Floating Leaf

A very cool meme stolen from gairid:

The rules:

* Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.

* No captions. It must be like we’re speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.

* They must ALREADY be on your hard drive – no Googling or Flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you’ve saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.

* You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don’t want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.

( I'm sure most of these require no explanation.:) )

I think I really need to stop snickering at people who go to bed early. It would be downright wonderful to get full seven hours of sleep a night - but the thing is, it hardly ever happens. Even on weekends - because, as I've recently noticed, my body has gotten so used to waking up around 7 a.m., it simply refuses to sleep afterwards. No matter how late I stayed up the previous night. As a result, I might get even less sleep on a weekend than I do during the week - which is simply ridiculous, as well as totally wrong. I think I haven't gotten more than 6 hours a night for the past week.:/ Which basically makes me feel like a deflated balloon. Barely six hours might have been enough at some point in my life, but it isn't so any more.:( In addition to feeling tired and devoid of energy, I am also constantly hungry - like, every two hours. And I know from experience that when I am well rested, I don't need to eat quite that often. Another thing: I tried to do a simple, relaxing balance ball workout a few days ago - and I felt so damn weak I could barely move a limb. I'm pretty sure this is also related to lack of proper rest. And it's just not funny anymore.

So, note to self: your new bedtime is 11 p.m. Every day. No exceptions. That means you start getting ready for bed at around 10 p.m. - just in case the evening bathroom routine takes a little longer than it should (which it usually does). By midnight, you're supposed to be ASLEEP already - not just turning of the bedside light (or the computer). Unless you really WANT to feel like crap in the morning - in which case, who am I to interfere? Go ahead, just don't complain to me afterwards.

Yeah... another result of mental exhaustion might actually be a split personality disorder, LOL.

Okay. Enough. GO. TO. BED. *growls*

Snagged from crowdaughter:

Your result for The Brutally Honest Personality Test...

Loner - ISFP

13% Extraversion, 40% Intuition, 33% Thinking, 33% Judging

Take The Brutally Honest Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

Very surprising... AHEM. *sporfle* Actually, it all sounds so familiar I'm pretty sure I've done that quiz already - and I most likely got the very same result. Not that it helped, obviously. *smells more daisies* :P

So my dad had a whole series of cardiological tests this week. ( Read more... )

Also, RIP Howard Zinn. I only recently discovered this amazing man (thanks to Viggo, btw; which is not in itself surprising, since I discovered a lot of things thanks to Viggo), and now he's gone. I haven't read any of his books yet, but I stumbled upon the following video sometime last week - and it was enough to make me a fan. He may be saying things that seem pretty obvious - but sometimes it takes a lot of courage to state the obvious. Especially if the honest truth is considered 'unpatriotic'.

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/1/8/howard_zinn_three_holy_wars

So here's the latest scoop on my dad: gastrointestinal endoscopy turned out good, meaning there's nothing wrong with his stomach. On Saturday he's gonna get tested for stones in his gall bladder, but in the meantime, both the laryngologist and the neurologist have suggested that the blackouts/dizzy spells he is suffering from could be a heart-related problem. Arythmia, perhaps. ( Read more... )

In happier news, I spent a really nice afternoon/evening on Monday with a good friend of mine whom I hadn't seen for months. ( Read more... )

Also, strangely enough, I am writing fic. Mainly because I crave distraction from real life with a vengeance, and A/L porn is the only thing that really manages to make me forget all my troubles - if only for an hour or so at a time. I've been trying to finish this 'new & improved' version of how man and elf really got started for the past week or two - but my writing process is excruciatingly slow, so give me another week or two... or three. Perhaps. However, they are at a very crucial moment in the proceedings by now, so I'm quite confident this will get finished. I don't want to leave them hanging like that, so to speak.;P

We are switching to a new time-recording system at work. Up until now, we have been filling out our timesheets manually, printing them out and physically handing them to our manager. From now on, we are going to 'punch in' our arrival & departure each day through an online system that will automatically record the exact time and calculate the hours. ( Read more... )

In other news, I went to Whole Foods and bought a natural, non-toxic anti-wrinkle eye cream (Kiss My Face brand) and Desert Essence Cinnamon Burst toothpaste (haven't tried it yet - will finish my final tube of Colgate first). With no sodium lauryl sulfate (a supposedly evil chemical added to most soaps, toothpastes and shampoos) and no fluoride. That's it for now, because I didn't really need anything else - though I was extremely tempted to grab one of those deliciously smelling organic soaps (why, oh why did my mother have to give me that Dove bar for Christmas?... LOL). There was also a good variety of shampoos, conditioners and even hair dyes (ammonia-free, of course). Oh, and I also found perfectly safe eye makeup remover pads (Andrea's EyeQ) at - surprise, surprise - Jewel's (NOT a health-oriented store by any stretch, lol). The moisturizing ones, saturated with natural oils (the oil-free variation has some bad chemicals, though). So it seems that detoxifying my personal care isn't going to be such a great challenge, after all. ( Read more... )

Mission accomplished. Dad's car has been returned to its proper location. It gave me quite a scare by refusing to start at first... but after several attempts the engine grudgingly came to life.;) And I came up with a brilliant solution of coming back home by train & bus - so my mom only had to drive me to the neareast train station, instead of all the way to the city. Which was a great relief for her, since she is starting a new job tonight (as overnight caretaker for some very old lady in another suburb). Fortunately for me, both the train and the subsequent bus arrived promptly, so I didn't completely freeze my ass off.:)

Damn, but it is COLD (5F/-15C right now, supposed to get even colder during the night). Thank heavens for hot chicken stew and even hotter tea.:) And my heating pad (the neck is killing me something fierce - I'm counting the days till my next acupuncture appointment on the 9th). The lure of the papasan chair seems quite irresistible right now... so I think I'm going to pop in my other Netflix DVD (I have two right now, because there was a delay in sending the next one in my queue, so they sent me another one - and then the delayed one arrived about two days later). Mmmmm... good times.:D

Yes, I do believe I have already said before that I must have been a hobbit in another lifetime. I am almost of the proper height... and don't forget the curly hair.;) I would be rather skinny for a hobbit lady, though - not that it's a problem, mind you. I am actually surprised I didn't gain weight over the holidays. Must have been all the stress and/or the cold, because I definitely wasn't doing any calorie counting. Who would bother with that?... Not a hobbit lady, for sure.:P

Oh, I also managed to clean the apartment this morning. I feel very proud of myself.;) Now I believe LJ has a lot of holiday season fic to catch up on. *rubs hands together*

What on earth made me so pointlessly chatty these days? *headshake* Enough of that blabber. It's movie time. Also, more hot tea. Gingerbread spice, I think. With milk and honey. Yes, that sounds just about perfect. *shuts up*

Well, here's hoping that New Year's Day's mood/activity etc. isn't necessarily indicative of the entire year to come. That would be pretty sad and frustrating in my case, I have to admit.

( long personal rant under the cut - perfectly OK to skip if you're in a good mood and don't want it spoiled; no offense will be taken, I promise :) )

So... here I am, back home after the usual Christmas visit with my parents. Which was a bit longer this time, because my junk pile of a car decided to break down completely on Christmas Day, no less. Apparently the muffler incident was just a prelude. This time it made a dead stop in the middle of the road, about half-way between my parents' house and my apartment in the city. Luckily, I was just driving by a store, so I managed to make half a turn into the parking lot before the wheels stopped moving. I called my parents, told them where I was and then just sat there in the darkened car for about an hour, watching frost patterns appear on the windshield as the engine cooled down. Fortunately, my parents got there before my feet went completely numb. We pushed the car a bit more towards the curb and just left it there while they took me back home. ( Read more... )

We had our 'data operations' department holiday party at work today. I scored at bingo and won a prize (a 500-piece puzzle, lol). And each woman on my team got a beautiful semi-precious stone pendant as a Christmas gift from our boss. The stone is called rodocrosite (sort of grayish pink in color) and can only be found in a certain region of Argentina (which is where the boss had gone on vacation earlier this year). I wonder if Viggo knows about it.:P

In other good news, I found 100% natural pressed powder at CVS Pharmacy. It took some time to fish it out from among all the other 'pseudo-natural' variations that still have some toxic ingredients... but I found it. I don't know how perfectly harmless it is, exactly - but at least it doesn't contain anything included in the 'stay away from' list. And, frankly, everything else does. I don't just mean make-up... I looked at pretty much every tube, jar and bottle in the store - and it's all toxic, more or less. No matter if it's called "botanics", "organics", "true minerals" or any such misleading crap. The cosmetic industry is playing a dirty joke on us - just like the processed foods industry. First you read on the packaging how good and nutricious something is... and then you look at the ingredient list and see 'modified food starch' or 'high fructose corn syrup'. *gag* It's sickening. And, of course, they can't be responsible for people who don't bother to read the small print.:/

In bad news, I'm not seeing my chiropractor/acupuncturist until January 9th, and I don't know how I'm going to survive till then.:( My neck is BAD. I might have to start using my 'icy-hot' ointment on a daily basis and go to work smelling of Menthol like an old, old lady who doesn't care anymore.:|