Susan Barrett Price's Blog, page 58

Passwords: How Protected Are You?

Obsessional hell: I want my passwords safe and secure. But I want them at my fingertips when I need them. I want them available on my iPhone. And on my Netbook. But what if those devices get lost or stolen? Then what????

I used to keep them in a Roladex. Then I graduated to a spreadsheet. Then, when iPhone became my digital sweetheart I invested $10 in eWallet, which could sync between desktop and iPhone.

I never did like that app much — too much superficial prettiness, not enough under the...

Week In Review: the old lion circles her prey

I thought I'd get more new writing done for "Grand Exits" but I'm like an old lion circling a herd of gazelles… circling… circling… thinking… organizing… thinking… re-organizing. Taking way too long to pounce… Continue reading>>>

Personal Mythology vs Memoir

I've been listening to the audio version of  The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand. In discussing Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author refers to Holmes' "personal mythology." I want one of those. Oh, maybe I already have one in progress, but I'm calling it a "memoir." I googled.

At Angelfire, it says:

Transitions and transformations are the genesis of the inner life, or the mythic journey. Schopenhauer wrote that as we look back on our life there seems to have been a...

Tuesday Morning at the Idea Factory

Except for this bit of documentation (& processing a $50 ebay sale to Norway), I am working.

Waiting for the Flow (Again)

Leftover energy from new-year resolutionizing had me doodling on an index card… then pulling out my color markers.

Where Is My Flow?

The doodle made me remember that my first index card box was put together by my mom for me in 4th grade. I had been appointed the classroom "librarian" and was discombobulated by the task. My fellow students were mad at me because I was so pokey. So she made me a box and showed me how to organize the cards alphabetically.

She also gave me advice that stuck...

That Clanking Noise Is My Brain Shifting Gears

Yay, I finished my wave of Ebay listings and the sales are starting to trickle in. So now… back to my memoir project.

But first… an afternoon continuing my self-organization project. I looked at all my cards categorized as "Projects In Queue" or "Writing Ideas" or "Someday/Maybe" or "Journal Entries." What a stew. Mostly they aren't "projects." They are "ideas." Oh, I do have some abandoned projects, but I think if they are abandoned it's because they needed to be demoted to the status of...

Week In Review: Productive Cocooning

Haven't done a week in review since last April. In re-reading my  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, I realize I'd been skipping over the systematic review step. So, the result of my putting everything on index cards is that I have a freakin' box full of index cards that I never refer to and now I'm beginning to repeat myself. Maybe getting back to this Saturday routine will help. Continue>>>

Should Polygamy Be Legal?

So I asked Jim: "Why couldn't polygamy be legal — if it was among consenting adults." He shook his head: "Because it's nutty."

I've been reading Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. He explores the hidden societies of Fundamentalist Mormonism in the hinterlands of the West. Their form of polygamy encompasses incest and pedophilia in a violent male-driven society that makes the Taliban look like pussies. So I get why that's not so good.

But would it be any...

Mapping My Job

I went way overboard on this. But I needed a break from my ebay grind. I had a bundle these stray bits of paper on my desk — the remnants of some previous mind-mapping exercise where I was trying to get my bearings.

And I did need some practice in Adobe Illustrator… and a little color in my day. So… my job description (click on the image to see it full size):

These things are always "drafts" of course… wonder when my life will ever get out of "beta."

Snowy Winter's Morn

I get an odd little pang of envy when I see movies about writers who live in woodsy cabins where the wind blows and the snows pile up — even if they eventually wind up being stalked by psychos or haunted by demons or possessed by cabin fever. There's a kind of cozy uncluttered-ness about their isolation. And a kind of deliciousness in having all that time and space to redesign their universe, along with their loved ones, should they be so lucky to have companions.

But then this morning —...