Finished reading: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson 📚
Definitely ratchets up the intensity. Any siege story is going struggle to keep the pace, by definition. But I found that the overlapping storylines/perspectives kept the intrigue building until the climax. Looking forward to the next.
Finished reading: In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary 📚
Margaret Wise Brown packed a ton of impact into her tragically short lifetime. This book was a fascinating look into that life. The childhood rituals that provided inspiration for her best work, the romantic partners (male and female) that were her muses, and her struggle to break out of children’s books and into “serious” literature. Ironic, because the fact she wrote some of the most beloved kids’ literature of all time has ensured her reputation will endure. Few things are as sturdy against time as songs and stories told to and by children.
What strikes me about her work is that they aren’t often fantastical, even as they involve anthropomorphic characters. They are instead very rooted in poetry and the present. Goodnight, Moon is like a mindfulness practice for toddlers, and The Runaway Bunny’s themes show up even in modern work like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The stories are simple and universal, not concerned with high moral concepts, endowing even the simplest things in the world with love and wonder.
Some stray quotes:
“[Margaret] recently had an article published on how to select the proper book for a child. In it, she encouraged parents to find stories told in simple words about familiar things. The color of the sky, the feel of rain, even tables and telephones might be commonplace to parents, but to children, everything in the world is new and wildly exciting. She believed frightening fairy tales should be avoided for younger children who had yet to learn what is real and what is not. To them, a witch or goblin is as real as a horse or chicken. Older children, depending on their environment, understood the difference between fantasy and reality; they could enjoy those stories without harmful results. It was important for children to find the fun and adventure in folktales and legends since they were based in nature and were often a window into human nature. Word patterns, rhymes, and rhythms were also something she suggested parents look for in a book because they mimicked children’s playful language. Sudden changes and sharp contrasts in sound kept their attention, and it delighted them to hear a cat meow or a train go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. Stories should be short—no more than ten or fifteen minutes unless the readers involved the children in the stories through questions, which gave them a chance to be part of the narratives, Margaret explained that the purpose of books for young children was not so much to educate them as to echo their laughter and sadness, to capture the reality of the world they loved. Children were sensitive to subtle overtones and rhythms and eager to hear them reflected in stories, songs, and poems. She believed that unless parents encouraged those senses, they became blunted by the age of five. Literature gave them back their own world and kept the keenness of their senses alive.”
“…a teacher was to be a facilitator instead of an instructor. They were to guide and encourage children as they learned. All children … were explorers on the greatest journey of their lives—that of childhood.”
“[Margaret and Michael Strange’s] bond was unrefined, Margaret thought. They got lost in each other. Separation from each other was no longer possible. Michael would take a part of Margaret with her, but part of her would live on in Margaret.”
[The book off with Margaret’s own writing, when she hoped to write a biography of her and Michael’s life together:] “That is the significance of this biography, one who has dared to be gloriously good and gloriously bad in one life. No Limbo for her. Rather let life itself grow living monuments out of trees and living words so that death can never take from our half-lives this radiant living that was lived among us.”
Voted today. Ready for this country to move forward. 🌴
The new Nintendo Music app is great.
Currently: cheating on Halloween and listening to the Charlie Brown Christmas album.
The end of a long day.
My friend and co-worker Julian Pizarro was hit by a car while jogging on Friday. He is currently in a coma and we don’t know the extent of his injuries. His wife Jessica and his three kids (triplets - Friday was their birthday) could use a lot of support right now. They have a GoFundMe page here. Please consider helping this sweet family.
Went on a hike. Splashed in a creek. Lovely fall day. 🍁
Interestingly, the latest Video Assist update from Blackmagic confirms an unreleased camera from Fujifilm (the X-M5) as well as its ability to record BRAW with a Video Assist. 🤔
Finished reading: In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary 📚
Margaret Wise Brown packed a ton of impact into her tragically short lifetime. This book was a fascinating look into that life. The childhood rituals that provided inspiration for her best work, the romantic partners (male and female) that were her muses, and her struggle to break out of children’s books and into “serious” literature. Ironic, because the fact she wrote some of the most beloved kids’ literature of all time has ensured her reputation will endure. Few things are as sturdy against time as songs and stories told to and by children.
What strikes me about her work is that they aren’t often fantastical, even as they involve anthropomorphic characters. They are instead very rooted in poetry and the present. Goodnight, Moon is like a mindfulness practice for toddlers, and The Runaway Bunny’s themes show up even in modern work like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The stories are simple and universal, not concerned with high moral concepts, endowing even the simplest things in the world with love and wonder.
Some stray quotes:
“[Margaret] recently had an article published on how to select the proper book for a child. In it, she encouraged parents to find stories told in simple words about familiar things. The color of the sky, the feel of rain, even tables and telephones might be commonplace to parents, but to children, everything in the world is new and wildly exciting. She believed frightening fairy tales should be avoided for younger children who had yet to learn what is real and what is not. To them, a witch or goblin is as real as a horse or chicken. Older children, depending on their environment, understood the difference between fantasy and reality; they could enjoy those stories without harmful results. It was important for children to find the fun and adventure in folktales and legends since they were based in nature and were often a window into human nature. Word patterns, rhymes, and rhythms were also something she suggested parents look for in a book because they mimicked children’s playful language. Sudden changes and sharp contrasts in sound kept their attention, and it delighted them to hear a cat meow or a train go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. Stories should be short—no more than ten or fifteen minutes unless the readers involved the children in the stories through questions, which gave them a chance to be part of the narratives, Margaret explained that the purpose of books for young children was not so much to educate them as to echo their laughter and sadness, to capture the reality of the world they loved. Children were sensitive to subtle overtones and rhythms and eager to hear them reflected in stories, songs, and poems. She believed that unless parents encouraged those senses, they became blunted by the age of five. Literature gave them back their own world and kept the keenness of their senses alive.”
“…a teacher was to be a facilitator instead of an instructor. They were to guide and encourage children as they learned. All children … were explorers on the greatest journey of their lives—that of childhood.”
“[Margaret and Michael Strange’s] bond was unrefined, Margaret thought. They got lost in each other. Separation from each other was no longer possible. Michael would take a part of Margaret with her, but part of her would live on in Margaret.”
[The book off with Margaret’s own writing, when she hoped to write a biography of her and Michael’s life together:] “That is the significance of this biography, one who has dared to be gloriously good and gloriously bad in one life. No Limbo for her. Rather let life itself grow living monuments out of trees and living words so that death can never take from our half-lives this radiant living that was lived among us.”
Cormorant from our walk today.
This looks really good. The art style is lovely. More stills available here.
Finished reading: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson 📚
Pretty much couldn’t put it down for the last 200 pages or so. Like all the best heist stories, it gets really good when everything goes really wrong. Anticipated some of the twists but was blindsided by others.
Finished reading: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson 📚
I actually finished reading this a while ago. I liked it a lot. Enough to maybe continue on the Brandon Sanderson journey a bit. Some things are a bit dated - especially in the way he wrote his female lead characters. I found it hard to break into at first since it’s so heavy on exposition, but the twists partway through were genuinely surprising and renewed interest for me.
Saw some cows.
Eyes on me. (I think this is an immature sharp-shinned hawk. Might be a Cooper’s hawk.)
As my daughter (who I’ll refer to as W) has grown up over the past (nearly) three years, there have been a lot of moments for nostalgia for my wife. She grew up with a much younger sibling, so she watched and read a lot of things targeted to younger kids. Movies, books, songs and more.
But I, on the other hand, am the youngest. What I remember from childhood starts once I was old enough to form more solid memories. I have vague hints of places we went or things I did when I was truly little in the back of my mind. A family trip to Yosemite, where I was afraid of a steep cliff. Or riding an innertube on Lake Tahoe. But as far as media goes, my memories tend to start later, in elementary school. I know I watched Barnie, for example, but I have no nostalgia for it because I can’t remember it. That, in turn, has limited the amount of little-kid oriented media I feel nostalgia for.
Well everything changed this month, because W’s been getting into dragons. It all started with Dragons Love Tacos – maybe the strangest kids book we’ve read to her so far. But she loves it, and reads it every night. Which ignited deep within me a remembrance of watching PBS as a kid, and loving – what else? – Dragon Tales.
Dragon Tales is a classic. It sat amongst shows like Between the Lions, Zoboomafoo, and... (shudder) Caillou. It followed the classic trope of kids running off to a fantasy land to learn how to deal with their real-world problems. I have fond memories of watching it in my parent’s bedroom on their CRT on a rainy Saturday morning.
Thing is: it’s impossible to find now... except through the Internet Archive, where all the episodes are downloadable. I feel kind of bad for accessing it this way, but when there’s literally no other way to buy or stream it, what is a parent of a dragon-loving toddler to do?
Suffice to say, W is obsessed. Obsessed to the point of shouting “DRAGON SONG” at us until we play the theme song for her. On repeat. For hours.1
I remember as a kid, my dad would show us cartoons from his childhood. I grew up on Johnny Quest, The Jetsons, Wacky Races, and Underdog. I have nostalgia now for the things my dad had nostalgia for as a young parent. And as I share things from my childhood with my own daughter, someday she too will have nostalgia for the things I did. It’s a big ol’ chain of nostalgia all the way down.
There’s another post I’d like to write sometime about the way kids love to repeat things that bring them joy. What is it about growing up that makes us need a constant stream of new things to carry us along? Why can’t we sit in something wonderful and enjoy it? Is it an attention span thing? Is it a cultural thing? ↩︎
Photos from a walk on Monday.
Tycho is basically just the Pocket Tanks soundtrack grown up.
Just a lil Pygmy Nuthatch checking me out ❤️
This beautiful osprey posed for me on my way home from work yesterday.
Feels nice. Probably will bump down significantly as the day goes on. That being said, some of the times on here are ridiculous:
Looking at my Letterboxd average review scores and it seems like I have a four-star wall:
This isn’t as prominent as some I’ve seen. But it did get me thinking about why this is. Most importantly– I don’t like watching bad movies. To borrow words from a famous food critic, if I know I won’t like a movie, “I don’t swallow.” That reasonably skews my movie selection in the direction of things I’ll rate higher (i.e. above three-ish stars). I also have very limited time as a dad, so I need to choose wisely.
That being said, I tend to root for movies. Even when they’re uneven, I will rate them well if I enjoyed myself. Two and two-and-a-half feel reserved for movies I genuinely didn’t enjoy, but were still watchable, in a sort of “this sure is a movie” sense. Anything below that is borderline unwatchable. Most movies I watch are “meh” or better, so three and up it is.
(On the other side of the wall, four and half is reserved for movies I think are great and some of my favorites. A full five indicates a movie I struggle to find fault with. Obviously pretty rare.)
In January I made a list of goals for this year. Now that we’re in May, it’s a good time to check up on them:
We moved (ironically into a larger place) and in the process found a boatload of stuff to get rid of. Having a garage sale later this month so I’m considering this checked!
Failed. Missed February and April. But I’m not going to let that stop me from reading the rest of this year. That’s kind of the benefit of an early streak-breaker. It means you no longer have the pressure to uphold the streak, and you can focus on the enjoyment of it instead! The next book I’m starting is Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Finding it hard to break into the worldbuilding of it. Sometimes it’s tough to hold it all in my brain.
No way. I have not touched a single language learning thing this year. Not happening, sorry past me. Maybe next year.
Yes kinda, I’m biking to work maybe half the time so I guess that’s something of a rhythm. Would love to do something for my upper body cause I’m a puny weakling. We’ll see. It’s hard to fit gyms into my life right now, so I guess I need to figure out at-home workouts. Tips recommended.
On rainy or exceptionally windy days when I have the time I’ll take the bus. It’s about twice as long as on bike, but it’s not so bad. Gives me more opportunity to read. Santa Cruz is putting in a bus priority lane on the highway so there’s a good chance my bus ride frequency will increase.
Not yet. Still studying the ancient texts.
Well I guess a 50% success rate is alright. It’s ok to make goals and then later realize they aren’t priorities anymore. That’s part of life!
Earlier this year, I told Anna that I had the desire to watch some sort of sport. I’ve watched football and baseball with my parents growing up, but I’ve never really made it my own. It would be nice to cheer on a team for the first time in years, in my own understated way. I settled on baseball and soccer and picked teams:
So I guess if you have a sports team you love, you ought to start pitching me on becoming a fan of your rivals.