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When Do You Get Your Ideas?

Friday, November 27, 2009
Tapping a PencilImage by Rennett Stowe via Flickr
Is there a special place and time when ideas just come to you? Whether for writing or other creative outlets, or inspiration for how to solve a pesky business problem, or how you'll code your current program... Where are you and what are you doing when ideas and solutions tend to come to you?

I've noticed lately that my ideas come to me when I am in the shower. My mind is on autopilot: shampoo, rinse, wash face, rinse, conditioner, wash rest of me, rinse. So the creative and task-based parts of my mind are free to think of things that I need to get done, or ideas for the next post or project.

Of course, like most people, I don't have a way to write down these ideas while in the shower. I'm not sure a small white board would work. Perhaps something with grease pencil? How does one take notes while in the shower?

So I'm asking all of you out there, my handful of readers, do you have any ideas for how one could take notes while in the shower? Perhaps something to hang up, held up by suction cups? Of course, I'd have to squint while I wrote things down (who showers with their glasses on?), but it'd be better than forgetting the genius idea that I just came up with, or the important thing to grab on the way out the door.
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Micro-Income

Saturday, November 21, 2009
MoneyImage by TW Collins via Flickr
Okay, not quite micro-income, but fairly close.

As some of you know, I'm trying to save up for a few trips in the next few years, starting from zero dollars. Thanks to a very small job I have that takes about an hour a week, plus payments from Amazon Associates, I'm saving up about $70-100 per month! Go me! After a couple of years, that may just pay for one of the three trips I want to take. Perhaps other things will trickle in as well, helping to pay for the other two trips. You can help by clicking on the link to the book I'm reading now (at right) each time you want to shop at Amazon.com. I'll get a percentage of your purchase (but it won't cost you anything additional).
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GeekDad Tshirts Now Available at ThinkGeek!

Friday, November 13, 2009
We had our awesome GeekDad Tshirts made to wear to the Maker Faire this year, and so many people asked us where they could buy a Tshirt of their own that some of the other Geeks looked into it. Ken, our head Geek, wrangled a deal with ThinkGeek, everyone's favorite store for geeks. As of this week, they now offer our awesome Tshirt for sale. The logo is on the front, along with the URL, and the back has a tag cloud of post tags from GeekDad.

The price is decent, and your purchase goes to help all the Core Contributors of GeekDad earn a small amount of money (especially me, if you use my links - muhahahaha!).

(Image: GeekDad.com and ThinkGeek)

A Mom's Day Off

Sunday, November 08, 2009
Reading cornerImage by delphaber via Flickr
I love what I do in my life right now. I have the privilege and luck to be able to stay home, take care of the kids, homeschool them, and be able to schedule my own day (most of the time). I also write for a few blogs, mostly not for pay, and I do a little other paying work here and there. I wouldn't trade it for any of the regular 40 hour per week paying jobs that I've had in the past. I would miss my kids too much, and I never liked anything enough to do it for that many hours per week.

Spending all of my waking hours being on call, though, being the go-to person for everything for everyone in my household, tends to wear on you after a while. Having the constant possibility of needing to do something for someone, or listening to what someone else is saying, it doesn't allow for any quality time inside my own head. It makes me go quite mad after a while. It's hard to get much done when you have to put it down every few minutes. Especially writing.

Most weeks I get a couple of hours off one night a week while my husband takes the kids swimming (thanks, Ed!), but that is usually it. As time goes on, it's not enough to get me sane and keep me there. Today, however, I asked for the whole day off. Not so much to do things that I don't have a chance to do otherwise, just so I can do them without interruption. Naturally the dog takes this opportunity to be high maintenance, but her needs are simple.

I'm only a small part of the way through my day, and I've already done some writing (see what I did there?), some crafting, and a little Netflix watching (Mad Men Season One Disc Two). Later on, I plan to do some reading, some exercise, some more writing, and perhaps some Beatles Rock Band.

I had better get going, though, because the one thing that is inevitable for time off, is that I always have more things that I want to do than I have time for.
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A Little About Me

Saturday, November 07, 2009
1869 engraving showing an idealized, young :en...Image via Wikipedia
Some people seem to have a "thing" when it comes to blogging. Wil Wheaton seems to make most of his post titles be song lyrics. Bad idea for me, since I've always had a hard time coming up with examples. So I will have no one theme. As my interests are quite varied, so will my blog posts be. So, a little about me...

I'm a 30 something stay at home mom who dabbles in things here and there, in the little bit of free time I have when I'm not homeschooling my two kids or doing other household-related activities. Lately I've done a bit of writing, being a Core Contributor to the GeekDad blog. I also try to do as many crafts as I can. I especially like sewing (hand and machine), embroidery (my new thing), crochet, and just making things in general. I love to travel, but I don't get to do that very often. Fortunately, I also love planning travel, so that keeps me occupied when I can't do the real thing. I love to play board games. Not the takes-ten-hours type of board game, but ones that test your knowledge or skill. Ones that are pure luck aren't as fun. I spend far too much time on the internet, but it really keeps me connected to what's going on out there in the world, especially among my friends and family. I love watching movies and TV. Jane Austen movies are where I go when I need to get away from it all. But not the new Kiera Knightly Pride and Prejudice. The Colin Firth version, all the way.

I also love education and learning, and lean strongly in the skeptic/pro-science direction. Critical thinking is crucial to having a mind of one's own, and I'm teaching my kids that as well as I can. I am working on several posts for GeekDad listing materials and websites that we use in our homeschooling, so keep your eye out for that.

I also have listed people I follow and sites I visit regularly in the margin of this blog, so you can see other things that I am interested in.

I've been a geek my whole life, which wasn't easy growing up. Our world has finally caught up, though, and it's indeed a good time to be a geek. Thank you, internet! Bwok bwok!

Pulling up my bootstraps...

Monday, November 02, 2009
Exposed gnarly roots in Fall River Park
In my younger years, I used a computer at school that literally said it was pulling itself up by its bootstraps when it was booting up.

I realized recently that I needed a central blog where I could point people, any people, who wanted information on me. I looked into a new blog through Blogger, where I have my various other personal blogs. But the URL I wanted was taken. It turns out it was taken by me. From years ago. I had started a blog here a while back, and I hadn't posted anything in three years. So it is now rebooted as my root directory of sorts. A blog mind map. I'll post information about myself here, links to other blogs of mine, and plenty of links to my GeekDad articles. I'm sure it will evolve into something coherent at some point, so stick around.

More to come soon!