Some Stuff

I've really been in the mood to write this last week, and I got all mentally prepared to pump out a post a day because I've just been that chatty! Sunday night I had all these things that I wanted to talk about, and I spent most of that evening plotting out various points about some topics to discuss. It was a good feeling, being able to finally feel worthy enough to join the ranks of millions of other upper twenty somethings with a lot of opinions about things we don't necessarily understand, all of us exclaiming "Yes! I am a blogger! Look at how bloggy I am! Boo yah, bitches!"

And then it got cold.

When it gets cold, my host siblings decide to not go to school. Instead, they lurk at home all day, screaming and hitting each other, fighting over the computer, and, if you're Ani, demanding that we bake something every day.

So that's what I've been doing this whole week. I get home from school (which has been hilariously short due to the cold, and most of my students staying home (........ugh.)), change into normal clothes, come into the petchie room and am instantly and voraciously greeted with a, "Johanna! Hello! Today we will make...[insert food here]!" This is about where Ani will realize we need one ingredient from the store, so she will say, "Johanna. You want Nardi [backgammon]? If I win, you go to store. If you win, I go." She always says this with a devilish grin, and rightly so, because she knows I suck at backgammon and the chances of her having to go outside are slim if we play with that as the prize. After a very vicious ass kicking, I usually trudge down to the store, ask a very amused store clerk if they have x item, and trudge back up the slippery cobblestone street.

So far this week we've made:
- Chocolate chip cookies (red and blue ones, which made me laugh really hard but I couldn't really explain to her why I thought it was so funny without going into a huge discription of Halo and what Red vs. Blue even is, so I just told her that I was being a weird American again)
- Pizza
- Brownies
- More cookies

My host mother yesterday yelled at us, informing us that we would get fat if we kept doing this. I'm inclined to agree with her, and Ani going back to school will be a delightful day for my rear end. Hopefully the cold breaks next week and she decides to be scholastic again.

Anyway, between all the baking, backgammon, and gratuitous amounts of pictures she keeps dragging me out to take (the next post will be about that, because goodness, has that been something else!), I've managed to finally take care of something on this blog that I've wanted to do for a while.

You might notice to the right there's a new little category called "Media Whoring" with some sparkly colorful circles and weird things inside of them (all of which can be downloaded here, with even more colorful circles and weird things inside of them!) They represent the various social media timesucks I'm a part of. Well, some of them. My favorite is currently iOS only, which is unfortunate because it's a super goobery weather app called WeatherMob and the people on there crack my ass up. But that's besides the point. The ones that I can actually link to this here blog of mine are all up there. It's currently an uneven number, which is driving me crazy, so I'm trying to think of one last one I can join and post stupid things on just so I can fill that last space. Subsequently, if you know of one, please dear god inform me!

Listed are Instagram, Flickr, Soundcloud, Pinterest (no clue why I put that one on. I think I was trying to make an even eight), Facebook (which just turned ten years old this week, so they released little promotional videos for everyone that was personalized based on their specific timelines. All mine did was make me realize that I've been on Facebook for eight years, which is easily the longest relationship I've had, second to World of Warcraft, which I clocked up at six years. After that were actual human relationships...I feel like I might be doing something wrong?), Twitter, and Foursquare.

Unless you're a part of any of these platforms, and you wanna like totes be friends, the only ones of interest you'll find are Instagram, Flickr and Soundcloud. Soundcloud especially. I've been surreptitiously recording various sounds while I've been here with the intent of putting them on this blog for a full multimedia experience of this goofy country. I'm a little backlogged in going through all the stuff I've got, but I've put a few clips on that site. They're mainly sounds from the Tbilisi Metro (which I love, and can't really explain why), and a bunch of singers from a festival this past fall. Apologies in advance for any idiotic comments my friends and I make during any of the recordings.

So there we go. This post is pretty pointless, except to tell you that I've not been lazy - in fact the exact opposite - and that I've made a few minor changes that basically just make this thing look a little bit fancier. I promise I'll actually put something of substance up in the next day or two, if not tonight.