General update
Haven't really been up to blogging lately, so I guess it's time for an update.
Been pretty much totally swamped for most of the past few weeks. Things were super-busy at day job in most of December and much of January, and things have been super-busy and super-stressful on magazine for the past month or so.
Also was sick, to various degrees, during various parts of January and February, and spent a week or so barely sleeping as a result.
(Also had a couple of fights with friends somewhere in there.)
This past week, I've been really irritable for no reason I can figure out. Snapping at people who've done nothing wrong, getting annoyed and upset over ridiculously minor stuff. At work, I went and hid in conference rooms for a couple of days because I knew if I sat at my desk, I was going to snap at anyone who came and asked me questions.
That's been wearing off gradually—I was back to interacting with people at work on Friday—but even so, I'm still not really up to most human interaction.
I've been getting six or seven hours of sleep a night, but going to bed barely able to keep my eyes open, and then waking up exhausted.
Been spending most of my non-work time on magazine stuff. I've read 85 stories in the past ten days (about three times the volume of submissions I normally read), and rejected 45 of those so far. Thank goodness for our eight stalwart First Readers, who've done an excellent job of keeping up with the flood of incoming stories; I'd be lost without them.
In the interstices between reading and rejecting, I'm writing code to improve the story-tracking database system, and answering questions from the First Readers, and doing the usual administrative stuff (like entering stories into the database—I finally cleaned up the code for that to make it significantly easier/faster, but it still has to be done manually). Oh, and considering candidates for the editor opening.
One new thing: I'm reading submissions on my iPad while walking on my treadmill. The treadmill's been sitting gathering dust for the past couple years, but a couple of conversations with Kam and Mary Anne a few weeks back reminded me to start using it again, and I realized that I don't have to really push myself and work out on it; I can just walk at something like my normal reasonably brisk walking speed (call it 2.5 to 3.5 mph) while I read. I could go out and do that in the neighborhood, but this way I don't have to watch for traffic (and don't have to get dressed). So, for example, today I walked nearly four miles on the treadmill, in about an hour and a half, while reading subs (with a break after each story to type up notes). I'm not feeling especially well-exercised, but I imagine it's good for me.
Have taken occasional breaks for other stuff in the past couple weeks. Kam and I have started watching Hill Street Blues—amazing how much it feels like seeing old friends to me, even though I never saw these first few episodes at the time—and I've watched a movie or two. And an episode or two of Nikita, which for my money is still the best show on TV. (And the only current show I'm currently watching.) Have purchased quite a lot of movies on Blu-ray and DVD in the past couple months, but haven't watched more than a couple of them yet—too busy. Hoping someday to install a sound system that's more audible in my cavernous living room, and invite people over to see movies. But that'll have to wait 'til magazine stuff eases up.
There's other stuff that I haven't done but really need to. Especially a couple of major financial things that I'm ridiculously far behind on. Have to find time for that really soon.
I feel like there's more, but my mind is too blurry to think what. Oh, right: had dinner with Debbie a few weeks ago; saw Geoff & Michelle and kids a couple weeks ago (and played tennis! for possibly the first time ever, and almost certainly at least the first time since college; also played Forbidden Island, which reminded me quite a lot of Pandemic so I wasn't too surprised to find out the same guy designed it); saw Jay & Holly and other family (including Alan & Cindy!) last weekend.
Had an evening with two Hot Bi Babes the other night: we all sat on couches, and I read submissions while one of them did day-job work on a computer and the other did chemistry homework. Hi ho, the glamorous life.
(...I suppose that needs some explanation: back in the old days on alt.polyamory, every so often someone new would show up and post saying they and their partner were looking for a Hot Bi Babe to have a threesome with. It became something of a running joke. There's more to it than that, but I'm too sleepy to explain.)
(...There was a handy acronym on alt.poly: TOCOTOX, for TOo COmplicated TOo eXplain. So I guess I'm TOSLETOX?)
...Now I'm just free-associating. Time to go read some more subs and then go to sleep.