A Curious Statistical Anomaly

It’s been a mad house here all day. The napping thing seemed to do the trick. I’m still a bit behind but the magazines are done and will be online and live at midnight or July 1st. (There may be a tweak or two done tomorrow for the things that came in too late for me to deal with tonight–but they’re going live anyway.)

Check them out:

SFRevu — all things science fiction and fantasy

Gumshoe Review — mystery,  thrillers, and related.

TechRevu — updates articles on Mondays and news items everyday.

Now it’s time for me to gear up and go battle the Insomnia beast into submission — I’d say sleep or die but I’m still working on that napping thing. Good night and let me know what you think of the zines.

Guess you all know where I’ll be for the next 24 plus hours. Sitting in front of a computer screen pulling out hair I can’t afford to lose, wondering if that word should be hyphenated, why can’t people at least run the spellchecker (I mean if it pops up on my browser in red — that should be a hint right)?

Why oh why did I wait so long to get my stuff pressed and polished — I should have known that at least 10 more things would pop into my “need to check it now” stack at the last minute and they did…

Deep breath. I need a nap. It’s already been a long day. Tomorrow at midnight the zines go live. Beware the anticipation… Breathe.

I think after that nap, I’m making a pot of coffee with triple scoops of COFFEE…maybe with coffee syrup and coffee flavoring. I might even add chocolate. But first the nap…provided I can get to sleep.

Insomnia. I hate it. I deal with it a few times a month. I haven’t had coffee or caffeine in four days thinking that was it and I still haven’t slept more than 2-4 hours a night lately. I’ve decided to change my attitude. I’ll now be taking a nap tonight. Not sleeping mind you just napping for 2 or 4 hours. See. It’s not insomnia now, it’s planned. I’m not trying to sleep. (I’m using reverse psychology on my sleep engine — do you think it will work? ) Anyway, it’s not like I don’t have plenty to do in the next 24 hours anyway.

Huge thunderstorm tonight. Sky was a strange pink between the trees and the lightning. Rained hard with blowing wind. I love storms. It tailed off again, then back, then gone again.

We got in our copy of True Blood and watched the first four episodes. Quite good but I’ll do more on that later when I’ve seen the full season.

Finished all the parts of the sweater I’ve been working on and started sewing it together. Goofed on one of the shoulder seams and now need to decide what to do — pull it out (difficult because I already did the ends in; try to fix by doing a bigger seam just deeper to take in the ripple; or just leave it because I’m probably the only one who’ll even notice it.

Right now I’m liking option three. Another knitter might notice the badly sewn seam. But I know in my heart that it will bug me. So, I guess tomorrow I’ll have to tease it apart and start all over because as much as I’d like to just leave it be — I know I’d see it as a big whopping “look at me” sign that would drive me crazy. So, big sigh, I’ll know I’ll take it apart but I’ve just got to pretend for a while that I won’t.

What do you do when you see a mistake you made? Fix it? Ignore it? Pretend it isn’t there and try harder next time? Me. I can’t ignore it because it tasks me with its existence even when it’s my mistake. I have to make and effort to fix it or get over it and move on.

I guess often knitting and craft work is a microcosm for how you deal with life…but I really don’t want to examine that thought too much right now.

Got to the doctor’s office yesterday and saw the PA. Now I have an Rx for Prednisone. Today is day two. I forgot about the headaches I always get while on the stuff. So far no difference and a few new spots. The itching is driving me crazy even with the cream they gave me.

It seems that every year I go through a few bouts of poison ivy. This year I thought I had it covered. I bought some great gardening gloves that come up to the elbow (Foxgloves). Then over those a regular pair of heavy duty gloves for the hands. The poison ivy started just above the elbow — darned if I know how it got that high because there was barely a 1/2 before the sleeve of my shirt. This is so frustrating and there weren’t any 3-leaved anythings where we were weeding but there was some suspicious 5-leaved vines and bushy-stuff. I think it’s out to get me.

We’re also approaching the end of the month and gearing up to get SFRevu and Gumshoe Review online with their July issues on the first of the month. It’s shaping up to be two great issues — lots of reviews and a special teaser for next August.

Hyperion and I will be attending Readercon 20, July 9-12 and held in the Burlington Marriott, Burlington, Massachusetts. SFRevu will have a table in the dealers’ room. Ernest Lilley and I will be on programming while Hyperion manages the table. So, if by any chance you’re going to be there, drop by and say “Hello”. When I have more details about my schedule I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to go put something on these itchy spots before I dig some divots out of myself. Arrrghhh.

This is our weekend. Last night was WSFA’s 3rd Friday Meeting in DC. It takes us slightly under two hours to get there and another to get back. So, we were home by about 2:30 a.m. Of course, we slept late.

Up late. Made breakfast. Finally got the Banana Pecan Muffins made. Then down to the mailbox for the paper and mail. Put some food in the bird feeder. Headed out to do the shopping.

Back home and it’s nearly 8 p.m. So, folded the wash which dried while we were out. Put it away. Skipped supper in favor of a bit of cheese and iced tea.

Picked up Blood Ties Season One. It’s a series based on Tanya Huff’s Vicky Nelson series of books. So we watched disk 1. I’m greatly pleased with the first disk of shows. Looking forward to the rest of them. Will do a review when I finish watching them.

Now it’s bed time. The weekend only has one day left and I’ve got nothing to show for it so far except clean clothes, the weekly food shopping done, and about 3 inches on my sweater (I always knit while watching shows otherwise I really wasted my time).

Anyway…two day weekends aren’t enough. Where’s those 4 day work weeks we were promised in the 60’s?  Shouldn’t they be here by now, it’s the 00’s after all. It always takes one of the weekend days to run all the errands and then the second day is for all those household chores that take two of us. Where is that day of rest thing? I think I’ve been robbed.

Do you remember being a kid and thinking, when I grow up I’ll have time to just do what I want? Being a grown up just means you tell yourself what to do all the time. I’m a real task master. Yeah, just ask me,  my boss is a real ‘nose to the grindstone’ task master. Too bad I’m self-employed. I never let myself get away with crap. Then on the weekend it’s work, work, work — only this time it’s housework and yard work, and on and on.

So, what happened to those carefree weekends we’re supposed to have? Mine got repossessed somehow.

Today’s post is a bit of whining and complaining about pain — feel free to skip.

Not really pins, but needles. Today, I saw my acupuncturist–she’s great. I always feel so much better after a treatment. This past month has been pretty much a haze of pain.

Changing weather causing migraines. A major fibromyalgia flareup. Last week I felt that I was nothing but a walking, talking ache. I felt like I should have those cartoon pain arrows all around me so people would know to stay away — potential woman on the edge!

Now I’m feeling like the pain is over there somewhere. I don’t know how far over or which there it is — but it’s not immediately here. That’s the best part of being post treatment. The worst part is knowing the next one isn’t until next month.

On pins is trying to figure out what my schedule will be for the rest of the month. I’m working to organize my work space. I’ve cleared up all the old advanced reader copies and moved them to a spot in basement. That freed up some space now on to the next phase of the organizational frenzy.

I’m instituted doing yoga and some aerobics every day. It’s Wii Fit but it’s still exercise. I started this several months ago and I’m realizing that I do see a difference in myself. It’s really helped my lower back pain. I was doing the back exercises off and on but now with the yoga, I’m finding that I’m not as stiff. The docs all say that exercise is good for fibro. It sounds totally counter-intuitive. Be in pain from every muscle in your body aching and then exercise. Yeah, that’s what I want to do. But gentle stretching and some yoga and aerobics does seem to help. I’m not into the strength training very much, at least not all the reps because that strains muscles more than I want.

We worked in the yard last weekend. We’ve got one of those huge electrical connector boxes out just across from the end of our driveway on our property. It was clear all around it for about 3 feet when we moved in. We’ve ignored it and notice that it was getting buried in the underbrush and vines (think Kudzu, and you’ve identified the vines). So we went out and cleared the area all around it again. We’re heading into hurricane and tornado season so we thought the access should be open just in case.

The problem is Hyperion now has poison ivy up and down both arms. I’ve only got a couple of small spots because my gardening gloves go all the way up to just above my elbow. So, next week I have an appointment to see the doc. By then I’ll either have the poison ivy under control — yeah, right — or be in dire need of prednisone. So, I’m covering my bases. Just when I thought it was safe to weed again. The only marginally shiny vine that wasn’t Kudzo was five leaved. So much for the beware of leaves of three rhyme. At least this year I made it to the middle of June before getting my first batch of poison ivy.

Anyone have any hints on taking care of poison ivy other than 1) a doc and prednisone, 2) Burt’s Bees Poison Ivy soap, 3) Domboro soaks, 4) washing everything you touch/wear/think about wearing so it doesn’t spread ? I’m open to hearing about them.

Tonight we watched Lady in the Water directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan and starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, along with many others.

I really enjoyed The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but Signs just left me wondering what the point was other than to be scary. Since Lady in the Water appeared to be marketed as horror, I decided to skip it. But, it popped up on Netflix as one of those “if you liked these you might want to try this” — so I did. Boy, am I glad I did.

Basically, the story takes place in an apartment building complex. Someone is swimming in the pool at night and the building/grounds manager, Cleveland Heep, keeps hoping to catch the swimmer. However, once he does, the swimmer submerges and doesn’t come up. He starts to run around the pool and slips and knocks himself out and falls into the pool. He comes to, to find the swimmer has carried him into his apartment — essentially saving his life. However, the swimmer is not who or what she seems. For the lady in the water is a narf named Story. It’s up the Heep to help her achieve her goal and to return to her world.

The entire movie is a story in a story in a story. The folk tale of the water people and the land people drives the film framing the entire narrative. But Heep must learn the story since Story can’t tell him anything about her world — it’s against the rules (as telling useful information so often is in these types of folk tales).

Most of us grew up listening to and then reading fairy tales and legends ourselves. Many of those stories teach morals or behaviors or lessons, a carry over from our oral traditions of years gone by. But the stories that resonant with us and that we remember vividly are those that touch our hearts. In Lady in the Water, Heep calls together a varied group that are touched by this story and want to believe. The film touches that part of us that wants to believe in good triumphing over evil, or at least breaking even. That each person can find their purpose and accept the responsibility of stepping up to be the person they were always meant to be.

We can’t all be princes or princesses in disguise and that wasn’t the point of those tales of orphans finding out they were special. It’s that each of us is special and not in the way we seem to have now, of everybody being special so that no one is. No, everyone is special, but were not all equally gifted — someone may be a gifted dancer and the rest of us can barely walk and talk at the same time without falling over. That’s doesn’t make us klutzy ones less, it just means that physical coordination is not our gift. Everyone, no matter how common and ordinary, has a purpose in life. Some of us might find that purpose and some of us may never make the effort to examine our own skills and abilities to find that uniqueness that makes us special.

In Lady in the Water, a group of ordinary people come together to help someone. They are told that only they can help, and that they have a role to play in saving Story. They may not totally believe in her story but they are willing to help. Nevertheless, they take a stand to help someone in need. A person they don’t know in a situation that is frankly unbelievable.

Should the human race be saved? Some days when I watch the news I wonder if maybe we should just give the Earth a break. On other days, I can see the spark that makes humanity definitely worth saving. It seems that crises and upheaval bring us together to help others in a way that peace and prosperity don’t.

Lady in the Water makes a clear case for the inherent goodness within the heart of man. It’s a movie that definitely will be bought and added to our watch many more times collection. I hope, if you haven’t seen it yet you’ll give it a try.

Time is finite. There’s 24 hours per day or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Of course we’re supposed to sleep at least 8 of those hours. So basically each day we have 16 hours or 960 minutes or 57600 seconds to do stuff. That stuff includes making meals, cleaning the house, taking care of hygiene issues, work hours, and leisure time.

Now it sort of sounds like that’s plenty of time to get things done. But of those 16 hours 8 are spent working (plus the commute time for most people). Of course, I work at home so I tend to work more like 10 hours a day. Since I’m here in the house, a trip to the bathroom or to get a cup of coffee means I can toss in a load of wash or put it in the dryer when I pass, and then back to work. So some multi-tasking gets done.

Somehow, I always feel there isn’t enough time for all the things I want to do. Sometimes it’s just my subconscious making me feel like I’m not working that messes up my schedule. For example, I often feel that the time I spend sitting and reading is not working and I should get back to work. But reading books, to then write reviews of them, is working. It’s just that old New England work ethic that makes it feel that if it’s also enjoyable and fun, it can’t be work. Often, I have to keep reminding myself that reading IS work and it’s okay to just sit and read. But when I’m sitting by the window listening to the birds and enjoying a cuppa and taking notes on a book, it’s just too much fun — can that really be work? Well, when the reviews aren’t written because I didn’t finish the books — that’s definitely not fun. But how do you convince yourself that an enjoyable activity is also work?

Then I want to do some knitting. I’ve got lots of started projects and I’m trying to finish some of them off because I want to start new ones. So, I’ve been committing one hour or so a day to knitting on a project to finish it. Again I feel like I’m wasting time…I’m not. I know I’m not — but, it somehow feels like I am. So, since a lot of my time is spent online reading emails, answering questions, and adding stuff to the databases, I’ve taken to keeping my knitting handy so that if the response time is slow, I knit in order to keep myself from hitting random keys trying to make the thing move faster….. I know it doesn’t do anything but lock up the entire keyboard, but I’m the impatient sort. So I’m starting to keep knitting handy (I used to play games but that eats up time beyond what the delay takes so I’m off that now).

Some people just seem to get so much done in the same amount of time. I wonder how they do it. Some people think I do an amazing amount of stuff in the time available to me. Unfortunately, I feel like I waste an awful lot of my allotted time.

Is time management really just a perception problem? I don’t know, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. How do people allocate their time to make sure the have a good mix of work, play, and sleep? Time for family. Time for fun. Time for themselves. Time for work. Time’s finite but we all use it differently. We all perceive it in a different manner. Time fleeting. Time dragging. Time passing us by. But is there a way to use it up wisely and to the best advantage without waste or regret?

Any tips on organizing your time that you want to share?