sloggin

Decided to come blog again

sopheetsa — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:47:42 +0000

I freely admit I didn’t write this it has been lifted straight out of:

http://www.bookslut.com/blog/

Furthermore– you know how they say– “the names have been changed to protect the innocent”?– in my case– it was Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Freud …

i have a problem. i don’t know who among your contributors i can ask this question, but here it goes: i’ve suddenly come to hate books. i used to love them, but something is wrong with me in that i hate them. the last book i read was, i think, Herodotus, The Histories; before that I can’t remember. I think maybe The Book of Disquiet, by F. Pessoa. I need help. Who should I consult? Maybe it’s just a matter of engaging in real conversation or something. Help.

Readers block happens to everyone at some point, and I’m not sure anyone has a definitive answer on how to get past it. Because I am not an actual advice columnist, and am incredibly self-involved, I will answer with an anecdote.

Last year, when I packed my bags for a month long visit to a dairy farm, I was incredibly optimistic about the books I would like to accompany me. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Pragmatism. The White Goddess. Etc. Everything went fine for two weeks. I got an incredible amount of work done, and spent my evenings reading Very Important Books. (I also took Pessoa, now that I think about it.) After two weeks, however, I started to be sabotaged by my right brain. “Hey, let’s go outside and talk to the cows.” I tried to reason with it. “Right Brain, cows do not talk.” “No, but they listen, and they enjoy being taught about pragmatism. Also, that 20-year-old flirt Patrick is out exercising the horses without a shirt on again.” “Okay, fine.”

My guess is that maybe you’ve been neglecting the right half of your brain. It needs love, too, and reading is a seriously left brain activity. The right brain might be sabotaging you until you entertain it for a while. It loves flirting, and Bourne movies, and the Art Institute. Try baking a cheesecake, or sit on your floor with a box of crayons for a day. Then try again, but maybe something a little less intense than Herodotus. When I’m sick I always regress back to Christopher Pike books, so get back to that level. After a week or two of zombie teachers and man-eating cheerleaders (in a literal sense, not, you know) you’ll be back to Graham Greene.

finding the signal to noise keeping up with I/O

sopheetsa — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:19:17 +0000

The story is fading fast, how Ari Derfel kept his trash for the year. The experiment began to examine his consumption and grew into a statement about consumerism and the environment. Annie Leonard offers her own meditation in “The Story of Stuff“, in which she tells us how US industry produces 4 Billion lbs of toxic chemicals/year. Myself, I managed to rummage through my mail this morning– and after separating the wheat from the chaff, it came down to a handful of personal mail, a small box of bills and other items which needed my attention, and 14.7 POUNDS of junk.

As you think it, so it will be

sopheetsa — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:10:01 +0000

What in Heaven’s Name Have You Done

sopheetsa — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:53:55 +0000

Save my soul Save myself

sopheetsa — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 13:21:27 +0000

Fighting for Balance

sopheetsa — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:08:38 +0000

Been outta balance –trying to get it back!

Hike for Discovery

sopheetsa — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:54:34 +0000

I started the blog to work on issues in physics & math– but life took a turn–and I joined Hike for Discovery. It’s taking me places & out of my comfort zone, forcing me to interact–err ask for help. It’s a challenge– Right now I have to figure out if I’m committed. That’s me, at the bottom of the hill, having trouble negotiating level ground. For more, check out:http://sopheetsa.org. In the mean time, I’m trying to screw up the courage to talk about it on the radio. They say– the universe offers and then moves on. Or is it the “moving finger writes”?

soul-mate flower

sopheetsa — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:04:02 +0000

John Laroche: Point is, what’s so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There’s a certain orchid look exactly like a certain insect so the insect is drawn to this flower, its double, its soul mate, and wants nothing more than to make love to it. And after the insect flies off, spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it. And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. I mean, how could they know that because of their little dance the world lives? But it does. By simply doing what they’re designed to do, something large and magnificent happens. In this sense they show us how to live – how the only barometer you have is your heart. How, when you spot your flower, you can’t let anything get in your way.

from Adaptation

Dream

sopheetsa — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:15:27 +0000

Pedal to the Metal

sopheetsa — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:17:38 +0000