Sadly, due to a sudden viral attack which involved a trip to an emergency doctor and the ensuing fatigue and sleep, I’m out of the running having missed both Saturday’s and Sunday’s posts.
Nevertheless, I’m going to press on and keep posting - later.

Sooo … exciting stuff here. It’s Friday night and I’m watching an episode of Bones while chipping away at an overflowing Intray.

Got up early this morning and had a productive few hours. The weekend is looking rather busy to someone with limited energy at the moment, and I know I’m unlikely to get some of the things I was looking forward to do this past week done. I’ve been clearing my schedule to work on some personal stuff and my darling husband has been busy filling it up again.

You’ll have to excuse my being brief, the cold/’flu thing that I’m over - it’s unleashed a new phase involving my throat and that makes me grumpy.

Okay I’m going back to transcribing a huge stack of my enthralling notes for the past two months.

Quite grumpy at the diary-ness these blogposts are getting. I’m aiming for a content filled Saturday post - so chastise me if I lapse back into a diary one please ;)

Edit: Bones has finished and my intray is empty - I wish the same could be said of my desk!

Been out all afternoon/evening in Palmy doing errands and had a big sleep in beforehand so don’t have much to say really. The out of the blue heavy bursts of rain continue to occur - I think most people are thoroughly sick of the rain, wind and cold weather (snow in November!) and can we have some Spring/Summer weather please! Missing Hamilton - we had the pool ready to roll in October so definitely able to swim in November, not so here. Plans for the garden are falling behind simply because it’s too cold for the seeds to germinate.
Spent the evening tidying up in my office as things have gotten a tad overwhelming. Everything’s ready for the morning though - It’ll be a new day :)

Just realised I forgot to publish yesterday’s blogpost - I was that tired!

The internet is abuzz with chatter over the US Election and Obama winning. I thoroughly enjoyed both presidential candidates post-election speeches, and think supporters of both parties should be proud of their respective candidates. Many people said they were in tears over Obama winning or over his speech, but for me the tear-jerking moment was the talk of how people congregated in the streets to celebrate, and the joyous feel that surrounded that happening. It’ll be interesting to see what Obama does in his new role - and ditto for his wife.
I guess I need to learn a bit about the way elections are run in the United States as it took me a while to get how Obama had won by a landslide when the popular vote looked so close.
I clearly didn’t find a decent TV feed to watch as they all seemed rather dry and boring, so I followed the election via Twitter and a couple of sites that had interactive maps. I listened/watched the Bryan Park video feed and I don’t know whether it was the feed itself but the quality and stop/start of the video (despite sound being find) rather frustrating. I also couldn’t work out what the hell weird dress Michelle Obama was wearing - due to the quality, the dress really chopped her body in half - and rather strangely at that. Anyhow - I got to hear everything which is the main bit and I liked what I heard (well, wasn’t overly keen on all the what I guess were campaign associated songs?
Best of Luck to the US - hope the new guy does a better job. :)

Definitely need to start these blogposts earlier in the day!

The good news is I’m on the mend! :)

Today has flown past for the most part - I suspect this has a lot to do with the ‘flu. I don’t remember being so hungry when I’ve had the ‘flu before! I’ve resolved not to go look this “symptom” up on the web as that leads one down the slippery slope of hypochondriacism and I really don’t need to take that role on as well :P

Looking forward to the US Elections being over - and the NZ ones for that matter. I’ve made my decision and I want to vote and see the results already damnit.
We drove past a polling booth today and I almost pulled in. I’m picking up voting paper bits tomorrow though, so I guess it would have made things a little more complicated without them.

• I haven’t enjoyed the trash-others campaigning, and I have my fingers crossed that those tactics will be shelved next time.
• I would like to see more referendums in the future (preferably near) with the proviso they are straightforward yes or no questions - that doesn’t seem like too much to ask really.
• I personally can see the wisdom in moving to 4 years between elections, and I expect it will be raised in the coming term effective for the next term.
• I’m a little alarmed at the number of people I’ve spoken to who have mentioned they’d like to go back to FPP - what is up with that? You liked the idea of only two parties?
• I wonder what would happen if people stopped trying to analyse how their vote would work and just simply voted for who they want. Oh, and stopped thinking of it as two parties with some little ones - irregardless of how I’m voting, why do we have to have two main parties? I wonder, based on what I’m reading regarding potential outcomes, whether this has anything to do with the way the rules for MMP are written - perhaps with a bias towards having two main parties?
• I get that MMP has flaws and is annoying, but FPP was simply too simple and I dunno, do we all want to vote electorally anymore? I mean, I feel like I’m more part of the global community so I’m happy to vote on a national level - but on an electorate level, it just feels too small. It’s not like the local candidates have been advertising what they’ll do for the electorate anyhow. Maybe this is what happened in the days of FPP - which was incidentally before the internet became mainstream and I think that has had an impact on the way we look at the world, nation and local arenas. On the otherhand, I see reports talking about how a particular town votes one way, and this little town over here votes another so maybe people like myself *steams up fingernails and buffs them on sleeve* are still in a minority (or the reporting is at fault - yay, let’s all blame the media :)
• I also wonder what would happen if we removed the electoral vote component altogether, were given say 20 votes each and could then use those vote for any potential MPs of any party irregardless of where they’re affiliated. You’d be able to put many votes against one potential MP up to your total. There are flaws of course - as with any harebrained scheme.
  • How would you deal with voting papers with more than 20 votes on them?
  • You’d probably have to vote by mail as the paperwork would be too arduous for a polling booth.
  • How would new potential MPs get a leg in the door so to speak?
  • Another flaw with this idea is that it would likely turn into a bit of a popularity competition with individuals - though do we not have that problem already?

I like the idea of a wide range of opinions being in parliament, that have all been specifically voted in by the people, and who aren’t going to resort to the kindergarten antics which make me cringe whenever I get the bizarre urge to watch the House of Representatives at work! Have you noticed the media shy away from using the term that we learned in school, preferring to call it simply Parliament or the House, thereby avoiding inferring those people bickering in there - we voted for them! In fact, comparing the House of Representatives to an Early Childhood Education facility has become cliche - what does that say?

As a kid my mum took me to sit in the public gallery, and whilst the highlight may have been Muldoon having a tanty and stomping out, it was nothing like what you see today. I got to see stuff happen. I remember being in awe of seeing part of a future law being discussed. I’m not sure I’d be as proud as my mum was to take my daughter into the gallery. I may applaud the diversity we’re seeing in the seats below the gallery now, but I certainly don’t applaud the behaviour and I hope this election brings in a bit more decorum amongst the new representatives - though I have to admit I’m not holding my breath. :)
On the other hand, maybe I do need to delve back and compare hansard reports from yipes, 20 years ago now, to today’s and maybe I’ll find things haven’t changed a bit. I don’t know, I classify the creation and refinement of laws as being something that should be taken very seriously. The same seriousness of Citizenship Ceremonies, Marriages and Court Proceedings. Sure a bit of levity doesn’t hurt, but not to the detriment of getting the job done.
Remember these people we’re voting in are supposed to be representing us! What does their behaviour and our acceptance of it, say about us?

I have the ‘flu. Fun! Especially when you spend most of the day not realising you have stuff you can take to ease the symptoms! Double Fun!

Speaking of fun, check this out - Speeding Ticket

Hi all,

Due to the late hour, the up and down day I’ve had, grumpy daughter, charming bout of hayfever (my nose feels like it could explode) and the distinct possibility I’m getting whatever illness my daughter has, welcome to the cliffnotes for today:

• I’ve lost my pen 3 times today - which is really dreadful considering I *always* have one on hand.
• Been playing with the 2009 planner supplies which arrived last week and most of yesterday involved perving at what other’s have done with their planners and looking at what’s been updated/changed in the DIY Planner world. Also checking out all the expensive planners to see what they have (or more accurately, haven’t) added to their repertoire.
• My attempts to find a short-term replacement for my office chair (on which I sit for a substantial portion of my day given a change) have been fun but unsuccessful. Yesterday I pushed, bumped and banged one of the lounge suite seats in front of my desk. It was great in that I could snuggle with my ill daughter all day comfortably, Tigger (the cat) loved the added comfort in inarguably the best room in the house when the fire is off, and I could mouse of the arm of the sofa with a keyboard on my lap (child and/or cat willing of course). The downsides were that I was sitting quite a lot lower than normal and as a result my lovely large desk became something you stored things on rather than a workspace, climbing over the back of the chair to get in and out of it was cumbersome (and as a result found myself going to do something and then thinking “Meh! I’ll do it later”), cumbersome also = charming bruises in my realm, and well, at the risk of getting all Goldilocks on you, it was simply too soft and comfy. I’ve returned to the previous option of the dining table chair for the meantime.
• We went with some friends on a drive today to check out the River Access in the area and the Rangitikei River has changed a lot since last year. The road we normally take has disappeared rather dramatically into the river and really drove home how alive and changeable rivers, like other parts of nature, can be. I also discovered that while I didn’t do too badly, I need to brush up on my weed identification skills. Thankfully, we have a couple of books that will come in handy for that.

See you tomorrow!

Hi there,

November brings in the beginning of the 10th NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is an event celebrated by the feverish pounding of keys around the world. From a naming perspective, the opposite of the World Series I guess.
Don’t worry though, whilst doing NaNoWriMo is on my 101in1001 list, I haven’t given in to the insanity yet.
Instead, I’ve set my sights on a goal which is an offshoot of NaNoWriMo - NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) in which people, like myself, attempt to post to their blog everyday for a month. For me this is attempt to jump back on the horse, as it were, since I have failed miserably at doing Blog365 (a blog post daily for a year, as you’ve no doubt surmised) and the similarly minded Project365 (taking a photo daily for a year) this year.

Other events inspired by NaNoWriMo starting this month include:

• NaPlWriMo - National Playwriting Month. Not to be confused with Script Frenzy
• NaPodPoMo - National Podcast Posting Month
• NaKniSweMo - National Knit a Sweater Month, in it’s third year :)
• NaSoAlMo - National Solo Album Month

I know there are many others including a photo related one which I can’t for the life of me locate right now. And of course there are other events like NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) in which people, you guessed it, edit their novels from November.

So there you have it, my first post in a long time, and the completion of Day 1 of NaBloPoMo 2008 for me! May the rest of the day’s posts occur slightly earlier but occuring at all is good :)

So I’m in the midst of catching up with my reading. Since I last reported back, I’ve read:

• Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
• Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
• Deadly Decisions - Kathy Reichs
• Fatal Voyage - Kathy Reichs
• Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
• Bare Bones - Kathy Reichs

Can you tell I rediscovered Kathy Reichs work? Whilst I whizzed through the first three Kathy Reichs in that list, the last one - Bare Bones, was a different story. I put the book down with about a fifth of the story to go purely because I had to do something else and then it just sat there being avoided for the next few weeks. I picked it up again the other day because it’s more than due back at the library and whipped through it wondering why I hadn’t finished off this interesting story. I’m quite keen to read the next book in the series though I know I should be getting through the existing piles of books. I’ve slipped back into my old habits and have read a sizeable amount of romances and have also recently been through a period where I could only keep my eyes open for a few pages before giving up in disgust at my inability to stay awake.
My current book is Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and I hope to have it finished in the next two days.

As far as 101 in 1001 is concerned - I should have read 21 books by now and be almost finished my 22. Instead my total is 8 going on 9. So a bit of catching up to do there and unless I have a lot of time on my hands in the short term this will probably require a concerted effort to catch up within 6 months. Not to worry :)
I have to say I’m quite surprised at how little I’m reading - though I guess that’s not entirely accurate as I’m still reading a lot, just not as many books as ebooks, websites, rss feeds, articles etc. This probably explains why the physical books to read are piling up.

Speaking of books piling up, I snaffled up some more books during the booksale season in Autumn. Not only did I get to go to do the customary Palmerston North Red Cross Book Sale, but the Palmerston North City Library held a sizeable booksale at the Convention Centre and the Rangitikei District Libraries held a book sale at the Bulls Town Hall as part of the centenary of the Bulls Library.
Overall I think, though it was the smallest, the Bulls Booksale was the best of the lot. I walked away with a huge box of Children’s non-fiction including some nice reference works for I think it was $30. It probably helped that we arrived not long after it had opened and the volume of people in the room at all wasn’t huge til we were on our way out the door.
The Red Cross Book sale was better than the previous year, but I made some silly purchases that lessened the delight once we’d got home and opened all the bags. Last year the plan to visit the individually priced section paid off, whereas this year there was a lot of good books in the main area (especially in the children’s non-fiction section - which I couldn’t figure out how that could happen!). Best buys there were uncovering a treasure trove of primary school teachers guides and the like. I spent about $300 *gasp*, but on the upside I scored myself an awesome carpark only a few metres from the door care of my vast past experience of the event which came in handy as this year it rained yet again!
The PNCL Booksale is the hardest to recall. I know I filled two grocery bags and that there were slim pickings in the children’s non-fiction (though with the Red Cross Book Sale a few weeks later that became a non-issue). As I recall, the prices were low but I don’t think I had overly full bags when I left and came in under the budget of $50. Next year I’ll definitely be a bit more conservative with the book sale purchasing. We’ve got a nice range at present and I think the gaps might have to filled with brand-new books, which is a scary thought. As it is, I’ve been banned from obtaining more bookshelves - which isn’t that surprising as there are precious few places we could put any more. Though I must say we could always replace some of the existing ones with taller ones - Oops bad thought! :)

Though I won’t go into much detail, earlier this year I did splurge a bit and made an Amazon purchase of some homeschool-type books which I knew I’d have difficulty finding secondhand and cost simply too much firsthand in New Zealand. I know we need to get a few modern guidebooks based in New Zealand and I’m dreading purchasing them due to the cost - I’m such a skinflint at odd moments.

Well I think we can successfully say that I’m not doing great at this but on the other hand with over 900 days to go I’m not doing as badly as I thought. I come across as being really negative in assessing the tasks below but I’m not that cut up about it - just giving myself a stern talking to. :)

Before this update:

101 in 1001
Start: 01 Jan 2008
Finish: 28 Sep 2010
Days Left: 947
Completed: 1/101

1. assemble a comprehensive family tree
Whilst I haven’t start this project yet, family have kindly loaned me several boxes of accumulated material (genealogy was one of the things we did as a family growing up) for a while so I have no excuses for getting stuck in.

3. bake something new each month 2/33
The birthday cake and cupcakes I made for my daughter’s birthday (with her assistance) were both new recipes for me. I didn’t care for the chocolate cake much as I believe a chocolate cake should contain chocolate rather than cocoa. I didn’t actually eat any cupcakes so I wouldn’t know much about how those turned out. The girls had more fun decorating them than anything I’d say. Does Icing count as baking? I avoid making icings like the plague as I can never get the proper consistency. I really wasn’t happy with the consistency of the icing on the cupcakes, though the chocolate icing on the cake came out okay.

9. buy a photo printer - Completed
As of Tuesday, this became a reality when we got a new Epson Stylus CX9300F. It was inexpensive and we needed to replace our scanner which was slowly eating away at my sanity with it’s ability to lock up and scream to be unlocked.

12. collect and grow my own seeds
Collected some Calendula seeds mid-january and today harvested Kowhai seeds which should be a nice challenge to germinate. Once the Marigold flowers die back I’ll be grabbing some of those too. This has been a good task as it’s made me open my eyes more to the entire lifecycle of growth in the garden.

16. do the blog 365
Yeah - this would have to be my biggest failure so far. Even counting the Project 365 posts, the total so far is 29 posts and 4 drafts (including this one - making a grand total of 33 if I get off my arse and finish off the other 3 drafts. Seeing as we’re at day 54 that’s pretty bad. Even worse if you think that counting the Project 365 posts is cheating.

19. do project 365 - In Progress
Well I’ve only put 21 days worth up on this site and I think I have another 7 days worth on the camera. So we’re at Day 54 and I only have a total of 28 days. That’s a bit of a difference. I haven’t been taking photos much recently at all and admittedly some days I’ve only taken photos where my daughter is the subject and I’m still a bit up in the air about posting photos of her - more from the she doesn’t get much say in the matter if I do perspective than anything else. I’m going to persevere with this.

30. frame favourite photos - In Progress
I framed a photo of our cat that I took late last year and it’s really brought out that corner of the room.

33. get digital photos printed and framed or albumed - In Progress
Well now we have a photo printer this should be much less work. Now I just need a frame replicator and I’m set. All I’ve done is a test print of a photo we got printed recently at the pharmacy. The tone from the printer isn’t as colour enhanced and I think is more true to life. I suspect the machine at the pharmacy does the equivalent of an auto-colour. I framed a photo of our cat that I took late last year and it’s really brought out that corner of the room. I’m noticing a bit of duplication in these tasks.

68. learn to recognise the southern constellations - In Progress
Well, I’ve gone through our collection of books and discovered we have one that’ll do as a nice primer to start with. Next step - refresher on the Southern Cross and how to find South - I’ve become a bit hazy on the concept. “3 and a half lengths of something, and middle of the pointer sisters? Then those two lines come together and that point drops down to the horizon?”.

73. make weekly contact with family and friends 7/143 (should be 8/143)
I got a bit overwhelmed around daughter’s birthday with a bunch of stuff and I’m afraid making contact with family and friends suffered as a result. I want to get better at this.

82. read 100 books (romances and rereads not included) 2/100 (should be 5/100)
I’m surprised at how little I’m managing to read and the discovery that romances are easier for me to wind down at the end of a day for sleep than other fiction - irregardless of the enjoyment factor. Perhaps this is just a habit I’ve trained myself in but I can guarantee a restless night’s sleep if I neglect to wind down before bed and that includes what I would consider normal reading material. So I figure I have two options, either carve out part of my day to get some proper reading happening, or retrain my mind to accept better fiction or recreational non-fiction as wind down material.
So far I’ve completed:
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

83. record sam’s daily activities 43/1001 (should be 54/1001)
This is something that is really hard to do if I let it slide. I can only vaguely recall details about something that happened 3 days - so I have to keep on top of this! On the other hand, this has been a wonderful task and I’m motivated to continue. This kind of exercise shows the flaw in trying to do something for every day of the 1001 days - the lack of a margin for error means you effectively fail the first time you miss a day.

91. solve the rubik’s cube - In Progress
Well this has certainly been an adventure. Father Christmas gave husband an imitation Rubik’s Cube a couple of years back and it’d been at the back of a drawer untouched so I snaffled it. And just the past week a friend returned a guide to solving the Rubik’s cube they’d borrowed. So I got out the cube and had a stab at it, and managed to almost break it - it didn’t come completely apart but enough to make me shove it back in the drawer and call it quits for the night. I pulled it out again tonight and investigated the damage and then had fun pulling it to bits to fix it. Required a screwdriver and some glue but it should be good as new once the glue sets.

After this update:

101 in 1001
Start: 01 Jan 2008
Finish: 28 Sep 2010
Days Left: 947
Technically Should Have Completed: 5/101
Completed: 2/101

Well I think we can say that I’ve fallen behind, it’s early days yet and with a bit of consistentcy I should be able to catch up.
The plan is to update on the 1st of March with another update, and a list of things to work on for the month.
For the remaining 6 days, I’ll be working on the following:
16. do the blog 365
19. do project 365
30. frame favourite photos
33. get digital photos printed and framed or albumed
68. learn to recognise the southern constellations
73. make weekly contact with family and friends
75. memorise origami designs
82. read 100 books (romances and rereads not included)
Complete reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (which I’m struggling with because I’ve seen a comic adaption that had a script incredibly close to the book) and get stuck into the next book in the Discworld series, Pyramids.
83. record sam’s daily activities
90. send monthly handwritten letters
91. solve the rubik’s cube
Also, get the drafts published and daily photos up.