Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

04/27/2009 - Monday, full work
* Nothing--I think. My schedule right now is, "Work full time, come home and make dinner, do physical therapy exercises, go to sleep. Rinse, repeat." I really, really need to figure out how to wedge writing/editing/submitting stories time in there. Oh, wait! I read Poets & Writers on the bus ride to work. So that counts for a little.

04/26/2009 - Sunday, no work, but party cleanup and setting up a new computer, which kinda interfered with my work flow.
* Set up Google Profile. Yes, this counts as writing work, because a significant portion of that is getting your name out. Also added the profile info to my "places to update info" file--a crucial thing to have once you get a certain number of social networks/bios circulating.
* Made editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 15.
* Printed and filed 3 Critters critique of Vicesteed chapters 24-25.

04/25/2009 - Saturday, no work, but did host Phil's birthday non-party from noon on.
* penthius freewriting (though you can't see it because it's one of those very rare "the idea is all" stories, inspired by one of the sets of guidelines I read. So unfortunately it also comes with a deadline.
* Read WritersWeekly, 2 Duotrope, 2 FundsforWriters, Critters, FFWSmallMarkets newsletters.
* Updated Aswiebe's Market List from the above newsletters.
* Thanked 2 critters for their crits of Vicesteed.
* Processed The Opinion Guy's form rejection of "The Radiator Burped."
* Processed Fusion Fragment's form rejection of "A Phoenix By Any Other Name."writing log.
* Posted writing log.

Downtime at work lets me write long, rambling posts about the imbalanced balancing act that is my life.

( Hashing over scheduling and writing and photography oh my )

I get the notification from Snapfish that they've received my film, and then I start compulsively refreshing the window, hoping to see images from the three rolls of film I took at Donny & Anne's wedding start popping up. Refresh. Refresh. Hmm, still not there.

Lemme see, what's going on in my life right now?
( Read more... )

Job Stuff
Having talked to Job #1 and discovered that the new project won't be ready to go today or probably tomorrow, am taking today off from both Job #1 and Job #2, as I anticipate No Weekend. Job #2 has a loosy-goosey deadline for the end of the week, but I plan on going in there tomorrow and finishing that up. For those keeping track at home, here are my five jobs (I count these as jobs because I've gained some level of income from all of them this year):
Job #1 - Coding* projects manager and coordinator, as well as some work in the imaging department when they need me.
Job #2 - General office support and mook for the department of a non-profit that gives grants to creative individuals.
Job #3 - Struggling fiction writer, mostly SF/F/H. Also currently running contest of my own.
Job #4 - Photographer - haven't done much with this in a long time, but I'll get around to it one day.
Job #5 - Mystery shopper, mostly restaurants and liquor stores. Yes, they let you mystery shop liquor stores!

* "Coding" has nothing to do with computer programming. It is the document management industry-standard term for creating indexes for documents.

Martial Arts and Health Stuff
Class on Tuesday was the first class I've attended that the Inst. was at after getting the tip on my red belt. It was also the test for how my injured shoulder's doing. It was--interesting. During the warm-up I got a pretty good feel for what I couldn't do with my shoulder--arm swings and proper jumping-jacks. Basically, raising my upper arm above shoulder level in an outward direction. It made some of my warm-up look might peculiar, I'm sure!

Then we worked on our long form, which was good. I got the next tiny bit for the form, though my brain seemed to be going off into a funk of some sort. My focus now is tightening things up and getting more grounded. In practical terms, this translates to getting my stances lower and putting more "stick" in my techniques. I tend to sprawl, race through things, and be bouncy, which I'm sure surprises nobody. Also, I keep hearing little hints about what the black belt test is like. It's a series of closed tests--nobody except other black belts is allowed to watch [yay!] and there's a lot of critical feedback [yay!] but it kind of seems to be a "push you until you break" sort of thing [boo!]. Eep. Spring or next fall for me, and the more I hear, the more I start thinking next fall. It's not just a matter of knowing the material; a certain level of physical conditioning is also necessary. I'm working on figuring out a good at-home workout routine for winter. The morning is out of the question, as the finished but unheated attic that is my workout space gets down to about forty degrees overnight, and I can't let myself be in that kind of cold. I would get scolded by the doctor again for not taking care of myself properly (I've got Raynaud's Phenomenon).

My shoulder was fine for most of the class, until we got to the hundred push-ups. This is not a normal part of class, because it takes up a lot of time, but it is something that we are supposed to be working on at home, so that we can do if necessary. How did we end up doing a hundred knuckle push-ups, you may ask? The Inst. had us recite the Hwa Rang Do Code of Ethics in a round-robin sort of fashion while doing wall-sits. Each time somebody screwed up, we had to start over at the beginning. After we had a certain number of screw-ups, he offered us the choice of continuing until we got it right or doing a hundred push-ups. We voted to continue. The screw-ups also continued way past the reasonable point. We're all used to reciting it together at the end of class, and we've got no troubles doing that. This taught us a couple of things: we all mispronounce certain bits in different ways that balance out when we're saying it together; and just because we can say the whole thing in a rush doesn't mean that we know which word comes next. Very shameful. My shoulder started giving me a lot of trouble during push-ups, and I quickly figured out that one-armed push-ups were a big fat no-go for me. So I muddled through in a lot worse and more painful form than I could have wished. We're doing this again next Tuesday, and if we don't get it right then, it's 250 knuckle push-ups.

Together the Oh Kae and Kyon Hoon comprise the Hwa Rang Do Meng Sae, or art's philosophical, ethical, and moral foundation.

Oh Kae
1. Il. Sa Kun E Choong - Loyalty to One's Country
2. E. Sa Chin E Hyo - Loyalty to One's Parents and Teachers
3. Sam. Kyo Woo E Shin - Trust and Brotherhood Among Friends
4. Sa. Im Jeon Moo Tae - Courage to Never Retreat in the Face of the Enemy
5. Oh. Sal Saeng You Taek - Justice to Never Take a Life Without a Cause

Kyo Hoon
1. In - Humanity
2. Oui - Justice
3. Yea - Courtesy
4. Ji - Wisdom
5. Shin - Trust
6. Sun - Goodness
7. Duk - Virtue
8. Choong - Loyalty
9. Yong - Courage