Hello fellow internet! It’s me, Maureen! I don’t expect you to KNOW this but I have not really updated Tumblr in SEVERAL WEEKS. (Come to think of it, it’s bordering on months. Or month. Month? Look, I don’t know what “time” is.) I was off doing several things, not the least of which was making a lit conference at GeekyCon.
“But GeekyCon was WEEKS ago!” you cry.
I know, my friend. I know. But I’m back now and I want to talk about HENGE-BUILDING and SPOONS and EXCITING NEW THINGS. Because it’s…let’s not say fall. Let’s say Summer 2. Summer 2!
But first, we must speak of henges and spoons. Well, WE don’t have to, but I am going to. One time, I was hanging out with my friends and we were in a lovely house in England and the day was so lovely that I realized the only thing to do would be to get all the spoons and make a Spoonhenge out on the lawn. I care about the details, so I worked with a bunch of photos and got some tape and made AS NEAR TO A PERFECT REPLICA OF STONEHENGE as I could. It was, as you can imagine, extremely majestic.
Little did I know that I was sending FUTURE ME a message. I send FUTURE ME messages all the time, as you are certainly sending messages to FUTURE YOU.
Without rehashing all the details, this last year has presented a few physical challenges. The summary: I had some surgery in November that was a simple enough procedure, but something went wrong as I came out of it and I developed a bad infection, and after that, a case of what we will refer to as Neurological Uh-Ohs. The Neurological Uh-Ohs were pretty bad back in the early part of the year and required lots of hospital and doctor time, and I lost about five months. Then things improved a bit, and I could walk around again and do a bit more. But then the pain kicked in. My tour and appearances were canceled because I was not stable (or in any way able) enough to go.
In short, I lost a lot of time. Five months just went zooooooooop, like they had never been there. I started to recover a lot of things that had been lost, but I also learned that neurological stuff is slippery like an eel full of eels. I am certainly better than I was! SO MUCH BETTER. But as for the question, “Is it better? Did you fully recover and it’s gone now?” No, I have not fully recovered. I make progress over time! As to whether I will ever 100% recover, that’s not known. But I can absolutely live with how I am now. All improvements would simply be welcome. This is 600% times better than it was in January, when I could not really get out of bed and had trouble breathing and my big accomplishment of the day was getting to the living room sofa to side-eye the Today Show.
And as I came back, I learned about the spoons. Do you know about Spoon Theory? Many lovely people online told me about it. If you don’t know about it, you should totally read that post. In short: when you have an illness or condition, you realize everything takes energy. EVERYTHING. Showering. Getting dressed. Getting something to eat. Each of those things is a SPOON. Before, I seemed to have hundreds of spoons to get through the day! Then suddenly I had just a handful of spoons. Over the year, I have accumulated more spoons, like someone who goes on weekly IKEA runs. I don’t have hundreds of spoons, but I have many more than I did. And now I know to Value My Spoons.
Maybe you have limited spoons? My friends, we have to take our spoons and build a Spoonhenge for ourselves. All of our spoons are magnificent! Even if you have ONE SPOON, you can raise a tiny, spoon-sized flag on it. ONE SPOON HENGES ARE JUST AS GOOD.
People who know about the Spoons call themselves Spoonies. We even had a Spoonie meetup at GeekyCon so that Spoonies could tap spoons. This was the official Spoonie pin, which I wore proudly throughout the con. Now it lives on my desk:
There’s a lot of learning along the way, because as you feel better there are a lot of moments of OH HEY I FEEL GREAT I CAN DO THIS and then you run at those moments and find A Limit. The learning process can look like this:
But that’s okay.
And there’s a lot of impatience. I had been working on SO MANY THINGS when this all happened, so for months now I’ve been picking up where I left off. This often meant that I could only do ONE THING AT A TIME. I couldn’t, at one point, be online AND plan for a conference. At the conference, I couldn’t walk the miles of conference center (no joke it was miles) AND present panels, so I rode my BADASS MOBILITY SCOOTER. (And I would be HUGELY REMISS if I didn’t mention all the help I got from my assistant Felicity Disco and Nurse Erin, lit volunteer and Actual Neurology Nurse who would make me sit down and eat crackers.)
WHAT THIS ALL MEANS IS…
There’s a lot of stuff coming up. I’ll be doing it all IN STYLE. There are MANY EXCITEMENTS, and I’ll be talking about them in time, as I switch various systems back on. I can say that I will SOON be announcing A VERY EXCITING NEW BOOK SERIES, which I have already started. THIS IS SOME VERY EXCITING NEWS FOR ME.
Of course, the fourth book in the Shades of London series and the third book in the Suite Scarlett series are COMING.
There may also be SOME OTHER THINGS I cannot say anything about yet. ALL IN GOOD TIME. I will also likely be turning all my ONLINE SYSTEMS back on full-blast. Summer 2 is going to be a very exciting time. Summer 3, the one where the summer comes in the form of white sunshine flakes, will also be very exciting. If you want to be the FIRST TO KNOW these things, you can sign up for my Secret Email Letters. (I don’t send these very often, in case you’re like, “OH NO NOT SOME EMAIL THING.” It’s seriously about twice a year.)
I will also be doing a few appearances, including NerdCon.
I will see you soon. And no matter how many spoons you have, IT’S ALL GOOD. THAT IS YOUR SPOONHENGE.
In learning you will teach
And in teaching you will learn
You’ll find your place beside the
ones you love
Oh, and all the things you dreamed of
The visions that you saw
Well, the time is drawing near now
It’s yours to claim it all
Not all Muslim women cover their bodies. Not all Muslim women who do are forced to do so. Like freelance writer Hanna Yusuf, who chooses to wear a hijab in a daily act of feminism. In a new video for The Guardian, Yusuf challenges stereotypes by setting out to reclaim the choice to wear a hijab as “a feminist statement.”
I am not Muslim but I am so glad to see this because honestly I had never ever thought about it this way, I feel like I’ve been so ignorant, my eyes and mind have been opened
A very special video for me, in which I do a book review of FIRST & THEN, the debut Young Adult novel from the brilliant Emma (Elmify) Mills!
My dear friend Mike Martin kicks off First & Then vlog tour week with a truly lovely review. Thank you so much, buddy! [Blushing emoji] [happy tear emoji]
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you lit a whole pack of birthday candles at once? Because I did
That is the most metal looking cupcake ever
You know how tumblr sends us birthday cupcakes for our main blogs, with incrementally more candles each year? staff, I think I see your long-term move.
i know dwayne ‘the rock’ johnson doesn’t know me but i consider him a friend
We’ve been trying to get him to teach Crash Course Geology for the last two years, and despite the fact that it will never happen, I am incapable of giving up on that dream.
I WOULD BE DEFINITELY PANICKING AT THE DISCO IF I SAW A SHARK ON THE CEILING
Now that’s my kind of party
Sharknado Time Travel Hot Tub
I can tell you that my initial reaction was nothing but the plain realization that what I was about to reblog had just changed my life. This is that thing.
I’ve seen all of Steve’s movies but for me, Steve is never better or more appealing than when he plays a caring dad, “Father of The Bride”, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, and “Parenthood” will always be my favorite of your movies and I wanted to take this weird public opportunity to tell you how much I love you in those roles and also how much joy it brings me to know that you’re a dad now in real life. And yes, that is a patronizing thing to say. But people say dumb stuff like that to women all the time. So I just need you to just take it.
-Tina Fey talking on stage at the 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Honoring: Steve Martin. [x]
this photo makes me feel weird and confused… John Green. Rockstar entrance. Red carpet premiere.
[points to fans] “Books belong to you! Books belong to their readers!! Thanks for trying to imagine people complexly even though [flips hair], I currently look like a rockstar.” – things John may have said
I have no doubt that John said all of these things.
Now imagine this photo, but with John wrapped in an AFC Wimbledon scarf— like a kind of cape, looking slightly even more magnificent.
I would say that these concerns are not wrong or anything, but that your work is amazing and that people come and go for all sorts of reasons. I admittedly know nothing, but have the sense that if you do what you feel makes you most pleased personally, and just pursue it in that way, the numbers may actually even turn around. You know, even audiences change, and I just suppose that it’s more important to try to feel confident in creating passionately(?), and sharing boldly(?) than any initial reaction. Someone will think it’s great even if you don’t, and vice versa, and what I’m trying to get to here is spines. Actual spines. My advice is awful.
I appreciate your thoughtfulness as a person who makes things. I also hope that you’ll feel freer to pursue what seems creative or interesting to you, without having to worry quite as much about whether we’ll be on board with it.
Meet the muslim student, Faatimah Knight, who raised $30,000 to help fix churches destroyed by fire
_Faatimah Knight is pursuing an MA in Religious Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary and holds a BA in Islamic Law and Theology from Zaytuna College.
_
Ms Knight’s campaign – carried out as Muslims around the world marked the festival of Ramadan - followed a smaller, more modest enterprise.
Days after the shooting dead of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, she and some friends wanted to gather $500 to send flowers; they ended up raising $900.
And when she read about the series of churches that were burned down, Faatimah carried on her quest to help these churches in need.
“All houses of worship are sanctuaries, a place where all should feel safe, a place we can seek refuge when the world is too much to bear.”
She said that Islam taught of the need to protect the weak and vulnerable. She said while the black Christian communities of the South might not be weak, they were vulnerable.
“Traditionally, when we have been on our best behaviour, we have created space for other faiths, and let people worship as they see fit.”
guys what do we call our city. city of the free folk or city of the vacant land. tough call here. I mean we all love our freedom but on the other hand there’s absolutely nobody here
1776: A History in Tweets
Recently uncovered tweets that detail the actual conversations surrounding the development of the Declaration of Independence. Compiled by Maureen Johnson, noted tweet historian. maureenjohnson
CLICK IMAGE TO READ.
Posted again in honor of the holiday. This is, perhaps, my most important work. It was created to support The Harry Potter Alliance, so why not support them today? WHY NOT?
In FIRST & THEN by Emma Mills, Devon Tennyson is happy watching Friday night games, silently crushing on best friend, and ignoring the future after high school. But things start to shift, and fast, when Devon’s cousin Foster comes to live with her family and makes friends with the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra.
To learn more about FIRST & THEN, check out the YouTube stars who will be hosting the vlog tour, where there will be interviews with Emma, book reviews, and more!
