Taking My Own Advice - I like to try to remember that every day is new, and you can make new choices anytime. I also think I've described on my journal the concept of "thoughts --> actions --> habits --> character --> destiny" and the parallel questions of "what am I in the habit of doing?" and "what habits am I building right now?"

I miss being in the habit of writing in my journal. So, since every day is new, I can start over anytime. And all thoughts can be put into actions, and actions repeated become habits, here we go again!

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Without doing a major recap (the hurdle I was having trouble getting over), things have been good lately. I'm still "locked up on base" most work days, but sometimes I get better caught up, and can spend a few hours working at home the next day. Today is such a day. I worked until nearly 9 pm last night, and hadn't even taken a break for dinner. But the good news is that the really tough-to-compile weekly report updates were sent out on the day I started them, so everyone has up-to-date material with only a 12-hour turn-around from me. Yippee.

I've been working hard on some graphics for my friends' Dye-supplies and Fiber-Arts store online, while my darling co-conspirator has gotten all the technical skeleton in place to make the store easier to run and easier to update. It looks amazing. I'll post a link when we're done and revealing it publically, and you can all browse our work.

I've found that my preference with web design is really (a) making things consistent (like the work of an editor) and (b) making the graphics look better (like a photo editor). I'm not a programmer, and I still have no interest in becoming a programmer. The only time this is a hurdle is when I'm the sole person in charge of a site, and I want to add new functionality. I may still need to work with some programming guru types to upgrade some sites, like the theatre site, but at least I'm proud of keeping their content up-to-date recently. Again, the editor in me did some granular proof-reading that really surprised the content providers ("wow, did I really make that many tiny mistakes?" kind of surprise), but we managed to get the 2007-2008 season completely online a couple of weeks ago, and now I have the 2008 holidays compiled for all my other sites.

(Hmm. I should make a note to check with Theresa about whether we need a calendar section in the store website.)

The other big thing going on is an evaluation of a possible artistic partnership with a close friend of mine. She and I are talking about what we both might like to get out of the arrangement, what we would each be putting into it, and what our goals would be. I'm really enjoying the conversations, and it keeps my brain buzzing (in a good way). As this solidifies more, I'll talk more openly about the details. But good things, folks, good things.

The off-shoot of the artistic partnership discussion is that it's gotten me making lists again. An 8-page narrative with embedded lists was refined into a 5-page bulleted set of just lists, and now that list has extra ideas scribbled all over it too. The point of the list making is to say, "What artistic endeavors do I wish I were pursuing? What's on the shelf? What am I in the middle of? What deadlines am I facing? It also reminds me to get my calendar more solidified again, so that I can actually set goals and deadlines, which gets several other things in my life more organized again.

Can you tell I'm having fun?! *squee* Lists and organizing and being on top of things! Yippee!

It also means my fingers are itching to be hands-on in my projects, too. This morning, I had to reboot my computer and deal with some "waiting time" so I spun up tiny samples of some new fiber I purchased recently. I bought some "baby alpaca" which is a creamy, delicious fiber. It reminds me of a cross between soft wool and silky angora rabbit, but it's a long fiber like wool and has a wonderful "crimp" (that's the measure of "curliness" that makes fibers turn into yarn easily). I really like how that yarn looks, and look forward to making lots of it.

I also bought some "bamboo top" which feels fantastic, is very shiny like silk, but it's made from a vegetable source which is good for people who are allergic to some of the animal fibers. But it's a *pain* to spin. The fiber is really short, shorter than I was expecting, and it had lots of "fly-away" or loose fibers sticking to my shirt. The single threads were very glossy and dense, and needed lots of over-twist to keep from breaking, meaning to stay together as one yarn strand. But when plied together, the two-strands make a much prettier yarn than I thought, and I can see that I'll hate the fiber and love the yarn, which means I'll probably be a slave to the spinning just to get the end product. I look forward to seeing if it'll take a dyestuff well or not, because I'd hate to spin it all and be stuck with just white (or pastel) yarns. I hope it takes a deep color well too, because I think the shiny gloss would look amazing with a deep scarlet or blue or green. We'll see.

Two samples done, and my hands-on fingers are feeling happy again.

This weekend is camping on the beach with friends, and then I have about 2-3 months in a row with an SCA event every weekend. So, I'll let this short update speak for itself, and go get some breakfast.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Rae, because you're making my brain really work, in a good way!