 ©1999-1999 ICFTP What're you, kidding? |
24 April 1999:
Hey kids. Haven’t been updating much lately, and honestly, you probably wouldn’t have enjoyed what I would’ve written. Things haven’t been fun here. Didn’t even go to work friday, couldn’t get out of bed until after one o’clock. Stayed curled in a fetal ball under the comforter to get out of the sunlight beating into my room. Spent the day terrified, full of anxiety, my gut a tight fist. It was horrible.
However, I did finally get up.
Things I did yesterday while at home to keep my mind occupied and away from dwelling on how much things SUCK:
Cleaned the apartment; swept bedroom, kitchen, living room. Could have made an entire new kitty from all the hair. Eight pounds or so of dust. Miscellaneous pieces of paper, receipts, phone numbers, etc. Lots of pennies. Put clean clothes away, threw the dirty ones in the closet, ‘cause there were way too many to fit in the hamper.
Washed dishes. About damn time. Ya know, if you only keep about four sets of stuff, four cups, glasses, plates, enough silverware for four, and routinely wash it when you’re done using it, things go so much better. It just takes the mild discipline to do so. It’s worth it if you can manage it. Cleaned the counters, etc. Looks so much better.
Watered all the plants, trimmed the dead leaves. Sorry, plants. Put things away, organized, made the apartment a nicer place to be.
Chris went after the windows and windowsills in my bedroom. Whoever lived here before me obviously smoked a lot. She also tackled the bathroom, cleaned that stuff up. So the cleaning stuff was basically taken care of. She left for Target, and I started getting full of anxiety... looked for things to do next...
Set up Chris’ stereo on the short bookshelf in the living room. Sort of cheap boombox type of thing, Magnavox, but sounds good, lots of bass, and it doesn’t hurt my ears. (My right ear rings constantly and is hyper-sensitive to loud and high-pitched noise. Result of a shooting session with a .357 short barrel and no ear protection. Yes, I’m an idiot, leave me alone. It sucks.) It’s got lots of flashy lights and blinky things, and is very comforting, glimmering and flashing in the dark. Three CD changer with a remote control I can use from the bed - luxury!
Pulled all my paperbacks off the shelf and organized them alphabetically by author. Again, about damn time. However, that’s not the clever part. My Mac SE/30 sits in its little hutch right next to the bookshelf... and I’ve got ClarisWorks... so I powered up the database, and as I put the books back on the shelf (in order!) I also entered them into a database. Now I have my own private little card catalog. So next time Rob or Nick ends up with one of my books, I can enter it and check it out like a library. Actually, Rob is the one who really needs this kind of thing. He has about five times more books than I do, and someone (who, me?) is ALWAYS borrowing them. He’s talked about doing it, but ... oh well, I did it for mine. Think I’ll ever actually USE it? You got me. But it was fun. I also went around and entered all my hardbacks. Didn’t bother to alphabetize those, tho, cause they’re arranged around the room more by size than anything else.
Hooked my Laserwriter Plus up to this little Mac. The printer’s almost three times the size of the computer. The drum is beat to hell, but the thing works. Makes the monitor flicker if I put it too close to the computer, though. Laser printer magnetic field big Juju, scare little computer, give it shivers, make it shake.
Since I took my 17” monitor to work, I pulled my 7500 out from under the desk and set it up between the two 14” monitors. Since I put the Laserwriter next to the SE/30, I put the Commodore 1702 monitor up on my desk, and put my tube amp on top of it. The big desk now resembles a workstation again, and you can actually USE the 7500. Need to bring home the power supply for the Mac Portable, since it’s just sitting there, looking cute, and I really do like all the old computers to be usable. If I had a spot for them, I’d set up my C64 and my Amiga. Everybody’s gotta have a hobby. All of these computers have served me very well in their time. My Mac Plus finally came in, and it’s up at work. I’m thinking of getting a can of that fake stone spray-paint and making it look like a cave-Mac. Maybe epoxying a Kokopelli figure to the side. Maybe an iron sun on one side, a moon on the other. Who knows. Maybe I’ll just leave it like it is, but hell, it’s a Mac, why not get creative?
Lilu has decided her favorite place is the shelf above the SE/30. She looks adorable there, and I love having this beautiful kitten sitting right above my line of sight, silky tail swishing back and forth next to the monitor, but she tracks dust and cat hair and something unidentifiable all over the desk and the keyboard. Dammit. Oh well, guess it’s a sure sign that I really do love this kitten, because I spent years cursing the goddamn guinea pig and dog because of occurances like my print head jamming due to the tons of hair in the works. Once when I opened my C64, I had to literally peel sheets of matted hair from the motherboard. When I lived with PJ, his damn cats used to sleep ON my equipment, and hair got in the drives and such. It was infuriating.
The apartment is now back to its enjoyable self, pleasant to spend time in. Cleaning it made me feel much, much better, and I wonder why I ever let it get bad. The state of my apartment almost always reflects my inner state. Lately it’s been a wreck. I’m telling myself I’m gonna make an effort to keep the apartment clean... it makes me so much happier. This place is grand in the afternoon when sunlight fills the rooms, and the little crystal snowflakes spin slowly, kicking rainbows across the walls. Dammit, there’s the little voice that walks up behind me while I’m enjoying this place and says, with a sneer, “Enjoy it while you can, bub, ‘cause you’re going away very shortly. Sucker.” Grrr.
Well folks, trying to hit a balance, trying to stay cool. Drinking a lot of coffee. Gonna go to work now, upload this and do some of the work I skipped out on yesterday. See ya’ll soon, take care.