end of day update, Wednesday Jan. 22
Jan. 22nd, 2020 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingThings done since 2:30pm:
1. Worked 4-8pm at Not the IRS. I had my first tax client today! We couldn't finish because they were missing two pieces of information, but it's the kind of thing where somebody else just has to plug two numbers in and then run the signatures, so they're coming back on their Thursday lunch break with those numbers and one of my coworkers will get everything signed and paid.
2. Continued listening to The Magnus Archives. I have finished episode 101: "Another Twist," and continue to enjoy the podcast a lot. :D
3. Continued listening to my current Great Courses series, which continues to annoy me but not quite enough to call it a day and move on to something else. *hands* I have decided to treat it as an unreliable introductory survey course, which is basically what it is.
Thus far the lecturer has made howling genealogical errors for both the Medicis and the royal family of Castille-Aragon, has fucked up the timeline of the Portuguese voyages of exploration around Africa to India, and has also repeated negative rumors about the Borgias as if they were proven fact. (Which, like, I am not a Borgia fan? But there is a difference between saying, "There were widely believed stories that the Borgias did such-and-such shocking, immoral things," and saying, flat-out, "The Borgias totally did these shocking, immoral things," in the same tone as reporting clear facts like who was king of France in a certain year.) I also have serious arguments with his take on Columbus's voyages and Cortez's conquest of Mexico, though that's more an interpretation thing than an errors-of-fact thing. On the other hand, this is one of the first times I've heard someone devote time and attention to the growth of the popular piety movement in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance, so that's worth something.
4. Wrote ~525 words of the bridge-centric Narnia fic. I think I have figured out what the tax record stuff is doing there -- the theme is about building Narnia back into a functional and unified country in the years after PC (possibly also after VDT? I am as yet unsure of the exact timeframe of this fic), so cracking down on old habits of tax evasion (and also using taxes for public works rather than just making Miraz rich and hiring ever-more soldiers) is related to my protagonist's obsession with creating functional bridges to improve transportation networks and logistics. Also, I have worked out a good reason for her to meet a local naiad, and a reason for that naiad to have an interest in human engineering. So. Progress!
(Also, as of yesterday I am no longer in the red on my![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
getyourwordsout pledge of 75,000 words in 2020. \o/ I mean, ~205 words a day is not a particularly grueling writing pace, but I spent the first week of January writing literally no fiction, and most of the next week writing a grand total of 210 words over six whole days, so it's nice to prove to myself that I can still knock words out when I put in a little time and effort. Are these words aimed toward my planned Writing Projects To Complete in 2020? So far, mostly not. But some of them are, and any words are better than no words, you know?)
5. Bought some more groceries, including the zucchinis I was unable to buy yesterday because the store had run out of them. They were very nearly out again today, but I snapped up the last remnants -- they're quite small and some have weird marks on their skins (which is probably why no one else had bought them earlier), but they will roast just fine so I don't care.
6. Steamed broccoli for lunch tomorrow and Friday. Possibly dinner tomorrow as well? Or no, that will probably be taco salad.
7. Possibly I should mention that I washed all the dishes I used in my various cooking projects? I don't usually mention washing dishes, because that's not a task I have ever had trouble with. It doesn't eat spoons for me -- in fact, I find it meditative and a minor source of the "look, I have Done A Thing" satisfaction I get from creative endeavors. And I think because I know dishes aren't a problem for me, I don't get bothered if they stack up in my sink for a couple days -- I know I will get to them sooner or later, so there's no sense of building anxiety as the size of the task grows. It just means I get one long meditation session instead of two or three smaller ones spread over multiple days.
I have heard other people's dish-related issues, and I am really glad they're not something I personally share. Anyway, you can generally assume that I have eaten three meals, showered in the morning, gotten dressed, brushed my teeth twice a day, and flossed in the evening, even if I don't explicitly mention doing those tasks. I do put them on my to-do lists, but that's mostly to give myself some "freebies" so even on bad days I can feel like I'm still doing something, you know?
...
This has been a really good/productive week, actually. Suspiciously good. Now I'm suddenly waiting for the other shoe to drop. *headdesk*
...
Anyway, now I am off to bed, because I have to be up at 7:15am tomorrow instead of getting to sleep in until the luxuriously late hour of 9:00am. *wry*
1. Worked 4-8pm at Not the IRS. I had my first tax client today! We couldn't finish because they were missing two pieces of information, but it's the kind of thing where somebody else just has to plug two numbers in and then run the signatures, so they're coming back on their Thursday lunch break with those numbers and one of my coworkers will get everything signed and paid.
2. Continued listening to The Magnus Archives. I have finished episode 101: "Another Twist," and continue to enjoy the podcast a lot. :D
3. Continued listening to my current Great Courses series, which continues to annoy me but not quite enough to call it a day and move on to something else. *hands* I have decided to treat it as an unreliable introductory survey course, which is basically what it is.
Thus far the lecturer has made howling genealogical errors for both the Medicis and the royal family of Castille-Aragon, has fucked up the timeline of the Portuguese voyages of exploration around Africa to India, and has also repeated negative rumors about the Borgias as if they were proven fact. (Which, like, I am not a Borgia fan? But there is a difference between saying, "There were widely believed stories that the Borgias did such-and-such shocking, immoral things," and saying, flat-out, "The Borgias totally did these shocking, immoral things," in the same tone as reporting clear facts like who was king of France in a certain year.) I also have serious arguments with his take on Columbus's voyages and Cortez's conquest of Mexico, though that's more an interpretation thing than an errors-of-fact thing. On the other hand, this is one of the first times I've heard someone devote time and attention to the growth of the popular piety movement in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance, so that's worth something.
4. Wrote ~525 words of the bridge-centric Narnia fic. I think I have figured out what the tax record stuff is doing there -- the theme is about building Narnia back into a functional and unified country in the years after PC (possibly also after VDT? I am as yet unsure of the exact timeframe of this fic), so cracking down on old habits of tax evasion (and also using taxes for public works rather than just making Miraz rich and hiring ever-more soldiers) is related to my protagonist's obsession with creating functional bridges to improve transportation networks and logistics. Also, I have worked out a good reason for her to meet a local naiad, and a reason for that naiad to have an interest in human engineering. So. Progress!
(Also, as of yesterday I am no longer in the red on my
getyourwordsout pledge of 75,000 words in 2020. \o/ I mean, ~205 words a day is not a particularly grueling writing pace, but I spent the first week of January writing literally no fiction, and most of the next week writing a grand total of 210 words over six whole days, so it's nice to prove to myself that I can still knock words out when I put in a little time and effort. Are these words aimed toward my planned Writing Projects To Complete in 2020? So far, mostly not. But some of them are, and any words are better than no words, you know?)5. Bought some more groceries, including the zucchinis I was unable to buy yesterday because the store had run out of them. They were very nearly out again today, but I snapped up the last remnants -- they're quite small and some have weird marks on their skins (which is probably why no one else had bought them earlier), but they will roast just fine so I don't care.
6. Steamed broccoli for lunch tomorrow and Friday. Possibly dinner tomorrow as well? Or no, that will probably be taco salad.
7. Possibly I should mention that I washed all the dishes I used in my various cooking projects? I don't usually mention washing dishes, because that's not a task I have ever had trouble with. It doesn't eat spoons for me -- in fact, I find it meditative and a minor source of the "look, I have Done A Thing" satisfaction I get from creative endeavors. And I think because I know dishes aren't a problem for me, I don't get bothered if they stack up in my sink for a couple days -- I know I will get to them sooner or later, so there's no sense of building anxiety as the size of the task grows. It just means I get one long meditation session instead of two or three smaller ones spread over multiple days.
I have heard other people's dish-related issues, and I am really glad they're not something I personally share. Anyway, you can generally assume that I have eaten three meals, showered in the morning, gotten dressed, brushed my teeth twice a day, and flossed in the evening, even if I don't explicitly mention doing those tasks. I do put them on my to-do lists, but that's mostly to give myself some "freebies" so even on bad days I can feel like I'm still doing something, you know?
...
This has been a really good/productive week, actually. Suspiciously good. Now I'm suddenly waiting for the other shoe to drop. *headdesk*
...
Anyway, now I am off to bed, because I have to be up at 7:15am tomorrow instead of getting to sleep in until the luxuriously late hour of 9:00am. *wry*
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-24 01:55 am (UTC)I don't feel anxiety related to dishes piling up to be washed, or left to dry for a while on end, but I do prefer them to be washed up.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-24 03:33 am (UTC)This is one reason a standard small problem-solving suggestion for depressed people is to buy a bunch of paper plates and plastic utensils, so you can just chuck them out after a meal and only have your actual cookware to worry about cleaning. Dishwashers may also help, but you still often have to soak or scrub out some stuff by hand and then loading/unloading the machine can apparently become an Insurmountable Obstacle as well, depending on what one's brain decides is today's sticking point. *hands*
Like I said, it's not a chore I personally have problems with, but it sounds like an awful symptom to live with and I'm very glad my personal "oh god I cannot face it" household chores are mostly things like vacuuming, which are a lot less noticeable if I let them slide for weeks on end.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-24 03:38 am (UTC)I mean, I get annoyed when it's someone else's turn to do the dishes, but that's not a function thing, that's a fairness thing. Like, I did the washing up last week and the week before, I would like you to contribute to the household.