Ordinary Extraordinary

v 2.0

Phew, more than two weeks without a post! Need I explain that my life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately?

I took some time off last week, though, and have returned from Santa Barbara both refreshed and resolved to approach a few areas of my life differently.

I also returned with a trail version of Photoshop CS3, which explains the brand spanking new look of the site. I'm still fiddling around with the details; this masthead was my first attempt at using custom brushes and advanced layering so I'm not completely happy with it yet, but it's a start.

What do you guys think?

Contribute

Those of you who read my blog via its main page rather than RSS feed will notice a new TypeList to the left called CONTRIBUTE. Since the holiday season is now in full swing and people are looking for ways in which to share their time or money, I wanted to list a few of my favorite organizations. Some of these are local - I'm sure those of you in other areas of the world can find similar programs closer to home:

ANY SOLDIER, INC. We talk a lot about supporting our troops, but the military personnel deployed overseas can't read our bumper stickers or see the ribbons on our doors - they can't hear our speeches or read our blog posts. What they CAN do is read letters, and enjoy care packages full of reminders of home.

Started as one family's way to help their son's brigade, Any Soldier, Inc. has expanded to include all branches of the armed services and reaches almost 20,000 active duty military personnel via more than 4,000 military representatives. Because my father was a SeaBee, I've chosen a rep who is the OIC of a SeaBee battalion stationed in the Al Anbar provice of Iraq.

The system is simple: Scroll through the military representatives (all of them post personal messages about what they need, what their conditions are like, etc), and apply to receive that rep's address (because of security concerns they are not posted on the website). Then, fill up a couple of care packages with treats, necessities, and letters and send them off! Warning: Please read the FAQ and sending regulations very carefully - sending mail to a war zone requires a few extra steps and precautions.

PASADENA HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA The PHSSPCA is one of the oldest animal shelters in Los Angeles County - it was founded in 1903! Not only do they offer boarding, sheltering, adoption and outreach education, they are also very involved in investigating animal cruelty and neglect. Though they're well staffed for volunteers at the moment, they can always use donations and, of course, homes for their orphaned animals!

PHAT GIRLS RUNNING Support me in my goal to run a marathon on December 10! OK, you're really supporting AIDS Project Los Angeles - a wonderful program that is dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by HIV disease; reducing the incidence of HIV infection; and advocating for fair and effective HIV-related public policy. The marathon is less than two weeks away so you only have one more week to donate! (The deadline is December 3, 2006)

THE LIME PROJECT Heather has cancer and we, her friends, think that sucks. We think it sucks more that since her insurance does not cover prescriptions, she has about $20K in outstanding medical bills. So bronxelf decided that we had to do something about it. Fast.

Next thing we knew, fourteen of us were naked and posing for a 2007 calendar! I'm January. We're doing a very limited printing and have already sold out more than half so hurry up and order yours before we run out! If you don't need another calendar, you can also make a straight donation from the order page.

THE ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST If I look out my kitchen window, I can see the peaks that make up the south west boundary of the Angeles National Forest. Many Los Angeles residents don't know that in addition to being a beautiful place for hiking etc, the Angeles National Forest also contains the majority of Southern California's watersheds - an invaluable public resource. There are countless ways to help the Forest Service protect the Angeles National Forest; check out the volunteer page for a few ideas!

VOLUNTEER MATCH Want to volunteer but have no idea where to start? Volunteer Match is the place. You can search by metro area and by interest so you won't be overwhelmed by hundreds of options.

I love the generosity that pours forth during the holidays, but please remember that there are people, animals, and wilderness areas that need help all year - not just in December. If you're too strapped/busy to contribute now, pledge to do it in February, or in May. The need does not stop when the new year rolls around.

Amandarin: A Retrospective

My blog reached the ripe old age of three years last week! Since that's about ninety in internet years, I guess it's time to add a tiny little walker to the header and take it out for an Early Bird Special at Denny's to celebrate.

Instead, I've spent the past several days going through my archives. Cleaning things up, re-categorizing, re-visiting my public record of the last three years.

Though I've had a website / web journal since the fall of 1995, I began blogging in earnest in 2003 after deciding that I was tired of maintaining the behemoth that my personal site had become. I deleted my entire website and started with a Blogger account (ugh) but moved quickly over to TypePad, where I've been ever since.

My blog's been through some changes since its inception (it used to be called The Gravity Bill, for instance), but 800 posts, 1000 love notes death threats emails & comments, and more than 80,000 hits later I'm fairly proud of the "final" product.

Since I have been digging through my archives, I thought I'd celebrate the big 0-3 by re-visiting some of my favorite posts from various categories:

• adventures: Grocery Empowerment is an oldie but a goodie. It remains the single most bizarre trip that I have ever taken to the grocery store (and that's saying a lot) as well as one of the most defining moments for my self confidence.


• dating, mating and relating: Apollo may have turned out to be a coward and a cliche, but the story of the day I met his mother will provide cocktail conversation for years to come. What A Girl Wants is a damn close second for my favorite, though.


• essays: Periodically I'll get an email from a Psych Professor telling me that one of his or her studens has swiped my Freudian Eminem essay for their own. My personal favorite, however, has to be Adventures in Driving.


• life happens: The New Minimalism, wherein our plucky heroine managed to inadvertenly destroy every single piece of furniture in her bedroom.


• los angeles: I can't decide which is my favorite: the woman who was in a terrible hurry, or Luke Perry getting advice on fame from some girl at Petco.


• memories: I reread Simple Things every time I start to despair of ever going on another decent date again. The fact that the man who took these actions is not Apollo makes this memory a particularly effective reminder.


• mental wanderings: Sometimes Confronting the Mirror is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.


• open letters: I discovered a few future Darwin Award winners on my drive home one evening.


• quotables: I remember so vividly the day I became one of the guys.


• tidbits: A screen door taught me not to take myself too seriously.


• work:Thank god my company has a sense of humor.

What are your favorite posts?

This Many Years Old

I've just realized that my blog (at least in its current incarnation) turns three in October.

Wow!

Housekeeping

I've been doing a little housekeeping 'round the old blog. A shiny new adventure category (complete with Phat Girls Running link! You should go give us money), a trimmer & tidier blogroll, and some new tunes on the playlist. Woo!

Do I know how to party on a Wednesday night or what?

Favorite

Of all the Google and MSN queries that have driven people to my site, this is now my second favorite:

Easy E business suit White House

My first is, of course, onion booty. For awhile I was one of the top ten hits for onion booty photos on Norwegian MSN. I have no idea why.

Ranting Squirrel

Topical new Foamy anyone?

(Also? I've finally updated my playlist there on the left. I will endeavor to do that more frequently from now on.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog

Yes, amandarin.net was down for most of the day.

Yes, it was down because I forgot to renew the domain.

Yes, I forgot to renew the domain because I was having reminders sent to a spam-centric email address that I never check.

Yes, everything is once again up and running properly.

Yes, I am a dork.

Science

Mobloggin'

Since I got myself a shiny new moblog courtesy of the folks over at moblog UK, I've now added a moblog section to the links column at left.

I've also tidied up the other lists and rearranged things a bit, just because I was feeling productive.

Calling All Lurkers

As gauche as it may be, I check the amandarin stats every few days (c'mon, you all do it too, don't lie). I've learned that I get between 200 and 500 hits a day on this site; I don't get nearly that many comments or emails. Who are you, my wonderfully quiet readers?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Fresh Face

What does one do when bored on a Sunday afternoon? Overhauls one's website, of course!

Housekeeping, Part II

I've been doing more tidying up around amandarin.net... some shiny new categories, a new playlist section (not sure how I feel about using the album cover thumbnails yet - they seem to make the list take up a lot of space), and a new photo.

Minor changes, yet somehow satisfying. Feedback welcome.

Housekeeping

I've been tidying things up around amandarin; namely the post categories and link lists. Organization is good. :)

Stay tuned for a massively updated "About" page and possibly a snazzy new layout in the coming weeks. Oooh, aaah!

Top Three

As I was browsing through my referral logs (terribly uncool, I know), I discovered that the three search queries driving traffic to amandarin most frequently are:

Onion Booty
Scientology traitor
and
Help! I'm fat!

I'm rather afraid to draw any sort of conclusion from that so you all just go ahead and draw your own...

Odd

I'm the number 16 hit for "onion booty photos" on Norwegian MSN.

How odd.

Brand me!

amandarin.net needs a banner and/or a fun logo.

OK, I guess it doens't *need* a banner or logo so much as I want it to have one. However, I am thoroughly uninspired to create said banner or logo.

So... who better than my lovely readers to design something fun and amandarin-y? Let your imaginations run wild... show me what you've got! There are no restrictions on this project other than that the final piece cannot be wider than 500 pixels.

All submissions should be made via email - my address is in the left column. Winning pieces get displayed prominently here (with credit, of course) and earn... um... my undying gratitude!

Who's in?

Almost Famous

A friend just pointed out that I am in yesterday's LA Blogs digest for this entry.

Neato!

other adventurers

I've finally updated my "other adventurers" list, just in case you're looking for yet more blogs to add to your daily reads :)

Funky Format?

amandarin.net looks all funky when I bring it up in Safari... anyone else having problems??

Self Portraits

A few years ago, I started taking a lot of self portraits. I don't know where the inspiration came from, but one day I decided to start observing myself from the outside.

Slowly but surely, I'm uploading these series to my TypePad photo albums. The first one, called Bars & Stripes and taken earlier today, is now online for your enjoyment!

Writer's Dam. Damn.

Though I have been keeping a blog (in one form or another) since 1998, amandarin is a new project.

I began blogging because it was a way for me to add some structure and discipline to something that was previously only an occasional hobby. My goal was simply to write something, anything, every day - an attempt to sharpen my style and refine my own unique voice. The bonus of publishing it publicly was that others would be able to read my words and give me feedback. However, as blogging evolved, I found my writing becoming something I didn't like. Rather than the well-thought-out essays that I had started out composing, my blog entries became like sound bites - mere tidbits of information. There were plenty of brief anecdotes, pictures with few word captions, and links to other (more verbose) blogs, but no depth. There were none of my thoughts or feelings... just bits of fluff and inconsequence. One of my weblogs was very popular for awhile, but I took it down because I was disappointed with the quality (or lack thereof) of my own writing.

amandarin is a return to my original vision of blogging and I am excited to be launching it. For the first time in a long time, my mind is swimming with ideas for pieces that are just begging to be written. I have started to keep a list of ideas as they occur to me so that I can get back to them whenever I find myself lacking for a topic.

But...

I feel as though my inspiration is dammed up. I know the ideas are there, pounding and swirling againt each other, but only the smallest drops seem to make it over the wall that is containing them. I have been writing in bites for so long that my creativity trails off after the first few sentences. I have a handful of posts saved as drafts because they started off strongly and then stopped, leaving me bewildered as to how to finish them. Clearly, this is evidence that my return to this style writing was none too soon.

I'm hoping that this struggle will make me a stronger, more focused writer.

I'm hoping that the dam will break soon and my ideas will come tumbling forth as they used to.

I'm hoping that you all will bear with me while I sort this all out.

Explanation

The Gravity Bill has gone unpaid for many weeks now, but there is a reason - I have been immersed in work.

My new project, Harlottique opens this Thursday May 20th!

If you are in the Los Angeles area, you MUST see this show. Click here for more details.

Hope to see you all there!

Quiet

I know the Gravity Bill has been quiet of late, but rest assured dear readers that my mind has not.

More Gravity goodness coming soon.

Meanwhile, this weekend I:
...ran 5 miles
...drove around a trendy part of town for 40 minutes to find parking before giving up and going home
...spent 8 hours cleaning someone else's kitchen
...made the best broiled swordfish EVER