The 30 Day Blog Challenge

The 30 Day Challenge

I saw this on my little brother's blog and thought it might be an interesting way to add content to this otherwise silent place. Will it be a challenge? Definitely. Will I make it? I hope so. What's the ultimate goal? To give you a little more insight into my looney mind.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Who are you?

Random to the Max

So I don't watch much television anymore, simply because all I do is study, sleep, stare at my MAC screen. But when I do turn on the telly, it seems that that Red Robin commercial wit the police standoff is on...Every. Single. Time. Now I don't mind because it's funny, but it gives me the sudden urge to finish the jingle right alongside the bandit.

Naturally, this go me thinking, what other jingles/theme tunes do I feel compelled to finish or sing along with whenever I hear a few notes?

Just a few from my (very long) list:

~The Phineas and Ferb intro song

~The Boy Meets World Intro, I don't know the lyrics but I do hum along

~The Fresh Prince of Bel Air intro rap, I dare you not to join in. It's contagious

~"Subway....Eat Fresh!"

What about you? Surely this can't be an "only Alyssa because she's crazy" thing.

My Heart Aches

Warning: This is a rant spurned by goings on in the country. If you don't like it, just don't read it.

Have you been following the news lately? In the last week there have been at least six highly publicized deaths linked to bullying. Not just any bullying, bullying from close minded individuals who think that sexuality and attraction is a cut and dry, anything other than boy-likes-girl is wrong issue. Even with my conservative background, I can't fathom thinking that a person is essentially 'wrong' or disgusting just because who they're attracted to doesn't fit the "social norm."

Picking on someone just because of their sexuality is not alright. Just because most people in the world have brown eyes doesn't make it okay to bully those that don't. So why should it be okay for us to do the same thing to people that are gay?

What makes the issue worse is that the deaths range from pre-teen to college age. From a little kid being bullied because others have raised their children to be close minded to a college sophomore who had a private moment broadcast on internet by a roommate who should know better. The word tragic is very fitting in this situation.

With the issue of sexuality and attraction aside, this abuse and bullying is so beyond morally wrong it makes me sick, there is no other way to describe it. That someone or some group of people could go so far and be so cruel to another human being over something as unimportant as who they want to date is disgusting. Bullying is NOT okay, by any standards. Even teasing, which seems harmless to some, can have a highly negative affect on an individual, believe me. Emotional abuse can be mentally scarring and damaging and can have disastrous affects.

Now, I pride myself in having a lot of faith in humanity, but that faith was severely tested this week. All I can do is hope that in the future events such as these will disappear for good and that people will learn how to treat each other with the kindness and respect every single person on this planet deserves.

What I did before I left for SD

Apparently last minute before school starts hair dying runs in the family. This isn't a real post (no words) but they were funny as hell pics I have of my little brother. He bugged the crap out of me to get me to help, so in exchange I get to post these. Needless to say, they make me giggle.

Design Fail

Here are a couple of pictures taken from my cousin's washing machine. Can you see what's wrong with this? Clearly the designers need to talk to each other more.

Summer Goal #3

Okay, now that I am armed and you are aware of the new list, it's time for me to get to business.

Goal #3: Homemade Pretzels!

Now to be honest, I tracked down the recipe from a heathly eating foodie blog and tried it once, only to achieve disastrous results. After further contemplation, I figured out that I killed the yeast with a liquid mixture that was too hot and I added too much flour when I thought the dough was too sticky. But here is attempt #2, using a half size of the recipe.

The Recipe

1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter
salt

How Too

It's pretty simple, nothing too difficult.

1. Heat water and 2t. honey until just too hot to the touch. NO HOTTER! It will kill the yeast, just trust me.

2. Add yeast to the mixture and let sit during the next part.

It's aliiiiive. No really, it is.

3. Heat butter, remaining honey and milk, hitting the same temperature point as in Step 1. Note: I used the stove the first time, but I think that is where it all went wrong, so I went with the microwave this time around.

4. Mix flour and salt in a separate bowl.

5. Add the yeast to the heated liquid mixture.

It looks gross...but the end result is worth it.

6. Mix in the flour until a sticky ball is formed. If it sticks to everything, then add no more than 1 additional cup (if using whole recipe).

7. Let rest and rise for 1 1/2 hours.

I chucked mine in the oven

Halfway home...

8. Take golf-ball and a half sized portions and roll into a rope, then form a pretzel shape.

9. Next dip the pretzels into a pan containing 4c. simmering water and 4t. baking soda. Then place them on a greased and foil lined pan. I used waxed paper sans butter and they stuck...not cool.

10. Bake 20-30 minutes, depending on bagel size.

A little salt, butter and brown mustard and I was good to go.

I actually ended up taking half of the dough I made and turned them into cinnamon rolls. Were they any good? Let's just say they didn't survive the night.

Summer Goals 2010:

1. Gather Courage to Chop of Hair
2.Yoga! Yoga! Yoga! (LOL, get it?)
3. Make Something I Love from Scratch
4. Make a Homemade Apple Pie
5. Paint Bedroom
6. Disneyland!!!!

Summer Goals: ChaChaChanges!

Okay, so after having spent a good 1/2-2/3 of the Summer working through everything I need to get through (curse you MCATS *shakes fist in defiance*) and still having a long way to go...I realized that some of my Summer Goals need to be altered. I was looking back at my list, trying to figure out why exactly I chose the things that I did, and realized that it was more about the reasoning behind the choices than it was about the choice themselves. With that in mind, I hope you don't mind that I've changed things up a little bit. Well, it doesn't really matter if you do mind, since it is my Summer, but still...

Original List:
1. Gather Courage to Chop of Hair
2. Build up biking endurance so 8mi doesn't seem so bad
3. Make Marinara sauce and Ravioli from Scratch
4. Make a Homemade Apple Pie
5. Paint Bedroom
6. Disneyland!!!!

New List + Reasoning behind change (as of 08/06):
1. Gather Courage to Chop of Hair
This goal was about getting up the courage to do something that I've wanted to for a while, despite being afraid that it was a horrible. horrible mistake.

2. Yoga at least every other day for a minimum of 1hr: In Progress
Originally, this was about not wanting to be a couch potato during the summer. My bike has been giving me problems, so I wasn't able to work on biking like I wanted. As I thought about it more, I figured out this goal was mainly around to make sure that I worked on getting healthy. Since I was studying for the MCATs, I've been ridiculously stressed out and so I gravitated to something that I did on occasion around finals to de-stress, which was yoga. So I started with little 30min. sessions, just to give myself a study break, but now they have grown to 1-2hrs of human pretzeling. I realize yoga isn't that high impact cardio that people should be doing, but I do feel better/healthier and frankly that's what matters most.

3. Make a food I love from scratch
So the reason for this and for Goal #4 are the same. I grew up eating primarily filipino food with a cook who didn't know how to bake or cook a lot of other foods (this has changed now though, by Dad's Cal-Mex and Italian are bomb!). Because of this I never grew up making recipes that, from what I gather in conversations, others did when they were younger. So, the point of this is to expand my cooking skills and experiences. I had to change it from Ravioli and Marinara mainly because I don't have the supplies I need to make it work. Instead I'm going to pick something I like and that I can make with the tools I have in the house.

4. Make a Homemade Apple Pie

5. Paint Bedroom

6. Trip to the LA Zoo
This last one had to change for a lot of reasons I don't want to go into. But the point of it was to get me out of the house on occasion and let me experience something that most SoCal kids experience in the Summer. So I have gone the way of the Zoo. I know I've only gone once, on a class field trip, but all I remember is sitting at a table with friends and buying a soda. So that is going to change soon! LA Zoo, here I come!

So that is the new and improved list and now I'm off to see what I can do about Goal #3...