December Sunset

After having my new cell phone a couple months, I decided to clear off the pictures I'd taken with it. Lots of duds but I did find these three. I took them in mid-December, right after I got the phone. Not the greatest quality but I like them.

The Never Ending Cycle

Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I admit openly that I need to lose more than a hundred pounds and that I always struggle with the process. Sometimes, like the past few weeks, I don't say anything on my blog because I backslide and just don't want to admit it.

So here it is.

A couple weeks ago, my grandfather died. And while I'm sure that many members of my family think that I'm a heartless, unfeeling bitch that didn't give a rat's ass about it, I am grieving for him. We weren't close and there was some strain there (put-down humor is NEVER funny and is a form of bullying, even when the source is family) but I'm still grieving. I'm especially having a hard time with the fact that I am now grandparentless.

And as always, that emotional turmoil turned into emotional eating. So I gained a little more than six pounds in just four days.

When I saw that on the scale, I could have easily allowed myself to spiral even further and gain more weight. But I accepted the responsibility for the gain and resolved myself to lose that weight and get myself back on track. Especially since there's talk about a possible family reunion this summer.

I'm done being the fat one.

I'm still struggling and I'm sure there will be plenty of backsliding in the future but a little more than a week in and I've lost almost four of those six pounds.

I will succeed this time. No matter how what challenges are thrown in my path.

Organizing Your Blog Reader

I was asked how I had gotten my blog reader sorted and organized and figured that I'd turn it into a blog post. I knew I'd get too wordy for it to be a comment and also, when I started organizing my reader I couldn't find any good tips on how to do it. Which is weird. You'd think since you can find a bagillion and one tutorials on everything you want to do that there would be hundreds of tips on how to organize your blog reader. But apparently not.

So first off, I use Google Reader and have it set to also show blogs from Google Friend Connect/Blogger Followers thing. Which can be a pain. You can't unfollow a GFC blog in Google Reader. You have to go to the Blogger dashboard and then into the settings for the Blogs I Follow section. It's convenient to be able to just hit that follow button on Blogger blogs but it adds steps if you ever want to unfollow them.

Before I started I kinda figured out what my groupings would be. I ended up with A to Z, Blogs (for the ones that don't fit anywhere else), Crafts, Fashion, Fun, News & Sports, Weight Loss and Writing. Then I pretty much just started at the top of my reader and just went down the list. For each one, I looked at how long it had been since they updated. It's up to you how long you want to give them but I decided that if they hadn't updated in 2013 then I would unfollow them.

Then I checked if they were a participant or host of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (I actually clicked over to the blog and looked for the badge in the sidebar) if they were I put them in the A to Z folder and went to the next blog.

If they weren't, I started reading their posts. On a sheet of paper I had two columns, keep or unfollow. As I read posts, I would mark in one of the columns. If I enjoyed the post and was interested, I'd mark keep. If it was something that didn't really interest me for whatever reason, I marked unfollow. When one of the columns got to five marks that decided the blog's fate. If it got to five keep marks first, I put the blog into a folder that applied. If it got five unfollow marks then I would just unsuscribe.

That's it. It took me about a week of doing it at night while I watched tv to get it done. Maybe someone else has or knows of a better, easier method but that's what worked for me.

Success!

My blog reader has been cleaned out of all the blogs that no longer update or that I no longer read.

The remaining blogs have been sorted into categories (News, A to Z, Crafts, Fashion, etc...)

Let the reckless following of A to Z blogs commence!



You could make it easy on me you know. And leave me a comment with your link. That would be AWESOME.

What Did I Just Watch?

Time for another round of movie and television dvd quick reviews.

Calendar Girls - I could have sworn that I saw this in the theater but my mom insisted that we hadn't and it just wasn't familliar enough for me to be sure. The movie is about a group of middle aged women who pose for a nude calendar to raise money for a cancer charity. I really liked it. I love Julie Walters (Who doesn't love Mrs. Weasley?) The story is sweet and funny even when dealing with death or family problems. Definitely worth checking out.

Dear Frankie - Man, I find some of the best movies and tv shows from England and Scotland on Netflix and this is one of the best. The story is about a woman who lies to her son and tells him his father is a sailor and then answers the letters that he writes to his dad. She ends up having to hire a stranger to pretend to be his father to keep up the charade. But it's such a good movie. If you're only going to watch one movie that I recommend, make it this one. I promise that it's worth it.

Hamish MacBeth season 2 - This is the last season. I loved the show and am heartbroken that it's over. But I'm okay with the way that they ended it. I'm glad that they added Jean and Frankie to the show and wish there could have been more seasons to explore their places in the Lochdubh society.

Ordinary People - Wow. Have I ever told you how much I love Timothy Hutton? I'm sure I have but I just can't say it enough. This man is definitely underrated as an actor. This movie is about a family trying to cope and heal after a son dies and the other (Hutton) attempts suicide. I am confused about why Hutton was nominated (and won) the supporting actor Oscar. I got the feeling, and not just from my love for him, that this was his movie. And by the way, Mary Tyler Moore is AMAZING. I just can't gush about this movie and the actors in it enough.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - The best part of this movie is hands down the scenes where Sherlock is riding the pony. Freaking hilarious. I don't love this Sherlock Holmes series (I like the Benedict Cumberbatch show better) but I do like them. I don't know how closely these movies follow the original books because I haven't read them (yet) so I can't say how a purist would feel, but I liked it and was entertained.

Nero Wolfe season 2 - Another show that only lasted two seasons. Ugh. Television execs are idiots. I'm only about halfway through the season but just like the first, I love it. Did I tell you earlier that I love Timothy Hutton? I did. Well it's worth repeating: I LOVE Timothy Hutton. And Kari Matchett. She's a genius on this show.

Lucky Seven - Oh my god. Patrick Dempsey, why? WHYYYYYYYYY did you make this horrible movie? He's a better actor than this. It's just... a mess from beginning to end.

and last but not least...

Magic Mike - Confession: I only got this movie because it has Matthew Bomer and Channing Tatum. I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to love the movie and was probably going to end up fast forwarding through a large portion of it because I admit it, I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to sex scenes. But this movie is just bad. And that's so sad because it had the potential to be good. My first issue is that the story felt like it was just there to fill times between sex scenes and stripping scenes. I think Channing Tatum got sick of people asking him about his being a male stripper and wrote this but didn't really know what he was doing with it. The two stories that had the potential to make a great movie (or even two) were that of the experience stripper who wants out of that life but just keeps getting shit on by the people around him and that of the young guy who gets thrown into the life and just goes crazy with all the excesses that are there. It's just sad all the way around. Matt Bomer, Channing Tatum and even Matthew McConaughey are all better actors than this movie. This movie is just so confusing (which the post title).

Man this week was definitely peaks and valleys in dvd watching. The good ones were great and the bad things were just horrible.