I blog gluten-free

Monday, June 29, 2015

Freedom and Conflicted Minds

I've always hated the phrase, "guilty pleasure". If you feel guilty, it's not all that pleasurable, is it? These are my favorite "Get off your butt and walk it off" songs for those times when I'm feeling far more cranky and cantankerous than I'd like. I'm not really a lady who snaps, "Get off my lawn!" and when I have done, it's caused more hilarity than I was happy with! I have always loved history. It's important, especially since we tend to paint over it and those whose memory should be damned,acquire a gloss that they don't deserve, while others, like Richard III, known in his own time, as a fair man who actually tried to make the law fairer, and whose courtship of his wife sounds like it should be the next great historical soap opera on the BBC- has been changed into a monster. So, anyway, imagine my delight when I realized that I could dance to it! And this pastiche of Hollaback Girl is rather catchy. While it's a lot of fun, it brings me to this- something's been bugging me for a few days, and I feel terrible for ending on a dark note. In this time of ours, where "If you are not X you are Y", "If you don't support this, you are that", and middle of the road gets you run right over, look back to the 80's, a time of promises, lies, recessions, assassination attempts, neon colors, big shoulders, and big hair. And honor your life and your freedom. Don't take it. You are a solution. It's not a zero sum game. And if you use your love of freedom to beat down others, then you are practicing what you preach against. You can change that. You are not your politics, remember. Others' choices in their beliefs are none of your business. Yours are none of theirs. But, let's end on a light note-eesh. That crap- not the rainbow flags v. confederate flags, not the Supreme Court decision- it's that... now, our government can firmly control even more peoples' private lives, if you must have my opinion- but while that is terrible, love in all forms is not. Let there be more. But don't sit there and take it. Fight. The plague on our land is more people controlling others, in holding out false freedom, and snaring people into Matrix-like traps. Quit just sitting there like a frog on a log- ribbit as loudly as you can. Use your voice. It might be all you have.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

More Eclectic than an Eclectic Eel

Workout playlists:

It's a quickie search.
And you do get a lot of ideas.

Some things are must haves... Iron Man, by Black Sabbath: heck yes. But dear God, as much as I like to work off the stress and get the stress off, Harlem Shake? Harlem Shake? Hey, shake your money maker like the rent is due tomorrow, to your heart's content. But there has got to be something better.

The lists, for the most part, say the same stuff.
A little Eye of the Tiger being the largest common denominator.

Some people like rap, others metal. (Some people drink Pepsi, some people drink Coke*...)  I'm... a bit more of an eclectic eel. 

1)Ebooks: The Book on Tape workout method.
There are a few pitfalls for me here.

A: The narrator intones solemnly, "For a perfect blini..."
B: It's John Cleese reading the Screwtape Letters, which is fantastic, breathtaking, thrilling... but I just can't quite use it as sweat it out material.

2)Pharell's Happy: I hadn't heard the song until May. This past May. Don't ask how I managed to avoid this and yet quickly, and to my horror, realize that there's an extended cut of "Let It Go".
Unfortunately, I was exposed to two hours of it. That's quite enough.
3)Sorry, T-Swift. You don't do much for me. Go do you, but I need to shake you off.

I'm busily compiling and editing. My list will be rather unique: there's education- (A song about the plague set to Gwen Stephani's Hollaback Girl with the strangely catchy, "Oooh, fleas on rats" refrain.) there's loud (Smells Like Teen Spirit? I can dig it). But my feet need to move, and somehow, I feel like I'm missing a lot.
My thanks to Cake, et.al, for getting me moving and letting me sweat it out.

So... I guess... I'm doing my thing... and definitely have a way to get myself focused. Progress, progress. But I need to move and I need music that isn't the same ol/ same 'ol.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Shake it, Shake it, Shake it!

Strange advice coming from me. ^^^ ⤴️ ^^^

The Bliss Out Bottle, the calming jar, the "I need to keep my hands busy and don't have a nice alliterative name" container.

Find a bottle or jar with a sturdy, leak proof top. You can use a Mason jar, but glass is not good for children.  A full jar will also be heavier.

1) Empty bottle.
2) Remove label and left over adhesive. If you don't have goo gone, olive oil spray works- as an adhesive getteroffer, great, as cooking aid... Yech! Wipe clean and dry.
3) Fill with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of hot water (PLEASE SUPERVISE CHILDREN!!!!)
4)Add glitter glue.
5)Add tubes of glitter. The trick is a free fall and suspension, provided by the glue.
6)Fill bottle to top with hot water.
7)Superglue cap.
8)Let cool.

Shake ’er up, baby!
Also: a Smart Water bottle makes a pretty cool looking free weight. For biceps curls and obliques exercises. $1 at local dollar store.