Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Urgan]

9/26/2019

Actual footage of me trying to find some time to do actual work things and eat maybe

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 10/16

Lingodeer Time - 14/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Too Many Curses: 12

 

Um. Well. Today felt the most like the good old Old Job days I've ever felt. You know the feeling, where you say F it (almost literally....) and say what's on your mind to everyone in proximity. It was like that. I started off fighting infrastructure, aka my keyboard and Windows account not wanting me to log in, which IMHO gave me the right to be a little out of sorts. Dying batteries and a persistent and inexplicable lag in typing have been plaguing me lately. I skipped the first non-dev meeting in disgust because the leader opened with some nonsense about food and I did a great big Ain't Nobody Got Time for This (when I can't even log into my computer to check for an anticipated email that in fact falls under Things that Are Actually My Job). So I spent the time trying to spear the whimsical monstrosity that is technology. Sigh. It put me in the way of the Digital Insulter, whom I had no problems demanding his attention since in this respect he serves my interests by doing what he's paid to do, which is to curse, throw something at the metaphorical wall that is my problem, and point me to the man with the batteries. Apparently. 

 

Meetings meetings meetings. I missed last standup because someone else wanted to meet. Said someone was a no-show until 10 minutes prior to coworker's lunch. They wanted to schedule another meeting (? why? God knows) during my break (I am not hungry at 11, sorry I ate 30 minutes ago) instead, an hour after which is another meeting. An hour after that....you guessed it. So I said no to the second impromptu meeting with no-show like a boss. This person LOVES no-notice meetings and I hate all meetings, regardless of race or creed because the "...I got out of my chair for this" is so real. 

 

 

At least the meeting before the last meeting featured time for be to better my own situation and run interference for a (NEW) guy in another sub-department being bullied by a middle manager who is using him as a whipping boy/CYA tool. Jerk. Didn't cost me anything to make HIS sub-department aware of the pressure being applied to him before said middle manager can give new guy's supervisor the wrong idea about the nature of the situation. It's just the classic "I promised something to the users because I assume I am able to anticipate dev's pace and willingness to broom workflow for my whims because I launched the requested change mid-sprint with no fanfare/explanation of its priority like a doofus. And so now I shall pretend my failure to communicate is the group's failure to communicate and will choose a scapegoat to be the one responsible for cleaning up my mess." 

 

The enemy of my enemy and whatnot.

 

The last meeting was mercifully short, at least. At home I finished Pride and Platypus and did not do Iaido, like a middle manager. The Goblin Mirror (Cherryh) is next, it is one of her earlier works and it feels kind of like a children's book so far? The language is pretty simple. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a thing.

[Urgan]

I was so taken by chronicling the Old Job-like behavior in the office yesterday that I forgot to elaborate on my book adventures (I know, you were waiting with bated breath for it, so here we are).

 

So Pride and Platypus might best be described as well-written trash. The premise is, naturally, bonkers: it's Pride and Prejudice with all the men being were-critters. The "love conquers all" type ending made me go "....wha?" Came out of nowhere. But the writing was good, barring a few typos and the footnotes made me a stupider human for having read a few of them. Now if you are coming into a Jane Austen parody, which is parody^2, and are surprised that it is strange or are expecting anything other than Personal Preference Indulgence (I showed up for the male tsundere, not even gonna lie).....you're doing it wrong, go back and reread the back of the book. This is popcorn reading, nice and fluffy and the perfect palate cleanse after something heavy and/or dark (such as, oh I dunno, Black Company). I enjoyed it. 

[Mistr]

My sympathy on the woes at work and the crummy job market. Maybe you could work remotely for a decent company located elsewhere? At least that would get you out of having to get up from your desk for meetings.  

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

My sympathy on the woes at work and the crummy job market. Maybe you could work remotely for a decent company located elsewhere? At least that would get you out of having to get up from your desk for meetings.  

 

Lol it sounds good except I've been on the In Person end of a remote coworker scenario and my concern is the amount of clout that WFH people have to get questions answered and things changed for the better is...not great. Maybe it's the places I have worked, I dunno. 

[Urgan]

9/27/2019 - 9/29/2019

And they're outta here

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 10/16

Lingodeer Time - 15/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Too Many Curses: 14

 

Let's see. Friday was marginally less retarded than the rest of the week. Shark Weekend happened. Did not remember to clip cat claws, but I had totally planned to and was getting in bed when I remembered. Cleaned the kitchen table like the scullion I am. I axed three books on Friday--my first Cherryh book to take a hard pass less than halfway through (and only the second I've not completed once I picked it up...), The Goblin Mirror, but only because it was a super generic work, not that it was bad, per say. Might come back to it if I am super bored. Tried to start up Legends of the Dragonrealm, but y'all. I. just. could not deal with it. Okay, so we've got dragon politics. This is, in case you aren't aware, a powerful hook. Unfortunately, only a few pages in and I had Questions. Like...

 

1 If the dragon kings are so powerful and rule all by one portion of the World As We Know It, why do they need to shapeshift into humanoid shapes to skulk around the countryside to their hidden meeting lair on horseback?

2 Why does the Chosen One Warlock boy with an obvious physical characteristic of warlock-ness (a white...forelock oh I see what you did there, Knaak) that he purposefully hides because being outted as a warlock is a death sentence (those warlock cats were also called Dragon Masters because they had this habit of fighting with dragon tribes and winning) doesn't want to entertain the possibility that he's from the warlock line (I'm not one of those! What are you talking about, Plot?) and his dad is kind of a big dragon enemy and when one of the dragons calls him by his full name (last name being made infamous by daddy), he doesn't recognize it even though I think he knew his dad's name? Something?

3 Anyway, that point was confused enough without stuff just happening to magically and inexplicably save him from two near-death incidents within a few pages of one another and I think we're supposed to gather that he's saving himself with warlock powers he can't control. That or somebody's gonna step and be all like, "Yeah that was me kid come be my padawan or lead a revolution because You're a Warlock, Cabe."

 

Keep in mind this is <50 pages in. It's a big old omnibus of 700 pages and this is the foundation we're setting up. #nope

 

I also am shelving the other Cook Black Company omnibus for any foreseeable future as it sounds de-pres-sing. This brings us to 20 books on the Unread list. I turned to Introducing Garrett, P.I. (also by Glen Cook) and it's exactly what it says on the tin with the caveat that the universe is a fantasy one with no direct relation to ours. A three book wonder, this omnibus. I finished the first two books on Saturday. Only one to go. There is a lot more where that came from, so if I decide I need something to do, that may be a well I tap from in the future. It's been a very enjoyable ride so far. Morley is a delight and there cannot be too much crazy dark elves in a story, this one runs a vegetarian bar and has a fanatical obsession with health and fitness because of course he does. He and the PI main character trade shots at one another's lifestyles and it is amazingly funny. If Cook kills him off I will start a riot. 

[Urgan]

9/30/2019

At my desk like

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 11/16

Lingodeer Time - 16/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Too Many Curses: 14

 

Small bench PR, work was boring beyond the ability of words to describe, dojo was yokomenuchi + knives. Went home and did chip damage on reading. The end.

 

Today I feel like a zombie that was barely put in the ground then made to start doing zombie things immediately. WTF, man. If I get home in one piece it will be concrete proof of miracles.

[Urgan]

10/1/2019 + 10/2/2019

My face all Wednesday

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 11/16

Lingodeer Time - 18/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Too Many Curses: 14

 

Tuesday night I finished Garrett, P.I. and scored a sweet neck ache that persisted into Wednesday so hard that I stayed home because it was trying to travel into my head. Squats did not help or hurt, and rack pulls really did not help anything so I quit those early. So no dojo, no AIkido practice, no dinner cooking on Wednesday.

 

Garrett, P.I.was a really good time. Very much of the noir tradition, so if you like/don't mind that then you'll enjoy the series. After that I started on Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (KJ Parker/Tom Holt), which has been very enjoyable--I'm about a third of the way through and can safely dub it amazing. Military carpenter of non-imperial background becomes the highest ranking officer of a Graeco-Roman era imperial city facing siege from a horde that managed to arm itself by stealing same supplies from the city itself--the people and places are fictional, but that gives you an idea of what you're dealing with. 

[Mistr]

Ouch, sorry about the neck ache. I hope you are feeling better today.

[Urgan]

10/3/2019

Here's a spider

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 12/16

Lingodeer Time - 19/20

Story Outline - 4/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 8/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Too Many Curses: 14

 

Well Thursday was not an enormous improvement over Wednesday, but it wasn't worse per say, so that's a kind of progress. I got about halfway through the workday before the pain was sufficient to make me flee the building. Slept a lot. Crawled out of bed for dinner and iaido practice, the better to make sure I should be able to attend class on Friday provided I make it through the work day, of course. I read a lot more on Sixteen and good grief is that a good read. I'm a bit more than halfway through it and right on schedule. Wrote a bit in my outline, which was really pushing the old eyeballs, did more thinking than writing but I'll take what I can get. Turned out the light at a decent hour and didn't lie awake too horribly long, so Recovery? 

 

I've noticed over the last few weeks that my weight has jumped several lbs to a high of 122.8. Now this number means nothing by itself, but considering the amount of (uncomfortable) gas/bloating feel of it I knew it had something more to do with what I was eating rather than how much. Since, you know, how much hasn't really changed on the average for months. That's why you haven't been hearing about food, because it is a b o r i n g subject at this point. I decided the two food culprits were the new preworkout I was forced to buy because the store decided to be out of stock of the kind I'd been using. New kind has a few fruit-based flavorings, highly suspect in hindsight. The second possibility was eating too many protein bars (is 2/day bad?). I swapped the pre for caffeine pills and water, reduced the bars to 1/day (except for Thursday, because screw it) and it's only brought me down about a half lb so far, the excessive gas and discomfort is gone, so all is well in everywhere but Pants Land. The natives are restless. I'm going to give it some time, see what happens. It doesn't help that Shark Week just happened, that has miscellaneous effects as we all know.

[Urgan]

18 hours ago, Mistr said:

Ouch, sorry about the neck ache. I hope you are feeling better today.

 

Thanks, I am getting some ROM back. Head hurts, but something's got to, right??

[Urgan]

10/4/2019 - 10/6/2019

Hate-love Relations

 

Tasks

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 14/16

Lingodeer Time - 20/20

Story Outline - 4/4

 

Behavior

Keep in Touch - 9/8

9:00 Dinner - 8/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

Too Many Curses: 16

 

Well. Friday was a day. I was pretty aggressive with my upper body training and didn't hurt too badly for it, a little achy but not kill-me-now levels of pain. Work was slow and/or boring. I explained my situation in detail, boss was understanding/in a good mood, which couldn't have come at a better time. Weird work triple-standoff involving who has responsibility for testing one group's dev changes is such that I feel able to pick and choose my commitment (see: bored and nothing better to do, coworker not be doing anything about the QA work piling on up) because to tell me to do otherwise would require the authority the other party is avoiding talking to--to put it bluntly, what are they gonna do, complain to boss that I'm doing too much work when we're not sure boss isn't assuming that it's my job to do in the first place? Just gonna enjoy my position for however long. This is fun.

 

Saturday I did a YOLO of 5x3 squats at 195lbs, 1lb shy of my 3RM. Probably paid for it on Sunday, because in the evening it got OW. Oh well. I did chores, all the chores, even though I kinda wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Bought a subscription to Drops because F it why not.

 

Over the course of the weekend, I finished Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, which was such a good read. Took a hard pass on The Sam Gunn Omnibus, because reading it felt like when you're at the holiday table and some relative is talking about that one time he and his great uncle and his buddy went off and did blah blah blah and you're over here in a turkey coma trying to put this in the context of their entire life and why you should care at all. Because the book is 700 pages of out-of-order anecdotes, guys. NO. Just...no thank you. Read the first Temeraire book, His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik), which was an adorable story. I discovered it's another omnibus (thank you, SCBC.....), and stopped with the first book. I'll possibly pick it up again later, we'll see. It's a 9 book series and I'm not convinced it will last that long. OTOH, you could say it's really half that length in terms of plot because the three books I have are 250 - 300 pages long. I read 2 or 3 volumes of the Fruits Basket manga, started on Thief of Time (Pratchett). So you could say I've been busy.

[Urgan]

October 2019 Goals

I mean, if we must

 

October has started "interestingly" with a neck injury of some sort I've been nursing for almost a week now. And by "nursing" I mean trying to ignore it harder than it's ignoring the Tylenol. While August saw me able to knock 60% of books off the Unread list, I bought around a dozen books early September and raised that to 35. We're now at 16, below where I was when I wrote September's goals. Yeeeeeeeeeeee buddy. I have been much more aggressive on working on my outline and it hasn't really felt forced, I just needed a reminder that I have to write down my ideas if I want them stick. Japanese practice is still happening, I'm about to hit a year on that. Time and flying and whatnot. Oh and my weight did a weird thing because of some preworkout I tried. Stopping that was a good life choice. 

 

Tasks

Ye olde To Do list:

 

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

 

Practice

I'm going to add a session to my martial arts practice - PVC "sword" practice at the Y, land of the soft mats and Clear Spaces to Swing. I bought a subscription to Drops, so I'm going to try to use that a little more often, but I need to think about how best to implement that without just crushing my will to live or something. I'm swapping accepting general progress on the outline for tackling specific goals/sections. Time to get a motherbleeping move on here. No these probably won't make any sense to you, but that's okay lol. I don't expect them all to be done by the end of the month, but itt would be pretty sweet if I did.

 

Crying in the Dojo - 0/20

Lingodeer Time - 0/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

Still doing these things because I am an adult that needs constant supervision.

 

9:00 Dinner - 0/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 0

 

Debriefs: 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

[Urgan]

10/7/2019

Center of attention

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 1/20

Lingodeer Time - 1/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 0/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 0

 

I tried to not go crazy in the gym, still hurt anyway. Will to live at near all-time low, buoyed slightly by the carnage I caused in doing the work I once was expected to do. Fires under butts that are not mine and whatnot. Glorious. I went easy in the dojo with yokomenuchi kotegaeshi. At home I did the heavy lifting of recopying the technique videos from the old laptop, which for some reason did not transfer and I had been putting it off/forgetting to do so. Read Thief of Time. The end.

[Urgan]

10/8/2019

It Was that Time

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 2/20

Lingodeer Time - 2/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 1/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 0

 

Well on the plus side, I don't think I carried over any harm from Monday's shenanigans. Perversely, I suspect lower body work is hacking my neck off more than upper. W E I R D flex but okay, body. Also on the plus side, I didn't have to cook dinner on Tuesday because a - I cooked double on Sunday and b - I only have on more meal planned for the week and that needs to fall on a Thursday. So Taco Tuesday it was. Read a volume of Fruits Basket (now about halfway through at vol 11 of 23), read on Thief of Time, did a review of weapons work. Um. Monday I mentioned to my partner that we need to start thinking about when we want to shoot for testing, because in March it will be a year. Now she waited longer than I did to test because she had a couple months on me, which matters when you're terrified of the 2nd hardest belt test until maybe testing for black. This one we're working on now is the hardest, according to people who have gone before. I've only seen two people test and not advance in rank--one was from blue to purple and the other was from purple to brown. The former had no business testing yet and the latter choked. So I do have some "data" to back up the assertion that we are about to top the hill in terms of rote curriculum difficulty. Not that the rest is EASY it just is a shorter list? And a bit more vague as you approach red and black in terms of what I understand the expectations to be. Emphasis on "what I understand." 

 

Saturday is the Karate tournament. Sensei hinted to me that he may need me the whole tournament rather than just morning shift because help is slim this time. This isn't a lot more hours of volunteer work, but it does push me from getting out and access to food I can eat until 3PM and make me have to figure out how to get away from there without attending the dojo social afterward (y'all I am emotionally and physically drained from volunteering...it's at LEAST as hard as competing because I don't be wanting to screw over some poor karateka with my bad signaling, ya know?). Sensei is too dang extroverted to be thinking the thing that sounds good after white-knuckling a tournament is to get together and have a party/drink.  NOPE. That's why I don't take the afternoon shift. This time I'm probably going home after grabbing any groceries/food required to keep me alive and face-plant on the bed at earliest convenience. Which means skipping the gym. It might be a mandatory skip if today's gym session gives me a migraine/reallyreallystrong headache. Since, you  know, I only did doubles at the weight I'd be doing for 5s and pulls are right out apparently. 

[Urgan]

10/9/2019

Dog and Pony

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 3/20

Lingodeer Time - 3/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 1/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 0

 

I wasn't gonna gym. Then I was. Then I wasn't. Then I had to get up to pee at 5:30 and decided to heck with it. I'm awake now. No really, that's how it happened. I ended up doing some almost-heavy squat doubles of 178lbs. At first my neck wasn't thrilled but it sorta simmered down toward the end. I was almost productive at work. The most interesting thing about it was I parked between two black sedans with Texas plates--in case you missed the memo, this isn't Texas. So that was odd. 

 

It's a rare moment when you have to give a relative advice amounting to "if he talks to you like that again, get a hotel room." But that happened. There's a pattern of logistical disagreements which somehow do a 180 and morph into a series of personal attacks going directly for the self-worth jugular vein--what the other person contributes to the household (oh, just every bit of food that didn't fly out a drive-through window, clean laundry, every single thing that involves using a means of communication to resolve, and any chore that doesn't specify controlled violence...). AKA disagreeing about the itinerary spins about on its heel and becomes a personal attack as if a suggestion were a dagger pointed right at his psyche. Then a few hours later it's like yeah, whatever suggestion/question that caused the emotional eruption actually was the reasonable course of action. It's really bizarre. I suspect a chemical imbalance in the brain. Good luck getting an answer to that one because see above overreaction to impersonal matters. Whatever and however its cause, this is at least the third time that a different POV on how to accomplish a shared goal apparently merited verbal abuse. I said if it were me I wouldn't hang around directly after the second time for the inevitable additional rounds of pre-apology abuse and that he isn't learning that you can't treat people that way, then apologize and the slate is blown clean as the driven snow. So. That wasn't the most enjoyable thing ever to say, but I felt like it was the truth. Temper tantrums, man.

 

Dojo was bokken techniques + bokken dori. Then the world's smallest class randori with three other non-black belts, so it was pretty much have-at-thee-in-single-file. Considering my neck, this was fine by me. Confirmed go-time for the karate tournament, it sounds like Sensei has the bases covered so I'll just be doing morning shift, but I will plan my food as if this is not the case. They do have food at the event, but of course I cannot eat it. I'm also planning my Friday to maximally compensate for getting up at 8AM on Saturday--my reading goal will be easy to hit, should take 2-3 hours and I can do lights-out at a sane time. 

[Urgan]

10/10/2019

Just Going With It

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 4/20

Lingodeer Time - 4/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 2/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 1

 

I started working on fleshing out 13.1. Survived the day at work, barely, with only one curse. the promise of a nap was crucial to said survival. Made carbonara, set myself up to finish Thief of Time easily on Friday, walked through the 5 Iaido kata in a half-assed way because of flooring and space issues. 

[Urgan]

10/11/2019 - 10/13/2019

Tournament Got me Like

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 0/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 5/20

Lingodeer Time - 5/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 2/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 1

 

Friday was uneventful aside from finishing Thief of Time, which was really really good--not the best of Pratchett's work, just that it made me happy to read it. Then I totally blew out a trilogy that was at least 1000 pages each because. Because guys. Guys. I have found possibly the worst writer ever in Peter F. Hamilton. So imagine having a villain who's just a total sexual psychopath, epic woolgathering sections, some kind of Biblical references which seem to be as necessary as the ones found in Evangelion, gay Satanists (apparently? not sure they're literally worshiping the Devil or what, but the sexual politics of the book ticked off at least one social Leftist, FWIW) "Adamists" in contrast with the Free Love Club "Eveists" (see what I mean?), and something about the story turning from sci-fi to fantasy, which could go either way in terms of quality but makes me really nervous. Sex is never not dysfunctional, so no matter who you are there's something to hack you off. Maddeningly some really fascinating concepts regarding living ships that have a symbiotic relationship with their pilots and inter-system trade? Just awful. Did I mention they're around 1200 pages each and make the telephone book look concise? Why oh why did I buy them then? They looked pretty. Yeah, serves me.

 

This brings me down to 12 Unread books. Ordered 3 on Sunday, some of which seem to be really short, so I have not blown up my list (yet). I am not quite halfway through Catch-22, which is awesome and hilarious and whatnot. For anyone who doesn't know, the story could be described as 50% characters trying to get out of flying bombing missions during WW2, and the other 50% is characters saying things that bewilder other characters. And then another 50% of the time is spent prowling for slatterns. I got a ways into the book in high school and I did not successfully recall the preponderance of slatterns. You could strap Catch-22 to The Right Stuff and take out Wellesley College single-handedly. Hulu has a series based on the book, how the script wouldn't end up looking like one of Yossarian's censorship jobs is beyond me.

 

So Saturday was a karate tournament. Got to volunteer alongside My Aikido People, and we ran the meanest well-oiled karate tournament machine around. The judges screwed up the chart once, because a kid done screwed up and showed up late, which was more than we did. I call that a success. It was a quicker event than prior years because our area lost two dojos for economic reasons, so I stayed for the whole thing. Got to watch an iaido pair go toe-to-toe in kata, which was something. Came home, got a shower, ate food, and collapsed. No gym because by this point I was nursing quite the little headache. I spent some of the time reviewing first episodes of shows in my Crunchyroll queue. Many things were dropped.

 

Sunday was uneventful as well. Did a lot of shredding of junk and napping. With a side of reading and listening to music samples. I did a lot of thinking about the April Fool's arrangement, which ties to school stuff by way of what is the rough calendar date of the start of this story again? Which gave me MORE ideas to amuse myself with. Can't mark anything off yet, but it'll be like dominoes when I start rearranging things. My goals this coming week are to review all the anime in my backlog and to research the books in my cart to verify their worthiness for purchase. If I fail to do so or determine what is left is not compelling enough, I cancel my subscription until the next season of Furuba materializes in Spring (?) 2020. At some point I'll finish the manga I guess? I can see more or less how it will go from book 13, but you know. I have the whole thing already.

[Urgan]

10/14/2019

Story Planning

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 0/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 6/20

Lingodeer Time - 6/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 2/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 2

 

Bench was underwhelming this time, I figure the upset in routine is the cause until further notice. OHP seemed okay, so no idea what's going on there other than OHP is an inherently superior lift. Because it is.

 

I did a cursory amount of Actual Research and discovered some of the things I'd dreamed up this weekend won't be possible the way I'd hoped. Ah well. The perils of writing from some basis in reality, I suppose. Haven't watched any episodes, but I did roll right through my cart and got rid of several books. 

 

Dojo time was a kokyunage/iriminage pair of techniques, two of few at this belt to not have four parts each lol. After a refresher, I did not feel completely lost attempting them the first time for the evening, which is a step forward.

[Urgan]

10/15/2019

Trash Day

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 0/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 7/20

Lingodeer Time - 7/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 2/8

Cat grooming - 0/4

Too Many Curses - 2

 

Tuesday was a garbage day. Rainy, dark, boring, exhausted. Didn't start dinner until 9:40 because BODY BE SLEEPING. This threw my evening routine into disarray--reading, aikido, writing, anything at all was pitted against one another in a death battle. Got a little of everything done, nothing excelled. Forgot to write a bill payment, but it's okay because I gave myself a buffer on purpose for this very reason. Did not watch any Crunchyroll, the least important thing in my life, though. My greatest accomplishment might have been scooping the cat box. Bah.

[Mistr]

Yeah, some days are like that. At least you got some sleep and some food. That gives you a base for today being better.

[Urgan]

10/16/2019 + 10/17/2019

Don't Tempt Me,

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 7/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 8/20

Lingodeer Time - 9/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 3/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Too Many Curses - 2

 

Squats weren't too bad. Work was a pile of bore. I scanned through a bunch of stuff in my Crunchyroll backlog and eliminated 40% of what I viewed. W00t. In case you were curious what's survived so far:

Natsume Yujin-Cho

Kakuriyo

Rurouni Kenshin

Ushio and Tora

Fruits Basket (pending next season)

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Tsurune

Hinamatsuri

Given

 

Only three more shows to review, if I can be torn away from Given long enough to do that.

 

Well we did breakfall practice in class, at which I participated a little but I begged off most of it and helped set up others' breakfalls instead because my partners were trying to drill on the crash pad--since they didn't have to throw one another, they could go as much or little as they wanted and I didn't sit on my butt looking like a goober. Win-win. 

 

Thursday was a work-from-home day. Very little needed doing, which was what I figured. Most of our crew is out. I finished Catch-22 and started on Mountain of Black Glass (Tad Williams). Did lots of iaito drawing practice. 

 

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

Yeah, some days are like that. At least you got some sleep and some food. That gives you a base for today being better.

 

Is it weird that it feels like the lead-up to DST? Everybody's lethargic and nothing is really happening and everybody is taking PTO/WFH and wow just "why bother" is the watch-phrase of the week.

[Urgan]

10/18/2019 - 10/20/2019

Repelling Invaders Like

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 10/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 9/20

Lingodeer Time - 10/20

Layer in school time

Write 13

Reschedule 13.1 (April Fool's)

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 3/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Too Many Curses - 3

 

Well. Net result of this weekend is:

 

- I finished reviewing my backlog, then promptly found 10 more shows because that's how I roll, apparently

- Marked 4 books off my Unread list, two of which came in the mail and lasted on the list less than 24 hours (The Last Witness and Purple and Black, both by K.J. Parker). One of them, Mountain of Black Glass, I took a pass on and read the 9 page summary for the 700 page monstrosity, which feels shocking in the scope of condensation, you know? I'm still trying to decide if I care to tackle the 1000 page finale. Rolled right through a book of C.J. Cherryh's short fiction, actually reading a fraction of them because darn if it isn't some kind of requirement that 99.8% of all short fiction ever written be depressing. Anyway, Unread stands at a nice round 10 books FTW. Starting in on A Shadow of All Night Falling (Glen Cook). Promises to be real cheery. No, I'm not shocked this is a given for this author. I am responsible for my feelings upon reading the thing.

- I did gym things, didn't feel super strong on squats, but I did manage to shift deadlifts for the recommended sets. Barely. Very sore on Sunday. Not sure if it was 242lb deadlifts or all night reading action or both.

- In a rare move, not only did I tackle lifts, reading, and anime on Sunday, but I also hit some music store sampling (no I do not have Spotify, yes I am a dinosaur, I accept my demise whenever it comes I like to own and manage my own crap) and considered an adjustment to the outline that, upon review, I decided to postpone. Freakish levels of time management considering I did lights-out at 11:30, half an hour earlier than normal. What is life.

- No chores were done. I was in the house alone and on Sunday I had the headache, so fat chance of progress in the land of domesticity.

- Oh and we can't forget the two scorpions I had to toss out of the house late on Saturday. I did not set off home security in so doing. No cats died in the process, either. Wonders never cease.

[shaar]

On 10/18/2019 at 10:20 AM, Urgan said:

 

Is it weird that it feels like the lead-up to DST? Everybody's lethargic and nothing is really happening and everybody is taking PTO/WFH and wow just "why bother" is the watch-phrase of the week.

 

This was wildly accurate at my job last week.  Everyone was a grumblefaced snarlball and finally I decided to join in and stop giving a frick

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

- Oh and we can't forget the two scorpions I had to toss out of the house late on Saturday. I did not set off home security in so doing. No cats died in the process, either. Wonders never cease.

 

HOO BOY HOWDY D:

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, shaar said:

This was wildly accurate at my job last week.  Everyone was a grumblefaced snarlball and finally I decided to join in and stop giving a frick

 

I mean the entire city kind of got in on the act. Is it because we're halfway sane driving distance to the beach? Is it the weather? Is this real life?

 

2 minutes ago, shaar said:

HOO BOY HOWDY D:

 

Styrofoam cup vs crawly doo-dads. Crawly doo-dads did NOT want to get in the cup, did NOT want to vacate the cup once I finally got 'em scooped therein. What a world.

[Urgan]

10/21/2019

The Hype Train

Tasks

Clean toilet

Clean bathroom sinks

Crunchyroll Backlog - 1/10

 

Practice

Crying in the Dojo - 10/20

Lingodeer Time - 11/20

Write 13

Write 15.1

Write or delete 17

Write 24

Write 25 + flashbacks

 

Behavior

9:00 Dinner - 3/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Too Many Curses - 3

 

Um. Well. I got a 1lb 2RM PR on bench (107lbs). Barely. Boss hasn't been in the office in a week and a day. Got to love that one-way communication. We're being spammed by our Security department with phishing attempts to train us not to use our email at all. Debating flagging every email I get as a phish. If only I could automate it. 

 

Dojo time was jiu waza. I was so beat up on getting home I just did video review. And then watched Tanaka-san is Always Listless. I'm not sure the one-joke premise is going to last more than a full episode (it was starting to get old halfway through ep 1...), but his enabler is cute so maybe that will be a good enough reason. Maybe.

 

The show seems to basically be Ohta carrying Tanaka around, making him eat, perhaps-literally dragging him to the dentist, etc.