Saturday, June 20, 2009

Week in Review – Week Ending June 20th

This has been a pretty nice week, although concerns about my long-term health have preoccupied my mind (that, and a strong desire to role-play since my post-birthday game night). I had a rare week where I got off work before 10 PM, so I took advantage of that fact the best I could with no money whatsoever. I got to MUX, visit Laat, attend a hafla, and spent time with friends and lovers, so I’ll chalk this week up as a win.

Sunday Jero and I called for a late check-out and then headed to my mother’s to have brunch with her and my sister Chhu. After we ate Chhu and Mom asked me if I could help them change the tire on Mom’s Malibu – something I was glad to do, until I found out when we arrived at a junkyard that they didn’t actually have a tire yet. We spent two hours baking in 100+ degrees sun until Jero found something that might work.

Escaping at last, Jero and I stopped in Terre Haute to grab dinner, and then finally made it back to Indy. I went over to Ke’s, where she was spending the weekend with Nivagi. We snuggled Nivagi on the couch before driving her home. We returned to Ke’s and hid in her bedroom to watch The Colbert Report and NCIS until late in to the early morning.

Monday I went over to Jero’s to MUX. Two of our admin returned recently from hiatus, and it is wonderful to have them back. The MUX has undergone a mini-revival, and I’m trying to get online as often as possible (which still isn’t that often, alas) to take advantage of that fact. We have a new Megatron, so I got a chance to role-play with him as both as my shy data-analyst character Floodlight and my brave warrior Valour.

I also got to carry on some RP I’d started Friday with Spike, continuing Buster’s birthday celebration with his brother. I followed up on Friday’s RP as Ace as well, role-playing out his guilt and recovery with Mara after his disastrous run-in with the Baroness and Vypra in Australia. I had a lot of fun with everyone and look forward to the next event scheduled Monday.

Tuesday I felt internal pressure to find time to hang out with people not available during my normal until-10:15-PM schedule, since this week I left work at 6:15. However, none of the most-hard-to-schedule people got back to me, and I was really feeling peopled-out, so I decided to be selfish and took the night alone. I stayed up way too late and got caught up on a tiny fraction of my email, journaling, and laundry.

Wednesday after work I headed down to Louisville to visit Laat. She took me out to dinner since I’m poor, and I had a Hot Brown since I was in Louisville and hadn’t had one as far as I could recall. It wasn’t quite as good as it sounded, but it was still quite yummy. After dinner we relaxed and hung out until Laat’s waitress friend came in to work. After hellos and hanging out with her a bit Laat and I went back to Laat’s apartment.

Since Laat was sleepy and her DVD player wasn’t working, we elected to just go to bed and snuggle and talk until we fell asleep. She apologized for being a “bad host” but really I’m very happy that we’ve gotten to the point were we can just hang out without having to be “on.” We used to only see each other once a year or less, so we had to cram a lot of visiting until each get-together. Now that she lives so close we can just get together and relax, which is a lot less stressful for me.

Thursday morning I got up early to drive back to Indy in time for my shift, and since I avoided bad weather and traffic I actually arrived early to the office and got to talk with Jero and Ra on the way. At work they sent a lot of people home early on e-time, so once again it seemed that our little group was stuck taking all the calls. This stressed me out quite a bit, and I could *feel* my blood pressure rising call after call.

This got me thinking about my health and what I need to do more specifically than just “eat better and exercise more.” I solicited ideas online, and since I had some time before Nivagi got off work, started thinking about how and when I could put better lifestyle choices into effect. I picked up Nivagi from work and we had dinner before returning to my apartment so I could massage her sore muscles before we snuggled and slept.

Friday work was insanely busy and I barely made it through the day, especially since I was trying not to gorge myself with caffeine (limiting stimulants sucks!). When I got home I had some time before Nivagi got off work, so I turned on my laptop to check blogs and email before dinner. I lay down “just for a minute” while my computer booted up, and wound up sleeping until Ke called to say she was nearly here.

I stumbled downstairs to meet Ke and together we went to pick up Nivagi from work. We brought Nivagi home to change into belly-dancing gear and then the three of us drove to Zionsville for dinner at Zorba’s Greek restaurant. il Troubadore was playing entertaining music that Nivagi and her friends danced to as a pleasant compliment to the yummy food. After dinner we went back to Chpa and Nivagi’s so she could tend to her pets before going away for the weekend, and then Ke, Nivagi and I returned to my apartment to swim, hot lukewarm tub, and sleep.

Today when I get off work I’m driving to St. Louis to see Ra and Sckl. I wanted to go to the Circle City Socialites bout with Jero, but I haven’t seen Ra in ages, so I decided to skip it this time so I don’t arrive in Missouri too late. Unfortunately I work Monday so it will have to be a lightning visit, but I always enjoy time with Ra and Sckl so I’m sure the trip will be well worth it.

Have a good weekend, everyone!



“Chickenfeet, come back! You're not a freak! You're just stupid!”
-- Dib, Invader Zim

Friday, June 19, 2009

Full-Sized Gundam Now Complete in Tokyo

I love the Japanese!

From http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/6708 --

A full-sized, yes, full-sized Gundam was planned for Tokyo's Odaiba Shiokaze
Park. And in fact, the 59-foot-tall giant mecha is already done. However, the
public unveiling isn't until July 11th.

For many, the Gundam is the iconic anime giant mecha, and April 7th, 2009 was
the 30th anniversary of the first anime series about Mobile Suits, Mobile Suit Gundam. Thus, this 1:1 scale model, built
as part of the "Mobile Suit Gundam 30th Anniversary Project," it will stay up
for only two months, until August 31st. Viewing will be free.

Besides a (cool) moveable head, fifty points on the Gundam are lit, and mist
shoots out of 14 different points on the statue. Check out a couple of videos [here].

Read more: http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/6708#ixzz0Iu2X2dUj&C




--
Fiery Blaze: "Like I always say, any enemy of evil is a friend of mine."
The Tick: "Mandingo, how I grok your mouth music."
-- The Tick

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Health - June 18th

I seriously need to work on improving my health. For a while my blood pressure was in the “keep an eye on it zone,” but lately when I’m stressed I’ve been feeling dizzy, flushed, and lightheaded – not good signs. I’ve been told I *look* flushed when I’m upset, which might be normal, but not when my doc keeps pointing to my steadily-above-normal BP reading. I’ve been using my rotating work schedule as an excuse not to exercise, but really, I get stuck with one of three schedules, and I really need to just find time on each of them to eat, exercize, and sleep, and stick to it whichever schedule I’m on.

Part of the problem is that I’m “busy” all of the time, and I don’t want to take already-limited time away from loved ones. However, when I think about it, I don’t begrudge Jero her derby practice or Nivagi her belly-dance class, and I can’t really imagine anyone I love having a problem if I want to delay plans an hour once a week so I can exercise. I will definitely need my lovers’ buy-in if I’m going to stick to plans to improve my financial and physical help, but they are all wonderful people and I know they will help if I can work out a realistic plan and try to stick to it.

Ponder ponder ponder. Any suggestions?

Kentuckiana Pride Festival

For those in the Louisville area:

SATURDAY PRIDE FESTIVAL - June 20 ---
featuring Indigo Girls 10-11:30pm
and Tiffany 9:10-9:40pm

No Tickets Required - Admission of only $5 includes the Indigo Girls concert!

for more information, see Kentuckiana Pride Festival.