pegkerr: (Default)
Back when mon_starling was over on Livejournal, she made a set of Harry Potter bookmarks, which were posted on line somewhere. I printed out several copies of one, showing Hermione curled up in an armchair, reading Hogwarts: A History and had them laminated. I kept them on my bedside table, and there has been barely a book I've read in the past...what, five years? eight years? without my Hermione bookmark.

I lost my last one, and I feel lost without it. She's deleted and purged both her livejournal and her deviant art page. I managed to find her on Facebook and I sent her a query.

Does anyone on my friends list have a copy of that bookmark, by any chance? (hey, it's worth a try). She did a whole series of them. I still have some of the others (Draco, Harry, Ron, Cho and Cedric, but the one I really want is Hermione.)

Tell me about a little something, maybe sentimental or artistic, that you use regularly. Maybe it doesn't have much intrinsic value, but you would miss it dreadfully if you didn't have it.

Edited to add: [livejournal.com profile] kerrikins found it! She rules teh Interwebz and her Google-fu rocks! The Hermione bookmark is here and all the other bookmarks in that same series (Draco, Harry, Ginny, Ron, etc.) are here. Thank you, [livejournal.com profile] kerrikins, I am so grateful! (Isn't it cute?)
pegkerr: (Default)
Although both of my novels have romantic elements, I've never considered myself someone who generally reads romance novels myself. There are a few exceptions. Jane Austen, of course, is the most important one. I adore Jane Austen, as long-time readers of this blog know. Interestingly enough, it was a science fiction writer who got me to read Jane Austen, when I was (I think?) somewhere in my late twenties or early thirties. Eleanor Arnason made an off-hand comment at a panel at a science fiction convention (or perhaps it was one of our one-on-one conversations afterwards; my memory is hazy) that one of the best Iago-like depictions of evil she's ever read takes place in the opening chapter of Sense and Sensibility. Fanny Dashwood cleverly leads her husband, step-by-step, to repudiate the promise he made to his father on the latter’s deathbed to support his sisters. She gets him to agree to a little, and then a little more, and a little more, until by the end he is actually congratulating himself for his generosity for resolving to behave in totally dishonorable and miserly way to the women his father commended to his care. I was intrigued by her description of the passage and so read the book--and I was hooked. It's curious, that my introduction to romances was due to my writerly curiosity about how to write an effective villain.

Of course, Jane Austen wasn't considered a 'romance writer' in her day because the marketing category simply didn't even exist yet. Even today, I think that people who dismiss her as a mere romance novelist (often without reading her) are missing the point. She wrote about love and marriage, true. But she was hardly a wild romantic, but more of an Augustan realist with a very keen sense of the absurdity of human nature. When it comes down choosing between the worldview of Marianne or Elinor Dashwood, I think Miss Austen would clearly side with Elinor.

I also read Georgette Heyer's novels, which were recommended to me by a friend. I loved them and reread them almost every year. I had a couple Joan Aiken and Jane Aiken Hodge romances, which I picked up because I read Joan Aiken's children's books, and because Joan Aiken wrote continuations of Jane Austen's works.

Last year I picked up the Sons of Destiny novels of Jean Johnson ([livejournal.com profile] ladyofthemasque) because I'd read and enjoyed some of her fanfiction. These were fantasy romances. Magic+sex=fluffy and fun.

But last month, I did something I'd never done before. I'd just finished the Jean Johnson books and when I got the bookstore gift card from my family, I went into a bookstore and headed, somewhat uncertainly, to a section I'd never hung out in before: I think I'll buy a romance. Any romance, I don't care. Um, well, a good romance. But which one? No recommendation. No knowledge of the author. Could I pick a romance up off the shelf and just read it cold?

I didn't know and I had literally never tried doing such a thing before. I have a sense of a slight preference for type (I was gravitating toward the historical romances, particularly regency) but I have no idea who popular romance authors are. As a genre, I had a little idea of how the marketing works from reading, of all things, Elizabeth Peter's Die for Love, a marvelously snarky and fun murder mystery set, of all places, at a romance writers convention. Yeah, Elizabeth Peters was right. The covers of romance novels ARE embarrassing. I thought about Joanna Russ' essay "How to Suppress Women's Writing" as I browsed the lurid covers. Here was writing by women, for women. It's wildly successful, but I'm embarrassed to pick it up. I thought a lot about that as I browsed, but yeah, I was uneasy about being seen carrying a book with those stereotypical clinch bodice-ripper covers. How interesting. Was I buying into the disparagment of the genre without thinking about it?

My first two picks were okay. Fun and pleasantly salacious. I enjoyed them well enough that I went back last weekend and picked up four more, again, picking cold. OMG. This last attempt was much less successful. I squirmed at the egregious errors, in history and voice. It was like biting into a bon bon, hoping for some delicious chococolate, and encountering plastic. Well, that was a waste of money. The cover blurbs were useless and "New York Times Best Selling Author" is no guarantee of quality, believe me. The historical errors irritated me, and the cliches were a turn off.

Well, what do other people think are good fantasy novelists? So I googled "Best romance novels" and picked a book that came in #1 on several lists: Outlander by Diane Gabaldon. There are over sixteen hundred reviews on the Amazon page, so I guess a few people have read it. I was interested to discover, when I got to the bookstore to pick up a copy, that although it was considered a rather groundbreaking book when it came out, and won the best novel of 1991 from the Romance Writers of America, it is now shelved in "Fiction." Not Romance. No clinch on the cover.

So I'm diving into the book, and so far it's certainly gripping my attention. No taste of plastic in my teeth so far. I'll keep you posted.

MyCharityWater Campaign Report:

$5,000 CAMPAIGN GOAL
$1826 RAISED SO FAR
91 people served
42 donations
29 days left

The Charity:Water blog posted about this campaign, and I felt more than a little envious. He raised more than $25,000? What fundraising mojo does he have that I don't have?

Then I realized he is one of the co-founders of Twitter.

Oh. Guess that answers that.

(Only 29 days left! There's still time to make the goal!)
pegkerr: (Default)
Have you ever had the experience when someone makes a passing comment about their past that TOTALLY surprises you? It happened tonight to me.

There's a guy at our church the girls and I have spoken with because he's into martial arts, too. He's a fourth degree black belt, but in a different discipline than ours, so we've never taken classes with him; I'm hazy about what, exactly, he studies. I've been told by several people that he's extremely good. He's offered self-defense classes for women for free to church members upon occasion. I knew that he's worked for the city for the past twenty years or so. Something to do with programming traffic lights, I think.

Tonight, we went to the Lenten Soup Supper and sat down next to Jeff and struck up a conversation with him. He's a really nice, friendly guy. I told him about Fiona's form at school yesterday, and the conversation was friendly and lively, meandering from topic to topic. And then, out of the blue--I can't remember how on earth we got to that point--he said casually, "You know that I used to snatch people to deprogram them from cults, didn't you?"

My jaw dropped. "Really?!"

"Oh, yeah," he said casually. "I was the muscle. My job was to grab them and throw them in the van and then keep them from leaving. I rescued about a hundred people over the years. I only lost one who went back."

He then spent about a half hour telling us the most amazing stories about the period of time from when he was eighteen till he was twenty-eight. He'd fly all over the country, paid by the target's parents, to snatch them. He snatched people from the Moonies, Scientology, The Way, and other more obscure splinter cults. He told us about the time he and his partner flew to Chicago because they knew the kid was going to a wedding. So they grabbed the kid, but they didn't realize that EVERYBODY in the wedding was involved in the cult. So the entire wedding party turned on them, but he still managed to get out of there, carrying the kid on his back, kicking and screaming and clawing all the way. "Girls were the worst," he said, "'cause they'd be especially scared. I mean, here I was, this big guy grabbing them out of the blue and they didn't know why until I threw them in the van and they saw their parents there. And I wasn't allowed to hurt them, of course."

"Did any of them ever injure you?" I asked, fascinated.

"Nah, because they didn't know what they were doing, exactly. Not the way guys did when I fought them in cage matches."

And THAT led to stories about his fighting career. He fought in Madison Square Garden. He was a bouncer in a bar. He's had his nose broken so many times he had the cartilage replaced with plastic. He was a bodyguard to celebrities, the chief one, the one of last resort, closest to the stage. He said Tina Turner, for example, always asks for him when she comes to town.

I couldn't help but marvel. Here's this nice guy who sits in the pew behind us every week, who's talked about reading his Bible on the bus on the way to work each day, who had this whole other wild life and I knew nothing about it.

Tell me about someone you've known for awhile who took you totally by surprise with amazing stories about their past.
pegkerr: (Fiona and Delia)
Here are two great stories I found through Twitter today about kids making a difference. The first is Evan Ducker, who founded an organization to educate kids about vascular birthmarks:



Read more about Evan's project at Do Something here.

The second tweet told me about a project looks like it's just getting started. The website Students Rebuild just went live today to challenge schools to start fundraising to rebuild Haitian schools:
Join Architecture for Humanity, the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group as we rebuild schools in Haiti.

Your challenge: Create a team at your school to raise money – which will be matched dollar for dollar – to rebuild schools in Haiti.

Your opportunity: Help us rebuild better, safer schools in Haiti now. Stay connected through interactive video, conversations with building professionals and conversations with Haitian students. Learn first-hand how people can work together in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake to rebuild communities and lives.
My girls have been involved in many similar projects, such as participating in Feed My Starving Children and various mission trips, the biggest one, of course, being the annual trip to Mexico to Casa Hogar Elim. Community service is a strong emphasis and part of the requirement of the program in the International Baccalaureate program that Fiona attends.

Tell me about something that your kids have gotten involved in to make the world a better place. Did your child lead the way on his or her own, or was it a school, synogogue, church, etc., that got the child interested? In what ways has your child been a role model for you?

RecycleBank

Feb. 3rd, 2010 10:36 am
pegkerr: (Default)
I just found out about this program through Twitter and signed up today. From an article on Planet Green (@planetgreen on Twitter), here:
The green movement is a tricky thing. Most of us realize that climate change is happening--the world of the future will be fundamentally different because of what's happening today, and we all need to do something about it. Together.

The problem is sometimes thinking about doing something doesn't always translate into actually doing something. What can buying a pair of vintage jeans or reusing aluminum foil have any impact on something as big and scary as global warming? This is a problem that spans the spectrum of people too. Even the most vocal of treehuggers sometimes find it difficult to do something as seemingly simple and intuitive as recycling, and if that's the case, what does that say about the average person?

It's hard to guilt people into it. They'll end up just resenting the entire issue. It's even hard to appeal to people's emotions... there are only so many pictures you can show someone of cute, cuddly polar bears somewhere before they start getting numb to it. This is where people like RecycleBank come in. RecycleBank was started by two high school friends who have figured out how to get people to take good, green actions: reward them.

RecycleBank rewards people by giving them points based on how much they recycle. They can then redeem their points at a variety of stores and outlets. Or, if they don't want points, people can donate their credit to charitable causes, like the Green Schools program.

Today, RecycleBank serves over one million people across 20 states in the United States, and that number continues to grow every week. They are already operating in the UK, the program will launch service in Europe this summer, and they have received prestigious awards from the U.N, amongst others. To date, RecycleBank members have collectively saved over 4.4 million trees and over 295 million gallons of gas through weekly recycling efforts. Possibly one of the best parts of the deal, though, is over 40-50% of all rewards redeemed are at local businesses.

This is all to say that their model works. People end up recycling more if they get rewarded for doing it, even if the reward is small.

It does raise the question if people are recycling because they want to help the environment (and they just need a little push), or if their motives are purely to get rewards at local grocery stores, music shops, or even major e-commerce sites. But, ultimately, does it matter?

Who's to say that if people weren't being rewarded, if those 4.4 million trees would have been conserved or the 295 million gallons of gas would have been saved? A study last year found that only 38% percent of people recycle old cell phones, but 98% of people would be willing to do so... if they just got a little push with cash, store credit, or tax breaks.

"There are so many environmental initiatives out there that are important," says Gonen. "Solar, wind, biofuels. But these are all huge, capital-intensive projects. Most of us can't do that, but everyone can recycle."
This program seems like a win-win: encourage recycling while at the same time supporting local business. I checked with the city, and the curbside program isn't available where I live, in Minneapolis, but there are other ways you can earn recycle points.

Follow Recycle Bank here on Twitter and here on Facebook.

What I did today to make the world a better place )

I'm curious: are people still interested in the decrease worldsuck reports I'm doing? Have any of you followed up on some of the things I've reported and started doing these decrease worldsuck things I've mentioned yourself? If so, please let me know in the comments. If this initiative has inspired you in any way, I'd really like to know if/how I'm making a difference.
pegkerr: (Default)
I'm late to the party, but...

[livejournal.com profile] naomikritzer sent me a link to a story a few months back because she knows I'm interested in reading good fanfiction depictions of Neville Longbottom. I didn't get around to reading it until this weekend, but the story sucked me right in. It's a re-telling of Deathly Hallows from Neville's point of view, covering what happened at Hogwarts, with Neville running the D.A. An author's note at the conclusion of the story ended with this:
...This story is not dedicated to my readers, or to a group of fictional, if -- at least to me -- compelling teenagers [i.e., the D.A.]. It is dedicated to the real-life soldiers who gave their time and effort to help me with the psychology of war. Many of these young men and women are as young as eighteen themselves, and they are not fighting with wands and hexes on the grounds of an imaginary wizarding school. They fire real bullets and shed real blood on the very non-fictional battlefields of the Muggle world even as you read this, and their courage, their sacrifice is too often ignored because they do so out of our daily sight...Go ahead and drop me some feedback if you want, but I would also ask that the next time you spot a young man or woman in uniform, take a moment to shake their hand. Their truth is greater than fiction.
That's quite a particularly graceful note, I thought. I remembered that Rowling has said that the series, and particularly the last book, is about recovering from the scars of war. Perhaps this fanfiction writer worked at the Veterans Administration or something?

There was something about that last line that niggled at me, though, something half-remembered. Who was this author, anyway?

I took a look. The author's name was "thanfiction" (on Livejournal as [livejournal.com profile] thanfiction). I sat there for a second and then my eyes widened. Thanfiction? Wait a minute. I spent a couple minutes googling, following up on something I'd noticed fleetingly on my friends list sometime in the last month.

I told you I was late to the party. Well, it was a weird trick of timing, actually. Naomi had sent me the link months ago, before the knowledge hit the internet (she said she's a little embarrassed about doing so, in retrospect), and I didn't look at the author's name until I had finished reading the entire story. But yes, dear reader, I had unknowingly spent the last two days reading and enjoying Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness (the "DAYDverse") a work written by one of the craziest people I've ever encountered on the internet: the notorious Amy Player AKA Victoria Bitter AKA Mr. Frodo AKA Jordan Wood AKA Andrew Blake AKA thanfiction. The dots were connected that thanfiction was the person that [journalfen.net profile] fandom_wank calls "VB," I guess, about a month ago.

Read more )

So what did I really think about the story? And how did my opinion change, once I knew the authorship?

Armchair psychology is so much fun )

Tell me about an author whose works you enjoy, rather against your own inclination, because you find the person doing the writing to be absolutely reprehensible. How do you reconcile that for yourself?
pegkerr: (Holy Tree with Candlelight)
The last time I went on a retreat, I asked people to send me trees, and I got many marvelous responses. Thank you.

I'm going on retreat again because as you know things have been hard lately, and so I've been struggling. This time, I'll simply ask for this: I'd just appreciate an encouraging note. Or an affirmation. Or a good wish. Or a prayer. Or simply something just to think about in the days to come. Tell me what you think I'm doing right, tell me I'll get through this (me and my family, both). Tell my why you like reading this LiveJournal.

Tell me anything you think will give me light in dark places. Lurkers, I'd really appreciate hearing from you, too.

Thanks.

Love,
Peg
pegkerr: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] sdn asks a cool question:

what do you consider your personal super power?

Hmm. That's a tough one. For me, maybe it's my ability to recall verbatim passages of books I read decades ago.

What I did today to make the world a better place )
pegkerr: (Default)
This is what I did yesterday to make the world a better place )

Here's the sum total of what I've done so far, as of the end of January. I'd be interested in your feedback, too. Have I gotten you to start thinking about Decreasing Worldsuck? Or even doing something yourself? What has this project sparked off in your life?
pegkerr: (Default)
I asked an attorney to sign a couple pleadings today as he was passing by my desk; they had been prepared by one of the associates for whom I work, who said we'd be filing them in federal court today. The attorney told me that he was still working on the related brief, and wasn't sure it would go out today, but that he'd get back to me.

"That's okay, I'll be here," I said as he walked away from my desk. "They also serve who only stand and wait."

And then it occurred to me: how many legal secretaries routinely quote Milton in their day-to-day working lives?

I looked up that particular sonnet, which I hadn't read in several years, although I do often quote that line. I had forgotten how closely it tracks a problem I have often thought and written about. Milton was speaking of his blindness, and I was speaking of writers block, but we both suffered from the same result, the gnawing feeling that God would call us to account for not using the talent He had given us. Given that Milton so clearly understood how I feel, I find the conclusion of the poem deeply comforting, which is probably why I have remembered it and quoted it so often.

Tell me a line of poetry (or perhaps a song lyric) you often quote to people in your daily life. What poem is it from, and why does it speak to you so strongly?
pegkerr: (Default)
I've been thinking more about the series of entries I made about decreasing worldsuck. Specifically, I've been thinking about making this a personal project this year. Besides the thinking I've been doing in those previous entries, I've been reading Barack Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father (OMG what an absolutely AMAZING book). I've been really inspired about the upcoming inauguration, and Obama's mission to help people find what they can do to help get the country back on track. My church asked, during the recent stewardship drive, that people commit to donating an hour of time a week to service in their community, as well as the more traditional commitment of financial support. I've been more active on the Sparkpeople.com website in the past week, as I've been thinking about recommitting to getting fit (what a time to get injured, groan) and saw a video about the site's founder, who started and runs it for free, specifically because he wants to make the world a better place. (see two minute video about Sparkpeople.com and the founder's mission, here.) One of the things the Sparkpeople.com site does is let you set your own goals.

Yesterday, I was standing in line at the grocery store. All this thinking collided together in my mind when I saw a poster informing customers that they could take a coupon, for $1, $3, or $5 and give it to the cashier, and then the cashier would add that amount to their bill, and then grocery store would donate that amount to a local foodshelf. "This is something I can do right now to reduce worldsuck," I thought, and I took a coupon and gave it to the cashier. I suddenly thought, well, why not make this an ongoing project?

Suppose I try to find a specific way, each day, to reduce worldsuck. Suppose I keep track of it on Sparkpeople, the way I keep track of calories, workout minutes, calcium, and other goals I'm tracking. I could set up a goal called "Decrease worldsuck" and check it off every day when I do something like, buy a $1 coupon to donate groceries to my local foodshelf, or shovel a neighbor's walk, or . . . or what?

What could I do? Could I find something to do every day? Even just a small thing? Besides the basics of being a good employee, a good parent, a good citizen, there are little ongoing things I do already: pack my lunch in a laptop lunchbox instead of buying frozen lunches in plastic trays. Biking to work in the summer. Microlending at Kiva.org, to help entrepreneurs build better lives for themselves. Recycling. I'll keep doing that ongoing stuff, but can I find other, tangible, specific things, each day? Well, I'll have one week this spring covered, when I go work in an orphanage in Mexico. What about every other day in the year?

Should I report it here, to inspire other people to get involved, too? I'm not sure. I could append a note at the end of an entry, "this is what I did today to decrease worldsuck." (I already post here in my LiveJournal close to once every day anyway.) Would that be annoying, or would it be good because it would keep the idea in front of people? There is a school of thought (a religious ethic if you will) that if you do a good deed, best not to trumpet it about, as if you're praising yourself. Maybe I could keep a running tally in a private entry, dated December 31, 2009, and then when that day comes at the end of the year, I could post the whole thing at once.

How do I see making the world a better place? That's something to think about. Protecting the environment. Helping people who are struggling. Helping support children and families. Helping support the disenfranchised. Helping literacy and education causes. Helping people fight chemical dependency. Helping raise people's spirits. Helping people become involved. Helping people get healthy. Helping foster new businesses.

So . . . thoughts/reactions? Can you suggest tangible, specific things I could do, just on a daily basis, to make the world a better place? What do YOU do? I will probably need lots of ideas, if I'm going to keep this up. Would you be interested in doing something like this yourself this year? Can you suggest LJ communities that are organized around ideas for decreasing world suck? (I can think of one: [livejournal.com profile] daily_granola. Can you think of others?)

P.S. So far, I've gotten 63 people to sign up at SparkPeople. Hey, that's making the world a better place! Anyone else want to join up? Click here:

Join me at: SparkPeople.com

Get a Free Online Diet

Edited to add: This is my soundtrack for today, on endless repeat: American Prayer, by Dave Stewart, with friends. Many, many thanks to [livejournal.com profile] blpurdom, for bringing this song to my attention. Yes, you can buy it on iTunes.


American Prayer )

ETA: What I'll do to decrease worldsuck today: I'll spread this idea to my family. Every day at the dinner table, we go around and have everybody say one good thing about the day. Tonight, I'll suggest that we also report whatever we did that day to make the world a better place. I think it'd be a good thing to get the girls thinking about this, too.

ETA: [livejournal.com profile] seagrit drew my attention to the website/blog: www.coolpeoplecare.org ("saving the world 5 minutes at a time"). They have an article every day that lists one thing you can do in 5 minutes or less to make the world a better place, everything from recycling and composting to donating frequent flier miles to the make a wish foundation. I checked, and they have an RSS feed: [livejournal.com profile] feed_5mincare. Friend it, and you can read the suggestions on your friends page every day. Thanks, [livejournal.com profile] seagrit!
pegkerr: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] sdn suggested here that rather than making New Year's resolutions (a set up for guilt and failure), we make fake resolutions, to let ourselves off our particular hooks. I'm not exactly clear what she meant by this, but here are mine, quite tongue in cheek:
I will go to every sparring class and get through them without getting winded or bursting into tears.

I will stretch my inner hamstrings to the point of flexibility that I can kick any other student at my dojo in the head.

I will cook a meal that is so utterly delicious that every member of my family will slap the forehead and exclaim, "Damn, I never knew what I was missing before! From now on, I'll be eating onions! Voluntarily!"

I will use at least some of my awesome powers to keep the house clean.

I will dazzle my coworkers so much with my mad skillz that they'll beg me never to take a day off. Then I'll take a day off anyway.

I will dash off an exquisitely sensitive and beautiful novel in 30-second bursts, each snippet composed while brushing and flossing my teeth.

I will keep a personal (paper) journal that is so wise, brilliant, observant, funny and insightful that people will still be discussing with awe five hundred years later.

I will create a garden so beautiful that complete strangers will knock on my door and beg to be allowed to photograph it.

I will drink a glass of wine a day--purely for medicinal purposes. I will eat dark chocolate every day--purely for pleasure.
And you?
pegkerr: (Default)
I have been thinking rather obsessively about this the last three days.

Longtime readers of this Livejournal know that I sometimes ruminate here about what I should be when I grow up. Which is both rather funny and sad, since I'm going to be 49 on my next birthday. I thought for many years that what I wanted to be was a writer, which (I assumed) meant a writer of original, professionally published fiction. Well, I've done that, and done it well, if I do say so myself, but the creative part of my brain hasn't been cooperating enough to allow me to do that for awhile. This caused me great pain for a long time (see my entries tagged "writers block"--there are a LOT of them.) I think I finally figured out the reason why the original fiction intended for professional publication stopped--although, who knows, in five years I may surprise myself and get back to it. Not holding my breath, though. I started to realize that the larger question is, what is my vocation? My life's work, if you will (and yes, I realize that doesn't necessarily mean it's what I do to earn my living). I've wrestled with that question in this LJ, too, particularly here and here.

A lot of thoughts have come together in my mind about this the last few days. Some conversations with [livejournal.com profile] kijjohnson who is wrestling with her own questions, now that she has been laid off. Going back to see my therapist, after several years away. He is the one who gave me the assignment to figure out what I do well. On that one, I just was lazy and asked you (and was genuinely startled and touched at all the heartwarming answers--thank you!) One of the things I discussed with my therapist at that meeting was how my thinking about writing fic for publication has been evolving and, in perhaps a related way, how my thinking about my day job has been evolving, too. Part of it is simple gratitude that I have a day job (with health insurance!) at all, since Rob has been laid off. But more than that, I started applying some of the reading I've been doing about vocation at work. I read about a woman who scrubbed floors at hospitals, and when asked what she did for a living, she said she helped the sick. I read about a creative man who was the manager at an art framing store who was happy with his work, because he said his job was to help people display their own creative endeavors. I read about a man who worked for a moving company who said that his vocation was to decrease the stress for families when they moved. If you think about it that way . . . how do I serve a vocation by working as a legal secretary? If you look at it that way, it's not so much that I type insurance paperwork, it's that I assist six attorneys by decreasing their stress, helping them accomplish their projects. At the time I was thinking about all this, one of the people I worked for suddenly underwent some serious upheaval in his life, and he really needed me to decrease his stress in a way that he's seldom needed before. I suddenly saw that I was assisting him that way, and once I realized that . . . well, it felt pretty good.

And then there's the thinking I've been doing in the last year watching several projects: Obama's election, and particularly watching how the Transition team is implementing things at http://change.gov. Getting involved as a microlender with Kiva.org. Taking a look at Google's Project 10^100 contest (see an explanation here). Project 4 Awesome, by the Vlogbrothers (the Brotherhood 2.0 guys, John and Hank Green, the originators of the Nerdfighters).

It's all interconnected, I've suddenly been thinking in the past three days. John and Hank Green, the ones who pointed me to Kiva.org, have put it into words as: "We want to Decrease World Suck." ("We're Nerdfighters We fight against suck....we fight awesome...We fight using our brains, our hearts, our calculators and our trombones.") The genius of this as a vocation is that it's so flexible. That's why John and Hank have turned it over to the Nerdfighters, and said, okay, run with it! What can you do to decrease worldsuck? It's exactly the same thing that Andrew Slack is doing over at The Harry Potter Alliance. It's why Obama set his organization up as a grassroots movement, modeled on, well, community organizing, trusting people to see the work and carry it forward, from the ground up. It's why people have been responding to the election by saying, what can I do now, to help get our country back on its feet? It's what Wellstone was trying to do, and it's what the Wellstone Action is trying to carry forward. It's what the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater is trying to do, and Playing for Change. It's Teach for America, and the Peace Corps, and Bread for the World, and the Search Institute, and Hippo Water Rollers and the Life Straw, and so much else. It's St. Martins Table and projects to create and distribute solar cookers in Africa. It's the guy who wrote Three Cups of Tea, who's building schools for girls in Afghanistan. It's paying it forward. It's keeping a heart of flesh in a world that tries to put in its place a heart of stone. It's raising kids and cleaning up the environment and making the world a better place.

Tell me what you are doing personally (or an organization that you like that works) to decrease world suck.

Edited to add: Apparently, the Nerdfighters are a subgroup over at Kiva. I've joined the group. I've also joined the Decrease Worldsuck Foundation over at Facebook.


Kiva - loans that change lives
pegkerr: (candle)
I've been asked to take stock of my resources, and in particular, to note all the things I am doing right. Not in the too distant past (yes, I wrote some good books, but that was several years ago). I'm talking about, within the past year.

Friends list, please tell me the things I am doing right. Lurkers, that includes you.

Right now, I need to hear that rather desperately.

Fish oil

Dec. 8th, 2008 04:26 pm
pegkerr: (Default)
For a variety of reasons, it seems that adding fish oil to my family's diet would be a Good Idea (some of us have elevated triglycerides, some have depression, some are prone to eczema, and it would be protective for me for breast cancer, too). Since half of the family adamantly refuses to eat fish, I'm interested into fish oil capsules. What should we look for in choosing fish oil capsules--are there any industry standards we should look for, to avoid mercury or PCB contamination, etc? Any advice for finding it, in non-contaminated form, reasonably priced? Are you taking fish oil? Has it helped you?

Worry

Nov. 25th, 2008 10:01 pm
pegkerr: (howitzer cat)
Something [livejournal.com profile] kijjohnson said in our weekly telephone call really jumped out at me, maybe because it has the ring of truth. "You worry more than anybody I know."

I've been thinking about that statement ever since. Really, I'm quite embarrassed about it. Come on, Peg, you know that you're undermining your own health by always worrying so much. And how unnecessary it all is, really! I've been analyzing, trying to understand myself. How much of my worry is innate to my character, to the fact that I tend to be a depressive person (always seeing the glass half empty, Peg?) How much of it is integral to the structures within my marriage? Rob is adamantly NOT a worrier--and I have become, in a sense, the designated worrier of the family. It performs a function, but can slide into codependency, and really, when you look at it that way, getting off the worry hook (and maybe sticking HIM onto it) can only improve my marriage. How much of it is simply peculiar to my situation (layoff, money, some medical issues, etc.) such that any reasonable person in my position would worry the same amount?

Yes, I do worry too much. I agree. Way too much. How much can I change that? I do certain things that theoretically could help: regular exercise, including walking in sunlight, spiritual connection, antidepressants, support system. Yet I seem to be simply marinating in my own stress; my mind turns over and over on the well-worn ruts of low grade panic.

I'm sick of it.

My psychiatrist told me today that someone in my situation should be worried, yes--if I weren't, it would indicate a serious breach with reality. But the level of worry I cope with every day is so hard on me, my family, my body. There's also a part of me that thinks it's also a spiritual malaise--although I am REALLY wary of falling into the trap in which I suffered for so many years, of believing that the reason I was depressed was that I didn't have enough faith.

Still. Is it possible to change? How? I have been thinking about experimenting with meditation.

Have you managed to get a grip on worry and change yourself and the way that you deal with anxiety to the point that you think you have made a real difference in your life? What prompted the change? What did you do? How did it work for you?
pegkerr: (Default)
This post is being made in honor of all who have served in uniform (including my Dad, who was a lieutenant in the Navy) and especially to all who paid the final price, laying down their lives at their country's call. Our nation is even now at war, and I grieve for those in the forefront of the conflict. I pray that President-elect Obama will do his utmost to bring about a peaceful resolution in the days to come.







Do you have a veteran in the family, or are you a veteran yourself? Tell me about his or her service. Take the time to thank him or her it.

Again, thanks, Dad.
pegkerr: (All we have to decide is what to do with)
[livejournal.com profile] cakmpls here continues a meme she got from [livejournal.com profile] chronicpaint, who asked people to post about what they believe. [livejournal.com profile] cakmpls pointed to a nice video clip of Elton John playing "Circle of Life," saying that pretty much comes closest to hers. She also mentioned her daughter's R's answer, which she came up with when she was 14: "Watch your back, watch your heart, and don't be a dumb-ass." Which I think is pretty fabulous philosophy, too, and a good indication of why I admire [livejournal.com profile] cakmpls and her husband J. as parents. They've raised great and wise kids.

You may remember a post I did awhile ago:
As I was making my breakfast this morning I had the KSJN Morning Show on, and the song "Nature Boy" started playing.

After listening for a moment, I stepped out into living room, where Fiona was playing a computer game and Rob was talking to Delia, who was sitting on his lap.

"May I have your attention for a moment?" I said. My family looked up at me expectantly. "I just wanted to say that I think that this song has it right. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." I went over and kissed Delia on the top of her head. "If you take anything from what your parents teach you, remember that."

"That's a pretty good rule," said Rob.
It's worth asking again. If you boiled it all down, what would you say under the title "This I Believe" ? Both, perhaps, as something you'd like to pass on as a parent, and more generally, as a guiding philosophy of life?

???
pegkerr: (You'll eat it and like it)
I was reading my friends list and ran across an entry by [livejournal.com profile] lollardfish, talking about his adorable son Nico. In the comments, [livejournal.com profile] gerisullivan mentioned in passing that she was eating some pumpkin ice cream. When [livejournal.com profile] lollardfish lamented his lack of pumpkin ice cream, I was suddenly overcome by an irresistible urge. So I went downstairs, dished up some vanilla ice cream, microwaved it for ten seconds, opened a can of pumpkin and threw a 1/4 cup on top of the ice cream and mixed it all together. I'd never done such a thing before, but it was so ravishingly delicious that I went down and fixed myself second bowl. Uh, because I need more vitamin A, right?

I find it funny that a passing comment from a woman in Massachusetts would set off a food craving for me here in Minnesota.

Tell me about an instance where something you've read on LiveJournal influenced you to do something, maybe something you've never tried before. Big or small--whatever. I know some of you started the 100 pushups program because you read about it here. What else?
pegkerr: (Default)
I brought an AWESOME lunch today: ratatouille, topped with monterey jack cheese, homemade fresh peach pie (oatmeal topping!), beets and onions, oven-roasted in balsamic vinegar and a little bit of butter, and a dessert made of plain yogurt mixed with pumpkin and a dollop of maple syrup. Sorry I didn't have time to take a picture and post it before leaving this morning, but trust me: it's pretty, healthy and delicious.

Delia got up this morning and kept me company as I was getting ready for work, which was nice. She's trying to shift her circadium rhythms because next week she's got to get up early enough to catch a bus that arrives at 7:00 a.m. Ouch.

My bike ride this morning was really enjoyable. Perfect weather. No wind, clear skies. Lots of frisking squirrels sighted. Listened to Entrain's "Can U Get It" which would make anybody want to get up and dance. And I had put a splash of Kahlua in my homemade coffee slush. Yum.

What's making you happy today?

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