Thursday Twists

I've finished 2 knitting projects this week.  The first is a pair of fingerless mitts - that have a built in hidden pocket on the left hand.  It would be great for a bus pass if you take public transport, or a drivers license and credit card - I took my picture with my Starbucks card.. because really that's most likely for me!  The mitts were a mystery knit a long on Ravelry - it was done a bit different than most that I've done.  After you post a picture of your yarn - you got the first clue, then after you post each progressive clue the next day you get the next one.  If you didn't reach a certain point by Jan 15th - the designer assumed you weren't on pace to finish and dropped you from the clue list.   That would have totally pissed me off. Especially since in my life,  the month isn't always a smooth flow of days and there are weeks I can get a lot done - and other weeks not so much.  As much as I love these mitts - I don't think I'm doing any more of her knit a longs.  (for reference - most of the MKALs I've done the clues were released on a certain schedule - whether or not you were caught up)
 

 

I may make them again - with just 2 strands of yarn instead of 4 ( they are a bit bulkier than I personally like)  With the white and a variegated; or black with a variegated.  Most of my fingering/sock weight yarn is variegated, the gloves ended up being the only 4 solids I had that worked together!

The second project I finished is an infinity scarf.... in the NJDevils colors.  I finished and wore it yesterday, the Devils won a game in OT (this year - if a game went to the shoot out it was pretty much over for them - so this was a change)  I do not believe this was a coincidence.. I give the scarf some of the credit! 

This yarn gave me all sorts of fits.. normally I LOVE single ply yarn - but after trying 3 other patterns ( I may get a different yarn and try the brioche stitch cowl I started with  - love the pattern - it was too stiff and too tall with this yarn) I finally settled on an old classic stitch pattern, twisted it and kitchenered it.  ( I had my doubts about the way the designer joined the two ends - but it really worked out well! ) 

 

Just Read "Think Like A Freak"

This book is a quick, easy read that still delivers a lot of thought provoking information on how to retrain your brain.  I'll be honest - I've heard about Freakonomics, but never read it, I've never really seen Economics as being more thana snooze class, and it seems like economists are wrong ... a lot.  Everyone, in any field can, I believe gain some insight from reading this book on how to think.

- Putting aside your moral compass.  Get rid of preconceived notions, sometimes what your emotions think are the right answers aren't going to solve anything.

- I don't know.  If you can't admit what you don't know, you can't learn anything new- and you won't learn all the information to make a decision.

- Think like a child - ask "Why"  a lot.  Learn to figure out what the REAL question is, what the true underlying issue is (if you still have your moral compass on this may be harder than it seems)  don't be so sophisticated that you overlook the obvious.

- Get your garden to "weed itself" eliminate the people, processes and information that is unnecessary and only serves to bog you down.

- What incentives really work to persuade people.  The incentives people publicly acknowledge, are probably not their true incenticves.

_ Knowing when to Quit - this one is personally a challenge for me, I will bang into a brick wall trying to bring it down rather than stop and look for a door farther down to go through.

The authors use a lot of humorous stories to make their points, hot dog eating, King Solomon, David Lee Roth, to name a few, but their points are important ones, and gave me a lot to think about. 

Tuesday ????

Ok, I really haven't figured Tuesday out yet.  Torn between Training and Tips.  Tips could after all include training tips, but it would be less of my actual training/health stuff.  I suppose I could call some Tuesdays Training and some Tuesdays Tips - but what to call the ones that are both?  This is a work in progress people.



Water is what I'm thinking about currently.  I know I do better if I drink over 100oz of water a day. (125 is my goal)  My bloodwork verifies that.  The trouble is A:  I really hate water.  Hate it. (Unless it's been heated and filtered through roasted and ground coffee beans, or run through a mash, fermented, aged ... then I love the stuff )  B:  If I don't drink steadily throughout the day - I end up trying to drink 60+ oz the last 2 hours before bed, and end up waking up all night running to the bathroom.  So 2 problems requires 2 solutions.

I really hate water.  Water isn't as bad if it is ice cold.  SO I've taken to freezing bottles of water and drinking them as they thaw.  It's winter though and they don't thaw all that fast - so I was drinking about 48-60 oz that way.  I started adding things to my water. Lemon and lime wedges are the easy addition, cucumber slices with mint leaves are pretty good (tried some of a friends - but still have to remember to buy mint - will be easier once my mint starts growing in the spring) basil and lime also a really good combo.  Then I noticed that EVERY single lime slice sank immediately and the lemon slices floated.  This bothered me... a lot.. I tried a room temp bottle, refrigerator cold bottle and a partially frozen bottle.  All the limes sank!   So I had to Google it and came up with Steve Spangler Science's website and explanation here. 

Drinking steadily thoughout the day requires reminders.  So since I am never very far from my phone (yes it is another appendage) I looked at apps.  My daughter uses an app where every time you drink it waters a plant and if you drink enough the plant thrives, if you don't the plant dies.  I didn't want that kind of pressure.  I looked at WaterLogged and Water Yourself.  I ended up using water yourself, and it has been helpful - although most of the people around me really hate the alarm tone I chose.  

Between these two things - my current annual daily average is 109.5% of my goal amount - so it is working!

Monday Musings

So, what have you been thinking about?  I've been thinking about thinking and learning.  For the past two years, I've been taking different (wildly different) classes on Coursera.  Some for practical purposes- Nutrition and Diabetes education classes - to help me control my blood glucose with exercise and diet.  Some because they have always interested me - Astronomy, Astrobiology, Planetary Science.  And some because as I've gotten older (yup, sorry to say I've gotten older over the years)  I've become interested in things that either bored me stupid or I avoided entirely - the Bibles Political pre-History.  All told I've taken 15 courses, and I'm on the last week of my current class "Learning How to Learn"

Learning How To Learn, is geared a lot towards students, who need to learn things for tests, who need to keep those things readily available in their brains for future classes and problem solving.  It's still very useful for someone like me, who is learning for the sake of learning, learning so my brain doesn't turn to mush, and learning to satisfy my curiosities.  How the brain works, is endlessly fascinating (although probably more so for my Psych studying daughter) But the tips on putting chunks into long term memory, efficiently putting things into memory - these are tips that ANYONE can benefit from (especially as we've gotten older and stuff seems to fall out of our brains) 

The unit I've just finished is on Procrastination.  I don't know anyone who isn't affected by procrastination at some point. (this blog sat dormant for a year and a half due partially to procrastination!) One of the tips we learned the first week - that I've already used, several times is the Pomodoro method.  Set a timer for 25 minutes, turn off all distractions, work on whatever it is for 25 minutes - don't worry about finishing- after the timer goes off take a break and reward yourself.

Understanding the enemy is a key to defeating it, so here's my understanding of the procrastination cycle.  You need to do something that makes you uncomfortable, your brain doesn't want to feel unhappy so it funnels your attention to something else giving you a temporary happy feeling.  Of course, now you feel even worse the next time you think about doing the task, and the cycle continues and deepens.  Eventually avoidance becomes a habit, and when you finally HAVE to do the activity, you are rushed and/or have to deal with the negative feelings of not getting it done.

Pomodoro helps battle procrastination, partly  by eliminating the distractions (cell phone, computer, tv) and partly because 25 minutes isn't so undoable (I will admit I've used it for 10 minutes when 25 seems insurmountable) and generally 25 minutes will start to get you in the "flow".  The second important part of the technique is the break/reward.  Our brains and habits are kind of like puppies in this respect - if  there is a reward/ happy feeling , the negative start of the whole cycle will change (hopefully)  Rewards can be simple - a quick walk, glass of water, cup of coffee, basking in the happiness of accomplishment, a few minutes on Twitter- or more complex - dinner out after hitting the gym 5 times, getting a pedicure after your runs add up to say 50  miles,  new yarn after finishing the second sock.

The other interesting thing I learned about procrastination is that it's a habit.  Habits have 4 parts.  1. The Cue - what starts the (usually mindless) behavior.  2. The Routine - your habitual response.  3. The Reward- every habit has something the brain considers rewarding. 4. The Belief- habits have power because you believe in them.  So the only actual part of breaking a habit that requires will power is after recognizing The Cue, you need to willfully create a new Routine.  And then in the beginning at least you need to create a Reward for the new Routine.  And you need to believe the new Routine will work.  

The hardest part, as I see it, is recognizing the Cue.  The Pomodoro Technique can help change the Routine.  

After I finished writing this post - I found this really great post on dealing with Procrastination - and it draws from a lot of the tips I've learned in my class!! 

I'm creating a page - Brain Food - for helpful links on Learning, Thinking, Creativity etc - because a post of all links would be boring, and I can just add links as I find them!

I do realize I haven't blogged in about a year and a half. For the last few months, I've been toying with the thought of resurrecting the blog - after all there are some things it's impossible to say via Twitter's 140 character format.  I realize that I need some sort of structure to keep the blog from falling into the meme of the day.  Don't expect a food blog, or a knit/crochet blog or any kind of specific blog - there's a reason I named it Short Attention Span Theatre. I was thinking of having the days broken up into different categories, and if I had a thought that fell into say - Wednesday's category, I could write the post and schedule it for Wednesday.  So if someone only wanted to see the yarny things - they could check the blog on yarny day.



I've put in requests for some blogging books from my library (and yes there will be a book review day - so you'll know which ones helped me)   I'm looking for a widget that will list - say the last 5 posts- with a particular label.  Then it will be easy to see my last 5 knit/crochet projects or my last 5 recipes  or book reviews etc. I want to learn about pages - and maybe use those for this purpose.  I'm also trying to figure out if I can actually archive the past 1063 posts and their labels to start fresh - or if I have to go through them all and change/delete the labels (if I do that the memes will probably all disappear)



I started blogging for me, and for friends and family to keep up with pictures, finished craft projects etc.  It turned into something else - and when it did, it took the blogging motivation away - thus the slow, cold death from lack of posting.   I want to bring the fun of blogging back.  I know my friends will read it and I'm pretty sure I know which ones will check out the yarny projects, which ones will try the recipes.  If other people read it - that's cool, it is on the interwebz, if no one else looks at it, that's ok too.   I'm in a different place in my head than I was when I started the blog - and the new version will reflect that.  The Angie has graduated college, has a job, lives 2 hours away - so there won't be as many pictures of her and her activities.  I've been getting back into Astronomy/Astrophysics so that will pop up. I've been getting into learning new things - just because - so I'm a regular on Coursera and Ted Talks  - that will show up as well.


Here's the post schedule I'm considering - yes I have a thing for alliteration:

• Monday Musings:
•      New things I'm learning/thinking about
•      Coursera/Ted 
•      Astronomy

• Tuesday Training:
•      Running
•      Workouts
•      Health

• Wednesday Words:
•      Books
•      Articles
•      Considering a language to learn

• Thursday Twists:
•      Crafty Updates
•      Knitting /Crochet Projects 
•      Ravelry

• Friday Foodies:
•      Recipes
•      Restaurants
•      Beers
•      Veggie Gardens

 

I haven't come up with an idea for the weekend - that's probably where the pictures of family/ really random thoughts/ rants about work will show up.  Thought about a sports recap (sports and Saturday and Sunday all start with "S") but I end up with seasons I obsess over overlapping and then weeks of nothingness - and realistically you can look up the scores.  I'll figure it out eventually.