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Well, I did the ice bucket thing this week. I’m kind of scared to say this, but I have to admit to some ambivalence about this challenge. It’s great that people are donating to ALS research, but am I the only one who felt like I HAD to do it or I would look bad? Plus, what about that whole “when giving alms do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing” thing?
My massage therapist shared this with me this week, which I thought also shows the difference between perception vs. reality:
(Links to source)
The huge disparity between the actual impact of breast cancer and the amount of money poured into it is particularly interesting.
Don’t get me wrong, I think any and all of these diseases need research funds, and if a social media is what it takes to get people to donate, okay. I’m just uncomfortable with the peer pressure aspect.
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Last night Christian and I started watching The Scarlet and the Black on TV. We’ll have to go to Netflix to finish it. In any case, we were both struck by Christopher Plummer playing the Nazi commander when his iconic role is Georg von Trapp, who leaves his home to avoid being a Nazi. We only watched about half an hour, so I don’t know how his character shapes up over the course of the movie (and please don’t spoil it for me), but the initial portrayal of this Nazi commander as enthralled with Rome and infatuated with his wife and children was also very interesting to me. It reminded me of something that struck me when we watched The Book Thief a couple of weeks ago.
Every portrayal I have ever seen of a Nazi/WW2 soldier is as a bad guy, and not just a bad guy, but a very bad guy, with no redeeming qualities. The Book Thief made it so clear how many of those soldiers didn’t want to be at war in the first place, and how they were just ordinary family men who felt the pressure of living under Nazi regime. It was good for me to be reminded that they weren’t all “bad guys.”
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I had a really, really nice day yesterday. The last several months have involved such a push of multiple projects on deadline, that I haven’t truly felt relaxed in longer than I can put a finger on. I still have quite the backup of projects, but for the moment I’m not on deadline, and it’s amazing what a difference that makes. Yesterday I practiced flute–recital is just over three weeks away!–and took Michael to the pool. He was so worn out, he fell asleep on the table–at NOON–in the middle of his lunch. It was adorable. And it meant I had an extra hour and a half of concentrated work time! When the kids came home and disappeared into their screen time, I read for a while, and in the evening I worked on a craft project and uploaded photos to Shutterfly in advance of my next scrapbooking order. Nothing earth-shattering, just….relaxed.
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Another piece of great news this week: my WLP editor called to tell me they’re reprinting Come to the Manger, my collection Christmas music arranged for flute and piano, because they sold more than half the original run in the first year! Every time I play through those pieces I’m startled anew by how much I like them. Is that weird? I just wanted to write some Christmas pieces that were musically interesting and enjoyable to listen to, rather than elementary-level. I’m thrilled to find that others were looking for the same thing.
(In a Christmas mood? Here are recordings of Lo How A Rose, Sing We Now of Christmas, and “Angels” from the collection.)
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I need input. I’ve asked on FB and now I’m asking you fine people. I need to take this Write-at-home-Mom thing mobile, but my needs are pretty simple: Word and the internet. Word because I want to be able to move documents back and forth between the PC and my whatever-I-end-up-getting without loss of formatting. I need to be able to read comments from crit partners. Things like that. The guy at Staples suggested the MS Surface, but my brother-in-law thinks I’d be better off with the iPad and some sort of app that lets me edit. Have any of you used the iPad with a Word-friendly app? How is it?
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Michael seems to have crossed a speech threshold. In the last two weeks he’s started spontaneously vocalizing words instead of having to be prompted, and he is starting to try new words he hasn’t actually been taught. It makes me so happy!
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Julianna did it again this week: wrapped a whole crowd of people around her finger. This was her at the annual “Tiger Walk” last Sunday:
(Another un-graceful editing out of an unknown child’s face. Sorry. I do what I can.)
She’s something, isn’t she, my girl?
Kathleen M. Basi 
Yes, she is something! Always nice to hear about her. All the other children too.
I have an ipad. I’ve dabbled in some text apps. Freebies. Some work easy with just text. Matcha. Simple Notes. Then I format it on my laptop. I haven’t tried any Word apps. There are blogger apps too that work well. You can publish on the go! There are scrivener apps too. Not sure yet. A bit of a learning curve.
I wasn’t aware of Scrivener apps–will have to go look that up. I’m more concerned about formatting because I’m not usually composing new writings when I’m out and about, but working on things that already are in process, and having to deal with formatting headaches every time I move it back to the home base desktop is a real waste of time and energy.
On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 10:28 AM, So much to say, so little time wrote:
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