Look, I made the "lifestyle change" years ago. It's called healthy swapping. I don't deny myself any carbs (although I should probably limit them more to be perfectly honest. Carbs are too easy to just grab and eat), I just swap for healthier options. That Egg McMuffin I make at home? Whole wheat english muffin, and canadian bacon instead of sausage or regular bacon. I could even go as far as all egg whites, (The egg white mcmuffin they used to have at McDonalds was bomb and I wish they'd bring it back) but I learned a long time ago that cutting out fat is also a recipe for disaster. Fat is satiating. Yeah, it adds a ton of calories but it also tastes good and it helps keep you full. So I'm all about that whole egg. Want pasta? Use chcikpea. It's got fiber and protein. Add some ground turkey instead of beef. Use tomato sauce instead of alfredo. The pizza I like to eat is the Mediterranean one from Dominos. Thin crust with all veggies and no meat.
Follow Me!
You can follow me on twitter also @Katjaneway. If you hate twitter, like I know a lot of you do, you can still subscribe to my blog via email below this heading. I'm also on bloglovin'!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Don't forget to comment, ya trolls! Thanks :)
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Intuitive Eating
Look, I made the "lifestyle change" years ago. It's called healthy swapping. I don't deny myself any carbs (although I should probably limit them more to be perfectly honest. Carbs are too easy to just grab and eat), I just swap for healthier options. That Egg McMuffin I make at home? Whole wheat english muffin, and canadian bacon instead of sausage or regular bacon. I could even go as far as all egg whites, (The egg white mcmuffin they used to have at McDonalds was bomb and I wish they'd bring it back) but I learned a long time ago that cutting out fat is also a recipe for disaster. Fat is satiating. Yeah, it adds a ton of calories but it also tastes good and it helps keep you full. So I'm all about that whole egg. Want pasta? Use chcikpea. It's got fiber and protein. Add some ground turkey instead of beef. Use tomato sauce instead of alfredo. The pizza I like to eat is the Mediterranean one from Dominos. Thin crust with all veggies and no meat.
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Movie Flashback Time! Tremors
I thought about trying to shoehorn this post into a 'Review Wednesday' (which is a title only), or a 'Underrated Movies' but I didn't feel like trying to make it fit into either of those categories. Besides, I really don't think Tremors was an "underrated movie"; it just has a lot of meaning to me personally, so I figured I'd write about it, kind of in a review format.
Tremors is considered a horror flick, but it's pretty corny for horror, especially considering the movies coming out today. It's one of the very few horror movies that I would even watch, and that's probably only because I was 7 years old when I saw it for the first time on TV.
It's one of those movies where you look at the cast and are like Kevin Bacon? Must be good. Then scroll past a couple no-names, and then you see Michael Gross and you have to blink a few times. Seeing him in the cast not long after finishing Family Ties was kind of hilarious. And then you see Reba McIntyre and you just wonder how this movie even got made.
The premise is already outrageous when you think about it. I mean, maybe most horror movies are. Have you seen Blood and Honey? Yeah, anyway...
The movie has some really good build up which is always essential. The cast is fairly diverse in their range with the smart people (the geologist/seismologist student), the dumb people (generally the ones who get eaten), and the obligatory 17-year old smart ass. I would 100% be the seismologist, as without her, everyone would have been too dumb to stay alive.The movie didn't have a ton of laugh out loud humor, nor any famous one-liners. But it stuck out in my mind all these years because for a while after seeing this movie when I was 7, I was scared of the sand and would only walk on the crab grass. My parents probably thought I was doing some kind of hopscotch routine, but little did they know I was traumatized for a bit.
Admittedly, 7 is a little young to be watching a movie like that, but take solace in the fact that it was edited for TV so the swearwords were bleeped out (more on that in a bit) and some of the more horrifying scenes were cut out completely.
The scene that scared me the most as a young child isn't even a big deal in the grand scheme of the movie but I was really affected by it - to the point where I would close my eyes even into adulthood - every time I rewatched it. I'm talking about near the beginning of the movie where the Doctor and his wife are building their trailer in the desert and the generator suddenly stops working because the "Graboids" (no, I can't call them that, sorry) - Tremors sucked it under, and he went to go check it out. His death was slow as the wife tried to grab him when he was being slowly sucked down.
In contrast, when Walter got grabbed right in the middle of his store with
everyone around, and was being swung wildly while people screamed around him, wasn't even that big of a deal. And I think the reason, for me anyway, was because that was a scene that was cut out of the TV version, and I'd never seen it until I was an adult.
And I swear, the scene with the Doctor's wife in the car being sucked into the ground was the most unbelievable part of the entire movie because A. She had no car keys so how was the radio playing and the headlights on? and B. Like, what kind of sand can you even walk on that a creature can suck a car into?
But that scene where Michael Gross (Doomsday prepper!) and Reba McIntyre shoot the shit out of a Tremor that broke into their basement was bad ass and lovingly unexpected for the Family Ties father.
In regards to the swearing, I have a funny story to tell. So, growing up watching cable, bleeping was everywhere. I was so used to it that it didn't even bother me most of the time (I don't even watch cable TV anymore - is bleeping still a thing?), and there was a particular scene after Val and Earl kill their first Tremor and check it out, and Val says "I found the ass end!", and in my little 7-year old mind, I must have thought that "ass end" wasn't a swear word because it hadn't been bleeped. When my parents and I were moving to our acreage when I was in the 4th grade, and we were watching our mobile home trying to make it around a tight bend with a telephone pole in the way, and I said "They're having trouble with the ass-end" - yeah. I got yelled at. Worth it though.
[As I type those words into Google Search and prepare to quickly close my screen at the potential results, I find these gems:
and my faith in humanity is restored.]
All in all, it's a fun movie and if you haven't seen it, I would recommend it (maybe not highly, but I digress), maybe with a few shots of alcohol for an even better time.
Monday, December 11, 2023
Is tech making us dumber?
As much as society wants to shoehorn me into being a Millennial (born between 1981-1996) I feel like I belong to Generation X. Being born in 1984 meant a split between having little technology, to being at the cusp of a technological boom when it comes to cellphones and internet. True that I was young (around 8-10 years old) when we brought the internet into the home, and I had my own computer that was a hand-me-down from my dad. But prior to this, and really, for a lot of that childhood, I was still in the "play outside and ride bikes until the street lights came on". I grew up using tapes and recording songs from the radio. I used VCRs and recorded shows. I had a tape walkman and then a CD walkman when they came out.
Granted, my situation was a bit unique. I was an introverted child, quite overweight, and when we moved in 1994, it was to 5 acres away from everything and everyone. I was 30 minutes away from the town. I still played outside quite abit, exploring the woods and taking care of my ducks, but as the internet began to grow, I grew with it. I had 28k at home, (downloading with Napster was a chore!) and 56k when I moved to the big city at 18. And I didn't get my first cellphone until about the age of 23.While my parents (my dad especially) kept up with technology for a while, they began to lag further and further behind. I feel as if technology, and the internet especially, has not made me more dumb. Lazy, sure. But dumber? No. Let me give you an example.
So when I was younger I wrote a lot. My creativity came out both visually and written, and I had a lot of ideas when it came to stories. Obviously when I was young, I was handwriting all of my stories, and for a while I would have my friend Mandy type them out for me because I was incredibly slow at typing and I wanted a better way to preserve my work. But as I learned to type for myself, using programs like Microsoft Word, I learned how to spell [better]. The little red squiggles under all the words I spelled wrong annoyed the hell out of me. I could have been lazy and just right-clicked to fix without ever knowing what Word was doing, but I decided to learn instead. This is an important distinction. Why was I always spelling 'necessary' wrong? It was so annoying! Yes, it took a lot of repetition to remember how to correctly spell it eventually, but without Word telling me it was wrong and why, I would have never known.
Now on the flip side, the whole "you need to learn the maths because you'll never have a calculator in your pocket" hilarious argument that teachers made back in the day has me forgetting how to do even the most basic of math in my head. But to be honest, I was never good at math anyway. It's my worst subject and I hate it. I was never taught correctly how to do it in the beginning, so relying on my phone to do simple tasks like tipping would probably be something I'd still be struggling with today regardless. If I was tipping without computer assistance I'd probably just get it wrong all the time. So it's much better this way lol.
As the internet grew in size, scale and ability, I took full advantage. I soaked up information like a sponge. It was like a bronze age all over again. I learned and I learned some more. And I'm still learning. I see my parents stagnate as they only use the internet for the most basic of tasks like using their Mychart. I never want to be like that. I love learning; and if it wasn't for the internet it would be a much harder thing to do now that I'm out of school.
In this, tech is definitely not making me dumber. However, we're also beginning a new age... the age of AI. While Baby Boomers think we're lazy and rely on technology too much in our daily lives, boy they got another thing coming when they see AI enter the chat. Things may change substantially once we as a society start using AI for things that we used to do ourselves.
I don't want to be left behind when it comes to using AI, but I also don't have a job that would benefit from it. I'm not a computer programmer or use Exel spreadsheets. My company as a whole would benefit substantially, but I'm not working for that part of it, so it's up to them to do what they will with it and I hope they use it. For me and the basic life that I live, I'm not sure what AI has to offer. But I will keep up with it and make sure to figure out how to use it once it becomes beneficial to me.
I'm not about to be left in the dust.
Sunday, October 22, 2023
Vitamix 5200 vs Ninja
Bonus: this is pretty darn tasty as well
The Vitamix result is lighter and smoother. I felt no grittiness when moving my finger through it.
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Bioluminescence Kayak Tour
You guys, I am still in awe over here. Patrick and I just had the most amazing experience and I wanted to share it. I decided a couple months ago to buy tickets for a bioluminescence kayak tour up at Port Gamble.
[A brief description of bioluminescence: In the most basic sense, bioluminescence is the light emitted by a living organism through a chemical reaction happening in their bodies. Bioluminescence often happens in the ocean and in the water as this is where the most bioluminescent organisms are found. This is a great article that also has some really cool pictures of bioluminescence].
Something to note here: Patrick and I have never kayaked before. And our first experience was going to be at night - and a very dark night - because a new moon is the best time to see Bio, and Port Gamble was a place with very little light pollution. It was really good timing over all because we were just coming off of a pretty intense heat wave, which is great for bio tours in general, plus it was still going to be quite warm that night. We had no idea what to expect, and I was, as per usual, freaking out about it. I tend to do that when I'm walking into unknowns. Plus, I wanted to take my camera in hopes that I could capture some amazing photos [which, sad to say, I did not], and I was freaking out about capsizing and losing my camera. That was actually my biggest worry. The camera actually remained in the dry bag the entire time we were out on the water because steering and maintaining stability on the kayak was hard enough and the last thing I needed to do was fumble with an expensive piece of (not waterproof) equipment.
Instead, we just decided to enjoy the experience, which I really don't do enough of. For me, pictures are great reminders of past experience. I can look at a photo I took and remember all the circumstances surrounding it. I do go back and look at my photos and fondly remember things. Living in the moment for me can be kind of difficult when I'm busy trying to capture it for later.
So anyway, we had four guides, and their 30 second "this is how to paddle a kayak" info was really not enough to go off of. There were roughly 40 people on the tour, and probably only a handful of them have never been on a kayak before, so... yeah. Their kayaks were the double sit on top kind (yay? lol), and we were first in the water. Eep.
We sat in the water as everyone got pushed out into the bay, where we were playing bumper boats like, the whole time while waiting. The boat kept swaying and I was not at all confident that we would stay upright, but it got better with time. We were going to kayak about a mile out, staying close to shore the whole time, and then head back.
To say we were slow was an understatement. Considering neither one of us knew how to paddle, and Patrick was a much stronger paddler, it took all of our concentration just to go straight. And we failed at that. A lot. But in the end it didn't matter because what we saw when we were out there was incredible. I'm going to borrow a picture from their website to show you roughly what we saw.
I can't even adequately describe to you how beautiful it was in person. The boat itself would disrupt the phytoplankton and caused glowing waves lapping against the kayak. In some spots, it was barely visible; just pretty sparkles in the dark water, while in other spots it was bright and intense. It would disappear just as quickly as it showed - you could slap the paddle and it was gone in an instant. But that is what is so unique about choosing a kayak to see bioluminescence. Your presence in the kayak itself is enough to make them emit the light. All you have to do is move through it and enjoy.
We were in bio pretty much the entire time we were out there. It was just so amazing. The stars were so bright, the night so dark, and the glow was mesmerizing.
As we made our way back, we began to get really tired. Paddling is hard work, and neither one of us have any stamina to speak of. Plus, our paddling technique (or lack thereof) was soaking our pants. But we had a great time. Even Patrick, who had started out not very excited about this endeavor, ended up enjoying it immensely. Would I do it again? You bet I would. 110 percent. And you should too. If someone with no experience in a kayak can do it, so can you! Worth every penny.
Shout out to Olympic Outdoor Center for doing these tours. It was fun!
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Olympic Wilderness Basecamp
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Married 6.9 ... Nice
Patrick likes Numerology. I like boomerang jokes. When we were discussing what day we wanted to get married (I wanted it to be in summer [for reasons] so cool dates like 2/23/23 or 2/3/23 were out) the first date that popped into my head was 6/9.
It's a childish joke, but because it's been a boomerang joke on LTT for years (definition: a joke that comes back again and again), and it's reminiscent of the number 47 (when Star Trek writers decided to try and hide the #47 anywhere in the episodes that they could), I figured, why not?and got the ball rolling. I had Mary take pictures with my cellphone. It went off without a hitch and turned out great. We were out of there by 5pm.