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ok, this is right. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to donate salaries from movie role to daughter of Heath Ledger:
( Read more... )
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| 2008-08-20 07:37 |
| still no quotes key, but an interesting article on admitting mistakes |
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| ethics, work |
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Heh. not having quote-key working means, no lij-cut text= tags, among other things. no programming own html tags... oh, bother.
anyway, on to an interesting column by Jared Sandberg in the Wall Street Journal about the Employee Who Is Never Wrong:
( Read more... )
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| 2008-08-19 22:34 |
| state of the slashfairy |
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well.
petty annoyance: the apostrophe/quote key on the laptop is not working. email in to tech guy since Apple site not particularly helpful.
sleep still elusive. *sigh*
very happy thing: one parcel mailed to self from Scotland has arrived, awaits at post office. that leaves one mailed-to-self parcel to go. not bad, not bad at all.
slightly nervous-making things:
uni starts next tuesday. still somewhat apprehensive but excited, too.
not sure how well the second job with the boy and his family is going. will give it a month of two-jobs+uni and see.
truly fun things: in cleaning out stuff, I find I downloaded and burned all 8 chapters of Hornblower (TV). oh, nice nice nice- ships and men and sea and sails. mmm, very good.
and Hugh Laurie reading Finn Family Moomintroll. *wants*.
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| 2008-08-16 23:50 |
| there, that's better |
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slept a fair amount today. enough so that i could get up around 6pm and get some of the work done i need to do- moving stuff BACK out of housie's office and either into car (second hand) or storage, trash, or newly put away in my room.
quiet tonight at work, and still so sleepy- going to nap in the girl's room tonight so I can let myself really rest (that way i can hear her if she needs me- got those 'mom' ears, lol) and hope that tomorrow i can get enough sleep in the AM that i can get up before my housie gets home that i can get my stuff out of her room.
not exactly the social life i like for my weekends, but it's only until December (this press of uni on top of nights- all this stuff-stuff is around uni, making room for uni).
Am holding out good wishes for people in Georgia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Dominican Republic and Hispaniola, and Florida. For the pets, for the grandchildren, for the parents, for all my friends and beloveds.
blessings on your heads, yo.
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| 2008-08-15 06:06 |
| in a better mood... |
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lest anyone be unduly concerned about my plans for the fall:
it'a all partly coloured by the fact that it's in the 90's these days (low 30's to the Celsius crowd) and thus not such good sleeping weather. complicated by the fact that this is the week i have an unused room to use as a staging room for sorting out MY room's stuff, but it's so freakin' hot...
But you know- i'm getting things done. not quickly, not elegantly, but done. so it's all good. it really is.
and still eating well, doing some yoga (illuminated_sin, thanks for the Yoga vid tip- i ordered that and Yoga In Bed, which, between them, should kick-start me nicely), and i'm going to keep my gym membership for a while yet so I can keep foxrafer company (among others, but i want to give her a shout-out!) so the issue of exercise/conditioning is really moot.
so.
really it's just feeling that pressure i put on myselfto be all things to all people, including me- which is silly, and i shall stop it forthwith, and relax, and enjoy each moment for what it is.
that is all. you may stand down, now. *G*
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| 2008-08-14 20:01 |
| Life, work, uni, sleep, relationships, fun |
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So uni starts in less than two weeks.
I have to admit, I'm a bit worried.
Classes are 1-4 on Tues and Weds.
I work +/- 10pm to 7am Weds through Sun.
In theory I can sleep between about 8am and 8pm during the days, except on Uni days.
and in theory I can use Monday from when I get home until sometime Tuesday morning (4am-ish, not 9am-ish) to just.sleep.in.
That's my plan.
these are the details as i know them now.
I do have 'net at each job, so can bring computer and ---if not too tired work on course work. At the girl's house that's less of a problem- there IS a proper desk there with a chair, as well as a sofa if my legs/back get sore and I need to stretch out. so in theory I can work on coursework there.
At the lad's house though (now, this family just moved, so I'm being generous until they get settled) there are only two HUGE recliners (i'm NOT 6'4", nor even 5'8"- these are BIG chairs) and the tile floor, which is ok for not needing to do school reading/writing, but there's no place to set out papers, make notes, etc.
So my concerns are these: having the energy to make it to class each day, every week.
Having the energy to read the assignments, assimilate the information, do the work.
Having a PLACE to do the work. Lay out the papers, my notes, watch the films for Chicano and Latino Cinema and take notes. Read what's required for Native American Studies- go to the local sites if that's in this class. lay out THOSE notes and do my assimilating and writing.
I've been moving things around in my room to make more study space, get rid of distractions- need to be done with that by Sunday morning when house-mate gets home, since it's her office i'm using as a staging area.
I'm going to ask the lad's family if there even IS A table and chair I'll be able to sit at on Weds. and Sun. to do that kind of work- if NOT then those by default will become visiting nights, for online friends, and yoga nights, because there's room there to stretch out with my mat.
And at least for the first weeks of uni, I'm thinking I'll need (notice, not want but need) almost all the other time for sleep or study and work.
Which, yay, staying healthy, finishing school, and earning money for living on and for Europe next year, but waaaaaaaah for visiting/writing/hanging out time. at least until i get my shit together.
My experience with this damn critical thinking has made me unsettled about this work/uni schedule. I think THIS is why it's taken me so damn long to finish uni- there are reasons I didn't take classes while I was working full-time nights in hospital. this is hard enough.
On this schedule i tend to get home on Monday morning and want to stay up and hang out with my friends online- do laundry, dust, read fic, -- but what happens is i get over-amped and end up staying up all through Monday into the wee hours, then sleeping- maybe- two or three hours- and getting up for all of tuesday. Which, no. Will not work. (Yes, i /plead/ tired and sleepy a lot, but i don't actually SLEEP, damnit! if i did, i'd not plead it. *sigh*) so i'm thinking (waaaaaaaaH!) that mondays will need to be radio-silence days, where I come home, take a bath, my meds, and hit the sack and sleep. no errands, no visiting, no studying even until i've gotten some sleep.
*sigh* there, THAT's disorganized, innit? *tries to organize it, can't*
anyway, /worried rantlette. you can go on bout your regularly scheduled lives, now. xoxox
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I'm working on a small project: pretty much completely redoing my room (one room, in which i conduct business, uni-work, write, keep my daily stuff like clothes and linens, and my longer term stuff like cards and books and music, and where i also make tea and plan my travels and meditate and so forth and so on, oh, and occasionally, sleep).
This requires pretty much getting everything out (sound familiar, FL? thought it might *grin*) and lucky for me this week my housemate's gone so I can use her office room for a staging area.
Am finding many occasions to notice my reaction to small annoyances: things kept past their prime, past their usefulness, past my interest in them waning. Anxieties related to anticipating situations that may never come, but half-planning for them, stocking odd things in fear of them. Things I enjoy and would do well to be using (brushes, pencils, needles and thread and beads) put away 'for later'- when, after the catastrophes?
So this time i'm also taking a moment with each heavy sigh and eye-roll and moment's depression to make a note of what the reaction was, what (if I can tell) it was in reaction to, and what worked to step away from it, to shed it. Deep breath? stretching? change of location? quick decision (trash/freecycle/second hand store/storage/keep)? And then going on until i hit one of those 'suddenly dizzy' moments that signals 'too much input, not enough disc space to process'.
That's when the tea comes out, and the music gets put on, and I step back and see how much has gotten done already.
Two weeks til uni starts. CPR renewal tonight, Breakfast club cook tomorrow. Then it's just work and sleep and room and friends and beloveds until Sunday, when I need to have the room done and my stuff out of my housemate's room.
One step, one breath at a time, yeah? *nods* yeah.
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Good night at work. Girl happy- her baby nephew's birthday today, she loves being Auntie and she loves birthdays. I had lovely company overnight online- thank you, pirates!- even though the wireless was still a bit iffy.
Left work intending to pick blueberries but it was already harkening 'too hot and too bright'- not a good combination when one's ultimate goal is to sleep during the day. So I stopped at the market- not 'my' market, but a big one- for a few supplies.
And got hit out of left field by such frustration with the whole 'hugeness' of modern industrialized food. Took me 20 damn minutes to find:
-- a 'bread item' that wasn't a pound-and-a-half in one package AND wasn't processed up the yin-yang
-- a block of feta cheese. Not crumbled, not spiced or herbed or some such. Just a block of plain feta cheese.
-- a jar of kalamata olives under 12 oz, without sugar (sugar? in olives) and added salt.
I came out of there so strongly possessed of the urge to drink. That's not happened in that way for years- I've been sober (with the exception of a sip of rum for one very special occasion) for 7+ years- but by fucking god, the urge to go right back in and get a bottle was so damn strong.
Instead I came home, made myself a tray of pita bread, olives, feta, watercress, and sliced apple, came upstairs, got in bed, got online, and got some support and lovin'.
And the urge to drink passed, my breakfast was delicious, and the friends saved my life.
Can't do better than that, really.
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| 2008-08-09 06:10 |
| access |
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dreadful at work overnight. must get up courage and ask the mom if there's something special i need to do to access the wireless at the girl's apartment- i've been cadging off linksys, but ... meh. yes, it's passworded, and yes, i have the password, so that's not it. it either times out connection, or says 'password invalid', but it's not invalid. so...)
there is also DSL so i may just bring my DSL cable with me after all, and see if that's better. *sigh*
/internet junkie whinging.
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| 2008-08-08 06:14 |
| countdown to uni |
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uni starts on the 26th for me. i'm not done with those papers for Critical Thinking yet, but I need to be. I'm dropping off my app for additional Student Loan money- on the one hand I hate to take on that debt, but on the other I've already paid that much in taxes- more!- so I don't see why I shouldn't have the use of it to finish school.
Bit of a cold today- that's annoying but that's more likely still getting into a new routine of cases and sleep and errands. Plan is to drop of this paper at uni, hit the neighborhood for breakfast, and then hit the sack after a quick bath.
If there's a miracle, I'll wake both refreshed enough and in time to go up to work and pick up my check- no auto deposit today, something wrong at the check payer's tech site apparently- but if not, well, they'll mail it, and I just won't spend any money this weekend. Filled the tank last night, went to the market the day before, so.
So that's the news from here, Friday Digest version. Take care y'all.
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| 2008-08-03 07:28 |
| homygod itza mirrucal! |
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home, bathed, brushed, and in bed by quarter past 7 am. amaaaaaaaaaazing.
found 3 cents at the market last night *adds to 'travel 2009' fund*.
sorted (as much as I can) the uni website for my two courses this fall- Native American Studies (survey), and Chicano and Latino Cinema. am SO looking forward to those. Anyone have a copy of La Pistola de mi Hermano they want to upload for me? (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) imafarmgirl and paulabm would you be a resource/question-checking-out person for me, if I need one?)
damn cold/almost-but-not-quite sinus infection I've had for two weeks nearly gone. yay! for Neti pots and Homeopathy and Ayurveda. in the past one that's started out like this has gone on to a real honest-to-ick sinus infection, even bronchitis or pneumonia, but not this time.
Ok, it's nearly half 7 now. if i'm gonna catch up on my sleep, i'd better get started.
this next week's to-do list:
renew CPR
move dresser and bookshelf
make room for this fall's class stuff
take clothes that are too big (!! YES, AMEN, HALLELUJAH!) to the thrift store.
list things for Freecycle.org
sleep, work, exercise, see friends. write.
that is all. you may go on about your regularly scheduled sunday/monday. xoxo
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This from the NYT- Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization.
(prior links dump Here.)
What can you do about it?
City Farmer
Community Gardening and Kids
Community Greens
Moss in the City: Urban Gardening
Urban Gardening Magazine
ETA Pick Your Own gardens and farms in US, UK, Europe, Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa</a>.
Perhaps you and some friends get together and lament not being in better shape. Can one of you donate land to a group project garden? Maybe all you have is a balcony in a climate with a short growing season. Can you grow herbs? sprout seeds?
Maybe you think it's inefficient to grow any of your own food. Well, maybe it is from a strictly commercial business point of view. But in terms of best use of the calories you take in / the calories you expend, which is more worthwhile? the giant pack from Costco or Tesco? or the oxygen-producing, carbon-dioxide reducing pot of chives or basil on your sill? The tomatoes you get from the pot on the balcony? the lettuce from the box on the verandah? Remember, even some flowers are edible. (I use nasturtiums in my salads. mmm, peppery!)
I dunno if the problems caused (to some extent, unwittingly) by globalizing trade and industrializing farming are all curably by home food farming. I do know that even if you have a 'black thumb', over time you can learn to listen to plants and come to recognize what it takes to have an honest relationship with sun-converting chlorophyll-using beings, and that in itself can be balm to a wounded soul, and help right some of the imbalance in the world.
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| 2008-08-02 05:51 |
| quiet night, busy day |
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there's a baby shower today at my house, so as soon as i finish work i need to go home, take my meds and my bath, and go to sleep while the house is still both cool and quiet.
later when it gets busy i will get up, or as up as i can get, and at least clean up my room some, and if i'm social, come online.
but it's a bit odd today, planning to work around it.
first baby- this will make two grand-daughters for the people i live with. fun, eh?
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| 2008-08-01 04:24 |
| gakked from jackandahat |
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| 2008-08-01 00:08 |
| not exactly pleased...but i'll get over it :-) |
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It's no secret, I don't think, that I struggle to balance my wide-ranging life with friends and beloveds around the globe with the inconveniences of night shift.
This afternoon I wanted to sleep, but it was hot, someone in the neighborhood had music up to high (do people not realize that the bass will carry blocks and blocks if it's up loud enough? *sigh*) and the house-mates were (i'm pretty sure inadvertently) noisy before going out for the evening.
Then I got to work at the girl's house only to find the other night nurse saying she was scheduled- it's too hard to argue with her, and with no sleep all day it seemed more prudent to swallow my resentment and pride, and come home, spend some time unwinding, and then sleep after the upstairs has cooled off. So, goodbye extra shift's worth of pay (though it's not overtime, so *eh*), but hello chance to see a few people maybe, and get some sleep later. I'll talk to the agency in the morning and go over the schedule again to be sure that what's on the books is what's actually happening.
So now I'm home, waiting to see who in Europe is up at this hour, and hoping I can spend a little time with them before I crash. I want so much to be there for the people I love, and at the same time I am here in this body in this time-zone on this schedule, and there's only so much I can do before I just have to be here, and not there.
It's tricky, and sometimes it doesn't work. Between uni and work I've had a real struggle to keep up with people- some I used to talk to three or four times a week by phone, now we're lucky if it's email once or twice a week, or a hit-or-miss chance meeting in YIM or AIM. on the other hand, I've been fortunate that no-one's let me drift away- case in point, yesterday I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful blue Moomin Maiden t-shirt from rinnuninnu. I spent some time working out ways I might be able to get my pferde over here to see me graduate, and started working on Europe 2009.
I just have to keep remembering that it's not any one day, or shift, or missed IM that makes or breaks a friendship, a relationship. It's the underlying truth of the whole thing- the fact of caring for each other- that makes it. So I'll keep working with my wide-ranging relationships and my weird schedule and my body's needs, and in December uni will be done (finally!) and in May I'll graduate, and by this time next summer, with any luck at all, I'll have been to Europe again, and had my pferde to California.
There, see? a little thought, some patience, a bit of appreciation- and now, when it cools off and I'm ready to sleep, I'm in a good mood and will enjoy every minute of it.
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am looking for a torrent of, or hoping someone on my FL has this and can rip/share it with me.
A Very English Genius.
narrated by Jack Davenport
( Read more... )
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As a nurse, I'm firmly science-based. As a child of the 1950's, brought up on fairy-tales and science-fiction, poetry and reference books, geography and archeology, I'm equally at home in (or at least recognize some of the signposts and landmarks in) 'left-brained' and 'right-brained' experience. As a child of the 60's with my brief foray into psychedelics and a much longer, more careful sojourn in spiritual and esoteric study, I'm a believer that things connect- that living as though we are not all in relationship to each other, to all of life, all of time, all of space, lessens us.
From the TED website: One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."
"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."
Jill Bolte Taylor/My Stroke of Insight/ TED Feb 2008
( Click )
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Ok. I have been studying Marshall Rosenberg's theory and practice of Nonviolent Communication for a number of years now, and YAY! for YouTube: he's on it. I cannot recommend this enough- I hope the vids are enough to whet your appetites for being treated kindly, with respect and dignity, and the expectation that what you want most from life is to be alive every minute.
Nonviolent Communication
part 1 9 mins 35 sec.
part 2 5 mins 47 sec. (particularly helpful about depression)
part 3 4 mins 25 sec.
Nonviolent Communication and Corporations
part 1 28 mins 32 sec.
part 2 28 mins 58 sec.
part 3 26 mins 32 sec.
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Ways in which I am becoming more like my mother (I promise, this absolutely has to do with this summer's trip!):
I will swipe the sides of the bath tub as it's draining so that it's not got too bad of a ring around it when I leave the bathroom. I'll wash out my bra and panties and hang them to dry, to save needing too many changes of clothes, and to save making a load of laundry for only two things. I'll buy post cards instead of prints, or bring home brochures and local papers instead of photo-books and programs. I'll eat less quantity but better quality to save both calories and money, and put the money saved into my travel fund, and enjoy the fact that I'll be healthier on next year's trip than I was on this one.
Ways in which I am becoming more like my father:
I will build a collection of something, then when it is finished, I will let it all go. (He became an expert at this, building and letting go of not one, but five different huge HO train set-ups.) I will pare down to the bare minimum just to make something possible. I will seek any number of ways to get something accomplished, or to convert any disappointment or resentment I might feel at delays, obstacles, or lack of completion into energy that I can use to work toward accomplishment.
It's really not possible that I could have gone on this year's trip-not with only the resources of my own single life. The only way it could have happened is with the help and generosity of the friends I went to see again, or meet for the first time.
I left the States a bit of a wreck- underslept, overfed, under-exercised, and over-anxious.
In my five weeks (close enough) in Germany and Denmark I developed more muscles, got better sleep, had a healthier appetite, and a happier heart. Watercress and parsley, feta and Arabic bread, daikon radish and wrinkled black olives, apples and chocolate. The water in that part of the country actually IS special spring water- my hair's not had it so good in years, nor my thirst been so well quenched. I left feeling loved, and cared for, and inspired, and appreciated, and as though some piece of the world, of history and life that'd been beyond me is now part of me forever.
In Scotland I began to get a real sense of my mother's family's heritage- I'm a mongrel blend of Bruce and Campbell, Stuart and MacEwan- highland and lowland, Methodist and Presbyterian and Catholic and wild. I literally gathered wool alongside a road through sheep country, and came across family names more often than not, which was both reassuring and intriguing. Although we didn't have as much time just to ourselves as we'd planned (mostly because the weather was MUCH better than we'd all expected, so we went out on day-trips all together much more than we'd expected), still, I came away with so much better of a sense of why I love the person I went to visit, and how much love is willing to stand, to last. Thank you for that gift, to go with you all to Scotland. I don't know if I can ever, ever say how much it means.
In England I began to find my way through all these threads of history that mark me, my country, my experience of history and of government, religion- so many things- I look at it all a bit differently now. Things make sense differently. Better. Thank you, friends, for putting me up, for feeding me, and taking me around, for helping me become more independent in my travels, and for not letting me be alone. What value that has for me, and you have to me.
Ok, that's the quasi-philosophical, slightly mysterious post. Tomorrow, and in the days ahead- the actual trip, and plans for 2009, and 2010, and so on, and so on.
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