Gamifying my Agendas

I'm a big fan of to-do lists, and I make one practically every day on my Kindle Scribe, especially on weekends. But, once upon a time, I used to use an app that made me very happy, called Habitica (it's also a website). It gamifies to-do lists, habits, daily tasks, etc., so that instead of just checking them off, you are rewarded, not with points, but with something fun. It's a throwback to Dungeons and Dragons-style role-playing games. You have a little avatar with health, experience, and mana (magic). You have a class (mage, warrior, healer, and rogue). When you do your tasks, you are rewarded with gold to buy equipment, but you also gain points that go towards the health, experience, and mana, and you level up. Your equipment can affect your basic stats, and buff them up. It's just like a role-playing game, tabletop or video. I was on it for five years straight and took a break for a while, but I'm back on it. I've joined a party, which adventures together, taking on quests, where as long as everyone keeps up with their tasks, we do well. Those tasks do damage to the bosses when completed. This party is no-nonsense. We are expected to do over 300 points of damage per day and there's a script they had me create and run (with directions) to automatically accept quests because they do about 15 a day. There are 28 people in the party as of today. I have spells that help the party against the bosses and finish the quests as well, and I cast those throughout the day when I have a moment. It actually takes only a little bit of my time; it's just a matter of going in occasionally and checking off my tasks and hitting the magic spells (I'm playing a mage, of course; others would have other abilities). But it's been fun. You can also do challenges and win gems. You can subscribe and get gems to buy special equipment, too. I used to subscribe. I can't right now. I have a ton of gold right now, and eggs and food to hatch more pets and mounts. Yes, you can make dragons and or ride wolves. There are backgrounds to customise your avatar square. Lots of equipment to change your stats, but at the same time, you can wear a costume to look a certain way. Here's my profile; I just realised I've been on Habitica for almost 10 years. You can find it at www.habitica.com :

So I've written about Habitica before

Which is a role-playing game-themed task system to help you do things in life you might otherwise not be motivated to get done.  I subscribe, meaning I get gems and other goodies every month to use for various items such as quests (which I invite members of my party to) as a way of having more accountability in terms of doing tasks.  So they have new 'hatching potions' that can be used to create 'pets', which in turn can be made into 'mounts', and this Cupid hatching potion is available for gems and they are only available through February 28th.  I was lamenting the lack of gems until I suddenly realised, hey, it's February, a new month, I have plenty of gold to buy gems with, and as a new month, I can get up to 45 as a subscriber.  So I did so, got a new quest (the badger pet quest, which has just come out) and five of the Cupid potions.  I still have 31 gems, so I have some for other things, and they don't go away at the end of the month or anything.  But if I don't buy them, I don't think they build up from month to month.  Can't believe we're almost halfway through the month and I totally forgot I hadn't gotten any gems yet and was kicking myself for having no gems.

I'm an 86th-level healer, the only one in the party.   At 100 you can use an 'orb of rebirth' to become to go back to level 1 and at level 10, you can choose another class.  I've been a mage, a warrior, and a healer, so the only one left is rogue.  I'll do that.  Then I'll have done all four. :)

It's fun, but it also helps me get things like floss, take out the trash, and most importantly, take my medicine as I should.

Not only did I

get it all out to the Dumpster and Rosie recycling containers, I hit my daily activity level goal, for the fourth day this week (Sunday was the game, Monday was spent away from work and the trip from the parking lot to the medical centre) according to my phone. I went to plug it in for the night, and realised that the step count was 4,995. I was five steps short of my 5,000 step goal. So I unplugged it and walked down the hall with it a couple of times. Now it says 5,024. I can tick it off my Habitica dailies list. Is it scary that I do what my phone suggests? Or that I sign into my laptop with my face? I'm not sure the marriage of human and technology is always for the best. I'm not a Luddite--I'm actually an avid adopter of technology, but I use it knowing I have no privacy, and I'm not entirely sure I'd set up a Smart Home, if I had a house, because frankly, having my very home hacked scares me a bit. I don't think I'm paranoid to think of that scenario at all, you know.

Ah...

So Friday wasn't too bad, really. Work was much calmer than the rest of the week, and we worked at a steady but relaxed pace. I left at 5 pm and went and got a friend who had taken a bus to an appointment that didn't happen (but I was more annoyed at that than he was), and we went and got another one, and I dropped them off and came on home, and I stayed up till (get this) almost 11 pm (although I was just heavy-lidded and falling asleep quickly). The rest of the days this week have mostly been about 8:30 pm as far as bedtime, I've been exhausted (to the point that while I met my goals the other day on Habitica, I fell asleep before checking off the boxes, and woke up 10 minutes after the start of a new 'day' (which I've got set at 2 am), so my little avatar took damage--and so did everyone else I game with. I felt so bad. It's just been hard to get everything done that needed to be done lately.

This morning I called A at 6:30 am, picked him up at 7:30, took him to work, got a couple of cheese and egg biscuits and a parfait at McDonald's, and came back intending to go back to sleep. But I laid in bed from about the time I got home (8:30 am) till about 9:30, and decided to go ahead and get my day going. I went to Costco, intending to get some light bulbs and a couple of other things, and spent more than I meant to, but everything I got was quite useful. Well, maybe not the cheese bagels and tomatoes, but they're yummy nonetheless. Then I went to the library, where I sheepishly turned in most of the books I had (most of which were overdue, including one of two interlibrary loans I'd gotten for a friend, who'd taken off the papers that have all the information on them that the ILL department uses. I had most of it to give them. It so embarrasses me that he does that, and I know they're not happy with me. He wants to see the covers. I tell him not to do it. He almost ripped the cover off one, because they changed how they do it, so instead of having two sticky labels, they wrapped the cover in a piece of paper that was carefully taped. I am beginning to think that should they ever let me borrow again, I should remove them myself, carefully. The man mangles anything he tries to remove (paper from a notebook, or my favourite, the DVD envelopes from Netflix, which we just leave to me now). Anyway, I apologised, left the other books in the book drop, and slinked away without mentioning in any way that I am, indeed, a librarian. And with all the overdues, I checked later after everything got checked in, and I owe $6.30, which is actually less than I expected. The interlibrary loans are $1.00 a day. One was still before the deadline, but one was due the 25th. :( I got it from him on the 26th or 27th, but I literally was just too wiped out to take them back during the library hours, and didn't just want to dump them in with the papers just sitting inside the books. Also, they had a 'read off your fines' thing going on through the 31st, and while I planned to do that, I just decided I was too tired. So I'll happily pay the fine.

Speaking of public libraries, I have an interview about an hour's away up the interstate on Friday afternoon, and got permission to leave work at noon so I can get there before 2 pm. I'll probably come home, change clothes, and go straight up there. It's Owen county. My dad's family, the Duncans and the Cobbs, have lived in the Owenton area for generations. I'm interested to know more about the library. I never visited the library there as a child; I don't know much about it, actually, and I should educate myself on it before I go. I also need to e-mail a confirmation that I will be coming.

I went to the grocery a little while and got some veggies for a tray for the game, some cheese, some crackers, and some dill dip, so I'm good for the game tomorrow. And I spent four hours today doing the notes. I came back and collected the trash and recyclables from various containers and some horizontal surfaces, and I now have quite a load to take out. I had to take a break, though, before actually taking the bags outside, as my back was bothering me. Mainly I've been doing better with my back, although that workout on Thursday made muscles in my lower back and buttocks scream, because they apparently didn't know they were supposed to do anything. I didn't make it to the gym at the complex today (there was a pool party going on early afternoon that was intriguing, but too many people for me, I think, being a shy introvert who would have stood around, not eaten hamburgers or hot dogs, would have had to slather on a ton of sunscreen, and gee, talk to people). It's not my thing. I am glad the complex did that sort of activity, though. I wish they'd have a yard sale. They did that every year for several years while I was at Speedway and working on Saturdays. Now I could participate, and I have plenty of stuff that needs to go, if I can part with it.

Okay, as much as I hate to admit it, those bags of trash and recyclables are not going to take themselves out. I should get up and do that, so they're taken care of and I can tick that off my busy day list.

Hmmm...

I have obviously read too much Lovecraft. My zombie octopus mount from my Habitica task app reminds me of Cthulhu, and the desert rock companion looks suspiciously like a shoggoth.

A few random things...

1. I did send that thank you letter to Dr. Daniel last week. I hope it finds him well.
2. Tomorrow I get paid and I'm opening up an account with the credit union, paying off the bank, and closing that account, if I can. Or at least get it positive and start changing over the automatic debits I have monthly to the new account.
3. I'm kind of tired, but I've had an okay sort of day. Emotionally I feel better, and my throat feels better, probably due to the oral medicine, because I totally forgot to bring the 'swish and swallow' stuff with me today. I'm going to start it tonight and put the stuff in my backpack. It's 5 ml/1 teaspoon at a time, which isn't that bad, surely (she said, hopefully).
4. A is sick and I took YKWIA to get food and medicine for him. He sounds awful. Everyone I know has been sick this season, I think, except maybe not YKWIA, which is unusual.
5. I just made some scrambled eggs with cheese (although I almost managed an omelet) and feel better. I'd gotten pretty hungry while we were running around. It was that or 1) soak and cook basmati rice and pair it with a kidney-bean curry that's premade, or 2) cook some pasta with sauce. Neither of those seemed appealing. My appetite's actually been pretty good, but not at night, especially as the throat hurts worse then. Eggs are soft. They'll do.

I guess that's really all. I'm going to try to read a little before bed, although I'm not sure which book yet. It's a goal to read 30 minutes a day (or listen to an audiobook) on my Habitica to-do list. I'm not sure I'm up to reading--I have an audiobook or two I can try, perhaps. Okay, have a good night.

Feeling a little better

I went to my counseling session yesterday evening, and I feel much better and have some ideas for reducing my stress levels, taking care of the things that I can take care of, and trying to let go of the things I can't. The hoarding issue can wait a little; I've got to get a handle on how I feel, the panic I've been under lately. Meanwhile, my friend YKWIA and I have had several discussions, and he's right, I let things build up over and over again, only to blow up emotionally and melt down. There's actually an analogy he mentioned, taken from Transactional Analysis and entered into popular psychology, where you 'save up stamps' like people used to do when they went to the grocery store. Unlike the prizes that you could get through the stores, this allows you to save up until you're ready to blow, and all the little issues justify the blow up. Of course, if the person does so around someone else, that's really not fair to the other person, and that's what happened the other day. I've been so busy keeping things together in other arenas, like work, that I let go around someone I felt comfortable with, and caused an issue.

So, I obviously need to work on my emotions and on taking a proactive, not reactive role in meeting problems head on rather than letting things pile up. It's like emotionally I'm doing the same thing as my house--pushing the stuff around, at best, not dealing with it, and then it piles up and causes me problems.

My mom, who had been back in the hospital, seems to be on the mend, so that's one stressor down for now. Work is going well in general, although the end of that run is quickly approaching, and I'm having a lot of anxiety over that. My counselor made some suggestions for the running to appointments issue as well, some alternate means of transportation that we need to find since when I find another job, I will 1) not have PTO to burn at all and 2) most places will not be as understanding about my taking someone I'm technically not related to around to various appointments. So we need to find a good alternative. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Our local partnership between the local bus system and the Red Cross, Wheels, is apparently meant to be a transient service when a person is getting used to being disabled. I'm going to check out a service called ITN, which my counselor suggested, as it is more of a subscription-to-ride sort of service, and can take him anywhere in town, not just doctors and grocery stores. But it's meant for seniors and those with certain disabilities, so he may not qualify. Oh, and Uber and Lyft are not tenable, as you need a smartphone for that, and he doesn't even have a cell phone. Cabs are prohibitively expensive and, in our town, rather unreliable.

So there's that. In the meantime, I'm doing some things to try to get things back on an even keel. I'm trying to get more rest (although I only got about three hours' sleep last night because I made the mistake of taking a cold medicine with pseudoephedrine in it, and couldn't sleep after 2 am). I'm reading or at least listening to an audiobook for at least 30 minutes a day, possibly longer. I'm still making my way through The Cave and the Light: Plato versus Aristotle and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Tradition by Arthur Herman. I just finished chapter 18 out of 31. They are long chapters, and of course the material is rather dense, although not exceedingly so. But each chapter lasts about 50 minutes of recording. So I'm doing half a chapter to a chapter a day.

I've also exercised a little. Last week I spent some time on the exercise bike in our fitness room at the apartment complex, then walked on the treadmill--not for long, but enough to get a start. Tonight I'm doing laundry in the same building, and they have Wi-Fi, so I'm writing this from the laundry room, but before sat down to the computer I put my laundry in the washers (three loads!) and then went over and biked for a few minutes and then tried the elliptical, which I do not know if I am coordinated enough for that. I lasted three minutes total on the elliptical. 1) I have a tendency to go backwards, and 2) it's not supposed to hurt my knees, but does, mainly, I suspect, because I don't use my knees correctly enough. I bend at the back rather than my knees (yes, I know that's bad) because I have hard problems with my knees since I was a teenager. I also have to be careful if I stop with the elliptical because it practically throws me off. I'm glad no one was in there. But I'll keep trying, anyway. I'm also using Habitica, which I've mentioned before, to help with the stress-reduction, reading, and de-cluttering. I reached level 121 as a mage and have used the Orb of Rebirth so that I have been 'reborn', so I'm a level 9 warrior at the moment. I think I'll stay a warrior this time; you can work your way through all the classes, including rogue and healer. It really is helping, though, and I'm questing with others, which keeps us accountable and more likely to take care of our daily tasks. In other words, it's helping with my resolutions to de-stress and de-clutter my life.

Okay, I promised a friend who doesn't have a computer that I'd upload his résumé and help him apply for a job listing. Time to be productive. Have a good night.

Well, today's been pretty much a bust

Mainly because I've been moving slowly with the temperature change and I've had no caffeine to speak of. I didn't even get up and take a proper shower till about 3 pm. I've gone out now and spent $3.54 of the last $3.74 I had on caffeinated soda, so I can get through the weekend. I really should break myself of this stuff, or at least learn to drink coffee.

So except for some music listening, I've done practically nothing of what I should. I'm usually better motivated than this. On the other hand, I'm not going to beat myself up about anything. Brenda is in North Carolina, so the notes do not have to be finished tonight. I think I can go to the library the day after Thanksgiving and do my research (although I will have to take that book by the book drop tonight or tomorrow morning, as it's due). Reading I can still do. The closet I can work on this weekend, before my session on Monday. So it'll all work out.

Being home, resting, and watching the autumn colour out my front window, the birds, the folks walking their dogs, all reminds me of the three months I was off with my ankle break four years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long since I was hit by the car. It's the longest continuous time I have ever been at my home. I tend to find reasons to be out of it. You'd think I'd be comfortable alone and at home by now. I am much better, though, very much so. But I still tend to stay over-long with friends as much as I can so I don't face a silent apartment. I always feel lonely here, I guess.

I found out the other day the downside of questing with a party on Habitica. Someone didn't do their dailies, and the entire party took so much damage that I lost all my health (although it did let me revive), a level of experience, all my gold, and a special item. None of us were pleased. I nearly left the party over it. But I stayed, and things have been better. I have discovered that I'm probably the oldest member of the party--there's a 25-year-old Dutch student, and an eleven-year-old who has something like three accounts and has a lot of levels that I think he finagled somehow, rather than building up over time. But hey. To each his own. I'm at level 109 after almost a year. It would have been 110--I'm almost back to that, at least. I've found all the regular pets, plus two special ones, have made all the regular pets mounts, and found them again. There is a key you can purchase in the shop that will let all your beasts and mounts go, and you can start collecting them in your stable again. I'm considering it. The achievement stays, but I'd get to use the eggs, hatching potions, and food I find to start over with that. There is also an orb that can, for free, start you out in another class after level 100 is achieved, so you can work towards going through all the classes (mage, rogue, warrior, and healer). I think I'll wait till my anniversary, which is in December, for that.

I've nearly completed the Earthsea and Greek reading challenges. I'm only 1% through Aristotle, but once I get through his complete works, and hopefully can do that before the end of December, then I'll have completed that. I'm working my way through The Other Wind now, and the bonus is Tales from Earthsea. So, it's coming along.

Okay, Sabbath ends shortly. I think I'll read some Aristotle now that I have woken up and it's nice and quiet, in case YKWIA calls after dark. Actually, I'll probably call and check on him. Hopefully he had a nice, quiet day. I suspect he has been more productive. But you know, I rarely have an entire 'day off', so I'm not going to feel guilty about not doing much. And there's always tonight. But first, there's Aristotle.

PS I did look to see how much the bread yeast was, and it was on sale, but for $4.99 a jar, or $4.49 for 10 packages. Too rich for me. Maybe I can borrow some from YKWIA to get me through till Wednesday. Because we normally would get paid on Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, we should be paid on Wednesday this week. Here's hoping.

Well

I took a nap,  and while it took awhile, I finally relaxed a bit.  Then I got up,  ate something,  took my evening medicine,  did all my dailies on my Habitica task list,  took out the trash and recyclables (one bag each),  washed the plastic dishes,  loaded the dishwasher and am running the load now,  and downloaded the audio files from the game recording onto the computer so I can do the notes. All in all,  that's pretty productive,  I think.

Things I want to do this weekend:

1) Get my rent in.
2) Take a friend to an appointment.
3) Pick up my friends from there.
4) Go visit my mom.
5) Do the game notes.
6) Put away the laundry from last weekend.
7) Put the dirty laundry in the hamper.
8) Start on the closet.
9) Do laundry.
10) Prepare for the game.
11) Play the game.
12) Pick up a friend Sunday night.

I don't have to pick up A from work on Saturday because he switched with someone and worked election day instead.  He is working tonight,  though,  so I can't take my meds that help work my neck until after I get him at midnight,  as they make me loopy,  being mild muscle relaxants.

Okay,  I think I'll listen to Pandora for awhile and maybe read for awhile.  In addition to the Earthsea Cycle,  I'm making my way through ancient Greek classics,  and the only thing I have left is the complete works of Aristotle. So, while it won't be light reading,  it should be edifying. Perhaps I should do it in short chunks.

Alright,  good night.  I'm not sure if I'll write anymore tonight,  so I'll sign off for now.  And hopefully stop hicoughing. That's so annoying,  especially when you're sliding your finger across a virtual keyboard.

I need to get off the phone

Quickly and go to bed.  The muscle relaxer makes it hard to focus and swipe the correct letters. I've nearly dropped the phone, several times. I was on Habitica and Goodreads and was not really making much sense.  Now it is seriously time for bed.  Good night. Oops,  there went the phone.  At least I grabbed the charging cord before if for the carpet.  This morning I dropped my wallet and my phone pad out and feel on the asphalt face down,  but didn't break, miraculously,  and I was cold sober.  If I had let my insurance lapse when I paid it off,  it might have been an issue. Now,  I'm sitting in my living room loopy as hell. Off to bed. Good night!

PS This post took almost an hour to compose, because I kept hitting the wrong button, opening or closing applications, and dropping or nearly doing so throughout all that. Wow. These things are more powerful than I thought; they're just 12 mg. But I think they're really helping with my neck; I can almost feel my hands again, and my left arm only hurts after an entire day now; it doesn't hurt at all when I wake up. Okay, I can't touch type on the keyboard well, either. I'll just go to sleep.

:)

Remember my task application on my phone, Habitica, which gamifies your life? Here's my progress. I've found all the pets, trained up all the mounts, and found all the regular pets again, plus three rare pets. I'm at level 107, and I finally joined a party, so we can get together and conquer various quests by doing our daily tasks. It makes you more accountable. And I've taken up a few challenges in the hopes of earning gems, which get you things like backgrounds to your avatar, etc. I'm really enjoying it.

I'm feeling a little better today than I have in awhile

One of the challenges I took on through Habitica was to rate my emotions at least three times a day and then graph them every week, and at first I didn't take it very seriously, but I've been a little labile and more anxious of late, and when you have a mood disorder it really helps to pay attention to what's going on emotionally and what might be triggering it. I downloaded an application onto my phone called Daylio that allows you to pick from a scale of faces and what you were doing at the time (more than one, which is handy), and then it graphs the trends. It's free. I think it's helping.

I also, on a totally unrelated note, downloaded an application called Simple Metronome, not for any musical use, actually, but to read by. WHenever I read out loud in front of YKWIA, he says it sounds rushed and I trip over the words, because it's like my brain is moving quicker than my mouth. It's almost push of speech for reading. That's how I read in my head, for that matter, and I sometimes miss things because of that, as it's almost a skimming. When tested, I can focus and get the reading comprehension I need to, but if I'm not being tested, if I'm reading for pleasure, etc., then I just rush ahead. He pointed out that being a quick reader is not something to be particularly proud of; being a careful reader is better. This is an aspect of my attention-deficit disorder, we think. He suggested reading to a rhythm. I couldn't read and hit the beats at the same time, so he did the latter and I read out loud, and did much better. So he suggested I get a metronome to read by. So I got a nice simple one that allows you to change the rhythm and has a few different sounds, and it is helping.

In addition to work today, I went over to the University of Kentucky's Medical Library and took an hour-and-a-half webinar on Statistics for Librarians, sponsored by the Medical Library Association. I did well on the exercises and caught a few mistakes in the presentation (typos, mispeaking), and I really enjoyed it. It was very basic stuff, but I am terribly rusty, having just had two statistics classes in my life, years ago. The first was business and oeconomics statistics, which I hated, because the book was huge, I'm not good at oeconomics, and the teaching assistant's English was minimal, and it was a difficult class that needed some clarity of language. The whole book was word problems, which you would think I would do well in, as I'm very verbal, but actually I always did better with pure math equations and had trouble setting up world problems. I took this class because it fit my schedule better, which was a mistake--I think I wound up with a C. Later I took statistics for the humanities for my sociology degree, and that was better and more relevant, and so I understood and did better. But that, as I said, was years ago. I really enjoyed doing a class. I'm really thinking of taking a class on Coursera or watching some TED talks regularly. I feel I'm stagnating and just not mentally stimulated enough anymore.

It took 45 minutes to get back to work, with the walk to parking and then rush-hour traffic, but I came back and did my data entry so I wouldn't be behind because I said I would. I stayed till 5:30 pm, which gave me an extra half-hour, which is good, as I left a little early yesterday to take care of some things, when clinic was much slower. I also shelved a bunch of bound and unbound journals that were in the library today, and started pulling the book collection over two shelves over so I can integrate the newer books into the collection. I did stop after one shelving unit today because I was perspiring pretty heavily and didn't want to go to the class all stinky. Tomorrow I'll wear something not quite as dressy and cooler that I can really work in. I'd worn full-length pants and a button-up shirt today, with my Mary Janes and socks rather than sandals, mainly to look more professional for an academic setting--I am, after all, likely to apply for a job there if one comes up, so presentation can be important, even when you're not being interviewed. I'm lucky that my employer lets us wear Capris and sandals, so long as we're not working directly with patients or in a hazardous position, but I recognise that other institutions are more conservative. For example, I know the Lexington Public Library requires closed shoes, which makes sense, really. On the days I push around the book carts I tend to, so I don't hurt myself if I run over my foot with one. But I don't do that every day, just when I'm filling up the kids' books in the clinic, shelving, or adding books to the collection. Actually, Friday might be best to do the main shelf-moving, as I can wear jeans on Fridays. :)

I found out yesterday that one of my bosses is retiring soon, which made me sad, but I'm glad she's doing what's right for her. I don't know who my boss will be for the last three or four months, therefore.

Okay. I've eaten some burritos, listened to a Rob Thomas station on Pandora, blogged, spent some time with friends after work, and now I think I'm going to go do some reading. I'm trying to find some strategies to work on some issues, and so I've gotten some Kindle books and then also checked out a couple of physical books on the subject. That only really helps if you actually read the material, though. :)

I got home from the game while it was still light outside

which is almost unheard of. I enjoyed the game--downtime this time, but with getting so little sleep last night, I'm ready to get some rest. I've been researching pregnancy a bit for the game, as I have a character who is pregnant with twins. She's fifteen weeks along (I thought it was thirteen, but gestation is dated from the last period, not from the date of conception, I found out.) One of them is female, the other is male (it's too early to tell by mundane means, but magic is a totally different thing, and after all, this is a horror/sci-fi/fantasy sort of game. And apparently there is active magic going on with the babies already, even though they haven't been born, so it looks like we'll have a couple more special kids in the game, to join the ranks of fairy princesses and shapeshifters.)

Before we played, as I was doing my normal game preparations, I also did my laundry, which had piled up for two weeks rather than the regular one, so that's good. I'd taken the sheers over there to be evaluated, and he liked them. so I washed those, too. I think one rod will work, but the other window will need a different one, as my bigger window rod doesn't collapse down far enough. So today was productive over there. I'd like to do a bit around here--I still need to take out the trash and recyclables, for example, and tomorrow isn't good because I'll probably be there late due to an appointment. But I'm already in my sleep shirt, and I'm pretty comfy and don't want to put regular clothes back on to take that out. But I've got my alarm already set for 6 am, so I might be able to take care of it in the morning.

I've been home almost an hour, listening to Pandora again (this time it's the OneRepublic channel, so stuff like them, Imagine Dragons, The Fray, and Maroon V). I've got the windows up, the fan going in the living room, and I have one small light on. With it getting dark outside, there's not much light in here, and I'm getting pretty sleepy. I really don't want to go to bed yet--I'd like to make it to 10 pm. I also need to go looking for one of my medicines--I accidentally put it in a bag of meds rather than my bookbag, and put another one in there instead. So I didn't have it today. I also need to go ahead and take my Lantus so I can keep on track with my injectible medication schedule as well. I just checked my Habitica tasks--I apparently forgot to mark my dailies off yesterday, even though I did them, which is unfortunate, as I lost hit points for my avatar. But I've marked things off for tonight, anyway. I was also sure to wish a co-worker happy birthday today on Facebook. She and her family went to the Louisville Zoo today. :)

Okay, I think I'm going to go in-between and instead of going to bed, which would necessitate closing the windows, I'll prop myself back on the couch recliner. But I'll sign off for now. Good night.

So very tired

This was my day:

7:45 am to 8:45 am--Gather laundry,  eat breakfast,  get ready,  load up car with laundry,  cups,  computer,  and backpack,  drive to convenience store for soda,  drive to friends' house.

8:45 am to 10:20 am--Open two computer cases and transfer a SATA hard drive from one,  where it was primary,  to another,  to save the data from it.

10:20 am to 1:00--Do laundry.  Clean their house,  including the things A usually does that involve bending,  like the cat boxes.

1:30 pm to 8:00 pm--Visit with Brenda and play the game.

8:00 pm to 9:15 pm--Backup computer on external hard drive and prepare for grocery.

9:15 pm to 10:30 pm--Drive to and from the grocery store,  shopping for my friends alone,  since A is feeling under the weather.

10:30 pm to 11:30 pm--Bring in and put away groceries,  bring in and pill dogs,  and make a sandwich and tea for YKWIA.

11:30 am to 11:40 pm--Drive home.

11:40 pm to 12:15 am--Eat and look at Habitica.com and Facebook on phone. Generally plotz.

12:15 am to now--Get ready for bed.

NOW:  Good night; I'm pooped.

I had two projects to complete tonight by midnight in preparation for tomorrow’s Call of Cthulhu game

The game notes, which I finished about 2:30 pm (starting about 10 am with about a half-hour break at some point), and then a passage from a few years ago that was important that somehow never got transcribed because it was a very complex 15-minute snippet of a recording with very dense information, also related to the game. That got finished about 8:30 (that one small snippet took about an hour-and-a-half to transcribe). In the interim I went and visited with friends for about an hour-and-a-half, as A and I were supposed to do the Saturday grocery run, but he’s got some sort of crud and so we postponed it until tomorrow when he’s hopefully feeling better (or if not, it’s not a huge list, I can go do it before the game for them).

It was nice to finish, though, because that’s two items off my to-do list, plus another (I finally found my stamps, much later than needed!) I’m now about 30 experience points away from 50th level on Habitica as a result. :) After that was finished, I laid down for a half-hour ‘nap’, setting my alarm carefully and despite my tendency to go to sleep rather than nap, was hopeful of waking up and doing some things around here. But I just woke up and it was 12:30 am. I guess I was more tired than I had thought. My phone helpfully told me that Donald Trump won our state’s Republican caucus (not surprising, really, as I’m not sure they have a viable candidate to really put the brakes on his momentum, and that’s sad). Bernie Sanders won two states as well. (Our Democratic primary isn’t until May). I could have gone back to bed, but I thought I’d get up and write for a bit.

I have to admit, I haven’t felt up to major physical activity today. I’m not sick. But I’ve had a headache and muscle aches most of the day (the weather has been rainy and not particularly warm, and in fact kind of icky). I ate too much early in the day and didn’t take any of my medicine until I went over to my friends’ house (I just took all the bottles over there and filled up my pill reminder tray) and took my insulin then, too. My blood sugar, as a result, has been running higher than usual today, and I’ve felt out of sorts and tired. It’s not too bad right now, all things considered, about 170, but that’s the highest I’ve run in a while, at any time today. It was actually over 200 earlier, which is almost unheard for me of late--even my fasting sugars in the morning have been pretty much normal. I’m back on track, though, and once I take my bedtime insulin, should be doing better tomorrow, hopefully, as it is game day now that we’re back from hiatus and one of the NPCs (non-player characters) is trying to kill one of Brenda’s characters who had her committed, so best to be operating on all thrusters. Diabetes is somewhat hard to manage; there are so many things that affect blood sugar, from food, to medicine, to stress, to illness, and no matter how consistent you are, sometimes it doesn’t work well. And if you do get off on taking care of yourself, you can see changes for the worse pretty quickly. It’s not an easy illness to live with, and while I should be a pro at this by now, I’m not. I’m not sure anyone really is, to be honest, no matter how diligent--all of us have times when we feel bad. But it’s worse if you’re not diligent, of course, and that was my problem this morning, as I was focused on what I had to get finished and not taking care of myself. With diabetes, self-care really has to come first.

I am getting a little sleepy again now. I’m sitting here staring ahead at my diplomas. Really, some day, I should get them put into my name now. I changed my name in 1993--almost 23 years ago--and they’re still in my birth name, so whenever I need to copy them and send them somewhere I include a copy of my court papers. It costs about $50 for both diplomas to be put in my legal name. If it were just a matter of having a different last name, it would be one thing, as that’s common enough with women, but my entire name was changed (it was Lisa Kay Broadbent). I’ve almost made it as long with my new name as with the old, and that name seems foreign to me now. But if you’re looking for an old classmate or something, yeah, that’s probably me. Anyway, that’s low on my to-do list. Really, after I pay my car insurance and cell phone bill, I’m already tapped out again in terms of funds, and while I did pay my rent on time, get some groceries and gas, and the like, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to get my hair cut (it was just going to be a basic hair cut at Supercuts, not a salon sort of thing) this weekend. Even though I’m operating within my budget, and got a raise (that’s offset by a biweekly payment on a debt), I’m still struggling. I still have too much debt (yes, my fault, of course). Next year may be far worse, given that my job is ending, and unemployment lasts about 6 months these days, and any severance will be eaten up with taxes and be fairly fleeting. I’ve stepped up the job search, but it’s hard to find a library job in this area, and I can’t move. At six month’s out, I may have to start looking beyond the library field entirely, which saddens me. I love being a librarian, and I’m good at it, and I’d like to continue with my career in that field. I’m not married to the idea of always being a medical librarian, but I would like to be working as a librarian somewhere in the area. If you hear of anything, let me know. My resume and curriculum vitae, along with my e-mail, are on the links on the sidebar. Meanwhile, I’ve got Indeed alerts and check the Kentucky state library job list every couple of days, as well as other job sites. I had such hopes for the University of Louisville/St. Joseph job, but it wasn’t apparently meant to be. I need to e-mail the supervisor of that position and see if she has any input for how I could have made my application stronger.

I’ll be very busy on Monday, between doctors’ appointments and working in scheduling. After that, it gets better. I may or may not be in scheduling other days of the week (we have I high clinic census and the person who is out may or may not be back Tuesday). But there aren’t any evening appointments or ones’ during the day, for that matter, to go to.

I am beginning to feel like my life, and this blog, is getting somewhat more boring than normal. Am I in a rut? Maybe it’s just that I’m not online that much with no home Internet. I’ll try to blog more new stories and not ramble about the minutiae of my day as much, and I also need to add more commentary when I do include links out to other stories. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll write more about libraries and librarianship. If I’m facing having to leave the profession, at least for a while, at the very least I can blog about it to keep it in my system. But on the other hand, I’m still blogging at least every couple of days, and considering I’ve been writing this blog for almost fifteen years, regularly, I think that’s pretty amazing, given how people drop them over time when they get busy or lose interest, or how more people share things on other social media sites like Facebook these days. So I’m still committed to blogging.

Anyway, I guess I’ll sign off for tonight. Hope you’re having a good weekend.

So far...

EILIR -- Level 19 Mage
• Member since Dec 16, 2015
• Last logged in Jan 15, 2016

Stats
• Health: 45/50
• Mana: 116/117
• Gold: 44
• Level: 19
• Experience: 207/420

Attributes
• Strength: 21
  • Level: 9
  • Allocated: 3
  • Buffs: 9
• Intelligence: 43.5
  • Level: 9
  • Equipment: 15
  • Class Bonus: 7.5
  • Allocated: 3
  • Buffs: 9
• Constitution: 21
  • Level: 9
  • Allocated: 3
  • Buffs: 9
• Perception: 34.5
  • Level: 9
  • Equipment: 9
  • Class Bonus: 4.5
  • Allocated: 3
  • Buffs: 9

Achievements
• Streaker: Has performed a 21-day streak on a Daily 19 Perfect Days
• Completed all active Dailies on 19 days. With this achievement you get a +level/2 buff to all attributes for the next day. Levels greater than 100 don't have any additional effects on buffs.

Today I:

• Finished The Epic of Gilgamesh.
• Downloaded some free bestsellers from Amazon onto my Kindle.
• Explored the Flipster magazine application through the library.
• Downloaded some songs from the library's Freegal catalogue.
• Hatched a Shade Wolf in Habitica, which likes chocolate.
• Went to PT, and I'm feeling much better than I had been, probably because of the work the therapist did and the fact that I'm doing my exercises better.
• Watched "The Empty Child" episode of 'Doctor Who', which introduces Captain Jack Harkness. :)

Now I'm home, it's after 1 am, and I need to go on to bed, plus my phone needs to be charged and it's the thing powering the hotspot I'm using to get online. So until tomorrow, good night!

This Habitica thing is really helping--a lot

In fact, now I'm adding things at work from my to-do list there, because I figure, I might as well get experience points for that, too. But my dailies and habits are doing well, too. Since I could choose my character class at level 10, I chose 'Mage', mainly because it tends to go up on experience easier. Now I've unlocked a skill. I also hatched a panda cub in addition to my desert dragon. I told my counselor about it today, and it interested her in terms of motivating her clients. I highly recommend it. And if you want, you can check out my progress in Habitica!. :)

So, I'm trying an experiment

It's a whole wheat bread with cranberries and sunflower seeds. I sort of mixed a couple of recipes together. We'll see how it turns out in a couple of hours. :)

Meanwhile, I'm eating some macaroni and cheese and watching the goldfish swim in the aquarium. After PT YKWIA and I went to his house, I fixed him dinner, and we watched 'Doctor Who' (with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper). Rose is growing on me, and so is this Doctor. I've mostly seen the Matt Smith and Tom Baker series, so Eccleston's is quite a bit different. But he still captures the essence of the Doctor. This one was called 'Father's Day' and was all about time paradox. I hope YKWIA doesn't put those creatures in the game. But he's right, the basic quality of a good companion is to have lots of pluck (and the ability to run...a lot).

Tomorrow after work I'm heading to the pharmacy to pick up meds for my friends and later that night there's 'The Shannara Chronicles'. 'Heroes Reborn' comes back from hiatus (how do you go on hiatus with only three episodes of a thirteen-episode arc left?) on Thursday. So we're watching TV again. I hope I can get my Internet turned back on this week, although it's looking iffy. I have to pay my rent (yes, I did that last time, very late, and can't take the chance on doing that again) and my car insurance. Not much is going to be left. :( I hate that I've gotten behind like this. But, hey, if I pay what I can and talk to them, it's bound to get better.

I have to admit, I'm a bit tired. I got up early this morning (I've been trying to do that lately) and tomorrow is no exception. I'm trying to get up at least an hour and a half before I have to be anywhere. Not that it takes me that long to get ready, but it's an opportunity to get other things done that should get done, and usually by the late evening I'm ready to do something quiet and go onto bed. So I'm trying to wring as much out of my time as I can.

Speaking of which, I think I'll do some more reading. I'm at the point where Gilgamesh is trying to find the Sumerian equivalent of Noah to ask him questions about eternal life. These ancient epics--Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, even the Vestas--have way too much testosterone in them, and apparently men aren't all that different then from now. Give a man a beer, a weapon, and the chance to get laid and the results are pretty much the same. Except that Gilgamesh rebuffed Inanna, which, quite frankly, was dumb. One thing we learn from Greek mythology is that it is very good to live quiet lives beneath the notice of the Gods. Yes, you should be pious, and make sacrifices. However, it never ends well when mortals run afoul of Immortals, and even worse, when they offend them. Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu terribly insulted the Goddess, in a most foul way. I'm surprised the people of Uruk were not destroyed to the last man, woman, and child. Any Goddess who threatens the zombie apocalypse just to convince her father to let her borrow the Bull of Heaven is to be feared. I guess women haven't changed that much, either. The scene is like watching a teenager beg her father for the keys to the car or else she'll (insert threat here). :)

Okay, back to reading I go. I'd like to finish it tonight. I also need to take something so I can put it in my phone's Habitica application and get some experience points. :) Good night!

Finishing up at an appointment

and thought I'd write for a bit. I hope you had a good new year's weekend.  We started our Monday with just a bit of snow, the first dusting in an otherwise warm winter so far.  Of course, tonight I think it's supposed to be about 17 degrees, so so much for that, but later in the week it's supposed to go back up to the fifties, which is fine with me.

I got a lot of rest over the weekend, and work went well today.  I just had physical therapy and got to check that off on my little Habitica application, so I am now a level 9 warrior, huzzah! (Yes, it tells you that.)  Make fun all you want, but it really is helping me remember to take my medicine and other tasks, and maing them a habit.  I think I started it almost two weeks ago, and I've had a pretty good streak.

One of the things I am definitely going to try to do this year is read more. I've put it as a habit already.  I read some of The Epic of Gilgamesh last night and I  am going to read a bit more while waiting for my friend to get out of PT. I'll write some more later.