Arrrrrr, Matey! It's the Shelf o' Pirates!

This year, I be givin' ye landlubbers a peek at me piratey interior decoratin' - I may decerate fer Halloween and Christmas fer a few short weeks, but I decerate fer Talk Like a Pirate Day year 'round with my Shelf o' Pirates. I know not where that scurvy Jedi wandered in from, but I see he gave that lass Elizabeth Swan a might purty lightsaber - now she can cut down e'en more scalawags!

Friday Fun: Too Much Butter

Finally (I've been such a bag BAD, bad! blogger this week), today's Friday Fun, from one of my favorite shows:

Wednesday Pic: Signs, signs...

1880 Train 08, originally uploaded by mdesive.

Musings on my clutter

Blogger's Blog of Note today is Ramblings of the Bearded One. In skimming through his posts, I came across one about how he makes notes in the margins of his Sudoku books. This sounds like my process for most of my notebooks and other scraps of paper [bold type is mine]:

Before I can throw an old Sudoku book away, it has to be meticulously gone through and any important information needs to be transferred to a different scrap of paper, to be put in a pile, lost, briefly refound and placed in another important pile, lost again, then rediscovered 2 years later when it is no longer relevant.

My piles of paper are legendary. But I am getting better. Really! Truly! I'm trying to implement GTD in my life, but like anything else, I can't just follow the directions, I have to add my own twist, so it doesn't quite work out the way it's supposed to.

Still, even partial GTD has helped me vastly. By simply asking myself "What's the next action?" I've gotten past the overwhelm of dealing with my clutter. I can now use my garage, family room, and home office all at the same time. Not one is full of the boxes and clutter from all the other rooms, which is how it used to be. I've spent years shuffling boxes from one of those areas to another, depending on which area needed to be used at the time.

I never remember to take "before" pictures,
but here's a "before before" picture ;)

The most improvement still needs to come in the garage, but I keep whittling away at the stuff out there. For now, I'm happy I can get my car in. Someday, we'll be able to get both vehicles in! (It's great to have lofty goals, isn't it?)

It's 9:00 on 9/9/09

Just thought you'd like to know.

Motivation

I came across this today in GTD Times. Great advice about a way to keep yourself focused on your goals: send yourself reminders of what your goal is. (I definitely will be implementing this.)

Send a letter to yourself! Mothercraft Tip (Life Coach Carley Knobloch) from Carley Knobloch on Vimeo.

Friday fun: Medieval tech support

Once upon a time, books were "new media" and this might be how some encountered them:

Wednesday Pic: Butterfly

DSC_0287, originally uploaded by mdesive.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Now that school is in full swing, there's one more supply you need to get your kid (or yourself if you don't already have one): A Library Card! [Insert heavenly music and golden, glowing card here! Sorry, didn't have any, you'll have to supply your own]

I remember getting my card on a school trip to the library (our school was small enough that we didn't have a proper library, so every few weeks, we took a trip to the public library). I remember having that feeling I still get every time I go to the library:

OMG SO MANY BOOKS CAN I TAKE THEM ALL HOME????

If you aren't convinced you need a library card...

52 Ways to Use Your Library Card
by the American Library Association

1. Get to know your librarian, the ultimate search engine @ your library.
2. Update your MySpace Facebook page. [my strikethrough - MySpace = bleh]
3. Research new job opportunities.
4. Find a list of childcare centers in your area.
5. Learn about local candidates for office.
6. Pick up voter registration information.
7. Check out your favorite graphic novel.
8. Pick up a DVD.
9. Get wireless access.
10. Participate in a community forum.
11. Find out how to navigate the Internet.
12. Prepare your resume.
13. Get new ideas for redecorating your house.
14. Get a list of community organizations.
15. Attend a lecture or workshop.
16. Hear a local author reading his/her latest novel.
17. Join a book discussion group.
18. Attend preschool story hour with your child.
19. Get homework help.
20. Look up all kinds of health information.
21. Research the purchase of a new car.
22. Trek to another planet in a Sci-Fi novel.
23. Call the reference desk if you have a question.
24. Research your term paper.
25. Learn about the history or your city or town.
26. Decide which computer to buy using a consumer guide.
27. Check your stock portfolio.
28. Borrow or download an audiobook for your next road trip or commute.
29. Use the library’s resources to start a small business.
30. See a new art exhibit.
31. Volunteer as a literacy tutor.
32. Find a new recipe.
33. Ask for a recommended reading list for your kids.
34. Make photocopies.
35. Get a book from interlibrary loan.
36. Enroll your child in a summer reading program.
37. Take a computer class.
38. Hear a poetry reading.
39. Take out the latest fashion magazine.
40. Enjoy a concert.
41. Trace your family tree.
42. Check out a special collection of rare books.
43. Check out a legal question or issue.
44. Find out how to file a consumer complaint.
45. Learn about home improvement.
46. Borrow some sheet music.
47. Learn how to use a database or computerized catalog.
48. Find the latest romance paperback.
49. Pick up tax forms.
50. Connect with other people in the community.
51. Find a quiet spot, curl up with a book and enjoy.
52. Read a newspaper from another country.

Friday Fun: Talking Animals

You get a twofer today because I couldn't decide which was funnier :)

Think social media is just a fad?

via The Travelin' Librarian

Wednesday Pic: A peek at Faerie

I took this on our latest visit to the zoo, and played with it in Picasa.

Musicals I like (a very short list)

I'm not a big fan of musicals. This seems strange to me. Something tells me I should like them, but I don't. In fact, I think I'd usually rather clean toilets than see a muscial.

Oddly, I often enjoy the music from musicals, just not in the musicals. I used to own albums of Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and I still know the lyrics by heart, but I have trouble actually sitting through a performace of Cats or Phantom of the Opera (even with Gerard Butler in it), no matter how much I love the songs.

Here is the short list of musicals I actually enjoy watching (and will even watch over and over)

• The Sound of Music - This has always been and will always be one of my favorite movies. Period. I used to drop everything to watch this when it came on about once a year. Mary Poppins was always "that movie with Maria Von Trapp in it." :)
• Moulin Rouge - I didn't really expect to like this, but I did. It's made up of all those songs everybody belts out in the car when they're driving alone.
• Mamma Mia - I like this one for pretty much the same reasons I like Moulin Rouge. Plus it's just a fun movie - one that you can turn on while you're cleaning the house or something and it'll keep you moving.
• Labyrinth - It never occurred to me that this is a musical until recently when someone else referred to it that way, and I still don't really think of it as one. It's a movie. There's singing. There's dancing. Nope, not a musical. ;)
  

Okay, you can start throwing the tomatoes...and if you have any suggestions of musicals I might like if I just tried them, tell me in the comments - I promise to give them a shot. And if any happen to make the list, I'll let you know.

Friday Fun: Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Here's a clip from my new favorite show, The IT Crowd, which is set in (you guessed it!) an IT department:



There are more clips here, or if you have Netflix, you can rent or stream the first two seasons.

Yesterday's timesinks

This is what I was doing yesterday, instead of things I should have been doing, like writing blog posts, working on my WIP, cleaning the house, scanning slides/negatives/old photos/family history stuff, reading from the TBR pile...

I watched the Crazy Horse blast. I love that they tweet imminent blasts with a link to their webcam (and then post it on YouTube)...

...And I kept One & Other open in one of my tabs most of the day (It's addicting!)



You can find out more about the One & Other project here. Too bad Kate M didn't explain in her bio why she was knitting with giant needles in a tiara and ballgown, but you can re-watch her hour - maybe she talked about in a moment I missed (after all, I don't watch it constantly, I do try to have a life...sort of).

Wednesday Pic: Balloon

DSC_0014, originally uploaded by mdesive.

From last year's Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival. The night we went to this year's, it was too windy for them to put the balloons up :(

Do you still shake the thermometer?

Beloit College has released its annual Mindset List, which for some reason didn't make me feel as old as it usually does (except for the knowledge that most college freshmen this year were born when I was a junior in high school). One entry in the list really caught my eye, though:

#17. They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.

Now, tell me. How many of you shake the digital thermometer, simply out of habit? I used to catch myself doing it almost every time.

Back-to-school memories

It's back-to-school week in our household, and that got me thinking about my own school days. They were very different from my daughter's. She goes to a pretty typical suburban school, where her grade is split into several classes. Several hundred students attend her school. It's just small enough that she can usually put a name with each face, but not always.

From Kindergarten through 8th grade, I attended a one-room rural school. My daughter has more people in her classroom than I had in my entire school.

It was a very different experience. We all went to recess at the same time, ate lunch at the same time (brought from home, there was no hot lunch program), did most of the same extracurricular activities, and we all went on the same field trips at the same time. While the teacher gave lessons to one grade, the others worked on their own assignments or did group projects. Some grades had a single person (one of my brothers was his entire class through most of grade school), other grades simply didn't have anyone. I had two classmates most years. My daughter has a hard time imagining this. So do a lot of adults I meet. Little House on the Prairie only goes so far as a frame of reference. Here's some visual help:

This was my school house:

And this was the entire student body when I was in Kindergarten, plus the teacher and teacher's aide.

(That's me in front, in the green sweater vest)

By 8th grade, there weren't even this many students. Sadly, the school is now closed.

A strange thing I just noticed (I don't know why I never did before): I'm the only student who isn't related to any other student in this picture. Everyone else has at least one sibling, and some have cousins. In fact, half the students all had the same last name.

One of my most vivid memories is from the beginning of the day when everyone stood up to say the Pledge of Allegiance and I had no idea what they were doing. I don't even remember there being a reassuring "We're going to do this now, but don't worry, we'll teach it to you later today." It just happened. I didn't know where to look, or anything. I think the rest of the day must have gone pretty well: My only other memory was not being ready to go home at noon, since Kindergartners only went half a day.

I still get a bit awed at the different experiences my daughter is having in school. Every child in her classroom is at roughly the same level. They're all getting the same instruction at the same time. They don't overhear the older kids' lessons, don't necessarily see the older kids' books (which seem magical when you're little and there's a little disappointment when you reach that grade and find they're just regular schoolbooks like the ones you've had before). They don't get the passive review of the younger kids' lessons, either, and maybe don't have the same little chances for mentoring.

At the same time, she has resources at her fingertips that I could only have dreamed of, and I'm not just referring to computers - she has an entire library complete with a librarian, a school counselor, and actual gym equipment (I remember our "home base" was always a round piece of metal, roughly the size of a Frisbee, which had long ago come off some piece of farm equipment). I didn't feel deprived at the time, and still don't think I was, but sometimes I wonder if my daughter will ever understand just how good she's got it.

Friday Fun: Kiss a wookie, kick a droid...

The Star Wars saga, set to the music of John Williams...wait, wasn't it already??



Just don't blame me if you watch this five times and are humming it the rest of the day. (Or am I the only one who does that?)

A writer's friends

A good friend will visit Mount Moriah Cemetery with you...

...A really good friend will lean out over the edge of a cliff to to take pictures so you know how to describe it when your heroine falls off.