Have not been blogging here in over a year it seems. I’ve been distracted by Posterous, Tumblr, Facebook, and, of course, Twitter. Keeping up with all of these social networks can be very demanding. Not to mention I’m brushing up on my French at Smart.fm. Getting an iPhone during this time has also drastically increased my time being “connected” and “distracted”. Blogging was my first foray into social networking and it is nice to visit the old place again.
Every week or two I pick up fresh reads from the library. This is what I got this week.
1. Kosovo: What everyone needs to know. By Tim Judah
2. Belonging: A culture of place. By Bell Hooks
3. Creating Your Best Life. By Miller & Frisch
4. Cucina Napoletana. By Arturo Iengo
5. Where to go When: The Americas. By Joseph Rosendo
6. Organic Gardening. By Geoff Hamilton
7. Growning Vegetables & Fruit Around the Year. By J.Edwards & P. McHoy
The recession has left me with very limited work options along with many other folks. My resume is very eclectic and varied. And, I like it that way- I’m not a careerist. During the last 2 years I have realized that having a lifestyle is more important than having a career. If anything my career will help support my lifestyle.
I had a nice time in Corporate America, but it consisted of work that would eventually fall into some vacuum- all after weeks of sleepless nights, missed soccer games and a sorry crop of tomatoes growing on the vine. My graduate research on telecommuting, followed by a telecommuting job after graduation, helped me realize that work should enable me to live like I want to live and is not my raison d’etre.
I have been enjoying scant freelance wiki and social media work-although enjoyable, it is not suficient at the moment. In light of the new economic times, I am outlining how I plan to spend my recession.
1. I am researching the first meeting of the Council of Constance for a possible book idea.
2. I love to garden and plan on building a series of raised beds that will provide fresh produce throughout the year.
3. Chickens, chickens, chickens! On February 3, my flock of day-old baby chicks will arrive in the mail. In addition to fresh, healthy eggs I will also have a wonderful compost started. Chickens are also great for the garden.
4. Relearn Japanese. I took it over 10 years ago in college and did very well.
5. With painting and woodwork I plan on improving my home.
6. Much of our yard was overgrown with unhealthy euynomous shrubs, ivy and wisteria when we bought the house. I will spend a lot of time getting the back yard cleaned up and work with existing plants to re-landscape the yard.
So, that is how I plan to spend my recession. For those out there that are in the same boat, how do you plan to spend your recession?
Today I had my yearly checkup at the doc’s office. I see the PA and not the doctor and am quite happy with that. My goals from last year’s exam were to lose some kilograms and lower my bad cholesterol. My blood pressure was good, but could have been better. I am always nervous when getting blood pressure checked anyway.
My PA told me I should have lost more weight over the course of the year. I informed her that I am not under as much stress as I was during my last visit: dear friend committed suicide, one died of breast cancer, mom having cancer surgery, stressful job. I also bought a house and have been doing tae kwon do 3 days a week. She asked me if I had been eating out more. I told her that I have actually been eating at home almost exclusively since we bought a new house and I have bonded really well with my new kitchen. She asked me what the problem was then. I told her I was using my kitchen for evil; making all kinds of savory, bad food and lots of it, too.
I didn’t get my cholesterol numbers back yet; in a few days they will call with the details. So this is where I officially kick-in and join my pal Sid on a self-improving binge.
If you don’t think you could picture yourself being homeless, then read this book, “Breakfast at Sally’s.” It is an amazing (ongoing) journey of Richard LeMieux’s descent into homelessness fueled by debilitating depression. The book focuses more on the characters he meets and accents his survival than it does about the whys and hows. It is hard for me to understand depression on such a grand scale. I may have been depressed or down for short periods, but nothing that would stop me from functioning.
The irony here is that after reading this book I realized this could have been my friend JJ- except she didn’t survive her depression. She was a dear, life-long friend and we shared a lot of history together. She lived in an upscale neighborhood here in town, had a lovely house, 2 small children in the home and a husband. During her descent she was treating her depression/borderline personality disorder with alcohol and lost her family because they were not equipped to help her beyond paying for many expensive treatment programs. The state mental health facility conveniently looked away. She was faced with living in a transitional house with others who had nowhere else to go and decided to take her life last spring.
Mr. Le Mieux is writing another book and I am writhe with anticipation to read it. It is important for me to see that others can climb out and survive, and even thrive. At the end of the book you don’t have information that he is thriving and is free of his past, or that he will ever be free of it, you just know he is in a good place and still has more work to do. You also realize that with all the success he had before he lost everything, his ability to touch people and help others is uncompromisable by any amount of money he may have had before. That is his power and can only be due to his circumstance and the people he met along the way. But you also hope very much that he gains a lot from book royalties.
There is one question that all who read this book are dying to know the answer to: Where is “C” ?
Great book! I read it in 4 sittings and could not put it down.
Skyhorse Publishing, New York, NY, 2008
p. 433, $ 24.95
Let me splain something. Since I have been with hubs he has had nightmares from time-to-time. Coincidence? Probably not. The first nightmare he had involved him trying to rescue me because the mattress was sucking me in. He almost dislocated my shoulder “saving” me from the mattress. This first nightmare experience made quite an impression on me. When he has these “night terrors” he does not snap out of it and these things are really happening to him and it is very hard to reason with someone who thinks there are people in the room, or that the mattress is attacking me, all with his eyes open while babbling frantically in German!!!!!
My response after that was to make contact with him in order to wake him since talking to him didn’t do much good. One night he was dreaming and was up in the bed and I swiped my hand at him and growled for him to wake up. The next morning I didn’t remember much of the night until I saw his back and from his neck to his bottom were five red scratch lines where I “swiped” him. We both got a kick out of that.
He hadn’t had any nightmares for a while, until this week. In fact this is the first probably in at least 10 months. Many of you know that I practice tae kwon do and have achieved the rank of blue belt. Well this week I reacted to his nightmare in a completely different manner. When he sat up in bed with his arm raised my reaction was to make an x block. This move is effective when someone is coming down on you with something- you block with hands crossed before the wrist, then leverage your hands and flip or immobilize the other person by twisting their arm. My husband is 6′2″ and I am 5′6″.
In terms of tae kwon do and self defense, several things happened:
1. I accepted my situation – knowing he can’t be reasoned with and methods tried in the past have never been successful.
2. You can’t take back a visual of violence – my move was defensive instead of offensive; not showing force unless required.
3. My body performed the correct tae kwon do response to the situation.
Our instructor has warned us that when you get up in rank, what we practice becomes natural and habitual. Our thinking is very different and I have noticed a few instances of this, with my reaction here being one of them. In some ways it feels like a switch is flipped and my body just reacts. We are also told to trust our bodies in that our bodies will know what to do and how to react to various stimuli. This comes after practicing these moves over a long period of time.
For me this experience showed the power of repition to achieve a somewhat conditioned response. Does this mean I will replace cookies, bacon and pumpkin pie (there to the right) with broccoli and salad? Maybe.
From one economic geographer to a Noble economic geographer: congratulations are not dependent upon location.
C=congratulations, L=location, R=rate of diffusion, A=adoption
C = R(A)/L
C is ∞
My blog is slowly turning into a cyber wasteland. We just bought a house and are experiencing the joys of home ownership and post hurricane weather. When I am not hammering, painting, sawing, sanding, or digging water trenches around the house, I’m working on a corporate social media project for the next few months. One venue that I can’t ignore is Twitter, though. That is where I found the job I am currently working on. Yes, I found my job on Twitter! Be back soon with more interesting topic.
Follow me on twitter @Natallini
Last evening I had the wonderful opportunity to take my son to see Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. He was very hesitant about going because he was afraid it would be too loud or he wouldn’t like the music. I have blogged before that there are just some things parents must expose their children to: camping, hiking, outdoor adventures, art venues, and lastly, Trombone Shorty. It is important that while kids are young to give them a pallet of experiences that they can build on and draw from later in life; appreciating live, instrumental music being one such experience.
I had never heard of Trombone Shorty before last nights concert. I had taken my son downtown for a haircut and read about the concert at Triad Stage and knew I must go and take my son with me. These guys all looked like they were under 30, Shorty being the ripe age of 22, all possessing an incredible musical acumen and with a vast musical experience under their belts. Triad Stage is a very cozy, quaint setup and the stage is floor level, as are the first row seats. This is the perfect setting to see Shorty for the first time.
Shorty played trombone and trumpet, there were bongos, full drum set, alto sax and tenor sax, and guitar. The energy this group created was bigger than I remember experiencing in quite some time. They remind me of The Wright Thing in Germany, but weren’t as heavy on vocals. Shorty’s genius comes in the form of playing improv and connecting and weaving through several songs instrumentally. It was just brilliant.
Some featured songs included American Woman on trombone, Let’s Get it On on trumpet and Let me Clear my Throat on alto sax. These guys had me convulsing in my seat, as well as everyone else in the audience. The gentleman on alto sax was impeccable and inspiring. He reminded me of my favorite saxophonist, Mark “Byrd” Wrenn. Many were dancing on the floor before the band, including me. You don’t have the option of remaining still through this performance. It is not physically possible.
Hearing Shorty playing trombone was like coming home for me. I played trumpet all through school and my last year of high school I played trombone for the jazz band. It turned out that I was a natural trombone player and had a very large sound and could play by ear. I certainly know that after hearing Shorty, the trombone will get the respect it is due.
Although, the concert was a little too loud for my son, he loved it and certainly came away appreciating instrumental music: goal accomplished. He even said, “Mom, you know we’ve got to buy the CD.” I agreed. I came away from the concert feeling full and content, like red beans and rice on Monday.
I had somewhat of an epiphany the other day. I have been spending a lot of time on the internet this year and it occurred to me that how and where we meet interesting people has changed; at least for me anyway. With the internet it is much easier to find interesting folk, and sometimes they are the real deal. I love to read about interesting people, too. My latest read is Studs Terkel:Touch and Go.
I can’t readily recall when I last met a truly interesting and fascinating person out in public. If I have to put a time stamp on it, it was in 2004 when Beth Deloria moved across the street from me in a quaint little historic neighborhood in Greensboro. Beth has spina bifida with other related complications. I never knew she had a disability until she told me. Beth’s determination and strong will have allowed her to work around her disability and compete in various marathons, including the Boston marathon; and with excellent finishes. She is also extremely talented in many other pursuits. To me Beth is a burst of inspiration and is truly pleasant to be around.
More recently, I met up with Louisa in Charleston, also known as Archy_Sailor on Twitter. I consider myself a premeditated free spirit and a complete opportunist. If an opportunity presents itself I’ll take it, whether it is coming across the Atlantic on a freight ship while 4 months pregnant or taking a contract position with an executive of a large Fortune company on a whim (alternatively, I could have mapped out swamp land in Eastern NC), or meeting an Archy_sailor for lunch in Charleston.
Louisa’s life has been pretty adventurous thus far- with little holding back. This girl is going for the gusto and following her dreams to the fullest. That has been my impression anyway. Louisa’s adventure started as a sailor (there were many adventures before this-just read her blog) after attending the Maritime Academy. She worked on several vessels, most notable are the poignant tall ships. Her bachelor’s degree is in archeology and British history. I remember very fondly her tweets from the field working as an archaeologist. Fast forward to this summer, Louisa is driving horse drawn carriages around Charleston giving visitors a delightful oratory of Charleston’s most interesting points in history. In her spare time, when not tempting fate by trotting around Charleston with an ill-mannered horse, Louisa is a diver and accomplished fencer (she is very modest, too) and she has sailed on the QM2. But that is nothing compared to this fall when Louisa leaves for the UK to study maritime archeology, with a focus on Dutch maritime history. I have no doubt that in a year or two when I am watching the Discovery Channel, or looking through a National Geographic magazine in the doctor’s office, I will come across Louisa and learn about her latest adventure, and perhaps, newest discovery.