I thought we were making progress with the comment-spam as there was none for a few days. Hah! Now, there’s a flood of it again. Sorry, readers, but eventually, this problem will go away.
We continue to experience a flood of “comment-spam” with multiple links to mostly salacious websites. There are solutions for this, and I have been waiting for the host to implement one of them. For example, a software plug-in to eliminate the comment-spam would be a good decision, with multiple choices available.
For anyone not familiar with comment-spam, it is directed at the SEOs, not the blog itself. Persons of lesser intelligence and few morals are looking for ways to elevate their rankings with the search engines. In the process of doing this, they are selling their souls to the devil, of course.
While we wait for a solution, the highly tedious and unpleasant chore of deleting the comment-spam one at a time continues. Bathing in disinfectant after dealing with such garbage is highly recommended.
http://www.shirleyannparker.com/
Southern California cities made a rather miserable showing for Earth Hour 2008. None of them participated, on a municipal level, that is. In fact, had a local weathercaster not mentioned Earth Hour in his daily e-mail yesterday morning, I myself would have been totally unaware that it was happening. Fortunately, other cities did participate: San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, to mention a few in North America. I also didn’t see anything listed in England, Scotland or Wales, but Dublin was right up there.
Thanks to the World Wildlife Fund for this observance. Having the lights turned off from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time was a rolling contribution to lessening CO2 being emitted, and an awe-inspiring commentary on what we can do, if we will just put our hearts and minds into preserving this wonderful world.
For more information and comments from those regions of the world that did participate, go to Earth Hour. You’ll find New Zealand, Australia, Suva and more. And let’s keep it going on a daily basis, not necessarily shutting off the lights from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day, but conserving energy every way we can. And sign up for 2009!
http://www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Is it really any wonder that writing takes such a long time? Short of dumping one’s family and responsibilities altogether, there is little time available for creative work, when you’re the sole provider and must work a draining job in a collapsing industry. Yes, I hear you: single moms, working spouses, caretakers, and more of you. However, writing in a vacuum would produce vacuous material. Writers need some substance, a kernel on which to build. Hah! An entire ear of corn is the usual result of any given week. Friends are waiting for my bushels to be turned into novels. “How do you survive all the crap, Shirley?” Well, it ain’t easy getting slammed every day, any more than it’s easy being green. But we get through it! They don’t call me a steel magnolia for nothing, but even steel has many graphs showing tolerance levels for each scenario.
Yes, I know I could get up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m. and just write, but you wouldn’t want to be around me when I’ve only had 5 hours of sleep. I don’t do mornings in the first place, so you don’t want me snarly on top of that. Especially when you’re snooping around my private property. It won’t just be the brown stuff that hits the fan if a 78-year-old coot comes back a third time.
One very big advantage to the future joys of retirement will be that, even though I’ll still be working, I will have earned the right to decide what is important and what is not. From that, I will decide on my schedule. In fact, like most creative people, I’m pretty close to having already decided what parts of our insane lifestyle are positive and worthwhile. The rest I’m starting to flush, and I recommend you do the same, readers, even if you don’t consider yourself to be creative. Mistake #1, by the way. We are all creative in one way or another. But we can’t do it all and there’s no sane reason why we should even try. So much in life is worthless, just garbage. Let it go! Focus on family and friendships.
And for a great, uplifting read, try Discoveries: A Journey Through Life
This blessing has appeared on many sites throughout the web, especially since Philip Yancey’s book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? was published in 2006. I think it cannot be repeated enough times, so that individuals everywhere realize that everyone can make a difference!
I first came across this blessing in October, 2007 in Santa Barbara, California, where a young City Councilman has it framed in his office. Please note that some versions omit the last line entirely, and others have a slight variation in the text of the last line.
May God Bless You with Discomfort at Easy Answers
May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that
you can make a difference in this world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
From a Franciscan Benediction
http://www.shirleyannparker.com/
Such widespread devastation throughout our beautiful Southern California region! The unprecedented wildfires are like nothing we’ve ever seen. And the official fire season has only now begun. Yes, we’re used to wildfires here but no, we never really get used to them. They are a fearsome danger every year, but never have there been so many (15 by some counts, more by others) raging all at the same time for a week. Several are not yet contained, still threatening thousands.
The bravery of those men and women fighting the fires cannot be overstated. The stubbornness of those who got in their way by staying beyond the time of mandatory or voluntary evacuations can be understood yet deplored. Many, of course, could not flee. They had no transportation or no help to get to it. It will be a mercy from Above if no more bodies are found. One friend commented that the burned-over area looks as though an asteroid had struck. Too vivid images look like a war zone. Not a few have said that perhaps the last days are now here. The shock in the voices of friends forced to flee to safety haunts one’s memory. I can believe their own personal nightmares will be recurring for a long time yet, even with vital spiritual and mental counseling.
And now the biggest nightmare of all is beginning, that of dealing with the insurance companies. Anyone who has ever filed an insurance claim for any kind of loss knows that you will be treated as though you are a criminal, as though the loss was your fault. As they say, “been there, done that.” It isn’t your friendly insurance agent you’ll be dealing with; it will be an adjustor and their job is to save the company’s money. In this type of tragedy, perhaps they could save their paranoia and vent it on the next arsonist they confront, not his victims.
If there’s any way you can stretch to possibly help the families and individuals who have lost homes or loved ones, please donate to your church or to the American Red Cross, and mark the donation as being for Southern California Fire Victims. God will bless you for your kindness.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Skipped right past August and September, that’s for sure, but editing books can keep a person very busy now and then. :-) Even so, things happen (or not) for a reason, and I’m not the one in charge of the world. Thank goodness, I might add! There’d probably be a lot fewer people in the bottom of the gene pool, if I were the decision maker on that. God has quite the sense of humor, as well as loads of patience, to put up with some of His offspring the way He does right now.
I wanted to let everyone know about two brand new websites for authors, writers and readers. The first is NothingBinding.com and the other is AuthorNation.com. Both present fantastic opportunities to find new books to buy, and to post your own writing. Please check them out and join both of them. There’s no fee and both sites are open to everyone who is trying to write well. (Do us all a favor and don’t try posting garbage. The wonderful folks who’ve spent thousands of hours setting up these sites deserve the best from all of us.)
When you visit NothingBinding.com and AuthorNation.com, you’ve got a real treat in store! You’ll see the direction that publishing is headed and be able to ride that wave instead of getting swamped by it. Go there now. I’m not being trite when I say “You’ll be glad you did!”
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Anyone who has ever found a lost relative knows the elated feeling of finding someone who belongs to you, your past and your future. It’s even more exciting when the name of someone you’ve been trying to find for years is suddenly right there in front of you on the Internet. Not only that, his brothers and sisters, his wife, his children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces are all there, too. And there are photographs taken over 100 years ago! Your own well-loved family has suddenly expanded by leaps and bounds. Your ancestors are turning into real people.
Getting started on genealogy means starting with what you know: yourself and your immediate family. If you have to send to various health departments to order certified copies of birth, death and marriage certificates, do so. Work backwards toward your grandparents, then your great-grandparents. Use military records, if applicable. Look at the Social Security Death Index. Check with historical societies and funeral homes. The Ellis Island Database is now available. Also, check other sites like http://www.cyndislist.com/ as a starting point for many other sites that are available, or http://www.rootsweb.com/ or www.genuki.org.uk (for Great Britain and Ireland). The LDS Church has a large database at http://www.familysearch.org/ that all may use.
The latest census open to the public is 1930 in the United States, 1901 in the UK. Privacy laws in the US require a 70-year waiting period before a census can be made public. In the UK, the privacy requirement is 100 years. You can access the various census records through most public libraries, now that so much information is available online. They will have free access to certain databases that might cost you quite a bit of money to subscribe to individually. Check your local branch. And Happy Hunting!
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Grapevines really talk! And I do mean the plant kind, not just the people kind.
I suspect most of us think the office grapevine got called that because grapevines spread rapidly, from a very small root to where they cover yards of concrete or brick wall, especially here in Southern California. If it’s true for an area that once was desert, prior to the massive aqueduct system, I’m sure it’s the same in other temperate or sub-tropical climates. Rumor does travel as rapidly as the leafy, and sometimes very aggressive, grapevine itself grows.
Every Fall this particular grapevine turns a riotous shade of yellow, orange and red leaves before dropping them all for the winter. In early Spring, the tender green shoots begin the process all over again. By late June, those leaves are a deep and shiny green, almost completely covering and decorating the cinder block walls around the backyard. Tiny purple-black fruit appears, but not before the even tinier, creamy yellow blossoms pop open.
I don’t know what’s going on, but there is a sound that is like the pattering of fairy raindrops throughout the grapevine. You can stand next to the grapevine and hear it! You can move further down the wall and still hear it! It’s not the buzz of honeybees. There were none in the vicinity, and with the terrible fungus that has already wiped out millions of commercial hives, let alone the wild colonies, there may not be many bees to be seen this year. (Please note that’s millions of hives lost, meaning billions of bees. This is a heartbreaker in the making. With worker bees leaving the colonies, we have very serious agricultural problems on the horizon because of this disaster. The queens, drones, and other remaining bees cannot survive alone. And they are desperately needed to pollinate our food crops.)
But whatever is producing the sound in the grapevine, I can assure you that the grapevine talks! I have heard it with my own ears.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
It is obviously one of those years, a time when nothing is supposed to get done. One thing after the other has broken, been done incorrectly, or otherwise interfered with the accomplishment of anything creative. Just a few examples:
a highly incompetent plumber, sent by a “home warranty” company
a car dealership that shuts down without warning or notification
an air conditioner on the fritz during high temperatures
a computer that goes belly-up for ten days plus
the usual frustrations of employer demands vs employee needs
a Jury Duty call, where the recording requests that I “get a good night’s sleep and come in with a smile on my face” tomorrow morning. Now, really!
All these things, and more, eventually provide grist for the writer’s mill. In the meantime, at least I and my writing colleagues are moving forward with marketing. Be sure to check out http://www.nothingbinding.com/ and join us!!