Today it's drizzling here, which for Denver, is as rainy as it gets. I've been at the library for 5 hours, but I'm heading home to do work there. Not much else to report, except that I went for a nice walk last night. Denver's so quiet and there are a couple streets with fantastic, beautiful houses.
I listened to this RadioLab show the other day on "Falling." There was one story on it that was so sad! It's about a guy who has face agnosia (an inability to recognize faces) and how he and a girl fell in love, and then out of it. You can find it here. It's the second story, approximately minute 10 to minute 20. The part that really struck me as sad starts at about 19:35 to 21:00. Check it out if you have 10 minutes.
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Radio
A quick post about radio:
1) Lisa Mullens, the anchor of my favorite radio news shows, is back from sabbatical. Hurrah! I think she was gone 2 years? Basically, since I got to Denver. I love hearing her voice. She's so smart and unintimidating. She gets great interviews and has a good sense of humor. I feel like she is my friend. This isn't to say that Marc Werman didn't do a great job when she was gone - he did!
2) I discovered iTunes has a radio button. If you click on it, you have streaming access to over a thousand radio stations in all different languages from around the world. I love it.
3) I heard an interview with Dolly Parton the other day on Fresh Air with Teri Gross. I was inspired to buy a blue grass album of Dolly Parton's - I think it's actually called The Grass is Blue. I really like it!
1) Lisa Mullens, the anchor of my favorite radio news shows, is back from sabbatical. Hurrah! I think she was gone 2 years? Basically, since I got to Denver. I love hearing her voice. She's so smart and unintimidating. She gets great interviews and has a good sense of humor. I feel like she is my friend. This isn't to say that Marc Werman didn't do a great job when she was gone - he did!
2) I discovered iTunes has a radio button. If you click on it, you have streaming access to over a thousand radio stations in all different languages from around the world. I love it.
3) I heard an interview with Dolly Parton the other day on Fresh Air with Teri Gross. I was inspired to buy a blue grass album of Dolly Parton's - I think it's actually called The Grass is Blue. I really like it!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Living more consciously
I have been much happier these days. Back a few weeks ago I wrote No soy yo. I am not myself. I was living numbly awhile. I hadn't felt myself in so long, that I wondered if I ever would feel it again. By 'it' I mean that I wanted to engage in the world. I wanted to smile more and make my nerdy, dry puns even when no one understood them and I would just seem like an odd character. I wanted to say Good Morning to people I ran by on the bike path. I wanted to care about how I dressed, not that I have "style" but, shall we say, I have a style. My style. I wanted to talk to random people, ride the bus rather than drive, cook dinner and bring my lunch. All of this, I just didn't feel like I had time to do before. Something changed. Finally! I feel this weight lifted off me. I am myself again! I feel the same sort of confidence that I had when I first moved back to the states from Peru. I got through "tough times." I did the independent thing. I could make things happen and be myself. Be myself. Be my self.
I think part of being me is that I am much more compassionate toward other people. Why? Maybe it's because as I engage with the world around me, I start to care more about the people and environment around me, too. Maybe it's because I feel a broader spectrum of emotions just by living more consciously. The happy is happier; the sad is more sad. I like this way of living. I have always thought this: I would rather feel something than feel nothing. That is, I would rather feel emotions strongly, than not feel anything at all.
As part of this living more consciously and feeling emotions more deeply, I cried twice this week. Both times it happened because I just was hit with a wave of profound emotion. I felt sad for the way things are, at once inexplicable and completely understandable. The first time was when I was cooking dinner and mindlessly listening to the news on the radio. The compassionate voice from the little black hand radio on my table reported that one third of Haiti's entire population died in the earthquake. One third. Thirty-three percent. I can't really fathom the extent of suffering in that country, on that island, right now. The second time I cried was when I was on the bus home from school yesterday. A crew of high school girls behind me were talking about ethnicity. Of course, the way the were chattering was not so sophisticated: energetic, full of "like," and testing their new ideas by saying them aloud to each other. "Wait, what if I married an Asian guy, then my kids would be... 3/4 Asian?" What made me feel a profound wave of emotion, though, was the man sitting in front of me. Obviously frazzled and unkempt, it was clear he was a war veteran. He kept swearing and repeating this one phrase over and over and over. "Shit, man, I killed people over there!" I couldn't help it. Tears came. That did, and does, strike me as a moment I will remember for a long time. I was - and am - sad for this man whose whole experience of life has been shaded with guilt and constant memory of his inhumanity. Sad for the people he killed over there, whoever they are and wherever there is.
Living consciously...
I think part of being me is that I am much more compassionate toward other people. Why? Maybe it's because as I engage with the world around me, I start to care more about the people and environment around me, too. Maybe it's because I feel a broader spectrum of emotions just by living more consciously. The happy is happier; the sad is more sad. I like this way of living. I have always thought this: I would rather feel something than feel nothing. That is, I would rather feel emotions strongly, than not feel anything at all.
As part of this living more consciously and feeling emotions more deeply, I cried twice this week. Both times it happened because I just was hit with a wave of profound emotion. I felt sad for the way things are, at once inexplicable and completely understandable. The first time was when I was cooking dinner and mindlessly listening to the news on the radio. The compassionate voice from the little black hand radio on my table reported that one third of Haiti's entire population died in the earthquake. One third. Thirty-three percent. I can't really fathom the extent of suffering in that country, on that island, right now. The second time I cried was when I was on the bus home from school yesterday. A crew of high school girls behind me were talking about ethnicity. Of course, the way the were chattering was not so sophisticated: energetic, full of "like," and testing their new ideas by saying them aloud to each other. "Wait, what if I married an Asian guy, then my kids would be... 3/4 Asian?" What made me feel a profound wave of emotion, though, was the man sitting in front of me. Obviously frazzled and unkempt, it was clear he was a war veteran. He kept swearing and repeating this one phrase over and over and over. "Shit, man, I killed people over there!" I couldn't help it. Tears came. That did, and does, strike me as a moment I will remember for a long time. I was - and am - sad for this man whose whole experience of life has been shaded with guilt and constant memory of his inhumanity. Sad for the people he killed over there, whoever they are and wherever there is.
Living consciously...
Monday, November 16, 2009
Case of the Mondays
It's 14 degrees outside. The roads are a thick sheet of ice. My car won't start. The bus comes twice an hour, and involves a mile+ walk, anyway. Sigh. Welcome to my Monday.
Things got better, and I trust the car will start when it gets warmer out. But, REALLY!? It just makes me look forward to leaving on Friday, a mere 3 days away! And, I get to spend a whole evening with Gracie-poo! She, kindly, is driving me to the airport Friday morning at 5 a.m.-ish. Goodness, when was the last time I was invited to a sleepover?? :)
Lots of work to get done before Friday, though. 1 down, 3 to go.
On another note, I heard this cool story on the radio today about a kid in Malawi who just decided to make a windmill. He read about it in 2 books at the public library, after he couldn't afford to pay the US $80 to go to public school. Except, really, he didn't even read it because it was in English and he didn't know English. So, he learned about how to make a windmill from looking at pictures in 2 books at the public library after dropping out of school. And DID he make a windmill! From gum trees, old bicycle parts and trash around the town, he made a 39 foot windmill that converts wind into energy. It provides electricity for radios, cell phone charges, and 2 light-bulbs. He's since built 2 other windmills that work even when it's not windy. He's now 22 years old. Amazing. This story makes me feel pretty much the same as when I see 14 year old Olympic medalist figure skaters on T.V. -- I'm already too old for genius, raw talent and wonder!
Things got better, and I trust the car will start when it gets warmer out. But, REALLY!? It just makes me look forward to leaving on Friday, a mere 3 days away! And, I get to spend a whole evening with Gracie-poo! She, kindly, is driving me to the airport Friday morning at 5 a.m.-ish. Goodness, when was the last time I was invited to a sleepover?? :)
Lots of work to get done before Friday, though. 1 down, 3 to go.
On another note, I heard this cool story on the radio today about a kid in Malawi who just decided to make a windmill. He read about it in 2 books at the public library, after he couldn't afford to pay the US $80 to go to public school. Except, really, he didn't even read it because it was in English and he didn't know English. So, he learned about how to make a windmill from looking at pictures in 2 books at the public library after dropping out of school. And DID he make a windmill! From gum trees, old bicycle parts and trash around the town, he made a 39 foot windmill that converts wind into energy. It provides electricity for radios, cell phone charges, and 2 light-bulbs. He's since built 2 other windmills that work even when it's not windy. He's now 22 years old. Amazing. This story makes me feel pretty much the same as when I see 14 year old Olympic medalist figure skaters on T.V. -- I'm already too old for genius, raw talent and wonder!
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