For once the reason I haven't posted yet is because I have too many topics that I could write about and I just couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to discuss. There's so much going on in the world right now from Trump's tweets with North Korea, sports over respect controversy, the devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic, healthcare repeal and/or reforms to just the personal everyday aspects of life.
My most prevailing thoughts are my feelings towards politics. While in high school, I had an interest in politics. I suppose it was the naivety of youth in the hopes of being able to make a difference but then life shifted my point of view. I got married to a military man and I realize that there was no way I could have an objective opinion on anything political ever again and that there is the kicker.
Politics has everything to do with the running of people's everyday lives but because it's their lives, people cannot be objective and yet that is when it's most important to be as objective as possible. That is not to say you should completely take out emotions but I believe it's best to leave out personal feelings about such decisions that affect so many different people. After all, not everyone has the same train of thoughts or beliefs over the same subject and it isn't right to impost yours onto others.
Using the example of sports players bending down on one knee during the playing of the national anthem before games, some people believe it's disrespectful for them to do so. You do not need to agree with what those people are doing but they have the rights within the law to take a knee. The whole point of this country is freedom of speech, which means that those people are within their rights to not stand during the national anthem as long as they are following the laws of the country and not causing a disturbance of the peace. You do not have to agree with them. It's as simple as that.
I have read Death Comes to Pemberley. I have restarted reading Pioneer Girl. I beat Mass Effect and its sequel Mass Effect 2. I am contemplating whether I should continue right away into the third game or take a break from PC gaming and finish playing Fire Emblem Awakening. I have watched Porco Rosso and finally re-watched Tales from EarthSea with plans to finally watch the rest of what we have for Studio Ghibli. I have also done random sketches while staying on top of the usual house chores.
I'm honestly quite amazed at how I've stayed on task with almost everything and gotten so much more than I expected done. Using a planner to keep track of work and a personal goals tracker has made all the difference. It's so satisfying to look into my planner every morning, get the job done and be able to cross it off the list everyday. It's an ever better feeling to see that my work is done and that I have time to meet my personal goals and either make progress on them or just straight out finish them up.
When I like something, I usually become obsessed with it. It's an unfortunate/fortunate thing that happens when one is a Scorpio. It's usually a good thing as it actually helps me get things done. Once I start a project, I will baring unfortunate circumstances will finish it.
Of course, I'm obsessed with planning by using planners and notebooks. I adore my Recollections planner as I use it to keep track of work, specifically household related chores, appointments and dated activities. I enjoy using my personal goal tracker notebook as it helps me take better care of myself from making sure I'm drinking water everyday to reminding myself to take time for myself. My next plan is get to get a traveler's notebook. I need an expense tracker that I can carry with me at all times. I can only use it to put in lists of things that need to be done while I am out.
I do have Ipad mini 4, which I still use to carry it with me around everywhere but being able to write things down helps me remember more things that need to be done. Apps also have a way of no longer being available to continuous use, which is highly annoying and utterly inconvenient. Paper and pen does not ever get out of use. Also, I have hope that once my current personal goal tracker book no longer has any pages to use at the end of this year, I may be able to add it as an insert into my traveler's notebook to condense the actual amount of separate books to carry around.
It's all about progress and a living system that I can use and adapt for my ever changing pace of life.
In case, I haven't made it clear. I'm an astronomy enthusiast, so of course I am so super excited for the solar eclipse. I have been planning for it for the past 5 years. I'm going on a trip so that I can be in the umbra. See you on the other side!
I miss the art of letter writing. I miss the anticipation of happy mail. I like social media, obviously as I'm posting my blog, and I use it everyday but I don't feel as if it's always so meaningful. There's just something more to putting pen to paper. Also, you can add so many little thoughtful things with the letter, such as photos and small arts and crafts. I'm not sure how often I might be able to keep up the practice but I'd love to start and do my best to keep going with it. So maybe I'll find someone, still not sure yet.
I honestly have no concept of time most days, as evidenced by inability to keep this blog updated regularly. I've been doing good lately though and I hope to keep it up and keep working on things that I tend to lay to the side and not always pick back up. I think I've found a working solution to this problem. Recently I've gotten into planners, which I know sounds weird.
A friend of mine got into bullet journaling, which is a keeping of a schedule, to do list, goal tracker, brain dump, gratitude journal and whatever else you want to keep track of and jot it down using a bullet writing system. It's a living system that you create as you go to figure what you got done already and keep an ongoing list of things that still need to be done. It can very much be a minimalist system taking just seconds but some people really get into it and decorate their journals with art using markers, watercolors and anything they want with different design spreads and such.
I was intrigued with the idea but I wasn't sure if I could keep up with such a practice. I ended up watching youtube videos to see all the different ways that people do things and there is a whole community of people who do this. This video gives you the basics of the system by the person who actually created it.
This video gives you an idea of just how far some people get into this system and how much you can really do with the bullet journal. I love how you can personalize it and get as creative with it as you want.
I have since tripped into the planner community. Once again, there are people who completely dedicate themselves to creating and decorating their planners and it's a whole industry with companies such as Erin Condren and The Happy Planner. Some of it is too much for me but for me, the system seemed to have a lot of merit in it. I've had planners before but I was never able to keep up with doing it. I decided to give it a shot though cause I needed something more to do than just using my Ipad mini 4. My to-do lists in the reminders app just wasn't cutting it and kept getting longer and longer.
I went into Michael's craft store and bought a Recollections planner and I love it. In just 2 weeks I've gotten more done in 2 weeks than I have in the past 2 months. I've been slowly getting into it but have limited myself to a sticker pack, 2 different stick note packs and 2 different colored pens. I use my Ipad mini as a type of future log and my planner for more weekly and day to day planner. Just putting this out there that I didn't know about any of these types of videos until after I had bought my Recollections planner.
I also have another smaller journal that do create as I go, almost like a real bullet journal but using my own spread, to keep track of personal goals such as making sure I'm drinking enough water every day, working on my own personal goals and taking time for myself.
It all seems like a lot and I would agree but it's working cause I've had time to play video games! In fact, I'm so excited to say that I beat the first Mass Effect game and I'm in the middle of playing Mass Effect 2 with plans to play Mass Effect 3 afterwards! Who knows if I'll still be into this 18 months later, when my current planner is finally finished, that maybe I'll buy a name brand planner such The Happy Planner. I love the idea of actually combining my weekly work planner with my daily personal planner into 1 book system.
In case you can't tell . . .I'm Kassandra and I'm a stationery addict. lol
I adore history. I'm a big believer of "Learn your history, man, or you'll be doomed to repeat it!" After all, how can we understand where we are going if we don't know where we have already been? I'm very happy in any type of museum, whether it be science, art or whatever. It is fascinating to me to see objects from a time long ago and makes me wonder how our ancestors were thinking or what they might think of this current time. '
It's likely the reason why I enjoy Independence Day as we celebrate how our country's forefathers fought for right to live the way they wanted to. For most it's a day of BBQ and fireworks but for me, it's remembering the ideals that people wanted so long ago, fought so hard for and how we take them for granted.
