I have had the weirdest sleeping habits lately. I get to bed at a normal time, usually between midnight and 1 a.m., but then only sleep for a couple hours. Then I'm up for the day, then go to sleep again in the late afternoon and sleep until around 8 or 9 p.m., then repeat the cycle. I've tried forcing myself to stay awake to reset my internal clock, as well as sleeping medication from my doctor, but it doesn't work. One benefit of this, though, is that I do my best work in the early hours of the morning.

Speaking of work, I'm finally forcing myself to do this stupid translation project that I got assigned. It's a bunch of translators, actually, translating this bilingual guide book of Taiwan. I got assigned the section on some place that I've never heard of called Wuri Township in Taichung County. None of my friends have heard of it either. For such an unknown place, they've certainly written enough about it, which I have to go and translate. There's stuff like the kinds of orchids they cultivate there, some beer factory that's supposedly famous, some old textile mills that represent the early days of Taiwan's industrialization, and then some not-so-famous people who were early settlers of the area. Very, very boring stuff.

The pay's not too shabby, though ... about US$400.

Today is going to be an annoying day (besides working on this stupid translation) because I have to drag my butt all the way to my school just because they've come up with new regulations for picking up our scholarship money. First, I have to go to the cashier's office and pay NT$20 to get a copy of my transcript, then go to the Office of Graduate Student Affairs to actually pick up the transcript. After that, I have to go to the Office for International Scholarly Exchange in an entirely different building, give them the copy of my transcript, then pick up another form from them, and finally, come back again to the cashier the following week to pick up my money ... and I have to do this every month! When it comes to bureaucracy and red tape, the Chinese and Taiwanese are the worst ... GRRRR!!!!

Fortunately, my graduate advisor has a meeting at the school today at noon, so I can drop off my completed M.A. thesis to her to go over for the last time while I'm there, as well as return some books at the library (even though it's all the way on the other side of the campus). Unfortunately, this will all be during my new "sleep time," so I'll be dead tired and in a pissy mood, and school administrators here are so incompetent, I just know I'm gonna go off on someone.

As for my story(ies), I posted Ch. 8 of SOOTB early, since I didn't see the point in waiting until later in the week when it was already done and edited. It was my first time writing a 'sex scene,' although no one has commented yet as to how well that part was written. Kitty said she liked it, but that's only one person's perspective. Also, I'm almost finished writing my short story "Seeking Nirvana." It's ended up being longer than I'd planned, and it's also a bit "philosophical," so I'm not sure if everyone's gonna like it, or even get it. But I've spent A LOT of time working on it, re-writing parts, tweaking other parts, so I'd might as well finish it and post it. Also, since my alias is "LittleBuddhaTW," I figured I should write at least one thing with a bit of a Buddhist slant to it.

Anyway, that's it for now ... it's 3:14 a.m. here in Taiwan, and I shouldn't even be awake, but I am ... and now I have to get back to this stupid translation project. **sigh**