that post from yesterday, without plants

[jazzfish]

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:

• 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.)

If these Lessons seem to be somewhat at odds with each other, you have grasped the central difficulty of my last two months.

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.

Comments

[ancientsong.livejournal.com]

Ah, Taran Wanderer! Those five books woke me to a whole new world. They were the first sci-fi/fantasy books I ever read (as recommended by the best English teacher ever, Mrs. Hudson; she was incredible).

Now, of course, I have to go re-read them myself.

Thanks for that. :)

[jazzfish]

I was sad that the characterizations didn't hold up as well as they might have. Gurgi and Eilonwy especially are kind of flimsy. The world is great, though, and the plot hangs together well. And the Cauldron-born are effectively creepy. :)

And don't forget _The Foundling_! Short stories set in Prydain, mostly from well before the books. Good stuff.

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

One of my adulthood lessons: you do not do anyone (least of all yourself) any good by running yourself to exhaustion as a form of penance for not being able to do everything. No sane person, good manager, or good friend wants to see you crash. Just a thought.

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).

[jazzfish]

Hm. It's more like penance for feeling like I'm not doing anything at all. It gives my brain something to point to and say "yes but i can't actually do any more, so let me alone already!" As you note, it's easier to make sane judgement calls about these things when one isn't starting off from a position of exhaustion.

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.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

I know you can't make it to Thursdays, but I've been thinking about checking out the US Department of Juggling, which meets on Friday nights in Chevy Chase. In case ya wanna.

http://www.usjuggling.org

[jazzfish]

My current Thursday plans are up for Seriously Reconsideration, probably sometime late Aprilish.

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?

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Don't go to Luray! That's the not-actually-any-good one! (well, ok, unless you're comparing it to the cave at Natural Bridge, which is not just over-commercialized & mostly too dry, but all their cool stuff is off the tour route due to thin floors) Shenandoah Caverns in New Market is pretty decent, and slightly closer. The really nice one is Grand Caverns, which is in Grottoes-- more like 3 hours out from here, but a really cool cave, and much less super-commercialized.

I contemplate your book theme, and may perhaps have recommendations at a later time.

[jazzfish]

Oh, /now/ you tell us. :) E'd been wanting to do some of the I-81 caves for awhile now, and PrezDay ended up being a good time to get away for a bit, and caves were a good excuse. And we'd both done Luray ages and ages ago, and there was a place to stay near it.

Shenandoah and Endless are also on the list of Next Caves To Try. Where's Grand?

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Well, if you'd asked... ;) At least you went to the least impressive one first, instead of being disappointed by it later on. (Endless is also perfectly good as an option.)

Grand Caverns (slightly farther south than the others, I believe)