FINE TUNING

Continuing to tweak my diet and just about everything else. Trying to substitute olive oil for the butter I crave. Trying to cut down on the sugar in my drinks by using that Crystal Lite stuff and cutting it with soda water for the carbonation buzz I like. Once a week I allow myself a DIET soda. I am also keeping coffee to a cup in the morning and a Red Bull in the afternoon.
Finally made my 1st VERY weak attempt at exercising the other day with predictably dismal results. Could barely crank out 5 push-ups and 10 sit-ups. Then I tried looking up some exercises using a hand towel and said "Hell, I can make up my own!" Tried using it behind my neck and the sit-ups went swimmingly. Stomach's feelin' the burn. I was able to miracle my ass up without my feet leaving the floor as they had before. Sucking in the gut I can now get a faint glimpse of what my abs would look like if I had some. Gut out: not for the faint-hearted! Still and all, I am down to 170 and my pants are continuing to slide off my skinnier hips and I seriously need to get new pants in my old size 32. BOO-YAH, bitches! I am even starting to lose my double chin. Time to start getting some comparative pics on my Flickr page- 2006 with my beard and pony tail, 2007 without, 2008 with me as Mr. Chubs, and 2009 feeling human again.
Am trying to keep the home clean. Down on the knees scrubbing the kitchen floor type stuff. Hell, even a year ago I was still weak as a kitten, unsure of myself to the point of not being even able to take a bath for fear of not being able to get back out! Now I can kick back and relax...AAhh! General hygiene is on an even keel. New eyeglasses and keeping up with my dental appointments religiously. I tried the glasses holder -around -the neck thing to get my Librarian freak on, but it didn't work out- they bunched up around the neck looking too dorky even for me, and the damn glasses kept falling out, so I said screw it. Besides, the more I use them the worse the eyes get without. So I am making the effort to only use them when I really have to.
Have been working on getting the pics for Mom's Memorial poster ready for scanning. Speaking of which, I am going to get to learn how to use another kind of scanner- a portable job that I can use at my desk. This will be the 4th kind of scanner this year that I have been able to play with. Am now confident enough with the big newsprint scanner to have the Archives ladies let me work alone. Have just recently begun my new Archives project which will be my baby and mine alone. It is the archives of Dr. Melvin Judkins who decided to change from general practitioner to cardiologist at age 40, and pioneered the art of arteriography. Its got masses of X-rays and patient files. Already seen one creepy photo of a poor infant girl who ws dying, being worked on seemingly w/o anesthestic.
At home the Project is getting writer's or researcher's block. Running out of steam. Part of it however is my new enthusiasm for my incipient blogging "career". Since they have let me start doing things on the staff blog I have gotten encouragement. I now have a whole rack of potential topics. After posting "Tapping the Admiral"(about Lord Nelson's health problems and his pickling in booze), I am trying to figure which topic I want next : should it be "What's in a Name?" (about historical figures whose medical problems were reflected in a nickname), "You say WHO was a Librarian?" ( people with library experience you wouldn't normally think of like Lenin, Mao, J. Edgar Hoover,etc.), "March of the Tall Boys" (gigantism- Goliath, Peter the Great, the Potsdam Grenadiers, Abe Lincoln,etc), "Barking Mad" (insanity in royalty), and other topics I haven't come with names for yet concerning library factoids, medical prostheses, etc.
The Project itself, after 2 1/2 years is starting to fill up my apartment with about 30 copy paper boxes full of stuff. I am now seriously beginning to check out web sites to post stuff to in article form rather than making a magnum opus that may never happen. Am thinking of creating a military history web persona called "Mansfeld Russworm", after a couple of 16th century warlords. Am also finding more of my old stuff for a real portfolio. Been organizing my bookmarks on both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Cleaning out my hard drive of non-work stuff and getting them on Google Docs instead. Will be using non-work e-mail account as well. Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead.....

SERF'S UP!

Belated shout-out to May Day. Things getting busier all the time, with less time to mess around here and there. Found out a work-around on a problem we had with our huge Indus 5000 Deluxe scanner, so we are once again running pell-mell through the newspaper folios. I am also getting into a 2nd folder of documentation for the other scanning project I am currently involved with. So things on that front are going quite swimmingly. My other Archive work is in the final phase of dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s. Once that is done, I will be given a new project of my own to do from start to finish. The Library Records inventory was something already in the works. This new one is of an order of greater magnitude, in that it will be my baby, and bear my name to boot as creator.
I now have 2 postings to the staff blog so far and am on board for more at about once a month. Reaction has been favorable. The Project is starting to wind down, as the research part is finally coming to a close. It is now coming to the part where I actually make something of it all. I think I will start out slow and work out some articles first, post 'em around. I have been pulling together a portfolio for future reference.
Just got my job evaluation back. Good work and strongly on track in the right direction. Past and future looking bright and shiny!