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Journal entries of my life as a writer. |
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This is a journal of my writing life since I joined the Writing.com community of writers. This is such a different place for me, I think it's a good idea to document my new writing adventures. |
May 19 Blogging Prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends "  Write a story or poem beginning with: At the old swimming hole... The Rock Pool At the old swimming hole... There was a waterfall It dropped into a pond There were rocks and boulders all around We jumped into the water It was the perfect way to cool off The trees surrounded the pool and made shade The pool was at the end of a long trail How many people talked? How many people let out the secret? It was always busy at the rock pool People know a good thing when they see it |
| May 19 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" "We're open to the greatest change when we hit our lowest point." Sometimes lives get so destroyed, there is no choice but to make a change and thay change or changes could be considered drastic in certain situations. It could be a severe illness or a major change in employment that forces changes to happen. Changing careers could be brought on by a lay off or a strong dislike of the old career. Sometimes people are forced togo back to school in order to keep their job or move up the ladder in the company. Sometimes people find themselves in a destructive relationship or situation. This could bring on changes that may be unwanted. There are so many life situations that can yrigger change. People need to accept that change is part of life. Hopefully being able to handle small changes will prepare people for the major changes that do happen from time to time. |
| May 19 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" Do bystanders have a responsibility to intervene when someone is in trouble? Why or why not? For me, I've taken advanced first aid and CPR in years past, so I bekieve I have a responsibility to assist to the best of my ability when someone needs first aid or CPR. I also have counseling experience, so I could be of assistance in calming someone down in an emergency. If there is a crime in progress, things get more dicey. Being harmed in the process of trying to help is a personal decision, but it may be possible to help by getting assistance by calling 911 or finding someone else who is able to call for help. Then there is the whole concept of being a witness at the scene. Sometimes bystanders end up being helpful with eyewitness accounts of what happened. If a person believes they are unable to step into a situation, then that might be the right decision. As far as having a responsibility to intervene goes, I believe it's on a case by case basis. If an off duty cop is one of the bystanders, I think they are supposed to do what they can. I believe medical personnel might also have a responsibility to step in to assist injured parties. So the responsibility may have to do with levels of professional training. |
| May 18 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" The Sunday Review... I spent time working on changing my weekly contest to the new week. I have to post the new daily prompts for the week, pick a winner from last week, announce the winner in three places and then I do a thank you review for the contestants so they feel special for entering my contest. It takes a while to do. My reviews aren't super long, but they're decent. People seem to be happy with them and the winner is always happy. I also worked on my three journaling pages on https://750words.com. That's a challenge for me, but I'm starting to write longer stories and reviews. So I'm declaring that a success. I feel bad about having such a hard time doing 1000 character reviews for GoT, but I did get one, so that was good. At least I'm not a zero. I'm just a short attention span writer, so I'm glad I'm doing the three pages of journaling everyday. I collected more of my stories and their reviews into documents and posted them on my yellow website https://www.edonyourown.com/writingcom/writingcom.html. That felt good. I like to have them all matched up together for easy reference. Some people really liked some of my stories. Some are from another writing group, some are before WdC and then there are the ones I've written since being here. It's an interesting mix. Not everyone dislikes my all dialogue stories. Some people actually like them. The intrrnet stopped working at the library again, so I had to stop. I'll have to try again another day.
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 I finally got around to setting up my newest images into items so I can use them here on WDC. I thought I was only behind by two images, but it turns out I was behind in three images. I had to modify one of them so that it would be small enough to work. That was the tie dye signature image I got from the image grab. These are fun to use. They decorate the place so well. Enjoy my new art from different people. I really like them a lot.** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| May 17 Blogging Prompt from "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Opinion Saturday | Autism, ADHD, Mongoloid, Special Child - These children are born with special needs. How do you show support and achnowledge them? Are they more of a burden or blessing? I have worked with people with special needs and I live in a nursing home with people with special needs. I also know people with special needs. You treat people like people, no matter what issues they have. If they need help, then you make sure they get the help they need. There are ways to get help for them in school, since the schools get extra money to help with this population. I worked at a disabilities resource center at a community college and they helped the students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and the students who needed extra attention just to handle living and learning to be more independent. There were special classes for these students to help meet their needs. I was proud to be part of their support network. I learned a lot about students with learning issues and how to help them overcome these issues. That experience has helped me to develop educational materials to help teachers deal with a diverse group of students. A teacher can have different expectations for students while using the same materials and it is also possible to give different materials to different students. I'm doing my part to help students with learning difficulties. It's my pleasure to do this. Asking if these people are a burden or a blessing is rude. Of course it takes more effort, but this extra effort can be very rewarding. They are just people, after all. |
| May 17 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" What's missing from your car to make it the greatest ride you could ever dream of? I currently don't have a car, so I would have to go with adding a brand new car to my non existent car. I would get a Toyota Rav 4. It's a small SUV that's easy to drive, easy to turn and it has a great engine to last for a good long time. They are very reliable and practical cars. My last Tpyota Rav 4 lasted nine years before it was sabbotaged and destroyed. So it wasn't the car's fault. It's a great snow car, too. My job had me driving through all kinds of snow in South Lake Tahoe, California. It did just fine out in South Dakota, too. |
| May 17 Blogging Prompt from "Blogging Circle of Friends " You have to drive from one end of the United States to the other. Where do you start and end? I would start in San Francisco, California and end in New York, New York. That would be one seaside city to another. Both San Francisco and New York are great tourist cities and they would both be a lot of fun to visit. By starting in Northern California, I would get to go through the Tahoe area and travel across the US in the middle, so it's not too hot. I would get to see a lot of farm land so I can be grateful for our bounty in this great country. I could also take a detour to see the family on the farm in Illinois and detour to see the family in Virginia, too. So it would be a nice trip with plenty of things to see along the way. It would be a really fun trip. |
| May 16 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Funny Friday... It happened... Friday! Yeah, everyone else was happy about meeting up with people and confirming weekend plans and making it look like they were doing what was expected for a weekday activity. Kids go to school and adults go to work. Then there's me... Yeah, I'm an adult, but I'm not in school and I don't have a job. But I play along and act like I have something important to do. I go for a nice business lunch at Carrows by myself. I contemplate my self employed life as if there was much to discuss at this important lunch. Then I took a power nap. The big hitch is that I tend to work on the weekends to make up for the guilt of not getting enough done during the week. Friday is my game plan day. Friday is my Monday... Will anyone ever understand? |
| May 16 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" What type of person are you: a night owl or an early bird? I have been both at times, but I think I end up being more of an early bird than a night owl over time. I like that it's cooler in the mornings than the rest of the day. I like to get enough sleep, so I usually don't stay up very late. I seem to get more work done in the mornings, too. It's a more productive time of day for me. I start getting more tired as the day drags on. |
| May 16 Blogging Prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends " May 16, 2014 is Love a Tree Day. Tell us what kind of tree do you love and how do you intend to pamper it today. I love Jaqueranda trees because they have purple flowers and the tree looks purple instead of green when it's in bloom. My first grade teacher thought something was wrong with me when I colored my tree drawing purple instead of green. She even called my mom about it. My mom told her we had a purple tree in the backyard, so there was nothing wrong with me coloring a tree purple. I'm not near that tree anymore, so it's hard to pamper it today. |
| May 15 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Money, Betrayal, Sex, Power, Fame Write a story or essay with these words. Life Of The Damned "Harry, did you know movie stars have to deal with money, betrayal, sex, power and fame?" Gearge said as he was cleaning the movie star's swimming pool. "Yeah... It makes our lives more interesting," Harry said as he emptied out the pool filter contents. "How so?" George checked the chemical balance of the pool water. "Well, we get to clean up from the pool parties, get big tips to keep our traps shut, we get to see the undergarments left behind and I found yet another used condom in the filter."Harry started straightening up the patio furniture. "You're right. This job pays so well and why would we want to be sued for telling their dirty little secrets. Besides, my wife loves it when I bring home the sexy underwear I pick up here. I think we're better off than the famous people who always have to be perfect." George started packing up the truck to move to the next pool. "I'm gonna throw a part at my house this weekend. I'm inviting the maids and gardeners we meet at these places. I figure we know enough about parties to have a great time. Are you coming?" Harry hopped up into the passenger seat of the truck. "Yep. I'll bring my wife and her cousin. That will keep them both out of trouble. They'll handle the bar for you and kackle with the stories of the rich and famous. It'll be a good time." George drove off to the next posh mansion on their schedule, waving to the movie star who owned the pool they just cleaned. |
| May 15 Blogging Prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends " Count your blessings. (Do with this what you will.) I am blessed with creativity and logic that are my aids in everything in my life. I add to that my blessing of my education and my eagerness to learn more throughout my life, keeping me vital and up to date with new knowledge and skills. I also have the blessing of experiencing so many different positions in the workplace and as a self employed worker. This gives me the advantage of looking at situations from different angles to more fully understand the complexity of it. This all lends to an intetesting writing career. I do consider myself blessed. |
| May 15 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" How do you plan the perfect picnic? First things first... The location is very important. I like the idea of going to a county park, instead of the busy city parks. There are more shady areas where the picnic tables are and there's a better chance to see other signs of nature, like streams and animals. Bring along a volleyball and net for entertainment. The food and drink is the next item on the list. There should be plenty of drinks and lemonaide in a thermos for everyone to stay hydrated. There can be sandwich fixings so everyone can make their own sandwiches. There need to be different salads to eat and of course chips and dip and cookies (both homemade and store bought). Packages of string cheese would be fun, too. The idea is to make sure everyone has a good time and is well fed. No one goes hungry at a picnic. If you want to serve cold fried chicken to make double sure people have enough, there's nothing wrong with that. |
| May 14 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" This is a just in case blog prompt. There was no prompt on Sunday and then there was a message that it was a free prompt day and I didn't know about free prompt days, so I decided if there is no prompt for the day yet, it might be another free prompt day. So I figured it was better to have an extra prompt than no prompt. Today is a monthly review raid for WDC Power Reviewers group. I reviewed a couple last night, then several this morning. I want to put in a fair amount of reviews this time. I didn't do too many last month, so I wanted to do more for this month. I don't like that I haven't been doing very many reviews lately. I want to go back to doing more reviews so I have the gift points for my contest and for other activities on this site. They pop up every so often, so I like to have the gift points just in case. I already have an activity I don't have enough to do right now. So that bothers me. |
| May 14 Blogging Prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends " Finish this sentence ten different ways: Life is fragile, handle with... Life is fragile, handle with care. Life is fragile, handle with love. Life is fragile, handle with tenderness. Life is fragile, handle with joy and mirth. Life is fragile, handle with intelligence. Life is fragile, handle with respect. Life is fragile, handle with proper prioritization. Life is fragile, handle with good money management. Life is fragile, handle with compassion for others. Life is fragile, handle with much education. |
| May 14 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" Did you have a teacher who inspired you? I had several inspiring teachers in my k-12 life. My college teachers were less impressive. My kindergarten teacher had us count the number of girls and boys and then add those two numbers together to find out how many students were there each day. So on day one, we were doing two digit addition with no instruction. I raised my hand the first day and got the right answer. But I quickly learned not to raise my hand anymore because it made the other students feel bad because they didn't know how to add yet. I knew how to read, add and subtract before I got to kindergarten. That teacher taught me that I was ahead of the class and I shouldn't show that off if I wanted to fit in with everyone. This was really important information. I also knew being a teacher sounded fun. My first grade teacher gave me my first math workbook where I was allowed to take it home and I could write in it, too. I was so excited I had my first homework in my whole life. I wanted to do my very best. I remember my mom yelling to me wondering what I was doing. I told her the teacher gave me homework to do. I worked and worked and worked. It took me several days to finish all the math problems in that workbook. After less than a week, I proudly turned in my very first homework assignment. The teacher's jaw was dropped as she flipped through the pages and did some random spot checking. She gave me the second grade math workbook and told me I was only allowed to do one page a day. She didn't put any rules on the first workbook. The other students said they wanted to do the second grade book, too. But they hadn't finished their first grade books yet like I had, so they didn't get to do the book I had. Math comes easy for me and my reading skills were tested, too because I had to read the directions so I knew how to do the work properly. I had two secind grade teachers, but it was the second one who taught me about manipulatives helping kids learn math. She passed out boxes of dried beans and told us we were going to use them to add numbers together. I told the teacher I already knew how to add, but she told me there were other students who didn't know how to add, so I was just to follow on with everyone else. I got to learn a new teaching technique, so that was important. I also remember having music in class with songbooks filled with patriotic songs. I had never seen music notes and the words below them before. This was all very important to me. Music and math are both very big with me and I wouldn't know those songs if we hadn't sung them in that class. We also did the watch a bean grow activity and we had silk worms, too. She had us do things the other teachers didn't do. I found out how important presenting a variety of things was. I was teacher's pet in third grade. Mrs. Summerville was the shortest teacher in the school and she had a multiplication race to see how fast we could get a 100% on the multiplication charts the fastest. I won. I had no repeats and got all pf the answers correct. We did a different set of problems each week going from the zeros through the twelves. Then I had to do something else quietly while everyone else took their multiplication tests. She also asked riddles while we waited for school to be let out for the day. I'll never forget the joke about two coins adding up to fifty five cents and one wasn't a fifty cent piece. The other one was. I also got to play the autoharp that year. That was cool. You just pressed a button and then strummed the strings and it made a chord. It was like magic. I learned that competition can be useful in a classroom setting, but I didn't want to do it with my students in case it would make some of them feel bad for being behind other students. Fourth grade seemed to be all about reading and writing and grammar and anything English related. We did math, too, but that wasn't the big fun it was in other years as we spent so much tome reviewing and by the time we got to fractions which is huge, I already learned it in flute class. Music notes and rests have to be arranged in each measure by the time signature and whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes are all fractions and have to add up to the right amount in each measure. So learning how to play the flute took away the thunder of one of the most difficult elementary math concepts. But as a bonus a masters student from UCLA came in and taught us beginning algebra, so that made up for the boring math. I learned what I needed in English to hold me through college, since we did a research paper with an outline in thay class. She also pointed out my struggles with reading due to my eyes being bad and told me my handwriting was such a mess because I thought faster than I could write. I found out later that I have two lazy eyes which makes it hard to follow from one line of text to the next and my estigmatism is so bad, I'm legally blind. I didn't get glasses until seventh grade, so reading and spelling was a huge challenge, since the text was so small, I could barely read it. The letter I wrote to my fourth grade teacher is listed below. Fifth grade brought me my first male teacher and he was black. He called me a walking talking radio and made fun of my MGM program by calling it mentally gifted monkeys instead of mentally gifted minors. He forced me to write my very first story where I had to come up with the topic on my own. I finally gave in and wrote my reasons for wanting to be a teacher. He really liked it. He also suggested that I make a word search, since I was bored in class. I created several of them and wrote them out by hand on ditto masters so the whole class could do them. Thanks to this, I passed twelfth grade English, since he didn't know how to grade peoperly and my only shot was turning in tons of word searches for extra credit. Mr. Brown was a life saver with those word searches I learned how to create. I also got to help a friend in class with her English worksheets. It was my first peer tutoring experience. I actually told off the teacher when he told me to be quiet. He refused to help her, so what choice did I have, but to help her. I learned the teacher isn't always right. I also learned how hard writing is without a topic. Sixth grade was my second male teacher and he was also black. I think I had the only black teachers there were when I had the third black teacher in ninth grade. Mr. Washington told us stories from his time in Korea. He told us they had to eat rats because that's all there was to eat. That was tough for sixth graders. I learned how to do essay tests in his class. I learned the fine art of BS. He also gave us some old math books that taught us how to add time, which is base sixty for seconds and minutes. We had to round up if it added to more than sixty. It was really hard. He had a bunch of advanced students and that would keep us occupied so we didn't get bored in class. I also learned about how cruel a man could be about my looks. He asked me if I could see my shoes. I was just starting to show breasts, so I didn't know if he was referring to my breasts or my stomach. It was in front of the whole class and I think the other kids felt bad for me. I told that teacher off, too. But it was because of my test scores on Latin America. I was struggling with my reading comprehension learning disability and they didn't test for that stuff back then. I told him grades didn't count in sixth grade. After kindergarten I got to be in the mentally gifted monor program. I had to score high enough on the intelligence test to be in the program. This class was a break from the boring stuff. We did all sorts of things like solving mysteries based on bits and pieces of information, the mobius strip taught by my dad, calculator words where you turn it upsidedown to see the word after doing the calculations, puppet shows where we made the puppets and made the scripts for The Harry Glob Show - a talk show with marianettes, we made up commercials for pretend products and we made the props as well and then finally we got to pitch our ideas to architects and city planners for what to do with a huge piece of property in town. My idea of housing is still there and so is the park that another student offered. I was in shock that they used the ideas of a bunch of sixth graders in a gifted program. The tour of famous architectural landmarks in Los Angeles is still memorable for me. MGM was a group of people who got to know each other and that made a long lasting impression on allof us. I helped one of those kids write his essay to get into West Point and he ended up being a military pilot and was on one of the space shuttles. I want to think I was a small part of starting that career. He even played drums in the band at West Point. My elementary school years were very important in teaching me about teaching. My other teachers were hit and miss, with a few high points in math and one history teacher and of course my Latin teacher who took us Latin Christmas caroling during school. Of course my music teachers were also high points. I ended up with several teachers with some serious issues. So maybe I learned how not to teach from them. Some of my teachers were mean and unfair. It was impossible to get the straight A's I wanted. So the lower grades stand out against the mostly A grades on my transcripts. That's something to learn about... Sometimes life is just plain unfair and sometimes there isn't anything that can be done about it, other than telling them off.
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| May 13 Blogging Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Write a story or poem based from this report - Stop Calling Tablets Mobile - reference site: https://mashable.com/2014/05/13/stop-calling-tablets-mobile/ Tablets Tablets don't fit in regular pockets They fit into bags of all sorts But so do laptops Tablets are found at wi-fi hotspots But they aren't found too many other places Other than at home Kids really like the apps Adults like them, too It's harder to type on than a laptop Do you surf the web mobily? Do you play games mobily? Is your life mobile? Enjoy the size of the tablet Enjoy getting comfy with your tablet Tablets are relaxing entertainment |
| May 13 Blogging Prompt for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" What kinds of qualities does a true friend have? A true friend would be kind and supportive. He or she could be a shoulder to cry on or the best cheerleader possible. The friend would be there in a time of need or in times of joy. You would be able to share with this friend and just go out and have a good time. You would have things in common and differences so things would always be interesting. Most of all your friend would be a person you want to spend time with and otherwise stay in contact with for years and years. |
| May 13 Blogging Prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends " "unannounced" If you had unlimited resources, what would you create? I would build a house on a nice plot of land where the house surrounded an inner courtyard with a pool surrounded by rocks and vegetation, so it looks more like a pond. There would be no back yard, but there would be a cute front yard to blend with the neighborhood. There would be several sliding glass doors so people could get to the courtyard from different rooms. People could look out at the garden view while sitting at the formal dining room. It would be a fun house for entertaining. Then there would be enough money left to pay taxes and bills for the house for the rest of my life. |
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