Project 365 – Enchilada Sunrise

On Giving In Gracefully

So, back in March I made some bloggy resolutions about what I intended to do for weekly posting goals. Obviously, I haven’t kept those up… and then I started feeling like I was in catch-up mode all the time with myself, and oh noes, panic!! Which is bad, since this blog isn’t supposed to be a duty! Therefore, I have Made A Decision: I’m giving myself permission to “give up”. In actual fact what that means is that I’m going to forget about Project 365 this year, since taking the photos already wasn’t working out – maybe I can go again another year, but I’ll see how it goes. I’m still going to do the Friday 5 whenever I feel like it, but not necessarily every week. I am going to try to post more about knitting and spinning and things in general. This way, it’s more of an adjustment of my goals to something more realistic, rather than really giving up.

Another thing that I’ve decided to let go of is taking strict part of the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon ’09. I haven’t been knitting very fast this year, and I’d ended up knitting nothing but those socks and still not finishing them. It all got a bit too much like hard work! So even though I love the patterns for the first two socks, and I really like the look of the third one which has recently been released, I’m not going to start #3. I do intend to finish the first two socks, but not as my most immediate projects. Instead I’m going to go back to my other knitting works in progress and try to get those finished off. They’d been pushed back while I was knitting just socks. That’s meant that I’ve now almost finished the shawl I’ve been making for Emily (I’m casting off at the moment, but that’s deadly boring so I’m just doing a few stitches at a time then putting it down again *g*). And I’m really looking forward to picking up the projects I’ve been neglecting and making some real progress on them. Hooray! I don’t even feel like starting something new, because my old projects are almost like new ones by now.

I’m also thinking about giving in using Coppermine for my photo album software. Yes, I’ve been using it for years on this site, so it seemed like a more sensible decision to keep using it and integrate it with WP rather than migrate to something else. But there’s a good photo album plugin for WP, and the integration plugin for Coppermine doesn’t do precisely what I want it to do – it’s a great plugin, and it’s probably perfect for everyone else… but I’m picky! Also, I do have to do some tweaking of the source code every time it updates because of the way I have my Coppermine set up, and… well, in the long run it might just be easier to change to using something more integrated with WP. It’ll mean not having to theme Coppermine to match WP, too. I’m going to ponder it a while more, but I expect I will change over.

Why am I mentioning this, when no-one but me cares? Because it kind of fits the theme of the rest of this post: I’ve been hanging on to some things that I should have gracefully given in on a while back. Letting go and making a few small changes will make things easier. Note to self: change is good, and giving up on something doesn’t necessarily equate to failure. There we go, that’s my deep personal insight for the day. Now I shall stop rambling, let go of this post and send it into the big wide world (= hit the publish button)! TTFN.

Project 365, attempt no.2!

Well, I was going to do the Friday 5, but I’m getting a 500 error from the site, so I’ll have to try again later. And in the mean time, I’ll post something else I’ve been meaning to get to – my Project 365 photos. This is my second attempt at this – stuff got in the way so I tailed off last year and didn’t finish it properly. So, here I go again. These are the first two week’s worth, but they’re also up at Flickr in my Project 365 ’09-10 set and in the Project 365 album for this year in the photo album here (you can see the great-big full size versions there). The next few days of photos are up in those places, too. I’ll do another post of them on the blog when I have a full week’s worth, then keep posting weekly thereafter. I hope!!

Anyway, because I’m posting two week’s of pics, I’m doing these as thumbnails. I’m not sure whether to keep on going like that, or to post the medium size and have the pic titles and some exposition below them, like I did last year. Thoughts, anyone?

[group:c:s=1][thumb:1093:l][thumb:1094:l][thumb:1096:l][thumb:1095:l][thumb:1097:l][thumb:1098:l][thumb:1103:l][thumb:1099:l][thumb:1100:l][thumb:1107:l][thumb:1101:l][thumb:1102:l][thumb:1105:l][thumb:1104:l][/group]

PS – I think I’m going to give up on using Live+Press for crossposting to LJ for now… there are two main problems with it for me. The first is an actual bug which should be fixed with the next release (though I don’t know when that is) – if I save a draft post in the WP posting interface, it posts it to LJ, which means I keep accidentally posting half-done entries. And also, I’m not sure if this is related, but I have to re-select the “No Synch” option (the only way to get round the early posting) every time I open the draft: it’s not saving that option, and it won’t default to it either. That wasn’t the second issue though – that is an actual feature of the plugin. I have no way to stop it from crossposting tags into LJ. Which I do in LJXP, even though it has far fewer features otherwise. Oh well, no being able to choose my userpics and moods from here, then. I may change back later, we’ll see how it goes.

Bloggy Resolutions

This is a bit of a strange time to be doing this, since I’m about to import the whole blog to a new system, and who knows what will happen… but I’ve decided to make those blog resolutions that I was thinking about back when I tried the BloPoMo thingy. Assuming all goes well (and right now, it looks like it should!), a NewNew Blog should be the perfect time to start a NewNew blogging habit to go with it. Especially since the new setup makes things like importing from my photo album, and crossposting to LJ, all the easier.
So, this is what I resolve. I will:

Re-start / resume Project 365, which faltered in about August last year… then picked up again for a bit, but ultimately didn’t make it the whole year. I’ve started taking the photos as of yesterday. Like I said above, the new blog (WP with the Coppermine Integration plugin) will make inserting photos from the gallery quicker and easier, so I should be able to keep up with the whole thing without a whole load of fiddly copy-pasting and so on.
Be more structured in my posting in general – start doing the Friday Five again, for example, so that I know that I have specific things to be posting about, rather than a big blank space to fill with randomness. Not that randomness is bad… I just want more of a mixture of, er, stuff.
Therefore, try to be posting 2 – 3 times a week:
1. A weekly Project 365 update.
2. The Friday Five, or some other meme or similar that makes me think a bit.
3. And most importantly, knitting / spinning / other stuff content. All the stuff I usually post, but more regularly, and with photos more often, and … things. Hopefully some things about the course I’m starting soon on Bipolar. We’ll see how it goes.

I think all that’s do-able and should be fun. I have to get the new website version up and running first, of course, but I pretty much have all the background stuff for that done now. It’s just a matter of importing the content from the old site version and making any edits that I want… and there are bound to be lots of those since I haven’t done any actual updates on this site in forever. The thing that will probably take the longest will be importing the several hundred entries from this blog – I’ve actually already done the old-old one (“So Far So Good”) and that went well enough. I’m trying to decide what to do about redirecting the old pages to the new ones… it’s going to be fiddly so I think I might not bother on the most part. This is hardly a big-name website, after all. My own internal links can be done gradually and I can set up some redirections for pages I know have outside links, like my Knitting Patterns category. If I find I get a lot of hits looking for anything in particular, I can sort it out then. I think that’s the most stress-free way of going about it.

Project 365 #9, Days 68-82: 17th – 31st March

Back to the catching up! Here are days 68 to 82 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album. Or for the most up-to-date version, try my Flickr set.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #9, Days 68-82: 17th – 31st March”

Project 365 #8, Days 52-67: 1st – 16th March

Stiiiiiiiill catching up: here are days 52 to 67 of my Project 365 photos – the first half of March. I’m going to post them in chunks of half a month at a time until I get caught up, now. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album. Or for the most up-to-date version, try my Flickr set.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #8, Days 52-67: 1st – 16th March”

Project 365 #7, Days 45-51: 23rd – 29th Feb

Still catching up! Here’s the rest of February: days 45 to 51 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #7, Days 45-51: 23rd – 29th Feb”

Project 365 #6, Days 35-44: 13th – 22nd Feb

Since I’m still playing catch up, here’s yet another picdump: days 35 to 44 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #6, Days 35-44: 13th – 22nd Feb”

Catching up

Whoops, I’ve been absent for a bit, haven’t I? I’ve been down with an attack of the April’s, you see.

I don’t know why exactly (although I’ve got a theory: it could be bunnies*) it happens every year, but starting in April, I always go through a depressive period. The joys of spring tend to be less than joyous. Not every day, for every thing, because there are lots of things that objectively I love about this time of the year. But mentally, it’s not one of my best times. Some years it’s lasted for months, getting worse and worse until I’ve been in a right state. Others, it’s been better, and it’s only really since I’ve been diagnosed with the bipolar that I’ve been keeping proper track anyway. But since then it’s depended on my medication, my own and others’ awareness of my mental state, and how soon it’s picked up on and started to be dealt with.

*or seriously, something to do with stuff that happened when I was around 18 which I won’t bore you with now, but was at this time of year. And btw, name that fannish reference!

This time, I only had about a week (or maybe 10 days… it blurs) of not being able to move out of bed / eat / etc. After that, there was a thankfully quite short period of getting myself back into a more normal routine again, and now I’m feeling a lot better. Hoorah! Interestingly (to me anyway *g*) getting back to normal once I’d been able to recognise and start coping with the depression as depression just took about three or four days. Before I got really low, I’d been struggling with a wonky sleep routine and lack of motivation for a good couple of weeks, and I was frustrated and annoyed with myself for not being able to sort it out. Now, I can “forgive” myself for all that because now I realise it was the start of the low mood swing. I’m not quite sure if I could have done anything at that time to head the low off… perhaps that’s something to talk to someone (doctor? CPN? counsellor?) about.

However, like I said above, there are things I do love about this time of year, so it certainly hasn’t all been doom and gloom. I haven’t got out and about as much as I’d like of course, but I did get to enjoy the snow at my Mum’s house, the sun in my flat (I have huge windows and my bedroom is a sun-trap), and the sea-air down on the seafront once or twice as well. And of course, being inside so much, I have got some knitting done, and a lot of reading. I did sleep most of the time when I was down (and I do mean most of the time: generally 16-20 hours a day!) but when I was awake, I was at least able to do those things.

What did I knit? Well, I’ll talk about that more in another post, but I finished my Pentathlon socks (yay!), I’m making two pairs of baby bootees for Ally’s little ‘un (who is due next week – the 23rd), and I’m working on Mum’s birthday present (also 23rd). Things are going much faster now I’m feeling more myself again, of course. Which is nice :-)

I’m behind on Project 365 of course – there are only so many photos I could take of the inside of my flat anyway *g*. What are you sposed to do when you miss some days, I wonder? Just skip them, or fudge it and fill the gaps with spare shots from other days? Is there a school of thought on that?

Project 365 #5, Days 25-34: 3rd – 12th Feb

More catching up! Here are days 25 to 34 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #5, Days 25-34: 3rd – 12th Feb”

Project 365 #4, Days 17-24: 26th Jan – 2nd Feb

I’m still catching up, so I’ve put a few more days in at once this time. So here are days 17 to 24 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #4, Days 17-24: 26th Jan – 2nd Feb”

Project 365 #3, Days 12-16: 21st – 25th Jan

Still playing catch-up with posting these, here are the next five days of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #3, Days 12-16: 21st – 25th Jan”

Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th – 20th Jan

Here are the next five days of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th – 20th Jan”

Reconnected.

Oh thank …. well, whoever that guy was in 2nd line support who finally figured out what the problem with my internets was. Which was that when BT had done some work at my local exchange on the day I lost my connection (Sat 26th), they had either deleted or not re-added (depending on what they’d been doing) my ISP’s domain to the list of ones that are allowed to connect. I spose no-one else uses that particular domain for their log-in round here – either that or it’s specific to each broadband enabled line. Actually, that would make more sense. Anyway, they’ve now put it back on the system and voila, I can connect. It’s liek magic, only with teknolegdgy *nods* I told them it was an authentication problem the first day it went wrong, but it took 10 days to get someone to figure out exactly where the trouble was. To be fair, the fact that BT were doing work on my exchange threw them off the scent so I had to wait for all sorts of tests and then a BT engineer to come out because everyone thought it was a line problem that just looked like an authentication thing… oh well. All better now!

So anyhow, I should probably get on with uploading the many many photos I have to put up, both for Project 365 and for my knitting progress. Which there has been lots of! I finished the Hedara socks and I’ve taken my Bigga jacket out of hibernation and begun the sewing up of that. Plus I’m still plugging away on the Chevron scarf of DOOM. Scarf in fingering weight = Never Again, as I think I’ve said before. But anyway, that’s all for another post really. I’m off to bed.

Project 365 #1 – Day 1-6: 10th – 15th Jan

I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking about doing Project 365. A couple of days later I decided that if I was going to do it, then I’d better just start before I started thinking about it too much. So I did.

Which means that I will, all going well, be posting a photograph for every day from 10th January 2008 to 9th January 2009. I’m planning to make a post every five days or so. In actual fact, I might post more than one photo for some days – this is to stop myself getting mired in indecision! I’ve set up a specific folder in the photo album for the set of photos to go in, as well. I won’t be putting them on Flickr or adding them to any group sets there, though I have joined the Ravelry group for 365-ers, and I’m intending to join the webring.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling on the theory. On to the photos (click ’em for the full size versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #1 – Day 1-6: 10th – 15th Jan”