New Website (Again...)

Even though – or maybe because, this blog is still just a baby project, I’m moving to a new website. Many of you know I’m very concerned about what is connected with my name on the web. The obvious next step was to own my name in the most basic way possible, and so you can now find this blog at cassieirwin.com.

Right now, the site will be home to just this blog. Over the next few months, I will work to develop it into something a bit… more than that. I anticipate that will be a long process, with a lot of little bumps and tons of new information. (Exciting!)

As I am fairly certain all of you readers are people I have gone to brunch with at least once in my life (or would – hello Tumblrs!), I know you’ll be patient with updating your Google Reader or favorites bookmarks for me. And I appreciate it. A lot. Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on my little mini-adventures this summer.

I’ll be back with a post on urban kayaking later this afternoon!

Meiko!

I seem to listen to primarily male singer-songwriters, broken-hearted and angsty young men. Damien Rice is a favorite. Sufjan Stevens. Mumford and Sons. More Damien Rice. Even more Damien Rice. Sometimes I need a break, though, and my friend Jason is replete with recommendations for female musicians to listen to and through him I have found some very lovely music. A few months ago, I asked very specifically for something I could listen to at work... not too sad, not too happy...and a female, please... and he recommended Meiko.

I listened a few times, here and there. I liked it. But listening to music at work is not the way to give a new artist a fair shot. I couldn't tell you any specific songs I liked; I certainly didn't retain any lyrics. It fades into the background for most of the day (which is how I listened to Lana Del Rey on loop for 8 hours without realizing it last week). 

A few days ago, a friend offered a free ticket to the Meiko show at Lincoln Hall. I know that name! I thought, looked her up on Spotify and instantly remembered that, yes, I like this. So I jumped at the ticket and headed the beautiful Lincoln Hall venue Wednesday night for what turned out to be one of the best shows I've been to in months. 

Meiko is just seriously so adorable. I can't help it - I'm a little in love with her. She was phenomenal live. I'm just waiting for a live album to release because it was so much better than a studio album. That sounds terrible but I mean it as a compliment. She has a lovely voice and was just on all night. Great music, super charming - I was swooning, I can't deny it.

She was so sweet and genuine and accommodating at the merch table. I picked up a super cute t-shirt, snagged her autograph, and yet somehow resisted from just putting her in my pocket and taking her home (that's how we talk about about things that are adorable, ok). Just a wonderful night all around.

Both of her albums are great but I am looping The Bright Side like crazy - happy, upbeat, cheerful songs that are guaranteed to make you smile. She loves love, y'all! And it's fun!

And yes, I asked her where she got her dress and then I bought that dress. We're surprised? (No, we're not.)

WordPress 101

On Tuesday, Sabine and I took an introduction to WordPress class with Nicole Crimaldi of Ms. Career Girl through Dabble. (Whew - lots of moving parts there.) This class was $25 but Sabine and I signed up during a "bring a friend" special so it was really just half that for both of us. I had literally never looked at WordPress before, but assumed that there was something above and beyond about it that would require a two-hour introduction class. Turns out, WordPress is not hard. WordPress is actually really easy to use. WordPress seems kind of fun to use. However, this class was still a great experience and I do not regret going at all. If I did it all over again, I'd do it the same.

Nicole gave us a great overview with signing up for WordPress, yes, but so much of this session was discussion about how to use blogging for whatever your purpose. There were participants who were starting small businesses, some just looking for more information for the mental knowledge bank (me), and others unsure of the next step but ready to move on to something else. And it was amazing to hear Nicole's story of fighting back against a job that made her unhappy by working really hard and really smart. It was motivating.

Additionally, she had great tips on how to grow your blog's readership and how to think strategically about SEO and keywords. I would say most of the participants were interested in how to monetize their blogs, which makes sense if this is for your business or part of your side hustle. For me, my blog is just part of my web persona, if you will, but I am very interested in creating a healthy and interesting presence on the web. While I am really not concerned with monetizing my web presence, I would say it still falls into a "side hustle" category, and these tips were great.

I was thrilled with the class and thought it a great night. The space was comfortable and inviting. Nicole was engaging and interesting - and inspiring. I'm happy to add her to a list of entrepreneurs I admire. I feel ready to really make this blog something to be reckoned with (haha - that sounds intense). It'll be a little bit, here and there, but by the end of the year, there will be some big changes here. That's the best thing about these Dabble classes - they truly do give you a taste of something new, and empower you to take off from there. Money and time well spent.

Recommendation: If you're new to blogging or social media or just less comfortable with tech, take WordPress 101. If you're all set with figuring out how to set up your blog, do that, and take Nicole's Start Your Side Hustle class on Tuesday (8/14).

Sneaking in Some Austen

While this weekend was primarily dedicated to naive wonderment and baby-steps in programming, I found plenty of time to sneak in bursts of Jane Austen.

pride and prejudice

I pushed through my fatigue and read quite a bit more of Pride and Prejudice. Currently, Mr. Collins is in town and has his heart set on Elizabeth but I have not yet gotten to the proposal. I believe I stopped in the midst of Wickham's well-spun yarn of Darcy's betrayal and his own admirable forbearance. I owe P.D. James quite the apology for my expression of distaste at the amount of time spent on Darcy's thoughts in Death Comes to Pemberley. I posited that this was in sharp contrast to Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but it is not true! Much more space is dedicated to the inner thoughts of Mr. Darcy as he recognizes and fights his infatuation with Elizabeth Bennet than I had recalled. I have become so accustomed to the BBC miniseries that it holds sway in my mind as to the truth of Pride and Prejudice. While the adaptation is certainly the story of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel is much more equitable in its dedicated space. This is a delightful discovery and I am supremely enjoying this re-reading. I am so glad I didn't truly quit!

emma

With a bottle of white wine already chilled, I was quite agreeable to Anna's suggestion that we watch the Gwyneth Paltrow-led adaptation of Emma on Saturday evening. This is another of my favorite Austen adaptations and though I had not seen it years, it lived up to my nostalgic expectations. Paltrow is a fantastic Emma and the cast is littered with esteemed British actors. I am happy to say I have not yet seen a disappointing Austen adaptation - though I am sure they exist, so I tread into these waters carefully. I also discovered that Anna owns a copy of Clueless, and so...

On Sunday, we had to watch Clueless! It has easily been ten years since I've seen this film, but it also lived up to expectations. I was a bit wary as we started it that it would be one of the films you loved in your adolescence but upon later viewing seemed cheesy and dated. It is not the case at all here. First, it is an excellent modernization of Emma - the key plot points are all there, but manipulated just enough to make them plausible for a 1990s teenager. The script is smart: the jokes are clever and stand up to the test of time. The only thing that really dates this film is the fashion and the music, and those are two things we love to look back on with rosy nostalgia.

I am happy to report that Jane Austen made my weekend quite enjoyable. I will surely owe her more gratitude as Pride and Prejudice provides me tiny moments of escape during this busy, busy week.

Cassie Learns to Code: The First Three Months

I've alluded to my limited pool of patience and when it comes to doing something, I have practically no skill at making myself wait. So, though I said I would not take on another project until I wrapped up Summer of Austen, there just was no stopping me on my new project: Cassie Learns to Code. This is one project that will certainly take more than three months, so we'll just call this installment The First Three Months.

Last week, I signed onto Codecademy after a five month break and have now spent probably twenty hours over the last five days learning JavaScript. I spent most of my Friday night (fun night!) making flash cards so I could study vocabulary while on the bus, watching tv, whenever. My notebook is slowly filling up with scribbles as I process more conceptual information, e.g., figuring out why a semi-colon is used, not just when.

What, you didn't spend your Friday night studying?

This weekend has been full of mini-triumphs and some anecdotal evidence that this is something I can learn. I am a huge fan of the way Codecademy is structured - a combination of teaching, learning by doing, and poking around to find the answer. It's a community and everyone is excited about coding!

I took this screenshot on Saturday after finishing an exercise successfully: fairly quickly and without having to look elsewhere for definitions or hints. Several things started to come together in my brain here - the whole if/elseif/else concept, the aforementioned eureka moment on semi-colons, and a more thorough understanding of functions.

This morning, Sunday, I flipped through my flash cards while procrastinating on the whole get up and get going thing. Within ten minutes, I had to abandon that plan and pull out a notebook to start jotting down questions and musings. Tiny bits of information are starting to form complete pictures in my brain AND I'm able to use my current professional position to put things in context.

After running errands (and finally getting in to a Ballerina Bum class at MaZi), I came home to work out a problem. I didn't want to launch into another lesson; I'm afraid of moving through concepts too quickly and not letting them percolate in my brain long enough. And though it took a little bit of trial and error, I did this today without use of note cards or Codecademy's (very helpful) glossary.

I'm not delusional. This is all very basic, I know, but there is nowhere else for me to start than getting down the basics. You may be concerned (er, mildly interested) that this will take time away from Summer of Austen and Project Ukulele and that might be true. I find the busier I am, the better I am at managing my time, though, and I made significant progress with Pride and Prejudice this weekend. (And tomorrow I will write about how happy I am I stuck with the book.)

This is certainly a multi-year, maybe a lifelong, project but three-month chunks seem like a great way to document and measure my progress.

Up next: WordPress 101 with Nicole Crimaldi and Dabble, Tuesday evening.

Slowly but Surely with the Ukulele

Quite unexpectedly, the ukulele has become quite an effective form of stress relief. Learning to play an instrument, even something as "simple" and basic as the ukulele, is proving to be a challenge for me. A good challenge! I haven't at all been frustrated, since that first night. I just keep strumming away, over and over again.

The nights I pick up this tiny and light tool, I start with an hour or so of chord drills. And in those first five minutes, it is always rough. The instructions do not move quickly enough from my brain to my fingers. After ten minutes, I'm getting from D to G and then to F and back again easily enough; it's starting to feel routine. I always start from the beginning, the easiest chord drills, and strive to tack on and master one more each time.

When I feel good about all of that, usually after an hour or ninety minutes, I begin working on a song. My initial goal for Project Ukulele was to master "Moon River" - the project was basically inspired by that touching scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's, after all. My learning-the-ukulele song has been Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", though. We briefly practiced it at the end of the Dabble introductory class, and I know the song so well I don't need to worry about lyrics and chords, just chords. That level of familiarity makes it easier for me to "feel" the chord changes and strumming patterns, too. I work on that for, easily, another hour or so and then retire for the evening.

When I started this project, I really did think I would pick this up pretty quickly and after three months, I'd be able to pull out a song upon request. It's a lot more work than that, and I'm surprisingly pleased with this. Being able to sit down and focus on something for two to three hours at a time has brought a lot of little interesting aspects to my life.

First, this time has proven invaluable to my brain. I am obviously using a different part of my brain than I use during the day, and though I am no scientist, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a plethora of research about how letting my brain rest, while still actively using another part of it, makes my entire brain stronger. I feel well rested and sharper during my work day, and calmer and more relaxed in the evening.

I am also becoming an even more patient person. It has not always been a strength of mine, but in the last five years or so has become something I have actively strive for - to be patient with people and with things (i.e. the train). It's becoming more and more just an initial reaction, to just wait a moment and let things work out or fall into place. This is something I always got from dance and working out, and I'm surprised that something physically inactive brings the same benefit to my day.

That said, the ukulele is indeed a poor replacement for ballet class. And now that I'm mobile again (albeit weak and slow), I need to get back in the gym and the studio. I'm not keen about sacrificing much of my ukulele time for that, though. I really feel like I need both in my life now and finding a new balance will be key to this. So, I'll do as I always do and come up with a schedule for the next few weeks - to allocate reasonable time to both while still finding time to watch The Daily Show (and the Olympics!)

Preview: I cannot officially start it until I wrap up Summer of Austen - two projects seems to be about the limit right now - but the next project will focus on learning some basic programming. I'm looking at a few different approaches, probably a combination of a few methods. I think this will be a fun one to blog about, too! I am finding that I like it, a lot, for many of the same reasons I like the ukulele and kayaking: stress relief, new skills, and accomplishment.

Death Comes to Pemberley... and I Resurrect Pride and Prejudice

Just five days ago, I gave up on re-reading Pride and Prejudice. And I was totally okay with that. And if this was your project, and you did that, I would not judge you at all.

But I can't quit.

Maybe I just needed an Austen break. Maybe reading Death Comes to Pemberley reignited my drive. Whatever it was, I realized this morning that I just could not compromise on my original plan for this project.

So, I'm back on board with Pride and Prejudice. With a little over a month left, I have quite a bit of reading to do. Luckily, my little introverted heart needs a break from all the socializing and coast-hopping and is screaming for me to just have a couple nights in to relax.

But let's go back and talk about Death Comes to Pemberley. This novel picks up the story of Elizabeth and Darcy, six years later, happily settled at Pemberley with two beautiful children and a happy life punctuated with, of course, family drama here and there. Though she is not particularly welcomed to Pemberley, Lydia shows up in the middle of the night before an annual ball, and plunges our favorite characters into a murder mystery.

I was happily impressed with the continuity of story. It felt seamless, often referencing small plot points from Pride and Prejudice. At times, though, I felt that James challenged how I understood these characters. Elizabeth became less romantic and mused on how financial considerations impacted her past decisions. Charlotte is suddenly less sympathetic and a bit devious. And Darcy is now quite thoughtful and romantic! I don't know that these characterizations are wrong, and I might also be far too influenced by the BBC adaptation, but it just felt "off" at times to me.

I also have very little interest in reading contemporary mystery novels. While this retained the language and writing style of Jane Austen, there were too many features of modern storytelling that frustrated me. For example, the same details, around the events of the murder in question, were repeated numerous times. Occasionally, this was done to illustrate how one person's recollection varies from another, or to introduce a small piece of information not previously known. More often, though, I felt like I was suffering through another three-page retelling of "what happened that night" without any payoff.

Yet, this was a quick read and it was fun. The requisite twists were surprising, though not shocking. I didn't feel any compulsion to keep reading as I do in my best experiences but I did not have to force myself to get through the story. I certainly do not feel any worse off having read it, if that's a recommendation at all.

Verdict: if you love pride and prejudice, it's a cute read; good for beach days or rainy weekends