On Personal Goal Fulfilment

Today is a pretty nifty day for me. Well, okay, it's partially a nifty day for me. It's also partially quite painful, but only in a physical sense (I hurt my leg), rather than an emotional one (so I suppose it's all good.) Recently, loyal readers would be aware, I have been setting myself a number of mini-goals. Well, I say recently, but what I really mean is "Since I was aware that mini-goals could be set." and even if I am just taking into account the ones that I'm dealing with in this blog post, that's still a number of months.

You might recall that, some time ago, I made a post about wanting to purchase a bento box, so that I could prepare suitably sized lunches that were delicious, healthy, and looked awesome. Having finally dismounted my winged appaloosa of procrastination, I went onto eBay and did a broad search for the term "Bento" only to be rewarded with a fairly limited set of things to purchase that were...well...even remotely feasible. I ended up settling on a red usagi themed set of bento box, elastic strap (to hold it together), and furoshiki (to make it look awesome when I took it out!) So I've now got the delicious part of my meal down, as well as the healthy part, I just need to work on the "Oh Gods - Look at that awesome food-art!!" aspect.

Big Section, Little Section, Bento Box

Bento, Elastic Strap, And Furoshiki (Wrapping Cloth)

All Wrapped Up And Ready To Go!

As an offshoot from having finally received my awesomeness in lunch-box form, I have also achieved something that will make people familiar with the One Hundreds Hundreds initial concept go "Ooooh yeah - He had planned on doing that, hadn't he?". Regular people, on the other hand, will more likely go "Oh, you did something! Good for you!!" But yes - remember how I originally wanted this to be a list of 100 lists of 100 things I wanted to do? Well, I remember that, even though I don't care so much now. Anyway, I have (recently) been learning to cook a number of really cool things. I have made things like good sushi that I've never made before (see three posts ago), salted salmon, garlic prawns, balsamic strawberries, and just...so so
many delicious foodstuffs. I'm not sure why, but learning to cook new things - and actually cooking them - just makes me feel so much more adult. I know that it shouldn't really have any bearing on my life, but I feel as though I can support myself more in the real world when I know that I can make Earl Grey Tea Muffins.

That Stuff That Looks Like Potato Is Actually Apple. You Stop It Browning By Soaking It In Acidulated Water

I Managed To Bring: Sprouts, Apple, Capsicum Confetti, Tofu, Beef, Rice, Miso Soup, Green Tea, And A Baby Muffin.

Speaking of the initial concept of One Hundred Hundreds, I've become rather addicted to the website BookDepository. Seriously - the offer you free postage on books, and you can get some of the rarest things I've seen for ages from there (and often cheaper/in better quality than from eBay.) As a result of this, I now have seven books (that's the most they'll let you have in one order) coming to me from various countries, just waiting itching for me to get my hands on their (mostly hard-cover) goodness. I'm not sure why, but I appreciate hard-cover books more than I do their soft-cover or paper-back brethren. For me there is just something so much more...bookish about holding a hard-cover copy of, say, a Terry Pratchett novel, or a book on pseudo-science, as I lie in bed relaxing. Reality is stronger in things like hard-cover books (unless you're talking about fiction books, in which case reality is at its weakest, and you're more susceptible to being swept away into a world of fantasy.)

On the topic of being swept away into a world of fantasy, and of books, and eBay, I recently purchased a copy of my all-time favourite book from a nice gentleman on eBay. "How?" I can hear you asking in the back of my mind, "How is it that one does not own a copy of one's favourite book? Surely that is how it would become such a thing?!" You sound, dear reader, just like my friend Spud, who chastised me recently with these very same words (although said slightly differently, as he and I do not tend to talk in the same manner.) The answer I'll give you is the answer I gave him - I just never got around to buying one. Books weren't something I ever tended to buy, because I always thought my money should go towards more fitting things. Since, however, I acquired my bookshelf, I have been working towards another goal of mine, which is reading books, books, and many books; any books, and all books. And so this is how I wound up with a copy of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (well, technically I have the complete works of Lewis Carroll) - and if you couldn't tell that this was one of my favourite works then...I suppose you really don't pay a lot of attention to the style in which I write, do you?!

Let's Break The Tension With This Picture I Took Of Some Kitties!!

Moving On...

Finally...I think...the thought of books has brought me back to Japan based things that I have been longing to get my grubby little mitts on. As you may know, I purchased (some time ago now) a revolving subscription to the monthly manga magazine Shounen Ace, known for printing such brilliant series as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Well, last week, these books finally arrived and, besides the fact that my Japanese really really really needs work, I am over the moon. Seriously, besides the fact that I'm waiting for those seven books from BookDepository, and the fact that I have a wishlist of, like, 12 pages over there...Things are good in terms of personal goal satisfaction.

Not Shown Are The Suzumiya Collectibles That Came With These Books

Well, okay, satisfaction as far as being driven by capitalism goes, anyway - but that's okay by me for now.