Clarissa's Blog

Maybe it’s because it’s the finals week and I’m tired but I wept with laughter when reading these true stories of extreme embarrassment. I identify with all of them, especially number 35. So Had share. 

I need to get over myself and get some music-playing device into the house. Klara loves music, and I’m depriving her of something so important because I have a weird relationship with music. 

I think I’ll get Alexa in the end because the very idea of futzing with music devices and trying to get them to work freaks me out. If I can just say “play music” and not have to think about it beyond that, it will be easier for me.

Klara is narrating what happened on the trampoline:

“Big boy jumping. He bumped his head. Boy is sad, crying. I also bumped my head. And I bumped my nose.”

22 months as of yesterday.

At the kids’ gym, Klara gathers all the dolls that look like babies, feeds them, rocks them and drags them around with her. Then, she sits at the toy makeup table and pretends to apply makeup. The gym workers are in stitches because it’s really funny.

One university renamed its Assistant Professor of Spanish position into “Assistant Professor of Intercultural Communication”. That’s a great way of avoiding getting a million of job applications in this terrible market. 

Disrupting Systemic Whiteness in the Mindfulness Movement. I just had to share. 

An interesting perspective on the Time Person of the Year. 

Why are radical Christian activists attracted to Orthodoxy? I’m not a radical activist but I’m getting closer to finally become baptized in the Orthodox Church, and this is a fantastic post. 

A hilarious takedown of a pompous memoirist. The author thinks sexual abuse of children is funny, for some mysterious reason, but the review is very well-written.

A former Facebook executive tells the truth about the danger of this horrible website/app.

Do you know what people around here call lollipops? 

Sssssssuckaz! 

That’s how it’s pronounced, with an aggressive hiss on the s. I thought at first folks were trying to be funny, but no, it’s how everybody says it. 

I’m at Klara’s first dance lesson. All of the parents are huddled next to the tiny window, looking into the classroom where the lesson takes place. I’m the only person who is furiously texting, emailing and posting on my phone far away from the window. She’s not crying, so it’s all good. And I finally get reunited with my phone which I never even see around Klara. 

The whole point of these lessons is to let parents snooze in the corner while kids do something active. 

I have this 5-year notebook where I record what I did research-wise on every day of the year. Now that the first 5 years I’ve been doing this are coming to a close, it’s become clear that the month when I’m consistently the most productive is December. It’s not a mystery why that is. December is my favorite month because it’s so festive, and the weather is usually conducive to profound contentment on my part. 

I need more Decembers every year.