Doing Things

[thanate]

jazzfish has been posting links to various new years' resolutiony things which lead to the discussion about being a person who Does Things and how this is far easier if you're surrounded by a network of other people who also Do Things and then talk about them, by way of inspiration. And then we commiserated about the brief flight of the motivation of men comm, and how that was nice while it lasted, but half the people on it don't ever post to lj anymore, and the two of us have migrated to posting from dreamwidth so it doesn't show up in our "post to" menus. (man, I miss laeticiav, although having double checked with her school's website to make sure she's not dead before sending out holiday cards, I choose to believe that her disappearance from the internet indicates a renewed devotion to her actual work...)

At any rate, I don't generally make new year's resolutions; I know my capacity, and a month or two of personal stubbornness is about all I'm good for in terms of working on life changes. Not only am I likely to run down a bit or move on to some other potential life change, but I don't want to discourage myself from making promises-to-self at other times of the year as needed. This has not stopped me from buying a whiteboard to keep a 50 projects for the year list on (listmaking being one of my better motivational tools) and so far I have four crossed off, which is more or less on track, numerically.

I'm also working on adding a little more scheduling to my life; I've signed up for two aquarium days (monday afternoons and thursday mornings) to replace the lost horticulture stuff; I'll miss working with the plants (particularly outside) but I'll for the present be working with (or at least around) snakes and lizards and birds and sugar gliders, which should be fun. I've also signed up for another round of yoga, and am considering finding a singing group somewhere. I hear the Lochmere choir is pretty decent... Possibly with all this going out of the house, I might get a bit farther with inviting people up for dinner or getting together with them.


50 projects craft list, completely revisable, with ability to retain "I have done this." I've been meaning to have something like this for *years.* Only... I have the perfect white board *somewhere* and still don't know where it went. Oh well; it can get a household to do list put on it when it turns up. Many of these projects are absurdly small, but still haven't been gotten around to, and they should fill the "but I don't feel like doing X" sorts of timeslots nicely.


crossed off #11 (which originally read "cute doll hat?" but was modified to the reflect the actual finished item when I went to cross it off), as adapted from the knitty pattern that I've been amused by for some time now, but didn't quite want for myself, and someone else beat me to making one for fishy1. Going back to look at the full set of original pictures, I like the shaping & tail on my version better. Now Miss Beryl wants one in pink & bright green.


"Death, 1503-1630, German" from the Walters Art Museum. (in a lovely little curio cabinet of a room with the lighting at a headachy dimness; this is the best I & my camera were up to.) The original collector is unknown, but they note that he would have recognized the pose as mimicking the Durer Adam & Eve. Carved from boxwood; according to the signage the scroll has the latin for "I am what you will be. I was what you are. For every man is this so." on the side that you can't see in this picture.

I have been thinking about but not posting a great many other things, so there may be more relating to food or to writing sometime soon. Also, my mother dug all of her canning equipment out of the basement for me, so I can make marmalade without having to store it all in the fridge now. Classy!

Comments

[jazzfish]

The whiteboard list is brilliant. Being able to see a) what's available to do and b) all the stuff that's already been done both seem psychologically helpful. I have an aversion to list-making that I would probably be well served by Just Getting Over, at this point.

And, yay for marmalading! uilos made clementine marmalade awhile ago and it was delicious. I'm holding out for some blood-orange myself, mostly so that we can have several jars of that lovely translucent deep-red color.

(And now I seem to be out of excuses, and so shall return to trying to make the Plot Device Character a little more of a Character and less of a Plot Device...)

[thanate]

I semi-compulsively make short term lists on little scraps of paper (possibly I just like writing on little scraps of paper-- the backs of library receipts, for instance-- and crossing things off) but the advantage of the white board is that it provides some ability to change my mind and discard projects without having to re-write the list. Possibly I should set up one for writing projects as well...

My marmalade (in the "soak overnight" stage) is mostly lemon & lime, although I tossed in an orange for good measure (and because it made up the last cup of citrus the recipe wanted.) Now I just need to throw off the complete undesire to do anything but take a nap to do the cooking part. Bah.

Clearly your Plot Device Character collects rubber duckies in his/her spare time.

[kittymaru.livejournal.com]

I've never been to the Walters. How sad is that?

[thanate.livejournal.com]

That was kind of what we said-- we'd only been once before, and then only caught a couple temporary exhibits. And we only really covered about half of what they had out this time-- it's a pretty nice museum.

So, when would you like to go? ;)

[amubleu.livejournal.com]

I'm also the type who is more motivated when I have a list made out. My only problem is actually making the list-_-. Your list is just full of creative projects. I know it's hard to get motivated to post when people around you don't but please do. I would love to see some of those finished products as you knock them off your list.

Fantastic hat, by the way.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, actually getting the list down can be a challenge-- my long term problem tends to be more that I'll write lists on little scraps of paper, and then never quite finish the last third of the things on them, or not manage to transfer things to the next list...

Thanks! :) (and, it does help to know that people appreciate it when I do get around to posting things.)

[fishy1.livejournal.com]

hehe fish hat <3!

I have a whiteboard, but no markers with which to make a list on it. Sad.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend markers! I picked up a 4-pack of fine point markers when I got the board, and felt terribly extravagant. Possibly I should add "better way to store markers" to my list, though; I'm still stuffing them back into the original packaging, which is going to fall apart soon. (also, I need to sort out the pile of stuff I was going to send you...)