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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I feel like I’m entering a period of cocooning. I feel myself getting quieter and quieter, standing back and observing without feeling completely a part of things. I don’t feel the impulse to write — instead I have to convince myself that I want to sit down and type up a post. I don’t have an impulse to scroll.

If I let it happen, I know I emerge out the other side feeling more talkative, more engaged, more connected to the people and world around me. I feel a need, once again, to write. A need to check in on Facebook and see what people are doing.

If I fight it, I just feel like crap. So I’m letting myself cocoon a bit and observe. We’ll see what I notice this time.

Do you ever feel yourself pulling back and inward?

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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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Has there ever been a more fascinating line written? “In 1815, thousands of people came to watch George Wilson, the “Blackheath Pedestrian,” walk 1,000 miles.”

If I had been alive in 1815, I would have been in that crowd, watching the man walk in a circle:

[It was] a 1,000-mile walk, one of several feats of long-distance walking called ‘pedestrianism; that enthralled Britain in the early 19th century. He walked on a pre-measured circuit around Blackheath common, an area of public grasslands outside of Greenwich.

Like literally walked in a circle for everyone’s entertainment. People bet on the walker, consumed beer while they watched, enjoyed a day out watching a very slow, monotonous activity. That article, by the way, leads to more articles about competitive walking.

I found this completely fascinating. There’s a story somewhere in here.

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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 usually don’t remember to put books on hold at the library until they’re already in circulation, which means that I end up with slot #5783870486 when it comes to popular books. (Yes, 5783870485 people in our library system get there before me, somehow.)

But months ago, I put myself down for Margaret Atwood’s new book AND Stephen King’s new book beforehand so I started with a low number on the list. They both popped into existence around the same time, and the race was off to see which book would come to me first. Except it’s a little like the catcher in the rye (like the actual metaphor of the catcher in Salinger’s book) because the books are coming at me at once, AND I CANNOT READ (or catch) ALL THESE BOOKS AT ONCE. So it’s a game of seeing which one pulls ahead and then quickly suspending the other hold so I don’t bring it home too soon.

Library hold stress, people. It’s real.

Have you read either book yet? What do you think?

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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 and I decided about a month ago that we were going to go all-in with becoming birders. Remember the whole trying-to-set-up-things-to-do-before-the-kids-leave-for-college crisis? So birding in moderation felt like a good fit. The moderation is a nod to the fact that we have no intention of photographing them and asking our friends to watch long slideshows of birds we’ve seen. But we’re going to mark down finds in a notebook and go on some birding hikes this year. I just bought a book on birding. Bird steps. (Get it? Like baby steps… because birds are small…)

And then the New York Times did a piece last week on how the bird population is dropping off.  “The number of birds in the United States and Canada has declined by 3 billion, or 29 percent, over the past half-century, scientists find.”

This made me so. damn. sad. We’re still going to be birders, but now seeing each one feels like a moment of last chance tourism.

Do you notice birds?

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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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Do you know what a silent book club is? It’s a book club where you silently read together. So there is socializing beforehand where you can catch up or meet people, a silent reading period, and then another talking section where people can talk about cool things that came up in their book.

Everyone is reading whatever they feel like reading, so you’re never reading a book that isn’t appealing, AND you still find out about books you may have never found otherwise because other people are reading (and talking about) them in the group.

What do you think? Would you join a silent book club?

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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.