Y2/D359 - Happy
Mar. 10th, 2022 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFor no good reason, just am. Mood is much lighter. It may be gray and drab outside, but I'm sunny on the inside. (Note, I've also been avoiding the news entirely the last few days. So I've no idea what is happening in the world at the moment. And I don't really want to know.)
When I arrived home from work today, a neighbor kindly opened the front doors for me, and when I trudged upstairs (deciding not to check the boxes in the lobby since I had nothing due until April), sitting in front of my apartment door - was an Amazon package. It was the Kindle Paperwhite Signature that I bought myself with the trade-in. (Shaved off $75, and got free shipping, plus free charger and cover - which arrived in February.) The Signature wasn't scheduled to arrive until April 16-20. So, I wasn't expecting it. Also, Amazon seldom delivers packages to my apartment - usually they are left with all the other packages in the lobby.
Considering we've had the package thief stop by lately - I was relieved to find it.
And I adore my new toy - it has audible, ability to check e-books out from the library without any problems, and over 32.2 GB of space, plus will carry comics, and magazines. It's also a wider screen, with a warm light - so it looks just like the printed page, glare resistant, charges quickly on the wireless charger. With extended battery life. Water resistant. And smaller and lighter than the previous one that I had (which broke in January).
I currently have 751 books on it, which I haven't read. Plus 52 New Yorker magazines apparently (I think that's a gift), along with Kindle Unlimited.
Books are my favorite gifts. I bought myself some books to go with the new Kindle this past week. (Mainly historical romances - because it's my current mood, and well, I want a book that ends happily and I can escape into.) I also have Le Quinn's Left Hand of Darkness on it. Along with Station Eleven, and various other sci-fi and fantasy fair (The Vine Witch, and NK Jemisin's novels. Plus Throne of Glass. I want to buy the Marlon James fantasy novels - that utilize African Folklore and Mythos - because I have a fascination with folklore and mythology, and African is the mythos that I've seen the least. The Children of Blood and Bone kind of disappointed me in that respect, it had it, but it's focus was more on the adolescent romance - which I could have done without. That's the downside of YA Fantasy novels - the annoying teen romances, which admittedly are what attracts 90% of the readership.)
Current fav romance novelist is Grace Burrows - because she writes about more than just the couple. The whole family gets involved. Plus friends. I like more of an ensemble. We also get to be in their point of view not just the couple's. Makes things so much more interesting.
Also she writes outside the box a bit, and doesn't follow the established tropes too closely. She follows them, just veers slightly away. The current one is about a jailed banker facing a hangman's noose who falls for a Minister's daughter. He gets saved - because it turns out he's in line for a dukedom, and if he is allowed to inherit said dukedom, he could help with the Crown's debts, and save the title - which benefits the Crown. Like I said, it's different. Also the historical romance novelists who published post 20th Century - tend to be more feminist, lack the racism, focus more on class issues, and aren't into furthering plot with rape. Actually there's no rape at all in most of them. We are finally past the boddice rippers. Hallelujah. They were giving the genre a bad name. Now, you find them in contemporary erotic romances...so, not completely past it.
The other package waiting to be opened and put together is my new Robot Vacuum or IRobot. It's to take the place of the ILife vacuum, which is on its last legs.
**
Crazy Workplace
Former Head Honcho stopped by, out of retirement. He looks like a seven foot tall mottled Santa Clause in street clothes.
Me:So are you back to fix things, and switch everything back to the way it was before?
FHH: Nah, but you all don't really want that, do you?
Me: Yes, we do. I'd say ..it's pretty much unanimous. (I laugh, as do my co-workers.)
Co-workers found out yesterday was my birthday and started threatening to do something for me tomorrow.
Chidi: What do you want done?
ME: Nothing. Why do you think I took the day off?
Chidi: We should do something - will you be in tomorrow?
Me: Yes, but I don't want anything done. Also no food - I can't eat anyhow, I'm gluten intolerant.
Chidi: We could get a gluten free cake.
ME: I got my own cake. Also you should just do a birthday celebration at the beginning of the month for everyone - no is excluded. Except I can't eat the cake so never mind.
Chidi: We could get a gluten-free cake for you. Everyone can eat that...
Me: They also taste great now - you really can't tell the difference any longer.
Chidi: So we should do something.
Mel: Definitely should.
Me: No, really shouldn't. I don't like being the center of attention.
I was getting along with my fellow cubicle inhabitants today. Management stayed tucked inside its offices for the most part. I didn't see BYT at all, and barely saw BB.
Also, the time clock didn't work for my group. It worked for everyone but my group. For my group - it said, "Rejected Punch Unknown At Home Employee". If I'd known that - I'd have stayed home and worked remotely.
We've been told to clock in by email - until it starts working again. The stupid thing has been wonky ever since it was hacked back in December. Globally hacked.
Also I got stuff done today. I was impressed with myself. I should take these mental health days more often.
***
Talked about movies with Chidi and Mel at work. Chidi loves The Last Duel and Power of the Dog. (He thinks Power of the Dog is a beautiful film. Beautiful isn't exactly the adjective that comes to mind regarding that film. Other adjectives come to mind - but beautiful? He also adores Jesse Plemmons who plays the brother and is barely in it.) He didn't like Fresh - which validates my rational for not seeing it. It's on Hulu - it falls under the category of film that I won't watch. Gory Horror Movies. Also torture porn.
Fresh's description and trailer were enough to turn me off of it. In regards to the horror genre, I rather picky. I really only like cosmic horror (basically horror that is a puzzle or mind-game), psychological horror, and ghost stories. Fresh is basically Promising Young Woman meets Hannibal Lector. When I read about it - I thought, oh great someone decided to imagine a date with Armie Hammer taken a few steps too far.
****
Good moods are lovely things. Temporary. But lovely. Good night's sleep. Having various anxieties magically relieved. All of this plus a pretty bouquet of flowers, and birthday wishes can alleviate a mood, also avoiding the news. I've chosen to stop checking the John Hopkins Dashboard of Doom, used to be the COVID Map of Doom - but there were too many cases and deaths so they shifted to a Dashboard to keep track. I mean we were just looking a pock marked map, with very little space that wasn't covered with red circles left over. Also after a while, the numbers felt meaningless, and it was hard to equate them with human lives. So I stopped for my own mental health and continued sanity. [ I stopped about two-three months ago.]
Also have slowly stopped reading the Times news briefings. And, pulled away from FB and Twitter. My mood has lightened as a result. Social media can depress me if I let it.
Covid
Anyhow, in regards to masks...I'm getting used to people not wearing them everywhere now. People are still wearing them on trains, more so now than they were in 2020, weirdly enough. I think we've all gotten used to it. And it makes us feel safe. At work, more and more people aren't wearing masks. BB wasn't, nor was former head honcho. Long Islanders don't tend to, with few exceptions. It's really a fifty/fifty split at the moment.
The infection rate in my area is below 0%, or 0.65%. But I'm in an urban area - so that's basically 30, 228 tested, and 197 positive. All of NY is 1.35% with 132,590 tested, and 1795 positive. We have over 19 million people in the state. [I've a COVID app on my phone that keeps track of the infection rate.]
It's odd to think how much has changed since March 10, 2020. Kind of overwhelming actually. Yet, I feel the same, at the same time? I don't.
***
Here's a picture of my birthday bouquet:
When I arrived home from work today, a neighbor kindly opened the front doors for me, and when I trudged upstairs (deciding not to check the boxes in the lobby since I had nothing due until April), sitting in front of my apartment door - was an Amazon package. It was the Kindle Paperwhite Signature that I bought myself with the trade-in. (Shaved off $75, and got free shipping, plus free charger and cover - which arrived in February.) The Signature wasn't scheduled to arrive until April 16-20. So, I wasn't expecting it. Also, Amazon seldom delivers packages to my apartment - usually they are left with all the other packages in the lobby.
Considering we've had the package thief stop by lately - I was relieved to find it.
And I adore my new toy - it has audible, ability to check e-books out from the library without any problems, and over 32.2 GB of space, plus will carry comics, and magazines. It's also a wider screen, with a warm light - so it looks just like the printed page, glare resistant, charges quickly on the wireless charger. With extended battery life. Water resistant. And smaller and lighter than the previous one that I had (which broke in January).
I currently have 751 books on it, which I haven't read. Plus 52 New Yorker magazines apparently (I think that's a gift), along with Kindle Unlimited.
Books are my favorite gifts. I bought myself some books to go with the new Kindle this past week. (Mainly historical romances - because it's my current mood, and well, I want a book that ends happily and I can escape into.) I also have Le Quinn's Left Hand of Darkness on it. Along with Station Eleven, and various other sci-fi and fantasy fair (The Vine Witch, and NK Jemisin's novels. Plus Throne of Glass. I want to buy the Marlon James fantasy novels - that utilize African Folklore and Mythos - because I have a fascination with folklore and mythology, and African is the mythos that I've seen the least. The Children of Blood and Bone kind of disappointed me in that respect, it had it, but it's focus was more on the adolescent romance - which I could have done without. That's the downside of YA Fantasy novels - the annoying teen romances, which admittedly are what attracts 90% of the readership.)
Current fav romance novelist is Grace Burrows - because she writes about more than just the couple. The whole family gets involved. Plus friends. I like more of an ensemble. We also get to be in their point of view not just the couple's. Makes things so much more interesting.
Also she writes outside the box a bit, and doesn't follow the established tropes too closely. She follows them, just veers slightly away. The current one is about a jailed banker facing a hangman's noose who falls for a Minister's daughter. He gets saved - because it turns out he's in line for a dukedom, and if he is allowed to inherit said dukedom, he could help with the Crown's debts, and save the title - which benefits the Crown. Like I said, it's different. Also the historical romance novelists who published post 20th Century - tend to be more feminist, lack the racism, focus more on class issues, and aren't into furthering plot with rape. Actually there's no rape at all in most of them. We are finally past the boddice rippers. Hallelujah. They were giving the genre a bad name. Now, you find them in contemporary erotic romances...so, not completely past it.
The other package waiting to be opened and put together is my new Robot Vacuum or IRobot. It's to take the place of the ILife vacuum, which is on its last legs.
**
Crazy Workplace
Former Head Honcho stopped by, out of retirement. He looks like a seven foot tall mottled Santa Clause in street clothes.
Me:So are you back to fix things, and switch everything back to the way it was before?
FHH: Nah, but you all don't really want that, do you?
Me: Yes, we do. I'd say ..it's pretty much unanimous. (I laugh, as do my co-workers.)
Co-workers found out yesterday was my birthday and started threatening to do something for me tomorrow.
Chidi: What do you want done?
ME: Nothing. Why do you think I took the day off?
Chidi: We should do something - will you be in tomorrow?
Me: Yes, but I don't want anything done. Also no food - I can't eat anyhow, I'm gluten intolerant.
Chidi: We could get a gluten free cake.
ME: I got my own cake. Also you should just do a birthday celebration at the beginning of the month for everyone - no is excluded. Except I can't eat the cake so never mind.
Chidi: We could get a gluten-free cake for you. Everyone can eat that...
Me: They also taste great now - you really can't tell the difference any longer.
Chidi: So we should do something.
Mel: Definitely should.
Me: No, really shouldn't. I don't like being the center of attention.
I was getting along with my fellow cubicle inhabitants today. Management stayed tucked inside its offices for the most part. I didn't see BYT at all, and barely saw BB.
Also, the time clock didn't work for my group. It worked for everyone but my group. For my group - it said, "Rejected Punch Unknown At Home Employee". If I'd known that - I'd have stayed home and worked remotely.
We've been told to clock in by email - until it starts working again. The stupid thing has been wonky ever since it was hacked back in December. Globally hacked.
Also I got stuff done today. I was impressed with myself. I should take these mental health days more often.
***
Talked about movies with Chidi and Mel at work. Chidi loves The Last Duel and Power of the Dog. (He thinks Power of the Dog is a beautiful film. Beautiful isn't exactly the adjective that comes to mind regarding that film. Other adjectives come to mind - but beautiful? He also adores Jesse Plemmons who plays the brother and is barely in it.) He didn't like Fresh - which validates my rational for not seeing it. It's on Hulu - it falls under the category of film that I won't watch. Gory Horror Movies. Also torture porn.
Fresh's description and trailer were enough to turn me off of it. In regards to the horror genre, I rather picky. I really only like cosmic horror (basically horror that is a puzzle or mind-game), psychological horror, and ghost stories. Fresh is basically Promising Young Woman meets Hannibal Lector. When I read about it - I thought, oh great someone decided to imagine a date with Armie Hammer taken a few steps too far.
****
Good moods are lovely things. Temporary. But lovely. Good night's sleep. Having various anxieties magically relieved. All of this plus a pretty bouquet of flowers, and birthday wishes can alleviate a mood, also avoiding the news. I've chosen to stop checking the John Hopkins Dashboard of Doom, used to be the COVID Map of Doom - but there were too many cases and deaths so they shifted to a Dashboard to keep track. I mean we were just looking a pock marked map, with very little space that wasn't covered with red circles left over. Also after a while, the numbers felt meaningless, and it was hard to equate them with human lives. So I stopped for my own mental health and continued sanity. [ I stopped about two-three months ago.]
Also have slowly stopped reading the Times news briefings. And, pulled away from FB and Twitter. My mood has lightened as a result. Social media can depress me if I let it.
Covid
Anyhow, in regards to masks...I'm getting used to people not wearing them everywhere now. People are still wearing them on trains, more so now than they were in 2020, weirdly enough. I think we've all gotten used to it. And it makes us feel safe. At work, more and more people aren't wearing masks. BB wasn't, nor was former head honcho. Long Islanders don't tend to, with few exceptions. It's really a fifty/fifty split at the moment.
The infection rate in my area is below 0%, or 0.65%. But I'm in an urban area - so that's basically 30, 228 tested, and 197 positive. All of NY is 1.35% with 132,590 tested, and 1795 positive. We have over 19 million people in the state. [I've a COVID app on my phone that keeps track of the infection rate.]
It's odd to think how much has changed since March 10, 2020. Kind of overwhelming actually. Yet, I feel the same, at the same time? I don't.
***
Here's a picture of my birthday bouquet:
no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 04:23 am (UTC)I like Grace Burrowes too - I've totally read that book about the banker in jail - I liked that one - and I think I read the sequel too! I also read the Vine Witch books and liked them a lot! If you liked those, and you haven't already read them - you might also like Laura Anne Gilman's "The Vineart War" trilogy - I kept being reminded of those when reading the Vine Witch books :D
no subject
Date: 2022-03-12 01:21 am (UTC)I read the one about Constance and the Duke with Epilepsy first. Decided to go read the rest - because I got really curious about the siblings.
Also, thank you for the birthday wishes.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-12 07:45 am (UTC)