Ben's Busy Blog

Well, today wasn't fun, but I did start inching towards discipline again. I got myself to bed at a more decent hour last night. In the morning I worked on assembling a new cabinet for the bathroom. We also ran down to the Waterfront, where we bought our umpteenth set of shelves. If I ever buy and assemble another set of shelves, just shoot me. BTW, plans for the next few days forecast that I'll be shot soon.

Nat had her first piano lesson today. She's getting them from a really great guy that we already knew was practically a concert pianist. And he's charging her a pittance. The amount is almost laughable if you know that the man is a neurosurgeon. While Nat was getting her lesson, I was cleaning more stuff up at the old apartment.

When Nat's sister took possession of the place, she and her friends had a 'cleaning party.' One of the results of this party was taking anything we'd left behind, whether from lack of space or attempted generosity, and putting it all on the floor of the spare bedroom. It was literally wall-to-wall stuff. Fine crystal and heirloom glass sat on the carpet rubbing up against overflowing boxes of dry goods. You couldn't even set foot in the room because it was literally full, albeit to ankle level.

It was quite possibly the most disheartening thing I'd ever seen. As soon as I saw it, I knew that it would be my personal responsibility to weed through every damned item in the room, inch by inch. I get to make decisions on what to do with strange items, like a stainless steel cannister of gluten-free flour. We now know that we don't require the flour, so that's trash, but do we want the cannister? The thought of taking the time to carefully dispose of the flour was just too much. The likelihood of a messy cloud necessitating further cleaning just made the case for pitching the whole damned cannister. There's more stuff like that. Nat's back issues of Jane magazine. Two guitar amps. Two sets of short wire shelves. A mint-condition motherboard for a canceled project. Four longboxes of old Magic cards. A forgotten box of heavy textbooks. Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast. So much stuff that you don't just throw out, but you don't have room for it in the new place, and selling it takes too long and too much effort. I wish the eBay storefront near here hadn't closed.

Anyway, I'm still sorting things out in both places. I have been taking little videos to show the progress we've been making setting up the place, but I didn't last night and don't think that I will tonight. There's just not much of anything to show. Shuffling around little stuff into order just isn't that visible or interesting.

Hey all. I haven't been posting much over the last week or more, but I do have justification for this. This blog is meant primarily as a measuring stick for advancement towards my personal goals. By reporting on my progress in here, I remind myself that I'm working towards something more in life.

The thing is though... I haven't really been working on making progress lately, but for some very good reasons. We're going through a difficult move into a new, smaller space. Nat's sister is taking over our old place, but she's been really cool about us leaving some stuff there, so we haven't been forced to be as mercenary as possible about abandoning old possessions. It's nice to know we won't lose anything precious, but it does drag out the settling-in process. What with all of the stress of having our volunteer movers bail on us, we've been "bailing water" for over a week now. We got the big portion of the move started a day late and a man short. Furthermore, our old place was a much bigger unit than two people ever would really need, but in that applicable metaphor of Boyle's law, our inventory expanded to fill the space. It's been a bear. Also, this loft space isn't large in breadth or width, but it's got a lot of height. This means we have to do a lot of clever things with shelving and wall hangings in order to take advantage of the space available. Planning and procurement for this is slow.

Anyway, I guess I'm just saying I'm not working on any of my personal projects right now because I'm busy making a new home for myself. Not only does this take a lot of work, you can't rest properly until it's done. And wow, am I tired of this.

Well, life's still kinda crazy from the move. Today I assembled furniture, moved my computer around, packed up some other stuff, threw out stuff, etc. It's kinda boring to talk about, so that's all there is to say.

Sorry about the spotty updates lately. I've been running myself ragged quite a bit this week. Lots of furniture moved and assembled. Boxes boxes boxes. Loaded, unloaded, reloaded, broken down, and carted to dumpster in clumsy lumps.

Anyway, had my phone interview this week too. I really hope that went well. Can't say that I felt my most confident. The night previous the cats protested the move by waking us up at 4 AM with incessant yowling. They wouldn't be pacified either. They'd just relocate to where they could not be pet or fed, and continue meowing. I now know that there's a circle of hell devoted to this punishment.

Anyway, I feel like I'm losing coherence rapidly, so I'm off to crash. This week may be better documented by the little videos I'm trying to take each evening of how the loft is coming along.

Today was finally a serious moving day. One of Nat's friends who also owns a van helped us out. We're giving him the hook-up in return. Not only did we pay for gas and the cash we'd promised our original movers, we also are giving him some of the furniture that we were going to leave behind. Nat's sister shouldn't get any grief for inheriting this place, but she does deserve it for promising help and then leaving us in a major lurch. Aaaanyway, I'm exhausted. Almost everything was moved, but Nat's friend is able to help tomorrow, so we decided to just call it a day after several van loads. Nat didn't come along for any past the first, having pulled a back muscle... which is kind of the reason why the bed didn't move. When I found her curled around the body pillow, wincing in pain, I didn't have the heart to try and make her lie on the floor or something.

Later after she'd recovered, she and I took a car trip over to the new place with a few small items. We assembled the couch and her computer desk. We also moved the entertainment center around to a semblance of how it will eventually look. We didn't have all of the furniture components with us, so it'll be waiting. We're really happy that we got some things in order, because the place looks really promising.

Huzzah, time to crash

Sorry about the no-post last night. Today originally was the moving day, but our friends of a friend kinda dumped us, despite our offer to reimburse them for their time. So today wasn't moving day. We packed some stuff. Dismantled some stuff. We sat around trying to figure out what to do instead. Tomorrow might be moving day. Maybe Monday. Maybe a little of both. I'm just glad that I put off my interview until later in the week

Today was more packing. We got the keys to the new place and dropped off a few fragile boxes, safe in the knowledge that we would handle them with care. On the minus side, we found out that Nat's sister's friends aren't going to be helping us this weekend, so the big moving day might be getting moved pending the acquisition of another strong back to carry things. I can't move couches by myself, and Natty isn't allowed to. Wish us luck!

Today was more packing. I also did laundry. Did our two mile walk during the hot of the day. We went out to Verizon and the bank to consolidate our accounts, now that we're happily married. We'd allotted two hours for this, figuring that it would be pretty straightforward... But no, Verizon was horrendous. We were there for almost two hours just in the store! Ugh.

Boxes Boxes Boxes... I am sooo tired of boxes. Building boxes. Getting boxes. Filling boxes. Sealing boxes. Labeling boxes. Moving boxes. Sorting boxes. Stacking boxes. Everything's disappearing into boxes. Moving is exciting, but this part is definitely wearying.

Aside from boxes boxes boxes, I also ran over to the liquor store. Why? To get more boxes! I had to stop and get gas first, because I need it to drive around boxes.

Load of laundry? So we can pack it into boxes.

The fun part comes next week. Then the unboxing!

I woke up early this morning, to the sound of the buzzer ringing. I fully intended to ignore it and then turned off my alarm to go back to sleep indefinitely. After a couple minutes, I realized that I was wide awake and it was time to get going.

I didn't capitalize well on the early start. It took me the better part of two hours to compose a response to an email I received about a potential job. I really like the sound of the job, although not being downtown means I won't be as close to Nat's school as my doting desires dictate.

I also went back and edited a previous entry or two of the busy blog. I think I'm going to try hard to clean it up a little bit. I don't intend to change any factual content, but the truth is I probably shouldn't do too much writing when it's late and I'm grumpy.

Oh, and I also did some minor tweaking on the blog templates here at Liquidben. Now the "posted by" lines look cleaner, and they're more intelligible. In the process I made a few notes on my Blogger template tag reference.

Nat and I did our two mile walk. That was nice. I ran to the bank and to the post office.

So around four thirty, Nat and I set off for Kittanning to take Mom and Uncle John out for a joint birthday dinner. Why does seeing family wipe you out so much? We didn't get home until after nine-thirty. I actually crashed for a nap after that.

I talked with Nat and Dave about playing LOTRO too much. I think at this point in time I'm going to just remind myself that I've got a lot of stress with the job hunt and moving. I'll just make sure to set a timer any time I play, and to make sure that I pursue more than just playing games in my free time.

Today was mostly about packing boxes. Lotsa boxes. Nat's mother and sister showed up, ostensibly to find out about what's needed for living here, but Nat's mom seemed to be more interested in measuring this place up for drapes. *sigh* That seemed to be a lot more tiring than tearing down the house we've built up.

And then I played LOTRO too long. As much as I hate the conversations that might ensue, I think that quitting the game makes a lot of sense. I don't want to though. It's really hard to quantify escapes and luxuries, though. Maybe it does me some good? Or maybe I'm reaching to justify?

Hrm. It's hard to argue with the realization that I'll never lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn't play more LOTRO. I don't know though. It's nice to have fun. Hrm. At least I can sleep on it.

Well, it's a late blog today, so crank it up to maximum terseness:

Gathered trash and recycling. 2 mile walk. Bought birthday present for uncle at Borders. Got free boxes for moving from liquor store. Packed a bunch of boxes; fragile stuff seems to take forever. Played LOTRO.

Today I decided that since moving was just a week away, that it really was time to do nothing but pack. I filled up several boxes, spending a lot of time carefully packing away our stemware. Later on, Natty and I went for our two mile walk (I'd skipped biking), and then we drove out to Ikea. We spent a lot of time there working out what we wanted to do with our new place (starting next week). We also hit Target. Then we came home and I spent the remaining hours of the evening on a loooong round of fellowship questing in LOTRO.

This morning I hopped on the newly oiled bike and did quite nicely, easily breaking 400 calories in 15 minutes. Natty and I also went for a two mile walk, so you'd think I'd be feeling kind of energized, but mostly I'm sleepy and distracted.

I packed a few more boxes for moving. Replied to a 'getting to know you' email from a recruiter. Left a voicemail for another. Despite getting to bed at a decent hour last night, I was just a mess, so took a half-hour nap. I awoke even more tired. Very vexing.

I went back to work on the cover letter that I'd been muddling over for way too long. I finished it, but didn't feel very good about the composition. I do feel like I'm an excellent candidate for the job... I think the problem is that today I don't want any of it. Guess I'm just moody and tired today, although the reasons for being tired escape me.

Nat and I didn't get along well today. We didn't fight, but there were crossed wires. We worked it out eventually, but it also kind of threw a wrench into plans.

Anyway, the crappy day ended with a LOTRO binge. I'm not happy that I've been playing so much, but at the same time, I'm kind of tiring of it on some levels. I harbor hope there.

Anyway, it just wasn't much of a day. Tomorrow's another, and hopefully better. Moving is just a week away.

Last night I installed MS Visual C++ Express on the computer (and the SP1 which takes forever to download).

Speaking of yesterday, I only rode the bike for five minutes before the squeaking drove me away. This morning I started to climb on and then remembered the whole issue. So instead of riding the bike this morning, I took it completely apart to oil and clean it. It's running a whole lot smoother now. I didn't wind up riding it, because after I'd been working on it for a while, I realized that I was starving, so I took a breakfast break.

The bathroom sink has been a bit backed up lately, so I tried plunging it. That didn't do too much, so I treated it with Draino, crystals of lye style. It helped a lot, but I think I'll make a reminder to do it again next week.

I made a small effort at cleaning out my email a little bit. The futility of this kept me from doing it for too long.

We went for our two mile walk, and I dropped off another game for Goozex. I think I'm going to stop sending things out until after we're done moving. I don't need the hassle. Afterwards, Nat and I went down to the Waterfront. The primary objective was to pick up some decent-looking frames for Mom's birthday presents, but without breaking the bank. There were also a few other things to pick up, but then Natty turned it into a shopping trip that tested my patience. Between the walk and the shopping, we were out of the house for over four hours.

While we were out, we had a discussion about responsibility. It struck me that you can't blame anyone else for your own lack of responsibility. I should post that up somewhere in here. With duties on my mind, I went job searching. I found a couple of good ones on the CMU career site. I spent my time and wrote up another in what I think has been a series of improving cover letters. I'll do more applying tomorrow.

Well, I guess I'm pretty much done for the night. I'll try to keep thinking about responsibility. L8r

Today I got off to bad start, and was foggy all day. I'm going to put the blame on Natty for keeping me up past when I really wanted to just sleep.

Anyway, it wasn't the most productive of days. Natty had to get a physical for school, so we went and hung out at the doctor's office for a while. Next we did our walk.

Hrm, what else? I emailed a follow-up to the placement agent who contacted me about that job I was excited over. Since it's going on a week soon, I'm losing that sense of assurance that I had. Perhaps that'll make me more productive (once I've had sleep).

Speaking of sleep, I took an hour nap. Later, Nat told me that she came in and joined me for a while. I was out so cold that I had no knowledge of this happening.

I packed a few boxes for moving. Mostly stuff out of the entertainment center. One of Natty's Poirot discs has gone rogue, but I'm sure it's somewhere around the house here someplace.

Ugh, so tired. Can't focus.

NOTE: Sorry, t3h intArw3bs were dead last night, so I wasn't able to post. Then I forgot to put it up today, since it never really happens.

Today was a healthy day, in which I both biked and went for a two mile walk. Natty and I took a trip to do some errands. One stop was at the post office to drop off a few cards and another game for Goozex. Next we donated some things to the ARL, and Natty played with a cute kitten for a while. Next we went to an art shop in Squirrel Hill, where Natty picked up a canvas and some brushes. Later at home, I did some work on scripting some thank you notes for my family. Since I find my handwriting embarrassing, Nat will be the one to lay pen to those. I did a write-up on my wiki of another game concept, one that I'd like to work on after SpaceHook. At the moment, SpaceHook's taken a sideline to job hunting, of which I didn't do a large amount today. I spoke with a friend at a company where I'm inquiring. He not only said that there were openings, but that he'd put in a good word for me. I'm feeling really good about that. I hope that it all works out.

Last night I got to bed a little on the late side, as Nat cut a dilemma-causing deal with me. After I wrote my blog entry last night, we started packing a few boxes while watching a Venture Bros episode. She then asked if it was okay for us to stay up later, if we kept on packing. I went along with it, and seem to have suffered today for it. *shrugs*

You can always tell the blog entries that I start early by their verbosity, and the late blog entries by their brevity and lack of detail. Today featured an early wake-up for Nat, so we could drive south and meet her father for lunch. During lunch he generously gave us a check to help cover our moving expenses and also our honeymoon trip. Nice check, but when you compare it to the amount my much poorer mother gave us to help pay for the wedding... Well, you come off as a bit of a tightwad, Mr Millionaire.

When we got home, we set straight out from the parking space for our 2 mile walk. On the way, we saw three open houses, two of which Natty dragged me in to. Those houses were pretty interesting, each in their own way. Made for a very long walk, temporally at least. When we got home, we wound up taking an hour nap together.

Later I took out the garbage, and then I spent a few hours playing LOTRO teamed up with my girl. Too many hours, really. I'm going to force limits again during the weekdays.

Today was another day off... mostly. I took another 2+ mile walk with Natty. I did a load of laundry and folded it. Tomorrow will feature a return to productivity (hopefully) and a lunch with Nat's father.

I took today off and just relaxed. It was quite good. Nothing to report of use. Hope you had a good day too.