In the Disney classic Pollyanna (By the way, did you know there is nudity in that movie! In the opening credits there are little boys skinny dipping and jumping into the river from a rope swing and you see little bare bums! My faith in Disney is seriously shaken.) the lead character has a thing called the glad game. When something goes wrong she tries to think of a good thing about it. It’s a sappy idealistic classic old-time movie that has absolutely nothing to do with real life.
On my birthday a year and a half ago I was doing some of that painful-introspective-analyze-my-life-and-try-to-fix-it-in-one-swift-stroke-because-it’s-my-birthday thinking, and realized that I was miserable. But I also realized that I was unhappy because I had made it a habit. Someone would ask “How are you?” and my first inner reaction was to pick something from my pathetic life to complain about. Or my standard response was “surviving.” I realized I needed to break the habit of being unhappy. I needed something easy and simple to just catch that initial negative reaction to being asked how I was.
Eventually I came up with “The Alphabet Game” Here’s how it works. I start with A and that day I have to come up with something positive that begins with A like awesome, astounding, amazing etc. When someone asks how I am - I have to respond with a positive A word. The next day is B and so on. I even mark the days in my planner so I can keep track of where I am. If I have something that upsets me or that I want to be crabby about, I write it down in my planner on the day after Zday - the 27th day - Black Hole day. That day I can be miserable and grouchy and don’t have to try to be happy for anyone if I don’t feel like it.
The idea is that by the time I get to a day when I can be miserable about something that happened earlier, I have gained enough perspective that it no longer seems quite so traumatic. I have found that on black hole day I often can sincerely answer that I am fantastic. The next day I start back with A again.
It seems like such a silly thing - yet it has truly changed my life. It has done exactly what I needed it to do - break the habit of looking at the negative side of life. No, it doesn’t always work - and I still often get discouraged and wallow in self misery. But at least I wallow faster, like a buffalo on speed. I have to get on to the next letter. The substance of my life hasn’t changed - but my attitude and how I deal with it is completely different.
It is funny to watch people’s reactions to strange letters like Q or Z and I quickly explain the alphabet game and they get excited to try it too. There are days when the first person I’ve talked to that morning asks how I am and I have to ask them to hang on a second while I figure out what letter I am on. I even bought a little set of pre-school flashcards with the alphabet on them and have them on a bulletin board in my bedroom.
Sometimes I catch myself feeling negative and being bummed out and I realize I haven’t been playing the game as strictly as I should.
Things are far from perfect but they are so much better than they were. I have even had the shocking experience of people saying things to me like “You are always so cheerful” - Who me?! Seriously? The queen of woe-is-me, cheerful?
I could (and probably will) write numerous blogs on specific instances where the alphabet game has taken on a life of it’s own.
I said it changed my life, but the truth is, it has saved my life.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Eating Worms
When I was a little girl there was this song I used to sing whenever I was REALLY feeling worthless, which honestly was a lot of the time. It went like this:
(please feel free to sing along if you know this one)
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
I'm gonna go out and eat worms
Fat ones, skinny ones
Little in-betwinny ones
I’m gonna go out and eat worms
I don’t know where I learned it, or who taught it to me, it was just always there in my brain waiting to be sung. It made a great musical accompaniment to a pity party.
There are many versions of this song (yes I searched it on the internet) but they all start the same and all have the consumption of innocent nightcrawlers as the desired course of action to take when the world hates you.
I’ll return to this theme in a moment - but first a tangent that will eventually tie in.
In my class whenever I make a sentence for the students to translate I can’t do a normal sentence like: Bobby reads a book. or Betty eats potatoes. That’s boring. Who wants to translate that? So I always try to come up with something either interesting, currently applicable to the kids, funny, sarcastic, or off the wall. Preferably all of the above. It lets me give them harder, more challenging sentences that they don’t complain about. It makes for some more interesting vocabulary skills and keeps most students from snoring in class which is really rather disruptive to those students who are already asleep. So instead my sentences would be something like: Bobby tries to kiss ugly girls but they run too fast. or Betty eats worms with onions and ketchup.
In fact eating worms tends to be a re-occurring theme in my classes. I never really thought much about it or wondered why until today when I had a little epiphany.
I had just come back from another frustrating trip to the main office, I was in tears and feeling worthless and unappreciated and as I walked into my classroom I saw a sample sentence on the board and the worm song popped into my head and I suddenly saw the connection.
So much of my brand of humor and sarcasm and strange and crazy things I do in my classroom can be traced to my profound sense of worthlessness and the overcompensation and coping mechanisms developed over so many years of self loathing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching the strange way I do - It would be boring otherwise. It is just reassuring to know that something worthwhile comes out of the pain. Because somedays it just hurts so much to be alive.
(please feel free to sing along if you know this one)
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
I'm gonna go out and eat worms
Fat ones, skinny ones
Little in-betwinny ones
I’m gonna go out and eat worms
I don’t know where I learned it, or who taught it to me, it was just always there in my brain waiting to be sung. It made a great musical accompaniment to a pity party.
There are many versions of this song (yes I searched it on the internet) but they all start the same and all have the consumption of innocent nightcrawlers as the desired course of action to take when the world hates you.
I’ll return to this theme in a moment - but first a tangent that will eventually tie in.
In my class whenever I make a sentence for the students to translate I can’t do a normal sentence like: Bobby reads a book. or Betty eats potatoes. That’s boring. Who wants to translate that? So I always try to come up with something either interesting, currently applicable to the kids, funny, sarcastic, or off the wall. Preferably all of the above. It lets me give them harder, more challenging sentences that they don’t complain about. It makes for some more interesting vocabulary skills and keeps most students from snoring in class which is really rather disruptive to those students who are already asleep. So instead my sentences would be something like: Bobby tries to kiss ugly girls but they run too fast. or Betty eats worms with onions and ketchup.
In fact eating worms tends to be a re-occurring theme in my classes. I never really thought much about it or wondered why until today when I had a little epiphany.
I had just come back from another frustrating trip to the main office, I was in tears and feeling worthless and unappreciated and as I walked into my classroom I saw a sample sentence on the board and the worm song popped into my head and I suddenly saw the connection.
So much of my brand of humor and sarcasm and strange and crazy things I do in my classroom can be traced to my profound sense of worthlessness and the overcompensation and coping mechanisms developed over so many years of self loathing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching the strange way I do - It would be boring otherwise. It is just reassuring to know that something worthwhile comes out of the pain. Because somedays it just hurts so much to be alive.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
It's ALIVE!
That title of course needs to be read in a 1950's black and white thriller movie voice-over voice.
When I talk to myself sometimes it comes out in a voice with a strange accent or sound. Is that weird? It probably comes from spending so much time with no one to talk to but myself. I think it might be a little unusual but the voice with the Freud accent says to not worry about it. I am sure I can find a way to blame it on my parents.
So speaking of voices - this nagging voice in the back of my head keeps telling me I should write in my blog again. (No, this is a different voice than the one that told me to shave my cat and paint her green - that one had a definite Irish accent)
So since I assume that nobody will ever read this, and I really need a therapeutic place to rant. I shall now attempt to resuscitate my blog. (Yes, I had to look up how to spell that nasty word)
I wasn’t even sure the blog would still be here. So I did a search for “Tangent Woman” and it was the first hit! Tee hee, I am famous.
Apparently there is a town in western Oregon that is named Tangent. (It’s the grass seed capital of the world!) It has a population of 1,000. So if one were to refer to a female from that town, she could technically be called a tangent woman. But she wouldn't be Tangent Woman with capital letters.
Aren’t Capital Letters Amazing Things? They can let you yell in a text or email, they can emphasize things, they translate a number into a grade, they look cool, they can turn any sentence into a title and they perform the obviously vital function of separating true super heroes from rotten pretenders.
So the voice in my head that has the Spanish accent is now telling me I should get back to grading papers. Capital F is a cool letter don’t you think?
When I talk to myself sometimes it comes out in a voice with a strange accent or sound. Is that weird? It probably comes from spending so much time with no one to talk to but myself. I think it might be a little unusual but the voice with the Freud accent says to not worry about it. I am sure I can find a way to blame it on my parents.
So speaking of voices - this nagging voice in the back of my head keeps telling me I should write in my blog again. (No, this is a different voice than the one that told me to shave my cat and paint her green - that one had a definite Irish accent)
So since I assume that nobody will ever read this, and I really need a therapeutic place to rant. I shall now attempt to resuscitate my blog. (Yes, I had to look up how to spell that nasty word)
I wasn’t even sure the blog would still be here. So I did a search for “Tangent Woman” and it was the first hit! Tee hee, I am famous.
Apparently there is a town in western Oregon that is named Tangent. (It’s the grass seed capital of the world!) It has a population of 1,000. So if one were to refer to a female from that town, she could technically be called a tangent woman. But she wouldn't be Tangent Woman with capital letters.
Aren’t Capital Letters Amazing Things? They can let you yell in a text or email, they can emphasize things, they translate a number into a grade, they look cool, they can turn any sentence into a title and they perform the obviously vital function of separating true super heroes from rotten pretenders.
So the voice in my head that has the Spanish accent is now telling me I should get back to grading papers. Capital F is a cool letter don’t you think?
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Saltwater or Laffy?
Taffy is one of the only nicknames I have picked up over the years. (Well, besides "la bruja" (the witch) which my darling high-school students call me - but that’s another story.) Some of my siblings call me Taffy - I guess it originally stemmed from difficulty pronouncing a K.
Lately this nickname has taken on a new meaning for me.
I remember walking through the mall when I was younger - and always stopping to watch the taffy-pulling machine in the candy shop just outside of ZCMI. The taffy was stretched between two big metal bars and then when it was stretched as far as it would go, another metal arm would hit right in the middle and pull the taffy in another direction.
This week I feel like taffy - pulled painfully in too many different directions at the same time. Too many people with claim on my time and energy.
There’s a great line in The Fellowship of the Ring where Bilbo describes himself as "old":
I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart.
I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread.
I need a holiday. A very long holiday.
Now, while I would never dream of describing myself as thin - physically - every day I feel a little thinner emotionally and mentally. It gets harder and harder to cope with unexpected crises when you are already at maximum stress load. You’re stretched as far as you can go and suddenly from out of nowhere a big metal bar comes flying in and streches you off in a different direction.
Scene opens on Taffy frantically multi-tasking; grading tests, cleaning her school room, counseling stressed-out kids, planning next week’s lessons, looking for lost CDs, etc.
Enter the first "metal bar" ...
Darling Students: "We can’t make it to the 4 hour AP practice test you are doing on Saturday morning, can you do it on Friday too?"
Taffy: "Sure!"
Sister Jones: "Can you teach the Young Women’s lesson on Sunday. Oh and you need to drop off 4-generation sheets to each of them to get filled out before Sunday."
Taffy: "Sure."
Neighbor: "Could you please do something with the knee-high field of dandelions that passes as your front yard. They keep blowing onto my perfectly manicured golf-green and contaminating it"
Taffy: "Sure." (I currently don’t even OWN a lawnmower, but I think I have a pair of garden clippers. I’ll see what I can do.)
Parent: "We want our child that has only come to class once in the last three weeks to get totally caught up this weekend. Can you re-teach him everything he needs to know?"
Taffy: "Sure?"
Principal: "Oh, by the way, did I tell you that you have to have a complete description of everything you teach all year in every class handed in by Monday?"
Taffy: "Aargh!"
Hey, wait a minute! I am Tangent Woman - this should be easy for me.
Oh, no! Someone must have discovered my Kryptonite.
I need a holiday. A very long holiday. :P
Lately this nickname has taken on a new meaning for me.
I remember walking through the mall when I was younger - and always stopping to watch the taffy-pulling machine in the candy shop just outside of ZCMI. The taffy was stretched between two big metal bars and then when it was stretched as far as it would go, another metal arm would hit right in the middle and pull the taffy in another direction.
This week I feel like taffy - pulled painfully in too many different directions at the same time. Too many people with claim on my time and energy.
There’s a great line in The Fellowship of the Ring where Bilbo describes himself as "old":
I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart.
I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread.
I need a holiday. A very long holiday.
Now, while I would never dream of describing myself as thin - physically - every day I feel a little thinner emotionally and mentally. It gets harder and harder to cope with unexpected crises when you are already at maximum stress load. You’re stretched as far as you can go and suddenly from out of nowhere a big metal bar comes flying in and streches you off in a different direction.
Scene opens on Taffy frantically multi-tasking; grading tests, cleaning her school room, counseling stressed-out kids, planning next week’s lessons, looking for lost CDs, etc.
Enter the first "metal bar" ...
Darling Students: "We can’t make it to the 4 hour AP practice test you are doing on Saturday morning, can you do it on Friday too?"
Taffy: "Sure!"
Sister Jones: "Can you teach the Young Women’s lesson on Sunday. Oh and you need to drop off 4-generation sheets to each of them to get filled out before Sunday."
Taffy: "Sure."
Neighbor: "Could you please do something with the knee-high field of dandelions that passes as your front yard. They keep blowing onto my perfectly manicured golf-green and contaminating it"
Taffy: "Sure." (I currently don’t even OWN a lawnmower, but I think I have a pair of garden clippers. I’ll see what I can do.)
Parent: "We want our child that has only come to class once in the last three weeks to get totally caught up this weekend. Can you re-teach him everything he needs to know?"
Taffy: "Sure?"
Principal: "Oh, by the way, did I tell you that you have to have a complete description of everything you teach all year in every class handed in by Monday?"
Taffy: "Aargh!"
Hey, wait a minute! I am Tangent Woman - this should be easy for me.
Oh, no! Someone must have discovered my Kryptonite.
I need a holiday. A very long holiday. :P
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Un-obsessions
So, Julie tagged me with a meme - I think this is grossly unfair - I still have no clue what I am doing in the blogging world. This is like someone who is playing tag outside - running inside downstairs to the family room and tagging a crippled person who is minding their own business writing a paper for school who may have looked out the window once at someone playing tag and briefly thought "Oh, that looks like fun".
Oh, well, it achieved its purpose - it is forcing me to write another blog.
I am supposed to list 5 things I am obsessed with.
So, since I have never been one to do the normal, expected thing - I must rebel. You would think that if you are truly obsessed with something that it would merit more than a mere mention in a list of 5 - it would be worthy of its own blog entry or ten. So instead, I now present for your enjoyment...
5 things I wish I were obsessed with:
1. Paying my bills the minute they arrive in my little green mailbox.
I should want to send off my neat, tidy envelopes full of my hard-earned money right away - instead of letting them pile up on the counter and find dark corners to hide themselves in so that I have to go hunting for them when I suddenly realize that if I don’t pay my utility bill by 5:00 that day - I will pay a late fee or I will be cooking my next meal over a bonfire built in my tub. (Hey, at least I can use the paper from the bill as tinder.) I mean, it’s not like I am going to magically find an extra $100 sometime in the next 3 weeks that will make it any easier to pay the bills. I have no rich relatives that are going to die unexpectedly and leave me everything as their favorite living relative. (Darn! sometimes big families with siblings who are way more likeable than I am are a disadvantage.)
2. Reading the scriptures every day without fail.
I must admit that I have had this obsession off and on in my life - that feeling that the day is just not complete - something vital is missing if I haven’t read and thought about at least a few verses before I tuck myself into bed. I have let myself slide - justification is so easy when you are exhausted and have just crawled into bed and you realize your scriptures are still downstairs in your church bag and the cat is already snuggled up asleep across your legs...
The more you miss - the easier it is to miss the next time and soon - it doesn’t even cross your mind as a necessary part of the nighttime routine. Yeesh! - I need to work on this one.
3. Writing in my journal.
This is something I have always envied about Julie - she has shelves of old journals. I have these fabulous journals that span decades - with an entry or two each year - usually on New Year’s and my Birthday. Then I have several journals that only cover 6 month blocks of time with entries every day. I go back and read thoughts and experiences I had totally forgotten about. I ache for the lost moments and life lessons I have squandered - for lack of writing them down. No wonder I keep making the same dumb choices and mistakes in my life.
I apparently have a memory like a etch-a-sketch; one little shake of the head and I have to start all over. Since I am blond – you see the problem?
4. Eating healthy foods and Exercising:
Again - something I have been obsessed with off and on. Judging by my current waistline - much more off than on with this one.
And for the last little un-obsession, I don’t know how to narrow it down. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to take this tangent off in this particular direction. So many things I want to acquire an OCD with: cleaning my house, sending thank you notes, doing laundry, cleaning my house, getting the oil changed in my car, being more positive, planting a garden, cleaning my house, weeding the garden, getting papers graded right away, keeping a budget, etc. (Did I mention cleaning my house?) So to simplify -
5. Being practically perfect in every way. % :)
Oh, well, it achieved its purpose - it is forcing me to write another blog.
I am supposed to list 5 things I am obsessed with.
So, since I have never been one to do the normal, expected thing - I must rebel. You would think that if you are truly obsessed with something that it would merit more than a mere mention in a list of 5 - it would be worthy of its own blog entry or ten. So instead, I now present for your enjoyment...
5 things I wish I were obsessed with:
1. Paying my bills the minute they arrive in my little green mailbox.
I should want to send off my neat, tidy envelopes full of my hard-earned money right away - instead of letting them pile up on the counter and find dark corners to hide themselves in so that I have to go hunting for them when I suddenly realize that if I don’t pay my utility bill by 5:00 that day - I will pay a late fee or I will be cooking my next meal over a bonfire built in my tub. (Hey, at least I can use the paper from the bill as tinder.) I mean, it’s not like I am going to magically find an extra $100 sometime in the next 3 weeks that will make it any easier to pay the bills. I have no rich relatives that are going to die unexpectedly and leave me everything as their favorite living relative. (Darn! sometimes big families with siblings who are way more likeable than I am are a disadvantage.)
2. Reading the scriptures every day without fail.
I must admit that I have had this obsession off and on in my life - that feeling that the day is just not complete - something vital is missing if I haven’t read and thought about at least a few verses before I tuck myself into bed. I have let myself slide - justification is so easy when you are exhausted and have just crawled into bed and you realize your scriptures are still downstairs in your church bag and the cat is already snuggled up asleep across your legs...
The more you miss - the easier it is to miss the next time and soon - it doesn’t even cross your mind as a necessary part of the nighttime routine. Yeesh! - I need to work on this one.
3. Writing in my journal.
This is something I have always envied about Julie - she has shelves of old journals. I have these fabulous journals that span decades - with an entry or two each year - usually on New Year’s and my Birthday. Then I have several journals that only cover 6 month blocks of time with entries every day. I go back and read thoughts and experiences I had totally forgotten about. I ache for the lost moments and life lessons I have squandered - for lack of writing them down. No wonder I keep making the same dumb choices and mistakes in my life.
I apparently have a memory like a etch-a-sketch; one little shake of the head and I have to start all over. Since I am blond – you see the problem?
4. Eating healthy foods and Exercising:
Again - something I have been obsessed with off and on. Judging by my current waistline - much more off than on with this one.
And for the last little un-obsession, I don’t know how to narrow it down. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to take this tangent off in this particular direction. So many things I want to acquire an OCD with: cleaning my house, sending thank you notes, doing laundry, cleaning my house, getting the oil changed in my car, being more positive, planting a garden, cleaning my house, weeding the garden, getting papers graded right away, keeping a budget, etc. (Did I mention cleaning my house?) So to simplify -
5. Being practically perfect in every way. % :)
Thursday, March 8, 2007
I am Tangent Woman
I believe that every person has a super hero persona inside of them just waiting for the chance to appear to save humanity from the Forces of Doom. So, after much intense soul searching, I have realized... (drum roll please) I am Tangent Woman. My super power is the ability to take any conversation and change it to a completely different topic while still connecting to the original conversation in some way. The way it works is the evil villain boasts about his plans to take over the world and by the time he is done talking to me - Well, let me show you ...
Scene opens on a dark city street - theme music by Danny Elfman playing in the background - Camera zooms in on a sinister figure in a black cloak standing by a large shiny metallic machine. Suddenly, Tangent Woman appears as if from nowhere. (She came from left field)
Tangent Woman: Dr. Weirdwire, did you really think you could escape from the asylum?
Dr Weirdwire: Hah! You’re too late Tangent Woman, using this laser beam gun I concocted from a Lego robot and thousands of sample CDs sent to me by AOL, I will destroy the satellites, take over control of all communications media and install myself as supreme world dictator.
Tangent Woman: So that would mean no more satellite TV? - People wouldn’t be able to watch their favorite shows on Tuesday night anymore - speaking of which - Did you catch that episode of American Idol last Tuesday?
Dr W: Uh, no. I was still glueing my laser beam device together.
TW: Really? - Can’t you do that while watching TV? - No, I guess that would be hard cause you might accidentally glue the wrong thing - like the time I glued my fingers together with superglue - Have you ever done that?
Dr W: Uh...
TW: See, I was making this large wooden badger for a science project and was trying to glue the whiskers on and my fingers got stuck to the sticks I was using for whiskers and then when I tried to get the sticks off my fingers - I got glue all over my hands and that’s why I really prefer crafts that don’t need glue - like crochet - What type of yarn do you prefer to crochet with?
Dr W: Yarn...crochet?
TW: Oh, I see you prefer knitting. Yeah, that’s a fun hobby too. But then it’s hard to know what to do with the projects when you are done - unless you make something you can give away to people like potholder or hats. My friend knits hats and gives them to the homeless shelters.
Dr W: Knit...?
TW: I know this great organization that takes knitted items to refugee camps in Bosnia - they take hats and sweaters and stuff - but for beginners they have a leper bandage pattern that anyone can make. Hey! - You could do that while you’re watching American Idol next Tuesday -then you can send the bandages off to Bosnia on Wednesday - Why don’t we go get you the pattern. OK?
Dr W: Pattern. Next Tuesday - Ok... Thanks?
TW: My pleasure.
World saved once again!
I don’t have a side kick - I have a "side track" :)
I often use my super powers while teaching to confuse and befuddle my students. Then while they are trying to figure out what happened - I can sneak back to my desk and fiddle on my computer for a few moments.
A number of times I have started designing a costume for myself - but somehow I always end up doing something else - Knitted bandages anyone?
Scene opens on a dark city street - theme music by Danny Elfman playing in the background - Camera zooms in on a sinister figure in a black cloak standing by a large shiny metallic machine. Suddenly, Tangent Woman appears as if from nowhere. (She came from left field)
Tangent Woman: Dr. Weirdwire, did you really think you could escape from the asylum?
Dr Weirdwire: Hah! You’re too late Tangent Woman, using this laser beam gun I concocted from a Lego robot and thousands of sample CDs sent to me by AOL, I will destroy the satellites, take over control of all communications media and install myself as supreme world dictator.
Tangent Woman: So that would mean no more satellite TV? - People wouldn’t be able to watch their favorite shows on Tuesday night anymore - speaking of which - Did you catch that episode of American Idol last Tuesday?
Dr W: Uh, no. I was still glueing my laser beam device together.
TW: Really? - Can’t you do that while watching TV? - No, I guess that would be hard cause you might accidentally glue the wrong thing - like the time I glued my fingers together with superglue - Have you ever done that?
Dr W: Uh...
TW: See, I was making this large wooden badger for a science project and was trying to glue the whiskers on and my fingers got stuck to the sticks I was using for whiskers and then when I tried to get the sticks off my fingers - I got glue all over my hands and that’s why I really prefer crafts that don’t need glue - like crochet - What type of yarn do you prefer to crochet with?
Dr W: Yarn...crochet?
TW: Oh, I see you prefer knitting. Yeah, that’s a fun hobby too. But then it’s hard to know what to do with the projects when you are done - unless you make something you can give away to people like potholder or hats. My friend knits hats and gives them to the homeless shelters.
Dr W: Knit...?
TW: I know this great organization that takes knitted items to refugee camps in Bosnia - they take hats and sweaters and stuff - but for beginners they have a leper bandage pattern that anyone can make. Hey! - You could do that while you’re watching American Idol next Tuesday -then you can send the bandages off to Bosnia on Wednesday - Why don’t we go get you the pattern. OK?
Dr W: Pattern. Next Tuesday - Ok... Thanks?
TW: My pleasure.
World saved once again!
I don’t have a side kick - I have a "side track" :)
I often use my super powers while teaching to confuse and befuddle my students. Then while they are trying to figure out what happened - I can sneak back to my desk and fiddle on my computer for a few moments.
A number of times I have started designing a costume for myself - but somehow I always end up doing something else - Knitted bandages anyone?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The black hole of Blogdom
Good Grief!
What just happened?
I have just been flung unwittingly into the world of blogging.
I was merely trying to get an identity so I could stop lurking and post a comment on my brilliant sister's blog.
Then, after winding my way through the labyrinth of googledom, suddenly I find myself with a blog.
So what do I do with it?
It's like those hideous English tests in High School where you are handed a blank piece of paper and asked to write a literary masterpiece in 30 minutes or less. You stare in desperation at the blank page as if you could will the jumbled thoughts in your head to form themselves into coherent sentences and leap onto the page. Instead the process works in reverse and soon your mind is as empty as the page. Nothing but little brain cells sitting there mutely staring at each other.
It makes me all the more glad that now I am the teacher - not the student.
Maybe I can fill the void with profound, mind-altering thoughts - or maybe I could just rant and rave since I doubt anyone will ever read this. :)
I have a list of numbered "soap-box lectures" I occasionally inflict upon my students - maybe they can find a home here.
In any case - Hello Blog world! You have been warned.
What just happened?
I have just been flung unwittingly into the world of blogging.
I was merely trying to get an identity so I could stop lurking and post a comment on my brilliant sister's blog.
Then, after winding my way through the labyrinth of googledom, suddenly I find myself with a blog.
So what do I do with it?
It's like those hideous English tests in High School where you are handed a blank piece of paper and asked to write a literary masterpiece in 30 minutes or less. You stare in desperation at the blank page as if you could will the jumbled thoughts in your head to form themselves into coherent sentences and leap onto the page. Instead the process works in reverse and soon your mind is as empty as the page. Nothing but little brain cells sitting there mutely staring at each other.
It makes me all the more glad that now I am the teacher - not the student.
Maybe I can fill the void with profound, mind-altering thoughts - or maybe I could just rant and rave since I doubt anyone will ever read this. :)
I have a list of numbered "soap-box lectures" I occasionally inflict upon my students - maybe they can find a home here.
In any case - Hello Blog world! You have been warned.
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