Lessee, things to try and talk about this week:
Birthdays
spring
garden
Easter
PHR
87 degrees!
weight
grad school
Life
last Friday
work
Doctor's visit
Allergies
I think that's everything flitting round my brain for the last three weeks. Now the real surprise will be whether or not I manage to write about it.
It's seven in the morning, which is usually when my alarm goes off and I just want to sleep in but I'm extremely vulnerable to waking up since thta's when I've woken up the past five mornings.
A couple of weeks ago I recorded his snoring since he didn't believe me. In fact sleeping Jake has told me that I'm crazy and that he's not asleep, so I obviously had to have proof. He was quite disturbed by the recording and has even considered going to the doctor.
But last night was terrible.
Since I couldn't get him to roll over I threatened to go sleep on the couch. Which made him mad at me and apparently I'm the jerk who hates him. So I got up and walked to the other side of the bed and spent the next two hours going in and out of sleep. It actually created more of a lucid dreaming experience which is rather addictive, of course I can't remember any of it now. Maybe one day I'll get back in the habit of writing it all down.
His snoring is always worse when he's drinking. And I'm pretty sure that six thirty in the morning meant there was a lot of drinking. Even with the recording he's fairly in denial about the ungodly loudness of his drunken snoring. But enough people have heard this snoring that I'm not crazy. In our house, admittedly not the most grandoise of townhouses, you can hear it a floor away. And not just from the room immediately underneath him but the room on the other side of the house a floor away. Apparently because I don't want that on top of me when I'm asleep I'm completely intolerant. It's usually not so bad if I get to go to sleep first, it was just the hour of the incident and the fact that I'd been asleep for six hours so that was enough for my brain to try and get me up. My body was pretty adamant that this wasn't going to happen. If it'd just been an hour later that would have been okay! I didn't want to spend my Saturday evening being tired though and I know I don't want to take a nap.
If the snoring was consistent I think it would be better, the problem is that it varies. He has an increasing crescendo until he gets to a place that he can't breathe and somewhat chokes and then starts over.
God I want him to go to an allergy doctor and at least do something about that aspect. But he's so completely against doctors, he thinks that they're just in it for making money and don't know anything. There was an problem when he was in high school and an army doctor that knew nothing, and I will agree that there's a lot doctor's don't really know. However his attitude drives me crazy, especially since aside from him feeling miserable he inflicts unhappiness upon me. It's not logical to not at least hear what a doctor might say. Part of it is probably fear, what he doesn't know about won't kill him. Part of it is he's saving his liver for alcohol so he won't take medication, even over the counter medication. I'm sure part of it is laziness. But he requires so much more sleep than I do and I don't think it's just because of the alcohol, he's not getting enough oxygen when he sleeps, so he's not resting enough. For me there's always a correlation between my breathing and how well rested I fell in the morning.
I honestly don't know what to do about this. It makes me angry, frustrated, sad and a little worried all at once.
Warning: post plays fast and loose with continuity and train of thought.
Feed by Mira Grant.
So I finally read Feed a few weeks ago. And
Oh.
My.
God.
This book gets to move up to my current fave ten. (or whatever I wind up calling the list, it’ll have a name much more awesome)
It’s definitely my new favorite zombie book, ousting The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
I bought the book about a year ago when Borders was going out of business and then took it to the beach over the summer and never got around to reading it.[1]
Unrelated I started reading the October Daye Novels in September by Seanan McGuire. Let me start earlier.
COMPLETELY unrelated I started reading Seanan McGuire’s blog last year. I enjoy following writers, even if I’ve never read their books. Some blogs I read because I love their books, but most I read because of what they say, whether it’s about themselves, their process, or just their opinions in life. For the second category eventually I usually pick up a book, but even if I don’t love it that doesn’t make me stop reading the blogs. Anyway. I’d been reading Seanan for awhile, and enjoyed her blog more than most.
Then my Kindle, with no idea of my blog reading habits, just my book reading habits, says, “oh hey you’re bored? Don’t know what to read? Try Rosemary and Rue!” Sure, why not I thought.
That was September 20th. By September 24th I’d read all five in the series. I devoured them. I wanted more. Sure, I’m a binge reader, so that might not mean all that much. I don’t think I managed to write about it, but maybe I did, I’m too lazy to go check right now.
At some point over the summer I thought to myself, ‘Oh hey! Feed is written by Seanan McGuire! She’s totally talked about it!” And rummaged through my beach bag and pulled it out and made a face, Mira Grant? Who’s that? I guess I was wrong.[2]
So around Halloween I think I finally realized that Feed is in fact written by Seanan, but published under a different name. It wasn’t an epiphany I was just finally paying attention.
Anyway, even though I devoured the October Daye books I didn’t feel the need to pick up Feed. I don’t have that many physical books and I told myself it’s because I needed to save it for the occasions that required paper. You know, the first ten minutes on an airplane, the ocean, um, that’s about it. My Kindle can take care of anything else. The cruise was the perfect place for it to come back out.
I.Loved.Loved.Loved.LOVED it.
I’m going to eventually write a real review, but it caught me up almost from page one and was thrilling to the end. If I absolutely had to quibble only one thing once in the book took me out enough to make me think critically about the words before me. That’s saying something right there. I won’t say it’s perfect, but I’ve taken every opportunity to suggest it to anyone in the last two weeks. I finished it in about a day and a half and the boyfriend had finished it four days later. It almost made me cry! It’s been years since a book almost made me cry! Or gave me scenes that I wanted to reread and relish.
And that’s what I realized I actually miss with paper books. The kindle doesn’t encourage me to pick it up and flip to a page. It becomes to much work to find something afterwards. Sometimes I bookmark parts, and occasionally I go and find something, but it’s just not … organic maybe? There’s something missing. It’s one reason I do try to go and buy the physical copies of books I love or just want to own.
You know, if you like zombies or post apocalyptic stories or well, just good stories. If no one makes a television series about this world they’re doing it wrong.[3]
I read it on the cruise and was stopped twice by people wanting to know what it was about. I was hoping someone who had read the book would stop me and go NO WAY YOU’RE READING THE MOST AWESOME ZOMBIE BOOK EVER?? But no. What’s interesting is I was stopped because of the feed symbol on the front. So then when I told said passerby a little bit about the book they said, “Oh? So it’s like World War Z?”
No. No it’s not. I was bored by World War Z. Didn’t actually manage to read it. Didn’t do it for me. It was too contrived , thought too much of itself. It felt like a graphic novel and as much as I wasn’t interested in The Walking Dead, it got there first. WWZ failed at creating an engaging narrative or engaging characters or well, you know, a story.
But I didn’t say that. I instead perked up and asked if they were interested in zombies or near future books or post apocalyptic scenarios but the answer was no. In fact these self proclaimed geeks who approached me seemed a little scared off by the fevered gleam in my eyes. [4]
Le sigh.
I’m not the only one in the world that has a spreadsheet with her sister for planning the apocalyptic bunker am I?[5] Something like this takes real planning! You can’t be caught off guard! Sure okay, if a terrible event happened I’d be caught off guard since we haven’t actually you know, done anything beyond making a spreadsheet. We haven’t yet convinced our investor to actually begin the bunker preparations.
I keep getting distracted. I actually read another zombie book on the cruise but that really has nothing to do with this post. And why haven't I read an awesome cruise ship zombie book? Is it too obvious? Or hey, what about the cruise boats that are at sea when the apocalypse happens? I mean, you have a fair amount of supplies and some good options at making it to an island and we can get rid of the old people pretty easily. We’ll explore that more another day. I have six papers due by Sunday.
[1] To be fair I actually completely forgot to bring it on the second beach trip because I totally left my beach bag of fun in the upstairs hallway instead of putting it in the car. Yes it was VERY hard not to blame Jake for rushing me out the door.
[2] So maybe I shouldn’t read most of the blogs while doing a thousand other things, or at work. It makes retention a wee bit more difficult. Like right now, I’m writing, thinking about my paper, talking to my sister, and watching web television.
[3] Except then they’d do the television series wrong and then I’d have to hate them. You know them. They’re like They. And obviously out to get you.
[4] Seriously? Backing away slowly? You who I am SURE knows all the words to Your Brains? I don’t know what to do with you.
[5] Maybe.
I want to hold my cup and breathe it all in but I also want to type! It's difficult being me.
There's a current Maxwell House commercial that kind of offends me. They mock the french press. MOCK THE PRECIOUS?!? HOW DARE THEY! They must die.
The last two months since the french press has come into my life has shown me the error of my past ways. How did I assume a mere coffee pot knew what it was doing? I wouldn't make espresso out of less than steaming water. I wouldn't dare steep a teabag with less than a near boil. But I assumed the coffee pot knew how to get water hot?
I was wrong. So wrong.
I am now willing to get up an extra half hour earlier just to enjoy the perfect cup of coffee. All because of the french press. It's driving me crazy as I type this that Jake isn't drinking his and with each passing second it's farther away from the perfection I'm drinking. It brings happiness to my brain.
Every time I hear that Maxwell House commercial it hurts me inside. It's an affront and a sad statement on American culture! We love french fries and french kissing but hell no to the french press? I'm fairly sure it would offend me even were I not in the throes of my infatuation.
Almost everyone I interview is not a natural born American citizen, and one of the questions I have to ask is whether or not they cook. I typically receive a timid response, and as I draw them out I find out they do cook, but not "American" food. And when I find out what American food is, it's always generic box food like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or spaghetti with jar sauce or well, pizza, hamburgers, and French fries. When I'm able to draw them out and find out what they do cook but almost entirely with whole foods. It shouldn't embarrass me, but they're embarrassed because they're trying hard not to pass judgment on my culture and the culture they want to be a part of. They don't want to offend me since I'm obviously American.
I get asked all the time about my last name, or where my family comes from, my answer is usually, "It's very American." And it is. I am. Whatever that might mean.
As long as it means I get more coffee, I'm okay with it. And add a dash of nutmeg.
Dear Wil,
I never introduced myself, but I was on JCCC2 and was actually really near you on several occasions. But I want to now write the letter of all the things I never said.
I struggled with the question of, “What should I talk about?” It’s an unfair advantage that fans have, I know far more about you than a stranger should, and I don’t even exist in your universe. What makes this question even more complicated is that I don’t want to be a gushing fan. I know that we have a thousand shared interests and I don’t even know how to begin.
And it’s not just you, and your relative fame to me, it’s the fact that I don’t enjoy initiating conversations with anyone.
Finally I realized how I wanted to start.
Even though I’m a unquestionable geek, and have had a lifelong love of all things science fiction and fantasy, that’s now how I discovered your blog. The year was 2004. Even though I’d been doing online gaming for years I was only beginning to explore what the rest of the internet had to offer. So I was introduced to Wil Wheaton in Exile through a friend of a friend that I knew via cyberspace. This girl had been a long reader of your blog and posted on her LiveJournal a link to your post titled, “dancing in the deepest oceans.” So it wasn’t because of your association with TNG or your love of games, but instead your love of your wife was what I first found out about you.
This made what pieces you did during your performance even more appropriate, had I had the nerve to say something.
From my first introduction to your blog I slowly became a regular reader and finally had to read your books and realized how much I loved the pieces of yourself you’ve shared with the world.
But then, your performance made me think a little more about geeks. The way geeks love the things that we’re passionate about has been something I’ve talked about for years. I have a friend that you (at least through your writing) remind me of all the time. And as much as he loves the traditional geek pursuits, what he’s really the most geeky about is baseball. It’s that light in his eye, that gleam, that fear that we’ll drive our audience away as we try to hold back the intensity of our passion. For me it’s that gleam that I love about my fellow geeks and I want to untap that reservoir and see the font gush forth. To a degree its building trust because we’ve all been a little scarred, teased through the years, either by family, friends, or kids on the school bus. Trusting others with the things that are important to us is difficult because rejection and mockery of those things is rejection and mockery of who we are.
I do have a point, I promise.
Between your performance, and watching everyone on the cruise, I had a tiny epiphany. Us geeks tend to pair up more exclusively than the general population. When we find that other person that we can trust we become incredibly devoted to them. It grows in strength as it’s mirrored and reciprocated. Looking around the cruise almost all of us had found that other person. Us geeks, those of us who allow ourselves to truly feel and love something have that love for other people and we let it shine through our eyes and how could we not find that passion intoxicating in turn?
What makes it all the more remarkable is our ages and our … I don’t want to say intelligence, but rather, our lack of ignorance. We’re all smart enough to know our options in the world. It’s not young love, it’s not the juvenile lust of Romeo and thirteen year old passion of Juliet. (Seriously! She was thirteen in the play! And her mother 26!) But give ourselves over to the same feelings, except it’s deeper because they come with all of our maturity and rationale. You could see it everywhere in the cruise, mirrored in faces everywhere. We were with our best friends. We are with our best friends.
We’ll probably be back next year, so hopefully I’ll have the nerve to force myself upon you and maybe even play a game or two.
All the best,
Ashley
First of all, I wasn’t expecting fantastic food, so I wasn’t disappointed. Go me not being disappointed. I think it’s crazy how people talk about they gain weight, as it was I ate more than I wanted primarily because I was sick and I wanted to be as least sick as possible and your body needs fuel! (Jake became a believer of that lesson yesterday) So I forced more mediocre food into my mouth than I wanted to swallow. Anyway, the food was even less than I had hoped. I probably overall got luckier than Jake on my menu choices though. (The first dinner, his meat? Prime rib? The sauce tasted like A-1, NOT what one would hope) I pretty much only had one dish I liked and would order again from the main dining room. I couldn’t even take more than one bite of the tiramisu. How do you mess up tiramisu? (Jake would argue that it was fine as he finished his) So the lesson? Hot sauce. Need to smuggle some good hot sauces on board to help with the food. Oooh, and maybe some smoked salts. Smoked salts would be awesome. It would also help me with the buffet items. Hazard of being a food snob, when you eat better than mediocre on a daily basis, makes it way harder to deal with mediocre.
For instance, Monday night I made pizza, from scratch of course, and I love it, and last night even though we had leftover pizza sick Jake needed something else to eat so I made a sesame curry soup. That’s what everyone cooks at ten o clock at night right? Neither of those were really that much like cooking, and we don’t even feel like we have that stocked of a house right now.
Second thing: Don’t rely on the pre-planned excursions guiding you. Plan your own day at the stops. The cruise line makes it seem like that’s the thing to do because that’s how they make money, don’t listen to them. It’s funny that I fell for the trap really, since I don’t usually travel by following the rules. Along with this, if you’re going to be eating dinner at a stop, research and plan ahead, make reservations for crying out loud!
Tidbit I just found interesting: ask for a copy of your itemized bill, just in case. Ours was fine but you never know. I wouldn’t have thought to do that.
If you don’t fill out your disembarktation paperwork because you’re lazy, they’ll assign a timeslot to you. So just ask when you’re assigned so that you’re not surprised. It looked like most of the famous people got later slots so that might be another opportunity to rub elbows if you’re into that sort of thing.
When getting on the boat there are a frack ton of ridiculous lines. If there is an option to pay for an expedited process, it’s totally worth it, do that. And if there are mysterious penned corrals, take a moment to evaluate if they’re set up for any purpose and make sure you choose the better option. Also bring entertainment for people who might not be the most patient at standing in line or they might drive you mad. Maybe pack a flask or something along with some kind of game. Otherwise said impatient person might force you to crowd an old man who smelled like his diaper was two days past changing. And nobody wants that.
***
And What you ask yourself? How on earth did Chris Collingwood wind up on this boat? Well, check the below twitter posts
*Apparently the original post was December 6th, he was confirmed by the 15th
Do you own a cruise ship/island? One man band needs sun, money
Found Gilligan hat. Now what RT @paulandstorm: Well, we're big FOW fans, and we help run this thing: jococruisecrazy.com
It's official: Chris Collingwood (@chemicalpill) from Fountains of Wayne will be joining us on #JoCoCruiseCrazy. Star. Studded. Event.
I'm trying out my new desk set up. It's not perfect but I'm fairly sure it will increase productivity. Shouldn't be too difficult when my standard productivity is zero. I think I only need to average three hours a day of schoolwork activities to feel confident that I'm learning/retaining information. Since these classes are career oriented I truly want to absorb this stuff, which is a slightly different feeling. I mean, I always wanted to learn history and I enjoyed pretty much every class I ever took but still, the A's I would strive for were for the grade, not for my personal enrichment. I don't know how to explain it.
I was looking for a notebook, because I will want one when I get to that stage of attempting to retain knowledge and while I didn't find the one I was looking for (which I just realized is actually on this desk next to me the whole time and not downstairs with its friends) I did find a bunch of scribbles and story bits that want me to write. That's fun. I can't wait until spring. I really do get most of my ideas when walking, especially during blustery spring days. Sooonnn, I say as I'm shivering. But it's warm! My logic brain cries down to my frozen toes, It's fifty-five out! Far above the twenty it was Sunday night when we got back! Doesn't matter what it is outside my toes say, even fifty five is far below the temperature we should be maintaining. I'm going to stop talking to those toes of mine now before they try to demand I put on socks.
School yay! I wonder if it's going to make me more or less fun than I've been. I think I need that.
On my long list of things I need to write down, I should keep track of my client interactions. They really do make me happy. I might love my job, you know, when its not stressing me out. But that's my own fault, I can be better.
Okay, now, on the interstate they're doing a bit of construction, and I have really terrible eyesight. Glare and blurry that gets worse as I get tired. To that we now discover that key information on several of the signs are covered up so I'm not entirely sure where the turn is. I begin asking Jake for help, but no response. Each sign I can't really make out worries me a little more and my voice gets a little more shrill to where I finally get his attention right as it becomes too late to make a decision (probably, I did just have enough time to make a dangerous last second decision that I decided against risking)
So now he's looking up and I'm more irritated with him than missing the turn, we've missed it before and we're habitually terrible at recovering, the last time took us on an hour long detour. So I'm for some reason now worried that he won't be of a help to me. He's trying to calm me down thinking I'm frantic and stressed about missing the turn, but now, just stressed about him. So we get off on the next turn and he tells me to turn right but isn't telling me why or why the other option is bad. But okay, and he tries to say a direction to turn but he doesn't finish his sentence and his hand drifts across all the four lanes in front of me. I think at the time he's just not sure, and we wind up going right and that's when If ind out no, he knew which way to turn, he just thought that would be funny.
For some reason that does not please me.
We do manage to communicate and I do get back on track with a minimum of time lost but yeah. Upset. And he's lucky he's too drunk to drive or that car would have been stopped and I would have gotten out. Oh yes, not only had he been drinking for most of the three hours before we left, he had a sippy cup of vodka and orange juice.
I'm glad he had a good trip.
Tomorrow? I might tell how I got my revenge.
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 3
Do you care about my journal theme?
| Yes, I have very strong opinions |
   1 (33.3%) |
| No, it really doesn't matter |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| No, I view it through a reader |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| Eh, sort of |
| 2 (66.7%) |
So you have an opinion! Do you like or dislike the fact that it changes?
| Like it! Variety is the spice of life! |
| 1 (33.3%) |
| Ugh, please quit changing it just as I get used to something. |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| Meh, who cares? |
| 2 (66.7%) |
How do you feel about the current theme?
| I like it! |
| 1 (33.3%) |
| I can tolerate it for a little while |
| 1 (33.3%) |
| Please for the love of Hades make it go away! |
| 1 (33.3%) |
Do you prefer a light or dark background?
| Light! Whiter the better! |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| Lighter is good |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| something gentle on the eyes, a muted tone |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| Dark please |
| 2 (66.7%) |
| meh, who cares? Just put some words on it for Seshat's sake |
| 1 (33.3%) |
How about fonts?
| Sans-serif only |
| 1 (33.3%) |
| serif is cute! |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| small tight fonts |
| 0 (0.0%) |
| this one is fine |
| 2 (66.7%) |
What should I have asked that you have an opinion on?
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