{"id":11513,"date":"2016-08-25T08:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T15:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=11513"},"modified":"2016-08-25T17:12:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T00:12:42","slug":"stuff-liked-week-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/25\/stuff-liked-week-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuff I Liked This Week… And a Question"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My
My neighborhood at night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life has been difficult of late, forces out of my control have been the cause of much grief and frustration. We lost my stepfather to cancer<\/a>; while that was going on, my main focus at work was writing the stories of cancer survivors. About a week later, a ukulele playing friend died suddenly. He was a big, sweet guy, not yet 40;\u00a0 I’m still thinking, “Naw. That makes no sense.” There’s other … stuff… too. I have become disillusioned with people and things I once loved, robbed of sleep, and I probably need a vacation. The old fashioned kind where you read books and eat snacks and go for walks and don’t do anything that has a purpose beyond loosening your tightly grinding gears.<\/p>\n

I am grateful to have the resources to take a vacation but because my brain is a mess, it wanders down the path to wonder how people deal with their personal dark times when they don’t have the resources. I have no paid leave but I looked; in Washington State the law gives you three days of paid leave for bereavement. If you need more, that’s determined by your employer.<\/p>\n

Three days. I keep thinking I’ll get back to work, but when I open my files and look at the words — they’re all about surviving cancer — I think, “Nope. Not today,” and I go walk my dog. Instead of working, I make myself look for things that are light, or at least distracting. Here are a few diversions, some very good, some wonky, some just noise, that have allowed me to think about Something Else this week.<\/p>\n

As usual, some links may be to Amazon. You shop, I get a little something something. Please and thank you.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a7<\/p>\n

My grinchy heart swelled several sizes while listening to Naomi Tomky talk teriyaki on KUOW<\/a><\/strong>. Naomi’s research in to the why of teriyaki and Seattle<\/a> had me wondering if I shouldn’t be digging deeper when I write my own stories. I learned new things about Seattle and food and, because I’m wonky, I learned what makes a story work, really work, even when it’s about something as seemingly pedestrian as strip mall teriyaki.<\/p>\n

Speaking of research, I fell into a hole about North Korean water parks<\/strong> (what?) after reading about a video blogger who produced a series of egregiously vapid pieces<\/a> about a trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Democratic, my ass.) I’d just met Wendy Simmons, the author of My Holiday in North Korea<\/a><\/strong>, a book about, among other things, being stonewalled by handlers every time she asked a question. I like her style, it’s wicked funny and sharp — and curious, a quality all good travel writers share.<\/p>\n

It’s been hot in Seattle so I rounded up some friends to go to the mall, eat food court noodles, and watch the new Ghostbusters<\/a><\/strong>. I’m the right age to be nostalgic about the franchise and you know what? I freaking loved this. Sure, the movie has some weird flaws, but none of them are the all female leads<\/a>. They’re all amazing<\/em> but there’s a scene where Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) takes the helm and oh, just go see it. It’s a riot.<\/p>\n

\"Strawberry
Strawberry snow ice from Bambu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found myself at the snow ice place in Seattle’s International District<\/strong><\/a> again, this time eating a mountain of strawberry smothered in berries and a glazing of condensed milk. My biggest complaint about this place is that you can’t combine flavors. This is a problem because the small serving is more than enough for two people and what about the stuff you haven’t tried yet? What about the mango? Round up at least three of your friends and go get dessert, already.<\/p>\n

On to my question<\/strong>. Sure, I’m an immovable rock of stubborness, but I do question my own assumptions from time to time. I registered for a webinar that was meant to help me “take my blog to the next level” — whatever the hell that means. Dude recommended three things — guest posting, building an email list, and giving something away. (Please stick with me even if you’re not bloggy, I really do have a question for you.)<\/p>\n

I had a good laugh about guest posting, 2009 called, it wants its strategy back. As for giving stuff away, I figure every time I hit publish, I give something away, a story, a recommendation… but maybe I’m wrong about that?<\/p>\n

Finally, there’s that email list. Friends have suggested that they would, indeed, subscribe to a newsletter were I to create one that is writing and\/or craft focused. My question to you is two fold and is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Would you subscribe to a newsletter should I decide to create one?<\/li>\n
  2. What would you find useful in said newsletter? Links and thoughts on writing? Waffle recipes? What?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’d welcome your answers in the comments, or scribble me an email if you’d rather do that.<\/p>\n

    Here’s hoping your week finds you people to share ice cream with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In praise of research and shining light on things — and in praise of light, in general. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":11515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11513"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11522,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513\/revisions\/11522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}