that post from yesterday, without plants
Feb. 24th, 2009 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Just finished: Lloyd Alexander, The Prydain Cycle (mostly an excuse to reread Taran Wanderer)
Currently reading: Norman Spinrad, Child of Fortune
Possible next-to-read: John M. Ford, Growing Up Weightless
My main preoccupation these days is left as an exercise for the reader. Additional suggestions welcome, since the Ford isn't really all that thematically appropriate. (I may not be mentally eighteen anymore; I'm definitely not thirteen.)
So far 2009 has been a Learning Experience. To wit:
I run myself at the ragged edge of exhaustion because that way I feel like I'm making the best use of my time, getting in as much as possible. Usually the quality of the experience doesn't suffer either. Coraline was a lot of fun. Luray, despite being paved over and brightly lit, managed to wow me several times. (The Lake of Dreams is a huge 18"-deep still pool that perfectly reflects the cavern ceiling above. You know how mirrors are supposed to make spaces look larger? This one actually does.)
But interacting with people, particularly new people, is difficult. Participating and making connections takes effort, requires energy. If I've just not got that energy, I wind up feeling vaguely (or sometimes specifically) dissatisfied with myself for not getting what I wanted out of the interaction. Not to mention even more drained than before.
Thankfully "crunch time" (including not only that old favorite "it's a month before the deadline, so here, write about a completely new set of features!" but also "it's three weeks after the initial deadline and some unspecified time past the most recent deadline, so can you get us a few more pages on how we just changed that feature set?"), however, has subsided as of Friday. And I'm starting to be a bit better about getting closer to six hours sleep.
I have no idea if Getting More Rest will actually help. I figure it can't hurt, in any event.
Currently reading: Norman Spinrad, Child of Fortune
Possible next-to-read: John M. Ford, Growing Up Weightless
My main preoccupation these days is left as an exercise for the reader. Additional suggestions welcome, since the Ford isn't really all that thematically appropriate. (I may not be mentally eighteen anymore; I'm definitely not thirteen.)
So far 2009 has been a Learning Experience. To wit:
- Finding a social group that I'm happy with and that I feel like I Belong to is important for me.
- I can get by on fiveish hours of sleep a night [plus somewhat more on weekends] during 'crunch time' at work, for nearly two months, with assistance from naps and tea.
- However, this is not all that conducive to trying new things. Such as, say, being sociable with people I don't know well but would like to get to know better. (To be fair, three different groups of people in four days isn't a light schedule for me at the best of times.)
I run myself at the ragged edge of exhaustion because that way I feel like I'm making the best use of my time, getting in as much as possible. Usually the quality of the experience doesn't suffer either. Coraline was a lot of fun. Luray, despite being paved over and brightly lit, managed to wow me several times. (The Lake of Dreams is a huge 18"-deep still pool that perfectly reflects the cavern ceiling above. You know how mirrors are supposed to make spaces look larger? This one actually does.)
But interacting with people, particularly new people, is difficult. Participating and making connections takes effort, requires energy. If I've just not got that energy, I wind up feeling vaguely (or sometimes specifically) dissatisfied with myself for not getting what I wanted out of the interaction. Not to mention even more drained than before.
Thankfully "crunch time" (including not only that old favorite "it's a month before the deadline, so here, write about a completely new set of features!" but also "it's three weeks after the initial deadline and some unspecified time past the most recent deadline, so can you get us a few more pages on how we just changed that feature set?"), however, has subsided as of Friday. And I'm starting to be a bit better about getting closer to six hours sleep.
I have no idea if Getting More Rest will actually help. I figure it can't hurt, in any event.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 03:39 pm (UTC)Now, of course, I have to go re-read them myself.
Thanks for that. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 04:13 pm (UTC)And don't forget _The Foundling_! Short stories set in Prydain, mostly from well before the books. Good stuff.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 03:47 pm (UTC)I'm glad you were able to make it out though. Getting more rest will help. The brain does weird things on prolonged sleep deprivation (mine keeps trying to suggest that caffeine is a sleep substitute, which I know is a bad idea... if I've had enough sleep).
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 05:44 pm (UTC)And anecdata suggest that sleep is actually a pretty good substitute for caffeine. Will try that this week and report on results.
Thanks; I'm glad I made it out myself. It was easily the least stress-inducing of the Social Events, in addition to being a lot of fun. A+++ WOULD BUY AGAIN.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 04:43 pm (UTC)http://www.usjuggling.org
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:37 pm (UTC)Friday nights in general tend to be a Mess, and in specific are clogged through the end of March. If you end up going, keep me posted on how it is?
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:29 pm (UTC)I contemplate your book theme, and may perhaps have recommendations at a later time.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 02:22 pm (UTC)Shenandoah and Endless are also on the list of Next Caves To Try. Where's Grand?
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 02:29 pm (UTC)Grand Caverns (slightly farther south than the others, I believe)