Check In- What Are You Doing?

Later the same Friday, and the gut's still a bit twingy (and head a bit achy), but no more ejecting of liquids, so that's good. And I got a little sleep, finally, which helped some. I hope it's just one of those 24/48-hour bug things. Doesn't make it any more fun.

Got a book read and reviewed, though. And I got a little more site stuff done.

Still would've rather been at work.

Saturday, edging towards noon.

On the plus side, the bug seems to be gone. (Still have a sinusy/ear-crackly headache, but that's nothing new... I'm thinking I still have a touch of dehydration on top of it, too.)

On the minus side, more plumbing issues... complicated by family. Specifically, people not communicating that there were plumbing issues before other people used the plumbing, say to wash dishes.

We're meeting relatives tomorrow for lunch, which usually means meeting relatives to talk for a few hours about where people want to go for lunch before actually having lunch. Remind me to charge my Kindle... and get my new phone ready. Speaking of, I need to get the screen protector on the new phone so it can officially enter service; it's been staying home until it got its new case and screen protector, both of which are here. Still have to figure it out more, but I know enough to make and receive a phone call. That's still primarily what I use a cell phone for (troglodyte that I am.)

Away I wander. Want to try to get some site work done before lunch. Then I have to figure out a lunch that generates the fewest number of dishes, because plumbing issues make washing dishes an Ordeal.

I've been dumping and packing for our move to another city next month. I'm done for now. Fixing to watch Untold Stories of the ER on Netflix.

And it's later on Saturday.

Getting the Kindle charged up for tomorrow, whatever it brings. (Need to find something worth reading on it, TBH. The past three or four titles just didn't click. Trying an older vampire story, and the dense writing might throw me out.) Also should see about adding a few more apps to the new phone. Got a free antivirus on it and a flashlight app ('cause it seemed small and possibly handy), and thinking about what else I want. Some sort of cross-platform free calendar-type app would probably be nice, if I can find one. Dunno if I want Kindle or Nook apps, because I'm still not sold on reading books on a screen that small.

Eh, well.

Did a store run, which wasn't fun because everyone's in an off mood today. But I got deli soup for lunch, and lasagna and Texas toast for dinner, so that's dealt with.

Off to either work on site stuff or work off aggression in Titan Quest. And later I need to finish watching a speed-reading course on Lynda; I'm hopeful it might help me whittle down the TBR backlog a bit faster, though I actually need to sit down and do the drills and such.

Waking up. It's a slow process.

Another chapter done at work, 7 notebook pages so about 2100 words. Feeling pretty good, especially since I'm getting to the good parts soon

Sunday morning, and we're heading to a family Thing later. Should try to get some site stuff done before then, I suppose.

Headache's let up, at least. For now. But it'll be back. It always comes back.

Guess I'll make my usual morning Internet rounds...

I know it's early in the evening but I'm starting to wind down for the night already. I didn't feel like I was very productive but looking back on it now, it wasn't bad. I just haven't been setting too many goals which makes it hard to stay motivated outside of work, the exact same pitfall I fell into at my old job.

DH - Feeling unproductive outside of work is my default setting... not that I feel that productive at work, most days. Good luck with getting some goals set - and reaching them!

Well, it's later the same Sunday, and I'm trudging through on my way to either spitballing or bed/reading. Likely the latter. Been sitting (too crookedly, according to my spine) at the computer much of the evening copying and pasting reviews to the new site template. I'm currently tackling prep work for transferring all 60ish Animorphs reviews. Probably going to be my project through at least Tuesday, maybe the rest of the week. (Gotta update the Amazon links while I'm at it, after all...) After that, though, I'll be done with the A's!

Well, it's a milestone to me... 1/25th of the way through the alphabet. Which would only mean something if I had an even breakdown of reviews, but I'll take what I can get.

The family gathering was typical, in that I was kind of redundant, despite it being a belated b-day gathering. We went to a buffet place that was having a few issues (like running out of silverware), but we survived. Got an emergency kit for my car (been meaning to get one) and a collapsible crate and a B&N gift card. And I offloaded some books for the aunt's Little Free Library.

Okay, idiot, if you can't spitball, at least open your lousy novel file before bed... gotta get the head back in the game...

It's about midnight, so I'm listening to some music (the Turrican 3 amiga soundtrack to be more exact) while editing and chillin'. But mostly just editing.

I am rebooting my mind for a new week. It takes some time, I think God released a new software update.

BD - I have plenty of goals, I just never seem to get the momentum going to actually tackle them.

So far so good today, though. As soon as I woke up I went for a run. Now I'm on coffee #1 and just finished breakfast. When I'm done my coffee I'll get my hour of language study in and I'll still have an hour before I need to finish getting ready for work.

Seriously bad pressure headache and nausea last night so no writing done >.< But considering I wrote about 10,000 words the past work week, I think one night off won't kill me. But this weekend I do hope to tackle making notes/small edits on what I wrote and get the character profiles transcribed out of my notebook, along with everything else that happens on a weekend. Why must a thing like dust accumulate? XD

One hour of language study completed.

I also tackled something that's been on my to do list for ages now--making a doctor appointment. I know, I know. It's been way too long. I wanted to wait until I was on my work insurance, and then things got crazy busy...poor excuse, I know. But I'm super motivated to take better care of myself lately, so I got over my anxieties and made the call. I guess I can use this as a challenge to see how much more fit I can get before going. Done pretty well so far, down 27 lbs total from my highest weight and am now solidly in my healthy BMI range. I just hate being squishy so I'll work on recomp, I did want to lose about 8 more lbs first but it seems like I can't manage it productively without adding exercise anyway.

Now I'm going to finish getting ready for work and get the week started. Joy.

Monday, late morning, and plans to get things done are kinda derailed by "plans" to "go somewhere while it's nice" "sometime."

And the sibling's already in a mood...

Oh, yeah - this is gonna be a great day...

--

And it's later. To summarize:

- The sibling's mood did not improve. (Apparently, I hid something of hers, then had the entire rest of the family lie to her about it... 'cause it's my evil little life's ambition to move her bath scrubber thingy, and everyone else in this house wishes her ill as well. I wish I was making this up, so I didn't have to live with it.)

- We did go out to a park, despite the sibling's mood. (Not even pretty leaves could do much about that.)

- And, as of tenish minutes ago, after a long afternoon of cutting and pasting and tweaking and checking, I have finished transferring the Animorphs reviews. So, aside from one quick sweep to make sure I did a formatting thing I meant to do but may not have, I am done with the A's.

Tomorrow, either the B's or a break.

I'm leaning toward a break.

If the weather doesn't suck, maybe I'll hole up in my workshed and get something done out there. They're talking wind and rain, though, so we'll see how things look. (Power lines don't like it when wind knocks branches into them...)

Blah. I didn't sleep that well last night, so of course I also overslept by about 45 mins. I have time to do my workout or my hour of language study, not both. Obviously the language is much more important. I suppose I could try to get a short workout in tonight, but I already have plans to go to V's so it may not be practical unless I happen to get home super early. Hah. By early I mean on time.

Work is either going to improve or take a horrendous nosedive in the very near future. Maybe both, depending on which department one is in and if one is a driver or not.

Anyway my coffee cup is empty and it's about time to start studying.

Just posted my blog post for the week. Blogging is harder than I thought, I typed up 3 potential posts before I got one I was happy with. I thought this would be easy but it's surprisingly hard to find topics to talk about each week. Still, I'm up for the challenge.

After sleep and chores, tonight is devoted to going over the chapters I wrote in the past week, adding notes and some edits, and possibly typing up character profiles so I don't lose them. I wrote them in pencil in my notebook and they're getting all smudged >.< Here's hoping for another productive night.

DH - Maybe you could split the difference - do sitting exercises (arm lifts, etc.) while studying? And fingers crossed on the job's direction...

thereness - Smudged pencil... not fun. I usually write in pen in notebooks these days for just that reason.

Tuesday, and I need to go to a store later. Yes, again. (Shopping with a black-mood sibling... doesn't happen. I'm hoping she doesn't ride along today - her moods tend to linger...)

The weather's taken a nosedive. Dark, some winds, and a real downpour this morning. Supposed to last through the weekend, IIRC - a whole line of clouds across the Pacific aimed right at us.

Off I meander. Should probably make myself take a site revision break after that formatting check/fix, because I do have other things I should be doing... like getting my tail moving on ornaments. Gah, I meant to have them started by now... lazy-arse idiot.

--

And it's later. The "storm" sorta petered out after the morning drama, but another one's on the way.

I actually got out of the shopping trip, which was a relief. After telling myself I needed a break from site work, I went on to spend the day... doing site work. (I couldn't go to the workshed because someone had to man the phone. So, since I was stuck here anyway...) And for all that, I'm not even through the Ba... titles yet.

Ergh.

But work looms tomorrow, intestinal tract willing (I no longer trust the thing), so I'm shutting down site stuff. Gotta get a little writing or something done before bed.

Off I go.

Brightdreamer- Yeah, I usually write in pen, but I wrote character profiles in pencil so I could change things as needed XD At least the smudging hasn't gotten too terrible yet.

Such a long night of chores @_@. I didn't stop doing laundry until after midnight, having swapped my summer wardrobe out for my winter one. Which meant I didn't get much writing done. But I did manage to get 3 profiles typed up and I guess Wednesday/Thursday night at work will be dedicated to making notes on my MS. Blah. Ah well, at least I got something done.

Today I was just outright lazy. I woke up on time but didn't get out of bed, so no workout today.

Did get my language practice done though, and no interruptions this time.

On second coffee now.

I think my main issue isn't necessarily related to productivity, it's more target fixation. Right now almost all of my free time is invested in language learning--if I'm not actively studying the language I'm reading about language learning in general, gathering resources etc. Motivation toes a fine line before obsession for me. But a huge part of that is the excitement, too. I can't wait to start practicing with my drivers. Ironically I've noticed that although he has the heaviest accent in English, R is the easiest for me to understand in Portuguese. I know he'll be happy to practice with me, and I'll have plenty of opportunity for it with him taking so much extra work on lately.

Wednesday morning, and everything seems cooperative so it's off to work I go.

I so need another job... I like the books and mostly being left alone, but I'm wearing out physically and it's just getting harder to crawl out of bed.

Need to get more stories written and circulating, I suppose, but I've gotten used to not writing, like I've gotten used to not going to the workshed and not doing so many things: I anticipate interruption, which creates a greater obstacle to doing things than actually being interrupted. Dang it. Trying to get back in the evening spitball habit. Should just take one of them and give it a polish and send it out, see what happens. Couldn't be less productive than what I'm doing anyway...

Ergh.

I've also come to the conclusion that my computer chair is shot, which is contributing to my worsening posture and other issues. Why can nobody make a computer chair that lasts? This one wasn't cheap, but I can't seem to fix it anymore; the back slips down so I don't have back support, and the seat feels a bit wobbly. Dang it. Shopping for computer chairs is a pain, as is getting rid of old ones.

Away I wander. Work looms, and shopping. Always shopping.

Having coffee and running through the story line of two novels in my head at the same time

Later on Wednesday.

Work was there. No power blips, but the wind's picking up now so maybe something will get messed up overnight. (It's wrong of me to sorta hope for a power blip just to break the monotony...)

Shopping happened, taking far too long. They must've had power Issues, as the deli chicken I was counting on for dinner (not to mention the deli soup I was counting on for lunch) was AWOL. Had to gas up on the way home, too. So the upshot is no lunch. Got a workaround for dinner, at least, turkey and cranberry sandwiches with potato salad instead of fried chicken and potato salad (we're not counting on power, so nothing that requires heating.)

And the sibling's being especially slothful and snarky. (Now she wants me to man a relative's empty house on Halloween - despite the fact that I work the next day and she doesn't. I also don't like dealing with people, either, and she knows it. Thanks a ton, sibling... still hoping I can coax her around.)

Away I wander. Maybe I can get some reviews transferred, power pending.

BD - I totally understand chair woes. Mine is trashed too but I'm still catching up on bills and more important things from my extended unemployment so I just deal with it. Maybe it'll be my really boring Christmas present to myself this year...

Slow start to this morning. I was up late last night and slept in again. I'm keeping up on my Portuguese studying but workouts are almost a total fail this week. If I don't make plans with V tonight I'll get one in when I get home. The problem with that is I don't eat lunch at work so usually by the time I get home I am starving and I can't workout after I eat. I'd have to do it as soon as I get home and hope I have enough fuel in the proverbial tank, or do something low impact like walking.

We'll see what happens. It also depends on traffic, even when I do get out on time sometimes I'm still not home until 7:30 or so.

For now I need to finish getting ready for work.

After nearly a year of being unable to write more than a few sentences, I was able to write more than 6K yesterday. I have a completely ms I shelved over a year ago (long story) and haven't been able to read past the first paragraph. I just...couldn't face it. But yesterday just skipped to the middle and started reading and managed a couple of hours of editing. I feel like a huge weight has lifted. That block in my mind is finally gone and I'm...relieved. I just hope I can keep this going.

So, today I'm writing.