Author: pookiebear

Top 5 of Everything

Dear Internet,
As I formulate my perseverance, I’m opting to take some online classes to keep my skills flush in a variety of fields. As I have an interest in SEO (search engine optimization) from my days in library school when we were mapping data sets and taxonomies, this seems like a good place as any to start. If you’re interested, Udemy offers a couple of free courses (Moz.com’s SEO Training Course and Advance SEO: Tactics and Strategy) that I found useful and I’m going to apply some of the strategies here on EPbaB to see how they work.
I’ve been curious as to how people find me other than direct links from across social media. Now that Google (at least) shields keywords if you’re logged in, the data I have is actually very little. I use three different analytics software on the site (Google Analytics, WordPress JetPack Stats, and StatCounter), while there is some variation of what is coming up, it’s been pretty agreeable across the board.
And oh! A couple of things about searching: If you’re logged into Google (which, it seems, 90% of us are), your searches are influenced by what you searched with before. If you search for “lisa rabey” (quotes or othewise), Google’s results will change depending how you searched for that thing (or related thing) in the past. Additionally, if you’re logged into Google when you search, and land on my page by using keywords, I won’t see those keywords in my stats. Those will be shielded. Also! If you use a URL blocker, like donotlink.com, I also won’t see that reference.
Hence why what I’m getting back in data is tiny. So there.
Lastly, if you want untainted results, use any browsers incognito mode an search, not logged in, for that item. In incognito mode, your history is not tracked or kept thus it sill be a fresh search each time. I would teach this trick to my info lit students by having them log into Google, pop open an incognito window, then search for the same thing in both windows. Sometimes the results will only vary a bit and others, a lot.
As a mini-project, I’m going to put together top five keywords and top five pages and see how they stack against the other.
Top 5 Keywords

  1. Exit Pursued By A Bear (no comma)
  2. Lisa Rabey
  3. live sexual harassment
  4. queen pussy
  5. Saint Lisa

Top 5 Pages

  1. Home page
  2. Apology for team harpy (now pulled)
  3. ALA code of conduct
  4. Live action Sexual Harassment
  5. Hello

Analysis
Exit Pursued by a Bear (no comma) matches with the top page. This is blatantly obvious as keyword will drop you my landing page. Tada! The name refers to a stage direction from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, which came out of nowhere in the play. It’s also the name of an acting group, a band, a TV trop, and a play in addition to my website. Other variations of the keyword popping up includes the same phrase with the comma, “exit pursued bear,” “pursued by a bear,” and “exitpursuedbyabear.” (Quotes not withstanding.)
Lisa Rabey searches are ubiquitous to me though I have it on good authority there are two more of us (possibly three) in the world. Quotes or no quotes, you will find at least one of my three sites (this one, lisa.rabey.net (librarian professional) and lisarabey.com (writing professional)) will come up in the top five results. This accounts for traffic being driven to my landing page AND to my about page.
Live sexual harassment search is interesting to me because, who the hell is searching for those keywords? Actually, it could be from any numerous contributors such as people looking for data stats. This search links to Live action Sexual Harassment, which is a write up I did right after I was sexually harassed at a conference where I was on a panel talking about it, you guessed it, sexual harassment in the workplace. Oh, the irony.
Queen pussy is also interesting one to me as it is in the top 5 keyword search and I’m wondering what people are searching for exactly. Like Pussy, Queen of the Pirates maybe? I am not sure but what it does is bring the entry, Queen of the Pussy Posse. QofPP is an entry I wrote after I published widely a piece on ALA’s Code of Conduct. Someone thought the name thrown at me would be derogatory. The answer is — nope.  So while this is a top five keyword, the page does not show up as a top five page, which is intriguing.
Saint Lisa makes me giggle because there is no saint lisa, st. or otherwise. All the variations land you to an old entry from 12 years ago, St. Lisa: Patron saint of tattoos, piercings, fags and married men, in which I discourse on my friends from theology class, Matt and AQPaul. What becomes amusing about these keywords is that the page is number 25 on the list of top pages for my site and is the only set of keywords that do not align to the corresponding top 5 pages.
Other things that I know are: Pages with lists or how-tos do really well on my site. The more I write, regardless of content, generates more page views than when I take breaks (this one is seemingly pretty obvious). I get a lot of private comments on the personal stuff and public comments on the how-tos and lists.
There is a lot more to SEO than what I’ve laid out here and will discourse more at another time.
xoxo,
Lisa
P.S. Don’t want near daily emails or can’t make it here everyday but want to keep up with what’s going in my world? Subscribe to A Most Unreliable Narrator, a monthly-ish newsletter roundup of what’s happening. Bonus! Comes with GIFs!

This Day in Lisa-Universe: 2009, 2000, 1999

montage part i (2014)

Dear Internet,
Below is bits and pieces of entries I wrote and never posted for some reason. They are posted out of context because in some cases, up to years later, I don’t recall my train of thought that started or was to end them. Enjoy them, fragmented thoughts and all.

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Goodbye Grand Rapids (Again)
Grand Rapids, had, in many ways been good to me. It is here I had my first kiss (Nick Hill). It is here that I learned how to drive; how to roll a joint; and went about discovering myself. It is here that I owned my first home, lived with a husband, and received my first degree.
TheBassist has been in town for the last week to help me prep for Natalie’s wedding and help me pack up my little apartment to move to parts south. The week has been insanely busy, with most days us out and about for 10-12 hours at a stretch. It was nice having a look through this city through his eyes as with them, I developed a crush on Grand Rapids that had long been missing.
There is a lot to be said for this city and its’ stories, but I am not one of the narrators.
I always felt this city was no place for me. I still feel that way. I will always be a wanderer of the parts unknown. Not as glamorous as Karen, who knocks off continents when most people count counties, but wandering all the same. I thought for sure ThePlan would for sure guide me in the right direction

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When Things Fall Apart
As I sat on my nominally comfortable couch this morning at my shrink’s, telling him of the last events in my life up until that moment, he kept commenting on my apparent calmness. Here I was, sitting there drinking my mint mocha latte with soy and feeling, well, pretty calm. Caffeine was not jacking me up and while I was looking a bit disheveled (I woke up late and didn’t have time for a shower), all in all, I felt fairly at peace with the world.
If you look over the events of my life in the past year, this seemed very odd indeed. I was embroiled in a lawsuit, divorced my husband, and crisscrossed the US too many times to count. I am living in a small apartment, my savings dwindling faster than a dog’s winter coat, wondering what the next step is.
Irons are in the fire, as they are wont to be, but…

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that which I fear

I’ve been thinking about fears and my peccadilloes…

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Top 5 Breakups

  1. Justin (TheExHusband), part i and ii
  2. Thom (TheBassist) part i, part ii
  3. Miguel
  4. Jon (TheEx)
  5. Chuck

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heinrich maneuver

It’s December 1. How is the year almost over?
In November, Grand Rapids received 31″ of snow which is half the amount the city I’m currently in received all of last year. I laugh because TheBassist offered to shovel my car out when the snow hits and I thumped my chest declaring where I was from. Puny humans and their weak snow showers are no match for me!
It’s been a solid week since I’ve been on the drugs and so far I’m starting to see some relief insofar my moods are stabilizing and I’m not yo-yoing everywhere. However, mania has ramped up a titch but I’ve been trying to channel it into good (like sorting out holiday shopping and cards) and getting some writing work done. I will have to ditch caffeine again because of the drug changes, which is fine. I happen to like decaf coffee just fine, though the sweet, sweet nectar that is Coke will be hardest to kick.
The combo of Abilify/Lamictal I’m currently on could take 5-8 weeks to stabilize, though some friends have said they felt pangs of relief in the first week or two. Since my drug metabolism tends to be faster, which is part of my fucking problem mediating the bipolar, I could see results much sooner. The household I’m in is well versed in variety of mental disorders, including bipolar, so I am at least safe hands while I go through this drug regime again.
We, TheSoonToBeExHusband and I, will have some relief of stressors soon as the house closes in the next few weeks and the divorce finalizes in the next few months. I’m still in a holding pattern for…

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Love Actually Is All Around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAD2_MVMUlE
That’s it. Nothing else matters.
But when you’ve been looking your entire life for this thing and when you’ve been running your entire life from the things that hurt you, you get bogged down on the tangibles rather than the intangible. You put a price on love because western society dictates that love is not the sum of the human heart or what the body can give, but what can be provided as proof of love.

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Enter Title Here

In the fall of 2013, N3wsbank emailed the public services librarian at MPOW with a complaint about me. It seems I had said something disparaging about N3wsbank on Twitter and what was MPOW going to do about it? The public services librarian, who was contacted because she was listed as the contact for N3wsbank, immediately fired an email of apology for my behavior and then notified my director of the supposed transgression.

Several days after that occurred, I received a cryptic email from my director about my participation on social media and would I like to meet with her? Via email, I asked her to clarify what she meant so I could prepare for the meeting. She refused. She implored to meet with her immediately in her office.
During the meeting, I was told of the above scenario. I asked for a copy of N3wsbank’s email (which six months later I never received) and a copy of the offending tweet. N3wsbank apparently never followed up with the offending tweet nor was there any, to my knowledge, return phone calls from N3wsbank’s VP of Sales (who apparently also called my director as well as emailed the public services librarian) about my alleged digression.

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Welcome to Pontyberry, Boyle, and/or Portwenn

Port Isaac, Cornwall, the setting for Portwenn.
Port Isaac, Cornwall, the setting for Portwenn. Via Wikipedia Commons

Population 1.
I watch a fair amount of television, which is a nice way of saying I watch an absolute disgusting amount of it.

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Le mie passioni, parte 4: BBC History
(Le Mie passioni, Italian translation of “my passions,” is a an occasional series of things I really, really love.)

Dear Internet,

A couple of years ago, I started a project, entitled Le Mie Passioni, occasionally documenting all of the things that I really and truly love. Italian for “my passions,” it was to kind of give insight of things I’m digging on a grand scale instead of flavor of the week.

While I was still working at $corporate_bookstore a couple of years ago, one of my coworkers, Mr. Troy, made the recommendation to me of his favorite magazines and books right before I left the employ of the store to finish my

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xoxo,
Lisa

This Day in Lisa-Universe: 1999

woo

Dear Internet,
One of the things I’ve been thinking about for the last few years is the probability of woo – that is, magic and the divine. This is not a topic I speak openly on because, like politics, it comes with its own set of derision and trolling. There is also the idea, to me, woo is a very private thing. Part of my world holds many secrets, not all of which are shared.  (Yes, I do understand apparent conflict of interest here.)
So what, exactly, is woo? The best definition I can give is the search for the divine or spirituality, in that it enhances your everyday life rather than constrict it. So whether you worship a deity, plants, or yourself, it’s all woo. But what really makes woo “woo” is all of these incarnations contain, at their core, magic. Whether it is rituals, prayers, practice, or straight up spell making, it’s all about the magic.
Some example of woo-ers are friends who are Druids who believe in faerie folk but not ghosts; die hard atheists who are ghost hunters; honest to goodness God believers who love their church; witches of all varieties; purveyors of reiki and yoga, and everything in between.
The big reason I started researching what makes me “woo” is how we tend to live our lives on a daily basis. Below is a quote cobbled together from various sources by Allie over at Wardrobe Oxygen and is attributed to Brené Brown that encapsulates my thoughts perfectly.

We all get so many emails in our inbox on ‘how to…’ However ‘how to’ does not work – if it did, none of us would be struggling, we would not be the most obese, in debt, addicted society in human history. We frequently look for ‘quick fixes,’ ‘instant solutions,’ and helpful tips in the areas we struggle most in our attempt to ‘fix’ the areas that cause us pain. If ‘how to’ worked, none of us would struggle with feelings we’re ‘enough.’ We live in a culture where if we are not doing huge, extraordinary things, we are ‘not enough.’ All of the social media are based on the shame-based fear of being ordinary. We are hyper-aware of lack. The first thing we do in the morning is to say to ourselves, ‘I didn’t sleep enough’ and the last thing before bed is, ‘I didn’t get enough done.’Brené Brown

The other big thing I’ve learned in the last year is I don’t need much to make me happy. I’ve culled down my physical goods to at least a third of what I left with back in the late fall; getting rid of everything I not only didn’t want but also didn’t miss. Living out of suitcases will force some perspective on you, especially when you have no idea where you’re going to be next (and yeah, it sounds way sexier than it actually is).
The last year also taught me about personal growth. Even at my most manic, I wanted to strip myself down to the rawest person I could be and build myself up again. That, I reasoned (and still believe) was the best way to begin anew. We change with time, but change is often gradual and here I have brute force change happening from all directions. I have to roll with it NOW or deal with the fall out later. The former seemed like a much better idea than the later.
Angry Lisa has got to go, petty Lisa has got to move on, and any other toxic versions of me also needs to move the fuck away.
I’ve been taking small steps for months on making these changes, such as extending an olive branch to those in need, removing toxic people from my life, not allowing myself to get in situations that could be mainly mentally or emotionally damaging. And attempting, really hard, to create some kind of practice of everyday woo that would include meditation, yoga, and long walks everywhere to start. Woo, and magic, is about the practice, the ritual, the particular prayer or worship which allows me to center myself, self-care myself, be a better person.
I’m still trying, I will forever always be trying, and it will forever always be hard work. Life is complicated and it’s messy, but that is what makes us human. We try, we fail spectacularly, we try again. This journal is anything, it’s an attempt to record my efforts and my failures, even if it means it is over and over again.
Thus, I’ll be writing more about woo, which I’ve started a bit ages ago, what works and doesn’t work for me. If you have some suggestions on woo-ing (books, sites, etc), let me know via social media *points to the upper right hand corner of the website*.
Lastly, be kind, be good, and love you.
xoxo,
Lisa
P.S. A few weeks back  I got my usual manicure, with gel polish, and instead of my usual blacks/greys/darks, I went with hot pink. Hot, gorgeous, neon, brilliant pink. This small shake up in one of my rituals, and one that I ended up adoring, I knew then that miracles and change are possible in every way.

This week in Lisa-Universe: 2014, 2003, 2000

Read. Write. Everyday.

Dear Internet,
Rules on how to be a successful writer are as fluid as how to be a successful librarian. Everyone and their sixteen cousins has an opinion on what the “right” or “correct” way to get ahead in this tough industry. I’ve been reading blogs, books, magazines on/about writing for years and the only consistent everyone agrees upon is:

Read. Write. Everyday.

That’s the easy part. Now that’s done, you start asking harder questions such as: Where to submit? How to submit? Should I go indie or should I go traditional? How do I invoice for work? How do I do X,Y,Z? What kind of coffee should I be drinking? Should I brush my teeth today? I mean, there are a fuck ton of questions and ten times the answers.
It’s overwhelming. Confusing. Often contradictory. No wonder people give up.
I’m friends with a lot of writers: some who are traditionally published, others who are indie, and others yet who a hybrid of the two. Most write fiction, some also write in other areas such as articles for news sites, non-fiction, graphic novels, and everything in between. Some dabble in other arts or may have a job or a career in a field not related to their work. But the common thread between all of them is that like librarianship, calling yourself a “writer” really on scratches the surface. It can mean anything and everything in one go.
You write? You’re a writer. Simple. It’s great if you have a tight story and your prose is perfect, but unless you’re content to write for yourself and not have the world see your work, this is the hard shit. The difficult shit. Writing is actually the easy part, it’s the admin work that kills you.
Since I have the opportunity to quit my full time job and write fiction for a year, one thing that is important to me was transparency. Here is what I did, this is what worked and what didn’t. This is what I’ll do again, and this is where else I’ll go. All the gory, juicy, and miserable stuff that no one wants to talk about. And to make sure it is without bullshit. Because I swear to all the gods in the sky, if I stumble across one more author’s site hawking their classes and wares with borderline exploitative pricing, I am going to scream.

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It’s been nearly a year, to the day, that I wrote this and in light of what I wrote yesterday, it seemed apropos to post. And it’s a swift kick in the pants to keep my word on the transparency of the projects.
xoxo,
Lisa

This week in Lisa-Universe: 2014, 2003, 2000

in which we have reading and writing adventures

Barker at the grounds at the Vermont state fair, circa 1941. Courtesy of The Commons, Flickr.

Dear Internet,
It’s a long, lovely holiday weekend and I’m digging into my stack of books, aided by hot tea, for entertainment. Since my own book has stalled, I thought it would be a good time to take notes on the books I’m reading to see what worked and what didn’t and apply it to, hopefully, jump start my own writing as well to see what makes me happy reading. (AKA, these notes are mainly more for me than you, but hey, if you get something out of it; Awesome!)
The number one rule you’ll see anywhere on writing is, “read more,” but is that all? Yes and no. Below are some of my notes from chewing through a few books this weekend.
♥If influenced by a particular era, do the research. In reading a book set during the Belle Époque (France’s version of the Edwardian era / American Gilded age), the book should have a feel for that period. This one did not and it felt what details were made available were slapped on from Wikipedia. Just no.
♥Alternating POV should move the story along, not show the same scene from different prescriptive.  Thus far, I’ve finished three books this weekend, of which two used alternating POV as a story device. One used it well to advance the story, spending less time on recreating the setting, while the other not so much. In the second, I felt as if the author was slapping my hand for not getting something right so they had to tell me again.
♥Chapters are not always necessary. Yes, they break up the scenes and action, but if done stealthy, the shift between could remain seamless without the use of chapters. Chapters may be like periods, pauses to break up the scenes, but are not necessary. Terry Pratchett was the king of lack of chapters. In one of the books I read this weekend, the switching happened with the alternating points of view and was so seamless, it took me half the book to realise there were no chapters.
♥The length of a book, by page number, does not necessitate how good it is. The ones on the longer side are more than likely just like to hear themselves read. Get it? (They all can’t be winners.) One book I’ve read recently, and was quite good, was a slim 150 pages. Another book that was pure dreck clocked in at 400. Length does not mean everything, as much as we like to believe.
♥Give the book an old college try and read the first 50 pages. I’ll go out on a limb and say this applies to writing as well; if you can’t make the story palatable within the first 50 pages, neither will your readers. And readers? There are too many good books for you to read terrible ones.
♥If heavily using phrases of a language that isn’t your primary language or the colloquialisms of a particular thing, include an appendix of sorts. It’s presumptuous to think your readers are going to have the same breadth of knowledge on the same topic you’re writing about. An aforementioned book set in the Belle Époque period heavily used ballet terms and dropped French like it was ice cream sprinkles. This makes sense because this was the subject matter, BUT if you aren’t familiar with ballet or spoke even rudimentary French, a lot of what was happening with the characters would be lost on you. Yes, I get it, we learn by reading outside our comfort zone but there is a difference between needing to look up “demagogue” and wondering what in the hell is “battement développé” and having translate.google.com by your side.
There were a few more main things I forgot to write down, but this is the gist of it. So it is true, the more you read, the more you learn. Hrm.
x0x0,
Lisa
P.S. Last winter I decided to put together a newsletter for those who read my stuff but can’t be arsed to check it out daily (no worries, I get it, I do!) so this is a monthly round up. I’ve decided to resurrect it again! Called Skaldic Press Presents, you can check out the archive here (http://tinyletter.com/amostunreliablenarrator/archive) and subscribe here (https://tinyletter.com/amostunreliablenarrator).
P.P.S. There are GIFs involved!

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2014, 2014, 2000, 1999

Issue #6 – Sorry, Love. Gotta save the world.


Dear Internet,
Sit! I have a lot to tell you as it has been five whole months, so you know there is a lot! The theme this letter is Kingsman: The Secret Service, which came out in February and which I totally loved. The best description I have heard about the movie is it’s a Hogwarts for James Bond. ‘Nuff said.

So what’s been going on? The #teamharpy case has been dismissed, which of course brought out a lot of the Men’s Rights Advocates and general trolls to my little world. With the increase of every step of mine being watched, I pulled down contact info outside of social media an TheExHusband locked down my sites to near draconian measures. I also deliberately went offline for a few weeks, which helped but not enough as the esteemed plaintiff has been posting the apologies, along with repeating the trolling words, across the web. This includes places such as Google+ (I know, right! Who in the hell still uses this service? Futurists apparently.), Slideshare, LinkedIN, and so forth and so on.
With that tidbit, he’s been posting our legal names attached to the case so that if you do a Google search for either of us, up comes his pages. It’s been a social media nightmare to combat it but you know, if I am anything I am perseverance personified. Surprising to many, I’m sure, I’ve been remaining classy as hell by not raising to his bait. The blow back from the case’s dismissal has lessened considerably over the past few months as we’ve become mere detritus in the wild world of the Internet. Truthfully? A lot of traffic was sent to my little website into the thousands daily but I knew they were there to see a train wreck and when one wasn’t immediate, traffic petered out. This is what makes me happy — things are back to the intimacy I so adore.

In other news, my personal life has been all over the place. With the house having been sold, the divorce finalized, and me back on the hunt for a job, things have been a titch nuts. Until recently, I’ve been commuting in a triangle between three states and a few weeks back, narrowed it down to two (mostly). It’s been a waiting game until I find a job, so there is that little piece in the pie that needs to be filled. Hey, I’m available if you know of anyone looking for a librarian!
Overall, things have been relatively quiet despite the apparent chaos. I mediate when I remember, I yoga when I find space, I write when I have a pencil or a keyboard in front of me, and I take my drugs daily. I’m working towards a lot of inner peace because I never want to repeat the last year. Ever. Now on to other things.


 
Not much has been going on in the world of Skaldic Press other than the release of The Lisa Chronicles, Vol. 1 back in January. I should have been working on Vol. 2, but as you might have guessed, things have been a bit hectic over here. Future plans include getting Vol 2. up before the fall and well, that’s about it. I need to sit down and really think what I want to do with this empire of mine and come up with a few ideas. I do know that I want to keep writing and continue submitting so there is hope yet.

Not much has been going on in the world of Skaldic Press other than the release of The Lisa Chronicles, Vol. 1 back in January. I should have been working on Vol. 2, but as you might have guessed, things have been a bit hectic over here. Future plans include getting Vol 2. up before the fall and well, that’s about it. I need to sit down and really think what I want to do with this empire of mine and come up with a few ideas. I do know that I want to keep writing and continue submitting so there is hope yet.

News from Exit, Pursued by a Bear since we last met:
First, a new header! This shouldn’t be as exciting as it is but consider I’ve only slightly tweaked the journal’s appearance in the three years I’ve been steadily writing here, including headers, it’s a very big deal. The photo comes (with permission) from Forgotten Heritage Photography, whose schtick is to stalk the UK and Europe looking for forgotten buildings and places, cataloging them via pictures.
There have been twenty-five new entries since our last meeting, which I agree is a bit much to list here. I would highly recommend you check out the archives to catch up. Of course I am hoping to get this newsletter out on a more regular basis (at least monthly) thus the next time we see each other, things will be a bit more manageable. I promise.
One thing I’m pretty excited about is I’ve overhauled Collection of Cunning Curiosities by ditching the pre-modern English spelling into contemporary English. I also ditched a lot of the categories within the entry to just fanciful delights I’ve come across that week. Some examples are a necklace of the map of the world, a Kickstarter for a new anthology of girl lead comics, an octopus who curls up inside of a coconut shell, and a weekly curated mixtape of the best songs on the Internets, which I’ve been listening to as I write this.
That’s it for me and with that, I bid you adieu!
xoxo,
Lisa

Collection of Cunning Curiosities – July 4, 2015

Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A weekly compendium of things that delight my fancy.

Dear Internet, You can follow this collection on Pinterest. x0x0, lisa

Fanciful Delights

♥As many of you know, I have a mild fascination with the middle ages. Youtuber thatoneguyinlitclass has just increased that obsession as he has put together a series of four videos on how to speak Middle English and it is awesome. He goes through on pronouncition, vowels, constants, and how the language was spoken however you damn well please. Great stuff for language geeks and role playing nerds.

♥ There is much to said for art, in that it opens your world to new experiences and culture you may not have an opportunity to enjoy or see. But what if that piece of art was turned into a plastic figurine and improved upon? The Table Museum, a company that does that exact thing, has recently released a poseable Venus de Milo. Having seen the original at the Louvre, this one is way better.
♥Cartography is my jam. When you can get the entire world (mostly) as a necklace, color me in! I first saw this piece via another blog and knew I had to have it. It matches my compass tattoo which I got a few months ago. With this necklace around my neck, I feel like I can conquer the world! Literally.
♥Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Netflix, Acorn), after the eponymous book series, has become a surprise hit in Australia and abroad. There is something to be said of a 1920s female James Bondesque character who, with her naive companion, solve mysteries in and around Melbourne. The success of Miss Fisher was thought to guarantee a third season but the Australian channel ABC kept fans suspense of “will they or won’t they” close up to the third season premier. With the fan base growing, Every Cloud Productions and The Man Games have opted to release a choose your own path video game based on Miss Fisher’s adventures (available in iOS, Android, PC, and Mac), which will be coming soon. I don’t know about you, but this should not only please the super fans but also push ABC into continuing the series. Huzzah!

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2014, 2011, 1999

wishlists

Dear Internet,
It’s the night before our country’s big anniversary weekend and I’m spending my time organizing my Amazon.com wish lists, but there is a reason for my staid evening. But first let me tell you a short story: TEH and I went walking around downtown today as we ran errands we’ve been putting off for a week or two. One of those errands was getting our local library cards (I now have 13 library cards from various academic and public libraries. Yes, I am a nerd.), which then necessitated we needed, or I did, to get books. How else was I going to know what to read? By going to my Amazon wish lists, of course.
Since my day to day information gathering spans across RSS feeds, social media, and other sources, as well as podcast listening, project prep, and personal recommendations from friends, my book lists come from everywhere. In order to keep track of it all, I started organizing the lists by topic on Amazon.
(Bethums once pointed out she thought it was adorable that I organized things to an OCD level, but hey, if I am not anything but a librarian?)
There is a reason to my madness and that is Amazon is my list of lists.
The lists serve as reminders such as hey, I may need these things when I get my own place or birthday/holiday ideas, which TEH and my brother found extremely useful.  There are books on particular topics I want to know more about, music I need to check out or DVDs I need to buy.
But as I organized my lists this evening, for things have been bought and or no longer wanted, I noticed patterns erupting.
♥I like gadgets and geegaws. Everyone needs silicone and bamboo salad hands, a set of 10 nibs, or a professional grade laser hair removal device don’t they? Of course they do!
♥My interests are varied, which probably owns up to my ADHD. I have things on knitting, clay molding kits, calligraphy, to books on linux, user experience, fairytales and viking poetry. I was surprised to find I had many non-fiction books as I did fiction, on a wide variety of topics such as cartography, biographies, and how things are made as examples.
♥I like fictional and non-fictional tales about women, primarily those who rejected the ideals of their times. Courtesans, serial killers, scientists, artists, or royals; it doesn’t matter. If there is a tale about a woman, in some form or another comes off as a rebel, I want to know who she is.
♥I like knowing how things are they way they are. If there is a book about the history of paper, on racial politics, the creation of gender, the history of the breast, the story of the great flood, and the lost art of letter writing or everything in-between, I probably have a book on it in one of my lists. (We totally cannot forget The Library: A World History as what kind of librarian would I be?)
♥I like to research. My current book, the Edwardian mystery, has stalled and I can’t seem to jump start it but of course I have a list for that. I found similar genres such as decopunk (speculative fiction subset of dieselpunk, which is a subset of steampunk) that incorporates the aesthetic of Art Deco with diesel engines just as steampunk splices Victorian era with steam technology. Decopunk is so specific, Amazon only has a few books that claim that genre, but it piques my interest. Of course mythology, Vikings, and middle ages have me in raptures. Any period that predates post modern seems to be my mainstay though I tend to dip into contemporary novels here or there.
♥I don’t read as widely as I should. Over the years my tastes have regulated itself to particular authors (Terry Pratchett and Kate Atkinson as example) or genres such as mystery, period, or speculative fiction. I do read mainly women but I’m definitely lacking in books by people of color or translations from countries where English is not the primary language (though Paulo Cohelo and Umberto Eco are excluded but everyone reads them). Or books from other countries, period.
I don’t think I’m that well read but I’m much further than most, I suppose, and I really want a lot of things. Though, I could do a lot better by NOT adding so much stuff to the damn lists but hey, you just never know. It might go on sale.
xoxo,
Lisa
p.s. If you think this is a bit ridiculous, you should see my RSS feed organization.
p.p.s. If you visit the site regularly, you may notice some changes. I took the justification off since it is a design no-no, changed the font to a more pleasing one, and swapped out my header which I am using with permission from Forgotten Heritage Photography.

This Day in Lisa-Universe: 2014, 2013, 2003

periscope

Dear Internet,
Remember, memory is a selective bastard.
I was an isolated child whose only comfort, and education, were books.
Last night I dreamt I was riding a bike near my childhood home with a few friends, whose names I’ve long forgotten. We came upon the house where my brother and I grew up and saw it was being completely rehabbed. We stopped to talk to a man who was trimming the bushes and I explained my family had owned the house for nearly 30 years and could we see it? The flamboyant man said, “Obviously not.” with no other explanation. We peeked through the windows where remarkable transformations were taking place inside.
I was in awe.
The house was a farmhouse, built in the 1860s, with two additions. The garage was a freestanding barn with a hayloft. The dream owners had completely overhauled every nook and corner so that nothing of what we had remembered as children was still there.
As we biked away, I noticed one of my boots were tearing (dreams are good reminders of things you need to pick up if you have forgotten. In this case: boots) and thoughts spun around to when I was living in that house and how I used to entertain myself.
(This next part is not a dream.)
These thoughts spun back to other times I was alone, which seemed like always.  There is me sitting on the back steps watching the stars shoot by, hoping to be an astronaut one day or there is me playing basketball with myself. There is me eating rainbow pops with my grandpop while we listened to the Tigers on the AM radio. During the summer months, I would drag every item I could onto the L-shaped porch and create my own home, only to have to drag it all back inside as the sun went down. I would take a lunch and bike down to the library, grab some books, and then bike over to the secluded areas near the river to eat and read.
I don’t recall anyone asking where I was for all the times I was gone or why I kept dragging my things outside. There is me and almost never an us.
There is no existence of pictures of me with some other child and rarely with my brother or cousins. True fact.
Recently, two unconnected people said I was deeply isolated and desperately lonely, except I don’t see myself that way. It’s similar to when people discuss Father’s Day or grand family vacations or something else not in my world. I rarely knew my father, I’ve never been on a grand family vacation, and most of these synapses people form with their experiences were never in the cards for me. So I cannot see myself as being desperately lonely or deeply isolated because I cannot relate to these things others do. But when these connections are outside the realm of normalcy for them, it’s hard to understand someone who doesn’t discern your same faiths.
For all of my isolation growing up, my socialization and behavior came from books. This is how others interacted with others, so this is how I must interact with people. These traits are bad, because bad things eventually happen to them on page 237, so I must not do these things. This is how romantic relationships work, so I must wait for someone who exudes these traits before I can take them seriously (and YES, I was accused of reading too many romance novels because I wanted every man to be Mr. Darcy). This is how friends treat friends, daughters to mothers and brothers, lover to lover. Every. Idealization. Of. Social. Interaction came from books. Despite my large family, there was no one person around long enough to shower me with what would form my psyche. There was nothing and then, there is everything.
Being freed from societal expectations can be considered a gift. It gives me the perspective of outsider in on day to day interactions. It allows me to be seen and definitely not heard, and it allows me to interpret right from wrong on a cleaner basis because I have no influence (because we all know bad things happen in Act 2 or page 237).  My moral compass is perhaps a little straighter and a bit more rigid than most.
It also allows me to travel without borders, without constraints, and without worry.
But it’s cyclic, for every experience shared alone, there is no one person waiting for me to come home, just like in my youth. There is no one person who is necessarily worried about me (i.e. there are those who love me, I know, but it’s not one specific person at home, knitting and wearing slippers in front of a fire, waiting for me).
Books taught me everything and with them, came unrealistic expectations and desires and this is one thing I’m very glad to have.
I’ve written of these things before; perhaps not as lucid but it has been said and will probably be said again. In order to grow, and to explore, we must challenge our boundaries and I’ll keep pushing until I feel that I am complete with that knowledge. But am I desperately lonely and largely isolated? Maybe. But if for all of this, I enjoy being me, why expect me to be anything else for that would alter the things you like about me? Would I be happier if I was part of a large social interactions, for I will not lie, there are times I long for such groups. And  if  I could change, be it my own happiness does mean it would preclude me from having large social interactions, why attempt to change the recipe?
As I was writing this, I was wondering if perhaps this growing up being socialized by books was perhaps the reason why my own books were stalling. Books gloss over everything in its pages and it’s difficult to write what you really do not know. I know what I would do but that would, perhaps, make for tepid reading.
Remember, memory is a selective bastard.
xoxo,
Lisa

This Day in Lisa-Universe: 2014, 1999

Collection of Cunning Curiosities – June 27, 2015

Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A weekly compendium of things that delight my fancy.

Dear Internet, You can follow this collection on Pinterest. x0x0, lisa

Fanciful Delights

♥It has been a bit of melancholic romantic mood around these parts which always brings me to want to watch Jane Austen. Perhaps it’s the weather? A few years ago, if you wanted to get you some Austen, you had to grab a DVD. No more! With variety of Austen and inspired works now streaming via Netflix and Amazon, and Hulu, getting your methadon is as easy as pushing a button.  In alphabetical order: Austenland (2013), Becoming Jane (2007), Bride and Prejudice (2005),  Clueless (1995), Emma (1996), Emma (1997),  Emma & Emma (2009), Jane Austen Book Club (2007), The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012), Lost in Austen & Lost in Austen (2007), Mansfield Park & Mansfield Park (1999), Miss Austen Regrets (2007), Northanger Abbey (2007), Persuasion (1995), Pride and Prejudice (1940), Pride and Prejudice (1980), Pride and Prejudice & Pride and Prejudice (1995),   Pride & Prejudice (2005), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Sense and Sensibility (2008), Scents and Sensibility (2011).
It’s about time for some remakes, no?
♥We’ll skip from the Regency era and move up to the Gilded Age with Comedy Central’s new show, Another Period. It’s a scripted “reality” show that spoofs the period with a great gleam in its eye. It’s the tale of a debauched Newport family who are desperate to the great 400. It’s raunchy, it’s silly, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This has become a weekly staple.
♥The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is an “An all-female comic/text anthology of true stories about love, romance, and sex! Featuring new cartoons by Margaret Atwood.” Yes. Margaret Atwood is up in here! I’ve backed this and so should you.

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2014, 2000

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