Snack

Everyone I know is looking for solace, hope, and a tasty snack.

~ Maira Kalman

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This is true for every dog I know, too. 

Strawberries

                            

                            

                                                                       Strawberries are a member of the rose family.

~ University of Illinois Extension 

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Sometimes you have to take time and eat the roses.

     

Birds

I think we consider too often the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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I think we consider too often luck and not enough work. Like how you should work really hard to build a good luck charm.

Lutefisk

In Norway, we have a community of people who prefer to use a version of Norwegian that looks very much like lutefisk: Dug up remains from the garbage heap of history and dressed up to look like a tradition. 

~ Erik Naggum

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I don't think you should joke about lutefisk unless you've actually eaten it. Given the lack of lutefisk jokes, I think this is the case most of the time. 
 

Meetings

 Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.

~ Jean de la Bruyere

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I did a little research on this and found out this is the name of a band. I'm glad I figured that out because otherwise, this could be a note for almost every meeting I have - at least the brief ones.

VS.

Photo by Kirk Boettcher

Flying saucers are nothign more than miricles, and they occur essentially to bedevil science. 

~ Terrence McKenna

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Why do we always have to FIGHT the flying saucers? Why can't we just befriend the flying saucers? Maybe even get a ride on them? And then we can take them over, and they can be OUR flying saucers. Now that's how you win!! 

 

Learning

A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it. 

~ Samuel Johnson

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This is one of my favorite memories of my trip to Portland last December. Zak knows how to read, and he was able to read the pages of the book in the window. However, it was the body-less face and the monster with a baby face that held his attention. 

He needs to focus more on his reading.

Play

Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.

~ Dane Ackerman

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And when I played with this little slot machine, I learned they didn't really want me in their store. And I learned that they don't give your nickels back. And I learned that sometimes the signs mean what they say. And I learned if you're in someone's store, they really are the boss of you.

Play might be a fun way to learn, but not all learning is fun.
 

No.

First... focus groups are a research method devoted to data collection. Second, it locates the interaction in a group discussion as the source of the data. Third, it acknowledges the researcher's active role in creating the group discussion for data collection purposes.

~ David L. Morgan

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One thing you should be careful of is not leading your participants in focus groups and other data collection methods. Like asking a focus group, "This video on a vending machine is awful, but it isn't the worst thing you've ever witnessed in your life, right?" Is not a good focus group question.

A better one would be, "This is horrible, and we shouldn't use this video on our vending machines, right?"

 

Conversation

It doesn't matter how precisely the onion is cut if the person chewing it is happy.

~ Padma Lakshmi

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I love this idea. It is a beautiful way of focusing on the big picture and not obsessing about the details.

What is less beautiful is the idea of sitting around and having a lot of conversation and fellowship with someone who has just eaten a plate of onions. Well, at least if you're sitting close.

Searching

Creativity is a scavenger hunt. It's your obligation to pay attention to clues, to the thing that gives you that little tweak.

~ Elizabeth Gilbert

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I like to make scavenger hunts. I think it's a good way to get kids to use their thinking skills. It also makes them run around which uses up energy. You can also throw some chores on that list and trick them into putting laundry in the hamper or whatever. You can also trick them into making dinner. Or mopping the floor.

I guess it's not scavenger hunts I like. I like to make lists of things for people to do. I just like bossing people around. 

Safety

Paper doesn't save people. People save people.

~ Dan Petersen

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What's kind of weird is that people also save paper.
 

Rainbow

Today's teardrops are tomorrow's rainbows.

~ Ricky Nelson

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No, Ricky Nelson. That is not at all how it works.
 

Snow

Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

~ Andy Goldsworthy

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On February 15th, 2022, I woke up with the song, "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" in my head. It was not snowing and was not going to snow nor had it previously been snowing.

I don't know what to tell you.

Love

To hate is an easy, lazy thing but to love takes strength everyone has but not all are willing to practice. 

~ Rupi Kaur

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I think it's important to show love everywhere. Even in an alley by a pile of pallets.

(pause)

If there aren't cameras there.
 

Mmmm

Murder is like potato chips; you can't stop with just one.

~ Stephen King

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And, they both start with M:

"Murder"

and

"Mmmmmmmpotato chips"

Fire

We don't have to worry about nothing

'cause we got the fire

and we're burning one hell of a something

~ Ellie Goulding

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Gathering around a fireplace and having important conversations is fun. For whatever reason, fire generates storytelling. It probably has something to do with our most basic human instincts to be in community around fire for meals and warmth and safety.

I don't like it when we are huddled around the fire and someone wants to tell the story of how they learned to fold a fitted sheet, though. I'm never going to remember that the next time I try to fold a fitted sheet. 

Plus, I bet that was not one of the main stories of our earliest ancestors.

Skyline

Better make the horizon your goal; It will always be in front of you.

~ William Makepeace Thackeray

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Some people like cityscapes, but this is the kind of skyline I enjoy. Trees can scrape the sky, too. Or your arm if you aren't watching where you're going. 

Sharing

There is no delight in owning anything unshared.

~ Seneca

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Leslie likes pretzel fish -- not the regular goldfish crackers so much, but the pretzel ones. They have been really difficult to find, but we tracked some down recently. 

We got Lily because I really wanted a dog - not because Leslie wanted a dog.

IF: Leslie loves pretzel fish, and

IF: Pretzel fish are precious, and 

IF: Lily asks Leslie for some pretzel fish, and

IF: Leslie shares her pretzel fish with Lily, 

THEN: Leslie loves Lily.

Lily, of course, loves everyone.

 

Oysters

He was a brave man that first ate an oyster.

~ Jonathan Swift

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Mr. Swift - pshaw. Pshaw, I say. Check out lutefisk.

Stranded

We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it.

~ Bob Dylan

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I'm not sure I have ever been stranded. I feel like I've always had someplace to go. I mean, people are telling me to go places all the time. Well, mainly telling me to go to one specific place, but I digress...

Reading

I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. 

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

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Today is Leslie's birthday. I suspect a perfect birthday for her would be: not setting an alarm, getting up when she wants, having some tea, going for a hike somewhere beautiful, reading, and then creating something. 

I want to help her have that kind of day, so last night, I turned off the alarm she set. If she doesn't go to work, then I bet she will get an email from her boss Sarah, and that will give her something to read.

Happy birthday!

Weirdos

I'm one of those weird people.

~ Janis Joplin

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 Clearly, I love weird people. Especially weirdos who get excited about their beverages.

Shadow

The way we experience story will evolve, but, as storytelling animals, we will no more give it up than start walking on all fours.

~ Jonathan Gottschall

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 Lily was the tallest dog in all the land. Well, at least according to her shadow. Okay, I'm lying. It's all a tall tail.

Wondering

Source: Online Somewhere

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

~ Jacques Cousteau

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I wonder who wrote this Kok-Lir explanation. it's nice to pray on wondering men. I suspect, however, that Kok-Lir preys on wandering men.

But I'm not the boss of Kok-Lir.

Handy

Organizing what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.

~ A. A. Milne

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"Emmett! The new neighbors are vampires!!! Go get the crucifix from the kitchen cupboard!"

Go

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

~ Philip K. Dick

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It is fine to leave a bad situation. It is fine to leave a good situation. You have to do what you have to do. I'm not the boss of you.

Now, get out of here.

Going

I'd given no thought to what lay up the road for us. Maggot learning to drive. Courting. Whatever he had in mind. Disaster, possibly.

~ Barbara Kingsolver

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If you only look ahead, you take some of the same wrong turns more than once because you aren't paying attention to what you did before. If you only stay in the moment, you might be sloppy about where you are going and where you have been. And if you only look behind you, you are going to crash. That's really bad driving.