What's in the gallery?
We dissolve stuck and rewrite patterns. We apply radical playfulness to life (when we feel like it!), embarking on internal adventures (credo of Safety First). We have a fake band called Solved By Cake. We build invisible sanctuaries, invent words and worlds, breathe awe and wonder.
We are not impressed by monsters. Except when we are. We explore the connections between internal territories and surrounding environment to learn what marvelously supportive delicious space feels like, and how to take exquisite care of ourselves. We transform things.* We glow wild.**
* For example: Desire, fear, worry, pain-and-trauma, boundaries, that problematic word which rhymes with flaweductivity.
** Fair warning: Self-fluency has been known to lead to extremely subversive behavior, including treasuring yourself unconditionally, unapologetically taking up space, experiencing outrageously improbable levels of self-acceptance, and general rejoicing in aliveness.
What's in the gallery?
We dissolve stuck and rewrite patterns. We apply radical playfulness to life (when we feel like it!), embarking on internal adventures (credo of Safety First). We have a fake band called Solved By Cake. We build invisible sanctuaries, invent words and worlds, breathe awe and wonder.
We are not impressed by monsters. Except when we are. We explore the connections between internal territories and surrounding environment to learn what marvelously supportive delicious space feels like, and how to take exquisite care of ourselves. We transform things.* We glow wild.**
* For example: Desire, fear, worry, pain-and-trauma, boundaries, that problematic word which rhymes with flaweductivity.
** Fair warning: Self-fluency has been known to lead to extremely subversive behavior, including treasuring yourself unconditionally, unapologetically taking up space, experiencing outrageously improbable levels of self-acceptance, and general rejoicing in aliveness.
Goodbye, November. Hello, December.
Ah, it’s that time again.
Of transitions and entry and going through the doors.
What has happened since we said goodbye to October and then hello to November?
I’m not sure. Probably lots of things!
Let’s find out. How about this time we do it Friday-Chicken style (the hard and the good of November)? And then we can plant some gwishes for December.
Also I am going to be five years old today.
November, these parts were hard for me this year!
- Traveling is hard on my body.
- I don’t recover as fast as I used to.
- Kansas ********** City. Seriously, what rock were they hiding under all season?
- It turns out that Denver and I do not get along as much as I’d hoped, because I like oxygen so much, and not having it in what are harmonious quantities for me was both challenging and distressing.
- Cardio withdrawal because of the above, which resulted in severe grumpiness.
- I want a holiday so badly I can taste it. A proper holiday, with no work at all.
- Too many things happening!
- Building next door and downstairs neighbors to the Playground being problematic.
- Having to tell people things they don’t want to hear.
- Anxiety about having conversations in which I tell people things they don’t want to hear. A lot of having to remember that now is not then.
- People I love were in freakout mode, and it was painful to watch.
- I am doing things that scare me!
November, these were my favorite parts about you!
- Wearing my new coat, and being warm and cozy.
- Ohmygod, Rally (Rally!). Rally was amazing.
Next one is in January — it’s pretty close to full! - And not just any Rally but the Great Ducking Out.
- Speaking of which, I had twenty-seven billion epiphanies, and now everything is better.
- I also taught that workshop in Boulder, and it was beautiful. Hi, guys!
- Being at roller derby Championships was a very special and much dreamed-of thing. Plus I got to hang out with Juno and Donow.
- The Hoppy House pickles that the gentleman made from the cucumbers in the garden. Ecstatic exclamations of pickle joy!
- Also the gentleman has a beard now, and somehow this has not triggered trauma stuff for me.
- Rituals and proxies. I listened to Werner every night. I hung out with J each morning. There were daily secretive reflectings (with scissors!), and daily mini marathon trainings (with eye pillows!). We played in secret agent code, and it was awesome.
- My #1 partner-in-crime and I have been up to deliriously outrageous things, and we spent hours on the phone giggling like teenage girlfriends.
- You guys! Shivanauticon! It is happening. We even found the Flairground.
- I got a REALLY good piece of news that I am happy about.
November, here is what I want to say to you.
Thank you for being a home for the things I needed to do.
Thank you for structures and forms that were comforting.
Thank you for reminding me about what doesn’t work.
Thank you for letting me play with you instead of my usual way of fighting you or trying to make you be something else.
And for showing me what needs to go into the Almanac (yes, the Book of Me) for next year. I will see you in twelve months!
But I will be a newer version of me, and you will be a newer version of you, and we will have a new relationship. And it will be beautiful.
December, I am looking forward to these things about you!
- I am teaching TWO workshops for the roller derby team that I sponsor.
- And other than that, I am — gasp! — not teaching anything. At all. Crazy, yes? I know!
- Cairene is coming to the Playground to do a cool project with me that involves helping me plan my year. All I know is that it involves glue sticks. Yay!
- My partner-in-crime is coming to visit and she is staying at Hoppy House and we are going on adventures.
- Hannukah. Candles and yum.
- Cutting up all the catalogs and using them for fun Playground projects.
- Brunching fun things for 2012.
- Dreaming up cool things for Shivanauticon!
- Hot baths. Flannel sheets. Warm soup. Potato kugel!
- Endings. More doors. Conscious exit.
- Saying hello to all the new things that are coming.
December, this is what I want to experience with you.
- Trust.
- Warmth.
- Sustainability.
- Grilled cheese!
- Absconding.
- Immersing.
- Holding Enthusiastics.
- Doing something with the Daily Chicken (it doesn’t exist yet) and also giving it a new name.
- Reflecting.
- Receiving.
- Knowing what I know and wanting what I want.
- Orange. Lots and lots of orange.
- Secret treasures and marvelous surprises.
Planting December’s gwishes.
A gwish is somewhere between a goal and a wish, and I have so many of them, but — just like last month — I am going to whisper-plant them in my journal instead of putting them here.
If you would like to whisper with me or whisper loving wishes for my dreams, that would be good.
Come play with me! Comments in the giant collective blanket fort.
I’m putting this all into the pot with love.
If you would like to throw things into the pot and/or think about your relationship with this past November or this arriving-December, go for it. You can do it here in the comments or silently in your heart. Or wherever and however you like, obviously.
We all have our stuff. We let other people have what’s theirs and take responsibility for what’s ours. And we do this through not giving other people advice or telling them how what to do or how to feel.
Extra wishes for a safe, healthy, delight-filled December with lots of the good kind of surprises.
The Convening of the Enthusiastic
My darlings!
Today I am convening an Enthusiastic. Yay!
And YOU get to be a part of the Enthusiastic. And take part in it. Should you choose to. Yay!
This is all very exciting. And meta.
Because it is going to be an Enthusiastic on the subject of Enthusiastics. Yay!
What’s an Enthusiastic?
It’s like a board. A meeting of the board.
But not bored. Not bored at all.
Because you’re enthusiastic! See? It’s FUN.
And instead of having a meeting of the bored where everyone is bored, we have an Enthusiastic where we get to enthuse.
It is quite jolly, as Barrington might say.
Plus there are really good snacks. And possibly confetti. Yay!
What happens at an Enthusiastic?
For one thing, we are enthusiastic! Very much so.
Also there is SHOW & TELL.
Show & Tell is kind of similar to the thing that grownups call a “presentation”. But there’s no powerpoint and no judgment.
And it’s not stressful to be the person doing it. Because it’s kind of like this…
Me: You guys! Look at my puppy! PUPPY! So soft!
You: Ohboyohboyohboyohboy! It’s a puppy! Yay!
Except not a puppy. But like a puppy. It’s something you’re excited about and hopeful for.
A gwish, a dream, a hope-filled semi-plan, an aspect of a tiny sweet thing. Yay!
What is the purpose of an Enthusiastic?
An Enthusiastic exists as a safe and cozy way to:
- tell certain people about something you care about, knowing that it won’t be poked at or picked apart.
- practice thinking about the thing you want.
- think out loud and generate more ideas.
- have a welcoming for your idea.
- experience what it’s like having a fairy godmother collective.
- practice giving and receiving firgun.*
* Firgun = Hebrew slang. In this case: Being joyfully, whole-heartedly and demonstrably happy and appreciative about someone’s good news or good fortune.
Yay, an Enthusiastic! So how does it work?
Like this! There are three parts.
1) The establishing of wants.
The person convening the Enthusiastic tells the members of the Enthusiastic how she or he needs them to be enthusiastic today. It’s basically a request for the type of enthusing desired.
Of course, the members of the Enthusiastic are sovereign beings, so they can consciously interact with this request in their own way, and choose a version of responding that suits them.
I’ll give some examples of how this works in the next section.
2) The Show & Tell.
When it is my Enthusiastic, I like to imagine that all the things I want to say are inside of a magical treasure chest. Or inside of a Mary Poppins bag that can hold anything — look, a hatstand!
And then I pull things out of the bag and everyone goes oooooooh and aaaaaaaaaaaah and wow!
But sometimes I feel like playing dress-up, and then I have a flip chart and a clipboard and I wear an outrageous wig, and we all giggle hysterically.
3) The Reacting with Enthusiasm.
This part is mostly determined by the requests set forth by the Convener.
At Crossing the Line (password: haulaway), we spend an entire day doing Enthusiastics for everyone there, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life.
One person wanted us to be enthusiastic by tossing things in the air. Someone else wanted us to run around the room being spies. Some people wanted only very subdued responses, and not to be looked at.
All of these are equally good things to want. And they were all fun things to give. Yay!
Something important I have to say about that.
You might think (I did!) that it could be frustrating to not react in the way that first occurs to you.
But actually there’s something incredibly reassuring about knowing the kind of response someone wants. It is so easy to give someone what they want, and so useful to know what that is.
And if, for whatever reason, you can’t give them what they want in the way that they want it, you give it in the form you can. For example…
Say they want everyone to jump up and down and yell WOOOO!
But maybe you have a headache, or you just can’t jump up and down right now.
So maybe you just WOOOO from your seat. Stand your WOOOO instead of jumping it. Write it on a giant sheet of paper and lift it.
You participate in the essence of the wanting, without making yourself unduly uncomfortable. You take care of yourself. Yay!
Related to that!
It might happen, while in someone’s Enthusiastic, that your stuff comes up.
Maybe some monsters. Or some jealousy. You might find that it’s hard to be fully happy for the person doing Show & Tell because of your own stuff.
Understandable! This is a sign of appreciation-depletion on your part. It means you’ll need to give yourself the experience of safety, permission, amnesty and receiving. And to convene your own Enthusiastic.
For the moment though, if you’ve committed to an Enthusiastic, it’s important that you be present for the experience.
It’s great if you’re noticing your stuff. That’s information you can use later. It doesn’t make you a bad person! Scribble some notes about it.
And then interact with it later on your own time. Because we don’t let our stuff take the stage at someone else’s Enthusiastic. We’re here to give.
Your Enthusiastic exists to give you what you need.
In the way that you can receive it right now.
You don’t have to want questions.
Or you don’t have to answer questions if you do want questions.
You can change what you want at any point, and let people know (“I thought I wanted YAYs but actually I would just like happy appreciative murmuring!”).
You can run the whole thing from another room, or by having a small bunny interview you or while hiding behind a potted plant. Safety first!
It’s a practice. We practice.
Enthusiastic celebration! And the commenting blanket fort.
Today you get to be my Enthusiastic. If you feel like it.
You can do it silently by yourself or here in the comments. Whatever feels right.
Here is how I would like to receive enthusiasm today:
- Loving hand-on-heart sighs.
- Saying YAY for the existence of the Enthusiastic and YAY for any aspect of it.
- Appreciation for my Show & Tell (which was on the subject of what an Enthusiastic is, because I am sneaky!).
- If you have participated in an Enthusiastic with me before and have stories about how awesome it is to be a member of an Enthusiastic, that would be great!
Yay!
p.s. I am running lots of Enthusiastics right now because I need all the enthusiasm I can get to support Shivanauticon. If you come to a Rally (Rally!) this year, you could be in an Enthusiastic with me! But only if you want to. 🙂
The first visit to the Flairground.
A couple weeks ago I found myself cycling into a loop of stuck every time I started thinking about the venue for Shivanauticon.
Shivanauticon (which I say in my head with about a thousand exclamation points!) is the extremely sparkly Unconventional that we’re throwing this August.
It’s a giant crazy project that both thrills me deep into my bones and also is kind of scaring me, because it’s so vital and magical and necessary — for the world, you guys! — in ways that I don’t yet understand.
Anyway, venues. I had hit a wall. And that was interesting. A clew!
So I sent up the bat signal and called metaphor mouse to help.
It turned out the wall had some good information.
Like the fact that I have lots of negative associations with the word venue that I didn’t even know about.
That — for me, because definitions are highly personal — a venue meant something boring and super straight.
Having a venue would make it the kind of thing that everyone else does, that adults do.
Like signing contracts and wearing nametags and yelling into a bluetooth. Horribleness.
“Where are we on signing the venue, Bob? Corporate wants to know!”
Venues — again, in my head — are expensive and complicated and kind of smell like conference rooms. Nooooooooooo!
Knowing what I don’t want helps me pinpoint what I do want.
Metaphor mouse reminded me to ask me what qualities, words and feelings I associate with the thing I want, even without knowing what that thing is.
Here’s what came up:
[+playful] [+fun] [+magical] [+delight]
[+sparkly] [+grounded] [+hidden]
[+alternative] [+welcoming] [+belonging]
[+special] [+surprising] [+gleeful]
[+wonder] [+stars] [+possibility]
[+joy] [+patterns] [+flair]
What else do I know about this place?
It’s like a bigger Playground. But it’s not there all the time.
It appears and disappears.
It sets itself up one day in this cool place that didn’t really exist before. A temporary home for this hugely special Occurrence. And then when it’s gone, everything is different.
Like a fairground.
It’s kind of invisible until all of a sudden OHMYGOD THEY’RE SETTING UP THE CIRCUS! It was always a fairground but a fairground-in-potential. Where you forget what it can be.
So it’s something that is conjured up and then it goes back to being potential.
A fairground! Of course!
A Fairground is an obvious cousin to the Playground, which is my teaching center in northeast Portland.
But it’s a special Fairground. With flair. Yes.
It’s a FLAIRGROUND! And once we knew that, it found us.
Yesterday I visited the Flairground for the first time.
It’s perfect. The way that a baby is perfect, and you want to kiss it on its tiny glorious breathing nose.
Like the Playground, it has magical elevators (except these work), outrageously high ceilings and gorgeous chandeliers. But it’s the Flairground.
There are patterns everywhere. Which is perfect because we’ll be doing lots of shivanauttery, and Shiva Nata makes you hyper-aware and appreciative of patterns. You find meaning in shapes. There will be shapes.
It talked to me, in the same way that the Playground did when it was just a tiny baby idea. And in the same way that the space where the Playground lives said YOU when I walked in the door.
It said YOU and it said YES and it said IMAGINE. While it hummed love into all the corners. I get that this is a crazy thing to say but it is true.
Other things I can tell you about this Flairground.
- You can feel the special right away.
- It’s in downtown Portland.
- There is kooky stained glass (with a sense of humor).
- There’s a Refueling Station that you can hide in when you want to be alone.
- And a scribbling room if you want to sit and journal or do arts and crafts.
- There’s a water fountain.
- We might be able to have a cotton candy machine, you guys! Because hello, it’s clearly a secret circus in addition to being an Unconventional and a gathering and a safe sheltering blanket fort.
- There is the exact stage that I have always wanted to teach from.
- We can project stars on the ceiling and transform everything into night, like at the Playground.
- Doing Shiva Nata here will be so beautiful and important that you might have to cry. I’m kind of tearing up just thinking about it.
- THIS is a place for joyful togetherness. And also a place for having space to yourself and standing in your sovereignty.
- The instant you set foot in this building, you will know. It’s the one.
A Flairground is not like other places.
It has flair. And flares!
It does not allow for stressful or boring things.
No one gets lectured at there. There will not be keynote speeches or sitting and passively receiving information. There also won’t be awkward group bonding exercises or having to touch strangers or describe yourself in X words or anything like that.
That kind of stuff doesn’t live at a Flairground. A Flairground only has things that are congruent.
Like cotton candy. And a refueling station to hide in. And quiet nooks. And inspiration by the bottle.
Shivanauticon could never accidentally turn into a conventional convention in a place like that.
It will always remember who it is.
Celebration! And the commenting blanket fort.
You guys!
I am feeling giddy with delight at how quickly the Flairground and I found each other and fell in love.
And, at the same time, this is definitely a tiny, sweet thing for me.
It’s vulnerable and important. So I need us all to tread really gently.
Here is what I would like!
If you would like to say HOORAY!
If you have colorful confetti that dissolves as it lands so that no one has to sweep it up.
If you would like to be enthusiastically joyful with me about any aspect of this.
And you can sign up at Shivanauticon.com to get details as soon as we have them.
I should say that we already have more people on that list than can be held by the Flairground, but of course not everyone will come. So join in, because who knows? Maybe we will be able to flail together at the wondrous flailing Flairground in August.
And even if you’re sure you won’t be able to make it because you’re in New Zealand or just moved to Bolivia, sign up anyway because we might have a streaming video option.
That is all. Big love to all of you.
Thinking about us is the thing that fills me with hope when I dream up a place like the Flairground, and then discover that is already exists.
Very Personal Ads #125: It stands. For many things.
Personal ads. They’re … personal! Very.
Each week I write these VPAs to practice asking for what I want. And to get clarity on what that really is, even when asking feels conflicted.
I always get useful information about my relationship with various aspects of the ask. Join in if you like!
Ahhhh. Wishing.
Sometimes the gwishes flow out of me, and other times I putter around the Playground, avoiding them.
Today was like that.
So we’re taking a breath. Acknowledging the hard. Remembering that now is not then. And committing to discovery, play, and wonder. And, as always, safety first!
This means I might have to proxy a few things.
Let’s start with the easier one…
Thing 1: A stand for the PLUM.
Here’s what I want:
Everyone loves the Playground User Manual, affectionately known as the PLUM.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that we named it here in a past Very Personal Ad.
Anyway, I want some sort of cool stand for it. Like a dictionary stand?
It should be sturdy and maybe a bit elegant or goofy or something.
And we can move it around the Playground and let it have adventures. That way people can leave it open to a favorite page, and it will have its own special home.
Ways this could work:
It could magically appear.
One of my readers or students who lives in PDX might have one or know of one.
Craigslist. Ebay. The usual suspects.
Someone could find me the right one.
It could make its way to the Playground in just the right way.
My commitment.
To be receptive to the wanting.
To maintain my connection with the vision but let it take many forms. That is, I need to focus on essence, not form.
The superpowers of this stand are: stability, grace, grounding, portability, play, delight, sturdiness, surprises, home, dedicated space, possibility, wonder.
So I’ll spend some time with those qualities and get a sense of what that’s like.
The monsters: “Why can’t you just look for it online like a normal person?!?!?! Argh, you are so embarrassing.
Thing 2: Consolidation!
Here’s what I want:
The superpower of letting all the amazing things that happened last week at Rally (Rally!) assemble themselves into the new patterns.
And making time and space for the processing of epiphanies and the sorting of notes.
Ways this could work:
Not working.
Hanging out with the Anthologies.
Using markers.
Reflecting.
Lots of mini marathon-training sessions (shhhh, this is a secret agent code word for the thing my monsters are suspicious of).
Dance it out!
My commitment.
To invoke the superpower and find out what I know about it.
To research this.
To talk to Cairene.
To maybe do more of it with images instead of words, just to see what happens.
Thing 3: Making three scary things less scary.
Here’s what I want:
Oh, of course this is all happening at the same time, major life theme.
There are three things I am committed to doing this week.
All of which scare me!
These things need to become less intimidating and more approachable.
Ways this could work:
I could stop caring so much about how people will react.
Lots of Shiva Nata to rewrite the patterns.
Reminders about how now is different from then.
Making safe rooms.
Finding out (by interviewing Slightly Future Me?) what happens AFTER I do these things.
My commitment.
To maintain compassionate curiosity.
No forcing. Just finding out.
To take extra good care of myself while I’m in this vulnerable state.
To immerse in warm water every chance I get.
Thing 4: Congruence.
Here’s what I want:
So many things that need to change.
So many things that need to come into a more harmonious relationship with themselves and each other and me.
Ways this could work:
Ten tiny changes each day? Five? Three?
Writing a love letter to the part of me who has this figured out.
Interviewing myself.
My commitment.
Trust. Practice. Love.
Progress report on past Very Personal Ads.
Just to update you on what’s happened since last time.
Ha! I asked for congruence last week and totally forgot about that. But that was a very specific ask about bringing the Playground website up to date so that it can reflect the present.
And I did manage to rewrite the main page. HOORAY!
The next ask was for a new staff page. Which I wrote (it will double as the about page), but haven’t put it up yet.
Next I wanted progress with Shivanauticon, and I was able to work on that all Rally, with the help of the Rallygators who let me run an Enthusiastic with them.
Then I wanted to do lots and lots of Reflecting (my secret embarrassing practice), and I did that EVERY SINGLE DAY. This is kind of amazing and I am astounded that it happened without more resistance.
And I asked for Rally #15 (aka the Great Ducking Out) to be absolutely glorrrrrrrrious! It was. It definitely was.
Huh. Somehow I remembered last week’s asks as being giant and intimidating, but that was a false remembering. Yay for finding out.
Play-filled comment zen. Here’s what I’d love today.
- Wanted: Your own personal ads, small or large. Updates on past ones if you like.
- You can also do these on your own or in your head. You can always call silent retreat!
- Leave your gwishes! Throw things in the pot!
- Things we try to keep away from: the word “manifest”, telling people how they should be asking for things, unsolicited advice.
- VPA amnesty applies, of course. Leave yours any time between now and next Sunday (or whenever, really) — it’s all fine by us!
xox
Friday Chicken #173: pickles, you say?
In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of ritual and self-reflection.
And you get to join in if you feel like it.
I am completely baffled by the Friday!
Being sequestered at the Playground all week for Rally (Rally!) has been really intense. And time is all warped and makes funny sound effects now.
Mmmhmmmmmmmmm.
But we’re here.
The hard stuff
Tired tired tired tired.
Despite several marvelous Playground naps.
Just tired.
It’s so wet and cold, you guys!
This week felt like winter.
Thanksgiving.
Even though I don’t have to deal with 99% of it because of running the Great Ducking Out (which is awesome), it’s still in the air.
Everyone’s stuff is out and present. Everything on the internet is annoying. Etc etc etc.
Everything needs to change.
The problem with realizing what you want is how incongruent other things become all of a sudden.
Half tempted to take down most of my websites and re-do it all.
Rally is ending today.
Sadface mouse!
Reeling from the epiphanies.
We’ve been doing lots of super-fun and very-crazy Shiva Nata all week, and the realizations are landing about every five minutes.
And some of them are so…WOW WOW WOW WOW… that I can’t even move because I’m boggling so much.
Need time to rest, process, consolidate and find out what this all means.
Something I’m anxious about doing.
It still needs to be done, and I need to find the right way in.
The good stuff
Rallyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Rally is the best!
And this one — #15, aka the Great Ducking Out the Second, is just so much fun.
I have had the most incredible discoveries, and gotten so much done (surprising things! in surprising ways!).
It’s been AMAZING. And every single person there is so great!
The Playground.
So at every Rally, I tell people that the Playground is theirs to play in, outside of my captain’s quarters. And that they can move stuff around and build blanket forts and do whatever.
Which they do, gleefully. But it usually takes a couple days.
This group was super creative and funny about space. They did the neatest things! Like taking the giant pink beanbag chair out of the Refueling Station, and using it to make a napping nook underneath the mast!
Or creating little hidden projects spaces that no one has ever thought of before. And making some sort of weird butt-monster sculpture.
Not sure what the story was but it looked like fun and there was a lot of giggling involved.
It is so joyful for me to see the space that I created for playing to be played with so intensely.
The Day of Ducking.
Our ducking-out-of-Thanksgiving picnic feast was so delicious.
And so much fun.
I could not be happier.
Stars on the ceiling.
There is no way to describe how beautiful this is.
The Playground has this giant and impossibly crazy-high ceiling.
And we have a special projector that projects a planetarium sky (with DEPTH and cloud cover and wind and everything) onto the sky. The sky being the ceiling, yes?
We turn off all the lights, pile the floor with blankets and cushions, put on some music and stargaze from the cozy floor. In the deepest darkest most star-filled way.
And I do not have words to describe how completely magical and restful and play-filled this is.
It is simply the most enchanting experience. We had stars. It was blissful.
Happy hand-on-heart sigh.
Shivanauttery!
So much great Shiva Nata.
We did it with sound effects (and a magical sound effect happened just when we needed one).
And with nouns and with qualities and with numbers, singing, music, stomping, wishes and various combinations of the above.
It’s been fantastic. I can’t wait for Shivanauticon, you guys!
Mmmm pickles.
The Gentleman pickled a ton of cucumbers from the Hoppy House garden, and now I can eat pickles whenever I want.
And they’re really good! So good.
Knowing what I want.
It feels really reassuring, even as parts of it terrify me.
I know what I want.
This is big.
The fun part of the Chickening happens here.
Tabstravaganza! Or: what’s Havi been up to with all those open Firefox tabs?
- I love the Cranky Shivanaut’s daily helpful persona. The pictures are the best!
- I spent way too much time enjoying the entire world that this inspired: Beyonce songs re-imagined as undergraduate theses.
From the archives.
Some old, weirdly pertinent posts that I don’t remember having written, encountered while looking for something else:
- Ten myths of biggification. I’d probably give this a different title now, but the concepts still hold. You should read this. (May, 2010)
Also: not from the archives but yesterday. Did you read about monkeys wearing clothes and all the things you can learn from a proxy? Because it’s useful for later.
Playing live at the meme beach house — it’s the Fake Band of the Week!
Background? Ez and I make up bands. Stu (retired Bolshevik-fearing voice-to-text software) once translated “people will hate me and be jealous” to “they’ll hang out at my Meme Beach House“. It’s just one guy.
This week’s band is brought to you by the Shiva Nata positions Horizontal 2 + 4:
Quantum Hedgehog
They play speedmetal rockabilly in a field of daisies. While wearing bowler hats.
Though did you know? I heard it’s actually just one guy.
Hallo Hallo! I am saying Hallo Hallo. Announcement time.
Picture me wearing that crazy hat…
- Reminder: Rally prices are out of date. They’re going up. Also we can maybe-possibly sneak you in on the January Rally on a stowawayship scholarship ship.
- I highly recommend the Art of Embarking, which is the thing I am most excited about right now. This will be the prerequisite for everything I teach in 2012.
- Oooh, and registration for the Floating Playground will be opening later this month. If you’re not on my HAT list (Havi’s Announcing a Thing), you can sign up on the events page.
I think that’s everything? If not, I’ll add stuff to the Very Personal Ads over the weekend.
That’s it for me …
And of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments if you feel like it.
Yes? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?
And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious day, a restful weekend and a happy week to come. Shabbat shalom.
p.s. It’s okay if it’s not Friday anymore. There’s complete chicken amnesty — join in whenever (or not) and it’s no big deal.