Word count: 104436 | Since last entry: 1003

Today kind of vanished, starting with yoga class and continuing with a variety of small tasks that had me waiting around for someone else to show up. For the whole middle of the day I don’t think I had more than 45 minutes at a stretch of continuous, focused time. But I got some bills paid, handed off some decluttered stuff to be auctioned for the Sue Petrey Fund, and met with a guy about moving the OryCon and OSFCI websites to a cheaper, better hosting company.

This was my second yoga class ever (the first was last week). Kate’s been going for a while and asked me to join her this term. I’m finding the poses much less difficult than I’d expected, though after the first class I was surprised how sore I was the next day. I’m not seeing a lot of benefits so far, but I forsee that it will help my core strength, stability, flexibility, balance, and posture, and possibly also calmness.

In college I took calculus 101 and physics 101 at the same time, and each one helped me to understand some aspects of the other (calc gave me a better understanding of the math I needed in physics, and physics showed me how calc was useful). Yoga and training at the gym are similarly complementary, both being about improving the body and learning to use it better, but having different focuses. I’m also seeing that yoga, weightlifting, meditation, tantra, and Body Electric are closely related — nearby points in a multi-dimensional space, each having some aspects of the others. One thing they all have in common is concentrating on how to breathe.

Yesterday, I see I failed to mention, I spent a good chunk of the day clearing out the large quantities of stuff that had accumulated on the floor on my side of the bed and atop my bedside table. This was one of my Yuletide presents to Kate: a pledge to clear the mantelpiece and my bedside by January 15. Deadlines are useful things.

I filled a bag of paper to recycle and a box of books to be sold, generated a foot-tall stack of reusable paper for the printer (good, we’d been running low), added a dozen books to the to-be-read shelf (which is no longer on the mantel, but upstairs), and made the pile of fanzines to read in the bathroom nine inches taller (that’s a problem for another day). I also dusted and vacuumed the place where all that stuff had been. I am pleased.

One of Kate’s Yuletide presents to me was the Lord of the Rings extended edition DVD box set. We’re about halfway through. A fine, fine set of films, though I’m finding that some of the added material is a little draggy (the hobbits sitting around reminiscing about Gandalf right after his death in the mines at Moria comes to mind). Most of the added material, though, is an improvement, and I’m glad I’m finally getting to see the films as the director intended they be seen.

We also saw The Bucket List in the theatre. Save your money.

Another thing I see I failed to mention is that I passed the 100,000 word mark on my novel. Yay me. I anticipate around 120,000 words for the first draft, just like the last one. I am currently working on the last chapter but one. All of the secrets are out in the open now (well, except for one thing that a character’s been hiding from herself and won’t come out until the denouement), and all that’s left now is the climactic, physics-defying battle. It’s going to be fun.

To bed at a fairly reasonable hour, for once!