BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

29Dec/110

My awesome new microwave popcorn popping method

Let me start by saying I've been making microwave popcorn since back in the day.  Actually... my  super microwave skills go back to when I was about 4 or 5.  Oh yes... I got some SERIOUS microwaving skills, but well, they didn't start out so good.

Let me explain.  So when I was a wee little one... a wee little pants mcgee... I wasn't allowed to use the microwave because I wasn't old enough to know how it works.  "Not old enough!?!?" I would say.  Well, I guess soooo... I mean I was the youngin one.  Always not old enough in comparison to my older siblings.  I mean I was also never tall enough to go on most of the roller-coaster rides at theme parks when everyone else in the group was.... soooooo I'd have to hang out on the bench and watch everyone else.  I learned to bring a book along... it was either read.  Or I'd have to just go ride the frogs.  So i'd be sitting there riding some little frog around and around in a circle all day while everyone else was riding the MEGA MASSIVE 12 BILLION LOOP 70 THOUSAND FEET TALL 90 THOUSAND FOOT DROP... AWESOMENESS OF PURE AWESOMENESS

ROLLER COASTER OF SUPER AMAZINGNESSS!!!!!

(the roller coaster went underground)

And here I am on the frogs.  Weeeeeeeee

 

Ok that's the wrong kind of frog coaster.  Let me look around some more...

 

 

Hmmm getting closer... ok just pretend like i'm the mouse.  And that frog is the frog coaster.  Let me google image a little bit more...

 

Umm what?  How does someone sleep on that bed!?!!?!

Ok well you know what I mean those little tea cup esk rides... the kiddie ride.

OK annnnnnnnwaaaaaays... back to the microwave story...

 

SO there I am maybe 5 years old and well I said to myself "We'll seeeeee about THAT!  Can't use the microwave because I'm too young!  Hmmph"... so I woke up SUPER early one morning before anyone else and made my way to the kitchen to make some oatmeal in the microwave.

Now I'd been sneak peaking when other people were using the microwave and taking notes.  Well, not REALLY taking notes... But I pretty much figured it all out.  So I pour in my ingredients and get it all set up and ready.  I put it in my little plastic little kid bowl.

And put it in the microwave.

I watched in awe at my glorious achievement.  Go oatmeal in the microwave... GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Then something went wrong... very wrong.

Should the microwave be sparking?  Whoa crap... It's sparking!  And making odd noises...  So I pulled open the door.

Ooooooops.  I left the metal spoon in the plastic bowl.

Yep.

And it melted through the bowl.

Double OOoooopsy.

Well... I've gotten much better since then.  I'm now a super microwave guru dude.

So today I figured out a genius way to pop almost ALL the corn in a microwave popcorn bag.  Or as they are called.  Kernels.  SO here's my way of popping:

I put the bag in and set it for a higher number... like 5 minutes.  The bag says to only do it for 2.  But I set it for much higher.  Then my next step is to let it pop for a little while.  After it seems like about half the bag is all popped up... I take it out and open it.  Maybe a little more than half.

Now my next step is to then take the open bag (Careful it's hot!  Don't burn yourself) and get a big serving spoon.

Using that spoon scoop out the freshly popped popcorn but keep the bag tilted upwards.  SO that any of the un-popped kernels then fall down to the bottom of the bag.

Try to scoop out as much as possible and then roll up the end of the bag that was opened and put it back in and hit go again to start the timer.  It will probably be at maybe 3 ish or 3 minutes and 30 seconds left.

Next step is to let it pop some more.  Don't forget to shake the bag up after each time you take it out of the microwave.  Well I let is get it's popping action some more until I see the bag fluff up again.  Then I do the same thing where I take the popped stuff out while holding the bag upright... scoop the popped corn and let the unpopped fall down.

Then put it back in for a little while longer.

I just basically repeat this until there's only a little bit of unpopped kernels.  Some kernels will just refuse to pop no matter HOW long you heat them for!

Again careful since it will be hot!  I generally let the bag sit in the microwave after I stop it each time for a good 5 or 10 seconds.

And there you have it.  Now you know more about my history with the microwave and my new popcorn method.  Oh... And my roller coaster dilemma as a little kid.

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28Dec/110

New Single Up On CD Baby!

I uploaded a new single to CD baby!  So anyone who wants to just simply leave a review or even if you have an extra dollar to download the single... that would be sweeet!  I would be very thankful for any help.

Here's the link to my artist page on CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KennyWest

Annnnd... here's the cover art I made for the song...

 

I used one of the photos I took over the summer and then I applied some photoshop effects to it and texted over with my name and the single name.  I think it came out pretty well.

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27Dec/110

Open mic recap

Tonight I played the open mic in Ardmore at the Milkboy Coffee.  It's a good open mic.  It's well run and the host is awesome.  As well the sound is great.  I love playing on that stage.  It's a very spacious and great venue.  Everyone there is also super nice and talented!

I decided to sign up first.  So I went on and did my thing and then just relaxed and watched the rest of the acts.  This place was PACKED tonight!  It's not normally that packed but there was just a lot of people there.  It was fun.  I enjoyed it.  I'm going to try and go again next week.  But I'll play different songs.  I played Wish Upon A Hero and A Place That Fits.  Everyone seemed to be really into it.

So yea it was just packed and there weren't enough seats for everyone.  So this kid was kinda trying to get up close but he kept having to move back because staff were kinda like oh you can't sit there or stand here or there.  He kinda was just really into it.  I had a seat right up front so I decided to give him my seat.  It was just this big comfy chair seat.  The kind you sorta sink into and can pretty much fall asleep in.  Well... I looked over at the chair about 30 minutes after I gave him the seat... he totally fell asleep.  haha it was just one of those moments that made my night.  Ha, just loved it.  So he was happy I'm sure.

I also saw some friends there I hadn't seen in a while so it was good to say hello to my fellow open mic-er friends and just to enjoy the evening.

Anywho it was fun.  Open mic's are always a good time.

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27Dec/110

Cute Overload

So I spent SOME of my night tonight watching stuff online.  Most of the stuff were funny videos.  Some of them were funny cat videos.  I also found a video of 2 otters holding hands.  It was one of those videos that makes you go "Awwwwwwwww".

 

Yea that video.  I'm PROBABLY late to the game on this one.  I know I'm like the last person to see this video.  But it's just soooooo freakin awesome!  haha... I enjoyed it.

I watched it 4 times.

Ok so then I was searching around for other funny and or cute things.  And I found 2 other sites that made my night...

So site #1 is highly addictive and I can't stop reading these "Meme" thingys...

http://www.quickmeme.com/

Seriously, though, don't click on it.  Unless you want to be sucked into reading EVERY SINGLE ONE!  You don't be able to stop.  I couldn't.

Well after I read every single one on there.  I went back searching for more.  I found this site...

Again... you won't be able to stop reading until you've read back every single post.

http://cuteoverload.com/

It's just what the name says... it's cute overload.  Seriously.  I've never seen soooooooooooooooo much cuteness in one place!

And that's what I did with some of my evening.  I also worked on new music, and organized things and tackled a massive box of unsorted paperwork.  And made tea... and ate nachos.  And ate a cookie I had.  And watched things in my netflix instant queue.

I also practiced a few songs that I want to play at the milkboy open mic tomorrow night.  I can't wait!

Oh soooo back to the quickmeme and the cuteoverload... I figure I'll share my favorite from each site.  So here's my favorite from quickmeme:

Actually basically ALL of the success kid ones are my favorites (although some of them are a little over the top)... http://www.quickmeme.com/Success-Kid/

Buuuut if I had to pick one...

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35i89u/

it's that one "Song ends... right as destination is reached."  I LOVE when that happens.  Although the "Mom took my nose... got it back" one is a close second.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/qqq/

Hmmm ok ANNNND... of the cuteoverload... this one is the best:

That cat is wearing a raindeer hat!!!!!

I didn't know they had cat hats.

Although this picture.... yep.

 

 

The name of the post/cat is kinda weird.  I'm not sure how to pronounce it.  If you click on the site... you'll seee what I mean.

 

Anywho soooo that's been my night.  I hope everyone has an awesome tuesday and I'll be sure to post a little blog tomorrow about how the open mic goes!

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24Dec/110

Communities

I've kind of realized that life is made up of communities.  All of the people that I know come from specific communities.  Or I guess I could call them circles of friends.  Or like the lion king song circle of life.

 

 

Kinda like that.  So if I think back... I've belonged to a lot of groups of people...  I mean let's see...

Family would start it.  Then there's schooling.  So preschool, school, post school... etc. Or elementry, middle, high, college... I think I could also say that being part of after-school activities is also like a community, so when I was in boy scouts.

Then there's the different places of works... teaching skiing... working at camp... working at my current job.

There's also church... so I meet people through that.  Then I think technically open mics are kind of like a community.  So I meet people through that.  Then there's people I've met through online community.  Or just friends of friends who then become my friends too!  Or maybe I become their friends.

I guess the last thing I can think of is living communities.  So meeting people where I live.  I haven't met a lot of people where I'm at now but I have met a couple.  I just met one of the neighbors for my new place that I'm going to be moving to.  The new place feels a lot more like a smaller tight knit community.

So  i really think I'm going to be interacting more with the people where I'll be moving to.  As well they have things like association meetings for the whole condo and all the people that live there.  So I'll get to have a say in what goes on where I live.  That's kinda neat!  I don't mind community living.  That's how camp is.  But it's also how the dorms were in college.  I enjoyed both settings so hopefully living in this new community will be fun too.

Part of me wants to live in the middle of the woods in the middle of no where but another part of me likes the setting of being close to others in a shared community.  I think there are ups and downs to both living situations.  But I find that the best mix is to have your own space... but to me in a community setting.  So have people around when you want to socialize but then be able to take space to your own when you need it.  Sometimes it's good to have both!

So that's what I was thinking about tonight... that idea of communities.  I think a lot of our living situations growing up are based around living in small community groups together.  Sometimes too I wonder how that has shaped me as a person.  I know that being in the work community I've been in for the past 6 years has definitely had a super positive influence on me.  As well more recently attending church and being part of that community has also most definitely had a super positive influence.  Of course camp is just awesome and then my family is always very helpful.  School is cool... although I didn't really have a good time in highschool... skiing I loved... so yea I think it's all been pretty beneficial and helpful to me in this little journey of life that i'm on.  I hope that my new community when it happens in a few months will be just as positive of an influence on me as all the other places I've known.

So that's my thought for today/tonight.  Communities that I've belonged to and how they have shaped me.  I guess some other communities that I know of are maybe hanging out at coffee shops.  Or meet up groups are kind of like communities too!  I guess even the gym could be like one.  Or maybe volunteering together.  So people who do habitat for humanity and such.  Those can be communities.  I suppose even sports teams are like communities too.  Clubs... as well.

What sort of communities does anyone else belong to?  Are they positive influences or negative influences in your life?  Did you learn anything valuable from being part of that community?  If given the chance even for a short period of time would you return to that community again?

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22Dec/110

The 1 Dollar Noodle Bowl

I've decided to post about my lunch time noodle bowl.  I'm kind of in love with it.  So I'm going to share the secret of the roughly 1 dollar noodle bowl.

Ok... so the idea is this...  When I used to live at home I had very little expenses and I would spend money left and right on random stuffs.  But I would also just be lazy about lunch and go eat at Wawa or Chipotle Mexican Grill or Panera Bread.  While those places are yummy they are also expensive.  When I finally order up and go to swipe the card it's always like 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 bucks!  Crazy.  I'm kinda wishing I found this whole noodle bowl thing years ago.  It's just super awesome.  It's just as filling and every bit as tasty as going to those places to eat (ok almost as tasty, Chipotle is awesome, and also Wawa is too... and Panera is good as well...) but it's only 1 dollar!  Which means it allows me to save some dough to put towards other things (like music equipment, or car repairs, or rent and my soon to be mortgage payment and such).

1 dollar noodle bowl has a little bit of a history.  Basically it was inspired by my boss who noodles up most of the time with some sort of noodle product from Costco or one of those wholesale places.  He buys like 50 packs of them and then just brings those in and keeps them in the office... It got me thinking about the idea of cup o noodle or those other more expensive fancy noodle products... well cup of noodle is actually less than a dollar but I don't like cup of noodle.  The problem with cup of noodle is it's kinda not exactly super tasty and I'm told it's not all that great for you.  I always feel hungry again super quick after I eat one.  I do really like that idea of those super cheap noodle bowls that you can buy with plastic containers and all but then I didn't like how they have only noodles in them and don't have anything else like actual chunks of beef or chicken or real vegitables and all around they just didn't taste that good and also the containers were disposable generating trash... etc. etc.  So they are good for a quick meal but I'm not sure if they are the best solution for a quick lunch time meal.

So I set out to create my own 1 dollar noodle bowl from scratch... but make it more filling and also taste better... AND make it maybe even a little bit healthy for me.  I had some goals... those cheap noodle grocery store lunches lack two things: Protein, and veggies.  They are good because you can just store them in a drawer or desk and add water whenever.  I thought it would be A-OK to just keep something in the fridge and then add water.

So first thing I needed was a reusable cheap container.  I found that in the way of these rubber maid things called "Take Alongs".  I use the deep square one.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=FoodStorage&SubcatId=TakeAlongs&Prod_ID=RP091256

I bought like 10 of them... here's why...

My second thing to find was now some sort of protein.  I thought well how is the best way to work this?  The first thing I did was chop up a bunch of cooked chicken but the chunks were too big.  I tried steak, but it was tough... stir-frying my meats wouldn't work.  Tofu and shrimps worked great.  Shrimps come in big pre-cooked bags and I can just toss a few in.  Tofu comes in a block and then I can just chop it in 4's.  So one 2 dollar block of tofu gets 4 noodle bowls.  So after some googling/asking around I tried out slow cooking for hours and let it fall apart.  Then I take that and split it up into several different bowls.  This works great for beef/chicken/pork.

Ok great... so now we're cooking!  Sweetness.  So I can slow cook beef (this kinda tastes freaking awesome), chicken (also good) and pork (good too).  Then Tofu just dices raw and shrimps are already frozen so I just leave those.  Another alternative is chick peas or garbonzo beans (those are the same thing I think... I just like saying the word garbonzo... gaaaaarbonnnnzo!).

Anyways...

If I cook something I take one of my 10 containers I bought and I divide up the final cooked thing into smaller portions and then freeze that in individual bowls.  Now I have a noodle bowl premade and ready to be prepared for the night before work... well... almost.

I needed more than just protein and a bowl.  So my next thing was to add veggies.  So I went to the freezer section of my local grocery store.  There are SOOOOOOOO many choices for frozen veggies!  AND they are super cheap too.  Only a couple bucks or not even for a bag.  Each bag will probably make 5 to 10 bowls.  It depends on which one I get.

Well now I've got a container, protein, and veggies to add nutritional value to my noodle bowl.  What else did I need?  Spices!  Spices aren't super cheap.  But they last a LONG time.  A little dash in a dish.... or a sprinkle or two here or there in my noodle bowl makes things taste different every day.  I've got about 20 different combinations of spices.  I also purchased sauces.  So I can do hot or sweet or spicy or soy or teriyaki.  Or whatever.

Well the last ingredient is... yep... noodles!  What kinda noodle bowl would it be if it didn't have noodles!  It would be noodless or something.  So I can do pretty much any kind of pasta or noodle I want.  Those regular old long thin pasta noodles are the cheapest.  But I can pretty much put any type of noodle.  Rice noodles, or lo mein... or any of the pastas.  Pretty much anything goes.  Even just regular rice!  Or I like Orzo... It's like rice shaped pasta.

So that's kinda how it works.  Basically I freeze up the protein, cook the pasta the night before throw in some frozen veggies and spices... and then throw in the freezer.

Then I throw it in my lunch bag when I go off to work.  To cook I just add water, heat for 3 mins in the microwave... stir... and another 3.  Let it cool a little and then chow down!  I've been eating this now regularly for a little while and I think I'm gonna stick with the lunch time noodle bowl.

The great part is I can pretty much keep thinking of endless combinations of noodle bowls to create!  So I don't seem to be getting bored of eating the same thing over and over again each day.  I can always change up any of the 4 ingredients to keep things fresh and interesting!  Different noodles (types or shapes).  There's always regular and whole wheat pasta.  Or I can do different proteins.  Or I can do different veggies.  Or different spices and sauces!

Every day is new and interesting for lunch!  And it's only about 1 dollar!  About 50 cents for the protein, 10 cents for the pasta/rice noodles, 10 cents for the spice/sauce, and 20 or 30 cents for the veggies.  I guess I have to pay for the actual bowl itself and the water to clean it and the energy to cook it all... ok so maybe 1.50 or 2 dollars.  It's still WAY cheaper than going to get food out somewhere.  And even the caf at work is 6 bucks.  Sometimes we eat there but I used to do that every day!  6 bucks for  year can add up!  Or saving 4 or 5 or 8 bucks for a year can also add up to big savings!

My favorite part of the noodle bowl is that I can be  creative with it and always think of new combinations of things to put in it!  So now you know all about the 1 dollar lunchtime noodle bowl.  Feel free to give it a try and experiment away.  It took me a while to get all the combinations of things right.  But now I'm good to go.  So, as my boss says before he eats his noodle lunch... "it's time to noodle up!"

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21Dec/110

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Ok I'm I wasn't going to post tonight.  But I just wanted to wish everyone a happy wednesday.  I hope it is very awesome and fun and great and wonderful for everyone.  Its about 2am and I'm just getting to sleep.  Although I did kinda pass out for an hour or so earlier as a nap.

All the documents I had to gather I had to print out.  Although I rarely ever print anything and this was a couple hundred sheets of printing!  So I decided to hit up microcenter and just pick up the cheapest laser black and white printer they had.  The one I got works pretty well.  I wanted to get something with no frills USB and duplexing support and that was it.  This printer did exactly what I wanted to do.  I was up and running in few minutes after I got it all unpacked and out of the box.  There's always a thousand and one pieces of tape to remove from things... and orange tab things and all that.

Oh... actually this is kinda cool... Or at least I think so... I had taken a manilla envelope out and labeled it up with my labeling organization system that I just talked about previously.  WELL you know how the whole point of the system is that I can remove labels from containers and interchange those if need be?  Yep... I had to do that!  So the manilla envelops I have are 2 different sizes.  I decided the smaller one would suffice and labeled that up.  But when I got done printing and stapling everything... it wouldn't fit!

Sooooooo... I just peeled the label off that envelope and stuck it on a bigger sized one!  And then stuffed the papers inside and I'm there... allllll done.

woooooo... so overall a very productive but LONG day.

Tomorrow hopefully will have some napping happening in the evening.

Outline of my day will be:

Wake up... feed self.... feed cats.

Work... but only a half day!

Then lunch... and meet with mortgage guy

Then back to feed cats again...

THEN...

Feed me again.

AND THEEEEEEEN.

NAP TIME!

then maybe work on music and stuff.

Ok well I'm going to get a little sleep in before I do all that stuff I just said.  So goodnight everyone and happy and awesome and productive wednesday!  May all your wishes come true.  Or something good like that.

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20Dec/110

Things are kind of coming together

I kind of feel like things are coming together pretty easy for this whole condo thing.  Well not easy.  But it's more like things just seem to be all in the right place at the right time.

Like last year when I tried to buy a house... it was all wrong.  And when I even tried to get pre-approved for the mortgage that didn't happen because I didn't have a credit score.  This time it's like I have all the right things right there to buy.

I definitely find that interesting... I think this is how I'm supposed to be going about owning my first house/condo thing.  I think that I definitely wasn't ready to just go right to living on my own last year from moving out of my moms.  I'm actually really glad that things took this path.  I feel really confident that I'm going about how I'm supposed to be going about things.  I just have to trust that this is where I'm supposed to be right here right now.  I feel like it really is.

So yea, it feels like things for the condo are coming together.  We signed the final paperwork stuff to actually make the agreement for the sale... or purchase.  And now I have to get all the mortgage stuff in order.  I got a list of what I need to do tonight from the mortgage dude.  I put that in a little excel checklist thing and now I've gotten nearly all of those items together.  My next step is to call in tomorrow afternoon to do the over the phone app thing... then Wednesday I go in to actually hand in all the copies of the paperwork and sign some stuff.

Friday I'm supposed to get the inspector.  So hopefully that will go smooth and nothing major will be found.  The plan is to get all setup about a month from now and have everything completely done.  Then I'll have about 3 months to move from where I'm at now to over there.  It's not a far move so it should be pretty easy.

This is definitely a learning experience for me.  I think once I'm all moved in I'll kind of feel pretty officially grown up.  Although I might just feel a lot like I already do now.  We'll see though.

So anywho I'm just thankful that things are working for me... But I do want to say that even though it seems like it's all coming together like pieces just sorta fitting into place... It's definitely still a ton of work to move those pieces!

So in other news it looks like my mom might be in the hospital for a little while longer... maybe even through Xmas.  She's just got a bad infection and they are doing antibiotics and pain meds.  I guess the infection came from the last infection not being treated with enough antibiotics so it kinda came back.  And while she's in I'm on cat/turtle/house duty for her.  I think I've got that down pretty good now.

Hmmm what else... I have 2 days left at work till my break!  Woooooo... break.  I love this time of year.  I'm going to plan to work on a whole bunch of projects.  So hopefully I'll have lots of new things to post.  Although the number one thing I'm looking forward to is just a good amount of sleeping in.

Ok well speaking of sleep I'm going to get to sleep.  Lots of things to work on at work tomorrow.  I'm trying to finish up lots of things before going on break.

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17Dec/110

How I Organize

I don't know if this is really the best way to organize but it sure works for me.  So I figured I would share with everyone and if it works for anyone else feel free to use it!

OK... so here's my "how I organize things" blog post for any of you who might be into organizing things.

My main system revolves around a sharpie, masking tape, and packing tape.

Ok... after I have those 3 items... now I need some kind of container.  So those 3 items are sitting on top of a rubbermaid box.

I take the packing tape and place that on the side of the box... then I take the masking tape and place that on top of the packing tape... then I write with the sharpie what I am going to throw inside that box.

Make sense?  Ok so here's an example picture:

 

Seeeeee... Now I know what's in the boxes!  So then what I do is buy like 2 or 3 or 5 of the boxes.  And I put different things in them.  And then I stack them up in a closet like they are stacked there.

Although the cool thing about those big ones is you can use them for other things... like a coffee table... or a keyboard stand:

 

 

Yep.  I was using this today to work on musics and lay down recording ideas.

Ok so but what if I have smaller items and I don't want to use a big giant-e-normice box like that????

Ok well I do the same thing with the two types of tapes and the sharpie... but with smaller boxes...

 

Super neat and organized right?!?!  Those containers along with the other ones are just cheap sub 10 dollar containers from Walmart.  So all the supplies I use can be bought from Walmart for pretty cheap.  Nothing fancy pantcy going on here.

Well how about if you have lets say work in the form of papers???

Hmm ok well for paperwork I do this:

 

 

It's really the exact same idea across the board.  I'm just changing the type of container.  AND As you can kinda see I can then put the manilla folders into the small containers and then the big containers into the bigger ones... but I don't normally do that.  I just have a couple of the smaller boxes with manilla folders in them and those boxes are labeled and the folders are also labeled.

But if you wanted to... you can put stuff in stuff.  Anywho this is my organizational method I've created to keep my life in order.

Now you might be asking yourself... why the double tape?  OR why the tape at all???  Just sharpie up the container or envelope!

Well... here's why:

First... I make a lot of spelling/grammar/bad handwriting mistakes when not typing on a computer.  I also get dislexic sometimes and draw things backwards upside down switch letters... you name it... I've done it... But if I'm using masking tape, I can even just rip off part of a word and tape in a new piece and then keep going!

Scratching things out always just looked so yucky to me.  I've never liked that.  So this lets me fix my mistakes when handwriting things.  That way at least I can read what I wrote which was always a big problem growing up in school.

Second... I've found that generally I tend to always seem to re-label things eventually.  I mean given enough time I usually have to re-label stuff because one thing or another changes... like where I get my car serviced or which bank I use... or where my teeth get cleaned... Or I change what I use the boxes for and maybe I've got tooo much of one thing and then I have to add a second box or I ebay things like mad and then I combine boxes!  I never can think of what's going to happen until it happens.  But this lets me change things when they do change.  So then instead of having to toss the container or envelope (Or scribble/scratch things out and write in another place) I can just rip off the masking tape and put a new piece on and then write up with a sharpie what the new item is!

And that's is the reason for the packing tape... if you don't re-label soon and the label sticks around for a year or two or even a few months I've found that the masking tape leaves a yuck gross residue.  Well it doesn't seem to leave this with packing tape... and then I just leave the packing tape on the plastic once it's on there because there are no permeant changes to the lower packing tape layer since the masking tape just sits on top.

I basically got this whole idea from the ability to change folder names on your computer and then put folders inside of folders.  I do this a lot.  So if you are a computery person and use folders and organize your things on a computer in subfolders and change folder names a lot you will probably like this method of organizing things.

So there you go... I find it to be super useful and it helps me keep things all sorted out so I don't go banana's trying to figure out where certain paperwork went or where I put a cable adapter for my external hard drives.

I guess the only bad thing is... if a thief ever showed up it would make things awfully convenient for stealing my stuffs being that it is all labeled and what not.

Let's hope that never happens.

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16Dec/110

White (Pink) Elephant (Jaguar) Party

Last night was the White Elephant party (that kinda sounds like a band name... or album)... or as I said when I got to the door "is this the pink jaguar party?"

The dude said "Why yes it is!"

And in I went.

It was fun.  The first couple of minutes I stood awkwardly at the door while everyone else knew each other and hopped around with plates of food and buzzed in conversation.  Eventually someone offered to take my coat (and my gift).

I moved around the room and finally found the 3 or 4 people I had met last Sunday evening who invited me to the party (more people I also met last Sunday eventually arrived).  Well... we all chatted and snacked on lots of snack-esk-y types of foods.  All very good and tasty.  There were also lots of treats... hmmm not treats, that makes it sound like cat or dog type of treats... there were desserts.  And yes, they were all so super delicious!  I love food... soooooooo any time there's grub I'm always very delighted.

Well it was fun.  After lots of usual party conversation and snack-age I was quite parched... So I made my way to the drinks table.  Just poured myself a good old fashioned cup of 7up.

The conversation and food and all went on for a good amount of time.  I think maybe about an hour and some change... but I wasn't keeping an eye on my watch.  Then everyone started gathering in the living room ish area.

We started with some Xmas Carols... one guy accompanied with the guitar and he kinda led everyone with one heck  of a voice.  This dude REALLY can sing!  I meant to talk to him about seeing if he had a band or anything.  Or played open mics.  He was good.

After that we started into the White Elephant part of the party.  Now I've never been to a White Elephant Party... but it was interesting.  If you don't know what one is here's how it works:

So everyone brings a gift.  It can be good or bad or ugly... or pretty.  Then you get your name written on a slip of paper and put in a basket/hat when you drop off the gift.  Then they draw names from the hat/basket/basket shaped hat/hat shaped basket.

As they read off names the first people pick gifts.  Then after the first one is picked the second one and everyone after can either pick or steal.  As you get into it and later people start looking at the gifts around the suck ones get offered up like you are on the Price is Right and the good gifts get hidden away by their current owners hoping someone won't snap it up.

There was a REALLY cool Charlie Brown light up mini xmas tree thing that got stolen about 5 times.  Everyone wanted that one.

Well ok so there are other little rules like no double stealing back and every 3rd person has to pick a gift... other wise everyone would just keep stealing and the game would go on for ages.

If you get stolen from you have to go back into the gift pool and fish more for a gift.

So it's interesting because you can go from having the most stellar gift of the whole shebang to... you got coal (uuuhhh ohhhhh).

So it's one of those things where you're in the lead... and then all of a sudden.... last place.  Although it's just all for kicks anyways.  The fun is just playing the game and not what you end up with.  It's always nice to end up with something cool.  But that's just how it goes.

I brought something my mom prepared that she had around her house.  They were scented gold ornaments (not actual gold)... and I ended up with a waffle maker.

So the joke of the night was I have to make everyone that was at the party waffles at some point.

My initial pick was a shirt and a USB cable powered mug warmer thing.  But someone stole it from me... so I then just decided to grab the waffle maker because the guy that picked it said he already had a waffle maker... then he took a giant 12 days of xmas candle from a girl... and then she picked a gift... I think it was a book but I forget exactly which book.

Well after that wrapped up... everyone kinda chatted for a little while longer and off we went to our respective homes to climb into comfy beds and dream the night away.

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