Saturday, November 10, 2007

11/9: What I Accomplished Today

1. Getting dressed, I put on a sock with a big hole in the bottom, and I'm too impatient to take the time to change socks (not to mention not liking to throw a sock away so that I have an odd number), so I wore a holey sock all day. This ends up being more upsetting than I'd have thought.

2. Level 38 Human Paladin. Hillsbrad.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

We watched Sunset Blvd., one of our NetFlix movies. Oh, my gosh, what a cool movie. All about power and money and desire and what age does (and doesn't) mean. We watched it again so we could hear the commentary, and then we watched the featurette on the movie, and then we watched the featurettes on Edith Head and Franz Waxman, and if there'd been more featurettes, we'd have watched them. And while everyone in the cast is extraordinarily talented, it sure did sound like each was also playing vital element of their character at just that moment of their lives. There are very few films that I think would reward frame-by-frame scrutiny, but I think this one would.

4. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi Highlands. Also auction work. Having read various gold guides, I've come across two or three techniques that, over the course of a week, seem to have made about 50 gold or so. Now I'm obviously going to have to have more gold than that if I'm to get nine mounts, and epic mounts, and flying mounts, and epic flying mounts, but I've learned a lot this week, and maybe I'll eventually learn more and be able to keep up with the financial needs of the little community I've built. (Well, "community" is a strong word, since only one can be online at a time.)

5. I was hoping to finish Muhammad tonight; I only have 10 or 15 pages. I'm really tired, though, so I speckon that'll be on the agenda for tomorrow.

Friday, November 9, 2007

11/8: What I Accomplished Today

1. Had dum-dum food.

2. Level 36 Human Paladin. Started Stranglethorn. Dinged 37.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 37 Human Paladin. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38.

5. Read a big chunk of Mjhammad: A Prophet for our Time.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

11/7: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to a training class on Dreamweaver.

2. Picked up the book for Literary Society.

3. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 36 Human Paladin. Desolace. Lack 33 points of level 37, which is quite frustrating.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

11/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Started Muhammed: A Prophet for Our Time.

4. Just did auction checks on WOW.

5. I'm not really tired, but I have a training class at a ridiculous hour tomorrow, so it would probably be wise to go to bed.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

11/5: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. I made a list of things I've been meaning to talk about but keep forgetting to, so this will have sort of a grab-bag feel to it.

4. I've seen more episodes of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and I may have been unfair in part of my initial assessment. They commented how a babysitter was frustrated, and their take was that her frustration is because she tries to break up every little fight, which really isn't practical with six kids the same age. That makes sense to me. I rescind (or at least temper) my "wolf cubs" comments from a few weeks ago.

5. Entertainment Weekly had an article a few weeks ago about television shows with a high "squirm factor": the examples they listed were The Office, Arrested Development, and The Sarah Silverman Show. Yip. I would add Letterman, at least over the last few years as he's mellowed; Alan Kalter is invariably squirm-inducing, and then there's the crazed employee who comes out on stage and flips everyone off now and then.

About 10 or 20 years ago, I remember Letterman also being included in a discussion of "Hot" versus "Cool" Post-Modernism (and the article was so cool that this was called Po-Mo). I don't remember much of this article except David Byrne was mentioned as well, and I think he and Letterman were in the same category, although I forget the specifics. (I don't even remember where I saw the article; it might have been Newsweek, and it might have been Utne Reader.) But I'm wondering if these shows could also be fit into the framework that was established in the previous article; if not, I suspect they'd make an interesting extension of its original premise.
I don't remember it enough to formulate it myself, but I wanted to make the connection.

6. Skin care and Hygiene. We all know life expectancy has gone up quite a bit as the cultural expectation for personal cleanliness has increased; we're also beginning to see some environmental and immune negatives to this.

In a story that will seem unrelated but isn't, it's also seemed to me that the best skincare regime involves no chemicals or goop at all; it's just a) get enough sleep; b) get enough nutritious food; c) get enough water; d) keep clean (but not too clean). I've never seen studies that balance the benefits of hygiene, which are legion, with its downsides: bacteria get hardier as we become more resistant; our immune systems weaken as we live more cleanly than the human body may be able to accommodate; over-washing dries skin and hair; the environmental impact of daily water for washing and the electricity to bring it to an acceptable temperature can't be ignored. I'd like an unbiased study (not sponsored by a soap or shampoo company, for starters) that balances these and all other factors and comes up with a range of best-case-scenario bathing. Three times a week? Four? Five? I can't imagine it'd be more than five. On a global scale, three is probably untenable--but I don't wanna wash less often than that, and I'm usually happier with four or sometimes five if we do a lot or I'm more physical than usual. (This doesn't happen very often.)

7. BigFishGame is King Mania or some such. Not bad, but I didn't finish the hour; after about 40 minutes, I wondered why I was still doing this.

8. Level 35 Human Paladin. Desolace. Dinged 36. I downloaded Auctioneer about a week ago, and I've been having the Dwarf Rogue experiment with some techniques; it's not windfalls, but she's made about 15 or 20 gold over the past four days, which I don't think is bad for about half an hour's time.

9. Hoping to finish The Secret Supper tonight.

Monday, November 5, 2007

11/4: What I Accomplished Today

1. Got stuff we forgot at Costco and did the Target run.

2. Puzzle Day, but the answers didn't print, so we don't know who won.

3. Television and Pogo badges. (I finished several Pogo badges, so I was pleased.)

We watched The Sweet Smell of Success; we hadn't watched NetFlix films for awhile, so we watched one. Really fun puzzle to watch play out.

4. Last night, I placed Big Island Blends, a time management game on PlayFirst. Not a bad game, but nothing I haven't played 22 times before, and it like many other time management games, the early rounds are so slow and clunky, and the onscreen avatar so unresponsive, that it's not that big a disappointment when the trial period's over; you know in another 15 or 20 minutes, the character and machines would be fast enough to allow you to get a groove going, but by then, who would care?

I should also be working on Hometown Heroes, but the last level I played was a flashlight level, and I didn't finish it. I hate flashlight levels, so I'm having trouble motivating myself to try again.

5. Level 35 Human Paladin. Desolace. Auction checks.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

11/3: What I Accomplished Today

1. Costco.

2. Plumber came to fix toilet. (I didn't know it was broken, but apparently it was.)

3. Took home lady who cleans house.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 35 Human Paladin. Fished. Had a Darkmoon Faire quest in Wailing Caverns; hadn't been there before, so that was fun. Got to Desolace. Checked auctions.

6. BigFishGame looks silly to me. New game on PlayFirst which I'm downloading.

7. Read big chunks of The Secret Supper; sort of a cross between The Da Vinci Code and The Name of the Rose. Nothing so far I haven't read in 22 places, and the tone is sometimes a little breather than I really think is warranted, but it's fun.