That Which We Tolerate, and That Which We Don’t
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
Generosity and Thankfulness, Op-Ed
Mindful #AtoZChallenge #WATWB #BeKind
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
Lovely #AtoZChallenge #WATWB
Here’s how one Texas art teacher encouraged her young students, ages 3 to 11, to express their creativity.
Bandwagon #AtoZChallenge
While most parents do want their children to be outstanding in their talents, their academic skills, their job offers, few parents want their children to stand out as the class clown or the neighborhood oddball. Enter the Bandwagon Fallacy.
bandwagon, logical fallacy, persuasion, propaganda, rhetoric
Blogging & Social Media Tips, On Writing, Op-Ed
I Write Like…Me. Or do I?
My writing is identifiable – it is a redolent of Agatha Christie cookies, with a hint of Stephen King cake, and a healthy side Anne Rice. It is male, with a softer side. European female, maybe. Gender fluid, and ageless as time itself. That’s just a nice way of saying “AI is stupid.” Or maybe I really AM Stephen King…. How would YOU know?
algorithms, data science, featured, text analysis, writing as fingerprint
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Op-Ed
Repurposing Content or Self-Plagiarism?
You could call this post “mental compost,” wherein I throw the mental scraps about reusing content, self-plagiarism, and even propaganda into one post, shake it up, and hope it will fertilize new ideas.
content, copyright, featured, plagiarism, propaganda, repurpose, reuse
I Wasn’t Offended; You Were Being a Jerk
The same folks who decry “political correctness” and clamor for the right to be rude and aggressively offensive are the same ones who whine whenever someone finds them…offensive.
offensive, political correctness, politically correct, words mean things
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Op-Ed, Technical & How-to
Words Have Meaning: Marketing vs Promoting vs Endorsing
We needn’t contort every word, twisting bad to mean good, and sick to mean amazing. This is just obfuscation and lunacy.
advertising, american marketing association, definitions, dictionary, ftc, marketing, promotion, words
A Lesson in Leadership #WriteBravely #WTFOW2018
One of the challenges of a blog challenge, blogfest, or writing prompt is to write about something that doesn’t immediately inspire you. This should be easy for someone who spent the largest part of their career, to date, as a technical writer, but that part of my career is in the past, and some part […]
featured, inspiration, leadership, loyalty, prompts, writebravely, wtfow2018
One Stitch at a Time (#MondayMusings, #CrochetInsights)
Meditation There are natural nothing-thinkers in the world; I’m not one of them. The directive to “make your mind a blank” tends to have the opposite effect on me, like, “don’t think of pink elephants sipping Cosmos on the moon.” I try to think of nothing, but it’s a half-hearted effort. At best, I just […]
appreciation, art, craft, craftsmanship, crochet, material, meditation, movement
Hero Tammie Jo Shults Earned Those Wings (a #WATWB Post)
She’s the kind of hero we hope and pray we never need and don’t like to think about needing while traveling in a tin can with wings, 35,000 feet above the planet. But to anyone who doubts that a woman has what it takes to fly a fighter jet or a commercial airliner, or who […]
flight 1380, hero, southwest air, tammie jo shults, watwb, we are the world
The Kind of Hero We Need (a #WATWB Post)
No Time to Waffle I’m convinced that nothing good happens in the wee hours of the morning, and it’s not proper to leave the house before coffee’s brewed and in the cup. But it’s not that simple: In those early morning hours, sleepy cities start to stir; babies are born; darkness gives way to dawn, […]
I’m Not a Patsy for Russian Propaganda, YOU Are! :P
Listening to people argue that there is no way they were manipulated by some foreign power’s social media propaganda machine is both amusing and disheartening. I can understand deep denial and the impulse to say, “Hey, even though I shared 79 posts from a known Russian bot, no way was my vote influenced by it!” […]
denial, disinformation, featured, manipulation, propaganda, tumblr
Deep Breaths… #DeleteFacebook
It’s an addiction. Back in the 1980s, early 1990s, I posited the idea of “online addiction” and got nothing but funny looks. Now, the inclusion of “Internet Addiction Disorder” is studied and its inclusion in the DSM is seriously considered (though as of this writing, it is not a defined psychiatric disorder – you can […]
deletefacebook, facebook, featured, instagram, internet addiction, online addiction, whatsapp
Ice and Dispassion
So, I bought the book. Yes, that book. I normally refuse to follow the crowd when it comes to “the most talked-about bestseller on the planet right now,” but when my husband asked me, over dinner, if I’d pre-ordered the book, I realized that it fit in nicely with two of my 2018 goals for […]
donald trump, featured, fire and fury, first amendment, free speech, potus, twitter
Why I Left and Where I Am
She’s Gone! She’s Just Disappeared! I’m still alive. I’m still right here. Yes, I left Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram in a bit of a hurry. I’m sorry for that – there’s no nice way to quietly deactivate an account but leave a single post containing a forwarding address, or a “Gone Fishing” notice. It hasn’t […]
Always Look for the Helpers
I’m proud to live in Houston, Texas, and have never been more proud than now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. For over a week, the world watched images of the devastating Category 4 hurricane and the slow, drenching rains of “Biblical proportions” that engulfed our part of the state, covering large parts of it […]
Both Sides, All Sides, Your Side, My Side
Both sides, all sides, your side, my side. Can’t we all just try to see things from others’ point of view, and try to get along? Are we really hardwired to see the world as “us vs. them”? Do we need a common enemy to fight, lest we fight among ourselves? Both Sides Do It […]
all sides, bigotry, featured, forgiveness, resist, social conflict
Good in a Crisis
I’ve always been good in a crisis. I fall apart weeks, months, sometimes years later. I fall apart when the sun is shining and all memory of the disaster has faded to a a transparent overlay with soft edges. The worse the disaster, the longer it takes – the more completely inappropriate the timing. But […]
