elkit in wonderland

Seven String Sunday

What I'm up to this week:

• What I'm listening to: P!nk's new album, Beautiful Trauma
• What I'm reading: The Atlantic
• What I'm watching: The Deuce on HBO
• Purchase I'm enjoying: my Breville Smart Oven - it's been a while since I've used the full-size oven
• Free thing I'm enjoying: Air! Air quality is not quite good yet, but moderate. Much improved compared to mid-week. 
• Quote I'm pondering: “Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” – Betty White
• Great idea I had: I'll be a sexy potato for Halloween

Sixy Saturday

Tim Ferriss sends out a 5-bullet Friday newsletter. I am adopting and adapting this into a six or seven string Saturday. Let's try it:

• What I'm listening to: Breakdown, by Prince
• What I'm reading: Gulp, by Mary Roach
• What I'm watching: Arsenio Hall interviewing Prince
• Purchase I'm enjoying: the Pocket Sketchbook I bought here in Cincinnati. Haven't even used it yet, but I love to stare at it.
• Free thing I'm enjoying: the bird of paradise unfolding in front of the house
• Quote I'm pondering:  I like to think of my short stories as problems I'm trying to solve, like a math problem, and writing the story is the way by which I arrive at the answer, which is also the story itself. - Carmen Maria Machado
• Great idea I had: let's change the name and colors and subliminal idea of the White House to rainbow

Kindness

Isn't it time I posted poetry again?

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

______________________________Naomi Shihab Nye, found here

Rolling in the Deep

Parking this here so I can find it again later:

• foam roller exercises for hips and pelvis
• foam roller exercises for leg muscles
• foam roller category on goop
• and Yoga with Adriene, 31 Days of Yoga

A New Year, A New Book

The January theme for the reading challenge from Immersive Escapism is a story about immigration or refugees. What to pick? 

Edited to add: the Guardian has 10 suggestions.

What'd I Do?

Shit, look at all the stuff that Ann Friedman did this year. What did I do? Not so much.

Reading Options for Next Year

I tend to be disappointed when I fail to meet a challenge, with the emphasis on FAIL.

So instead, I like looking at challenges as options, with me free to complete as much or as little of them as I please. In this spirit, I am choosing two reading challenges for the coming year, and will just see where they take me:

• the Popsugar Reading Challenge 2017
• the "Minority Report" by Immersive Escapism

Halflings

So I finished about half of the Popsugar 2016 Reading Challenge. Fair enough.

Reading The Year

I signed up the POPSUGAR 2016 Ultimate Reading Challenge. Also joined the relevant Goodreads Group. I'm going to add some ideas for what to read right here. And I am re-ordering the list based on what I've already read (obv. the ones in bold, with the checkmark and the date finished.)

Finished these:

1. A science-fiction novel: The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi √ Jan 6
2. A book you can finish in a day: The Last Colony, John Scalzi √ Jan 8
3. A book of poetry: Winter Trees, Sylvia Plath √ Jan 10
4. A book that's guaranteed to bring you joy: Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson √ Feb 1
5. A book that takes place during Summer: The God's Eye View, Barry Eisler √ Feb 9
6. A book under 150 pages: We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie √ Feb 24
7. A murder mystery: Lock In, John Scalzi √ Mar 14
8. A classic from the 20th century: Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier √ Mar 29
9. A book and its prequel: Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik √ April 14
10. A book that's more than 600 pages: Deception on his Mind, Elizabeth George, 750 pages, √ April 18
11. A New York Times bestseller: H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald, √ April 21
12. A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with: H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald, (falconry) √ April 21
13. A book written by a celebrity: Yes Please, Amy Poehler, √ June 1
14. An autobiography: Shut Up, Legs!: My Wild Ride On and Off the Bike, Jens Voigt, √ June 20
15. A book set in Europe: Imperium, Robert Harris, √ July 8
16. A self-improvement book: Nick Hornby, Ten Years in the Tub √ July 21
17. A book about a road trip: Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth √ July 31
18. A book that is published in 2016: I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, Luvvie Ajayi √ November 21
19. A book with a protagonist who has your occupation: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan √ December 17

Started, but did not finish:

• A National Book Award winner: Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• A book written by a comedian: So, Anyway, John Cleese
• A graphic novel: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
• The first book you see in a bookstore: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015
• A book that takes place on an island: Our Lady of the Islands, Shannon Page and Jay Lake

Never got to these:

• A book based on a fairy tale: Mermaid, Carolyn Turgeon
• A YA bestseller
• A book you haven't read since high school: Animal Farm, George Orwell
• A book set in your home state: Monterey Bay, Lindsay Hatton
• A book translated to English: The Deep Sea Diver's Syndrome, Serge Brussolo, translated from French
• A romance set in the future: Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
• A book that's becoming a movie this year:
• A book recommended by someone you just met
• A political memoir
• A book at least 100 years older than you (1861 or earlier): Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope (1857)
• A book from Oprah's Book Club
• A book recommended by a family member
• A dystopian novel: Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
• A book with a blue cover: Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
• A book from the library
• A satirical book: Animal Farm, George Orwell

Wayda minnit

Heyyy, waittaminnit -

Didn't I say I would be Blo-Po-ing every day this month? Yeah well. Sorry, fell off the wagon there for a few days. But I think it would be rude for me to leave you with screaming Christian Bale for much longer, so ... what to write instead?

The journaling prompt says to write about a person, so I will leave this here as a stub, and pledge to add more meat later.