We’ve all seen the fine print on investment materials – past results are not indicative of future success. Or something like that. I’m sure it’s more precise and lawyery than that.

Much of what we do in the internet marketing world is lather-rinse-repeat. Once you find something that works, you do it as often as possible until it stops working. Or you find something that works better.

I’ve always found that so incredibly frustrating. Incredibly. Because while I can lather-rinse-repeat, it’s not always obvious which stage of that cycle is working in order to truly repeat success. It could be how hard you lather, what you lather, what you rinse with, how often you repeat and on and on and on. It’s never quite as cut and dry as you would like. Or prefer. Or wish for.

Prime example for me was a fluke I made in October 2011 when I was reading up on the animated movies coming out in 2012. (I’m sure it was research. It always is. Looking ahead for opportunities to take advantage of.) I’m not entirely sure just what I thought I was going to do with it, but lo and behold – it took off. And hey, it does well, we want to repeat.

But the same formula – improved on actually – isn’t working for a similar page on the 2013 animated movies. Go fig. There are big sequels coming out this year – like Monsters University. Yet – little traction. Did I start too late (lather), mess it up by trying to improve it (rinse) or miss the point of what was successful (repeat)? Drives me nuts!

While I really like repeatable successes – makes life much, much easier after all – winning the game is about changing the rules, which requires staying ahead of things, making the change, directing the course rather than just copying the past. Copying in the past works if you want to maintain the status quo – be part of the “hey, no fair!” crowd when someone else rocks the boat and forces you to react. Now to just figure out the rules so I can change my game … .

So let’s see how I did with some of my goals for 2012.

• Knitting. Um, kind of went crazy with this one. Not only have I made several useful things, I have almost read nothing but knitting books this year. OK, not really, but I’m pretty sure I’ve downed almost 100 of them. Truly enjoying this particular new hobby!
• New each quarter – Good in theory, but not so much in practice. Maybe it’s the topics I chose. Maybe it was too much like school to try to learn on a schedule. Or maybe I was spending too much time reading knitting books to get around to anything else?
• Figure 8. Still suck. Can’t even do it on a regular bike. Admittedly haven’t gotten out to practice much with many excuses along the way. Got a new bike, had to wait for bars, etc., etc., etc. Fortunately, this is a great skill to have, but not utterly necessary in order to ride.
• CHL – Ran out of time somewhere in September to get this done. Classes are only on certain Saturdays and between rehearsals and travel, it just didn’t happen. So scheduled to take the class and test in a couple of weeks. Can I count it if I got it scheduled in 2012?
• Art on my car – Finally picked a color and design and then it was too hot to put them on the car. So just got these up in early November and I love them! No missing me now!
• Paint my bike – Well, got a new one, which I wasn’t planning on at the beginning of the year when I made my goals. But I still do plan to paint it this next year to match the cases I painted too. Or maybe have the cases repainted to match the bike since I didn’t do the most professional job. And of course, I went down on my bike in the first month or so after I got it (hit a gravel patch and lost control) so there’s a definite need to get it painted now, not just a desire. (I really ought to be taking the parts off right now to take to get painted since it’s too cold to ride. Hmmm.)

As for 2013 – well, obviously actually taking the CHL class and getting my bike painted are on that list. I also have some skill sets with knitting and sewing I intend to tackle. But I really haven’t given a lot of thought to it at this point. (Not good, right?) The only big one I can think of is to figure out a topic for an ebook that I actually write and market and actually turn into a steady money-making stream. I want an income stream that is a lot more passive than some of my current ones, as well as something I totally control.

Oy.

Now, I’m all for juries, happy to serve on one, not happy about having my day wasted with the process that always ends up in me being politely sent home.

See, no one wants me to sit on their jury.

If it’s not because I’m against gun control, it’d be because I’m for capital punishment. If it’s not because I think drug laws are a joke, it’ll be for my opinions on personal responsibility. Oh, and to top it all off, that one concept that pisses off prosecutors and judges alike – jury nullification.

They ought to just put a big black mark by my name to point out that it’s a total waste of time to even call me to serve. I’m exactly the kind of person you’d want to have on your jury, but no lawyer will ever put me on one. Screwed up much?

Red flags for the critical thinker as they allow a speaker/writer to make an assertion designed to elicit an unwarranted response. You don’t strike fear in a heart by saying “There’s a 10% chance that would happen” but by saying “It possibly could happen.” People bypass the generic adverb and head straight to panic mode.

Too many soft adverbs and not enough hard numbers mean science and economic reporting designed to mislead, not inform. And Susan spends way to much time yelling at her radio.

One thing that’s been holding me back was just trying to decide what to do. Coming up with ideas is certainly not the problem for me. So I started poking around in my fabric closet to find something I liked and met my desire for something bright and happy. Pulled out this great daisy fabric from Northcott that I bought for no reason other than that I liked it. And it falls in that confusing area of being flowers and blue. Do you know how hard that is to use in a baby quilt? Argh. But I loved it. So that’s where I started.

Decided to do the walls in the yellow with blue for the accents. I knew covering that mural was going to be tough so I primed with Kilz (the toxic version) and then did three coats of paint with primer. And I swear if I think about it, I can still see some of the ladybugs ghosting through. But I will be the only one who ever does, so I stopped at three coats. And I ran out of paint at that point.

It’s blazing hot right now, so I did all the priming at once inside in my craft room. Not a great idea since that original Kilz needs to be in a place with plenty of air circulation. Headaches ensued for all of us. Stupid, Susan.

Priming isn’t always a big part of my painting routine, but there was no way to avoid it this time, in part because I was redoing some old crappy furniture. This dresser has been making the rounds since Kevin and I got married; it was his when he was a kid. Other than the hardware, it really wasn’t that horrible. But I wanted cute and adorable and unique, so it was on the painting block. It took over a week to make that cute look happen despite the fact that I rushed a couple of steps (I am so impatient) and I might cover it in plastic to keep anyone from touching it.

The new hardware I purchased turned out to not be the right size; I apparently need some remedial measuring classes or to possibly remember to take a measuring tape with me to the store. So we had an extra step in there of filling holes at the beginning and drilling holes at the end in order to make my purchased-at-a-store-closing-and-thus-not-returnable hardware work. Coat of primer, couple of coats of white on those stripes, taped it off, pulled off a punch of white paint with the tape, cursed, painted the blue stripes, pulled off more white paint with tape, cursed, touched up white paint, modpodged flowers cut from the fabric, one clear coat, scratched the blue trying to get a drawer back in, cursed, touched up blue after getting all the drawers in, ignored the fact that I have a couple of different sheens on the piece now. Again, something one I will notice as most people will just be wowed by the fact that I did that to the dresser. Yea me for not getting obsessed with making it perfect! It’s now filled with my new yarn stash, which means I need a new place for stencils now.

Ages ago, a church I attended was getting rid of a huge bunch of cafeteria tables. I snagged one with no plan in mind (along with 10 metal folding chairs which sit in a closet) but it eventually became my cutting table. Perfect size and once up on bed risers, the perfect height. A coat of primer, blue paint, some white decoration and three coats of clearcoat to protect the whole thing. The table is usually covered in cutting boards and fabric, so I didn’t really want to spend the time to repeat what I did with the dresser. The excessive clearcoating is because multiple sharp objects are typically on the table and I’d like for it to stay perfect as long as possible. It’s still out-gassing and probably will for a month before I feel completely confident in tossing things willy-nilly on it.

Last project so far was making an ironing board cover of the inspiration fabric. (Have to use it somewhere!) Looks good, doesn’t it? Totally isn’t working. I added a bunch of new padding, which makes for a great ironing surface. But the extra padding isn’t staying in place, rolling up on the sides as you try to move a shirt around. And the cotton of the daisies is gripping so you can’t really move the shirt around that well anyway. Great in theory and certainly if all you’re doing is pressing quilt squares, but not a success for ironing clothes. Rethinking what to do about it, but for now, I’m just enjoying the improvement over the stained beige cover.

With the painting projects out of the way, I’ve moved on to trying to come up with a good organization system for above the cutting table, reorganizing my built-in bookcase, labeling my fabric scrap bins and small things like that. Eventually, I’ll have everything done and ready to show off. But already, I just have a great big smile on my face every time I walk into the room. Mission accomplished!

Stagecraft Fundamentals: A Guide and Reference for Theatrical Production

That said, I still just gave this quite a bit of skim. It’s quite comprehensive, which is why I picked it to start with for my quarterly learning topic. But way more comprehensive than I really wanted or needed. Costumes are interesting, makeup not. But really, I’m more interested in the stage/production management part of things, which had just a tiny part between the history of the stage and the in-depth discussions of various jobs and roles. Still, I have a much better understanding of the various roles involved in a stage production and how they work together.

The Perfect Stage Crew: The Compleat Technical Guide for High School, College, and Community Theater – Dumbed down version of the previous book. Meant for someone with no clue and not a lot of time to get a clue. He tries to not write in a dry fashion, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the above. (Side note: I never knew there was something called theater tech until they talked about it on Victorious once. That’s a class I wish I had taken, for sure. Finding it just not as interesting to read about. I think it’s probably the kind of thing best learned hands on.)

The Emperor’s Edge – Still free for Kindle and I definitely recommend reading this one. First in a series (the others aren’t free, though) that sets up this kind of Robin Hood-ish band that calls themselves The Emperor’s Edge. Well, at the end of the book they call themselves that. Like I said, this book is the one that brings the characters together and sets the framework for what they do and why they’re needed. Great characters, although I did wish for more explanation of the political situation and the magic involved. Oh – and a map. Definite downside to reading books on the Kindle is it is so danged difficult to flip to the front to look at a map or list of characters, which no good complex fantasy story should be without.

Reinventing Leona – Yet another book with a death in it. I know this is a major life change that works as a good plot point, but it’s still really tough for me to handle. This is a Christian fiction book, pretty well written, nice core characters dealing with realistic internal and external issues. That said, most of the characters were way to true to life for me. Just reminders of how incredibly sucky Christians can be at times, especially in how we treat each other. Not to mention the horrible standards church folk hold their leaders up to, which gives you performance-oriented kids who fake their way through life. (Ask me how I know. Still, a lot of that was what made the pastor’s family so real to me, and in a lot of ways, the good guys showing true loving-kindness won in the end.

Raises an interesting question though about how real you want your characters to be. And why is it real characters in non-Christian fiction are fine, but real ones in Christian fiction aren’t? Why does Christian fiction try to create these super Christians a lot that aren’t just not real, but also not interesting. Hmmm.

Wonder – Loved, loved, loved this one. The entire book is told in first person, although the person in question changes as we move through the school year with the different voices being used to great effect by the author. We have a kid who’s been homeschooled his whole life because of a massive facial deformity about to enter a real school for the first time, two friends he makes there, his protective sister about to enter high school, her (former) best friend who’s been around since the kid was born and a boy friend just coming into the picture taking turns telling the story of August Pullman’s first year at school. It’s wonderfully told, nothing fake about it and a great discussion piece. It’s a book for kids, but well worth a read for adults as well.

The Paris Caper – Huh. They changed the title of this since I downloaded it. Was The French Detective’s Woman. I think I like the new title better. Possibly a wee bit too much sex focus for me, but really pretty good. Interesting characters with some pretty deep backstories that totally shaped who they are now. I could so see this one as a movie. French detective meets and falls for girl, who is the cat burglar he’s been hunting. He’s smart, she’s smarter (at times) and they play a cat and mouse game the entire time because neither can trust the other one since they’re on different teams. Bit of an Ocean’s Eleven vibe at times, although this thief has a real heart of gold.

On the Run (The Gregory Series – Book 1) – Romantic thriller again. First in a series, the kind that revolves around a family – typically three or four brothers and one sister – with each book basically the romantic thriller that leads them to their eternal love. In this one, we have girl on the run from a drug dealer trying to kill her, former DEA agent in love with her trying to find and protect her. They meet up at the beginning and go on the run together, but there’s a real trust issue on her side (and occasional cluelessness on his), not to mention the entire mystery of why someone wants her dead in the first place. Lots of nice twists and turns. Good beach read for sure.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict – Have been waiting for another Benedict Society book! This one takes us back to when Benedict was a kid himself, moving into yet another orphanage. Lots of references to things we’ve learned about him in the first three books. He has a bit of a Sherlock Holmes bent to him – observing, processing and concluding far faster than the rest of us. Not to mention, a bit of that Aspberger’s that I swear Holmes shows. In this case, though, I think Benedict is just lacking in time with people rather than any real inability to relate to people. But that’s part of his growth story here as he tries to find the treasure supposedly hidden at the orphanage with the help of his first two friends ever.

Started and gave up:
Pirates of Savannah: The Hunt for Shamus’s Booty – Kids book that I couldn’t handle past the first few pages. Reads like I wrote it. And I don’t do fiction well.
Parallel Worlds – Not even available anymore. Odd. But probably just as well. Got through the first couple of chapters, at which point she had pretty much left the actual story for a bunch of pseudo-science about the concept of parallel worlds and multiples lives and gaaa. The first chapter had promise, but if you don’t stick with your characters and tell their story, it starts to deflate.

Guess crappy weather in the past few years was the final straw and they’ve just given up.

It’s not a great quilt, but my mom made it for my brother. It’s been well-loved over the years. I mean well loved. By four kids, two adults and a dog. So it’s in pretty sad shape. I volunteered to put a new binding on it in hopes of keeping it around longer, but then I got it home and saw all the things I hadn’t noticed before.

Yeah. The fabric is frayed on the edges where it’s come apart. The fabric has holes in it in some stress points and some holes that go all the way through. I’ve never dealt with anything like this before and have been completely stymied by where to start and what to do. Putting it out here to make myself be accountable to actually get it done. The new binding is cut and ready to go, but what to do about the holes? How to fix things in a way that is cohesive with the original piece? I’d really like to leave as much original as possible, because I so envision taking this apart and making five pillows out of it for everyone to have later in life.

Wish me luck!

Heat Wave (Nikki Heat, Book 1)

Anywho. I had done up a page with all of the Richard Castle books on it over on a new service I’m trying out. And I decided I needed to actually read one of them before I started talking about them. So I read the first one and if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll like it. If you’ve never seen the show, you might be a wee bit confused and disappointed. The show characters reflect and mimic the show characters pretty closely, and that’s fine if you’re familiar with the show because the book is a wee bit lacking in character development outside of Nikki Heat. The crime they were investigating was driving me nuts because I could have sworn it was a case they did on the show, but I couldn’t find it for the life of me. However, looking ahead, the general arc they have Heat on is following the show a bit for sure. Recommended as a light summer read if you tend to like these types of books anyway.

Un Lun Dun - China Mieville isn’t for everyone. But I don’t think anyone can deny he’s a danged good writer even when he’s being totally weird. Fortunately, this isn’t one of those times. He’s just being fantastical, and given this is book for kids, it’s totally believable. (I know, doesn’t make sense. But it’s true.) It seems there’s a parallel world out there, an “un” world where things are kind of opposite. So stuff we toss out makes its way to UnLunDun (or UnLA or UnNYC) where it has a new life. And life is exactly right as inanimate objects are alive there. From here, you can guess we get a somewhat Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole kind of story. (Why do people always refer to the looking glass when that’s the second story?) It’s a great story as our non-hero London girl fights evil in UnLunDun that has connections back to London and could devastate both worlds. Still a taste of the steampunk Mieville leans toward.

Julius Katz Mysteries - Found this on my Kindle, which probably means I got it for free at some point. It’s a collection of a few Julius Katz short stories. They’re meant to be somewhat hard-boiled noir. As I was reading, I was getting a cross of Mickey Hammer and the new modern version of Sherlock Holmes. They’re told from the perspective of Archie, the superpowered computer we all wish we had. (Think a bit like Jasper, Tony Stark’s computer in Iron Man.) Katz does use Archie to great advantage in solving cases, but when it comes down to it, it’s really the computer in Katz’s head that solves the case (much to Archie’s exasperation). The reveal at the end is a cross between Agatha Christie (everyone gathered together in a room) and Holmes (let me put together all the connections you missed). A nice way to pass some time.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future - Full disclosure. I got this as a pre-release book because Chris is a friend of mine and he was trying to get the word out in advance. Which he did quite nicely without my help since I took forever to get this read. It’s full of stories to illustrate Chris’s basic premise – you can start a business without spending a lot of money. It’s something Chris has done with an internet information business, but there are plenty of examples in there of offline businesses to show that it can be done. And of course, the whole no debt thing is a big principle we adhere to at The Same Coin. Not to mention, I’m a big fan of the do something model. Read it, but don’t let the reading of the book be just one more excuse for why you haven’t started working on that idea you’ve had.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Linking to the entire series here since I read the last three books in a whirlwind this month. Once you get past the first book, the rest really pick up and I truly enjoyed this series. (So sad they screwed up the movie version so very royally. Perfect case study of how making changes in the story for no reason doesn’t make it better.) The last book was quite the nail-biter; I kept thinking we were at the final battle, but the book was just at 60%! Definitely a good read for the average 10-year-old boy.

The Knitter’s Life List, Teach Yourself VISUALLY Knitting, The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Simple Knits – Yes, more knitting books. The first two are actually ones that would be nice reference ones to have. The life list book is beautiful and nicely organized with things to do, learn and make. Goes way beyond how to knit or just being about patterns. The visual knitting book was a lifesaver while I had it as I kept running across things I couldn’t figure out in a couple of patterns I had at the time. The last book, meh. I have a book by the Yarn Girls and it’s just not really that different. And the patterns weren’t that inspiring.

In fact, since I took these pictures, I’ve gotten quite a bit farther with the projects. But I haven’t taken new pictures. Lazy!

And of course, I thought I had taken a picture of my first three real projects – scarves for my sister, sister-in-law and niece – but they’re nowhere to be found. But trust me, I made three actual and quite lovely scarves. I’m over the demented potholder phase.

Before I tackled a sweater, I wanted to practice some of the techniques necessary, so I took on a hat. And it came out quite well! (I’m apparently short headed as well as short waisted, so ended up folding the edge.) So on to sweaters! Time to stop drooling over patterns and actually make something.

So, of course, I had to start two at the same time. Sigh. The blue one, I actually have the back completed and am halfway up the front now. The stitch order isn’t hard, but it is involved. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve messed it up and had to take it apart. I am the queen of unknitting now, let me tell you. The cream one is a long tunic done in the simplest stitch possible, but gave me a chance to try out circular needles. And I’ve gotten to the top and gotten stuck on the instructions. Fortunately, the yarn shop near my house offers a class called “Help Me With My Project” and I’m going to take it over there so I can count it done.

And of course, I already have a stash going. In this pile is yarn for another sweater and another scarf. And I have a box coming today from an online yarn store with more. (Although, I was a very good girl and picked out projects, then picked out yarn. So it’s not aimless yarn just sitting in the closet, but does have a purpose and will get used.)