My Stomping Ground

I cannot say that I cannot believe that I haven't post anything in the last 16 months because I know I haven't! What I can say is that I can't believe how quickly time passed. So let's see what happened to me in the last 16 months...

1. Good news first... I lost 20 lbs in a year (guh, the last 5 lbs are the hardest!) and able to keep the pounds off for almost 3 months now. I am able to get back into my old clothes (even my favourite high school ones that I still keep! :D) and get back in shape. What I did I do to lose weight? The long-no-nonsense way. It's true that there's no shortcut in losing weight and *keeping* it that way. I change into a healthier lifestyle, exercise and diet. It's simple, really...once you get the hang of it. Now, I can look at a plate of dishes and pretty much guessed how many calories in there. It sort of becomes your habit when you've been doing it everyday.
2. I'm working to overcome my fear of running. When I was in high school, I was such a bookworm that I hate any form of physical activity. My seniors made me run a 1.5K race during sports day once, and I feigned fainting in the first 500 mtrs. Haha… I don’t know why I hate running so much--probably because of the puffing and panting and the fear of dropping dead because of that, lol. Anyway, my physical fitness had improved a lot since I started exercising, so I thought it would be a major boost to my confidence level if I participated in a 5K race just to proof that I can. So now, I’m working towards that and in less than two months time, I will have my first race. :) At least then, when anybody tries to look down on me, I can say 'Huh, can *you* run a 5K and survive it?' LOL.
3. Bad news now, I was involved in 3 car accidents in the last 16 months. Yup, three. It was beyond scary, especially the first time. It was an experience I don’t ever want to repeat again but I did…twice after that. Sometimes when I go to sleep, I can still remember how my tyres screeched and the collision that followed.
4. I’m still working at the same place as last time and still looking for a better job. No luck thus far.
5. I’m still into SS/HG and read the fanfics now and again (when time allows) but ever since I’m dating someone with the name initial, SS, my muse had left me and I can’t write a decent story to save myself. Sigh.

Well, that’s about it!

zyra, signing off… ;)

xx

Hello guys... :)

Apparently I'm still alive and breathing. But I've been a terrible teribble fangirl by not posting and keeping up with the ongoing here. Life has been and still is pushing me down that I rarely have time for myself anymore (I know that 'The Love You Take' by subversa is now complete but I haven't got time to even read it, argh!). A colleague of mine was supposed to give birth in early December but she had a premature labor last month and now I have to cover all of her tasks (on top of mine too!). It's driving me crazy but so far I can still manage it. Problem is the only time I have for myself if lunch time (where I read TLYT (too slow though to my liking) through my new 3g handphone, squeel!) and to sleep at night. Anyway, I realize that I owe an exchange fic. Rest assure that I will finish and submit it to the mods. I just need some more time to complete it. I have the elaborated outline ready, I just need to expand it a bit and smooth it out and it should be ready. :) I'm sorry if I've been keeping very quiet all this time. This shouldn't last, at least I hope not if I expect to keep my sanity...

I'll see you guys later. Cheerios.  

There is a couple of disadvantages of being the minority group in my office. It's the Single vs Married Women group. There are only 3 of us who are still single being surrounded by almost 20 of them who are already married. One of the disadvantages is not being able to join the conversation/fun/experience sharing about your children and the ups and downs of raising them. The best you can do is listen quietly to them jumping about impatiently as they took turn with their stories. And then you slowly slipped away from the group and they don't even notice you're gone.

Another disadvantage is ... still sharing experience/stories but focusing on one topic ... giving birth. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against them telling their stories, heck, I may need some of the experiences myself when I go through the same process (have to focus on finding a husband first, though) as they do. But do they have to do it at exactly 5-minutes before I take my lunch?

And this is not the first time too. You'll be astounded at how graphic they can get. You feel like standing in front of their spreaded legs pushing the baby out. Staying away doesn't help either. Their voice can be heard across the hall! How do they expect me to keep my lunch when I can vividly imagine the blood and the vagina?!?

I just have to let it out of my system here (where else?). I'm sorry if I offended anyone. It was seriously unintentional.

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Thanks for keeping me sane, for giving me hugs when I needed the most and for making me laugh, glee and squek with laughter. Workload is never below my nostrils, at some point it's at the same level with my armpit, before it gets back to nostrils, but you keep me on the ground and help me got through it all - and you'd never guessed that you did. :)  F-list, you're the bestest!! I wish that one day I get to meet each and every one of you and thank you personally. In the meantime ... *glomphugs*

:)

It's always like that. When you think you've got most of things sorted out, new things/workload emerge out of nowhere and you're up to your nostrils again...

*sigh*



I hate my job. And I hate it that it took me a long drive to get there.

Oh, but happy news! I've found a rental room just 15 minutes away and I'm going to move in this August. Yippee! That'll be a relieve in the petrol expenses. I could faint when I look at the credit card bills. The long list seems to be filled with petrol expenses! I'm broke until the end of this year. See, all these tenses just made me want to crawl here if only to provide me some smile reading he fanfics... The bad news is I most probably won't be able to hook up to Internet at my rental space. The cheapest one needed me to commit to at least 18-months of subscription (the one I subscribed for at home) and I don't think I'm going to stay there that long. The one without any minimum duration contract is quite expensive that subscribing to it would forfeit the choice of living closer to office. Perhaps I could stay back at the office to play and only got back home to sleep. It depends on how tired I would be though... ah, I guess we'll see...



Anyway, about the only good thing that happened to me last week was that I won the SSHG quiz! *goggling at the shiny banner below* Mine!!
 


Anyway, I have a few more hours before Monday is here again and I'm going to switch between work and play here as much as I can. I foresee another tiring week... 

I wonder when I get to do what the woman in my avvie is doing... just spend the time reading by the window. Oh, the bliss...

I know I shouldn't be overjoyed just now. There will always be something bad to happen next. 

I got food-poisoning. *sniff*

And headache too (but that mainly because of those people in the clinic talking to each other in loud voices. I mean, hello! I'm sick here! You're giving me unnecessary headache with those yelling. Ow.)

I'm gonna have to go to bed early tonight. A couple of hours early. Looks like I'm not gonna finish the 3rd prompt in Portus Envy tonight. I hope the requester/prompt-er (What do you call them?) wouldn't mind... :(

But I hear hugs could make things better. Even virtual ones...

(can't you see I'm close to begging here...)

That thing I've been dreaded last week (refer to my previous post) has been postpone again to this Friday!! Ahahahaha!! *clutching side while laughing uncontrollably pointing at the screen that previously showed the request from vendor to reschedule*

But that's the last time this thing can be postpone, we need the servers up and again soon for future project. But guess what, I searched high and low yesterday for my old Networking textbook and I found it! I thought I'd not have enough time to revise by this Tuesday, (wait, that's tomorrow!) but now I have up until Friday to do that! Wooot~! :D 

I had lotsa fun in Portus Envy last weekend. I managed to tie myself to five prompts and I've answered two of them. The third one is coming along (almost done). Although the fourth and fifth will take longer than usual since it's already Monday. *grumbles*

Anyway, wish me luck for this Friday!

I told myself and those around me over and over again before, that Networking and Me will never crosses path. Networking and Me just go our own separate way. I only learned that subject simply to finish my uni education and once I exited the examination hall, all notes on Networking slips pass my mind swiftly just like that and I'm back to, "Static single source IP? What's that?"

So, today I have to accompany the servers supplier to install them to our data center. I've been mewling and fretting and dreading this day for almost two weeks now (where all requirements are gathered, request forms to be filled and other side tasks compiled, where half of which I can't figured out still) but it's finally here. Today at 3.00 pm I have to go and watch over the installation process and make sure everything goes smoothly. If it didn't, it'll be on my shoulder.

Then, the best thing happened (and I shouldn't be glad of it, really), the network infra (or whatever it is called) is malfunctioning at the data center and they can't aspect us to install the servers today, it had to be done some other days when it has been fixed. 

Yay!!

Suddenly today doesn't look so gloomy after all. Can I just go and play at Portus Envy and SSHG Quiz? This headache I have since yesterday wouldn't go still... and I might puke if I hear another 'IP address'.

I've finished the draft for Chapter 2 of this story I'm working on. When I said 'draft', that would mean, it still needs some serious works to polish it up. But at least all words are in and the length is appropriate to end the chapter there.

Once the polishing is done, I'm going to send it to my beta and work on Chapter 3. Slow, but I'm getting there!

The plot is evolving nicely. What I originally intended for Chapter 2, now has to be pushed for Chapter 3. So, instead of originally intended to finish at 5 chapters, I now have 6 chapters. At the rate I'm going, I believe it's going to be more than that even!

*deep sigh*

I've been staring at my WIP story on the screen for a long time and no word came out. Oh, drat, not another writer's block...

I find it very hard to concentrate to my writing lately. One, there's so many work to do at the office. Two, with the increase price in petrol, I find myself calculating where it's enough to make it through the month almost all of the time. This is a hard time, it is. Someone told me to keep driving at 100 km/hour to save the petrol. Usually, I drive at 130km/hour (20km/hr more than the speed limit, heh) or else I get sleepy easily. It was a long straight road. I tried keeping at 100km/hr and before long, I was yawning. 

I found a way to overcome that. 

Audiobook.

I bought 'Inkheart' (a book I've bought last month but still at Chapter 2! Ah well, I was often asleep before I could get passed 2 pages). I burned it into CDs and listen to it in the car. Voila! Ain't that a good way to stay awake (and keep to the speed limit)? It doesn't matter if I drive slow, the story kept me awake all the way. In just two days, I'm at Chapter 9 (second CD). It is a very interesting story. I hope by listening to it, I could find some idea to start writing with my story again. I miss reading people's compliments review to my story.

I've been unproductive for a long time. I miss working like slave for my fandom. And I miss my readers. And getting review alert in my inbox.