Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Hodgepodge Vol 250

It's time for Hodgepodge. I'll admit I haven't been very interested in the questions lately I really liked these. Head on over to Joyce's blog to see what other people answered.

1. Are you ready for new? Is 2016 likely to be very different than 2015? Do you want it to be?
I'm ready for new and different. I will have to move (I hate looking for jobs and living quarters, both of which I have to do). My co-worker said I could live in her basement apartment, so I have a backup even though it's at the top of my price range, but with my anxiety of looking for a new place, I might just fall back on that. I hope it's different. I'm hoping to get more distance from my parents again. I'm not a fan of doing laundry at their place and seeing them every week.

 2. January 6th is National Technology Day. Currently, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration when it comes to technology?
I hate not knowing why something doesn't work. I want to know what the problem is and fix it so it can work again. I also hate getting stuff and not knowing how it works. I got an iPhone last August and I'm still figuring it out. I bet if I actually sat down and looked into it, it wouldn't be so bad, but I don't want to be stuck to my phone. I like the fact that I don't check email/facebook/etc on it all the time, but I also love that I can if I don't have the internet. I recently figured out how to use the flashlight on it. I think that's one of it's best features.

 3. It's that time again...time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2016. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's top vote getters are-
So (at the start of every single sentence), conversation (as in hotly debated topics where we're invited to 'join the conversation'), problematic, stakeholder, price point, secret sauce, break the Internet, walk it back, presser, manspreading (common in larger cities where some men take up the entire bus or train seat by sitting wide), vape, giving me life (refers to anything that may excite a person or make them laugh), and physicality
 Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add?
I like getting rid of "so", I think it's a meaningless word, and makes you get your point across so much slower than it needs to be.
4. Share one of your current health related goals.
I don't make New Year's resolutions, but as I'm getting older, I decided to try to do some things to help with my health. I'm trying to take a multi-vitamin every day, take calcium pills every day, drink more water and eat a clementine every day. OK, it doesn't have to be a clementine, but they're easy. I know we're only 6 days into the new year, but I have drank a bit more water, I didn't buy pop today when I really wanted it (I did yesterday, but I've learned it helps me deal with stressful people, I really needed it), I've been eating clementines since I bought a bag on Saturday, I've been taking vitamins since I bought them on Sunday, and I've been taking my calcium pills every night, too (mostly because I get heartburn at night and they help). Here's hoping I continue these habits.

 5. Let's talk fifty shades of gray. As in the color. Gray is currently a popular color in home decor, paint, wardrobes, hair, wedding party attire, and more. Are you a fan? Do you have the color in some variation in your home or wardrobe?  Gray hair, the old gray mare, gray matter, gray area...which gray idiom can you most relate to right now?
I'm not a fan of the color gray. I like color, when I get my own house, I'm totally painting my walls in a color. I don't use a lot of gray in anything. I have a pair of gray leggings, and gray as a background on some of my favorite shirts.
Probably gray hair, but more of white hair. I am apparently prone to getting white hair early, I've had a few since I was in my 20's and I feel I keep finding more.

 6. Certain foods are considered 'lucky' if eaten on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Cooked greens to bring economic fortune, black-eyed peas or lentils also symbolize money, pork which symbolizes progress, fish for good luck, and if you're in Spain 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Did you eat any lucky foods on the first day of the year? Is that a tradition in your home? Of the foods listed, which most appeals to you?
I didn't eat any of those, unless you count shrimp, crab or lobster as fish. We went to Red Lobster for New Year's Eve and I finished my entrée for both my meals on Friday (those portions are huge!).
If I was going with which one is yummiest, probably grapes, but if we're going with what I want in the new year, cooked greens or black-eyed peas for money. I would love to have more money, but I know it takes work.

 7. What's the single biggest time waster in your life and what, if anything, will you do about it this year?
My computer and the internet. I sit down in the morning (when I don't have to work early) and get up hours later wondering where my time went. I really should just do what I do when I have to work early every morning. I know I don't have a lot of time to spend, so I just use my kindle fire which is way more limited on what I can do. Plus, I have a tendency to play Bingo on my laptop, and that takes up a lot of time. I have a lot of time, and if I spent it on other things I wouldn't complain so much. I would also return more books to the library instead of renewing them all the time.

 8.  Insert your own random thought here.
It's January, which means I get to work more. I love when I get to go back to the bookstore, but I found out today (OK, I already knew, but realized it more today), I need new tennis shoes. Last time I was at the bookstore (August), my feet would hurt in the arch and I couldn't figure out what it was. I don't wear my tennis shoes in my position at the library anymore, so when I wore them today and had the same pain, I figured out (sorta) what my problem is. I'm just not a fan of buying things that cost a lot of money.