Then I read about a crazy banana fruit lady. It’s bananas. Obviously eating all fruit is not a good idea long-term, but at first it seemed like there was such positive response. That’s because they moderate negative comments, duh, so they can keep perpetuating myths to make mo’ money!

Then someone mentioned it being like a cult technique. Then I decided to research those. The awesome (there are two very different meanings of this word, and I’m referring to both of them) thing about the internet being the source of research for many (instead of real books, studies, and actually physically researching something), is that you end up with a whole bunch of anything. If you look at the popular stuff, you assume it’s going to be solid, and true, right? No. What about Fox News?!

Ha.

Anyway. I was thinking about cults and got scared because I am easily influenced by other people, and I can see the validity to lots of points of views on things. I used to even be gullible!

Take a look at this, me responding to a well-written overview of cults and tactics used by them (they so smartly did not write them all out so as not to be associated with cult-propelling-propaganda)

Luckily though, I am intelligent enough not to fall for something like that. I even got a little nervous to write about this, thinking admitting to it publicly might make me fall for it. Well, I already sort of have been cultivated (haha) in my life before.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta! Meditation time.

Hmm…better stick to product reviews and stuff on this blog, I’m gettin’ too weird with my theories.

In the age of pics or it didn’t happen, I realize I have been neglecting including original photos in posts (everyone loves a little bit of tasteful that). Here we go:

Bone marrow delight montage to come…Ok, MS Paint and a few other programs labor of lovetime later, here it is:

I am having the dandiest of times, eating this whole food, enjoying the daylight out of this great company (literally- they almost go down for sleepytimes when the sun goes down), and avoiding feeding my facebook addiction. Words with friends addiction is an enabler to my FB addiction.

Anyway, it’s all good. Great. Great in the hood. Here’s a visual on some of the reads:

I just got giddy off all this excitement. Drat. Thought maybe I’d also find a window of tiredness to hop on sometime around 10. Looks like I’m fueled to go for another few hours. Maybe I’ll get back to offline writing, and sprinkle in a little more picture editing. So much happened today, because I used the computer so little. Ha.

That said, I can work tomorrow and just get it done, then for the weekend work I can isolate that to one particular time or area (and maybe I’ll go back home Sunday and do it then). I’ve already made some decisions though. I am so happy and so grateful to be here, to be offered such a beautiful home/view/area, with wonderful company, and a delicious meal that makes me excited to see what else we’ll enjoy gastronomically, and did I say it’s wonderful already?!

1) I am not going to feed my Words with Friends addiction. Furthermore, W.W.F. is tied to facebook, that guy, and while I did sign on to post my brag-update, I will not go on for the rest of the time. (Well, if I can help it, and I am pretty good about discipline while not in my usual homestead environment).

2) That last part leads me to remember that I spend way too much time, inside, in my apartment, and even just sitting at my computer, for FAR too long. Need to remember to do less of that. No, me not blogging is not because I have not been wasting lots of time on the computer. I definitely have been doing that.

3) It is so nice to get away. I had a rough last year. Like, most of 2011 was AWFUL. And no, I’m not an over-exaggerator. Just check my posts out from last year. You’ll see. Any time I’ve traveled recently has been for awful, terrible things.

4) I just thought that I was hearing noises, in this foreign house, and thinking “Uh oh, maybe it’s a ghost, been having a lot of dreams/thoughts about ghosts lately.” But I think they mentioned little creatures. It is a farm. That’s funny. The creatures want to know what I’m up to. I’m not too scared of say, mice, but, if they crawl on me, well, let’s just say I don’t care for that.

5) I’m excited to relax, breathe nature, walk around, and possibly write a lot. Read and/or write. I’ve already done that, in renewing my vigor for posting (although the writing I really want to do will not be on the computy, for now), and I actually got read to! This couple trades off reading aloud to each other, and we were reading a fascinating book, more on that later. BOOM EDIT UPDATE (i.e. the more on that later prelude…may never get into the book, but, I will now provide info) It is called “Deep Nutrition” by Catherine and Luke Shanahan. Very interesting nutritional info and ideas, basically reminding us of how bad the “American” diet is.

In short (oh, wait, of course, I’m me, super wordy already and super long winded), I am VERY excited to be away on a vacation, and I did make a point to come earlier (before the weekend), so I can have a good amount of time to really spend, get comfy, and thank my lucky stars (will probably see lots of stars) that all this exists.

I am so fortunate. I am so happy I finally did this too. Always worse to beat yourself up about stuff you don’t do, because it doesn’t help you do it faster (at least not for me). Planning. Yippee.

Recently discovered Ghetto Hikes, where a 28 y.o. guy takes urban kids on nature excursions, and just notes the awesome things they say.

This reminds me of some good teaching moments, funny quotes, interesting observations, etc…but even better because it is NATURE.

I’m so excited about my new job (going to pursue this). Or if not this, then maybe I could see about if that guy’s married or not, and if not, just join along for some fun, and maybe a marriage or somethin’ like dat.

TLDR; CHECK OUT GHETTOHIKES.COM IT’S HILARIOUS AND AFFIRMATIVE OF THE AWESOMENESS NATURE BRINGS OUT IN EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY KIDZ.

I got very addicted. Playing many games at a time, often having to wait a while for anyone else to play a turn (and thus wasting even more time). But my addiction could be worse, ala Alec Baldwin getting kicked off a plan while refusing to stop playing it (one of my favorite lines from the article is about how W.W.F. is more popular because it is not Scrabble, and so “this gives it a much broader audience beyond word nerds — or rather, it turns players into word nerds so gradually, they barely realize it’s happening.”).

On the flipside, however, there is a benefit. And yes, I did have to recently resort to my first game with strangers (as I’d been waiting for several hours and knew everyone was asleep). BUT! Words with Friends Helped Save a Man’s Life! And it could maybe help me too if I was choking on food, I could still type for help!

My advice? Don’t start playing, unless you’re ready to get real addicted.

b) it’s good that i’m posting about this, and not something about my personal life, as i have been and wanted to, but instead i’ll focus on the majesty of stars

c) so maybe i’m late for announcing this to all my devoted blog readers, but, follow this link for the dates of all the meteor showers in 2012!

d) i may or may not figure out what direction to go with my posting…whateva, one of my real-life resolutions is to be nice to myself. that said, it would help get more interest raised if i could focus.

d.2)
A little more info on the Quadrantids

e) in conclusion: if you can’t see the meteor shower tonight (like i was upset about not being able to see the latest lunar eclipse- check out space.com’s cool photos), you can learn more about watching it from this good mashable’s quadrantids followings and stuff! (actual grainy video is from nasa)

f) if i had a sweet camera and complete darkness, i’d take pics and/or vids for you, but, i kind of have a cold, so it’ll be hard enough risking braving the cold!

and p.s. g) here’s one more cool site with a map laying out what the constellations look like and where to look for meteors. a good help out…thanks travis brown from spacedex.com! (see below for pic, check out site in the future!)

At first it was really hard. Immensely difficult. But I’ve learned a few things. I’ll talk about them in another post, but, knowing that I’ll have the rest of my life to grieve/deal with this, I cannot always be bad. I chose not to go the way of abysmal depression and despair, and to let my emotions come and go as necessary, to be honest with myself, and occasionally with those around me

But I find a lot of things in life have to do with your attitude. And that’s been said many times before, but it’s always good to have a reminder, as lasting change takes consistent effort. And I’d like to share this as perhaps someone searching for grief will come across it, and feel some resonance with what I’m saying. No, I’m not anywhere near “getting over it” or “moving on” (which I read one author said it seems that society gives you sympathy and allows grieving for about 6 weeks). I still think about her several times a day, cry almost daily, and occasionally have a memory or something that gives me the urge to cry and I don’t if I’m in public or whatever. But I debated taking anti-depressants, and decided not to as they a) would certainly give me crazy side effects (especially because of my point of view on prescription medications), and b) they would only mask the feelings/pain temporarily, and may even make it difficult to feel appropriate responses to whatever situation I’m in. I was only considering them if I had gotten into an unreasonable amount of depression, and as the weeks have gone by (soon it will be two months), I feel better more and more of the time.

Back to the attitude thing. I do believe in the law of attraction. My life has taken quite a few different turns recently, and some major changes have happened (other than my sister’s death). I could easily, and justifiably, say I’m doing horribly, and complain or, more appropriately, be grumpy. But I find myself happy, or in a positive mental state, a surprising amount of the time.

And I have another job potential that I’m REALLY excited about. I’m glad not to be teaching because I couldn’t imagine being “on” all the time, plus the grading and planning in the evenings. It is also summer. Who knows, I will probably go back to teaching at some point, but for now I want to try out jobs that give me more freedom, and see if I can do more with my creative interests.

In having a good attitude, I don’t waste as much time, I feel better (and it’s a positive cycle), and sometimes I just feel that my sister is looking down on me, wishing me well and hoping that I am happy. And laughing. We always made each other laugh, a lot.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -Shakespeare

That guy knew what he was talking about!

It was for an H&M commercial, and Erykah Badu is covering this Muddy Waters’ blues song “Mannish Boy”.

The songs ‘aight, Erykah’s great, I’ve been missin’ listenin’ to her. Now I’ll go research what she’s been up to.

It’s a 2-part video, here is the conclusion:

He got the “System Tool” virus.

It disabled his anti-virus, and wouldn’t allow any similar programs to open, shows scary messages threatening that you have a lot of viruses on your computer, prompts you to do a fake scan, and then it tries to get you to buy the premium to remove them. And it’s a…dundundundun…trojan virus!

I used some website or other that gave good instructions on how to get rid of it (I’m sure you could google to get your own).

Long story short,

Restart your computer, but hit f8 at startup so you can go into “safe mode with networking” and then download the malwarebytes anti-malware tool.

I was at first wary of the malwarebytes anti-malware I’d have to install once in safe mode, but after reading about it on download’s review, I felt better.

It did as it promised, and found 5 infected viruses, 3 trojan, 2 rogue, and it removed them.

Fast shipping, would buy from again!

Err…meaning, I am pleased with the results. It was nice to be able to do that, I felt empowered, as a woman, you know. Well, at least, somewhat tech-savvy.

Happy New Year!