You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2010.
::
“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
::
What do you do when it’s raining?
::
a little obsession going on at home:
watching the Japanese version of Iron Chef and cooking without a recipe
::
best moment:
“Mom, you know how there’s an Iron Chef Japanese and an Iron Chef French? Well, guess what kind of Iron Chef I am?”
“Uhhhh…”
Whips out an electric guitar made from a large piece of paper. “The Iron Chef of Rock!”
Weasley, our blue hedgehog
::
It is so much more interesting to be imperfect than it is to be perfect.
Dr. Christian Sorensen
::
Isn’t that a relief?
A buffet of relaxation options. I set up my spot in the shade on a very hot Sunday afternoon and, determined not to get up more than absolutely necessary, I brought a tray with choices. Books to read, cold tea, Jello and yogurt, knitting, the iPod. And since I was home alone I was not interrupted, and I was not asked for favours, and I was not anything but at my own disposal.
::
Shade, a hot, hot day, and a black dog who chose to sit in the sun. She’s not always the smartest.
::
Look straight up.
The Chart of Fantasy Book Cover Art: Swords are down precipitously! Dark Cover of Nothingness holds its ground. Horses and unicorns retreat. Maps and non-humans are on the rise. (Orbit Books is doing a whole series on cover art trends, from heroine fashion trends to fonts.)
Persnickety Snark has compiled a list of the best 100 YA books. I’ve linked to the #96-100 post. All 100 have been revealed, just poke around in the side bar archives and you’ll find them. They’re worth finding, especially if you don’t know what to hand your 13 yo daughter to read, say, or are looking for reading for yourself. (I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard of, let alone read, The Hero and The Crown and so I finished that off two weeks ago. Wonderful heroine.)
New-to-me book award: the Cybils. Voted on by bloggers who take kid-lit seriously. Everything from easy readers, graphic novels, YA fiction, to poetry.
May your book lists prosper.
edited to add: I think I owe all of these to Abby the Librarian, who has offered to be my virtual librarian. (as the local public librarians don’t like to talk about books)
I’ve been mulling over how to write about my triathlon on Saturday. There’s the bare fact of it: the times, the placement. That’s not what I took away from the day, though, despite the fact that I noted those things. What I took from Saturday was a sense that life truly is an adventure if we notice it, and a deepened sense of the power of our minds.
The bare facts of the triathlon are certainly ones that I celebrate: I finished it! My first sprint distance triathlon. That’s 750m swimming, 20km on the bike, and 5 km running. I had set a benchmark of finishing it faster than my best time for running the half-marathon – it seemed like a reasonable goal given what I had been doing in training. I outstripped that goal by 14 minutes – finishing in an hour and forty-one minutes! That put me 122nd out of 190. Not bad for my first. Not bad at all. What really tickles my fancy is that fact that I placed 14th out of 31 women in my age category. That’s a very satisfying result.
Another bare fact of the triathlon: it was windy and cold. We stood there, shivering on the beach watching the Olympic distance competitors take longer than we expected. And we stood there that whole time looking at the lake. It didn’t look gentle. There were white caps on some of the waves. Beyond the little protected area of the beach, we discovered that the water was full of rolling waves. The kind of swells that I associate with oceans, not lakes. It was startling to have them sweeping across us, pushing us sideways while lifting us up and plunging us down. There was no way to train for those conditions, not that I expected to need to.
That swim changed the day for me. I knew as I looked at the lake that I wasn’t going to be having the best swim of my year. This was no longer an event that was mostly about my body and peak speed.
They say that athletics is 90% mental on race day. Each time I race, I discover a new nuance to this idea. Do I trust my training down to the deepest parts of me and feel like I can lay it all out there? How mentally prepared am I for the discomfort of pushing myself at race pace for that long? How much stronger than the pain am I feeling?
I brought a lot with me to the start line as I looked across the water, some of it from training but most of it from life. I brought a determination to always be stronger than my circumstances. I brought a knowledge that I can go those distances. I brought a mental script that calls unexpected events challenges and adventures rather than dramas and roadblocks. I brought a curiosity to see just how strange life can be. I brought a willingness to fail. I brought a well-developed ability to laugh at myself.
How like life is racing! There’s no difference between a race and a day, except perhaps that there are more people traveling the same path around you.
It’s inspired me to think: What am I bringing to the start line? And it’s inspired me to marvel at the complex layers and intertwinings of experience and story that each of us humans are inside. There’s so much you in you and so much me in me.
I’ve been browsing bookshelves, reading book blogs, and compiling a list of book after book I’d like to get my hands on. I thought I’d post a few links for you. They’re eclectic, though, so don’t try to practice armchair psychology on me based on my selections. My library’s general craptastic state of being is frustrating me quite admirably these days. If only I had $300 to spend on books.
Aside: I have a recurring fantasy in the middle of hard afternoons of having $500 to spend within 4 hours in the large bookstore in Winnipeg. Some grand patron or sweet relative sets it up, provides for someone to take the kids so I don’t have to feel any rush, and sends me through the doors. Can you imagine it? sigh
Olympic Gangster: The Legend of Jose Beyaert – Cycling Champion, Fortune Hunter and Outlaw
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time In China
The Demon’s Lexicon (read a funny, interesting interview with the author, hat tip Abby the Librarian)
Six Wives: The Queens Of Henry Viii
Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
She lets things go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
Tao Te Ching
::
