Several people I know "in real life" have told me I should post about my penny plan here. It's changed my life. It's taken me from being a lazy slob to being productive.
The penny plan started out simple. I get 1 penny for every 5 minutes of work, I pay 1 penny for every 5 minutes of television or online time. However, that simple structure was turned into a plan that works for me and has succeeded in keeping me from falling into the eternal distraction abyss. My rules are:
Earning pennies:
6 pennies to begin the day, 12 if purpleglitter is home from work that day.
1 penny for every 5 minutes of cleaning, crafting, or other productive work.
1 penny for every 5 minutes of Telugu practice.
1 penny for every 10 minutes of book reading (magazines, no matter how dry, don't count).
1 penny for every 10 minutes of photography.
2 pennies for every 5 minutes working on a "priority project" assigned by purpleglitter.
Using pennies:
Every 5 minutes of computer time costs me 1 penny.
Every 5 minutes of television time costs me 1 penny.
If I'm using the computer to prep photos, I pay half
If I have no pennies, I cannot do any of the activities that require them.
The penny plan, unlike project schedule or project three meals, has proven to be something I can stick to. I've been on it successfully for almost a month at this point and I still going strong. It has truly transformed me.
With the preparations for invalid_userid's visit along with wanting to spend time with her, I didn't get much writing done. I expect to fall quite a bit behind while she's here, but I have already planned for that and if all goes well will catch up after she leaves. While I am serious about doing NaNoWriMo this year, spending time with good friends is far more important.
From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):
Household Hints. — Do not deposit wood ashes in a wooden vessel or upon a wooden floor. Never use a light in examining a gas-meter. Never take a light into a closet. Never read in bed by candle or lamp light. Never put kindling wood on top of the stove to dry. Never leave clothes near a grate or fire-place to dry. Be careful in making fire with shavings, and never user any kind of oil to kindle a fire. Keep all lights as far from curtains as possible. Always fill and trim your lamps by daylight, and never near a fire. Good nice pie-crust can be made by always observing the following rule. One-quarter of a cup of shortening to every cup of flour used; to be mixed as dry as possible with cold water, and mixed only with a knife. Take sweet butter only for baking purposes, and never fail to thoroughly beat together your butter and sugar, if you would be sure of good results in cake baking. Have metal or earthen vessels for matches, and keep them out of reach of children. Wax matches are not safe. Ground mustard mixing with a little water is an excellent agent for cleansing the hands after handling odorous substances. Cut hot bread or cake with a hot knife, and it will not be clammy. Salt extracts the juices of meat in cooking. Steaks ought therefore not be salted until they have been broiled. In boiling dumplings of any kind, put them in the water one at a time. If they are put in together they will mix with each other. Do not cut lamp-wicks, but trim them by wiping off with a scrap of paper. Never boil vegetables with soup stock, for if you do it will certainly become sour in a short time. Boil your cream for coffee, and see if the coffee will not taste better, as well as keep hot longer. Pin-cushion covers made of cheese cloth embroidered and trimmed with lace, wear well and keep their looks. Some one says that leaves of parsley, eaten with a little vinegar, will destroy the odor of breath tainted by onions. Hot liquid lye is recommended for removing obstructions in waste pipes. Or let the potash dissolve over night in the pipes. To wipe dust from papered walls, take a clean, soft piece of flannel. Of course it must not be damp, but the dry flannel will remove the dust. Varnish the soles of your shoes, and it will render them impervious to dampness, and will also make them last longer. This is a good plan. Clean the mica in stove doors with vinegar. Take clinkers out of stoves by putting a few oyster shells into the grate, when they will become loosened, and may be removed without injuring the lining. Save the droppings from spermaceti candles, tie them in a cloth, and keep to smooth rough flat-irons. Never starch napkins. An old black bunting or cashmere dress may be made to serve a further period of usefulness by being made into a petticoat. Between two evils choose neither. Writing a will does not shorten life, and yet many men fear it will. Save old suspender rings, and sew them on the corners of kitchen holders to hang them by. It will be easy then to flip them on to a nail, and they will not be so likely to get lost. Powdered borax with a little sugar, blown into the cracks and crevices with a small bellows, will drive away house-ants. Have a high stool in the kitchen to sit on when tired, to continue your work if necessary. Perched on its top you can wash dishes or iron with ease. A low stool placed on a wooden chair forms a substitute, but a poor one. A soft sheep-skin mat is restful to stand upon. There is nothing better for cleaning brass or copper than coal ashes. They are also good to scour knives and forks with. For tin, whiting or fine sand is best. To cleanse jars or jugs or any earthen vessel slaked lime is good, or warmed lye. To keep a stove smooth, take a coarse and pretty large piece of flannel, roll it hard, and dip it in fine sand. Proceed to rub your stove whenever you are through cooking. Almost any stove will look better for being done the same way occasionally. Boiled starch is also very good to keep a stove looking well; put it on where it will not burn off — around the back and sides where it doesn't get very hot.
There were some somewhat shriveled grape tomatoes in the refrigerator. Still technically edible, but too shriveled for purpleglitter to eat and I detest eating tomatoes whole.
I know there are plenty of animals around that would love them, so I went out to the fence at the end of the driveway and threw them into the backyard sometime after 2am. I didn't throw them all at once so as not to make a loud noise.
After one throw that reached the trees near the back fence, I heard high pitched yellings and hissings of complaint. I'm guessing the opossum I've previously seen skulking about was in the brush and got nailed by a tomatoe. Grape tomatoes are small and are unlikely to have actually injured the opossum, so the interaction was simply humorous. Maybe eating the tomatoes will make up for getting nailed.
Following the leak of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I'm going to start my off-line time today. I have a lot to do in preparing for invalid_userid's visit anyway, so I shouldn't be spending much time online anyway.
I should note that while I won't be reading anything from online for the next few days (email, comments (due to possible trolls), wikipedia, or my friends list), I may still post using Semagic does not risk seeing spoilers. I guess "very limited internet use" is more accurate than "off-line".
The house_of_clocks is now empty, with the exception of the stuff dalious is not throwing out. I'm going to go back some time in the near future to scrub down the floors and clean the surfaces and then I will be done with it. This long goodbye was emotional at first, but at this point it feels less like my home and more like a burden I want to be rid of.
Apparently today was not the last time I'll be at the house_of_clocks. I have to return once more Monday morning for the guys to move the stuff to the curb and I'll try to finish the cleaning. George told us that we couldn't put everything out on the curb until trash day. I don't want to deal with another morning like this, but I will and perhaps this long goodbye will be over.
“Watching a rumble of house sparrow hens in the front of the house of clock. 5 of them having a big brawl.
The movers I just talked to, they're going to be here around 12:15. So, I was hoping to start cleaning up house of clocks at that point and be done with the move. But you know, Murphy's Law and all.
“Well, I just talked to the movers. They locked the keys in the moving truck and they're waiting for a locksmith and they probably won't be arriving un till around 11. I wish I know that earlier, I wouldn't have worked my self so hard, I would of had plenty of time to get ready this morning, but I guess I can wait.
I don't want to do this stuff at the house until they get here because I don't want to, okay, I just thought of the energy yet. I was going to come up with a really good excuse not to do yet, but I didn't really have one. So, good, I will still do it after work, they leave.
See, I'm still not fully awake, I didn't get much sleep last night, at all, umm... but... anyway... soon, soon, soon.”
“The movers should be here momentarily, and I'm done. Well not done, I've still got stuff to do after they move the stuff out, but I'm ready for them. I didn't know if I'd make it. I thought I would, but I wasn't sure. But, I did it.
“When I started this packing project there were 4 rooms witch had things that I needed to take. Those 4 rooms where the kitchen, the livingroom, the playroom, and my bedroom. I've packed everything that I needed to take out of the kitchen at this point. I just did that. The other rooms I've done quite a bit of work on but they still need to be packed. 1 down 3 to go.
The place is a mess and I'm going to come back and clean later in the day tomorrow. My 1st priority is to get everything that I'm taking to the new place then clean up the old place. I'm not going to leave this place a mess.
Hopefully I'll have another progress report later.
Tomorrow is crunch day. I will be very busy. Much still to do. I'm going to prioritize finishing up on packing, as the movers are coming 8:00 AM Thursday morning. I can finish up cleaning and throwing things out later in the day on Thursday if need be.
I was just about to take a shower in purpleglitter's apartment, and noticed there had been a minor back-up issue. Mostly dried, and not to bad. Nevertheless, a crust had formed over the drain, essentially sealing it. Not wanting to use anything that might pose a danger to the birds, I decided to use the remainder of the pseudomoonshine I purchased over the summer to clean the tub and unplug the drain. It worked like a charm, however now the house smells like I've just thrown a heavily alcohol-laden party. Ah, well - it will dissipate.
“The paste of purity has run its course and I have scrubbed it off the wall of corruption. Soon I shall mix the parching water, and with it I hope to cleanse the wall.”
awake
sleepy![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
invalid_userid's visit along with wanting to spend time with her, I didn't get much writing done. I expect to fall quite a bit behind while she's here, but I have already planned for that and if all goes well will catch up after she leaves. While I am serious about doing NaNoWriMo this year, spending time with good friends is far more important.![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
house_of_clocks is now empty, with the exception of the stuff 
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