Motivation, brought to you by Excel and Desktop Printing

It’s amazing what a nice looking piece of paper will do for my motivation. This was the sheet I created so I could keep track of my blog posting. Back in the day before desktop publishing, I would have hand written this out and it would not have been as pretty. It also would have taken me forever. I created this in about two minutes, printed it at school and was on my motivational way. There are so many wonderful things about this modern world.

The thing in shadow in the lower right-hand corner is the pin I got at the Romanian wedding Matt and I went to in August. I wasn’t sure where to put it and didn’t yet want to throw it away, so I stuck it on my motivational paper. Sentinel notices it every once in awhile and attempts to pull it down, so I should probably move it somewhere else. I think I will leave my piece of paper up for awhile, it feels so good to look at.

Sigh.

Well, I’ve got one more day and I’m not going to totally catch up. I’ve been working like a dog since September fifth and I was hoping that by tomorrow I would be caught up to present day. But I’ve got the by-ear harmony singing class tomorrow which will cut into the blog posting time. Even if I do four posts (my redoubling of effort goal) I will still have about three more posts on this blog, plus whatever I need to do for September for The Orange Door blog. So, I’m not to present day, but much, much closer than I was on Friday August 20.

Overall, a “good job me” award. Into the breach!

A redoubling of efforts.

It’s been 18 days since I started my two-posts-per-day regimen. The good news is that I have posted 41 new posts since that time. The bad news is I am just now tip-toeing out of May.There are roughly 3 weeks until PSU school starts, and I want to be within a month of present day at that point. I need to be to August 29 or further. So I’m going to strive for four posts done per day. If I can do that, there will be 88 new posts published and we will hopefully be into September. Right?

Ugh! Never again will I get so behind.

10/3 note (date I’m actually hitting the “publish post” button): Hey! According to this blog post, I met my goal! Good job me!

Full court press

Do I know what a full court press is? Something to do with Basketball? Perhaps offensive? What does the dictionary say? Hmmmm.

Full-court press

1. Basketball. a tactic of harassing, close-guarding defense in which the team without the ball pressures the opponent man-to-man the entire length of the court in order to disrupt dribbling or passing and force a turnover: Suddenly behind by eighteen points, they went to a full-court press.

2. a vigorous attack or offensive.



Okay, that’s interesting. Definition one says it’s a defensive tactic, while definition two says it’s offensive. That makes no sense to non-spectator-sport me.

At any rate! I’m here to tell you that I’m going to vigorously attack my horribly behind blogs between now and the start of PSU school. My class this fall, I’m excited about, but it is taught by a professor I’ve had before and she requires massive amounts of work. So, even more important that I catch up before that begins, as once I catch up there will be FIRM RULES about posting so this never happens again.

So!

From yesterday until September 29, I will post–actually physically post, not just write–TWO POSTS PER DAY! That will be 82 post posted between yesterday and then. I have no idea if that will catch me up, but it should make a very good dent. I have printed a check off sheet with two check offs already made and here I go. Of course, you won’t read this for awhile as I need to make my way to late August from mid-April, but just know that I’m on my way.

Resolution 2010.

I’ve read, and observed in my own life, that the interest in sewing skips a generation. My grandmother was an excellent seamstress. My mother tried, but I can still picture her exhaling sharply as she set out to rip another mis-sewn seam. She once made me a pair of pants for Christmas. Suspecting that something wasn’t right, we agreed that I would wear a blindfold and try them on. She laughed when they didn’t fit, and I took off my blindfold and laughed too.

My sewing talents don’t approach my grandmothers, and I’m in a “not sewing” holding pattern, but my homemaking gene is strong.

Similarly, my resolutions seem to go in an every-other-year success rate. In 2008, I resolved to write a letter per day and before burning out completely in late November, pretty much kept to that. Last year, I pledged to stop eating while standing. On the surface, a much easier task to fulfill, but I failed miserably at it.

With the every other year success rate, this year looks good for resolutions. At the New Year’s Eve party I attended last night my resolution was greeted with raspberries, general jeers and calls of “boring!” But I’m pretty excited about it.

Resolved: in 2010, I will spend 15 minutes per day working at my desk. In priority order my tasks will be: checkbooks, in box, blogs.

All three of those things are not really in my control. My checkbooks/money management system is admittedly a labyrinth process that could perhaps be streamlined. But I like the way I have set up its many processes, and checks and balances. When it is caught up, it gives me a sense of security.

It is rarely caught up. When I attack the to-do list monthly, it takes two or three hours and causes much shallow breathing and sighing. I also have a vague sense of unease throughout the month that I could bounce a check at any time. When I neglect the money management for more than a couple months, it takes the better part of a day to dig myself out. After the move, I didn’t catch things up for about six months and spent eight hours setting things right. A bit of daily attention would prevent this, and the resolution is designed to do just that.

My inbox is a sorry mess. I caught a reference to it in a previous blog post mentioning something about it’s geologic layers. I think I had it down to one object a few Christmases ago, but that was it. I would love to clear out that sucker, and now that my checkbooks are caught up, and presumably easy to maintain, I aim to do just that.
And oh, the blogs. In my mind, I work on them all the time. One of my friends lists my blog on her site. The listing also notes the last posting. I remember the first time I saw that my last posting on the list was three or four months old. I was surprised, then realized that just because I think about the blog daily, doesn’t mean that things are published. The thing I didn’t realize is that there are so many steps. Taking pictures, prepping pictures, making the blog post, writing it, letting it rest, editing it, editing it again, actually posting it. And I have so many damn interests. All those steps just don’t get done very often. It’s disheartening.

I don’t expect the blogs to get much better any time soon, for right now the money and the inbox promise to eat up that fifteen minutes. But perhaps the blog will move along a bit.

As for implementation, I have printed up calendars for the year and posted them on the door to the office. Each day I do my fifteen minutes, I will make a check mark of some kind on the day. I plan to prioritize this task and do it as soon as I come home from work, or first thing in the morning on non-work days.

Wish me luck.

Tagged!

At the end of May, Sara from Pike Schemes got tagged. Though Sara didn’t single me out, (probably because she knew I would be slow in responding) I did follow the rules and here I am. I’m eating lunch in my boss’ office because my computer was being used by the bookkeeper. I’ve just treated myself to some leftover Fritos from the school lunch. My hair is very long.

Theoretically, I would tag some other people too, but given how long it has taken me to get this posted, I think the moment has died.

May Catchup!

Arrrrgh! I’ve just discovered a whole folder of photos from May! I will have to go back in time to post them, which means I’m breaking my rule of posting in order. Much apologies, but you can use the links below to find the posts you may have missed.

Graffiti at Portland State

Not Something You See Everyday

Scenes from a Bike Ride

Flower Communion

Houses and Plans

Details

Leverage filming here. Lucky us.

Back to the bus mall!

Dead Relatives Tour

Bus tip: Enjoy your private coach

Holds

Plenty

Waiting for the Starlight Parade

That list of links should catch you up nicely.

A message from Future Patricia

Hello,

Future Patricia here. And let me tell you, April 26 looks a lot different than March 16. The weather is a bit warmer, for one. And the clover is over a foot tall, rather than just two or three inches. But enough about that. I’ve traveled here from the future, because I am dedicated to keeping my blog posts in order. And I realize I’m terribly behind. But that doesn’t mean there are not posts coming. They will be posted, eventually. In the meantime, I want to tell you about a discussion group I am starting that Current Patricia hadn’t thought up on March 16. It is a discussion group for the book Your Money or Your Life. And it is online, so you, Out & About fan, could join us, even if you don’t live anywhere near Portland. Are you interested? Read on. I’ll copy and paste the information that Future Patricia sent out to people.

In the meantime, keep in mind the weather is improving. And the blog posts will be posted, eventually.

Love,
Future Patricia

Hello blogging friends,

I’ve recently picked up the book Your Money or Your Life again. I read and followed its practices in the early part of this decade and lately, I’ve been feeling the pull to return to its lessons. I thought it would be fun (and more motivating) to invite others along so I’m starting a study group.

Apologies to those of you who previously received an email about this topic. Due to the pace of modern life/work schedules/pregnancy/”the economy” etc. it turns out that meeting in person for a discussion group doesn’t work very well. So I have re-jiggered the discussion group to be online. So perhaps you couldn’t participate before in person, but now you can virtually.

As a member of the study group you will read a chapter of the book per week, post to the newly created Y$YL blog (http://PDXYMYL.blogspot.com) and do your best to “do” one of the nine steps as best you can. Some of them are more involved than others.

You can see a discussion course outline by going to http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dj9fzf2_54fdr8zqvw

(That link is iffy, let me know if you need me to send the outline to you.) Our first discussion is May 15, so that gives you time to get the book and post an introduction.

More about the book:

Read the customer reviews of Your Money or Your Life at Amazon.com and the common theme you will hear is–“it changed my life!” Lots of authors aim to change people’s lives with their books. How many pull it off? Your Money or Your Life pulled it off because it revealed the connection between solving money problems and solving work problems. Looking back, one is tempted to say that the insight should long have been obvious to all. The reality is, it wasn’t. Your Money or Your Life has been a global bestseller for 13 years because it got to the root of the money management project and said something about it that had never been said before–the best reason to save is not to escape work but to free yourself to do a different kind of work.

(http://www.passionsaving.com/yourmoneyoryourlife.html)

If you are interested, or have questions, please email me to RSVP. stenaros [at] gmail.com

If you aren’t interested, but know someone who might be, feel free to forward this.

Patricia

I am caught up!

One plus of being extra busy with normal life is that it is so routine that there is not much to blog about. That, plus the fact I’ve been avoiding studying for the test in the mornings, means that I am caught up on this blog for the first time since June 2008! That’s right. If you are reading this on Friday, March 13, that would be the same day in which I typed this! So exciting.

I’m aware that this blog is in its “In & Inactive” state again. That is partially because I forgot to bring my camera when I went to Sunriver last weekend with the staff of my school. There would have been pictures from that, but alas. Hopefully with the coming of spring (and spring break!) there will be more pictures.

So I take the big Praxis test tomorrow. 10:45. Wish me luck. I’m hoping to not have to take it again.

Pike Schemes Visits

As some of you may have noticed, Sara (of Pike Schemes) and I are devoted blog followers of each other. She easily wins the prize for most comments left on my blog and I have a feeling I’m a top-three finisher for the prize of “most comments left” on her (and Shawn’s) blog. So it was thrilling to have Pike Schemes in Portland.

They were in town for a few hours, on their way to Shawn’s cousin’s wedding, but we had enough time for them to get a tour of the school I work at and to have lunch at Byways, where this picture was taken. You can see it’s obverse here.
After lunch we walked back to school and stopped at Cupcake Jones where Sara fell in love with “The Pearl” cupcake. Cupcake Jones describes “The Pearl” as a: white velvet cake filled with vanilla pastry cream, topped with vanilla bean buttercream icing and a single handmade white chocolate pearl.

After that Shawn and Sara gave me a ride home so they could see “The Orange Door” in person. Then they were off to Corvallis and a wedding. It was great to see them.