ToolGirl

February Eclipse

The moon rose at 6:00pm, excited about her 9:00pm date with the shadow of the earth.

They had fun, the shadow dancing with the moon.

Bird Cuneiform

Finches are beautiful calligraphers.

Puddles of blue

What did you learn today?

When you're a kid, someone often asks you "What did you learn today?"  You start to expect the question so you're kind of preparing for it throughout the day.  Then when you get home and your mum springs the question on you, you've got some kernel that will satisfy her so you can go outside and play.  Stuff like, "I learned that Einstein was a Pisces" or "I learned that mice sometimes eat their young" or "I learned that stuffing yellow tissue paper up the tap spigot turns the water yellow and then everybody thinks it's pee." 

When you get to be an adult, people stop asking you "What did you learn today?"  I think that's because you're just supposed to know stuff.  I guess you're supposed to have grown up by now.  Well where's the fun in that?

Recently, I signed up for a business course with Melanie Benson Strick.  She gave me a new excercise.  Every night I get my notebook and write, "One thing I learned today is..." and I write down one thing I learned, and then I write down one thing I'd do differently if I had to do it again. 

Amazingly, this has the same effect on me that it used to have.  I go through my day learning things on purpose so I have something to report later.   

Sometimes the stuff I write at night is understated, like "One thing I learned today is that pressing Ctrl-S frequently is the only way to have a happy experience with Microsoft Word."  This is a much nicer way of putting it than the things I said in the white hot rage of the actual learning moment (after 3 crashes and the abject failure, on each occasion, of AutoRecover).

Sometimes I learn stuff about my behaviour.  Like, "One thing I learned today is that I have a lot more energy to get things accomplished when I have the drama of a time limit."  For example, instead of putting on my to-do list "Clean up the workshop" I now write "Clean up the workshop - 20 minutes".  That lights a fire under the old botty*. 

And if I don't get the job totally finished in 20 minutes, at least I got 20 minutes worth of effort into it, and I can do another 20 minutes tomorrow.  But the thing is, if I didn't apply that time limit, odds are good that I would have felt so overwhelmed by the task that I wouldn't even have started the job in the first place.  Cool, eh?

So let me be your mum for a minute.  What did you learn today?

*Botty:  Old English for arse

Have a Great Christmas

Here at ToolGirl.com we've embraced The Season.   We're lying around in front of the fatted yule log and eating shards of meringues sent all the way from California by my sister Gillian.  And we're disobeying any promptings from our work ethic. 

We'll be posting again after the final thrusts of Christmas indulgence, and we'll also be going to the post office with parcels for all of our Uni-ball 207 winners whose names were entered in our ongoing Daily Tool Giveaway because they subscribe to the free ToolGirl Newsletter. 

We've got big plans after all the sleeping and eating is over. 

Till then, have a truly great holiday.
xox
Mag and the ToolGirl Team

Search string theory

Because ToolGirl.com caters to people with eclectic tastes, we have intriguing visitors.  For example, here are some things people were searching for when they arrived at Toolgirl.com this week:

* How to escape a dull marriage

* Slide rule parts

* IUD earrings

* How do I get my greasy windows clean?

And my favourite:

* Do-it-yourself motorized snowboard

A barn in transition

The old barn came down in the night, kneeling to the future.

Viewed from the south it now offers the wry appearance of the ship that brought its builders to Canada circa 1850.

One of the barn's inhabitants, probably a raccoon, exited in a hurry, leaving his belly-track in the snow.

How to stop headaches, tight shoulders and neck tension (bra-wearing women only!)

Remove the metal underwire supports from your bras. 

I'm not kidding.  My headaches stopped immediately.  And look at the decor possibilities for those leftover uplifters.

Perhaps it's something to do with bio-electrical fields being short-circuited by metal worn against the body.  Whatever.  I don't need massages anymore.  Or Advil.
P.S.  A bra still performs well enough without the metal struts, although the perk factor might, er, drop.

Sunrise through the Cosmos

Quotability

Indecision may or may not be my problem.
- Jimmy Buffet