SPC - Nude Week 4

I couldn't resist one more nudie shot for this month's SPC!





To see what other people look like nude, visit the Self Portrait Challenge website.

p.s. I'm going out of town this evening, so my Internet access will be spotty at best until Monday night in case anyone cares.

SPC - Nude Week 3

This month's theme at Self Portrait Challenge is "Nude". I don't really have anything profound to say about this photo, so I'll just say: it's me - and I'm nude and stuff.



To see what others are doing with this challenge, visit the SPC website.

SPC - Blue 4

Wow, I can't this believe this month is almost over already! The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "Blue". I've found the blue challenge to be rather enjoyable.



To see what others are doing with blue, visit the SPC website here.

SPC - Blue 3

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "Blue".


I have a blue car. It's probably not the color I would have picked if I had had control over every aspect of this car. My last car "died" rather suddenly, and the car I drive now was one that the dealership had that fit my budget. So after taking a couple of days to think things over I decided to buy it. It's served me well enough and the color has kind of grown on me. I have a friend who insists it's green, but he doesn't know what he's talking about.




To see what others are doing with blue, visit the SPC website here.

SPC - Blue 2

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "Blue".

My favorite coffee mugs are a set of 3 cobalt blue ones that I have. I like that they're big enough to pour a generous-sized cup into, and I just really love the color. It's a very rich blue.

To see that others are doing with blue, click here to visit the SPC website.

SPC - Blue 1

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "Blue".



To see what other people are doing with blue, visit the SPC website here.

SPC - Celebration 2

The theme for Self Portrait Challenge this month is "Celebration". I had yesterday off from work, so I celebrated by sleeping in. The photo is me hitting the snooze button. Which actually didn't happen yesterday, but I still slept much later than usual.





To see how others are celebrating, visit the SPC website here.

SPC - Celebration 1

Self Portrait Challenge is back after a break last month. This month's theme is "Celebration". As a beer lover, one of the ways that I like to celebrate the holiday season is by drinking many of the special beers that are brewed at this time of year. Appropriately enough, Sierra Nevada's offering is called "Celebration Ale". It's very hoppy. Most winter beers are fairly heavy on malt, but this is the one for hop lovers. It has a very citrusy taste and aroma. I love having something special like this to look forward to every year.

To see what other people are celebrating, visit the SPC site here.

SPC - What I Wear 4

This month's theme for Self Portrait Challenge is "What I Wear". Since I spent Thanksgiving in Arizona, which usually seems to be very sunny, I thought I would post of a photo of me wearing my sunglasses. The last two days I was there, however, it was pretty doggone cloudy. Nonetheless I shall proceed. There's a good bit of sun here in north Texas as well, but the sun in southern Arizona is intense. I mean, it makes sense, it's a desert fer cryin' out loud. I don't know if it's the altitude or what, but the sun can be very brutal there, especially in the summertime. Got to protect those peepers.

I wish I had planned this shot better so I could have had a more impressive scene in the shades, like some mountains or some palm trees, but this was literally taken 5 minutes before leaving for the airport to come home. So instead you see my parents' front yard. There's always next time I guess.

To see what other are wearing, visit the SPC website.

SPC - What I Wear 3

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "What I Wear". For this week's photo I wanted something that shows that "what I wear" is now fitting better! I've been able to go down one notch on my belt. There's a line where the buckle rubbed against the leather when I had to use the next larger belt hole. It's kind of hard to see, though. But also look at the holes. The one in the middle is all ratty-looking on the edges from the belt being worn using that hole. So I'm seeing some results. I'm thinking one more notch ought to do it!



To see what other people are wearing, click here.

SPC - What I Wear 2

This month's Self Portrait Challenge is "What I Wear". This photo is of the only piece of jewelry that I wear, my college ring. At lots of schools I don't think rings are that popular, but they are at this one. Just about everybody gets one - both men and women (although I actually work with someone who went there and doesn't wear one, which is pretty unusual). It is kind of cool to run into someone else wearing one because you already have something in common. This school is very steeped in tradition, and the ring is one of them. You can read more about it here.





Here's a closeup that shows some of the detail:




To see what other people are wearing, visit the Self Portrait challenge website.

SPC - What I Wear 1

The November theme for Self Portrait Challenge is "What I Wear". In general "what I wear" is a bit dull and boring, so this month will be a challenge for me. For week 1 I have decided to take a photo of some of the typical clothes that I wear to work. It's standard corporate-drone wear - Dockers and a polo or button-down shirt. This kind of stuff is designed not to offend, to keep the wearer from standing out. It says you're "one of us". Who wants to see a picture of that? So I tried to freak things up a little even though my clothes are comfortably numb. And even though I recently complained about my gut, that's not my gelatinous midsection sticking out in this photo, it's the shirt poofing out, I swear!

To see what other people are wearing, click here to visit the SPC website.

SPC - Food and Me 5

Even though I only did 4 SPCs this month I'm still calling this 5 since it's the 5th Tuesday.

Wow, when October started I didn't think that I would find myself here by the end of the month. I've started a diet. Lately I've been very unsatisfied with my protruding gut when I see it in the shower. For quite a while now I've had a very laissez-faire attitude about what I eat. I have been trying to stay relatively low-fat, and I have done better this year with eating more fruits and vegetables, but I've had some problems with portion control. The percentage of carbs in my diet was also way out of whack. I pretty much ate until I didn't feel hungry, and sometimes past that point. It was starting to show. I know you could see those love handles when I posted that shot of my backside on here (no I'm not linking!).


I'm fed up with having to struggle to button my pants in the morning. I'm fed up with feeling that sense of relief when I untuck my shirt immediately upon getting home from work every day. I'm fed up with using the "fat" belt hole. I've started counting my calories, and based on the numbers that are telling me when to stop it's a wonder that I'm not larger than I am. I've also decided it's time to work a little harder at the exercise I've been doing, and do it more often.


I just started this diet last Wednesday but already I can tell that it's something I think I can stick with. Sometimes you have to wait a little bit after eating before feeling full. I don't have to keep cramming food in my mouth until I'm stuffed, and I'm already getting used to that. I am really enjoying the salads and broccoli these days. It's amazing how sweet baby carrots taste when you don't eat lots of sugar. It's not the end of the world if I feel a little hungry sometimes, it will pass. I can be really stubborn about some things, usually things that involve self-discipline on my part. I'm feeling pretty stubborn about this, so we'll see what happens.


To see what other people have goin' on click here to visit the SPC site.

SPC - Food and Me 3

This month's theme at Self Portrait Challenge is "Food and Me". For this week's photo I have decided to highlight one of my current snack obsessions - the humble saltine cracker. I mostly like to eat them just as they are. I like them with peanut butter, cheese or a little butter sometimes, but most of the time I just eat them plain. The reason that I say they are a "current" snack obsession is because eventually I will get tired of them and I may not eat one for a year or more. So it goes with other snacks, like pretzels or popcorn. I probably should try to cut back since they are mostly just carbs.

If you want to know more about saltine crackers, you can read about them here. I like that it says that they offer "little to no[thing] in the way of nutrition"! Damn skippy.





To see what other people are doing with or to food, click here to visit the SPC website.

SPC - Food and Me 2

This is the second week of the Self Portrait Challenge theme for October - "Food and Me". I don't have any artistic pretensions with this week's shot. This is me slicing an onion while wearing my snorkeling mask. I hate how irritated my eyes get when cutting onions, so wearing the mask is a good way to avoid that. I've tried all the other tricks - chilling the onion first, slicing the non-root end first, yada, yada, yada, and none of them seem to work so there you have it.

In addition to eating things completely from a box, like last week's shot, I also sometimes eat things that require a little more prep work. In this case I was actually slicing up some veggies to add to a boxed jambalaya mix. I like to add onion, tomato, bell pepper, and garlic (although when I made this I added a little too much garlic). It makes things taste a lot better, and it's a good way to consume more fresh veggies.

The end product

To see what other people are doing with food, click here to visit the Self Portrait Challenge website.

SPC - Food and Me 1

This month's theme at Self Portrait Challenge is (you're going to like this one, Anna) "Food and Me".

This photo actually ties in nicely with the meme that I just did. This is a photo of me getting ready to prepare some good ol' boxed macaroni & cheese. I don't like that I eat this stuff. I think it represents a lot of things that are wrong with what many of us eat today. It's mass-produced crap of marginal nutritional value that probably shouldn't be eaten by anyone over the age of 10. So why do I eat it? It's convenient and it's cheap. The convenience factor makes this a frequent Monday night meal. There's nothing that most people want to do less after getting home from a long day of turning big rocks into little rocks than cook dinner. I'm no exception, and something easy like this helps me ease into the work week. For what it's worth I did pair this with a salad, and had some strawberries for dessert.







To see what others are eating, visit the SPC site.

SPC - Bathroom 4

Take a voyeuristic peek at what others are doing in their bathrooms by visiting the SPC website.

SPC - Bathroom 3

I had this idea that I wanted to wrap my head in toilet paper for this week's photo. My whole head. I did that, but the pictures came out looking like some hostage video. It didn't really have the vibe I was hoping for. So I tried a few shots with partial coverage for comparison. I liked them better, they were much less scary. So, without further ado, here's toilet paper head!

Thank God it's quilted

To see what other people have going on visit the SPC site.

SPC - Bathroom 2

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "Bathroom". I'm not really sure what this photo means or what it is supposed to be. I stumbled upon this as I was working on another idea. I think it's an odd combination of the organic and the inert. Maybe you can tell me what it means.


To see what other people are doing in their bathrooms, click here.

SPC - Bathroom 1

The theme for this month's Self Portrait Challenge is "bathroom". Should be interesting, no? I will resist the urge for the moment to go straight for the lurid or gag-inducing. You see, the bathroom is not just the place where you make mookie-stinks or squeeze blackheads. You also do nice, wholesome things like brush your teeth. Nothing freaks me out like tooth trouble, so I am a religious brusher. It hasn't always helped though, but I still think it's better to be safe than sorry!

To see what other people are doing in their bathrooms, click here (clicker assumes all risk).

This is a sink's-eye view: