Home / Posts tagged "self-improvement"

UPDATE Re: “Linden 2.0: Now Out of Beta”

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Additional notes for this release, announced yesterday:

After receiving countless emails regarding availability of this release in America, I find it necessary to address the question publically.

While the product is available in both English and German, due to copyright problems, the product was pulled from the American market in late September. American users should continue to check this blog for news of future releases in America. Our goal is to publish an American version in 2008 or 2009. Alpha and beta invitation-only versions will be released between now and then for testing. If you are interested in testing the invitation-only release, please email admin.

Attention! Mueller Inc. urges you to not purchase, download, or otherwise obtain pseudo-American versions of Linden 2.0. These versions are not authorized copies of the current release and could potentially contain have major bugs and viruses that could damage your system. If you are interested in using a current version of Linden 2.0 in America, send donations, bribes, and coercive materials (AKA Cheez-its, uni-balls, Post-it notes, and Hooter’s wings–Three Mile Island flavor, please–to the following address: [removed by admin--email for address]).

Contacting the publishing team of Rob 7.6 should also be avoided. That team is currently developing Rob 8.0 CS Pro, Platinum Edition. Any users found to be ignoring the above warning will be deleted from the system immediately and banned from all future use of Mueller Inc. products.

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Linden 2.0: Now Out of Beta!

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| by | personal

We started testing Linden 2.0 in May 2007, made some major alterations to the code and server locations in late September, and we would now like to announce that Linden 2.0 is finally out of beta!

Many thanks to all users who downloaded the Linden 2.0 beta. We were able to fix all bugs and add user-suggested features to the stable release 2.0. Bugs fixed include basic level disorganization, tardiness and excessive Cheez-its consumption. New features such as the the organization tool, punctuality, and jogging meter, have been added to the final version of Linden 2.0.

Linden 2.0 is much more efficient than Linden 1.0 due to improved organizational algorithms and dedicated server space. The plugin interface and skinning option of 2.0 is far superior to that of the 1.0 release and gives users the option to fully customize Linden 2.0 to their needs. Linden 2.0 can now organize several calendars in one interface, stay focused on one task for several hours, and draws less server load even while managing several large projects at a time (Linden 1.0′s algorithms allowed for only one major project at a time), which means that users will see more getting done in less time.

We will continue making improvements on this software so that it can become hardware, so stay tuned for Linden 2.3, which we hope to release sometime next year.

Read additional release notes here: Updates (http://xgravity23.blogspot.com/2007/12/update-re-linden-20-now-out-of-beta.html)

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I am. . .

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I am wearing a button-down shirt tucked in today for the first time in as long as I can remember. Because it actually looks good instead of accenting any innertube-shaped tummy I used to have.

I am regularly getting at least eight hours of sleep a night. Still no regular bedtime, but I LOVE not feeling tired all the time. This week is of course an exception, but I plan to make up for it this weekend!

I am finally truly organized, with both electronic and paper documents, and it feels good personally (to be able to find what I am looking for quickly, to know when I am supposed to be somewhere) and professionally (when my colleagues notice).

I am procrastinating less, I think because I am not as exhausted mentally (because I’m well-reseted and organized), and because I have a clear picture of what I have to do. I am still not getting things done well ahead of the due date, but I am not saving the entire task for the final few hours either.

I am looking forward to making more improvements.

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Is Your Jar Full?

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Just want to share this little anecdote.

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz” and he pulled out a one-gallon mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class yelled, “Yes.”

The time management expert replied, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, “Is this jar full?” By this time, the class was on to him.

“Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.

Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted

Once again he said “Good.” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things in it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all. What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life—time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these big rocks in first, or you’ll never get them in at all.”

So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the “big rocks” in my life? Then, put those in your jar first.

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Affirmation

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I just keep getting told that I am doing a good job (with interview questions—MK helped!—and in-class writing prompts, and coordinating the LC in general), and I have to say, it is nice to hear! I think I am insecure about my teaching because I am so new at it and my colleagues all have much more experience than I do.

But just like my old boss told me, I was hired because I have skills and I have proven them. Dr. Legutke, Dr. Grau, Dr. Huber, Ms. Bock, and Mr. Kurtzweil chose to hire me after that interview because they saw something in me that they wanted at their university. They believed that I would be capable for the job, and even though sometimes I doubt myself, they don’t. And I need to remember that.

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Image Source
http://kristavanvelzen.sp.nl/weblog/category/landbouw/page/2/

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Interview and a Headache

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| by | personal


I just finished a relatively productive day. Productive before the rumors started flying about me being, what was it? “In a motherly way”? Carrying a “little Mueller”? “Expecting”? Truth is, it’s none of those. Nope, not preggers. Not yet, anyway. We will have a little Mueller. Eventually. So anyway, there was some drama, albeit seriously funny drama, on my Facebook wall today that distracted me today. Then I got back to work and picked up a headache somewhere along the way. No, Pablo, er, Safari Bob, I am not saying you gave me the headache. I’m just saying I had one. :)

So, just got done with three interviews with one of my colleagues, and it was definitely a learning experience for me. GB has more experience and training in this sort of thing, so I tried to learn from him (and will probably continuing doing so with the rest of my colleagues).

This is the part that weirds me out. The people we were interviewing were nervous, but I was just as nervous. And that’s the part of being a teacher that always surprises me. I get nervous way more often than I ever thought I would or think I should. Does every teacher experience this?

In other news, people are noticing Linden 2.0! I have been told several times now that I am organized and on top of things! I think it is actually starting to be more of a habit. Plus, it totally plays into my OCD tendencies for order and stuff. :)

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Image Source
http://www.firstscience.com/home/photos/belly_13.html

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Life Glasses

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| by | personal

Well, I haven’t blogged for a week because Rob and I have been having some big meaningful conversations about the future. And those kinds of talks really consume my mind. I know there are things I would have wanted to say on my blog other than this, but our little tete-a-tetes just overshadowed everything else. And I wasn’t really ready to write about it until today. Plus, I don’t really feel like airing the particulars on my blog, but I do want to say a little bit on some tangent topics.

How’s Your Relationship?

Making an international move is a huge change in your life. The first thing I realized was that if your relationship isn’t strong already, don’t do it. Ever since we made the decision to move, we had a million other little decisions to make. Then, we got here and had a million other things to take care of.

It was all very stressful, but my general feeling is that we are stronger and close because of it. If I’m being really honest, I think we handled it like pros. I feel like instead of weakening our relationship, as it very well could have, it strengthened the bond we have.

It’s Like an Eye Appointment

Deciding to move to another country, leaving everything we had grown so comfortable; leaving all of the people who “make our souls blossom,” to reference one of my favorite quotes; and changing what we had planned for our life, in both the next few years and the long term goals: it has been like putting on new Life Glasses. This move has helped both of us realize what is really important, what we really want to do, and where we want to be when we do it. I feel like we gained insight into ourSelves that we just weren’t getting when we considered our life before the move.

It was a hard week emotionally. There were tears shed. But the result is that we both are on the same page (very important!) and we both understand how the other feels.

It’s weeks like this that I feel very intimately close to Rob.

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Image Source
The American Editor at http://tae.asne.org/Default.aspx?grm2id=100&tabid=65

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Dr. Linden A. Mueller: That Don’t Actually Sound Too Darn Bad!

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A few weeks ago, I met with my potential PhD project advisor to discuss possible projects. I left that meeting with one really great lead on a project and with the assignment to do some research. Friday, Dr. Huber and I met again and laid down a time line for my research project.

What happened when Blacks from Africa were imported to America and put to work on plantations? How did they communicate with Blacks from other countries and therefore languages? How did they communicate with their White masters? What seemed to happen most of the time is that a new language sprouted up between all these people groups that was a mixture of the first languages of the slaves and the English of the American people. This happened especially if there was a high concentration of Blacks.

Another interesting influence on language growth and development is isolation. When a group of people is separated from other by mountains, water (like on islands), or otherwise difficult terrain, like swamps, the language tends to thrive untouched by outside influences. A quite famous example of this is Basque, which is spoken in northern Spain. Basque is classified as a “language isolate,” which means that it does not have any language relatives (German and English are “language relatives”).

I am going to be looking at a dialect of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) called Gullah or Sea Island Creole English, which originated during the late 1600s and 1700s. As one of its alternate names indicates, Gullah is spoken on Sea Island, Georgia, which is, as an island, isolated from the mainland. My goal is to find direct evidence that Gullah was formed through the process of creolization, and not some other way. I will be examining archives to look for historical evidence of the language and the people who used it.

My goal is to have located and read a great deal of background research by the beginning of our summer semester (in American, we’d call it the spring semester). I will dedicate one week of the 6-week semester break to identifying and contacting potential sources: libraries, archives, and collections of language samples. Then, once I understand the issue more fully and have identified potential sources, I will write an application for the GCSC at Justus-Liebig-Universität. The GCSC will help with funding and presentation of my research.

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I Want to Write a Post!

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| by | Germany

I really do! But I am trying so hard to be “Linden 2.0″ here.

One of my biggest problems in America was not managing my time well. I was a terrible procrastinator and I could always find something else to do with my time than what I was supposed to be doing.

But nobody here knows that, and I want to recreate myself as someone who gets what she needs to do done ahead of time. I want to recreate myself as an organized person.

So, that means I don’t just sit down and write a blog post when the idea strikes me (with the exception of this one, of course). I make a note in my planner or on my To Do list and get back to work. Right now, I want to right a blog about all the interesting pictures I’ve taken (Look for the title “It’s All Foreign to Me and Foreign = Interesting”). I want to write a blog about our trip to Berlin this weekend (“October Birthdays… In Berlin!”). I want to write a blog about how my everyday life here is different from my everyday life in American (“It’s Different, but Pretty Much the Same”). But not yet, my pretties. I must work. I must be efficient. I must be Linden 2.0.

If you know me, you know I love quotes. Here are some quotes that inspire me (emphasis mine).

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg, US biographer and poet (1878 – 1967)

The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.
Winifred Holtby, O Magazine, September 2002

It’s wonderful what we can do if we’re always doing.
George Washington (1732 – 1799)

Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I’m doing.
Phil Jackson.

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Three Things I Never Thought I’d Say

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| by | personal, running


Three years ago, if you would have told me that I would proudly say the three statements in this post, I would have laughed in your face and called the loony bin for you.

  1. “I can run for a long time.” Yeah, three years ago, I was happy to make it 10 minutes, much less three, four, or even twelve times that. I used the American Running Association’s Walk/Run Program to slowly build up my body’s ability to run. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the secret to running any distance is a gradual increase in mileage. If I can do it, I KNOW you can too!
  2. “I am a Runner.” If you read my post from the other day, you’ve heard my deliberations on whether or not I deserve to call myself that. I think religiously waking up at 4:30 or 5:00 on Sunday mornings to run anywhere between 4 and 11 miles separates me from the joggers. I might not be a “full-fledged Runner” yet, but I’ve at least proven that I deserve to be among the ranks of True Runners. If you didn’t believe me on point number 1, I definitely would have thought you were crazy if you told me that I would give up four sleeping-in mornings a week to go out and sweat. I never would have predicted this sort of atypical Linden behavior. But I like that it’s becoming typical.
  3. “One of my guilty pleasures after a long run is an ice bath.” Oh, man! I am still not sure what it is that makes them feel so nice, but I actually look forward to slipping into that frigid water after a long, hard run! (Applying coldness to injuries helps to stop the injury process, and if you combine that with the gentle compression of the water, you are getting two M./R.-I.C.E. treatments in one with an ice bath.) See, usually, I HATE cold water. My showers are normally hot and steamy, and I tend to nudge the temp up as the shower goes on and either the water gets cooler or I get used to it. I remember laughing at this idea about two years ago, actually. Then I had one after my first 12 miler. And I was immediately hooked. :)

One of the things I like about my new, healthy habits is recognizing the ways I’ve changed. Some (like waking up so early!), I don’t think that I’ll ever truly get used to, but others (like my icy guilty indulgence), I already cherish. I think these changes do two things for me: I actually see how I am growing as a person and an athlete, and I realize that I can change my habits if I really want to. All it takes is dedication, time, and a little willingness to give up old, comfy habits.

EDIT: Quote to inspire me to pay closer attention to what I eat:

At the end of the day, no matter what you eat, food accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of the total process of living healthy. The other 30 to 40 percent is still due to physical activity, so you still got to get your butt off that couch and get movin’!

Thanks to iVillage for the great article on 8 “Superfoods.”

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