April 2019 Daily Steppin'

[Elaine Glimme]

Happy steppin' Please join us. Commit to taking steps towards your goal. How many steps? That's up to you. We'll cheer you on.

Happy April Fools Day. And in honor of this day:

A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends. Arabian Proverb

A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke-and that the joke is oneself.
Clifton Paul Fadiman

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Baltasar

If you have anything important to tell me, tell me tomorrow. Today, I won't believe you.

My friend thinks he's smart. He said onions are the only food that can make you cry. I threw a coconut in his face.

Take all the fools out of this world, and there wouldn't be any fun living in it - or any profit. Josh Billings

Even the gods love jokes. Plato

[Elaine Glimme]

I started Nanowrimo today. On track with 144 minutes.

[Lynx]

Hi steppers,

Thx Elaine for getting this month up and rolling.

I'm reasonably intact after my trip to Portland, OR for the Assn of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. Ever gone, Elaine? Its jammed packed with their sanctioned panels and readings, plus everyone who can snag a space holds their own readings. Running from 9 am to nearly 10 pm (sans the dancing till midnight) for three days. We began a day early with travel and my partner's reading in a crowded tiny bookstore.

The whispered messages of the conference are "you're permitted. You are on the right path, your own."

Offers for work and other things continue to come in. Declined to respond to an urgent plea for a step=in facilitator. Accepted, after some reflection, to return to a volunteer panel reviewing local housing development (people-first focused) grant applications. And a client I spent over a month with last year about this time asked if I'd facilitate a retreat in June. I said yes.

I'm on lots of lists with event calendars and things to do. Find I'm ignoring them for the time being.

And for productivity and to give myself a reward for the past two years of hard work, I bought a 2018 Ipad Pro 12.9. Got it at a Best Buy on the way out of Oregon (no sales tax, saves $10%). Then refused the paid warranty (get 1 year via my VISA card, and the store may offer one if needed), and the sale clerk checked online to make sure we paid the lowest price due to BB's Lowest Price Guarantee. The ipad, keyboard, and apple pencil came to less that $1300.

Seems a lot, but I'm merrily typing away on my 2011 MacBook Air that has passed its service-life limit of 7 years. One of the motives for this ipad buy was that milestone. I've used this laptop very hard for several hours a day most days since I've gotten it. It's been packed about to meetings and on trips. I thought, I might get the latest Macbook Air, but since this one works fine still I switched to trying the ipad.

So far, luvving it,
Lynx

[Lynx]

Hi,

Got to counting the computer's I've owned.

Loved and Let go
4 Kaypro computer the size of pet crates & weighed 31#.
2 Macbook 160's
1 Performa 478
1 G4 Tower with rotating screen

Still own
1 Alphasmart (developers worked on Apple's Newton and left to do their own thing. Now extinct)
1 MacBook Air 2011
1 MacBook Pro 2017
1 iMac
1 ipad 12.9 2018
1 MacBook Air (2000?)
1 MacBook (2006?)

Total
15

Began this journey about 1979, let's say. So 40 years/14 computers = one every 32 months or so. Except for the iMac, Performa & G4 Tower, the rest have been some attempt at portable. Hm.

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, LYnx,

The writers weekend sounds awesome. I"ve done some writers' weekends, but I should do more. Maybe someday I'll meet you in person at one of them .

What do you do with all those computers? I have trouble keeping track of just one of them.

I visited my mother-in-law today. We wrote up her memoirs and self-published them into a book, The Kugleman Kronicles. It was a big hit, so we're starting a second - book? something? Today's work wasn't great, but I had fun. Hope she did too. I need to brush up on my writers prompts.

[Lynx]

Hi, i'd started drafting a response and hit the wrong button and poof, all gone. Here's what I still own and their purposes. Except for the Alphasmart (which recognizes Mac keyboard commands) everything is Mac OS or iOS. Makes life real easy because not much changes though the OS we've had them on has run from 7.5 to the 10.13 or 10.14.

1 Alphasmart (developers worked on Apple's Newton and left to do their own thing. Now extinct)
Light—about 2.75#. Simple wordprocessing with nothing fancy, so great for keeping near been when on a hot streak or needing to make notes while on the go.

1 MacBook Air 2011—my daily working machine. On it right now.

1 MacBook Pro 2017—partner's machine.

1 iMac—keeping for the big screen to watch seminars and longer youtube videos on.

1 ipad 12.9 2018—newest, has most advanced features currently of any Mac, light, brings in access to mobile apps other machines can't use.

1 MacBook Air (2000?) — has 1000s of document files written in Clarisworks/Appleworks. These files and applications are no longer "supported" by Apple. I still need them sometimes and a lot of my intellectual work was on these programs.

1 MacBook (2006?)—bought for $85 off a co-worker and left it at work for emergencies. Not much of mine on it now, so I'll sell or give it away when I have some moments to look at it.

Thanks for asking,
Lynx

[Lynx]

Attended the first meeting of a research study into group support last night. My partner is also in the study but seems to be in a different group. Seems I’m in the experimental group & she is in the control group. First of six straight weeks of this. I’ll keep posting.

Also, first msg here with my new iPad. It’s doing its job pretty well. Signed on for a class at the Apple Store on Sunday. I took classes when I bought my 2011 MacBook Air.

Up early and writing beckons, so ...
To the page.
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

I'm a big fan of group support. Which is why I'm still posting on the stepper thread. I'll be curious about your research project.

[Lynx]

Hi steppers,

Heard an interview with a prolific writer and one of the points he made—which paradoxically makes full sense—book in or plan for your distractions/procrastination, etc. A local playwright, given an overnight playwriting assignment, said she had to cram 4 weeks of procrastination into a few hours.

It's that back of the mind sorting out time. I'm using this post to distract myself from writing a contract/scope of work for my latest client. Yay! I think. I'll know after he sees my fees and if we can find a comfortable agreement.

I've gotten to thinking about billable hours again. I awoke knowing I needed to see the next 9 or 10 weeks at a continuous ribbon. This way I can protect critical days for other clients and count off days needed to process each step, etc. I began imagining the easiest way that could be done, while still barely awake.

I got up, stretched, thought about it some more. Still, nothing written or on any computer. Then I remembered I have set up an excel sheet that lists calendar dates in rows. This was the breakthrough. Took maybe 30 minutes to get it configured right with dates as column headers & another 10 or so to print out. So, if I were billing for this, would it be for 40 minutes or for 1 hr 40 min to account for the mental processing time? I barely thought of little else while mentally working out what to do.

Anyway, I'm pitching this project on a package-fee basis.

To the contract draft,
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

To the page! to the contract!

[Lynx]

hi steppers,

As I work for myself, weekends both free me in some ways from workweek expectations and bind in others. One bind is feeling that I have two days to get to usual weekend stuff like laundry, shopping, friends, fun. But that's false as I work for myself, from home, and can do any of that stuff at any time, and I do. Just there's that feeling.

And the other is I get to keep driving, not missing a day, on my client-billing work. Shh — I'm sneaking in work ... It's my little secret, don't tell anyone. This feeling blooms from all those other folks not expecting anything from me over the weekend because they care less what I'm doing—they're doing their own weekend stuff.

Another edge is using my energy well. I have now one last part to finish on a chapter. I also need to start editing a two-page update for a different client that I'll extend over 2, or maybe even 2.5 days as it's not due till Monday afternoon.

Finishing that chapter both uses and drains time and energy but also releases some back. Setting aside for the moment my third client that needs attention and the other big project that moves on molasses time.

Working problems—well just look at that!

I reread some of my posts from 2016. All about looking for work. And here I am, three years later and I'm challenged with getting it all done with new work coming in.

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

I was thinking the same thing, Lynx, I remember the old posts, and I was hoping that what you wrote about billable hours and projects for clients meant that you had money and assignments coming in. It seems that you do, in fact, have lots of work. So congrats on that. Here's to getting some time to yourself in the bargain.

I'm getting more work done with camp Nanowrimo for encouragement than I did before. I'm so close, and yet I'm not there. With fiction, the answer is probably out there - it may not be out there at all. There may not be an answer. And yet, if I can't find it, see it, write it, it doesn't exist. I have three XXX parts in my novel now. An XXX is a part in the novel that is bad, but I don't know how to fix it. Given that Is started with about 48 XXXs three is pretty good. I should say that as I edit, I keep finding places to add XXXs. At one time I was down to zero. And now I really want it to be finished. I want this very badly.

Ho hum.

To the closet to get dressed. (No double meaning implied.) Then, to the page.

[inspiresuccess]

Hi, Guys! Will come back and read soon. Elaine, did you finish the book???? Where do I read it? Inspire

[Lynx]

Hello Inspire,

Good to feel your presence again.

Today I'm dealing with my own crankiness when I'm super pressured. The pressure is the good kind, I guess. Many things are pinching in on me: onboarding a new client, daily steps drafting a report, politicking nuances to get my local Dear City government to act right by one of my clients, & keeping it together enough that I deceive my partner that I'm calmly handling all of this.

Truth is: I get cranky under mid-grade steady daily stress. Like now. The range of variance of anything that I expect to not pose a problem narrows a lot. Fur 'nstance — helping Sign. Other with her turbotax last night. It's late (twice she's asked for my help near one of my known time edges—the first time within a quarter hour of me needing to leave to go to a workshop, and last night right before I went to bed).

Alright, I put on a smile and we look at her questions. In the process she had papers scattered all over the place. One form she'd already entered, but on the paper 1099 she didn't make a note she had.

I said: take a pencil and make a note.
She: I'll do it later.
I: Please do it now, so you can know it's in & not have to remind yourself.
She: I'll do it later because you have only 15 minutes (a-hum ... & and why didn't you ask for help at 6:30, I thought).
I: Ten seconds to find a pencil & make a mark — ten … nine …
She: [looking about her desk] I can't find a pencil. And you only have 15 minutes.
I: Eight ... seven ... six ...
I: I'll extend it two minutes. Now you get 17 minutes. Five ...
She: [found a pencil] Found one. [marks the forms]
~
WTF? She asks for my help and then makes it hard on herself to accept it. It's get harder for me to keep offering it, now, and in the future. Notice she said "I had only 15 minutes" and didn't own up to at all to waiting to the boundary of my time. Geez!

I'm not 'doing' anything about this externally as in raising it with her. I did raise it the first time when she was asking for help and I'm on my way out the door. Never goes well as she has zero Mea Culpa genes. So now I wallow in my crankiness and wonder how to keep myself away from her on/off ask for help/refuse it pattern for the next 6 weeks.

Thanks for letting me rant. Feel refreshed.

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, Inspiresuccess, welcome back.

Lynx, taxes bring out the WTF in us all. I sympathize. You're trying to be rational and helpful - and rational is the only way to handle taxes. Your SO was probably either needing to rant or, more likely, was hoping that in 15 minutes you'd have her taxes completed and ready to sign. WTF??? I'm just guessing.

I sympathize. I HATE taxes. I'm always afraid that someone will show up at my door with handcuffs because i forgot to the declare the $35 dollars I got from a retirement fund. And in our marriage I'm the one who has to deal with all that, because Tom doesn't care whether the taxes are done or not. He loves filing extentions. When we got married, he was two years behind in his taxes. Tom's job is to find the 1099 for his Social Security and the 1099 from his teachers retirement fund. To make matters more interesting, Tom wanted us to use an accountant friend of a friend to do our taxes. So I got to send everything down to Corona -Southern California, and now I'm waiting to see if our paperwork will be done on time. Probably we'll have to sign electronically on April 16th at 10 pm and Tom has no working computer up at the lake. And we're taking a standard deduction this year. To be fair, he did say, just before I mailed everything to the accountant, that maybe we should just go H & R Block. (We still have some weird stuff.} And since I'd already told the accountant we wanted him, and had a couple of e-conversations, I didn't want to cancel on him. Okay, now I got my rant in.