Hard Things

May. 9th, 2012 10:56 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently?

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 04:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janetmiles.livejournal.com
I've almost wrapped up two weeks away from home, getting health care set up for my brother. I miss the hell out of Dale; this is the longest we've been apart since we moved in together.

Yes...

Date: 2012-05-10 04:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
That is a long time. Hope you get home soon.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 10:38 am (UTC)
ext_74: Baron Samadai in cat form (Default)
From: [identity profile] siliconshaman.livejournal.com
Finagled Bureaucracy into paying for my wife's anti-dizzy pills...
She has wicked bad vertigo thanks to inner ear damage, sufficient that without the meds she's effectively disabled. [at least, according to the company doctor.]

Anyway, the DSS changed the rules on prescription fees exemption last November, and sorta forgot to tell everyone. Taking out the low income group from the tax credit scheme and giving it it's own, different scheme, for which one had to reapply to. So we were told by our local health authority that we owed them a ton of money, last week [typical for them].

Thus, wife had a meltdown and I did an awful lot of phone calls, filling in forms etc...then told her it was all sorted and no need to worry.

Bureaucracy, it's lot like kitty litter... someone's got to deal with it, and it's best done quickly and with the minimum of fuss. [and wash your hands afterwards!]

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 01:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] baaing-tree.livejournal.com
Bleh. Cut off my parents, sorted out when we're going to move to a new home, and now hashed together a game plan to take a couple weeks off work so as to properly fight my eating disorder.

*glower* I wish my accomplishments revolved LESS around "look! I'm acknowledging how messed up things are!"

--Rogan

Well...

Date: 2012-05-10 07:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
At least you're making progress. That's a good thing.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 02:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] westrider.livejournal.com
I've been cutting down on the amount of sugar in my diet. I'm pretty badly addicted to it, so it's been a struggle, but this time, things seem to be going reasonably well so far. It's been over a week since I had any chocolate or cookies or anything in my apartment.

0_o

Date: 2012-05-10 07:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
That's really challenging unless one cooks from single ingredients.

Companies these days put sugar in almost everything, including places it does not belong. I was horrified to find high-fructose corn syrup in vanilla extract (which should contain "alcohol, vanilla").

On the bright side, there are now a lot more sugar substitutes available, a few of which are even edible. The sweetener herb stevia can be found in many grocery stores.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-10 10:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] westrider.livejournal.com
I'm not trying to go completely Sugar Free at this point, just cut down. Right now, the goal is to cut out the explicitly sweet things like cookies, chocolate, and such, except for one cookie per day at lunch from the Coffeeshop I go to. The fact that there's some sugar (about a Tablespoon per Loaf) in the Bread I usually get isn't a problem right now, for instance.

I've also gotten rid of things like chips, so I don't have anything around to mindlessly snack on without realizing how much I'm eating.

If this doesn't work, I am going to go Sugar Free again, for a while at least, to detox. I have done it before, and because I cook from scratch much of the time, and I live in an area where it's easy to get good prepared foods, it's not as hard as it could be. Last time I did it, the only things I wanted that were really a problem to find were Ketchup and Barbecue Sauce.

I think keeping cookies and chocolate out of my home is going to have to be a permanent measure, tho, or at least one for several years.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-10 10:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
>> Right now, the goal is to cut out the explicitly sweet things like cookies, chocolate, and such, except for one cookie per day at lunch from the Coffeeshop I go to. <<

That's more feasible.

>>I cook from scratch much of the time, and I live in an area where it's easy to get good prepared foods, it's not as hard as it could be. <<

You're very lucky in that. Around here the edible food is mostly in co-ops, specialty stores, or the health aisle of a regular grocery store. It's really hit or miss. But the Farmer's Market is open again!

>> Last time I did it, the only things I wanted that were really a problem to find were Ketchup and Barbecue Sauce.<<

Local grocery stores have no option in barbecue sauce without high-fructose corn syrup. So I'm exploring homemade recipes for that. At least there's some organic ketchup available, which has only a modest amount of cane sugar. I want to try making sloppy joe mix so I can control what goes into it and have something reasonably healthy. The commercial ones are basically spiced-up HFCS.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-11 02:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] westrider.livejournal.com
I think the west coast in general, it's easier to find good food than in the heartland, and the Seattle area certainly has a lot of choice.

I was able to find a ketchup that worked, and used that to make myself an OK BBQ sauce. Didn't write it down, unfortunately, but it was mostly added onion, garlic, and beef dripping as I recall.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-11 02:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
>>I think the west coast in general, it's easier to find good food than in the heartland, and the Seattle area certainly has a lot of choice.<<

That matches my observations.

>>I was able to find a ketchup that worked, and used that to make myself an OK BBQ sauce. Didn't write it down, unfortunately, but it was mostly added onion, garlic, and beef dripping as I recall.<<

*laugh* I used apple butter as a base for my first BBQ sauce:
http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/2190510.html

I also want to make a mango one for pork. Maybe a tomato one for beef. The apple one is nicely flexible though; it's a sweet-spicy blend.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-11 02:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
Oh, I should add -- you could probably modify my recipe for low or no added sugar if you switched to unsweetened applesauce and sugar-free ketchup. There's no molasses or brown sugar or anything like that in this one; it's not a sugar-based sauce.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-11 04:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] westrider.livejournal.com
Ooh, I like the idea of basing one off unsweetened applesauce! I've usually used tomato-dominated BBQ sauces, and they need some kind of sweetening to really work for me. An applesauce base could be very worth playing around with!

Thanks!

*bow, flourish*

Date: 2012-05-11 04:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
Happy to be of service! Fruit makes a good base for many sauces if you don't want them oversweetened.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 04:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] quennessa.livejournal.com
Building new commercial photography portfolios. It doesn't sound like hard, tedious work, but in reality, it's mind-numbing and somewhat emotionally crushing. At least it is for me. It's evaluating my photography not for what I consider to be Art, but what I consider (and others hopefully) will Sell Things. It's the sort of thing that sounds like fun until you sit down and realize that you have to do 20 of them for 20 different markets and you'll have to do it again when you discover new markets, *and* they'll have a different format requirement as well.

I also have conjunctivitis in my right eye right now which makes looking at the computer screen incredibly unpleasant.

It all has to get done though.

I really want a cookie.

LOL

0_o

Date: 2012-05-10 09:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
How awful!

Putting together a batch of poems for submission can be like that, if I have to do a bunch at once. One at a time is sometimes fun. Sorting through hundreds or thousands of things to find a good set is tedious.

Re: 0_o

Date: 2012-05-10 09:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] quennessa.livejournal.com
Pretty much. And it is the sorting through thousands that is killing me. But it's getting done, so that's something.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-10 08:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] judifilksign.livejournal.com
I stood up to co-workers who were bullying me, and called them on it, and my boss for failing to address the issue, during a staff meeting.

Yes...

Date: 2012-05-10 08:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
Hostile work environment really sucks.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-05-11 01:15 pm (UTC)
ext_3294: Tux (Default)
From: [identity profile] technoshaman.livejournal.com
Go Judi! That's *hard*, probably harder than calling folks out in non-work life... I hope things work out well for you, however that needs to be....

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