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July 22, 2015 I'm going to start today to record on a daily basis whatever happens to strike my fancy. So, it is a very cool breezy day. I just posted 5 short book reviews to The Monthly Reading Challenge. I'm suppose to put away some winter wood today from the woodpile outside but I'm playing hookey from work to write so starting this blog will get done. I'm having a daily fight with a flock of English Sparrows that are trying to take over my barn. They are making a terrible mess so they have to go. I have destroyed several nests so far they don't leave but they get out of the barn when I am around. I'm just starting the fight so I guess I don't know how far I have to go to discourage them. I'm trying not to spread myself to thin on WDC because I find so many things that are interesting here and I am trying to work on a new story. I really enjoy sitting at my desk with a cup of tea and reading blogs on WDC. |
Is there such a thing as “unbiased reporting?” (Consider not just journalism, but storytelling - is it possible to tell a story without bias?)  227}  Quote: https://www.quora.com/Is-there-truly-any-such-thing-as-unbiased-news-reporting-i... Unbiased Means Free from Favoritism I'm still considering the possibilities about stories. We are running into the way our prompts are delivered. Sometimes there is more than one way to interpret a word. In this case, stories is a word, that is used to denote fiction and nonfiction works. Journalism writings involve writing about a particular subject, usually nonfiction, and in a manner that will entice the reader to read the entire written piece. Each piece may be called an article or a story. Newspaper editors often tell us how to cram lots of information into the first 2 or 3 sentences because many times, that is all the reader takes time to read, about each written subject. Can newspapers and news corporations be unbiased if they use advertising money to present their news. If you think about these things much, you will realize using advertising money to present news gives corporations who spend that money some power over what is presented to the public. I once wrote an article about "No Child Left Behind" a theme during President George Bush's presidency. In our journalism articles we were required to present at the least 3 quotes about the subject. I interviewed School administrators. This is when I especially learned how difficult it is to present more than one side of the story. Teaching and administrating who gets fed knowledge and who doesn't is one reason any country progresses or fails. It's a way to think when you read a story that is not presenting more than one side of any situation. A lot of people, have attempted to make me choose political sides. I've tried to remain neutral in regards to my opinions, because if I write an article that deals with politics I will try to present more than one side. For instance. The theme of this presidency is "Make America Great Again." What does that even mean? It's insulting to the country to believe, in it's present state, it isn't as great as it once was. When was it greater than now? Why was it greater before than now? Are we requited to move backwards to make it greater? Do I have to give up my dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, clothes dryer, or environmental concerns, instead of finding a way to make more and better safe electricity at a price that people can afford? Is this really more about constant corruption in all parts of the nation than it is about whether the country is great or not? Take into consideration how the population of the country has increased over the years. How did that make the country better or worse or just different? Are we doing enough to integrate different people into one nation under God? What happened to the Melting Pot? Have you looked, Canada and Mexico and other American Countries have some of the same problems as the USA. Because I'm not a fan of Trump, and wasn't a fan of his TV program either; I started out biased about what I saw happening during the campaign. He ran a campaign that simply put, made all the other candidates have to deal with his accusations. This is exactly a thing the public voted against in previous elections. I believe, the public does not want accusations; but wants facts that can be proven and are real. That is what fact checking inside of Journalism is all about. Articles should be about specific problems, present laws, and new solutions being posed, about those problems. Nevertheless, I saw a news report a few month ago, when, the press was hounding President Trump about something as he was on his way to board a plane with Vice-President Pence. It was about the phone call and the impeachment. Although, Trump was refusing to acknowledge the press at this particular moment Vice-President Pence had enough and in exasperation turned around and answered one reporter with a reasoning that made sense of the whole mess. So, I watched and I never actually heard this answer broadcasted anywhere else. It made me wonder if the words Fake News had more bearing on the course of this presidency than the people were being told. A professor told me once that there is a group of people who don't believe the citizens of this country are educated enough or have enough power to run this country. What do you think? Does the population have enough sensibility to run the country in a fair manner? How is what the Trump administration doing, aiding or dragging the country backward seem to you, which is it? The use of psychology to stress and manipulate public opinion is despicable. As for unbiased reporting in journalism or stories go; I like to listen to NPR or PBS. I read that they are required to be as unbiased as they can be by law. I like the panels that discuss all sides of any subject. On the panels during the presentations of news each person gets to present his or her side of a story for a certain amount of time. They also extend this type of reporting to their stories of other countries problems. This is an opinion story. I relied on my knowledge and minor experience with class room learning, also reading, and watching news stories for my comments. The best advice about news I know is read as many sides of a story as you can to find the real heart of reality. ![Merit Badge in Point of View
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Tell us about someone you find inspirational.   Quote: “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Characters Make a Difference  I like a lot of different characters. For instance when we watch Nash Bridges its Joe Dominguez that gives the show pizazz. Dominguez is always trying out schemes for padding his salary. In the long run though, he is good at his job as a detective, has a lot of common sense, humor, and is faithful and delighted in his family. Another character that inspires me is Anna Pigeon from the stories written by Nevada Barr. Anna is self sufficient in a way that just seems right. Even her name suggests she was targeted for trouble. Something I have personal experience with. I tried to put some of these traits onto a person who may have inspired me at some point in my life. As a very young child I think it was Roy and Dale Evans. Although, my envy, that they owned horses and lived on ranches, had a lot to do with my feelings then. But, later, after they were no longer on the scene, I read their biographies and thought, during their lives, they were trying to bring to the public real ideals, as people in Hollywood, who may have had some influence on the public. There was a teacher in grade school who everyone liked. She was kind, fair, and helped us like to learn. Actually, a lot of grade school teachers, in the school I attended, after we moved to my grandfathers farm, were teachers who inspired us to learn. I've always been an avid reader preferring a good book to recess. So, it's not surprising I remember characters not real people who influenced me. There was the history teacher that took me aside and told me I was better at pronouncing the names of historical people than he was, but I was not applying myself to the subject as well as I should. There was an algebra teacher who was willing to tutor me in Algebra 1 (8th grade) for free after I missed 2 weeks of school because of Asian Flu. I think over the years teachers here and there always had my back, even in college. HAPPY TRAILS |
What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?   Quote:“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.” – Lilly Walters https://bigfishpresentations.com/2012/05/03/25-awesome-public-speaking-quotes/ 40 Short Minutes  Really 40 minutes isn't that long. Whatever is said will probably leave out things you think you should have said later. Since its impromptu you should look out for crowd fever. Is this really something an introvert will look forward toward. Does the 40 minutes include a questions from the audience time or does that come after the presentation?  The Whats: 1. Dog care and training, 2. horse care and training, 3. raising sheep or dairy goats actually could be 2), 4. a lifetime of scripture study?, 5. What was it like to live in Israel when Jesus was alive? 6. reading fiction and nonfiction for knowledge 7. 40 years of living in an A-frame house 8. How to stay sane inside of a secretive society? 8. Why allegory is stupid 9. Why venting about the Trump administration and making America great again is not wrong but possibly dangerous. 10. What is superstition and why it harms people -- 11.The lies people tell (could be a lot of humor in this one) 12. 10 guide lines for writing the news. 13. researching facts for written works. 14. Why I like to talk but never do. Name a subject I'll try to find the answers  Actually if anyone put me to the test on these subjects we might find a lot of humor all through any one them. Besides if I get stage struck I will forget the names of authors of books, titles of books or movies, names of pets and people. I may need audience help. This makes me remember, I once gave a planned speech about West Nile Virus complete with mosquito illustration to a college speech class. At the end the whole class voiced their disgust at why any one would worry about getting the virus even though it was prevalent in the area at that time. (they still spray to kill the West Nile mosquito around this area because there are a lot of swampy areas}. So, I'm not surprised at the amount of people who are unconcerned about catching covid 19. ![Merit Badge in Job Well Done
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Describe a missed opportunity you encountered, and how things might have been different if you hadn't missed it.  {/center Quote: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” ~ Milton Berle https://www.therandomvibez.com/missed-opportunity-quotes/ Opportunity or Hints??  Guess I had to build a door most of my life so I'm not to sure about opportunities. I'm kind of straight forward in my speech so if I get a hint from someone I'm not good at picking up on signals. I've turned down offers of employment once in awhile but usually had a good reason. Like you can write for us but we won't pay you. I wrote and was published while I was in college and for a bird magazine before college all for freebies. Now if I'm good enough to write at all I think there should at least be a reward for the work. College kids ran a strike on the college newspaper for the same reason. Writers have a difficult time finding the right gig for the right reward unless they are part of a group who is backing them. As a journalist I liked being told; find me information on this subject and submit an article. So, maybe I need more motivation. Or just interaction with the publisher which I can't get unless I work at it. And yet if I get curious enough about a subject I will read, research, and write about it. Hmm. I do remember a straight out opportunity in about 2005. I was in a college admittance office submitting info for graduation when out of the blue a woman at a desk waved me over. She said if I wanted her to she could probably get me a teaching certificate. It was such an out of the blue offer and had nothing to do with my status as a student about the graduate after 5 full years. I don't think I even took it seriously so my fault not hers. Six months later out of work and looking for a job I remembered the offer and looked up a catalog. It would have meant about 15 more credits and I would have been a journalist and a teacher. I often think I would like to spread some of the knowledge I have to others so maybe teaching would have been a good fit? Still I was 60 when I graduated. Are there actually opportunities out there for a teacher at that age? Also, I lack trust in people so even this opportunity left me with questions like why now and not the first time i tried to do college when i was 27. Life is a mystery yet to be solved. |
We all know the mood-ring fad of the 70’s only predicted body temperature and not necessarily mood, but what if people could actually see your emotions, like an aura of color surrounding you. Would you try to mask it, display it proudly, or something in between?  Quote: “The terms we use for what is considered supernatural are woefully inadequate. Beyond such terms as ghost, specter, poltergeist, angel, devil, or spirit, might there not be something more our purposeful blindness has prevented us from understanding? We accept the fact that there may be other worlds out in space, but might there not be other worlds here? Other worlds, in other dimensions, coexistent with this? If there are other worlds parallel to ours, are all the doors closed? Or does one, here or there, stand ajar?” ― Louis L'Amour, The Haunted Mesa https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/dimensions Auras and Other Ideas? Once in awhile I wear jewelry because I like sparkly things. Last week I was pawing through a box of rings and found a mood ring I purchased at a fair many years passed. It still fit so I put it on. During the day it changed color about 5 times, fascinating. Everyone knows I'm an avid reader so the subject of auras isn't new. A small town near me has an active Eastern Star group who are into all kinds of spiritual ideas. Also most of the relatives I have on my Dad's side are Masonic and Eastern Star. I read that the United States has had 15 presidents that were Masonic. So the area where I grew up and still live is polluted with all kinds of doctrines and ideas. There was or perhaps still is a series of books written by ??? about the search by the author for a portal in South America which will take a person into a different dimension. I don't remember the authors name, sorry. It was however quite an interesting story put forth as a nonfiction reality. There was a section about being able to identify a persons personality by learning to see their aura. I thought I might find the authors name by googling it but found instead a horrendous amount of books on auras. The interesting thing was something he said about the fact that you can see auras if you work on it. Yep. It can be done. Like the mood ring it is totally unreliable about what a person really is though. People are bundles of ideas, experiences, and knowledge. What they do with their life might be good, bad, and indifferent all in the same hour of one day. Take into perspective time lived and physical abilities? What kind of biological science would cause an aura? Can it be picked up on an MRI? There is probably books out there that will answer such question if you look. I just think even if you see and aura around someone and you know what each color denotes. You would have to get to know that person and understand their life and lifestyle to really know why they have been color coded. This is a subject I have not visited in any depth and presently don't intend to research, so it will be interesting to read other blogs about the subject. Even as I write this I am realizing that I have a lot of questions about this subject. And, how it pertains to other subjects in a spiritual way? Do you think the Christ can see auras on humans? Something to think about: I read somewhere that anything you have never experienced before can be thought of as a miracle. Think of how penicillin or vaccines are viewed before they came into constant use. Microwaves were suspicious when they first came on the market. Yep! Life on the earth is interesting. What's next interstellar travel? Beaming people from one planet to another might be easier or a portal? ![Merit Badge in Golden Reader Award
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| Write a letter to your parents from before your birth. Give them advice about how to raise you and give them a heads up about anything they might struggle with when you come into their lives. Thanks for today's choice. When I read this I had my first good laugh for the day.  Now onward to write the letter.  Quote: “There’s another quote on the act of writing letters, have a look: Letter writing is a truly anachronistic genre, a sort of tardy inheritance of the eighteenth century; those who lived at that time believed in the pure truth of the written word. And we? Times have changed; words are lost with ever greater ease; you can see them float on the waters of history; sink, come up again, mixed in by the current with the water hyacinths.” ― Ricardo Piglia, Respiración artificial https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/letter-writing Lots of Letters Make a Letter I was born in January of 1945 that's the year WWII ended. WWII ended officially on September 2, 1945. A lot of things my parents experienced are sketchy since my dad's family had a pact not to tell me any particulars of happenings. I'm the youngest of my Dad's two offspring. My dad was stationed at an army base in a southern state; training to be shipped overseas into some war zone. My mother was living in Florida near her parents with my brother. I was born in a hospital in Daytona Beach Florida. I would have to write separate letters so here goes: Dear Dad: If you think WWII was bad wait until you get a look at life in 60's, 70's, and 80's. If you were here we would talk, because we did talk lots of times and it was good talks. My only real advice after looking at the over all picture is don't look to friends and relatives to raise your children. You are sufficiently capable of bringing us up by spending time and energy on us. It's the other people we have to look out for the ones who lied to you. Dear Mom, You were well grounded and a good influence as long as you were with us. Unfortunately, it was not long enough. Is it ever? Since I did not know you well I always wonder what life would have been like had you lived to help us fight our battles of growing up. At least, I know who's side you would have been on when the Black Lives Matter banners started waving. I remember my brother playing with the little black boy down the road and the white boys throwing rocks at them and you chasing the bigger boys away. I stood behind you and my brother while you yelled at them out the kitchen door. I'm guessing, but you were probably the knowledge seeking parent. This is short because I don't wish for a different life. You both were what I remember as wanting more in life than you got. Broken families always rule life after war, accident, or disease. Love, your daughter After thinking, I would send this as a whole letter to both parents though they were split up by death who knows maybe they are together watching now. Experiences combined with actions set our memories to draw on later. Bye  apondia#1781748 |
When I was little, I dreamed of living in a tree house surrounded by a pool with a spiral staircase going up the middle of the trunk. *Tree* In your second to last entry of the month, write about your dream home. Describe the rooms in your fantasy house and any unique characteristics. Be creative!  Dreamed? I don't now and never did have a fantasy house. The A Frame I live in now was built by a person who said he could only build A Frames. He was hired to build a house on this property by my new in-laws who apparently were friends of the builders wife?? I'm not sure of all the facts. My part in all of this is I let them influence me because I wanted a house put onto the property and they were happy to help someone do the building so they could direct my money somewhere they wanted it to go. At this point I was not aware of all the superstitions that whirl around this part of the country about shapes, colors, and witchy types of ideas. Who doesn't know the difference between a house and an Egyptian pyramid; a house and a witches hat; for that matter the difference between A.D. 70 and 2020? The builder also built another A Frame house in the area which has long ago burnt to the ground. Also, an A frame house in a nearby community also burnt to the ground??? Truthfully, it is not a bad house. It is just a house. Three sides got sided. When I complained because the 4th side was not finished no one listened. When I personally set myself the job to side the 4th side. The work went well. However, when I was somewhere shopping, at church, visiting relatives, doing the things people do; someone constantly tore all the new siding off the East side of the house. It was redwood siding with a red roof at that time, early 1970's. After a lot of years, (20 or so) we bought new roofing and vinyl siding. I sided the south part of the house, Remember this is an A-frame) so the north and south side of the house are mostly roof. Just entry ways to side. K sided the north entry way and the east face of the house. Then guess what? Yep. 3 sides of the house got finished the west side is not done. Unfortunately, the west side gets hit with wind in a mighty way. So, the last two years it is taking a beating. But, last fall, with the help of one of my sons we started siding the West side. So, I am hoping to help with it and it will start going up slowly and surely we will have the majority up by winter this year. My ideas of a good house to live in around this area focus on heavy insulation, fans in rooms for individual room cooling, appliances for ease of living, strong locks on the doors, water and sewage that work well. These are not dreams but things to work toward and keep maintaining once achieved. If you grew up in a house without any plumbing except for a hand pump to get water from in a back room and an outhouse with out heat in the winter, plumbing in important. And, I learned how important it is as I grew older. I wanted things like these in my house so my children would be more civilized than I ever thought of being. Back to the dream idea. I get ideas and try to find out if they are feasible for a normal lifestyle. Fantasy is fun to read but, may not fit a normal sequence of events. Delusion isn't as much fun as real life. Dreams and visions are different. |
| Complete the following sentence: When I’m in the mood to celebrate, nothing can stop me from ___________. CELEBRATE Probably eating food I don't need to eat. Let's face it celebration usually includes food and drink. Most of the time it is a lot of food or beverages. Most of which, we could not only live without, but would be better off not eating or drinking. Quote; “People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions." Source: The Wisdom of Heschel” ― Abraham Joshua Heschel https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/celebration Memorial Day this year felt almost nonexistent. around here it is the date to aim for when planting crops or gardens in the spring. The last week we have had some warmer weather. Before the last 7 or so days I wondered if it would get warm enough to trust to plant any gardens. Before it was Memorial Day it was Decoration Day. My Dad always referred to it as Decoration Day. Officially, it was started May 30,1868 at Arlington Cemetery where soldiers decorated the graves of fallen civil war comrades. As time progressed, into the 1900's it was considered a day to honor all men killed in service to the United States. It did not become Memorial Day officially until 1967. I found the following idea published in the NY Times 05/26/2018. "David W. Blight, a historian at Yale, has a different account. He traces the holiday to a series of commemorations that freed black Americans held in the spring of 1865, after Union soldiers, including members of the 21st United States Colored Infantry, liberated the port city of Charleston, S.C.May 26, 2018 The Unofficial History of Memorial Day - The New York Times" I thought David W. Blight's account, very fitting considering the subject of the Civil War and what it meant to the country at that time. I like the thought that planting is a time of celebration linked to Memorial Day. A new beginning for harvest yet to come. All the rain has made the grass grow. I couldn't help but remember, that when I was raising sheep and dairy goats we did not have as much lawn to mow because the animals were grazing everything down so perfectly. Spring lambs eat a lot of grass. ![Merit Badge in Celebration
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| Write about a fork in the road in your life, and how you made the decision to go the direction you did. What would have happened if you chose the other path? {/center Quote: “When you come to a fork in the road, and you're not sure whether to go left or go right, just go left. And then you'll very quickly figure out if that's the wrong way, and then you can go right. You'll still be quicker than the guy who's standing there trying to plan at the fork of the road.” ― Henry Chong tags: decisions, direction-in-life, directions-in-life, fork-in-the-road, making-decisions, which-way, which-way-to-go https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fork-in-the-road LIFE IS FULL OF CHOICES Oh lots of choices and road branches. There is actually some reality in the above quote. Because in every branch I came to, I did not want to go back only forward. I don't want to change decisions I made, because they seem to all lead to the same spot, because of the outside influences in my life. I can only say here I sit, here I stay as long as I can. Weather is decent today for a change. One day a week maybe this is it. Have a good day. |
The prompt today is very simple: Write about the person you call Mom.  My mom died in January near my 6th birthday. No mom after that. There were lots of different female relatives who took care of me. None were ever mom, mother, mama, or any other type of word used to describe a mom. Some were aunt this or that, but most were irritated with dad, because he thought women should be responsible for raising all children. (A symbol of the times) All but two woman were actually related to us in some way. Others were babysitters. Nope no mom. I guess my brother and I were a handful. Unsecured boats floating in the current. Blank sheets of paper for people to write their actions on. Now I have children and grandchildren both male and female. I'm glad I lived to see them grow up. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY |
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