Thursday, July 19, 2007

Day 5: Just a Day

I worked at Taft in the morning and got nothing done. My plan was to read filemaker, but it is too busy to read something like that there. So I didn't really do anything.

After Taft, I worked on my wikis. My home wiki is lovefaithswing.atwiki.com. I managed to create a Saija and Marion's Ledge Wiki too for me to work in. I filled in the Saija one, but didn't do the one for Marion's Ledge.

I wasn't feeling too snazy and so i skipped my Jung center class and ate something and watched a re-run of House. It was one of my favorite episodes. Here is a quote:

House: Are you going to base your whole life on who you go stuck in a room with?
Girl: No, I'm going to base this moment on who I got stuck in a room with.
That's what life is, it's a series of rooms. And who we get stuck in those rooms with add up to what our lives are.
I like that. :-) I am not sure it is inspirational, but it is very philosophical and I like it.

I did go to Tango and FAME, both I was a little out of it for. I was having a really bad dancing day at FAME. I just couldn't dance well with anyone. But the music was good and I still like that place.

I went to bed late last night and had a series of nightmares, but I was so tired that I had to go back to sleep. I am not sure what was going on there.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Day 4: Wikimania!

I succeeded in getting up at 5:50 this morning without going back to sleep! yay! I meditated for that earth thing, and I had something of a panic attack. I couldn't breathe and my muscles got all tight. I don't know why.

I basically followed my day plan, although my evening routine was rushed and I just realized that I forgot to put out my clothes for tomorrow.

I spent most of the day working on my wiki. I added a faq page about myself, and put my goals on there too. let me know if there are any questions that you want me to answer. :-)

I also spent some time trying to figure out scripting in filemaker. But I did find a bunch of calendar filemaker examples, so it can be done. I may have to pay a bit for them though.

Tomorrow, I have taft in the morning. I'm going to take my computer, but not the filemaker book, so I'll probably work mainly on my wiki. But i'm also going to try to set up a marion's ledge/clover wiki too for Hank and I. That will help us see what comes next.

oh! and one final note: My clean sink was so pretty that it made me want to clean that toilet and floor next to it. :-)

Tomorrow is clean the vanity day. That should be easy. And I want to get boxes that fit on my shelves to hold stuff like purfume and meds. Another thing to add to wiki!

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Day 3: Habits and Saija

I spent last night starting my control journal. I have decided to do it in atwiki, which is the easiest and phone friendliest wiki I could find. So far on the flylady habits, I am picking out my clothes before bed, shining my sink, and getting dressed when I first get up. My next habit to build is to clean my bedroom floor first thing in the morning. I am going to do that tomorrow.

I really like the habit of shining my sink. It doesn't take long and fits right in with brushing my teeth and washing my face. I have a really pretty sink. And now the toilet is bugging me. It used to never bug me!

Most of my day was spent on Saija. I'll repeat that. I STARTED SAIJA!!!!!!!

I have spent so much time reading about programing and filemaker, but, except for that little menu version in c, I haven't spent any time on Saija. I ran into a lot of problems, but that is the fun part. It was a growing experience as I figure them out. I will post screen shots later. By the end of the day (after going over my problems with Hank), my design morphed into something I will actually succeed at using. (hopefully)

So my day tomorrow:
- get up, eat, get dressed
- clean bedroom floor
- program Saija!
- spend some time with my new wiki, putting in data.
- Cardio swing! (The highlight of my week)
- Brush teeth and shine sink
- Pick out clothes for next day.

2 Announcements
- Tomorrow morning at 6:11, there is a worldwide meditation on bettering the state of the earth. I'm gonna do it!
- This friday at Mixers and Elixirs, I am performing a swing routine to King Porter's Stomp with the newbie Hepcats. :-) Come watch!!

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Day 2: Goals

After writing yesterday's post (which got posted this morning), I sat down and began thinking about all of the things that I do that don't further a goal. These things are time wasters. I needed to sit down and write out some goals that my actions need to reflect. These are the goals that I came up with:

  • Real Estate: Buy 20 units by the time I graduate that makes more then $50 per unit per month.
  • Have Marion's Ledge open by August 2012.
  • Program and release the 1st prototype of Saija by this coming Thanksgiving.
  • Release the first Marion's Clover product by Jan 09.
  • Have a Virtual Assistant Client paying me $40/hr to do lead management and other related tasks by this Christmas.
  • Get my Apartment Clean and build good eating and productivity habits in the next 90 days.
Some Notes About My Goals
The two main tasks involved with learning about real estate is going through Ken McElroy's book The ABC's of Real Estate Investing and joining LifeStyles Unlimited. Both of these teach investing to rent.

I need to sit down with Marion's Ledge and create a big chart of everything that we are doing that the steps that need to be taken. Then I will know what we need to do next.

I am ready to start prototyping Saija using Filemaker.

Hank and I are going to have a mini retreat for Marion's Clover where we do many of the activities from One Minute Millionaire and other Robert Allen books. This will help us get our thoughts straight on Marion's Clover stuff.

I am going to buy a book that teaches about Virtual Assisting and then I will create a business plan, cards, and a web site so that I can start looking for a client.

I found a web site called The Fly Lady that takes you step by step through cleaning your house. I am going to go through those steps to get my apartment clean and in order. I am also checking out Peter Walsh's books on organization. When it comes to habits, I found a habit tracker on Productivity501 that I will be using to help me build good eating and productivity habits. I also used electrical tape and a very small ziplock to make a nike+ipod pouch for my shoe to track my walks.
So Far...
I took 2 30 minute walks yesterday. This is when I learned that the nike+ipod does not work with kangaroos, so I made my electrical tape pouch. I am planning to walk to Rice tomorrow to try it out. Here is my electrical tape sensor pouch. It isn't pretty but it works!



I cleaned my sink, which it the first step in the Fly Lady's site for cleaning your house. Here is a picture:


I printed out the habit tracker and some VA info.

I didn't have too much work time today since I had a Cultural Field trip this morning and swing classes tonight. So that is pretty good for just a couple hours.

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Day 1: procrastination by curiosity

I noticed something about myself today. I am addicted to learning. And, I know that that isn't a bad thing completely, but the problem arises when my curiosity makes me not do the really important things.

I have read so many productivity books in my life, but I have never really applied any of them. I am now reading about all of these ways to become rich and they all sound really great, but I don't act. Despite my love for things that are moving and shaking, I don't normally move or shake myself. I am dead.

The moments in my life when I felt most alive were times when I was accomplishing something. Be it boxing food at the food bank or putting those initial folders together when I started working towards Marion's Ledge. I was doing something. Moving something.

This summer I wanted to move stuff. I wanted to complete the Marion's Ledge biz plan and some marketing things, but so far, I haven't done any of that. Instead, I have been reading a bunch of books. Yes, they are good books, but they are pointless unless I use them. I can't keep putting things off till after that next book. I will never do anything that way. If I really am going to retire by the time I am 30, I gotta get moving!!!

So today I am stopping and looking at what I am doing. I'm not going to stop reading but I am going to start acting. I am going to re work my to do list and spend the next couple days seeing how much I can get done off it. One item I am definitely going to do is start Saija. I will never do it unless I just start and learn as I go.

No more being lazy!!! It is time to achieve my goals!! And the first step is figuring out what really is a goal and what isn't. Let the work begin!

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Friday, July 13, 2007

Somethings gotta give

Ok. I think it is time for an update on my life. I haven't been blogging in a while due to a resolution to stay off of my computer as much as possible. Too much computer time and I start to get antsy. But I wanted to post, so I finally downloaded a blogger client for my phone called mo:blog. I can now update without breaking my computer resolution.

After a couple bad weeks at the beginning of summer which lead to a mini-breakdown when I thought that I lost my ankh necklace (which I later found), I finally dealt with what I was going through. It is so much better now.

New Beginnings

In the middle of June, I got two positive influences that made me stop and look around me and say "Somethings gotta give!" The first was Hank getting a job that required him to get up at 6:30 every morning. The second was having Cardio swing over at Derek's house.

At the beginning of Junior year (wow. I can't believe I'm a Senior!), I was getting up early every day and really enjoying it. But I let that slide. When this summer hit, I was regularly dragging myself out of bed at noon. I lost half the day to sleep. But now that Hank is getting up early, I have been getting up at the same time. The first day was really successful. I got up, cleaned up, worked some, took a walk, meditated at Rothco, read at Bookstop, and ended up at teahouse. Very cool.

Recently I have had varying degrees of success. I'm pretty good at getting up at 6:30. It's the staying up that I have problems with. If I am not doing something active, engaging, or involving food (which I'll get to in a bit), I fall back to sleep.

Another side effect of my mini burnout/breakdown is a burnout with swing. After Lindyfest and spraining my ankle, I lost a lot of my groove with swing. My follow got much worse and I tightened up.This was very noticeable in class with Ryan. I just wasn't as good. And it hurt to do Charleston. After rsds classes ended, I was so frustrated by swing that I just quit. I stopped doing anything swing except taft and an occasional continental. It was just too emotionally trying. And on top of all that, being around large number of people was trying. Specially when I didn't want to be around some of them.

But enter cardio. Cardio is great. A limited number of people, the ability to dance really bad without anyone looking at me with that "What happened?" expression that I was getting from the really good dancers. I was free to suck. That feels good. I slowly built my confedence back up. But it was going to A&M to dance that got me back into swing. I was completely comfortable there. Good people, Good music, Good times!! All of the stress was gone. I had a blast!! (And as a side note, I got to drive Derek's Audi. It likes dulee power in a light tiny box. dude!)

After that, the dance bug caught me again. I'm back at Melody and now Fame has a Wednesday night dance!! The stress is almost completely gone. And when I feel it creeping in, I tell it to go away. Life rules!!

But with all of the things that have happened in the last incredible couple of weeks, I have some more things to change. But I am on the right path!

More Changes to Come!

My House
The first thing that needs changing is also influenced by cardio, specifically that we are meeting at Derek's house. Derek's house is amazingly clean and clear. It's pretty and it makes me look around at the dump that I call home and wish that I lived in a pretty house. but that isn't gonna happen till I get rid of stuff. The debate is still out about whether Derek or I have more stuff. But it is close enough that there is a debate. Derek has a 3 story condo. I have a 600 sq ft one bedroom apartment. There is something wrong with this picture. To get my living space clean, I have 2 options. Get a bigger apartment (which isn't gonna happen on my budget) or get rid of stuff.

Merlin Mann of 43Folders was talking about a book called It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh. It addresses this very topic. I put a hold on it in the library. That should help. But I have to get over my obsessive hoarding tendencies.

Speaking of checking out books, I recently discovered the library (FRee INfo!!) and have been reading almost full time recently. This is a good thing except that I am neglecting work things. but more on that later.

Food
The next thing on my too tackle list is food. I have a big problem with food. I don't eat enough good food. This stems partly from lack of money, partly from lack of a kitchen, and partly from an unwillingness to buy perishable food.

Food sucks. I buy food. Start eating it. It goes bad. I through half of it away. repeat cycle. So much of my money just gets thrown away with wasted food. And it is stressful to throw stuff away. I hate doing it. Talk about frustrating!

So I end up with a lot of frozen food and at times no food at home. By the time I get to where I'm going, I am weak from hunger. And bought out food is expensive so I try to stick to dollar menus or big portions that I can eat on for days. But if I'm not careful, that goes bad. Stupid food. This is something that I have no idea how to fix.

One thing that may help this is that Derek, Hank and I have decided to have cooking parties regularly at Derek's so that we eat good at least sometimes. And cooking is fun in a clean kitchen. :-)

But food is a struggle and will probably stay a struggle.

Money
This brings up money. I've written about money recently, but right now I'm struggling. I spent a little too much on my bunk bed (but I love my new bed) and I'm now playing catch up. My summer electricity bill will be crazy! And gas sucks money right out of my pocket. I would like to start putting money into stocks and saving up for my first real estate purchase. Hank and I are going to be real estate investment partners through our company Marion's Clover. The little bit of residual income from investments should help me not get into this situation again.

Also, I found yesterday what my dream job is. I want to be a virtual personal assistant. I would make around $40 an hour and therefore would not have to work very much per week. 10 hours a week would give me about $1600 per month!! dude! And even with car and health payments, I'd have some extra money and plenty of free time. No corporate crap para mi! And if I decided to go full time, I'd be very close to 6 digits. All from my own house and my own computer using my own talents. I am going to specialize in Lead management in the mortgage/financial broker industry. I had an internship in Highschool where I did a similar job, so I have experience. :-) It will be a good job while I am investing in Real Estate and building up my residual income.

Work
My last recent obsession is a program idea called Saija. It is a productivity tool for people who hate productivity tools. It started with my paper productivity system that I decided would be very useful automated. It is like GTD with steroids.

The problem is I do not know how to program and there are so many options out there. Do I learn PHP? cocoa? filemaker? applescript? AJAX? Ruby? ahhhh! My nose has been spent in too many programming books lately. I think I have decided to focus on filemaker since that will be the easiest way to prototype the program. I'd love for it to be an AJAX program in the end. Any AJAX programmers out there want to help me??? :-D

So saija, real estate and marion's ledge are my 3 main things happening work wise.

So, Can I change?
My goal is to get my life straight. I was reading this blog by JP DeFillippo who is trying to change his life in 90 days. It is inspiring so I am going to try to do something like it. It will be cut in half by my trip to Oregon and then school starts, but I'll try to document what I do. My first action will be to set up the nike+ipod thing to work with my kangaroos. I am trying to walk or bus everywhere I go, so that will help me keep track of how far I walk.

This is the first day of the rest of my life. :-)

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Test Post

I just installed a blog client on my phone. Let's see if this works.

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

laughing burns calories ;-)

I know I don't post much any more. Sorry about that. But here are some things that made me laugh that I wanted to share.

Two Chickens:




If you liked these, check out the rest of them at Savage Chickens!

- One Ironic Dummy:


- And One Laughable Onion:

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