Here Be Dragons

Tomorrow…..

Lady Quixote — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:12:03 +0000

Tomorrow I will call the bank.
Tomorrow I will write that letter.
Tomorrow I will kick that bad habit.
Tomorrow I will write that blog post.
Tomorrow I will start living.

Last night I met a very dear friend of mine at the gym for core class. She is one of my oldest friends (since preschool!), but we have only reconnected over the past month or so. After class we sat in the hot tub chatting and she began to lament about how quickly she grew up. “I wish I’d slowed down a bit,” she remarked, “I was always rushing towards the step to adulthood–towards the future.”

“Me too.” I agreed solemnly. Some part of me is always waiting for the satisfaction that some unfulfilled hope will allegedly bring. This is not an unusual desire in humans by any stretch. Perhaps it is because we are ultimately awaiting an Eternal Kingdom. We need hopes and dreams to survive. That is quite alright. But let me not plunge ahead so impatiently that I miss TODAY.

Church Mice

Lady Quixote — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:25:24 +0000

Did I mention I like brown babies?

Lady Quixote — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:53:11 +0000

I’ve been away for a while, and this is why….

I Can Haz Good Book Plz?

Lady Quixote — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:35:57 +0000

If you know any college students, you will have find trading complaints about one’s homework to be just about as natural as breathing. “How much”, “how boring”, “how pointless” and “how challenging my workload is” seem to be popular topics at the dining hall and in dorm rooms at night. Throughout my college career, one complaint in particular has caught my attention: reading assignments. A typical conversation I have or hear on a weekly basis goes a little like this: “Do you have much homework this weekend?” “Yeah, well… just a ton a reading (long groan of agony).” “Is the reading difficult?” “No, I just hate reading. I can’t seem to concentrate on it for more than five minutes!” I used to laugh it off. How could you hate reading? I love it! Then I realized something. I used to love reading. When I was a kid my mother would literally have to pry books from my fingers to get me to come to the dinner table. I could lose myself in the world of Trixie Belden, Lucy Pevensie or Frodo Baggins for hours at a time. Today I dread reading homework. I skim assignments, tire easily of long articles, and rarely find time to do any leisure reading of my own. What is wrong with our generation? Are we lacking intelligence on the whole, or is there some novel component of our culture that is contributing to the decline in focus and deep thought? After some observation I began to wonder if this phenomenon is due in part to the vast wealth of information readily available to us, but I could not quite pinpoint why. I was rather excited to read Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and discover someone else who shares my conundrum, but also has some answers. In his article, published in the August 2008 publication of The Atlantic Monthly, Carr raises some of the same concerns. He explains how he too once immersed himself in long lectures, meaningful conversations or pieces of great literature for extended periods of time. These days he finds himself losing concentration after two or three pages of a book. Then he becomes fidgety and distracted. “I think I know what’s going on,” Carr claims, “For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great database of the Internet.” He points out how greatly the Internet has benefited him as a writer. Information which used to take an afternoon of sifting through periodicals or encyclopedias can now be accessed by the mere click of a mouse. On the flip side, however, he feels as though he has lost the initiative to search for information—to really engage his mind in the procuration of knowledge or wrestling with a great idea. Nicholas Carr is not the only person to feel this way. Writer for online periodical Wired Magazine, Clive Thompson, describes his frustration with his inability to remember simple things such as phone numbers, names, and dates. He mentions one study in which 3,000 people were tested on recollection of personal information. “When Robertson asked his subjects to tell them a relative’s birth date, 87 percent of respondents over age 50 could recite it, while less than 40 percent of those under 30 could do so.” Our generation has grown heavily reliant on technology for quick information, depreciating the incredible reasoning and memorization capacities of the human mind. Nicholas Carr became so fascinated by these questions that he went on to write a book, published in June of 2010, called The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain. In it he says that we have returned to the “original distracted state of our ancestors” who were required to stay alert and shift attention often in order to survive. Not only do we dislike engaging our minds in lengthy writing or speeches, we have conditioned them in such a way that it is almost impossible for them to focus. This book sparked much controversy and even an oppositional book called Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Author Clay Shirky believes that effects of such readily-available information are far more enriching to us than detrimental. The Internet exposes us to creativity and expression that we would otherwise never encounter. When I think of the kinds of “creativity and expression” available to us through the Internet, I am inclined to feel quite skeptical of Shirky’s argument: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, chat rooms and lolcatz? Give me a good, old-fashioned library or an afternoon at the Louvre.

2010 in Review

Lady Quixote — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:39:55 +0000

So WordPress reviewed my bloggy activity at the end of 2010. I didn’t see the results till now because I never check the e-mail they sent them to. For your laughing pleasure:

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Blog-Health-o-Meter™

We think you did great!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,100 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 53 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 165 posts. There were 69 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 14mb. That’s about a picture per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 17th with 459 views. The most popular post that day was Bowl of Popcorn, a Radio and You.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were thechristianwoman.com, en.wordpress.com, newine.wordpress.com, WordPress Dashboard, and dogpile.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for a bowl of popcorn a radio and you, white lilies, lady carmen, a bowl of popcorn, a radio, and you, and jasmine flower.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Bowl of Popcorn, a Radio and You March 2010
3 comments

Flower Language February 2008
6 comments

Are you Reese-olutionary? May 2008
3 comments

Español October 2007
4 comments

My Gallery August 2009

Some of your most popular posts were written before 2010. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.

Rum Mocha Chocolate Cake

Lady Quixote — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:45:17 +0000

This recipe is fantastic. Only I used rum flavoring and added semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Protected: Chicken Scratch

Lady Quixote — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 03:39:02 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

Protected: Some of this is unique

Lady Quixote — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:34:30 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

Protected: To spend each night in the backyard

Lady Quixote — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:00 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lady Quixote — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:22:02 +0000