So, firing someone is hard!

An authorial friend of mine is looking for some assistance, detailed below:

I am actively seeking – or, I will be soon – people with dyscalculia and/or dyslexia, or who are highly knowledgeable about either, who would be willing to read a to-be-published work of YA contemporary realistic fiction, approximately 63,000 words (250 manuscript pages) long, and give me feedback on whether my representation of characters with the same is accurate and respectful. I am willing to pay any appropriate candidates for this work. If you know anyone who might be eligible/interested, would you please let me know? Regarding timing: the manuscript isn't ready for reading now, nor will it be until I'm done with another revision. Not sure when that will be, but hopefully this summer. I will provide more information about timing as soon as I have it myself.

If you are or know someone who might be able to help, please respond and I will put her in touch with you. Feel free to forward this to other people or venues who might be relevant.

As a vaguely-related followup to my post about people "stealing" the chocolate I keep on my desk for people to take (here), a story:

After Burning Man 2008, we planned to drop our bikes off at the roadside bike stand where we had purchased them. The person who runs this business takes bikes at the end of each festival, stores them, does a modicum of upkeep on them, and sells them to Burners at the beginning of the next year's event for $40. This is a genius business plan as long as space is cheap. It works well for burners, who effectively rent a bike for $40 for 3-10 days, and for the businessperson, who doesn't really have to do much except deal with a fuckload of bikes, which, I'll grant, is probably a pretty big job.

Anyway, we had picked up a bunch of these bikes on our way in, and planned to drop them off as we left, but the sign at the dropoff point said, "NO MORE BIKES!"

WHAT?? What were we going to do with 5 dusty crappy bikes? We certainly didn't want to fly them back to Boston.

Then someone had the brilliant idea to post them on Craigslist as giveaways in Las Vegas once we arrived. Perfect!

So, we got to our hotel, unloaded the bikes from the RV, parked them in a prominent spot in the parking lot, and posted to CL. Then, after hours of dusty RV cleaning, a bunch of transcendent showers, and dinner, we went to sleep. In the morning, the bikes were gone! Hooray!

I got back to Boston and told this story to one of my colleagues, who said in horror, "But how do you know the bikes weren't stolen??"

When I was in college, I had a very close group of friends, and a small handful of us did annual ski trips together. One of these friends was on the ski team, and various places we went to ski, we would wind up seeing skiing buddies of his from the serious skiing world. In 2000, we went to Utah, and while we were there, we had dinner at the house of one of his former coaches, who was still coaching young outstanding skiiers.

The coach talked about a current student of his, who he was hoping to get to the Olympics, and about this student's hesitation, his insistence that he would try out next year, when he was better. But it was always next year, next year, and the coach exclaimed his frustration to us at the dinner table, saying, "Would you please start thinking that this is a good time NOW?"

It struck me then, in a way that has (obviously) stuck with me, because I so strongly understand the urge to put things off until I can do them better, until the time is exactly right, and I also understand that most of the time, there is no time that's exactly right, and the best time to do that thing is when I can, even if it's not perfect or I don't feel totally ready.

If life is what happens when you're making other plans, then this is a good time. Now.

Now that warmer weather is here, I've changed my bedding to lighter blankets and such. Nevertheless, last night, I was too warm and flung my leg out from under the bedding, and almost over the edge of the mattress for a bit.

Unfortunately, right about that time, my cat jumped up for some snuggles, finding my leg where normally there's mattress. I discovered in the process that she uses her claws quite devotedly to gain purchase when making this jump. Ouch!! Also, truly not the most relaxing thing in the middle of the night!!

I figure this is some kind of balancing out after a recent incident when she was picking her way around my pillows and I accidentally clocked her little head when I went to stretch my arms out.

In a conversation about the direction of change in quality of life with colleagues recently, one of my coworkers "complimented" me by saying that he thought I was in my 20s, after I referred to being in my 30s.

Now, I don't really think this is true. I don't even think I seemed like I was in my 20s through most of my 20s, much less now that I'm approaching the back half of my 30s. And I know he was trying to say something complimentary ... so I laughed it off and continued the conversation.

But, my actual reaction was more like, "WTF, dude, I've LEARNED these years. Don't take them away!" I guess probably there will be times in my life when I take it as a compliment to be taken as younger than I am (though mostly, I find the age thing pretty neutral), but it was interesting to me to feel so shortchanged by it in this case.

I've been taking a hiatus from popular culture, to the extent possible without going on a physical retreat.

I mean, I'm already pretty distant from mainstream/popular culture. I watch TV in spurts, don't see a lot of movies, mainly read super lefty news ... but even so, cutting it out leaves a noticeable space in my schedule, and in my mind. I've also been taking a vacation from news in general, as a way to get some perspective and regain my equilibrium after feeling so bruised by the war on women this spring. It has been awesome.

A big part of me feels guilty for not keeping up with what's happening. I don't want to be one of those uninformed Americans who can't locate Canada on a map, or who doesn't know what's going on in the world. On the other hand, taking a break for a month is not going to mean I miss the big picture when I tune back in.

Importantly, I think this is making a positive difference. By getting some distance from popular/mainstream culture, I'm able to externalize its influence rather than internalize it. Rather than feeling shitty about not living up to some imagined standard of beauty, I can see the implicit messaging all over the place that carries that information and simply notice that it's there, and be aware that it's a larger pattern, without letting it into me. Rather than feel dehumanized by the political discussion of women as chattel, I can simply feel outraged by it.

Why have we created such a bad system for ourselves?

Lots of serious cyclists have padded bike shorts. Why this rather than a cushier saddle?

I like the vast majority of people I interact with at work, which is awesome, especially given the size of my group and the other groups I'm in regular contact with. But, of course, there are some people I don't like, mainly just for that visceral "rub me the wrong way" thing, or because my first encounter(s) with them were them behaving badly.

For a variety of reasons, I've wound up having more personal interactions with several of these people over the last couple of weeks, and in every case, I've come away from it liking them substantially more than my first impression. None of them is going to become my new best friend, or even my new best friend at work, and in several cases, I still really dislike how they go about some project that relates to me or my time ... but it is really great to have a personal connection and sense of seeing each other as people who like each other, even if we're on really different pages or are working somewhat against each other on particular topics.

It is a great reminder of how valuable it is to take the opportunity to see my opponents or the challenging people in my life as people, and even when we're still generally distant, to find those places of connection and put energy into them.

Do you have a catering company that you love in the Boston area?

Last night, moominmolly, dilletante, N and I went to see Bobby McFerrin in Providence. Thanks to whoever it was who pointed out to me that show!

I've been having a super stressful week, and I actually got some extra-stressful news just before the concert, so there was a big part of me that was wishing it was happening any other week. Earlier in the day, I briefly considered skipping it.

But I didn't skip it! and I am so glad.

Bobby McFerrin's music is so wonderful and utterly playful, and hearing him live takes it to a whole new level, because it's not just the music he's playing with, but the people, too. His whole body is an instrument -- and an incredibly versatile one -- and also the auditorium and the people in it are instruments he plays with a grounded glee that is captivating.

And because each audience and venue is different, and he's always improvising, each time seeing him is completely different, so I really can't wait for the next time.

Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring in your favor?

When starting an IM with a friend, and your opening salvo is "*pounce* *snuggle*", it's important to be sure the IM window you've opened is with the person you had in mind, and not one of your somewhat stuffy (though quite nice) VPs.

medyani recently introduced me to a new-to-me deal site called Scoutmob. What's great about it is that you don't have to pre-pay, so there's none of this, "Oh, no, I paid for a deal that I didn't get around to using and now it's all kind of a waste! MEH!"

Click the link above to sign up if you're into daily deal type thingies and this sounds like it's up your alley.

Coworker to me: "You make Bugs Bunny look lethargic!"

So, I have a basically neverending supply of chocolate on my desk, for people to take when they need a little taste of something sweet. This is great. Often, people come by with the stated intent of coming to get some chocolate, and we wind up talking and I hear about how things are going with them. Some folks just chocolate-and-run. Some folks mainly come to talk, but they use the chocolate as the excuse. It's great.

But I find it fascinating how often people stop by and say, "Can I steal a piece of chocolate?" or "I'm going to steal a piece of chocolate!"

I always respond, "You can't steal it, because it's there for the taking!" and that pretty much always gets a laugh. But It has really called out to me how often we (and I definitely include myself in this) use "steal" to mean "take a thing that I'm sure you're okay with me taking".

Butter
BY ANDREA COHEN

I’ve never seen the land
of milk and honey, but at

the Iowa State Fair I glimpsed
a cow fashioned of butter.

It lived behind a window
in an icy room, beneath klieg lights.

I filed past as one files
past a casket at a wake.

It was that sad: a butter cow
without a butter calf. Nearby I spied

a butter motorcycle, motorcycle-
sized, a mechanical afterthought

I thought the cow might have liked to ride.
You don’t drive a motorcycle; you ride it.

But not if you’re a butter cow, not
if you’re a butter cow who’s seen, if

not the land of milk and honey, the land
of milk, and dwelled within it.

It had a short life span, the butter cow.
Before it died, I looked

deep into its butter eyes. It saw
my butter soul. I could

have wept, or spread myself,
for nobody, across dry toast.

What are you waiting for?

Important public information broadcast:

Dots are my preferred movie snack. I like to get to the theater with enough time to dump the whole box out into my lap and put them back in, favorite colors first. That way, I can eat the yucky green ones before the movie even starts, and by the end of the movie, only delicious red and pink ones are left.

Thank you for your attention.

One of my contacts on this is my jam shared this Bobby McFerrin video yesterday, and I love it so much I want to share it here. I will never cease to be amazed by the range of sounds he can make with his body, and I love how his fingers move on the mic as though he's playing a flute!


Here he is playing with an audience in Montreal:


And, of course, the wonderful demonstration of musical intuition at the World Science Festival:

The National Trust has created a list of 50 things to do before you're 11 ¾. Here's the list, with the ones I've done in bold:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers [I had to look this up, and I think I'm off the hook for this one due to regional variation in greenery]
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging [I had to look this up, and I might argue that inner tubing, which I have done, is a fair stand-in]
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you're flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet [???]
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall [<3 <3 <3]
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals [... not particularly well, mind you]
35. Discover what's in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches [I presume this includes lighter, torch, etc.]
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

Hello, internet, I have something you need to see:



Love, aroraborealis

I really like being a country-girl transplant to a city. It's hard to explain how substantially I think it influences my perception of things, but on comparing notes with other people who similarly grew up in small towns and now live in cities, there's a commonality that I think is rooted in that experience.

And there are funny and wonderful pleasures associated from being from the middle of nowhere. For example, today I ordered some electronics online and on receiving the order confirmation, I noticed the vendor is located in Bozeman, MT. My first thought, on seeing that, was to email them and say, "Hi, neighbor! I love Bozeman!"

Does anyone near Davis Square have a copy of Catching Fire and/or Mockingjay that I could borrow for a week or so?

What's a word you enjoy saying, and why?

This post brought to you by the word "oolong", which is fun to say!

Hello, internetz!

Are you good at finding oldish videos from before the days when it was easy to get TV shows on DVD or streaming?

I have this show that I remember seeing bits of when I was a kid, but I dont' think I ever saw it all the way through, and it's one of those things that has kind of lived in the back of my mind for years and years and I want to see it, even though it probably won't really live up to my distant memory of it.

The show is The Third Eye.

Any tips or tricks on tracking this down would be much appreciated!

The irony of my relationship with caffeine is that I can only really enjoy it if I'm well-rested, otherwise it makes me anxious and unhappy but no more alert or untired.

This means that I only drink coffee when I'm already feeling perky. And then: watch out!

This message brought to you by the letter: wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I'm having a really hard time with the current flood of misogynistic legislation coming from all over the US. I mean, it's not really a surprise that a lot of the philosophical underpinnings of the abortion conversation is sub rosa punishment of women for having sex; I've known that for a long time. But some of these bills don't even bother to hide the contempt for women that drives them.

( Feminist rage trigger warning )

I don't have anything to say about this that hasn't been said elsewhere, really. I just feel unspeakably demoralized, and dehumanized, by this flood of shit flowing down the sewer of our legislative system. I mean, I know that the patriarchy hates women, but it's another thing to see that reified so literally into laws and attempts at laws. I can't even deal with it.

Lluvia

Mientras cae la lluvia
trastabillando entre las piedras
voy soltando recuerdos.
Es como si la lluvia
me punzara las sienes.
Chorrean
chorrean en desorden
los recuerdos:
la desgastada voz
de la sirvienta
contándome cuentos
de fantasmas
se sentaban a mi orilla
los fantasmas
y crujía la cama.
Aquella tarde lívida
en que se supe que te irías para siempre.
El guijaro brillante
que de tanto palparlo
se convirtió en cometa
Cae
cae la lluvia
y siguen fluyendo mis recuerdos
y me muestran un mundo
insensato
voraz
mundo-abismo
emboscada
torbellino
aguijón
y yo lo sigo amando
porque sí
por mis cinco sentidos
por mi asombro
porque cada mañana
porque siempre lo he amado
sin entender por qué.