Category Archives: Accountability

I Have A Lot Of Books To Read

Categories: Accountability, Random Musings
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 48 seconds

I don’t usually share this kind of thing online, but I decided to write it up anyway. You see, I hadn’t read a book in years.

Oh, I read a lot. I read news online, blogs, genealogy magazines and journals. I’ve even read some books on Kindle, though I tend to skim those.

But I hadn’t read a physical book that was sitting on my shelf for years. I’ve lost interest in some of what I had and had gotten rid of them without ever reading them. But I still have plenty left.

So I decided it was time to read books again. I set a goal for twelve books in 2019, one per month. The last book I can remember reading was pretty long and it took me a month, one chapter per night.

I read eleven. I failed. Somehow I stopped sometime around the summer and took a while to start up again. But I’m proud of those eleven. I even rushed to get one more in since I started writing this post about ten days ago, and finished it a few minutes ago.

2019 Books

I read two genealogy books, or rather one genealogy and one genealogy-ish. Two books were about Utah. Three were from the shelf of books I’d kept back to junior high school that I loved and wanted to read again. (I didn’t love them as much the second time as an adult though; they’ll be donated now.) One was actually a lecture, but it was bound like a book and I got it from the free book sale at the library, so it counts. Several of the books were chosen deliberately for being easier reads. They were still books in my house that I needed to read, so they count just like the others.

In any case, I finally read some of the books in my house and getting myself doing that again was the ultimate goal more than the count. I have a lot more to go. Since I didn’t hit my goal, I think I’ll set the same goal, but in the hopes that I read more than twelve, next year.

Happy New Year!

January Goals Review

Categories: Accountability, Genealogy, Goals
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 5 seconds

What were my goals for this year? I think I’ve already forgotten some.

1. Haven’t gone to Europe yet.

2. I got back into re-organizing all my documents. Scanfest kick-started that at the end of the month and then I did a little more.

3. Didn’t add the pictures yet to my new family web site.

4. I don’t know if I blogged more, but I blogged a few times. I think that counts.

And then the ones that aren’t numbered the same, just to make these reviews more complicated. Thus, I’m re-numbering for these goal reviews.

5. My inbox count is still in the 30s. The only emails being procrastinated on are the really, really old ones. Well, mostly.

6. I invoiced my web development clients. I haven’t had a lot of genealogy work this month, so I’m not really behind on that by much.

7. I started the indexing of the pages I’ve had for months. I don’t think these particular pages are good for me, but the person in charge hasn’t responded yet. They look almost like Russian language revision lists, but there is so much in the comments that I won’t even pretend to be able to read, that maybe someone else should do them.

I think that’s not a bad month on my goals. I spent a lot of the time writing a new program for the RootsTech developer’s challenge. The rules said to come up with something new, but the finalists look like they’ve all been around for a while. One is based on a web site that’s a few years old; at least two were already on the schedule to speak about their programs. From the others that I was able to find something about, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the entries were pre-programmed. Seems that I read a rule that no one else followed. Looking back, it was kind of vague that it had to be newly written. But between that and the official blogger incident (being asked to be one during the last conference, but then not asked for this year, and not even the courtesy of a return email), I’m still annoyed at them. At least I already know that I attend genealogy conferences more for the people than the conference itself, and had a good time yesterday with some of them already. On to another month.

Genealogy Goals For 2012

Categories: Accountability, Genealogy, Goals, Random Musings
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 54 seconds
5 Comments

This seems to be a common genealogy blog topic, so here’s my go. I didn’t do goals for last year, so I can’t judge them.

In 2011, I made my business paperless by using Android. I tried previously with my PDA but it didn’t work. I finally finished scanning all the family photos that had been given to me years ago and I organized all my photos on my computer. I began re-organizing all my genealogy documents, but only got part way when I switched to the photos. At the beginning of the year, I reprogrammed my family web site, but now I need to add the photos back in. Since they’re organized, it should be easier, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.

And that brings me to my goals for 2012.

1. Go to Europe.

The IAJGS conference is in Paris in 2012. However, it’s losing it’s appeal to me for a few reasons. A cousin of mine is going to Poland and has arranged for a day tour of our ancestral town. It is almost exactly one month before the conference, so to go to both, I’d have to stay in Europe for over a month or fly home and back in the same month. Both options are not appealing to me. But if I skip the conference, I can easily plan for a June trip.

2. Organize my documents.

I started this in 2011. Then my cousin asked about pictures on the web site and I switched to organizing those, which I finished. Now I have to get back to the documents, making sure everything has a good digital copy and is sourced better in my program.

3. Get pictures on the family web site.

I finished organizing them. Now I have to write the programming to link them up to the database and then get them on the web site.

4. Blog more.

I’ve had some busy times, then some slow times. Also, I started another blog to post a picture a day. It started really well, but December was terrible and I skipped days all over the place. There will also be a new society blog for me to keep up with very soon. Also, don’t leave off Nitpicker’s Versions of WDYTYA episodes until the next season starts. Again. Yes, I know I still have one more to do.

Business Goals

1. Don’t procrastinate emails.

I end up taking upwards of an hour sometimes to answer an initial genealogy inquiry, so I tend to procrastinate on those. Like my photo blog, it got much worse in December. I had 100 near the end of the year. I have less than 30 now in my inbox, and still several that need answering. But at least none are a month old anymore.

2. Invoice better.

This also includes for my web development business.

I have some other smaller things, but they fall in line with not procrastinating emails and updating my family web site. I did improve on some things last year, so now I get another chance to improve even more.

Also, just writing this blog post means I’m blogging more, right? :-)

————-

Late addition: Index more.

I forgot about this one. (Kind of like I keep forgetting to index the pages I already have?) I’m part of one indexing project and I haven’t been doing much lately. I need to finish the pages I’ve got and do more. I also want to get my society indexing, so I assume I’ll be doing at least some of that too.

War

Categories: Accountability, Home Improvement
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 28 seconds

The war in Evony got interesting today. Someone near me truced so I couldn’t attack. Instead I went for his colonies and took out 90k archers from one city and 45k archers from another. I was really proud of that. Later, I was slowly going through his cities, two at a time and then one at a time after his truce ended. On my second run, Chappo came in and took two of the cities. He’s lucky that he hit a different city than the one I was headed for because he hit only five minutes before me. But he got the main city where I had eliminated 90k archers. On the other hand, I pointed out someone else to him and he shared with me. He hit the main and another while I hit the other three.

OK, so I’m still spending way too much of my time in Evony, but it’s so much fun.

I reinstalled the baseboards in the bedroom and put some of my clothes and a few boxes in. I have a lot more to do. I need to remember to buy felt for the bottoms of all my furniture. I knew there was something I needed over there the last time I went to Walmart but it slipped my mind. I also want to put the four foot high bookcase on wheels so that I can put it right in front of the other and still have access to it.

Wow, I just got interrupted typing this entry by a knock at the door. It was a Jehovah’s Witness. That’s my first!

I Know, I Know

Categories: Accountability, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Got a few emails responded to yesterday after I blogged. Still haven’t gotten back to them. The FHL catalog was offline. Didn’t check back again today. What did I do? I think I’ve been tired most the day too. Insomnia on top of my other sleep disorders makes for being tired all the time from not being able to sleep enough.

I’m tired now.

Oh, and my old computer monitor is dying. I looked it up. The part to solder in I can get for $10. The whole monitor, which will be easier, is $120. I should be able to hook it up to the external monitor and it will be fine on just that monitor but I don’t plan, nor do I have the room, to get another one to put on the desk. But I might have to. Then again, if I’m going to spend $100, I might as well just get the monitor for the laptop. That one has the fingerprint reader which is better security anyways. When this one hibernates, it doesn’t ask my password. Or does it? Actually I did finally turn that on. But I think the old one is just a little smaller. Nah, this one is the current one with email and files, so it’s the one that will go.

The IAJGS conference is in a month and I haven’t prepared at all yet. If I could just sleep better, that might help. Going to try now.

No Sleep and No Alarm

Categories: Accountability, Home Improvement, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 42 seconds

The floor guys came back at 9 am this morning with a loud banging on my door. I couldn’t get to sleep for hours and my alarm never went off. I eventually searched my PDA, the only thing that can wake me up anymore, to discover it was in silent mode. I guess that explains the missed alarm from a few days prior. I had him trap me in the bedroom where I got a little more sleep and had my computer for when I was awake. He said it was OK to walk on after six hours. After seven and a half hours, I walked through the hallway and it still felt tacky. I left footprints that I can see by the kitchen. The light in the hallway wasn’t right to see footprints. Now I get to find out if he’ll come back and do another layer at least on the hallway. I followed his instructions, it’s not my fault that he underestimates the drying time instead of overestimating. But I definitely don’t plan to be in the house again while the floors are drying. The fumes really got to me and I was tearing up for quite a while like I do when I work at the computer for too long sometimes.

Finally sent out the UJGS minutes from the last meeting and called the next one. I didn’t quite make the two week mark before the next meeting. I don’t really have plans for the meeting either. This will be the first unplanned meeting that I’ve held. I hope I can get the use of the equipment I need at the JCC (projector, white board, wi-fi) so I have options to show web sites or an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. I doubt my members have seen the British episodes. Maybe I’ll show them Stephen Fry’s episode. That was a good one.

Almost Done

Categories: Accountability, Home Improvement
Estimated reading time: 0 minutes, 39 seconds

I knew I had beautiful floors under all that paint. The guys are coming back at 9am to put down the second coat, though I thought he said he was doing a base and second coat and tomorrow would be the third coat. The floor feels tacky to my socks and not smooth to the touch, so the second coat should finish that off.

In other news, nothing else really accomplished. What else is new? I have to get some sleep.

Where Is Sleep?

Categories: Accountability, Family History Library, Genealogy, Genealogy on TV, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 59 seconds

I have been awake for 27 hours now and I’m not sure why. I didn’t desperately try to stay up. I just did. And I’m still up but I get the feeling I’m going to eventually crash. Well, I sure hope I do. I need sleep.

The good thing was that after 24 hours, I turned on Out of the Blue by Debbie Gibson and finally got some work done. I did my bookkeeping for all the research I’ve done and the NGS conference going back a month. I answered a few emails and finished off a few by entering the info into QuickBooks. And all that while Evony was still running.

I started another city. It’s a fun game. Learning a lot from more advanced players. Learning a lot just by doing things myself.

Must go to the FHL tomorrow. Got that order from Genlighten and another odd request from The Generations Project on BYUTV. I hope I can do something for that. We’ve got some records. I might not get to what they want, but I might find something more than they know now and then they can move forward with that. Just been answering that email the whole time I’ve been drafting this blog entry.

I also have to do the nitpicker’s versions of the last two episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? still and index the Bessarabia records, send out the minutes for the last UJGS meeting, figure out what will happen at the next meeting, and do the two newsletters. Yep, all that still needs to get done. Maybe some of it tomorrow? Maybe some of it tonight. I’m still awake.

Almost forgot. Someone I know only on Facebook and Twitter asked about journals and twittering them. I pointed out a line-a-day diary that was being tweeted and suggested blogging something longer. And I realized I should do that with Rachel’s trip diaries. I only read one of them, but a bit part in the middle was historic. I think she only wrote these when they went on trips to somewhere, but you never know what I might find while typing them. I found Israel going to war in the middle of the first one I read.

Crap

Categories: Accountability
Estimated reading time: 0 minutes, 58 seconds

Didn’t leave the house. Didn’t get anything accomplished. I’ll have to leave Dad’s card out for the mail all morning to make sure it gets picked up. Doesn’t look like it’s supposed to rain any more. It will be delivered late, but at least it will be in the mail before his birthday.

At least I had the excuse of still not feeling great. A month or two ago, I realized I wasn’t getting cramps and the reason was probably all the milk I was drinking. I remembered seeing that in a show once. So I brought home more milk and that part was good, but I was still pretty drained of energy for the past two days. Tomorrow should be better, which is good because I need to get back to work on my yard. And everything else. I have two newsletters to do and some indexing. Then I have my own research which has been piling up for years that I’d like to start catching up on.

A Little Better

Categories: Accountability, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 3 seconds

Still slacking off most the day with Evony but at least I ended today productively. I finally read through and edited the UJGS minutes from the April meeting. I altered the text for the UJGS flyer (which I’ll get printed someday) and the JCC ad. I cleared off some of my desk. I watched two movies, though that doesn’t count as productivity. And I prepped a bit for the next UJGS meeting. I have no plans for that meeting. I guess I’m going to just talk about the NGS and IAJGS conferences. But I have a couple more weeks to not think about it. Maybe I’ll put together a newsletter. Actually, I should put together my family newsletter before another month gets away from me.

What I need to do is set up things on Evony to run for several hours, close the window, and open up Pandora for music. That seems to be the key. As long as the music is playing, I can be productive. If I only stop it when I have to read, write, or edit, I’m pretty good for a while.