Martha.net

That is all.

Lately every time I sit down to get some words on the page or paint on a horse– I end up getting distracted by The Shiny™ and don’t realize I’ve been distracted until it’s time for bed.

Right now the only time I can guarantee I’ll stay focused is on the Saturday Write-Ins at the coffee shop, where I don’t have any choice but to write. (Or chat with friends.) ((But mostly write.)) Continue reading →

Sleep in a Bottle

For those of you playing along at home, you’ll have noticed a significant drop-off in posting over the last few days. This has been due to The Martian Death Flu, which kept me curled up in bed and incoherent enough that posting things seemed like a Really Bad Idea™.

I’ll be back-dating the World of Treadcraft and The Wolves We Are posts later today (or tomorrow) just to keep things pretty and by tomorrow the rest of the scheduled posts should be on track.

I think one of my new year’s resolutions needs to be having posts written more than a day in advance. *sighs*

Try, Try, Again

Some things I’m planning on doing in 2013 aren’t counted as new year’s resolutions because they are technically old year’s resolutions. Plus their success is determined only by ‘is it better than last year? You win!’… which makes them less resolutions and more directional goals.

One of those perennial motivations is to declutter, for lo, I come from a long line of crafters and handymenfolks. There is no random item on earth that I can’t come up with a reason to keep (assuming it’s not trash).

So, erm, yes—I was looking over the Clutterfat Challenge that Zen Habits and Be More With Less are running and I’m torn. I already have a lot to do this month, but the lure of living in a house with a place for everything and everything in its place is addicting. Continue reading →

*yawns*

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Of course so was yesterday and so is tomorrow, but that doesn’t stop me from falling into the same New Year craze as everyone else. Today is a fresh start, a blank slate, a day in which I can redefine who I am and what I do in one wild sweep of the brush— Yeah, I’m not buying it either, but it sounds nice, doesn’t it? *wistful sigh*

I had a lot of fun with last years massive list of 335 daily resolutions, I was tempted just to recycle them since most of I wrote down is generic enough that I could do it all over again. (Or do it the first time–for the ones I missed.)

But priorities have changed somewhat, so I figured I’d try and make a resolution for each subblog instead. Simpler things for simpler times and whatnot. Continue reading →

Changing of the Guard

Last year I had a blast coming up with 335 (approx) daily new year’s resolutions.

Did I manage to keep them all? Well, no, not even close—but I did end up checking off a lot more of them than I had thought I would.

As tempted as I was to simply repeat the list here and check them off, it occurred to me that I got a lot accomplished that wasn’t on the list.

So time for a new list! Continue reading →

Flail Goes Here

You’ll have noticed the overabundance of horses the past few days, a side effect of the last few days of flailing before the New Year (and the new business) roll around. This horsey theme will probably continue until Friday, depending on how soon I get the rest of this sorted out.

*eyes her To-Do List*

It may be a bit.

But anywho, figured I’d pop in and let y’all know why there were so many tiny ponies and not so much writing and dual-boxing. Gimme a few more days of filler and we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled chaos!

Happy Holidays to all and hurry up 2012– I’m tired of waiting! *grin*

Goodbye (and cat)

Back in 1995 a very small kitten made her way into my life and yesterday she quietly left me again.

I can never repay Dex for all those wonderful years,

For the purrs and the bitchy maos,

For the shoulder perching sessions and helpful napping on my mouse-hand when I played computer games, Continue reading →

Remember the treadmill desk I built a while back? Turns out there’s a bit more of a learning curve to walking while typing/mousing than I thought.

The gaming + treadmill learning curve is being covered in a different set of posts, so welcome to the trials and tribulations of just using the computer at all (aka Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started This). Continue reading →

Behold, my life in maths!

7 Days x 24 Hours = 168 Hours

168 – Sleep (56) – Work (45) – Commute (2.5) = 64.5 Hours

Every week I spend 64.5 hours doing something that isn’t work or sleep related, but most of that something appears to be surfing the internet—even though it’s November and all I should be doing with my spare time is writing.

Ha-ha! … *sigh* Continue reading →

yawn.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a yearly tsunami of habit changes, some of which stick around a bit past November and some of which die off more quickly than anticipated. For lo, NaNo is nothing if not the month of good intentions.

This year is no different from the nine-thousand (read as: six) Novembers that I’ve faced before:

I plan on eating better.
I plan on walking more.
I plan on Getting Out Of the House™
And I plan on getting up early… this time for more than a week. Continue reading →

Damn You Irene

August has not been a pleasant month in the same way that root canals aren’t a pleasant afternoon diversion.

But I survived Irene, the earthquake, and the corgi’s emergency surgery with something akin to aplomb. Mind you, my survival plan for the hurricane was to flee to Northern Virginia and crash at my Mom’s (with three dogs and a cat in a compact car—fun times, fun times), but it all worked out in the end.

The corgi will have an impressive scar to show off to the ladies, I got to buy a sawsall (Obo the Destroyer—Bob the Builder’s evil twin), and I got to visit with Mom, abet under less than ideal circumstances.

I’m really not sure if I should be looking forward to September or not…

No clue what this is from? Then CLICKY!

It’s July 1st.
Camp NaNoWriMo is here.
Time to be an adult.

And yes, linking to that will NEVER GET OLD.

Ten years from now I’ll be going to the bank, buying groceries, and cleaning all the things, and I will remember that post– and laugh my tush off.

At least assuming the world doesn’t end in 2012. (It’s a pretty safe assumption, somewhere along the lines of ‘gravity isn’t a fad’ and ‘you can’t pay your bills with monopoly money.’) Continue reading →

Helping!

I am a relatively (read as: completely) sedentary person. I sit at a desk at work. I sit at a desk at home. Most of my hobbies include sitting for most if not all of the activity: painting model horses, writing, WoW, etc. Plus I have to eat at some point and that tends to include tables.

Sometimes I’ll get up and drag the dogs on a walk, but otherwise there’s a whole lot of sitting going on.

And it turns out sitting is bad for you.

Like ‘increased mortality rates’ bad. Eek.

So in order to combat the pervasive Fatal-Sitting-ness that has invaded my life, I decided to give the whole ‘treadmill computing’ thing another go. Continue reading →

Every so often whilst wandering the internet I will stumble over some reference to a.c.f-f (alt.comics.fan-fiction) and/or the crazy folks therein. It’s a startlingly pleasant flashback to the hours I spent online in college writing fanfic, reading fanfic, and generally basking in the glory days of the alt.*** newsgroups.

Those were the days of Comic Fan-Fiction Authors’ Network (CFAN) and the Comic Book Fan-Fiction Awards (CBFFAs), the days of mighty round-robins that inevitably got hijacked by the bunny slippers. Continue reading →

Seriously, ‘fair of face’, what kind of fortune is that? Since Monday is ‘Moon’s Day’ does that mean I’m more likely to be a werewolf? It’s all so confusing… As fortunes go, I like Failure is the Breakfast of Champions better.

Anywho, annoyance at inaccurate methods of divination aside– It’s looking like it’s going to be One Of Those Weeks ™, but I’m hoping I can convince it to be One Of Those Mornings ™ instead.

Best to keep one’s battles small, eh? Continue reading →

One of my few guilty addictions is Hulu and the ability to watch TV shows on my own time and schedule. It let’s me use shows like Shark Tank and Kitchen Nightmares as time breaks (aka bribes) to get my less exciting projects done (aka dishes.)

I understand the sharks are all about the big picture and are looking for companies who have the potential to make millions. They make a living (and an entertaining show) tearing new ideas to pieces to see what’s inside.

But watching Shark Tank has taught me alot about how I don’t want to run a business. Continue reading →

Tinker, Tailor

When shall I marry?
This year, next year, sometime, never.
What will my husband be?
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich-man, poor-man, beggar-man, thief.
What will I be?
Lady, baby, gypsy, queen…

When you’re little it’s easy to say ‘When I Grow Up’. Growing Up is one of those things that only happens on the far side of Neverland and Grown-ups are mystical beings who ride the winds and command the lightning (or at least the bedtimes). Continue reading →

I’ve been battling a nasty cold since last Wednesday (as if you couldn’t tell by the dramatic drop-off in content) and the only useful post I’ve managed to hack together it is this one.

And it’s about NyQuil™©®. Go figure. Continue reading →

GTD Workflow

There is this theory stumbling around the universe that if you make a nice orderly list of Things That Must Be Done™ that your life will fall neatly into the habit of checking off said things.

HA.

I was tempted to put that ‘Ha’ in blinking neon red 72 point letters. Thankfully my sense of taste kicked in, but the intention was there (if not the execution).

I have made lists. And then made more lists. And then made lists of the lists, just for the hell of it. I am the reigning Queen of List-making and by all rights my house (and life) should be as perfect as perfect can be!

Most of these lists remain 99% undone and/or completely ignored.

Continue reading →

Notebooks Away!

To be fair, the stack is only 19 spiral notebooks/composition books/notepads high, but still.

Every year when the school supplies go on sale I invariably fall prey to the cheap massive piles of note-taking products that sing to me from the shelves. They are wonderful blank worlds just waiting for my ink to set them free. Continue reading →

It’s not a light at the end of the tunnel, more a light at the edge of the horizon– the same sort of hope, but not quite. Because tunnels are directional and horizons move, and I’m never quite as home on the sea as I mean to be. Continue reading →