Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things Here are some items of interest I’ve found online recently. —– For data geeks, Minnesota Compass has created geographic profiles for Minnesota cities over 1,000 in population. —– From Unstuck: How to be a better complainer – As a bit of a contrarian, I am weary of the constant societal push for everyone to be positive all the time, like we’re never supposed to complain about life. This article…
The unfathomable has happened. I am bookless. I don’t think I’ve been bookless since I was in elementary school. Once I finally got the hang of reading (I was a late reader, having caused first grade teachers some distress with my lack of literary ability) and had a library card, I was never without a stack of books to read by my bedside. Even though people told me that college would ruin me for reading,…
It’s that time of year again … time to buy a new calendar/day book for the upcoming year. I’ve been keeping a day book for years and years now, probably since the 1990s, when my sister-in-law bought me my first one. At the time, I was journaling long-hand in notebooks, trying to follow the suggestion in “The Artist’s Way” about writing three pages per day. The long-hand requirement drove me crazy because I didn’t always…
My husband Erik and I have been living a life of barely managed chaos since his dad, Art, died on August 16. We’re not alone in this roller coaster, whirlwind day-to-day. Erik’s mom, Jan, is there too, as is my co-worker, who lost her mom two weeks after we lost Art. As if massive grief from the loss of a loved-one isn’t enough, two close family members are in the process of moving (we’re helping…
I’m finding that my Loft online writing class isn’t taking as much time as I expected it would, which is a good thing. The Loft is obviously considerate of the fact that those of us taking its classes (especially the online ones) have lots of other obligations in our lives and need to fit our writing in where we can. I’m enjoying the class immensely and learning helpful ideas regarding plotting novels and stories, which…