Weekly Goals, Week 42: Survival Mode

I wrote in a post over the weekend about my cat, Izzy, being hospitalized, and that everything else in my life was essentially on hold.  As a result, I didn't make much progress with my goals for last week, and I'm okay with that.  Some things are just more important than others.

Right now we have a lot of unknowns.  Izzy is getting better, but we don't know when she'll be released.  She has another dialysis scheduled for Tuesday, so she has at least a few more days in the hospital, which means at least a few more days of driving to Boulder to visit her twice a day.  It's grueling, but I don't mind doing it.

Unfortunately, I do have a busy weekend planned, so once we find out when she'll be discharged we may need to figure out how we'll take care of her in between plans.  I'm expecting her to need a lot of care at first.

With all of this going on, I'm not making any goals for the week.  I need to get through the week and regroup once Izzy has been released, and then I'll work on getting back into a habit of making and meeting goals.

Cat, Interrupted

I did it again.  On Monday's weekly goals post, I said:

This week is already looking a little gnarly on the schedule, but I don't think it'll be as bad as last week.  Hopefully fewer surprises, anyway, and a more relaxed weekend once I make it there.

Spoiler alert: There have been lots of surprises, and the weekend is anything but relaxing.

On Monday our cat Izzy, whom we'd been following around all weekend with food, refused to eat at all.  We got her into the vet and it was determined that her kidney disease, diagnosed four weeks ago, was out of control.  We took her right to an emergency vet service.

She was put on IV fluids and still struggled, plus she has a complicated medical history and a number of current issues, so on Wednesday we were transferred to a different facility with a nephrology department.  This one was almost an hour away instead of five minutes away, so I've spent the rest of the week driving to Boulder twice a day every day.

Still she has continued to decline, so they decided to put her on dialysis.  Her first treatment was last night, and it helped a lot, but it also cost her some blood when she was already anemic.  She badly needed a transfusion, but it turned out she is type B, which is very rare for cats.  The clinic managed to find the only available type B blood in the state at CSU in Fort Collins, so we took her there today for a transfusion that will hopefully help her to heal.

And that's been my week: worrying, driving, visiting, and raising money to help my poor kitty.

For right now, I have no goals, other than surviving and doing the best I can for Izzy.

Weekly Goals, Week 41: Jinx

Remember when I said last week that it would be an easier week?  Remember that?

Last week was another rough week, but this week should be better.

 

Sound familiar?

I think it's true this time though.  I do have a few things scheduled this week, but it's considerably less demanding-looking on my calendar than last week was.

Yeeeah.  I totally jinxed myself.  I'd forgotten about an appointment on Friday and ended up getting last-minute work on Thursday and Saturday.  In the end I clocked even more hours than I did two weeks ago, my "busy" week.

That's not to say that it was a bad thing.  I have been self-employed for long enough that I have a strong "work when the work is available" outlook, so the work wasn't unwanted.  But it did displace other things that I had planned to do, and the overwork took a toll on me psychologically.

I still managed to write most days, took photos, and posted content, though not as much of the latter two as I had planned.  I did not work on any dolls, unfortunately, and you could probably say I did negative organization, as I made some things worse.

This week is already looking a little gnarly on the schedule, but I don't think it'll be as bad as last week.  Hopefully fewer surprises, anyway, and a more relaxed weekend once I make it there.

My goals for the week are much the same as the last couple weeks:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

Although, really, my goal this week is just to survive it.

November writing month is quickly coming up and while my region is planning on distancing itself from NaNoWriMo HQ, we're still planning on conducting our month the same way.  In other words, my life is less than a month away from maximum busyness.

I'm just doing my best to hang in there...

Is NaNoWriMo's Countdown Tone Deaf?

A week or so ago, many of us (now former) Municipal Liaisons noticed that NaNoWriMo had a countdown to November up on their website.  I screencapped this a couple of days ago, so the countdown is not up to date for today.

Is it just me, or is this completely tone deaf?  There has been a massive outcry in the community against NaNoWriMo's AI statements, and many of us have been exploring alternatives to NaNoWriMo in the weeks since.  And yet, with no mention of any of that, they throw a countdown up on the website.

Today, finally, NaNo HQ addressed the issue with an email blast to the entire community.  It was, as all the statements posted online have been, a bunch of pandering and gaslighting.

This ignores completely that the major difference between this statement and last year's statement is that last year's statement on AI clearly (and accurately) points out that using generative AI to write your entire novel "would defeat the purpose of the challenge."

Then there was the claim that they've overhauled the volunteer system to bring it into compliance:

I guess technically cutting loose your ~800 volunteers does bring the program into compliance, because now there are no volunteers to comply with any legal restrictions.  But at that point you don't actually have ~800 volunteers anymore.

As far as I know, not a single ML has actually been restored as of yet, and it's unlikely to happen in the next month.  There's significant speculation within the community that NaNoWriMo is trying things out without the MLs this year to see if they can make it work without the local community representatives and the expense we represent (mainly in the form of free stickers for our region's participants, and ML goodies such as annual pins recognizing our contributions).

The staffing changes claim is a hoot, because the impression I got was that the staff actually unanimously quit, rather than being let go for their involvement.  If that's not the case, there was significant gaslighting coming from the Interim Executive Director at the time of the "staffing changes," who told the MLs that our usual point of contact was "on leave," and only informed us that she had quit after she was supposed to have returned from leave.

Also, "staffing changes" is misleading because it implies that staff has been replaced.  As far as I know, HQ consists right now of the Interim Executive Director and maybe a programmer or two.  And the staff page is also down, which certainly implies that they don't want us to know this.

The email ends with a bunch more gaslighting and a call for donations.

The numbers read like resume bullet points or executive summaries, and are clearly designed to make it sound like NaNoWriMo has been communicating better than they have been.  Unfortunately, just because an email has been sent out doesn't mean it has communicated anything it should have.  Additionally, the part about it being possible to participate "if" your region doesn't have an ML is noteworthy for a couple of reasons: One, as I said above, I don't believe any region has had an ML reinstated, and two, it seems to support the theory that HQ is seeing if perhaps the community organizers aren't needed after all.

Finally, the call for donations in the signature is, just like the countdown on the website appearing before any communications went out to the community, tone deaf.  What exactly are we donating for?  I've seen posts indicating that educators may not even have access to the resources of the Young Writers Program anymore, and that program was always a significant part of what we were funding when we donated.  With that and the community outreach program in limbo, what exactly is left to support?  Right now NaNoWriMo is little more than a word count tracking website run by a backyard nonprofit with a skeleton crew, and as I mentioned in my post regarding NaNoWriMo alternatives, there are other ways to track word count in November.

I will be writing a novel this November as always, but this year my volunteer efforts will be better spent picking up the shattered pieces of our community that HQ left us with when they dismantled the ML program.

Time Management and the Importance of Down Time

I mentioned in my weekly goals post that last week was a really busy, rough week, and that at the end of it I canceled my plans for Sunday so I could just stay home and write.

I'm not always good at balancing that need, but I try.  In this case, I had a super busy, in-my-face Friday and Saturday, and desperately needed that break on Sunday.  It took me a couple of hours to realize Sunday, basically until I realized I was going to procrastinate getting going until it was too late and then feel bad about it.  Instead, I recognized what was happening, canceled my plans so that I would feel less bad about it, 

And yes, sitting on the couch writing for four hours is a break.  A lovely one, in fact!  I made tremendous progress on my novel, catching up from a decided slump.  And I ended the day feeling much less stressed and overwhelmed, despite the general busyness of the week.

It's so difficult to recognize when we need to slow down and give ourselves a break, yet it's so important to make sure we're doing this when it's needed.  everyone needs a break periodically!

When I'm not writing for a break, reading is another big contender.  We also like to go to movies occasionally, since we have A-List subscriptions with AMC.

What about you?  Are you able to recognize when you need a break, and how do you handle it when you realize?

Weekly Goals, Week 40: A Small Reprieve

Last week was another rough week, but this week should be better.

Sound familiar?

I think it's true this time though.  I do have a few things scheduled this week, but it's considerably less demanding-looking on my calendar than last week was.

Remember how in last week's goals post I mentioned I usually only track 25-35 hours throughout the week, and the previous week I'd tracked 45?  Well, last week I tracked 38, which is a little less but still more than my usual.  No wonder it felt so busy!  Saturday was especially busy, straight from one thing to another all day long, so on Sunday I ended up canceling everything and staying home to WRITE.

This week should be better, though.  No, truly!  I have much less scheduled.

My goals for the week are:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

These are the same goals I had last week.  I managed to write nearly every day, worked a little on dolls, took doll photos, and posted content.  I did not get around to organization (I had some shelves to put up and didn't), and I did not do as much of the second and third items as I had intended.  The collab I filmed on Friday and the Q&A for NaNoWriMo my region held on Saturday took up much more of my time during the week than I had anticipated.

This week's goals are more or less the same.  Writing every day will probably always be a goal, and the rest of these goals will probably be pretty static as well, for the near future anyway.

As much as I would love to hope that my weeks will keep getting easier, the truth is that they are about to ramp up in a major way.  NaNoWriMo starts November 1st, and although my co-organizers and I are planning on distancing ourselves from HQ starting this year, we're still doing the challenge and all of the same events we always do.  So my life is about to get quite a bit more chaotic!

Let Freedom Read Day

Do you want to do more about book banning than celebrate Banned Books Week?  While exercising your right to read challenged books is important, today is about doing something about book banning.  Today is Let Freedom Read Day!

Let Freedom Read Day is all about taking an action - any action - that will help to fight the fight against book banning.

Ready to join the fray?  Here are my favorite suggestions from the Banned Books Week website on how you can help.

• Register to vote.  Voting is important in any election, but especially in this election.  The availability of books in the education system is only one of the many things at stake this November.
• Pledge to support the freedom to read when you vote.  Make a commitment to fight back against book banning at the ballot box!
• Quiz your candidates.  Do you know where your local candidates stand on book banning?  If not, you should!  Research their positions, write to the campaign, or attend a town hall or campaign event to ask your questions.  This goes for elected officials, too: Just because they've been elected doesn't mean they can ignore the people's concerns, so make yours heard!
• Talk openly about the dangers of book banning.  A lot of people don't understand the ramifications of censorship.  If you know someone like that in your life, this is your chance to educate them!  
• Write a letter to the editor.  Getting a letter to the editor published in your local paper or community website can be a great tool for raising awareness and educating others on the impact of book banning.
• Donate banned books to libraries, schools, and Little Free Libraries.  Give the gift of knowledge by donating banned books to places where they'll be read, spread, and enjoyed.

If these things feel like too much, rest assured, there are still ways you can help.

How Does Reading Banned Books Help?

This post is about things you can do to fight back against censorship, but in truth, reading is something you can do.  When you read banned books, you:

• Support the author, publisher, and countless other people.  Buying books is obviously money in both the publisher's and the author's pockets, but reading from the library also helps to support them.  Libraries pay good money for books and demand will keep them buying!  Plus if you're reading a book, you're likely talking or posting about it, and word of mouth helps support authors and publishers too.
• Maintain demand.  As noted above, libraries have to make decisions about what books to buy.  When a book is challenged, they may also need to fight the challenge with data on the book's demand.  It's easier to fight back against a challenge on a popular book in the library's collection.
• Add to the discourse.  Assuming you talk or post about what you read, or even simply update your Goodreads account, you're adding to the overall conversation about the book.  Word of mouth helps generate support by getting other people interested in books and selling more copies, to both individuals and libraries.

Ultimately, the best way to combat book banning is to ensure that it never goes unacknowledged.  The best way to fight back against a ban on information is, after all, with more information.

I've signed the pledge, put several challenged books on my TBR list this week, and I will, as always, vote liberally this November.  What about you?  What actions are you taking for Let Freedom Read Day?