phyncke

So it looks like I made it through the second dose of the vaccine with minimal side effects. I felt the urge to nap when I got home from the shot so I did that and napped for about an hour. And then all was good. I had a small headache on Sunday for a little bit. Other than that, I think I was good. Nothing bad happened. So that was that - no bad side effects. I am doing ok. Now everyone is different so reactions vary. My reaction will not be your reaction but just reporting mine here. I felt ok!

I am glad that is done and plan on laying low for the next two weeks until immunity is fully there.

So I am reading a really good book by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio called The Undocumented Americans about her experiences being an undocumented person in the United States. It is really interesting and kind of heartbreaking all at the same time. She is a really good writer and it is very well-written. A fun read but also hits hard. Their life is hard - not knowing when you might be deported and all that. I have never read anything on this before so it is really eye opening. Loving this book and I highly recommend it. It is about her journalistic projects as well as her family. Very good.

So this week, I am taking my car in to the mechanic and hopefully the transmission service will help my little VW Rabbit. I really hope so because I cannot afford a new car. Please let it work. Fingers crossed.

Anyways. That is all I have to report. I hear the stimulus payments will start appearing in the bank on March 17 so keep an eye out then. That is what I have seen online. The payments are dated for then. I checked on the web and my payment is dated for then. Will see what happens.

Hope all is well with you there. Peace and love!

Made a new banner and icon for my Spring layout. I have been really into these mandala graphics I found on pinterest so I made this one. I love the colors and find them soothing and refreshing. Loads of fun. So click in and check it out if you want.

Things are good with me today. I am having a good day so far. I motivated and took a walk up to the hills in Berkeley - it is about a 40 - 60 minute walk and then I rewarded myself with pancakes and turkey bacon. Yum. Had some real maple syrup with my pancakes. Love that. Love me some real maple syrup. I am trying to further motivate to clean my apartment here but that is not going so well. This post is my procrastination 101 on that. Clean? No, think I will write a blog post. LOL.

Work went well this Spring. My events were successful but I am not all that excited about my job. I do the same events every year and sort of dial it in. I need to revamp my resume and cover letter and get on the job market and see if there is anything out there that would be more fun and interesting. I could coast but that is no fun and I would love more money. Anyhoo. I will work on that. I have a friend at work who can do some graphical redesign on my resume. So will have that done and see how I do. Plan 1.

I have some travel coming up - well vacation plans. <lj user=khylea> is coming in for a Bay Area vacation the end of May. We will do fun stuff around here. There is a lot to do here so that will be fun. Then the end of June - I am going to New Hampshire to visit my family - parents, niece and sis-in-law. Then in July I do the Vegas thing - with the gals. So that will all be fun. Gotta have some fun. I ran through all my pts on SW so my free travel is all done now. Oh well - it was good while it lasted.

I am now a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers. I no longer have to pay but I still go to meetings. I am still tracking my food on the app and still really doing the program for now. I am going to keep with it for now. I don't feel ready to relax just yet. I want to see how this maintenance is and make sure I don't slip. I really worked too hard to get this weight off to let it come back on because I did not watch it. I have the feeling I might always have to watch it. It is a slippery slope. From what I see on the FB WW communities - it is really easy to gain the weight back. Harder to lose and easy to gain it back so I am really not wanting to go there again. I like how I am now and want to stay this way for good. So that is that - vigilance.

Oh hey - I am listening to James Comey's book - A Higher Loyalty - it is about a whole lot more than Donald Trump. Comey has had a really interesting career and his perspective is very interesting. I recommend this just for that. I have not even gotten to the Trump stuff and found this totally worth it for info on the case work he did alone. Of course Trump has to call Comey a "slime ball". Well - James Comey is not a slime ball - he is really intelligent, diligent and interesting - just about the antithesis of DJT. I still don't agree with Comey's moves on Hillary Clinton but hope to understand more about why he did that.

Anyway - that is what I am up to. Today it is a beautiful Spring day in the Bay Area - sunny and warm and the flowers are out. I potted up some zinnia's last weekend and hope those bloom nicely through the summer. Hope all is well with you in your part of the world.
Cheers.

I am pretty good. Work is going...life is going. I am going to Santa Cruz tomorrow etc. I don't know what to post about but it has been a while since I have posted so I thought I should write a post. I am boring.

I am reading a few things - well listening to books on audible - I just finished the All Soul's Trilogy by Deborah Harkness - brilliant stuff - about witchcraft and vampires and just really well written. Very detailed with historical information as Harkness is a university professor (USC). It is lovely as an audible and the narrator is amazing - really realizes all the characters. So I finished that and am now reading Iced by Karen Marie Moning - continuing in the Fever series. I really love this series - it supposes that there was a wall between the human realm and the fae realm and that suddenly that wall came crashing down - and there is a sort of war between the fae and humans - very good stuff - this is all really a continuation of her Highlander series. I am a big big fan of Karen Marie Moning. Her men are MEN and her heroines are smart and snarky. She also writes with a lot of humor.

So also am reading a book on my kindle at the same time - I have started in on Game of Thrones. I watch the TV show so essentially I know what has happened in this first book but I wanted to see what the book is like. I have to say - it is a really well written and wonderful book. It is full of characters - as I had heard but I guess seeing the show gives me an advantage on following it all. His writing is not overdone at all - it is lean and well described. I totally love his writing style. I also really like the length of the chapters - just the right length and each chapter is a main character POV. Just totally well done. I am not sure I will read all the books - I am just dipping my toe into the water so to speak. I have so many books I want to read but I did want to get a sense of GRRM's writing.

So what else is happening - my dad was the victim of a computer scam - he got a pop up on his computer that was masking as a trojan virus - it had a phone number on it - which he called - and the people on the other end talked him into letting them remote access his computer to "clean it" and he paid 400.00 for this service. Obviously this pop up virus was a scam by this company and they scare vulnerable people into paying them for this. I talked to him on the day it happened and got him to call his bank and get the charges reversed. Luckily they would because it was a fraudulent company - I had looked them up on the internet and they were on the fraud list. Then my dad did a system restore to a point before this all happened to get their remote access file off of his computer. My brother went over to their house (they live in NH) and checked everything out so things are fine now. My dad is very embarrassed that this happened but none the worse for it. So no mention of this on FB please.

Anyhoo. That's all I have. Road trip tomorrow. Sleep tonight. Anyone watching Orphan Black? I am loving that show. Totally addicted.

See you soon!


by nienna_weeper on livejournal

I ordered my Kindle Keyboard with 3G and Wifi today. I should get that on Wednesday. I am hoping that this will inspire me to read more etc. I was not impressed with the reviews on the Kindle Fire so got this one. I really just want an e-reader with some extras and so was happy with this one. It got excellent reviews etc. I got a case for it for 1.85 on amazon. Pretty neato. All my amazon money is spent but well spent. Yays!

I am not sure this will replace books for me as I always like books but it will be fun to have this little gadget. I was amassing amazon funds for this purchase and so there it goes.

Wootles.


by rockgirl182

I am stopping by here. I am not cross-posting to this journal but I am using this really for different things and my writer's machinations. Writing about writing which seems so self indulgent but I find that therapeutic.

I am in the mood to build a fic around a single word...the word that came up today was fecund. Really a fun word. When I used to teach, I could base lessons around whole words for a week so this would be an interesting exercise actually. I have a sideways way to get at this and I think the Story Idea will hold.

This from the kid who used to read the dictionary. Yes, that was me.

I love words.

I wonder what everyone is doing over here but I don't have the energy to slog through the friends page. Some time soon I will do that. Another self indulgence, posting without reading. Yep. 

I am excited about continuing an RP with Jastaelf. I have to formulate that. Her writing is gorgeous and stretches me. Makes me want to be better. That is a good thing. I have to set up the journal for that and get that going.