Saturday, April 28, 2001
Help. Inspiration Needed. Now that I actually want to do something with Okinawa.com, I can't think of what to do. I want to re-organize and totally re-work the navigation and aesthetics of the site -- but I don't know how I should do it. I want it to kick butt. I want it to be extraordinary. I want it to be the best Okinawan web site on the Net. (Not too much to ask, eh?) But how? I need ideas and I'm fresh out of 'em.
Oh dear Muse, please return to me! I've chased you away far too long...
Help?
posted by Donna, 4/28/2001 10:34:52 AM
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Friday, April 27, 2001
Happy 5 Years, Dave! We celebrated Dave's 5th year with the company today. The department had lunch at Royal Palace Chinese Restaurant and happily enjoyed a Chinese buffet in the spirit of Cholesterol Friday. All my favorites: Oyster Sauce + Cake Noodles, Choy Sum, Spicy Eggplant, Hot & Sour Soup... Mmmm!
Congratulations, Dave!
posted by Donna, 4/27/2001 11:30:23 PM
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One or the other? I've been pretty good about exercising this week. At work, the Lunchtime Walking Posse did 2-miles every day on all four days (Monday - Thursday) like we always intend to do. [We get Fridays off for "Cholesterol Friday." That's a given.]
At any rate, getting back to the exercise thing... So I walk 2-miles at lunch, then come home and work out on the Total Gym or go walking another 2-4 miles around my neighborhood. I did that pretty consistently this week. However, just as consistently, I've been eating pretty badly. Most notably was my daily fried rice bowl with 1 egg over easy. I've also been indulging on ice cream and chocolates (M&M's). It's no wonder that I can't lose weight despite all that exercising. I'm guessing the exercising is helping me not to GAIN weight... but my eating habits are hindering my weight LOSS.
Why can't I get the 2 elements together? I'm sure that's the key. Eating right and exercising simultaneously. Oh well, we'll start fresh again on Monday and see how next week goes...
posted by Donna, 4/27/2001 11:24:54 PM
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I'm on a roll... or something. I've started updating Okinawa.com again... and have been able to keep it up for the past several days since I vowed to myself not to neglect it anymore. Since I haven't touched it in several months, I'm pretty appalled about a lot of things pertaining to the site. Probably one of the worst things is that it's not quite Netscape-compatible. Since my IE still isn't working like it should, I've been using Netscape to browse the web and I've noticed how my use of CSS (sparingly as it is) on the site has been making it aesthetically unpleasing to Netscape users. Fonts change in mid-sentence. Font sizes are messed up. It's just basically ugly. I can't stand it when it's inconsistent -- within one site, much less the same PAGE! I'm going to have to do a major overhaul, I think. Besides that, I'm really tired of the old design. After all, it's over a year old. It's time for a change. Now only if I had the TIME to make the changes!
posted by Donna, 4/27/2001 11:15:56 PM
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Thursday, April 26, 2001
A sad day for Ally McBeal fans... (04.24.01) Being the big Ally McBeal fan that I am, I was undoubtedly disappointed to hear about Robert Downey, Jr.'s recurring drug problems and subsequent run-ins with the law. The news of his latest arrest on Tuesday, April 24, resulted in his termination from the Ally McBeal series for this season. The onscreen romance between characters Ally (Calista Flockhart) and Larry (Robert Downey, Jr.) had been flourishing and gave Ally fans something to cheer for. Ally is too often seen at the end of episodes, walking the streets alone with Vonda Shephard singing a sad tune of loneliness. It was nice to see Ally happy and in love for a change. Robert Downey, Jr.'s character Larry is so endearing and charming that it will inevitably break more hearts than Ally's when he is written out of the series so abruptly.
Aside from being able to cheer for Ally's happiness in the series, we all cheered for Robert Downey, Jr., hoping that this new opportunity would be something good for him, something that would keep him out of drugs and out of trouble. Apparently, the stresses of his personal life were too much for him to handle and again, he found solace in illegal substances. It truly saddens me to see such a talented man waste his life away and not even be able to help himself.
My prayers out to Robert Downey, Jr. Yes, he's just some famous movie star out there that I'll never meet, but he's still very much a human being... one who really needs your prayers to get through this once and for all. I would hate to see all that potential never come to fruition.
For more information on Robert Downey, Jr., here are a couple of articles I ran into:
USA Today
People Magazine
posted by Donna, 4/26/2001 08:05:13 PM
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Wednesday, April 25, 2001
Nothing in moderation. Why can't I do anything in moderation? It's always either hot or cold, all or nothing with me. I need to learn the careful art of moderation. This is why I burn out on everything... I'm a huge raging flame burning brightly for a period of time, then burning out, consuming all of the fuel rapidly leaving a pile of embers after a short-lived blaze of glory.
posted by Donna, 4/25/2001 10:43:30 PM
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Heavenly canvas. The sky at twilight tonight was simply awe-inspiring. The clouds streaked across the sky and others looked as if they were painted by the skillful brush of an artist. As I drove home, I couldn't help but to admire the twilight sky and smile to myself, thanking God for his beautiful and wonderful creation.
posted by Donna, 4/25/2001 07:33:51 PM
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Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Feeling much better. I put my Ami Suzuki CD in my CD Player and cranked it up. I forced my lazy butt off the chair and onto the Total Gym and exercised for about 30 minutes. I then did 4 sets of 15 reps with the AbSlide. Following that, I took a cold shower and ate a salad. After all that, I felt refreshed and invigorated. Maybe I should've done all this BEFORE I started my day. ;)
Um, maybe not.
posted by Donna, 4/24/2001 08:20:00 PM
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Laundering paper products. Have you ever mistakenly thrown a piece of kleenex or a paper towel into the washing machine with a load of laundry? Well, I just did. As I removed my freshly washed clothes from the washing machine, I noticed bits of paper towel stuck all over everything. I spent the last fifteen minutes picking each little piece off of my clothes before tossing them into the dryer, then digging the remnants out of the little holes in the washing machine. Now if that ain't annoying, I don't know what is.
Did I mention that I was grouchy today? :P
posted by Donna, 4/24/2001 07:01:06 PM
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Tension Headache. For some reason, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Perhaps it was not the side of the bed that I woke up on -- but the time which I rolled out of it. I decided to go in to the office an hour earlier than usual to get some work done. For no obvious reason, I felt grouchy and irritable. (Am I being redundant there?) I was a walking ball of irritability, frazzled nerves with a short fuse. Luckily, I am able to mask most of my annoyance with certain things that happen (or certain people who call). Nevertheless, my hair felt like it was standing on end all day and subsequently caused a tension headache that even tons of caffiene (via Pepsi and Chocolates) and 2 Tylenols couldn't take care of. I worked 10 hours today. Fortunately, traffic wasn't horrific on the way home. [I heard that yesterday's rush hour was pretty bad, so I'm glad that I had to do something on the road and left early.] All the way home, I figured that I would jump on my Total Gym and exercise all that tension away. But here I am, my buttocks planted on this chair in front of the computer with little motivation to move it.
And no, it's not PMS talking here. I can't blame my grouchiness on anything tangible like that. I'm usually not the moody type, so I'm wondering what brought this on. Heck, it's only Tuesday, I should still be fresh from the weekend. What's my problem?
Oh well...another mystery. I really should do some exercising because I've eaten horribly all day as a result of being grouchy -- in hopes of drowning my sorrows in pastel-colored Plain M&M's and Pepsi. Needless to say, comfort cannot always be found in sugar-laden junk food...
posted by Donna, 4/24/2001 06:31:47 PM
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Monday, April 23, 2001
Another day, another loaf of bread... I baked another loaf of bread. The 3rd loaf in 3 days. This one (Raisin Bread) goes to Hubby so that he can share it with the work cronies. Tomorrow's loaf will go to my office buddies... I'm just a bread-baking maniac these days! Let's see how long that lasts!
posted by Donna, 4/23/2001 07:52:54 PM
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Hi Rod! An e-mail from the long, lost Rod!
...I didn't know you were a long, lost Nami Kaji fan, too!! *^.^* Thanks for writing!
posted by Donna, 4/23/2001 07:50:19 PM
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Sunday, April 22, 2001
Is it that time already? It's approaching the 10:00 pm hour, which means that I should be getting ready for bed. Staring another new work week in the face and I'm not ready to end my weekend just yet. Well, being that I spent nearly half the day at Lowe's looking at ranges, it felt as though Sunday was gone in a blink of an eye.
We walked out the happy owners of a new Whirlpool range. Unfortunately, they didn't have the glass top model in stock, so I settled for the one with the coils. (I have heard from someone that the glass top models don't heat as well anyway. Is that true?) Oh well, at any rate, we saved some money by buying the less fancy model anyway. Works the same, just doesn't look as pretty.
posted by Donna, 4/22/2001 09:50:08 PM
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Yeast problems... No, not those kind of yeast problems. I baked another loaf of bread with my new bread machine this afternoon. However, I failed to heat the water before adding it to the mix. Somehow, the heated water helps the yeast rise properly. Despite that, my raisin bread came out pretty well. I think it would be better if I had read the instructions before mixing.
posted by Donna, 4/22/2001 09:38:43 PM
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61 e-mail messages later... I just replied to 61 e-mail messages from my Okinawa.com in-box. Can you tell I'm more than a little behind? I only went back to mid-February. I think the ones prior to then are already MUCH too late to reply to. I will definitely have to keep up as the messages come in instead of sitting on them for months. Ugh...
Next on the To-Do list? Actually do an update. Ooh, what a concept. I haven't updated since February.
posted by Donna, 4/22/2001 09:16:32 PM
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Costco Report. Well... I didn't quite bust the pocketbook, but I came away with a TON o' stuff (as usual) from my Costco run yesterday. The most notable being a new breadmaker. I immediately went to Safeway and bought some bread mixes and ingredients to try it out. 3 hours later, voila! A fresh-baked loaf of bread. The crust was a little hard -- but I think that's due to the setting I put it on. Will try it again later -- maybe this afternoon.
posted by Donna, 4/22/2001 09:31:33 AM
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