Focusing

The lack of activity here is a reflection of the lack of focus in the rest of my life. Once again, changes are afoot, and I'm trying not to be distracted, but without success. So I continue to retreat to my knitting....The vultures are circling here at work—in fact two of them are sitting in the office behind me as I type. I've been ignoring my studies, but next week I have to teach a three-hour Hebrew class (on irregular verbs, no less) for a fellow student who will be absent so need to gear up for that. I also need to find some more music for my (long-term) substitute musician gig at church. People have heard my preludes, offertories, and postludes more than a few times now.

I will try to post more regularly; maybe writing here will help sharpen my perception and grasp of what's happening and what I need to be doing.

Knitting fun

My recent (old) distraction is knitting. I ferreted out two semi-local knitting shops I'd not been to: Skein and Velona Needlecraft. Velona is quite a trek on traffic-infested freeways, but what a treat to walk into a store with aisles of floor-to-ceiling shelves shoved full of wool (or yarn, as they call it here)! I am working on my first pair of socks. I'm made the error of working from an English translation of a German pattern in this Inspiration book. After much frustration, I found a proper English pattern in the current Vogue Knitting magazine based on the pattern I'd started with. I'm using a blue-brown mix of Regia wool/cotton yarn.

One of these years I am going to start organizing my links into categories on this site. Until then, here are three favorite knitting sites:

• Wendy's Knitting Blog (check out her page of finished projects)
• Bagatell
• The site for knitting links Dangerous Chunky

Organization

I've been wanting to write about this subject for a while: the cult of being organized. I'm strangely, strongly attracted to concepts and products that promote living an organized life, but I'm often not organized and seem to live deliberately in rebellion of being organized. An organized life covers many areas: daily homemaking tasks; work-related duties; a Ph.D. course of study assignments; long-term plans for supporting life after income-earning years are past; and then the social, familial, and spiritual sides of life, if indeed such can be "organized."

To state the obvious, for me the desire to be organized is the desire to have things under control. I think, too, I sometimes confuse organizing something (or even only thinking about organizing something) with actually getting something done. And for me that's the seduction of the cult of organization. The catalogues promoting Daytimer or FranklinCovey products, for example, show calendar pages with notes such as "Write budget" or "Pick up dry-cleaning" or "Order tickets for the opera." Somehow the painful experience of hours trying to figure out a budget for the next year will be reduced to a tidy line if only I buy the cream and black leather desk-size stuff-your-whole-life-in-this zippered planner. And, of course, I'll be the sort of person who regularly attends the opera.

Today I was set off by an article in the WSJ, "Teens Trade Assignment Books for Time-Management Tools" by Nancy Ann Jeffrey (paid subscription required). The article points out how teenagers (and younger children) are being encouraged to take time-management courses and use corporate-type tools such as electronic planners and spreadsheets.

From his color-coded filing system to a date planner marked up with deadlines, Edmund Holderbaum is equipped with all the tools a busy executive needs to juggle big projects. He even met with one of those pricey time-management consultants, getting tips on keeping his paperwork straight.

It should all come in handy -- for his next geometry quiz. The 14-year-old Mr. Holderbaum has just entered the 10th grade, complete with an arsenal of organizational strategies for that extra edge in class. All the schedules, charts and files, he says, give him "a chance at competing."

Meet the new buttoned-down, ultra-organized CEO: your teenager. If it looks like kids are growing up even faster than usual lately, one of the reasons is they're getting a big push -- from parents and teachers seemingly intent on raising a new generation of Organization Kids. They're getting help from an industry that's deluging kids with MBA-style strategies for success, from books (a teen-tailored version of the blockbuster "Who Moved My Cheese?" hits stores this fall) and $400 Palm organizers to workshops and tapes that push go-getter mantras like "sharpen the saw." Schools across the country are buying into the idea big-time, shelling out thousands on journals, workbooks and other classroom materials intended to teach organizational skills.

Other teen editions of the current popular books on the subject are being published—some by the children of the authors of the adult versions! For example: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide by Sean Covey or Organizing From the Inside Out for Teens: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Room, Your Time, and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern and Jessie Morgenstern-Colon.

The article writes about Jessie Morgenstern-Colon:

The high-school senior credits her organizing prowess with helping her get good grades -- while simultaneously practicing dance several hours a day, doing community service and staying in touch with friends. Her secret: A computer spreadsheet in which she logs activities for every hour of every day, clearing space for her one "leisure" activity -- a weekend night out with girlfriends -- and "keeping in touch" (a weekly phone call to a friend from camp). "I'm a very goal-driven person," she says. "To know that at the end of the day I've accomplished a billion things because I've time-mapped well is the most satisfying thing in the world."

To be continued (lunchtime is just so rushed...).

Adventures in flying

Here's a picture of me with my dad's plane after we landed at the family farm in NW Washington.

Nothing to say

I've been sitting with the Blogger template open on my screen for the past 45 minutes while eating my lunch, trying to figure out what to write. But I'm coming up with nothing. I finished the Literary LA book (see below). Tuesday, I spent 10 + hours on my editing project and handed it off to someone else yesterday (big sigh of relief, for the time being). Today is another tasky/busy day at work. Tomorrow is orientation at school, and I have a small presentation to give to the new students. I am reminded that I am now starting my 5th (!!) year of Ph.D. studies and need to get a move on!

I got some pictures back from my trip to Washington, but I can't post them online at the moment because I don't have the claim number info. with me.

So, that's all the boring non-news for now.

Coffehouse LA

Last night I sought refuge in the air-conditioned local branch of Vroman's Bookstore. In the "Essays" section, I came across this book: Literary LA: Expanded from the Original Classic & Featuring the Coffeehouse Scene Then and Now. It's a collection of columns written for the former Herald-Examiner by Lionel Rolfe about bohemian writers with Los Angeles connections, e.g., Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Aldous Huxley, Jack London, Charles Bukowski. It is a fascinating description of 1960s culture, in particular, that percolated in LA coffeehouses and independent bookstores.

My other purchase was the Fall '02 edition of Vogue Knitting magazine.
It is the 20th anniversary issue of the re-publication of the magazine—a flashback experience for me because I bought (and still have) the premier issue from Fall 1982 when I was in high school.

So I'm dreaming of opening a counter-culture coffeehouse/bookstore/knitting shop and forgetting the corporate and academic worlds....Not really, but it's a fun idea to play with.

Clingy cats

Last night my big cat, Leo, would not let me sleep. He kept trying to climb onto the bed without my noticing it. Usually he sleeps outside the bedroom guarding the window (and his food supply) from marauding neighborhood cats, but last night he wanted to be within touching distance. The little one was content to curl up next to the bed. I finally put Leo out in the hall and closed the bedroom door but did not latch it shut; he pushed it open and came back in. However, he stopped getting onto the bed. Then I almost stepped on Leo when I got out of the shower this morning. While I was getting ready for work, he jumped up on the edge of the tub trying to rub against me as I was putting on makeup. It feels good to be so missed!