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Showing posts from 2009

Playing with GIMP

Image
So, I recently re-downloaded GIMP because I heard that they had made the features a little more user friendly and I was beginning to get a little more savvy with image editing software. Well, I decided, for fun, to edit a picture I had on hand just to try it out. I removed undereye bags, whitened teeth, got rid of some blemishes and fixed the eyebrows. The Original: The Edited Version: Thoughts? Comments?

Some notes on my first real decade...

This past week, it very suddenly came to my attention that we are about to end a decade. Granted, this is based on the Christian/solar/Gregorian calendar, so for us Jew-folk it doesn't really mean a whole lot. But it's still kind of fascinating to me for two big reasons: 1) The close of this decade has us all looking back over the past ten years to pick out the cultural phenomena that will come to be known as the markings of the 2000's (Like big hair in the 80's, or the rock and roll of the 60's). 2) This past decade has really been one of enormous change for me, and probably for anyone else in my age group. First, let's discuss the cultural phenomena. I recently (and when I say recently, I mean within the past week or so) have become acquainted with the concept of "memes." Meme is defined in Wiktionary as "Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another

The Children Aren't Alright

Sometimes I get these rude awakenings. These moments where I'm suddenly reminded that I'm really just a kid and that I'm terrified. They come when I suddenly have to face an adult problem, like not having enough money to pay my bills. It ambushes me when I'm confronted with the unknown and it shakes me to my core. Suddenly, I feel this need to crawl into bed and pretend I'm 10 and that mommy and daddy will take care of everything. But of course, that doesn't work. Because mommy and daddy can't take care of everything , only some things. And when I finally creep out from under the covers with bloodshot eyes and tear-stained cheeks, I discover all of my problems just as I'd left them. They all come rushing at me, even the ones I'd managed to temporarily push out of my mind before. So what's the best way to deal with these problems? The things that I can only wait out and hope everything turns out okay? Window-shopping therapy, of course.

Snow!

Well, we've got well over a foot of snow here and are expecting another 5-10 inches overnight. I adore snow, so I took a lot of pleasure in sitting in the warmth of my parents' house and watching it come down. After shabbos, we decided it would be simpler to walk home then to dig out their car and get a ride. Luckily, my parents felt so guilty for making us walk that they let us raid the pantry and pick out some things to enjoy when we got home. I grabbed a box of brownie mix, some bags of popcorn, a whole chicken (for tomorrow night?), a bottle of soda and some frozen soups. The walk home was fun. I've always loved walking in the snow, especially when I'm all bundled up and warm. Some of the drifts were as tall as I am, and I felt this strong need to linger and take in the beauty of the, as yet, untouched snow. Yaakov wasn't in such a lingering mood, though, so we trudged on. I wished I had my camera with me. Smooth, freshly fallen snow has a distinct calm

Just another manic Tuesday...

So, a little over a month ago I bought myself an external tablet for my laptop. It's a Genius brand tablet with a pretty big work space and it works very nicely. It came with a photo editing software from Corel that I tried to play around with but found very confusing as someone with no experience. So, I started trying to find some decent art freeware and after doing a bit of research, I stumbled on Artweaver . It's a very impressive piece of software which has all of the best drawing features of Photoshop (a large array of brush types, shapes, textures, etc) but in a much simpler to use form. Unlike GIMP, Artweaver gives you a straightforward setup that even a novice like myself can quickly figure out. So far, I'm really enjoying it and have been able to get started on my web comic. Hopefully, once I've made more than a dozen or so comics, I'm going to set up a website and start posting them. Yay! In other news, food! Yes, I made latkes twice so far this C
Ok, I was supposed to post by this past Sunday and didn't. Sorry to all of my avid readers! (All two of you.) Nothing very interesting has been going on. The challahs I baked a couple weeks ago came out delicious and I'm definitely going to make them again in a week or so. This time, though, I'm going to make them smaller so I can have more of them. In other news, my semester is soon to be over. I have my final next Thursday and today was my last day of class. Woot! Following this, I've got a few weeks with no school so I can hopefully get some more work hours in, or at least get some other things done in the free time. Then, on January 17th, it's off to Israel for my brother's wedding (which will be in B'nai B'rak on January 25th.) I went to the dress gemach last night and found a really gorgeous purple dress that looks very nice on me. I just need to get it taken out in the shoulders so I can move my arms. I was surprised how quickly and eas

A Baking Day

I woke up this morning in the mood to bake. At first, I was just planning to make some pizza dough from a recipe my friend Talia gave me, then I decided I would take this Sunday afternoon to make a large batch of challahs made from the simple recipe in Taste of Challah by Tamar Ansh. I also thought this would be a great opportunity to use my mixer, since it's supposed to be able to handle serious dough. Long story short, it couldn't. It did well doing the initial mixing, but as I added more flour, the machine suddenly stopped. It overheated. While on "Stir." Granted, this recipe uses 16 cups of flour. Still, I had more confidence in my mixer than it deserved and I feel let down. Oh well. I had to do the rest of the kneading by hand, which wasn't so bad because I had my trusty assistant, Diana, to help out. She was an immense help after everything had risen and we needed to roll out the dough. She's quite skilled with a rolling pin, if I do say so.

More Food and More Shopping

This past week was a pretty nice one. It had the usual work and school, but it also had the Macy's one day sale, which I went to Wednesday night with my mother. I originally went to look for a new coat. Now, I happen to own a large number of sweatshirts, and I own 3 coats and a rain jacket, all of which are incorrectly sized. Well, one coat fits, but it's falling apart (though honestly, I bought it when I was in 9th grade for about $10, so I'm surprised how long it did hold up). The second coat is huge, and is actually a men's puffy coat that I bought in Israel. It's actually a really nice coat, but style-wise, it's not really my thing anymore. The third coat is my shabbos coat and it's really long and really warm and bulky. The rain coat is way too big. So, I got this new coat on sale, and I'm loving it. It fits properly, it goes down to my knees and it's feminine and waterproof. All the best qualities of a good coat. Anyway, naturally, I

Some more food...

So this shabbos Yaakov and I decided to have a quiet dinner at home. Lately, I've gotten really into having fresh salmon as a friday night main course. It simplifies the meal by removing the "fish course," it's still a chashuva food (at least in our opinion), it's tasty and also it's light and doesn't leave us feeling stuffed and sick. This week I used a recipe from my favorite cookbook, "Quick and Kosher," for Dijon Ginger Salmon (or something to that effect). It's very easy to make, like all the recipes in that fabulous cookbook, and was delicious. I also made some chicken soup and then, because I was too lazy to make matzah balls, I threw in some deli ends to give it more substance. Now, this is an idea I got from a friend's mother who did it when we came over once shortly before Pesach because she didn't feel like buying the necessary ingredients to make kreplach. The only real downside to using deli ends is that it tends t

Shopping, Beef and Nostalgia

Well, it's that time of the week again, so here goes. DISCLAIMER: If you have little to no interest in hearing the details of my shopping trip from today, don't read the next paragraph! As good fortune would have it, due to the federal holiday my second job of the day was closed so I got to take some me time. First my parents took Yaakov, Alan and myself out to lunch, then I went shopping with my mother, which is something I rarely get to do. Now, I love spending time with my mom, especially when we're shopping because occasionally she buys me things. ^_^ Today, I got a nice pair of suede boots from Nordstrom Rack (the only kind of Nordstrom I shop in). I looked at some really cute and REALLY on sale dresses at Macy's too, but they didn't work out. :( Now on to cooking details: I currently have some beef in the oven. Several months ago I was buying meat and my dad was in the store at the same time and suggested that I buy large quantities of flanken because i
Today has been one of those days. I woke up bright and late to get ready for class and decided I was in a pretty mood, so I got a little dressed up. Then, I walk out to my car and discover, to my shock and amazement, that the driver's side window is broken. Well, it took a couple of minutes for me to process, but once I did I managed to get my jaw closed and call Yaakov and my dad. Yaakov remembered that the lawn mowers had been working when he left to walk to shul, and suggested that one of them had done it. My dad came right over so I could take his car to school and, being the wonderful daddy that he is, also took care of filing a police report and calling the building management. Well, it turns out the management had a message from the landscaping company saying that they had accidentally broken someone's window, so we assume that would be mine. So that's the good news, I guess, that someone else will pay for the repairs. The bad news is, I don't know when t

A Shidduch Story

So as some of you may know by now and many may not, my brother Shmuel (Jeff) just got engaged last week. Everything was very sudden, of course, because they were only dating for about 3 or 4 weeks, but my family decided we wanted to go to Dallas (where the girl, Mya, is from) so that we could meet Mya and her family, as well as to be there for the engagement. For starters, I can't say enough good things about this family (just ask Yaakov!), and Dallas is a beautiful community. Mya is a wonderful girl and is definitely a perfect shidduch for Shmuel. The weekend was just a blast and I'm really glad we went. I"yH, the wedding should be in Israel, hopefully sometime around mid-January, though we don't have a date pinned down just yet. Now here comes a fun story that I probably shouldn't share because I know that I'll never live it down, but here goes: My parents decided to extend their trip in Dallas, but my brother Alan and I returned to Baltimore today as pe
As anyone who really knows me would know, I'm not exactly the dieting type. Unfortunately, while this may have been okay when I was 16, it's now starting to backfire. While I don't generally feel that weight is a big deal, it definitely becomes a big deal when it reaches the point where you may need to purchase a new wardrobe. That's just a lot of money I don't have. So, I'm going on a diet to try to lose about 10 pounds. A good friend of mine turned me on to the website dailyburn.com, so I'm going to give it a try. We'll see how it goes. In other news, my birthday has come and gone. It was very nice. My sister treated me to some items from Lush, my mother bought me a pretty necklace, Diana took me out to breakfast and my parents took me out to dinner. Aka--I spent the whole day eating and shopping. Pretty nice, huh? Anyway, that's my life in a nutshell. Nothing else of note at the moment...(cough cough)...

Yom Huledet Sameach!

Tonight is my birthday according to the Jewish lunar calendar. Oh boy! Esrim v'Shtayim Shanim! My English birthday, on the other hand, is this upcoming Sunday. You know, just a reminder for any of you thinking of buying me presents. ^_^ I've already detailed my gift guidelines in previous posts , but you know, I accept gifts in all forms all times of year. :oD Okay, so...that's all!

Post-Yom Tov Chatter

So, I made those cookies and they were received with rave reviews. Yay! NExt time, I'll bake them a little less to make them chewier, but otherwise this is my official cookie recipe. In other news, my yom tov was nice... Wow...my life is pretty boring, huh? I've been listening to a lot of music lately, through pandora where I've made a chick station (Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Sara McLaughlin, Alanis Morrisette, and...I recently added Amy Winehouse to the mix. We'll see how that goes...) Thanks to Alexandra for turning me on to Fiona Apple a few years back! I really like her style. Tori Amos I liked for a while, but I'm starting to like her less and less as I'm realizing that her lyrics only SOUND deep. So...yeah...that's all I've got right now. Sorry to disappoint. :)

Cookies!

I've been hunting for cookie recipes lately. The cookies I made on Friday for yom tov came out..well...not great. So, I'm looking elsewhere. What I want to know how to make are chewy sugar cookies. I am NOT a fan of the crunchy sugar cookie. I mean, they taste good enough, but they're so dry and boring. In my humble opinion, all cookies should be moist and chewy. End of discussion. So I'm on the hunt. I just found a recipe for sugar drop cookies, and I'm going to give those a try. If they come out good enough, my hunt will be over. But, ya know, I'm always up for recipes. The recipe for the cookies I'm about to try are here: http://www.kosherinthekitch.com/?p=100 In other news, my birthday is 19 days away, and I would like to remind everyone of my present guidelines: 1) I like shiny things. It doesn't need to be expensive. just shiny. 2) I've been seriously thinking about getting an external tablet that I can use to draw a webcomic. Thi

A Little Help From All Y'all Techies Out There?

So, here's the deal: I'm pretty sure I've got some nasty viruses on my computer. I say this because I can't install new software on my computer, including a new anti-virus. (I've been running AVG and wanted to install Comodo, but couldn't. I think it's a problem with my windows installer.) Anyway, I've been trying to find a WIndows XP Media Center Edition restore disc that will work with my nice little product key on the bottom of my lappy. While I'm doing that, I thought about Ubuntu. Here's where you guys come in. I'm just curious to know what people think about solely using Ubuntu, as opposed to running it alongside Windows. Aka -- is it a bad idea for me to replace Windows with Ubuntu? Any advice would be helpful. :)

Cooking Magic: The Gathering

I've been in a cooking mood lately, and this puts me in a recipe gathering mood. So that's what I've been doing in my (not actually) free time, when I should be writing papers and reading textbooks, etc. Anyway, with all this gathering and bookmarking and saving to word files, it occurred to me that the best way to organize/gather/make useful these recipes would be to compile them into a cookbook of sorts. Obviously, it wouldn't be publication, because I'm using other people's recipes and not keeping very good track of where I'm getting them from, but it would be an awesome compendium for personal use, and if I can afford it, I might be willing to make some copies for friends. Currently, I'm still in the gathering phase, obviously. But I've got 6 word documents right now (one for chicken, one for beef, one for salads, etc.), each with about 20 or so pages. I still need to hunt down more interesting looking recipes, sift through the ones I've

No news is good news, right?

I have nothing exciting to report for this week. Rosh Hashana was nice, though I was disappointed with those apple cobbler thingies. They were undercooked even after being baked longer than the recipe called for. After yom tov, when I microwaved them they were fine, though. Other than that, the food was great. The honey chicken was my favorite. :) Anyway, I've been feeling sick the past few days so I'm taking it easy this shabbos and letting my dad cook for me. Yay! Good shabbos and a gemar chasima tovah!

Another Pre-Rosh Hashana Blogging---About FOOOOD

Hey everybody! I'm back for a quickie to let you know all about my cooking adventures for the day. About a month ago, I picked up the OU's cooking magazine (they give them out free!) and I was inspired by some of the recipes. So, here's what I made: Applesauce Cake: It was the easiest thing in the world. Measure ingredients into mixer bowl. Put bowl into mixer. Turn mixer on. Watch as mixer magically combines all ingredients to perfection. Pour into bundt pan. Bake. I've been pushing off using my beautiful Kitchenaid mixer for over 2 years and I finally found a recipe which seemed worthy. So there it is. I'm so sorry I didn't use it earlier. This baby is amazing. Apple Cranberry Cobbler...in baked apples!: Another easy breezy recipe! Core apples, dash in some cinnamon, fill with cranberry sauce, top with crumbles, bake. The only complication here is that I impaled my hand while coring the apples. And by impale, I mean, sliced. It looked deep at fi

A Pre-Rosh Hashana Blogging

Well, seeing as I owe you guys a posting this week and it being the week before Rosh Hashana, I guess that will have to be my topic. So how is it that after 21 years of being an Orthodox Jew, facing Rosh Hashana year after year, it continues to be such a daunting, intimidating, invigorating and yet, ultimately forgettable experience? You probably know what I mean. Every year, you stand up there in shul and pray you're little heart out, realizing all the things you've done horribly wrong this year and just KNOWING that it is only by Hashem's good grace that you have heretofore been written and sealed for life. You feel the terror in the thought that this year, Hashem may have finally had enough. You bargain with Hashem, making promise after promise that this year you WILL be better about tefillah, you WILL watch how you speak to and about people, and you WILL do more to distance yourself from whatever awful skeleton resides in your closet. All of these promises ferventl

Wasting my time? You betcha!

So, as all two of my avid readers are aware, I've been thinking about the possibility of doing a web-comic. Now, I don't want to give anything away just yet, but I've already started work on one that I think has a lot of potential. My key feature here is something that I have NEVER seen before in almost any medium: The normal lives of normal people, who happen to be Orthodox Jews. What I mean by that is, my characters will be Orthodox Jews, the content will be kosher, but that won't be the focal point. I will try not to resort to cheesy Jew jokes ("Huuuurrrrr, I'm so cheap cuz I'm Joo-ish!") or hideous Yiddish puns. It will not be a social commentary on the religious community or on Judaism in general. In fact, it will give little-to-no attention to the Jewishness of the characters beyond what would be normal in the day to day life of a Jewish teen (based on me as a teen, of course...only more kosher.) I've already drawn up my first comic and

Weekly Life Update

Well, well. Hasn't this week been an exciting one? I think so. First week of classes...er...class. This semester is the first one in which I will be going part time. But, not just normal part time. I'm only taking one class this semester. Don't bother asking why, just suffice it to say that it's a loooong story. It feels weird. It feels like I'm still on break. I had no trouble whatsoever reading the first chapter of my book this week. I don't feel ridiculous amounts of anxiety as I compare syllabii and realize that I have 3 papers due on one day...and that day is right after yom kippur. (as has happened to me in the past) No, this semester I received a syllabus with no dates, so who knows when tests and papers will suddenly be jumped on us. Oh boy! In addition, my teacher bears a striking resemblance to Rush Limbaugh and shares many of his personality traits as well, from what I can tell. Isn't this going to be an interesting semester... Have

A Post For Post's Sake

Well, would you look at this? An arbitrary posting just because I've promised at least one per week. I'm keeping my promises, you see. Right now, I'm listening to music (currently playing Porcupine Tree. Don't worry, I haven't heard of them either.) and playing Settlers of Catan online. I'm gearing up for school starting in a week. I have one class (for various reasons), but it's "Physiological Psychology" and let me tell you, that doesn't sound like a Sara friendly class. I'm just praying there won't be any papers. Actually, I kind of hope there is one, because I'm likely to do poorly on the tests and I'd like to have something to redeem me. Oh, I will be paying attention to extra credit opportunities. (song just changed to Unwritten Law - Rest of My Life) Well, that's all you're getting for now. If anything exciting happens (and I doubt it will...I hope nothing exciting happens, anyway...unless it's good

A Foray Into Capitalism

Sometime back in 2004 when I was working at Tov Pizza, I made a little doodle in my notebook. (I always brought a notebook to work so that I'd have something to do during slow hours.) It started off as an attempt to draw a bunny, but when I found I couldn't figure out the lower half, I just put the bunny into a box. That's where it all began, contrary to popular belief. (Popular belief being what I told everyone in the first post to this blog over 2 years ago.) Well, over the years, Bunny Box has evolved and become my little symbol. I use it to sign birthday cards, I use it in my Purim shaloch manot, and I've used it for usernames on many a website. There is, however, a step I've been very hesitant to take with it: Capitalism. People have often suggested that I make T-shirts or other merchandise out of the Bunny Box and convince people to buy it. Here's the problem I've had: What makes an inside-joke worth buying if you're not on the inside. So h

A Day in The Graveyard

Today my family got together to attend my grandfather's unveiling. He passed away somewhat suddenly last year right before the holiday of Sukkot from a stroke which he had on Yom Kippur (following a stroke he'd had on Rosh Hashana ). His death struck us all, not only because of its shocking tragedy, but its timing as well, and the many little things which surrounded it. (At one point on Yom Kippur, my mother was praying to Hashem just to let him live long enough for her to see him and say goodbye before he went. We found out after Yom Kippur that it was right around this time that he woke up and indicated that he wanted the volume on the TV turned up. My mother left to see him in Florida the next day and left a few days later to come home. He died just after she boarded her plane home.) Make what you will of all of it amongst yourselves, but for our family it was very big. But this post isn't really about my grandfather, wonderful man though he was. This is actual

Fudge!

Here's a little tidbit many of you may not know about me: when I was growing up, my parents gave mixed signals about kashrus. My father was pretty strict, but my mother tended to be a little lax. She would take me to non-kosher restaurants, like Hard Rock Cafe and Olive Garden, where we would both get salads. My mother would insist the croutons, eggs, tuna and parmesean cheese were okay. In addition to this, my mother used to buy Fudgery fudge. She had once looked at the bag of fudge mix that they use and had determined that it contained nothing inherently non-kosher. (I suppose that means it contained no lard or gelatin). Well, as a kid, I loved that fudge. In fact, it downright broke my heart when I realized it wasn't technically kosher. Ever since then, I've basically never had fudge again. All that is getting ready to change. I finally worked up the courage to consider, maybe, possibly, at some point in the future, making homemade fudge. It doesn't sound

A Midsummer Night's Merchant

I've just returned from opening night of the Jewish Theater Workshop's (JTW) production of the Merchant of Venice. I'm not a theater critic, so I'm not going to do any deep analysis, but here are some overall thoughts: This was some impressive Shakespeare, for something being performed at the JCC. Of course, Becky Hope Seidman was fantastic in the role of Portia, and Isaac Kotlicky was pretty good in the role of whatsisface. But what it comes down to is that it was a really good show. For anyone who missed it tonight but is still interested, there are two showings this Sunday, one at 2 and another at 7, and another two showings on Monday and Tuesday at 7.

Rise and Shine, Sleepyhead!

I hate mornings. Maybe if I were the type of person who was into morning jogs I would feel differently, but I'm not, so I don't. Morning is the time of day where I'm ripped from my bed and my stomach has its vengeance for everything I did the day before. And don't even talk to me about breakfast--worst meal of the day! Cereal and coffee, sometimes a vitamin enriched milkshake, sometimes (if I'm really lucky) there's toast and eggs. Breakfast has nothing on lunch. I <3 lunch. Lunch=Sandwiches=Best Meal Ever. Don't get me wrong--dinner has its moments. I mean, if you've got access to some good pasta or hearty take-out, you've got it made. But for those of us surviving on leftovers and getting to 6 every night going, "What's for dinner?" because you haven't adjusted to the fact that if you want dinner YOU have to make it, dinner is simply a disappointment. "Oh...pasta with cheese again, I guess..." "No, but t

Another Shabbos is Coming

Well, I yet again feel the urge to share my shabbos cooking escapades with one and all, so here they are: Today, I'm making a simple dinner for Yaakov and myself. I've made a gefilte fish loaf with hot sauce and ground red pepper and other spicy things to give it some serious kick. I've got two challahs baking in the oven, which we can only pray come out as fluffy and tasty as they did last week. I used the same recipe, only this time I added a teaspoon of vanilla (and took out a two teaspoons of water) in the hopes to make it a little cakier. However, vanilla doesn't seem to do well in the bread maker, so it came out like a thick batter, and I had to add flour and run it through the dough setting again. Obviously, this led to it doing a ridiculous amount of rising, so I'm hoping that won't make the challah too...whatever too much rising does to it. Finally, when the challah comes out, I'm putting in some flanken which will be on a "bed" of po

Ohmigod Ohmigod Ohmigod Ohmigod!!!

Almost died watching this episode. It was the suspense what did it... http://www.hulu.com/watch/124/kitchen-confidential-rabbit-test#x-0,vepisode,1 Cute fluffy bunnies are NOT DINNER! And anyway, they're not kosher. Ever noticed that the only animals which are kosher are incredibly NOT CUTE. Ewww...cows...

Some Status Updates For You

If I were on facebook doing status updates today, this is what they would look like: Sara... ...had pancakes for breakfast (a la Yaakov, thank you sweety!) ...made some important phone calls ...is working...again... ...is in pain from her PE class yesterday and can barely walk. ...has officially been married TWO YEARS! Happy Twa-niversary Yaakov! :) ^_^ :D F'reals! But because tonight is Tisha B'av, we'll be celebrating our Hebrew anniversary next Tuesday instead. Presents welcome. Have a meaningful and easy fast, and remember to mourn hard.

How Scared Should I Be?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been encountering a lot of people who are going into panic mindsets over the current situations in the world. These people are sure that we're headed to World War III and a second holocaust, and they've even assigned each of our current world leaders roles, matching them up to the leaders present in the 1930's and 1940's. "So and so is the new Hitler, and this guy is Neville Chamberlain, and that guy is FDR (who, just in case you didn't know, ignored the situation in Europe as long as he could, even once he knew what was going on)." There's talk of nuclear warfare against Israel and worldwide anti-semitism, there's fear of a complete economic meltdown, universal Muslim takeovers, and high cholesterol. And with all that fear going around and the people at Fox News fanning the flames, there are also an immense number of people who don't seem concerned enough. I've heard these people comp

Am I Really This Desperate?

This is going to be a really boring post, because I just had the urge (most likely an old facebook habit) to share some completely insignificant information: what I'm going to cook today. So, here goes... I've had a bread machine since I got married two years ago, and every time I've tried to use it for my old challah recipe, it fails me miserably. However, I just found a recipe for bread machine challah in the Kosher Palate (sp?) and I've decided to try it today. I also have a brand spankin' new food processor that I got as a "free" prize for buying way too many raffle tickets for the Oorah auction. It looks and feels high quality, but having never had a food processor before, I don't really know how to tell. Well, today I'm going to break it in to make a potato kugel for third meal. Yay! Finally, I've been drafted to make dessert for Izzy and Karen's potluck dinner tonight, so I'm going a little boring because baking really isn'

Day 1 of a Facebook Free Life

I've now spent nearly 12 hours as a recluse. I'm getting the shakes. Food has lost all taste. I'm hungrily eying my neighbor's dog. I've started speaking to my stuffed rabbits...Oh, wait...I've been doing that for years. All told, it's not so bad so far, and I imagine it will only get easier as the days go on. I have to admit, I wasn't at all prepared for the extent to which people would be shaken by my decision to leave facebook. I was prepared for the comments on my status about how I shouldn't leave, because how could we possibly keep in touch!? What I wasn't prepared for was going to a party and having everyone there greet me with, "Why are you deleting your facebook?" Suddenly, I began to feel like some kind of social freak. After all, why WAS I leaving facebook? I have to admit, most of my reasons may not make sense to other people. Everyone assumes I'm leaving because of addiction or a need for privacy, but that'

The First Hour

Well, I decided to post this when I found myself compulsively starting to type "facebook.com" into the address bar on my browser. I'm already starting to get the sweats...or maybe my ac just isn't turned up high enough. Either way, there's a long road to recovery ahead.

A Note About The Unknown

Tomorrow I embark upon a journey--a journey into a world which is largely unknown in today's world. Tomorrow, I delete my facebook account. What lies ahead is anyone's guess. Who knows how many friends will go the extra click to keep in touch with me via email. I know it may seem a lot to ask, but I know that they are strong people, and I have faith in them. This blog is being reinstated to help my friends cope with the loss of my status updates. I'll try to write on here about once a week, even if all I have to say is, "Work, school, life." Well, wish me luck on my journeys. And don't forget to keep in touch. :)