What the world eats

I saw this today and thought it was so interesting. I didn't want this link to get lost in the flood of the Facebook feed. This is a collection of photos of what people around the world eat in one week, by country. It really is fascinating.

Dumping my thoughts on my blog

Sometimes you just have to get thoughts out of your head on onto paper (or blog) so they stop occupying your mind. Kind of like hammering out a quick, poorly thought out letter to the editor, only to let it fester and collect dust before throwing it away -- you get the words down, the thoughts get put somewhere else, so you can focus on the good again. Few (if any) read this blog anymore, other than me, and it has become a dumping ground for things to come back to, random thoughts and links, and the occasional life update.

We just wrapped up The Color Purple. It was an incredible -- for the entire run we sold all but 33 tickets, which is just amazing to consider. As richly rewarding it is to be involved in something so successful and powerful, it is also exhausting. I am at a point of being physically, mentally and emotionally worn out.

On top of The Color Purple, our house is in a state of decreasing disarray as the repairs from the busted master bath water pipe conclude. Tomorrow should (fingers crossed) be the last day that someone is on our house working on things. That means it's just up to us to dust and put stuff back. But at least it is starting to feel like home again. The bathroom looks good with new tile and a new fancy toilet (who knew they made fancy toilets -- it has a water conserving double flush system).

We traveled to Myrtle Beach yesterday to see our friend Hunter in Lend Me a Tenor, which was very well done and entertaining. Myrtle Beach is just at the edge of what a there-and-back-again day trip can be for me.

Jeni isn't feeling great, worn down by stress. My sinuses are acting up, which is about right for this time of year in Columbia, but still just takes it out of me. The problem is, when I get feeling like this, I get thoughts like: "Life is a bully just waiting for you to get comfortable and relaxed and let your guard down so it can sneak up behind you and trip you." Do I really think that? Well, some days. Some days more, some days less. Lately, more. Which is why I'm dumping these thoughts and memories on the blog. So I can free space for positive thoughts, like how the weather is improving and we'll be on our bikes again soon, or how I have free evenings again and I can get to the gym so I can fit in the new pants I got before Christmas, or how we'll be in Atlanta soon to walk with Nikki which means so much that we can do that.

Reality really is just what we decided it to be. Your thoughts reflect your reality, so I'm trying to think positively, but it's hard when you feel beaten down (oops, there I go again). So there you go ... a bunch of random, rambling thoughts about the past few days. Now, onto to better and brighter thoughts.

Exercise

We were finally watching last week's Biggest Loser and Bob was wearing a shirt that read "3 days on, 1 off, 365 days a year" -- it's a nice reminder about how easy it really can be to get healthy and active. After The Color Purple wraps up I am going to attempt this. I forgot how good it felt to exercise regularly until Jeni and I started really preparing for our big walk. I'm ready to get back at it, and ready for bike weather.

A Calendar of Tales

Neil Gaiman is working with Blackberry on a project, which included 12 short stories ... A Calendar of Tales. I need to take a moment to read these, and didn't want to forget. So, if nothing else, this is a reminder to me to come back to these stories when I can focus on enjoying them, and not just read them to get through them.

Mood boosting books

Here's a list of mood boosting books. “It is hoped those with ‘mild to moderate’ mental health conditions will try out the idea before turning to prescription drugs — many of which can have unpleasant side effects,” The Daily Mail explains.

Sounds good to me. And I have Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, which I can highly recommend.

Challenge Walk MS

Jeni and I are participating in the Challenge Walk MS in Charleston March 1-3. This is a very important event for us. It is a fundraiser for MS research. Our friend Nikki was diagnosed with MS about seven years ago. We have been doing a 5k walk with her in Marietta, Ga, every year for the past four years. But this year we decided to do the Challenge Walk -- a 3-day, 50-mile walk. It is 20 miles the first two days, and 10 miles the final day. But for us to participate, we need to raise $1500. It is a daunting goal, but I remain confident that it will happen. We are getting good support, but I still stress over reaching the goal. Dr. Jones is matching the donations I get from my patients, which will help. But every bit helps. Please consider chipping in a little here. Thank you for your support. Jeni and I continue to walk and walk as we prepare. I'm getting very excited!

Test post

I knew that you could email blog posts to Blogger, but for the life of me I could never find the option under my settings. Well, I finally found it, so this is a test to see if it works. I hope it does, so maybe I can make blog posts from my phone easier.

iPod sync issues

A while back I was having trouble syncing my older iPod to iTunes. iTunes would think that it saw my iPod, but it would never show up on the sidebar. I could see it as an external drive under My Computer, but again no luck with iTunes. I went through a bunch of recommendations from Apple until I found this blog entry and it solved the issue in a matter of minutes. Hopefully I'll never have to come back to this again, but just in case, I wanted it here. And also if you need it. Some of the most helpful tips come from users who have figured things out, and not the actual help FAQ pages.

Blogging more

As much as I enjoy keeping up with people on Facebook and Twitter (and the few who are on Google+), I miss my blogging. The blog requires brain power that the others don't, like sentence structure and a reason to write, and maybe pictures, too. Flickr will upload to the blog automatically, which is nice and is encouraging me to do more with both. But the Flickr uploader is still clunky and working through its issues.

This has been an exciting year with some great adventures. We started biking outside, and I got a good bike for Christmas so that I can keep up with Jeni hopefully. Now we just need the weather to cooperate so we can get back on the road. In the meantime we've borrowed Tiffany's trainer so we can bike in the house.

We had a nice Christmas with Lisa and Brian and the girls. We went over and spent Christmas Eve and Day with them. You just can't beat being around small children at Christmastime.

Now we are gearing up for New Year's ... we'll be doing a Roaring 20s themed New Years. It should be a lot of fun.