Yeah. ABOUT THAT.

I swear I wasn’t going to watch The Vampire Diaries because A) it’s on the CW and B) it sounded like True Blood lite, but then I got sick, and I watched all the other TV in the world*, and there were 44 episodes on Netflix, which sounded like it would last me a reasonable amount of time.**

But then Ian Somerhalder was rocking the crazy eyes and the no shirts, and there was plottiness with just the right amount of silly over-the-top drama, and everyone was very impulsive and attractive*** and there was a lot of gothy techno. WHAT IS NOT TO LIKE HERE. I ASK YOU.

But, so. It’s been like a week and I’ve not only watched the 44 episodes on Netflix but also the latest 6 on the CW’s horrendous monstrosity of a streaming service. I am delighted to report that, three seasons in, Ian Somerhalder is still doing the crazy eyes and wandering around gratuitously shirtless. I will say this about the VD writers: they know their target audience.

But on an unexpected note, the show is actually pretty good. There are plot arcs. They develop interestingly and are solved satisfyingly. Plot twists are employed. Romances are thwarted. Mythologies are (mostly) internally consistent and retcons are few. Essentially, they do none of the things which irritated the crap out of me about True Blood. Which I don’t watch now. Because, dumb.

Also:

Look, it's the Crazy Eyes! What, did you think this would involve Ian Somerhalder shirtless? For shame.

As of next week, there will be recaps. Brace yourselves.

*Well, in the sense that we don’t actually have TV**** and all the other shows on Netflix looked dumb, or I watched them, or I started watching them and decided they were dumb.*****

*****Sorry, Breaking Bad.

I am totally digging the Facebook app for the iPad. Look how pretty!

SO, I finally stopped tinkering with poking at fucking up updating the theme.*

I consistently underestimate the amount of time and mental energy it takes to do a redesign. This is because it is usually around 1am when it occurs to me, and the part of my brain that deals with things like decision-making and impluse control conks out around 11. (This is also the time when I tend to place orders for new shoes.) I go “BORED NOW. Mess with code?” and then realize I a) have taken the theme apart beyond all repair and b) will be required to sleep at some point long before I have finished the site. Oh and c) did not make a backup of the original theme so must put up maintenance splash page. WHICH IS WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE ALL THIS TIME, in case you weren’t following. (Note: it is not WordPress’ fault that the maintenance plugin got disabled. I needed a screenshot of the plugin-disabling process for the book** and I didn’t want to disable all the plugins on the companion site because I had JUST gotten them looking the way I wanted them to. So I used this site for the screenshot because it’s not like I was doing anything ELSE with it. Then I forgot to re-enable the plugins. That is my epic tale. It’s a lot to take in. It is all right if you need a moment to process.

Anyway, so. Enough about the redesign! Unless you want to tell me how awesome it looks, in which case, carry on.

*(I did this, in part, because I realized I’d disabled the maintenance screen plugin at some point so the site was showing up completely unstyled – horrid blue links and all. It’s like it was naked.)

**What? Book? YES. The new edition of the WordPress Visual QuickStart Guide is IN PROGRESS and will hit shelves IN OCTOBER and you can PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW if you are into that sort of thing. And have I mentioned how lovely you look when you pre-order things?

OK, so my test revealed that I somehow borked the Woo Tumblogs plugin I was using, in that it doesn’t play nicely with my custom “tumblogs,” and anyway I should set up all my custom sections as taxonomies ANYWAY since that would be the right way to do it. Also maybe I should set up post formats. Y/N?

Which is a long-winded way of saying the site will look wonky for a while.

March, man. March is brutal. For one thing: the weather. Last year at this time it was temperate and beautiful. Sandals were worn. Skirts.

This year? Rain and more rain, with high temperatures barely cracking 50 degrees.

So maybe I can blame the weather for the fact that I am totally lagging on my second Health Month.

Don’t let the points fool you: I’ve healed myself twice (and Not So was kind enough to heal me once as well) so technically I should be barely scraping by at around 5 points.

Surprisingly, it’s the little things that are catching me out – flossing, for example. Some nights it’s just too much, you know? Cooking dinner four nights a week – well, some weeks we’re doing a lot more takeout than others, is all I’m saying. (It’s a good thing I don’t have a ‘clean the house’ rule, too. Seriously.)

I’m not as motivated this month as I was last month and it shows. Shockingly, being sick for three weeks (and then having a sick kid) kind of takes it out of you! Not to mention the fact that we’re doing a huge lifestyle restructure, which is good – very good – but not unstressful.

There are a few things lurking on the plus side, though. Sugar, for example. Sticking to the three-days-a-week rule this month? A breeze.

And since I’ve been forcing myself to floss (almost) every night, my gums have been a lot happier. It’s like every dentist I’ve ever had knew what they were talking about! Crazy.

Maybe the trick is to not load up on rules. Incremental changes are the way to go. I’ll keep that in mind for next month, when I – oh, who am I kidding? I’m going to do what I always do: vastly over-estimate the amount of time and motivation I possess and then feel horrid when I don’t accomplish everything on my list.

Join me next month! It’ll be like a slow-mo train wreck. You know you want to.

You know what’s more satisfying than shouting at your laptop while Private Practice plays on Hulu? Venting about the ridiculous characterizations on the internet.
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The entire concept behind Health Month is pretty excellent: make changes to your patterns and habits by making it into a game. You get to set rules and then win points every day for following them. You earn fruit, and if your Life Points get too low, you can replenish them (or someone else’s) by using your fruit. And then at the end of the month, if you’ve followed all your rules, you get a FourSquare badge.

I probably don’t have to tell you how intensely I covet the FourSquare badge.

Health Month was created by Buster Benson, the same guy behind the fantastic 750 Words, a site that encourages daily writing by creating challenges and giving badges as rewards. Health Month is a similar setup, only with lots more options. You can totally customize your goals – anything from “Sleep More” to “Exercise Daily” to “Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup.” There’s even a wheel you can spin to add to the random aspect: sometimes you get extra points, but occasionally you lose points. It’s all part of the fun!

Since I’m just starting out, this month’s rules are pretty basic: take a multivitamin every day (easy) and only allow myself added sugar 3 days per week (…not so easy). The idea is to make incremental changes rather than major lifestyle overhauls.

And, two weeks in, it seems to be working. Despite the fact that I crave cake like no one’s business, I am kicking ass at Health Month.

That said, next month I plan to really bump it up. It should be pretty fun to watch, so if you have any interest in making any changes to your habits or diet or whatever, you should sign up for next month too! Make sure you add me as a friend so we can keep track of each other’s progress, or throw fruit at each other, or whatever.