I have been trying to blog more frequently, and it has been working for a few months, but in July I have really fallen off the bandwagon. Mostly because I am trying to relax and catch my breath a bit! I have managed to (finally) debut a new blog theme using the Thesis WordPress theme as a foundation, so if you’re viewing this post from your RSS reader, feel free to cruise over to the site and check it out. It’s pretty basic and I hope to improve on it in the future…but I like the colors and I am getting a sense for what Thesis can do and am quite pleased with it so far.

Yesterday I went to Caress Day Spa with Leah and we each got a citrus body scrub. It was amaaaazing (and very relaxing). Afterwards we ate lunch at Gayle’s Bakery & Rosticceria. Life is getting just a bit stressful with Corner’s job situation being so uncertain, so I’d say I definitely deserved some relaxation time.

Megan and I bought tickets to see Lady Gaga in San Jose on August 17! I am so pumped. I ordered a blonde wig on eBay last night. I already have a dress and shoes to wear….now I just need some fake eyelashes and some cool leggings or tights. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been this excited since the Spice Girls’ reunion tour.

I bought some new books last week, rounding out my Day Zero goal to buy at least 10 items off my Amazon.com wish list. It also proves that I am still secretly a teenager. Either that, or it’s starting to look like I will never grow out of young adult fiction.

I have been having tons of crazy dreams lately. One night last week I dreamt that I was a passenger on a bus that got hijacked. The hijacker was a blonde woman who began killing everyone sitting on the right side of the bus, row by row. She warned us not to try and fight back. I was sitting in the very last seat on the right side, and I tried to hide by ducking behind the seat. The girl in front of me had been shot directly between the eyes. From under the seat I could see her and all the other dead bodies that had been killed in front of me. Then the blonde hijacker strode to the back of the bus, cackling about how I couldn’t hide from her. Suddenly I had a large metal pole in my hands and I beat her over the head with it until she was unconscious (which took a surprisingly long time).

Here’s what dreammoods.com has to say about this:

• To dream that you are riding a bus implies that you are going along with the crowd. You are lacking originality and control over where your life is taking. To dream that you are in a bus accident suggests that it is time for you to move away from a group setting and venture out on your own. You need to be more independent.
• To dream that something has been hijacked symbolizes your loss of control. The dream may be analogous to someone or something that has taken over an aspect of your life. In particular, to dream that an airplane is hijacked, signifies disturbing feelings and past emotions in your unconscious mind.
• To see a killer in your dream suggests that an essential aspect of your emotions have been cut off. You feel that you are losing your identity and your individuality. Alternatively, this dream may represent purification and the healing process. You are standing up for yourself and putting a dramatic end to something.
• To see a pole in your dream represents security and stability. The dream is a reminder that you always have something or someone you can lean on.

Tuesday after work I attended my first spin class at Om Oasis in Monterey. Corner bought me a 6-class card for my birthday and I finally made some time to go down there. Luckily I made a post about my intentions on Facebook, and several friends suggested I wear bike shorts. I thought that might be a bit much, but I threw a pair of kickers in my bag just in case…and Im glad I did!

The 45-minute spin class was definitely tougher than I expected, but it was also pretty fun rocking out to Kelly Clarkson music while pedaling my butt off. I would definitely go again, but I think my next class needs to be a yoga class so that I can fulfill my Day Zero goal of learning yoga.

Which brings me to the title of this blog post. I have been meaning to try yoga for awhile, and Ive even gone as far as buying a yoga mat and trying out a few yoga and pilates DVDs, but I have yet to attend a class because Im a little scared of looking like a total noob…not to mention I am entirely inflexible! In general, I hate the learning curve that comes along with trying new things; I would much rather prefer I just immediately be good at something. Like WordPress. And piano. And backwards marching at a 6 to 5. But I suppose that would take away the thrill of advancing past the suck threshold, because I have to admit, it feels good to be able to bend WP to my will. And play Scott Joplin no problem. And march 33-inch steps backwards without tripping all over myself.

So I guess the best way to get over my fear of yoga-ing in public is to just get my ass to class, and as Nike says, just do it. Wish me luck.

Also, I am posting this from my iPhone as we complete the final hour of our drive to Palm Desert for the holiday weekend…and for some reason the WordPress iPhone app doesnt like apostrophes, so dont feel like I have forgotten about grammar altogether. Have a great 4th of July weekend!

I wanted to write a quick update regarding a few of my Day Zero goals. I am on track to pay off my student loans in the next 12 months, which means only 1 more year until financial freedom (at least until I go back to grad school and do it all over again)! That means I will have paid off my student loans in just under 3 years (instead of 10, which I think is the repayment term of most of my loans). It’s pretty empowering and I can’t wait to have more money to put away in my savings because I love traveling and buying nice things.

As far as buying nice things, I still manage to get some nice things on occasion, even on my modest budget. This weekend while Corner and I were up in Santa Cruz, I got these 4 items above from Express for a grand total of $90. Granted I had to wade through racks and boxes full of clearance clothes (and I’m pretty sure Corner wanted to gouge his eyes out by the time I was done because he quickly found, tried on, and paid for 2 shirts by the time I was making my way to the dressing room), but I’d say it was worth it.

Here’s a visual breakdown of how I spent my money this past year. A few items of note:

• Health & Fitness includes my braces (I saw how big that category was and instantly thought but I don’t have a gym membership!)
• Other includes weird things like shipping services and eBay listing fees
• Pets is only as big as it is because Nigel got his teeth cleaned in January; I haven’t found owning a pet to be very expensive at all

This also helps fulfill my Day Zero goal of making cool graphs with my Mint.com data. :)

Speaking of Mint.com, I recently purchased Mint, which is a self-hosted web analytics program. Not that I have anything against good ‘ol free Google Analytics, but GA randomly stopped working on my site a few weeks ago and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it working again. I tried several different Google Analytics WordPress plugins and checked my source code to make sure the tracking code was installed, and it was, but still no statistics showing up in my Google Analytics dashboard. I finally just gave up and forked over the $30 for Mint. I use Fever as my RSS reader, so I was already familiar with another one of Shaun Inman’s products. I have been nothing but pleased so far.

If you’re curious, here’s a peek at what the interface looks like (click to enlarge):

Have I mentioned lately that the majority of my web traffic comes from the blog post I wrote last year about my stretched ear journey? I’m thinking of starting a second blog devoted to my stretched ears and giant plug collection. Or transitioning this blog to focus more heavily on my ears. Are my ears really cool enough to devote an entire blog to them??? Apparently random people searching Google think so. What do you think? Is looking at my ear jewelry really that fun?

The Rolling Stone issue with Lady Gaga on the cover arrived at my house today! YAY! But I gotta say it: her butt is really badly Photoshopped. Anyway. I am happy because I am pretty sure my subscription is expiring soon (it was a free subscription that I got for buying No Doubt tickets last summer), but I am slightly obsessed with all things Gaga at the moment so I’m glad I got a free copy of this one.

Speaking of Photoshop…my work computer is now upgraded to CS5 and the content-aware fill is just as amazing as the YouTube videos I watched about it a few months ago.

Apparently Monterey has a roller derby league that has open practices on Thursdays during the summer. A couple of my lady coworker friends have asked me to go with them on July 15, so that promises to be an adventure. I have been looking at speed skates and dreaming up roller derby names for a few days now, and I’ve never even played! Yet something tells me I am going to like it…

Corner and I went to an open skating session at the skating rink tonight to check it out. I was surprised because I am pretty sure that Rollhaven (the roller rink near where I grew up) is bigger/better/newer. And if I remember correctly, Rollhaven is a bit of a dump in a not-so-great part of town. Also, the last time I was on roller skates, I wore a size 4 shoe. I was later into inline skating for a couple years, but skating on quad skates again was an experience. The rental skates were pretty bad, and I now have a couple of nasty looking blisters. But on the plus side, I was a better skater than Corner, which was rather satisfying, because he is generally better than me at most athletic/sport-type things (bowling, racquetball, etc.).

This has been an interesting week at work. I am trying to crank out the virtual campus tour project that I’ve been working on for awhile, but other more pressing items keep coming up. We are rolling out a new logo on July 1 so I have been scouring the web for places where we use the current logo so I can update them all (although I’m positive I will still miss a few…they’re EVERYWHERE!).

My latest conundrum: Kindle vs. iPad vs. netbook vs. hold off on buying anything until I am more confident about which is the right choice. Since Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle a few days ago, I suddenly have more than enough money for a Kindle, but I’m still only about halfway to an iPad. Now that I don’t have a laptop, I’m kinda thinking an iPad might be a good fit for me. Or I could buy neither and put the money towards student loans (although that is definitely the least fun option). Decisions, decisions!

Not a lot has happened this past week. Yesterday after work I was feeling a bit down so I went to the Del Monte Shopping Center to pick up my new contact lenses and wandered in Victoria’s Secret. I am a sucker for their semi-annual sale; I got a pair of jeans (my first NEW pair of jeans that weren’t purchased secondhand in like, 2 years), a t-shirt, and a zebra-print bra (which isn’t practical at ALL, but I’m pretty sure every girl should have one).

I have also been spring cleaning a bit (even though it’s mid-June, it’s cold enough in Monterey for me to operate under the assumption that it is still spring). I threw out all of my makeup. Yup, all of it. I mean, I had eyeshadow and lip gloss that I wore to my junior prom. I have dated 3 guys since then…and although most of those boys were tossed to the wayside long ago, the makeup remained. Somehow it even made the journey when I moved from Michigan to California. Why? Probably because I don’t wear much of it. But then yesterday I went to Target and you know how Target is. I always go into Target with the intent of buying very specific items (or in this case, I didn’t even need to buy anything; it was actually Corner who wanted to buy a shelf and I just got dragged along and ended up spending $30 on an eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara).

Then I came home and did my eyebrows like Madonna/Lady Gaga. And if you follow my Tumblr (and even if you don’t), we all know how much I love Lady Gaga. So much, in fact, that I somehow still haven’t purchased tickets for her August show in San Jose, but I insist that I am going and have even purchased an awesome outfit for said concert that I don’t have tickets to yet. I think I need some girl friend(s) to commit to going with me. Also said girl friend(s) will need to hold me accountable for wearing the aforementioned outfit because if someone doesn’t, I probably won’t end up wearing it because it is a bit more outrageous than my everyday attire of jeans and a top.

And now I’m about to commence a weekend of hopefully  not leaving my house because I want nothing to do with the traffic for the U.S. Open.

I just wanted to share a couple of shots of the awesome birthday gift I received from my sister Kathy. It’s an MSU yearbook from 1960. Sooooo fun to look through this at the dorms, the band, etc.

I hope no one feels left out because all the other gifts I received are great too, this one is just the most visually interesting. Oh, and Corner’s gift is a pass for 6 yoga classes so hopefully I’ll be knocking out another Day Zero goal in the very near future!

Well, I hope my employer isn’t too disappointed that I am no longer one of Clay Shirky’s token 23-year olds since I turned 24 yesterday. And what a good birthday it was. Mom sent me 3 Michigan State t-shirts and a box full of Victoria’s Secret goodies. Kathy bought me a sweet necklace and a 1960 Michigan State yearbook that she found at an antique store. It is in awesome condition and has old photos of all the dorms and of the marching band…..so cool! Grandma, Dad, and Corner’s parents sent me some money that I used to order the Sims 3 Ambitions expansion pack. I can’t wait for it to get here! I also ordered 2 Francesca Lia Block books: House of Dolls and Pretty Dead. I wish I hadn’t ordered from Amazon before leaving for work yesterday morning because Les sent me an Amazon giftcard and it arrived in the afternoon. Looks like I’ll be placing another Amazon order in the near future and hopefully knocking some more items off my wishlist.

This past weekend I attended Freelance Camp PRO in San Francisco. It was awesome. Corner and I left Friday after work and stopped in Morgan Hill to eat at Sushi Ichiban (I really can’t say enough good things about their lava roll). There was hardly any traffic heading into the city (I think because the weather was GORGEOUS so everyone was headed to the beaches for the weekend). We stayed at the Hotel des Arts. Yelp had pretty mixed reviews about the place, but I thought it was one of the cooler hotels we’ve stayed at in the city. Each floor had various art installations and most of the rooms didn’t have their own bathroom, but rather shared a community-style bathroom with other guests on the same floor. This might sound kinda strange, but in San Francisco it also meant the rooms were slightly larger than normal since they didn’t have to accommodate a toilet and shower. Our room did have its own sink, a mini-fridge, and a nice flat-panel TV.

Saturday morning I was woken up ridiculously early by what I thought was a vacuum cleaner falling down the hotel stairwell. Corner later suggested that it was the sound of someone’s suitcase as they attempted to wheel it down the stairs, which I guess makes more sense. I headed over to NextSpace SF (which is an awesome space) shortly before 8am and proceeded to be blown away by how cool the barcamp/unconference format is. The swag was pretty spectacular, too: I got a Speck iPhone case and a Moleskin notebook. We ate lunch at Bindi, an Indian restaurant downstairs. DEFINITELY worth the $30 ticket price. I was very inspired and have since bought a new domain name for a personal project I want to start working on. Details forthcoming. I can’t wait for October’s Freelance Camp in Santa Cruz!

Also, I really really REALLY want the iPhone 4 but I am nowhere near close to being eligible for a phone upgrade with AT&T. Bummer.

When I was little, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. I knew the names of most of the species, what era they were from, who had discovered/named many of them, and other random trivia that I think surprised my parents a bit because weren’t dinosaurs supposed to be a boy thing? There was even a boy in my elementary school who also wanted to be an archaeologist. We would get into fights about who would be the first to give up this goal. “I will never change my mind!” Heh. I eventually abandoned the archaeology idea once my dad convinced me there couldn’t possibly be much money in that particular field. I decided I wanted to be an anesthesiologist instead. Clearly that didn’t work out in the long run, either.

It’s just interesting to watch how dreams and goals evolve over time. Just 2 years ago when I graduated from Michigan State, I had already decided that I didn’t want to go on to graduate school. It was empowering to know that if I so chose, I never had to sit through another class or take another exam again. Clearly I love changing my mind.

But you know what? I still think being an archaeologist would be cool.

Can we talk about how today I woke up to over $5000 in my checking account, only to pay off a $3700 student loan? And that the rest of the money is already spent (June rent + bills + student loan payments)? And how I sold my laptop to Mike and really want to buy a netbook or an iPad but I really don’t have the money since I am trying to be a badass and pay off my student loans in 3 years instead of 10?! GAH. Sometimes I wonder why I do these things to myself.

Also, grad school. I am thinking about applying for fall 2011 but I keep getting flustered. I really don’t want to take the GRE, and I find it very silly that many of the programs I’m looking at have a GRE requirement and an optional portfolio. WTF? So I could be in a program with people who aren’t really designers?? No thanks. Part of me wants to give those programs the middle finger and only apply to the 2 schools on my list that don’t require the GRE (and have a MANDATORY portfolio). However, that would mean I would be applying to 2 programs in New York City, they are both very expensive, and there is no way in hell I will actually be able to attend either school unless they dish out a lot of money, which I’m sure won’t be the case since I am a middle-class white girl. *sigh*

I’m sure I will do fine on the test and all, but that means I have to study and taking the GRE isn’t exactly cheap.

For those of you who are interested, here’s the programs I’m considering (in order of preference at this moment…also note this list has been paired down significantly):

• Interactive Telecommunications @ NYU
• Interaction Design @ School of Visual Arts
• Human-Computer Interaction @ Carnegie Mellon
• Master of Science in Information @ University of Michigan (although rest assured I will always be a Spartan at heart)
• Information Management & Systems @ UC Berkeley

Anyone have any tips for deciding between graduate programs/schools? I work at a graduate school and I’m still at a bit of a loss. ;)

So I finally had a chance to exercise my very, very basic Final Cut skills as taught to me by the wonderful Ryan Gonzalez. Unfortunately I am far from becoming a feature filmmaker, but I did manage to throw together a cute intro and outro for our TEDxMonterey videos (and by “throw together” I mean this took an agonizing couple of hours). Check out this video of Magic Seth:

The red puzzle pieces in the intro look fuzzy and I’m not sure why, because they look great in Final Cut. Anyone know anything about codecs or exporting settings that I could tweak in order to make them clearer?