link: Routines for Starting Your Day

Routines for Starting Your Day

Eat a healthy breakfast. (Don't forget to feed the kids too.)

Watch or listen to the news or read the newspaper (from your doorstep or online).

Get dressed and cleaned up.

Check your messages.

Get out your daily planner.

Do your morning chores.

link: The Laws of Saving Time

The Laws of Saving Time:

"Have a place for everything, and keep everything in it's place for quick retrieval.

Your New Motto: I don't have to do everything; I just have to do something.

Do as much as you can ahead of time.

Automate as much as possible.

Multitask whenever it is possible and safe.

Clean as you go.

Don't be afraid to say "no" when somebody asks you to do something you just don't have time for (or don't want to do).

Delegate tasks

If you get somewhere early or finish a project before expected, do productive things to fill your time.

Whenever you go on an errand, try to do other errands along the way.

Limit interruptions.

If you have kids, learn to break down projects into very small steps that only take 5 minutes or so."

letters to the aether

Dear Universe,
It would be nice if the drama would back off for more than just a few days. I have enough on my plate right now, and I don't need more of this crap. Also, it's alarming how many ambulances have been coming downtown this past week. If this is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, I'm so not pleased.
Spikes,
Me

ps: it would be nice if I had a nice boy to hide away with while I waited for all this mess to blow over.

coming to computer screens near you: professional fangirl!

This is what I said on Facebook:

Also! Calling all Geeks! I've decided to start an incredibly low-budget online TV show called Professional Fangirl, and I need content! Anything geeky counts: reenact your favorite parts of shows and movies, have a puppet show, react to things of a geeky nature, make a fan vid of an episode you think is missing, interview people you know, film up to three minutes of discussions or board games or whatever!

Send me tips, topics, things you'd like to see, clips of people saying the word Geek, quick soundbites on why geeks are awesome, reaction vids on the geekiest things you've seen this week, how-tos of anything in teh realm of geekery, links to things I need to see, ANYTHING! The best and the brightest and the funniest will (eventually) become segments in a sort of skit show. In the meantime, I'm saving up for a flip video, and then anything is fair game. I'm aiming for distinct seasons, with an Alpha Season of uploaded clips and a Beta Season of little mini episodes, and then Season 1.0 with maybe ten or thirteen episodes of 15 minutes each. Let the info-gathering begin!

 So you've been warned. I have no idea how to edit video, I'm not a very good actress, I'm damn near broke, and I have very limited time, but I want to do this, so it'll eventually get done, a little at a time, and then I'll be a STAR, and I'll sell the show to Comedy Central or SciFi (sorry, SyFy) or something, and I'll be moderately famous in an incredibly self-referential and fan-referential way. It will be awesome. As soon as I figure out how to not look like an ugly monster on a low-budge video.

It'll all happen on my YouTube Channel.

Check it

Guys--I am totally posting this from my new iPad. Sweet, no?

neat green things: Will Obama's New Walking and Biking Initiatives Entice Americans Out of Their Cars? - Planet Green

Will Obama's New Walking and Biking Initiatives Entice Americans Out of Their Cars? - Planet Green

More money spent on alternative means of transport can only be for the best. I don't know if it's the intention, but this is one of those policies that are multi-directional: the main point is to get us less dependent on oil so that things like the energy crisis don't damage our framework as much, but the result is things like the fact that people who walk and bike are healthier and tend to have stronger ties to their city because they have to engage with it, which creates stronger communities and more pride in how the city works, which creates stronger cities. And that leads to a stronger country, doesn't it? Being safer also means less stress, less fear and more willingness to try the new bike trails. More foot traffic means areas that couldn't support walk-in business now can.

Even if only a portion of people go along, that frees up a lot of resources, and maybe the people who don't walk or bike will be more open to other sorts of alt transport, because the main reason they didn't switch to the trails is because they live too far away or something. Then, well-run city buses are an option, or streetcars which can be run off batteries, or maglev trains, or any number of sleek and modern, energy-efficient, emissions-free, people-movers. Done correctly, they, too can foster a sense of community, of coming together when the usual society is more about individuality to the point of not even relating to anyone else and not caring about the place where you live because you don't even know your neighbors.

I think community is what will save us in the end: if everyone pulls together, the government can do anything, because WE are the source of it's power, ultimately. And it's about time we started doing something about that.

gradschool: and it begins

One more day of work, then tomorrow it's all packing and calling for shuttle reservations and trying to remember everything I need to do before I leave and gathering addresses for postcards and so on. Maybe a jaunt to the post office for a book of stamps (since they're closed today). It's only a week, but I'm pretending it's a whole semester since I'll be staying in the dorms and I have to bring pillows and blankets and stuff. Trying to remember what dorm life was like, and I figure I'll whittle it down next time when I have the chance-- and next time will be in a hotel, anyway, since kids will still be living in the dorms over winter break...

I keep running into more things I didn't know I had to have-- like the name of a craft-of-writing book that I'll have to read and write a paper on this semester on top of everything else. I'm hoping that it just seems overwhelming because I don't know what to expect, not because it really will be-- I'm overwhelmed enough by my normal life!

Tuesday early is my flight out, and I'll be journalling along the way since the airports should have wifi and the school definitely will.

video: laughing baby

And there's this one. This is the sort of thing that makes me want to have kids!

This is exactly how I would want to have my father-daughter dance... if I wasn't, you know, spastically uncoordinated...

ThinkGeek :: ThinkGeek's Ultimate GeekDad Giveaway

ThinkGeek :: ThinkGeek's Ultimate GeekDad Giveaway

This is the most super-awesome grand prize I ever geeked.