daysleeper’s blog

fun and necessary

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:02:20 -0500

My weekend is nearly at an end. In my Bizarro world, Friday is the day to loathe and fear, not Monday, because Friday is the day that begins the four day grind. Tonight, I will be back amongst the pack. A team of sled dogs all pulling in different directions at the same time, biting and barking at the same time. Eight more days of that nonsense and I finally get a real break. Enough complaining.

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I like to think that I am making progress in my day to day life and try to maintain a healthy balance of fun and necessary tasks. For example, over the past few days, I went to the grocery store, washed some clothes, put out the garbage and added more salt to the water softener. Those tasks would be the practical ones that need to be done and do have a certain sense of accomplishment to them. Then there is my listening to part of the audio book Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks, reading some more of The Man in the High Castle and watching the latest episodes of Battlestar Galactica. These latter tasks bring me more pleasure than the former.

I have yet to form an opinion on the Sparks book. The reader has somewhat of a singsong voice, but that can be hard to avoid when reading aloud. A person feels compelled not to sound monotone and they overcompensate. Some of the most negative reviews of the book state that the brothers are prime examples of why American tourists are hated around the world. They disrespect foreign cultures and generally act like frat boys. I have yet to reach that part of the books so I can say if I agree or not.

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new selling price

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:23:18 -0500

The one thing that I have yet to do this year is sit outside on my deck and read a book. It sounds simple enough, but with almost a solid week of daily heavy rain doing that basic task was denied me. I came close to pulling the chair out of the garage today, but opted for a little more sleep instead. Even though I did not make it outside to read today, I did manage to sample some of my monthly shipment from Mile High Comics that arrived last week and made it just a little further in The Man in the High Castle.

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I think that I am going to lower the selling price on my condo. It has been on the market a year now and I need to sell it so that may be a wise decision on my part. Even though it does bother me to a degree, I can financially withstand a lower price, because I need less of a profit now. For example, whether or not I sell the condo soon, I will have my car paid off by the end of the year. Part of my profits from the condo were going to be used to cover the balance of the car. Now that is no longer needed. Plus I have been making mortgage payments on it through the last year so the remaining balance on the mortgage itself is lower.

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smaller page count

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:34:17 -0500

Only two more weeks of work stand between me and my first vacation since March of this year. I am so looking forward to some quiet yet still fun time away. I will be spending time with my family and getting my first look at how much they have transformed what had been my grandparents home. As of now I have only seen a couple of photos, but I sense that more will be revealed when I get there.

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Even though I am nowhere near the end or even the middle of the book Dark Star Safari, I picked up another book to read when I was at the library last week Saturday. I had an impulse to read some Philip K. Dick and was happy to find a copy of The Man in the High Castle sitting on the shelf. Who could not like a story that talks about a world where the Nazis won the war and America was divided between the Germans and the Japanese?

Obviously, I love Paul Theroux having read at least three of his books, but I wanted something more brief. A mere hundred and ninety three pages will meet that requirement for me quite nicely and once I finish it, I will jump back into the four hundred and eighty five page tome about Africa.

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buy my condo

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:04:58 -0500

It feels good to be reading again. I've only read about the first forty pages of the Paul Theroux book Dark Star Safari, but I enjoy reading what he has to say At times I still have to wonder if his biting comments are just part of a persona he adapts for writing or if he truly feels that way about the people he meets in various foreign countries. He seems to have little patience for anything that smells ever so slightly of packaged tourism and I can understand to a degree. I do not like having trinkets forced on me to purchase. Nor do I enjoy being seen as a mark by various hawkers in foreign markets. More than once I have had a budding foreign artist approach me with some of his goods in hand asking me buy something. On the one hand I realize that they have to make a living, but at the same time I do not respond well to sales pressure.

Putting aside the negativity of Theroux, he does make some valid points about Africa. For example, he begins his journey in Egypt and more than once other travelers say that they have no desire to see Africa. Paul quickly points out to them that they are in Africa, because Egypt is in Africa. I can understand why these people make that distinction though. Egypt is the pyramids and camels whereas Africa is safari and jungles. I have no doubt that that would be the kneejerk response of most Americans when asked about whether they would go to Egypt or Africa. That odd mental distinction is there.

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With ever warming temperatures I am eager to try the pool where I live and have been disappointed to see that it is not ready for swimming yet. It clearly needs to be cleaned. So in an effort to speed the process up, I called the condo association people and asked them why there was a delay. I was told that I was not the first person to call them with this question. Then I was apologetically told that the company hired to clean the pool had been running behind schedule. A date has yet to be given as to when these people will be on schedule.

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This morning my real estate person convinced me not to lower my selling price on my old condo. He said that the last unit to sell was a mere one thousand dollars less than what I am asking. The market is just that bad and the news won't shut up about it. Plus there is going to be another wave of mortgage increases on the ones sold back in 2005 and that will probably lead to more foreclosures and bad press. Sigh. I try not to think about this problem and hope that the place sells this month or next month otherwise maybe renting it is an option that I might have to explore.

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eve of june

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:52:45 -0500

So another month comes to a close and I have to wonder what I accomplished. Let me make a quick laundry list of items.

14 days of exercise
7 days of showings
1 play at the Milwaukee Rep
1 concert of The Flight of the Conchords enjoyed
1 exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum seen
1 Brewers game attended
1 copy of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly read
1 copy of the Paul Theroux book Dark Star Safari started

My goal had been to exercise more than I had the previous month. I do not think that that goal was met. In fact I think that I exercised the exact same amount of days. For various reasons I seem to have trouble breaking that three days a week mark. Sigh.

At least I read a book and got a good start on another one. Reading more was another goal of mine and I appear to be making progress on that one. I hope to have a solid list of completed books by the end of summer.

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bitter cold hostage

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:39:21 -0600

I am proud of myself, because despite the fact that bitter cold has descended on the state and will linger for the next few days, I have managed to finish reading my first book of the year and kept a steady regimen of exercise going this month, both of which were goals of mine for this year. Having finished Pullman's The Subtle Knife, I am not sure if I want to continue right into the third part of the trilogy or not. I enjoyed both the first and second books, but part of me would like to switch gears into terms of pleasure reading.

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mind and body

nobody@vox.com(daysleeper) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:31:25 -0600

At long last I have gotten back into a regular exercise regimen again. Ever since August, any consistent effort at exercising has been a struggle. Now that seems to be behind me. Even with all of the recent holiday activity, I've been able to spend time on both the stationary bike and the elliptical machine. My next goal is to start reading books more frequently. I have plenty of choices at hand, I just need to set aside some time each day like I do for exercise.

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