The Isaac Experience

The following are notes I kept in a notebook while power was unreliable.

Isaac Day 1
Date: 8/28/2012

3:52pm: We haven't had any rain; just clouds and gusts. Now the electricity just popped off. I had hopped to clean off all the open Firefox tabs before that happened. Oh well, it's not too hot yet.

4:35pm: Raining finally.

5:20pm: Electricity back!

5:40pm: Electricity off again.

5:41pm: Electric back on again. Going to turn on the computer so I can turn it off normally.

7:00pm: Watching the news while I have power. Isaac may not push through until Thursday and the track is projected through Baton Rouge. I may not get back to work until next Tuesday (unless they take Labor Day holiday from us).

Isaac's landfall is official. Hammond is reporting 33mph winds, but I'm still seeing gusts. Still not much rain. It will probably pick up tonight through tomorrow morning. If the storm heads to Baton Rouge, Hammond will end up in northeast quadrant. I think Tangipahoa is under tornado watch too.

8:30pm: The electricity keeps flicking on and off, so I've gotten ready for bed and turned on the radio. I'd like to stay awake for the 10pm advisory update, but that depends on the electric and if I can stay awake.

Isaac Day 2
Date: 8/29/2012

6:44am: Power went out and stayed out around 1am. Isaac shifted back onto water and made a second landfall over Port Fouchon at 2:15am. The eye is still south of Houma and the storm has slowed down.

Mustard decided he was hungry at 5am, which is late for when I normally feed him. But that killed my sleep until the sun was up plan when he knocked my Maglite flashlight onto the metal pan of the portable AC unit. I thought something had punched through the roof!

I've opened the doors to get some air flow and a gust blew out my hurricane lamp. The rain is steady drizzling. We haven't lost any trees yet.

7:00am: The national media thinks New Orleans is under water again. Not true. And I can't answer any emails from worried friends. The levee that broke was a community one (not built by the Army Corps of Engineers) in Braithwaite, which is rural community along the Mississippi River.

7:23am: Isaac has stalled out again. Damn. Somebody go give it a push.

10:00am: The rain shifts from a drizzle to a steady harder one, but never as hard as thunderstorms usually get. I miss looking at radar screens to see how big this squall is.

1:33pm: Wind gust really slammed through. Wish I knew better where the storm is. The press conference said the eye won't reach Baton Rouge until tonight or tomorrow.

6:00pm: Went to my parents' and caught up on TV news coverage since they have a generator. Isaac still isn't moving and then we'll have to worry about rising rivers. LaPlace is flooding, Plaquemines is flooding, Lafourche Parish is flooding, Slidell is flooding, and New Orleans is fine.

As of 4pm, DOI hasn't updated COOP. My excuse is Jindal said to stay put, which he did in the last news conference I saw. Isaac's broken eye has reached Baton Rouge. But we are still getting pounded by bands.

My roof keeps rattling. I think it's loose on the edge, but I can't see it blowing. I wait on the porch to see it move and nothing happens.

6:43pm: Uncle Scott found the loose tin. We've tied it down and maybe I can get a new roof now. The problem is my hurricane deductible in $1102.00 that I don't have, and should I put a new roof when I want to tear off half the house and rebuild it?

8:00pm: Heading to bed for some reading. The awful streetlight that shines in my bedroom windows went out!

Isaac Day 3
Date: 8/30/2012

Midnight: Woke up, rain is hitting the south side of the house. That means the wind has shifted.

3:00am: Woke up again, still raining. Hwy 42 flooded? That's another route I take into Baton Rouge if the main roads are congested beyond travel. I think that's what I heard on the radio.

7:00am: Got more sleep in between walk-ups. North-driven rain hitting the south side of my house came through the leaks in the back bedroom and kitchen. The rain here has slacked off to the steady drizzle. The Northshore rivers are flooding and Slidell now has a flash flood evacuation situation. I have no phone service—apparently Verizon is the only one working—and I have no idea what has happened to Baton Rouge.

The Commissioner was on the radio last night. "Call the department with your insurance problems tomorrow!" If Baton Rouge is getting what we got yesterday, nobody will go in! :p

The radio says that New Orleans is looking at 90-something temps with a heat index of 103 degrees. If the steady drizzle keeps that away, I'll take the rain.

I-55 is closed, flooded at Ponchatoula. I-10 got closed because it was flooded at LaPlace yesterday. The state trooper says "stay home and stay put."

Power went out about 1am on the 29th, so now it's been out 31 hours going on 32.

Heading out to take pictures.

Here's the satellite image so you can see the lay of my land. And here's a better map so you can see the waterways I'm most concerned about.

Now here are the pictures I have taken.

There's Mustard sneaking into the shot at the bottom. Every inch of my porches got wet.

My parents' house also came through okay. We didn't lose any trees, just branches.

My dad's tarp boat shed didn't fare so well and it dented his car when came apart. :p

This was the biggest limb we had down in all the yards. Dad had to saw it apart in order to move it to our burn piles.

It's hard to see through the foliage, but the brown in between the leaves is the creek that runs through my property. It feeds into the Natalbany River, which isn't one the flooding Northshore rivers WWL is reporting on, but it's flooding too. This picture was taken at the family dump. My family has been on this land for five generations, and they decided that dumping the garbage off the bluff and then cover it up with dirt was a good policy. *Shrug* The creek is in the dump, and that means it's coming up the bluff.

So much for Isaac blowing away the mosquitoes, I got bit twice.

1:30pm: Boy, I haven't updated. Around 11am, St. Tammany Parish president's news conference gave the news that failure of the dam at Percy Quinn State Park on the Tangipahoa River looked eminent. Tangipahoa Parish President pulled a mandatory evacuation for a half-mile on each bank. Mississippi officials are going to bleed off the reservoir but the evacuation order hasn't been lifted.

The Northshore region, also known as the Florida Parishes, stretches from my house near the Tangipahoa/Livingston parish border to the state line between Louisiana and Mississippi north of Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. This map is from NOAA and has all their gauges marked. I'm not in any danger, but many of the towns and cities in the Northshore are on the rivers.

Started cleaning the front yard before it started raining again. The gusts haven't been too bad today, but have no idea when power is coming back.

1:50pm: Jindal and Burgess (Tangipahoa Parish president) flew over the damn and want Kentwood to get right now. Holy crap!

7:00pm: They actually updated COOP and DOI is open Friday. I'm going to call in because I still don't have power. I just took a tepid shower so I can sleep tonight (and not be so sticky) but I'll wake up tomorrow sticky. As of this hour today, Hammond received 11.93 inches of rain. MaComb/Lewis Field, Mississippi (just north of us) got 10.93 inches. And it hasn't stopped raining.

My plan tonight is to write on everything for at least 15 minutes. I've been concentrating the daylight hours on fanfic that doesn't stress me out. It hasn't been the best use of my time, and I'd like to change that starting now, before Perfect Girl hits the guilt button.

9:15pm: The rain stopped long enough for the full moon to come out. Wow.

Isaac Day 4
Date: 8/31/2012

7:00am: Called into the paying job and took today off. Power has been off 55 hours now. Uncle Scott said I should go in; they probably have lights and AC. Yeah, I got screwed with Gustav and they didn't. Plus I'm hot and sticky and put a shitload of overtime in during July. Don't give me any grief about taking today.

Looks like the clouds are finally gone, so the heat index will probably go into effect today. The dam is still holding, but the Mississippi Governor is arguing over what the impact could be if it does fail. 190 is closed in Robert since the Tangipahoa River is now over it.

I'm off the rake the yard before the sun gets much higher.

8:00am: They closed the new bridge over the creek just down the road from me and you can see in my neighbor's yard how much water we're dealing with. The ditch at the bottom of the ravine is usually just run off from the road and their slope.

Here's where my neighbors' ditch starts and to my surprise, a large hawk was on the bank of the water!

I was worried that it had been hurt in the weather, but while I was trying to get a better image it flew up into a tree and proved my worry groundless.

Here's the bridge out from my driveway. Dad walked down and reported that the water is over the guardrails. I didn't bother to walk it because of all the idiots who insisted on driving down beyond our driveway and then pealing back up like Moses was supposed to part the waters just for them and they're pissed he didn't. Speed limit is 45!

9:30am: I've raked all I can rake. The yard looks loads better. Off to check on my parents.

2:00pm: It's been raining off and on. I'm going to start writing work now.

8:00pm Just finished hearing the Jefferson Parish press conference in which they reamed Entergy for not making significant progress (whatever that means) when the lights flicked on! And just after I had called the parents and rest all my AC units, it went back out again. :O Dad went down to the truck and I didn't catch up with him, and then decided since I was ready for bed (no bra and short shorts), I shouldn't go down there and distract them.

Turns out the reason it kept blinking like crazy on Tuesday night was a limb on the line, which then caught on fire when they turned it on. They cut it off and turned us back on. 67 hours off, I don't think that's bad at all considering how much it rained.

Isaac Day 5
Date: 9/01/2012

8:45am: Woke up an hour ago from the best sleep in four nights and headed outside to take new pictures. The water around me has dropped down, good. I'm sorry for the foggy look. It actually isn't foggy, that the condensation on the camera lenses after it got used to the AC again.

The water got up to the base of the dead tree yesterday, you can see that it's dropped down.

And this picture explains why I'm not stacking my belongs up on cinderblocks. My house has been here since before 1920 and it hasn't flooded yet. But with Louisiana's loss of wetlands, I'm seriously considering getting flood insurance if I can afford it.

You can see the water drop at my neighbors'. This is a good thing, because there is more water north of us that must flow south.

Today I walked down to see the level at the bridge.

Now you can see the guardrails, yesterday the water was over them. You can also see the tree that is keeping my hated night-light from coming back on. I do feel bad for my neighbors on Entergy, it is humid and hot today. And they still say we have a rain chance for the rest of the weekend.

So far the death rate for Isaac is 5 people, but they are expecting to find more in Braithwaite when the water recedes and they can search.

The flooding rivers won't be over until next week. Officials are asking to be vigilant and ready to evacuate.

Entergy is getting reamed by WWL for not getting the power on fast enough. Jefferson Parish wants an investigation because they didn't get slammed with water, but they can't get the parish up and running without electricity. Today if people call in and say an area has power, they're announcing it and playing a clip from "I Got the Power."

And I'm going to cook some lunch now.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

I survived Isaac

Just got electricity back. We love Demco. :D Still have high water and the brand new bridge just down the road is closed, but our houses are fine. More details later when I have time to type.

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The BookWorm

Home today and tomorrow

Politics in Louisiana; most times, it's best to do as you're told and not ask too many questions. Yesterday, Gov. Jindal says they'll close state offices Tuesday and Wednesday for sure and figure out where to go after the tropical storm/hurricane hits in one of his press conferences. However, we still were coming to work as if it was a normal day until our state agency head (Commissioner of Insurance for me) says who is essential personnel and who could stay home. Which was finally announced at 3:00pm yesterday. Why do they want to make our safety a pissing contest? I have no idea; I'm still waiting for COOP phone call to not tell me a damn thing.

T.S. Isaac is about 100 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River.

My house (and current location) is the purple pin, and it is on some of the highest ground in Pumpkin Center. Our houses were fine in the Tangipahoa Flood of 1983, which set the flood stages that haven't been broken yet. The closest body of water that the officials are worried about flooding surge from is Lake Maurepas (the smaller lake to the west of Lake Ponchatrain) and I'm 8 to 9 miles north of it. Right now, it's overcast with a slight breeze.

I'm ready as I can be to ride it out. Now I'm going to bounce between writing and daily chores and listen to my boss on the radio.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Isaac

So Friday I wrote a note to myself on the chores I needed to do this weekend, mainly because I needed to do them and a tropical storm/hurricane headed our way is just the extra push to get things done. I added to it after making the list of 25 items: "This way if I'm home thanks to Isaac I can concentrate on writing. And now that I'm planning for that, it will bypass us completely."

Yeah, I was wrong.

Jindal really should stop promising to speak at the Republican National Convention. He promised in 2008 and had to cancel because we got hit by Gustav. This year it's Isaac. :p

I gassed up the car and bought some groceries on my way into the paying job this morning. The fun has began. I have never seen Walmart that busy my time in the morning and most of the people at the gas station were filling up gas cans. We're crossing fingers that they let us go home early or at least tell us when we should try to make it back to work. I have no faith in the stupid COOP system that is never updated until AFTER I reach Baton Rouge. (See SNOW and Gustav tags) I don't expect it to be bad enough to run, unlike Katrina who was a three or four gearing up to five seven years ago. So it's a wait and see game to which way Isaac is headed, how strong it will get, and when the power will go out.

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The BookWorm

August Reboot Not Running Yet

Getting back into my groove in August has not happened yet. What I have managed to accomplish: a Batman short story and a drabble set in the Dark Knight Rises. I'm glad I did something creative, but I need to spend this weekend working on chores and creative pursuits, while keeping a dental appointment and dealing with library books.

Laundry, dishes, the house needs a scrub over from ceiling to floor, website work, figure out where I am in writing projects, write, and cook; I'm exhausted by just the list. Course I'm also exhausted from eating too many carbs and not exercising enough. The ice cream was good though.

In other news, tabs I have left open to talk about. Time to clear them off.

• Headspring Press: need to read and see if they are a fit for my fiction.
• Wordhaus.com: another potential market
• The CanAm Missing Project: tucking this into the ideas folder. Possibly can work with the Piper of Shadows universe.
• New thoughts on "write what you know": I found this video interview compelling.
• Guest Blogger Starling: Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced: a post to explain to men that just don't get it.
• Not So Big House: concepts I want to use in the remodel of my house.

Last but not least: Batman: Puppet Master! This fan film is set after the Dark Knight and introduces the Riddler and Scarface to the Nolan Bat-verse. Kudos on the effects and the Batsuit, I like the tweak they gave the Riddler (not so much the actor's choices) but the real power of the whole thing is Wesker. If the actor playing Riddler had brought the same chops to this fan film that Frank Birney did, we'd have one hell of a film here.

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The BookWorm

Is It Really August?

Out of twenty-two working days, I had one day off (4th of July), 11 days of normal working times, and ten days of overtime. And I want to double check those dates because I really don't believe that's accurate. Meh, the paystub generator wouldn't show me the first paystub for the month and I have no time to fight with it now.

The home paystubs: I didn't earn any K-time before July 8. That matches the notes I kept on the work calendar. I earned 20.5 hours between July 9 and July 22. I signed my over time today covering July 23 to Aug. 3 and that matched my calendar notes. So now I know the overtime days are right. The bad thing about overtime is it is paid in K-time, which I can get paid for if I keep it long enough, or spend it instead of annual leave. Cash right on the paycheck would be more welcome.

It hasn't been all work and no play (though close to it). I made time to go see the Dark Knight Rises two weeks ago on the 20th. And right after I finished writing down my movie thoughts, I started a fanfic expansion of the ending--my first Batman fanfic ever--and have been working at it when I can for the past two weeks. I'm glad I finished the narrative draft of Stellar Gift of Death before this insanity started because I can't remember enough of it to work on it now. That'll come in handy once I get to edits.

Exercise time was spent sleeping and I haven't been watching my food intake as closely as I should have. August will be a regrouping month on the Hot Bod 2012 project as well as on housework. Don't ask about the state of my house. Yesterday I mustered enough energy by staying home and sleeping plenty to actually cook.

Things are quiet now, let me take advantage and type up posts.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 9

This past week, I managed to get two days of heavy lifting exercises, two days of yoga, and one day of the new sprinting routine. I have avoided the yogiliates DVD and don't know if that will change if I have to stay late at the paying job this upcoming week.

My lower back and hips still feel owie, and it just occurred to me that I may have been looking at the wrong part of anatomy for why it hurts. My abs are flabby and that is probably the reason why my back hurts. The yogilities DVD concentrates on abs, so I need to get my life in gear to use it.

My sprint session only lasted for 5 minutes, so I will need to build up to the fifteen minutes recommended. I have given up on the wall squat and moved onto the assisted squat, which I can actually do. I have hit the goals on the Elevated< Jack Knife press and the Hand/Knee Side Plank over three weeks, even with the week off, so I have moved onto the Jack Knife Press and Forearm/Knee Side Plank.

The pattern that has developed over the last six weeks over my weight loss numbers is that I hold for a week, then drop again. This is my hold week, so next week hopefully new numbers. *crossing fingers*

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The BookWorm

I'm Not at the Paying Job!

Yes, I have successfully left the paying job and now am watching to commercials at the movie theater for the Dark Knight Rises. What happened in Aurora, Colorado this morning didn't change my plans, but I am watching the people entering the theater and really took notice of the exits. It's a different world again.

Next week, I'll probably be staying late again so I deserve this treat. And getting in for a 4:30 feature was the best plan; no fighting for a seat.

After the movie: Wow, just wow. Do not wait to see this movie! I don't see any way of continuing without spoilers, so SPOILERS!

My inner Cat/Bat shipper is purring like a kitten. Bruce does show his legendary trait of picking the wrong woman, but in his defense, I think he picked up on a resemblance between Bane and Ra's al Ghul. Tom Hardy in the mask looked like Liam Neason a few time for me. And let us rejoice that there is no Damian in the Nolan Bat-verse!

Sticking with Bruce for a bit, the whole hermit/recluse thing was the one wrong note in the whole shebang. Problem one, he gives up on life because Rachel is dead. Ugh, too much power to an OC. Problem two, didn't Bruce gain an appreciation for what Wayne Enterprises meant at the end of Batman Begins? That's what I took away from him retaking control of the company.

The fanon explanation I'm building in my head: Batman vanished 8 years ago, taking the blame for Two-Face's murders. Bruce channeled money and energy into building the fusion power McGuffin, and then up pops the scientific paper that turns it into a nuclear warhead. Damnit, Gotham doesn't need Batman with the Dent Act and all he managed to do was build another weapon instead of anything useful like his father had done (the elevated train system), and that is what triggers the full recluse state a few years after Batman retires.

Anne Hathaway was brilliant as Selina Kyle! ChrisDee's Cat Tales are my favorite portrayals of Selina Kyle, but Anne was a better blend of the Frank Miller goggle-whore with the classy feline grace fans prefer than we could have gotten. Her character arc growing from a taker from the Have-Too-Much to a hero who rescues her man is pitch-perfect. THIS is the Catwoman that travesty of a Halle Berry film didn't even try to be.

Detective work unfortunately took a back seat and then was dropped by the wayside as the plot built up from the first two movies with graceful shout-outs to Knightfall and No Man's Land. But it did manage to lurk in the backstory, namely John Blake figures Batman's secret out. Then he figures out a lot more but not in time to do anything about it.

Now to talk about John Blake, the character the Internet couldn't figure out (maybe someone did guess successfully, I was avoiding spoilers). Kudos to the writers and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for pulling off a combination of traits from all the Robins: Dick Grayson's work as a cop, moral compass, and wise-ass nature; Jason Todd's anger at his orphan state, and the detective skills from Tim Drake. This is a great example of an OC done right, sorry poor dead Rachel. What I kept waiting for them to do was to tie Blake back to the kid Batman and Rachel saved in the Narrows, but they didn't.

Fanon exercise: If the timeline supports that kid being Blake, he is Blake. After all, Gordon went from having an infant in Batman Begins to two kids 10 or slightly under by the Dark Knight. If the timeline doesn't, that kid is going to become Nightwing's Robin.

Alfred, oh my god, Alfred. If you don't get teary eyes and sniffles when he breaks down at Thomas and Matha's graves saying how he failed them, you have no heart.

Which leads me to what I overheard in the theater during the credits. A couple down the row from me brought up the possibility that the last scene was a fantasy constructed by Alfred. While eating supper after the movie, I came up with an outline of why I thought it was real. Then when I got home and poked around the movie's IMDB page, I found out that Nolan constructed the ending so that both meanings could be read into it. And that was okay, because my outline of support became the basis for a fanfic expanding on what we didn't see.

Have a taste of what I came up with for the opening:

The bastard. Selina's fingers manipulated the lock picks automatically and left her mind free to run on the same track it had been running on for the past few days. The man she had mocked as a parasite, the man who gave Gotham everything he had, the man she had betrayed, the man who forgave her and trusted her to follow his path, the man she saved, the man who got past her claws and walls, the man she kissed without any ulterior motive, the man who died so a city might live.

Calling him the bastard was the trick to keeping her tears at bay.

Trust me, I have a lot more than that already. Which relieves me terribly, for it proves that all this overtime hasn't killed off all creativity.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Question to Never Ask a BookWorm

Candi by Starline Hodges Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tales From the DOI

All in all, this week hasn't turned out as bad as I feared. Monday was the worst. In second place, Wednesday with the totally unnecessary and also not-admitted-by-the-culprit dash out to the parking lot because the smoke detectors went off. I'm guessing that Thursday is coming in at third worse since I'm still here at work trying to make paperwork get off my desk. So Tuesday was the best day and then I had to admit to the CCFairy that I had fallen off the finance wagon a bit.

Let's go in chrono order. Monday was buckets of mail. I was checking assessments and grouping them and didn't stop until 1pm, when I left for a post office run, lunch, and massage appointment. Post Office had line from hell, lunch was quick, and the massage was just what I needed. I hit the post office again after and managed to mail off my package. So feeling guilty natch, I called in. No one had done any batching on the assessments since I left. I processed 112 checks from 3:40 to 8.

Tuesday was catch up on what was left from Monday and I had no guilt about going home after my meeting.

Wednesday will not be forgotten because at 1:30pm the fire alarm goes off. Grab everything important and go down the stairs. When you hit the second floor landing, the smell of burnt popcorn hit you across your nose for daring to breath. There has already been a false alarm caused by someone burning up their popcorn once before, so to have to trudge across the hot parking lot to the safe zone for another episode of the same really ticked us off.

Turns out it wasn't popcorn, but rather someone's lunch that was left in the microwave until it caught on fire. That someone has also not come forward and admitted to walking away from the microwave, which pisses the rest of us off some more. Just apologize for your goof up so we can watch you like a hawk so the microwaves don't get taken away from the rest of us who brown bag. What's so hard about that?

Today, I'm staying late because tomorrow I will leave here on time and go straight to a movie theater and demand a ticket for The Dark Knight Rises. I'm hoping by getting a 4 or 5pm feature there will be seats available. But that also means getting the stupid paperwork done now. I'm actually on the stuff I batched today, WOOT! Maybe I'll get to sort out my inbox basket tomorrow.

Not letting the stress crack open can after can of diet soda caffeinated goodness has done the trick on returning my sleeping back to normal, even with the not leaving the DOI until 8pm. Time for me to finish things up so i can go bright and early tomorrow.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 8

Despite the week of hell and not getting proper sleep or exercise, my weight dropped to 185.5 lbs. Right now, I'm attempting to soak up some sun to keep me in a good mood for the upcoming week. Some changes I need to make the next time I attempt this: 1) buy a lawn chair (all the ants in the grass are visiting my yoga mat and towel), and 2) set up in one of the side yards because the oak tree keeps the front yard super shady until about 1pm.

Yesterday was the worse case of exhaustion I have had in years. I nearly slept for twelve hours and only got dressed to go grocery shopping. Then I had to fight with the Inner Workaholic who kept pushing that I wasn't getting website work done, I wasn't getting stories written, I wasn't washing dishes. I should have made yesterday the lay out in the sunshine day, but I was too tired to rub on the oil.

Today is better. Not only am I taking enforced outside time and plan on putting myself to bed at 7pm--with a blindfold because of Daylight Savings Time--I feel awake enough to deal with creative tasks, find the kitchen again, and cook meals for next week.

Next week: I have to have three meals for five days prepped to brown bag. Monday I have a massage session scheduled and will probably be the only day I get home at a decent hour. I already pack breakfast and lunch, but bringing supper will keep my eating normal. I tweaked my schedule to keep exercising. And I need to strictly limit the caffeine and see if that helps.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

It's Friday Already?

Fifteen minutes late on a Friday, not that it ultimately mattered. After the insanity all week, Friday is my breakdown day. I was hoping it would wait until Saturday.

Paying bills is actually what made me late along with not getting up on time. Notice I'm not in bed yet, the posting time is actually accurate. Back on the bills: everything I thought I was doing to save money--like changing my phone plan--won't take effect until next month. I had to drop off this month's payment on a loan and misjudged the time. Then one of my coworkers called in with a car breakdown; we never saw her for the rest of the day.

After the deposit was delivered, I found a Fraud Assessment payment on my desk that I had missed yesterday. The scanner didn't work. Nobody's scanner worked because something was wrong on the other end. That was 9am. We opened mail, I put my returning check letters together, and the scanners finally came back on at 12:30pm. That set our scanning today's work back by hours.

More mail came in at 3pm, at least four full batches. Another coworker couldn't arrange a later ride home, so she left at 4pm. Since I wasn't going home until I had finished batching and had matched all the assessment payments with their copies. Yes, before we mail out the invoices, we have to make a copy for our files. This year we had to make copies of the amended invoices and keep the wrong invoices. Then we have to match the coupon the companies send back with their payments to the copies. I had two days worth of batching that I needed to match up and then separate what we are going to have to refund.

I left the building at 8pm. 7:15pm made twelve hours at the paying job.

I'm still waiting for the caffeine to wear off so I can go to bed. I'm getting there, finally. Plans for tomorrow: grocery shopping and then avoiding the public for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully, my brain will turn on so I can do something creative with it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Time Scheduled For Me

I mostly got out of the paying job on time, leaving a new problem to deal with in the morning. Good news: I believe it is just a problem for one company (Thursday morning: found a second company with the same issue, damn.) and isn't indicative of another system wide issue (Thursday: it doesn't affect every company but it may necessitate the IT contractors tweaking the program again). But I'm not putting any money on that either. (Thursday: smart, I still had functioning brain power when I composed this last night).

My chiropractor realigned my back and I scheduled an hour-long massage on next Monday, which means I'll have to take off early. Oh darn, I'm so broken up and guilty about that. Especially since I spent today in so much pain and took Aleve just after lunch to make it through the afternoon. I haven't been able to write, edit, or tweak websites in three days and that is so not helping my mental state. Exercising has been hit just as hard.

So the massage, early bedtimes for the rest of the week (hasn't happened yet damn Daylight Savings Time), and squeezing in some creative writing are on my agenda to pamper myself. The weekend day of rest will probably end up being two. I'd love to slather on some suntan oil and lay out on the lawn and bake a while, but I'm keeping my options open.

In other news, I'm wading out into active website administrating after having dropped it for years. I made a stab at it before and it didn't stick. This time I decided to put 15 minutes six days a week and an hour on Saturdays to what needs doing. Procrastination has a harder time building up if I stick with that schedule.

The test sites are still the bane of my existence on the web. I created a local server on my old computer and the motherboard fried. I created one on my current computer and found I couldn't import the databases because they were too big.

So my latest bright idea: set up the development sites as subdomains with a copy of the database. And all I can get are 500 Internal error pages. My hour ran out before I could figure out what I did wrong. What I have discovered: "copy database to" works to create a new database with the same information. You can't make the database and chose it to write over it, even if you left it blank to do that. I don't know if the old database tables are what is frakking with the sandbox sites, but I haven't crashed the live sites while I'm getting this straight. When it gets too hot or rainy to sunbath Saturday, I'll be working on them again.

I'm relieved I've left the Library as static pages. Currently, my fifteen minute days are spent on it. The project list has developed into a lengthy one while I was ignoring the sites.

That wraps up everything I had wrote at supper Wednesday night. Thursday, my supervisor returned from her trip and proceeded to go handle supervisory things with the Assessment snafu (like yell at other department heads why in the new system we can't amend our assessments when the company sends us the paperwork we have always asked for). The decision was made to accept the overpayments and use the new refund system that nobody told us was going live. I warned my contact in the Fiscal division; the rest of them are on their own. Tomorrow I should be able to actually mail back payments for the companies who owe us zero second thing in the morning that I never got a chance to do today. I'm also hoping beyond hope to get a chance to write something fictional. Don't hold your breaths on that one.

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The BookWorm

Twelve-Hour Work Day

Started on July 9, 2012: It doesn't happen often, but when it happens it is killer. I'm typically the first one in at the paying job around 6:30am. My shift runs from 7am to 3:30pm with an hour-long lunch break. Today I didn't get to leave until nearly 6:30pm and I didn't get the full lunch break.

July 1st is the beginning of our assessment season. We mail the insurance companies invoices June 30th (or as near as the calendar allows, we fix the snafus as they appear, the payments trickle then gush in, and the Department gets its operating budget for the next fiscal year. But every year there is a snafu.

Last year was the Great Address Disaster, when we lost count of how many invoices the Post Office returned to us because another division decided keeping the addresses updated was too much work. This year is so much more worse. I didn't even want to blog about it over the weekend (Author's note: and I've been too busy to type this up for two days now).

All the assessments are based on a percentage of the written premiums minus some lines that are exempted by law. Life premiums aren't assessed but half of Health and Accident premiums count. Since we have moved to sending out invoices, we've never had to mistrust our totals. When I first started this job, we let the companies do their own math and then had to double check it. The companies never got the math right.

This year the IT contractors unveiled the new tax program they built, which included our assessments. We had trouble getting our invoices printed but we mailed them out right on time. Then we came back to work after Happy United States Day to find out that over half of the invoices totals were wrong. The computer program included Life premiums, and all the excluded lines from Property and Casualty, printed out invoices that we mailed for companies that are exempted and have never had to pay.

Monday, we finally had amended invoices to mail to the companies (Yes, it took the contractors two days to fix the program to calculate the totals right.), which we got out on time at the expense of not batching the incoming mail. So we stayed late to get that done. I also have the joy of answering the emails of the companies who noticed something was wrong and contacted us, but another coworker took the phone calls so I ain't complaining about that. Then we had to separate the payments that had already started coming in: the ones that are the correct amount and the ones that aren't. We don't want to cash any checks when the company doesn't owe us a payment (those are getting sent back with an apology letter). The payments in which they overpaid we still haven't figured out the best way to deal with them.

Tuesday, more of the same but without a mail-out I got to leave at 3:30pm. But it's always something new to make the IT contractors fix. We found a company that was missed completely. 83 Risk Retention companies (which are exempted) were still listed as owing the Department assessments until I got those taken out.

Wednesday, I hurt from the base of my skull to my tailbone because my back ties itself into a pretzel when I'm stressed. New things that IT contractors have to fix: just found a company who we changed contact information last year was mailed to the same wrong address this year, which we were promised wouldn't happen when we took over updating the addresses. Wrong payments outnumbered the right payments that have arrived so far. Hopefully by the end of the week, the mail-out will reach the companies and the wrong payments will stop. We still need to contact the companies who owe us less than what they sent, because we really don't want to refund over 700 companies if we don't have to and we're pretty sure they don't want to wait for their refund checks.

Lunch is over and the companies are emailing.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 7

Another week of lingering at the previous week's progress. I didn't work out as much as I should have. Today I woke up too late to do any sprinting before the heat climbed up, and I've been avoiding the yogilities DVD. Do better next week.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 6

Lesson #1: Do not try to implement changes to exercise program during that special week of the month. You'll be lucky if you can maintain what you've already started.

Lesson #2: The exercise routine travels well (except for the Yogilites DVD). But if you don't DO them, it doesn't count.

Lesson #3: 80/20 rule of moderation is most definitely in effect for travel weekends. However, if I'm going to be going every other week to participate in the RPG, I will need to shop/cook stuff I can have.

Despite the setbacks, my weight dropped to 188 lbs!

Given that I ate more fried chicken than I probably should (limited options and all that), I was expecting another week at 191. So this was a great surprise to start the week.

My goals for this week: add in the more exercises I wanted to last week and keep an eye on my back. Some muscles are triggered that I didn't even know were and I can't tell this morning if it's getting better or worse.

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The BookWorm

Day of Rest Experiment

After June 2 - 3 weekend of back-to-back projects, June 9 - 10 traveling to Shreveport for my sister's version of Say Yes to the Dress, June 16 - 17 housecleaning marathon, I finally instituted a day of rest this past weekend. Two weeks after have the epiphany that I really need to take time off. So how did it go?

My ideal: wake up, finish the hunk of daily chores, and spend the rest of the day alternating between my three writing projects. Sitting down more would be insured by writing in longhand for one of the projects.

Reality: I lost the morning researching and writing my latest Hot Bod 2012 post. Then I realized I had to cook. Followed by alternating my daily writing and editing on the chores list with my earned fun writing. I never got a chance to work extra on Stellar or Forget. I didn't finish off all the daily chores before bedtime.

I don't feel frazzled or drained this morning, which is a success. I also realize I need to shed some to do items from Sunday if I want to continue attempting my ideal day of rest.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 5

Two weeks of exercising and eating mostly Primal (I think I overdid cheese and commercially fried chicken is not Primal, but I didn't order any Popeye's biscuits!) and if I had any progress it got lost with my period starting yesterday. :p TMI ALERT Feel free to skip On the upside, last month I was unnerved that I had an entire week of menses that did not want to flow out of my body. It was always dark brown and spotted the pads. I'm not exactly happy to report that this month that flow is back to its gushing bright red self because the cramps are killing me. I avoided taking anything for the pain yesterday because pain medication always affects the flow, but today I have a cramp and a headache. Fine, medication wins. END OF TMI Good news, I didn't notice any PMS mood swings or craved any chocolate, so something's working.

This past week I changed my vitamins. I had a few days during the first week where I couldn't eat enough. At least, I thought I had a reasonable meal felt full and had a rumbling tummy and hour later. First, I packed more snacks to the paying job. Then when I snacked at home, I started worrying that I was in a mindless eating rut. Second: added 1200mg of fish oil and 415mg of cod liver oil to the vitamins to balance out my Omega3s to Omega6s ratios. My hope is that they add to the fat = satiety. I also upped my potassium to 550mg after having leg cramps last week. It would probably be healthier to just eat bananas, but fresh fruit doesn't keep well in my kitchen.

Exercise: Habit is well on its way of being formed. The only day I came close to missing was this past Thursday when I woke up late thanks to interrupted sleep. Sore lower back is plaguing me too. I don't feel it sitting down, which worries me that my desk job and weight have knocked it off kilter. It's not a sharp while in use pain, more like a dull ache over the back of my hips that makes me what to pop joints.

Last week's goal was to fin a better spot for the wall squat and I did, but I don't feel like I'm progressing as I should. A feel strengthened when the scale nor the measurements didn't really move this week. (For my mental health, I'll post those results on a monthly basis so not to get discouraged.) I don't think it's my impatience showing, but I'm reviewing Primal Blueprint Fitness to double-check what I'm doing.

Problems: Not spending enough time exercising: *Snort* I should have realized it was going too easy. The three Move Slowly days, which I've been doing yoga on) need to equal 3 – 5 hours of low aerobic activity for the week. Yoga is not enough. But what to fill in the rest of the time with?

Walking is an approved exercise; I miss walking. My neighborhood is not set up for walking. More sidewalks were laid down around the park at work, but we're in the 90 degrees (F) is low temps for the day part of the year. Yes, I realize these sound like excuses.

What about more yoga? I have DVDs that I haven't used in years. Okay that's my new plan for Move Slowly Days: yoga routine in the morning fresh out of bed. Yogilates DVD when I get home before supper. I'll buy another yoga mat for the living room too.

Lifting Heavy Things: Oops, I'm supposed to do two sets of the exercises. I can progress to the next level when I meet the goal for the exercises during both sets.

Sprints I need to do longer and more off. Full out jump rope, rest, repeat until fifteen minutes are done.

Not doing the movement right: I reviewed Mark's video and discovered I was trying to keep my feet positioned for a regular squat and the stance should be wider for a wall squat. I'll fix that for next week.

I've got a lot to work on next week, but I can do it.

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The BookWorm

Nightmares of writers

Those who follow Discipline Under Fire already know I have finished Chapter Twenty-Three i.e the climax of Stellar Gift of Death and now am working on the wrapping-up loose threads final chapter. Those who didn't know now know too, and you need to know that along with the fact that I set up Chapter Twenty-Four by deleting Chapter Twenty-Three, tweaking the title, and saving as Chapter Twenty-Four back on Tuesday. It was an attempt to preserve formatting that didn't work. And I'm not going off on a tangent how much I don't like the formatting of Microsoft Word 2010 (what we have at the paying job) but haven't reached the point of figuring out how to make it the same as my Microsoft Word 2003 at home. It's not part of the story.

So Wednesday's writing time was spent all in Chapter Twenty-Four, and it was a great session. Moved onto other things throughout the day, went to bed, and dreamed I had deleted Chapter Twenty-Three, and saved it as Chapter Twenty-Three instead of Chapter Twenty-Four. I saw the proof on my home computer screen. I opened the file and nothing was there but the title Chapter Twenty-Four. "You have to rewrite the whole thing," an unseen voice told me. It wrenched me out of sleep, though at least not to the stereotypical cliche of sitting upright with heaving bosom. My eyes just opened and I realized I was in my bedroom and not my office and I felt a little panicky.

"Don't be silly. Chapter Twenty-Three was fine when you accidentally opened it yesterday before working on Chapter Twenty-Four." Panicky feeling subsided, and I rolled over to go back to sleep.

And just when I was at that dropping off point to deeper slumber, the voice came back. "Chapter Twenty-Three is gone, you have to rewrite the whole thing, and you have no notes for the 2000 words you added to it."

Wrenched awake again with a hearty "Goddammit!" Threw off the covers and marched to my alarm clock. Past midnight. Marched to the bathroom, and then the office, where I proceeded to open Chapters Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four off the flash drive and resave them to my home desktop without ever putting my glasses on. Back to bed and I finally slept so good I didn't wake up on time this morning.

Hardly the same nightmare fuel that gave me "the Bloody Hand," but I'm backing up to my GoogleDocs account today. Just in case my subconscious knows something I don't.

And now for my feelings on Word 2012 formatting: Hey Microsoft, stop dicking with the program to justify the price you put on it!

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The BookWorm

Stellar Gift of Death Word Count

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Hot Bod 2012 Post 4

WOOT! I'm so proud of myself. Seven days of exercise, so the whole roll out of bed and exercise was the step in the right direction. Now I didn't take measurements back on June 10th like I should have (driving home from Shreveport most of the day will wipe anyone out), but I dropped 2.5 pounds since I last measured on April 22nd. PROGRESS!

Today is tweaking paperwork so I don't have to spend time in the morning looking things up. The Lift Goals are now on my log sheet so I don't have to guess how close I am to the goal. Two days of lifting, four days of yoga, and one day of sprinting—which I used my new ropeless jump rope. That device is awesome; I didn't trip at all! What I don't like is the wall squat. I get stuck and can't slide. That's my goal for next week, to not get stuck.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod 2012 Post 3

Break time is over; it's time to get in shape.  Between wedding dress appointments for my baby sister, she and our mother kept finding lovely sundresses for me in my current size. I loathe my current shape of all belly and it's all because I'm lazy to do what I know I have to do. Don't reward that, people! Time to move Hot Bod project to the front of the list.

So that was the first motivator to pick up my slack. The second was waking up this morning and realizing since moving the portabe AC unit into the bedroom and moving my bedroom furniture to make room I now have room for the yoga mat in the bedroom. I have tried using the living room as the exercise area and it's just too easy to ignore it in the morning since none of the rest of the morning routine uses the room. I can literally roll out of bed and exercise by moving the task to the bedroom.

Along with kicking my ass in gear with exercise, I'm restarting primal eating and avoiding sugar when I next buy food. Today is off to a decent start, I have avoided the vending machines so far.

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The BookWorm

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury died today.

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His bastard child* in mourning

*When I was an undergrad (probably around 1998-99), a gang of us drove down from Natchitoches to attend a lecture he gave at LSU. I forget the context--I think it was to do with writing--but after the enthusiastic response from the audience, he called us "the bastard children I never knew I had." I've claimed it with pride since he has been a writing father of mine for such a long time.

Front Porch Makeover

Front Porch Makeover, a set on Flickr.

First attempt at doing this, so I hope it works.

I'm Auditioning For Super-F******-Girl

Gustav blew through here the beginning of September 2008, I took a picture of the house and the debris filled yard, and there is no Incredible Hulk Shelving Unit at that point. So Mom must have closed the shop at some point in 2009. So it has waited for three years to get off my porch. Three years of the particleboard soaking up Louisiana humidity and rain, because my porch doesn't have walls, that is now over thanks to this weekend and me proving I'm a masochist yet again.

It was an ambitious makeover plan, especially since the only worker was me.

• Put everything that belongs to Mom in the parents' garage since Uncle Scott made room
• Throw away decrepit bench
• Nail up cable wire so it's not wrapped around my furniture
• Screw table legs to desk and make a real table out of it
• Price bistro chairs for new desk
• Sand rocking chairs and polyurethane for protection
• Turn cedar log into a side table for rocking chairs

I just set myself up with a Flickr account to better display pictures on my website, but I'm using it in the blogs too. Front Porch Makeover with all my commentary is already set up. You see a hint of what I took in this post, but I don't like how it goes off under the sidebar.

My father finally noticed what was going on when I was getting the base, the one on wheels into the garage. We still call it the garage, but my parents boxed it into a huge room a decade ago now and shrank the doors down to people-sized. I had the shelf on its side, the all-thread screws that I was calling rebar bent to get in the door, and I was pulling it in. Dad came out the front door and surprised me. "What are you doing?"

"I'm auditioning for Super Fucking Girl, what does it look like I'm doing! And I can bend rebar."

"That's not rebar."

"Shut up, I'm not burning this goddamned shelving unit because it belongs to Mom even though it's ruined." I don't know if it was my extra-growly voice that did it, but the base of the shelving unit finally went inside then, and I found my cheerfulness again.

Saturday's results:

• Put everything that belongs to Mom in the parents' garage since Uncle Scott made room
• Throw away decrepit bench
• Nail up cable wire so it's not wrapped around my furniture
• Screw table legs to desk and make a real table out of it
• Price bistro chairs for new desk
• Sand rocking chairs and polyurethane for protection
• Turn cedar log into a side table for rocking chairs
• Buy a bistro table and chairs set. Must have a top I can write on.

Sunday, I moved onto project number two and learned a valuable lesson. Lesson: schedule a damn day to rest over the weekend! Project number two was framing the hatch to the attic and cutting a door to properly fit the hatch. Sounds so simple, but it ate up so much of my time and energy that nothing else got done, including picking up my power tools from the back porch. If my circular saw has been stolen when I get home, I'll be pissed to say the least.

New attic door Flickr set. Please read the commentary, you don't get the full measure of how insane I got without it.

The good news is none of my power tools were stolen by the time I got home and I managed to do very little with cleaning up the tools. Today is my running around day. I have paperwork to take to my credit union, computer parts to drop off at the recyclers (which I tried to do yesterday and got lost), and table legs to return to Lowe's. Then back to organizing the back porch and the rest of my house work. I can't let it wait until the weekend because I'm scheduled to go to my baby sister's and help her with bride things. And that's a funny story for another post. Remember to put the massage mat that can go into a car on the seat by Friday.

Weekend Plans Got Changed

Uncle Scott got energetic on me last night. Portable AC unit is now in my bedroom, and I need to tweak my bedroom furniture placement to fit it best. And the attic is now mostly sealed, but it turned out what I was saving as the attic door (and I think both me and Mom agreed was the attic door) was the wrong dimensions to be the attic door. What the hell was it a door to? It is made of a thick piece of plywood, so the old kitchen cabinets are out of contention.

Regardless, now I have to go to Lowe's armed with measurements for a new door and get wood cut to fit into the hole. And since Uncle Scott made room in my parents' garage room for the hulk of a shelving unit that has been on my porch ever since Mom closed her shop (how many years has that been now?), I can move that off my porch! I've been inspired to finish my porch furniture and embrace the space, just in time for the hottest part of the year.

I never claimed to have great timing.

My porch furniture: three rocking chairs built by Hephaistos knows and painted green, the extended tabletop from my computer desk that needs legs, a twig/stick table built by Hephaistos knows, a log from the cedar tree that was cut down at some point in 2009 (here's reason 1 and reason 2 for why it had to come down) that I just had a brilliant idea to turn it into a side table, and that's all I can remember here at work. The plan so far is to clean the green paint off the rockers and polyurethane the natural wood look. The table top will get legs and come off my sawhorses. And turn the log into a side table. So I'll be spending a lot of time and money at Lowe's this weekend.

Rizzo needs an oil change, grocery shopping, and paying bills rounds out the rest of the weekend goals. I also need to take pictures of the progress.

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The BookWorm

One More Day in May

The everyday posting my writing progress takes the wind out of my sails for updating anything else. I need to work on that.

Back on May 10th, I finally got my hair cut. Thirteen inches off to Locks of Love, and I need to take a picture of it so I recreate the hairstyle in the future.

When we last met, I was going to my friends the new parents to host an amateur episode of Clean House and see the Avengers. That didn't happen on the Avenger's opening weekend. The long and hopefully funny version is on my LJ account. I got Mom a portable scanner for Mother's Day and my sisters will be getting collection letters this week for their unpaid portions. The weekend after that, Eric and Suzanne had more family visiting to see JIM. So the Memorial Day holiday was spent cleaning their house and FINALLY getting to see the Avengers.

I'm still processing the movie. Dad may not have a choice not to go see it for Father's Day, so I can see it again. *Grin* Though I think my favorite joke is when Steve Rogers pulls a ten dollar bill out of his wallet and hands it to Nick Fury without saying a word. Yeah, I like that even more than when Loki meets the Hulk for the first time.

But while I was paying or earning karma (or at least a big hair flower a la Nicey Nash) over this past weekend, I came home to an electrical dead computer and a dead bedroom AC unit. The electronics failure is thanks to my battery backup dying and not an inside the wall wiring problem. And the AC was something I ended up with when Chad and I broke up, and it was used when he got it. So I'm actually surprised how long it lasted, even though I'm annoyed that I have to rearrange the AC units. One would think that the living room's would blow enough cold air into my bedroom. It doesn't. :p Luckily, I have a unit to move around without having to go buy another one.

At the paying job, T'Lania came to work for us. It's half-days because we don't want to tax her too much, but all she is depending on is a cane to walk with and controlling hand tremors. This is a HUGE deal because four years ago, we didn't know if she would live or die much less walk again. She has come such a long way.

Plans: The weekend will be here before I know it. I have to pay bills, send out the collections letters, buy a new battery backup, and relocate the AC units. Beyond that, I'd love to have a front porch again (i.e. clean off the junk Mom left there while she's in Texas and tell her via phone she can't bitch about it), but heat is also a factor in that project.

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The BookWorm

Why Do I Leave So Many Tabs Open?

Lincoln High School in Walla Walla Tries a New Approach to School Discipline - Suspensions Drop by 85%: I sincerely agree that this approach needs to be moved into all schools.

Jezebel: Rock the Slut Vote If you're as tired of old, white men telling you what to do with your body as I am, you should be voting.

Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake! No matter how you feel about Stephen King's writing, he grew up poor and was a poor adult with a family to support when Carrie sold. He understands (a hell of a lot more than Mitt Romney EVER will) why people need government safety nets.

LASERs I'm providing this link so you can educate yourself what new bonehead moves the state Legislature is trying to pull. I need to find a spot of Zen and write up my coherent "I'm a taxpayer, a state worker, voter, and a reader, asshole. Don't you dare try to pull this shit!" letter to my state representatives. Zen, so I don't cuss them out. But this stance of we want government services but don't want to pay anyone to do them is bullshit. And then to tax us for the joy of working for the state government? Colbert, take over please.

Thanks.

More for me than anyone else.

The Earth is warming up. The rate of warming has increased in the past century or so. This corresponds to the time of the Industrial Revolution, when we started dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases warm the planet (hence the name) — if they didn’t we’d have an average temperature below the freezing point of water. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which is dumped into the atmosphere by humans to the tune of 30 billion tons per year, 100 times the amount from volcanoes. And finally, approximately 97% of climatologists who actually study climate agree that global warming is real, and caused by humans. -- Bad Astronomy: More Debunking of the ex-NASA 49 climate change deniers

Matthew Vines: The Gay Debate: Homosexuality and the Bible He has deconstructed the argument with the Bible and it is AWESOME.

Another moment of AWESOME Caine's Arcade. This will be a charity I'll donate to when I can because this amount of ingenuity must be encouraged for the sake of us all.

Lifehacker reviewed KanbanFlow and I decided to give it a try for a few reasons. Namely, I keep looking for a GTD list tool that doesn't let me oops forgot anything and actually encourages me to finish projects but also keeps the repetitive tasks that should be habits by now but aren't at the forefront. Two: KanbanFlow has limits built into it (can only have three tasks In Progress at one time), so I must chose what I'm doing and I'm aware of the choice. Three: felt like it.

It took three days to put in all my lists, but it was time well spent. First discovery: holy crap, I list a hell of a lot on my weekly to do list and rarely accomplish a third of it. Not a new revelation, but it was time to clean off the Big Rocks list and keeping my choices narrowed down to three in progress.

Second discovery: I meant to go through my writing projects and close a lot of them out. The list says I'm still writing most, when all I have left to do is publish it at the Library. Oops.

Third discovery: I wish they had included a copy 'n paste feature, but now that all the repetitive stuff is in, I don't need it as much.

Fourth discovery: I scheduled my timed stuff by 15 minute intervals, so using the Pomodoro timer doesn't mesh well, but it has a nice loud ding that's audible over the podcast I was listening to.

Writing Projects: Now I need to set aside some time to clean off the list, but it doesn't look like it will be this week. I haven't had as much free time at the paying job to concentrate on Stellar Gift of Death and been crashing hard when I get home, 7:30 pm bedtime. Why I haven't a clue. I did find a free map making program so I can make a legible map of the city for Forget the Sun, when I have the time and brain power to learn it.

This weekend is tentatively scheduled to be spent with friends and Marvel-trademarked spandex. Plans are still unformed as of today, but I do need a break from the housework and computer work I've been doing for so long. :p

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The BookWorm

It's Dark Again!

"Does the Dollar General have poster board?" I asked my coworker with a kid still in grade school, thus needing things like poster board for school projects.

"I don't know; I've always gone straight to Wal-Mart."

Don't think this is a bash against Wal-Mart. I do shop there, but I try to limit the trips. I've already gone once this month. However I was willing to go if it was the last resort for anything to block that damn street light out of my bedroom.

Why poster board? I searched on blackout shades. Target has blackout curtain liners, but I don't have curtains or curtain rods. Lowe's has something that looked like the old solid sheet roll down blinds for $144. Wal-Mart listed one that you trim to fit your window and press 'n stick in place but it rolls up manually. I couldn't wrap my brain around that description and decided taping poster board over the glass was a) cheapest, b) easiest, and c) least permanent.

Dollar General does have poster board: white, black, and orange. I chose white since the house is white and my blinds are white. But I had second thoughts after I put it in the windows. Sure, it dimmed the sun, but didn't block it completely. I figured tomorrow I would go buy some black poster board and stick that on the windows too.

But I'm happy to report as of bedtime that I don't have to buy any more poster board. Because there's not orange glow in my bedroom now! WOOT! Light does come through the white, but now it matches about what I got from a full moon B.S.L. (Before Street Light). I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling like I had more sleep than I have the past two nights. I'm so glad I don't have to spend any more money.

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KLCtheBookWorm

Another Week Down

I think the rush is now over. At least, the mail levels today have been normal Tuesday levels and I have time to catch up on posting before I start timing the writing. I finished the beat sheet for Forget the Sun, took a week off, and then have been plugging away at Stellar Gift of Death. The plan (so far that I have one) is to continue concentrating on finishing Stellar’s out-of-sequence scenes, then switch back to Forget the Sun.

Part of the reason my focus has been so not there, TV to watch. But there’s so little I watch I find it hard to feel guilty. The real problem is WHEN they air the shows (no DVR and I tried the taping thing, I still need to watch the third season of Castle). Three days in a row with late bedtimes, and I am a cranky girl who doesn’t want to think. However most of what’s on the TV now are wrapping up their seasons so soon I will sleep again.

Justified: I only watched because of Neal McDonough, but this show soon snagged me as a fan. I don’t know if I’m a fan enough to continue to next season, well, I probably will if Limehouse comes back.

Full Metal Jousting: the History Channel’s show about real jousting and real training for it. And it was a competition for $100,000. I was rooting for the Red team and none of them won. Better luck next year! Seriously, I wonder if they are going to let previous competitors come back.

Shows you already know I love: Castle and Bones. ABC should have ordered more episodes because this spacing the new episode’s out in two-week intervals so the finale falls on May 4 is whacked. Especially how every time they have air a rerun limited to this season (good), and it has never been the few episodes I missed! (WTF?) Bones moved to a new night but it works for my schedule.

Shows I’m trying out and am now probably a rabid fan of: Finder, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm. I adore Walter, the Finder, brain injured war vetern who can see all the patterns no one else can and generally doesn’t give a damn about societal niceties, but I will accept the fact that this is Fox and Fox is stupid so I probably will only have this precious, precious season. Once Upon a Time has me sitting on a list of names these people have on both sides and timeline notes because I should write first before I try to unsnarl the clues. Grimm: this show has dragged poor Nick’s development so damn slow I think it can become the Monroe Show and more people will watch it. The world is fascinating, so I haven’t wrote it off yet.

Dancing With the Stars: I’m watching and voting, and now the other channels have filled up Monday nights so that makes it hard. I’m rooting for Jaleel White.

The light pole saga, or as I like to call it, the new pain in my neck. A couple of weeks ago, Entergy put a stake and a notice that a new pole was going in on our neighbor’s property. The speculation has run the gamut: one of my cousins finally take the piece he inherited, new line getting strung to the cousin at the end of the driveway, new wires getting strung to the cousin at the road. Friday, I found out what it was for when I went out to get Mustard and found my front yard lit up by the new outdoor light.

This light streams in through both my bedroom windows because it is aimed at the driveway and not anyone’s house but mine, so many yards away. Who has issues sleeping with light? That’s would be me. So far I haven’t suffocated myself as the covers go over my head to make the orange glow go away.

Dad got a hold of the cousin who ordered it and he promised to ask Entergy to put the light on his side of the pole. I sent Entergy a complaint to put a lamp shade on it or something. But I think I’ll still buy something to blackout my windows just in case those efforts don’t decrease the light pollution.

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What I’ve Learned

The past four days have been busy with me learning things I had no intention of learning. I hope it’s not an indication of the rest of the week.

On Friday: My Good Friday was 90% non-religious unless you count “Oh God why aren’t you open!” as a prayer, then the number changes to 60%. For starters I had to go shopping, get the oil changed in Rizzo, see about getting a haircut, and go to a great-aunt’s funeral.

Crap, learning things actually started on Thursday when I found out Paris Parker no longer give complimentary haircuts for Locks of Love donations. This is the only way I’ve cut my hair for the past ten years, so changing things now. *raspberry*

Back to Friday, Dad said the oil change place opened at 7am. I left home at 7:30am. New hair salon was closed (expected since it was the crack of dawn) but didn’t have hours posted on the door (unexpected). Headed to oil change station and they’re setting up for the day. They open at 8. Go to Tuesday Morning. They open at 10. Ross opens at 9:30. I reminded myself I needed a new extension cord that I can get at Lowe’s. Lowe’s is open because they cater to contractors.

Not only is Lowe’s open, the parking lot was full. Which makes sense, everyone in Hammond was there because nothing else was open! Extension cord procured, followed by the oil change, which took about 30 minutes. So I headed to TJMaxx, since none of the other stores on my list were open. TJMaxx opens at 9:30.

At this point, the breakfast I had at home was long gone so I retreated to McDonald’s, refueled, and waited for 9:30. Everything I needed was at TJMaxx and I made it to the funeral on time.

Lesson: I have successfully reprogrammed my bio-rhythms out of sync with my home town and if I have been up for hours, you should be too. *growls*

Saturday: I learned that Dad’s Santa Fe has a kill switch, but I don’t know how I activated it. Luckily, the car started again before someone exiting the Westbank Expressway killed me and Mom.

Sunday: I finally had time to really flea treat the house. I had already dosed Mustard with the spot treatment, so first he got shampooed and kicked out of the house while I vacuumed and sprayed the floors. I learned that one large can of the flea killing spray is only enough to cover half the house.

Monday: There will be no time for writing when over half the office is M.I.A. and there’s a payment deadline on the 15th along with the mail running on Good Friday. I ended up working an hour and forty-five minutes overtime. Which derailed my plans for after work, luckily there were adjustable.

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Closing Open Tabs

What Anonymous Doctor says hearted a million times:

I do not feel that it is reactionary or even inaccurate to describe an unwanted, non-indicated transvaginal ultrasound as “rape”. If I insert ANY object into ANY orifice without informed consent, it is rape. And coercion of any kind negates consent, informed or otherwise.

In all of the discussion and all of the outrage and all of the Doonesbury comics, I find it interesting that we physicians are relatively silent.

After all, it’s our hands that will supposedly be used to insert medical equipment (tools of HEALING, for the sake of all that is good and holy) into the vaginas of coerced women.

Fellow physicians, once again we are being used as tools to screw people over. This time, it’s the politicians who want to use us to implement their morally reprehensible legislation. They want to use our ultrasound machines to invade women’s bodies, and they want our hands to be at the controls. Coerced and invaded women, you have a problem with that? Blame us evil doctors. We are such deliciously silent scapegoats.

Where Is the Physician Outrage? Written by An Anonymous Doctor and originally published on Whatever (http://whatever.scalzi.com).

The Doonesbury strips referenced in "Where Is the Physician Outrage?"

Michael Bay vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles controversy: I ran across one theory that Michael Bay said he's making the Turtles aliens to deliberately rile the fandom up. Because what came up after that infamous remark was a comment that the ooze is alien. But you know what, the damage has been done. The awful stuff in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen insulted me (a white, non-Transformer fan woman), so I don't want Michael Bay anywhere near my green teens. Then to use my worry about a universe I adore and have accepted many mutations of by various license holders to stir up publicity? Oh hell no, you ain't get any of my money.

Because of all that and that I am a rabid fan of both franchises, this Gutters page made me giggle a lot.

Project Rooftop highlighted a redesign of the Turtles cast that kicks some shell!

Bully will be released un-rated, since the MPAA is being dicks about language used by actual teens. But male bums and full-frontal female nudity are fine for PG-13 movies. *Rolls eyes* From the trailer, I feel this is a movie that all of America needs to watch.



In full disclosure, I was alienated and had no school friends until I changed school districts for my sixth grade year. My online handle is my reclaiming the word that was constantly thrown in my face as an insult. And now what kids face is so much more worse and physical.

And my baby sister is engaged! We're all very excited and happy, even though the wedding itself is over a year away. Now that my neck is back to normal, I need to get back into exercising so I can shed the extra weight I'm carrying.

Okay, that's everything, I hope. Now I have to get back to outlining Forget the Sun and what the paying job actually pays me for. :p

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The links cover a whole spectrum

First up, a situation that pisses me off. Jim C. Hines covers it much more coherently than I can right now in his post Doonesbury and Rape.

Second, Kate and Rick: a Love Story is a review that so eloquently explains why I squee so much at Castle and refuse to miss an episode if I can help it.

Third, 1920's Batman design. What really amuses me is how many costumes really don't change that much.

Fourth, Neil Gaiman found my engagement ring while he was looking for a replacement TARDIS pin. Too bad I don't have a fiance to give it to me.

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It's March Already

Yeah, the end of February flew by me. But being sick is a good reason to miss the end of the month, I suppose. I got back to the paying job February 28th to a March 1st deadline for the Tax and Company Licensing divisions. February 29th, still rushed and I woke up with a stuffed up nose and got nothing written around all my appointments. That night I kept waking up every hour sweaty, but achy and chilled and burrowing under all my blankets. March 1st, I dragged my ass to the paying job still feeling achy and chilled but we had a deadline. I bought a thermometer when I finally got off the paying job and turns out I was running a fever. I stayed home March 2nd and the fever finally broke that day. I spent the rest of the weekend recuperating.

Today was the first day back at the paying job since getting sick, since I took Monday and Tuesday off ages ago to drive Uncle Scott to his appointments. It wasn't bad like last week, but still had to get back into the paying job groove.

Fun stuff: Gotham 1459

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Least I Could Do Moment of Truth

LICD is their annual Valentine's Date contest, and the winner this year is Tyler, a SCA member. Today's episode nearly made me snort diet soda out my nose.

Today's my last day of work. Tonight I'll be driving to Austin. Saturday Sherwood Forest Faire! SQUEE! I'll be back home Monday and back to the normal routine Tuesday.

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The Shining Analysis

This is a topic that has been keeping me distracted while at work. It came up in my newsfeeds that someone made a documentary of the theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick's the Shining called Room 237. It's been a while since I saw the film and what I remember of it as a whole was "not the novel at all but SCARY with a dash of significance." Hey it is Stanley Kubrick apparently he didn't know how to film without "significance" all over the place. And I was now curious as to what film analysis people had come up with and went Googling.

Bill Blakemore The Family of Man This is one of the first ones to come up in the search, explaining in broad strokes the whole subtext regarding Native Americans. The Exploding Kinetoscope's essay "Dad, Do You Feel Bad?" The Secret History Lesson of the SHINING expands on the first essay with screenshots to illustrate.

Physical Cosmologies: The Shining (excerpt) part one is a bit harder to get through, reminding me of all the reasons why I evade literary analysis. But ultimately, the writer made some good points about mirrors being doorways to the realm of the ghosts and Danny luring crazy Jack to his death on purpose. That second part really impressed me, since my initial viewing I always thought this kid was clever to get away from him and was just plain lucky with the blizzard.

Then io9 posted Watch this Insane Breakdown of Stanley Kubrick's Hidden Narrative in the Shining, so I did. Then I clicked on Rob Ager's other YouTube videos analyzing the movie before finally ending up at his site Collective Learning. Here's the direct link to his in-depth analysis: "MAZES, MIRRORS, DECEPTION AND DENIAL". Good news is he has done analysis on more movies than just the Shining, bad news is he wants you to buy his DVDs to get all of it. He is upfront with what is available for free on his website is about 50%.

And in the someone is being very cute file: The Overlook Hotel article that blends fictional facts with behind-the-scenes facts. My only issue with it is that the writer tried to match Kubrick and King's depictions in the same article. It may have been easier to just pick one.

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January's Done

The past two weeks have been off, so it's time to climb back on track. To start, see what I accomplished this month and set my boulders for February.

January Boulders

• Take measurements Jan 1
• Self-assessment for exercise
• Research for Imbolic (Feb. 2)
• Start reading 365 Goddess
• Spending diary from Dec. 20 - Jan. 20
• Finish "Stellar Gift of Death"
• Update my NetWorthIQ badge

Monetary Concerns
I finished the spending diary boulder for January, caught up Chase Student Loan payments, took and out a new loan to pay off Republic Finance so they wouldn't sue me.

February Boulders

• Finish taxes on Feb. 19th
• Have a budget for Sherwood Faire trip before Feb. 15th
• Update the NetworthIQ badges for Dec. and Jan.

Not on the same level as the boulders, I have budget exercises on the Big Rocks list that I need to do:

• Set up Zero-based spreadsheets for 2012
• Create a five-year financial plan

Take health seriously

I completed the January Boulders of taking my body measurements and self-assessment for exercising. But as soon as I started adding daily exercise into my schedule, I got the bad news stress courtesy of Republic Finance, and my upper back seized up in response to the point where turning my head brought tears to my eyes. So exercises is on hold until my back is fixed.

February Boulders

• Find the best time of week to update FitDay.com

Spirituality Practice

The idea behind reading 365 Goddesses was to follow the suggestions for celebrating each goddess. That hasn't worked out in the morning scramble to get ready and I stopped reading it. I also didn't do anything for Imbolc.

Add to Pebbles

• Read 365 Goddesses

February Boulders

• Research Ostara
• Make a new Book of Shadows

Fiction Writing

I haven't finished the first read-through of Forget the Sun and I feel like I'm stuck in Stellar Gift of Death.

February Boulders

• Finish Stellar Gift of Death
• Finish Forget the Sun's read-through and move to step two.

DIYLife featured a "snapshot of my life" that I liked enough, I decided to answer it like a meme.

Snapshot of My Life Version

Actual age: 35 years minus 20 days.

Age I feel: Present. Except for more physical aches and pains, I don't think the interior has changed all that much. I matured early.

How I look: Forever getting carded.

Marital status: Single and happy with it, much to my mother's consternation.

Short term goals: They're on my This Week I Need to Do list, and I'll spare you since most of them are above.

Long term goals: Remodel my house or at least get a new roof on it. Publish my original fiction. Travel more.

What’s worked recently: Sticking to my checklist for the day.

Things I’m trying: Breaking goals down by the month seems to be working.

Thoughts on Life: One shouldn't read a story about a cooking show when one is hungry.

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Bad News, Invitations, Punishments, and Insights

Now I’m at a safe place to look back at last week. The week was cruising along, had worked in an exercise routine into my schedule, needed to work in more progress on my writing and editing, two appointments one for the doctor on Thursday and with the CCFairy on Friday. I got invited to a Pampered Chef party and was considering going. So far my next paycheck forecasted a surplus that I should save for my birthday trip and emergency fund, but I could spare $20 on the microwave rice cooked that I’ve had on my wish list for a long time.

Go home Wednesday night and find out that one of my creditors wants to sue me in small claims court over the remaining balance and my inability to pay it. Okay, fine, I still don’t have the money. Also amused by the irony of the amount that is so out of my reach right now only qualifies as worthy of small claims court’s time. I’m ticked off at the marshal who handed my private papers to my parents. I have a meeting with the CCFairy on Friday and hopefully we can get this settled without undue hardship on me.

After that, the second invitation came through Facebook: a free women’s safety seminar for 6pm next Thursday. And my first thought is: “Can’t go! Can’t got ot Pampered Chef either! YOU CAN’T GO!” in the most seething, angry inner voice I have. If it could have separated from my body to beat me up, it would have. As it was, it knocked me back enough from my worries to ask “what the hell?”

The projected surplus hadn’t changed, because it won’t make a dent in what I owe to the creditor. But immediately my mindset is I’m a bad rotten person who should be locked up at home to not get in trouble with money. Brain points out that it’s not free because I would have to eat and spend gas to get to the seminar. I don’t deserve money spent on me. Come straight home and don’t do anything.

That night I went to bed thinking this was my coping mechanism to avoid temptation. I woke up Thursday to a muscle knot where the stress always goes and the idea that I’m grounding myself because I need to be punished over my bad with money. “What the hell” has now become “why do I do this to myself?”

Thursday, I got confirmation that I had maintained my current health even with going off my meds for a few months. I’m back on them and wondering if I should go back off them again. :p

Friday, CCFairy swooped in with an emergency loan to cover the other and kick the judgment off me credit report. I signed up for the credit union’s credit counseling service so I can’t make any financial moves without talking them over with the CCFairy. No arguments from me, since that was my goal at the beginning of the year. I did bring up the punishment insight and admitted I have no idea what to do with it.

I still don’t, but I’m leaning towards accepting the invitations. I double checked my next paycheck forecast and I think I can afford to go to both and not reach the point of can’t pay a bill. That’s where I am today, minus the running around I have to do to actually pay the creditor off. And my mouth is a little sore still since I got the new bridge put in Saturday.

This week: I need to stop typing up blog posts and work on my fiction. ;) I also have to squeeze in sewing time at home. Yeah, I finally feel like sewing again. :D

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Hot Bod 2012 Post 2

So I had a week and now I need to report progress. I exercised Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I used the rest option on Thursday because I woke up with a knot in my left deltoids muscles that made it painful to turn my neck and it is still present today. Friday through Sunday I skipped, mostly to avoid more pain from the knot.

So Monday I’m going to get back in the yoga groove and make an appointment to see a massage therapist this week because the self remedies I’ve been trying haven’t alleviated the symptoms.

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Random links

Good writing advice sent my way:

Just Make the Bed: Overcoming the Problem of Writers Resolutions

Terrible Minds: 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

A Word to the Writerly Wise

SOPA & PIPA

WWdN: In Exile: Today the US Senate Is Considering Legislation That Would Destroy the Free and Open Internet

Making Light: SOPA and PIPA. Where We Are. What They Want.

Money & Living Hacks:

Get Rich Slowly: Make 2012 Better By Asking the Right Question. This has future budget post written all over it.

Lifehacker: How to Book a $1700 Vacation for $700 by Volunteering This is the first time I've ran across this idea, but I'm intrigued. Vacations have been off my radar for so long as well as charitable giving.

A Food Triage Box Granted, I haven't been wasting as much food lately because I haven't been buying any, but I have ran into this problem before. I think a box of need to be eaten soon would work in my fridge.

Apartment Therapy: How to Clean Your House in 20 Minutes for 30 Days I like the break down of surface cleaning and deep cleaning, but don't know how it would work with the schedule I already have.

Enjoy!

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After I swore I was never going to give that man any more money

I’m shilling for George Lucas. After swearing never to give the man any more money, he finally gets “Red Tails” out in theaters Jan. 20th. He is the producer and has been trying to do this movie about the WWII heroes the Tuskegee Airmen for 35 years. Hollywood has been, well, Hollywood about it: i.e. majority black cast, nobody will pay to see it. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard both star in it and people besides Lucas wrote the screenplay and directed it. This is a WWII action movie like “Band of Brothers” and “Saving Private Ryan”, so support it for the Greatest Generation and to prove the studio heads wrong.

Movie Mom: Red Tails Interviews

Due to the way my paycheck falls, I'll have to see it the weekend after it opens. But I will see it in the theaters. I hope you will too.

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P.S. SOPA protest: I've sent emails to my senators and will be sending more emails to my representatives once I get home.

Hot Bod 2012 Post 1

It’s so cliché to make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or get into shape, I’m almost embarrassed to declare this goal that it may be mistaken for the same thing. But my embarrassment doesn’t change the fact that my body can’t do all I ask it to do and I don’t want to hurt when I do it.

So the first step is to see how bad the damage is. I found a three-column journal that never helped me master my finances, but gives me lots of room to record weekly measurements.

Jan. 15, 2012
Height = 158.12 cm
Weight = 197 lbs
Neck = 38.1 cm
Shoulders = 121.7 cm
Bust = 121 cm
Waist = 112 cm
Abdomen = 115.6 cm
Hips = 121.7 cm
Thigh = 65.8 cm
Knee = 40.2 cm
Calf = 40.5 cm
Ankle = 22.5 cm
Upper arm = 31.3 cm
Forearm = 25.7 cm
Wrist = 15.6 cm

Fit Day result = BMI = 36.03 Obese

Step two: Make daily exercise a part of my routine. Primal Blueprint Fitness concentrates on moving slowly, lifting heavy things, and one day of sprinting a week. Since my flexibility has gone to crap, I’ll do yoga on the move slowly days: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Tuesday and Friday are the lift heavy things days concentrating on five body weight movements: push-up, pull-up, squat, overhead press, and plank. Today I need to assess myself to see what my maximums are to calculate which level to start the exercises at.

Set back already. I had bought an Iron Gym Express in 2012 when I found it on clearance since my attempt at building a pull-up bar on the front porch flopped. Plus I wouldn’t use it when it got cold. So one that you can set up in a doorway seemed like a good investment. Today, I put it together to do the pull-up assessment and found that my doorways are too wide for it to fit. *headdesk*

All is not loss because they packed in a Cardio Jump ropeless jump rope. Jump ropes have been my enemy since elementary school. This lets me jump without something to tie my ankles together.

Assessment Outcome
Push-up = 3 start with Wall Push
Pull-up = 0 and have nothing to do them on
Full Squat = 15 start with Wall Squat
Shoulder Press Push-up = 5 start with Elevated Jack Knife Press
Forearm/Feet Plank = 74 sec. start with Hand/Feet Plank Level 3 (90 sec.)
Forearm/Feet Side Plank = 25 sec. start with Hand/Feet Side Plank Level 1 (45 sec.)

That takes care of the lifting days; what about yoga days? I like my yoga DVD, but I’m not ready for its routine. Luckily, I kept my notes of poses to help my problem areas: hip openers, core strengtheners, chest openers, and weight loss.

Always start with Sun Salutations. Even if I have no time for anything else, that is better than no exercise. Wow, it actually works out. I have four days for yoga and four problem areas.

Mondays
Sun Salutations x 2
Hip Opening Routine

• Butterfly
• Left Leg Pigeon
• Left Leg Head to Knee
• Left Leg Happy Baby
• Double Pigeon
• Butterfly
• Right Leg Pigeon
• Right Leg Head to Knee
• Right Leg Happy Baby
• Double Pigeon

Child
Corpse

Wednesday s
Sun Salutations x 2
Core Strengthening Routine

• Mula Bandha 30 lifts x 3
• Find TA
• Happy Baby x 3
• Toe Taps x 4 each foot
• Bridge Pose x 2
• Dolphin Pose
• Dolphin Plank Pose
• Locust Pose
• Downward Dog
• Left Foot Low Lunge
• Right Foot Low Lunge
• Handstand Prep

Child
Corpse

Thursdays
Sun Salutations x 2
Chest Opening Routine

• Cobra
• Boat
• Downward Dog
• Right Leg Pigeon
• Downward Dog
• Left Leg Pigeon
• Downward Dog
• Fish
• Bridge
• Table
• Cat/Cow Breathing

Child
Corpse

Saturdays
Sun Salutations x 2
Weight Loss Routine

• Hero
• Camel
• Child
• Rabbit
• Child
• Half Shoulder Stand
• Plow
• Bridge
• Table
• Right Foot High Lunge
• Right Foot Warrior 1
• Downward Dog
• Left Foot High Lunge
• Left Foot Warrior 1
• Downward Dog
• Mountain
• Five Pointed Star
• Right Foot Warrior 2
• Five Pointed Star
• Left Foot Warrior 2
• Five Pointed Star
• Right Foot Triangle
• Five Pointed Star
• Left Foot Triangle
• Five Pointed Star
• Mountain
• Right Leg Tree
• Mountain
• Left Leg Tree
• Mountain

Child
Corpse

Yoga is blance, hence my reminders to do both legs. Yes, I have forgotten before. Overall, I feel good about these routines. Let’s see what happens next week.

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Geaux Tigers!

I can't have the TV on and get any work done, so its WWL and all the BCS talk. I want my state to win, evenif I'm not much of a football fan.

But I am a Better Than Ezra fan and they released Death Valley EP. The band started while they were students at LSU and they noticed that most of the fight songs hadn't been updated since they were first written, so they modernized the songs. Enjoy!





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