Saturday, April 07, 2012

I think I had an advantage when I first watched Game of Thrones.  I hadn't read the books, so I wasn't as excited about it as I could have been.  I didn't watch the first season until it was over and about to be taken off OnDemand.  After watching the first episode of Season 2, I find I don't like to wait between episodes.  I may decide to skip watching the rest of Season 2 until it's all over.

Aside from that, there seems to be a lot of potential in Season 2, but the episode felt like the first episode of a series - tentative.  Ah well.

- Jim
My Niece was doing pretty well on her medicine and they seemed to control the seizures.  Unfortunately, because of the side effects, she had to change medicines and the seizures started up again.  In an effort to understand what's happening better, the doctors fitted her with a mobile EEG device.  In a medical setting, these things are useful to understand what happens after a seizure, unless you're lucky (or unlucky) enough to one right there.  The information gathered then, is indirectly useful.  They're looking for more useful information now.

Aside, from that, I've been doing what I've been doing.  Mostly reading, but I managed to get some writing in there, almost by accident.

High hopes,

- Jim

Monday, April 02, 2012

So, I posted that article last week.  One of the reasons I did was because it dovetailed with some things I've noticed over the past... month or so. 

A bit of background first, I suppose.  Blah blah life story blah blah, I don't notice things around me very often, and when I do, I tend to notice things rather than people.  Call me weird or whatever, but it's the way I am.  Even I am subject to that restriction - I don't notice me very often either.  Despite what others may sometimes believe, it's not because I hate myself or despise myself, it's just that unless there's something specifically wrong, I just don't care.  It took me years to figure out what my symptoms of allergies were because I just never questioned it, or that I assumed it was something else.  I never asked, no one bothered telling me, and that was that.

It's that way with other people as well.  When I played Magic: The Gathering back in the day, or even when I was playing poker, I was far more interested in my own cards than I was about other people playing.  While other people were reading me, I was eagerly awaiting my next card.  I had fun playing my own game even if other people often got in the way by taking all my money.  Dang people.

So, it probably comes as no surprise that the assumption that I have all the time in the world, combined with the fact that I'm curious about almost everything, meant that sooner or later, I would be inundated with projects that I often call work.  There was no reason to control the intake because, as I said, I have all the time in the world.  I would make deadlines to try and clear stuff out and I would fail miserably.  I'd respond by saying that I needed to work harder.  It was probably true, but it was also unrealistic.

So, recently, I've taken to cutting things out.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm still interested in everything, but I've taken to prioritizing my projects in order to finish some and leave others for later... or never.  Internet debates have been cut, because they're nothing more than a waste of time.  As someone once said, even if you win a debate on the internet, you still lose.  I've cut the political stuff I've been watching, the shows I'm into, the movies I watch, and so on.  It's not perfect, because I won't give up on every political event since I do still want to be an informed voter.  I won't give up on movies entirely either, if nothing else, than to give me something to do during those times when the knee forces me to retreat to my recliner. 

Even posting on here has declined, as you probably have noticed.

It's not perfect - the piles of unread books here bother me more than things that are probably more important elsewhere, so they will still be attended to.  The interests that I have in the news and the research stuff I do for writing is still there.  There's years of things to keep me occupied here, but the piles are shorter.  I've even done some real writing in the past week.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.  I'll try and post more often here, when I am able.

Good luck,

- Jim