Category — Uncategorized

ChickieNob and I walk in the afternoon to first-person virtual walking videos while we listen to audiobooks. Sometimes my mind wanders as I consider whether I want to live there. How would I feel if I lived in Knaresborough, UK? If I woke up to see the river and then got breakfast in the little cafe we pass along the walk. Or Paris? Or Mykonos? What would it be like to live in any of these places?

There are so many things in life you can’t control. You may not get the family you want, the job you want, or the opportunities you want. But choosing where you live — not the exact place but the general location — feels like it could have a big change in how you feel about life.

My state makes me happy. I want to live closer to water, but the fact that we can get to the river, bay, or ocean quickly makes me happy.

Last week, I encountered a strange bug on a tool I was using for work, and I did what I always do when I discover something not working on the Internet. I went to Twitter to see if other people were writing about it, too.

That is the only reason I go on Twitter.

[Side note: The problem was solely my account. The bug disappeared the next day.]

I looked at the top of my feed and thought, “Oh, I don’t know who this is. But I must have followed them because this isn’t sponsored content.” I hovered over the name and discovered, no, I didn’t follow them. Strange.

The next tweet was the same thing. I had no clue who this person was. It took about eight tweets until I hit a name I knew. Then there was a run of strangers and another tweet from someone I knew. I closed Twitter and went downstairs. “My Twitter feed is filled with strangers. I don’t know how this happened.”

“Are you looking at your feed? Or the ‘for you’ tab? It’s stuff Twitter thinks you’d be interested in.”

“Based on what? Why would Twitter ever think I would be interested in watching a woman pour chocolate syrup all over the outside of a glass jar?”

Apparently, I didn’t get the memo. Twitter gave us a new column of stuff we don’t want to see. This is just in case, like me, you are totally confused. And, no, I have no clue how long it has been there because I only go on the site when I encounter a bug online.

It started with the Westing Game. The e-book went on sale, and while we own multiple copies of the paper version, we decided we needed a copy to keep in our pocket — a boost for a bad day.

Then it was Beverly Cleary’s books. How could we walk through the world without the ability to read about Ramona whenever the mood arose?

We may be regressing.

Someone in my Facebook feed posted a meme about how re-reading books (or re-watching shows) is soothing because our brain can predict what will happen next because the story is already familiar. It makes our brain feel safe in an unpredictable, new situation.

I’ll go with that.

What is your favourite childhood book you’d want to re-read?

This year has been a year of lasts. Last first day of school. Last September, October, and November at home. Last high school test. Last class project.

Last Mother’s Day here.

For the next four years, we almost definitely will not be together — this will be either finals week or moving-out-of-the-dorm week. After that, there is a possibility they will both live at home, but I can’t count on that. Instead, I have to understand that this will be the last time we’re all together for this holiday.

I still have a lot of complicated feelings about this day. It’s not a celebration like my birthday. The day makes me feel quiet inside. The word I most associate with it is permission. It always felt like a gatekeeper stood in front of this Hallmark holiday, and I spent year after year waiting to be let in. And then, once there, all you can think about is the time you spent at the gate. The journey to get here. The ache of all of the feelings you always had around the day.

Having the twins with me was part of processing those feelings.

It’s just a day. My feelings today are more knowing that in a few months, they’ll be at school, and I will be here. Missing them.

Twice a year, Modern Mrs. Darcy puts out a reading guide — recommendations for upcoming books, the sort that comes out on many book sites a few times per year. The difference is that if you normally like her suggestions, she is curating a list of things you will like vs. having you sort through hundreds of upcoming titles to find the ones worth reading.

People who subscribe to her book club get the guide during the online reveal party. Everyone else gets it a week or two later. But she announced that they wouldn’t do a free version this year. If you want the guide, you must be part of Patreon or buy it a la carte.

And people got salty.

Everyone was given ample warning in a blog post, and the choice was left in the hands of the reader. If you want the guide, pay X. If you don’t want to pay X, no worries. You won’t have the guide, but you can still enjoy the rest of the site. You could, in that case, make your own guide by reading another site or newspaper’s book coverage, subscribing to your favourite publisher’s newsletter, or looking at lists on Goodreads.

The guide costs money to make, so it makes sense to charge money to receive it.

The internet has been free for so long — a necessary step to get people hooked on internet content — but it will be interesting to see how paywalls and subscriptions fare. How do we shift the internet to make it sustainable?