[juliebarkley]

I was going to write this challenge tonight, but I had trouble even staying awake for the last half hour at work and I lack any brainpower at all for writing, thinking, and all the other skills that go into challenge-making. But I don't want to procrastinate, so behold, the placeholder. A real challenge will appear anon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For this short holiday challenge, I was feeling a bit at a loss. My schedule is full and subject to change, my son will be leaving part way through, which will bring some 😢, and though I have a few things I want to get done by the end of the year, it wasn't feeling very challengey. So I am stealing inspiration from the rest of you!

 

Tasks to complete:

For obvious reasons, knitted gifts need to be completed by the end of the year. Everything else is a want to complete.

• Knit coworker gifts (I am aiming for nine completed washcloths, of which I have 2). (Inspired by @Rinna)
• Sew in ends of neckwarmers (7, with maybe more to come). Somehow, through a conversation I had at work months ago, I recruited myself to finishing knitted items for poor children. So now I have a bag of them to finish. 🤷‍♀️ Life is random sometimes. (Inspired by @Avery the Patient)
• Read two Sherlock Holmes stories by the end of the year. Shooting for Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town as well. (Inspired by @Artemis Prime)
• Squatmas. (Inspired by @Mr_Willes)
• Revise 5-year plan; set out some kind of plan for the year to come. (Inspired by @UnquietBones)
• Play through an IF game. (Inspired by @DarK_RaideR)
• Build vocal booth. (Inspired by ... the pipes I dragged home today; apparently no one else is building anything this month)

 

Grab Bag of Joyful habits:

I would love to say I will aim to do these all every day, but that's crazy unrealistic. I shall track them and see what I gravitate towards.

• Walk outdoors. I no longer live in a place where this is dangerous after dark, merely cold and unpleasant so I just don't wanna, even though it's good for me. It is, however, approaching the perfect time of year for stargazing. I think I should be able to see some constellations. If not, Christmas lights will be an acceptable substitute. (Inspired by @Heidi and @Snarkyfishguts)
• Shuffle dance! It's fun and good for quick bursts of indoor exercise. (Inspired by @WhiteGhost)
• Get back into Elements. It's been too long since regular exercise.  (Inspired by @Mistr)
• Practice violin. It's been a couple of months, and I miss it. Plus I have three songs to get ready, maybe for an end-of-year finish? We shall see... (Inspired by @WhiteGhost and @Artemis Prime)
• Play around with d20 lists. I have three right now - a general one, a side hustle one, and a 1st/2nd quadrant one. This is an experiment in simplifying my time blocking, getting things done, and having a place to dump tasks I think of all in one. Three weeks of playtime should give me some idea how workable this is. (Inspired by @Kishi and @spezzy)
• Read and post on the forums. (Inspired by @Starpuck)
• Prayer and scripture. (Inspired by @WolfDreamer)

 

I will not complete all the things. I know this going in. But I have lots of fun options and flexibility, which is just what I need.

 

(If you came here because you got pinged, sorry but not sorry, because now you know I stole from you. )

[WhiteGhost]

4 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

A real challenge will appear anon.

[juliebarkley]

Still a placeholder. Forgot that this challenge was going to be shorter than average. Also forgot that I have taken a lot of extra shifts between now and the end of the year. Hmm. Must rethink.

[Mad Hatter]

Placeholder comment. 😄

[juliebarkley]

On 12/2/2021 at 6:07 AM, WhiteGhost said:

  It is now.

 

16 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Placeholder comment. 😄

Touche.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Real challenge is up now, but too late to work on for today. It was an early start for a work team meeting for the whole organization. They got three comedians to do zoom shows for us, and two of them were quite good. (The third was too blue for early Friday morning.) My favourite moment was when the comedian said something like "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll? You can find them all at the library", to which a colleague replied deadpan in the chat, "That's intellectual freedom." 😂 I love my colleagues. We also got a bit of unplanned humour as it turns out Zoom's auto-captioning does unfortunate and occasionally hilarious things to non-English speech. We are very strong at puppet advocacy, says Zoom.

 

I am not a morning person, so I was tired when I got home and took a nap, then went to fetch my order of 10-foot PVC pipes with a 3ft shopping trolley and walk them 1.5km home. This required some creativity. It was a memorable shopping adventure.

[XBlackWidowX]

wow, you've got so many objectives! You're right, it is hard to accomplish all of that (it even hard to memorize all of that lol), but it'll definitely make your day interesting. And maybe you'll discover what you are most passionate about. 

[Epsilonte]

Happy nonchallenge challenge! That is quite the challenge. Here to cheer on you

[Artemis Prime]

On 12/2/2021 at 1:18 AM, juliebarkley said:

I shall track them and see what I gravitate towards.

Huh. This is really smart. Kind of like tracking calories without any conscious changes to establish a baseline. I'm wondering why the heck I never thought of this and now the wheels are turning for January's challenge. Inspiration reciprocated!

[DarK_RaideR]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:18 AM, juliebarkley said:

Play through an IF game. (Inspired by @DarK_RaideR)

No clue what an IF game is, but I'm here to cheer you on!

[Sepherina]

You can steal inspiration from me any time😊

[UnquietBones]

I gave up trying to come up with 5 year plans a loooooong time ago, my life has this habit of upending itself consistantly enough that my goals are always changing! 😂😅

It's hard to pick what to work on (my list right now has ALL THE THINGS), what sort of themes/topics do you usual set goals for? (Am just crazy curious how other folks approach it now) 

[Kishi]

Aw, I'm honored! Happy to see you take some good from my shenanigans.  These "wander and watch" challenges tend to be very educational and I've personally taken a lot of good from them. I hope you get the same.

[Snarkyfishguts]

Love this. And bringing us together is good 

[juliebarkley]

12 hours ago, XBlackWidowX said:

wow, you've got so many objectives! You're right, it is hard to accomplish all of that (it even hard to memorize all of that lol), but it'll definitely make your day interesting. And maybe you'll discover what you are most passionate about. 

Oh, I'm not even going to try to accomplish (or memorize) the whole list. I just need some things to gravitate towards when I have only a few minutes, and other things for when I have a whole afternoon. I think I accomplished that.

 

12 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Happy nonchallenge challenge! That is quite the challenge. Here to cheer on you

Always lovely to have you.

 

11 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Huh. This is really smart. Kind of like tracking calories without any conscious changes to establish a baseline. I'm wondering why the heck I never thought of this and now the wheels are turning for January's challenge. Inspiration reciprocated!

Glad to return the favour!

 

10 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

No clue what an IF game is, but I'm here to cheer you on!

Interactive Fiction. Like Zork, where you navigate with commands like "go north" and "get sandwich", and there are (often) a lot of puzzles to solve, and (often) the game gets very sarcastic with the player. I picked Photopia partly because I've heard it's very good, and partly because it has limited interactivity, and I am out of practice.

 

9 hours ago, Avery the Patient said:

You can steal inspiration from me any time😊

Note to self....

 

5 hours ago, UnquietBones said:

I gave up trying to come up with 5 year plans a loooooong time ago, my life has this habit of upending itself consistantly enough that my goals are always changing! 😂😅

It's hard to pick what to work on (my list right now has ALL THE THINGS), what sort of themes/topics do you usual set goals for? (Am just crazy curious how other folks approach it now) 

I did my initial plan using D&D stats: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA, plus occupational, tool, and language proficiencies. Those can be made to fit pretty much every goal I have ever had. I haven't used it for the last few challenges because moving took over my life, but I still really like it as a way of thinking about goals.

 

5 hours ago, Kishi said:

Aw, I'm honored! Happy to see you take some good from my shenanigans.  These "wander and watch" challenges tend to be very educational and I've personally taken a lot of good from them. I hope you get the same.

I hope so too!

 

3 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Love this. And bringing us together is good 

Thanks. (But that's not the Grinchly spirit! )

[juliebarkley]

Tasks:

Coworker gifts: 3/9

Sewing ends: 1/7

Reading: Read two Holmes stories.

Squatmas:

Plan:

IF:

Booth:

 

Habits:

Walk: 0/?

Shuffle: Briefly. I get tired fast. I can go from running man to t-step fairly easily, but not so much the other way round. 1/?

Elements: 0/?

Violin: 0/?

Lists: 0/?

Forums: Yes. 1/?

Prayer: 0/?

 

Played friendly poker in the afternoon (I did not win) and everything else afterwards. I messed around on the computer until the battery was nearly dead, then felt a bit achey from sitting and staring at a screen, so was in the mood for both Elements and violin to get some movement in. Alas, I realized I needed my computer for both, so that did not work out. No walk either. We did, however, finally get enough snow to cover the ground, so I stole some inspiration from @Happienumber and greeted the snow.

[arcaneinvictus]

Definitely following this thread! I love the variety in your challenges! Do you have any recommendations where to get a violin? 😊

[Heidi]

On 12/2/2021 at 1:18 AM, juliebarkley said:

It is, however, approaching the perfect time of year for stargazing.

May you enjoy your walks, and the stars that go with them! (Or seasonal lights, which are also festive!)

 

On 12/2/2021 at 1:18 AM, juliebarkley said:

Play through an IF game.

May you not be eaten by a Grue!

[Scaly Freak]

On 12/4/2021 at 4:36 PM, juliebarkley said:

 

Thanks. (But that's not the Grinchly spirit! )

 

What's the Grinch's least favorite band ever?

 

Spoiler

The Who

 

[juliebarkley]

19 hours ago, arcaneinvictus said:

Definitely following this thread! I love the variety in your challenges! Do you have any recommendations where to get a violin? 😊

Thanks! Happy to have you along!

 

So, um, do not read much into my violin ability. I only started in January, have never had a lesson, and practice for about 5-10 minutes a day. I am still struggling with what are probably pretty basic things, and playing very beginner songs. My violin is either my grandfather's or my father's (there were two when my father died, and I picked one). They were both probably relatively cheap ones when new. The only advice I have heard that I can pass on, is that a good place to get a decent musical instrument for a reasonable price is a pawn shop. It's a valuable item that lots of people try for a short while then shove in a closet, so when people are short on cash, instruments are the first thing to go.

 

14 hours ago, Heidi said:

May you enjoy your walks, and the stars that go with them! (Or seasonal lights, which are also festive!)

 

May you not be eaten by a Grue!

Had a walk today in the sparkling snow.

 

No grues in Photopia - most modern IF are a bit kinder to the player than Infocom ever was.

 

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

What's the Grinch's least favorite band ever?

 

  Hide contents

The Who

 

But what would he be without them, I ask you? (You can be an honourary Grinch for that joke. It shows insider knowledge of Grinch culture. )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tasks:

Coworker gifts: 3/9

Sewing ends: 2/7

Reading:

Squatmas:

Plan: Not quite done done, but it's my plan after this post to play around with the time blocks in my calendar. They are very messed up, and are annoying me.

IF:

Booth:

 

Habits:

Walk: 1/? It was snowing, so I still don't know if I can see the stars. I don't think so though. (I miss my darkest dark. 😢) There are a few windows in the retirement home with decorations, and a handful of houses too. And the snow was beautiful sparkling freshly falling powder, which is always magic (when it's not blowing in your face and stabbing you in the eyes).

Shuffle: 1/?

Elements: 0/?

Violin: 1/? Played through the three songs I need to get good at a bunch of times, ie. until I got very frustrated. (And a little bit winded; why?!) I remember all the notes (yay!), but I need a lot of work to play them smoothly and am squeaking when switching down a string (boo!). Also really struggling to play the third finger position on the third string without also playing the second string, because when that string is pressed, the two strings seem to be the same height. Do I have to tilt the fiddle itself differently? I should probably get a lesson in the beginner basics at some point.

Lists: 1/? Messed around in my general list. Haven't touched the other two yet.

Forums: Yes. 2/?

Prayer: 0/?

 

The theme of the day has been "set up electronic devices". My son's Christmas Kindle arrived (his old one is not holding a charge well, and he uses it a LOT), and he wanted the new one for his upcoming trip, so Merry Christmas very early. My phone (iPhone 5S) started getting scatty with my SIM last night, and as of right now will not recognize it no matter what I do. (My son tells me this means the SIM-reading part of my board is dying of old age.) I planned to upgrade to a 12 Mini eventually, but I wanted to wait until the price dropped to about half retail. That's normally about 18 months after it's no longer sold in stores (which would be three months or so), but the chip shortage is keeping the second-hand prices high. So I have borrowed one of his old 5Ss temporarily and will keep an close eye on eBay. (I guess this means my poor faithful phone's $30 retail value has dropped to $0. 😂)

[Scaly Freak]

2 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

But what would he be without them, I ask you? (You can be an honourary Grinch for that joke. It shows insider knowledge of Grinch culture. )

 

Honorary? I am the official family Grinch. My holiday t-shirt says "Bah. Humbug!"  

 

2 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Also really struggling to play the third finger position on the third string without also playing the second string, because when that string is pressed, the two strings seem to be the same height. Do I have to tilt the fiddle itself differently? I should probably get a lesson in the beginner basics at some point.

 

Are you pressing with the pad of your finger (the part that taps on keyboards or touchscreens), or are you using the very point of the fingertip? For maximum control, versatility, and to avoid the situation you described, you're going to want to use the fingertip. That's the smallest part of your fingertip, and gives you the most control, and makes a vibrato a lot easier.

 

Caution: You will need to have the angle of your hand and wrist different when you use the tips than when you use the pads of your fingers. You will need to turn your hand so your wrist is almost right below the violin's neck, and keep your hand at an angle where if you were to open your hand fully, your fingers point to the ceiling. For this to work, you need to lower your elbow to be sort of under the violin, rather than pointing to your left. When you do this, remember to lower your shoulder, and try to relax it.

 

When you're fully relaxed, with the instrument just hanging out on your shoulder and your left hand is sitting on the violin neck and waiting for you to start playing any moment now, all of the above should end up with your left hand looking like this on the neck:

 

 

 

The technical  term for finger placement and technique is "violin fingering". Exercise caution when googling it.  

[Mad Hatter]

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

Honorary? I am the official family Grinch. My holiday t-shirt says "Bah. Humbug!"  

😂

 

3 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I miss my darkest dark. 😢)

I’m jealous you’ve even had a darkest dark. It’s been YEARS since I experienced it. 
 

I love magic sparkly snow! 😍

[Unix]

On 12/2/2021 at 7:18 AM, juliebarkley said:

I was going to write this challenge tonight, but I had trouble even staying awake for the last half hour at work and I lack any brainpower at all for writing, thinking, and all the other skills that go into challenge-making. But I don't want to procrastinate, so behold, the placeholder. A real challenge will appear anon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For this short holiday challenge, I was feeling a bit at a loss. My schedule is full and subject to change, my son will be leaving part way through, which will bring some 😢, and though I have a few things I want to get done by the end of the year, it wasn't feeling very challengey. So I am stealing inspiration from the rest of you!

 

Tasks to complete:

For obvious reasons, knitted gifts need to be completed by the end of the year. Everything else is a want to complete.

• Knit coworker gifts (I am aiming for nine completed washcloths, of which I have 2). (Inspired by @Rinna)
• Sew in ends of neckwarmers (7, with maybe more to come). Somehow, through a conversation I had at work months ago, I recruited myself to finishing knitted items for poor children. So now I have a bag of them to finish. 🤷‍♀️ Life is random sometimes. (Inspired by @Avery the Patient)
• Read two Sherlock Holmes stories by the end of the year. Shooting for Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town as well. (Inspired by @Artemis Prime)
• Squatmas. (Inspired by @Mr_Willes)
• Revise 5-year plan; set out some kind of plan for the year to come. (Inspired by @UnquietBones)
• Play through an IF game. (Inspired by @DarK_RaideR)
• Build vocal booth. (Inspired by ... the pipes I dragged home today; apparently no one else is building anything this month)

 

Grab Bag of Joyful habits:

I would love to say I will aim to do these all every day, but that's crazy unrealistic. I shall track them and see what I gravitate towards.

• Walk outdoors. I no longer live in a place where this is dangerous after dark, merely cold and unpleasant so I just don't wanna, even though it's good for me. It is, however, approaching the perfect time of year for stargazing. I think I should be able to see some constellations. If not, Christmas lights will be an acceptable substitute. (Inspired by @Heidi and @Snarkyfishguts)
• Shuffle dance! It's fun and good for quick bursts of indoor exercise. (Inspired by @WhiteGhost)
• Get back into Elements. It's been too long since regular exercise.  (Inspired by @Mistr)
• Practice violin. It's been a couple of months, and I miss it. Plus I have three songs to get ready, maybe for an end-of-year finish? We shall see... (Inspired by @WhiteGhost and @Artemis Prime)
• Play around with d20 lists. I have three right now - a general one, a side hustle one, and a 1st/2nd quadrant one. This is an experiment in simplifying my time blocking, getting things done, and having a place to dump tasks I think of all in one. Three weeks of playtime should give me some idea how workable this is. (Inspired by @Kishi and @spezzy)
• Read and post on the forums. (Inspired by @Starpuck)
• Prayer and scripture. (Inspired by @WolfDreamer)

 

I will not complete all the things. I know this going in. But I have lots of fun options and flexibility, which is just what I need.

 

(If you came here because you got pinged, sorry but not sorry, because now you know I stole from you. )

Thats actually a lot to do o.o

 

[juliebarkley]

18 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

My holiday t-shirt says "Bah. Humbug!"  

Wrong franchise.

 

18 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Are you pressing with the pad of your finger (the part that taps on keyboards or touchscreens), or are you using the very point of the fingertip? For maximum control, versatility, and to avoid the situation you described, you're going to want to use the fingertip. That's the smallest part of your fingertip, and gives you the most control, and makes a vibrato a lot easier.

 

Caution: You will need to have the angle of your hand and wrist different when you use the tips than when you use the pads of your fingers. You will need to turn your hand so your wrist is almost right below the violin's neck, and keep your hand at an angle where if you were to open your hand fully, your fingers point to the ceiling. For this to work, you need to lower your elbow to be sort of under the violin, rather than pointing to your left. When you do this, remember to lower your shoulder, and try to relax it.

 

When you're fully relaxed, with the instrument just hanging out on your shoulder and your left hand is sitting on the violin neck and waiting for you to start playing any moment now, all of the above should end up with your left hand looking like this on the neck:

 

 

 

The technical  term for finger placement and technique is "violin fingering". Exercise caution when googling it.  

Thank you for that! I am probably not using the very tip of my fingers. I do find I have to work to keep my hand high on the violin - it tends to drift down over time. But I think my hold is rather different than what you describe. I certainly don't have to worry about having my elbow out to the left. If anything, I tend to keep it directly in front of me, propped against my chest to keep my arm from getting tired. I don't have a chin rest, so I need to keep my arm more underneath anyway so as not to drop the fiddle. I wonder though, if I need to get fingertips up more, I need to focus on getting my wrist to point to the left more rather than at the ceiling? I will try it next time.

 

17 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I’m jealous you’ve even had a darkest dark. It’s been YEARS since I experienced it. 

It is a beautiful blanket of peace.

 

6 hours ago, Unix said:

Thats actually a lot to do o.o

*whispers* I'm not actually going to do it all....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tasks:

Coworker gifts: 3/9

Sewing ends: 2/7

Reading: Started Sunshine Sketches last night, and intend to read more tonight. With a cat, by the (gas) fire.

Squatmas:

Plan:

IF:

Booth: All the pieces are cut! I've never done anything like this before, so I was afraid to cut it myself. But I did it anyway and it wasn't so bad! Now I need to clear a spot to put it together.

 

Habits:

Walk: 1/?

Shuffle: 1/?

Elements: 0/?

Violin: 1/?

Lists: 1/?

Forums: Yes. 3/?

Prayer: 0/?

 

A bit of an early update. If I do more, I'll fix the numbers tomorrow.

 

I made plans with my son to go visit a trampoline park today, but we bailed for two reasons. One, the weather was horrible - lots of snow, followed by freezing rain, regular rain, more snow... Why go out in that? Second, because he has to take a Covid test in order to travel in a week, and trampoline parks attract lots of children, who are the bulk of Covid cases where I am right now. Best not to take the chance.

 

Instead, I cut up the pipes for my vocal booth. I managed to do it all in the garage, which is good because I really did not want to do it in the rain. I planned out all the measurements to waste as little as possible, put on a winter coat and mitts, and headed out for some construction fun. The whole project took about three hours, and involved a lot of lying down on the cold concrete floor to mark the measurements. It actually was kind of fun.

[Scaly Freak]

22 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

Thank you for that! I am probably not using the very tip of my fingers. I do find I have to work to keep my hand high on the violin - it tends to drift down over time. But I think my hold is rather different than what you describe. I certainly don't have to worry about having my elbow out to the left. If anything, I tend to keep it directly in front of me, propped against my chest to keep my arm from getting tired. I don't have a chin rest, so I need to keep my arm more underneath anyway so as not to drop the fiddle. I wonder though, if I need to get fingertips up more, I need to focus on getting my wrist to point to the left more rather than at the ceiling? I will try it next time.

 

What you're describing sounds like it keeps your left arm relatively  stationary, and takes away a lot of the range of motions you'd have in your lower left arm while playing...? If your hand's movements when you play primarily comes from your wrist, and not from moving your lower arm while keeping your wrist mostly straight locked, you are artificially limiting your hand's range of motion, how far your fingers can move, the precision you can move with, and the speed at which you can go from one position to another. Incorrect technique combined with lots of playing will also eventually give you tendonitis in that left wrist. (This is for obvious reasons not recommended.)

 

This violinist explains it much better than I did, probably because she actually knows how to play it. All I did was spending a lot of time watching the violin sections play during orchestra rehearsals.  

[Mad Hatter]

7 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Instead, I cut up the pipes for my vocal booth. I managed to do it all in the garage, which is good because I really did not want to do it in the rain. I planned out all the measurements to waste as little as possible, put on a winter coat and mitts, and headed out for some construction fun. The whole project took about three hours, and involved a lot of lying down on the cold concrete floor to mark the measurements. It actually was kind of fun.

Cool! Making stuff is so satisfying. How did it turn out?