Well, I had good intentions, of course, to stick to my one thing today … but my son asked me to show him the ropes of making a car appointment, getting the repairs done … and then re-newing the insurance. So lots of coming and going…. And not so much “one thing-ing!”

And then . . . → Read More: interruptions … budgeting my time… investigating on-line publishing … creative ideas (often scorned) … links on blogs…]]> April 30, 2010

Well, I had good intentions, of course, to stick to my one thing today … but my son asked me to show him the ropes of making a car appointment, getting the repairs done … and then re-newing the insurance. So lots of coming and going…. And not so much “one thing-ing!”

And then I realized that I need to list all the little – and big – things that I do. Because I really do need to “budget” my time. Just as we need to first keep close track of how we spend our money, if we want to set up a really workable financial budget. So I’ve been doing that all day… and I sure and starting to see how I “nickel and dime” and generally fritter away a lot of my time. Well, that will be useful information – though making that list kind of seems like frittering right now!

When I finished typing and posting on my blogs, the sun was finally shining brightly and blue sky showing through, after a good down-pour. So I went walkabout. Oh! I actually wore a summer skirt today – I love to wear skirts in summer. A sure sign it’s on its way.

A friend of mine who does a lot of writing, but kind of freezes when it comes to “publishing” is hoping I can set up some kind of site where people like him can post things. This is motivating me to look beyond blogs and ordinary websites, for my own writing as well. So I’m checking out wiki, open source, member-sites, forums, e-books… It seems like if I’m doing things for other people as well as for myself, I am far more excited and encouraged to really go after it. Like I cook better meals if I know others are going to eat them with me – but if I’m just cooking for myself, I’d rather just grab a snack. We really do need each other! Giving and sharing is good!

On my walkabout, I went into the bookstore in the mall, as I had a buy-one-get-one-50%-off coupon for this weekend. I looked all through the store (didn’t take long – its not a big outlet), but couldn’t find a single book I really want. Nothing about on-line publishing generally, or any of those specifics like I mentioned in the last paragraph. Not even anything about traditional publishing. And definitely nothing in the very small “Christian” shelf. In fact, pretty much of what was on there was totally anti-Christian, anti-God, pro-athiest type stuff. Maybe that’s what sells here… So I saved my money!

Ran into long time friends, D and V. D is one of those people who thinks in highly individualistic, creative, alternative kind of ways. This annoys some people, but I love to hear his ideas. Right now there is an enormous oil spill from a destroyed drilling platform, which is threatening to destroy the offshore in the area around Louisiana. D has come up with one of his amazing ideas.

In very simple terms, as I understand it, he suggests that a solution to trap the oil coming from the spurting well, could be to sew together a great many hot air balloons (made of nylon, which is pretty much waterproof), into a giant balloon, and use submersibles to pull the bottom end of the giant balloon into the depths and around the well. Then have ships gather around the top of the balloon at the water’s surface to hold it in place, and have one of the large oil pumper ships gather the oil that is rising up in the balloon (the fact that the balloon is a flexible container is very important), and pump it into barges to be taken to refineries or whatever, until the oil well is able to be closed off. Then he advocates getting away from oil, and going to the latest nuclear energy technology as a far more reliable and safe source of energy.
Of course, D’s explanation is far more detailed and accurate than mine … but he said he was going to phone or email the White House and suggest it. Though he doubted very much they’d pay any attention. He’s used to people ignoring his ideas, I’m afraid. Which is too bad, because he sees things in ways others do not. Often he comes up with simple but elegant and very workable solutions, which people just ignore, or even get angry about. What does that say about us? Eh?

I noticed that putting proper links in my blog postings increases my blog traffic, so I decided to go back and add actual links instead of just references, in old postings. This was going fine until I got back to postings from 6 months ago or so … and then I couldn’t get the blog program to make the changes. In fact, I was losing the whole blog post from the point where I inserted the link. Maybe it’s a safety mechanism to keep sites from getting hacked. Maybe it’s because the older posts were posted under past versions of the program. Maybe… I don’t know! I’ll be looking into that more today!

Yesterday I stopped in the at the library and found a really interesting book called “The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment For the Web” by dave shea and mollie e. holzshlag …It’s a c2005 book… but oh my goodness, it really inspires! It is the hard copy version of the css . . . → Read More: css design… number one things … learning … green tea… amazing walkabout observations… a great day!]]> April 29, 2010

Yesterday I stopped in the at the library and found a really interesting book called “The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment For the Web” by dave shea and mollie e. holzshlag …It’s a c2005 book… but oh my goodness, it really inspires! It is the hard copy version of the css Zen Garden site. If you’re at all interested in css based design, you want to check these out! Inspiring! And so many possibilities for your own design work!

I’ve been wondering how to fit in my three “number one” early morning activities, into the early morning hours (ie between 5 am and about 7 am when hubby generally gets home from work). Those three things are:

1. focused time with Papa (reading His word, conversing with Him, recording some of those conversations in my journal … and talking to Him about “prayer requests” people pass on to me … I find myself more and more asking Him what HE wants me to pray… which often doesn’t end up being what others – or myself too – would, well, wish for or suggest as “answers”);

2. street breakfasts/ coffee time/ gatherings; and

3. top of the morning “one-thing” writing-related item for the day. I’ve decided I can do #3 after breakfast … but #1 and #2 have been a problem. Still, Pastor P, the street pastor, dropped by and said he’s going back to just doing the street breakfast thing on Sundays, so he can do what Father has really called him to – be out there on the streets, not in a “coffee shop” (even one that is outdoors). So I don’t know what that means for what You want from me, in relation to the “street ministry,” Father … but it certainly does free up those early morning hours for focused time with You… which I really do need at the start of every new day with You!

Okay. So today’s “one thing”: reading and note-taking from blog entries I’ve been book-marking: The Art of Non-Conformity, Zen Habits: Simple Productivity, stuff from the some of the writers over at The Word Guild’s “Where Writers Converge”, and some RSS feeds I subscribe to. I do suspect it is going to take more than one day, though. I’ve been bookmarking for weeks – really should actually take a good look at things and note down what I need, instead of ending up with an enormous “bookmark” list!

…. Later … so spent most of my “one thing” time reading through A Simple System to Achieve Your Goals, a free e-book by Paul Meyers of TalkBiz News newsletter fame. Well, at least I read – and worked through – part 1. I know, I know, that isn’t on my “one thing” list … but I had it book-marked because it was linked to by one of the sites above. Anyway, it’s really interesting, and pretty useful too. Except I think it might be a lot more “simple” if I was a lot younger and had a lot less work/ volunteer/ hobbies/ education/ LIFE! It has reminded me, however, that I haven’t updated my detailed resume for a long time. Guess I need to do that before I go on to part 2. But he says that even after that, it’s good to take a few days off before part 2, so I’m going on to note-taking on my other inspirational stuff – the things I actually intended to read!

I have been drinking a lot of green tea. Someone said it helps to shed weight, especially belly fat, and it seems to have been working. Of course it could be that by drinking so much liquid, I’m not eating as much. I have had a tendency to dehydrate, and then think I’m hungry when I’m really thirsty. And of course I’m avoiding white carbs and bad fats and such, and adding things like avocados and olive oil and low-fat yogurt to my diet. And getting out and enjoying this spring weather, with lots of walking. So maybe it all work together. Oh! I don’t really like plain green tea, so I was combining plain green tea with jasmine green tea (which I find too “jasminy” on its own), and really like the combination.

I’ve been having some “computer problems,” where I can’t seem to load pages sometimes unless I click on this multiple times. This was freaking me out until I realized that there is a good chance that my poor old mouse battery is running low – and the mouse itself is literally falling apart. Sure hoping that’s all that’s wrong!

I didn’t really want to go out for my daily walkabout today because it has been gray and breezy and a bit damp all day. I was thinking, “Brrr…. I’ve had enough chill already this winter and spring.” But when I actually got outside, it was great. What I beautiful world we live in. Blossoms, endless hues of spring greens everywhere, and much warmer than I expected, despite the lack of sunshine.

I zipped through the mall and through Wally World on my walkabout, and Timmy’s too, to see if there was anyone about who I knew. No… but then out on the sidewalk I ran into my former landlord, and had a great chat with him. Yesterday on my walkabout I ran into another old friend who I haven’t seen in ages and had a great chat with him. This town is just small enough that running into people you know is a good possibility! I like it! (Though it’s not like small towns I’ve lived in, where you know pretty near everyone…)

Amazing things:
- With all the stuff in the mall and in Wally-World, there wasn’t a single thing I needed to wanted! Yay! I love simple living! (Though I sure was tempted by the thought of an Ice Capp at Timmy’s, lol)
- Very few people smile (okay, I guess that’s a rather sad amazing thing)
- But when I smile, lots of folks do smile back. Some even wave or say hello (looking kind of puzzled like they figure I must know them if I’m smiling, but they can’t remember who I am…)

When I got home, there was a facebook request from a girl who has been reading some of my blog posts, thanking me for the encouragement they’ve given her in her walk with Father, and asking to be on my facebook friends list. That really, really encouraged me, because sometimes I do wonder if anyone is reading. In fact it encouraged me so much that I went and checked my stats for my blogs and website (which I’ve not been doing much lately) and found a lot more hits than I expected! So thank You, Father! And thank you, young lady! Both of y/You have really encouraged me today. I am excited! And delighted! And encouraged to keep on writing.

I love You, Papa!

Up at 5:30, walked to street breakfast at 6:00 a.m. Pastor P, the street pastor, is worn out, and Dr has ordered “no mission work” for the next couple weeks, so that will be the last street breakfast for a bit. We had a good feast: barbequed hot dogs, coffee, hot . . . → Read More: a “restful” Sunday … and back-ups!]]> April 18, 2010

Up at 5:30, walked to street breakfast at 6:00 a.m. Pastor P, the street pastor, is worn out, and Dr has ordered “no mission work” for the next couple weeks, so that will be the last street breakfast for a bit. We had a good feast: barbequed hot dogs, coffee, hot chocolate, tea, juice, cookies (store-bought and homemade), pigs-in-blankets, cheese biscuits, boiled eggs! Lots of folks turned up. It was pretty gray overcast but reasonably warm. Then, just as we were packing up, the sun came out gloriously!

Back home, I “rested” (well… it was relaxing to me, anyway!) going through facebook and hiding lots more apps in the news feed, so that I can see just statuses, pictures, and interesting uploads. Makes a big difference in how much stuff I have to wade through. Every so often I hide a great pile of apps – and then it seems like more and more new ones start up, and I have to do it again. It’s that or “edit” my friends – which I definitely do not want to do!

After that, I sat out front enjoying the sun (with my big floppy hat on, and 55 SPF sunscreen, of course), and read from the word. (You can check out my journaling about that over at my my church journey blog.)

Eventually, the sky turned gray again, and it got windy-chilly, so I went back inside.

A friend on facebook had posted a news article about what would happen if some of the communications satellites were damaged by all that debris in space, or by asteroids – and after reading that, I decided to back up all my websites and blogs onto my external hard drive! Now I’m okay… as long as our power supply doesn’t go down! (Of course, I need to keep on backing up the new stuff!) While I was at it, I backed up all the documents and pictures on my computer… and deleted old back-ups…

Meanwhile, the sun came back out, and we ended up with a gloriously sunny, warm afternoon of 20 C – just as the weatherman predicted (surprise!). Our warmest spring day so far.

My daughter and little grandson came by for a little visit late afternoon – a perfect end to a lovely day!

Well, I was up till almost midnight last night, plowing enthusiastically through the Creating A Website book (by Matthew McDonald), after finally – hurrah! – dumping my “joomla” project and switching from Filezilla to WebCEO for FTP purposes. And I got the old anotherchance okanagan.com site back up and running (now hosted by . . . → Read More: trying new web design tools … Penticton writers…]]> April 3, 2010

Well, I was up till almost midnight last night, plowing enthusiastically through the Creating A Website book (by Matthew McDonald), after finally – hurrah! – dumping my “joomla” project and switching from Filezilla to WebCEO for FTP purposes. And I got the old anotherchance okanagan.com site back up and running (now hosted by Bluehost) – while I try to create a new look for the site, using Amaya as my editor. Adventures, adventures!

I therefore slept in till 8 am this morning. I haven’t slept in that late in ages. Well it is a long weekend, so way to celebrate.

I just spent the past hour working on, and submitting to, our pentictonwriters e-group (on yahoo groups). It’s related to the PWAP, aka Penticton Writers and Publishers group that meets monthly here in town. I started the egroup as a way for us to communicate, share our writing, give each other useful pointers and information related to writing. So far we have only 4 members, while the PWAP group meetings usually run a couple dozen attendees. Perhaps our low egroup membership is due to a lot of PWAP members not being frequent internet users. Also, of course, writers are busy people, especially as so many of them have to have a “day job” to support their slowly budding writing careers.

Sitting out in the sunshine on my front step… Computer says the temperature here in Penticton is 3 C… but it’s definitely a lot warmer than that here in our western exposure front yard, especially as there is no wind just now.

It was -3 C at 6 am, but by 7 am . . . → Read More: sunshine…. Pine Grove Camp…. website updates…]]> 1 April 2010

Sitting out in the sunshine on my front step… Computer says the temperature here in Penticton is 3 C… but it’s definitely a lot warmer than that here in our western exposure front yard, especially as there is no wind just now.

It was -3 C at 6 am, but by 7 am it was 0 C, and once the sum popped over the mountain top about 7:15, the temperature started rising – at least as long as one stood in direct sunlight. One of the guys at the outdoor Another Chance street ministry breakfast, who thinks he is pretty funny, stood right behind me as I was joyfully soaking up the sun – and he blocked it completely! It took me about 30 seconds to start feeling chilly. He sure laughed when I whirled round and ordered him to move out my sunshine!

After I got home, I checked my email, and there was a message in response to a question I’d asked – about Pine Grove Free Methodist Bible Camp in Winfield. The FM Church has leased the place out for the past 3 years, but still owns it. So the guy who wrote the email said he didn’t know anyone was still interested in family camp. Ha! Good grief! So I gave him a link to the facebook page for Friends of Pine Grove Camp – Winfield B.C. and assured him that there are certainly folks who miss it! I also cc’d the email to a couple of those folks. I’d love to see a camp – or even a reunion. So many great memories – like the ones I wrote about on my website.

…. Later: So I spent 5 hours today working on my Conversations, Reflections and Meditations website. I updated and improved my main page, including totally updating my bio information. And then of course I had to update it on all the other pages. What a lot of work. Really made me appreciate once again all the help my daughter gave me in setting up the site. Why not check out her huckleberries and bears site? Lots of interesting stuff!

Beautiful sunny morning at Another Chance street ministry! Lots of people out. Wonderful time together.

Back home, I spent a good chunk of the day listing sites (from Google) using my website keyword lists. What a lot of work! But I am really coming to understand how all this works. . . . → Read More: figuring out my “business”]]> March 31, 2010

Beautiful sunny morning at Another Chance street ministry! Lots of people out. Wonderful time together.

Back home, I spent a good chunk of the day listing sites (from Google) using my website keyword lists. What a lot of work! But I am really coming to understand how all this works. And I am finding lots of magazines, websites, etc, where I might be able to post/ publish/ sell some of my writing. I am also seeing what people are interested in reading, in terms of the areas of interest that I most often write about. So that’s a good thing too!

Awesome days!

After spending time on Saturday finishing reading the Query book, and starting reading through (and trying out the recommendations in) the Getting Noticed on Google (Ben Norman) book, I took Sunday easy! Hubby and I took a drive out Naramata way, exploring some side roads we’d never taken before, and . . . → Read More: Local exploration; Reel Injun; sketching, google keywords, new cupboard, old school… Renaissance woman!]]> March 30, 2010

Awesome days!

After spending time on Saturday finishing reading the Query book, and starting reading through (and trying out the recommendations in) the Getting Noticed on Google (Ben Norman) book, I took Sunday easy! Hubby and I took a drive out Naramata way, exploring some side roads we’d never taken before, and also took the back road on the west side of the Penticton airport, which was also new to us. People spend so much on vacations – and/or complain that “there is nothing to do” – but really there is so much to explore right in our own neighborhoods and back yards! Really enjoyed it!

Sunday evening we watched an amazing documentary on CBC TV (Passionate Eye series), called “Reel Injun.” It was an exploration of how North American natives have been portrayed on film over the last 120 years or so. Really, really interesting. Check it out.

Monday, I actually did a bit of sketching! I’ve been wanting to get back to it for a long time. I didn’t do a lot, but I am happy, and it is a start. I think that it is important to be creative in a variety of ways. I suspect that drawing, for example, will also inspire my literary muse!

Monday was very windy, raining, even hailing. Old man winter seems determined to blow through a few last times, even if it is officially spring. Since the weather was less than pleasant, I decided, after street gathering, to do some really focused work on website design. I continued working through the Google book. I signed up my sites on Google, and downloaded Web CEO. (When my brain got too tired, I watched a bit of Star Trek, and made an awesome bean salad!). I also listed keywords for my blog (this one!) – and went back through my recent postings, and put in actual links. I googled the keywords I’d listed, and checked out top sites using those keywords, plus the other keywords (and descriptions and titles) they use in the head of their source pages.

Anyway, today, Tuesday, we had our street coffee time outside, as the building we borrow will be in use the rest of the week (it’s a church, and they have daily Easter week activities). Thankfully, the sun was shining, even if a bit chilly.

Back home, I worked on key words for my main website. Then Pastor P and K from the street ministry came by with their truck, and brought me an amazing cupboard I found at Staples. It is exactly what I’ve been longing for. The original price was $289 but it was the last one, the floor model, so they marked it down to $99 and then they gave me an extra 25% off – so it was only $75! Beautiful! Thank You, Lord! It was truly an answer to prayer. It will be a big help for my own business, and also for the business end of Another Chance street ministry, which I am doing admin stuff for.

In the afternoon, I went up the valley to my old home town, and attended the 60th anniversary “Blast from the Past” celebration of the high school I attended. It was Rutland High School in my day, but now is a Middle School. It was great to meet old friends I haven’t seen since high school, and look at the displays… and walk the halls. The school really hasn’t changed much, except that it seems smaller and darker, somehow… and a lot more tired!

This evening, I worked on finding Google links to keywords for my website, Conversations, Reflections & Meditations . It is pretty complicated. I have a lot of topics, reflecting a number of my “passions” over the years. So many topics – it really does reflect me… but that doesn’t seem to necessarily be a good thing nowadays. Everybody wants an expert in some niche area. Nobody wants a “Renaissance man/woman” anymore, it seems. But what kind of boring lives and people does that potentially create?

Thanks again for the cupboard, Father!

I’ve been looking through my website, especially the prayers and meditations I wrote a few years back. Worth re-reading, at least for myself, I think! And I looked through a bind of old “church newsletters” for which I wrote articles… I found the “Easter” one that I thought I had totally lost, . . . → Read More: writing, Olympic flame, website and blog updates]]> January 25, 2010

I’ve been looking through my website, especially the prayers and meditations I wrote a few years back. Worth re-reading, at least for myself, I think! And I looked through a bind of old “church newsletters” for which I wrote articles… I found the “Easter” one that I thought I had totally lost, so now I have copied it into its place on my site.

Wondering about picking out favorite poems, prayers, articles… and self-publishing?? Papa???

Yeehaw! I went down to the mailbox to check the mail – and I got there just in time to watch the Olympic flame jogging by!

BTW….

Haven’t been writing much for this blog just lately… but been doing lots of updating on my website and the my church journey blog.