Not quite that big yet, but I guess this means I can at least harvest one portion.

According to lore, they have to be invited in. Within the sacred space of your home, they can not harm you. They can not suck one drop of your precious life-giving blood unless you open the door and invite them past your threshold.

If your time, your attention, and your purpose are not the very essence of what life is, then what is? If where you commit your time, attention, and purpose is not sacred space, then why isn’t it? And if those items that seek to take from those things are not vampires, then what are they?

Most importantly, why are you inviting them in?

I needed new shoes. I don’t own many so when I say ‘need’, I do mean need.

I had proper bad weather shoes and a pair of awesome teva sandals that I loved wearing during warm weather. The sandals had one big issue: my insoles don’t fit. I have special insoles, specifically made for my weird feet to help prevent pains. The few times I wore my sandals this year I ended up with hurting feet — even after only two hours. So I went on a mission to get other summer-y shoes. These will fit my insoles, didn’t cost a fortune and I like them because they look a little weird.

Also, they look great for drawing.

GREAT SHOWDOWNS by scott c.

– Seth’s Blog: Adopt vs. adapt

• Walk the dog for an extra long time.
• Buying groceries.
• Hanging out with friends.
• Visit family.
• Go to the movies.
• Randomly hop into the car with TG and go for a nice beach-walk.

All of these things require planning on my side, which also sucks up precious energy.

A couple of days ago I read Michael Nobbs’ new book Sustainable Creativity in which he discusses the importance of learning how to say ‘no’. For some areas I know when to say ‘no’: I can easily say it when I don’t want to do something, or I don’t have the time, or I have other plans. But at those times when I don’t have plans yet, I really want to do it and think I have the energy, I won’t say no. And this backfires. I rarely do have that much energy, and end up canceling many things. This does not make me happy.

Tonight I watched the movie ‘Yes-man‘ and it gave me an idea. What if I say ‘no’ instead? I have things planned (and one not-yet-planned-but-sorta) and won’t precancel them. I will not make new plans however, excluding the ones where I go to the hospital (or other medical stuff) or where people come to my house (less tiring).

This may sound a little drastic, but I gave it some thought and it seems like a cool experiment. Worst case, I’ll feel bad the day after for saying ‘no’ and then I’ll have learned I said ‘no’ to something that matters to me. In a way, this will force me to re-evaluate things that matter to me most, and these may or may not include the things I think matter the most.

It will also, hopefully, give me some practice in saying ‘no’ when I do think I have lots of energy (but actually don’t and I end up wasting all of my reserves).

I have no idea about how long I want to do this, considering a month or perhaps until New Year

I recently read somewhere to get good at drawing you need to draw something you love.

Well, I love marmite — on ricecakes with cheese, in soup, in sauces — and I love maggi sauce — in soups, in sauces, with canned artichokes (yes, I have weird eating habbits) — I’ve drawn them both.

Mmm, marmite and maggi sauce. What would I do without them!

I can’t tolerate wheat completely, and they make maggi sauce from wheat. Luckily for me, I can tolerate that, woohoo!