Tuesday, March 3, 2009

diet diary, day 5

well, this diet is going great so far! approx 2 kgs lost and my hunger pangs are pratically gone! having more selection for my allowable snacks helps too.
i've tried 3 meals from the cookbook so far and they are SOOO delicious, even if i am getting a bit tired of steamed veges.

meals so far:

fri - schnitzel and garden salad w/dressing
sat - cheesy mince bake w/ steamed veges (broccoli, carrot, celery, zucchini, eggplant)
sun - thai red curry w/steamed veges (as above)
mon - beef stroganoff w/ you guessed it, steamed veges.

tonight's dinner will be grilled salmon on garden salad, though we have 3 nights worth of cheesy mince bake frozen leftovers waiting for us. such a yummy recipe i can't believe its good for me, especially with that much cheese!

snacks so far:

2 sticks of celery with peanut butter (i can't believe i'm allowed it either! yummo!)
diced 1/2 apple and 1/2 orange w/unsweetened natural yoghurt
small handful of mixed nuts and seeds
80g tuna on garden salad (i'd never tried tuna before, YUMMO!)
blueberries w/yoghurt

the shakes are really yummy too, although my week's supply runs out on thursday. hope i can afford some more!

song fu; round 2

it's that time again! so i loaded every song onto poddina, my cute little pink 3rd gen nano and got to some serious laundry-folding, a common passtime for a mummy. as i went, i rated the songs as i am wont to do and decided to share my thoughts so far (in random order, thank ipod!) with star ratings!*

this round the contestents had to write a song with only 10 unique words.

song fu page at quickstopentertainment.com

audiomohel - greasy bacon *****
much better than last time's entry, i quite enjoyed this song, especially how they saved a whole word til right at the end! not my absolute favourite but definately above the first cull cutoff mark

hank green - i know *****
so i'd already heard this song due to it being posted on youtube and several song fu competitors tweeting the link in fear of the thousands of hank green fans crushing them. its a fun little ditty and reminds me a lot of an argument. by the end i don't know what i know anymore except that i had fun listening!

insane ian - consortium of comprehention *****
while i'm pretty sure that's not how you spell comprehension, i definately had a good laugh listening to this one. i like how the song changes in the middle too! good fun and of a nice quality.

edric haleen - mad-libs *****
i've always wanted to like edric's songs, there's just such enthusiasm in his voice, and i really feel like this is the song i've been waiting for from him! (i did quite enjoy his first entry in the previous song fu competition too!) as an english geek this one really strikes a chord for me, if you will pardon the unintentional pun. i love the idea, and while the initial introduction did shock me a bit (too many words!) i really enjoyed the song and just know i'm gonna be singing "name, adjective name, pronoun adjective name" in my head over and over for days! well done! very clever solution to a tricky challenge

jeff macdougall - free love *****
so i'm a bit biased towards jeff after the first song fu competition where he took on the mighty jonathan coulton and won so many hearts on the joco forums, quite a feat considering the fierce loyalty JoCo's fans have for him! jeff's awe and humility in being up against joco in the final round was very touching. since i follow him on twitter AND on facebook, you might accuse me of just voting for him out of loyalty, but i do always try and remain neutral when it comes to voting on this competition. this song is so sweet (typical of jeff's songs - not a bad thing!) and tells a wee tale of a romance which is amazing considering it only uses 10 words! well written and well executed, this is a great response to the challenge. on to round 3 for you jeff!

(p.s. i haven't submitted my votes at this point, haven't done the first cull even, just getting some thoughts down!)

molly lewis - peep fight *****
while we don't have peeps in nz, i've heard molly tweet about them before and recall googling them. i know this song isn't going down well with her fans on youtube, but you have to admire that she is trying a new genre, producing all the music on ukeleles and isn't taking it too seriously. also i love the concept, which seems to be an actual easter tradition for molly. i love the lines "put toothpicks in the peeps! put the peeps in the microwave! put the peeps in the stomach!" and the video on youtube is definately worth a watch! really makes it even more fun!

paul and storm - boolean love song *****
before i dropped out to be a mommy, i was a programming student, so i totally LOVE the lyrics to this song! also as an ex-WoW player who spends FAR too much time on the internet (still) boolean operators form a big part of my vocab. the husband (programming graduate and software tester by trade) and i even find ourselves saying them in regular speech (i.e. "cheese + crackers != meal")
i might even type the lyrics of this up in pseudocode someday. as always, paul & storm nail the challenge perfectly and churn out a new favourite for the ipod. <3 <3 <3 getting a definate 3-4 new (and free!) songs from p&s is what makes song fu like christmas to me. even if the other 2 masters hadn't dropped out, this would be a sure fire winner, love the ending too! tres rofl!

hallelujah ape - why? *****
all i can say is this reminds me strongly of a bill bailey joke about kinder surprises. if you know what i'm talking about, then we should be friends! but i have a dishwasher, and i hate washing dishes so much i will use any other utensil/cutlery/implement that i can before i will wash a teaspoon. no teaspoons? use a dessert spoon. too big? plastic spoon. doesn't require the liquid holding ability of a teaspoon? use a fork. you see where i'm going with this?

jutze shult - god of bingo *****
another joco forum regular, jutze can't have found this challenge quite as tricky as other competitors (think "what's the baby using?" :P ) i definately liked this song better than his last entry. good work jutze! :)

joe "covenant" lamb - i wish i could tell you *****
this competition seems to be overrun with joco forumites (we are a musical bunch it seems!) which is definately not a bad thing! this song features backing vocals by yet another joco forumite, if my tweet-detective skills aren't totally out of whack, and i completely forget that this song had to have only 10 unique words. its so simple and bitter-sweet that few words are all it needs. lovely!

gosh it's going to be hard picking only 5!

mike lombardo - sandwich girl (lunchtime lovestory) *****
wow, love songs definately seem to be a recurring theme in this round. a cute boppy little pop song like the last challenge, this song certainly stands out for me. love the "make me sandwich" line! very caveman, which i like! only negative, its too short! i'd like it to go on longer!

crabbydad - machine *****
very much in the vein of his last entry (which was my all-time favourite, tied with molly's) this song seems to have even LESS than 10 words in it though i haven't counted. i do like it nonetheless! the computer voice is cool and though i loved his daughter singing on the last track, it is nice to see something a bit different. wonder why he doesn't sing himself though? hmmm!

that's all i got so far. bbl after the cull...baby permitting. if i didn't write about your song, or you feel bummed about the rating i gave you, i'm ever so sorry, i tried to be positive and nice about them all, and just because i skipped yours does not mean i hated it, i have washing to fold before bubba wakes! sorry!

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* When I was little I had a book-cassette copy of the Ugly Duckling, and at the end of the story was a song entitled "If ya can't say something nice, ssssh! Say nothing!" So I will endeavour to stick to this good and wholesome rule.