Jennerosity

I heard something today that resonated so strongly with me that I just had to share it.  I was listening to episode 241 of the Zencast Podcast and in one part the speaker was discussing that time in between when you’re traveling.  How it’s time when you are no longer where you were, but not yet where you are going to.  It was like a bell was struck inside me.  I think that’s why traveling between places, especially long trips, feels so freeing to me.  I know to some people, waiting in an airport gate, sitting for hours on a plane, or spending time sitting on a train between cities would feel more like a prison, but it’s quite the opposite for me.

I’m released from everything that was, but am not yet everything that will be.  I’m unattached to any place and free.  There is no defined place of being that I exist in, so I can exist only for me.  My soul feels unbound and I can simply spend time existing in a more pure state.  I feel more peaceful, more rested¹, and the world just seems to make a little more sense when it’s hurtling by me, as opposed to when I’m attached to a particular part of it.

1. even though I don’t sleep on airplane rides [↩]

As things have started stirring in me for action, I’ve almost gotten frustrated at being on vacation because it’s forcing me to be inactive.¹  So, I’ve been doing lots of reflecting and journal writing² to the point where I’m going to have to buy a pen here in Japan because the one I brought is almost completely out of ink³.  But doing things when I get home will require time and I’m already finding my time stretched thin.  So, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve got to try to cut back on my online life.  I’m talking about the time that I’m just consuming what other people put out there and not really doing anything myself.  Sure it’s great for inspiration, but if I spend all my time getting inspired when am I actually going to act on that inspiration? During all this, I’ve had a few moments of clarity and been inspired to once again go through and re-structure some of my geeky online activity.  Namely, reading blogs.  It was partly inspired, ironically enough, by a blog post I read⁴  The post in question was a recent entry on Unclutterer letting their new traffic know about all their services and features and in that post was a link to another post in which they described how they filtered the Unclutterer RSS feed using Yahoo pipes.  ((Wow!  I’m so unaccustomed to Yahoo having anything to offer to the modern web 2.o world that I actually typed ‘Google pipes’ first and then had to go back and edit that.))  Basically they were able to use the free Yahoo pipes service to filter out some of the blog posts that they know some readers don’t really want to see and have created a separate RSS feed with less content.  I’d known about Yahoo pipes for a long time but never really had a venue with which to apply it and play with it a bit since it had only ever been described to me in theory⁵.  With this great example and clear tutorial on how to use it, I now had a a concrete idea that I could play with, and the inspiration I needed to work with it. So, here I am in Japan with a computer, feeling like I need to take action, and realizing that I need to cut back on my online consumption.  Add in a bit of inspiration on what Yahoo pipes can do to a blog’s feed, and you have me spending a couple of hours in our hotel fiddling with filters and feeds.  I also culled a bunch of blogs that I don’t really spend time reading any more.  I’m keeping all the blogs of people I actually know, and I’m going to try to batch process some of my niche blogs on a less frequent basis.  In my normal old routine I would try to get to an ‘RSS zero’ state every day, but I was barely treading water with over a hundred subscriptions to keep up with.  Now I’m going to try to accept that some categories don’t need to be read daily.  Instead, they can be saved for a time when I’m actually going to read and process that information in a more meaningful way.  I’m sure I’ll still make generous use of the ‘mark all as read’ button too.  I’m just hoping that my obsessive compulsive nature doesn’t freak out with all of the unread posts staring me in the face. Do you find that the abundance of information online gets in the way of actually doing things?  Have you found a good balance for yourself?  Got any tips to share?

1. Almost frustrated, but not quite [↩]
2. LOVE all the train rides here.  Time to relax.  Time to think.  Time to write (though mostly just personal journal writing) [↩]
3. I’ll totally suffer through the trip to the Japanese stationery store – LOL [↩]
4. Yes, I’ve been trying to keep up with my google reader while on vacation even though I know I should just be relaxing.  It’s one of the hazards of being a geek and bringing a computer along with us. [↩]
5. I can’t handle theory alone for tech stuff, I need to actually get my hands dirty in a purposeful play setting to learn stuff, which is actually why I started blogging in the first place [↩]

There comes a point when every creative spirit and soul needs to stop pouring out from themselves and immerse themselves in the creativity of others, so that their own well can be re-filled.  My fellow creative types will know all about this.  I think it extends beyond just the creative to all sorts of energy that we pour out of ourselves on a daily basis.

Before we left for Japan¹, I think you could safely say that Benevolance and I were skirting burnout.  I feel a bit like a faker claiming it for myself, since compared to him, my workload is much lighter².  I’m hoping that this three weeks away is long enough to refill our wells so we can return to regular life with renewed vigor.

For myself, I can feel that familiar stirring inside of me.  I’m getting fired up again about different projects and things I want to start doing.  The problem is always that most of our time at home is spent on our jobs instead of our interests, so I am always feeling like there isn’t enough time.  But it’s important to make time for these things at home, so that we let a little trickle in to keep our wells from drying out too quickly again.

One thing I’ve been reminded of on this trip is that exercise refills my well.  Even at home, when I’m exercising I seem to have more energy so that I can use my time more efficiently and effectively.  Sleep is the other big one.  It’s hard, but I must start getting to bed earlier.  Here where we have so much fewer distractions in the evenings, it’s so much easier to start to sleep when the sun goes down.  Sure, in theory, we could watch some tv, though we don’t really understand it.  And we’ve got a computer and a Nintendo DS, but we only feel compelled to use them for so long while we’re on vacation.

Sorry to put up such a rambling post, but felt like I should share some of what’s been going through my head.

1. we’re still there by the way, you can read all about it on our travel blog where most of the posts are written by my husband [↩]
2. before we left not only was he working a 6 day work week, but most of his days were 9 hours long, AND he’s working towards his CGA designation [↩]

As I shared before, I’m using a different goal setting method this year for my annual goals.  There are a bunch of goals that I think would be just kind of boring to share, especially since I’m not sharing them in the context of the categories that I created them in.  I’ve already shared some of the bigger goals that I’ve got going on for the year, but there are a couple that didn’t get mentioned, that I thought I should throw in.  I’ve been trying to come up with a good way to categorize them for you, but that would just devolve into a whole bunch of blog posts that are all really short.  So instead I thought I’d just list them all in one final post on my goals.

Travel

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have a travel blog that we update when we go traveling.  And, well, in about a week, we’re going on another three week vacation.  It’s our second time going to Japan and we both can’t wait for the break.  I didn’t include travel as its own goal category just because the trip is happening so early in the year.  Most of the work towards it actually happened in 2009.

Family

With recent events being what they are, my family needs extra time and energy right now.  A substantial portion of my year is going to be dealing with the aftermath of my step-father’s unexpected passing.  It’s going to be a roller-coaster of emotions and I’m trying to think of ways to handle the ups and downs.

Finance

My husband and I go through regular re-evaluations of our financial position and goals.  He doesn’t do the same year end thing that I do though, and we usually end up re-evaluating our financial position in spring, around tax-season.  I think our focus during the coming year might shift slightly away from RRSPs and towards paying down the mortgage on our condo, but it’ll depend on how things go with our income¹

Projects & Collaboration

I have two projects that are in various stages of development right now that I’m also super-excited about and that will take up significant amounts of time and energy.  But, I’m not ready to reveal many details just yet.  One is a collaboration effort with a couple of other creative, intelligent, entrepreneur women who are fabulous.  Seriously, I feel so lucky to be working with them because there’s no way I would have ever thought of tackling something this fun and exciting on my own!  The other is just a little fun project that started brewing somewhere in the back of my mind last year.  It will involve a blog, but not this one.  I may, or may not, share a link to it when/if it happens, I’m still undecided about that.²

So that’s it for my goals for this year.  As we wrap things up before our vacation we are going to have a crazy busy week!  Not sure if I’ll be popping in over here,³ so if you want to keep up on what’s happening, be sure to check in with our travel blog, Sauntering Sunflower!

1. Did I mention that my office is moving?  There are a lot of ‘what if’s’ , but the number of hours I work may go up or down.  Will find out more as summer, and the end of our current lease, approaches. [↩]
2. Sorry about all the teaser info, but you’ll just have to deal with it, or beg me for details in the comments. [↩]
3. though I may at least post a picture of me after I get my hair done on Monday [↩]

My husband and I started a travel blog for our last trip to Japan.  I made a few posts about my New York trip with my sister too.  We’re planning on updating it from the land of rising sun once again, so if you want to follow along, then head over to Sauntering Sunflower.  You can subscribe via RSS and I may get my husband to insert email functionality so people can be emailed updates as they happen.  But, we’ll see what we get around to before we go.  Hopefully there won’t be any long stretches between our updates, since this time we’ll have a netbook with us and won’t be so dependent on internet cafes while we are there.  This will also hopefully mean that we’ll be able to post a few photos along with the blog posts.

Before reading this article, please close your eyes and envision me doing a fitness activity.  It can be running, kick boxing, lifting weights, the exact activity doesn’t really matter.  Got a clear picture in your head?  Good.

Now why did I ask you to do this?  Well, I try to include visuals with my blog, but despite searching through all my uploaded Flickr images, I couldn’t find any of me at any fitness event or doing anything particularly fitness-y.  Which is weird because both Benevolance and I have done all sorts of fitness stuff in the past.  The closest thing I could find to a fitness related picture was one of me posing in a lightish-red hip scarf and my lightish-red shirt¹ that I wore to belly dancing class.  And this is someone who has supposedly done the Vancouver Sun Run 4 times!²

On the bright side of things, this inability to find any pictoral evidence of my fitness abilities has given birth to a new fitness goal – start documenting fitness accomplishments with photos!  Now, part of me resists this because my fitness clothing is not really flattering.  I don’t shop at Lululemon and I don’t usually concern myself with style when I’m doing a workout.  Yes, I’ve even been known to mix peach and red together, which is not a flattering combination.  Plus, there’s the fact that I don’t wear makeup to workout and am quite often covered in sweat.  This is a good thing when you’re concerned with fitness, but doesn’t make me look particularly photogenic.  And then there’s the red-face issue.  I get very bright red in the face when I work out.  I always have, and probably always will.  But, it’s a little shocking to see a person who is normally so pale, go bright red.  It looks a little clown-ish.

But, I really should get past all of that, and start taking pictures.  Or rather, start getting other people to take pictures of me doing things.  And, by logical extension, this means I’ve got to start getting out and doing fitness things (again).  I’ve devolved into a bit of a couch potato, but my health and fitness is something that is really important to me.  Despite that, I haven’t been able to set any really concrete fitness goals for myself this year.  Last year I had a similar problem and didn’t feel like I progressed much at all.  This year, I’m tossing a few options around in my head, but a lot of the fitness programs out there, don’t last an entire year.  I had started working on my running last year just before switching to the P90X program, but we’ve just discovered that our treadmill may be on its last treads. ³  Probably won’t get around to repairing or replacing it until March when we’re back from Japan.  And though I know I could run outside, I’m a really big wimp and have a lot of reasons why I’d rather not. ⁴ So, in the mean time, I’ve got to figure out what I want to do and here are my thoughts so far:⁵

• Start working on the Lifetime Fitness Ladder⁶
• Complete a 90 day Peak Condition Project⁷
• Complete another 90 day P90X program⁸
• Get rid of soda & pop from my diet (again)
• Prepare more meals at home (including lunches)
• Eat less, but more frequently
• Integrate more yoga
• Begin meditating
• Do some sort of push-up/sit-up/squat/chin-up challenge

So, my dear readers, care to share your fitness goals?  Thoughts?  Advice?  Any and all are welcome in the comments!

1. I really need to add the Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow! shirt to my collection too! [↩]
2. And the last two times I even tried to look for the official event photographers who take pictures to sell to you online after the race, and despite looking for them and trying to ‘look good’ for the camera while I ran, I didn’t have a single clear shot taken of me.  Which is a shame for them too, because I probably would have bought one. [↩]
3. We’ve had it for at least 5 years, if not more.  Benevolance and I have trained for two Sun Run’s using it, and it doesn’t owe us anything of the $1,000 that it cost us at the time. [↩]
4. And let me list them all for you: I know right now that I’d let the cold and rain be an excuse not to work out at all.  Plus, I don’t like running by traffic and having to figure out where I’m going and how far to go and whether I can get back or not, or having to calculate the route ahead of time – It’s just too much work.  And, I know it’ll be harder on my joints than running on a treadmill would be.  Don’t really have any cold weather clothing either, so it would mean investing even more $$ so that I could get an outfit together that would allow me to run and not freeze. [↩]
5. Though my husband just remembered that we do have an amenity room at the condo where we live and they do have a gym that probably has a working treadmill in it that we could see about using – hm [↩]
6. I really like this one because it’s so portable and easy to follow.  Will I get huge results?  Probably not.  Will I feel healthier?  Probably [↩]
7. after getting back from Japan [↩]
8. you know, one where I don’t skip a bunch of workouts at the end, and maybe actually see some results? [↩]

More old books... by guldfisken via Flickr. Image is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence

This year I decided to do a reading challenge.  The challenge is to read a number of books in a few areas of interest to me.  It gets me going in several areas that I think are important for my personal growth and will hopefully get a few books off my ‘to-read’ list at Goodreads.

I’ve decided the four areas that I want to do my reading in, but I haven’t figured out which books in each category I’m going to read.  So, if you are familiar with the genre/category, please feel free to give me recommendations on what to read in the comments.

I like to read a wide variety of stuff with both fiction and non-fiction. For the non-fiction end of things, I’d like to do some reading about Buddhism and Leadership this year.  For the fiction side of things, I’d like to read some Steam Punk fiction and a couple of graphic novels as well. ¹

I’m keeping it small and manageable and will pick 2 books per category to read during the year.  That’s only 8 books, less than 1 per month!²

1. Ok, I know graphic novels aren’t a genre per se, but it’s a form of media that I’m getting increasingly interested in personally and professionally. [↩]
2. Which is good since I will be doing more writing than reading during November. [↩]

This is going to be the first on a series of short posts outlining my goals for 2010.  My process for setting goals is always evolving and this year I’m trying something entirely new and using a spreadsheet to track my progress.¹

My biggest goal is definitely writing related, so I figure I’ll start with that one . . .

Volunteer again as a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo2010
I had such a good time as a volunteer last year and my  head is already bursting with ideas for next year.  I think it’s one way that I connect to the teacher part of myself and it feels so good to bring out those skills and flex those muscles again.²

Participate in NaNoWriMo2010
This kind of goes without saying, but I’ll need to participate again in order to be a municipal liaison.  Not sure what I’ll be working on, though I have a few story ideas that could be developed.  Alternately, I could work on the sequel to my first NaNo manuscript.  And, I’m sure a few new ideas will pop up between now and November that I could use too.

Get a manuscript finished and ready to submit
And get it done by September 4th of next year.  This is going to involve several sub-tasks.  First, I have to finish a first draft.  Then, I’ll have to sit down with the manuscript and do several rounds of revisions until I feel brave enough to let it go out to the world and be read by other people.  I’m sure there will also be some research and my poor husband will have to spend countless hours having ideas bounced off him to make sure it all makes sense.  And, I’ll also have to have figured out who I’m submitting to, which will involve some market research as well.

These are goals that I consider my ‘career goals’ because I want my career to be as a writer.  However, I still have a day job and so I also have an entire set of ‘job goals’ too.

If you want to read about another writer’s journey to getting published, check out Shannon’s blog Daily Pie where she shares updates on her journey as a writer along with lots of other good stuff too.³

Anyone else have any career goals that they want to share?  How about a writing goal that isn’t career related?  Feel free to share in the comments!

1. We’ll see how long it lasts. [↩]
2. And luckily, unlike my actual teaching career, it’s very doubtful that I’ll have to deal with any bathroom emergencies. [↩]
3. like updates on her fitness goals, pictures of her home improvements, an awesomely fun treasure hunt she devised for a little girl, and even more stuff too [↩]

So I heard that all the cool kids are doing some sort of 2009 review post before the year is officially over so I thought I’d jump on the cool bandwagon and do a post as well.  I’m giving you fair warning right now, it isn’t a happy pile of cupcakes.¹

First, some highlights. ((I haven’t done a very good job tracking things, this is just off the top of my head.))

• I won jennerosity.org on a Valentine’s day contest held by BlueFur webhosting company and moved from a hosted blog to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog.
• Traveled to New York with my sister.
• Actually passed my second road test²
• Not only participated in and won NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row³, but also got to act as Municipal Liaison for Vancouver
• And there were a couple of babies born in my step-family⁴

Random Middlings⁵

• I worked most of the time.
• I did belly dancing classes for the first bit of the year.
• I did not eat any of the ‘work candies.’⁶
• I started thinking a lot about what path feels right for me and finally discarded some old titles and am taking some tentative steps towards new ones.

Now the lowlights – you can stop here if you want to; it’s the reason this part is last ((I won’t hold it against you if you do))

• I feel I accomplished next to nothing with my health and fitness.  I finally kinda got the hang of the shoulder shimmy and that’s about it.  And while the shoulder shimmy is not something I find easy, it’s also not something that makes me feel particularly fit or strong.
• I had to associate with people who seriously grate on my nerves and very level of sanity in order to do something I love.  Worse news is that it’s pretty clear they aren’t going anywhere and I’m going to have to find some way to deal with my feelings and the stress of having to associate with them, or give in, back down, and step away from the thing I love.  Not really a fun choice.
• I didn’t get to do any teaching.  And, I do realize that I haven’t been employed in a teaching position in over 4 years now, and I’m still satisfied with the choice I made because I don’t think I’d be any happier if I had continued teaching, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still miss it.  Damn!  Just realized that I’ve now been employed as something other than a teacher for more time than I was ever employed as a teacher :(
• And really, the event that is probably colouring my perspective the most at the moment is that my Step-Father suddenly passed away on December 21st.  So really, that kind of just sucked the wind out of any Christmas or New Year’s festivities that were underway.  I’m saying a preemptive thank you for any kind comments on this post, as I’m not sure I’ll be coming back to respond.⁷  How are we doing?  Everything still sucks right now.  The road ahead is long and I’m trying to tell myself that the bleakness I see now is going to fade over time.  I’m faking it and hoping that I’m going to make it.

I’ve a couple of blog posts related to this one on my mind.  One on preparing for a personal emergency like the one we had, but it may or may not ever see the light of the internet.  Because I like to keep my blog focused on the positive things I might muster some enthusiasm for a post about my 2010 Goals – I have an entire strategic plan mapped out on a spreadsheet, like any good obsessive compulsive geek would have.⁸

1. Why cupcakes you ask?  Well they seem to popping up all over town lately.  First downtown and now there’s a cupcake place by my work and another opening up soon by my home. [↩]
2. Here in BC we have a graduated license system whereby new drivers first take a written knowledge test to become a ‘learner,’ then a short road test to become a ‘novice,’ and finally an hour long road test to get their ‘full’ license [↩]
3. I won in terms of word count, though the story is still unfinished [↩]
4. I’m not a baby person, so that’s probably why this is the first time they have been mentioned on my blog [↩]
5. Because not everything is strictly a high or low moment, a heck of a lot falls somewhere in between [↩]
6. Note that this is different from simply eating candy at work, which I did plenty of.  But, I did abstain from eating any of the candies out of the dish that is kept on the counter at work for our customers.  There was no particular reason for this except for my sudden and arbitrary undeclared intention to abstain [↩]
7. Though I’ll be continuing to blog [↩]
8. Or maybe it is just me? [↩]

Emergency fire equipment at a temple in Kyoto, Japan

One of the things that comes up for me every winter is the topic of emergency preparedness.  Usually it pops into my head at about the time that I’ve stubbed my toe on a cabinet and am hopping around in the dark, in the middle of the night, during a power outage.  Over the last couple of years I’ve tried to be a bit more pro-active about things and have been assembling an emergency kit.  It isn’t exciting or fun, but it give me some peace of mind.¹  I also feel a strange sense of professional responsibility whenever I work on it, since I do work in the insurance industry.

I find it fitting to turn to this project once again today, the day we received our first ‘major’ snowfall of winter.  I reviewed my 300+ blog articles in my google reader this morning and noticed that quite a few were also on emergency preparedness.  Since I didn’t want to brave doing anything outdoors, I decided I would once again review my meager emergency supplies.

I put together a big list of all the things that the emergency lists say you should have.  I used several sources and put together all the ideas and then went down to the garage where we keep most of our emergency supplies and checked off everything that we already have put together.  I tossed out the emergency food supplies that had expired, reorganized, and added a few things to the box.  I still have a long way to go to be as ready as they say you should be.  I’m especially in a quandry over how to store the 24 Litres of water recommended, in a manner that’s accessible and portable, in case we had to get it out of the house.  So, it’s very much a work in progress still, but hopefully by the end of winter it’ll be a little more complete.

How about you?  How ready are you in case of an emergency?  Got any tips, pointers, stories to share?

1. Though re-framing it to be a zombie emergency kit helps to make it a little more fun [↩]