izmeina: creepy spooky old house infested with crawling critters (creepy)
It has been a very strange Easter indeed.

Normally I would spend Good Friday in the city visiting the Wesley Church’s annual Stations of the Cross where 14 artists have been given the commission to do one each.

sad bird
This was one of the most memorable from many years ago


They are an interesting change to the usual Catholic version of this stuff which is big on suffering and sadomasochism. All for the glory of God of course.
This would be followed by a visit to the east of the city. The site of a historical graveyard and also a gorgeous organic permaculture city farm.
I nearly always find a new book to start on this day with a spooky or spiritual theme.
James Herbert’s very creepy ‘Sepulchre” and “Dark Portent”, Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” (of course) or Stephen King’s “Dead Zone” or “Carrie” come to mind

In the old days I used to work weekends in the mad house. Afternoons from 3 to 9pm and 7 to 1pm on Mondays. So that was the rest of Easter taken care of. But since leaving, I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the amazing Street Arts Festival in Fremantle which was a long weekend of buskers and street performers from all over the world

It was sort of surreal visiting their website last night. You get a sense of how far in advance such events are planned because the program had already been printed and was online before it got pulled due to a certain virus. So I downloaded the program for posterity and nostalgically thought about the wickedly wonderful Lizard Man who turned up last year. I went to see lots of his shows and was more than happy to toss a tenner or two into the hat and to get some creepy green postcards as a quid pro quo

Next week would have been the Perth Heritage weekend where a bunch of amazing old buildings are open to the public. This used to be in October but they moved it last year to avoid the heat and to also coincide with the National Trust Heritage Festival which I think is nationwide. Fremantle has recently jumped on this bandwagon and piggy backed off the National Trust in order to save printing and advertising costs for their own festival
The University of Notre Dame is always a cornerstone of these events and this serpent is a regular attendee. Last year the keynote speaker was Peter Greste. He was the journalist arrested and imprisoned in Egypt for more than a year

This is then followed by the Garden Festival which is a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow green freaks and stock up on all sorts of weeds. Since I do not have a car, I usually take advantage of the fact that many of the native nurseries in unreachable places are all there and I can just pig out on the most amazing weeds at the best time of year for planting

But now all of this is gone. Gone gone gone

So instead I spent the Easter weekend lurking in the Lair. Due to the nasty 37 degree days, there was not much I could do in the garden until the evening so there was a lot of snoozing going on
Monday was a mild and gorgeous sunny day so I took the opportunity to repot some basil, to plant lots of coriander and to get a very late start on the Autumn Equinox instalment of the 3.1.5 black book where I list my grand plans for the next 3 months, 12 months and 5 years

I also finally finished decluttering the dining room table and got a start on the Fridge Blitz

It makes an astonishing difference to have so many clean, clear and uncluttered surfaces in the Lair. The trick is to keep them that way

I have done more tidying and decluttering in the last 2 weeks than in the last 12 months
So it is an ill wind that blows no good.
izmeina: tree and serpent lurking, permaculture logo (egg)



Nathan Lozeron is the King of Productivity Porn. Nothing like teaching a concept to others to make sure that you understand it deeply yourself.
If there is any justice in the world, he should become President or at least rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Or maybe he will continue on his present path of sharing the golden nuggets of wisdom for free rather than hogging them all for himself.

But back to Word of the Day


The concept is suspiciously close to those dreaded and woeful vision and mission statements but not quite. More like North on a compass than some cheesy happy claptrap to be hung in a foyer to impress the gullible idiots.

It would be fun for folks to suggest suitable one word mantras for each other and see if there is any overlap.
So far GAMES and MAGIC come to mind for certain serpent associates


Had been meaning to do a proper post about this and a whole bunch of other things not to mention replying to an assortment of thought provoking posts (Catness is the culprit behind most of those) but those days seem to be well and truly over lately.

At present this peeved python's word would run along the lines of PISSED OFF but such pity parties are no path for a bright shiny future.


When the choice is between pecking the letters on a tiny but properly functioning smart phone or using a real keyboard attached to a temperamental and veritably senile Big Mac, then the good intentions do not last long at all.
After the first 15 minutes of jumping through hoops, spinning beach balls and freeze frames, all desire to squiggle rapidly evaporates only to be replaced by murderous frustration and rage. And the problem with anger or fear is that it makes you irrational and stupid. Brain dead. Totally and completely brain dead.

It is a miracle I ever managed to keep the new monthly resolution beginning in March of writing ten minutes or 300 words per day for 21 days this month.
Most of it turned out to be snarling hissing rants about what a worthless POS the Big Mac is turning into. Did also squiggle a bit more cheerfully in the gorgeous green Slytherin diary but that doesn't count because there is no word count.
But the content is completely irrelevant. The point is the ritual and the habit.
Did manage to clock up between 400 to 500 words in the 10 minutes (nearly always timed it) so it should not be too much of a stretch to add another 10 minutes per day to reach a quota capable of reaching April's Camp Nano target of 25,000 words.

Next month's habit is infinitely more ambitious. Getting up around 7am 6 mornings a week and going to bed by 11pm.

While pottering around some of the productivity porn pages on habits, came across some one who is learning French for just 5 minutes a day on Duolingo. Figured on the spur of the moment that would be an interesting experiment - to start a language from scratch with just 5 mins a day and no particular effort outside of the app and see what sorts of progress I make. Clever buggers have gamified the site. Most geeks would see straight through it but simple serpents are easily pleased.

So far I have a 7 day run. You get bonus points for that sort of thing. Sneaky buggers.
Even more amusing was consulting the Oracle of Google to learn about the business model because there just did not seem to be any obvious means to make money from a free language learning course. Especially one that displays no adverts of any kind unless they are all on the app which I do not have because the Google store keeps saying that there's insufficient space in spite of having a nearly empty 16gb SD card in the thing.

It is so much easier to take teenie weenie baby steps and make progress that way than to go for grandiose projects which only serves to awake the inner beast who never misses a chance to sabotage any grand serpent plans.
izmeina: a snippet of Escher's circle of serpents (Default)
So another November in Nanoland is over and it's time for the ritual post mortem

There are two things I have learned and one that I have confirmed

A Plodding Python )
izmeina: creepy spooky old house infested with crawling critters (spooky)
So another November in Nanoland is over and it's time for the ritual post mortem

There are two things I have learned and one that I have confirmed

A Plodding Python )
izmeina: a snippet of Escher's circle of serpents (Default)
There’s a lot to be said for starting new year’s resolutions on 1st December of the previous year. Enthusiasm gets you started but it is habit that keeps you going.
So far it seems that the stars are aligned for a pretty productive year. From the December solstice until today and including Christmas we have had the most beautiful mild weather. Probably the best in at least five years. Not the soul sapping icky sticky sizzling steamy 40s like last New Year’s Day and Christmas 2012

Planted tomato and sunflower seeds today before pottering off for the annual ritual of the fireworks on the river at 8pm. So that ticked the box of the often intended but rarely achieved goal of walking at least 3km per day. And then it was time to drink bubbles and polish up a bright and shiny new Pensieve for the new year.
The one black spot on the otherwise bright horizon was a series of notifications from the internet provider. By Christmas Eve had already used up 50% of the monthly data allowance that is supposed to last until 12th January. The youtube binge sparked by this tasty
Christmas Feast
was accountable for most of that. Thanks to all those evil Carols of Cthulhu had gotten to 85% by Sunday and now the nasty goblins inform the serpent that as of last night’s witching hour, the whole month’s quota is gone. All those months and months of not even using half of the 4GB allowance count for nothing at all

Lucky it is possible to keep tabs on the total running cost once over the limit but it looks like the next ten days will include lots of squiggling and a strictly limited online diet. Definitely no Google tarot card crawls and youtube is absolutely off the menu
Tomorrow will be off to the library to snaffle a copy of “The 5 elements of effective thinking” before slinking off to the arts centre (and former lunatic asylum) in Fremantle for the last day of a binge of musings, meanderings, plotting and planning and a certain serpent’s 12th birthday party

Friday will be back to business as usual at one of the day jobs. That’s the funny thing with the whole Christmas and New Year ritual. After all the celebrations it is almost a relief to get back to mundane muggle reality
izmeina: A cute cartoon critter with a bag and a teapot on his head (The Fool)
There’s a lot to be said for starting new year’s resolutions on 1st December of the previous year. Enthusiasm gets you started but it is habit that keeps you going.
So far it seems that the stars are aligned for a pretty productive year. From the December solstice until today and including Christmas we have had the most beautiful mild weather. Probably the best in at least five years. Not the soul sapping icky sticky sizzling steamy 40s like last New Year’s Day and Christmas 2012

Planted tomato and sunflower seeds today before pottering off for the annual ritual of the fireworks on the river at 8pm. So that ticked the box of the often intended but rarely achieved goal of walking at least 3km per day. And then it was time to drink bubbles and polish up a bright and shiny new Pensieve for the new year.
The one black spot on the otherwise bright horizon was a series of notifications from the internet provider. By Christmas Eve had already used up 50% of the monthly data allowance that is supposed to last until 12th January. The youtube binge sparked by this tasty
Christmas Feast
was accountable for most of that. Thanks to all those evil Carols of Cthulhu had gotten to 85% by Sunday and now the nasty goblins inform the serpent that as of last night’s witching hour, the whole month’s quota is gone. All those months and months of not even using half of the 4GB allowance count for nothing at all

Lucky it is possible to keep tabs on the total running cost once over the limit but it looks like the next ten days will include lots of squiggling and a strictly limited online diet. Definitely no Google tarot card crawls and youtube is absolutely off the menu
Tomorrow will be off to the library to snaffle a copy of “The 5 elements of effective thinking” before slinking off to the arts centre (and former lunatic asylum) in Fremantle for the last day of a binge of musings, meanderings, plotting and planning and a certain serpent’s 12th birthday party

Friday will be back to business as usual at one of the day jobs. That’s the funny thing with the whole Christmas and New Year ritual. After all the celebrations it is almost a relief to get back to mundane muggle reality
izmeina: a snippet of Escher's circle of serpents (Default)
Taking a break from the goblin gossip because there are other things going on in Izzie's existence.
In spite of vows to be a more organized serpent and a big fat blue diary for plotting and planning, been sadly neglecting the 101 list except ticking off a couple of Buy Nothing days each week

Using information and experience gained from attempts at decluttering or not accumulating stuff from last year and with great effect.
It sounds simple and obvious but one way to avoid buying unnecessary nibblies is to stay away as often as possible from the supermarket or grocery stories in their various incarnations

Also used the yearly planner pages in the little black book to write withdrawals from the Gringotts vault so it is possible to see at a glance how many silver sickles we are taking out each week.
A very low 90 for the first week of the year blew out into two lots of 280 over the following two weeks although that did include postage for overseas presents, bottles and stuff

But in spite of the lack of progress, there are some magical powers in perusing the 101 list on a regular basis.
Didn't make it to the gorgeous old arts centre (and ex lunatic asylum) until the second Friday of January and picked up the quarterly booklet listing all the concerts, classes and art exhibitions
Normally don't pay too much attention to the concerts and classes as a lot are on week ends and decadent stuff like jewelry making or vintage fashion. But this time did take a proper look and found a four week class on book binding and journal making. It was on Thursday mornings - a bit early at 9.30am but still quite doable. After all - if we can get up before 6am for work at 7am then there's no excuse for getting up early for something infinitely more interesting

So the time is suitable, the venue is suitable and the price of $$115 seemed somewhat decadent. But for 12 hours total teaching time it actually is quite reasonable. And anyway - there's froggies in the house which make such decadent indulgences very affordable

So we got the money and we got the time. So went and did the deed last week and booked a place. There were two left. The course starts on Thursday 10th
So far 2011 is turning out to be a year of being decisive.
After a week of seriously disgusting icky sticky humid weather, it has finally cooled down and was able to get back into decluttering and tidying mode

Tomorrow starts the grand nano tarot deck shuffle along with various new year rituals that got neglected this January due to work getting in the way on the usual special day. Twenty two chapters with four cards each over a period of 28 days with the aim of having all 88 cards entered in the order drawn in one spiral notebook and the corresponding cards from the Dark Grimoire deck in the other.
That should leave a lot of time for ideas and inspiration
So one set of randomly drawn cards from one deck and not randomly drawn from the other.
It will be very interesting to see how the art work of the deck influences the path of the story

Will be doing lots of squiggling in February. March will be the month for gardening. Gave up pretty quickly in January as the last week of 40 something days sizzled all attempts at growing basil and tomato seeds. Only the grapevine is doing well in this strange weather. It is simply dripping with big fat black grapes nothing like the watery muck in the shops
izmeina: Strange Spiral Clock (Time Turner)
Taking a break from the goblin gossip because there are other things going on in Izzie's existence.
In spite of vows to be a more organized serpent and a big fat blue diary for plotting and planning, been sadly neglecting the 101 list except ticking off a couple of Buy Nothing days each week

Using information and experience gained from attempts at decluttering or not accumulating stuff from last year and with great effect.
It sounds simple and obvious but one way to avoid buying unnecessary nibblies is to stay away as often as possible from the supermarket or grocery stories in their various incarnations

Also used the yearly planner pages in the little black book to write withdrawals from the Gringotts vault so it is possible to see at a glance how many silver sickles we are taking out each week.
A very low 90 for the first week of the year blew out into two lots of 280 over the following two weeks although that did include postage for overseas presents, bottles and stuff

But in spite of the lack of progress, there are some magical powers in perusing the 101 list on a regular basis.
Didn't make it to the gorgeous old arts centre (and ex lunatic asylum) until the second Friday of January and picked up the quarterly booklet listing all the concerts, classes and art exhibitions
Normally don't pay too much attention to the concerts and classes as a lot are on week ends and decadent stuff like jewelry making or vintage fashion. But this time did take a proper look and found a four week class on book binding and journal making. It was on Thursday mornings - a bit early at 9.30am but still quite doable. After all - if we can get up before 6am for work at 7am then there's no excuse for getting up early for something infinitely more interesting

So the time is suitable, the venue is suitable and the price of $$115 seemed somewhat decadent. But for 12 hours total teaching time it actually is quite reasonable. And anyway - there's froggies in the house which make such decadent indulgences very affordable

So we got the money and we got the time. So went and did the deed last week and booked a place. There were two left. The course starts on Thursday 10th
So far 2011 is turning out to be a year of being decisive.
After a week of seriously disgusting icky sticky humid weather, it has finally cooled down and was able to get back into decluttering and tidying mode

Tomorrow starts the grand nano tarot deck shuffle along with various new year rituals that got neglected this January due to work getting in the way on the usual special day. Twenty two chapters with four cards each over a period of 28 days with the aim of having all 88 cards entered in the order drawn in one spiral notebook and the corresponding cards from the Dark Grimoire deck in the other.
That should leave a lot of time for ideas and inspiration
So one set of randomly drawn cards from one deck and not randomly drawn from the other.
It will be very interesting to see how the art work of the deck influences the path of the story

Will be doing lots of squiggling in February. March will be the month for gardening. Gave up pretty quickly in January as the last week of 40 something days sizzled all attempts at growing basil and tomato seeds. Only the grapevine is doing well in this strange weather. It is simply dripping with big fat black grapes nothing like the watery muck in the shops

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