Oh Happy Day! Exhibits 1-4
{Great blog, BTW.} Happy Friday, again! Don’t these three chickadees just bubble over with summer happiness? Nothing says “happy day” like white petticoats, ribboned hats and roller skates! The art is an embellished scan from my little “vintage” magazine collection–Ladies Home Journal from May 1933, illustrated by Gertrude Kay.
Just a little bit of Junkie trivia: I enjoy collect vintage magazines for their great ads and illustrations (and the imagined stories their yellowed mailing labels imply). I particularly like mid-20th century versions from the 1930s-1960s. Norman Rockwell is a classic favorite. Freedom from Want hangs above my desk in the dining room. It’s a two-page spread from the 1943 Saturday Evening Post showing Rockwell’s wonderful dinner table and the first page of Carlos Bulosan’s corresponding essay. No, it’s not one of the pristine prints available in abundance. I prefer tearing the pages out of the magazines where they were printed in undigitized four-color process and read for 10¢ or 15¢ from the newstand. I guess it’s the old school commercial artist in me. I suppose I also take a word lover’s pleasure in thumbing through the issues to see three columns of uninterrupted text, not bottom-lined and bullet-pointed for today’s snack-sizes readers. Old advertisements have popped up all over our house, from Crest ads in the bathroom to Ford motorcar ads in the living room. It’s a little obsession that indulges my designer/illustrator tendencies. File that under “rabbit trail.”
Back to girls on skates! Oh happy day! Friday marks the end of the work week and pizza night in a very rewarding writing/blogging week. Happy EyeJunkie. Citizen media often surprises me, and this week has been full of the kind of serendipity that made me sigh, jump, giggle and cry in response.
Happy Exhibit 1
I’ve posted every day this week–sometimes with words, sometimes with pictures, sometimes with both [a graphic designer's dream]. The combination of words and pictures represents two of the creative bents I’ve had since childhood, and I’m wanting to meld them together a little more at EyeJunkie. I think the result will be a much more expressive whole. And could possibly lend itself to silliness as well. [Don't hold me to the posting every day thing :)]
Happy Exhibit 2
One of the editors I work with over at BrightHub.com invited me to write for her new Entrepreneurship “channel.” This topic area will give me the opportunity to write more about marketing for small and start-up businesses, which is what I spend much of my day job doing. I’m very excited about the challenge.
Happy Exhibit 3
After being the subject of MIPOTW last week, Marybeth Hicks, author of Bringing Up Geeks paid me the wonderful compliment of linking to my MeMyBook&Eye starter post on her home page–and sent me a rah rah email about it! That was very encouraging and incredibly kind since I haven’t started really posting about her book yet. It’s always gratifying when someone you admire takes note of one of your hair-brained ideas. Thank you, Marybeth.
[Stay tuned for the Geek Episode 1 on Monday for MeMyBook&Eye. I promise]
Happiest Exhibit 4
Perhaps the greatest blog blessing this week surrounds my post for “Blogging for LGBT Families Day.” After much soul searching and dodging and mental hopping around, the post practically wrote itself in my head as I was trying to fall asleep on Sunday night. I had all but decided I wasn’t going to open that can of worms, but my internal insomniac editor said “oh, go ahead.” My concern was balancing honesty, questions I still have and the desire not to offend–that and the fear of being blasted by one side of the issue or another. But, my hope to continue a dialog that’s begun was greater than the fear. Frankly, the response has been overwhelming and extremely rewarding. Dana Rudolph, author of Mombian.com and initiator of the 4th annual event amazed me by highlighting my writing as one from the list that made the greatest impression on her personally. [Many thanks, Dana]
For some reason, the post has struck a cord with several people in exposing deep hurts that have been caused by the typical family conservative approach. I have been astounded by the LGBT community’s prevalent impression of how rarely Christians are willing to pause, listen and look. Unfortunately, I can’t say the assumption is unfounded. I have been deeply touched by the communication I’ve received in response to the post, and I invite my conservative friends to take a kind and respectful gander. I’m looking forward to continuing the dialog that has begun.
Filed under Day + Day, Oh Happy Day!, Reading + Writing | Comment (0)
200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things
Guess what? WordPress Dude, in all his obsessive math calculating, number crunching happiness has alerted me right there on the WP dashboard that this is my 200th post. Wow! I’m totally impressed with myself at the moment, which will of course pass very quickly. My 100th post came and went without nearly the fanfare of President Obama’s first 100, but it did relate somewhat, where relate = it was about another president. Post 100 was day 10 in my 12 days of Thanksgiving 2008 series highlighting thoughts about President Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving proclamation. I shared 12 lessons of thanksgiving Abe seemed to “get.” The first was this:
“Learning to recognize bounty is important.”
Yep, that’s still true and still shamefully difficult at times. But, in celebration of my 200th post and as another step on the trek to Harmony 2009, I’m taking up the challenge from my friend at SisterWisdom to make a happy list. Mine is a list of 200 Harmony Inducing Happy Things. Happy things, where things = people, places and well, things that add harmony to my spirit just by virtue of their existence and proximity to me. Happy things can make even the most disharmonious circumstance slip more closely into tune. Misplaced flats and sharps (for my music lovers) don’t stand a chance when happy things are around. [If it's been 37 days or so since my last post, you'll know that 200 was a bit ambitious and can collectively sigh about poor Junkie who can't even think of 200 happy things. But, somehow I don't think that'll be a problem. -- And, sure enough, it wasn't.]
200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things
1. Hub
2. Little Drummer Boy
3. Squiggle
4. and Baby Girl (in the order of their unwrapping)
5. being inside on a rainy day
6. the smell of gardenia
7. “spit kisses” that you can keep all day
8. laptops
9. a fairly clean and sanitized episode of Murder She Wrote
10. wildflowers picked and arranged for Mother’s Day
11. getting to cook a new dish for my family
12. bedtime stories
13. a tall glass of sweetened iced tea
14. “glass” glasses, not plastic
15. choosing from the cream, yellow, green or cobalt blue plates depending on my mood
16. green striped placemats @ $4 a piece — yep, still harping on those.
17. a drive down the Natchez Traze when dogwoods and redbuds are in full bloom
18. the perfect amount of sun and shade to make red winged begonias flourish on my front stoop
19. an unexpected little boy hug
20. an unexpected big boy hug
21. leftovers
22. peaches in season
23. whole wheat pasta
24. Claire Burke original scent votive candles
25. a glimpse at my grandmother’s handwriting on the letters she sent me at college
More, more and more after the jump! Be happy with me… Continue reading »
Filed under Day + Day, Reading + Writing | Comment (0)
Thurs Thirty: Blogging Life Lessons
This week, I offer a special Thursday Thirty edition of the customery Tuesday Ten, featuring a souped up, biggie sized, thirty (count ‘em 30) LIFE LESSONS I’ve learned from blogging over the past year. Can you relate?
1. run-on sentences really aren’t so bad after all. don’t shoot me Mrs. Armstrong.
2. it’s polite to speak when spoken to (or commented upon, as the case may be)
3. many of life’s problems can be solved by a well placed </div> tag
4. the world is big. and small.
5. you really can have 6000 projects going on at the same time.
6. uniques and page views and google rankings are fruitless pursuits.
7. there is something so much “wronger” (to paraphrase Veggie Tales) about fruit left on the vine to rot as opposed to fruit left in the fridge. [where the vine = my brain and fruit = my ideas and the fridge = my ideas put out there in cyberspace where becoming stale and sour is somehow inevitable over time, but who cares… in my little analogy.
8. analogies can quickly go awry (Re: #7)
9. rules were made to be broken, and thereby creativity ensues.
10. I have a lot to say — no big surprise there.
11. other people have a lot to say, and it’s sometimes fun to listen (or read).
12. some things just aren’t worth saying
13. I so rarely write in complete sentences.
14. so what? (Re: #13)
15. you can and will make time for what matters to you.
16. words and pictures have power. use them wisely.
17. the accountability of knowing the world might weigh in on my opinion can be a good thing.
18. thinking and writing are still important, even if noone reads.
19. you speak (and write) from where you sit. that’s the only way it can work.
20. but, it’s ok to use your imagination. (Re: #19)
21. in fact, it’s my responsibility as a thinking world citizen to use my imagination. (Re: #19 and #20)
22. if I can’t look others in the (virtual) eye with mercy and grace with what I believe, I need to rethink.
23. networks, posts, twitter, facebook, stats, countries, issues and causes are all made of real people.
24. punctuation in or outside of quotation marks and parentheses will remain a conundrum and I’ll probably always first spell their “thier” and have to change it. I’ve learned to accept it.
25. I so incredibly don’t care anymore. (Re: #24)
26. but, I so incredibly care about almost everything else, and that’s ok. (Re: #25)
27. a little obsession never hurt anybody.
28. if kermit’s not happy, nobody’s happy. where kermit = my handy, highly mobile and generally congenial laptop.
29. if it matters to me, chances are it will matter to someone else out there.
30. because (despite all evidence to the contrary) people really aren’t that different. (Re: #28)
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the work of angel wings redux: in which I wish my Eye happy birthday
In celebration of EyeJunkie’s one-year birthday, here is a republishing of my very first post from May 6, 2008–with a new added illustration (“A is for Angel”). This experience and experiment in “citizen media” has been very rewarding. I am deeply honored that you have chosen to read “my stuff” and to share this journey toward a life of paying attention. You’ve been privy to obsessions, pet peeves, frustrations, lessons, opinions, incessant pictures of cute children and all the other “stuff” of my days. I don’t claim that it’s always good “stuff,” but that it is honest and real, reflective of the complexity and annoyance and indecision and certainty and pure joy of life on the ground, running.
This poem has been around for a while. I wrote it about wonder and responsibility, thinking of the help we need and where we get it. I wrote it to remind myself to relieve all those guardian angels hovering. To lighten their workload. To take up the work myself. To BE the eyes, the hands, the smile, the tissue, the voice, the applause, the light, the love… the keyboard. Enjoy anew.
the work of angel wings
angel wings are all around us
in an invisible embrace.
they are the rustle of leaves on a tree
as we walk by.
they are the tiny stars we can barely see
and the halo around the lights at night.
the angels are our companions.
they see us when noone is there
with eyes that soothe a troubled spirit.
they sing us the songs in our head.
angel wings shoo away some of our memories
when we need more time to say goodbye.
they stir up the gentle breeze
of a deep breath and a sigh when we start again.
they soak up our tears
and they fan the sparkle in our eyes when we laugh.
at times the angels back away
when they sense someone has seen them
and the brush of their wings.
when they know one of us has learned their way
and thus joined the myriad.
listen…
you can hear the quiet flutter of flight.
the moment when the eyes
or the voice
or the hands of a human
takes over
to do the work of angel wings.
Filed under Poetry + Word Pictures, Reading + Writing | Comment (0)
Tues Ten 030309: WordPress 2.7
Ten Things I Love about WordPress 2.7:
Please give WordPress Dude a cookie with big ol’ hunks of chocolate in it. I upgraded a few months ago and have since made 2.7 jump through hoops for posting and obsessive site tweaking. I like it a lot. For these reasons.
1. new interface layout – faster to get where you want to go!
2. quick links drop down in header
3. quick edit feature in post list
4. choose from most popular tags
5. word count (ok, not new, but I’m just saying)
6. sticky posts – um hm, right there with a check box
7. drag and drop collapsible screen features – boo yow!
8. recent drafts on the dashboard – for my well-hidden anti-procrastinator
9. screen options palette – for customized viewing
10. quick press feature
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