A little bit of this, a little bit of that
So very, very tired tonight.
I'm rambling like crazy, so I split this post up into more manageable chunks. It makes me feel more organized than I actually am.
Did I mention that I was tired? Okay, good.
A week's worth of 6am alarms - despite going to bed early every night - are guaranteed to wear me out. Unfortunately I'm going to have to get used to it. As of today I am now permanently working breakfast, taking the place of a co-worker who left on Tuesday. Now, I didn't have to take the position, seeing as how I hate breakfast and I am in no way, shape or form any sort of morning person. BUT ... I can use the extra hours. Period.
::SIGH::
I am so, so going to regret this Monday morning.
I just have to keep reminding myself that the misery will pay off, especially in October, when we're making a big family trip to Disneyland for Meg's 6th birthday. I'll get paid 3 days before we leave and the extra money will SERIOUSLY come in handy when I'm wandering the souvenir shops in Fantasy Land, searching for a birthday gift that's not too hideously expensive.
Oh, and before I forget: that other position I kept mentioning, the one at Educational Services that everyone and their grandmother wanted me to apply for? Yeah, turns out that I CAN'T. The school district is dragging their heels in regards to hiring someone new. That would, after all, require actually PAYING whoever they hired. So instead the position of "District Media Clerk" is being filled by random people from the office, most of whom have never worked it before and can't really be trained to work it because the previous Media Clerk has moved to Idaho and gladly washed her hands of the whole thing.
So do they call me? The one person who HAS been trained and HAS done the work, going on three years now?
Well of course not.
I know for a fact that there are people down there who want me back, but someone is putting the kibosh on it. Probably the same person who doesn't want to actually PAY me to do the job.
So. I guess I was angsting all over the place for nothing.
This was my first week using the Nike + iPod Sport Kit (which I got as a late birthday gift) and I freaking LOVE IT.
I think this is probably the other reason that I'm as tired as I am this week: I walked my usual 20 miles, but I did them FASTER, all because of this little contraption that attaches to my shoe and communicates with my Nano, keeping track of how far and how quickly I walk, along with how many calories I've burned. It's ridiculously awesome, and for less than $30, I am totally sold.
In the process of learning about this little gem I discovered Fitpod.com, and from there stumbled upon "Podrunner" workout mixes by dj steveboy. I've downloaded two of his podcasts (they're all available for free on iTunes, among other places) and they're just fantastic. Really, really excellent for working out. And it's funny, because most of the music ... techno, dance ... it's not my usual style at all. But when you're sweating hard and pounding the pavement, this stuff is absolutely perfect. I honestly wish I'd known about it sooner.
You can also upload all of your workout info from your iPod onto Nike's site, where it's put into a lovely informational graph that you can stare at in amazement. I've set myself a goal of walking 80 miles in 4 weeks, and the site keeps track of that sort of thing as well. But that's not really much of a goal - I'd be getting 80 miles anyway. What I actually should have done was set myself a speed goal, since I expect to be sitting on my 20-miles-a-week thing for quite some time. At this point, increasing my distance is not as important as increasing my speed. But I'm a little afraid. I've gotten faster this week already (knowing that your every step is being recorded is pretty darned motivating, it turns out) but I'm not sure yet how much will be too much. We'll see. If my legs are killing me come Monday night, I'll know I overdid it this past week. That's always the litmus test.
So yeah. Thus ends my unintentional review of the Nike + iPod Sport Kit:
Tried it, love it, highly recommend it.
I have officially abandoned Photobucket in favor of Box.net. Not only do you get a gig of free space, but the whole layout is MUCH cleaner and more attractive. Oh, and there aren't any ads. And you can share easily with friends. And the public. And there are no file or size restrictions.
What's not the love?
I've already moved all of my lj icons over there (yes, there are some new ones), along with a bunch of old pencil work that I've done, just for the hell of it. Most of it's more than a decade old, so if you're up for a laugh, feel free to take a look. (The only problem with the Box.net layout is that I can't seem to get comments working on the images. So if you're really interested, you can look at the same pics over on Yahoo, just smaller and with some explanation.)
Speaking of the old LJ here, I've decided to reformat it. I think it's time to make things a bit more personal, which means new graphics and an entirely new layout, something with a header and a less generic style. So if you happen to wander through and notice some highly bizarre formatting going on, it's only me messing around with CSS. I wish there was some way for me to test the layout offline, but such is life. I'd probably have tackled it this week, if not for all the aforementioned ... stuff.
So maybe next week.
Or not.
I'm rambling like crazy, so I split this post up into more manageable chunks. It makes me feel more organized than I actually am.
Did I mention that I was tired? Okay, good.
A week's worth of 6am alarms - despite going to bed early every night - are guaranteed to wear me out. Unfortunately I'm going to have to get used to it. As of today I am now permanently working breakfast, taking the place of a co-worker who left on Tuesday. Now, I didn't have to take the position, seeing as how I hate breakfast and I am in no way, shape or form any sort of morning person. BUT ... I can use the extra hours. Period.
::SIGH::
I am so, so going to regret this Monday morning.
I just have to keep reminding myself that the misery will pay off, especially in October, when we're making a big family trip to Disneyland for Meg's 6th birthday. I'll get paid 3 days before we leave and the extra money will SERIOUSLY come in handy when I'm wandering the souvenir shops in Fantasy Land, searching for a birthday gift that's not too hideously expensive.
Oh, and before I forget: that other position I kept mentioning, the one at Educational Services that everyone and their grandmother wanted me to apply for? Yeah, turns out that I CAN'T. The school district is dragging their heels in regards to hiring someone new. That would, after all, require actually PAYING whoever they hired. So instead the position of "District Media Clerk" is being filled by random people from the office, most of whom have never worked it before and can't really be trained to work it because the previous Media Clerk has moved to Idaho and gladly washed her hands of the whole thing.
So do they call me? The one person who HAS been trained and HAS done the work, going on three years now?
Well of course not.
I know for a fact that there are people down there who want me back, but someone is putting the kibosh on it. Probably the same person who doesn't want to actually PAY me to do the job.
So. I guess I was angsting all over the place for nothing.
This was my first week using the Nike + iPod Sport Kit (which I got as a late birthday gift) and I freaking LOVE IT.
I think this is probably the other reason that I'm as tired as I am this week: I walked my usual 20 miles, but I did them FASTER, all because of this little contraption that attaches to my shoe and communicates with my Nano, keeping track of how far and how quickly I walk, along with how many calories I've burned. It's ridiculously awesome, and for less than $30, I am totally sold.
In the process of learning about this little gem I discovered Fitpod.com, and from there stumbled upon "Podrunner" workout mixes by dj steveboy. I've downloaded two of his podcasts (they're all available for free on iTunes, among other places) and they're just fantastic. Really, really excellent for working out. And it's funny, because most of the music ... techno, dance ... it's not my usual style at all. But when you're sweating hard and pounding the pavement, this stuff is absolutely perfect. I honestly wish I'd known about it sooner.
You can also upload all of your workout info from your iPod onto Nike's site, where it's put into a lovely informational graph that you can stare at in amazement. I've set myself a goal of walking 80 miles in 4 weeks, and the site keeps track of that sort of thing as well. But that's not really much of a goal - I'd be getting 80 miles anyway. What I actually should have done was set myself a speed goal, since I expect to be sitting on my 20-miles-a-week thing for quite some time. At this point, increasing my distance is not as important as increasing my speed. But I'm a little afraid. I've gotten faster this week already (knowing that your every step is being recorded is pretty darned motivating, it turns out) but I'm not sure yet how much will be too much. We'll see. If my legs are killing me come Monday night, I'll know I overdid it this past week. That's always the litmus test.
So yeah. Thus ends my unintentional review of the Nike + iPod Sport Kit:
Tried it, love it, highly recommend it.
I have officially abandoned Photobucket in favor of Box.net. Not only do you get a gig of free space, but the whole layout is MUCH cleaner and more attractive. Oh, and there aren't any ads. And you can share easily with friends. And the public. And there are no file or size restrictions.
What's not the love?
I've already moved all of my lj icons over there (yes, there are some new ones), along with a bunch of old pencil work that I've done, just for the hell of it. Most of it's more than a decade old, so if you're up for a laugh, feel free to take a look. (The only problem with the Box.net layout is that I can't seem to get comments working on the images. So if you're really interested, you can look at the same pics over on Yahoo, just smaller and with some explanation.)
Speaking of the old LJ here, I've decided to reformat it. I think it's time to make things a bit more personal, which means new graphics and an entirely new layout, something with a header and a less generic style. So if you happen to wander through and notice some highly bizarre formatting going on, it's only me messing around with CSS. I wish there was some way for me to test the layout offline, but such is life. I'd probably have tackled it this week, if not for all the aforementioned ... stuff.
So maybe next week.
Or not.