Charleston, South Carolina

Just got back from visiting my sister in South Carolina for a couple of days! It was nice to get a bit of a break and spend some time with her. Charlestown isn’t a bad little city, it was my first time to South Carolina and I thought it was a lot of fun!

We visited Folly Beach, which is the big beach in town that everyone goes to. It is free to visit, which is super cool, and it’s a really nice beach. Then there is also the Angel Oak, which is the oldest and biggest oak tree in SC, really cool spot to see and take pictures. That is pretty close to North America’s only tea plantation, which features a free tour of the factory and a nice tea sampling area. (It has both hot and cold tea, very nice.) Another historic plantation is the Magnolia Gardens, which used to be a rice plantation, but now boasts beautiful gardens and nature.

One fun fact about Charleston is that it has the highest number of historic buildings besides Rome. A lot of it is very old! There are historic house tours that you can go on, I haven’t been on any, but my sister had a lot of fun on one of them.

My main complaint about Charleston was that there was not very much in the way of public transportation there. I saw a couple buses, but other than that it looks like everyone just drives everywhere. Which not only seems annoying, but it is bad for the environment around there.

So Charleston is a lovely city to visit and relax at the beach, while taking in some history and nature. Would highly recommend as a getaway!

This Is Beautiful: Museums

Having a little vacation in DC has been awesome! In my opinion, the best part of the city is all of the free museums (and even the not free ones) tucked all over the city. It has been wonderful to take the time to visit the ones that I've been wanting to see again.

Even though many of them are free, I rarely took the time to go check out a lot of the museums. Having the time now to do this has been wonderful! I've seen most of them before, but it has been so nice to just wander around the museums and see the highlights, check out what interests me, or to just wander. Learning is good for you! Take advantage of it!

“Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness” by Rick Hanson

Another self-help book recommended to me by my counselor. Hanson here takes 12 different aspects of resilience (compassion, mindfulness, learning, grit, gratitude, confidence, calm, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration, and generosity) and goes through each one giving explanations of how they relate to resilience as well as exercises to strengthen them. This produces a well-rounded view of resilience itself, and clear ways to try and cultivate it within ourselves.

I did quite like a lot of his advice, but I will say that each chapter could probably be spun off into a book of its own. It felt as though we were just scratching the surface of what could be discussed and explored. My other comment is that a lot of his exercises boil down to his practice called HEAL: Have a good experience, Enrich it, Absorb it, and Link the positive and negative material. In this way we can both cherish happy moments as well as repair old wounds. It is a great practice, and while variations of it can be performed for all 12 of these aspects, it did seem as though we were rehashing the same material at points.

Still, there is a lot of valuable advice in this book about building up your own strength. I found it useful to peruse, so if you are considering starting a self-help journey or whatnot, do consider this!

This Is Beautiful: Beaches

Got to spend part of last week in South Carolina with my sister (post incoming on Charleston) and it was just really nice to be at a beach again, I think it's literally been years since I had a beach day. I forgot how nice it was to be there.

Partially it's the stopping and relaxing and reading yes, relaxation is very important. And lounging around is something I tend to skip out on since I can be pretty high-strung.

But what I really find beautiful about the beach is the water and the sun and the waves and the sand. It is so unlike anywhere else with nature so close to you and yet it is all so relaxed. So you can hunt for hermit crabs and snorkel with minnows, all without any real planning beforehand. It's incredible!

And yes there are plenty of man-made beaches, and lifeguards are all over the place to keep people safe. But it is still such a unique environment in this day and age. I don't know, spending time at the beach is nice, I need to do it more often.

“Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why” by Bart D. Ehrman

What fascinated me about religious nuts is how convinced they are in the holiness of the objects involved in their religion. For example, Christians insisting that the Bible is straight from God to us. Which is ridiculous, the amount of time that it’s been around and the fact that it was written by HUMANS means that it is definitely not totally divine.

This book is about exactly that, the origins of the Bible and how and why it has changed since then. In the days before the printing press, scribes would copy the Bible by hand, word for word. And that means that mistakes entered, both accidentally and on purpose.

The great thing about Ehrman’s work though is that he puts it all in a personal context. The book opens with him talking about how he came into the church and became fascinated by Bible studies. And how he eventually learned to reject his religious training that the Bible was the direct work of God through those. This book is basically what he’s learned through his research over the years.

He starts with a historical overview of how the Bible has been used throughout the years. It starts at the beginning with how Christianity was one of the first religions to use a text as a central focus of its practices. Then he covers the various sources of texts, and how we didn’t even solidify the texts that make up the New Testament until several hundreds of years after Jesus’ death. He also goes through translations of the text and how experts have tried throughout history to determine what is the “original” text of the Bible.

Having done that, he goes through reasons why scribes would have changed the text of the Bible. Primarily, the different controversies that existed at the time within Christianity such as the role of women or the treatment of Jews. He also discusses a couple of passages that are in most Bibles of the modern era and why they might be incorrect.

I also particularly liked the ending of the book. He brings it back to a personal level and actually shows some understanding of the scribes transcribing and altering the earlier texts. Because really, it’s hard to interpret the Bible, so it makes sense that they would try to make it clearer. And if we all could read a text and get the same message from it, then we wouldn’t still have these controversies thousands of years after the Bible was written. And that would be pretty boring to be honest, we would have nothing to gain from discussing it with others.

This is a great take on the history of Christianity and how the past still resonates in the religion today. I thought it was written with a lot of attention to nuance and detail, as well as great research. Ehrman covers all sides of the controversies, and I thought his personal touches were a great addition.

This Is Beautiful: Stonewall Forever

I don't know how I didn't find this sooner, but in honor of it being the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, there is now an online tribute to the event called Stonewall Forever. You can find it here!

I think it's absolutely beautiful! The design is incredible, you basically scroll to travel through a rainbow and click on small, colored crystals to hear individual stories and pieces. It takes you through all the history from before Stonewall, to the riots, to the 50 years of Pride afterwards. When you get to the end you can even upload your own picture and short statement!

It is an incredible educational resource, as well as a gorgeous monument to the event. If you haven't clicked the link yet to check it out what are you doing???

"Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art" by Julian Barnes

As an art enthusiast, I figured that this book would be right up my alley. Barnes is a rather well-known novelist who has written about art and artists for a while. This is a collection of his essays on the subject.

To be honest, I felt as though the quality of these essays was rather variable. I quite liked the first one, but it's fundamentally different from all of the other essays in the collection. The first one is a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding a particular painting, while the others are typically essays about a painter's general life and work. I can't help but wish he had the increased focus of the first essay on a single painting instead of the broader focus which often feels like too much in the other chapters. Similarly, I liked his essay on "So is it art?" towards the end, but again, it stands alone in this book.

On a related note, I'm not sure what the order was of these essays. I would have ended with "So is it art?" but that essay is followed by two more chapters on specific artists. My best guess is chronological by the artist he's talking about, but then the more meta essay is just thrown in at random. Possibly it's chronological based on when he wrote the essays, but that just seems so insufficient for a work that is focused on art rather than collecting all of Barnes' essays. Either way, I don't understand the order, for the most part it flows alright but I have no idea what the overall structure is.

My biggest problem though with this book is that it has this annoying tendency to allude to all of these fancy painters and pictures, but doesn't show examples of half of them! This leads to either pulling out a phone and Googling every other sentence or just accepting that the example goes over your head and moving on. Books about art need to show art as well, just describing it is hardly enough. And even if I was familiar with the painting being referenced, the work would still benefit from giving an example right there, next to the text.

I'm being rather harsh though, Barnes has a number of interesting insights into the lives of the painters he writes about, and how their work affected the world around them. I quite liked the chapters on Manet, Degas, and Hodgkin in particular. But I do wish that I went into this book knowing a little more about what to expect and what I would be getting out of it.

This Is Beautiful: The Online Ace Community

Seriously, the online asexual community has proven itself to be a safe haven for me so many times. Partially this is because I'm ace, for sure, so having this supportive community was excellent while I was coming out and answering any questions that I had. But it's also just a very supportive community in general.

This is a group of people who are continually told lots of really hurtful things by others, including people in the wider LGBTQ+ community, and they make it their mission to build each other up instead of tearing each other down. As a result, regardless of the issue, it's a very supportive, loving group of people.

Happy pride month! I hope you feel supported and loved because you are worthy of all that and so much more.

Variations on a Theme: My Favorite Songs

The playlist to end all playlists!

1. “Emoticons” by The Wombats

I love this song, it’s the opening track from their third album, “Glitterbug.” It’s so catchy and melodic, I could listen to it all day!

2. “What A Catch, Donnie” by Fall Out Boy

Taking things down a little here, this is a song that really goes on a journey. It starts off slow but slowly builds and builds into this insane number. You just have to listen to it to really understand what I mean.

3. “Reckless Serenade” by the Arctic Monkeys

Another favorite band of mine, off of my favorite album of theirs, “Suck it And See.” I’ve always been into slow songs by the Arctic Monkeys, and less the faster single-like songs. This is classic, angsty them with plenty of emotion and elegant guitar riffs.

4. “Starman” by David Bowie

This playlist would not be complete without our man Bowie. I was first introduced to his music through this song/album and have been hooked ever since. It’s a gorgeous song, one that never quite seems to age, only grow more timeless.

5. “The Asphalt Jungle” by Duke Ellington

I first found this tune through a youth jazz group I was in, funnily enough. We performed an arrangement of it and I’ve been hooked since. It’s a very catchy melody, heightened by Ellington clapping along with the beat. Originally I believe it was for a tv show called “The Asphalt Jungle” but I have yet to find a clip or anything of it so I don’t know much about it’s plot.

6. “Oh Love” by Green Day

This song was everywhere for like a month and now I never hear it. It’s such a good song though, very catchy melody. It doesn’t really sound like typical Green Day, much more lyrical and less angry, but I think it’s A+.

7. “In the Stone” by Earth, Wind, & Fire

One of my favorite Earth, Wind, & Fire songs. Also have heard a couple decent jazz band arrangements of it. The rhythms in it are so good, very danceable. Definitely deserves more attention than it gets.

8. “Somebody to Love” by Queen

Queen is one of my favorite bands and this is definitely one of my favorite songs by them. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

9. “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran

This is the closing song off of Sheeran’s first album, and I just think it’s so good. It’s fun to yell and is a great note to end an album on. The fact that there’s a lil bonus song thrown in is just icing on the cake.

10. “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles

Yeah, can’t forget my favorite band and my favorite song on this list. And that’s just the way I want to end my last playlist.

Thanks for listening, I’ve had fun with this experiment. 😊

“Daring Greatly” by Brene Brown

Another book that was recommended to me by my counselor. This is a book about vulnerability and how to try and overcome your worries to live a full life. Brown has spent her life researching shame and vulnerability, and her advice is very sound and thorough.

I will say that she can get repetitive at times, you read over and over again how we need to accept our vulnerability and walk right into it instead of avoiding it, but her tone is always wonderful and very readable. It feels like a note from a friend rather than advice from a researcher. It is evident that she is also someone who struggles with vulnerability and with turning her advice into reality, as the many anecdotes in the book attest. And that just makes her more believable and relatable as a person.

If you are interested, but aren’t sold yet, she does have a great TED talk (and several others) on the subject. This was what drew me to her work initially, so I would highly recommend checking it out!