Happy New Year's Everyone

Can you believe it's almost the end of 2010? My how the time flies, if I may use an old phrase.

There were some changes for me this year. I've cut back on my shoe-wearing at home in favor of slippers. I'm volunteering at a thrift store (which has gone through three different managers since I've started). I've got five blogs going. I joined Facebook in the spring. I've even managed to read the whole Bible in a year (even though there were times when I had to play catch up on that).

Tonight, I will be eating lobster for dinner (something I don't have very often; the last time I had it, it was because there was a really good sale on it at Dillons, according to my mom). After that, I will update my manicure and pedicure and drink the shots of alcohol that I got for Christmas this year.

I'm not sure what 2011 will bring. Maybe I'll get a job. Maybe I'll have a boyfriend. Who knows?

Anyway, I wish you all a Happy New Year. God willing, I will have more to talk about in 2011.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas (or whatever you normally celebrate). I hope you got some good presents and had a good time today.

This year, in addition to the usual "stocking stuffers" of chocolate, and orange, and some nail polish, I got three small bottles of alcohol in my stocking (something that normally doesn't happen for me at Christmas). I have a feeling that the last one will give me something to do on New Year's Eve if nothing else comes up for me.

Another Traffic Source That I Don't Get

I had noted in a previous post that one of the "traffic sources" to my diary-ish blog On The Road To The Rest Of My Life was a diet site, and I didn't get how someone would find out about my blog via said site.

Once again, I checked my stats to see if anyone had been visiting or not (especially since I don't tend to get comments very often if ever on any of my blogs), and it turns out that one of the sites that allegedly led to the aforementioned blog was a sex site in another language. (Due to my moral convictions against that stuff, I'm not going to link to said site here.)

Is it so bad that I'm worrying about how a site could possibly lead to one of my blogs when there is no connection between the two, and said site is not something that I would ever go to out of principle? Then again, maybe as long as my blogs are getting ANY attention, I should just shut up, be grateful for said attention, and not worry so much about how it is people find out about them. And surely I shouldn't worry about this stuff so close to Christmas.

Oh well, I guess this is one of those things that I will never understand.

No Christmas Breaks For Me This Year Outside Of The Actual Christmas Day

Up until I graduated from high school, I'd have Christmas Breaks from sometime before Christmas until shortly after New Year's Day. When I was in college, I'd have a break lasting from a week or two before Christmas until mid-January. When I graduated from college two years ago (December graduate), I spent that general period moving to St. Louis and settling in with my dad (whom I haven't seen in over a year due to some health problems of his that sent me back to my mom). The job search would come later. Last year, I had been in the process of looking for a job, but I opted to take a break from it either shortly before or shortly after Christmas. I was originally going to resume it the first full week after New Year's, but due to the problematic weather at the time, I had to wait an extra week.

This year, unless it turns out that I will have the chance to visit my dad, I am NOT taking any breaks. The days between now and Christmas Day (which is on a Saturday this year) and between Christmas Day and New Year's Day will be treated NO differently from the rest of the year. Not only will I be continuing with my regularly scheduled volunteer work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I will maintain my routine of doing something towards my job search on Tuesday or Thursday and laundry on the other day. I will set my alarm at my regular time and everything.

Let's face it. Christmas breaks outside of the actual Christmas day are a thing of the past for me. There are people in my life who have full time jobs (something that I'm in the process of seeking) that require their appearance in-between Christmas and New Year's no less than any other time of the year.   If they can maintain their everyday routines and responsibilities within that time of year, surely so can I if I wish to establish myself as a proper adult. After all, (Lord willing) I will one day have an actual paid job where I will need to be somewhere at a certain time every time regardless of time of year. I might as get myself used to that general idea now.

Nine Years Without Eating Any Vegetables? Really?

On the radio station I normally listen to in the mornings, there's a segment called "Does that make me crazy?" where listeners will call and describe a quirk or some other seemingly odd fact about themselves and end with "Does that make me crazy?" (And the people on the air will describe one of their quirks as well.)

Today, a 15-year-old boy called in and said that he hadn't eaten any vegetables whatsoever since he was six. (He said he had a problem with the smell of them, and his parents didn't make him eat them.) So, it's been nine years since he had eaten a vegetable. (He ate a pepper that was in his fridge per a dare from one of the disc jockeys that was on the air.)

While I wouldn't say I was raised to be a "health nut" I was raised to regard vegetables as a necessity of life. My parents would have never let me get away with not eating vegetables. It just wasn't done. If salad was somehow involved in the meal, I would've been expected to eat some.

I don't eat vegetables every single day, but I could not imagine going an entire year without them (even if it's just lettuce as part of a sandwhich), let alone nine. It's hard for me to imagine. How does someone live without them? (I've heard that even cats and dogs, who are carnivores by nature, need some vegetation in their diet. My sister's dog Cosmo is far more willing to eat vegetables than is her boyfriend's dog Millie. As for my stepdad's dog, I know she at least likes radishes. I think she likes carrots too.)

What about you? Could you envision yourself going multiple years of your life without eating vegetables? Have you ever done so? When was the last time you have had a vegetable of any kind, or do you even remember?

Okay, This Is Bizarre

I'll often check the stats on my blogs to see how many views I've had during the current day, week, etc., what parts of the world my visitors are from, and maybe even what links and keywords lead to the blog in question (a.k.a. "traffic sources").

According to the stats for my more diary-like blog On The Road To The Rest Of My Life, one of the links leading to it is a link to something called More Diet Plan.  What's more is that the stats show two views from someone who was led to the blog from the diet site.  I don't get what the connection is between a blog about where I'm at on life's journey has to do with dieting that someone would find said blog through a site like that. I don't even recall mentioning weight loss or dieting or anything along those lines on that blog.

Maybe there is a connection between the two that I don't know about. I might have to do a little keywording on that site to figure it out. If I have no luck figuring out the connection, maybe I will just have to shut up and just be grateful that I have any audience at all, even if the traffic sources seem a bit odd.

Ideas For Cafe World Challenges

If you play games on Facebook (such as Petville, Farmville, Cafe World, etc.), chances are, some of said games come with certain challenges for you to complete, such as perform a certain task x number of times for either yourself or your "neighbor(s)", obtain a certain decor item for your cafe, house, island, or [fill in the blank here], or collect certain items. The reward for completing said challenges is often a certain decoration, coins, points towards the next level, and/or an unlocked task.

On of the games I play is Cafe World, which I have been playing today while waiting for my laundry to be done. Lately, I have been thinking about ideas for challenges to complete. Here's what I've thought of so far:

1. Unlock all "fundamentals" recipes that require you to reach a certain level in order to do so. (Extra credit for unlocking ones with the requirement that you complete a catering task with a three star-rating or higher and/or the deep fried turkey one that requires you to complete the deep fryer.)

2. Fully master all "level-up fundamentals" recipes (Extra credit for mastering non-level-up recipes. "Mastering" a recipe requires that you serve the dish a certain number of times. This varies between each dish.)

After that challenge is completed would be the next part.

1. Qualify for Advanced level recipes. (This is done by reaching level 75. If one has already reached this prior to the challenge taking effect, this will be marked as "completed".)

2. Unlock all advanced recipes

3. Master all advanced recipes

That's all I have for now. I might come up with more later.