Busy Busy Blogger Bee (Version 12.03.13)

This quarters Busy Bee has been myself! I have rarely had a chance to write, let along read much online here lately. With several events happening, National Sleep Awareness Week was last week,
and several projects in the works, I just have not had the time sadly. Something I hope to fix over the summer.

There have been a couple of blogs I really want to mention though, one of them I just discovered recently.( He managed to find me first, commenting on my last post: “OMG She’s Coding”) I hope to have more time to read more of his work. Nathan Fox, an EMT with Asbergers, who has just recently published his first book, “The Eyes Of An Autistic Yogi”.

(Click picture for Amazon link)

The blog post in particular that caught my eye, “Autistic Internet” (January, 20, 2012) I found to be very insightful and strangely familiar. I really think a lot of people with narcolepsy have so much in common with Asbergers and autism, thought processes, stimming, etc… that is something I would like to explore a little more some time. It’s incredibly interesting, and make so much sense, at least in my head…
In the article he says:
“The Internet is autistic. It is a disjointed and information populated place we go in search of some answer, finding but broken bits filling a myriad other questions. There are the gems out there, intact and pure for where we can draw inspiration. Yet it remains a universe we desire to moderate, control, while still trying to understand its nature.”  ~ Nathan Fox @TheAutisticYogi on Twitter

Just sit and contemplate that for a moment.
So often I am witness too, and have even complained myself, how people with out narcolepsy, our friends and family etc,  just cannot understand us because they don’t have it themselves. As a result of these “close to home” experiences we deal with, we sometimes seclude ourselves and assume it will be like that with everyone we meet. Yet here is someone, who I have no idea who he is, who does not have narcolepsy, yet … he gets it. Even if he does not know he does.

He may not be as tired, or have the worries of collapsing, but “Yet it remains a universe we desire to moderate, control, while still trying to understand its nature.” is a statement that speaks not just for the internet, and autism, but for narcolepsy as well.

Only having time to read just a bit this last quarter, I am super glad that Nathan’s blog is the one I came across. It has given  me a whole new angle of which to think about things when I am working on trying to communicate with others. Its something many of us struggle with, and there are a lot of lessons I think we can learn from our autistic friends.

Definitely take the time to read his blog and his book is available on Amazon.com click the picture above to go straight to the page. I am really looking forward to reading it myself!

Busy Busy Blogger Bee (Version 11.12.22)

Yeah, so, sorry this is late! Was busy with holidays and recovering from holidays and recovering from recovering and so on and so forth…. Anyhow, I have been reading some REALLY good stuff. Things have been very up and down for me lately, and I have found incredibly inspiring work this season to keep things afloat. I may not have had much to say the last few months, but I assure you I have been paying very close attention….

So here are my top five blog post from the Fall of 2011! I hope you find them as interesting and inspirational as I have.

1. And the Universe Conspires…

Bonnie Copland is a life coach with a really great blog that I discovered in early October. Its almost as if the stars aligned for me to find her when I did because this blog post ( …and the blog post of her friend Deeone, as mentioned in her blog post) Truly resonated with me at that time coming just after the 25th Annual Narcolepsy Network Conference.  I could understand more clearly through these articles that I was putting off my own metamorphosis by constantly dealing with the challenges and changes of others. I have let my own life fall to the cracks in favor of helping others, and am still to this day trying to repair that damage and needless neglect. Since finding Ms. Copeland, I have found many of the things she has written or posted on her video blogs useful, but this is the post that changed me and has pointed me in a direction with greater balance and new focus. I particularly love that their is a chain of inspiration here. Beginning with letters from his late mother, Deeone Higgs, to Bonnie Copeland, and now myself. I imagine this has spider webbed dramatically to others as well, and I hope that my readers will also be inspired by their words.

2. Hannah Harto : My Drunk Kitchen

Hello!
Here is something new! I am adding a YouTube Video Series to my  Top Five Blog List! Technically Not a Blog or a Vlog, “My Drunk Kitchen” Has provided me with soooo many hours of *pee your pants* entertainment, it would be blasphemy to not include it. I literally buy a bottle of wine in anticipation of her next video. It just seems like the right thing to do. Never fear, She always tries to end with an important message and I am glad that she does… because sometimes the best world perspectives come from drunk people. ( At least, that is what I tell myself when I’m completely crocked.)  With such important advice like ” Just be confidant about everything and people will think your good at things.” and “Really people are just looking for ways to transport cheese into their mouth. All the food that involves cheese is just an excuse to eat cheese. Thats life. You know how thats like life? Because we think we are going after something, but really we are just hiding from ourselves the thing we actually want. And that is to just bite into the cheese.”  (episode 12: Pizza) As with most people under the influence, she’s got a mouth on her, so if you are easily offended by that, you might skip this one…  Though I really hope you wont!

3. Candies for a Cause A Sweet Way to Raise Awareness

This Blog by fellow recently Diagnosed PWN, Really struck me. So many people when they are first diagnosed with Narcolepsy go through the whole grief process, but this woman, just seems to have trucked right through it and I am sooo proud of her for that. I was thrilled to see her feature a guest who handed out candy for awareness. It was really a good idea and I hope that concept catches on with more of us in the Christmas’s to follow! I certainly hope to do it myself next year!

4. District of Sculpture Photographer Julie Flygare Wins First Place in Foto Week DC’s Internarional Awards Compititon 2011

Julie Won an AWARD!!! I am so extremely proud of her! Julies photograph, “MLK’s Spirit Walking,” Was given First Place in the 2011 FotoWeek DC‘s International Awards Competition for the “Mobile Phone Spirit of DC” category.  She took a series of photos shortly after the new MLK Memorial went up, all of which were astounding, and I am so very pleased that she was honored in this respect. Many of us know Julie from her own Narcolepsy blog: http://remrunner.blogspot.com. District of Sculpture is another blog project of hers that I truly appreciate. Too often I am unable to get out and admire and muse about the things around us. The sculptures and stories that Julie shares with us here are just one more way I can leave my own boring reality and walk into another…. and more often than not, learn something at the same time. If you are like me and cant get enough of Julie, check out her photography site also! http://www.julieflygarephotography.com.

( Bravo to Julie for making this list twice!)

5. Small Spaces Pets: The Climber

This is my new favorite blog for this quarter! And its old! No activity since January of 2009, I am lucky to find it at all! I was searching for new ways to entertain Musashi, Miyako, and Kohaku, when I found this blog post. And it is BRILLIANT. (I want one of these Pet Climbers sooo bad!)  After reading this I literally spent hours coming through the other post here, and I am still not done! I truly hope what ever is keeping this Incognito Pittsburgh Couple from continuing with this will subside, and there will be much more to come from them soon!

So As a heads up my next quarterly Blogger Bee post is due days before my sisters wedding, so please be patient with me as it will undoubtedly be late also. Already since Christmas, I have found things that just might make the cut! Im excited to share them with you!

For those of you who find blogs and posting links to them to Twitter or Facebook, I do read those! keep doing it! I have a vast array of interest and am always interested in seeing what is new out there… So show us what your reading too!

Busy Busy Blogger Bee (Version 11.9.23)

This month is the anniversary of my third year with this blog. Most of which has been complete nonsense, and vast gaps in time, but the fact I am still doing it is kind of  a miracle on its own. I am very ADHD like that. So to celebrate, I’m going to try something new and a bit different. I’m going to recap what blogs I have been reading for the past season. Let you know about things I have found interesting, creative and useful. Though my blogroll is mostly made up of fellow Narcolepsy bloggers, I am reading things from others as well on a variety of different subjects. I wanted to take the time to share these with you. I think the best way to explain it is to just do it. So jump right in the waters fine! I would hope that you take the time to explore these post also!

Top 5 Fave Blog Post from Summer 2011:

1. Life in a New Garden http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/life-in-a-new-garden/  Been reading this womans work for a while now and I just love her blog! I often wish I had the energy to all the incredible things that she does. This post from this last summer (though “technically” still in spring,) Was really a great thing for me to read that week. Having recently uprooted and moved myself, it was nice to see someone besides myself doing that also. Made me feel just a little less alone in the world… and inspired me to keep moving forward while holding the past close to my heart.
2. Kids in Yoga http://aspenandella.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/why-is-your-kid-in-my-yoga-class/ WHOA! Loved this blog post! I can sooo understand the sentiment of that. Some places have rules for a reason. And sometimes that rule is no kids. Now, Shortly after this blog came out the whole “No kids in various places” controversy started and I suddenly felt a little tied. I love kids, I love my families kids, I love my friends kids, Kids are awesome. Mostly. The problem with kids these days is not the kids it is the parents. There seems to be an onslaught of piss poor parenting happening in this country right now and it is VERY irritating.  If your kids have to be with you somewhere, then take the time to “be with them” also. Not just have them haphazardly tag along. Because I do NOT like having to tell your child to take the freaking plastic bag off their head in the middle of the Walmart parking lot while you are deeply engrossed in your text messaging. Whatever it is can freaking wait till your children are safely buckled in. If you’re not going to watch your kids while you’re out, find someone who will.  (YES that totally happened. GRRR!) Oops. Mini rant! ^_^
3. How to Deal…    …Chronic Illness    http://msmeans.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/how-to-deal-with-stigma-or-bias-against-chronic-illness/ This was an accidental find this summer. And something I really needed to hear. I immediately subscribed to this blog because of this post right here. Sometimes The stigma of having a disability is so difficult to deal with. It’s just really nice to have someone else be able to put into words how to deal with this sort of thing.  Though we suffer from very different illnesses, She is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
4. Humbled http://rantingsofaloon.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/humbled/
   I first saw this guys blog as a result of him becoming freshly pressed. The pictorial story of Paul and Mary was just so incredibly beautiful, that it would have brought tears to anyones eyes. But, it wasn’t until He wrote this post here that I decided to subscribe. So many people who are freshly pressed just keep on doing their regular thing and never really mention getting that honor. The fact that he addressed it and in such a wonderful way, made him all the more human to me, and his writing since then has been reflective of that. I Include him in this list because though I have never been freshly pressed, I have been blessed with a significant uprise in my statistics lately. This post reminds me, how I should never take for granted that someone somewhere is taking the time out of their day to listen to what I have to say. And that is extremely humbling indeed.
5. The Strength of Stone and the Hope of Light  http://districtofsculpture.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/the-strength-of-stone-and-the-hope-of-light/ Julie Flygare AKA: REM Runner, Just blows me away with every post. I started following her REM Runner blog a long time ago which led me to find her photography page and This unique blog of hers called District of Sculpture which is about sculptures in DC. She is able to combine her amazing photography with her excellent ability to write in a dance of words and pictures that just leave you spinning in awe. I truly saved the best for last here. I had a difficult time choosing which was my favorite of hers this summer, and decided to go with her post about the New MLK Memorial. She had clearly been working on this in her head for a good long time if you pay attention to the photographs. Some of them had to have been taken in the spring! Having recently started an art blog of my own, I hope some day to be able to do as much justice to the work and artists I write about as she does here commemorating this historic addition to our nations capitol.

• Best Blog of the Summer:

I had a rough summer. Being able to go through the archives of http://msmeans.wordpress.com was very helpful to me. Thank you Carolyne Marshall for being such an inspiration.