Teresa Robeson's Blog, page 20

What I (re)learned this week

1. Don’t participate in chat (on Zoom, and possibly in life) and don’t answer questions.

As often happens in a public forum or group, someone will ask a question to which I know the answer and then people act like I’ve not replied at all. Case in point: last weekend, I attended an online event.

Someone asked a question in the chat and I knew the exact answer to it because I’ve heard several industry professionals talk about it. Someone else partly answered the question, and then I chimed in to answer the specifics. The person who asked the question thanked the first person and then *crickets* to my reply.

The person who partially answered then asked the question of the moderator/panel who said precisely what I typed into the chat. Luckily, I didn’t have the camera on because I got a WTF look on my face similar to the one on this Tufted Titmouse:

2. Don’t engage. Period.

To that end, my husband kindly shared this meme he found online with me.

Calm is THE goal I want to reach, so I’ll need to stop interacting with people. Hah!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I won a consultation with the AMAZING Janna Morishima, agent and creator of the graphic novel community called Kids Comics Unite. She gave me excellent advice for revising my website in the one hour that we chatted this past week. Janna also shared ideas on what to do with SEO and my blog. So, over December, I think I’ll be doing some planning for the new year and preparing to implement some of the strategies she suggested.

In the meantime, I’ll stick with more bird drawings. I hope you like them!

And because of the title I chose, I have the David Bowie song running through my head now.

Bird (on the) brain

There’s been a lot of talk about birds recently…that ginormous bird platform named Twitter, the other ginormous bird called turkey that people in the U.S. often have for Thanksgiving.

But I’d like to share some birds unrelated to either one because I don’t want to get started on venting about Twitter’s new evil overlord nor about the injustices brought on the indigenous population since that first Thanksgiving meal.

I’ve been keeping up with nature journaling and some of those sketches happen to be birds. Birds are fascinating and delight me most of the time (also do not get me started on Brown-headed Cowbirds). I’ve not spent much time studying their anatomy even though I’ve bought the Cornell Bird Lab home-study course on bird biology, so I’m hoping that doing these types of sketches will help me get better at drawing them.

Do you have a favorite bird? Is it your favorite because you can draw it, or because it comes to your feeder daily? Or perhaps it’s the tastiest?

Also, when should I stop sharing these posts on Twitter? All these questions…

Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion by Shannon Stocker

Check out Patricia’s review of my friend Shannon’s terrific book!

Children's Books Heal

Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion

Shannon Stocker, Author

Devon Holzwarth, Illustrator

Dial Books for Young Readers, Biography, Apr. 12, 2022

Suitable for ages: 4–8

Themes: Music, Deafness, Listening, Feeling, Resilience,  Percussion, Biography

Opening: “This is a story of music. Of obstacles. Of strnegth and hard work. Of all you can accomplish when you dream. If you only . . . listen.“usPublisher’s Synopsis:

A gorgeous and empowering picture book biography about Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman, who became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world.

“No. You can’t,” people said.
But Evelyn knew she could. She had found her own way to listen.

From the moment Evelyn Glennie heard her first note, music held her heart. She played the piano by ear at age eight, and the clarinet by age ten. But soon, the nerves in her ears began…

View original post 559 more words

A funny insight happened on the way to volunteerism

I recall a co-worker who could carry on two conversations simultaneously: one on the phone and other other with people in the room with her. I marveled at her ability and declared I could never do that. I mean, I can barely handle one conversation.

But I discovered something very interesting this past Monday when I on a call with my dad. I phone him twice a week and have him tell me the story of Journey to the West. Our conversations are in Cantonese, my mother tongue. My grasp of it is somewhat rusty having lived away from a large Cantonese population for 30+ years, but I’d still categorize myself as functionally bilingual speech-wise. While I was on the phone to dad–because it’s mostly him talking and me interjecting with a reaction every so often–I decided I would work on the VoteForward letters I’m writing for the GA election runoff.

I wasn’t sure I could do it given that I could’t carry on two conversations at the same time. To my complete surprise, I was able to compost and write the messages in each of the letters in addition to addressing the envelopes WHILE ALSO understanding everything my dad said (in fact, I processed so well, I realized he was repeating a segment of the story he had already told me previously).

This got me to wondering if different parts of the language areas of the brain, for processing (Wernicke) and speaking (Broca), are being used for the two different languages. If I had free time to go down that rabbit hole, I totally would. I love neurology and linguistics.

Have you had any fascinating insights or discoveries recently that you want to investigate further? Do tell!

Lies, lies, lies…not really

We were watching the recent Doctor Who season finale (the last Jodi Whittaker episode) where the Doctor attempted to rescue what looked to be a little girl. She told the girl that she promised to free and save her. The Master, then, swoops in and cackles that “The Doctor lies!” before activating a portal and the girl gets vanished to someplace else.

I gritted my teeth.

Then a couple of days later, I was reading a middle grade novel where the main character’s mom promised him that 13 was going to be a very special year…right before everything fell to pieces. He reflects on this and concludes that his mom lied.

I gritted my teeth even harder. My dentist will have a field day next time I go for a check-up.

Why was I so annoyed? It’s because the writers are lying about “lies.” Okay, maybe they weren’t lying…but they are just dead wrong.

A lie implies that subterfuge is involved, that someone is purposefully trying to mislead or misdirect someone else. But it’s NOT a lie when someone says things in good faith, believing whatever it is they said to be true, or will be true. It’s being misguided, perhaps, or being blindly optimistic, but it’s not the same as lying.

The Doctor honestly intended to save the girl and so she promised to save her. The mom honestly wanted to have her son’s 13th year to be a great one, and would likely have done all she could to make it so if calamity hadn’t struck. Both said what they did in the spirit of good intention, so I don’t consider them to be lying.

Stay tuned to future episodes of “Teresa’s grammar/semantic pet peeves”…because I have a ton of them. Hah!

I’m going to stare at a quiet potted plant until I regain some calm.

Another challenge done

While I’m glad to be rid of the #SCBWIartober challenge, I am grateful I did it because it forced me to scribble something almost daily. Here are the last few drawings.

Day 25 “treat” was combined with day 26 “strange”

Day 27 was “broom” and day 28 was “spirit”; those got combined into this:

And finally, I combined the last three days of “bees,” “fall,” and “BOO!” into a single drawing:

That last one is pretty funny, I think.

Next week, I’ll blather on about an entirely different topic. I’m sure you’re breathlessly awaiting that.

More #SCBWIartober

What?? It’s Friday? I completely lost track of time. The important thing is that I show up to important appointments on time (like classes I have to teach), but otherwise, the days are a blur.

This week, I have a few more quick, daily (mostly daily) SCBWI “Artober” prompt drawings to share.

Day 13 was “nest”

Day 14 was “feast”

Day 15 was “worm”

Day 16 was “book nook”

Day 17 was “crunchy”

Day 18 was “full moon”

Day 19 was “scarf”

Day 20 was “basket” (or “basket case” here…)

Day 21 was “bat” (in case you don’t get it, she’s batting away the annoying person preventing her from reading)

Day 22 “weird weather” was combined with day 23 “ride”

Day 24 was “parade”

And that’s all she wrote for this week, folks! One more batch of drawings to share with you (the challenge mercifully ends on the 31st) and then it’s on to other boring things.

Why I’m not letting LinkedIn be my life coach

Seriously, this is the advice they gave me for advancing my career:

Even though RR and I are both Vancouverites, it doesn’t mean he’ll pave a golden brick road for my future. Unless it does and then I will have to issue a public apology to LI.

Don’t hold your breath, my friends!

#SCBWIartober – distraction or practice?

Maybe it’s a bit of both? The last thing I needed was to add one more thing to my schedule, so I try to keep the time spent doing these drawings to under a half hour…10 minutes or less is preferable. The prompts are as follows:

Here are the first 12 in order. More to come in a couple of weeks if you can stand it. Hah!

spider; ink magic; ink harvest; ink digital (Sketches app) crow; ink rain boot; ink – this one was done in 2 minutes! apple; ink black; digital (Sketches app) costume; ink corn; digital (Sketches app) under; digital (Sketches app)

Have you taken on any extra challenges this month or are you wisely keeping sane? Happy weekend!