My Life in GOALS and SLEEPS and BALANCE

I'm going to make The Grand Attempt at a new bedtime: 3 AM. I've got 3 minutes... but I want to take a shower tonight. Still, last night I took a nap after work and went to bed at 5:30, so this should be an improvement.

On the other end, I moved myself from waking up at 1 PM to waking at noon, to get in an hour or so of reading every morning. And I'm going to move that back to 11 AM. Slowly slowly. This way when I do a day shift, it should be easier to get more than 3 hours of sleep. I made a promise to myself, when school ended, to never get less than 5 hours of sleep. (Once school ended and I wasn't doing the 3 hour sleeps anymore, and was less stressed, magically I got sick much less often. Hmmm! Plus too little sleep guarantees a big headache.)

I mostly kept that for a long time, but now as a manager I have to work at least one day shift (since everyone else has to do at least one night shift... seems fair, plus it's good to see the store in daylight once in awhile!)

The bad thing is... I can so easily function on 3 hours of sleep, that's why I do it over and over. Getting old hasn't hurt this a bit (except the sick part, and the fact that the headaches have worsened over time.) I even read of some sciencey research that said (if I remember right) that night people function better on less sleep than day people do. But when you first wake up it's still horrible.

The other goal is that, when I get home at night, I split those 4 hours before bed into:
2 hours: cook, eat, dishes, read internets
2 hours: write

I haven't gotten to the writing part yet either. One thing at a time. The other hard thing will be to stop writing at 3 AM and go to bed, if the writing's going well. We'll see we'll see...

Besides the health thing, this is all part of trying to maintain my personal goals while working full-time and being a manager again. I stopped being a manager 8 or so years ago because I would come home mentally exhausted, and then it's hard to write. This time around I'm hoping to maintain some sort of balance. Because it's summer I can walk home from work, and that helps me leave behind the Work Thoughts and start the Writing Thoughts. I've noticed that halfway into my walk my brain starts to shift gears, and I leave work behind. But I'm too wussy to walk in cold or inclement weather.

The other thing that's helped is that my initial First Love Excitement Infatuation! with the job wore off about a month ago (still enjoy the job, just not all Crushing) which makes it easier to leave it behind. And I also got a couple big projects done, so I feel Organized and Caught Up. (Like 6 weeks of manager schedules. Now I can just do one schedule a week.)

Better go. Sleeeeps!

A strange obsession took hold of her... they found her buried beneath a pile of 3for4 books.

Sigh. Well, my new goal is to get to bed by 3 AM and then stick to it. (Sometimes I get there, but then float off again.) But tonight I was sooo sleepy I couldn't resist a nap, so now it's 4:30 AM... It's just that I want to wake up an extra hour early and read before I go to work (now that I have a million more books to get through), and also to get more sleep for when I do day shifts.

I bought more books today. :-( Some more fantasies that Fernando wanted, and then the gal in the French department loaded me up with recommendations. Eeeps! The only section I avoided was Teen/9-12. I didn't dare go ask for recommendations from those staff members (though I would have bought I'd Tell You But Then I'd Have To Kill You if it had been in stock.)

I think this weekend I'll have a big book organizing party of one. I'm in the mood to clean up my bookshelves, sort out the non-fictions, and bring in more books to work if I'm not going to re-read them.

Kill-ed by books

Sometimes the bookstore where I work allows us to combine our employee discount with a promotion, like the current buy 3 get 4th free. When they do that, the staff go nutty! Me included. Though I think one of my fellow managers (and her boyfriend) are running neck and neck with me and Fernando.

We bought 36 books today... [read more]

My new art deco condo?

I forgot to mention--when I went out with Swisgirl and Pelican the other day, the restaurant was in Outremont, and it was a bit of a walk from the metro. I never get out and about in Montreal, and Outremont is soooo beautiful (I gather we were in the Hasidic Jewish area, rather than the French-Canadian, unless they're mixed.)

The yards are tiny because it was all built up in the 30s or whatever, but man are the houses GORGEOUSly old, and the trees are old. You can get some serious house envy walking around there.

And the buildings on Bernard street are from the 1900s-30s--there are no high buildings so the whole street feels a little bit like a step out of time. Ooh look, I can get a condo around here for $350 000 +


We went to Maïko Sushi. I'm no sushi expert so I can't judge, but it tasted really good to me, and they put an orchid on your plate! And it was pretty and we were in the corner with a street view. And the service was very good.


(I never remember my camera, so these pics are from online.)

Sushi and a bass guitar

I'm up to 9000-ish songs in my itunes library, which means I don't always know what I got in there. So I like to dump a bunch of stuff on my ipod and make discoveries when walking to work -- or today, while bussing downtown to meet my high school friends for another sushi supper.

Today's Discovery: "That Night in Amsterdam" - The Blue Seeds
From: Stoleded off my brother's computer.

the best of the 80s

My brother sent me this. The only mistake they made is they should have had this at the end: "And also starring Alec Guinness." Otherwise he'll throw a fit in his trailer.



And brother is right, this one is really clever:

My day

I had half a work day today--stayed at home and made manager schedules, which requires a high level of uninterrupted concentration. Got 6 weeks worth done.

Feeling very Pleased With Myself I also downloaded the instruction manual for my recumbent bike and figured out how to work it properly, and had a leisurely bike ride while catching up on my news and blog reading.

I intended to go to the bookstore with Fernando tomorrow to shop shop shop, but remembered I'm getting together with old high school friends downtown. Another sushi date!

After having had my many blogs for a couple years now I'm further refining them. I waited to see which ones would naturally work out the best--which turned out to be this one, and the beauty one. I had long ago decided not to spend too much time fiddling with my blogs when I should be writing, but all the agent blogs I read have been talking about the importance of social media. So I'm finally reading up on how to make my blogs a little better, and at some point I'll Twitterize myself.

Then I took a headache pill, took a bath and read the relationship book I'm slowly getting through--it's the best one I've come across.

And then started Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, while Fernando sits at the other end of the couch completely caught up in the Temeraire dragon series (imagine the Napoleonic wars, but with an aerial corp... of intelligent dragons.)

And my final accomplishment: I finally managed, in a matter of minutes, to summarize my current novel in two phrases (for the comments section of a blog I read): "I'm finishing up a classic "fake engagement" romance between a woman whose last fiancé dumped her for being infertile, then toured an award-winning one-man show about it; and the childhood sweetheart who's just reappeared in her life. Story includes poetry theft, a family curse, and gossiping chauffeurs."

As my old and not-loved manager used to say: Amaaaazing.

Now I must abed!

What to read next??

I'm at that horrid yet lovely point of deciding what to read next. I've been reading romances to get to know the market, but I think I need a change for one book. And I've been reading graphic novels, but I think that phase has waned for now, so I'll shelve my League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for another day. (No sense rushing through graphic novels, they are SO expensive.)

Probably I'll read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:




Only problem is the second book is in hard cover, and the third not yet out in English translation. Well, if the book is so good and I get all desperate, the third book is out in French.

Michael Jackson! my my

Spent my afternoon doing some work from home, and now I just settled down for some internetting and apparently Michael Jackson is dead!

Only the AP and LA Times have reported it yet, I guess. I'm watching CNN's The Situation Room. They're just playing videos and talking fluff cause they have nothing else to report.

I'm not surprised, that poor guy always looked so ill and unhappy. Wonder what'll happen to his kids.

UPDATE: I have to add Swisgirl's comment from facebook cause it's funny...

"I remember when we were in HIgh Scool and "boring people" from the 50s & 60s died... and Entertainment tonight was REALLY BORING... I remember thinking: will it be like this when Billy Idol and Madonna die??? I guess so! "

Irving Berlin knows me so well

Updates

Prezzies: Scored a sweet Chewbacca LEGO pen from Fernando. Since we forgot it was our 11th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago, I figure that counts.

Friends: Well I see the Maewitch more often these days at manager meetings. Tonight the Toronto Gang was in town and we went out for sushi, had a lovely time. They had three different menus. It was so confusing they spent an hour just figuring out how/what to order! (I just told the waiter to bring on the vegetarian food, waiter's choice.)

Writing: Going well--adding a subplot to my book. Plain old writing is always fun.

Exercise: Today I discovered that I can write / get my blog reading done while using the stationary bike! ...Except I had to sit at an angle. I need a desk that fits over the bike...

Nothing new in Job Land or Job Hunt Land. I'm trying to focus more on my writing. All the tv shows I was watching have ended, and I don't intend to pick up any new ones--trying to get back into my Nanowrimo habit, which was to come home and collapse in front of computer rather than the tv.

Headaches: Fine for a couple weeks now. After those initial days of constant headaches I decided to go off all painkillers last weekend, and now I'm getting far less headaches. My goal is to take my new pill no more than 2 X a week, which is what they recommend to prevent rebounds. I'm more likely to get headaches at the end of a work day, or when I haven't had enough sleep, so my weekends have been great. Anyway... all is well.

if only this were real... amazing

Music I'm enjoying today :-)

The Go! Team (discovered via the Friend & Potter Wai-Yant's LJ.


E.L.O. (enjoyed since childhood--you can get a 20 song Best Of for 9.99 at iTunes)


Leonard Cohen's Live in London

I like Archer's books but...

...this is weird.

"Jeffrey Archer has rewritten his bestselling novel KANE AND ABEL, which Macmillan UK will republish this fall. He says, "I added some 24,700 words to the original manuscript. But the final copy ended up 7,000 words shorter than the first edition. So I think it's better crafted now after 30 years of writing. But the plot remains the same." "
Telegraph (from Publisher's Lunch)

Haaaallulujah!

Boy. Old Leonard's really gave people their money's worth on his latest tour. (This is I assume from the dvd/album currently for sale.)

What books should take from movies:

(Excerpted from cracked.com)

1. Sequels: Sequels are like a license to print small bills just so you can spit on them and throw them at poor people. If publishers take up this practice as well, think of all the great works we could be reading right now! We could be perusing the action-packed Dickensian sequel we’ve all wanted to read, 2 Cities 2 Furious. Or laughing it up to The Retard, the light-hearted follow-up to Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.

2. Explosions: Put your skills to work where they’re wanted, novelists. Nobody gives a shit how ethereal the morning dew is, but write us some explosion porn and they’ll name the Pulitzer Prize after you (as opposed to whoever it’s named for now).

3. A soundtrack: You’ve probably seen Spielberg’s classic horror film, Jaws, right? Have you ever tried watching it on mute? Without his titular theme song, Jaws (that’s the shark’s name) doesn’t look ominous; he looks lost. When seen in utter silence, Jaws isn’t scary. It watches more like the tragic story of a shark with autism just trying to find his way home.

4. Celebrity cameos:

An example of how a celebrity cameo could potentially liven up an existing classic:

“These women do prattle so, do they not Mr. Baracus?” Mr. Darcy said, leaning in casual repose against the door.

“Indeed, sir,” replied Mr. Baracus. “They are quite foolish in their way, and I for one do not suffer fools lightly. Actually, it is quite the pity they inspire in me.”

5. Slow motion: For example, here’s what the Matrix could be like, in novel form:

He takes a step, and then another and another. Now there’s another step. Now it’s only half a step, and he starts to lift off the ground just a little bit. Now he’s kind of in the air but not really. Now he’s more in the air. Now he’s totally in the air and seriously about to kick a guy in the face.

Neo is kicking a guy in the face.

Neo is still kicking a guy in the face.

His trenchcoat is flapping. Flap. Flaaaap. Flaaaaaaaaap.

….Flaaaaaaaaaap.

Should have started with: Murder!

OMD (oh my days)

Kanye West is SO weird, I just love him. Excerpt from an open letter to KW: (I recommend you read the whole letter, it's very clever.)

Dear Mr. West,

On behalf of my daughter, who is due on October 8th and so thus far has been shielded by the womb from the loud, generally vacuous remarks of all current celebrity-cum-philosophers - and on behalf of every child living in America who has ever been negatively influenced by a "Kanye-ism" - I would just like to say: Shame on you, 'Ye.

Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.

These are your words that you employed, oddly enough, while promoting your own forthcoming book, Thank You and You're Welcome. This tome of "theories" is reportedly composed of 52 pages and possibly fewer words, since many pages contain only a single almost-sentence, and others are left blank - perhaps a nod toward your blank sense of responsibility for those who pay attention to what you say.

Ahh the rites of spring...

The first spring my present store was open, I remember my fellow Fiction staffer telling me it was his favourite time of the year. Why? Because this is when all the girls come out of their winter clothes and start wearing skirts and small tops again.

Years later one of my manager friends downtown described to me the lunchtime scene one day, when he stepped out of the store to enjoy the spring sun and enjoy the women walking by. And when he looked up and down Ste. Catherine's Street, he saw men up and down the street doing the same thing.

Just now I was reading an essay by a woman who went to school with Leonard Cohen in the 1950s, and she tells this story:

One day I saw him standing with his closest buddy, Morty Rosengarten, on the corner of Sherbrooke Street. "Where are you going?" asked I, who was always on my way somewhere. "We're watching the girls come out for spring," he said, just standing there.

yes yes yes yes

and yes. This makes me monkey crazy.

Racefail 09

Fernando is going to Worldcon this August--the sci fi-fantasy convention where they give out the Hugos. But I realized I'd better catch him up on Racefail 09 in case it comes up in panel discussions and such.

Racefail 09 is the most common term used to describe a huge and wide-ranging online discussion on Live Journal and people's blogs about writing about race in Sci Fi Fantasy. I first learned of it in February, when I lost many days reading the posts and thinking about my own writing. I didn't realize it took on some new dimensions right up til March, when it seems to have died down.

It's hard to summarize but basically a well-known white fantasy author wrote a blog post about how to write about race. A blogger posted an open response to it, critiquing Bear's own writing about race, and her general attitude. And then the comments started to fly and it went on for 3 months. The heart of the debate:

- After the race critique of one of Bear's books, she basically defended herself by saying: Oh but I was raised in this New Age alternative community where POCs were considered better than white people, so I'm not racist, and if anything I understand what it's like to be discriminated against.
- many People of Color (POC) were offended/annoyed by Bear's attitude. They tried to explain the following: That no matter what your upbringing is, or what you think or feel in your head, if you live in a majority white society you will be treated better in a hundred different subtle ways. You're privileged, even if you can't see it. So: Yes, it's good to attempt to grapple with race in your writing, but you need to be open to the criticism that may follow, and learn from it.
- Bear, and many others, over the course of months and many posts, just couldn't get this point
- And mixed in here a lot was the issue that POCs don't feel comfortable or welcome in Sfi Fi Fantasy land (blogs, conventions, publishing industry, etc.)

There are many other highlights and exciting twists, but that was the origin of the discussion, as I remember it. My fave *new twists* which I hadn't read about til today were:

- One white writer who said: Well now I'm too paranoid to write about POCs. Is this what you wanted?
- One blogger who seemed to *get* what people were trying to tell her, and then went on her blog and said: I only agreed with these people because they bullied me into it, because I was an abused child and I have trouble recognizing when people are abusing me.

OMG the fascinating train wreckiness of it all.

You can read a longer summary by the woman who wrote the original critique here.

the eternal Classic Rock playlist

Is it possible to get sick of REALLY GREAT songs that have just been played too much? I don't mean the amount you play them yourself cause that's controllable, but I mean songs you get exposed to a lot over a lifetime.

I've never grown tired of Maggie May. I could see myself getting tired of Roxanne since it's, like, THE Police song that everyone loves, after Every Breath (which are The Police's top 2 downloads on iTunes. Maggie May is Rod Stewart's #1.)

And though there was only one Beatles album in our household growing up (Sgt Pepper, which is still the only Beatles I own), I was still tired of all their Top Hitz by the time I hit my teens.

get that baby off my ceiling!

Ever since going to the headache doctor, I've had more frequent than usual headaches. Right now my head feels stuffed with cotton (but like, more cotton than can fit in my head) which is not my usual type of headache. My Usual Headache is one-sided, like a point boring into the side of my skull. And they're fitting the other symptoms of a rebound headache (Eg. wake you early in the morning, which is what happened today.)

I think it's because I stopped taking any tyl with codeine, and now my inner heroine addict is rebelling. I also mentioned to Fernando yesterday that I feel like I've been on the verge of a cold for a few days, but without actually getting sick. And apparently a lot of codeine withdrawal symptoms are like being sick (though I'm not, like, going through a Trainspotting sort of experience here. Ease.)

Fernando (who went to get my new meds today) asked the pharmacist, who confirmed that I should continue taking some tyls-w-codeine, but half what I would usually take.

Apparently triptans (my new meds) cause rebounds too, so now while I use triptans to get off codeines, I have to be cautious of my triptan use! Phew. So confusing. Hmm this website has some useful advice.

(Sorry for long dull posts about headaches, but I get fascinated by any illness I have.)

cookies and architecture

Pretty cool office--it's an architecture company in Spain. Of course, in Canada... one good snowstorm and no one will make it out of the office!


In other news, I made another raw cookie recipe today, from my favourite cookbook. They're alright, but first, the recipe was huge, I've got 36 cookies sitting in my freezer! And the recipe used carob instead of cocoa, which has a slightly bitter taste. I like carob, but not as much as cocoa. But they're so thick (like a thick cookie dough) that they're not really conducive to pigging out!

my new drugs drugs druuuugs

I had a headache when I went to bed last night, but I didn't take druggies in hopes it would go away. But when I awoke at 8 AM is was worse, so I took one of my triptans. My headache was at the point where normally it would take more than 2 Tyl-Codeines to subdue, but my triptan lessened it enough within the first hour that I could fall back asleep. And now I wokes up today and it's gone. Coooool.

Off to work now.

It's nice to have kitty company

Sittin' here doing some work for work. (The manager schedule. When I'm newly in charge of a task, I spend hours doing just in prep work, so that in subsequent weeks I can do it quickly and accurately. But the initial setup is long. It's allll very magical and mysterious. I can't imagine what my life was before Excel.)

Anyway, it's interesting the way kitties like to have company, even if they're just sleeping. If I was watching TV right now, Nombly would be sitting on his current fave spot (a pair of slacks that now Fernando can't move), Haley would be in her box or on top of her shelf, and Sherry would be on his triangle pillow.

But since I'm working in my bedroom, they're in their current Fave Bedroom Spots: Nombly on the blanket by my bed, Sherry at the foot, Haley at the top.
(And no, I don't ever ever make my bed. I am philosophically opposed.)

organic foodz owned by *the man*

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/06/food-for-thought.html

corn corn coooorn

All drugged up and no place to go

I went to my headache doctor today. She didn't change my preventative med, because I'm basically happy with it. But when I told her I still get a few headaches a week, and take Tylenol with codeine, she gave me new pain meds to try--because the codeine will suck me into a lifelong spiral of headache rebounds, and become increasingly less effective.

She gave me two freebies to try, to see which works better:

Zomig: zolmitriptan
Maxalt: rizatriptan

They are "5-hydroxytryptamine agonists".

How glamorous. You're supposed to take 1 pill, it takes 2 hours to work, take another if needed, and then it should last for about 24 hours.

Life With Lady Hal

The other day Haley was sitting on my desk in the sun

looking so sweet
so I was all: I'll take a picture with my computer
to catch her in a sweet moment.
This is the picture I got:

Actually in the above pic she was just yawning
and her claw was stuck on my sleeve.
A moment later she was licking my arm.

Last night:
Haley drumming to The Police.
I should have known she was a drummer.

Definitely my fave ad on TV right now: He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels

This is the ad I've seen:


Another from youtube (The best part is just the opening lines):

This is pretty much how Haley rolls...

Her attitude to HUmahns:

Her attitude to the other cats:

sleeeepeeeeee

It's 3 AM and I'm drooping over my keyboard from The Sleepies... but I don't want to go to bed! I want to sit here and listen to mah Prince album, and look at my new cookbook.

...Well actually I have two new cookbooks, but I already looked at the other one, AND cooked from it. Though *cooked* is a inaccurate since it's a raw cookbook.


I've never bought a raw ckbk before--too much work, or they require buying a dehydrator. But Ani Phyo is considered the best raw chef, and I want to try making more desserts that use less processed food (esp processed sugar, but flour too), so I bought her new dessert book. And made truffles, made out of ground cashews, cacoa and agave, and I rolled them in coconut. They're nice... like uncooked brownie batter. I stuck them in the freezer and we'll see what they're like tomorrow.

The other book I bought is Moskowitz' Vegan Brunch, cause it has all kinds of recipes in it that I don't have elsewhere--like bagels and English muffins and baked hashbrowns and eggs benedict. Mmm. It's all the fault of Vegan Dad for reviewing it and feeding my consumerism.

Siiigh... sleepy.

cookies!

I've been cutting back on my baking lately (sigh) and trying out recipes that don't use processed sugar (so at least our blood sugar doesn't go WEEEE! too quickly) and this is a very yummy recipe. This author uses a lot of gluten free flours, and different sugars and such. And like many of the great vegan cookbook writers, she lives in Canada. :-)

http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/super-charge-me-cookies.html#links