Friday, May 15, 2009

the beginning

So this is my attempt to make my outside of work life more exciting . If I'm going to write on the regular (regularly) then I need to make sure I have things to write about. The idea is that I'll now have to do more things and continue learning, perhaps beyond what I hear on NPR.

NPR is great though. Most recently, WBUR totally rocked my world with a piece on L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz. He wrote 13 sequels. Who knew? What I liked about the piece was less all the gushing from callers about their love for Judy Garland and the film and more the discussion of the Baum's life. It was filled with failures, including a poultry breeding business, and it was only when he said, "fuck it. I'll do what I want!" and poured his heart into the Wizard of Oz that he finally achieved personal success, and then some. Lesson being: if you're hell bent on giving something back to humanity, you should probably just do what you really want and do it well.

I can't say now just what this blog will look like but I imagine it will materialize into a bucket of random thoughts on current events, short political essays on the benefits of deconstructing our global trade system, recipes, locutions of the week (a.k.a. noli slang, for you kiddos who know about my funny way of talking), character sketches/profiles on interesting people here and there, and links to awesome funny websites like this one and this one.

Things that I've been thinking about about and would like to revist (comment if you're interested in one in particular):

1. Bryant Terry Vegan soul food, mmmm
2. Chronic pain support groups- Good idea? Do they exist for the under 50 crowd?
3. The need for politicization in the broader food movement (think Slow Food, Food Justice, everything Michael Pollan writes about, blah, blah, blah)
4. Bees - What is to be done about them dying en mass?
5. Iced tea/juice combinations
6. The New England Aquarium
7. The origin of "call a spade a spade"
8. Saving seeds- how do you do that really?
9. The history (and future?) of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
10. Sam Cooke. I can't stop singing "The Hem of His Garment."

2 comments:

  1. Yes! do what you want. I think that if you're always doing what others think they want (or even worse: what you think others think they want) aren't you a second-hand human being?

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  2. Janka.... Seems I'm not the only one who heard that vegan soul food show. Not only does he cook vegan soul food but he's ann Peeble's nephew, of course I was hooked and bought the book. Haven't of course, cooked a thing off it, as I don't cook. Hope you are doing well.

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