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Over at Mightygirl, Maggie Mason has been posting a weekly mixtape of new songs she’s been enjoying. Here’s my take on it, looking at some old favorites:
Joni Mitchell: Overture/Cotton Avenue, from Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter

Lots of girls go through a Joni Mitchell phase. In my case, it was less with the folksy “I’ve looked at [...]

It’s the last week of the semester. So, while I attempt to write two papers in as many days, finish my portfolio, and somehow get ready to go camping this weekend (seriously: what was I thinking?), here’s a poem I like by Dennis Lee, from Nicholas Knock and Other Poems (illustrated by Frank Newfeld, published [...]

I collaborated with a classmate on a book trailer for my Canadian Youth Literature Class. Here it is.

Essex County Book Trailer from Nora Sawyer on Vimeo.

So, I’m up in Vancouver at my grandma’s, and even though I’m happy to be here, there are some definite lags in the conversation — Grandma’s in her own world a lot of the time, and I’m often at a loss to draw her out.
I usually turn to old photo albums. I worry that I’m [...]

Last night, I was downstairs playing Quiddler with grandma and Emily. The game is a lot like scrabble, and each player gets 5 cards with letters on them and has to try and make a word.
When grandma’s turn came, she stared at her cards for a while. Finally, she said, “I think when we were [...]

With the exception of all manner of fuzzy, feathered, or fishy critters, there’s very little I won’t eat. I love food, all manner of tastes and textures. But there are certain foods that, though I enjoy them in certain dishes, completely gross me out on their own. Here they are:
1. Hard boiled eggs: Tasty on [...]

I went grocery shopping with my grandmother and her caregiver today. As we were unloading bags from the car, I was struck with this sudden memory, a full on flashback of the time Brian and I visited grandma back in 2003, when we first moved to the West Coast.
I guess grandma must have been about [...]

Hello! I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting things over here, along with everything else that’s not a paper on database systems or intellectual freedom. But the semester’s almost done, which makes this a great time to explore the hotses and notses of the week a la Loobylu.
Hot!
1. Backyard Astronomy: Or in our case, Duboce Park astronomy. [...]

I found my cellphone (it was in my bathrobe pocket).

I stayed up til a little past seven this morning, working on the final paper for one of my classes. I got up three hours later, and I swear all I must’ve done while I was sleeping was dream my way through the paper and wander some dreamscape paper cut-out of my house, because all [...]