Numbered index to all woggy files:
#1: BC Scrapboook
#2: Mario Livio Book
#3: Learning Calc
#4: Velvet Shirt
#5: Monkey Novel
#6: Looking For America
#7: Election
#8: Lil' Me Cartoon
#9: Mini Walden
#10: Understanding Comics
#11: High Seas Adventure Novel
#12: Giving Plan
#13: Lego Taj Mahal
#14: MOC Page
#15: Getting Out of My Mind
#16: New Bed
#17: Family Tree
#18: Window Shade
#19: Mail Sorter
#20: Home Inventory
#21: Game Night Bag
#22: Driver's License
#23: DJ Dress
#24: Moon Walk Novel
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Woggy #13: Building the Taj Mahal
Well, yes, ok, it's not the actual Taj Mahal of course, as that building was built by many other people quite some time ago, and would require Tardean spatial distortion in order to fit it inside my apartment. However, the cost of said undertaking might be said to be somewhat proportional to that of the real one, albeit in micro scale. After many months of long looks in the Lego catalog, I finally decided this weekend to invest in the undertaking. Sunday evening was filled with much sorting of construction equipment, and actual construction began yesterday...
While I have in fact made progress since the above photo, I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me.
Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
While I have in fact made progress since the above photo, I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me.Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
- complete the four tower spires
- complete the center dome structure
- complete the main part of the central building
- complete the roof of the central building
- put all pieces together
- revel in my construction triumph!
Woggy #12: Creating a Giving Plan
Resolutions. Everyone's talking about them this time of year. And while I do believe in the general concept of self-improvement through the setting of goals, and even think time-focused goals can also be a positive thing, I have to say I've long had a big bone to pick with the whole specific delivery system of this end via the "New Year's Resolution" as it is traditionally understood. (what do you think? let your voice be heard in my poll to the right)
In general, while I often try to go with the whole feeling of turning-new-leaf-ness that the new year brings as an excuse to sit down to review my personal goals lists and set new ones, I often don't actually have time to do that right at the new year, and like last year, sometimes don't even get around to it until, oh, say ... May.
But my biggest problem here is really with the concept of the "resolution". As most people seem to recognize, this is basically a do-or-die setup for failure. Day one of the year I "resolve" to do item A, and then every day forward for the next year that I do not do said item, I am "failing" at my "resolution". So its no wonder under such an oppressive regime that most people abandon their resolutions by the end of January, if in fact, they didn't already abandon them last weekend.
So, while I here refuse the term "resolution", allow me to today review and insert into the Woggy log one of the "year-end" goals I set for myself last May, which was to "Create a Giving Plan".
Ever since my husband and I began receiving letters from a few worthy neighborhood charitable causes, we've set aside as much as we could towards charitable giving, increasing the number of these groups as we found out about more and have become more sophisticated about deciding which ones we care about the most, as well as increasing the amounts commensurate with the rising income we found ourselves sitting around with due to my husband's good luck in being in a field that our society has decided for the moment anyway, to pay alot for.
In any case, as these amounts and number of causes have grown and grown, this task has become more unorganized and difficult to manage in a way that was making sure we gave as often as we wanted. Thus my goal last year to get this organized in some sort of specific fashion. Enter one very highly recommended book titled Inspired Philanthropy. While alot of us think of "philanthropy" as being something only really super-rich people like Bill and Melinda Gates do, its really a term that can apply to anyone who dedicates their time, money, and or effort in a specific way for the benefit of worthy causes. While sending out a check to some person or cause as the whim hits you is wonderful of course, what this book encourages the reader to do is to focus your gifts of time and money in more specific and fcused ways, in order to get the most benefit for others, and the most satisfaction for yourself in terms of time and money well spent.
The book is filled with actual written exercises for you and any fellow companions-in-giving (in my case my husband) to fill out, asking you to really examine your values, goals, and attitudes about how and where you'd like to do the most good in the world.
While the book itself I read through fairly quickly, it is our slow progress in completing these exercises together that have left this goal as yet incomplete. For whatever reason, remembering to find the time to sit down and complete them, and to meet together to discuss them, has just proved a slow process. Part of this on my part anyhow, I'm sure is a reticence to face the fact that me, a person who once was poor enough for subsidized housing, am now wealthy enough to help assist those who are in that position today. It's a class shift that's been taking me and my husband years to get to used to, and is still a fancy shirt that doesn't quite fit the way you'd expect it to.
In any case, while the progress has been slow, it has been steady, and we are soon reaching the important moment where we create our personal "mission statements".
Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
In general, while I often try to go with the whole feeling of turning-new-leaf-ness that the new year brings as an excuse to sit down to review my personal goals lists and set new ones, I often don't actually have time to do that right at the new year, and like last year, sometimes don't even get around to it until, oh, say ... May.
But my biggest problem here is really with the concept of the "resolution". As most people seem to recognize, this is basically a do-or-die setup for failure. Day one of the year I "resolve" to do item A, and then every day forward for the next year that I do not do said item, I am "failing" at my "resolution". So its no wonder under such an oppressive regime that most people abandon their resolutions by the end of January, if in fact, they didn't already abandon them last weekend.
So, while I here refuse the term "resolution", allow me to today review and insert into the Woggy log one of the "year-end" goals I set for myself last May, which was to "Create a Giving Plan".
Ever since my husband and I began receiving letters from a few worthy neighborhood charitable causes, we've set aside as much as we could towards charitable giving, increasing the number of these groups as we found out about more and have become more sophisticated about deciding which ones we care about the most, as well as increasing the amounts commensurate with the rising income we found ourselves sitting around with due to my husband's good luck in being in a field that our society has decided for the moment anyway, to pay alot for.In any case, as these amounts and number of causes have grown and grown, this task has become more unorganized and difficult to manage in a way that was making sure we gave as often as we wanted. Thus my goal last year to get this organized in some sort of specific fashion. Enter one very highly recommended book titled Inspired Philanthropy. While alot of us think of "philanthropy" as being something only really super-rich people like Bill and Melinda Gates do, its really a term that can apply to anyone who dedicates their time, money, and or effort in a specific way for the benefit of worthy causes. While sending out a check to some person or cause as the whim hits you is wonderful of course, what this book encourages the reader to do is to focus your gifts of time and money in more specific and fcused ways, in order to get the most benefit for others, and the most satisfaction for yourself in terms of time and money well spent.
The book is filled with actual written exercises for you and any fellow companions-in-giving (in my case my husband) to fill out, asking you to really examine your values, goals, and attitudes about how and where you'd like to do the most good in the world.
While the book itself I read through fairly quickly, it is our slow progress in completing these exercises together that have left this goal as yet incomplete. For whatever reason, remembering to find the time to sit down and complete them, and to meet together to discuss them, has just proved a slow process. Part of this on my part anyhow, I'm sure is a reticence to face the fact that me, a person who once was poor enough for subsidized housing, am now wealthy enough to help assist those who are in that position today. It's a class shift that's been taking me and my husband years to get to used to, and is still a fancy shirt that doesn't quite fit the way you'd expect it to.
In any case, while the progress has been slow, it has been steady, and we are soon reaching the important moment where we create our personal "mission statements".
Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
- complete the next "mission statement" exercise
- schedule a meeting to discuss the next stage of the giving plan process
- do the next set of exercises
- meet to discuss the exercises
- repeat, repeat, repeat, until the Giving Plan stage has been achieved
- set a new goal: implement our Giving Plan
Update: Woggy #11
In pure woggy style, my best laid plans for writing 50,000 words of a high-seas adventure novel within the month of November (otherwise known as Woggy #11) did not pan out exactly as planned. However, as you can see above, I did in fact get 7413 words of that novel written, and now have a whole host of very interesting characters who now are developed enough to be quietly but insistently requesting completion of their story.Therefore, while I was unable to complete the immediate goal of NaNo competition completion, this woggy project will now transform itself into a new set of goals directed at completion of the novel in general.
Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
- begin writing my sea novel again
- write 1,000 words of my story
- repeat, repeat, repeat
- dance a salty seamen's jig when I reach 50K
- write 1,000 more words of my story
- repeat, repeat, repeat until novel rough draft is complete
- begin novel revisions
- set new goal: getting novel published
Holiday break
So yes, I have not posted here in two months.
As I stated at the inception of this blog, it is in such a manner the woggy life goes...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Update: Woggy #7 Complete!!
Chalk up another win for democracy folks, Woggy #7 has been completed!!I Can Check Off The Final Items From My List:
x get dressed November 4th morning in my voting socks (see left)
x go to my polling center down the block and vote! (see below)
It was a largely happy event for me, but filled with mixed emotions. I was happy to be participating in this important election. I was overjoyed to see my polling place full to the brim with my neighbors, who were not only participating in voting, but also joining me in actually performing the satisfying communal act of voting in person (which is not the standard in my county). I was joyful to share my fabulous voting socks and matching outfit with the voting populace. I was excited to think my candidates and issues might win.
However, I was quite sad and wistful to realize that unless I move to another state, I will never again participate in normal poll voting. As you may not actually be able to see from the sticker on my lapel (it says "farewell to polls"), this is indeed the last day for widespread poll voting in
my county, which until now was one of two final holdouts in my state. You can read a nice rant about this topic here, or if you prefer, hear a wonderful paean to poll voting in Seattle here. Farewell, fair election polls! I loved ye well!!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Woggy #11: NaNo High-Seas Adventure Novel!
As I mentioned previously with Woggy #5, being a participant in National Novel Writing Month means that my entire month of November is devoted to the attempt to begin a new novel and complete 50,000 words of said novel. Well folks, the month is November and that means the day of commencement is today!!In discussions with other Wrimos (yes, that's what we call ourselves), I have noticed that most others participating in this event seem to like to do alot of preparation and planning ahead of time. Most have a title, main character, plot outline, etcetera, ready to go by the time the day of actual novel writeage rolls around. I, on the other hand, prefer to dive headfirst into this adventure every November not knowing which way the wind will take me. I intentionally did no preparation whatsoever. My first serious thoughts to my novel's topic were this morning, when my muse informed me that this month, we would be writing another fabulous novel in the adventure genre, this time with a socially dysfunctional crew aboard a ship far asea. I have some character names, and just hours ago came up with the ship's name itself, but other than what I've previously said I know little else about this novel other than it will involve alot of fear and somewhere will involve some rubber ducks (as is the custom for Wrimos from Seattle to always include this last somewhere in their stories). Being a water-based adventure, it seems including the ducks should be a rather easy task this year.
So, it is true, I have thus far written a mere 143 words of my novel. (But, as I add to my goal, the above widget will change to reflect my current updated total.) Much of the rest of my "novel" time today has been spent doing my planning, updating my NaNo page with my plans, setting up my whiteboard wordcount tracker, choosing my fabulous novel's cover photo (you see it above), and creating a sea shanty radio station on Pandora to inspire me while I write. My last bit of non-novelesque activity lies in this very blog post you read right now. I expect the intense novelage should be commencing within an hour or so, as that should be just about the time I run out of believable distractions.
Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:
- write 1,667 words of my story
- repeat above each day of November
- dance a salty seamen's jig when I reach 50K
- set a new goal, post-November -- complete the novel
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