July, 2012

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Cutting my losses …

This morning I finally finished the revisions to Chapter1 *mostly*, which will end up either Chapter 2 or 3.  It is way more than a day late, but hopefully not too short.

The *mostly* (should sound like Newt from Aliens) is because I am waiting on a primary source from the library.  When I get it I will have to go back to change one paragraph, but I’m pretty comfortable with that.

Today’s problem is that my brain, motivation, and body all decided that finishing that chapter was good enough.  I needed a two hour nap, and once I discovered the Luther marathon, well it really was all she wrote. Idris Elba people, Idris Elba.

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So, right now I am trying really hard not to beat myself up about my productivity today.

All day I have been mulling where to go next.  Continue on to Chapter 2, where I can work through feed back, or go back to the Preface/Introduction/Chapter 1 type thing, where I need to actually produce new stuff.

In other news, apparently I watch bad television so you don’t have to.  This week I set the dvr to record the series premiere of Perception.  Apparently, both dvr settings were set to record, and there was nothing recorded he wanted to watch, so the DH ended up watching Perception first.  A few days later he mentioned how bad it was.

Foolish me, I chalked it up to his lack of love for the police procedural.  Last night, when my brain was completely fried from the week, I turned on Perception, thinking it might as well give it a try.  Ummm, wow, just wow.  I don’t remember the last thing I have seen that was such a jumble of cliches and really improbable situations.

  • Brilliant, but mentally ill / sick (we don’t know) college professor – he hallucinates, possibly schizophrenic, who’s specialty is “forensic neuropyschiatry”
  • Determines one suspects innocence by diagnosing rare neurological condition
  • “Consults” for the FBI in his spare time – because apparently he never has to prep for class and/or grade
  • Determines another suspect is lying by showing the tape to a mental patient who functions as a human lie detector.
  • FBI agent is former student, barely looks 22 but has already been promoted/demoted from the field office to Quantico and back.  Oh, and whoever this girl is – worst actress ever – really, it is not even worth looking up her name.

House meets Monk meets the Mentalist = worst television ever.

Normally, I am generous with a new show and give it the entire first season, but Perception has already been removed from the dvr settings.

Remodeling

Focus is not what it is cracked up to be – at least not today.  Yesterday, yesterday was great.  I tried a new system.  Work one hour, break one hour, work one hour, break one hour.  Yesterday, I got a lot done.  

Today, well today, I did not get so much done.  It was a day of late starts and attempts to get focus.  Walk the dogs first thing  to stay out of the heat, and assure that they leave me alone later.  Only then sitting down to work took much longer than normal.  Found a recipe, ran to the store, came back, and finally got about 40 minutes of writing in.  Got up to do yoga, shower, nap, then pretend to start the day over with the work/break/work/break thing.  Did the yoga, showered, then got a email letting me know that I had to go to the day job this afternoon.

So …. drive the 40 minutes to work, work for an hour and a half, drive the 40 minutes home, and what do you know it is dinner time.  Tried to at least do some reading this evening, but even that is too much to ask.    

Between the day job, the dissertation job, the marriage, the house, the dogs, the …. everything I tend to feel like I should get a shiny prize for every morning I get out of bed, and double prizes on the days I get up at 5am. Instead, this week I got a shiny pile of additional crap dropped in my lap. In the end it will all work out some how; but right now, I need a week and an entire house to re-arrange/clean.  Since I have only one of those things, and it is not the week, I guess I just have to find another way to cope.