jhameia | Entries tagged with exercise

So today was going to be a bit more productive. I absolutely meant to go to campus and finish clearing my office, bring home some stuff, and then turn in keys. And swim in the afternoon.

Instead, turns out the Pokemon Worlds Championship in Anaheim was happening so Niantic released Kangaskhans and Unowns in downtown Anaheim. Someone in the Pokemon Go Riverside FB group was offering to drive folks out. This is how I ended up in a car with three white Americans who did normal things like listen to metal music and go to baseball games on the road to Anaheim... a young couple and a dude who's probably closer my age, possibly older, jumping in even later than I did.

We parked in the convention center around 2.30-ish? and walked around trying to catch things until maybe 6.30. There was a lot of walking. We left around 7-ish, stopped by In-and-Out on the way, and yeah.

So. Got a lot of walking done!

Man I need to get to bed earlier tonight. I went to bed last night at 2, woke up at 10am, which is enough sleep, but by the time I got going, it was afternoon, blergh.

I took a Lyft over to Cellar Door Books, and picked up some books. Linda, the owner, asked me for help getting Latin@ YA and I was like "UH" and had to rack my brain for some names, and asked Twitter. Went to KFC to have lunch, and remembered about WNDB's resources, so I went back to the bookstore.

Anyway, because I was so helpful, Linda told me I was welcome to any of the ARCs in the back room, so I went round the back, and picked up Justina Ireland's Dread Nation, which I'm pretty excited about.

I walked to campus to pick up some more books and clear out my mailbox. Vonnie and I spoke a little--I guess the weight loss is SUPER visible to some people. IDK, I think I look mostly the same.

Walked home with my tea set and water filter, and tomorrow I'll grab the kettle, and then have to figure out how I'm bringing home the posters.

I went to swim later than usual--5pm. Did 4 sets of 6 again, and it got cold again, so I sat in the hot tub again. IDK, I'm not a fan of it. I bought a swim cap and new goggles last night and wish I'd thought about it sooner. I should have also bought a lap counter, too, now that I think of it. But as September rolls in, it will probably get colder? So I'll be at the pool less, probably. I'm gonna see if I can push my laps up to 30 before fall officially gets here, because that would be nice as a personal best. Then I gotta figure out what to do next.

I went to MacDonald's again tonight, this time with a coupon for a Happy Meal. I actually liked it! Four nuggets, half a small fries (SO SMOL!), a chocolate milk, a thing of yogurt (yogurt!!!) and I was actually quite full after. I think that might have been the combo of the yogurt and the milk. I had tummy issues after, which I'll chalk up to the milk, so next time I'll get it with the small orange juice and see how my stomach plays with that, and hopefully it's not the yogurt.

I was thinking of walking to campus to put away some books I'd strewn across a table which was not mine, because Brittany has office hours tomorrow (I think?) so I really shouldn't have all that stuff there. But I thought I'd go home and try to get some sleep early instead, and try waking up earlier.

So I've been reading in bed, on my phone. That's going pretty okay.

Today, I went to campus, and joined a Moltres raid on the way there. On the way back home, Lewis texted me, saying he was done teaching, so I told him I'd be down to go raiding some more if he had a car. He does, so, we go downtown, we join a Lugia raid, then move over to a Zapdos raid. We wander around spinning stops, come across a couple who had raided with us, and decide to head down to Jurupa Valley for a Moltres. We have to hang out a while, because people are taking time to get there, but with 8 people, we get the Moltres. Then as a group, we head out to an Articuno raid, where we join another group, and make it a raid of 19 people.

I got 4 out of 5 legendaries. Pretty good streak thus far. Lewis finally has a couple of legendaries in his 'dex, too.

When I got home, I decide, well, the sun's going down, but the water might still be warm, so I head out for a swim (this is around 6.40pm). And, well, not only is the sun going down, but the air is WINDY, and the temperature's dipped under 30'c, so the water is warmer, and just, brrrrr.... it's cold enough that I decide to do three sets of 6 laps, which brings my personal best up to 24 laps. Someone else also swam, he came in later, but left earlier. I was gonna skedaddle home right after getting out of the water but it was SO COLD I leapt into the hot tub nearby instead to warm up. It's kinda awkward being in a hot tub with someone else there who you're not talking to!!!

So, yay personal best, but, dammit, my dinner is so fucking late as a result =/ I really must get my day moving earlier so I can eat at actual meal times.

Today I did a rare thing: I had rice porridge for the first time in a while, with some spam, and for dinner I went to McDonald's, about two blocks away. Apparently it's been there a while and got refurbished? IDK. I tried out the touchscreen menu thing and ordered food without talking to anybody. This is how I found out that it is possible to get only FOUR pieces of chicken nuggets, not the 10 on the main menu, not the 6 I grew up with. So that is what I did. I also treated myself to a chocolate milkshake, but alas, it was too sweet to be really satisfactory.

It was also really cold inside, where the cushioned seats were, so bleh. I went to sit outside on the patio for a while and that was nice, but blah, the seats were not comfy. So much for trying to get some book reading or writing done.

I really should try to get out to campus tomorrow, maybe do a hike (and see if I can get a clipping of my favourite rosebush while I'm out there). I need to clear out my office some more too.

Still no work from my adviser on the state of my dissertation. I hope it's not because it's too much garbage to wade through.

I'm otherwise feeling pleased because I finally finished reading a couple of back issues laying in my e-reader, and am now going to read the August Lightspeed issue. I'm a bit tired from staring at the screen a lot and should try to figure out some better reading habits. But the rest of my room is overwhelming (or boring) to look at (I keep thinking I need more containers or whatever). I don't like looking out the window because it's so fucking bright. Gaaahhh IDK.

Last night Emily called me because I felt particularly moody and we chatted for several hours as we took our respective walks. I have discovered it is possible to run Pokemon Go while on the phone in this way.

I swam 18 laps today in under an hour! I feel ready to try for 21 next time ^^

There are still some citations that I can't seem to find page number for, and the footnotes are going to be messy until the final round because I cannot be arsed to fix it when I know I'm going to have to do it AGAIN after the next round of edits. I re-read the conclusion and it was not as rubbishy as I thought, so I fixed it up some more. I got through re-reading and editing the fourth chapter too, and hopefully it won't need to many edits. (Splitting it off to make it my next book project will probably be the thing, anyway.) Dr. ML says she'll get it back to me on Monday, so that's half a week I've got to take a break and do OTHER things besides my dissertation.

Then I went to campus and cleaned up my desk a bit, and pulled down my posters. I brought home some books, sorted some papers. There's a small thing of stationery I'll take to the big TA office. I should have my office cleared out by the weekend.

I've been eating sandwiches for lunch: sourdough bread, with spreadable ham and some cheese. It's been really nice! The grill is working great even though it's broken and I have to hold it together with an elastic headband. Still have some lasagna left, but the other night I had some shallow-fried fish, and that was nice.

I went for a walk tonight, and for a couple of stretches I jogged a bit. I didn't stretch beforehand, which I think may have made the jogs a bad idea. I'm trying to see if I can get this usual 5k walk down to 1 hour from the 1 and a half hours. It just takes so long! I did forget that jogging/running makes me sweat like my forehead is leaking all over my face and I should have worn a headband. Next time *shakes fist* IIRC I also used to run with a towel, too, especially when running in Malaysia. (I don't recall having to do that in Halifax.) I wasn't as winded for the brief spurts I did do, though, so that's something, I think.

Maybe I'll ask someone if they want to go to the trampoline park.

I looked into getting a SPI Belt, and hopefully one will arrive in a few days. Maybe I'll go to a Target and buy a Pokemon Go Plus; the battery seems to run about a month with intense use, and since I'll only be using it for exercise, it might be worth it.

I meant to get to campus earlier, but there was a Lugia raid across my house so I went to join it. I did make a sandwich, though, with the spreadable ham and cheese. Wrapped it in wax paper and took it with me to campus, and I ate it, and it was delicious.

I wrote 7 pages of conclusion, am aiming for the whole 12 before I go to bed tonight. I just don't know what else to say. I took another break at 4-ish to join another Articuno raid by the Psychology building.

I got home around 6.40, fried some fish, and then went walking at 7.30-ish (coulda been 7.40; either way I was back at 9pm). It was still a little light out so I could walk all the way to Box Springs Mountain Reserve, although, the nice thing is, there is a streetlight there now so it felt less creepy.

But really, one and a half hours walking is just not doing it for me anymore, it takes SO LONG!!!! It IS about 5km, though, so maybe I'll make 5k running my next exercise goal? I just want to be able to not have to take so long going up the hill and back.

I got zero writing done in the morning. I had such visions of waking up early to go to campus and working until afternoon. I even dug out my sandwich grill to bring a lunch to school.

Alas, I tossed and turned when I turned in at 12.30am with horrid depressive anxious thoughts, had a crying fit, and who knows what time I actually slept, but waking up at 6am was not happening. And then I was so tired I frittered the morning away.

I went to have lunch with YL, her last day here in the States for who knows how long. Had like, five mozza sticks. Afterwards, I went to Starbucks to work, and finished my fourth chapter, so yay. I twiddled with pagination and footnotes before going home. I'm at 188 pages, out of the targeted 200! So now, a 12-page conclusion, sigh.

I swam 18 laps today. Wasn't going to, but I was at 15, and then decided, what the heck, let's up it to 18. I think I still did it within the 40 minutes I was in the pool for. My arms and knees were a bit hurty but that might not be from the swimming. My arms have been hurting a lot lately because of the computer work.

Stuff came in the mail today: my graduation pin which I'd left in the rental gown (the clip part is busted); the SUNVAULT anthology (gave it to YL since she hadn't received her copy); and red lacy Bandalettes! I like 'em, they're super cute, even with shorts. I may need more short shorts just for an excuse to wear them, ha.

In my Forest app, I unlocked a new tree, the gingko tree, which is one of the more attractive trees in the app thus far. I've been using Forest a lot. I find I'm most productive away from the computer with social media. I'm going to handwrite some conclusion-esque things and see how that goes.

So, pretty productive day! I went to Starbucks around 9.30am, and hung out there until 12.30pm. I think it really helped to be outside the house in a public space surrounded by people. I got a lot of writing done, and the chapter end is in sight. Was hoping to be done with it by tonight, but my afternoon nap stretched longer than expected.

I went for my evening walk at 7pm instead of the usual 9pm. By the time I got to the top of Blaine St., it was still light enough that I could walk all the way to Box Springs Mountain Reserve, which I usually don't get to, because it's not very well-lit at night so it looks vaguely scary. (I get a lot of flak for walking in the evenings after sunset because girl and all that but I still do have SOME sense of self-preservation.) The mountain was really nicely lit up by the sunset, too, which I rarely look at. I really ought to look into running up there, though, because hour-and-a-half walks are just... too long.

On the way home, I ran into Jose from Hispanic Studies, and we chatted a bit while I petted his dog. It surprises people, turns out, that I have diabetes, because to most people I seem to live a really active and healthy life. Which, I guess, yeah, compared to most grad students I know, I kinda do. But I'm not really THAT outgoing.

Anyway, maybe sugar is NOT the problem, because at Starbucks I treated myself to a whoopie pie with no ill effects. Then what was my problem at Coco's? The french fries? IDK.

Success! I broke a machine needle, but I finally pried the SIM card slot out of my Xiaomi phone! And transferred my stuff over into the new Samsung. I'm not a fan of the UI--it's too chunky for my liking, but the other alternative were too-small icons. Argh! I'm also not crazy about being forced to have a page specifically for contacts. I've been messing with the arrangements of apps, but there are so many decisions to be made. So I've been working instead on restoring access to my stuff and trying to remember and reset passwords left right center. But! New phone! I bought a bunch of phone cases to celebrate.

I also did a lot of grocery-shopping: bought bone-in chicken and fish. I usually parcel out the chicken into individual ziplock bags, marinating them individually (and with a different mixture of stuff) and freezing them so it's easier to cook just ONE piece of chicken at a time. I decided I'd try to do the same with fish as well. This means leaving the fish to dry for a bit, so now my kitchen smells like raw fish. Hopefully it'll pay off. I bought a bunch of Good Thins and flatbread crackers, apparently Spam now has a BACON flavour, and also some spreadable ham, because I've never seen it before. Also garlic sourdough, which I regret because it's really salty. I made some beef stroganoff and used that to make lasagna (with alfredo sauce, and refried beans, and cheese), so I have meals for the next six days.

There was a bit of stroganoff left, so I put it on two slices of bread. I got weirdly full after eating one piece, though? And I had a cherry. I didn't get hungry again until 4 or 5pm. I don't know, this is weird.

No stomach troubles today. I really do think stomach troubles come when I consume some outright sugary stuff.

I also got 15 (maybe 16, I lost count at some point) laps in. I think I swam faster this time? I'll keep to 15 when I swim this Saturday, and next week I'll up the ante to 18. I need to do a bit more strength training though. Tomorrow I'll pop into the exercise room of my complex and check out the machines that they've brought in since I was last in there (which was something like two years ago). I'm thinking of getting like an arm band or waist band for my phone so I can jog with it, and apparently Pokemon Go Plus can be had now and is not some magic treasure anymore. So, I don't know, I'll look into that, maybe.

This has taken me away from dissertating. I am a bad grad student. But I did manage to get out to the University Village concert and get some writing done. Perhaps that is what I'll do tomorrow; find some outdoors and be there and write. I did also start formatting my dissertation for submission. I only have one section left to write, and got started on it, then it's conclusion, and MAYBE I'll have time to see what my advisor said about the introduction and chapter 2.

Well, I took a hydrocoxine last night, and it threw me for a loop in which I couldn't wake up early enough for my liking, and was really groggy. My body felt really heavy, and I'm still feeling the effects this afternoon. But! It was otherwise a decent day: my friend Jose texted me around 1pm about a Legendary raid, and there was a crowd of people when I got there! I feel I should have been a bit more sociable, but I was not trying to evade my dissertation today. And we defeated it! And I got the Articuno! Yay!

My doctor also had good news for me today: my blood sugar level, which had been at 7.5, way at the top of the Type 2 diabetes range, has scaled down to 5.7. My doctor is very impressed; he's never seen such a fast turnover before. If there ever was a moment for the Glow of Virtue, this was totally it. My bad cholesterol level is on the high end, but it's balanced out by the good cholesterol, so yay I guess. I'm hoping to knock the 5.7 down to 5 by the time I see him again in September. My insurance is until the 24th, so that's enough time for one more blood test.

I am considering buying weights, just a couple of dumbbells, for building arm strength. I'm going to sit on this for a while and see how I feel in a couple of weeks. I'm going to dig out some unused sheets and try using those as exercise mats, though. My brother uses a folded old blanket.

Not swimming today; the sky's too cloudy and I don't like swimming in a cold pool. I guess I SHOULD get used to that, though. It's so nice, so I lament not taking advantage of the cloudy sky to go for a morning hike. Maybe I can do that tomorrow!

My phone died overnight, having refused to charge without being babysat, so I decided, once it was charging merrily without my overnight but taking too long for my liking, that I would go to campus and do work without the phone. This turned out to be a very good thing indeed, because I wasn't tempted to watch it all the time. I've also logged out of most social media on my work computer, so that was nice too. Emily Jiang checked in with me around 11.30 for some writing, and that was nice too.

I still can't focus on the screen, it seems, so I switched to handwriting some paragraphs instead. This helped quite a bit. Except for some sentences here and there, I'm starting work on a new section, articulating the concept of minor literature in relation to multicultural steampunk.

I ate at the Getaway, taking laptop and writing book and pencil and eraser with me. Had a couple of slices of a pizza, packed the rest, got back to my office, and coughed up a couple more paragraphs. Then I went home.

Swam 16 laps today. Was gonna stick to 15, but thought I could push on just once more. I'm feeling, as

oracne calls it, the Glow of Virtue, which I promptly ruined by eating a sponge cake. I finished my remaining sausages, too. I haven't heard back about the results of my blood test from yesterday, but I assume I'll hear back by the end of the week, and if there's anything big, the doctor will call me (which is what he did last time). But I'm really crossing my fingers that my blood sugar levels have dropped.

I have been very good and did not text anybody today.

I submitted a poem. It's been a while since I wrote a poem I felt good about, so that's nice. It might be a bit too sentimental, IDK, I like its tweeness, but maybe it's too schmoopy? Oh well.

I'm gonna try to make it to campus tomorrow for some more writing by hand, and I think I will leave the phone home again so I don't get anxious around it. Until my mini-USB port replacement comes, I'll use it as little as possible so I don't keep freaking out over recharging it and possibly aggravating the problem even more.

Yesterday after a long day of doing nothing and feeling terrible about it, I went to check out the University Village free concerts. I'd wanted to sit upstairs on the balcony overlooking the concert, but a security guard told me I couldn't, new management, so sorry, bla bla bla.

I did a lot of paperwork today. I scanned and printed (using the Sproul Hall printers for the first time ever) and sent my OPT application forms off to the international student center so they can nod and approve of it and tell me that yes, I can send it off to immigration.

Lindsay came to get me and we went for lunch at Best Thai. Been a while since I ate there. We then went to look for dessert- she wanted boba tea, and I wanted something sugar-free. Turns out that the store her students had recommended her and the store we Googled for sugar-free desserts were in the same plaza, conveniently.

The dessert place is called The Thinnery, and it bills itself as a sugar-free bakery, specifically for diabetics, and folks with heart conditions, weight watchers and just plain ol' folks watching their sugar, I guess. There was only one man working there--the only one left of his family doing the business (out of 31 years!) and he'd been cleaned out earlier, so I had to wait a bit to get the chocolate mousse brownie I wanted. It was very good. There were also sugar-free cookies, and I got those too (which also turned out to be very good). And a heat-damaged box of chocolates for half-price so I ganked that too.

Lindsay and I decided to go to Ontario Mills for some shopping. I'd been thinking about how most of my clothes fit but not well. I'd been staying away from close-sitting clothing for years because I have weird body issues (also because grad school left me with no energy to care about my appearance beyond professional), but these days I kind of crave short shorts, close fitting, with pockets, things I can wear to go for my long walks with.

We went to Uniqlo first, and I ended up with two pairs of gym shorts, a pair of dressier shorts that almost matched the one I wore into the store except one size down, a long skirt with POCKETS, and a bra. Not shabby. We also stopped by a store with the CUTEST makeup brushes and I just... couldn't... not buy a set. I don't even use makeup that often, but I really want to? I shall make an attempt. Of course I say that every couple of years...

We spent a LONG time in that mall.

I wanted to go swimming, but there were just too many people in the poo, and my period is still going, so I'm going to try tomorrow. But I also decided to try organizing my makeup basket. I think I have been successful but it also means I have to organize, like, everything else around it. I'm now sneezing because I've been touching things that have not been handled in a long time. I had to throw out a bunch of things, like a foundation that was the only really waterproof stuff I'd found, super useful when I did a lot of water shoots around Halifax. But now it just looks weird and ashy on me, so it needed to go. I should test a bunch of the eyeshadow too, though, but my face feels raw from all that testing the foundation and washing it off and raw so I don't feel like it.

Lindsay also remarked on how visible the weight I've lost is. I hadn't really been paying attention to it, since I'm more focused on learning to just eat less and get more movement in. Ideally I'd also be working towards a more toned body but my metabolism and lifestyle and general genetics do not incline my body that way, so oh well. But it got me wondering about how much I've lost since I started the diet and exercise thing in May. So I started pulling out things to wear that I haven't in a long time because the last time I tried, they were really uncomfortable to wear, or I couldn't button it up, or something.

Turns out it's enough that I can fit a BUNCH of old things I thought I'd have to give away. A Lip Service goth jacket I haven't worn in five years can now be buttoned up. It's still suuuuuper snug, especially on the upper arms (because goths always have thin arms I guess) but I can squish most of myself in now. I'm really impressed. My favourite gray skirt which had been too tight for a couple of years now sits comfortably around my waist again, which is really nice. Who knows what else I'll achieve. Hopefully not the need to buy a new wardrobe, though. There are still things I'd like to give away; I'll have things to bring to next WisCon's clothing swap.

So I did my 12 laps yesterday which was good--I almost felt ready for 15 laps, but I think I'll save that for next week because my arm muscles were starting to burn and I don't need them to hurt.

But on this day, there was a couple in the pool. In previous pool business there were a couple of kids in the pool. And I wouldn't care, whatever, it's a pool, it's big, I only need a small bit of it to swim to and fro. And I stick to the same spot as much as possible, and it's pretty obvious I am not moving.

Except for some forsaken reason, these folks do not seem to understand this?? They kept moving into my path, and I have to swim around them. FFS people there's THE REST OF THE FUCKING POOL TO HORSE AROUND IN GET OUT OF MY LANE!!!!!! And this means I have to wait for these idiots to get out of my way before starting my next lap, or swerving, or whatever, because they have no sense of perception that someone else is in the pool, and just, ugh.

( exercise stuff )

( food stuff )

( water stuff )

Riverside weather is supposed to hit 42'C this weekend, which is FUCKING. HEINOUS. Luckily S. is back in California and up for a trip down to San Diego, and we're going to visit the new Clarion cohort, hang with Nalo, and cook bak kut teh for the potluck! I'd like to go back to Black's Beach sometime, and go swimming naked in the sea again, but maybe some other time. Lisa gets back soon and she's housesitting in Santa Ana, and I might try to join her for a week or so, just to escape the weather here. I'm also considering couch surfing in the Bay Area. Who knows. IDK. I just don't feel very productive here.

So I'm using a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, which uses Android v5.1.1. I'm still trying to get the hang of it and I have to look up how to organize folders and stuff. The phone is a bit too wide for my liking, alas, at 2.99inches. Still getting used to the touchscreen, which I'm not crazy about. I have a longer post coming about shopping for smartphones versus shopping for phones brewing in me, because I have many shopping-for-phone feels. Still, it should allow me to roam around in the States without having to switch my SIM card... I'm hoping this will still hold when I change my plan from a GoPhone account to something else which will allow me data usage.

I have totally progressed in Pokemon Go! Around Level 10 I did the Lucky Egg + Mass Evolution combo and went up to Level 13.

When I went to Singapore last weekend, I was expressly forbidden to play by my dad but I used mall wifi here and there. A friend also generously let me hop onto his hotspot (he has more data per month than he could ever use) at some point, and I felt bad when Pokemon starting spawning on my phone and not his. Good haul, though. I added a lot more to my Pokedex, and yesterday when I went to the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, I finally caught a Pikachu. There was one more Pokemon which I wanted to add to the Pokedex but I was already late for lunch with my hostess so I skedaddled home instead.

It was a really marvelous weekend! My hostess is a friend and former worker of my dad's, and her daughter just got back from Australia doing an English degree, so we had lots to talk about. They're very churchy people tho so we didn't spend much time together. (Also their apartment was right between two Pokestops, so I spent a lot of time harvesting.)

On Saturday I went to have brunch with

jolantru, and two others came to join us, Christopher Hwang and SEAsteampunk contributor Timothy Dimacali!! Chris had to leave us after lunch, but Timothy joined us at the fish spa :D

I went back to my hostess' place at Red Hill for a rest, and then went to have dinner with

delfinuum (she is so smol!), and we played Pokemon Go in Raffles City for a while until I ran out of Wifi usage time. So we went to the Singapore Night Fest since it was nearby and ended up marveling at Nyonya embroidery and beadwork in the Peranakan Museum.

Yesterday I woke early and had breakfast with my hostess, and they were going to be at church until noon which left me two hours on my lonesome. I was feeling kinda tired so I only left at 11am and wandered to Marina Bay Sands to find out how to get to the Observation Deck. Took some pictures (oh, I have an Instagram now, because of the smartphone; I aim to be one of those insufferable selfie-takers) and went to the shopping mall side where I proceeded to catch Pokemon, just because I could.

The GPS is really wonky in Singapore, though. I wandered further than I actually was unless I was on the move. Kinda interesting, and I don't really want to complain too much because it means my 10km egg hatched earlier than expected (Electabuzz!).

I have to say that highway Pokestops are very interesting and fruitful places! I caught a Clefable on the way home :D Also it's fascinating what random things Ingress agents have decided should be portals... most of them don't actually take pictures of the stops themselves but random crap around it like... water towers. My bus was also caught in a traffic jam and I figured opening up Pokemon Go would make the jam go quicker.

This morning I decided to see how Map My Walk would interact with Pokemon Go! Because I wanted to hatch a buncha eggs all at once. (Three!) Turns out it doesn't work well... I think the GPS is suspended a little whenever catching a pokemon, and it doesn't register on the Walk app. So I had a few straight lines where there shouldn't have been because of the pause in GPS data. And if I'm not flicking between the two regularly the route doesn't quite register on the Walk app. I'm gonna try to experiment a bit more with this though, because I would really like to record my Pokemon hunts.

My dad's traveling until tomorrow night and I really want to go Poketrawling with him at least someplace further than the nearby lake or shops once before I leave for the States, so hopefully this will be a thing.

*cries* EVERYTHING HURTS AND NOTHING IS BEAUTIFUL AND I HAD THE MOST JOYLESS 45 MINUTES OF MY LIFE IN THAT CYCLING CLASS.

OK so from the top.

My doctor's appointment: pap smear is all okay, so I don't need to do another one for the next three years. Yay. Sleep tests showed normal results, so no CPAP prescription for me. Boo.

Meeting with the UC Regent and Regent Designate, which was interesting. I didn't really have any questions, just wanted to see what was up.

Office hour was quiet.

Went to the APSP roundtable, still the older person there.

Went to the Ad hoc committee on LGBTQ inclusivity. There's a new Queer GSA so we were trying to figure out how it fits into the overall structure of GSA chapters.

Mary and I went to the cycling class at 7.15. Some fifteen minutes in my knees SCREAMED WITH HATRED at me. There were some spots where we had to cycle while standing up, and my knees REFUSED to cooperate. And when I sat back down, my ass ALSO SCREAMED WITH HATRED at me. My arms weren't quite screaming by the end of the session, but I bet they will be screaming at me tomorrow too. I never realized that bicycle seats could be so hard that even a fat ass like mine would provide no cushion. For all the camel toe I get when wearing tight pants, a fat vagina sure didn't help and it was just pelvic bone hitting the seat all the time and UGH EVERYTHING HURTS and I am never fucking going back to that class ever again!

Zumba tomorrow night.

- I went shopping at 99 Ranch yesterday morning, followed by lunch with YL and Eric. Then I got home and passed out. Didn't get much work done, boo. I did get some stitching done though! All my patches have been sewn on successfully.

- Went to Kmart this morning. Meant to get new sheets, because mine are boring and grody, and two new pillows, and some other odds and ends. The bedsheet selection was awful, but I ended up buying... lot of clothes. Lots of tights, because I'd like to start wearing skirts more. And a lot of stuff from the Nicki Minaj line.

- Sorted out my wardrobe--gonna take a LOT of things to this year's WisCon clothing swap! I also pulled out the box of winter stuff, swapped it out for the summer stuff.

- Started a new embroidery project, a little firebird. I've got some really hard red material so it's hard to think of something that'll stand out on it. I'm not even sure I picked the right starting colour, and I'm sewing it onto the outline on paper right now, so we'll see. When it's done I can make it into a little coin purse. I wanted to do a frangipani but the fabric is so red, I wanted to do something bolder. I should think of something to write for the other side, though, but all I can think of right now is something pithy like "misandry 4 lyfe".

- I tried doing a bit of the "Deck of Cards Challenge" tonight. (Mine's Spades for Squarts, Clubs for Push-ups, Hearts for Russian Twists, and Diamonds for Crunches.) I'm no good with it, and only got through maybe 20 cards. I also figured out how to do squats without feeling that popping in my knee (it's only the right knee; it doesn't hurt, but it does feel and sound alarming). Then I played Solitaire :D

the back of my chair fell off. like, fell off and i cant fix it anymore. D: gonna have to start walking to campus to do work now.

I took a walk today! unfortunately where I live in Riverside is not very interesting, just houses and apartment complexes. =/ sigh. i miss living in a downtown area!

investigating multivitamin powder options. preferrably something with high folic acid content, since i always forget to take my pills. the protein powder smoothies in the morning seems to be working out for me, so time to look into this further. two scoops of the stuff help with the texture a lot. it's not like using a banana, but close enough!

OK so around 11.30 I went to the exercise room. 25mins on the treadmill (just walking) (very fast) then 12 mins on the stepmaster, and then another 20mins on the treadmill. It felt pretty good. Gonna try to do this every other day at least. I get a lot of reading done on the treadmill too, which is cool. Too bad this is the quarter where most of my reading is actually other kinds of media!

Lunch was a grilled cheese sandwich with fava beans and hummus. Amazing of course.

Afrofuturism class went AWESOME! There's someone else on Tumblr there!! We talked about how disembodiment as a result of the Internet hasn't led to a deracialization that is part of the promise of posthumanism but rather instead serves as another platform of minstrelsy. It was so terrific.

I also am presenting / facilitating discussion next week. We're reading Parable of the Sower! One of my favourite books ^_____________^ I'm going to link it to the film we saw in class, The Last Angel In History which was about techno Afrofuturist music and was totally awesome. I've never heard of half these days and never knew these bands. It's interesting... I guess because my favourite genre has tended to be high fantasy, so the music I gravitate towards would be symphonic metal as a result? If we're linking music to SF genres anyway.

Tomorrow is the first lecture for the class I TA for, and I have to go earlier to meet with the prof. It should be no fuss. I think I'll set my office hours for Monday and Wednesday mornings.

I gotta figure out my food situation. I really want to have a much more varied diet but I feel I'm falling back on juk and spam. (Not that there's anything wrong with juk and spam.) I've cut down on the amount of rice I cook for myself per meal (1/3cup to 1/4 cup). Also coconut milk rice does not keep well. But then my stomach doesn't do well with leftover rice. Bah bah and double-bah.

Well that was a slightly eventful day. I started using my new sandwich maker to make sandwiches to take to campus with me right? And puttered around and all that. Headed to campus and about halfway there, remembered the sandwich maker was still on so I half-ran home all terrified that my sandwiches were burned and my fire alarm isn't in (I have it unplugged because I ran out of batteries and forgot to get some more) and what if my apartment got smokey while I was gone??

The sandwiches weren't that bad--very nice golden brown in fact. So I rested and headed off to campus again to get MM a file from a database and tried to read but it wasn't happening, sigh. I don't know why my brain is currently so resistant to working right now.

Anyway, got home, had a strange dream.

I went on a cookie run and was about to settle down to eating some when I got an email from a colleague who is leaving tomorrow and somehow locked herself out of her office (our offices can't be unlocked; while I do prop my door open on a regular basis I bring my keys along just in case). She's generally very stressed (last stage of dissertating... and leaving to go on sabbatical in Taiwan so she also had to move out) and I figured she had no idea what to do.

So I went back to campus and ascertained that there's no 24-hour maintenance, and figured out that the UC PD is, in fact, campus security (I had many dealings with SMU campus security but they're not exactly what I would call a police department). I called and got an officer over, averting further stress, and hung around so my friend could finish her work not alone.

I've decided to use MapMyRun.com again this year, if only to persuade myself that things are really not as far as they seem to be here. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to register the walking routes in the Botanic Gardens, but it does register the major trails on the mountains, like the Big C and Two Trees. Two Trees is barely 2km from here, so I'll give it a whirl over the weekend and see if I can find it and wander on it for a bit.

Reaching Out

The rest of the world is always there

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manuscript in!

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15 to 18

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7.5 - 5.7

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a brief rant about other people in the pool

exercise and food stuff

Singapore and Pokemon Go

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August 2017

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