Unabridged Opinions

YouTube – Blueberry Girl – New from Neil Gaiman.

You know those days when you wake up just a little bit…befuddled? And resistant? I tend to wake up like that when I have something to do that I don’t want to (i.e. walk to the temp agencies and try again for a job).  I’m sluggish, and slow, and can think of so many things I would rather be doing than putting on makeup and walking the 50 minutes into the city centre.  But, I want a job, and I want to go for a run before I leave today, so I blended some soy milk, a banana, and some pineapple into a smoothie and sat down and watched this gorgeous little video. Neil Gaiman’s voice (and, if you haven’t listened to his other audio books, you are missing out) combines perfectly with the gorgeous imagery and illustrations.  This little poem makes you breathe a little slower and deeper and look around at the world with optimism instead of stress. It reminds me to sit quietly, listen to what is around me, and keep trying.

Well, although March has refused to disavow its “lion” status (we had quite the wind/hail storm here on Sunday night), it has still been mostly sunny.  And the light has stuck around until almost 6pm each evening.  I haven’t wanted to say too much about it for fear that the rain would hear me and decide it was missed.  Note to rain: it’s been cool how you’ve been showing up at night to keep us company/make cool sounds on the skylights and then going away during the day.  Keep it up.

To take advantage of the fact that our computer area/couch gets almost all of the sunlight, and in an attempt to become at least a little more productive, I’ve been..playing around on the internet.  What? Trust me, as a teacher, I had almost zero “extra” time to spend exploring and thinking about anything other than teaching. I loved my job and my students, but it was hard to get my head above the water enough to look around at what else was going on.

Continue reading

Well, in February I read twenty-three books–a pretty good total considering I spent three days hidden under the duvet unable to read more than a page at a time without my eyes crossing and the world spinning around me. A little over half of the books, fifteen, were re-reads for me.  Not surprising, since my default response to stress or uncertainty is to re-read, and I am still recovering from being separated from my library for six months. I was also lucky enough to get a few books through bookgeeks, all of which were fun.

I found comfort in the series I read, especially.  I am quite good at *hiding* in a book when I am stressed, and a series is an easy way to keep the mood going.  I don’t have to adjust to new characters or settings, and I can carry over the comfort I feel from book to book.  Plus, I’m a big fan of re-reading a book I’ve loved.  Why not enjoy the story and characters again?  It’s one of the issues I have with DRM and ebooks; I’m not sure of their durability, and I’m worried that, whether because of format changes or hardware issues, I will somehow lose some of the books I’ve bought and not be able to read them again. (never mind that my library is already perilously close to the limited number of books the Kindle can hold–that’s a different issue)

Continue reading