Author: Geoff W

Reading my way through life.
Updates

March 2014 Recap

Geoff W

2014 03-28 Copy Editor's DreamMarch both flew by and felt like it took forever. I’m not sure why, but it’s done and I can’t believe we’re moving on to April. Two of the weeks at work were SUPER busy with phonathon at work and a day-long conference this past Friday and finally getting my butt back into the gym this past week.

Two small book things made me happy this month, the first is the copy-edit miss to the right. I took a copy-editing course a few years ago and know how hard it is, but it still makes me happy when I find a mistake in a published novel! My all time favorite is still the Darby instead of Darcy in my copy of Pride and Prejudice, but this one was incredibly noticeable as it was the last line of a chapter.

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Personal Project, Willpower

The Willpower Instinct Project – Week 4

Geoff W

McGonigal, Kelly - The Willpower Instinct

Oh, shocker, I’m back to struggling again. I definitely think that the project I selected was too broad. It’s not too late to change, it but I know it’s the big one that I need to work towards all the time: getting healthy. I have, made major steps this week which is great, but I’m still wondering where I am on this project. I’m still enjoying the meditation portion from Week 1 and will keep with it at 10 minutes for now.

This week, as part of Chapter 4: License to Sin, McGonigal asked to do a lot of reflection, like in the past few chapters and it definitely hit home a bit more this week than in the past. So clearly, the incremental steps are working. The Under the Microscope section really hit home for me this week. I definitely congratulate myself for making instrumental steps but I don’t hold myself accountable; I put things off to tomorrow and let myself eat unhealthy and be lazy because I’ll make it up later; I eat more of something when it’s fat-free or low-fat, or I know I’ll be going to the gym later; And thankfully, I do know that the real-me wants to get healthier and that I HAVE to learn how to control my unhealthy urges and laziness!

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #4 – Go Trampolining

Geoff W

2014 03-29 Trampolining Ticket SkyZone2014 03-29 Trampolining At SkyZoneOne down, twenty-nine to go! I added this to my 30 x 30 list because my friends have gone multiple times and I’ve never been able to coordinate it so I could go 🙁 I honestly assumed this wouldn’t happen for a while, but my roommates, Matt and Mike, randomly decided to get a group together and I was shockingly available so we went! Our friends Alex, Patrick and Tom went with us and it was so much fun and, honestly, hilarious. 🙂

Think about, it how seriously can you take your friends when you’re surrounded by teenagers and you’re jumping on giant trampolines playing dodgeball or flying into a foam pit? You can’t! And that’s what was so great about it. At one point I thought Matt and Mike were doing some weird Street Fighter thing and then I realized Matt was trying to show Mike how to do a belly flop. I still like the idea of trampoline Street Fighter, but I’m not going to lie at one point we were jumping up and down doing poses and ridiculous contortions with our bodies like ballerinas and supermodels and it just made it that much funnier. We did everything except for the basketball dunk shots and you can see one of the venues (not the one we went to) that shows the foam pit, dodge ball and general court.

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Books

Book 267: Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin

Geoff W

After nearly a month of trekking through, I’ve FINALLY finished this book. Coming in at 748 pages, this is 250 pages longer than any other book I’ve read this year and it definitely felt like it was longer! I did take a bit of time out to read two additional book during the time I read this, but they were much-needed reprieves. I of course decided to read this after seeing a trailer for the film adaptation released this past February.

I can’t say this was a bad book, because it was excellently written, but I can say it was too damn long. Most striking, however, I chose the perfect winter to read it. This winter has definitely felt as if it was one of the epic endless winter’s Helprin wrote about throughout this novel: the constant snow, the frozen water and the plunging temperatures. The only thing missing from my winter was the romance and the magic!

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – March 2014 Meme

Geoff W

Classics ClubThis month’s question from The Classics Club is a great one! I’ve struggled with many of the other questions and this one wasn’t any different. I loved the reflection required and as with the other questions asked so far, I’ve looked outside of what I’ve read for the club to find an answer, but perhaps not the answer. This month the moderators have asked us

What is your favorite “classic” literary period and why?

For me it’s hard to explain as geography/location/setting plays a bigger role in books for me than time period, but I realized that a lot of the books I thoroughly enjoy that qualify as classics are from the mid 1900s, but not the standard books. I was thinking along the lines of Bastard Out of Carolina, The Color Purple, To Kill A Mockingbird and anything by Carson McCullers and Truman Capote.

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