Making to-do Lists...

Today is a "making to-do lists" day. Slight boredom combined with too many things to do, so to arrange my thoughts and try to get a handle on the things that need to get done, I make to-do lists. I've got several notepads with pages of lists of varying ages. I go back occasionally to try to re-use things or try to cross things off.

Today my lists are about trying to make money/profit off of my other web sites... and also just to get a handle on the ten-thousand projects I've got going at home. Putting away Christmas boxes, vaccuming, dishes, laundry, websites, blogs, warcraft, more website cleaning, system administration of both my local computers and the servers all things that make the list of "stuff".

...Brief Pause...

Ok, combined some lists, and even got some things done. Trying to plan my budget out so I can have money to put down on a motorcycle. Money has kinda sucked recently. Well, really it's been my money management that has sucked, money is just a thing. Time to work on my budget...

Stars and fire

We were sitting outside talking. A fire was going and I was starring up at the stars. "I think drowning would be an easy way to die, but I wouldn't want to die in a fire.", she said. I've heard this before, other young voices crying out for attention, help, security, acceptance and love. I dealt with it like I always do, just listening, asking why, paying attention. I think we short change our children by treating them like children or like they will be "broken" by any bad thing, and walling them away so that nothing can get to them leaving them more isolated, alone and separated from what they really need.

We talked for several hours and I gave entertainment and an ear to hear her voice. She mentioned ballet in passing and I thought of the Degas painting of "The Dance Class". I've always liked that one. We went on roasting marshmallows and poking at the dying embers in the fire.

Somewhere in the infinity of parrallel universes, we are on a beach with the fire buring low looking out over the rolling waves. The stars rotating overhead burning with bright majesty, watch as we finish talking and all problems are resolved, all wounds are healed and the true Love of God is known.

All I did was listen though, nothing magical, just listened.

The Donald vs. The Hair Ball

You: Hey Donald, How was your weekend?

Me: Saturday was good except the plumbing.
You: The plumbing?

Me: Yes, the drain in the tub was stopped up so I pulled out a bunch of hair that was blocking the drain. That was round one.
You: Round One?

Me: Yeah, round one, because it didn't fix the problem. So I had to get the auger (long snake thing) to try to push/pull the problem out of the drain.
You: Did it work?

Me: If by working you mean pulling the most disgusting thing ever out of my drain then yes it did. It was so gross I had to take pictures. Here are pictures of the disgusting mess that I pulled out of my drain. It's enough to make Blogger Play viewers cry.

It's all hair (and conditioner):


A close-up (the black bits are things that were starting to decay in the pipes... ewww):

A new year...

(Orginally written on 12/31 or maybe 1/2...) Ugh, been sick for the past few days. Got a bug in my butt to re-arrange things and move my office area. Now I need to clean (again/still.) Christmas was good, I got a gps and a telescope, both things that I really wanted. I was able to get Pooks some DVD's that she really liked. She was surprised by it. We were kinda having a lean Christmas financially.

Pooks has a new web comic up featuring our two heavy hitters (the cats CC and Perl) at http://www.ccandperl.com. I helped a little with it.

I don't have any new years resolutions, I kinda think that if you're going to make a change, decide to do it right then when you think of it otherwise you'll forget about it. I had made some goals for myself at the beginning of December for 6-months out, so a "Things to do by July" list... of course I left my list at home, guess I won't get anything done... Ok I now have my list:
a) Begin Motorcycle riding
b) Finish all half-started websites
c) Take guitar lessons
d) Regular spiritual activity (i.e. actually go to church)
e) Do at least one comic/render a week for my FotMS site.

Well Now (1/8) "a" is mostly taken care of, I passed the motorcycle riding class and now just have to get my license updated w/ motorcycle only. I am cutting back on my WoW time so I can work on "e" and "b". "d" is going to take dedication/determination to get back into the 'flow' of church things... and it's kinda hard... It's almost like merging a car onto a fast moving Interstate highway. Scary for some people, easy for others, but stressful in either case. Of course with the motorcycle lessons and other family stuff, I just haven't been able to go the past couple of weekends.

I will probably start "C" after Eve's wedding. It's at the beginning of Feb. but since Helen and I have been tapped for the Matron and Bestman respectively, we're going to be busy with wedding stuff before then.

So that's my goal list, I'm happy about my progress so far. Not that it's much to get excited about, but I know it's do-able. I am working on a Jan-Dec list too, something with more challenging goals and more things to stretch my boundaries. Not quite sure where I want to go though, so It's a harder list to make.