juliebarkley

15 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Yay!

 

And double yay for bonus side effects!

It has indeed been yay!

1. Nothing today. And the thing that I could do tomorrow I cannot, because I will be picking up my son at the airport.

2. I have built up a little pile of seven books to keep and five to return, with one extra that I must return but plan to get right back ASAP for the keep pile, because there was a section in the intro that I must have reread five times, it just struck home so hard. I may add another one or two to one of the piles before bed.

3. I took care of myself by finally making it to the drugstore to get something to help with the ringing in my ears. I've been putting it off for a while, so it is finally treating myself like I'm worth making the effort to take care of. Got some hair masque too, which I have never tried, but my hair is really dry due to winter and has been straightening out very fast. Perking it up would make me happy, even if I am the only one who sees it. (My hair is also very much ombré now - thick grey streaks right in the front that quickly turn into no grey as you move backwards. The line is usually not quite clean, hence the ombré effect. As going grey goes, I actually kind of like it.)

4. Walked to the drugstore and back. Cannot believe how warm the winter has been. I've been wearing my level 3 gear (winter coat/boots) but I think it only hit -20 one time in the dead of night. Hardly any days have even been -10 during the day, and usually closer to zero. The squirrels have barely bothered to hibernate. I saw one trying to dig up something it had buried, but when it saw me looking, it backed off. I tried to play it like I'd seen nothing, but it was not fooled. So cute.

On 2/21/2024 at 3:16 PM, deftona said:

oh....

On 2/11/2024 at 3:01 PM, Amaroq Apprentice said:

Fast forward to the puzzle. If I can appreciate and take the time to respect and put together the “special shape” of the puzzle, why not the “special shape” of my body? 

 

Goals:

 

Don’t be so critical of my current shape. 

This is an excellent goal.

I hope that everything is going well. But also, don't be afraid to share if it's not. We're all here to help each other.

On 2/11/2024 at 7:48 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I wasn’t gonna challenge but then @Harriet mentioned slug studies and I couldn’t resist, because SLUGS. 😍

I seem to remember you being very down on leeches, but now you are making a play for the slugs. I see how it is.
 

On 2/19/2024 at 8:55 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Speaking of homework, we had to record a video of ourselves doing a really simple movement loop while making a running commentary of what we felt in our body.

Ugh, awkward movement and talking about how you feel where sounds like a virtual doctor's visit, not a fun happy thing.

1. I went out to an event at the library today after my D&D was cancelled, but it turns out I had the date wrong. Ah well, got me out of the house.

2. My book pile-to-return (as well as the keep pile) is slowly growing. Key word here, slowly. Turns out that the Konmari technique of looking at and holding a thing to gauge your feelings on it really doesn't work for books. At least not for me. Unless I'm already familiar with the book, the title might look interesting, but that's not enough to go on. Even reading the back is not enough. An interesting topic can be rendered uninteresting by bad writing, shallow coverage, biased treatment (unless the goal was to hear from a particular perspective), and so on. After a bit of reading, I can judge how excited I am to read the rest by that feeling of joy. This all takes time. But I'm getting rid of about half of the books I touch, so I feel like I'm being suitably selective and making progress. It just doesn't satisfy my desire for big stacks of books to return really soon.

3. I got to do some positive self-talk on the way to the event-that-wasn't to counter negative social-oriented thoughts. And I wasn't even trying, the countering came naturally. That feels like progress.

4. Counting the walking to and from the library today.

Side effect of all of this book review: I'm going to end up with the next few sessions of storytime all prepped without even trying.

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

Oh, fun!  Is that crochet?

Tatting. It's basically one long chain with a ring of the end.

1. I decided to only go to the second event. The first is recurring, so I can try it again in two weeks. I just didn't think I had the socials in me to do two in one day, and the second was the more important. And it went really well! I met some new people, and we chatted while eating cheese. They are planning laser tag in the not-so-distant future.

2. I continued working on books, but progress is still very slow. Too slow. I need to work a bit harder.

3. Going to the event and talking freely with people who seemed to be happy enough that I was there was a confidence builder. I was nervous on the walk to the event, but I still mingled with strangers. Yay me!

4. I walked to and from the event, and it had the usual effect of giving me a chance to be alone with my thoughts, so it counts.

My snail offering:

4 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

1. Being normal is highly overrated.

2. The poster with the tree is beautiful.  

So I hear.

It's actually a tapestry - I got it from a New Agey crystal shop that closed down not long after I moved here. I sewed velcro onto the corners and it now sticks very nicely to the wall.

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1. I'm going to try to get out for two events tomorrow. I just need to make sure I get to bed early enough tonight that I will be willing to get up early to do art tomorrow.

2. I'm picking away at the books, but I haven't gotten a whole lot done today.

3. Did a meditation "seated practice" with an app called simply "Meditation". I had forgotten how simple it was at its core - just paying attention to and returning focus to one's breathing.

4. I sold a couple of books, so I counted the walk to and from the post office as my walk for the day. I also got pulled into a local bakery by the delicious smells wafting out their door, and came home with some pumpkin curry soup, an asparagus and parmesan scone, and an apple and pomegranate scone. I do not regret my purchases.

Accountability pictures!

My personal library books:

My work pile:
 

This is before I have started weeding the piles. You can see why it needs doing.

I'm still going to have what probably seems to normal people like an insane amount of books when I'm done, but it should be a *smaller* insane amount of books.

I neglected to take a nap on getting home from work. As a result, I faded very quickly after my D&D game and crashed for ten hours. I got a token amount of podcast weeding done, and did not walk.

1. My next scheduled event is on Saturday. Actually, if I can motivate myself to get up early on a non-work day, there are TWO things on Saturday. Will be nice to finally get a tick in this box!

2. I will finish out the podcasts tonight. I also did some work with the masses of old work files that I have during my planning time at work.

3. Despite compliments at work, I had to fight a little here today. I'm not in the mood tonight, but tomorrow I'm going to try a meditation session.

4. After this post.

I have social events over the next few days, but no work, so I hope to move on from podcasts to my book pile. It is going to be hard to make decisions about what to keep and what to let go. But it is going to be very nice to see a pile of books that can go back, so that my space is tidier and I can actually see what I have and am excited to read everything I have checked out.

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

In some good news, Wraith has finally accepted Phantom and will allow him to come near her.  I got a picture of all three cats sleeping in close proximity for the first time ever

Victory!

(They are adorable.)

15 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Radioactive cat? I think I missed something.

One of my cats had hyperthyroidism, for which the best non-pill treatment is radioactive iodine. We dropped her off at the vet, they kept her for about a week while testing her with a Geiger counter, then let her come home. She was still radioactive, just less so, so for two weeks we had to limit contact with her to 30 minutes per person per day. That meant locking her up while we were sleeping, hence the dog crate. (She's doing okay now. Might be slightly hypothyroid, but we're hoping that's a side effect of the urinary tract infection she had.)

10 hours ago, Mistr said:

Yay for having a high energy day and getting lots done! You also deserve credit for all the things you did on the days that were a slog, but you did it anyway.

 

Excellent work figuring out that you were triggered and finding a more positive way to deal with it.

It was yay!

And thanks! It feels like I'm finally making some progress on this.

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1. Nothing.

2. I worked on the podcasts a little bit while waiting at the dentist's, and I will pull a few books to return to the library before I go to bed.

3. Nothing conscious on my part. I had my ego built by someone complimenting me on how well I had helped them at work, but nothing self-constructive that was my own initiative.

4. I feel like my brain is trying to find ways to talk me out of taking a walk tonight, so it will likely be a very short one.

My tatting class went well, I think! All of the children who were signed up came, and one of the parents stuck around too. One of them caught on extremely quickly; I barely had to teach her. Two others learned pretty fast, but were still making beginner mistakes at the end. (They will be fine if they practice.) The other two (the youngest of the bunch) struggled more. They had the right motions, but were very awkward. One of them will get better if she practices. I'm not sure the other one cares enough to improve.

Work went very fast, and I have to get up early tomorrow, so I had better get on with choosing my books to return before bed. (Seeing the pile go down as I return books for real, rather than just putting them back on the hold rotation, is also exciting!)

16 hours ago, Sepherina said:

lol!  I did promise the hubs that I would not buy any yarn until I had knitted through most of the stash I had. Yarn is an addiction ya’ll.

It also breeds....

My yarn "stash" is mostly weird little oddments that look cool, but that I don't know what to do with. My yarn acquisition strategy going forward is to stick with the sizes of yarn that I gravitate to and never last long in stash (fingering-weight mostly) so that I'll have a stash that makes sense and that mixes and matches easily. And also to order only for projects, rather than the other way around. (This has already failed, but it's an aspirational goal.)

15 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I think I could handle recording myself if I had an editor to send everything to and I never had to watch it myself. I don't know why this is such a hard thing, but it seems to be a very widespread feeling. So congrats on stepping out and doing it.

I've done (and edited) voice recordings before, but video is next-level intimidating. I just hope my students find it usable. Class is tomorrow, so this is the final product.

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1. Nope. I'm starting to feel like I'm failing this goal, but the only thing on my calendar that I could have attended came up while I was sick and contagious. And I can't attend the one tomorrow because I had to reschedule my dentist's appointment due to that illness. But I'm really excited for the one this Saturday! I hope it goes well.

2. I had SO MUCH ENERGY today and I wanted to do all of the things! This doesn't happen a lot, so I tried to make the most of it. I got my laundry pile all folded and put away, finally took apart and put away the dog crate that my radioactive cat used months ago, tidied up and put away a few other things, Konmaried some library books, went through some more podcasts (including a channel with over 600 episodes where I deleted more than half), read a few challenges for the first time in WAY too long, made a tasty supper of Chinese lemon chicken and an almond guy ding-ish side, and still was able to play a few games and spend a little relax time with a candle and a book. There's still work to do before it looks "tidy" in here, but it's definitely tidiER.

3. Honestly, it was just nice to know that I can get things done when I want to. The time I spent just doing something I wanted to do felt really good.

4. I have not walked yet (I did yesterday btw - shorter than usual due to the cold wind, but still done). I will though. Just going to get a few more books in my return pile first.

On 2/15/2024 at 6:18 AM, WhiteGhost said:

We did get some terrible news, though. 

On 2/18/2024 at 5:16 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Purring cat improves meditation.  

A fitting reward for getting meditation in both days of the weekend.

17 hours ago, Sepherina said:

But I will keep it mind, maybe once my knitting stash is smaller.

If you are like most knitters, this means never.

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1. I met up for D&D today, remotely though (because my ride forgot about me). Nothing else on the schedule.

2. I am up to the Ss in my podcasts. I must have gotten rid of at least a hundred hours. Looking forward to getting to the end of this pile. I have been making fairly easy choices so far.

3. Something triggered an emotional reaction to a core negative belief, so I got a chance to try something different from letting that thought run and making me feel really bad. I let the feeling pass, then tried to think of what the thought was telling me. In this case, I was feeling a lack of something, so I thought about what I could do to remedy that lack. I think next time, I will also try to work in some gratitude for what I have as well. This is a practice thing, and this practice went well.

I also tried a completely new thing to me - I recorded a short video of myself demonstrating my tatting technique. It was a one-take shot with a poor-quality camera and no script, so it's no masterpiece, but it's the first time I've ever done anything like it and I'm proud of myself for trying.

4. I am working on motivating myself right now.

17 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

That does sound lovely. 

The only way it could have been lovelier would be if it had been sparkling.

17 hours ago, Sepherina said:

I haven’t heard about tatting in a very long time.  My grandmother used to do this but she never taught me. I’m glad the skill is still around. 

Well, I've got five teens in my class next week, so it looks like the next generation is interested in learning too. Plus I got a lot of adult enquiries and couple of adults offering to help out. I've been surprised at the interest. (If you ever want to learn, I'd be happy to help!)

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1. Nothing on today, which is good, because I kept falling asleep once I got home from work. 😅

2. I weeded several hundred saved articles at work.

3. I can't think of anything specifically, but it was a positive mindset day.

4. Another walk on the same path. The snow is set in place now, and it's much colder than yesterday. Not quite cold enough for the snow to squeak, but close. The cold air made me cough at first, but by the end of the walk I didn't even notice it.

1. Nothing on schedule for today either, and my one event for the day got pushed back a week.

2. I weeded only one podcast. It was all I could manage and still have time for a walk.

3. The work that I took home today was creative work - I had to draw out a pattern that I had copied from a video on top of the instructions I had written earlier. Then I had to get some stuff ready for my tatting class. I still need to make a video (because apparently I have an odd tatting technique), but otherwise I'm done now. The creativity was confidence-building.

4. Took a walk at midnight. At least a dozen people use my path daily, it looks like. I ran into someone else on the path, which is a first for a night walk on this particular path.  It was lovely and white, and the snow was powdery and easy to walk through and made soft crunching noises the whole way.

16 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I have been having some similar reflections lately about the unreliability of feelings when it comes to evaluating situations. I need to get better at articulating it, though, because I think my women's group currently believes that I just don't think feelings matter. But just because your feelings are valid doesn't mean they accurately reflect truth. Heavy thoughts, but important work.

Yeah, they are information, but not the whole picture. Like, you might be afraid of something and it is fine to feel that fear and acknowledge you brain trying to protect you, and still do the scary thing because you know it's the right thing for you.

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1. I did not have any things on the docket for today.

2. I deleted many podcast episodes and unsubscribed from some too. Also unsubbed from a couple of email lists and closed a bunch more mobile tabs (and found a new place to visit on a future walk in the process!). Feels good.

3. Taking these steps and noticing thoughts is making me feel good about myself right now. Competent and such.

4. I took the long way home. It was cold and crunchy. It is snowing right now, so tomorrow will have a new blanket of white to explore. I am interested to see how many people take my walking route in a given day, and the footprints should show me.

On 2/13/2024 at 7:08 AM, Sepherina said:

Hurray for small steps.  I hope you feel better.  This sick season has been rough for a lot of people.

On 2/13/2024 at 7:34 AM, Artemis Prime said:

Glad to hear that you are mending.

Thanks to you both! I'm happy to be mending too!

I feel very much better, though my breathing is still rough. I hope I am no longer contagious, since the symptoms have gone down, so I went back to work but made sure to have a good-quality mask on at all times.

I wish I could say that I got lots done on the Tuesday I took off, as I had planned. I've chipped away a little more at the podcast pile, but that's it really. I could have walked yesterday but didn't, and I completely forgot about it today until I went to post (I will do the emergency end-of-the-driveway walk as I am too tired for more than that). Tomorrow I have an appointment though, so I WILL be walking, and I can very easily take the long way home.

I've been trying to just mindfully notice negative thoughts when they come up and think about where they are coming from. It doesn't always help (and I'm not always able to achieve it), but sometimes it can help the notice that xxx thought is, say, a sign of anxiety or stress, even without dealing with the anxiety or stress. Sort of a reminder that the thoughts that trickle into our conscience aren't some ultimate fount of truth and wisdom, but themselves have a source further back in self-beliefs and experiences, which are linked to feelings, which are linked to the conditions of the current moment, and so on. Like the tip of an iceberg, they are just the immediate and visible part, but the invisible that holds them up is crucial to understanding them. And it sometimes takes some of the power of the thoughts away to be able to think "Ah, I've noticed that thought tends to creep up when I am tired or at this point in the hormonal cycle. Thank you for showing me that I am tired/emotionally low."

1. I have a calendar with things in it! And I am actually quite looking forward to one of the things!

2. I closed a bunch of my mobile tabs today. I'm still short on energy and focus, and that was about all I could manage from a decision-making point of view. Still progress, just progress that respects my current ability.

3. Nothing on this really, though making progress on #1 did make me feel happy.

4. This will not happen today either. I don't think it would be good for the healing process.

I'm definitely on the mend but still tire quickly; 50/50 on whether I can go to work tomorrow. For now I just need to eat something I think - I've had one bowl of soup and one glass of juice in the last two days. Later!

I was sicker than I thought yesterday. When I tried to go through my podcasts, my brain quickly shut down and I had to take a half hour rest. Even watching a couple of episodes of Kids in the Hall required a nap to recover from.

I feel somewhat better today; more able to think anyway. Definitely want to get those community events in my calendar today!

4 hours ago, Jarric said:

I totally get this. I can feel the pressure building up whenever I have a ton of notifications ony phone, or a pile of unread e-mails. My tabs on my phone are getting out of control too. I'll be interested to see (and steal) what strategies you end up with around this during this challenge.

At the moment, my strategy is "slow and steady". I'm picking one category at a time (right now, podcasts), looking at each sub to see if I look forward to them or get good value from them, and then going through the individual episode list of the ones I keep to delete any that don't sound interesting or useful. In an hour yesterday, I got rid of over 50 hours of episodes. Still lots to go. Email will take the longest, both because the pile is huge and because I want to set up filters to help control the volume from the lists I stay on (I get my community Facebook group notifications sent to my email).

I also opened some tabs on my phone about information FOMO. I have too many phone tabs open too. 😂

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1.  Haven't done anything on this yet. The plan for today is to put the events I researched last time that don't conflict with work into my calendar, with notifications. Then I will not forget them.

2. Started on podcasts, going down the list of subs alphabetically. I tend to download the ENTIRE back catalogue of podcasts I find interesting, and some of the ones at the beginning of my list had over 600 episodes. I'm not sure how much I weeded, but it was a fair bit. Many hours. Two of the many-episode podcasts I've barely listened to. I will try out a few episodes today, and perhaps decide to jettison those subs.

3. I got some help from an unexpected place - a tab on my phone. At some point while I was low, I must have opened tabs for the search "do I matter" or somesuch. This one was a reddit thread where the author asked simply "do you feel like you matter". The comments were all "no", "no", "no; I spend all my time in my room", "only to myself/my cat". It was somehow comforting to see this as a common feeling, but also how it was linked to the person's own actions (eg. you can't make friends to matter to if you never try to meet them) and therefore you can do something to make it better. And also that mattering to oneself was a thing; I'd kind of forgotten that. 🤦‍♀️Anyway, it actually gave me something to help counter those feelings when they roll around again, I think.

4. I went for a short walk yesterday. The weather was lovely, hovering right around zero. I took a less usual route for me and was delighted to hear windchimes in the dark. There's something very peaceful and beautiful about that.

I could feel myself coming down with something yesterday, and now I am pretty sick and not likely to leave my comfy comfy blankets. Fortunately, this challenge is very well suited to living in comfy comfy blankets.

7 hours ago, Sepherina said:

I can relate to this too!  There is soo much content.  Soo much to read, learn, watch, etc.  I get burnt out and then just purge.  I like your method better and may try it in the future.

 

Here to support and uplift you!  You got this!  

I rarely purge. I just... ignore. I once walked away from my email for more than a year. That's the problem with digital stuff especially - the piles don't take up physical space as they grow, so you can ignore them. But they take up MENTAL space.

I have finally updated the challenge archive in my Battle Log! (I was FIVE challenges out of date.) And the link in my profile. I've been meaning to get this done for ages. Also, I don't think I've ever really reviewed my challenges to see what I was working on in the past, what progress I've made, or how priorities have changed. Or what worked and what didn't, even. I should probably do that at some point. It would be a nice walk down memory lane. But not now.