Not To Be Trusted With Knives

In keeping with my desire to be a year-end cliché, here are my goals for the new year (in no particular order):

• Sleep.  Sleep is always the first thing I sacrifice when I take on too many jobs, which I do a lot.  I’m going to take advantage of the fact that I’m not teaching any courses this term, nor working any extra contracts at the moment, to get a proper night’s sleep at least four nights a week.
• Tackle 40 of my 101 things to do in 1001 days list.  Since I have 83 things left to do and only 650 days left to do them, I think getting 40 done in the next year would be reasonable.
• Reattempt the 100 pushups/200 situps/200 squats program, at which I was a spectacular failure. I think part of the problem was that, following my “Go Big or Go Home” philosophy of life, I tried to do all three programs at once, found it took a lot of time that I couldn’t quite fit into my day, and then bailed.  This time I will do each program separately.  And I’m not going to start until after I get back from vacation.
• Get back to running. I’ve already registered to run the 8 km race at Vancouver International and I’m planning to run the Scotiabank Half Marathon in June. And again, without the extra jobs, I’ll have more time to focus on this.
• Do a 30-day yoga challenge. Apparently one is coming up at February at my local Moksha Studio.
• Focus on fruits and veg. You’d think as a vegetarian I’d get lots of fresh fruit and veggies, but lately I’ve been a total slacker about getting groceries and my diet hasn’t been all that great.
• Lose 15 lbs.  My tagline lately has been: “Working in Public Health is making me fat!”  It’s not actually the job (though the constant supply of cakes and cookies at my office has not helped) – it’s more the owning of the car¹, having an office on a second floor instead of a six floor² and having a 1.5 hr commute each day³.  The above mentioned getting proper sleep⁴, running, yoga, and fresh fruit and veggie eating should all help with this.
• Do a great purge!  Again, since I’m not teaching this term, I will have some time to prune my wardrobe⁵ and my paper files⁶
• Hit a net worth of $0.  Thanks to my crushing student loan debts, my net worth is negative. Since both DreamBank and my “rampant begging” link on the sidebar of this blog have been uberFAIL at helping me pay off that student debt, I’ve had to do it the old fashion way- through my own cheapness frugal and responsible nature.  Due to my pension, RRSPs, TFSAs, and other savings, I’m on target to hit a net worth of $0 sometime in 2010, which I think is pretty awesome.
• Make $100,000. Now, I should say that my salary is *not* even close to $100,000 and this year, even with salary + several teaching gigs + contract work, I did not make $100,000. And I have no teaching nor contracts lined up for 2010. But I’ve decided I want to hit a six-figure income this year. I just need to figure out how to do it. Go big or go home, I always say.
• Invest 10% of my earnings. I keep reading that this is what you are “supposed” to do. And while I make payments to my pension and RRSPs every paycheque, right now I don’t know what percentage of my income I’m investing. So step 1 is to sit down and crunch my numbers and see what percentage I’m investing right now. Step 2 is to make any necessary adjustments. Step 3 – consider additional ways of investing.
• And, of course, what list of goals would be complete without my stalwart goal? In 2010, I’m going to blog every day!

1. whereas I used to walk several blocks to bus stops every day – all those little bits add up! [↩]
2. I’m a stair walker and, again, little bits do add up [↩]
3. =1.5 fewer hours to do any sort of activity [↩]
4. research shows an association between getting less sleep and being overweight [↩]
5. i.e., bring any clothes I don’t wear anymore for donation to a thrift store [↩]
6. I have papers that I can most definitely get rid of!  Journal articles from my thesis research, I’m looking in your direction! [↩]

Tags: being a cliché, goals, New Year's Resolutions

I’ve decided to go totally cliché this year.  I’m talking New Year’s resolutions and swearing that I’ll get back to exercising and eating well and losing that 15 lbs that’s been plauguing me.  So, keeping with my transformation into a cliché,  I figure the week after Christmas is a good time to take stock.  Like checking in on how I’m doing on my 101 things to do in 1001 days list.  Here’s the update:

So that’s not really that good.  I’m 35% through the 1001 days, but I’ve only done 18% of the tasks.  There are a few items that I’m partway through, so I think I’ll tackle those to get a few more under my belt.  Numbers 72 and 83, I’m looking in your direction!

Tags: 101 in 1001, Geekery, meme

So, I totally wrote this on Thursday night and was completely sure that I posted it. Apparently not.  Anyway, better late than never, right?

Today was the first day of class. And for the first time in many, many years, I’m not teaching a brand new class!¹ Hooray for being able to use the same syllabus and some of the same slide decks again! And to be able to implement some of the what-I-can-improve-for-next-time ideas I always have after teaching a class for the first time!

The class I’m teaching is probably my favourite of all the classes I’ve taught. It’s all active learning, where the students learn by engaging in formal debates and giving interactive seminar presentations. And this year I’m trying something new – instead of a writing a paper, students are going to be creating (or substantially revising) a Wikipedia page. It’s an idea I got from hearing Brian Lamb talk at a teaching & learning conference about this guy’s assignment. Rather than having students write a paper that will only ever be read by one person² and then never be heard from again³, why not have them contribute quality information to a public project that will be read by thousands of people?? And learning about working in wikis. And learning about the strengths and limitations of online resources like Wikipedia. And working collaboratively with colleagues (and total strangers) through an ongoing editing and revision process, learning from feedback and being challenged to support their points with evidence⁴. I figured the students would either think this assignment is awesome or think it’s crazy and, despite the fact that only one person in a class of 40 has ever edited a wiki before, they seem to think it’s awesome⁵.

And, of course, the question you really all came here to read about: what did I wear on the first day of class?  I chose this fabulous ensemble:

That’s my current favourite skirt. I bought it at a thrift store⁶ and I get compliments every time I wear it.  And it is the skirt I wore to the job interview for my current day job, so that counts for something.  And the boots, of course. Gotta have the boots.

In addition to what you see in the above photo, I also had with me my new sweater, which is black and awesome and kind of cape-like, which pretty much makes me Batman. But I didn’t wear the sweater to teach, because I prefer to teach as my alter ego, Beth Wayne Snow.

1. which just so happens to be #37 on my 101 list! [↩]
2. i.e., me [↩]
3. the papers, not the students [↩]
4. I mean, I challenge students to do this, but it’s usually feedback on a paper they hand in, and then there’s not an opportunity for them to respond and thus learn from that feedback. [↩]
5. either that or they are just sucking up. But they did seem genuinely excited about it, so I’m going to say it’s the former [↩]
6. of course [↩]

Tags: academia, rampant narcissism, teaching, Teaching & Learning

So I’m a bit of a perfectionist. And the speed and sleep deprivation that accompanies blogging every half hour for 24 hours straight does not lend itself to perfection. So there are some things from my Blogathon – things I couldn’t remember in the haste of blogathoning – that I feel the need to rectify.

Re: All The Books I Currently Have Out of The Library

• I’ve finished reading¹ Eat that Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell and now I’ve gotten Blink, also by Malcolm Gladwell
• I totally thought I was on the waiting list for Getting Things Done by David Allen as an e-audiobook, but I just went to check where on the waiting list I am and it appears that not only am I not on the waiting list, but the library doesn’t even have this as an e-audiobook.  I’ll have to go to the library to pick up the CD audiobook².  I’ll chalk this one up to Blogathon delirium!

Re: A List of My Go-To Meals

• Can’t belive I forgot to mention President’s Choice fake “chicken” breasts with French fries (if I’m feeling industrious, I’ll cut up potatoes, cover in olive oil, rosemary & fresh ground black pepper and oven bake; if I’m feeling lazy, it’s frozen Safeway fries, oven baked) and a veg (maybe steamed asparagus or broccoli or corn-on-the-cob)
• Also, veggie tacos!!  Yves veggie ground round with onions/green peppers/zucchini/mushrooms & taco seasoning mix in a tortilla with tomatoes, green onions, fresh cilantro, avocado, yogurt and cheese. Or sometimes I’ll use refried beans instead of the ground round mix.

Re: Stuff Cookbooks Have Taught Me

• The cookbook that Shalu et al got me for my birthday is called Cooking with Kurma.  The other cookbook that Shalu gave me was The Higher Taste: A Guide to Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking and a Karma-Free Diet.
• The cookbook where the chef says to put herbs and spices in until you are sure it’s too much and then put some more (which I neglected to mention was a gift from my sister), is called Byron’s New Home Cooking: 100 Recipes for Busy Cooks With Demanding Palates.
• I can’t *believe* I forgot to mention my Linda McCartney cookbook! Linda McCartney’s World of Vegetarian Cooking - a gift I received from my friend Kaede – rocks my world.

Re: Plugins, My Plugins

• Tod has just introduced me to the best plugin ever! WP-Footnotes automates the whole footnoting process even better than the AddQuicktag that I’d set up.  And you know how much I loves me some footnotes³.  Maybe now I’ll be able to write a blog posting with 101 footnotes in it before my 1001 days are up!

1. by which I mean “listening to” [↩]
2. how archaic! [↩]
3. a lot! [↩]

Tags: Blogathon, Blogathon 2009, Blogathon Vancouver 2009

OK, I’m diverging from the book topic for a bit now.  Don’t worry, all you book-ophiles, I’ll talk more about books later.  Right now it’s time to do an update on my 101 in 1001 days list! Remember how I’m trying to do 101 things in 1001 days?  Well it’s been 195 days and I’ve done 13 of the 101 of the tasks!  And I’m in the process of completing #68 – Participate in Blogathon!

Other 101 in 1001 updates:

• Unfortunately, I missed my opportunity to complete task #91 – see a show at Richard’s on Richards before it closes down. Because they closed down. Boo me!
• Does anyone want to come with me to Bard on the Beach¹? That will knock #79 off the list.
• Maybe I’ll knock off #30 today – write a blog entry entitled: Word to Your Moms, I Came to Drop Bombs!

¹Tod’s not a big Shakespeare fan, so I need to find someone else to be my Bard date!

Don’t forget to donate!

Read about the charity that I’m supporting, Options for Sexual Health!

Tags: 101 in 1001, Blogathon, Blogathon 2009, Blogathon Vancouver 2009

164 days ago I made a little list. A list of 101 things I was going to attempt to do in the next 1001 days.  Today seems like a good day to check in on my progress.

• items accomplished – 11 (or 10.9%)
• items in progress – 7 (or 6.9%)
• items on which I’m totally slacking – 83 (or 82.2%)
• days remaining – 837
• most surprising accomplishment – #40 – Buying a Smart Car!
• least surprising accomplishment – #94 – Buying pants!

There’s one item that I thought would be uber difficult but that I now think I’m close to accomplishing: #83 – achieve inbox zero and maintain for one full week. I’m an intermittent¹ reader of Lifehacker and recently read this posting, which led me to this posting and this posting and this posting.  So I’m gonna try all that and see if I can manage this whole inbox zero thing which, up until now, has seem about as likely to exist as Ogopogo.

Another one that seems within my grasp is #69 – do 15 minutes of yoga every morning for a month, thanks to Nancy’s blog recommendation about Yoga Today free videos.  Because not having good yoga videos has been my excuse for not doing it so far. Though I may wait until my 100/200/200 challenge is over before I tackle the yoga!

¹“Intermittent” because they have *way* too much stuff on their blog and so I often have to declare RSS bankrupcy on their feed as having 496 unread postings makes me want to cry.

Tags: 101 in 1001

So today was the big day – my chance to skate at GM Place *and* have my picture taken with Taylor Pyatt! (You know you are jealous!)

This is me, heading down the steps to go skate at GM Place:

This is me skating:

I have to say the ice is pretty damn nice. (Comparable, I’d say, to the Olympic-sized rink at UBC ).  It was also pretty cool to skate through the crease and think, “damn, this is wear Luongo stands!”)

This is me on the Canucks bench.  It was pretty much the same as any hockey bench I’ve ever been on before. (I don’t know why I expected it to be different, but I did).

And this is the Canucks’ mascot, Fin, eating my arm:

Of course, the highlight of the event was meeting Taylor Pyatt for a photo.

Our conversation went something like this:

Taylor:    Hi, what’s your name?
Me:           Beth
Taylor:    Hi, Beth. I’m Taylor.
Me:          I know.

Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me for this event. I appreciate your generosity in supporting this very worthy cause!  (The Michael Cuccione Laboratory for Childhood Cancer Research, I mean.  Not that me getting to skate at GM Place and have my pic taken with Taylor isn’t a worthy cause.  Just the charity is a bit worthier.)

Tags: Canucks, GM Place, Skate For A Cure, Taylor Pyatt, Vancouver, Vancouver Canucks

So, after posting yesterday’s blog posting, which I was totally sure I’d alreday posted, I got to thinking “Why the heck didn’t I post it?”  And through my mad investigatory skills, I made  a horrifying discovery: I missed a day of blogging!  I’m pretty sure that what must have happened was that I wrote that blog posting and then clicked “Save Draft” instead of “Publish.”  And then went about my merry way, thinking that I had posted when I hadn’t. Me = brilliant!

Truth be told, I’m not even sure why I have this desire to blog every single day.  I mean, I don’t get paid to do this, there’s no one making me do this, it’s not as if my legions of fans are demanding daily blog posts and it’s not like I’m bored and need a hobby to fill my time – I have three jobs for crying out loud!  It can actually be quite tricky to find the time to post something every day (FSM bless the “schedule posts” feature of WordPress) , yet still I strive to do it.  I think it’s partly about the challenge – just to see if I can stick to it – and party about having something that I do solely because I choose to do it.  I write for fun.  I write to vent about things or to share things that I find amusing or to brag about my mad hockey skillz or the adorable thing my niece said or whatever random thought is rattling around in my brain on any given day.

But, yeah, I screwed up the blogging streak after 231 days straight of blogging!  Which means I won’t be able to check off #101 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.  I blame the economy.

It’s my one year anniversary of moving from Blogger to WordPress.com.  So, now I’m moving to WordPress.org. It’s true what they say: WordPress.com is just a gateway platform to the harder stuff.

In fact, I’m all set up to make the shift.  I’ve got a domain (which I’ve actually had for a while), I have a server, and WordPress.org has been installed (thanks to Kalev, who rocks).  I’m only lacking one magical ingredient: time.  This semester is insanely, insanely busy.  In addition to my day job, I’m teaching two new courses: the UBC one and one at SFU¹ and I’m playing on two hockey teams.  Oh yeah, and I’m supposed to be training for a half marathon. So I won’t be making the shift until I get a few minutes to breath².

In the meantime, I need all you techies to answer this question: What are your favourite WordPress plugins?

Kalev has suggested this one, which, among other things, allows commenters to preview their comments before posting them.  What other ones should I get?  You know, for when I stop being insanely busy and get a chance to make the jump.

And speaking of being insanely busy, I’ve decided to prorogue my BC Premiers series until after the end of the semester.  Writing the BC Premier series postings, which I usually do on Sundays, takes up a fair bit of time since I know pretty much nothing about BC Premiers.  Unlike my usually postings where I just blather about whatever is spinning around in my brain, I actually have to read stuff.  And I know that I just don’t have time to do that until the semester is over.  So I’ve asked the Governor General of my blog³ for a prorogation of the BC Premier series and she has graciously agreed to allow it. Expect the series to start back up in late April, at which time I’ll present a budget.

¹Which, mercifully, is online (so I don’t have to go up the mountain) and has a TA (who does tonnes o’ work and also rocks)
²Perhaps over reading break?
³As it turns out, I’m the GG of my own blog. What a lucky coincidence!

Tags: BC premiers, blog, busy, plugins, WordPress.com, WordPress.com is a gateway platform, WordPress.org

Only two days into my 1001 days and already I get to cross something off my list!

43. take Tod to a Vancouver Canucks game

Last night I took Tod to his first ever Vancouver Canucks game.  Shocking, I know.  He has lived¹ his whole life in BC, most of it in and around Vancouver, without ever having gone to a Canucks game.  Mercifully, this has now been rectified.

You’ll note, however, that I didn’t specify on my list that I would take him to a good hockey game.  You know, like a game in which we wouldn’t have to give our goalie the hook at 3.5 minutes into the game because he had already been scored on TWICE!  Sanford came into replace LaBarbera and soon was inexplicably behind the net with Gionta (a Devils player) putting the puck into the net².  Combine those with the fact that the Canucks let the Devils win every battle for the puck and let the Devils skate around them as if they were a bunch of pylons and it was so bad that the whole stadium booed the Canucks off the ice at the end of the first period!  A little kid a few rows back was heard asking, quite loudly, “Why do they suck so much?”

Thankfully, the ‘nucks came out much better in the second and third periods.  They managed to make a game of it and there was some entertaining hockey to be watched.  Surprisingly, though, there wasn’t a single fight.  I think I’ll have to accomplish #44 on my 101 list (take Tod to a Vancouver Giants game) to see the fighting action. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get to see another full team brawl!

In somewhat related news, when I was telling a friend of mine at work that I’d been at the game last night and mentioned that the Canucks were playing the New Jersey Devils, my friend said, “Oh really? I met a bunch of NFL players from New Jersey on Sunday.”  She meant NHL (but that’s an indication of just how much she’s interested in pro sports) and after a quick look at the Devils’ website, we discovered that she was partying with Dainius Zubrus and Zach Parise that night.  Parise, as it happens, is on my hockey hotties list and it looks like Zubrus needs to be added to my roster!

¹Although whether one can say they’ve truly lived without having been to see a Canucks game is up for debate.
²I miss you Roberto. Please say the rumors that you are coming back tomorrow are true!

Photo credit: Tod Maffin on Flickr.

Tags: 101 in 1001, Canucks, hockey, photos, sports, Vancouver, Vancouver Canucks