Lists
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May Wrap-up and June Goals
Well, hot damned. It’s June. Already. I find myself saying that a lot these days. “Already!?” “It’s summer already!?” “It’s [insert month] already!?” And the busier I am from day to day, the more I seem to be saying it. And May was a VERY busy month. It always is. From wrapping up and ending the semester, grading final papers and exams, getting final grades in, and working graduations not just at my own institution, but at a couple others in the region as a musician… Then add in all the holidays and anniversaries – Mother’s Day, a major family member’s “cancer free” milestone anniversary, my birthday, trying to shop…
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April Misses and May Goals
So it’s time for my monthly wrap-up! Who knew it was going to be May so soon? It completely snuck up on me, and unfortunately I didn’t really meet all my goals for April as a result. To recap what I wanted to do, you can find the full post here. I was able to control my spending on take-out even better this month, but pretty much all the other goals were either misses, or near-misses. I wasn’t able to get anything done in terms of knitting, and while I read more this month, I stalled out about 75% of the way through my second book. And keeping up with…
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March: The Good, The Bad, And the Goals.
As part of my plan for getting more consistent around here, I’ve decided to make it my goal to post a wrap-up of each month – this way I can sort of look at each month in review, identify what I accomplished and what needs improvement. I feel like it’s also going to be nice to have a handy list of what I’ve accomplished for myself (in addition to everything I know I’ve gotten done for work) over the last month. Hopefully it’ll be a handy guard against my anxiety creeping in and telling me I’m unproductive and lazy. Now the shape this post takes may change as the year…
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My 2017 Goals
So it’s January, and of course, that means it’s resolution time. I’ve spent a lot of time these last two weeks really putting thought into what this year’s goals should be, because I feel like I’m very much at a crossroads of sorts. I’m turning the big 3-0 this May, and there’s a lot of things in my life that I feel like I need to address before I cross officially into the realm of “Thirty-something.” The resulting list is a lot more conceptual than my goals have been in the past. More overall lifestyle changes than specific, quantifiable goals. And while that made coming up with photos to break…
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2016 New Years Resolution Postmortem
Another year, another set of goals not fully met. I know that sounds really pessimistic, but that’s just how these things go – I’m not a resolution maker who actually expects to fully complete each. Instead, I make resolutions with the goal of making progress, and using those goals, however unattainable, to improve myself or particular aspects of myself. So I never really expect to fully fulfill them. If I do? AWESOME. If not? Oh well – the real question is did I TRY? So let’s see how I did this year, shall we? 1) Learn Brush Calligraphy Success Level: High. I think I did pretty well on this one.…
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Six Last Minute Knitted (and Crocheted) Gift Patterns
It’s that time of year again! Gift giving season! I figured that this would be a perfect time to post a compilation of a few of my favorite, tried and tested fast knitting patterns – you know, in case anyone needs to procure a thoughtful, hand-knit gift in the span of a mere afternoon. All photos are taken from the Ravelry Pattern page, and link back to the original source. 1) Fern Lace Cowl by Jami Brynildson – I’ve made several of these over the years – it’s a quick knit that’s interesting enough to keep you entertained without being too brainpower intensive, allowing you to easily pump this project…
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What’s Up, Wednesday?
During the lull of the last few months I’ve been… … listening to: America’s Next Top Model. I can’t really say that I’ve been watching it, as it’s mostly just been on in the background as I work. I like seeing the results of the photo shoots, and there’s something about Tyra Banks that I just really like for whatever reason. I don’t really have words for why I like her so much, but I do. I know she’s got a reputation for being a little bit cuckoobird, but I love it. She just seems like she’s so unabashedly her, and I admire that. I imagine it’s far easier to…
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Happy New Year Everyone!
Well, it’s that time again, blogosphere. It’s a new year. And of course, inevitably that means it’s RESOLUTION TIME. Yes. Once again, as I always do, I’m going to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish/work at in 2016. I haven’t been terribly successful with this kind of goal making in the past, and last year was no different (I’ll have a post next week assessing my successes and not-so-successes from 2015), but I don’t really feel like that’s a huge problem. My general attitude about these things is that it doesn’t hurt to try. I’m a big believer in the process – the idea that…
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Back to School Week: Common Faux Pas When Communicating With Professors
So, funny story. I’ve literally been agonizing over this post for a year and a half. I had originally intended it to be part of back to school week LAST year, but ended up chickening out of posting it. Why? Because it seems like a fairly good topic, and probably (hopefully) contains sound advice… Well, mainly because so many other articles I’ve read that are written by professors and deal with this kind of stuff take on such a negative, snarky, and frankly condescending tone. And I don’t want this to be like that. I don’t want to be like that. So I’ve tried my best not to be. Students…
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12 Books for 2015
As I said in my New Year’s Goals post, I read a ton throughout the year – but rarely get the opportunity to read a whole book solely for myself. I’ve just slipped out of the habit of using my free time for pleasure reading. And I miss it. So this year I made it a goal to read at least 12 books that I don’t NEED to read. Specifically: The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers by Thomas Fleming I picked this book up several years ago when Borders went out of business, and like most of the stuff I picked up during that sale, it’s just kind of…