elainegrey

I have a very nice new chair. I lowered my desk so my arms would be in neutral position (with the possibility that one of the ikea legs will never extend again). I finally understand why an external monitor is a good thing. So, i've rigged my iPad up as a second monitor. It's working OK, but since the connection is via wifi, there's a little lag when mousing around. We'd been talking about a new TV -- Christine has proposed one, and i'm pondering whether it would be more energy efficient to get a new one. She's proposed i use the TV as an external monitor. Hm. I wonder if an inexpensive monitor would still be cheaper overall (due to reduced power usage) than continuing to use the TV.

TUESDAY: took the morning off to take a boating trip with my brother and his eldest, my sister's eldest, and my dad. The morning was misty, foggy, overcast, and made for a pleasant first half of the morning on the water. When the clouds burned off, though, it was a bit intense. Dad didn't have all the kit to put the canopy up both front and back, so i huddled under the little shade available. No one caught anything, but they will take a serious fishing trip a few mornings from now (the "on the water at 5 am" type serious). Many blue herons, a juvenile eagle, a beaver, and a turtle were some of the more remarkable sightings. The boys saw a deer, that i just could not pick out in time. Confronted with a wooded shoreline, "by the tree" fails as a landmark. I'll see how my photos turn out. And then sooner or later i need to figure out where i want to post them. I lean towards setting up a photo website on Amazon S3.

Twitter and (sigh) Facebook can direct enough attention to any photos: they need not be on Flickr. (I still glance through my friends feed of flickr photos once or twice a week, looking at Gurdonark's & Crookedfinger's bird photos. (More frequently than i look at facebook!)

I recently read an article about the benefits of talking to yourself out loud. One interesting study result:

[Ethan Kross, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and colleagues] found that when their subjects talked about themselves in the second or third person — for example, “You can do this” or “Jane can do this” instead of “I can do this” — not only did they feel less anxiety while performing, but their peers also rated their performances better. Mr. Kross said this was because of self-distancing: focusing on the self from the distanced perspective of a third person, even though that person is you.

In another study:

The study concluded that motivational self-talk worked best on tasks based on speed, strength and power, while instructional self-talk worked best with tasks that involved focus, strategy and technique. In the real world, this might translate to parallel parking, following a recipe or putting together an Ikea side table.

“My bet is that self-talk works best on problems where you’re trying to stay on task and there are possible distractions,” Mr. Lupyan said. “For tasks with a multistep sequence, talking to yourself out loud can help you keep out distractions and remind yourself where you are.”

I've been wondering about my journalling and one thing i have realized is that the need to "talk through" distressing things is much lower than it has been in the past -- along with a reticence to write in any detail about the elephants. I've started seeing a therapist to talk about the elephants, although i don't think we've actually made that a topic for a while. Self compassion and self care has been the topic of the past two sessions.

[At this point, i wandered away from writing.]

Apparently the self care is a bit tender with me. Christine gently pointed out to me i'd called myself "lazy" when i handed her a block of text

[suduko]

So.... perhaps i should be writing to myself in a self care way. (And, yeah, review time is at hand and i probably am avoiding thinking about that.)

( attempt )