Songs and Spinnings

Alrighty, so, apparently I want to make sure I'm COMMITTED to walking next year

2009-12-05T00:38:31Z

Apparently, my conscious mind has taken note of how unconscionably lazy my subconscious is (i.e. not walking AT ALL for two weeks, because my walking buddy was out of the country - funny how it's every bit as hard to get my arse out the door for a 15 minute walk as it is for a 15km one!), and decided I need to ratchet up the pressure and accountability in the first half of next year to get, and keep me on track for walking.

So, I've sought out (and found) quite a few 10km and 21km events that are happening around Auckland from late January to early July, and entered myself into them. And PAID to enter them, which means I'm far less likely to back out of the suckers because I just "can't be bothered" on the day.

I'm aiming to do two events a month - one 10km and one 21km, and seem to be going pretty well for that. At the moment, the timetable is looking like this:

16-Jan: Waiheke Island Wharf 2 Wharf (25 km) - NB - not 100% sure I'll do this one - it's Waiheke, which means it'll be a bitch of a track hillwise, and it IS my first event of the year. I've e-mailed the organisers to see whether they have any kind of maximum time length to complete the course. If so, I might skip it, just do a 10km walk somewhere on my own then start my event walking with the SUB series one next weekend instead

24-Jan: Molenburg Nth Shore SUB (21 km)

14-Feb: Botany Town Centre Funwalk (10 km)

20-Feb: Molenburg Clevedon SUB (21 km)

28-Mar: Run Auckland - Waiatarua (10 km)

11-Apr: Orewa Beach Half Marathon (21 km)

18-Apr: Run Auckland - Harbourview (10 km)

9-May: Run Auckland - Bucklands Beach (10 km)

29-May: Run Auckland - Milford (10 km)

19-Jun: Run Auckland - Western Springs (10 km)

11-Jul: Run Auckland - Takapuna (21 km)

If anyone's interested in finding out more about any of these events, or even (shock, horror), thinking of entering any of them (almost all of them have a 5km version as well, so you don't have to do insane distances!), let me know, and I'll flick you on the URL for them. I'm not aiming to do any of them fast (if I can manage to maintain 6km/h for the entire event, I'll be over the moon)

If nothing else, building this kind of baseline walking fitness should ensure I hit real Trailwalker training in September/October in a much better condition than I did in 2008!

And now it's time to stop faffing around on the computer and get my butt out the door and head off for a walk over to Howick to drop something off to a friend.

Hugs & hopeful blessings

Starfire

Mini Book Reviews: Cast in Silence and Cry Mercy

2009-12-04T09:41:24Z

[Unknown LJ tag]Finished two more books this week in between struggling with the Lie to Me plot bunnies of doom: Michelle Sagara’s Cast in Silence, and Toni Andrew’s Cry Mercy. Mini reviews follow.

Cry Mercy, by Toni Andrews
Genre: Urban Fantasy

This is the third book in the Mercy Hollings set, and although the series got off to a rocky start with the first book, Beg for Mercy (to the point I remember thinking there was no way I was going to bother keeping reading), it's starting to find its feet now. This one delves into Mercy's past a little more - we get to find out (as she does) who her parents were and why they gave her up all those years ago. We also get to find out a bit more about Tino - the gang leader we met in book 2, and what he's managed to work out about Mercy from a keen sense of observation and common sense. Plus, we get to meet Sam's father. It's an OK read - one I basically only got because the e-book was on special and cheap, and I don't regret reading it. I'm giving it a 7/10 - I'll probably go on to read Book 4 if I see it on special, but I won't be hanging out for it until it does.

Cast in Silence, by Michelle Sagara
Genre: Fantasy

Ok, as I always say when I review a Michelle West/Sagara book, it's by Michelle Sagara, so I'm GOING to love it. Take it as read, 'k? And yeah, this is definitely no exception. I absolutely love the world of Elantra - I love the characters, I love the Joss-ian banter, and I LOVE the depth of the characterisation and the way Michelle Sagara manages to say so damn much in so few words. Gahhh... I'd give much to be half the writer she is. Anyway, this instalment has Kaylin's past as a street kid in the Fiefs reaching out and biting her in the ass, and we get to see a bit more about what exactly the Fiefs are - how they came about - and what they exist to protect. It has all my favourite characters (two of one of them - go Nightshade!), and some AMAZING character development and exploration of Tiamaris, whom I've always had a soft spot for. Net result? Love, love, love, love, love. It's not quite a perfect 10 in the Starfireverse, but it comes damn close - I'm giving it a 9/10 and wondering... just a little... if I'm being just a bit too stingy.

77 / 100 books. 77% done!

Mini Book reviews: No Control, Dark Watcher and Blood & Iron

2009-11-21T21:56:04Z

OK, I've finished 3 books over the past couple of weeks, so I should probably actually write them up:

No Control, by Shannon K Butcher
Genre: Romantica/chick-pron
The truth is that after trying to read Burning Alive, I really only started to read this one because I must have bought the e-book at the same time I bought Burning Alive. I was quite prepared to give up on it within the first few pages if it was along the same lines, but it was actually slightly better - better being a relative term, of course.

This one's pure romantica/chick pr0n, with a damaged heroine who was the only survivor of an attack (by a drug cartel, I think, although that's blurry) when she was off doing volunteer work; and a hero who was undercover in said cartel and thus had to stand around and do nothing as BadStuff(TM) happened to her and all her friends. Not surprisingly, this gives Ms Butcher lots of conflict between the two of them to work with, which may be why I found the story slightly more readable.

That being said, it's still definitely light-to-the-point-of-marshmallow conflict, the hero (an allegedly big, bad, tough, military type) still suffers from intermittent Roarke-syndrome (granted, only intermittently, which is an improvement), and the heroine still suffers on a regular basis from terminal perfection (although, sometimes her nightmares and flashbacks do act to alleviate this). The characters outside of the two leads are still fairly one-dimensional (and the leads aren't that much better), the plot's fairly linear and simple; and all in all, I think the story's about on the same level as a lot of the bearable-but-not-great fanfic out there.

And hey, I finished it, which is still an improvement on the last one. I think I'd give this a 5/10 but only if you're looking for a sweet, simple romance with just a little bit of heat that won't challenge your brain in any way, shape or form.

Dark Watcher, by Lilith Saintcrow
Genre: Paranormal Romance
I stumbled across this one on sale in my e-book crack-merchant of choice and decided to give it a go, since I've quite enjoyed Ms Saintcrow's other series (wild angsting aside). I think this one was probably one of her very early works... it reads a little like fanfic, albeit of the slightly more sophisticated kind. Think a kind of cross between the world of Charmed and the Diana Tregarde-verse, and you've kind of got the world of the Dark Watchers.

The main character, Theo, is a practising Witch (which in this world means she both follows vaguely Wiccan ritual, and has vaguely Halliwell-sister-esque powers), and she runs a magic store a la Ms Tregarde. In this world, witches also have supernatural watchers (to extend the metaphor, kind of darker versions of White-Lighters), and the romance is between Theo and her watcher. Meanwhile, there are bad guys galore, with "The Crusade" as the big bad and assorted smaller nasties who run around trying to feed on the good guys' magical powers.

It's actually a little better than I'm making it sound. Granted, it's nothing like as dark and twisty as either the Dante Valentine set or the Jill Kismet one, and my preferences are for stories in those styles (albeit with less angsting than Dante provides), but this was still a sweet romance with just the slightest hint of darkness in there. I'm giving this one a 6/10 - I doubt I'll buy any more of the e-books, but I don't regret reading this one.

Blood & Iron, by Elizabeth Bear
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Having read a fair few of Elizabeth Bear's science fiction titles, I've quite been looking forward to reading this one, which is the first instalment in her "Novels of the Promethean Age" urban fantasy set - and I wasn't disappointed.

Like all of Ms Bear's books, it's a fairly cerebral one - especially in comparison to the marshmallow fluff I've been reading recently. There are many characters and there's a lot going on, but at the same time, the book seems to move very, very slowly. The book is set as the war between the Fae and the Mortal Realms, which had been effectively in "Cold War" status for centuries, breaks into open warfare; and we quickly discover that Hell and the Morningstar are playing both ends against the middle (as you'd expect really).

The narrative blends the mythology of Faerie with legends of Arthur (no, no, not shining, fair, just King Arthur... this is Elizabeth Bear, after all); weaving in Tam Lin, Beowulf, a wee bit of genuine English History to boot, and even a lovely blink-and-you'll-miss-it shoutout to Tolkien. The characters are complex in a "where-do-I-even-start-describing-them" kind of way, with "good guys" who are thoroughly flawed, and "bad guys" who absolutely have their reasons for the alleged evil that they do.

And like all of Elizabeth Bear's books, I'm left at the end of it thinking that I probably only got a real feel for half of what was going on in the pages - oddly, that's a feeling I actually like having from books - it means that I suspect that if I go back and re-read them, I'll get a lot more out of them the second time. So I'll give this one a 7/10 - good urban fantasy reading generally.

75 / 100 books. 75% done!

An interesting psychological discovery - the importance of tiny differences in phrasing

2009-11-10T22:22:20Z

Apparently, in the Starfireverse, the only thing better than a someone I don't know very well at the gym wandering over to me as I'm getting dressed and asking in a friendly tone "Have you lost weight?" is someone at the gym wandering over as I'm getting dressed and asking "Wow, you're really looking great - how much weight have you lost so far?"

(I should state here that I just can't see it when I look in the mirror, but apparently someone who ISN'T me can - which does tend to indicate that not doing the photos was the right choice)

I've been musing on the differences in the phrasing there - how one implies a certainty that weight-loss has occurred, with the only uncertainty being how much; while the other allows for the possibility that any perceived loss is all in the mind of the asker. There's a parallel in it to a conversation I had a few years ago with alasatyr around why it's often better to ask someone going through a hard time "What can I do to help?" rather than just "Can I help?" The former is much more specific and pre-supposes both that something can be done, and further, that the asker is willing to do whatever the answerer thinks might help; where the former leaves room for the possibility that the answer is 'no' (and maybe I'm just cynical, but to me, it also carries a bit of an undercurrent of hope that there will actually be nothing the answerer can think of that will help, thus effectively letting the asker off the hook)

It does occur to me that sometimes the certainty associated with the "How much weight have you lost so far?" might not always be the best tack to take. For example, I hadn't told this person that I'm trying to lose weight, so if I was shrinking because, I don't know, I was sick, then hearing unsolicited commentary on it might be entirely less welcome.

And I can also remember a time when I used to HATE people complimenting me on any weightloss I'd managed to achieve because it used to make me feel like their approval and notice was conditional on my fitting into a cookie-cutter version of attractiveness (also, on having starved myself to achieve said loss). Interestingly enough, that was completely absent this morning, so it may (fingers crossed) be something I've managed to grow out of - or it may be that in the past, I've been ashamed of the ways that I've managed to lose weight - I've felt like a fraud because I've known inside that what other people think is willpower and self-discipline has just been me kicking back and letting the Beast sit in the driver's seat for a while. That's definitely not what's been happening the past 6 weeks, so maybe I feel a little bit more entitled to take credit for the results.

Anyway. Like the cut says, the net gist of this post is thus: someone said something nice to me at the gym, and I'm pleased, but I wouldn't be me if this didn't end up sparking off masses of wordy introspection. Also, that sometimes tiny differences in phrasing can end up creating a world of differences in perceived/understood meaning. Which is, I guess, both the beauty and the terror of language as a communication form

The Great Starfire Shrinkage Escapade - measurements but no photos

2009-11-09T10:02:28Z

Thanks to everyone who commented last week's post about photos - I will actually reply to your comments at some point.

For the moment, though, I got Gryphon to help me with the measurements this evening, and this is the result after 6 weeks:

Shoulder: 5cm increase, but given that I’m getting back into weights work and I tend to put on muscle very easily, that's something I’m perfectly happy with

Bust: 1cm increase, which I’m much less happy about - ain't no muscle in that area

Waist: 4cm less - now THAT I’m happy with

High hips: 6cm down – also all good

Low hips: no change whatsofreakinever

Thigh: 3cm down – so not my imagination that the legs of my trousers are fitting a LITTLE looser now

Upper arm: just 1cm down there, but every little bit counts, right?

General conclusions: numerical shrinkage is happening slowly, but it's very, very early days yet. Results make me cautiously happy that my 'keep on doing things safely, sanely and sensibly' strategy is actually going to pay off in the end. Results are not causing the Beast to scratch too much more at its cage than it was previously, which is also good - basically, any response I may have is at a level I can control.

I have, however, told my PT in polite but certain terms that she ain't getting photos at this stage; and explained that I'm prouder of having kept things going sensibly and moderately for 6 weeks than I am of any actual weight/inch losses; and I'm therefore loath to do anything that risks frakking that up. Either she'll understand or she won't. If not? Hey, I have the habits working for me now... I can probably keep this going without her if I need to.

So. Yay me, yes?

Hugs

Starfire

Can I hear a halleluyah, brothers and sisters...?

2009-11-04T18:15:19Z

With special extra bonus points for using YoSaffBridge as the example:

http://roflrazzi.com/2009/11/03/celebrity-pictures-christina-hendricks-doesnt-starve/

The more I see of this lady, the more I like her. I may yet save this down as a desktop for ammunition against the beast in the dark, should I need it.

Also, while we're talking role models, I kind of liked this one

http://roflrazzi.com/2009/11/01/celebrity-pictures-emma-watson-role-model/

Yay ROFLRAZZI - sometimes, it's like free therapy ;-)

WTF, body? How do you manage to have high cholesterol with all this exercise?

2009-11-04T05:56:06Z

So test results from the doctors' appts last week are back. And for the most part, I'm crazy-healthy.

Contrary to Gryphon_mum's potential concerns, my blood sugar reading was way healthy (good is between 4-8 with lower being better, and mine was 4.6). Hormone levels were all good, so that's not the cause of the weird-ass bleeding schedule. Good HDL cholesterol is also good (healthy is over 1, and mine was 1.1).

But bad LDL cholesterol? Apparently, the nurse I spoke to said it should be under 2.0, and mine was 3.3. So, she said, I really need to be doing more exercise. And when I asked if maybe 7 hours a week wasn't enough already, her incredibly helpful response was "Evidently not!" To be fair, I haven't been doing that much each week particularly consistently; and my diet, pre-this-healthy-eating-jaunt at least, has been pretty damn atrocious for a good few years now, so there may well be a fair bit of damage yet to undo.

My gut feeling is that if I'd had a reading taken a month or two ago, it would probably have been quite a bit higher. So what'll be interesting will be getting it done again in a couple of month's time - assuming I manage to keep the aforementioned healthy-eating-jaunt going that long - and seeing what, if any, effect my newly-found culinary virtuousity has upon the LDL readings. Because I'd expect them to have SOME effect.

Meanwhile, the nurse didn't seem too alarmed by the level - the impression I got was that it wasn't good and needed watching and managing, but at the same time, lifestyle was the only thing I needed to look at. She didn't suggest drugs, and I would have argued strongly against them if she had.

And as for the issue that took me there in the first place? Everything that a GP can test for has now been tested for, and no answers have been revealed or implied. So it's time for a specialist referral, which will apparently involve some kind of unholy meeting of small, sharp blades and delicate anatomical areas. And well, with a description like that, how could I possibly do anything but look forward to it?

So yeah. That's where we stand at the moment.

Book review of sorts: Why I'm not the target audience for Shannon Butcher's "Burning Alive"

2009-11-03T04:56:37Z

It's been a while since I've done any book reviews, so why not get back into it with a DNF.

I originally picked up an e-book copy of Shannon K Butcher's Burning Alive because Ms Butcher is the wife of one of my now-favourite Urban Fantasy authors - the Dresden Files' Jim Butcher - and I figured that I had to at least *try* her work and see what it was like.

So I did. And I struggled through the first 9 chapters of it before finally, eventually, deciding that life is just too short to wait for the book to get better, and that it's now time to go on to something else.

To be fair, a LOT of people whose reviews I've read have liked Burning Alive, which means I can't make any comments as to its objective quality or lack thereof. What I can say with great certainty, though, is that I am NOT its target audience. Why not? Oh so many reasons - let me begin to enumerate the ways:

Firstly, I like consistency around characterisation: Both the male and the female leads in this book seem to constantly wiffle back and forth with respect to what's important to them, what motivates them, what's appropriate behaviour for them, and what they expect from other people. To be fair Drake, the male lead, consistently gets insanely jealous when any other man even THINKS about touching "his" woman and is consistently in pain when he can't touch her himself; while Helen (the female lead) is consistently terrified of fire, and consistently sweet and generous except when she's not for plot reasons. Beyond that, though? Anything seems to go. Which makes it *really* hard for me to get a handle on either of them or a perception of them as real people - something I do need to be able to do if I'm going to enjoy a book. And meanwhile, everyone else outside of the two leads just seems to be there for window-dressing, so consistency (and hell, characterisation) just don't happen.

I don't have a lot of patience with major sources of plot conflict that stem purely from easily-fixed miscommunications: This is just a me thing, I know, but I get really irritated really quickly when the sole source of psychological conflict in a plotline seems to be characters' abject inability (or refusal) to communicate with each other. Of course, if either one of the leads in this story told the other one what was going on for them, I suspect the book would have been a lot shorter, but that's another story. Drake's excuse is, I believe, that he doesn't have time to explain all the background and plot devices that make physical contact with Helen his only way to avoid excruciating pain - and yet somehow despite the chaotic rushedness of it all, there's still enough time for him to try to stop and grab some nookie. Meanwhile (as far as I can tell) Helen's excuse for withholding critical intel is that she figures he won't believe she's seen him in a vision and that’s why she's convinced he's going to watch her burn to death and do nothing. Because after all the monsters, magic, living tattoos and non-humans that he tells her exist in his life are all far more believable than a single repeated vision in hers would be.

I have zero patience with soft, sweet, gorgeous, generous-hearted heroines whose sole faults apparently lie in believing they're ugly, and the occasional unkind "feisty" remark that they then immediately regret: A character who spends all her free time selflessly and uncomplainingly making and delivering meals on wheels and providing companionship to the elderly, whom absolutely everyone loves for her compassionate and generous spirit (but who is fashionably insecure about her looks) may be someone else's idea of a perfect woman, but she sure as hell ain't mine. Quite aside from the inevitable insulin spike that has to follow all that sweetness, there's just nothing in characters like this for me to identify with. Maybe that's a personal character flaw in me, but if so, I'm willing to accept it as such. Yes, I could do with being a little more compassionate. So could we all. But this? This is just overboard to the point of being psychologically unhealthy.

And as for the appearance insecurity - I can understand the irritation value for some folks of a heroine who knows she's attractive, and constantly thinks about it on-camera to herself - in fact, I'll freely admit such characters don't exactly float my boat either. But a heroine who's acknowledged by everyone else to be gorgeous who insists on thinking of herself as ugly because she "doesn't look like the women on TV" (and who believes that this is the only model of beauty a guy could possibly be interested in) is, for me, far more irritating. How about a female lead who actually isn't gorgeous, and is perfectly OK with that? How would that be for a role model heroine? Or - shock, horror - one who actually doesn't think about her looks much because she has more important things to focus on? Not that this is a soapbox for me or anything...

I have only slightly more patience with male leads who are responsible for the fate of the universe, yet apparently cease to think about anything except the female lead from the moment they lay eyes on her: This might be included under "character inconsistencies", but it irritates me enough that I'm giving it its own section. Granted, the way they think about said female lead can wiffle wildly between being stunned by their beauty/compassion/fire/wit/whatever, burning with desire for them, agonizing for them when something appears to have hurt them, and barely keeping from exploding with jealous rage when another male looks at them - but the key point is that it's the heroine - not whatever had been important to them for the entirety of their lives up to that point - that suddenly fills all their on-camera POV thoughts and speech.

On-camera competence - as opposed to reputation and hype - is a major plus for me: Sure, tell me a few times that your characters are tough, bad-ass warriors who are all that stand between the legions of monsters and the world of normality as we know it. But then *show* me that competence - don't expect me to just take what you tell me at face value. OK, to be fair, I think Ms Butcher was trying to do that with the scene where the monsters chase the good guys into Helen's house and end up burning it down, but for some reason (maybe they're just suffering from comparison to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, who, for all their linguistic faults, are at least good at kicking butt and taking numbers) I just don't get any kind of a sense of competence or bad-assery from them at all - basically, in the scene, the good guys are outclassed and outgunned by the bad guys, and aside from by reported reputation, I get no indication from the way they act and react during the scene that this isn't just a usual thing for them.

Maybe I've been spoiled by previous authors, but a simple, single-strand, two-character linear romance plot per book just isn't enough for me any more: I suspect I've just read too many good books - yes, even in the paranormal romance / supernatural chick pr0n genre - that incorporate ensembles of three-dimensional minor characters, with multiple, interweaving plotlines that play out both within the novel and across the arc of a series - to be satisfied with the aforementioned single-strand two-character linear romance thing. I stress that this isn't necessarily a fault with the book - it's just something that apparently doesn't work for me any more, if it ever did. Of course, it's possible that more plot-lines do open up beyond the main romance thread at some point after I stopped reading. But like I said, life's just too short to gamble and make myself keep reading on the offchance that it gets better.

So then. Conclusion: "Burning Alive" may or may not appeal to fans of other supernatural chick-pr0n authors, but it is most definitely not a Starfire kind of book. Also, anyone thinking of picking it up on the sole bases that they 1/ enjoyed the Dresden Files and 2/ do not automatically dislike ~~supernatural chick-pr0n~~ paranormal romance should probably seriously reconsider. Or not. If they pick it up, I'd be interested to hear what they think of it - whether I'm just being too harsh, or whether the same things irritate them too.

Rating: 4/10 - and now on to the next!

Well, that was unpleasantly exciting

2009-11-02T16:59:04Z

So I dreamed I'd been to some kind of craft-show-cum-Pagan-festival with friends and assorted workmates , based somewhere out in the Waitakeres or somwhere very like it. And it was a beautiful, sunny day.

Problem was that only some of the folks there knew that the area was also haunted by some kind of predatory night-flyer (think the scary things in Pitch Black, or Grimspace, for those that have read the novel). They were photophobic too, so as long as the sun was up we were fine, but in areas of shadow, or when evening came, all bets were off, and it was only a matter of time before blood, screaming and dying (as Topher so eloquently puts it).

I can remember that the first thing we had to do was sort out the people who'd actually seen what these things could do, and divide into groups that had at least one person who knew what we were dealing with in each, so no group was tempted to do anything dumb like ignoring the problem. I'm amused that this is far more organised than my usual dream trope in which I'm always the only one that ever knows what's going on, and having to fight to make anyone else believe that there's anything wrong (Cassandra complex, much?) In this, there were a whole load of people who didn't believe in Night-flyers, but at least I got to share the load with the ones who did this time.

Also, this time, instead of fighting for other people's belief so they'd protect themselves, I spent much of the dream fighting my own paranoia. The Night-flyers never actually turned up on camera in the dream, but a memory of another time I'd seen them in action was fresh and vivid in my dream mind. This didn't make for a happy, balanced, leadership-oriented dream-Starfire - I spent the entire dream a step away from losing it for good and falling apart.

Other than that, I can only remember a few dream symbols. There was wondering through a house at one point (in this dream, walls and doors were generally enough to keep the Night-flyers out), but there was a valid reason we couldn't just hole up in the house til morning. There was also a stand right at the exit to the fair/show, where we were allowed to take product samples of whatever we wanted, and quite a few people delayed leaving so they could rifle through the wares on display and grab stuff. I may have been guilty of this myself for a few moments, but there were people who couldn't make up their minds, and chivvying them along as I watched the sun sink lower towards the horizon was an exercise in frustration.

And there was, of course, the gorgeous scenery of the Waitakeres; and walking that felt not unlike Trailwalker-walking (except when we reached the top of a hill and looked down over a downward slope that was completely in shadow, and realised we'd HAVE to go down it)

So yeah. WEIRDASS dream. Not fun. Probably rich in all manner of subconscious messages though. And yet part of me is over the moon just to be dreaming again. It's been a long, long time - in fact, I don't remember the last one I had, and despite the occasional nasty ones, I miss that part of my inner life.

And now I've written it out, it's time to go get ready for the gym.

Hugs & blessings

me

Why it's important to get second opinion checks on blood pressure readings

2009-11-01T01:19:30Z

So blood pressure is a measure that's often used to give an idea of how healthily someone's living (it's far from the only one, but it's easy to take, and especially with modern lifestyles, being healthy generally correlates with a good blood pressure reading, all other things being equal).

If you've wondered what the two "BP" (blood pressure) numbers that get cited on TV shows are, the first, larger figure, called "Systolic", is the pressure that your blood is exerting (in mm of mercury, I think) when your heart is contracted in the middle of a beat. The second, smaller figure, called "Diastolic" is the pressure reading when your heart is relaxed. Blood pressure readings are generally given as Systolic / Diastolic.

For those that have never had theirs checked, I've seen different ranges cited as healthy, but generally something between 110-130 systolic, and something between 70-80 diastolic is cited as a "Normal" value. The most common value I've seen cited for Normal is something around 120/80.

Systolic-wise, I think from memory that anything over 130 is considered "not good, but manageable with lifestyle changes", anything over 140 is considered "high" and needing attention - probably with drugs, while anything over 160 is considered seriously dangerous (High BP is associated with a lot of ills, including heart disease) and almost certainly requiring drugs to manage. Meanwhile, with Diastolic ranges, 80-89 is considered "not good, just keep an eye on this", 90-99 is your "get this down, ideally with lifestyle, but maybe with drugs" and anything over 100 is "we need to deal with this *now*, almost certainly with drugs". Lower than normal is generally considered good, at least unless you start getting into dangerously low levels (generally less than 90/60), or it starts interfering with living your life.

Generally, if one figure is in a concerning range and the other isn't, they tend to go by the diastolic (bottom), rather than the systolic one.

So all of this is background info to the fact that, when I went to the doc's on Tuesday, they did a BP reading, and it was up higher than any reading I've ever had before: 140/85. That was a shock to me, because when I've had mine taken before, it's generally been somewhere between 115/70 to the textbook 120/80. It's one of the reasons I haven't been so concerned about my weight from a medical point of view - the exercise I get has always seemed to deal with any blood pressure issues that the extra weight presents.

The thing they don't always tell you about Blood Pressure is that it's notoriously sensitive to how you're feeling on a given day. If you're feeling stressed or worried about something, it can boost your blood pressure readings by up to 20/10 or so. I've seen that happen before - when I got mine done just before I had my wisdom teeth out (when I was freaking mildly about the surgery), it was 135/85. But I wasn't conscious of being *that* stressed out on Tuesday - nor had I had a hell of a lot of caffeine (which I think can also boost your readings) - so my immediate conclusion was "ZOMG! All this trying to be healthy is actually screwing with my blood pressure!" And since I know salt is a major issue with blood pressure, and I'm rather partial to salty nommy goodness (especially since I've been limiting my intake of nommy sugary and nommy creamy goodnesses), I started thinking maybe it was time to try to reduce the amount of sodium in my diet as well...

But Gryphon-folks came down to spend the day with us yesterday, and Gryphon_Mum is a diabetes nurse who just happened to have her toolkit in the car with her; and when I mentioned I was concerned about the reading I got on Tuesday, she offered to recheck it for me. Result, taken after a pleasant meal, lovely conversation with inlaws, and a couple of glasses of rather nice red wine? 108/70.

I suspect that's actually a little lower than it should be (although it's still a perfectly healthy value - as mentioned above, they generally don't start getting concerned about low blood pressure values unless you get under 90/60), but it's done a lot to reassure me about current overall health levels (so there, take that, inner hypochondriac!)

But the moral of the story is - if you get an abnormally high BP reading and they don't suggest re-checking it in a few day's time just to make sure it's correct before they start talking about treatment, actually actively ask for a recheck yourself.

So now you know...

Healthy eating, weight 'n' stuff

2009-10-27T04:42:17Z

OK, this is less a checkin than it is a record for myself: for the first time since I started this damn healthy-eating programme, I've cracked the back of 90kg.

It's been frustrating - the first week I started, I dropped a kilo and a half to 91.5. Then I dropped again the next week to 90.8. Then 90.2. Then I went up a little to 90.6 again.

But this week, if the gym scales are to be believed, I finally broke 90 - they read 89.6 when I checked them this morning. Which I think is the lowest I've been since Trailwalker - and possibly since well before Trailwalker

So. Next stop is 85kg. Wonder how many MONTHS it'll take me to make it down to there...

Meh. 'twill happen when it happens.

Meanwhile, yay me.

Weekly summary thus far

2009-09-19T20:15:58Z

Has been a good week, generally.

10,000 steps challenge continues to go well - I'm currently sitting on 84,500ish steps for last week, and that's before I go do a-something-between-10-and-18km (I'm trying to decide if I'm going to walk the 8km back home after the 10km event) fun walk today. So fingers crossed I'll actually hit 6 figures-worth of steps for this week.

I will, however, confess to a sense of nerves about today's walk. It'll be the longest I've done since Trailwalker; and although I did a 9.5km walk the other day without it really being a major, walking home after the fun walk would still be almost doubling that. So on one hand, my brain is saying it shouldn't be a problem given the length of walks I was doing earlier this year. On the other... that was earlier this year, and well, we'll see how much of the walking fitness yet remains. Meh. We find the limits of the possible by keeping going till we can't go any further, and then hey, look, just like magic, there's a limit...

In other news, I've decided to start working with an online PT whose stuff I've been reading for about a year now to gradually bring my weight down over the next twelve months - the idea being to get to this time next year at a stable 70-75kg, and with the skills and habits to eat in such a way that I fuel my body for the intense hill training I need to be doing, but not in such a way that I put weight back on. That way (she said, with fingers crossed) I should be giving my body the best possible chance of handling hills well for the real thing...

Have also finished another book: King's Blood Four, by Sherri S Tepper. It's one of the True Game books, and I enjoyed it more than I remember enjoying the series when I was in my teens. The writing reminds me a little of what you'd get if you crossed Melusine with Earthsea. I enjoyed it enough (7/10, I think) that I will definitely be reading the other True Game stories on my TBR pile, although I suspect that once read, the books will end up on Swap Club.

Not a lot other than that. Caught up with Styley-ex-co-worker for coffee yesterday at Sylvia Park, which was nice; and had a visit from tzadik_mossad on Friday evening for chattage and Rosh Hashanah apple pie (Shanah Tovah to everyone who understands what it means :-) Oh, and Storm passed her WOF on Thursday too, so she's officially street-legal again.

Basically, life goes on in a generally good and unstressful way. Long may it last!

100 Book Challenge:

69 / 100 books. 69% done!

Hugs

Starfire

Stuff (just to prove I'm still alive)

2009-09-14T09:45:38Z

1/ House continues to be a place of immense awesomeness. Have I mentioned I LOVE having a kitchen that's actually built for someone my height. Other stuff is cool too, but it's the kitchen that keeps making me squee

2/ Work continues to be an activity of much awesomeness, although I had some difficulty concentrating on it today. Must get early night tonight, damnit.

3/ Weekend (in a similar vein to #1 and #2) consisted of awesome with awesome sauce and a side order of awesome, and involved catching up with orannia, followed by a wonderful evening with what_if_guy & doc_laser, plus reading_barbara and reading_peter with good food, good conversation, and a couple of nice tipples to boot

4/ Finished another book - The Devil's Due, by Jenna Black. Fun, light-hearted supernatural chick pr0n with a side order of kickass heroine. Not to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed it. Also, my spreadsheet now says I've hit 68 books. This confuses me, but I believe it, since I have actually listed all the titles on there.

5/ Walking continues to go well... I managed 81,000 (more or less) steps last week, which was a little short of the 85,000 I was aiming for, but I can live with this. Have also signed myself up for a 10k fun walk this weekend, starting and finishing at my old school. Am going to try to keep an eye on other similarly sized events (and maybe a few longer ones every now and then), which should help maintain/build the Trailwalkery fitness I need

6/ Eating also continues to go well for the most part. New kitchen is making it easy to cook, and I'm turning out mostly-healthy stuff. This pleases me.

7/ Am looking at selling my car and getting something smaller and more fuel efficient. Test drove a couple this weekend, and am getting more of a feel for what I want. We shall see where it goes from here.

So yeah. Life is mostly good right now, and I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

100 Book Challenge:

68 / 100 books. 68% done!

10,000 Steps Challenge:

100,011 / 615,500 steps. 16% done!

Hugs and vaguely cheerful blessings

Starfire

Quick checkin from the new house + books & 10,000 Steps challenge

2009-09-08T09:44:00Z

So, Gryphon and I are now sitting pretty in our shiny new house. And a very shiny house it is too!

We've made remarkable progress in regaining ground that had been taken by the armies of invading boxes, and while we haven't fought them off entirely, we have moved the front back a considerable way and expanded our usable territory impressively.

I've also actually read three books while I've been 'between houses' as well - all non-fiction, I might add. One on making wills, since this is a necessary thing now that Gryphon and I are actually property-owners; one on emotional intelligence that I *really* enjoyed (surprisingly so - I was expecting it to be chock-full of buzzwords, and it was refreshingly down-to-earth and practical); and one on forensic science in New Zealand (because, hey, it jumped off the shelf at me!)

I can't actually remember the names or authors of any of the books, but I'm still going to be including them in my challenge total (which brings me to... dum dum dum dum... 62 books this year).

I've also been watching through s1 of Fringe, which I'm... basically enjoying, although more for the pretty than anything else. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the season ATM and there've been two or three eps so far that have struck me as *really* good. For the most part, though, I've found them to be so-so, with any episodes I've enjoyed other than the aforementioned ones being basically ones in which Mark Valley manages to push my buttons nicely by sneering a lot (what can I say? I'm a shallow girl, but only on the outside). Or the ones in which Ms Torv gets to kick some serious ass (refer aforementioned paranthetical clause)

I've also started on a 10,000 step challenge at work - that kicked in at midday yesterday. The aim is to wear a pedometer every day for 8 weeks, as part of a team, and to log the number of steps you take (while, of course, engaging in various forms of exercise that push the total daily step numbers up). The winner of the challenge at work is the first team whose cumulative total steps is the equivalent of walking "around New Zealand" - which they've calculated at just under 8 million steps. Breaking that down, we're talking a million steps a week, which means an average of 142,000 steps as a team per day - or, in a team of 10 (which teams are all averaged on), 14,000 steps per person, per day. Or, from another perspective, over 8 weeks, I personally need to walk just under 615,500 steps (or something. Hey, it's as good a total to aim for as any)...

And since my total for the half-day yesterday was 6,307 steps, and the one for today (during which I went for a 6km walk that I somehow managed to turn into a 9.5km one - I think that's my Trailwalker training long walk for the week) was just over 15,500, I'm feeling pretty good about things thus far. I'll find out from the rest of my team how they're going when I get back into work tomorrow.

Heh. I do love my numbers and getting to track things. I may just be the slightest bit OCD about it. You'd never have guessed, now, would you?

Speaking of tracking things:

100 Book Challenge:

62 / 100 words. 62% done!

10,000 Steps Challenge:

21,807 / 615,500 steps. 4% done!

Because, hey. I can.

OK, going back to enjoying my shiny new house now.

Hugs 'n' blessings

Starfire

Mad? Sucker for punishment? Yes to both of the above

2009-08-28T11:20:19Z

I've been humming and hah-ing over the past couple of days about doing Trailwalker again in 2011 - basically, skipping a year to actually allow myself a summer, but then getting back into training with the intention of actually completing the damn thing this time a year later.

It started earlier in the week when Oxfam contacted me about some other fundraising they were doing, and ended up asking me about how I'd found doing Trailwalker this year, and how I'd gone on it - that got me thinking about it and whether I might do it again. Then, this evening, I was watching something that tipped me over the edge. It involved someone who'd come SO close to getting to do something she'd trained, worked, and psyched herself up for and then lost out on right before the final - and ALL I could think of was the total despondency I'd felt during the entire 7th leg when I knew I was going to have to pull out at the next checkpoint but it hurt so damn badly to know I'd done all that work and training and wasn't going to be able to see it through.

And yeah, I do still get annoyed and frustrated about that... sure, 87km was a good achievement, but it *wasn't* what I set out to do, and I'm realising that even four months later, that lack of finishing still pisses me off.

So I'm thinking this time I learn from experience, and start training earlier in the year, and do more midweek training, because the brutal truth is that I sucked at actually doing walks that pushed me any time other than the weekend ones. I also need to spend a longer period of run-up time before distance training starts doing shorter, hillier walks to get my base hill endurance up - I know that lack was what frakked me up last time. And - more brutal honesty - I need eat more sensibly and controlled-ly during the early training period so I can start the hardcore long-walk training at a lower bodyweight. Because let's face it, losing 20kg of bodyweight would still have me in the 'healthily overweight' BMI range; and given that I know I managed hill climbs during the event way better when I gave one of the Wolverines my pack so I was carrying less weight on my back (and my pack was FAR less than 20kg), I can only imagine that not-carrying the equivalent weight in less Starfire would make for HELLA easier hill climbs.

Other things that occur to me revolve around better hydration (which would be easier if I carried my own pack, instead of making whichever Wolverine was being my sherpa stop every time I wanted a drink), and better nutrition (and hey, I work for a sports nutrition company - ain't that handy?) over the course of the event, because I know those things let me down this time around. And hiring a campervan next time, because seriously, having our own loo at checkpoints would have been a HUGE improvement on spending 5-10 precious minutes queueing at checkpoints for the port-a-loos - especially when we had only allowed 20-30 min at a couple of them.

And it just so happens that our work is organising a 10,000 steps challenge event that takes place over the next couple of months (and I'm a team captain for that, because, hey, that's the kind of thing Starfires do), so building up a regular 3-5km midweek walk routine during lunchtimes should fit in nicely with that - the trick will be keeping it going once the challenge ends.

And then there are all those Waitakere walks that I think I'm just about ready to get back into doing again - maybe getting out every 3-4 weekends and doing one of the shorter 5-10km tracks (I think I may even be ready to face the Montana Heritage Trail again...) so if anyone feels like joining me on one of those, please feel free to sing out - I'd love the company :-)

So ummmmm yeah. I have no idea at this stage who I'd end up doing it with (doc_spatial, if you happen to be back Aucklandside at that time, you know you're going to be my first port of call when it comes to begging, pleading and making puppydog eyes to drum up teammates, right?) - and I have no idea if the Wolverines would want to do it again (and whether they'd want to do it with me - if I'd been them, *I* sure as hell wouldn't want to do it again with me). But I think I'm going to go forward myself on the basis that I *AM* going to be doing it myself in 2011. The rest can follow from there...

Hugs and bemused blessings

Starfire

Look, look - an actuall POST! (aka "Where we are with the moving thing")

2009-08-23T01:09:50Z

Whee... so tempus fugit, and we're now almost completely out of our old house, and currently living "between houses" with the lovely neongraal and colonial_babe.

The move on Friday went pretty well, all things considered. For anyone needing to pack up and move entire houses, I can thoroughly recommend Kiwi Move (or at least, I can recommend them at this stage... let's wait till we actually get all our stuff back - hopefully in the basic condition it got picked up in - before I issue a blanket endorsement) for being fast and professional and taking a large amount of the hassle out of lugging furniture and stuff from one location to another. And the fact that they're happy to provide storage space for all our stuff as well gets them massive brownie points too. Plus the amount they charged us came to far less than the upper figure they'd indicated when I spoke to them on the phone (which figure we were perfectly happy with), so that was yet more brownie points. So yeah. At least thus far, these guys are well-recommended - here's hoping the move-in doesn't change my viewpoint on this.

Anyway, the moving guys had cleared the house completely in just over two hours, so we actually had a bit of time and energy to start on the cleaning on Friday, which was all good. We got to see just how bad the mould problem had been - even with 2 dehumidifiers going (one 24/7) - when we moved the bookshelves and some of the stuff that had been in the wardrobes. Just... eyewww - I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been helping with the BCOD last year.

Then we went back for much of yesterday to do a thorough clean from top to bottom, with the very-much-appreciated help of lady_m and theirreverant, who are, it seems, extremely good at this sort of thing. Also, they provided lots of dodgy conversation and general morale-boosting in addition to cleaning services, so both gryphon and I were seriously grateful for their assistance by the end of the day.

I'd say the house is probably about 90-95% done now - we're going back for one more attack tomorrow evening after work, and to make sure the bins all go out on time, but then it'll be time to drop the keys off to the managing agents, and that'll be it... closing another chapter of our lives and just waiting til the 4th to open the next one.

And meanwhile, I'm having a wonderful chillout day today in which I do not move, clean, pack or unpack anything. I have Avon catalogues to go through and work out which of the many, many, many pretty shinies I wish to acquire for myself (and which samples and demo products for my not-business), and episodes of Heroes to watch. And then later on this evening, there may even be some Burn Notice watching... to which I can only say *WOOT*!

Hugs and generally chilled out blessings

Starfire

So apparently I'm now a partial home owner. Weird.

2009-08-11T07:49:38Z

Just a quick note for them what are interested to say that the house did indeed go unconditional today.

I am... surprisingly ehnnhhh about it, to tell the truth. I suspect it's just that it hasn't sunk in yet, but it really doesn't feel real. I guess that'll come when we actually get to move our stuff in. Or maybe the knowledge will catch up with me sometime before then, and I'll get hit with a surprise random burst of ecstatic joy out of the blue. Or maybe not. Either way, 's what it is.

Meanwhile, I'm just focusing on the fact that this means that we DON'T need to be out doing emergency rental-hunting this weekend, which is a timeframe close enough that it does feel real. That and focusing on getting more packing done.

In the meantime, yay for it all having gone through without complication - that, at least, is something I can be deeply grateful for. The rest will happen as and when it happens.

Bemused hugs

Starfire

And in today's news...

2009-08-05T09:37:16Z

... there may (I repeat MAY) actually be a house on the horizon.

It has been offered on.

The offer has been accepted.

The building report revealed a few wrinkles but probably nothing unironable.

Ditto on the solicitor's report (although that has one wrinkle which merits further research and discussion)

It's still way too early to figure that it's a done deal, and you'll notice I'm not jumping up and down full of squee and excitement - that can wait until we know there's definitely something to be squeeful and excited about.

What I *can* say though, is that we're a couple of steps closer to the possibility of it all being sorted than we were this morning. Which I guess is good enough for tonight.

More news as it happens

STARFIRE

Well, that's one house I bet doesn't often get burgled

2009-07-26T01:08:28Z

We saw two places this morning and have two more on the agenda for this afternoon.

Place 1 was in Pt Chev and was fairly full of "meh" from my perspective - not just because it would double my fuel costs to get to work, but also because the house itself just didn't do it for me.

Place 2 in Mt Roskill was allegedly brick and tile, although going around the house revealed that it was in fact plaster and tile with one brick wall. And the plaster cladding had visible gaps where it met the brick... a world of 'not a good sign'.

But what really stood out for me about the place was the sheer amount of weaponry on display. Seriously. Axes, shortblades, clubs and chucks on the wall; at least one decorative sword set in a rack; and no less than two incredibly complex makiwara-cum-practice-stations (because just calling these things "makiwaras" doesn't do them justice), one indoor, one outdoor with spikes, rope bound conditioning boards, boxing bags, focus bags and one set of upper body armour.

I kid you not. I get the feeling that whoever owned the place wasn't *just* a collector of this kind of stuff...

Shame about the cladding - otherwise the house had quite a good vibe to it.

And the search goes on... and the search goes on...

And the search goes on. And the search goes on. Pumping paranoia to our brains...

2009-07-25T22:49:16Z

Right. So. Things proceed in an... interesting... manner.

The vendor refused all offers on the place that we offered on on Monday - it looked like his expectations were well in excess of what the agent had indicated to us they would be. Frustraing, but all part of the game, no doubt.

On the plus side though, a place we thought we had missed out on (that we'd wanted to offer on) was still on TradeMe when we did our weekly trawlthrough for new properties. I got in touch with the vendor and it looks like the offer that was made on it is still conditional. So it might still fall through (which happened with the previous offer on the first place we were interested in), and if so, we want to get right back in there. That being said, we're not counting on it, and still scrabbling around frantically organising to go and view anything and everything that doesn't immediately tick a "nope, no way, couldn't live there!" box when we see it online.

Our one other possibility, buyage-wise right now is a place we saw yesterday which was in a pretty good street, and looked reasonably nice - plus had just had about $170K spent on recladding and repairing leaky building issues, so has all the latest codes of compliance on it, as well as feeling reasonably nice inside. It's smaller than some of the others we've been looking at, but not, I think, too small for our needs. It's also interesting to watch our thought processes move to being less around positive questions of (if they ever were) "Is this the perfect place for us?", and far more around the negatives of "Is there something in this house that's an obvious dealbreaker? No? OK, so we'd really better try for it then". I can't help wondering if that's desperation, or whether it's just that we're getting more realistic about what's out there.

In the (very possible) event that none of these things goes through, we're also starting to talk to various friends about the possibilities of storing assorted bits 'n' pieces (including ourselves if necessary) with them short term, while we cast about for our own rental space to continue the search from; and investigating storage places for furniture and stuff for however long we need it for, and have a couple of ideas for stuff (including one storage business that comes to you with the container - A+ for convenience!) marked out so far.

We have a load more buyage ones to see this afternoon, ranging as far afield as Pt Chev, Mt Roskill, Penrose and Mt Wellington; but to be honest, I'm not gigantically hopeful for any of them. If none of these work though, it's time to switch our focus, stop looking at buyage and move to finding a rental place. It's also vaguely depressing to realise just how far below market rent we've been paying for the past little while :-S

Ehhhnhhhh. It'll work out somehow. My mantra for this week has been that it's far better to be feeling unsettled and nervous about housing issues and secure in my relationship than it would be to be fine about where I'm living but miserable in my marriage. And y'know what? That actually seems to help most of the time!

Fingers crossed that it works out soon.

Hugs 'n' hopeful blessings

Starfire

FFS, people, enough's enough already!

2009-07-23T06:49:08Z

So, if I ever had any doubts about whether I'd miss living in this place, I don't any more.

Got home today to find we'd been broken into... AGAIN. They came in through my office window this time (hey, at least they've got variety going for them: before that it was Gryphon's office, and before that, it was the lounge).

Nothing taken, thank all the gods (or nothing that I've been able to identify anyway), and my PC and monitor were still there, although the monitor had been yanked forward on my desk, so I'm *guessing* they tried to grab it, but the complex network of cabling that runs around the back of the desk must have made it more effort than they were willing to spend. I'm SO doing a backup before I go to bed tonight.

But the bastards DID smash the beautiful ceramic dragon-egg oil lamp that the lovely alasatyr gave me as a giftmas present once upon a time - I came home to the shattered shards of it all over my office floor - along with a frakload of muddy footprints on my carpet and around the window frame. Seeing it in tiny pieces there actually hurt more than having stuff taken would have (with the possible exception of my computer... I don't want to even THINK about how I'd feel if they'd taken my computer)

Gods, I am so fucking sick of this shit. Enough's enough already. I want a new frakking house.

House filk: I Want a New House (well, two verses of it anyway)

2009-07-21T07:35:05Z

I Want a New House
(to Huey Lewis & the News: I want a new drug)

I want a new house
One that’s solid and good
One constructed with brick and tile
Not plaster or wood

I want a new house
One that don't rupt my bank
One that feels nice and warm and dry
Not all freezing and dank

One that feels good to live in
That’s welcoming to my kin
One that's gonna feel like home whenever I walk in
When I and mine walk in...

I want a new house
One that don't leak
One with walls that ain’t cracked
One with floors that don't creak

I want a new house
One without bugs
One that don't make me cough so hard
I spend a full year on drugs

One that feels good to live in
And welcoming to my kin
One that's gonna feel like home whenever I walk in
When I and mine walk in...

For the record? TradeMe is EBIL!

2009-07-12T09:22:42Z

So, since I'd had to actually register with TradeMe in order to e-mail a couple of agents about various places we wanted to check out, I decided I'd try to list a few of my fitness and PT books (plus one on counselling, and a double of "Goddess in the Office" that I'd managed to pick up from somewhere.

Then I decided it was a good place to list the spare iPod Shuffle I bought for Trailwalker, and the PCTV Nano stick (basically allows you to watch TV on your PC, assuming you don't live in an area of no TV reception the way I do, anyway).

All of which was... time consuming, but not necessarily a bad thing.

Then, I discovered the jewellery section... and isshhhhhh. Suddenly there were all these pretties, with $1 reserves on them that I just HAD to bid on. Luckily, someone else has almost always overbid me. I am, however, the proud new owner of a pair of Tibetan brass diamond shaped earrings...

And *THEN* I discovered the DVDs... so now I have bids on a set of three SVU box sets, and a couple more CSI Miami ones. Neither one has hit the reserve, but it'll be interesting seeing what happens to them from here. And I finally decided to list a few of mine too... so I put up all my Highlander ones earlier today, and I'm wiffling back and forth about the NCIS ones now...

TradeMe has pretty much EATEN this weekend (except for the househunty bits, anyway - but more about THAT side of things later)

Righty, gotta head off to bed now.

Catch y'all later - hugs and blessings

STARFIRE

Recognition, you say?

2009-07-10T10:29:23Z

So today I met our GM of Sales for Australia.

He introduced himself to me, and I told him my name and that I was the company Copywriter.

"Oh yeah", he said, enthusiastically. "I've seen some of the stuff you've been producing. You've done some *bloody* good writing - keep up the good work - you're a definite asset to the team."

I think I can be forgiven for preening... just a little bit.

2 months in and really, I still absolutely LOVE my job. I know I'm still in the honeymoon window, but I'm constantly grateful I made the change. Even the commute hassle barely makes a dent in balancing out the good stuff (well, so far, anyway)

Hugs and grateful blessings

Starfire

Dear starfire: this is your internal captain speaking

2009-07-09T18:01:05Z

Dear starfire, this is your internal captain speaking.

No, that pounding headache, tiredness and runny nose don't mean you're getting sick. If you'd kindly look at the various features of the flight this past week, you'd realise that the headache combined with breakouts and bitchiness is most probably your sign that we are now on final approach towards menstruation.

Please switch off all rational thought, minimise any chances to say anything you might regret later when the fugue of hormones has dissipated, and ready your wheatbag for holding against your tummy in the upright position.

Thank you for flying Air Frakking-female-biology, have a nice period, and, oh, try not to break anyone even if they richly deserve it!