Good morning, Don,
I am picturing you sitting at your new counter, coffee in hand, admiring the most beautiful oak floor in the world, satisfaction seeping from every pore as you listen to your latest favorite musician. As it should be.
I've kind of had the week off – Spring Break. At
least I didn't have papers to grade, though I found new essay ideas to try out
on my students, and I got the computer requirements up and running.
At least I could do this in my slippers sipping coffee without distractions of
students melting down. The last week of a quarter just is not pretty! Those students
I thought were calm and able became unhinged and had a rather wild look in
their eyes; those students who were living on the edge of the grade to begin with began to look
like deer in the headlights as they frantically pulled at their hair. It starts
again on Monday.
When I wasn't working on new assignments, I was
working with Larry and Scott to start the re-build of the website. We've
started what looks like will be a long process, but I'm tickled with the
changes we've made so far. Just changing the background color from black to
white made a big difference! The logo at the top of the pages changed too.
Overall, I think the site looks more welcoming and is definitely easier to
read.
The next big push will be to change the e-books for
sale page. I think I also will be changing the language on the home page so
that people can drill down a little easier.
We're discussing getting rid of the
bookcase on the e-books for sale page – it served a great purpose, but maybe that purpose has expired. We
have a lot of products for sale and it is hard to read them on the bookcase. If
anyone has any ideas as to how to display our wares in a new and eye-catching
way, let me know! At this moment in time, I'm open to innovative ideas that
work with the limitations of our carrier.
We are also going to be offering free stories every month. How
to do that has become the next adventure to solve. Look for it on the website in
May and a link from here.
I've joined a writer's group! Sowrite.us on FaceBook and I'm enjoying it! The most recent discussion has been how to establish
background conversation within a story. As there doesn't seem to be any preferred
method, there are a lot of solutions.
This morning I happened to check a link to MentalFloss on abstract English nouns made from adjectives. Fierceness becomes
Fiercety. That really pin points the emotion – fierce is good but get out of
the way when faced with fiercety! I've recently started using the word
"seriously?" a lot. It is easier to say than "Are you
kidding?" So my newest word is going to be "seriosity?" If
nothing else, it will get people to stop and think. Rudity is pretty good too.
Rudity is not a word that I would associate with many Canadians.
If anyone out there wants to be part of an unpretentious
writing group, check into Jim Bessey's writers group.
Ruskoff, in his book Present
Shock, suggests that this instantaneous process of communication has caused
the destruction of the narrative – the story we create that helps us make sense
of the world both past and present. The Millennial Generation has never been
seeped in this narrative process. They've always experienced looking at facts
out of sequence or as an observer, not necessarily as an emotional player. The
values and information of the past is not getting transferred to the new generations. The history is lost, the experiences and the lessons are lost which means that there might come a time when this generation has to re-invent the wheel instead of building on the past. It also makes for a more impatient society, less tolerant society. This is not good – democracy is based on tolerance, even though that seems to be something that our current governing body has forgotten.
I read an interesting article by Rick Newman, "If you'rewondering what's wrong with men, here it is". The average 27 –year-old
male is not meeting expectations: 24% have bachelor's degrees (32% of women at
27 have degrees). Unemployment for male college graduates is 3.6%; 11% for
those without a degree. There are some suggestions from experts that college be
mandatory in order to meet the rising needs for an educated work force.
So I've been wondering: are the young men in our
society bored? They can connect with Xbox and fulfill their needs toward being aggressive
so they don't need to go anywhere or learn how to compete with others in a
real-life situation – no challenges because they are always "safe";
everything is instantaneous so they don't have to wait or plan, or expect.
They've lost the "fun" in life. I'm seriosity here - Don, are the young men just so bored they can't get off the couch?
Well, have a great week, everyone!
And Don, I turned our riddles over to an editor!
She's going to become the final voice as to which ones are usable and which
ones need more help. But, I'm thinking
that we'd best get back to riddling! The second installment of the
Hobbit goes on sale Tuesday... For those of you wondering what the connection
is – Don had never read The Hobbit until
a little over a year ago. He was thrilled with the process of putting language
into a short puzzle – hence the riddles!
Great week everyone!
Carolyn
All Images imported from Google Images
Fig 1 – Houston we have pushed the movie
retrieved from dontshootthteconstumer.wordpress.com
Fig 2 – Keep calm study on retrieved from
blogs.uub.ca
Fig 3 – Present Shock Retrieved from
mo.austin360.com
Fig 4 – D. Rushkoff: Present Shock from
April retrieved from play.fm
Fig 5 – Twitch retrieved from www.gamechannel.hu
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