I love bread.

(both kinds!) and meat and dairy.

Done with detox.

Wikipedia:

"often dispute the value and need of 'detox diets' due to lack of supporting factual evidence"


I was about starving by friday, and felt pretty much like a lump on a log.

We had a great dinner fri nite including meatloaf, homemade macaroons, crepes, beef mexican soup, and hummus. Delicious!!!

detox diet day 1

Detox = cleaning = good
eating only vegetables = not eating meat and carbs = very hungry

6 fruit/vegetable smoothies later, "lean meat" and granola and I am completely drained of energy.

My neighbor's are doing fireworks right outside my bedroom window, so I don't think I'll be getting to bed anytime soon.

6 smoothies with 6 two hr breaks inbetween:

1. reading
2. email and iming with mom
3. walking at park and geocaching
4. massage
5. clean up and plan for tomorrow
6. sleep!

Questions i found:

Are you satisfied with the life you're leading?
Do you ever feel that it's too late to make a change?
What street are you currently traveling? Where does the road appear to lead?


I am satisfied for the most part, but there's a small fraction that still wants to be stretched and grown towards that idealistic place we all talk about. (You know, waking up AND getting out of bed at alarm, or never being late again...) I don't really think its ever too late to make change, unless its a life/death thing... I mean- ok, so maybe one package when to the mass production with an error, and it'll be too costly to fix in it- but relationship wise, I think people can say sorry and forgive no matter the length of time. I believe there are commitments we must uphold to our families and friends, but there is also a commitment to what is right and true. And sometimes one trumps the other.

The street I am traveling is a little bit gravelly, its very wide- actually so wide that maybe it's not even a street. Its an open plain, empty and uncultivated. It is waiting for seeds to be planted to flourish. Those seed could be flowers, or vegetables, or trees, or weeds. My path is slowly being molded and but still very open. It appears to lead in many directions- too many for me to wan to look at, since I've eyes on only one side of my face. Right now it appears to lead somewhere sunny and bright, though a road less traveled.

A brilliant day!

After being hit by magnificent pollution of new years as well as the holiday eating, I decided it would be good to try a detox or something for a few days. Two of my very knowledgeable comrades told about the benefits of organic foods as well as a vegetable smoothies they have every morning, so... giving it a go!

Today:
-Carrot
-pea pods (stringy)
-spinach
-strawberries
-Banana
-Pineapple
-grapefruit juice
-plain yogurt ( I need the calcium! )


Last night tried broccoli, but it was all gritty and gross.


So far, had 4 smoothies and all of them are delicious. One of my buddies from home did these vegetable shakes every morning, but they were dark green/brown and nasty smelling (and stringy!! ick!) So i'm relieved that these taste yummy so far!

The past few weeks

Xin nien kuai le! Viv and Alicia teamed up to make the message clear.




Delicious ice cream fondue at Hagen däz!!! With Shen and bf, fellow CCAers. Hagen daz in china is fancy, but a lot of places. We also order "waffle crisp" as a dip after you dipped it in chocolate- but it ended up being crushed waffle cone, not our beloved american cereal. Me and Shen caught up over ID stuff, the dept, and life in China/States. She's a shanghai native in my homeland and I'm an american in her homeland.



Hosted a little dinner as a kinda "goodbye" to my co-workers(two of whom I live with)We had pizza bread, pasta, and a few rounds of spoons and pictionary, which everyone enjoyed. The hardest word was "Hacker" which cold automatically got, and the easiest(we thought) was "Japan". [she'd drawn China, and then an island off of it, and Timon went guessing all these chinese cities, lol]


This is a HD cozy i knitted up quick. It's got a strap the comes from the bottomand hooks over the plug to keep the cables all together. Took me bout 30 minutes, after some frustrating reminders on how to knit. This one was done in the round on kuai-zi(chopsticks). The yarn lady laughed at me when I told her that.

the paper trail

Last night before watching the inauguration, went to said goodbye to a pal heading "home" to the States after 11 years in shanghai. He's seen the city change and grow about way back when foreigners had it really rough. Before metro and major highways- and maybe bread too? One of my bosses was in shanghai when bread was impossible to find- there were no import markets and china was still 110% china.

We spent part of the evening being human shredders meaning 10 people ripping paper and mixing it thoroughly into several bags, eating pizza, and scavenging his left behinds( I got kleenex, some bins, and a screw driver) We ended the night with a prayer for the future and new beginnings!

Headed to Malone's American Bar to watch the inauguration at about midnight. I was pretty tired, but determined to see what all the hoo-haa was about with Rick Warran and Aretha franklin and a poet that was... interesting. I coudln't believe there were so many folks- 2 miles from the capitol building?? I enjoyed obama's speech and his themes for hope, change, and it seemed honest and realistic that we have to work through what we are presented with. I wasn't a super hardcore obama fan, but didn't hate him either. I think he has a unique opportunity to influence a slightly diff people group than uh..others and it could really make a good impact.

China Central Television, the country's main broadcaster, aired the speech live with a simultaneous Chinese translation.

But when the translator got to the part where President Obama talked about facing down communism, her voice suddenly faded away.

The programme suddenly cut back to the studio, where an off-guard presenter had to quickly ask a guest a question.



In other interests some other tidbits:
-www.chinesetime.com, teaches mandarin via skype, all over the world, and also has a great resource section for practicing
-www.acmebaggage.com, will hope fully be making a comeback soon
-www.whatislovechine.com, looks like an exciting event


peace be with you

The year of the OX

this is the year of the OX. And since I was born in the year of the ox(and so my was dad) AND I'll be turning 24, I am supposed to wear red underwear. My co-worker told me the myth is that when it's your zodiac year, its bad luck, and so you've got to wear red for good luck. So at the market, there's stacks of red undies!! and then I think of calvin and hobbes and imagine everyone's white's ending up pink.

the end.

A new start!

I have finished my internship at toymunster! Today i begin anew as a freelancer.

I have been awaiting this day for so long- to break free! grrr.

I've already got 3 projects on my plate; I woke already to an email from the states. Its a bit daunting and exciting- and very disciplining. I've got one product line in the works, one branding, and one event-type project which I'm doing branding+ on- mostly because me and my boyfriend came up with the entire idea, and we're carrying it out on our own motivations. It will be unveiled soon.

My fingers type in chinglish. Its rather embarassing!

And now I can finally attack some things I've been wanting to do, like:
- plan a trip during lunar new years and see more of china
- Go take assessment test for chinese school
- start my blog posts on shanghai fashion
- work on my film of my experience in china
- get the pink nail polish off
- clean my room
- finish writing postcards and things to send home(durian candy, anyone?)
- and read everyone else's blogs.

peace!

technology, i <3

It was raining and my converses got soaked.

When I got to the office my feet were really, really cold.

So I took off my shoes and dried my socks by the heat of my CPU!

So when I put my socks back on, my feet were nice and warm.

And I sleep with my laptop next to me.



The other great thing is my camera, given to me by my brother, Timmy.
I use it to take photos of maps at parks for reference, or street signs to remember how to get home, or things with chinese characters to translate later. It's one my memory devices. I'll even admit to taking pics for documents and/or notes as a quick "scanner".

two thousand nine!

Here it is. The new year. The year of the Ox by chinese zodiac- the year I turn 24 and (supposed) to wear red undies all year long!! Kinda reminds me of the typical christmas picture of a kid in red longjohns, you kno, with the button flap thing on the backside? haha I have a family story about those sleepers which I won't share in case my mom gets mad.


anyhow, my resolutions, goals, and ever growing list of things I endeavor(I got this word in Taboo!) to accomplish:


1. Get a full time job with a full design team.
2. Get products on the market that help people.
3. Stop being an impulse buyer
4. Finish more than start.
5. Get to a 50% level of communicating with chinese
6. Finish at least one book every two months.(I'm reading 3ish now, for the past few months)
7. Exercise at least once per week.(jogging and resistance)