Miscellaneous – November 23, 2010

My internet kind of sucks at the moment. Or maybe it’s just the file download that is slowing it down and doesn’t allow me to use any kind of streaming, like youtube and such. I guess I have to be patient, which I have to admit I have a hard time with recently. Maybe it’s because there is so much going on. Or maybe, no, most probably it is, because people are so getting on my nerves recently. I’ve already started to ask myself if maybe the others aren’t the problem, but I just tend to overreact or misinterpret some behaviour or comments or any other kind of social interaction. Or maybe a lot of people just are a nuisance right now :-) I really try to not get riled up about some stuff, because it is such a waste of time and energy. But sometimes it’s hard to be “all Zen” about it.
Add all the things I have on my plate right now (work, local politics, grad school) and it’s a little wonder that I still feel like I’ve got a grip on it all. Well, more or less. Every once in a while my bad conscience is bothering me, because I am behind on some stuff and I tend to postpone doing it. Procrastination at it’s best. But I’ve got tomorrow off from work because I will have to accompany my mom to some pre-surgery exams and consults at the hospital. I’ve skipped out of a meeting I actually planned to attend tomorrow evening. There will be an additional conference call on Thursday night, so I really wanted to have at least tomorrow evening off. I’ve got Friday off work as well, so I should be able to get some of the things done.
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Reading my blogroll and livejournal friends list it feels like I’m one of the very few people who are not planning to see the new Harry Potter movie anytime soon. I love the books, but I haven’t even seen all the movies, because I wasn’t overly impressed by the first two which I have seen at the movies back then. And busy as I am I’m not very much inclined to spend my evening driving to the movie theatre, sitting through commercials, movie (I guess there even is a bathroom break *g*) and drive back. I might watch it on DVD some time. And I always prefered the books to the movies anyway.

The one book which is providing a lof of very relaxing entertainment for me at the moment is… the Outlander series. Once again, what can I say. I just love the characters and the story and everything. I’ve continued listening to 4th book “Drums of Autumn” as audiobook, after I took a break for some reasons, I don’t even remember now. Sadly enough book 5 and 6 are not available as audible audiobook, but only as the rather expensive CD version. I’ve already downloaded book 7 “Echo in the Bone” though and will continue with that once I’ve finished with the 4th one. I read Echo last year immediately when it was published, but I have to admit I’ve already forgotten some of the side storylines. I tend to read very very fast, when I get my hands on the latest release of a series I love (it was the same with Harry Potter), but in course of that I might not concentrate enough on all the storylines. It’s the core characters I care most about, so I follow their story by heart, but might tend to pay less attention to others. Listening to the audiobooks is different, at least for me. I tend to listen to every word very carefully and it’s such a great pleasure, because Davina Porter is doing such an amazing job narrating it.

Yesterday I more or less accidently found a Gabaldon fan website which has all the spoiler excerpts linked chronologically. I catch the snippets Gabaldon tend to post on her website or her blog every once in a while, but I’ve completely missed the ones she posts in the compuserve writers forum, because I don’t follow that. But now I don’t have to, because this wonderful website has all the excerpts compiled neatly. Excerpts of all the ongoing projects, which kept me busy reading last night. I know a lot of people probably don’t even want to get spoiled for a new book (just like people don’t want to read spoilers for TV shows), but I’m a spoiler addict, once I’ve lost my heart for any kind of fiction, whether it be on TV or in print. It just makes me happy to know what to expect and in regard to Outlander we only get “good news” spoilers, so I don’t have to worry about my “loved ones”. :-)
This fan website also has compiled Google Earth maps of the locations of the whole series, which sounds like such an awesome idea. I have to admit I’m a geography nerd and I tend to look up the places or regions in which any story I’m reading takes place. I will definetely have to check out this google earth thing tomorrow. (See above: procrastination ;-) )

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It’s pathetic, but this year I actually totally forgot that we get a christmas bonus. Well, it’s not related to christmas in any way, but the end of the year. The advantage of working in the public sector. I got all excited when I saw my payroll today. The move and the new flat really used up a lot of my savings, but now I’m a bit relieved about my current financial situation. I was thinking I should buy new slates and a new mattress for my bed, because in the process of moving and putting it up in this new flat I realized that it’s all rather old and worn out. I’m still sleeping ok though. I also really want to buy a sofa for my living room and as this might be less expensive than a good new mattress and such, I will probably spend the money on a sofa. And there still should be some money left to fill up my saving account again.

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I’m in the last week of the Game On Game and I’m still doing very good. I lost another pound and so far have now lost 3.8 kg (=8.4 lb). Not too bad. As long as I can keep it up for the rest of the week. And hopefully beyond. I did my 20 minutes exercise at the Kieser Training this afternoon and I’m so feeling it in my body right now. But it feels good :-)