New Things I've Tried Recently...

Well, one of them was to participate in a year-long series of prompted blog posts, to note and compare what different bloggers would say on nice, general, writing-related topics. There is just one teensy problem. Most days I'm going to be able to write a prompted post in time to add it to the link-up, or read other people's posts from the link-up, but not both.

So, today we have a survey post of what other participants were writing about yesterday.

I admit: I forgot. Yesterday was a very bad day. All I'll say, in order to protect the privacy of living people, is that it felt like going outside and being submerged in a dense floating fog of acute grief. Physical reactions to mold undoubtedly started it but a lot of probably overdue mourning went on. Real tears were shed. It was a very wet day anyway. If you'd been here you would probably have had an allergy attack as the thaw woke up all those glyphosate-boosted mold spores, Stachybotrys inside, fire blight outside. If you'd never had an allergy attack before, you would very likely have had your first one. I went in, threw bleach around, and ordered myself to stop bawling and write something about butterflies just to keep from being dissolved in all the miscellaneous excessive moisture.

Anyway here's the List of New Things People Are Trying This Winter:

1. Online courses. Have you ever thought back to a class in elementary school where your performance was mediocre, or bad, or you didn't see the point, and wondered whether you'd get more out of the same material if you went back to it as an adult? Kudos to Lydia Schoch for going back to take a low-pressure online math-as-a-game course. (She's the only blogger who mentioned actually taking a course.)

If I were going to do this, the subject would be eighth grade physics. I saw the use of math and, considering my dyscalculia, did pretty well in it, running a B average when I had to take math classes and avoiding them when they weren't mandatory. I just got into a groove of failing physics tests to motivate an Insane Admirer to sit beside someone else, and stayed there all year. In those days people who were recognized as "the educable mentally retarded" didn't have to take physics at all, but people who had high I.Q. scores and brought home F's in physics were just punished. Nobody even thought of saying anything like, "Well, half-grown writer later to be known as Priscilla King, most people whose name is not Einstein do have to look at the physics book more than once to remember everything that's going to be on the test. It's called studying." The problem I was having has since been identified as a common one caused by all the repetition and spoon-feeding children get in U.S. elementary schools. Eventually, at college if not (as in Gate City) in grade eight, they take a course that requires studying and have no idea how to study; they just throw up their little hands, as I did, and wail "I don't get this stuff and I don't anticipate any real reason why I'd ever need to understand it anyway. I wanna do something more fun, like buy a movie camera and take a class in movie production." I did, mind you, grasp what were called "the key concepts" in eighth grade physics. I just didn't remember all those algebraic formulas and how to use them, or even remember which ones to use, to solve the theoretical physics problems that mean old teacher kept putting on the tests. 

2. Watching a new TV show. (3 bloggers)

3. Or just reading a new book. (4 bloggers)

4. Doing a new online or TV exercise work-out-along program. (This wouldn't be new if I tried it. My brother and I used to exercise along with Jack LaLanne and Lilias Folan, whose shows were broadcast in that order that summer. But television is something I associate with hotels. The Cat Sanctuary has never had one.) (2 bloggers mentioned exercise.)

5. Eating a new recipe or food item. Foods mentioned included an Indian cheese dish, blue-shelled eggs, bananas, and "extra-dark mocha chocolate" (in quotation marks because I've not seen or heard of it). (3 bloggers)

6. Having psychotherapist-approved conversations about our Personal Boundaries with the people who make us feel tired. (1 blogger)

7, Visiting a new part of the world. (1 blogger)

8. Doing new home improvement projects. (1 blogger)

9. Making adjustments to new medical concerns. Actually 3 bloggers might have been doing this, but only 1 specified it. 

10. Changing to a newer phone. (1 blogger)

11. Planning, outlining, or working on a new writing project. (1 blogger)

To which I'll add:

12. Following LongAndShortReviews' link-ups, like this one. 

13. Testing new foods for glyphosate-freedom. The foods I've tested this year are familiar; their being possibly safe to eat is what's new--for a few years they were definitely not safe to eat. 

Well, so far I've found that the difference between Food Lion corn chips and Fritos is that the store brand are less greasy, actually a plus. Food Lion refrigerator-pouch-packed chicken is all white meat as advertised, and seems glyphosate-free, though the liquid in the package put me off and the flavor, as is typical of things preserved with "low sodium," left something to be desired. It didn't taste like undercooked or spoiled chicken, more like pure monosodium glutamate right out of the bottle, which used to be marketable as a seasoning, long ago when I was a kid. Hello? Salt is preferable to MSG. The can of Food Lion pinto beans I tested was vile, apparently containing both glyphosate and coliform bacteria; I don't feel that the "double money back guarantee" was nearly enough.

I'm currently testing Hormel thin-sliced turkey. It tasted pretty good and doesn't seem to be causing any harm. The label says "honey-roasted," but not much of the sweetening actually soaks in beneath a thin outer crust, and I suspect what they actually used was corn syrup. Real bee digest is definitely not likely to be a safe food until a glyphosate ban has been enforced for a few years, and will not be tested.

14. Trifling with a new essay contest. I still don't know whether I'll enter it, although the essay started writing itself one night. The price of the prize, if won, is having to expand the essay into a book, and the topic is sociology.

15. And, of course...reading and reviewing new books!