The Ceiling.

Dear Dodo Gang,

The thing about the Dodo is that, well, it takes time to send you these little love notes, and sometimes Things Get Left Undone.  What things, you ask?  Well, we don't put off our watching the sky, or the creek, or the birds, but we do skip the dishes, the floors, the windows, and the yard.  It's alright, they do pretty well on their own, especially the yard.

Other times, the Dodo staff are working on something that needs doing while I type here.  Today, staff are painting the ceiling of the bathroom, so that I can send you this 'making of' film.'







May it inspire you to make a shadowed film of your own.  Or, maybe today you will paint the ceiling and Get Things Done.

The end and the beginning

Dear Y'all,

Twenty-twenty will be The Year of Just Desserts.  Make quickly your goodbyes to The Year of the Sudden Surge of Confidence.   

I like to get my silly resolutions done in the first week of the new year, so they won't get in the way of having fun for the rest of the year.  As a guiding principle, I will be using Take Risks.  For the resolutions I will use two well worn and faithful ones: wear hats and read more books.  (Note the crucial lack of specificity and quantity in these two resolutions- meaning, I can wear a hat while reading a book on January first, and I will have completely fulfilled my contract with the New Year!)

How about you?  Are you caught in the last minute rush without an appropriate resolution?  Here are a few you can use in a pinch, all of which can be accomplished early on the first day, let alone by the end of January.  I have organized them according to personality.  Just find yourself on the column on the left, and resolve to the action on the right.  No guesswork, no hand wringing, just solid resolutions that will get you where you want to go in this new year of Globalness, Robot Overlords, and Lightning Fast Communication.




Penitents:                                            Play and listen to all of The Wall.  Every note.  It will do
                                                            you good.


Practical Cats:                                    Clean out the drawer you keep your scissors in.

Ritual Lovers:                                    Wash just one window.

Sporty Folks:                                      Do five sit ups. (Yup, for the whole year, not every day!                                                            What you are going for here is actually fulfilling                                                             our promises to ourselves, not another ride on the wheel of
                                                           impotent wishing and planning.  

Over Achievers:                                Clear out an old sweater; one of the ones with holes. You
                                                           can get a reprieve on next year's resolutions if you make
                                                           something out of the old sweater:  a tea cozy, a pillow cover,
                                                           a door mat for the cat door.

Sentimentalists:                                 Write a nice note to someone from the old days.




Okay, well, that's all until next year, then.