So.....

I'm still a temp at the same placement I've been in since coming home from Chicago. It's a job, and the employment scene's still looking pretty rough despite all the trumpeting you hear on the news about the recession being over. I'm content to let them lead me on with promises of FT work and benefits for the time being, as it does pay the bills.

Also still living at my aunt's house - but only for a few more days. I've found a nice little apartment in a totally fabulous location - at the north end of the Ave, right on University Way. I know that the location probably isn't for everybody, but I love the U District. Lots of food, stuff to do, excellent transit, et cetera. Plus I'm at the north end, right by the community center and the Safeway, which gives access to groceries and the Farmer's Market.

I'll have my own kitchen and my sewing machines back. Mom's paying for movers for all the goods that are still in storage. I have just some incidentals here; the furniture all belongs to my Aunt. We figure that it will take just one trip with mom's Scion to get everything from here to the new place, so I don't even need any help moving. It's good.

When the bosslady put the smackdown on us using the internet at all for anything even vaguely not work related, I pretty much stopped posting or using any sort of social networking tools. I will try to get back in the habit, folks.

Holy shit! My livejournal still exists.

I just dropped a pretty serious piece of change on new clothes. Mostly underwear. It was badly, badly needed. My drawers had gotten pretty worn out.

Anyhow, I went to the mall with no real concept of how I'd blow my money. And there it was... Lane Bryant's underwear sale. Win! I got numerous underwear that are not granny panties (a tough job in my size) and two bras. Get this:

One of the bras has *removable* airbags. Yes, airbags, that shove the girls up - and they can be taken out via a clever little pocket in the lining. In a size 44DD bra, for God's sake. I need a pushup bra like I need a hole in my head. But... but but... it does look awesome, and is comfy with or without the stuffing. Did I mention it's red lace?

Sorry, TMI. Enough about my lacy underthings. How are you?

No, really. This is utterly vital.

There are now TWO Reverent Horton Heat shows scheduled for Seattle - Friday July 10th, and Saturday July 11th. Venue is The Showbox, opening act is Necromantix. Tickets are $15.

Which one are we going to, ladies and gentlemen?

I'm runned out of tolerance for my aunt's bad dog(s).

These are not my dogs. I cannot enforce discipline in the house, and Marilyn is a classic "untrainer".

All three dogs are undiciplined and untrained - despite the run of obedience classses this past winter - and unruly, but Buddy's generally sweet in nature. Tess is too, but is very poorly socialized and has all the resulting anxiety issues. Jasper's behavior is beyond atrocious and, if anything, getting worse. He's so out of control that the rest of the family won't even get out of the car at the house. He's bitten my dad twice, barks and howls through the night, and regularly goes after the cat, but because he's not attacking Buddy all the time, my Aunt thinks everything's hunky-dory.

If something doesn't give - and soon - I will kill Jasper with my bare hands.

Michael Jackson has apparently died of cardiac arrest. CNN has not verified the death according to their current posting on their website and most articles eventually point back to the less-than-reliable TMZ article, but it would not surprise me if this turns out true.

Tonight's feature is "The Godless Girl."

If you were going to go to one of these - and I myself have not made it to the previous two in this run - I would recommend the one on the 29th. However, this week might also be an interesting week to attend, as I will be dragging my older brother along. He's visiting from San Jose.

When clients call to request earthquake insurance, I have to ask them for some basic information about their homes so the licensed agents will know what product will work best. Two of the questions are "Is your home a manufactured home or a site-built home? Is your home built out of wood framing or masonry?"

I'm pretty sure I'd get in trouble if I asked people which of the three pigs they were.

Definitely the "No More Mr. Nice Guy" rant by divalion. This rant is soooooo, so true. I don't know the OP myself, but came into contact with this through an LJ community and, even though I'm a girl and am more often on the receiving end of "Nice Guy" behavior, I still think about it when taking stock of my own relationships and interactions with men. It's possible to be a Nice Girl with capital N, too.

Way to go, Microsoft... good job producing a cheap knockoff of Google.

On Monday trainer put me through a tough lower body workout and my thighs are still angry at me. I'm hoping that it will start to ease off; I'm due to go back to the gym in the morning.

I have already fallen badly off the wagon on eating better. I stopped carrying my little notebook and everything went right to shit. Well, I know how to fix that. Better find the notebook.... it's in my room somewhere....

I bought some new shoes at REI to replace my Dr. Martens clogs, which were breaking down inside and making my feet hurt. They're cute, lighter weight and more flexible - and my feet do feel better.

So. Yesterday, the new trainer did an upper body workout. Today, I hurt. A lot.

Today I also pried my sorry butt out of bed and went for something resembling a run before work. I did not go very far. This will improve with continued effort.

Tomorrow, I go back to the gym where the trainer will have a resistance workout plan for me. We will go over this plan, and I am to do that on my own at least one day a week. Following this, I will meet with the trainer at 7 AM on Mondays and Thursdays, and on Saturday come in and do the aforementioned weight training workout. Days not in the gym, either bike rides or runs are to happen, at least in theory. Also, keep a food notebook.

It's all kind of a drag - and I predict that for a while will be at best uncomfortable. Where I do hurt today, the change in my schedule has been harder. I know the muscle soreness will pass, where getting up at quarter to six (and going to bed by ten to accommodate that) will always suck. I know the discipline will be good for me, and once the initial pains pass the excercise will also be immensely beneficial.

Food's one of those things. I'm fat and it's becuase I eat badly and don't do enough. Nobody can change that but me. I weighed in at 266 pounds the other day. This is not the heaviest I've ever been, and yes I am tall etc etc, but it's still all kinds of not good.

Even so, my current situation means that I'm not entirely in control of my diet. Those things I can control, though, are critical. I live with my aunt, and she does most of the cooking; she's bad at it, and it's driven me to eat dinners out often. I'm not good about preparing my own lunch, and so I've been relying on the kind of icky cafeteria offerings which are often... less than desirable, nutritionally speaking. And there's also convenience stores, coffee shops, and vending machines. All of these things are in my control. I do not *deserve* a 700 calorie packet of cookies, I don't have to buy a donut when I stop for a mocha. I can eat at home instead of cramming down a 900 calorie Taco Del Mar burrito, and should try to bring my lunch at least *some* of the time. And just taking the time to write down what I'm eating has often served as a very effective tool for curbing the amount of crap I stuff into my maw, even without tabulating calories.

Today's all about multiple shorter posts.

So. On Saturday I went to the gym. I did a totally weak-sauce workout, and wound up so sore by Saturday afternoon that I actually used some of my precious hoard of Vicodin.

I am in terrible, terrible shape. I hates it. Hates it!

Being in bad shape - and many of you will relate to this - is circular in nature. The more out of shape you are, the harder it becomes to do the things that will get you back into better health. It takes a lot of willpower to overcome those complaints, and that's just the physical aspect with nothing said about the emotional baggage that comes with being out of shape in an image-obsessed culture.

I quit going to the gym a few days before Halloween - I had a chest cold that just wouldn't quit. I was still coughing as late as February. Since then... it's just been difficult to make myself face the struggle of getting back in the habit. I particularly struggle with getting up early to work out before going to the office. I am not a morning person.

I am resolved, though. Despite still being a little sore around the edges, I went back to the gym again this morning. I have loads of training sessions left from when I bought them last September. I will do this, even though I know it will hurt.

On Friday I posted a little to do list for the weekend. Let's see how I did:

1. Enjoy the idea of actually getting paid for a holiday.
2. Try to settle some of my smaller debts.
3. Tackle the Laundry Disaster (those who know me know that this is an ever-present and daunting endeavor).
4. Take the not-right fenders off of my bike - and if I'm feeling ambitious, install the other ones.
5. Cook at least one meal.
6. Upload and tag the photos from TWO weekends ago and write an LJ post about it.

1: Success. This was impossible to fail at.
2: Partial success. I ran into the common stumbling block of "everybody else is on a three day weekend too" when calling around to make arrangements for payment, but did at least find out how to get in touch with several of the folks I owe bits of money to.
3. Success. I got all my laundry including my bedding washed and put away, including refolding and sorting all the crap that was in my messy, messy drawers. I do still have a couple of shirts and two pairs of slacks to iron, but I got more than half of my ironing finished and hung.
4. Fail. Complete and total fail.
5. Success. Grilled chicken, roasted corn, and a nice coleslaw with crushed pineapple.
6. Partial success. The photos are uploaded and ready, but I haven't put together a post.

One more success and one more fail to add to the list:

Success: Went to the gym for the first time in... six? maybe seven months on Saturday. I haven't been since I got sick at the end of October.

Fail: Said trip to the gym left me wrecked sore and I wound up not making it out to see The Bad Things at Folklife. Bleh.

So... of eight things, I accomplished five and part of two more. That's not too bad, really.

First, my to-do list for the long weekend:

1. Enjoy the idea of actually getting paid for a holiday.
2. Try to settle some of my smaller debts.
3. Tackle the Laundry Disaster (those who know me know that this is an ever-present and daunting endeavor).
4. Take the not-right fenders off of my bike - and if I'm feeling ambitious, install the other ones.
5. Cook at least one meal.
6. Upload and tag the photos from TWO weekends ago and write an LJ post about it.

The trip to the Festival of the Trees isn't the only blog topic I'd like to post about. If I was really interested in recording my life for the world's consumption (and it does feel like that a lot of the time, doesn't it?) I'd post much more. I will write up the Festival, though, because I have cool pics and even bad digital camera video.

Also, I got my credit report last night. It was scary, but I went and got free annual credit reports (not from freecreditreport.com, which is actually a free trial subscription to Experian's paid credit monitoring service, but from annualcreditreport.com - a portal site that was very helpful). Or actually, I got two out of three. One of the credit companies I had ordered from a few years back and because I already had an account set up at a defunct email address I was struggling to log on; it was late and I had already gotten the other two credit bureau's reports, so I called it a day on that one though I could call and order one by phone if I really felt like it. Anyhow, there were no big surprises. There's much more to discuss about what's on the report and who I owe and what to do about it, so that'll be a topic for later.

I do note in brief that it was really nice to see temtan last weekend, and I'm hoping to hang out with kitten_chow this weekend.

I has one.

Here is your chance to go see some amazing vintage cinema at the beautiful Paramount theatre, accompanied by the Mighty Wurlitzer! Sponsored by Trader Joe's, the Paramount hosts silent movies every monday during January and June. I found out about this and managed to catch the last in the January series featuring horror films, and now want to give you all plenty of time to plan to attend the June series, which features the women of the Silent Era. I'll link you to the synopses for each of the four movies.

Monday, June 8, 7 PM, $12: Flesh and the Devil (1926)

Monday, June 15, 7 PM, $12: Romola (1924)

Monday, June 22, 7 PM, $12: The Godless Girl (1929)

Monday, June 29, 7 PM, $12: Seventh Heaven (1927)

Tickets are available at the door, by presale online, and at Trader Joe's. If you were to pick one, I suggest the last in the series - the lead, Janet Gaynor, received the very first Academy Award for Best Actress for this film.

So.... I thought I had the OS restore disk for the old laptop. I don't - it was not shipped with the computer, and instead they have a restore partition set up. Cheap, Dell, cheap. I'm going to try to call and get a disk, since installing alternate OS'es can break that partition. I'm not the original owner, though, so I'm not sure I can pull it off. If I can't, I'll just activate the restore partition and call it good.

I also note here that of the linuxes I've demoed on this machine, the latest install of Ubuntu (not its low memory counterpart, Kubuntu) is the most satisfactory and runs fine; the machine just barely meets its minimum requirements, but does meet them. However... the Inspiron 5150 happens to have one of the few wireless cards that Ubuntu and Kubuntu doesn't have driver support for. I haven't investigated how hard that is to fix yet, but if it's a ton of trouble I won't bother, as not having wireless capability makes the whole shooting match a little pointless.

On my own computer - I did get the ubuntu Live CD to run, finally. I am going to set up a dual boot, and that takes some futzing around that makes me a little nervous. I've never done this kind of stuff; I've been a contented end-user for years and years. The whole process has been time consuming because there is a significant learning curve; I'll be glad once I've settled it because it's sucking up my free time, but also because it's a big step and something that's pushed me to expand my horizons. It will be a real accomplishment with tangible results.

ETA:

I called Dell to ask for installation disks on my lunch break. They said they'd send them. We'll see if they actually send an OS disk or not.

Well OK, more like Technology 23, me 4. It's still a case of "computers are confounding, person is perplexed."

Right here on LJ, I offered up my old laptop to a friend. It needs some... hm. Cleanup would be fair, I think. I got the machine secondhand and between myself and its original owner, it's seen about seven years of hard use. That's a pretty good long lifespan for a laptop and the hardware's OK, but its memory is both on the low side for current applications and somewhat tied up in errata as it has updated itself and had things installed and uninstalled over the years. I have looked into adding memory and learned at the time that it can be done and the part needed isn't super expensive BUT requires installation that I can't do myself, which rendered doing so infeasible. (Knowing that, S, you might consider polling your geek friends to see if anyone would be willing and able to do the work for you - the memory chip costs around $50.)

I have a little more data to pull over to the new laptop (including some that's proving difficult) and then I will begin to work on clearing up the system. I found the original restore disks, so reinstalling a fresh copy of Windows XP Home is one possible avenue. There's also the possibility of using one of several lightweight Linux distros. One of the things I did successfully over the weekend was obtain disk images, burn them, and boot from the live CD for two releases of Kubuntu. I liked the newer version better, but it did not run terribly well; I'm unclear if this is a function of running from a boot CD. Once I resolve the last of my data issues, I will actually mount the OS and see how it runs. If it still sucks a lot, I can restore XP, right?

I also obtained the disk image for a Linux distro called Puppy, which is highly rated for older and low-memory machines. This was in and of itself a bit of a struggle, as I could only find it available for download via bittorrent, which I have never used before. I downloaded *that*, and had no further issues getting the CD downloaded and burned. I mentioned this to mightyflorist who suggested that a little extra protection be used when running the streaming client; I also downloaded this - and Vista hates it. At every turn it attempts to reject this and gives stern security warnings, so I wound up just turning both it and BitTorrent off.

Now.... I like Puppy better than Kubuntu. Except that it ran even WORSE off of the live CD, with a huge issue that is a total dealbreaker if it remains when the OS is mounted. Every time you open a new window, it opens ten of them. Nuh uh. I do not think so. Before I write it off as a complete waste of time, I will check out the support forums and see what gives, and like Kubuntu, give it a shot actually installed. If it sucks, I have restore disks for XP.

Fixing up that well-loved Inspiron 5150 has been easier than dealing with my smokin' fast brand new computer in a lot of ways. Vista is certainly usable, but it's annoying. So while looking at lightweight linux distros for the old lappy, I've been looking at linux for my own computer, too. Again this is a case of "Hey, I have restore disks and not too much invested... now's as good as time as any to make the change."

Anyhow, I downloaded and burned the latest, greatest release of Ubuntu. Installing Ubuntu on the Studio 17 has been a complete and total fail. I count myself lucky if I can get the load screen to show up - even on the last version, using the exact same disk of the last release that I successfully did a live boot from at my parents' house a few weeks ago. The discussions on the forums were very technical, even from people calling themselves newbies; I was very lost by the information there. Let me put it this way - when I say "kernel" I am ALWAYS refering to popcorn, and "grub" means "larva." And under an administrator account, I should not be getting "permission denied, no ands if or buts" messages from Vista.

This frustrates me to no end and makes me want to get rid of Microsoft Vista more than ever.

After a variety of errors at various and sundry points in the process, it was time to stop. I wound up ordering a pizza and spending the remainder of my evening playing a game and watching episodes of The Family Guy on Hulu.com.

Well.... just goes to show that sketchy-ass plans are often no better than no plans at all.

I was HOPING to go to the roller derby on Saturday (sorry I missed you, B!) but wound up at my parent's house to wait for the guy to come fix the hot water tank while mom and dad were at an afternoon appointment. For those who don't know - my dad has MS, and one of the ways it presents for him is through a specific type of muscular seizure. They're painful and he's had difficulty with the medication that can help with them, so when he could get in to see the Witch Doctor (or so they call him - he's licensed chiropractor who is also certified in Reiki and acupuncture) on a Saturday, we all went the distance to see to it that he could do so.

I took my laptop with me. I did not manage to open it. Instead I napped with my parents' kitties.

The water heater guy never came. What a waste of a day.

Finally got the opportunity last night to call tech support on our DSL.... and by golly, they actually helped! The issue was upstream line noise, and was solved by putting stupid little filter dongles on every outlet EXCEPT the one the DSL modem is plugged into. I would have never thought to try that. Additionally, the old modem works just peachy, so we're going to send back the one they made us shell out for.

Yay shiny new computer! Yay internets!

New release of Ubuntu is a few days out; when it drops, I'll partition my drive for and set up a dual boot. There's enough stuff that doesn't jibe with Linux that I'm not willing to throw away Vista yet, and since I don't have to, I'm not going to. I will be wiping my old lappy and installing some sort of lightweight linux there, but have a few more things I need to get transferred over to the new computer first.

Moon Patrol!

Well, Friday my friends evaporated into the ether and so plans failed. jammin682 had to work, werelemming called to let me know there wasn't even a whiff of a chance he'd be stopping by, and in the end even the ever-a-good-sport mightyflorist wound up opting out. For the best - he sounded really genuinely exhausted when I spoke to him last, and since I wasn't even out of Lake City (although I had dressed and left the house to pick up a bus into town) it was no skin off of my back to cancel. So no Pirate Night with the Throttle Rockets for me.

Anyhow, I came back in, sat down on the couch, and immediately fell asleep, where I remained passed out until 11 am. Turns out I needed the down-time myself. I also think it may be the first time I've seen the cat in the front room since I moved into my aunt's house, since she and the Bad Dogs are visiting a friend on the Oregon coast. I spent the remainder of Saturday picking up my room and doing laundry. The actual cleaning I did the next day.

And clean I did - I talked to my mom around 10 am and we decided to take an early afternoon trip to the Burke Museum, so that I could sweep up and get the last of my laundry done. It was really great to have the grime and dust bunnies taken care of and the bulk of the clutter cleared up. Mom picked me up and we went to the museum.

The Burke is kind of disappointing. It's... well, hm. It feels like a practice museum, like a repository for odds and ends that have been donated to the University over the years. The feature exhibit was about coffee and it was interesting and all, but the rest of the museum really feels like a hodge-podge. And it's very, very small.

The trip was redeemed though - Mom noticed some of the small, pink ornamental cherry trees in bloom and remarked that the UW has some very famous cherry trees that might also be in bloom. We decided to see if we could find them. We set off almost randomly, and noticed a bunch of people standing at the top of a short stairway into a plaza - and beyond them, OMG cherry blossoms. The walks in the courtyeard were packed with people, all gawking and taking photos; the lawn was surrounded by beautiful old buildings, but more dramatically, lined with enormous, ancient white cherry trees in absolute perfect bloom and the air was perfumed with delicate, sweet floral perfume. All of a sudden, I understood more about why Japan makes a big fuss about the cherry bloom each year; the trees were truly amazing, and I feel blessed to have seen such a thing even once in my life.

I took some crappy cell phone pictures (also a couple of the observatory cupola, a curiousity I still love, where we happened to be parked). I'll pull them off my phone chip eventually, but there's no way they'll do the sight any justice.

Mom and I returned to my folks' house - where my dad proudly showed off his new car. It needs some touchups, but is quite driveable - plus it was a beautiful day, so we got in and enjoyed a hamburger dinner at the Aurora Burgermaster, where they still have carhop service. The garnet red 1937 Ford does get some attention. Very fun, and Dad's absolutely thrilled.

I brought home some computer parts in anticipation of the new laptop. When it shows up, my printer and speakers are ready to plug in. Yay!

Studio 17 - 1735


Studio 17 (1735) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.00GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

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Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
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Memory
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)
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Hard Disk Drive
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
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Video
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
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Web Camera
Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
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Media Bay
8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
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Base
Studio 17 (1735) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.00GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Upgrade
Integrated Finger Print Reader
90W AC Adapter
6 Cell Primary Battery
125V Power Cord
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Network Interface Card
Dell 1397 802.11B/G Wireless Mini Card
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System Color
Jet Black
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Software Upgrade
Microsoft Works 9.0
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Laptop Screen
17 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ Laptop Screen

With tax and shipping I paid $644 and change. I am so excited!

Like many, I am getting some of my monies back from Uncle Sam. Like virtually all folks getting the refund, I'm debating mightily about what I will do with the money.

Or well, really I'm not. But don't tell my mom, she'll yell at me for wasting my money.

I WAS going to buy new glasses, and skates, and put a good slice of it away so that I'd be able to move. I'm going to opt to not buy glasses, though, and probably not skates either (sorry to all of you who were hoping I would sign up for PFM, but I'm having serious worries about that resulting from lack of transportation and medical insurance.) Instead, I'll be buying a new computer.

Unlike glasses and the ability to get injuries treated, replacing my very old computer is not something that could ever possibly pan out if the company I'm temping for gets off their rump and gives me a real job with real bennies. And yes, I know, I COULD string the laptop I have along for a while, but even that will cost a chunk of money - enough that it's probably not a worthwhile tradeoff. And, like other "big ticket" items, computers are being sold for dirt cheap. They're inexpensive enough, though, that they usually don't need financing and so they will likely rebound before auto and and real estate prices. I do not want to miss the window of opportunity.

Old computer is old. It's a Dell, bought secondhand from a friend, and has held its own for a good long time but has quite recently and quite rapidly begun to bog down and fail to handle even my relatively light use. Honestly, it's surprising it's held up as well as it has. I've been shopping, and have narrowed it down to a few reasonably priced options (in the $500-600 range) with the help of some of my more hardware-savvy friends.

I just looked. The money's showing as a pending transaction. Once it clears... I'll make my final decision and place the order.

SO...

I think I'm ready to convert to Linux, but I have my apprehensions and concerns about it. There isn't much that I do that would really be an issue with support or compatability (I've already converted to OpenOffice/GIMP/Inkscape/Firefox blah blah blah). However, I am only an average at best user of technology and am a little scurred about actually making the leap.

I'm hoping one of my geek friends will help me. What doing this weekend?

I promise I'm still alive and OK, other than the nasty cold I'm just now getting over.

The lead singer of the Cramps passed away of a "prexisting heart condition" (or so says this article - I guess that's what they're calling wear and tear from years of punk rock lifestyle these days). May your rockin' bones rest in peace.

I'm working.

I am still a contractor, and while that means no benefits or health care (yuck), in today's economy I can't complain too much. I like my officemates and there office drama is no more than nominal, and unlike other temp gigs I am *not* treated as disposable. I'd like to get hired on, but also know that this is again dependent very much on the economy and that the "temp" position is pretty much available indefinitely. I'm still struggling with debt and bills, but provided nothing happens to my current gig I'll be OK - eventually.

I'm learning.

I did post a blurb on Twitter about this, but the rest of you could also be interested. I've been trying to learn how to do a little more graphics and photo editing with the resources I have available. My laptop's old and won't support the latest and greatest from Adobe, so I've been playing around with GIMP; for open-source free software, it is really fairly amazingly powerful but it does not have a very intuitive interface. (Much like OpenOffice, which I also use, I'd be comfortable saying that the interface is out of date in comparison to the latest comparable commercial products.)

SO... I did a little looking about, and there are some resources and books available targeted just for GIMP. One of them is even available in full online for free, so I'm going through it. If you'd like to do the same, you can check out Grokking the GIMP by Carey Bunks for yourself. Be advised that this online version is a little dated and the latest versions of GIMP have some fairly significant changes and additions and that the book is oriented towards folks who do not have graphics or design experience but a relatively good grasp of general computer use.

My mother thought I should continue to do some art now that I'm returned from Illinois, and put a little 3.5" x 5" sketchbook into my Christmas stocking. She's right - I enjoyed my drawing and sketching classes, and it's a skill I am glad to have improved and don't want to lose what I gained in school, so I've been clipping faces and small figures from fashion magazines (MetroPop and the French edition of Vogue are my favorites) and trying to do at least one face or figure study a day. I've been using a #2 mechanical pencil but may throw a couple of sketching pencils into my bag eventually.

I'm hiding.

I'm home in Seattle but have not been doing much socially. There are some very salient reasons, not all of which I want to talk about here and now. I've been... well, as I posted yesterday, kind of a wreck. That's actually been true for a long time, but some times are better or worse than others. I've stopped making many plans, though, in no small part because I recognize that I flake out on 2/3 of what I say I'll do and am tired of feeling like I've disappointed people when I cancel.

Recently I have been unable to get enough sleep. I do keep a regular work schedule but have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep at night; it's turned into an ugly cycle of downing cans of energy drinks or espressos to keep alert and then having my sleep patterns disrupted even further, requiring another round of Rock Stars or Red Bulls the next day. So the caffiene habit has to go. When you can't tell if your headache is from drinking too much caffiene or not enough, there's an issue. So... I will be continuing to hide out for a few more weeks as I try to break that cycle. It's bound to leave me cranky, so consider the hiding out to be a courtesy to y'all. I hope to come out the other side feeling better in general although it's not a cure-all - just one little step to correct a bad habit.

My LJ frontpage says that today is qijm's birthday.

This is someone who I have never met in person, but am still glad to know - they are one of a few folks in my friends list who are a) of a very different political stripe than I am and b) often post about subjects that I would have otherwise known nothing about and are sometimes beyond my scope in technology. These things are both excellent in my opinion. We often limit our friends to those who are comfortable and the opinions and ideas expressed by them are comfortable and similar to what we post ourselves. I'm proud to have a few folks who are very, very different in some ways and encourage me to think in new directions.

I'm lucky to have a number of extremely intelligent folks on my friends pages, and really enjoy the exposure to new things that they bring with them - so thanks, qijm, and happy birthday.