So, sorry for the delays on this post, guess I'm not doing particularly well at regular posting at the moment.
Anyways, lets see if I can get you all updated...
First up, I'm currently feeling rather miserable due to illness. Currently on day four of a bout of some kind of bug, hot & cold flashes, shivering, feeling like I'm being stabbed with pins, ludicrous amounts of sweating last night, really sore stomach that feels like my intestines are bruised, very very short (a few seconds) but intense headaches whenever I stand up, plus other bits that are kinda TMI. So I've been off work since Friday, sleeping twelve hours a day, and trying to fight this off with Vitamin C, fluids and cold & flu tablets.
Saw the doctor today and I'm pretty much at that stage where if it's a 'standard' bug I should come good by Wednesday, and if I don't I'm to head back in for another appointment. He said there's not really any specific symptom there that indicates the need for antibiotics, and it'd quite possibly make my stomach worse. Plus my temperature is only slightly elevated, and I'm still functional.
Fingers crossed I'm better by Wednesday, because gods I hate being sick like this!
In terms of other things, lets see, what's been going on..
I had my second counseling appointment. It continues to be good to talk about things but.. how do I put it.. since I don't really have a sense of what I want to get out of these sessions, other than a bit of clarity and perspective, it's hard to figure out what to actually do in them. At the moment we're mostly just talking about things that have happened and how I reacted, so there's no real sense of moving towards a goal. Oh well, I guess we see what happens. This may well be perfectly normal for counselling sessions when you're not there with a specific "I need help with X" type of thing.
On slightly more unusual news, and on the 'trying new things' topic. A few years ago Laura gave me a voucher for one of those beauty places to get a facial and either a massage/manicure/pedicure. At the time I kind of ummed and ahhed over it for a few months but couldn't really manage to ever make the booking, so I gave it back to her. In the spirit of, well, the whole purpose of this blog, I decided to 'return to the scene of the defeat' so to speak, and made a booking to basically recreate that offer.
It was an... interesting.. experience. Don't think that facials are my thing somehow (though the scalp massage was fantastic, as was the foot rub) but it was definitely something worth trying out. My feet felt absurdly soft/squishy afterwards too, that was a bonus.
New thing tried out, tick!
Comfort zone pushed, tick!
Horrible pun made, tick!
Now, I can't remember if I mentioned (and can't be bothered going back through my blog), but I'd needed to send my camera back to Olympus for a repair quote, since I couldn't get a bunch of the functions (like manually adjusted shutter speed) to work. I could select the options, but the little selection wheel wouldn't let me alter them. Olympus' customer service hadn't been able to help with it either, so I sent it off. A couple of days after I received a call from a lady in their repair center, asking me if I'd spoken to the place I bought it from since she'd just unboxed my camera and saw it was only a few weeks out of warranty, so maybe they'd be nice and let it be covered. I told her I'd already tried that and they weren't offering me leeway, but I figured it was awesome customer service from them that she actually called me to check that.
Well, a few days after that, my camera gets sent back to me. I figured this was weird, since I hadn't had a followup and no mention of a repair quote etc. Unboxed it and the note inside said that it works perfectly, I just had to use the ring on the front of the camera, around the lense.
How fucking hard would it have been for their customer service monkeys to say that??? I'd been using the control wheel on the back of the camera, which you use for changing all other settings, but apparently the "Control Ring" is around the front lense and not used for anything else (and you only find out about it if you read through the advanced manual from their website, and realise that they define "Control wheel" and "Control ring" as two different things).
Argh!!
Anyway, rage aside I now have my camera back and apparently it works perfectly, so I've been messing about with the shutter speed a bit. Here's a couple of shots with me playing a laser pointer over a half full glass and a couple of prisms etc beside it (note that this is 20 & 25 second exposure):
Then these two are of my room. This one is a pitch black room with a laser pointer being played over it for a minute:
And for this one instead of just the laser pointer, I also used my bike lights, giving them about equal amounts of 'lense time'. You can't really see evidence of the red one, barring a couple of little smudges:
Yay for cameras and lasers! Now I just have to learn to use these settings properly, rather than just in amusing little oddities.
Trying to think of what else has been happening, and I think the last one of note is last week I had my second lesson of SCA Rapier fencing. It continues to be an interesting experience, and is highlighting some of the oddities in how my joints work as I've been needing to slightly adjust my stances to stop my knees going "Oi, our union says we don't have to bend that way". I was allowed to take part in the sparring as well, which did somewhat surprise me, but I guess with Heavy training they knew I wasn't going to be swinging wildly and causing injury. I fully expected to be killed in three seconds every bout, but I actually managed to hold my own. Sure I had no style, no finesse, and was making huge wild parries and jumps and most of my hits on opponents were pure luck rather than creating openings, but I definitely made people work for their shots.
Going from sparring against Gindi (the trainer) and Laura was a huge contrast. If I tried to forcibly move Gindi's blade he'd typically adjust his grip/stance and push back. Laura would just disengage around my blade and do something else. Now I know how all those people who used to tell me I fought like a rabbit back in Kung Fu felt.
The third person I sparred against was a little of a mix of the two of them, though he had a habit of using a specific sequence of moves where he'd hit my sword out of the way and then lunge in at the same point. After he tried it the first time I was able to see it coming and dodge it pretty easily. Didn't figure out how to hit him back while he was doing it mind you, but I think avoiding it is a darned good step.
All up, awesome night, even if Laura did end up killing me most of the time by taking out three of my limbs rather than torso/head shots (To the pain!) :)
In terms of how I think I'm keeping up with the general theme of the blog.. I'm somewhat behind where I had hoped/thought I'd be, mostly in three places:
1) I still haven't completed the cleanup of my shelves, which I'd hoped to do one shelf a day at.
2) I had been hoping to have worked out a 'daily checklist' of things to do, mostly exercise related, to make sure I do every day.
3) The whole 'vegetable of the week' thing fell over after a few weeks and I haven't got back on the bandwagon yet.
Have failed at all three so far, but as a number of people have told me, making too many changes too quickly can stop you managing to achieve any of them, so I'm going to pare things down to this:
1) Clear out a shelf a week. More if I feel like it, but one a week minimum
2) Do some kind of exercise that's not commuting, per day. Three days a week are already done thanks to activities, so I just need bits to do for the other four. This can then be slowly transitioned into something that I do daily
3) Make sure I do up the vegetable intake a bit, and maybe try and work out some kind of easy vegetable *thing* that I can pre-make so that whenever I'm in a "Blargh, too exhausted to cooking, making something instant" mood I can still add vegetables (anyone have ideas on that? I need something that's reasonably tasty, goes with soup or noodle type instant dishes, gives me at least a couple of veggie serves, and will last at least a few days in the fridge).
Veggie of the week may return once I have my cooking more stabalised.
So. I.. think that's got you all up to date. Fingers crossed I'll manage to bring the next entry in rather sooner. Maybe that should be another item, get back to writing at least one blog entry a week!
Anyways, lets see if I can get you all updated...
First up, I'm currently feeling rather miserable due to illness. Currently on day four of a bout of some kind of bug, hot & cold flashes, shivering, feeling like I'm being stabbed with pins, ludicrous amounts of sweating last night, really sore stomach that feels like my intestines are bruised, very very short (a few seconds) but intense headaches whenever I stand up, plus other bits that are kinda TMI. So I've been off work since Friday, sleeping twelve hours a day, and trying to fight this off with Vitamin C, fluids and cold & flu tablets.
Saw the doctor today and I'm pretty much at that stage where if it's a 'standard' bug I should come good by Wednesday, and if I don't I'm to head back in for another appointment. He said there's not really any specific symptom there that indicates the need for antibiotics, and it'd quite possibly make my stomach worse. Plus my temperature is only slightly elevated, and I'm still functional.
Fingers crossed I'm better by Wednesday, because gods I hate being sick like this!
In terms of other things, lets see, what's been going on..
I had my second counseling appointment. It continues to be good to talk about things but.. how do I put it.. since I don't really have a sense of what I want to get out of these sessions, other than a bit of clarity and perspective, it's hard to figure out what to actually do in them. At the moment we're mostly just talking about things that have happened and how I reacted, so there's no real sense of moving towards a goal. Oh well, I guess we see what happens. This may well be perfectly normal for counselling sessions when you're not there with a specific "I need help with X" type of thing.
On slightly more unusual news, and on the 'trying new things' topic. A few years ago Laura gave me a voucher for one of those beauty places to get a facial and either a massage/manicure/pedicure. At the time I kind of ummed and ahhed over it for a few months but couldn't really manage to ever make the booking, so I gave it back to her. In the spirit of, well, the whole purpose of this blog, I decided to 'return to the scene of the defeat' so to speak, and made a booking to basically recreate that offer.
It was an... interesting.. experience. Don't think that facials are my thing somehow (though the scalp massage was fantastic, as was the foot rub) but it was definitely something worth trying out. My feet felt absurdly soft/squishy afterwards too, that was a bonus.
New thing tried out, tick!
Comfort zone pushed, tick!
Horrible pun made, tick!
Now, I can't remember if I mentioned (and can't be bothered going back through my blog), but I'd needed to send my camera back to Olympus for a repair quote, since I couldn't get a bunch of the functions (like manually adjusted shutter speed) to work. I could select the options, but the little selection wheel wouldn't let me alter them. Olympus' customer service hadn't been able to help with it either, so I sent it off. A couple of days after I received a call from a lady in their repair center, asking me if I'd spoken to the place I bought it from since she'd just unboxed my camera and saw it was only a few weeks out of warranty, so maybe they'd be nice and let it be covered. I told her I'd already tried that and they weren't offering me leeway, but I figured it was awesome customer service from them that she actually called me to check that.
Well, a few days after that, my camera gets sent back to me. I figured this was weird, since I hadn't had a followup and no mention of a repair quote etc. Unboxed it and the note inside said that it works perfectly, I just had to use the ring on the front of the camera, around the lense.
How fucking hard would it have been for their customer service monkeys to say that??? I'd been using the control wheel on the back of the camera, which you use for changing all other settings, but apparently the "Control Ring" is around the front lense and not used for anything else (and you only find out about it if you read through the advanced manual from their website, and realise that they define "Control wheel" and "Control ring" as two different things).
Argh!!
Anyway, rage aside I now have my camera back and apparently it works perfectly, so I've been messing about with the shutter speed a bit. Here's a couple of shots with me playing a laser pointer over a half full glass and a couple of prisms etc beside it (note that this is 20 & 25 second exposure):
Then these two are of my room. This one is a pitch black room with a laser pointer being played over it for a minute:
And for this one instead of just the laser pointer, I also used my bike lights, giving them about equal amounts of 'lense time'. You can't really see evidence of the red one, barring a couple of little smudges:
Yay for cameras and lasers! Now I just have to learn to use these settings properly, rather than just in amusing little oddities.
Trying to think of what else has been happening, and I think the last one of note is last week I had my second lesson of SCA Rapier fencing. It continues to be an interesting experience, and is highlighting some of the oddities in how my joints work as I've been needing to slightly adjust my stances to stop my knees going "Oi, our union says we don't have to bend that way". I was allowed to take part in the sparring as well, which did somewhat surprise me, but I guess with Heavy training they knew I wasn't going to be swinging wildly and causing injury. I fully expected to be killed in three seconds every bout, but I actually managed to hold my own. Sure I had no style, no finesse, and was making huge wild parries and jumps and most of my hits on opponents were pure luck rather than creating openings, but I definitely made people work for their shots.
Going from sparring against Gindi (the trainer) and Laura was a huge contrast. If I tried to forcibly move Gindi's blade he'd typically adjust his grip/stance and push back. Laura would just disengage around my blade and do something else. Now I know how all those people who used to tell me I fought like a rabbit back in Kung Fu felt.
The third person I sparred against was a little of a mix of the two of them, though he had a habit of using a specific sequence of moves where he'd hit my sword out of the way and then lunge in at the same point. After he tried it the first time I was able to see it coming and dodge it pretty easily. Didn't figure out how to hit him back while he was doing it mind you, but I think avoiding it is a darned good step.
All up, awesome night, even if Laura did end up killing me most of the time by taking out three of my limbs rather than torso/head shots (To the pain!) :)
In terms of how I think I'm keeping up with the general theme of the blog.. I'm somewhat behind where I had hoped/thought I'd be, mostly in three places:
1) I still haven't completed the cleanup of my shelves, which I'd hoped to do one shelf a day at.
2) I had been hoping to have worked out a 'daily checklist' of things to do, mostly exercise related, to make sure I do every day.
3) The whole 'vegetable of the week' thing fell over after a few weeks and I haven't got back on the bandwagon yet.
Have failed at all three so far, but as a number of people have told me, making too many changes too quickly can stop you managing to achieve any of them, so I'm going to pare things down to this:
1) Clear out a shelf a week. More if I feel like it, but one a week minimum
2) Do some kind of exercise that's not commuting, per day. Three days a week are already done thanks to activities, so I just need bits to do for the other four. This can then be slowly transitioned into something that I do daily
3) Make sure I do up the vegetable intake a bit, and maybe try and work out some kind of easy vegetable *thing* that I can pre-make so that whenever I'm in a "Blargh, too exhausted to cooking, making something instant" mood I can still add vegetables (anyone have ideas on that? I need something that's reasonably tasty, goes with soup or noodle type instant dishes, gives me at least a couple of veggie serves, and will last at least a few days in the fridge).
Veggie of the week may return once I have my cooking more stabalised.
So. I.. think that's got you all up to date. Fingers crossed I'll manage to bring the next entry in rather sooner. Maybe that should be another item, get back to writing at least one blog entry a week!
