Here Where I Stand at the Turning of the Years

I've been meaning to post something for a couple weeks, not wanting to let an entire calendar year go by without acknowledging my little corner of the internet still exists... and yet here I am, just over three hours until 2023, finally writing something down. What's about to come out of my brain? Let's find out.

In the past I've occasionally regretted, at the times I thought about it, the "lost years" of this blog, the 18-ish months that are creeping up on two decades ago when I stopped writing for a while. And now I've done it again. But I suppose the last two years have been lost years for all of us--so many plans unrealized, so many dreams unfulfilled, so much time unused... and so many lives gone out of reach forever. I have nothing new to say about this except to acknowledge that we're all still stuck in this time of collective grief over what we've lost and it's no wonder some folks have turned to anger and others have withdrawn into themselves. (Mind you, I make no excuses for the bad behavior committed out of anger. Everyone is still responsible for their own choices and there is no excuse for lashing out. If you won't behave yourself, stay home instead of forcing your poor choices on others.)

All that said, I haven't even decided whether to create goals for 2023. I have some ideas, things I'd like to do a bit differently from what I've done before. But I also know that until I write them down, they'll stay vague ideas. So perhaps the best way to kick off 2023 will be to come back here and see if I can't let some thoughts start to take shape. Perhaps I'll see you here tomorrow, then.

I tried finding the original source of this quote. No such source exists, which is to say, everyone has said it at least once. I guess it's my turn.

In the meantime, may you and yours have a safe and happy new year.

Well.

Enough folks have asked what's happened with my blog that I'm acknowledging it's probably time for a check-in. And I have a few minutes before Rent: Live begins.

So! What's happened? Well, everything. It feels inappropriate to be light-hearted when the world is on fire, as I've mentioned before. I'm not a political blogger and don't want to be, at least in part because there are not a lot of major policy issues about which I have a level of expertise for rambling on for 500 words or fewer. (Transportation. That's it. That's my area.) I realize this is a small bother that doesn't really stop many folks, but it stops me. I won't be that person.

That person, however, exists. That person is a lot of people I care about. I've sought offline conversations rather than this format for nearly a year now, because engaging with that person is both depressing and wearying. Please, let's all be less of that person. Being informed is good. Educating one's self is good. Getting locked into an echo chamber or sharing dumb, baseless memes on Facebook is terrible.

You know what they say about lighting a candle instead of
 cursing the darkness. Source: Sorina Bindea
on freeimages.com.

But so is withdrawing altogether, and I like to do what I can. What I can do is pick up again on a regular dose of the B things I know (why do they all start with B? No idea): books, bikes, buses, and Broadway. If that's what you like, here I am. If not, well, I can't imagine why you're here, but hello there! *waves* You are most welcome.

So should you come by in a few days, or weeks, or months, and think, "My goodness, she has a lot to say about utter drivel when there's serious work to be done,": yes. Yes, I do. Please know that I'm not unaware of the world around me and I'm doing my part in as many offline ways I can find. In the meantime, here is a space to be lighthearted. And wow, do I have a bunch of theatre to tell you about.

Not right now. Rent: Live is about to begin.

The Replacements

Ash Wednesday is upon us. Not ready? It's not too late. Really. I've started late a few times, and had to re-start more often than that. Tomorrow is always a new day.

So! I'm not sharing my fast, because I don't. And this year's fast was really quite an easy choice. The more difficult preparation for me was deciding what to do instead.

I will definitely fall into this hole if given half a chance.
Source: Asif Akbar on freeimages.com.

Maybe other people don't have this problem. If you don't, I salute you and hope you'll write your own blog post about how you succeed. But for me, I can't just take things away and be done with it. I have to have something to fill the space, or the same old things will fall in again when I'm not looking. If I want a change to stick, even if I decide this one is only for the next six weeks, then I need a smooth surface to build on, not one riddled with potholes.

My process was pretty simple: I looked around and thought, "What are some things I've been neglecting that I can give attention to during Lent?" I'm going so far as to create myself a pretty list to hang up on my wall for when my brain starts getting tugged in the direction of something that's off the table until Easter, because I will forget without something there to remind me. I have, it seems, learned some tricks for accommodating the gaping holes in this brain of mine. This is similar to my practice of not bringing chocolate into the house so I won't eat a ton of it in one sitting, except from the opposite direction.

Here's what I came up with:
1. Reading
Kevin Tuerff's Channel of Peace is on my shelf and ready to go. I have Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together on hold at the library. And I realized earlier this week that my skills at finding something quickly in a paper Bible are almost non-existent after many years of using an ebook version, so I have one likewise on a shelf where I will see it and remember to open it up.

2. Writing
Between this blog, the Women in the Marketplace blog I've neglected even more than this one, and a still very much unfinished school story that I would really like to find out how it ends, I have plenty to keep my keyboard busy. Incidentally, sad blog posts are coming this weekend. I know some of you only come round for those, but if that's not you, I won't be offended if you run away until the sad stuff is done.

3. Crafting
I've lost track of how many projects I have in progress, but there are three in particular that I'd like to finish soon, and one I need to start because it has a hard deadline.

I'm not certain what this hand is doing, so I'm off to a
good start. Source: John Hughes on freeimages.com.

4. And some other things...
There are some things on my list that I think it's best that I keep to myself. Things that should remain, like the fast itself, with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Maybe after Lent is over I'll share some more. We'll see how it goes.

How do you deal with changes you'd like to make in your life--temporary or permanent? Do you fill up the gap with something else right away, or are you able to leave it alone and let it heal on its own?

And the World Still Spins

I didn't really mean to say, "Hey, I'm outliving my husband today!" and then run off for three months, but seriously, the words and I haven't been getting along for so long that right now I'm basically doing a writerly smash and grab and planning to sprint off the second I'm done before I get caught.

My theme for 2017 has accidentally been Rent, which started when I chose "Creation" as my word for the year because of the line "The opposite of war isn't peace; it's creation!" Act 2 of Rent begins on New Year's Eve with basically the best song ever for facing a new year. So I'm sure it's a surprise to no one that that's what I have on repeat this morning.

Another reason I haven't had a lot to write about lately is that it's hard to be lighthearted when the whole world is coming apart at the seams. There's a lot to be angry about right now, but I tend to translate my person anger into works of fiction that will never be published and gripe sessions with coworkers instead of bringing it here. To say nothing of the internet becoming unbearable because so many people I care about insist on defending the indefensible. Let's make the world better in 2018, y'all. Not whatever this nonsense has been.

The story never ends. Let's celebrate and remember a year in the life of friends.

An Enigma

I'm not a person who writes in books.

I've tried to be, certainly. I think it's a great idea in theory. In practice, I can't quite get the hang of it. If the pen bleeds through the page I get annoyed, but notes in pencil are all smeared and faded when I come back to them later. Then there's the notes themselves. What if I change my mind about how I feel about a passage?* Won't 50-year-old Su be held captive to the thoughts 35-year-old Su wrote in the margin? And if so, if I commit this thought to ink alongside the passage that spawned it, am I also committing to never grow beyond this moment?

(I ask, as I continue typing on the blog I've had for coming up on 11 years. I guess my brain is okay with my thoughts being preserved in pixels.)

Chadwick wrote in his books. Not that he owned many, but he managed to squeeze a lot of notes into a small space. Yesterday, I picked up his Greek New Testament, the one he opened when he wanted to spend time diving deeper into the text, the one he took to church to facilitate his processing of the sermon. I read his notes on the endpapers and can easily identify the passage in question for some of them. Others, not so much. And there's this:

I think this might have been an encouragement from a teacher. It might have been something we talked about once. It could have been a TV show that was on while he was studying, for all I know. He didn't leave behind a key to decipher it with. But maybe he left it there for me to find later.

Lily, in Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, comments on her brother Langston's habit of leaving marginalia in all the books in the house:

Sometimes it's annoying that I can never open a book in our home and not find some part of it that Langston has annotated. I'd like to figure out what I think about the words myself without having to see Langston's handwritten comments...; on the other hand, sometimes it's interesting to find his notes and to read them back and try to decipher why that particular passage intrigued or inspired him.

When I think about it that way, the thought of leaving my own marginalia behind, even if the only one who ever sees it is Future Su, is appealing. (Chadwick pursued a writing style that might be best described as enigmatic; that is to say, I'm unlikely to access his thoughts by reading his notes.) What might my future self find in the pages of Les Misérables or Lord of the Rings?

Wait, no. That's too much of a leap to begin with. I'd better start smaller and work my way up... does anyone have a spare copy of The Poky Little Puppy?

*Related, but not enough to link to above: Check out this 2012 New Yorker article about marginalia.

Encapsulated

I've been reading the Project 333-- 33 wardrobe items for three months--blog for a few years now, without ever participating. This week, when a new challenge post popped up, I finally thought "why not?" and decided to take the plunge.

Part of why I've never participated before is that I've never seen the point--I don't have an overstuffed closet, and most of what I own is secondhand anyway. Now there were those couple years in Glasgow, where fast fashion at the end of the 90s was much cheaper than it is here in the U.S., that I went a bit overboard. And then I had to leave a great deal of it behind because I only had two suitcases to move back to the US with, and since then continuous sticker shock has curbed any remaining shopping impulse. So my closet, while full and generous by the standards of much of the world, is probably not one of your average American.

I don't consider myself a minimalist, though. My craft drawers are stuffed full with supplies, I have knickknacks on every available surface, and my walls are more or less covered with bookshelves and artwork of varying degrees of aesthetic. Despite my penchant for occasionally attempting to empty the contents my house into someone else's, I still own way too much stuff to use the term "minimal" in any seriousness.

I'm not wild about the term "capsule wardrobe," even less
so after reading it approximately 5138 times in a couple
hours, so this is just my wardrobe for July-September.
Yes, I iron them before I wear them--I don't go to work
with that many creases.

Anyway! All that to say, here we go. I counted all the clothes and shoes I currently have out (cold-weather things are tucked away for the summer), excluding running and cycling clothes, underwear, and pjs (as per the Project 333 instructions), as well as everything in my mending/remaking drawer which is not currently wearable anyway, which brought me to a total of 67 items--admittedly, a higher number than I was expecting. Some were easy to put aside--two suits I no longer require for work but am keeping around in case of need, a couple dresses and a shrug I only wear to Broadway theatres (also kept in case of need!), casual trousers that I didn't put away for the summer but am unlikely to be wearing outside any time soon. Others I had to more or less close my eyes and point.

Counting the three pairs of shoes I currently use (but not my running shoes, since they are workout wear), I pared it down to 32 items for the next three months--that extra space is in case I finally get anything out of my mending drawer back into proper rotation. That won't be until I finish my current knitting project, that's certain. I probably went too heavy on the skirts, given how little I wear them, and after a few weeks I may swap one or two of them out for a work shirt. Well see how it goes. Here's what I have for now:

• 8 work shirts
• 4 dress trousers
• 1 dressy (but not for work) shirt
• 5 skirts
• 1 casual trouser
• 7 t-shirts
• 2 shorts
• 1 dress
• 1 pair heels
• 1 pair boots
• 1 pair sneakers

Have you ever tried any of these wardrobe challenges? How did it go?

Just Say No

There are hundreds of blog posts, I'm sure, about the importance of saying no, politely but meaning it, refusing to engage in discussion about the "no," and so on. And for those of us who have a hard time saying no, every one of those pixels is probably warranted. Sticking to one's position, especially when the other person is disappointed and/or persistent, is rough. (So much so that there's even a biblical parable about the Persistent Widow.)

Here's a guy who has no problem saying no. And
everybody still loves him. Source.

But a life lived in "yes" mode is a life that other people can easily run for you, if the magical "no" isn't harnessed. This is especially true at major turning points in life-- how many high school graduates are at this minute being pestered by well-meaning relatives: "You're going to major in what? What are you going to do with that?" (Friendly hint: don't be that relative.) Some folks, alas, have committed themselves to a first-class seat on the Unsolicited Advice Train. If only they wore signs so they could be easily identified.

This isn't a post on what to do, as you may have guessed, mostly because I can't answer that for you. Are you at the "practice with the low-stakes no" stage, or at the "now I just need to remember how to say yes sometimes" stage? Do you have a persistent person in your life who you wish would back off? Dig in and be as persistent with your "no" as they are. And maybe bring a list of alternative topics with you--and remember you can always lay on the floor later to recover, if necessary.

This subject has been on my mind because I encouraged my niece earlier this week to tell someone (not her parents--I'm not THAT aunt), "We're done talking about this," when they won't back off. Will it work? I hope so. Will the other person be mad? Possibly. Do I wish someone had given me the same suggestion as a teen? Absolutely.

So! This is your reminder that it's okay to say no. It's okay to stick to it. It's okay for other people to not get it. It's okay to do what's best for you and your family. It's okay.

Happy new month! I have many thoughts fighting for the exit, so my plan is to blog a lot more in June. (You are, of course, free to just say no to reading along--but I hope to see you from time to time.)

About Face

It's hard to quit Facebook. And maybe most of us shouldn't bother trying.

This is probably illegal.

Goodness knows I try; I leave it on one of my business pages most of the time now. I took the app off my phone (which makes checking into the theatre to brag about what show I'm seeing slightly more of a challenge). For a while I was only checking once a day, although I've been slightly more active the last week or two.

Why? It turns out it's hard to do other things while I'm hanging out in the virtual marketplace waiting for people to say things. And of course, people so rarely say things now, not when there are memes to share and articles of dubious fact content to argue over. And then there are the comments--sometimes I just can't stand seeing how rude strangers can be to people I care about. (Strangers to me, that is, not to them. But still!) It all came to a head for me during the Syrian refugee hand-wringing a few weeks back, when I finally couldn't take it any longer and I went on a deleting spree.

And Facebook is desperate to hang on to the time and attention we so willingly give it. The people behind the site like it being a news source (although I find it much too slow to be any use for news; that's what Twitter is for). They want us so badly to never leave the app that they're developing a browser. Why do you think every other website allows you to log in with Facebook? (I don't do that, either.) The more we rely on them, the harder it is for us to quit. A bit like an addiction.

The thing is, I do like being able to connect to so many people in one place. I like that I can post funny memes and giggle over it with friends across time and space, as it were. It's more convenient than email and faster than phoning all of my friends once a day.

It's what brings people to my blog (although not as much on days when I don't talk about Chadwick, it seems. Truly, the most interesting part of me is gone). And I am unwilling to completely walk away from all that, not while friends are still gathering and talking and having a laugh.

Still. If you've noticed my absence, that's why. The rudeness reminded me that I have other life goals, and the other life goals keep me from spending too much time there most days. I'm a bit afraid that if I let myself spend any more time there, I'll fall into a swirling vortex of rude, too. Perhaps I already have and my being gone is a relief to some. And I'm sure there are others who never noticed that I was gone at all. Such is the way of human interaction, especially on a site with a mysterious algorithm that means most of us are shouting into the void, anyway.

How do you feel about Facebook? Fun forum? House of horrors? Somewhere in between?

What Does 5% Look Like?

I've been desperately trying to wade through the backlog of saved things from my Feedly so I can move on to the backlog of articles that have accumulated while I've been sorting through articles I've had saved for way too long.

I'd like to do this 5% faster. (Photo
I dug out of my archives, so I'm not
sure about the source.)

In the process, I ran across this marketing article with everyone's favourite type of content-- a list--and one of the tips stuck with me: Do 5% More.

Patrick Armitage, the article writer, says "This was advice I got from my uncle, a successful painter. He said that because there’s so much mediocrity in the art world, those doing five percent more reap the cumulative effect of being a little better."

One of the reasons that I spent time reading these articles at all is to contribute to my own professional development, so naturally I'm thinking about what 5% more looks like in my job, but also in the rest of my life. As a writer, as a runner, as a sometime crafter-- what does 5% more mean?

• Do I stay longer in the office to finish the project I'm working on? 
• Can I meet deadlines a bit earlier?
• My usual goal is to write 2000 words per day-- can I write 2100?
• Can I stop what I'm doing a few minutes earlier in the evening so I get to bed on time?
• Even if my crafts are just for my enjoyment, can I think of ways to make them just a little better?
• How hard would it be to add a few faster spurts in my running?
• In between books I read for fun, can I read research-based ones about technical writing or nonprofit issues to expand my own knowledge base?

Maybe blogging about it can be today's 5%. Maybe tomorrow I'll think of another one.

What do you do to get better at being you?

Wow, July 1?

I'm 14 hours into Camp NaNoWriMo and I still haven't decided what I'm writing. Thank goodness for the variable word count goals during Camp NaNo. Missing a couple days won't hurt too much!

(Yes, I know, blog posts from me four days in a row. There must be some sort of apocalypse happening.)

I just dug this up off my blog archives.
I don't remember where I found it.
I can't narrow it down in Google images.
Basically, this is not my pic, so thanks
to whoever made it.
At least there's a copyright on it.

My real reason to post today, though, isn't to be frantic about Camp NaNo. Rather, I'm here to say HAPPY CANADA DAY!! to all my bloggy friends from the north. I hope you're having a fantastic holiday. If you're Canadian and Camp NaNo-ing, then may your celebrations inspire you to write like you've never written before.

So, my narrowed-down choices for Camp NaNo? Either carry on with my thing about a professional knitter that I abandoned during NaNoWriMo last year, or pick up my favourite set of characters who will never see the light of day but who are so much fun to write and see what I can do with them. I may have to flip a coin.

One Last Thing...

... and then I'll be back to blogging about whatever comes to mind instead of Supreme Court cases.

The positive comments I've gotten from Christians have well outnumbered the negative ones. Some of them from surprising people. Most of them have been shared privately, because not everyone is in a position where they can rock the boat without losing the influence they have, so they have to be more subtle. I get that and totally respect those who can do subtlety.

I speak what I do, at least this time, because I can. I'm not going to lose my job over this. I may lose friends, and while I'm willing to fight to keep friendships intact, my best friend in the whole world is already gone beyond reach, so it's not like I have to be scared of the worst that can happen there. A bunch of strangers have suddenly found out how disjointed and nonsensical my writing can be when I'm trying to get a lot of thoughts out in a hurry, but hey, better I hear that now than after I've self-pubbed something awful, yes?

But here's something: I'm not brave. I'm frustrated. I'm not a good ally. I came along late in the game to ask people to find something else to complain about for a while. I haven't even bothered reading the comments I've gotten on Facebook past the first few, because the private messages I was getting were a lot more interesting. These are not the actions of a brave person. It's just me, and I'm pretty boring.

Anyway. So Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I've never done any kind of NaNoWriMo without also having background homework. I don't know how one does just NaNo, but I'm about to find out.

I'm Just Not That Good at Alphabetizing

I grabbed one of the A to Z badges
while I was poking around. 'S' for Su,
in case that wasn't abundantly obvious.

Just saw someone post about the A to Z Challenge, which is about to begin on April 1, and which I strongly encourage all bloggers to participate in, because it's fun and a great way to find lots of awesome blogs you may have never seen before.

As for me... Well, I still haven't finished last year's Challenge. I left off at Q and then was sucked into the swirling vortex that is the end of the semester, and... well. I have since knocked out an R post. Eventually I'll finish the rest, but it won't be during the A to Z Challenge. I won't be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this time around, either, to my own great regret. I have a hard enough time right now finishing the things I'm already obligated to do without giving myself more things to keep track of.

So, A-to-Z-ers, have a great time. Not an A-to-Z-er yet? Sign up now! It's fun! Maybe I'll be back with you next year.

What Do You Do?

A few weeks ago, a friend who I see a lot on social media but haven't seen in person for many years asked, "So what is it you do? I've just realised I don't know."

Saw this on Google+. Joked that I need to do
this, with Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, LinkedIn,
and Reddit on the other hand.

I was a bit horrified.

In case you don't know, I do the social media and communications for BikeTexas, the statewide bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group. While I don't make a big deal out of this on my personal social media pages, I do mention it from time to time (as most people do with their jobs), and until that moment I had considered myself to be an above average social media user. But a friend who knows me in real life? Had no idea I was a social media manager? It's moments like that that tell me it's time to step up my game.

So, up I stepped. I've filled my Feedly with social media news. I joined Google+ and LinkedIn groups. I started reading all the articles I can get my hands on about best practises. I still think I'm an above average social media user, but now I have the additional fun of being a bit of a snob when I see other brands making mistakes that a few milliseconds of Google searching will tell you not to make.

So what? Well, this is why I haven't been blogging. My summer off from grad school turned into a summer of learning how to be a great social media manager, or at least a shade-above-mediocre one. But I have missed spilling my thoughts on here. Good news-- classes start back next week! I'll have a lot more to talk about and a lot less time to write it down, if the last two semesters are anything to go by.

Are we connected? If not, why not? I'm on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest! (My Facebook is still private. I'm more fun on those other networks, anyway.) Let's be friends!

Has someone ever made an innocent comment to you that turned into a call to action?

Win The Jane Austen Collection on Kindle!

From The Masquerade Crew blog:

Doma House Publishing presents to you this version of The Complete Works of Jane Austen, which has been designed and formatted specifically for your Amazon Kindle. Unlike other e-book editions, the text and chapters are perfectly set up to match the layout and feel of a physical copy, rather then being haphazardly thrown together for a quick release. 

This edition covers everything including her major works, minor works, unfinished works, and scraps. Also, you can easily navigate through chapters using the linked Table of Contents found at the start of this edition. 

And, it's a giveaway. Yipee! Go to the giveaway post for the usual tweeting, following, and (if you hurry) blogging opportunities to gain entries. Or, just do it here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find this book on Amazon.

K is for Kill Me Now

It's amusing how many tumblrs, blogs, twitter accounts, and other assorted social media outlets are devoted to bemoaning to grad student life. They all do seem to eventually devolve (or maybe it's evolve, depending on your point of view) into praising the merits of alcohol.

Obviously, grad school has some attendant stressors, although clearly not so many that I can't participate in a month-long blogfest. And there are things that frustrate the life out of me, and it's not much comfort that no matter what life path I were on, there'd be some idiot at regular intervals who would say some variation on, "But you chose to go to grad school/join the Army/learn basket weaving/live in a commune/fly airplanes/etc., so why are you complaining?" (BTW, if you're that person, why are you choosing to be an insufferable Captain Obvious? Just stop.)

In other words, I don't really mean it when I say Kill Me Now, not even when trying to read 20 articles in a single evening while wishing I had a social life. Yes, it is what I signed up for. No, I did not expect life to come stress-free. Yes, I do reserve my right to sigh deeply and post occasional cries for help on Twitter. But the important one is: I won't quit, not even on the worst days. Just like all of you in the midst whatever life is throwing your way.

A typical cry for help. I really don't understand this class at all, and three weeks from the end is not a good time to realise that.

So! Cheekyness is open for all the G-rated unloading and venting you need. Grab a cup a virtual tea and a pretend cookie, and tell us: What's stressing you out this week?

That's a Wrap

Well, it hasn't been a very busy year here at Cheekyness, has it? I just had a look at my blog stats & apparently I ran out of things to say once I stopped going to college every day. Well, that's a bummer. Guess it's time to re-adjust my lens and find interesting things in my non-campus life.

So this is the time of the year when some people will make (and for most, promptly abandon) resolutions, some will avow that they never make resolutions, and there's always that group that says they don't make "resolutions", they make "goals", accompanied by dictionary definitions of both words that should clearly explain why one is better than the other. Okay, well, if thinking of things that way works for you, on you go, then. For me, it's six and half-a-dozen whether it's a resolution, a goal, a plan, or whatever you want to call it.

How was 2012 for me? I managed about half of the things I set out to do. But one that I missed is going to be bugging me-- I came up just over 100 miles short of my cycling goal this year. I wanted to do 2000 miles; I finished at 1895. And I'm not going to go ride a century today just to catch up, so that's it. On the upside, it's still nearly 700 miles more than 2011, which was 400 miles more than my next best year (2009). So, I guess I'll embrace it. But I think I'm shooting for 2013 miles in 2013, just for fun.

In the bigger picture, 2012 was not a good year. Too many shootings, too many traffic fatalities (77 in Austin this year, up from 54 in 2011), too much hatred spewed across the internet... just too much. I would hope that 2013 will be better in that respect, but I have to say I'm almost out of optimism. The best I can hope to do is hang on.

Well, that's not a very happy note to end on. Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve! Enjoy your fireworks, your friends, your parties, or whatever it is you do to welcome another turn of the calendar. And let's all hang on together in 2013.

What are you doing to celebrate tonight?

I win again!

I'm not clear on what I won this time, because final grades aren't in yet, but last night around 10:30 I turned in my final assignment for my first semester as a graduate student. I'm once again looking at five blessed weeks of peace and freedom and no need to lug around a giant textbook everywhere I go in case I have three minutes for reading.

Source.

My first class was Introduction to Rhetoric, which was nice for me because that's what I've been studying the past to years in undergrad, so it made a nice transition to graduate-level work to have some of the same material that I've already seen a few times. Here's another nice transition: Remember Caffeinated, my instructor from a few semesters ago? Well, one of my classes next semester uses one of his books as the textbook. I will totally be reading my textbook in his voice, which should be really entertaining. More importantly, since I've been introduced to his teaching and writing style already, I have some hopes of understanding what he means, which will be a great improvement over this semester's textbook.

So, my plans for the next few weeks are: READ (for fun! yay!), blog, crochet, finally learn to knit, run, tidy my house, bake some bread, and oh yeah, put up some Christmas decorations. And take them down again in due course.

Students & teachers out there: How close are you to being done for your holiday break? Everyone else: Do you have a book recommendation for me?

Enviro Your NaNoWriMo

As soon as this merry little post appears in the blogosphere, I've written more posts for November than I did in October. That's just sad. I haven't had a 1-post month since 2004.

The other evening in class (I'm an online grad student; I know you've probably all forgotten about my adventures in education), our instructor asked, "Does anyone have any questions about today's assignment before we begin?" I said "Can I have October back? I'd like to give it another go." She agreed that she would also like to try October again, but she doesn't have that kind of power. How sad for all of us.

Anyway! NaNoWriMo is in full swing, except here, where I've spent the week catching up on homework, a work assignment, and another top-secret project that is not remotely NaNoWriMo-related. Not even a little bit. And since in theory Friday is my environmentally friendly posting day at Cheekyness, I decided to think of ways I could green up NaNoWriMo. (I've been typing it #NaNoWriMo so often on Twitter that I have a hard time leaving off the hashtag. Ye be warned.)

My mug of choice. So big it's
practically two mugs of choice. Also,
it's brilliant, as you can plainly see.

1. Drink your caffeinated beverage from a reusable mug. You're going to be on a first-name basis with the baristas at your local watering hole by the 30th anyway, right? They may as well know what your mug looks like so they can return it to you if you leave it behind one day in a sleep-deprived, alternate-world, writing haze.

2. Unplug your electronics when they aren't in use. Save energy, save money, save yourself from getting up to use the loo at 3 AM and seeing your computer sitting in idle mode and deciding to type "just a couple of quick paragraphs" and still being there when your alarm goes off for work.

3. Short showers. It'll save you time, water, and money. Get a whiteboard and pen in there to write down ideas, but not if it will cause you to linger. If you forget to shower, don't worry about it. You'll get it next time.

4. Only do laundry on the weekends. Save your weekday evenings for writing, and save all your clothes up until you have a full load. And then ask your spouse/roommate/children/neighbours to do it for you so you can keep writing.

5. Writing by hand? Make sure to get as much use as possible out of your pens and pencils. Sharpen those things down to nothing. Use the last drop of ink. Write on both sides of the paper. Use those discards from the printer that have one little line of text at the very bottom.

6. Eat oranges, tangerines, pears, and apples. They're in season now. (Okay, in most of the US they're in season now.) No prep required, the peels are edible or compostable (or both, if you're anything like my husband-- he loves eating orange peels), and you can stave off the NaNoWriMo 10. (I don't know if that's really a thing. But I bet it is.)

7. Resist the urge to print. Look, it's a first draft. Those are always going to be cruddy. Don't print it out until you de-cruddy it a bit. Or a lot.

8. Seven is probably a good number of tips, yeah?

9. Just leave the dust alone. It will still be there in December. That's not really an enviro-tip so much as a NaNo survival tip. But hey, it will save you either washing or tossing the dustrags for a while, and there's probably an environmentally friendly practise in there somewhere.

10. Don't drive! Carpool or take the bus. Valuable writing time. Save gas. Less pollution. Transcribe bizarre conversations directly into your novel. It's a win-win-win-win. Change the names of your carpool buddies in your novel before you get it published, though.

Well, that was the longest "I'll just write a quick blog post before bed!" ever. Dangit. Have a happy Friday, everybody!

Are you a WriMo? Let's be friends! I'm cheekysu. (The one in Austin, in case that link doesn't work like I think it's going to work.)

Nothing to Report

Chad asked me something about my blog the other day, and I told him, "I still have things to write, but I haven't taken the time to write them." And then I sat down to write, and can't remember all the things I  wanted to write about. Meh.

Last week I went out of town with my work to do bicycle things. I also had to turn in my first reading response for grad school. Before that... yeah, I don't know. I probably tweeted about it.

Denise & I making faces at
each other. Kinda.

My sister moved in! Yay! I'm so very happy to have her here. So far we've spent a lot of time waiting for buses. Seriously, I don't know why she is so lucky, but I swear CapMetro has gotten slower since she moved here. No need to raise expectations, I suppose.

I hope to go around and visit a few blogs this week, maybe make some friends, that sort of thing. Also, did everyone else notice that NaNoWriMo starts in a month? Holy macaroni.

What are you up to? Any brilliant NaNo ideas you aren't planning to use that I can swipe?

Don't Tell Me

I can't find the article that inspired this thought, so I'll forge ahead without it (that will teach me to delay writing things down!). I was reading one of those articles that suggests ideas for making your life more earth-friendly, like buying in bulk, reusing, buying products made from recycled materials, etc. One of the commenters said something along the lines of, "These are all good ideas, but I don't really like people telling me what I should buy."


Seriously?


Let me start with the obvious question: Why did you finish the article, then? If you're so opposed to taking suggestions, stop reading sooner. Also, if you don't want people telling you what you should buy, then I can only suppose that you live in a cave far from other human contact, and this article was the first thing you read when you emerged from isolation for your yearly visit to the internet. Maybe I'm weird, but I give and receive recommendations about products/businesses/services all the time.

If you can avoid hearing about these...
Please tell us how in the comments!
Source.

And then there's the people who set out to tell you what to buy: the advertisers. TV, internet, billboards. On the sides of vehicles and the backs of receipts. On book jackets, in emails, on t-shirts and coffee mugs. If you can get away, even for a few minutes, from people telling you what you should buy, I salute you. Really. Because as I understand it, capitalism is built on people telling other people what they should buy.


If you all don't mind (or even if you do!), I'll continue to make my green living suggestions. I'll pass along tips and ideas that work for me. I'll talk about books I've read and TV shows I've watched, and maybe the occasional product that makes my life better. And if that offends you...


I don't even know what to say, except perhaps 'goodbye'.


How do you feel about idea suggestions? Are you more likely to buy something if it's recommended by a friend? What about a fellow blogger?