Grand Productivity Experiment: Phase 1 Complete!

Yes, I’ve finished the first week of the Grand Productivity Experiment! Phase 1 was the Keystone Habit: in my case, getting up on time. I am pleased to report that I managed to get up on time six out of the six days in the experiment.

Santiago Rusinol Before the Morphine
Handy hint for morning laggards: start slowly with a cup of tea.
And did I see results, despite the shortness of the experiment? I think so. The first day was a howling success, but after that I slowed down a bit. I didn’t seem to be getting to bed any earlier, but I did sleep better, I think, being more tired. So not as influential as it might have been, but still some positive change there.

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I’m A Gnu

I’m knitting socks at the moment, out of a single ball of yarn – knitting the ball at both ends, as one might say. To avoid the awkwardness of having one short sock and one long one, I have both socks underway simultaneously – first foot, second foot, second leg, first leg. Unequal sockage duly avoided.

What I have failed to avoid, however, are the strains of The S-Song of the S-Second S-Sock, floating through my mind. And since that song is set to the tune of The Gnu by Flanders & Swann, I have found myself proclaiming at intervals that I’m a gnu.

Black wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu, Connochaetes gnou at Krugersdorp Game Reserve, Gauteng, South Africa (31233781942)
Gnu waiting for horns to grow long enough to knit with.
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To YA or Not to YA, That is the Question

After much deep and profound brain things inside my head, as King Julien would say, I have come to the conclusion that what I really need here is your opinions. As many of them as possible, in fact, although ideally not more than one each. (Unless you can support them with reference to the text, as my first-year Shakespeare lecturer would say.)

Lemur catta 3
The brain-thing which is currently circulating inside my head is this question: what constitutes a Young Adult novel? More specifically, was I mistaken in not classifying Restoration Day as a YA novel?

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