I was trying to avoid spamming my readers with update posts, but after ten days, I think I have enough leeway to make one.

READING:
* Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi
* A History Of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong
* Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman
* The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade (1905 edition)

BOOKS RECENTLY ACQUIRED:
* Books on the British occupation of India
* A book on the golden age of locomotives
* Books on the Crusades
* Books on religious history (including two books written by late popes)
* The memoirs of a transsexual (the first chapters include a lot of whining, and it's not particularly well-written whining -- but for the $2 I paid for it, it's not bad)

WRITING:
Still haven't had time to write, since free time goes to either reading or painting. After the art show I may have a little more time on my hands, so I hope to finish that short story about messianic birth, and throw some words at Burnt In Stone. That project idea about the alternate-history steampunk Vatican just will NOT leave me alone, however. That's the main reason I bought books written by religious leaders -- I have no clue how they think. It would be intriguing to get inside the head of someone so different from me, and write a book from that perspective.

ART:
Paintings, going slowly but surely. May scrap one of the painting ideas for something simpler, something I can finish in an afternoon instead of a weekend. Hell, maybe I'll start that one tonight for something easy I can throw paint at.

BRAIN:
Still treading the line of things I can't talk about, but all in all, especially dealing with two jobs and an art show and a few days of insomnia over the weekend, I have been doing very well. Some ongoing concerns, but they're not really things you tell the internet about. There is a post brewing about the general tone of these things, though. It's been brewing for quite a while.

HEALTH:
My wrists are bothering me slightly. I think it's just minor strain from learning to adjust to new muscles, as well as the time I hyper extended them a few weeks back, so I'm optimistic that they'll heal quickly. Being careful with them involved a very strange method of mopping the floors at the dollar store tonight.

JOBS:
DS job is going smoothly -- although Kay is leaving us next week for a job that pays far better, so while we're sad to see her leave, we're glad she'll have better financial opportunities. I'm adjusting to my floor supervisor position well, and being more organized when it comes to closing, cash-out, and rearranging the stock.

Antiques job is going splendidly, as per expectations. I love my manager, I love my coworkers, I love that I can be open about my sexuality and opinions, and I love working with antiques and books. The only downside is the dusting, which, in the long run, is not such a downside after all. It's a small sacrifice for better pay.

EXCITING THINGS:
Money! Books coming in the mail! It was cloudy today and even rained!

STUPID THINGS:
I wish certain things weren't developing the way they are, but I know they're happening for a reason. There's honestly no use crying over spilled milk if you know that cleaning it up will be a rewarding experience.

MISCELANEOUS:
Listening to Phil Collins' Son Of Man and Nickelback's Hero on loop gives me very strange mental pictures. They make me want to write things down in some crazy spaztic authorial binge.

Also, I want to make a post on the phenomena of collecting, and the things I've collected over the years, and the things I collect at present. I think working at an antique store is prompting this, more than anything -- we get so many people coming in to complete what seem to me to be strange collections. Collecting itself is a strange art, and can tread the line between a cabinet of cool nick-nacks and compulsive hoarding.

Until next time, mon freres.