Audiobooks and Crafting

If I'm not actively reading, I'm probably listening to an audiobook. The advent of headphones and portable media devices has been, in my opinion, the single greatest technological advance for introverts in the history of the world. It allows me to not only ignore the people around me, but also listen to some of my favorite books! It does, however, mean that I will occasionally burst out laughing at seemingly nothing, but I'm used to the strange looks by now.

The other important thing for me while on my daily commute by public transit is to have something to do with my hands. If I'm reading, well, that takes care of things; however, many mornings I'd rather do something else, while listening to a book. And lo, the power of crochet kicks in.

I spend a fair amount of time making things for people other than myself, mostly because I will actually finish something I'm making for someone else. I may still have a blanket that I started working on when my husband and I were first dating...twelve years ago. It's maybe a third of the way done.

At any rate, the combination of a good book on audio and something useful for my hands to be doing makes that first and last part of the work day something that helps me deal with the anxiety levels. There are days, of course, when just leaving the house is too much for me, but on those borderline days, being able to focus on the world of a book and the yarn and hook in my hands is enough.

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Wanna Hear Me Talk?

I mentioned in my last post, but now I'm doing the official promotional thing. I'm going to be doing a couple of presentations at the Flights of Foundry convention next weekend! Specifically, I'll be doing a game demo for Rolling Realms on Saturday, September 28 at 1pm Pacific. On Sunday, September 29 at 3pm Pacific, I'll be doing a panel presentation on copyright and public domain basics; finally, also on Sunday, September 29 at 5pm, I'll be on a panel sharing my handwork (specifically my crochet, cross stitch, and blackwork) with a few other fantastic people. This is my first time doing this kind of presentation, and so I'm a wee bit nervous. Still, I'm super excited, and the fact that it's all online means that I'll at least be in my home, and the cats may or may not make an appearance on camera. So! If you're interested in what's looking to be a fabulous online convention (that's FREE!), come join us next weekend!

Calm Your Mind with Needle and Thread

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Hope is a Four-Letter Word

I've been bouncing around with this for the last few weeks, ever since I read a couple of quotes from the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. The book overall had some interesting ideas about reframing the idea of trying to get everything done. Even though there were a couple of things that made it clear the author was not approaching things with an eye toward neurodivergence (his discussion of distraction, for example, only talks about the "choice" to be distracted, and not how some people's brains simply don't focus the same way others' do), I was feeling generally positively toward the book until I got to the last chapter, and read this: "Hope is supposed to be 'our beacon in the dark,' [environmentalist Derrick] Jensen notes. But in reality, it's a curse. To hope for a given outcome is to place your faith in something outside yourself, and outside the current moment - the government, for example, or ...

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