Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 16)

It’s Thanksgiving day (November 23rd this year) in the United States, a day to give thanks, overindulge (I’ve been just as guilty of that as anyone!), watch a football game, play family board games, prepare for Black Friday, and to be grateful for what we have. That’s one of the suggestions for art journaling in one of the digital art courses I take (Photoshop Artistry). Our mentor, guru, and chief cook and bottle washer, Sebastian Michaels recommends that at least once a week we devoted some time in our personal journals to list the things we’re grateful for. I don’t do nearly enough on that subject; I should definitely include it in my journaling efforts.

Here’s a blog post from Bella Grace Magazine, one of the many arts and crafts mags from Stampington, titled 15 Simple Everyday Moments to be Grateful For:

Without fail, life gets even busier as the holidays approach. Our never-ending
to-do lists become even longer, our calendars more full, and quiet moments
to ourselves feel impossible. That’s why it’s vital to seize these tiny pockets of
magic we may experience every day and take note of them, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.

1. Waking up to sunlight streaming through your
bedroom curtains
2. Hitting all green lights while running errands
3. A hot shower on a chilly morning
4. Watching the steam rise from a pot of something
nourishing cooking on the stove
5. An unexpected conversation with a stranger
6. That sigh of contentment when you’re finally done
with your tasks for the day
7. Getting that messy bun just right on the first try
8. The sound of cozy-scented candles crackling
9. Hearing the first notes of your favorite song
10. Finally starting that new book that’s been sitting
on your nightstand
11. Settling in to watch an episode of a beloved show
you’ve watched more times than you can count
12. The feel of a dog or cat’s nose pushing into your leg
13. Someone offering to take something off your plate
14. Slipping into your coziest loungewear after a
long day
15. Catching a scent in the air that makes you
feel nostalgic

Not all of these pertain to me (loungewear?), but I can add some more to the list.
16. The smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning.
17. The aromas of pizza and bread being baked or served.
18. Holiday breaks from work.
19. Showing off your handyman skills by fixing something around the house.

And so many more. What are you grateful for today?

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I found that I’d have some extra time at the school this term because a couple of my scheduled classes were cancelled due to low enrollment in those particular classes. The number of students we have in all classes is up a bit from last term; it’s just the luck of the draw that these two classes lacked students. I still have two classes to work, from 6:45-8:15 in the evening M-F and at 10:45-12:15 Saturday morning. But, because I’m still receiving my standard salary I have to act as a cover teacher, filling in if someone calls in sick for the early class from 5:00-6 and 9-10:30 Sat. If there are no absent teachers, then I have that extra time to do whatever.

I tried hauling my big laptop back and forth from home to the school so that I could work on digital art or whatever else I wanted to do, but that laptop is a bit too heavy and bulky to run around with, so I purchased a new laptop a few weeks ago to use at the school and keep locked in my office desk. It’s a Lenovo Yoga Slim7 and it’s a nice portable rig, with a 1TB SSD internal drive, 14″ screen, and a few other nice features. Cost about $1300, which, of course, is more expensive than buying the same outfit back in the ‘States. Naturally, after I got it, teachers started calling in sick, so I haven’t had much opportunity to make extensive use of it, but I’m sure I’ll get the opportunity now and then.

The new laptop–kind of looks like this.

I’ve had the last month off after the first term at Vientiane College finished on April 9th, but we start our next term on May 9th. While the school had enough students during the first term to keep the doors open, so to speak, we’re all hoping that registration increases this time around, though the admin people don’t expect to reach pre-pandemic levels until next year, probably. But, everyone has their fingers crossed.

For the upcoming session I’ve got three classes so far out of my usual four. I’m teaching one class for middle-school aged kids, one adult class and one class in our Diploma program. That one is a Creative Writing class, something I’m looking forward to. I taught another writing class just as the pandemic hit back in 2020 and we had to cut the term short, so we didn’t quite finish our classes. Since then, the writing class has been revamped by the teacher who taught it last term and it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun!

For my fourth class time slot, I’ll be a cover teacher, covering for others who might be out sick or can’t make it to class for whatever reason at that time. Hopefully, the classes will fill up so that I can have a regular class then, but being a cover teacher is fine with me. It doesn’t affect my pay or the time that I have to be at the school.

Anyway, only a few days left until it’s back to work, though we have a mandatory workshop this Friday at 2:30 p.m. More later.

I started something new today, doing Morning Pages as ideated by Julia Cameron. As Julia puts it:

“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing,
done first thing in the morning. . . [they] provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and
synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put
three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.”

The activity is akin to meditation (which I also do) and it’s supposed to help with clear thinking, better ideas and less anxiety (something I’m not prone to feel too much). The main reason I’m doing it is to boost my creativity, another benefit which other people have mentioned .

I usually get up around 5:15 a.m. and go jogging around 6:30. The writing takes about 30 minutes, so I can easily do it before pounding the road. The idea is to write three legal-sized pages (about 750 words) of . . . whatever. It’s stream-of-consciousness writing, so whatever you feel like putting on paper, do it. I’m the only one who’s going to read it, and after I finished writing this morning, I crumpled up the paper, without reading what I wrote, and tossed it into the trash. (That’s one of the suggestions, not to read what you write until you’ve been doing the practice for a while.) Then, keep doing it every day.

I’m going to give this a try for a length of time. How long, I don’t know. Some people have been doing it for years and swear by it, saying they can’t start the day without doing their morning pages. So, hopefully this helps my “muse.” I’ll let you know what happens. More later.

If you look at the top menu, you’ll see a new page up there called Now. What is a Now page? The idea for it comes from Derek Sivers. The page lists things that I might be up to right at this point in my life, like what music I’m listening to, what books I’m reading, etc. “But, can’t you do that on social media?” you might ask. No, you can’t. Here’s how Sivers explains it on his about Now page:

What is a “now page”?

Most websites have a link that says “about”. It goes to a page that tells you something about the background of this person or business. For short, people just call it an “about page”.

Most websites have a link that says “contact”. It goes to a page that tells you how to contact this person or business. For short, people just call it a “contact page”.

So a website with a link that says “now” goes to a page that tells you what this person is focused on at this point in their life. For short, we call it a “now page”.

See examples by browsing nownownow.com.

Although it’s normal to make the web address “/now”, just like it’s usually “/about” and “/contact” in those other examples, the URL could be anything.

Don’t Twitter and Facebook updates do that?

No. If I wonder how someone is doing these days, it doesn’t help me to see that they went on vacation last week, are upset about something in the news, or even got a new job. That’s not the big picture.

Think of what you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year.

Like, “Still living in Dallas, though considering moving to Austin. Working at ABC. Really getting into cycling. The kids are age 3 and 6. I’m reading a lot of Pema Chödrön, and listening to a lot of jazz piano especially Brad Mehldau. I’ve stopped taking on web design clients, since I’d rather keep improving my back-end database work.”

That’s what a now page is for. You can’t get that big picture from any other outlets I’m aware of.

I’ll try to keep my Now page updated either every couple of weeks or perhaps only once a month, depending on what I’m up to. Check it out, if you want.