Jan 31, 2022

New Laptop

Property of Stormberry

It has come the time (ok, it came over two weeks ago), when I had to replace my laptop for a new one. The last time I replaced my laptop was on... 2014 or 2015, I believe. It was when I was in the middle of my Accounting thesis and my laptop of back then (a 10.5 inch ACER) just... gave up. Then I bought my 11 inch Toshiba, who has been my faithful companion since that day, under the name of Björn. 

Up to this day, all my computers - which have been laptops since 2001, when I bought myself my first laptop, a used IBM Think Pad, Lain - have been... how shall I call them? "Windows" laptops. Or PC laptops. Well, this time around I knew I needed something else, something that would give me the chance to remain fast more than 12 months, reliable and durable. I wanted a long term, long relationship laptop. And so I planned and invested in a MacBook. I asked more about it, consulted with friends, at the store, checked prices, and finally, on my brother's birthday, this year, I've got my Mac. His name isn't Mac, he's Virgil. I had to pick a name quite quickly, on the store (later on I realized I could have just given it my name, but... Virgil isn't me, just as my car, Nathaniel isn't me), and Virgil was what came to my mind. I certainly liked the Aeneid, and right then I wasn't thinking whether I should call it after one of my Gods (Mercury, Neptune or Odin). Yes, it could have been Minerva, but this laptop doesn't feel like a "she", but a "he". (Only my first two laptops have been "she", Lain and Iria. Both were IBM Think Pads).

I'm still learning how to use it, and there are like a gozillian things I still don't get, but I'm getting there. So far, I like it.

This year I started going to therapy with a psychologist a friend recommended me. Actually, I heard her talk about her, mostly for being a Pagan-friendly shrink. I have decided to start working on my shadow in order to start getting over and moving past recurring themes in my life and maybe also getting off the hamster wheel I feel I am in with certain people. There is so much my lovely mind can figure out, but then there are other parts I need professional help to figure out and to know how to start solving. Hope all that works well. I have been in therapy before, but now I expect something different. I want to work on issues I have found I may have rooted in unsolved family dynamics, that may not be helping me move entirely forward with my life, or that make me more sensitive to certain things than what I would like to be. And yes, I want to be able to let go of the deep, burning hatred I have felt at time at some people. Sure, feeling hatred is something I encourage in order to know your hating self, but I know plenty of my hating self, I don't need more, and hatred doesn't bring me any joy or any satisfaction.

That sounded strange, right? Well, think about it: some people seem to thrive when they are in a situation where they can gang on someone or something, when they can unite in hate, be in an "us vs. them" scenario. People who thrive in conflict and fight. I am not one of them. First of all, I am a Moonchild, a Cancer-born, and as such, I avoid conflict. Second, I actually find joy in emotions like love, happiness, mellow, harmony, soft, comfort, cozy and so on. I would fight if I have to, as I have proven time and again when I have faced situations and given voice to concerns and doubts while others cowered, but I rather cocoon, put on a record of jazz, were soft socks and read, knit or do something like that, in my blue couch, with a comfy beverage.

And so, I want to work out to reach my blanket-and-blue-couch-with-knitting state of mind.

Studies are going well. This is the last quarter of the Master's program, and... I feel expanded. (Ok, maybe that is Mr Jack Daniels talking through me ;) I had a night cap). Each day I try to pull two oracle cards and today I've got Jupiter. And yes, I feel less like I'm moving nowhere, and more like "I get it" with my thesis. I see the big picture, I see the point of it. I see the prospect and the promise. Last time my thesis tutor said: "I feel like I can expect more from you", as in, more as what he can expect from others, and that felt to me like my topic is going to take more time, BUT it will reach into something important. How exciting is that!?

My house of seven gables is also doing well, and I may be on the verge of adopting a new cat. Goodness Gracious, a decision I can make by myself! My house, my rules! I can become the cat lady! I love having my own house.

Slowly but surely, my life is rolling out, taking form. I see my sister-in-law getting into all sorts of fights with some neighbours, my brother trying to manage his life and family, my nephews and niece finding their path in life, my parents getting by... and I have a life that feels like all that cushy, fluffy, warm, nice comfy and cozy comfort, peppered with heaps of witchy, the kind of music I like and the kind of food and cooking I want. More than free and independent, I feel... whole. I feel me. I just want to feel more me, more... how can I say this? More unlimitedly me.

Jan 3, 2022

2022 is here

Property of Stormberry

A new year has arrived, like so many others before it, and again we see the same things around us. There's the people bitching about how "it's just another day, like any other, nothing special about it", and then also the people giving advise about making New Year Resolutions, or not making New Year Resolutions, and then the lots of people making all sorts of old jokes, and those who take this moment to remember things that happened. In general, people either try to share the experience with others or just try to get attention for whatever means.

The New Year means for me lots of planning. I spent the last days of 2021 preparing my calendars and planners for the new year, penciling in birthdays, appointments, Pagan Sabbaths, Roman Celebrations (those related to my Gods), and so on. I managed all of my calendars and planners (only five in total), but I still had the digital stuff to take care of. For years I have been using an Excel sheet to track my finances - mostly my spending - and each year I tweek it a little bit, to improve the system I use, in order to make sure it ends up working better and better for my purposes. It's not a perfect system yet, but each time I adjust it, it gets better.

In this particular case I'm quite proud because though I've been using this tracker since 2013, last year was the first year I actually followed it quite regularly. 2020 was the second year I filled the whole year, I believe, and with less backlog than in previous years. This year I will try to record more than just my expenses, and I'm still thinking about how to make a dynamic Budget Tracker, where I can check effectively which of my planned expenses have I completed and when. My idea is to make an easy tracker where I can keep track of which bills I've paid and which are still to be paid.

Property of Stormberry

Last year, for several months, I kept a cycle tracker, where I recorded my weight, body fat, water, muscle weight and bone weight daily based on my menstrual cycle and the Moon cycles. Eventually this tracker was making me anxious and turned out to be counterproductive for my health, so I stopped. In this same line I took out of my planner more than six different trackers for water, food habits, exercise, journaling, blogging... and something else. These I just couldn't really follow. I have used these trackers for years, since I was using the bullet journal system, but I never really used the infomation for anything. No matter how I grouped it or what I tried, it just wasn't adding any value to my life.

I celebrate the New Year, not only because I like celebrating things (I'm a Witch and I choose to celebrate the eight Sabbaths because, hey! they are celebrations!), but New Years mark a defined point in time to make a review of the last period, what has worked, what hasn't, and so I can keep on improving. Sure, the New Year is "just another day", but it's a day globally chosen to mark a given period. A year is a convenient chunk of time to have tried something, and to review the results of it. Using it is also convenient, because this day we start also new calendars, which is mostly important for those of us who still use paper planners, but also because many legal, fiscal and financial programs and paperwork - to call it somehow - finish a cycle on this date.

This is not the case for everybody, but it is the case for me. Is it your case? Be it as it may, it's good to have a moment, a marker of period for you to evaluate and review your progress in time, to decide what works, what doesn't, what can be adjusted, improved, and what needs to go.