I've been keeping my eye on flying costs for a vacation this winter, going home to Oregon for the week between Christmas and New Years.
They have been hovering atou $300 per person (round trip, of course) for a while now. If I want to fly out on Saturday the 24th, I can get them for $275! But, ummm, it may be worth it to me to pay extrat to NOT fly on the day before Christmas.
I've been writing some... bits and snippets... trying to get my writing muscle flexed into shape so I can assemble an actual, interesting, readable story.
I have an interesting plan in place, actually. It's top secret... I just mention it here to drive you mad with curiosity.
I'm thinking that this weekend I will start doing stuff in the workshop again. A test on Robert's hand maybe. Another look at Sandra's electric shelf thingy. And between those tasks, the usual housework (our home is a disaster again... we really need to adjust our living habits so it doesn't get this way) and yardwork (the backyard was tamed last weekend, the front yard needs attention).
And of course, I may be able to finish my current class this weekend... depending on whether the final assignment has programming in it or not.
I've been plotting ways to get some time away from everything for just me... Edwin Time, you might say. Don't know how I'm going to manage it yet, but who knows. I'm a clever guy, I'll crowbar it somehow. Usually I use shop time for that, so that might work still. I'm poking around the edges of my psyche to see what I need.
LiveJournal only prints the first few lines of my entries, so here are those lines... heh.
I have a pet peeve. There is, in fact, a short list of things that make me actually angry. Hypocrisy, for example (which covers most of politics). Even some things that I myself do, make me angry, at myself, for doing them... but that's a different topic.
Today I talk about spam.
First, there's the fucking assholes who send spam to my mailbox -- who the hell do they think they are, stuffing their crap into my mailbox? Out of more than a hundred (non-mailing-list) e-mails I get a day, maybe three of them are real mail.
But my filters deal with this, for the most part. I only have manually delete a few.
But what the fuck is up with those dog-fucking assholes who think it's okay to spray their filthy graffiti on my weblog? How deeply do you have to shove your head up your ass before this shit smells sweet?
What the holy hell is a "Trackback Ping" and why in the name of god and all the demons of fucking hell would a T-e-x-a-s poker viagra ad do this to my blog?
Show me a spammer. Just show me one in person. And I'll rip him a new asshole, in person, to his face. And don't think I can't. You haven't seen me really mad. I have. I even took meds for it for a bunch of years.
I don't take those meds any more.
Fuck them. Fuck them all.
I've had a few relatively lazy weekends, but I think things are picking up now.
Saturday is going to be busy... a Taiji push-hands workshop with Master Solomon, which promises to be AWESOME. And which I remembered to tell Marla about, umm, yesterday... heh. Oops.
Then that evening, the kick-off of Haunted Trails.
But Sunday is free. Except for housework. And schoolwork. And yardwork. The backyard is a jungle, and the front yard looks like a man with fresh hair implants. Little bursts of grass reaching up above the turf...
I should also do a couple of projects that I picked up during the movie... Robert's hand (poor Robert, I said it would be done ages ago), and Sandra's electric shelf.
(Listening to Portishead... good stuff)
Yes, me, slacking.
Now don't look so shocked there! It's been known to happen.
Anyway, I think I blew a circuit during the movie.
I blew through the first 1/4 of my CS121 class in a few hours two weeks ago.
I intended to blow through the second 1/4 last weekend, but they wanted me to write a program, the bastards. And, strangely, I was unable to think in code. So I put it off to Thursday.
Where I continued to be unable to think in code.
What the hell? I can program at WORK, so why does it stop at home? It could be this nasty case of "ooh shiny" I have right now. Or maybe because I'm having a hell of a time getting myself to care. But it's getting better.
I got the program in last Sunday (Saturday we slacked at Richard's), so I'm only about a week behind. I guess 1/2 of a comp.sci. class in three weeks still isn't bad. With some focus, I may be able to blow through the other half in 2 or 3 more.
Focus.
Right.
I can do it. I've done it in the past. I'll do it again in the future.
Ooh, and maybe once I get caught up on www.egscomics.com it will be better.
Though there is this OTHER comic that I started reading when Nik was here, that I forgot what it's called, but now that he's back from Vegas and online again I can ask him.
Ooh, shiny!
Umm. I'm supposed to be working right now. I'd better go.
Kisses to all who I'm allowed to kiss! And hugs to the rest of you.
Ahhh, in the quiet of this season I can hear the voices in my head all the clearer again. Clamoring for attention.
There are stories in my head, stories that I had never been able to tell because, frankly, I didn't know how. I think I might have enough tools to try now, though I don't have a good sense of my chance of success.
I went to bed at a rational time Sunday night, I don't know, about 10:30pm or so.
And then was wide awake, alert, at 11. I tried to breath, to relax back to sleep (a veteran of many years of insomnia as a child, I have skills). But at each try my body was spasm, all over... a familiar spasm, to someone with a touch of Tourrettes. Just a touch, just enough to make my life interesting.
This is the all body spasm I get when my mind is overstimulated for some reason -- stress is one activator, for example, but there are others. Any time my imagination gets too active, develops a picture that is too strong, it is like a static discharge blowing across parts of my brain, and then the image fades.
When I'm doing creative work, the challenge is to keep the imagination working, but not running wild.
No matter. There was a scene stuck in my brain and it had to be let out.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed the remains of a bottle of Zinfandel and carried up and my glass upstairs.
Leaving the lights off I turned on the monitor and sat in the blue glow.
And typed. A paragraph.
I poured a glass of wine.
Two more paragraphs, and I sip.
I only ended up with two pages, I think, and not well written -- but they served their purpose. I had a glass and a half of wine in me then, which made me loopy but did not beckon in sleep like it usually does.
So I spent time online. I talked to some folks and watched others in their rooms. A friend came online and I talked there for a while too.
3:00am came eventually and, while I wasn't feeling sleepy yet, I was feeling sick from three glasses of wine and weary enough from the late hour to attempt to go to bed.
And I did sleep, thankfully. But 6:30 am saw me awake again and heading to the shower.
I felt fine, if a bit queasy. I took special care riding the elevators that day, my inner ear protesting at the vertical motions.
It only took a few hours at work before the weariness struck me like a mallet. I got stuff done that day, but not much.
Once home again, I collapsed on the couch with the intent of getting two hours of nap before I had Taiji and dancing classes.
The fates were not with me when, a half hour later, the accursed insurance company called me. I got no happiness talking to them, but I did lose my inclination to nap.
Munchies and some water set the stage for my evening, and both classes went by surprisingly well. I showed surprising energy and good cheer.
And today... I'm doing well. I'm a happy camper. Things are good. Very good.
Except for the air conditioning, which isn't quite happy.
And the little detail that I had better start writing soon, before my head explodes.
I think some of those stories are getting a bit too agressive for my taste. I hope I can do them justice.
Okay, this weekend it's time to put the workshop into order.
I need to make a hand for Robert, from Deadbacks, so he can have a lifelike copy of his own hand to amuse and terrify his friends with.
And I have a list of things to do for Haunted Trails.... um... around here somewhere.
Oooh, and we get a new roof in a couple of days! That shouldn't be disruptive, should it?
And fun fun fun... starting next week, we get a cycle of Tango lessons! Woohoo!
I feel odd, though, sitting around the house or cruising on my computer in the evening. It's odd not to have pressing, important things to do. I'm hoping I get used to it soon...
Well, I put out the e-mail announcing the first Even Saturday game night in a long time... doubled up with a house warming! If any of you readers might want to come play games with us, give me a ring and I can clue you in.
One of my first acts as a homeowner was to have my air conditioning units serviced, you know, preventative care and all that. The ARS maintenance guy, however, says he found leaks in both coils! Not good! Expensive!
So I put in a call to the Home Shield folks and they had ARS put in a service call. Well, this guy comes and says the coils are fine, but a valve is whacked -- so he fixes the valve. But hey, what was with the $3,000 repair they twigged on yesterday? Are they just jerking my chain, or what?
I'm waiting for my answer now... we'll see.
Actually the FIRST thing we did, last weekend, was breeze through some yard work. Now we need to find, beg, borrow, or rent a chipper to reduce some of our ex-trees to a compostable form...Death to Pyrocanthus! And, umm, that dying poisonous tree in the other corner... and trumpet vine! Who in their right mind plants trumpet vine?!
Ooh, I did pre-testing yesterday for 1st brown (pre-black, doberman sash, whatever). Tomorrow I do the long form for testing. Hope I stay calm... I hate it when I get nervous, it messes with my form.
Since they only test for black in December, and I don't have enough time to make it this December, I guess I'll go black sash in 2006. There are six folks who may test this year, though...
Oh, and I started school again with CS121 -- a continuation of CS111, it seems. The first quarter of the class was trivial beyond compare. I may finish this one in four weeks, a new record.
Ahhh.... sweet quiet time.
Monday, cleaned the house a bit and skipped Taiji and dance (I was tired and really not up for them).
Some more Taiji here and there. Marla's mom visiting. Basic work stuff at work.
No chaos, no pressure.
Just a nice, quiet week.
Ahhhhh.....
Okay! This should be the last post about the movie for some time. And any future posts will be about smaller, less painful movie experiences, I'm sure.
Of course, this probably only means I'll transition to posts about Haunted Trails, but oh well.
Saturday we started shooting at a quarry -- I think it was a small gravel pit area. The sun was brutal -- and the UV and heat were poundind down on our heads and bouncing off of the walls, and even streaming up at us from the puddles and floors. We were in a solar oven and we cooked.
I burned through my shirt, even.
We did get to go home early, though, since Melissa missed her plane and got stuck in Denver. So that was good! I got to go to part of Michelle's birthday party, and see Mark and Kuovonne who I hadn't seen in a couple of years.
Sunday, then, we did everything possible to do in one 16 hour day.
So today I'm a bit tired.
Tomorrow I'll be chipper again! And then Marla's mom is here for a visit!
I think it's to celebrate our buying our house, which we closed on last Friday. So now we are home-owners.
So that's cool.