List skills strategies

A friend and I were discussing list strategies this morning, as we both know the importance a good list has in life - it can make or break your day, in fact.

I have spoken in the past about my habit of making the first entry "Write List" so something can be ticked off immediately.

The best thing about a list is its ability to streamline and keep the procrastination and side-track meanderings minimised (most of the time).

One of our household big list items was to hang a whiteboard so that we could take our listing seriously. But I am not sure about the whiteboard - it is great at reminding you of what needs to be done, but it just doesn't cut the mustard for that feeling of accomplishment that a paper list does in a day...

A good list must be portable, achievable and (for me, I know there are other techniques) heavy on the check boxes.

Well, our discussion on the minutae of lists this morning brought up some other important list skills...

If you write things on a To Do list that you have already done in a day, can it be considered cheating? We don't think so, as it is technically still something accomplished and that needed doing. Discuss.

If a job is really, really big (e.g. washing for the household for the week) can you break it into smaller tasks (i.e. sort the wash, by load, pegging, folding, putting away) and also have a larger box for the whole caboodle?

If you achieve monumental tasks in the day or days past, should you list it just to get that "ticked off" feeling? We coined the phrase "living in past lists" to cover this one. Discuss.

If you do end up sidetracked to learn life skills needed to expand your horizons and build better future lists, can you write that to your To Do list or is it classified procrastination? An alternative to this possibility is to create a new list of sidetracks contemplated life skills. Sort of "choose-your-own-endings" lists. What do you think? Why?

BTW - the write blog box of my list was at the bottom, but have moved it forward 5 places as inspiration (and IM conversations) struck now. Do you think you should be allowed to disorder your own list?

It did gazump tax, super, shower, list mailouts and pegging - I am not meant to shower for another 2 (darn really long hair and really cool nights - gotta move my shower to accommodate climatic conditions) but may just get really crazy about this disorder stuff - once you break that rule you are up the proverbial...

Ticking this one oof the list

Yay, I have made it to 100 - oh the angst, oh the procrastination, oh the inspirations that have attacked in the shower, the car, the shopping centre, the garden - everywhere it seems but in front of the computer - that have faded as I sit and face the screen.

On the weekend Monday Wednesday Yesterday Today I thought I would take you on a tour, handing out awards that I have been charged to present on my way.

But before I begin, a mention to an article I read in one of the weekend papers. The story of Abebe Fekadu is one of inspiration and I truly hope that he attains his dream of competing for Australia in Beijing.

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Where to start? According to the rules of the award I received from BrissieMum2, I have to pass along awards to 5 chosen recipients.

To start, I wish I had the sheer bitchitude of the first recipient. I would like to present AngryBlackBitch a gong, because this woman tells it the way she sees it and pulls little punches when she looks at politics or injustices in the American system. I just wish I had half her bitchitude most days.

I would also like to acknowledge So Sioux Me as she looks at issues of empowerment for women through her writing, her life and her works.

Jen at Semantically Driven certainly deserves this award, as she give many great tips on blogging, is always responsive to comments and an all around lovely lady. Oh - and if you are an Adelodian I believe she is helping to organise a gathering there soonish...

The Wait and The Wonder is one of the first blogs I ever came across, and Moreena is witty, wise and wonderful - and the mother of two beautiful girls, one a transplant recipient.


Finally, I would like to award Spilt Milk this award, although her creativity is only part of the package - but I first found her through Poetry Thursday and has a lovely poem today about Beauty.

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I would go on - there are many I have found in the last 9 months worthy of mention - but you have waited 6 days

One of those "I have got to blog this" moments

Wow - second post of the day - but had to share...

Upon watching the ending of Neighbours tonight (yes, yes, I know - but have you seen the competition?) 'Salina pondered on the possibilities one character seems to be facing.

"I know," she said, "she is getting married."

As the character seems instead to be showing all signs of possible pregnancy rather than an engagement and altar scenario, I asked her if she knew the difference between marriage and pregnancy - to which she replied "No" (which would explain why she has never believed that story of her father and I not ever being married).

I am sure I have explained this to her before but she may have filed it with all the other things mother said that are not to be remembered.

So I went into the spiel of the birds and the bees. It was just a plain facts without too much description - hey, the girl has a vivid imagination and I don't want her trumpeting about any pregnancies because she suspects that V and I might do some of the description. She was suitably non-plussed.

At the start of the next show, a character there mentioned pregnancy.

"Oh no" she said. "Now they are talking about pregnancy. And you are talking about pregnancy. Who am I going to talk to - Eddie? Unless Eddie wants to talk about pregnancy too."

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So the 100th post I will be presenting awards, it seems - I love it when life thrusts decisions upon me like this!!

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And in response to the question about my previous post, what would 'Salina's dad have named a son?

His favourite author was Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. He wished to name his son Zem.

"Zem is an affable, yet quite stupid, swamp dwelling mattress (probably of very high quality) who flollops around Squornshellous Zeta and tries his best to cheer up Marvin the Paranoid Android, who became stranded on the planet after having one arm welded to his side and one leg replaced by a steel pillar which turns out to be of immense importance, with utterly predictable results. After attempting to make conversation about the weather, Marvin's life story, and the economy of Squornshellous itself, Zem offers that Marvin should be more mattresslike. Zem is also the sole witness to Marvin's abduction by the Krikkit war robots.

Also note that "Zem" is the name of all Squornshellous Zeta mattresses, because as Zem puts it "Some of us get killed... but we never know which, and thus globbering" [A mattress noise expressing sympathy] "are kept to a minimum."

I had almost achieved an agreement to extend it to "Zemzaki" which means "of the earth" in some Eastern European language - at least I could have worked with that - but I really didn't want my child named after a mattress!!

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(I have added this post to the All Women Blogging Carnival this week being hosted by 4fabmoms)

Does it feel like we are going backwards

Yes, at the end of last post, I realised that I had some utterly banal and whiny draft posts that gave me pre-100 angst a full two posts early.

The good news is that a weight came off my shoulders and I felt a reprieve - because in blogging, like in life, postponing is great for short-term stress solutions (sucks in the long term though).

Thanks for the great ideas - I will work it out and surprise you post after next.

However, for this post I have some housework to attend to (while avoiding the RL housework - a much more daunting task, especially since my daughter cut up the foam filter of the 20 year-old super-vacuum with the approval of another member of the household who thought it was superfluous due to the fact it had been on the kitchen bench for four days - okay, a week - sheesh, can't hire good families these days). (Oh, and I'm not going into that whole "we have two other vacuum cleaners downstairs" discussions either...)

Where was I - oh yes Mama Zen wants to know (as do all of you, I am sure) 8 Random Things about me...

So - here are 8 things you may not have known about me:

1. Jeanie is not my real name. Well, it is part of my real name, and it has been my "real" name in cyberspace for about 6 years, but it was not the name that my parents bestowed upon me at birth.
   
   
2. I went to boarding school at the age of 12 and then lived on a University Campus and have lived in 17 different share houses since then. In that share house time I have had 47 flatmates! That does not count the three non-share addresses that I have lived at with my daughter, my ex or V.
   
   
3. I can touch my nose with my tongue.
   
   
4. I competed in the National Titles for Rowing when I was a Senior at school.
   
   
5. The older I get and the more I learn about people, their stories and being a parent, the more I appreciate my Mum and Dad. Both had unusual family histories yet managed to be a pretty awesome team in raising us - and they both dote upon their oldest grandchild.
   
   
6. I was extremely pleased that a I had a daughter - mainly because of the name her father wanted to call her if she was a boy.
   
   
7. I went to school in a town whose main claim to fame was it was first in the postcode book. Well, until they shut down the post office it was.
   
   
8. I am a middle child. I have an awesome older sister who I always envied as she was (and is) taller than I, has more olive skin and straight dark brown (nearly black) hair and is excellent at putting words and pictures together. My "baby" brother is genial, sporty, a great mate to men and women alike and has a gift of fitting in to most social settings with ease. Oh, and they both have (with their separate spouses, not together) beautiful children.

I have to pass the baton for this (and if you want me to nominate you just let me know so I can do so with alacrity), so I will do my nominations for this AND also respond to BrissieMum2's honour :

in the REAL post numbered 99... Stay tuned.

Number 99

Wow - what a response from the last post! I now know I have two options to impress you - get engaged OR share my fascinating housework tips!!!

As I don't intend on doing the getting engaged too regularly (heck, only ever done it the once so far and have every intention for this once to be it) AND as I only have one other fascinating housework tip (and I am saving that peeling eggs post for when I really feel I need your love) AND as the post after this will be Number 100, I am going to ask a question of you...

What am I going to write about for it? (ack - What will I say? How will I look? What will I wear?)

Does everyone else do this? Worry inordinantly about things that, frankly dears, matter only slightly in the whole world stage? I mean, I love blogging and the blog-world door that it opens, but why am I angsting about what the heck I am going to write next time? And why shouldn't I be angsting more about spilling my frailties in Number 99?

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As you were.

If you want to offer something more concrete, then I have 3 suggestions this week:

There are only 2 days left to enter Semantically Driven's new banner offer. Every few months, Jaycee puts up a new banner and her new one is so pretty - but as one of her commenters said, so was the last one! (I haven't entered, but that is because I like my flower and can be a stick in the mud!)

Shelley at This Eclectic Life wants to know the 5 things people should know in life.

And someone I have met (blogmet, you know) of late, Sophiagurl has a great review of a movie which, as is her wont, morphs to inspiration!

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Edited to add: I know it only looks like 97 posts - there were 2 posts that I drafted that were too whingy for the world. Can you believe that?