Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Atlas Obscura also had an article about bibliomania, a neurosis that afflicted people in the 17 and 1800s and caused them to spend all of their money collecting books.  (Or, in some cases, risked it all to steal books.)

In the case of bibliomania, it sounds more like any obsessive collecting — from rare comic books to Pokemon — but I clicked on the article due to the excerpt because it hit close to home.

I am a book hoarder.  I own more books than I could ever find time to read, plus I buy more books despite having stuff I’m excited about on my to-read list.  I hint to people that I really would love that book that they mentioned that they don’t want anymore.  I am about one step away from stealing library books like the first guy in the article.  At least the people in the article had an excuse — books were rare and hard to obtain.  Commercialization was supposed to be the cure.  But look at me!  I am a danger to all little free libraries in America.

Is there anything you collect without knowing what you would ever do with the collection?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Spend any time on Donald Trump’s Twitterfeed and you’ll see him listing out various people and actions that deserve punishment.  Companies that move jobs out of the US will be punished.  People who burn the flag will be punished.  Reporters who criticize him will be punished, countries that won’t make trade deals he likes will be punished, and politicians who work against him will be punished.  He is really big on talking about punishments.

It’s easy to see the possible outcome of those punishments.  Tax companies that move jobs out of the US?  They can pass along the higher cost to the consumer.  Or they can have massive layoffs in the US in order to keep the remaining jobs on US soil.  Also, if you look at each punishment he lists, it’s rarely the individual or company that bears the brunt of the punishment.  It’s you and you and you (and me) as the side effects of those punishments trickle down to the rest of society.

We parent without punishment.  Josh and I are clearly on the anti-punishment side of the behavioural psychology punishment/rewards argument.  It’s a decision that stems from how I ran my classroom as a teacher: I educated without punishment, too.  To be completely honest, we also parent without rewards, unless you see the natural consequence of being a trustworthy, kind individual resulting in beneficial situations as an incentive.  But if I could only get rid of one option, I’d go with getting rid of punishments.

Based on your life experience, which do you believe works better: Rewards or punishments?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I am terrible at trying new foods when it is on someone else’s timetable, but I am actually decent at giving things a try on my own.  Take, for instance, Brussels sprouts.  Did not want to try them any time other people asked me to try them over the years, but one day (well into adulthood) I decided I wanted to taste them, and now they’re one of my favourite things.

The same thing is happening with Tofurkey.

I am usually not drawn to fake meat, mostly because I am grossed out by real meat.  Why would I want to eat a fake version of something I find revolting in its real form?  It took me a long time to come around to veggie burgers or ersatz chicken patties, and they’re still not my favourite things, but I’ve never tried Tofurkey.  The idea of it is unappetizing.

Yet I am suddenly interested in the idea of Tofurkey, and now just need to whip up the stuffing and vegetarian gravy to make a meal out of trying it.

Have you ever changed your mind on trying something you said you would never, ever eat?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I really love abandoned amusement parks.  I love well-kept, active amusement parks, too, but there is something so achingly beautiful about grass growing through the cracks in broken-down rides and dried out pools.

The author of Bizarro tries to get at the heart as to why people love abandoned parks, specifically: “Abandoned malls, abandoned NASCAR speedway tracks and abandoned theme parks were all communal spaces for a lot of people. They shared good times there, formed memories. These people don’t want to forget these places, let alone slowly watch them die.”

I love the ones that I’ve been to in their heyday, such as Disney’s River Country or The Enchanted Forest, and the ones I never saw in their pristine, useable state.  I read about an abandoned Wizard of Oz amusement park last summer that offers tours in June, and I’d like to try to visit it this upcoming year.

Do you think abandoned properties are beautiful?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Josh’s co-worker’s church was hit on Sunday.  A sign stretching out in front of the church announcing services in Spanish was defaced with the words “Trump Nation, Whites Only.”  This comes on the heels of a local middle school defaced with swastikas.  As of Friday, there have been 200 reported incidents of “hateful harassment and intimidation.”  So these acts aren’t part of that 200-count since they happened after Friday at 5 pm.

I live in the most liberal of states, and this is the most liberal county in the state.

Let that sink in for a moment.

I want to be writing about other things, really, I do.  I have a short list of non-political things I want to unpack such as robot eyes and this great hourly trick I learned for feeling more kindness during a stressful day.  THAT is what I want to be writing about, not this.

And yet this is what I keep sitting down to type.  It is what I keep unpacking with friends in conversation.  Maybe it is because I don’t feel safe.  Maybe if I was in a different position, I could set it mentally aside.  But I’m not.  So I keep talking about it and thinking about it and reading about it.

How do things feel for you a week down the road?

Tomorrow… kindness mind game.  I kinda sorta promise.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.