Last week I decided to start painting again.

It was a perfect time to start – with J’s birthday, another close friend’s birthday, and the lunar new year coming up, I wanted to paint cards for these occassions. A fantastic way to save money and squeeze out some creativity juice!

So I busted out my ArtBin Upscale 3 Tray Box, travel easel, and box of goauche paints.

(Goauche is my favorite painting medium. They’re perfect for illustrations!)

The living room became a disaster area while I commenced work, but I was very pleased with the results.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my friend’s card before I mailed it. And J’s birthday card contains an inside joke that wouldn’t make sense to anyone but us.

However, I figure the Chinese New Year card I painted for my in-laws deserves to have a spotlight on this blog:

Now it is nowhere as gorgeous as the eye-popping creations of Kelly, but I like to think that I haven’t completely lost my touch after over a 5-year hiatus from painting.

The Chinese characters were the most difficult, since I had never been trained in brush calligraphy and the only thin brush in my arsenal was pretty flimsy. In addition, since I do not know Chinese these characters may resemble something that a second grader might write.

However, the smile on J’s face when I showed him the finished product was all worth it. I hope my in-laws like it as well!

One of the many things I love about Squarespace is that it provides statistics that rival that of Google Analytics.

In addition to this “Traffic Overview” page (which is updated every minute!), there also exists pages for:

• Referrers
• Popular Content
• Subscribers
• Queries
• Detailed Activity

Now I don’t know about you, but I love finding out how visitors get to this site. And of particular interest is the “Queries” page, which details the page views I receive from search engines.

The top queries are typical of what I expect: “geek in heels,” “geekinheels,” etc.

However, when I scroll down to the bottom, I can always find some rather…unusual stuff.

“hot spicy heels gallery”

“man in heels gallery”

“hot huge boobs”

“bjs and heels”

And there are always at least a few hits from those who search for hot pictures of Jessica Alba (I’m guessing this stems from the bra post I wrote a few years ago).

According to What’s My Blog Rated?, this site is rated an innocent G:

This cannot be accurate – I sometimes use swear words and talk about innapropriate topics on this blog. If I had to rate myself, I would give this site a PG…maybe even a PG-13.

And if my search engine queries are indicative of how people find this site, I might even rate an R, or an NC-17.

How do people find your site? What is your site rated?

A couple of years ago I wrote an entry titled Kept Women which drew much ire from the Xanga community. I received over 200 comments, the large majority of them from angry feminists who condemned me for even having such thoughts.

The Real Housewives of Orange County – true kept women?

Now, since becoming unemployed, I have to wonder if I have become a kept woman. After all, J is the sole bread earner in the household.

I admit that it is a comfortable life. Don’t get me wrong – by no means do I sit in front of the TV all day eating bonbons. My life now is busier than it’s ever been…I have been getting less sleep and have less free time than when I worked full-time. However, I am happy knowing that I can make my own schedule and do all the things I’ve been putting off for years. Heck I even started painting again, and I haven’t done that since I left school!

This life, however, is not a fairy tale. No matter how complacent I may become with this lifestyle, I cannot help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt.

My mother told me that she is happy I am taking a break. “You never took a break after school,” she pointed out. “Others traveled, went backpacking, or even took some time mooching off parents. But you dove straight into work. You never had a break since you started working.”

And I have always been this way. I have always been independent and self-reliant. I hate asking others for help, let alone asking for financial assistance.

I even feel bad asking J, my own husband, for a mere $5.

Would I still feel this way if J raked in millions from his job? Yes.

I guess this is the reason I am working so hard on my side projects so that even if I never get another full-time job (knock on wood), I will have a source of income which will help contribute to our household.

So to answer my own question, no I do not think I am a kept woman, nor will I ever be comfortable being one. My need to contribute and help will always eclipse my desire to have a comfortable life.

Would you be happy as a kept woman?

Happy birthday to my best friend with benefits!

I love this old picture of him – he looks so happy and innocent. Oh how the years have changed you…just kidding!

In all seriousness…happy 31st. Looking forward to spending all of your years with you. <3

The popularity of text-messaging has surpassed actual phone conversations.

E-mail is following a similar path with the convenience of instant messages.

Some experts even predict the replacement of blogging by microblogging.

However, can microblogging also replace instant messages?

In my case, yes.

In the past few months, I have found that I communicate with friends more often through Twitter than through actual IM conversations.

(BTW, if you are looking for a good Twitter client, I wholeheartedly recommend Twhirl. An added incentive: they just released a kickass update over the weekend!)

Why open an IM window when you can have threaded discussions right through Twitter? Why start a chatroom when you can have open discussions with the @ command?

There are, of course, the coporate/marketing side to Twitter. However, for a casual user like myself, I prefer to use it as a fun medium to keep in touch with friends.

So here’s to you, my Twitter followers. A tribute to my Twitter friends through a nifty mosaic generator.

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Via Web Distortion.

P.S. – You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/geekinheels