Samhain Resolutions & Halloween 2008 Wrap-up

Last year, I accidentally made Samhain resolutions. By accidentally, I mean that I made a plan and it came like a shot out of the dark via random coincidence and it all happened right around the beginning of November (right after Samhain). As a result, I decided retroactively that I had Samhain resolutions. Now, the one really nice thing about using the Celtic New Year, as I've mentioned before, is that you can make a plan to eat healthier BEFORE all the opportunities to gorge... hence you can realize "hey, I should have at least a glimmer of self-restraint" and thereby you do not have as much "making up for it" to do later.



I think this is a grand idea. I spent a lot of time the past two weeks trying to THINK of new resolutions and I wasn't having any luck. Luckily, the shot out of the dark came again this year. So here we goooooooooooo.......!!!!

1. Start a small side business making custom clothing - market to the local DC metro area, tap Etsy, and diversify. You want it? I'll make it. Costumes, period-inspired everydaywear, steampunk. You got it!


2. Cook more and eat more veggies. I miss cooking. I say my excuse is we don't have enough time. BS! I am a culinary wizard and need to get off my lazy ass & just hit the grocery every day. Expect to see more random concoctions like the Salmon Salad appear - if I really liked it, I'll share.


3. Train up for the Boo! Run 10K in October.


4. Do more work on trying to figure out how to balance work, play, relaxation, and social. I still suck at it.


5. Find a dentist


6. Work on those last 10 lbs and maybe toning more.



7. Wear more hats.

Now as far as Halloween goes... we had fun as always, but the much-anticipated DC101 Party, which always has awesome costumes because they offer a several thousand dollar grand prize, was a total bust. I think I'm done with it. Maybe all the people who make the normally fantastic costumes have caught on that they weren't going to get anywhere because it's always something pop-culture that wins. Maybe they realized this and went elsewhere. Maybe they were all in a Halloween funky like I was this year and didn't decide to do much. All I know is that they weren't really there. J & I were Sweeney Todd & Mrs. Lovett as planned. Lori reappeared as her sshett-ghost. Our friend Adi came out and made himself Charlie Brown using black duct tape on a yellow shirt & Jenn was an asian masseuse and Wilson pulled out his mad-1-hour costume skillz and came as Toadstool from Super Mario Brothers. It was fun hanging with friends, but the party sucked and a guy in a white button down shirt and a brown vest who called his costume "McLovin'" (from the movie Superbad) won the $3K. I am peeved. For $3K the giant Dildo that someone MADE should have gotten the prize at least (Rabbit dildo was 2nd runner up). So anyway, the verdict is that I should have made plans to just stay at Greg & Jessie's because it was more fun eventhough I Greg didn't make it home before I had to leave. Stupid work.

Yeah, I don't know what was wrong, but I was in some weird halloween funk this year. Never got my decorations out. Never even put fall leaves on the door.... weird. Huh.... Maybe I'll dig out the ceramic fruit for T-giving and make some effort. Dunno.

Wow....

Yeah, I totally just gave up & got together a girls' day to the Maryland Renaissance Faire cause it's the last weekend and I still had two tickets & J was watching the PSU game this afternoon. As I go walking through the faire with my two girlfriends in tow, I hear, "Laura!" but it registered as someone else because that person couldn't have meant me since my two friends were right beside me. Holy Shit! It's Greg & Jessie with a group of friends also. WHAT?!? Small world I guess. That was a nice, if brief, meeting. I'm feeling horribly spoiled since, now if you include the upcoming halloween festivities, I will have seen Greg/Jessie 5 times in two months. Wow! That's, like, more than the past 3 years combined.... nah, I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but I'm gonna get spoiled if we keep this up. Sorry guys, I decided on trying to get my Alexandria girls to go out so I didn't call you.

Cosmic Coincidences

This one is throwing me for a loop... Last night, my friend G sent me the link to Fantastic Contraption and this morning, in place of coffee, I decided to try and kick start my brain with that game. Next, I decided the game was going to hook me for too long & I'd waste more time than I should, so I continued my Friday routine by flipping over to XKCD And today's comic just happened to be:

Weird....

On that note, here're my favorite browser games of the moment:

• Grow anything - Cube, Island, Ornament (X-mas version), etc....
• Bloxorz
• Fantastic Contraption
• Smite Thee (I've been playing this since college)
• Bridge Constructor Set (not a browser game, but it rocks if your computer is good enough to handle the rendering)
  

Coincidental Redundency

The random repetition of certain things continues to baffle and amaze me. I'm speaking about thos instances when one runs into a particular word, item or concept and then proceeds to run into it again and again, either that or over the next few days or weeks. Sometimes you can't even get away from it.

Is this all part of a greater cosmic coincidence? Can it be the sort of thing that causes two people in two different parts of the world to think of the same idea or invention at the same time?

Several coincidences of date:

• Batter Blaster: I heard about it on the Big O and Dukes Radio program during a "Snacks of the Round Table" segment. Next I noticed it on the shelf at my local grocery. Finally, I brought it home while Greg was visiting and he had heard about it via an e-mail string at work. Odd.
• Steampunk: I heard about steampunk on a blog I frequent called A Dress A Day. Next, I found some jewelry I really liked on eBay, then it came up somewhere else, and then on Boing Boing... on & on it went.

It's all just something I am pondering right now.