Check In- What Are You Doing?

Brightdreamer said:

I expect it's a little easier tracing surnames over on your side of the pond. Over here, time and distance can muddle things. For instance, the surname "Priest" comes down my mother's side. Sounds like a standard English name... but family researchers have determined it's a corruption of the Welsh "Ap Rhys" that happened after they immigrated.

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I had an enormous crush on a girl called Priest, I was about seven...

Its been an odd sort of day. Not least because of being stuck behind the same horse and trap on four separate occasions. Do some people not realise its 2017 for Frith's sake? Also been doing jobs aps, bigging myself up no end I was. I rule, on paper.

More of the same tomorrow I expect. But right now, pajanimals.

Tuesday afternoon, and thus far the day's been a waste. Went out to the store for a couple simple items, and found none of them. Then we stopped by a place for lunch and got terrible service.

Need to get back to logo work, but I have to pace myself better than yesterday. Stared at the screen so long I got one of those optical migraine things - a wavy distortion in one's vision. Just what I don't need with a design to clean up... so now I'm a bit paranoid about looking at the monitor for long periods of time. (It doesn't help that I'm overdue for new glasses - need to get an appoint for that...)

So now I'm decompressing after the world's least productive shopping trip. I'll likely end up hitting Amazon for what I was looking for anyway... dang it.

Away I drift.

Discovering Absolute Write for the first time. I luv it

Cindy Blake said:

Discovering Absolute Write for the first time. I luv it

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Welcome aboard!

Driftin' through again, just to do. Dinner has been cooked and consumed, most dishes have been washed (I'm letting the pan soak,) so now I'm debating whether it's worth my while to do logo cleanup, whether I have enough spark in me for a run at revising a story or spitballing a short, or if I should just chalk the whole day up to a loss and poke around in Titan Quest.

I finished watching that time management video course I was taking. In one segment, on prioritizing, the instructor had us list our various tasks (work related, though I fudged and included anything not strictly for household or goofing off purposes), then determine how much money it would cost to hire someone to do that task at the same quality level that we perform it. The idea is to focus more time on the high-pay stuff, and minimize (or delegate out) less-pay stuff. Depressingly, discounting household chores/goofing off, my paying job came in at a lower hourly value potential than anything else I did, based on Googled average freelance income... even adjusting down quite a bit for my low quality.

I so need to re-prioritize my life...

Thinking about doing a bit of gardening.

Wednesday morning, and already off to an iffy start after minimal sleep.

I have a bad feeling the fridge died last night - it's making odd clicks instead of kicking in, after running near-continuously for weeks, and it's been freezing the fridge portion for months before that - but I know what'll happen if I say anything, especially as nobody else is up yet... So I expect I'll quietly try to transfer a few things to the downstairs fridge/freezer (assuming it's not too late already) and head to work. There's a chance it's not actually dead, after all, and I don't have time to sit around listening for it to fire up again. Yes, it's cowardly, but it's not my fridge to replace, and when the Fridge Issue has been mentioned previously I've been verbally decapitated.

Oh, and work probably won't be much fun as I just saw another job posting for our shift. I suspect one of the new people walked. Will find out (maybe) when I get to work.

Which I should be doing soonish.

Going through another re-read of my latest work. Trying to correct errors as I see them on my lunch break...and trying to delay getting back to doing actual work work

Jobs applications, in it.

I was about to launch in to futile rant, but this particular misfunctional dynamic will earn its immortality as an amusing subplot, should I ever see the funny side.

Currently swinging recklessly, panic to excitement, and back again. Wine is out of my price range now, but I think I got some Sherry in the cupboard.

Got a working diagnosis for the boy though. We're finally on our way to getting help.

After going through sixteen chapters in three days I could only do one today. Exhausted.

Driftin' in after work and shopping, munching on a little trail mix in lieu of lunch.

For the curious, the fridge is still crawling along, if barely. And it was indeed one of the new hires who is no longer on the job; I can't tell if it was a quitting or a firing or a mutual parting of ways, but we all saw it coming. Kept having "medical" absences, and was just plain unreliable. (It's a warehouse job. Every interview ever includes a tour. If you can't take the physical labor, don't take the job... leaves the rest of us in a lurch when you leave, and it makes the managers cranky.)

I have a terrible craving for a Mountain Dew right about now, but I slept so poorly last night I'm not sure it's a good idea to have so much sugar and caffeine in the afternoon.

Just got back from the garden centre having bought about twice as much as expected.

I got lost for the last 2 days in the Arkham Asylum. I...just couldn't stop. I found my way out around page 20. Now blinking at the sunlight.

Just came back from a Florida vacation. At the end of my flight into Seattle the pilot came on the intercom and told everyone to sit back in their seats and put back their overhead luggage. Everyone grumbled but complied. Then, two Seattle cops entered the plane and arrested a man three rows in front of me and took him away in handcuffs.... !

listening to PWR BTTM's new album on NPR. It's terrific.

Back from the polling station, wish I'd got that shower fixed when i could. Ugh.

Kids in bed. Big bang and Brooklyn night. Got wine, but no appetite for it. I should go for a run, I used to do that, long ago. It all seems a bit wrong at the moment, like, god sat on the remote control, but hasn't yet worked out whats happening to the TV. It'll work itself out I'm sure.

Cobalt Jade said:

Just came back from a Florida vacation. At the end of my flight into Seattle the pilot came on the intercom and told everyone to sit back in their seats and put back their overhead luggage. Everyone grumbled but complied. Then, two Seattle cops entered the plane and arrested a man three rows in front of me and took him away in handcuffs.... !

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Well, there's a little story waiting to be started... yikes...

Thursday, and I'm trying not to be depressed by Events of the day. (Yes, it's politics. Yes, it does directly affect me, so, yes, I am pretty depressed/hacked off...) The sunshine mocks me. There's talk of storms tonight. Don't expect we'll get any here, though. Lightning and rainbows always shine for others, never for me. (Sounds like the chorus of a bad country song...)

Work was light.

Just had an apple for lunch. I need to do logo work, but I'm having trouble caring about anything right now.

Ergh.

Sitting here at the OWFI conference in OKC. Just had a great pre-conference session with Ben Montgomery, from the Tampa Times.

And it's later...

My prediction that the storm would miss us has proven premature. Multiple cells have passed over. Minimal visible lightning, but some good thunderclaps, and we just had a hailburst roll through. Never seen hailstones bounce that high on impact... During a lull, I watched the swallows reveling in the storm-churned air, and saw a circling hawk fade in and out of view as it rose through low-hanging clouds.

Given unpredictable power, I've decided to take a pass on logo work and stick to easily-interrupted frivolities.

About to go play Poker with my wife's father. Wish me luck.

Friday, and the weather's finally calmed down, but storms and downpours persisted past midnight. At work someone told of a relative who was watching the rain when a nearby transformer blew and a piece nearly hit them, stopping just short of the glass door. There's a blown transformer, and an exploding transformer, apparently. (I forgot to ask if it was Autobot or Decepticon.)

Work was suspiciously light. We got out a half-hour early, so I was technically paid to shop and get gas on the way home. Also picked up a Redbox DVD for me. (If they'd had Hidden Figures, it would've been for the whole family, as we all want to see that. All they had I wanted was Rogue One, so it's just for me, because my sibling would probably ruin it for me if I tried to watch it in the living room. She's damned good at it, too - the mutters, the sighs, the huffs, the restless shuffling to obscure dialog and remind everyone she didn't want to see it and is determined not to enjoy it... That reminds me, I need to charge my wireless headphones.)

Had a mayfly in the car on the way home. In May. Go figure...

Guess I'll poke about whilst I finish lunch.

Halfway through building a 1:24 scale tardis console room set with the boy for his home made episodes when he decides he wants to watch ghostbusters instead, so I'm having a coffee, but when he gets bored of that, he's got some roundels to draw.

Had to stop work on the garden because I ran out of topsoil. Sooo.... time for a cake and coffee, then some procrastination, and maybe a bit of editing?

maybe.

Saturday's off to a late start after oversleeping. I think I need a sleep refresher course - I must be doing it wrong.

So far, the day's sunny. I'm watching the mists of evaporation rise off the well house roof. Trying to get myself moving on the day. Got a book review to write, a logo to clean up, a room to tidy, and got a couple story ideas that I want to poke at, shorts or flash pieces (I hope)... hopefully, I won't get roped into a store trip, but I expect I will.

Cooking dinner and feeling good. First time this year at the beach without a coat; warm sun, sea air. What's not to like.

Monday tomorrow, back to the old slippery turd factory, for as long as that lasts.