Done yesterday (20110409 Sa)

[mdlbear]

0409 Sa
  * up 7:45; W=196.4; drugs, nose, coffee, light
  * 8:30-9 Honda in for service
    The loaner is a Hyundai Sonata, which I'm quite familiar with. :)
    * get headlight installed, replace front tires, align
  * 9:30ish YD needs to be taken to class
  @ For Better or For Worse Comic Strip by Lynn Johnston re: QV
    " Every woman I know has the ability to tough it out, even when they're
      sick. If someone needs you, the strength is there. You don't think
      twice, you just do what needs to be done. It's second nature. [...]
      People will say they have never done anything outstanding, courageous or
      worthy of note, but examples of selflessness like this happen every
      day...and it makes the word "giving" really mean something.
    "
    Yeah.  That.
  @ In great-grandma's time, little kids went around un-gendered - Boing
    Boing  -> When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? | Smithsonian Magazine 
  * 15min:  re-arranged some clutter in the office to put the laptop stand
    back in place and make the tax pile more accessible.
  * d/l tax s/w -- it would have been cheaper if I'd done it in Jan.  Oops.
    What's really moronic is that they sent me two copies of the CD, in DVD
    boxes, that contained an application that did nothing but launch a browser
    pointed at their download web page.  Couldn't they have sent a postcard?
  & 15min: declutter the Mac desktop.  Ick.  Hasn't been done in years.
    also shows how much I've been using the macbook, which is not much.
  % I'm much too ready to say "nevermind, I'll do it" when the YD starts
    whining about something she's been asked to do.  Need to work on that.
  * 15min:  massive cleanup and git checkin under Secret (receipts, taxes)
  @ How to be your own best friend - Goodlife Zen via @jules_stonesoup 
    " If you find yourself feeling bad, take a step back and look at what
      youre thinking. Is it true? Is there another way to look at the
      situation thats at least as true but feels better?  
    "
  * attempted to order Coexist bumper stickers via Peacemonger.org.  Their 
    checkout process seems to be seriously screwed up; fails completely on
    chrome, fails at the end on firefox.  We'll see what happens.
  : My life expectency:  17.72 years = 6472 days, according to the SSA's Actuarial Life Table 
    (via 17000 Days - Life is short. Make your best days a common occurrence.)
  : meanwhile, LJ is DDoS'ed again.  Surprise.
  @ Productivity for procrastinators | 17000 Days 
  * 15min: tax data entry from checkbook
  & household sysadmin: both kids have external HD's.  The YD's is hosed
    because she tripped over the power cord.  The IBF's is fine, but it was
    formatted on a Mac.  "But it said on the box that it worked with either
    Mac or PC..."  Sheesh!  So that one has to be transferred, reformatted,
    and transferred back.
  @ Im pro-choice because | Raising My Boychick 
  * 15min: finished data entry from checkbook
  * buy: pantsu
  * buy: Centrum cardio
  @ The Wordsmith's Forge - The Rich Robbers
    -> Off-the-charts income gains for super-rich - Yahoo! News 
  * 15min: finished data entry from store & restaurant receipts

My productivity momentum seems to have carried over from work, through my piles of tax-related receipts. (There are still plenty of things left to do, so don't get all excited yet.) Installed the software (the Program Formerly Known As TaxCut) too. What's really moronic is that they sent me two copies of the CD, in DVD boxes, that contained an application that did nothing but launch a browser pointed at their download web page. Couldn't they have sent a postcard? Or an email?

Spent wasted more time trying to order some Coexist bumberstickers from Peacemonger.org. Failed at the start of the checkout process in Chrome, and at the end in Firefox. If I'm feeling up to it I may try to place a phone order tomorrow.

I also had the car serviced -- major service, two front tires, alignment, balancing, and a headlight. Ouch! But it's paid off; the total came to less then three payments would have, and it's good for another six months or so. I'm still ahead.

Lots of good links this time. Spent quite a while reading self-help articles on Goodlife Zen and 17000 Days. For instance,

If you find yourself feeling bad, take a step back and look at what youre thinking. Is it true? Is there another way to look at the situation that's at least as true but feels better?

And for fans of "Quiet Victories", I'll leave you with the notes on yesterday's For Better or For Worse

Every woman I know has the ability to tough it out, even when they're sick. If someone needs you, the strength is there. You don't think twice, you just do what needs to be done. It's second nature. I had a dear friend whose husband was terribly ill. She looked after him night and day and when he was finally able to go back to work, she checked herself into the hospital and had surgery. She'd been suffering with a cyst on her ovary and hadn't let the pain register until her other fears were over. People will say they have never done anything outstanding, courageous or worthy of note, but examples of selflessness like this happen every day...and it makes the word "giving" really mean something.

Yeah. That.

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

I tried to play the audio of "Quiet Victories" - I think I've only heard it once - but both the .ogg and the .mp3 gave me "Forbidden" error messages :-(

[mdlbear]

Weird, but it does that for me, too. Probably a permission problem. Investigating.

[mdlbear]

OK, that was amusing, and not what I thought. A few weeks ago I moved the Songs directory from one part of the directory tree to another, and some symlinks broke.

Should work now.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Yup, it's working now - thanks!

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Is there another way to look at the situation that's at least as true but feels better?

Yes! This angle of thinking about things has helped me out to no end when trying to reframe something that is sucking me down into a negative spiral. It's sort of like realizing that my right to feel okay about something is just as important in my life's scheme of things as everything else involved.

[mdlbear]

Hmm. "My right to feel okay about something" is an interesting concept -- I don't think it had occurred to me before.

Of course, the real trick is trying to feel "okay" about something that's manifestly not okay, and was clearly my decision, but which it's far too late to fix.