Tag: sleep

Like many an American when I go into my bathroom at home to take care of business; I frequently like to have something to occupy my mind while the rest of me is busy. Occasionally I’ll take whatever book I’m reading at the moment with me, but I don’t like to do that because I tend to get caught up in the book and don’t leave the bathroom until my legs are asleep. I’ve found that taking a magazine in with me works better, as I can finish my business and read through an article at the same time.

I used to subscribe to CPU Magazine but my subscription is running out now and I don’t plan on renewing it. I’ve known for a while that I can basically get all the same info that’s in the magazine before the magazine goes to print by surfing the web. That didn’t bother me so much when the magazine was newer but the last several issues were completely dull. Maybe that’s because the whole tech industry is getting to be boring; I don’t know. What I do know is if I’m going to read dull information; I sure as hell don’t want to pay for the privilege.

So what am I reading these days? Well, first off there’s American Bungalow. I really love this magazine as it’s full of great photographs of lovely houses nd has articles about restoration projects. And let’s face it after abut 11 years of apartment living; I’m being totally consumed by house-envy. This magazine doesn’t help me with that in any way, shape or form but it does give me these crazy & exciting ideas of what I want in a house and what I’ll do to a house once I finally buy one. The only downsides to this magazine are that it only comes out quarterly and it’s rather expensive (~$12). So I tend to buy it at our local B&N, so I can use our membership card for the discount. Plus by getting it at the store, I don’t have to worry about our mailman shredding it in our mailbox; which has happened more than a few times. *grumble, grumble*

The other magazine that I’ve just started reading is mental_floss. I heard about this one about a week ago while blog-hopping1 and it sounded interesting. So the next time Ariesna & I were in B&N; I bought a copy of it. Basically, the magazine is full of trivia and wacky/interesting information. So far it seems like it will be a fun mag and I’ll probably pick up the next issue when it comes out (since it only costs ~$5). If the next one is also fun; then I might end up subscribing to this one and hence will have plenty of bathroom reading handy. 😛

1 Blog-hopping (verb): The process by which a person reads an article one blog and then proceeds to follow links from the blog that they are currently reading to another blog.

Normally given the choice, I will sleep blissfully through all of Saturday morning, arising from the depths of my slumber only when the morning has past. Unfortunately, I’d gotten stuck at work Friday night till nearly 7 and so I couldn’t get the rent paid the night before. Since rent must be paid within 3 days or you get hit with a late fee and since I’ve had problems before with dropping the rent off in the night deposit box around a holiday weekend; I really needed to get the rent paid while the bank was open. So my alarm was set and awaken in the wee hours of Saturday morning I did. Ariesna decided to go along with me; so went off to the bank and successfully paid the rent and then hit up the post office.

While I was waiting in line there, an old/odd friend of ours was there as well. Elf was farther up in line than I and was trying to be friendly, but I’m not at my best during the morning particularly not during the morning before I’ve gotten some caffeine in my blood. So, I apologize Elf; I wasn’t trying to be rude/mean, I just don’t do mornings. Finally it was my turn and I got my package mailed off1. The post office was kind of nice because my favorite worker waited on me. He’s an older guy who’s always nice and has a smile for everyone. Plus, he seems to take some real pride in his work and his appearance; as I’ve never seen him show up looking sloppy (like most of his co-workers do).
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This update was partially delayed due to some problems with our domain name. And depending on what the old bank balance looks like after paying my bills; I’ll be seeing about moving musings to it’s new host/domain name/style (maybe).

Most days of the week, I end up staying up far later into the night than is good for me; so I sleep late on the weekends to help catch up on my sleep. This last weekend, I actually managed to drag my sleepy but out of bed and make it to the bank so I could store some stuff in my safety deposit box. Whew!

After I got back from the bank; Ariesna and I headed over to the Coralville Public Library Booksale. We picked up a few interesting looking books, including one that I later started hoping wasn’t somebody else’s purchase.

See, CPL has a freebie section and a purchase section. We always go into the purchase section first and buy whatever strikes our fancy before going through the freebies. We’d done that and while looking through the freebies; I noticed a small book, titled Understanding the Scots, in a box near the door into the purchase section. Being part Scottish, I picked it up and started flipping through it. While I did this I turned around to see what Ariesna might be up to and then turned back to see if any other books in that box were of interest. Alas, the box was gone. Now, I don’t know if those were supposed to belong to somebody else (e.g. they’d finished in the purchase section and just set the box down) or if they were legitimate freebies and somebody grabbed the box with all the rest of the books. *sigh* I doubt I’ll ever find out.

After the booksale, we headed to downtown Iowa City for their 2004 Art Fesitval. We did a lot of walking around looking at all the cool stuff and I bought Ariesna a silver bracelet with a daisy in the pendent on the bracelet. She loved it and was going to just walk away from it, but I couldn’t have that so I bought it. While I’m not sure that it was a sound financial move; the smile on her face was well worth it.

Oh and I took some photos of the Art Festival with my new camera but I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet. Once I have; I’ll see about posting them here.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with Ariesna’s sister (Dee) and her husband (Ken) to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter 3). To sum it up, I think the overall production values were higher in this film than any of the others but the story was very badly hacked up and if you’ve not read the book; I can’t image how you’d be able to follow what was going on. Still, if you’re a fan of the series; it’s worth seeing on a matinee.

I know I’ve kind of been in the habit of updating musings most everyday and in the last few; I’ve been slacking off, but I have a pretty, good excuse. I’ve purchased a new domain name for this website and I’m busy working away at a new theme to fit the new name. I hope to have to ready in the next week or so (and then I need to get back to working on some templates for a friend’s new site).

In other news, I once again succumbed to the lure of buying a new sketchpad. I don’t know why I do this because if I look around my apartment I know I can find at least 4 sketchbooks that I haven’t used all the pages in yet. *sigh* Oh well, this one’s a lot nicer than my previous one. which was a cheapish clearance item from a bookstore, hardcover but with a standard spin so pages are not really removable and one can’t really scan the sketches either. The new one is roughly 6″x8″, has a cover made of a dark corkboard, the pages are bright, white acid-free paper and the book is spiral bound; so I can actually scan the drawings from it without killing the book. I was thinking I would save this sketchbook for my Japan trip later this summer, but last night as I was laying down trying to go to sleep, an idea came to me and the new sketchbook was the first one I could find. So, it won’t be blank for trip but that’s probably just as well; since I only want to take one sketchbook with me and it wouldn’t hurt to have some art in it to show people in the class I’ll be taking.

Umm, what else can I write about to pacify my non-existant audience….. Oh, I know. Last night after I got home from work, Ariesna and I walked down to the local Farmer’s Market. On the way down, we stopped in the library and I picked up a copy of Neil Gaimen’s American Gods to read. Some friends of mine (Bryon & Aizuchi) have been talking about the book in relation to the new RPG that we’ll be starting up soon. From our group’s last discussion, it doesn’t sound like we’re going to be following the premise of the book as closely as perhaps was originally thought but I still thought it would be worth reading through and so there you go. I hope to have the book finished in a week or so and I’ll let you know what I think then.

Err, the last thing I can think of is that I’ve been thinking about getting a digital camera again. The one that I’m currently leaning towards is the Canon PowerShot S 500 Digital Elph. My main concern is that I’ve got no real money to speak of and plenty of bills to pay. To compound the problem, I see that Best Buy is currently offering 10% of all their digital cameras (only when you order online) and I know I could get at least 6 months 0% financing. But I also know that I should replace the following bits on my car:

  • Timing belt & water pump: The estimates I’ve gotten on this tell me it’ll cost between $600 & $800. Ouch!
  • Air bag sensor: $500
  • Front brakes: They still work, but are getting really damn soft and I’ve not checked into this yet.
  • Speedometer: Sometimes when I first start up the car in the morning, I’ve notice it takes it a while before it actually starts registering my speed. Fortunately, my morning drive is all in town, on 25 MPH roads, so it’s pretty easy to guestimate my speed to keep it under the limit.

*sigh* Some days I really hate being an adult and long for those golden days of yesteryear when my parents handled all this sort of thing.

AWelkin said:

Sometimes I wonder about pieces of my life, whether I like them or not. I do mostly like my life, but I know there are things I would do differently if resources like time or money weren’t an issue. Today what I want you to consider is what your fantasy life.

NOT well, I’d get a million dollars and live on a yacht with Orlando Bloom (although there’s nothing wrong with that fantasy, that’s not the kind of thing we’re after.) Here’s what I’m talking about: what kind of changes would you make in your life, the life you have now, to improve its quality.

Shen then listed 6 things; I liked the idea, so here are my six:

  1. I’d get 7 solid hours of sleep every night. By solid, I mean none of that weak@$$ lying in bed waiting for sleep to come, but honest to God deep REM sleep.
  2. I would carry a camera with me everywhere I go and work at bringing my photography skills back up to snuff.
  3. I would be living in a nice, cozy house (with plenty of storage!) rather than my rather cramped apartment.
  4. I’d change the dresscode at work so I could wear t-shirts again.
  5. I’d take up Tai Chi or some form of martial arts to get into better shape.
  6. I’d spend an hour everyday in a sunlit room working on my drawing skills.

What’s on your six? Feel free to answer here or in your own blog.