Fainting Kittens? What Will SYSK Teach Me About Next

I have a 40 minute commute to work and that adds up to a lot of time in the car. One way I have found to make that time entertaining and, for lack of a better word, productive is podcasts.

It took me a bit of trial and error to find some podcasts that were worth listening to, but the How Stuff Works iTunes channel came to my rescue. Their first, and still best, podcast is Stuff You Should Know.

This week I listened to an episode about "Fainting Goats." Evidentially, they don't actually faint. It's an abnormal fight or flight reaction. And, super cute factor, it can happen to kittens.

Yoga Weekend

As I write this, I am 3/5 through my weekend yoga workshop. So far we have done something called Ashtanga Primary Series, a challenging series of repeating poses including attempts at some pretty wild contortions, Improvisational Vinyasa, a modified style similar to the first workshop with a focus on twisting, and Breath, Bandhas, Backbending & Thai Yoga.

The last has been my favorite. We did lots of step by step instruction on leaping into poses and lots of partner poses.

It's been a long time since I've packed this much yoga into one week (much less one weekend). Luckily, my years of on again off again practice has left me with the right attitude to enjoy something like this weekend. I've practiced yoga for 14 years. At my most dedicated I did at least 5 hours per week for 3 years straight. At my least active, I might go 6 months without even doing 15 minutes of practice.

Currently, I'm practicing sporadically a few times a month. I may not be particularly bendy right now, but I have internalized a few key lessons. I think learning these kind of things are why some people claim yoga changes their lives.
Things yoga teaches you...

1. Challenge yourself and you might be surprised at the results: I saw a lot of new stuff this weekend, and several times my first reaction was "Oh, no. I'm too out practice. My body won't do that." But, I tried, and I was surprised at the results.


2. Don't compare yourself to other people: For some reason this is often the hardest for people to accept. I know I've had so much more fun this weekend because I can look over at the girl with her feet behind her ears and think "Good for you. Now back to trying to touch my toes."


3. Be patient: In many sports you get better by powering through and pushing past your limits. Yoga doesn't work that way. You have to be tenacious, but over long sustained periods of time. You can't make it go faster, it goes at it's own pace.

Not me, obviously, but this is one of the new poses I surprised myself with today.

Here's what another surprise move looked like. I was the liftee, not the lifter.

April Fool's

April Fool's Day snook up on me, as does every notable event that occurs on the first of the month. I have to admit, once I realized it was April Fool's Day, I was kind of hoping to see a prank, even if I had to be the target.

Our office is fairly casual, at least as far as administrative offices go. A practical joke here and there, especially on April Fool's, isn't unheard of. I've seen offices filled with Styrofoam peanuts and office supplies gift wrapped. But today was pretty uneventful.

Then Linked in came through for me.
Aw, thanks guys. I feel loved now.

Did you see any good April Fool's gags? If so, were they at work and what do you think is an appropriate at work gag? Is there such a thing?

Team Player

Why am I, a self-proclaimed early to bed-er, dragging in the door at 11:30 pm? Because I was a super duper team player today!

The Edmon Low Downs had a placement game tonight. On a work night. At 9:30 pm. Insane, but I was there. Playing a 9:30 game means I stay in Stillwater, typically in the office, until 8:45 then head to the field, then play for an hour, then drag my half-conscience self home.

Tonight wasn't as bad because my wonderful husband drove the 40 minutes from home to come have dinner with me and watch the game. And, of course, take photos.

I'd completely forgotten we put nicknames on our shirts. This made me smile when I pulled it out of the drawer this morning.

Hello, I'm... Wait Let Me Check

If you've ever seen me speak in public, you probably saw a completely scripted well-rehearsed presentation, whether you knew it or not.

I rarely get up in front of a group to speak for any amount of time--60 second or 3 hours--without completely scripting my remarks. Right down to "Hello, I'm Bonnie..." It calms me down. It's how I cope with the jitters of public speaking. I try to not let my audience notice, but usually I'll have the script, in its entirely, very close at hand.

I discovered this trick in Toastmasters. Something about the safety net of the script relaxes me to the point that I don't need it. I seldom read from the script. If things are really rolling, I barely glance at it. But I like knowing I could if I have to.

I'm good at delivering scripts and I'm good at memorizing scripts. Part of it is practice, and part of it is just a knack for sounding natural while I'm actually reading something. So, having the script on hand takes the worst case scenario from "freezing, forgetting everything and having to just go sit down" to "freezing, forgetting everything and having to read it off the script."

This is on my mind today, because I just returned from speaking at the Oklahoma Libraries Association Annual Conference. I was on a panel and gave a short presentation on social media and libraries. Of course, my script sat right by the laptop as I talked. I gave it a quick scan once to make sure I'd hit all my points for a particular slide, and I used it when I was sharing a direct quote. For the rest of the time it just sat there as my little private lifeline.

The best part: at the end of the day, a participant told me, "I'd go to any training session you did. You were such a great presenter." Well, gosh. If that isn't a public speaking morale boost, I don't know what is.

Movies, a Top Ten

My post about subtitles got me thinking about a top 10 list of favorite movies. It was really hard to narrow it down. I love movies, and John and I watch a ton. With a little help from my Netflix queue, I managed to whittle the list down to a top ten.

What do you think? What's missing? What's your favorite?

Maybe I should have left it at a top 20. My top ten mostly seem pretty dark. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Fight Club
2. Dogma
3. Across the Universe
4. Pan's Labyrinth
5. District 9
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. Life Is Beautiful
8. 12 Monkeys
9. American History X
10. The Departed
11. Children of Men

You Realize That Has Subtitles...

I caught this movie again on the Independent Film Channel the other day. It reminded me of when John and I saw it in the theater.

We showed up and bought our tickets in-person. But, we were surprised/confused by the odd conversation we had at ticket counter.

Me: Two for Pan's Labyrinth.

Clerk: You realize that has subtitles.

Me: Oh, I didn't realize that.

Clerk: ...blink... blink... You know subtitles means it's not in English.

Me: Yep.

Clerk: You're going to have to read it.

Me: Uh, huh.

Clerk: I'm supposed to tell you that.

Me: Um... Ok..

Clerk: So what movie do you want to see.

Me: Ah, two for Pan's Labyrinth.

It wasn't until we were walking in that it dawned on me, people had probably seen two sentences of subtitles and stormed out demanding their money back. That's a shame on so many levels, not the least of which is this movie is awesome. It was one of the best movies of 2006 (it had 6 Oscar noms) and it's definitely on my top ten list.

For the close minded folks who never gave it a chance, I don't feel too bad. But I can't help wondering if the attitude that the movie wasn't worth "reading" turned away any viewers who would have been just as wowed as I was.