101 in 1001: Nicole creates yet another blog, and yet another list.

#94: No french fires for two whole months!

2009-01-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

I did it! I finished my personal challenge of not eating french fries for two straight months.

French fries aren't my favorite food, but they are up there. I found it to be a pretty hard thing to avoid all-together. I think I could definitely limit my fry-intake, but cutting them out is a definite no-no. I got the idea cuz Nicole (Nathan's sister) doesn't eat fries anymore (at all) because of a challenge she did back in high school. I think she's crazy because boy are fries delicious.

Not only did I manage to avoid the awesome seasoned potato wedges... but I avoided them at the most difficult of places. We took a family sibling trip to Disneyland (can now be dubbed "annual Disneyland trip"), and on the way down we stopped at Red Robin! WTF! THE hardest place to avoid the damned fries because of the delicious seasoning. But I came through and ordered a quesadilla so I didn't even need to avoid a fry substitute. On the drive home we stopped at In 'n' Out Burger. Holy mother! Another tasty fry choice destination. I managed to eat my cheese burger sans fries and escaped the trip without breaking my challenge. I knew if I made it through that trip that I could make it to January 2.

So on January 3, Nathan and I hit up the Red Robin near our house where I dined on the most yummy seasoned potato wedges ever.

Next fry binge: The Hat chili fries! (Guess I'll have to wait 'til we go back down to Pasadena)

#18: My writing in 2008.

2009-01-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

So this year I published 35 articles. My goal was to publish 5-10 articles a month, which looks like I was able to meet! Sadly, none of them were paid articles, but that's still pretty awesome. Looks like I'll have to work more in 2009 to get the paid article part of my list taken care of.

I am going to try and update this more this weekend so what I have really accomplished since the start of my list. I hope it will encourage my sister to update her list as well, after all, this was all her idea!

More updates to come...

#18: Murs: a rapper with a heart of gold. ;D

2008-10-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Did another write-up for Better Propaganda. They are posting their top 100 artists & albums of the decade, one day at a time, and I did the blurb about Murs' 3:16: The 9th Edition. Check it out.

And check this out too:

#27: Another ethical dilemma from Jodi Picoult that drags you in and sucks you under.

2008-10-06T09:26:00.001-07:00

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another Picoult novel... much in the same of all her others. OK, so I've only read My Sister's Keeper in addition to this one, but I imagine they follow similar themes of legal/medical ethical dilemmas. Not saying that's a bad thing as I'm easily sucked into her stories and mostly her means of story-telling/format. Short chapters told by different characters in the story makes for a very easy and pleasurable read. I was super attached to everyone in Change of Heart and as predicted by me, found myself crying at the end and throughout the story. Definitely recommend.

View all my reviews.

#27: More magic, female heroines and beautiful drawings for your graphic novel loving ass!

2008-10-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Amulet: Book 1: The Stone Keeper by Kazu Kibuishi

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished Amulet: Book 1: The Stone Keeper and I want moooooooore! I bought this at Comic Con this year, after it was recommended by my friend Nicole. She knows the artist/author and he signed it with a cute little bunny drawing! Any way, GREAT! adventure/fantasy graphic novel series... and I heard it's already being optioned for a movie. I am super happy to see another female heroine in the lead role, so the little girl inside of me jumps for joy and longs for the days of having silly adventures! The illustration and drawings are really great too! Quick read--I think I finished it in less than an hour. Definitely recommend.

View all my reviews.

#27: Flyte and those crazy Heaps!

2008-10-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

Flyte by Angie Sage

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Happy to report that I will be continuing on with the Heap series as book 2 (Flyte) was more successful than the first book. I'm now more attached to the characters in the story and the development being made. I don't wanna do the spoiler thing but you know it's a childrens/young adult series so no dark endings yet. Lots of fantasy odd characters and magical tales, with both male and female LEAD heroes! I thought of and compared the book to Harry Potter a lot less through this book, and also got through it a lot quicker. Can't wait to visit the library and pick up book 3.

View all my reviews.

#31: All Girl Summer Fun Band closes out the summer.

2008-09-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, the technically speaking the All Girl Summer Fun Band are not a "new" girl group to me. I've been following and enjoying them for many years now, bit they do have a new album out, so I'm counting this one in the #31 category.

I've thoroughly been enjoying their new one called Looking Into It. The three-piece Portland based girl group has been around for a decade now, and still manage to keep up the '60's girl-group infectious crunchy guitar pop.

Check out the video for "dear mr. and mrs. troublemaker" at the outhouse in los gatos (i was at this show!):

#18: Always have, and forever will be, a riot grrrl!

2008-09-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Another writing update, this one is for betterPropaganda and is a Kill Rock Stars label spotlight. Put in a little anecdote about my father and record shopping. Enjoy.

Also--have a longer update w/ photos planned, but in my recent trip to Seattle I visited the Experience Music Project which had a nice exhibit section on Kill Rock Star.

#41: Tip #1 to avoid library late fees: renew your books.

2008-09-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, duh. It's that simple. So any way, Nathan and I went to the library a week or so again and picked out loads of books, some cds and one tv dvd collection (Andy Griffith for Nathan). We got lots of good stuff and I'm always pretty impressed with the cd's that the libraries have. I found a neat instrumental collection of Burt Bacharach songs that I've been using for my radio show. Now to get to those books...

#18: Shugo Tokumaru is a mad scientist who creates beautiful music!

2008-09-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

Another review done for this month. This one is written about Japanese artist Shugo Tokumaru, for his album, Exit. The review can be found on the Evolution of Media website, or linkage here! I should have a couple more writing tidbits in the next day or two, I've just been so busy haven't had as much time as I would like to write. Still meeting my monthly quota though! Check out the video below for more Tokumaru goodness.

Shugo Tokumaru- "Parachute" [my favorite song from the album].

#18: Mr. Meeble, meet Obi Best.

2008-08-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

Two new reviews published this week on Evolution of Media. One is for Mr. Meeble's album, Never Trust the Chinese, and the other one is for the darling record from Obi Best, Capades. Enjoy.

#18: Polyvinyl records lights up my life! Label spotlight feature.

2008-08-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

So my record label spotlight on Illinois-based record label, Polyvinyl, is now up on betterPropaganda.com. YAY! Opening a Polyvinyl package while MD-ing at KSCU always brought a smile to my face. Anyway, enjoy the article here! You can also stream the 33-song playlist of bP's Polyvinyl catalog while you read! And if you like them, all the songs featured on bP are downloadable! Take that! Enjoy.

More writing posts to follow soon (hopefully!).

#1 and #2 and #5: A day to myself (mostly).

2008-08-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Admittedly some of this is double-posted on Girl in the Suburbs, "I didn't go into work today because the plumber needed to work on our shower and I had an optometrist appointment (did my contact lens fitting!). So I spent most of the day getting useful stuff done: grocery shopping--after developing the meal plan (#2-see photo), cleaning the bathrooms, giving the dog a bath, all that fun stuff. I also had spent part of the weekend working on putting up drapes in the kitchen because I H-A-T-E vertical blinds and the room was in desperate need of some color." Visit this here link for more photos.

I'm also cooking a baked penne pasta dinner for Nathan and I to have our weekly sit down dinner (#1 & #5)

#5: A little home-cooked breakfast to accompany nerdy Fantasy Football draft day!

2008-08-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

While Nathan stressed out over doing the live draft for his Fantasy Football League, I made us some breakfast. Egg scramble with ham and cheddar cheese (plus some hot sauce!), and some red country "fried" potatoes with garlic salt seasoning. Yum.

And since I've been trying to take more photos, here are a couple more. Me flippin' some potatoes and then Nathan making his picks, while a very bored Shorty patiently waits in the wings.

#11 and #28: A father and his two daughters visit record stores, chow down & hang with a dark knight.

2008-08-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Rachel (my sister) and I took my dad to San Francisco for the day. I drove him up in my new car (pictures coming!), and we met up with Rach who took the Bart & then Muni in from Sacramento (w/ a bit of driving too). My pops and I hit up Amoeba (#11) before Rach got there since she's not a huge record store fan.

We were all starving after so we went down to Squat & Gobble for some amazing breakfast. Did some more shopping (Giant Robot, various shops, Anarchist's Bookstore for the latest Cometbus), before heading over to the SoMa for The Dark Knight at the Metreon IMAX Theater (#28). Like most people have said, not much difference other than the buildings--which still looked really cool (and gave my dad vertigo), BUT it was worth the extra $$$ just to see it on such a gigantic screen.

After the movie my dad treated us out to an awesome dinner at John's Grill in Union Square. We had such a great time we didn't want to leave but there was a huge line out of the door waiting to go in. So we left, walked Rachie to the BART and went on our merry way.

Before dropping my dad back to his car we stopped at 7-Eleven for some water and I bought a scratcher that won me 10 bucks!

Was just one of those really great days.

#1 and #5: 'Sittin' down with Nathan for a nice Friday meal.

2008-08-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

I made curry chicken, whole-wheat couscous, and green beans (w/ almonds) for dinner. Nathan brought home our beer of the week, which was really delicious this week. He was surprised I'd bothered to cook on a Friday. The cheat was the curry chicken was marinated courtesy of Trader Joe's.

#50: Create a cleaning list... oh and clean.

2008-08-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

So this is kind of "in progress" since the cleaning list is only half the battle. Although I did three loads of laundry (as we are playing catch up), washed dishes and emptied the dishwasher! Woot Woot. Got this list from my sister and altered some things (since I'm sans kids). Nathan and I (right Nathan) are gonna try to keep up with the cleaning list together.

Day Zero.

2008-08-22T14:18:00.001-07:00

I know I'm crazy for starting another list and another blog, but after seeing my sister's list it inspired me to do the same. I will try to update this often (as well as keep of with my many other blogs), and I will also attempt to do so with photos. Wish me luck!

If anyone is interested, the website for the "official" 101 in 1001 days project is here!