Rich Color Crayon Extravaganza

Cool multi-colored crayons from somewhere in Japan. I hope these get imported pronto and somehow end up at a cute shop downtown where I can purchase them. (Via COLOURlovers.)

Motivational Reminder

Inspired by Derek Powazek's post about becoming a runner. Surely if Derek, who is a self-proclaimed couch potato, can do this daily, I can too.

(Note: I'm coming back from a foot injury that basically kept me from weight-bearing exercise; I've been finding restarting my program surprisingly difficult. I re-start tomorrow morning.)

Fighting Exhaustion (and I want to win)

we'll deal with it later, originally uploaded by emdot.

So I've been tired. I'm tired when I get up in the morning; I'm tired when I get to work. I'm tired during the day; I'm tired when I get home. I seem a little disinterested in everything. Life is tasting a bit like a bowl of plain oatmeal and that is no way to live. Sure, it's enough to live on -- but it's not making a smile spread across my face.

So, I'm going to do an experiment for the month of February and will see if this helps.

For the month of February I am going to

• Go to the gym before work, 5x/week
• Eat a healthy breakfast (I already do this)
• Focus on some happy thoughts (see below)
• Walk for 10 minutes at lunch time
• and Drink 2L of water every day

About the thinking the happy thoughts... I wish I had a better word for this. Martha Beck calls it treasuring and this is what it consists of:

Think of something your heart really years for. Now imagine that you have that thing, whatever it is. Spend 10 solid minutes imagining this with all senses -- what does it sound like, look like, feel like, taste like, smell like. 10 solid minutes.

That's it.

And that's what I'm going to do for February and I really really hope it brings me some more oomph. Some more get up and go (cuz my get up go seems to have got up and went. <-- I wish I made that up. Clever.).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Shadow Man

52 Weeks: Week 4, originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

Wow. 7s is pretty much kicking some 52-weeks ass in this photo. I love this!

winter in prairieland

Magpie, originally uploaded by Jean Albus.

god love flickr and all the wonderful glimpses it gives us into both the ordinary and the extraordinary.

kinda hit home with me

, originally uploaded by emdot.

It is only through disruptions and confusion that we grow, jarred out of ourselves by the collision of someone else's private world with our own. — Joyce Carol Oates

An ode to my breakfast

ottawa bagels., originally uploaded by heather.

Thank you dear bagel with jelly
You're tasty from my mouth to belly
You're doughy, you're sweet
You're so good to eat
Inspiring rhymes that are silly

Dear jelly on top of this bagel
A great meal to find at my table
Your sweetness is tasty
My eating is hasty
Devour? I'm willing and able

Bad Buns Bad Buns, What you gonna do?

Don't let your jackalope, originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

All true. All factual. All proven. All documented. A must read for Travelers of the West: True Tales of Jackalopes Gone Bad. Learn the stories that the postcard proprietors don't want you to know.

7s version: 52 Weeks: Week 3

52 Weeks: Week 3, originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

I love his 52 this week. :)

a river ran through it

a river ran through it, originally uploaded by emdot.

Here you see the San Andreas Fault in action. Super slo-mo, but action nonetheless.

This is Wallace Creek, a (typically) bone dry shadow of a creek in the Carrizo Plain. At one point (back when it was still in diapers or perhaps just learning how to sound-out the words), Wallace Creek ran straight-ish. And then the earth shook and Wallace Creek moved a little. A couple hundred years later the earth shook again, and again, Wallace Creek moved a little. Over and over, every couple hundred of years.

The sign post says that eventually this spot will be in the same zip code as the golden gate bridge.

golden eagle from afar

golden eagle, originally uploaded by emdot.

Yesterday we ventured out to the Carrizo Plain again (so great out there). We saw a golden eagle from some distance. Slowed down to take its photo (it was on a pole), but it flew off when we rolled down the window.

Golden eagles are the third largest raptor on our continent (only bald eagles and California condors are bigger). Check out this set to see how big a golden eagle is in the hands of a human.

be the light or reflect it

her nose was itching, originally uploaded by emdot.

it's pretty easy. :)

There are two ways of spreading light...to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.

— Edith Wharton

avian flew

avian flew, originally uploaded by emdot.

Uh oh bird.

i loved this

Lewis and Clark surveying San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (c 2010 version), originally uploaded by emdot.

From an email I got today (a several-times-a-week dealie from Shambhala).

Faith is a sense of dignity.The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart talks about faith in the sense of being awake: being present and mindful and aware of the situation. Faith is seeing things as they are -- whatever that might be -- precisely, directly, and without any hesitation.

beauty in the devastation

charred sticks and ash, originally uploaded by Lynn.....

my friend lynnie recently visited the area of the station fire. this photo is so incredibly sad and moving. and yet hopeful, because i know it will grow back (with time). (and care.).

san simeon (1/52)

san simeon (1/52), originally uploaded by emdot.

52 Weeks is a Flickr project/group where one takes a self portrait each week for a year. Last year Orrin did it and I was in love with his project! I loved it so much -- and he had a big year as his first child was born. It was very inspiring. I've been thinking about doing this project for about a month. I'm starting with the new year.

What I wrote on Flickr

I took a photo each day this week, wondering which of the photos I would choose for my inaugural photo. I chose this one, which was taken off the side of Highway 1 in San Simeon California after 7s and I went to see the Elephant Seals in Piedras Blancas. Last day of Christmas Vacation.

I'm ridiculously excited about this year. Yea 2010! Yea new decade!

Week Highlights

• New Year's Day
• Taking the flags up
• Seeing the elephant seals
• Taking down Christmas
• Going back to work
• Hurting my back (ow!)
• Sewing curtains
• NY's lunch with Cami, Tom, Dan, Becky, Gregg, Doreen, Jim, Anna, Shane, Kaz, and Steve (on the 2nd, not the first cuz we were all pooped on the first)

unicorn chaser

super cute, originally uploaded by emdot.

for previous post. :)

this life. it will end.

Dancers at a gathering, originally uploaded by *CA*.

and that pisses me off.

and further impoliteness, i have recently said in other nether regions of the intertubes:

(meh. i shouldn't add a negative twist. i always loved getting older and then i passed some line -- not an age line but a ... hmmm... just a whatthefuck line and now i donotlikeitatall and age can gofuckitself and oh no now i'm just a typicalwoman. FUCK! arghh. poo. etc.)

whatevs. so sue me. that's a pretty honest insight into me who is usually abnormally pollyannaroseyglasses.