The First Music Video from Space!

Here is Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield singing Space Oddity on board the International Space Station (ISS).  

(Compare to David Bowie’s version)

(More about Chris Hadfield) 

Journaling Class Started Today

I signed up for a journaling class through Ed2Go–online self improvement classes available through the library.  I hope to use some of the techniques that I am learning in the class on here.  The next class that I will take is the WordPress class. 

Lesson one of the journaling class consisted of five chapters, supplementary material, quiz, and assignment.  The first chapter was an introduction about the course and instructor.

Chapter two answers what journaling is by saying that it is a record of internal life written consistently over a period of time, but not necessarily day-by-day versus a diary that is defined as a catalog of outward focused entries. (Lois Guarino in Writing Your Authentic Self).

Chapter three discusses the benefits of journaling.  The three main benefits are self-discovery, stress reduction and easier decision making, and a list of many more benefits including health.  Dr James Pennebaker, professor of Psychology at the University of Texas, conducted experiments and discovered that writing about stressful experiences reduces physical symptoms in patients with chronic illnesses (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association).

Chapter four gives two short biographies on Anne Frank and C.S. Lewis.  I haven’t looked at their websites, yet.

Chapter five is a summary.

The supplementary material included a total of four links: Anne Frank, C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Journaling, and another Journaling website.

The assignment is to identify three people you know who journal now or used to journal in the past.  Ask each journaler these questions:

1.       What led you to begin journaling?

2.       How often did you journal?

3.       What tools or techniques helped you to journal?

4.       What benefits did you receive from journaling?

Based on your interviews and the list of journaling benefits cited in lesson one, select three benefits that most resonate with your current needs and life circumstances.  Then, for each benefit you select, set a goal that you would like journaling to help you achieve.  Create goals that are SMART by making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-centered.

I’m not going to share the interviews as they might be too personal.  The three benefits that most resonate with me are to find my writing voice, express and create, and stimulate personal growth.  I’ll expand on this later.

Illustrations for Inferno by Dan Brown

I just found out that Dan Brown is coming out with a new Robert Langdon novel called Inferno.  I can’t wait to get this book from the library.

Here is the link to the website that has companion illustrations for his new novel.

True Colors

Here is the video of Michelle Chamuel singing True Colors.  I really liked that she said that she represents nerdy people.  Too cool!

Thoughts…

Today, I’ve been in the mood to listen to classical music.  I downloaded three pieces from the freegal website through the library.  Then, I realized that I could probably listen to them on Pandora or Youtube.  Lately, I’ve been using my limit of songs to make cds for a friend–she’s really been enjoying them!  So, it was a treat to download some songs that I wanted to hear.

I didn’t really have a plan for today except for tonight.  The Voice and Hawaii Five-0 come on starting at 8pm.  This season I’ve been getting more interested in The Voice especially since Shakira is one of the coaches.  

Although, Usher seems to be the coach to have since he has inventive ways of coaching.  I really enjoyed Michelle Chamuel’s performance of True Colors.  Usher told her to sing the song to herself in a mirror, and it resulted in a really awesome performance!

 

 

Mother’s Day

My plan for today was to go shopping.  I picked up some roses and a bottle of wine for my Mom for Mother’s Day.  We’re going to have a Joe’s Crab Shack salmon dinner.  Also, we’ll go to Starbucks for Frappacinos. 

The rest of the day, I’m not sure what to do.  My options are to work on the new afghan, read, or get caught up with shows.  Thinking of shows, I can’t wait until the two hour season finale of Revenge to air tomorrow night! 

Someone on the show will die by the end of the episode according to TV Guide.com.  I still miss ‘fauxmanda’ as Nolan called her.  I’m sure that tomorrow’s episode will be an exciting event! 

Happy Mother’s Day

My parents had this record when I was a kid. The chocolate cake routine was funny, but I have always liked the giving birth routine better.