Tag Archive: blogging


Podcast Thursday


I have spent this week attending a Podcast seminar on FaceBook. Well, actually, I took the live class on Monday but found the rest of the classes at awkward times to live watch. So I binged the rest today and I’ll have to watch Friday’s class when I get the chance. Here is the YouTube of what I watched Monday.

I’ve mentioned here that it is in my plan to make a podcast. I still feel strongly that it is something I should and want to do. I don’t know why, exactly. I certainly am lost in trying to do this but I will be doing it.

My aim is to have a chat about this 71 year-old lady and what that feels like for me. I plan to share my passions good and awkward. Crochet, knitting, loom knitting, piano, singing, recorder, artwork, and especially my writing. I could do write-a-longs or read alouds of my own books.

When I was young, and I hate to admit it but even now, I love going into other people’s lives and homes and getting to know people intimately. I enjoy feeling the comradery of a good knit and bitch or sing-a-long.

Report cards pf my youth give me promise that I can do this. What did get written on almost all of them? ‘Darlene talks too much in class.’ Not that reporting that to my parents helped at all. Neither did moving me to different seats. I always made friends with whoever I sat with. One teacher even moved me up near his own desk. Guess what? It wasn’t long before he and I were in a conversation. He spent nearly a whole class chatting before he realized that he, too, had fallen for my gabby self. So, it is called a gift of gab, right?

Another reason I want to do this is to join baby-boomers and anyone else who feels isolated. I know with my cataracts reading has been so hard. That ability encompasses so much of our lives, not just reading books. Reading the phone number to make a call, reading ingredients on a package, etc. I want to make life more accessible. I have already made this blog available on Spotify but not my own voice, just the robot voice offered on Anchor. By the time I get to the writing the blog time, I don’t have the energy to read the words.

But the gabbing is something I want to use to get to know people better. Not just hear myself speak. So I am asking all of you to give me suggestions of what I might cover. Thanks for being the great bunch of friends you are here. I can hardly wait to see what you recommend. I think blogging helps me so much and I think the podcast will, too.


Per Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pin.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Pinterest is a history lesson of my passion over the last few years. Ah, but then so is this blog.

Writing starts and continues as the place I put a lot of energy. But I used to sew. I found the race of pulling the pins before the needle hit them too stressful. Not to mention the ripping what I sewed. Ugh! And sitting in the position of leaning over the machine hurt my back. Sewing fell as a passion.

Crochet became my next passion. I could make hats for charities and spend time creating. But my hands didn’t like the constant positioning.

Then I learned to loom knit. Even ripping, frogging, or tinking projects was fun. More yarn, more chances to improve.

I tried to dry felt but found the constant hand movement hurt so another craft bit the dust.

Now I’m having fun playing my recorders. It hurts my hands sometimes but it seems, if I’m inconsistent (skipping a day here and there) that my hands get more proficient and hurt less. It doesn’t carry with it the fulfillment the loom knitting does. I’m not helping anyone else. But maybe that’ll be something to come?

Drawing has the same feeling. I can get lost, as lost as when writing, in a project. True, I don’t feel the giving feeling there like I do with the knitting but I don’t feel wasteful of my time and energy. I wonder what that is? Should I see how I can expand somehow into something more charitable?

Music is coming alive in me again. What can I do with it? Is it okay to just enjoy the journey? Does it, too need me to pin it to the social magazine (how I think of Pinterest)? I really want to pinpoint my passions to understand how best to approach the ‘work’s of the fun.

And now with health improving, I wonder where that will lead. Hiking, camping? Let’s just put a pin in that.

Wish…


I wish I had something to say. Or something prepared ahead. Here I finally reached day 22 (I think) in a row of posting. I have gone much longer of daily blogs. And it is always so discouraging when I break the streak. So it is in that spirit I write this bit of nonsense. Hopefully, I will have a bit more ready for tomorrow. 🙄

Half a Year


Although the midyear date is tomorow, I’m celebrating today. I have blogged everyday for a half year! Yay, ME!


Blogging has always been a part of me. Like the newspaper I tried to print when I was a kid.

Like all the Dear Diaries I attempted to write.

 

Then the internet came along. I tried several times from Prodigy on to have a blog.

 

But just like way back with the toy printing press, I never know what to say. Linda G. Hill has always had cool prompts to get my brain going. Just like Just Jot It January. There is something to write about every day.

What can I say? I think I like ‘journaling’ so that I can go back in time and see what was going on way back then. It is why I do book and movie reviews. I rarely write about the literary content. I try to include how it affected my life or how my life affected my interpretation of the book.

Same here. Except purer. A prompt can get the writing started. Writing is the aim. Fiction or non-fiction. Write. Writing is often lonely. Blogging brings friends. It’s a chance to share our intimate thoughts and find others who think in the same way.

***

The next question is how I came up with my theme. I’m unsure if this is the background that the words are on or the name and aim of the blog. The background is so I can read it with the least amount of eyestrain. I like the colors. As for calling it

Darswords

Musings about Havenverse
As one of my commentators stated, Darswords looks like Dar swords. And my reply was about the word is mightier than the sword. My inner thought on that is I need some swordier words!
Haven is the sentient planet that about 90% of the books that I have written for NaNoWriMo have been about. I need to get my books edited and out for folks to read. My possibilities list included getting busy editing. The blog is keeping that goal front and center.
How has blogging changed my life? I have met some cool people out in the blogosphere. Support overflows the nets as people drop by personal blogs and connect. I wouldn’t have met such great people had I not gone to their blogs and learned about their lives. So much better than Dear Diary, today I breathed in and out. Imagine if someone would have picked up that diary and asked me questions about the rest of my day or how did those breaths feel. Did the air feel cold or steamy as I respiration? Could it be there is boredom in living inside one’s head and not having the chance to explore what you might not have thought of on your own? That’s what blogging has meant to me.

 


The Sound of Crickets
The Sound of Crickets by Marissa Farrar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bittersweet blogging. Those are the words that stand out in my mind when thinking about this book. I finished it last night just before Sandman Time. So I was left hoping I could remember to do the review justice when I finally put fingers to keyboard.

For my blogging friends, the senarios presented are not so far fetched. We find people we consider friends, from all over the world, with differing opinions, who we have never met. We care deeply when they report of illness or loss in their lives. We feel anger when we see that they are making mistakes that we know they must to learn who they are. We feel elation at those finding love or giving birth. We share ‘Ah ha!’ moments together and wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” when they present simplistic marvels within their blogs. Most of all we enjoy support and support others in the process. The Sound of Crickets embraced it all.

Spoilers keep wanting to slip out as I write this. Though at times in the book, you can see what is coming, still it is lovingly fed out to us, byte by byte. There are a few laugh out loud moments and others where you might need your kleenex, but it is worth the ride.

By the way, don’t feel like you wouldn’t know what to do with a book that blogs out the lives of four women. If you love books using letter, email, or tweets to convey the story, this works just as well. The fact, that these four didn’t know each other at all when they set up this blog leads us all through their getting to know each other and themselves while living their lives.

I wanted a book that would help me relax and go to sleep. The title drew me in. But this book isn’t boring at all. No, it isn’t a thriller/suspense novel, but the characters draw you in and lead you down roads that you might not expect. It gives a glimpse of humanity at its best and most human. I do hope others will pick it up as it is worth the read.

Dear Marissa Farrar (author), PLEASE, a sequel??? I want to see the characters grow even more, maybe add a few more bloggers?
Bittersweet blogging. Those are the words that stand out in my mind when thinking about this book. I finished it last night just before Sandman Time. So I was left hoping I could remember to do the review justice when I finally put fingers to keyboard.

For my blogging friends, the senarios presented are not so far fetched. We find people we consider friends, from all over the world, with differing opinions, who we have never met. We care deeply when they report of illness or loss in their lives. We feel anger when we see that they are making mistakes that we know they must to learn who they are. We feel elation at those finding love or giving birth. We share ‘Ah ha!’ moments together and wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” when they present simplistic marvels within their blogs. Most of all we enjoy support and support others in the process. The Sound of Crickets embraced it all.

Spoilers keep wanting to slip out as I write this. Though at times in the book, you can see what is coming, still it is lovingly fed out to us, byte by byte. There are a few laugh out loud moments and others where you might need your kleenex, but it is worth the ride.

By the way, don’t feel like you wouldn’t know what to do with a book that blogs out the lives of four women. If you love books using letter, email, or tweets to convey the story, this works just as well. The fact, that these four didn’t know each other at all when they set up this blog leads us all through their getting to know each other and themselves while living their lives.

I wanted a book that would help me relax and go to sleep. The title drew me in. But this book isn’t boring at all. No, it isn’t a thriller/suspense novel, but the characters draw you in and lead you down roads that you might not expect. It gives a glimpse of humanity at its best and most human. I do hope others will pick it up as it is worth the read.

Dear Marissa Farrar (author), PLEASE, a sequel??? I want to see the characters grow even more, maybe add a few more bloggers?

View all my reviews

Blabbering/Wordcount


20130623

I am reading Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I am on the penultimate chapter in which he says (as he does throughout the entire book) to write. His four words to remember are ‘Work, Relax, Don’t Think.’ Anyway, the idea is that if you don’t write everyday and write a lot you are not doing it right.

 

Meanwhile, in real life, I spent my morning reading email and worrying that I don’t have my laptop working any more. But next to me, in his new recliner is hubby working on his novel. I’m sitting in my new bed with my tablet open, with plenty of programs to work with… Why am I not writing like I am being told by life in the moment? No excuses. So. since I have no goal for the day I will journal until an idea strikes.

 

I mentioned that my laptop isn’t working. It started out that the recharging cord seemed to be blinking out. Maybe it was the connection within the laptop itself. Who knows? Then the internet went out. No web could be found. DH and I went to WalMart to get an ethernet cord. Got it home and found it too short to reach the box. DB had to make a hole in my closet wall so that it would work. Well, all that work and expense (we had to take a taxi as we have no car) gained me a day of work on my computer. When the battery ran down, I couldn’t recharge it any more. Now I am SO missing all my programs like yWriter, Office, RoughDraft, WriteItNow, etc. Is this the universe saying use it or lose it?

 

We haven’t the money to fix my laptop or get another. We can’t even go to Rent-a-Center to get a new one as we just bought this bed and chair. I will have to wait until something is paid off before I can do anything. Boo! Another program I miss is the spell check/grammar check that my laptop has working continually. This program has something like it but it seems to think that contracted words are misspelled. AND I just realized that if a word is misspelled it doesn’t offer a way to correct it. I had mispelled <– but had to figure out for myself that I am a dork and needed to add an ‘s’.

 

What else am I reading? Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I picked up the hardback, the Audible, the Kindle versions. Kindle now has a way to link with the Audible. It is a really cool feature. I love being able to read along silently during the day and then add the narrator’s voice in my bedtime read and Amazon syncs them both to where I am in either.

 

Speaking of Fingersmith, I am loving the book but found the change of perspective a little jarring. It starts out from Sue’s point of view. After reaching the conclusion of their mission, the author takes us back to relive the same events but from Maud’s viewpoint. I now understand the need to do that but I went through a couple pages thinking I was still in Sue’s head. I need to make sure I don’t do that. By the way, the hardback made that transition obvious. Kindle didn’t have any chapter or asterisks to separate Sue from Maud.

 

I have been hurting a lot lately. I had hoped by summer to feel better but I find I can’t handle the constant weather changes that we have here in Reno no better now than mid winter. I’m so tired of feeling left out of everything!

 

This is a poor time of life for me. I make about $600 a month after medicare is taken out of my pay. If my husband didn’t make a little more than me, we would probably be out on the streets. Even still, we seem to manage. We got rid of our car due to our eyes not being up to driving anymore. My fibro is so painful that I can’t take the bus. It isn’t the riding, it is the standing and waiting for the bus that makes me hurt worse. Instead, if it isn’t within easy walking distance, we take taxis everywhere.

 

I hope I can get healthy enough to live this way. I miss having my own car. And now, I miss having my own REAL computer. I love my Toshiba Thrive Tablet but as I mentioned above, I am missing a lot of programs here.

 

Well, how about that? I just wrote 777 words. Not bad for just blathering. I think I’ll post this on my blog. Now 786. That’s a healthy start towards a good habit, huh? 796 Oh, heck let’s move the word count to over 800, okay?


Blogging for Beginners - Answers to Your Frequently Asked Question

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Blogging for Beginners – Answers to Your Frequently Asked Question by Mark Reinert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you want to sell something. your books, ideas, or start a business, this book is for you. If you are like me and just want to learn how to blog, this book is quite helpful.

When I do decide I want to sell my novels, I will pull this one out of my archive and read it again.

On the other hand, it didn’t quite meet my needs as a new blogger. I am still left with more questions than answers. I know all new pursuits have a learning curve. I think I may be on the upward swing with mine, until WordPress changes the look of something I use on a daily basis, then I am back to ground level struggles.

In an attempt not to be negative, I think this may have enough information out there it is worth the try. It does have clickable links so read it on the Fire or a tablet to get best results.

It took me a while to read this, not because it is long, but because I wanted to absorb the information and see if I could apply it to my own blog. It would be a quick read straight through.

View all my reviews


A while back I got a big surprise from a blogger I admire for art and blogging against the odds. Thank you:

mcsirishart

This is a special award to someone who still thinks of herself as a newbie. I’m part of the family!!! 🙂

Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever

wpfa

 

Thank you, again, mcsirishart.

Then, as if I shouldn’t gloat or just enjoy the glow, the very next day after receiving the nomination, I fell into a fibro-flare. In spite of that, I have gradually put together a list of some of my favorite blogging sites to nominate. It was very difficult to decide. That said, here are the

Rules:
1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family
4. Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them.
5. That is it!

And here are some of the many blogs that have inspired and encourage me in no particular order:

http://meganhasocd.com

http://geekybooksnob.wordpress.com

http://elfkat.wordpress.com

http://sanctuaryofmusings.wordpress.com/

http://dreampunkgeek.wordpress.com/

http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/

http://eyagee.wordpress.com

http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/

http://julianfroment.wordpress.com/

http://crimsonleague.com 

 

Congratulations to you all!

I Have Questions


I see many of you post your own stories on your blogs. Do you worry about theft of ideas or content?

Someone posted that they found they couldn’t back post or something like that. I have been avoiding posting my book reviews here because I have them in my LiveJournal and on my GoodReads and Amazon. Do you know if it is allow for me to copy and paste my reviews to here, also?

Thanks for your responses!

CREATIVE & INNOVATIVE

System of thinking ( MIND )

Sentient Metaphysics

Spirituality And Psychic Development

Verse Voyager Books

Embark on Literary Journeys with Verses Unveiled.

The Wild Coach

The truth of the light and the light of the truth

Towards Good Life

Make your life more productive and feel free.

Enabling Residual Income

Earning Passive Internet Income With one-Time Action

The World Through My Glasses

Travel | Photography | Food

Episodes of Daily journal

lifestyle, reality, wellness

Spirit of Tarot

Tarot for Insight and Self-Awareness

Heartland Echoes

Hello and welcome to Heartland Echoes! I am thrilled to have you here. So, sit back, relax, and stay awhile as you explore my diverse range of written poetry, mental health articles, motivational quotes, and ten captivating chapters of my autobiography. Get ready to be inspired and uplifted as you delve into the world of Heartland Echoes.

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"LAUGH A' LITTLE"

Healthy solutions

Healthy forever

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How to get started as an affiliate marketer

MoonCat

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Empowering Your Affiliate Journey: From Strategy to Success

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Just a hairstylist helping you to MANEtain your luscious locks in the salon and at home!

Sunra Rainz

Poetry. Art. Photography. Musings.