Cold Topics: President Obama's Message for America's Students

A lot of times when you do a blog you find yourself commenting on whatever the hot topic of the day is. If you are not a posting daily, it is very possible that by the time you get to the topic, it is no longer hot.

I always thought it might be interesting to go back and look at a formerly hot topic and review it after it had long gone cold.  

If we go into the way back machine to September of 2009, back when this blog was less than a year old and still called Home School Dad, we can discover a topic that was very hot at the time  that has since gone cold, but still has some relevance today.  

On September 8, 2009 President Obama spoke to  students in Virginia and the speech was telecast to students all over the country.  For some reason this created quite a stir.  

I remember not  understanding what the hubbub was all about and watching the speech with my students (children) at the Izola Becker Home School.  Some time has passed and now the  K-12 students who may have watched the event at school are all at least 2 years out of high school by now.  Students who were seniors in high school will be having their 15th hisg school reunion, and my youngest daughter who was 3 at the time of the speech is now a Freshman in college.  

Here is the then "controversial" address:

 

Click here for a transcript of his speech.

Click here for an Albert Mohler post decrying the controversy

Click here for politico's take on the controversy

Click here for a blog post stating why it was a conservative speech.

I was interested to see if I could find out more about Tim Spicer, the student who introduced Obama.  It turns out that in addition to being involved helping students and school districts in low income communities, Spicer was a contestant on Season 46 of Survivor.

There we are, our first edition of cold topics.  I was either going to call it that, or perhaps hot topics for procrastinators.  Once today's  news becomes yesterday's olds we may have another edition.  

Team Saturdazzle: The one where I meet a FB friend for the first time and then unfriend them

 Hello and welcome once again to Team Saturdazzle.  I have 3 or 4 random things to share this Saturday.  Let's get started shall we.  

Last Saturday there was a Men's breakfast at my church. As I was waiting in line I saw a friend from a church we had both previously attended.  I went and sat with him and remembered that my friend was active in the same prison visitation ministry that the speaker was from.  At a table of 8 people most were friends of the speaker through the prison ministry.  My friend was asking me if I knew another man at our table who had also attended our previous church and was now pastoring a different church.  When I heard the name, I recognized it right away and realized that this guy was a Facebook friend of mine.

The interesting thing was I don't remember ever meeting this guy before.  He has been a FB friend for awhile, but I'm not sure I've ever seen him post about anything.  I introduced myself to him and told him we were FB friends but he gave me no impression that we had ever known each other.  Here is what I think happened, The church I used to attend had at one point 7 men at the church all named Dave,  There were 4 of us whose last name ended with er. Back in the day when FB was popular it was fairly common to get beleaguered with friend request and friend recommendations.  I wouldn't be surprised if this guy got a "You might also know ... " message and mixed me up with one of the other er Dave's from church. Then when I got the friend request  I accepted thinking we would become better acquainted.  For the past few years when I've been cleaning up my FB contacts, I have considered removing this person  but hesitated thinking maybe we had a backstory I ad forgotten and we would meet someday and he would clue me in.

Well when we met there was  he seemed as clueless as me in regards to our backstory.  So today when I was cleaning up my FB contacts I unfriended him.  Since we were basically oblivious of each other in the non digital world until last week, I think we will get over the loss rather quickly.  

Earlier this week I participated in the Weekly Writer's Workshop at The Sound of One Hand Typing.  Each week John Holton gives multiple prompts to choose from.  This weeks were: 

1. Write a post based on the word grudges. 
2. Write a post in exactly 13 lines. 
3. Write about something you learned in the month of February. 
4. List your five favorite snack foods. 
5. Tell us about the worst haircut you ever had. 
6. What are the five things you enjoyed doing the most when you were in sixth grade? Do you still enjoy doing them?

I chose to combine prompt two and six.  After which I used paragraphy at byrdseed.com to put the sentences in random order.  

Here is my original.  The number reinforces the original order.  The letter shows what order paragraphy put them in.  To see how it appeared originally in my blog click here,

1.  The prompt I chose for today is to write a post using exactly 13 lines. (L)
2.  I have adjusted that to be exactly 13 sentences.  (A)
3. I will also try to remember back almost 50 years ago when I was in the 6th grade to think about the 5 things I enjoyed most back then and evaluate if I still like them today. (K)
4.  I have been wanting for some years to put in a post using Paragraphy and will try to do that today.  (E)
5. How Paragraphy works is you write a paragraph and then the sentences are randomly reordered.  (I)
6. See if you can figure out the original order. (M)
7.  In 1975 when I started 6th grade, I was a huge White Sox fan.  (B)
8. Fifty years later I still am. (H)
9. Back then I was quite the television watcher and had the network schedule memorized. (G)
10. Even now when I hear about an old show, the first thing I think of is what network it was on and what day it aired.  (J)
11. In 6th grade I was still in the school band and I played the saxophone, I liked playing but was never very good at it, so that was my last year.  (C)
12. The other two were baseball and bicycling.  (F)
13. They are still two passions of mine. (D)

The number reinforces the original order.  The letter shows what order paragraphy put them in.  To see how it appeared originally in my blog click here

The A to Z challenge is coming up next month and I am still working on my theme reveal.  While I'm not quite ready to tell you what theme I am doing, I can tell you about one that I thought about doing and may do in the future. 

On The February 1 Team Saturdazzle post, I wrote a little about Sesame Street and shared 3 clips  from the show.  Two of the clips featured guest appearances.  This got me to toying with thee idea of an  A-Z theme with Sesame Street  guest appearances.   While it didn't make the cut for this year, I may revisit it in future challenges.  I am happy, though to share this gem of Andrew Garfield and Elmo talking about grief.

March Madness is not just for Basketball!

This is the third year that I am participating in a Wordle March Madness event.  If you reading this post because you are a FB friend of mine look you may have seen an invitation to play along thus year.  What were doing is playing wordle as usual at the NYT site each day this month and sharing our results. Like golf we are trying for low scores.  I will share  the top 10 each competitors each week here at Team Saturdazzle.  

We've had quite the Saturdazzle!  Unfrienships, mixed up memories,  grief on the street,  and a March to Wordle Madness. Thanks for visiting.  

Writer's Workshop: 4 Prompts in 8 sentences? I'll try.

 

Here are this week’s prompts(I have the 4 I'm attempting in bold): 

1.  Write a post based on the word military. 
2. Write a post in exactly 8 lines. 
3. Write a list of movies that always make you smile. 
4. Choose a social media platform (e.g. Facebook, X, Instagram etc.) and tell us what you love and hate about it. 
5. Tell us about a time you had to go to court. 
6. Tell us about your best friend from the old neighborhood. 

 My 10 favorite movies  which are The Princess Bride, Miss Potter, Marty, Adventures of Robin Good, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Chariots of Fire, Casablanca, Ordinary People, The Muppet Movie, and It's A Wonderful Life   (click here for more info) all have moments that never fail to make me smile.  What I hate about Twitter can be summed up by the response to my 2/3/2005 tweet, "I'm thinking of quitting Twitter, ( Can't bring myself to call it X) It's not what it once was.", 5 impressions, no engagements, no comments in 48 hours.  One time I had to go court, not sure exactly why, proof of insurance, probably.  While I was waiting I decided to watch the festivities one young man waited in line with his very  energetic baby  son and when it was their turn, he had to give an update on what he was doing to get his driving privileges reinstated.  He assured the court that he had taken the bus to this appointment.  In the town I used to live in there is no bus stop next to the court room but many are walking distance.  He was given another court date, and then I was called, I provided whatever documentation was required of me and walked out of the court building.  As I walked I saw the man driving his son away in a car, in my town you can put a bicycle in a special holder in front of the bus, I had no idea they also did that for cars!

8 sentences? Maybe. 8 lines? Probably not.  But at least, I get an E for Effort.  John Holton invites  your prompt reply to his prompts at The Sound of One Hand Typing by clicking here.

Not Sure How This is A Writer's Workshop But I'm In.

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop: 

1. Write a post based on the word surprise. 
2. Write a post in exactly 8 sentences. 
3. Tell us about your favorite restaurant when you were a kid. 
4. Share links to 5-10 of your favorite non-political YouTube videos from this past week. 
5. Tell us about a time you had a really elaborate project in elementary school. 
6. Tell us how you named one (or more) of your pets.

I love writing too much, too look for a loophole when it comes to these Workshop prompts.  But if I were, prompt 4  would be right up my alley.  A writing prompt that just has me sharing links?  Bring it on.  

Some of the videos are not from  the past week but were in my you tube feed in the past week.  I had already put a few You Tube links in previous posts which is why I have the minimum amount.  Yet another loophole.  

Bob Bennett Weekly Live 1/12/2025

 

Ving Rhames Give His Golden Globe to Jack Lemon

MLB Remembers Legendary Broadcaster Bob Uecker

1987 Dal@Phi Buddy Ryan Runs Up The Score

The Newsroom: That's How I Got To Memphis

That was almost too easy,  So I decide to do # 6 as well. It's how I renamed a pet.

When I was in highschool my family bought a cat.  They named him Tiger.  I say they because If I had been conulted in the naming process such a predictable name would not have escaped my lips.  One of my best friends already had a cat named tiger, and of course every other striped cat was named tiger.  

Not only did I refuse to call the cat Tiger. I unilaterally decided to change his name.  So in my family of 7 people, 6 people called  our new cat Tiger and I called the cat Larry. I was very aggressive  and vocal with my naming preference. While no one switched over immediately I wore people down. My Dad would  accidentally call  him Larry, sweat under his breath and switch back to Tiger. I was always a pretty obnoxious teenager but this was me ar my most obnoxious.

in the early 80s VCRs were coming on the scene and our family got one before a lot of my other friends had them. So that summer I had a big party and we watched a number of movies. In between and even during movies people hung out I’m different places in the house and on the front porch and people came and went freely.

At some point during the party Larry/Tiger went freely but didnt come back. He probably got tired of  all the name calling. We never did see Larry or Tiger again. 

Team Saturdazzle: The One That Got Post Dated

I had big plans for the Team Saturdazzle segment in 2025.

First, I was going to post content for the segment to be published each Saturday of the new year.

Then, I would attempt to generate a little readership for it by linking it through the blogosphere via other established blogs , memes, and various Social networking sites.

After a while, I would gauge interest in making it one of those segments that others could link their content to.

All these plans were contingent on stringing a number of Weekly Saturdazzle posts together.

the Jan 5th edition went fine, in the sense that there was a Jan 5th edition. I had a few ideas for this edition. 

One idea came to me when I took my waiting with my Mom on one of her recent doctor appointments. She kept on talking about going to get cookies. My Mom often brings cookies up to her room which she gets from the dining room at the place where she and my Dad stay. Instead of eating her desserts in the dining room she brings them up to her room and puts them in her refrigerator aka the place where desserts go to die.

This was made on Christmas by my youngest daughter and my Mom. Left to 
 my mom’s devices it would have stayed in her fridge until the 15th anniversary of Covid.

As my Mom kept on talking about cookies, I thought that it might be cool to bring my daughters over there on Saturday and do some baking.  My parents have been living in  a senior living facility for the past few years where there meals are served to them.  While they have an oven and stove int heir apartment neither one of them is really able to use it anymore.  I thought it would be nice to have the sweet smell of baked goods wafting through their kitchen.

Due to being triple and quadruple booked for most of the weekend, we did not get over there on Saturday.  This was actually a good thing as it gave me a moment in the madness of a weekend with little sleep to rest a while.  We rescheduled the baking for Sunday when a number of us visit my folks anyway, which seemed like a good solution.  

The only problem was that the baking expedition was going to be the main point of my Saturdazzle feauture and now I would need to write about something else.  Then I remembered technology.  Blogger allows me to predate my posts and it also allows me for some reason to post date them.  So here's what I did, I went baking on Sunday am blogging about it now and back dating the post so it looks like it appeared on Saturday.  This was if and when I build a following with Saturdazzle, and the Saturdazzled (tm) pending are looking for back issues there will be continuity that it gets posted each Saturday.

Here are the pics from our multi generational cookie day

Gather the ingredients at home

Assembling The Troops



Giving the aged sharp objects

Giving the aged with sharp objects supervision

Obligatory Baking Picture (OBP) #1

   

OBP #2

OBP #3

Finished Product: Happy Parents

Overall the event was highly successful.  My Dad kept on saying he didn't remember the last time someone came over to bake for him.  We left a good amount of cookies in a tupperware on the table and took the rest home so none would be subjected to the refrigerator where desserts go to die. 

The first comment of the year

To many.  comments are the currency of the blogging world.  To some, it's page views, but having someone stop by and write about your content is a gratifying thing.  I blog for me.  I would like to have a large readership, but it doesn't matter that I don't have much of one.  

I post on other people's blogs and participate in their blogging events in part so either people will see and comment on my blog.  But even when they don't I still like to post content here and comment on their content there.  

SO it wasn't surprising on January 8th that I still did not have one single comment on any of my posts since last year.  I was glad that I got 3 comments in somewhat rapid succession the next day.  I work both my jobs in Wednesday and and in between them I stopped at McDonalsd for a snack knowing I wouldn't be eating dinner until 9:30.  I got one of my favorite snacks, a deconstructed root beer float.  That's my name for an ice cream cone and a glass of root beer,

While eating it, I remembered there is a way to post my content by sending an e-mail and did that.  I posted it on here, and linked it to the Wordless Wednesday page of Comedy Plus. On Thursday Morning I received this nice comment from Sandee the proprietor of Comedy Plus.  I received two more a few minutes later from another one of my posts.

Well that's it for this weeks installment of Team Saturdazzle.  Next time I hope to actually release it on Satuday and not fix it in post.  

Wordless Wednesday: Deconstructed Rootbeer Float

For More Wordless Wednesday at Comedy Plus, click here.

Weekly Writer's Workshop: For God So Hugged The World

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop:

1.  Write a post based on the word hugging. 
2. Write a post in exactly 13 sentences. 
3. How do you cope with days where you’re stuck in the house due to bad weather? 
4. What are your favorite food items to order online? 
5. If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 
6. List your five most recent favorite things.

I am combining 2 prompts today, #1 and #5.  It's not exactly one from column A and one from column B, but it gets the job done.

For God So Hugged The World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

My older sister asked me once what  John 3:16 meant.  So, I told her what the verse said, and her reaction was, "That has nothing to do with football"

I saw my sister right after Christmas as I was at the wedding of my oldest niece, her daughter.  There was an hour or so between the end of the wedding and the reception.  So my family being who we are, took a side trip to a local library between gigs.  While we were there my daughter Lucy emerged triumphantly from the lobby to say that she had found a 1984 Thesaurus in the free stuff bin,  She spent the next few days of the trip regaling us with synonyms from the book.  I have asked her to read me the synonyms for hug. Here goes: embrace, hold, clasp, press to the bosom, hold close, clutch, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, nestle, and (wait for it) cling together.

As I contemplated the meaning of John 3:16, especially what it meant for God to so love the world, I thought of hugs.  I thought of a child who seemingly gave up on physical expressions of love to their parents initiating a hug with me for no particular reason.  I thought of how hugs show one's love for another but also leave room for a reply. 

 I thought of Jesus in that sense as a hug from God.  To put it back in the context of John 3:16,  our sins had separated us from God.  We were on a path to perishing without a chance to have that relationship mended. God reached out to us, extending his Son as a way to eternal life.  We must reach back to God completing that hug by accepting Jesus as the only way to God.  

This brings me rather clumsily to prompt 5: If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 

My short answer is no.  My core beliefs and my sense of self,  emanate from my understanding of biblical Christianity.  Larry Norman a pioneer of Jesus Music broached the subject in the bridge of his song U.F.O.

And if there's life on other planets 

Then I'm sure that He must know 

And He's been there once already 

And has died to save their souls.

Those lyrics have always resonated with me. I have never meant much of a subscriber to the notion of life on other planets.  I like the science-fiction element of extraterrestrial life but that's where it ends. However farfetched I might find it, if confronted with proof that there is life on other planets, I would lean in on Norman's thought process.  To extend my previous thoughts on John 3:16, I can imagine the Lord of the Universe loving other intelligent life so much that he would reach out and hug them through the person of his Son as well.  

Just like I don't jettison my faith when difficult times come my way, I plan to always trust in God no matter what other things may come to challenge my world view.  

A Snapshot of the pioneering christian rock musician Larry Norman taken following concert in Defiance, Ohio on October 20, 2001.

By Ekiledal - http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Public Domain, Link

Thanks to John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing for this week's prompts.  To participate more in this Week workshop click here.

Facing The Unknown - Weekly Writers Workshop

 

This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are:  write a post on the word medications,  write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for.  I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.  

There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university,  moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had  opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).  

What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own.  I am not perfect, so I haven't  been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it. 

My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary.  When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own.  So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly. 

The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain  that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown. 

I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of  this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop. 

"Recent" Posts from my Blog Roll

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look beyond the minutiae 

 Today's Episode: Recent Posts from My Blog Roll

What is a Blog Roll?

It is a list of other blogs that appears on a sidebar of blogs and websites.  Each blog listed contains a link to the blog and often contains a link to the most recent post.  Some will include a snippet of the most recent post, and the date last posted.

Are Blog Rolls still popular?

Blog Rolls used to be a very popular feature of blogs because they were an easy way to find other blogs to follow.  Just as blogs have lost popularity over the years blog rolls have as well.  One of these is due to technological advances.  At the height of blogging popularity computers were the main way blogs were accessed.  Now that cell phones are supreme, many people access blogs on those or on iPads.  When you access a blog on a phone, the blog looks different and a lot of the features like a blogroll can not be seen readily.  On my phone, I can switch to the regular computer view on the bottom of my screen but I assume very few people do that.  Also, many people just subscribe to blog content and don't access the entire blog that way.

Call me a Blogosaur.

I continue to use my blog and format ir like it was 2009.  I use my blogroll as a way of keeping up with my favorite blogs and even in my lean months (June through October) when I'm not posting as much, I am still on my blog using it to access the most recent posts from other blogs that I follow.  

I currently have 53 blogs listed on my main blogroll.  I have them listed by hy how recently they posted so the most current content keeps on coming to the top.  I do list on my blog roll how recent the posts are so I can tell you that as of 1:00 p.m. central time today (November 5th) I  follow fourteen blogs that have posted in the last 24 hours. Nineteen more blogs were posted at least once in the last week.  An additional eight more were posted between a week and a month ago. Seven more were posted between a month and 6 months ago, leaving five more posted in the last 12 months.  On another blog roll that I have titled" These blogs are so last year,"  there are 3 blogs that haven't been posted on for over 12 months. For the rest of this post, I will link 1 blog from each of these categories and state how I've come to follow it,

Posted in the last 24 hours

For the most part, the blogs that fit into this category are blogs that post very frequently often with multiple posts a day.  This isn't always the case, sometimes I might catch a blog that only posts every 5 or 6 weeks immediately after their recent post.  But as I said, for the most part, these are blogs that are constantly providing new content.

The Sound of One Hand Typing  is a blog I have discovered through my association with the A to Z blogging challenge that takes place every April.  The most recent post by John Holton is his prompts for the Weekly Writers Workshop that he holds on his blog.  I have participated in this the past few weeks and hope to join the fun again later this week.

Posted in the past week.  

The blogs here could be of the variety where they post on average once or more e  a week or they could be recent posts of blogs that blog a little more sporadically than that. Lindy Scott is someone I've mentioned on my blog multiple times.  Back in the mid 80's he was one of my first pastors, and has been both a mentor and hero of mine.  He has recently retired from a career in academia as a professor of Political Science.  His most recent post is called "Trump's Plan to Eliminate the Federal Income Tax: Why would any Sane Person Support it?" Its title indicates that it is an analysis and critique of Trump's most recent idea,  

Posted in the last month.  

\Some of these blogs are updated every 10 days or so and some of them are updated quarterly or more it just depends at what point you catch them.  Andy Unedited is one of my favorite blogs about literature, editing, publishing, and biblical living.  What else would you expect from a former editor at Inter-Varsity Press?  Andy Le Peau's most recent post, A True to Life Allegory, a review of a book that combines John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress with Peter Kreeft's  Between Heaven and Hell.  It sounds intriguing as it intertwines two of my favorite books by two of my favorite authors,   The retired editor did spell Bunyan wrong, but, then again,  he once wrote a post called Confessions of a Bad Speller, so that's understandable.

Posted in the last 6 months

The 6 blogs listed here run the gamut from "where blogs go to die" (formerly prolific posters now on their last legs), semi-whenever posters, and some who are still on hiatus after finishing the April A to Z blog fest.  Another Fearless Year may look like it's on its way out.  After averaging over 80 posts per year between 2019 and 2021, it has only generated 18 posts since then.  I am hopeful, however as two of those posts were in September of this year.  The most recent of which, Grief, A Brief Description, is an excellent poem.

Posted in the last year

This is a kind of an endangered blog list.  Some of these still publish but are now on yu tube or another type of platform.  Some only post during the A to Z challenge which now ended over 6 months ago.  The A to Z challenge blog is an excellent example of the latter.  Its most recent post is about the A to Z Road Trip.

Posted more than a year ago

At midnight on New Year's Day each year, I change the name of my blog roll to "These Blogs are so last year."   As the blogs post new content,  I remove them from that blogroll and then decide whether to put them on the new blogroll or part company with the blog. Generally, by the end of March, almost all these blogs have posted again.  There are always some stragglers.  The Star Trek Sci-Fi Blog  , for example, went 22 months between January of 2023 and October of 2024 in between content. I just changed blog rolls on it at the end of this month. 3 blogs have not added content since 2023 and I really don't expect any of them to do so before the end of the year.  One, near and dear to my heart, is a blog I encourage my oldest daughter to share her poetry. The last poem she shared on the blog was called Growing Up. Fortunately, she has other outlets for her poetry and continues to write just not on her blog.

The deep dive into the minutiae of this blog is over for now.  But when I think of more information less exciting than watching paint dry, Ill be certain to share it again.

A 12 Sentence Post (which is better than no post at all).

 It is Fall, and I am in my usual  decline of posting here at Leap of Dave. Lately, when I have posted,  I've just been putting out OPV (Other People's Videos) instead of mixing in my own content. It's not that I don't have things to write about, there are plenty of post ideas that I am wanting to get out there; it's not even about lack of time, it's more like I need a jump start to get this blog churning again.  So, for that much needed jump start, I went to my blog roll and saw that John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing  put out this week's Writing Workshop prompts. 

Along with trying to write this post using 12 sentences only, I will also use another of his prompts to tell you why I use Google Chrome.  I am not a Chrome snob by any means it is just something that I am used to, it doesn't try to invade my computer like Microsoft Edge does, and I never really got into Firefox. 

As a long term substitute teacher at a middle school my job is both varied and predictable.  For the past few days I've been subbing for 7th grade teachers.  Our 6th graders last year were a bit of a challenging bunch, and I have been glad to see that many of them have matured since last year.  Many, however, is not most, and the past few days while not difficult, have been eventful.  

Thanks again to John Holton, for helping me to have something to write about today.  I also appreciate John for reminding me that Weird Al Yankovic is turning 65 today, making him exactly 4 years and 11 months older than myself. 

How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Luis Von Ahn | TED

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool Why Homeschool shared this great Ted Talk by the co-founder of Duo Lingo. His original post is here.

 

A to Z 2024 Holiday Reflection

 This is my 2nd of two reflections for the A to Z 2024 challenge,  This will include some thoughts feelings and concerns in no particular order from my foray into all things Holidays.  If you would like to see my first reflection which focused on the playlist I amassed from my songs of the day during the challenge click here. 

My Theme for the 2023 A to Z challenge was Holidays.  The idea behind it started to germinate  when I worked at Chase in their Business Fraud department.  Each day we my manager would start a chat for all of us working on that day.  Each day she would title the chat with a different holiday that was taking place that day.  She would choose the Holiday from a list she would find on the internet for that day.  I don't remember exactly which one she queued them from, but it was similar to what you would find on National Day Calendar.

Instead of making an alphabetized list of such holidays, I wanted to actually choose holidays occurring on the day the letter was posting. From the start this proved to be problematic.  National Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd and autism starts with an A. but April 2nd we featured the 2nd letter of the Alphabet, which is a B.  Some worked out just fine, like April 4th was the first day of the United Kingdom's Discover National Parks Fortnight.  May need just a little tweaking.  Wednesday, April 3rd which is National Film Score Day matched with the letter C, by being described as Cinematic Compositions. 

When I get a idea for a theme , I often add to it a few wrinkles.  One wrinkle I added was immediately confusing. I decided to not only write about actual made-up holidays, but to also make up 5 of my own.  I chose 5 because there are that many vowels in my native tongue.  I say immediately confusing because A, the first letter of the alphabet is a vowel, so I made up a holiday, Adult Children Appreciation Day, on the first day of the challenge. It wasn't until the next day that I started chronicling actual holidays like Children's Picture Book Day which I introduced as B is for Books for Children.  

Even though I explained the entire concept each day with the same exact disclaimer:

 For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. 

I still think that doing something different with the vowels was confusing and I don't think I'll attempt that again.  I did, however like making up holidays.  For Adult Children Appreciation Day I wrote each of my 3 children aged 18 to 24, a letter appreciating, encouraging, and advising them. I plan to do the same the next time Adult Children Appreciation Day Rolls around which will be on April 21st , 2025 (As you know, Adult Children Appreciation Day is always the Monday after Easter). Besides Adult Children Appreciation Day, I also created 4 other Holidays

E was for Wedding Planner Black Friday

I was for Indicted Illinois Governors Day

O was for One More Time and You get a Parade Day

U was for Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

Speaking of Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day,  I tried to mix up my presentations here and there this challenge.  This blog used to be 4 different blogs, 2 general interest blogs, 1 vlog, and 1 sports blog.  During the challenge I tried to bring in features from some of these blogs to my daily posts.  The U post was presented in vlog fashion as a You Tube video of me presenting the day in question.  On my M day I posted about National Micro-volunteering Day, but I did so in Frequently Asked Question Format which  is a format I have used multiple times before in my blogs. I even had two holidays regarding sports for S and T.  

I  completed the challenge this year.  What I try to do is predate my entry so it drops at the time that reflects that day's date.  For example my A post dropped at 4:01 A.M. on April 1st.  Some days I had to manually post later that day.  On one occasion I posted minutes before midnight.  I was never late and I was never early each post dropped on the correct day.  

I didn't drop in on every blog but I did visit quite a few,  I received 90 comments on my blog in April and I feel like I may have left that may comments myself.  Next year I'll try to keep track. I discovered 3 new blogs during the challenge that I have been following, they are Hot Dogs and Marmalade, The Versesmith,  and Backsies is What There is not. I am giving them all a try out on one of my blogrolls along with the The Curry Apple Orchard, which was my favorite blog to follow during the challenge.  Now that the challenge is over I hope to pore through every reflection and discover some more blogs worth following,

Before I put this reflection to bed, and me with it, I have a couple of final thoughts.

• The end of the school year is fast upon us, and the middle school where I am a building sub, is basing their end of the year countdown with theme days from the holiday of that day.  What a fantastic idea, I wish I had done something like that for the challenge.  Oh wait, I did!
• In my Theme Reveal this year, I mentioned how my theme for 2024 was supposed to be Chronicles of Narnia related.  My plan is to reread all the books this year, as I do most every year but did not do in 2023, and have that be my 2025 A to Z theme.  

The next stop for me is to register for the A to Z Road Trip,  I also am going to make an index page at the top of this blog for the 2024 challenge.  Until then I'll try ti go back to my 6 to 10  times monthly blogging pattern.  For more A to Z Reflections click here.  

Themes for the A to Z Challenge 2024 for Blogs featured on my Blog roll

 Many of the blogs that appear on my blogroll are blogs I discovered during the A to Z challenge.  Last year I put out a post right before the challenge featuring the themes for all the blogs on my blog roll that were in participating in that years challenge.  

This year I am putting them in order of who has posted most recently as of midnight 3/26/2024

Liz of Laws of Gravity is participating this year but has not specified a theme.  Like myself. Liz is a substitute teacher by trade and I am looking forward to see what She has fir us this year.

John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing is an epic blogger.  He has an epic theme this year in rhymes with "ale".  I wonder if S will be for Swale, the race horse that won 2 legs of the Triple Crown in 1984 and died 8 days after winning the Belmont Stakes.  

Our Next Stop is Wolf of Words . The Fan Fiction Master is back at it again this year, color me very excited. 

Rambling With A.M is a blog I added to my blog roll after last years challenge.  Her Theme this year;  Gardens, History, Art, and the Unexpected. Speaking of unexpected, this is just one of 3 blogs on my roll with rambling in the title.  

Janet's Smiles is an avid concert goer and is using that as this years theme.

One of my favorite blogs is Sue's Trifles.  Her theme this year is poetry.

We move from poetry to prose with  hdhstory.net, who is using the theme "Truth or Consequences" in his stories for April.

Last year I had 5 bloggers from my roll participating in the challenge.  I also want to do a special shout out to Helen  at Are We Nearly There Yet.  Helen started the 2021 A to Z challenge and got through J.  She added K and L in 2022, and got M through Q in 2023.She continues to plow through the challenge and her writing is honest and encouraging.  She is nearly there  and has only 9 letters to complete her journey.

. 

The A to Z Challenge starts this Monday! If you are thinking of participating you can sign up here.  

A to Z Themes for Blogs on My Blogroll

 

2512477 © Marek Zuraw | Dreamstime.com

Over the past few weeks I've posted about my A to Z Theme reveal for the upcoming A to Z challenge and I've posted a little about blogs that appear on my various blogrolls on my home page.  I'd like to combine those today and tell you about blogs I have on my blogrolls that are participating in this year's challenge and tell you about their themes.

One of my favorite blogs is Sue's Trifles.  Her theme this year is revisiting her theme from 2013 where she combined alliteration with content to help people learn more about Christ and Christianity.  I am really looking forward to her posts this year.  

When Sue isn't doing the A to Z challenge she mostly posts book reviews which is why Sue's Trifles can be found in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs blogroll.

The next blog has recently moved from my Bloggy Blogs (more on that soon) blogroll to my Writing, Poetry, Publishing and Book Blogs blogroll where it fits the category much better.  hdhstory.net is using the theme of an adventure at the Kingdom of Selat.  I am looking forward to the "tales" that  will be found there.

Janet's Smiles is another blog I follow.  Her theme this year is the Illuminate SF - Festival of Light. I have Janet's Smiles in my Bloggy Blogs blogroll.  A bloggy blog is a blog that kind of sprays to all fields.  

I got the inspiration for the title bloggy blogs from a friend of my son when they were in high school together.  She and her family attend a local megachurch which doesn't really look like a church at all.  I was driving my son and his friends to an outing and we passed a local church that looked like your typical steeple and triangular roof church.  She wasn't looking at it at first and then when she saw it, she said "Look! A churchy church." 

John Holton who is a member of the A to Z team hosts a blog called TheSound of One Hand Typing. He can also be found on my Bloggy Blogs blogroll. His theme this year is really jazzy.  It makes my heart jingle and my mouth ajar in contemplation. He is going to juxtapose the letter j in each of the 26 words he's choosing for the challenge.  Well, that's what he said, hopefully, he didn't perjure himself.

The 5th and (so far) final of my blogroll blogs participating in the challenge this year is Wolf of Words.  This is the 4th time the wolf is using the theme of fan fiction.  I am especially looking forward to the Scooby Doo/Dr. Who Mash-up.

The A to Z Challenge starts this Saturday!

5499560 © Heysues23 | Dreamstime.com

Blog Tryouts Results Show

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look inside the minutiae. 

I'm a big fan of blogroll (Don't know what blogroll click here to find out.) At present, I have 8 different blogrolls on my home page,  and we all know how painful that can be. The most recent one is called Blog Tryouts.  I just started it earlier this year.

Blog Tryouts is exactly what it sounds like. I chose 8 blogs that I was not currently linking anywhere else in my blog and placed them in their own section.  Some of these blogs like The Comics Curmudgeon and We Are That Family have been on my blogrolls before and I have decided to have another look at them.  Others like Chicken Spaghetti and Laws of Gravity are blogs I have recently discovered and placing them on a  blogroll for the first time. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have been enjoying going to these blogs on multiple occasions and have added 3 to some of my more permanent blogrolls.  

Laws of Gravity as I mentioned last month on my Januarying post is a blogger/substitute teacher and I have really enjoyed her tales from the front lines of education.  I have added her blog to my Education and Special Needs Blog blogroll.  Her most recent post is called Oblivious.

Rambling Ever on may well be my favorite of the blogs from blog tryouts. I feel like I have found kindred spirits in the group of writers who contribute to this blog.  They have a very good 5 part series called The Forgotten History of Christian Rock with 5 Spotify playlists to help you not forget.  I really enjoyed their recent post called I Love My Boring Church as our family has been on a church search for some time now and the post served as something of an oasis for me. I wasn't sure which blogroll to place Rambling Ever On, it could certainly go into my Bloggy Blogs category as they spray all to fields, but for now, anyway, I'm including them in the News, Faith, Opinion, and Insight Blogs section.

The Third Blog that earned a place on my blogroll team is Reflections On The Teche. I've seen this blog on several occasions through Poetry Friday.  This week's Poetry Friday is at  My Juicy Little Universe by the way.  Feel free to stop in. I really like the poetry at Reflections On The Teche. I've even signed up to take part in the kiddie-lit progressive poem she's spearheading in  April. One feature she does on her blog is This Photo Wants To Be a Poem. I particularly liked the submission called Sunrise Field. I have placed Reflections On The Teche in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs section.  

I will keep all 8 blogs up in The Blog Tryouts section until the end of March.  In May I plan to link blogs that I discovered or rediscovered during April's A to Z challenge.  

Januarying

 January 2023 is in the books, more proof that the calendar plays for keeps.  My wife thinks that this January would never end and was glad to see the back of it (Sorry, she had Downton Abbey on , and I couldn't help myself.). For me, January ended too quickly, I hadn't finished all my Januarying. 

I've always been  a little bit uncertain when it comes to  what I think about New Year's resolutions.  On one hand, I think that they are a colossal waste of time because we should always be trying to improve ourselves and we  don't need December 31st telling us what to do.  On the other hand, there are definitely things I like to try to accomplish every year and January 1st seems like a good time to start accomplishing those things.

Some of these goals (I do like goals better than resolutions) vary from year to year and many of them don't get accomplished.  I do spend quite a bit of time each January planning to accomplish them, which is why I call making a game plan for the goals, Januarying. 

One goal I have every year is to average 10,000 steps a day for the year.  2022 is the only year so far I have met that goal.  I had come close in 2021 averaging around 9,200 steps a day.  It really was a tale of two halves where I averaged just 7,000 steps from January to June and then averaged close to 11,500 to close out the year.  I made my goal for 2022 to be averaging at least 10,000 steps for the entire year (In 2005 White Sox parlance we call that going wire to wire). To that end I walked 26,122 steps on Jauary 1st.  We had a small party at out house on New Years Eve  and after our guests left, I walked our neighborhood for a little while.  Most of the steps came later that day when I got the job of patrolling the movie theatre where I work which means walking up and down 12 theatres every 20 or 30 minutes to make sure  the equipment and audience members are behaving appropriately.  

This year I decided to approach repeating my accomplishment differently. I made a calendar in my mind and decided in advance how many steps I wanted to get on the given month.  At the end of the year, If I make all my goals I will have again averaged  over 10,000 steps for the year.  In January, I set my goal for far lower than 10,000 but still beat the average I set for myself by more than 1,000 steps a day.  

Some of my other Januarying goals have to do with or are chronicled on my blog.  I will be posting more soon about my goals of watching 12 new movies (to me) and reviewing them here, and my reading goal for the year.  So. Ill just table such discussion for now, except to say that I have spent quite a bit of Januarying plotting out some of the books and films I want to consume this year and going about consuming them.  Each December and January I spend time redesigning my blog. I have especially enjoyed  linking some new blogs to mine in a space called Blog Try Outs. One such blog is called Laws of Gravity The caretaker of Laws of Gravity is a substitute teacher like myself.

At my advanced age of 58 years, 4 months, 1 week, 4 days and 12 hours (It's actually 11 hours, but I still have to edit this post.) , I am beginning to hear more and more about finishing well.  I feel like I might be a tad young for that, but Januarying has been instrumental in helping me start well.  

Spiritual Thursdays: One Little Word .

 

I am trying to get into the New Year blogging.  So I have decided to participate in Spiritual Journey Thursdays.  It's a first Thursday blog hop that is being hosted this month  by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Margaret is part of the Poetry Friday community.  Her theme this month is One Little Word.  

Given the theme I immediately went into full Martin Luther mode and started belting out the third verse of A Mighty Fortress is Our God.  For future reference 10:45 on a weeknight is not the best time for belting out reformation hymns.  At least that's what my wife tells me.  Click here to have it belted out for you by the good folks at Hymnary.

1 A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

2 Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God's own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.

3 And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

4 That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!

Psalter Hymnal, (Gray), 1987

There is an excellent article from Desiringgod.org entitled 'What "One Little Word" will fell Satan?'  In it, the author speculates what Luther may have meant by what word is being referred to at the end of verse 3.  He states that Luther wrote that the word he meant was "liar." Or at least the German word for liar.  

I can tell you that this makes perfect sense to me.  

Many times in the course of my life I have told myself and believed lies.  The past few months have been a particularly difficult season in what has been a very difficult series of years for me and my family.  

These past months as I alluded to in my Last Poetry Friday submission have been some of my most challenging in my work life.  They have also been extremely taxing in almost every aspect of my life.  

In September my family left a church we had been at for 10 years that never really felt like our home.  We have spent the fall and early winter looking for a new church which has brought both comforts and challenges to us.  

In September on my wife's birthday, I went to visit my Dad in the hospital and was told that day that his leg needed to be amputated. His foot was amputated on that very day.  On my birthday a few weeks later my Mom and I had a phone appointment with a neuropsychologist who diagnosed her  of having some type of dementia, perhaps Alzheimer's.  We cancelled birthdays for a while after that.

Somewhere in that time a part of me snapped.  I didn't notice it at first, but my wife did. I still did all the things you do to get from one day to the other.  I'd been in full on crisis mode before but this was different.  I tell you that even right now I can hardly function  at work or anywhere.  

But I think I am beginning to figure it out.  I've been believing lies.  I've been believing that I am powerless in the train wreck season I've been going through and in reality I've tied myself to the track with those lies.  I have two daughters who both have mental health issues.  My wife and I continually tell them to stop believing lies and tell themselves the truth,  As Tom Hanks's character Jimmy Dugan (sp?) said in A League of Their Own. "That's good advice! 

 John 8:31 through 8:36 says (in the NIV), 

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘ You will become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35“The slave does not remain in the house forever; . the son does remain forever. 36“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 

 The truth is that God has been with me every step of this journey. Today I received what I perceived to be a body blow but when I told that perception to my wife, she told me the truth and I decided to believe that truth, then act upon that truth, and pray that truth. This evening what can usually be a very stress filled event was pleasant. When I got home instead of being in a zombie like stupor I was ready for the next thing. I know I'm still many miles away from a new normal but I'm closer than I even imagined I could be on New Years Eve. 

 Love, Dave

For more SJT click HERE

Tuesday 2-22-22 = Tuesday

Twosday: 2-22-22

Hello A to Z Bloggers.  The A to Z Blog had been maintaining a bit of radio silence since last year's doings, so I asked the team if I could write a guest post.  To my surprise and delight, they said yes. Before I get into full A to Z mode, let me tell you about myself.

My name is Dave I'm a 57 year old Midwesterner, who's been  happily married to my best friend Amy for almost 24 years. a father of 3, an educator, an avid blogger someone who absolutely loves the A to Z Challenge

My first year in the challenge was 10 years ago.  It was the first and only year that I did not have a theme.  On Sunday April 1st I wrote this post about not fooling around.  Si  nce then I have participated in several of my blogs.  At least one year, I did 3 at the same time.  

That's probably a good enough introduction about me for now.  

I love a good palindrome.  A palindrome is anything that is the same backwards as forwards.

I am writing this on January 31st 2022 or 1/31/2022 or 1-31-22.  Tomorrow is 2-1-22 and Wednesday is 2-2-22, a palindrome.  Could you imagine an alarm clock next to a calendar at 2:22 showing 2-22-22? If that's not enough awesomeness for you, it's also groundhog day!

But wait there's more ...

There is another spectacular palindrome filled day coming later in February.   February 22nd 2022 otherwise known as 2-22-22 it's a twosday that falls on a Tuesday.

(If this isn't a place for a mind blown emoji I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!!!!!!!)

So what does this have to do exactly with the A to Z challenge?  Well, let's put it this way:

If you guys are going to get back into the challenge  you probably need to do some forward thinking at the same time.  What will you write about?  Who will you invite to participate along with you? How will you make this the best A to Z year ever?

I may do more than one theme this year, but one of them is definitely going to be limericks.  8 years ago between my 49th and 50th birthday I wrote and posted a limerick a day on my Facebook page.  For the challenge, I will be recycling about 10 of those limericks, writing about 10 new limericks prior to the challenge, and creating approximately 10 more during the challenge, generally on the day of the entry.

Here is a palindrome based limerick I wrote for this post::

I have a dear friend named Jerome

Who sure loves a good palindrome

on 2-22-22

in a racecar he "flew"

both backwards and forwards towards home.

I am really hyped up about this year's challenge. I hope that many of you are getting ready for it as well.  I'd like to thank the team for letting me do this guest post. 

Shameless Plug:  Please check out my blog Leap of Dave, it was called Home School Dad for many years but since our home schooling days have been over for a few years now, I decided to at long last change the name and consolidate my other blogs into the flagship.  This means that you can see all of my a to z blog entries over the last 11 years in one place.