Things I’ve been doing lately:
- Learning new recipes for home cooking. Last Thanksgiving, I tried a recipe for crock-pot pork chile verde, along with cornbread, as my own personal way of celebrating. The cornbread turned out well, but the chile verde wasn’t what I was expecting – a little bland and too soupy. The flavors intensified after a day or two, and I ended up making four or five burritos from it, by combining with an easy Spanish rice recipe I found, but I wanted to try some other recipes. I want to duplicate the chile verde I find at the Iron Horse or Maya’s (no website).Yesterday, I tried this pork chile verde, and it’s less soupy and more flavorful, though still not the same as the ones I consider my favorites. I’ll keep trying. Oh, and I cooked up some black beans this time, too, which turned out perfect and spicy.
Overall, I’m really enjoying cooking my own meals. It’s cheaper and gives me something new to learn. How can that be bad? And having leftover cornbread with my bacon and coffee this morning was awesome.
- I’m still stuck in Season 3 of my LOST re-watch, even though the 6th and final season is due to start in about a month. Not sure I’ll get all the way through Season 5 by the time it restarts, either. But I’m enjoying seeing the whole show as a slowly-unfolding novel, full of great characters and some interesting ideas. I still think Desmond and Penny stories are the best, though Claire and Charlie make an interesting couple, too. Feh on the whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet quadrangle, though. Feh, I say. And I still don’t buy that Sayid fell for Shannon.
- I started sketching out a slightly-new design for my website last night. I love the simple design I have now, but I want to change it up. I also want to make it all validate as CSS 3.0 and XHTML, and I’ve had complaints about the tiny font size – I’ve got some ideas on how to fix that, but still maintain the clean layout (can you say fluid grid?) And I have to incorporate the moon in there, somewhere, too. The new design, though, will likely switch to a black font on white background, though, for better readability. Or maybe that will be an option. I don’t know, it’s in the early stages yet. It’s one of the projects I’m working on during my vacation. Also, I’m still mulling over moving this blog to WordPress.
- I’ve been collecting and posting on Twitter some random things I overhear my coworkers say. There are some interesting political and social viewpoints – and by “interesting” I mean “weird, crazy and a bit scary” – and because of the response I got on Twitter, I’ve started a new Tumbleblog, Shit My Conservative Coworkers Say. You can follow that blog, or follow the Twitter account @WingnutsSay, to keep up. I’ve got enough material to post at least one new crazy thing every day, 5 days a week, and that’s my plan for the future, until I either run out, or get in trouble. Note: the descriptions of The Palinite and The Paulite have been fictionalized. Slightly. Just enough, I hope.
- Speaking of websites and domains, I now own six. At least three of those are separate blogs/sites. If you throw in my Facebook profile, my (primary) Twitter account, and my Flickr page, not to mention several other forms of online presence, that’s a lot of updating. I feel the need to consolidate them, maybe keep some of them separate, but come up with one Brian “Lunar Obverse” Moon Mega-site, your one-stop shopping for all things Lunar Obverse related.
- Then there’s a side project that got put on a back burner around last March, when I took an enjoyable detour into the land of couplehood. Now that I’m single again (no, I’m not going to talk about that in public – it’s personal), I can pick up where I left off, and proceed again. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that for now.
- Another project has been my Dungeons & Dragons game. We’ve been playing once per month since it started, and hopefully everyone is enjoying themselves. They keep coming back for more, so it looks like they are (no, really, guys, I’m not fishing for compliments). I’m having fun, too, although sometimes I focus more on the mistakes I make rather than the fun I’m having. My game-running skills are rusty, and way back in the day, I don’t think I was that good a gamemaster in the first place. One thing I’ve improved upon, I think, is the action. Way more action in my new game. And the story has, mostly, held up, although it’s early yet. But the characters are on the verge of 3rd level, and they’re still gelling as a team, and, well, it’s been a fun escape for me.
- I’m still running, although lately just on the treadmill at work, and far fewer miles and a bit slower than I used to. And I’m working to control my weight, too, with diet and such. As a matter of fact, I’ve made it from Thanksgiving to Christmas and lost 3.5 lbs (so far) with some effort. Sure, cooking more of my own food has helped, and so has running, but mainly it’s mental – planning my meals ahead of time as much as I can, and learning to say “no” to larger portions. My goal is to hit 185 lb by the time next year’s Shamrock Run, which works out to ~1 lb per week. I’m right on track.
- I’m also on track to pay off all my current debt by the end of 2010. It still seems so far away, and lots can happen between now and then, but I have a plan, and if I stick to it, I’ll get there. Better late than never, right? Since summer, I’ve paid off two credit cards so far, and I have a small bit of savings, too. I’m using the debt snowball method, which is championed by J. D. Roth and Dave Ramsey, which just means I pay off the smaller balances first. I like it because it gives me a psychological lift to see me crossing off debts sooner than I would if I paid off the higher balances or higher interest rates first, or paid them all off proportionately. I could do it the other way, but this way is working for me now, so I’m not eager to change. Time will tell how close I get, but it feels good now.
And that’s what I’ve been up to. Well, some of it. Which still seems like a lot.
How have y’all been?