some loose ends (with a bit of nudity)

grandma's flowers, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

The past few weeks have been busy with many small projects, with mini-goals, and minor accomplishments. I haven't found much time for blogging or photo-taking because I've been busy with gardening & research & ramping up my exercise routine in preparation for outrigger races that will be four or five times as long as previous ones.

However, I thought I'd create a list of random links to some fascinating items that have crossed my computer screen recently. And, for those of you who haven't yet adopted twitter, you can drop by to see my "tweets" for a better idea of my daily happenings.

--Two pieces of fascinating art & history from the NY Times: on dinosaurs and Monticello (perhaps you can see why Jefferson remains my fav founding father, to this day).

--At times, when I've expressed frustration about the daily pains that come from being an amputee, I've been reminded by the religiously-inclined that such pain will bring me closer to Jesus. Let me just day that that's not a line of thinking that works very well for me. Here's a Freakonomics article that explores the 'necessity' of pain.

--Tired of boring conferences & conventions (for me, no matter how scintillating the conference, I get a headache after about 3 hours of sitting in a hotel ballroom. Ugh.)? So you might want to think about a THATCamp model instead.

--I haven't read Sleeping Naked Is Green yet, but I am totally thinking that this summer I will take the "green" approach and slumber au naturel to avoid the undue cost of washing pjs and cooling my bedroom. What about you?

--And speaking of nudity, I'm up for an award for a photo of my belly button. It's completely silly, but if you're in the mood to cast a vote for my navel, go for it (scroll down to item #17).

--To close on a more serious note, anyone who loves the poetry of Mary Oliver (and who doesn't?) this writing about the lands that inspire her, is simply a must-read. Thanks, Vajra, for sending the link my way!