My life's Adventure

Happy New Year.

Happy New year everyone. My wife and I spent a quiet evening at home this year.

Helping a leader consumer of depression treatment tonight

My neighbour M needed a computer. Her main problem tonight was her fax machine was answering her calls rather than her phone answering machine. She paid me 20$ to fix her fax machine and I loaned her a laptop computer to use. I set it up for her to use Windows XP. She will consider buying this from me. We gossiped a little local consumer survivor organization gossip. She is a leader of a consumer group of consumers who may have depression.

I really relaxed yesterday and did not go out all day. I am buying a scooter after all.

I usually end up going out shopping on weekends but today shopped from home. I did not buy more electronics and instead thought of something else to shop for. I investigated purchasing a scooter and was approved for the manufacturer's financing. I did this credit application over the phone with a scooter dealer. I have been offered a parking space in the building and went to the basement to have a look today at the parking spot. I let my family know I am planning on doing this and my partner approves of it. I also read more about the model of scooter I am interested in buying. Then I read the drivers hand book from the licensing ministry. I will need to apply for a basic license then get a more advanced license in a year. This will also license me to drive cars. This will be my first photo license. I have only ever been licensed in the past to drive as a learner or to drive a moped. The scooter I am thinking of buying will allow me to drive on most roads but not highways as the scooter is not fast enough for highways. I won't be driving this until the spring. I will have loan payments to make for this purchase.

R, J and C came over tonight. We watched a Dilbert episode then talked mental health care issues.

I was explaining how we don't need ESP or mind control to exist because if we want to know someone's thoughts the best thing to do is to simply ask that person what they are thinking. C shows signs of great intelligence. She knows for instance that the human condition is never stress free. C told us some of her lifes story tonight about how she was hospitalized by a workplace nurse. J has also told me he was hospitalized from his workplace in the cartoon industry.

J argued his anti-med diatribe all night unless he was talking about robots or conspiracies like Sadam not really being dead. But C and J talk well together. They seem a solid couple these days supporting each other. I told C the best way to manage her depression would be to read about medicine. I gave her a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I bought R a DVD burner for his computer and now must install it for him next weekend. R took home some more of the encyclopedia volumes tonight. He also took a Rand McNally atlas I gave him. He is writing a job test this coming week.

I usually have everyone leave at 11:00 PM. We almost never drink at these gatherings. Certainly I never drink and occassionally R has 1 or 2 beers. C and J are also non-drinkers. C said she would never talk with strangers about her problems and only talks to us about it because we have similar experiences. This is a principle of self help: bonding by similar situations. It is one of the principles behind peer to peer support.

R needs help with computer drivers today and C and J are coming by tonight.

R called and needs some help installing Windows 2000 drivers for his CD burner. I offered to drop by today and help him. C also called and she and J will drop by tonight to watch TV or play role playing games. Speaking of TV I relaxed last night and watched an episode of Stargate. I have the first three seasons of Stargate on DVD and am almost half way through watching the second season now. R is watching with K his neighbour my first season disks and they are also about half way through the first season.

Another friend who does not have schizophrenia but did recenty quit smoking is taking the old broken futon frame for the wood. He is carpenter and also works in a shop as a manager. I borrow tools from him from time to time and he built me some shelves once. He also helps me drive home wood and other large items from stores. He is a native Canadian and related to some famous historical natives.

I took my morning dose of vitamins and have some studying to do now.

I took my 1 gram of vitamin C and 1 gram of nicain about an hour ago. I also took some fish oil. I am just about the hit the books and study.

The desk is set up and in place.

I did get off work early today. I came home and built the desk. I placed it in the only real position on the wall I could clear out. The floor of the office is a sea of paper and books and other stuff. I have been listening to old seventies music in the living room; taking breaks from the office clean up. The futon has been stored in the bedroom. The frame of the futon is actually broken and missing a rod of metal. The frame is ready to throw out. My friend did not really need the old shelves so these old shelves are going to my mother's place in the country.

I have been reading economics textbooks.

I am taking an economics course this winter term. This is interesting reading. This is new economics and is slamming the old classical economics. In fact, it is about John Nash's theories in games that I am studying.

I slept on the couch and am now up for work.

I did take the desk out of its box but did not build it yet. I have two empty cardboard boxes ready for recycling. Instead of staying up all night I napped on the couch in the living room. I woke up at 5:45 AM. I am now dressed for work in jeans. I am ready to go to work early again today. I took some vitamins this morning. I checked email. I will head off to work this morning in about half an hour. I should shave and eat a bowl of cereal.

I am relaxing after building one of the shelves

I was able to take down one end of the old shelves and get enough room to put up one of the new shelves. I also made space on the floor to build it. Thus I can clean my office when I want to just not when others want me to clean. The trick now will be to throw out the old futon that was acting as my office couch. The new shelves are up at least one of the shelves is up and it has five shelves. My magazine boxes have gone back on these new shelves. I also was able to wire my rear left speaker from my old surrround sound system into the shelves and place it on a shelf. My office is presently full of a pile of stuff as the old futon and its frame are just piled in the middle of the room. I can't really use my eMac comfortably and I am posting this from my laptop in the living room.

I did not sleep on time tonight for tomorrow's work. But we may be let go early tomorrow as that is what our senior manager told me yesterday. So I stayed up so I could get this first set of shelves built. I will nap tomorrow if I am let off work early and then wake up for 4:00 for some volunteering. I have four shelve units in all to build I also have a new computer desk that was also on sale and I may build that overnight but I am thinking that that might cause me to have an accident, so I am just relaxing now and will hit the books and study overnight. I will also lie down a little but not sleep.

In fact, as I waited while proof reading the above I got the computer desk box out and am getting ready to build it. I just have space for it cleared out where the futon was. Unlike all the other Ikea furniture I have built in the past two years this is not all made of wood but instead is a metal frame and the only wood besides a shelf is the top of the desk. And in fact the desk top and the shelf may be particle board.

I continued to clear off the old shelves after work today.

I continued to take stuff off the old shelves. I came across a real music library on the shelf. That is a library of written music. Most of this is my own music and some of my wife's. I put this music collection on the dinning room shelves where my music books are. I also began taking the shelves apart. I am taking a break now. I was moving the encyclopedia's off the bottom shelf and called R to ask him if he wanted the encyclopedias. He said he would take them. He came over and took about five volumes home with him. He lives a short fifteen minute walk from here. I ate dinner and did work a full eight hour day today.

The furniture arrived and I did as planned.

It is good to have plans and schedule work. The furniture arrived and I did as planned and only built my wife's TV table so far. The rest can wait until the weekend.

I took my meds about an hour ago now. My wife is just finishing preparing supper. I made brocolli and she made salad, tofu and rice. We have already eaten the salad. The tofu is ready now as is the rice and the brocolli should be ready too. I will sleep at 8:00 PM tonight.

My morning plans did not work out the way I planned.

I got stuck this morning trying to get Entourage to import my Palm calendar which I did not succeed in doing. I did not do any web mastering or prepare a resume. I did shave. I did buy some cigarettes and drinks at the corner store before going to work. I also studied a lot. Like I said in the previous post I got into work 45 minutes early today.

I took off work early today to do some shopping.

I went into work about 45 minutes early today. I worked for most of the day and took off the last hour and a half. I was working on basic statistical work. I went downtown to do some needed shopping. Downtown shops aren't open all night and I also can't do much late night right now as I am tired and it is not even five yet. I bought niacin too. Now I am waiting for the furniture to be delivered. I just got off the phone with someone who will take my old shelves and my old Mexican office desk. It feels good to give this stuff away. This makes some better Karma with this friend because he has given my a lot over the 8 years I have known him. We don't hang out so much anymore. We used to play role playing games every week.

I am up early for a day of work.

I got up at 1:00 AM this morning. I am working 8 may be 9 hours today. When I get home the furniture will be delivered. The room is not ready yet but I will delay building the furniture until Saturday. Today at work I am not sure what our tasks will be. I will go in an hour early to prepare some job promotions applications. This means I should work on a resume a little this morning before going to work. I also want to test Entourage to see if I can import my Palm schedule. I should also do a little web mastering work this morning. I just took some vitamins but have run out of niacin now. I should buy some after work if I only work to 4:00 PM today because the pharmacy will be open until 5:00 PM. The furniture will not be delivered until after 5:00 PM. I should also make a trip to the corner store before work this morning.

I just decided to give away the Encyclopedia Britannia to R.

I rarely look things up the encyclopedia Britannia these days so rather than keep these 27 large books I am going to give these away to R as a Christmas present.

I slept a few hours this morning and took my meds about half an hour ago.

I had planned on having a very long day earlier today but instead grew tired and lay down on one of the living room couches and slept. I only slept about 4 hours. I plan to sleep in the next few hours so took my meds.

I have now cleaned off two middle shelves with three bottom shelves left to go.

I cleaned off the next two shelves but merely put all the books and magazine boxes and paper piles in the bedroom. In between cleaning I worked on some other blogs and read some school textbooks. I now figure I must clean about a 10 foot by 10 foot area on the office floor to build the shelves. Today will be a long day and I will stay up to about 4:00 PM from 1:00 PM yesterday. Thus I hope to wake up at 2:00 or 4:00 am tomorrow I may infact only stay up till 2:00 PM today. Writing this sleep plan down here helps me figure it out.

I started to clean off the old shelves.

I have two old shelves to move out and give to a friend. Stored on these shelves presently are Christmas decorations, books about nature, books about computers, books about mathematicians and math history, political books and a set of encyclopedias from 1965. There are also a number of magazine boxes that hold magazines and my present filing system for important papers. There are a couple of functioning computer parts on the shelf too like my high speed modem and an external hard drive. All this must be moved off the shelves. Then these shelves will be taken apart and given away and the new shelves will be put in on this coming weekend.

I began tonight to move the stuff off. First I have moved off all the Christmas decorations and put them with light bulbs and Christmas lights above the fridge in a cupboard up there. I also tidied up this cupboard and took out an old astronomy camera project, and some shoe strings and a piece of rope. The piece of rope went into the tool cupboard. The shoe lace went into the front closet where shoe polish, and shoes go. So this kitchen cupboard got tidied up tonight.

I cleared off the top shelf of both shelves. I went through a pile of papers, and booklets that were collected from 1990-2000 from my consumer survivor career going back to my hospital goal setting group therapy right up to our self help group's newsletter from 2000. I put these all in a magazine box and took it off the top shelf and put this on the drafting table for now. It will go back on the new shelves. I also took off two other magazine boxes and did not read them or sort them and simply put them on the office floor. From the first pile I took out personal medical stuff including experiment sign up forms, old prescriptions and old notes I made for taking to psychiatrist appointments and put this all in a grocery bag. The consumer survivor stuff I have left in a magazine box, is old workshop papers, my suicide intervention course material, consumer newslettters and conference notes and hand outs, and many old government reports on mental health, general health, and addictions. I took out of this pile some info sheets on health and safety and just put these sheets on the floor for later filing. The magazine box I used for this used to hold old math society newslettters and these are just beside the consumer survivor box on the drafting table now. I will need to buy more magazine boxes for filing.

I am taking a break now to write this entry and then relax in the living room.

I cleaned up the living room carpet and my partner did all our holiday recycling.

I had put all the wrapping paper and flattened boxes in a green garbage bag last night. Today my partner took all this outside to be recycled. I also got inspired to start cleaning up for the new furniture so cleaned up paper forgotten on the living room floor. But I must completely clear the office out to put the new shelves in and the computer desk. I need to have this started today and tomorrow as I am working three days this week so will have no time to clean and build furniture until the weekend and Monday which is a day off work.

I bought shelves, a computer desk, a bedside table, and a TV table for my wife's TV

I bought new shelves for my office on sale at half price. I also bought a slightly on sale computer desk or work table. I also bought my wife a TV table that matches her CD, DVD, VHS and cassette shelf and matches her dresser. All these items were too heavy for the bus so they are being delivered Wednesday evening. I chose delivery by the store. I did manage to bring home by myself on the bus a bedside table that also matches all my wife's furniture but it is for my side of the bed. I built this bedside table yesterday and am about to go to sleep beside it this morning.

I did well with trying to buy my wife presents this year.

Last year's present of a foot bath was too complex for my partner. This year a simple blanket and a pair of warm suede slippers were better chosen. We opened all our presents on Christmas eve. I am a bit tired and am going to take my meds now. I did clean up most of the wrapping paper and boxes about an hour and half ago. I will post some more about shopping before sleeping today.

Year end medication and self help group recap.

I am inspired by some of the typical year end journalism to write this entry. I won't say much about our doctor because our doctor did not change this year but we did have to fight an attempted change of my wife's doctor and we won. So we both kept the same doctor and his hospital was renovated this year so he has a new office. We see him about every few months so we don't practice intensive doctor lead therapy ourselves.

My wife does use intensive social worker and psychiatric nurse therapies from her ACT team. They do not help me much as they are really my wife's team not mine. I merely chat with them about consumer run therapy and progress with that and my career when I talk with them. They recently pressured me to clean up the apartment. And that was the main event with the ACT team this year.

Now in terms of medications, neither my wife nor I changed any prescribed meds this year. So we are taking the same psychiatric medications at the end of the year we were taking at the beginning. My wife takes a couple of anti-psychotics, an anti-depressant, some side effect medications, and a thyroid pill. I take only the anti-psychotic risperadol. We both changed vitamins a little with me starting fish oil in the last few months of the year, and otherwise I continue to take 3 grams of niacin a day and 3 grams of vitamin C. My wife tried niacin at about 250 mg a night and then quit due to side effects and this was when she started her radical weight lose program of purging and has lost 100 pounds now. My wife has an active eating disorder.

Now on the self help front my wife continues to see L and use her for support and vis versa. Myself I went from president of a self help group back to recording secretary. I also continued in a paid capacity as a web master for a self help geographic network and landed a new job as a web publisher for a hospital and self-help group partnership project. I also tried to get a job as an executive of the network but did not get the job.

Thus ends our year in psychiatry.

Reading real books and doing virtual scholarship. I am in recovery this morning.

I started some studying for the winter term this morning. The course textbook reviewed my fall term course so I felt good. I looked up something at wikipedia and then edited a page there related to psychiatry. It was good school writing practice. I then read some more recovery literature after a few hours on-line. Speaking of on-line my Second Life creative work is going well. I am starting to cut costs on Second Life as I can not afford to keep up this Linden dollar spending. I am also making some solid contact in Second Life with other computer scientists who probably in this day and age don't consider themselves computer scientists. I also read about iPod and music scenes in a book this morning. I wrapped up a printer for my mother but I only wrapped it up for shipping safely not as a present. The present will be me mailing it to her rather than her having to come and pick it up. Driving is getting difficult for her. I had some help yesterday from a fellow consumer picking up a packge of Christmas cooking my mom sent us. This same consumer is open to driving me to buy shelves today and she owes me a little money for that iBook still. But right now I am happy that I have hung out with two other dual diagnosed consumers this week. I may end up spending too much today and over the boxing day week but I will let whatever happens happen. I do have a budget now for my next pay cheque. I am peacfully reflecting on work this morning and happy I read some real books quietly overnight. I also did some successful plumbing and I have never been taught plumbing and this gives me a little boost to my male and engineering and man ego. Some of this new found handy man stuff is inspired from a feminist carpenter so it just goes to show eh? But this goes back to over spending and buying into lifestyles and images. I have so many different roles and image and they all prompt spending.

I finally set up the Christmas tree lights at the end of the solstice.

I set up the lights on the tree on Friday night. I note today was I think the last day of the Jewish holiday which I think ended on Friday's sunset. There are many presents now under the tree. I bought even more presents yesterday and may buy even more today. I may start to buy those offices shelves today and have a ride to the local Ikea to do that.

It is safe to tell you a little about my last day at work before the holidays too. Because this day at work on Friday was probably the same as many other worker's day at work yesterday. So you won't know where I work from this post. Basically we got to work in the morning and our team has been switched to the day shift this week. We were not given any work so we mingled around our cubicles and there were parties for workers kids all around the building. I actually did some work but was frowned upon for this. I stopped and got into the spirit. We were told we could go home after being there in the morning and I came home and did more Christmas preparations. I also found out I had been reassigned, as requested, so that I have time for school. This just put my employer up a few notches in the accomodations for education merit points. This means I have a good employer. So I will be on days this winter at work. I have four days off now and will be volunteering a little today and buying those shelves before sleeping at 2:00 PM this afternoon. The shelves are a replacement for some basic utility shelves and this is my mother's idea and I think will add more class to my office and give me more pride of place and home.

My recommended therapies

As always check with your own doctor before following medical advice. And I do believe that a multiple problem illness such as schizophrenia has a multiple array of solutions and thus you can see I agree with mainstream medical thinking in this general statement above.

Now for what I would recommend that works for me below but not for everyone I know with schizophrenia. I do have many coworkers, friends, and associates who take no medications for instance and they seem to do fine too. And many do not do well. And I am not really the judge of how well people are doing.

I would recommend vitamins, anti-psychotic medication, peer to peer support, family involvement, goal oriented therapy and above all education therapy. With education therapy this can start as reading pamphlets in a doctors office and become all comfortable levels of studies of psychiatry. Reading schizophrenia.com articles would be a great free place to start and continue this study. I probably don't do this enough. And rather than read advanced medical studies I think in some ways reading consumer oriented literature is better than being some sort of learning snob. Rather to leave some of the more advanced studies to the doctors who know how to filter this vast resource or body of knowledge called psychiatry. I had no idea or time to read about which medications were safe for my partner to take while she was with child but our psychiatrist knew this from research so we let him decide this issue.

I am not the next greatest medication chaser and have even delayed my switching to the modern anti psychotics until I was assessed as being affected with damaging side effects from the older stuff. Then I switched.

But as I said in the last post whatever professional or practical help works for whomever with whatever problem is good. Because, although the doctors and other treatment team members may have knowledge, we should also be able to take some control of our treatment. Thus we need to agree with the treatment on some level for the treatment to be effective. Otherwise we have revolving door syndrome, as we constantly fight the treatment and don't effect the treatment for ourselves and then get sick and treatment is again offered or forced on us. Giving up some ground in treatment and finding a middle ground is helped by learning about the condition, so that one can disgree with some aspects and agree with others. I think this has to do with the first steps in a 12 step program too which is generally known as the acceptance of the illness step(s). After we accept the illness we also have to accept some form of treatment before we can step forward.

I am ending the day with an hour long video conference with my dad.

Well 2001 the movie is now. I was able to video conference with my dad just now as the clock struck midnight. My dad just went to sleep in another city. I had been meaning to write more about Christmas and will do that in a post now after this.

I should mention that I always have involved my family in my treatment. I believe the solution to schizophenia involves the family. Some consumers have disagreed with this viewpoint but I don't hold this against them. I also over all feel that consumers are free to choose the treatment approach that works best for them.

I have been reading a little more about patriarchy.

I find reading feminist studies interesting. I find in fact a general level of sexism in our society and some consumers have no clue as too women's struggles. The mens group at our hospital had enlightened me to some of the double struggles women with schizophrenia face that male consumers do not face.

I made a turkey for friends but only R came by.

J and C were out at a free Christmas dinner and could not come by soon enough for our dinner Tuesday. R made it by and we ate well. We watched some old TV show pilot episode actually MacGyver. We also watched an Amnesty International video about standing up against violence against women.

I cooked the turkey and then over night made Turkey stock by boiling the carcass of the turkey and remaining meat with carrots and onions. I froze the results and will make some turkey and rice soups in the future with this prepared stock, meat, and veggie mix. Our good food box also arrived yesterday and I gave the volunteer a book for Christmas. It is actually a book with one of my own stories in it.

Am I messing up at work or not letting myself be exploited?

I took most of the day off yesterday. I stayed up all night on Tuesday and went into work early on Wednesday but was too tired to work effectively. I booked off sick and came home and slept. I slept from about 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and then took my meds and slept to about 4:00 AM this morning. I am now well rested and ready for a day at work. I think I am taking too much time off but then I feel I am entitled to this time off and as my boss says in her Christmas card I am always professional at work and an asset to our team. We will probably be given time off of work on Friday as it is the last working day before Christmas.

I did present my working studying hours plan to my boss and may be able to get an answer today. She pretty much knows that I am choosing school over work if it comes down to that. I did also manage to afford to pay for my university courses this morning including the books I need.

I did no studying in the last 24 hours.

I did not study in the last 24 hours. The only activities I did towards studying was think about my success and some time management. In terms of time management I figured my two classes would mean I would be away from work for 40 hours total for the month of January if I continue to work on the night shift and did not work when I had class. I made a plan where by I would work 6 extra hours a week. I would loose 9.5 hours a week to school. After this I would have 3.5 hours to make up. If I am working the night shift and studying at the same time for 4 weeks, it would total 14 hours lost work time. I could for this 14 hours use my time off that I am granted. Thus this could be possible and I will draw this up as a plan and submit it for consideration to my boss today.

This is probably just me not hearing my boss having already said no. But it is worth a shot.

I had a rough day at work today and bad news from work yesterday.

I was told yesterday that they can not let me work on the day shift and thus be able to attend evening courses. This means I might have to choose between work and school. Although I enjoy working enough and the money is important school will come first. I have one chance to ask another supervisor to take me on on the day shift. This would save my job.

This week is our first week on a temporary day shift. Yesterday was fine I woke up at 8:00 PM on Sunday and was up all morning and worked the full day. I then attended a self help group board meeting. We had a pot luck meeting and it ran late. Thus I did not get to sleep until about 9:00 PM and I set my alarm too early and did not wake up until half an hour before work started. I got into work fast enough but had no morning coffee. I felt like crap at work until after our two hour break when I bought a coffee and then worked until noon. We got off early for an office party.

I am dressed neatly and clean shaven for work.

I dressed in my new pin stripped pants after ironing the pants. I have a clean shirt on and a light sweater. I also have my union pin on. Today is our first day on the day shift. I am going into work in a few minutes. I did not mail presents yet and need to do that right after work in a rush but it is good that I do that today because I think the post office I can use today has better rates and does not over charge. We have never mailed so many packages before. Then after rushing off to mail packages at 4:00 after work I am rushing downtown to a meeting for our self help group. This might be my last volunteer meeting of the year. Well I must get off to work now.

I spent about ten hours so far today using the internet.

I slept at 12 noon Sunday, without taking my meds and only slept until 5:00 PM. I woke up and took my meds and tried to sleep some more but could not and was too excited. So I stayed up and then surfed the net. I spent about ten hours using the internet. I talked with my family using the internet. I also used community networking sites like blogs for schools etc.. In the end I came off the net and did some updating of contacts in my cell phone for my volunteering and also made some volunteering notes on the Palm cell phone. I just now am backing up my Macbook computer for another month. So after this new printer I bought on Saturday night, the next thing I need is more external hard drive space. I will wait until hard drives come on sale after Christmas.

I am preparing for next term in school this morning

I am just printing a course outline and checking out a textbook at the moment. I tried my new duplex printer on a few academic papers to start reading. I am still reading criminology. I used a popular blog provider to read some posts from our two universities and posted a few comments in the school blogs and also read my union comrades blogs. I should do some book reading now but first to search out the price of one textbook for the winter term.

I took off work a little early on Friday.

I was up all night Thursday so I could get more christmas shopping done. I went into work Friday afternoon and was very tired of course. So I booked off one hour early and came home and slept right away. I am working day shifts this coming week so am planning on being up early on Monday. To do this I will sleep about mid day today or early afternoon then wake up in the evening tonight or early Monday morning.

I wrote a promotions exam on Thursday but I don't think I did very well because I woke up only half an hour before the exam and was feeling very bad and groggy at the exam. But the exam writing did not take place in my work hours, but it occured before work on Thursday.

The exam I wrote last month did not pass me in the full statistican category so I have not yet found a better job at my work place. So generally my work exams are not going, as well as, my school exams. This makes me very excited about school and I even threatened to quit work if they don't help me study by making time for me to attend classes.

R, J and C came over last night and I demonstrated chatting on the internet to my guests.

R came over early and watched some sports on TV while I set up my new printer and got my old eMac ready for donation. We ordered some food and then my wife went to sleep. C and J had been out at a free theatre night and then came by here late. I then started chatting on the internet in a yahoo room and displayed the computer screen on the living room TV so they could watch. I explained chatting to them as I chatted.

We then talked about getting J a computer and then they left to catch a last bus.

R and I then worked to get R's accounts straight for his on-line shopping. As he did some of this work himself I finished wrapping up the kids presents in the printer box and must take this to the post office later this morning. I have two more families presents to get ready for the mail this morning.

Does 129$ spent on a printer justify two sided printing?

I did my usual weekend shopping. This time I bought my wife a favorite video collection and myself a printer that prints on both sides of the page also known as duplex printing. This money spent is justified as saving me much time and frustration with past double sided printing. I used to have print odd and even pages and manuallly reload the pages. This always caused errors and then reprinting would need to be done. This meant it took more time and used more paper in the end. The new printer also helps me save paper by double sided printing with ease and this thus stops climate change a little. I am just now printing this blog's entries for November as a hard copy back up. This printing of some 24 pages on 12 pages of paper was done before I did my first preview of this entry and I started printing just as I began typing this entry.

Long day yesterday to get shopping done.

I seem to be a night person. I stayed up Thursday night into Friday and then most of Friday I was up. I did some shopping for a Turkey for friends. I also did some more christmas shopping. I then had a bit of a rest and then went into work. I worked almost a full day but came home an hour early. I went straight to sleep and just woke up at about 11:00 AM this morning. I am not sure if I will make the turkey today or tomorrow. R is not available today but I need to see if C and J are free today.

Holiday mood is starting to develop

My partner went to an ACT team christmas supper. She ate food and sang christmas songs. My family are starting to talk more about presents and they have congradulated me on my good mark. This reminds me I need to surf the school web site a bit more for courses.

Shopping before work

I just picked up at the post office some toys and games I won on ebay and I will give the game away to kids in our family. It is a game my brother and I played in the 1970's and yet it is not the game I thought it was. I used to be very into games then. I am giving this game away. I also got some building toy I had as a kid and it will be perfect for role playing with miniatures, as it is a perfect scale for these little people.

I won't work extra hours today.

I was too busy paying rent and doing other shopping this morning to get to work early today. I am just taking about an hour now to prepare for work. Our project is winding down this week and I will be working day shift hours next week on a new project. This will actually be more of a challenge to wake up in the morning. I chatted with B on the bus just coming home from paying the rent. B also is a consumer survivor and he also applied and was offered a job at my work place but he did not take the job. After describing my work he said he regretted not taking the job.

I took my meds a few minutes before paying bills.

I did some reading after I got in from work yesterday. I read into the morning today. I read interesting and inspiring school texts.

I took my meds a few minutes before our pay cheque was in the bank. I just paid some bills and am now feeling tired.

I worked nine hours again including two and a half hours of union meeting attendance. I now need to earn back two of those hours as worked hours. I may be able to work an extra hour today to earn the time back.

I also have to pay some rent today. I would like to also pay some more for the amplifier. I did get behind on the electronic store repayment plan.

I am though bringing all my credit instruments down month over month. I do need to take some vitamins now and then sleep. Today is our last pay day until Christmas.

I did really well with my school course. I scored A+.

I know I am bragging and I shouldn't but am so happy. I have my first A+ mark ever. I scored A+ in my probability course which was a pre-conditional course to graduate school. In the past I felt insecure about essay writing until I had a word processor to use and could then write great essays. I also had insecurities about probability studies and had never really done great with probability courses even though I was great at doing the problems. So finally I have a mark that reflects my abilities in this subject area.

I am home from work exhusted.

I did work nine hours today. I just did the accounts and we are ok for awhile even with the new amplifier purchase but paying off the electronics store might get a little behind. Our rent should be paid this Wednesday and I will pay some more of the amplifier.

I am working an hour early today

I need to make up some time at work so am working an hour early today. I sent my resume from my home computer to my work computer and will have about 20 minutes before work to work on internal job applications before my work starts today at 2:00 PM. Tomorrow my workplace union will hold a christmas dinner meeting and I will attend but must also work extra hours to pay for this time that I spend at the union meeting.

On the weekend I spent six hours tutoring statistics for some young students at my old university. I was paid a little extra cash and enjoyed the tutoring.

My partner and I did our shopping for kid's presents

My partner and I met at the cities big mall after I attended the protest. We bought toys for our daughter and her sister. We then came home.

I felt terrible after the store manger said he was not interested in my bass.

Somehow I am not mad. If I were mad I would feel really terrible that the store that buys used instruments did not want to buy my bass and I would have continued to feel bad. But I am bouncing back from that already. I did put some money down on the guitar amplifier. I will now make my next woodworking project that making of a speaker cabinet for the amplifier. The store sells speakers. I now just need to find some plans for a cabinet. I am sure there are some plans on the internet and I am sure there are many consumer survivors who I will be able to talk to about plans for building a cabinet. The cabinet will have two 12 inch 80 watt speakers and they will be wired in parallel for a 4 ohm 80 watt cabinet. There is also a local cabinet maker I could pay to build what I want. The amp is covered in a green fabric and I could cover the cabinet in a green fabric too. I should have paid for the amplifier in three pay days or 4 weeks. This Wednesday is a pay day.

I am may be trading in my acoustic bass today. Hopefully for a small guitar amp.

I used to play my acoustic bass with a young women in a duo and we played some original tunes and a few covers. We played at a self group Christmas party and also a university bar. This was in the early days of the internet as I remember and I did not have graphic web access then. After one gig we went back to someone's place and they had graphic web access with netscape and that was the first time I saw the graphic web.

Today I am bringing my old acoustic bass on the bus to the music store to see if they will accept a trade in for a small guitar amplifier head. It is an 80 watt into 4 ohm amplifier head. I might build my own speaker cabinet for it. If I spend almost all my available cash and the store give me the credit for the bass that they said they might I can buy the amplifier and bring it home today.

I can close that past event in my life buy getting rid of this acoustic bass. I will then go to the Supreme court to protest for women's rights with amp in hand. The United Nations Convention on women's rights is 25 years old now.

I am just checking the bus schedule to get to the music store and take my bass past the school in one symbolic last presence of the bass on campus.

International Human Right day.

Our union is joining other unions on International Human Rights on the lawn of the Canadian Surpeme Court house to protest cut backs in funding for women's programs.

Yesterday I tutored a student in business statistics and today also in the evening tonight, I will tutor another student in the same course. Their professor my boss from the summer asked me to tutor these two students. It is a little extra cash.

Also yesterday we had a union meeting and it is our last meeting until the new year. I have a work place union meeting this Tuesday. This is a second union that covers my government job.

My course work and exam are done for another school term now the interesting reading can begin.

I wrote my final exam all right on Thursday. This was my first exam at the new university. I most likey passed the exam but how well I did is still up in the air. I probably have a decent mark. I now have to register for the winter term. My dad is helping me pay for the courses and I will pay him back some of the money. I can now read more of the interesting school books I am borrowing from the school's library

I have a lot of union and party politics email today.

The internet has helped me organize. I received a lot of union email today from two unions. Human Rights day December 10th is coming up soon and resolutions are being voted on. I also got green party email. I am working an early shift today 12 noon to 8:00 PM.

I had a rough night tossing and turning, instead of studying.

I was supposed to be studying all night but that didn't happen. Instead I was lying down and getting up all night long. I knew I could not sleep or I would sleep in and miss my exam but I was tired. I knew when the morning light and cold air hit me I would be awake and that is what is happening now. I am just prepared to go to my exam now. I think I took too many vitamins and did not eat enough food. Anyways I ate some black bean soup mix and am feeling ok now for my exam. I still have to work six hours after my exam and in between work and my exam there is a Christmas tree decoration party where I will get paid for web mastering.

The day ends quietly here.

My wife went to bed around 10:00 PM. I have been up listening to music and just watched some TV news, I also did the accounts by telephone banking. I am now hitting the books.

My plan to sleep almost back fired then worked well in my favour.

I had planned to be up some 30 hours then sleep at 2:00 PM today until about 4:00 AM tomorrow. Instead I fell asleep at about 5:00 AM today without taking my risperadol and slept until about 2:00 PM. I was up until about 4:00 PM when I took my risperadol and slept again for 4 hours and am up again now. So now I am up at 8:00 PM and ready to study over night. This gives me almost 12 hours awake before the exam to really retain the knowledge. I am also doing some good notes from last night and earlier today.

It is good to have a boss who is a clinical psychologist.

My boss in web mastering for the peer support project is a clinical psychologist. I arranged to meet him after my exam and get paid for the year end. I chatted briefly with him about my school progress and he said some supportive things today. This is helping me focus on school work over night this morning and feel good about it. It will be worth it to do well at school this term by concentrating now.

I did get off work a little early and have today off too.

I did work for most of my work day but came home an hour and half early. I have today off to study but my plan is to study this morning and sleep about 2 PM today and then be up early for my exam on Thursday. I have taken quite a bit of vitamins today.

Planning for the holidays, multiple families.

My wife and I need to plan holiday visits and it is not easy. I just got off the phone with my father-in-law and we did some planning for the holidays. Hopefully we can visit both of our mothers on the holidays although my mother usually does nothing special as she doesn't like all the work. But our mothers both live in the country and are not far from each other. We won't see our father-in-law until New Years. Also we will not visit my father and brother's family as they are hundreds of miles away. Also we do not visit our daughter on the holidays. Today I will focus on the christmas cards at work and see if I can come home early to study a bit. I am off to work now in the next ten minutes.

I am writing an exam this week.

I am preparing for my exam this week. I have some time off of work and might take some more time off if I have extra time. I managed to sleep early last night and just made it to class on time this morning. I will stay up now some 30 hours and sleep tomorrow at about noon or 2 PM Wednesday.

My partner made sheppards pie and I got stuff from the drug store this morning.

I went out to the pharmacy this morning and bought vitamins. Chewable vitamin C was on sale. We buy Jamison brand. I also bought niacin. They have new flavours of the C as well including grapefruit. There was a grapefruit juice interaction with meds scare a few years ago. The hospitals sent out information about that.

I also bought coffee which was on sale, and pop, also on sale, and toilet paper, again on sale. I also bought 16 christmas cards for coworkers to sign today. My idea is that everyone on the evening shift will sign 16 cards then we can give each worker one card with everyone having signed it with holiday wishes.

I got home and my partner had started cooking. I bought the remaining ingredients we needed yesterday after buying some new work pants and underwear. Then she gave the remaining instructions to me and she went out to buy beer and milk, more pop, and creamer for coffee. While she was out I finished the sheppards pie and put it in the oven. I then swept the kitchen floor.

I just finished a bowl of the pie which is vegetarian, of course. I now must bag my dirty laundry and get off to work. I am working two hours early today so I can leave two hours early tonight. I just got off the phone with my boss who gave me the ok for my change of work hours today. I also studied a little this morning. Well this will be last post until I get home from work tonight.

I went into work on the weekend and decorated my cubicle a little for Christmas.

I went into work for about half an hour on the weekend. I brought my diploma and some Christmas decorations and put them up in my cubicle. I also put up some posters with work related jokes that I made myself on my computer and printer. I actually copied them from some posters I saw at an internet poster and t shirt store. So I cheated with those. I also put a Budda sculpture on my desk inside my cubicle.

I hope to work two hours early today, so I can come in late Thursday after my exam. I would also like to leave work two hours early tonight so I can sleep early and make sure I wake up for tomorrow's exam preparation lecture. My exam is this Thursday morning at school. I need to study for the exam today. I did some reading so far this morning and some political thinking. I need to read about 50 pages today and practice some problems. I should have about 5 hours this morning to still study within.

At work I also did some studying for my work exam. I read more about procedures our office uses in its work.

C and J watched a film at J's place and only R came over tonight.

R came over tonight. I had told them I would run a cyberpunk game tonight. In fact, only R came over so I got out the cyberpunk role playing books and reviewed what adventures we had already played and stacked them neatly back on the shelf. I showed R the books and new miniatures I had bought on ebay. He brought over an extra set of dice that his mother had found in a barn. He donated them to the game and also donated 2$ for game supplies.

We watched the pilot episode of Stargate SG-1 and I loaned him the first season on DVD to watch on his own. He also borrowed an old western film to watch with his neighbour in their social housing project. His neighbour is being good to him shown by the new pair of good walking winter shoes he has that his neighbour helped him get. I was thinking of getting some good trail shoes myself today at a local camping coop where I shop but I may go there tomorrow.

We also ordered some take out food. I am now staying up over night studying for my school exam. I should also study a little for my work exam coming up soon.

New sound systems

I have the new receiver set up in our living room with the new high definition television. I need to buy a few more cables to connect everything properly. I have my older surround sound receiver set up in my office. I am listening to a cable TV channel that plays music of the 1970's in the office right now and working on my eMac.

The first snow arrived today.

There was snow on the roofs and icey rain coming down today. I was very careful walking to the bus and school today. There is rain everywhere.

I tried adjusting my hours of work this week for the first time.

I had been told and I saw that we can work early some days and then get credit for these hours worked to leave early or come in late. I tried some of this this week. On Monday I worked one hour early then came in late one hour on Tuesday after my committee meeting. On Thursday I had been up all night from Wednesday and I came in two hours early. Normally at 2:00 PM on Friday's I would start work. But instead I am working two hours later today having worked these two hours yesterday. I attended a school lunch today which is why I worked different hours.