Month: July 2009

Things I’ll miss

As we get ready to move out of S.C., I’m making mental lists of things I’ll miss, and hey, why not share the good stuff with you?

First, foremost and most badly I’ll miss practicing yoga at North Main Yoga, and specifically, my teacher, Liz. I am hopelessly addicted to her teaching style, kind energy, and the complete bliss I experience after practicing under her guidance.

Second, I’ll miss working with Clemson students. They’re bright, honest, nice people; excellent writers; and once you figure them out, it’s SO easy to help them succeed. I’ve never worked with students who have made me so proud in such a short time!

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The Village Baker, Pendleton S.C.

Then, there’s eating. The Village Baker in Pendleton is a little European piece of heaven: pastries, cookies, sandwiches, more pastries. I’ll miss our late Saturday lunches there, and in Greenville: the pecan pie at High Cotton, the chef’s creativity at Lazy Goat, the Thai food at Sweet Basil on Pelham, and of course, the gelato at Luna Rosa.

I’ll miss my hair stylist, kind and attentive Maggy – now at Tangles in Clemson.

I’ll miss the colorful flowers, and the scent of gardenias on warm summer nights.

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To all the things and people I won’t miss (y’all know who you are): I wish you’ll find confidence and peace, so you can open your minds and hearts, and maybe experience kindness now and again. Namaste!

Monkey trap

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I heard my husband yesterday explain to a friend the concept of a monkey trap – maybe you’re familiar with it, but for me it was new and interesting, something to meditate upon:

One method of capturing monkeys is to place a piece of fruit in a cage or a vessel with an opening just large enough for the monkey to put its hand through it, but small enough that if the monkey makes a fist, holding on to the fruit, it cannot take its hand out.

That’s quite a lesson in letting go!

Sometimes, you can achieve your goals -or freedom!- if you just let go.

Do you have a monkey trap story of your own? Care to share?

Death is dead, you’re all wrong, and everybody’s lying

Recipe for getting traffic to your blog while alienating your readers:

STEP 1: Start with catchy title that relies on overgeneralization & exaggeration to make a sweeping statement:

Options:
a) ________________ is dead
b) ________________ (famous, respected person) is wrong
c) ________________ (profession or large category of people) is/are: unethical, lying, etc.

STEP 2: Write pseudo-argumentation supporting a much weaker version of your title, one that actually specifies the conditions, contexts, and audiences for which the statement in the title might sometimes apply

STEP 3: Publicize on twitter. Sit back & enjoy counting number of RTs

STEP 4: Watch comments coming in. Sit back & enjoy spike in blog traffic.

STEP 5: Respond to comments. If they disagree with you, act all offended that they didn’t read the small print buried halfway through the 4th paragraph of your post.

If you know me, you know I’m no big fan of the academic writing style. But, while we make fun of the long 2-part titles, we have to give them this: They’re specific. Precise, specific, accurate language is -even if not practiced much- valued in academia. Try it when you can.

People -and pets!- do a lot of crazy things to try to get attention. Before you use this recipe, consider:

– am I doing my readers a service?
– is this post helping me build long-term relationships with people I care about?
– do I really need this?
– do I really believe this?