Happy twenty-ten. Anti-climactic at this point. As ever, I’m late which doesn’t bode well in the year to come considering I need a reset to send out my holiday cards. Many of the other blogs I subscribe to sent out their New Year’s wishes at 12:01 AM 1/1/2010. I tell you, some people are so chipper they’re downright annoying. My mental message is: oh go stub your toe or something. Or squirt catsup down the front of your sweater. I note spell check says I spelled catsup wrong. ADHD firmly engaged and having flogged this intro for all it’s worth, let’s move on shall we?
At this point I’m supposed to launch into something pithy and memorable that will inspire you to open a spreadsheet to itemize your soon to be actualized accomplishments for the year but that sounds suspiciously like too much work. Why would I try to outshine everything else you’ve already read when I can crib with and from the best of them? It’s the fourth of January and there’s plenty to pick from. Other than resolving to take a nap, I think I’ll recycle my resolutions from 2008. They’ve been hardly used at all. These were:
- Learn how to use my CAD system better.
- Learn to use Illustrator.
- Learn to work my cell phone.
- Learn how to turn on the TV and the remote for something other than volume control.
- Learn how to open the DVD player. Not wanting to subvert my efforts by over arching goals, I’d (presumably) move on to learning how to use it in 2009.
- Only post three times a week.
- Make more patterns. Sew more.
- Travel less.
Of these I’ve done the last two. I think I only took two trips by air last year. I gave up on learning to use a cell phone (had one since 2004) and bought an iphone instead (there’s a lesson there). I tried to learn to turn on the TV as recently as last week but did something that affected the word VIDEO to be permanently displayed in neon green font in the uppermost left corner of the screen. Now I’m not allowed to touch it anymore, that’s what engineers are for. Thank goodness I married one. I view the DVD player suspiciously out of the corner of one eye; it’s a lost cause. At work I keep the manual open to the right page (“Getting to know your CD player”), if it weren’t so challenging, I might use it more often and thus remember how to do it by now.
Silliness dispensed with, I do have grand plans this year! Yes indeedy! Most I don’t want to talk about yet because I have a big hump coming up and my first goal is humble; to merely survive the first half of 2010. Second, every year I resolve to start an editorial calender all official like and post topics to plan rather than whim. Still working on that but I’ve gotten as far as “Textile Tuesday”. Gee, I may have to create new categories. I also plan on putting out more products for sale. Free is killing us. That’s a long story and a future post. I’m going to get rid of more stuff. I’ve been doing pretty good at not getting more unless it’s a capital good or something.
So, what do you have on your agenda for the year? Do tell and inspire us all. I feel a fair breeze of optimism stirring ever so slightly and it’s quite intoxicating.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with technological challenges. I can work the cell phone but mine is a very ancient, bare bones model I inherited from my father. The DVD still requires assistance from the offspring and importing pictures/digital camera stuff etc remains arcane wizard stuff. I need to change that. Learning how to take, import and post pictures is on my “To Do” list for this year. Sewing more is also on the list, but that is always on the list along with making clothes that really fit. I’m doing better with that one. Not so good with working my way through the stash. It’s getting bigger! Decluttering – that too. I’d love to learn CAD but I spend too much time already on the computer. Learning it would break my resolution to spend less time on the infernal machine so I will let that one go. Good luck in the New Year!
It wasn’t until the cable guy came to fix our cable that I realized that I don’t know how to watch TV w/ our new (2 yo) cable system. No wonder I read so many books in 2009! I don’t know how to turn on our cable and our tv to the cable input.
DH is not an engineer, but he managed to write a 2 page tome for our housesitter entitled, “AV system, the basics”. It’s horribly out of date, hence, I can’t figure out how to work our TV.
2009 was not a great year sewing wise, but I learned a lot about food. Somehow, I ended up as the neighborhood coordinator for our CSA. The former coordinator went back to work FT and I needed more time commitments. Yeah, right. I am in it just for the fresh strawberries.
All I use the tv remote for is volume control, the antenna/dtv converter box remote changes the channels, which I just got batteries for since my new roommate really likes to watch tv. For the dvd player I have to take to chord out of the converter box and put it in the converter for the dvd player, put the dvd in and press play. Although, I have no idea how to run my dad’s system, he buys all the fancy stuff with all the functions.
I don’t make resolutions. As I was calling my best friend to say Happy New Year, he said he was thinking of coming to visit and surprising me, but was busy with his parents. I said “technically, every day is a new year, it is a year after that day last year. Jan 1, just happens to be a round number”
Speaking of the new roommate, he happens to be walking around town exploring. So far, he has found his way home each time. We picked up a cell phone for him and he has our address, so he should be able to make it back some way. He is having trouble getting used to this time zone and keeps waking up at 6am, which is 2pm his time.
I want to know how that thing you can’t talk about turned out. Well only the part that has relation to me, you don’t have to go into any detail.
I’m sure all those chipper people who sent out happy new year messages two seconds after new year had them automated.
Travel less! I object! I’ve never heard of such a resolution :) Happy new year.
I got one of my resolutions out of the way today. I visited the dentist for the first time in far too long, and seeing as my resolution is to become more disciplined about self-care (typical mum, caring for everyone else, forgetting about me) I booked my next appointment. Jan 11th, 2011. The receptionist found it daunting being faced with a completely empty booking sheet. LOL.
I refuse to blame myself for being unable to deal with technological gadgets. They are poorly designed, with too much emphasis on looking slick, and not enough on functionality. I hate feeling like I have to memorize a complex routine just to listen to something on an mp3 player. And to compound the irritation, the instructions are printed too small to read easily, which makes me feel like I’m too old for their intended market. How rude.
Maybe gadget designers need a grumpy middle aged lady on their payroll. That’d solve the problem very quickly. It would be win-win. The company increases their market share, the young design team could get life advice around the water cooler (“just because she’s dressed like a ho doesn’t mean she won’t appreciate flowers, dear”) and the grumpy middle aged ladies could boss everyone around as nature intended.
Oh, learning to use electronic devices is high on my list this year. I realized that my cell phone, my new digital camera, and my computer are being terribly under used, due to my lack of knowledge. They tell me that my life can be so much simpler if I learn what all those items can do. Well, we shall see. Maybe Kathleen can loan out her engineer to help those of us that are technologicaly challenged. :)
I do wish to learn to take better pictures, especially of my product. And to learn to use Photoshop, because another goal is to create a blog site. I am already working on fine tuning my sewing focus; not trying to make everything that comes into my head. And the big one is to replace the savings account I depleted in 2009. Amazing how fast the money just flows through the cracks.
With all that said, I do believe this year to be another step forward for me and my business dream. If I keep telling myself that, I have a good shot.
Illustrator is awesome! I would recommend moving forward on that resolution indeed. The program can be very intense i.e. spending hours fiddling with anchor points and not even realizing it…but once you get the basics down it is a neat way to get your ideas out. I am planning on posting a “Flat of the Week” (today will be the first grand post) on my website’s blog in order to make good use of the time and effort I put into the class last semester. And to keep the program crisp in my mind for potential work opportunities as well!
Aside from that, it is the new year and the best that we can all do is to think positive and make realistic goals that we CAN accomplish in a reasonable amount of time.
I am also planning on making more patterns and sewing more! No toe stubbing this year please!
I got a new phone with a keyboard so I could text more easily. I live with technology; my DH is a computer geek. (What do expect from that?) :-)
I actually want to travel MORE. I’ve hardly been anywhere. The 6 westernmost continental states, Georgia, British Columbia, and Turkey, which doesn’t include the airports. Some day I’ll see every state and the other countries I want to go to.
I want to pattern and sew more and get some industrial machines. I really liked that pattern puzzle dress.
Do something: I have my RN, business account, paying rent on commercial property all from my own pocket to support a costume shop. Seems to be more charity work for the dance company Im involved with rolling out the door than saleable goods. No intent to take the apparel industy by storm just get it to support its self would be nice.
Pay attention: Try to keep up a bit more with whats happening. Im sooo out of touch I just started reading this site (sorry Kathleen) Ohh yea that TV thing I think I could turn it on if I had one.
Sales/marketing: Theyre not the enemy theyre not the enemy. Lots of undoing from years of engineering have to learn to get long with sales and marketing people.
Travel less?? That sounds completely wrong-headed to me! However, as we progressively get to the point of having to fly in a near-naked state, I can see your point of avoiding to travel by plane.. You could reconcile several goals by traveling by boat with your sewing machine, so as to sew more while still traveling? They have electricity on cruise ships.
Just kidding, it’s just as difficult to bring enough tools to sew out of the house than it is to cook in someone else’s kitchen, somehow they always lack a good potato peeler or something essential (not that I should talk, my microwave-less kitchen freaks out people like you wouldn’t believe).
Anyway, not knowing how to work the dvd player or the tv remote should surely give you more time to sew, that’s a good thing to focus on. Am glad you didn’t mention ‘stop trying to educate the unwashed masses’ in that list – thank you! And happy new year to you, hump and all.
Re: number five: there’s an eject button. Possibly labeled “Eject”.
<3
Helen, it’s too little for lettering. It has an ambiguous pictograph. We’ve gone to pictographs these days for everything (don’t get me started on the buttons on my plotter). It was a bit disconcerting when on/off went to 1/0 but I rolled with that easily enough altho it was a bit weird to see 1/0 seeping out of my electronics manuals and onto on/off buttons.
The delay btwn me pushing the button and anything happening is so long (dvd player is thinking about whether it will choose to comply?) that I push another button thinking I pushed the wrong one the first time. These days, I keep the instruction manual right there, opened to that page. Handily enough, that page of the manual has the front of the dvd player on one side and the remote on the other. But that’s probably more than you wanted to know.