Yesterday, I tried to start a #mathbattle on Twitter, but it proved too geeky to take. (Go figure.) I was having a nostalgic moment, remembering back in middle school when we had to write date equations. Everyday. Because each day, my friends, is different. A new day, full of new possibilities, opportunities, and numbers. Today is 7/30/2010. That means two things:
1) It will be August very, very soon.
2) We have the numbers 7, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0 to work with. (Or, you can leave out a 2 and a 0. That is the cheater’s way.)
LET’S DO IT! —> 7 – ((3+0)(2 + 0)) = (1 + 0)
Yessssss. Math is awesome. Got a better equation? Prove it. Until then, here are some interesting things.
William Carlos Williams is not a very considerate roommate.
The Bookavore has created an “E-books article drinking game.” (Finally.) (Thank you.)
Ben Zimmer refudiates fake words.
And the best goat calendar of 2011 goes to…
I am sooooo over air quotes.
This baby must be a deep sleeper.
Get your vocab fix here.
This is an awesome new Twitter tool.
These should keep you busy for a while.
And to clarify, I am not a whiner. NASA agrees with me. So there.
Let's start with the ridiculous today, shall we? For the last three days I have been suffering from a virulent earworm. (I get a lot of these, but rarely do they linger so long.)
The song?
Sylvia's Mother by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. Please suffer with me:
And who wrote that song? Shel Silverstein. (Isn't it time for long hair on guys to make a serious come-back?)
I've been thinking a lot about Haiti and what I can do to help. The first thought, of course, is to sell everything I own and buy a boat to sail down there so I can just do something, anything, like dig in concrete or pour water or adopt a thousand kids. None of that is realistic, sadly. I am, instead, thinking along the lines of auctioning off a character in my next book and sending the proceeds to a Haiti relief organization. More on that as it develops.
I am very proud to say that The NOLA Tree, an organization that coordinates teens who want to make the world a better place with projects that need their help, is stepping up to the plate. Up until now the focus has been helping to rebuild houses in New Orleans. Phil Bildner just blogged about the possibilities that The NOLA Tree can be of use in Haiti. Please read his post, send suggestions, and donate. (Truth in advertising: I am on The NOLA Tree's board of advisors - totally volunteer. So is Ellen Hopkins.)
Bookavore, my daughter who runs a bookstore in Brooklyn, gave a presentation last week aimed at booksellers, but applicable to all of us. Her argument was that if we all spend ten percent of our time doing something that we care about that is fun, it more than enhances and enriches the remaining ninety percent. She uses her experience running a basketball league for book nerds as the model.
If you're having trouble watching Bookavore's video, you can read what she said on her blog.
I did a couple a super Skype** visits last week, one with a middle school class in Mississippi, and one with a public library in Colorado. I was asked a terrific question:
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
I'm not sure I would be a good collaberator with another writer. I am something of a control freak (my dog and husband are rolling on the ground laughing - they claim it is a bit more extreme than that) and so I would probably turn into Ms. Bossy Pants and my co-collaborator would flee the country to escape me. That would defeat the purpose.
I think it would be fun to work with someone in a different artistic field; a musician (looking at you, Tori Amos, please, please, please), the way that Shooter Jennings and Stephen King just worked together. If Tori is too busy, I'd jump at the chance to work with Dave Matthews, Jill Scott, Gretchen Wilson, or Sting. (Sade would be cool, too, but I know she's real busy because SHE HAS A NEW ALBUM COMING OUT!!!) If you know any of them, feel free to let them know.
I answered another question that was posted on a friend's blog this week (paraphrasing):
I blog, I read blogs, I have a FaceBook and a Twitter feed, and I read those of many other authors. But the online stuff is beginning to take over my writing time. How much is enough?
