Square Wave

Middle of a three-day weekend. Actually my schedule at work gives me a three-day weekend every week, which is pretty sweet. Having to get up and around at quarter-to-too-early O’clock to get on the bus on a Sunday morning isn’t something I’m looking forward to, but I do get Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays off every week. And today’s Friday.

Which means I slept through most of yesterday after getting pretty drunk the night before, and didn’t manage to get much done in the time I was awake. You know, recovering from long hard days stuffing envelopes in uncomfortable chairs… It sounds less painful than it is, since my back usually hurts in a way that I can only accurately describe as “intensely” within around 45 minutes of beginning work. Ibuprofin helps, but … between staring at a computer screen for 10+ hours and the repetitive mouse/keyboard/envelope motions, my back and eyes and wrists are never happy at the end of the day. But I am pretty fast. Faster than … most anyone who’s done the job, apparently. Did 305 tickets on Wednesday, which is a LOT. Trust me.

Anyway, didn’t get much done yesterday but laundry and learning the basics of Quidditch World Cup, recently acquired for the XBox here. But getting the laundry done is good. Now, if only I could find an iron and ironing board, I could go through all of my button-down shirts and all my slacks (and perhaps my handkerchiefs and a few of the most-wrinkled t-shirts) and take the wrinkles out and put some creases in. That will be fun. Or at least meditative.

Today, I’m trying to get things done. I’ve already unloaded/reloaded the dishwasher and cleaned most of the kitchen counter (which was 80% of the kitchen’s mess that can be cleaned without a remodeling crew), had breakfast, and harrassed Iain about getting an Apple laptop. (I’m thinking of adding harrassing Iain about buying an Apple computer to my list of things to do every day – it’s quite fun.)

Soon I’ll be cleaning this desk/table (the one with the computer on it, that is), going through and working out what it is dad decided to bring down from Pine to me this week and putting as much of it away as I can. Taking out the garbage and recycle. Cleaning up a bit more of the kitchen. Straightening out the living rooms a bit. Showering, and then perhaps taking a bath in the whirlpool bath my dad installed and no one ever uses.

And later I’d like to go see Anchorman. And the more I think about it the more I also want to see Spiderman 2 again. But my sister, Angela, does not want to watch either of those. And while I am content to go watch movies by myself (just as I am comfortable walking into a restaurant and asking for a table for one), I would be more than happy to have company if you were thinking of watching one of these. Iain, I hear you haven’t seen S2 yet – it’s playing at the CineCapri still, which is as good excuse as any to venture to this side of town. Anyone else, if you’re interested in joining me for a motion picture, let me know. No rush. Doesn’t have to be today. But if you don’t get in touch with me, I’ll probably go ahead and watch Anchorman by myself today.

OOH! One other movie I want to see that came to the valley this weekend; Before Sunset. Definitely want to see that if I can. Should probably re-watch Before Sunrise before going, though. It’s been a while.

That’s all I have on my list today… well, that and perhaps some more Quidditch, perhaps a walk to the store to get some frozen dinners and some disinfectant all-surface cleaner and some kitchen sponges.

***

Oh, and I keep trying to win at this. What an excellent little campaign that is. It’s got me to spend money on iTMS for the first time in a long, long time. But … I figure if I get the timing right, ten or twenty dollars is an excellent price for a 20Gb iPod. At about $11 so far. We’ll see how things go. Worst case, I end up purchasing some music I wanted at a reasonable price. Best case, I win an iPod, or an iPod, 17″ Powerbook, and 10,000 songs.

Anyway, I’m off to get some more counter cleaned.

sorry about no posts

been working and eating and sleeping and stuff, just trying to get used to my new schedule. Not quite there yet. Especially since it changes next week. Unless things change between now and then, it looks like I’ll be working Sundays through Wednesdays, 8AM to 7PM. Which is nice, because on M-W, I can ride in with Angela, and ride the bus hom, and on Sundays I can take the bus both ways. Which means no hour-long bike rides to work. Yay! It also means Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off in a row, every week. Which is a nice weekend, yes?

Allright. Well. I’m actually supposed to be getting ready for work right now. So. I go. But tonight I should be able to make a post before I pass out. Last night was a bit of an aberration, since I was asked to join my friends at the Tuesday night Midnight showing of Spiderman 2, which meant that I got 3 hours of sleep Tuesday night, which is why I was too tired to post last night after work. Ah! And Spiderman 2 was a good movie. You should watch it, purely for entertainment. It is also a good date movie, I think, if you do that sort of thing. As opposed to F9/11, which is a good movie that you should watch for political reasons, and a good movie to take someone you disagree with politically to.

And now, really, I go. Lunch has to be made.

a little post – I start work again tomorrow

Start work in the morning. It’ll have been … looks like 5 days short of 21 months since the last day I worked at Realink. Gotta get up early.

Well, early for me. around 6AM. To give me time to get ready, eat, fool around online, make lunch, all that rubbish, before we have to leave (around 7:15 probably) to go to work. I’m working 8-5 this week for “training”, and will have a much less reasonable schedule very soon. Gotta get my bike in someplace for repairs this week so I can get there and back when that starts.

Anyone know a good and reputable bike repair shop in my area (I’m near 32nd Street and Bell Road in Phoenix, AZ)? I need a basic tune-up, plus a new seat, maybe new grips, new tubes, maybe other odds and ends replaced if worn out, and I want it to be reasonably priced and done well. Nothing fancy, really. But the bike isn’t ridable the way it is now.

Also, it’s late (10:20 as I write this) and I need to get to sleep, so I’ll be brief.

Oh, and I finished another painting, chART number two, and I’ll have photos online as soon as I can. This one’s a pie chart. Woo!

Did I mention I dropped two pounds in my first week on eDiets? Actually, if I count today (since I didn’t start officially until Monday), I lost 2.5 pounds. So, it’s going good. Also, some of their recipes suck. Dinner tonight was … pretty awful. Tomorrow looks pretty good though, we’re having … sandwiches for dinner. That’s hard to make taste awful. We’ll see how I’m doing at the end of the week.

Anything else? Let’s see… start job tomorrow… diet working… need bike repaired… doing pretty good generally, though money will still be pretty tight until my first paycheck on the 16th… I guess that’s that. I’m off to bed.

Modern Evil blogs and authors – a warning

The month of July is “Use it or Lose it” month at Modern Evil.

If you have a login here, but you don’t make at least one post in each of the five weeks of July (at least 5 posts for the month, but also at least one per week), your account will be considered “unused” and your access will be removed. If you there is a blog on the site that does not get at least one post per week in the month of July (same as above), it will be considered “unused”, archived, and removed from the site.

Certain areas are immune, such as comic archives of intentionally retired comics, and the art, fiction, poetry, and reviews sections. Other sections, even ‘standard’ sections such as non-fiction, Pit of Geek, Ramblings, and Photoshop PingPong, will be removed if they remain unused. If you are an author who wants to see these and other sections and blogs remain, please take a few moments in July to post in them.

Certain exceptions may be made, I understand we are all human and that it is “vacation season” for some, but unless you come to an agreement with me individually, expect the above qualifications to be true for your account and every section and blog on Modern Evil. In the case of the first week of July, I will consider it to be from June 27th to July 3rd for the purpose of counting posts.

I will be emailing a notice and a link to this post to each registered author for whom I have a valid email address between now and July 1st, but I consider this post appropriate notice. Archives (not publicly accessable) of removed sections and blogs will be maintained for the longer of either five months or as long as I feel like it, beginning at the end of July. This means that if your blog is deleted and you want it re-instated, or you want to put its archives into your archives on another site, I will be able to give you that data at least until the end of 2004. This is not a guarantee, as I cannot insure against events outside of my control such as hard drive failure and the end of the world, but I will do my best to make it true.

If you have any questions or comments, please click below, or email me.