Monday, April 16, 2007

Whats behind a name?

One of the top concerns I hear when people are nervous about starting a blog is "what will I write about", "what will the name of my blog be?" etc. I just say go with it, the ideas will come. That being said, I did ask myself these questions before setting up a personal blog (I had already been involved in my family blog) because I wanted to know if it would be worth the effort and time it would take... so these are the reasons why I went ahead and took the plunge.
1. I had a lot of friends I wanted to reconnect with in a way that would allow me to check in on them and at least have some contact when there had been little or none.
2. I had seen that there are many cool things that can be done on the blog, and I want to learn how to do them. So far I have only been refreshed on saving and posting images, and posting links, but I have a big list waiting.
3. I wanted to be seen as cool by my peers.
4. Most important, I wanted to be more mindful of my day to day activities, and thoughts (thus the name of the blog). Something about the blog makes this more exciting than a journal. maybe the pictures, maybe the interaction.. something.
I have thought often about needing to be more mindful, intentional living, pushing myself to do something hard everyday.. (all names for the same idea I have in my head for quite sometime) and I think the blog, in a way, is helping me to accomplish at least a little bit of doing that.

Books by the bedside

I wanted to get the pictures of these books off my desktop, de-clutter a bit if you will, so I am posting about them before I am done with them. These are the books that I am reading right now.




Yes all at the same time. I have a bad habit of feast and famine with books. I tend to get interested in an idea and then a couple more and can't decide which to read about and so I get a bit on each. The problem with this is that I don't think I get the complete picture of each individual book because the concepts in each start to blend. I guess in some ways this is actually good, because maybe it expands the idea set out by the author. I don't know if anyone else has this problem ... except Jill, I know she does. I just thought I should post about it so that my posterity would know why I am all over the place in my thinking.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Some media plugs

I will preface this by saying I am not big into t.v., movies etc. and so by suggesting the following I am in no way saying that I am an expert in the field, I am just sharing with you what feels right.

This American Life is a radio program on NPR, that usually has 2-3 segments on a different subject each week. Its a may be a good introduction into what NPR has to offer. Showtime has now picked this show up and made a weekly show of it. I know that this is a sore spot for some fans, the host Ira Glass talked about being booed about it by his audience, but you can check out the opening episode for free on sho.com. I liked it. One reason being that I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the radio broadcast about the first episode on the show, and I was pretty close on everything I envisioned. The next t.v. episode looks interesting and has some Utah links, but I think you have to have showtime for that one.


TV land has these interviews with comedians, and I checked out the Jon Stewart interview the other night and really liked it. Seeing interviews like this help me think that dinner parties with the right people could be so fun! Here is the link, though I have no idea how to make it work right now.
http://www.tvland.com/originals/sitdown/season2/sitdown_bios_Jon.jhtml




NPR. I know that this is getting ridiculous, but so many of you commented that you haven't heard NPR or of it, so I am just going to tell you try it. I tried the other day to get a short list of things to sample, its very hard, I like so many programs. I would say that Saturday Edition, Market Report, Wait, wait don't tell me, the diane rheam show (hit and miss), science friday are some of the most popular. You can download it all at itunes or from their site. Its well worth looking into. You can browse the site, but you really need to listen to get the feel. The web site has a station finder and that may be your best bet. I plan on sending some of you links to shows I think you may find interesting as I hear them, until then you are on your own.
http://www.npr.org/

Also If you need to move, get out of your shell a bit I have to push pulling out the playstation and letting loose with a little dance revolution and guitar hero. I have only played these games in the company of familly and it will stay that way. But I love, love, love them.


That is all.

Tagged

I really had wanted to be more consistent on this blog than I had been on my family one, but life has a way....
I do have a stash of pictures I have been saving on the computer until I need them for the posts, so I do have a couple in the back of my mind ready to go, now if the hands will just do the work. So out of laziness tonight I am going to do the tag that I was given of "6 random things, 6 happy things", even though I had hoped to think more about them before posting, especially after my 100s list was so fresh but here it goes:
RANDOM:
1) Is it better to try something even with out looking into it, training for it, doing it really well, or is it better to hold off until you can do it well? I tend to do the first one (e.g.. blogging and roping others in without knowing really how to do much, races/running, etc) and I think it may bug those who do the second.

2) Sadly I think I am a pessimist.

3) When I visit my hometown, I have lots of flashbacks of walking... all over the place. I am sad that my kids won't have that freedom to explore. And I think its beautiful there.



4) I am nervous about having to reenter the workforce in the future

5) I am not a very touchy feely gal, except with my kids.

6) I felt that Bro. Holland was talking directly to me in Sat. general conference.



HAPPY
1) I love the way that Clint smells! He is a natural guy, and his natural pheromones are what I believe colognes try to copy. I am mad that I did wash before he left and have nothing that smell like him. So Clint if you are reading... Call me.

2) NPR have I made it clear that I love this?? It is on in our house almost all day, I feel it is my only contact with the outside world.

3) Dance Revolution!! Oh boy I cant wait to get back to Utah to play this. I am no dancer, but I love this game. Guitar hero was very satisfying also.



4) I'm not sure how to phrase this ... I love to get to know people, not so much in the where are you from sense (though that has its place), but in the what do you think about where you are from kind of way. Make sense. Its a natural high for me. I pretty much like everybody I know.

5) I am crazy for Ruby right now. I love all the kids, but something about Ruby melts me. Maybe it's the age, her petiteness, or her indifference to me. Probably a bit of all.

6) Reading in bed. I swear I sleep better, and it feel like the me time of the day.

Whew, there it is. This was even harder for me than was the 100s list. I am going to tag Angelica, Lorie, Erin, hoping it will get them blogging.