and sometimes, I need to think the opposite.

Wow, that's more than I planned to set for myself.  I don't think they're hard, though.  At least, most of them aren't, so I should be able to find ways to get them done, right??  Or possibly, and maybe even more realistically, I'll forget all about them until the end of the year.

Blogging Challenge: random facts about me!!

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.

Well, shit.  That's quite a lot of random facts.  Okay, so let's see what I can come up with.

1. Horror movies can terrify the shit out of me.  I love them, even the shitty ones, and am always up for watching them.  But there are some movies that will have one moment, or one event, or one shot that scares me enough to not want to turn off my lights at night.

2. I've always felt really weird yelling during sporting events, even when I want nothing more than to yell at the players.  I feel like everyone is watching and judging me.

Park in Toronto (left); islands in Georgian Bay (right).

3. I've always wanted to be a Photoshop genius, so I love to play around with it and find tutorials.  I'm not terrible, but I definitely wouldn't hire me!!

4. I love music, but the creative process for it (writing lyrics, singing, instruments, etc) are my enemy.  No matter what I do or try, I suck at anything besides listening to music.  You should hear me sing.  I'm pretty sure it's considered cruel and unusual punishment.

5. Painting and photography make me happy.  Super happy.

6. I'm a super picky eater.  I don't like peppers (of any colour), steak, mushrooms, most seafood (fishy tasting fish, mussels, calamari, clams, oysters, etc.), pickles, carrots, and celery.  I can't take hot sauce.  I won't even try offal (except chicken heart.  Yummy!!).  I dislike brussels sprouts and nutmeg. 

7. I love making lists.  I never follow them, and I often lose them, but I love making them.

My two favourite chefs. ©Food Network.

8. Camping is one of my favourite things to do in the summer.  Bruce Peninsula National Park is my favourite place, and I try to go at least once a summer (it books up pretty fast!!).

9.  I've recently become addicted to the Food Network.  I will watch anything with Bobby Flay or Michael Symon in it, which explains my new love of Iron Chef America.  They make me happy, and I wish I could get cooking lessons from one of them.  Or just hang out with them.  I do also enjoy Diners, Dive-ins, and Dives.

10.  I still consider El Salvador home, even though I've lived in Canada for 21 of the 28 years of my life.

11. I love traveling, and would prefer a backpacking or touristy vacation over a relaxing beach one any day, although I do love the beach more than anything and would try to fit at least one day in.

Original blog as it looked like when I left LJ in 2007.

12.  I start new blogs all the time, most of which I get bored of fairly quickly.  Brain Mush is the only that I always update (even if it's super sporadically).  I've been updating it, first on Livejournal, then here on Blogger, since 2003.

13. One show I could watch forever is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I can watch it non-stop, all day, everyday.  And I can watch the musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," over and over and over again.

14. I love birthdays.  Although I do, every so often, get the urge to have a small, intimate, relaxed birthday, I fully believe that birthdays should be celebrated all weekend and as loud and crazily as possible.  I'm sure the low-key birthdays will happen more often as I get older, but next year will definitely be an awesome party!!

15. I live my life with music non-stop.  I have music playing while I read, while I cook, while I'm in my room, when I shower, while I sleep, while I commute, on road trips, at work (if allowed), and just about any other time I can have music on.

16. I know almost all of the words to Empire Records.  I say almost because the DVD version is not the same as the VHS version.  I don't know who thought it was a good idea to change it, but they did.  Also, I just watched the trailer I added in this post, and I think I'm gonna go watch the movie now.

17.  I love live shows.  Everything from concerts to plays to musicals.  I love them and would watch them all the time if I could afford it.  We Will Rock You was awesome, and I'm sad I missed Rock Of Ages.  I do still hope to one day watch Phantom of the Opera live.  I would love to see Wicked, or maybe a Shakespeare play.  I also love shows like Riverdance, and would absolutely love to see Cirque du Soleil.

18. I have recently (as in the last two weeks) discovered One Tree Hill.  I never watched it before, and now that I've seen a few episode, I want to watch all nine seasons.  Only problem??  I want to beat the fuck out of Brooke.  She's kind of annoying, but more than that, I hate her voice.  And her facial expressions.  And her attempts to act her heart out.  She's lucky people like her in a tiny cheerleader outfit.

19. I'd rather wear skirts and dresses than jeans.  I love track pants and yoga pants, but I feel weird wearing them when I go out for anything more than a quick errand.  And I love heels and cork platform sandals more than anything, but I'm not used to wearing them anymore, and I don't want to deal with the pain of getting used to them, so I don't.  So I wear flip-flops and Roxys instead.

20.  Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare play.  It's followed by Hamlet.

My mom's chicken soup is better than your mom's chicken soup.

So I wanted to talk to you about chicken soup.  Yes, chicken soup.  The food you're supposed to eat when you're sick, when you're down, when you're not feeling well.

The sad part is, most of the chicken soup I've seen here is kinda sad.  A lot of it is the noodles in water with some chicken flavour.  Sometimes they'll have a bit of veggies, but it's not a lot.

But my mom's chicken soup has always been really freaking awesome.  It's fantastic.  Whenever I make it, it comes out more like stew than soup, but I kinda like it that way.  But I though I'd share the recipe, for those that are interested.

The ingredients may seem a little weird, but that's okay.  And to be honest, you can play with the amounts as much as you want.

So here's what you do:
1. Fill a big pot with water.  Put in the onion, garlic, chicken stock, salt, and skinless chicken.  Let it boil, and leave it for about 20 minutes.

2. Remove the chicken.  Put aside.

4. Put in the diced potatoes, sliced zucchini, and the sliced carrot.  Feel free to add more or less of each vegetable as you want.  Let that boil, and leave for about 5 minutes once it's boiling.

5. Add in the rice.  I use Mr. Goudas Instant White Rice (the bag with the pink on it).  Leave it for about five minutes once it starts boiling again.

6.  Add the chicken and the green beans.  Once it boils again, leave for about ten minutes.

7.  Pour into bowl.  Add avocado and lemon to taste (I like a lot of each).

Keep in mind that the more rice you add, the less water you'll have.  If you like it soupy, try to start with a lot of water, or just add less rice.  The one cup mentioned here leaves it soupier than I like.  I would prolly use a cup and a half or two.  I prefer it more like stew, with the lemon juice making it soupy.  But I'm weird like that.

So there you have it.  Simple enough, but awesomely tasty.  I know it seems weird, but I promise you, it is incredible.  Best chicken soup ever.  This is what you want if you're sick.  The lemon helps.  Or at least, that's what I tell myself!!

Life would be easier if we just Googled it first.

Today, thanks to a Google search, I discovered Photomerge in Photoshop. I'm not sure how long that's been there, but WOW.  Mind blown.

I've done a few panoramas, and I've painstakingly put them together myself. I tried to match them up (because who needs a tripod, right??) and get the colours to match and everything. I spent hours.  Days.  TIME.

And all along, there was a GODDAMN FUNCTION BUILT RIGHT INTO THE FREAKING PROGRAM.

Well, fuck. You just pick the pictures you want, and Photoshop puts them together for you, all matched up and everything.  Even the colours are matched and even. I love it. I mean, I'm upset that I spent so much time when apparently pressing a button does it better, but love it.

Yeah, the program does a better job than I did.  I must admit, though, mine doesn't look all that bad.  I'm using it as the banner for my other blog, so I do really like that I can fix them and put them in.  I have two others that I hope to fix, which were much more badly done than this one.  And I spent so long doing them!!  Although to be honest, my "hours" of work also included Facebook time, spaced out time, and reading time.  Go ADD.

But so I think this might be my new obsession.Well, at least for like a week. Then, like always, I'll move on.

My happy fiction writing hobby.

I used to hate writing fiction. Short story, outlines, characters - I hated all of it. There was absolutely nothing about it that I found appealing.  It was one of the reasons I hated English class in high school.

But then when I was doing my Media Foundations certificate at Humber, we had to take a class on writing. We couldn't get out of it. Most of the assignments weren't too crazy: book reviews, essays, news stories.  And finally, there was the dreaded assignment: a short story.

Of course, I hated this assignment.  Hated it.  But I sat down to write it.  And apparently I just couldn't stop - I wrote 1200 words over the limit. So after cutting and cutting and more editing, I handed it in.

When I got it back, I was not only surprised buy the 95% I got on it, but by the teacher's suggestion that I submit it to some contest and write more.

Really??  Me??  Write fiction??  Well, what an interesting idea.

Since then, I've been writing stories.  For the longest time I wrote short stories; they were maybe 1500 words or so each.  But then I decided I should write something longer.  And I've been working on some for a while now.

The problem isn't coming up with the idea - I have tons of those.  It's not even creating characters - I can do those pretty easily too.  The problem is that I get bored and start a new one.  The problem is that my attention span isn't long enough to finish one story.  Currently I'm working on (as in writing the story, not just planning) a few: In The Midst Of Lies, which is a crime thriller; a fan fiction story; a story that Wikipedia tells me is considered 'high fantasy'; and random short stories.

I have tons of characters in my head, and they all want to come out and tell me their story.  I just can't find the right mix of things - setting, plot, and characters - to make the story work properly.

I also try to plan out the story too much, I think, and I end up changing what I started with. It also happens often that I start writing and the story changes as I go and it ruins the carefully researched outline. Sometimes, though, I start writing with no idea of who the characters are, what the story is, or even what the next sentence will be!!  These are often pretty good, either for short stories or to build on. 

I do love the planning part: creating characters, coming up with plots and twists and secrets, creating worlds.  I love it.  I could plan book after book after book and never write anything.  Really, I have a shit-ton of characters amd creatures and plot ideas and locations and research.

Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE research??  I wish I could find a job as a researcher.  I'd love to research all day, every day.  That would be freaking incredible.  If someone knows of a research job, please let me know.  It'd make me so happy!!

Anyways, so I think I've got a story right now that might work out.  At least, it's looking pretty interesting.  Hopefully I'll be able to stick to it and actually write it all.  The story I see in my head is kinda awesome.

Writing fiction has become an escape for me.  when life gets to stressful or crazy or sad, I write a better world or an awesome adventure. I don't think I write with the idea of submitting my book anywhere, I just like to write.  Then again, if I finish, and I think I've written the best damn story there ever was, well, then I may just have to look around.  Maybe one day you'll see my name while walking through Chapters!! Wouldn't that be awesome??

That would be the best thing to ever happen in the history of all things that ever happened.

Time for a bedroom update??

So for a while now I've been wanting to redo my bedroom.  I want it to look nice, like it belongs to an adult and not a design-challenged teenager.

The problem is that I want to move as soon as I can afford it.  End of summer, maybe September.  The gives me enough time to find a job and get past the probation period.  That way, I won't have the problem where I'm unemployed but have to pay rent and bills and shit.

But is it worth doing things to my room if I'm planning to move out within the next six months??  Probably not, right??

I may, however, do some changes that I can take with me. There's a few things I can think of to do that would make the room look better for now, and I think I can do them cheaply.  And since I can take them with me, I can incorporate them into whatever awesomeness I decide on later.

I really want to make a new headboard for my bed.  It's a fairly cheap Ikea bed, so it does a good job as far as beds go, but it's not super pretty.  The headboard that it has right now is basically untreated wood (see picture).  What I want to do is make a pretty fabric headboard and attach it to the wooden one the bed already has.  I've found a few different styles, and I think the one I'm gonna go for is either some sort of pattern print or maybe a plain one, but with some sort of button/tack decorations.  I haven't decided yet.  Maybe I should go look at some fabric, then decide?? 

I also found a site that shows me how to make a duvet cover out of any blanket I find, which is awesome!!  A lot of the duvet covers I like are way outside my current budget, and those I can afford aren't anything I like.   So the idea of finding a nice, warm, preferably fuzzy blanket and making it into a cover for my duvet makes me happy.  Of course I'll also have to make matching pillows.  Or maybe not matching.  I'm not big on matchy colours, as most of you know.  Not because I'm making a statement or 'cause it's my style, but because I don't care and/or I fail at anything design/style related.  Maybe I'll make fairly plain pillowcases that have words on them!!  Maybe from a book, maybe something funny, maybe just words I like!!  Ooooh, I like that plan.  Yes, that's what I'll do then.

I also want to change my necklace holder, since mine broke when I moved.  I found this awesome idea, which is basically just a towel holder.  You then use shower curtain holders to hold each necklace.  I think it's pretty freaking genius!!  That reminds me: I should actually start actually wearing my jewelry.

To be honest, I have a bunch of other small things I want to do.  Most of them I found on Pinterest, but a few I've been wanting to do for a while.

I'd like to do something with my dresser. Paint it, maybe??  It's not real wood, I don't think, so I'm not sure how that would end up.  But I guess we'll see, right??  The mirror that's attached to it is also kinda boring, but I have no idea how to dress that one up.  I'll keep looking and see what I can find. 

I'd really like to do a stencil on the wall, but I guess that can wait until I move.  I'd also like to make better curtains, or at least get a new curtain rod, but that may also just have to wait.

The picture on the right is something I'd definitely like to put on my wall. It's a picture made out of string. I'm thinking hearts or stars work.  I guess the colour would be whatever I decide to make my colour for the room (I'm still undecided between fuchsia, teal, and purple).

I might also teach myself (through Google, of course!!) how to make a few throw pillows and cushiony things for the bed.   I think I might need to invest in a sewing machine.  Anyone know where I can get one cheap??

I'm open to ideas, if anyone has anything they think I should do.  I just want it to look nicer.

And I'm also thinking of getting rid of all my movies.  Well, putting them away, not getting rid of them.  That'd be crazy!!!  Just putting some, maybe half, away and bringing up some books.  Or maybe just keeping one shelf of movies up here.  I can always bring them back out when I have a living room to put them in.  So maybe bringing up some books.  Or maybe just some (gasp!!) empty space.

I just hope I'll actually get around to doing all these things.  I think we all know how awesome I am at planning and preparing for things, and just how awesome I am at not finishing.  But I'll try.  I really do think that having a nice, comfy, homey space would make me feel happier and more relaxed, even if it is only for now.  Although I guess that means I'd also have to keep it clean...