Well, my recent escapades on the internet have let me to the topic of eco-friendly, green products and the like. A few days ago Michael and I were discussing making our own soap, and the benefits of it. We wound up reading about how soap is made, the differences between homemade and manufactured soap, etc. It was incredibly fascinating. Well, that spurred a whole series of ideas for me. Homemade soap? Why not try other homemade cosmetic items that are good for the body as well as the environment. I also had some ideas in the clothing industry that would be along similar lines.
Anyway, I think it would be something worthwhile to invest in, or at least see where it can go for various reasons. One, it's good for the planet. Two, more and more people are becoming aware of their footprint on the earth and want to lessen it. Three, larger companies are trying to find cheap ways of creating the same thing that are more directed towards fooling people with some fine print. So I think it would be worthwhile to create wholesome, organic products that are worth a consumer's money. Plus, it would be rather exciting experimenting with things like this.
This whole thing is very inspiring. I've found some rather amazing review sites that not only go into what organic beauty products are worthwhile, but also do entire entries on different ingredients that are no-nos as well as major yes's. It's pretty incredible the information that's out there. A lot of ingredients I discovered are also not that well known to a lot of the cosmetic industries, and have some pretty incredible qualities.
But the big thing that's come of this is to be much more aware of what you use on your body, especially cosmetics. There's some really neat make up out there that's 100% organic. So I'm definitely interested in seeing what can be created through my own means. Of course, all of this will happen once we're back from the desert. It's still nice to dream.
Michael grabbed a bunch of movies today from the local shop. Two dollars for a movie ain't bad, I must say. He recently stated in his head, "Man, I am married" while picking out a couple chick flicks for his wife. But he also assured me he's confident enough in his manhood to pick up a few girly flicks for me. He kept bringing home action film after shoot em up film, and I gently informed him that the next time he goes to the video store could he please pick up something a bit more...calm? Romantic comedy maybe? Please?
He gave me this funny look and I told him that it's not that I'm not enjoying the movies you're bringing home, I am as they are very good, but can we mix it up? He felt that was a valid argument. So now we watch a romantic comedy, mixed with a good drama, mixed with an action film. The rotation is quite nice, and covers all areas of film.
I think that about covers it for now. Back to my research and precalculus class, Hooray!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sudoku...JNT
Japanese number torture. It should be Sadoku, as is SADistic. Many people don't know this but sudoku is named after Japan's version of Guantanamo, a small island off of the S. coast of Japan used as a penal colony since WWII through a memorandum of understanding between the USMC and Japan. Torture, deprivation, exposure to the elements, harsh unforgiving treatment by overzealous brutal captors...all for"fun". I actually did a year there back in the 80's. We called it "the Rock" back then. The locals call it Okinawa, which I am certain means Sudoku in Japanese. I came to this realization as Rachel taught me the ins and outs of this diabolical # crossword puzzle that we do for "fun".
I hear that carcinogens are released from plastic bottles into the water they contain when they are exposed to sunlight. Our drinking water is palletized and sits in the sun non-stop from when it is made over at the H2O plant here on Victory until it is dispersed around the FOB or LSA and eventually brought into our room. At the least it is exposed for at least 2 solid weeks to the sun. I wonder if I have reason to be concerned?
We are good. We are planning our mid-tour leave and what we want to do when we return at the end of this trip. Rachel is dozing/healing...the A/C is off for generator maintenance...2 hours now every Wednesday...We had our first 24 hours together uninterrupted, so cool. Rachel is tearing through the Bible these last two weeks, before it was at a moderate pace of a chapter or two at a time, now it's by book... She is also bracketing our finances and plotting the $ future for us. Bill Gates look out.
Have I mentioned that She is NOT a morning person? I am.
Our neighbor is a burgeoning guitar maestro. Our CHU is a trailer box divided into 3 partitions by, I think high grade rice paper and paint, with 3 separate doors. We share a roof and floor and the audio from video games and action movies, unattended but faithful alarm clocks, ruminations of the best deodorant and socks, un-oiled hinge squeaks and the gentle rocking of the trailer on its gravel and sand foundation.
I have been working on some dance moves that I aim to dazzle Rachel and the tribe with at our next wedding...I give her a little hint and taste of them from time to time but I am holding back the good stuff...pizzazzle-zing...boo-wop-bop...bop..
Anyway, just wanted to catch up..do my part..Rachel's awake got to go...
I hear that carcinogens are released from plastic bottles into the water they contain when they are exposed to sunlight. Our drinking water is palletized and sits in the sun non-stop from when it is made over at the H2O plant here on Victory until it is dispersed around the FOB or LSA and eventually brought into our room. At the least it is exposed for at least 2 solid weeks to the sun. I wonder if I have reason to be concerned?
We are good. We are planning our mid-tour leave and what we want to do when we return at the end of this trip. Rachel is dozing/healing...the A/C is off for generator maintenance...2 hours now every Wednesday...We had our first 24 hours together uninterrupted, so cool. Rachel is tearing through the Bible these last two weeks, before it was at a moderate pace of a chapter or two at a time, now it's by book... She is also bracketing our finances and plotting the $ future for us. Bill Gates look out.
Have I mentioned that She is NOT a morning person? I am.
Our neighbor is a burgeoning guitar maestro. Our CHU is a trailer box divided into 3 partitions by, I think high grade rice paper and paint, with 3 separate doors. We share a roof and floor and the audio from video games and action movies, unattended but faithful alarm clocks, ruminations of the best deodorant and socks, un-oiled hinge squeaks and the gentle rocking of the trailer on its gravel and sand foundation.
I have been working on some dance moves that I aim to dazzle Rachel and the tribe with at our next wedding...I give her a little hint and taste of them from time to time but I am holding back the good stuff...pizzazzle-zing...boo-wop-bop...bop..
Anyway, just wanted to catch up..do my part..Rachel's awake got to go...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
This was a lovely weekend. Michael and I got to have almost the entire weekend together. Such a continued amount of time has been pretty rare due to conflicting schedules when we first arrived. With my thumb in its healing state we've gotten a lot more time together since Michael comes by with lunch and eats with me.
So as of late I've been waiting for my class to start. It's supposed to start tomorrow, but I have YET to see my book. I think they mailed it kind of late. So hopefully I'll get it in the next couple of days. My time I've decided to fill with blocks of different things so that I feel like I've accomplished something by the end of the day. I mix the fun with the necessary/not so fun so that I don't feel so overwhelmed by the necessary/not so fun and then just eventually skip it all and go straight to the fun. Hah!
Right now I look crazy because I've got on these rubber gloves over my hands that have been smeared with vaseline. I leave them on for about an hour and my hands are nice and silky. It's a pretty nice, cheap trick. With all of this dry air around, my cuticles have taken a beating, plus my thumb enjoys it too. I soak it in peroxide for awhile and then put my moisturizing gloves on and poof! My hands aren't dry, scaly things that create more issues than necessary. I also have a bad habit of picking at the skin around my nails, which drives Michael crazy. So now when I start to pick at them, I put on the vaseline and the gloves. When I started doing that Michael's response was: "I positively reinforce this course of action."
My thumb is healing along nicely. A whole ton of dead skin just peeled off today. I spent about an hour getting the stuff off and trying to cut it away neatly so that it's not so grizzly. It's actually beginning to look more and more normal. I'm just waiting for the nail to fall off. It came off completely from the injury, and they stitched it back on to protect the nail bed while it heals (the nail bed got about 4 stitches on it). It's ready to come off, but the scab underneath is what's holding it on right now.
I've been researching things I can learn how to make for sellable goods. Maybe on Etsy. Of course, all of this is speculation right now. Also, I'd like to make it kind of a side project. Hopefully it won't take on too much of a life of its own. Michael and I were reading about soap today.
One cool thing I found was a brides across america thing where various bridal retailers would hold various wedding dresses in their shop and give them away for free to brides/fiances who are either in the military or married/engaged to men in the military. Cool, huh? To qualify either you or your husband/fiance or both have to be on active duty statis and have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Yup. I think it's pretty awesome. And it might not work out for me, but it's just good to know it's an option and it's out there.
Anyway, I'm coasting along just fine. I'm pretty excited about my math class. I'm finding a new interest in school due to finding my way career-wise. So that's nice. I think next I'm going to take a psychology class. I've organized all of the different careers I'm interested in and combined which classes are mandatory for all of them and then when it starts to branch off. So that way I get the foundation completed so when I decide to specialize, that part is already knocked out of the way. Well, not much else going on. We're happy and getting through this adventure very well. So...TTFN, ta-ta-for-now!
So as of late I've been waiting for my class to start. It's supposed to start tomorrow, but I have YET to see my book. I think they mailed it kind of late. So hopefully I'll get it in the next couple of days. My time I've decided to fill with blocks of different things so that I feel like I've accomplished something by the end of the day. I mix the fun with the necessary/not so fun so that I don't feel so overwhelmed by the necessary/not so fun and then just eventually skip it all and go straight to the fun. Hah!
Right now I look crazy because I've got on these rubber gloves over my hands that have been smeared with vaseline. I leave them on for about an hour and my hands are nice and silky. It's a pretty nice, cheap trick. With all of this dry air around, my cuticles have taken a beating, plus my thumb enjoys it too. I soak it in peroxide for awhile and then put my moisturizing gloves on and poof! My hands aren't dry, scaly things that create more issues than necessary. I also have a bad habit of picking at the skin around my nails, which drives Michael crazy. So now when I start to pick at them, I put on the vaseline and the gloves. When I started doing that Michael's response was: "I positively reinforce this course of action."
My thumb is healing along nicely. A whole ton of dead skin just peeled off today. I spent about an hour getting the stuff off and trying to cut it away neatly so that it's not so grizzly. It's actually beginning to look more and more normal. I'm just waiting for the nail to fall off. It came off completely from the injury, and they stitched it back on to protect the nail bed while it heals (the nail bed got about 4 stitches on it). It's ready to come off, but the scab underneath is what's holding it on right now.
I've been researching things I can learn how to make for sellable goods. Maybe on Etsy. Of course, all of this is speculation right now. Also, I'd like to make it kind of a side project. Hopefully it won't take on too much of a life of its own. Michael and I were reading about soap today.
One cool thing I found was a brides across america thing where various bridal retailers would hold various wedding dresses in their shop and give them away for free to brides/fiances who are either in the military or married/engaged to men in the military. Cool, huh? To qualify either you or your husband/fiance or both have to be on active duty statis and have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Yup. I think it's pretty awesome. And it might not work out for me, but it's just good to know it's an option and it's out there.
Anyway, I'm coasting along just fine. I'm pretty excited about my math class. I'm finding a new interest in school due to finding my way career-wise. So that's nice. I think next I'm going to take a psychology class. I've organized all of the different careers I'm interested in and combined which classes are mandatory for all of them and then when it starts to branch off. So that way I get the foundation completed so when I decide to specialize, that part is already knocked out of the way. Well, not much else going on. We're happy and getting through this adventure very well. So...TTFN, ta-ta-for-now!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Care packages
You all have no idea how many care packages we have gotten, I don't even know...I lost count at 10 or so...Rachel's tribe have sent more boxes in the last 4 months than I have gotten in 3 trips here...it is humbling...and amazing...I am the benificiary of their kindnesses...I thank the Lord for the boxes of goodies, Rachel's family and the mail system here that has drastically inproved..I can remember getting a box of decaying food sent at Xmas in '04 that showed up in the middle of '05...Anyway, very cool being married to a leafling with a tribe who holds her so dearly...We have all these pics from magazines they've sent up on the walls, very groovy...blah blah blah...
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Well....
Listen blogosphere,
I stopped by here to catch up with what is out there about us and now I see that I need to seriously recalibrate the factual content of this blog for you all out in Blogovia, standby...
First of all, her family who where all in cahoots, sent us a RIGGED Scrabble game that has this invisible,to the naked eye, alphabet painted on the backs of the letter tiles, but she, Rachel, has a special psyop topsecret coating developed at the hush-hush military branch of the corp. that her mother works for, on her eyeglasses that allows her to see the invisible ink...she easily picked out full 6 and 7 letter words the whole game AAAAAAND...got ALL of the good letters...when my suspicions were aroused early in the game she chose a bunch of slag letters(antennae) to throw me off...I supsected something was amiss so I licked a piece of saran-wrap that I had colored red and green with dry erase markers..the combination of my saliva film and the 3D effect of the dry erase colors mixed with the optical quality of the saran wrap all united to duplicate the lense treatment on Rachel's specs...and I too could see these faint but obvious markings on the backs of the letter tiles in the draw bag...She, Rachel my amazingly clever and her deviously intricate sophisticated scrabble throneship will soon be unraveled at the next Mesopotamian International Scrabble Championships..MISC.
Next... her meds make her "loopy", interesting adjective she chose...I think BIZARRE would also fit in that slot, with the z on triple letter value...Lets just say that at between 1-3 A.M.( while we are sleeping) my wife now appears to VIGOROUSLY phantom sort laundry, wash a widow, fold origami, thread a sewing machine and thrash around like a FBT( full body tourette's) pirahna victim in our little twin bed that we have the luxury of sharing. I can't tell you if this is all medication induced because she did them prior to the thumb-loping, but not as frequently or as fervently...Let's just say these actions are med-enhanced/induced... She also says colorful things like, "exspresso snowflake...".."disco thunder-ball..."Anyway, we are both glad she is now drug free and I will continue to observe her nocturnal behaviors and report back more later...
Work is the same, busy..I have not had a day off since we got here. ...now it is really hot and with these sandstorms...this one has lasted 7 days...days are getting all smeared into the same thing...sort of a sad groundhog day sort of thing...My escape is to come home to my cool wife and get stomped at Scrabble or catchup on the day...read...PT...I know its Friday by the menu at the dining facility.
I got this suit sewn at the tailor, it is gray. I picked it up this week, it fits , for now.
We talk about driving all over the place when we get back, rock climbing, camping, swimming, hiking, woods, weeds, rivers, Americans...food, groceries, clean things...blah blah...
It really is a luxury to share that twin bed with Rachel everyday.
I stopped by here to catch up with what is out there about us and now I see that I need to seriously recalibrate the factual content of this blog for you all out in Blogovia, standby...
First of all, her family who where all in cahoots, sent us a RIGGED Scrabble game that has this invisible,to the naked eye, alphabet painted on the backs of the letter tiles, but she, Rachel, has a special psyop topsecret coating developed at the hush-hush military branch of the corp. that her mother works for, on her eyeglasses that allows her to see the invisible ink...she easily picked out full 6 and 7 letter words the whole game AAAAAAND...got ALL of the good letters...when my suspicions were aroused early in the game she chose a bunch of slag letters(antennae) to throw me off...I supsected something was amiss so I licked a piece of saran-wrap that I had colored red and green with dry erase markers..the combination of my saliva film and the 3D effect of the dry erase colors mixed with the optical quality of the saran wrap all united to duplicate the lense treatment on Rachel's specs...and I too could see these faint but obvious markings on the backs of the letter tiles in the draw bag...She, Rachel my amazingly clever and her deviously intricate sophisticated scrabble throneship will soon be unraveled at the next Mesopotamian International Scrabble Championships..MISC.
Next... her meds make her "loopy", interesting adjective she chose...I think BIZARRE would also fit in that slot, with the z on triple letter value...Lets just say that at between 1-3 A.M.( while we are sleeping) my wife now appears to VIGOROUSLY phantom sort laundry, wash a widow, fold origami, thread a sewing machine and thrash around like a FBT( full body tourette's) pirahna victim in our little twin bed that we have the luxury of sharing. I can't tell you if this is all medication induced because she did them prior to the thumb-loping, but not as frequently or as fervently...Let's just say these actions are med-enhanced/induced... She also says colorful things like, "exspresso snowflake...".."disco thunder-ball..."Anyway, we are both glad she is now drug free and I will continue to observe her nocturnal behaviors and report back more later...
Work is the same, busy..I have not had a day off since we got here. ...now it is really hot and with these sandstorms...this one has lasted 7 days...days are getting all smeared into the same thing...sort of a sad groundhog day sort of thing...My escape is to come home to my cool wife and get stomped at Scrabble or catchup on the day...read...PT...I know its Friday by the menu at the dining facility.
I got this suit sewn at the tailor, it is gray. I picked it up this week, it fits , for now.
We talk about driving all over the place when we get back, rock climbing, camping, swimming, hiking, woods, weeds, rivers, Americans...food, groceries, clean things...blah blah...
It really is a luxury to share that twin bed with Rachel everyday.
greeting blogophytes
Ahoy,
We are trundling along here in our sunny clime. I am not a twitteroo or much of a declared extrovert, with strangers, but I shall endeavor for the amusement of my immortal beloved.
What fascinates me is the way that we mesh and thrive, not just endure. I marvel at how things are. I find it hard to believe that this other precious human being wants to be around me, let alone, share the future.
I would like to use this medium and time to let you all AND Rachel know that she will be helping me illustrate a book I wrote the last time that I was visiting this tourist hotspot, called "25 uses for a bootlace", the book, not this locale. I have yet to figure out why we/she hasn't mentioned where we are in her posts, OpSec, privacy,blogovian etiquette, rules of the road...?She left it vague and I can take a hint...She didn't even tell you what we do. I think the idea is that if you are reading this then you already know us and therefore fill in the blanks...
I am trying to get diagnosed with low-blood -sugar-induced-Tourette's-syndrome, LBSITS or TBLISS, so that I may say exactly what I think without fear of consequences, you know, "Hey, sorry man, I have LBSITS, it was the condition not me..."
She reads to me nearly every night, I brush her hair...Life is good. I intentionally married an artist, among other criteria, and she has decorated our humble room here with the most beautiful, provocative and comforting pictures. I think she had a feng-shui moment going or something, with the placement and harmony of the snaps along with the overall effect. So cool.
I fly all over and I am trying to figure out how to convert all these miles to civilian frequent flyer miles, probably not happening...She trundles much more than I...
We run together nearly every other evening, the Mimosa/Acacia/ Locust trees here smell like Virginia I am told.
apparently I will be an alpaca farmer in the afore mentioned future and hopefully the progenitor of a strong pride of happy little piglets...
adieu Bloggeroo
We are trundling along here in our sunny clime. I am not a twitteroo or much of a declared extrovert, with strangers, but I shall endeavor for the amusement of my immortal beloved.
What fascinates me is the way that we mesh and thrive, not just endure. I marvel at how things are. I find it hard to believe that this other precious human being wants to be around me, let alone, share the future.
I would like to use this medium and time to let you all AND Rachel know that she will be helping me illustrate a book I wrote the last time that I was visiting this tourist hotspot, called "25 uses for a bootlace", the book, not this locale. I have yet to figure out why we/she hasn't mentioned where we are in her posts, OpSec, privacy,blogovian etiquette, rules of the road...?She left it vague and I can take a hint...She didn't even tell you what we do. I think the idea is that if you are reading this then you already know us and therefore fill in the blanks...
I am trying to get diagnosed with low-blood -sugar-induced-Tourette's-syndrome, LBSITS or TBLISS, so that I may say exactly what I think without fear of consequences, you know, "Hey, sorry man, I have LBSITS, it was the condition not me..."
She reads to me nearly every night, I brush her hair...Life is good. I intentionally married an artist, among other criteria, and she has decorated our humble room here with the most beautiful, provocative and comforting pictures. I think she had a feng-shui moment going or something, with the placement and harmony of the snaps along with the overall effect. So cool.
I fly all over and I am trying to figure out how to convert all these miles to civilian frequent flyer miles, probably not happening...She trundles much more than I...
We run together nearly every other evening, the Mimosa/Acacia/ Locust trees here smell like Virginia I am told.
apparently I will be an alpaca farmer in the afore mentioned future and hopefully the progenitor of a strong pride of happy little piglets...
adieu Bloggeroo
Monday, July 6, 2009
SCRABBLE
So, I've asked Michael to write up here a couple of times to no avail, after all the man is pretty busy. So I figured I'd put something up. We received a couple of weeks ago two huge packages from my Dad and Kris. The first package was all magazines, which kind of blew me away. The second had all sorts of fun things including the games we asked for of SCRABBLE and Chess. Michael had been talking all kinds of game the entire time we were expecting these packages to when we got them, "Are you ready to have your butt whipped at Scrabble?" was the first thing he said when I got them out of the box.
So! A few days ago we did our first Scrabble game, and not only did I win I also got my first seven letter word of "ANTENNAE." A seventy point word, I might add. Michael only lost by about 12 points I think, he was catching up pretty fast after that. So then I look at him and ask, "I thought you were some crazy Scrabble champion?" And he smiles and says that he talks a lot of game just for intimidation purposes. He was still a really good opponent, though. We were pretty neck and neck there for the majority of the game.
So I'm pretty chuffed with myself. Michael keeps threatening my reigning scrabble champion that he's dubbed me.
Thumb update: Michael's taking out the stitches in my thumb tomorrow. I'm taking a shower today with the stitches still on so that the nail doesn't fall off as it's just stitched on right now. I'm going to have to regrow an entirely new nail as a result of this injury. So shower tonight, stitches removal tomorrow. I'm off my meds now. They were making me incredibly loopy. I've got more motion in it and can use it very very very gently.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'm getting ready to watch a movie and just relax for a bit until Mike gets back.
So! A few days ago we did our first Scrabble game, and not only did I win I also got my first seven letter word of "ANTENNAE." A seventy point word, I might add. Michael only lost by about 12 points I think, he was catching up pretty fast after that. So then I look at him and ask, "I thought you were some crazy Scrabble champion?" And he smiles and says that he talks a lot of game just for intimidation purposes. He was still a really good opponent, though. We were pretty neck and neck there for the majority of the game.
So I'm pretty chuffed with myself. Michael keeps threatening my reigning scrabble champion that he's dubbed me.
Thumb update: Michael's taking out the stitches in my thumb tomorrow. I'm taking a shower today with the stitches still on so that the nail doesn't fall off as it's just stitched on right now. I'm going to have to regrow an entirely new nail as a result of this injury. So shower tonight, stitches removal tomorrow. I'm off my meds now. They were making me incredibly loopy. I've got more motion in it and can use it very very very gently.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'm getting ready to watch a movie and just relax for a bit until Mike gets back.
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