Tag: calendars

Accomplishments, Monochrome

Posted on by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

My author-friend V.P. Chandler wrote today about putting a sticker on a little calendar when she accomplishes something.

That reminded me I used to do the same thing to designate when I worked on my writing. The system lasted a few days before breaking down, mostly because of color coding.

January 2015. Color-coded accomplishments. Can’t remember what the colors meant.

There’s a book, Organizing for the Creative Person, that says creative people should never try to color code. I read the book not because I considered myself creative but because at the time I read every self-help book I could find, especially those about organizing. The book was excellent.

It said that creative people file on the floor behind their desks, and that’s when I knew I was definitely creative, because my office floor was always covered with little piles of paper. I had to take great care not to roll my chair over them when I left my desk.

Anyway, the book advised not to color code but since I rarely take advice from self-help books, there went my system of recording my writing accomplishments. And the less I record, there less there is to record.

It was a shame, because I just loved the little Kliban Kat calendar bought especially for the purpose.

Anyway, when V.P. mentioned calendars, I thought about planners. I love planners and have spent several hours this week wandering through Amazon, looking at planners. But I decided I couldn’t justify spending so much–because it would have to be a really special planner–on something I wouldn’t use more than a week or two. (My best planner is David’s Google calendar, and it works because he uses it and reminds me of what he knows good and well that I won’t remember.)

January 6, 2021. Accomplishment (little blue dot)

Anyway, if I can’t justify a planner, how can justify buying a calendar?

Then I remembered the calendars my friend Mariana gave me for Christmas–one is just the size for stickers. But it has cats on it, real ones, and I hate to think of messing it up with extraneous matter. It should remain pristine.

So I went back to Amazon . . .

But then I came to my senses. I will not just hang that little cat calendar on the wall. I will use that little cat calendar. I will put a sticker on it for every time I write. That is the best use I can put it to.

As a symbol of my intent–because I have no stickers–I inked a little circle on January 6, when I wrote a scene and sent it to my critique group. I had to look back in my email to find the date; sent mail makes a wonderful archive.

Ernest, impeding accomplishment

The cat calendar will be just for writing. The large kitten calendar Mariana gave me might become a record of general accomplishments. Like getting my first COVID-19 vaccine dose yesterday. Cooking. Putting on makeup. Getting out of bed before noon. Not playing Candy Crush. Brushing my hair.

The calendar issue having been solved, I now move on to the next project: buying stickers. One color only.

I shall not, will not, color code.

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Maybe I’ll use gold stars for working on my novel and red stars for other writing. Surely a little color coding couldn’t hurt.

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A good book

#AtoZChallenge 2020: Lost in Time & Space

Posted on by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

I got mixed up and posted on Sunday, April 12, which was supposed to be my day of rest. But I didn’t realize I was off schedule until after I posted yesterday’s Day N, on what was really Day M.

I could pretend I’m in an advanced time zone, but that would be dishonest.

So I’m taking today off. Tomorrow, I’ll post my Day O post on Day O.

And if I’ve got this wrong, too, don’t bother telling me. It won’t do a bit of good.

Here’s Henri.

Day G: Good News & Glitches #AtoZChallenge

Posted on by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

 

 

 

 

 

Glitch.

The A to Z Blogging Challenge calendar looks like this:

 

But in my mind’s eye, until this evening, the calendar looked like this:

If I’d paid attention, I’d have noticed I was supposed to post yesterday, a Saturday, instead of taking the day off.

If I’d paid close attention, and counted, I’d have seen that my April calendar provides for only 22 letters, four fewer than the official calendar assigns spaces to, and also four fewer than are found in the alphabet. I was embarked on an A to V Challenge.

When I realized I’d gone wrong, I considered dropping out. After all, I’ve breached the rules, failed to post as required.

But it’s a glitch, not a transgression, and a blog challenge isn’t a life-and-death matter. So I proceed.

Good News.

Two weeks ago, my radiation oncologist used the word remission.

Nothing has changed. My most recent CT scans show the same results as those done in December 2016, three months after I completed radiation treatments. The bone scan, my first, was also clear.

The oncologist, although he’s now smiling as if he means it, continues to be conservative. Stable is the word he uses. “As long as you’re stable…”

The radiation oncologist has always been more upbeat, possibly because she isn’t in charge of my case, possibly because she has a cheerful nature. A year ago, she was calling my scans awesome. I liked that word.

Remission, though, has a certain ring to it–a medical ring.

5. Medicine/Medical.

  1. a temporary or permanent decrease or subsidence ofmanifestations of a disease.
  2. a period during which such a decrease or subsidence occurs:
    The patient’s leukemia was in remission.

For two years, I’ve been living from scan to scan, and that won’t change either. The challenge continues: to live with past, present, future all at once; to wrap my mind around the contradiction–I have cancer, I had cancer, I . . . what?

The next CT is scheduled for early June. Scan to scan.

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Read more posts dedicated to the letter G by clicking AtoZ.