Who knows? What I do know, however, is that this feels right, so I'm going with it. I don't really have a schedule in mind, but I think I'll aim for two main posts on weekdays, my regular features on weekends, and anything else will be gravy. Or icing, depending on your preference. I do hope you'll stay tuned...
I've decided that it's time to slow things down a bit here on my blog. Aside from a couple of sick days and some time offline when my hard drive crashed, I've been posting every day since I started back in October. I'm still loving it, but I feel that now I'd like to experiment a bit and take more time with each post to see what comes together when I don't have a 24-hour turnaround time. Maybe I'll do more research, or start taking photos, or take up a new hobby I can share with you. Or maybe my posts will stay very much the same, but they'll be a bit longer.
Who knows? What I do know, however, is that this feels right, so I'm going with it. I don't really have a schedule in mind, but I think I'll aim for two main posts on weekdays, my regular features on weekends, and anything else will be gravy. Or icing, depending on your preference. I do hope you'll stay tuned...
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I've always known that I write most effectively when I am alone, but I've never really questioned why that is. If pressed, I would probably have said that I need peace and quiet and the opportunity to stare at the wall uninterrupted for long periods of time. And that's partially true.
The primary reason came to me just recently, though, as I was putting together a blog post. I suddenly became very aware of the rituals I go through when I'm writing, and I realized an embarrassing truth: I look really weird when I write. Especially during the in between bits, when I'm not actually typing or writing, but thinking and planning what comes next. That is when things get physical. I shake my legs and tap my fingers and pull at my lips and play with my hair and crack my knuckles and furrow my brow and massage my temples and wiggle my toes and wave my hands and pace and dance and stretch and when the words are being particularly difficult, I lay my head on my desk or bury my face in my hands. And the last thing I need while all of this is occurring is an audience. It seems that in order to get to the good stuff, I must simply give in to the oddball physicality, and if I knew that someone was watching me as I did so, I don't think the words would flow as freely. Virginia Woolf famously said that in order to write fiction a woman must have money and a room of her own. I doubt that her reasoning was the same as mine, but then again, you never know. I think I'll choose to dream that she and I have something in common. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go lie down. Writing is exhausting. Sarah xoxo P.S. What about you? Do you have any writing rituals, or is it just me? Please share in the comments. On January 28th I will be taking part in the Bell Let's Talk Day campaign and joining in a Canada-wide conversation about mental health issues. On that day, for every text message and long distance call made by Bell and Bell Aliant customers, every tweet using #BellLetsTalk at @Bell_LetsTalk, and every Facebook share of that day’s Bell Let’s Talk Day image at Facebook.com/BellLetsTalk, Bell will donate 5 cents to programs dedicated to mental health.
National spokesperson, six-time Olympic medalist Clara Hughes, leads the campaign inviting all Canadians to talk, text and tweet about mental health to help end the stigma around mental illness and support mental health initiatives around the country. She says, “We all have family members, friends or colleagues who will experience mental illness or we may struggle ourselves, as I have – yet most people impacted still won’t seek support because they fear admitting they need help. By talking openly and supportively about mental illness, we can all help break the stigma and improve Canadian mental health.” The money raised on Let's Talk Day will be donated in addition to Bell's initial commitment in 2010 of $50 million over five years. Bell has pledged to increase Bell Let’s Talk funding based on the growing engagement of Canadians in the mental health movement on Bell Let’s Talk Day. From the Let's Talk Day news release: While 20% of Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetimes, 2 in 3 suffer in silence for fear of being judged or rejected because of the continuing stigma. Bell Let’s Talk is working to end the stigma while providing significant funding to leading mental health institutions and grassroots organizations in every province and territory, championing new workplace initiatives across corporate Canada, and supporting new research at Canadian universities and other institutions. Some facts about mental illness and its impact on Canadians:
If you are Canadian and are concerned about any of these statistics, I hope you will join me and participate in Let's Talk Day on the 28th. I'll be focusing all of my attention on Twitter, so I'll "see" you there - I'm @sarahebroadfoot. Let's get talking. Sarah xoxo "You cannot find peace by avoiding life." "Language is wine upon the lips." "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world." "Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent." "It is far more difficult to murder a phantom than a reality." For today's dose of happy, I present a sample of the giggles on offer at calmingmanatee.com. If ever you are feeling a little down, stop by and summon a few wise manatees to help change your perspective.
These big lugs will have you smiling in no time. On one of the days when my computer was out of commission last month and I wasn't able to participate in the Kickin' It Old Skool blog-a-thon, the prompt was to share a favourite recipe. This is what I would have posted - a delicious way to cook spuds, otherwise known as rosti potatoes. It's a triple threat - it only uses three ingredients, it's easy to prepare, and your house smells fabulous while it cooks.
You'll need a pan that you can use both on the stove and in the oven (the one I use is 8 inches), some oil or butter, and the three main ingredients - three russet (i.e. baker) potatoes, some fresh rosemary, and a few cloves of garlic. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Peel the potatoes and chop them into matchstick size pieces - don't worry about keeping them all the same size, because the idea is that they cook unevenly in the pan, so you get a mixture of crunchy and smooth. Heat some oil or butter in the pan, and add the potatoes, along with the rosemary and peeled whole garlic cloves. Cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes have softened and browned a bit. Transfer the pan to the oven and let cook for about 20 minutes. Remove and smoosh the potatoes down in the pan - I just use my hand with an oven mitt on, but I suppose you could be more civilized and use a utensil like a spatula. (One version I tried used wax paper and a plate, but I found that the potatoes stuck to the paper, so I wouldn't recommend that method.) Return the pan to the oven and cook for another 20 minutes. Remove and enjoy. Sarah xoxo Just a quick post today, with my Top 5 reasons for loving the TV show Doc Martin:
Sarah xoxo One of my Christmas gifts to myself was the book No Kidding, a collection of essays by women writers who have opted out of motherhood. Even though I've only read the foreword, the introduction and two of the entries, I can already recommend it.
Writer/director Henriette Mantel is the editor, and she says that she came up with the idea for the book after asking her mother what she thought of Mantel's decision to not have kids. Her mother replied, "Well, you certainly have freedom to do whatever you want." (No repressed judgement there, right?) Mantel agreed with her, and immediately started contacting the friends she thought might be interested in contributing to the book. Those friends include Margaret Cho, Wendy Liebman, Laurie Graff, Nora Dunn, and the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge, who wrote the foreword. Coolidge says, "I knew my limitations at a young age. I was very aware of my inability to multitask by age five. I admitted this to my mother when I came in from playing, spit out my chewing gum, handed it to her, and said, 'Mom please hold my gum, I'm going to the bathroom right now, and I can't handle both.'" As a single woman with no kids, the appeal of this book is obvious for me, but I think that all women should consider reading it, regardless of their familial situation. And men too, for that matter! As Coolidge says, "This collection of stories couldn't be more interesting or diverse, and you certainly don't have to be childless, or 'child-free' to be moved by them." The way I see it, we can all learn from listening to another's point of view, and we need to embrace our differences as human beings and not judge each other for our decisions, conscious or otherwise. We can never truly understand each other unless we hear each other's stories, and for that reason alone, this particular collection is worth a read. Sarah xoxo I had some visitors in my home over the holidays, and they weren't very friendly. They swept in without an invitation, wreaked their havoc and then left without a word. Luckily they weren't friends or relatives that I will have to see again, though. No, these were gremlins. Technological gremlins, to be exact. Just before the new year, my iMac's hard drive conked out. It was old and slightly temperamental, and when the gremlins arrived, it was powerless to their advances. Luckily, thanks to Sex and the City, I had a full backup. (I will never forget the episode when Carrie's laptop crashed and everyone she told was incredulous that she didn't have a backup. "But why didn't anyone TELL me this?" she pleaded.) The lovely folks at Simply Computing, whom I highly recommend, installed a new hard drive and retrieved my backup, and within two days I was back in business. Customer Experience #1: Top marks all around Then on Friday the unimaginable happened. My PVR malfunctioned and wiped out ALL of my recorded programs. And after an hour and a half on the phone with my cable company, MTS, I am no better off. They could not retrieve anything, they have no idea what happened, and they "have a policy" never to reimburse for lost recordings. (It seems to me that if they have a policy for such occurrences, this must happen fairly frequently.)
Customer Experience #2: Miserable fail So today, I'm taking a bold step. I'm going to cancel my cable. And I'm excited. For one thing, I'm going to have an extra $80 to play with every month. I think I'll spend it on books. But this is not to say that I won't be watching TV any more - on the contrary. I'm just going to do all of my viewing via Netflix and online streaming. I even discovered a simple hack that will allow me to bypass the restrictions and watch American programming on my computer. Huzzah! I think I'm going to enjoy making the call to the cable company. I'm feeling powerful as I take control and make this decision. They screwed me and now I'm fighting back. Sometimes it's the small victories that matter most. Sarah xoxo My computer is fixed (hallelujah!) and I'm so happy to be back in the blogging saddle. For today's instalment of well-said Sunday, I present to you some gems from the always insightful Fran Lebowitz. Enjoy.
"I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not." "I never met anyone who didn't have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?" "Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra." "To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel." "Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass." |