Hello. ^_^ I'm Lexie, a generally somewhat perplexed but very happy resident of Earth. I like learning new things, going on walks, sea monsters, being int...
Happy Science Week! It's the time of year we stop and notice the role that science plays in our lives. And if we really considered every instance, we'd be considering everything pretty much constantly, from last night's dream to the materials that make up our beds. Today, while at work, as students strung plastic beads on string, I overheard a first-grade boy gleefully announce, "The force of…
So, you know... Sometimes, you just don't feel good about yourself. I'm in one of those slumps. I've been dancing around the ditch, so to speak; sliding in and crawling my way out. I just don't feel like I'm good at much. Exceptional at nothing. Embarrassingly quick to frustration. Depressingly quick to anger. Watching any success I've managed to gather slosh and spill out of the plastic trophy…
Darwin Day was two days ago. I'm officially late. Oh, well. A single day is, after all, a infinitesimally small amount of time compared with all the time that has passed, and smaller still if you add all the time that will pass. It's a wonder I have time to write at all, really. Speaking of the march of time, I recently found this interesting video on Gigantopithecus blacki and how the largest ape…
"You are the oaken staff I lean on," Taran said. "More than that." He laughed. "You are the whole sturdy tree, and a true warrior." Coll, instead of beaming, looked wryly at him. "Do you mean to honor me?" he asked. "Then say, rather, I am a true grower of turnips and a gatherer of apples. No warrior whatever, save that I am needed thus for a while. My garden longs for me as I long for it..."…
I returned home, yesterday, after visiting my childhood home to help my family clean out the house. As I left my hometown at the beginning of this year with just two suitcases, much of my 34 years of life remained behind in my childhood home. Going through what amounted to a decent hillock of possessions both known and unknown to me was, as anyone might guess, halting, emotional, and tough. It…
I can be really productive when I'm at work. I really have no choice. I can make copies and organize folders and clean rooms and teach to a class and individuals and keep my eye on most everyone I need to. I can finish a full day of learning and lessons I only learned existed that morning. I can usually get my students to go along with it. I can get twenty-nine fourth graders to practice math all…
Everything is bound to obscurity. Yes, some things will be remembered better and longer than others. Some documents will remain for a time. The mummified and fossilized parts of our cultures, personal lives, memories, selves may someday be found. But ultimately, it is all the dust our planet started off as. In a way, all things are mortal. I have always struggled to keep a diary because I tend to…
I've been pretty excited to have my "first place." It's what I think I really want: tidy, simple, well kept, small, comfortable, welcoming, quiet. I've been able to brush off the maximalism of my childhood home for the collection and upkeep of fewer things that matter to me. Not that other things didn't and don't matter to me. They did and do. But, I'm realizing that curating what you care about…
When I moved from California to Washington, I brought two suitcases. I ended up not needing everything in those two suitcases. My roommate and I recently moved into another apartment. It's larger than the studio we'd shared for a handful of months and he had inhabited for more than a few years. We've been challenging ourselves and each other to discard things that aren't needed. Leaving that…
I've heard the term "writer's block" thrown around. It's one of those terms that seems to be self-explanatory, but I wonder if anyone really understands. Writer's block is when someone who wants to write can't. Right? But that doesn't quite explain it. I can write, I just can't write what I want to write. The phrase is said almost like a diagnosis and I've seen some people and sites treat it that…