I'm now officially on tumblr. So this is sort of abandoned now
catch me at
relright.tumblr.com

Things I did today

Overachieved with my Arabic homework and underachieved with my Hebrew homework.

I guess I feel like watching the Prince of Egypt will somehow make up for this Hebrew homework business. I adore this movie so much and I can't believe I forgot how much I loved it.

I also have anew idea for this blog as I have a picture phone now. I was thinking pictures of what I wore and ate. Boring but useful for myself. Nothing interesting to read though I guess.

Twitter

As I appear to have people that may or may not visit my blog,
other places to find me include

http://twitter.com/relright
I'm sort of just as bad of a twitterer as I am a blogger though. A little bit better of a track record I suppose. But just barely.

http://www.formspring.me/relright
rather new site I'm on. Essentially you can ask people questions and they answer them. You can even do it anonymously. I'm going to try and answer everything as honestly as possible without incriminating anyone else

Whoa, two in one day? Food Survey

By now, I’m sure that most of you have seen this list somewhere on at least one of your favorite food blogs. Andrew at Very Good Taste has written a list of 100 things that every omnivore should try at least once.
Here are the instructions if you’d like to participate:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. For me this is in red italics as there's no cross out option
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

I've also personally added that things in green mean things I definitely want to eat. Also items in purple are things I love. haha

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst - non pork though
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

So the total of what I've eaten is 21%. I am no foodie. Perhaps I should use this as a guide for when I'm out of college and have money and resources.

Motivations

So I've become a bit more interested lately in losing weight. I've always been on the bigger side for my whole life, except for one year in 8th grade where I was "thin". However my weight has been a hangup for me for awhile and it's been holding me back. Not in a I HAZ TO BE 98 POUNDZ OR ELSE I WON'T BE WHOLE PERSONS. But I certainly do have my motivations. And here I shall share them. They're long term goals but I'd like to be happy with my appearance by my 21st birthday that way I can go out and have fun without being obsessed with my appearance.

But these are what I want from losing weight:

1.To wear at least a medium.
I have become rather more fashion conscious lately. But the only problem with that is the fact that right now I am on the verge between a large and an extra large. This makes shopping at stores that cater to fashion for people in their young twenties (Forever21, Charlotte Russe, etc) rather more difficult.
If I wore a medium this would make things so much easier. Because pretty much if you wear a medium you can almost always find a size in a store that works for you. Whatever that might mean.
2.To be able to sit in a chair without worrying
Whenever I'm sitting anywhere I'm really self conscious. Either I'll wear sweatshirts to cover up my poochy belly, sit with a pillow on my stomach, sit with my arms crossed, etc.
3.Own a swimsuit and enjoy swimming again
I at this point don't even own a swimsuit anymore. At almost 200 pounds that's just to much for me. If I was leaner and more healthy I would no longer feel so bad about making people look at me in this condition.
4.Have a healthy BMI
Why thank you Calorie Count for being so kind and saying that my BMI is only overweight rather than the obese that everyone else says. How kind. But really I'd love for my BMI to not make me feel so bad whenever I see it
5.To be more comfortable with boys
Sure there are boys out there who are okay with dating someone as large as me. Or who prefer dating girls like me. BUT I don't want to date someone who's not dating me for me. And if I can't appreciate myself at this size, how can anyone else?
So I feel like with confidence I'll be more comfortable with flirting and realizing that boys can like me.
To tell you the truth in past cases when boys have (VERY rare but still) shown interest in me I've always been so suspicious and/or confused that that certainly has not helped at all.
6.To have thighs that don't rub together
My goal is for my thighs to not touch when I walk. I don't care if they are half a millimeter apart, it'll be enough. I certainly most definitely don't want thighs that are an inch or more apart though. Just want to put that out there so you don't worry about me.
7. No More Double Chin
So this is admittedly not a completely new phenomenom but I would like to be able to take almost any picture from almost any angle and not have a double chin sneak in. It's becoming an epidemic that is effecting almost every picture of me in existence. No more denial, I am SURE I have one in everyday life and that it doens't just sneak into existence when the camera flashes.
8. No more fat friend status
My friends are all angelic, statuesque, and beautiful my friend looking. And I always look like an awful subhuman being when I'm with them. If I was thinner I might actually look like I'm the same species as them. That'd be great

I want to blog more.

I feel like I always have things I want to talk about but then never do. Thus maybe here's where I should do it. Air my greivances, ideas, mumblings, etc.

So first of all I just want to update on my google favorites. I don't know what it is, it's just the constant state of flux seems indicative of how I feel. Maybe I'll talk about myself more in a future post. I have no idea.

1000 Awesome Things I've talked about this previously. I've been here since thing like 950 or something and now it's on #610 so I'll be here until they get to thing 1 or stop updating. Whichever one comes last.

50 JDates So this blog is about a 26 year old jewish woman who took a break from her goyim (non-Jewish) boyfriend to date 50 jewish men to try and find her beshert (soulmate). It's aweosme to read her forays into mostly internet dates and the pitfalls and wins along the way.

My college's blackboard site. Gack. I go here to get notes and grades and homework. You don't want to go there so no links

Cake Wrecks These guys make me laugh with their comedic writting style and the pathetic examples of actual "professional" cakes

Calorie Counter yep I still count calories and I'm still fat. However I have an addictive personality and can't stop.

DAR Yeeeeeeeah... WARNING don't go here if you're uncomfortable with cartoon penises and talking about sperm haha. It's the autobiographical comic of an artist that's stretches half a decade. It covers her lesbianism, discovery of a boy she likes, living in portland, marriage, sexual exploits, random thoughts, etc. It updates weekly it seems, so there's a really good chance I'll find some other way to follow.

Dispatches from the Island Do you watch Lost? Do you love Hurley? Then follow the actor Jorge Garcia's blog. He seems so sweet and funny and nice. :)

Facebook What do you want from me? I'm in college and I need easy access so I can harvest Farmville crops or Cafeworld food or Mafia Wars rackets. Have I mentioned I have an addictive personality? Should have never started playing, I can't stop

The Frisky I love this blog. The staff there writes about things I want to read about. Sure I don't agree with all of it, but who will agree with everything ANYONE does? I like reading about clothes, scandals, politics, sex, celebrities, health, television, etc.

Hijab Style I love hijabis. I don't know what it is, but when it's done in a modern yet still observant way I just can't tear my eyes away. I also am toying with the idea of wearing hijab when I study abroad. So I want to look pretty when I do so. Plus without a headscarf many of the outfits are still so cute and modest. I'm not comfortable showing off 6/7ths of my naked skin, so if it's good enough for hijabis it's good enough for me

KimDonesia This is a new return. After Kim's much discussed and controversial rejection of Islam she sort of dropped off the face of the planet so her blog disappeared. Thus I removed it. But now she's returned to blogging and I'm back to absorb some of that quirky and funny attitude. The subjects she writes about now are radically different from before however she still seems to have the same essence her writings always had before. So eff anyone that says she's "completely different" or any mumbo jumbo like that. If you can't handle a change of religion and someone's free choice then you never looked past their religion to who they were. That's quite intolerant.

Memoirs of a Jewminicana So I'm also taking Hebrew now and thus have been looking at blogs that are related to Judaism. So one that I found and particularly took a shining to was one by Aliza Hausman who is a Dominican convert who is currently married to a rabbinical student. I like it as it's interesting to hear about her issues with not being ethnically jewish within the jewish community.

Modblog This is where I go to see cool tattoos and piercings. Not so into the suspensions, scarification, and really bizarre things. But love seeing things I normally wouldn't. WARNING: Frequent nudity and blood

Neatorama Want to read neat stuff? Go here. I started three and a half years ago and never stopped.

Nubbytwiglet I'm drawn to interesting souls, what can I say? So Nubby is a graphic designer living in Portland that updates the world on her work, unique outfits, and is just generally pretty cool in my opinion.

People of Walmart So to tell you the truth I've never seen anyone particularly interesting in Walmart. However I must not be looking hard enough. Also this blog always makes me feel just a little better about myself.

Slice of Lemon I love Sabrina. I love how fun, carefree, funny, and honest she is. I love reading about her and her husband "The Boss" and their new house in LA and them discovering their new life together. :)

Trailer Addict I love movies. I love movie trailers. I love Trailer Addict. End of story.

Twilight Source Yep. I'm one of THOSE girls. I'm addicted it's like crack to me. I started out thinking that Twilight was stupid and then read the books and couldn't put them down. Again, addictive personality I'm telling you.

Hegab-Rehab and more specifically Ange's private blog about her life and marriage "I Married a Masri". This girl is fearless about what she says. She's not afraid to swear and talk about anyone and anything in the bluntest terms possible. Plus hearing about her dealings with her Arab friends, families, and acquaintances makes me laugh and smile.

Anyway, I know this was dumb and two favorites posts in a row was redundant. But they were a longtime apart and they've changed some. Plus this was actually pretty revealing and cathartic because it made me reconsider what I actually use and look at everyday and groom accordingly.

I promise a real update soon though. However I'll be going back home form uni soon for winter holidays and my internet situation is quite sketchy there. HOWEVER: I'll make a New Years resolution right now to blog more. Not because I want 600 followers or anything, but because I need an outlit for my feelings and thoughts. Besides I'm such a consumer of blog content but have no offerings of my own. Who knows where this blog will go. Hopefully nowhere but up.

My Bookmarks

I thought it might be interesting to share my bookmarks. I check these everyday and sometimes even more than that. I use google bookmarks specifically and so that means that I only have 27 bookmarks at a time. This way you can see them all at once. So every once and awhile when I find something new I want to bookmark I switch it out.

These are in alphabetical order as opposed to anything else. If you get to this page for whatever reason, you should totally check some of these out.

• 1,000 Awesome Things
  It's a blog counting down the 1,000 awesome things. It's currently only on #715, so there's a couple more years out of this. But it's amazing. It's almost like these writers got inside my own head and guessed all of the little things in life that I love. Some gems include
  #724 Placing the last piece of the puzzle
  #999 That last crumby triangle in a bag of potato chips
  #876 Taking your bra off after wearing it for hours
  Those might not be awesome to you but I promise that there will be something that you love.
• Blackboard-UNC
  I'm not going to link this one. But it's my school's blackboard site, that's all. Where I go to look at my class syllabus during the year or print out my notes or print out my homework
• Cake Wrecks
  Have you seen this yet? It is amaaaazing. Plus the people who write this are hilarious times a million. The blog features pictures sent in of professionally made cakes that look like craaaaaaap. Either because the design was made badly or especially for awful spelling or handwriting. Just check it out. I can not caption these like they can.
• Calorie Count
  Kind of self explanatory. I sort of keep really good track of what I eat lately. And this website is amaaaazing. It has easy to use tools and also has things like a recipe analyzer and you can submit your own foods and use them time and time again. I also really love the forums and such. If you're interested in things like that than please at least try this website.
• Chictopia
  A site where users submit pictures of their outfits or even their inspirations. I love seeing what people have put together and even have gotten good ideas from it. I'm new to it but I really like it so far.
• Dispatches from the Island
  So I'm sure anyone reading is at least familar with the show Lost. Well one of it's stars Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley/Hugo has a blog. I love it because it's sort of photo-centric. I love his little pictures from his life and his travels. He seems just as sweet as his character.
• Dumb Little Man
  A blog with advice on living a better life. A lot of it is common sense but there are quite a few little things that are awesome to see and are designed to make life easier and simpler.
• Facebook
  I'm sure you know what this is. And you're probably on it. But I like having a quick little bookmark to get to it quickly.
• The Frisky
  A delightful little website that has all sorts of awesome little articles about frivilous things like fashion, celebs, interesting things. I mostly like it because it's entertaining and it updates often. It's a guilty pleasure to tell you the truth.
• Gary: Landlord of the Flies
  Please read this (FROM THE BEGINNING!) to read the most hilarious account of a guy dealing with a crazy redneck landlord

Okay first I'm going to have to break to explain something:
So I'm not Muslim and really have no plans to become one. I do really respect the religion though. But as an Arabic major I do plan to study abroad in the Middle East at some point. I plan on wearing hijab while I'm there. But when I started looking at hijab style blogs i found three hijab style blogs and found that I really enjoyed their writers. So I still have the blogs bookmarked today. Okay back to my explanations

• Hijab Style
  This is an excellent hijab style blog written by a Muslimah in England. It has excellent editorials from papers around the world. Also runway inspirations and Muslimah Style pictures sent in by readers.
• Gives Me Hope
  Well for those familar with FMyLife there's now a version for optimists. It has heart warming stories that really do give you hope. I love it
• Instructables
  So this site has step by step instructions on how to do almost anything you could possibly want to know how to do. They're submitted by users and it's awesome. They have things like crafts, recipes, home decorations, tons of awesome stuff.
• Modblog
  This one is definitely not for everyone. It has pictures of body modifications. Everything from tattoos to piercings. Also scarification and suspensions (not a big fan of those by the way) as well. But it's just nice to see the beautiful tattoos that they show on the site but also some of the piercing projects. Beautiful pictures of gorgeous alternative folks. What more could you want? (If you're into that sort of thing of course...)
• My Boss is Michael Scott
  This site is hilarious. Stories that really do sound exactly like the show the Office. Worth a look. Wish it updated more often.
• Neatorama
  I've been looking at this website everyday for several years. It updates often and posts truly neat news.
• Nubby Twiglet
  I like this blog because it's interesting to read the posts this blogger writes about. She's a graphic designer with great fashion and she always posts visually appealing pictures and posts.
• Twilight Saga Daily Dose
  So this is the most embarassing one. But for the purposes of full disclosure I'm going to be honest. I'm a Twilight fan. Pretty hard in fact. But this site just has little Twilight updates about New Moon and the stars and yeah. Embarassing. Thank you in advance for not making fun of me
• Slice of Lemon
  My second Muslimah blog. This blogger is such a lovely, smart, funny lady. She blogs about hijabi fashion as well as just small happenings in her life in DC and now LA. I can't get enough of her stories.
• Style Rookie
  This fashion blog is done by a style conscious 13 year old. She has just about the most unique sense of style I've ever seen, especially with someone so young. That's why it's just so fabulous. She also talks about other little things in her life. Plus she's so funny as well.
• Surviving the World
  This guy writes advice and just funny little quips and observances about life. All on a chalkboard. So it's almost like a live action web comic.
• Journal Promps Library
  I sometimes just like to have verbal diarrhea. So I just write whatever comes to mind. Sometimes this helps me with that. Just a ton of thought provoking journal prompts.
• Obameter
  So I'm a liberal, but I still really enjoy this website that's tracking Obama's progress on issues and promises he made during his campaign. Keeping politicians honest is always a good thing.
• The State of Virginia
  So I'm not going to link this one either because I'm sure it'd embarass my friend Virginia if strangers were being lead to it to read it. But she's one of my best friends at school and she was in Southeast Asia all summer so it was interesting to read about her travels. I hope she continues during the school year.
• UNC-Chapel Hill Secrets Project
  This site is awesome. It's secrets anonymously submitted and posted of UNC Student's secrets. I love reading them and thinking about the fact that I could have class with the kids that write these or pass them on campus. It's amazing to know people's secrets
• Trailer Addict
  I love watching movie trailers. So this site is amazing. It updates pretty often and it also posts the little TV spots and extras from all over.
• Hegab-Rehab
  My third hijab blog. Written by a hilarious Australian blogger. She's a Muslimah convert/revert. She posts all sorts of modern hijabi outfits, including ones with abayas, proving that they don't just have to be gigantic black capes. Although they can be if you want yours to be so :)
  Also on this link are the links to her other blog and her novel in progress. The other blog is called "Mama I Married a Masri" about non-style related parts of her life. Also you can get a link to her book, Jacaranda Secret, she's working on and posting parts online. It's amazing.

So now you can see a glimpse at my online life.