livingdeb: (Default)
It's all about the links today. Starting with two brothers talking about punctuality. It's cool.

1. On Punctuality (John Greene) - "Who could be opposed to punctuality? E.B. White, as it turns out."

Not just about punctuality, but about good traits in general. It's interesting to look at my most favorite good personal traits and see if I think I might be going overboard with them. (No. I may be more extreme than average, but I'm happy with where I am. And I think those around me are also fine with where I am.)


2. How to Stop Being Late Forever (advice for myself and other chronically late people) (Hank Greene, looking way more out of it than usual) - "If it's gonna take six minutes to get somewhere, I need to be driving out of the driveway with six minutes left. Not standing up from my desk to go find my computer and wonder where my keys are and then kiss my baby goodbye so that I get in the car and the meeting has already started."

I also love his epiphany that showing up someplace early is not necessarily a waste of time because "something interesting and useful" might happen at that place, just like it might happen at home.

Article of the Day - Hamilton Nolan's Oh Damn, 401(k)s Aren't Magic - It's been shown that defaulting to making contributions to a 401K tends to increase retirement savings. Unfortunately, "it turns out that when you make people who don’t earn a lot of excess money put money away, they just take out more debt!" And "[t]his debt more than offsets the extra $3,237 the auto-enrolled employees contributed to the plan, including the employer match." Including the employer match! (Crying, now.) The problem is that poor people don't have access to cheap credit. Basically, the magic of putting money into savings before you see it only works when you are making more than a living wage.
livingdeb: (cartoon)
Due to an impending trip to Norway, I decided to read some books from Norway. But the first thing I found to help me find some was a list of recommended Nordic mysteries from my library, most of which are not set in Norway and most of which are not directly available at my branch of the library.

I did find Karin Fossom's The Caller, but the crimes are psychologically horrifying and the rest of the book is not enough fun. I only recommend it for criminals who don't understand just how much impact their crimes might be having.

But I also found Camilla Läckberg's The Ice Princess (2010), set mostly in a small town in Sweden, which had some really fun parts. Like this little conversation:

Writer: "Art and fine wine. Two areas that remain complete mysteries to me."
Art store owner: "And I can barly write a shopping list. We all have our specialities."

Another conversation, this one between two cops:

'You know better, Lena--he's not a "perp" before he's found guilty and convicted. Until then he's just as innocent as the rest of us.'

'I sure as hell doubt that. I'd bet a year's salary that he's guilty.'

'If you're so sure, then you would bet more than such a negligible sum.'

'Ha ha, very funny. Joking with a cop about salary is like tripping a cripple.'


And my favorite passage:

Inside the door he stopped short. Never in his entire life had he seen so many Santa Clauses. Everywhere, on every available surface, there they were. Big ones, little ones, old ones, young ones, winking ones and grey ones. He felt his brain go into overdrive to handle all the sensory input flowing towards him.

'What do you think? Aren't they magnificent!'

Patrik didn't know quite what to say, and after a moment he managed to stammer a reply.

'Yes, absolutely. Fantastic.'

He gave Mrs Petrén an anxious look to see whether she could hear that his words didn't really match his tone of voice. To his amazement she gave him a roguish smile that made her eyes flash.

'Don't worry, boy. I'm well aware that it's not really your taste, but when one gets old it involves certain responsibilities, you understand.'

'Responsibilities?'

'One is expected to show a bit of eccentricity to be interesting. Otherwise one is simply a sad old crone, and no one wants that, you know.'

'But, why gnomes?

...'Well, the best thing, you see, is that one only needs to put them up once a year. The rest of the year I can keep the place nice and tidy. Then there's the advantage that it brings a pack of children running up here at Christmastime. And for an old crone who doesn't have many visitors, it's a joy to the soul when the little creatures come and ring my bell to see the Santas.'


Interesting philosophy! All very well thought out!

If you were to pick out an eccentricity for yourself, what would it be? I'm thinking the idea I like best for me is dancing in public. Whenever there's good music playing at grocery stores, for example, you might find me dancing.

This is a long and complex novel that won Best International Crime Novel of the Year. So you get to meet lots of interesting characters, most of whom command at least a little sympathy. Not quite all of the lose ends were perfectly tied up, but they were tied up well enough that you could assume that things could work out fine if you wanted to. I figured out some obvious things before some of the characters who should have, so that was annoying, and sometimes the author would tell us that someone had discovered something without telling us what right away, but everything did eventually come out. So, you might like the book or it might be frustrating. I would read more by this author.

And did I learn anything about Sweden? Well, in the small town people sure did a lot of things to save face. Because what would people think? Ugh. They also invited in the police officer for coffee and pastries. Yum! Of course it was cold and snowy and can be hard to get your car started. Gentrification is just as annoying there as anywhere. And, I don't know if this is a cultural thing or not, but on two occasions a character would ask for a social visit when really they had business intentions that they sprung on their friend only after they came together. And they did it on purpose, knowing or feeling that it was mean.

And driving just before sunset yesterday, I found myself realizing: In these places where they hardly get any sun in the winter, the sun they do get is always low on the horizon. Is it the case that the only sun they get is the kind with the annoying glare? If so, that's sad.
livingdeb: (cartoon)
Last year I had three resolutions of which I achieved one:

Make money - Achieved! I had full time work most of the year, got to work (mostly) normal hours, for decent pay, doing stuff I'm good at and mostly enjoy. This resolution was resolved much more nicely than I would have had the guts to predict. Of course now I'm on almost the same position as last year, starting over again, but that's another subject.

I didn't even have to try very hard at all--mostly people approached me, and all I had to do was say "yes, I'm interested" and fill out some paperwork.

Improve health - By most measures, I failed:

* have a lower resting heart rate - nope
* weigh less - nope, more
* have a smaller waist measurement - nope, all measurements are bigger
* have a lower percentage of body fat - sincerely doubt it
* jog longer when I go jogging - quit jogging when I hurt my ankle
* exercise more often - ha!
* have a lower TSH level - yes, I do not suffer from hypothyroidism after all (this was actually the measure I most wanted to improve on, so that's good)
* have a lower thrill level whenever any events fall through (like there's no dance class this week) - maybe

I didn't try on this at all except for trying to keep my stress low.

Write a book - Ha! Failed miserably! I did work on this for a couple of days, but once I got full-time work, I stopped trying on this.

But another thing I did fairly well was prepare financially for unemployment:

Budgeting - The budget I made was reasonable and I was able to stick with it all year.

Tracking spending - I was able to stick to my lower budget for food and for short-term fun, but I went back to my usual budget for long-term fun.

Other cuts - I stopped budgeting at all for renovations, I put off charitable contributions until I knew I would earn enough for both myself and others, and I stopped adding money to my retirement accounts, though I was able to max out my Roth IRA after all.

Savings account - I did indeed manage cash flow just fine even with ever-changing monthly incomes.

Activities - I did indeed refrain from volunteering, which is good because I would have had to cut everything out when I got my jobs. And I did cook and exercise more while I was jobless.

This Year's Resolutions

I haven't even decided if I want to make more money or just suck down my retirement savings until my pension becomes available in four years (and one week). If I can get more of these degree audit jobs, I'll take them. They pay better than most things I can stand to do plus can make me eligible for my pension earlier.

But what other jobs would I be willing to take, just to not have to basically cut my Roth IRA savings in half? I'm not sure. Part of me really just wants to go skipping into the sunset. But it feels bad taking out all that money and leaving so little in the third leg of my retirement, which is already tiny:
* Pension: $2088/month before taxes - this by itself is enough for me; of course pensions can get cut and probably won't keep up with inflation and people usually collect expensive health issues as they age
* Social Security: $815/month if I start at age 62, more if later; except everyone knows that these are just fantasy numbers
* IRA: $363/month (using the 4% withdrawal rule); of course who knows what's going to happen with the stock market. I have contributed $57,000 so far, and 4% of that is $190/month, so that's what I would be losing if I never worked again, not to mention not contributing more to my IRA.

In the olden days, I fantasized about adding to my IRA even after I started getting a pension by either doing odd jobs or, if I was married to someone with an income, by just contributing some of my savings. I still kind of like that idea. But do I like it enough to work more?

Heal Strains - Okay, I definitely want this rotator cuff and plantar fasciitis healed by the end of the year, and I am willing to commit to that.

Other possibilities - I would also really like to give this house a spring cleaning, but I can't do that by myself.

But I want the spring cleaning because I want a birthday party this year. Now I'm thinking that instead of an over-the-hill theme, I'll go with an over-the-top theme. I'm not really an over-the-top kind of person usually, but a few intriguing ideas come to mind:
* party foods that take way too much prep work like Patrick's ice cream (first make custard, ...), Robin's layered rolls, and Sherry's Cointreau cupcakes.
* outfits - crazy period costumes, halloween costumes, or tuxes or gowns
* the movie "Rendezvous" (a 7-minute movie about a guy making it to his date on time by driving way too fast through Paris)
* some literal over-the-top things like top hats--or any hats, really; overcoats; and things with a cherry on top or a sauce on top

I need more activities, though, before I'm willing to settle on this theme.

I'm also just today finally experimenting with setting a timer whenever I'm sitting at the computer. After 30 minutes, I should get to a stopping point and get up and do something. I am quite talented at ignoring such signals, but this time I did actually get up and hang the laundry. Some kind of resolution about not being on my butt so long would be good.

I'd like to use some of my free time to figure out how to do a few things more cheaply. Like I want to at least try baking bread--I've watched my mom do it a million times. I could try making some beans from scratch. I could do some weatherization projects.

I could resolve that my first dollar will go to charity.

I'm not really in a committing mood right now (except for healing my strains), though, so I'm just going to go with the flow. Which apparently is what I usually do anyway!
livingdeb: (cartoon)
The book What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement recommends choosing health practices in eating, movement, and relaxation. "Practices" are more than simple habits, but something you could study for years.

Examples they give for eating practices are:
* veganism
* raw food diets
* macrobiotics
* no fast food
* a salad a day
* a standard for portion sizes

It's easy to imagine what I want: more whole grains, less GMO, and more home cooking so I can figure out things like the minimum amount of sugar that is still yummy.

Examples they give for movement practices are:
* swimming
* bicycling
* golfing
Ideally you find ones that can be toned down "depending what happens to you as you age." So dancing is good; running and ultimate frisbee, not so much.

I actually want practices for several kinds of fitness: aerobic (dancing, ultimate, jogging, swimming, bicycling, even walking with crutches), strength (weight lifting/calesthenics, jogging), flexibility (stretching), balance (tai-chi-type stuff, ballroom dancing), coordination (ultimate, volleyball, throwing things--like laundry into the basket).

The relaxation practices are where it stops making sense for me. Examples they give are:
* meditation
* prayer
* visualization
* self-hypnosis
* tai chi
* yoga
* some types of walking

Yucko. (Except maybe some types of walking. Probably the types that don't involve reading at the same time, though.) My mind races, and that's how I like it.

Nope, I think my relaxation practice of choice is singing. Whenever I don't like my current emotions (usually anger, sadness, or boredom), singing distracts me from it. I don't think that would make their list. Dancing to really good and dance-inspiring music works, too.

Several days after reading this section, I decided that cuddling is the best relaxation practice ever. But you can't always count on having a partner through your entire life, especially if the exciting gender for you is males. But things like flannel sheets, a memory foam pillow, a down comforter, and maybe a hot water bottle can help with the relaxing even when I'm by myself.

Cake of the Day

This is not a cake, but it was at the cake show. I think it's made of sugar.

livingdeb: (cartoon)
I found the book What Color is Your Parachute? For Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want for $1, and it looked interesting so I bought it.

Finally on page 70 I get to the first exercise. It involves ranking twelve "ways to live." In the 1940's, Charles Morris from U. Chicago "identified major paths of life or ways to live in the world that have been used by people in various times and places across human history.

"These Ways to Live grew organically out of human cultures over thousands of years. They've been associated with a variety of different religious, ethical, and philosophical traditions--but the Ways are not those exact traditions or belief systems. ... Each represents not a single value, but a values system."

This sounds awesome, so I turn the page to see which ones speak to me.

None of them. Dang.

For example, take Improvement: "Working continuously for realistic solutions to specific problems." Sounds depressing. The best one for me might be Refinement: "Understanding, appreciating, and preserving the best in society." But actually, I like to understand all kinds of interesting things, not just sociology, and preserving the best, again, sounds hard and therefore depressing.

It just took a couple of minutes to think of one I'd like though--Education: Learning interesting things and sharing them with others.

Then we're supposed to think of times in the past when we did this. I taught my brother how to read (when I was six and he was four). I became a camp counselor, learning all sorts of cool summer camp things and then showing them to campers. I write in this blog.

Then we're supposed to list our values, identities (roles), and priorities (for time, money and other resources), but that didn't seem very relevant or useful.

Then we're supposed to look at the top six industries that target retirees: investments, insurance, real estate, travel, retail, anti-aging. Ha, the travel industry has my number with things like Elderhostel and alumni learning trips. But of course there are many ways to learn cool things.

Cake of the Day

I don't even have a picture of this whole cake, but this couple sure grabbed my attention:



You can see some of the rest of the cake in the background. Here they are at another angle with a different background:

livingdeb: (Default)
As mentioned in my last entry, I got sucked into Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (copyright 1987, 1995).

It was a pretty quick read.  Their goal was to say that even if you've been forcibly retired against your will and have no idea what to do, there are still plenty of things to do and, especially if your financially okay, it might be a good time to start taking extra risks you weren't taking before.

I think the first chapter, "Starting Over," was my favorite.  I'd never thought of losing a bid for a second term as President as forcible retirement.  Interesting.  Admittedly, they did have two big projects handed to them: writing their memoirs and setting up their presidential library.  Meanwhile, they didn't even know where they wanted to live, let alone what to do when they got there.  They ended up going back to Plains, their hometown, and reconnecting with old friends.  Having social bonds during personal crises generally helps.

The story of the library is fascinating.  Did you know that presidents have to do the fund-raising and planning for their own libraries?  Jimmy wanted his to be a gift to the public, not a monument to him, but that's what the architects designed.  So Jimmy decided "I'm not going to have a library."

But a friend found someone to make plans that would be acceptable, and one day Jimmy figured out what he wanted to do with the library.  "We can develop a place to help people who want to resolve disputes.  There is no place like that now.  If two countries really want to work something out, they don't want to go to the United Nations and get one hundred fifty other countries involved in the argument.  I know how difficult it is for them to approach each other publicly, and they take a chance on being embarrassed by a rebuff from the other party.  We could get good mediators that both sides would trust, and they could meet with no publicity, no fanfare, perhaps at times in total secrecy.  If there had been such a place, I wouldn't have had to take Begin and Sadat to Camp David.  There've been a lot of new theories on conflict resolution developed since that time, too, and we might put some of them into use."

The second chapter was about a study they put together on "what could be done with present knowledge by informed people to avoid becoming victims of the most common killers and cripplers [of Americans]."

"Our hopes were raised by the seemingly simple knowledge that if we change a few habits we can greatly extend our life span.  However, the experts said that changing the behavior of people is the hardest of all missions.  A shot to prevent, a pill to cure, something a community can put in or take out of the water, a safety improvement that can be required by law--these are the ways we've made most of our health progress in this century. ...

"When all the medical and scientific evidence was in, everyone was stunned by the scientists' conclusions: deaths today before the age of sixty-five are considered to be premature, and two-thirds of them are potentially preventable.  Moreover, the risk factors associated with these deaths are those over which we have a great deal of control--food, exercise, smoking, drinking.  According to medical evidence, a fifty-year-old man or woman today who keeps risk factors low can expect to live eleven years longer than contemporaries who don't follow such approaches."

FYI, though you've heard all these before, these are the nine rules they came up with:

1.  Do not smoke.  (They call smoking "the number-one cause of premature death."
2.  Maintain recommended body weight.
3.  Exercise regularly.
4.  Minimize consumption of foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats, sugar, and salt.
5.  Do not drink excessively, and never drive when drinking.  ("Injuries kill more Americans under forty than all other causes combined and are an important cause of death among older people.  Alcohol abuse is involved not only in most fatal automobile accidents, but also in drownings, homicide, and suicide, especially among the young, and in falls, a significant killer of older adults.")
6.  Fasten seatbelts.  ("The chances of being fatally injured in an automobile accident can be cut in half by the use of seat belts.")
7.  Remove handguns from the home.  ("FBI statistics show that handguns kept at home will more often kill loved ones than protect them.")
8.  Have regular checkups, including blood-pressure tests.
9.  If symptoms of depression or unhappiness persist, seek treatment.  "Many people believe they will end up in some distant state hospital, but the truth is that almost all treatment for such problems as depression take place in a doctor's or therapist's office.  Nor does treatment need to take years; some psychologists say there can be noticeable changes after only a few weeks."

And they applied this information to themselves.  They were already good with the exercising, the not smoking, the light drinking, and eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  But they cut down on fat, sugar, and salt, substituting yogurt for sour cream and white meat for red.  They only rarely eat rich sauces now and choose whole grains.  I suspect they may have moved some handguns out of the house, but they probably keep their hunting guns there.

The rest of the book is mostly about how you can make a difference in the world and how you can keep learning new things.  They have so many projects it makes me tired just thinking of them.

Here's one more bit of wisdom: a "simple cure for diarrhea" (a symptom of "the most prevalent killer of small children in the third world") "has been found--one teaspoon of sugar and one-quarter teaspoon of salt dissolved in an eight-ounce glass of water."  (Which I assume must also be drunk by the victim.)  And here I thought we had to have the pink stuff.

Book Quote of the Day

I'll leave you with a quote from one of their friends: "Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single." - Jimmy Townsend.

Friend Quote of the Day

"If the motorcycle does not start on the TENTH try, perhaps you should use one of the other FIVE vehicles sitting in front of your house." - IndigoRose

Cake of the Day

Here's my favorite view:




But you can't see her tail.  Or her rolling pin.

livingdeb: (Default)
I have put off writing this review for weeks and weeks.

I had decided to try to read up on things people middle-aged should do in order to help themselves age gracefully. I collected a list of books and started checking them out from the library almost randomly.

First up: Gail Sheehy's Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life. Surely I have some more of these left, and maybe I can learn about them the easy way. Or maybe a pop psychology book from the 1970s would just hurt.

The opening was gripping. After that, it wasn't crazy painful, but, well, now I barely remember it.

Next up: Susan Jacoby's Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age. She states in the preface: "I hope that this book about the genuine battles of growing old will provide support for all who draw their strength and courage from reality, however daunting that reality may be, rather than from platitudes about 'defying old age.'" I'm a big fan of reality. After all, that's where I live.

But this book terrified me. If you live long enough, you are likely to suffer from disability and/or dementia. And, unlike the disabilities and dementia we've been suffering all our lives, some of these aren't temporary. You have to ask for help. For the rest of your life. Or at least accept help. And that's if you're lucky.

I'm hereby officially pro-assisted suicide (for some situations) and am thankful we have a couple of states where that's legal. I'm also opposed to expensive last-ditch efforts to save people if they involve very little chance of success or if even success will only prolong an unacceptable life. I'm not just talking about for other people spending my insurance company's and government's dollars, I'm talking about for me. I am now willing to risk losing my chance at life-saving medicine developed in the nick of time when I am already a vegetable or otherwise not myself. Perhaps my favorite thing about Obamacare is that it pays for research on the effectiveness of treatments. I have asked questions about the effectiveness of treatments before, but I'll make sure to do that always in the future.

I'm sickened that Medicare will not pay for in-home help when it will pay for institutionalization. That's backwards (unless you think it should pay for both or neither). I'm sickened that the default is to do everything that might have the slightest possible chance of making the slightest possible difference, no matter how much it costs. We can't afford that much longer, and if we try, we might end up turning to rationing. I don't want care to be based on something semi-random like age; I want it to be based on whether the person wants it, whether it's likely to work, and whether it's likely to help enough. Obama wanted health insurance to pay for short talks with doctors about issues like these kinds of medical preferences, but that was too controversial and didn't pass. Everything is getting stamped "Death panel," as if some of us can escape death.

The book is mostly about how we try to fool ourselves that we will always be happy and alert if we just eat well, exercise, and maybe take the latest miracle drug. It's about how we refuse to face the reality of extreme old age by only talking about 60-year-olds (who look young and active) and never talking about people over 80 (unless they are skydiving or otherwise amazing).

We should start making plans for the day we start really breaking down. My favorite idea the author had was to move to New York, where everything is delivered, and neighbors are always close by. Not that I'll do that (so expensive!), but I do like that idea. D & R's Aunt Margaret and Uncle Don have bought their way into a housing arrangement where they can move toward more and more assisted living as they need it. Again, expensive. Another good idea I've heard elsewhere is to automate your finances as much as possible to protect them from any future feeble-minded self.

I am now officially tired of this idea of looking into graceful aging and have decided to stop reading any more such books. (Unless highly recommended by friends, I guess.) It is way too depressing. But...

Well this book inspired me to look up the autobiography of Jimmy Carter, which she pointed out as a rare example of wisdom. She says most books like that are defensive, but Carter admitted to problems and worked through them. (Her point was that getting old doesn't necessarily make you wise. Some people are wise throughout their lives and some never find wisdom.)

And I also decided to read letters written between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. (Her point was that people worried about old age problems and preferred youth long before the industrial revolution, despite myths about a relatively recent youth culture.)

But then what did I find in the library? Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life." Uh, oh. I checked it out.

Cake of the Day

Ha, earlier today I was singing along to Lyle Lovette's song about his beloved hat:

Mama told me,
Son, to be polite,
Take your hat off
When you walk inside.
But the winds of change,
They fill the air.
You can't take your hat off
Just anywhere.

So, if you plead, "Not guilty,"
I'll be the judge.
We don't need no jury
To decide because
I wear a seven.
And you're out of order.
I can tell from here
You're a seven and a quarter.

This hat is also not safe because it is edible. (Though, admittedly, it does not look tasty to me. Still, I'm imagining various pets I've met nibbling on it--especially bunnies and rats.)

This cake has the added bonus of pictures of the "during." Enjoy.

livingdeb: (Default)
SXSW is now looking for volunteers. And since I am leaving my job, I just might be available. The question is, do I do it?

Advantages:
* Get to see a bunch of free movies (though not as many as if I paid for a wristband)
* It sounds like I could have some choice in the sort of work I'd do--if I couldn't get work that sounded okay, I wouldn't have to commit

Disadvantages:
* Must work a minimum of 30 hours (though 6 of them are pre-event training)
* Who knows what else I might be up to by the middle of March?

Basically, doing that would take a whole week out of my schedule, would not pay anything, and would not help me find a good job.

I've really not been into committing to much of anything at all lately (but I attribute that to having all my energy sucked away by my job). My job won't be stealing my energy any more by then, but will I already have other plans by then?

I guess I should ask myself what my actual goals are for the next six years until my pension kicks in. A big part of me wants to just slide through on odd jobs. I once calculated I would need only 25 hours of minimum-wage work per week if I didn't mind spending down half my Roth IRA.

But a real job is the most efficient way to get a lot of money (especially if I can find one at UT).

Or do I want to be using this period to find myself? Or start my own business in something or other? Or otherwise get involved in something big? (Nooo! Run away!)

Maybe I won't be up for anything else big by mid-March after all.
livingdeb: (Default)
I made three big resolutions for 2010:

1) Make a specific resolution about my weight such as refraining from eating out by myself, finding alternatives to eating for handling work stress or cooking more. I did not do any of these things. In fact, halfway through the year I decided to stop trying to lose weight. This led to me gaining five pounds. Oops.

2) Take a moratorium on dance lessons so I can have more time for other activities. I succeeded perfectly in staying away from most dance lessons. I didn't really do other activities besides play Backyard Monsters and read more blogs, though. However, I greatly enjoyed not having something scheduled and not having to be patient and open minded, etc.

3) Reduce irritants. Ones I thought of:
* Get a warm hat – I made one, though it wasn't quite as warm as I was hoping it would be.
* Get a better purse or purse with a better zipper – score.
* Find my wallet – nope. I did replace everything, though.
* Rain-X my windshield – I did that. But then I had to replace the whole car. Which I did.

For next year, I would like to declutter. This has been something I've wanted (to be magically done with) for the last few years, but I haven't been willing to commit to actually doing it. I think I am now, though most of my efforts on this task so far have been focused on procrastinating. I've made some real progress which makes it so much more enjoyable to hang around the house and fabulously easy to access the things I do have.

To move beyond procrastination and into action, I've though of some of strategies to try.
* Books - Every other book I read will be a book of mine that I think I should purge right until I open it. But half the books I read will be recommended books that I'm looking forward to reading. I can get to a fun book without reading one of mine by just getting rid of one of mine. I am not willing to read only my books because then my life isn't fun enough.
* General - Break down the job into small tasks that aren't intimidating. I've already broken down my clutter into categories such as office supplies and books in the natural sciences. And I've categorized each of these as important, quick, or other. This way if I just want something quick, I can find that. If I want to know what I should really do next, I can look at the important things. But if none of those things looks good, I have additional options.
* General - Make myself answer the questions “Do I use it?” and “Do I love it?” Saying no to both doesn't necessarily mean I get rid of it--I don't do well with extremist strategies. Some things that I don't use I should start using. Some I'm going to keep anyway because I might use them and they're difficult to replace (such as interview clothing). But it needs to be okay for me to get rid of:
- things I turned out not to like as much as I'd hoped I would (even gifts)
- things I used to use, but have not used in a while (especially those that are easy to replace if I change my mind)
- things I have replaced long enough ago that I can see that the replacement is, in fact, better, so I know it's safe to get rid of the old thing
* General - I am allowed to keep back-ups, but only a reasonable number of back-ups.

Also, I have been prepping for this by cleaning up some things that have gotten out of control lately: first the front door area, then my dresser, then my desk.

Giving Up

Jul. 27th, 2010 10:10 pm
livingdeb: (Default)
I had decided not to buy any more pants until I was the proper size. However, the fewer pants you have, the quicker they wear out. I was down to five pair including jeans that really were getting slightly too worn for work. And I tend to err in the direction of thinking everything still looks new and fabulous, so it might have been pretty bad. And then LLBean, who sells pants that actually fit me, had a sale.

So I gave up on holding out, and I even gave up on getting to my proper size in the next 4.5 years before I retire. I'm not really totally giving up on the latter; my behavior has stayed quite similar. But I'm no longer going to be disappointed all the time that I'm not making any progress.

**

Remember a while back I started a series on making stuff last and I was going to go through my whole book and look things up and be all very thorough? Well, I don't seem to be doing that. I would see the book sitting there and get that I-have-to-do-a-book-report feeling. Did you ever notice that having to write a book report can make reading the book less fun? You can't just experience it, you have to remember important things to mention later. Bleh.

So I gave up on that and decided to just read the book, writing down possible things to try on a giant post-it note that I have stuck to the inside of the front cover. If I actually do any of these things, then I will report on that for you.

**

In other news, I cut out quite a few more squares for a quilt today. I've been wanting to replace (or re-cover) Robin's aging store-bought bedspread with one made out of old clothes and I've been saving up old clothes. (Um, not just pants.) It's one of those big projects that sounds good but is, well, big.

I was going to make a patchwork of shirts for the front and one of pants for the back. Or maybe I'll mix it all up for the front and just have a linen back, sort of like this four-generations quilt. Is it really okay to patch such different fabrics together like she has (great grandpa's ties, grandpa's shirts, dad's khakis, and baby's onesies)? Doing that sure looks good when it's new!

I cut out a bunch of squares on New Year's Day (at a crafting party) and I cut out some more squares today. Maybe I gave up on not working on the quilt. Part of it is that I have more floor space these days (as I'm slowly cutting back on my stuff). Part of it is that I want even more floor space and the old clothes are filling up a box that won't fit anywhere.

Today I got rid of one pair of boxers and one shirt. The box is still overflowingly full, but the things I have on top of the box are not teetering as much.
livingdeb: (Default)
My coworkers brought in white cake with cream cheese frosting and strawberries today. Plus chips and queso and salsa. Plus breakfast tacos. Yea for birthdays and nice coworkers!

In related news, Wikipedia explains, "There exists a 47 society,[4] an outgrowth of a movement started at Pomona College, California, USA, which propagates the belief (or, to some, the inside joke) that the number forty-seven occurs in nature with noticeably higher frequency than other natural numbers, that it is the quintessential random number.[5] The origin of 47 lore at Pomona appears to be a mathematical proof, written in 1964 by Professor Donald Bentley, which supposedly demonstrated that all numbers are equal to 47." Thus, we are all 47. Happy 47th to you! Or, if you prefer, happy random birthday of your choice. (I hope I did not hurt your brain too much with that last sentence.) (Or maybe you are choosing by using a random number generator.)

This just in from my favorite weather source: "Now that we have extremely dry air and clearing skies, the overnight will be dangerously cold. We expect a low near 16* in Austin, but of course that means it will likely be colder for the hills, rural areas, and north towards Waco... those locations will see a low temp range of 7 to 16 degrees." Ha! Danger! When it's well above zero with no snow or ice. I love living here. In fact, I'm basically with raaga123 on this issue, only I prefer ice to snow for fun.

* 16 is really 47 in base 41.

Baby lesson of the day - My teenager niece, T, was playing with my baby niece, A, when I visited yesterday. T was taking movies of herself and A on the phone and playing them back for A. They were both laughing their heads off. But I noticed that not only was A watching the movies and laughing, she was also watching T watch the movies and laughing. She looked at the movies more than she looked at T, but she kept looking back and forth.

I almost never do that. Whenever there's something interesting going on, I'm pretty much always watching the interesting thing and never watching other people. The one exception is when I don't want to be watching the interesting thing, such as during horror movies. I can always tell whether it's safe to start watching the movie again by watching other people's faces. I wonder if there are a lot more situations where I can get additional fun or information by watching how other people are responding.

Sadly, this means peer pressure is already happening at the age of nine months. For several weeks, A wasn't even looking at the interesting things, and now she's not only copying people but specifically watching us for clues on how to act properly. Scary, eh?
livingdeb: (Default)
I made three big resolutions for 2009:

1) Fix my job, which might help me
2) Fix my weight, which might help me
3) Fix my house.

I failed at all three. Oops.

1) I have the same job as last year. I did make some small improvements. Pretending that some job duties I think of as being my boss's are really mine is helping reduce my stress. And I realized I could retire before the official earliest retirement date by just quitting and living on savings. And I have decided to quit doing some of the things for which I have volunteered but which I am not good at to give me more time for more rewarding pursuits.

2) My weight is exactly the same as at the beginning of last year. I am pretty pleased that I actually did get into the habit of jogging for at least 20 minutes every week. One extremely minimal aerobic session per week is not enough, but it's much better than the zero sessions I was doing each week the previous year.

3) There have been definite improvements in the house, but I'm still not ready to invite people over.

I still had a lot of fun. Besides watching lots of movies like I usually do, I also got a lot more reading done than usual and found several good TV shows to follow. I got to do a lot of cuddling and smooching. I ate many delicious foods. I went on plenty of local tours and festivals. I didn't have a big travel vacation, but I had three small ones. I got a new niece and I got to see her a lot and so far I still like her. I donated blood a couple of times and finally got on the organ donor registry. I learned how to bring my own bulk containers to Wheatsville (have a cashier write the starting weight on the container before filling it) and took a load of old light bulbs and batteries to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility (now open occasional Saturdays). And I started a notebook on house renovation ideas and got three more fire extinguishers.

For this year, I'm going to get a little more specific about my weight. None of the easy things I did worked. Therefore I'm ready to conclude that I have to change my eating habits. Fortunately, I know exactly how I can lose weight because I've done it before: eat only my own cooking. (I can lose 7 pounds in 10 months using this method. Not huge, but real.) I think there are two reasons this works. One is that my cooking is generally healthier than restaurant cooking (I know that's not saying much). The other is that laziness works in my favor. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to eat only my own cooking. If I am at a party, I want to eat party food. That includes work parties. And work lunches. And when Robin goes out to eat and invites me along, I want to come with and then eat.

However, I could refrain from eating out by myself. I could keep looking for ways to handle stress at work other than snacking. I could cook more so that I am less tempted to eat out.

My second resolution is to take a moratorium on dance lessons so I can have more time for other activities. I still want to go dancing, just not take so many lessons.

And my third resolution is to reduce irritants. I've already thought of a few irritants I want to get rid of: I want a better coat, I want a warm hat (I can't find any of mine), I want a bigger purse (or at least with a longer zipper so I can get things in and out of it more easily), I want to find my wallet, and I want to Rain-X my windshield. Already I've gotten a better coat: It's prettier (and less dated), warmer, and lighter than my old coat, plus it's washable. And Robin's lending me a warm hat he never wears.
livingdeb: (Default)
My sister called me last week to say her baby has started crawling. I got to observe this behavior this week, and actually she is swimming.

Here's how to swim across the living room. First roll over onto your belly. Then start kicking as hard as you can. You might wonder why your toes kind of hurt, or you might not notice. The kicking by itself may not seem to get you much of anywhere, but at least it will keep your legs above the surface. (Or maybe that's just with regular water swimming.)

Then prop yourself up on at least one elbow and use that elbow to pull your body forward. Once you become efficient (several days later), you can use one elbow, then the other and repeat.

This is totally hilarious. I wish I had a video.

Baby lesson of the day - The other day my niece was fussing and I couldn't figure out why for a while. Finally, I told Mom to hold out her fingers so my niece could use them to pull herself into a sitting or standing position. No more fussing. My niece likes to spend hours each day practicing sitting and standing up. Babies learn all kinds of hard things and no one ever comes up to them and says things like, "You've been trying to stand up by yourself for weeks now. Why don't you just give up? Hasn't it ever occurred to you that maybe you're not the type of person who stands?" (Fortunately, even if someone did say that, it wouldn't have any effect.)
livingdeb: (Default)
I have this idea now that I would like to take a sabbatical.

By "take a sabbatical," I mean:
* prepare to leave my job--clean my office and finish up a reasonable amount of documentation
* quit my job without having another one lined up
* don't even look for a job for eight months
* meanwhile, do something impressive so that I seem interesting instead of like a loser deadbeat
* get another job

What would my impressive thing be? It should be something I'd actually want to do. I'm thinking learn Spanish or write a book. Or both. Writing a book sounds more impressive than learning Spanish, though I suspect learning Spanish would be much more time consuming for me.

There would be a few minor technicalities to work out like money to live on, insurance, and how to actually get another job in a reasonable amount of time (i.e., measured in months rather than years).

A bonus is that I would get paid for my unused vacation (a little over two months) at my current pay rate (not counting longevity pay). Another bonus is that I get credit toward retirement for any fiscal year during which I work at least 4.5 months. I cross that line January 15. I would have until the following year in spring to find another UT job and get credit for the 10-11 fiscal year as well. Another bonus is that I could roll my 403(b) (work retirement money) into a place with better choices and lower expenses. I might also be able to get some consultation work from my current employer.

I've never done anything this scary/stupid (on purpose). I would be endangering my chance to comfortably retire at age 52 (5.33 years from now). On the other hand, lots of people do scary things like this, and some of them are my friends and can give me hints. Some hints won't apply to me and some I won't like. Here are some I know about already:
* pay off my mortgage - I might be able to do that, but I'd rather hold the cash for flexibility
* live on my spouse's salary for a while; later we can live on my salary - I don't have a spouse, plus neither one of us makes enough for both of us to live on in the style to which we've become accustomed
* line up a job ahead of time that will let me hold off starting for a couple of months - nooo, I want many months! Plus is that even possible?

Even if I don't do this, thinking about it might lead to another idea (like working half time for a while) that I might do.

I've also been reading about job burnout but not getting any good ideas from those readings.

Baby lesson of the day - I got to feed my niece yesterday. Here was the general procedure:
* I put food on the tiny spoon.
* I showed it to her and waited for her to open her mouth.
* She grabbed the spoon and helped put it in her mouth, though her aim could still use some work.
* She sucked on the spoon for a while.
* The spoon lost all its flavor.
* She took the spoon out of her mouth and let go of it, perhaps even flinging it to the side. A tasteless spoon is of no use to her.

I think there's a lesson here somewhere in getting rid of things you are no longer enjoying, even if those things did once give you great enjoyment.
livingdeb: (Default)
It's Friday!

Book excerpt of the day - from Stephen Bury's Interface, about a stroke victim with a new computer chip healing technology.
They set an ambitious schedule for him, worrying that they might stress him out and overwork him, and he left that schedule in the dust. First thing in the morning, the physical therapists came in, at first helping him move his limbs, later, when he got the hang of that, running him through exercises. Then the speech therapist came in and got him to put his tongue and lips in certain positions, got him to make certain sounds, and then to string those sounds together into syllables and words. Following an afternoon nap, the physical therapists would come back in and work on the parts of his body that they had missed in the morning.  During the evenings he could relax, watch TV, read.

He exercised his speech during physical therapy and he exercised his body during speech therapy. He also exercised both of them while he was pretending to take his afternoon nap, and then he exercised them all evening long when he was supposed to be taking it easy. He even woke up in the middle of the night and exercised.
Motivating. I actually brushed my teeth when I didn't feel like it last night, guilted into it by that fictional guy.

Video of the day - Hotel Survival with George Egg. If you think your kitchen sucks, check out this guy cooking in a hotel room. This brings back memories of when I cooked in a dorm room for a summer using only a hot pot. I was not as smart as this guy, and my food was not as good.



I love how he actually uses things found in hotels like the little cup and the Bible. He does have one knife they don't explain; I'll assume he's not traveling by plane.
livingdeb: (Default)
Three resolutions, in priority order:

1) Fix job. It's usually too stressful for my tastes.
* job hunt
* try to improve current job
* finish getting training modules online (I got another one up today)

2) Fix weight.
* reduce stress eating (perhaps by fixing job)
* limit dessert and other obvious non-diet food to one serving per day

3) Fix house.
* get rid of stuff I don't need (perhaps including clothes that become too big)
* organize the rest
* get plan for remodel

I should also have a fun resolution, but I haven't picked it out yet.

**

In other news, I agreed to do a presentation at my job on budgeting. We have weird little presentations every week (I think I told you guys about the one on riding the bus that I enjoyed, to my surprise) and because someone requested one on budgeting and because I made a presentation on frugality a few years ago, I was approached for this. I do actually kind of have a budget and everything, so that makes me supremely qualified.


Quote of the Day - A co-worker told me, "Someone was looking at my picture of you from last Halloween and they said you look like a very young Margaret Thatcher."
livingdeb: (Default)
I checked out a bunch of books at the library to help me prepare to become an adviser. Most are about advising, but I started with Robert H. Miller's Campus Confidential: The Complete Guide to the College Experience by Students for Students.

I can't help comparing the advice in this book to my actual experience as a college student. Before reading this book, I felt that I had done a B- job in going to college. I picked a good college, but I should have looked at more colleges instead of just the ones that sent me material. I should have picked a college where people had more fun. At my school, "I have to study" was the all-constant sacred excuse. I remember once when some college ratings came out, and our college came out with a score of 1 out of 5 for social life, everyone was shocked. Getting a 2 would make perfect sense, but a 1, the lowest possible score?

I maybe should have sought more help in picking a major. I picked the most popular major, the one that 25% percent of all students at my college picked. So in some ways I got all the disadvantages of a small school without any of the advantages (because my classes were all big anyway).

I should have gotten more help in picking a career. So I could get relevant jobs and internships. But it never occurred to me that people could actually help me with that.

I should have done more research. I should have talked to my professors more (none of the three times I tried turned out well).

I maybe should have tried to spend a semester abroad (it doesn't seem like spending my junior year in Arlington, Texas counts).

I should have gotten on the swimming and diving team--I thought you had to be good at sports to join teams, but when I timed swim meets at the end of my senior year I learned that they were desperate for divers. Also the fencing team was desperate for new people. Fencing wasn't my thing, but I should have checked out more sports.

My favorite part of the book is its emphasis on goals. I did actually set goals for myself for college:
* get a degree (which requires picking a major)
* do well in my classes
* learn interesting things
* figure out a career
* get better at talking to boys

I did actually achieve all those things except for figuring out a career (although I did eliminate, one by one, every career I could think of. Twice.).

Besides academic and social goals, the book recommends setting physical goals, spiritual goals, and financial goals. I didn't specifically set goals in these areas, but I did get more active due to the summer job I picked, I did choose a college based partly on religion and did figure out my ideal religion in college, and it went without saying that I would live within my means (though my grandmother worried that it would be hard being surrounded by so many rich people--since they were always studying, it was no problem at all).

To help with my academic goals, I deliberately picked a school that was good at academics, had no sororities or fraternities, and had no football team. And to help with my social goal, I deliberately picked a school with a 50:50 male/female ratio (too many women means not enough practice; too many men means too much pressure) and a school where most people lived on campus (and thus near me, not in some far-away rich neighborhood like in high school). All these decisions did actually lead to me being in quite a good environment. Hearing about all the sex, drugs, and alcohol other people had to deal with makes it clear that my school was an above-average choice for me.

And if I didn't study abroad, at least I went to school in a place where I'd never lived before (not easy, since I'd already lived in Oklahoma, Guam, Louisiana, California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas). (Yea Boston! Excellent choice!)

So after reading this book, I feel better about my choices in college. Maybe I did a B+ job.
livingdeb: (Default)
One of the exercises you can do to find out what you really want from life is to think of what you would do if you knew you would live only one day or one month or one year. Another time length I like is 10,000 years. These can all give you good ideas on what you should do with your life. Here is some brainstorming of mine.

One Day
* Write a will.
* Talk to people about what's going on and what to do with my accounts.
* Cuddle and smooch.
* Make donations.
* Eat cookies.
* Write an ironic last "livingdeb" entry.
* Give notice. ("Sorry, I can't make it in to work. Ever. Mwahaha!" Or maybe not.)
* Cancel dentist and doctor appointments.

One Month
* All the above.
* Quit job.
* Pay off house.
* Make presents for people.
* Give away stuff.
* Throw a party.

One Year
* All the above.
* Plant a tree.
* Write a memoir?
* Grant some wishes of family and friends?

Strangely, none of those dream things like "visit Paris" or "write a novel" are coming to mind. Is that because I've forgotten my dreams or am not imaginative enough to have any? Or because I keep living them? I don't know.

Ten Thousand Years

For the last situation, let's forget about all the problems caused by you living longer than everyone else, to the extent possible. Note also: Ten thousand years ago is when some humans first started farming. It's basically an unimaginably long amount of time.

* Learn self-defense. Living only 100 years, I can hope this won't come up, but if you live 10,000 years, this will definitely come in handy. Probably should build a nuclear shelter/hideout, too. Probably many in many different places.
* Keep up with technology and trends. Many people have refused to give up their horses for cars or refused to use computers, but if you live 10,000 years, you don't have that luxury.
* Give up on early retirement and focus on always having some useful job skills.
* Get better at staying thin and fit. Even tiny bad trends can really add up over 10,000 years.
* Learn more languages. Just a few hundred years ago, Latin was pretty handy--you could talk to priests in many, many countries. Now? Not so much.
* Learn more other skills, too. I may not always be able to hire people to do stuff for me.
* Diversify investments. Right now I'm pretty much depending on a single country doing okay. Although I do have some money in international mutual funds, they are managed in my own country. While I can hope that will be fine for the next sixty years, it's guaranteed not to be fine for 10,000 years.
livingdeb: (Default)
I just watched "The 1900 House" where a family agrees to live the way a middle-class family might have lived in 1900 England.

Sadly, I learned more about the family or about the film crew's biases than I did about living in 1900. The first problem was that the most important part of the house, the stove, did not work perfectly. Second, the family got minimal training and seemed to have very little clue of how people entertained themselves. A real family would have people living like this all their lives with friends who lived like this, etc. Trying to do everything in period while also learning how to do it is not realistic. So we saw more how people respond to frustration than how people actually used to live.

Two of the six family members were barely shown at all. One of them plus two of the others were mostly shown complaining. Fortunately, two of them were shown mostly being great. For example, when they got a look at an old newspaper, one complained that it was boring, but two decided to make their own version. In addition, the maid they hired was shown being really great (and even though she also complained, she continued working anyway).

At the end, they were all asked what they missed most and of course they all had answers. Soap and shampoo! Fast food, sweets, going out. They were not asked what new thing they liked that they'd want to keep when they returned to 1999, and there were only two hints that there even were such things. One person wanted to hang on to parts of herself that she had discovered living in the house, though she felt she might not be able to. The same person wondered at one point whether she would get used to the way humans naturally smell while living in the 1900 House and would later find the way people who use perfumed soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc. to have an overly strong smell about them.

My favorite thing about the show was watching some of the family members really get into it in a positive way, either finding better ways to do the things they had to do or finding ways to be creative with what they had. I would like to be more like that.
livingdeb: (Default)
Today I took a programmer aptitude test. I was very careful not to make the mistake of going too slowly like I did on part of the ACT so long ago, and my plan mostly worked. The first section had 40 questions to answer in 10 minutes, for example. I was very good at just skipping things and then going back. I didn't get a perfect score, however (hey, I may as well try for that), which I know because I left two answers blank. The score will be available between next Monday and Wednesday, after which I am allowed to apply and call for an interview.

The dumbest thing I did was not realize I was supposed to bring my ID. Fortunately I had it in my pocket from habit because I sometimes ride the city bus which accepts a swipe of it in lieu of payment.

The smartest thing I did was to bring note-taking materials because the test administrator, who is also the interviewer, and who also makes the placements, told us all kinds of things about the program (which sounds awesome) and about what they are looking for, the latter of which could come in handy during the interview.

(Must think of true answers to questions for which the main answer in my head is the wrong answer to give at interviews. For example, "because if I'm going to be bored and frustrated at work anyway, I may as well be making more money" is not a good thing to blurt out.)

Getting all psyched up for this brain-check test resulted in my feeling very observant and even calculating, things I am not normally feeling unless I'm around an exceptionally motivating (brilliant, calculating) friend. That's fun.

Journal entry of the day - Indigo Rose's Change Is Bad where you can learn one good reason why people sometimes look like idiots. "I tried to gently suggest to her that what was easy for her, because she did it every day, was mysterious and difficult to everyone else. They were not TRYING to annoy her by not following directions, they simply had no idea what the directions meant! The directions were written by someone who KNEW what they meant, and checked by someone who KNEW what they meant."

Journal photo entry of the day - See Cake Wreck's "The Name's Wreck. Cake Wreck." If you think you don't like wedding cakes, you might like this one. (On the other hand if you think you do like wedding cakes, you might not like this one.) "Check out the details, folks: from the crashed plane and face-down henchman (my favorite) to the bad guy scaling the back and the bullet holes peppering the second tier, this is one detailed Bond diarama."

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