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| The Penny Plan | |||||||||||||||||
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Several people I know "in real life" have told me I should post about my penny plan here. It's changed my life. It's taken me from being a lazy slob to being productive. The penny plan started out simple. I get 1 penny for every 5 minutes of work, I pay 1 penny for every 5 minutes of television or online time. However, that simple structure was turned into a plan that works for me and has succeeded in keeping me from falling into the eternal distraction abyss. My rules are:
The penny plan, unlike project schedule or project three meals, has proven to be something I can stick to. I've been on it successfully for almost a month at this point and I still going strong. It has truly transformed me. | |||||||||||||||||
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awake| Trashed | |||||||||||||||||
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![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} purpleglitter just ending a four day weekend and trash day shifted to Wednesday combined to completely addle my internal clock. The trash came and went and I completely missed it. What's worse, this week is recycling pickup. Recycling pickup in Arlington only happens every other week, so missing it causes things to really pile up. Fun fun, I guess I'll move it down to the basement for storage until it can be picked up — which won't be until after New Years. | |||||||||||||||||
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blank| Full Day | |||||||||||||||||
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traffic is incredibly backed up purpleglitter can't leaveshe can't even get out of the garage berv is sad. | |||||||||||||||||
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cold| Half Day | |||||||||||||||||
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| Thanksgiving Poll | |||||||||||||||||
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Poll #1092771 Open to: All, results viewable to: All For Thanksgiving, you will be...
View Answers spending time with friend(s) spending time with family spending time with significant other(s) spending time with pets spending the day alone at work eating real turkey eating faux turkey eating stuffing eating pumpkin pie eating corn on the cob cooking watching football protesting the exploitation of Native Americans Thanksgiving was last month Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in my country | |||||||||||||||||
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curious
20 (35.1%)| Congratulations to the Human Rights Campaign | |||||||||||||||||
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Dear Human Rights Campaign: Congratulations on getting ENDA through the House of Representatives. I forgave you the last time you betrayed the transgender community. Many of us did. We believed that your organization had changed. We gave you the benefit of the doubt. We were wrong and we won't make that mistake again. If by some chance you manage to get the trans-excluded ENDA through the senate, President Bush is almost guaranteed to veto it. You sold out the transgender community for nothing. Nothing. You are not going to get ENDA &mdash all your going to get is a split and angry queer community, a queer community in which many do not and cannot support you, a queer community in which many actively despise and oppose you. That is what you've won, enjoy your spoils. By the way, I fixed your logo for you. You should really consider changing it:  | |||||||||||||||||
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angry| Voice Post: Bus Stop Babble | |||||||
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| Bush Proposes Tax Increase | |||||||||||||||||
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This is not a tax cut. Bush is proposing taxing employees where they were not taxed before. Adding new taxes is a tax increase. Of course his new taxes will barely (if at all) touch the wealthy. Of course employers don't have to pay the new tax. And to offset the hardship the wealthy will experience at not having to pay this tax, he proposes a new tax break for the wealthy. Everyone else, go suck an egg. I propose "Mr. Tax Cut" Bush be spanked spanked repeatedly with this proposal. I propose that "Bush is proposing a tax increase" be a talking point. He is repeating the lies of his father. Read my lips: "Trumpet it!" | |||||||||||||||||
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predatory| Gwen Olsen on Drug Pushing | |||||||||||||||||
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| Day of Lake | |||||||||||||||||
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Yesterday evening was a bit of an adventure. purpleglitter bought a huge club chair at the Salvation Army in Saugus on Saturday. There was no way this thing was going to fit in her car. Neither of us could find anyone with an appropriate vehicle to pick it up. Running out of options to get the thing back to Arlington, yesterday she gave in and rented a U-Haul.However, purpleglitter was very nervous driving it, and I have my vertigo spells - so it seemed a good idea if neither of us drove the thing. We called around to various people who might be able to drive it, but none of them wanted to. Eventually I drove it to Saugus and purpleglitter drove it back. dalious was about to help move the chair into the house, and move it he did. He took it most of the way himself, only requiring assistance to maneuver it through the doorways.To top off day, purpleglitter was named best employee at her company yesterday. She rocks. Sitting in her new throne with her certificate in hand, she knows she rocks. | |||||||||||||||||
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impressed| Berv Love Lake | |||||||||||||||||
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Yesterday was wonderful. I couldn't wait until evening, so I took the bus out to Burlington to meet up with purpleglitter for lunch during her break. If it weren't for the infrequentness of the buses, I would meet her for lunch more regularly.When she arrived home after work, purpleglitter brought me a dozen roses, one for each year we've been together. She took me out to Vinny T's for dinner, which was the perfect choice. Back at her house, we had champagne and chatted away the night. We had planned to watch Tipping the Velvet, but never got around to playing the movie.Quiet, romantic, happy. I couldn't have asked for a better anniversary.  | |||||||||||||||||
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happy| Voice Post: Waiting for the bus in Burlington | |||||||
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| Episodes and Spells | |||||||||||||||||
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I haven't really talked about how I've been doing lately. The "episodes" have been on an upswing. I have spent the majority of today immobile. This has not been an uncommon day. I don't like this eating into my life. On days I can, going for my walks is an act of defiance. I want to get back to being productive and perhaps be on the road to getting a job again. I am mentally ready to go back to work, but it is not a realistic option as long as I have these cycles. However, I am making some progress on figuring the problem out. I was previously unaware that "vertigo" has a specific medical definition. The term is much more specific and I believe better suited than "dizzy" for the spells I've been having. More specifically, I am suffering bouts of central vertigo, as it often is accompanied by blurred vision, loss of fine motor control, sensory distortions, slurred speech, and ataxia. The question still remains as to what is causing it. I have found two candidate conditions: multiple sclerosis and Behçet's disease. Of course there is a good chance that it is neither, but they do give me a direction to go in when I try to get this issue checked out again. I'm going to make an appointment with my primary care nurse (who I think is a bit of a quack) and see if she can set me up again with a neurologist or someone who can properly look into my symptoms. I'm getting quite tired of this. | |||||||||||||||||
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| Injured Blue Jay | |||||||||||||||||
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As purpleglitter was leaving for work yesterday, she came across Cloe Longfang attacking a blue jay. purpleglitter chased Cloe away and called me. I came out and put the jay in a box and took him out back to purpleglitter's screen-in porch. He was such a beautiful bird and i was so worried about him.I called an animal rescue. They were very nice, but very busy and didn't make it out to pick up the blue jay until early afternoon. The person who picked up the jay said that he had a broken wing, but the wing was still responsive and he had a good chance at recovery. I hope the jay is alright. | |||||||||||||||||
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okay| Why I Want To | |||||||||||||||||
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In therapy yesterday, we discussed why I want to get off disability and back into the job market. I hadn't really thought that much on the question other than that I wanted to. The reason I want a job is not because I feel guilty in some way for not having one. I don't feel guilty. First, it's only recently that I've been doing well enough to realistically consider getting one. Second, it's not like any job I'm likely to go into is going to make the world a better place or let me do my part or any such crap. Most likely, if I go back into databases, I'm be schlepping code to fill some corporate coffers. The likelihood of landing another non-profit gig isn't terribly high. The reason is not that I'd simply like to have more money either. Sure it would be nice to not have to count pennies so much, to not worry about how I'm going to pay for rent and oil. But, I'm getting by. Anything else is gravy. Gravy is nice, but not necessary. The reason is autonomy. I don't want to be beholden to the government for my check. And while I am grateful for those friends who have helped me out when I've been in tight spots, I do not want to be beholden to them for support either. I want to control my own life, and in this hyperquasicapitalist dollar-worshiping society that means holding my own purse strings to as much of an extent as possible. I want to control my income because even if they hold their power benignly, I want to lessen the power others hold over me. | |||||||||||||||||
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| Drift | |||||||||||||||||
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I've been drifting away the last several days. The dizzy spells and twitchiness have enveloped me. I cannot move and flicker out. I fight this place, it is hard, but I am not giving up. Sometimes I end up caught in a nasty cycle in which I have one of my "episodes", can't get up, and fall asleep. My "episodes" are more common and intense right after waking, and in these cycles I'll wake right into another episode, not be able to get up, and fall asleep again. Yesterday, I spent 3 hours on the couch in such a cycle – drifting in and out of consciousness. I was planning a trip to Maine to see invalid_userid this weekend, but purpleglitter convinced me I should wait until the current wave subsides. However, in preparing for the trip I did find out that the bus route to Maine was quicker, cheaper, and more frequent than I had previously thought. This will make the prospect of making plans to visit less daunting in the future.Project Schedule has not happened since Monday. I wonder if perhaps the concept is flawed. I've always had large portions of my work day where I could not be productive. I was able to compensate before, why not now? A refined and rigid schedule leaves no room for compensation. However, I am not sure if I should give up Project Schedule until I come up with a better plan to increase my productivity and ready myself for re-entry into employment. | |||||||||||||||||
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| Project Schedule - Attempt 3, Week 2, Day 5 | |||||||||||||||||
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Yesterday went well until the last half hour of the schedule. I became very twitchy and dizzy and couldn't complete my cleaning. I've always had downtime during the day when I couldn't accomplish much. These spells are in no way new. I always made up for them because I was very good at what I did. I worked very fast and my downtime was rarely noticed. I'm very lucky in that regard, for if I were not twice as efficient at my tasks I wouldn't have been able to hold down a job even then. | |||||||||||||||||
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groggy| Project Schedule - Attempt 3, Concept | |||||||||||||||||
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Now that I'm nearing the end of therapy and looking to soon either go back to school or re-enter the job market, I'm going to try setting up some sort of daily schedule to prepare myself for that transition. I'll be scheduling several activities during the day, the nature of which isn't as important as the fact that I'll be doing things at scheduled times as apposed to the haphazard way I run my day now. I will, however, try to make sure that the scheduled activities are productive and/or useful as well. I know I keep trying these "projects", but I think I'm prepared for this one now and it's time to move forward. Yes, failures happen. But if I don't keep moving ahead and trying again I will never get any further than those failures. If I'm going to change my life, I need to do this. I get weekends off and I'm going to start with a small schedule of likely only one hour. I'll expand the |