Danika Dinsmore

Author / Educator / Activist

cool poop

The Spider Relocation Project (AKA Office Renovation) @ 3:15 AM

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A RECAP (with spiders)

Shared Office with Hubster

Current office space.

Depressing.

Crowded.

Ick.

AKA The Shed

Soon-to-be-Room-of-my-Own

The Shed has been home to random
boxiness since we moved in almost
3 years ago.

BEFORE

Before

The Shed-to-Den-of-Awesomeness
project begins.

And the current inhabitants are
going to have to move.

AFTER

After a lot of heavy lifting
and the relocation of 37 spiders
(32 Daddy Longlegs and 5 Wolf Spiders)

We have . . . empty space!

And the spider relocation project is a success!

Jar of Spiders

However, they revisited me in my dreams during the 3:15 Experiment.

from The 3:15 Experiment
August 7, 2010

A jar of spiders in the sun
daddy long-legs paddling the air
they must be relocated
re launched     spider astronauts
flying in the wind
through space     moments before
touching down on cement block or
woodpile they hold their breath
count one . . . two . . .

I’m not interested in the relocation of spiders
merely the poetic parachute
the lightness of being
the silence of godliness
spiderness is next to godliness
the descent of spiderkind
moment fleeting without
any barbarianism
without ego smash
without combustion
without pushing aside
they catch the breeze
drop without hesitation
into the new void

~ ~ ~

I love how I interrupt the poem in the 2nd half. I remember thinking to myself, “No, I don’t want to write about the process of the relocation of spiders, I want to say something about how beautiful it was when they floated away.”

Start the Year with Kindness

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Several years ago I had the privilege of working for Puget Sound Community School in Seattle, WA. At that time, the school was only a few years old and had no fixed address. Classes were held in different places on each day of the week (from a retirement home to a community centre to a church to a frat house). Mondays we had field trips and/or community service and on Fridays students had mentorships in the community. There were no grades. Discipline happened democratically. The kids were amazing. I was having so much fun I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to work for them.

The founder and director, Andy Smallman, is a visionary educator, although I don’t know if his down-to-earth nature would call it anything other than passion. And his passion is contageous.

While I was working there, Andy facilitated an online “Kindness Class” – a way for the larger community to be involved with the school’s program. The assignments involved committing random acts of kindness and then sharing and discussing them.

He hasn’t run the class in several years and was inspired to bring it back last fall. Little did he know that when he did, the idea would spread around the globe!

We promoted [the Kindness Class] here and on the PSCS Facebook page. The idea spread and 250 people signed up. Steve sent a press packet about it to The Seattle Times. Their education reporter, Linda Shaw… came out and did a story (https://tinyurl.com/yct838d) that appeared in last Sunday’s paper. Local TV station channel 13 then did a quick news story on it last Sunday night (https://tinyurl.com/kindnessQ13 & https://tinyurl.com/KindnessQ13-Take2).
…I have been made aware by people interested in joining future classes that the Times article has been featured in newspapers in Raleigh, NC (https://tinyurl.com/y9o8n45), Greensboro, NC, Jasper, AL, Dayton, OH, Springfield, OH, Ontario, Canada, and likely others. It’s also making the rounds on Twitter, most notably having been “retweeted” by Deepak Chopra. And today it became the “Idea of the Day” on bestselling author Dan Pink’s blog (https://tinyurl.com/y8goczb). I’ve had people from as far away as Australia ask to join.

He had such a great response that he decided to run it again this term. I was so thrilled for Andy and PSCS that I signed up for the class, too. And, it’s not too late. YOU can sign up, too. It’s completely free:

…the idea is pretty simple. Each Sunday night I’ll post that week’s kindness theme via email and on a special blog set up for our class. Your job is to consider the theme and, in a way that is meaningful to you, act on it. After completing your act, you go to the blog and post what you’ve done so the rest of us get to learn about it. Imagine each of us interpreting the same theme each week in our own way and spreading ripples of positive action out in the world. It’s a revolution of kindness…


…As a virus, your acts will impact (some might say inspire) others, even people outside of the class. Being mindful, you’ll start noticing more of the kind things happening around you. You’ll become happier, more peaceful. You’ll sleep better. You’ll exercise and eat better. You’ll feel great. You’ll infect others with optimism.
How’s that sound for a way to start off the year?  Interested? E-mail Andy at pscs@pscs.org.

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness.
Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
-Scott Adams

The Inside Story from the Inside Passage

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It’s almost 11 pm and I still haven’t finished packing. I’ll be out the door at 6:45 AM to drive down to Seattle to catch the Celebrity Infinity cruise to Alaska.

photo of Alaska's Inside Passage from shipshoretravel.org
photo of Alaska's Inside Passage from shipshoretravel.org

I’ve never taken a cruise before, and frankly I’d never wanted to until I found out about Dara Mark’s class Engaging the Feminine Heroic, which takes place on the ship. It’s billed as a “7-Day Women Writers’ Retreat at Sea” and it’s going to be a blast.

Dara Marks is the author of The Inside Story: the Power of the Transformational Arc. I highly recommend it for those who’d like to develop authentic, character-driven stories.

A dozen women, mostly over 40, hanging out for a week at sea and taking a class with Dara Marks. How cool is that.

I will be posting every day along the trip about the cruise and the class.

Training for the CyberSpace Open: A script per day!

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When I started my 10 day screenwriting challenge the other day, little did I realize how this might get me in shape for one of the most interesting screenwriting contests I’ve seen:  Screenwriting Expo’s CyberSpace Open.

The contest is set up in round-robin (elimination) style. Each round the participants must write a five page short script around a specific premise. You can write from anywhere. To win you need to survive 3 rounds, each with a tighter deadline than the last.

In the final round, the top 10 writers have only 90 minutes to write a 5-page script. Whew!

logo

I’ve been writing a short script per day for the past 7 days. I missed one day, so I only have 6 scripts. I was hoping to write 2 today, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I may actually keep doing it for 2 weeks. We’ll see if I run out of steam.

I will post my favourite script of the 10 (or 14) right on this site. 🙂

Going on a Crone Cruise!

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I’ve signed up to take a cruise to Alaska with a bunch of women over 40. I’ve never considered myself a cruise person before, but I couldn’t pass this up when I heard about it.

Dara Marks, script analyst extraordinaire, will be leading a women’s writing workshop during the cruise.

We’re leaving from Seattle on August 28th if anyone would like to join us! The early bird rate is in effect until June 15. More info below.

book

Engaging the Feminine Heroic – August 28 – Sept 4, 2009

FTX Events is proud and pleased to announce a unique opportunity for women writers who have dared to pursue something in the creative realm and would enjoy some pampering aboard a CRUISE TO ALASKA this summer! This writer’s retreat is for anyone who might be looking to deepen their storytelling skills and uncover some of the mysteries surrounding our shared experiences of maidenhood, marriage, childbirth, menopause, crone wisdom and dying. Dara Marks, a best selling author of ”INSIDE STORY” and renowned Hollywood script analyst is an extraordinary women who has much to offer and she has teamed up with another very talented woman Deb Norton, who is a writer, actress, teacher and the Artistic Director of the award-winning Theater 150 in Ojai, California.

Limited Space Available.
Contact (604) 873-0277
or marcy@ftxevents.com

word to word salad… yo.

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Word salad is an extensive and eclectic online archive of poetry (podcast and other audio, blogs, links, orgs, etc).

The site’s Paul Baker does a weekly radio show of writers performing their own work. He calls it “a serial poem in audio form.” Each show brings a new “sound collage that results from a series of determined and chance operations.”

As if you needed another reason to visit… he’s been playing some tracks off my CD All Over the Road. Sweet! I’m in some very good company including Suheir Hammad, Diane di Prima, Jack McCarthy, Charles Bukowski, George Oppen… and hey, that’s just the tip of the ice berg. I’m quite honored… thanks, Paul!

Such a great combination, a synchronicity of randomness. Listen while you do the dishes. While you brush your pets or paint your toenails.

Below are the links to the playlists. You can listen by clicking the link “Listen to the Show” at the bottom of each post:

MARCH 5 PLAYLIST
includes bern porter & mIEKAL aND, caroline bergvall, evgenij kharitonov,
geof huth, jack mccarthy, lisa samuels, ron silliman, and more!

MARCH 12 PLAYLIST
includes caroline bergvall, charles bukowski, george oppen, james galvin, 
jeff stumpo, mary jo bang, ron silliman, and susan stewart

MARCH 19 PLAYLIST
includes charles bachman, diane di prima, joan retallack, johannes goranssen,
jordan stempleman, joshua ware, joyelle mcsweeney, and more!

How wondrous is this? Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY]

Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie (music and co-direction of video)

This is the kind of thing that makes me love the internet.

~ ~ ~

I have Lilylulay to thank for this gem, as I spotted it on her website. She has a great webseries, btw, called The Lilylulay Show. She’s coming up to Vancouver in 2 weeks to be on a panel I’m moderating at the New Media Forum as part of the 2009 Women in Film Festival.

Blogwarming! Welcome and Appies (and how do I win a door prize?)

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Hi! Welcome.

Thanks for stopping by. Please introduce yourself. Take a look around… It’s still under construction, so watch your step.

Feel free to bring anything you’d like… food, wine, song, dance…

You can participate simply by clicking on the comment link above and adding yourself to the mix.

First thing, before you go any further, we need to set the tone of this party right off the bat. (well, the tone for this hour at least, it could change)

To cross the threshold, you must play this video: FLIP OUT LIKE A NINJA

AND NO CHEATING… you must play the entire video and get off your butt and flip out. Come on, you know you want to (if Mickey is reading this, I especially mean you).

So, Danika, that was fun. What about these door prizes?

Here’s how it works. Your name goes into a drawing for adding something to the party. Send us something, a recipe, a link to a great website/blog/video, a poem, a cocktail mix, a page from your 6th grade diary, a photo of your disapproving cat…

Your name also goes into the drawing for each person you bring to the party. All the person has to do is tell us you sent them. Only bring fun people and no fair pretending to be someone sent by you. The bad karma faerie will punish you.

Your name also goes into the drawing for adding a line to the collaborative blogwarming poem. The first line is below. You must add a line to it, then the next person adds another line, etc. Make sure the whole poem is posted in your comment. At 8 pm, I’ll write the final line (and submit it to qarrtsiluni for their collaboration edition, even though it’s past the deadline).

I will start at mid-point



As we are in the middle of renovations, Baby is downstairs cursing about something and may turn off the electricity at certain points during the party. So if I have to step out, continue without me. I trust you all unsupervised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

5:30 – time to shake things up again.

About a year ago I was chatting with a homeless poet  who told me about Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Actually, what he really said to me was:

Rosetta Tharpe up above my head
you tube video I hear music in the air
Sister Rosetta Tharpe blues singer
down by the riverside Manchester City
1963 all the punk ass teenagers
John Lenon mentions her in his song Get Back
up above my head and from there
serenity springs grainy black and white
the choir comes in black boys and girls
you know the scene Rosetta’s got an
electric guitar and I never been
the same since

Watch the VIDEO – it’s FANTASTIC