A Commonplace Book

Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon Race Report

Breaking my blog hiatus to write up some really quick thoughts on the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon, which was yesterday. I felt really, really bad about how I did right after the race yesterday, but as the afternoon wore on I realized I was being ridiculous and it was a really great learning experience, and then this morning I looked at what I wrote about running that marathonand I felt even more…

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…

…a deadline!

this is actually from the trailer for Charade!

Peace out, chums. I’ll see you in April. Come say hi on Instagram if you miss me.

♥ tara

This week's Training Recap is up on the blog. TLDR; listened to Outlander all week. Racy book for racing!

This week, I got exceptionally good at shoving an icepack down my pants. I ran some pathetic miles, biked some pathetic miles, swam some pathetic…mile. For running and biking, I’ve read that it’s valuable to push through the pathetic miles: you’re teaching yourself how to perform when you’re tired. For swimming, though, at least for me…all I’m really doing is teaching myself how to do it wrong.

Today on the blog: one more writer thinking about "day jobs."

I have been vaguely following this iteration of the argument about whether or not writers should have “day jobs” and since I am one of those who recklessly did quit her day job, here’s a portrait of my two cents, from where I’m standing in the thick of it. We’ll see how I feel in a year, but here’s what I think today.

I think most of these conversations that treating writing as some kind of…

Thinking about the origin of the phrase "hermetically sealed" today...because I will do literally anything to avoid detangling this manuscript.

For whatever reason,[note]It was a Jules Verne reasons.[/note] I had to refresh my knowledge of the origin of the term “hermetically sealed” today on my lunch break. I vaguely recollected that it had something to do with alchemy and Hermes Trismegistus, but forgot…well, whatever it was that connected them. I was going to write this one out, but then I found a blog post on Mashed Radishthat had…

Another boring training recap on the blog!

The big stuff: had a swim lesson this past week. I continue to not drown in new and more comical ways. But the exciting thing is that because it’s still so new, every time I go to the pool I’m noticeably better. I tried to put more time in on running, but my hip and foot are killing me again, and I’m really nervous about overdoing it. I also wasn’t really feeling biking this week. I ended up…

Today on the blog: The Insomniac's Sputtering Mind

When I get really bad insomnia, I try to convince myself that I’m actually the normal human, and everyone else is trying to fool themselves that sleep is a natural process. My favorite tidbit of history relating to this is that segmented sleep actually was really common in times of yore.

Or, you can pretend you’re in that one episode of the Twilight Zone where if the guy falls asleep he’ll…

Last week's training recap, in which someone who ran a total of five miles this past week realizes she is going to have a really rough half marathon in about a month...

Woo! Did slightly better this week. I really need to get back into running but it’s been super icy, and I hate running on the treadmill no matter what the movie is. But it’s like four weeks until that half marathon, so next week it’s crunch time.

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Today’s new exercise adventure was yoga in public, which I actually enjoyed for once. It’s not the punitive college gym requirement…

Still patting myself on the back for that Norwich review. It's nice to actually like something I've written.

I’m so proud of this review, and I liked this book, so I’m just going to make today’s post a link to it.

Look! Book Review! Here!

The reason I’m proud of this review is that I think I nailed the tone that a reader who would like this book would like. It matches the book. And I also think I managed to give a sense of the scale of the book, which is the only thing I could think to do given…

TCM is doing a Maureen O'Hara tribute! I'm using this as an excuse to mention a Paul Henreid movie, which...I dunno, seems wrong, but oh well.

TCM’s doing a tribute to Maureen O’Hara in July!

the boss

Maureen O’Hara isn’t one of my pet favorite film stars, but I’m not sure quite why. Maybe I just haven’t seen enough of her films. I wonder if I’ve only really seen Maureen O’Hara in her weaker roles. I should really take a closer look.

Anyway, this seems like the…

This week's training recap is up, in which I completely wuss out because it was cold out, and watched Journey to Italy on a treadmill on my phone, which is a cinema-lover sin I just can't justify save for the fact that said treadmill refused to load TCM.

Eek. This week did not go well.

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Ok, so in my defense, it was dangerously cold on Monday, and my little Hobonichi Weeks has a very firm warning scribbled all over Monday that says “DO NOT RUN OUTSIDE TODAY” in all caps. Cold weather really screws everything up for me, because I have a transportation problem.

But what happened later in the week? Not sure. I just didn’t feel…

On My Mind, January 25th 2019 At 8 In The Morning After Minimal Sleep

I have nothing for you today because I’m busily scribbling away at this mystery novel that I currently believe is the worst book that has ever been written but from experience can tell even at this point is going to turn out really pretty great. Right now it’s less scribbling and more putting the scribbles in order like a jigsaw puzzle, because this is like version three of this same book, so I…

Today on the blog: A Model Dog and Better Worlds and Tomorrowland and TARA GET OUT OF THAT RABBIT HOLE AND GET BACK TO WORK

Awwww! I just found out about The Verge’s Better Worlds series by way of Scalzi’s short story “A Model Dog” ! It’s a cute little story, I liked it for its humor and especially the animation. Do check it out.

This week's training brought to you by the history of France. Yes, the entire history of the entirety of France.

Welcome back to my weekly training blog posts! This week I ended up not getting as many miles in as I would have hoped, but it’s my first real week back so I’m not too worried about it. Much more importantly: for the first time in a long time, my foot wasn’t killing me during any of the workouts I did, which I think is the green light I was waiting for. Yay!

I also tried TRX for a first time,…