After taking an unintentional hiatus (as in I actually forgot to blog all last week! It finally hit me today...), I've decided that today I will post another favored blog site. 

When I first visited, I found myself looking at almost every post. It had everything I loved: a love of grammar and spelling, whimsical writing, and crazily drawn pictures to make you feel the moment. I know some of you know this site already but for those who don't, I'm going to share the one that I love the most:


http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Oh and if anyone feels so inclined to go to the store and buy me the t-shirt that goes with this post, I would love you ALOT :)

The Wakeful Dreamer

For my birthday I got the book Passive Aggressive Notes by Kerry Miller, which is not a novel and not fiction either (the second point sometimes being the scariest). I'm sure you already guessed that it is a collection of notes of "painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings" (the tag line of said book). 

As I've previously stated, I love laughing and this book does not disappoint.  I'm not sure if you've ever noticed this before but people can get quite defensive when it comes to certain things like their space, food, service, and refilling the toilet paper roll. Some of us do the direct approach when it comes to addressing these situations and some of us do the passive aggressive approach with sticky notes and clip art--putting a heart at the end just so they know you're not really angry.

Needless-to-say, I laughed a lot when reading this book. The best apart about it is that there is a website: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ so that more notes can be collected and shared by all!

If you don't want to buy the book, then I suggest visiting the website* for a look at all the crazy notes and bad grammar that people use when trying to express their frustration.

The Wakeful Dreamer

*I'm not responsible for the language that some people use. Or for their choice in metaphors or their anger in general. 

Dear Angry Man,

I'm sorry what you need isn't in yet, but I'm not personally responsible for Purolator so being angry with me won't help the it come in faster.

Love, Me

Ps. Hanging up on me won't help either. 


Today was a crazy Monday. I barely stepped through the door and there were problems to be solved. And phone calls from people who just need to relax (see above).  By the end of the day the problems were solved and hopefully the angry people didn't have a heart attack. 

To celebrate all the nice things that happened today (which feel few and far between) I'm going to suggest this: Take a break. Have some fun. My birthday was yesterday so I'm going to look over the cards and gifts I got as a reminder that one frustrating day really isn't the end when you know people love you.  

So, find something that can show you the bigger picture even if it's just for a minute or two...

The Wakeful Dreamer

I'm putting my favorite things on hold to write this post on the book I read this week. This book is for my book club... in December. I'm a little ahead so hopefully this post will help by the time the December meeting rolls around.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The book flap convinced me that it was a good story: the main character, Izzy, feels like she doesn't fit in with her family, and when her father dies, leaving her a cryptic note and a mysterious amulet, she sets off to Morocco to discover her life, love and the history of the people of the desert (I just made that summary up myself... maybe I should write summaries for book flaps!).

However, the actual writing of the book is what was hard to read. There are essentially two stories in the book: the one mentioned above and a story about the history of a woman of the desert tribe who has the amulet in the first place. I really like books when there is more than one story going on and then you're trying to figure out how they all fit together (The Forgotten Garden *cough*), but in this book I was sorely disappointed. 

The second story of the woman and the amulet was actually my favorite part because it was full of history and life. The first story of our modern day woman was lacking... everything. Yes, I understand she was unhappy with her childhood. Yes, I understand that she had a traumatic incident and that she built up her adult life to protect herself. But did it have to be so boring and predictable? And choppy? It was hard to trudge through. 

Oh, and the so-called "climax" of the novel was predictable and could be seen from a mile away. Like an elephant. When I even came across it, I didn't understand at first that it was the climax because I already knew what was going to happen.

If you like books with multiple stories like me then I suggest (less subtly now) The Forgotten Garden and sadly, not The Salt Road. The only thing that can help me now is ice cream...

The Wakeful Dreamer 

To continue with some of favorite things, I have to let you in on a secret. Maybe you haven't picked up on this yet but I love, wait make that LOVE, humor. 

Laughing is so great, isn't it? There are medical studies about how it relives stress, etc. but we already know it makes us feel good. So, if you've had a day like me where you feel like you just want to crawl in bed and sleep (yes, I know it is Tuesday too) then these videos are for you. Maybe they'll make you smile too.

The first one was floating around facebook for a while but I watched five times in one day and laughed every time:

There is something about this cat that makes me smile every time and live in fear of it following me:

Last but not least, a clip from Firefly. Probably the only show in the world where I laugh through every episode: 

I hope you at least smiled at one of these videos. If not, then find your own video, animal or t.v. show to make you crack up... that's an order.

The Wakeful Dreamer

Happy November! It is now the month where it can officially snow! Some might be horrified that I even mentioned snow but the sooner we reconcile with the idea the better we will be prepared. I'm not totally ready for it myself but my birthday is this month so I've had to live with snow either on or around my birthday so my entire life.

And because it is my birthday this month I thought I would share some of my favorite books with you! There is one thing you need to know first: it's hard for me to choose a favorite of something. If you were to ask me who my favorite music artist is, my first response would be, "Which genre?" I happen to really like Yo-Yo Ma (famous cello player) and Coldplay, but could I put one before the other? The answer is no, because they are from two different genres. To say one was better than the other would be strange to me. 

Today, I would like to share with you my favorite science fiction book... and before I get started I have to say that he's my favorite science fiction writer because he wrote a lot of short stories and books. So, without further ado: Philip K. Dick!

You may be surprised to know that you actually know of at least one of his stories (probably more). A few of his stories have been turned into movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. Minority Report being my favorite. 

What? That's not enough? Why is he my favorite sci-fi writer, you ask? For the simple reason that he has the ability to take something and not just turn it upside down on you, but lay it on its side so that you can have a good long look at it. He shows you that everything has a different perception and that maybe your "reality" isn't really real. 

Every once in a while I like to curl up and read a few of his short stories to twist my mind about reality and then get back to my real life... or what I think is my real life...

The Wakeful Dreamer