breaking the chain

Lifehacker had a post last week about Jerry Seinfeld's motivational tool of crossing off days on a calendar every time he wrote and trying not to break the chain of Xs. Seeing the long run of Xs is supposed to make it easier to resist the temptation to skip "just the one" day. The stars were working like that for me, but now I've broken the chain and it is getting easier to let things slide. I think going home and taking a month off made it easier to slack off. When I started this month, I didn't have a string of unbroken months behind me anymore and I didn't have the enthusiasm that comes of starting something brand new, either.

I haven't been doing terribly with the stars, anyway. I've only skipped a couple of trips to the gym and I've done 2.5 hours of work every week day, except maybe one. I guess the things I've been doing longest are pretty habitual, which is a good sign. I've been forgetting to write emails, though, which was supposed to be my new thing this month. I have done a lot better at replying to people than I would have otherwise, though. I've also been ignoring the rule to do something productive on the weekends, but I think that's okay, because I have been a lot more sociable. The rule was meant to keep me from spending whole days hiding in my room, and that definitely hasn't been happening.

I'm not that bothered by not continuing the star streak, but I would like to reevaluate and start again, because I think it's been very helpful. Here's the updated graph of average blog post happiness scores going back to the start of my blog, to illustrate:

(The dip in May was when I was blogging the negative thoughts. June is also too high, since I only wrote two (happy) posts while I was home.)

The first couple of months of The Plan, I was happy just to not be miserable and to be making some progress. Since then, I've gotten used to the way things are again, and notice the things that haven't improved so much. I'm not sure if that initial level of happy-blogging is sustainable, but I'd like to continue the upward trend, if I can. So, what do I do now?

I think I need to emphasise getting up earlier in the mornings. Lately, I've not been getting to lab until the afternoon, which is worse than when I was depressed. I think it's become easier to slack off because I can still do my 2.5 hours of work in an afternoon, so I've learnt that it doesn't really matter if I'm there in the morning as well. Plus, people can't tell if I'm working elsewhere or not. I've definitely gotten more efficient with my work, so I think I need to increase my minimum. I've still occasionally had problems getting enough work done, so I don't want to make it too hard, but I can definitely do more. Hmm, maybe that doesn't really relate to getting up earlier, but I do feel better the earlier I can start being productive, and I will need more time if I'm planning to do more work. I've been going to bed later, too, quite often for good reasons, so I don't want to miss out just so I can get more sleep. I need to make sure I go to bed earlier on the days when I'm just reading blogs or otherwise wasting time, though.

More generally, I need to focus on what I want, rather than just on following the rules I've come up with for the stars. I've been saying that in The Plan posts for a couple of months now, I know. Maybe eventually I'll come up with a way to keep the big picture in view.

I'm starting a new month of The Plan early, tomorrow, since this one hasn't been great, so I'll put the details in there. Stay tuned!

books #60-70 (2007)

60. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling ***1/2. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but after thinking about and discussing it more, I'm less satisfied. I still like the ending, though.

61. When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers ****. I was a little worried that this was going to be one of those chick-lit-ish books about divorce, but I was quickly reassured by the main character's interpretation of her husband's reasons for leaving her, i.e. that she was an autistic vampire. I heart characters lacking in social skills!

62. Electricity by Ray Robinson ****. I kept alternating between liking and disliking the main character of this book, and the book along with her, but in the end I thought it was a good book. She has epilepsy due to her mother throwing her (either against a wall or down the stairs) as a child. The story is more about her finding her own way in life, making friends and reconnecting with her brothers again, though.

63. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield *****. I loved this book. Thank you, Katie! There were lots of interesting and surprising plot twists, but I also thought the characters were great. An elderly author invites a fairly reclusive bookseller, amateur biographer, to finally write her true story, after she's spent all her life making up stories when interviewed about her life.

64. Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen ***. This only gets so many stars because of the illustrations, which are gorgeous (see below). The chapters seemed way too short and inconsequential and the problems too easily overcome, which is more surprising given that each chapter was originally a free-standing issue in a series.

65. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July ****1/2. This was just as good as I was hoping after seeing "Me and You and Everyone We Know". Beautifully poignant stories about awkward and eccentric people longing for connection.

66. You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon ****. This was a fairly depressing story about a disconnected family, all of whom end up with lives far from what they wanted. It was very good, but the way the story jumped between characters and back and forth in time was a little confusing.

67. Corrections to My Memoirs by Michael Kun ***1/2. Some of these stories were great, but the fake publisher's notes between chapters and the silly, gimmicky subset of stories put me off a bit.

68. Black Hole by Charles Burns ***. This was a highly recommended graphic novel, and it was engaging and interesting for the most part, but then it just kind of petered out, or at least my interest did... It's about a weird sexually-transmitted disease that causes teenagers to develop various monstrous deformities, so it was pretty creepy.

69. The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver ****. When I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be boring, but I got drawn in. It's kind of a Sliding Doors kind of book, with a single introductory chapter leading up to the point where the effectively married main character is tempted to kiss another man, followed by alternating chapters chronicling how her life develops depending on whether or not she gave into temptation.

70. The Secret River by Kate Grenville ****. I haven't finished this one yet, but I'm rating it anyway. I don't like it as much as "The Idea of Perfection", but that's largely because I'm not quite so interested in historical fiction. It's about a man who grows up poor in London and is transported, along with his wife and child, to Australia for stealing a load of wood. He gets the chance to start his own farm, but his success has to come at the expense of the aboriginal people who were there first. I guess I'm also not enjoying it so much because that aspect of Australian history is sickening, which isn't really the book's fault. (I just finished it and upgraded its rating, because it really is a good book, even if the subject matter wasn't fun)

bored

I'm feeling kind of aimless this evening. Nobody else is home, which is unusual, so I'm feeling like I should be out doing something fun, too. I should make more of an effort to organise fun and/or sociable things (I know... I've written that before). I would almost even want to call someone just to chat, if I knew someone I could be sure I wasn't bothering.
Last time I saw the therapist, she asked about friends I'd seen at home and I told her I'd called them to organise things to do together. She asked why I don't ever call anyone here. Partly it was just that I didn't have internet at home, so I couldn't email to arrange meeting up, but I think I also don't have the same kind of friends here.
I don't really socialise outside of people I live with, one friend from home who's also here and bloggers. I'll sometimes call the friend from home, or she'll call me, but otherwise I rarely talk on the phone. Because I see the people I live with relatively frequently (at least, in theory), when we do stuff, it's generally more focussed on some activity, whereas at home I'd arrange to get together with friends just to catch up and talk.
I wish I'd done a better job of making those kinds of friends here. I'm still sad that none of the people in my program emailed me back after the last time I suggested getting together. I don't blame them, though. They've developed closer friendships with each other, so why do they need me popping up occasionally to try to join in? I'm not sure what I should've done differently so that I'd be included.
I didn't have a cell phone for most of the first year I was here, so I missed out on a lot of the impromptu social activities, and the opportunity to get into a pattern of keeping in touch with people, when they would've been more willing to include me. Now, they don't expect me to be involved.
When I said I didn't like calling people just to chat because I worried that I'd just be bothering them, the therapist suggested that I should trust people to not answer their phone if they didn't want to talk. I don't think it's that simple, though. It's not so much that I worry about calling at an inconvenient time, more that the person might not want to talk to me at all, or would think it was weird that I would call.
I can't remember how I got to be friends with people at home. I know I made a conscious effort to make friends with my best friend at home. I didn't know anyone in most of my lectures in 3rd year at uni, because I was doing a weird course that was out of sync with the people I already knew, so I made a point of talking to the people I sat next to and trying to find them to sit next to again (kind of hard in a class of several hundred). I'm not sure how I got from sitting with her in class to actually being friends, though, especially since my in-class friendships in other classes didn't translate. I wish there were some rules to follow...
At this point, I feel like most people I know think I'm just generally anti-social, so changing their opinions seems daunting. Maybe it would be easier to start over with new friends, except that I wouldn't know how I'd go about meeting new people, and then I'd have the same trouble with trying to be more sociable, anyway.
A housemate and friends just came home to pick up drinks before going to their second fun thing of the evening and I'm sitting here with my laptop. I feel lame... I should stop dwelling, anyway. And, I just got a text message, so I should stop complaining.

My dad forwarded on an email from my aunt saying that my grandmother is in hospital, but it's unclear how unwell she is. She'll be 97 in a week or two, so it's probably not good. I've been ignoring the email because I don't know what to do or say. I'm scared of saying the wrong thing or appearing not to care enough, so instead I do nothing and ensure that I seem completely uncaring...

Part of the problem is that I'm not sure I do care enough. I don't feel especially close or attached to her, not the way other people seem to feel about their grandmothers (or even how I felt about my maternal grandmother, who died when I was 17). I'm glad I went to stay with her while I was home, though.

I remember feeling similarly when my grandfather died when I was 10. I didn't feel much of anything, but we went into his hospital room to see his body and I started crying. I felt guilty because my aunt and mum assumed I was sad, but really I was more freaked out by seeing a dead body.

Growing up, I got the message that my grandmother wasn't very loving or interested in us grandkids, which probably didn't help forge close bonds with her. That view was probably heavily influenced by my mum. My grandmother wasn't very welcoming to her, and would make comments Mum interpreted as cruel. Every time we visited, Mum would spend half the drive home berating my dad for not sticking up for her against his mother. While I was home recently, I realised how much my mum's insecurities lead her to interpret things in the way that best fits the theory that everyone is judging her negatively, so she's not an entirely reliable narrator (although my grandmother is often less than tactful). My dad's lack of apparent interest in his family didn't really do anything to contradict Mum's point of view, though.

Dad's email with the news just said "Hello kids, Grannie's in hospital; we're waiting to hear more" at the top of a forwarded email from his sister. Then he just forwarded the next email with no comment. I tend to assume he doesn't care because he doesn't give any indication of his feelings, but that's probably unfair. He must be upset, but I have no idea how to respond to him.

I wish I felt closer to my grandmother, and my family in general, but I don't know how to cultivate that kind of relationship. Sometimes I feel like an android. I think I take after my dad too much.

this explains all those angelic meme results

"What’s so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it’s easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what’s left when you’ve failed at everything else. People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think about them. I hardly suppose Wagner lost sleep worrying whether he’d hurt someone’s feelings. But then he was a genius."

Diane Setterfield (The Thirteenth Tale*)

*Which I'm enjoying very much. Thanks to Katie for mentioning it!

another rockin' girl blogger

I wanted to give Gwen an award the other day, but I felt like it might be weird, since I've just been lurking on her blog. Her fabulously named Super Happy Funtime Blog combines academic blogging, cute and/or disturbing farm stories, weird conversations and other entertaining observations. Go read this post and tell me she doesn't rock.

books #30 - 59 (2007)

I'm doing so badly at this. I think this is only the third book post for the year. To save you scrolling through the whole list, I've put the highlights at the top, since there seemed to be quite a lot of books I found fairly average. I wrote most of the descriptions too long after finishing them to come up with anything useful, sorry. I'm not even entirely confident in my star rating for some of them...

34. How to Read an Unwritten Language by Phillip Graham ****1/2. This was lovely, with quirky and sympathetic characters.

35. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville ****1/2. This was a beautifully written romance about two fairly socially awkward people. It was more about them individually, and the way they each coped with moving to a small country town where everyone knows, and is interested in, everything that happens. There was a third, mostly unconnected person whose story was included, too, but it all fit together.

47. Indelible Acts by A.L. Kennedy ****1/2. Heartbreakingly beautiful stories about longing.

49. Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson ****1/2. I think I've run out of ways to say "beautifully written", but it is. The story of the orphaned Silver, who becomes an apprentice lighthousekeeper, is interspersed with stories of previous lighthousekeepers and town inhabitants.

56. Family and Other Accidents by Shari Goldhagen ****1/2. I picked this book off the shelf without a recommendation and it was actually good! That hasn't happened in a while. It's about two brothers and told alternately from each of their perspectives as they grow up (or not), starting from when their mother dies and the elder brother moves home to take care of the younger.

59. Day by A.L. Kennedy *****. This is the best book I've read this year. It's about an air force gunner in World War II, covering his experiences during the war and afterwards as he tries to adjust back to civilian life. The plot description doesn't sound like anything special, but it really is a wonderfully written and moving book. I kind of want to read it again, already. Read a proper review here.

30. The Wild Trees by Richard Preston **. This could've been interesting. It's about people who climb giant redwood trees so there are plenty of death-defying stunts and quests to find the tallest trees in the world. Unfortunately, the writing style sucks all the interest out of the content... It's all "Steve loved trees. He decided to study the trees. He enrolled in graduate school. As a little girl, Marie also loved trees. One day she decided to study trees, too." The author is clearly trying hard to make it into a narrative, but that just makes it worse. I really don't care what the tree guy ate for breakfast, or what colour eyes everyone has. The linked review is very favourable, thought, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me.

31. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ***1/2. This was a kind of creepy book. I would've liked it better if it were even more creepy, though.

32. Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler ***. I got this book for a housemate because he liked The Jane Austen Book Club and after reading it, he accused me of trying to convert him to SF fandom. I'm not sure it even is SF, though. It could be, or there could be realistic interpretations of everything.

33. What is the What by Dave Eggers ****. I feel like I should have something more interesting to say about it, but I'm writing this months after reading it, so I don't. It was a good book.

36. Complications by Atul Gawande ***1/2. This was a very interesting book. I liked his writing style, too. It was far more engaging than the stupid tree book. Isn't this author bio a bit sickening, though? "Atul Gawande, a 2006 MacArthur fellow, is a general surgeon at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for the New Yorker, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and a frequent contributor to The New England Journal of Medicine. Gawande lives with his wife and three children in Newton, Massachusetts." The fact that his kids are named Hunter, Walker and Hattie does lose him points, though.


37. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ***1/2. This kid didn't really seem like a wallflower to me. He had friends, even if they were weird. Still, I could identify with his loneliness and awkwardness.


38. Which Brings Me to You by Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott ***1/2. This was a nice, mostly light-hearted book. (That was where I stopped writing months ago; I don't think I have anything to add.)


39. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill **1/2. I picked this book up because I thought the title and cover were cute. I should've paid more attention to the blurb on the back, because it was pretty depressing in a not-especially-redemptive way. It's about a 12/13-year-old girl who lives with her heroin-addicted father, or in foster care, or with a pimp, when he can't/won't take care of her. The notes from the author said she was trying to capture the way children accept the world at face value, which I think she did, but there were times when Baby's voice seemed to shift to that of an adult reflecting back on her past.


40. Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen **. I thought I'd read another book by this author, or I would've rejected it as too chick-lit-ish. Or is there a name for the category of books about sisters/friends where one is far more successful than the other and the less successful one learns that she is better than she thinks and the other is not as perfect as she seems? The description referred to the main character's sister (millionaire star of morning TV) making some catastrophic mistake on air that affected her and her sister's lives. Unfortunately, the drama turned out to fairly boring; even the parts where people were in danger weren't actually dramatic. Far too much of the book focussed on the sister's privileged life and how perfect her son was. I was surprised that the main character was 43 and in a solid relationship already, but then she did talk about how her boyfriend didn't want kids and then get pregnant and have him change his mind, which is presumably the equivalent of falling in love with the best friend for the next demographic up. The book was just bland. At least it was a good palate-cleanser after reading about drug addicts and child prostitution...


41. The Translator by Leila Aboulela **1/2. I think this book was too understated for me, which I should've guessed, since J.M. Coetzee praises its "restraint" on the cover. It seemed like the observant muslim and Islamic studies professor merely had a few conversations before she was in love and assuming he loved her enough to convert so they could get married. The ending seemed similarly unsignalled to me, too, except in its predictability. I think it would've been more interesting if more of the story had focussed on their love developing, rather than her life in Khartoum. It was also weird reading this book after What is the What, given that they were both set, at least partially, in Sudan at around the same time. Everyone in this book had homes with electricity and running water, even if they was prone to outages, and there was no mention of war at all.


The last string of sub-3-star books are a result of browsing the library shelves rather than basing my choices on reviews or recommendations. Clearly I need help.


42. The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay ***. This could've been a really good book, about a lonely girl finding her own way in life, but it was just okay.


43. Y: The Last Man #1: Unmanned by Brian Vaughan ***. I'd heard really great things about this series. I'll probably keep reading for a bit, at least, but it was just okay, too.


44. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai ***. I wasn't really that enamoured of this book, either. It was fine, but nothing special. This is the point where I really started to feel like I'd lost my appreciation for reading.


45. Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs (audiobook) ***. I got this when I realised that I was only listening to movies while I was knitting, since I had to keep looking at the pattern. I wouldn't have bothered reading it as a book, probably, but it was entertaining enough.


46. Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen ***1/2. I read this on the plane on the way home. It was a good aeroplane read, I think.


48. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (audiobook) ***1/2. I listened to this while knitting, again, and while jogging, since I couldn't carry a book with me. I liked it better than The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, I think.


50. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell ****. I didn't realise there had been so many presidential assassinations or attempts. This was a very entertaining American history lesson.


51. Pick Up Stick City by Steven H. Semken **1/2. This was a kind of interesting story about a recluse who tries to restore a ghost town, but I just didn't care that much.

52. Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks ***. The author bet a friend he could hitchhike round Ireland, carrying a (mini) fridge. I've read a couple of his other books before, where he's made similarly ridiculous bets and this wasn't as good. Or maybe you can only read one before they all seem the same. His task seemed way too easy, thanks to the radio publicity he got, and the descriptions of people helping him out and spending all night at the pub weren't interesting or unique enough to make up for the lack of drama, even if they did take the fridge surfing.

53. The Year of Yes by Maria Dahvana Headley ***1/2. This is another chronicle of a strange and possibly pointless experience. The author decided to say yes to anyone who asked her out for a year. There are some amusingly weird experiences, but I got a bit sick of her writing style. She seemed to be trying too hard to come up with amusing turns of phrase. Plus, I had trouble taking her worries about being alone for the rest of her life seriously, given that she was like 20 and had no shortage of dates.

54. Ticket to Ride by Sarah Darmody ***1/2. This book had some of the same show-off-y tone as The Year of Yes, but it was entertaining. This author won the Greencard lottery and then, when she couldn't decide whether she actually wanted to stay in the US forever, she took a trip around the US by greyhound bus. Even though it was more about the buses and herself, it made me want to travel and see more of the US. Maybe I should enter the Greencard lottery, too...

55. The Long Chalkboard and Other Stories by Jenny Allen ***1/2. I picked this up because it was illustrated by Jules Feiffer. The stories were good, as well as the illustrations.

57. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan ****. To begin with, I didn't have too much sympathy for the priest in this book, who neglected his parish to hang out with teenagers, but I ended up feeling more understanding. And it was well-written.

58. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke ***1/2. Fairy stories from the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but not quite as good as that book.

random bullets o' netflix and vegetables

• I just watched "Me and You and Everyone We Know".
• I already had Miranda July's book of short stories on my request list at the library, since Jeremy pointed out its excellent website, but the movie made me wish I didn't have to wait for the book.
• I actually made it to the top of the queue for it while I was home, and thus had to give up my place and go to the back of the line.
• I think I'm going to cancel my netflix membership, since the housemates sharing it are moving out and I had that DVD for almost 2 months.
• I probably could've bought the DVD for less.
• I used to be the kind of customer Netflix hates, though, so it probably all balances out.
• I think I'm happier not sitting in my room alone long enough to watch all those movies.
• I joined a farm share thing with some housemates, hoping that would force me to cook real meals and eat more vegetables.
• Last week, it was my turn to pick up our share and I accidentally brought home twice as much as we were entitled to.
• This was after checking with a farm person that I had it right, so I don't feel too guilty.
• Before today, all I'd eaten out of two loads of veges was a leaf of lettuce.
• Tonight I dumped a bunch of veges in some Trader Joe's sauce, which feels kind of like cheating, especially in comparison to what my housemates have been doing, but let's face it, I wouldn't have cooked anything, otherwise.
• The veges included some chard, which I'd never eaten before.
• I'm not sure I will again, either, although the sauce does a good job of disguising the taste.
• I still have a crisper full of vegetables and another load arriving on Wednesday.
• I need to learn how to cook more interesting things.
• Or go to Trader Joe's more often.
• I totally deserve some Crème Brûlée ice cream for dessert now

rockin' girl bloggers

The awesome Luckybuzz gave me a Rockin' Girl Blogger award! That Luckybuzz would win one of these awards is obvious, because she is the very definition of a rockin' girl blogger, but when I read my name on her list, my mouth fell open in surprise.

I've been thinking about who to pass the award on to since yesterday, but I probably should've been more decisive because some of the people I was going to pick already got given awards elsewhere. Luckily, there are plenty of rockin' bloggers on my blogroll (although that probably ought to be updated at some point...).

1. Galaxy. I got to meet Galaxy in the course of my C'landian travels and she's even more rockin' in real life. I don't miss watching tv, except when Galaxy writes about it. I wish I could cook some of her delicious-looking meals, too.


2. Katie at Minor Revisions. Katie has an amazing gift for narrative. Not only does she write thoughtful and heartfelt reflections on her life, they come packaged in a beautifully written story.


3. Parts-n-pieces. I admire Parts-n-pieces' eloquent and passionate writing about her research and teaching and her focus on the good things happening in her life. She's also an amazing photographer.


4. Phantom Scribbler. Y'all already read Phantom, don't you? So I don't need to tell you what a fantastic writer she is, or how insightfully she analyses the important issues in life (you can read "important issues" as either genuine or ironic) or how she's cultivated a wonderful community of pixies in her comments. I want to be Phantom when I grow up.


5. Wolfangel. Most of my book recommendations come from wolfa. She is funny and snarky and honest. And she has rock star hair.

And an honorary Rockin' Girl Boy Blogger award for Jeremy, who rocks and is hilarious, and I know would love a shiny, pink icon to brighten up his blog.

stupid stars...

Sometimes I regret starting this star thing. I was about to go to bed when I remembered I'd put "tidy my room" on my list of three things to get done today. I was so tempted to just ignore it, or pretend one of the other three things I'd already done counted. I didn't want to ruin my streak, though, so I picked up the crap off my floor. Or at least piled it. That counts as tidying, right?

Sorry my blog has been fairly pathetic lately. I think I'm out of the habit of writing, and thinking, although there is stuff I could blog about. I'll try to post something properly tomorrow.

still procrastinating...

I did do some work, but then I reasoned that finishing the introduction meant I deserved a blog-reading break. That was an hour and a half ago... The annoying thing is that this wouldn't even take that long to finish if I just focussed, which is why I keep procrastinating, really. If only I could convince myself that it is going to take a while and I need to start now. Unfortunately, I just remembered that I'll still have several hours in the morning to work on it.
I also just ate a whole thing of cinnamon bun flavoured ice cream, which wasn't even as good as I was hoping. I'd been feeling good for leaving it in the freezer for several days uneaten (although it wasn't as if I didn't eat other ice cream in that time). At least I ate real food for dinner instead of just eating chocolate, as I was tempted to do.

things I've done today to avoid preparing for my talk tomorrow

• made a Simpson's avatar for myself
• answered half the questions for at least 3 blog things
• bolded 135/437 books I've read
• added another several books (but not descriptions) to my long overdue book post
• made up answers in my head to several memes
• learned that my blog is rated G
• and I'm almost perfect

And yet, you don't even get a meme out of it. Now I really have to make some powerpoint slides...

return of The Plan

I was feeling quite awake and alert this morning, but unfortunately that didn't last long after arriving at the lab. Still, I was determined to get a star again. Also unfortunately, that determination didn't translate into actual work and I procrastinated until now, but I did make it eventually!

This month's star requirements are:

• go to the gym
• list 3 things to get done during the day
• do half an hour of work before checking email
• another hour before reading my favourite blogs
• another hour before reading other blogs
• reply to one email from a friend

I'm going to set some more specific non-star goals, too, since I always seem to forget about the rest of The Plan. I'm going to start using the weights at the gym. I got the first load of veges from the farm share today, so I'm going to start cooking dinner properly using them. I'll also take my lunch to work more. I'm going to give blood again, too.

I wasn't awake enough to go to the gym this morning, but I went tonight. I was looking forward to going back to the nice, non-hilly, multitaskable-with-reading elliptical machine instead of having to run outside, but I should have remembered that if I wait until the last hour the gym is open I'll have to run on a treadmill, without headphones, and have to watch the Asian tv channel because it's the only thing with subtitles. At least it's been relatively entertaining both times. Last time it was an Indian soap opera with lots of tangled love affairs and today it was about gisaeng (similar to geishas - I was confused for a while by them not having Japanese names; I didn't realise there were equivalents in other countries and I clearly would fail these tests), one of whom was pregnant with a royal family member's child, which made the others very jealous.

In unrelated news, I really want this shirt:



Except, I also really don't like wearing black...

summer again

I started writing a grumpy post on the plane when I was feeling tired and squished and sad but I don't think I'll post it after all because right now I'm sitting on Santa Monica Pier, checking my email and downloading blogs to read when I have to go back to the airport for my last flight. It's 22 hours since I left home and I still have another 10.5 before I get to my destination, but sunshine and internet make up for a lot of things. When I got to LAX, I wondered if I should just find somewhere to lie down and sleep in the airport, since I only got about 2 hours sleep on the planes and my carry on bag is overladen with stuff that wouldn't fit into my checked bag so it's kind of painful to lug around, but I'm glad I came outside. It's kind of glary out here so I won't stay online long; I just wanted to say hi and let you know that normal blogging should resume fairly soon. It might take me a while to catch up on reading all your blogs, though, assuming I get straight back into the star scheme and don't devote myself full-time to getting my unread post count down to zero...
Okay, I'm going to go paddle in the ocean now. I hope you're all doing well.