Suburban (in)Sanity

A clean desk and a cluttered mind

I am eager to start posting regularly again. I never really know what causes my blogging hiatuses (hiati?) It's not like one day I decide "I think I'll stop posting." It's just that day after day I...don't post.

This is true of my writing, too. Day after day I've been wanting to write, thinking about writing, but just...not. It's an odd sort of funk and I need to get myself out of it. So...stay tuned. Hopefully I can pull some sensible order out of the chaos that is my brain (but the desk, the desk is sparkly clean!)

First, though, here's a picture of the kitty in a basket. Because she's cute. Aww.

Some link salad to tide you over:

These cakes cooked in canning jars look fun and easyish to make, if I can get over my fear of making a cake from scratch.

My friend works for Big Oven and they got some good press recently. Mental note, next time I'm procrastinating, maybe I can put all my recipes into Big Oven?

Over the summer I worked at the kids' school and one of the things I did was launch a blog. I'm really happy with the two pieces I wrote and would love to do more of this kind of writing in the future.

This was the most interesting thing I've seen all week (note to self: stop reading election coverage.) It's a TED talk by woman who created a game to help get her out of a traumatic-brain injury depression. Very interesting stuff about life lessons and what regrets people have on their deathbed and video games. I love people who mash up content in unexpected ways. TED talks take 18 minutes and it can seem like it's impossible to find 18 minutes, but trust me - give it a try. It was worth it for me (it got me off my procrastination station and into this post, so it's worth SOMETHING!)

Your parenting tip for the day: Bookmarks for the kids

Parenting Tip: Create a folder of Bookmarks for each child

My kids love playing on the computer. I'm on the computer a lot during the day while they're in school and I often come across a site or activity that I think they would enjoy.

After a few too many "browsers of doom" where I had 12, 15 open tabs just waiting to show the kids, I started a bookmark folder for each kid. This way I can put bookmarks in for pages I think they might be interested in and then *close the webpage.* This has done wonders for my digital sanity, though I still have a digital hygeine problem as explained below.

My own bookmarks are ridiculous, I don't keep anything in there, at least not anymore in the tangle of sites I originally bookmarked in 2003. It's the curse of a visual-spatial person, I can't ever find the things I want no matter how carefully I try to create folder structures and organizational schemes. I swear my digital organization is worse than my physical organization, and that's saying something!

However, for my kids I can manage a reasonable number of bookmarks. Right? (Right??!)

Some of the tidbits in there right now:

Liam's folder:

• Crowdsourcing space exploration tool called Zooniverse that I want to be a part of, too!
• Legends of Druidawn interactive creative writing game (click the link at the very bottom of the page to see the genesis of this site - creative writing solutions it says.)
• A site to convert text to multimedia, like the bunny/mouse characters speaking in tinny computerized voices reading scripts that people wrote....whatever that one is called. Note to self, this would be great to use in Media and Design classes...
• The requisite Lego recreation of something totally AWESOME, this one is Middle Earth.

Anastasia's folder:

• Tree of Life web project - collection of information about biodiversity compiled by amatuers and experts alike.
• How to make friendship bracelets (I'm totally in the clear on the website name since she thinks WTF stands for Why the Face?)
• A music video of an 8 year old girl singing a hardcore (punk rock) song. She's always making videos herself and I think needs a little inspiration, since the script is often the limiting factor.
• A make your own snowflake picture (online) site. Love this.

So I challenge you to go forth and make a folder for each of your children and drop in fun tidbits and cool sites that they might like. Also a good place to put book recommendations, particularly if you're parenting a tween who might not want to actually ASK you for ideas. (P.S., if you don't know this about me already, know that I can talk your ear off with recommendations for books for kids ages 8-18. Please ask! Give me an excuse to talk your ear off!)

Come back and report on the great sites you found! Perhaps one day we'll do this all in pinterest... ;)

The tabbed browser...OF DOOM!

I have so many tabs open in my browser at the moment that I literally can't see what any of them say. I wish people would stop linking to such interesting articles!

Here's what it looks like:

Crazy, eh? (It's Rockmelt, a new browser that integrates social media sites into the sidebars of the browser, built on Chrome. I like it pretty much, have been using it for a few months. Still not sure how much I love it.)

But there are some amazing and important gems in my tabs...of DOOM, so let me share a few of the articles that have struck me in the last week or two:

First, this is the most important thing I've read in ages. It's an online presentation about art, creativity, being who you are, becoming who you are by virtue of what you create. It's fantastic, and every person who cares about being authentically you should read this. The rest of you imposters should keep moving along.

Which reminds me about this set of links on the Impostor Syndrome I read this week. You should read it, too.You are not an impostor.

And then there's this stuff about being a stay at home mom that I open in my browser and desperately want to reply to but don't really have the time. This is *important* work, being the at-home parent. Very important work. It's very often and very easily marginalized, though, in part by well-meaning hard-working parents who work outside of the home. Please understand I know each role has significant value, having played each role at many different times in the last 10 years. But being at home is *important.* It is *valuable.* It is *worthwhile work.* Those who choose, or by circumstances or life situations get forced into, this path need support, encouragement, and respect.

A friend linked to this awesome bit about Harry Potter, and honestly I can't get enough. HP Deathly Hallows Part 1 comes out on DVD soon!

Have I linked to this one before? Doing silly public art? I'm dying to do this with my children, maybe now that the weather is starting to improve. Or at least suck less. I love people who treat art with whimsy and view making others smile as an important way to spend their time. I do, too.

I'm sure you've seen some of the awesome articles about iPads and children with developmental delays, disabilities, and other limitations. I'm amazed at this tool that DIDN'T EXIST JUST 14 MONTHS AGO. Ponder that for a second. I already couldn't live without mine and I've only had it since Christmas.

We introverts are getting props so much more in the Age of the Internet. It's about damn time. Hey - I'm not socially awkward (except when I am) or antisocial (except when I've spent all day with PEOPLE) -- I'm just an introvert. I need some downtime. Computer time = downtime for me, even though it's also become one of my primary social interaction methods (asynchronous = ideal for people w/busy lives. Which I have. Which explains my extremely sporadic blog posting schedule.)

The posts I'm reading from teachers responding to the various crises in state legislatures that are bringing their profession into light are heartbreaking. My teacher friends are among my most important, most inteligent, most treasured for the way they see my children as people, whether they've ever "officially" taught my children or not.

This site is almost as good as Mila's Daydreams, (book next Jan, sign up for her mailing list!) In the first linked site, a Korean artist takes children's drawings and recreates them in scenes. The prince/princess on the stairs are absolutely magical.

An online author friend is trying out the epublishing thing. Like the rest of us. ;)

This site makes a great point about what carrying a baby does for them (hint: gives them things to look at/experience/interact with in the world. More people wanted to talk to me and my baby when I carried them than at any other time!)

My friend Melanie mentions a Once Upon a Time challenge in her blog that sounds really interesting...

One of my other imaginary friends (funny that so far each "friend" I've mentioned here is someone I know from online interactions only. Isn't that interesting? Remember that bit about introverts!? speaking of which - another article...) linked to a fascinating grant-giving organization called Saving Lives at Birth: The Grand Challenge for Development. My friends in the birthing and mother advocacy worlds might be interested.

Another imaginary friend (who I have actually met in person) has posted about the difference between delegating and abdicating control. This is something that is really familiar to me from the business world, but it's surprising to me in the recent discussions I have been watching on the state of the publishing industry how quick some authors are willing to abdicate complete control over their intellectual property - the words they bled and sweated over for ages. Scary. She doesn't do comments on her posts due to other commitments, but I love comments on my blog posts, so feel free to read and debate away, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Closing, you really need to listen to Sarah Kay talk about If I Should Have a Daughter. It's important.

Some things that have caught my attention

In a week full of editing (I'm editing a middle-grade sci-fi novel I wrote in 2009 with the hopes of independently publishing it in the near future), tooth loss (another one for the 9 year old, he says it's 11 down. I lost count at about 6) and an actual honest-to-goodness warmup (temps topped 40 two days in a row. Melt, snow, melt!) I've read another great bunch of articles. A quick recap of some of the best:

• Through My Eye, Not Hipstamatics is a great rebuttal to an uproar that occurred when a photo shot with an iPhone app won third place in major photography contest. This is one of those articles that is really interesting for the way it highlights the fact that technology is changing *everything* - including the way we produce and perceive art.
• I loved this article that talked about the Groupon Superbowl ad. I thought the ad was thought-provoking, but as soon as it finished I turned to my husband and said, "Wow. That's going to piss a lot of people off." I think this coverage helps explain the hipocricy behind the uproar. Interesting.
• I liked this BlogHer post about whether friendship comes with expiration dates, but what I really wonder is how has Facebook subverted what is probably a natural fact (the natural "growing apart" that many friendships go through as one enters and leaves various life stages.)
• This article about a mayor of Bogota, Colombia and his unorthodox ways of solving societal problems was fascinating. 
• But the article that hit me the most profoundly was this Newsweek article by Lisa Miller (who is quickly becoming my favorite news writer) about the complexities of mothering and working and just getting things done in today's chaotic and "self-service" environment makes us all just a wee bit more crazy. Oh my gosh she captured all of my pain in passages like: "Health-insurance forms, 401(k) planning, personal banking, tech support, expenses, gift returns—these have become existentially excruciating, a maze of portals and passwords." and this quote from another mother: "I have thousands of little ants crawling up my legs. I have thousands of things to check into and to manage."

Ahh...here's to hoping your week isn't full of thousands of ants crawling up your legs. I know mine is.

A long long list of links I like (and you will, too.)

I've been neglecting my blog. Poor, sad blog. No excuse other than sometimes Everything Else just gets in the way.

We've been having a very entertaining Snowpocalypse 2011 (or Snomageddon, or SNOMG! or Snoway we're getting out of here.) I hope if you've been hit by the Storm of the Century, or its icy hangerson, that you've got entreperneurial neighborhood youth to dig you out.

Meanwhile, I've been collecting tabs in browsers for an entire week and at this point they are becoming overwhelming. They are each likely deserving of their own dedicated blog post, but alas, at this time they're just going to go in a jumble here with some editorial commentary by me. Perhaps I'll revisit the biggest of them in future posts. That might break me of the "must have something IMPORTANT to say" problem that impedes my blogging in general.

• Figment is a possible solution to an imaginary problem I do not have yet. You see, I write books (hopefully you know this by now.) I haven't yet published any of my books but I am trying. I am starting to lean towards indie publishing my own books as ebooks, something I can do on kindle, nook, etc. on my own (and which I already have done with my short story Apples on the Moon.) But I write young adult science fiction. It's not clear to me yet that YA readers are using kindles and nooks, although most by now have a smartphone. At any rate, figment is an online community where young adult readers and writers can collect and share. Is this a place where I can hook into the YA reading community a bit better? (And, bonus, perhaps find some fun stuff written by actual young adults? Awesome.) A big part of why I write is because of these people, these young adults. So I'm excited about the possibilities of Figment. I'm there under my author name, Karen T. Smith.
• I'm completely addicted to Pandora Radio. Right now Five for Fighting is playing on my Coldplay mix. And I've created an awesome Goo Goo Dolls/Mumford and Sons/30 Seconds to Mars crazy mashup channel. Love it. The programmers who write the algorithms are genius. I hope iTunes is paying them well, because I end up buying about 1 out of ever 10 songs I hear... What's on your Pandora radio stations?
• I'm writing a story that features a piano-playing main character, so this page has helped me figure out some common songs she might know. Heaven knows I have played most of these in my piano-playing days, but I'd lost track of most of the classics. Moonlight Sonata was my first recital piece. Fur Elise, my second. 
• My friend Levi Montgomery has written a number of novels and novellas. What he writes is not in the genres I read (he writes some pretty cool gritty and real-feeling coming of age stories as well as mystery/thriller types. I'm solidly over in the sci-fi/fantasy/made-up world columns.) You should check out his stuff, though. Zoe Freaking Winters loves his work (she's one of the indie publishing success stories.) 
• JA Konrath's blog is totally changing my mind about everything related to publishing. The idea that my writing might actually earn some cash green money within the next 90 days versus "some point in the distant future" is extremely appealing. Still mulling over options, and editing one novel with an eye toward epublishing it myself soonish.
• I was able to coerce entice some friends into splitting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farmshare with me this summer. We're going with Sweet Home Organics, a small community farm very near where we live. I'm excited about trying out the CSA model to see how it works for our family. And thinking about summer produce does do the heart good here in the bottoms of Midwest Winter.
• On the epublishing front, a friend pointed me toward Dreamstime as a source for images. Some lovely things, particularly for us space-minded folk. 
• Everyone in my education circles of interest on facebook has been posting this TED talk by Ken Robinson about changing educational paradigms. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't watched it yet. Like voicemail, I find videos to be a black hole of time sink (even when, like this video, it helpfully tells me it's an 11 minute 40 second clip.) Once I fall into the video event horizon, I'm sucked into the vortex. But in my defense, I think I've watched this one before and it really is worth the watch. Even I'll get to it again. Soon.
• Another thing that keeps bubbling up to me via FB friends is this site Quora.com. It bills itself as: "A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it." Seeing as how one of the things I do primarily in one aspect of my life (breastfeeding support) is to answer questions, I am intrigued. In one of my other areas of life/interest (eLearning and educational software design) I think it's also an interesting direction to go. I'm trying to convince one of my clients that the highest-value thing they could do today is to put up an expert video library (ala the TED talks like the previous bullet) of their experts answering questions. I think it'd be a game-changer in their industry.
• No, I'm not done yet. Have you seen Google's Art Project? I happen to have it open to a page of the Palace of Versailles. Yes, living in my science-fiction life is awesome, where we can do virtual walkthroughs of major museums all over the world from our computer screens (while listening to awesome Mumford and Sons songs on Pandora Radio, no less...)
• Whatever you're doing now, you should take a moment (yes, step away from the blog) and go change this facebook setting. I read through to the original blogger who co-opted 20-40 fb identities while sitting in a Starbucks in NYC. One word: Eek!
• Very interesting BlogHer post about depression, viewing it as a disease, and other insights. 
• I was struck, hard, by this blog post by Motherscribe about her son. I've written some similar things before about my beautiful awesome and difficult-to-parent-sometimes daughter. But truthfully, her words resonated with me about ALL of parenting. It's so hard sometimes, and we forget we can use our fingers.
• I really liked this post about The Unhealthy Truth About Our Food. As someone who tries to be thoughtful about our food choices, and feed my family well (real foods, in as close to their natural states as possible) there were a lot of good hooks here.
• Being a geography geek, I found this BBC site that compares sizes of things to be fascinating. 
• While some might take issue with the idea of "coming out" with the gifted label as a bit...off-kilter when compared to the issues surrounding gays in coming out to their families and communities, I did like that the article raised the issue of embracing the use of the term gifted, and accepting yourself or your child for themselves. I have found this process to be life-altering and I will likely write about it more in the future. 
• This article about how different parenting styles can lead to splitsville for friends was ... very interesting. I don't entirely agree with the author, but I can totally see her point about the Interrupting Child and how aggravating it is to be the OTHER adult in that dynamic. BTDT, they should sell t-shirts.

Oh my gosh, is that IT? Nothing else? Well...nothing else at the moment. Hope you find some gems in there. This internet sure is big!

Link Salad - a few of the things that interested me this week

That should say "a few of the things that interested me and sucked my time away from the things I should be doing this week." But that seemed like an awfully long title.

• La Leche League of Illinois' area conference is next weekend - I'll be speaking via virtual conference (video!) on Saturday morning at 8:30. Lots of good stuff for moms, lactation professionals, health care providers, dads, families, everyone. You should go!
• Diaspora* - a new social network being created by a bunch of geeky kids. Looks interesting. I'm all for owning and controlling my personal data MYSELF. I've been watching this story for a while. Props to my friend Carf who has been watching it and posting the links, too. Makes it easier to watch a story when someone else promotes the links.
• I posted two different links to Single Dad Laughing this week. Though I find the writer a bit over-long sometimes, he does make some great points, and they apply to all parents, not just fathers. 
• Hoagie's Gifted keeps producing links that are fascinating to me. This week one of them was this article about genetic aspects to ADHD. The more we know...
• Lots of my geek friends posted a link to this article about a planet found in the habitable zone orbiting star Gleise 581. The best part? My National Novel Writing Month project last year was set on a colony ship heading toward Gleise 581! I also find the idea of a tidally-locked planet cool - one side of the planet permanently faces the sun, the other permanently faces away. Holy climate changes, batman.
• Another Hoagie's Gifted link with some analogies to arbitrarily grouping children by things such as shoe size or height (comparing to birthdate.) It goes well with my redshirting of kindergarteners' rant of recent days. We should group children by where they ARE, not when they were born. Some are ready for school early, some not so much. 
• A satirical post about what science reporting is like. The comments were hilarious, too.
• A reminder to local peeps that the Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search testing registration is open. If your child seems ahead of the curve on academics, this testing can help him or her qualify for gifted programming in your area. Grades 3-8.