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Jun. 30th, 2008 @ 07:53 pm More happy things
Current Mood: hot
Current Music: "The Poet and the Pendulum," Nightwish
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1. I just got a call from [info]ratzeo. ♥ Rock Camp has swallowed him whole, so I'm happy to hear from him.

2. I ran into [info]zinjadu and [info]lunapome at the gym today, and got to chat during my workout. It's been a while since I've been at the gym at the same time/day as them.

3. Tomorrow is our biannual staff retreat, which means a) no answering phones all day, and b) getting home a little earlier than usual.

4. This weekend looks to be busy, in a fun massively social way.

5. I'm going to see Nightwish in September!
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Jun. 29th, 2008 @ 06:25 pm I am weak to summer weather.
Current Mood: hot
Tags: , ,

A house full of stuffy heat makes it awfully hard to do things. Or, rather, it's awfully hard to do things that I should be doing (laundry, vacuuming my floor) instead of things that are - well, potentially useful, but not how I should be spending my time right now (sorting my books). On the plus side, I have a lot more free floor space now that my books are no longer in random piles, and are I have been able to begin the process of culling things for selling and/or donation.

My to-do list remains undone, and has mutated from a "do today (Saturday)" list, to a "do this weekend" list, and finally, a "do this week please" list. XD;; But that's okay. I still have time to get done what I need to. And taking a day or two off at the beginning of summer is all right in my book.

And it's been a pretty good start to the summer, so far. After I returned from the conference, I floundered a bit, not sure how to redirect my energies and get back to everything I'd shoved aside in the past couple of weeks. Unsurprisingly, being unproductive made me feel discouraged at first. But things turned up as the week went on.

To keep those good things in the forefront of my mind during the coming week, here's a happy 5 list:

1. Finally catching up at work from the days I was out of the office - take that, backlogged inbox!

2. Successfully donating blood on Friday - the last couple of times I tried, my iron was too low to donate, so I'm extra-pleased it worked (even if it did leave me feeling worse than usual).

3. Being roused out of my heat-induced stupor yesterday and spirited away to Uwajimaya by [info]kyonkun and [info]aznridah - which allowed me to stock up on my yellow-girl foods (like grass jelly and sticky rice). Does my little heart good.

4. Getting spirited away again to [info]casaval's house, where we Rock Band-ed the night away - I finally got back to feeling comfortable on the drums, and ready to work through Hard level again.

5. Pride Parade today, followed by lunch with [info]redbird, [info]laylah, [info]mahokiwi, and [info]cadence.
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Jun. 11th, 2008 @ 12:04 pm Hump day happiness (er)
Current Mood: hungry
Tags: , , ,

1. My CDs arrived yesterday, two days earlier than scheduled! I've only had time to listen to part of "The Heart of Everything" last night, because I couldn't let myself get distracted from my reading ... hopefully I'll get a chance to sit down and listen to them all soon.

2. I made a big ol' batch of lentil soup last night, and it's delicious. (Soup, you say? In June? Why, sure, when it's colder here than in Siberia!)

3. There was a work event last night that resulted in lots of leftover flower arrangements, two of which are now adorning the reception area, so my work area smells lovely and floral.

4. This.

5. Work-related good news. More details as things develop.
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Jun. 10th, 2008 @ 09:02 am Tuesday's happy
Current Mood: sleepy
Tags: , ,

1. I came home feeling blah and unmotivated to work. Eventually, instead of wasting my time doing nothing, I ended up talking to [info]kyonkun for a while about nothing in particular. Chatting, gossiping, ranting - you know, sister stuff. 8D It was fun, because we're both so busy all the time that we rarely sit down and talk on weeknights. Also, it put me in a better mood than before, which helped me be productive when I got back to work.

2. I, uh, had a zombie dream last night. O_o But the happy part of this was that I woke up before it got gruesome or too disturbing, and then got to sleep for another hour or so before my alarm went off, so I wasn't freaked out when I woke up. (I hate how nightmares put me in a bad state for the morning.)

As for the dream itself, one of the reasons it was freaky is that we were all normal people facing off against zombies - not like you get in some movies, where a group of "normal" people includes, like, an ex-Marine, a doctor, and a gun enthusiast. It was just me and my friends from real life. And no, [info]ratzeo was not there, which is why we were hosed. :P

3. Tonight I get to go home "early"! Normally I'm doing something after work - gym, grocery shopping, or other errands - so it's not often that I just get to go home straight after work. It's only an hour or so earlier than I would get home otherwise, but it just feels like I have so much more time in the evening.

4. The weather here ... well, sucks. For June, at least. But on the bright side, a) it should be getting warmer for the weekend, and b) it's good weather for the soup I'm cooking tonight. :P

5. My CD order shipped yesterday (well, technically, I was informed on Sunday night, but I can't imagine it got very far during that time). I should be receiving it Thursday, and then I will have shiny new music.
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Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 10:53 am Thursday morning blah
Current Mood: sleepy
Tags: , ,

I firmly believe that you can affect how you feel about your circumstances. Not that you can entirely control your reaction, of course, and just get rid of a bad one or make up a good one. But if I'm reacting in a way that's unreasonable or unhealthy, I can at least examine why I feel this way, or figure out a healthier response and give myself reasons why I can work toward that response.

But sometimes it's hard, and today I'm in something of A Mood that's making things difficult. A mixture of actual (though small) bothers and possibly some physical/hormonal stuff. I'm working through it, but I'm going to distract myself with other things that are not bringing me down ...

1. Movie night at [info]jfrog78's was awesome! Of course we talked some about Warmakers, but we also watched Hot Fuzz and ate good food and just got to hang out. That's something I miss about the Warmakers campaign as much as the game itself. I hope to do something like this again in the future (with a [info]mimerki this time!) but I'm glad we got to do it while [info]coramegan is still in town.

2. [info]jfrog78 also lent me some Kamelot CDs, so I have some new music to tide me over until my CD order arrives. Also, Kamelot was one of the bands I was looking at when I made my order, but I held off on them because I wasn't certain how much I'd like them based on the online samples I heard, so now I can try them without risk. :D

3. Emailing back and forth with [info]ratzeo this morning, since he didn't have class. I ♥ my boy.

4. On an utterly vain note, I am feeling pretty good about my hair. When I originally got it cut (and, more importantly, styled by a talented hairdresser), I thought it looked fabulous. Then I slept on it and washed it, and thought it looked dumb and kicked myself for trying to get a fancy haircut. Aaaaaand now I'm not freaking out anymore, and figuring out how to make it work, and even though it's not fabulous it looks fine. :P

5. Going out in the middle of the week tricks my body into feeling like the next work day is Monday. But tomorrow is Friday, woo!
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Jun. 4th, 2008 @ 10:56 am Return of the happy list
Current Mood: blank
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I've totally dropped the ball on my daily happy lists, though that's because ... er ... well, riding the emotional wave of the end of Warmakers has kept me consistently happy (if wooby) and distracted from most other things. <--loser

So anyway! Today's list of happiness! Which is ... only mostly about Warmakers!

1. Various time-sensitive things at work that were mostly out of my hands (and thus I was uncertain whether or not they would get done on time) have been resolved. That was a relatively minor stress, but I'm glad to have gotten it off my back.

2. Because of the rush of taking care of those work things, the morning has passed by quite quickly, and it's almost lunchtime.

3. [info]shadawyn has tempted me (yet again) with new shinies. :3 I'm dipping my toe into symphonic metal music because of songs she's shared, and have ordered Within Temptation's The Heart of Everything, Nightwish's Dark Passion Play, and Krypteria's Bloodangel's Cry. All of which have songs that were used for Warmakers fic and FSTs. XD;;;

4. I have been writing and drawing for Warmakers every day since the campaign ended. Okay, yes, that's horribly dorky, but - I'm writing and drawing every day! This has been helped by the fact that other people (mostly [info]shadawyn, but also the other players and GM) have been willing to keep talking with me about the game and develop a broad outline of the future plot developments, which keeps the characters alive in my head.

5. Tonight I get to go to [info]jfrog78's house and hang with almost all of the Warmakers crew!

Maybe I'll even get back to setting goals soon ...
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May. 21st, 2008 @ 08:07 am Gotta get my day started ...
Current Mood: tired
Tags: , , ,

So I'm trying to resist the urge to be cranky and toss in the towel for the day. I spent last night building my character, but of course that took longer than expected (why did I think I could build a 19th level character in a couple of hours? I should know that I'm far too Type A for that). But I didn't want to quit, so I stayed up late ... and now I'm at work, both short on sleep and with an incomplete character.

On top of that, I believe the heat has caused me to be dehydrated or something, because I've been having regular headaches (which are probably also responsible for my recent unhappy stomach).

But! I can't give up on my day, so here's my "it's not so bad" happy list:

1. [info]ratzeo not only gave me access to his D&D library, but also provided plenty of helpful feedback and suggestions. He was also patient with my constant questions and tolerated my stressing out over my time constraints and difficulties with the character.

2. [info]ratzeo also reminded me that it is always a choice to let myself get stressed out. It may be hard to choose not to stress, but it is not impossible. And when I make that choice, not only am I happier, but those around me are, as well. This gets its own entry because it's very, very important for me to remember. It's also extra-happy that he is here to remind me.

3. On a lighter note ... my character is gonna be cool. 8D Alas, he will not be - as I originally envisioned - a giant cat-man wielding an orc double axe from the back of his dire tiger animal companion. I found a smarter and more efficient character build. But it's going to be pretty close to that original image.

4. If the heat is what's responsible for my headaches, then that should be going away now that we're not fluctuating wildly between autumn coolness and summer oven temperatures.

5. This. (I swear, the world is conspiring to make me want a Scottish Fold.)
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 08:19 am Stupid body
Current Mood: blah
Tags: , , , ,

Ugh. My body decided to be stupid and hit me with about of nausea in the middle of dinner last night. Not food poisoning, not PMS-related, not vomit-inducing - just enough queasiness to render speech impossible and make me useless for anything besides going home and curling up until it went away. This is especially frustrating because it used to happen to me all the time as a teenager, but then it went away and should not come back now that I'm taking care of myself and being healthy. >:(

So that meant productivity was shot for the evening, which makes me grumpy. I'm trying to get my mood back on track this morning:

1. Prior to the stomach blargh, I was having a wonderful time on my date with [info]ratzeo, discussing plans for the Warmakers endgame.

2. Today is Friday, and it is sunny and warm.

3. This.

4. BPAL will (most likely) post this month's update tonight. I'm not looking forward to it because I actually want to make an order (perhaps it's best if I don't establish a pattern of monthly BPAL orders, you know ;D), but I like the prospect of new shinies to read about and put on my future-order wishlist.

5. Tomorrow is the first day of the Street Fair! I probably won't get to go until Sunday, but I'm still jazzed for it.
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 12:40 pm I should not grumble about being happy ...
Current Mood: busy
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Making a happy list for today felt like a burden, because there are a bunch of little stressors that I wanted to think about instead. But that's exactly the time I should make a happy list, right?

1. I see the sun from my front desk - looks like it just came out a few minutes ago. And yeah, that will make my workout this evening a little blech (I tried to get all my weekly gym trips in before the heat arrived, but working out three days in a row is not a good idea). But for the rest of the week, I will wear cool clothes and drink cool liquids and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. ETA: I went outside for a quick walk at the end of my lunch break, and it was lovely. ♥

2. Just found out some relieving family news ... no thanks to [info]kyonkun. ;D

3. I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to manage the plans I have for this weekend - but hey! It's all good stuff that I want to do, so there's really no way that I'm losing out, right? I have to run from one fun thing to the next!

4. One more week until Warmakers super-epic-mind-blowing-endgame-extravaganza! XD On top of running around like a headless chicken in terms of my social plans, I'm also a headless chicken who wants to squeeze in time to work on fanfic/art before the campaign ends. But that enthusiasm is a lot of fun, even if it makes me feel stretched a little thin.

5. Speaking of Warmakers, I'm still really happy with my last fic - not only did I really want to write it, but it was really easy to write (two things which do not always coincide!). And it represents, at least to me, so much fun and cool character growth that I've gotten to explore over the course of the campaign. Mind you, the end result of Sae's character is much different from what I envisioned at the beginning, and even from what I envisioned two months ago - but that's part of the fun. I've gotten to play around and figure out how story events, level progression, inter-character RP, and my own character's personality all fit together and worked towards a narrative conclusion. Some things went according to plan, some things came together in happy coincidences, and some things were challenges I had to figure out how to deal with. Now that's fun creative work.
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May. 13th, 2008 @ 11:46 am Happy Tuesday!
Current Mood: pleased
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1. My tax return arrived yesterday, woo! I'm not planning to splurge on anything - but not because I'm responsible. It's because I've already bought pricey things (or know of pricey things I will soon purchase) and I know I'll need that money in the bank. XD;;

2. The weather is supposed to turn gorgeous this week, and be warm and sunny for the weekend. (This is despite the fact that it is cool and drizzly today. Oh, Seattle. ♥)

3. Fic-writing continues apace. This one is coming much more easily than the last one, happily. I'm also working on an RP with [info]shadawyn, which makes me extra happy because it's been a while since the twins have really talked.

4. Last night I finished reading Batgirl: Year One, a trade that I picked up at the book sale. Awesome fun. The more I read of Barbara, the more I like her.

5. Wearing Pele today, and it's absolutely lovely.
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May. 12th, 2008 @ 11:29 am Happy Monday!
Current Mood: calm
Tags: , , , , ,

(I say that because I need to hear it. XD;;)

Here are the good things from the weekend that are keeping me going today:

1. Awesome Warmakers game yesterday! Admittedly, I am self-centered and excited that some shiny stuff happened to my character and she got to do cool things. But it was a fun adventure all around, with our GM letting us go to town on a tarrasque and then dangling plot teasers in our faces.

2. I have already started writing fic for the game - about 1000 words of tarrasque butt-kicking written in a burst last night. Part of my eagerness is because this is all part of the final milestone in Sae's character development and maturation. Part of it is just because, well, ZOMG tarrasque! 8D

3. [info]shadawyn's and my BPAL order arrived last week, and I got to pick up my part of the order on Sunday. Several of the frimps from the package were also to my liking, so I have quite a bit of shininess on the perfume front right now.

4. On Saturday, I went shopping with [info]kyonkun - didn't buy much, but it was fun. We also met up with [info]ratzeo for dinner (at Mandarin Chef, my favorite Ave restaurant).

5. Last week I completed every single one of my goals. I needed to rearrange my Saturday goals a bit in order to accomodate deadlines and my own lack of energy over the weekend (woo PMS), but I was quite productive in exactly the ways I'd hoped/planned for the weekdays. (Which reminds me, I need to make a new goals for this week's to-do list ...)
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May. 7th, 2008 @ 08:09 am 5 happy things for the day (week?)
Current Mood: sleepy
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I keep composing these lists in my head, but then forgetting to post them. I've been feeling sort of breathless this week as I keep up with my goals, so things without a clear deadline of next week (or earlier) are temporarily on the back burner.

But it's always good to ruminate on why I'm happy.

1. Ran into [info]coramegan on the bus again this morning and (surprise, surprise) talked about Warmakers again. This Sunday is our second to last session - after that will be a full-weekend marathon of the last two adventures. O_O Admittedly, this is sort of a sad thing - but in a good way. We've had the full run of the "television season" (campaign) and it's time to reach the well-deserved epic ending.

2. Tonight I'll be going with some co-workers to a university banquet. :D Food, wine, and hearing about student achievements - all in all, a very pleasant way to spend my evening. Also, it's located in a campus building that I rarely get to anymore, just in time for me to see an anti-violence exhibit put on by one of my former professor's students.

3. On Friday I'm getting a massage. XD Every once in a while we have a masseuse come into our office, so when I heard about it this time I decided to splurge on a half-hour massage. And boy, do my shoulders need it.

4. My tea stash and earring collection, while both beloved, are also huge, and threaten to overflow the space allotted to them. I'm paring them down by sorting out the things that are perfectly good, but which I never use, and passing them along to folks who will appreciate them more than I do. This is not only good for me, but also for the people who will be getting my money now that I have more space. :P

5. I have thus far managed to meet all of my goals this week, even including the extra free-floating goals. I know it's only Wednesday, but I feel pleased and energized by the fact that I haven't missed anything so far. I have a pretty demanding set of goals this week (well, for me - probably other people could do all this one-handed!) and don't plan on keeping up this accelerated pace for long. But it's a temporary pace set for the purpose of next weekend's NWSA meeting (and then, one month after that, the conference itself!). Also, this weekend, I shall take a well-earned rest.
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May. 1st, 2008 @ 03:52 pm Staying happy at work
Current Mood: okay
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1. Things at work are a little craaaaazy right now, but in a good "we are undertaking a big project in order to make things work better" kind of crazy, rather than the sucky "people are mean/stupid/disruptive" crazy. This is the kind of work I'm willing and happy to do, and I wish it made up a greater percentage of my workload.

2. Another bit of happiness is my small group of favorite students, whom I like because they're consistently friendly or solicitous when they come into the office, or they're funny, or (in one notable case) delightfully odd. Yesterday one of them offered to bring me flowers for "bugging" me all the time. That's hardly necessary - it's my job to do things for students - but being appreciated for doing that makes me happy.

3. The salesman who gave me a Starbucks gift card a couple of weeks ago came back for his big presentation/pitch, and thanked me for organizing it by giving me more gift cards. Plus he left the leftover cookies and coffee from the presentation after he was done. :D~

4. Chatted with a coworker over lunch about anti-harassment training in the workplace, and idealism (why can't all such training involve anti-oppression education?) versus practicalities (most companies just want to make sure they don't get sued, rather than pursuing social justice). Things like that - casual discussions about anti-oppression where I don't have to worry about getting accused of being "over-sensitive" or "PC" (in the negative sense, of course) - just make me happier and more comfortable in my workplace.

5. Not work-related, but - going over to [info]ratzeo's tonight! Much geekery will ensue.
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Apr. 30th, 2008 @ 11:38 am Like a Monday, but better
Current Mood: calm
Tags: , ,

I record my life in list format. Behold:

1. Yesterday's retreat was pretty good. The sessions were motivational speaker-style, but even though there were a couple of smarmy "unlock your potential" hand-wavers (with bonus cultural appropriation of "exotic wisdom," yay), most of the speakers had solid, straightforward styles and were great to listen to. Also, the food was great, and I got to eat pretty much nonstop all day. 8D

2. Since I was completely away from the office yesterday for the retreat, coming in this morning felt like coming in on a Monday. Which (hopefully) means that it will feel like the weekend arrives very quickly.

3. I decided to wear "Rosalind" today, even though the first time I wore it I was worried at how much it smelled like soap. I discovered that it's less soapy this time around, which lets the pretty fruity floralness come through better. I don't know the reasons for the change (diet? stage in monthly cycle?) but I'm glad of it.

4. Last night I slapped together an improvised solution to salvage the lentil soup whose recipe I mucked up. This also increased the volume of the soup, so I have the next week or so of dinners taken care of (which is my preferred method of cooking: make a giant batch o' stuff a couple of times a month).

4. Getting back on track with my reading. Just gotta keep it up.
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Apr. 28th, 2008 @ 11:29 am Reclaiming my day
Current Mood: blargh
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30-second compressed rant: My sickness, which has seemed to ebb and flow all weekend, has seized control of my throat and head this morning. (Probably the fact that I had to wake up early and go to work, rather than out with friends, is exacerbating the unpleasantness.) I'm way behind on my "homework" reading. I left my lunch in [info]ratzeo's fridge. People on the phone continue to be stupid.

*deep breath*

I am determined to do better, though. I indulged in some listless laziness at the beginning of the morning, poking around at work without getting much accomplished, but now I'm getting back on track. Here are five things I'm focusing on to boost my mood:

1. Warmakers yesterday was lots of fun. I didn't do much roleplaying myself, but people around me did, so I got to observe some interesting conversations (which I often miss out on when I'm roleplaying my own character). Also, we ran out of time before reaching the big combat, but that means that next adventure opens up with our battle against a tarrasque. 8D Also that means both the games I most recently played have ended on cliffhangers. *shakes fist at GMs who have me addicted*

2. I still have untested BPAL imps from my previous order, but instead of trying out a new one this morning I decided to go with something I know I like, and put on Szepasszony, which has thus far emerged as my favorite. It starts out as a light, aquatic, just-barely-soapy floral that is quite pleasant; after an hour or so on my skin, it deepens into a less-soapy, fuller scent that I want to describe as musk (but I have no idea if the perfume actually has musk in it, so that may just be how it reacts with my skin). A nice little comfort/mood-enhancer.

3. My coworker, whom I sucked into Adagio, shared with me a tea blend she ordered from there, called "Firefly" (yup, that Firefly). Tasty and geeky!

4. Being sick and having no lunch suck, but they give me an excuse to hit the Ave for pho.

5. I'm not actually coming into the office tomorrow, because my supervisor is sending me to an all-day retreat for "support professionals." I hope to get some good things out of it. And, hey, no answering phones all day!
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Apr. 25th, 2008 @ 10:40 am Sick day happy things
Current Mood: sick
Current Music: "I'm Still Here," John Rzeznik
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Home sick today, blargh. And, of course, this is the day before I planned to go shopping for the last ingredients necessary for my attempt at making lentil soup (which is great sick food).

Honestly, I probably could have made it through work today, but I just would have been hosed for tomorrow and possibly the rest of the weekend. And when it's a choice between one more day of work while uncomfortable, and a date with [info]shadawyn + Warmakers adventure?

Yeah.

So! Today is not so bad. Here are my happy things:

1. Since I'm not incapacitated, I should be able to be productive today. I don't want to push myself, but I want to get most of the way done with The Macho Paradox when my brain is feeling functional. When it's not, I'll break out my markers on drawings that have been inked and waiting around for coloring.

2. I'm not quite out of sick leave yet. Which is impressive, considering I've been accumulating it for less than a year, and I have a -2 CON penalty. XD;;

3. Payday!

4. I got approval from the big boss for my vacation time for the NWSA conference. I was pretty sure it would be okay, especially this far in advance, but it's nice to get the final word.

5. Wearing "Aeval" this morning. Too early for a final verdict, but right now it's gorgeous.
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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 12:22 pm Happy almost-Friday
Current Mood: sluggish
Tags: , , , , , ,

1. Yesterday's geeky morning was followed by today's geeky morning, wherein [info]ratzeo and I spent the bus ride theorizing about Warmakers. 8D

2. The Open Source Boob WTFuckery has been countered with the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program, joined by the Gentlemen's Auxiliary.

3. I'm wearing "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" today. The reviews promised a floral scent with a sharp, cold edge. What I'm getting is a pretty floral that's definitely not gentle, but, alas, not the edge I was looking for. Still, it's quite lovely, so I like it a lot. But this means that my search continues for a perfect BPAL scent for Sae. 8D

4. This. Yeah.

5. Progress on The Macho Paradox goes slowly, but steadily. (Rather than beat myself up on the low number of pages I've read, I will focus on the good: that I've been making consistent progress on a theory - however light - book for the first time in months.) My next NWSA research book, Black Sexual Politics, arrived at my house this morning, and The Cult of True Victimhood shipped out today.
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Apr. 23rd, 2008 @ 03:25 pm Muddling through
Current Mood: calm
Tags: , , , ,

Last night was pretty bad in terms of productivity - my brain rebelled at the homework-like reading load I attempted, so I was unable to concentrate on anything more rigorous than Picross. I decided to let that happen and take the evening off, with the plan of buckling down again today.

So, in the meantime, to keep my spirits up, here's today's happy list:

1. I ran into [info]coramegan on the bus this morning, and we chatted about Warmakers and Next Time Gamers. Gave me a great geeky start to the day. 8D

2. Today the University put on a staff appreciation lunch event. Free burgers and lovely sunny weather to go with.

3. Making final arrangements for the NWSA conference - booking plane tickets and requesting time off work. It's a little scary, but the kind of scary that has been associated with some of the best things I've done.

4. Finalized the plan for my date with [info]shadawyn at Pike Place Market on Saturday. :D

5. And, uh, this one's super-nerdy, but ... our GM is laying down plans for the end of the Warmakers campaign. I'm still new to the experience of playing through and finishing campaigns, so the idea still makes me wooby. And throughout the day, I've just been imagining a sort of "AMV" for the campaign (because it's anime-based and I totally envision it done as an anime) set to the over-used, slightly cheesy, "At The Beginning." There are bits and pieces from the campaign that I think would be fun to see animated and set to the music.

... WHAT. I said it was super-nerdy. Don't judge me.
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Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 08:43 pm Happy things and goals!
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: "Heavy," Holly Brook
Tags: , , , , ,

1. My coffee maker arrived on Friday, and I've been wanting to try it out. [info]shadawyn and I have a date to go to Pike Place Market on Saturday, where I will raid Market Spice (an awesome tea/coffee/spice shop). So I couldn't really justify buying anything before that, just for the sake of my own impatience.

However! Today at work, a salesman came by, and, in thanks for my help (which was really quite minimal), gave me a $5 Starbucks gift card. So, I thought, why not? And off I went after work, to buy a bag of coffee beans.

... Except, through cashier error and my own obliviousness, the gift card was not counted toward my purchase, so I ended up paying the full price. :P Ah well. I did get a free drink out of it, because apparently that's what Starbucks does when you buy coffee beans. And, uh, I still have a gift card. XD;;

2. I have been giggling like a giddy child over my new BPAL imps since I picked them up on Saturday. :D And I also made a new order with [info]shadawyn (a.k.a. my enabler). XD

3. [info]ratzeo ran an awesome adventure on Sunday ... which was part one of two, so now I reeeeaaally want to play the other half.

4. [info]kyonkun gave me a link to a Japanese image gallery of hairstyles (so I can see what Asian hair looks like), and I think I've decided what I want for my new haircut: something like these. (Okay, really and truly I would want one of these, but those would definitely take more effort than I'd want to put in.)

5. As I mentioned earlier, on Friday, we had a brief planning meeting for the NWSA conference. It really helped me focus and get back on task, after having floundered about for the past several weeks. I hunted down books to buff up my theoretical knowledge - I'm currently reading this and have ordered this and this.

Which brings me to my goals for the week ... which are basically to finish The Macho Paradox and set a pace to finish all three books by the time we have our next major meeting in mid-May. This goal takes priority over (though hopefully will not exclude) all other ongoing goals.

Can I do it? Honestly, I know there's the risk that I will fall behind here. The daily amount of reading I will need to do will be somewhat like my reading load in college - but now I don't have deadlines and grades acting as enforcers of my discipline. Learning to keep myself on track will be hard. On the other hand, this is a skill I need to learn anyway, now that I'm out of school.
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Apr. 18th, 2008 @ 10:52 am Happy Friday
Current Mood: sleepy
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1. The first thing that makes today happy for me actually came out of an unhappy thing - I finally sat down and read through blogs to find out why everyone was pissed off at Amanda Marcotte ... and, well. Once again I am disillusioned at the behavior of many prominent white (female and male) feminist bloggers. Once again an eloquent woman of color has been silenced so forcefully that she has left the feminist blogosphere. It's happened before. I continue to shy away from mainstream feminist blogs. I will not be buying Marcotte's book. At this point, I'm feeling cynical and kind of detached.

But the good thing that came out of this? Following the links and comments led me to rediscover Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." I first read this in high school, back when I still didn't Get It - but even then, the words stuck with me. And now, going back, I rediscovered the following passage, which still rings painfully true:

"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."*


People often forget that that MLK was a radical.

2. [info]ratzeo came over last night, and we just got to geek out together, me drawing and him DSing ... I like that we can have a good time around each other as well as with each other (as in, when we are actually doing the same thing). All in all, a perfect way to usher in Friday.

3. On a more frivolous and shallow note, my coffee maker shipped from Amazon today and is scheduled to arrive on Monday, whee! Now I just need to, you know, get some coffee to actually make with it.

4. I wish I could be home right now, drawing. I'm really glad I feel that desire.

5. I don't have any plans for tomorrow, and that actually makes me happy. It means I get to do whatever I want, and I don't have to figure out what that is until tomorrow.

* On a slightly irrelevant and totally geeky sidenote, this is a classic example of Lawful Neutral alignment. It is also the reason I dislike Lawful Neutral the most out of the non-evil alignments.
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