As part of my 101 in 1001 project, I decided that it would be neat to do a Day in the Life photo shoot once a month. Its just a way to chronical my life over the months and it’s fun to do.

So here’s the day in the life that I did today. Didn’t take as many pictures as I had wanted, but oh well.

(Below the cut is 20 more pictures – dial uppers beware)

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

Every night I’ve been making a ‘To Do’ list for myself of things that I’d like to/should get done the next day. Unfortunately having a list doesn’t seem to be motivating me like it used to since I’ve barely completed any of the things that I wanted. The list just keeps getting carried over to the next day and added to so instead of getting smaller it seems to be growing by 1-2 items each day. But since now the weekend is over and today was Michael’s day off I have the rest of the week with relatively nothing to do; so there is no excuse for me to not get my list finished.

Today was relatively lazy seeing as I woke up much later than expected (around 2:00pm) which I guess is due to the fact that I didn’t get to sleep until around 4 in the morning. But once I got up and around, Michael picked me up and we headed to Elmira, NY to get dinner and do some shopping. We ate at TGI Friday’s so that I could get the burger I was craving, and I ended up trying their new Blackberry Long Island Iced Tea… It was absolutely TERRIBLE. I’d never order it again there even if someone paid me. The Ultimate Hawaiian Volcano drink on the other hand… YUM. Michael had steak so I also got to steal some of his mashed potatos (in my opinion, TGIF makes the best mashed potatoes and french fries of any restaurant I’ve been to). We also split one of their new Chips Ahoy sundaes which was also extremely good.

After dinner I finally got to go to the new Ulta store that got put in one of the new plazas. While it’s no MAC or Sephora, I’m still in love. I almost never get to visit Sephora or MAC because the nearest stores are hundreds of miles away, so it’s nice that there’s this great store so close by. They had a few of the brands that I really like (Urban Decay, Too Faced, Stila) as well as some that I’d never really heard about. Its basically just like Sephora, but sells a lot more of the moderately priced cosmetics. My eyes got to linger on the Chi Hair Straightener that I’ve wanted forever (but there’s no way I’m paying over $100 for a straightener) and a bunch of other stuff that I really want but can’t afford. I ended up picking up some shampoo that I had been looking for, two Urban Decay shadows (Adore [dark purple/blue] and Heat [red] just because I don’t really have those two colors in their basic form) and a new UD Primer Potion.

The whole reason I actually WENT to Ulta though was because I finally decided that it was time for me to try the Bare Minerals makeup. Tons of my friends and a couple family members use it and LOVE it. I’ve wanted to try it ever since I saw the infomercial years ago. So we talked to the girl and she did it for me to show me how it would look. It looked GREAT and felt really light/nice so I bought the starter kit with the promise that I could try it out on my own and if I didn’t like it I could take it back for either cash refund or store credit. Once we were done at Ulta we did some more shopping at Dicks and Barnes & Nobel before heading home.

About half way home I noticed that my face was starting to itch a bit around my right eye and along my jawline. I scratched and didn’t really think anything about it. But it just kept getting worse and worse and by the time we got home I literally ran in and washed my face to get the Bare Minerals off. My skin was all splotchy and itched like crazy. It’s been about 6 hours now since I took it off and my face still feels weird. Needless to say, tomorrow I’m heading back to Ulta and taking the starter kit back. Now I just have to resist the urge to buy more stuff with the money I get back.

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

I hope that everyone had a nice holiday weekend. Usually the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, but this year I just couldn’t seem to be bothered to do anything. My mom went out with her boyfriend to drive his new [to him] ‘78 anniversary edition corvette (I can has plz?), but I just hung around the house all day. We didn’t cookout or anything, and aside from the few bottle rockets set off by our neighbors, didn’t see any fireworks either. It was just like another Saturday except there was even less to do since everything was closed. I didn’t mean to be holiday dud, it just happened that way.

Today was a lot more of the same. Just lounging around and watching a Little House on the Prarie marathon with my grandmother. I ended up going out to dinner with a couple friends, and then came back here. Other than playing WoW for a bit so I could talk to Panda, that’s all I’ve done. I may go soon and watch either some Tru Blood or possibly Gilmore Girls since I finally replaced my copy of the 7th season.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting and I’ll be able to find something which will occupy my time.

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

Last night Mike andI finally got to see Up. It was soooo cute, and actually pretty sad (at least in the beginning). It always makes me happy to see Disney still putting out amazing movies after all these years. We also got to see previews for a lot of movies coming out which seem like they’re going to be awesome, such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I was hoping to catch a trailer for Half-Blood Prince but I guess we’re getting a little close to release for them to be running with new movies. I still haven’t seen a trailer for it, so I’m going to have to look one up. I also thought maybe we’d see a preview for the next Twilight train wreck New Moon which comes out in November, but no sign of that one either – not that I personally minded that….

In other news, I’ve been trying out everything I can think of to deal with my hair problem. I am plagued by having a dry scalp, but extremely oily hair. I have to wash it every day or it looks terrible. I never use conditioner (except on the very ends) but that doesn’t seem to help. So today I tried what a lot of the “experts” say, and diluted some vinegar in water and rinsed my hair with it while I was in the shower. Worst 3 hours of my life… Everyone said that the smell would dissapate as my hair dried, but even now, if I fluff my hair or turn my head fast I get a whiff of pure vinegar smell. It’s terrible, but if it works, I think I can deal with it.

My Flickr 365 photo for today:
expressing my dismay over smelly hair

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

It has been quite a while since some of my friends started the 101 in 1001 project, and I had always intended on starting it too at some point. But, like most other things I want to eventually do, I ended up forgetting about it and never did anything. So last month I decided that I would finally get a list together and start the project on July 1st. Well, today is July 1st, I have my list, and I’m ready to get started.

If you’d like to see my list, you can view it here. There are 101 things there that I want to complete in the next 1001 days. Some of them seem simple (such as purchasing something or reopening a blog) and others are harder (such as overcoming my fear of being underground). But I’m going to try my hardest to complete everything on the list in the time alotted. The end date for my project is March 28, 2012, so I have lots of time to get these things done.

Some of the things I already have plans for how they will be accomplished, others I have no clue. I think its going to be quite an adventure over the next 33 months. And of course, I’ll be using my blog to periodically update everyone on my progress and hopefully to share LOTS of pictures.

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

Temporary new layout while I figure out what to do with this thing...

I've been contemplating quite a few things about my dear LJ lately.

1) More non-crossposted entries. Most of the stuff here now is automatically posted from my other journals. But I really want to start writing here again. I don't know how often I'd post, but it would be nice to see some entries which don't have the "This entry was originaly posted at..." footers.

2) Buying a rename token. I've changed my username on here so much, but I dunno... I just can't ever stand keeping something for so long. Even though I really like this name.

3) More artistic/free writing. I was reading back through all my entries in spiritus and I noticed that I did a lot of this type of writing then. Stuff that didn't quite make sense until you really thought about it... Incorporating lyrics to express emotions.. Funky formatting... Etc. Writing like that was fun for me, and it also kinda gave me an out. I have a hard time expressing my emotions since I have to type them out like I'm talking to someone (and that freaks me out for some reason). When I did this stuff, I dunno, it was easier to write.

4) Paid ElJay. This one is definitely happening. The adds are KILLING MY EYES.

5) New layout. Even if it is just me changing the colors on this one.. lol

6) Friends pruning. I just don't see a point in having people on my friends list when they never comment / probably never read my entries. Some of them are friends with blogs other than LJ and they comment on the entries on my real blogs. But there are thouse who never comment period, and yet they comment on a bunch of other people's blogs.

/shrug
I dunno how much of the stuff I'll actually do (besides the paid), but it'll be fun anyways.

Also... This makes me happy inside. Also makes me miss being in a choir. I should never have quit in high school.

I’m officially $150 poorer than I was a few hours ago. But it was for a good cause, since I spent it registering for the GRE. I can’t take it until August 1st because of not knowing what week(s) I may be called in for jury duty, but that means I have a month to study for it. Hopefully I’ll do well enough the first time and won’t have to take it over again (the schools I’m applying to only take the highest scores). I’m excited, but nervous at the same time since I remember how freaked out I was about the last standardized test I took (the SAT), and the GRE is harder. But I have a copy of  Cracking the GRE and Michael is going to lend me the book and flash cards that he studied with when he took the test. Since his grades on the Verbal and Quantitative sections are only slightly below what I need to get, I’m a little less worried.

Aside from the emotional rollercoaster  that trying to go back to school has put me on I also really need to find a job. I don’t have many bills right now, but the money that I had saved from college and graduation gifts is depleating at a pretty steady rate. I’m not sure how well the “I don’t know when I can start since I might have jury duty” line is going to go over with potential employers, but I’m hoping that my mom can get the inside dish from her friends on places that may be hiring. At this point I really don’t care what I’m doing, as long as I can start putting money in the back to be saved for when I have to move out again for school (since very few of the schools I’m looking at offer graduate housing).

I’m still looking at potential Masters programs, but doing so is annoying me just a bit. My number one choice school has a program which seems perfect for me. It’s EXACTLY what I want to do. The problem is, if I don’t get into that school, I won’t be able to do a program like that. I have not yet found another college in the country that offers a public policy degree that focuses on science and technology. I could technically get away with just public policy, but I know I’ll end up feeling back because this other school has the program which is a better fit for me.

I’ll just have to cross my fingers. But I know I need to stop stressing myself out over the big picture. I need to compartmentalize and focus on one thing at a time. G.R.E., Application… Then I can stress about needing a Plan B.

Originally published at My Grown Up Life. You can comment here or there.

The past two mornings have been absolute nightmares for me. I don’t get much sleep at night in the first place, so normally I end up sleeping in during the morning and catch up on the sleep that I didn’t get at night. But for some reason, the world has decided to conspire against me. On Wednesday morning, my aunt decided to call at 6:30, 6:45, and sometime around 7:30. By the third time the phone rang, I knew there was no way I was going to get back to sleep and ended up getting out of bed. I tried futilely all day long to go back to sleep, but it just wasn’t working. Mike came over during the afternoon and we hung out some before he had to get back home so I could get ready for the show.

During Radio X, I felt like I was going to fall asleep. But as the show wound down, I actually started to feel like I had more energy. This wasn’t good at all because it meant that for a good two and a half hours after the show ended, I couldn’t fall asleep. I think I finally was out around 4am. 6:30 sharp, the phone rings. It was a firend of my mother’s who called “just to chat”. Who the hell calls “just to chat” at 6:30 AM? I was able to get back to sleep, but at 7:30 The Satan Ringer went off again, and I hauled myself downstairs. My mom got a good laugh out of it beause apparently I was very disgruntled; I have no clue – I woke up 2 hours later on the couch.

This afternoon my grandmother was able to come home from the hospital, and I had to go over to her house for a while while a man came to clean the carpets. But she’s here with us now and will be staying at our house for a few days just to make sure shes okay. Then she can go back home and (hopefully) everthing will get back to normal. My cousin and aunt are coming on Sunday to visit, and I’m pretty excited about that. I haven’t seem my cousin in quite a while so it’ll be nice to get to chat (without using FaceBook).

I don’t have much else to talk about except that I’m sick (shingles-like outbreak on my face by my right eye [which is where I've had shingles before]) and that tomorrow I have to head out to pick up a couple books to study for the big bad GRE.

Originally published at whittersNU. You can comment here or there.

Over a month later and I still don’t seem to have that much to talk about. I’ve been (unsuccessfully) job hunting, and thinking a lot about what I want to do with the rest of my life.

“Grown Up” life hit me like a ton of bricks a few weeks ago when I got a summons to be on-call for jury duty throughout all of July. This really could not be any more inconvenient, since I really need to take the GRE and if I have to do jury duty then I may not be able to take a prep course like I had wanted to. If I want a chance at spring semester admissions anywhere, then I absolutely HAVE to take it in August or the VERY BEGINNING of September. The deadlines for the schools I’m looking at are anywhere from October 1 (#1 choice) to November 1. I may end up having to just study on my own. But hopefully I won’t get called for duty and I’ll be able to take the GRE in July and then (if needed) again in August.

What am I going back to school for you ask? Well, that depends entirely on what school I go to. I have three potential options in front of me, all leading back to the same thing. First option is that I can go back and get my Master’s in some Information Technology field (such as Information Security). I could also go back and get my M.B.A. since my IT degree from Juniata has given me a good background in business as well. Or, my top choice, is that I will go back and get a M.A. in International Science and Technology Policy. Whichever path I choose, the ultimate goal is for me to get into Law School to study Intellectual Property and Copyright Law. I’d also like to study such things as Cybercrime and Cyberlaw, but those are secondary to IP.

Other than the school front, I’ve been trying to make some changes in my life. I’m reading more, and trying to spend less time on the computer (which is hard since I got myself addicted to World of Warcraft again). I’m also trying to find some ways to make some extra cash, since going back to school means spending lots more money. But my mom is standing behind me in whatever decision I make, and that really means a lot to me; she wants me to be happy.

Originally published at My Grown Up Life. You can comment here or there.