silensy

Okay, so I quit my job in July. And it's now been just over a month of unemployment and not a whole lot of words added to the novel that is that reason I quit my job.

Goals, though, they're not met by arbitrarily just setting them. You have to break them down into reasonable chunks.

I'm not looking to hit NaNo pace. 2000 words a day is doable but needlessly difficult when you're stuck. I don't really like word counts at all.

Instead I want to do something more like a don't break the chain kind of thing. Writing every day, for at least an hour (at LEAST). Even if I end up killing those words later because they suck.

What sort of writing techniques do you use to keep yourself motivated?

When you see this, quote Leo McGarry

"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.

"A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

"Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on

"Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

I have a huge and wonderfully close family but more than that, I truly believe that we live in an era when it really is about the family we make for ourselves. The people that we choose, the ones who come through, the ones we call in the middle of the night.

This year has been hard. It's been the next thing to impossible. Christmas shopping is a constant reminder that there's one less gift to buy. I see so many things that would be perfect for Victoria and it's always just a few seconds before I remember why I don't have anything for her yet.

I don't have any nutshell revelations to follow that up. My feelings are still messy and unresolved. There's no movie-style inspiring narrative that results or even a Hallmark 'go hug your family'.

I'm grateful for the family I have - the one I was born to and the one I've been fortunate enough to build. That's got to be enough.

Merry Christmas, for those who celebrate. Love and Peace to you all.

More Joy

1. I do plan to get this going again. I have a small seed fund for it. What I'm wondering-- would people still want to participate if that money went to a predetermined charity instead of back into their pockets? Last year's total would have donated more than $2000 to a cause. Thoughts?

2. I have at least two people who never gave me a place to send their More Joy money. If that's you, please tell me what to do with your money.

Birthday reminder

As is traditional, I'm telling you now that my birthday is on the 10th. This is your only reminder. Spare me the cries later of "but you never told us!" I have. Right now.

Wishlists

This is actually unrelated to the above item. I just needed to give myself a reminder that I need to prioritize my list of wants so that I can budget for them. There was a prioritization app out there somewhere that I wish I could find again. It was cool.

Food

I'm glad my roommate is grocery shopping today. We're out of, like, everything.

Tags

When did LJ put that "select tags" link on their update page? I has a fond!

...I feel so much better now.

It's all gone, like someone stopped pounding me in the head with a hammer. I didn't even know the hammer was there. Why did I let someone pound me in a hammer all that time? What in hell was I thinking? Why did I think any of that made sense?

Once you're out of the system, it makes no sense at all. None of the carrots they dangled before you mean anything, and you start to truly comprehend just how much stress you were under. You see things you never would have believed while you were in the system. And the relief is greater than you ever could have imagined while you were enmeshed.

From How to keep someone with you forever by Issendai

The worst part of these systems, I think, is that you can fall into them over and over again. It's the same reason you don't remember how much falling and breaking your arm hurt when you were 8. You'd never get on a bike again if you did.

Hmm.

I have this plot in my head which involves taking this Lorna and making her this Lorna. Hair color and all.

Yeah, it involves Zala. Because associating with your morally very dark gray sister makes you do wacky things like indulge in hairdye.

Edit: Alan, this may be a job for Jamie and Kitty as well.

Current Mood: clever

Once again, quoting Seth Godin for later pondering and perhaps posting.

Seth says:

We no longer care what you say.

We care a great deal about what you do.

If you charge for hand raking but use a leaf blower when the client isn't home
If you sneak into an exercise class because you were on the wait list and it isn't fair cause you never get a bike
If you snicker behind the boss's back
If you don't pay attention in meetings
If you argue with a customer instead of delighting them
If you copy work and pass it off as your own
If you shade the truth a little
If you lobby to preserve the unsustainable status quo
If you network to get, not to give
If you do as little as you can get away with

...then we already know who you are.

Which means it's time for another open post from the world of the Finance filter. The first part is important. The second is philosophical.

Taxes are due to be filed on the 15th. While you're thinking about that, this is a great time to review your withholding so grab your most recent paystub and head over to the IRS Withholding Calculator to be sure you're not giving too much of your money to the government as a free loan (or, conversely, leaving yourself short next year.) Go on. I'll wait.

Done? Okay, good. Part two.

Get Rich Slowly, which you all know I love, reviewed a old PF book today. I haven't read it, so I can't really offer an opinion (er, the book, I read the review) but I wanted to pull out something that J.D. highlighted (emphasis mine):

Mundis notes that many compulsive debtors and problem debtors often make excuses for their choices. They treat debt as if it were unavoidable. But he makes it clear: yours is not a special case.

It echoes back to Special Pleading and it's what keeps you (and me) in trouble. The bag of excuses that everyone carries around with himself each and every day sure comes in handy: "Should I buy these books? I'm over my budget." "[Bag of excuses says: But they're on sale.]" Bing! New books. We're so accustomed to using our bag of excuses that we do it when there's no reason to: "Do you want to watch a movie?" "No, [Bag of excuses says: I have to call my mom]. You have fun though." Why not just say no? Because that's not what we do.

Personal finance, like anything else, is not a matter of just doing the rational thing. If the only thing you needed to do in order to make money was spend less than you earn, there would be no financial crisis. There'd be no debt. Getting a grasp on your finances is a matter of changing your attitudes, not just your habits.

And honestly, it's just as poisonous to panic about debt as it is to ignore it. Paralyzing yourself with the enormity of the task (which is what I do all the time) just means that you're not making progress AND you're having a heart attack about it.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Entries tagged with thinky thoughts

...

Family and other drugs

Many things related to stuff

When the fever breaks

Brain teaser

What you say, what you do and who you are

[Finance] April is Financial Literacy Month

Profile

December 2011

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags