Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 61

"No, but" versus "yes, and"

I was listening to a talk the other day, and the speaker was talking about how she preferred "yes, and" phrases to "no, but" phrases when talking about someone's ideas.

In general I favor this approach too. Conversation that builds up rather than breaking down is energizing and encouraging. But you can't only use "yes, and." Sometimes you want to disagree or criticize. The speaker seemed to think that even in those situation you could/should cast what you're saying as a "yes, and." The exampl...

Butterburs bud

In Japan, today through January 24 is the microseason called "butterburs bud"

One fond memory I have of living in Japan as a family was the 60-plus-year-old director of the daycare where my kids went teaching me how to prepare fuki. In spring you could buy it in markets, but it's also a wild herb that you can forage. I remember where we foraged ours: there was this cut-through with a little bridge, and then you came up behind/beside the Watanabes' shop, which was a sort of convenience store in...

abelha

abelha

"bee"

One word of Portuguese, buzzing in my head

In the cold Northeast soon the snow-bees will be buzzing

while somewhere in Amazonas,

little abelha-cachorro, dog-bee

is pollinating brilliant blooms

epiphytes, bromiliads,

orchids

and passion flowers

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microseasons

I was looking at some of my earliest journal entries, trying to see what had me hopping with inspiration back almost thirteen years ago, and I discovered this:

Little Springtime, the Peaceful One, had to list things that happen with regularity in nature--just a few examples. She said, "I've already got things like 'Bears eat skunk cabbage in the spring...'--as if THAT'S the first regular seasonal thing you'd think of! I only just learned that about bears last week. It made me think, it would b...

asakiyume @ 2019-01-13T09:51:00

I think everyone who reads me here probably already reads sovay , but just in case not...

I was blown away by her review of An Inconvenient God.

sovay 's reviews are as good as stories: when she reviews films, she captures the drama of them, and without spoiling them in the least, makes you feel, by the power of her writing, what makes them funny, poignant, terrifying, tragic--whatever. It's a huge honor to have that attention paid to my own work.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse

I went to this last night with zero expectations and really had fun. I enjoyed Miles and his family, I liked the other spiderfolk, the humor worked for me, and the animation/art was gorgeous. Oh and I loved the soundtrack!**

Just in case you were sitting wherever you're sitting and you found yourself wondering what Asakiyume thought of Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse.

colors


more colors


more more colors


glitching


hero



PS--I liked the role graffiti and stickers played.




**And I have some money on an...

Forget those resolutions

I can *not* write every day on the novel. It just won't work with my life. The language goals are easier because they're more mechanical, but I'm definitely letting Portuguese be a now-and-then.

I don't know why I was able to write nearly every day in November but can't now in January. Maybe I should chalk this up to a rocky start (holiday, family, illness) but the year is strewn with similar obstacles, so I think I'll rethink this. I probably won't announce what the revised goal is--I'm only...

"With Hands Held Out"

I ... have written my first-ever** fanfic, about one of my favorite moments in Voyage of the Dawn Treader (actually, one of my favorite moments in the whole Chronicles of Narnia)--the moment when Lucy sees the Sea Girl in the Last Ocean. The story is from the Sea Girl's perspective. It's very short. Thanks to osprey_archer for a read-through and advice on posting!

And here are some beautiful examples of seagrass for you to look at, to accompany the story.

turtlegrass

(source)

sickle leaf seagrass...

Andrea Johnson's kickstarter is live!

Andrea Johnson, The Little Red Reviewer , is having a Kickstarter to fund a book of the best of her reviews. And it's now live! You can read more about it at the Kickstarter page here , and if you want to know more, check out my interview with her here . The vagaries of postdating kept that entry out of my friends feed, I suspect, so I don't feel too bad pushing you toward it now. (It's long--but dip in--you don't have to read the whole thing. Andrea's reviews are just excellent, and I'm not jus...

Resolutions 2019

This'll be the fourth year running that I post resolutions.

I didn't do a good job with last year's. I didn't find a way to incorporate conversational Spanish practice into my learning, and I didn't work on the novel twice a week. However, this year I have two possible leads for conversational practice, so even though I failed last year, I think I'll try again with that this year:

(1) Continue to practice Spanish every day, and find a way to work in conversational Spanish every week. Grace per...