Projects, lists, etc.

Hope you are enjoying the summer!  I am not doing a lot but I am enjoying the "unstructured time".  The days just fly by (a symptom of getting older).

I am reading Michelle Obama's biography right now -- Becoming.  She was a very determined and ambitious person who would not have frittered away a whole summer, like I'm doing.  I also read a book called American Wife which is a fictionalized account of the life of Laura Bush, the wife of George W. Bush.  This is not the sort of book I would normally read (and Laura Bush is not really interesting to me) but I read a review and decided to dip into it and it was quite interesting.  Everyone can be interesting if the right writer takes a look at their life.  The author's name is Curtis Sittenfield and I read an article that she wrote giving advice about how to write a short story.  Lots of people have wanted to get their creative juices flowing during the lockdown and I thought her advice was good and decided to share it with you, in case you are thinking you'd like to write something.  I think this applies to any kind of writing and can even be extended to any project you might have in your head but not in your hands, so to speak.

So here is her advice:
1.  Choose a time to write -- maybe Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 2:30 or whatever.  Then stick to the times you chose!
2.  Think about what you want the story to be about.  You can make an outline if you like.  Focus on what happens.  If you're not sure how to do an outline or plot a story, read a story you like and do an outline of it to see how it is put together.  (This would be sort of like working backwards -- I always used to do this when I had to make an outline at school.  I couldn't do the outline until I had written the paper!)
3.  Write!  (During the times you assigned yourself, don't do other things, like "check your phone" or clean the bathroom.  If you aren't physically writing, you need to sit there and think about what you want to write or just write randomly, but don't say, "oh, I'm just going to google who that actor in Peeky Blinders is" or whatever.  This is writing time, not "avoiding writing" time.)
4.  Stick at it and don't edit or reread it until you're done.  Sittenfield says just read the last sentence you wrote the previous time and start there.  You can edit it once it's done.
5.  Once you feel like you are finished, read it over, but don't edit for a couple of days.  Let it sit.  Start a new writing project, or write a song lyric or a comment on my blog or something!

I am trying to get my Decameron play finished, and I'm on act three.  I think I will take Sittenfield's advice and see if I can get it finished.

Pant Hoot Good Morning! (a pant hoot is one of the ways chimpanzees communicate with each other)

In July 1960, a young Jane Goodall first set foot in the forests of Gombe, Tanzania. Without realizing it, she would soon change the way the world thought about chimpanzees and animal behaviour. Today, July 14th, 2020 is the 60th anniversary of that very day. We hope you will join us in honouring Dr. Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking observations of wild chimpanzees, and 60 continuous years of primate research at the Gombe Stream Research Centre. Today is also World Chimpanzee Day, a day to reflect on what Jane started and an opportunity to carry on her legacy. This remarkable species, our closest living relative, has taught us so much, and there’s still much to learn. Here are some ways you can join us in honouring Gombe 60:

Learn More About Gombe

Take a Trek Through Gombe

A big Pant-Hoot from all of us at JGI! Andria Teather CEO, Jane Goodall Institute of Canada Chimpanzees have so much in common with human beings and can teach us so much about how we live in the world and Jane Goodall is one of the reasons we know as much as we do about them.  She was a very young woman (26 years old) when she went to Gombe to observe chimpanzees and sixty years later, she is still working hard to protect them and make us aware of how important it is to respect the natural world and to treasure our fellow earthlings!  If you click on the links, you can tour Gombe and find out about the good work that the Jane Goodall Institute does around the world. A couple of her books that are terrific are My Life with the Chimpanzees and In The Shadow of Man.  They are terrific books that will open your eyes to the amazing world of the chimpanzee!

Starry nights

If you are interested in the night sky and astronomy (which I assume you are, because, as I've said before, who isn't?), SFU has this program which is now online called "Starry Nights".  When they're not online, you can go up to the observatory at SFU on Friday nights and they'll have the telescope pointed at interesting things that are going on cosmically and you can ask questions of the volunteers that man the telescope.  The real events can be very popular depending on what is going on, but there is always something interesting to see.  Just google "Starry Nights SFU" and all the info is there.

This is an interesting lead from Joanna Woo at the Trottier Observatory (at SFU):

I also wanted to let you know that Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE is now visible in the evening!  Given the nice weather we're having in the next few days I encourage you all to go look at this beautiful and rare naked-eye comet.

I first spotted the comet with my eyes last night at around 10:15pm low in the northwest and confirmed with binoculars.  It was difficult to see in the glare of the twilight, but it became easier to see closer to 11pm.  Attached is a shot we took last night from the middle of the city around that time.  (Image credit: Jordash Kiffiak and Joanna Woo).  It should move higher in the sky and easier to see in the coming days.  Happy comet hunting!

Pretty exciting to be able to see a comet!  Especially with no special equipment.  (And what a great photo of the city skyline.)

Into every life, a little rain must fall!

Hope you've been enjoying the strange weather.  I keep saying to myself that all the rainy days mean that the fire hazard is not as bad, so that's a good thing (the eternal optimist!).  My "Space-opoly" game from the library is really benefiting from no sunny days because I have a lot of time to read.  The last book I read (the space said "read a book by an author of Asian descent") was Kazuo Ishigura's The Buried Giant which takes you along on a journey made by an old couple in the Dark Ages in England.  King Arthur is dead and England is split between Saxons and Britons, and Axl and Beatrice decide to leave their village (Beatrice is angry because the other villagers feel she's getting too old to have a candle in her house) and go to visit their son who lives in another village.   Everyone seems to be having trouble with their memory, including Axl and Beatrice.  They want to remember things but there is a strange mist over the land that seems to affect their ability to access the past.  As they went along, I started to wonder whether they even had a son, or if that memory was false.  They meet knights and warriors, both Saxon and Briton.  There are ogres and pixies and dragons and castles and mysterious forests and Axl and Beatrice struggle along through it all.  It is a very strange story and one I might not normally choose to read (I am not a big fan of fantasy, but then, I had this book here in my library, so something made me buy it!) but Kazuo Ishigura is a wonderful writer and the mystery and magic of the book will stay with you for a while.

I landed on "Shuttle to the past" next and so I am reading a novel about Aaron Burr, who, you probably know, killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.  I don't have the Disney Channel so I can't see the musical, "Hamilton" but I am interested in the history (and don't know a lot about it) and this seemed like a good alternative.  There really is a book for everything!

One of the things on my "to do" list is to paint my office and I have been thinking I might do a mural on one of the walls.  Daisy and I often walk to a creek near our house -- the town is full of creeks! -- and I thought the trees and the rocks and the stream might make a nice background to my office work.  If it doesn't turn out, no one really goes into my office except me, so no harm done.

Here is a craft from the New York Times that might be fun, if you're looking for something to do.  The only trouble is you need a newspaper!  Good luck finding that artifact from a lost time!
Here's the link:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/at-home/how-to-make-newspaper-beads.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&contentCollection=AtHome&package_index=2

Fly Me to the Moon

Looking for a diversion?  Look no further!  Here's a little project from the New York Times (which I read every morning!)

Make a cool paper airplane --  here's the link -- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/at-home/coronavirus-paper-planes.html?

If crafts aren't your style, the Times also suggests a virtual tour of the Louvre.  Just go to louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne   Maybe you'll see me there!  You could have virtual lunch afterwards at a side-walk cafe!  (Use your imagination.)

Moon gazers

If you are interested in astronomy (who isn't, just a bit?), there is a penumbral eclipse of the moon tonight starting at about 8:05 and ending at 10:50.  A penumbral eclipse is not a full eclipse -- the moon is travelling through earth's shadow, but just the edge of it.  It will be hard to see (even if the skies are clear) -- the moon will dim a little as it enters our shadow.  The information I have says to use a telescope, binoculars or a good camera.  I will be out watching myself, but I will have to take a nap this afternoon in order to be alert.  Daisy is having trouble distinguishing day from night these days (her eyesight isn't good and she is fourteen, so she is having some general intellectual troubles anyway) and was up and down last night.  She has a day bed she sleeps on and sometimes she struggles to jump up on it (although she can do it) and so whenever she jumps down (thinking it's morning), I wake up and then worry that she can't get back to bed and so I get up to help her.  It's like having a baby!  You never get into a deep sleep, because you're listening for trouble!

If you're wondering about how theatre is faring in these days of isolation, here's an interesting article from the New York Times about the drive to create and see theatre no matter what obstacles you face!   It's inspiring.  (link:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/theater/theaters-persevere-in-pandemic.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage)  I am certainly thinking about what sort of show we can do if we aren't able to come back fully in September.    I watched a production of Moliere's "Tartuffe" presented by a theatre group called Moliere in the Park -- it was performed on a kind of Zoom screen and it was strange and kind of static to begin with, but the actors were quite good and it worked if you went there with them.  You can still access it on Youtube if you are interested.  It is very funny but remember to be patient at first.  It isn't like seeing a filmed play or like a movie or tv show -- you have to accustom yourself to the strangeness of the actors not looking at each other and not really being able to interact.

Happy Canada Day!

I hope you are having a nice safe Canada Day.  I always put up our Canadian flag (my son says the leaf is stupid, but I like that we have a leaf on our flag) and usually we go to the firefighters' pancake breakfast but of course, this year it is different.  I think the rain has helped inspire people to stay home which is good.  We can't get over confident and think that we've dealt with the virus and don't need to worry any more.

The public library is having a "space-opoly" contest.  You get a board like Monopoly and you make your own die and roll the die and read the kind of book described on the spot you land.  I landed on a spot that said to read a book from an author you have never tried.  I read Milkman by Anna Burns.  It is a very strange dystopian book about "middle sister" and how she is being stalked by Milkman and her relationship with maybe boyfriend and real milkman and third brother-in-law with whom she runs.  Now I am on a square that says read the first book of a series.  I have a book on hold called A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee.  It is a mystery set in India and I will pick it up tomorrow -- I am looking forward to it -- I am very fond of mysteries.  I think you can download the game if you are interested.  You can go to the Port Moody Public Library website and there is the board and everything you need.  It might get you to read things that you wouldn't normally choose.

One thing we're lucky to enjoy in Canada is our access to the natural world so here is a link to information about the living things that live only in Canada.  Of course, even the animals who aren't rare are amazing -- I've been watching baby chickadees figuring out how to access my bird feeder and they are so cute and funny.  Here's the link:  https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/these-animals-and-plants-are-found-only-in-canada

We are very lucky to live here but I do think we have a responsibility to take care of our home and be good citizens.  Let's make sure our communities are respectful and that we care about each other and do our best to ensure that we continue to enjoy our safe and tolerant society.