Rewards in action

Progress Bar from Writertopia

I have at least two free books at Audible.com for buying the mp3 player. I may have more with a friend's recommendation of Audible.com; I haven't checked that yet. I know I want The Chopin Manuscript and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. But I can't get them this weekend until I meet my weekly word count. And I'm behind because I've missed the Tuesday and Thursday writing sessions.

Today and tonight is going to be ... interesting. *in best Spock impersonation*

11:00am Update

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Where I got when I had to stop and do paying job stuff. What I have discovered is this universe is the same as a novel that has been lurking in my story idea file that I just titled "Fairy Tale Novel." Me like. :)

1:00pm Update

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Didn't get too far during lunch. I'm stuck on black magic. With what I have it is possible, but what would be the consequences of such actions? Course, I'm using Holly Lisle's worldbuilding exercise to help me with that, and her example is so clean an elegant, I'm afraid I'm going to steal it.

3:50pm Update

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Have two pages of handwrittten notes thought up while waiting on the Regulator. But I'm out of time right now to type them into the file. Mostly a lot of number work, I spent too much of the 2 hours it took to get through the batch trying to figure out the ratio of humans to Hidden Ones and serial killers of each population.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

GTD Tips, Tricks, and Articles and Creative Commons

Normally I would print these out to refer to, but I don't want to use that much paper right now. Or steal much more time from the must-reach-word-count project.

Defining Your Work
GTD & the Art of Influence
Someday Maybe List - oh I think I want to implement this list even without the rest of the system
Are You Comfortable with Space?
Start at the Beginning

Creative Commons - need more research, but I may need if I start selling stuff via the web.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Best definition of procrastination I have found

So when others or myself say, “I’m lazy” what we really mean is “I find that particular task way too unappealing and would rather do something else.” And here lies the true problem of a procrastinator. Cranky Fitness: Guest Post: Lily on Procrastination

It's true, but it seems so much easier to loathe ourselves for it. I don't even pretend to understand the warped reasoning behind that, but I think I want to blame the Puritans.

Today has started off well. I switched the Friday and Wednesday chores around last night, and added cleaning the office to Thursday. Now this cleaning has nothing to do with filing or the computer, but taking all the damn piles sliding over every surface and consolidating them into neater piles at least if it's stuff I can't put away. So I now have desk surface again. Also today is the first day I got through everything on the chore list. My current theory on that is once I get the house clean, the chore list becomes more of a maintenance list and will be quicker to do.

Eventually, I will have to add Internet computer stuff to the schedule. At least a reminder to go check on Alt. BM Site and do so more yelling for more moderators. And to get the RSS feed set up correctly.

As I have downloaded music from the hard drive to the mp3 player, it is inescapable that My Music folder on the hard drive is a mess. So cleaning it out is something to do when I'm bored and have nothing else. Music should be organized in folders of the bands and album titles and I should leave the inspiration folders on the mp3 player, playlists, or a temp folder when I'm burning a CD. I think that will cut down on my duplicated files. Also discovered my ears are the wrong size for earbud headphones. They don't sit inside my ear hole and the ones that are supposed to wrap around the outside of the ear like glasses are too big for my ear lobes. I haven't had a chance to use the wrap-around-the-back-of-the-head headphones yet, and the way they feel on my head will take getting used to. I don't think I could run or walk very fast with them on; they don't feel like they are going to stay in place.

Read Free!
The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Stuff I didn't get to yesterday

The Elizabeth I class professor sorta gave me approval on my idea for the big project if I could work Queen Elizabeth in. Since I don't have the garb to play Elizabeth, I think my original idea is out. Maybe I could do something on John Dowland instead.

I was still pondering Joe's Goals, until I found out I was a thundering idiot today. You pick the days you track under options. I only discovered that after I went back to add tags.

Finished cleaning the rest of the counters last night, and the stove and oven this morning. The stove hasn't been that white since it was bought. I don't think I want to keep pots on the stove anymore, not after I had to blast them with the steamer to get them clean too. I still have to go under the rest of the cabinets, but they lack the ability to get to the usable space in order to use it. When I rebuild the kitchen, the cabinetry will be a lot of drawers, pull-out shelves, and built in lazy-susans. I have short arms and boobs that don't allow for crawling into tight places.

So the kitchen is looking damn good. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the house. Okay, the bathroom is fine right now and the back bedroom needs some minor tweaks. The living room and bedroom fall under the needing tweaks category. The office is (as usual) a working disaster area. Wednesday has been the day to deal with that chaos, but that hasn't been working on the chores list for a couple of months now. Maybe I can switch with the weekend chores, but those chores need to be done on Saturday and Sunday for other reasons. Maybe Friday, clean the bathroom and cat things on Wednesday, office mess on Friday. That sounds more doable than the weekend.

Yeap, this is my blog. Watching me work out my nesting problems. And just for the record, if I don't schedule the chores, I will do them all at one time and drive myself batty and beat myself up for not having a Martha Stewart house.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

House chores catch up

Since school started, I let the housework really go. The red rug in my bedroom is orange now because Mustard likes sleeping on it. I started tweaking the chore list and getting stuff done.I hoped yesterday would get a lot off the list, but about four hours of the day was spent at the doctor's office with Uncle Scott. Between that and the presentation for class, I didn't accomplish much. It always has been a chip-away process.

But I've been chipping for a whole week and what have I accomplished? I reorganized the bathroom and discovered I don't need to buy shampoo, soap, or lotion for a while. The last two thanks to easy gifts from coworkers (when in doubt get a bath set). I have no idea why I have more shampoo than I can use in a year.

Press 'n stick tile on the bottom of the kitchen sink cabinet. I had laid down leftover linoleum in the cabinets but I didn't have enough for all of them, didn't really like it in there, and never glued it down. So when I decided to install pullout baskets to organize the cleaning supplies, the baskets got caught on the linoleum and didn't pull out. I thought I had to wait until Mom was done with her remodeling project to get tile, but I found a box I had bought and forgot about. Cleaning out the cabinets is on the list, so I got one cabinet finished. I do need a paper cutter to get my lines straighter before tackling another cabinet.

After Mom bragged about how well her steamer cleaned her floors, I finally dragged out the unit that was given to me. Steam Zapper, a hand-held model with more steaming power than the tiny ones for clothes. I think Mom found it at a garage sale or something and gave it to me two or three years ago. I finally open it this morning with the idea that if I don't have to pull out the mop bucket it is a good thing and maybe it could perform a miracle on the stove mess.

The only piece missing was the measuring cup, so I had to guess the correct water level. I aimed it at the counter first. It worked great getting the junk off with needing to use any cleaners. I wasn't as impressed with the faucet; it probably needs cleaner. But the real test was the electric can opener that has collected a residue of grease from the stove that nothing would cut through. The steamer did. I'm thinking now it may work faster with a few squirts of lemon juice or vinegar. By the time I'm finished with the counters and stove, I'll be ready to try the floor. And the vacuuming will be done to.

Another reason to start now on the slow and steady cleaning movement (slow is down pat) is Chad will be coming to get his stuff soonish. It doesn't add a lot of space to the house, but I will be able to move some things around. Namely boxes of mine out of the office where they impede the path, maybe in the hall where his closet is now. Redecorating ideas like that. Maybe I'll move the chair from the living room to where his dresser is now in the bedroom. At least most of his stuff in the kitchen and back bedroom are boxed up. And the fridge! We were using his dorm fridge for a separate drink fridge. I measured and if I move the shelves and move the big fridge four inches closer to the doorway, there is enough room for the portable dishwasher I found without it living in the middle of the kitchen all the time! Where to put the dishwasher has been one of my major brakes on buying one.

Mustard using me as a jungle gym I have already covered. Now I need to figure out do I move my workouts to the porch or move the bench inside.
Pro outside: away from Mustard, rest of family still has access to bench, no tripping over weights in living room.
Con outside: fluctuating temperatures, can't listen to the radio or watch TV while working out, creating a show for the neighbors, weather affecting my weights, will need to clean porch, Mom will yell about me buying weight.

I'm still undecided.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Iron Experiment Day 17

Bench pressing and Mustard don't mix. I'm on the coffee table with the bar in motion. He decides the best way to get my attention is to wrap his front legs around my elbow and dig in with his claws. He didn't have time to get the claws into my skin before I screamed, tried to shake the cat off, and ended up slamming my arm down on the edge of the coffee table. The arm that's holding up half of a 30-pound bar that has now shifted with the center of gravity.

Good news is I didn't drop the bar onto the floor or me. Bad new is in a few days the helacious bruise I have will show up.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Iron Experiment Day 16

I need to renumber my entries. Update: Okay, I counted up all the workouts. Should be able to keep things in order now.

I have been missing a few Saturday workouts this month, so instead I did it at home yesterday. And I also added my hiking boots to what I wear. I was doing workouts barefoot, which is good for balance and feet strength but I had no traction with the Swissball. My crunch numbers went down a lot, but I'm sure I did them right.

I also added deadlifts and pushups to the workout this week. The pushups are modified from a countertop. I can't push up from the floor yet.

Week 14 = 188.8
Week 13 = 189
Week 12 = 187.6
Week 11 = 187.8
Week 10 = 189.6
Week 9 = 188.9
Week 8 = 193.4
Week 7 = 194.5
Week 6 = 194.5
Week 5 = 195.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 1 = 205

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

'Tis Over

Chad and I have broken up. However, we are still friends, so don't leave any bashing him comments. I'm still going to be involved in the Acadiana Medieval Faire.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Sleep is no longer a problem

At least for tomorrow. The dentist doesn't open until 9am. One of my partials fell out. Luckily, I was already on my way straight home--skipping yoga--to work on homework.

Ever noticed how big your teeth feel in your mouth? When you have them in your hand, they aren't the same size at all.

9/21 Update: What was left of the front tooth (it died soon after the capping for the bridgework and I had root canal in 2000 to save it) broke. Had to get a post put in place of the front tooth, and now have a temporary bridge in place. So now I no longer look like a contestant from Hicksville, USA, and I have to eat very carefully for a month until I get the permanent bridge in place. I got home at 2pm and the Novacaine is still wearing off.

So the rest of the day is filled with homework, chores, and writing. If we're facing down Tropical Storm Jerry this weekend, I'd like to not worry about cleaning my house while facing it. Ditto on working on homework.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

New day, sorta new start

This is going to be a three-day post, but it's all related.

Monday, Sept. 17th: A Time to Honestly Hate Numbers

The number of cars on the road during my commute, for example, is excellent for hating. It means I need to leave the house between 5:45 and 6am to make sure I'm at work on time--instead of 6 and 6:30am, which is what I am used to doing but now causes me to be late.

So working off the new departure time, I need to wake up at 3:30am. The earlies I can go to bed is 9:30pm. That's six hours of sleep. Just six hours of sleep. Which is probably more than I got last night, but will it be enough to keep going on?

*Bleaugh* Lack of sleep and running late didn't start a wonderful day. Now Robert Jordan is dead, and I'm still reading for class. *Bleaugh*

Tuesday: Sept. 18th:

Crawled into bed at 9:30pm and actually made the 3:30am wake-up time. Made up most of my workout from yesterday. No chores, and I still didn't manage to leave the house on time.

It's a work in progress.

I started using Joe's Goals this morning, partially what slowed me down. But I think I'm going to like the system. I just wonder--stastically speaking--if I should have the same number negative goals as positive goals. Unless the measure of achievement is keeping the graph above the baseline of 0.

The new wake-up time and new leave time is thanks to me looking at the times and realizing the old time weren't working. I just hope six hours is enough sleep time.

Maybe I should sleep in my workout clothes.

Wednesday, Sept. 19th: Why is my cat able to better adjust to a change in sleep schedules? I hit the snooze alarm because I can't face the morning yet. Mustard jumps way too close to my face. I'm trying to ignore the alarm clock in the living room and there is a purring cat in my other ear. Now yesterday, I couldn't touch him for daring to wake him up so early.

I have to stop playing with my new toy in the morning too. I finally own a mp3 player now, but getting the music loaded and organized has a learning curve. First time I tried on Saturday, I ended up deleting everything I had just uploaded. So I've been taking it slower since then. But My Music folder on the hard drive is a disorganized mess: too many song files renamed and the songs duplicated, too many files downloaded through Napster and thanks to my computer crashing in the middle of trying to buy them legally won't play, stuff like that. I hoping to get it all cleaned up.

Of course, Gulf disturbance means that goes on hold while I backup more important information--like the entire hard drive. Well, I needed to do it anyway.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Robert Jordon

I hadn't had the guts to start on the Wheel of Time series, having seen the rabid devotion to it first hand. (Wise person knows their limitations.) But I hoped he would be able to finish what he had started.

Unfortunately, he won't. Making Light: Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney), 1948-2007

The best comment in the thread so far is #47 from Diane Duane:

Ah, hell. We didn't know him well, but the time we met in Dublin, he was just a joy to be around.

(sigh) At the moment, seems like the best way to honor his memory is to go work on a book.

And as usual Eric Burns at Websnark nails the feeling.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Another book to buy

Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations' by Julian Symons

Read it ages ago and loved it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

While finding quotes

And Google Books went right to the page I needed. Make of that what you will.

However one of the links that came up was this: Placet: timeline. Course I had to click around to answer the WTF?! echoing silently in my head. (Not out loud because my coworkers don't like displays of random like that.) They give explanation in Placet 101.

I need pictures to add to the blog very quickly. Words fail me right now, but I think a dumbfounded face would work. Hell, it could even be of cat.

Edit: Okay, found one.

And I suppose someone is going to say I have no write to be astonished. After all I mixed BMFM, TMNT, and Kung Fu: the Legend Continues into one universe. And sent one character visiting across dimensions so he landed with Legend of Zelda and Gargoyles.

And it not the most convuluted mash-up I've ran across. That honor belongs to a Gargoyles fanfic that mixed Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, X-Men, Highlander, and possibly a few more I can't remember. Brooklyn's kid became a Slayer triggering a prophecy about when the three races all had a slayer (Gargoyle: Arianna, Human: Faith, Fae: Buffy because she's related to a certain Scott Summers and mutants are the result of human/fae crossbreeding.)

The chorus from Monty Python's Holy Grail sprang to mind and I obeyed after just that much.

And I adore both Harry Potter and Lord Peter. Hell, I want Universal Studios to open Harry Potter World and figure out how to run a LARP in it. But meshing two worlds so separated by time and genre, I can't figure out how and have no desire to read it. Good luck with it. And I hope the Sayer estate isn't as go-get-'em when it's people who aren't selling it. Laurie R. King's story

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Good schedule changes

Yesterday I discovered that if I didn't stop for gasoline and went straight to campus, I have nearly a whole hour to eat supper on campus before going to the gym for yoga class at 6:30pm. I had to go get gas afterwards and didn't get home until 9pm and I have no idea if my car is going to stick to a Tuesday/Thursday fill-up schedule, but a whole hour to myself. SQUEE!

I also discovered if I spend that hour writing long-hand, a muscle or tendon or something in my right hand hurts terribly (like huge ass needle being jammed diagonally through my hand) when I put any weight on it in yoga class. So I learned a new variation of downward dog in a hurry. Which means I should type instead. Which means stopping by Office Depot this weekend and seeing if the laptop can take a new battery that will hold a charge longer than five seconds so I don't have to waste precious time searching for an outlet.

So shopping this pay period is very household items instead of a lot of groceries. I'm going to scale back on the amount of cooking I'm doing while the semester is in session. I'm not eating supper at home and there's very little room in the freezer. So groceries will probably be just the veggies (which I'm stockpiled on right now) and ingredients for the quiches and souffles for breakfast (since both store and transport well).

I plan on stopping at Whole Foods and Wal-Mart going home. Whole Foods because I want some specialty stuff I just haven't found anywhere else and Wal-Mart for the other stuff on the list. And it's Doctor Who night, so theoretically that's incentive to get out of the stores in a hurry. Stay in there too long and I spend too much money. :p

More thoughts related to the scheduling changes, but I think they may fit better over at DUF.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

La Belle Compagnie

La Belle Compagnie has a slick website and looks like an upfront educational group for the time period I'm into now. Too bad in the wrong part of the country.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Just so you know

Today is a better day. Having a full night's sleep and even just half-a-workout improves things. No, I didn't get everything done on my list this morning, but after yoga class tonight is looking better for doing stuff. Especially since, yoga got moved back by a half-hour. I can eat supper early!

The grades: I'm sticking with my original ideas to write the bloody cards out ahead of time so I can get started on the real research for the papers. I am slowed down by having to throw out articles I had pick, but not as badly as I feared discussing during class break last night. But at least I'll have something to edit when I see next week instead of the vacuum of this week.

Continuing the Have You Ever Wanted to Give Up Post

Also keeping an eye on this discussion at J.A. Konrath's blog about POD. I liked one of the ideas mentioned in the comment trail: using Lulu.com to produce personal copies for friends and family to read, instead of giving them a manuscript. Having used Kinko's for Mama Morning's gift book, I was less than impressed with their capabilities (though that could have been mostly the tech I was working with). Lulu might have cost me more out of pocket, but I think the end result would have looked a little bit better. Also looking at a novel manuscript in the binder; it just doesn't file well. I know, I know, I need to get away from my reliance on dead trees. But... having lost the digital form of earlier stuff due to disk degradation so it only exists on the paper printout, I still get the willies. Even though I know CDs are better in that regard than floppies. A bound book would actually fit into the filing cabinet better than a binder. (Trust me, the last office cleaning had me juggling all the binders to various home spots trying to find where they would fit. One day, a real library and a real office and the office can have a bookcase sized for binders only.)

Nothing I see happening anytime soon, but I want to remember the idea.

Great post on re-motivating yourself. Aimed with fitness, but still useful.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Yummy new book time!

Q&A with Robert Fulghum I have the first four he has written and I need to get the first two in hardback. I also need to get Words I Wished I Wrote, but I don't know if I'm missing any others. Silly, go search Amazon.

Now a complete list but probably not in published order.

• All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - paperback
• It Was on Fire When I Laid Down on It - paperback
• Maybe (Maybe Not) - hardback
• Uh-Oh - hardback
• True Love
• From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives
• Christmas Friarworks
• The Rock Bottom Remainders (collected essays from all the members in the band)
• Words I Wished I Wrote
• What on Earth Have I Done

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Perfect ending

The day looked like it was getting a smidgen better, or at least I could tolerate it to barrel through. Then I found out I made a D on my first assignment in the Robert Frost class.

I have never made that low in English ever.

And I feel that I'm probably going to flunk the second annotated bibliography card because I forgot about the 5-page-long article rule and did it on a great article, printed in a tiny journal that was only 2 and half pages long. Sure nice of him to let us out early, in that case.

*Headdesk*

Why did I go back to school? Oh yeah, I missed academic discourse and it was less stressful than trying to work two full-time jobs. And I thought it would strength my resolve to write.

*Headdesk* again.

He's a resonably okay guy, the professor, when he's not grading papers. And surprisingly, I'm enjoying Frost's poetry, which I can say I would have never sought out to read without the class making me.

It's just I feel like crap warmed over, and a low grade makes me feel like stupid crap warmed over. Especially getting points off for using "But" instead of "However." It's not one of my word choices unless I'm trying to be pretentious. And pretentious papers suck.

*Headdesk* literally.

I'm going to finish the bottle of raspberry cider, buy one of the games I downloaded and play it until the cider is gone, and then I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is Thursday. If I get up on time, I can make up my workout, clean the kitchen (if I don't have a remorse attack and do it tonight), and grab some writing time before leaving for work.

That schedule would be a whole lot easier if the paying job didn't insist on a dress code.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

I need an Alice*

*Not referring to Resident Evil.

I'm tired. I'm cranky. I'm having a second dose of Diet Dr. Pepper, which isn't going to help me sleep better tonight. I managed to get out of the house on time this morning by not working out, not packing breakfast and lunch, and not doing chores.

I haven't finished my reading for tonight's class nor have I wrote the annotated bibliography card that's due tonight. On a good note, I at least got all the articles I'm going to use for those cards so when I get a minute I can churn them out in a fell swoop.

I would love to hack and slash away all the things that I have to do that are keeping me from doing the things I want to do. Not happening any time soon. I'll be back to finish my humorous thoughts for this post once the assignment is done.

Finished the annotated bibliography card, so now the rest of the story.

The past two days have had me scrambling to get things together in the morning so I can get to work on time and looking at everything chore-wise that I haven't had time to do, I had a great thought Tuesday that was only reinforced today. I need an Alice, the housekeeper on the Brady Bunch.

Not that I'm a huge fan of the Brady Bunch (it was a syndicated show that amused my sisters) and Alice's role always bothered me. Stay-at-home moms are the housekeepers; you don't hire the job out unless you are uber-rich. And is she just there to help the grown-up side not be as outnumbered?

But I can see the benefits of having someone else handled the cooking, dishes, laundry, vacuuming, and dusting on my schedule and sanity. And have breakfast and lunch packed so I can run out the door faster.

A house elf from Harry Potter would work too. And I'm totally down with ethical treatment for them.

Unfortunately, I remember the last time I got this bright idea. I couldn't afford it. And since I haven't budgeted for a cleaning service, it's probably safely out of my budget. I doubt that the bulk of the prices cleaning services charge is going to the ones that actually do the work. (Another incongrous thought is I should have started a cleaning service when I had time and was broke as an undergraduate.) Hiring a person from the classified ads has another set of problems.

Which is the aggravation that makes me want to growl. I need the break, not even for leisure time but so I can concentrate on other things. I did some searching and found a couple of companies in Hammond now. I doubt anything is going to change.

On the big huge flip-side, it might be worth the peace of mind just to take the $500 out of savings and buy a f*cking portable dishwasher since it's the dishes in the sink that trigger these "I'm a deficient housekeeper" episodes.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Ironman

Trailer available. This is giving me the same good vibes as the Spidey films. And hell yeah, Black Sabbath better be on the movie soundtrack! (Though if necessary, I would accept it being sung as a cover by another band.)

Though I hope the movie avoids all the Marvel Civil War crapola that Shortpacked! references.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Cthulu for president!

Cthulu Tract: Why We're Here This webcomic is great for a summation of why the Lovecraft universe is so awesome while equally scary and depressing. For some reason, the ending made me giggle quietly to myself.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Things to Think About

Crossed posted with Discipline Under Fire.

Series planning questions

Market in the mystery genre

Giving up by Holly Lisle

Don't know why, but they really hit home. Well, I do sorta know why. In that nagging, tingling, back of the head, gut response that tells you this is IMPORTANT but you don't want to face it.

Could it be that I'm facing quitting as a viable option in my life for the first time? (Not writing, so nobody panic.)

Could it be because I had one of those tiny, duh epiphanies this morning? This job you tolerate isn't going away. I don't have to face my childhood-self not knowing when Dad would have a job or a paycheck. I haven't even worked on the finances in weeks, but I think I need to go back some exercises and work on that one.

Writing as a career most often is not a financially stable one. At the same time I say that doesn't matter to me, there's a little girl inside me that knows there's no money for anything because Daddy doesn't have a job. And that kid is desperate and doing everything in her power to maintain the glory of the paycheck.

I'm not being fair, but I just figured out where the sabotage is coming from. She just wants to be safe and have things. Me trying to get serious and earn minuscule and uncertain money off writing scares her to death. Safer to keep me busy and blocked and keep writing as a hobby.

So does this make sense? Writing has never been blocked--once I find time to just write. But finishing and submitting has been a major wigout fest. I kept blaming an unknown stessor and tried easing off the demands I make on myself to no success. Well, of course not, I haven't addressed the real issue. I don't know if this post has sufficiently addressed it and more is necessary. Maybe a routine of steady reassurance will get my writing groove back.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Iron Experiment: End of 12 Weeks

Technically, it has only been six weeks on the Iron Experiment but I decided to track the weight loss weeks starting on June 17, 2007. So my measurements reflect only 6 weeks of progress, but the third set will be a full 12 weeks.

Week 12 = 187.6
Week 11 = 187.8
Week 10 = 188.9
Week 9 = 193.3
Week 8 = 194.5
Week 7 = 194.5
Week 6 = 194.5
Week 5 = 195.5
Week 2 = 199
Week 1 = 205

Starting set of tape measurements
height: 62.25 in/158.1 cm
weight: 194.5 lb/88.2 kg
neck: 37.5 cm
bust: 119.2 cm
waist: 102.2 cm
hips: 118.3 cm
thigh: 55.1 cm
calf: 40.6 cm
upper arm: 30.3 cm
lower arm: 25 cm

End of 12 Weeks Measurements
height: 62.25 in/158.1 cm
weight: 187.6 lb/85.1 kg
neck: 37.5 cm
bust: 115.1 cm
waist: 102.3 cm
hips: 118.5 cm
thigh: 63.2 cm
calf: 40.5 cm
upper arm: 32.1 cm
lower arm: 26 cm

Starting BMI Measurements

Height is 62.25 inches/158.1 cm.
Weight is 194.5 pounds/88.4 kg.
Body Mass Index is 35.3 kg/m2.

According to Better Ideal Weight Body Calculators, I should be:
between 105 - 138 pounds/47 - 62 kg
with a BMI between 19 and 25.

I want to weigh 120 lb/54.4 kg with a BMI of 20 kg/m2.

End of 12 Weeks BMI Measurements

Height is 62.25 inches/158.1 cm.
Weight is 187.6 pounds/85.1 kg.
Body Mass Index is 34 kg/m2.

How far to go:
Weight: 187.6 - 120 = 67.6 lb/30.7 kg
BMI: 34 - 20 = 14 kg/m2.

Now for the real moment of truth: pictures.




Compared to my first set from about a month ago, there hasn't been much change. I can only work hard so the results in the next 12 weeks will be better.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Two years since Katrina

Things are still messed up, and we have no competent leadership in New Orleans. Maybe this election year will change things for the better.

A.D: New Orleans After the Deluge, a true story webcomic on Katrina.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

A Wrinkle in Time

'A Wrinkle in Time' author Madeleine L'Engle dies at 88

One of the series I loved but don't currently own. I have to pick up the set for me and Atticus.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

New month, new plans

The relentless goal to improve myself marches on. Though I'm not sure that the goal is relentless or marching.

Tortured metaphors aside, this time of a fresh new month is a time to assess and reaffirm.

Weight loss: is about a pound a week as long as I
Exercise: according to the schedule. Home workout is slowly getting crammed into my schedule and I need to go to yoga class more regularly. Of course, over-doing it and injuring myself for the remainder of the week doesn't help the schedule. And stick to more veggies or otherwise known as
Healthy Eating: cooking and shopping groove hasn't been found yet. Also need a bigger lunch box and healthy snacks for the job. But cost is less of a worry now that the
Budget: is working. I need to fill out last month's tracking charts and finish the exercises in Suze Orman's book, but at least I don't feel like I'm falling into an abyss anymore.

Now for the items to concentrate on in September.

Writing: including homework. Yes, it will have to be shoved to grabbed time and marathon sessions on the weekend. But I have a sane weekly word count goal; just write already! And study.
Internet usage: I came across a crackpot idea of assigning time a day as the only Internet time as a way to save time or at least not waste it. I know I spend way too much time watching the 'Net and not even participating any more. But how much time is enough time to check? That will take some experimenting. For now, all I'm definite on is while at work before 7:30am and when I get home until 9:00pm. Lunch hour will now be homework/writing time. (Other people manage this, I can too.)
House projects: Use holidays to cross something off the list and try to do more regularly.
Friend time: reach out and connect. And then try to suck them into my blog. (Out-of-town friends are already in my blog, and the personal touch will have to wait until vacation time.)
Free time: Yes, have some. I don't know when, but go see movies, visit the national parks, do something touristy.
Anything unresolved: deal with it as soon as physically possible.
Update Google Calender: self-explanatory.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Alien Nation

I killed my DVD player. It no longer recognized when you put a disc in. Which means I can treat myself to a DVD Recorder as soon as I can afford it. I don't know how much longer the TV set has either. After you turn it on and go to the channel for the DVD player (usually after the electricity was forced off by a storm), it turns itself back to what I call the power-was-disrupted channel (#53) for some reason. It usually only does it once and I already made sure nothing is messing with the remote in my house.

But in the mean time, I had a three-day weekend and DVDs to watch. I borrowed an extra DVD player at my parents house that they got from one of my sisters. GE Digital no longer made by GE, and the remote has disappeared. (Which is why my sister left it with my parents). There is no way to navigate the DVD menus with the controls on the box. You can play the movie, and maybe play the first special feature if that menu comes up after the movie. But for TV episodes on DVD, you could only watch one episode a disc--no matter how many episodes were on the disc.

I'm not going into the saga of trying to make the universal remote work. The one code that would register, but using the arrows was not allowed. I happened to hit the numbers by accident and figured out that I can count the menu items and punch the number in to get to it.

So I could finally watch all the episodes in Alien Nation the series (Top 10 Movie-to-TV Adaptations).

The movie came out in 1988. I didn't see it then, being introduced later in college by a roommate with a crush on Mandy Patinkin. I forget when I picked it up on VHS, but I upgraded to DVD this year. The series ran for 1989 - 1990 season, which I did watch in bits and pieces. I saw the heart-stopping cliffhanger that turned into cardiac arrest with the news the series wasn't coming back in the next season.* Fans eventually won, having bought enough of the books and comic books continuing the story to get 5 made-for-TV movies to really finish the series (which are supposed to be out on DVD this month). I picked up the series last year, and decided to start watching this past weekend.

Like most of the shows of my childhood, I remember loving it with only bits and pieces. I think my viewing schedule must have gotten preempted by everyone else in the house until my senior year in high school, when I could watch around my sisters' schedules. So I was honestly surprised by how much the show picked up from the movie. No, I was shocked and pulled the movie out to confirm my gut feelings right after watching the pilot.

Most of the adaptations on the list don't acknowledge the movie that spawned it. Typically, you have a new cast and I think the makers want you to forget about the movie cast they can't afford. I remember being mildly surprised that Buffy mentioned it in the first episode--changing things to her freshman year rather than senior. Changes you do expect. Alien Nation the series changed a lot with George and Matt's kids from the movie. I picked up on that as soon as I watched the movie.

What I didn't expect was that the pilot episode used movie footage and wove in the death of Matt's first partner into the plot. They even pulled out an extra from the movie for the resolution (and if it wasn't the same actor, he looked close enough for the part). I think I gibbered at the TV. And I already told you I pulled the movie out next to confirm what I thought. I like being right.

And you can probably trace my cross-genre love straight back to this show. Like much good science fiction, Alien Nation holds a mirror up to us and make us confront our fear of the Other and the bigotry it creates. But every episode had a crime to solve, and Matt and George solved them. I took Zy the human to outer space instead, but the same principle applies.

*1990 was not a good summer. This was also the third season cliffhanger for Star Trek: the Next Generation. Picard is Borg-ized and it ends with Riker saying "Fire!" And pre-Internet for my family. I kept watching the entertainment news waiting for them to tell me Star Trek was cancelled now too. And people wonder why I don't trust Hollywood.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Iron Experiment holder

I know I owe you guys some progress report, but right now is not a good time for it. I have to get homework done.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Change my genre, STAT!

After today, I have decided my life is either a sitcom or one of those Mexican soap operas (I forget what they are called exactly, but they at least have a conclusion unlike their American counterparts). I don't like being the comedy relief. I am petitioning to be moved to a supernatural thriller. Shooting monsters I can handle. Or possible a cozy mystery. I could so totally handle Jessica Fletcher's job. But nothing too graphic, I don't handle gore well.

Flippant tone translation: Nothing went as planned. NOTHING! My brave stance of seizing the situation and dealing with it turned into a farce. Even the secondary mission to Lafayette went astray. The only good things was finally finding raspberry cider and Pan's Labyrinth only cost me $9.99.

And I don't want to discuss it. So I'm sorry for skipping out on online stuff tonight, but I need to rehydrate and veg-out. So I'm going to trade out the non-working DVD player for one I borrowed from my parents, put on TMNT, drink Powerade until my headache goes away. If I feel up to it after the movie I might be back tonight, but overall how I feel I doubt it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/