Friday, February 28, 2014

Bit by Bit (by dip)

20140228 pencast

That color shifting tells me I need to flush out my pen a little better. Inspired by Richard, I pulled out the dip pen, though I skipped the inkwell and went straight for the bottle. Like my life these days, the pen lightens by degrees.

Did anyone else see the mention of ITAM in the Washington Post's Style blog? It crossed my news feed reader this week. I suppose this means we have an even greater air of legitimacy now. Not having a typewriter out and available does seriously impact my hands-on time. I think I need to figure out a way to keep a permanent block of "me time" on the schedule, and rotate through activities by season. Spring is CYO track and field, October and November are NaNo. It's easy for worker-bee types like myself to forget that we need to take some down time, too, even if it's just little sips now and then.

The pedometer I mentioned is a FitBit Zip, by the way. My wife and I each have one, which I recommend, since we're naturally competitive with each other. (Scrabble games on Facebook get ugly fast.) We're trying to outdo each other's daily steps, knowing that each is quite busy either with an office job or homeschooling. On Fridays, for example, I've been making it a point to head to the library. But it is raining, quite hard at times, and I'm feeling particularly Blerchy today as a result. But I know it's a mile each way to the library on foot, and that will put me in the lead of Mrs. Clickthing. And our dog is rain-phobic, so I know she won't be boosting steps by taking the pooch around the block a few times. Fitness domination is mine!

3 comments:

Richard P said...

That pencast came out very colorfully.

Yes, I saw that reference to ITAM -- kind of bemused and a bit patronizing. But we'll show them all! They must welcome their new inky overlords!

Elizabeth H. said...

I found a returned FitBit Zip amongst the piles of stuff at our local REI garage sale this weekend, and it was at a steep enough discount to be something of an impulse buy. Mostly it's making me aware of how often I sit all day at work, rush home (sitting in the car), and then kick off my shoes and...sit. Last night I ended up taking the dog for a walk after dinner just to end its mockery, at least for a time.

mpclemens said...

The Zip is both a blessing and a curse. There are days when I'm surprised that I've walked as far as I have, given my car-commuter/office-job days. And then there are days when and it makes faces at me because I've hardly budged (or so it claims.)

One of these times I'm just going to clip it to the dog's collar before mealtime.