Dyepot, Teapot

I set up an announcement list on Google Groups for anyone who wants reminders on submission deadlines, or to hear when the first issue is out: http://groups.google.com/group/yogsnotebook.

We’ve started to receive the first story submissions. I emailed everyone I could think of who might be interested in sending something, or know people who would, and posted it a few places online, so now I’m obsessively checking Google Analytics to see how many hits the submission page is getting.

Lucas has a bit about it on his blog, too.

And today I discovered that Yog is also the nickname of James D. Macdonald, writer of many fine books and originator of Yog’s Law, which states: Money flows toward the writer. Maybe he can be our unofficial patron saint. I’d love to have this succeed enough that we can pay pro rates.

I know I don’t really need more projects, but I had this itch of an idea, and I convinced Lucas that we should start a sf/horror fiction ‘zine.

It’s called Yog’s Notebook. And we really, really need story submissions, or the first issue won’t happen. So if you know someone who writes interesting stories about these sorts of the things, please send them the link. We’ll pay for the stories we use. The first issue will have Elder Gods and cookies, but I want content from other people too.

Now I just need to find more places to promote this. Any suggestions?

I have insomnia for the first time in ages. I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep.

I used to have horrible problems with insomnia in the winter, to the point that I would lie in bed for hours and not be able to sleep. I’m getting over the flu, so hopefully this is the result of being sick and not going to keep happening.

I woke up thinking about Recent Changes Camp. I’m excited about it, because I heard good things from everyone who went last year, but right now it doesn’t look like our project schedule will allow me to attend the Friday session, unless I come up with a really creative way to do an iteration release from across town.

Which gets me thinking about asynchronous work schedules again, but I can’t be concise about that at 4am.

My calendar for the week is a little busy. Social media group tonight, Postgres tomorrow, Wednesday I’ll have to skip the dorkbot meetup because I want to go to the OpenID hackfest instead. I might have to forgo some of this if I’m still feeling icky, though.

I have this huge long list of things I want to blog about, but between work and that busy calendar (and getting sick), I’m still trying to carve out time. Even my Flickr page has been quiet lately.

And now I’ve finished my orange juice, so I’m going to try to sleep again.

I’m not much for new year’s resolutions, but as I’ve been reading everyone else’s wishes and predictions, I started to realize that there are a few things I’d like to see happen in my own life this year.

1. Be outside more. I want to do at least one hike or other outdoor activity (skiing, snowshoeing, climbing) every month this year.
2. Find more time for my own projects. The area around my desk is completely overtaken by yarn and craft supplies, there are at least three small programming projects I’d like to work on, and I haven’t done any real amount of music practice, composition, or performance in the last year.
3. Sell another knitting pattern. I’m expecting to have a sweater pattern published in a book this spring, and I’d like to continue this. I have a few different projects around that could be turned into good, interesting patterns. I just need to write up the proposals to shop around.
4. Figure out how to sell other things. I have a store on Etsy, but it doesn’t seem to get much traffic on its own. I have a Flickr account that contains several photos I’m very proud of and would love to print and sell. I have many ideas for other things I’d like to try out. And I have no idea how to do the kind of self-promotion needed to make money from any of this. I see people managing to make money by writing opinionated essays and blog articles, and this is also something I would enjoy, but again, no idea how to make it happen.
5. Find some kind of studio or workshop space I can use for things that are messy, loud, or not safe for cats. I don’t have a ton of spare money to put toward it, but it would really help with certain aspects of the “work on my own projects” goal above.
6. Be more spiritually engaged. I’m not necessarily looking to start going to church every week, but Lucas was teasing me about the dust on my bible, and I realized that I’ve been kind of coasting for the last year. I really enjoy reading theology, I enjoy discussing scripture ethics history etc, and I feel much more grounded when I take time for some kind of meditative practice (yoga was good this way, as was singing with the cathedral choir, and attending the Sunday night contemplative mass at my parish in Seattle). I need to pick something and make time for it.
7. Give a presentation at a local user group. I feel much more confident about my programming skills since I’ve started my current job, and I think I could find something interesting to talk about. I’m excited about a lot of different tech things these days, like test-driven development and combining agile practices with GTD, the little geocoder I wrote for work, various neat Ruby libraries, and so on. Not to mention half a dozen technology and society topics.

I had other things that I started thinking about as I was making this list, like a general commentary on work, scheduling according to your attention span and energy level throughout the day, why project managers shouldn’t have to act like babysitters (”Did you check in your code yet? Is there a problem I should know about?”), and so on. I have an idealized “life of Audrey” in my head involving the flexibility to work on what I want, when I want, and always sit near an outside window so I can see the sky. In 2007 I want to get just a little closer to that.

Dear TriMet,

I think it’s really neat that you run the buses free on New Year’s Eve so everyone can get home safely.

Just a couple of things to consider for next year, though.

First, I took the last bus of the night for my route, which rolled through downtown around 1:30. This is before the bars close. The bus was packed.

I bet a few of these people would really like to stay out later. Not that all of them really needed more time for drinking, but the way people were packed in, it seems like it might be smart to run a couple buses later so everyone can be sure of getting home.

Second, please consider what it’s like having a bus packed to the gills with drunk people. There was a woman across the aisle who kept trying to throw up. Running extra buses at the end of the night might also help ensure that no one ends up wearing someone else’s puke.

Thanks,
Audrey