Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive!

Here's a nice bit I came across on a blog written by the blogger Urban Native Girl:

One of the best things that I did for this birthday was to start a new habit. Early Friday morning I woke up and took out my journal (yes I am old school like that - I still like a pen and paper) and started a list. I think most people get stressed out about birthdays because they really think about all the things that they haven't accomplished yet. Like when I hit xyz age, I will have completed these degrees, bought this kind of car, and that kind of real estate, etc., etc. This really sets us up for feeling at a loss and not feeling good about our lives and our birthdays.

So I took out my pen and wrote down all of the awesome things I have accomplished. Whether they be big or small, but things that make me feel happy, proud, and excited about life. Then I took stock of them and gave thanks for having such a full and blessed life. So what if I haven't done my masters yet? I'll get to it eventually, and while I am still a work in progress, I can give thanks for all the blessings in my life.

Isn't that a good idea? And for anyone who still feels they just haven't accomplished much, well, it often stands in relation to the number of tough things you've had to go through in life. So we should add Survival to our list of accomplishments. Walking through hell, and making it out the other side, is
something to celebrate.

I knew someone once who was feeling bad about his little bit of overweightness. But in the last few years he'd stopped smoking, and overcome both alcohol and drug addiction, and also got his mental illness under control. I was like "And now you're beating yourself up over a few pounds? Ease!" He'd already accomplished more in one lifetime than many of us do.
   


    

Distort reality the Steve Jobs Way

Steve Jobs' biographer was on The Daily Show and talked about the "reality distortion field" that people half-joked surrounded Jobs. In part it refers to the way he would challenge developers to invent something new, even when they'd say it couldn't be done. And then they did it.

Love this expression.

Unfortunately, it's possible that Jobs' applied this too far to his health--some think he delayed surgery to remove his tumor by 9 months so he could try alternative therapies first, which allowed the tumor to spread. (Skimmable balanced summary here.) Though the reality distortion field helps us break barriers, it can't break them all.

But when it comes to innovating and pursuing dreams, a reality distortion field is a great idea.

 I've seen it work even in silly things, like the loyalty card we used to sell at my old work. Time and again a new generation of cashiers would say "Everyone has a card, we can't get a higher percentage!" but my boss would *inspire* them to try harder, and the percentage went up.

This technique did stop working at some point, though. Eventually you really do saturate your market, and the reality distortion field eventually hits reality. But until then, what might we be capable of?

National Novel Writing Month--writing 50 000 words in 30 days--is another example of showing people how they can do more than they thought personally probable. If you pace yourself Nano asks you to write 1666 words per day; but I always get behind and write way more than that at the end, to get ahead. In theory we could all write 100 000 words in the month (and many of the early finishers do... yes, the crazy people.)

We can do more than we think IF we had a good reason, because achieving-the-impossible generally requires sacrifice. For example, in Nano it translates into = no dishes cleaned, no cooking, no childcare, unhappy spouses, and no life. I'll bet it did for Jobs' developers too.

But if your goal or dream is worthy, and the sacrifices can be made, then I say go for it. Reality distort away!
  

    

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Eight: Some new toys are introduced to intelligent reader, connected with whom various pleasant matters are related

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Eight

Some new toys are introduced to intelligent reader, connected with whom various pleasant matters are related.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Click here for chapters one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.

More fantastic ideas by Ms Brownlow to help Oliver get his groove on!

This is Oliver at about 4 1/2 weeks.
I'd moved everything to another corner of the bedroom and put together
a little play area for him.

I got a kitten tree.  Tiny because at that point it seemed an
ambitious idea that he might even climb something this big: it's the
smallest kitten tree I could find.

I got some scratching pads, yoga bricks, aerobic steps, the ktten
tree, the little structure he'd liked so much in the other corner of
the room, and put them all together so that he could climb on some and
aspire to get from them to the others.  They were all different
textures and heights and degrees of difficulty.

And I put his towel mountain there as well.  Here he is sleeping on
his towel mountain.  What can I say? he really loved it.

I love Towel Mountain.

He also liked climbing up onto the scratching pads. Sometimes he didn't travel very far before it was time for another nap.

He looks like a puppet with his strings cut! Floppy.

 

Pad that ipad baby!

I finally received my ipad cover (it got stuck st customs). I have to confess it wasn't cheap :-o but I made the whole ipad purchase out of money I saved up and budgeted for such things. And I found a bluetooth keyboard for $25 instead of the $70 apple or zaggmate. It's made of plastic, but otherwise works beeootifully--it's so quiet and easy to type on and light. I purposely looked for something cheaper, to offset the case.

Anyway--enough about my guilt. The case was designed by etsy boutique JennJill Designs, at the specifications of a customer. I looked high and low at every ipad stand and case and stand/case and I tell you there's nothing like it out there. ...You can't even imagine how almost-literal that is. When I buy something like this, I research ennndlessly. Ridiculously so. I become totally determined to find the exact right product for myself.

The Best because:

- it's a stand, in 3 positions
- and a good protector (quilted, lined with plexiglass)
- with pockets
- a spot for a pen and a pad of paper (yes a tablet should replace a pen and paper, but what if you want to pass a note to someone? Battery runs out in crucial meeting?)
- easy to remove the ipad fast
- cloth: it grips your slacks, or the blanky on your lap, and is washable
- with a strap, so you can put your grocery list on it and carry it on your arm around the store; or when you reach your bus stop you can just hitch it up on your arm
- and finally, it's cute! I wanted something pretty, and not leather.

Check this out...

(My text gets cut off on the ipad app I've tried lately. Hmph! I was saying... you don't need to attach the buttons to hold it open in the above positions, cause the case sticks to itself. ;-)

The only critique I can give is that the elastics and pockets holding the ipad cover the screen corners a little. Possibly the ipad 2 is wider than the first ipad? It's not like she has models of all the electronics it's made for, so I'll just let her know. ;-)

Tonight I put on a movie and sewed the edge of the corners down, and sewed the elastics back a little, and now it's perfect. (Perfect except for my terrible stitches - luckily they're black.)

Well... that's all. I hope it doesn't seem like showing off my Conspicuous Consumption. It's rather that when something is well made, by a nice little business, I like to give props. (Next time I'll show you my purse organizer!) Jenn gave amazing customer service, as we discussed patterns, strap length and the printer cover. If you're ever getting an ipad, reserve a little extra budget for this perfect cover. ;-)

Frederick's of NFL

Was just reading today that the Lingerie Football League is going to create a youth league. (read here) This is, of course, the kind of headline meant to shock, but in the last line of the article they admit that the girls won't be wearing lingerie. And when I'm faced with such things--the lingerie league itself I mean--I try to get past my first wtf reaction, and keep an open mind.

The league provides women with an opportunity (that is to say, the money) to play the damned sport... so I'm not all out for it. I mean, it's ridiculous, but it's still a chance to play a sport.

And so with the youth league too. If it means more girls will get the funding to play football, then... alright. That might be an okay thing.

All a bit Twilight Zone... but maybe okay. Also--the women playing do get props because they're playing with so much less padding. It's sort of hardcore... at the same time as being softcore. lol.

It reminds me of A League of Their Own, which I recently re-watched. Those women played in skimpy outfits too (and considering it was the 40s, I'd say it was an equivalent skimpiness) and the movie shows the kinds of nasty bruises they had from sliding to plates etc.

And the outdoor volleyball at the Olympics. The only reason it gets funding is because of the skimpy outfits too.

Sometimes... you do what you gotta do.

Just make sure you bitch slap the next person who says women now have full equality with men.

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Seven: In which our hero climbs yet another mountain.

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Seven

In which our hero climbs yet another mountain.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Click here for chapters one, two, three, four, five and six.


Dear loyal friends of Oliver,

Please forgive my haphazard posting dates. Life isn't too busy, so I don't know what's going on. Maybe my brain is just off a bit. It happens, it happens.


It turns out I had another picture of him with his little tent!

Stretch Armstrong!

Chloe was the perfect mother for him. She was always nearby, but never hovered. She watched everything he did, but let him feel he had complete freedom.
I noticed though that whenever he was about to go somewhere she wouldn't be able to rescue him from if he needed help -- like under of behind somewhere she wouldn't fit -- she called out and called him back. So then he'd just alter course a little bit, spot something to the left or right that looked interesting, and be on his way.

Now for the exciting tale of: The Litter Box! 

He was partly doing normal kitten stuff, but he worked so hard it was really touching. And what he was trying to do was always so far out of his reach at first that I was amazed at the effort he put into it.

When he was just a little bit older I took him to the cat pan, just to show it to him. Really, I wanted him to see the litter right after Chloe used it to help him get the idea.
I realized the sides of the pan were high and planned to put some litter in the lid from a plastic storage bin and put it in the bedroom so it would be close to him.

Uh-uh. Oliver got it: litter pan, kitty pee-place. Very soon after I noticed he was in the bathroom near the cat pan. I watched in amazement. He pulled himself up and inside. Then he immediately collapse, spread-eagle, all four legs, and fell soundly asleep. After a bit, he woke up, peed, climbed back out, and promptly fell sound asleep on the floor right next to the cat pan.

He slept for a very long time.
The next time he went to use the pan, it was easier for him. After that he never didn't go to the cat pan, even though at the time it was a long walk and still a hard climb.

Oh my days! One imagines he had to plan his pees way in advance. "Okay it takes about half an hour to get there, and an hour to get inside..."

      

Two Heavy Deep Soundbites

A touch of Wisdom:

And a touch of Fool:

 

       

Not a Drop to Drink

This past weekend we had an advisory to not drink water--in our municipality, and several more to the west. I was idly facebooking about it (and receiving expert-level advice from a Betty whose mother is a city water engineer) when it occurred to me that if I didn't go to the grocery store now, they'd run out of water! I got there just in time.

Now my cats will be so addicted to San Benedetto water from the glaciers of the Dolomites, they'll never want to go back to tap water.

Anyway, as I was zipping down the hill to the store, with my ipod and rubber boots and empty backpack, I thought about this bit from "Wear Sunscreen" :

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying
is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things
that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you
at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Which also reminds me of the expression: Worry is a fast getaway on a wooden horse.

This thing, that the real troubles in life will blindside you, is pretty true in my experience. And the things I've really fretted over, they usually worked out okay. I tried to keep that in mind over the weekend.

(By the way, the advisory was lifted Sunday. So we're still stocked and ready for the next emergency!)
      

Pupcicle

We have a new roommate this weekend. We're sitting Fernando's friends' dog--a big lab-Saint-Bernard mix.

DAY 1
Minion's finally met her match. Even though she's generally a bold cat, she's not used to strange visitors, including furry ones. When Shooter first arrived she came out... her tail PUFFED... and then she arched her back! Just like those Halloween pictures of cats! It was very cute, wish I'd had my phone-cam. Now she's just hiding in a closet in my room. There were dogs where she lived as a baby, but it's over a year ago.

Haley's being the brave one. When Fernando took the dog on an apartment stroll, Haley just gave him a look that said: "This is not the cat you're looking for." Then she hid under the bed for awhile, but I sweet talked her, and she's come out twice to explore.

When Haley was at my mom's there were several little dogs. She'd wait til they were all asleep and then c-r-e-e-p across the floor between them all. She gets outshone by Minion's crazy antics, but when the rubber hits the road, she's got grit.

DAY 2
The kittehs were still total scaredy-cats Sat morning. But we brought them, one at a time, to the Kitteh Tower so they could see the dog. They didn't stay, but it seemed to help. When I took out some treats, Minion was so excited she deigned to eat them two feet from the Monster (who was sharing in the cat munchies) whereas last night she wouldn't even come down the hall for the same food.

It wasn't long after that, sitting again in the livingroom with Shooter, I saw this:

And then this, from the other side of the livingroom... (You can get to the livingroom from the hallway, or the kitchen.)

And once she saw he wasn't going to attack she got bolder...

The rest of the evening passed without much fuss. Minion relaxed and started to frolick and play again, and catch up on all the mischief and finger she missed while cowering in a closet.

Haley still kept her distance, but came as far as the sideboard in the entrance between the living room and kitchen.

DAY 3
The cats acted a bit skittish again this morning, I don't know why. But I made Haley eat her breakfast on the sideboard, and Minion's been acting normal.

I don't know what the turning point was for Minion. Maybe it was after she and Shooter ate cat niblets together, and she recognized a fellow kindred pig-out spirit.

Above is Shooter enjoying the Bullwinkle (bull penis) that Fernando bought him. Minion has her own small Bullwinkles.

...Though Minion likes her kong better--she's finally using the tougher red one I got her. Last night she was kicking it around the apartment like a misshapen soccer ball.

And that's it for the weekend animal drama. Shooter is an exceedingly polite dog, because he's a retired "Mira dog." Mira is the seeing-eye-dog charity in Montreal. So Shooter doesn't chew ANYthing, rarely barks, is very calm and obedient, and doesn't react to the cat he lives with. (Or to Minion taking swipes at his ear.)

IN OTHER NEWS:

Here's the beautiful quilted purse I bought from Urthalun-Betty (she's off on the other side of the continent, in Oregan.) Isn't it fabulous? It's really well made, and perfectly fits my purse organizer. It will be the perfect accompaniment to blue jeans.

And finally, some random Minion cuteness. Her specialty (after torturing fellow companion animals.)

(As I posted those photos, Minion started attacking Shooter's ear again. He LOOKed at her. She backed off. ...Now she's going for it again.

Have a nice week. Peace out.

Even top athletes need to balance

Awhile ago I marked this article to blog about: Is the Life You're Living Worth the Price You're Paying to Live It? (Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review)

"What toll does it take, over time, if you get too little sleep; skip breakfast or settle for something unhealthy; struggle with a relentlessly challenging commute; attend meeting after meeting with no breaks in between; pump yourself up through the day with multiple cups of coffee or sugary snacks; deal with hundreds of emails that accumulate in your inbox; remain at your desk for lunch if you eat lunch at all; push through fatigue in the afternoon; head home at night feeling exhausted, but continue to check email through the evening; work on the weekends; and limit your vacations to no more than a week or two, if you vacation at all? ... It's not good for us, and it's not good for companies."

I know a lot of people who've experienced this, and not working in some High Powered Supa Corporation! either. In my opinion, though, if the ability to work in a reasonable manner doesn't come from the top, then your only choices are (besides continuing) to be a mediocre worker, or to find another job. Of course, you can't really go from being a top performer to a mediocre one--bosses notice things like that. As opposed to the person who was mediocre all along, and, well, keeps their job. ;-)

And I've heard every story in the book, told to perpetuate this culture. Like "Well, X person works regular hours and manages to be a high performer." (And then you talk to X and find out they're in the same boat and also burning out.) Or if someone says they can't continue this pace now that they have a family: "I so understand... though VP X has 5 kids and has no trouble balancing work and personal life." (As if they actually know anything about the VP's personal life.)

Yes, you can work a certain amount of long hours if the job is your passion, or it's your company. When I'm writing a novel I can happily work crazy hours. But there's an expectation that if you want to succeed at work, the average manager / worker has to match the energy, passion and dedication of that small handful of people for whom this is a Dream Job.

Here's some of the 159 comments from the article: (I read them so you don't have to!)

"6 years, working 80+ hours, sleeping 42, eating irregularly, exercising about 0.5 & hobbies 1 ... Mental math calc's (mult/div) began requiring increasing effort then finally a calculator; Creativity/problem solving dried out; Patch-fixes (a long sleep, gym visit, night on the town) ceased to recharge me; My excellent physical health began to deteriorate rapidly; I was becoming a not very kind person. Finally with my performance tanking, my contract wasn't continued."

"Interesting, what you said about your math skills. I distinctly remember taking my first corporate job (as an editor, ironically) and feeling like my vocabulary and ability to read and write were deteriorating."

"Same happened to me! As a sub-editor, the three things I need are: excellent eyesight, dependable concentration, perfect spelling/grammar. Last year, when I was working six days a week, I started to lose all of them. That was a bit of a wake-up call."

"Regarding expense to relationships, when I hit my fifth anniversary at a large tech company, I got a commemorative item, along with a card to give to my spouse. I still have it. It reads: "We recognize the support you have provided and the sacrifices you have made during your partner's employment with XXXX. We'd like to take this opportunity to extend our sincerest thanks." This is the stuff Dilbert comics are made of."

"I have also realized that how companies take advantage of passionate employees and always ask for more than they physically and mentally should give by hooking them with bates, and if something happens to the employee he/she just becomes a statistic however the companies move on and keep adding new blood to fuel their fire."

"I think we don't realise that we become slowly addicted to this life style.  Our self worth becomes tided not only to what we have but by how many people are demanding our time, relying on us, emailing us - needing us."

"World class athletes push themselves. World class athletes also take many breaks, focus on their diet, and their overall physical and emotional well being."

                  

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Six: Being a chapter full of new adventures and travails

 

Oliver Kitteh - Chapter Six

Being a chapter full of new adventures and travails.

As told by Ms Brownlow (italic narration by Mabel).

Click here for chapters one, two, three, four and five.

Dear readers, 

Last we left Oliver he had been introduced to the Petco structure, and climbing over the dowels. In this week's exciting installment, we see his little attempts to climb it!

I don't think he ever quite managed to do it, but it was worth a try, right?

Well, it was very worth a try, actually, because it helped strengthen
his back legs.  It was fabric, so he could use his little claws to
hold on, and he managed to stretch up his entire length, he just never
got any higher than that at this stage.  But it was still a
accomplishment and he was impressed with himself.  I think it sort of
counted as getting off the ground.

Cats climb, right?  Oliver worked on his climbing.

You can see little back leg all stretched out!

Notice how Mamma Chloe is coaching him.

I also got him this little collapsible hut, and it's another thing that got a lot of use.

But really I wanted you to see how eager he was to head out and
explore everything that was put in his immediate area.  And I wanted
you to see how he was using his little legs.

Moving from one place to another took him a very long time, but he was
determined to check everything out and find every way to use things
that he could.  And he got stronger every day.

"Check me out, Other Mommy! Rowr!"

I don't know about you, dear readers, but I thought about little Oliver this week (and BarbN's daughter) when faced with some seemingly entrenched problems. Just focus on one part, and work work work at it, til you pass out from exhaustion. That is what I reminded myself. (As opposed to the lessons I learn from my Haley, such as "If someone stands in your way, cut 'em. That's what claws are for." Or "If something's too hard to do, annoy your hue-mahn until they do it for you.")


     

My apples

I figured my best tribute to Steve Jobs would be mostly pictorial. My dad isn't a computer-programming type computer geek, but he always liked computers and when it came to Apple he was an Early Adopter. So I associate my writing with Apple computers--they embody a lot of good memories for me.

I think this was our first computer - the Apple II C ? (My dad can correct me.)

Played a lot of Olympics game.

 At one point in early high school we had two computers in our computer room--my brother taught himself some programming on one, and starting in grade 7 I wrote stories on the other. But I don't remember which computers those were.

 My dad bought the first Macintosh. It's so cute! We lurved the drawing program.

 Remember when you could only open one window/program at a time?

Somewhere in high school the folks bought me an electric typewriter, so I wrote a lot of books on typewriter too. And when I stayed with my mum each summer, I used her typewriter.

Meanwhile my dad had a Macintosh Plus, which I used when he wasn't. 

And at some point in grade 11 I had a little second hand computer in my room, but I can't remember what it was. Pretty sure I have some stories on floppy disk that never got transferred over.

I think I inherited the Mac Plus when my dad got the first laptop, so I wrote tons of stories on that, plus my college papers.

I can't remember which computer I had when I moved out, near the end of my BA. But I definitely did my English BA all on a computer.

The first computer that I bought with my money was a second hand LC III.

My first new computer was the second generation of imacs, paid for with a bonus from work when I was first a manager. I used the heck out of that little thing--tons of stories, some Nanowrimo, and my first BA. My foster sister has it now, just for music and photos.

For my MA we bought a laptop, the first Macbook Pro. 

The money came from the extra shifts my husband was doing at the time. And in return it was our first Warcraft compatible computer.

My desk. Why is there a pillow on my desk?

 :-)   Nombly!

It's still my current computer (5 years old! That's like 80 in computer years.)

My second hand ipod, a gift from my brother.

Terrible battery life, but I replaced it myself using a third party battery, so it works nicely now. When it's at home it's hooked up to my kitchen stereo.

Fernando's first computer, inherited from my brother when he went laptop. (That's my brother's first generation imac in the background. Had to convince Fernando to part with it, poor little thing was so oldly.)

And the latest addition to our Apple family, my wee iPad 2.  

Should help me put off buying a new computer for awhile.

 So thank-you Steve Jobs for years and years of computer enjoyment. It's hard to imagine any other way of living now!