Useful Links, Calories, Old Blog, Clerks

Jewelry

I oxidized my first batch of PMC… forgot to take photos… will show you tomorrow.


Helpful Info

Here's a link I've had "favorited" for a while now. It's a page that shows some handy conversion info.

Here's a link to some info about wire.


Wake Up

A Big Mac will cost you: 2 hrs and 29 minutes of walking… or 1 hour and 22 minutes of cycling.

A Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad will also cost you: 2 hrs and 29 minutes of walking… or 1 hour and 22 minutes of cycling.

A Taco Bell Burrito Supreme will cost you: 1 hour and 56 minutes of walking or 1 hour and 4 minutes of cycling.

Two BBQ Chicken Wings will cost you: 1 hour and 3 minutes of walking or 35 minutes of cycling.

OMG!!! I do NOT like exercise that much. Actually, these days, I don't like exercise at all. Hmph!

Well, if I'm not willing to exercise three hours a day, I'd better REALLY start taking control of what goes past my lips. Double hmph!

One pound of body fat contains approximately 3,500 calories. Therefore, to lose 1 pound of fat per week, you need to have a 500 calorie deficit each day. To lose 2½ pounds per week (isn't this the most you can lose while being safe?), you'd need to have a 1250 calorie deficit each day.

So for example, if I take in 2000 calories on any given day, to maintain a weight loss of 2½ lbs per week (of body fat), I'd have to exercise enough to make I burn 3250 calories in a day. Now, you burn a certain amount just by living, so it's not like I have to do 3250 calories-burning worth of exercise… but I'd definitely have to do more than I'm currently doing.

The alternative is to lower my daily calorie intake. Well, I don't want to go down so severely that I never have any energy. Let me go see what a healthy intake for my age is… brb…

I think I'll start off with 1500 (women should never go below 1200 without seeking medical attention). That means I need to make sure I'm burning 2750 per day.

In my normal day (without doing any extra exercise), I burn 1800 calories. That's from sleeping, sitting, and walking to work and back. So I need to burn an additional 950 calories per day in order to lose the most weight I can… IF, I take in no more than 1500 calories a day. Geez… the way I've been, I can't believe I'm not 600 freakin' pounds. ARGH!

What can I do to burn the extra 950? An hour of jumping rope would take care of it… but I doubt I could jump rope for more than 5 mins… IF THAT.

90 mins of bicycling. Not really into that, but it seems like one of the easier choices.

Meh… let's just go for two pounds a week… what would that be? 1000 calories burned each day beyond what I've taken in. So if I take in 1500, then I need to burn 2500. If I normally burn 1800, then I only have to come up with 700 more. Hm… that doesn't seem too far from the 950 that I didn't want to do in the first place.

30 minutes of badminton burns 193 calories.
30 minutes of leisure bicycling burns 171 calories.
30 minutes of Hatha yoga burns 119 calories.
30 minutes of general weight lifting burns 148 calories.

Well, by golly… maybe I'll just mosey on down to one pound of fat per week. Hmph!

So if I intake 1500 calories, then I'd need to burn 2000 in a day… and I already burn 1800, so I only need to come up with 200 more burned calories. I'd better start there… if I go to overboard with my ambitions I'm bound to just toss the whole thing.

So I'll play badminton with Monica each day for 30 minutes. She'll love that. We just have to find a place that's not windy… that's been our problem so far.

And to keep the boredom to a minimum, I'll mix it up… badminton some days, cycling some days, lifting weights some days, etc.

I'm not one to count calories, but I think if I do for a few days I'll get a better idea of the basic changes I need to make.

Now remember, it's not all about calories… I want a balanced diet with the right proportion of Carbs, Protein, and Fat too. AND… I prefer if these calories come from nutritious foods, rather than from simple carbs, etc. If I'm not going to be stuffing myself, I want to make sure that what DOES go in me is as beneficial to my body as is possible.


Old Blog

If you go way back with me, you know I used to write my blog in html and post it myself. I've consolidated excerpts from that old blog and posted them here.



Clerks

Warning… contains colorful language… if you are offended by swear words, stop reading here.

Otherwise, here's a bit of entertainment I'd like to share with you. It's some dialogue from the movie Clerks. I think it's affecting.

RANDAL
What the hell is your problem?

DANTE
This life. Why do I have this life? My life is in the shitter right
about now, so if you don't mind, I'd like to stew a bit.

RANDAL
That's all bullshit. You know what the real problem here is?

DANTE
I was born.

RANDAL
You should shit or get off the pot.

DANTE
What are you talking about?

RANDAL
I'm talking about this thing you have... this inability to improve
your situation in life. You'll sit there and blame life for dealing a cruddy hand, never once accepting the responsibility for the way your
situation is.

DANTE
What responsibility?

RANDAL
If you hate your life then change it.

DANTE
As if it's that easy.

RANDAL
It is. You just change. What's stopping you? You're comfortable. This is a life of convenience for you, and any attempt to change it would shatter the pathetic microcosm you've fashioned for yourself. You bitch all day.

DANTE
It must be so great to be able to simplify everything the way you do.

RANDAL
Am I right or what?

DANTE
What do you want me to say? Yes, I suppose some of the things you're
saying may be true. But that's the way things are; it's not going to
change.

RANDAL
Make them change.

DANTE
I can't, all right! Jesus, would you leave me alone? I can't make
changes like that in my life. If I could, I would-but I don't have the
ability to risk comfortable situations on the big money and the
fabulous prizes.

RANDAL
Who're you kidding? You can so.

DANTE
Jesus H. Christ, I can't!

RANDAL
So you'll continue being miserable all the time, just because you don't have the guts to face change?

My Schedule until next March, Men and Women Emotionally Different... duh, The Truth about World of Warcraft

Hockey

Now that hockey's starting, it looks like I'll be at various rinks on Mondays (Fremont/Belmont), Tuesdays (Dublin/Oakland), Thursdays (Dublin/Oakland), Fridays (Fremont/Belmont), Saturdays (Fremont/San Jose), Sundays (Dublin/Oakland/San Jose).

Oh look... I have Wednesdays free. :-)


The Kitchen

I still get ragged on by Gabe if he's been away for a few days and comes back to a messy kitchen. Ha! (He did an in-depth cleaning several weeks ago and sees no reason for it to ever be messy again.)


Great Article

Emotional Wiring Different in Men and Women

"Men and women are actually from the same planet, but scientists now have the first strong evidence that the emotional wiring of the sexes is fundamentally different…

"… Throughout evolution, women have had to deal with a number of internal stressors, such as childbirth, that men haven't had to experience," said study co-author Larry Cahill of the University of California Irvine. "What is fascinating about this is the brain seems to have evolved to be in tune with those different stressors.

"The finding, published in the recent issue of the journal NeuroImage, could help researchers learn more about sex-related differences in anxiety, autism, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder…"



Sign Off…

For those following my "green" project or my adventures in metal clay, see this link.




see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Hockey, Coffee, Jewelry, Searching on eBay, Etsy, and ArtFire

Hockey

It was fun watching Gabe play hockey yesterday, even though it was a scrimmage and not a game. I'm afraid I'll probably miss a lot of his games this year (like last year) because I won't be going to all his CAHA weekends or all his tournaments… but we'll see.

I still haven't heard anything from Mon's girls' team, but the BlackHawks are all geared up and ready to go (practices start next Monday).

I've started to video tape the kids so they can watch/review their own performances. It looks like, however, both their new teams will be doing video review as part of their regular curriculum. I'm very happy about that.


Really Important Coffee

I blew off a couple hours of work Sunday to meet a friend for coffee. I highly recommend this type of thing. My work will never be done or caught up, and I don't intend to set all the important things in life aside until my work is done… (you see, you miss out on life that way).

I was very relaxed the whole rest of the day.


Jewelry

Here are small pix of what I have up this week. I think all but the two green necklaces are now up (they'll go up tonight). You can click anywhere on the picture to go to the website listings.



Monica made a GORGEOUS necklace this weekend, but it won't go up until next week. I think I'll work on earrings this week… and bronze items.


Metal Clay

I posted the latest pictures of my metal clay projects on my Going Green Jewelry blog.


Blogs I Like to Visit

Don't know if you've ever scrolled down far enough to read the list of "Blogs I Like to Visit" over there on the right. If you have any recommendations for me, let me know!


Comments

mclainjewelry said... I saw this photo and thought of your dream! LOL

http://2photo.ru/uploads/posts/4268/20071130/chiara_bautista/30_11_2007_0362419001196371210_chiara_bautista.jpg


Oh wow… that is one freaky (but intriguing) picture.


mclainjewelry also said...Me again ... you know I do not sleep in anything resembling a normal mode, so I am frequently up at 1 or 2 am and while I wake up and get the cogs turning I frequently log on and surf. For some reason I was jonesing to see some lampwork and I plopped over on Artfire and searched on that term. Well I was pleased with the results and the accurate search return. It seems when I go on some other sites like Etsy I get several other not-so-related items per one accurate in a search. So Artfire just regained a notch in recognition for me.

I keep glancing back at those long textured tube earrings, Laura... are the cylinders some of your recent explorations into art clay (bronze, brass,??) They really pop.. I keep looking on your web hoping to read more about them in a listing !

I also did not comment on your turquoise information... and I should have! I love turquoise of any type... even fake (er excuse me FAUX) turquoise. I am not a stone snob .. if it is pretty I don't care if I found it on a beach for free... value to me is in the art of it. I have used all of the above turquoise types and all of them sell well. I also will publicly confess here that I have a hoard - bin of turquoise I will never live long enough to use in jewelry. Some day I will de-stash a bit on Etsy, just to feel less guilty about it, but in the mean time I will be a turquoise Midas feasting my eyes on the variety... all gorgeous!


So… you don't sleep straight through the night? I mean, your "8 hours of sleep" is broken up into segments?

Glad to hear ArtFire regained some Brownie points when it comes to searching. Just for the heck of it, today I re-did a search I tried many months ago. I'm looking for a handmade backpack. I went to Etsy first. I type in "backpack" in the search field. Ugh! WAY too many people are using "backpack" as a tag for their item. What a stretch. So then I do it by category listings. I go right to the BACKPACK category… and still see… NO FREAKIN' BACKPACKS. Why am I seeing purses in the backpack category? No way am I shopping here!

Hey people… if you're selling a tote, but it in the TOTE category. If you're selling a purse, put it in the PURSE category. If you're selling a messenger bag, put it in the MESSENGER BAG category.

ARGH! But I hold Etsy to blame too, if not even moreso. If they have so many customers under their belt, then they have enough money to hire people to take care of this kind of thing.

Now let's see what happens at eBay. Since eBay doesn't claim to be an online venue for handmade items, I put that word in the search… "handmade backpack". Surprisingly, I see many that fit what I'm looking for.

Okay, now let's try ArtFire. First, a general search of the site on the term "backpack". Meh. Yes, I see backpacks, but you can't really tell what some of the thumbnails are pictures of people the new thing (I think this started with Etsy) is to take an "artsy", angled shot showing a mere one-tenth of whatever product it is you're trying to sell. Ugh! Let me know see if they have a category dedicated to backpacks… and if so, what's in it.

There. Much better. The overwhelming majority of thumbnails seem like genuine handmade backpacks.

Etsy, what is wrong with you?

Now, about the earrings. Yes, they are/were bronze metal clay. I'll show you all the pictures… they sold within five minutes of me listing them. Yay!



But wow... I just had no idea about you and Turquoise. That is very useful information. :-)

Bronze Clay going in... Silver Clay coming out...

Alright, let's see what we have here…

These are the textured ribbon tubes I made out of Bronze clay while I was waiting for my peacock to dry.




Here's the peacock. Bronze over cork, some copper accents, and one inset eye. His bottom needs to be finished properly (the edge, all around the whole thing, is jagged) and I need to drill holes for the feather bits.




These are my first silver tube beads... but even after tumbling for three hours, there's still white to be seen. I wonder what else I'm to do or what I should do differently.




And these are my mismatched caps (not oxidized yet) and a lesson... hammer VERY lightly on finished PMC.

Just a quick hello... and then goodnight...

I love cats, but one of the only “cat” things that holds no interest for me is cat shows.

Does it make sense that I don’t want to TELL someone what to do, how to be… but rather I’d like to know that whatever they do, however they behave is an innate part of their personality.

Not sure I feel like elaborating at the moment.

Shrug…

Took Bear to the dog park today then ran the kiln for my first batch of (non-burnt) silver.

Posted a couple pictures of the start of my listings for the week.

Okay, this is bad, but I’m suddenly VERY tired. I’ll try to write more tomorrow.