This bad boy's friends-only. I do have a few public posts, but the majority of what I write's under lock and key. I don't write anything of a very sensitive nature here; I just like to know for sure who's reading my more personal entries. Feel free to add me; I'll more than likely add you back if I think we'd get along. And, well, I get along well with nearly everybody, so chances are I'll reciprocate.

If you'd like to read about what I do in my spare time, navigate on over to my weblog, Star Shaped. If you'd like, you can also add seventeen_ to your friends list, as it's an LJ syndicated account of my site. Some posts to my weblog may be cross-posted here as well, but I'll still write friends-only entries to supplement them.

Whew. I think that's all.

Just wanted to post another reminder that I'm not updating this LJ anymore; I've moved completely back to stormvibrations. I've noticed a few people have just this name on their friends list; I can't read your friends-only stuff because you have this name on your list and not my real one :). I'm not deleting this journal because I really like the name, and I figure I may have a use for it in the future.

So, add stormvibrations to your friends list if you haven't already! :)

I think I need to start cutting down on my soda intake.

I've been drinking diet soda for the past three years or so after switching from regular Coke. I didn't like the huge amounts of sugar regular sodas used; I've always had terrible teeth, but I never could switch completely away from carbonated beverages. When I first switched to diet soda, I thought my battles with the beverage I loved would be over.

Nope.

I've read some bad things about aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in most diet beverages; I'd link to some articles here, but most of them can easily be found linked to aspartame's entry on Wikipedia and through a simple Google search for 'aspartame'. Basically, the gist I got from the articles was that though aspartame's approved by the FDA, many other groups have done studies which show that aspartame heightens the risk of cancer. Again, I'm not sure just how much aspartame's needed to cause this, but either way, I don't think ingesting as much as I am right now. (This week, I've been drinking 2-3 cans of Diet Coke every day; bad, bad 3/$5 sales on 12 packs last week kick started this habit!)

I also haven't heard good things about phosphoric acid; I've read that it's almost as damaging to teeth as sugar itself! Then again, I also watched an episode of Mythbusters where Jamie and Adam proved that soaking a tooth in soda overnight does not make it dissolve, but still.

Finally, I read somewhere that soda can contribute to early onsets of osteoporosis, which runs in my family. I'm thin with a small build, so I'm more likely to get osteoporosis, and I'd rather prevent it instead of getting it at an early age. I am taking calcium supplements, but I think cutting down on soda will help too.

I don't think I'll cut soda completely out of my life; perhaps I'll do what my parents did as a kid and restrict my soda drinking to the weekends only. Either that, or I'll drink only one can a day, though it's hard when I have a can at work then a can at home. I'd drink the water here at work, but the water here has a strange plasticky aftertaste I cannot enjoy. If it weren't for that, I'd definitely be guzzling that down instead of the 12 pack of Diet Coke with Lime I brought in earlier in the week.

Either way, I'd like to make a change. I'd like to start drinking more water when I'm home, just so I feel better. I know I don't drink enough water, and I think I'll feel a lot better if I make water drinking a priority.

Today is the day I stop caring what others think about me.