2008 May Archive at Becca’s Cyber Home

Archive for May, 2008

1% Well-Read Challenge

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8 months ago

. 1 Comment

Since I’ve been participating in Booking Through Thursday, I’ve found about a dozen book blogs I read regularly. Lots of these blog authors are participating in reading challenges. So far I’ve managed to stay away, figuring I didn’t need yet another thing to keep me busy. But I ran across a challenge today that really grabbed me: the 1% Well-Read Challenge. From the challenge web site:

The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.

According to a nifty spreadsheet provided by Arukiyomi, I’ve only read 25 of these books, or 2.50%. And, statistically speaking, as a western female, I need to read 20 books per year in order to check off all of the books on the list.

So, figuring I won’t read all 1001 of these books (I’m sure I’ll find others!), I figure the 1% challenge is workable.

Using the nifty spreadsheet and relying on fate, I ran a random number generator and came up with these 10 books:

I haven’t read any of the books that fate (and random.org) chose for me, so I’m really looking forward to this! And bonus–some of these are available for Kindle!

Blogging gratitude

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beccataylor

8 months ago

in Musings

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Keeping a gratitude journal is not a new concept for me. I first became interested in it after a scrapbooking workshop where the leader suggested creating a family album where family members could add pages about things for which they were thankful. Then I read about journaling every day about at least five things for which you’re grateful. And these days, if someone’s talking about journaling something, the next step is talking about blogging it.

So I actually tried keeping a private blog to experiment with daily gratitude blogging. It was a dismal failure! I think I kept it up for five days before the notion just fizzled. I’ve always thought about trying to kindle the project, particularly as I’ve been feeling like I need an attitude adjustment so I can rediscover the optimist in me.

So this week the topic of gratitude blogging came up on the SCN LifeWriter’s list (a mailing list for members of Story Circle Network). I suggested a group experiment: we can all blog about gratitude, but tag our posts consistently so we can all follow each other’s progress. I’m interested to see how it works out!

Click here to read posts from the SCN gratitude bloggers. (scngratitude)

If you’re an SCN member who would like to participate, leave a comment and I’ll email you instructions.

Booking through Thursday with manual labor

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beccataylor

8 months ago

in Books

. 1 Comment

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos… do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries—if any—do you have in your library?

Who-whee, this is when a grammar nerd like me gleefully claps her hands! *squee* I have writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos, all coming out the wazoo. What don’t I have? And I still don’t have enough. *sigh* Good times. Here’s a section of my shelf devoted to writing books:

I have text books from my technical communication courses–tomes on usability, information architecture, document design, editing, publication management. So, they’re what some people would consider dry and boring educational books on writing, creating documents, and managing their production.

I have books on the art and practice of writing, like Bird by Bird. Books on grammar, like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and books on language, like Speaking Freely. Books on unleashing your creativity, like the Artist’s Way. Books about how writers write, like Journal of a Novel about how John Steinbeck used letters to spark his writing. And buried somewhere in me is a novelist, so I have several books on writing novels.

Now, as I sit writing this post, I realize that most of these books have just been skimmed, not read and thoroughly enjoyed. Shame on me! I really need to take more time to feed my writing soul, and stop starving it because I’m too busy focusing my energies on mundane realities like washing laundry or watching mindless TV. Thankfully, I’ve begun feeding my reader’s soul again after a long dry spell. Who knew Booking Through Thursday could be therapeutic?!

P.S. The compulsive organizer and list-maker in me is twitching because I’ve realized that I haven’t cataloged my writing books in my LibraryThing catalog yet. Ack! I sense a weekend project coming on…

A humpday hoot

Published

beccataylor

8 months ago

in Musings

. 1 Comment

Every once in a while, CNN surprises me with a pleasant chortle. I was scrolling through this morning’s headlines on CNN.com and saw this:

And I just HAD to click on it. I mean, who wouldn’t?

The story is one we can all relate to. Just yesterday I was contemplating whether I should post a warning sign in the 2nd stall of my office bathroom. The urge to go back to my desk and print out “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie wipe the seatie” was almost overwhelming.

But I love, love, LOVE how this humor article gets serious treatment in the highlights section:

Story Highlights

Women’s bathroom is defiled by The Tinkler

Columnist tries to figure out who’s guilty of peeing on seat

Decides she is “aggressively mean-spirited, mole-like cavewoman”

Writer yearns for modicum of civility, a touch of class, or supply of Lysol

Had me doing a silent howl in my little cubicle!

Friday Felicitations

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beccataylor

8 months, 1 week ago

in Friday felicitations

. 2 Comments

Sometimes I can’t help myself–sometimes I’m most grateful for the smaller and more material blessings in my life. Like this totally happy wall hanging set I found for my dining room. This wall has been a blank slate for four years because I hadn’t found anything that just belonged there. I have found it and it has been installed. VERY happy, and very appropriate for our home, I think.

Hubby and I had an impromptu date night tonight (which seems to happen less frequently as we, okay usually me, get wrapped up in life’s happenings). We saw Iron Man, which totally rocked. I must have the soundtrack. I never thought I’d like bang-em-up movies set to hard rock. The only thing that’s better is kung fu to electronica. Woohoo! Hey, even girls like to get their testosterone on.

And, lest I forget, I finally uploaded photos from a girls’ day at the spa when I visited NM a few weeks ago. It had just snowed, so the trees were dusted with white. And Tracy, who is obviously much braver than I, actually lounged briefly on the chairs. I fell in love with Ten Thousand Waves the first time I went. And it’s all the cooler because it’s become somewhat of a tradition to make an outing up there with the girls when I visit Albuquerque. I finally get to take hubby there in August! Woohoo!