Aurora 365

Fresh snow unmarred by footprints!

Programming note: the ‘projects’ didn’t last long.  They’ll no longer be a regular part of this site, though I hope to do some once in a while :)

Last week I posted a day in the life project and said that I’d do it again this week, focusing on a more or less typical work day, so here goes…

Next week’s project should be more interesting :P

A Day in the (Working) Life

Tuesday, 18 January

0545: Drag myself out of bed late (even though I went to bed super early the night before) and quickly got ready for work.

0605: Check email, twitter, etc.

0615: Head out

0815: Arrive at work, mess around checking emails, twitter, etc.

0830: Start work.  We have to rearrange our lending library, then I need to do a bit of filing and register some people for a workshop.  I don’t take a lunch break so I much on my food and check a bit of the twitters through the day.

1230: Meeting to talk about online resources helpful to Early Childhood Educators and also talk about a website that I’m designing for them in my off hours.

1315: meeting over, time to get some routine tasks out of the way.

1430: Staff meeting

1500: Skip out of staff meeting early so that at…

1515: I leave the building to head down to the bus stop.

1535: Arrive at bus station, but bus ticket to the city that I will need on the weekend.

1550: Bus ‘home’

1730: Arrive at location for evening meeting.  Hang out, eat some supper I brought with me and read.

1830: kids arrive for Junior Achievement meeting.

2115: Head home for realz

2145: Arrive home. Check emails, twitter, GReader, chat on IM etc.

2230: BED and none too soon!

Lots of numbers in the title of this post, sorry!

But this is my second weekly project.  This one based on a hidden project on the 52 Projects website.  I’m not going to post a link directly to it; you should go explore the site and try and find it yourself :P  Also, it’s hidden so it will take me a while to find. lol  The project is to document a typical “day in the life”.  I say I have three ‘typical’ days in my life: work days (sometimes with volunteering in the evening), cross stitch days and days at home when I work on other projects.  I decided to only bore you with two of these days.  A cross stitch day and a work day.  Though in retrospect an at-home “other project” day would have been more interesting. lol  I still have holes in my project schedule for the year, so perhaps I’ll go back and do that in the future if I need a project.

I’m also not going to bore you with the play by play, just the summary.  And a final note: this also turned out to not be a ‘typical day’.  One of my dogs is ill and spending the weekend at the vet. :(

A “Cross Stitching” Day in the Life

Out of bed at 0915

After I’m all ready to meet the day I get on the PC and quickly check email and twitter and my Google Reader.  For the Reader I cleared out the posts/articles I wasn’t interested in and saved things I wanted to read or listen to for another day.

By 1000 I’m in my stitching chair.  I’m a multi-tasker, so this involves watching DVDs that need to be sent back, chatting with a friend on IM though the miracle of wireless keyboards and screen resolution adjustments and, of course, cross stitching.  I have a lot of interruptions this morning because the family has taken Winston to the vet again and Kes, my other dog, is not happy.  I give up stitching for the time being, get some breakfast, play with the pup, chat with the family about the diagnosis Winston has received (not good :(  ) and then visit the library (to pick up a Sookie Stackhouse book I had on hold) and post office (to return the DVDs that I did manage to watch).

About 1215, things have finally settled down and again I’m stitching, chatting and clearing out the programs I PVR’d during the week.  We receive updates and options from the vet through the afternoon.

About 1615 we leave to take the bus into town.  Our other baby – one of our cars – needs to be rescued from its doctor.  We do a bit of shopping and eat out as no one really wants to cook anyway.

Home again and in my stitching chair resuming the afternoon’s activities by 1940.  I’ll spend the rest of the night like that until about…

0100 when, though I’m not tired, I decide to pack up and head to bed.

I’m asleep by 0130.

What’s a typical fun day like for you?

I use to love writing letters.  I had pen pals all over the world and was the only one in the family to write to my grandmother on a regular basis (mum, of course, did keep in touch with her but by phone :) )  It lasted about 15 years, until I went back to college.  Regretfully, I had to put it aside for those two years.  I had no spare money to spend on the postage and no time, between school, homework and all the extracurricular stuff, to spend on it.

When I graduated and started working it was just… too long.  I always wanted to get back to it but in the end I abandoned it all together.  A couple of my pen pals were on facebook or I had their email addresses, but we just never kept in touch.

I was never a good letter writer; I could never craft a timeless letter of any sort, but it was fun.  I got stamps for my collection, I learned about different people and cultures and nothing can beat getting letters and and other things in the mail that aren’t bills or junk mail or other undesirables.  I wish I had been able to keep more of my letters, but space proved to be an issue.

Lately, I’ve been realizing that, even though the Internet is suppose to bring everyone together and make communicating easier… it doesn’t help.  At least it didn’t help me.  Of course it’s an excellent tool, if used correctly, but… I don’t know… it made me complacent I suppose.  So I decided that it was time to pull out the letter writing kit and get back to it.  I have started with two extremes – an old high school friend (our letter writing ended when she got on Facebook) and someone I met at Celebration 5 this past summer who sent me a Christmas card.

I hope to expand the letter recipients in the future, and get better at the ‘art’ of letter writing (more than just catching the reader up on the latest news).

What do you miss, if anything, about real letter writing?  Were you a good writer?  Did you or do you simply include an event listing of the past year with your Christmas card?

This was inspired by the first of 52 Projects.  I didn’t exactly do as the project dictated, but it was the inspiration for me picking up the pen and writing the letters.

I’m currently searching for something for my own Project #2… suggestions?

O Hai, everyone!  Remember me?

For those of you who have been around for a while, you may remember that I finished my 365 – Photo a Day – Project back in August.  I’ve been wondering what to do to replace it for a while.  Sure I could have just started all over, but I wanted to change it up a little bit, find something new to do so that I wasn’t just taking and posting the exact same photos I took last year.

I had originally come up with a great idea (I thought) but it will take a LOT of prep work and I haven’t even started that yet!  Maybe it will be ready for next year!  But what about this year? Well, I think I finally got a flash of inspiration while I was cleaning out my Delicious bookmarks (because of a nasty rumour about the service closing down).  I’m going to combine ideas from two different websites I came across and put my own unique spin on things.

The majority of my daily posts will be based on the idea from 1000 Awesome Things.  I’ll make a (usually short) post based on whatever I decide is awesome that day.  Maybe it does turn out to be a photo I took.  Maybe it’s an interesting site or quote I come across.  Perhaps it’s just something I enjoy.  I invite everyone to participate in the comments each day – what do you think about my chosen awsomeness?  what are your awesome things?

Once a week (I think on Saturdays, based on when the new year starts) I will post a reflection based on 52 Projects.  I do not plan on following the projects verbatim.  Some of them don’t really fit into my life.  (I don’t have drinking buddies scattered across the country, for example!)  I do plan on finding a way to make each project work for me or come up with something to replace it.  This is where I need your help! Do you have suggestions for projects, in case I need a replacement?  Of course, I may not take all of your suggestions, but I’m interested in hearing them!

I hope you’ll follow me along on this, and if you have suggestions, please let me know!

As you can see by the layout, this blog is separate from my others, so if you’re interested in following along, you’ll need to subscribe to this one as well.  I split everything up this way for those that may, for example, be interested in the occasional, general post, but not a daily onslaught.