-
100 Word Book Review – Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
I often read books and think “I would love to hear this book read aloud”. With Brown Girl Dreaming, I read the book and thought “I would love to read this book aloud”. Maybe it is because the words on the page clearly indicate the book is a poem, or a series of poems, or maybe just because the language, the pacing, the rhythm was so perfect. I loved this book, and I really wished I had someone to read it to. It is the story of a brown girl and her dreams. Very simple, but also just about perfect.
-
Gratitude Journal #6
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
-
Gratitude Journal #5
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
-
Gratitude Journal #4
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
-
Gratitude Journal #3
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of years without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
-
Average Joes Deserve to Retire, Too
I originally wrote this post in November 2011, around the time of Occupy Wall Street. On some level, I miss Occupy Wall Street, because I hate the idea that you are not supposed to talk about finances in “polite company”. I hate the fact that we are all so busy keeping up appearances, that we let those appearances drown us in debt, or make it next to impossible to retire. It was refreshing (to me) to have a time when the country was actually focusing on our collective financial health. This is also part of why I love Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – not because I agree with everything she says, but…
-
Gratitude Journal #2
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week, as I am getting started in week 4.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of years without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I…
-
Gratitude Journal #1
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal. I am a little skeptical of this, but my employer health and wellness program believes it helps and gives me points (which I am earning in order to receive 50% off my health insurance deductible next year) for keeping one. And so, I figured even if it does not actually train me to be happier, it is likely not going to make me less happy. And here we start my gratitude journal. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a…
-
Star Wars vs Star Trek
I have a very clear memory of seeing Return of the Jedi (1983) in the theater when I was a kid. I LOVED the Ewoks. But even more than that, while I have no idea if I saw Empire Strikes Back in the theater or not, I knew going into Jedi that Han was encased in carbonite. I had a book that had me super hyped for the battle on Jabba’s ship. And as for Leia in a gold bikini? I do not think I had ever wanted to be her more. Here she was, made a slave, and she still kicked ass. I also have a very distinct memory…
-
Rape Culture is still Comedy Gold, and it Shouldn’t Be
I have often said I am amazed at how many good men of my generation (and earlier generations) there are. How many of them truly get it, or at least try to get it, when we talk about rape culture. Because I know the pop culture they were raised with, because I was raised in the same popular culture. The whole Han, Leia, Luke dynamic is truly cringeworthy and actually a little creepy when watching it now. Toxic masculinity dominates all of their personal relationships, right down to Leia kissing Luke at in the first part of Empire just to make a point to Han. And yet, as a geek,…
