No Use Waiting for Profundity
May. 22nd, 2015 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreThings have been pretty routine lately – too busy at work, but time for things like story swaps and knitting group and trying to unshovel all the clutter at my house. If I wait for something important to write about, I will never write, so …
Celebrity Death Watch: Ruth Rendell was a British mystery writer. B. B. King was one of the most famous of all blues musicians. Guy Carawan was a folk singer who popularized "We Shall Overcome" as a protest song. Happy Rockefeller was the widow of New York Governor (and later, Vice President), Nelson Rockefeller and was important largely because their relationship was considered scandalous enough to thwart his Presidential ambitions.
Should-be Celebrity Death Watch: Syd Lieberman was a fabulous teller of a wide range of stories. I think his historical stories were particularly strong. He was a kind, generous man, always encouraging to other tellers. I was privileged to have taken a workshop with him and benefit from his wisdom.
Women in Aerospace Conference: I went to the Women in Aerospace annual conference a couple of weeks ago. It was a somewhat odd mix of technical presentations (e.g. on cybersecurity) and career advice. I was going to write a bit about the career advice, but I realized most of it amounted to: 1) STEM degrees are good and 2) everyone else on the planet has read Lean In. But I did learn a couple of interesting things. To wit, only about 10,700 people have ever served in Congress. Only 313 were women, including 108 now.
I also want to pass along this wonderful explanation of my working environment. "The Pentagon is a building with 5 sides … on every issue."
Achoo!: We’ve had a particularly heavy dose of pollen over the past couple of weeks. It did not help that the lights in my ceiling fan burned out, which led me to discover that I really should have been dusting the tops of the ceiling fan blades. That added a heavy dose of dust to my already irritated lungs. And then there is a virus working its way around my office.
Let’s just say this has not been a very good week.
Used Bookstore Run: I finally made a used bookstore run last weekend. I got rid of 31 books and came home with 19 new ones. Two of those were puzzle books, however, so are transient enough to not really count. About 50 more will be going out this weekend, as I plan to stop at The Book Thing to donate them on my way to New York.
Celebrity Death Watch: Ruth Rendell was a British mystery writer. B. B. King was one of the most famous of all blues musicians. Guy Carawan was a folk singer who popularized "We Shall Overcome" as a protest song. Happy Rockefeller was the widow of New York Governor (and later, Vice President), Nelson Rockefeller and was important largely because their relationship was considered scandalous enough to thwart his Presidential ambitions.
Should-be Celebrity Death Watch: Syd Lieberman was a fabulous teller of a wide range of stories. I think his historical stories were particularly strong. He was a kind, generous man, always encouraging to other tellers. I was privileged to have taken a workshop with him and benefit from his wisdom.
Women in Aerospace Conference: I went to the Women in Aerospace annual conference a couple of weeks ago. It was a somewhat odd mix of technical presentations (e.g. on cybersecurity) and career advice. I was going to write a bit about the career advice, but I realized most of it amounted to: 1) STEM degrees are good and 2) everyone else on the planet has read Lean In. But I did learn a couple of interesting things. To wit, only about 10,700 people have ever served in Congress. Only 313 were women, including 108 now.
I also want to pass along this wonderful explanation of my working environment. "The Pentagon is a building with 5 sides … on every issue."
Achoo!: We’ve had a particularly heavy dose of pollen over the past couple of weeks. It did not help that the lights in my ceiling fan burned out, which led me to discover that I really should have been dusting the tops of the ceiling fan blades. That added a heavy dose of dust to my already irritated lungs. And then there is a virus working its way around my office.
Let’s just say this has not been a very good week.
Used Bookstore Run: I finally made a used bookstore run last weekend. I got rid of 31 books and came home with 19 new ones. Two of those were puzzle books, however, so are transient enough to not really count. About 50 more will be going out this weekend, as I plan to stop at The Book Thing to donate them on my way to New York.
