Book update – Halfway there

I’ve hit 12 books on July 15. Not bad. Especially when I read the last book, almost 600 pages, in 5 days. At that speed I am sure to hit my goal.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan

Welcome to the Monkey House – Kurt Vonnegut (short stories)

My Life in France – Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

East of the Sun – Julia Gregson

I recommend all of them actually. Every one of them was enjoyable. Next up is a collection of Carson McCullers short stories including the Ballad of the Sad Cafe. It should be a fairly quick re. I’m unsure of what I will pick up next.

New Job, Travel, French Onion Soup

I’ve been MIA. Not uncommon I know, but I actually had planned to be a little more IA here.

The reason I have been out of pocket is that I started a new full-time job. Not only did I start a new full-time job, but for my first week of work I had to go to Dallas for the organization’s national convention. And it is a member organization, and I am doing member outreach. Do you feel the overwhelmiosity there? So, prep for convention in late February (I was working contract with the company to help them with convention BEFORE I landed the full-time job there, Dallas travel for early March, and then first week in the office learning my new job last week. Now…hopefully coming back to a bit more normal.

I haven’t been totally immersed in work transitions though. I have moved forward on French Onion Soup February, which has stretched into French Onion Soup March because I just couldn’t find enough time to eat FOS out 4 times, but I am trying to rectify that situation. I did, however, find time to make FOS at home twice and in the process learned a very valuable lesson, French Onion Soup does not naturally translate to a vegetarian dish (a little surprising since it is a soup all about the onion). More on the at-home efforts in a post this weekend when I can access pictures.

OK, must get sucked back in to coverage on Japan. CNN is doing a pretty bad job reporting it, but I still must watch.

 

Book Update (Books #14, #15, and #16)

Since 2010 is coming to a close soon, I thought I would do an update on the book quest. UPDATE: I failed it miserably. I did NOT read 26 books. I will end the year reading 17. I want to step up my game for next year and set a goal for 20 books. I have a lot of other goals to achieve and I am just really tired right now, so why set myself up for failure right? A realistic goal of 20 books. I will climb reading mountains another year, 2011 has in store for it already.

So, what were my books #14, #15 and #16?

#14 – East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

Short story here is, I REALLY REALLY liked it. It was a long book, but I just kept pouring through. (Perhaps my choosing of long, dense books hindered my reading goal..maybe I need some trashy romance novels to get the count up!) East of Eden was deep, a bit dark, riddled with history and Biblical themes…all things I like in a book. I am really glad I picked it up, thanks to my sister for doing a paper n Steinbeck in high school and making sure the book was sitting on my parent’s bookshelf when I needed a book!

#15 – The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh

I am actually not going to really discuss this book, as I received an advance copy when I doing something with a publishing company. Suffice to say that detective novels are not my thing, but this was a pretty fun read that I finished, even though I didn’t NEED to read it through to the end. It is out in England, and hitting the shelves in the US in January I believe.

#16 – Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice by Howard Gardner

I am a junkie for all things to do with developmental psychology and identity formation. Recently I have been turning my attention to education reform because 1 – I feel the current method of education is faulty (and I mean HOW we educate, not the people who are doing the educating) and 2 – schools and education and intelligence play a very considerable role in a person’s overall identity formation/creation experience. I already knew what the premise of this book was about, as I am familiar with Gardner’s MI theory, but I never have read anything this in depth on the subject. It gives you a lot to think about. I actually highly recommend it to parents and educators to give them a different perspective on how children (and people) learn and to consider that our current methods of education are foundationally built upon a system of education developed before most of our modern knowledge of the brain, how it works and how it learns was really known. Doesn’t seem very smart now does it? It’s great food for thought and hopefully for action.

So those are my books through #16. I actually have about 30 pages left of the Gardner book and then I am going to start on my final book of 2010. Edward Rutherfurd’s The Forest. It is huge, and hopefully I will finish it by Dec. 31st. That’s my goal so wish me luck!

(Sorry no pictures today, I don’t have the patience for formatting and linking).

Nesting in Brooklyn

If you were wondering where I am now, I am in Brooklyn. In a lovely 1Br (1.5 BR actually) sublet in Clinton Hill. We are staying in the apartment of a couple who are traveling around the globe for the next four months, so we are here through mid-January. Even though I do crave a little stability after almost a year of transience, I must admit, I am a bit jealous of them. (I mean, I am watching HOUSE HUNTERS on HGTV and they are looking at houses in England)

BUT, I can have my cats with me here. And there is so much glorious space. And a kitchen I can cook in. And it smells nice. And…oh, and this is a big and for NYC…it has a washer/dryer IN THE APARTMENT. Our bedsheets are going to be so fresh and clean all the time. Damn I love freshly laundered sheets.

So, our first week here has seen quite a bit of hibernating. This week/weekend included pie baking, wine drinking, chili making, movie watching, tv catching uping, cider drinking, book reading and kitty harassing. We have inherited a weekly CSA box that has been bountiful fun…well, as soon as I figure out what to do with my red mustard and chinese cabbage.

Other than hibernating life has been full of work and worry. Working at a contract job that runs through the next week or two…or indefinitely depending on who you talk to. Worry because of the need to find some sort of permanence. At least psychological permanence if nothing else. But, with some interviews coming up, and the temp job possibly offering permanent opportunities, there are new options on the horizon. I have some faith that things will straighten out. Hopefully some clarity will emerge soon.

But until then I will cook in my kitchen, play with my cats, launder my sheets repeatedly (so fresh smelling!), wander the city and harass Cory (he loves it, I promise).

Cheers to you!

July Update

…I worked on a few contract projects. Yay income!

…I read three more books. So this is book 7, 8 and 9. Not so sure about my goal of hitting 26 this year, but maybe with a few more quick reads I can catch up. I am immersed in book 10 as I type this. You are actually lucky I put it down to blog for you. Here are my last three reads:

• Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik.
  ** Thumbs Up…but I love most travel or expat memoirs so make sure you do to before you read.
• Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman.
  ** It was ok. I wasn’t in love with the way it was organized, more by topic rather than person. I kept getting confused and had to refer backward a lot to piece individual stories together. I learned a few interesting tidbits that I can refer to in the future, and as a whole I like historic information about women.
• Night by Elie Wiesel.
  ** Excellent read. I have been wanting to read it for a while. I mean, he won a Nobel Prize for Literature for writing it. Quick read too; I plowed through in two evenings of reading. It was compelling and just paced pretty quickly.

…I moved my butt back up to NYC. We are still in a sublet, I am still hunting for a permanent job, but I have some contract work right now and may find some temp work answering the phone and scheduling things for a broker or real estate tycoon or whatever type of industry NYC decides to throw my way. Being a excellent organizer and personable person can come in handy from time to time as it makes me an excellent office or executive assistant when I want to (or, ehem, need to) be. Also, dealing with the personalities in the entertainment industry make you an expert at dealing with the crazy. And dealing with the crazy is an exceptional skill asset.

…I have been caring for a cardiac patient. My parents cat Scooter (whom I cared for, for a bit as a little bitty baby while my parents were moving into their new house). He has a heart condition we just discovered. It was scary, and it isn’t curable, but he seems to be maintaining right now on his meds. He is hanging out on the porch and being his spicy old self. So fingers crossed my little heart patient stays healthy for quite a while.

…Oh yeah. I acquired this little cutie. My new niece. Congrats to my sister and her hubbie and thanks for the new family addition! (Yeah, yeah the new kitten you have is cute too but COME ON Miss M is even cuter.)

This is Miss Margaret Evelyn. I love this photo of her. It's like she is saying "I'm not really sure what I've gotten myself into here. It's a little...I mean...whoa dude, this is trippy!"

Playing With Format and Style

I am enjoying this new blog format. It is just one of the standard freebies from WordPress, but one of their newer models so to speak. As always I am on the hunt for the “perfect” blog name. I think I have it and then someone points out a flaw in it and then I get insecure and overthink it and then back to the drawing board!

Hmmm…maybe “Back to the Drawing Board” is a good name?

Anyway, enjoy new looks and new names as they come. I’ll let you know when I settle on something more permanent. As always, I am found at simplybecca.wordpress.com.  Most of you read this in a reader anyway don’t you?

While I Was Away…

I was working! Yes, yes. I had to head up to NYC to work an event for a few days. While I was there I didn’t fire up my laptop and instead relied on my handy-dandy Droid.

I also got a serious case of hives.I am not sure what caused them and I still have a few random ones that pop up from time to time.

And it was bloody hot (and stinky). Really disgusting NYC-in-August hot. It is only June. Someone screwed something up. (I am going to suggest the entire oil industry – not just BP – is partially to blame).

So I have sucked at the whole “Personal Commandments on Tuesday and Thursday” thing so far, but next week, Tuesday and Thursday, I am going to make a concerted effort to do them. You might even get some bonus posts. Who knows, I don’t even know! Sure, you can hold your breath, go ahead. You can’t die from holding your breath, you’ll just pass out and start breathing again, so it is safe. Do it while sitting down though so we can avoid head injuries.

Why I Neglect You

I am currently unemployed, but I constantly feel like I can’t get everything done. I am not sure if I have become less efficient in my unemployed-ness or if I have more diversions that I feel like I should be able to accomplish now that the 9-5 (ok, more like 8-8) isn’t bothering my schedule. Always one to get bogged down with choice, I find a lot of what is o

Reading.

Oh my goodness, I open more tabs on my web browser than any sane human. Most of them are “to read.” Psychology Today blogs, all my “Lifehacker”-themed blogs, my RSS reader, travel writing, The Economist, the dailies (NYT, WaPo, CNN, Guardian or IHT), the trades (Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Mediabistro), the other media (Altantic, Salon, Vanity Fair, Slate, Grist, the -ists for DC and NYC, Blogher network), the gossips (People, Deadline Hollywood, Gawker), my Twitter feed, my Facebook feed.

Stuff to Learn About.

I am currently obsessed with happiness and quality of life research, global economy, the job market, geography (want to learn all countries and their major cities and landmarks), media literacy programs, healthy living/healthy diet, slow food movement, community/small farm agriculture, micro-financing, the growing social advocacy movement, community building, and sustainability. Oh and wine. I used to know a lot more about wine, but now I am a lapsed wine enthusiast.

Stuff To Do.

I want to sew some clothes. I need to finish a crocheted baby blanket. Blog. Write. Conduct a little of my own research. Bike (or at least build up my biking ability). Learn a new language (I am thinking French). Baking a cake from scratch. Making my own pasta. Researching recipes. An online/interview project I have been tossing around in my head for about a year now.

Other Pretty Important Stuff To Do.

Job hunting. Networking. Figuring out an awesome business plan so I can work for myself. The first two things take A LOT of time. The third thing is just difficult in general…especially if you have perfectionist tendencies because you shoot holes in everything.

There is more for these lists, but I have become distracted again. The open tabs in my browser are beckoning me with things still unread and jobs still not applied for and geography quizzes still not taken. I must go for now and will try to resolve not to neglect you as much and try not to let all the choice abounding paralyze me. Damn you paradox of choice!

This Weekend in Review (in Bullet Format)

• Fresh, homegrown blueberries made into delicious Saturday morning pancake breakfasts.
• Hot, humid day spent exploring Celtic roots with the family.
• Thunderstorms. Don’t. Always. Break. The. Humidity.
• Volunteer hours sorting papers in a first grade classroom.
• Red wine and homebaked Ziti make a yummy Sunday night.
• Finally found the missing red Kong ball hiding in the backyard.
• More fresh homegrown blueberries, this time made into perfectly spiced buckle.

Spring Fever

The weather has been chilly and sometimes rainy, but still gorgeously springlike. Today’s windy weather made it quite glorious. I have a few posts waiting to be written, namely my next book (I almost have another finished as well) and my first “Happiness Project” post. I have two interviews on Friday and training tomorrow for a tutoring gig I am starting part-time, so I will have to make some time for writing posts over the weekend. You can be surprisingly busy when you aren’t really that busy. The things we create for ourselves to do…

But I stopped in here to share a few things that have been distracting me recently.

–Beautiful garden cottages courtesy Wide Open Spaces.

–My new Wusthof 6″ utility knife courtesy Cory for my birthday present.

–Researching baby stuff in anticipation of my niece due in August! I can’t put a photo on my blog because my sister decided to turn the ultrasound pics into a slide show on her baby blog and I can’t figure out how to link that action (aka I am too lazy to figure it out…)