2010 | Chocolate Mints In a Jar

Friday’s Five: Wishlist

Amazon is torturing me with emails for Black Friday sales so I thought I might let you all know what is on my wishlist.

A ebook reader. All those ebooks conveniently in the palm of my hand. * sigh *
An android phone. What can I say I am a geek.
A huge Meccano set. Heheh I am a nerdy geek.
This ring or this one.
This watch, or any one of them actually

Thursday’s Thought: Goals and doing

Thursday's Thought

Last week I took a break from posting anything of the weekly stuff. Hope you all had a nice vacation.
And back to the schedule.

Today’s thought is related to this post from Zen Habits on achieving without goals. It seems totally counter intuitive to achieve anything without a goal. But this past year I have achieved lots by doing just that. I got really passionate about things and just went out and did them. I started doing stuff without knowing what I was doing or where I would end up but I think overall I did great. It is less stressful that way and opens you up to different possibilities when your goal is more about the doing than on the destination. You focus on the task at hand instead of the whole thing which sometimes gets too overwhelming. It also makes you flexible and it is easier to change what you are doing.

Are you a ‘just do it’ or ‘set a goal’ kind of person?

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Tuesday’s Talk:

I find behavioral economics very very interesting.

MIT professor Dan Ariely believes that the starting point for making better decisions, particularly with financial matters, requires understanding the impulse to act irrationally. At PopTech 2009, Ariely discussed an excerpt from his new book, The Upside of Irrationality, about the role of emotions in the workplace.

Friday’s Five: Moving

I love my home but I feel ready to move. I want a place that:

doesn’t have paper thin walls so we don’t end up hearing everything the neighbors say and do.
has a balcony. I love balconies. I want a real balcony that I can spend the evenings in enjoying the cool summer breeze and maybe even have a plant or two.
has an extra room. We totally need an extra room, two rooms would be great an office for my husband and a craft/play room for me and Lulu.
has a bigger kitchen where we can have a little breakfast nook. Our kitchen is tiny but it is totally usable, but I’d love to have a table in there.
has better storage space.

Do you wish you could move?

Thursday’s Thought: Try things

Thursday's Thought

Everything seems so much harder before you go ahead and do it. Once you have done something new you will usually say Duh! it is so much easier than it seems. Don’t you think?

Tuesday’s Talk: The lost art of democratic debate

Friday’s Five: Hours

I would absolutely love to get five extra hours a day or maybe even more. I am always super exhausted at the end of the day but I always feel that I could have done so much more.
If I had 5 extra hours I would:

Read more. I managed to almost finish a book that I am reading. I read in the car while waiting, in waiting rooms and in the bathroom ( while Lulu was playing in her bubble bath so don’t get any ideas)
Sleep more (I will probably end up using it for other stuff, but a girl can dream)
Pamper myself. I am practicing being good to myself, I would just like more time to do it.
Make more stuff.
Write a book. No one can write a book in an hour but maybe lots of little hours would be enough.

Thursday’s Thought: Being Anonymous

Thursday's Thought

Facebook should implement an anonymous status update. You would update your status as you normally do, click the option for anonymity and people would see just the message. It wouldn’t work for commenting or leaving wall posts, just the status update to avoid arguments and the such.

Could become very interesting.

Would you like to post anonymous status messages?

Tuesday’s TEDTalk: Redefining Success And a Little More

Last week I posted Tuesday’s Talk on Monday because I sort of spaced out. This week I made sure it was Tuesday before even attempting to think about the post.
But before I get to the talk I would like to share two posts.
Brownie’s posted about misery a lovely and heart felt piece. I tried to pick out my favorite quote but I loved it all. Take the time to read it and think about it.
And then there was another post by Ibhog, who unfortunately decided to shut down his blog and I can’t link to his post but I this is what struck me

And I’m giving you this on a silver platter: find yourself before you blog, and don’t try the opposite. Go to the blogosphere when it needs you, not when you need it.

He’s right and wrong.

I think.

You can blog to find yourself and you can totally get lost blogging.

And that is true for everything else in life.

Back to the quote; no one thing can help you find out who you are and if you rely on that one thing you will definitely get lost. Explore everything and be brave.

And back to our regular schedule

This week’s TEDTalk

With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father’s wisdom.

Here is a link to the pyramid of success he also talks about.

The Keys

These are my keys. Yes I have a little Miss Naughty keychain. I love the Mr Men and Little Miss series. I found this totally by chance and got two one for myself and a Miss Chatterbox for my sister.

I only have 3 keys. The car key, the apartment key and the key to my mum’s home. And yes I carry a Sharpie pen.
The key to our apartment and the car key need no explanation.

But why I still carry the key to my mum’s home is a long story. The day I got the key was a great day. I can’t remember any of it, but I do remember feeling older and wiser when they gave me a copy. I felt like an adult ready to face the world. But this isn’t the same key I was given. A couple of years later someone lost their key or gave it to my grandmother or something and I had to give my key up and thought I would have to make another copy. I remembered that my dad’s key chain was in my drawer and that it might have a key to the apartment. It did, and that rusty key is the one on my key chain. It is a key that I am not going to give up. After my dad died my mom gave away almost everything he owned in the house except the few things we could save or could not be given away. His keys sat in my nightstand’s drawer and still do. He had this cheap promotional key chain but it had Ayat Al Kursi on it so he liked it. It is green and plastic and had lots and lots of keys on it. I loved staying up waiting for him and hearing the keys jiggle in the door is still a happy memory. Whenever I hear my husband’s keys in the door I get the same feeling. It is a feeling of happiness and safety, that those who have gone out have come back and are safe at home. Keys are symbolic. They mean that you belong someplace. When I first got married I remember the day my husband gave me the key. It was also the same day our furniture arrived and the same day I went out and unlocked the door for the very first time with my own key. The first day of my new life. We have changed the lock a number of times but the original key is in my jewelry box because it is not just a key. It is a symbol.

The rest of the post is in my head but I am getting all emotional so I am going to stop now.

What is on your key chain?
Play along. Take a picture and tell me your story.