An Ink Saving Font

My favorite tech blogger on Yahoo is Christopher Null. Yesterday he wrote a post about saving ink with the font you use. You can read it here. The font suggested is Century Gothic. I changed my text message font to check it out. Usually I use Arial if I don’t want formal print but this one looks nice if a bit taller and lighter. Now I’m going to change the default font on my printer and screen to match. I’m also wondering if a font that uses less ink also uses fewer bites in the text file size? If it does wouldn’t that mean that it takes less time to transmit? Saving bandwidth and speedier transmissions of documents might be a nice extra. What font do you use?

Playing around with Windows Live Writer

This is my first experiment with Windows Live Writer and blogging. Terry of Paradise Discovered highly encourages, even dares (um…challenges?), his friends to use it. Since he’s a smart guy I figured it was worth a shot. I did have it on my system and just hadn’t gotten around to messing with it. Looks like he’s right. It does indeed have a lot of really cool controls. They remind me of MSWord controls. I’ll have to recommend it to my favorite writing friend Susan of Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. She likes to use MSWord to compose stuff, even letters which makes for some interesting translations when your email browser doesn’t have a rich text option to view with.

Wow! Hit the return key and you get a double space. Hit it twice, like I just did, and you find yourself backing up a line or two. :-)

When I started up Windows Live Writer it gave me the option to add my blog to my Windows Life page, a thing I’d been ignoring as to date I’ve only really used Windows Life Messenger to talk to a couple of friends. Wish I could add all my friends to that one. Yeah, Windows is kind of self loving and doesn’t always play nice with other software but there are worse OS’s out there. I used to keep Yahoo Messenger up and running so I probably need to try to add that one in or get a few of my old contacts to switch or connect through whatever medium they have which might allow that. Looks like the world is getting smaller and smaller as we connect in new and exciting ways.

Darn double enter habit has got to go! LOL

I also added my Facebook page and my Stumble Upon page to the Windows Live Page. Now all it needs to make it perfect is to be able to add the games I play on Pogo there. Wouldn’t that be fun! Go to Windows Live and play Scrabble or Pinochle with my buddies?

So, Terry, if you’re reading this, Thanks for the good suggestion. Is there a way to make this product pop up every time I click on the new post button? Or do I have to remember to put this on my quick launch bar? I’ll play with the picture thing next I guess. Let’s see how this thing posts.

But before I go I’d like to ask Terry to check out 7Stacks and see if he can figure out how to make that little Widows desktop utility to work. I sure couldn’t because it didn’t have any help files. It seems to think it is intuitive, but if you’ve never used stacks like Macs or Windows 7 has then you just might be as clueless as I am about how to create them. Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Butterflies are Free and So Are My Evenings!

Thank you so much for your patience with me not posting for 3 weeks. That job took a lot out of me! Now, thankfully, it is finished. Yay! My evenings are my own again!

So are my lunches. Before I started the evening job I could take an hour lunch on days I didn't have evening obligations, like choir practice. When you take an hour lunch you have time to spare. You aren't left with that rushing to eat and then get back to work feeling. Instead you can sit and work a sudoku or read a chapter or two. You can go outside and enjoy the day. Or you can sit and chat with other people at the lunch table and make friends. That's so soothing!

My boys were glad to see me when I got home yesterday. Hyram told me that waiting till 10:00 PM for his supper was not good for his digestion. Hooboo said my absence took away from his night time socializing. They both got spoiled last night. Hyram got extra treats, Hooboo went in and out several times, and I kept the sliding glass door open so that they could sniff the night air and feel at peace. My reward for this was to wake and find both cats on either side of me in bed this morning.

So what are my plans with this new found freedom? Well, I intend to get the desk cleaned off and do some better house keeping than I've had time for. I also plan on treating myself to a morning matinee today. It's been a while since I've gone to a movie and there's the new Star Trek movie out. That's just today though.

Another thing I hope for is renewed time to play scrabble with Sandi online. This is one of my favorite evening activities. We chat up a storm when playing and are often so busy chatting that we made a rule that we wouldn't extend each other's time so that we would get playing done too. (g)

Reading is also a goal. Sandi sent me a bunch of books to read and a work friend lent me another so there are about 7 books on my bed waiting for me to either start or finish them. Do you read more than one book at a time? I seem to lately. Right now I'm working on "Hide and Seek" by James Patterson and "Birsinger" by Christopher Paolini. There's also the short story "A Tiny Feast" by Chris Adrian which I printed off of "The New Yorker" website. My friend Susan gave me the link to that one.

Other things I hope to do with the evenings that are mine again are: update my resume, catch up on Internet TV watching, make it to Wednesday evening choir practices again, and more frequent blogging. Somewhere in there I need to finish my taxes. I was so rushed this tax season that I just filed for an extension and now I have time to look for a couple of documents. Plus I've got some pictures I want to share with you, but that will be another post. Enjoy the puzzle!

Tag Clouds and Tutors

Several people have asked me how I put the Tag (Label) Cloud on my blog. It was done for me by a friend, Terry of Terry's Playpen and Paradise Discovered. He's the technical genius who, with much patience, put together the look I envisioned for my blog. Terry doesn't like to title himself as an html wizard, but he does classy things with his blog and posts that I didn't know were possible. On his "Playpen" he shows you how he does certain kinds of blog magic, like images that expand when you mouse over them, or definitions/articles about a subject in a post popping up if you click on them without you losing your place in what you were reading. I asked him if he would be had/could/would put up a post on how to add tag clouds to blogs. He generously responded and his post includes a link to the blogger whose web site he got his from. If you want to know how to do lots of cool things to your blog, I highly recommend visiting Terry's.

All work and no play would make Terry a dull boy, and that would be a lie because his stories are certainly not that. A couple of Terry's Playpen posts are stories pulled from a very private blog in kind hearted response to meme tags he was inflicted with by Shrinky, of Shrink Wrapped Scream, and me. His Paradise Discovered is almost totally story oriented. Terry's writings are of such high quality that I number him among those whose skill makes me wonder why they aren't listed on Blogs of Note, far better than mine. If you visit either of Terry's blogs please take time to leave him a comment. And please let me know when you get a tag cloud of your own up and working, I'll be interested in seeing it. Thanks!

One by One

This past weekend, I'd intended to post a new story about working for the Census. Good intentions got waylaid by this amazing wave of you all visiting my blog, thanks to Blogger putting me on the Blogs of Note list. You came, you looked around, you decided to comment, or follow. And you're still coming! For a humble blogger who had only 8 followers when she went to work on Friday, and now has over 300, this has been an awesome experience. Thank you!

What I'm trying to do with all of this is answer each and every comment to the best of my ability. Since my comments are all moderated I have to read them, delete the duplicates, and of course get rid of the spam. Don't worry, just because you put a link in your comment doesn't mean that I delete it. Lots of you are leaving me links to your blogs and I love going there and seeing what you've done. Right now there are just SO many that I'm way behind, but I'll catch up one by one.

Many of you have just started your blogs. That's where I was 3 years ago. I'd actually created my blog by mistake. I wanted to leave a comment on a friend's blog and registered to do so. Suddenly there was this blog hanging out there with nothing on it. Couldn't let that happen, so I figured out what to write for a first post, and have been blogging ever since.

So far, comments have been left from many different countries, among them Brazil, Portugal, Myanmar, Romania, Australia, and a few that don't translate into a country I can determine. I took Spanish in school, but am not very good at it. I catch about one word in ten. That helps with Spanish and Portuguese, but doesn't get me much farther than knowing whether you left a compliment or not. Talking to friends across the work table I've learned that the characters I mistook to be Greek are actually Romanian. That gave me an interesting bit of history as I didn't know the history of the Romanian language or that they apparently got their alphabet from the Greeks. Being a lover of history and words, this is fascinating to me. And I want to thank all of you from other countries who speak the English language. You are awesome. America doesn't do it's part as a member of the global community when it fails to teach its students a second language well. We do get a couple of years of training, but, as those of you fluent in more than one know, that's no where near enough. It isn't even enough for the second language learners in our public schools. I hope someday that will be corrected, but I don't know that it will happen soon.

To any new comers, if I fail to comment immediately it's because I'm still catching up. There were over 3000 visitors this weekend. However, eventually, I'll reply and pay you a return visit if you've got a blog that I can visit. And forward we go, one by one.

Old Home Week

For about a year I've been a member of Facebook. It wasn't until recently that I did much with it. I'm also on other social networking sites such as Classmate.com for all your past school chums, and Stumble Upon which is for social web surfing.

A couple of days ago an old friend from high school, Mike, sent me a note through Facebook and is now added to my friends. He has a MySpace page so that link has been added to my list of friends on the sidebar. Check his place out if you have the time. I found his writing interesting and moving.

Then I went over to get updates on my nephew's Facebook page and discovered that my niece recently joined. Now she and I are connected as friends. Wow, life changes fast doesn't it?

If that wasn't enough connecting, the prayer group I joined when I worked at Kruger sent out an "its a new semester" email. I popped back a note telling them how glad I was to see them in my inbox again. The group owner, Bob, emailed back. He's the choir director at Kruger and does a wonderful job teaching middle schoolers how to do outstanding vocal work. Turns out he blogs too so I've added that to my friends list also. You may notice it's titled in Spanish. He also teaches that.

Minor Changes & Great Explorations!

Wandering through people who commented on David's latest poem I rediscovered Aggie who has a blog which unites music with art. When I first came across Muse2Art I sent San that way. She seemed to think it was interesting. Now that I've been back, I find it a bit on the fascinating side and want to keep track of it. So, I've added a new link section called "Great Explorations". The purpose of that list is to contain links of places I don't visit daily, yet, but want to keep in touch with. Thank you, Blogger, for creating the bit of html that allows me to know when these sites update.

Of course, once I added the first link to Great Explorations, I had to add a couple more. I now have a grand total of 3 that I want to keep track of. They are Aggie's, Jenni's and Merisi's. (Ummm...make that 4, I just added in Raven's Nest, author of the wonderful Wordzzle) How could I not want to stay in touch with these wonderfully creative women? And I'm sure that more explorations are to come.

After adding the new link category, I did a little switching around of things on the sidebars and relabeled a few things. Then I headed over to Sandi's place and perused her blog roll because I knew she had blogs I wanted to gather in. While linking through one blog too many, I discovered Twilight blogs. And that's all the fault of Nancy at SmilnSigh. I hadn't realized the books were becoming that much of a phenomena. Thank you, Nancy! Now I'm going to have to read them. Not just because they are so popular but because they seem to be popular with Harry Potter fans of which I am one. Darn! There goes the reading budget! Thank goodness I discovered that I can get further discounts through an association I have. Yep, Borders doesn't charge you to join their rewards program but I find better discounts at Barnes & Noble. However, because I'm a member of AARP, I can get 10% off at Borders now. Yay!

That New Blog Roll

Thought I'd write a new post today about books. Guess that's gonna happen later. Instead I found myself checking out the new features that Blogger is adding. I liked the idea of the new Blog Roll. It lets you link to blogs you read. There are some pretty nice features too. Right on your side bar you can see if they have updated, how long ago they did it, what the title of the latest post is, and if you want you can even show a snippet of their post. Sounds like fun. So, I'm trying it out. It's installed on the left sidebar where the old Friend's Blogs used to sit. It's got the same name because well I figured that was what I'd put there. And it works! It even picked up the link to my Dad's memories. He has a new one up too for those of you who like his stories.

Bright Colors, Beauty, and Activity Help

It's been days since I posted anything. Sorry about that! I've been in a blue funk! Yeah, that picture above of "Misty Coastline and Sea Stacks" by Corbis/Punchstock pretty much fit my mood. Life can get sad and scary you know? I don't want to sound sorry for myself, but I'm going to be going through an emotional adjustment for a while; and it isn't something I want to do, but part of the reason is something I'm glad to see happening.

My life is still in flux from the not finishing student teaching. That will have to be handled at sometime and soon. I keep meaning to get back to work on redirecting my life but right now I am involved in a job that has me sitting all day scoring tests for Pearson and at the end of the day I'm just exhausted. So I still have the dreaded but exciting job search to kick off and complete.

To add to that, my best friend, JS, the one God put into my life, is going to Vermont to become a priest. And while I love that she has gotten a great job to move her and her family up there (becoming a priest can be a long process), and has a huge house to move into, I'm also gonna really miss sitting next to her at breakfasts on Sunday and taking notes together in Sunday School. Or dropping by for something or other to visit with her, and her wife and kids. I'm gonna have to find someone else to hang out with which will mean I'll probably be bouncing from acquaintance to acquaintance for a bit. I guess right now that's a good thing because I can get really insular when I've found a comfortable niche. But like I said, I'm really excited for her and we've promised to stay in touch even though she will be way up north. So it isn't all bad. I'm not losing a friend, I'm just seeing her off.

On the positive and active side, I'm planning on becoming a Verger for my church. If you want to know what a Verger is go here. I won't be alone in this. There are four other people who want to be vergers and they are all men. Yep, I'm to be the sole woman verger at my church. There will be a course of study to follow and a test to take. I'll be mentored by the present verger, Ted, and Robert, our priest. I'm hoping this will move me further into my church community and get me more involved. I'm already a Lay Eucharistic Minister(LEM) and on Altar Guild, so that will help with my new responsibilities.

A short bit about LEM duty. On Wednesday, I was supposed to help with the Healing Eucharist by supporting out priest as he lays hands on, anoints, and prays over those who attend the service asking for healing for themselves or others. Well, Robert had gone out of town and no one who was ordained showed up to take his place. Neither did our seminarian, Lisa who worked with me last time to do the service when Robert was unavailable. So there I was, in my robes, with three people in attendance. I had to do some kind of service all on my own. Eek! By church rules, I'm not allowed to officiate at Eucharist so we didn't do the communion. I am allowed to do Morning and Evening Prayer Rites. So, that is what I did, combining part of Evening Prayer Rite II with the prayers for healing from the regular healing service. And once I got started it went ok. The scriptures to be read that evening seemed to fall in line with the requests of the people, a sign I took to mean God was in attendance, and everyone was familiar with the service so we were able to do what was needed and tend to all there after a fashion. That was my first time doing a Prayer Service with people in attendance. I was scared at the start but when I was done I felt good about how it went. Now I know that I can handle it and will be ready should it ever happen again.

Ok, so that's activity. On the inactivity side, I've got a 3 day weekend and am resting up. Yes, I could have been scoring and making overtime. But my project has ended, I'm scheduled for another one on Monday, and I felt that I needed the time off to recoup my energy and try to take care of myself for a few days. So that's what I'm doing and why I'm blogging now.

It isn't that I haven't been thinking about blogging. I have been. I've just been too exhausted and blue to think of anything to say. However, I do have a couple of bright pictures to share. They are both Jigzone jigsaw puzzles. One I worked about 5 days ago and the other one I did this morning. So I'm going to embed them here.



This first one just attracted me so strongly. I love it's strong bright colors and maybe I'm crazy but the light seems to glow through the petals of this lovely Icelandic Poppy. So that was the earlier one I wanted to share.



Here's the other one. It's full of flowers and that Butterfly just looks ready to take off doesn't it? I love bright colors. I also love butterflies and all things winged. That winged group includes angels, fairies, dragons, kites, and anything else you can put into the sky. Hmmm...if I believed that I had past lives I'd almost think I might have been a sky creature in one of them.

Please enjoy the puzzles. I get them daily and now use them to share daily bits of news with my mom to whom I send an email of that day's puzzle so that she and I can share them long distance. Cheers!

Exploring Widgets

While bouncing around the news on another site I discovered a cool widget. So I thought I'd add it to my blog. Then I found there were more. So I tried out two. Both were USA Today, one for Top News and the other was Green News. Wow, they looked good except that they were too wide for the column. So I moved them to the other side. That looked better but still too wide. So I started looking for widgets for 3 column templates. I found a few that were closer, but not one that fits yet.

Google has news widgets that would probably fit just right. I just don't want to use Google widgets. For some reason I feel that Google is kind of invasive. Not as bad as Yahoo is getting, but they are headed in that direction. That's just my NSH opinion.

Anyway, back to widgets. I found one that was for Rueters. It doesn't have the cool display that the USA Today ones had, but it does seem to be keeping up with the latest news. And it fits better. Then I found another one for National Geographic. I love NG so that one I may keep even though it doesn't fit perfectly. If it sounds like I'm trying to avoid template editing work, I am. Hopefully I won't have to do any of that.

So, the upshot of all this is, I will be exploring widgets for the next few days/weeks/whatever. There are so many different kinds out there. I found one for books, but it wasn't customizable. There was one with the NYT Bestseller list. Maybe? Hopefully I'll find lots of cool things to add that will entertain and provide good content. If you have one you want to recommend, or like one of the ones I'm trying out, please let me know.

Voila! & Cat Silliness

Yay! The new look is up! Some of my wonderful friends have visited and left nice comments. Thank you, guys!

There was a vision, but it happened in bits and pieces. Terry, of Terry's Playpen, did all the html work on this and he is awesome. He also did some Photoshop image adjusting to get me the great banner image. That image started out as a NationalGeographic wallpaper, so I don't feel any guilt in modifying it for my blog. They had already published it as a download for broad personal use. Yes, we took the name off because there just wasn't room for everything to fit in the small space allowed for an image. That's one of the reasons I'm giving them credit here. Plus, I'm not making money off this blog and don't really intend to. It's for personal use and friendly sharing.

Terry tends to downplay his skills, but the creative work he put into that image is fantastic. He cropped it, rearranged sections of it, carved out the edges of flowers and butterflies. He created awesome translucency on the butterfly wings so that you can see the background through them. He has a really great sense of color too. There are so many tiny detail touches that he put in that I couldn't even begin to list them all. Compare the banner image to the original image below and you'll get an idea of just how much work Terry put into it.

When I said the vision happened in bits and pieces, I wasn't kidding. It started as a request for a tag cloud. I casually mentioned that I was thinking about adding a background pattern. Terry picked up both of those ideas, offered to help, and things grew from there. If I ever wondered how a project goes from small to large, I have an excellent idea now. It's those little tweaks and changes you get when people are excited about their work and spend time making things just right. The background pattern got scratched, the image got implemented, also the tag cloud, and the new 3 column format. Plus there's a custom background color now. Lots of work!!!

One of the nice things with this new look is the 3 column format. With that I can now post awards, such as those Sandi has been giving me, without making you scroll forever to see them. The drag and drop feature of blogger is also much more useful in this format because there's actually room to move things around. I'm delighted!

So, there you have it, "my new look!" In the process of creating it, Terry got some ideas for future tweaks and "how to" posts for his Playpen. Be sure to put his blog on your list of those to visit. He is terrific (pun not intended)(well, maybe it is)!

To celebrate the new look, I'm sharing some cute cat pics of Hooboo. Yes, I know, he tends to get star billing and feels it is his due. Fortunately, Hyram knows he is still the love of my life and assures me he doesn't feel neglected. The other day Hooboo was in one of those playful, exploratory moods where none of his usual toys were quite right. He discovered the fringe on the afghan I have for the sofa. In the process of playing with it he crawled under the pillows piled at one end. Suddenly he was in a "pillow jungle" and started having all kinds of exciting adventures. This made enough noise that I was alerted, grabbed the camera, and came up with some great shots.

Here he is crawling up through the "Pillow Jungle". He didn't seem to mind my picture taking this time. I guess he was just having too much fun with his jungle fantasy.

And here he is, having made it to the top of that jungle climb playing peek-a-boo through the pillows. I couldn't resist taking several pictures of that face. He definitely had his cute on.

Enjoy folks! And have a Happy Holy Week!

There'll Be Some Changes Made...

Hope you enjoyed that wonderful rendition of an oldie but goodie. This post is to let you know that some changes are about to be made to this blog. A totally new look is coming. Lots of work went into it's creation, so the changes may come in stages (for those quick enough to catch them). But, thanks to the wonderful skills of Terry....there'll be some changes made. And I for one think they are gonna be awesome! Hope you all agree.

Eh?...again!

The Truth Laid Bear rating system has gone a little wonky of late. For a while now I noticed I had no daily details when I checked their website. The support request I registered hasn't been handled yet.

Today I noticed that it was even worse than I had thought. There is a note that says they are adding thousands of blogs and the rating system will be better and more accurate when they are done. Well, I looked at my rating on my website. It says I'm still a multicellular microorganism. But when I check TTLB's website I'm a crawly amphibian. So I looked at the list for that level. Wow! It is really long now. and the number of links are from 1 to 2 for that level. When I looked at the multicellular microorganism there were a fair number listed but they had absolutely no links attached to their blog names. So I'm totally flummoxed and have no idea what I am anymore.

When they get this fixed I may go back to where I was or I may be up a level or two. Whatever happens I hope they finish soon. I felt proud of not being in the bottom rung of the ecosystem. Now that I'm a fair way above that I keep looking around anxiously waiting for the sky to fall. I wonder what Susan is thinking of all of this because her blog says she's a flappy bird while TTLB says she's a marauding marsupial.

Denim to Wander the Weekend In + Muttering

The question posed by David McMahon in his Weekend Wandering post is: Do you wear denim?

The answer is: Every chance I get! That isn't as often as when I worked the night shift. Also still have some old comfortable ones which I've had for I forget how many years (more than 10).

I think my first set of jeans were bought when I was around 8 or 9. This pair didn't soften quickly in the wash as today's do. They felt stiff and uncomfortable for several wearings. As I recall they were an off white.

Did I wear jeans to church today? No, it was too cold for jeans. We had temperatures below freezing when I left for church so I did what any sensible human would do. I threw on animal skin in the form of a nice pair of leather pants. I don't wear my leather often. It would cost too much to clean them. But I pull them out every time the temperature goes below 32 and stays there for most of the day.

Would I rather have worn denim? Well yes, but I think I'd better get some of those flannel lined ones first.

What is the most I've ever paid for a pair of jeans? Well for myself probably not much more than $30 or $35. For my ex, some of his ran to $60 but he was a really big man and needed the extra thigh room that the Levi's in that price range had.

And that's about all I can think of to say about me and jeans except for the fact that I'm a Texan and what would a Texan be without their jeans? Heck, we even wear 'em to swim in!

Now on to the muttering part: When I tried to do a backlink to David's post I couldn't find the little icon to use. I tried every way I could to locate it. I even went back and checked for it on my own blog. Nope, not there. I do know that if I publish a link to another blog in this post it will show up as a link back on their blog as soon as the system has had time to notice. So, maybe they removed the function. Nice, and after David and I asked Terry, who did all that experimentation, to figure it all out for us.

Eh? Too

Yesterday Susan posted that her status in The Truth Laid Bear (TTLB) ecosystem had suddenly jumped several levels. She'd risen from being a flippery fish to being a large mammal. There seemed to be no explanation for this. Today she is an adorable little rodent. Eh?

A while back I too joined the TTLB ecosystem. I didn't figure I'd rank in as much, probably an insignificant microbe. I was somewhat pleased to not be in the bottom rank. I entered as a multicellular microorganism. Today however, I have jumped up significantly, just like Susan did. I'm a lowly insect. This is a jump of 3 levels and my inbound links don't seem to have increased any. So like Susan I'm saying, "Eh?"

All confusion aside, I'm tipping my hat to the Asian Pop with YeinJee blog where I found the above image. It's Japanese insect origami. How cool is that?

Later
There is a message in red at the top of the home page of TTLB. It says that an error is corrupting the ecosystem ratings and that a fix is in progress. I guess I'll be back to my multicellular microorganism level tomorrow.

Weekend Wandering Response: Answer My Cellphone Where?!

David McMahon, in his Weekend Wandering post asks the following question: Have you ever answered or made a call on a cellphone while you were in a toilet? (Or even wanted to and thought better of it!)

My first thoughts were, why the cellphone? You can do this on regular portable home phones too. But perhaps it was asked about cell phones because they have a much better pickup on their microphones since they are often used in noisy areas like airports, restaurants, or moving cars. Then I wondered why he'd ask something so personal. Maybe it was a guys question? Whatever the reason, I don't spend that much time on my cellphone but as a subject for a discussion on phone etiquette it is excellent. So, here's my answer.

If it is a business call it won't last long enough for this type of incident, and I certainly wouldn't pick it up unless I was headed out of the necessary. Just call back quickly and apologize, explaining you were busy. If it was a friend I'd also decline to pick up until I was headed elsewhere, this is assuming a public location. If I'm at home however, it's a different case. My best friends tend to call and talk for a really long time, sometimes two hours or more. If I need to do that kind of thing, especially if it is their dime, I just discretely let them know or find a way to let it not be known. They've certainly done the same thing to me. I'd rather embarrass myself by acknowledging a bodily function than to be rude to a friend who'd called and ask to interrupt our conversation.

And now I'm going to try that method Terry told us about to make a backlink. If it works this will be all the notification you get. If it doesn't I'll have to comment elsewhere. Update: It worked! :) Yay, Terry!!!

Peace!

Quick Notes

My blogging my evolve into short bits of news for a while. I've got so much to do in preparation for the day that I don't really feel like I have time for full posts. My evenings are busy doing reading and next it will be lesson planning. My mornings are spent getting ready and trying to make sure I'm organized. I keep telling myself that I can't wait for the two weeks of seminars to be over, but once that happens I'm sure the semester will have something else for me to be thinking of instead of early morning blogging.

We've added two students into my student teaching classroom yesterday. They are both ESL because that classroom had too many so it was split up between the others. There's a special ed child in my classroom which I don't have the experience needed to support properly. I'm thinking I need to talk to the special ed teacher.

Half day today at UTSA, then lunch, and off to the elementary school. Hi ho! Hi ho! It's off to work I go. (g)

More Odd Bits - posts - cat news - an interesting blog

Me has graciously let me know there are lyrics to the Enterprise Theme Song. I went looking and sure enough there they were on a SciFi channel. I've posted them in the comments for "Star Trek" Music.

Hooboo and Hyram are competing for food and space. This morning I had to pick each bowl up, fill them, and then place them down at the same time in spread apart locations (thankfully both in the kitchen). Hyram has always had his favorite places to relax in. Now Hooboo is suddenly coming into these places and there is a certain amount of hissing going on. Last night both cats slept on the floor until Hooboo discovered how comfortable the sofa was. This morning he discovered how to get up on my bed and decided he really liked being there with me and kneading the comforter. Right now, Rum Tum (affectionate name for Hyram) is stretched out on my dining table (seldom used for dining) and Hooboo is curled up near my feet. Ah the joys of being a cat mom. (g)

Found an amusing blog today. Basic Instructions was listed in the notable blogs when I logged on. I wandered through it and was most impressed with the artwork and interesting commentary and humor exhibited while giving out much needed directions for handling certain situations one might encounter in life. I'm adding a link for this one to my side bar. It's worth the occasional read.

A chain of blogaversaries

Today is my friend Susan's blogaversary. LOL, I love that word. I also love reading her blog. Happy Blogaversary, Susan!

And Thank you! Because of Susan's blog, I started blogging too. If you were to go way back to the first post you might read how I stumbled into blogging by trying to comment on Susan's first post. (blush) I really thought I was more internet literate than that. Thank goodness I wasn't that night. This has been such a great experience for me that describing the personal growth and good feelings is hard. After I realized how good blogging made me feel I asked Susan what she thought it meant. She said, "You're developing a public voice." That led me to some deep self examination and reflection. There are lots of good things that have come out of blogging, but for me the most important one is the personal response to what I kept telling myself every time I wrote a post, "I can't be 'that' different." And it's true. I'm not. That may sound strange coming from an exhibitionist, but there is a certain happiness in being one of the crowd. So, Happy Blogaversary to me! (g)

In September on the 12th I will celebrate my good friend JS's blogaversary. Yay! We'll have come full circle. Maybe we should do a circle poem or prayer for that day. Peace and harmony in a world that is slowly and, it seems, selectively (although not by me) expanding into a community of friends and intents that sooner or later will come to pass.

Peace! Hope! & Joy!

Worth Reading!

My friend, Susan Palwick, is an author, a lay minister, a volunteer chaplain, and (to my mind) a religious and social activist who lives what she preaches. She been posting recently about the WisCon she and her husband attended. One of her posts got 11 comments, among them one so filled with pain that Susan promised the commenter (anonymous-comment # 9) that she would respond with a post all on its own. She has done so and her response is wonderfully compassionate and absolutely worth reading, even if you haven't read the comment that generated it. Please go here to read "Dear Anonymous."