I wrote today about the verbs of technology. It'll but online later this week.
Today though, I have a piece I can share: Dear Diary, why do I write? with a bonus link at the end bearing a list of 6 diaries to read right now. Yesterday, I asked my coworkers "What did you read this summer?" and was delighted by their answers.
New pretties at work, chiefly the new books page, and the new Printers Row blog. Migrating it all over was a beast, to be sure, and a beast that is yet to be totally tamed. But, brick by brick, I'm getting it all shipshape.
Rosh HaShanah was lovely, though I felt like I slid into the homeplate of the new year rather than carefully prepared in years past. Whatever, I moved, so I was prepared for that.
Moving, right. Yes. I moved. I moved to be closer to work. While some might argue that such a maneuver upsets the life-work balance everyone is so fond of discussing, I would say it has had the opposite effect on me. I'm close enough that I can walk over, deal with my dry cleaning, make a bit of something for lunch, give Chairman Meow a bit of attention, unload the dishwasher and walk back, so as not to come home to a pile of unaddressed dry cleaning, a full dishwasher, a cranky cat and a stiff neck for not having taken a time out. The view ain't bad either. There is something terribly good about being able to see water first thing in the morning.
Ohh, and faced with talking about Bears football for the rest of the fall and most of the winter each week on the radio show, I've just decided to go ahead and tame that beast, too and get a handle on the ability to talk about football well enough to make it funny. It'll be a miracle if it works, but it's worth a shot. If nothing else, it'll both not hurt to know and it'll make for super interesting radio. So there.
Writing has been pouring outta me lately, and my sleep has been weird (if you longtime readers will recall, my sleep routines and writing output have always seemed to influence one another, though not always in predictable or understandable ways), which means I should hit the hay.
Dumb at football. That’s me. Though, maybe not for long.
But, no, actually, this notion has made me a fibber already. I’m not really dumb, of course. Not literally, not partially, not even a bit. What I am, though, is underexposed as a mofo to football.
Other than golf, I didn’t grow up in a sports house. The sports I did watch, I watched solo. I conceptualized each as a quiet something one does. (How many times have you been to a Ryder Cup or Masters Tournament party? Yeah. That’s what I thought. If golf if the sport that brings you to the party, you tend to have a solitary approach to watching sports. You also end up with a non-shouting, prissily-mannered approach. So it goes.) Sports didn’t initially register to me as something social or as something to be discussed and about which one can hypothesize.
I like sports. I watch games, usually with friends and usually in bars, keeping tabs on the score, aware of the major moments, aware of the major players. I go to games. I have been to countless baseball games and hockey games when I can and love both. I love the pumped up crowd, the precision of world-class athletes doing the things they do best. I love to see a close game, a landslide victory, a good game. I watch sports when puttering around the house. I have iPhone apps to keep me on top of (usually golf) scores.
Admittedly, the perspective I needed in order to make game predictions and even the simplest of water cooler talk eluded me. I was better than that. I wasn’t some goofy puck bunny, some ball-girl groupie. I simply came into the sports world with an understated, solitary-processing stance. Sports weren’t discussed, sports were observed, watched, enjoyed, experienced.
But not discussed. From my starting point, everyone could see the leaderboard as well as the next guy, so why on earth would we discuss what we could each plainly see?
And then I became a radio host.
I co-host ChicagoNow Radio with Alex Quigley on News 720 WGN on Saturday mornings. Each half hour or so, we change topics completely to rise to the news of the day. And at least once a show, we talk about sports. Which was fine until football season rolled around. And I knew I was effed.
Hockey-talk and baseball-talk was challenging (again with the whole sports-are-for-observing mindset as a jumping off point) but I managed fine. But, football? Oy to the vey, I was in trouble.
Football is it’s own beast, in my opinion. While I unlocked hockey and baseball and tennis just by watching and taking it in, football always felt exclusive. To understand what was happening in football, one already needed to know what was happening in football. One needs perspective, history, explanation, a stripped-down explanation of the fundamentals of the game. Football, I would argue, can’t really be understood just by watching. Trust me, I have tried. One needs fundamentals, one needs background. Baseball is organized and flowing, hockey is easy to follow because one need only watch what the players are watching to follow the game. But football? Everyone seemed to have their own job, each a task at hand. Not everyone is looking at the football. In fact, most players are looking at the giant dude in front of them. The ball snaps and suddenly there is individualized action everywhere, and to know where to look is only through background knowledge. No fair, football. No fair.
But, I want to crack the code, and I want to do it on my own. I have taken on every sport in that way, and this is the way that I know. But, football being the mystifying game that it is, I reached the limits of what I could do on my own. Time to actively start looking for help.
There are countless books on the subject. But, again, they either assume the reader already has a general understanding of the game of football, or far worse, than one seeks and understanding of the game not to understand the game but to be close to a partner. Barf. My lack of sports geekery and context wasn’t about being female and it sure wasn’t about picking up men. It was, again, about lacking the social, fundamental and contextual perspective on sports by which to discuss it rather than just observe it.
With some top-notch help, and a trail-by-fire, learn-by-doing approach, I’ve chosen this football season to mend my ways. And, to up the ante for myself, I’ve decided to blog the whole thing.
I have no idea if I will ever be able to shake the ways my golfing roots cause me to look at sports (or if I even want to). I may never change my quieter approach to sports(wo)manship or the ways in which I watch sports in my home, in a bar, in a stadium. But, being one to face my shortcomings head-on rather than suppress them, here goes. At the very least, it should make for more interesting radio.
In discussion places where clutter accumulates in the workplace, I found this item and loved it (and not just for the workplace, either):
Language. Using buzz-words and let-met-try-to-impress-you language in your writing and speech can cause confusion, reduce productivity, and waste resources. A good rule of thumb is that if you can find the phrase in Unsuck-It‘s dictionary, you should think twice before using it. Direct language that is simple to understand will save you time and improve your communication skills.
(via Unclutterer)
I moved. This is my western view at night. I am happy about this. More pics when I unpack.
I'm moving. And in ruthless mode today, here in the final throes of it. I have the following stuff in Ravenswood/South Lincoln Square that can't come with me to my new house. Come get it.
IKEA espresso desk: Was asking $90, now asking $60 or best offer. See pic here.Executive office chair: Black vinyl leather-look executive chair. Was asking $35, now asking $25 or best offer. See pic on my ZooZag listing.
IKEA "IVAR" modular shelving unit: It's tall and skinny. IVAR looks like this. Each side piece retails for $15-$20, and shelves are extra. I'll give you the whole thing, with support brackets on the back already in place (so no assembly required, is what I'm saying) for $30.
Mish-Mash of plastic terra cotta-look pots: various sizes and with saucers + thin green bamboo plant stakes (about waist-high): $20Giant bag of fabric and sewing trims, various colors and such: $20
Magnavox combination DVD/VCR: About three years old. works fine, but not with super-new flat-screens like mine, $20
Then, this stuff is FREE AS THE WIND if you come by and get it:
(Note: this list is going to be updated throughout the afternoon, so check back)
-piles of books
-a ton of women's clothes + some evening wear, sizes 4-8
-Amazing Race DVD game
-blue faux-silk IKEA curtains, 2 panels
-silver shiny curtains, 2 panels
-A box of Garnier Nutrisse haircolor in 'dark chocolate'
-Glass bathroom canister with stainless lid (think tiny apothecary jar)
-black leather ottoman that my cat has clawed to death but that would be great reupholstered
-Antique (plated) silver(ish) serving dish and lid with removable, dishwasher safe glass insert
-White cube file cart with two drawers (hanging file part needs to be worked on, but it's fixable)
-Dryer sheets, open but mostly full (I didn't care for the scent)
-drawer liner tiles (white, about 8 or so of them)
-black and white winter stretchy one-size-fits-all gloves
-mishmash of candles
-a pile of women's shoes, sizes 8 1/2-9
-the ugliest and lumpiest throw pillow on earth
-sage-colored flat sheet for full-size bed
- red vinyl stick-on letters
-acrylic paint, tons of colors, used but still useable
-Clinique lime green and indigo small make-up bag
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