Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Kishi]

On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 10:59 AM, Urgan said:

- Do you ever have moments where you just want to take everything in your closets and dropkick it out the door?

 

Yes. Very much yes.

[Urgan]

13 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Yes. Very much yes.

 

You might be straight-up horrified by my "candle closet." It has fragile decor-type stuff, too, which is infamously difficult to get rid of (safely), should I decide to.

[Kishi]

2 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

You might be straight-up horrified by my "candle closet." It has fragile decor-type stuff, too, which is infamously difficult to get rid of (safely), should I decide to.

 

But, but, see, the nice thing about a "candle closet" is that you can burn that mother to the ground and it be a perfectly valid thing to do.

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

 

But, but, see, the nice thing about a "candle closet" is that you can burn that mother to the ground and it be a perfectly valid thing to do.

 

Unfortunately the results would be like what would happen if you torched a T.J. Maxx or Yankee Candle. Local residents would have to wear a gas mask for like, three months thereafter. Which I guess would be better than actually burning each one sequentially as one would do when using them properly. Thing is, I like them. But. Not a huge fan of fussing with rotating decor anymore because good Lord the bandwidth I don't have. Also questioning the relative merits of applying fire to liquids or scented wax in terms of health. Like, if the air freshener of your choice gives you a headache should you inhale?? These are the questions of our times.

[Kishi]

3 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Unfortunately the results would be like what would happen if you torched a T.J. Maxx or Yankee Candle. Local residents would have to wear a gas mask for like, three months thereafter. Which I guess would be better than actually burning each one sequentially as one would do when using them properly. Thing is, I like them. But. Not a huge fan of fussing with rotating decor anymore because good Lord the bandwidth I don't have. Also questioning the relative merits of applying fire to liquids or scented wax in terms of health. Like, if the air freshener of your choice gives you a headache should you inhale?? These are the questions of our times.

 

All I'mma say is, some of what passes for scent and aromatherapy would have qualified as war crimes back in the 1910s.

[Urgan]

2 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

All I'mma say is, some of what passes for scent and aromatherapy would have qualified as war crimes back in the 1910s.

 

Step one was throwing out a whole bunch of wall diffusers. Now I just have like, two or three (one of which definitely doesn't work...I'm a recovering crap collector, not a recovered crap collector), a whole bunch of air fresheners, and those dang candles. Thinking of using the air fresheners up and then just quietly not buying any more of them. Most if not all of the ones I have were bought explicitly for their non-sinus-stabbing properties.

[Mistr]

4 hours ago, Urgan said:

Otherwise, my bathroom storage boxes are the last on this side of the house to be Scrutinized. I estimate half a bag of garbage and the better part of a bag of donatables was generated from this. I swear our house isn't a disaster, the junk is just well-hidden so unless you seek it out, it's just kinda hanging around. Existing. 

 

Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean. My grandma kept a very tidy house. You wouldn't realize how much stuff was stashed in the dressers and closets if you didn't look closely. The off-season clothes camouflaged the boxes in the closets. The two spare bedrooms had dressers filled with random keepsakes. Plus grandma couldn't resist a good deal on supplies she did use. It took me 15 years to go through the muffin cup liners, for example.

 

40 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Step one was throwing out a whole bunch of wall diffusers. Now I just have like, two or three (one of which definitely doesn't work...I'm a recovering crap collector, not a recovered crap collector), a whole bunch of air fresheners, and those dang candles. Thinking of using the air fresheners up and then just quietly not buying any more of them. Most if not all of the ones I have were bought explicitly for their non-sinus-stabbing properties.

 

I am pretty sure we still have wall diffusers in a box in the garage. Dumbledore used them to mitigate kitchen odors in his grad school apartment. I think they had charcoal filters instead of scent dispensers. That is exactly the kind of thing we might hang onto for future use. When I find them I'm taking them to the charity shop.

 

You are giving me encouragement to deal with our junk. There is a box in the bathroom closet that I said I would look at. I can do that this week. Maybe I can make a pact with Dumbledore to sort one box from the garage together each week. Neither one of us wants to face the last pile of boxes alone.

[Elastigirl]

Just dropping in because I saw you were working on decluttering. I am too, so reading your thread was an encouragement.  I think I hope to use my candles more than I actually use them. I have kept several that don't bother my nose, and I love them, but  most of the time I forget to light them. Or I will light them when company comes and it will bother someone's nose

[Urgan]

6/12/2019 + 6/13/2019

My Face

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

Easy on a test night.

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 7/16

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 1/4

9:00 Dinner - 4/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 0

Silence is Golden - 6/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

- The Dropkick Crap Feeling Intensifies AND MUST BE SATED

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 9/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- Nothing is turning up in the job search, so I am taking it as good that I've gone a whole week and there hasn't been any more boat-rocking action.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- Hi, I'm back after a whole day's absence. Wednesday daytime was okay as far as I can recall, nothing super special. Had a short evening before dojo because it was test night. I just sat on my butt the whole time aside from being a mirror-guard during red belt qualifier test randori, because despite using the bathroom just beforehand, my bladder decided to seize itself like it was Golum with the Ring for no reason whatsoever. Mmkay then. Got home and had ample time to do my technique and iaito practice. Didn't do all my Japanese practice because I just had to draw kanji at 11PM. As you do. When your hand is the least steady. You know. Smart moves. Came away with some half-decent ones and a bit of progress on a certain swoopy stroke that is incredibly difficult for me right now. Not very good at it yet still, but a smidgen of progress maybe. Read a bit. Turned out the light super late, as you might imagine.

 

Woke up with a painfully constricted sinus, sniffles, drainage. The works. Stayed home. Decided to clean out the nook in the gossip bench and decimated all the stuff therein (it's basically empty now). Started poking around in the guest room closet. Found an unwanted knick-knack (it was a scare-owl they put on buildings to frighten off birds....) with about 10 sacks of spider eggs attached. If ever there was an excuse to throw anything out and your arachnophobic husband not be likely to complain....I'm just saying, +1 for spiders. Ended up cleaning ~ most ~ of that closet out. A huge cache of player's guides await judgment day. Travel bags need to be individually inspected for, you know, spiders. I looked at the stack of junk beside my nightstand (cloth file folder thing housing copious amounts of garbage, 5 pillows leaning against said nightstand, and a bundled blanket still in its packaging to counterbalance it. I realized that I was keeping it like this because I wanted a place to put clothes for the next morning and there were better, less clutterific ways to make this happen. So maybe my parents have an actual real legit table I can use. If so, problem solved and a whoooole lot of papers to sift through. There's important documents amongst all the random bills I kept due to Insecurity. Found a few more things that might be sellable. Not much more. I know one book I could probably pull out of storage and add to that. Another couple bags of donations were accumulated. Quite a bit of trash. 

 

Felt good and gave me energy to purge out the junk. Food was a little weird since I slept in until noon, but you do how you have to do. Finished Madness of Angels and it gave me a Mood as finishing books tend to do. There are two sequels to it that I own because #bookhoarding, probably won't read. The story felt complete and the atmosphere and characters are good, but some of the ideas/themes were beaten into the ground and it probably should have been a 200-page book when it in fact was 450 pages, about 120 of which I read in one day, so. Well and truly washed on that universe. Perhaps later I will change my mind. It does give me inspiration for my writing and, along with Black Ships that I've been reading in tandem with Angels, helped me find an acceptable answer to a small writing "problem" of my own. I'm starting up I Shall Wear Midnight by good old Terry Pratchett to follow up on the themes of both books. Felt right. I'll be amped to write some more, too, if I can find room around all the reading lol.

[Urgan]

On 6/12/2019 at 2:53 PM, Mistr said:

Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean. My grandma kept a very tidy house. You wouldn't realize how much stuff was stashed in the dressers and closets if you didn't look closely. The off-season clothes camouflaged the boxes in the closets. The two spare bedrooms had dressers filled with random keepsakes. Plus grandma couldn't resist a good deal on supplies she did use. It took me 15 years to go through the muffin cup liners, for example.

 

It's shocking how much stuff there can be in such a small space. Shocking. Especially in the place where you yourself live and you know you're the only one who made it that way lol. Why do we keep old calendars just because there are cute animals on them? Why?

 

On 6/12/2019 at 2:53 PM, Mistr said:

I am pretty sure we still have wall diffusers in a box in the garage. Dumbledore used them to mitigate kitchen odors in his grad school apartment. I think they had charcoal filters instead of scent dispensers. That is exactly the kind of thing we might hang onto for future use. When I find them I'm taking them to the charity shop.

 

You are giving me encouragement to deal with our junk. There is a box in the bathroom closet that I said I would look at. I can do that this week. Maybe I can make a pact with Dumbledore to sort one box from the garage together each week. Neither one of us wants to face the last pile of boxes alone.

 

If you haven't opened a box in an age and are afraid it might be hard to deal with, there's an argument to be made that it should just be sealed up and bundled off to the land of Charity. Otherwise, the first step is hardest and after you get that endorphin shot from seeing junk on its way out, it gets a lot easier to do. Ironically enough, reading about (fictional) people having to cope with much less than I have has been the best impetus to cutting loose all this baggage. Go figure.

 

On 6/12/2019 at 3:34 PM, Elastigirl said:

Just dropping in because I saw you were working on decluttering. I am too, so reading your thread was an encouragement.  I think I hope to use my candles more than I actually use them. I have kept several that don't bother my nose, and I love them, but  most of the time I forget to light them. Or I will light them when company comes and it will bother someone's nose

 

Same. Helps if they are good enough to display. At least it keeps them in your vision, but that isn't a foolproof strategy of course. These things are all in the nose of the beholder, and scent/chemicals are terribly random that way. 

[Urgan]

6/14/2019 - 6/16/2019

Junk Fiction Psyching Me Out Like

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

good Good GOOD when buried in a book, the rest of the world is dead. to. me.

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 7/16

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 1/4

9:00 Dinner - 4/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 0

Silence is Golden - 6/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

- The Purge continueth. 

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 11/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- Friday was pretty weird. An accidental 1lb bench 3RM PR (103lbs) and staying up until 3:30 AM to read all but the first 20 pages of I Shall Wear Midnight were the features of that day. I paid for it when it came time to squat on Saturday, but it was worth it. Finished Black Ships in the gym during deads, had all the post-book feels. It's helped me overcome a few writing obstacles on my outline, so on the whole it's a positive experience.

 

Sunday.

 

Found the other slipper to give away (spoiler: It wasn't at the top of the closet from which I'd pulled down everything....). Put up all the piled-up pillows (earmarked two to give away!) and blanket. Went through three, count 'em, THREE accordion folders of junk from back in 2012 to present. Ended with one accordion folder barely occupied by what remained once I got done with my buzzsaw job. Ready and awaiting a real table in that space. Cut my video game player's guide stash in half. Ended up with over 20 novels marked for extradition to the local bookstore. Still got the laundry and dinner done. Settled (at last) on A Darkness Forged In Fire which was PRECISELY what I was looking for (and didn't find...not even close) in the others. A light fantasy story with likable characters written by a competent human who has command of the English language and who also manages to neither bore nor insult my intelligence. Wow. Also not written in first person perspective, which was a bonus. (The last three books I've completed were 1st person, which is Fantasy Easy Mode when attempting to meet all the above demands....although I could read nothing but Terry Pratchett voiced characters for the rest of my life and be okay with that). 

 

I have discovered I possessed the logistical flaw of failing to actually read a few pages of books before buying them in addition to sequel-hoarding tendencies. My back-of-book blurb-based purchase fu stinks. My tastes are also more demanding, because starting with 180 books (not including the new acquisitions...whimper) I can afford to say my time is valuable and I don't need to suffer through Baby Writer's First Adult Fiction Book or Insomnia Cure 1970s Sci-Fi Book or Bland/Stale Vanilla Copy-Pasta High Fantasy Book or Supernatural Lit What Doesn't Know It Lives and Dies By Having Consistent Characterization Book or Good God Why Did I Think Premise Was Interesting and Paid Boutique Price For This Book. I deserve to read stories that I actually enjoy. Yes, indeed, I liked to torture myself with bad fiction because Gotta Complete 'Em All (You put it on your plate, you gotta eat it.....). Lord above I was a moron with too much free time in grad school. Now I'm down to ~130 books since my first culling round. This is a big deal because so many books "there's nothing wrong with" and it's hard to "reject" a book that at first glance is inoffensive. The sPeTaCuLaR ones are easy to get mad at and reject. When you've got Terry Pratchett, C.J. Cherryh, Greg Bear, L.E. Modesitt Jr., and a host of other established writers I know are implicitly trustworthy sitting on my shelf crying for attention. Goodbye, mediocre and bad fiction. You won't be missed. 

 

The only thing I'm not doing well at is trying to get Dad to write his lifting dates down. Sigh.

[Kishi]

A person has their tastes in literature. While some books are worth reading for being challenging and presenting hard ideas, at the end of the day you can still pick a lot up in the stuff you like to read. And indeed, life is short.

[Urgan]

17 minutes ago, Kishi said:

A person has their tastes in literature. While some books are worth reading for being challenging and presenting hard ideas, at the end of the day you can still pick a lot up in the stuff you like to read. And indeed, life is short.

 

I don't look for fiction to challenge me--they're friends and comfort first, and I expect to be entertained without the sense that the author is condescending to the reader. Want to lose me?  I will instantly abandon a book whose animating force is a socio-political lecture or a Gritty Real take where everybody dies/nobody's happy at the end because This Is How the Real World Is, Deal With It. No thanks, I know what the real world is like, that's why I bought this book to read. You know, for fun. Not that they don't tend to mercifully telegraph themselves and it's really easy to send these offenders packing. Did I mention the 130 book backlog, a dozen of which are 700-1000 pages long? That's a bit over two bookcases of content.

 

Yeah, I pretty well hoovered up any book that sounded like it might in the same county as Appealing, nevermind if it was well-written or even thought about trying to be. You can tell on reading 10-50 pages whether the writer can deliver the promises made on the back or dust jacket--you get a grasp of characterization, setting, and most importantly the author's "voice." A very ephemeral quality is whether the author's voice jives with you. A lot of the books I am getting rid of fail on that count more than anything else. As for the other qualities, no, it doesn't "get better," it will always promise to, but in the end the first impression is the impression. 

 

This weekend has been an exercise in listening to my gut as I read the opening acts of two dozen books to decide whether I am willing to commit time to each instead of slogging ever onward looking for something just absurdly stupid and/or offensive to slap me upside the head two hours in because for some reason having bought the book on blurb alone demands I read the entire book. I'm emotionally obligated to the book or writer, talk about masochism. That's a huge fail on my part and why I was reluctant to do fiction again, on further reflection. I've had better luck enjoying the non-fiction books I've bought on blurb alone. Fiction books can have the same magnetic effect as learning about microbes or Einstein's work, there are a lot of really good authors who make you want to make excuses to pick their stuff up and keep reading. 

[Mistr]

Congratulations on going through books and papers!

 

On 6/14/2019 at 9:56 AM, Urgan said:

If you haven't opened a box in an age and are afraid it might be hard to deal with, there's an argument to be made that it should just be sealed up and bundled off to the land of Charity. Otherwise, the first step is hardest and after you get that endorphin shot from seeing junk on its way out, it gets a lot easier to do. Ironically enough, reading about (fictional) people having to cope with much less than I have has been the best impetus to cutting loose all this baggage. Go figure.

 

I figure that 90% of the stuff in the garage is junk and 10% is stuff I've missed that got buried under the junk. Of course, I think that most of the books and papers are Dumbledore's junk. I do have boxes of stuff that I should cull without mercy. I will also be setting aside some things for Elf to take when they move out. If they decide they don't want the stuff, we can donate it then.

 

I did go through the box from the bathroom closet. I was wrong about what was in it. I discovered it has the beach towels, fancy embroidered pillow cases and some extra sheets. The extra sheets can go in the normal rotation. I used to use the fancy pillowcases when I lived alone. I don't trust anyone else to be careful enough when washing them. My great grandmothers made them and the fabric is getting fragile. Some day I will reproduce them for everyday use.

 

I suggested the box-a-week plan to Dumbledore yesterday and he agreed with enthusiasm. A girl can hope.

[Urgan]

6/16/2019

Juggling tasks like

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

A little bit of whining in the meeting room....

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 8/16

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 4/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 0

Silence is Golden - 6/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

-  

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 11/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- New bench 5RM PR of 93lbs, survived work, dropped off part of my gi to get a patch sewn onto it, decided to skip dojo tonight just for the rest day. That double weave though. Stopped by my parent's house to deliver a Father's Day card and acquire a small marble table that was languishing in the basement doing nothing to sit in the place of my precarious pillow mountain. Husband will need to re-bond the marble to the brass base, it popped off a while back. However, the size of it is perfect--height could be a little taller, but beggars and choosers and all that. Dad is having some trouble making time for the gym recently, but at least we're up to date on what he has done, so I'm counting that.

 

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

I figure that 90% of the stuff in the garage is junk and 10% is stuff I've missed that got buried under the junk. Of course, I think that most of the books and papers are Dumbledore's junk. I do have boxes of stuff that I should cull without mercy. I will also be setting aside some things for Elf to take when they move out. If they decide they don't want the stuff, we can donate it then.

 

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

I suggested the box-a-week plan to Dumbledore yesterday and he agreed with enthusiasm. A girl can hope.

 

Doing aaaaabsolutely everything you can up until the point where he has to make the call on whether an item stays or goes will increase the odds of success. 

[Urgan]

6/18/2019

A good old time

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

Easy on a rest day.

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 9/16

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 0

Silence is Golden - 6/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

-  

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 12/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- So husband and/or dad are going to get plexiglass for the desk this weekend. Preferably not both of them because they failed to communicate despite me telling BOTH of them what the other has said. #whytho

 

Tuesday went pretty slow. I was going to go by to pick up my freshly-patched gi, buuut realized how dumb it was to go out of my way on a Tuesday when I will be driving right by the place the very next day. So I rescheduled that sucker. 

 

FIL had to go to the hospital yet again, this time the nursing home called for an ambulance around 8PM I guess for breathing/oxygen count trouble (he's been dealing with this week since his last hospital stay that ended Monday?), which sent husband scrambling out the door before dinner was ready. He had to wait a while for an available ambulance, because someone else decided to have a major car wreck and all available vehicles were tied up sorting that out. There wasn't anything husband could do other than drive himself to distraction worrying in the waiting room lobby until his dad got a room, then came back home. This is a common fire drill and the hell of it is, the man sounds really bad sometimes and recovers and goes back home often. I question the competence of somebody involved, largely because the hospital is sort of old and welfare-esque, but he's an old man who didn't make the best life choices along with some really poor luck. The symptoms we're dealing with lately are COPD flare-up/pneumonia and low blood oxygen which is causing him to not want to eat much. This is what we in the biz call a "downward spiral" in the making. I know I sound blase about something that sounds rather dire--and it very well could be--but he's had all sorts of nasty stuff, strokes, heart attack, breathing issues, aneurysm, major vision impairment, and even a hernia if I remember rightly. My panic button has been worn out, putting me in a "wait and see" frame of mind. FIL was released from the hospital this (Wednesday) morning. 

 

Husband is an emotional person on even impersonal matters so I am taking care to keep my suspicion that the hospital is just throwing things at the wall to myself, not lying to him to give false optimism, and yet offering a little encouragement so that he doesn't assume a negative outlook. It's a helluva balancing act. Husband is bound and determined to torture himself the whole way--let's just say he hasn't had the best role model in terms of dealing with emotional stress and that imprint is stuck tight. He's a grown man now and is getting an awful lesson on said same.

 

Happiness, I know. Whee realities of life.

 

 

On the book front, I know I have taken a negative cast, but that's about the default when it comes to speaking in generalities. I want to get specific and talk a bit about a book I have for the moment fallen in love with. It's been on my shelf around 10 - 11 years. A Darkness Forged In Fire by Chris Evans. It's every bit as good as I'd hoped on reading the cover. Pratchett and Tolkien's amazing offspring. Or, if the Night Watch were a regiment (Jingo, anybody? Haven't read it yet, but anywho...) off to fight Evil. There is a lot of high fantasy convention and a lot of is overturned like so many apple carts. It can be by turns tongue-in-cheek and really sincere, could be accused of being bipolar in that way, but I think Evans does a decent job of blending the two, myself. Main elf guy Konowa is best boy. The girl who is "obviously" being paired with him actually hates him for elf-hippie ideological reasons and failure of perspective to see why main guy does things/allows things to happen that are quite immoral and repulsive (he already got sent out into the forest--his least favorite setting ever, ew nature--along with earning disgrace for all his men for doing what was right in the face of orders once, which she knows darn well...). All Tsun, no dere yet, if you catch my meaning. Might never be, I'm actually not sure if the obvious primrose path being laid out won't have a noose trap or two in there. Which is really cool. The worst thing I can say for it now is it does the whole "introduces characters to be cannon fodder" thing. That's reaching to find a problem, IMO. I'm halfway in and that's the "best shot" I got. Color me optimistic. 

[Mistr]

My sympathy on the drama with your FIL. It sucks to be the responsible adult offspring of a person who is not managing their health well. I wonder if there are any resources for adult caregivers that would help him. Lots of other people have been in the same boat.

 

Good for you for maintaining a supportive and sympathetic home environment without buying into the drama.

[Urgan]

26 minutes ago, Mistr said:

My sympathy on the drama with your FIL. It sucks to be the responsible adult offspring of a person who is not managing their health well. I wonder if there are any resources for adult caregivers that would help him. Lots of other people have been in the same boat.

 

What's hilarious is, he has a twin brother who is, shall we say, not encouraged to help by his spouse, whom I have nicknamed "the head crab" because the only place he goes where she doesn't is to work. HA.

 

He goes with husband to visit their dad from work during lunch breaks. She's over 10 years older than him, so you can't blame youth for it * coughs * . I have a lot more to say than this, but LBR nobody needs that nonsense in their life. A real asset to the family. 

 

37 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Good for you for maintaining a supportive and sympathetic home environment without buying into the drama.

 

I am attempting to do so. I'm biased more toward the no drama side of things, because we've talked about this quite a lot and talking isn't helping as much as repetition of the life lesson that having panic attacks and emotional episodes doesn't help nearly as much as asking questions and being patient for the answer to present itself (usually within 24 hours). Paper (government demand letters...) has caused more heartache in this house than anything else.

 

 

 

One of my mom's cats just had to be put down because SURPRISE, cancer, so this has been just a special week all around.

[Urgan]

6/19/2019

You tell 'em

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

I was not finding ushiro kokyunage (from behind, two hands on shoulders) intuitive, so there was some compensatory whining involved

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 10/16

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 1

Silence is Golden - 6/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

-  

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 13/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- Well this wasn't the best day for the previously posted reasons. At least no humans that I know of managed to die, that's about all I can say on that front. Put in some work in the gym, put in work at work, went and picked up my gi, which now has its patch, and worked on mom's mood a little bit, because as we all know there is no right way to put down an animal that makes you feel like an amazing human being at the the end of it. Cursed at one point, no regrets. Dojo'd and there was much fail. Went home and the table has been recombined. Now to pray no cat decides it's a launching pad (it's closed off to them during the day, FWIW). Did a little technique review and read an obscene amount given how much time I actually had to work with. Just another wondrous Wednesday in the books.

[Urgan]

6/20/2019

If anyone asks, I prefer "Well Preserved"

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

I stayed pretty quiet in the meeting, relative to recent behavior. ...winning?

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 11/16

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 1

Silence is Golden - 7/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

-  I have done a lot of soul-searching on this book business, and I have to say it has a lot of parallels to people who struggle with committing to an exercise paradigm. Lots of applications elsewhere, basically. If you like it, you are more likely to do a thing than if you are forcing yourself into something at rhetorical gunpoint.

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 14/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- A day in which no one died, technique was reviewed, iaido and Japanese were practiced, dinner got made at a not-insane time, and I finished A Darkness Forged In Fire, equivalent to 114 pages (got a little intense at the end...and a little fast and loose with throwing the kitchen sink into the fray, but all in all an excellent time--the dere didn't exactly materialize completely but it did stick its head in the door on the way by) and a lights-out time of 1:20 because bowels had a say in prolonging the magic. YaY.

[Mistr]

5 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

- A day in which no one died, technique was reviewed, iaido and Japanese were practiced, dinner got made at a not-insane time, and I finished A Darkness Forged In Fire

 

A good day.

 

My sympathy on the death of your mom's cat.

 

You are right about there being no good solutions. I've experienced several of the options and I will say that euthanasia solution administered by a professional is far and away the easiest on the animal. (and thus on its humans)

[Urgan]

45 minutes ago, Mistr said:

My sympathy on the death of your mom's cat.

 

You are right about there being no good solutions. I've experienced several of the options and I will say that euthanasia solution administered by a professional is far and away the easiest on the animal. (and thus on its humans)

 

Poor cat was about to do the job herself, it was a rapid downhill progression over the course of just a few hours in one day. Crazy how that happens. Oh yeah, you have to go back to my great grandparents to see anything other than euthanasia at a vet, the primary means of putting down animals in that day was farm style euthanasia (AKA a bullet) or the poor dummies sunning themselves on the warm black asphalt of the highway beside their home. Timing is the issue at hand in this case, she felt she might have been expected have picked up on the cat's deteriorating condition sooner, which is garbage because the day before she was meowing for attention and purring like nuts if anyone so much as looked at her, jumped up high on tables to sun herself, and ambling around much more quickly than she normally did after recently having had a surgery on a mass on her jaw/neck area--the only spot where cancer could be detected, in hindsight. We are slightly bemused as to how the vet never scanned her for that procedure, but oh well. Nothing that could have been done a week ago for multiple masses all inside her kitty body, honestly. To hear it described, she was riddled. 

[Urgan]

6/21/2019 - 6/23/2019

Working hard for the Improved Read:Unread

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

Books have been a Godsend for the gym. Meeting time cannot include books, sadly. Doing mediocre at best in that respect. Needs more work.

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 11/16

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 1

Silence is Golden - 8/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 4/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

- 

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 17/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls. Noted that the guy likely to give the training isn't thrilled with it.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- Friday was kind of a slow, breezy day. After work I went by Books-a-Million and did not buy one single thing. The end is nigh. Actually it was kind of sad, the sci-fi/fantasy section has shrunk by quite a bit. Read the entirety of Reaper Man. 

 

Saturday was a read-four-books and gym and all other default Saturday chores kind of day. I finally started going through the books brought back from my grandparents' place, among which were the books I worked on. Two were trying to fall apart in my hands, one succeeded, but I read it, darnit. 

 

Sunday was full of book evaluation (getting me down to 125 books on the backlog), shifting read books up several shelves to make space to put "read" things on the shelf where they belong. Got the plexiglass on the office desk. Cooking salmon enough for 6 days felt almost like cheating at Sunday. Watched Fruits Basket, napped for the usual 2-ish hours, failed spectacularly at non-book-related things. Don't care. I do kind of care that I forgot about my kanji and checking in on dad, but dad has been doing home reno things such as tub removal, so I think he's probably going to be occupied for the rest of this month. 

 

I just need to make an attempt to do some of the remaining chores and work that kanji somewhere along with Japanese practice and martial arts-related schtuff while trying to chew through The Light of Burning Shadows. And eating whatever needs to be eaten to make calories. And updating/exporting my resume--has to be done this week or it will go undone for ~ two ~ weeks. On the plus side, all this stuff makes Youtube more a sideshow, which is particularly good given I'm going to give up my laptop for (hopeful) repair next week!

[Urgan]

6/24/2019

Nailed it

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

I managed to pull this off pretty well today. 

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 12/16

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 1

Silence is Golden - 9/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 5/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

- 

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 18/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls. Noted that the guy likely to give the training isn't thrilled with it.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- I got in bed late and also could not sleep, so that was good times doing all the things on <3 hours' sleep. Gym went well in spite of it, though. 

Boss scheduled my annual performance review at 4PM Tuesday. I am not amused.

Dojo time was working the back 2 mae giri techniques, and I made it my mission to help my partner not be as afraid of rolling. Exposure therapy FTW!

Did some kanji practice. Not a bad day.

[Urgan]

6/25/2019

Get money, get paid y'all

 

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (in fitness or in the meeting room)

I think I managed pretty well.

 

Without: Giri

Mop floor

Back up laptop HD

Schedule eye exam

Clean shower

Clean kitchen table

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

 

Courage

Within: Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 13/16

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Call Computer Shop

Audit Power Bill - $116, $108, $116

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Dad Training - 2/4

9:00 Dinner - 7/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

 

Politeness

Within: Rēsetsu

Curse Count - 1

Silence is Golden - 10/19

 

Without: Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 5/8

 

Honesty

Within: Shinjitsu for Me

- 

 

Without: Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 19/28

 

Honor

Within: Sotsugyu Already

Update resume (again)

Meditate on Proportional Response

- An ISO Documentation training meeting is coming early in July. I fear for all our souls. Noted that the guy likely to give the training isn't thrilled with it.

 

Without: Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Clean grandfather's books

Clean the office desk

Take down posts of eBay sellables

Gather all donations in one place

Remove non-office things from the office

Protect the surface of the desk

Clean the floor

 

- So that annual review thing happened. I got a 3% raise. It's going to amount to a couple dollars per paycheck, but still it's more money than I was making before. Allegedly they're going to define some structure to the QA roles so there will be a sense of how to progress and earn the bigger dollars. I absolutely kill it in the "finding bugs and testing all the things" department. Automated testing was a big deal for having surprised him with that. I'm supposed to keep that up. I asked for micro "sprint planning" on that front so I don't feel like I'm working random unnecessary pages and we need certificates for our test sites, because Chrome is the only one that doesn't care about those--I could be testing 4 browsers at once, but this is preventing me. So we'll see if I get either of those resolved in 2019. I'm also supposed to, to some degree, drive the morning standups now, buuuuut I suspect this has something to do with the fact that boss is practically hopping from one foot to the other to get out of that meeting room and it's the only time we have his undivided attention for sure, so I am not wild about this on two counts. It's not totally at odds with my goals, but it could be if you squint just right. Particularly in the resume department. I'm still keeping an eye out. You never know.

 

Dinner was...late. It didn't start late, per say, it just took a long time.

 

Spent a good portion of the evening reading, I am now 73% of the way through The Light of Burning Shadows and predict I can get it read by Thursday, setting me up for the 3rd consecutive week of reading two books/work week. I just have to nail down a book on Friday to secure the win. Read books is now at 75%, considering I have 580~ odd books, this ain't bad. That's 125 books left to read to obliterate the backlog, the universal dream. This Chris Evans series has three books to it, however, and Burning Shadows is book the second. Assuming I don't develop a passionate hatred of the man inside of 100-ish pages, probably going to order that last book. 

 

Still did technique review, I am getting more comfortable with the concept of maegiri, which, considering these are kicks (more like hold you leg out and resign yourself to being smashed into the floor...but that's because we're still learning what to do with our hands....), is kind of a big deal. It's our first round of kicking defense. Ever. 

 

I had by all rights logistically timed things so I could turn the lights off at a decent time. Did I do that? Hell no.