Here are some things my Fitbit credits as exercise: -practicing the drums (sometimes, it even gives me cardio!). It usually classes this as “outdoor cycling” -practicing the harp (it only logs this about half of the time, probably when I’m practicing faster music, and it automatically categorizes it as “walking;” since I *actually* walk at other times, I recategorized it. There is no option for “musical performance” or “fine-motor handwork,” so I went with “gardening”) -walking, but only if it’s… Read more »
Posts By: Claire
Public Service Announcement
Today I misread “hazelnut” as “amazelnut,” which I think would be excellent branding. You’re welcome, nut lobby.
Final books of 2017
I’ve always liked the week between Christmas and New Year’s. This year I was even lazier than usual and spent most of my time sitting around in a panda suit and face mask, watching the new season of Black Mirror. I leave the house to go to yoga and also so that my Fitbit will congratulate me on things. I read three more books through the end of the year: Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid Secondhand Time, by Svetlana… Read more »
Book stack
I actually made some progress on my bedside book stacks, which is good as I was tripping over them with some frequency. Granted, I have tripped getting out of bed even when there’s only a pristine floor. I’m in the middle of both Love and Math, by Edward Frenkel, and Secondhand Time, by Svetlana Alexievich (so, technically, those are either *on* the bed or in my purse…but we’re being analog here). Still forming the foundation of pile #1 are Haunted… Read more »
What I Need
There are too many things that I hope happen in the world in 2018 that are depressing enough and obvious enough not to list. That said, I really need 2018 to bring me 1) a better approximation for “is not equal to” than =! (because really, that should be interpreted as a joyful shout of “EQUALS!” or “is excitement!”) 2) a past tense version of that sign. I need this both for a keyboard and also just for any written… Read more »
Graphic design
I intended to write this…I think before Halloween. With reading, I’m something of a completionist (I think the number of books I’ve started and not finished is five or fewer, and most in the past couple of years). With writing, clearly, a procrastin…ist. Anyway, as I was doing live-DJ yoga and thinking about mashup titles, I was also thinking about graphic design and visual puns. Their analogue re: sound is obvious–mixes–carrying on the declaration of “This thing looks like this… Read more »
The News
I do listen to (aka read) the news, as grotesque as it is these days, but I will say I prefer listening to people talk on the subway, like the pair of older women I sat next to the other night. They must have just come from a reading; one said “I’ve never understood singing–I mean, I understand why YOU would want to hear yourself sing, but why would *I* want to hear you sing?” The other shook her head… Read more »
I love airports
Okay, it’s a lie. But I do love overhearing conversations like this: Woman 1: They should make a movie out of his life story. Woman 2: Would Troy be in it too? With all of his womanizing? Woman 1: He is a SOCIOPATH. Pause Woman 2: Man, I’m going to go back to work and my fish is going to be dead. Woman 1: You have a fish? Woman 2: Just the one beta. You know, the kind that looks… Read more »
The Grand March of Time
Looking back through my (very…extensive) computer diary, which I started at age 16, I found an entry from my freshman year of college that begins, “What, March already? I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be thirty.” OKAY THEN
2017 Reading List, Part 4
The Idiot, by Elif Batuman: Someone recommended this to me after reading my book-in-progress, though it would have been a delightful recommendation regardless. It’s my pick for my office holiday party book exchange. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman: Very…treacly. Too twee for me, though I understand the appeal, I guess. Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead: Brutal and brilliant. I LOVE the conceit of a literal railroad. Prosperous Friends, by Christine Schutt: This was quick, captivating, and totally depressing…. Read more »
