Year in Review: 20 Questions for a New Year’s Eve Reflection

I found these questions on incourage.me

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

If you've been following my plight, you know that it's kind of hard to identify much good that's happened, but I'll go with "being home with my family". I'd been living in a different state for almost a decade, and I'd missed daily contact with everyone. We were a tight unit throughout our whole childhoods, just the five of us, and it's nice to have some of that back. I didn't even realize how much I missed knowing my sister's kids, for instance!

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

The flip side of the previous statement--"moving home as an independent adult". I'd gotten used to fending for myself, to living on my own, being my own person with my own life, and being forced, after a year of being out of work and being a burden on my best friend, to come back to live with my parents again...it was hard. It's still hard. Not because we don't get along, but because almost everything I own is locked away in storage three states away and I can't afford to pay to bring it up here, because I have almost no income, because I went from having a whole house of my own to having a room and a bunch of shared space. It's crazy.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

How much fun it is to make my own nail polish! A year ago, I didn't even know you could make your own, and now I have a business where I get to make maybe a dozen new colors and finishes a month!

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?

Depression--I didn't realize just how much these life changes were going to depress me and literally weigh me down. I've been next to useless more times in the second half of this year than I have been in ages.

5. Pick three words to describe 2012.

Sucky. Challenging. Poor.

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2011 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).

I don't have a spouse, but I think an outside observer might pick: Overwhelmed. Choiceless. Annoyed.

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2011 (again, without asking).
Again, no spouse, not even someone who could stand in for one. So I'm just not going to answer this one.

8. What were the best books you read this year?
Oh, man, picking and choosing! I listed all the books I read on the Writing Blog; my favs were:

• The Killing Moon / The Shadowed Sun - NK Jemisin
• Grave Mercy - Robin LaFevers
• Clockwork Prince / City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare
• Graveyard Book / American Gods - Neil Gaiman
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain
• Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
• The Nerdist Way - Chris Hardwick
• Bird By Bird - Anne Lamott
• Let's Bring Back...

All in all, a pretty good book-year!

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?
Before I moved:

• H and A, A and L

Since I moved:

• Mom and Dad, Bro, Sis, and A1 and A2 and R

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?
Again, living in a new state, where I know almost no one outside of family, where I don't know the names of the plants or what they can be used for, where I don't know what to plant or when, or what to expect from the weather. It's been very strange.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?
I've been learning a lot about what it takes to stay happy and non-depressed, and now to get out of depression when it strikes. I've been learning about reconnecting with family and letting people in again, not being so self-contained. I've been learning about not negating parts of my personality just because other people might think it's weird, which is, really, an ongoing learning experience since I was a kid.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?
I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to spirituality this year. Or last year. Or, really, much of the year before that. I have been missing the togetherness of having people with similar beliefs around, though, and I've been relearning that I do need to spend more time thinking in terms of spiritual awareness, if not religious stuff. I've subscribed to several emails that send little snippets of spiritual seeking each day, and it's been great having little moments to reflect, even a little, and to remember that I'm not just a brain in a body, I'm also something bigger than the sum of my parts, and I fit into a bigger universe still.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?
Outward! I've put on so much weight since moving up here--a combo of readily-available junk food, less control over what I eat day to day, and laziness. I did sign up for the gym, and I was going every other day, rain or shine, for three months, but I've since lost the ability to pay for it, and my Bro has mostly decided to let it lapse and he was my workout partner, so I have to find some other way to get exercise in my life. I did learn, however, that I kind of do like working out, if the right sorts of activities are available--the treadmill with a book, primarily, or the elliptical with a TV on. And there's a soothing regularity to counting sets on a weight-machine that I never noticed before.

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?
Probably not enough! I'm working on reconnecting, and on finding ways to find new friends--that's one of my goals this year, Find Friends. 

15. What was the most enjoyable part of your work (both professionally and at home)?
When the writing is going well. It was great finishing a rough draft of the novel, a fantastic feeling as all the pieces started to come together and pan out on their own! And as I said before, I love making nail polish, even if sales aren't enough to counteract the cost of supplies yet.

16. What was the most challenging part of your work (both professionally and at home)?
Staying focused. Working every day, even when I don't want to and the whole world seems determined to annoy me and eat up my time. Revisions--I'm apparently a fast writer and a really slow reviser. Making money! Some day, I want to be able to live off the patchwork income of all my various passions, but I'm so not near that now!

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?
I'm trying really hard not to think  in terms of time wasted and time not wasted. I think the days when I'm less productive are symptoms of other issues I should be paying attention to, and so they aren't wasted--they're just unexpectedly diverted.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?
Writing. Always writing. If I'm writing, everything is right with the world.

19. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?
I'm a holistic being with lots of different effects from lots of different sources, and I need to come up with ways to deal with myself in all moods and all healths, so that I can keep being creative and productive, even when I don't feel like it.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2011 for you.

"Could've been a heck of a lot better, but seems to have turned out alright for now."

Gardening - Free seed catalogs

Here's the list I stole wholesale from Better Hens And Gardens, which is one of my new favorite loves in blogdom.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed - bills itself as “America’ s Top Source for Pure Heirloom Seeds” and they produce a beautiful color catalog filled with open-pollinated, non-GMO seed.
High Mowing Organic Seed - certified organic, non-GMO, heirloom, open-pollinated, and hybrid seeds.
Johnny’s Selected Seed - non-GMO, open-pollinated, organic, and hybrid seeds. Johnny’s wasn’t taking requests for their 2011 catalog yet, keep checking back.
Pinetree Garden Seeds - offers heirloom seeds and hybrid seeds – this will be a new catalog this year for me.
Seeds of Change - certified organic, heirloom, and hybrid seeds.
Wood Prairie Farm - certified organic seed potatoes.
Seed Savers Exchange - ”Our Mission – Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. We are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.”
Bountiful Gardens - “Heirloom – Untreated – Open Pollinated varieties for sustainable agriculture”.

And here are the ones I'd add to it, that I also love:

• One Green World - Based in the Pacific Northwest, and they sell plants rather than seeds, but they are a fantastic catalog with really great prices--they even have things like Tea, Shipova, Medlar and all sorts of native plants you never see anywhere.
• Le Jardin du Gourmet - Everything you could ever want for a kitchen garden, in seeds and sometimes even in plants!
• Bountiful Gardens - Heirloom and open-pollinated seeds!
• Stokes Seed - Another one of the ones that's been around since the 1800s, lots of great stuff.
• Gurney's Seeds - One of the lower-cost ones, good for getting all your basics out of the way before you start investing in the really fancy stuff, and sometimes something really awesome.
• Henry Fields - One I just found this season that looks cool.
• Park Seed - A really nice website!
• Burpee - A classic seed company, with a great catalog.

I ordered a bunch of new ones, too, so I'll let you know how they look when they come in.

What catalogs do you order seeds from? What plants do you plant every year? What plants will you never plant again? And, most excitingly, what plants will you plant for the first time this year?

Sonagonisms: Things Doctor Who has made me nervous about

- Bluetooth ear pieces
- Santa
- Christmas trees
- Snow
- Falling stars
- Cracks in the wall
- Mysterious doorways
- Waiting
- Being left behind
- Not finding the Tardis

Christmas Memories

I'm not really one of those people who can say that I remember distinct scenes in all their details. My memory files itself in piles--these are all my Christmas memories, all my birthday memories, all my school memories, whatever. But I'll try to say something about Christmases I've had. (all these pics are from this Christmas, though!)

 When I was five or six, we were living in Okinawa, Japan, and I'd just learned to make origami cranes and I was making them all the time. We needed something new to add to the tree, so mom and I made dozens of cranes out of the shiny wrapping paper we'd been wrapping all the presents in, and nestled them in the branches. We saved all of them, and they went up again for years afterward, even when we were no longer in Japan.

 When we were in Scotland, one of the years I had the worst flu I'd ever had. I was too sick to go to bed, so I slept on the couch for about a week, including Christmas Eve, and that night I must've had a fever-hallucination or a really weird dream or something, because I know mom turned off the tree when she went to bed, but I 'woke up' when someone I couldn't see in the upper corner of the room told me I had to look at the tree, and when I did, all the lights were bright-blue-white like stars. Then the cat jumped up into my face and said "Are you alright??". I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember that I felt like crap Christmas morning!

 One year, also in Scotland, I got a Sylvanian Families house and my brother got a huge Lego castle, and we all sat on the floor for hours surrounded by tiny parts, alternating which building we were playing with. I kept stepping on Legos, and my sister kept trying to put her Sylvanians in my house.

A few years ago, the year H was in China (and this might be on this Blog somewhere, I don't remember), I spent the entirety of Christmas Eve watching X-Files, then Doctor Who, and loom-knitting myself a Fourth Doctor scarf. It took 15 hours, but I'd worked for nine days in a row beforehand and I didn't want to do anything else, and having a whole day to myself, where I could just sit and watch the shows I loved best and not have to talk to anyone but the cats was something wonderful. I still have the scarf, but its in storage, and I woke up this morning feeling sad that I couldn't wear it when I was sitting around the house alone again today, while everyone else worked too many hours too early!

What are some of your weird Christmas memories?

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Video - A Manifesto for the Curious

Monthly Me - December 2012

This is what the first human day after a bad cold looks like.

Dear Chest Cold,

It's not at all nice to infect all of us at once; I mean, how many horrible hacking coughs can one hoursehold have? Too many, I say. How about you let up on a few of us? I'm getting real sick of being sick, and certain members of this family cough way too loudly way too often for the rest of us to sleep.

Sincerely,
Me

Right now:

• I just took a very unsatisfactory shower (the thing broke and they only got it half fixed before the holiday), but I feel better anyway
• I have a horrible cold--sore throat, coughing, mucus, the whole deal
• I broke my favorite teacup while I was busy not sleeping last night because my arm was just enough asleep (when the rest of me wasn't) to affect my grip
• Mom replaced it with her antique Chinese tea cup from when we lived overseas, and it's lovely, but now I'm afraid I'm going to break that one, too
• Nasal irrigation is really gross when you have a head cold, but it helps so much
• I wish City of Bones was out already so that I can go see it right now
• Making nail polish has made my synaesthesia more noticeable; I'm always concerned about what color things are now, and it's a little weird, but also feels like I'm using my brain for the right things for the first time in a long time
• I had no less than five ideas for middle-grade stories series the other day; I've never written middle-grade. Now I feel the need to read a bunch of it to refresh my mind on how it works.
• I'm suddenly in love with the Rubaiyat poem structure; lets see if anything comes of it
• My feet are cold, but there's tea in my belly
• I've been having a melancholy week; this holiday season is off to a great start, mentally and emotionally (sarcasm mark)
• I can't wait until I get all my books up here and out of storage; I'm dying to reread some of them

Shonagonisms: Things I know from living with a cat

• You don't own a cat; they just sort of agree to live in your house and act like it's theirs.
• You can't train a cat, but they can totally train you.
• Scoop the litter box all the time--like, every time you look at it--to keep the cat from peeing on anything else.
• Corollary: Keep the litter box as close to the toilet as possible to facilitate easy scooping.
• The stinkier the food and the closer you feed them to your bed, the more the cat will love the food.
• A warm cat on a cold day is proof that god loves us.
• It's totally not weird to refer to cats as 'babies' even after they've been alive for more than a decade.
• Expensive cat toys will be ignored; gum wrappers, scraps of paper, old string, these are acceptable and fun, but only when you're not looking.
• Other cats are all jerks to your favorite cat, even when they're getting along.
• Catbeds are unneccessary; stacks of papers you need to access, narrow spaces that shouldn't be lay-on-able, your pillow when you need it, the middle of your view of the TV, the middle of the book you're currently reading, these are all places for cats to sleep.
• A kitten sitting on your foot is the best reason not to get up and do something you don't want to do anyway.
• Cats can take care of themselves, they just like it better when you do.
• Furry alarm clocks are more accurate than mechanical ones.
• It's totally reasonable to spend a day following sunspots through the house.
• Every cat remembers, from before it was born, that it's related to lions and was once a god. Act accordingly.

Monthly Me: November 2012

Unpacking the trunk of the car, the stupid hood fell on my face.
My feet are a mess.
Laser cats totally attacked me and I got photographic proof!
The house is all full of weird unintentional tableaux.

Monday Inspiration - Harry S. Truman

"It's not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It's the hand that casts the ballot."

- Harry S. Truman

Today's inspiration comes from The Daily Love email!

Yarn

A resurrected post from an old blog that I got in my inbox through one of those reminder email things, and still info I think is good to know!

notes for future crafting:
- you can make yarn out of nettles and it's similar to hemp yarn
- other fibers to find: recycled silk, banana, flax, bamboo, natural cotton
- yaks make yarn, too!
- added to sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits, fuzzy cats, camels
- i wonder if hairy cows make down? or, like, buffalo or elk or moose or something like that?
- and alaskan musk oxen! (called qiviut)

info to find:
- how to spin all these renewable natural fibers myself / how much of each plant is needed to make a viable amount and still have growing populations?
- how to recycle things that have already been clothified into new yarn
- is there such a thing as a home-built mill? how do you do it?
- directions for building home-made looms
- directions for building home-made spinning wheels
- places to get these lovely things on the cheap to figure out how they work...
- how to raise yarn animals, how many are needed, and what else they can be used for (milk? maneure? meat? pest-plant control? oils, like lanolin?
random other things i don't know about?)

Video: Doctor Who Is A Religion

Help make the Ars Magica game a reality!

You may or may not know that I'm a writer and sometimes editor for Black Chicken Studios. We now have a new project, and we could really use a little Kickstarter love to make it real. What do you think?

Black Chicken Studios, working under license from Atlas Games, is delighted to present a new simulation role-playing game for the PC. After 25 years and 5 editions, Ars Magica will at long last be paid tribute in a single-player, turn-based video game. Authentic to the original, this is a faithful, beautiful, and accurate depiction of covenant gameplay and the RPG’s legendary magic system during a dangerous century in the Stonehenge Tribunal. With your help, we’ll bring Ars Magica: Years of Conquest and its tapestry of wars, intrigue, invasion and, above all, magic to life!

Quote - Eckhart Tolle

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."

- Eckhart Tolle, German born best-selling author.

Source: TheDailyLove.com email newsletter

Babysitter Tales - Ball

The baby, A2, and I were out in the carport to get some sun, and he decided he wanted to play a game. We had the basketball, but he gets bored with that because he isn't all that good at bouncing it yet, and he isn't strong enough or tall enough yet to make baskets, so he came up with a new game.

It goes like this:

He has two rocks, a big one and a small one, and he moves them up and down the stairs in some sort of pattern while I hold the basketball and wait on him. When they both get down to the ground, through whatever arcane logic goes through a two-year-old's head, then he runs over and grabs my skirt from behind and moves me back and forth and up and down the driveway until I'm just where he wants me to be. Then, he pushes on my butt with both of his hands and yells "go!" and I have to shoot the basket. Meanwhile, he runs around me and picks up this big stick with all these skinny little branches at the end and tries to catch the ball as it comes down, but he won't look at the ball when it's in the air because it's too sunny and so he has his eyes all squinched up and his head turned to the side. 

Then we start all over again.

We did this for maybe half an hour. Normally, the baby's repetitions get to me after a few times; I know he's learning things for the first time, but it gets tiresome. This, though, was actually fun, and he was so cute as he moved me back and forth just so.

It's the newest game on the block. Everyone'll be talking about it.

Musing: Do I have to trade not being depressed for being well-informed?

I'm under stress* and that probably makes me more likely to be depressive anyway, and also to be jaded and pessimistic, but I keep running up against this question. Watching and reading the news gives me panic attacks and stomach aches--I don't need to know the exact details of how crappy the world situation is to understand that it's crappy. But when I outright avoid the news for my own sanity, I miss the important world events that everyone is talking about, the things that actually do apply to me in some way other than just, say, making me horrified to be human.

And have you noticed, the people who are the best informed are also usually bitter--or angry all the time over everything--or half-crazy with drastic ideas on how to fix it? I don't want to be any of those things, and I have a tendency to at least the last one already, and it's a bad space for my mind to be in.

So I'm left with this: am i obligated to sacrifice mental balance to know what's going on around me? Because that's what the whole news system feels like it's telling me--if I'm happy, it's just because I didn't know that there was this new genocide, this new environmental collapse sign, this new political threat.

And I don't buy that. I don't think the purpose of the news is to scare people, though that seems to be exactly what they're aiming to do these days. I don't think I should have to daily consume exactly what I know will drive me off the wall when I'm already barely keeping it together with my own life. I don't think that internalizing someone else's biases is good for me.

But when I don't, it's like I've missed out on a huge chunk of the country's shared consciousness.

How do you solve this problem?



*We're moving. Again. And the babysitting hours are getting longer, which makes them harder. And I still have very little income and less and less in my bank account. And I'm getting over a cold. And I'm coming up on the deadline for my next fifty pages.

Om Yom - Peanut Layered Gooey "Bars"

This is a recipe I found on Pinterest somewhere and I just had to try it. You take a box of devils food cake mix, an egg and a half cup of melted butter and make a thick, like, brownie batter out of it. Spread it into a nine by thirteen greased and parable it for eight minutes.

Crush up pretzels until you have a cup or so, and throw that on top of the base, then a cup each of honey roasted peanuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and Reece's pieces. Top the whole thing with a whole can of sweetened condensed milk.

Bake it for another fifteen or twenty minutes until its gooshy but set and let it cool as much as you can stand before you dig in. We didn't wait long enough and it wasn't the least bit bar like but it was delicious. Like, heavenly. A muddy wonderful mess!

Shonagonisms - Ten random facts about me

1. My favorite color is a very specific range of greens, so I tend to wear more blue because I'm less picky about it
2. I will willingly and cheerfully watch videos of cats getting stuck in small spaces for hours
3. I used to have such a heavy Scottish accent that when we visited family in the US, they couldn't understand what I was saying
4. I don't believe closets are the best way to organize clothes; I'd rather have a room without a closet and a wardrobe, a clothes track and a series of hooks on the wall
5. I would rather live in the UK than anywhere I've found here
6. I feel most at home when I'm in an airport waiting on a plane
7. I can't remember a damn thing without writing it down, and so I almost always have a pen and paper on me--and go a little bonkers when I don't
8. I am a sucker for sweets recipes that include sweetened condensed milk, especially things like Magic Cookie Bars and variations on them
9. I never thought I'd enjoy working out, but I actually do, and it weirds me out a little
10. I'm pretty sure that English needs more compound words for things that are always used together-- evenif, afterall, lastnight, etc

What ten facts about you will you share?

Pic: The Perils of Companionship from Hijinks Ensue

2012-10-10-the-perils-of-companionship.jpg (820×482): http://hijinksensue.com/comics/2012-10-10-the-perils-of-companionship.jpg

Monday Inspiration: Alice Walker

"Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful."

- Alice Walker, author and poet.

This is part of a weekly series. Click the tag for more inspiration!

Info:

Alice Walker By Bloom, Harold (EDT) (Google Affiliate Ad)

Side Project: Adagio Teas: Signature Blend

Adagio Teas: Signature Blend: I made some custom mixes! Because tea is awesome and Adagio lets me do stuff like this. Come buy some and let me know what you think!

edit

Tiger Lily

by Samantha Holloway

edit

Hellboy

by Samantha Holloway

edit

Liz

by Samantha Holloway

edit

Abe Sapien

unavailable

edit

Mine

by Samantha Holloway

Roll Grizzlebeef

Delay

All my posts will be a day off or so because of my schedule this week!

Monday Inspiration - Gary Zukav

"When you welcome your emotions as teachers, every emotion brings good news, even the ones that are painful."

- Gary Zukav

Shonagonisms: Things to assume to make the world more interesting

• Everything vague someone says is actually all they are allowed to say before they give away national secrets (thanks, XKCD!)
• Those strange lights you see out of the corner of your eye when you're overtired are actually reflected off things in a close-parallel universe
• Whenever the internet slows down, it's because someone is borrowing your data to contact alien life
• Cats speak a tonal language that communicates over long distances and so have contact to all other cats with very little effort
• Beer really is a proof that God wants us to be happy
• Weird people are only weird because they're newly-arrived visitors from the future who don't quite understand how we do things yet
• Birds are constantly telling us everyone's secrets, but we just don't understand them

Friday Gratitude - 10-5-2012

(from: http://www.sistersrunningthekitchen.com/2011/06/be-grateful/)

Today, I'm thankful for:

• Being able to send off my first shipment to my first customer!
• Having most of the day to myself to do my own work without interruption
• Not having to babysit today, because while they're awesome, they're also exhausting
• My new mica colors came in, so I can start formulating the new nail colors!
• Binka didn't wake me up this morning, and someone else fed her, so I got to sleep in
• Fall weather is coming back, even if it's been warmer again
• A1 has noticed that trees change color and is amazed every day on the walk home from the bus stop, and so I'm amazed, too
• A2 likes to collect pretty rocks, and tells stories about each one, even though I can't understand a word he says
• No one has gotten hurt, despite A1's habit of jumping off of things and A2's new game of let's-run-into-traffic-because-it's-funny-when-Auntie-gets-scared
• I've started two new writing projects, and they're freeing up that tense feeling I get when I have to focus too hard and too long on one thing
• I have great crit partners
• When we have to move again, I get to have my own room again!
• Even though I can't afford to ship my stuff up here yet, I CAN afford to keep the unit safe and stored for another month
• All my shows returned this week or last week and now I'm spoiled for choice each night of the week
• Tea. I'm always grateful for tea.

What are you grateful for this week?

Non-typical tattoo

I find this utterly amazing.

(found on Pinterest)

Us in real life

• Me: I'm going to take up welding so I can go weld things with Nathan Fillion.
• Bro: During the Zombie Apocalypse?
• Me: Preferably before. Easier to bond that way.

Right Now

drinking water, even though I'd rather tea
appreciating being done babysitting for the day
watching Conan with Jennifer Garner and Tilly and the Wall
laughing because of Conan--he always gets me
eating Almond Joys
willing the day to last long enough for me to get rest before tomorrow!
waiting to go to the postoffice and mail my first sold nail polish set!
prepping to make more nail polish and launch a new line
opening to the wisdom of the Universe because I've been too closed off
sleeping hardly at all
remembering the ToDo list
brainstorming serials I could write for the writing blog
wearing tanktop and skirt, the at-home uniform
considering going to sleep early
making a mess with my micas
feeling headachy from the weather changing
getting tired!
loving life a little more every day I get to do something I like
having less than I need but more than I had
listening to the TV over my shoulder
crying no more
turning to look at the Cloud Atlas trailer
acknowledging that I still have a lot to learn--about everything
flipping my hair
enjoying possibilities I didn't have before
thankful for those same possibilities
joining the world again

(Taken from one of Elise Blaha's "Currently" posts, with much appreciation!)

Video: John Green on "What should I do with my life"

"Study widely and without fear."

Shonagonisms: Things that alarm me

• Alarms
• Babies crying
• Strange noises at night
• Remembering things I forgot to do
• First dates
• Reading poetry aloud
• Season finale cliff-hangers

Monthly Me: October 2012

Me at the start of this month.

This month's goals:

• Make the first month of the store a really good one
• Go outside more
• Decompress more
• Find a better place for November's Monthly Me
• Make a few more Doodles
• Try a new recipe

Monday Inspirations - Albert Einstein

Let's start each week with a little inspiration, shall we? This post is part of a series; click the tag to see more!

“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” 

- Albert Einstein

Source: http://www.lifed.com/top-100-inspirational-quotes-to-live-by

Links

Culture: How to Harness Your Rebels

The Future: The State of Mind-Control Technology

Creativity: Four Lessons About Creativity From John Cleese

Urbanism: A Network of Elevated Bikelanes in London

Retro-Futurism: 100 Years Ago, French Artists Predicted the Future With Eerie Accuracy

Journaling: October's daily journaling questions

Life: An Open Letter To People Complaining About Politics

PodCasts: Baker Street Babes take on Elementary


Follow:

• Elise Blaha - She does journaling, scrapbooking, quilting, cooking, and living, and she's great. So many great ideas!

Journaling Tips and Tricks 4

Use a non-book journal for daily memories. How gorgeous is this?

Found on Pinterest, but the link provided was blocked, so I don't know the real source.

Journaling: Tips and Tricks 3

From Pinterest, originally from http://www.kmckaydesigns.com/projects/journaling-tips-printable-journaling-cards.html

Saturday Six - The Letter D

1. D is for Day: Which day of the week would you like to have two of?
I don't really have a regular schedule, so there isn't one specific best day, but it wouldn't be Monday. No matter what, Mondays just carry a funk with them--a day to be motivated, but also a day to be stuck getting back to work for the week.


2. D is for Drama: What is your all-time favorite television drama?
I don't believe in single favorites of anything. They're limiting and world-shrinking. Always have more favorites!

Straight-up dramas? I don't really watch all that many. I like shows that are lighter than that, or that have something speculative mixed in. So I like Castle, The Mentalist, Person of Interest, Sherlock, Fringe, Hell On Wheels and Bones. And more. I have literally dozens of favorite shows. If you bring in ones no longer running, there's also Firely, Farscape, SG1, Remington Steele, and I could go on.


3. D is for Dog: What breed of dog that you've never owned would you most like to?
I think shiba-inus are adorable, like tiny huskies. Any of the wolfdogs are great, gorgeous things, but I'd have to have the land to let them roam because they are not inside dogs. Jack Russels are adorable, and I especially like ones that are only half JR. I love corgies and yorkies.


4. D is for Drink: What single drink do you drink most often?
Tea. Without a doubt. Maybe water, but I think that's both dull and a tie. I drink so much tea. And I love it, and I'm sad I had to cut back because of caffeine sensitivities.

If we're talking alcoholic drinks, that'd probably be vodka-and-cran. Or variations thereof.


5. D is for Dessert: What is your single favorite dessert?
I love desserts. I'd eat them instead of dinner a lot of the time. I like the creamy, rich sort--key lime pie, cheesecake, tiramisu. Or the gourmet cupcake kind. Or just cake--my favorites are black forest, double-chocolate, german chocolate, and boston cream pie.


6. D is for Dime: What is the last thing you remember being able to buy for 10c or less?
Dude, that hasn't been the thing in decades. Probably back when I was a kid and there was that penny candy store across the street from my elementary school. They had these little chocolate cup things in brightly-colored foil cups, and they were a penny a piece. I loved them. They also had flavored sugar--like bulk pixie sticks--that you could buy by weight, and you'd just hand the guy whatever change you had and he'd give you that much of the sugar. Mmmm, childhood.


What are your answers to these questions, lovelies?



From here: http://www.patrickkphillips.com/2012/09/29/saturday-six-442/

A visual guide to Introverts

Accurate.

(from: http://holykaw.alltop.com/a-visual-guide-to-introverts-comic)

Semi-Daily Question: Which Fall TV season premieres are you looking forward to? Or has your show already started?

From That's My Answer!: Which Fall TV season premieres are you looking forward to? Or has your  show already started?

Oh, man. This week is crazy with shows I'm looking forward to. I review TV for a number of sites, and it's always hard to keep up when they're all airing, and it's especially hard when I have school deadlines at the same time as everything is returning!

I've already seen Castle and Bones come back, as well as Hawaii Five-0 and Grimm. I review the first two, and watch the second two when I can. I caught the Mindy Project, NCIS and NCIS:LA last night, and I have to catch up on Revolution, HIMYM, and 2 Broke Girls. I'm really, really looking forward to Person of Interest and The Mentalist and Fringe coming back, and I'm even a little excited about Elementary, even though I don't really like Johnny Lee Miller as an actor, and I'm such a fan of the BBC Sherlock that I had to get over it when they announced this one. But still--it's Sherlock, right? There's also Big Bang Theory, and I'm interested in Last Resort--mostly to see how they can possibly keep the story going when it's a story of a face-off. And I might catch 666 Park Ave, just to see how Terry O'Quinn continues to take over every show on TV. And there's Doctor Who, too, though that one is about to go on break, right after it breaks my heart.

And I'm looking forward to Supernatural and Arrow and Beauty And The Beast, but those aren't for a few weeks yet.

The thought of being excited about only one show feels way alien to me. I mean, I love these shows (the ones I've seen, anyway) for their stories and their characters and their potentials for love, and if it hooks me, I want to know what happens next. I want to watch them all every week, but that's impossible--especially on Mondays and Thursdays, when everything is on. I have to decide which ones I'll review and keep up with, and which ones I'll catch up with later.

So what's you're answer?

Wednesday Worksheets: Submissions Tracker, Shopping List and Gratitude Journal

This is part of a series of worksheets to help you organize your life! Click the tag for more!

This week we have:

• Submissions Tracker: This can be used for stories, novels, articles, or, really, anything else that needs to be submitted, because it's a very straight-forward sheet. There's space for the date, the item being submitted, who it was sent to, and how long they take to read it, as well as to note a pay rate and whether or not it was accepted. You can use a sheet for multiple projects going out at a time, or you can use a whole sheet for multiple subs of one project.
• Shopping List: A nice itemized and totally open shopping list divided by Staples, Fruits and Veggies, Meats, Dairy, Proteins, Canned and Dry goods, Starches, and Household goods.
• Gratitude Journal: Some people note their gratitudes daily, others just when they need to remember something, but this sheet will help with both. There's several cells per sheet, with space for the date and for three things you're feeling grateful for. 

If there are any worksheets you would like to see, drop me a line or a comment, and I'll see what I can do!

Self-censorship is giving someone else your life

(from: http://fjordlord.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/the-good-the-bad-and-the-silent-when-the-media-wont-tell-the-whole-story)

There's a difference between knowing when to keep your mouth shut and removing parts of your life, and we're talking about the second one here. It could be a political issue, but really I'm talking about the personal level: say you just broke up with someone or lost a good friend to a bad fight or were fired from a job. If you go back through your history--all your pictures and belongings and blog posts and mementos--and remove everything that reminds you of that thing you lost, you're letting them win. You're willingly handing over a part of your own life, and you're therefore giving it up, declaring that your own experience doesn't matter and isn't important enough to keep, to metabolize, to make sense of.

Sounds dumb, doesn't it?

It's a symptom of victim mentality, really. If your own experiences don't matter enough to keep and to learn from, does anything you do or say even belong to you? And if you don't own your own mind, your own past, who does?

So don't do it. Don't excise the painful parts. Don't give up your own life because it hurts. The sore parts are the parts that define what we do in the future, and who we are when we come out of it. Instead, learn from them. Work through them. Feel the pain and feel your way out of it. Speak out against it happening again, to yourself or to others. Own it. Let yourself define your experience, and not let the reaction to the experience define you.

Neatest things I saw this week (last week)

1. Rainbow Roses

(From here: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/rainbow-roses-are-for-real.html)

Actual roses, with rainbow ink infused in their stems while they grow. I wish they'd actually grow like this naturally--I'd buy, like, fifteen rosebushes!

2. A Plethora of Galaxy Nails

Over on Ashley is PolishAddicted.

I love the Galaxy Nails thing--it's my favorite nail trick I haven't tried yet!

3. Firefalls!

This is Horestail Falls, a seasonal waterfall in Yosemite that lights up like it's on fire only a few days in February each year. This, and more pictures of it, are detailed on Kuriositas: http://www.kuriositas.com/2012/09/horsetailfall.html

Links from last week

Geek: The Geekiest Girls You Know blog

Culture: Why Can't We Sell Charity Like We Sell Perfume?

Life: Study shows that home birth is fine for low-risk pregnancies

Geek: Doctor Who manicures! (make sure you check the links at the bottom, too!)

Geek: Galaxy Nails (also with more in the links at the end)

Happiness: Seven Must-Read Books on the Art and Science of Happiness

Happiness: Rules for Consistent Happiness

Happiness: Top 8 Ways to Wake Up Ready & Raring to Go

Productivity: What Successful People Do The First Hour Of Their Work Day

Monday Inspiration: Brene Brown

"In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen — really seen.” 

~ Brené Brown

Babysitter Tales: Acorn

I took A2 with me to the bus stop to wait for A1. I'm starting to really like the walk-- it's only maybe two blocks, but that's a long way for a two-year-old to walk, so we walk slow and he looks at a lot of things. It's so strange being with someone so young--everything really is new for him!

We've developed this habit that we'll get to the bus stop, say hi to all the other parents and younger siblings, and then wander another block up so he can see the flowers. He sticks his face right in there and snuffles them like a puppy, and touches all the petals, and sometimes picks one or two. And then we wander back and he picks up interesting rocks to throw at the shrubs or to line up in neat little lines while we wait.

This time, while we were there, he found an acorn. A big fat one (not the one above, but one like it!), more than an inch long. He loved it, and carried it around while we waited. I've never seen acorns so big--Florida acorns are all tiny and hard and round, and even the bigger ones are sort of lean and narrow, but this one was like the iconic acorn, fat and stout and big. I bet it had lots of acorn meat in it.

A1 came and he sort of hugs everyone and then sees what the baby is carrying in his sticky little hands. He found the acorn and asked what it was, which was startling; I forget that five isn't that much older than two, really, and things are still new to him, too. I explained how it's a tree-seed, that there was a little baby sprout in there that would come out and grow into a little tree.

A1 declared "We need to plant this."

So we went home, and as soon as he'd put up his school stuff and gotten a drink of water, we found some sturdy sticks and dug a hole in the ground, and planted it. He watered it from his own prized Avengers cup--and he's not one for sharing, so that's even bigger a deal than you know--and covered it back up.

Every say since then, he comes home from school and goes to that corner of the yard behind the basketball hoop to check on it, and waters it with his own water if it looks dry.

I think if ever an acorn had a chance to be a tree, it's that one.

Shonagonisms: Actors who are secretly english

• Hugh Laurie - House
• Andrew Lincoln - Walking Dead
• Lauren Cohan - Walking Dead
• Ed Westwick - Gossip Girl
• Stephen Moyer - True Blood
• Josh Bowman - Revenge
• Andrew Garfield - The Amazing Spiderman
• Owain Yeoman - The Mentalist
• Damian Lewis - Homeland
• Idris Elba - The Wire 
• Anna Friel - Pushing Daisies
• Michelle Ryan - Bionic Woman (flop that it was)
• Gary Oldman - Almost every movie he'd done
• Jamie Bamber - Battlestar Galactica
• Jason Isaacs - Awake
• Jake Weber - Medium
• Bob Hoskans - Half his movies
• Sophia Miles - Moonlight
• Tim Roth - Lie to Me
• Henry Cavill - Superman
• Rufus Sewell - Eleventh Hour (remember that?)
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Without A Trace

Bonus: Other non-Americans

• Alan Cumming - The Good Wife - Scottish
• Simon Baker - The Mentalist - Australian
• Alex O'Laughlin - Hawaii Five-0 - Australian
• Tammin Sursok - Pretty Little Liars - Australian
• Kevin McKidd - Grey's Anatomy - Scottish
• Ryan Kwanten - True Blood - Australian
• Liam Hemsworth - Hunger Games / Expendables 2 - Australian
• Rose Byrne - Damages - Australian
• Anna Torv - Fringe - Australian
• Christian Bale - Batman / Et al - Welsh
• Ioan Gruffudd - Fantastic Four / Ringer - Welsh
• Anthony LaPaglia - Without A Trace - Australian
• Jason O'Mara - ABC's Life on Mars / Terra Nova - Irish

Wednesday Worksheets: Weekly Work Tracker, Yearly Events, Subscriptions, Critique Page

This is part of a weekly series to help you life a more organized life. Click the tag for more sheets!

This week, we have:

• Weekly Work Tracker: A cell for each day of the week, perfect for those who have one job (or, if you have more than one, a sheet per job, and a weeks' worth of info for each). There's date, day, time in and out, total hours, total pay, and a section for notes in each cell. At the end, there's an open cell for reflection--the use of which is up to you!
• Yearly Events: A one-page, at-a-glance grid to write a quick note to yourself about things that happen once a year: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, celestial events, yearly fees, whatever. There's a column for each month of the year, and there's 31 cells in each column, so you get the whole year on one page. There's not a whole lot of space, but it's enough for a year-at-a-glance!
• Subscriptions: A chart to track your subscriptions! There's the usual date, name and cost columns, but I've added a column to note the kind, too--magazine, service, delivery, whatever you have a subscription to!
• Critique Sheet: There's lots of times when you're asked to crit something--a work, an idea, an event. When you are, you can use this sheet, that helps you outline strengths, weaknesses, and offer advice. Pretty straightforward, but a great place to start.

Sheets are free to download, and if you use them, link back to here! If there are any that you'd like to see me make, just drop a comment and I'll add them to the list!