New Year's Resolutions

[neadods]

It's not technically new year yet but I've got a little bit of breathing time right now so...

I failed at both new year's resolutions for 2010. And, as I've learned before, not posting a monthly and/or weekly roundup means that sooner or later I don't have anything to discuss.

So next year, I'm going back to my original model: I've written up a big list of what I want to get done in 2011 from the large (redo living room) to the tiny (the wash cloths I want to knit to fill Mother's 2011 Christmas stocking). Each month that will be reposted, with whatever I've done crossed out. There may be weekly posts too.

I know that this isn't of interest to a lot of people, but it keeps me on track and to my surprise, there are some of y'all who actually read it. So that's what I'm going to do - under cut, of course!


HOUSEHOLD
BATHROOM
- finish decorative paint job
- attach drawer pulls
- obtain and hang stained glass over window
- decorative work, ledge

HALLWAY
- repaint center & back hallway
- reorganize back hall closet
- pull up carpet & replace/refinish with hard flooring

LIVING ROOM
- declutter
- clear
- repaint
- pull up carpet & replace with hard flooring
- new covers for sofa & chair to match new paint job
- reorganize built-in shelves and furniture both sides fireplace
- make permanent home for desktop computer

LIBRARY
- go through and purge book collection
- remove mismatched bookshelves
- create matching bookshelves
- pull up carpet and replace with hard flooring
- set up new bookshelves and reorganize remaining books
- hang art deco rose stained glass


KNITTING
MOTHER'S WASHCLOTHS
1) Broken Rib
2) Grandmother's Favorite
3) Stockinette w/seed border
4) Seed stitch
5) Double Moss
6) ?
7) ?
8) ?
9) Clover Tweed
10) Double Bump
11) Waffle Stitch
12) Christmas Lace

SCARF LEARN TO KNIT PROJECT
- test knit scarves 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
- create page format
- release instructions to beta knitters for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

OWN PROJECTS
- Watson Scarf


GENERAL
- kick off Sherlock Holmes meta discussion community
- take Spanish lessons (probably via Rosetta stone)
- stand at least 12 clinic shifts
- investigate hoop dance
- write 52 reviews
- learn basic classic guitar
- try 52 new recipes
- set up meal plan

There's a lot of knitting on here and my sprained finger refuses to heal. So I hope I can get it done without messing up my hand!

Comments

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

What is hoop dance?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's a form of dancing off the pounds that includes a weighted hula-hoop as part of the routine - basically you dance *and* swing the thing.

Which if nothing else, ought to teach you how to do a really good booty shake!

I've been intrigued ever since there was a free set of hoop dance and yoga classes downtown... but they were in Dupont Circle during the killing heat of summer and there was no way I was going to mush downtown to exercise in our summer heat and humidity.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I have two New Year's Resolutions.

1 - Find a new job!

2 - Finish one or both of my original fics!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

May you succeed at them both!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I particularly want a new job...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping you get it - fast!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Please!!

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

Stick with what you know. The list is great. And you can have the satisfaction of checking things off as well.

If you really wanted the constant demon on your back, print out your list and put it where you can see it on a daily basis.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

go through and purge book collection

I've been thinking about what to do with my books for a little bit. How do you purge--by interest? A set number of books you can keep based on space available? Do you pack up those you don't display, or donate? Do you care about the look of them (hardcover v mass-market paperback, etc)? Tell me all about it. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

To directly answer questions: I've got all the space I want (yay, big house!) But it's cluttered. I used to pack up books, but I've discovered that when I do that, they turn into Stuff What Needs Storage Space and I almost never look back at them. (I've just packed up the fanzines, but that's different.) I like books that fit in my hands (paperbacks, smaller hardbacks) and I don't like books with yellow pages, but in many cases there aren't a lot of format options: most romances and cozy mysteries only come in paperback, for instance.

As for how I decide what goes - the answer to that changes depending on when I'm doing the purge.

20 years after college, I dumped all the textbooks except the ones I enjoyed reading.

5 years after I stopped collecting YA mysteries, I packed up the collections and had them in the basement for a while. About 5-7 years after that, when I realized I hadn't touched them in all that time, I gave them all to the library.

This time, I need to move the bookshelves, so I'm going to go through every single shelf. The Book Thing is probably going to get:
- Books I reviewed and felt "meh" about and haven't reread since
- Books from past interests/hobbies, especially ones that can be easily gotten online or from a library.
- Series books when I really only liked the first book in the series (I'll keep the first, dump the rest.)
- Duplicates. I keep one or two classic favorites to travel with for those occasions when I can't use the ipod/ipad, but I think I have 5 copies of Pride and Prejudice in paper. I think I can narrow that down...
- Classic books with yellowing pages. I don't like reading really yellow fragile books, and most of the classics I can get a free electronic copy of.
- Books with really tiny print. (I've got a complete Holmes in paperback which is nicely portable, but you need a friggin' magnifying glass to read it!)
- Mystery reference books
- Old/out of date style guides


Books which stay without question: At least one copy of all the stuff I really love. Whatever can't be replaced (like old Trek paperbacks). Signed books by authors I like. Books I hope to sell (the Nancy Drew and the Harry Potter that are theoretically valuable.) Script collections. Fannish stuff.

Basically, books get the same emotion test that everything else does as I go through my junk... "Does it hurt to think of this not being in my life?" I'm hoping to cut the library down by 1/3 or 1/2.

The stuff that goes either goes to a library or The Book Thing of Baltimore, which is a charity. It's essentially a used bookstore, only all the books are free. They take donations, and anyone can take what they want. (I tend to treat it as a long-term loaning library.)

[fyrdrakken]

There's the Tasks function in my Blackberry that I use, which is great since there's a recurring option and I can set up weekly tasks to automatically reappear at the bottom of the list with a week-later due date when I check them off as done. I'm not always so good at looking at it until Sunday evening when I've got a whole set of things I do every week (and then it's at the last minute and I'm too busy to actually do anything but the standard Sunday night procedures), but at least the items on it have a tendency to get checked off eventually.

And yes -- the Sunday night knitting photos I post tend to be for my own benefit, to have that ongoing progress check so I can compare to previous weeks and see how far I've gotten, or how long it's been since I did any work on a particular project. Some people are looking at the photos because periodically I'll get a comment or two, but mostly it's there for me. (Like the way my gym sessions tended to be reinforced by having a special schedule book I listed every session in, and what exercises I'd actually done. If I was slacking off I couldn't miss that I was doing so. Pity I don't do that anymore -- making a gym session part of the Saturday routine is about the best I've been able to do so far.)