My life's Adventure

We are visiting my mother this weekend.

We are just getting out the door for a weekend at my mother's. I am taking so much electronic stuff. I really don't travel light. My GP says my vital signs are constantly improving.

I am home from work early to go to a doctor's appointment.

I have a GP appointment today. They let me leave work a little early for the appointment. I will find out about the oral cancer. This is my annual physical.

I am taking a break to blog a bit.

I have edited my resume with my new supervisors suggestions. I did that just the last hour. I ate some supper my second bowl of vegetarian stew today. Today is again about 32 hours long. My resume is printed and also emailed into work. I also printed some other documents to help apply for work. I am applying for three other jobs now. And one job is still being processed and so far I am still in the running. Many coworkers are already out of the race. These three other jobs have application deadlines in the next week or the week after. I am hoping my resume is done now for two jobs. I will go in early today to check the other available jobs and make sure it is only the three jobs I need to work on applying for. I would like to have my resumes completed for these three jobs this morning and also at least one more cover letter started if not two. The third cover letter is already started and my supervisor will give me some feedback today on this letter. If this feedback can be acted upon today and both the resume and cover letter can be fixed by the end of the day I can give these to a higher supervisor for proof reading sometime today.

I saw my psychiatrist today.

We discussed the web 2.0 and teleconferencing. I also talked to my psychiatrist about workplace accomplishments. I also briefly mentioned my money problems.

I did a fair amount of work on the mental health reading list.

Using the web sites of the French and American Amazon book stores and bilingual and unilingual English university libraries, I was able to make some headway on the bilingual reading list of suggested mental health books by the Spring speaker at my workplace. I am just heading into work now to work on a resume and cover letter. I will be very early again and I just made coffee. I am dressing up fairly nicely today and am tired but not yet paranoid. Again I have some loud and obnoxious workers to deal with all day.

I am seeing my psychiatrist this Wednesday.

I have an appointment after work to see my psychiatrist on Wednesday. I am also attending the mental health work group at work that day to help plan our workplace event for mental illness awareness week. It looks like the speaker I have found is good to go. He is bilingual too and also a former public servant who has anxiety not schizophrenia.

Speaking of other consumers L is in hospital right now and we are preparing to look after her cat until she is well enough to do that on her own again.

I loaned out my Public Address(PA) system to a political party fund raising dinner and got a free supper from it.

I donated the use of my public address system to a fund raising dinner this evening that just passed. This is the second day in a row I have helped the local candidate with his campaign. On Sunday I took pictures of him with his camera in a parade. He is a public servant as am I. We ate dinner tonight and I provided a PA system for him to speak inside the restaurant. He spoke about democratic reform. I got a ride there and back for the PA system.

I worked a full day today and have four more days of work until labour day weekend.

I worked today and again my supervisors had me train a new worker. People are still studying for promotions tests and I am staying up all night to work on resumes and cover letters. I also have to make a French English book list and am almost half way through this list and would like to have it done by tomorrow morning.

I have not learned much self help this past week.

I did read some medical electronics professors web site a little this morning. I also had been reading about anger last weekend as a disorder. I mentioned this to someone at our self help group and he dismissed it. I also mentioned it at work to a coworker who has also stayed at the local psychiatric hospital but denies there was anything wrong with her. She also dismissed the anger as a disorder but said too much of it was a disorder. This may be a gender difference in these responses as the authors of the book were clinicians working with spousal abusers. I have not read this book this past week, as I focused on buying things like the projector and getting my Nike + iPod system working.

I am going out today in public and will then sleep at about 4:00 PM. I am also picking up some computer supplies and still tempted to buy a projector but this time a better one that is on sale this week.

I am all registered for school but still owe some money.

I am not sure how I will pay for the remaining amount of money for school. But I am registered now for school for the fall term.

One more day of work and then the weekend begins.

One more day of work today. I have gotten up at 6:00 AM after sleeping about 14 hours. I will just get into work on time today. I will work on resumes after work. I am happy to work now.

I am off to work trying to suppress my tired, cranky mood.

I should not stay up all night like this. It then means a difficult time to control my emotions and paranoia. Of course I always seem to get at the issues this way. May be that is just the way things are. I will eat a muffin at break, and work on resumes before work with hope for a new job and be in 1 hour early.

Another success in mental health activism and consumer promotions.

I may have booked a fellow consumer/survivor to speak at my work place for mental illness awareness week. He has agreed and I have informed my workplace committee coordinator. We are meeting next week to discuss this. This reminds me I need to do some translating of the book list from the speaker from mental health week this past spring. I keep trucking. I did not get an executive position on this years board of directors at our self help group.

I did return the projector and saved myself that large chunk of new debit.

I am fooling myself as I know by saying I am making progress by returning the projector to the store. I also spent more at the store on a Nano case, which are very expensive and a cash cow for many people. But my Nano is working and protected from damage now. I did pay the coworker fifty dollars as a first payment. I need to pay him five more payments. I tried the Nike + system but forgot to turn on the workout function. It was mostly walking, stair climbing at bus stations, and running to get places before they closed.

I put some GorTex rain pants on hold at the camping store but I doubt I will buy them now. I also have not visited the camping web site today but my partner is wearing her flip flops now. I am nickel and dime-ing myself into more debit. I did visit with the bank for help but have not fully followed up on this yet. I did set some goals in an excel spread sheet, a month ago for debit reduction and may make about one or two of four lower debit balance goals by end of month.

I have to take our cat to the vet today and that will also cost money. My partner is having some pants hemmed and repaired and that will cost money too. I also want to get her some money for shopping at a charity shop tomorrow.

I worked yesterday and it looks like another full week of work for me.

I managed another day of work. I worked very hard yesterday. I am working today without sleeping. I then take our cat to the vet after work. I will need a taxi for the cat. I then sleep and work on Friday.

I am up early for work again.

I did wake up at 5:00 AM on time for work. I just need to go to the bank machine and get some money to take to work. I will go on my way to work. Right now I need to dress for work, gargle, and shave. I also need to get some work related paperwork together.

A coworker who has an invisble disablity is selling me his iPod Nano, instead of me buying one in a store.

A coworker I am reasonable friendly with and work close together with told me yesterday he has a disability. The question came up when I was recommending he apply for a job that was flagged as an equity job. I was saying this to him because he is a visible minority. He then said he was also disabled. At any rate he also heard yesterday I was planning on buying an iPod Nano for my Nike+ kit. So he offered to sell me his Nano for 50$ payments. This is better than buying it on credit. So I am bringing 50$ to work today and should return from work this afternoon with the Nano. I will then after work, pay the rent and return the projector.

I think the smart thing is to return the projector.

I think I will have to return the projector.

I am not going to sleep tonight.

I decided not to sleep tonight. I will take only 3 mg of risperadol and rest but not really sleep deeply.

I did follow through on the plan to buy the projector and thought of returning it.

I did buy the projector which I had been thinking of doing for a couple of years now. At first it did not work well but now I have it working just fine. I just need to adjust the positioning more.

I worked a full day and played soccer at lunch.

Our workplace has soccer as a fun tournament and I played again today. I will work eight more days before the long weekend and our trip to the country to see my mother.

I am just getting ready to go to our self-help group board of directors meeting for this month. Then I am going to the electronics store to pick up the projector but not the iPod Nano. Instead a coworker has offered me his brand new Nano for a little less money and this won't be on credit cards but paid via six 50$ payments which I can barely afford. But this will help him and I will get a better iPod Nano and not have more credit card debit.

I am exploring the sales at the camping coop and also managed to get the hard drives.

I got yet another portable hard drive ordered and also a data projector. I already have a portable screen. I also ordered an iPod Nano. I will pick up the projector and Nano this evening after our self-help group board meeting for the new year. The hard drive will come in the mail. I am tempted to get another hard drive for back up purposes. All this spending and working it is crazy like mania. Oh well, I am off to work now and am fully prepared.

I am just going into work early and somethings are getting caught up.

I have a few volunteer forms to still fax to the office. I did fax in my pay stubs to the government disability office this morning so those are in on time. I have completed all my folk festival duties for another year. My wife has completed hers too. I am playing soccer at work this week and it is a lot of fun. I do sometimes make mistakes and miss out on goals and allowing goals and I did make a too hard tackle yesterday. I am having some fun at work given the boring job it is. I am working nine more days until the labour day weekend. We are visiting my mother on the labour day weekend and checking out camping sites near her. I will also test cell phone coverage at these sites for emergencies if they occur while camping as we don't drive.

I am just registering for my one course in systems science today.

The academic adviser sent me a link to a pdf form to fill out and print and then fax back to her. I will register for one course in systems science. The fees for this course are almost all paid now.

I am broke and should not buy things given our debit but....

There are some very good hard drive prices right now at the electronics store but they will most likely have to be ignored. I will be buying my wife some flip flops tomorrow that are on sale at the camping coop. I am staying up all night and so far have done very little web window shopping. In fact, except for getting the free screws and fixing my panniers, I have not done any shopping this past weekend in the stores. I did some web shopping but this was only browsing besides the flip flops which we will buy later today after work.

Our volunteering is done now.

Our volunteering together worked out. Two other volunteers I worked with know me better than just this volunteering. One is a coworker and another is sister union member. Both could find me here but only the sister knows I have schizophrenia. I am not sure how far my identity as a schizophrenic or person with schizophrenia has reached in my workplace. I have only allowed supervisors to know about this and not in any great detail. This reminds me I am supposed to find a speaker for our workplace to speak during mental illness awareness week this fall. I have contacted the local mental health association to try to find someone but they have not gotten back to me yet.

At the festival my political party was also volunteering and this was good. I talked to a few other politicos and it seemed everyone had a good time. Our volunteer leaders at the festival did a great job and they were spectacular at keeping us going.

I am just about to record bank and credit card activity in pen and ink copied from telephone banking. I will also start to get ready for a full week of work. May be I will get some workplace tests results back this week, and that is exciting me these past few days. Last week I learned my job was secure into the fall.

Our volunteering continues.

My wife is making great progress at returning to work. She volunteered with almost no break for 5 hours yesterday. She was outdoors directing traffic to parking at an outdoor folk festival. I cleaned up trash at the festival for 5 hours yesterday. I also did parking on Friday. Today she does parking again and I am again dong trash pick up.

My partner and I volunteered four hours on the Festival and have 8 more hours to volunteer.

We both managed volunteering today. We got clobbered by a storm and it was cold. We went there on the bus and back. I got off at the camping coop stop and got the screws while my wife came home first. I am just now settling into some computer web surfing late at night.

The camping coop will replace the screws.

I phoned the camping coop and they said they would replace the screws that came off the bike pannier. So all is good. I will go there on the weekend and get the screws. I will need to go before the festival which we are volunteering at in the late afternoons and early evenings Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

My partner and I are volunteering together this weekend.

We are just getting ready to go out and volunteer together on a festival. Wish us luck.

I just threw out a bunch of envelopes and tiddied up a bit.

It started with searching for the screw that had fallen off the pannier. Then I was tidying up my shoes behind the bike in the bottom of the closet. Then I was searching for the receipt and putting important papers on the table then picking up papers off the floor around our living room coffee table. I getting hot and sticky although not extremely so. I did turn on the air conditioning and strip down to my underwear.

I went out to the camping coop and bought a replacement pen knife.

I was only going to buy tweezers for my old pen knife and a bike bell. I was going to buy some pants on sale too. Instead I noticed my pen knife was broken so I bought a replacement. I did not buy the pants as I could not afford both. I did buy the bike bell. I also bought some fairly nice bike racks straps. I tried to bike to the store but my rear tire was too soft so I returned home and took the bus. I found out my panniers are now broken so either I will find the screws that fell off and put them on or return the panniers and get them replaced. They still have the tags and I can find the receipt I hope.

I talked with my brother on the phone and again he did not seem to have unlimited time for me.

Why do we need to talk at length with family when they are usually not able to talk at length. This weakens my heart.

Union volunteering continues.

I have continued to volunteer in union activities. I deal with extreme lefties and others in this volunteering.

Tests are all over for the week. I think I passed the last test!

I wrote a statistics test today. I think I passed. This means a probable new more advanced job and better pay. I happy with that. It was a very positive day at work. I have one more day of work then I have Friday off and I am volunteering this weekend.

Two French tests today but the big test is tomorrow in statistics.

I am studying for my statistics exam a fair amount. It is still early today. I have answered most all of my current email. I was up at about midnight. I networked with a few old friends on facebook. I also tried out couchsurfing.com for a place to stay at an academic conference this fall.

I looked after one of our bloggers at our peer to peer support project web site, so that is another half hour I can bill them for. The project ends in November but we are looking for more funding to keep it alive.

I am showered and dressed for work. Most of my morning at work will be taken up by French tests. A coworker will fill in for me while I write the tests.

I am sorry there are fewer posts lately I have been into facebook a lot.

I am sorry I have neglected to post here everyday this past week. I have been using facebook a lot lately. The neat thing about facebook is that it is mostly real people I know at work or in my city rather than virtual friends.

I am tinkering with a new computer and otherwise being super productive.

I bought a used professional workstation. I am just installing the operating system while I study for work place tests. I also did complete my paper for the conference. I did not attend the protest but managed to go to my union meeting. I also bought the bike panniers and tested them out bringing home bagels. I printed out my partner's emails. I taking time off next week after all these workplace tests. I want the top mark on the one test and on the French tests it will be good enough to have tried the tests.

I am joining a protest today.

I need to rush off to the camping coop to buy some pannier today before I ride downtown to protest. Then I have a union meeting then I am home for an on-line meeting. Then I am staying up late. I am just going to take some vitamins and fish oil and then bike over to the store.

I am studying for a test at work.

My workplace was busy as many of my coworkers and myself were selected to write a promotion test next week. Our supervisors assigned people to print study materials. I organised some fellow and sister workers into a study group and we will be studying for this test this weekend and next week. I am just waking up after sleeping 11 hours after having thirty six hour day which ended with me paying some rent money downtown. I worked another full week.

I am writing a paper for a conference.

I am working as much as possible on a paper. School starts for the fall term in one month. I am just getting ready for another day at work. I need to shave still today.

I am just getting ready to work.

I was feeling groggy from the long sleep I had. I woke up after 9 hours feeling in pain from the long awake time. I then rested some more and now I am up getting ready for work. I worked a lot on school work yesterday. Yesterday was a civic holiday in Canada. I need to shave and am already dressed for work.

I worked ten minutes getting dreamweaver started up and ready to work with.

I have put in ten minutes so far in the web mastering work. I may redesign the web site and try some new things with static HTML pages. I studied for about three hours now for my paper and other conferences. I need to do more reading this morning and get to sleep by about 2:00 AM today.

I did our budget and I must work 25 hours on web mastering soon.

Seems even I am caught up in making money to pay for things I buy. I budgeted that I need to do 25 hours web work by the end of the month. I could do one hour a day and get that done.

I am still learning French.

I was tested this past week on French oral skills. I am still learning French, by talking French everyday to francophone coworkers and listening to the French pod class, which has a web site at www.frenchpodclass.com.

Only two servings of veggies and one serving fruits so far today.

My partner made kraft dinner with broccoli and mushrooms for supper. I am slowly eating some strawberries. I also have some watermelon I could eat and one orange. Thus I still need to eat another veggie for today. Daily intake recommends three servings of each of fruits and veggies. I am staying up late though so I still have time to eat the required servings.

I completed yet another shopping trip by bus today.

I went out to replace the tweezers in my little pen knife but the store had none in stock. I then went to Ikea and bought some more magazine holders which I use for paper. I also bought a CD/DVD shelf and just go it together and up against the office wall. In this shelf I placed all my home made CD's, DVD's, and floppies. So this is sort of a computer software cabinet.

To get this rather heavy metal shelf home I called my wife and she came over and met me at the bus stop with our dolly so I could carry the shelf in its box home. The dolly worked well.

So the end result was more stuff this weekend but actually more organised as now the old spaces I used for software are now free for books and paper. The magazine boxes are all in a row now in the upper two shelves of my desk.

I have put too much water in the kit.

Apparently each person needs only needs 2 liters of water per day not 4. This is great as the bag was just full of water and was too heavy. Now I only have 12 liters of water in three 4 liter bottles. The other two liters are for cooking and cleaning. Thus I still need the other three bottles but should buy another rolling bag for these three. The most expensive item in the kit will be the camping stove at about 150$ with fuel and repair items. Another extra I can add is a basic tool kit. I can also add sanitation products like toilet paper.

Disaster Kit Construction: We have three days supply of water and medications stored in a rolling bag now.

I took the power tools out of the new bag and put them back in the garbage picked cabinet that is by our front door. In the new bag I placed six 4 Liter bottles of water. The expiry date on this water is 2009. We also have an old family sized St. John's first aid kit in the rolling bag now. I also have two solar flash lights and a wind up radio. Also we have pills for 1 week for my partner in the bag. This is everything in there now. I should now focus on buying three days of dried ready to eat camping meals for this disaster kit. That will be the next purchase for the kit.

You just can not win as a consumer.

I could not complete my weekend without debiting and spending. I bought a tool bag and it was even broken. I can fix it with coat hanger engineering but it is reflective of the the state of our modern consumer economy. I saved 70% on the price of this rolling tool bag. I might go buy two more this week after pay day. The sale ends Friday. I had a nice bus ride and walk to a store that had some in stock. Now my power tools are all in a rolling tool bag except for my drill. I now want two more bags for my hand tools and may be one bag, as a disaster kit holder.

I obsess a little with disaster planning. But I am aware of what's need in disaster and even volunteer as a city disaster volunteer responder. I would use the bag to hold water, food, first-aid and other disaster supplies. Or I may take the tools out of the bag and use the one bag for a disaster kit. I think I will do that now and save money by not buying more bags. This will give me a 15 minute activity to do. But first I update this and other blogs.

I am working on writing an academic paper.

I submitted an academic paper to a conference happening in one week. I submitted it a few weeks ago. I have the structure of the paper decided now. I have the beginning written and some background reading done and then paraphrased. I have some research reading out of the library now. I now need to do some writing but now I am sleeping. I will take my meds now.

This evening early sleep.

I still have a few academic things planned before I can sleep. This should take no more than an hour and a half and I can sleep by 8:00 PM for sure. I will take my meds now and my vitamins.

I worked today not quite dead tired.

I worked today and was on my feet for parts of the work day. I was not falling asleep tired so managed a good day. I came home and relaxed. I soon prepared to go to the local mental health centre and get some money paid for web site costs for my web master job for the peer to peer support project. I then came home and surfed the net. I then relaxed with my partner a bit and am now back at the computer.

I am still home with a cold.

I still have a runny nose so am still home after trying to go into work. I came home and am resting.

Being home with a cold allows me to catch up on some activities. I am returning some company property to my old job that I held from 2001-2006. They had kept me on temporary leave, so I could return without loosing seniority, if it did not work out in my new job. I have had my new job now for one year. So I will not be returning to my security guard job. I will return these uniform shirts and pants today from my security work. I will be allowed to keep the belt and safety shoes. I can't say more than that.

I am going into work a little late today but my cold seems gone now.

I slept a fair amount last night. I am now feeling better and will go into work today. I have some legal research to do this evening. I also have a couple of social events to attend this evening. To do this I may stay up all night tonight. I have my French test tomorrow.