Even A Little Is Better Than Nothing

Given how relatively late I went to bed last night (a good thirty minutes or so past midnight), it’s not surprising that I started my first rest day relatively late as well.  I woke up around nine-thirty, but I didn’t really feel refreshed at all.  I must be because of the heat, and while it was windy, it was obviously much hotter than usual.  That meant that Summer was once again here, or at least it’s the case for us folk living here in the Philippines.

After some breakfast (which was really a brunch when I think about it now), I set about preparing the things I needed for what I was to do today… That is, do some model painting for the Librarium Challenge.  Before I got down to business though, I added a few details to each marine (via my steadily-decreasing bits supply), mainly purity seals and holstered bolt pistols (which means I am now out of said holstered bolt pistols), before giving those additions a layer of Tamiya blue.  Only after the paint dried did I actually start on the real work…

Or I should have.  Even with the windows open, it’s awfully hard to actually do any painting in my room, so I usually also turn on the lights in my room.  I used to have a fluorescent tube for room lighting, but I had to recently change to an energy-saving bulb.  While it’s more than adequate to illuminate the room during evenings, using it during the daytime only makes my eyes tire more quickly than usual.  So really, I was only able to paint after sunset.  Annoying.

Since I couldn’t do any painting during the afternoon, I went to the gym for a bit, and did my usual one-hour routine.  I can’t say that I feel any lighter though, and looking myself in the mirror still shows all the blubber concentrated around my lower abdomen…  Ugh.  I hope that I have some progress on that front come Saturday.

Speaking of progress…  I really have to start on my rewrite.  It’s the end of February, and I’ve literally only done ten pages out of a minimum of eighty pages.  Not good.  So that means that tomorrow will be allocated to that issue.  Five should be a good target, yes?

I’m… going to try to write at least that much tomorrow.  Yeah.

Hobby Sidetracking

I know that I should be using my rest day tomorrow to start double-timing on my screenplay rewrite, but at this point I don’t think I’m in the right mindset to even try… So I won’t.  Instead, I’ve decided to just spend at least some of it on my neglected hobbies, Warhammer 40k painting and modeling in particular.  

Specifically, I want to actually start on the 5-man Devastator squad I pledged for the Bolter and Chainsword’s annual Librarium Painting Challenge.  Along with the sergeant (a vet with a power fist that was basecoated and dipped a LONG time ago, but I never got around to finishing), the squad is rounded off by a pair of Missile Launcher marines, and a pair of Lascannon marines.  Not really points-efficient, but the point of the challenge is to put some paint on unpainted models after all.

It should be fun, though once I get the marines basecoated, I’ll definitely have to shift my focus to the screenplay on Thursday. Let’s see how many pages I get out then, eh?

As for work… Ah, it’s the usual Tueday shift, meaning that, had my CS systems been working, I would have had a heck of a headache at the end of the day.  Luckily they weren’t, which meant it was just membership calls for the most part, though those calls did come in faster than usual.

What else… Hmm, let’s see.  This morning on the way to work, someone’s fingers got caught in the doors of the MRT as it closed, and not at the threshold of the doors itself, but in the moving hinges to the side.  Ouch.  The folk around the poor woman tried to get the train to stop by pressing on the emergency button close by, but the train of course kept on going, and all this was highlighted by the train operator making an indignant announcement on the PA to stop playing around with the emergency stop button.  Needless to say, many people were more than a little annoyed at this.  Luckily the woman was able to free her hand once we got to the next station, but I can how something like this might leave a lasting negative impression on her.

Oh, and finally I wasn’t able to go to the gym this afternoon.  I was just so sleepy, that I pretty much decided to nap the rest of the afternoon (and the evening — I went to bed at around four, and woke up around nine).  It’s kind of my fault though, since I did stay up late (reading Zetman, for the curious).  I’ll just have to make up for it tomorrow afternoon, I guess.

And that’s pretty much it for me today.  Hopefully everyone else out there experienced more excitement than I did, ahaha.

Day Off

(The following is a short bit that I managed to type while I was at work.  With the extreme avail times that come with Monday shifts, I had nothing much to do aside from browsing so…  That said, it’s a little short, but it’s the germ of an idea at least.  Oh, and if anyone is wondering, yes this is pretty much connected to that story that-I-never-could-begin, Puerto Corazon.)

Miyu shivered, and opened her eyes.  She found herself staring up at her reflection, on the mirror installed on the ceiling above her.  She sat up, the blanket covering her falling off her naked frame.  Beside her, an older man lay snoring, in the same state of undress.

Miyu stared at her bedside companion for a moment, and frowned.  She quietly slid out of bed, and padded towards the shower, pausing briefly to pick up her panty, which lay discarded on the floor.  Her brassiere, similarly tossed aside, lay close by.

She walked into the shower stall, and turned on the water, full-blast.  The water that came out was cold, and she shivered in response, but Miyu made no move to adjust the temperature.  For a long time she just stood there, eyes closed, and let the water wash over her.

Then, she opened her eyes.

It was time to go.

A few minutes later she walked out, one of the hotel’s towels wrapped around her shoulders.  She was still topless, but she was not wearing her panty at least.  As quietly as she could, she began to pick up the rest of her clothes from the floor.

She quickly and quietly got dressed.  Instead of giving her long fall of brown hair the usual brushdown, she just ran her fingers through its length, just enough to get rid of the tangles.  She then tied up in a long ponytail.

Miyu looked at herself one more time in the mirror that stood just opposite to the bed, then nodded.  She picked up her handbag, and walked in the direction of the door.  She slipped on her sandals, and was about to open the door when she stopped.  She stared back at the man lying on the bed, still unaware that he now had the mattress to himself.

No, we can’t have that, she thought finally.

Miyu dug through the contents of her handbag, and eventually produced a small pouch.  She dumped its contents, rose petals and dried herbs, unto her left hand.

“Ας περάσει την εμπειρία της βραδιάς από τη μνήμη, μέχρι τίποτα δεν παραμένει,” she whispered, as she crushed the herbal mix she held. “Σαν ένα όνειρο, μισή ματιά και ποτέ δεν θυμόμαστε.”

With that, she blew the fragrant mixture from her hand.  The petals and herbs floated preternaturally over to where the man slept, and settled over his sleeping form.

Miyu dusted off her hands and, with her handbag cradled in one arm, exited the room.
  

Auditory Violence

In yet another brilliant move by our workforce staff today’s morning shift was pretty much manned by a floor shift composed of less than a dozen people, on what was probably the busiest workshift of the week.  Sometimes I have to wonder what exactly is going on inside the heads of the folk who set schedules for employees, but then again these are the same people who took away my Saturday rest day.  Sheer stupidity at its finest.

Anyway, I somehow managed to avoid having my sanity tried over the morning since my systems still had problems, but hearing one of my batchmates handling CS calls it was hellish, with the queue backed up until at least eleven-thirty.  Ouch.  As things were, the membership application queue was a sea of tranquility by comparison.  All the more reason for me to pray that my system troubles continue for a little longer.

As for the rest of my day… Nothing really of import stands out.  I’m just looking for a slow day tomorrow, nominally the slowest day of my work week.

Unexpected and Unplanned

It’s kind of embarrassing how I rushed to the university earlier, fully dressed and prepared for class, only to find out that… there was no classes.  DLSU was locked tighter than a medieval chastity belt by the time I arrived there, and it honestly took  me by surprise.  I did not expect for it to be closed for the EDSA anniversary holiday, since I clearly remembered that universities weren’t included.  Apparently I was wrong.  Oh well, it’s a whole day for me to do what I want with, which is exactly what I did.

Before I went home, I passed by a Mercury Drug store with one of those weight measurement machines, to double-check on my progress.  The result?  I’m about ten kilos off my ‘healthy’ weight for my height.  That’s still a ways to go, but it’s still achievement,  especially since I can now apparently comfortably wear a pair of jeans I couldn’t even put on two months ago.  Lets see if I can take off at least five pounds before my sister’s wedding in April…

Aside from that?  Well I watched my father as he prepared dinuguan for dinner.  There was a bit of trouble during preparation though, as apparently a bladder managed to sneak in, with the rest of the meat, which meant that everything turned bitter.  He had to soak and boil the meat (and assorted other pig entrails like liver and intestines) twice to get rid of the bitterness, but even though I couldn’t taste anything he still wasn’t satisfied.  Huh, I guess his sense of taste really is more sharper.

And to end things, I did some reading.  The rewrite of the screenplay should begin in earnest this week though. I hope that I can knock off at least twenty more pages before Friday.

Okay Overall

And so this week comes to a close without much fanfare on my end.  I’m still kind of bummed out that I couldn’t get Friday off, but at least I have Saturday free (for this week anyway), so no problems about classes.  As for work, ah, well it couldn’t have been more relaxed, especially since I’m back to just doing memberships (one can’t do merchant calls when someone else is using my profile after all) and the avail time was pretty large.

On the personal side of things… Yeah, I’m worried.  Tatay was reading on our book of ailments and remedies.  Something’s up, but since I’m the awkward one in the family, and the one no one seems to trust, well, it’s obvious I’m being left in the dark, and it’s frustrating.  My sister obviously knows that something is up, but like with my father, it’s hard to just walk up to her and ask just what tatay and her were whispering about. Damnit.

As if I didn’t have other stuff to worry about.  Just a little over a month to go before this term ends, and it’s likely I’ll have to submit a rewritten screenplay by then.  Have to get busy again, which means it’s likely I won’t be able to update as much as I’d like.  

Ah, this is frustrating.

Distracted For The Day

It’s my rest day today for the week, and as usual I had the choice to devote it to either either schoolwork (stuff related to screenplay writing), hobby-related stuff, or simply just resting in my bed.    Since I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do any rewrites on my screenplay, and it was simply just wasteful to just laze around in bed all day, I chose the second option.  I didn’t do any drawing this time though, nor worked on my usual coloring projects, and instead indulged in manga-reading.

And I’ve been doing a lot of that over the past week or two. Otaku no Musume-san aside, I pretty much blitzed through Mangaka-san To Assistant-san To,  D-Fragments, Mysterious Girlfriend-X, and today’s Ubel Blatt.  Not too surprising I suppose, since I do get engrossed in what I read, and as a (admittedly clumsy) writer it does count as research for possible ideas (though likely not one my classmates nor my teachers would approve of).  Now if I could only properly make use of said new ideas.  Oh well…

As a result of bingeing on Ubel Blatt, I pretty much had to ditch my usual gym session this afternoon.  On the bright side, I think I’ve managed to curb my appetite somewhat for the day, so even though I didn’t do any exercise I think I compensated somewhat by not going over my set caloric intake.  Bananas were involved, as usual.

Tomorrow it’s back to work, but hopefully I can still keep that intake under control, and still have enough energy at the end of the day to not pass out once I go through my usual routine at the gym.

Ah, and I’ve once again overheard my father talking quietly over the phone today.  The topic was fairly ominous, with talk of radiation and chemotherapy.  I’m worried that it was nanay on the other line, and since she’s already experienced problems with tumors and whatnot (she’s had some growths removed from her cervix already), it’s not that short a leap to think about cancer.  I just hope it isn’t, as the family has enough stuff to worry about, especially with my sister’s wedding so close…

For some reason, I’m afraid that my dreams tonight won’t be as restful.  It’s a minor blessing then, that I don’t really remember what I dream about… when I have them anyway.

No Progression At All

This week has been kind of disappointing on the weight-loss side of things.  I’ve pretty much hovered at the same weight for almost two weeks now, despite the fact that I’m actually working harder at the gym.  I’m wondering if I have to push it on the dieting side of the equation, but it’s really hard controlling the intake now since my father seems to be hell-bent on making sure I join him during lunch and dinner.  Stupid stupid 1.7k calorie per day limit…  That’s already pushing starvation for my height and weight, and I run a real risk of throwing my metabolism out of balance.

I had to cut my gym session short today, since I wanted to catch the six-o-clock mass.  It was Ash Wednesday after all.

 On the bright side it wasn’t that busy at the office today.  It was basically the same scenario that I’d been experiencing for the last few days, but like before I’m not complaining, since no CS calls makes Myssa a happy camper.  I think I even fell asleep at my station, given the huge gap in between calls (and having a lower queue priority doesn’t hurt either), though I did wake up after a particularly loud snore, ahaha.

Hmm, bed really looks tempting right now, since I’m feeling some hunger pangs.  Staying awake will only force me to act on said pangs, so I really have to turn in now.

Temporary Compromises

It was a strangely placid Monday shift for me today.  While part of the system I used to receive merchant calls was up and running again, the same could not be said of the CS side.  Although the daily search system came back up at the same time as the merchant program, another important system, the one that was used to access the archives, somehow decided that it didn’t exist despite the fact that it was sitting right there in the remote desktop.  What this meant in the end was, although I could take in merchant calls again on top of the usual membership applications, I was still off CS duty… which actually made my day.

And what’s more, the folk assigning the call queue seemed to have placed me on a much lower priority than the rest of my team, which meant that I literally spent upwards of ten minutes doing nothing (well, technically using the avail time to browse, but you know what I mean), while my teammates took in call after call after call.  I would have felt sorry, if not for the fact that I was in the same position during the previous work shifts.  

On other news, it looks like I temporarily lucked out this week, and one of my teammates agreed to a RD shift so I can go to school on Saturday without worrying about a salary deduction on the payday that comes after this weekend.  It does mean though that I’ll have to come in tomorrow, and Friday will be sandwiched in between my two days off, but eh at least it’s something.  Hopefully something similar will be worked out next week too. Stupid shift bid, making my life difficult.

P.S. Finished ‘fixing’ Kyouko in the stampede, now on to Nico.  Going down the line makes it somehow easier, but there’s still the issue of memory overuse by SAI.  Really have to be careful this time around.

Raining Close To Spring

Every time it rains, I keep on thinking that the weather seems to be a whole season late.  Seriously, downpour that’s at times strong enough to cause flooding even in the city?  It’s something you’d expect during mid-year, after the summer heat had passed, and not during the first two months of the year.  What is up with that (the obvious answer is climate change due to global warming of course)?

If you’re wondering why I commented on the rain today, well it’s because it was pouring on the way to the office (although not enough to soak me), and again on the way home.  Maybe I should bring an umbrella again, just in case?  Nah, it would be a big bother leaving it at the guard, then picking it up again before heading home.  Besides things haven’t escalated to the point where the rains have become a nuisance (in other words, when it floods and makes me get late for work), and it makes evenings a lot cooler too, the latter of which is important to me, as it helps me sleep easier.

Nothing really much to add about my day at work today.  As it’s a Monday shift, it’s the slowest day of my work week, though the fact that I’m working a single queue (given my current system status) makes it annoying whenever it seems that I’m the only one taking in calls (stupid queue priority) while the rest are just goofing off.  Oh well, at least I’m still unable to take in CS calls…

And that’s it I suppose.  Maybe I’ll do some fixing on the stampede, then it’s back to bed.