My co-teacher read this last year but I don’t remember the story but I still have the book around and have been reading it with Elise. We are trying to read a chapter at a time but tonight we read a chapter and a half. OMG. Two things about it. First is that I am grateful for making the time to read with her. Two, it’s strange to have moved on from picture books. Which we obviously haven’t done completely!
Lots of interesting people here.
The Makers + Mavericks List 2023. | by Hiut Denim Co | Jan, 2024
Technically it’s meat* and vegetables.
*Some spam but you can’t have it all.
Episode 67: Grandparents
Elise and Yumo go through some Little Talk conversation cards with their grandparents.
My word of the year: light
The world hangs heavy
Don’t carry your burdens love
You can be weightless
I wrote this yesterday. Then thought that perhaps my word for the coming year could be the opposite, that it could be light. The opposite of things, so many things, hanging heavy. That the thought could be of not holding onto things and of letting them weigh me down.
But also, of being a light. For my own family. For the students I work with. To do the best that I can be. To set an example. To be a light for others to follow.
Noticed that Apple Music doesn’t show how many songs are in a playlist and how long the playlist lasts. Which is information that I’ve never needed for anything but was nice to know!
As I started to read Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels last night, I realised that. Sometimes. It’s not the story I love but the writing. That it doesn’t happen that often. Doesn’t need to happen that often, maybe? That, sometimes the story is enough of course. But sometimes being absorbed by the words. Wrapped up in them, is a glorious thing.
But the great truth about work that doesn’t make it is that it’s just as important as the stuff that does. You need bad, not quite right, awkward, under inspired or overly complicated to have good, inspired, sustainable or even brilliant. The beauty of mediocrity is that we need it.
Always enjoy Beau Miles' videos. Just his enthusiasm.
I enjoyed these lists a lot.
52 things I learned in 2023 - Kent Hendricks
Here’s another by Jason Kottke who was inspired by this one
Really enjoyed Season 3 of Slow Horses. I think I’m going to read the book Season 4 is based on now, though from the trailer I think I already have.
The tick-tock of time trips on and here we are again, old friends. Said the Gramophone. Best songs. By now I hope you know the drill. This world needs some kindnesses–it wants more peace, liberation, and music shared between strangers. So here’s a pistachio, a ripe pear. Here are my 100 favourite songs of the year 2023; songs I love much more than doomed submarines (or basketball).
You’ve got too much to read, too much to watch and now here’s too much to listen to…
Watching Mission Impossible. Which was apparently released in 1996. 1996! 🍿
A reminder of some the great shows that I haven’t seen. Too much amazing tv (and books and blogs and and) around!
Man was charging people to look at the full moon with his telescope. Totally worth it. Though not sure Elise saw the American flag as she claimed.
I liked the shadows
We enjoyed our first few play throughs of the card game Mantis. Yumo who is 5 and Elise (7) both picked it up quickly and won games too, damnit! Yumo’s cavalier attitude proving successful. It’s only a pack of cards too so is easy to carry around. Illustrations by The Oatmeal too.
Oh. The Oatmeal IS Exploding Kittens.
Hope and happiness feel almost inappropriate – as if taking time to appreciate anything good is naïve – even irresponsible – a failure to come to terms with the gravity of everything. But this is wrong – we need hope more than ever. We need happiness and Christmas is the time for it. While – perhaps – the scale of our challenges might be unprecedented, Christmas is timed deliberately to fall close to the winter solstice when the nights are darkest and the light furthest away. Since very ancient times humans have been vulnerable to despair at this time of year. We are not the first. More than anything – whether you believe in the Christian message or not – I think Christmas is about hope against all odds. This is why we need Christmas – at this time of year it is not wrong to turn into the light because without hope and a deliberate focus on things that are good, we won’t have the strength to do anything about the dark. It is what Christmas is for.
Love this.
Parenting is hard.
Grass is green.
Water is wet.
These things i know.
Putting the job search on hold until the new year. It’s sitting at the back of my mind and whispering and doing me no good. It’s definitely the right choice to move on but it’s still stressful.
Little and often. Encouraged by a friend doing exercise to do something.
How Language Shapes Thought | Lera Boroditsky
Really interesting video both as a whole but also some of the points made in the video that relate to the differences in language.
I still struggle with the idea that Chinese that uses 上/下 （up/down) whereas in English we would use next /previous (last).