I am a Children’s Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children’s Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
Okay. So I’ve been looking over today’s headlines to find something to post about and I got stuck. I got stuck because this article is one of the top U.S. headlines on CNN.com at the moment:
Tired of slights, embarrassment, man sheds 87 pounds
Tim Welch was never the kind of guy who worried about his weight.
In fact, the 37-year-old accounts manager from Seattle, Washington, ate a fairly balanced diet and loved participating in sports while growing up.
“I was thin and fit my whole life,” Welch remembers. “I was always active in sports such as running cross-country in high school and swimming on the swim team in college.”
Things started to change in 1995 after he graduated from college. Welch got a job, moved out of his parents’ house and began indulging in late-night meals with his friends.
OMFG. This is the story of EVERYONE’S life. This is top news on CNN?!? This is news? Ugh. I’m disgusted. Does anyone know of a GOOD online news outlet? I originally found this article on Google News. I swear, I wasn’t going to post on it but found myself getting angry at how lame it is that the news isn’t really reporting news and decided that, well, I might as well rant about this.
Not that this guy didn’t accomplish something by losing 87 pounds. I think that’s great. It’s something that is to be commended. But one of the top two headlines for U.S. News? I KNOW there are other things going on in this country right now.
sigh. And now that I’m linking to CNN I’m going to get every Dick and Jane posting a comment here. I need to find a new news outlet.
I haven’t had time to do any kind of creative writing this week at all. God knows when I would ever be able to fit creative writing into my life. Instead, this week I am going to glean a topic from this wonderful list of topics to blog about. The topic I choose today:
Why I hate my hometown.
(I know, I know. This sounds very negative. But it was on the list and it’s something I have thought about quite a bit. Thursday I will write about why I love Spokane, just to even things out.)
I never in a million years thought I would really, truly end up back in Spokane. Sure, I dabbled with the idea every now and then. But I never really wanted to come back. And, yet, here I am. More than two years later I am still wondering, “how the hell did I end up back here?” My friend calls it the Spokane Vortex. The Vortex always sucks it’s natives back in whether they want to come back or not. Perhaps.
So why do I dislike this town so much? I ask myself that all the time. What is it about Spokane that makes it me not like it?
A person who recently moved here, disenchanted with the place, described Spokane as Insular. That is the perfect way to describe this town. It is insular in every sense of the definition. One of the definitions of insular is:”Suggestive of the isolated life of an island.” That describes the physical nature of this city. Spokane is physically inside a “bowl” of mountains, with the city center being in the center bottom of this “bowl”. Because of this we are kind of cut off from certain things.
For example, we have really awful radio stations here that play the same god-awful music over and over. They never play new music. They are still playing, over and over, the same songs that they were playing two years ago when we moved here. The music that is played is either played to death, if it is a fairly new song, or it a song that sucked 20 or 30 years ago. And even those old, crappy songs are played to death. There is a station that started up here not long after we moved and we thought it might have potential. But no. They also fell into the same mind-numbingly boring play-list that all of the other stations are playing.
One day last March we took a drive down to Pullman, a very small college town South of here. Guess what? They have an awesome radio station. A radio station that actually plays NEW MUSIC. What a concept? New music. Songs that I haven’t heard a million times before. In Pullman! A town a fraction the size of Spokane.
Every once in awhile We will venture out to the surrounding areas. Not very far. Maybe 3 miles outside of town. Up above the “bowl” that we are in. We can pick up the Pullman station during those little trips and that is how I hear about new music. And I have to say that it is very refreshing to hear new music. I am a lover of music and that one little thing makes me happy. The strange and annoying thing is that as soon as we enter the city limits of Spokane the Pullman station gets all crackily and we can’t get it in. But if we go just a little bit outside of town, not far, it comes in. It’s like the there is something that is keeping coolness away from this town. Seriously! I know that sounds weird but there is a vibe here. And you all know that I am sensitive to vibes.
I think I will leave it at that one thing. For now. Perhaps this will be a Tuesday series? I could go on and on on this topic. And to be honest? It feels soooo good to get it out. It is cathartic. I’ve been holding these feelings in for two years.
I will still post “The reasons why I love Spokane” on Thursday. Because I do and I want to balance things out. It’s not all about the hate.
For NaKniSweMo I’m knitting a sweater with yarn that I bought at Artfibers a year and a half ago. When we were visiting Raf’s parents in San Jose Judy and I snuck up to San Francisco for the day. It was actually on St. Paddy’s day! So you can imagine what a riot SF was. We had a blast. I’m finally getting around to knitting the gorgeous yarn that I bought when I was there. It’s Satori, a handpainted silk, mohair, and wool blend. I was also talked into buying some Moving Mud buttons that were conveniently placed near the cash register. Well, it didn’t take much cajoling. The were expensive. I can’t believe I spent the amount of money I did on buttons. But they sure are pretty.
So the sweater. It’s a cardigan with a ballet neck. The sleeves have a little slit at the wrists. I am debating whether or not I want to do the slits. But I have awhile before I have to decide. I am about 9 inches into the body. I have to knit 12 inches of body then I will start on the sleeves. This is a no-seam sweater so I am knitting the entire body at the moment. This makes me very happy.
The National Book Award nominees were announced about a month ago and so I have been reading through the contenders for Young People’s Literature. So for this month I will tell what I thought of all of the National Book award nominations (for Young People’s Literature).
Today’s book is Touching Snow by M. Sandy Felin. This one starts out with quite a punch:
“The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill someone. Anyone will do. Accidental killings have the same effect as on-purpose murder.”
Quite the first sentence isn’t it? It grabbed me and didn’t let go until I was done with the book. I was really disturbed by the first 40 pages. I almost didn’t think I would be able to finish it. The story is about a young Haitian girl, Karina, who has to endure horrible abuse from her Step-father and mother. The scene that really got me described in vivid detail the beating her older sister received from her stepfather that left her almost dead. As you read this vignette you are there with Karina, experiencing this with her.
I couldn’t put this book down. it was a heartbreakingly good story. And it does have a happy ending. Great writing from a first time writer. Not my favorite of the nominations, but definitely a worthy contender.
Okay. So this is day two. and, umm, I don’t know wtf to write about. I’m staring at a blank text box. sigh.
I need a plan. I think what I will do is each day post about a specific topic. I have lots of interests and this will be a way for me to organize my thoughts.
Since I’m participating in NaNoSweMo I will need to post some updating on that. So Mondays will be my NaNoSweMo day.
Tuesdays will be my creative writing days. Maybe I will post some kind of a poem I’ve been working on or a writing exercise.
Wednesdays will be will be Current event day. I will use this day to rant about whatever is going on in the news.
Thursdays I will choose a topic from this list and go for it. I may do this on Tuesdays, too if I don’t have anything creative to write.
Friday will be for photography. I’ll post something pretty I took earlier in the week and talk about.
Saturday will be a book review. I usually read at least one book a week and I’ve read quite a few recently that I should review.
Sunday will be a wrap-up of my week or an update on the hike for the day.
And everyday I will post a picture of the shoes I am wearing for my NaNoShoeMO entry. Except Mondays when I will post a picture of my sweater progress. And I may use Friday to be a pretty photograph that I have taken. Photography Friday!
Exciting isn’t it?
Speaking of exciting, I am now Twittering. My username is CraftyMoni if you would like to add me as a friend. Please do if you are on this thing..I have no idea what the heck it is but I want to find out. I suspect, since it’s a social networking thing, that it’s more fun when you have friends.
Okay. So now I must prepare for tomorrow’s post. A book review! Stay tuned.
