got through it, time to relax

I'm listening to my gf's christmas present. Sort of. I got (and already gave her cause I'm bad like that) the official bootleg of Tori Amos' concert she did in August in Boston. And I burned a copy of it. I figure between the two tickets and buying the CD set I've already paid for this concert three times, so I didn't feel too terrible about burning a copy.

But, I did feel bad enough that I wanted to give the set to my gf before I listened to my copy. Yes, I'm afflicted with the oddest sense of fair play at times.

I am sooooooo glad that the work portion of this week is done. I have Friday and all next week off, and with any luck whatsoever I'll destress some and be better for it. It's not going to be easy. We have an incident with my son's 1st grade teacher hanging over our heads until weeke after next (when my Ex's attorney is back and can deal with it, which is all I should say for now).

Plus the insurance company guy is being a total prick. He already admitted to my Ex that she got shorted thirteen hundred and change on her milage and temporary living expenses. You'd think they get her a check for that before Christmas, right? No. Not even close. I'm sure he's going to use that as bait to try to get me to give-up on the rest of the money I'm asking them for. Except he should have played that card before the holidays, because afterwards there's no motive on my part to go that route. You'd think people would think this stuff through a bit more thoroughly before-hand? But, no. Besides, I ought not attribute to malice where stupidity--or in this case, indifference--will suffice, I shouldn't be so negative.

Yes, that's right. I'm positive he really doesn't care. So there you go. Tomorrow I can try some shopping therapy and see what that does for my outlook on life.

more on resolutions

- Exercise. I have a bad back. I can recall at least four occasions in the last 15 years where I have strained my back to the point where I have missed one or more days of work over it. I have these exercises that I'm supposed to do 3 times a week. I need to start doing those as well as other leg and upper-body stuff so I'm not abusing my back as much. I want to set hard, numeric goals for this. Weight, waist, leg and arm sizes. Numbers of reps of certain exercises at certain weights. Perhaps appealing to my OCD will overwhelm my inherant procrastinatory nature.

- Fluid intake. Having kidney stones woke me up to the reality that I wasn't drinking anywhere near 64oz of water daily. I'm doing better than I was, but still not even consistently doing 48oz. 1 12oz cup of coffee, one 16oz bottled water and a heineken with dinner (or black and tan if I eat out) gets me to 44 ounces. A second cup of coffee in the afternoon still only gets me to 56 ounces. I think I'm actually going to have to put myself on a schedule for this. Sounds dumb, but I'm not going to get there otherwise.

- Tattoo. I want a celtic cross. A big one, on my back extending up my neck to my hairline, down below my shoulder blades and across my shoulds as far as it needs to be proportional to the length. I'm also kind of intrigued with the idea of putting an ank in the middle of it, extending somewhat above and below the central circle. And if not an ank, then a celtic knot. The problem is I'm a horrid artist and I'll never be able to adequately draw what I have in mind free-hand. I've see a few pictures of celtic-style crosses that have elements that I like, but nothing near 100% of what I want. I don't want to give up on it; I refuse to believe that I'm wanting too much for the design (even if I never get inked with it). I also want colors, but am not sure about that. Basic outline in black with most of it in green, but also with red and blue highlights inside the various designs. Oh, and the gargole at the bottom, tail wrapped once around the base. With dark red wings and yellow eyes. Yeah. Only better than that sounds.

- Programming. It's sad that I was all excited at having to have gotten to do some programming this week, given that it was only a korn shell script. I've been fooling around with various C tutorials and text books for 10 years now. I've written only a couple of C programs that were actually used on a live system in that time. I want to program again, except I don't think I could take the paycut to be a fulltime programmer again. I want to really learn and use C, and all that is really going to take is a schedule and some discipline to do it.

- LJ. I want to write more. Problem is I don't always have something to say, and if I make a silly resolution to post every day or something, I'll quickly be cranking out shite just to meet a self-imposed quota. Still working on this one, I suppose.