{213} meaning and origin

i'm surprised i haven't done this one yet but i googled the meaning and origin of the name "lauren" and this is what spewed out. most of this i already knew because i used to have a plaque in my bedroom that defined "lauren" as "victorious". i never knew what the meant but i knew it sounded good. :)

{212} big brother key

gah! last night's episode of "big brother" was the GREATEST EPISODE EVER! oh em gee. dan will officially go down in history as the best big brother player ever. so, to recap (mostly for me because it was so awesome that i want to relive it again):
- during the veto competition, dan receives 24-hours punishment in solitary confinement
- he comes out of confinement in a weird daze and people are weirded out
- he sits everyone down in the living room and welcomes them to "dan's funeral"
- he has heartfelt things to say about everyone and it is so touching that they're all crying and i'm crying
- he saves his final words for danielle, his closest partner in the game
- instead of some wonderful words for danielle, he completely obliterates her. he tells her that she is dead to him. that she knows the things she said and did and she has to live with them. maybe after the game they can become friends again. whaaaaa?
- danielle bursts into tears for a long while and everyone is comforting her (no kidding!)
- dan tells frank he wants to talk to him privately to read him a bible verse and apologize in private
- dan actually tells frank the truth about all the alliances and how ian played frank and boogie the week prior
- frank believes dan (dan was, in fact, being truthful this time) and they decide to team up and go to the end as the final two (this, coming after frank flipping out on how much he hates dan!)
- frank convinces jenn to use her veto on dan
- dan tracks down danielle (who is utterly depressed) and tells her it was all a rouse. she is terribly upset until she realizes that he really did it just to save her ass too and get her further in the game.
- danielle asks him why he couldn't have warned her first and he says because then she wouldn't have cried so much and gotten all that sympathy from the house. she has to keep up the act, though.
- veto ceremony happens, jenn uses the veto on dan and everyone's jaws drop!!
- frank goes to the front to say who the replacement nominee is and he totally targets ian and tells him that he knows what he did to boogie but since he can't nominate ian, he'll nominate his closest ally (and ian's jaw drops! and he's mouthing "noo!")
- frank nominates britney! to back door her!

best episode ever! and i actually like britney and want her to stay but i love the game play so much more than any individual player so this is just the best thing ever.

oh, my name! some day i'll be on big brother and humiliate my family and friends with my lying, cheating, deceiving and debauchery.

{211} ring

found these cool two-finger rings after googling the name "lauren". it says that tv personality, lauren conrad, got one of these rings from this company and now they're all the rage. i think they're pretty cool! i'd get one...

{210} nautical flags

nautical flags are used to signal between two ships or ship to shore. each flag featured below means:

L - "stop instantly" or lima
A - "diver down, keep clear" or alpha
U - "standing into danger" or uniform
R - romeo (where art thou juliet?)
E - "altering course to starboard" or echo
N - "no" or november

{209} birth announcement

being sick this week has meant that i am reverting to some names that i don't have to spend a lot of time creating. like this one. i went through my baby book the other day and i was looking for examples where my mother used my given name (ie. "lauren") and didn't use it in conjunction with my last name (since i want to keep this project focused on my first name mostly). so, here it is. these birth announcements my mom created on her very own typewriter back in 1981. :)

{208} hospital bracelet

so, i spent three hours in emergency this morning wanting to see a doctor. finally, though, i gave up (after a hideous bloody nose that NO ONE HELPED ME WITH!) and just went home. i decided to go to the same day care clinic tomorrow morning instead. ridiculous. i love free health care but the waiting rooms are AWFUL. anyway, so, my name comes from my hospital bracelet today.

(ps. it says "hospital" on my bracelet because i happen to live on "hospital street"...though there is no hospital actually on my street. go figure.)

{207} author' name

i am pretty certain that i would read any book if the author was named lauren. lol but, at least this was a really good read--"the devil wears prada" was written by a lauren! lauren weisberger. i loved this book and loved the movie. however, the book differs a lot from the movie but i enjoy each on their own. same as "confessions of a shopaholic". i have every book in the series and love everything that sophie kinsella writes but the movie was soooo different than the book. but still enjoyable. anyhoo, here's a cop-out name for today. :)

{206} playbook

game day! let's see if the bombers can pull out two wins in a row (even if it is against the defending grey cup champs, the bc lions...). i'm optimistic! my fingers are crossed!

so, since it is time for another football-related post (geez, i have to do another 10 of these and i'm running out of ideas rapidly!), i decided to do a playbook name. last year, or the year before, the CFL held a contest and people could submit plays and then they could be chosen by the head coaches and actually used in real games. wouldn't it be awesome, if i'd submitted this one? i know it would have been the most psychotic and horrible play to run ever but it sure would've been fun to submit. :)

{205} (used) kleenex

i know, i know. this is disgusting. but i was cleaning up all the nasty used kleenexes from around the house that i've just left laid out whilst at home sick and then decided to quickly lay them out for my name. so disgusting. i lysol-ed and purell-ed my floor and hands immediately thereafter. but, it's a pretty good one because i would never have come up with this if i hadn't been sick! :)

{204} company name

whilst i was working at a local manufacturing company for many years, i learned that there was a company called lauren manufacturing. i thought that was so cool so i had cut out their logo and attached it to my bulletin board at work. so, i thought it would be cool to use that logo again here (it is super small res so it looks quite pixelated. i tried to fix in photoshop but i made it worse so i left it in its original state). even their website address is awesome: www.lauren.com

{203} sudoku

i love playing sudoku. before getting my iPhone, i'd cut it out of the free press each day and complete it. who knew numbers could be so fun?! this coming from the girl who HATES math and failed her grade 12 math course. shhh, don't tell my parents.

{202} recycle, please

yes, that's a lot of water bottles. yes, i know they are bad for the environment. but there was a reason i had so many and that is because i had a wrap party (we wrapped ourselves in these detoxifying masks and then in saran wrap...for serious) and we needed to drink a lot of water so i decided to purchase the bulk pack of water bottles. then i had to finish all the other ones so i kept on drinking and, for whatever reason, saving the bottles. good thing, though, or else i'd never have finished this name.

{201} calendar

i keep this calendar on my counter where i can pencil/marker in all my activities so i don't miss anything (which i've been known to do despite being a careful planner). so, i noticed that two weeks in a row, i had three days in a row where i was completely free (note: i was free when i took the picture, but now the 19th, 20th, 22th, 29th, 30th are filled-in! lol). so, it was a perfect chance to use the space to spell out today's name.

{200} short decaf lauren

looks like i made it! name 200! woot woot! i can't believe i've already created 200 names. only 165 to go!

i purchased a rare starbucks coffee (i'm a tim hortons girl) on the 14th after folklorama but saved the cup because i knew i'd get a name out of it. so, here it is! an order of "lauren". i photoshopped the word "syrup" from the list and then added my name instead. :)

{199} blueberries

i do believe i can count this one again because the last time i used blueberries inside of blueberry muffins. today they are featured on their own and in the raw. i am obsessed with blueberries of late. i cannot stop eating them by the cup full. they say they're awfully healthy but i just think they're delicious. i'm completely addicted.

{198} press box pass

i had some pretty unbelievable experiences when i was in college and many (if not, most) were football-related. this was one of them. the grey cup festival was going to be in winnipeg in november 2006 and so i managed to get a job as a press box assistant for that year which would mean that i would also end up with a role during the grey cup festival later in the year.

the press box assistant role was simple. watch the game. make photocopies of stats. hand them out after each quarter. at the end of the game i (along with either sean or jordan) would go down to the dressing rooms and hand one of the team's staff the stats (yes, i had spent many an occasion in the dressing rooms--more stories about that for another time and another blog! lol).

you'll notice on this picture that the "en" are glued on. that's because the pass originally said "laurie" because my e-mail at that time was still spitting things out with my former name. so, that's what they had seen and that's what they added. i, of course, went home and added the "en" over top of the "ie" so it would be the name i wanted. just another one of those examples where the name change caused issues!

{197} yoga poses

i've been getting back into my yoga routine again. i love yoga because it's the one type of exercise that i'm moderately good at. i'm fairly flexible so i can accomplish many of the poses (albeit not some of the insane ones that require balance or turning my body into two halves). so, at first i thought i'd find the poses and re-create them myself but then i took one picture and saw all that cellulite so i changed my mind. instead i took pictures from out of a book i have (noted below). these are some talented flexible people.

who spies george??

{196} constellation

we just finished the most gorgeous meteor shower (which happens every august 9-12ish). so, i was inspired to create a constellation of my name. :)

{195} code 39

i'm really into this whole "code" thing with my name right now. i've done several different types in the past 195 names but i thought this was another really interesting one.

One of the most widely used symbologies, Code 39 can encode messages using capitalized alpha characters, numbers 0 through 9 and seven special characters. It has a flexible, variable-length format. Code 39 is used by the Department of Defense and by the automotive industry, among others. Its main drawback is that it takes up a lot of label space, sometimes causing problems when there is a lot of data to be encoded.

{194} semaphore

back to using google for inspiration! i've been in desperate need of help to get me over the 200-mark hurdle. i can't believe i'm this far!!

Semaphore is similar to Morse code in that each letter of a message is translated into another form to allow it to be more easily communicated. While Morse code is used to send messages electronically over a telegraph line, semaphore is used to visually communicate information over long distances.
To use semaphore, an operator holds a flag or lighted wand in each hand. The operator extends their arms to the correct position and pauses for each letter of the message.

{193} dominoed

so, i already had a post not too long ago called "dominos" (#149) but that was different! i used the dominos to create the shape of my name. this time i changed the dots on the dominos to read "lauren". boy, nearing 200 names and i am getting more and more stumped every day! what an awesomingly challenging project!

{192} dharma initiative

i've been missing my regular fix of LOST lately. i mean, sure i love watching gilmore girls, keeping up with the kardashians and big brother. but, every once in awhile, i crave a serial drama that is full of so much weirdness that my brain hurts.

i was definitely a LOST-obsessed watcher. i even subscribed to the fanzine. did you even know they made one? well, they did. and i happily awaited its arrival each month! for my 30th birthday, i received the LOST-encyclopedia. i'm still only about half way through it. i really need to pop those dvds back into the player.

i wish i knew someone who'd never watched it but wanted to watch it so we could watch it again from the beginning. you know, back when you thought the whole show would be about plane crash survivors finding food and shelter. not about time travel, after-life and the dharma initiative.

which leads me to my name. my most favourite part of the show was when it was focused on the dharma initiative which was primarily in seasons 3 and 5. definitely my favourite. i loved the time travel in season 5 when half the characters were stuck in the 70s and actually became part of the DI. so, in my ode to LOST and the dharma initiative, i present the lauren initiative.

{191} tin foil

i've seen the tin foil idea in my "make something 365" book many times and i keep putting it off because it seemed too easy. well, today easy was what i was looking for! and it wasn't like this took me 30 seconds to do. it did take awhile to fold everything but...it turned out alright. :)

i feel like i need to beef up some of my posts with more interesting tidbits so here is a mildly amusing story about foil. several weeks ago i'd invited my friend steve over for some of my famous butternut squash fries. i have them all prepared and ready to go in the oven when i realize i have no foil. so i tell steve to bring foil. he has no foil. he goes to co-op and they have no foil. so...i had to resort to a massive amount of cooking spray in order to prevent the squash from baking on to the pan. well, several hours later when i was cleaning up i discovered not one, not two, but FOUR boxes of foil that i had purchased and stored away in case i ever had a foil emergency. steve said that was "typical lauren". he's right.

{190} ralph lauren ad

i've been looking for ralph lauren ads in my "in style" magazines but had yet to come across one in the last six months (i'm sure they were out there but i hate ads, so i probably skipped over it). fortunately, my dear friend and co-worker, joyce, helped me out and brought me an ad that she had spotted. yay!

{189} q-tips

i have a fear of cotton balls. i really do. just the idea of them right now is totally giving me the eebie-jeebies! i can't stand the idea of ever touching one or one touching me. it absolutely horrifies me and would send me screaming into another room. i know it's weird but it's true. other people are afraid of weird things like birds or snakes. not me. i'll hold a boa constrictor whilst letting a rat stand on top of my head but don't ever place me in a vat of cotton balls. my chest would constrict.

anyway...q-tips. here is my name in q-tips. the absolute smallest amount of cotton that can ever be near my hand. i won't touch the fuzzy part but it's as much as i can possibly handle.

{188} lotion

i love bath and body works products (hello, plug!) and use their hand sanitizers religiously. i also am a big fan of their soaps and body sprays. it's weird but i tend to buy a lot of their lotions but never use them. who bothers to put on lotion anymore? it's such a hassle. but, nevertheless, i love the scent of this one kind called "charmed life" and i decided that before i would get lathered up, i'd first glob it onto my arm and spell out my name!

when we used to take our trips out to grand forks, bath and body works was always one of the major stops that we'd have to take when there. we'd stock up on everything for the next 12 months! now we have a couple of the stores in winnipeg and yet...it seems that we still find the need to only stock up whilst in grand forks. can't break tradition!

{187} zentangle

i'm part of a 365-project group on facebook and lately i've been visiting the group a lot more often to check on progress and provide updates on my own project. i'd seen a lot of yvonne kettner's project (to create a daily zentangle) but i'd never researched how awesome zentangles were until today. it was the greatest most creative hour i'd spent in a long time. zentangles are awesome. i feel inspired to create more. i wish my project was to create a daily zentangle. :) anyway, here is my name inspired by yvonne's project.

{186} pawprints

when george was six months old, i took his paw print and painted it on to the corner of one of my walls. so i still had the template from that pawprint and thought that may be a good project but then i was wondering where on earth i would be able to fit my entire name using that stencil and it just wasn't going to work. so, i instead took the idea of pawprints but just used a brush in photoshop to create the same effect. total cop out. :)

{185} football

well, game is over and we lost. boo. 1-5 we are. not great. but, that's how football and sports go, right? you win some and you lose some. we made it to the grey cup last year and we'll make it back there again another year. because barring some unforseeable circumstance in which we come back from our bye week as the 2011 bc lions, i don't think the grey cup is in our future for 2012. but, i love the team. i'll be there every week cheering them on.

i found a graphic of a cfl football and exchanged the "wilson" logo for my own name. :)

{184} blueberry muffins

i am making these muffins all the time now. every time i make them, i adjust the recipe and incorporate some other healthy alternative. i used to use butter, now i use vegan margarine (yay! no dairy!). i don't use any sugar, just applesauce. i use coconut flour instead of regular flour. they are SO good. i eat two every morning for breakfast for a total of 200 calories. yum yum. so, whilst making them i decided to quickly use some leftover blueberries and spell out my name. as you can see on the baked product, it didn't really stand out as well as i'd hoped!

{183} sidewalk chalk

halfway! i'm over halfway! woohoo! i can't believe it. i also can't believe that i'm ONLY halfway done this project. i can't believe i still have to make 182 more names. oh. em. gee.