Happy Friday: Favorite Things Edition

Hey everyone, happy Friday!

I would like to share with you a few of my (non-Jiu jitsu) related favorite things:

Orange flavored seltzer water:

It’s like orange soda but without all the sweeteners and weird food coloring- hooray!

Blue papermate pens:

I believe in finding a pen you like and sticking with it. I prefer to write with blue ink and these pens are my favorite, although it seems they are being phased out of actual stores and I’ll have to start buying them from amazon :-/

This chair:

Ok, maybe it’s not a favorite thing I own or currently use, but it is a pretty awesome chair. It was purely decorative though, and was in a trendy part of town, and so probably cost twice what it was worth- I don’t really know, I didn’t see a price tag. But still, pretty cool and therefore worth mentioning.

And that’s it for now. Have a great weekend and Father’s Day everyone!

Star Trek, And A Great Big Hug for the Internet

Just a heads up, this has nothing to do with jiu jitsu and everything with the actor Patrick Stewart.

When I was a kid I used to watch episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation. After getting over the odd disconnect of seeing Whoopi Goldberg and the “Reading Rainbow” guy Levar Burton in their roles on the show, I have to say I really enjoyed Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard. Why they chose the most French name they could find for a man with an English accent, I’ll never know, but anyway- other than the pretty sweet roles he’s played (Professor Xavier in the X-Men), he is pretty involved with groups with Amnesty International, and organizations that are against violence towards women.

Below is a video where he talks about his involvement with said organizations, his personal history about his mother who was a victim of domestic abuse, and he gives a hug to a young woman who got out of a bad situation. It’s heart warming, to say the least.

And internet, after what I have been reading in regards to the Red Wedding on this past Game of Thrones episode and everyone’s reaction it sounds like you could all use something heartwarming, and maybe a hug as well.

Happy Friday: Let’s Dance!

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday: and I say we celebrate the end of the week by dancing.

This is the song I’m choosing to jam out to-

 

 

Feel free to join me or comment with whatever you listen to that gets your feet moving. Or that little butt wiggle thing that people do when they are sitting in chairs.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Friday: Waiting for Godot Edition

And by Godot, I really mean some person for a work thing.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend, if you honor it, and otherwise have a great weekend everyone!

Disney and Brave

This is going to be a very feminist-like post, and really has nothing to do with jiu jitsu, just giving you a heads up.

This made me mad, and then sad, and then happy all over again.

You may have heard about the main character of the Pixar film Brave, Merida, becoming a fixture in the Disney princess line-up and her makeover to fit into the princess image. Basically they put the character through puberty, took away her weapons (a pretty hefty offense in my book) and threw some glitter on her.

That’s the part that made me mad/sad. And I don’t even have children. Apparently some people with their own adorable little tornadoes of chaos and anarchy (aka, “kids”) also had a huge problem with this and petitioned to have Merida changed back to its previous, rougher and more badass image. And believe it or not Disney listened, quietly removing what people considered the “sexualized” version of Merida.

I hope this trend continues of stronger female characters being produced, and people insisting on keeping them imperfect but good characters. I hope companies keep offering maybe not role models but certainly examples to little girls that they can handle problems that come their way with their own strength and wit, that they too can be “brave”.

Ok, I think I’m done.

Happy Friday: May Edition

Ah, warm weather. How I’ve missed you.

Hope everyone’s having a lovely Friday- if it’s warm and sunny in your area, make sure to go outside at least for a minute and enjoy it!

Alternatives for Google Reader

I’m slowly coming to terms with the retirement of google reader in July. In response, I’ve been playing around with different RSS feed services to see what’s available.

NewsBlur: It’s aesthetically pleasing, but with a 64 subscription limit and a “premium” option, which I get the impression I’ll be hounded to upgrade to, this is pretty low on my list.

The Old Reader: it was cool until I imported all of my blog subscriptions and it said I had 1300+ posts to read, which was very not true. Also, it’s still in the beta stages, and there’s no mobile app. Sad face.

Feedly- so far ahead in the race for my affections, and attention. It easily synced up with my google reader, and even noted which posts I had already read for much more manageable number of 20. It also has a mobile app. Sweet! I have messing with the mobile app and it’s fairly easy to use- instead of a feed though it has pages or cards listing the posts you haven’t read yet, which I’m not entirely sure I like.

I’m sure there are a ton more out there, but hopefully this will give the few and the proud Google Reader users a head start on trying something else before the service is taken out for good in July :-/

Moment of Silence for the Boston Marathoners

Please keep the victims, and survivors of the explosions at the Boston marathon yesterday in your thoughts and prayers.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Hey guys, still running around trying to get back into the swing of things- I should have my Pans highlights/summary up in a day or so, promise. 

I wanted to share this moment from class last night though: I was sparring with one of our white belt girls, and had caught her in a bow and arrow choke. She tapped, turned around with a big smile on her face and exclaimed, “I missed you!” 

It was a little odd, but definitely endearing and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

 

Have a great day everyone! 

Update on 750words.com

So a couple of months ago I promoted using the site 750words.com. I don’t know if anyone took me up on this recommendation, but if you were thinking about it, just letting you know they are going to start  charging for the use of the site. I totally understand why they are doing it, and I would still recommend using the site, but if you are also like me and would like to use those funds towards other things in your life, then the only other thing I would suggest, would be to sign up for something like penzu.com: it’s a free format like 750 words was, offers to email you reminders to write, and it comes with a “pro” option at about $20/year. I like 750 word’s simple design and word counter, but you really can’t beat 20 dollars a year.

Oh, also if anyone is interested in keeping up with their own writing, there’s another option for you.