Christmas Eve, Eyestrain and The Eye Of The World

The word of the week is ephemeral.

Dec 18 - Mostly Healthy?
Wow, my eyes( and head by extension )still really hurt, mostly my right orb.

Fortunately, I can still see if I wear sunglasses( and a visor )while at work, but I have to close my right eye every hour( or more often later in the day )for about twenty minutes, to give it a rest. Otherwise, it still feels like someone's poking my right eye from behind, meaning the muscle's strained from movement - ouch.

Since I don't have any sick days left, it's a good thing I can still function at work with the above preparations, and my co-workers are used to my weird health issues, so only a few people have( kindly )asked about my pulling a ZZ-Top during the workday all this week( which is a full five-day workweek )so there's that. I'm again really lucky in that regard, that my job can accommodate these things.

Still holding at a solid 155 lbs these days... 

On the bright side, my tendon issues seem to be on the wane, so I'm walking around just dandy of a day, though still careful to move every twenty minutes - the timer on my Pebble smartwatch is incredibly useful!

My core's still giving me trouble every other day or so, but once I get back to swimming next week( no way I can splash in the water with a simmering migraine! )I'll expect that to fade away as I build up strength( along with other health aspects )once I get into a weekly routine.

So I guess what I'm saying is: I'm on the mend, eye-ouchies included.


Dec 19 – Right Crab, Wrong Rock?

Sometimes I wonder...

Was I born at the right time?

An oddly recurring comment throughout my life has been that my personality and mannerisms are 'old-fashioned' and that I behave in a manner unlike my peers - though I've never been quite sure what that means, other than I'm more polite...?

As with most things in life, there's little certainty: most people are making things up as they go, especially in this day and age when what people used to take for granted is now called into question daily, either by science or social convention.

The idea of 'finding your place' in one's life, or in society in general, is appealing, but it's never really struck me as central to my own needs: I don't really 'belong' anywhere, in terms of family / social expectations or career peerage. I just... am, existing in a swirl of actions of my own making( most days )and just ambling along daily to get through whatever most needs my attention at the time, which is somewhat distracting when you're also trying to develop AND adhere to some worthwhile life goals over a period of months or years.

Small things are key: one step at a time, building to a day at a time, then a week, a month, a year... eventually culminating in a life you can look back on, and while you'll wonder at the weird wanderings that some of those steps took, you hope you'll be able to see a direction of your own choosing, and not the swaying stagger of someone who reacted far more than acted when push came to shove.

Tip: always have a good pair of shoes!


Dec 20 – The Eyes Have It

Good News, everyone!

After another day of wearing sunglasses and shading my eyes with a hat at work, I walked to an eye doctor appointment along the already-dark streets. A few tests later and he confirmed that my eyes had been strained, but were otherwise healthy - what a relief!

I should be back to normal in about a week, as long as I don't strain them again.

He wasn't all that helpful in confirming why my eyes were so strained, but agreed that a more careful use of the proper glasses for various distances( less than a foot / 1-6 feet / )should make all the difference in adapting my eyes to each task. I already follow the 20-20-20 rule at work when I'm working on the computer or otherwise focusing on a close-in task:

It's all part of paying attention( and learning the hard way... )to one's body as one ages: the eyes are especially important, as they don't react as quickly as they used to when you're young - my sensitivity to light is but one example. I'll be looking into some supplements as well in 2018, to see if I can bring them back to a 'younger' healthier state, along with the rest of my body as I exercise more and more often...

Dec 21 – Fantasy Epic Series DONE!

Twenty-Seven Years...

Back in 1990, in my second-last year of high school, I unknowingly began reading a fantasy series that would accompany me through HALF my life:

Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time series, starting with The Eye Of The World. For those few of you unfamiliar with the series, be warned: it contains literally thousands of characters and a similar number of locales( cities, towns, villages, and other settings )that span a tale encompassing four and a half million words that tells no less than the end of time itself in a world that might very well be what our own has become... or once was.

The word 'epic' hardly does it justice! I've written over a million words on this blog in ten years, and the late Mr. Jordan wrote more than four times that in twice the time, which staggers the imagination. Sure, it works out to only a little over 600 usable words a day over two decades, but every writer knows you have good runs and bad runs, so to maintain that level of continuous output is...well, epic.

How do I feel, now that it's over? I'd have to say, satisfied - I won't go into the details, in case you haven't read the series finale, but I will say that things were wrapped up to my satisfaction. Brandon Sanderson was well-chosen to finish off the series after Robert Jordan passed on, and he did an excellent job of examining the nature of good vs. evil on a cosmic scale, while simultaneous keeping things grounded on a human scale and keeping the 'epic feel' of a giant series wrapup.

As a bonus, a TV series was announced in April 2017, so there's that to look forward to( AT LAST! )after two decades of big, juicy novels. Huzzah!


Dec 22 – It's about...

Gifts and gift-giving: not a thing for me any more.

Sure, there's a few gifts my family gets for each other most years, but as I've said before: less is now more in the places we're renting, as we're space-limited - have been for a while, at that.

This year especially has been a tight one, enough so that we're all grateful just to make it through into 2018. These last few weeks have been stressful, though thanks to a few moderate financial gains( thanks, eBay and local game store! )we'll be able to cruise through the end of the month and not have to go without.

Presents though, have gone by the wayside, and that's fine: I'd rather have the rent covered than stress out while opening gifts anyway, as that would negate the whole reason-for-the-season anyway.


If I had reams of cash and a spare room( HOME OFFICE! MAKER-STUDIO! )to put a few things in, I'd peruse the lists of this site, which is full of... interesting things( for men, in this case )like:

Caffeinated... shaving cream? 

Personally, I liked their 'Book Gifts' section more, but that's probably just the immature lad inside me liking the simpler things in life... which is just fine!

Dec 23 – Budget Bites

I realized I haven't mentioned how I make ends meet when it comes to food.

I tend to eat... simply.

My rule-of-thumb when it comes to costs is to try to keep things around $5.00 / meal, or even less when I make my own meals. I'm a serviceable, not great cook, as I tend to take my time to make sure I prepare my food properly( not to mention cleaning up my mess )so when it comes to meal prep at home, I prefer to make a lot of food all at once every few weeks and then portion it out into meals to freeze and use as needed. Not being a big eater, this works out well, and allows me more time for doing things other than cooking.

What's the best meal I've found, in terms of cost vs. nutritional value( and taste )?


Quinoa! It's inexpensive( when on sale, which is often )and can be mixed with all sorts of other things like peppers, broccoli, spinach and the like. As you can see, when I make up a batch, I go BIG - the one below makes about 20 meals for me:

The container to the immediate right is 2 meal portions... 

As for eating out: most meal portions are too much for me to eat in one sitting, so quite often I end up taking close to half the meal home anyway. If I spend around $10 for a dinner and eat half, then it's $5.00 / meal... and it's still as good to my tastebuds the next day, or when unfrozen in a few weeks or a month.

Mixing it up between prepared meals from home, cheap lunches at work( Bean Bandits has $5 daily soups just outside my workplace - quick and yummy! )and take-homes from various restaurants, I keep myself well-fed. Add in the occasional soup mix, leftovers from work or social gatherings and other places, and I eat well enough on a regular basis that I don't worry about my food costs.

Which is a useful thing when you're trying to budget on a shoesting.


Dec 24 – Perfection

Just relax: it's Christmas Eve! We made it!

A nice not-too-rushed breakfast at The Hawk And Hen( waffles with peanut butter and bacon - delicious! )followed by a few hours gaming at The Good Earth Coffeehouse at Uptown were a great way to slide into Sunday. Sure, the GE was cold and we moved tables to escape a lady who'd bathed in perfume( and spent an hour complaining to her friend loudly - yeesh )but it was a great morning all the same. Soup for lunch( shepherd's pie with chicken - YUM! )and then back to my place.

Spending a quiet Christmas Eve with my girlfriend is all I could want, or ask for, this year. We decided to watch a classic holiday movie tonight, after I'd finished working on my blog shortly after dinner, hours earlier than usual:

Sure, there's people who would argue that Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie... but they're wrong, as I've come around over the years to see that Bruce Willis gives far more than he receives... and in the end, isn't that what Christmas is all about?

"Come to the party for Christmas, they said. It'll be FUN, they said..."

A Merry Christmas to all, and may Santa be kind to you and yours tonight!