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So, it turns out giving yourself a big old rousing pep talk about what a great writer you are, how much you love writing, and how much fun you’ll have writing what you’re writing – no matter how useful that generally is – when what you’re actually doing is assembling and editing notes in preparation to begin a rewrite, well, it … falls a little flat. Ah, well. We learn by doing. Popularity: 22% [?] So I’ve finally succeeded in something I’ve been trying to do off and on for maybe the last six weeks. Unfortunately it was getting sick. Yes, on Tuesday I finally came down with a full-blown case of the cruds: coughing, lacking energy, lacking greatly in mental focus. Also a stuffy nose, but I’ve had that since like October. Not hurting, really, nor even feeling bad. Just mostly feeling … not good. I did get Emma Dog out for a nice two-mile walk along Bear’s Ditch by the RGNC Wildfowl Preserve. It helped the weather was beautiful, unlike today. Also my pal Larry, whose dancenoob blog is well worth a look if you have any interest whatever in The Dance, or even if you don’t, was kind enough to drive me off for dinner and a bit of late-night cruise. Neither of which I think did me any harm, meaning they were both Good Things. Yesterday I spent pretty much as a shapeless blob of protoplasm. Felt as if I had a bit of a fever but was unable to check because of multiple Digital Thermometer Fails – one’s battery was dead; the other required me to breathe through my nose too long to get a decent reading. Yes, sometimes there is a reason to prefer analog, at least as a backup. I’m not even sure what I did most of the day. Nothing actually productive, other than recuperating. Which is important, yes. I played Mass Effect all evening (Yes, the first one. Because I bring it Old School.) Since that was pretty much the outer limit of my mental and physical capabilities, that also constituted a Good Day. Today I feel better. Comparatively. Still draggy and far from the sharpest scalpel on the surgery tray. I’m actually getting some stuff done on the Big One – of which I will say more soon, when I feel more like a sophont. Coughing productively – if you know what that means, that’s enough information. If you don’t … also enough. But at least it means the lung aggravation can break up on its own and is in fact doing so, unlike the awfulness brought on by last summer’s wildfires, which apparently were just straight-up inflammation and refused to clear up until my doctor got me on steroids. I might even be up for a walk with poor Emma, except the wind is blowing and it’s freaking cold – rain and/or snow has been predicted but so far failed to materialize. In any event, conditions I admit I’d be less than eager to walk in even if I felt more ambitious. Also, since I caught myself an hour or two ago putting the cup of coffee I wanted to reheat into the Big Black Refrigerator (aka Darth Vaderator) rather than the microwave, I have concluded that not attempting to drive at all is likely going to be my most … survivable option. So if we walk it’ll be somewhere from the front porch rather than the Nature Center or the Vineyard. Most likely, if it happens at all, around the block. We shall see. Anyway: while instead of launching right into the Big Project I was supposed to start on freaking Tuesday, I’m kind of gimping into it. But you know, things happen. And this is a time of year in which I am reminded just how blessed I am to be here to have things happen to. Anyway, thanks for bearing with. I’ll be back in stride soon. And as always – thanks for reading! Popularity: 20% [?] … Nature! Dammit, anyway. So after casting about for a long time I’ve evolved a morning ritual that works quite well for me: get up, feed the critters, do joint-mobilization exercises, then sit down to enjoy my breakfast of coffee and sugar-free red chile cream-cheese fudge while watching anime. Generally I start off watching an episode of Bleach. Then I watch some or all of an episode of another series – most often Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry these days, but sometimes Blue Gender or Full Metal Panic!. I finish off with Hikaru No Go. Which is about, well, go. As in, the game. (I’m trying to learn to play. Just … roll with me on this, okay?) After this pleasant routine, my body and brain have come on well enough to, you know, do stuff. Continue reading We interrupt this program to bring you… Popularity: 24% [?] So it turns out that when I post or comment an inordinate amount online – here, on teh Twitter, on Facebook, and now on Google+ – it can arise from opposite reasons:
Happily, today it’s that second thing. Go me! Popularity: 17% [?] Thanks to the good guy in the Calibers shirt who came to my rescue yesterday afternoon in the Costco parking lot. He gave me a wind-up of twine to to tie down the trunk lid (more or less) on the Giant Ass Box of Tumbler Composter I was trying to fit in my swell but not overly capacious car. Serenity is indeed a sweetheart. But she ain’t big. It turns out that despite my a) measuring the front and back doors of the Prizm, and b) the box actually not being quite as giant-assed as I thought it would be, my assessment of how well I could get the thing into the car turned out to be … unduly optimistic. I was that close to phoning Kathy “Tiny Titan” Kubica to see if she could please come load the Giant Ass Box into the bed of her Giant Ass Pickup Truck when the gentleman provided the twine. Even with it the arrangement was far from ideal (but who needs rear-window visibility, really?) Fortunately I live like a mile from that Costco, so getting it home wasn’t too dramatic. Now I just have to uncrate and assemble the monster. But at least it’s safely here! in other news: 80-gallon tumbler-style composters are on sale at Costco for $100! Which appears to be a really sweet deal. Indeed when I first spotted them Saturday (I decided to come home to do some online research before buying), I was hoping to find exactly that: some kind of good-yet-affordable tumbler composter. My old semi-improvised Rolling Composter works, but makes it a colossal pain in the toke to turn or harvest the compost. Since I intend to get the Square Foot Garden up and growing again this year, and indeed the time to get started impends, I decided it would be wise to just go ahead and upgrade the composting system. Since I know that a) I can actually make compost; and b) I can actually grow things in a Square Foot Garden. As of yesterday my Costco on Renaissance still had some. So if you’re looking to try composting, or have one and are thinking about an upgrade … check ‘em out. Popularity: 21% [?] I can haz car?  Meet Serenity Apparently. She’s a 2001 Chevrolet Prizm, which is distinguished mainly for being a Toyota Corolla (E110) with a different label. And also for costing way less on the used market than if it was called a Toyota. Got her a week and a half ago. Many thanks to Tom Sittler, who not only helped me look over new (to me) car candidates, both in the metal and online, but started the ball rolling by turning me onto her in the first place. Also to Joseph Reichert (the BFF), Larry Hays, and James Wilson for their sage counsel while I was, uh, dithering. And thanks to Kathy Kubica for driving me over to actually buy the car and take delivery, plus for accompanying me to help me through the bureaucratic nonsense attendant on getting the car to a) be mine; and b) be legal to drive. A process expedited by the fact that my insurance company has an MVD satellite right in it. So that after I got the insurance transferred over from the old Ford Taurus (which Kathy informed me was something I could do) all I had to do was stroll around the divider and get the registration transferred to my name, and even get my brand new plate. (When I called her that morning, after closing the deal by phone, to ask if she could give me a ride, Kathy said, “What, help you buy a safe car? Sure!”) Continue reading Since I Found Serenity Popularity: 42% [?] Best: Much as I hate GM, the clear winner (by Victor’s Entirely Subjective Yet Infallible Belly Laugh Test) was the Chevy Mayan Apocalypse ad. The rain of frogs at the end put it over the top. In several senses. Runner-Up: The Audi Vampires. And not just because they came during the first commercial break, right after the - Biggest Disappointment Not the Patriots Before Their Last Possession: Bud Light (and Bud.) The very first commercial – probably the mot coveted patch of the most highly-prized, and priced, TV ad space of the year – was as utter a schwa as any commercial I can remember seeing. (If it was blander – well, naturally I wouldn’t remember seeing it, would I?) The follow-up was almost as lame. The Bud one managed to be drab despite featuring both the Budweiser Clydesdales and a biplane. Unless before this you were unaware that Prohibition was a thing, but it ended. That despite the fact that Bud Light has consistently featured marvelous TV ads since the 1980s – as perceived by someone unlikely ever to consume that product. That billionaire Brazilian dude who bought Anheuser Busch shouldn’t just fire the company that perpetrated this gormless ad campaign, but possibly consider hiring them killed. The No Doubt Undeserved Yet Altogether Unequivocal Win: Teleflora.. Because ADRIANA LIMA. And finally, our: How Cool Is This Internet Thing? (Maybe It’ll Stick Around After All) Moment: How cool is it that I can already link to videos of the aforementioned ads (I refuse to link the Bud ones) on YouTube? Wicked cool! Wait – is that Cee Lo Green doing the halftime show with the not entirely convincing audioanimatronic homunculus of Madonna? Anyway, by the second half the ads have usually run out of such steam as they managed to muster – little enough to begin with, so far. And I’ve got a book to finish (no, not that one. Sadly.) Tonight. So – signing off for tonight, most likely. See you soon here, though. And that’s a promise. Or a threat. PS – Oh, and, for the first, and probably last, time in my personal history: Go Pats! Popularity: 30% [?] So as Emma Dog and I were returning from a lovely walk along the ditch east of the Rio Grande Nature Center, about 5:45 this evening, I noticed she had stopped and was looking alertly through the fence that runs along the south side of the field. I followed her intent gaze, and there, not thirty feet away, I saw …  One of these guys. Plus, another one. … a pair of coyotes! Popularity: 25% [?] So, last week I started in studying taijiquan again, after a hiatus of years. I went back to Lotus Dragon Authentic Chinese Tai Chi, where I started studying almost exactly ten years ago with Sifu Dug Corpolongo (although the school was called something else back in 2002.) I felt it was time to go back, and it was. Sifu Dug’s a great guy, and his students and instructors are lovely people. Very congenial place – and I had forgotten just how excellent a teacher Dug is. And … nothing says thanks for taking me back as a starting over student like disrupting class and making a complete dork of myself. It was, at the very least, inadvertent. I didn’t fall through the mirror or make inappropriate jokes (or too many.) Tonight I wore some suave new sweatpants to class for the first time, since my cargo pants with suspenders, while excellent in their own right, did not a salubrious martial arts practice outfit make. Since I was planning on going somewhere immediately after class (SPOILER ALERT: I didn’t make it) I brought a bag with my street clothes rolled inside. Including of course my cargo pants (with suspenders.) Right before Laoshir (instructor) Ken started us on warm-ups I realized I still had my keys in my pocket – these sweats are so suave they actually have pockets. So I took them out and stuck ‘em in my moccasins, where I also stashed my wallet and asthma inhaler. After class, as the advanced class was starting, I bade everyone good night and went off to change in the bathroom. And I could not find my keys. Continue reading In which I screw up Popularity: 67% [?] |
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