Writing HTML and Raspberry M&M's

Today I started learning HTML and I'm also working on a new page on my site that I'm using to practice and learn. As simple as the page is so far, I'm really thrilled to have written my first code and was able to see it work. When I uploaded the page that I made in notepad to my site, went to the page and it loaded just as it was intended to, I did a Hell Yeah! It's little thrills like this that make life interesting. :)

You can see it here. My HTML Sandbox
There's nothing spectacular about this page and the only purpose that it serves is just something I'm using to learn HTML. However, the next time I want to create a new page or site with a purpose, I can now do it all from scratch. Not to mention just making changes on existing pages won't be so intimidating either. Yeah I'm just a geek who really enjoys this sort of stuff. Anyway if anyone looks at this page, there is no telling what condition it will be in at that time or what will even be displayed, since I will be doing a lot of experimentation with it. Here's the main site home page. StacyYoungPhotos.com

I broke my 2 day fast last night when my legs starting cramping really bad and I noticed that my ankles were swollen. So I ate 2 bananas and some pretzels. The muscles in my shins and feet were cramping so bad and were so tight feeling that it felt like they were gonna break off. The only thing I know to do when this happens is to stand in a bathtub of hot water and try to relax. It was also a difficult night trying to sleep cause they kept cramping during the night. I would jump out of bed in agony and walk around, trying to loosen them up and twice I had to get in the bathtub. I believe they were doing this from all the walking I did yesterday when I walked downtown and walked around downtown, wearing flat shoes with no support in them too. In addition I think a bit of dehydration was a factor since I usually drink at least 10 glasses of water a day, but since I was walking around in the sun for 3 hours, this depleted my body's water supply.

I further broke the fast this morning when I decided to eat a veggie dog, just plain and by itself, only 45 calories and a lot of protein...then another one since they were only 45 calories, then another.... then I discovered raspberry M&M's. Oh well, this is what being human is all about. It's a constant struggle between our mind and our inner child.

If any web design/programming geeks are reading this post, feel free to critique my first code. I welcome any advice or suggestions.

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Here's the link to the code. (not always updated so you might as well right click, view source)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1irAe-PMBveqYSMnaZ-82AjgQ4vGVFGhW7OcsV3HF4rY/edit

Job hunting on foot while fasting

Apollo waiting for me to come home.

Well I managed to go downtown on foot and visit every business asking if they had job openings or leads. Nothing immediately turned up but I have a lot more leads now and overall, this was a terrific experience for me. I started out at Che Cosa Coffee & Cafe, with a cup of black coffee and a couple leads from the person working there, then I sat down and reviewed a downtown directory while planning which direction I wanted to traverse. I decided to visit the Art Center first to see if they needed instructors for their Summer Art Camp this year, since I taught art classes 15 years ago at an Art Center back in Florida and enjoyed doing that a lot. The person in charge wasn't available so I left my resume and told them what I was interested in, then perused the galleries before I was off to the next place. Then I found a nice little store called Gemini Moon where I talked to the owner for about 10 minutes about all kinds of things, including some more job leads. I bought a pack of Nag Champa which fit in my purse, so I didn't have to carry any bags. This made my purse smell really nice, and the area around me too, everywhere I went. So I then went to a few dozen more businesses and the whole 3 hours I spent doing this was a very positive experience for me and has helped me get out of my shell a lot more. It's not so bad just going into a place and asking. Most of the people today seemed to be happy to have someone to talk to and also help as much as they could. A few of these ended up in a 10 or 15 minute conversation, which helped me start to get over my innate shyness.

I feel so vulnerable opening up like this and pouring my thoughts out on this blog, but for some reason, I just feel like I need to do it. I hope that this is at least mildly entertaining, maybe somewhat interesting. Well it's fun to do, even though I'm sure that I slaughter the English language pretty good.  But whatever it is, it is just me trying to make sense of this world. 

I'm sorta doing a fast right now, which is for many reasons. One is to give me more energy and raise my vibration, the other is just to lose the weight that I've been trying to lose for the last 2 years, it's not a lot, just maybe 10 lbs, but I always hit a plateau at a certain weight and have been struggling to just get past that and establish a new baseline to work with. Yeah I know this sounds like it's my body's natural way of regulating my weight to be ideal for what it needs, but I haven't accepted that theory yet. Yesterday I had a little bit of red bell pepper/garlic hummus that I made the day before, but only about 100 cals worth all day. Today so far, I've eaten nothing, and I definitely feel more clear headed and have a lot more energy. The walk, fresh air and sunshine today also helped with that.

So tonight I will be applying for any new jobs that I find online, and also sending some follow up letters to places I've applied to a few weeks ago. Most of these jobs are the kinds that I should be totally qualified for such as various administrative jobs. I've worked as a Payroll Administrator for about 8 years and could do any kind of Payroll job with my hands tied behind my back, so at this point, have applied for probably at least 20 Payroll jobs, plus a number of Human Resources, Accounting Clerk, Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payable, secretarial, mail room jobs and general office jobs too. I've also applied for a bunch of online customer service and call center jobs. Today was not as bad as I thought it would be, so tomorrow I may visit some more places close by and continue networking in person. I did find out about a job fair next week, so if I don't find something before then, it's another resource that I can't afford to miss. My purse still smells like Nag Champa too. :)

Downtown Mt. Clemens with the Art Center on the right

Macomb County Administration Building

Gargoyles!

On my walk back home I rested at the river for a few minutes.

Agoraphobia should be overcome!

 So here I am sitting here all dressed up and ready to walk downtown to look for a job. My plan is to visit every place that looks like they could possibly use help and the places that look like the kind of place I would like to work. After the 2 week frenzy of applying for jobs online, before I go insane, I should try a different tactic, since that one hasn't seemed to be too effective so far. There is only one problem. My social phobia has fully kicked in now that I'm ready to go and look like a thousand dollars. It is very intimidating to me to have to just walk into offices, stores and restaurants that I've never been in or have even seen, except briefly out of the car window. Then once I get down there on foot, I have to look like I know where I'm going, otherwise I will just resign myself to finding a quiet bench, sort of out of the way where I can sit and pretend like I have very important matters on my iPod. I could just find a coffee shop and while patronizing the store, casually ask them if they have any job openings. Or maybe I could pretend like I'm one of those ultra-confident and out going individuals and pretend like I own the place. Instead of asking them in a little shy voice, while being careful not to have prolonged eye contact or not enough eye contact and eagerly looking for the first opportunity that I can get out of there to retreat, I could just tell them I'm looking for employment and have the attitude that if I want to work there, there is no reason they should not hire me. But for someone like me who is very reserved and I guess you can say quite shy, with a severe case of Agoraphobia mixed in, just to make it really interesting, this is not an easy task. 

I just wish I would feel more self-confident and just get out there in the real world and just not care what other people think and not try to be so overly-polite all the time...maybe just 50% more assertive, and 50% more confident would be a good measure. Maybe I should just not use this blog as an excuse not to get out in the world and make things happen, or perhaps I should just save my thought until the end of the day after I've gone out in the real world, then I might have more to write about... but then that may not be the most effective way to handle this. 

I think I need to just stop over-thinking everything, even whether I should be using so many hyphens adjoining two words. Just be me. :)

And there's always tomorrow! 

 Now that I missed my opportunity to go out into the real world today, I can now put my jeans and hoodie back on...and just be comfy again. Maybe do a little gardening before the sun goes down. :)