Way back when I was studying for my Masters in Project Management, one of the core (compulsory) units was Leadership. Mainly because Project Managers have to unify short-term teams of people. Most often while they report to a permanent management structure that doesn’t include the team leader. Show them the way, so to speak. I […]
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April 2022 Progress Report
So, April 2022 marked the start of the second quarter, and my second 12 Week Year, the first using the 12 Week Year For Writers. And started with a sense of excitement. Even though April’s only just ended, it feels like ancient history. Can’t even rightly recall what happened! I really must get back into […]
Life With Dog
Check any dog owner’s instagram, tiktok, or whatever feed, you’ll see any number of cute life with dog pictures of dogs doing adorable things. But life with dog is not all that. Or perhaps, life with puppy is not all that. I’m not sure why it continues to surprise me that dogs have their own […]
Time, Time, Time!
Did you ever wonder how it is that time seemed to last forever when you were young but now you’re old it’s gone before you know it? Well, your not alone – psychologists have been debating it for decades. So why is it? Depends on who you ask. Common Knowledge The common acceptance of why […]
What Was the Question Again?
So much of life involves answering a question, usually presented in an either/or situation. You can choose the red pill or blue pill, not both. And no variants of purple, pink or aqua pills. Only red or blue. But as I recently discovered while searching for creepy images of a woman on her own walking […]
Millie and the Mountain
It takes an escapologist labrador… A darling white weather board cottage. In a eucalypt forest. With insecure fencing. Welcomes Millie the golden labrador home. But when she goes missing… Dignity goes out the window until she comes safely home. “Millie and the Mountain” by Alexandria Blaelock, is free on this website for a month. If […]
Q2 2022 Plan
Hopefully my Q2 2022 plan will build on the lessons learned in Q1 and turn out more successfully. In the universe according to Dean Wesley Smith, the second quarter is “The Time of Great Forgetting.” Mainly because in the northern hemisphere it’s the lead into summer and people start coming out of their winter hibernation. […]
Q1 2022 Review
My Q1 2022 review tells me I haven’t stuck to my plan. Though, to be honest, we all knew that already. In the Dean Wesley Smith universe, the first quarter is The Time of Great Excitement. The when you’re so full of optimism you make expansive plans for what you hope to accomplish during the […]
March 2022 Progress Report
The end of March 2022 marks the end of the quarter, and I can’t help feeling the year is over. Though I suppose my first 12 Week Year is. It’s left me feeling tired and a bit irritable. My medium sized drama minor surgery has turned out well in the end. Though I find the […]
Who are you?
I had my hair cut today. And not for the first time, as I looked in the mirror and nodded approval at the hairdresser, I wasn’t really feeling it. That neatly generic old lady in the mirror didn’t feel like me. “Who are you?” I asked myself. I’m pretty sure it was nothing to do […]
2022 Winter Wardrobe Plan
There’s a lot to consider for the 2022 Winter wardrobe plan; Over the last 6 – 12 months I’ve slimmed down from a LARGE to a Small verging on Extra Small. I’m tired of “cheap” clothes that stretch or shink and warp, and want to look and feel good, regardless of what I’m doing. Over […]
2021 Summer Wardrobe Update
Once again the weather is changeable, even for “Four Seasons in One Day” Melbourne, and it’s time to look at the 2022 Summer wardrobe update. 2021 Summer Wardrobe Plan First, let’s recap the plan; essentials plus a party dress for $1000. Bras – at least two good ones, and a sports bra say $500 Undies […]
Dwennon’s Despair
Clothes make the man. Or do they? Dwennon; third son of a minor noble. Sent to Court to find a rich wife. Would rather be farming. Someone or something is messing with his clothes. Becoming the talk of Court was not part of the plan. But what if it works? “Dwennon’s Despair” by Alexandria Blaelock, […]
February 2022 Progress Report
Now that it’s February 2022, thanks to the 12 Week Year, I have the uncomfortable feeling the year is half over. And it kind of is. My minor surgery turned into a medium sized drama when the big hole got infected. Extra strong antibiotics that made me feel ill, and plenty of lazing about. Which […]
Read an Ebook Week 2022
It’s Read an Ebook Week (6 – 12 March 2022), and Smashwords is having a sale to celebrate! Thousands of Smashwords authors have discounted their books as much as 100%. No coupons required – discounts are applied when you add to your cart and check out. ALL my books and short stories are 50% off, […]
Filing Cabinet
Decluttering my filing cabinet has been on my to do list for at least the last five years. It was so badly stuffed beyond its capacity, I could barely wedge any new papers into it. We won’t talk about the paper cuts. Or the steel cuts. I was thinking it might be easier to buy […]
Bold and Beautiful
Having been out of action for a few weeks, I’ve had plenty of time to look around me at my home. The one we bought and did up twenty years ago, but haven’t really done much with since. It’s not exactly bold and beautiful. A lot has changed in the last twenty years. I worked, […]
Money, Time, Health
As far as I am concerned, there are three aspects to wealth: money, time and health. As I say in Holistic Personal Finance, the value of money comes from the time you spend in places you don’t want to be doing things you don’t want to do, that you swap for the things you need […]
Fail to Success
Given my Q1 plan has been massively derailed by the unexpected difficulty of recovering from a minor surgery. Technically I’m failing, not succeeding. But what to do about it?. I’ve lost four of the twelve weeks (so far), and there are still six to go. In the normal scheme of a three month project I’d […]
Cry in the Darkness
What would you do? Wild and untamed Australia. Breathtakingly hot. Eucalyptus trees as far as the eye can see. The sound of scurrying creatures a constant assault. Exhausted by the battle to work his grant of land.Tom hears a scream in the darkness. “Cry in the Darkness” by Alexandria Blaelock, is free on this website […]
Adulting, Accountability & Responsibility
Not long ago, Katy asked for adulting tips, and I made a smart comment about social media. She scornfully suggested no one plans to waste an hour on social media, and that was kind of the point I was messily trying to make. Adulting But really, I was talking out of my arse because I […]
January 2022 Progress Report
January 2022, the first four weeks of my first attempt at a 12 Week Year. With mixed results. January 2022 got off to a fairly slow start, despite my high expectations. We’ve had some scorchingly hot days, and some thunderstorms. Clever Girls’s demeanour depends on the amount of exercise she gets – sometimes enough, and […]
Isn’t That Odd?
I’ve discovered it’s possible to be frustrated and amused at the same time. Isn’t that odd? And a bit weird? We’ve been talking about replacing our second hand office carpet since we moved into this house a couple of decades ago. It sounds like a fairly simple thing, doesn’t it? And yet… Is the floor, […]
Revisiting Just-in-Time Delivery
The concept of just-in-time delivery is essentially having ZERO stock on hand, ordering it when when you need it. In 2015, when I was long-term unemployed, I wrote a post about developing the virtue of Wealth. Essentially, it involved: Diversifying income streams to keep some money coming in. Decreasing expenditure to stop money going out, […]
Q1 2022 Plan
Right, so the Q1 2022 plan is a good time to tell you I’m not going to wite a 2022 plan as such. But, before we get started on the Q1 2022 plan, just a quick reminder that at the end of the year, I like to check the horoscopes for what was “supposed” to […]