Week 4-Remote Operation

I’m in San Antonio this week. We discontinued our internet service at this house a couple of years ago and access the Internet via a mobile connection, primarily using my phone and tablet. Connecting the laptop chews through data.

We were traveling Sunday, but we made it here in time to unload the truck, get the cats settled, and I logged onto the webinar with three minutes to spare. Whew!

I propped the phone in landscape mode against a 2×4 fragment on my husband’s desk and watched all three hours of the webbie, using just over a gig of data.

Next week, I’ll be visiting my parents in Wisconsin and anticipate having to catch the replay.

I added this configuration to my sites in my WordPress app on the phone and am making this week’s entry that way.

This is a big week, and I’m working to put it all together. Where do you guys see green triangles?

I participate in the Blogging from A-Z Challenge each April. I’m planning my entries for 2016 around an MKMMA theme. Anyone else want to play? Give it a think.

Week 3 – Puzzles

This week’s Master Keys touch one area I’m in the course to find a solution to.

In the Master Key – Part Three, the second and last paragraph of the intro area cover this.

Eliminate, therefore, any possible tendency to complain of conditions as they have been or as they are, because it rests with you to change them and make them what you would like them to be.

and

When you realize this, you will have found a source of power which will enable you to take care of any situation in life which may develop.

My DMP is approved for now. I’m going to “sit” on it and see how it resonates. Focusing on this week’s Master Keys is going to be helpful, I believe.

 

Week 3 – Linkages

Mark J has been talking about linkages for the last couple of weeks. I’ve started to pick up on some of those linkages. Last week, we began working with our 3×5 index cards. We began adding colored symbols with each line we enter on the cards, and we look for those colors and symbols throughout the week.

We look for blue rectangles, red circles, green triangles, and yellow squares. Today, I began linking those objects with the content. In other words when I saw blue triangles, I linked to thinking about repeating “Do it now” twice a day out loud. Lots of people are linking  this with chores they know they need to do as well. I saw a yellow rectangle, and I linked that to reading the scrolls in Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World. Then I think about some of the contents of the current scroll we’re reading.

This is kind of cool.

Week 2 – Technical Stuff

I had a little time in the motel room yesterday afternoon and evening. I used that time to play with the blog settings and reconfigure it. Did you know WordPress removed the Blogroll list feature a few versions ago? I didn’t until I went looking for it in this installation. All my other blogs had a blogroll entry or two, even though I’ve hidden most of them in recent years, so the option was grandfathered in as I updated, so I never noticed.

I spent a few days looking for a plug-in, and I decided to use the Simple Links plug-in. It’s been updated recently even though it wasn’t guaranteed to work with this version of WordPress (so far, it seems fine). I’m using the free version, and for now, that’s adequate. There are some things I’d like to do differently, so I’ll see if there’s another plug-in that might work better or if the Premium version of this one will do the job. If not, this is fine for now.

I changed themes. I use a Weaver Pro theme on my other blogs. That’s been superseded by the Weaver Extreme theme. I’m experimenting with their free version for now, but once I get things figured out, I will probably spring for the paid version to support them (it does not convert nicely from the old version to the new version, if with their converter Plug-In, so I’ll wind up making note of my settings and manually inputting them when I convert my other blogs). When they first came out with this new version, their pay structure was not as amenable to my multiple (non-income-producing) blogs as the new version is. Once you learn where the settings are, it’s very configurable.

I like the Papyrus font for the Blog Title and Tag Line, but for the post and sidebar texts, I felt it was too hard to read, so I tried to find a compatible font. I am not quite satisfied with that look and feel yet. Expect more subtle changes, but I hope it’s readable not

The header photo is from my hayfield at sunset back in December 2004. I love the lighting and the peacefulness that photo captured.

I also realized that even though I created the list sign up for people to subscribe to each blog entry, I forgot to actually configure and set up the blog broadcast. Oops. I set up a rudimentary configuration last night. I’ll tweak it later, because I’m not completely satisfied with it.

I downloaded and printed Week 3 materials this morning. Pretty exciting stuff. Three more weeks on the road. Looking forward to getting back home after that, but these three weeks are important, too.

Week 2 – Impact

The impact of the course so far has been surprising. While an extraordinary number of things that would ordinarily go smoothly have gone…not smoothly (and I confess I’ve not been as positive about this as I would have preferred), I’ve also experienced a discernible shift in my approach and the results I’m getting in various areas of my life.

I’m getting stirrings of creativity in my dreams.  My DMP feels like it’s coming together. My Personal Pivotal Needs (PPNs) were clear – Recognition for Creative Expression and True Health. This helped focus my DMP much more clearly. I submitted the updated DMP last night, and I haven’t heard suggestions from my Guide yet. After I hear back on that, I anticipate a little more refinement. While I was comfortable with the first draft, it wasn’t as focused as this version (version 8 by my count — version 2 for my Guide’s eyes).

I like the directions this course is taking so far.

Week 2 – Firehose

I’m sure if I were at home, I’d still feel as if I were standing in front of a firehose with this course. It’s the nature of the beast. But I knew this first month would be extra challenging because of my travel schedule for October.

We have an annual vacation we take during the first two weeks in October. So I’m driving all day, finding a way to sandwich in my mid-day readings as well as the morning and evening homework. But, frankly, that’s pretty easy. I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to get the live webinar this afternoon — there’s so much in there that I need to do my homework for this week, but I’m catching up on the Digital Connections list I missed last week (maybe I shouldn’t admit this, because I’m listening to it while typing this, and we know that, ahem, we can’t think about two things at the same time). I’m comfortable in the digital world, so I’m listening for anything that’s new to me while I type this first missive for the week.

I’ve read several people mention their Old Blueprint is causing hassles for them as they adjust to these new ways. Mine is no different. It’s hard to see how I’ll move beyond this, but I have to believe I can and will, so I take this one day, one hour, and even one instant at a time.

I’ve had lots of negative moments. I’m concentrating on catching myself and shifting thoughts to positive. I’ve been reading a little about Color Code. I tested as a Blue. I can tell my husband is obviously a Red. This explains so much, and it’s so discouraging. I hope as I read more, I’ll find a way to deal with this.

And I just read weeks run from Monday to Sunday, so I’m jumping the gun a little with this post..  Moving on.

Week 1 – Funny

I’ve noticed a few things in the Week 1 reading that have either made me smile or made odd connections in my head. I thought I’d note them here.

First, in The Greatest Salesman in the World, page 53: ” An onion plant is old at nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me.”

For some reason, that just cracks me up every time I read it. Even after nearly a week of reading it three times a day.

Then, in the Master Keys, Part 1, my brain made the following connections (not necessarily factual):

“24. All agree that there is but one Principle or Consciousness pervading the entire Universe, occupying all space, and being essentially the same in kind at every point of its presence. It is all powerful, all wisdom and always present. All thoughts and things are within Itself. It is all in all.”

My thought? “God is in me.”

“26. As there is only one Consciousness in the Universe that is able to think it necessarily follows that your consciousness is identical with the Universal Consciousness, or, in other words, all mind is one mind. There is no dodging this conclusion.”

My thought? “The Borg.”

What struck your funny bone as you were reading? Or what thoughts popped into your head that may or may not have been irreverent?

Week 1 – Progress Report

We’re juggling schedules and preparing to head out on the annual October Trek to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I had a day procedure on my eyelid today (totally in keeping with the 2015 Left Side Makeover — knee replacement, carpal tunnel release, and eyelid growth removed), and my husband had a medical appointment in San Antonio. He’ll have a procedure on the 19th when we get back, so I changed my medical appointment in Temple originally scheduled for that day to a later date (mine was routine). For now, he’s less able to withstand the rigors of that three hour drive, so I’ll be driving him more than I have in the past, and that requires some schedule adjustments.

We’ll take the truck in then to hopefully find out why we have to remain in 4X4 to keep it from grinding. Our research tells us it’s a faulty solenoid. We’ll see what the Lincoln factory-trained technician comes up with. Before we knew putting it into 4X4 stopped the noise, they hadn’t come up with a cause.

Tomorrow, we pack the truck and take the cats to boarding school in anticipation of an early start on Wednesday.

I’ve submitted my DMP first draft (really my fourth draft, but the first draft to see another set of eyes). Two hundred and fifty-six words of a maximum of 400. I believe I’m going to need to add dates and other specifics, but I’ve written it in the present tense as if it’s already my reality, so adding dates seems tricky to me. I’m sure my Guide will provide guidance.

I’ve submitted my survey, and the blog entry is completed. Surveys and blog entries come easily for me. Other aspects of the course are likely to be more challenging, but that’s why I’m taking the course. If I would have figured it out on my own, I wouldn’t be here.

So far, the homework is going well. I can definitely feel the power of it working to kick my Old Blueprint out, and it’s only been a few days. I plan to discuss the course with my husband tonight, if he isn’t too tired after driving back from San Antonio. That will help us with various planning issues we’ll have to manage over the next month. I hope he will be supportive, because, of course, that tends to make things easier. Yes, I was silly to think I could do this course and not discuss it with him, but I feared he would be negative about it, and he may be, but I have to do it. It’s the one piece of homework for this week I haven’t done yet.