kk1k5x

I was at a slight loss this morning, because I knew I had to start work on the new translations, but I was also kind of dragging my feet. Somehow, by 'nibbling at it', I ended up with 10 pages done, which is very decent for me. Granted, the text was easier in comparison with the previous one.

Anyways, I had some postable thoughts earlier in the day that I'm now too tired for. It related to the issue of "being stubborn" and whether it's actually stubbornness, or whether it's actually "being scared" when it's avoiding something (or doing replacement activities) for no apparent reason, or "discipline" when it's avoiding something or doing other activities when there's good cause.

More work came in today as well, so I'm again booked until next Monday morning. But hey, at least then I'll have my breaky-break (hopefully one that doesn't involve "mental" and "down" somewhere in the vicinity of the word "break" ).

Also got some interesting news earlier today - the general organisers (multi-state undertaking) of the project I'm locally involved at my home institution might have additional use of me. They now got my contact info from our side, so I'll see whether and/or when they get in touch, and ...what about specifically. Could be interesting and useful, could be nothing. Time will tell.

Hope everyone had a decent start to their week. In my individual case ..."big wheels keep on turnin'"...

PS: if someone watches the Grey Gardens, please tell me what the general point of it was. I only viewed the opening scenes and "wasn't sold" on it immediately, so moved on to other watchables.
PS2: My brain decided to discover that you can call an ego trip a "case of the heebie-ME-bies" lol

End of Day 434. I did not drink today.

Bekindalways

I'm having a better day. Spent some time trying to untangle finances. Also trying to set up a new computer for my dad which came to naught. I'm sending it back - ugh. Also got in a bit of exercise . . . now to work on the Elsa dress.

K, I'm hoping your thoughts on being stubborn come back. I'm always a bit confuse between what the difference is between being stubborn and having good boundaries.

Okay Off to sit down at the sewing machine and sew a teeny bit.

Bekindalways

Sigh . . . It isn't even 11 am and I'm dragging. Brushed my teeth, picked up the mail, set up some more pill boxes for my Dad . . . . these are the easy active tasks I try to do in the afternoon when I have less energy . . . alright off to do some old man exercise with my Dad.

kk1k5x

Heh, I'm not abused by your slow start to the day, Bekind, but in a very old computer game (and in a general war context, of course), pillboxes were these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillbox_(military) So how very survalist/American of you to set one up for your Dad

My day has been just translating, really. In the morning the 'intruder' translation arrived and I somehow managed to get to it almost right away. By almost right away I mean waking up, forcing myself to go to the kitchen and make coffee, then back to bed for 15 minutes, then drag myself out of bed again to go have the coffee, and by that time I was almost ready to start working. To my own surprise, I was done with the 7-8 pages by around 3pm, then moved on to the 'regular' translation, managed 2 pages from that, but then the work guy contacted me about there being more to the "intruder" translation (the client made additions) and so I took up that. Which I now just finished. It's the first day where I have no actual clue of how much I actually translated, but I know it's more than 10 pages.

Now I even don't know what to do. I did watch parts of the Trump interview he gave to Wallace on Fox. I know politics isn't allowed, but that dude is just plain weird and dumb. I'd like to personally commend any Americans who voted for that guy, because you have received the numbnuts supporter of the century award (although granted, the other options was a thoroughly corrupt career politician lady). How often, when seeing or hearing Trump speak, do any of you stop and think "Wait, hold on now....this is a president ....of a very large country ....arguing about the difficulty of questions in a cognitive test ....and calling World Wars beautiful". ...."Wait WHAT!!??". But hey, at least he's bringing back his daily briefings. Like someone said in the YouTube comments to the interview video: "my daily comedy hour is back". That's just so sad.

Pardon if that was out of line, but I mean, dear heavens. The real issue is that when elephants fight, the grass suffers. There's a lot of grass suffering in the US right now, and I feel sorry for that.

End of Day 435. I did not drink today.

Bekindalways

It took me a bit to get the pillbox reference . . . I don't get into war history nor equipment. Yep it would be quite American of me to have something like this along with a full arsenal of guns. My family has guns as my parents were hunters. None of us, siblings, were into hunting but I have a nephew who is really into hunting and fishing. Weirdly he doesn't like guns. My brother is a vegetarian but because of his son has wound up getting hunting permits and going with his kid. We all get a chuckle out of this.

I have heard that saying about Elephants but I think it was Philippine. Something like "When the Elephants dance the chickens are scared" okay that wasn't quite it but something like it . . . sigh . . . .if my country can just get through the next 6 months I will breath a sigh of relief . . . anyone who prays, please pray for us! Ugh.

My afternoon was busy which was good: groceries came and I had my Spanish class (it is on line). My Spanish teacher has a cough and her doctor thinks she has covid. Ugh. She is in Mexico and apparently no tests are available.

Tomorrow more of same . . . . on we go.

Dee74

I can understand how it may be like watching paint dry for others - I love eccentric people, and those who march to the beat of a different drum, and I like personal histories, and I suspect that there are not many people like Big and Little Edie around these days....so for me Grey Gardens was riveting.

D

saoutchik

I have downloaded the documentary but not had a chance to watch it yet, it will probably be soon though. My boss is in his second week of self isolation so no time off at the moment even though we are not busy.

Congratulations on your multi state undertaking thingy which I didn't entirely understand but it sounds like a good thing.


There is a story that we have some Spanish blood in my family - sailors who washed up in the west of Ireland after the Spanish Armada was shipwrecked. There doesn't seem to be a scrap of actual evidence for this assumption other than the fact that we are a bit swarthier than the average Brit.

kk1k5x

I read an in-depth review of the Grey Gardens - pretty sure, yep, that's not for me.

Today felf like a half-day off, meaning woke up earlier than usual (or rather, stayed awake) and did some work, but took a long nap in the afternoon, and then finished a translation about 30 minutes ago. Tomorrow is reserved for other, research-related activities. Friday-Sunday, translation again. But next week I must have at least 4 good days for research, otherwise I'll be in the weeds once the actual deadline for a manuscript rolls around (early September).
The 'multi-state' thing is just a collaboration of universities :P i.e. nothing extremely important. I still haven't heard anything else about it, so I just an email today. We'll see what's what.

But now a well-earned pizza awaits me and then relaxing TV time.

End of Day 436. I did not drink today.

Bekindalways

My afternoon has an errand to run which makes the afternoon better. My morning was relatively active so I'm feeling pretty productive which is nice.

I've been working to get a loan to replace the roof on my Dad's house. It is pricy to replace and complicated to finance but I keep working on it bit by bit.

I'm enjoying Delicious with Dawn French. It is a bit different of a role for her as it is drama rather than comedy . . . hmmm . . . maybe she has done other drama and I just haven't seen it. Sometimes the human relationships portrayed in the series get too painful for my taste but so far so good.

Today I did more old-man-yoga with my dad, vacuumed and talked to my Aunt. My Dad seems to want to call his sister more and more. Without the pandemic we would have flown back to visit her. I'm not sure Dad will be capable of travel when we come out the other end of this world wide pestilence. Ah well, they have been close and enjoyed each other all of their lives . . . I know my family is relatively lucky for the relationships we have.

So off to text my sister, put away 5 things and make my dad drink water . . . on we go.

kk1k5x

I really felt like I needed a 'me' day today, so I spent most of my day lounging around. Basically, I just finished watching the final episode of Band of Brothers, and am now waiting for my dinner to be ready, which should be soon.

I only spent a couple of hours on the research activities - simply didn't have the energy and drive to get into it more. Perhaps it's because tomorrow is translating again, so I just decided to do the bare minimum I needed to (for today) in order to be prepared for the real "research activities" starting next Monday. I'm sure it's all quite confusing the way I'm telling it, but my brain is kind of fried anyways. Just want to eat and put some relaxing lecture or discussion or documentary on, and just ...wait for sleep.

I'm not taking myself to task for not doing much today, because I think I didn't slack off too much (I did what was necessary, just didn't go the extra mile...) and sometimes, well ...I just want to rest. This happens quite rarely, as I'm always simply switching between translating and research, but never really end up doing "nothing at all", which I also require every now and again.

Bleh. Hope everyone had a decent day. I'm looking forward to my meal and a quiet evening.

End of Day 437. I did not drink today.

kk1k5x

As planned, I started my day with what is currently the last 20 pages of translation due by Monday morning. To my own surprise, I was done with the daily requirement by around 2.30pm. It was raining outside...so obviously I had to sleep. I just didn't plan on sleeping until around 8pm Apparently, I've got lots of tiredness to recuperate from, and it's fine. The unfortunate thing is that I didn't get to eat dinner. Wasn't hungry at all until about 10.30pm, but at that point I figured I'll just do an early (and bacon-y) breakfast for myself and skip the dinner altogether. The system seems to be working its magic, because I'm not crawling up any walls for food...
I actually even went back to translating, and did another page to sort of lessen the load for tomorrow and Sunday.
Due to my sleepiness, though, I had missed the post office notice that arrived today - the package which holds my glasses ...and sausage from the UK :P Now, unfortunately, it'll have to wait until Monday morning, because the post office isn't open on weekends. Luckily the sausage is well-packaged chorizo, so it should all be fine. Mm, can't wait to do a rice dish on Monday with the chorizo - that sausage is such a treasure I tell ya

So, a big ol' breakfast and more translating await me tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a decent start to their weekend

End of Day 438. I did not drink today.

Bekindalways

Heya all, I was down and out today. Some kind of stomach thing. I do seem to be recuperating so I hope a good nights sleep will put me back together.

K, I bet those new glasses will be great. Mine got so scratched a few years ago that it really was a disability . . . . hmmm . . . . those of us that need them, probably should have an extra pair but dang! are they expensive.

Onward all.

Bekindalways

Sao, did you watch Grey Gardens? I love old houses so would really have loved a tour of that house before the Beales took over.

I'm feeling better today but not 100%. Still a bit of lower right quadrant pain in my stomach which makes me think it might have ben some kind of apendicitis. It does seem to be clearing up on its own for which I am grateful.

When this pandemic is all over, I want to go visit Scotland. Mountains and lots of history which sounds lovely to me.

This afternoon will probably have a good meal, a nap and maybe sew some buttons on the Elsa dress.

kk1k5x

Hope you'll be feeling better as the day goes on, Bekind.

I had a weird one because of my skipping dinner last night. Of course, I was incredibly hungry in the morning, but I never got to the bacon. We'd bought fresh mince the day before and so I had to fry that off, which ultimately led me to ...a 7am pizza. I'm not complaining at all, it's just probably not in the book of "what people say is usual for breakfast". Quite frankly, I don't care :P because it was delicious.

My actual day started around noon though, made myself some coffee and got to translating. I only have 2 pages left for tomorrow, which means I went beyond what I had set as the daily amount: I, for one, am not against having an almost free day tomorrow

I like these kind of quiet, kind of productive weekends, because I get to work and I get to just 'be', too.

I got two beautiful large chunks of pork from the store, some of which will end up as schnitzels in the very near future. I'm incredibly grateful that my work has been plenty as of late, and that I've been able to earn (although with intermittent quiet stretches) throughout this global madness - I know a lot of people unfortunately cannot say the same, and I hope they can return to their activities soon.

End of Day 439. I did not drink today.

kk1k5x

Going to close off today earlier, because there's nothing to really report. Had a bit of an awkward morning, as it has been the past few days. It's like I don't get enough rest with sleep, so I'm pining for more sleep in the mornings. Today and yesterday didn't really kick off until noon.
I finished the last translation and have been doing bits and pieces of the research work now. Gotta admit, this portion of data sorting is quite intimidating, because it's basically a more systematic re-run of what I've already done before, but there's not a lot of corners you can cut with automation. This means "hard labour" ahead. Oh boy.
Although this tends to also make me smirk every time - I take "time off" from "work" to do what's essentially just as difficult or more so, simply in another arena/field. I guess if I look at it that way, I shouldn't necessarily be too surprised about the want for more (or better) sleep in the mornings. Then again, with a few possible exceptions (which should become clear in the next few weeks), this particular manuscript will be my last before I do the so-called summary and present my thesis for consideration. And it's for a great journal, so I'll just ....shut up and work, like pretty much always. I will, however, come on SR and whine about it a lot (like pretty much always ).

End of Day 440. I did not drink today.

saoutchik

Glad you have finished the translation kk!

I hope you are feeling better today Bekind.

I have now. I was sucked in immediately, those ladies were WAY beyond weird. It was sometimes sad and frustrating but they they saw things differently to most people.

Bekindalways

I'm feeling mostly better now.

My sister and I tried out doing a yoga video over zoom together. She is in Alaska recovering from an elbow surgery.


Grey Gardens sounds a bit depressing to me although perhaps those women lived the way they wanted so who am I to judge.

I have a tiny errand to run this afternoon and not much else.

It is a grey day with hopefully some rain. That is a good thing where I live.

kk1k5x

Today had its good moments, but it just feels like a downer overall due to the way I've been feeling. The morning started after another rough night of bad dreams. It's the second time in three days that I've dreamed, during the first part of my sleep, some mix of old drunken journies, actions, utterances, situations, and the new additions of whatever the heck my brain sees fit to conjure up. This makes me uncomfortable and the quality of my sleep is bad. And I'm more irritable because of it as well as somewhat 'petulent', and not too "oh let's do this!" about any sort of work.

The extra nuisance today and yesterday was the heat here, and humidity. Every single time the weather reaches a certain pre-thunderstorm point, it's like there's no point for me to even attempt getting out of bed. Throughout the day, I drank my usual 3 cups of coffee and I'd be lying if I said I ever felt awake. Which came to a head in the afternoon when I just went to sleep. This, again, meant I had dinner quite late (at around 9pm). And it also meant - most importantly - that I did ZERO work today. That's just really bad timewise.

The positive moments? Well, my new glasses arrived - or rather, I was finally able to go and collect the package from the post office - along with three links of chorizo. Luckily the sausage survived and the glasses fit very well. For the first time in a long time, trees had leaves and needles again (lots of pines and spruces behind the apartment building, birch trees a bit further away). I put some of the chorizo on my dinner, and it was very good. I'm just glad the weekend at the post office didn't ruin the sausage. So, new glasses and new sausage.
I also submitted my invoice for the past two weeks (July has been very kind to me in terms possibilities to earn, this two-week invoice was larger than the monthly average over the past 6 months for example). And, I got new work, but it's for next Wednesday, so that's a positive, too. Not in some strict or compative manner, but I was quite clear with the work guy about needing this week off - and I actually extended it from Mon-Thur/Friday to the entire week on account of today's complete lack of any progress. My connection to the work guy is from our shared, initial law PhD programme, which I was force out of and he is still continuing, and so he has his own thesis worries to battle with, which means he gets why I need to take breaks for research.

Monday seems to weighing day - when I remember to do it - I've lost 7,5 lbs over the one month and a bit more that I've been following this regimen. I'm glad about the progress, and I don't have any high expectations. Every pound/kg less is a small thank you from my heart, back, internal organs and the soles of my feet. That's reward enough.

My UK friend came to visit her family and arrived yesterday. Contacted me and we're having pizza in the city at some point this week. This was a great surprise and I'm sure the face-to-face human contact will do me good.

When I list it all like that, the day had numerous positives. Why oh why must I then feel like such a downer. I guess it's mainly because I wasn't able to bring myself to work today, and equate it with laziness and lack of follow-through. I wish the thunderstorm would happen and clear things up weather-wise.

End of Day 441. I did not drink today.

Bekindalways

K, I just went and warmed up a left over cup of coffee in sympathy for you. Ugh. Hate those days where you can't quite wake up.

The sub-conscious theatrics that our brains put on for us are really something. The SSRIs that I take make me dream super vividly. I want to think that our dreams help us work out some of the psychological crap we carry . . . I have no idea if this is true but I like to believe it. Dreams do often flavor my mood for the day.

This morning Dad and I drove out to a trail head to wave off my 17 year old nephew on a ~20 day backpacking trip. Nephew has wanted to do this for years and as his school is planing a delayed start, he and a buddy headed out today. Weirdly it is 60 years to the day when my Dad left to go backpacking on his honeymoon. My Mom was a bit of a nut and wouldn't marry him unless he would do this on their honeymoon . . . .the rest of their marriage pretty much followed suit; they just dragging along more and more children.

I've been reading a an English novel by Margaret Oliphant. English humor has been a boon to my life. The protagonist says repeatedly, "The great aim of my life is to be a comfort to dear Papa." I've been saying this to my Dad and with as much sachrine piety as possible . . . .it gives us both a chuckle.

Well off for 5 min of yoga, look at something I need to redo on the Elsa dress, and water the seeds I planted.

Fusion

Kk, I read your last post and it started out on a downer and gradually built up to positivity. But please try not to beat yourself up, for having a day off the translation work. Great news about the new glasses and consequent viewing of trees with leaves and needles. I'm sorry but my attempts to replicate the divine pizza base, have so far failed. In fact, I've decided to make a decent cottage loaf tomorrow, and build up confidence to experiment with the pizza dough the following day.

How wonderful that you're meeting your friend tomorrow, I'm sure the pizza will taste better than mine, if only I'd written down my concocted recipe.

Bekind, I'll do a rain-dance for you, or blow some rain clouds your way, it's rained incessantly for a week here....and I'm growing outdoor tomatoes which are staying resolutely green.

Gosh Saou, what a wonderful family history-story. Shipwrecked of the Spanish Armada to Ireland. I have mostly English, plus traces of Scottish and Irish blood, involved in the last few centuries. Who knows though, maybe some of my Irish predecessors mixed with Spanish, it sounds quite a romantic match.