A wild Jaqui appears!

[storyinmypocket]

Yeah, I still exist. Hello, everyone!

Things have been... really boring in some ways, really exciting in others. So... um... have my life in bullet points.

• CELEXA. After every antidepressant I'd ever been on previously doing bad things to me, I got a prescription for Celexa, and it is so awesome. I hardly ever have overwhelming urges to kill myself at all anymore, and the anxiety is better enough that I can actually get things done.
• Speaking of getting things done: Chains.cc. This is perfect for building habits, especially for things you don't want to put on a formal to-do list (I use Remember the Milk for my to-do lists, and it's also pretty awesome) because they happen every day or three times a week or something. You check off your tasks every day, and you get to watch chains form for how many days in a row you get something done. It's incredibly simple, and yet brilliant at the same time, because you can compare chains and see how each new thing affects other things you're doing.
• If there's anyone out there who's trying to exercise more, and needs motivation, Fitocracy is really awesome. It turns exercise into a game, where you get points for working out, and you can level up, and there are quests and achievements. And it is specifically a fitness site, not a dieting site, so there are no annoying food trackers and calorie calculators and all that shit. Sadly, the HAES group on Fitocracy regularly gets concern-trolled by people who are all HOW DARE YOU PROMOTE OBESITY? SO UNHEALTHY! so I haven't felt safe posting there, and thus I have very few friends on the site. Still, I love the concept, and I'm begging anyone reading me who's interested in exercising more to go sign up and friend me (storyinmypocket, of course) so we can congratulate each other on our workouts and levels gained. Pretty please?
• I have a tumblr.  storyinmypocket. I'm sure that username came a surprise to all of you. I spend a lot of time there, because reblogging lets me share interesting things I find on the internet without having to actually write a post. Also, unfuckyourhabitat is really great for getting me to clean my room more instead of giving up and being swallowed up by a tidal wave of food wrappers and empty Coke cans.
• I am writing again! Well, by "writing" I really mean "putting down a few sentences here and there", but this is major progress.
• I miss journal-based RP. I keep looking at games and trying to figure out who I'd app, and then chickening out. Bah.
• There are a few things wrong with me, health-wise, that will be getting looked at soon. Specifically, I need to see a sleep specialist and hematologist. Also, a dentist. Mrrh.
• I have finally become assertive enough to actually ask my uncle for the groceries I want. This means I'm getting to experience the joys of REAL CHEESE (as opposed to individually wrapped slices of processed cheese product) and salads with black olives and cucumber and red onion and a whole lot of baby spinach and romaine lettuce, instead of my grandma's usual "throw some chunks of tomato on top of iceberg lettuce and call it done" salads.
• Iceberg lettuce is the devil.
• Pomegranate vinaigrette is the best salad dressing in the history of ever.
• I know this is turning into a lot of bullet points about salad, but I made myself a really huge salad for lunch and it was so good, you guys. I have been craving raw spinach for ages, and now I have a huge container of the stuff. ALL THE SALAD FOR ME!
• Wait, come back! This next bullet point isn't about salad!
• What I've been reading: I recently discovered Lois McMaster Bujold, and am wondering what the hell took me so long. I was drawn in by the Chalion series, and the wonderful things it does with its gods, and more recently have been working my way through the Vorkosigan Saga, which is delightful. Miles "I ACCIDENTALLY A MERCENARY FLEET" Vorkosigan is one of my new favorite characters, and his mother is the SF heroine I always wanted to read about. Why aren't there more books about her? I'm also enjoying the hell out of Patricia Briggs (love how she does werewolves), Simon R. Green's Nightside series, everything by Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim (seriously, when William Gibson refers to something as a dirty-ass masterpiece, it's worth reading), and just to top it all off, I'm enjoying a reread of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files because they're fun. I still like George R.R. Martin, and at some point, I will go back to reading A Feast for Crows and moving on to A Dance with Dragons, once I'm in a place where I can tolerate how people feel compelled to warn of and/or threaten sexual violence to one of my favorite characters an average of every other page. Just... really, GRRM? REALLY? You write amazing stories, and I can take a lot for a good story, but I'm getting to the point where I want to scream and throw the book across the room.
• What I've been watching: I've fallen head over heels in love with Teen Wolf, which I expected to suck, but is in fact awesome and full of kickass female characters who deserve more love than they get. It's sort of my current obsession. I've also finally given in and gotten caught up on True Blood. It's the blood-splattered vampire sex that does it. Well, and Lafayette. Lafayette is fucking flawless. There's also Game of Thrones (of course), Lost Girl (a show which doesn't get nearly enough love), Once Upon a Time, White Collar, Leverage, Supernatural (yes, I know... I swear, this show is my bad boyfriend)... Oh, and I've finally been persuaded to watch Veronica Mars, and I'm now very sad it was canceled.
• Avengers. AvengersAvengersAVENGERS! ...Avengers. (Spider-Man?)
• I've been reading more comics lately. I'm mostly a DC girl (I miss Oracle, and Nightwing's fingerstripes, and writers who understood Jason Todd and Starfire), but I've recently started looking into the Marvel universe again, after a brief fling with X-Men when I was much younger. I happily accept recs.

Comments

[yetregressing]

I'm glad the Celexa is working! That's always wonderful. :3 And THANK YOU those links look awesome. I need a break, bc I'm just now getting off three weeks of working two separate jobs, but I will look into the exercise thing too and maybe friend you (or... whatever they call it on that site, idk, the internet needs to settle on like one thing.)

Also, I'm not a great player, but if you ever wanted to do a one-off RP thing in some multifandom setting, um. I don't have many fandom characters, but I'd be willing. So. Yup. :| /totally not awkward.

(And, um, re: comics, I'm a recent Marvel convert (minus Batfamily feels, which in fact are really mostly Oracle feels because reasons) so my current strategy is ALL OF THE AWESOME CHARACTERS. ...Basically all of my recs come from Mat and Aubrey, so you probably already know this, but right now I'm working through ALL THE RIKKI BARNES (which has X-Men in it! And gives me a lot of feelings!), and my very first one was Truth (six-issue release, so it's nice and short) which is about Isaiah Bradley and of which I can only give the highest praise. So my recs are, uh... ask Mat and Aubrey.)

[storyinmypocket]

It would be awesome to see you on Fitocracy. And while you should absolutely take all the time to rest that you need, you can also get points for little things -- I've logged five-minute walks, when that was all I was capable of doing, for instance. And I've also had days where I'd do a few squats, and then a few hours later I'd do some crunches, and then when I had more time later, a set of wall push-ups. Just tiny things here and there that add up, even when I don't have the spoons to go and do a Serious Workout. And with that, I'll stop bugging you about it.

And you're great at RP, so there. :P I need to get around to uploading icons for more of my kids, but I'd be thrilled to RP with you. I've got a muselist over at pocketuniverse, if you'd like to see who's available.

I've downloaded Truth, and will look at some of the Rikki Barnes stuff once I get over the OMG WHERE DO I EVEN START? feelings. I know those will pass once I actually start reading, but I still get slightly overwhelmed sometimes, and I've been doing this for a while, now.

[yetregressing]

Oooooooo. I like that system. Maybe I'll get started tomorrow, as today is... lounge in the basement and watch Avatar: the Last Airbender day. Because reasons.

Ooooo I will look at it and see who I've got. ...I need to make a cast list page. Maybe even a pretty one. Who knows. /too lazy

Yesssss, the Rikki Barnes stuff is ridic overwhelming (which is why I'm not very far, because, uh, SO MUCH TO READ) but it's good. I totally understand the feeling, as when I say I'm a recent Marvel convert I mean like... two weeks. So I'm BRAND NEW to all comics. But it's all good even if Xavier is a dickbag who gives me a lot of feelings.

[magistrate]

HELLO WILD JAQUI.

...and then I tried to work out something substantive to say. For, er, a while.

[storyinmypocket]

I have that problem, too.

♥?

[magistrate]

♥.

I don't know if you're interested in more psychological motivation-type stuff, but for a while I found Luc Reid's posts and the stuff on Zen Habits really helpful! ...though it's possible that it was just the old stuff; I stopped reading them a while ago because it seemed like the newer posts were no longer so relevant. But they can be fun archives to browse through. (Luc Reid's posts on mental schemas and emotional antidotes were especially helpful for a very long time.)

I've been on a minimalism kick recently. And while I'm not really living a minimalist life, I have cut down the stuff I own/need a ton over the past coupla years, with the result that, now that I'm living in the cleared-out half of a friend's storage room, I find I'm actually quite happy with my one suitcase and my desk fulla stuff and just enough room for the desk beside the air mattress.

That was substantive! Ish!

...I should probably look into a fitnessy thing, but for whatever reason, tracking those things tends to make me twitchy. >_> Chores, too; I tried ChoreWars for a while, but then I dropped out of it right quick after maybe a week. I think the only tracker-type thing I use with any regularity is Mint, and that's because it tracks everything for you, and as far as I know, technology's not good enough to register all your exercise for you yet.

Though I do really like the idea of Zombies, Run! And... that other app that was similar but which I can't remember the name of. (If only one didn't need an iPhone to use them. And if only I could keep up with a running program for more than... no time.)

[storyinmypocket]

I may have to check their archives out again; Zen Habits is still sitting in my feed reader, but I've largely lost interest. Of course, it doesn't help that minimalism is so not my thing. Been there, done that, doesn't match my overflowing bookshelf for happy-making.

Also, I googled Chore Wars, and it looks exactly like the sort of thing that would be awesome for me, if I lived in a household where that was a thing.

Zombies, Run! is awesome, though. I bought a copy when it came out on Android (they're working on a Windows Phone version, too), and while in my case, it's more like, Zombies, Stagger Quickly!, it's still a lot of fun and actually has me going out and walking, so... yeah. You still need a smartphone of some variety, but at least they're releasing it on more platforms.

[finch]

YAY HI YOU'RE AROUND

I made a fitocracy account! I've tried something similar but I hate ones where I have to track my food, it makes me super self-conscious about eating and I start cheating almost immediately.

I made a chains account too.

We'll see how I keep up with them, but. XD

[storyinmypocket]

Yeah, I avoid sites with food tracking on principle. I always feel like they're judging me, and I've got enough food-related neuroses as it is.

Really, I've found the best way to make myself eat healthy is to allow myself to eat whatever the hell I want, and sneak the healthy shit in subtly, in addition to cheeseburgers and cake and WTFever. Because inevitably, my body will go, "Hey! This healthy stuff is pretty awesome, and it makes us feel better! More of that!" and then I'll start having major salad cravings, and bugging my uncle to bring me home baby carrots and whole grains and the like. And then I just naturally start cutting down on the junk food without actually trying.

But then, this only seems to work when I'm in a place of food security. If I start restricting my diet, my body rebels because it thinks I'm returning to the days of only being able to afford one meal a day, if that, and then it starts clamoring for cheeseburgers and pizza and ice cream, because obviously I am starving and therefore I need ALL THE CALORIES. So, for me, the food logs are actually counterproductive, because I just end up getting more neurotic about food and not giving my body what it's asking for until I snap and eat an entire pizza. And then lie about it in my food diary.

Helloooo~!

[wendolen]

So my mom died in 2009 and after writing a post to let people know what was up, my appetite for LJ and its clones was GONE, but I and several friends have been getting pretty disenchanted with FB and G+ and they came back here, so I am poking around again. tumblr is seriously where it's at these days. Anyway, hi!

[storyinmypocket]

Yeah, most of my online posting happens on Tumblr these days. I keep meaning to be more active elsewhere, and yet I never seem to get around to it. :/ It's good to hear from you again, though!