Quiet Introspection site – MOVED

I’ve moved my site over to blogger – you can find it: http://quiet-introspection.blogspot.com/

 

All future posts will be on the new site. I won’t be re-posting the old ones because there’s really no point and it would just spam my feed, so for the 1-2 people who check in here, feel free to follow the new site (please). I decided to move since blogger is integrated with G+ where quite frequently end up.

For those who have wandered here and have no idea what this site is, it’s just personal musings and ramblings by yet another internet nobody, I didn’t want to use my video game site to post about personal happenings (MmoQuests.com for those curious).

General Daily Rambles

I thought I would be really sore after doing a 30 minute elliptical workout but I’m actually feeling pretty good today. My arms are sore, which is something I wasn’t expecting but my legs / thighs seem just fine. I wonder if it’s because of the 5 minute warm up and cool down that’s added into the program. In any case, I’m feeling good. Happy still which is important. Sure, it’s only day 3 into the “new me” but hey, every day matters.

I’ve done a few other small changes to my daily lifestyle that will hopefully compliment everything else for an over all better ‘me’. One of my first decisions was no coffee after 5pm, not a big deal, really. I typically have two cups of coffee a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. I’ve switched to a lot more water. Another ‘odd’ change is that I’m doing things for the other half a lot more frequently. Why is that odd? Well it’s not that I wasn’t doing things before, I was. But I’m trying to do more activities that break up me sitting at my desk. So I’ll go get him drinks and take care of things for him without complaining because hey at least I’m up and moving.

I’ve always eaten really healthy because  can’t have processed food (makes me sick) so it’s really just being more physically active that I need to improve upon. I’m determined to make 2012 my bitch (so to speak) and I’m really hoping that I stick with it. When I feel down or unmotivated I take a look at the success stories on myfitnesspal – it’s VERY inspiring.

I haven’t been working on my book as of late, it’s hard when the holidays hit, even harder when the other half is here at home invading my ‘space’. I love him a lot but I’m used to having private time and that’s difficult in an apartment so small. I imagine I’ll get back to work next Monday, when he also goes back to work. Today it’s a trip to Cosco to look at a keurig, I love my tassimo but I can’t afford $9.99 in coffee a week and would prefer the refillable containers that the keurig supplies. No idea if we’ll find one but I’m excited to go, I’ve never been to a store that requires a membership to get in before.

Fitocracy and MyFitnessPal for the New Year #Fitocracy #MyFitnessPal

While it’s not in my resolutions for this year (technically) I have decided that it’s well past time I was healthier. I don’t need to be a size one, but I do want to have the capability to walk up and down flights of stairs and not be so tired. Especially since I live on the 11th floor, and a fire drill means no elevator. I’ve made these resolutions before and have completely failed at them, but I’m determined to stick with them. I seem to run out of steam and motivation a month or so into being ‘motivated’ – that has to change. I’m employing two social sites to help me accomplish my goals this round.

Fitocracy – it turns working out into a video game with achievements and levels. There’s a great community to be a part of, and challenges to take part in (if you wish). You log your daily activities, earn points, and level up. It’s in beta right now, but I’m enjoying the site. Since I’m a gamer it appeals to me on a very basic level.

MyFitnessPal – with a way of keeping track on both PC and iOS this is the ultimate in calorie counters. It plans out how many calories you should be taking in a day based on how much weight you want to lose (and how fast. It recommends a healthy 1 pound a week ratio). Pretty much every food under the sun is listed in their database, including fast food places. It’s a really detailed site, with sections for others to motivate you, and forums that are bursting with success stories.

C25K – also known as ‘couch to 5k’ this plan can work with Fitocracy exercise logging. I have the app on my iphone, but you can also get a printed version of the plan which is pretty neat. The app was also only $0.99 which seems like a pretty good deal for your health.

Since I’m absolutely horrible at making up my own exercise routines I’m going to be using the kinect yoga in the mornings, C25K in the evenings, and I’m going to walk up and down a few flights of stairs every day. It should equal about an hour of work out, maybe a little less. C25K is 20 minute work outs, stairs depends on me, and yoga doesn’t take that long. As you can tell by this post, I’m pumped up and excited. I just really REALLY need to stick with it. Which is why I’m even making this post to begin with. I can’t do it alone any more.

Happy New Year

Ah, 2012, welcome!

I thought a lot about my resolutions this year, and how people constantly fail at them time and time again. I don’t think there’s a problem with making resolutions, but I think that they need to be reasonable. I really only have one item on my list this year and then I have a bunch of long term and short term goals that I’d like to accomplish. Instead of making a resolution like ‘lose weight!’ that I know everyone breaks after the first month, I’ve tried to be a little more creative.

Resolution for 2012: Take the time to be more feminine.

Explanation: How does one even accomplish that?? What I mean, is to take more time dedicated to being a woman. It may seem a bit foolish, but let me explain. I don’t wear makeup, I throw my hair in a pony tail, I don’t do my nails, I spend a lot of time playing video games. While I am all for women’s rights I also believe very firmly that men and women are different and we should embrace that fact. I want to take time to do my hair, take care of my nails, maybe experiment with a little makeup. I want to do those things that embrace the fact that I am a woman, and an exotic creature that deserves to be pampered. Silly resolution? Perhaps, but it’s something I’d really like to make time for in this new year.

Along with that of course are long term and short term goals, typical ones. In fact they’re so typical that they don’t really require any posting here.

I hope everyone had a fantastic evening, and that 2012 brings even greater things to everyone. Maybe I’ll actually post here more often than once in a blue moon.. Naw.

The Decision to Write Erotica

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year again of course, and unlike previous years I’ve decided to write erotica. Well honestly I try to write in a new genre each year and that’s the one I decided on this year. It means that I can’t really post my story public, since it’s not something everyone would want to read, and it’s a little weird (for others, not so much for me) when I talk about it openly. I have always been pretty liberal in my discussions on sex and sexuality, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable in the least bit and I find it a healthy topic but I know that not everyone sees things that way.

I’m 3,512 words into my story so far which is not bad. It’s coming along. There are two erotic ‘scenes’ within those 3.5k words, and I think I did alright writing them. I’m still not sure about the center of the story (ie: I know what happens at the start and the end but the middle is still cloudy to me) but I’m sure I’ll figure it out in time.

Aside from that I’m trying to keep up with my usual blogging / writing which is difficult when I’m also doing NaNoWriMo. I don’t want to run on empty after all.

Why Do I Write?

I’ve always wondered why I write. I don’t consider myself very creative, and I don’t even like a lot of the stories I come up with – but others seem to. The problem with this is that I never know if they’re being honest and simply enjoying my writing or if they’re saying they are because we’re friends. My great grandmother always told me that one day I would be an amazing writer, and told me not to ever give up on that. I think back to those days where we would send letters back and forth fondly. I miss them. I miss her. I think that’s one of the major reasons that I write.

Why all the self doubt lately? I’m not really sure. NaNoWriMo gets underway tomorrow and this is the first year that I’ve planned out my story. I typically end up winging it by the seat of my pants. Not that I’ve planned out every last detail this year either, but I’ve planned out the basics. I picked up a program called Scrivener that I simply adore, and have set out putting a few stories of mine into it just to familiarize myself with the program. So far so good.

This year I’ll be attempting to write erotica. I know, it should come easy for me, right? I’m a bit rusty and I’ve never written something as lengthy as this before. It should be interesting. The story is quite cliche, and I don’t have the male lead created yet, but I think it will be revealed to me as I write it. I won’t be posting the story public for obvious reasons, but I will send snippets out to anyone interested in keeping track of it.

In the mean time, I’ll just keep writing.

Weekends

My cousin is off in Africa doing missionary work, and I’m pretty proud of her. I always wanted to do something like that but just don’t have the guts. Here at home, things have been relatively quiet, but that’s not a bad thing. I had a bad round of anxiety this weekend. I think it was probably just stress related, but it required me to take one of my ‘special’ anxiety pills that I try not to take. Worked like a charm, I calmed down right away and fell asleep. Woke up the next morning without any issues. Hopefully that’s the last I see of it for a little while.

I’ve been preparing for NaNoWriMo. This year I’m writing a romance. I’ve picked up a program called Scrivener which I absolutely adore, and I’ve been working on getting my older stories set up on the program so that I can also work on them when inspiration hits, which isn’t exactly all that often but hell it’s better then never.

I’ve been doing good deeds on a daily basis as part of a “Peopleforgood” campaign. Yesterday I donated to the poppy foundation, today I donated to the Office of Letters and Light, which is the foundation that NaNoWriMo is run by. I don’t have a lot of money (haven’t been getting many ad requests lately) but I did what I could.

I also went to another Sens game on Thursday, and we won with 2.5 seconds left in the period. It was great! Some people decided to leave part way through the period because we were behind, but I’m glad I stayed. The seats were in the 300 level which is quite high up and I had a little problem with my anxiety at the start, but then it went away and I was quite fine. Living with agoraphobia is difficult, but I think I’m handling it about as well as can be expected.