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 |   So playing the trombone wasn't getting me in enough trouble? |
| I need someplace to write down the often confusing thoughts that enter my mind, while my stories give voice to the characters that wander through periodically, this is the place for my voice. Join me if you wish, comment if you wish, all are welcomed and appreciated. |
I began setting monthly goals, about three months ago. Over the course of those months I managed to make those goals. Sometimes by the skin of my teeth, but I can still say I made them. Having them set in stone so to speak on "Destination: Goal Zone"  , was and is a big help. I am also participating in the "Habit Heroes " , which has gotten me somewhat back on track schedule wise … no more late night TV bingeing.This month, barring a miracle, I am not going to make my goals. Not so much for lack of trying. I've spent more then enough time at the keyboard to have completed everything I needed to complete. The will and drive to actually complete anything is lost in a sea of ennui, much of it caused by the circumstances going on around me. The world is going to you know where in a handbasket and doesn't look to be turning around any time soon. Feeling powerless to control that spiral is in many ways debilitating. Professionally, something I worked to build all my life is being torn apart by a force I can't begin to understand how to fight. Politics, I can fight, funding problems, I can fight. How do I put one hundred students in a room today, tomorrow or whenever and make music? How do I do that if I can never put students together in a room? Personally, how do you handle finding out someone you thought you knew and loved isn't who you thought they were? How do you deal with knowing they've lied and deceived you for their entire lifetime? How does one deal with knowing they don't deserve the wonderful gift they've received? Sorry, I know this is more rant than blog post. Hopefully, June will be better, though this will be the first June in 15 years I won't be conducting the band at Graduation, so it's already wearing on me. |
| Strangely enough one of the things I miss most about not working as normal is the Lack of Bells. Not the bells from any nearby House of Worship, rather the bells that governed the school day. The bells for more than twenty-five years pretty much governed my day. There was a bell that told me the hallways should be clear, all the kiddies tucked away in their Homerooms, waiting for attendance, announcements and the next bell to send them off their first-period classes and me to my office and the start of my "administrative" periods. There was a bell that announced coffee break time, prep period time, lunchtime, and finally the arrival of my teaching periods. I never realized how much I'd miss those bells, partitioning off my day into neat forty-three minute segments. Finally the last bell, another day over, but wait, really that one signaled the "extra afterschool help" period. The real end of the day was the late bus announcement. Being totally "free" of the bells led to the start of bad habits. Staying up too late, sleeping in too much. Luckily I found 🌻 thankful pwheeler nano  's , "Habit Heroes " , which got that aspect back under control. Taking it a step further, my phone now chirps happily at lunchtime, reminding me to get off the computer and eat. Another chirp chases me out into the yard for a brief walk.Somewhere along the way, I came to depend on the bells. I guess that's not a bad thing. I just wonder when it happened? |
| I made a brilliant discovery today ... of course someone out there in WdC land made it a while before me, and is laughing at me now for being excited about something they've been doing all along. Welp! Gonna share it anyway! Everybody knows about Favorites, you know, you click the fingers with the string, twice until it turns to a megaphone. Now, every time there's activity in that particular item It move up to the top of the Favorites ...  over there Which You Should ABSOLUTELY Do! It keeps you in the know about your favorite places, and when something new happens at or on any of them.The drawback is, unless something new happens your Favorite could fall off the list, causing a panicked search for something you need. My Handy-Dandy Solution? For A Wink And A Nod Allow me to present "The Notepad Favorite List"; Notepad  over there allows multiple pages, just click on New Page, cleverly name it "Favorites".Anytime you find an item or forum you want to save put it on that page. I'm using this format to make my list: Using this blog as an example ~ The Page/Item/Forum Name ~ "I'm Only the Trombone Player" ~ Title Text - Plain Text WriteingML Code for Item ~ "I'm Only the Trombone Player" ~ Clickable Link - {item:XXXXXXX}The Sample WriteingML ~ {item:2207577} ~ Easy to Copy Link - ({){item:XXXXXXX}(}) - Remove the () There's a bit of redundancy in the listing, but it helps in the long run. The items Title Text, make things easy to find in the "edit screen", which will matter if your adding other links and want them under or over an existing link. The Clickable Link is your fast way to your desired location. The Easy to Copy Link is useful if you want to mention an item elsewhere. While I was doing this I created a page for my "Signatures". Another for "Stories" I found and want to go back to again. "Gifs" I have created or found off WdC, and may want to use again. Also one for frequently used WritingML code like links, and embeds. Yes, I know I might have (for some) reinvented the wheel, but this might help others.   |
Teachers love when someone asks them a question, it helps them judge how well they did their job teaching that particular lesson, and it quite often provides something called a "teachable moment". I current have the privilege of serving on the panel judging Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love  's "Invalid Item" .My role is to judge Compliance with the Instructions given for the particular round; For example these were the factor's I considered in Round Three; Objectives for this round: This round, you will introduce your character from the first round to their new world you created last round. Creativity is a focal point of this round. Please do not just drop them into their new world. Specific Guidelines for this round: This round your entry must be at least 250 words or more. Pay close attention to detail. You must put your word count in the top right-hand corner of your text, in bold. Your entry must be submitted in Bitem format. You must use a 3.5 or larger font size. DEADLINE: Friday, MAY 1st by MIDNIGHT WDC time! Each of the BOLD TEXT are factor's I considered for basic compliance with the rules set forth. This is the template I used to judge the entries; "Round 3 Template" . These are Pass/Fail, Yes/No factors. As such it was either correct, contestants got all the points, or wasn't correct, and no points were awarded.However, I missed that golden "Teachable Moment" until a contestant was nice enough to ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION!! The contestants question; You assigned 0 points for Entry Format and stated that the item was not in bitem format; I believe you are mistaken. The item exists as a separate entry in my Monthly Contests folder, completely separate from the Epic Battle of the Pens folder for the previous two entries. Why? Several contestants lost points for posting their entries in the forum improperly and I was derelict in my duty by not explaining WHY! Very simply, there are a multitude of ways to post an item in a forum; If your item is in a book or blog, you need to use {entry:XXXXXXX}, that would look like this "Round 3 Template" However, using the entry format was outside the contests guidelines. The Work Around; Create a "Static Item" copy of your book entry, and use it for the contest. You can delete it after the contest is over. If your work is a "Static Item", freestanding so to speak, you have several choices, including the two most often used {item:XXXXXXX} or {bitem:XXXXXXX}. For a contest the Contests Owner will chose which format the want you to post with. It is important to post with the CORRECT format, very often posting incorrectly will result in silent disqualification. (At least I only hit you for five points!) There is a marked difference for how the two postings look; {item:xxxxxxx} Is merely a link within the body of your text, "Newbie Contest Challenge!!" , neat if you just want a link.But, {bitem:XXXXXXXX} is packed with more information and is more like the cover of a book, it tells me quite a bit about your entry. It shows the Title, cover, the author, and an intro blurb.
Did you take the time to properly Capitalize your Title? Did You write an eye catching, informative introduction? Did you take the time to find a great Cover Photo? All first impressions that will help or hurt your efforts, and why so many contest owners ask for {bitem:xxxxxxx} format. AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR JUDGES; To PROPERLY view {bitem} entries you forum post view MUST be set to UNTHREADED VIEW. WdC will truncate the post, causing it to appear as a {item} post. If you haven't visited the "Invalid Item" I suggest you do so, our six combatants are in a pitched battle for dominance and have one more round to prove themselves Champion Of the Epic Pen!!You can also cheer on Pumpkin Spice Sox  , SB Musing  , beginnerwrath, MirandaCookies IS IN COLLEGE  , Write_Mikey_Write!  and Becca Winchester over at the "Invalid Item" . Buy a star for your favorite contestant or for all Six! |
| We All Get Them! They Show Up In Our Mail Box. What does it say? Should I open it? Should I run AWAY … Screaming? Is this going to wreck my Morning? Yeah, I admit, sometimes Pessimistic Richard sees the Review of__________ (XXXXXXX) message just that way. Sometimes the wastepaper baskets gains wings, sails off the tip of my toe and flies across the room. Face it. Most of us have gotten or will get a BAD review, it may not be on WdC, it might come from somewhere external. It has to happen. Is it disappointing? Yes!! Is it Frustrating? Yes! Is it helpful? Probably! You got it now what do you do with it? First, clean up the mess you made kicking the wastepaper basket across the room, the activity will help you calm down. Now, calmly reread the Review, look at it not with Authors eyes, but try to see what your reviewer saw. Reread you work, do the reviewers points make sense? Are there tweaks to be made? Don't make them yet, take a day to think about them. SAVE a copy of your original story, without the tweaks, BEFORE you do anything else. Make the tweaks and changes that YOU AGREE WITH. Reread both versions. Which is stronger writing? A bad Review is a valuable tool, a starting point for learning and a way to make your work stronger. Don’t be discouraged, use the tool. Use what you agree with, disregard what makes no sense to you. And, realize not all reviews WILL be helpful, but most are. A quick anecdote; A very young trombone player, we’ll call him Mike, just starting out in his career, had two college auditions for placement on the same day at two different colleges near his home. There was of course a complication; Mike's High School Marching Band had just returned a few days earlier from a competition. Marching Band is very hard on Brass Players, it messes up our “chops”, ruins our tone, makes it hard for us to play in tune and just generally does really bad stuff. So basically, Mike’s playing was a bit rough, to say the least. Mike went to his first audition and played a technically perfect solo; one of three he had prepared. Bad Tone, Iffy Intonation were unavoidable, and without a weeks’ worth of practice time uncorrectable. The single Adjudicator in the room wore a sour face throughout Mike’s playing, when Mike finished, in a less then charitable tone said, “That has to have been the worst thing I have heard all day,” he continued, “I suggest you go out to the highway and throw your instrument under the first passing bus.” Mike’s accompanist, bless her, calmed him down and convinced him to go forward to the second audition. Great! This time there were three Adjudicators, three people to tell Mike he sucked. Still, stung by the first auditor’s comments, Mike’s playing was good, if possible, better than the first time. Bad tone, bad intonation and rough edges still shared the stage. The only spoken word … Wow! And then, “did you prepare a second solo? Mike played the second solo … and then the third solo he had prepared, wondering why these people were torturing him. It all got really good when the guy sitting in the center of the room, (he looked a lot like a reject from Scooby-Doo) asked, “Are you in a competition marching band?” I found a home, with critics who understood. |
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Credit is delaying the pain unless one pays it off every month. I don't buy what I can't afford. I don't go into debt. I live well by living well within my means. 
