My Current Quiet Time Routine

As soon as I get up (usually, let's be honest here):

1. Go to Bible Gateway and get the latest verse of the day. Write it down, add my prayerful response to this verse. (This takes roughly seven to ten minutes. If I'm pressed for time, have to hustle to work, I save the next steps for when I'm on the bus...)
2. Ask God for wisdom, and read the day 's section in whatever Bible reading plan I'm going through. As I read, the Holy Spirit will prompt me to pay special attention and linger over various passages. These I write down. 
3. When I finish the day's section, I will sometimes get prompted to look up a specific topic in my Thompson Chain bible, and read the related verses.
4. I reread and pray back to God the verses He gave me that day, then I spend some time praying for the day, problems, needs of family and friends.

This process takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour. As I said, sometimes I'm doing the second part of this plan while on the bus, or I'm praying while walking to and from the bus.

This is one reason I like taking the bus, it's pretty much guaranteed alone time. If I'm praying under my breath, no one seems to take notice of another weirdo chattering to themselves on the bus, which there are usually one or two on every bus in my area anyway.

Quick and Dirty DIY Bible Tabs

This was something I did with my big purple Adventure Kid's Bible, it seemed like the kind of thing that needed colorful tabs.

I think I was probably watching True Detective or something while I did this, I remember the TV being on. Just using regular graph paper I laid out a grid of colored squares with abbreviations of bible book titles on them. I had checked and knew they would be the right size to fit from the edge of the page to the edge of the cover.  Some bibles give you a lot of cover, some don't.

I then cut these into strips, then snipped each tab off individually as I was ready to use it.

On the far left here you can see how these were attached, simply with transparent tape. I made these to be specifically the width of scotch tape, which is exactly three quarters of an inch. Basically you adhere your tape to the bottom side of the page first, then, with a flap of tape sticky side up sticking out, you lay your tab on top, butting it right up to the edge of the page. You then fold the tape flap over, adhering it to the top of the tab and the page, rubbing any air bubbles out carefully.

You start out with Revelation or the Concordance/Index, whichever's at the end of your bible. In this way, you will then be able to tell where to place your next tab for the book of Jude, directly to the left of the one before it. You then proceed in like fashion until your bible is finished.

Took awhile, but it was worth it!

Feminist Fight Club

Was deeply disappointed recently with comedian Laurie Kilmartin. It seems she thinks a great way to register disagreement with other women on the interwebs is to insist that they need to "stick a dick in their vagina".

I had such high hopes for you, funny lady! Not only a pretty good comic, but I felt solidarity with you over the recent loss of your dad and such. I don't know if you consider yourself a feminist, but I feel you have now disqualified yourself here.

1. First rule of Feminist Fight Club: No one needs to stick a dick in their vagina!
2. Second rule of Feminist Fight Club: No one needs to stick a dick in their vagina!

And the Sickness Unto...

So, I'm not quite out of the woods yet, but I'm fighting my way out of a week long flu-like illness. I don't get sick like this often, but when I do it can be pretty intense.

When I get sick like this, I get as close to being suicidal as I can, because I have really weird scary dreams. There was one with monster blockhead alien beings (there is a video on YouTube somewhere of me in a chat room, talking about a monster alien dream, which is kinda hilarious, but I think it's the same guys.) And they were like, "THE DEATH TRUCKS ARE HERE."  And I'm like, "Holy crap, DEATH!"

Thankfully, there was one dream that was funny enough to cancel that one out.  Prince was in it, His Royal Purpleness Himself, standing behind a keyboard. And he was looking at me with that look he gave to Kanye that time, and telling me, "Don't look, seriously, you won't like it."  And all of a sudden there was some kind of weird porn in my face (that I really didn't wanna look at.)

And I guess the meaning of that dream was Prince ain't gonna steer anybody wrong.

Also, his music will rip yer face off.

What If?

What if everything wrong with a person was holding back everything that was right with them?

I had an interesting thought: what if all the good stuff about that one person I couldn't bring myself to forgive was somehow free? It could come out and heal old hurts by causing them to say things I wish they would.

It would also be like they would be free too. They would have the power to see things in a different way. 

That'd be really neat.

Kitchen Memories

The wallpaper was a fruit and vegetable motif, done in brilliant orange and green. This was the late sixties/early seventies, when really earthy earth tones were popular (avocado green refrigerators and ovens were born around this time.)

Spices we had then: petrified tumeric in a small can from 1937, oregano, and something called "Beau Monde" seasoning, which seemed to be an unholy concoction of garlic salt, cream of tartar, whatever they used to make that "Butter. Buds" product, and some black pepper thrown in to save it from looking like powdered puke.

With these and ketchup the house chef would serve whatever dead animal wound up on our plates.

Roots, Branches, & What We Allow to Grow

So we've been talking about the book of James in Sunday school. The best I can describe it, James is mostly about discipleship, and not being a phony Christian.

Recently we've been going over the verses regarding the tongue: 3:1 - 12.  Verse 6: "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and is set on fire by hell."

That verse has really got to give one pause. It reminds me of Jesus'  words in Matthew 15:18--"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man."

This set me thinking after church, as I wandered around town, about what was inside me. Full disclosure: I've been fairly prayerless the past week or so. I'm newly returned to the Lord and still trying to get disciplined about my devotional time.

All of the negative stuff from James has sort of been coming into play (not in a big way, but bad enough) : faith w/o works, envy, pride, an untamable tongue, listening to too much secular music and feeling weird...all floating around in my head.

When I get this way, I start feeling like a walking example of the Parable of the Sower, how the cares of this world can choke out the Word.

I resolved this afternoon to perambulate in prayer as I was going around, which I did, and I have to say I'm glad. Sometimes having a think and a prayer and a wander can do you a world of good.

My Three Words for 2015

So, Chris Brogan over @ Chris Brogan is doing this whole "three word" thing, and I Iike it.

I like that this is turning the idea of of "resolutions" on its head.  Because your New Year's stuff should be more about focus than about stuff you oughtta do,, which can ruin your focus.

That being said, I'd like to get this under way with my three words, which are:

1. Calibrate.  I'm going to ask myself, "What's my level? How do I get there and how do I vibrate on that frequency?" This is also sort of a spiritual idea, the idea of, getting with one's Higher Power, whatever that may be, and finding out what you should be doing (yeah, I know, "should".)
2. Educate. Self-education is going to be very important this year, about a lot of different things.
3. Create. More blogging, hopefully more YouTube videos this year (maybe even getting started on a book, holy shnikeys!)

I feel like these are three words that go together, they flow into each other logically, and it's a good focus for my year.

Happy 2015, buddies.

Impressions

The man driving a small car, with a huge dog in the passenger side, both of them looking as though this was the most normal thing in the world, a level of peaceful intimacy between them that was enviable.

A youngish man in an SUV, turning slightly to look incredulously, and say, "What?!" to some toddler, who had no doubt said/done something very funny.

Flash Blogging

So, is this a thing?  Will this work?
New idea: Flash blogging.  Stream of consciousness blogging, done on the fly.

First one:  On way to work, second week of new cool job: crossing guard.  On the bus now, happy to be getting there fast.  Feeling blessed.

Onion Thoughts...

Here we go, I'm about to commit an absolute blogging crime:  writing a post about food.

You've heard what the experts have had to say--"No one is interested in what you had for lunch!  Stop tweeting and Facebook-ing  your food!"  And I have disregarded that advice and tweeted about food before.  It's fun to break the rules sometimes!

And I suppose that they're actually right, those experts, in a way.  Taking a photo of your pan-seared ahi tuna or whatever, and saying, "Out with the gang at that great new restaurant!" may be a pretty good thing for your inner circle of internet pals, the folks you work with, your family, your down the street neighbor who's on your Facebook, and whatnot, but it's not something that will generally hold the interest of anyone outside that tight-knit inner circle.

I think that a posting of any kind having to do with food should be something that causes people to sit up and take notice--you've got to have something to say about food.  You don't necessarily have to be Jacques Pepin, but you have to have a reason for writing what you do, an awareness of what you like and don't like and why.  Some kind of an observation or perspective on a food matter.  These are the kinds of things that will draw more people than your Aunt Gertrude (who reads all your stuff!) to be interested.

And now, I'm sure people are going to hate me or something, because I said all of that simply to set up a few words that were rattling through my brain about onions.  Whoever has read this far can judge whether or not I adhered to my own self-imposed expert rules.

The Whole Thing About Liking/Not Liking Onions

Almost everyone starts out as a kid not liking onions.  It's something about their texture, it can be kind of "papery" in a weird way.  Certainly, if your mom or whoever was the cook when you were growing up can really ruin your experience of onions by not cooking them properly or throwing them on badly cooked meat, especially if you're the type of kid like I was who also had a hard time liking red meat.  Fried onions can seem kind of slimy and weird.  The whole thing leaves you feeling like you'd be fine if you never ate another onion again.

But then, at least in my case, things happen as you get a little older.  You start noticing that nice, fresh, thinly sliced onion tastes pretty darn good on a cheeseburger.  In fact, onions and cheese tend to go together really well, "cheese and onion" is sort of a food institution.

You realize that red onions are delicious in salads, pasta, and on pizza.  In fact, if you're making roasted vegetables, they're really good by themselves.

And then, it happens:  someone serves you Roasted Cipollini Onions, which are the kind of thing that absolutely melts in your mouth.  The first time I had these, it was so good I nearly came unglued.  The way this dish is made, the onions have a sweet/savory nut-like flavor that can send you over the moon.  

Not everyone crosses the bridge from hating onions to liking them, they can almost be classified in that snooty category of foods thought of as "an acquired taste."  As a person who has made that jump, I can tell you that I feel a little more like a real adult, knowing that I have embraced onions as a culinary friend.

An Elite MBA...

She's Doing An Elite MBA For Under $1,000 | LinkedIn



Interestingly, just last week I was in a video chatroom where they were debating on the value of online ed solutions like Coursera. I'm taking a writing class there, and I piped in with my opinion that it may be good for learning stuff on your own, such as punching up your writing skills, but that it wouldn't be sufficient to prepare you for a job in business.  It seems that Laurie Pickard is gearing up to prove me wrong.



This is a discussion that needs to be had, obviously.  If you read "DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education" by Anya Kamenetz, and a few of the other books like it, you'd see that there are a lot of people looking at this issue.



There are so many reasons today why traditional higher ed is not a good fit for many of us out there.  One example would be the high cost to parents who send their kids out to college, pay a lot into it, and wind up having to pay even more $$ because instead of buckling down and studying, Jr. has been doing nothing but drinking, partying, and getting into trouble.  Jr. then has to come back home, and, rather than gain an MBA type position, he has to work the fry station at McDonald's.



No disrespect to McDonalds, though, because as I recall when I worked there, they actually worked *with* me to work out a schedule where I could take some college classes.  Not enough of the entry level workplaces out there are willing to do that these days.



As a person who's had to balance work and school, and now these days with an added load of having to take care of elderly parents, having an educational resource that I can slip into the narrow cracks of my free time is an immense blessing.



In this economy, people are less willing to shell out the bucks to an institution whose idea of improvement may be only beefing up the sports program, or a cosmetic overhaul of the cafeteria/food court.  When you consider the ever growing unlikelihood that a brick and mortar degree will lead to a job, large colleges setting up free MOOCs may be their first effort at remaining relevant to the needs of the future workforce.

21st Century Problems

So I was succumbing to the "internet productivity" thing, forging ahead in the "quest for inbox zero",  diligently cleaning out my Gmail account, when something weird happened.

I was searching and deleting, getting rid of whole swaths of email I would never read.  Click, and gone were hundreds of crappy messages from the Democratic party, click, now giant blocks of pagan message board communiques erased.

After getting rid of a couple thousand emails, I thought I should surface in the front room, come up for air and get something to eat. A nice salad from the store, perhaps.

As I was eating, my brain started cycling over the task I had been doing.  Emails began to scroll through my head.  All of a sudden, I felt as though the part of my brain that was emotionally prepared to eat green onions was missing.

There was one in my mouth.  "This is crunchy in a way I'm not in the mood to deal with!" I thought.

Clearly, I am not the type of person who needs Google Glass...

First Day at Work!

The first half of my day was spent in training,mostly we went through a script I am to read when I do calls.  As we discussed it, we also got a little bit into the theory behind cold calling and how it works.  I would be starting out with a script, but eventually I will become so comfortable I will be able to put a lot of my own spin on things.

The thing that struck me the most about this place is how nice everyone is.  Of course, they all like that show, "Coven", which I could barely stand the first half hour, so that is something funny, there will be a lot of laughs with this group, I expect.

And Yet More Good News!!!

Went down to the DMV today and passed the written test!!!  It took three tries, but I got it.

Then I went to the library and looked up books about cold calling and sales.  I sat there for awhile, thinking about what it will be like to start work tomorrow. 

Something occurred to me while I was sitting there.  My new job is as an appointment setter.  What do things like cold calling, sales, advertising, and marketing all have in common?  And what skill do they most use, while at the same time honing that same skill?

Writing, that's what!  There are so many different directions I can go with this.  Using words to persuade and capture hearts and minds.  As I sat there today, my head was swimming with possibilities.

Also, forgot to mention that this is a company that serves the LGBT community.  Is that cool, or what?  This job is gonna rule! 

Jupiter is certainly giving me lots of Xmas gifts this year!  How's that for Law of Attraction?

A Good News Day...

Today was a very good day.  I got a brand new job today.  The one I had didn’t suck, it was just becoming obvious to me that it was the wrong job for me, it didn’t fit.  I’m very grateful I was able to get it, but there are certain times when one needs to move on.

And today I saw the ad in Craigslist, a shiny, new ad that had just been posted, and said to myself, “Why not?  The worst that can happen is I don’t get it, but if I want to advance my career, I’ve got to do something now, and why not this?  It could just as easily be me as anyone else.”

I think what helped me was the fact that I *did* strike while the iron was hot, thereby securing the fact that I’d be one of the first they interviewed.  I’ve heard that’s one of the best job hunting tips:  always try to be the first one they talk to.

And this job is so great:  it’s entry level, yet it’s doing something very important.  I can learn a skill that I’ll have--this is a sales type of job, I’ve never done this type of thing before, but I feel like I’m up for the challenge.  Even if this eventually doesn’t work out, it is *still* an excellent experience to have.

I feel very “new chapter in my life” right now.  There are so many positive things about this job, and how it will help me in all kinds of areas of my life, and the other good things that are going on...There is something very “fresh and un-stale” about my life right now.

I don't have a shorthand.

Ernie Souchak, the columnist played by John Belushi in Continental Divide, invented his own.  There's something very cool about that to me.  Something that said he was a real writer.

I have no idea why, but that movie didn't have the critical acclaim that his earlier movies did.  I happen to like that movie a lot.

It's the story of a Chicago journalist who goes up against the Mob and corrupt politicians, has to go into hiding where he falls in love with Blair Brown, who I believe was cast due to her similarity to a young Katherine Hepburn.  There is romantic tension, and Belushi has to get back to Chicago, where he once again takes on corruption.

I like that he's a guy who is on the ropes, and rallies his way back.  And that he was a writer doing this.

It seems like during the eighties there were a whole lot of movies that revolved around writers and their problems.  Probably because they were being written by screenwriters.  The kind of screenwriters, it seems to me, that would be the type of guys who would have lunch with Robert Evans and those type of guys.

I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to have lunch with Robert Evans, but I sure wouldn't mind being a real writer, like Ernie Souchak.

The Decemberists Writing Challenge

So, I saw Mur Lafferty's podcast about the end of NaNoWriMo:  http://murverse.com/nanowrimo-podcast-day-30-the-end/

She didn't make the required number of words, but she (rightfully) didn't feel like a giant loser, either.  This got me thinking how I had blown off the 100 Day Writer Challenge on Twitter, and maybe I could STILL do some thing writerly for the end of the year, that I didn't have to spend the remaining days of 2013 in writing challenge Palookaville.

In a "pouring it on in the last moments" kind of way, I've devised my own kind of writing challenge, one for "wannabe" writers like me, who look at the people doing NaNoWriMo, and think, "Man, I wish I could do that!  Wish I had the time/skill/discipline/whatever that it takes."

I am one of those "scramble at the last moments" kind of people-- something always seems to get in the way.  But in the spirit of not feeling like a loser about it, this time, here is the challenge:  if, like me, you're a wannabe NaNoWriMo-er, but you feel it's too intimidating, how could you write that many words in a month, excuse dejour, etc, you can write in the last month of the year. 

And you get to set your own goal.  It could be so many words a day, it could be so many pages by the the end of the month--you are the one who knows how much time you have and how much writing you have in you.  But your comitment will be to writing something, it doesn't matter how little, every day of the month of December.

And I knew that The Decemberists have a song with lyrics that go, "I am a writer, writer of fictions/ I am the heart that you call home/And I've written pages upon pages/Trying to rid you from my bones."  So it seemed appropriate to name this The Decemberists Writing Challenge.  Hope they don't mind that I used their name.  Here's a video of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4FErEVRlIU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Anybody wanna join me?  This is designed to be a no-pressure kinda thing.

A Serendipitous Moment

So, here's a story of something kind of nice that happened to me today.

The day didn't start so well.  I got some sharp words of criticism from a family member.  Then I had a disagreement with some people on the internet, and I realized I had to completely remove myself from any further discussion with an entire group of people, because they just weren't worthy of the respect I had had for them. 

It's always more disappointing when these things happen between myself and folks who I thought were more intelligent and mature.  It wouldn't hurt as badly if it was a group of people I didn't care about.

It wasn't hugely devastating, but not the way I would have chosen to start my day.  So, when I started work that evening, I didn't feel so great.  So, when am I getting to the something nice, I'm sure you're wondering?

Well, I had been working for about 45 minutes, when I saw a familiar face come into the store.  A gal I had worked with about 15 years ago was shopping, and she remembered me.
In fact, she told me a story, something I had forgotten about.  She said, "I had a broken heart, and you gave me a little heart necklace and I still have it."  I don't think she knew what just that little sentence had meant right at that moment, how it lifted me out of the doldrums I was in.

There I was, stewing about how someone had called me a moron today on the internet--I mean, come on, it's the internet, how important is it?  And here comes along, this old friend, and reminds me of a small kind gesture I did and that they remembered it this whole time.  Some little thing I did made *them* feel better.

I pretty much had a smile on my face the rest of the night, and work went really well.

#100 Day Writer Challenge

Been getting pretty chummy with a lot of real writers on Twitter and other places lately.   And here is this one lady with a challenge:  Write every day for a hundred days, and  mark off every day on a sheet.  Here's the post regarding the challenge: 

http://blog.writingspirit.com/2013/09/2013-writing-challenge.html

Now, I'm not one of those published authors or ready to publish hopefuls she seems to be talking to, I'm just someone who used to do a lot of text-blogging and wants get back to doing it on a regular basis. 

At the risk of sounding whiney, I kind of have a lot of duties that take me away from blogging, a mom who, when there don't seem to be enough chores for me to do, comes up with the idea that it would be really cool for me to wash the walls.  And a job which, though I'm very happy to have it, can be very physically taxing.

I'm basically a much more stressed out Hermgirl than I was back in 2002 when I was firing up my LiveJournal nearly every day.  However, I refuse to believe that means that I have to put my blogging life out to pasture. 

Maybe I need to use it as a place to vent, or self therapize or whatever, but I know that someday I will have the time and space to myself to pursue my creative endeavors, and that I will publish one day.

I need to find a way to keep my hand in.  Keep my hand in writing, keep my hand in reviewing, keep my hand in grammar and editing, keep my hand in books, keep my hand in WORDS!  I won't give them up, I will fight.

So, here I am, making a commitment to blog every day for 100 days, the remainder of the year.  Can I do it, with all the irons that I have in the fire?

I think so, if I keep it "downsized", if you will.    So I'm thinking the commitment I will make will be this:  I pledge myself to blog 75 words a day, at least, and to make at least one tweet or Facebook post, or both, every day. 

The blog entries may not be here, I have a couple blogs for different purposes, there are some I don't want everyone to see, but by cracky, I'm doing this!