Day 242: Poirot Loses a Client - Agatha Christie

More Agatha Christie! I promise you guys, I only have a few more mystery novels left. I'm happy to say that my books all fit on my one bookshelf now - with the exception of my oversized cookbooks. I actually have room to spare. This gives me great pleasure; whenever I look at my bookshelf I remember what a pain it was to move all the contents.

Status: Gifted

Day 241: 10-sided Dice

These dice are pretty high on my list of most difficult items to get rid of. They are relics of my attempts at role playing games during my freshman year of university. I tried Vampire LARPing twice and participated in a weekly game of 7th Sea and I was horrible at both.

Example dialogue:
GM: What would you like to do?
Emily: I would like to attack whatever looks like it most needs attacking

Actual quote. I like to think I would do better now. I was pretty timid back then and didn't talk enough to hone any wit. Now I have learned that the best way to improve your sense of humor is to loosen your filters and just say more stuff. Sure, I occasionally say something embarrassing, but then I say something else and no one cares any more. I've gotten so much better at making people laugh that those short embarrassing moments don't bother me at all.

Status: Dibbed

Day 240: Snowboard goggles

Sported these goggles
Tearing up the NW slopes
Now I'd fall instead

* The Service Board

Status: Dibbed

Day 239: Silicone coated whisk

The old Treemo offices were located in the same building as the kitchen gadget manufacturer Chef'n. Twice a year they have a ridiculous sale - almost everything was $2. I used to buy up tons of crap and use them for stocking stuffers and Christmas auction gifts. I am still using quite a few items from these sales. I believe in having multiple sets of measuring cups, measuring spoons, and cheese slicers, but I've finally decided I don't need to have multiple whisks.

Status: Dibbed

Day 238: The Importance of Being Earnest

I've loved this story since I saw a production put on by my high school. I'm also kind of a sucker for Colin Firth. Once I get rid of this movie the only titles I will own are Amelie, Pride & Prejudice, and Wonderfalls. Oh yeah, and Escape from Affluenza. I have to own a copy of the movie I'm in!

Status: Dibbed

Day 237: The Five Red Herrings

My main distraction these days is a book of cryptic crosswords that a friend borrowed/gave me. Cryptic Crosswords are far superior to ordinary crosswords. Each clue is a definition and a word puzzle. I love this because I'm not so good at trivia but I enjoy puzzles. Types of clues include anagrams, reversals, palindromes, and words inside other words. Unfortunately, cryptics are much more popular in the U.K. and their puzzles are near indecipherable to an American. I have two books of cryptics but I'm not sure what I'll do when these are finished.

Status: Dibbed

Day 236: Alhambra

This game won some award and I'd heard it mentioned many times before I bought it. Now I'm kind of wondering if it was so popular because there weren't as many options back in 2003. I've played it several times but when presented with the option I will always pick a different game.

Status: Dibbed

Day 235: Japanese-English dictionary

It's my dictionary from college. I studied Japanese for my senior year of high school (in running start) and two years of college. It's hard to remember the vocabulary and I've forgotten most of the kanji I knew but I can still pick up a decent amount of conversation. The first time I traveled to Japan I barely knew how to say anything beside thank you, yes, excuse me, and I would like ___. My sister and I were constantly saying "Hai!" and we were definitely teased for it.

Status: Dibbed

Day 234: Shadow Hearts: Covenant

It might be obvious to my readers that I am slowly working my way toward the possibility of getting rid of my PS2. It's difficult to imagine giving it up since it was the platform for so many wonderful games. Most of my favorites were released on PS2 originally: Disgaea, Shadow Hearts, Okami, Fatal Frame, and more. Oh yeah, and can't forget Ichigeki Sacchu!! HoiHoi-san. It's a tragedy that game was never released in the US. You run around as a tiny robot girl killing insects with tiny machine guns. Could someone please remake this game?

I can't actually get rid of my PS2 quite yet, even if I was ready. One of my best friends and I have been slowly working our way through Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 together. I play the dark elf monk and she is the dwarven warrior. I think outsiders, men especially, would be amused to watch us play. We are both neurotic about getting every last piece of loot but we know that we both love opening chests so there is a lot of "Would you like to open this one?" She is also incredibly considerate when I do something stupid and get killed. My stinginess with items and forgetting to keep an eye on my health meter is a deadly combination.

Status: Dibbed

Day 233: Fruits Basket DVD set

It's the complete box set of the Fruits Basket tv show, autographed by the director. I got them autographed at Sakura Con one year. I'm pretty old school when it comes to con participation - my first year was Baka Con '99. 

The year I got these DVDs signed was a particularly memorable year. It was the convention that launched my eared hats business. I was broke so in order to make some spending money I brought 20 fleece eared hats I had designed and sewed. This was before everyone was selling eared hats so they sold easily. This was also the year Umipixie and SkyCriesX hosted a room party and were projecting Oruchuban Ebichu on the drapes. It's rather naughty and someone complained.

Me and Akitaro Daichi - the director of FB

Status: Dibbed

Day 232: MAC eye shadows

I love the brightly saturated shades of eye shadows available at MAC. Occasionally I'll make the mistake of buying a color just because I think it's pretty. Then I'll go home and try it on and I can not find a way to make it work for me. It was difficult to get the colors right with my point & shoot camera - if someone knows what I'm doing wrong please let me know. I didn't use flash. The pot on the left is a metallic orange-red and the one on the right is purple gold.

Status: Dibbed

Day 231: Bluetooth mouse

This mouse had great reviews so I thought I needed one. Unfortunately, bluetooth mice have a huge downside. You have to turn on bluetooth to use them which kills your battery if you aren't plugged in. It turns out I am too stingy with energy to use it. I ended up buying a wired mouse which I keep at home and I use the trackpad when I go out. Surprisingly, I still had a difficult time deciding to get rid of it. Somehow I still believed that I needed a miniature mouse.

Status: Dibbed

Day 230: Two books by Diana Wynne Jones

Ahhh! I keep coming home too late and missing my chance to take photographs. Books were the easiest things for me to weed out so I photograph a ton at once. Then when I get home too late or too tired I can just choose a book out of my backlog of photos. I'm posting these as a pair because I don't want to depend heavily on books to get me through this project.

Diana Wynne Jones has been one of my favorite authors since elementary school. I think my introduction to her was Witch Week and then I quickly fell in love with the Chronicles of Chrestomanci. She weaves some wonderful fantasy stories and they are always a little odd. She wrote Howl's Moving Castle which is one of the few books of fiction that I am keeping and I've probably read it more than thirty times. Howl's Moving Castle is the prequel to Castle in the Air and while writing this I discovered a third book in the series was recently published: House of Many Ways. Loading up the library website now...

Status: Dibbed

Day 229: Yourself Fitness for PS2

I have tried many times to get myself to the gym regularly with little success. I've owned an elliptical, DDR Aerobics, and this game: Yourself Fitness. It's a well executed game with aerobics, pilates, and stretches. You can adjust the workout and it has good variety. It worked well for me for awhile but eventually I realized that the best way to get exercise is to work it in to my daily life. Fortunately, it's easy for me right now since I live within walking distance of work and can take care of groceries on the way back. Pretty much everywhere I need to go can be reached on foot although I do supplement with the scooter.

Status: Dibbed

Day 228: Count Zero by William Gibson

William Gibson wrote a number of popular science fiction books including Pattern Recognition. When people ask me what my dream job would be I usually tell them I want to be like Cayce, the main character. She has a psychological sensitivity to logos and branding - essentially she is allergic to bad branding. People paid her gobs of money to look at their logo and then she'd reject or accept them without ceremony. I can't tell you how many times I've seen advertising that I wish they'd run by me.

Status: Dibbed

Day 227: Coral Necklace

This necklace was a gift from my grandparents and although it's a lovely pendant it doesn't suit me at all. Mostly the color doesn't look right against my skin. There is something about gifts from the grandparents that makes them incredibly difficult to get rid of. The fact is, however, that I've owned this for many years and it still has not graced my neck.

My grandfather passed away a few years ago and his passing actually spurred my desire to minimize my possessions. My grandparents house was always spotless but when we traveled down to help my grandmother downsize we discovered that he hoarded things. The most striking moment for me (other than the memories and our loss, of course) was when I pulled out a yoga book and asked my grandmother if it could go. She said no, because it was a gift. One she had received twenty years ago and never used.

After that week I was determined to do two things: learn how to let go of gifts and not leave so much stuff for my descendants to deal with.

My grandfather; wasn't he a cutie!

Status: Dibbed

Day 226: Cheap & Easy: A Cookbook for Girls on the Go

This cookbook has obvious appeal for someone like me who prefers not to spend all day in the kitchen. I haven't tried many of the recipes but I've made the mac & cheese many times. It's a basic recipe and greasy as hell but it's tasty.

Status: Dibbed

Day 225: Muffin Tin

When I bought this I had intentions of making mini quiches so I could just grab 'em and go for my breakfasts. I have since discovered that I actually like making food in the morning. It's easier for me get myself to make a scramble before work than it is to make a batch of mini quiches on the weekend. I also consume more fruits and veggies for breakfast than I do for any other meal. Every weekday morning I make myself a fruit & greens smoothie and then I usually make either a bacon, spinach, and mushroom scramble or plain scrambled eggs. I never get tired of it.

I think my mom is the reason I have such a difficult time skipping breakfast. During high school I was not motivated to make breakfast and would have skipped it if left to my own devices. She used to get up every morning and make me a fruit smoothie and either eggs, hashbrowns, or french toast. I was a fortunate teenager!

Here is my smoothie recipe:

1 banana
2 cups spinach (kale is also good but stringy)
1 cup mixed berries
1/2-1 inch of water

Step 1: Blend all ingredients together
Step 2: Rinse out your blender immediately or you'll never want to make a smoothie again

Status: Dibbed

Day 224: Corruption

I haven't actually played this game. I bring it to board game night every week but no one is interested enough to take the time to learn it. This is a good time to mention that I am hosting a weekly board game night at a bar. If you're interested and not creepy or obnoxious you should ping me for details.

Playing board games has been one of my favorite pastimes since I was a kid. Back then I remember playing Monopoly, Careers, Cribbage, Save the Whales, and a number of interesting cooperative board games. Now I play Dominion, Small World, Ricochet Robots, and Arkham Horror. I've got Arkham Horror plans for tomorrow and I'm psyched. It's an awesome coop game that will probably take at least three hours.

While I was growing up my parents taught "family games" and folk dancing. These games usually required a lot of running around. We played The Great Wind Blows, Whose Nose Is It, Fruit Basket, Red Light, Green Light, and Hug a Tree. Hug a Tree was exactly how it sounds: you are blinded folded, spun around, and led to a tree. You are allowed some time to feel the tree before you are led off and your blindfold is removed. Then you have to locate the tree you hugged. That this game was a favorite of my mother's should tell you a lot about my childhood.

Status: Dibbed

Day 223: Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy Sayers

Hand in hand with the increasing difficulty of choosing items is an increasing difficulty of being inspired to write about said items. Fortunately I thought of something during the construction of that sentence.

I mentioned before that I discovered Dorothy Sayers through a play which was performed at the Taproot Theater. I was extremely shy as a child but that didn't stop me from trying drama classes. I took classes through the Taproot Theater as well as the Seattle Children's Theatre. Much of these classes were taken up with theater games and while I was terrified of being put on the spot I did not give up trying.

It's interesting to me now because attempting activities that scare me has continued to be one of my distinctive traits. I've always had a way of bullying myself in to trying things. I've been terrified of public speaking all my life but last year I joined Toastmasters to try to overcome it. I was only able to attend for a few months before my schedule no longer permitted it but I progressed significantly during that time. I took as many opportunities to speak as possible and while it's still intimidating to speak in front of people I am confident that now I can do well.

Status: Gifted

Day 222: Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo II

I used to be a beast at this game. Or at least I thought I was. Super Puzzle Fighter is one of a classic puzzle game, the kind where you drop gems out of the sky and make stuff explode. It was extremely popular amongst the anime crowd. I've never been too good at strategizing for drop patterns but I was fast which counts for a lot.

Sometime in 2004 I joined the beta for Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates. Puzzle Pirates was an awesome MMORPG where you played pirates sailing the seas and battling with puzzles. The swordfighting game was almost an exact clone of Puzzle Fighter and I was pleased to see that I was able to hold my own in the vast oceans. Now I'm a little upset that I can't recall the name of my ship... I remember it being awesome.

Status: Dibbed

Day 221: Scooter Girl

These are evidence that I was interested in scooters long before I bought mine. Of course I always pictured myself with a Vespa, not a Honda. I love the sturdy retro look. My current lust is the Symba but it is utterly lacking in storage and therefore completely impractical.

I had an interesting scooter ride the other day. I'm a member of couchsurfing.com and I had a French girl visiting me a couple weekends ago. She just completed an internship in New York and was doing some traveling before returning to France. She landed at 9pm and didn't make it to my place until 11:30 or so.

The couchsurfer took the correct bus and got off near my house but when she asked someone for directions they pointed north. After all sorts of text direction failures I finally went off in search for her on my scooter. I eventually found her at Roy and Summit. We stuck her carryon bag in my basket and then she and her massive backpack sat behind me. It was quite the scene and it's a miracle I didn't crash.

Status: Dibbed

Day 220: Have His Carcase - Dorothy Sayers

This is another fantastic Dorothy Sayers novel. Old mystery novels like this one are cheap and I can usually find them for a dollar or less. I think I will still allow myself to buy them for traveling but I will leave them behind at hostels along the way.

I have about a dozen more books to post and then I'll be left with the books I want to hold on to. Sometimes I feel like posting them individually is cheating because they are so easy to accumulate in quantity. Then I realize that I have a hundred and forty-five days to go and I'm being too strict on myself.

Status: Gifted

Day 219: Blue Monday: Lovecats

I only have one more comic post after this one. Then I'll be hauling the entire lot down to the comic book store unless one of you claims them. When I was a kid I thought everyone collected something and I kept trying out different themes, hoping that one of them would click. I tried comics, magic cards (didn't actually have anyone to play them with), X-men cards, Kinder Egg prizes, shells, rocks, and all sorts of other random crap. Fortunately my lack of funds prevented me from taking my "collections" very far. Now the only things I intentionally accumulate are board games.

Status: Dibbed

Day 218: Fox Windbreaker

I still think this jacket is really cute but I never wear it. It's a brighter blue than it looks in this photo. I think I picked it up during my Zumiez/Mr. Rags phase in middle school and early high school. I had no sense of style back then; I owned a lot of ill-fitting pants and tiny t-shirts. I had these black cords from Mr. Rags that I bought in eighth grade that I think were six sizes too big. They were (of course) a raggedy mess.

Status: Dibbed

Day 217: Peterson First Guides: Astronomy

This guide came with the computer game Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego? which was my favorite iteration of the series. Your character traveled between planets and moons in search of the elusive Carmen Sandiego. I was always partial to Jupiter's moon Callisto and when I started watching Sailor Moon I named my own character Sailor Callisto.

Status: Trashed

Day 216: Gift certificate for The Comedy Underground

I won this gift certificate in the family Christmas auction last year. We have a decently sized extended family so instead of exchanging gifts we each bring a few wrapped miscellaneous items. Everyone gets an envelope with a random amount of change and we bid on the boxes and bags that look like they have the most potential. I've gotten everything from gift certificates to a bar of Irish Spring soap.

When we first started the auction we were supposed to bring gifts labeled for the type of person they would work for - girl, boy, man with a car. It didn't take long for me to realize that anything labeled for a woman was not something I wanted. I had more Body Shop products than I could use. After a few years I made a point of only bidding on items labeled for men. The first time I did that I ended up with a giant jar of pistachios, a swiss army knife, and a first aid kit. Score!

This gift certificate expires on October 24th of this year.

Status: Dibbed

Day 216: Veronica Mars Season 1 box set

While I was living in Lake City with my ex-boyfriend, my social life was almost non-existent. I played Warcraft and Halo with my boyfriend and sometimes we would travel to Kirkland for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and poker. Veronica Mars was my favorite television show at the time and it was practically the only time I spent with my people instead of Evan's. Once a week, my sister and an old friend would come over and we would watch the new episode together. Except I would be behind my computer for half of the episode finishing up a raid. It was bad enough that my friend and sister gave me a talking to.

Status: Dibbed

Day 215: If you're feeling sinister - Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian always reminds me of the tv show How I Met Your Mother. When I heard about that show I did not think it could possibly be worth watching but my sister was so excited about it that I caved in and gave it a try. I sat down on the couch with my friend Winston and we watched for about three hours straight.

Winston could not stop laughing throughout the entire mini marathon and at first I was sure that I was only laughing because his laughter was contagious. The level of enjoyment he was getting out of it seemed disproportionate to the humor represented. Then I saw down again the next day watch a few more episodes and I was hooked. I watched every episode available to me as fast as I could get my hands on them.

Status: Dibbed

Day 214: Too Much Hopeless Savages

I boo-booed last night. Completely forgot to post and no real excuse. I went for dinner at the Metropolitan Grill with a friend because I got a "buy one entree, get one free" coupon. We ordered the NY Strip Steak for two and they carved it table side for us. It came with the most ridiculous serving of garlic mashed potatoes I have ever seen.

After dinner I went home and got my couchsurfer hooked on So You Think You Can Dance. I was watching the first audition episode when she returned with my roommate but then I had to show her all my favorite dances from season 4. This was instead of going to bed on time. Oops!

Status: Dibbed

Day 213: Studio Ghibli Box Set

I'm a big fan of Studio Ghibli and I bought this box set years ago off the internets. Someday I will probably buy the official releases of my favorite titles but for now I don't need them. The titles I would like to own are Spirited Away, Whispers of the Heart, Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service.

This box set is missing a few discs, if I locate them I'll pass 'em on later. Included are: Nausicaa, Totoro, PomPoko, Whispers of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, On Your Mark, I Can Hear The Sea, and Only Yesterday.

Status: Dibbed