zoom.

Hokay. So. I have a lot to do.

Join us
* We're going to The Tempest tonight. MIT Shakespeare Ensemble! Their Macbeth was okay, but their Romeo and Juliet was amazing, so they get a shot here.
* Tomorrow, 12:30pm, Capitol Theatre in Arlington, we're gonna see The Hunger Games. Because how can we pass up a chance to watch the Hunger Games at the Capitol? Really.
* If you enjoy punk rock and do not enjoy rape culture, you should hit the Smash it Dead Fest, a weekend-long DIY punk fest raising money for BARCC. I'll be tabling there Sunday afternoon.

Link Soup
* 'This Is the Time for Poetry': A Conversation With Alice Walker
* New tw/een trend: sewing. With Lilypad Arduino.
* ktempest has 10 Better Choices for the Next Doctor Who companion.

Friday Memeage
Wearing: Black tank top and calaveras pajama pants, but I am about to shower and put actual clothes on.
Reading: Amazon Breakthrough Novel manuscripts.
Writing: Reviews of Amazon Breakthrough Novel manuscripts.
Knitting: My Bracken shawl is about to become an Out of Gas shawl. Nod and smile.
Planning:
Today I have to read another manuscript, and review it and manuscript #2 if the review website is back online. I'm hoping to have enough time to pack up my sweaters and unpack my short-sleeved shirts and skirts - we're going to have some more days in the 50s, so I'm leaving out the long-sleeved shirts, but sweaters should no longer be necessary. I'm also hoping to have time to run out to the grocery store, but priority one is those manuscripts, because dammit, I want to get back to writing! Tonight is family dinner and The Tempest.
Tomorrow, Hunger Games and then (I hope) Ikea! We need stuff.
Sunday, Judah and I have instituted Project Time, in which we get to make stuff. Yay. :) Later in the afternoon, I have that tabling at Smash it Dead Fest.

I have a lot. I'm going to go get started.

Oh hey. Yes. Help?

As I mentioned when I was first kvelling about this house, we have a patch of yard out back that'll be perfect for a garden! Yay!

...I know nothing about gardening.

So I have to prepare the ground in some way? And soil testing? And um? I really don't know where to start, other than determining that my grow zone is 6 and ordering seed catalogs. Does anyone have any tips for good online resources for absolute beginners? Any locals have any expertise? Oh halp.

Focus will be on vegetables and herbs, not flowers, although maybe flowering vines for the front yard/chain-link fence, omg will passionflowers grow here?

*settles down*

Work now! Will be back later. Thanks in advance!

For Being the Only Skink

I love this post on literary awards by Ursula K. LeGuin. Especially this:

I wish we gave literary prizes freely, the way they used to give prizes at the Pet Show at Codornices Park in Berkeley when I was a kid. Every kid in the neighborhood brought their pet, and every pet got a prize, an ad hoc, unique prize: for Soulfulness — for Loud Meowing — for Unusual Spot Placement — for Being the Only Skink…. There was no Best of Breed (in those days there were many mongrels and few breeds), and certainly no Best of Show.

I‘d have some trust and interest in literary prizes like that. For Soulfulness — for Sitting Up and Begging Nicely — for Passion Well Expressed – for Excellent Use of Semi-Colons — for Being the Only Novel About Elderly Female Entomologists in Love….

You think literature would suffer, if prizes were given so freely? You think sharing praise diminishes its worth? You think good books are written in order to win huge advances and one-a-year prizes? Maybe so. I think not.

Tonight I was giving myself awards in my head. For Cleaning Up After Everyone. For Being Attentive to Cats. For Finishing My Manuscripts Fastest.

And For Being the Only Skink just lurks in the back of my head, you know? The Only Skink. I sort of love it. And I feel it. I feel very off on my own sometimes, uncertain if what I do will connect, but determined to do it my way because it is my way - as LeGuin says later, "I think good novels are written by writers who want to write this novel, their novel, which is like no other. And which is therefore unpredictable, unsafe, and unlikely to win a prize."

I do this, I do it my way; I need to. It's not usual and it's not safe.

I give myself the award of Being the Only Skink, the only me, the very best Shira that I can be. The me-est me.

I want to give everyone prizes, really.

What prize would you give yourself?