A.

I'm almost finished packing. We fly out tonight at 12:45am (South Africa time) and will be landing in Detroit at 5:35pm tomorrow. I tried to force myself to sleep in a bit this morning, but only managed to stay in bed until about 8:30am. I normally get up anywhere from 5-7am and am dead tired by 9-10pm, so I'm pretty certain I'm going to be exhausted by the time we get on the plane. I dread overnight flights. I am so excited to go back to Canada for Christmas & New Years, but the thought of flying for 21 hours (plus a 3.5hr. layover) makes me want to throw up. I can't handle not being able to sleep for that long - I get anxious & unbearably uncomfortable. I'm so jealous of people who can sleep in an upright position.

I saw this video for the first time the other day on The View. It made me so happy I cried.

Are you a vegan? How long have you been one? Have you noticed any health benefits - mental or physical?

What are your favorite vegan sites or cookbooks?

A few weeks ago I started contemplating the idea of becoming a vegan. Not for moral or ethical reasons, but simply because I wanted to be healthier. I stopped eating red meat two months ago, and yesterday I dropped dairy and eggs from my diet. I currently consume chicken and fish, but will be removing chicken very shortly. I’m still not entirely convinced that fish is bad for you, so I may keep it as part of my diet for a while longer. Currently, I’m finding it a little difficult to get all my calories for the day and only managed to consume about 1000 yesterday. Ideally, I should be getting around 1650 if I want to maintain my current weight. My first day being dairy free looked like this:

Breakfast:

1 cup Special K
1/2 cup soy milk

Snack:

1 apricot
1 apple
1/2 banana
1/2 peach
8 pieces papaya

Lunch:

Salad with carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, mixed nuts and cucumber

Dinner:

Chili containing beans, mushrooms, chili peppers, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, ground chicken
Crackers

Snack:

chocolate soy pudding
strawberries
raspberries

Steve bungee jumping 216m from the Bloukrans bridge in South Africa:

Knysna Elephant Park, South Africa
November 16, 2009

I have a few more videos to upload. I rode an ostrich and Steve bungee jumped off the Bloukrans bridge!

After putting it off for a few weeks, I ran tonight for the first time ever. I feel amazing. Dead tired, but amazing. I'm smiling & giddy, and my legs feel like they weigh a thousand pounds each. I can't wait to do it again!

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? I've always wanted to be either an Archaeologist or a Cosmologist.

Durban, South Africa
October 23, 2009

Found it! Drinking some with peach iced tea because we don't consume sugar & don't have any in the house. It kind of tastes like black licorice, which is one of my least favorite things in the world.

Found out last night that Absinthe is legal here! The brand sold in South Africa is called Doubs Mystique Absinthe and according to their website (http://www.doubsabsinthe.com) it contains the highest permissible levels of wormwood & causes heightened clarity of mind and vision. Steve and I are getting some tonight!

Have any of you tried Absinthe? What was it like?

I'm always looking for new things to do in South Africa. This looks awesome and is only 1.5 hours away from us:

Lightning Storm in South Africa
Music: Chrome by VNV Nation

Uploaded a bunch of ziplining and Durban photos to my Flickr.

Mountains on our way to Durban, South Africa

Sky on our way home from Durban, South Africa. Taken from the car with my point & shoot.

Ziplining at Magaliesberg Canopy Tour in South Africa:

Lounging on the balcony, September 26, 2009

We're home! We left Canada at around 11am on Sunday and just arrived in South Africa about an hour ago. There was a medical emergency on our first flight and we missed our connection in Amsterdam by about 15 minutes. If you've ever been to the Amsterdam airport, I'm sure you know how large it is. We basically had to run from one end to the other. When we started running our gate was just closing, but when we arrived the plane had just started to pull away from the terminal. The next flight to Johannesburg was the following morning (24 hours later), so we hopped on a plane to Paris, and got on the 7:10pm to Johannesburg from there. We considered visiting the Eiffel Tower during our layover, but we only had 4 hours to spare and didn't want to risk missing another connection. I did see the Eiffel Tower from the plane, though!

I am never flying through Paris again. The airport was beautiful, but the security was insane. They asked me to remove my bandana, and I refused. I have trichotillomania and would rather jump off a bridge than go prancing around the airport with my bald spot in full view of hundreds of people. They let me through, but had me remove my shoes and patted me down a little more than was necessary. Don't bother buying food at the Paris airport, either. A tiny slice of pizza was 7 euros, a small styrofoam cup of soup was 5 euros and a 350ml bottle of water was almost 4 euros. I purchased an hour of internet time while we were there, and only managed to use five minutes of it before my laptop battery unexpectedly died.

I am so unbelievably exhausted. I haven't slept since 8am on Sunday. To make matters worse, the airport made a mistake and didn't send our luggage. It's still sitting in Amsterdam. Good thing I always bring a carry-on and stuff it full of clothes. This was the longest flight of my life and the only thing that kept me from jumping off the plane was my bottle of Clonazepam. There are a few items I must have on my at all times when I fly: clonazepam (to keep me from jumping off the plane), advil (for migraines and muscular pain, which I get frequently), and water (not having 24/7 access to water makes my mouth extremely dry, which in turn makes me anxious).

We have to go grocery shopping after we sleep, which I am so not looking forward to. I don't feel like doing a thing today.

Is Snapfish any good? What is your favorite online photo printing place?

Michael Jackson fans: I have a naked, Michael Jackson doll from 1984. Does anyone want it?

It feels great to be back in Canada! I didn't sleep at all on the plane and was awake for about 46 hours in total. The 11 hour flight from Jo-Burg to Amsterdam was absolute torture. I was extremely uncomfortable, both physically & mentally, and had a pretty bad headache for the majority of the flight. Our flight left Johannesburg at 11:30pm and within an hour or two I was so exhausted I thought I was going to freak out and lose it. Not having the option of doing something I desperately needed to do (sleep) made me feel like jumping out of my skin. I can't remember the last time I felt so exhausted, but I wasn't able to fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. When we landed in Amsterdam I took a few Clonazepams, which made the second 8 hour flight tolerable.

I'm going wig shopping in a bit. As hard as I try, I can't beat Trichotillomania. I'm sick of trying and failing every time and have decided to cut off all my hair. What style & color should I get? I was thinking of something very simple - maybe this:

I've taught myself 16 guitar chords so far. My current goal is to learn 40. What chords should I know? Which ones are the most common? I currently know A, C, D, E, F, G, Am, Bm, Dm, Em, A7, B7, C7, D7, E7, G7.

Last night I had the not so brilliant idea of re-editing every single image on my website. I picked up a few new Photoshop actions in the last month, and after playing around with them for a bit decided that almost every single image that I had previously post-processed was no longer satisfactory. Even though using Photoshop actions in post-processing saves a lot of time, I only managed to get through a few photos before losing my patience and going to bed. Re-editing a million images – especially when you have an almost equal amount of actions to choose from, is tiring. It also doesn’t help that I’m picky, a perfectionist, and can never make up my mind. Anyway, here are a few photos that I did manage to edit. I’m also including the SOOC (straight out of camera) shots as a comparison. One of my favorite Photoshop actions is “PW B&W” by Pioneer Woman, which I've used here.

Image #1 - SOOC:



I ran the "PW B&W" action from Pioneer Woman and did a slight unsharp mask:



Image #2 - SOOC:



Again, the "PW B&W" action and unsharp mask:



Image #3 - SOOC:



"PW B&W" action, a slight tint, and unsharp mask:



Image #4 - SOOC:



"PW B&W" action and unsharp mask: