BEACH!

Yesterday I got to go to the Connecticut beach.

I also learned about this phenomenon where on the solstices the tides are extreme. Who else knew about that?

Apparently, and this is how I imagine it, the world tilts a little bit more on the solstices than the rest of the year and it's the biggest high tide and lowest low tide of the year. SO in California in some places you can walk all the way out to the edge of the continental shelf!

Anyone who lives in CA who wants to send me a photo of this, if they've seen it, you know what to do.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

About A Boy

I was looking for inspiration and searched for "Lamu" on Flickr hoping to find some inspiring photographs and found this photo.

In 2006 I took the following photo. Do you think it's the same child? There's about three years difference between when i was there and when the second photograph was taken. Maybe since the baby fat is gone... I don't know. thoughts? It would be an amazing coincidence.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Serious Post

This is a new serious post because I did not want the first thing people read when they come to my website to be about... well.. the next post's topic. SO, what could be more serious than the goals I set for myself? (Answer= the goals my employers set for me! yay I'm so funny and would make such a great employee!) ((wow I am such a loser!))

ANYWAY, in my spare time this month I now have three goals:

#1. Finish learning how to drive.

Even though I don't like it and inviting death into my life is a stupid plan... I would do this for a good job.

#2. Finish at least three of the books I have started.

I have started... *drumroll* 17 books. And I got bored of every last one of them, usually within the first 3 chapters. This is because I am intelligent and therefore hypothesize about where these books are going and don't read to the end! Also, because I then spent my time quilting or writing my own book instead, because I am creative.

#3. PAY SALLIE MAE

HAHA noooo that's not it. I'm not gonna pay her until someone pays ME.

#3. (the real one) Find a good time to sell my DRYS shares so I can have "liquid" money to pay Sallie Mae. Current value of those holdings is about $1800, SO ANYTIME NOW. :) Then when I have liquid money I can MOVE to some place where someone will hire me!

And that's all I have as far as lists go. Maybe I'll have more hopes and dreams in future months. OR you can all tell me YOUR hopes and dreams and this can be a fancy interactive blog again!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

A Bra? For ME!

This post has been removed because I'm tired of people commenting about it.

Get your calcium!

Today I discovered little ways to increase your calcium intake without knowing it. I needed to think of these things because my doctor told me to take 1000 mg of calcium a day and I hate tums. TUMS: I hate you.

Oh yeah and I also don't like milk to much cause it tastes like chalk/the inside of a cow's tummy.

1. Order a cafe latte instead of a cappuccino. A cappuccino is made with equal parts espresso and milk with yummy foam on top. nom nom. A latte is made with three times as much milk as espresso. Drink your milk without noticing the difference. Same caffeine intake!

2. Like cream sauces in your pasta? make them with milk not cream and REDUCE it! then you concentrate the vitamin D ANDDDD decrease your calories too.

3. Eat more cookies! Eating more cookies means you will WANT milk. Cookies are nummy. Milk and cookies is extra nummy.

4. Loads of recipes call for milk like cooked spinach (which I have just discovered I LOVE, so don't be all judgey-face at me), and lots of chicken a la "stuff" things. They give you calcium and you don't even know it. Plus, Spinach has secret Calcium, like other leafy greens.

5. Other things with calcium: CHEESE, salmon, kale, broccoli, sesame seeds, peanuts, peas, black beans, yogurt, almonds, brown sugar and milk byproducts... like oh right we covered CHEESE. Can I have cheese? I LOVE CHEESE! Mmmm.

So these are my tips for eating more calcium so you can be healthy and strong and not get osteoporosis/ have bone loss without eating yucky tums! ENJOY!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

I isolated the DNA of a strawberry today

I learned how to isolated the DNA of things from this website. It was possibly the coolest thing EVER. The DNA was slightly pinkish and awesome and I want to have a special microscope to see them!

The Photo is of me with my DNA!!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

CUTE!

This morning I was meandering around the world wide web today and came across this website featuring "cute food."

I know, you're wondering what hell I'm talking about. Cute food like people who eat kittens? NO.

This is a perfect example: the edible Eiffel Tower with do-it-yourself instructions. The website links in the photo so you can see what the components are made out of. With some fancy knife work, you can make your own fancy French meal. As a side note, you see the fabric on the table under the box the food is in? Yeah... the pajama pants I'm wearing right now, which I made myself, they're made from the exact same fabric. No joke. That Eiffel Tower meal is basically being eaten off my pants.

Enjoy that disturbing or amusing or appealing (depending on who you are) thought as we nonchalantly transition over to the topic of me being out of Radio Lab episodes. Why was I looking at cute food? Because for the past two weeks I have spent all of my waking moments listening to a podcast called Radio Lab. Yes, I admit, this is procrastination from looking for real work to some extent, but some how I still manage to write cover letters and send out resumes so I dunno what the deal is.

ANYWAY, Radio Lab is like... science for dummies. But REALLY COMPLICATED SCIENCE for dummies. And by dummies I mean people like me, and I'm not so dumb I just don't understand quantum mechanics and the intricacies of string theory because I'm not at an IQ of 174. YET. I will increase my brain power. The cute Bento Box Bunnies told me it would happen. I only have like 20 points to go. And when I get there I plan to build the particle accelerator to your left. ;)

Now if you want to know what the hell I'm talking about with this whole Radio Lab nonsense, listen to THIS PODCAST on MORALITY. It's probably the one that has been the most re-broadcasted in different forms, in clips in bits and pieces as parts of NPR or other shows on the radio, so it may sound familiar.

Why I like radio lab is how they edit the sound.

The other part I like is that they take very complex ideas and scientific experiments and make them accessible.

Please take the time to enjoy.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

New Novel

Yesterday I listened to a podcast called "(so-called) life" from the WNYC radio show Radio Lab.

What I heard on this show blew my freaking mind into tiny little pieces and then as I got up off the floor of the living room and put the pieces back together I decided two things: #1 I was tired of not writing, and #2 I was going to write a new novel about the DNA factory.

While my initial reaction to the episode was "they've found the gene strand that makes things glow in the dark??? I WANT TO GLOW IN THE DARK!! I want to glow in the dark and fly and HAVE SONAR!!! And I will be the GLOWING WOMBAT!"

My SECOND thought was more along lines of "well everyone is going to want sonar... people are going to want to customize themselves and their children to be superheroes..."

And if I don't have the expertise to make the Gene Factory myself, similar to my Black Hole necklace idea... maybe you guys don't know about that... it's another Radio Lab spawned idea of mine... Srsly, don't ask people, I have too much free time.

ANYWAY, if I can't profit off of the ACTUAL gene factory at MIT, then I'm gonna profit off of the novel.

Because, as I see it, someone should because we live in a capitalistic world.

YAY!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

P.S. Look at the time stamp, ooooooh sad for you my idea is copyrighted. *sadface*