How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

From the time I got back from Baltimore to now, I gained a total of 14 pounds of weight. Partly because I no longer need to walk everywhere, and partly because Mom feeds me full meal courses 3 times per day. Whether I exercise or not mostly affects my stamina, not my weight or blubber size.

… it’s 4pm and I’m already hungry. I think weight loss key is the evenings and whether I can stick to yogurt and fruits only. D:

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I’m trying to live on 24 hours a day, and face the fact that there are only 24 hours a day. I travel to work, travel back, try to put at least 7 hours per week into that oh-so-belated gift painting, try to read something that feed my intellect, and go to my night classes and attend to their respective homework. I also need to prepare for grad school application.

I am trying to live on 24 hours a day… . How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennet.

The book actually coincide often with what I learned in Dale Carnegie courses as well as his books. This is kind of like taking a double shot.

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No more minding the office drama and politics, I’m not high enough on the pyramid to worry about that.

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The famous Italian painter Masaccio is actually a nickname that we know him by. His real name was Tommaso Cassai. Tommaso got shortened to masa, and ccio is some kind of derogatory suffix. So Masaccio roughly translates to “Ugly Tom” or something to that effect. But because it’s Italian, the rest of the world never knew. If an English painter is (nick)named Squirt, I bet he’ll never get famous no matter how talented he is.

Crazy Day @ Work…

Today was crazy at work – it was non-stop and overlapping. Kind of
like back in B&N, except the consequences of mistakes here are not as
damaging or coverable as in B&N. It didn’t help that the fly went to
take a break outside and got me to do its cleanup work, even if it was
towards the end of the day. On the bright side, neither the queen or
the duke are here, just the general, and the general is in good mood.

On another bright side, I just learned how to identify a lip pencil
from a eye pencil from a eyelash pencil. I also learned there are more
than 6 different powders that goes on a woman’s face, but they all
look very much the same. And I also learned the rectangular flat
little container is call a “compact”, and the quarter-size round
container is – despite its flatness and minute size – still called a
“jar”.

One of the sample cosmetic product I was sorting also looked just like
peanut butter.

At least we had clients visiting today, and that means free sandwiches
and soda for us.

I’m going to update this blog.

Since I haven’t time to read anything more than magazines and web comics, I’ll be writing about work. It’s right in mid town, where Penn Station is, and I didn’t realize how much stuff is right around me. Each week I keep discovering cool places within walking distance of my work – Monster Sushi, Borders, Home Depot, Whole Foods, lgbt-clinic… and today I just found out there’s a Kremer Pigments 1 block from work. Wow! I swung by and checked it out. They have lapis pigment, 5 grams for $60. I really want to see what lapis paint would look like, but I’m not ready to pay the price yet. Pure lapis is supposed to be very beautiful as oil paint.

Kremer Pigments is a store that sells the raw pigment that goes into different types of paints, and I first learned about it during a color Asian painting class in college. We ordered from that store as a class, and mixed our own color pastes to paint colored ink paintings. Since the pigments are untreated, they’re much more toxic than their ready-mixed versions, if they’re the toxic type, like the cadmium series.  We were  warned severely against mixing those with bare fingers, and to wash hands asap and as thoroughly as possible if soiled hands with those. But I didn’t really follow through all that well… . That aside, the raw pigments are so vibrant in color they seem out of this world. Living so long in gray and drab cities, seeing soot, smug, and rags anywhere, it’s strange to see those radiantly rich colors as being real and natural. So rich were those colors I felt an urge to grab and eat them. Of course that’d send me to the morgue within hours… Color porn?

Exposé 6

<—(click me for full view)

That’s the cover for the newest Exposé 6 book, which looks mighty awesome and deadly alluring IMO.

I have never owned any of the Exposé books, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to flip through one either. My illustration professor might have brought one in to class to show-n-tell once, but I don’t recall him passing it around, if he did brought one in. In fact if that in my memory was what he brought in, he didn’t seem to have let it leave his hands. It was this Wednesday when I bought the August issue of ImagineFX, which has an article on Exposé 6, that I learned of this series. Its preview thumbnails in print and on their website are enough to make me drool, but I’ll have to sneak in some extra hours at work to match its cost. It would be great if I can first look at a physical copy somewhere before buying it, which probably will only solidify if not rocket-propel my desire to buy the book. Looking at the available images from this book stirs something in me and makes me restless, twitchy, and want to run out to make some art right away.

If I ever buy this book…..

Oblivion is still the addition

Yes it is… I just bought it last year, and then finally bought a new computer that’s capable of handling it this year. Something to say about the Dark Brotherhood underling’s loyalty to the player is when I got transported to Fort Grief via 1-person boat. The underling couldn’t transfer with me, and I couldn’t fast travel anywhere. Although I can still cheat with the Akatosh patch and fly away, I decided to swim back to Bravil to find the underling. Halfway to Bravil, with life detect amulet on, I thought I saw a Slaughter fish but it turned out to be my underling swimming towards Fort Grief, where I was at… I’d've promote that underling if I could.

Hunter-Gatheror notes

This new job I work at is no closer than the other ones. Less walking, though, mostly clear-cut responsibilities, and okay environment. Pay’s not that much better, just slightly. Work hours is now regulated 9-whenever-job’s-done. Same 3 hr round commute, and roughly 9 hr workday. With my low endurance, almost never I get any extra activity done – I can’t wake up early enough in the morning, nor can I gather enough energy after work+dinner to do much other than minute chores. It’s a tough game of hunt, gather, and distribute of time. And so far, it’s *still* a struggle. My game addiction doesn’t help in this case, as eats up a good 1.5 hr each night.

In this office, I have the luck of having an old friend already working here, which made an interesting story of how I got in. She showed me around what to do, who to watch out for, who to ask help from, etc. It’s interesting to learn office politics with a sempai (sort of, though she’s actually a month younger), because people relationship is my short-coming. If left alone to it, I’ll never see half of what’s what, because I’m that slow. A lot of the times, it’s not enough to mean well and be nice. It’s important to really learn how to “speak the other person’s language”, figuratively speaking, even if that means putting on 5 different acts in one office.

On a totally different note, I actually got certified as a bartender. Although, 3 absolutely practiceless weeks after the exam, I’ve forgotten half of the recipes I learned already… .

Discipline

It isn’t working that I’m trying to do work at home for extended period of time such as 3 hours unless it’s video games. I have to physically schedule down a certain period on certain days in my planner, and to put my feet down when Mom comes over with other plans. Such as weed-wilting, sofa-fixing, laundrying, etc. When am I going to gain the better at controlling myself?

I also need to control my gamer demon… discipline!

Coffee Pee

Today I drank too much coffee in the office and pee smelled like coffee…..

Ran into an old acquaintance from high school today at the bus stop by accident. We were friends during junior high but went apart after that. Time to pick up again.

Bartender Certification Exam

Last Thursday I went to the last session of Columbia University’s summer speed course in Mixology (bar tending), also known as final exam session.  There was a written part and a practical part. The written part was kind of longer than I expected it to be, but I managed to answer most of it. I studied but a few recipes still eluded me completely, such as the margarita. The practical was on volunteer basis, and went on simultaneously as the written part. I needed to talk and tell at least 1 joke while making the drink the judges ordered. When time came for mine, I was so lucky that James only ordered a Cape Codder. Had he order the Long Island Ice Tea, I’d probably make a poison potion instead. Cape Codder was basically vodka and cranberry juice with a stick and lime garnish. Thankfully I remembered the garnish. Relieved, I was able to tell my joke while making the drink. I hope I pass and get my certificate, although chances are I’m not going to work as a bartender any time soon.

Shakespeare in the Park – Hamlet

Last weekend, on Sunday actually, a friend and I went crazy and got up at 430a to go to Central Park for the annual Shakespeare in the Park event. This year they played Hamlet, the modern version, with helicoper and pistols and cocktail parties. No castles or robes or torches. We spent the entire morning sitting on line for the free ticket until 130p, then tried to stay awake until the actual show time at 8p with food, museum visit, and coffees. By evening another friend whom I was getting ticket for joined us, and we ate dinner with parts of our brains. I shot some espresso right before show time and managed to stay coherent throughout the show to take everything in AND think about/enjoy it. Hamlet was much longer than last year’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. By the time we got out of the play it was past midnight. By the time I got home, it was nearly 2am, just 5 hours before I had to wake up and go to work again. It has been an exhausting week, especially since I caught the period the day right after. I spent most of last week recuperating, only to discharge again this following weekend at Pride. But that’s another story.

The modern version of Hamlet threw me off somewhat. Despite that, the play was still quite enjoyable for me. I do hope, however, that when Romeo and Juliet rolls around it won’t be modernized as well.