Showing posts with label blog love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog love. Show all posts

Sunday, June 13, 2010

How we met.

My good friend Elizabeth is taking part in an month long event celebrating Jane Austen. In honor of this event she asked if I would do a guest blog post for her outstanding blog Strange & Random Happenstance. I was thrilled and took the figurative pen in hand.

The whole process got me to thinking about friendship. I mean, they are so very vital to our lives. Jane Austen shows us this in her wonderful novels. Whether family or neighbors, friendships are at the heart of her stories. And, too, they are so very essential to having a good and happy life.

What I was thinking, though, was how Elizabeth and I connected. It’s so odd, and really rather wondrous, how these things can happen. It started, I suppose, because we both watched and liked a TV show called Gilmore Girls, but more specifically because we love reading. On a book and reading website called goodreads, we both were taking part in a group on the site called The Rory Gilmore Book Club. But stranger still, it wasn’t until a conversation or three about the 10th Doctor Who that we connected.

What’s amazing is how deeply we connected and in so many ways. How fantastic to make such a great friend in such an unusual and roundabout way! To be fair, I suppose it’s not all that unusual since this actually happened to me with one other person from that group on that site… Yet still, these two ladies are two of the most wonderful people I know!

As to Jane Austen, well, I encourage any one that hasn’t done to read one of her books straightaway. You won’t be disappointed! And who knows, maybe you’ll find a friend or two along the way.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Little delights.

I know I’m going to seem like such an oddball for doing this, but I want to tout another blog. The thing is, it’s not your typical blog. It’s a blog for students in a classroom of the US equivalent to 2nd graders in New Zealand.

Room 10 @ PT England School gives their young students this opportunity to write a story, read it on film, edit the film, then post it online. You wouldn’t think it could hold your attention for very long, but each film I see is so sweet that I end up watching more and more of them. I find myself commenting on them, knowing how amazing that would have been when I was a kid to have someone from another country send me a note of compliment or encouragement.

These are, I believe, mostly Maori children, and it’s interesting to hear some of their stories, especially when it involves what they did on the weekend or about family life. It’s like little cultural exchanges in 30 second clips!

So wanted to share it with you all in case you need inspiration now and then. Because I assure you, these kids will do just that – inspire!

Aren’t they sweet?