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 know next to nothing about Karl Lagerfeld, but I was fascinated by this article about his mourning instructions.  Not burial instructions, because I think most of us have those, but five pages of mourning instructions.

For example, he “provided his staff with the acceptable answers he wanted them to give to customers when they offer their condolences. On the approved list: ‘Thank you for your condolences’ and ‘It is a hard time for all of us’.”  He left behind the statements he wanted written about himself: “He leaves behind an extraordinary legacy as one of the greatest designers of our time, and there are no words to express how much he will be missed.”

I am equal parts in love and confused by his chutzpah to dictate what other people think and feel after his death.  It’s not that other people don’t write their own obits, but they don’t take that space to speak effusively about themselves with the emphatic statement: I will be missed.  We hope someone else will do that.

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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The books you’re reading now — at least, the e-book versions — are the future books that people described decades ago.  Wired had a piece on all the ideas people had for where digital books would go:

The Future Book would change depending on where you were, how you were feeling. It would incorporate your very environment into its story—the name of the coffee shop you were sitting at, your best friend’s birthday. It would be sly, maybe a little creepy. Definitely programmable.

There are definitely books doing innovative things — I’m thinking of books that have accompanying apps.  But for the most part, my e-books are screen versions of my paper books, albeit with the ability to highlight with my finger and look up a word with a tap.

Read through the list of ideas in that article.  Which do you wish would come true?  Me — I want the indefinite Ulysses.

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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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As I said last year, Josh and I do not celebrate Valentine’s Day.  At all.  Every day is Valentine’s Day in our house.  Not that… like… I make heart-shaped pancakes all the time.  But I let everyone know how I feel every day of the year.

But what struck me this weekend was thinking about how damn important Valentine’s Day was for me back in high school or college.  If I was dating someone, I wanted to know how we were going to celebrate it.  If I wasn’t dating someone, it was a chance to get a really good mope going.  The worst was starting to date someone in January.  Was it too soon to do something for Valentine’s Day?  Would it look weird if I suggested it?

Elementary school was easy: it was class parties and paper Valentines.  But those high school and college years were a killer.

What are your Valentine’s Day memories from your teens/twenties?

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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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Is this a post about Marie Kondo and books? Um… sort of.

I was trying to understand her concept of sparking joy. Watching the video immediately brought certain books to mind.  The Magicians trilogy is a joy sparker.  All of my copies of The Phantom Tollbooth?  Each and every one fill me with joy.  Tolkien, joy.  Lewis, joy.  My Crazy Rich Asians books, joy joy joy.

But should reading always be joyful?  I don’t feel joy at all when I pick up Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz but wasn’t it important to read it and important to keep it?  Fine, we can equate gratitude (for Levi writing the book) with joy and it remains on the bookshelf, but there are so many others that don’t fill me with any emotion, and I would still never give them away.  They represent a moment in time or a story I may want to return to in the future or simply a good receptacle of knowledge.  My reading isn’t always joyful or even enjoyable; there is plenty I read because I think there is a good reason to read it.  Like the math book I’m reading right now; zero joy, 100% still think I should read it.

This isn’t commentary on Kondo’s method — I’m sure there is some nuanced loophole that allows you to keep as many books as you please.  It’s more the thought over whether reading should always be enjoyable.  Should we be aiming for pleasure or aiming for a different target?

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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 read a little nugget of advice that I like and hate in equal measure.  On the plus side, it’s a really easy way to get yourself motivated.  On the minus side, it brings up all my feelings over the idea of “just one more bite.”

(No, not just one more bite.  When you’re full, you’re full.)

So the idea is that when you’re stuck or dragging, you tell yourself that you’re just going to do five more of something or spend five more minutes.  For instance, I’ll just answer five more emails.  Or I’ll work on this for five more minutes.  The idea being that we can usually handle five more of something and continuing can sometimes get us over the “don’t wanna” hump:

Don’t feel like exercising? Do five downward facing dogs. Can’t bring yourself to clean out the whole fridge? Clear out five items. Taunted by that giant unopened novel that’s been sitting on your nightstand? Read just five pages. You’re giving yourself a jump-start—and once you get going, you likely won’t stop.

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.