If I ever mention “going through a pack a day,” it will probably be in reference to index cards. I keep finding more uses for them.
Index cards, tarot cards, scissors, two rolls of tape, and two plot outlines, one for reading, and one for chopping into pieces.
It’s time to fix a plot problem.
About 24 hours after I posted The Mom Box, someone asked me if I love being a mom. With all that stuff going through my head, about all the answer I could manage was “Uh, sure.” It’s not an all or nothing, love it or hate it gig.
But you know what’s fun? Having a friend over and making homemade play dough for my toddler.
My friend warned me that there is a point during the mixing process when it will seem like no good can come of this. That point looked like sausage gravy and smelled like a wet dog rolled in papier mache.
But it came together, and we spent over an hour talking and relaxing, everyone mesmerized by the repetitive actions of squishing and rolling.
Orange Juice! I never get sick of this song.
I love the craziness of early music videos. With a lot of them, I get the sense that the people involved had some kind of brainstorming session, then decided that, since there are no bad ideas in brainstorming, they would go ahead and put every single one in the video.
This video supports my theory. The band starts off in some kind of rejected set from the original Star Trek. They change their clothes four times, and one of those four times involves scuba gear.
Self-care is walking away to use the bathroom when you’re in a conversation you can’t escape, even if the other person is still talking.
I will never, never understand cake mix. Since cake has no nutritional value, its only function is to taste good. But if you make it from a mix, you end up with something more akin to aerated ceiling plaster with a hint of propylene glycol. Since it doesn’t taste good, it has no purpose.
I started Thrawn: Alliances, and one thing that came as no surprise is that Anakin makes a terrible Watson to Thrawn’s Sherlock.
What did come as a surprise is that Darth Vader is a marginally better Watson.
And now I realize why I’ve been enjoying Elementary so much; it’s not a cop show: it’s what Grand Admiral Thrawn would be like solving crimes in New York.
This shouldn’t need saying, but not everyone has an office job.
I can’t count how many articles concerning unrelated topics casually reference how we all spend too much time sitting at desks, how we all spend too much money picking up our lattes on the way to the office, and how our inboxes are too cluttered.
If that’s the writer’s personal experience, fine. Use first person pronouns instead of acting as though we all have the same job, or assuming that people who make less money aren’t your audience.
Save the phrase “It’s just politics” for things like low-blow campaign ads and candidates fighting on Twitter. When you use it in reference to issues that impact other people’s lives, you reveal not only that these things don’t apply to your life, but also that you have a woefully narrow perspective.
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
Tom Waits
I’d seen this quote a number of times, usually in articles about productivity, before I discovered that it came from Tom Waits. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot.
If you’re a perfectionist in your art or writing, it’s worth searching the rest of your life for the same patterns.
It’s taken years to realize that I’ve been living in an incredibly stilted manner
The connection between chocolate and depression in real life:
“I’ve had mild, pervasive depression for two weeks, but since science says this 85% dark chocolate bar can raise my serotonin, I’m waiting for a barely perceptible lightening of my mood.”
The connection between chocolate and depression in Harry Potter:
“A dementor gave me depression so hard my soul almost ripped out of my body, but I ate a chocolate bar that’s been sitting in this guy’s jacket, and now I’m a thousand times better.”
Solar Pomodoro watch
I always used to wish my digital watches had a Pomodoro timer function. I even considered writing to Timex at one point to request this, but I’m a lazy bag of social anxiety, so that didn’t happen.
My new Casio watch has an awesome, unadvertised Pomodoro function that lets you stack and repeat multiple timers. I bought this only because the metal band of my old watch gave me massive patches of red itchy bumps, and apparently I would rather exacerbate them than go without a watch for a few days. This one was $20 and solar-powered, and I was surprised to stumble on a feature I’d wanted in a watch for so long.