juliebarkley

On 1/2/2023 at 4:16 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

FWIW, you only need to pull it together to make it happen. If it's good enough to graduate, that's all that matters.

Agree with Tank. Done is better than pretty, and not-pretty seems to be working for you.

19 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Excellent! congratulations. 

I will pass it on.

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Today's task was to get my remote backups via Airport Extreme set up and running (finally). Unfortunately, I didn't finish. It was one of those tasks where it feels like something goes wrong, or you need to look something up or go fetch something or whatever at every single step, then repeat each step more than once in order to move on. I did make progress - I got everything plugged in correctly, got the Airport Extreme correctly configure, connected to the internet, and viewable on all devices. What isn't viewable yet is the drive it is supposed to be hosting. I believe that it is because it is formatted in a format that the Extreme doesn't support, so it will need to be reformatted. However, since that drive also has the only backup for my main computer, I would need to make a temporary backup to a different drive before reformatting that one and repeating the whole process again when (hopefully) it displays correctly. This is where my patience for this task finally ended for today.

We are currently under a freezing rain warning (the rain has been coming down in buckets, and the temps are dropping hard). The last few weeks have had snowfall warnings, other freezing rain warnings, flash flood warnings.... Winter is still trying to kill us, just not in the usual ways.

One-time action was uncreative today - I recycled a few papers from my backlog pile, and got rid of one book.

Story was The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. It was all right. The intro article that got me there recommended The Hand as being a "truly terrifying" Gothic story of his, so I will read that one tomorrow, I think.

And my son passed his driving test today!

No additional one-time actions to report, but I did get my first short story in. I drew Théophile Gautier, and it looks like his most famous story is La Morte Amoureuse/Clarimonde. It reminded me a great deal of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. A nice start to the project.

8 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

Do you have a way to add a note to a reminder that will trigger five years from now?

.....I hadn't thought of that. Let's see if I can pull that off. Thanks!

Edit: Done!

2 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Happy 2023!

 

One of the best things I did in this category was buying a cordless vacuum. That chore really went from awful to just grabbing it no problem. Hope you find a lot of those kinda things

That's a great example! I love it when you find a tool that just works perfectly for you.

My first one-time action effort had a sting in the tail. I set up reminders for my photo card and health card renewals. This part was successful, so I should have to worry about my ID expiring on me without my realizing it any more. They both have to be renewed this month, and can now both be renewed online, so I attempted to do that. Key word: attempted. I did the photo card first, and it took my money, sent me an email with the temporary card in a PDF, all good I thought. Only realized the problem when I went to renew the health card. Because I did the photo card first, I needed the version code from the temporary card. Open email. The file is corrupt and cannot be viewed. Darn. So I now have to hope my new ID card arrives before my old one expires (unlikely), and I have to walk down to the Service Ontario because I renewed in the wrong order. Lesson learned - renew your health card first. (I won't remember this lesson five years from now.)

Actually, that's not the first effort. Yesterday, I hung hooks in the closet so that I could hang my purse and work apron, and got a basket for my shoes so that I could remove a rack and save space. It's so much tidier there now, I'm less likely to forget my apron, there is a place for my boots... it's wonderful.

Off to do some habit planning for the new year.

New challenge!

Juliebarkley tweaks and tends the garden that she has nurtured. Some plants are healthier than others, and some have many flowers while others have only a few, but all are growing. And there is room for more plants in the tangled tumble of the garden bed.

She steps back to get a better look. The edge of the bed is eroding. Hmm. Looks around. It would be nice to have a place to sit. A bird feeder over there. And some raised beds for the vegetables.

The flowers in the garden need a good environment to support them, and it is time to give that environment a little attention.

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Building off the gardening theme from the last two challenges. The habits I've built are going well. I have not added more in a while, though I have many things to try and still plan to (I just got a bit derailed by illness and holidays). Hoping to get more planted and tweaked in the weeks ahead.

For this challenge round though, I'm going to focus on the other part of the Tiny Habits recommendations: one-time actions that support your habits and help you achieve what you want to achieve. This could be things like finding a tool that makes the behaviour you want to do easier (ex. get a pill sorter if you have trouble remembering which pills to take when), improving your environment (move the fruit bowl to make the fruit you want to eat easy to see), etc.

I'm going to expand that to any one-time action that permanently (more or less) makes my life better in some way, whether it is part of a current goal or not. It can be something that gives me more time, makes something less annoying/easier, reduces future maintenance, makes my environment less cluttered/more organized/otherwise more pleasant to be in, saves me money, and so on. As long as it is a one-time thing, not a maintenance thing. Filing papers doesn't count, even if it badly needs doing, because it will need doing again. Fixing the filing system or getting rid of old papers does, because the fix makes things permanently easier, and the papers are gone forever. There are grey areas here, but I think it's clear enough. So my goal is to do at least one of those one-time actions every day, big or small.

Oh, and I have a new reading challenge set up. I made a list of authors and will try to pick one daily via RNG and read a short story of theirs. If it doesn't end up being daily (and I will certainly miss days), the world will not end. The goal is to sample influential authors to broaden my horizons rather than to stick to a rigid goal. If there is anyone that should be on my author list (especially non-English authors whose name I might not recognize), please do suggest!

Happy challenge, and happy 2023 everyone!

On 12/28/2022 at 7:05 AM, KB Girl said:

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Sorry its late, I wasn't online for a while, but- I think you're a great person and a great mom and hope you will feel better soon 😘 

 

On 12/28/2022 at 11:40 AM, Mistr said:

You have done a great job with making positive habit changes over the last several months.

 

There has been a lot going on in your life this year with moving to a new house in a new town, your son going to high school plus the chaos in the wider world. No surprise that it gets to be too much some days.

 

Hang in there, you are strong and brave and will find a good way forward.

4 hours ago, Jupiter said:

 

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I'm very late with this, but I hope you feel better soon. 

 

 

Sorry for my late response. Thank you for your kind words and gestures. Thank you everyone. It means a lot to me. Truly.

I thought the new challenge started next week, but I am already late it seems. Don't have the mental energy to plan and write one tonight though. So there will be a new challenge tomorrow.

I spent a chunk of today building a list of authors, because my theme for this year's reading is short stories. A novel is a commitment, but a short story lets you sample an author in a lot less time. I figured, maybe I could try for one author a day. So I've got old authors, like Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, new authors like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, lots from the early days of scifi and detective fiction, and lots in between.

Speaking of, if anyone has a favourite author that I should absolutely have on the list but might not, let me know! I was trying to hit people who were influential in their field, famous in general or in their own country, or not well-known but should be. (Plus a few thrown in just because they seemed interesting.) My list is weighted heavily towards scifi because of the history of the genre, and could use some balance. The only requirement is that they have to have written short stories that are similar to their full-length work.

On 12/24/2022 at 1:07 AM, Scaly Freak said:

 

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Sadness is unpleasant. I hope it passes soon, and that the good things in your life (like friends and family) never lose meaning.

 

 

On 12/24/2022 at 4:54 PM, Jarric said:

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I hope you feel less sad soon. You are a good person, and you deserve to be happy.

 

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Squatmas complete! Can't really say that much more than that has been accomplished.

Looks like it's time to roll up a new challenge.

I didn't get my Squatmas squats done until Boxing Day, but 50 completed at just under 25% of bodyweight with 2x12lb dumbbells - first 20 in sets of 10, then four sets of 5, then the last in another set of 10 as the finish line (and the memory of Willes) gave me a burst of energy.

Sitting down and getting back up might be a challenge for a while. 😅

Habits are good.

Where is Squatmas happening this year? I haven't seen a signup, but to miss it would feel at best, wrong. At worst, a betrayal of sorts.

I have been ticking along. I should probably have looked at more seeds to plant, or ways to nurture the seeds I've already planted more, but I have not.

15 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Must be the endorphins! 

It does feel really good to have something you couldn't do, that you can do again.

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I've been absent mostly because I've been boring. Still healing, still reading (most of the public transportation book is less annoying than its introduction led me to believe it would be), still crafting, still habiting. Not back up to 100%, but getting there.

15 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Ugh, hope things continue to get better, preferably fast! 

Your hope worked, because I am much better now.

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Started doing really small pushups off the walls, and it was a relief to get back to them. What is this sorcery?!

Also can finally knit, so I've been doing a lot of that today.

Not much more to say.

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

I am glad that your son's first car accident was just scary and not serious.

 

I hope both of you get lots of rest and recover quickly from whatever virus you caught.

 I have been resting, but resting is SO BORING. Even knitting has been hard because sitting hurts and the blankets get in the way.

3 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

This sounds very unpleasant. I hope you start feeling better soon!

The pain and fever seem less. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Everything hurts. The challenge is taking a sick day.

Interesting couple of days.

Yesterday, my son was in a car crash. He was a passenger, the car was in a parking lot, and the driver hit the gas rather than the brake and rammed into a snowbank and fence. No one was hurt, and even the car was only slightly damaged, but he was still shaken by it, as you would be. It was a good learning moment about how fast things can go wrong.

Today, he came home with a high fever. I felt fine when I went to work, but progressively worse as the day wore on - tired, cold, weak, a little light-headed. Not terrible, but wanting to rest after a few minutes of standing and then not wanting to get up again once down. I was counting the minutes until I could go home, then slept for hours once I got there. Trying to decide right now between food and more sleep.

Because the nap messed with my schedule, the evening habits did not happen. But laundry did, somehow.

8 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

What?! I need that toaster!!!

It's this little guy. Sadly, it's been discontinued. But I'm sure there are similar products out there. The key is that it steams the "hard-boiled" eggs; that's what makes the shells easy to remove.

11 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

Following. 

Welcome!

11 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

Will have to take a look at it  

It is good. I've read a lot of habit books, and this one really walks you through step by step how-to-do. Most don't. I took notes.

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All's well in habit land.

Lineups at the post office are getting out of control. I joined the line in the post office box part of the post office, and watched multiple people walk in, swear, then walk right back out. I believe all of my packages have now arrived. Hooray! Now I just have to wrap things, and prepare my brother's envelope of money.

Must make some sort of tidying-up habit. It's getting real messy in here. I tend to abandon all maintenance when stuck into a big project and it is showing. But the laundry thing is working well enough that the situation is better than normal, so perhaps there is hope for me yet.

Back to knitting on the Endless.

7 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

Food isn't going that well but some preparation steps have been made. My Salad Jars have been ordered and arrive on Friday. I've been also reducing sugar, changing the recuring Caramel Macchiato for a plain Latte is doing the trick. Also cleared the pantry a couple of weeks ago and that generated that I now eat less out of boredom.

Laying groundwork by getting tools and making your environment better sounds like progress to me!

7 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

Still need to work on cooking my breakfast.

What kind of breakfast are you hoping for, and what's holding you back? There could be a tool that would make that easier too (eg. my toaster makes awesome, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs).

7 hours ago, Ike Eldrazi said:

Decided that reading is also enjoyable for me and worth incorporating but without any "books per year" goal in mind.

There's an annual reading chitchat thread here, if that is your kind of thing.

Habits are back to their proper state. I even folded extra laundry.

I think the habit that I missed yesterday is better for today. I regularly have either local D&D or local boardgaming, both of which involve leaving the house for something that is not work. It feels like an "event" in a way that coming back from work on my work Saturday just doesn't. So that habit is now:

• After I get home from D&D or board games, I will pay zakat, then I will smile big.

It has been a day of both knitting, and playing too many board games as "breaks" from the knitting. This is largely because illusion knitting does not gift you with memorizable repeats, but instead ties you to the pattern, and therefore, to the computer. And scarves are really long. Really, really long.