Laura's Lessons: What I've Learned

I've been watching Laura's videos for a couple years now.  Her vids were being posted in Ireland and I don't really remember now how I came across her. Her way of talking reminded me so much of my father's manner of speaking.  

I watched quite a few of her videos before I ever checked out her website.  Then I used some of her real simple worksheets and then in 2018, Christmas Eve to be exact, I finally decided to find out what "Bullet Journal" was.  She'd mentioned this a few times along with some of her other things on planning.  Long story short, I've done the Bullet Journal and am still working on it.  

Revising and reviewing  and setting it up to fit me and my style of working.  This is the longest I've stuck with one way of doing things.  And, No, I Do Not Have ADD, ADHD or such things.  I do have PTSD and Bullet Journalling has helped me a lot.  

I did her worksheets on setting goals when I was working on my business plan during 2019.  These helped me focus and what I'd already accomplished, what I wanted to do and what needed to be done to accomplish my goals. 

Then 2020 happened.  Well, for me it really started the last week before Christmas 2019 and all of this will be in my forthcoming book "I May Not Have Time."  The past couple months I've been picking up the pieces that got scattered and realizing that Yeah, I have come a long way since last year.  

Laura has developed some courses that I have yet to explore.  I'd gotten a notification from Facebook that I hadn't visited her private group in the last 30 days and I could leave the group if I wanted to.  No!  I didn't want to leave, I'm just working on "#Getting My Shit Together." 

This video was on her wall, so I watched it and the 10 habits are something that I've become more aware of and a couple I was already incorporating into my life from "before."  Before what? ya may rightfully ask and I'll tell ya that it's Before the Covid.  Some of you may be looking for help in setting up your New Year's resolutions and/or just reviewing for whatever reasons.  Give this video a looksee for anything you may be missing or perhaps reaffirm those you already do. 

☘️ 10 Habits That Changed My Life (While Suffering From Depression) • Li...

Of Goals, Objectives and Gremlins

During my perusal of the blogs I follow, mention was made of the annual event, NaNoWriMo, which I've taken part in every year since 2005. Got me to thinking that I have no plan for this year. Rarely had much more than a picture to begin with. I have a few ideas for this year, most of which introduce new characters in my world.

I've spent quite a bit of time developing that world. I have vague plans for a whole bunch of books, most of them stand alone. I thought about trilogies, series, etc. No can do. Unless following one or two people throughout their life is a series. There is so much more I have yet to learn about writing, genres etc.

Since I am a family historian of note within my family, I have a handy, dandy program called Family Treemaker. I've put most of the characters in there, added placeholders for a family which spans 20 generations. Fact I made sure to add: book/s I included them in. There is a section for notes which I have filled out with different items. I have included such things as news articles, photos of places and flora, fauna and sky shots for different characters.

When I think of the years I spent looking for a program to help me keep track of this family's books, I can only shake my head. The program has been sitting on my computer for the same amount of time that I have been doing NaNoWriMo. "Can't see the forest for the trees" or could it be "making a mountain out of a molehill." The only problem I have to deal with so far is whether or not to get another storage device to keep just this info and all my plots and schemes on. Now, I wonder about the makers of that program. Are they shaking their heads at some of the occupations-dreamcatcher or education-Protector?

Man, it's Thursday already. Four days left before I start the trip. My sister has kindly let me borrow her camera seeing's how the gremlins haven't returned my USB cord. I thought I had a button where I could "share it on FB." That button is nowhere to be found. Besides, the camera needs to be recharged. No charger either. I looked online for an extra one. Wouldn't you know it? Everyone in the United States who has bought this particular model also needs an extra charger/USB cord. Nary a one to be found anywhere until I happened to remember I have an ebay account. Yep, there is a couple there.

Makes me think someone had the foresight to buy up all the extra cords and chargers for this model expressly to sell them on ebay. Did those gremlins give that someone a hot tip after their various experiments with that black hole? Suspiciously close to the end of their tournament held a couple months ago.

Search for the Latest Interesting News

Apparently, I've missed something in my searches on the 'Net. If I mention some product, book, etc., I Must post a disclaimer, explaining the hows and why of the referral. Haven't looked up the exact regulation yet. It's on my "List of Things to Look Up." Methinks I must red ink some of those topics as soon as I can. It is amazing to me that this came up while searching out information about the tournaments. Thus, you will not be subjected to any more such referrals until I find out more about this disclaimer stuff. Had hoped I'd be able to line up my little ducks all in a row as I went along. Someone is using them for target practice before I get a chance.

As witness this post. I started it earlier this morning. Then I posted some comments, read some blogs, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I had signed up for something called Writer's Platform-Building Campaign. In the course of finishing the assignment, I suddenly was warned that a site had a malware, advised not to proceed unless I trusted the source, etc.

I immediately logged out of my browser {by the way, I no longer have to wonder about Google Chrome and Malware} and ran my trusty security program. Then did another check with another one. In the meantime, a third one started. {the aforementioned one that likes to interrupt my Cafe and Farm whenever I'm in a hurry.} Six hours later, here I am. Will be finishing what I started this morning.

Somehow, I will persevere and continue on the path I have chosen for the next portion of my journey. Tests notwithstanding, I hope to get my little ducks all in a row.

Fantasy, fiction, gremlins and brownies

Discovery of the great good news yesterday has freed me from worries regarding my Publishing goals. I have commenced writing in earnest now, at least 6 hours a day. What a great feeling. Regarding the theme of fiction, I suppose I can count the posts because my novels are fiction-fantasy to be exact. Speaking of: I just found out there is high fantasy and low fantasy with many subgenres. I should say-just exactly what is meant by each. Ahhh. I should just leave searching for other things to read alone for awhile. It's all just making my head hurt. I really don't want to get involved in that sort of discussion. Enough that I am back to writing great stretches of novels at one sitting. {Methinks I'd better clip my nails. Going back to delete the extra letters or add a space between words is getting too tiresome and will distract me when I start revising those novels.}

I've recently reorganized the black hole area and things are still getting sucked into it. I wonder if the recent heatwave has anything to do with the strength of the thing's reach. Or maybe I've made it easier for the gremlins to conduct their experiments. I can see them now. Snickering and having a grand old time with the placement of objects. Maybe, they've invented a new game to amuse themselves. And the last few months were the beta phase. Now, that they've worked out the bugs, they are practicing in earnest for the Grand Tournament to be held sometime in the next few months. Could be they're deciding to have mini-tournaments to decide where to have the Grand Tournament. I so hope they decide to hold it elsewhere.

I hope that the gremlins latest activity is what is keeping the brownies from helping me find some of the currently lost items. In which case, I can't wait for the gremlins to move on to the next testing place. Maybe I can get some of the items that have been left here...ahh.could it be? The brownies are delivering the items back to their originals owners and that is why I haven't seen any evidence of their presence. {Maybe they are getting tired of smucking me upside the head to get my attention. Maybe they have located the USB cord and I'm just not listening?} Will ponder on this as I continue on my goal of 50,000 words by August 31.

Childhood dream

Very soon all caution will be thrown to the winds. A new phase of life begins, a new attitude will be forged from the ashes of the old and time will be critical. Most people want to slow down and relax during their retirement years. I'm not doing that. I'm well on my way to adding stress, tension and unknown foreseen plots to my way of life.

I'm not officially retired, just entering the ranks of the Elders. I want to explore the world of books from the vantage of the inside, not just the pleasurable aspects of exploring worlds others have created. I will be exploring the real world also, traveling to far flung places. I've saved some money hoping to realize my childhood dream of visiting Stonehenge, checking out the Tower of London, seeing if the grass is really made of emeralds, kissing the Blarney Stone.

That last underwent a slight change after I found out one had to lean down to do so. I will ponder on that item as I make the preparations to visit. I'd like my mother to be able to go. My sons aren't really into it. Their interests are in the opposite side of the world.

Now, I've made some tentative plans for financing the rest of my visit. Hopefully, those will be finalized in the next few weeks. Adventure is about to hit my life and magic will create memories to last a lifetime and beyond. {I really believe magic exists. It's not the cast a spell type, change the environment, one needs to study for years one either; though there are reports that people can and have done so. No, I believe it's already around us. The spells have already been cast. One just needs to reach out and touch the results. }

Once I've realized that dream, I have a couple others that are lining themselves up, jostling for the second position. Methinks, I will leave it so for awhile.

Getting a library or Kindle figured out

Figured out the Kindle app on my computer.  It's great.  Now, I'll have the problem of not enough time again because of my love of books.  Dragons feature prominently.  I looked at the available titles on Amazon.  I haven't figured out yet if I can download from other sites.  There are some free sites listed under the free collections.  Went to one and the system was slow.

The best thing is I can get a lot books that I don't have the physical room for.  The house is currently full to the point of walking around the boxes.  Getting to ones I want to read again is tough.  Books are moved because there are eight of us who read.  Oh.  I remember when I used to want to live in a library.  "Be careful what you wish for" seems to fit right now.  

Being able to get the books I'd like may mean getting a second job to pay for them.  Many of the ebooks are under $5.  It'll be hard to resist the temptation of overbuying.   I looked at a few on the Smashwords site.  Luckily there is variety of formats to choose from.  If you have the time, you can use the web page view and read without downloading. 


I have just a few more edits on my short story.  Will be publishing it.  Haven't decided which self publisher to use yet.  There are a couple that I'm thinking about.  Soon as that is figured out, I will be back to posting various items I call random thoughts or whatever catches my attention.  Most likely something to do with the latest black hole on my favorite haunt.  Or... something to do with the latest misadventure with the black hole located in my bedroom that sucks up all my important items such as my USB cord for my camera which also happens to be the charger for it.  


I swear, I think the little people are out having fun these days.  Forgot about them.  Pays to remember such things and keep stuff put away.  Haaahn now that leads to organizing the area around the black hole which leads to getting storage things to put my items in.  Then leads to putting those things in a spot inaccessible to gremlins who may be the ones responsible for items being put near the black hole.  


Hmmm.  They may be experimenting with such things as: How close can they set an item such as my USB cord to the edge of the hole before it gets sucked in.  Or maybe there is another being such as the one that eats socks in the washer.  Hmmmm.  Must ponder on this for awhile.

Another day surfing

Still trying to find out why some of my posts are not publishing.  I wonder if it has something to do with clearing my cache.  I have to do that in order to play my games on my usual haunt.  Otherwise, I wait for 2 or 3 minutes for games to load..


Isn't it amazing how long 2 minutes can be?  In football, those 2 minutes can take up to one and a half hours.  On cafeworld, it can be long enough to spoil your dishes right before your eyes.  On FV, it's long enough to wish you hadn't bought so much stuff.  The game site developers now want me to give up more space on my computer to store some of the stuff so it doesn't take so long to load. No can do.  


I need that valuable space for the updated versions of programs needed to be able to play the games.  The number of programs now on my computer take up 40% of available memory. Good thing I have external drives to store pictures and such.  


I need space to store all the necessary items for my chosen craft of writing.  Those novels can take up a lot of space when revising.  Have to save a copy in case I delete something I might need.  Did that once.  Changed something in a scene, then decided the original was better.  Lo and behold, it wasn't to be found.  Tried to write it from memory.  Nothing doing.


The other valuable space is taken up by antivirus, security type programs to keep my computer running.  I reset the automated tasks in order to be able to play.  Ho, that can be frustrating when I only have a few minutes to get something done.  A lot of the tasks take place in the background and this causes moments of intense emotions resulting in shouted words that remind me of my father.  He was quite vocal at certain times of the year, particularly In January, when the Pack was playing.  


The last week has been full of such moments for me.  Most irksome and what has caused a few calls to the tech support for DSL is the inexplicable down times for the internet connection.  It was hard to be courteous when I was right in the middle of serving dishes that had only a few seconds before they spoiled.  Now, we need to get a new filter or add another phone jack just for the DSL line.  It's always one thing or another with this fascination of mine.  


Then, today, I was checking out some background info for one of my books.  That was at 0700 or thereabouts.  Next thing I know, it's 1700 and time to eat.  I had seven tabs open on one browser.  Tried to use another browser and realized that I was trying to do too many things once again.  Time for a break.  Good thing supper was ready.


Some time during the day, I had come across many books that I had read many years ago.  Bookmarked them and then remembered I have a Kindle app.  Now, I'm learning how to use that.  I need to learn cause now my mother and sister want to get one.  Joy of joys.  Now, we need to figure out what to do with some of the books that we have.   Which brings me back full circle to the burning questions of why posts aren't publishing and links aren't working.  Think I'm ready to deal with that now.  

Being true to Oneself

Aaniin.  Greetings all.  Up til today, I had dreams of writing and publishing a book.  I do have several drafts that are in various stages of editing.  All are in the fantasy genre and two or three in nonfiction-biography and history.  My dreams aren't dreams any longer.  I have written 12 books.  Now, I just need to get them published and I have plans for that.


Ever since high school, I've thought about writing.  I wrote poems and gave them to people.  Once, I was writing a poem.  One girl asked me what I was doing.  "Revising my poem."  "A true artist doesn't have to revise."  "Yes you do have to revise."  "The words will just automatically be there.  You shouldn't have to revise."  


Yep, you guessed it.  My self confidence took a nose dive and I quit writing.  Only once did I write a poem that didn't need revision.  This happened shortly before the aforementioned conversation.  Remembering this incident lent weight to her words.


Being true to oneself is another thing I heard while growing up.  I certainly wasn't true to myself that day.  Listening to others is a two edged sword {pen in this instance} that has lasting effects on me.  One effect of this piece of advice is that I do a lot of revising in my head now.  I visualize paragraphs, reactions, pictures of what I want to create.  Getting the words to match the picture I see is what makes the process of writing an adventure.  


Another effect is one I find harder to put aside.  The hesitation just before I show my work to someone.  I hear the tone in her voice which is so easy to project to someone else.  I'm grateful for it.  It has made my writing better in the long run.  


My son and I decided we'd see who got a book published first.  That was 8 years ago.  Neither one of us has published so far.  We're still working on it.  The path to that published book has taken each of us in different directions.  I've learned a few things from him.  His words, his voice are replacing the other in my heart.  


I think about my son's reaction when I gave him the first couple chapters of my first book.  He read it, handed it back to me without any notations whatsoever.  "I don't want to do this."  "Why?"  "I want to wait until the book is finished."  

Minions of the Darkside

Raving and ranting.  Ranting and raving.  The darker emotions of life.  Images are not pretty, might be gruesome even.  Frustrating, irksome, impatient.  What, what's that you're asking?  Why am I blathering on about the dark side of life?  I have succumbed to the Darkside.  


Woke up this morning feeling chipper, maybe even happy.  Had my morning coffee and cigarette.  Proceeded to eat the very last frybread slathered with peanut butter.  Logged on to my usual early morning haunt, then proceeded to my next stop.  Didn't have the least bit of suspicion that the Darkside was lurking, eyeballing me as I happily proceeded to check out my Cafe.  


The dishes were bubbling merrily away, customers were happily eating, food and drink was being consumed at a phenomenal rate.  Buzz rating was going up.  Neighbors were very generous with their taste temptations and provided me with a lot of what I needed.  The catering order was proceeding nicely.  Very few popups to spoil my advance towards the completion of my goals.  Then the Darkside struck.


The total number of dishes served was correct for me.  Alas, not for my catering buddies.  I charged righteously towards Customer Support, only to find the support had dropped down the black hole of despair.  In haste, I scrambled to the Forums.  Lo and behold, everyone was having the same problems.  {Not everyone, just the vocal minority, of which I am a member, particularly when money is involved}  This is where I discovered I was not dealing with the Darkside's minions.  The Creme de la Fraidy was present in many of the smaller caverns located within the spiraling galaxy of "the Forums."  Between the black hole and the entrance to the Cave of Demented Discussions, I had veered off the path of righteousness onto the Path of ...the Darkside.  


Once I realized that the upper echelons of the dreaded Darkside were circulating their nefarious instruments of doom, gloom and despair, I backpedaled to the beginning of this travesty of justice.  There I found that I had made a slight miscalculation when I charged off so recklessly.  The newest of the new, the latest of the late, the best of the Quest had been released sometime on this day of travails and it is that which sent me on my rants and raves, my rapid descent into the Darkside.  


Thoughts of the grand prize awaiting the one who finished the 11 day quest were heady ones at first.  Then I realized I'd be competing against millions.  Millions, I tell you, who are, even as we speak, outpacing me with lightspeed grace and agility.  Now, I'm sliding into a mournful morass of ...Wait, there...could it be?  Captain Superstove.  He will help me regain the advantage so carelessly tossed aside when I spotted the Tally-eating minion of the Darkside.

Changing habits

I spent several more hours checking out the new site.  Found out the theme for the month is "fan" and thought "there goes that.  No mention of the word fan in my post."  Read further and found it was only an objective.  Well, thank goodness.  One thing at a time.  My objective is to post daily.  

I see the logic behind the 30 day Blog posting.  I read somewhere that it takes about 21 days to form a habit.  The extra seven days will be reinforcement.  Yeah.  Then I can add another objective.  Hopefully, I will be caught up and can get to the monthly theme.  Most likely not though.  I have several other habits that I want to follow through on, change or drop.  

It's a mite harder to drop a few habits.  That's when I discover how much I really use those particular habits.  When I finally decide to drop one, I need to find one to replace it.  Then a quandary takes hold of my attention, slowly throwing me into a panic.  What am I going to do about a new habit.  I spend several hours, days, sometimes months checking out new habits with which to replace the one I want to drop.  That's when I discover that I really didn't want to drop that habit.  I hope Blog posting will not be one of the "drop" variety.  I want it to be the change variety.  It's certainly not the follow through variety; I do have annual posts for that.  

I checked out some of the other features such as groups.  Most have't been active for at least a year.  No "change" support there.  I progressed to reading the posting for the past few days.  Found a couple that I just had to comment on.  Then couldn't find the button for following the blog.  Drats.  This morning when I logged in, I saw that my comments are tracked.  Yea.  So, in between shifts today, I will be checking on those interspersed with trying to find that button again.  Methinks I'll have to spend some time on my own blog to hit those buttons.  

There was mention of Facebook's 30 day challenge on one.  I found the Facebook page, checked out the comments on the feed.  Logged in to that account this morning, found out I forgot to hit the like button.  Another search today with the sole objective of hitting the like button.  

One thing that I caught myself doing while I was logged in to Facebook.  Automatically going to my cafe and farm.  Now, there's a habit I need to think about.

11 June 2011 Getting to be Annual Blogpost time

Aaniin,  greetings one and all.  I lost my password, then had to work on getting my website back up and running.  Found my password.  Then had to find the site I looked at earlier in May.  Went to my website to get the necessary admin stuff out of the way so I could access my blog.  After all that, I found out that I had a regular account.  Hah.  Then had to find the site that was supposed to help me get in the habit of posting every day.  Missed the deadline of June 5 for the "Blogroll".  Looked at the prompts, looked at a few of the blogs.  Found my Blog, read back over what I had previously posted.  Now here I am.  Only took roughly 2 weeks.  Ahh well, didn't let you know about the daily excursions to Cafeworld or semi-daily trips to Farmville.  These two games have been taking up the majority of my off-duty time. 

I found out one of the hazards of cooking dishes in the fantasy kitchen of Cafeworld is the discussion with my sister concerning what to serve next.  Do not discuss what is being cooked when there are several hungry people in the next room who can hear what you're saying.  

"I'm cooking the pot roast."  ends in "I hate you.  I hate Cafeworld." when it is discovered that the pot roast will take two days to cook.  Discussions of French toast and Eggs Benedict end in groans from the next room.  "You got my  hopes up and all set for good food."  when it is discovered that I just served 40 of the required 80 Toasts and still need 165 Eggs Benedict. 

And the hazard of farming is forgetting the time of the crops planted, going to the site, waiting several minutes for it to load, only to find the crops had wilted.  Now, I'm delaying visiting my farm until I hit the required time for one of my goodhearted neighbors to unwither my crops because I ran out of Farmville Cash with which to unwither them myself for the hefty price of 5 FV.  Hahhnhh.  

Now, I've added another objective to my long list of things I want to do when I find the time.  Daily blogging.  This objective is to turn the Annual Blogpost into one of the following varieties:

  1.  monthly at the least

  2.  weekly for a lessening of the "oh drats, what did I do with that password" 

  3.  daily for the great sense of accomplishment I just know I will feel seeing my blog added to daily.  

Gathering all the necessary items takes up several minutes.  I just have to have chips to chomp,  coffee to slurp, an open path to the door for my, oh horrors, dare I say it?? Yeah.  My twice hourly cigarette.  Ahh, there it is.  In reality, my twice hourly cigarette is both halves to make a finished one.

That leads to thoughts of my son's comments which leads to the hankering for the real thing.