Category: Ruminations and Crackpot Theories

Observations on life in general.

Thursday Thought: Multi-Tasking

While there is no such thing as multi-tasking (numerous studies indicate the brain can do only one thing at a time) a person can walk and chew gum at the same time. Those actions, as well as other “muscle memory” functions like typing  are the products of habit learning and are controlled by a different part of the brain.  Talking on the phone, reading email, listening to the news take place in the declarative memory learning area.

That said, a person can cook and listen to the radio at the same time, the same way a person can eat and watch television at the same time. Different parts of the brain are in use.

Maybe preparing dinner and listening to her family at the same time is a mommy skill.

In case you needed to know this. Because you missed a joke or the weather while stirring your eggs.

 

 

MJ Monday-Meals: Pasta Salad Redo.

In an attempt to de-carb our meals, I experimented with my standard pasta salad recipe, substituting Quinoa for pasta.

The first thing I did was cook two envelops of Quinoa and let them cool overnight.

I dumped them into a large bowl and started adding my standard pasta salad ingredients:

  • black olives
  • artichoke hearts
  • peas
  • carrots
  • red onion
  • roasted red pepper
  • chopped yellow bell pepper

and for something a little different: sliced radishes.

Then I made my standard dressing, doctored up with additional garlic powder, dried basil, and dried parsley.

All the flavors and most of the textures of pasta salad without its heaviness. A keeper.

MJ Monday-Manuscript: Update

As I type this blog, the first draft of the next (so very delayed) book is complete. A preliminary round of revisions have been noted. I plan to delve into revisions after finishing this blog.

I used my three-week July vacation to push to the end. The problem, you see, is my writing process. And it’s not a problem, really, it’s simply the process.

Some people refer to what I do as the Headlight Method: write as far as you can see in the headlights, then wait for the headlights to reveal more.  And that’s how it goes . . . sort of. What I need to know is apparently already in my head. But my brain won’t release it to me until it’s good and ready, which is frustrating as all get out. So all the while I was making myself crazy trying to figure out how/why on a certain aspect near the end of the story, my brain was sitting back, smirking. Then, as I was typing a scene, my fingers revealed the whole thing. Without ever letting my consciousness know.

It’s enough to make a sane woman crazy.

 

Thursday Thoughts: Planners

It’s that time of hear again! Thinking about next year and what I’m going to use as a planner.

For the past three years, I used one company, and I loved the planner. The cover said, “She Designed A Life She Loved,” and that meant so much to me.

A few weeks ago I learned something about the company I can’t overlook or forgive. I come from a generation where we put our money where our mouths are. I don’t eat at one chain, I don’t shop at a particular craft store, and now I needed to find another planner to meet my needs the way the aforementioned one did.

A class I took back in January mentioned different kinds of planners for different kinds of people. I checked this out. I did a lot of research to find what I wanted.  My Meyers Briggs type is INFJ, and although the class instructor though N-J would like a particular planner, I did not. Maybe because I didn’t like their website–it wasn’t yet set up for 2021, and I didn’t find it intuitively user friendly.

But another planner the instructor suggested struck a chord with me. I could customize almost every aspect. I don’t need coloring book pages. I don’t need . . . a lot of things my previous planner included. I went to town. I found a more-than-acceptable cover (I wish it was a different color, but it is what it is). I picked out what extra pages I wanted and where I wanted them placed in the book. Even after adding things, I was paying $15 – $20 less than I was for the 2018, 2019, 2020 planners.

The planner arrived a week or so after I placed the order. I love it. It is a better version of the one I loved.

Since Positivity is one of my strengths and also one of my goals, I thought this cover was appropriate.

MJ Monday-Music: Connie Dover

Many years ago, my husband and I were wandering around the village of Cooperstown, NY. We’d already visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. I wanted to shop. I didn’t want baseball related stuff. I didn’t want the usual tourist town trinkets.

I walked into an alley leading off Main Street, seduced by the music being played there. The alley was cool with greenery, welcome on that hot summer afternoon. I followed the path to a store that no longer exists: Moon Dreams. To this day it remains my favorite store in Cooperstown.

I ended up purchasing a pair of earrings that remain favorites . . .

(lapis and crystal set in sterling–my new phone’s camera leaves much to be desired)

and my first Connie Dover CD.

My first love in musical genres is folk music. It’s what I (mostly) grew up on. I love the stories told by the lyrics, legends set to music.

Connie Dover  lured me into the alley that day (“Mally Leigh” from her If Ever I Return CD). She sings old Celtic, French and cowboy folk songs in addition to composing her own pieces.  Her voice is sweet and pure. While I don’t usually care for too “smooth” a sound, Dover is the exception that proves the rule. The harmonies are amazing.

While I haven’t purchased a new CD in a while, I still love listening to the ones I do own.