This being October 30, I had only two days to prepare for NaNoWriMo and writing another book.
Making my second podcast/vlog I two days. I tossed yesterday’s because I didn’t understand how to share my screen. Thanks to helpful friends I think I get that now.
Our Zoom session lasted about an hour. Moving it to YouTube is my new problem. I don’t know that I’m up to background music and graphics, you know the whole kit and caboodle. I will learn as I go. No need to get fancy. Besides, I’m constantly being booted off because I haven’t saved correctly or some other techish nonsense.
When I finally get it posted somewhere, I will share. It is a writing group meet of sorts. We covered a lot of websites, programs and books. As soon as the upload finishes, I need to figure out how to add those.
Just think maybe someday our novels will don your bookshelves.
If I can get past the slow upload. BOO! To slow computers!
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “boo.” Find a word with the letters “boo” in it or use “boo” as is and base your post on it. Enjoy!
Do any of you have a Wattpad account? I have had my first book, Haven, up for critique there. It can also be found here on this site. That is only the first four chapters. The whole novel is on Wattpad. I would love to get constructive feedback.
Anyway, the reason for this post isn’t to plug said novel but to tell about my day. You see, Wattpad and NaNoWriMo had an editing tutorial. It was called Edit Smart, Not Perfect: How to Polish Your BestWork Yet. I don’t know if this link will work, but I got to watch the Zoom here.
It was quite informative, and I hope they will put it on YouTube, so it is more accessible for all. If any of you find it at another site, let me know, and I’ll fix what I put here.
Anyway, that is how I started my morning. About the time that was over, I got to Zoom with my friends for our usual Friday meeting.
After a fun long chat, I decided to go watch the DuoCon. If you have Duolingo, you might be interested in watching this:
So I am even more motivated to edit my novels and keep going on my multiple languages. I have so many things I am into right now that I am trying to figure how to fit everything in a day or week. Life is exciting and quite the adventure!
Isn’t it the most interesting word, limp? My first thought is to the picture above. And as I look at the picture, it makes me think of last year and the beginning of this year. Slow and a struggle. Overall. But for me, retired, nothing has been too different. I have plenty of things I want to learn and do, and since I wouldn’t have had enough money to travel like I want to, I enjoy quieter pursuits.
Another look at the word makes me see that those my age are grateful to be up and walking even if the hips or other joints cause a bit of a limp. We’re just glad we aren’t down and out like a limp washrag. Who needs a picture of that? Oh, but I couldn’t resist Googling. What a surprise that what I found is a new sole-mate sock and otherwise yarning person. Check her out. What a fun vlog!
Now I have another fun YouTube to subscribe to and watch.
Now back to the socks I’m loom-knitting and needle knitting. And like poor Angela, the back is hurting, so I need to limp to take Kali outside.
We’ve had a bit of a limping snow flurry-ish today. I think the weather is getting colder again. Probably why the achiness. We are expecting snow on Sunday and then a couple more times next week. We need it. My eyes and soul love it, so I hope they are right. Some things are worth the pain, don’t you think?
Per Linda G. Hill:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
Sunday is a special day of the week for me, thanks to technology. A 3 AM bedtime means my day starts at 10ish. I turn on the laptop and run and get my toast and coffee (or tea). By the time I’ve taken out the dog and set up my bubble sitting, I am ready to place the laptop on the footrest of the recliner and the plate on my lap. No, I don’t stick my feet out. I sit in a chair, in half-lotus, as that is far more comfortable and keeps my stocking feet warmer. On frigid mornings, I throw my electric lap warmer (Thank you, Rizza 💜) over me before setting up the computer and breakfast.
Now I go to church. No camera on, I may or may not have brushed my hair yet. And who wants to watch me eat? The church is a Zoom meeting of Unitarian Universalist is in Reno, Nevada. When I lived there, I only went a handful of times. I used to be into the weekly get up, get dressed up, especially when my children were small. But now that I can go in comfort in my own time and clothing. I can sing with the congregation as I choose. No stand up, sit down, thank you very much, my coffee is great.
The last few weekends, I have been enjoying different stars showing up for Galaxycon.com.
The above was one of my favorites. Though I am double or triple her age, I relate to her life story a lot. And she is a writer. I picked up her latest book:
Today I got to meet Michael Biehn of the Mandalorian and this afternoon Jessica Jones’ stars:
Krysten Ritter “Jessica Jones”
Wil Traval “Will Simpson”
Both cons were fun. By the way, many of these are free live. You only have to give your email address to send the confirmation and URL to get to the interview. If like me, life gets in the way, your computer glitches, you can still click on the confirmation within 24-48 hours to watch a taped version. And many can be found later on the YouTubes. Here’s an example of what I am going to watch later on tonight:
Once again. Going to a con is something I don’t think I would do. I know this is going to sound weird, but I can’t deal with costumes and masks. One of my best friends LOVES this kind of thing. I certainly enjoy it through her. And the mask issue is still an issue during COVID19. I wear one if I need to. I love it when you wear one around me. It shows you care. But I need to see lips and gesticulations to understand people talking to me. And Halloween scares me. Haunted houses scare me. I always worry that a real crazy person with real weapons will be there. And I HATE when folks jump out to scare me.
When the lockdown ends, and all things go back to live events, I will be, once again, the fair-weather friend that probably won’t be there. When the pains started, I had to bow out of writer’s meetings and board games meetings, or, yeah, the church; I’d ask to be Skyped in, but everything virtual was still new and uncomfortable. I hope that people will still do things like this. My eyes can’t drive nights, I can’t take flu shots for being allergic to the base (nearly died), and pain often keeps me from doing things I want to do. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a part of the meets. I’m sure I am not alone in hoping the zooming continues.
And the Tubes have great bits of help for people like me who are learning to edit their novels:
Oh, I forgot to say the other Sunday thing, and I think you all know what I’m going to say CBS Sunday Morning. My favorite part is the moment of zen at the end. By the way, YouTube has the full lineup of the show. Happy Birthday to my friend Yve and to PBS. And now:
I learned to make hats by needle knitting. This will be, hm, I think, my fourth hat. This one has a lot of purls, just for dif.
I’m at the stage of decreasing so I can’t watch the Walking Dead while doing it. I’ll wait until a show that is boring for me to work on this. I promise to give the pattern as best as I can remember when I am finished.
Speaking of knitting… My new goal is to needle knit socks. Using Nervous Knitter’s tutorial I have made my first practice heel:
Right side.
Inside
Here’s the how-to:
A while back I made a hat I proclaimed as mine (my yarn, ya know?) Now I’ve decided to make a cowl to go with it.
I know I’ve seen Tuteate do the garter stitch I’m using but I couldn’t find the YouTube. But here is Kristen at GoodKnit Kisses showing the same stitch.
I’m working on the mate to the sock I finished yesterday. I’m using ‘smitten knittins’ tutorial for making sock on the CinDWood 1/4 56 round loom. (It is also the one for Knitted Knockers). Here’s what I got so far followed by the tutorial.
Today’s wordage brought to me by NaNo YouTube character development games. I love working with the YouTube word sprints and the like. It really helps me with the story.
Would you rather live where it is always hot or always cold?
Hot. I have learned to like the snow but I prefer hot so I can swim. I miss swimming so much! Here we have a dry heat so all we need even when it is triple digits, is just a fan, a swamp cooler might be nice but we got along okay last summer on just fans. Now to find a pool.
Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?
I prefer long hair because I can put it up in a pony or bun if it gets hot. Short hair just takes too much upkeep as it starts growing.
What is your favorite month of the year?
July. August starts getting too hot and June isn’t warm enough. I have learned to like other seasons now, but warm doesn’t hurt like the other seasons.
What is the easiest way for your to learn something new? By reading, by seeing and doing, in a classroom?
I wish YouTube had been around for most of my life. I love being able to watch someone do something and then follow through doing it too. It is how I learned my loom knitting. I do well with written instructions but with my tracking problem only getting worse I think watching and being able to rewind and watch over and over helps a lot.
Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Sometimes a person just has to be grateful for breathing in and out and then see through a calm mind all the good in their lives, family, friends, a roof over my head, plenty to eat and drink, puppy and kittens–and I don’t mean Zombies for those that watch Z Nation.
I have a bunch of books from the e-library that came in so I look forward to reading those and finishing my Bate’s Motel binge. I didn’t realize how much I was going to like it. It isn’t like Psycho, all horror. It is seeing the crazy in that whole town of folks with some really good ones mixed in.
Thank you, Cee, of Cee’s Photography, for setting up some really good prompt questions. Please check out her site, it is fantastic!
Dar49 Daily. Is out. Yeah, I know, FINALLY!!! Well, there were so many ‘shiny chickens’ (distractions to ADD/ADHD) running about I couldn’t remember what I was actually supposed to be doing with my Paper.li. Editing. In other words deleting stories that have been repeated in the last couple of days. I wish Paper.li would let me then jump in and put in something new, but that’s not the way it works. My husband doesn’t bother with editing, he just send out the papers as they come to him. I have a feeling that Scriptorium does the same as I often see repeated stories in that paper. If you see a repeat in mine it is either connected with a review or same story different source. At least, that is how I think I am doing it. I am still in the learning curve. But now I am actually thinking about paying for this service.
Did you know you can have a Paper.li of your own? I am finding it a lot of fun so I thought I would share the process. When you go to my paper look at the top. You can join simply with your twitter account if you like. Then they walk you through it. Click around and chose your sources. You can choose what they choose for you or put an interest in the search bar to bring up others. I chose: Fibromyagia, Game of Thrones, Science, Writing, Grammar. You may have other interests, say sports of knitting, who knows. You will only be able to have 25 sources. But as you can see with the three papers I have shared here that is quite enough. And when you are tired of the source you can replace it with other new interests. If any of you do set up a paper of your own, let me know. Send an Url. Do you have the ‘Press This’ button on your browser? I have one on Chrome and that is how I share a lot of articles I find interesting with you all. That is how I share my Paper.li with you. too.
Oh the ‘shiny chickens’ of the day? DNews. Click on them and watch Discovery News on YouTube or from the URL on the paper. I found myself transfixed with all the sciencey goodness.
Do you have trouble viewing websites? I do. I have trouble reading sites with small print on white background. While I am on the topic of addons to Chrome, Evernote has my newest favorite. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but I like to share when I find things that help me. ‘Clearly’ is an offshoot of Evernote. It not only can resize the font, it can change the background to gray or black. And if you pay for Evernote you can have text to speech from any webpage. That, for me, is worth it. I can read so many more websites now. Oh, and the voice on ‘Clearly’ is nearly human in its sound. There is emotion when it reads, say, “Wow!”, or “That’s sad.”
Okay, done with commercials. If you have any questions about anything I’ve mentioned here, send a comment here or on my Paper.li–Dar49 Daily. I’d like to see what you think.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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.
Darswords 
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