I like Goodreads for keeping track of my lists. List of books to read, & list of books that I have read. & I can easily sort them in different ways. Mmmmmm. Lists & sorting.
This is the first year that I really kept a To Read list & worked on reading things from it, so I thought I'd share the pages I went through this year. In chronological order. Not counting books I had already read previously.
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1. Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, #2)
2. The Folk of the Fringe
3. Prentice Alvin (Tales of Alvin Maker, #3)
4. Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle, #1)
5. Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture
6. Alvin Journeyman (Tales of Alvin Maker, #4)
7. The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength
8. Heartfire (Tales of Alvin Maker, #5)
9. The Crystal City (Tales of Alvin Maker, #6)
10. Lost Boys
11. Treasure Box
12. The Worthing Saga (Worthing, #1-3)
13. The Giver (The Giver Quartet, #1)
14. No Country for Old Men
15. Five Children and It (Five Children, #1)
16. Around the World in Eighty Days
17. Anna and the King of Siam
18. Fairest
19. Spock Must Die! (Star Trek Adventures, #1)
20. Earth Afire (The First Formic War, #2)
21. Hot Sleep (Worthing, #2)
22. Battle Royale
23. Stargate SG-1: Dialing up. The Official Guide to Season 1-5
24. Jesus Without Religion: What Did He Say? What Did He Do? What's the Point?
25. A Year of Biblical Womanhood
26. We
27. With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (With the Light, #7)
28. With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (With the Light, #8)
29. Sherlock Holmes: Misteri Yang Tak Terpecahkan (A Slight Trick of the Mind)
30. True Grit
31. Instant Mom
32. The Pastor: A Memoir
33. Thus Spoke Zarathustra
34. The Pulse
35. I am currently reading: Glass, Paper, Beans: Revelations on the Nature and Value of Ordinary Things
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Not bad, I think! You can see that this is the year that I tried reading Orson Scott Card books besides Enderverse stuff; I reeeaaally enjoy The Tales of Alvin Maker. I quit reading two books this year... I was bored to tears by the writing style of Eragon, & Thus Spoke Zarathustra got pretty redundant. I've also reached a point where I am currently bored of dystopias.
Goals for next year, reading-wise: read more non-fiction, more stuff I've compiled on my Nook HD, & more non-ACD Sherlock stuff. Maybe. ;-)
Friday, December 27, 2013
Monday, December 09, 2013
Re: Being Task Focused
My husband thinks I should blog more about my personality & what is it like for me, so I figured I'd start with one of the aspects that I feel makes me seem least approachable.
The default state of my mind is analyzing/prioritizing what needs to be done. This is nice because it allows me to put logic into action-- for example, I figure out easily that I should eat lunch before I scrub the kitchen floor, so that I don't get hungry while the floor is wet. My brain is full of planning & consequences & results & contingency plans. (Honestly, not as much of that last. I don't deal as well with changes as I'd like.)
The point is, my brain works by establishing a plan & then following it. Even when I am taking time to relax, it is still part of a plan. I plan to work on typing this until I get hungry, then I shall eat lunch & work on chores. I plan to get x & y task done, so that I can unwind with fun thing z until event a. That is how everything happens for me.
You can tell how important something is to me by how much attention I pay to the details... which seems to come across in the opposite way, sadly. People think I'm being grumpy & ignoring them, when the reality is that I'm just trying to do what I feel is most important, usually because a person is important to me. It often happens that I show up to an event of some sort, & anyone who tries to greet me before I can get my coat off feels brushed off. I just want to get comfortable first, get my hands free, so I have more opportunity to give you my full attention.
No one looks at my degree of concentration & thinks "I really appreciate how seriously she is taking the task at hand". They just think "she must be mad at me".
This gets even worse when there are unanticipated changes. My brain tries to figure out why the changes are there, & how I can best continue to accomplish the task, & my face & tone of voice turn into CRAZY ANGRY WOMAN. I'm not actually crazy angry woman! I'm just trying to operate at optimal efficiency! I promise.
Another way that this aspect of me shows up is sometimes I seem nit-picky. I'll try to suggest a way that a thing could be done, or ask someone why they did a thing they way that they did, & it comes across as nagging or not trusting the person. In reality, I'm just trying to help & to understand. I'm not even necessarily trying to say that my way is the best way! I truly want to hear your opinions & thought process, because you matter to me. My interest in the situation is actually an interest in you, but it is so commonly misinterpreted. (My least favorite part of this is when people assume that I'm mad at my husband. I'm not mad at anyone, my husband understands, please don't make a snarky comment.) It's my way of trying to be involved, which I only bother to try to do when I like you.
Ways for you to work with this facet of how I am:
-Be patient. Let me finish the thing I'm doing before you assume how I feel. Maybe even offer to help me with the thing, if applicable.
-Explain changes in the plan as much as possible. Some people just roll with changes like they don't even exist, but I feel much better the more I know what's going on.
-Plan with me. If I don't seem to be able to engage with you at the moment, tell me that you'd like to talk with me before I leave, or whatever is applicable.
-Ask me straight up how I feel, if you're unsure. I'm always honest. (Even if I actually am mad at you, I will find a way to let you know what is bothering me.)
-Don't take it personally. The most important thing to me is people & my relationships with them, I just show it differently.
Ways for me to try to be 'better':
-I am trying to work on my tone of voice & facial expressions, so I won't seem so upset.
-Maybe I can be more open about communicating why I am so intent on whatever I'm doing, so people see that there is a reason for my determination.
-&/or I could more frequently use phrases like "give me five minutes please" (with a smile) or some such?
-I'm not sure how to become more accepting of change, but I can try to handle it better.
The default state of my mind is analyzing/prioritizing what needs to be done. This is nice because it allows me to put logic into action-- for example, I figure out easily that I should eat lunch before I scrub the kitchen floor, so that I don't get hungry while the floor is wet. My brain is full of planning & consequences & results & contingency plans. (Honestly, not as much of that last. I don't deal as well with changes as I'd like.)
The point is, my brain works by establishing a plan & then following it. Even when I am taking time to relax, it is still part of a plan. I plan to work on typing this until I get hungry, then I shall eat lunch & work on chores. I plan to get x & y task done, so that I can unwind with fun thing z until event a. That is how everything happens for me.
You can tell how important something is to me by how much attention I pay to the details... which seems to come across in the opposite way, sadly. People think I'm being grumpy & ignoring them, when the reality is that I'm just trying to do what I feel is most important, usually because a person is important to me. It often happens that I show up to an event of some sort, & anyone who tries to greet me before I can get my coat off feels brushed off. I just want to get comfortable first, get my hands free, so I have more opportunity to give you my full attention.
No one looks at my degree of concentration & thinks "I really appreciate how seriously she is taking the task at hand". They just think "she must be mad at me".
This gets even worse when there are unanticipated changes. My brain tries to figure out why the changes are there, & how I can best continue to accomplish the task, & my face & tone of voice turn into CRAZY ANGRY WOMAN. I'm not actually crazy angry woman! I'm just trying to operate at optimal efficiency! I promise.
Another way that this aspect of me shows up is sometimes I seem nit-picky. I'll try to suggest a way that a thing could be done, or ask someone why they did a thing they way that they did, & it comes across as nagging or not trusting the person. In reality, I'm just trying to help & to understand. I'm not even necessarily trying to say that my way is the best way! I truly want to hear your opinions & thought process, because you matter to me. My interest in the situation is actually an interest in you, but it is so commonly misinterpreted. (My least favorite part of this is when people assume that I'm mad at my husband. I'm not mad at anyone, my husband understands, please don't make a snarky comment.) It's my way of trying to be involved, which I only bother to try to do when I like you.
Ways for you to work with this facet of how I am:
-Be patient. Let me finish the thing I'm doing before you assume how I feel. Maybe even offer to help me with the thing, if applicable.
-Explain changes in the plan as much as possible. Some people just roll with changes like they don't even exist, but I feel much better the more I know what's going on.
-Plan with me. If I don't seem to be able to engage with you at the moment, tell me that you'd like to talk with me before I leave, or whatever is applicable.
-Ask me straight up how I feel, if you're unsure. I'm always honest. (Even if I actually am mad at you, I will find a way to let you know what is bothering me.)
-Don't take it personally. The most important thing to me is people & my relationships with them, I just show it differently.
Ways for me to try to be 'better':
-I am trying to work on my tone of voice & facial expressions, so I won't seem so upset.
-Maybe I can be more open about communicating why I am so intent on whatever I'm doing, so people see that there is a reason for my determination.
-&/or I could more frequently use phrases like "give me five minutes please" (with a smile) or some such?
-I'm not sure how to become more accepting of change, but I can try to handle it better.
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