A place to stuff my things.

I have been called a packrat in more than one way and, guess what? It’s true. I keep. I keep things. But to me, they aren’t just things. They are the memories of things. They are the who, what, when, where and why of my life. I don’t know why, but I’d rather call them “things” than refer to them collectively as “stuff.” “Stuff” has become somewhat of a dirty word to me (thanks to commentary like that of another language lover, George Carlin) in terms of consumerism and such. All the same, it’s not all the same. And I realized that recently when I decided to re-evaluate my things.

I wanted to give away the clothes I promised myself I’d wear for years now. I wanted to streamline my bags and purses since I really only used the same two or three. I wanted to sort through all of my craft supplies that range from markers and paints to stray pieces from flower garlands I bought at Walmart a few years ago. I wanted to shred all of the paperwork that I kept since I started at UNCG in 2003 (the time before I could hoard—I mean, store—all of that info in my email inbox).

I made considerable progress in this not-Spring-Spring-cleaning. Rooms were bigger, brighter, and tidier. I knew what I had and where things were. I made mental notes—a plan—about how to receive and store things I’d get in the future.

And, I started up a treasure chest.

I don’t think that I mean to call it a treasure chest in the first place. As my intention quickly swam through a sea of words and phrases and fond memories of Muppets on the sea, I jumped at referring to this cardboard box as a treasure chest.

And this treasure chest is effective.

Troy!

Add falafel connoisseur to the list.

Maybe my life is just that lame, but I get a thrill out of the little things…like, finding new falafel.

Ok, well that wasn’t really the case, but my word-o-phile-radar went berserk a couple of weeks ago as I was getting lost on Piedmont Parkway. I discovered this:

As soon as I say “Troy” and “restaurant” in the same title, my mind quickly went from anxiety-mode from being relatively lost at the tip of afternoon rush hour to intrigue by the possibility of chickpea variations, pita bread, and the always far-reaching hope of pistachio baklava.

I decided that trying out the establishment would be a service to my fellow Greensborians (though that whole Greensboro/High Point/Jamestown area around Wendover gets me confused enough where I don’t even want to know where I am).

I got the falafel sandwich on pita (not in the wrap) and got the fried zucchini appetizer. The falafel was cut up into bite-sized pieces as opposed to the balls or patties that I often get (and those seem to be harder for me to handle). I think that I actually get offended at bad pita bread (which is… dry?) but this sandwich had the moist and salty bread that I love that is also totally different than the Neomonde pita bread that I also love (that is also…dry).

The zucchini appetizer was the real trial. I only discovered in 2009 that I love zucchini and until I recently went to Carraba’s, I did not know the awesome-ness of fried zucchini. Taste of Troy’s zucchini appetizer was different than what I expected. It tasted more fresh and was made into thick patties and then fried. It wasn’t as crunchy as I hoped it would be. It had less pronounced flavor and was softer than I would have liked, but I suppose the zucchini itself was still present and enough for me to still gobble it down.

Sorry for the Vevo, but...

...did this video come in a styrofoam container?

Ugh. I hate lazy videos. It's all subjective I suppose, but I can't stand when an artist or band makes a lazy video. What do I think a lazy video is? Well, off the top of my head, I can't list the qualifications. But, it's basically a video that seems to exist only because the artist goes, "Ah, what the hell. I've got some time tomorrow. Let's shoot a video for this joint."

I guess that even sadder are the videos that are pretty complex but still suck.

Timbaland's/Justin Timberlake's "Carry Out" song grew on me as one of those songs that have straight-up dumb lyrics/metaphors. It sounded pretty cool and I got over the fact that I can't tell without screen titles whether the song is by Timbaland, produced by Timbaland, or featuring Timbaland. Anyhow, I purposely searched for the possibility of a video for the song today, and I was about 3 ounces of giddy when I realized that one exists.

*Sigh* and it's lame. Honestly, the girls in the video are pretty good and not only relative to T and JT. The "carry out" theme is addressed here but...um, people don't get cake and such like that as carry out. I mean, sure, you can get a dessert with your meal or probably as carry out on it's own. But, until someone steals my business idea (with my pleasure) to open a take-out/delivery service of all desserts, this video missed the "carry out" mark. In my opinion.

Random note: I only recently found out that "opine" is a word. Embarrassing. (And I just spelled "embarrassing" wrong before spellcheck smacked me in the face with some red squigglies. For shame.)

And finally, what are T and JT doing? I mean, Timbaland is no dancer--or, at least, I don't expect him to dance. He and Justin already sort of did that coordinated thing that I don't know how to refer to where they dance side-by-side. I mean, I like the move, but it's very reminiscent of 2006's "Let Me Talk To You/My Love" (which was amaaaazing).

Wow. I'm a complainer. On the upside, I would guess that JT is having the time of his life. Or at least I hope he is!

Re-evaluating the relationship...maybe later...

Hotmail's sign-in page looks different. Different font. I mean, couldn't you just make the service better instead? Still love you, though. I caved in and got Gmail a while ago after finally getting a taste of it at my old office. I do love Gmail now and it is a better service than Hotmail, but, you know...I just can't break up with Hotmail. We're too attached. I've cleaned things up and tried to make it easy to migrate all of my stuff. But, that will just have to be a day that I set aside to do all of that. I almost don't think that I should delete it since it is useful for receiving e-newsletters and notifications from websites and organizations. I don't mind using the account for that communication. It's mostly all of the old things that I need to wade through.

I'm a packrat of sorts. Even with e-mail!

I hate to be a hater, but...(Part 2)

I really wanted to spontaneously jump back into being active and I did not want to pay for gym "privileges." I wanted to be more in control of my money and...do something different.

I started looking for stand-alone classes and for climbing gyms. The stand-alone classes were easy to find and there are basically only two good climbing gyms in the area, as far as I know. I needed something more concrete than a room of workout options, machines and brightly colored polygons and starbursts.

Climbing is pretty expensive and what are you gonna do? There are only so many options for climbing gyms. Yoga classes, and I guess other classes, are at least $10 a class and of course cheaper for a package deal. But I can't hate on that.

I went outside the box to find active things to do. I'm just not an active person--never did sports or worked out on a regular basis. I actually enjoyed my time and experience at the Y downtown but, again, I got stuck in the elliptical rut. But those fresh towels, every time you came in the door. Now that was worth the membership.

Anyhow, all I have to worry about now is stretching. I never do it! That'll keep me a sore and sorry body that won't be able to get to the next class in the week!

All's well that ends well, eh? Now, on to my diet...

=)

I hate to be a hater, but...

If there is one business that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it's the Rush. Now, I know enough people that go there and that don't negatively comment on the experience and even without knowing those people, I can see that they have enough members to keep them afloat.

My experience, though, was...annoying, inconvenient, costly...and so, I got out.

I went to the Rush in the first place strategically/on a whim to sort of force myself into an exercise routine. Well, not force. I just wanted to be spontaneous, not think about it too much and just do it. Just walk through the door.

The Rush was a close and I guess safe place for me to go to get in gear to work out. Honestly, its proximity to where I live was probably the biggest factor in me choosing it as a gym. Also, as I told the--let's be real--salesman, I was choosing the Rush at the moment instead of any other gym because it had a climbing wall, which are few and far between in Greensboro.

I wanted to get out of my non-active rut but I also didn't want to fall into the work-out rut that I had at UNCG--socializing and trying my damned-est to read a (free) magazine while doing 35 minutes on the elliptical. Besides the random few-yer stint I had where I climbed the climbing wall almost compulsively (it was great), I didn't really move too much (does dancing at clubs count?).

At the Rush, with the orientation by the trainers, I knew a few more moves I could do to add to my workout routine. I still defaulted to the elliptical. I never used the sauna (bummer), the climbing wall paled in comparison to a climbing gym, and I finally felt like I was paying too much.

I was relatively paying too much because I chose to pay month-to-month. By the way, I caught the salesman trying to write me into a 2-year contract but my upside-down reading skills caught it before I signed without reading (which I may have done).

At the end of the day, I was just sick of looking for a gym.

Exploring "Community"

According to social reproduction theory, each generation simply reproduces itself and quite frequently so at a lower level. Is this proof of "Kids these days..."? I hope this isn't true. Well, I'm sure that there is research to tell me that it is and that it isn't.

I will use "community" as the catch-all term like many of us do anyhow. There are many valid and/or upsetting reasons why we all don't live in a utopia (or various utopias differentiated by...what?). Humans, civilization, groups, politics...it's all gotten complicated. But, that's what makes us charming, right?!


Is social cohesion stronger than aspects of society such as poverty? I mean, do we think that fostering and maintaining social cohesion that eliminates social conditions like poverty is worth it? I guess everyone and every group has their interests.