El Berg Hole's Scribble-ly Bits

Fizzys Lunch Lab!

2009-11-24T17:16:55Z

YAY! The website for the last project I worked on finally went live! Check it out!

Fizzy's Lunch Lab is web-exculsive content for PBS that teaches kids how to make smart food choices. I did storyboards for some of the webisodes. It's a really cute project and the website has all sorts of cool educational stuff for the kiddies. New recipes and games and videos and episodes will be coming out every week for the next 40 weeks!

I know it's not everyone's favorite, but I really really enjoy working on educational children's programming. I always remember how much I liked shows like this when I was a kid, and how much on an influence it had on me when I was growing up....Plus, I like feeling like I'm using my work to make some teeny piece of good in the world..even if it's just "don't eat too much pizza". ;)

Owie!

2009-11-24T05:03:34Z

OMG it has been a rough couple of weeks on SO MANY fronts.....I am kind of amazed I'm still in one piece.

Thanksgiving and a 4 day weekend at home with family is all thats keeping me going right now..you have no idea! Also OMG TURKEY AND STUFFING AND CRANBERRY SAUCE OMG I AM GOING TO GAIN 10 POUNDS YUM YUM YUM

In other news, I've been reading The Name of the Wind at the insistence of a friend of mine, and I gotta say it's pretty damn good..it's been awhile since I've read any proper high fantasy, that wasn't typically found in the Young Adults section..LOL

it has inspired some doodles..

Kvothe and Bast as I tend to see them...Bast isn't quite right tho.....

2 MORE DAYS OMG

Sadness...

2009-11-19T17:42:31Z

This makes me terribly sad.....

Jean Claude is dead at 74

I LOVED the works that she and her husband created. The Gates was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. I've always envied Matthew's coworkers because they got to help with the installation and got to meet them. My heart breaks for Christo...those two were an amazing team, and they made so many beautiful things together. :(

Kuwait Day 3!

2009-11-12T04:57:24Z

In which there is much learning of things!

So on day three, our friend was busy with all her wedding preparations, and what preparations they were! She was literally building a temporary room onto her house to throw the party. When we toured her house she had already had flooring laid down over her pool and metal trusses up to hold up the plexi walls and ceiling, and sound system and omg...it was insanity, but more on that later. But she had written up a HUGE detailed itinerary for us and planned guides to come and take us around each day, to make sure we were well looked after. Day three happened to be her brother and one of her friends (both of whom we had met previously and were good pals with) It was SO nice to see them again, and I will never be able to repay them for the AWESOME time they showed us!

We started our day trying to find the Modern Art Museum, but it proved rather elusive and resulted in us walking into alot of random buildings...

So we gave up and moved onto the next item on the list which was Beit Al Sadu, or "House of Weaving". It is a museum dedicated to the history and the craft of Bedouin weaving, and it was AMAZING and super informative. Since the Bedouin culture was nomadic, the only two art forms they had was poetry and weaving. Poetry was for men only, so the women's art and way of expressing themselves was through the weaving they did for the tents and the saddle bags etc etc. It was really fascinating. The Museum also offers classes where people can come learn traditional weaving techniques from the Bedouin women who stil practice the craft. I really wish we had purchased a weaving piece there, we thought we'd have time to come back later, but alas! Perhaps next time....

Our next stop was The National Museum of Kuwait, which was conveniently located around the corner from Al Sadu...

(I love all the neat architectural tricks that the buildings employ to create shade, because it is SO bright there)

Sadly, theres not a whole lot in the museum since most of the collection was looted by Iraqi soldiers during the invasion, but it did have a great exhibit on Kuwaiti culture and history, that I think was mainly intended for children, but since my knowledge was equal to that of a child's I found it SUPER informative and interesting. Plus, our guides were quite awesome at filling in all the middle bits, and putting things in context for us!

Also there was a big boat there...pearl fishing was the main export for Kuwait before the oil hit...I suppose oil turned out to be slightly more profitable...

After the National Museum, we went on a search for another museum which was supposed to be one of the oldest buildings in Kuwait and a good example of traditional architecture... However when we found it, it really just turned out to be a weird abandoned building with empty rooms with old faded photos and canvases leaning against the walls..VERY strange, but fun to wander around in...

Then it was off to lunch, which is ALWAYS an event in Kuwait! XD Our friends took us to Marina Waves which is a complex built out into the gulf that contains 3 restaurants, a skate park and a rock climbing wall, because if Kuwaitis needs anything its MOAR ENTERTAINMENT!!!

We decided to eat at the Living Room Lounge which had gooorgeous outdoor seating right on the water...it was AMAZING! I felt so posh!

Lunch was delicious, and HUGE par usual so after wards we decided to walk it off along the water...

keeping it casual....

and we found a playground!!

and I freaked out because I got to play in the sand on a beach in October!

Eventually we reached our destination, which was Marina Cresent, where we had dinner the night before...it was nice to see it in the day...

Obviously, we had to celebrate our walk with MORE FOOD at a place called The Chocolate Room, because theres always room for chocolate!!

After our snack, we hopped back in the car to try and see the Grand Mosque...and on the way we got my favorite picture of the whole trip..

A butch guy in a manly Range Rover with a "No Fat Guys" sticker in his window... Unfortunate grasp of the English language or a Bold Social Statement? I will let you decide....

We then arrived at The Grand Mosque

Unfortunately we pulled into the parking lot just as the 5 o'clock call for prayer went off, so we were turned away at the door and told to come back in the morning with us ladies more appropriately dressed. So instead we wandered into an adjacent mosque whih was very old (1700s I think?), but I don't think we were supposed to do that either since it soon became apparently that it was still very much in use...

So being out of luck on the mosque front, we decided to visit another museum that our friend recommended. The Dickson House which is pretty much a testament to the strong ties between Kuwait and the British. Mainly the house seems dedicated not to Mr. Dickson (who was Britians representative in Kuwait), but his wife Lady Violet, who stayed in Kuwait after her husband passed away and became much beloved by the Kuwaiti people, and seemed generally BAD. ASS.

The best part was that from the top floor you could climb up on a wall and get a spectatular veiw of the Kuwait City skyline...always with new construction going on!

(I like to think this lil mosque will be like the house in UP and will one day sprout balloons and fly away..)

Our last stop on our MAD tour of learnings was the brand spanking new Science Center and Aquarium. It was quite posh indeed!

The amusing thing is that the first couple of exhibits in the aquarium were actually of local desert creatures....I guess thats what happens in a desert country!

Little known fact: Deserts are populated by ADORABLE creatures...

BEHOLD! The Sand cat!

And an owl!

And JERBOAS (and a uromastyx) !!!!

Thats right, Jerboas are native to Kuwait! BE JEALOUS! Apparently it's a fun summer activity to catch them in the desert behind your beach house at dusk..beats the HELL out of lightening bugs if you ask me...

And then there were suddenly fish at the Aquarium...who knew!

Also there were penguins..the exhibit was titled "Penguins! For the First Time in Kuwait! brought to you by Exxon Mobil" Through oil all things are possible!

And fish things....

We were also there in time for the Shark feeding!

No they didn't feed them children...

Also there was this guy:

Officially the BEST. RAY. EVER.

Kuwait Day 2!

2009-11-07T19:52:10Z

The adventure begins!

Buckle your seat belts!!

So our first night at the hotel wasn't too bad, except I had weird fit full sleep, which was probably due to jet lag and the fact that OMG IT IS SO DRY THERE. I would fall asleep and then wake up a few hours later with my mouth utterly dry, chapped lips and eyeballs that felt like sand...Welcome to desert country! Moisturizing eye drops, bottle od water and chapstick became me best friends for that week....

After a nummy breakfast at the hotel (dood one of the best complementary buffet breakfasts ever, it rivals Amsterdam even, and those Dutch knew how to put on a spread!) our dear sweet friend picked us up at the hotel to take us sight seeing around Kuwait city!

We spent most of our time driving along the Gulf Road which is the main highway that runs along the coast. When we arrived the night before everything was dark, so it was a nice suprise to see it all in the sun!

Here are some houses for you! And these aren't even the most impressive we saw. I have never seen SO MANY mansions in one place before..and when they do mansions there, they take that shit seriously. One house had palm trees on it's roof, another looked like the Metropolitan Museum. Maddness! Also a lot of the Royal family has their palaces along the Gulf Road, so it is one impressive plot of real estate after another....

Our first stop was the Kuwait Towers! Designed in 1979 by a Swede...obviously. We were going to try and get a snack in the revolving restaurant at the top, but it was "Women Only" until noon, so we went to the coffee shop downstairs to check out the view instead. This was an interesting surprise to me, because we soon discovered over the course of our trip, that Matthew's movement was actually more restricted then mine. I was expecting the opposite, but most times places and zones were "women only" and he was asked to wait outside or was turned away. The only time my movement was restricted was when we attempted to enter a mosque at prayer time. It was an interesting turn of events.

Any way, the Towers were pretty neat..though they were still quite dusty from the sand storms. They kind of reminded me of Epcot..but that seems appropriate because Kuwait reminded me of Disney World in alot of ways...

After the Towers our friend took us to see one of the many, many many, MANY malls in Kuwait. Kuwaitis take their malls seriously, I have never seen so many in one place, and I'm from New Jersey! The mall we went to is called Souk Sharq and was designed to resemble the old souks (ie Bazaar) of days of yore. It was quite fancy indeed!

My favorite stop was a perfume/oils store our friend took us into. I mentioned before that EVERYTHING in Kuwait smells nice, because they take perfumes, oils and incense very seriously there. This store carried some AMAZING oils made from Oud. I was in LOVE, but alas, oud is VERY expensive and this store was waaaay out of my price range.

so pretty!!

After that we took a little walk along the Marina that separates the mall from the mainland..

(you can see the towers behind us! hee!) OH MY LORD IT WAS BRIGHT THERE. Plae New Yorkers aren't used to sun like that....

At the end of the Marina we went into the Fruit and Fish Market, because Matthew and I LOVE markets with a passion. They are always our favorite places whenever we travel.

First was the fruits section:

I found more dates...apparently the only thing native to Kuwait, all other fruits and veggies are shipped in from elsewhere (actually some of the dates are too, I was told Saudia Arabia has the best).

Also there were randomly some chickens...

Then you pass through a doorway into a HUGE fish market, I've never seen one so big and SO CLEAN. It didn't smell bad in there at all!

A lot of the fish are actually locally caught there as well, what with being on the Gulf and all. They were all so pretty! Also the guys in the market LOVED getting their pictures taken, they kept calling us over and posing with their wares. I think most of the time people were mistaking Matthew for a journalist (even when we boarded our plane at JFK the stewardess asked us if we were the foreign journalists they were waiting for!) I guess it's rare to see Westerners wandering around Kuwait, esp Westerners with professional grade camera equipment..LOL!

After the market we headed over to our friend's parents house for lunch. We got stuck in Kuwaiti rush hour (at 1pm! Ho ho ho!) so we were a little late. I wish I could post more pictures of the house, but I don't want to invade their privacy, suffice it to say it was BEAUTIFUL and HUGE and AMAZING! Our friend was an architecture major at RISD, so when her parents decided they wanted a new house they asked her to design it for them and over see the construction. I was truly AMAZING, 5 floors with 3 kitchens, a pastry kitchen, an exercise room, a lap pool, 3 living rooms, 5 bedrooms, servants quarters, a 5 car garage, and elevator..it just went on and on and on...I'm going to put the outside photo because I'm just too proud of her not too lol!

Her mother had prepared lunch for us with the help of her kitchen staff, it was AMAZING OMG. Her mother owns a cafe of her own in the city, and she is an AMAZING cook. She also planned all the food for the wedding which was INSANE but I'll get to that later...

After lunch, we were so full we hung out and visited with her family for a bit, and then it was back on the road! Our friend had to go to her final fitting with her dressmaker that evening, but we went to the Tareq Rajab museum first. Which was easily one of the best museums of jewelry and decorative arts from the Middle East and Africa that I have ever seen! It was a weird little place, because it's actually in a house in a suburban neighborhood, and the displays are just chock full of amazing objects, but very little is labeled or put in context. It's even more amazing, because of the story behind it...when the Iraqis invaded they looted the National Museum, but when they came to this house the owners had taken their collection and hidden it in rooms which they then bricked up, so the Iraqis just passed them by. I wish that they had let us take pictures inside or had a book of the collection, because you just don't see things of that quality in the US that often...

Afterwards our friend went to her dress fitting, but because the store was "women only" again, she had her driver drop us off at a Hospital. The Hospital was INSANE, it's apparently the premiere maternity hospital in Kuwait, and quite a trendy spot. Our friend explained that in Kuwait it is now very fashionable to have your baby here because they have a birthing "hotel" where you can have your baby in a fancy hotel suite with a kitchen and living room and fancy bedroom, and after the birth all of your friends and family can come hang out in your room and throw parties. Apparently it is so popular that it's becoming a problem because people come and hang out until really late at night and exhaust the new mothers, and annoy the hospital staff ;) Ah Kuwait! Always an excuse for a party!

After our friend got us a tour of the hospital, we went to ANOTHER mall for dinner. This one was called Marina crescent, and is actually just part of a LARGER mall that we never actually got into. It's right on the water and is a nice dinner spot..it's also one of the premiere people watching spots in Kuwait, so that was fun.

We watched some folks feed the fish while we waited on dinner...

And since we had such a fish-filled day already, we decided to have some sushi! Alas by the time dinner was over my jet lag had caught up with me and I wasn't feeling too hot, so back to the hotel we went to rest up for the next day!

Kuwait Day 1 - Traveling!!

2009-11-06T19:26:06Z

Okay, I figure I should just go ahead and start posting our Kuwait photos, or they will end up like photos from our other trips and just waste away, forgotten on our hard drive ;)

So here we go... Kuwait Day 1 :Traveling! Because getting there is half the fun!

Onboard our Qatar airlines flight at JFK, ready for adventure!

Our cabin had mood lighting and touch screens! Oooo! Actually the flight wasn't bad at ALL. We left JFK around 11:30pm so we were already getting sleepy. Once we had taken off we watched an episode of Top Gear, had dinner and then I was out like a light. I woke up later when they were serving breakfast and was shocked to discover that we were already an hour and a half outside of Doha, Qatar! So our 12 hour flight actually felt more like 6..pretty sweet!

Laying over in Qatar..the Middle East pleases me!

Matthew shops the Qatar Duty Free..sadly it did not fit in our carry on...

Apparently that is a very expensive Lamborghini (Matthew is a bit of a car dork..he's Southern), it was a good indicator of the level of shopping we were about to encounter... I guess it makes sense when you think that Qatar has the 2nd highest GDP per capita in the world..Oh oil money, must be nice!

$10,000 cell phone anyone? It's Duty Free!

Perhaps $4,500 cell phones are more your speed....

We ended up just getting a date latte....and thus our love affair with the date began!!

After a short 1 1/2hour flight, we landed in Kuwait! HOORAY!!

I wish we had gotten more pictures inside the airport. You see, in Qatar I didn't feel out of place really, there we people in traditional dress, but there was also a healthy mix of people of other nationalities. Really it felt like I was in my neighborhood in BK..HOWEVER in Kuwait once we had gotten our visas and passed into customs, we were in a whole 'nother world. Suddenly the crowd was a sea of black and white, all the men where in the traditional thob(?) and there were veiled ladies of all sorts of variety, from just head covering to full on face veil and gloves. I suddenly felt very..."other" ;) I don't know why I was so surprised, I guess it's because my friend often told me that Kuwait was pretty liberal..but I guess all things are relative ;)

ALSO I'm going to say that security in the Middle East puts our airports to SHAME. We must have had our baggage X-rayed and searched about 5 times before we ever got near the plane. They even X-Ray your stuff on your way OUT of the airport. Shit is serious business over there. USA needs to step up their game man!

In any case, our friend picked us up at the airport with one of her drivers (so weird!) and we went to our hotel, the lovely Holiday Inn Kuwait City. It was SO NICE..def. better then any Holiday Inn I've been to in the states.. ;) And they DID ask for our marriage licnense when we checked in..good thing I found it ;)

Yay big comfy bed!!!

And TV and Phone with internets!

And pretty bathroom!

With TWO toilets! So spoiled... ;)

And lastly our friend took us down stairs to one of the 5(!) restaurants in the hotel to get a "light" dinner. It was SO YUMMY OMG. I've always liked Middle Eastern food, but OMG it is SO MUCH BETTER straight from the source. Also they know how to EAT over there, just look at this spread...EVERY meal was like this:

SO GOOD OMG. Matthew ate lamb brains, which were not that good, but we also discovered Om Ali which was a LIFE CHANGING experience. It's like Bread pudding x a million. Matthew was on a hunt for it everyday afterwards..XD

Kuwaiti Dreaming....

2009-10-29T18:55:13Z

Good grief it's hard to come home! LOL! We got back to BK on Tues. night after taking a few days to recover at my parents' house in NJ (yaaay jet lag!). I had forgotten the MESS we left our apartment in, it was pure chaos! I have been doing nothing but cleaning and unpacking since, talk about a rude awakening!

Kuwait was AMAZING, absolutely AMAZING! I have never been anywhere like it, and honestly I can't wait to get the opportunity to see more of the Middle East (enshala!). Though I will admit the fact that everyone seems to have servants and drivers and the veiled ladies took a bit getting used to...

I've also decided that the Kuwaiti lifestyle of eating sleeping and shopping suits me just fine. I have never eaten so well in my life! It might even surpass Florence in that respect... The meals were HUGE and DELECIOUS. I knew I liked Middle Eastern food before, but now I LOVE it! XD

Also; everything smells good there!! That I was not expecting, but OMG. They burn incense everywhere there, in particular a wood called Oud, and it was AMAZING. Apparently perfumes are also a big deal there and a lot of them are made with Oud...I bought a TON to bring back with me. It's a woody scent that is really really rare to find in the perfumes here, so I got as much as I could carry.. ;)

Hopefully I'll be able to sift through all our photos and put together some blog posts about it soon..

In the meantime, omg how did it get to be Halloween already?? I guess I'll just be breaking out my ol' standby Hermione this year ;)

Viva Kuwait!!!

2009-10-20T18:41:53Z

Today Matthew and I went swimming in the Persian Gulf, and watched the sun set over the desert. It's been a pretty awesome day!

Kuwait has been AMAAAAAAAZING!

CUTE PSA!

2009-10-16T14:49:12Z

For those who don't live in or around NYC, let me share with you the BEST AD CAMPAIGN EVER....

This campaign also includes posters of baby animals on city busses, in subway stations and in subway cars. Words cannot describe how much this brightens my day. NYC has never been more adorable!!

(BTW jigglykat you are totally right, the bunny one is EVEN BETTER)

Wow...

2009-10-13T04:33:41Z

I am now officially 30!

I feel old..... O.O

TV IS IMPORTANT!!

2009-10-09T03:50:26Z

DUDES okay seriously BIG TV NIGHT.

FIRST =>

I have mixed feelings..I was expecting it to be...cuter... Also why is Pam a major bitch whom shitty things happen to all of a sudden? I mean, I appreciate that she's grown up and is a confident young woman, but confident young women can still be sweet and cute and not snarky and annoyed all the time. I'm kind of bummed that she got stuck in her room all alone with Andy and had no girl!party of any sort...at least Jim got to hang with Micheal and Dwight.

Also...wtf? What is the youtube video that the were supposed to be referencing? Am I an old fogey or is that a real risky premise to base the JAM wedding on? I guess I wanted more cute..because OMG I LOVE THE CUTE.

I think I might be crushing extra hard since I saw "Away We Go" last weekend and related WAY TOO MUCH. He does cute supportive BF SO WELL, let him do iiit!

But OMG the falls wedding and the shot at the end and their snuggling and his speech...SO CUTE.

Okay I'm done now.

Second => Project Runway, YOU ARE ON NOTICE. This season has just been wacky and lame but, tonight? Dudes, we are SO not on speaking terms anymore.

STOP SMOKING CRACK KLUM

Things!

2009-10-01T22:35:33Z

april_drawing is having an October drawing challenge! I figure it's a good excuse to make myself draw something everyday..hopefully I can keep up better then I did last april..lol! Anyways, the theme for today was "Warm Up" so I warmed up by drawing a gal doing warm ups.....

Whee!!

Also, here is a photo of Oskar since I promised one ages ago but he was too camera shy to let that happen...as you can see he's gone from shy to a ruffled back the f@#$k off! ;)

We're still working on him, my hands are healing somehwhat...but he has learned to mimic "Peeper peeper peeper!!!" (I call him Mr. Peepers, because Oskar isn't cutsie enough for me). He will not say "Peeper peeper" when I am with him however, it's more of a "you're far away and I want a cheerio" trick that he pulls.. ;)

an-NOM-versary!

2009-10-01T04:48:33Z

So...Matthew and I decided to go to Al Di La in Park Slope for our 7-11 anniversary. OH MY GOD. IT WAS. SO GOOD. We went all out and had a proper Italian meal, and seriously I haven't eaten that well since we went to Florence...

It was so good infact that we took photos to document the goodness (and also because Matthew got his new sexy camera in the mail)

First....look at the pretty!!!

Lauren is excited to EAT!!!

For Antipasti, we had TRIPE!!! It was NOM NOM GOOD, and reminded me alot of a lil stall we ate at in the market in Florence..

..we also had delicious Carpaccio, but alas we ate that too fast before we realized we should be documenting this!

For Primi I had a nummy cuttle fish risotto (with squid ink hee!) and Matthew ordered homemade ravioli with corn and marscapone cheese SO GOOD! Tasted like fall...

For the Main meal (omg I was so full by now) Matthew had braised rabbit with creamy polenta and I had calves liver with onion and grilled polenta... Delecious cute animals..I should probably feel guilty about enjoying them so much...

Liver came home with me for lunch, because I thought I was going to explode.. ;)

And we forgot to photograph dessert, but we had amazing black pepper gelato, blue berry sorbet and buttermilk gelato...ooooh my god so good and refreshing, and the perfect ending because at that point I couldn't have chewed anything more!

And then on the walk back to our apartment, the moon peeked out...

I do so love our neighborhood! What a perfect night!!

And now I am quite exhausted, so off to bed with me!

(georgia is sleepy too!)

7-11 Anniversary!

2009-09-28T19:31:11Z

Today Matthew and I have our 7/11 anniversary! 7 years married, 11 years together! WOOT WOOT! I feel we should toast it with a Slurpiee!

Heehee! I am SO EXCITED about our nummy dinner plans...I like having excuses to eat at fancy nummy restaurants ;) Also, I have to say, good golly how I love that boy! I feel very lucky today!!

OH MY GOD.

2009-09-24T19:00:49Z

IN THREE WEEKS I MIGHT BE ON MY WAY TO KUWAIT. SERIOUSLY OH MY GOD.

Our friend from college is getting married, and her parents want to treat her by flying us out for a week so we can attend her wedding. HOLY SHIT I THINK I MIGHT DIE I AM HYPERVENTILATING I AM SO EXCITED. They want to pay and arrange for the flight and our hotel and our transportation...HOW DO YOU EVEN PROPERLY THANK SOMEONE FOR THAT? I cannot think of a gift that would even come CLOSE.

OH MY GOD I NEED TO BUY FANCY WEDDING CLOTHES OMG.

OMG I WANT TO RUN IN CIRCLES

OMG THREE WEEKS TO PLAN A TRIP TO KUWAIT WHUT!? HOW DOES ONE EVEN DO THAT!?

OW!

2009-09-18T17:13:12Z

So I TOTALLY got my ass kicked in my old lady yoga class last night...

I wasn't expecting that at all..I mean it was called "gentle yoga" Holy shit ya'll I am out of shape. As expected, I was easily the youngest person there and easily the stiffest, gimpy-est, and most compromised. Kind of depressing. But I also LOVED IT. The instructor was GREAT and they had all sorts of props to help with the poses. I was getting into positions that I never thought I could! Hell, at one point I was actually in a kneeling pose (granted with a pillow and two blocks under my ass, but STILL) I have NEVER kneeled in my life. Oh my god it hurt. Made me realize how much range of movement I've lost in most of my joints, and how my body has adjusted to compensate. It was pretty eye opening, the the instructor was super nice and attentive and showed me ways to adapt the poses around my joints. I think this will be a great thing for me. I wish the class was offered more then once a week!

Also, 2.5 hours of yoga instruction for $10?! in NYC? Dood you CANNOT beat that!

But now I have a question for you active people out there... with activity like this are you supposed to rest the day after, or try to do some stretching? The class is only once a week, but I think I'd like to keep up some activity at home during the rest of the week , I don't want to loose momentum, and my goal with this is really to build up the muscles around my joints so that they don't hurt so much. I'm just not sure how to set this sort of thing up and what would be pushing it too much...

I hurt like HELL today. I am sore in places I didn't know I had... I want to go lay under a heating blanket

After the binge comes the purge...

2009-09-16T20:15:02Z

So ever since I got laid off and started working freelance from home, my diet has taken a bit of a tumble... And by tumble I mean shameless reveling in comfort foods like take out chinese, and spaghetti, and pizza, and OH MY GOD RED VELVET CUPCAKES... There was no more cooking, no point counting, no healthy eating, and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. For awhile there I was getting away with it too (lord knows how!), but Monday I got on the scale and was greeted with a pleasant 5lb gain. I think my body decided to pull the plug on "happy go lucky crazy food medicating Lauren". So here we go again, back on the diet!

The problem is, it is SO HARD to be good when I'm working from home, and my kitchen is literally RIGHT THERE, and I have no motivation to leave the house or go anywhere. I'm soooo lazy.... So I thought I'd at least try to keep better track of my food consumption, and today I joined Spark People.

Any one else out there on http://www.sparkpeople.com? Anybody use it? I'm still trying to figure it out, and who knows how long til I get bored with it, but I figured it was a good free alternative to the Weight Watchers site since I am po' and cheap. If your on it come friend me! My username is lberghol We can be miserable and healthy together! ;)

And tomorrow is the first "gentle yoga" class at the center in my nabe. I'm gonna make an effort and go...even though I don't think I own any yoga appropriate clothes and it will probably be filled with old people and will depress me ;) But I'm excited about getting out and moving again! Whee!

Readin' Lessons...

2009-09-14T01:16:18Z

I drewed a background!! (sort of) I sat down and attempted to finish that gryff pic I mentioned a few posts back... I still kinda like it...I just need more practice doing colored, more thought out pieces. I'm such a lazy artist person sometimes :P ;)

OMG TruBlud, Hung and Mad Men tonight!! It's an embarrassment of RICHES!

Feeling better...;)

2009-09-13T00:32:33Z

I am feeling much better now. Have some RL fluff, because I'm disgusting like that.....NOMNOMNOM internet PDA!

Rainy days make working the weekend easier. Also they make for awesome lazy snuggle times... Tonight's entertainment will include; Chinese take out, power watching Weeds S3, and red velvet cupcakes. I swear watching Weeds gives me the munchies. It makes me crave baked goods and cereal like nothing else!

I'm a sigh monster...

2009-09-10T05:04:21Z

I'm having a case of the sighs today....

I'm sure I'll be over it tomorrow.. It's one of those "have I made the right choices/am I doing the right things/what would have been different if..?" things. Mainly centering around the fact that I know SO MANY awesome people who are doing SO MANY awesome things out on the west coast. They are all rocking and deserving, and I don't begrudge them in the slightest, but it just makes me wonder what would have happened if I had gone out there instead of moving to NYC. Not that it would have been better or easier, necessarily, because it would have brought it's own set of challenges, but it just makes me wonder. I guess this is just the result of watching the already small animation industry around NYC shrink smaller and smaller these past few years. Sigh sigh SIGH!

In lighter news, I think I might join a beginners yoga class in my neighborhood, because it's only $10 a class and it might be a good way to get myself out of the house. I'm kinda loving the flexibility that comes with working from home, I have to say! Pretty sweeeet!

An Aspirin PSA...

2009-09-08T03:45:51Z

I would just like to take a moment to thank the world for baby aspirin, because this weekend it saved me $400.

My poor Kiki hurt herself at my parents house while we were all out to dinner. My best guess is that she pulled a back muscle jumping on or off the couch. Her lower back over her hips was all sore, and she was MISERABLE...so miserable in fact that she punctured my fingernail with her teeth when I tried to check her over for breaks or wounds. My poor baby! Why does nonsense like this ALWAYS seem to happen on a holiday weekend when a $400 visit with a random emergency vet tech is a guarantee?

I immediately called my Aunt, who is our family dog "doctor", being that for as long as I've know her she has never had less then 6 dogs at once and has years of rescue/foster work under her belt. And she recommended we give her a baby aspirin and wait a few days to see how she feels.

Let me tell you, aspirin in a MIRACLE DRUG. Once we persuaded her to take it, she turned into a new dog. She's still not back to her full self, but now that were home again and away from the chaos that a with a house with 5 other dogs can be, I think she'll start rebounding faster. At the very least if she doesn't seem to be improving I can take her to our usual, though still expensive but at least well qualified, vet.

GOD BLESS YOU BABY ASPIRIN!!! My still-trying-to-make-it-on-my-last-unemployment-check-until-my-first-freelance-payment-comes-through ass is in debt to you...

Ah youth....

2009-09-03T23:09:31Z

So my doctor is bringing his 10 year old son to my apt. tomorrow so I can talk to him about my work and stuff, since the kid is super into cartoons and animation. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna say really, I'm so bad at stuff like this.. ;)

Makin an effort...

2009-09-02T17:44:38Z

OoooOooo color!!

I was determined to do a colored illustration of the gryff gal and her feathered pal..but I got bored trying to figure out a BG, so I colored a doodle of the girl instead... Hopefully I'll finish the other one soon..

In other news, on Friday my Doctor is bringing his son to my apt because I said I'd talk to him about cartooning and animation...I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with this kid..10yr olds are scary things...I hope I don't bore him utterly ;)

Also, god bless the NYC unemployment office for not forgetting about me! I can afford food again! YAAAAAAY!

Let's have some Flash based Learnings....

2009-09-01T16:14:34Z

yoinked from ldragoon because it's truefax....

Doodles..and also, True Blood WTF?

2009-08-31T17:20:35Z

Dood first things first...WTF True Blood? Am I the only one that thinks that show has lost it's mind recently (and not entirely in a good way). I mean last night's episode went beyond Lulzy and into WTFrandom territory real quick! Also WTF why is Bill incapable of doing ANYTHING, he's the weeniest vampire EVER! BOOOOO BILL! I don't want to root for Eric due to the obvious abusive grossness of his storyline, but OMG you are SO LAME your making it HARD! Also DO NOT RUIN Jess and Hoyt!! I WILL CRY! They were my favorite storyline this season!

In other news, I did more ball point pen doodles this weekend...Guys drawing is HARD. I seem to have lost my muse entirely, I don't even know what to draw anymore... I get deer-in-the-headlights syndrome staring at a blank sheet of paper.....trying to work through that though..I'd like to ween myself off of plain character portrait stuff and maybe do a proper illustration-y type thing so I feel more accomplished. SIGH!!

Been reading a lot of Dianne Wynne Jones books lately, which are AWESOME, and they put me in mind of young gals and gryphons...

And ofcourse more fat mermaids, because OMG Pudge is FUN to draw!!

Also a fat cave girl...

And some random things....

Oh...and I was doodling alot of this while watching Hairspray on HBO.....