Being Virtuous

In the category of "world coming to an end, film at eleven," I got up early this morning and took a walk before breakfast while it was still cool. I managed to be at my desk a little earlier than normal while already having had my exercise for the day. I also went to bed pretty early last night because I was really tired (ballet class, but I'd been low-energy all day). I don't know if I'll make a habit of this, but I feel so virtuous right now.

And why is it usually considered more "virtuous" to get up early and do stuff than to stay up late getting stuff done?

I guess the "film at eleven" thing is rather outdated, since they no longer use film, and the use of videotape or, now, digital cameras means they don't have to wait to get film developed before going on the air. We weren't even using film back in the Dark Ages when I worked in TV news. And, these days, they wouldn't wait for the late news. They'll break into programming for anything they happen to have live footage of, no matter how newsworthy it is or isn't, just if it looks exciting and they're the only station to have it. So I guess I need to come up with a new way to say "this is really shocking!"

The use of the stopwatch continues to be a little depressing. I feel like I'm doing so much work, and it only adds up to a couple of hours. This means I need to make better use of my time. I've accomplished a lot in my career while being a bit of a slacker, so if I start really making good use of my time, I could Rule the World!!! (Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!!).

Speaking of time wasting, it's probably a good time to post a little reminder about my social networking activity. I do have a Facebook page, but I'm kind of afraid of Facebook. I get e-mail notification about comments and messages, but I generally avoid going to the site itself because it's very chaotic and overwhelming. I'll go there to add friends when the requests start piling up, and then I mostly squint at it then flee. Don't be offended if I seem to be ignoring you on Facebook. It's not you, it's Facebook. MySpace is a little better, but not much. I got the Blogger account to participate in a group blog and figured I might as well post my own blog there. I've since heard that it's the blog least likely to be blocked by corporate anti-time-wasting filters, so I keep doing it, but I loathe the comment interface there, so I don't respond to comments very often there. I'm most likely to be active and interact on LiveJournal because it makes more sense to me and almost reminds me of Usenet (sigh. I miss Usenet. I wonder if I can still access it). I do not Tweet because the thought of trying to express myself in 140 characters makes me twitchy. I'm also not really sure what I would ever say. "Procrastinated a bit, then wrote a while. Time for tea." Yeah, that would be enthralling. And I don't need any more time wasters. Really.

Finally, a TV heads up: Tonight on PBS (check your local listings), they're doing a concert production of Chess, featuring Josh Groban, Adam Pascal and Idina Menzel. I love that show. I first saw a quasi-local professional production (the major roles were imports, the chorus was local) with Jodi Benson (the voice of the Little Mermaid) in the lead female role the summer after I first moved to this area, during one of my "I've always really wanted to be an actress but was too practical, so now that I have a degree and a real job, I can pursue my dream and immerse myself in the theater!" phases (those come in waves, and usually the writing wins out, but I suspect I'm due for another phase next year). I'm excited that the new production means a new CD because I have the cast album on cassette, which means I can no longer listen to it in my car, and that particular album is out of print on CD.

Come to think of it, seeing that show was part of my first "vacation" when I'd finally been in my first job long enough to take vacation time. I took a couple of days off to create a long weekend, during which I went to an afternoon matinee of A Chorus Line, went to a movie, rested and read a bit and then on Sunday afternoon went to see Chess at the theater in a geodesic dome with an arena stage.