News from the North

Yoga at Birch Bay
Originally uploaded by Melba Toast1

Every time I sit down to write this it gets harder and harder. I never end up writing more

then a hand full of sentences before I give in and scrap the entire thing. So this is my

latest attempt at writing a blog for Toasteeweb.
The lack of updates for this little never visited website is partly due to the fact that I

haven't installed Dreamweaver on this laptop of mine that I got in March. My old desk top got

a nasty virus and so instead of getting it fixed I asked that my birthday present be a laptop

and sure enough it's what I got. I've loved having this little guy around. He, well I suppose

it is a she since it's name is Melba, is compact and handy. Always standing by to help me

look something up or to encourage me to enjoy my favorite pass time (gaming of course) she

never lets me down... well that's almost true. She does throw a fit every now and then, but I

let it slide. Sometimes I do find myself longing for old faithful, but we all have to move on

from things sometimes.
I have also found it difficult to update this place because I've been working through a lot of

personal things over the past year and I didn't feel like sharing it with the world. But

things are looking up now and burdens are lifting so I thought it about time to try and come

back to my old computerized ways. I never did finish mousey the junk bot. It is still sitting

out on my work bench in the garage. I ran into some problems either with the wiring or the

electrical components themselves that I can't sort out and that finally made my curiosity

dissipate after a few weeks of endless frustration. I want to give it another shot though. I

thoroughly enjoy robotics and I think it is something I could end up being quite good at.

NASA here I come!
On another note -- I have begun to make over my life in a way. I have begun to pay more

attention to what I put in my body and how I treat it. I've been finding healthy ways to eat

and live including joining the YMCA and taking exercise classes. It is difficult especially

when those cravings for chocolate or french fries kicks in, but it is much more satisfying

knowing that I resisted those temptations and ate something healthy rather then the less than

satisfying feeling in my gut after I give in. So far my efforts have shaved off 10 pounds

from my frame. It's not a lot or a big change that you can really see, but it is something and

it is a motivation to keep going. One thing that makes living healthily easy is a few recipes

that makes even the gloomiest of days bright and shiny. In my next post I think I'll share

those bits of cheer, but until then I'll leave you with this -- one of the desert recipes involves avocado and tofu. Now you're curious aren't you?

Another post...

Reading in my old house...
Originally uploaded by Melba Toast1

I find my lack of updates for this blasted website very frustrating. It is infinitely less complicated to design a Myspace page then it is to design an entire website. The only thing I seem to be moderately good at is posting more blog entries about how I can never seem to update things around here. So here is my almost-monthly update on how I can’t update things.
Last night I lay awake in bed fantasizing about how my website could be magnificent. I thought up themes and brilliant ideas of how I could make things functional and visually appealing, and then I remembered that I don’t know how to go about making things functional and visually appealing. I don’t know how to write what I see in my head into code that works. I don’t know how to build these things that I dream of, and that is what frustrates me. So until I get my sorry act together I’m afraid you will have to suffer the pains of having to look at my pathetic attempt at design and website construction; my deepest apologies to you all.
On a different yet still electronic note, I have taken up the hobby of learning how to build robots. I say learning how to build robots because I haven’t actually started building them yet. No, I have just been collecting my instruments of creation thus far, but a project should be well underway soon. I try not to get too ahead of myself when it comes to things like this. What I mean by that is I try to think realistically and not let my imagination run away with thoughts of highly advanced robots being built in my garage. I keep my mind grounded so that I can appreciate robots for what they are and not for what I want them to be. But either way I am very excited to start my first project called Mousey the Junkbot. It is a light seeking/light avoiding little robot made out of an old computer mouse. It doesn’t seem to be too complicated to make, but I am not counting on that assumption and thusly I am setting myself up for a most enjoyable challenge. On this matter of experiments and robotics I will keep you better informed or at least try to keep you better informed. You can’t really trust anything I say about updates can you?
Other then that there isn’t much else to tell about my life. I am slowly getting closer to obtaining that elusive GED by trying to refine my mathematical skills, but there is still a lot more work to be done in that area. My job at that filthy (it really is a very unclean place, but I am trying to slowly change that) little craft store is going well. I seem to be liked by at least a few of my co-workers and I haven’t heard any complaints about my performance, at least to my face that is. On a literary note- I have failed to complete Moby-Dick, The Three Musketeers, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame due to the lack of drive caused by Melville’s lack of story telling, but I have hopped on track again with the help of Robert Louis Stevenson and Mary Shelley for the month of January. Thanks guys! You’re true pals.
And in closing I leave you now to write again next month. Be seeing you.

"Craft Star. How may I help you?"

"Craft Star. How may I help you?"
Originally uploaded by Melba Toast1

I sit here and I find myself in a strange place. A mix of the past and the future are mingling here in this hour of the night with no shame. The past comes to me in the form of When I'm Older by Rory Corbin and the future comes to me by means of long trains of thought about my recent employment. Yes, that's right, I am employed. Who, you ask, did I finally con into giving me their money? Well that would be Craft Star in Frontier Village. And for those of you who are saying 'ahha!' to themselves right now- sure it was Melinda's old job, but she didn't get me the position so you can stop it. I suspect that not even my very un-impressive application got me the job, but the raw need for somebody else to press little buttons and play with pricing guns all day. Things aren't all fun and games though, let me tell you.
There is such an evil thing as an over ring. An over ring happens when you make a mistake at the register such as forgetting to type in a discount on an item, forgetting to ring an item up before you cash out, ringing up an item twice, etc. And instead of just being able to hit a back button, which would be nice, we have to start all over again and ring everything up again the correct way. Once you are done with the customer you have to fill out a little slip stating your name, date, and what you did wrong. Friday I didn't have the joy of filling out any over ring slips, but Saturday, man oh howdy, my pen was flowing over them like a stream over pebbles. I do fine on the register when I know I have somebody watching my back, but as soon as I am thrown into The Cage by myself I start getting anxious that I am going to make a mistake and I won't know how to fix it. Then I do make a mistake and I'm not sure of how to fix it. Then making that mistake and having that uncertainty makes me afraid of making another mistake and then I make that mistake and so on and so forth. It is a vicious cycle and I am glad I can escape for a few days. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I am just glad for the few days I have off before I work again to unwind myself and cool off so to say.
One of the only aspects of this work of mine that I do appreciate in any way is what it does to your feet. I am not used to being on my feet for seven hours straight and my shoes, I've found out, are not the most comfortable for doing that in. By the time my shift is over murderous thoughts are rippling down from my upper and lower back, over my legs, and finally resting in my feet. Oh the many joys of working your first job.

Besides the aching in my limbs a few other things have taken company with me at that store. For one- a horrible sort of gnawing fear seems to burrow into my soul when I look at the cash register and see a long string of people lined up in front of it. Once I touch those keys the realization that I am dealing with other people’s money and that if I screw up they’re going to be pissed at me starts to overshadow my thoughts. But you know, you make a few mistakes, you learn from them, life goes on, and your next customers are a little bit more lucky then your past ones.
Moving from pain to mistakes and back to pain again, I have one word for you- Kathy.
Kathy is a spicy old math teacher whose comments and speech sting as much as they entertain. No action, innocent or not, is safe from Kathy’s sight and stabbing whit. She loves no one and has very little mercy for the impatient, dull minded, and slow. She can be either a great ally or a great enemy, but if she is polite to you be warned! It means you have gotten on her bad side and if you do not evacuate the area immediately there could be very ugly consequences to pay.
But not all of my co-workers are so hazardous to one’s health and mental state. Most are even tempered, sweet, and a pleasure to work with. Just make sure you catch them on their good days.

Too Much Information...

Too much Myspacing not enough Toasteewebing. Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. There isn’t much to report, but I’m sure I can scrape up something for you faithful readers.
I’ve got my reading list for October, November, and December. If you want to follow along with me (which I encourage) then you can check out the list at the bottom of the page.
I have also got the list made out for January, February, and March made out, but I’ll save that for later. And since March is my birthday month I went a little crazy with my book choices. Maybe not crazy to most…well…all of you, but they are books I have been itching to read for some time now. If you need or want a reminder of the Summer Reading List or you just want to keep tabs on my progress then you can check that out too at the bottom. Just a blip: I loved The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It was an awesome book. I’ll be posting some book reviews once I get around to actually finishing them. Stay tuned.
My mild obsession with BBC America has resulted in me following the course of three shows: Jekyll, Doctor Who, and How Clean Is Your House?. As some of you may be able to tell by the title, Jekyll is a spin off of a classic short story by Robert Louis Stevenson about battling inner demons. The one Tom Jackman (played by James Nesbitt) thinks that he is just an ordinary man living an ordinary life until his life starts to take some very odd turns. The series begins right in the middle of Dr. Jackman’s turmoil of battling his dangerous alter-ego, Mr. Hyde (also played by James Nesbitt. Don’t be fooled though, it can be convincing what makeup artists these days can do to make one person look like two different individuals). Like the short story by Stevenson, Dr. Jackman lives a double life. The only problem is that he doesn’t know what the other half of his life consists of. When Dr. Jackman figures out that when he falls asleep or lets his temper run away with him, Mr. Hyde takes over their shared body (though there is a noticeable difference in the appearance of the two characters). Jackman tries everything to keep the child like narcissistic murderer from wreaking havoc on his beloved wife and children. The battle rages between them as the dark tries to devour the light and the light tries to rid itself of the dark, but what neither of them know is the depth of deception that they both live in. As the series goes on secrets about their origins and life are revealed and they find out that they are being hunted and watched by an organization that has been in control of their life from the beginning.
I teetered on the edge of liking and hating this series many times. It isn’t a program I would recommend. It was an interesting concept, I will give writer Steve Moffat that much credit, but I felt that it shamed Stevenson’s original work. No justice was served to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and over all the series was a disappointment. I only followed it because I was intrigued and wanted to see where it would end up.
Now I must be honest with you, I did not go crazy over Doctor Who because I happened to see an episode on BBC. I actually hardly ever watch it on BBC America. I heard bits and pieces about this Doctor Who shows from Thinkgeek.com, commercials on the Sci-Fi network, and finally on Netflix.com. The first time I saw Doctor Who it was on my computer using my sister’s Netflix account and their new online movie viewing program. There was an add for a Doctor Who series and I finally said fine, I’ll watch it. Wow! I got sucked in in no time. At first I was simply oblivious to the shows’ history and details as I sat there with my eyes fixed to my computer monitor. My first emotion connected with this cult classic was confusion. You see, the speakers I have for my computer are rather old and don’t turn up very loudly. That combined with the British accents made understanding monologue and dialogue very tricky and difficult. Before I knew what was going on there were plastic manikins chasing a girl through a garage at a department store and a strange man running around saying something about being “the Doctor” and running for your life. Needles to say, for the first twenty-five minutes of my introduction to this show full of aliens and “Living Plastic” I was not very impressed, but then I repositioned myself closer to the speakers and gave my imagination over to The Doctor and the young girl named Rose. I went away from that first episode a changed television viewer. My father said that he thinks Doctor Who is one of those shows that you have to watch for a while to really get into and after he said that he looked at me to see if I agreed. I smiled and turned my head away because as soon as those end credits started playing and that theme song along with them, I knew I had just sold my soul to the devil, or at least to The Doctor.
The BBC cult classic, Doctor Who, has been airing since 1963 and has received a place in the Guinness World Records as the longest running science fiction television series in the world. The series features time travel, aliens, and science. What isn’t there to love (especially if you’re me)?
The Doctor (played over the years by a total of ten different actors) is a smart and witty alien whose entire species, save for him, was wiped out along with their strongest enemy the Daleks in the great Time War. Because of the obliteration of his species, the Doctor suffers from extreme loneliness on his ventures through time and space in his ship, the T.A.R.D.I.S. So to help ease the lonely pain of being a Time Lord, the Doctor picks up humans who want to be his companions through his travel in time correcting wrongs and giving a helping hand when one is needed. Being a Time Lord isn’t easy even with the companionship of humans. A Time Lord may look human, but looks really are only skin deep. Underneath the human skin are two hearts and a secret to living as close to forever as any species can get. The series Doctor Who has lived on for so long is because it is a perfect show to carry out. Whenever The Doctor (whomever is playing him at the time) is about to die he is transformed into a new being by assuming a different body, though all are human. And with the companions being human themselves it is easy enough to dispose of one character and bring in another. After all, the Doctor is over nine hundred years old himself so there is bound to be some kind of turn over in his companions.
Sure, the ten actors over the years have all played the same character, but each man brings something different to the Doctor’s personality and because the majority of Doctor Who fans are very loyal to their first Doctor (as am I) it is difficult to get used to the new face with every regeneration that takes place.
I will miss you Christopher Eccleston. All of us ninth Doctor junkies will miss you.
As far as my mild obsession with How Clean Is Your House? goes, well, let’s just say that my room and three of my friend’s rooms are very very clean.
So you have finally reached the end of this BLOG! Congratulations. Like I said earlier, I posted some booklists at the bottom of this post so feel free to check those out.
Some Things to Look Forward too in my Next Post

Updates on website development

School for this year

And oh, oh, oh Christmas List

Booklists

June -

(13th-20th)
The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Christopher Tolkien
Number of pages - 259
Number of chapters - 18
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

(21st-30th)
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Number of pages - 152
Number of chapters - 25
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

July -

(1st-10th)
The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers
Number of pages - 324
Number of chapters- 23
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

(11th-20th)
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Number of pages - 185
Number of chapters - 32
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

(21st-30th)
Saint by Ted Dekker
Number of pages - 345
Number of chapters - 44
Chapters to read per day - 4-5

August -

(1st-10th)
Android at Arms by Andre Norton
Number of pages - 288
Number of chapters – 18
Chapters to read per day – 2-3

(11th-20th)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Number of pages - 203
Number of chapters - 24
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

(21st-30th)
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Number of pages - 359
Number of chapters - 27
Chapters to read per day - 2-3

September -

(1st-10th)
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Number of pages – 222
Number of chapters – 26 + Epilogue
Chapters to read per day – 2-3

(11th-20th)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Number of pages – 231
Number of chapters – 20
Chapters to read per day – 2
(21st-30th)

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Number of pages – 168
Number of chapters – 10

Extras -
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Number of pages - 180
Number of chapters – 9

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Number of pages - 165
Number of chapters (stories) – 12

Sea Siege by Andre Norton
Number of pages – 221
Number of chapters – 9

Showdown by Ted Dekker
Number of pages – 366
Number of chapters – 52

October –
(1st-30th)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Number of pages – 603
Chapters – 135 + Epilogue
Chapters to read per day – 4-5

November –
(1st-30th)
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Number of pages – 632
Chapters – 67 + Epilogue
Chapters to read per day – 2-3

December-
(1st-31st)
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Number of pages – 505
Pages to read per day - 100


January –
(1st-10th)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Number of pages – 191
Number of chapters – 34
Chapters to read per day – 3-4

(11th-20th)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Number of pages – 192
Number of chapters – 24
Chapters to read per day – 2-3

(21st-30th)
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Number of pages – 195
Number of chapters – 30
Chapters to read per day – 3

February–
(1st-10th)
Obsessed by Ted Dekker
Number of pages – 495 + Epilogue
Number of chapters – 52
Chapters to read per day – 5-6

(11th-20th)
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Number of pages – 268
Number of chapters – 37
Chapters to read per day – 3-4

(21st-30th)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Number of pages – 429
Number of chapters – 4-5

March-
(1st-10th)
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Number of pages – 139
Number of chapters – 10
Number of chapters to read per day - 1



(11th-20th)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Number of pages – 214
Number of chapters – 26
Chapters to read per day – 2-3

(21st-31st)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Number of pages – 202 + Notes
Number of chapters – 12
Chapters to read per day – 1-2

Extras –
Call of the Wild + White Fang by Jack London
Number of pages – 225

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Number of pages – 217 + Notes and Afterword

The story behind the nickname...

It all started one summer afternoon in '04. I was on MSN with one of my best friends. On particularly uneventful days we would both get online and start writing stories. She would right a paragraph, I would write a paragraph, she would write a paragraph, and so on. Well this was one of those particularly uneventful days.

It started off with me sitting in my nice home. I woke up and walked down the stairs to my counrty-ish kitchen. I made myself a hot steamy mug'o'joe and toasted some bread. It popped up and with delight I took it, plated it, and drew upon it (with jelly and honey) a sad face. His name? Mr. Toastie.

And in reality I actually did make a Mr. Toastie. Now when Heather (my MSN writing buddy) realized that I had eaten Mr. Toastie after posting a picture of him for her to see she was crushed. She then proceeded to tell me about how he was now apart of my blood stream (Something about his crumbs being absorbed into something err other in my body...) and from that point on all would now refer to me as "T0astee". Of course we had to change the name a little like substituting a zero instead of the original "o", cutting out the "Mr." entirely since I am not a male, and putting in the signature "ee" instead of the "ie".

After a few public appearances and being addressed as T0astee, changing a few screen names, explaining the story to a couple interested people and a few weeks letting this sink into the folks at our old youth group the name was stuck for good. Later I acquired a T-Shirt sporting my new identity. Now I introduce myself as T0astee and quite often have to explain it to those who I have just addressed myself too. Others just laugh and accept it with a smile saying that it is "easier to remember" then my real name since it is "so unique". Others say it fits me well. This name and I, yeah, we get along just fine.

Finally Fred is Fed...

I figure that it has been long enough since I last posted a blog. So I will now tell you a little story to help you get reacquainted with my life.

The hum of life swirled around the dark wood table. Dishes were clashing, people were talking, and waitresses were running. It was another normal night at the restaurant and my mother and I had come in to join the routine.
We were seated at a table near the kitchen. It was not a particularly nice place to be seated. And what made it worse (for me, that is) was that I sat with my back to the aisle. I am silently nit-picky about where and how I sit, especially in restaurants. I sucked up my discomfort and pressed on to enjoy the evening.
Salad, soup, breadsticks and spinach-artichoke dip with a refreshing three glasses of raspberry lemonade made up the first course. We had been there for well over a half hour before the main course came out. Chris, our friendly waiter, came straight towards us, the steaming dishes of pasta sitting atop his black serving tray. I smiled and put my hands in my lap waiting for my dinner to be placed in front of my anticipating mouth. The plate came off the tray and was situated in front of me safely. I cannot say, however, that that was the same case with my mother's meal.
In those milliseconds before the food hit the carpet I could see the horrific expression of shock and humiliation streak across Chris' once bright, friendly face. I gasped as the loud CLUNK from plate hitting table rang in my ears. My mother, who was looking away unawares of the scene unfolding before us, shot around at the sound of my gasp just in time to be greeted with a leg full of pasta and chicken. I released the breath I realized I was holding as my gaze darted between Chris and my mother.
"I'm so sorry! Oh. I'm so sorry!"
He quickly bent down and picked up the plate. By this time every pair of eyes were trained on us. How would she react to this blunder?
"Don't you waste one minute worrying about it. I was going home after this anyway. It’s fine."
After a couple dozen more apologies Chris hurried away into the kitchen to order the chefs to get started immediately on a new plate. I couldn't help but laugh. I looked at the wasted food and the woman who was assigned to clean it up and though, "If only Budy were here. He'd clean it up faster then a broom and dust pan could." When the response "Yeah, isn't there a dog somewhere who could eat it?" came I realized I had actually voiced my thought. The woman shook her head and stared down at the mess then at the broom and dust pan in her hands. Sweeping up pasta from a carpet seemed strange to me, but she got her job done, and done well.
As expected, the manager was soon at our side apologizing for everything. "I'm so sorry about this. I'll take care of it for you. The chefs are making more right now."
"Don't worry about it. Tell him not to worry about it."
"Oh, he’s just been fired."
Only a jest, of course, but I'm not sure that I want to know the chewing out he got after that day at work.
The food was brought out as quickly as possible and the meal continued with little more drama. Chris apologized a few more times and told us that the plate was too hot when he took it to place on the table. It had burned his fingers when they made contact with the dish as did many other dishes that night. He had the bright red finger tips to prove it.
“Now I know where not to work.” I stated as we wrapped up.
True to his word the manager covered the cost of the pasta and also offered desert, which we declined, although the chocolate cake did look good. I would have just been happy with a couple extra free chocolates.
But all in all it was a good night to be us at Olive Garden. Hey, blessings come in different varieties of packaging.

POST

So this is my first BLOG as an official website!! I am glad I finally got it up. It took me two months (?) to write the code for it (yes, I did it the hard way without Dream Weaver or anything like that. I wrote it all myself.) and then a couple weeks to get my father to help me get my domain name set up but it finally got done and here I am! I still have work to do though. Take Fred's template. It doesn't go with the rest of the site so that needs to be fixed, I need to improve a few things with how my pictures are set up, and there are always new things I can learn to do with Java Script. So we'll see where this place goes, but for now I am just glad it is up.
So if you comment on my BLOGs then please state who you are. I don't think I will be able to tell who comments. I am still trying to figure out how everythong works.

~~T0astee