Cultivate Some Growth

Recently, I've been feeling kind of listless. Like I haven't been getting anything done, and just don't have the motivation to hop to it. It got me thinking about my Happiness Project, and more so about cultivating an atmosphere of growth. The best way to get myself out of this down place is to bring a little more growth into my life. The question is, how?

Ten Things I could do Today to Cultivate an Atmosphere of Growth

1. Clear my desk                                         6. Practice Something from my Ten Silly Things List

2. Tend my Garden                                     7. Plan an Outing

3. Read a Book                                            8. Write

4. Edit & Post Some Photos                  9. Go for a Walk

5. Clean out my closet and                         10. Try a New Recipe

  donate unwanted clothes

How will you grow today?

 

Week in Review, Week Ahead

Happy Sunday! It's again been two weeks since my last week ahead, week review post. This time, I blame coming down with a case of the slack. Anyway, Last Time, I had a new exercise plan in place, and I wanted to get my photos organized. My exercise plan has been going exactly to plan. Which probably means it's a good time to change things up, before I get bored. It's a pretty flexible plan though, so I think I'll give it some more time before messing with it. As for the photos...well, I got a little done. A little is better then nothing, right?

Hey, Look! Links!

Dogs with Goggles

8 Tips for Boosting Your Energy RIGHT NOW We all could use a little boost, right?

How To Be A Futurist Another helpful webcomic from Basic Instructions.

Here's a a bunch of awesome from Cracked.com: 8 Historic Symbols That Mean the Opposite of What You Think, The 6 Most Horrifying Ingredients in Everyday Cosmetics, The 7 Most Insane Things Ever Done to Get Out of Something, 6 Great Novels that Were Hated in Their Time, & 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly). Ok, two more: 5 Species That Seem to be Trying To Take Over the Earth & 6 Insane Sports The Could be in the Next Olympics.

"We Can Repair Anything" - lol.

12 Tips for Getting Regular Exercise -- And the Benefits for Happiness and Fitness

Fun wit MPAA ratings at boing boing linked me to The Twenty Best MPAA Ratings- This made me laugh. My fav part was the movie Twister was rated PG-13 for " intense depiction of very bad weather" and Teen Space Vampires was rated PG for "mild alien vampire violence". Excellent.

When to use i.e. in a sentence is an informative webcomic that teaches both when you should use i.e., e.g., and the best way to take out a unicorn.

National Geographic Photo of the Month It's a wave, and it looks like stained glass. Too incredible not to click on the link, if you ask me.

Four Fun Ways to Make Your Photos Look Vintage

This is a non-family friendly Cake Wrecks post about Castle cakes.

I like green. Look at these Green Things!

630 antique Doll Arms are up for auction. If you're into that sort of thing.

This is crazy adorable. For real.

Hostage letters from the spam folder - seriously.

This week, I'm going to actually get some photo editing done. That's it, edit my photos. Everything else is gravy.

August!

We're over halfway through the month already! Can you believe it?! Here's what I'm loving about August so far.

Blueberries, Yellow Plums & Corn: Local produce is the best thing about living in Nova Scotia in the summer. Well, I don't know how local the plums are...they might be from Ontario. I don't know, they just said "product of Canada". Anyway, they were good either way. And corn! Have you ever eaten corn the same day it was picked? If not, then I will tell you: It's ten times more awesome the any corn you've ever eaten. And I just might be under exaggerating. And, we are right in the middle of blueberry season. I am a huge blueberry fan. Huge.

Camping: Spent some time at a camp on an island with the boyfriend and two dogs (my parents and their dog came to visit for a couple of days, as well). Had an excellent time. Read a lot, got some sun and fresh air...what's not to love about that?

The weather: I may be jinxing things by talking about it, but I am loving this weather. It's hot without the humidity, with a few rainy drizzly days here and there, but not too many. Not too hot, not cold either. Excellent weather.

What are you loving about August?

 

Week in Review, Week Ahead

Welcome to a new week! My last Week ahead, Week Review was more then two weeks ago now, (oops...sorry) due to a week working night shift where I didn't just sit at a computer all week, followed by a regular week in which I was away camping when it came time to post. Meh, life. So anyway..yeah. Who knows (or cares) if I did what I said I was going to do. It's all good, right?

Hey, how about some Links?:

Lets start off with some Cracked.com: 6 Things From History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly, Cracked's Guide to Fonts, 6 Ways Your Office is Literally Killing You, The 5 Most Absurd Video Games Starring Rock Stars,

Stop What You're Doing: This is a Dog Riding a Lawnmower. (video)

Whooping cough: Back, with a vengeance is about vaccinations, boosters, herd immunity and the author's bout with whooping cough.

10 Weird Places to Tie the Knot

Summer is Here - these are photos. You should look at them. My Favorite is the rubber duckies.

Tokyo's 'oldest man' had been dead for 30 years - officials found his mummified remains in is bed when they went to congratulate him on his 111th birthday. If you're thinking he lived by himself and no one noticed or cared that he died...think again. This story is so weird.

Introducing the Candwich - It's a sandwich. In a can.

My New Favorite Cake Wreck - Why did you buy that cake?

Price Tag Fails made me lol.

Life Before Google

This week, I've got a new exercise plan that I'm working on. I'm also going to try to get my photos organized, since I haven't done anything with them since May. It's kind of overwhelming at this point, but that's my fault.

What are your plans this week?

It's Friday!!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Things I Love Thursday

1. Lined Up - 364, 2. Camp in the Woods, 3. waterloo - Thursday (33), 4. Ham

 

Coffee, mushrooms - especially grilled!, cooking, The Boyfriend, Jasmine & Memo, air conditioning (oh air conditioning, how I love thee!), rainy days, new opportunities, Doing new things, learning, My Slow Cooker, green, blue, yellow, teal, chocolate brown,The Internet, That a money issue I was starting to freak out about turned out to be a non issue - or actually it was already taken care of (by me, no less)...I'm just a little slow, my upcoming camping trip, writing (even if none of it hasn't been ending up on this blog...), walks, snuggles.

Week in Review, Week Ahead

Welcome to a new week! Holy crap, I haven't posted anything at all since my last week in review! I'd blame work and life and busyness and the heat, but they'd all just be excuses. And bad ones at that. Anyway, Last week, I wanted to again do an hour of activity a day. I did pretty good, except yesterday. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing all day and it was glorious. I didn't spend many of those hours outside, because it's been insanely hot. So I cleaned the house and did some weight lifting and that sort of thing. Not exactly what I'd hoped to do, but it works.

LINKS!:

From Cracked.com: 6 Insane True Stories Behind The Stage Names of Celebrities, 6 Slacker Behaviors That Science Says Are Good for You & 6 Reasons Space Travel Will Always Suck.

Seven Myths about Grilling a Steak - Now that it's summer, and I have both a new bbq AND propane, I do a lot a grilling, including steaks. This is a great article. Want more? Check out The Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat.

The latest Five Men's Fashion First Impressions tackles some shoes that, in my opinion, are crazy awesome. I mean, I wouldn't wear them, because I'd likely hurt myself, but that doesn't stop me from wanting them. I'd put them on a shelf and daydream about wearing them and not falling over. See if the five men agree with me.

Gizmodo writes, "You Are Not Your Phone." Well written, and a good read.

Penn and Teller Interview - Penn and Teller? Totally awesome.

The totally awesome Sarah Von explains The Bad/Break Rule, which is some excellent advice/life rule (or whatever...just go read it. You'll see).

Weird works of Sandwich Art - very cute. 

Origami That will Blow Your mind. Seriously. I can't even make a paper crane.

Ever get that feeling that you're falling (followed by being jerked awake) when you're trying to fall asleep? Don't you hate that? Me too. Anyway, here's why it happens.

Awkward Family Pet Photos is like Awkward Family Photos but a million times better.  The caption under this one is exactly the first thought that ran through my head when I saw it.

This week, my schedule is all out of sorts. I'm back to work a day early - tonight -  on a night shift, I'm off a couple of days mid-week, and then it's back to night shift for the rest of the week - including Saturday. So I'm just going to try to make it through the week, ya know? Hopefully the weather will change and it won't rain (with a chance of thunder showers!) on both my days off so maybe I can go for a walk or two. Other then that...we'll see how things go.

Week in Review, Week Ahead

Happy Sunday! Last week, I made new commitments to old goals. Mainly, I was committing to doing an hour of activity a day. I'm using the word activity, because it doesn't necessarily have to be traditional exercise. There was some of that, but I also did some major house cleaning and spent time in my garden, among other things.

Here's some cool stuff I found online this past week:

From Cracked.com: The 10 Most Important Things They Didn't Teach You In School & 7 Classic Disney Movies Based on R-Rated Stories (some of these I already knew, some I didn't). 

It was A Laid Back Weekend at the Flickr blog. Click for photos of sleepy doggies.

Typos are Funny. And gross.

cat vs human - quite possibly the best thing ever.

-Itis (A Sick Quiz)

Unicorn Crossing Sign

101 Thing to Grill

This is hilarious. If you've ever dealt with a dog that that you think may be kind of...not all there, you will laugh your ass off. Seriously. (via gala darling)

This week, same goal as last week. An hour a day. It's more important that I get it done this week, because next week I'll be working a night shift (off at 1am...Yuck!), so I don't know how much exercise I'll get in.

Things I Love Thursday

1. Summer Fun, 2. A Little Extra, 3. Dish of Beauty: EXPLORED, 4. Go Ask Alice

Coffee, walks, the new walking trails downtown, hamburgers, super sugary mixed drinks, the tv show Leverage, pears, olives, cheese, creamy Alfredo Shrimp pasta, exercise, air conditioning, The Kitty, The Boyfriend, The Puppy, opportunities, getting to do new and different things at work, cooking, chickadees, progress, orange, cold beer on hot days, quizzes, making lists and actually checking things off them, BBQ, Ice Water, fuchsia, tank tops.

Irrational Fears: Laundry Edition

Photo by stevec77

This evening, while doing laundry, I was thinking about irrational fears. I'm not talking about things like, fear of heights or fear of snakes. They're not really that irrational, they're fear-of-things-that-might-kill/hurt-you-but-probably-wont. I'm talking really silly fears like...ok, so the reason laundry made me think of irrational fears is this: I used to have this old washing machine that, at some point before I owned it, someone took out or disabled the switch that made it stop spinning when you opened the lid. When it was being delivered to me, someone (I think it was my now sister-in-law) made a sort of off hand comment that someone they knew had a washing machine like that and they stuck their hand it before it stopped spinning and lost some fingers. Or something like that. I don't know, the actual story is not really that clear in my head, but one or more fingers were lost. Now, I'd like to point out that I no longer have this washing machine. We got a new (refurbished) one this year when that one finally died. But still, before I can reach my hand inside to get my clothes out or whatever, I have to not only make sure that it's no longer spinning, but that it's actually turned off. In case it, ya know, decides to start spinning again for some reason. Because that happens.

Admitting it is the first step towards...whatever. Not being ridiculous.

Do you have any really silly irrational fears? Come on, don't lie, you know you do.

10 Silly Things: Origami, take 2

So, my first attempt at an origami paper crane did not go so well. I think it's because the instructions I used, while well written, were not visual enough for me. This time, I did what I should have done the first time: I found a video.





And it's an excellent video. I watched it a few times through before getting my paper out and actually trying to follow along. Several times I caught myself thinking, "Oh, that's what the other thing meant by [whatever]!" I thought, "ok, this time I can totally do this."

...I was, however, mistaken. I got almost exactly as far as I got the first time. I think I may have tried to skip over too much of the basics, jumping right to the paper crane. Next time, I'm going to try something a little more beginner.

Week in Review, Week Ahead

Happy Sunday to all! Last Week, I didn't really have any goals. More of non-goals. I did pretty well. I mostly didn't do the things I had planned not to do. So I call that I win.

LINKS!!!! :

I was interviewed at a reflection by Tuesdai!

Creative Thinking Matters @ about.com

The 6 Most Insanely Misguided Attempts at Viral Marketing

Some awesome/crazy G20 Protest photos from Toronto

A Nonscientist Uncovers a Dark Secret. In his own brain!

Things That Are not Steampunk #1 at Regretsy

What's THAT supposed to mean? When cakes start your marital spats.

Doggy Sleepovers - Totally adorable.

Having Enough Energy to Chase Your Passions - Outside Your Day Job

This week is the first week of a new month! So I've revamped my goals and hopes and dreams and what not. My main focus is still on my exercise and fitness goals. This week, I'm committing to an hour of activity a day. Every day from now untill next Sunday. This is a big jump, but I'm confidant I can do it. I already have today's hour (plus an extra half hour) done and out of the way, and it's not even noon yet. Jasmine and and I went and explored the new walking trails downtown (they're really really nice).

What's up with you this week? Got any new goals for July?

Advice on Choosing a Path from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

photo by pareeerica

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly,as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'

-Lewis Carroll from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Things I Love Thursday

1. Remembrance Day  ~~  Canadian Flag ... eh!, 2. Best BBQ Chicken with Simple Barbecue Sauce, 3. Untitled, 4. ~ Duck Talk ~

Coffee, The Kitty and Puppy, The Boyfriend, writing, ideas, The Sims 3 Ambitions, Working the Holiday (hello Canada Day, hello Double-Time-and-a-half!), reading, learning, free online courses (right now I'm doing an intro to accounting, just because I can), BBQ - especially free BBQ! (I am of the opinion that all food tastes better if it's free. lol), cake - especially free cake! and more especially Black Forest Cake! (that one wasn't free, but it was delicious), lilies, chipmunks, ducks, rain, sunshine, drinking beer on back decks with friends, red, navy blue, strawberries, salad, trying new recipes (even if they aren't as awesome as expected), air conditioning.

 

Oh Canada!

photo by Lone Primate

Happy Canada Day!