Still working on the 80% rule

One of the many excellent ideas and encouragements that Amie McNee suggests in her fantastic book is to get comfortable with the idea that a creative work that’s 80% as good as you’d like it to be is good enough. Beyond that threshold, she says, you’re just making small changes, ones that probably aren’t worth … Read more

Time for a tea test

Other than a brief dalliance with coffee in high school, I’ve been a tea drinker for the vast bulk of my life. I like the smell of coffee, and I like the taste of it as complementary to the likes of, say, tiramisu. But when it comes to something to have with breakfast or something … Read more

I wish I’d learned to skateboard

I never got the hang of skateboarding. I had one for some years and tried, for a while, to pick up at least the basics of it — Okay, so I stand here, and I know I push with this other foot-type rudimentary stuff — but it didn’t take. And at least early on with … Read more

Finally squaring away boxed contents

Our finally (FINALLY) clearing out my mother’s storage lockers has proven to be a bit contagious and has inspired us to also start clearing away some un-dealt-with boxes and bins in our own house. And there’s plenty. We did a massive scouring of our belongings, but mostly old paperwork and the like, when we had … Read more

Blaugust check-in again

“Hey, man.” Hmm? Oh, hey, Central Conceit. “That’s not my name, you know.” Oh. What is it? “Don’t muddy the issue. We’re half way through the month. Ish. And so half way through your first Blaugust. How’s it going?” Okay, I think. I’m still posting daily, and generally don’t have to noodle on topics as … Read more

Stressed today

I’m feeling unusually stressed today. It’s no one thing, it’s a collection of smaller things that happen to have heaped onto this one day. But man, those can add up, can’t they? The unfortunate thing about that particular kind of stress, the nickel and dime kind, is that there’s not one big, sweeping thing that … Read more

Too much of a good thing

As I type this, I haven’t yet checked our lottery tickets for last night’s draw. You may be reading the blog of a multi-multi-millionaire who doesn’t even know that’s what he is. Perhaps that would finally start to bump up my web traffic (ha!) The draw was for $65 million, which is a ton of … Read more

Beaching it, day 2

*Reporting Live From Ipperwash Beach* I’d thought that today was going to be more about poking around beach town than being at a beach, but the latter was voted for, so here we are. Taking a picturesque drive here revealed a huge section of beach that you can drive onto, so we opted for that … Read more