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20 years ago, I probably rang in the New Year with Prince’s 1983 hit, Party Like It’s 1999. It would be a long time till I’d feel like partying, again. In 1999, my daughter was in middle school. Columbine happened. It was far away, in another state, but we were still capable of feeling shock, […]
1999, 20 years ago, 2019, reflections, twenty years ago, words matter, wordsmatter
Hell's Little Paving Stones, Humor
…sense memories niggling at the back of your brain like caramel corn and candy apples, or mulled cider simmering on the stovetop. Or that one overused autumn trope that deserves to find its face on a red Solo cup.
avoid cliches, descriptive prose, featured, spice, spicy, wordsmatter
As a huge fan of our Constitution‘s First Amendment, Banned Books Week is one of my favorite weeks of the year. It feels a little like doing battle with the specter of the Dark Ages. Banned books? Is this even a thing in 2019? In America? My daughter and I have a longstanding tradition stemming from […]
banned, banned books week 2019, books, censorship, challenged, featured
It’s no secret that I have liberal leanings. I’ve said before that I wish we were “socialist for what we need, and capitalist for all the little luxuries we want,” which oversimplifies, but sums up a “mixed economy” fairly well. I care about people. I believe that, so long as we have it in our […]
bigotry, commerce, discrimination, featured, preference, prejudice
Do we really need to regulate the minutiae of human interaction? Or is it enough to warn of the bigger pitfalls – social gaffes that might well start a war?
artists, bloggers, copyright, courtesy, featured, illustrators, rules for blogging, self-promotion, writers
Sometimes, you just need your mobile phone to act like a phone. After a recent update to the Android operating system – Android 9, July 1 security patch – on my Samsung Galaxy Note 9, I was unable to answer a phone call from the lock screen. I could press the call answer or hang […]
accessibility, android, android 9, answer calls from lock screen, lock screen, settings, unable to answer, update
Children love to help out, to feel valued, and to belong. They are eager volunteers, but there are surprisingly few meaningful opportunities for them to help out in their communities. Raising Men Lawn Care Service seeks to change that.
mowing the lawn, raising men, raising women, volunteers, watwb, youth
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Technical & How-to, Visual Perspectives
Making original images with text and graphics is easy, fun, and inexpensive. Why use stock images on your blog, when you can make your own?
android apps, blog graphics, blog images, hbimages, how to make, image editing
The story, so far: Six months into 2019, and I was losing my mind. I saw down on the front step, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and reached into my purse again. It could not possibly be empty. And indeed, it wasn’t. I swore under my breath, a mixture of irritation and relief. […]
We should have seen it coming, but we were all so caught up in the work, so distracted by each breakthrough and invention, that we’d barely had time to breath, eat, or sleep, let alone consider the logical and ethical ramifications of what we’d accomplished.
I felt as though I had willed it into being. It couldn’t not be there, and so, there it was.
Six months into 2019 and I…
It’s a little dysfunctional, this business of killing off my blog once or twice a year, just so I can revive it.
I love a challenge.
Thank you, Dad… …for demonstrating the importance of education, and setting a good example; …for letting me play with your monstrosity of a calculator – I would never understand the math (no doubt, to your everlasting frustration), but its resemblance to a typewriter surely had some influence on me; …for your even temper; …for taking me nice […]
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Technical & How-to
Do you know how powerful your favorite search engine really is, or how to take advantage of its full capabilities?
advanced search, atozchallenge2019; a2zchallenge, search, search engines, search operators, search syntax
Perilous storms on the horizon portend tragedy. And help to illustrate a couple of literary terms as they tug at your heartstrings. Plenty of pathos.
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, flash fiction, pathos, periodic sentence
O-fficially O-ver The #AtoZChallenge2019 is officially over. Do I throw in the towel, admit “failure”? Oh, no. Nope. I’m going to finish this thing if it takes the next six months. Ominous Clouds In the last week and a half I’ve put over 1600 miles on my car. It’s a 2014 Honda with less than […]
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, storm, storm chaser, tornado, tornadoes
Morning brought shock, sadness, but a glimmer of hope. The two bell towers still stood.
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, bees, catholic, easter, faith, holy week, notre dame, watwb
Generosity and Thankfulness, Op-Ed
Let’s light our own inner light of kindness by opening our eyes to the “fuel” for our lamps – the blessings we receive, the kindnesses of others – and promise to help keep each other’s torches lit when it seems we’re surrounded by the creeping darkness of hate and negativity.”
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, aware, grace, kind, mindful, oath, promise, thankful
Here’s how one Texas art teacher encouraged her young students, ages 3 to 11, to express their creativity.
The (hap)hazards of modern time management, and little known lexicographical news!
If you’re confused over why J sometimes sounds like “y” and sometimes like the “j” in “jam,” read on!
Of course it’s a rhetorical question – isn’t that the nature of a lighthouse?
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, inopinatum, poem, rhetoric
hendiadys Fluff and clouds, drifting, cross the sky. Birds play hide-and-seek in cotton-candy and whisps of fog, Their mothers call them home to feathers and nests, As sunshine and day retreat – and mine calls me to feathers and bed. homiologia and homoeoprophoron He is a little so-and-so, and so Will not amount to much, […]
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, hendiadys, homeoprophoron, homologia, rhetoric
If you know me at all, you might think my answer to, “What was your least favorite subject in school?” was math. It wasn’t. Not even close. It was “gym class.” It still is. But I know, now, that the alternative – “excuse-ridden couch potato” – isn’t good for me. It isn’t serving my overall […]
Growing plants is a “stretch goal” for me. I kill plants. It’s what I do. I can even kill silk plants; all it takes is a good vacuum cleaner. I grew up during the height of the 1970s houseplant fad. Apparently, it’s making a comeback, fueled by Millennials, and people are noticing but struggling to […]
a2zchallenge2019, asparagus, atozchallenge2019, fern, houseplants, plants, purple, spider, zebrina
Two wrongs don’t make a right. But two wrongs don’t make a wrong, either, necessarily. This is where the fallacy fallacy comes in.
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, fallacy-fallacy, kale, logic, logical fallacy
If you haven’t guessed by now (or have failed to follow the breadcrumbs) this month’s poetry has mostly been based on rhetorical figures of the same names, and through these little verses, I attempt to provide examples (along with a little sly wordplay, as in the last verse).
a2zchallenge2019, atozchallenge2019, eustathia, exergasia, rhetoric
