November 2018 Daily Steppin'

[Elaine Glimme]

This is the world-famous stepper thread that you have just stepped into. Congratulations. You are a member of an elite group committed to taking a few steps every day to achieve your goal. Tell us about your goals. We'll cheer you on.

"Look closely. The beautiful may be small." - Immanuel Kent Thanks, Jason.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor E. Frankl Thanks, Lynx.

"

[Lynx]

Thanks Elaine for launching this month's thread.

I saw your comment about art appreciation. I fully agree that if you don't get it move on. Applies to everything, car design, movies, books, sports, etc.

Right now I'm interested in the Venn Diagram of Commerce, Art, Design, & Creativity. Raymond Loewy's maxim of Most Advanced Yet Acceptable (MAYA) might have uses all over the place. One of the things he did was lots of research. I think if I had a Loewy designed life I'd never ask "who designed this? Did they actually use it?"

For example, on the light rail here in Seattle some designed pieces that could be more advanced ... the back rack area needs to be turned 90 degrees so it's easier to use without knocking over a couple of people when the train is crowded. The bike area ... has a cute sign it holds two bikes ... no really. Either remove the sign or make it really hold two.

I see basic bike racks several times a week that simply don't work to lock a bike on. Did they even bring a bike and try it before they screwed it down?

Goals for November:
Wrapping up two consultancy gigs.
Hearing back on the several proposals i have out and deciding next steps.
Possible applying for a part-time gig that fits my skills (how cool is that!)
Relaxing more with music & art
Review a play or two.
I just found an eventbrite group addressing design for services. Hope to attend a meeting soon to see what they are about.

Lynx

[Lyndon]

November steps:

Write 2 hours/day Nanowrimo
Emit at least 2 writings a day to friendly people I’ve been neglecting.

Happy and embarrassed. Sorry to vanish – eventful several months, more Learning Experiences than expected, and time-warped.

Managed a good chunk of retirement transition. In June wrapped up my five-year “temporary” job and trained a good successor. On the last day of June had a commitment ceremony with Diane, and got diverse friends from various parts of our lives together. Some of them talked for hours to each other, sharing contact information. Also found we had been doing more good than we knew.

In July headed north with a very packed compact and a too-tired driver and too-tired passenger, who simultaneously went to sleep. All the humans and animals came through well! We found we had excellent air bags. We got bonus evidence of how generous a friend-in-need a comfy friend was. We got a new car, and after a limbo of waiting for final paperwork, headed north some weeks after starting.

Got to Washington state in time for my mother’s 88th birthday. She is having more fun than most 88-year-olds, but also is going to need more help than she realizes.

Ended up in Yakima, with an odd but amusing lodging for about one fourth what it would have been in Los Angeles.

Got library card, voter registration, state-aided insurance, driver’s license. Getting library card first surprises no one who knows me.

This should be continued in installments. The “embarrassed” is getting so out of touch with people. We both managed to forget the birthday of a friend since the 1980’s that I met Diane through …

I look forward to writing up happy distractions, and seeing what you’ve been discovering.

[k8k8]

very sorry for the following newb question; how do i do this? post goal and then step each day?

[Lyndon]

k8k8 -- We're all new sometime. Welcome.

This is a mutual encouragement group, and is encouraging.

It can be monthly goals, and steps to them. I have had a tendency to make too big, complicated goals, and now trying to pick steps I'll actually do.

I also learn a varied variety of stuff from others interests.

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, Lyndon, welcome back.

If you're doing Nanowrimo, can I tap you as a buddy?

Hi, K8K8, Lyndon, pretty much answered your question. There are no rules here, except kindness and good manners. We support each other. You can post whatever is helpful to you. This can be a concrete goal, or several concrete goals. They can be serious or trivial. We usually break a big goal up into small steps. For example, "write a novel" is pretty overwhelming, but "go to a coffee shop and write a two-paragraph description of a character there" is an easy first step.

You can post anything. Sometimes I post a list of things that are not related to my goal (like do the laundry) but they're things that I HAVE to get done. And sometimes I just post how I'm doing or what has happened during the past few days.

The Nanowrimo that Lyndon and I are referring to is a writing challenge to write 50,000 words in November. That's 1667 words per day which is a LOT. There's a Nanowrimo website that encourages us and keeps track of our progress. Note - they don't have to be 50,000 good words. They just have to be words.

Also, it is perfectly okay to rant and complain if bad things happen. And it's okay to just hang out for a bit, change goals if your goal isn't working for you. In other words it's perfectly okay to be a normal human being.

For me for November, my goals are to work on Nanowrimo (I'm at 950 words as we speak. So I'm a bit behind.) I want to get query letters out to some agents during November. Oh - success - I hope. I think I've finally figured out Weasel's ending. So my goals for the next week are:

Refine query letter. (this counts for Nanowrimo)
rough draft Weasel's ending (it's about 2000 words, and it counts for Nanowrimo done
And write 1667 words each day.

Note - these are pretty lofty goals, and I may only get part of them done during the next week, but getting a little bit done is better than getting nothing done.

[Lyndon]

Elaine – Buddy-tapping welcome! My screen name remains Typingpractice on Nanowrimo.

I'm also off to a slow start. At my current rate, Nanowrimo estimates that I'll finish on February 11th, 2019. I hope to pick up the pace some as the day goes on.

[Elaine Glimme]

3600 words. My brain doesn't want to kick into high gear.

Happy stepping, everyone.

[Lynx]

Howdy folks,

Two days post mid-terms and I'm beginning to relax my news ban. Just watched vid of a black woman in Atlanta win the long-time gerrrymandered seat Newt Gingrich held when he engineered this devolution that sent US democracy to the mat. Narrow, but a win. Outspoken gun control advocate after her 17 y.o was killed by a white man in Fla over loud music. Everybody, get a grip, and I don't mean on the handle of a gun.

Imagine what fun news I'll find next.
L

[Lynx]

Hi folks,

Always a dance with my time. Today got derailed for over an hour helping my partner deal with wordpress issues. Not solved. But, a couple of things I intended to do for myself I dropped off the list. Feeling a bit annoyed, though. One was take a walk and that got missed because of no time left after I let go of the wordpress hunt. And the other was to seed some template text in a theater review I'm doing tomorrow to save time after the show when the deadline looms.

I'm did read more around art criticism before the problems arose. Art, beauty, criticism, they're all in the minds of us beholders. The play is about the interplay of a pair of artists, and I'm a bit wistful that my research will be less urgent after I post the review.

A restore nap and I'll start my templates. I can make a mess cause I'll clean it up tomorrow.
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Personal stuff is winding down, and I'm having a few good writing days. I like the ending I'm working on for Weasel, except I''m worried that it's not realistic. I'll have to think about how to make it believable.

By the end of this week, I will have gone to five memorials in one month. Jeez! None of the deceased were close, close, close. They were friends, a relative on my husband's side, and acquaintances - but still! One of the memorials is for my boss at haz mat who was the best boss I've ever had.

[Lynx]

Hi folks,

E. — memorials always sober me up when I have to put them on my todo list. Five is a lot. It's also sad to lose the best boss you've experienced. You comment on that job a lot so we know it's a reference experience for you.

Almost at the last moment my Sunday organized itself. I went to a great dinner presentation in the historic (as in gentrified to "but no longer)" Black community. Listened to an interview with one of our local stellar black artists. She's a director and it was good for me to hear more background on how that works.

Following that I spent to several hours enjoying music and spoken word at a nonprofit that supports artists for their 25th year celebration of one of their programs. Great variety, and all the artists were working on or released CDs with their help. A few folks I knew, even.

Today, I'm settling in for a wait for the hot water heater folks to come replace our machine. Now deep into the great maw of capitalism. 1. unit with installation has almost doubled in 15 years. 2. It's more expensive to get something with a lower capacity. We have a 50 gallon machine and really only need a 30 gallon one. The mass produced 50-gallon one is cheaper because the 30 gallon is almost custom item. Or so they told me. 3. Due to requirement changes the new machine is bigger, but only in height so it should fit in the snug corner of our closet it lives in now.

We'll soon find out,
L

[Elaine Glimme]

That dinner and music sound amazing. I'm glad you got to go. Me - same old stuff. I had two good writing days. quality and quantity. That's rare. On a more mundane note, I got an e mail from my health care that I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday at 7;30 am. I am very sure I didn't make that appointment, as I would have to be dying to ask for a 7:30. And I'm not dying - at least not in the immediate future - that I know of. No biggie, I'll just call and cancel.

I hope I have a few more good writing days. I'm really close to finishing the book.

[Elaine Glimme]

Big success. I have a draft of Weasel''s ending. And most of it is better than a draft. (the very end isn't) I was looking at some of my old Nanowrimo submissions. How horrible they were. That's really heartening, because they were either tossed or turned into something really good. Today I'm going to work on the synopsis. I also have the query letter to do, but that's looking terrible, and I'm having trouble turning it into anything better.

I wish I could make wonderful things without actually doing the work.

Also, I got the first draft of my synopsis written.

As someone very wise once said, "to the page."

[Lynx]

Hi folks,

Elaine, thanks for the shout out! Successes are always worth celebrating. And then back to the rest of our work, or lives.

Big success. I have a draft of Weasel''s ending. And most of it is better than a draft.…
I wish I could make wonderful things without actually doing the work.

Had to laugh!

I had 2, count em, TWO mega successes today. First, a resolution passed a city council committee to transfer property to a nonprofit I've been helping to get the city to transfer property to. Not the finish line yet, but still, a great moment.

And, drum roll, a major proposal to the county from an ad hoc team of 4 consultants (Consultants for Organizational Resilience and Equity — CORE) won the grant! We proposed $250,000 for a year, so it'll be interesting to see what the budget in reality looks like.

A toast to our successes,
Lynx