cathshaffer

I’ve been feeling great lately. Very positive, content, loving towards all my friends and family, full of energy, sleeping well and waking up refreshed, etc., etc. I thought it was possibly because life had suddenly become fantastic, but I think it’s actually endorphin overdose from all of the extra exercise I’ve been getting. Glen has been very keen on the biking, so we’ve been doing a weekly long bike ride and intermittent short ones. This Monday, we went on a 12 mile bike ride that starts in our neighborhood. We were pleasantly surprised to see that our neighbors J. and W. were the ride captains, so we got the opportunity to get reacquainted while we pedalled along. I was the straggler. This may be because I am, greatly to my surprise, the smallest and weakest member of the family. It may also be because I am the only one riding a poorly maintained twenty-year old bicycle. In any case, it was a great ride, and left me exhausted and sore in the “you’ve had a great workout” way that I became addicted to as a high school athlete.

I felt like I barely survived the ride, but the captains said we did well. Our family was the only group that joined the ride, probably because it was raining slightly, but they said because it is an entry-level ride, many people are starting from absolute zero and have more trouble with it than we did.

In addition, I’ve kept up with twice weekly bikram yoga, and we finally massaged the schedule in such a way that we can walk the dogs every day. On non-yoga days, they get a very long walk, nearly two miles. This causes them to keel over and sleep the whole rest of the day. It’s awesome, and it’s a non-trivial workout for me, too. Also makes for good conversation with the spouse.

In summary, I have endorphin poisoning and am probably insufferable and unfit for the company of normal writers with all of my cheerfulness.

I’m still on my diet/exercise plan, and have been on a plateau for about six weeks, now. You can’t believe this phenomenon until you’ve lived it. It defies the laws of physics. When I added the extra exercise in, I actually gained two pounds and then re-plateau’d at that level.

Yes, I know “muscle weighs more than fat” and blah blah blah. I have indeed lost some inches. But at some point in the slimming down process, the scale really *must” register a lower weight. The weight I am at now would be too high even for a very muscular man of my same height. There is no scenario where I can get back into a size 6 without losing some actual mass. Hence my confusion and impatience and daily yelling at my Tanita, “Oh come on!”

(This is not a request for diet advice. There are 5407 weight reducing diets out there, and everyone has a favorite. My switching to your favorite will not solve this problem. Time and patience will solve it.)

So, a big thing is happening at our house. I’ve been meaning to take some photos and do a big introduction post, but it’s not happening, so I’ll include the short version for now and hopefully the photos will come.

We are doing a major home renovation. Yaaaaaay! *Kermit flail*

This thing has been in the works for over a year. In fact, for record keeping purposes, I looked back at the first payment we made to the designer/builder, and it was over a year ago.

Our home is a 3 br/1 bath colonial built in 1924. It’s a wonderful house, with all of the charm you would expect of a house of that vintage. It’s built into the side of a steep hill, so it has a subterranean garage on one side, and a porch that’s been converted to a three-season-room above the garage.

We’ve found the house awkward to live in because of the driveway/garage/porch situation. The driveway is a narrow chute with rock retaining walls on both sides, probably built with a Model A in mind, and the garage is also very narrow. We were able to park our minivan in it at one point, but you can barely open the doors. All of our cars have scratches and chips in the paint from the rock retaining walls.

It goes without saying that the tiny garage does not have any space for storage, power tools, bikes, etc.

The porch is a nice idea. French doors lead from the living room to the porch. However, the flat roof leaks, in spite of the fact that we’ve repaired it once already, and it’s drafty as hell. When we moved in, there was in fact no actual lock preventing someone from walking into the house through the porch. I’m not kidding! We moved into the house in 2001. The porch had a flimsy storm door only, and the french doors leading into the living room were theoretically lockable with skeleton keys. You know, the universal kind you can buy in any antique store? One of the first things we did was install a proper exterior door on the porch so that we could lock it.

However, the whole porch thing has driven me crazy ever since. It’s a tantalizing space that seems like it could be wonderful living/storage space. In reality, it’s a junk magnet that is unpleasantly drafty in the cold season, and overly hot in the summer season. I could go on and on about the porch.

So, in our remodel, we are tearing out the garage and porch completely. (Aiyee!) We will be putting in a new, wider driveway, and a larger garage. On the main floor of the house, where the old porch was, we’ll have a family room that matches the garage footprint, with (oh god yes) a MAIN FLOOR BATHROOM. *more Kermit flailing*

I’m really excited about that bathroom. As our son just turned into a teenager, with all of the increased grooming that implies, Brent and I are slowly losing access to the house’s single bathroom. Many peepee dances ensue The first floor bathroom will have a large shower stall instead of a tub. This will give us a way to wash dogs without dragging them upstairs. It will also be handicapper accessable, so the whole area can be turned into a convalescent suite if one of us should become bedridden or if we need to provide care for an older family member. We’ve been through elder care already, with the world’s least accessible house, so we’re very conscious of how difficult that can be. (My mother fell down our stairs not once but twice when she was living with us. I have huge regrets over not choosing a ranch-style house back in 2001. So many problems we had in her care would have been solved by living in a one story home.)

On the second floor of the house, above the family room, we’re putting in a master suite. There will be yet another bathroom. (Three bathrooms, OMG!) The room will also be big enough for a queen-sized bed AND reasonable furniture and closet space for storing clothes. (I don’t know where these 1924 people put their dresser and chest of drawers. Half of my clothes live in the guest bedroom/office.)

So, that’s how our summer is shaping up. The past couple of months have involved many design meetings with the builder (in process), figuring out financing (done), applying for permits (done), cleaning out the garage and porch (in process), storing or divesting excess items (in process), and pre-shopping for materials and finishes (a never ending task). Brent is only working part time, and he will be GC on the project, and will be working as part of the crew for the demolition and framing.

We already have major challenges in the initial phase with our hilltop site–where to put the dumpster? How to get materials in and out? The sequence of tasks needs to be carefully planned because of access limitations. Brent and the builder are working on those problems together. We also have some potential surprises waiting for us when we get stuff torn up and dug out. We don’t actually know where some of the utilities come in and connect to the house, because the city’s records for 1924 are sketchy. Apparently, it’s also not clear at this point how the plumbing for the new house will connect to the old house. The plumber will have to figure it out later, when things have been exposed and the framing is in.

However, the plans are approved, and we are braced for “known unknowns” and budget overruns, so we are going to cross our fingers and take the plunge. We’ll probably be breaking ground in about two weeks.

It’s very exciting, but will probably also keep us busy and stressed for the whole summer. That’s where endorphin poisoning can be very helpful. Yay, endorphin poisoning! Pass the checkbook. Whee!

Originally published at So Shiny. You can comment here or there.

theferrett

I’ve been quiet here as I’ve been slogging through the usual Seasonal Depression, but I did post two essays over at FetLife (TheFacebookforkinksters) that you may be curious about:  “Depression. Fucking. Depression.”, which deals with how depression affects my sex life, and “Ropeweasels,” which deals with the issue of me being tied up. (There’s also “Fireplay and Me,” an oddly poetic musing on setting women aflame, which I don’t think I linked here but maybe I did.)

In addition, my humor essay “So I’m Going To Become A Dom” may be my most popular essay ever, with 612 comments and 965 loves.  I guess it’s all about the specificity.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

jimhines

We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could push characters into more cardboard, stereotypical roles and — if other shows are any example — drag out for far too long.

Instead, Asami’s character quickly developed more depth and conflict. The plot moved along, changing her role in the story. The conflict between Korra and Asami progressed through conflict into understanding and sympathy. I loved the quiet moment at the end where Korra tells Mako, “She’s going to need you.”

I’ve seen that pacing elsewhere, and I appreciate that the show doesn’t seem to get bogged down. There’s always a sense of movement.

Lin Beifong continues to be awesome. In many ways, I think she’s my favorite character. Partly because she’s an older woman kicking all sorts of ass. Partly because she, more than anyone else I’ve seen, seems to take full advantage of her bending abilities. The firebenders throw fire. Earthbenders throw rocks. Beifong, on the other hand, manipulates metal cables like Spider-Man, grows blades from her armor to punch through mechs, and seems to push the “What else can I do with this?” angle.

Complexity: The scene with Tahno’s character really jumped out at me. This is a character who’s introduced as a full-on asshole. He’s arrogant, he cheats, and you really wanted Korra to kick his butt in the tournament. Instead, the White Falls Wolfbats won … and thus became the targets of an Equalist attack.

In the next episode, you see Tahno without his powers, and he’s utterly broken. Korra feels for him. She knows what he lost and how close she came to losing her own bending. It was a fairly short scene, but that’s all it took.

The relationship between Tenzin and Lin Beifong is another interesting example. Their history, the contrast of their apparent discomfort with how well they work together in a crisis … I have no idea where that’s going, but I like the dynamic, and at this point I’m trusting the show not to go somewhere overly cliche with it.

While there are certainly characters who seem flat-out Evil, at least at first, I appreciate that things generally aren’t presented in a simplistic black-and-white way. Neither people nor power are simple, and this show respects that fact.

The Animation: This is a very pretty show, particularly in the way it portrays movement and the grace of the different benders. I get done watching, and other cartoons suddenly seem clunkier.

Trusting the Viewers: I was trying to figure out how to phrase this last bit, and “trust” is the closest I can come. I’ve never seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Korra. It doesn’t surprise me that they wanted a show that could welcome new viewers as well as old, but it struck me that there just isn’t a lot of exposition or hand-holding, period. There’s no talking down, no assuming that things will be too complicated or difficult to understand. Elements are explained as they become relevant to the story.

I know there are things I’m missing from Avatar, but I can catch up on my own, and I like that they don’t slow down the story to spoon-feed information.

In Conclusion: Okay, I get it. I’m officially a fan, and I have added Avatar: TLA to my list of things to catch up on (when I find the time).

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

theferrett

Back in The Day, when I had infinite people reading me on LiveJournal, I’d post an entry and the comments exploded.  I’d hit “post,” and five minutes later I’d have fifteen comments.

Now, I make a big ol’ important post and sometimes I don’t get a comment for half an hour.  That used to unnerve me – is this a bad entry? Did I say something wrong? – until I realized what was happening.  English LiveJournal is slowly dying.

What used to happen was that the LJ friends page was like Twitter or Facebook now – so constant a stream of data that you just refreshed your friends’ page and wham, new entries.  Maybe you didn’t check it twenty times a day like I did, but the friends page was a ritual where my latest entry popped up in real time.  I was a part of the info-stream.

As LJ use has declined, though, the traffic patterns have changed for me.  People no longer read my blog as part of a daily pulse; it’s in their RSS feeds, or bookmarked separately, or they wait for me to post the interesting links to Twitter (since I don’t Tweet-spam every post).  I still get roughly the same number of comments, but as opposed to arriving in one explosive comment-dump, they now arrive scattered over the course of two days, like late passengers departing a red-eye connection.  I’m read at their convenience, not the convenience of LJ.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a little weird.  Some days I post a SRS ENTRY and then wait until I get one comment just to ensure someone’s listening.  By the time I get out of the tub, I have like three comments, which used to be the sign of an entry falling on its face.  Now, I’m patient; the user feedback will arrive in due course.

If you write it, they will come.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

jongibbs

Here’s my selection of interesting (and sometimes amusing) posts about writing from the last week:

What Happens After Writing 3 or 4 Books a Year (Elizabeth Spann Craig)

Traditional vs. Self-publishing is a False Dichotomy (Nathan Bransford)

The Art of Pacing in a Novel (Elissa Cruz) [Jon’s Pick of the week]

Why I'm A Writer & Not a Fighter Pilot (Maggie Stiefvater aka m_stiefvater)

Sounds Great, No Substance (Mary Kole)

Do We Need An Authors Code for Online Conduct? (Jannette Johnson aka darke_conteur)

Who's helping who in the cover blurb game? (Anthony Horowitz)
by way of April Henry (aka aprilhenry)

How to Win a Writing Competition (Dr. John Yeoman)

All About Advances (Rachelle Gardner)

Damn Yankees, and Other Ways Self-Publishing Holds Itself Back (Sarah LaPolla)

The Highs and the Lows of Becoming an Author (Cassie Alexander)

The scariest question: "Why should I care about this story?" (Juliette Wade)


If you have a particular favorite among these, please let the author know (and me too, if you have time).  Also, if you've a link to a great post that isn't here, feel free to share.

If you found these useful, you may also like my personal selection of the most interesting blog posts from 2011, and last week’s list.