Now - Friday 13th October 2015
Reading: (updates and archives) John Scalzi "Lock In" (murder mystery set in near future, with part of the population unable to communicate except online or via android stand-ins)
Knitting/Craft:A small drawstring bag to carry my worry stones (things to carry and fiddle with), made from lime green Hempathy yarn. Need to be careful not to aggravate my elbow working with this yarn.
Orange Feather and Fan scarf is longer, but not done. Hitting the stage of being done with the scarf but still needing to knit another half metre of it. Perhaps I shouldn't have started a second Feather and Fan only four months after the first one.
I have a request to make a new ThinkMat for a friend, he's been using it and it's wearing out. That's a nice request to get. ThinkMats are rubber and aluminium chainmail in a Japanese Lace pattern, designed to be fiddled with.
Thinking about:Revamping the interviewing process, getting more interviewers trained up and discussing feedback from an "Improve our QA hiring process" lunch and learn.
I'm a 2015 NaNoWriMo drop out. I need a plan to write, and didn't get the time to put one together in October. Lesson learned, I can write this story at a slower pace.
The Skirtcraft unisex skirt should arrive in the next few weeks, it was a Kickstarter project to make a skirt with pockets. Wish usable pockets were more of a standard.
QA personal skills radar, my team did an exercise to determine things they are good at, and then things other people say they're good at. As a team, we value baking and coffee as essential skills.
A carry-around self-soothing kit. So far I have wooden worry stones or tagua nuts, some coffee beans, and a piece of coyote fur. I find these things calming in stressful situations, or just to stop me fiddling with other things like my phone.
A daily sketching habit. I have a sketchbook next to my lightbox, and a copy of Danny Gregory's "Art before Breakfast." An article by James Clear says it takes about 66 days to bed down a new habit, so if I can keep this up through mid January I should be in a good place. I have an experiment to perform to test his 66 days assertion, which feels appropriate.
Physical/Workouts:I have only 3 black belt techniques left to learn, then I'm onto reviews to get the 3rd degree brown, 2nd degree brown, 1st degree brown, and and 1st degree black belt techniques back up to standard (120 techniques), plus the 12 kata. Instructor is saying I will get my black belt if I want it, and I really do. So that'll be happening. They've only promoted about 50 women to black belt in 40 years of Tracy's Karate operating in Kirkwood.
Broke my plank and wall-sit records this week, 50 seconds for both, which is over 30 seconds more than when I started with the trainer in the gym.