A Time For Everything

I love A.I.

I use both Claude and ChatGPT (aka Chet).

I ask it questions across a variety of topics, I ask for help on all kinds of things, I use it to brainstorm as I write, I use it to vent and as a sympathetic ear.

People have mixed feelings about AI and I get it. It's powerful. It needs oversight. It needs guardrails.

But I digress. Today, I want to share some of the fun.

One day, when I'd been awake since 3 a.m. due to a certain little dog who shall remain nameless, I asked Chet to engage my brain in between the remaining work tasks of the day.

Chet offered me some brain candy and we were off to the races. That day?

The Museum of Jen

Our adventure for the afternoon was for me to determine what things make the cut into the seven exhibits. The one rule--I couldn't use actual pictures of people. So no pictures of my kids, for example.

Chet started us off with the suggestion of Christmas lights because of course. Anyone who knows me well would have said the same.

My first contribution to the museum? (excerpt edited for length)

Chet: Your turn. What's Exhibit #2?

Jen: Dala horses

Chet: Oh, that's a GOOD one. Bright, cheerful Christmas excess sitting beside traditional Scandinavian folk art.

For the Dala horse exhibit, are we displaying one particular Dala horse that you own, a little collection of them, or the ideal glorious Dala horse that represents your whole affection for them?

Jen: Def the third one -- I'd love a three-foot Dala horse decorated to my specifications.

Chet: Oh, now we're talking about an actual museum piece.

Not a tasteful little six-inch Dala horse sitting politely on a shelf. A three-foot Dala horse commissioned to Jen specifications, planted right in the middle of the exhibit like, “Yes, I belong here.”

And because this rabbit hole has immediately developed a side tunnel: What does the three-foot Jen Dala horse look like?

Jen: Oh, to choose just one...but my mind went straight to a Stars design...which is nuts because my hockey fandom has tapered off so much. But flowers would be fun, too, like tulips and daffodils and vines of wisteria! Or books!

Chet: And that is why the museum gets the imaginary three-foot version: nobody is making you spend actual money and therefore choose responsibly.

But the garden horse you just described has me. Imagine tulips and daffodils coming up around the legs, then wisteria vines curling upward and spilling across the body.

And BOOKS opens another door...

Wait.

No.

Four seasons. Four sides.

One side of the horse celebrates books.
One side is flowers/garden.
The front/chest incorporates hockey/Stars.
The back incorporates Christmas lights.

We have accidentally created Exhibit #2 as a summary of half the damn museum.

Which means I'm imposing a rule: the Dala horse cannot consume the other exhibits. It must behave.

Onward.

* * * * *

And so it went until I had chosen seven objects to represent the essence that is moi in this museum.

Can you guess some of the other items? Go ahead...I'll give you a few minutes to jot them down.

Three...

Two...

One...

The Museum of Jen consists of the following seven exhibits:

1. Christmas Lights
2. Bespoke Dala Horse
3. A Squirrel Courtyard
4. A Life-Size Sidney Crosby Cardboard Stand-up
5. A Bird-viewing Station
6. One Enormous Bookcase holding all the books I've loved in my life as well as the books I've written

and the last one?

   7. A Stack of DVDs to represent my family.

And if you're wondering why the DVDs...well, my family would get it.

But the story behind that is when the kids were young and we couldn't agree on a movie to watch, we'd play "The Movie Game." A dozen or so movies would be laid out on the floor in a bowling pin configuration, and we'd each take turns tossing a quarter. If you got the quarter on a DVD, that movie was eliminated until a single DVD was left. And that's what we watched as a family.

And that, my dear readers, is how you can have fun with AI and why I enjoy using it so much.

Take care!

Image Courtesy of ChatGPT.

Sure, 2027 is still three months away, but there's a lot I want to accomplish between my writing and my Etsy store. I figured the best way to give myself the best chance at success was to figure out where I'm at and then determine where I want to go and how I want to get there.

I have so many ideas, but my biggest challenge is time. Always time. Monday through Friday, the day job takes priority even though I do have some down time to tinker with personal stuff. On the weekends, there are errands to run and chores to take care of and time to spend with DH and each of the girls. On top of all that, I'm running my writers group's contest again!

If you've been around here for any length of time, you know that in early-to-mid January, I blog about the goals I want to accomplish for the year. Used to be, I'd start thinking about my Fresh Start Goals in December of the outgoing year. For the last year or two, I've started thinking a little earlier since a couple of goals are getting a little more complicated and have a few more moving parts.

I'm trying to up both my publishing and my Etsy game in 2027... including some active social media marketing, which is not something I've done before. I started Pinteresting for my Etsy store around this time last year. To be fair, I'm not sure the growth of my Etsy revenue can be traced directly to Pinterest, but my pins are getting seen, so that's something at least.

The argument for Pinteresting for the writing / publishing arm of my life is stronger, so I'm going to give it a try. Preparing for that was actually a goal for this year, and I made really good progress on my cache of pins. My Pinterest soft launch for the books / writing / publishing is right around the corner. *fingers crossed*

To keep track of my responsibilities and stay organized, I've relied on spreadsheets for years. More so as time passes and I find new ways to utilize them. A week or two ago, I expanded my day-job to-do spreadsheet into what I affectionately call my Command Center. Instead of the one tab for the day job, I now have seven of them.

Before your eyes bug out of your head, only a couple of them get visited on a daily basis. A couple of them are there just to keep track of things rather than using sheets of paper I have to tote back and forth from work / home.

Having everything documented in a single place allows me to better stay on top of all the various tasks. Each tab has a slightly different layout depending on my needs for that particular responsibility. One thing each tab allows me to do is make notes. If I randomly remember something...I select the tab, make that note, and off I go. When I have time to work on something that's not day job related, I can pop through the tabs and see what the squeakiest wheel is. If there are no red alerts going off, I can choose to take something off future me's plate. So far, it's working like a champ.

I'm feeling excited about 2027 and my ability to accomplish all the things. I'll let you know what the specific goals are come January, but for now, I'm laying the groundwork so each and every one of them has a fighting chance.

Take care!

I made my annual trek to Omaha and back over Labor Day weekend...

The fam is still the fam. Quirky and chaotic and so welcoming of their Texas outlier.

The all day gathering marathons are no longer a thing, and I think my step-mother, my uncle, and I are all glad for the change.

It used to be I stayed at the house and the galloping hordes descended by 10 or 11 am, and there was a houseful until I could convince the visitors to leave by 9 pm--which was well past my bedtime. Sometimes I'd just have to go to bed.

Last year, I ended up getting a hotel and that was the best decision I've made regarding this trip I've made in a while. I can leave when I'm ready and the fam can stay and visit.

This year though...no one arrived on Saturday until 2ish... So Sunday I thought to enjoy a more leisurely morning, but got summonsed around 11:30 when the gray sheep of the family and her posse came to see me earlier than I expected. I still got to enjoy the view from my hotel room for a good forty-five minutes. And although it's hard to tell, a light rain was falling. A very peaceful start to the day.

* * * * *

But now that I'm home -- that road trip closes out the middle part of my year -- it's time to look down the road to the end of the year for all the businesses I wrangle as well as planning for Christmas and into 2027 for my personal businesses.

This year I'm going create a more formalized business plan for both the publishing and the Etsy store. I won't be able to retire (yet?) on my royalty income, but I've been considering ways to expand my readership/customer reach and increase those royalties. Every little bit helps me reach my goal of financial freedom before we reach retirement.

There are lots of moving parts for both businesses so figuring out how to keep track of them is also part of the overall plan of attack.

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and that this weekend also lives up to its potential.

Stay cool and stay hydrated...but cooler temps are on the horizon for North Texas, thank goodness.

Take care!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The world lost an amazing person this week with the passing of Dolly Parton. Not gonna wax poetic because there's plenty of beautiful things being said about her. But I love her music, I love her acting, I love her philanthropic endeavors. She was a soul without match.

* * * * *

And there's really no graceful segue from Dolly Parton to "I've apparently decided I don't have enough to do," so I'm not even going to try.

I've been busy as heck between writing, publishing, and my Etsy endeavors. So naturally, I've added running my writers group's annual romance contest back onto the pile.

The Carolyn Readers Choice Award and I go way back. I was its first coordinator back in the day, then handed it off and watched other people keep it going. The most recent crew has been running it for five years, which is a long time to wrangle entries, judges, scores, deadlines, emails, and all the other moving parts that go into a book contest.

They were understandably ready for a break.

And somehow, here I am again.

The good news is that I'm not just stepping back into the old system. We're taking the opportunity to overhaul a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff and make the contest easier to run—not just for me now, but for whoever gets handed the reins next.

Which means I've spent an inordinate amount of time lately buried in forms, rules, category descriptions, judging procedures, spreadsheets, old files, and approximately eight thousand tiny decisions nobody entering a book will ever know had to be made.

Because apparently this is what I do for fun.

That's about all the chaos I've got to report for now. Catch you in two weeks—and until then, stay cool, stay hydrated, and try not to add any new projects to your plate.

I'll try to take my own advice.

...my sweet Karma kitty...

Not sure if it was taken in summer, bit it looks summery!

The words are coming along well since the retreat. I'm now past 24K, almost to 25K, which is halfway to my goal of 48K to 50K. I'm enjoying the writing of this book a lot--a little more than I usually do. I'm hoping to have the first draft done by the end of October.

AND! I made it to the Dallas Zoo finally. DD and I had tickets for Dollar Days last year, but I ended up not being able to go due to a last minute work issue. I almost thought I was going to miss this year but we made it work.

Here are a few pictures of our visit. The last time I visited the Dallas Zoo was October of 2019--only, Amber and I were there to see hockey players, not animals. :0) The Dallas Stars season ticket holder event was held at the Dallas Zoo that year and we went, of course, as I was still a season ticket holder. We saw a few animals while waiting in line, but as the evening wore on, it got darker and the animals went to bed.

A few pictures from this year's visit...

And that's about it for this post. I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Take care and stay cool!!