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Book Reaction: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The thing is, I do not want to talk about race. I want to talk about culture and heritage. I want to learn about the people around me. I want to connect over little things like strict mothers and escaping into books and being obsessed with horses. I want to learn about different traditions and celebrations. I want my country, its people and institutions, to recognize the harm that was done to black people by slavery, to Native people by land grabs, to Japanese people in internment camps. I want us to admit this. I want us to own this, to teach it to our children in all its awfulness…
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Family Finances: 2008 vs 2020
Twelve and a half years – that is how long I have been writing about personal finance, or at least my personal finances. In January 2008, I started a friends-only LiveJournal specifically for sharing personal finance information and perhaps for generating conversations. I will be honest, I did not keep up on the LJ for very long, though I kept writing on my other LJ until October 2010. I started to write about personal finances on a blog I called Baking the Budget in April 2011. Around the start of 2012, I changed the name to The Dog Ate My Wallet. It was never a big blog, but it’s the…
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100 Word Book Review – The Abacus and the Cross by Nancy Marie Brown
Pope Sylvester II is my favorite Pope. (I am not Catholic.) My favorite book about Gerbert of Aurillac is Ars Magica by Judith Tarr, but it is a fantasy novel. The Abacus and the Cross is a non-fiction book that looks just as closely at the world around Gerbert as it does his life. It uses primary sources, including Gerber’s own letters, as much as possible. I found it incredibly relaxing to learn about making books in the 10th century or about Gerbert’s abacus. If you have any interest in the history of science, this is a book for you.
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Sparklers: Chasing Junebug
When we first brought Junebug home, she was only 6 months old and filled with puppy energy. We had to take a walk every day and still spend time playing with her. If we did not take a walk, it would take close to an hour of chase, fetch, and wrestling to wear her out. She has been our Baby Bug for 10 ½ years now. She is starting the Beagle fade. She spends more time sleeping than getting into mischief (though she still gets into plenty of mischief). Dogs slow down as they get older. It is a good thing as they grow out of the frenetic puppy stage…
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100 Words On… Grant Imahara
When I learned of Grant Imahara’s death, I cried. I don’t normally cry when a celebrity dies, but this one hit me. We watched Mythbusters and White Rabbit. Grant always seemed like the “every man” to me. He was the one who was willing to show his nerves. Put him in a car that they want to balance on the edge of a cliff, and he was willing to be scared on camera, despite all the safety precautions. Grant always seemed like someone I would want to be friends with. My heart goes out to all his friends and family.
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Pandemic Diary, Day 131
Today marks my 90th day (does not include weekends or holidays) working from home. Back in March, I commented that I expected to be working from home for roughly 3 months. We are now at almost 4 months, with no real end in sight. Maybe in September I will be back in the office a day or two a week? If campus opens even partially for classes, that is a possibility, but cases are on the rise again, so maybe campus will not open. I do not know. I do not think if anyone really knows, or will know, until September. At the start of this, I had a very…
