Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Number Crunching #157

Actually figured on 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -437.20
STEF Total = 5.77

June Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. $572.00 in bank charges.

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The BookWorm

Monday, June 22, 2009

If I'm silent for a while

I managed to slice the tip off my middle finger on my right hand, which really screws with everything I have to do since I'm right-handed. Blogging counts as unnecessary typing, so I'll be back when it doesn't hurt as much.

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The BookWorm

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Thinking About Rituals

Namely as explained in this post, how ritual helps your brain cope throughout the day and changing tasks. This shouldn't have to be lectured at me--after all that is why Ritual exists within Wicca. I suck at applying knowledge to daily life.

Undoubtably, one of the reasons I'm at such loose ends at the end of the day is because I haven't been following my GTD and making my weekly lists. But another strong possibility is the lack of ritual before bedtime. What I do now: eat supper while watching Bones on TNT (David Boreanaz in daylight *sigh*), spend an hour or two saying "ACK, I've got so much to do!" and finally go to bed. Not a productive use of time established? Good, moving on.

This isn't about filling every second of every day, but rather stopping myself from having that "ACK!" reaction. Deadlines don't care how drained you feel. And most days of the week, I'm not drained--just lost. So I decided to spend this week being mindful of what goes on in the time frame.

June 16: I decided to mindfully get some work done that I can't do on the paying job computer: building some website graphics. Sit down at the computer with the task firmly in mind. The issue was losing my temper over the computer taking fifteen minutes getting the program up for me to do anything1 I put myself on the timer so I'll remember to get up in move.

Question one: how much of my avoidance dance is not wanting to work and how much is it not wanting to get pissed off at my computer?

Once the computer got over being a sluggard, I got a few graphics done before bedtime. What I noticed besides the meltdown at the beginning: distracted by the TV. I reached the point where I was only working during commercials. Now my TV and computer are in two different rooms, so being distracted physically removes me from the office.

Question two: how necessary is it for me to turn the TV off?

June 17: I got three hours of Bones today, and I still think I missed an episode. (Double checked--I actually didn't, because they didn't give a whole episode to Booth's fake funeral.) When it got to episodes I have seen, I spent more time in the office. And one would think the time for the graphics program to go bugging would be after I had left it running all night and all day, but nope I never had any issues and finished all the website graphics I need at this point.

Since part of the issue is getting pissed at the computer, I think I'm best off turning on whatever the program I need while I'm concentrating on supper and Bones. That way I don't have to sit there and watch it be a sluggard and fume that my precious time and energy is slipping away.

And if the deadline is looming and/or I need to focus, I'm better off saving those projects for the morning or turning off the TV. Right now, the website revamp work I'm doing doesn't take that level of concentration so I don't feel bad for jumping up and watching what unexplained images Ghost Hunters International came up with.

I still have to see how tonight and tomorrow night goes. Now, I have some lunch and maybe go foraging for more food. Needed a bigger salad.

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The BookWorm

Nothing in these numbers makes me happy

But at least this graph is easy to understand.

Who's responsible for the debt?

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The BookWorm

Year-Round school?

A year round school option that sounds reasonable. I really like the sessions that allow in-depth exploration of a topic.

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The BookWorm

Go Iran!

Freedom is a precious, precious thing. It makes things like this possible: The Mouse That Roared

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The BookWorm

Sunday, June 07, 2009

The O.Z. Map Project

Otherwise known as that thing that drove me crazy for a whole month.

DUF: Tin Man: Pirates Notes 06

Yeah, it's done. Yes, it will be getting its own webpage now that I can work on the update again. :p I hope it's appreciated, but I'm not holding my breath on it getting noticed until I'm ready to start posting Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic.

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The BookWorm

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Finished the Bleeping Map

Lord and Lady, don't ever let me be a glutton for that kind of punishment ever again. And if that doesn't work, at least let me remember to reduce the damn file size so the program stops freezing after every command.

And please, please, please, please, let the final three maps get made smoothly and quickly.

Blessed Be.

Er, okay, for the non-divine readers some background is probably necessary. I read every Oz book I could get my hands on back in the fourth grade (possibly third, it was before I transferred to Springfield's school system and I lived in libraries). I'm fairly certain the collection only had Baum books. So I was really clueless when I found Tin Man fanfics referencing the East - West issue. Did a little research since I needed other countries names for Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic and found the answer. Then I got annoyed with Maguire's illustrations for compounding the problem and Tin Man Meta for not looking for the answer. And I needed maps for what I was writing.

So my bright idea while creating my own maps, I would offer copies of the original Maguire maps; the directionally-corrected Maguire maps; a mash-up of all the Maguire maps, which according to me was how Oz looked when Dorothy arrived; a map of Nonestica when Dorothy arrived; a map of modern O.Z. with elements mentioned in the Tin Man miniseries; a map of modern Nonestica, which I needed for my story; and two maps of the principles islands, which are affected in the novel so before and after. Readers deserved something for the rant I had to go with these maps.

I had this brainwave back on May 4th. Finished eight of them rather quickly. Then found hell with the map of the modern O.Z.

I finally finished it last night.

At 11 p.m.

After I had really started on it at 7 p.m. and only had four things to finish on it.

And I should've been finished at 10:30 p.m. only I realized I had forgotten Milltown.

Tonight is an early bedtime. Insanely early bedtime. Before the sun sets bedtime. Which probably means Thursday will be the first day I've felt normal in about two weeks.

Read Free!
The BookWorm