Fine.  I made a resolution.  It’s something I’ve been very consciously doing for a while now, but I decided to take it up a notch so I’m accountable.  I mean, if it’s my resolution, it’s serious.  I need to do it.

I’ve been asking myself a question every time I reach for my phone.  It’s pretty simple; I just say to myself, “Melissa, why are you reaching for your phone?”

Sometimes I have an answer for myself. “I am looking at my phone because I’m checking to see if there are any work emails.  I haven’t looked in a while, therefore it is entirely possible there is something I need to answer.”  Or, “I’m going to play one game of Solitaire because I’m thinking right now, and playing this game helps me think and problem solve.”  Or, “I have the time since I arrived early to my meeting, and I feel like connecting with people, so I’m going to check Facebook.”

If there is a good answer, I look at my phone.

BUT.

There are a bunch of times when I lie to myself, and then I need to call myself out on it.  “I’m checking for work emails,” I’ll say, even though I know I checked 5 minutes earlier.  “I want to connect with people so I’m going to check Facebook,” I’ll say, even though I’m not connecting with the human beings who are physically around me because I’m looking at my phone.

And other times, I’m honest with myself, even though I know the answer has no legs: “I’m bored, so I’m checking my phone to stave off that boredom.”  Or, “I’m checking my phone because it’s easier than tackling the stuff I have to get done.”

Those times, I don’t look at my screen.  I may touch the phone through my pocket, but I don’t turn it on.  Sometimes I have to deny myself the screen a lot.  Other days I barely remember that I have a phone when I’m moving through the house or out-and-about.

I don’t know why I am limiting it: Do I feel like I am missing out on the world around me because I am looking at my screen? Or do I think other people think that I look at my phone too much? Or have I realized that I don’t always use this tool well?

All I know is that I’m setting some conscious limits.  Not a time budget since my needs will change from day-to-day, but instead forcing a mindfulness of why my hand reaches for this tool.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I want to live in a hobbit hole.  Mental Floss recently had an article about a manufacturer of prefabricated homes that are covered in sod and look like hobbit holes.  Though I realized looking at the houses that what I want isn’t the outside of the hobbit hole but the inside.

I like small, cozy spaces with lots of room for shelving books neatly (so they can be found quickly).  I like squashy chairs and throw blankets and wood.  I want a little bed like this for nap time.  (Actually, does anyone remember a few years ago that there was a picture of a bed like this — a frame that had books inside — that we were all covetously passing around the Internet?  I can’t find the bed of my dreams despite a lot of keyword Googling.)

What is your ideal home?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Back in the olden days of the Internet, the first full week of January was declared International Delurking Week, and I still celebrate this ancient holiday. It runs this year from the 3rd until the 9th, so you have about seven days to slither out of the reading closet and check in with an “I’m here” comment.

It is fairly easy. Leave a comment in the comment section below admitting that you’re here. You can simply raise your hand and meekly admit that you’re here with a simple, one-word “here” comment; or you can proudly raise your hand and tell us all a bit about yourself (my preferred method); or… you can tell me your favourite book (see, I’m trying to make it easy for you by even providing a comment prompt).

The point is that I want to know about the people who read me, since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of readers in actuality and the number of readers I actually know are reading. Or a tongue-twister like that.

And that’s all you have to do to celebrate.

So (clears throat to nudge you along), who is here?

And just to answer my own question, I am partial to the Harry Potter series.  And almost anything Tolkien.  And Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.  And Voltaire’s Candide.

* I make a badge every year to mark the occasion, and I give you full permission to right click and grab it for your very own.

Side note: tomorrow is also #MicroblogMonday.  So get writing!

While Friday is usually a Roundup day, this week was so quiet online that there wasn’t much to read.  Sniff.

So the Roundup will be back next week, and in its place, I give you puzzles.  Not my puzzles, but MIT’s.

Every year in January, MIT hosts a treasure hunt.  I’ve always wanted to go, though in speaking to people who DO go every year, I have exactly zero chance of actually succeeding in getting past the first few puzzles.  But I am not deterred!  What I lack in intelligence, I make up for in spirit.

This year, someone at MIT has put up an online version of (I think) last year’s game.  You can form a team and try to solve the puzzles from home.  Our family has a team, and we’re working together.  Again, what we lack in actual knowledge we make up for with exuberance and a complete refusal of acknowledgment of our inadequacies.

Let the games begin!

Last year was the last year of the Creme de la Creme.  I can’t say that it will never run again because who knows how we will all feel in another year or two or twenty?

But participation had dwindled over the years, so I declared last year’s Creme — the 9th one — to be the final one for the time being.  Part of me considered extending one more year just to have it end on a nice, even 10.  But that’s not life.  Life isn’t neat and symmetrical and orderly.  Things sometimes end on a 9th year instead of a 10th.

I felt an odd twinge in the fall when I didn’t put up the call for submissions, but I didn’t really think about the project again until this week.  In years past, this week has always had a panicky vibe as I move through the entries, reading and thinking and sometimes reading again and thinking again and then writing.  This year, there was no panicky vibe.  There were no entries to read or blurbs to write.

It’s an odd feeling to stop celebrating something, sort of like declaring yourself done with a holiday.  It still rolls around on the calendar, but all the rituals you once did to mark the occasion aren’t performed.

There is no point to this post except that I wanted to mark the moment.  Because I was thinking about it.  While I know the posts I liked and mark them in the Roundup, it’s different to hear the post each writer was proud of from their yearly collection of posts.

If I had to pick one from my blog, it’s probably “Lasts” because it’s summing up the year for me.  What is yours?