The Twenty-Eight Hour Day

untamed_sylph @ 2009-11-14T21:38:00

2009-11-15T05:38:20Z

Accomplished back-up Nanowrimo goal. That said, with about 12% of the 50,000 words written and 50% of the month gone, I'm not optimistic about finishing the 50,000 words before Dec 1. It seems I'm maybe a 1,000-word-a-day girl (at least when I have anything else that I'm doing, like oh, working or sleeping).

While I was not writing, I read "Vicious Circle" by Linda Robertson. A very good read, complete with werewolves, witches, and vampires. I'd liken them to Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series - some definite innuendo, but very little sex (oh, and the werewolf is by far the hottest creature in the book - yummy!). Enjoy!

Once again into the fray...

2009-11-02T17:51:45Z

It is November, which has been unofficially dubbed by some as National Novel Writing Month. I have signed up again on Nanowrimo ( http://www.nanowrimo.org ) (user name Artemix) with the goal of finishing. Since my track record on that is less than stellar, my back-up goal is to at least beat my previous highest word count. Given that I wrote half of that number last night and I have 29 more days, I think I'm on track to meet my back-up goal :-). We won't discuss the quality of some of that prose - while I see glimmers of gems in some sentences, they look exactly like freshly dug gems do - all covered in dirt with no sparkle at all.

Is anyone else playing?

Mini-rant: Enough with the perfume!!!

2009-08-18T17:30:45Z

Reminder to everyone - if you have to wear perfume to work, apply it lightly. (Note - the only people who have to wear perfume to work are perfume salespeople and prostitutes).

If you are wearing and I can:
         (a) smell it from two rooms away when you come in
         (b) still smell it in the room 1/2 an hour after you've left in a well-ventilated lab, or
         (c) feel that it's causing my lungs to seize up so that they hurt more than after a 5-mile run
you are MOST DEFINITELY WEARING TOO MUCH PERFUME!!!!

And yes, I've mentioned this to you before, and yes, tea rose is a nice scent, but as they say "Too much of a good thing is still too much"

/rant mode

Castle: Two thumbs up!

2009-03-10T06:01:44Z

By mistake, I started watching Castle tonight - a crime drama - and me likey! Think Murder She Wrote crossed with CSI. And the bonus - Nathan Fillion is one of the stars. (If you don't know who he is, look in the dictionary under "delicious" and "wryly funny"). Mondays, 10 AM, CBS (I think).

Book meme

2009-01-20T05:32:13Z

SNurched from dershem and allaboutm_e - the book meme

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Result -

"Thread 4 pieces of chicken and 3 okra alternately onto an 8-inch bamboo or stainless steel skewer."

From Japanese Cooking by Emi Kazuko - it really was the closest!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T21:02:38Z

First, goodbye to 2008. It's one of those years that I'm really happy to see leaving after being the most frustrating at work (or ever) (until I was laid off) and the most stressful ever (see previous comments). Two bright spots - moving to San Diego, and Tim (not that Tim was new for 2008, but he's definitely a highlight). 'Nuff said - so good riddance, 2009, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

My hopes for 2009 are much better. January starts at a low point, but I see much potential - a new (hopefully more pleasurable and less stressful) job (still to be identified) and much time with friends.

Happy New Years to everyone!

Being laid off sucks

2008-12-11T19:47:16Z

So just to catch everyone up on my life, I got laid off last Thursday. The company was basically like "well, we don't have enough work (i.e. we're overstaffed for our current needs) so have fun on your future endeavors." Some severance (though they cut my insurance immediately) but still - like anyone except retail is hiring right before Christmas.

That said, ummm, can I beg and plead anyone who has any contacts they'd be willing to share in the San Diego biotech or environmental consulting field to share? Or let me know if you want to be reference?

Thank you!

Action figure rant

2008-11-26T22:31:02Z

If you like action figures, read on. Those who don't may want to skip...

Why is it so hard to sculpt a pretty Princess Leia? First we had Monkey face Leia. Then came another which was nearly as ugly and twice as manly. Now, in the new Shadows of the Empire 2-pack, Leia looks like the lovechild of an 80's aerobic teacher and a particularly ugly dwarf. For a very pretty woman/character, they seem to have an abnormally hard time sculpting her well!

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Open letter to Californian voters

2008-11-05T18:01:08Z

Dear Californian voters -

Congratulations on having the open-mindness to put a candidate's race aside as an issue in electing a president.

And congratulations to 48% of you for being open-minded and tolerant enough to believe that a consenting adult has a right to a legally recognized union (commonly referred to as marriage by our secular government) to another consenting adult of their choice, independent of sex. Unfortunately, the other 52% of California voters are not as enlightened.

If there's anything that history teaches us from the equal rights movements against racial and gender-based discrimination, it's that once discrimination is identified in this country, it will eventually be reduced and faces a real possibility of being eliminated. Hell, we've started implementing laws which prevent people from being discriminated against for being fat, which is a lot more of a choice than whether or not someone is gay. Already we see the shift away from discrimination in the voting percentages - in 2000, 61% of Californians voted for a similar bill, as opposed to the 52% now. So the success of Proposition 8 banning gay marriage is very likely to be a temporary one at best. In a century (hopefully much less) this amendment will be laughed at in the same way that laws preventing interracial marriage and laws preventing women and racial minorities from voting are.

In the meantime, since the only rational basis for banning gay marriage that I've heard is that some major religions don't approve, I would like to remind everyone of a couple important facts -
1. Those same religious institutions do not approve of divorce, but the state certainly makes those legal.
2. One of the founding principles of this country is separation of church and state, which means that what religion believes is unimportant to what is legal.
Perhaps the state should be banned from performing heterosexual marriages as well - maybe all the state should be allowed is to perform civil unions for everyone, heterosexual or homosexual.

Sincerely,
Heterosexual woman

Political commentary

2008-10-10T22:07:52Z

Political commentary - yes, I'm biased strongly for one side. Or more accurately, strongly biased against the biased side and hopeful that the other side will be no worse. Am I old enough to be a cynic?

From a friend -
If the candidates were trains, what type of trains would they be?

BtVS Meme

2008-09-18T17:54:13Z

Gakked from allaboutm_e - Post your favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer line

"It could be bunnies"

Work whining

2008-09-15T18:40:24Z

Okay, I need to whine about work - any ideas appreciated.

I work for various project managers on different projects. Most of them I get along well with. Every once in a while we have a disagreement, but it usually blows over quickly.

Not one of them (and unfortunately it's a big project). Early on, this guy comes in and basically says "I'm a big picture person who's not good with details and I don't have time to just come in and chit-chat about them." Fine, so I don't provide him with details, just with big picture stuff. And then I go ahead and schedule what needs to happen and go on. Because of the size of the project, this gets overwhelming, so he transfers those responsiblities to someone else to do. Of course, he doesn't actually bother to mention this to anyone, so I get to figure it out over the course of like 4 months (yeah, I'm slow).

Recently, we've been doing some additional complex testing and sampling. When I try to let him know about it before hand, I get either a knee-jerk "No" before he's had time to think about it, or an email expanding it far beyond what it needs to be because he doesn't actually know what's going on. He of course broadcasts both to the whole fucking project team, and doesn't see fit to respond to emails in a timely manner even though he expects almost immediate responses. If I send him an email long enough to actually explain what's going on, then he won't read it. If I send an email short enough for him to read, then it doesn't give him enough details and I get the response above. 90% of the time we end up doing what I proposed in the first place, with modifications to address his questions and concerns, anyway. In the meantime, though, it takes three times as much effort on my part to get this shit done. Meanwhile, even when I tell him about stuff, he forgets about it and then comes down on me again. If anything gets screwed up, I tend to be the one who gets pointed to, because, well, I'm doing most of the fucking work on the project. Meantime, the concept of saying "Thank you" never seems to occur to this guy. I'm feeling like the red-headed stepchild from hell on this one.

Right now, I'm hitting a point where I'm going to tell him that I'm going to resign from the project team and they can fucking deal with it, or that I'm only going to do things as specifically requested in writing (email counts) because I'm tired of this shit.

</rant>

untamed_sylph @ 2008-08-19T18:14:00

2008-08-20T01:18:31Z

If you wanna watch an MSNBC reporter rip McCain a new one, may I recommend this excellent clip?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/19/keith-olbermann-on-mccain_n_119802.html

If you don't have the 12 minutes (yes, it stays on topic), the commentary basically calls up a bunch of McCain's inconsistency and hypocritical finger-pointing and complaining.

Now if we could only see something this refreshing on FAUX News...

Question meme

2008-07-15T17:00:28Z

Tagged by
</a></b></a>allaboutm_e
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag ~~eight~~ up to eight people to do this quiz (removed the annoying "cannot refuse to play" part). These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. Which celebrity would you like to meet and why?
Angelina Jolie, 'cause she's crazy and mostly in a good way. Alternatively, Will Smith, because he's one of a very short list of actors who I actually think has his head screwed on straight.

2. What do you do before bedtime?
Watch TV or read a chapter of a book with the kitties

3. What will your dream wedding be like?
Beach - sunset - lots of bubbles catching the light of the sunset - not a lot of fuss (hah!)

4. What is the city of your dreams and why?
Ummm, the one without all the people who exist for no other reason than to take up space.

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Bigtime introvert. Think Russian nesting dolls - a shell in a shell in a shell.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Loving someone - without that ability, it's really hard to love yourself. And it usually leads to being loved by someone.

7. Do you trust easily?
Not really.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Wait - eventually someone else will catch my eye or the person will do something so bone-headed that it will solve the problem. (I speak from experience).

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Work - there's too much BS and not enough straight-forward value.

10. Do you have a good body-image?
A realistic body-image, with a body that has good and bad points.

11. Is being tagged fun?
This is the first time!

12. What websites do you visit daily?
hotmail
LiveJournal (not that I post)
Dreamscapes (love her artwork)
toymania.com

13. Who are currently the most important people to you?
Tim's very high on list... Mom and Dad

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
loving, socially conscious and responsible, appreciative of the silly...

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
Trying not to remember it, thank you - it will get there again. Oops - "Topsy Turvy" from Disney's Hunchback.

16. What’s your favorite item of clothing?
My black Victoria's Secret yoga pants which are ultra-comfortable and semi-presentable

17. What's better: to give or to receive?
I have to choose?

18. What's the first thing you notice in people?
Their eyes - most of the time, the eyes will tell you if a person is really alive or just breathing.

19: Let's say there's a worlwide lightspeed spreading disease. No cure. people are dying real fast. After months of thorough search and people's blood testing (to check if they're infected or not). Turn's out the only thing needed to complete THE cure is your kid's blood. Do you sacrifice your kid for the sake of billions or not?
No kids, no sacrifice; that being said, if the disease is spreading that fast, everyone outside a relatively small radius is screwed anyway - there are still transport issues

20: What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?
Never found out...

Okay, now tagging: lord_vandemort, _twilight_redpiratemel

My Little Fan-Ponies

2008-04-10T23:18:58Z

So there'sa short story here - A friend of mine pointed out that Hasbro is currently selling blank My Little Ponys (white body, white hair) for people to customize. I was bored at work that day, so I started thinking of all the characters I could make into My Little Ponys. To save time, I drew (with a lot of tracing) designs for the ponys. So without further ado - Fan-Ponys! (My apologies to those who have already seen them)

Queen Amidala from Star Wars: Episode I and a Jedi pony from Star Wars.

Aurra Singh (bounty hunter from Star Wars: Episode I) and Oola from Return of the Jedi

Storm and Phoenix, from the X-men (circa Uncanny X-men #130 I think)

Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode 1, and a blank pony (shamelessly stolen from http://www.hasbro.com) if you want to play along!

Anyone have suggestions for other characters they might like to see?

2007 - buh-bye

2008-01-02T06:35:48Z

So 2007 was actually a pretty good year for me. I met and started dating a wonderful person who loves me (faults and all). I worked through some serious issues with my job, so that while I'm still not sure it's what I want to be doing for the rest of forever, I know I can do it for a while longer and see where it goes. I completed my first half marathon in 2 hours, 51 minutes, and had a blast doing it! I became a vegetarian (except for the occasional sushi binge) and have generally liked the experience. Among other things, it's really opened my eyes as far as what Americans eat when they go out (and no, I'm not going to start preaching about it). And while I haven't lost weight, I've identified several possible reasons why and my habits have begun improving, so I'm optomistic going into 2008.

That said, 2007 kicked more of my friends in the butt than I ever want to see again. Dramatic job issues, long-term relationships dissolving, unfortunate changes in circumstance - on the whole, 2008 has a lot of karmic potential for all of them, 'cause 2007 seemed to be the Year in Purgatory!

And the ubiquitous resolutions -
1. Move to SD - 'cause I've wanted to for a long time, and my reasons are getting better
2. Lose ~30 pounds - I've put this weight on in the past 4-5 years and I don't like it, so it's time for it to go.
3. Finish a half-marathon in less than 2 hours, 30 minutes - that's 20 minutes faster than last year, but I think it should be possible with some small changes in training schedule.
4. Be more creative - finish some projects, sculpt more, make my first full belly dance costume, maybe actually finish NanoWriMo this year.
5. Reduce my impulse spending - I can afford it, but I'm finding that a lot of the time, I'd rather have the money rather than the item later.

And I'll try to post updates on how I'm doing with these goals.

Happy New Years!

Scariest roller coaster ever!

2007-12-31T22:29:37Z

On Saturday, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with Tim and a gaggle of his friends. It was my first time at Magic Mountain (though I've been to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey many times). Since it was cold and after Christmas, there really weren't a lot of people there. So we were able to ride a lot of roller coasters. We rode Colossus twice, Goliath twice, the Goldrush twice (in a row) and Tatsu

OMG Tatsu is the scariest ride ever. You know how you sit down on most roller coasters? Well, on this one, you sit down, and then they rotate the seat (and you!) 90 degrees so that you are hanging, staring at a concrete floor about 5 feet from your face. Then the actual ride part begins. Because of the position, the initial drop pretty much feels like you're plunging headfirst toward the ground. After that, it's more like a feeling of flying, including a full loop and the standard roller coaster stuff, until you actually are ready to get off the road. Because they haven't finished loading the car in front of you, you are again hanging - this time with steel plates six feet from your face. Very cool ride, amazing engineering, but I don't think I'll be riding it again soon - it too scary.

untamed_sylph @ 2007-11-15T09:25:00

2007-11-15T17:26:56Z

Stolen from _twilight_

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		70%
River (Stowaway)		60%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		55%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		55%
Inara Serra (Companion)		55%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		50%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		40%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		40%
Alliance		25%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		15%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		10%

You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...

Productive hooky

2007-10-10T18:36:31Z

So while playing hooky from work, I sketched. For those who don't already know, I tend to get a little obsessed by odd characters dressing up as Star Wars characters - Kelly, M&Ms, Disney's Fab 5. Currently, the parks have a bunch of neat figures with the Fab5 dressed up as Leia, Luke, Darth Vader, etc. On that theme, and heavily based on some Disney and Star Wars reference materials, this is what I sketched -

I still need to color it, but I'm really happy with it. It's tempting to get it made into a Disney-style pin, but I'm not sure if I like it that much yet....

Happy Wednesday ('cause it beats Monday :-)

untamed_sylph @ 2007-09-16T12:00:00

2007-09-16T19:14:44Z

Snerched from dershem - the career meme. Because it's very apropos to my life right now and, well, all the cool kids are doing it...

If it's bold, it's something I've contemplated doing recently. If it's italic, it's something I have some training or experience doing.

1. Industrial Designer
2. Computer Support Person
3. Model Maker
4. Animator
5. Computer Engineer
6. Video Game Developer
7. Multimedia Developer
8. Artist
9. Business Systems Analyst
10. Web developer
11. Medical Illustrator
12. Database Developer
13. Computer Programmer
14. Desktop Publisher
15. Explosives Specialist
16. Cartoonist/Comic Illustrator
17. Website Designer
18. Film Editor
19. Camera Operator
20. Costume Designer
21. Biomedical Engineer
22. Special Effects Technician
23. Chemical Engineer
24. Electrical Engineer
25. Aerospace Engineer
26. Computer Network Specialist
27. Lighting Technician
28. Astronaut
29. Chemist
30. Mechanical Engineer
31. Physicist
32. Musician
33. Dancer
34. Geologist
35. Professional Athlete
36. Composer
37. Agricultural Engineer
38. Pharmacologist
39. Astronomer
40. Disc Jockey

And when I did the skills assessment part, the only one I came up as "Very good match" was #15 - Explosives specialist. I came as either a good match or a fair match for almsot everything else, though. Except "Dancer" - hmmm.

Brief update to prove I'm crazy

2007-09-12T23:08:56Z

Well, the update really just proves I'm alive. The crazy goes without saying :)

Anyway, on Labor Day I completed my first half-marathon! 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 50 minutes in the 2nd Annual Disneyland half-marathon. The day was brutally hot and muggy (at least by Anaheim standards) but I had fun doing it and will definitely be doing it again next year - the half-marathon was a good intermediate between a 5k race (which most healthy people can do in about 30 - 40 minutes regardless of prep) and a full marathon (26 miles requires lots of training which I just won't make time for.) Now that I've survived my first, my goal is to finish next year in less than 2.5 hours (maybe even in less than 2 hrs, but that's the stretch goal.)

In other news, Tim and I are still very happily necking in front of anyone who will watch (showtimes may vary). No, seriously - we're happy and still having fun. I not only love him, but I also love how I am with him in my life. I feel a little more free, a little younger, a little more random and adventurous, and a little more confident and secure. He good man - me lucky girl.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my whining about my job. After much thinking, I've come to the conclusion that it's time to get a bit smarter about my financial planning and then start preparing for my next career. There are still parts of the consulting I really like, but doing it long-term the way I am right now is burning me out and will continue to. So far the next career varies between something practical but more 9-to-5 (drafting, IT support) and something insanely creative and risky (computer animator, sculptor). Somehow, telling myself that this is temporary and I can do something else is helping a lot with the stress level.

Other fun stuff - I'm super-excited about the new action figures that Disney is releasing at their theme parks of Disney characters as Star Wars - Mickey as Luke, Minnie as Leia, Stitch as the Emperor. I'm gonna go to Dizzyland tonight to see if I can snag a set.

Hope life is improving for everyone else, too!

untamed_sylph @ 2007-08-09T11:11:00

2007-08-09T18:18:29Z

I'm having a severe crisis of faith about my job. As in "When was that last time I actually looked forward to coming to work?" and "When was the last time I didn't have to physically kick myself in the ass to make myself go in to work?" I know the problem is not the people (I like most of them) or the company (the problems with the company really are par for the course in this field). I'm just wondering if I want to do this for the rest of my life, or just long enough to get a good nest egg and house, and if so, what I want to do next.

So I'm playing a little game - if you didn't already know what I do and my background, what job/career would you picture me in? Preferably realistic jobs - I'd love to have Angelina Jolie's job, but I don't think it's available.

Thanks y'all!

Awesome comedy in theater parking lot

2007-07-04T23:04:02Z

Just had to share this with y'all -

So Tim and I went to see Evan Almighty yesterday July 3rd. (Movie is funny, definitely worth watching on DVD, maybe in theater). Since this is the first day of a holiday and the opening day of Transformers, the theater (and parking lot) are packed. Like one-week-before-Christmas-at-the-mall packed. Only way to find parking is to cruise until you see something and grab it, even if (a) you don't fit and (b) it's illegal. Anyway, so we're trying to find parking and the car ahead of us is stalking these three college-age guys to their car. And blocking the whole lane and slowing everybody else down in the process! Apparently the three guys don't like being stalked, because suddenly, they split and take off - literally! One splits off to the left, one splits off to the right, and one suddenly sprinting down the parking aisle like a track star! Talk about a way to screw up someone's stalking in style! Tim and I both just about died laughing. Consensus: We wish we'd thought of it first

Happy Fourth of July all!

Quarterly update on my life

2007-06-22T21:05:35Z

It's my quarterly update on how my life is going! If you're pressed for time, here's the quick summary - really well, and I'm happy!

Work feels calmer - busy enough that I don't have to search for work, but I'm not feeling frantic about "OMG how will everything get done?" Nothing really new or interesting with it - it's just where they pay me for a third of my life.

My relationship with Tim is going very, very well. We're both happy and having fun, and I'm continuously amazed by how similar we feel on a lot of day-to-day issues and how natural it's become. I'd forgotten how much fun being in love and in a good happy relationship can be. He is still evil - he got me hooked on Lego Star Wars - but only a little bit. My dance group met him and so far the comments have been 4 positive, 0 negative, and 1 abstaining. What did they all notice about him? He's TALL.

I signed up for the Disneyland Half-marathon in September again. I've been training for it off and on. Right now, if I were to run it today, I'd probably finish it in about 2 1/2 to 3 hours (13.1 miles) which isn't bad for a first. I just have to keep training. As a side benefit, I'm amazingly more relaxed for the rest of the day if I go for a run/walk in the morning.

I'm also still dancing - we performed at Cairo Carnivale a couple weeks ago, and it apparently went pretty well. I haven't seen the DVD yet, but there were no major disasters on the stage. We just started doing our choreography for next year last night, and I'm excited. We're doing swords and the little bit of choreography we put together last night wasn't that hard, but should look really cool on stage.

Other things in my life? Ummm, saw Pirates 3 - the ending disturbed me because it hits on one of my hot buttons. Saw Spiderman 3 - cute cotton candy movie, won't bother with it on video. Haven't seen Shrek yet - hopefully Sunday. Read Old Man's War by John Scalzi(?) - EXCELLENT! A must-read if you like character-driven, scientifically interesting, original sci-fi, and a good book to read otherwise too! Also read Goddess of the Rose, by P.C. Cast, one of the Goddess Summoning series. They're classified as romances, but don't let that put you off. The women in these books are kick-ass females with real careers (bakery owner, nurse who volunteers at rose garden, high-priced interior designer, pilot) who have romances with Greek gods, but also have real relationships with other people. Nicely balanced with actual stories and not such an overemphasis on guys, and just enough hot scenes to give them an R (not X) rating.

Should I even bother to say I'll try to post sooner next time? Naahhh, no one would believe it!

untamed_sylph @ 2007-03-13T09:00:00

2007-03-13T16:30:42Z

I've been reading a lot lately. Just finished Her Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik and Storyteller by Amy Thompson (spelling may vary...) Both were EXCELLENT! LV, you need to read Storyteller - I think it will really speak to you. Quick synopses:

Her Majesty's Dragon - another human-dragon bonding story, this time set during the Napoleonic wars. Dragons form the Air Force of the day and are used effectively. Not a re-write of most of the dragon stories because the relationships between human and dragon are much different. Well written characters. WARNING: Story concludes without ending, 'cause there's two more books in the series.

Storyteller - sci-fi in the more classic sense. Ocean world settled by humans with native intelligent ship-fish species. Incredibly strong characters who are not your typical protaganists - an old woman and a pre-teen boy at the beginning. Very poignant - there were several scenes that made me want to cry - and explores in a lot of detail what love and being a family is, without feeling maudlin, preachy, or artificial. I can't tell the story without giving away a whole bunch of twists, but I highly, highly recommend it. LV - required reading for you. You'll see why.

Other than that, life is good. Work is insane, the boy is still in the picture, and I'm happy. What more can a girl want?