Check In- What Are You Doing?

Semi productive evening, writing wise. All of my character profiles, minor and major, are transcribed so no more worries about smudging. Just got the world info left to do and all the different training schools to figure out. Plans to edit blog post tonight before posting and doing some low carb cooking. (Kinda nervous about that. I can bake like nobody's business but cooking? Nngh....) And then another night working on transcribing while I give my brain a rest from the main plot. But it'll be back to the grind on Wednesday and I have to say, I'm looking forward to it. Cause character development ahoy and a new team member arrives to stir the pot, whoohoo.

DH - Bummer on the coffee rationing... but, hey, progress on language, at least.

thereness - Remember to leave a little wiggle room in those profiles and background stuff; what looks good on an info cheat sheet sometimes turns out less good in practice, as the flow of the story can reveal options you never considered. Good luck!

Tuesday morning, and I indulged in a nice snooze-in. Now I need to get to It. ("It" being variably defined as site work, shed work, or whatever shopping trip I may or may not get hauled out on.)

A little more dinking around online, then off to transfer more reviews.

Hitting the refresh button obsessively on my email.

Trying to get those fifty posts!

Reading parts of OATHBRINGER on Sanderson's fb.

Later the same Tuesday, and I'm about to get back to review transfers. Taking a pass on exercise today because the sinuses have decided to sinus again, which is a lame excuse, but I'm a lame person.

Got some shed time in earlier. My garden griffin's looking more griffonic as I build up the mane. Tergriffic!

And I downloaded a few more Rifftrax shorts (had a coupon from the last kickstarter campaign), so I got those on a flash drive for later viewing. (Our TV has a USB port. Works better than networking it, for some reason.)

And it's transfer time...

Siiiiiiiigh.

Huge problem with one of our distributor companies today. You know what that means? 14 hour day for me tomorrow, that's what. FML. I have to be there for 4:30 a.m., which means waking up at 3:30 at the latest. It's going to be so, so bad, but it'll be even worse if I'm not there to assist. Grumpy will be overwhelmed, new new girl will literally be working her very first day so she can't help us, and there will be so many blowouts and probably a ton of missorts and misroutes. Also one of our good drivers will be suspended tomorrow for something he refused to do today, so cover driver shenanigans. Oh and a 50/50 chance new dispatcher will call out because her son is sick...

It's 7:30 p.m. now and I only just got home. I am pretty much going to eat, shower, set up anything I possibly can set up for tomorrow and then try to go to sleep.

Currently giving up on my WIP for the night. Haven't been able to make decent progress on it in almost a week I think I've hit that middle-of-the-novel slump. Gah. The words were pouring out of me so quickly before now...

Taking break from writing and having fun on various forums....

Tuesday night, and about to get ready for bed. Making sure the phone's charged and such. Meant to get more reviews transferred after dinner, but wound up watching Rifftrax shorts and washing dishes instead. (Also thought of another design tweak, which will require going back to fix existing reviews, but it probably needs doing... it's always something, isn't it? On the plus side, I may be able to Find/Replace to do large chunks of it automatically. Hooray for automation!)

And I wound up popping a couple Excedrin, which seems to be taking the edge off the head pressure. Hopefully the caffeine doesn't keep me up late, but it's the only stuff that really touches anything.

Time to head off. Work on the morrow.

It's 2:42 a.m. and I'm awake. I've actually been up since 12:45, try as I might I just could not go back to sleep. I did wait until 2:30 to actually get out of bed though. I'll get my coffee going at 3:00 so I can take my time drinking it, and out of the house by 4:00 to be at work for 4:30.

I still don't consider myself a morning person.

All I did last night was post a blog, since I had to do other things. And I decided to take the night off and enjoy some good old-fashioned gaming with friends. To recharge the old batteries, sort of. Back to the grind come Wednesday evening, though. New blog posts to draft, more chapters to write, more world info to transcribe, and things to research. I'm glad I gave myself a night to relax.

DH - Lack of sleep must be catching... Got maybe two, three hours cumulative last night. Knew taking Excedrin so close to bedtime was a mistake - though that's probably not what did it. Just my brain being a jerk again.

thereness - We all need to recharge batteries now and again...

Well, it's Wednesday, and I'm up too early. (As a kicker, I had a frustrating dream that I was reading a book because I couldn't sleep; I was rushing a bit as I neared the end so I could post a review before I left. Wasn't a great book, but wasn't terrible - some MG sci-fi/space opera kind of thing that was clearly heading for a cliffhanger and some fairly obvious betrayal trope. Part of me wishes I could remember more details, but I'd just as soon write something that didn't annoy me even in my sleep.) Might use the time to try that fix I need to do on my new site.

Off I trudge... and, no, body, you had your chance for sleep and you blew it. Can the yawning, already...

(ETA - Just implemented that fix. Find/Replace did most of it, so it didn't take long. So that much has been accomplished today. Would've rather had sleep, though...)

--

And now it's even later. Up to the Co... reviews. The end of the A - C folder is in sight!

(Now that I've tempted fate, I think I'll back up my web files...)

In other news, work willfully and persistently existed, as did the store after work. And that's about all I've accomplished. Also started reading Steven Pressfield's creative kick-in-the-tail classic The War of Art. Only shaky bit was where he claimed that ADD and similar "issues" were products of the ad industry and not real diseases, though he allowed that depression may sometimes be real. In the context of excuses to not pursue creativity, I can see where he's coming from - it's too easy to label one's procrastination as something one's seen on TV, or make excuses because of an existing condition - but that's an outdated (and potentially dangerous, in the case of untreated depression) attitude. So far, the rest is depressingly on target.

Well, yesterday was absolutely terrible but I'm glad I did the morning even if I regretted it later lol. It would have been so, so much worse if I wasn't there to assist my drivers and give Grumpy a break. We even had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss our gameplan, so that helped a lot. Everyone knew what they were doing, with the exception of the two brand new pharmacy dispatchers. Honestly they were mostly in the way, not their fault but on a day like that there just isn't time to babysit.

Grumpy stayed at the dispatch computer while I worked the warehouse floor. It was pretty funny, almost every driver did a double take when they saw me, and then you could almost see the relief in their eyes lol. I basically did laps of the doors, checking in with every driver, relaying information and just helping them with anything they needed. Communication is where we as a team are the weakest and why I made sure I talked to everyone. It makes a huge difference, it really does. There wasn't a lot of confusion, Grumpy was keeping calm, the drivers weren't stressing despite the sheer magnitude of the issues we were having. It could have gone so much worse.

Actually, I think it demonstrated how true the maxim "keep the drivers happy" is. No one was especially happy per se, but despite there being 40+ drivers in house at the same time I was still working with everyone individually. Everyone was heard no matter how big or small their issue was, and I did my best to resolve things as quickly as possible in order to get them moving. Respecting a drivers' time is extremely important.

It was a really, really long day for me though. 14 hours, no break. I fully intended to take my break but by the time I had time I was the only dispatcher left in pharmacy so...no break for me. So it goes.

Got home, ate, and even though I was tired and my brain was fried I still did just enough language practice to keep my Duolingo streak lol. Only review, no new material. Then I went to bed.

And here I am, one coffee into my day. I am still so tired, and pretty sore from ~4 hours of continual movement on top of the usual back and forth. Going to get my study time in, but probably only reviewing again. I have the mental acuity of cheese today.

DH - Now, now - don't knock the mental acuity of cheese. Swiss is full of holes, sure, but cheddar can be extra sharp.

On the plus side, I got a little more sleep last night, so that's something. Still don't feel that rested, and I got up too early again. (And again, I dreamed I was reading a book before waking up, only this one wasn't as bad as the last one - wish I'd been able to finish it. It's entirely possible I need to back off on review transfers in the evenings... or spend more time writing.)

Yeah, go ahead. Yawn. You know you're not crawling back into bed, body.

Away I meander.

There is nothing sharp about my brain today, that's for sure.

So, so tired right now. Stayed late last night. It was a terrible, terrible day that only got worse with each passing hour. Both new dispatchers are still useless and in my way, less new dispatcher had to leave early, and Grumpy had to go out for deliveries. Plus yet again no one was watching the emails in the morning, leaving me to clean up a gigantic mess when I got in.

I was really feeling the strain, and it was showing. Not in a bad way--I would never take it out on my drivers. But they noticed. Somehow it got around to R (I suspect V said something to him) and he texted me just to ask how I was doing and offer support. I don't know what I would do without him, seriously. He's a good friend. We talked all afternoon and I felt so much calmer. He kept me sane yesterday.

Yes, I am the least professional dispatcher ever. I made friends with the drivers, I'm (casually) dating a driver, and (according to Lazy) I don't follow through on anything.

And now I'm going to go get my hour of language study in so I can give my guys crap in two languages, lol.

So I spent the entire night fuming after a friend of mine did something incredibly stupid and I got censured for telling her that was behaved in an irresponsible, reckless, and frankly stupid way. Ugh. So much drama in my circle of friends is not conducive to writing. Not to mention calls tonight were a fucking bitch. My normal patience was gone to the land of Give No Fucksville and has yet to return. So needless to say, the only writing that got done was me working on the draft of my Halloween-themed blog post.

I'm hoping for a better night tonight, but no promises.

DH - I'm glad you got a friend you can count on and who actually notices things are wrong and asks if you're okay. I hope things get better for you soon.

DH - Sounds like an extra-cruddy week... fingers crossed it gets a little better soon.

thereness - Bummer on the drama. Sometimes, you just gotta walk away and let 'em fall on their faces, I suppose.

Friday morning, and once again I got up too early after spotty sleep. Ergh... would be so nice to find a job more in line with my inner clock. Really feeling it this morning.

Nothing much worth noting, save a little more site work (not enough) and a run to Michael's the other evening. I swear they're set on putting themselves out of business before the competition even opens its doors. They've rearranged things, but have less of everything - again. The other guys are gonna mop the floor with them. (Still won't shop the competition when they open - would rather hit Amazon than give money to those jerks.)

And off I ramble.

Brightdreamer - Yeah, I apologized for my harsh tone (not for what I said, because I stand by what I said) and now I'm going to put it out of my mind. Not gonna let it steal another day of work.
Fruitbat - It's something I can't say, since I do respect my friend's privacy, but it's also something my sister did, hence why I freaked out about it >.>

My blog post is half typed up and I just have one more fairy tale to add to my list. I'm hoping to FINALLY get this blog post done in the first 2 hours of work and then spend the rest of the night working on my WIP. I've only got 2 chapters left til the end of Act 1 and I swore I'd have them done this week. *sigh* And I still need to do stuff for my secret project, but that can wait until the weekend. And I was going to make character aesthetics to put on my tumblr, but again, that has to wait until the weekend. (And when I say "weekend" I mean my 2 days off of Monday-Tuesday XD.)

FB - Yeah, Michael's isn't really a "craft store" so much as a "store for people who want fad craft junk prepackaged for them." They carry pretty much the same stuff JoAnn's does - I swear they're owned by the same people, the way the sales stagger. But they're pretty much the only game in town. (There are a couple other craftish stores in the area, but they're a bit of a drive to get to.) Hobby Lobby, unfortunately, is an actual craft store, but I cannot and will not support its corporate practices with my money. (Shopped there a total of two times before their little "sincerely-held beliefs" thing hit the press - between that and the artifact smuggling, no way I'm ever going back.) Much as I want HL to crash and burn, I really don't see Michael's withstanding their presence for long - and I don't think Michael's really cares at the corporate level, given what they keep doing to downgrade their merchandise. It's one of those stores where I always feel a little sorry for the employees, 'cause it just feels like such a joke to work for.
Anyway, yes, I'm making Xmas ornaments. It's a tradition... Hopefully I can get a start this weekend, but I'm not holding my breath. There's already talk of a major recycling run that'll probably eat one day at least.
(As for the Russia thing - I want to believe something's going to happen soon, but we'll see what sticks. It's like when the school bully has a mom in the principal's office, a dad on the school board, an uncle as chief of police, and a cousin for a town judge; justice is theoretically possible, but it's hard to see it actually happening, and in the meantime good luck holding onto your lunch money and your schoolbooks... I'm also preemptively cringing for the next "distraction.")

thereness - Hang in there... at least you're closer to done than you were.

Well, today existed, I can say that much for it. We got out early, so I hit Safeway for a deli chicken strip lunch. They'd been under the lamp a bit long, though... eh, well.

Watched a MST3K ep on flash drive with dinner, their take on Gorgo. Dear gods, if not for stock footage, that thing would've been half an hour long, tops.

Mom's been sneezing this evening. Hope she's not coming down with something. (Hope I'm not getting another round of the Mobius bug again; gonna hit the Flonase and Airborne tonight, in the hopes it might do something. I can't lose a flippin' weekend, dang it! Too much to do!)

Away I wander. Want to try to get another review or two transferred before I crawl off for the night. Giving myself a pass on spitballing 'cause I'm tired... which I also hope isn't a sign of the bug sneaking back.

Awake early on a Saturday morning.

I went to bed early last night but I just haven't been sleeping well lately. Once I wake up it's mostly useless to even attempt going back to sleep. That's why I'm awake at 5:00 a.m.

Just as well. My week looks absolutely terrible on paper, almost everything got deferred because of all the hours I put in. I may have helped hold pharmacy together, barely, but I got absolutely nothing done on a personal level except my Portuguese practice. Even that has just been mostly review.

So today's theme is essentially picking up all the pieces of a shattered week.

Getting into Stranger Things 2 on Netflix today (4 episodes ... mmm) ... and now time for more editing!

DH - Careful picking up those pieces; shattered weeks can be sharp.

NZZAWriter - Stranger Things looks intriguing, but I can't swing a Netflix subscription... dang it. Maybe if it ends up on Prime or DVD.

Well, it's Saturday morning, and it looks like an appliance recycling run is on tap, though it still hasn't been determined where. May not even get room tidying done before I'm drug out; sort of on other people's schedules. (Didn't help that I slept in.) Also have a couple loads of laundry to do. And, of course, the site isn't going to transfer itself.

Off I wander.

--

And it's later.

Things I've Done: Drop off the old microwave and two printers at recycling facilities (not the same one - that would've been too easy...), hit the store, tidied the room, flipped the mattress, started one load of laundry, posted a book review, acquired a nose sniffle.

Things I've Not Done: Work on the site transfer, start ornaments, work in my shed, write, start the second load of laundry.

Right now, I'm listening to a random assortment of 80's music on YouTube and procrastinating on starting dinner (tomato soup and grilled cheese and ham sandwiches, or grilled cheese and turkey for Mom.)

Brightdreamer said:

DH - Careful picking up those pieces; shattered weeks can be sharp.

NZZAWriter - Stranger Things looks intriguing, but I can't swing a Netflix subscription... dang it. Maybe if it ends up on Prime or DVD.

Well, it's Saturday morning, and it looks like an appliance recycling run is on tap, though it still hasn't been determined where. May not even get room tidying done before I'm drug out; sort of on other people's schedules. (Didn't help that I slept in.) Also have a couple loads of laundry to do. And, of course, the site isn't going to transfer itself.

Off I wander.

--

And it's later.

Things I've Done: Drop off the old microwave and two printers at recycling facilities (not the same one - that would've been too easy...), hit the store, tidied the room, flipped the mattress, started one load of laundry, posted a book review, acquired a nose sniffle.

Things I've Not Done: Work on the site transfer, start ornaments, work in my shed, write, start the second load of laundry.

Right now, I'm listening to a random assortment of 80's music on YouTube and procrastinating on starting dinner (tomato soup and grilled cheese and ham sandwiches, or grilled cheese and turkey for Mom.)

Click to expand...

With you on the writing thing. *Guilty look* Haven't touched my WIP today, yikes. But on the plus side, I'm doing research for my Nanowrimo novel so that's productive...in a different way xD