Kristin’s Playground

Still working on the catching up. July!

1 July 2008:

The initial pair of “jalapeños” have grown into bell peppers. Still not ready to eat yet, but they’re getting bigger!

2 July 2008:

I have this expanding ball toy that my niece was very amused by when she visited.

3 July 2008:

The tomatoes are growing too. There are a lot of them now, none of them are turning colors yet though.

4 July 2008:

I slept through the parade, but one of the floats supporting the local skate park ended up in the neighborhood. Happy 4th of July!

5 July 2008:

I biked to Saline on the 5th, and stopped at the Saline Depot Museum. They had some currency from a time capsule from 1872. It was fascinating to see 25 cent and 50 cent bills, bills from the Bank of Saline and the confederacy.

Edited: Since constantly updating this would keep refreshing it for people’s RSS feeds, click the 101 Things tab above to see my progress, or check the 101 Things category for any post where I get to cross-off a task!

So. I’ve been pondering this for awhile now. I’ve seen the 101 Things in 1001 Days going around, and I decided that it might be a good thing for me to do. The following gives a description of the project straight from the source, and my list follows. I had a hard time coming up with 101 reasonable, yet challenging goals. Some on the list are easier than others, but if I work, they could all be done. We’ll see! I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments, and I’ll try to keep you updated on my progress.

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:
1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.

2. Stay Focussed. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.

3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.

4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.

5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

Start Date: 18 July 2008
End Date: 15 April 2011

Here goes nothing - in pseudo-categorized form:
Read more »

26 June 2008:

I fell in love with Fanta when I went to Spain in 2001. A soda with real orange juice? It was wonderful. (Of course, any semblance of juice had to be removed when it was marketed for the US later…) Since then, I’ve obtained quite the collection of Fanta from the world over. I brought back this can from my recent trip to Italy.

27 June 2008:

Anya sheds. A lot. Can you spin dog hair into something useful? I could’ve had a sweater by now, although it would itch.

28 June 2008:

I like my kitchen table - particularly when it’s clean. And that’s my photo from the Festifools exhibition.

29 June 2008:

The creamer didn’t mix so well with my coffee at first.

30 June 2008:

Logan’s aunt has a pond with a waterfall. It’s quite nice.

Woohoo! The next update will be at least be the right month. Slowly but surely catching up.

You know how I have a jalapeño plant in my back yard? It’s decidedly not a jalapeño. When it first started producing fruit, I thought that the peppers were a little short and fat, but they were so small, I thought they might elongate and start to look like jalapeños once they got bigger. However, since the first two have grown substantially, they definitely appear to be some sort of bell pepper. With this suspicion, I went to try and find some confirmation of the early fruits produced by these plants. My baby fruit looks like this:

However, Lisa Joyce on Flickr, has budding jalapeños that look like this:

Yeah… Pretty sure someone switched the labels on my seedling. Somewhere someone is probably surprised to find jalapeños in their bell pepper plant. Now, I wonder if they’re going to stay green or if they’ll turn a pretty color once they’ve fully ripened.

21 June 2008:

The flower girl and ring bearer walk down the aisle at Nese’s wedding.

22 June 2008:

This weed popped up in my herb garden and my jalapeño plant. Anyone know what it is? Pennsylvania smartweed? That appears to be my best guess. ::shrug::

23 June 2008:

More flower identification. These guys seem to survive an awfully long time in a vase. Anyone know what they are? Dahlias have been suggested, but I know nothing about flowers.

24 June 2008:

A friend of mine (from Romania) had her birthday, so the cake was the colors of the flag. It was tasty.

25 June 2008:

Another flower. These grow on campus near my bus stop. Surprise, I don’t know what these are either. Pretty though.

The next 5 photos of the day. This time, I’m in the states.

16 June 2008:

This is the view from our hotel window near JFK. Courtesy of Delta.

17 June 2008:

This is the colorful walkway between concourses at Detroit’s airport. Usually some soothing type music is being played, and the lights along the walls change color. Quite nice. If you’re paying attention, you’ll have noticed that this is the third picture of the day from an airport or nearby. That story will come.

18 June 2008:

Driving towards Ohio, we pass Milan. Wait, I thought I was just there?

19 June 2008:

Ah, my Northwest ticket. A useful bookmark, and it represents the flight that finally got me to Detroit. How nice!

20 June 2008:

Ah, my plants grew while I was gone! See the pot on the left? That has the sunflowers that were the subject of a guessing game before I left.

Woohoo! I’m getting caught up on photos of the day (almost a full month behind)! As I recall, I last left you with a giant flying piece of corn, so this post brings you photos of the day from Italy itself. I’m sure there will be more Italy pictures when I get around to it, but this should give a brief glimpse into the trip.

9 June 2008:

I <3 Going! We saw this sign on the bus from the airport to Stresa, and it amused me. I like going. Do you like going? Turns out it's an ad for a travel agency. Makes sense.

10 June 2008:

Italian vending machine. This vending machine was right by a pharmacist’s door in the public square. It’s surprising to see things like that out in the open when they’re relegated to sketchy restrooms back here in the states. Different attitudes, that’s all.

11 June 2008:

The Regina Palace. One of the swankiest hotels in town. The conference had its gala dinner there on Wednesday night. Fancy!

12 June 2008:

Poster time! Time to present our work, so I grab a shot of Jeff posing by one of our posters.

13 June 2008:

Our last day in Stresa, I wanted to take a picture from our hotel room’s balcony. It was a pleasant balcony, with two little chairs and a table. Nice place to sit and read.

14 June 2008:

When we were in Milan, I spotted a Smart car pulling its infamous trick: the “I can perpendicular park in your parallel parking spot” trick.

15 June 2008:

We found the Lego Harry Potter at Milan’s airport.

That’s all for now - I’ll post another set of photos of the day soon. I’m all caught up in uploading them to Flickr, just not yet to the blog. I’ll get there.

You may have noticed (you probably didn’t) that my site was down for most of yesterday. Our server got corrupted, and Logan has spent a great deal of time getting us back online, mail and all that included. Our main backup was a few days old, so I had to repost my TT from yesterday. I also need to redo my plugins and a few other things that didn’t end up in our backup, so I’ll probably be playing around with the site for awhile tonight in case you see anything as broken.