Dog Tired

I love a tired dog. A tired dog is so good. I love the way a tired dog lays so flat on the ground, or curled up on a pillow (or on a bed, as the case may be). I love the way a tired dog doesn't come bother me when he hears me in the kitchen making a sandwich. I love that I feel so good about myself after I have facilitated a dog's happy tiredness. When a dog is really tired, I almost wish that I didn't have a not-on-the-couch rule, so that he could jump up and lay (lie?) next to me while I read. Like a cat.

edit-to-add:// That would be the dog lying like a cat--not me reading like a cat.

Out of the Bloggice

Since my mother-in-law (who is lovely) is visiting, and since I've been cleaning house in preparation, and since I've been grocery shopping in preparation, and since I've been birthday shopping in preparation for her birthday (which is today), and since she's going to be here for a few days, and since we're going to be celebrating her visit and birthday all week, and since I'm only left with an hour to work on my dissertation today, I'm just putting up a post to say, "Hey, y'all. I won't be around much at my place or yours for a few days, so I hope you have a good week!

I will be here in GEWland, enjoying family but twisting my hair in true dissertation panic.

A Kind of Consistency

In the spirit of my tendency to quit things, I think I'm going to give up on NaNoWriMo. Yes, yes. Already. But my mother-in-law came to town, and, well, I should be working on my dissertation for goodness sake! What was I thinking? It's just that NaNo is SOOOO shiny. I'm not going to totally abandon the novel that I started*, but if I write 50,000 words (or, shall we say, 5,000 words) this month, those words should be about Eliza Haywood.

See? I'm totally consistent at quitting things.

Gobble, gobble. Dabble, dabble.

*Please excuse that split infinitive.

Entropy

So, some of you may have wondered what happened to that whole homesteading/simplicity business that I brought up in June. Some of you found this blog during those posts and probably thought you'd see a lot more of that thread. Well, it's still on my mind, but here's the problem.

I'm a dabbler. I live in fits and starts. It's hard for me to see things through. I have started and then quit (and then sometimes restarted) a lot of things in my life: guitar, piano, violin, french horn, cello, cheerleading, ballet, rifle squad, jobs, careers, aikido, voice lessons, running, crafts, etc. And I am irregular when it comes to many other things: yoga, writing, surfing, gardening, cooking, etc. I get really into something, and then I get busy, and it all falls apart. My commitment cannot hold. Or I find something new. Look, shiny!

In fact, it is this tendency to dabble, to start and stop, that leads me to rely on the whole goodenoughwoman philosophy. But it's clear to me that sometimes my "goodenough" is actually not really good enough at all and that I'm just limping along, which is especially problematic when it comes to the things at the top of the list: family, dissertation, work.

So this is an apology of sorts. If you come to the GEW blog looking for focus and commitment, you will be disappointed. In fact, I've been told that blogs should have a focus, a niche. In that regard, this blog is barely limping along.

That said, I have gotten over 20 tomatoes this week (some cherry, some regular), and I would give you a picture of those tomatoes, but I can't find my new camera. Just one more symptom of the entropy* that is my life.

*[E]ntropy represents the "potential for disorder" in a system. When a system has more degrees of freedom and more constituents, there are more possible states for it to occupy. While some of these states may exhibit patterns that are very ordered, most of these states would be considered disordered (a quite apt excerpt from Wikipedia's entropy page).

Gifts

Yesterday morning, when my son was home sick (well, not totally sick anymore, but we were following the 24-hour-without-fever rule), we hung out on the couch all morning while he drew and I read. We chatted and laughed and then later danced together to Lyle Lovett.

Yesterday evening, my daughter put her hands on my face, stroked my hair, and said, "You're beautiful."

Thank God I have these moments to throw perspective on the so-called challenges of life.

Nano, Nano

Dissertation procrastinator by day.

Novel procrastinator by night.

Housework procrastinator 24/7.

Whew. I'm busy.

Kindle: First Impressions

Well, let me say that I was pretty much dancing on the sidewalk as the Fed Ex lady walked up the path. Unfortunately, she got here just before the kids got home, and we had a school carnival to attend before I could settle in and fiddle with it.

Since then, I have done a little fiddling. So far, the screen seems good. I know that some people have complained that it's too grey. For my taste, I think a bit more contrast might be good, but I know that too much contrast can be hard on the eyes even if it seems easier to read, so I'm okay with it.

It's awesome for instant gratification. Want a book? You can get it in 60 seconds. Also, I downloaded a two-week trial of the New Yorker, and it allows me to go straight to the cartoons and scroll through them.

I do, however, feel a lack of orientation. When I start to read something on the Kindle, I don't get a look at the cover. So far, it seems to me that the cover of the book doesn't download with the book. Instead, the Kindle shoots you straight to the first page of text. You can skip back to the title page, etc., but I haven't been able to go to a cover. Similarly, with the New Yorker, I haven't found a way to just look at the Table of Contents page. Maybe it's there, but I haven't found it yet. I know that the page numbers would be moot, but I still would like the orientation aspect.

Typically, when I pick up a text, the cover, color, size, and texture all serve to cue my brain to what I'm getting ready to read. In contrast, the Kindle plops me right into the writing, and it's hard to make the mental shift to what I'm reading. Perhaps this will come in time. Nevertheless, I do wonder why the Kindle doesn't flash the cover before it takes me back to my reading page. It would be a great cue to my brain.

More feedback to come as I actually start to read books on it . . .

edit:// Okay. I spoke to soon. I found a way to display the cover and the TOC. Yay! I really like the way the grey scale images look--like beautiful sketches or something.