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Digital decluttering and freedom

Digital decluttering and freedom

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So, this blog is virtually invisible. It’s possible that way back in 2007 –

2007 kids

– I even set up an .htaccess file and/or robots.txt file so that the g-d g0-ggle doesn’t index this blog. I’m too lazy to verify.

But what I suddenly realized contemplating whether it’s worth it to keep this blog up for testing (themes etc) in the day and age where “staging sites” render that notion more or less obsolete, and that I’m hanging onto this site, wasting precious breaths reading it (while enjoying or shuddering at my younger self), that it’s anonymity/invisibility/etc is the perfect venue for me to just write without any concerns of judgement.

What stops me from blogging elsewhere (which I do, and have done) is basically something else I need to declutter — perfectionism. I like to craft each post with carefully created images, with logical thoughts, with “value”, with something that doesn’t just take up space and, all that. Whereas here, it can be whatever the frig it wants to be.

Frig, or Frigg. The goddess of Asgard, which I know not because I vaguely remember a first year university mythology class, but because we binge watched the excellent The Almighty Johnsons. For me it’s almost Trailer Park Boys meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, minus too much gore. There’s a bit of fire, as Loki is one of the characters. A comedy about a group of brothers, who are part human, part Norse gods, and their quest to find Frigg, Odin’s wife, who once found, will mean they get their powers back in full. It’s funny, wistful and ends before it turns into Friends.

Just typing that I feel a weight off my shoulders. Who cares if I keep or delete this blog? Should I import some of the archives somewhere else? It doesn’t matter. The forest will keep changing and keep remaining the same.

Day 21: Running out of time….

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I skipped more than the anticipated 2 days off this 30 day journey of posting, due to a combination of factors.

A work project ended up being due earlier than anticipated – practically as soon as I stepped off the plane,  I had to get on top of things. Plus, not really a surpprise, travelling involved delays, and that takes it out of you.

Bonus: Marc Crawford (the former Canuck’s coach, now commentator for CBC) was on the same flight. He is much taller and stockier in person. Seems like a very personable guy. He was with a young woman, and my first (classically suspicious) thought was “hmm – I wonder if that’s a mistress?”. Upon closer inspection, she looked way too young for that, and indeed, when Mr. O was brave enough to introduce himself and say hello, we found out she was his daughter. Mr. O didn’t want me to blog about meeting Mr. C, but seeing as Mr. O doesn’t have his hockey blog up and running yet, I thought I may as well provide the feminine perspective:) Mr. C was wearing nice jeans and polished black shoes. Always look to the shoes;) My own were ghastly sneakers, for comfort, plus not having been so well I looked like crap, so was less than my exuberant self.

I haven’t chosen my Word of the Year yet, toying around with the simple and elegant now or the more bold and brave courage. The trick is, last year I chose the word balance. And I finished up 2008 battling (still) a nasty ear problem which is causing me dizziness. Kind of gives me the spooks about how much “the universe” throws at you to help you learn lessons.  So I’m almost thinking that I should select a word that is the opposite of what I want to achieve, eg: poverty.  This WofY is from Christine Kane’s site, btw. You can read all the guest posts’ there, including one from moi.

Running out of time refers to the 30 day blogging goal being completed by now. I’ve got 9 posts left, and unless I want to squeeze them all in the next 24 hours, I won’t meet that goal:( I will continue posting however to meet the 30 days. Then I’ll hopefully be able to figure out just what the heck I do want to blog about! Happy New Year!

Cheers,

MzD

Day 20: Travel and Time

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I missed a posting day yesterday, due to not feeling well. Got me thinking about how when you travel you have this idealized sense of time in advance. For me, this meant I packed about 10 skeins of wool with me – with big ambitions for the knitting projects. I added to this horde by buying some cotton skeins here as well (5 ).
Well, with two days left here, what I did knit was:

  • one hat (finished it off here, started in Van – first hat – hooray!)
  • 1 pair baby booties
  • 1.5 dishcloths

Which means there was a bit of a disconnect between my knitting goals and the reality of the amount of time I’d have here. Partly, this was due to my continuing battle with my ear infection/cold/weirdo dizziness, partly it is due to fact that (again) I have the laptop here, and used it for client projects. I took precisely 2.5 full days off from client work (the aft of 24th to the 26th). This was dumb in retrospect. Doing work eats up a lot of time.

One project absolutely cannot wait as it has a launch date early Jan. Another (direct-mailer) was time sensitive and was completed before the 24th. But the other minor updates et al could perhaps have been left. Perhaps I could have a) sub-contracted some work out – not super realistic when it’s a relatively small amount of work or b) told clients “I am on vacation” .

So work and over-estimating how much free time I’d have to knit was a big factor in the fact that I’m taking 80% of the wool home with me:)

But I think most of us have that tendency, bringing “War and Peace” or some other lofty novel along with us to the pool, thinking – now this will be the moment I finish this book. Or, in my case, 20 mystery novels, where 2 would suffice. Or packing 3 dressy outfits, when one would do.

Travelling, whether or big adventure or a trip home, usually brings with it an element of surprise, or aspects that you couldn’t pre-plan for, and that eats up time. Might be customs, might be simply getting your bearings or getting into the time zone.

Either way, I’m not going to go home disappointed I didn’t knit 2 hats, 2 scarfs, and master turning of the heel (the baby booties used a Debbie Bliss pattern that did not turn the heel). Rather, I learned that scaling back my ambitions for time off should factor in the estimating of time the way one might estimate time for a client project: figure it out and double it! Also, sometime in the next year, I need to take a vacation without the box.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Days 6-7: time-out

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I’m sick. Some kind of viral infection, inner ear gig which has me dizzy, exhausted and irate.

So, I have to take a time-out to rest. Future topics on the brain:

  1. The Zen and the art of knitting stuff / review of the said Zen motorcycle book
  2. The terribleness of finding out about someone’s death online, or via Facebook
  3. Invisible illnesses and why having a regular cold is comforting.

Off to nap now.