Music Monday: The Garden of Your Mind

I'm sure I've posted this already, but I was reading a great Cracked article about Mr. Rogers and came to think of this.

What a wonderful man.

There are some people in the world whose relentless positivity I can't stomach, as it seems like an act or a facade or just plain stupid. Yet every video I've seen of Fred Rogers and everything I've read about him bespeaks an earnest and intelligent optimism. If I'm cruising channels and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is on PBS, I will watch the rest of the episode. Having a bad day? Watching a clip on YouTube will cheer you up. As McGinley points out:

He didn't live in a world full of songs and puppets. He brought songs and puppets to a world that was scared and tired and vulnerable.

Thank you for being you, Mr. Rogers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, I'm away from my family. This marks the  third Thanksgiving in a row I've been away from home for my favorite American holiday. With all due love and respect to my family, though, there's no place I'd rather be than where I am right now. I'm making the most of my time here in South Korea, spending it with friends I may never see again. Friends I would have never met if I hadn't decided to take this oddball route to South Korea, even while juggling my crafting and ultimate expatriation to Sweden. In that spirit of gratitude, awe and wonderment, I offer you this oft-quoted pearl of wisdom from Carl Sagan:

Carl Sagan Relief Print from MercurialCreations

Plant Mom Post

Lacey's pulled out of it; I know have one more to keep her company. (Or well, two more, but they're in one pot.)

In the white pot are Persephone and Demeter, who you know from Greek mythology. Some Internet sleuthing has revealed that snake plants prefer to be watered every seven to ten days, which is more than I was watering them before, hence Lacey's pot partner's wilted condition:

And five things I'm thankful for today!

1. Air conditioner!
2. A free music performance downtown in the cool night weather.
3. Using up veggies and cheese before they went bad! Cooking for one isn't really difficult, but produce shopping for one is nearly impossible.
4. MST3K
5. A clean apartment (which took some effort on my part, but there you have it).

Wonderful Wednesday!

There is so much awesomeness going on right now that I can barely contain myself.

First, I'm working on a collaborative/commission piece for my crafty friend Rae. (Seamstresses, computer jockeys, and book nerds out there: follow her!) It's already given me a lot of ideas for other unrelated items, the hard part is definitely going to be sitting down to focus on one long enough to create a finished product.

The original suggestion was so super cool that I'm turning into a game! Kind of. For the next month or so, I'll be leaving hints here and on my Facebook page. The first person to guess what the project is—or to guess "close enough"—wins a totally custom piece of beaded science, math, or geeky jewelry. You pick the numbers, the colors, and everything else!

Here is the first clue:

Full Adder Circuit Diagram

Leave your guesses in the comments here or on Facebook!

(You should also follow Rae's blog because it might help you guess! Wink wink, nudge nudge.)

Second, I have a new phone! This is mundane, I suppose, but buying a cell phone in a foreign country when you speak the language little better than an infant is stressful. I am happy about this.

Third, glasses! And fourth, owls! These two go together because, well, that's the picture I have.

As a reward for successfully navigating my phone-buying experience, I bought some goodies from other shops in the nearby Underground Market. Named after its physical location, not because that's where the hipsters shop.

Glasses are self-explanatory: I have big-time glasses fetish. I am the Imelda goddamn Marcos of glasses. This is technically a replacement pair, as my earlier white frames had to be retired. At this count I have seven pairs of prescription eyeglasses and one pair of prescription sunglasses. South Korea has super-cute and super-cheap frames! They're really much more into "glasses as fashion" than in the states, it seems.

I know owls were (are?) the big thing, up there with foxes and mustaches and whatever other crap Etsy decides to market, but owls have been special to me for as long as I've been a Greek mythology nerd. Yeah, it's that Athena thing all over again. And I mean, look at those eyes! How can you not love him?

And because it seems to fit the tone of this post, my gratitudes for today!

1. Lunch at work today was one of my favorite dishes, bibimbap.
2. As I mentioned above, new phone!
3. I had a great class with my North Korean student, who seems to be finally getting this whole "phonics" thing.
4. The rain today is much more pleasant to deal with when you have a proper pair of Wellingtons.
5. I had a pleasant chat with a Korean grandfather this morning about the weather. I run into him on the street most Mondays and Wednesdays and he always makes me smile.

Bad Decision Dinosaur, Goals, and Gratitudes

Who's Bad Decision Dinosaur? Why, my favorite character in my favorite webcomic, of course!

And well, he and I definitely tore up the town this Easter weekend. Enough to the point where I decided I needed to take a cold hard look at my life priorities, which in turn reminded me of my 101 in 1001. "How's that going, Kokoba?" you ask. I'll be glad to fill you in! I'll get back to the other priorities in a second.

Well, I've made some (but not a lot) of progress on the music slog. It seems that my initial thought to simply delete first and then sort went against my super-categorizing tendencies and I am organizing as I go through. It's not so bad, I suppose, but I really don't devote that much time to this goal—because really, how important is it, at the end of the day?

The documentaries is going really well, as you've seen on here. Same with the nonfiction. The foreign movies are taking a bit more time, because I have to actually take out a whole time chunk to sit down and watch because more often than not there are subtitles involved. I don't hate subtitles or resent having to read while I watch a movie; it's just that movies in another language take a different level of focus for me.

The Couch to 5K program is also going well, though I am taking the program much slower than it's laid out. I've never been much of an active person, for one, but also a lifelong case of asthma makes intense cardio workouts more difficult than they would be otherwise. Right now I'm in the middle of week five, and I'm going to stay there for another three or four workouts before I attempt the (gulp!) twenty minute run that comes at the end of the fifth week.

Even taking it as slowly as I have been, I'm impressed with how much endurance I've built up so far. I'm not the fastest runner, by any means—and genetics says I never will be—but the difference between then and now is drastic.

Now, back to the aforementioned priorities. I've made three significant decisions.

1. I've made a Bad Decision Dinosaur Box. Every time I make a bad decision (not going to the gym, drinking too much, putting off important work), I put money in the box, in either $1, $5, or $10 denominations. When I leave Korea, all that money goes...somewhere. I am inclined to give it to a charity I support (in particular, a North Korean justice-related one), but I think the box might be more effective if the money goes to a cause I loathe. So far I owe the box $31. Eventually I'm going to put a label and pictures on it, but for now it sits plain and brown on my floor.
    
2. Create more, consume less. This comes after just finishing Flow, whose whole hypothesis can be summed up: "People are happier if they engage in active pursuits instead of passive ones." I keep finding excuses to put off working on jewelry or polishing my writing; to just cruise the Internet instead. Net result? Feeling like I'm wasting my time.  This also will force me to be more thoughtful about what I do consume.
   
   
3. Write up a list of five gratitudes, every day. Or week. Or every other day. But regularly. I have been in a foul, weird funk as of late (probably why Bad Decision Dinosaur has had so much sway over me). Cheesy as it sounds, I think focusing on the positive can do a lot to change your overall attitude. To hold myself accountable, I'll also post at least some of them here.

So, without further ado, my five gratitudes for today!

1. A working computer that keeps me in touch with all of my friends and loved ones.
2. The health of my friends and loved ones.
3. The Boy <3
4. My own health and well-being.
5. A really delicious dinner I made and ate earlier tonight.

What are you thankful for?