Sunday, August 31, 2008

Gustav

Hurricane Gustav will probably make landfall tomorrow

I'm not running this time, staying at home, so I won't have the hassle I had after Katrina getting back to work. Though I doubt I will be able to get back to work until Thursday since Baton Rouge is going to have hurricane force winds too.

However worse case scenario with work: the Department of Insurance back up location is in Alexandria. There is no way I can commute from Pumpkin Center to Alexandria. If I got assigned to it, I'd probably have to move to my sister's in Natchitoches and commute to Alexandria (depending on how feasible that is). I just don't want to get assigned to the call center again. I hated it.

Right now, I'm backing up My Documents to my website, starting with stories first. I really need to set up an online harddrive backup, but I will set that up after dealing with Gustav. And I'm cleaning house so I'm not sitting at the computer all day. Plus you can't vacuum if the electricity goes out.

I may get some more blog posts up that I haven't typed up yet, but I'm hoping to use the down time to work on fiction. Down time is after I finished cleaning house and finished off my Big Rock list.

Not too stressed out about it yet. I'm not too worried about flooding out of my home. We can get cut off; it happened before in the 80s, but Dad has a boat.

Holy shit! Obama called in WWL! And I guess I'm glad Bush is actually paying attention this time. He's supposed to monitor in Texas. Yes! Priority commitment from Obama to rebuild our wetlands.

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The BookWorm

Monday, August 18, 2008

Getting Over Inertia

An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

This is the problem with my life and why I succeed so well at procrastination. Once I get off my ass and do something, everything goes fine. Very few problems. I don't understand what I'm trying to avoid or accomplish with procrastination, so I'm putting the blame on physics. Thanks a lot, Newton. Today started horribly late but I'm making progress against the inertia. It's a start.

I didn't get as much accomplished last week as I had hoped (and this weekend felt like a complete disaster). Which I realized would happen, but I figured I was better off with everything listed before hand. I can usually finished about 40% of the week's Big Rocks. After calculations, I need to cross off eight items this week to be average. Halfway there already.

I can't seem to get my math working correctly today. Percentages just aren't working for me at all. I had to pull up an online calculator in order to figure out taxes on a receipt. :p Here's to more sleep and yoga helping out.

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The BookWorm

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Hot August Yoga 2

Week 61 = 185.4
Week 60 = 184.8
Week 48 = 191.6
Week 36 = 179.3
Week 24 = 188
Week 12 = 187.6
Week 1 = 205

My grand thirty day experiment hit a snag. I screwed my back up and couldn't do yoga all week. Tomorrow, I should get back into the routine again.

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The BookWorm

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Just figured out what the ache really is

For a while now, I have had an off-and-on ache right under my jaw hinge that would sometimes move into my ears. Nothing shooting and stabby, just feeling swollen and like my ears were clogged. I always figured it was my sinuses draining funny or maybe something was wrong with my ears.

Well, I finally get back into the dentist last Saturday (don't ask why it took so long, it's a stupid story) and they tell me the gingivitis still hasn't cleared up and give me a free toothbrush with a much smaller head than the one I currently brush with. The dentist had a great demonstration. She stuck her fingers to my back molars. "You are not getting those with your brush. I can barely fit my fingers there."

Yeah, irony of my life. I have so much to say and cursed with a tiny mouth.

So I switched to the new smaller brush last night. And I hit the two bottom back molars. Holy Toledo, I think the last time I spit out that much blood I had a tooth pulled out. But the only swollen gums I have (sign of gingivitis) surround my bottom back molars. This morning under my jaw hinge feels swollen and my ears feel slightly clogged. Both areas right next to my swollen gums.

So the good news is I don't need tubes in my ears. That just sounds wrong for someone over thirty. Now I'm going to do some searching to see what I can take to reduce the swelling.

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The BookWorm

Monday, August 11, 2008

Getting up schedule needs some work

I woke up at 2am this morning. Alarm doesn't go off until 3am. So at 3am, I'm hitting snooze 'cause I'm just getting back to sleep and don't wanna get up. I crawl out of bed just before 4am, putter around for thirty minutes before waking up enough to realize I'm supposed to be a writing project, so I only get thirty minutes of writing in before getting ready for work. Clearly, the waking up thing needs working on. I'm not getting out of the bed at 2am. 3am is plenty of time for yoga to unstick my back, writing for an hour, and getting ready with some housework tossed in. Better luck tonight, I guess.

This weekend had the annoying joy of computer maintenance and figuring out what to do next. Computer maintenance wasn't anything serious, luckily. I finally got in a good spot to get automatic back-ups of my harddrive working. I think it's working now, but I should have a better idea tomorrow morning. Since I was doing that, I also worked at things to hopefully make the computer run better.

But you would think after a whole week of writing down what I think needs to be worked on and doing nothing on the list, would mean figuring out what to do is so much simpler. Maybe for other people. I had two episodes of pulling at my hair convinced everything had to be done NOW before I calmed the monkey mind. It took two days--Saturday was really disjointed--but I have my projects and next action steps wrote down and Big Rocks for this week mapped out. It's pretty painful this week, but that's what happens when I slack off for two months.

But it was such a nice two months.

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The BookWorm

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hot August Yoga 1 and End of 60 Weeks

Yeah, I finished 60 weeks without realizing it. I can't believe I reached the over-a-year point to reduce my weight.

Week 60 = 184.8
Week 59 = -----
Week 58 = -----
Week 57 = 184
Week 56 = 183.6
Week 55 = 183.6
Week 54 = 183.2
Week 53 = 183.6
Week 52 = 183.5
Week 51 = 185.4
Week 50 = 185.5
Week 49 = 191.6
Week 36 = 179.3
Week 24 = 188
Week 12 = 187.6
Week 1 = 205

184.8 - 120 = 64.8 pounds from my goal.

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 Calculations.

End of 60 Weeks BMI Measurements
Height is 62.25 inches/158.1 cm.
Weight is 184.8 pounds/83.8 kg.
Body Mass Index is 33.5 kg/m2 according to Better Ideal Weight Body Calculations.

33.5 - 20 = 13.5 kg/m2 from my goal.

Starting Measurements
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 60 Weeks Measurements
neck: 36.8 cm
bust: 116.5 cm
waist: 100.7 cm
hips: 117.1 cm
thigh: 62 cm
calf: 41 cm
upper arm: 30 cm
lower arm: 26.5 cm

I thought I'd be further along than this, but I can't complain too much about it. I've laid off exercising for a damn long time probably beginning of June.

I decided to go with Yoga workouts along with ab ball crunches and leg raises instead of trying to move the weight bench inside. Now I love ignoring the measurements and results for twelve-week periods, but I think it's too long for exercising. I'm getting bored too soon. So I'm going to do this workout for a month before moving to something else.

No pictures today. I have a lot of household chores and other things to do before I can play with the camera. Maybe next week.

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The BookWorm

Monday, August 04, 2008

Return to Normal, I think?

Finished with editing TinMan: Dragons and Ninjas yesterday. Now I've been in a recovery daze trying to mind sweep for everything I've shoved aside in my mad writing dash. Good news, it doesn't seem to be that much. Mostly getting back on the routines, though in my case more like routine making.

As much fun as the writing storm was, I need to still do other things. It comes down to I can have the writing storm but only after I exercise and pay the bills.

Stupid responsibility.

Vacation was pretty restful for the most part. Dolly rained us out of going to San Antonio's Sea World. I wanted to take Atticus so bad. He has a stuffed animal of a dolphin and knows what it is. Well, Sea World isn't going anywhere.

Course I think he's the smartest two-year-old in the whole world, even if he has trouble with Aunt Kindra. I think we finally settled on Aunt Kin or just Kin, after he teased me with calling me "golf" and "car." Yeah, Atticus thinks he's a comedian already.

And he got real golf clubs for his birthday. [Post video] I don't know how long their TV is going to last.

Hellboy II
Abe: (refusing a beer Hellboy offers) No, my body is a temple.
Hellboy: And now it's an amusement park. Drink.


What an awesome sequel. Words fail me. You have the gorgeous fairy tale that's dark and beautiful at the same time combined with the irreverent working Joe attitude that is Hellboy. Magic happens when they collide. I still want to write the fantasy that del Toro will want to film.

They worked in a reprisal for John Hurt as Professor Bloom and kept him dead. And gave an explanation for Myers disappearance. I missed him, but it made character sense.

And Liz is such a great superhero. She is confused and conflicted by her man ...er demon on a daily basis, but when his life is on the line she choses him and still saves the world. Which does lead me to Hancock.

"Call me asshole one more time."


I have ran across feminist complaints of being annoyed that the fictional character they admired most has a penis. Implication if not out right said is the leading lady wasn't worth the admiration or placing in role model status. I always kind of shrug off statements like that. "No I wouldn't want to be Pepper Potts, either, but she is smarter than her boss to recognize when they're in over their heads." was my opinion on Iron Man.

When I saw Hancock, I suddenly got it. Hancock the misanthrope and slowly finding a purpose was good. Ray's hero moment in the hospital was cheer worthy. However the character Mary annoyed the crap out of me by the end. "Why aren't you being a superhero too, bitch?" was pretty much all I could think of during the credits. Which was my first response at Occasional Superheroine.

And I kind of got called on it repeatedly in the post. My point being is if Mary was tired of being a superhero or just wanted a normal life--both worthy goals--SHE SHOULD HAVE HAD LINES STATING IT. As far as movie holes go, it ranks up there with nobody introducing Bail Organa in Attack of the Clones. I blame the character less than I blame the writers and director.

The Dark Knight blows every other movie this year out of the water. Celluloid Heroes has the best review. If you ever thought the "superheroes as modern myths" was a lot of academic bullshit, go see this movie. It coils together terrorism, response to it, personal responsibility, sacrifice, and the beauty of humanity into a roller coaster of a ride.

And now there are rumors that Johnny Depp might play the Riddler. That would make me very happy. Also I can't wait for their interpretation of Catwoman.

So what else is going on? Weight maintained for two weeks at 184 pounds. I know the issue is lack of exercise. Heat makes me avoid the porch gym, and when it's 80 degrees before the sun rises, ugh. So either I'm going to have to switch to yoga or move the weight bench inside. Haven't decided which yet.

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The BookWorm