January resolutions accomplished

[neadods]

New year, some new ideas. Inspired by homekeeping, in addition to my resolution chore list, I'm doing the Seven Things Project, wherein you resolve to throw out/pass on/sell/otherwise get rid of one thing per day all year. (No, I won't be listing all of them in the monthly wrapup, but I'm going to try to do it!) The purging borders on Stalinesque, and just one month in I'm noticing a huge difference in the amount of crap clinging, limpet-like, in my life.

Last year was supposed to be the "get rid of old projects" year, and this year continues the theme as the three of you who actually read this will notice that a bunch of old projects have disappeared. I've decided that if I can't be arsed to work on them, it's a huge sign I should just let them GO. Yes, I've planned them for a long time, but somehow they haven't been important enough for me to actually finish them. It's time to start listening to the latter half of that statement instead of the former. While I seem to be craving some sort of cosmic permission to change my mind about things that were once important, it's also a huge relief to have the burden of expectation gone. (repeat comment about limpets). In some cases I'm getting rid of all of the stuff involved; in others I'm keeping them for future inspirations. Nothing wrong with that... in moderation.

I additionally resolve to do at least one item on the lists below per month; I got really sloppy towards the end of last year on that subject. Uh, even though I haven't done anything on that list this month.


STUFF I DID
Books:
RtE Book Reviews published:
- The Father of Forensics
- Audition for Murder
- Movies For Your Mind
Audios Listened To:
- Doctor Who: The Ghosts of N-Space
- Northanger Abbey
- Doctor Who: Celestial Toymaker
- Pratchett: Small Gods
- Doctor Who: Cryptobiosis
Bought:
- Heh. Check the "Wot I did on my winter vacation" posts for that list!
Read:
- The Little Lady Agency
- Torchwood: Slow Decay
- Torchwood: Other Lives
- The Adultery Club (I can't believe I read a chick lit book. That was advertised in the London tube. That I bought at the airport. That I actually enjoyed.)
- Torchwood: Border Princes
- The Deception of the Emerald Ring
- The Worst Jobs in History
- The Curse of the Holy Pail
- Darcy's Story
Current Handiwork Project: Alpaca squares
Travelled to: London, England and Cardiff, Wales (HUZZAH!)
Homekeeping:
- started "7 Things Project" aka "Sunday Seven" and have steadily been clearing out stuff I don't use
- dumped an SUVful of electronics, including the denizens of the Graveyard of Dead Technology
- culled cookbooks and listed them on half.com
- made one-serving cookbook for myself
- got rid of 2/3 of my sewing patterns
Other:
- Signed up for entrelac and sock-making classes (March)
- Gotten an exterminator's estimate for demousing the house
- Completed main Big Finish Doctor Who audio collection
- Cancelled AOL pay service (saving $180 a year)
- Gotten Stratford B&B reservation
- Sent in huge list of Whovian panel suggestions to Media*West

STUFF I GOTTA DO
- Empty mending basket
- Clean/clear out library (if only to figure out where my mother has stored things)
- Shift old VHS programs onto DVD
- rip up weeds along garden path and salt the earth
- severely cut back bushes in front
- replant rose bushes
- Mend/embroider/tailor rennie wardrobe
- make lining for rennie carry basket
- Make lining for and outfit "knitting class basket"


STUFF I WANNA DO
- Pineapple scrap quilt
- Silk crazy quilt
- Soapmaking
- Svale log cabin blanket
- Alpaca mitered square blanket
- Making magnetic bookmarks w/fannish art
- "So You Wanna Learn Hindi?" DVD class
- knit alpaca slippers


STUFF I'M THINKING ABOUT DOING
- Make "Doctor Clue" game
- Write Time War fic
- Write Jack-POV OT3 fic

Comments

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

You know, that seven things project looks like a pretty good idea... I need to get myself back on ebay and mail out fabric that I neither want nor need anymore... I have a giant ebay pile just waiting to leave my house, and no gumption to do it.

It's yet another project I haven't completed lately. *smirk*

Seven a week, hm? Might not be a bad idea...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's a great idea. It's been kind of cosmic permission to scrape off a lot of unnecessary stuff out of my life.

My "ebay" stack is getting huge. Dealing with it is something I keep deferring...

[evil_plotbunny]

The Seven things project was inspiration to get the last box of advanced reader's copies out of the house and over to the library where we've been giving them away. Next steps: listing more books on paperback swap, and getting some misc. stuff off to the local thrift store.

And I keep meaning to try entrelac, but knowing me, that will mean starting the socks I saw in my favourite sock pattern book and figuring it out as I go along.

Are the Torchwood books worth reading? I've been debating about ordering them. The Doctor Who ones I've bought from our library distributor and read before I stuck them in the collection.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

ARCs! Good old ARCs, I love 'em. (I got into reviewing for the free books. I dump my ARCs at the Malice Domestic swap table every year.)

Are the Torchwood books worth reading?

That kind of depends on your standards. Border Princes is right out; it's a Gary Stu from beginning to end. Pity, as it's the best *written* of them all.

The other two are good enough, and they exactly imitate how the Torchwood team worked in the first half of the season. Which means that they're as effective a fighting unit as a pee-wee soccer team and I frequently want to smack them all upside the head with a brick... but I can't claim that they're not acting in character!

[evil_plotbunny]

I am obsessive about picking them up on the occasions when I go to ALA or BEA, which means I end up with way too many, including some I'm not at all interested in reading. I had two boxes at home and two at work, and leaving them in a container on the table with a sign saying "free books" has worked very well.

Sigh, I think I'll wait until somebody picks up Torchwood and they're published here. I'm starting to think the icon above is a bit more ironic than I intended, since as a group they worked together better than Torchwood.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

leaving them in a container on the table with a sign saying "free books" has worked very well.

I've listed some of mine on Bookcrossing (which reminds me, I need to do a mass BC dump as part of the home purging)