Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

Well, I’d say at this point I’ve shot my 2010 365-day blogging challenge all to hell. Bugger.

Moving on.

Isis is still kickin’ it, as opposed to having kicked the bucket, as of right now. Her abdomen appears to be swelling, but it’s not in her chest like last time so I’m not sure if maybe that’s from getting fat on all the delicious food she’s been prissily scarfing 10 times a day. And a few hours ago I caught her licking the top of the litter in her litter box. Yeah. Licking. G.R.O.S.S. Also, why the fuck is she tonguing her litter box like it’s a salt lick? It’s about time to check in with the vet.

Sorry for leaving some you hanging in regards to Isis. I received a couple hesitant emails from friends not sure if I stopped blogging because of mourning the loss of my dear (litter-licking) kitty. That is not the case.

I have been spending my time in the trenches of college finals and/or epically procrastinating for said finals despite a heavyweight guilt pressing menacingly on my shoulders and general brain area. This is my fourth semester in a row of college 2.0, and oh yeah! I remember now why I was so ready to be done with college the first time around.

But it’s going well. In a couple of weeks, if I pass my damn 3D modeling and animation class, I’ll have a shiny associate’s degree in “Digital Communication Technology” (aka Teh Internet) . My current plan is to stick around for the remaining 6 classes it will take to earn a second bachelor’s degree, this time in “Digital Media — Internet Technologies” (aka Teh Internet, with Moar Fancy!).

Then I will be able to append “B.A., A.S., B.S.” to my name. That’s WAY more letters than my less educated immediate family members have! Too bad for them they can only put three letters (Ph.D. or D.D.S.) after their names. Okay, maybe five if you include the B.S. they each have. That’s the only concession I’m giving. Right now I feel like I need to win at something.

Hello, my name is Yvette. It’s been 7 days since my last blog post.

If you see someone drowning, lol

It’s been a really long week. And a long few weeks of very little sleep.

I’m the type of person who functions best on around eight hours of sleep. Sleeping less than seven hours a night on a regular basis is something that I have not historically been able to do—usually I have to “catch up” with a night or two of 8-10 hours of sleep every couple days or my body forces me to pass out on the couch or floor or wherever I land. Having a regular sleep schedule can prove difficult because, though I am capable of getting up early to go to work or school or other functions, I am a night owl. My motivation and creativity just kick into gear as midnight approaches—even if I’ve been sleepy in the early evening and especially if I know I have to get up in the morning.

The last few weeks, though, I have surprised myself. I’ve been very busy in seemingly every possible area of my life and have been functioning (with the help of coffee and my natural adrenaline) on about 20 fewer hours of sleep a week. Going to bed very late and getting up at regular hour because I have to in order to keep up with everything.

Of course it’s not sustainable, but still. It’s just not something I expected that I would ever be able to do. Blogging every day has contributed to fewer sleeping hours, but I don’t mind. It’s been worth it to me.

On the agenda for this weekend is sleeping in to give this new cycle a break and knocking out more items on my to-do list. It’s not going to slow down for at least another month. The good news is that I’m better prepared to handle it than I was even a few months ago.

Well, this is officially the first day that technical difficulties have prevented me from fulfilling my daily blogging goal. I’m writing this in a text editor because I cannot reach my website… which is less than awesome. And guess what other site isn’t working, which makes this whole scenario completely and utterly UNawesome? webhosting.yahoo.com, through which I am embarrassed to admit that I still have my hosting.

I know, I know. What more should I expect from Yahoo? I’ve unfortunately been a long-term customer since I created my website—not out of desire for crappy webhosting, but because it was the easy choice for me given my inexperience with webhosts at the time. Some things were easy when I started out, but mostly Yahoo has been a piece of crap service provider.

For some time now I’ve been intending to switch over to bluehost, with which I’ve had very good experience using for other sites. But it requires, like, effort and stuff, and I’m nervous about switching hosts because I fear that I will lose everything and/or my site will be hacked in the process and turn into a Twilight fan site. Quel horreur!

Right. I can’t reach webhosting.yahoo.com to register a complaint via email, telephone, fax, carrier pigeon, etc. I probably have a phone number at home, but I am not at home right now. And it’s too late for me to want to deal with that crap anyway.

I’m going to bed and will backdate this entry tomorrow to fulfill my daily blogging requirement. Because technically I am writing this on March 19. Grrr, stupid Yahoo. I’m quitting you for real this time! As soon as I can find the phone number I need to quit you.

I’ve been thinking about a comment on last week’s post, This damn 356 challenge. Alanna, my high school friend and a fellow writer, recently read an e-book about blogging wherein the author advised against forced daily blogging because it can lead to burnout.

Blogging burnout. Yep, I felt that a few weeks in.

But.

I’m not new to blogging. I like writing and sharing links and photos with my friends, fellow geeks, and The Internet At Large. I made a personal pledge to blog every day in 2010 to improve myself, not out of any external obligation. Burnout was expected—in fact, I’m starting to understand that my larger goal is learning how to deal with a viscous* trifecta of burnout, laziness, and imperfection. It’s about accepting that those ooze into many areas of my life and learning how to push harder to overcome instead of giving up or making excuses. As I said on January 1:

This one goal I have for 2010 doesn’t involve any specifics or require much in the way of perfection. It will be an exercise in follow-through for me that I think will be helpful. And maybe along the way I’ll attack some of my other non-official goals.

And I think it has been helpful. I sleep better at night knowing that, though my basket of unmet goals still overfloweth, I have accomplished one and moved 1/365 closer to accomplishing a bigger one**. And that one night a couple weeks ago when I was exhausted and didn’t blog? I still thought about blogging before making the conscious decision to go to sleep instead. It was a wise decision at the time and I don’t regret it. It was a lesson learned.

Now, when my eyes would rather close than stare at a blank WordPress Add New Post page, and all I can think of to write is something lame, I write it. Sometimes it stays that way, but mostly I’m finding that it inspires something more. Something I didn’t know I wanted to write until I was writing it. Something that I like and I’m proud to have written.

And that makes the burnout worth it.

*Yes, I meant to write “viscous,” as in thick and oozy goo. I accidentally re-read it as “vicious,” which would actually also work. So. Reader’s choice on that one, m’kay?

**Thank you for sticking with my tortured 365 Challenge posts. I’ll try to keep them at a minimum from here on out.

It’s nearing the end of February, and I feel like the number of times I nearly forget to blog is increasing. I’m usually brushing my teeth or washing my face, perhaps recounting my day and creating a loose mental picture of the next day, and I suddenly remember: damn personal blog goal.

Sure, I could just quit. Missing one day in almost two months is still impressive to me, the Judger of Goals. I have formed the habit of remembering my blog. I have formed the habit of posting something on my blog even if it’s just a slightly embellished tweet.

But I still have not reached the point where I am truly blogging every day, in my opinion. Where I write something thoughtful and do more than hurry to post something so that I can just go to bed already. I feel like I’m about 50/50 on thoughtful vs. hurried. I would like that to be better. In order to improve that, I really need to begin blogging earlier in the day when I start having viable blog ideas rather than putting it off until I’m tired and ready for bed.

There may be everyday stories, but I’ve struggled to find a bloggable story every day.

I’ve been disappointed with the number of “cop-out posts” I’ve used in order to fulfill my 365 challenge. I suppose that I was hoping for something somewhat meaningful, or at least mildly amusing, to come out of my brain every day. Friday night I started to write an entry but got tired and disinterested in what I was writing. Finally, after 2am, I shared a link in a post that was not much longer than a tweet. I forgot to pre-date it to Friday at 11:59pm, per my “I’m still awake so it still counts for the previous day” guideline*.

Instead of fixing it on Saturday, I simply didn’t blog at all. I slept in and kept myself busy all day—either subconsciously procrastinating or just plain not thinking about my blog. Then, well after midnight and after my computer was shut down, I remembered my blog while I was brushing my teeth with my eyes closed. Screw it, I thought. I just want to go to bed. And I did.

So, there it was. My first missed blogging day of the year. I’ve wrestled all day with what to do. Fix the dates and pretend it never happened? Post another boring entry about this challenge and whine about my failure? Delete the entire blog and change my name and move to Costa Rica?

Eh, as tempting as Costa Rica sounded… here I am, blog and name intact. No dates have been changed to save face. And hopefully I’m not whining.

I blogged for 43 days straight and I’m proud of myself for that. Rather than throw in the towel (I always have a towel with me, don’t you?) at this point as I normally would (and have), I’m picking myself back up and gunning for the next 321 days. I still have a chance of 99.7% success for my 365 challenge. Go optimism!

*which I’m totally invoking for this post

It’s day 35. I’ve definitely solidified a blogging habit, even if sometimes I groan as midnight approaches because I don’t feel like I have anything interesting to say.

(That’s when I pull up my “to blog about” bookmarks folder that I built up while not blogging this past fall. It’s helped me with content and/or inspiration.)

There are two important things about this newly formed blogging habit o’ mine:

1. I am writing something every day for myself and for public consumption (and possibly entertainment, on a good day).
2. I have set a goal for myself and am dedicated to achieving it.

Kind of obvious, right? Even though I’m only 9.5% through the challenge, I’ve already accomplished something that I’ve never accomplished before—blogging every day for a month. It’s been awkward, fun, and straining at times. But I’m sending a message to myself that says, Hey! You’re doing it! and Hey! You can probably do all those other things that seem too hard or like too much work if you set your mind to it.

Not exactly earth-shattering revelations, I know. But accomplishing this minor one-month goal has rewarded me with confidence, which has in turn rewarded me with motivation in general. I guess I just needed to find the right challenge.

Maybe that’s why it’s called a personal challenge. Durrrrr.

Just dragged myself out of bed to post a quick entry. I actually met my goal and blogged every day in January, so I’m not too keen on slipping up my 365-day challenge now!

I started composing one in my head earlier, but it’s been a busy day and I’ve had a pinched nerve (probably caused by a knot on my left shoulder/neck) and been really tired. I made BBQ chicken salad based on this recipe for dinner tonight, except with olives and served over spinach. Tasty! Then Ben and I watched the movie 9 and he rubbed my neck until I cried out in pain and then fell asleep on the couch.  I’m a very exciting person!

Hey there! So, um. This is my twelfth straight day of blogging. It’s like reverse quitting smoking. (In a way, if you look at it with your eyes crossed.)

Except for this little detail: I am straining right now when it comes to a topic that will be A) interesting to you and B) something I feel like writing about today. I started a different blog post earlier, but I don’t feel like finishing it right now, and I’ve been tired all day and my eyes are dry again, blah blah blah.

Oh! Speaking of dry eyes. And breathing, but sort of not really. When I went out to my car this morning, that’s how I felt. I briefly wondered if maybe I was starting to get sick? There wasn’t any pain in my lungs. It’s just that the air was sort of… chunky? Heavy? A big lightbulb went off in my head when I turned the car on and the local NPR radio personality’s first word to me was “Provo, Utah, blah blah, worst air quality in the nation at a level of 140 followed by Salt Lake City at 122, with L.A. being at 51.”

I don’t know if those numbers are exactly right, but that was not surprising. I’m guessing that those numbers are just for a certain time period, like a day or week or something, because I can’t imagine Provo being more polluted than L.A. all the time. We have this thing the locals call an inversion, which means that because our valley is completely surrounded by mountains, when we have overcast skies and low-hanging clouds it’s basically like a domed arena and all the pollution is trapped inside. And there is a finite amount of beer.

Yeah, icky.

Well, I better publish this before my time is up. Hopefully there will be more quality in tomorrow’s post.