Thought for Thursday - Lifelong Learning

I want to be a continuous learner, to study a foreign language, learn a new craft, question, and always ask What if?

Leonardo was a continuous learner, "Just as iron rusts from disuse, and stagnant water putrefies, or when cold turns to ice, so our intellect wastes unless it is kept in use."

I don't want to let my brain rust or my thoughts putrefy.

One way to be a lifelong learner is to sharpen your question-asking skills. Leonardo believed in asking the simple questions that educated people might overlook.

He wrote, "I ask . . . Why is the sky blue?"

We should all follow in DaVinci's footsteps by keeping little notepads where we ask What? When? Why? How? and Where?

And one EZ way to keep learning is to acquire a new hobby. I'm making a list of hobbies and going to ask myself:

1) How much time can I devote to this?
2) What resources will it take?
3) What is my ultimate goal?
4) How will I benefit from this hobby?
5) What might get in the way?
6) Who do I know who can teach me, mentor me, help me?

QUESTION AND THOUGHT FOR YOU: What hobbies might you want to take up? (Please add them to the comments section)

Answer to Word for Wednesday

Answer: A descendant. It can be a child, plant, or animal.

If you want to read more, check it out here.

And thanks for playing.

Word for Wednesday

Word:Progeny

Do you know what it means? Take a guess, then come back around 3:00 to see if you were right.

Tune for Tuesday - Stop Animation

This is a cool stop animation

MENTOR MONDAY

At the Oregon SCBWI Spring conference I went to a workshop led by Heather Vogel Frederick. She was great.

E.B. White was one of her childhood mentors. She talked about his wonderful characters and how he built them in Charlotte’s Web.

We all knew Templeton was a rat, before we ever saw him.

Next, she used photos from magazines and had us make-up names for the people pictured. It was a great writing practice.

After that she recommended we all read Essays of E.B. White.

So, who was your writing mentor?

Here Comes Summer!

It's official in our house. Summer has arrived. It isn't because of the weather or a certain date on the calendar. No. Instead it's when school's out and all the kids are back home.

We drove down to Eugene yesterday and picked up our son for the summer. So glad to have all the kids home.

On the way back to Portland, we had a little traffic jam. We all looked up ahead to see what the problem was. It was a flock of geese. They were crossing the street.

I'd never seen that before.

David Sedaris - My Impression

David Sedaris is a funny guy.

That was my impression after reading Me Talk Pretty One Day and I thought it even more after Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and then I was sure when I read When You’re Engulfed in Flames but I'm convinced after hearing him holler, "Obama! Obama! Obama!" as he talked about politics in America and France, on Wednesday night--in person at Powell’s--in Beaverton. The guy is a quick-wit, who can think fast on his feet while getting the audience to applaud and laugh, even while standing for hours in an over-crowded bookstore, waiting . . .

He said he didn’t like pictures, or I would have some for this post. I love to take photos but I wanted to respect his wishes, since he was sharing his stories and reading to us—for free. Of course I had to buy another one of his books and then I waited like an hour to get it autographed. Now, I have an autographed Sedaris book. :)

It was a fun night but when I got home I was so tired and I wasn’t even the one up in front of the audience—one can only dream.