. Good habits, Useful articles and Raving about Richard Branson #fangirlmoment .

I love Facebook because of the people I have as friends and the posts they make. Ignoring the ever-present idiocy in large numbers of people, there have actually been quite a few gems of late that have led to other gems (could also be my increased attention to the latter and decreased attention to the former. Yay LoA!). One of the latter gems is a post on how to stop procrastinating. This one's a 2-minute rule. The basic premise, as reworded by a commenter of the article, is instead of thinking of tasks in their entirety and enormity, think about how you can at least do 2 minutes worth of it.
Like, want to pick up running? The guy says put on your shoes and step out the door every Mon, Wed, Fri. That would take 2 mins and you'll just turn it into more. And on the same topic of exercising... I've always known the science of and why exercising keeps you healthy and happy. But my recent efforts to get and keep fit have really driven the point home for me. I realise that when I go a few days without some form of physical exertion, the crazy moods come back. Mildly scary and pretty interesting. I'd always said I wanted to be fit. Seems my body/brain is giving me such strong impetus to do so. Don't exercise and get depressed.

Anyway, back to the post. This is the link. http://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating
This post is worth keeping and rereading every once in a while. It's also worth noting that the comments in the posts are good reads too.

The post that linked me to the one above is about one of my favourite people whom I look up to with a lot of respect and admiration. I hardly have heroes. This guy, I'm a fan. One of the things I admire about him is his simple philosophy of just do it. Not ready? Not sure? Don't care, just start. He flows and wields with skill, the power that creates worlds. But my favourite thing about him is just how much he enjoys life and the clarity with which he sees and feels how life is supposed to truly be lived; with joyous, juicy, delicious delight and exuberance. Richard Branson. Best dude in the world.

http://jamesclear.quora.com/Successful-People-Start-Before-They-Feel-Ready

. Peanut Butter Cocoa Balls aka Chocolate Salty Balls (recipe) .

To read the background story, click here (so sweet ah, you)


(Makes about 18 balls depending obviously on your ball size (teehee). Mine were 3/4".)

Utensils:

Mixing bowl - big enough of course.
Spoons - however many you might need. I kinda used about 3 teaspoons I think.
A tray or an airtight container (preferable so your lovely salty balls won't absorb fridge smells) - to lay your balls on.
Parchment/wax/baking paper (optional).
Mug/Cocktail glass/Drinking receptacle (optional)

Ingredients (any portions are estimates):

1. Cocoa powder - 3 generous tsps.
2. Milk powder - 3 generous tsps. 
3. Peanut butter - 3 generous tbsps.
4. Maple syrup - pour enough to taste and bind.
5. Orange zest - enough to taste.
6. Vanilla essence or seeds from one vanilla pod.
7. Any liquor of choice - a dash (optional).
8. Sea salt flakes to sprinkle. 
9. Coconut oil (or butter, or any complementary oil) - enough to oil tray/container.
10. Any cocktail mixer of choice (optional).

Directions:

1. Make your alcoholic beverage of choice. Consume throughout at desired speed.
2. Line your tray/container if you wish, then oil the liner. Or just oil the tray/container straight. Your choice.
3. Mix dry ingredients together (1 & 2) thoroughly.
4. Make a well.
5. Add the peanut butter and mix slightly, or muchly. Whichever you choose. Keep in mind that the end mixture should be wet enough to bind together into balls or whatever shape you choose and hold its shape, but not too wet that it'll fall apart.
6. Add all the other ingredients except the sea salt flakes and the oil, as and when you wish into the centre and just mix them all well. Keep tasting and revising. Just don't eat it all at one shot. You'll totally regret it!
7. You can add some coconut oil or butter if you'd like a slightly oilier consistency and if you want the flavour.
8. Shape into balls. Chocolate salty balls. Or whatever shape, if you don't want balls. Chocolate salty balls.
9. Put your balls (or not) onto your prepared container/tray.
10. Sprinkle with salt. I like mine saltier, so I sprinkle more salt.
11. Refrigerate till shiok (I happened to leave them overnight but I'm sure they'll be fine in 3-4hrs or so to firm up. Although they felt fine eaten straightaway/while shaping).
12. Lick your fingers (optional but highly recommended).
13. Finish your beverage. 
14. Or make another if you've already finished.
15. Enjoy the satisfaction of having just made an easy hands in the clay dessert. And the warmness of alcohol in your belly.

Don't forget to wash your hands........ Or not. I would judge you if you didn't. Just sayin. 

. Chocolate Salty Balls - story .

The other night I was restless and itching to make something, a dessert, something chocolatey, something slightly rich that hit the right spot and didn't require a whole lot of planning, measuring, time or baking. Basically something that didn't need much concentration or brain power.

I'd bought a box of cocoa powder recently which was sitting on a buffet table directly in front of my room and along the common walk way in our home (or whatever you'd call that). So that had been on my mind. I do love opening packages, regardless of what's inside. So I decided to make my own version of Peanut Butter Chocolate Salty Balls (teehee I am a child). No measuring, just pour and agak-agak (estimate).
 
Just below is exactly what I did.

The next post will be an amended version and improvements that I think could be made.
The rest of this will be me prattling on about my thought process of improvements, tips and variations so you can skip right ahead and click here if you don't want to read the in betweens (okaaayyyy #sadface).

The ingredients:
Cocoa powder. Milk powder (well I used a few scoops of Mum's colostrum and a little milk powder...let's hope Mum doesn't read this haha...otherwise...um...nutrient packed snack Mummy! :D). Maple syrup. Peanut butter . Sea salt flakes to sprinkle. Coconut oil.

Directions:
Line tray with foil or wax paper and oil with the coconut oil.

Mix cocoa powder n milk powder till nicely blended, then all the others except the salt. Then shape into balls, line em up on ur oiled paper and sprinkle with sea salt. Put that whole thing in the fridge and try not to touch them till, I dunno, a few hours time or something. I left them overnight seeing as I'd finished making them around midnight.


I ate quite a bit while I was making them (and along with a lovely hot cocoa...heavy on the cocoa...found out that too much hot cocoa can induce a slight caffeine OD), then I ate one tonight, and another. So different! They tasted like they had some kind of orange essence!

Notes and tips:
The fridge I put them in is our dessert, fruits and drinks fridge. So basically no funky un/cooked food smells. Seeing as I'd left them uncovered, I can only guess that they absorbed the orange smells in the fridge perhaps.

So Tip #1: Would be a good idea if you put your balls in an airtight container if you don't have a separate fridge from your meats and foods with funky smells.

Tip #2: Add vanilla something...pod, essence, what have you.

Tip#3: Add orange juice and zest. And cointreau. And for that matter.....

Tip #4: Alcohol! Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Bailey's (all the flavours), Kahlua, Tequila Rose, whatever you could think of that could possibly match! Get creative! Which brings me to....

Variations!: 
Sub peanut butter and maple syrup with condensed milk.
Whack coconut sugar, gula melaka, any form of sweetener/sugar.
Throw in molasses.
Milo.
Horlicks.
Any nut butter [I probably would be slightly more conscious of making it a healthy snack so....rather than store bought peanut butter (which was leftover from making Mal's cakes) I'd make my own pb.]
Chopped nuts
Mash some bananas, cook them in butter, squeeze some lemons over them and throw that banana chunk/mash mixture in.

Mix all the above together or do them separately. This can be a pretty fun experiment. And if I leave out the white sugars and the gluten stuff, Mum can eat them too.

. Good words to live by .

Go on hikes in forests, canyons and mountains, go fishing, research wildlife, and get out of city Life if you can. Surround yourself with good friends who care about your future. Fall in love with someone. Get your heart broken. And then move on and fall in love again. Breathe life every day like it is your first. Find something that you love to do and never stop doing that thing unless you find something else you love more. Don’t blame others for their mistakes. It makes you weak. You are a strong man who does not need to be weighted down by people who only complain and say negative things. Speak with conviction and believe in yourself because your personal confidence is just as important as your education.

 Andrew Pochter

. A Meandering Thought Process of the Same Old .

I have this idea in my head of the kind of person I believe I truly am deep down when the facade of normalcy is dropped. I long to lead a certain lifestyle and embrace certain concepts which I do not yet embody. When I was younger I used to believe I would be this this and that kind of person and am only not, at the moment, because of the limitations then of society and opportunity. Those were the excuses I gave myself. I felt cool and different and awesome then. Even while I felt like I didn't quite fit in, it didn't matter because my brethren were not around to embrace me yet and it was OK. People around me bought my act and it was all cool and shite. Hell, I bought my act, which gives it authority because my vibration about it was pure. But there comes a time when the incubation of certain ideas are no longer acceptable. Fruition or no dice. Pix or it didn't happen.

Now that I'm older and supposedly grown up, slightly past that age of young and foolish, and closer to should be getting my shit together, I feel so out of touch with that person I was supposed to be. It has been said that the fastest way to be who you want to be is to surround yourself with people who already are. I have been lucky enough to have met people leading the life I'd Love to lead. Doing the things I'd Love to do. But they scare me. I have no idea why. I wonder if it's an issue I've always grappled with of being good enough. A very deep seated issue that I've come to accept will always be a program I'll have running in the background. I wonder how people get from the thinking to the being and doing stage cos I'm just so stuck and blind. It feels like a part of my brain is just gimped.

I also wonder if everything just came together because they were all on the same grid. Well I suppose they did....all on the same disc. It's pretty scary how being in a serious relationship could really mess up all the energy grid work one had been doing before. It's pretty scary how a toxic relationship can mess it all up. I didn't realise how much of myself I had compromised. Actually it occurred to me often enough that I wasn't doing a lot of things I usually would've been doing had I been on my own. I found myself compromising a lot more than I would've (and spending waaay more on food and electricity as well than if I were on my own, and even having to compromise on quality cos I couldn't afford for two! I used to be able to save half my allowance but that guy sucked my savings dry and he never knew and prolly never will). But I told myself things like it was OK, I didn't feel the urge to do these things and also well the sacrifices were worth it. I wonder if I should've been more selfish and more willing to rock the boat. But I wanted to treat him how I wanted to be treated. I also really thought the sacrifices were either worth it or didn't feel like sacrifices at all. Turns out I was wrong. I've been trying for the past two and a half years trying to find my compass. It wasn't that bad until I realised I'd also lost myself half way in..and then I lost my higher self late last year early this year. Boy was that a ride...to suddenly realise how not tough I am. To suddenly realise that I had not dealt with the previous year's trauma as well as I'd believed and to have the repercussions show up in the weirdest most psycho reactions to shit. Reactions and thoughts that felt foreign and strange... scary, abrupt and with my usual comforting better judgment nowhere near.

I have been having short reprieves where it feels like I've returned but it's not the same anymore. I'm surprised it took so little to leave all these cracks on me. I have been trying the past half year to be whole again. But I can't seem to trust my judgment very much at the moment. It surprises me when certain fantastic moments of grid filling in happen, like finding out the company I applied to from a job aims to be exactly like what I've been asking for and other happy coincidences. But it just still feels different. It still feels like happy face sticker on empty fuel gauge. I guess I'll just really have to ride this out cos it'll be over soon. And this new momentum I've been working on can start to take over.

Perhaps it's time to start a blog on things that interest me so I have somewhere and something to more positively focus my energies on. Now I just have to think about what.