Posts Tagged: happiness

Politics — 3 Comments
3
Oct 08

Pragmatism vs. Idealism

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Creative Commons License photo credit: graymalkn

I’m an idealist. I don’t believe the ends justify the means, and I am a big fan of concepts like “doing the right thing,” “personal responsibility,” and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I’m also a pragmatist. I think this is partly personality, partly profession, and a good deal of being married to Daniel. :)

Normally these two personality traits co-exist reasonably peacefully. They temper each other and keep me from going too overboard in either direction.

But then political questions come up, and suddenly I’m the host of a little mini-war of the mind and heart. Continue reading →

Daily Check-In — 3 Comments
1
Oct 08

Happy October!

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Creative Commons License photo credit: Per Ola Wiberg

The first day of a new month (rabbit rabbit!) and it’s the one that feels most like “autumn” to me—nevermind that it’s supposed to get up to almost 90° F today! The only downside: dreaded invoicing day. I really hate invoicing. A lot.

One reason for my passionate loathing is just the simple fact that it involves doing tedious tasks that I’m not particularly good at. If that was it, though, I’d outsource it and be done with it. The worse part is that I have to go through all of my PayPal transactions and categorize them, make sure everything matches, and realize that I’m putting in tons of hours and making very little money as a result. That’s just depressing.

So today I’ll get through evil invoicing first in hopes of having a better rest of the day. I haven’t even showered yet—don’t worry, it will immediately follow invoicing. :)

I also need to fit in some baking for our church gathering tonight—I’ve committed to bring some bread and I’m thinking about a certain bread machine roll recipe + a pan of cornbread. Neither will take very much active time but I need to remember to start early enough.

Most Important Tasks

  • Invoicing :P
  • Do two specific tasks on a client site (being vague here for privacy reasons)
  • Create three new videos for my training course and write text versions for all four videos

The reward

I’ll allow myself to read as many of my blog feeds as I want (when my work is done). I have about 150 unread posts, and spent some time last night reducing the incoming flow, so I’m looking forward to catching up.

Monday Motivation — No Comments
14
Apr 08

Monday Motivation: Reduce Project Load

I’m hoping against hope that it’s not going to be “one of those days.” It started out well, considering I’ve already gotten through most of the 150 emails (!) that came in over the weekend and it’s not even 8am yet, but then I wandered into the office (I’d been working on my laptop) and found that my Mac was locked up.

It didn’t respond to any of the happy “kill program” commands, so I finally hard-rebooted it and now it’s not coming back. I’m no Mac guru, but I’ve tried a whole bunch of remedies found via Google, and no luck yet. Computers are finicky beasts, though, so I’m hopeful that something will work. I’m going to call my local Apple-friendly computer store when they open and see what they suggest.

In the meantime, I’m incredibly glad I installed FolderShare last week, so most everything is backed up on my laptop (where I’m typing now) as well as my JungleDisk. If I need to work on my laptop, I can, it’s just not as nice for coding.

My big priority for this week (other than getting the misbehaving Mac working) is to finish up some outstanding projects that are really stressing me out. I have new projects lined up for next week and am going to have a nervous breakdown if I have to do them all at once, so the obvious answer is to finish up the current ones first.

One of the projects is a client’s web application and the other is the ebook.

For today…

I’m going to focus on the client project and make as much progress as I can there. I have about seven other obligations for the day, but this is going to be my core task.

For the week…

I’m going to keep working on the client project, and do the following for my ebook:

  • Decide on a final name
  • Get a cover and site designed (starting the process today)
  • Set up sales and affiliate program
  • Format the book
  • Do an interview to promote the book

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Acts of Kindness / Treats — 3 Comments
10
Apr 08

Happiness, Delivered

After staying up till 1am to complete Monday’s tasks (the book writing in particular), and then the book again last night till almost midnight, plus rising with the mister at 5:30am today, I’m pretty well beat. The core book writing is done and I’m whupped.

I’ve spent today catching up on the neglected clients and projects. It’s draining to feel behind on everything (though admittedly, it’s getting better). I decided to take a break and go get the mail—getting the mail is one of the great (small) pleasures of my life.

Imagine my excitement when I got a package! I love packages!

USPS box

And then I opened the package!

Behold! Organic Gourmet Fudge!

Oh, now you know that’s going to be good!

Fudge!

Now I know you are all incredibly jealous… look at all that fudgy goodness!

A little back-story on the fudge: when I checked my email on Monday morning, I had a super-nice note from Reonne of Earth’s Sweet Pleasures. Over the weekend, she used my WordPress videos to learn to install her blog, appropriately named Chocolate Fudge Cafe (is your mouth watering yet?!).

She appreciated the videos and offered to send me some fudge. Now what sane woman would turn down that offer?!? Not this one! (Though I guess at this point my claim on sanity is a little tenuous…) I didn’t realize that Reonne was going to send me 16 pieces, though!

Honestly, even more than the fudge (which is fantastic, by the way… I kept it intact just long enough for the photos :) ), I’m really touched that she went out of her way to do something so nice. After a very stressful few days, it’s like my soul just sighed with satisfaction.

Ahhhhhhhhh…

Don’t underestimate what your gestures of thoughtfulness can do for another person.