What's one thing you regret doing, or not doing?
Submitted by ashleyy.
Wow, a person could need therapy to answer a question like that. Let's just say I have many regrets but I'm trying not to have a whole lot of current regrets.
Are you watching the Super Bowl today? Who are you watching it with, and which team do you want to win?
Nope. I would like NE to win. Did they?
What are 10 things you want to say out loud but you can't?
Submitted by alix.
I have four kids and I'm a religious person so I guess that would have to be "certain" words, eh? ;-)
I am on the e-mail list for a blog called "The Simple Dollar." An entry this week was on reading and I thought it had some very good suggestions for people who are just starting to truly read (not just magazines or the stuff they shove down your throat in school) or for people who have been reading for a while, but rather inefficiently.
How to Build a Reading Hobby (Or Any Inexpensive Hobby)
Posted: 29 Jan 2008 08:00 AM CST
As any regular reader of The Simple Dollar knows, I love to read. It’s a hobby that relaxes me, encourages me to think, and doesn’t cost very much to participate in, and it’s one I’ve enjoyed as far back as I can remember. I can scarcely leave my house without a book in tow and I’m far more content when business traveling to curl up in my hotel room with a book than to hit the town. I find that a hobby that’s financially frugal is a great way to reduce spending and leave yourself not feeling bored, ever.
I’m a busy person, though. How do I find time for such a time consuming hobby? The biggest key is to focus on a very small number of key interests, and devote real time to them. For me, those hobbies start and end with writing, reading, and a limited amount of games. Simply put, I put aside time for reading. I have a block of time each day, roughly an hour, where I simply do nothing but read.
I usually read in the most comfortable place in the house - leaned back on the incredibly comfortable couch in the basement with a big, cool beverage (and perhaps a small snack) at arm’s length. I feel very comfortable and happy here, with my immediate needs covered well. I can just let go of things - my seat is comfortable, my thirst and hunger needs are taken care of - and just sink into a book.
I tend to choose a mix of materials to read, from deep, involving books and complicated essays to light and simple fare. I’ll follow a treatise on systematic theology with a Terry Pratchett novel and not skip a beat. One makes me grow, the other makes me laugh. By mixing stuff up and not burying myself in “boring” items, I keep reading exciting and lively. In fact, I believe this is one of the big reasons people get turned off from reading - they get their face rubbed in something that’s really, really pushing their comfort level until they get so frustrated that they hate reading.
I also often take notes on what I read. About half the time, these notes wind up forming the core of a book review on The Simple Dollar. Basically, if I own the book, I’ll just jot down (in the margins) any thought of interest to me, and I’ll underline key points. Then, when I’m done, I’ll go back through and hit all of those points again in one sitting. Usually, this brings a book together for me. Even better, those notes are often a great place to start a blog post, if you’re a blogger (or thinking about starting one).
I also find that setting reading goals makes things more fun. A few years ago, I made it my goal to read every Charles Dickens novel. I’ve also read every single biography of Teddy Roosevelt I’ve been able to find (he’s probably the closest thing I have to a role model). I’m about to systematically start reading every Pulitzer Prize winning novel in reverse chronological order, even re-reading the ones I’ve already read. I follow these goals diligently, but not exclusively - I’ll throw all sorts of stuff in the middle to liven things up and lighten the mood. The success in reaching such a goal, though, is tremendous.
Because of these goals, I find it very easy to bargain hunt. If I know I’m going to read all of the novels of Charles Dickens, for example, I can turn to services like PaperBackSwap and the library to get most of them very cheaply. Suddenly, I have a lot of books to read - and it didn’t cost me much at all.
Here’s the game plan for a busy person if you want to start a reading hobby - or want to develop any hobby:
Set aside time Find a block of time that you can set aside each day (or with any intense regularity), and set it aside exclusively to follow your hobby.
Make it portable and easily accessible As best you can, make it so that you can take some aspect of the hobby with you wherever you go. If you like puzzle games and are trying to build lateral thinking skills, get a Nintendo DS or a pocket puzzle book. If you’re learning the harmonica, keep it in your pocket.
Do it where you’re most comfortable I find that during my regular readings, I get much more into it (and feel much happier afterwards) if I do it in a comfortable place. Sometimes this isn’t possible, but if you can plan to practice your hobby in a place where you feel happiest and most comfortable, the hobby will feel happier and more comfortable, too.
Mix guilty pleasure with challenge You might be tempted to dive into some of the most challenging pieces of your hobby right off the bat. Don’t. Mix the challenging stuff with the pure fun stuff. When I was learning to play the banjo, I’d play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” over and over again and get incredibly frustrated. Instead, I found it went much better if I played the challenging piece for a while and when I felt the frustration really kicking in, I’d back off and play something easier that I really enjoyed, like “Yankee Doodle.” Do the same with any hobby and you won’t grow alienated from it.
Focus on bargains in your specific area Once you’ve defined a specific hobby and are actively following it, you’ll find your entertainment spending naturally goes down. Even better, you can kick the bargain hunting into high gear - it’s much easier to find a bargain when you know exactly what you’re looking for and it’s in a niche area.
Take notes - perhaps even start a blog Keep a record of your progress - what you like, what you hate, what you learned, and how it made you feel. This seems silly for some things, but it’s not - in fact, it’s a way of really savoring those good experiences, both now when you record them and later when you look back on them. One great way to do this is to start a simple blog about it, sharing your experiences with others.
Set goals Maybe you want to learn a song. Maybe you want to be able to solve a simple sudoku puzzle in five minutes. When I was a kid, I tried really hard to learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube puzzle in under a minute. If you enjoy the process, the sweetness of achieving a goal becomes just that much better - it’s a milestone and a sure sign that you’re becoming more than just a mere novice.
Do you think real love can last throughout any distance, or will long distance end most relationships?
Submitted by Miss Joy.
I think it depends, not on the distance, but on the people involved. If each person is committed to the other, then, while it would be difficult and painful, it should work out.
What have you changed your mind about?
Submitted by chitoes.
Just about everything under the sun, from God to the age of the earth. (There is a personal God, not just some ethereal, impersonal spirit. The earth is pretty darned old, a lot older than 6,000 years.)
One of the benefits of enjoying really old books is, with the advent of the internet, there are quite a few to be found and read for free. One of my favorite places for free reading is CCEL--Christian Classics Ethereal Library. CCEL is a project of Calvin College in Grand Rapids. It has just about all the oldies you could want, from Abelard to Young (there are apparently no good oldies whose last names started with Z). A recent addition to the website is what makes it pretty much the best online reading around...you can now sign in and "mark" the books you are reading. They have three different colors for highlighting and an option to "write" notes in the "margin." It is also capable of giving you the definition of the words you select. Their e-letter lets you know each month what new books they have finished. That's how I found out about the book I'm currently reading there: Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith. The Daily Benefits Derived from It. by John Calvin.
How do you keep calm?
Submitted by L33tchica.
Pray, read the Bible, pray some more, read some good theology books, pray even more.
What's your favorite hangover cure?
Submitted by Soup.
Never been hungover but I'm sure reading a book would cure it, wouldn't it?
But rereading it now with my son I have a different point of view. My son is nearly the same age as this HP now and I can see why the character is behaving the way he is. It is frustrating to be old enough to understand what's going on around you and to want to do something about it but the adults are treating you like you're a baby. The communication to Harry is definitely not what it should be considering all that's at stake. He points out that he has more than proved himself capable of handling things in the past but the adults are still trying to molly-coddle him.
We cannot keep our children in childhood forever. There is a time when we must be open with them about the hard truths of life. I think the best way to decide which truths to reveal is by seeing which ones will affect them at the point in life they are at. When my oldest was a small child people thought I was quite a dreadful mother to expose him to funerals. But what was I supposed to do? Tell him his GG had gone on holiday? Seriously, we do our children a disservice at any age by shielding them this way. There are appropriate ways to deal with different difficulties at each age and stage of our children's lives. Keeping them in the dark will only create resentment later on. By the time our children are 15 or 16 years old we should have already helped them to be ready to deal with the hard things in life. When are they supposed to learn? When they're 20? 30? By helping our children early to understand and deal with difficulties in an appropriate way as they come up in their lives, we will make the supposed transition from childhood to adulthood easier on both them and ourselves.
