It’s a new year! Good/interesting/provoking finds I’ve stumbled across this week: 2015-01-04
If you’re a Serial fan (like I am)…here’s part 1 of 3 of an exclusive interview with Jay, the prosecution’s key witness that Sarah Koening was not able to get interviewed for Serial. It has another timeline and a motivation for the inconsistencies to date. It’s great to hear his point of view, and I understand his wariness to be involved with Koening’s efforts, but now I wonder if there is any way forward with the disruption this has obviously caused in his life.
I’m not usually a fan of sharing “listicles” (a glorified list of something that passes as an article), but this one from NPR Monkey See is a very good one for a list of 50 Wonderful [Cultural] Things from 2014.
An awesome comic to educate about vaccinations in an entertaining format. If only those with an anti-vaccine stance would be open-minded enough to take a read.
Did you know there is a live-action Disney version of Cinderella going to be released next year? I didn’t, until I saw this trailer yesterday while watching another Disney movie. Why is there even a need to make a live-action version of this? Don’t tell me there will be live-action Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast coming soon.
“Cartman” was an invaluable addition to our family when we lived in a condo back in 2008. We received Cartman from the previous owners of the condo. The story goes that they purchased him from a “Masters Choice” grocery store fire sale when it was being renovated, but we suspect a more nefarious origin. During our time in the condo, he bore the weight of many a grocery bag, IKEA box–any load that cannot be lifted by one person. He did this without complaint and with only the slightest of rattles and squeaks. He lived happily by our parking spot #48, next to the ventilation fan, always happy to greet us and our loads to bear.
Good/interesting/provoking finds I’ve stumbled across this week: 2014-12-21. (I realize I’m a day late…life happens)
This past Thursday saw the conclusion of season 1 of Serial podcast, which I loved. Of course, there are the inevitable parodies made since then, but this one by SNL is really hilarious, and holiday seasonal to boot!
When I saw this article headline from the Washington Post about these YouTube videos created by this woman of sounds to purposefully induce a physical reaction called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), I was skeptical to say the least. “It’s like showers of sparkles,” says Maria, speaking as herself. “It’s like warm sand being poured all over you, trickling over your head and down into your shoulders. It’s like goosebumps on your brain.” Then I watched one…and I seriously got the tingles in the back of my head! I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised, it was similar to the wonderful tingle-y feeling I get from having my hair brushed. This one is her most-viewed video, do you get the same tingles?
Good/interesting/provoking finds I’ve stumbled across this week: 2014-12-14.
This post from www.handsfreemama.com wonderfully describes my same feelings last year when I was frustrated with how I was becoming as a mother. My role at home last year was turning into a family manager, instead of family nurturer. When both parents are working and have work schedules to commit to, you start trying to manage people to do things to your schedule, like at work, except these people are your young children who have different wants and needs than your coworkers. Thanks to Cookie1968 for sharing the link for me to find, in her own great post calling BS to the whole work-life balance thing.
Why Poor People Stay Poor: this excerpt from Linda Tirado’s book Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America gives an account of how the daily realities of a working poor person makes it hard to get ahead, no matter how conscientious and hard working they are. This is should be a must read for all those who shape policies thinking poor people stay that way because they are lazy or don’t work hard enough.
I was excited to find this Kickstarter campaign for the Spark Notebook because I like using an actual physical notebook for work, but was never really satisfied with any notebook I had found for being able to not only take notes of meetings, but actually strategize and plan ahead my goals and my progress towards them. This notebook looks like it may satisfy that!
I know I’m coming to the Serial podcast party 11 weeks late, but better late than never, right? And after listening to just the first podcast, I know I’m hooked.
Serial is a new podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial will follow one story – a true story – over the course of a whole season. We’ll follow the plot and characters wherever they take us and we won’t know what happens at the end of the story until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we’ll bring you the latest chapter, so it’s important to listen in order, starting with Episode 1.
I’m continuing on with my reviewsof the 2014-2015 season of the National Ballet of Canada with the performance of Nijinsky. I must admit, the first time I saw this ballet in 2013, my gut reaction was, “Meh.” Sure, the physicality of the dancing was impressive, but the performances by the NBOC are so often impressive. It just didn’t wow me, or move me. When I saw that they were mounting it again this 2014-2015 season, I was actually tempted to switch out the tickets to a different show. Now I’m satisfied I didn’t.
In the last six months I’ve read a bunch of books, many of them by funny women, but none of them have impacted me as much as How To Be A Woman, by Caitlin Moran.
She lays bare many of the underlying reasons of the angst I feel about being a woman in these modern days. At least as a woman into her late 30s, because admittedly she hasn’t reached middle age yet. Best of all she does so in a thoroughly readable, entertaining, and often laugh-out-loud funny manner. The things she points outs here is so on point and truthful that I am going to make my daughters read this book when they are about 12. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any woman who thinks about her place in this world, and any man who wants to understand more about real women.
