Recs – A Collection of Articles

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I’ve been saving these and thought this snowy week when many are snowbound was a perfect time to share them:

These 48 Trans Women and Men Changed the World

LGBTQ Children in Catholic Families: A Deacon’s View on Holy Family Sunday

8 Ways to Get Rid of Paper Clutter

9 Lists to Keep Updated, And Keep Handy

52 Things, Ideas for Writers 2015

The Playboy Conversation: Patton Oswalt and Wil Wheaton

A Writer’s Toolbox

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

Wartime Secrets of the Female Codebreakers of Bletchley Park

Transgender Man has Private Audience with Pope Francis

Most Important Thing on TV this year is this Super Bowl PSA

Simeon, Anna, and Phil and The Many Facets of the Second of February

SCOTUS Decides Vaccine Debate (110 Years Ago)

Blogging 101/201 Playlist

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I don’t always listen to music when I write but there are certain songs I need, need, need to have on my Kindle or MP3 player…just in case.

I pushed shuffle and these are the first five six songs I played through. They are perfect to describe how this week has gone as I change and adapt my little corner space here:

Move You – Anya Marina

One Way or Another – Blondie

If I Ever Stray – Frank Turner

Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – BTO

White Blank Page – Mumford and Sons

A Blog Audit

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Last week I pushed the wrong button and accidentally changed my theme, so I spent two days looking through, and decided on this one. I wanted the color green and I like having a sidebar. It forced me to change whether I was ready or not. Sometimes, a good thing. I’ll be keeping this one.

As for other aspects of the site, what I’m looking to do is create more of a website feel rather than a blog. I have a few pages and I plan on adding more. The pages are for information and links. I currently have the opening page as my posts, but once I set up a Home page, I’m going to redirect to that static page rather than the posts which are listed in the sidebar anyway.

I’ve started an index divided into subjects so readers can find what they’re looking for.

I want it to be my original writing and photographs with helpful or informative reblogs. Simply, I want it to be mine.

I want the site to be a resource, to use what I know, what I learn and to share my experiences, especially the things that have changed me: depression, parenting, equality, spirituality; perhaps make someone else’s journey just a little bit easier and give them company on the road.

I’m still not sure how to join it together and bring out my best, like a tapestry woven with many layers and hidden threads. But I’m happy to experiment.

Welcome.

Groundhog’s Day

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This is one of our family’s favorite holidays. To celebrate we got about a foot of snow and a snow day from school. Here are some other ways to enjoy today:

Watch a movie: Groundhog’s Day with Bill Murray

Read history of the day

Read a book: Will Spring be Early or Will Spring be Late by Crockett Johnson

Our you could go directly to the source: The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

January Index

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Prompts

With the new year commencing on Thursday, what is the one thing you remember or love about 2014 and what is the one thing you want (or want to do) in 2015?

New beginnings

Resolutions, Reflections

Photos

Resolutions, 2015

Happy Birthday, Baby!

New Beginnings

Resolutions and Reflections

A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

A Doctor Who Sketch

Quotations

Alfred Lord Tennyson

C.S. Lewis

Kristin Armstrong

John Barrowman

A. A. Milne

Motivating Your Organization and Organizing

Benjamin Franklin

About Writing

Recs

Brother Mickey McGrath

Ambient Noise

Tabletop Audio

Inspirational Book – Under the Tamarind Tree

Organizational Helpers

Instant Inspiration (writing)

Products

White Noise App

Original Writings and Reflections

Annual Mason Jar Project

Weekly Photo Challenge

New Beginnings – A Reflection

A Reflection on Resolutions

An Actual Agenda for This Week 😉

Current Events/Politics

I Remember (Thoughts on MLK Day)

Rethinking the March for Life

Domestic Violence

BDSM? Or Abuse? (cross-posted with Sexuality)

Sexuality

BDSM? Or Abuse? (cross-posted with Domestic Violence)

Repost

My First Church Friend

Reblogs

Unsure of a Title, Tags, Categories! (suicide and suicide prevention)

Buttermilk Pecan Pie for National Pie Day

Blogging 101

Why I’m Blogging

Title and Tagline

Words in Space (Etheree Poetry) (cross-posted with Memoir)

Request for Feedback

Share Links

Writing Exercise (Mockingjay, page 82, line 3)

Links

Random Acts (charity)
The Trevor Project (lgbt+)
Brother Mickey McGrath (spiritual, art)
Thesaurus (writing)
Urban Dictionary (writing)
IRS (money, taxes)
Punxsutawney Phil (holidays)
National Domestic Violence Hotline (domestic violence)
National Weather Service (weather)
Catholic Culture (spiritual, history)
Transgender Law Center (lgbt+, legal, trans-specific)

BDSM

Fifty Shades of Grey in its own words describing why it’s glorified abuse

A chart showing the difference between BDSM and Abuse

Blog Housekeeping

Apparently, I’ve Hit the Wrong Button (I lost my theme)

Within Thirty Minutes of Waking…

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I don’t always realize that I have a morning routine until I get a prompt like this. Or try to deviate from it.

Whatever time I wake up, whether it’s 6am or Noon (rarely that late), I always begin (and end) with my Kindle. I use it for everything, and my morning routine only proves that.

Free is good. I head straight to the Amazon Appstore and check on the Free App of the Day. It’s usually a game, but I’ve also found some great professional apps there, like Office Suite (with Word) and Informant (awesome calendar/task app).

I move on to check my social media – Facebook, Tumblr, like and reblog anything that doesn’t need thinking about, and check my email. I generally delete about sixty emails just upon waking. I really need to unsubscribe from many lists. I barely read most of these.

I read a couple of the blogs that I follow on WordPress that immediately catch my eye.

I continue using my Kindle Fire to check my bank’s app, and then balance my checkbook on Spensa.

If I’m not running late, I try to take a few minutes to read Give Us This Day – the daily saint or revered person and the reflection. I bookmark the Evening Scriptures for later. If I don’t have Mass, I read the daily mass from The Word Among Us periodical. I sometimes hold off on this until later in the day when there isn’t any rushing out of the door or errands to run.

I check my daily list and get a feel for how my day is going to go. I make sure that my daily post goes up on WordPress or that it’s ready to go.

I take notes on what other writing I’d like to do this week or add to my Editorial Calendar, which is literally a calendar book from Mead that I’ve found overwhelmingly helpful.

And that’s about it.

I take a shower and get dressed and head out to Mass three days a week. It vaguely changes on the weekend, but not really. It all depends on the family.

Sometimes it takes thirty minutes; sometimes ninety. I never know until I get through the list, but I do find that it helps get me focused on what needs to be done so I don’t forget anything important.

On occasion, I get brain fog, and I need much more rigid lists, but lists are good for me. And when all the items are checked off and not deferred to the next day, it’s a feel good like no other.

The Last Picture I Took: The Mockingjay

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Simply, I took this photo because I was writing a post about the book/movie Mockingjay (Movie, Part 1) and I needed a photo for the post.

That particular mockingjay was an impulse buy at a huge Toys R Us sale. It had that as well as a couple of amber stones and a bow with two arrows. Two Thanksgivings ago, I lost my silver bow and arrow that I’d had since the 90s, from when I was studying archery in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). I wanted the bow and arrow, and I’m a fan of archers – Robin Hood, Merida from Brave, Hawkeye from The Avengers, Green Arrow, Katniss; all of them. Soon after I finally watched the Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and I was drawn to those movies in a way that I hadn’t enjoyed a movie since Harry Potter. My son and I couldn’t wait for the Mockingjay movie to be released (as I’ve mentioned before) and I really got attached to the character and the symbols. At another sale (this one at FYE), I found what looks like a convention pass with a larger Mockingjay coin-like charm; trinket.

I am lover of trinkets.

Talismans.

Stones.

Medals.

So while the picture itself was really a simple thing, the overall meaning for me is the balance that a related photo or drawing brings to my writing. It brings in the more visual readers, and I’m also a big fan of symmetry; duality. Sort of like the blending of the jabberjays and the mockingbirds that give us the mockingjay.

Blogging 201: Three Blog Goals

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I talk often about how I feel like my generation missed a boat or two. We don’t have a cutesy nickname like Baby Boomers or Milenials or even GenXers. It’s like time forgot us. We are sometimes a sandwich generation taking care of parents and kids but that’s about responsibility; there is no community.

We are in-between generations. We are in-betweeners. Eh, not loving it.

The people in my age group went to college, got jobs, had kids, some stayed home, some stayed in a career and both got crap for it. Pensions disappeared, job security became non-existent. We ignore illness until it can be ignored no more.

I’m 48 and the first time I felt at home with friends was in 2011 where our ages ranged from 20-45, experiences ranged equally, only two marriages in the group, one with kids. I fit.

But I also kind of fit with the PTA set; most there were about ten years younger than me, but it still worked.

I also fit with my church where my closest friend just turned 85.

I’m at home on Tumblr when most of my age group thinks it’s a gymnastic group.

I’m equally opinionated on politics and fandom, and I haven’t found a place that blends my passions; that’s what I try to do here. I’d like to continue that, but I’m not sure how to describe it without using potpourri, which I don’t want to use.

I write conversationally, but I also want to be taken seriously, especially in the areas that I consider myself an expert or authority.

I try to balance family, depression, church and writing plus whatever else pops into my head. I’m trying to form a new generational home seemingly alone.

And this is only the part that spewed out this morning on this very bright, white snow day.

Last fall, I started a new format for my blog/website. I gave myself a series of weeklies. Monday through Thursday, I post on a topic – I offer prompts for writing or reflection, a photo, a quotation and the recs that I think help many. I try to collect them all with a weekly theme (beginning this year), so my goals are mainly continuing that.

In September, I began to use a Mead day planner to plan out my site and that’s been working well.

Goal 1: In addition to the daily serial post, I’d like to post a second one related to the theme that I’ve decided on for that week. This week’s theme I’ve titled Groundhogs, Spring is just around the corner. On Fridays, I want to try writing a Reflection each week.

Goal 2: I’ve been published in local small-presses, and self-published a chapbook and a variety of newsletters. I would like to write for money. I’d like to start by monetizing my blog, but I’m not sure how to go about that. I’d like to learn.

Goal 3: Increase my quality of photography and writing and continue learning my craft to gain readers and continue growing as a writer. As an aside, I’d like to expand into travel writing.