Aug10

national lazy day.

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National Lazy Day (yes, it’s real), arrives every August 10, offering a much-needed pause from our always-on world. This is your official permission to ditch responsibilities, ignore chores, avoid work, and fully embrace the art of relaxation. So, kick back, put your feet up, and savor a day of blissful inactivity. Feel free to celebrate! I’ve provided a list of helpful vocabulary to throw around when discussing the holiday with those who might need a greater understanding of the concept. (Both home and work options below.) Pro Tip: If you have already begun your celebration, you can always wait to read this post until tomorrow. 

 Fancy words for lazy:

Indolent: Avoiding work because you prefer a state of comfort.

Languid: Moving in a slow, peaceful, and unhurried way.

Torpid: Being very slow and inactive, like an animal sleeping.

Oscitant: Drowsy and yawning, showing a highbrow form of inattentiveness. 

-Merriam-Webster

British words for lazy:

 Layabout: An idle, lazy person who avoids physical or mental exhaustion or to try to  get a job.

Skiver: Someone who avoids work or dodges their duties by trickery or playing hooky.

Work-shy: An adjective and noun style term used for someone who actively avoids doing any form of work. 

-Cambridge

Traditional Slang and Nouns for Lazy:

Slacker: Someone who avoids work and effort.

Couch Potato: A person who spends a lot of time sitting or lying down, watching TV.

Lazybones: A harmless, old-fashioned name for a lazy person.

Goldbrick: Someone who shirks duty or pretends to work.

Workplace Nicknames for Lazy:

KitKat: Used for someone who is always taking a break.

Sensor Light (or Motion Light): Describes a person who only starts working when someone in authority walks past.

Wheelbarrow: Someone who only moves or works when they are pushed.

E.T.: Refers to someone whose main goal all day is trying to “go home”.

Seaweed: Used for a worker who just floats around the office all day doing nothing.

Cordless: Describes someone who works unplugged or only functions for a couple of hours before dying out. 

#1 Laziest Animal in the world: Pygmy Blue Tongue Lizard

Pygmy blue tongue lizards don’t enjoy interacting with the rest of the world, and they’re hyper-cautious about predation. The skittish pygmy blue tongues spend their lives hanging out in spider caves and don’t leave unless forced. For sustenance, they sit with their mouths open and wait for food to fall in. The same goes for water; they rely on raindrops landing on their tongues.

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‘doing nothing is very hard. you never know when you are finished.’

-leslie nielsen, american actor

 

 

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image credit: malta rabbit club

Aug9

nature library.

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All libraries are good libraries – but there’s one that just opened near Denver that’s as much of a destination for nature lovers as it is for book lovers. Called the Anythink Nature Library, the 15-acre campus is home to a calming darkroom, a nature lab, an indoor-outdoor cafe, gardens, a mud pit, and a mile-long loop trail (as well as plenty of books, of course).

According to the website, it’s the nation’s first public nature library, with a mission to “help people of all ages discover their connection to the natural world.” The building itself is a testament to that vision, as it features hundreds of solar panels, bird-safe glass, and geothermal heating and cooling.

Patrons are invited to check out hammocks, telescopes, tents, and other experience kits dubbed “TryIts” so people can explore the outdoors without having to spend on pricey gear. “Public libraries have always evolved alongside the needs of their communities,” Mark Fink, executive director of Anythink Libraries, said in a statement. “The Nature Library represents the next evolution: a place where books, nature, science, and community come together to inspire curiosity and connection.” Take a look around the grounds.

‘there is no greater beauty or charm than what we find in nature.’

-todd romano

 

 

 

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source credits: Anythink Nature Library, nicenews

Aug7

more.

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MORE LOVE

MORE UNITY

MORE DANCING.

—

three things we all could use more of

last night in detroit at a rally

celebrating the primary election wins

 uniting the party

 heading into the midterm elections

in 87 days

—

‘it’s never too late to begin living more courageously.’

-brendon burchard

 

 

Aug7

interesting objects.

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the bike has moved into the garden

the chair has moved to the side of the road

the dinosaur has moved to the patio

 watching over the solar power

—

what do a bike, a chair, and a dinosaur have in common?

they are all objects found along the way

on an afternoon walk

that seemed to want to stay

none of them are far from home.

—

‘curiosity is natural to the soul of man

and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our affections.’

-daniel boone

*Daniel Boone ( 1734 – 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes  of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western border of the Thirteen Colonies.

 

Aug6

hut.

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perhaps everyone could use a writing hut from time to time..

  • roald dahl had one too 

where to you go to write and have your own space in the world?

—

‘i go down to my little hut, where it’s tight and dark and warm,

and within minutes

i can go back to being six or seven or eight again.’

-roald dahl

 

 

 

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image credit: historyhustle

 

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Aug5

beautiful gifts.

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image credit: Zach Nichols, photo, trees of the pacific northwest

Aug4

hero.

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it’s primary day in ann arbor and no finer way to honor this hero

“the vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.”

-john lewis

(this is a reblog of my post from the same date in 2020, and it still applies)

 

today, i’ll be working at the polls as an election protector,

making sure that everyone who is registered can vote

 

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image credit: michigan theatre, ann arbor, michigan, usa

Aug3

‘try to learn something about everything and everything about something.’ – thomas huxley

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yesterday

 i learned

 baby sandhill cranes

are called

colts

because they’re born with legs

that are so long and strong

 they can run around

within 24 hours after hatching.

(looks like they’re wearing tall boots with heels)

always something new to learn

the world never fails to amaze me.

colts with their parent

—

‘he who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance;

one cannot fly into flying.’

-friedrich nietzsche

 

 

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photo credits: robert simmons

Aug2

short and sweet.

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short and sweet meet at the park.

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‘life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.’

*sarah louise delany

 

Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany (1889–1999) was an American educator, civil rights pioneer, and best selling author. She became famous at age 103 alongside her sister Bessie after publishing their life story.

First Black woman to teach home economics (domestic science) in New York City public high schools.

Earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Fought against racial bias and segregation in daily life and her profession.

Co-authored the hit memoir Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years in 1993 with Amy Hill Hearth.

The book inspired a hit Broadway play and a television film.

Lived to the age of 109, sharing wisdom from a century of American history.

 

Aug1

100.

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what if there were 100 people in the world?

when i read my blogging friend Brian’s post

on ‘writing from the heart with brian’ 

https://writingfromtheheartwithbrian.com

i was very taken with this questi0n.

he kindly agreed to let me share and reblog this wonderful lesson

i wonder if everyone read this and took it to heart,

would they understand more

about how lucky they are in this world

and begin to help others

who are not as lucky?

—

When I was a young kid, I was small for my age. We’d line up at the start of the year, smallest to the tallest, and I would always be one of the shortest boys in my class. I wasn’t the smartest either, I had to work hard for my grades. Every ‘A’ felt like I had run a grueling marathon to earn it.

On top of that, I would compete against my bigger, stronger brothers and always seemed to get my butt whooped. I write this to say that I didn’t feel special or lucky. When I was successful in school or sports, I would inevitably downplay my wins, assuming the test was easy or the challenge lighter than in past years.

My feeling of being just average persisted for a long time. I was curious about others, but I didn’t have great perspective. It took going off to college for me to see how fortunate I was. I walked in one day to my Economics 101 class and the prof started talking about how fortunate we were to be sitting in his classroom and to have the “luxuries” that we took for granted. He broke the world down into 100 people and called us some of the lucky ones.

Getting to the heart of the issue

We were supposed to be talking about some abstract economics concept that was going to be on the next test, but none of my classmates nor I were going to remind him. I was curious about this new topic and found it fascinating. With a few simple numbers, he showed that I was luckier than I ever could have imagined.

Here’s what I mean.

The 100 People Foundation, regularly uses World Factbook data to break the world into smaller more easily digestible numbers. If the world were a village of 100 people, of course, there would be an equal number of men and women. The majority of the people, 66 to be exact, would be between 15-64 years old, 25 would be between infant and 14 years of age, and 9 would be 65 and older.

From a geographic standpoint, 61 villagers would be Asian (of that, 20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian), 14 would be African, 11 would be European, 9 would be Latin or South American, 5 would be North American. As far as languages go, the largest number, 12, would speak Chinese, with 6 speaking Spanish, and five English.

One of the lucky ones

But here’s where it gets interesting. Less than 7 percent of the people would have their own home, eat full meals and drink clean water, have a mobile phone, surf the internet, and have gone to college. Yes, the devil is in the details. Let that sink in, less than 7 percent. Um, I get annoyed when the wifi goes down for a minute, 93% don’t have the Internet or a mobile phone? Really?

Of the 100, close to 80 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 22 would not. Can you imagine, no shelter? Nothing substantial to save them from Mother Nature’s slights including storms, hurricanes, fires. Eleven of the 100 would be undernourished and 1 would die of starvation. Of the 100, 86 would be able to read and write; 14 would not, with only 7 having a college degree.

I can’t speak for the rest of my Econ class, but when I started to view wins and losses from a different lens, I started to see how fortunate I’ve been in my life.

What about you? How fortunate do you feel when you look at your life from this perspective?  Brian

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“The Overview effect is a cognitive shift. You look down at the earth and realize that everyone who ever lived and died, every person that has ever been born was within this tiny blue speck in space. Divisions such as race, gender, country and language fall away.

The design is round because the world is round, and I wanted to make it a defined and pleasing shape. The colours are chosen from flags. It uses natural frequencies instead of percentages. This is a deliberate choice so that it can be as accessible to as many people as possible.”

credit: This graphic was tweeted byAstronaut Chris Hadfield, and reprinted in many publications.