wallpaper Goals, Dreams, Aspirations

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Am continuing to work on blog improvement stuff for Bloggiesta. Today, for the mini-challenge of My Friend Amy, I'm giving thinking more priority than doing.

January is the time for reflection and re-evaluation and re-vision isn't it? I know that one of my issues is to set big goals, complex projects and get overwhelmed. I know about breaking such big projects down into smaller tasks and am even pretty good at doing that. At least as far as making the todo lists.

Sticking to it is another thing altogether.

I also tend to be a serial obsessionist, being totally wrapped up in one thing to the exclusion of all else. My blog tends to reflect that. Currently crochet and video watching has all but pushed out reading and writing. But that is probably going to run its course and I'll be on to something else in time.

Now all the advice regarding blogs needing to be singular in topic and finding a niche and so on had me feeling inadequate and like maybe I should settle on one topic and court an audience accordingly. But the thought of that pretty much sticks a pin in the balloon of my bliss and lets all the joy leak out.

I was going to say 'no pun intended' but on second thought loosing the joy is tantamount to loosing the Joy--aka my self.

And the advice from My Friend Amy was to think about making your blog into the blog you would love to read. I love eclectic blogs and blogs where the blogger at least occasionally puts some of their personal life in so I get a feel for the who behind the opinions. So obviously the niche advice doesn't have to be for everyone.

And there is an organizing theme to it all anyway: Story. I don't say story is my joy for nothing. It is all about story whether the current obsession is books, movies, news, poetry, music, writing, reading, research, jokes, puns, riddles, puzzles, trivia, creativity, dreams, religion or Joy's story. Even the crocheting and needlework is strongly associated with story for me as I've always worked on it as I contemplate one of my own writings and often while listening to music or audio books or watching TV/video. Or gossip at family/friend gatherings.

So I'm thinking, if I'm going to keep posting on whatever aspect of story that has taken my fancy currently the thing I need to do to draw and keep readers is to make navigation easier so they can find which ever topic they are most interested in and ignore the rest. Which is why the main goal I set for this weekend is to change my template to a 3 column. A huge task for me. And scary. But many of the other tasks on my long list are dependent on that one. Some I could do before but they would just have to be tweaked if not redone after the switch.

Maybe managing reader expectations by establishing a routine of sorts so that certain regular themes have assigned days whether or not there is a meme involved. Like Mondays are for sharing my reading plans and accomplishments and musings in Book Journey's 'It's Monday What are You Reading?' and Friday's are for sharing my fiction snippets or musing on the craft of fiction writing in my Friday Forays in Fiction which I let slide for most of a year now. And Sunday's for sharing the variety of ways in which I find bliss, serenity, joy, and contentment in my Sunday Serenity. And so forth.

A third goal to reach for would be to break the lurker habit again. I'd made great strides on that once but have slipped back into it again in the last year.

wallpaper Eyes Always Bigger Than

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I'm having some mental indigestion over all projects I've got going anyone of which is more than I can manage in the time I've got available. It has been a habit that defines me since my earliest memories to make big plans, have massive aspirations and huge expectations and then be surprised and disappointed when I can't follow through.

These thoughts were prompted by an attempt to do a wrap-up post on the 2010 reading challenges I signed up for. Even that wrap-up post is too big a project for one day tho as I haven't kept my lists updated since before NaNo and it is hard to face it since my failure was so huge.

This led to thoughts about all the other projects:

• The 20+ unfinished stories set in a 150+ character storyworld
• Printing good drafts and submitting of several finished stories and poems
• The dozen or two unfinished sewing or craft projects...
• Now including the 205 row by 300 stitches baby afghan now on row 29 for a baby due this week.
• Creating a for sale page on Joystory for the bookmarks or an Etsy account
• That mystery website I've been building and hinting at here since 2006! (how serious could I be?)
  
• The two dozen library books checked out
• The two full season DVD collections checked out and due Monday
• The six TV series I'm currently watching via Netflix and the two 500 item queues on my account there--one for DVD and one for streaming. (umm probably doesn't belong in this list but in the one that explains why this list gets longer by the day. Tho in my defense I am always crocheting or sewing while watching)
• The dozen or three 'junk'* boxes I need to sort
• The daily posting on a writing/book blog that no longer earns the title but has morphed into a LOLcat/DVD 'review'/crochet blog
• The 60 or so incomplete book reviews intended for posting
• The elebenty dozen research projects--for the storyworld, for posts or just because I love to research
  
• The Book Drum profile for The River Why which I began for their tournament last January that is still unpublished... (all the sections except the bookmarks are fully fleshed out but I've got 26 bookmarks for the first 10 pages and nothing for the remaining 300--nothing posted that is tho I have several dozen more prepped in my notes)
• And then there's the temptation to sign up for this year's tournament! (brayneewack?)
• A review copy of a book that came in November (during NaNo) which I've not read yet and which needs to go to top of priority now that NaNo and the holiday season is past. (ah it could make a great Book Drum profile! It's set in China during the revolution in the POV of an American missionary. The possibilities just glow and shimmer in my mind...yeah probably brain indigestion!)

Well, I started working on the Book Drum profile again after Christmas and have set myself a deadline of the end of January. I will click the publish button on February 1st regardless of the bookmarks status.

And then I may allow myself to sign up for the tournament. Tho that's a month late it doesn't deadline until April 30.

I am considering changing the parameters of the baby afghan and making it a buggy or bassinet blanket instead of a crib blanket by making it square at 36 inches or making the 36 inch rows the long side and work to 30 inches instead of 40 which would be respectively 185 or 155 rows instead of 205 which means finishing as much as much as one day sooner per four rows lesser. Very tempting.

One way or another a few of those 'junk'* boxes will be dealt with this week else I'll be replacing my pillow with that box of thread from Joanne.com due to arrive late this week!

*I put junk in quotes because it's primarily not garbage but useful stuff like craft supplies, desk gadgets, office supplies, notes, craft projects, meds and food supplements and computer attachments that have just got in a jumble. Tho I'm sure there are some who would quibble

wallpaper Roses of Success

I just had to pull the third blue row out of the baby afghan for the second time in twelve hours.

This is the kind of thing that tends to make me crazy with frustration, second guessing and self-loathing.

Not to mention project loathing.

To make matters worse I spilled the left over peas while clearing the table tonight and made a mess all over the table, the side of the table cloth, my pant leg and foot, the floor and the chair leg. Who knew pea juice could be so sticky!

My MIL had to come in and clean it up as I'd have likely made a bigger mess of it. Plus I was hopping on one foot trying to clean the other with a paper towel so as not to track it. She's going to have to mop the entire kitchen floor again.

I had to get a shower and put on clean clothes in order to protect the bedding and the afghan as I continued working. I blithely finished the blue row which I'd left off at the call to dinner with about twenty to thirty stitches left or two to three inches. Out of 300 stitches or 36 inches.

Then I inspected the row looking for egregious mistakes. The kind that mess up the pattern or stymie the stitches on the next row. Again I'd made it almost to the far end of the row before finding the error. I'd already heaved that big sigh of relief and almost begun to reach for the scissors to clip the white thread of the row below so I could bring it around to start the next row.

The mistake was very similar to the one I made this morning before I slept--I'd skipped a stitch (which meant nothing to attach the stitch in the next row to once I'd worked it back that far) and had 'fixed' the hitch in the pattern by repeating a double crochet instead of alternating with the triple as required. This morning I'd made the mistake in stitches three thru six. This evening it was stitches fourteen thru seventeen.

Like I said. This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy.

But last night Ed and I watched Chitty Chitty Bang Banb together and the song about roses growing in the ashes of failure spoke to me and later I'd hunted for it on YouTube so I had it handy to refresh my spirit.

And I'm reminded to be grateful that I found the error before I put in the next row. Because I would have found it when I reached that point and then had to take out two rows!!

Like I did twice with the first green row first with white row below it and then with the white row above it. That experience prompted me to inspect each row before starting the next. That takes about three minutes but saves me up to 70 minutes if a mistake is found. For though I have to take out the current row back to the mistake I don't have to take out the portion of the row above that was worked back to the mistake.

The theme of the song, Roses of Success, is that mistakes always teach you something you can build on for the next try. This time I think the lesson is that I need to inspect the current row any time I'm interrupted enough to put the work down. Because I do believe both mistakes in the blue row today occurred as I resumed work after such an interruption.

Roses of Success Lyrics:

Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Oh yes!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
(spoken) Yes I know but he wants it to float.
It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Hear, hear!
That mistake you'll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses
Those rosy roses
Those rosy roses
From the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success!
Start the engines!
Success!
Batten the hatches!
Success!
Man the shrouds!
Lift the anchor!
Success!