echodrift

Lazy way out

• My 365 photo project has turned in to a bit of a bust. It turned in to more of a chore rather than something I enjoyed so I said enough.
• Work has kicked in to high gear and it doesn’t look like it will let up any time soon. I’m beginning to think I need a book on SQL Server 2005 because of all of the reporting I’m trying to do.
• I have been reading lots but have failed to update that page just yet. It’s interesting to see differences in writer’s styles and realizing that some people are in a whole different league.
• This is going to be a short list. I have had nothing profound or thought provoking or even the slightest bit interesting to say. I keep telling myself I’m going to rework the site but I’ve yet to get around to it. So for what it’s worth, here’s an update.

Brushing off the dust

I guess I hit a bit of a blogging slump. I’ve had no flashes of inspiration for anything to write about other than things that I don’t want to post publicly. Since I haven’t been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, what have I been doing?

Reading – At the end of January my sister loaned me 19 books. Eight of those were the rest of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I’ve only read two of them because I’ve had enough of Richard and Kahlan, thank you very much. Those who have read the books know what I mean. Those who haven’t… let’s say that if Romeo and Juliet were starcrossed lovers then these two are walking disasters. I don’t want to spoil anything but there is always something that happens to them that separates them for months at a time. This usually happens in the first couple of chapters of the book. The rest of the 600 pages are devoted to them trying to get back together. Instead of continuing after I read the sixth book I started reading The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb. I read these long enough ago to forget a large part of the story but recently enough to be able to remember bits and pieces. I’ve almost finished the final book so I’ll need to move on to something else.

Photography – I’ve been keeping busy with my new camera. I started a new 365 project with it to help myself learn how to use it. The week after I got the camera I bought a 50mm lens for it. I’m loving it so far. It could only be better if I could use autofocus but I don’t have the right camera body. Manual focus is OK though it has made me wonder if I need to have my eyes checked. Lately I’ve been forgetting to check my ISO setting until after I’m done shooting which has resulted in some grainy photos that shouldn’t be grainy. That’s what practice is for, right?

Gaming – Once again I’m playing Ragnarok Online. It gives me something to do while hubby is busy playing Call of Duty of Halo 3. It can be a time sink like most MMOs but no worse than watching TV. While we were in for my dad’s 50^th birthday party my sister mentioned that she had started playing Super Mario Galaxy again. I never finished that game; I got to the toy planet and hated being Spring Mario. I think I’d like to pick that up again as well as my replay of Twilight Princess. I’ll just have to wrest the TV away from hubby sometime.

Twittering – Most of what I’ve had to say lately has been short, random thoughts or sharing a random link. I’m glad that I placed my twitter updates on this site where they are because that at least gets updated almost daily.

Suffering – A bit dramatic but that’s what it is. I’ve decided (again) that I need to stop drinking as much soda as I have been. Last year I started out saying “I’ll only drink one or two a week.” Having that stuff in the house, though, was a bad idea. Sometime last fall it became a “I’ll only drink one a day.” That didn’t last for long either so some days I was drinking two a day. While I don’t plan to cut soda out entirely I don’t want to be dependent upon it to keep a caffeine headache a way. I should be over the headaches in a day or so, which is the worst of it. The other downside of not drinking soda is that the water bottle I bring with me to work runs out much faster.

Revolutions

I think the second week back to work after a week long vacation was harder than the first week back. Of course, I’m still getting over whatever bug I had at New Year’s. It seems like I am now (mostly) over that.

Ever since I put the new theme up I had intended to write about my New Year’s “resolutions.” That’s a little ironic because one of my “resolutions” was to not procrastinate so much about writing. The thing is, some people seem to hope that by writing down all of their goals for the upcoming year that they will automatically turn into revolutions. Not quite. You aren’t going to change yourself overnight just because you wrote something down on a piece of paper or in your blog, though I think broadcasting your resolutions makes you a little more accountable. I also don’t quite get the big hoopla over wanting to just make resolutions at New Year’s. It isn’t magical or anything but hey, if it works, it works.

The key thing is to not consider your resolutions a failure the first, or second, or hundredth time you don’t follow it to them letter. So what if one of your resolutions was to post more on your blog and then you went a whole week without touching it. That should just give you more reason to try harder to keep to your resolution for the rest of the year. So. On to my list.

Continue reading…

I must say that

• I love the shower at the new place. No more pipes squealing that can be heard throughout the place. No pathetic water pressure that on some days gave the impression it would be better to attempt a shower with a garden hose.
• Some shows are completely addictive. I’ve been watching the Claymore anime this week and I only have 3 episodes left of the 26. Since we don’t have cable anymore I’m finding things to watch online. (I do plan to write more about that later.)
• I would like to redesign this site, if only a little. I did start playing around last night but nothing really stuck out to me.
• Fall is definitely here. It’s about time to bring out winter clothes
• List posts are fun.