YouTube How-To Videos - #septemberchallenge #MondayMusings #NaBloPoMo

  

Monday, September 28, 2015

Do you ever watch how-to videos on YouTube? Tell us about a lesson you learned from watching a video.

Mostly I watch country music videos on the site.  I think this is the only how-to video I have ever watched on YouTube, but don't quote me on that:

Some people actually make and sell the zines, or mail them to people for the cost of a stamp, etc.  I don't think you'd ever get rich off of zines, but it is a fun project now and again.  I get the idea they are mostly done by hand (drawings, text, etc.) but I could be wrong on that.  It's been probably a couple of years since I watched this video.  As I remember, Sam was a cool guy and a good video teacher. :O)

I might try this with my daughter.  She loves drawing and writing little stories.  Then she could give them to her grandparents, and you KNOW that will go over well! ;)

What is the Sound of Writing? #septemberchallenge #wyho

Usually, I have to psyche myself up to write.  Yeah, I know, even though I like doing it.  Gotta get up, wake up, have some coffee and silence all those naysaying self-talkers running around in my brain.

Then I play some music that makes we want to get up and dance, or run around the yard, or ... write!  In fact, I listed to a video on YouTube of "Boondocks" by Little Big Town.  In fact, there's a whole "Country" playlist filled with songs that (mostly) rev me up something fierce!  And the more engaged and excited I am, the more passionate my writing, and the clearer my 'voice'.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Book Reviews - #septemberchallenge, #NaBloPoMo

  

Friday, September 25, 2015

If you could be paid to teach a special course, what would be the subject matter and how long would the course run?

~~~oOo~~~

I would like to teach a course on how to write a good book review.

Back at the end of 2013, I discovered reading challenges online.  I hadn't read for myself (non children or academic books) for a number of years and, well, the reading challenges were a sign of big changes to come into my life!

Then I 'discovered' writing reviews for books.

Favorable reviews can help books sales.  Unfavorable reviews can put a damper on sales.

Reviews I don't like to see:

+ where the reviewer as not even read the book, and (rather foolishly I believe) admits that they have not read the book.  If the reviewer is neutral or favorable towards the author, they do the author and themselves disfavor by writing a review for something they have not read.  If the reviewer dislikes the author and writes a trashy review because of it - STOP IT!  Such spite has no place in book reviews, and reflects at least as badly, if not more so, on the supposed reviewer.

(As an example, there is a series of books out by a writer - and to even use that word in relation to this piece of trash makes me want to vomit - where he travels around the world and writes about the best ways to 'pick up' women in various countries.  The books are titled "Bang X" where X is whatever the country du jour is.)  He advocates that rape be decriminalized if the attack (my word) occurs on private property.  Yeah, I know.  And it gets more repulsive from there.  But I will not go in and manufacture a "1 star" review of a book I have no intention of reading.  I will, however, feel free to express my opinion to any online sites (hello, AMAZON, are you listening?) that carry these complete waste of trees or disc space.

(It's all right, really.  I'm stepping off my soapbox now.  Maybe I'll get a cup of tea and meditate for a while ... until my mouth stops foaming.)

+ where the reviewer writes, "I really liked this book," and that's it.  What did you like about it?  Could you see the main character as a friend?  Was the story well paced?  Was the book outside your usual genre but you found you quite liked it anyway?  If you're getting the ARC for free in exchange for a review, it would be nice to give the author a little bit more than, "I really liked this book."

+ where the reviewer trashes the book unmercifully.  Yeah, maybe all the "t"s are not crossed and the "i"s are not dotted.  Maybe the grammar could use a little tightening - or a lot.  I was on a writing bulletin board a while back where someone asked for a critique of something she had written.  The grammar and spelling was pretty bad.  Other boardies were fairly cruel in their assessments of her writing ability.  I found something I liked about what she had written, elaborated on that a little and did bring up that maybe she needed to take another look at the structure issues.  But then I've never been a big fan of (academic) elitists who assume everyone not meeting their list of desirable qualities is beneath them.

Wow (looking back over the post), there's a lot of yuck up there, am I right?  Let's turn things around.

Reviews I DO like to see:

+where the reviewer lets a little of her or his personality show through.  Maria at Queen of the Night Reviews.  She does cover a number of books with adult themes, but her blog comes with a warning of that before you even get to the homepage.  Extra points for that.

+reviews that give potential readers more than "It was a good book," or a rehash of the synopsis.  Lori Caswell at Escape With DollyCas blog is a good example of this phenomenon and she organizes book tours too!

I'm sure there's more examples of reviews that I do like to see, but it is just before 7:am where I am and my coffee cup is empty.  Peace out, y'all.

Classroom or Home Room? - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Do you find it easier to learn in a classroom or at home?

Sometimes I learn easier at home and sometimes in a physical classroom.

Right now, I would LOVE to be in a classroom.  We have too many animals/pets right now and it's driving me up a wall!  Most of the puppies are going to their forever homes on Sunday and then maybe things will calm down somewhat.  One of the bigger dogs ripped my left forearm earlier today when I was trying to stop him from chasing the UPS driver.  I'd like to have a big whine about the aftermath, but it's not really to topic, so I will have to save that story for another day.

If I go to a physical classroom, it's at least as much for the social aspect of things as to the course of study itself.  I did a couple semesters of online classes through a local college and had a good experience overall.  There were class bulletin boards on the school's site and for the language class, we met in a virtual classroom and spoke Spanish back and forth at each other.

Lecture classes?  Rather connect from home via the internet.

Labs?  Well, you kind of have to be there.

Acting classes?  Again, not much you can do without being somewhere with other people (unless you are working on a 1 person show, I suppose).  

Although, there was a singing group on America's Got Talent (Forte) one year that found each other over the internet, practiced with each other over the internet, and only met in person for the first time about 20 minutes before their audition.  They got to the final round!

Cook Books vs. Recipe Sites - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Tell us about a recipe you learned to make from the Internet.

~~~oOo~~~

I don't think I ever have learned a recipe from the internet. Either that, or maybe one or two, but they are so far back in my memory (and I'm talking years instead of months or weeks) that it is nearly impossible to recall.

There was a time when I had a 'close call' to learning a recipe, though. I had wanted to make some caramels. We had all the ingredients, but no measuring spoons or cups, so I guessed at the amounts and tried to appear confident to my 12 year old daughter.

The taste was there, but the mass was so sticky that it nearly defied being cut. It was as much taffy as caramel. You could pull off a hunk, and pull it farther and farther away from the main dish, the strand of candy getting thinner and thinner, and then walk back to the pan, twisting up the strand(s) back and forth between the index fingers of both hands.

My kitchen and I have a somewhat adversarial relationship.

The Hack with This! - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Point us toward your favourite lifehack on the Web.

~~~oOo~~~

Lifehack - Informal: a tip, trick, or efficient method for doing or managing a day-to-day task or activity; a hack: a lifehack overcoming social anxiety; a computer programmer's best lifehacks.

lifehack. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved September 22, 2015, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lifehack

~~~oOo~~~

I have mixed feelings about 'lifehacks'.

On the one hand, do they actually exist?  For example.  I copy/pasted the above definition from dictionary.com.  There was SO MUCH CODING in the definition that changed the margins, text size, text color, etc, etc, etc.  That might save time, if you were trying to fit the definition into a blog post with the same style of text display.  I was not.  I was trying to fit it into this blog.

So I went into the "html" side of the blog post and deleted all the opening and closing "span" tags in those two lines of definition up there.  There was at least 10x (TEN TIMES) the number of lines that I deleted than I left in!  Where's the efficiency in THAT?  *sheesh*

On the other hand, who doesn't like a more efficient way of doing things, especially things that we don't normally like to do but that we have to do anyway.  Like laundry, vacuuming (steps especially), as well as other household chores and errands.

And I have an issue with the very term 'lifehack'.  It's a buzzword and I don't like buzzwords.  And I'm having trouble getting over the negative connotations of the "hack" part.  For the last number of years, 'hacking' has meant someone breaking into someone else's computer or program and messing things up somehow.  Do hackers hack because they can?  Because they think they're better than someone?  Everyone?  Because of the challenge?

That being said, there is one site I have gone to a number of times in my attempts to homestead on our house and yard:  the One Hundred Dollars a Month blog of Mavis Butterfield.  Specifically, to the "Tips and Tricks" section, accessible from the right sidebar.  I found the site by searching for how to make your own laundry soap.  As a result of that one visit, I subscribed to her blog and stalked followed her social media.  If DIY isn't your thing, there are plenty of great recipes and links to deals around the internet.

While writing this post, I came across a site called Lifehack.org.  There are scads (and scads) of articles, written by 'guest contributors', on just about every topic under the sun.  Most of the articles seem to be of a "x ways to ...." style.  I have not thoroughly investigated the site, but it looks promising.  And it had today's 'buzzword' in the site title. :O)

~~~oOo~~~

Is there a website (or sites) which you frequent to find way to make you life easier to manage?  Please share!

Mamaw's Sausage Gravy - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Monday, September 21, 2015

Teach us how to do something with a how-to lesson.

~~~oOo~~~

How to Make Sausage Gravy - Kentucky Mamaw Style

1.  Wake up before dawn.

2.  Swear because it's still dark out.

3.  While getting dressed, swear because you're getting old.

4.  Get out your ingredients (sausage, flour, milk, extra oil if needed).

5.  Brown your sausage in a cast-iron skillet (and swear at all those new-fangled frying pans that don't do the job 'proper'.

6.  If there isn't enough grease add a little bit, to give the flour something to hold onto, all the time vowing not to get that brand of dang sausage again because it doesn't have enough dang fat.

7.  Add a couple handfuls of flour, stirring the entire time.

8.  If the gravy scorches, swear, clean out the pan and go back to step #4.

9.  When you get past step #8, add milk almost to the top of the skillet.

10.  Swear at your young'uns (grandkids) to get their lazy *ahem* bones outta bed.

11.  Put the flour and milk back where you got them from with one hand, because your other dang hand is still stirring the gravy, and you surely don't want to have to go back to step #4 at this point.  You might have to swear if you did that.

12.  Get a bowl for your favorite grandson because he likes to eat his gravy separately from his biscuits.  Get plates and fresh-baked home-made biscuits for everyone else.  Swear at your ex-daughter-in-law (in absentia) for using those store bought frozen kind.

Praise in the Day - #septemberchallenge #isaiah12

  

Isaiah 12:1

And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. (KJV)

~~~oOo~~~

This last week, and for the next five weeks, I have been participating in a group at the "Do Not Depart" blog that proposes to memorize scripture from the Bible as a way to help us to ponder over and think about the things of God more in our daily lives.  The verse above (Isaiah 12:1) was the verse we worked on last week.  

For whatever reason, I have always preferred the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible over the more modern translations.  The language kind of reminds me of Shakespeare or poetry.  Sometimes, this makes it a little more difficult to understand, but there are ways to find out.  I was planning on asking other members of the group, but then I read a different translation this morning, and now I think I have a better understanding of this verse.

It seems Isaiah has been talking of the coming forth of the Messiah and how God will gather Israel in that day.  That would tend to make people happy (you'd think).  So on the day the Messiah appears and God begins to gather together the children of Israel, people will give thanks to God.

The arrival of the Messiah in the Judeo-Christian tradition is pretty much one of the best things that could happen - ever.  The darkness, or time of trial would be over and a new day would dawn.  It would be like someone who was angry with us (for cause) had forgiven us and the relationship could then continue as it had before.

When someone does something nice for us (like shares a blog post, babysits on a moment's notice, etc.) it is 'de rigeur' to thank them, at least with words, if not some more concrete gesture.  How much more would we want to thank God for His blessings?  (Please translate my expression of my Christian tradition into your own belief system.)

~~~oOo~~~

Do you get the same or a different idea about the meaning of the above verse?  

No matter your spiritual tradition, I invite you to participate in the comments/discussion, with the provisos that none of us belittle another's beliefs and do not express a hateful attitude.  Thank you.

My House at Hogwarts #NaBloPoMo #septemberchallenge

  

Friday, September 18, 2015

Which house would you be in at Hogwarts and why?

~~~oOo~~~

I have not read any of the Harry Potter books, nor seen any of the movies.

According to a listing of four houses (Gryffindor, Hugglepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin) from the Harry Potter Wikia, it would be a close call between Hugglepuff and Ravenclaw for me.  Hugglepuff "values hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members".  Ravenclaw "values intelligence, knowledge, and wit."

I'd like to think I have some of that - intelligence, knowledge and wit.  And let's face it, Ravenclaw is a much more evocative name than Hugglepuff.  But when it comes right down to it I believe I am more defined by "hard work (well, you know), dedication, patience, loyalty and fair play".

~~~oOo~~~

What about you?  What house would you be in?  (The link in the text above will take you to the relevant page at the HP Wikia and you can find out about the different houses if you don't know them already.)

The Best Classroom May Not Be a Room - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Did you ever wish that you went to a different school? Which school did you covet?

~~~oOo~~~

The short answer:  No, not really.

The really short answer:  No

My answer, on the other hand:

When we lived in Cumberland, our next-door neighbors were Catholic.  All the Catholic children went to the Catholic schools in town and everyone else went to the public schools.  That was hard for me to understand growing up .  (I even saw a sign on a swimming pool clubhouse once that said, "No Catholics Allowed"!)  There are dozens of pictures in our family albums showing all of us kids, Catholic or Protestant, playing together.  One of the boys was about my age and our mothers did the "Oh, aren't they cute together" thing on more than one occasion.

There were no such issues in jr high school or high school.

When I first went to college, I attended the University of Utah.  It was the only college I applied to because I just assumed I would be going there.  

Most of the state of Utah is Mormon (LDS - Latter-day Saint).  In Salt Lake City, though, the ratio is about 50-50.  Brigham Young University (BYU) is a large Mormon college about a half hour south of Salt Lake.  Most of the Mormon kids wanted to go there and most of the non-Mormon kids wanted to go to the U of U.  The rivalry was very strong.  (But then again, in SLC, if you are non-Mormon, that seemed at the time to mean 'anti-Mormon'.  This was 35 years ago, so things might have changed since then.)

When I had talked myself into believing that I wanted to study International Business, I wanted to go to the London School of Economics for graduate work.  (I am a strong anglophile.)  Because, hey, it's the LSE!

When I dreamed of studying acting at the graduate level, I looked into the Yale School of Drama.  But I was a different person then, and did not (could not perhaps?) put forth the kind of effort that would have given me a chance to attend.

But that is in the past.  There's nothing much I can do about that, just make sure that future opportunities (in whatever endeavor I choose) do not escape me in the same way.  

These days, I'd almost as soon go to a master (craftsperson) and learn whatever it is I want to know - as most of my interests lie in the creative/artsy area.  There is a man who handcrafts dulcimers near to us - well about 3-5 miles as the crow flies, which in Kentucky means about 10-15 miles of road).  I would rather learn to make an instrument from someone like that puts their heart and soul into their work, than sit in a classroom and read schematics and make mechanical drawings.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not where my interest lies.)

~~~oOo~~~

What was your favorite school?

What do Drawing, Shakespeare and Geography Have in Common? #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

What was your favorite subject back when you were in school?

~~~oOo~~~

I remember liking Geography when it was introduced to the curriculum when I was in 4th grade with Mrs. Goetches.  (If you had asked me yesterday what the name of my 4th grade teacher was, I would not have been able to tell you.  Funny what these prompts bring up.)  We must not have gotten to individual US states because the next year, when my family moved to Utah, I couldn't have told you where it was or that it was even a state.

There was a 1/2 year class in Shakespeare that was interesting and cemented Will's place as my favorite playwright EVER!

I also remember a Drawing 101 class in college (when I went back after a 10-year break).  Two things stick out in my memory.

1.  When we sketched our first 'still life' the professor told us to put our pencils on the paper and to look at the display and to draw what we saw without looking at our paper or lifting the pencil.  The gasps of horror from the students were audible.  And, of course, when we were done, to a student, our sketches looked like something only the mother of a toddler could love.  But you know what?  We could tell from looking at the drawings what the display had been.  So it turns out there weren't all that bad after all.  I think it was a tremendous confidence booster.

2.  A year or two after the class, I was in the play "Gertrude Stein and a Companion" (as Gertrude).  The art professor invited me to sit for his advanced portrait painting class in the manner that she had sat for Picasso.  Lots of black in that.  And the other best part?  I got PAID!

School Daze - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPomo

  

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Tell us about a school you attended.

~~~oOo~~~

Only one?  Y'all know me better than that.  This post is rather long, so don't feel like you have to read all of it.  

The kindergarten section is the shortest.  

The second section (1st - 5th) has wisps of really old memories.  

The third section (5th - 6th) is probably the 'driest' of the bunch.  

The 4th (jr high school) probably shows my writer's 'voice' the best.

The last (high school) is overshadowed by one event that happened my senior year.

DON'T FORGET to let me know in a comment one of your favorite school memories!

Kindergarten

The first school I attended was a kindergarten at a local Episcopalian church in Cumberland, MD.  Yes, I'm old enough that when I started school, there was no kindergarten in public schools.  I believe the classes were held in the basement of the church, and I remember something about a yellow 'graduation gown' and a pin with the school name on it, but that's as far as that goes.

1st - mid-5th grades

The local public grade school was "Johnson Heights Elementary School".  From what I remember there was nothing outstanding about the building.  Just your everyday brick school with two floors.  I remember more from these years, of course.  Every year there was some kind of harvest festival with a lot of booths and performances by the children.  I remember baking pies with my mother to sell in one of the booths.  (Like you could do that these days.  Hah!  If things don't come shrink-wrapped from the factory, they probably don't let you on school grounds.  Of course, in those days it seemed a lot less people were acting on their darker impulses.  But I digress.)  I remember practicing a dance (the Virginia Reel?) for a performance during 3rd grade, and getting slugged in the stomach by an overeager classmate who was REALLY into his dancing.  I remember going to speech therapy because I had trouble saying "r", "l" and "th".  I remember my mother turning in a form to get me out of the measles shots on religious grounds.  I remember there being a real competition every day tosee who would have the 'honor' of knocking the blackboard erasers outside the building to clean them.  I remember my 5th grade class writing stories about my adventures in the "Wild West" before we moved to Salt Lake City in January of 1972.

mid-5th - 6th grades

Fortuna Elementary School in unincorporated Salt Lake County, Utah.  We went back to school as soon as my parents started the process to purchase what would become our house.  Fortuna was a round building with 2 levels.  You could go in on the top side and children went out on the opposite side at the bottom to the playground.  (Remember when they still used those?)  In the center of the school, there was a 'mid-level' that was accessed by stairs from the bottom or top floors.  This center area contained the schools library.  The only interior doors were to behind the desk at the administrative offices, the restrooms (of course), the cafeteria, and maybe the janitor's closet.  Everything else was open.  You could see from the one of the top floor classrooms through the library into another classroom on the opposite side of the school downstairs.  It was not as chaotic as you might think.  On the ball field one day, I got hit in the eye with a pitched baseball (softball maybe?) and developed a black eye.

7th - 9th grades

Churchill Jr. High School, also in Salt Lake County.  It was your typical light brick, 70's, coulda-been-a-prison-instead-of-a-school building.  The bullying of younger students by older grades was almost as institutional as the building itself.  I was first 'invited' to try marijuana there.  I declined.  I had my first French class and we all giggled when we saw the vocabulary card by the blackboard eraser.  I took my first typing class there.  All but two of the typewriters were manual.  It was a real treat on the days it was our turn to work on one of the brand-spanking-new IBM Selectric typewriters.  You had to hold little pieces of white tape against the paper and strike the relevant key to correct mistakes.  The drama teacher would decorate his door for the Christmas season (back when that was allowed) with puppies his dog had had.  I really, REALLY wanted one of those puppies.   By the time I had convinced my parents that yes, I would take care of the dog, all the puppies were spoken for.  I was heart-broken.  Literally.  I cried right there in school.  One of my classmates said her dog had just had puppies and maybe I could come get one of those.  Hence, the first "Sneakers" came into our lives.  One of the math teachers let my parents know that apparently I had a head for math, which pleased them to no end.  I remember hearing the student body president cursing in the hall one day and that made me lose a little respect for him.  (I've always been of the opinion that there are times when swearing may be justified, but casual conversation is not one of them.)

10th - 12th grades

Skyline High School, Salt Lake County.  There was at least a little architectural interest here.  Angles, steel beams, funky roof and windows come to mind.  I was chosen to go to "Girl's State", which angered some of my classmates, because they thought they should have gone.  I was also chosen to go to a luncheon at the University of Utah, to encourage girls to go into 'scientific' (chemistry, engineering, biology, nursing, medical ... etc.) majors.  Again, I tweaked off some classmates (a different group) because they thought they were better and should have been 'honored' instead of me. Whatever!  (Talk to the hand.)  I was in one play in high school, Eugene O'Neill's "Lazarus Laughed".  I played several characters, including Lazarus's mother.  There was one scene where the Roman Soldiers killed Lazarus's family.  During one rehearsal my murderous soldier missed thrusting the sword in between my torso and upstage arm and beaned me right below the rib cage.  Thank goodness the swords were wood and not metal!  In any case, I did my best ever 'crumple to the stage like I was dead'.  With the resurrection and all, the theme of the play seemed to be, "There is no death".  Well, right in the middle of rehearsals, my father had a stroke.  A week later he had a heart attack and passed away at the age of 47. 

Study, Study, Study! - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Monday, September 14, 2015

If you could go back to school (for free) for a new degree, what would you want to study? Or if you could go to college, what would you want to study?

I would follow two courses of study.

The first would be acting.  It is where my heart of hearts lies.

My first college major was acting, back in the day.  (Musical Theatre actually.)  But at the end of the year audition, one of the professors wrote on my sheet that I had no future in theatre and should find something else to do.  So I did - for ten years.

Then I found out that one person's opinion was wrong, as evidenced by doing 5-6 plays a year for about 6 years.  Granted, they weren't all paid gigs, but most actors would be overjoyed to be working that much.

The most stunning experience I had is when a director I admired greatly basically picked me to do "Happy Days" by Samuel Beckett.  (No, not the one with 'the Fonz'.)  Basically me on stage for 45 minutes, talking.  In the first act, the character is buried up to her waist in sand.  In the 2nd act, she is buried up to her neck.  There is actually another character in the play.  He says about 35-40 words the whole time.  He had a music box specially made for the play that played "The Merry Widow Waltz", and gave it to me when the run was over.

Anyway, that's one.

Number two would be writing.  I think I definitely have a 'voice', but it needs practice and development.  And deadlines.  I need deadlines to give me that kick-in-the-backside to get me going some days.

You see, I love playing with words. Picking them up on the beach, and turning them over in my hands, holding them up to the light to see the sparkle and if they cast any shadows, holding them up to my ear to see if words can give off the sound of the ocean, like seashells.  I play with words.

For the time being there is really zero chance of working in theatre where I live.  The closest town with a playhouse is far away, and there's really not enough people around in this rural and semi-rural area to merit a run of more than a couple of days.  Putting plays together is a LOT of work!

So writing seems to be where my future lies.  Anything could happen!

~~~oOo~~~

What did you study in college, or what would you like to study if given the chance?

A Few Thoughts on Writing - #septemberchallenge #100WordsonSaturday

   

From Everyday Gyaan:

How does this work?

1. You write a 100 words in response to our prompt/or on any subject and post it on your blog. Remember to include a link back to this post.
2. Then add the link to our linky below.
3. Visit and comment on at least two or as many linked posts as you can.
4. The linky will stay open until the following Friday.
5. You can grab the 100 Words on Saturday badge here.

Today we have no prompt. Time for a free write.

 Actually, to link up you will need to click on the 2nd graphic at the beginning of the post.

~~~oOo~~~

So now I have to come up with a topic as well?  What am I, a blogger, a writer?

Well, yes I am.  I need to get off my comfortable chair, park my carcass at the desk and write or type until the words come out.

Some times the words don't want to show up.  At times like that, I have to go hunting for them.  Does that make me a word predator?  It makes me sound so ... primal and violent.

One of my favorite ways to go on a writing hunt is to free write sense and/or nonsense.

Best School Day EVER! - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Friday, September 11, 2015

Tell us about your best day of school ever. 

~~~oOo~~~

I really tried to remember something from my days in public school.  And while many images came to mind, nothing stood out as "best day of school ever."  So I'm going to briefly related two days I remember from college.

I was in the Finance program at Westminster College.  In late April 1992, I was sitting with a dozen or so nervous classmates in the basement level of an old building on campus.  There was a surprising amount of natural light in the room due to it well placed, and rather large, windows.

It was the scheduled time and date for the final exam for 'Cases in Financial Management'.  The last class final before I graduated.  We had all been given a list of two cases we could study and be prepared to expound upon the week before.  We had had study groups and made late hours making as much preparation as possible.

The instructor walked in, a huge bear of a man with white hair.  He put his briefcase on the desk and asked if we were all ready for this.  Other small talk ensued.  Then, he suddenly said, "Oh, wait just a minute," and he left the room again.  Figuring he was just going to retrieve something from his office, be began to chat amongst ourselves again.

Scant several minutes later, he walks in with 3 or 4 pizza boxes and sets them on his desk at the front of the room.  Gently pushing the boxes towards his students, he said, "There's your final!"

Amongst the squeals of delight and silent prayers of gratitude that rose up, he said, "I figure you've spent a week studying this case.  You've discussed it thoroughly.  You've already learned everything you can from it.  Why sit here and spend a tense couple of hours writing about it in a little blue book?"  Ok, maybe those weren't his exact words.  But give me a break?  This was 23 years ago.  The spirit of what he said is definitely there.

~~~oOo~~~

The second experience, also from my college days, had little to do with any individual course.

I had auditioned for, and gotten a part in, the college's production of "The Importance of Being Earnest".  (That's a whole other story for another day or two.)  It was the Sunday before we opened, and we all gathered in the lounge of the theatre.  All of the actors, that is.  The director was nowhere to be found.

We tried every other door in the building and the way into the room where the stage was located was locked.  We tried calling the director, who was also the college's lone theatre professor.

Thinking we couldn't let the rehearsal pass without any actual rehearsing, we decided to do a line-through in the lounge.  Now remember, this is the old college standard of "The Importance of Being Earnest", set amongst the well-to-do classes of England well back in history.  We all did all our lines with accents more suited to the American southern states.  Twangs and drawls abounded.

In the actual play, 'Bunbury' is an excuse that the male lead uses to pop into or out of London to get away...you know the thing, he can't stay for supper because his friend Bunbury has taken ill and he must pay the pour soul a visit.  As his two worlds (London and the countryside) begin to paint him into a corner, he blurts out that Bunbury has been taken off by a sudden chill while in Paris.  All that background is to set up the fact that in our transplanted version 'cousin Beauregard' was taken off suddenly in Atlanta by syphilis.

Ok.  Looking at it in the last paragraph, yes it does seem a little strange.  But back we were blowing off steam.  We opened in three days and the director didn't show up for rehearsal.  We knew she was eccentric, but really.  Anyway, I have rarely in my life laughed as hard as I did that night.

And the professor?  We found out the next night that she had overdosed on some kind of drug and would be in the hospital for a while.  The college really did well by us, pulling in locals with theatre experience to help get the show off the ground.

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WE WILL NEVER FORGET! 9/11

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Would you share a memorable good experience from your school days?  Thanks!

I Wish I Could Forget - #NaBloPoMo #septemberchallenge

  

Thursday, September 10, 2015

What is something you learned that you wish you could forget?

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I've written about this a couple of times before, so you'll probably get the Reader's Digest condensed version, unless of course, I 'wax lyrical'...

I wish I could unlearn the lesson that "I wasn't enough" or "good enough".

Following are two memories, somewhat far apart in time.  I can't say they caused me to lack self-confidence, but they are things that stick out as times when I remember feeling "not enough".

When I was 6 or so, I saw an advertisement in the local paper, calling for young girls to enter a beauty pageant.  I took the notice to my other and told her I wanted to enter.  She said no and that added that so many girls enter and only one could win.  I know now she was trying to shelter me from disappointment.  Of course, for all I knew, we could not afford the entry fee.  We didn't have the newest and fastest things growing up, but we never went hungry either.  The lesson I learned here was that I was not (pretty) enough.

My father held a PhD in Chemical Engineering.  He was pretty much the smartest man I ever knew, and the first of his family to even go to college.  So academics were very important to him.  Since jr high school, I have not had a difficult time with just about any math class I took.  When I started high school, I had a trigonometry class that was a struggle.  I worked hard and on one test, I got 97 out of 100.  I was pretty pumped!  I went home and showed the test to my father.  His response was to ask, "What happened to the other three points?"  My bubble promptly burst and I learned that I wasn't (smart) enough.

I still struggle with this lesson sometimes.  I would like to get rid of it.  I definitely do not want to pass it along to my children - or anyone else for that matter.  Maybe I can bury it in the field next to our house.

Valuable Lesson - #NaBloPoMo #septemberchallenge 7

  

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

What is a valuable lesson you learned from a teacher?

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As I went through all my years of schooling, from kindergarten through graduating college, I recall many wonderful teachers.  There was my 1st 5th grade teacher, Miss Martha Shaner, at Johnson Heights Elementary School in Cumberland, MD.  (We moved to Salt Lake City in the middle of my 5th grade year.)  She had my classmates write stories for me about the adventures I would have in the "Wild West".  At the time, I had no idea that Utah was even a state, let alone its location.  Let me tell you, I was quite the little heroine!

Another teacher I remember was my 11th grade English teacher.  Unfortunately I do not remember her name.  She had severe black shoulder-length hair.  I signed up for a Shakespeare class in my senior year partly because, hey, it was Shakespeare, and partly because this instructor was teaching the course.

I remember the class was having a discussion.  She asked a question and one of the other students was answering, giving a detailed response.  The teacher looked at this student and said, "You argued your point very well.  You're wrong, of course, but you made a good case."  That was going on four decades ago, but I still remember where I sat in the class and I can 'see' her saying that.

She did not mean it in a belittling way.  She acknowledged the student's effort and use of his (or her) discussion skills.  I hope that student learned as much as I did that day.

What was my lesson?  I can get my point across while disagreeing with someone in an agreeable manner.  I have as much right as the next person to express my point of view, even if it is wrong or in the minority.  And I better be ready to defend my position.  No one (well very few) sets out to do an awful job.  I have learned from the examples of others, and hopefully have given a few good examples myself.

~~~oOo~~~

What is an important lesson you have learned in your life?

Back-to-School Clothes - #NaBloPoMo #septemberchallenge

  

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Kick out the back-to-school fashion show on your blog: show us what you're wearing as we head into fall (or spring if you live in the Southern Hemisphere).

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If I were to be a on-campus student again, you might see me wearing one or more of the following:

ThinkGeek.com is apparently out of this shirt right now, so I may also be found in:

Just the pants in this next picture.  I tend to wear a lot of black jeans.  I'd kill myself wearing heels that high though.  They are NYDJ Barbara boot-cut.  Clicking the picture on this (or any piece of clothing in this post) will take you to a shopping site (usually the manufacturers') with whom I have no affiliation whatsoever.

The boots picture I had saved (to Shopcade.com) did not show up on the manufacturer's site, so the next picture just goes to the main site and not to the product page:

Yeah, they may not be very 'feminine' but they remind me of something Abby on NCIS would wear.

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So, what outfit would you wear to classes?

Childhood Snapshots - #septemberchallenge #NaBloPoMo

  

Monday, September 7, 2015

Show us a picture of yourself from the first day of school as a child.

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OK.  This one is not going to happen.

First of all, while there are numerous pictures around from when I was 5, I'm not at all sure there is a picture from my actual first day of 1st grade.  Secondly, any such pictures surviving the intervening decades are locked away in a storage space in Salt Lake City, where my brother stored the things from our mother's house that weren't given away, donated or trashed after the house was sold.  If I had thought about it soon enough, I could have asked him to send a picture or two, but speaking from experience it might have gotten here by Christmas.  I love my brother, and he just doesn't get in a big hurry about things.

There are a few pictures of me from the last couple of months, which is an oddity in itself, because I do not like to have my picture taken.  I saw a candid shot of me recently, taken on my husband's cell phone, and I literally burst into tears.  (Part of me doesn't want to admit that.  I don't want to be seen as weak, and I don't want peoples' pity.  I guess I'm trying to be transparent, maybe?)  Even though my weight has gone down, if the camera adds 10 pounds, most of the weight loss is negated.  My most common profile picture is from around the time my daughter was born - nearly 13 years ago now.  

This picture is about as close as we're going to get today:

As you can see, this picture is nearly 10 years old.  The children, of course, have changed tremendously.  I, however, look much the same, except for my hair is a lot shorter and grayer.

~~~oOo~~~

Do you like/mind having pictures of yourself taken?

#septemberchallenge - R.I.P. X Reading Challenge

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R.I.P. X officially runs from September 1st through October 31st. Click the graphic for all the details.

Genres included are:  Mystery.  Suspense.  Thriller.  Dark Fantasy.  Gothic.  Horror.  Supernatural.

Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux…or anyone in between.

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I am reading something that fits into these genre's right now!  Huzzah for me!  Here is my tentative list of 4 books to be read for this challenge:

Sixteen-year-old Macy is not your average teenager—she’s a member of the Chosen, an elite group of gifted and magically talented children responsible for protecting humans from the monsters of the Hidden race. But when the Shard of the Ninth Chosen arrives at her Watcher’s door with the deadly Shadow Wraiths in hot pursuit, her world is shaken. The Ninth is to lead the Final Battle against the evil forces of the Dark. And when the Ninth turns out to be Tolen Parks, a clueless seventeen-year-old who has no idea he’s anything other than a freak, she figures the world is a goner. The two of them are swept down a dangerous path that tests everything Macy is ... and brings out everything Tolen can be. Amidst monsters and Radia Warriors, the pair must discover who they really are and face the heart of darkness in order to find victory ... and their destinies.

 

Ty Burdin, the retired demon hunter who just can’t stay retired.

In the final installment of the Beasts of Burdin trilogy Ty has found himself roped into working for the Agency, a top secret organization with the sole purpose of eliminating all demon activity, yet again. Demon hunting is a full time job, but luckily

Ty has managed to work his way down to a ‘consulting’ position in the Agency after a few disagreements and a couple dead superiors.
Ty’s part-time position becomes far more hands on as the demon activity in his region cranks up to eleven. Demons are crawling out of peoples’ minds and into the real world at an alarming rate and it’s up to Ty, once again, to step in and save the day. First step: get over last night’s hangover. 

Halloween means spooky scrapbooks for the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop, but what's been happening around town is truly frightening. First a dead woman is found in the freezer at Pamela's Pie Palace, and the next day a second woman is found murdered by the river. Reporter Annie Chamovitz learns the victims were sisters and is certain their deaths are linked. Most bizarre of all, both women were found clutching scrapbook pages.

As their Saturday night crop quickly becomes an opportunity to puzzle out the murders, the ladies begin to wonder if Pamela is hiding more than her secret recipes for delicious pies--or if the crimes are related to the startling discovery that there are gangs in Cumberland Creek. As All Hallows Eve approaches, the crafty croppers must cut and paste the clues to unmask a deadly killer. 

Have you ever heard something go bump in the night and wonder if someone was there? Only to go looking for the cause of the noise and find nothing at all. Or how about unexplainably feeling like you’re being watched when you’re completely alone? Things disappearing for no reason or strange ghostly footsteps in the hall? This book is a collage of short stories about a few of the otherworldly experiences I’ve had. Although they are not movie worthy, you may find them interesting. All the stories are %100 true. Nothing has been added for dramatic effect.

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 The first three books are part of book tours running between now and the end of October.  The fourth (Haunted) is an Amazon freebie that fit the challenge theme.