I read: Starship Troopers

A few shades of nail polish ago, I read Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. I'm a big sci-fi fan but prior to reading this book, I'd only read one of the "big three" English-speaking classic science-fi dudes, the other two being my main man Isaac Asimov (a personal ultimate favorite) and Arthur C. Clarke. I came upon this copy in a used bookstore so I figured I'd finally cross that guy off the list.

A lot of early sci-fi is very, um, "men adventuring in space, possibly killing things, maybe picking up some chicks" and while that is all very good from a purely entertainment standpoint, it is not my cup of tea. I love adventure but I also want it to make me think. And, you know, not be ridiculously misogynistic.
Not to detract from the great contribution Heinlein has provided to the genre, or his talents as writer, but in my head I put him into the above category, assuming he was one of many (many, many, many...) who really focused on traditional male readers (to be fair, I'm sure men made up most of sci-fi's early readers especially). I can imagine there's numerous studies and essays etc about this but back to the book at hand.

Starship Troopers, at first glance, definitely seems to fit that old school man's man type of sci-fi I mentioned above. There's war! There's fighting! There's very few ladies but when they show up you are assured that they are super pretty lady-like ladies! It turns out to be a thinker after all though, closely examining patriotism, sacrifice and what it means to be a true citizen. Especially interesting to me personally was the heavy use of corporal punishment and this strict sense of moral code being instilled in everyone, keeping society in order and criminal activity minimal to nonexistant. He's built an Earth with as close to a militaristic society as you can get without having soldiers stationed on every street corner- you're only allowed to vote or hold office if you serve in the "Federal Service," in whatever capacity they deem is right for you.

I may not agree with a lot of the ideas Heinlein puts forth but I'd still give this book 3.7/5 stars. What's the use of only reading things you agree with? The only way to grow as a person is to constantly collect new ideas that force you to reconsider or reaffirm you own. This engaging space adventure is the perfect opportunity to expand your mind a bit and think about your own personal views so I'd definitely recommend it.

Did Everybody Say What A Good Day That It Was

I had a great day today.

I work in a hospital which of course needs to be staffed 24/7. This means I'm expected to work every other weekend which also means I have the odd day off in the middle of the week to make up for it. Especially as of late, I've had issues filling these midweek days in ways that leave me satisfied when it's all over. I've been getting up later than I intend, not being productive enough, not doing enough things I enjoy, overall just feeling as if I'm wasting my valuable days off.

Despite having a clear idea of my issue (even I'm rolling my eyes at myself for this "issue"), I've had such a hard time fixing it. I've been spending so much of my days beating myself up for not enjoying myself and trying to force myself to do things that I end up, you know, not doing any of that. As they say, worrying about wasted time is more wasted time (my next cross stitch sampler??). It's a strange cycle of self-created problems I've gotten myself into but today... today was perfect. I don't know how I managed it but it was the ideal blend of relaxing, productive, and fun.

Since this blogs original purpose was to remind me of all the good things, I've decided to make a list of a couple of the things that made it so good. Hopefully I can shake off ridiculous this day-off funk I've gotten myself into.

First up is a fine beer, which I'm enjoying as I type. We're super into trying all kinds of good craft beer (heavy dark beers being my favorite) and New England has it's fair share. I stepped a little out of the area for this one (Mast Landing is out of Westbrook Maine) because it's recently turned into one of my go-to favorites. Beer Advocate rates it pretty highly too, if you're into that sort of thing. A good, super-smooth stout with it's own unique (but not overpowering) peanut-y flavor.

Plants! This past year, much to my delight, I realized the apartment I was currently in actually had enough light and room for plants and that I was ready to become a plant mom. My former apartment was a small studio and super dark so I was pretty excited to run out and buy some plants.  I have a Rubber plant named Rubbert Plant that's thriving and a Purple Wandering Jew that I have somehow kept alive (they're kinda tricky) but sadly, I had a Purple Waffle that didn't make it (RIP). Today I decided his pot needed a tenant so I went to a local nursery and for something to replace PW... and of course I couldn't leave with just one plan. On the left is an Oyster plant and on the right is a Rattlesnake plant. They've already been repotted and have settled in their new homes.

I've actually made progress on my embroidery journal! Yes, I'm super behind still but once I get the fabric cut and ready to go, usually it's smooth sailing from there. I like that I can just sit and stitch without much further thought. And, as a bonus, I think I'll actually work down that great big ball of random thread scraps.

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The Repair Shop is a BBC show which is currently on Netflix. The premise is that people bring in their broken family heirlooms of all types to be restored by master craftsmen. It's pretty much the perfect thing to watch while you have your coffee and bagel in the morning- you get your heartwarming stories but you also get a really interesting look at how things are repaired. I also love the idea that people are working against the idea of this throwaway culture we currently live in. It makes me want to like, I dunno, go out and fix things or something.

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I'm pretty into watches- I love learning about the different types and movements and history. Recently I've been on a pretty intense eBay hunt for a good vintage one and today, I found an old Waltham that was in decent shape, especially considering the price. I went for it and can't wait to get it in the mail next week! I've been wanting a Waltham- it's a company with a solid history of making good watches... and I happen to live relatively close to Waltham!

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Other things that made this day great:

-Laundry! Yes I hate changing the sheets but it needed to be done and going to sleep in a bed with fresh sheets is pretty much the best.

-It was an absolutely beautiful day. Clear, bright blue skies, and mild temps (especially for a New England February). I was able to repot my new plants on our screened-in porch without freezing!

-I went for a walk. It was short but it still felt nice to spend more time outside and move a little.

I have a bonus day off this week- hopefully this coming Wednesday is as magical as today was. In the mean time, enjoy a bonus song from which I sniped the blog title! 

Move It: Snowshoeing

Yeah that's right. Snowshoeing.

For those of you that are unaware, snowshoeing is basically when you go on a hike but since there's snow, you strap these onto your feet:

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As the wiki link above says, they stop you from sinking completely in the snow so it's more of an awkward walk as opposed to an awkward trudge. As almost always happens when I do something I was apprehensive about, especially something involving physical activity, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. That was mostly because LOOK:

This doesn't even begin to show how utterly beautiful the hike was. This particular part of New Hampshire recently got hit with an ice storm so despite the cold, it was totally worth it to take a walk through the ice encrusted trees shining in the sun with a bright blue sky in the background. I felt fantastic afterward, the only downside being that I took no pictures (I took the above one before we left), though it was probably best I just focused on enjoying myself (and not falling).

Usually when I'm confronted with the possibility of some sort of new type of physical activity, I'm filled with dread. I always assume that I'm not in good enough shape to do it and that I'll drag the rest of the party down with my sluggishness. Luckily (???) for me, my anxiety over speaking up about it and not feeling bold enough to stay behind overtakes my doubts about my physical abilities so I go anyway.

Clearly snowshoeing isn't the first time I've felt this way. A recently peer pressured activity that worried me was kayaking and it quickly became my ultimate favorite warm weather thing to do.

What's so good about kayaking is that it doesn't matter your strength or skill level, there's a situation that is right for you. For example, my first time kayaking was on some ponds and small lakes in New Hampshire. The still water made it possible to kind of amble along at my own pace and get a feel for it. The second time I went, we kayaked on a sluggish bit of the Nashua River in Groton, Massachusetts (above picture). Slightly more difficult as you are occasionally (depending on which way you're going of course) fighting a bit of a current but I still had no difficulties. Also I saw a bunch of turtles so there's that.

My crowning I-got-roped-into-this-and-complained-the-whole-way-but-I'm-super-proud-of-myself-for-doing-it activity though, has got to be hiking the Franconia Ridge Loop. It is about 8.6 grueling miles and took us an entire day-you basically go straight up a mountain, then along the peaks of 3 mountains, then back down. There's 3,822 feet of altitude gain and it's classified as a "difficult" hike and for "experienced hikers only," which I most definitely wasn't. It is ROUGH but I freaking did it

Aside from the most supreme sense of accomplishment, it's worth it for the views alone which were-and I don't used this overused phrase lightly-absolutely breathtaking (figuratively and literally). I could bombard you with photos but if you really want to see more, just click on the link I provided above. The picture I did include was from the top of the ridge and the easiest part of the hike. I could've just stayed up there all day... if I didn't mind scrambling back down the mountain in the dark anyway.
There are other decent mountain hikes I've done (Mount Monadnock for instance) but that one I think is my peak (pun not intended but definitely encouraged).

I can't think of any other new and potentially challenging activities in my near future but clearly I shouldn't be so hesitant. In any case, as fun as snowshoeing was, I can't wait for it to warm up and get back outside... without all the layers!

Made it: Journal cover

Remember that time I talked about making an embroidery journal for this year? Yeah, I haven't done that yet. Yeah, January definitely already finished. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Progress has been made however, and still while I still maintain the (somewhat blurry) memory of what this past January was like no less. I've been doing a bit of clearing out and I unearthed this blank notebook type thing with 6 thick cardboard pages. I don't know what it's original intended purpose was but it is  now gonna be my embroidery journal. Not satisfied with the plain sad cardboard colored cover, I decided to paint it. It had this nice cut out design, it seemed a shame to leave it a dull brown. Below is photographic evidence of my progress.

I just used some random acrylic paints I happened to have, as shown above.

This is the rest of the blank notebook so you get an idea of the construction. I'm going to do the month embroidery on a piece of aida cloth that'll fit on the page with a little space around the edges, then tape it in with some fancy washi tape. Like I mentioned above, there are 6 pages so I'll do 2 months per page, front and back. Perfect!

A close up. Did I originally intend to have the "2020" in that exact spot or did I accidentally get a smudge of paint there that I needed to hide? We might never know...

I'm really pleased how it came out. Now all I have to do is start on the actual embroidery, preferably before the end of this month. Ahem.

Somewhat random I know, but I'll leave you with the song that I feel like I had stuck in my head for the entire month of January because it's awesome and um. Because I mentioned January? Anyway, enjoy.