Years ago, I needed a way to offset a negative impact I had on the Universe. So I self-imposed a two hundred percent negativity tax on myself.

Continuing To Pay A Two Hundred Percent Negativity Tax

I used to own a sporty, little convertible car. While I loved driving around in it, I sometimes accidentally ended up littering. A random receipt or tissue would fly out of the car and cause litter.

It would have been dangerous to try and stop to pick up the litter, so I came up with a way to remediate my negative impact. Every time I inadvertently littered, I self-imposed a tax. I had to pick up at least two pieces of litter within the next 48 hours.

The net result was that there was less litter in the World.

Fast-forward to the present.

I got the following comment on the YouTube video I published about ball-winders:

Mary Warner

Please be aware of how many times you say “um”. It can be a bit distracting.

To be fair, Mary is exactly right. That video has me saying “uh” and “um” way too much. And it appears as though Mary has rethought her comment and deleted it. Our YouTube did? Not really sure. Regardless, I will try to be more aware in my future videos. Thank you Mary.

Mary has also inspired me to impose another 200% negativity tax on myself.

I’ve decided that anytime I critique something or someone, I will make sure to praise two others within 48 hours.

I am always grateful for comments, and receptive to feedback. And I’m hopeful that others are too. I’ve suggested this to other critics on this blog, and I think it’s useful. If you’re going to leave public feedback on what not to do, you may want to decide not to make it the first piece of feedback you leave.

Thank you Mary for both the feedback and the inspiration to make changes to my own behavior. I appreciate both.

Current Knitting

The 9th hat is finished and I’ve completed the ribbing on the 10th and final hat.

Shortly, I’ll pack up the 10 hats to bring to the Men’s Knitting Retreat next month and get back to working on the Silvatica Stole.

I’ll also be doing a new video tutorial on my method for eliminating the jog on in-the-round stripes. I’ll try to avoid “ums.”