Kevin's Watch

Nice Linna .. good to hear

Cagliostro wrote:I'm feeling whiny because a) this year has been pretty damn rough, and b) I have been expecting my work load at work to slow way the hell down so that I can waste time on Kevin's Watch and relax for a bit before January sets in and everybody is back to wanting help with their stupid computers again. However, it seems like we are getting more and more stupid tickets and people won't just take the damn time off like they have the past several years. If ever I needed a break around the holidays, it's this year, but it isn't slowing down at all.
-Whines from the priviliged

All good Cags, you go right ahead .. if its shit, say so .. and yes things SHOULD be winding down

Well, merry Christmas Watchers.

--A

Happy Happy to all celebrating!

Happy holidays to all

deer of the dawn wrote:Yeah.

Finishing up the semester, Friday was the long awaited world premiere of the Christmas musical I wrote, which was very well-received, but then, come on, these are their kids and they could stand up there and belch and parents would adore it. But I think it was pretty awesome!!

I'm with Sorus, Deer: that's very cool that you wrote a musical!

Skyweir wrote:Happy holidays to all

Happy Holidays to all here, and a Happy New Year!

Joyous Kwanzaa!

Cord Hurn wrote:

deer of the dawn wrote:Yeah.

Finishing up the semester, Friday was the long awaited world premiere of the Christmas musical I wrote, which was very well-received, but then, come on, these are their kids and they could stand up there and belch and parents would adore it. But I think it was pretty awesome!!

I'm with Sorus, Deer: that's very cool that you wrote a musical!

Thanks, it was a lot of fun! I can't post the video online because minors, but if anyone is dying to see it I suppose I can email it. But they screwed the song titles all up so that has to get fixed first. (And Amahl and the Night Visitors is lovely, but a full opera is a bit much for 12 year olds. :p )

Cags, I think people put off crying for help until they feel they have a little time, which unfortunately makes your holiday a suckfest... maybe you should plan some time off after everyone goes back to their jobs, do a 12th night thing (friends of mine celebrate Christmas on Jan 6, I don't remember why but it's their fam tradition and everything is on sale).

So Stag of the dawn (my hubby) had drug-resistant malaria AGAIN (wound up earlier this year hospitalized with double pneumonia and meningitis) but kicked its butt without hospitalization this time. So we had a very very quiet Christmas, our first truly empty-nest Christmas. We binge watched 2 seasons of Legion (and what exactly the heck was that, anyway???). Tomorrow we're flying to Lagos, the capital city (which btw is pronounced Lay-goss, not Lah-goes --that's a place in Portugal, not Nigeria) where I've never been and staying in an expensive hotel to celebrate 30 years of marriage.

Meanwhile I'm also suffering from chronic stress and looking into CBD oil. I'll let you know if it helps.

Happy Celebration, whatever it is you are doing!!

deer of the dawn wrote:(friends of mine celebrate Christmas on Jan 6, I don't remember why but it's their fam tradition and everything is on sale)

Epiphany.

deer of the dawn wrote: We binge watched 2 seasons of Legion (and what exactly the heck was that, anyway???).

It is exactly the show that pushes all of my favorite buttons, apparently. I REALLY liked The Prisoner when I finally got around to watching it in the early 2000s. And finally I feel this is its successor, without as much politics (sadly). I absolutely loved Season 2, and was so confused and entranced throughout the entire thing. If I was stranded on an island, I would love to watch the hell out of the show until I interpreted the shit out of that show.

Sorry to hear about your husband, but glad he is doing well now.

Currently, I am one of the government contractors dealing with the government closure. Thankfully, I am still working, but not as full a time as usual, and it means my vacation time is going to be eaten away by something else other than a damn vacation again. Between illness, surgery recovery and some family visits, I'm really ready to have vacation time used to actually go out and have one with my wife and kids. Oh well. Again, problems of the privileged, and I'm thankful I have a job that pays kind of good, and that I can keep on top of the finances. But ugh....
I'm at least getting a bit of a break that I needed.

Im glad Cags and hope you do get to put your feet up soon.

Im a big fan of Legion too I love the weirdness Deer .. it all comes together but by bit. And I love the two main characters.. they have a great dynamic.

But yeah lots of weirdly weirdness.

deer of the dawn wrote:
Meanwhile I'm also suffering from chronic stress and looking into CBD oil. I'll let you know if it helps.

Would be curious to know what you think. I have pretty severe anxiety that has led to high blood pressure and whatnot in the last couple of years, and both I and my doctor are resistant to the idea of medicating it. CBD and whatnot are legal here, but still illegal on the federal level or some nonsense that I haven't fully researched, but I work in an industry that's subject to random drug testing, and I'm not willing to risk failing a test. Probably need to do more research, but still curious about the effectiveness and such.

CBD oil sounds like, out of the frying pan into the fire.

I used to suffer from severe anxiety and dissociation. Although diagnosed schizophrenic,
my saving grace was my father telling me there was never any such mental disorder in the family.
It took me a long time to find an answer to this quandary.

Know thyself - plain and simple.
Its unfortunate the curative process that works so well for me is sadly not for everyone.

Happy New Year to all on the Watch!

Happy New Year!

It's weirdly quiet here so far. NYE in this neighborhood usually sounds like the start of WWIII with all the fireworks and such. It's still early-ish, but it usually starts as soon as it gets dark.

Lazy Luke wrote:
Know thyself - plain and simple.
Its unfortunate the curative process that works so well for me is sadly not for everyone.

I agree with that, and I am a big fan of being in full control of my brain - coming from a family with a colorful history of mental disorders, I've seen folks destroyed by medication and whatnot. That said, on nights like last night when I am waking up 5 times an hour with panic attacks, I'd probably take something just so I can sleep. During the day I can control my breathing and whatnot and keep it under control, but nights can be brutal.

Sorus wrote:

Lazy Luke wrote:
Know thyself - plain and simple.
Its unfortunate the curative process that works so well for me is sadly not for everyone.

I agree with that, and I am a big fan of being in full control of my brain - coming from a family with a colorful history of mental disorders, I've seen folks destroyed by medication and whatnot. That said, on nights like last night when I am waking up 5 times an hour with panic attacks, I'd probably take something just so I can sleep. During the day I can control my breathing and whatnot and keep it under control, but nights can be brutal.

I am trying this route, but I'm not there yet.

Happy New Year!!

The CBD oil that interests me is THC-free. I am no longer a fan of stoneage of any kind, having (literally) wasted the prettiest and most free years of my life making dumb decisions (most of them not spectacular enough to be interesting, just sad and life-sucking) and not growing as a person. No thank you to more of that.

Had an epic New Years', dancing the night away at an outdoor festival in Lagos, Nigeria. The highlight for me was Seun Kuti who carries on the musical tradition of his late father, Fela. Fireworks, etc. I think there were two other white people besides Stag and me. The low point was Stag getting pickpocketed and losing his phone and his Reverend card. Going to the police to report it today, with the IMEI # phones have actually been tracked successfully in Nigeria.... not too hopeful, but at least it will make the phone a pain for the thief to get rid of profitably.

Strangely enough I once spent New Years' Day in a police station after being mugged, but this was in 1979 on a road trip that ended badly for me and my friend.

deer of the dawn wrote:

Sorus wrote:

Lazy Luke wrote:
Know thyself - plain and simple.
Its unfortunate the curative process that works so well for me is sadly not for everyone.

I agree with that, and I am a big fan of being in full control of my brain - coming from a family with a colorful history of mental disorders, I've seen folks destroyed by medication and whatnot. That said, on nights like last night when I am waking up 5 times an hour with panic attacks, I'd probably take something just so I can sleep. During the day I can control my breathing and whatnot and keep it under control, but nights can be brutal.

I am trying this route, but I'm not there yet.

Panic attacks I don't really know about.
I agree breathing control is most important - brain control can't be achieved without it.
Pranayama is a simple technique but does need discipline. Not neccessarily sitting on a mat like a yogi, a comfy armchair is more than enough.
I used to practice pranayama on a daily basis. Afterward I would light up a ciggy. Over time the lasting effect of the exercise outweighed the nicotine addiction and eventually I quit smoking for good. Sorry if this sounds patronising but I thouroughly recommend it.
Incidently, while searching for panic attack symptoms I found some interesting info on Bach flower treatment. I'll be trying some out tomorrow, when the shops open.

Recently some nutjob threw vegetable soup on my doorstep.
An odd day indeed.
The electricity was out only in the kitchen and I had to make breakfast in the sitting room. Then on my way out to catch the bus to work I was shocked to find my doorstep splattered with crap. Further to this I had an accident later at work. Tripped and fell, bumped my head, scratched and bruised arms, but mainly freaked about the soup on the stoop.
So apart from scrubbing away the mess I've been scrubbing out the flat - doing some new year protection spells <sigh> to surround the place with love and light.
I'm getting too lazy for this shit.

I wish I had the mentality for meditation and/or yoga, but I just don't.

Writing helps, but sometimes my brain is spinning too fast to focus on a plot.

Alas, something in my brain doesn't allow me to get meditation either. I heard yesterday a snippet where an 85 year-old lady wrote a letter to a radio show host, saying how soon after beginning to practice TM she had begun to experience a warm flow through her body and had interpreted it as the presence of God coursing through her. Since this time, she had found that the solutions to life's problems had often just materialised within her, without effort on her part. She was as said, 85, had four children and nine grandchildren and lived alone and in as full possession of health and happiness as it was possible to be. The commentator said that was a pretty good advert for the benefits of TM and I agree with him. Perhaps I should give it a shot......in fairness I've never really seriously tried to get it.

Well whatever TM is it seems to agree with her. Each to their own, I guess.