No game today

Brenda's still got the crud, so we're taking another week off.  It's been a pretty relaxing weekend. I've spent some time on Facebook and Twitter (I'm also never actually on Twitter, to be honest, and I tweet and retweet rarely, but I did today).  YKWIA's done a lot of reading, and I've done a little. I got a free e-book for subscribing an electronic newsletter, and it turned out to be Ellis Peters' A Morbid Taste for Bones, the first Brother Cadfael mystery.  It includes maps and a guide to Welsh pronunciation.

I've also requested some seed catalogues, one from Burpee's (a staple), but most from heirloom, sustainable, non-Monsanto sources (and that's harder to do these days).  Most of them are available in PDF form, so I just downloaded those rather than have them send me a paper one in the mail.

Now I'm doing one super-mega-large load of laundry, and was rewarded for doing so by $12 falling out of my trouser pockets as I was going through them.  I've been out twice this weekend on the roads after the snow, once to go to the grocery for soda, and then today to take YKWIA to meet with someone over lunch, and then to stop by the gaming store The Rusty Scabbard and to get a few things at the store that weren't there yesterday post-rush.  The produce section yesterday looked like Armageddon was on its way, all for about 1-2 inches of snow, but they were resupplied today.

Tomorrow I work, as we do not get off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  The University of Kentucky does, however, and so the parking shuttles aren't running, so we've been told that we can park in the adjoining parking garage, although they wouldn't guarantee we wouldn't be charged.  So that $12 might come in handy.  Seriously, though, I suspect the gates will be up tomorrow.

Now I'm listening to some music. I was listening to Blue October's Home album, but it's made it past that on Windows Media Player and so it's Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need a Hero' right now.  Have you ever seen the music video for that?  I will not post it here.  It is...terribly creepy and inappropriate, running right across the boundary of sick and wrong, to be honest.  It's set in a young men's school (as in teenagers) and she plays a teacher. Enough said.  How did we not see that back in the 80s?  I still love the song, though.

Okay, I'm going to sign off here for awhile. YKWIA is taking a nap, all is quiet, save for the music.  It's still about an hour-and-a-half till the animals need to be fed (although one is right by me, hoping to be).  The laundry is drying. I am considering lying down for a bit while that tumbles.

Ooh, we've made it to The Box Tops' 'The Letter'. :)

Listening to:

You know, I've never seen myself as a dark soul

But I do connect to music like this:











Don't worry--I'm not depressed or suicidal. But there have been times in my life when I've felt music like this really expressed my feelings better than I could, and for whatever reason, listening to them even when I feel okay makes me feel better. Odd, hmmm?

Something a bit more upbeat...

A relatively relaxing day

Listening to/watching: '18th Floor Balcony' by Blue October [a very nice live performance] and 'It's Not My Time' by 3 Doors Down [the setting looked very familiar; turns out it was shot in Cincinnati. It has some great acrobatic moves of parkour in it that I need to remember for the game. There's a great word-of-the day. :)]

I was off work today to take someone to an appointment. Afterwards I did some errands and went to a store meeting in preparation for my boss' month-long leave, which starts Thursday. She really needs the time off but we're all going to miss her. We met the person taking over temporarily and first impression is that she'll be fine to work with. We had pizza and free drinks, and that's always nice.

Later I went home, started a dishwashing cycle, and took a nap. When I got up I watched one of the 'Heroes' episodes I've missed, getting all comfy on the loveseat. I pretty much lounged around until a friend called me to get him from work. So it was yet another lazy day, which are usually few and far between.

Nothing earth-shattering is going on right now in my life; no drama (yay!) I nearly hit a bunny last night on the road (it was hopping parallel at the edge), but didn't, thankfully. I've only hit one animal (a cat, which I killed) and was hysterical afterwards. I love animals.

I re-potted an amaryllis which has never bloomed for me and it shot right up (as well as a baby that I'd separated off it). There's no indication so far if it will bloom yet. The one I got last year that bloomed so nicely didn't this year, although it leafed out. It's dying down now so I'll give it a rest and try again.

The fish are hanging on. Next week I'll have the water tested again and see if it's better. I've been feeding sparingly and had changed a good part of the water and added more bacteria, so let's hope the nitrates go down. I need to get some plants to help take the nitrates out of the water and put them to growth instead.

I'm keeping up with the house and it looks nice and clean.

I'm going to try another MLA class that starts on March 9th. It's on wikis. Even though I didn't manage to finish in time to get credit for the Google Docs class, I learnt valuable lessons, including the fact that Google Docs can only graph numerical data (although that only came out after a bunch of us made surveys with non-numerical data like multiple text responses and discovered the graphing wouldn't work). There are workarounds, but they're not really satisfactory and it's simpler to just set it up numerically from the first. (There's your Important Safety Tip of the day.) That part of the class was rather annoying, but otherwise it was fun. I've played a little with wikis on Wetpaint and a tsunami-related one that came out after the disaster to help get out information on volunteering, news, and aid. If you're a member of the Medical Library Association and want to take the class, here's the information:

Dig Deeper with Social Media Free CE Course: Wikis
Available to MLA members March 9–15, this course covers how libraries can apply wiki software to their work. Participants will gain an understanding of the benefits and challenges of wiki software, brainstorm and discuss practical applications of wikis in libraries, and get hands-on experience. Members who complete the course will receive two MLA CE credits. Registration for this course is required by March 6, 5:00pm CT. Register today>>

Okay, it's 3 am. Time to go to bed!!! (Past time, really, but I did get rest earlier, so I wasn't sleepy.)

Listening to

I was disappointed to find out that a beautiful video about which I posted last year with Blue October's '18th Floor Balcony' to Final Fantasy graphics is no longer available. I wish there were some way to download videos for future viewing. Instead, I wound up watching another Blue October/Final Fantasy combination, 'Amazing'. Althought the lost video was definitely more stunning, this is the best video with this song set to it that I've found on the Internet, and it fits the emotions of the song pretty well.

I'm feeling much better today

Listening to: 'Calling You' by Blue October, '1973' by James Blunt
Today's Radioplay: 'The Book of Tobit'

Maybe I had to get things down in a journal entry. Maybe it's the Lamictal. But for whatever reason, I'm feeling better. Sorry for the emotional diarrhea, so to speak, but things were at a head. I haven't felt that way for a very long time; I only hope it will be awhile before I feel that way again.

I've included Blue October's song here before. But here's James Blunt's new song, '1973'. The video is interesting, as he walks through an abandoned street, with sad storefronts, but when shown from inside, the view is of the street as it was in the 70s, with warmer colours and lighting. The song has that bittersweet sense of nostalgia that people get as they age, which isn't bad for a singer who was born in 1974. :)

This is beautiful...long, but beautiful

It's Blue October's '18th Floor Balcony' with Final Fantasy animation (I don't know if it's from the games or the movies, but it's stunning). I especially like the beginning where the woman is dancing on the water.

Listening to

Blue October, 'Calling You':



I don't have their album History for Sale, which has this song on it (I have Foiled, with 'Hate Me' and 'Into the Ocean'), but I really like this one, too.

I guess part of the appeal is that lead singer Justin Furstenfeld knows very much what it's like to have depression, something he's battled most of his life. Even the name of the band, Blue October, came from a time during which he was hospitalised. (Isn't Wikipedia grand for such bits of trivia?) He's also a little on the chubby side (I wouldn't call him fat, but he is chunky) and I guess the anti-pop star image appeals to me. I'm not sure I'd recommend listening to a lot of Blue October during active depression, but it's good for when you've been there to remind you of where you've been, and to distance yourself from it if possible.

Good night.