Footle and Grok

Messing about with empathy

Write a February poem

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

I’m not fond of reading poetry, but I like to write it.

I was looking for a February poem and stumbled across a fun poetry style. The poem is called “28 Word Poem for February.” What a clever idea. Here it is.

“Freezing
cold winds,
biting chills, and
white snow fluffed hills
Valentine’s day, oh how gay!
presidents’ day is coming our way.
February, sweet and small, greatest month of all.”

Eric Lies, "28 Word Poem for February"

I wanted to write a poem about February. Of course, since it is a leap year, my poem has 29 words. I titled it “A Recipe for February in 29 Words.”

Start with a rodent,
Add a dash of love.
Toss in a president
or two.
Mix it with cold and snow
and just a dash of spring.
It's February!

Jennifer Vandenberg, "A Recipe for February in 29 Words"

That was quick and fun! Why not write your own 29-word February poem and share it in the comments. I’ll also post this on my Facebook page, and you can leave your poem there too. If you need a fun project for a group, this would be perfect. Everyone can be a poet.

Tag, I’m it!

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Footle and Grok has a new tagline.

Many thanks to everyone who made suggestions. There were a lot of good ideas. However, I couldn’t seem to find one that spoke to me. I spent several hours playing with words and phrases.

Then a couple of days ago, I was reading All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin (an amazingly insightful book,) and he asked, “What is your story?” Without thinking, I said out loud, “I want to feed people’s curiosity.” It was like the clouds cleared, and the sun shone brightly. That was precisely what I was trying to do with my blog and podcast.

But it seemed too simple. I was sure “Feed your curiosity” was used by some influencer. I googled it and found that while the phrase is used in lots of article titles, no one had used it exclusively.

Even then, I played around with synonyms of the word “feed.” Nothing felt quite right, and I realized that my first response, while simple, was true. I want to help people feed their curiosity with Footle and Grok. Nothing more and nothing less. I had my tagline.

I’d love for you to check out the website and the new tagline. (If you see my old tagline somewhere online, let me know.) I’m learning to use Cafepress and hope to soon have a store to support Footle and Grok.

Stay tuned and feed your curiosity… often.

Eat like a groundhog

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Happy Groundhog Day! Phil didn’t see his shadow!!! Go spring!

It’s also Super Bowl Sunday, and if you care about one of the two teams, good luck.

I thought it would be fun to share some yummy recipes for Groundhog Day. This turned out to be a terrible idea. I’m not going to show you all the scary recipes I found, you can google Groundhog Day recipes if you want to be shocked.

There were horrible desserts that looked like they were made by angry three-year-olds. There were beef wellingtons and calzones in the shape of groundhogs. (Why?!) I even found a stew made with woodchuck (I suppose they thought calling it groundhog [they are the same animal] would be too disturbing.)

Other sites created Groundhog Day menus that involved pork dishes. Again, why? Are we celebrating Punxsutawney Phil, or are we eating him?

I did find two lovely recipes that I am willing to share. One is for a winter salad. After all, groundhogs are herbivores; shouldn’t we celebrate by eating what they would eat? The other is for a cute cookie that won’t scare small children (unlike others I found.)

Have a lovely Groundhog Day. It doesn’t really matter whether Phil sees his shadow or not. The fun is in the tradition. Why not add some delicious recipes? I’m sure all the groundhogs out there would appreciate it.

Do what you love this month

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Today is Saturday and the beginning of February.

February is the month for love. Saturday is a day for having fun. Why not combine the two and do something you love today. Better yet, why not plan to do something you love every day this month. You even get a bonus day because of Leap Day.

“Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~ Lucille Ball

I love watching Disney shows, and I signed up for Disney+ because I wanted to see my favorites, but I haven’t watched many this year. I plan to make a list of shows I want to see and watch them throughout February.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Do you have something you love to do, something fun that you have neglected because you’re busy? (Aren’t we all.) Why not plan to do it often in February? If you love doing it so much, you could continue doing it in March. And in April. And the rest of 2020.

 

 

 

You must listen to this

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

It started with one video.

I don’t spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I have a few music videos that I like to watch. My favorite right now is “Into the Unknown” performed by Panic at the Disco. This is the song from Frozen II, and this cover is awesome.

After that, I usually listen to Brian Hull sing “Let it Go” using different Disney character voices. This is my favorite version. I let it play as I do other things, and then I stop.

Today, I glanced to the right where the other videos wait to tempt me, and one caught my eye. It was an acapella Disney medley. Now I like DCapella’s renditions of Disney songs, so I thought I’d check this new singer out. I could always exit out if I didn’t like it.

Well, I loved it. I loved it so much that I’m sharing it with you. It’s a Disney medley by Jared Halley. What makes this special is he sings all the parts. It’s unbelievably good.

What I loved most was not the singing, which was great, but the way he made all the videos of him singing flow seamlessly. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into this video, and he has a lot of others.

I hope you will watch Jared’s video and check out his YouTube page. I could spend hours watching his various covers. It inspires me to create things that people will stumble upon and share with their friends. Absolutely amazing.

Run Disney at home

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

I love doing virtual races.

This is the 5th summer that runDisney has provided a virtual race series. I haven’t participated in all the races because I haven’t always liked the medals (I’m all about the medals), but I’m pleased to promote this summer’s virtual runs.

A virtual run is not done on a computer (I hear that all the time.) Instead, it is run that is done whenever and wherever you want. While traditional races happen at a specific time on a specific date at a specific place, you can run a virtual run on your own schedule at a place of your choosing (even your treadmill.)

It does have a computer component. You sign up online, and if necessary, turn in your time to the website. (Some charity runs, like those done by PHRC, send you the medal whether you do the race or not.)

The runDisney Virtual Series is made up of three 5ks, one in June, one in July, and one in August. You get a bonus medal if you sign up for all three races (I did that last year since it was Marvel-themed.) You can also do just one or two (I did that the year I only wanted the Mickey Mouse medal.)

This year’s theme is favorite park attractions. June’s medal is for the Mad Tea Party, July is for Space Mountain, and August is for the Haunted Mansion. runDisney hasn’t revealed the medals yet, but I think they will be awesome.

If you have made a resolution in 2020 to exercise more, training for and running a virtual race is a great way to ease into the sport. Plus, you can walk a virtual race, and no one will think you are too slow (or like me, you can run/walk, and no one will think you are too slow.)

The medal comes in the mail, and it’s fun to open it once you have done the run. I hope you’ll consider doing a virtual race this year. If I live near you, I’ll gladly do it with you.

The dead can talk

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Did you hear that a mummy talked?

No, this isn’t from one of the great Brendan Fraser Mummy* movies. Thanks to science, a 3,000-year-old mummy spoke for the first time since his death (one assumes.)

It’s not easy to get a mummy to talk. Vocal cords are made up of soft tissue and don’t preserve well. Skeletons can’t talk at all. But Nesyamun, a mummy first unwrapped in 1824, had well-preserved vocal cords.

The fact that scientists brought back the voice of this particular ancient Egyptian is quite the coincidence because Nesyamum worked for the pharaoh Ramses XI as a scribe and priest. He would have used his voice often for rituals. (Do you think the embalmers put a spell on him so that someday he would talk again?)

If you want to know how they reproduced Nesyamum’s voice, check out this article from Nature. It has every detail (there were a lot of steps.)

If you’re hoping that the mummy said a complete sentence, you’re going to be disappointed. The sound that was made was short and sounded like a vowel because the vocal chord was frozen in one position. Vocal cords change shape as people speak, so only one sound can be created from the mummy. Plus, our tongue helps us make sounds, and poor mummified Nesyamum doesn’t have hardly any tongue left.

Listen to the sound of the mummy here. What do you think he is saying? I presume that it relates to his last words ever spoken, which is fascinating. (Perhaps he said, “Death is only the beginning.“)

*Amazon affiliate link

Taking a catnap

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Thanks to my kittens, I’ve been missing sleep.

Mom, we’re innocent!

I think they are in their teenage years, so they cause a lot of trouble and don’t listen to a word I say. They seem to like doing this a night, when I’m trying to sleep. So, I’m a little tired, but it’s nothing that a good nap won’t cure.

Naps are curious things. We make children take them, but we often deny ourselves the same luxury. Studies show that naps are important, but it’s difficult to sleep on the job.

Take a nap if you need it. I might need it until my kittens become cats and figure out that they are supposed to sleep twenty-two hours a day.

“I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.” Yogi Berra

Trefoils are my favorite

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

It’s Girl Scout Cookie time!

5th Grade Junior GS
Me as a Junior Girl Scout in the 5th grade

I was a Girl Scout for five years and was horrible at selling cookies. I hated going door-to-door or standing outside stores asking people to buy cookies. But things have changed. While Girl Scouts still go door-to-door or business-to-business, and there are still tables set up outside of stores, a lot of Girl Scout cookies are sold online.

I only know one Girl Scout right now, my friend Christina’s daughter, Samantha. Christina and I have been friends since the fifth grade. Her daughter is a bright, adventurous, beautiful, and ambitious girl. I love hearing about all the activities she is involved in.

Samantha hopes to sell 1,000 boxes of cookies. If you don’t have anyone specific to buy from (or even if you do), you can support Samantha’s efforts and get some delicious cookies at the same time. Thanks to the internet (I wish this was around when I had to sell cookies), you can buy from her online* Girl Scout page.

As you can guess from the title of this post, Trefoils are my favorite Girl Scout cookie, although I wouldn’t turn down any of them. What is your favorite cookie? How tempting to you find them? Whatever your preference, I hope you’ll help any Girl Scouts you know (and Samantha, too) reach their goals.

*If you live near Samantha in southern California you can order from her directly.

A Podcast to shake things up

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

I’ve always liked earthquakes.

That probably makes me weird, but growing up in Southern California gave me several opportunities to experience some rocking and rolling, which I loved. Of course, none of them were the Big One.

Now, I don’t want millions of dollars of property damage to happen and people to die, but the San Andreas fault is eventually going to shift, and Los Angeles will never be the same. It might be better in the long run, but it won’t be the same.

If you have an interest in earthquakes or you live in southern California, I highly recommend the Big One: Your Survival Guide.  This podcast covers the personal, scientific, economic, and long term effects of a big earthquake.

Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, was on my TV whenever there was a seismic event in the 1990s. She wrote a book called The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)*, which is about large earthquakes throughout history and how they affected the communities hit. Dr. Jones and her team have developed plans to help southern California survive the Big One when it hits. She also contributed to the Big One podcast.

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and recommend it to anyone who lives in a seismically active area. I don’t get as many earthquakes here in Washington as I did growing up (mores the pity), but we have our own Big One on the horizon. This podcast has helpful advice for everyone.

*Amazon affiliate link