I did a good deed today. No need to get into specifics, but let’s just say that it involved a banking error of no inconsiderable size. I expect it will make several people’s lives easier and that felt good. And hey, doing for others is one key to happiness. I recommend it:)
Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
Something Nice
Posted in Other, tagged good deeds, Thoughts, yay on September 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Why Not?
Posted in Likes, tagged Danielle Steel, fun, inspiration, life, quotes, Thoughts, why not, Writers, yay on September 9, 2014| 1 Comment »
Life, a good life, a great life is about “Why not?” May we never forget it.
— Danielle Steel
Keys to the Universe
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged awesome, books, disaster preparedness, home, libraries, literature, NPR, public libraries, quotes, Thoughts, TS Eliot, Writers on August 20, 2014| 1 Comment »
The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.
― T.S. Eliot
I’ve just discovered a lovely series by NPR on libraries. It’s ongoing but there are already close to a dozen pieces on the role libraries play in society, how they are transforming to meet new needs (disaster preparedness, anyone?) and the challenges they face in this new century.
Also, I had no idea that not all states supported public libraries. Srsly?
Reality, Transformed
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, books, creativity, fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Lev Grossman, literature, NYT, sff, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a nice piece by Lev Grossman in The New York Times on “Finding My Voice in Fantasy.”
We — as a whole, as a culture — seemed to be getting more interested in the kinds of questions fantasy deals with: questions about history, and about our connection to the natural world, and about power, how to find it in yourself, how to master it, what to do with it.
…
Fantasy is sometimes dismissed as childish, or escapist, but I take what I am doing very, very seriously. For me fantasy isn’t about escaping from reality, it’s about re-encountering the challenges of the real world, but externalized and transformed.
Make Mistakes
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #GaimanSays, artists, awesome, creativity, finishing, Motivation, neil gaiman, quotes, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on August 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something.
This is a terrific saying. Thanks to Epic Reads for the lovely image, and thanks to Neil Gaiman for saying it.
Dreaming of Curry
Posted in Food and..., tagged beef curry, cinnamon, cucumbers, dinner, food, home, inspiration, Tasmania, Thoughts, Vietnamese food on July 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Things learned while perusing Tasmanian recipes for the Vietnamese beef curry I will not be having for dinner (why must you torture me with your delicious culinary aromas, o neighbor who is also an excellent cook?)
- cassia quill == cinnamon stick
- telegraph cucumbers == English cucumbers
- punnet == basket as for berries (small? large? woven wood or pre-formed plastic? still so much to learn!)
Hey, America, Happy Birthday!
Posted in Holidays, tagged America, Erma Bombeck, Fourth of July, Harry Emerson Fosdick, home, independence day, quotes, Thoughts, USA, yay on July 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
— Harry Emerson Fosdick
And also:
You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.
— Erma Bombeck
Because Bees
Posted in Food and..., Science!, tagged bees, chemicals, colony collapse disorder, Einstein, environmental sustainability, food, neonics, pesticides, pollinator health, pollinators, pollution, precautionary principle, science, Thoughts, WIAlaunch on June 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
A new report is calling for the global banning of two common pesticides, neonicotinoids and fipronil. Why? Bees. Also birds, earthworms, other pollinators and aquatic invertebrates, but let’s focus on bees for a minute.
If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.
― Albert Einstein
Maybe you’re sick of hearing that chemicals are implicated in colony collapse disorder and bee deaths? Maybe your eyes glaze over when someone mentions the importance of bees to the ecosystem? Well, are you sick of eating? Because that’s what this discussion is really about.
One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators.
The Task Force on Systemic Pesticides is putting out the Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (yeah, it’s a mouthful, just call it WIA, or on Twitter: #WIAlaunch). It’s the most comprehensive study of neonics ever done, it’s peer reviewed, and it includes industry-sponsored research as well as other source material. The picture it paints is not pretty. From a Treehugger article on the report:
Many of the findings are shocking. The concentrations of chemicals building up in waters exceeds levels approved as safe by pesticide regulations. Many of the species occupying critical links low in our food chains are being exposed via multiple pathways and by cocktails of chemicals acting together.
…
Scientists note that the prophylactic use of pesticides rivals CAFO antibiotic abuse; in both practices, chemicals are dosed into our environment causing real problems in a quest to avoid potential problems.
This Is What Our Grocery Shelves Would Look Like Without Bees
We’d be eating porridge, rice, bread — not much else. Life would be awful.
We’re lucky enough to have a food factory where the most important workers do the job for free, and we’re dousing them with poison. Where’s the sense in that? Humanity is often smart and frequently innovative, particularly when something we care about is threatened. We got over our devil-may-care love affair with DDT when it was shown to have persistent toxicological effects on the environment and, you know, life. We can do this too.
Building Better Strong Female Characters
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged arts, characters, creativity, entertainment, feminism, Fiction, genre fiction, How to Train Your Dragon 2, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, Strong Female Character, Tasha Robinson, The Matrix, Thoughts, Trinity Syndrome, Writers, writing, yay on June 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome
This excellent piece by Tasha Robinson sums up a lot of the problems mainstream storytelling has with “Strong Female Characters.”
For the ordinary dude to be triumphant, the Strong Female Character has to entirely disappear into Subservient Trophy Character mode. This is Trinity Syndrome à la The Matrix: the hugely capable woman who never once becomes as independent, significant, and exciting as she is in her introductory scene.
If you are interested in learning how not to bury your SFC’s light under a bushel, I recommend this article. It highlights on-point questions creatives should ask themselves, like:
03. Could your Strong Female Character be seamlessly replaced with a floor lamp with some useful information written on it to help a male hero?
:p
In many instances, what starts out as an interesting character is hobbled in order to provide the male hero with whatever thing he needs (knowledge, motivation, etc.) to make it to the finish line. There are exceptions, of course, and I’m pleased to say that Emily Blunt’s character in Edge of Tomorrow was one such.
So maybe all the questions can boil down to this: Looking at a so-called Strong Female Character, would you—the writer, the director, the actor, the viewer—want to be her?
Like Tasha Robinson, I loved Cate Blanchett’s character in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and was as disappointed when the role for this supremely kick-ass woman who was willing to live in exile for twenty years to uphold her principles just sort of… fizzled out. I hope to see more from her in a third installment. In fact, I hope to see more Strong Female Characters across the board.
Who knows, one day we might even just call them, oh, I don’t know, “Female Characters.”
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