Soothing My Soul

A few days ago my friend Heidi over at Slightly Cosmopolitan was asking what other people do to soothe their souls and refresh themselves. I've been thinking about this more and more, as I need a little regeneration myself.

The answer that comes back to me again and again is stories. Generally this is done through reading, but sometimes I can immerse myself into a good movie or a television series. Television on DVD has been a huge boon for me in this area. But still, my tried and true method is a good book. Sometimes the book is a trashy romance or something like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Amusing, but light. I found that when I was just plain tired, but need to read, these are the books I turn to. I don't have to think much, but reading them allows me a little mental space to let go of the world and my cares.

Other times, when I am not so tired, but still need that mental space, I can read deeper books. And I do! I especially love Guy Gavriel Kay for these moments. I also love some of John Irvings' works (be picky here, his first few books are not great and the last couple didn't really do it for me either). And the last lot that I read that I loved were from P.C. and Kristen Cast, a series called The House of Night. I cannot recommend one single book, because the books that soothe me and speak to me depend on the time in my life and what I am open to.

When I stray from reading and story in general, my bigger soul soothing moments come from running and spending time with my friends talking.

Heidi, I hope that this helps. They may not be your solutions, but now you have a brief glimpse into mine.

HTML

I've been promising myself for some time that I would learn all there is to learn about HTML. I know it is not hard. I actually understand the tagging system and am pretty good with a computer overall. It helps that I know FrameMaker and was able to mess around with the tags in there. I used to do it on the old versions of WordPerfect too.

And yet, I procrastinate. I've tried 2 books. The first one was a "For Dummies" book. The second one was another kind, that seemed pretty good. I get to about the halfway point with it. The problem is that I need to be working with it as I go along. And I don't. Go figure.

I am currently working on a free online course to teach me HTML here.

I've got an Honours Degree in English Literature, a post-grad certificate in editing, and I have done a load of other courses. And here I am...admitting that HTML continues to escape me.

(I think I need something faster than 24 hours worth of lessons that most of these books offer. Sheesh.)