Democracy in the United States is severely under attack from both inside and outside forces. Given this, it is up to those of us wanting to preserve democracy to speak out and take action. I have been more politically vocal during the past 3-4 years than in any other time in my life. I’ve nudged politicians who are supposed to be representing all of us rather than dividing us. I’ve encouraged people to take part…
Last fall, I became a member of the Arbor Day Foundation. Yay, trees! I love trees. I want to save trees. The Arbor Day Foundation loves and plants trees. Sounds like a membership marriage made in heaven, right? Not exactly. Almost immediately after becoming an annual member, like within a couple of months, I received a mailing from the Arbor Day Foundation asking me to renew my membership. What the what? Excuse me, I just…
Several of John Scalzi’s essays/blog posts in his book “Don’t Live for Your Obituary” are sticking with me such that I want to bounce off them with my own blog posts. One such post is called “Imposter Syndrome, or Not” (page 395-401 in the book, dated January 30, 2016 on his Whatever blog). Scalzi opens the post discussing how so many writers suffer from Imposter Syndrome, the feeling that they’re just not good enough at…
Have you heard of Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap? It’s liquid soap that can be used for pretty much anything, whether as a body wash and shampoo or as a household cleaner. We prefer the Hemp Peppermint variety. The soap is all organic, with Certified Fair Trade ingredients. The funkiest thing about this soap is the packaging, specifically the label. When you purchase a bottle, you get a spiritual/philosophical tome of very tiny print that covers…
Have you heard of amigurumi? It is a crocheting technique wherein you use primarily single crochet to create these wee, cute creatures, which can include animals, fictional characters, or even human beings. An Albert Einstein amigurumi figure showed up in my Twitter feed not long ago. I’ve dabbled in amigurumi before, making an amigurumi frog years ago. I saw an amigurumi bunny pattern roll through my Twitter feed around Easter and it gave me an…