If Music Be

Archive for June, 2008

I’m really enjoying my new book group. I have already read one book because I signed up to it and am starting a second one tonight. It makes me read the books on my shelves that I have been meaning to get around to but can’t be bothered to read because they’re new.

I’ve got a load of new podcasts to listen to at the moment as well, the offsider is on leave for 2 weeks after today so I need something to listen to during the day when I have no-one to talk to.

This weekend was really lovely, Friday night I watched the finale of Jericho (little bit cheesy but at least it got an ending) and then chatted wit ha friend on the phone about it for a couple of hours. Actually that’s not strictly true we did talk about a whole host of other things as well as that. Saturday I had a haircut (just a tiny trim actually, nothing that anyone would notice) then did my weekly shop and had some lunch. After that I got my new land line phone…one that actually works this time and then went out to my seamstress friend’s house to try my dress on. Oh my goodness what a dress it is. It looks amazing, fits perfectly and is generally gorgeous. It goes perfectly with the shoes I bought the other week and I am going to love wearing it. As soon as she’s finished it I will get a picture and post it up I think. I can’t describe it accurately. I got home from there about 2030 and then spent the rest of the evening reading Stardust and watching nothing of significance on TV.

Yesterday I didn’t do anything much. I finished Stardust (it’s only short and easy to read) and watched some Girls of the Playboy Mansion (Girls Nextdoor for US readers) before settling down to the football at 1945. The best team (Spain) won, which was good, and it was fun to watch. I then watched Top Gear and went for a fairly early night.

I’ve decided to try calorie counting to see why I’m not losing any weight still. I’ve got everything counted apart from lunch, because I don’t know how many calories there are in lettuce. I also need to weight the cheese I have so that I can work out calories from the amount I have. I’m aiming for between 1000 and 1250 a day which I think will help? Anyone out there tried calorie counting, because I’ve not done it before. In theory I’m burning 750 in the gym in the morning as well. Which reminds me, I need to book in for a fitness review with my trainer again, can you believe it’s been nearly 6 weeks already? I was most upset this morning, they had a class in the studio room I usually use to do my crunches and wall squats so I had to do them by the grunty weight men instead. Not fun! I forgot that there is a new class timetable so I will have to look at what’s on what mornings and swap my programme around accordingly I think. Or at least get that done at my review so I use it first rather than last. Very irritating if I do say so myself, especially as it’s so early in the morning.

It’s been fairly quiet in the blogosphere of late, Jenn has been on a bit of a guest blogger kick, which is fun but I miss her irreverence (and paint pictures).

Anna might be off to pastures new if we’ve guessed right on her blog. Hopefully she’ll still be able to keep us entertained wherever she is in the world.
Celtic Buffy is having house buying stress. I don’t like the US mortgage idea that you have to pay to get work done to a place before you get a mortgage to buy it. How can that work? Poor thing, I hope she gets it sorted so she doesn’t have to flit between houses for ages.

Anyhoo it’s nearly lunch time now so I can eat my salad and apple and pretend I’m all virtuous before I debate going shopping again.

I’ve joined an online book group. Remember the other day I advertised a competition to re-write a fairy tale, well it’s that site. It’s a really big site, filled with book lovers who discuss all sorts of literature. It has sections for different authors, genres and general literature information. It’s also very good for writers, giving advice and information on various facets of writing. I’ve spent a fair bit of time over the last couple of days reading my way around the site and getting to know how it works and I’m really enjoying it. I have even made a book list of 52 books to read in 52 weeks which you can see just down there a bit. Most of them I already own but there are a few that aren’t out yet that I’m really looking forward to.

I have also (on the same site) joined 2 book discussion groups and signed up for another one for July. It’s a great way to read more critically and really think about the stories of the books rather than just reading it and taking the story as a final whole.

One thing it does more than anything else is make me feel like I’m not just drifting along through the summer. I’m keeping my brain active, learning new things and getting through the massive mountain of books I have to read on my shelves.

I can also use the site to sell the books I have boxed up at the moment, I’ll probably only get a little bit for each of them but it’s better than nothing.

In related news have a look at My Library Thing if you need to catalogue your library. I know I do. They even sell readers so that you can scan your books into it. I suppose it’s an online spreadsheet really but you can see what books you have that other people have and what you own that’s rare or interesting. I think I’m going to sign up for it at the weekend.

When I was thinking about my books yesterday I realised that I still have a lot on my shelves that I probably won’t read again and need to get rid of. I don’t think I could ever throw a book out but I will give them away or sell them to people who will appreciate them all over again. Some books I would never get rid of because I will read them over and over again but there are a large number that I will, and it clears out spaces on the shelves for new things.

So that’s my new plan for the weekend, (well Sunday at least) to catalogue my books on My Library Thing and take it from there. I will read and relax and be productive all at the same time.

I am feeling much better now about myself because I’m being productive and not lazy. Go Me!

You know, I think my life has turned into the most unbearably dull thing in the whole world. I get up, go to the gym, go to work, go home and watch TV all evening before bed time. Some weekends if I don’t have to go out anywhere I just sit in my PJ’s all day and do nothing. It’s ridiculous.

I need a life…or at least a hobby.

Trouble is, when you get used to being that lazy it’s hard to get out of the habit again, and I know that I will be studying before I know it so don’t really want to commit to something now.

Is it really awful that I have just talked myself out of doing anything productive in the space of a breath?

Maybe I should re-arrange something in my house? I don’t really have a lot of scope for it, I know where furniture looks best and I don’t really want to change things around when I don’t have to. I have been packing books up recently to sell to a second hand shop (if I can ever find one) so I could tidy the shelves up again, and I really should throw out the set of giant speakers that serve no useful purpose any more other than to provide a table space for my printer. Hmmm interesting ideas those. I also need to get quotes from contractors (I know I’ve said that before) to start getting some work done on the house, and that doesn’t involve going out either. It does set off my phone phobia though which is probably why I haven’t done it so far.

See I’m not totally lazy, I just need to do things that don’t involve me leaving the house.

For all creative writers out there, a competition to get your teeth into.

Rewrite a Fairytale

The theme of the contest is to rewrite one of the fairytales listed on the contest announcement, and the word count is 2000-5000 words. There are prizes to be won – all book related – and there is also have a well known fantasy author as a guest judge who will be donating signed copies as part of the prize. Entries to be received by 8th July and then the judging process kicks in. All the rules and contest info can be found on the site.

Before I start, just a quick note about the Heinz Deli Mayonnaise advert. People kissing is not offensive. People kissing is not inappropriate unless it’s shown in the middle of kids programming (which this wasn’t). People kissing is something that happens everywhere, all the time.

Heinz taking the advert down because 200 people complained is offensive, what’s the point in making it in the first place if they are going to immediately pander to the bigoted few?

More Here

It makes me so mad

Right, now then let’s get on with the thing of the day thing shall we.

Tiredness; we all suffer from it at one point or another, we all have days or weeks where the very act of getting through the day seems too much to cope with. I’m feeling a bit like that at the moment and have been since the exam. I presume it’s just the release of stress and lack of worry but it’s still making me exhausted which is annoying. Last night I was in bed by 2045 and asleep by 2130, which is unheard of for me really but this morning I’m still tired. I think I really need to have a big night out or the like (which I am having in a couple of weeks*) and that will break the cycle. In theory anyway.

My foot is feeling a little bit better. I strapped it up in the gym this morning and although I could only manage a couple of minutes on the rower I did a couple of extra things that didn’t stress it to make up and that seemed to work ok for it. Hopefully if I can do the same tomorrow it should sort itself out by the weekend.

This weekend I actually have things to do. Saturday morning I’m getting my hair cut and then in the afternoon I’m heading over to my seamstress friend’s house to try on the dress she is making for me for the wedding* in a couple of weeks for the first time. I’m very excited, hopefully it will look like I am imagining in my head and she won’t have to do that much alteration work on it to finalise it. I can’t wait to see it, it seems like ages since we bought the material for it.

I managed no cake yesterday, no biscuits either, although I have cookies in the cupboard. I did eat chips for dinner but they were oven ones so not too bad. I just wish I could do something that started me losing weight again so I don’t get so disheartened and do this cake thing.