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| The song for today is "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." This is an excellent song, very dramatic, with no shred of frolicsome festiveness to distract us if we're getting back to work today.
Actually, I got back to work yesterday, though I didn't intend to do as much work as I did. One of the lesson plans for the arts center is being challenging to me. I think it's pretty bad, and filled with inaccuracies and stuff like that. So I have to steer between the Scylla of turning in a lesson I don't think much of and the Charybdis of being hypercritical and pedantic.
It takes a lot of extra time to be diplomatic.And even that sentence shows the problem: I think of this as an issue of courtesy, because I'm assuming that I'm right and the original author of the lesson is wrong, and all I need to do is express my obviously correct views in a tactful way.
I had an opportunity last term to take part in a rehearsal under the direction of the conductor of the National Symphony -- coincidentally enough, an employee of the arts center in question. He said kindly, at one point, "Always consider the possibility that you might be wrong." It struck me as a good policy.
So that's the first thing I'm doing this morning. Then I have annual reports to do for everyone, and I've had a query from a client whose project got stuck on the back burner during the holidays. He doesn't celebrate the same holidays I do, so he may not think that's a good reason, and I might ought to just apologize frankly.
It also struck me, at about 1:00 a.m., that I'm teaching a new course two weeks from today, and I probably need to set up my online courses and plan that new class.
And it snowed last night, again. Doesn't really matter, I guess, since I don;t have to go out in the snow to work. I just thought I'd mention it.
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| I have been really lazy over the past few days. I have donte my Wii Fit workouts every day, but apart from that Ihave mostly been lolling around reading and knitting. I did some filing yesterday, and some cleaning in fits and spurts, but mostly I finish one trashy novel and just order up another on my kindle and continue lollling around.
My camera died over the holiday, I'm sorry to say, so I can't show you pictures of my knitting. Sigh.
I did walk out to church this morning, in the snow, so the song of the day is this morning's anthem: "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem." You can hear Patti Loveless twanging this, or The Whites. I like this song a lot, though we did it faster and unfortunately had no fiddle.
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|  Today's song is "What Are You Doing New Years?"
Last night the guys all went out and I worked on my collection of goals for 2010. #2 son and I ordered a pizza while it was just the two of us here. Since Wii Fit measures weight in tenths of a pound, I can therefore tell you that eating pizza immediately caused me to gain half a pound.
But I have a good plan for my health this year, including exercise and eating right and sleeping and taking care of my back and stuff like that. I also plan to return some creativity to my daily life, with making things (the pictures today comprise my entire Finished Objects list for the year 2009, I'm sad to say) and keeping my home as it should be for humans, not computers.
That's all for personal goals.
I had simple business goals last year. I had averaged 15 billable hours a week in 2008, and wanted to increase that to 20. I didn't keep very good track this year, I'm afraid, but when I managed to Toggl consistently, I saw a fairly consistent 30 billable hours a week. I'd like to keep that up.
I want to decrease unbillable time, and to shift what unbillable time I have more toward learning and less toward scope creep and phone meetings.
One of my business goals last year was to get all my business systems in place, and I didn't. I'm closer; I incorporated, I have at least some of my accounting data inputted into my software, I have some things down to routine well enough that I can delegate them to my daughters and give good estimates for them, I invoice people pretty consistently. I have a CPA to take my tax stuff to, and he doesn't seem too horrified by what I've been doing.
I'm hoping to get all those systems in place early in this year.
Another of my business goals last year was to get on top of all my software. However, as the Art Teacher says, "Our software is hard and complicated and it changes all the time. Get used to it." So I'm happy that I passed my html certification, and fine with the fact that I have a whole new crop of software to learn this year.
I think it likely that I'll have some more surprises this year.
But, while last year had some challenges, it also had some very nice points. Business is good, my youngest had a great first semester at the college of his choice (where we could never have sent him when I worked at the store), I spent a week in Kansas City and a couple of weeks in L.A.. both of which were very like vacations.
So I'm entering the new year with a great deal of optimism.
Yesterday I had a marvelous package from my old school friend in L.A., filled with goodies from Trader Joe's, including a grapefruit-scented body wash which promises to create feelings of optimism. 
Granted that I'm already feeling optimistic, and have done my yoga and strength workouts this morning, I still intend to go shower with grapefruit mousse. I think I will then be ready for today's cool projects.
I'm writing a law firm's website and continuing with arts center lessons on immigration, and I need to do a report for the Chocolatier to send to his European partners.
But I plan to take tomorrow off. | | |
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