Month: August 2010

Weight Gain This Week

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

I was very disappointed in myself this morning when I stepped on the scale because instead of losing weight, I gained weight.

The problem is I started getting bored with my meal plans, 4oz chicken with 1/2 cup brown rice and 1 cup of any vegetable. I was doing so good with that meal plan, I had lost 31lbs with it. When I got bored with it I started eating other things and this week I broke my one cardinal rule and bought bread. Not just bread but also bagels.

On Tuesday when I bought the package of bagels which were on sale for .99¢, I had 3 bagels that day. See what happens when you deny yourself food for such a long time, you end up bingeing on it. I could buy 1 single bagel every few weeks or maybe once a month and that will satisfy my hunger for it instead of buying them all the time. When I deny myself for such a long time I end up eating more than I should in 1 day.

The store also had Yoplait on sale @ 20 for $10 so I bought 5 for myself and 5 for Darrin. I ate 3 that same day then 2 the next day.

Then I also had a craving for some turkey sliders so I bought some ground turkey meat on Tuesday and then on Wednesday I bought a package of Hawaiian sweet rolls for the slider buns. Those rolls are about 100 calories per roll. You’d never think that they were that many considering they are so small but they are. I cooked 5 for myself and 5 for Darrin. I didn’t like them as much as I thought I would and so I only ate 3 and put the other 2 in the fridge but ended up eating them as a snack later that night.

The amount of weight that I gained back isn’t too horrible, only about 3lbs I think. I have been eating salads this week which is ok for me because it’s very low cal but the amount of dressing I put on it is probably not good. So… I think it’s time to go back to my original meal plans and stop straying away from that no matter how boring it might become.

I have to get back on the ball because I really want to lose this weight, I can’t keep going back, I need to go forward. I haven’t lost so much weight that I’m back in stage 1 yet but 1lb more and I will be.

So, hopefully next week I will not only have lost weight but I will be below what I weighed in at last week… hopefully.

Lessons From A Real Hippie

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I’ve always loved hippie jewelry which is why I finally learned how to make the ring and bracelet that I made last night but I wanted to learn how to make the thick necklace like Karl has on GHI. Well, I didn’t know that I had bought the wrong hemp string yesterday. I bought the fine string, I need the thicker string.

As you can see in this tutorial on how to make a hemp bracelet on the Made By Hippies website, he is using a really thick hemp string. Which means… I gotta go back to Michael’s  .

I have this thin stuff so I guess I can still use it for making thin bracelets with the small beads with matching rings for selling but if I really want to make the necklaces I should buy the thicker hemp. The beads I bought aren’t meant for the thin hemp but at least when I buy thicker hemp I won’t have to buy more beads cause I got a bunch lol. Although, they had this huge package of wood beads for $5, I might buy it for making necklaces for selling, who knows.

LOL I’m a beginner and I’m already talking about selling them. I’m ambitious aren’t I?

A Ring? For Moi?

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, JewelryLeave a comment

I’m waiting for my ambien to kick in (as it is while I’m typing) and I was looking for free patterns for making hemp hippie jewelry like rings and necklaces.  I made the bracelet but I want more lol.

So I found this website that actually sells the rings for about $5 and thought, well shoot, that’s easy, that’s the same exact pattern I used for the bracelet.  Left right 10 times, add a bead, left right 10 times then tie the bottom to itself to form a ring.  Done.

So I present you with my new hippie ring since I am too broke to buy a real ring for myself.  I actually like it way better than an expensive ring because I have skin allergies to metal which is why I never wear jewelry unless it’s pure gold.  That’s the only metal I can wear is pure gold.  Anything else gives me some strange effect where it oozes and scabs up lol.  It took me years for my ears to heal when I was a teenager because they didn’t pierce them with gold.

Anyway, tell me what you think… too gay?  Ask me how much I care lol.  I’m going to make the matching necklace tomorrow lol.  Chew on that.

Hemp Bracelet

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, JewelryLeave a comment

I finally did it! I made my first hemp bracelet. I wanted to make a necklace but in order for me to make something that big I had to learn how to macramé and this pattern was a good start.

Although this isn’t the first one, this is the 2nd one. The first one I used all pony beads and they were too big so I had to start over with smaller beads. You know what that means don’t you? Yes, I had to cut the pony beads out. OUCH! Yeah, that did hurt but it’s fine.

I also didn’t do it exactly right, I did all the knots going one way which made a spiral pattern which I did like but that’s not what the pattern was. So for me to do it right I had to type out left right left right…. bead… left right… then check them all off as I went to be sure I was doing it right.

It was touch and go here and there but I finished it. One of the beads in the middle is too loose so it doesn’t look right. I think what happened was it got turned around because the ends of the hemp that I had to put the beads on with was getting frayed so I had to keep cutting them and when I started putting in the knots it wasn’t going great. I had to undo some knots and start over and I think that I allowed it to be too loose when I should have kept it tight.

At any rate, it’s all finished and I like it. The beads that I bought had 3 different colors and there were 8 beads total in the pattern so instead of using 1 color I chose all 3 in this pattern. Light, medium, dark, medium, medium, dark, medium and light. You can see the light one at the very top of my wrist.

So my next project will be a necklace but I have to find a great pattern because this hemp is too thin, I might have to double up on it to make it thicker because the one Karl was wearing on GHI looked thicker.

Anyway, I’m glad that I was able to learn so easily how to make this pattern or knot, I’m going to try out some more things later.

Hemp Jewelry Supplies

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Jewelry1 Comment

While I was suffering with my website, Darrin came in my room to tell me that he had to go to Geico to make his first payment.  Yes, he just saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico.  There, I said it.

He said it was over on California Ave. and Stockdale Hwy so I decided to get away from my blog problems and go with him to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

While we were out I wanted to go to Michael’s so I could buy some hemp cord and some wood beads for making my necklace.  I don’t care anymore about making it my “reward” for when I drop down to 200lbs.  Mainly because I’m in a plateau which is frustrating and a necklace will make me feel better lol.

They didn’t exactly have the beads that I wanted like the ones that are sold at Acajou Games and Crafts but the ones that I did find will do just fine.  The ones I found at Michael’s were cheaper and came with a variety of colors and sizes at only $1.99 with 80 pieces.  I also got a package of wood pony beads for $3.99 with 90 pieces.  I’m pretty sure I have enough wooden beads to last me a long time.

I got my bracelet pattern which will teach me how to make the same pattern for a necklace and since I’ve never made one of these before, the bracelet will be my teacher so I can make the necklace without wasting too much hemp cord.

This macramé project will keep me busy for a while and I will take a picture if it turns out ok and post it lol.

Well I’m just about finished with the bracelet and the pony beads are way too big so I’m gonna have to do something that will hurt me, I’m gonna have to cut the entire bracelet up to remove the beads and put them back in their bag and start all over.  That’s ok because it’s all a learning process, you can’t learn if you don’t make mistakes.

The other bag that I got for $1.99 has beads of many different sizes so I think the little beads will work for the bracelet and necklace.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the big beads, I’m sure I’ll find something.

It’s going to be awhile now before I can supply a picture so until then…

RSS Feed Doesn’t Work Anymore

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I have had the worst day with my blog.  I don’t know why it happened or when it happened but all of a sudden my RSS feed doesn’t work anymore.  When you click the RSS in my blog this is the message that you get.

Ok fine, I see the problem but I don’t know what file to open in my blog folder to fix the issue.  I can’t save XML files at all, I can alter and save a php file no problem but the problem is finding which php file has this error.

I right clicked the RSS button and saved the file which downloaded as download.xml but again, I can’t alter and save an xml file to fix whatever issue I’m having.

I’ve googled the issue the entire freaking day and I just can’t find an answer.  I’m not going to mess with it any more today because it’s just making me mad the more I try and my shows are coming on soon so I’m going to just watch SyFy until then.

Maybe tomorrow I will be able to find my answer.

The problem is, without my RSS feed my posts won’t transfer over to other websites like my fan page and YouSayToo.  I’ve been lucky enough that they have been going over to YouSayToo by whatever miracle that allowed that.

Maybe someone else had this issue and can respond to me.  Hopefully…

Don’t Laugh, He’s a Beginner

On By Michel McDonaldIn Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

My friend Sue’s son Aaron is a very talented 30-year-old man.  I’ve known Sue for 13 years, back when Aaron was still a teenager and I never knew that he could do this.  He says not to laugh because he’s a beginner but I think he’s talking to all the haters out there who like to flame people.  I for one did not laugh because I was shocked that he could play music at all.

So here is his first YouTube video ever, I’d like to introduce Aaron playing a song that he wrote on the flute.

WoW Look At That Phish

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

I don’t know if this is a new scam or if it’s been around and they are just now getting to me but last week I got an email that looked as if it really came from Blizzard telling me that a character faction change is now pending for my World of Warcraft account with my email address and a link to track the status of my request.

Down in the email they had a transaction ID number with my email address again then below that was some “more information” along with a few links.  2 of those links were different from what was shown in the text.  That there was my clue that something didn’t smell right.

So, obviously I knew it was a phishing scam because I don’t have a World of Warcraft account with them.  I played the trial back in 2006 for the week they gave me but I really only played it for a couple of days.  I was taking a break from EverQuest to get away from all the drama in the guild and during that break I tried out the demo of some other games.

The only thing that concerned me about this email was that when I was at the blizzard website looking for their contact information I stumbled onto their FAQ page and found out that they charge $30 to change your characters faction.  If I did have an account, which I knew I didn’t but if I did I didn’t want to be charged $30 for nothing.

I finally found the contact page and forwarded them the email that I got.  They responded letting me know that they can confirm that the email address that was associated in this phishing email does not exist in their database, meaning I don’t have an account to worry about.

I got another email today from a different email address but still from blizzard telling me that my account has been locked due to suspicious activity.  It said that my account had been logged in via a different IP address than what their records show as being my IP address.  They are concerned my account has been stolen so they locked me out.  I don’t have an account so you didn’t lock me out of something I didn’t have in the first place.

Naturally I can only assume this is another phishing scam email.  I went to verify that the links were exactly as they were showing up in text and of course they are different.

So even though I know I have nothing to worry about, I am writing this blog post to warn other people out there who actually do have a World of Warcraft account to beware.  If you get these emails and you know for a fact that you did not order a faction change for $30 and you know for a fact that you can still login, that your account hasn’t been locked then you know not to click ANY LINKS in those emails.  Beware when someone sends you an email asking you to click a link to login to your account because you might be handing over the keys to the Bentley without even knowing it.

Prop-8 Decision Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay Rights, NOH8, Political, Prop 81 Comment

Image via Wikipedia

The NOH8 Campaign twittered this just a few minutes ago:

“: Chicagoans Plan Rally in Response to #PROP8 Ruling   http://tinyurl.com/32q3jrq #NOH8 #LGBT Be heard!”

So I went over to that website and read it. I think that the National Organization for [Straight] Marriage is being just a little melodramatic with this statement.

““We want supporters of marriage all across the country to have a clear understanding of the threat this federal judge poses to the very survival of marriage in America.”

Tell me one straight married couple whose marriage is going to be threatened by gays getting married. Not one! How is gays getting married going to threaten your way of life? It’s not. The whole point of gays wanting to get married is number 1 equal rights and number 2 health care benefits.

I think it sucks that straight married couples who have health care benefits through their employer can pass those benefits over to their spouse but a gay couple is out of luck in that department. Is that what is going to threaten their marriage? The fact that the gays will be able to give their dying partners a chance at life with health insurance?

There are way more benefits than I just spoke about such as being able to bury your partner, being able to make medical decisions in the hospital as well as after death when they have passed on.  Many more which I can’t think of so if you can enlighten me with a comment.

Go lay an egg.

Rick Jacobs, founder of the pro-LGBT unions Courage Campaign said in this article . “I can only say that based on the evidence in the trial, it is absolutely clear that allowing gays and lesbians to marry will strengthen families and the nation,” and “No matter how the judge rules … we’ve already won a significant victory because the other side admitted they have no argument.”

See that? No argument. They have to prove that gays getting married is going to threaten marriage and they can’t prove it because it’s not going to threaten marriage. How can it? I just don’t see the logic in their argument.

The religious people don’t want gays getting married because “the bible says it’s wrong” boo hoo. They say being gay is a sin so they shouldn’t be allowed to get married because being gay is a choice. Ok well if being gay were a choice then I can choose to be straight right? … … … yeah, not gonna happen. It’s not that easy because I have news for you, I was born this way. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, it just happened to me.

Believe me, if I had a choice I wouldn’t choose to have eggs thrown at me, punches thrown at my face by my stepdad and the other kids in school who made fun of me and called me faggot everyday. I didn’t choose that, I wouldn’t choose that. So their argument has no merit since it’s a BS argument.

The ruling will be in some time this afternoon.  This whole prop-8 BS campaign is never going to end because both sides are just going to keep appealing it.

Bicycle Trailers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Daily BlogLeave a comment

Last year I found an article on the Dvice blog about a guy who built his own bicycle trailer for going to “Burning Man”.  In that article was a link to another website which showed the same article but also another article for Roy the PVC Guy who was building his own trailer out of PVC.

I was looking at another article which has some links to other trailers people have made such as this trailer that doesn’t look exactly like a trailer to sleep in as much as it just looks like the kind of trailer you use for hauling your things.  Although if you keep watching as he directs his grandson to help him you will discover that it is indeed a trailer for sleeping in.  I was oohing and ahhing throughout the process which only took 12 minutes.

I can’t add that video in here for some odd reason but you can see it here.  Vic’s Journey to Manitoba.

But, as nice as that is you have to look at this video right here.  This is absolutely amazing.  And I know it’s not for bicycles, it’s for cars but if you are able to build this yourself it would make a very nice bicycle trailer.

It’s just a matter of lifting the top and putting it on the ground and the tent pops up all by itself.  It’s so easy.  If you build this for a bicycle you just use the same concept but with bicycle wheels.

I also like this idea because it allows for 2 people to share a space and tow their own trailer.

I don’t know if anyone has built this one but if they have I would love to see it in action.  In fact, if anyone has any videos please send them to me, I’d love to see them.