Stephanie Booth's online ramblings
Here and there, people start discovering complete strangers who seem to be their identical twins. As the media start reporting these findings, a few pairs set out to track their origins and uncover the top-secret military experiment that is behind their mysterious births. They were cloned, and are deadly weapons.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
[en] Après un peu de relâchement dû à une période de gros stress, j'essaie de me remettre en mode "FlyLady". Routine du matin et du soir, 15 minutes de débordélisation de l'appart, etc.
Earlier this year I discovered FlyLady and immediately started following some of her advice, quite successfully. I went through a phase of feeling really on top of my life: I had an eye on my finances, I was sleeping, eating, and exercising sufficiently, I had quite a lot to do at work and I was doing it well, and my flat was getting uncluttered, 15 minutes at a time.
Then I went through a hectic few days applying for a consultancy at the UN, being interviewed for it and completing an assignment (which I overdid). I dropped everything to get it done (the deadlines were short) and I realized recently that I never quite managed to regain my balance after that.
I’ve been feeling an itch to get things back in shape these last weeks. I still clean my sink every evening (almost) and make my bed in the morning, but a lot of the rest of my morning and evening rituals has gone through the window.
Here’s my plan:
– morning: get up, 30 minutes on the exercise bike, shower, get dressed, breakfast
– evening: clean sink, plan the next day
Next things I’m going to add are:
– 15 minutes of uncluttering per day
– regular book-keeping (have to figure out what frequency is good, but I suspect once a week or a fortnight)
– plan my laundry days better to include time to put dry clothes away the next day
– regular creative writing slots (50 word stories etc)
– regular “self-promotion” project slots
– weekly “quick flat clean”
(Not all in one go, of course, but those are the next goals on my radar.)
[en] If you're in the Lausanne or Geneva area, here are a whole bunch of dates to jot down so that you don't miss any of the fun!
Ceux qui me suivent sur Twitter (ou activement ailleurs, comme Facebook) auront remarqué que je redonne un coup de gaz à l’événementiel, ces temps. Voici un petit récapitulatif des dates annoncées aux quatre coins du web, et d’autres encore. Sortez votre crayon ou votre trackpad (suivant quel forme a votre agenda) et prenez note! Cliquez les liens pour plus d’informations.
J’ai oublié quelque chose? Au plaisir de vous voir bientôt, en tous cas!
Update, 28.09.09: Pascale me fait gentiment remarquer que je n’ai pas mentionné la conférence Paris-Web, qui aura lieu à Paris les 8-9-10 octobre. Effectivement, ce n’est pas très “local” comme info, mais pour les geeks qui sauteraient volontiers dans le TGV, je ne peux que vous recommander de vous y rendre!
[en] On 15th September and 6th October, I'm invited to participate in two panel discussions where I will present the work done with the eclau coworking space.
J’ai le grand honneur d’avoir été invitée comme intervenante à deux First organisés par Rezonance:
Les First sont des conférences libres et gratuites — je vous encourage vivement à y participer. C’est l’occasion d’assister à des présentations et débats sur des thèmes d’actualités et de rencontrer ensuite des personnes intéressantes de la région autour d’un apéro. Pour s’inscrire, il suffit de créer un compte (gratuit) sur le site rezonance.ch, ce qui est de toute façon une bonne idée (Rezonance est un réseau social professionnel genre LinkedIn, mais suisse romand et assez orienté entreprenariat).
De quoi vais-je parler? De l’eclau, principalement. De Going Solo, également, lors de la deuxième date.
Je pense que ce qui sera particulièrement intéressant pour moi le 15 septembre, c’est de parler du fait que l’eclau n’a pas du tout été créé dans un état d’esprit “expressément solidaire” à la base — mais que l’entraide et la solidarité qui y règnent sont le produit naturel d’une formule coworking qui privilégie les rapports humains et la diversité.
Le 6 octobre, j’espère avoir l’occasion de montrer les ponts qui existent entre Going Solo et l’eclau (l’idée de la liste Coworking Léman est née à Going Solo, et c’est cette liste qui a permis les premières étapes de la mise sur pied de l’Espace Coworking Lausanne) et aussi de discuter les différences entre entreprenariat et indépendance.
Ce ne sont pas mes premiers First: il y a trois ans environ, j’avais été invitée au First consacré à L’Age de Peer avec Alban Martin (charrette, il faut vraiment que je finisse ce bouquin, je commence à avoir la honte!) — pour ceux que le sujet intéresse, je signale en passant le First du 4 septembre, “Copyright vs. Community” à l’ERACOM à Lausanne.
Ah oui, et pendant qu’on est dans les agendas: ne ratez pas l’émission Scènes de Ménage sur la TSR1 mercredi 16 septembre vers 20h05 — on y parle des bureaux en open space, avec à la clé un sujet sur l’eclau, tourné en mai dernier.
They are five. Five strangers who discover they are all born of frozen ova donated by one woman. She carried a mutation that will change the face of humanity.
They learn to join their minds, and discover others like them.
They multiply.
She tracks down her children to kill them.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
“I’ve got it,” said Paul.
The look on his face turned from triumph to horror as he watched the weapon he had retrieved from the abandoned craft weld itself to his hand and start shooting towards us.
“I can’t make it stop! Help!”
We ran for cover and killed Paul.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
The growth on his shoulder was becoming ugly. It was also starting to talk with him, which he found unsettling.
The doctor refused to remove it as it had sufficient sentience.
Three months later the growth had developed prehensile appendages.
A year later, it strangled him after a nasty fight.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
Tom’s marriage had turned into a nightmare. Janet and he fought all the time and the children had got completely out of hand. He became addicted to full-simulation dramas, and fell in love with an actress. He sought her out and discovered the ugly truth behind the profitable sim industry.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
One hundred and fifty remaining passengers are stuck on a ship drifting through the stars far from home, propulsion and guidance hopelessly wrecked by saboteurs still amongst them. There is no salvation for them, just death when life-support systems will fail. They end up deciding to blow up the ship.
This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.
[fr] Quand on est tellement stressé et occupé qu'on ne peut pas se permettre de prendre une pause ou des vacances... c'est là qu'il faut vraiment le faire. Apprenez à reconnaître ce signal d'alarme et à l'écouter!
…that’s when you really need to take one.
I’ve seen this time and time again, in me and others. The clearest warning sign that one is doing “too much” and needs to take a break, a day off, or even a vacation is this feeling that one has no time to do so.
The few times in my life when I’ve come near to breaking down from too much work and stress, there was the common feeling: “I really could do with a break, but there is no way I can take one now.”
To help gain some perspective, imagine that you fall so ill you can’t work, or get in an accident that lands you at hospital for 3 weeks (my experience is also that when you really need a break, there is a risk you might find a creative way to give yourself one).
So, next time you feel you’re so swamped you really can’t afford to take a break… listen to that warning signal, cancel some commitments, renegotiate that deadline, and take that break!