Category — Life

I've been messing around trying to get my stuff together so that I have no distractions so I can settle down and get stuff done. Previously I've written about setting up a Control Journal a la FlyLady and various bits I've been trying to get my stuff in order and to keep myself from contanstly thinking of what I have to do when I would rather do the stuff and spend my brainpower on being a better mother, wife, daughter and writer. So I've decided to write down my toolkit that I've settled into.

• Control Journal
  • Routines-Morning, Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Evening, Before Bed and Weekly
  • Menus and Master Pantry, Household and Grocery Shopping Lists
  • Household Information: Passwords/User Names, Insurance Information, Phone List, Medical Information and Doctor's numbers.
• EssentialPIM Pro-calendar, to-dos, basic notes and contacts-in the middle of adding family address information to EPIM
• Evernote-notes, quotes, clippings, recipes from the 'Net
• GMail
• FireFox with 43 Extensions/6 Themes
  • Adblock 0.5.3.042
  • Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.4
  • Always Remember Password 0.4
  • BBCode 0.4.1.3
  • Blogger Web Comments 1.3
  • Bookmark Backup 0.4.1
  • Bookmark Duplicate Detector 0.5.0
  • Bookmarks LinkChecker 0.6.8.2
  • BugMeNot 1.3
  • Colorful Tabs 1.4
  • Context Search 0.2.1
  • Copy Plain Text 0.3.2
  • CustomizeGoogle 0.49
  • CuteMenus 2 1.0
  • del.icio.us 1.1
  • Disable Targets For Downloads 1.0.1
  • DOM Inspector 1.8.0.4
  • Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1
  • DownThemAll! 0.9.9.5.1
  • EverNote Web Clipper 1.0.0.42
  • Fasterfox 1.0.3
  • File Title 1.1
  • Forecastfox 0.9.2
  • FoxyTunes 1.2.5
  • Google Notebook 1.0.0.5
  • Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.0.20060606W
  • Greasemonkey 0.6.4
  • IE View 1.2.7
  • Image Toolbar 0.6.3
  • Linky 2.7.1
  • LiveLines 0.4.5
  • MediaPlayerConnectivity 0.6.3
  • MR Tech Local Install 5.0.4
  • Performancing 1.2
  • Sage 1.3.6
  • ScrapBook 1.0.6
  • SecurePassword Generator 0.5.3
  • Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.8.9
  • Talkback 1.5.0.4
  • TimeTracker 1.1.2
  • undoclosetab 20051204
  • UnPlug 1.3.1
  • WebmailCompose 0.6.6
  • Abstract PC 1.0
  • AquaFox 1.1.01
  • Aquatint 1.6.6
  • BlackJapan 1.15
  • Firefox (default)
  • iCandy Junior 2.0.5
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Update 7
  • Microsoft® DRM
  • Mozilla Default Plug-in
  • QuickTime Plug-in 7.1
  • RealPlayer Version Plugin
  • RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
  • Shockwave Flash
  • VLC multimedia plugin
  • Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
• Del.icio.us/Furl/Simpy for bookmarking and saving copies
• Bloglines-in the middle of cleaning up feeds and will mirror Omea
• Omea Reader-RSS/Bookmarks/Usenet-very handy especially with a Wordpress blog posting plugin-it was very slow on my computer and took FOREVER to close-now using Sage and Performancing.
• iTunes-Music
• Picasa-Photo Organizing and basic editing
• Media Player Classic-plays pretty much any video/music format when installed with K-Lite Codec Pack
• VLC Client-catches whatever MPC doesn't play
• Trillian Basic 3-IM-pretty much all my services except AIM which I haven't used since 2000
• Money 2006 Deluxe-right now using a trial version, will pick up full version soon

Or in my case, a hubby who likes XBOX Live and no way to share the cable internet. Well, in times of no access, I usually messed around with my files, either reading fics I've archived on my hard drive or in tidying up my bookmarks. I've made some headway in plotting out a book I'll like to write and even corralled the plot bunnies for a second book.  And I've been playing around taking photos of clouds and other things, trying to learn how to take decent and pretty digital pictures.

Aside from getting some small things from my dad's house and moving our furniture into storage, our move is finished. It seems harder to unpack since I like the feeling of not having a lot of stuff out. I have the computer set up in a kitchen nook and it is serving as my office. I have my papers in reach and I'll be working on them in the next week or so.

Found an AWESOME fic-called The Phoenix Blade: Time Lapse by Fenikkusuken. I really like her characterization of Kagome as this kickass warrior who is more than capable of managing InuYasha and any demon or person who gets between her and her loved ones. Not to mention she is a lot more mature in this fic, being 20 instead of 15. InuYasha seems to know what he wants which is rather refreshing. Its a monster of a fic-50 chapters and almost 350,000 words so far, but well worth the time.

I've opened up a DeviantART account and I'll be posting some of my photos and drawings when I get them scanned.

I wish I could shoot some people. I swear. I have to move again since my dad and step mom apparently made up and well she's moving back in. So I and my husband have to find a new place to live. Plus Daddy dearest is finally redoing the flooring in the house and the guy is coming by on Monday to do an estimate. I was told I had to have the house cleaned and the carpets shampooed by Sunday. Heaven forbid that the guy who is replacing the dang carpet actually sees how bad it looks
after 15 years of y'know PEOPLE living there. Jeeze. I don't
appreciate being told to clean the house plus being told I have to move out pretty much in about a week  Ticks me off. So I have to make arrangements soon to transfer the satellite bill over to Daddy's account plus have all our mail rerouted. I'll probably go ahead and get a mailbox at the post office so I can have one place for my mail. Not to mention finding a place to store our stuff again, getting rid of a couch and love seat and trying not to commit mayhem. I need some chocolate now. :'(

Testing out the blog via email

I've been rather busy the last couple of weeks. Started back to reading fanfic again plus playing Start Ocean Till The End of Time (I have a serious crush on Albel Nox) and planning out a story/book plus having some ideas for some fanfic of my own. I also got the Fruits Basket series boxset and watched it twice already. I really love Fruits Basket and perhaps they make another season taking into consideration the latest information from the manga.
The voices kill me though, especially Ayame's English voice-so fruity yet posh at the same time, and Kyo's English voice made me roll on the floor the first time I heard him speak.
I think the Abbey will most likely undergo a bit of a change of focus to anime, fanfic, writing, sci-fi, fantasy and gaming with a bit of GTD and organization and a bit of politics for flavor, rather than trying to be a politics blog with just a bit of what I like. I don't have the time to constantly be on the lookout for the shenanigans of those in power and I'm tired of always being upset and outraged. It is bad for my health, so I may just do a bit of commenting on various things that draw my interest instead of concentrating on the topic.

Why is it that if one doesn't want to get a degree in something you have a 'career' in, you are being lazy? I'm heading back to school this fall to finish my Bachelor's and I'm thinking about majoring in Philosophy/Asian Studies(Japanese) or Classical Civilization. I told my husband and he was why not do something you can have a career in?
I have a career already, I'm a mommy. The degree is the point of me going back, and if I take a couple of computer certification classes, I can have a nice job anyways.

[Listening to: Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm - ANThology (3:42)]

I had a week's vacation from the Internet and I was pleasantly surprised that yes one CAN live with out the net. I read Charlie Stross's Accelerando and I should finish it tonight. Gave me lots to think about and I'll write some more when I finish it.
I was sick last Tuesday and it was a lovely stomach flu. I had the work-vomiting, diarrhea and fever and achy muscles. When I started feeling better, I was shocked at all the bloody STUFF that seemingly has accumulated, so I'm planning on doing a massive decluttering soon.
I came back to 1600 emails in my GMail account and am in the middle of clearing the inbox. I don't want to think about my bloglines inbox (checks….58586 new feed items…..passes out. I have got too many feeds)

Diaper Genie - Babies without diapers? No thanks. By Emily Bazelon

I'm interested in EC myself and I practice AP or attachment parenting. My daughter co-slept with us from about 6 months till about 3.5 when she wanted her own bed. The next baby I'm looking into trying EC or elimination communication or using cloth as I have no issues with laundry.

I had issues with her tone like people who do EC or AP are freaks for you know actually paying attention to your child. I think children aren't to be kept in one place and only noticed at meals and when they did something wrong, but they aren't like stuffed animals to be accessories or proof of success or something.

It does boil down to choices and all parents should be supportive-not condoning or condeming but saying "I may not agree with your choice , but if it works for your family and situation, I'll support and defend your decisions"

I've been a bad blogger. Oh well. The Internet isn't very fun on dialup. I can't promise to be very regular but hopefully that will change by the end of the year. I have a bit of sad news and good news today.

First the good news, my grandmother got married again. It was very sweet, he thought h was getting a birthday party, instead my new grandfather got a wedding. The NBC channel had it on the news at 5.

The sad news is my dad's dog, Nelly, died. They went to the lake for a bit of swimming and she went for a bottle thyrown into the lake and didn't come back up. She was a 8 year old black Lab and was very sweet. I think she had a heart attack as she was rather portly due to arthritis. My dad and I buried her in the back yard. Dad is taking it very hard, since my stepmother and my sister left him in April and my stepmother filed for divorce in May.

I've been busy trying to get myself better organized. I've started work on my control journal and card file. I've also been messing around on my computer, getting it the way I want. Le sigh. I recently had trouble in Media Player-it would play songs, but no sound. Royally sucked. I installed a bunch of codecs, uninstalled iTunes, etc. I have no idea what I did, but it started working again. I had burned all my itunes music to CD and ripped them in Media Player as MP3s @ 320Kbps which makes them sound really nice. I also listed CDs we own so I can replace them as a lot of them are scratched up.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and I'm planning out some things I can do with this blog in particular, which ties into my organizational push-I want my basics in a routine so I can concentrate on my novel writing, my self-education, my daughter and my husband without worrying about the state of my house.

(control journal-see FlyLady)
(card file- see Cardfile Central)

[Listening to: Creep - TLC - CrazySexyCool (04:26)]