The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Yesterday I finally made the 2,000 day streak milestone on Duolingo.
I was supposed to do a quick Dreamwidth squiggle to mark the occasion but ended up crashing and hitting the sack instead. Just as well I had the morning off. Because I had churned out the day's quota of Nanowrimo words then, I did not have to feel guilty for an early bed time nor did I have to worry about making up quota next day because deficits have a habit of ballooning very very quickly in Nanoland. Unless you are a dedicated last minute sprinter, slacking off for even a couple of days can mean the difference between purple laurels and a sad blue unfinished line.


2,000 days ago back in early 2017 when I signed up for Duolingo, Petunia was still alive and quite a few of my leaf babies had not been born yet.

I had never heard of Duolingo until I came across a couple of people posting their New Year's resolutions.
Years ago I had the 100 items in 1,000 days bucket list but I no longer have the dedication for that.

So this woman said that her 2017 New Year's resolution was to learn French from scratch using Duolingo.
I googled this strange name and aside from the cute green owls and stuff, I was drawn in by the F word.

( Of Owls and Drama Llamas )

So I recommend Duo even with the army of annoying drama llamas. Not so much for what's one the box -a fun free way to learn a new language - but more its lessons in the dark art of learning good habits.

Today I spent most of the day at the Fremantle Cemetery. It was on Easter Tuesday 2018 that Petunia’s funeral was there. So I figured it would be the perfect way to spend the day.
The weather this time was just as gorgeous but unlike then, I had no Grinch or Dudley Dursley hanging around like a bad smell and today I wore my daggy green Crocs instead of the black shoes that were so ill fitting I had blisters just from walking to Privet Drive to the Dursleymobile.

( Plotting and planning )

It's that time of year again. Nanowrimo is just around the corner. After 3 years of brain dead word count quota filling with bugger all story to show for it, this time I have decided that I really do need to make an effort to get back to proper novel squiggling

About two months ago I managed to get my paws on Charles Duhigg's book "The Power of Habit" and I am slowly making my way through it. In combination with the evil "Hell Week" it has made one thing very clear. There is a lot to be said for doing stuff on autopilot. Using one's brains to make plans when they are still fresh and unfogged by the slings and arrows of daily dramas so that there is no need to make decisions when will power and the brain batteries are running on empty
The writer of Hell Week said that the reason soldiers can get so much stuff done is that someone else has already done the thinking and all they have to do is follow orders and just keep on marching.
Unlike Catness who gave me this inspiring book, I never actually did the 7 day program. The book arrived in my life right in the middle of some serious Dursleyish dramas and through no fault of its own has been tainted by them but one central message still remains which is reinforced by the book about habits. Clever use of thinking time can drastically increase the effectiveness of doing time. Because decision fatigue is much more draining than physical fatigue.

For almost 3 years I had set up a house work schedule with certain jobs assigned to certain days and was pleased to discover that it did not take too long for it to become almost automatic so much so that it required more energy NOT to do the job of the day and something else instead. Tasks that has initially taken almost an hour soon shrank to less than half that time leaving more space for squiggling and slinking on Twitter

But then Petunia got sick and I got totally out of the usual routine. It is now only some 3 years later that I finally feel I can get back on the broomstick of usual routine. Even just a token gesture is sufficient to start anchoring old housework habits again.

Last month I dusted off the old housework schedule and also decided to make a habit of writing 333 words per day. Not 333 good words. It could be any old waffle (and usually is) just so long as there are 333 or more of them. Sometimes I would do double that or more and I missed only 2 days in the whole month so I was happy with that new habit. Now for October I have decided to double it to 666 with the intention of using at least half of them for plotting and planning for November


And this time there will be no gaps in the 31 day streak.

Habits begin as cobwebs and end as cables.




On Wednesday evening I finally passed the finish line in Nanoland. For the first time I actually kept to the daily target that I had set myself of not just 1,666 words which is necessary to cross the finish line on the last day but the rather higher 2,222 words per day. This serpent is a sucker for pretty numbers.

I've aimed quite often for the safety net of an average of 2,000 per day but never seemed able to keep it up for much longer than a couple of weeks.
This time was different due to one simple new trick.

( The Early Bird catches the worm )




The video sums it up so perfectly. Establishing productive habits really is like having an army of zombie minions at your disposal.

We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training." –
Archilochos

Nathan Lozeron has loads of other videos devoted to productivity porn and it's all the real thing. No click bait junk to be found. Well not yet.

It's spring time in Oz and time for Izzie to do sorting, tossing, spring cleaning and generally useful and productive activities before the brain draining, soul sapping, sizzling stinking summer sets in and puts an untimely end to all those good intentions.


The usual ritual of watching the sunset at the beach for the September equinox gave way to attending an evening on the art of creating nutritious 15 minute meals from scratch.
I figured that today would be perfectly fine to do the sunset thing instead. But the weather gods had other plans and it rained most of the afternoon. So instead I spent the time squiggling and reading the papers.

Another ritual for this time of the year is an update of the little green notebook. The green notebook is the current repository of a good 3 year's worth of 3 month, 1 year and 5 year plans. It turned out that this September's "New Year's resolutions" were sufficient to fill the remaining pages.
It is a cheap little A7 number from the supermarket and it is half falling apart from the years of use. A timely reminder to take care and get better quality next time. It's just as well I got that stash of Moleskine 2016 diaries back in June for 50 cents each. I'm keeping one of them for 2022 when it will match the year almost perfectly except that pesky January and February. Leap years are such a pain. The others will do perfectly fine as notebooks and there's even a little pocket to stash lists of books to read for the year and other such trivia.

While it is fun ticking the boxes and writing the dates on items as they graduate from works in progress to completed items, it is not so satisfying to find some items being added again month after month and year after year without even any signs of starting in sight. Either they have got to go or they have got to get done.

Writing menu plans, eating more healthily and not wasting food are just some of those things that constantly get put on the long finger and the appearance of that event at the library seemed just the auspicious sign needed to get something done on the munchies front.

Resorting to rituals and creating new habits is the weapon of choice in this battle.
I've got the bathroom, bedroom and laundry cleaning routines on autopilot for nearly two years now to the extent that it requires less thinking and energy to do them than to think of excuses not to. In some strange way I get more energy and satisfaction from cleaning, sweeping and mopping than procrastinating and I get to listen to lots of interesting radio programs at the same time.

Tonight was the first day of the new routine of wiping all the bench tops in the kitchen as well as the dining room table. It was getting tiring adding this item to the 3 month list for the last year and constantly having to put a cross next to it as not been started. Based on past experience, a month of Table Top Thursday's should be sufficient to put this new habit on auto pilot.

Nanowrimo is also looming larger on the horizon. Such a feast of nostalgia and creativity also serves as a reminder of the power of little baby steps of steady squiggling every day as opposed to a giant sprint at the end.

This time I have departed from the usual ritual of generating story ideas.

If I had been following the usual well trodden path, there would already be a reasonably useful story map made from one or more of a collection of some 50 something tarot decks. Between 70 to 90 cards drawn in random batches of 8 or 9 and little index cards with possible story points linking each card to the next and the preceding card.

So it will be interesting to see what difference it makes to wander off into the unknown without the usual safety net and mud maps.

It will also be interesting to see what other ways I can harness the power of the zombie brain on autopilot for getting stuff done.

In this bit of the world June 30th is the equivalent of Goblin New Year’s Eve. A time to make grand plans for the future, to get finances and savings sorted and all that sort of boring stuff. Due to a very ancient and almost anal habit of keeping a little black book to record every single silver sickle spent, keeping the money monsters under control has never been particularly difficult. I decided to go the whole hog last June and to switch over from using a normal calendar diary to a bright shiny new 2014/2015 Financial Year diary starting on Tuesday 1st July 2014.
Tonight it finally gets laid to rest while the promise of a bright shiny clean slate beckons.

( Strange Days )

On the eve of Camp Nano, it is amusing to think that Nanowrimo proved to be the first testing ground for the serpent on the art of creating rituals or habits for getting stuff done. The seemingly impossible task of writing 50,000 words in 30 days was not so daunting when done in itsy bitsy steps, slowly and steadily plodding along every single day.

It’s satisfying to know that it’s been useful training for so many other things even if not a single word from all those years ever sees the light of day.

Izzie has been slinking about and sniffing in the Garden of MOOC temptations. Once again there are so many tasty tempting fruits hanging from the assorted Trees of Knowledge.

Things have come a long way since the serpent's first visit to the Garden back in September 2012 (Courtesy of the Cat)
In those days Izzie was a serious serpent who did all her homework and assignments and participated in discussion forums and had lots of fun. That's not quite correct. Toadish dramas meant a couple of courses got ditched due to a complete inability to concentrate. But soon it was back to feasting and pigging out on all the online freebies.

Got to thinking that years ago I made do with Open University lectures on television Sunday mornings while living in Dublin. I was not actually doing any courses at the time but just had an insatiable curiosity about all sorts of obscure things. It was like going from plain cabbage soup to caviar. So many delightful delicacies to taste and to try.

It was necessary to learn restraint and careful selections of morsels from this buffet for eternal students. Also there's no need to fill one's plate to overflowing as repeat refills are not just allowed but actually encouraged. While the golden age of free access could not possibly last forever, more and more educational institutions would be jumping on the bandwagon and the trick would be to concentrate on the courses that are not offered on a regular basis.



The unexpected overseas adventures in December nuked a few of the courses I had planned to do or already started including Coursera's Terrorism and Counterterrorism
This course like many others is now available on a self study basis but I have found that without the commitment and regular deadlines of a class schedule, the chances of actually getting stuff done at one's own pace are remarkably low.

So then I vowed to stay away from online courses, concentrate on squiggling for Camp Nanowrimo in April as well as sorting out the clutter in the Lair. Was doing very well for a while but had neglected to get the serpent email taken off the assorted MOOC mailing lists with their tantalizing subject line "We have new courses for you".

So when tasty morsels with titles like "Propaganda and Ideology in Everyday Life" arrived in the inbox, they just proved too irresistible. Then another turned up designed specifically to push all my favorite buttons.
A Paradoxical Python

In the meantime, had long ago signed up to retake a programming course that I did not pass last time. More Python Puzzles I got 62% and needed 70% to pass. It has just started and for the last few weeks I have been wondering if it is best to just jump ship or to have a second attempt especially as it has been chopped up into two more manageable bite sized morsels. Now there are no more Statements of Accomplishment but only Verified Certificates (they've got to earn their money somehow) but that's not an issue for a dabbler and dilettante such as Izzie.

The course will be over in time for July's visit to Camp Nanoland.

It's taken just over a month to get cleaning and maintenance of the Lair on autopilot. Except for Monday evening which was spent over at the Dursleys, I've now got a 5 week unbroken run of cleaning and sorting rituals for 3 different days of the week. Such habits are not only brainless but the lack of thinking means that I can get more done in less time and feel a sense of achievement for finally escaping the years of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)
Now I guess it's time to adopt a similar strategy for dealing with all the assorted online temptations and online courses.

The other big adventure was today's visit to a gorgeous historical graveyard. Just the perfect place for reading monster stories and dreaming of dark grimoires. Like gazing at the stars in the night sky, wandering amongst head stones and noticing that more than 80% of them are dedicated to folks who departed this mortal coil much younger than you is a very good way to get your life in perspective.
But that is a tale for another day.

There was a wonderful event a few months ago run by a marvellous mob called Earthcarers. They are a greenie sort of group with the inspiring and quirky motto “Empty Bins, Full Lives”.
They seek to make looking after the planet a source of joy, fulfilment and fun rather than endlessly spouting despair inducing gloom and doom.

It turned out that Izzie was in a totally tizzy for that time. Not helped by the troppo hot, humid and horrid weather that week. However was still able to appreciate what a good show they put on in spite of being unable to enjoy it.
One of their speakers called Caroline did a presentation on the subject of “Breaking Bad Habits”
Now that was a must see.

( Breaking the habit )

Once again Izzie is not lurking like in the old days when posting online involved acquiring a weekly ration of happy hours on Cheap Tuesday and then slinking down to the local nasty netcafe hoping to find a free keyboard amidst all the pimple faced spring chickens playing war games.

It’s so easy to get distracted these days but all that will have to end at the stroke of midnight. Then begins the foolish adventure of April Camp Nano. Amusing to think that I am aiming for 1,111 words per day (rather than the usual 1,666 or so) when lately 1,000 a month seems an unsurmountable obstacle.
I guess there will be a lot of aimless meandering which does not matter too much since the point is to get back into the habit of writing regularly.
Been resorting to sneaky tricks in order to create and continue good habits offline which was in part helped by the recent online course on gamification. Much to my shame, while doing very well on the weekly quizzes, did not reach the pass mark of 70% due to not doing a single one of the 3 writing assignments which were worth 35% of the total between them.

Then there was the creepy sad saga of the recent plane crash in France. That little side trip to Vienna back in January involving two flights each way began to look like a bit playing Russian roulette with 4 bullets and beating the odds. It is scary what some people will do for their 15 minutes of fame or when they feel their identity or job security is threatened. The copilot lost more than his job in the end but insisted on sharing his misery with the world. But it is his parents and ex girlfriend who are left to live with the endless "if only"s. Creepy to think that by a terrible quirk of fate, the call of nature could have such catastrophic consequences. “A horse, a horse. My kingdom for a horse” comes to mind. Even Old King Richard got himself another 15 minutes of fame.

The Fearless Leader of Oz and his never ending episodes of foot in mouth disease have also been the source of hours of being glued to Youtube. Such Schadenfreude that the lame Labor lapdogs who approved some outrageous meta data retention laws only last Thursday now also have egg on their faces over some sloppy security lapses concerning private information about international big wigs at last year’s G20 conference. The one where the other mad monk rasPutin was caught cuddling cute koalas in the company of his hero worshipping lover boy.

Maybe I should steal the pair of them as characters for the crazy foolish April adventure.