Five weeks ago I had a steady Sorry Gnat blog following of about 7 people. People know me a bit around the City of Pasadena. A few months ago my Irish Mug was on the cover of Pasadena Weekly, 
because I teach writing at the Women’s Room in Pasadena, a workshop for volunteers, homeless women, and women in transition.
I also teach a couple of other writing workshops in the Pasadena- mainly at the La Pintoresca Branch, and conduct a small one, for donation only, in the basement of Ten Thousand Villages, the most fantastic and aesthetically snappy fair trade store, located on Lake and California.
I felt stagnated by my inadequacies with my blog. I had a major friend who has helped me a lot. The fabulous Mizz V – shrunk my SorryGnat banner, twiddled and twaddled comments and headings appropriately, but she got a job, and I ordered 10-12 books from the library on Blogging.
I need to stretch I thought. This is how I get creative thoughts. They nudge me or pop up when my nose is halfway down my first cup of coffee in the morning. Along came #@MNINB, and I was a hashtag apprentice, a Linkedin Babe, a Twitter type of gal. I’m already on FB with people from around the world. It helps to travel and live in other countries.
A few weeks ago someone sent The Versatile Blogger 
award, and I have still to figure out how to affix it to a margin type area so it hangs out in the neighborhoods of facts and figures about this writer who’s up there in age, but has the writing voice of a 35-year old.
This week, of which Monday seems a 100 years ago, 2 of the #MNINB recommended me for a Liebster because for the month of April MNINB challenge a goodly amount of writers scattered from Massachusetts to Malta (not really) connected, with a spirit of oepn welcome and we cheer each other on.
So thank you to Susan Craig, http://bysusancraig.wordpress.com/ . She’s a scientist with a background in neurobiology, and studied effect of Alzheimer’s disease proteins on brain cells for over 10 years. She currently teaches college biology. Her favorite thing to do is write books about strong, smart women and men who love and appreciate them. Her blog reveals true stories, science material, fiction, inspiration, and you name it. Lucky us. Lucky me, I subscribe to her blog.
And also, another blogger nominated me during the same week of 100 years:
Thank you Kristi Carver, http://kristicarver.blogspot.com/2012/05/ Kristi is a writer, small business owner, and Registered Nurse. My twin was a Registered Nurse, and believe you me, I felt safe with her in my life. Thanks Kristi. When you visit her blog, you fall into a heavenly photo of a lake in Colorado, and all tension slips away. Colorado beauty, plus aspiring author, who is a blueberry fanatic, wine enthusiast, and constant reader, and a memoir addict. Be still my heart.
Now, I pay it forward and nominate up to 5 blogs with less than 200 followers, and let these nominees know they’ve come under the Liebster shadow by leaving a comment on on of their posts. I added the Liebster image, so I’m okay ont hat.
My nominees are:
http://kofeart.wordpress.com/category/doodles/ – what can I say? When the world gets too lurchy, self-absorb, insane, I click on Kofeart’s site and her art enchants me. I hope you like it too!
http://blackwatertown.wordpress.com/ I don’t know if he has 1,000 followers, but he was one of my original 7 devotees, and he’s special in my blogger’s heart; funny, current, aware, and enchanting.
The blog & the book – are by Paul Waters from Northern Ireland, writes, makes radio & telly shows, blogs and footer about with social media. Get in touch if you’d like me to do it for you, either here or at paulwaters99 at hotmail.com . It’s not a kangaroo, it’s a horse’s head, which might be from The Godfather. The pith helmet however, definitely used to sit on the head of Spike Milligan.
http://krpooler.com/feed/ (Memoir Writers Blog)I need all the information on Memoirs. I don’t know if she’s widely blogged, so I added her, because I learn from people like this blogger.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html – okay, okay, the blog is about depression – but to a writer, artist, or whatever creative type, depression is a fantastic topic, and I am sure she heals herself by her work. Her images are enchanting. I adore her post. What can I say, check it out!
http://swpulley.wordpress.com/ – Artist, writer, traveler, whimsy, E.B.-White-wit goes outer space, early member of CHPercolatorcoffeehouseforwriters.com, incredible friend, encourager, and lives next town over. His Uneasy Rider posts are terrific. He’s the reason why I write better than I used to after my first book, and why I published (he helped-bless his saintly soul) You Carry the Heavy Stuff, and is just all in all an enchanting wit and fried of both myself and Bill and so many others.
So that’s it. Now they check out The Liebster Award, and sally forth. Gratitude to all who labor! Smile.
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 A Mostly True Memoir - a must read So, you are ambling along in the library, and you check into your books on hold. Did I mention, I’m a memoir addict? Okay, okay, the author? Jenny Lawson, and she’s called “The Bloggess,” Yep, I ordered a book based on the cover, and of course that it’s a memoir. A white rat who looks in need of dental work, wears a stunning black velvet cape, with a red silk lining. His rat feet look like a DSW size 10? He has a white ruffled tutu type collar, the kind used in Medieval days, which if you want to know seem just like yesterday. Okay, okay, the author? She’s called “The Bloggess,” and did I meet her in my Name is Not Bob Blog April challenge, MNINB? I’m Not Bob April Challenge (MNINB) caused a loose knot in the sky, a gnarled rotting elbow on a tree, to fall on my neck and pressure stress liquids into my brain. I don’t know where I discovered Jenny Lawson, but Reader, I read this book while slammed with the process of April Challenged which Not Bob gave to us bloggers, and I laughed, and chuckled, and snuffled and snorted at midnight, in the quiet ambiance of our 2-room pool house of the high ceilings and spillage of computer material, books, whatever. Okay, sorry for the hot dogging, but The Bloggess, aka Jenny Lawson, wrote “A Mostly True Memoir,” and that works for me. She had me on the rat cover. I love the abandoned warrens of her mind, picture Kafka-toned jokes as her thoughts trot ahead of us readers, twisting, turning, always into belly laughing and chortles. She is snarky in deed, and she got me on “folded vagina,” and claimed my heart and soul when I discovered she had a Pug, Barnaby Jones. The book is filled with huge metal chickens, small creatures of the stuffed kind (her father was a crazy Taxidermist). Reader, what is one to do with chapter titles like, “Stabbed by Chicken,” “Hairless Rats Free for Kids Only,” and an enchanting view of detachment from a bizarro childhood, and interstitial laughter and views of a marriage with an wonderfully funny man. I read the first few pages and thought, maybe I’m too old for this contemporary writing, but when I finished this book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson’s writing claimed me. My brother–in-law called me “The Bro-ess,” and now I, the Broess, am on the devotee path of one Bloggess. Kudos to all who write |
Okay Reader, I’m going to jump right in. http://hereismars.wordpress.com/ Mars recommended me for the Versatile Blogger Award. \
I thanked her and waited in silence for an email to come over the horizon saying, “You’ve won our Versatile Blogger Award.” It doesn’t work that way.
My them for the April Challenge, MNINB, “It doesn’t work that way.”
So today, I am going to try to do several things at once. I am a superb multitasker, but whiz around so, I fall off the planet on a daily basis. My call to action comes at the end. First the award.
Thank you Mars, dear tender-aged Mars whose blithe spirit shines through and captures the poetic tendrils of my heart. http://hereismars.wordpress.com/ (repeated it). Select 15 bloggers I’ve recently discovered or have been following regularly. I nominate the blogs below for the versatile blogger award. (Advice: Google it, and following the instructions.)
http://swpulley.wordpress.com, long time friend, writer, lived in Bolivia and Chile 30 years, early member and continuing member of CHPercolatorCoffeeHouseFor Writers, and just one who you can roll around a floor laughing.
http://bahaithought.blogspot.com/
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/02/04/rainn-wilson-soulpancake/, I adore Soul Pancake, and use it in my writing classes at times. I also gave the book Soul Pancake to my granddaughter.
http://www.bendsintheroad.com/ I have connected with blogger and will do online interview!
http://blackwatertown.wordpress.com Northern Ireland, author and enchanting commentator; have been following him since he found me – how I don’t know. I think I had 7 followers then.
http://elenagorokhova.com/ Author of Mountain of Crumbs, on Goodreads, Russian heritage. I lived in Ukraine and Belarus, spent some time in Moscow and Siberia, follow her blog on Goodreads.
http://creativityontheloose.com/ new; intriguing; she was in a class of mine
http://thekitchensgarden.wordpress.com/ a new, refreshing blog about farm life, and well written. Sagas, small s really about lambs being born, lamb bloat, the birds; all have names, and the blogger’s pieces undo the knot in the back of my neck from my social media strain.
http://kofegeek.wordpress.com/ Kofegeek is a silly geometer, a lover of coffee and fresh carrot
http://catewrites.wordpress.com/feed/ An exquisite young writer, working on her first novel – we meet once a week and share our writing through prompts!
http://mrslittlejeans.blogspot.com/2012/04/our-cat-boys-are-tree-huggers.html
friend, who is a scientist, a Baha’i and who writes enchanting, whimsical pieces.
http://livingbackstreet.blogspot.com, a very talented artists. She had a stroke and since then she’s been producing the paintings you will see on her website.
http://holessence.wordpress.com/ one of the first bloggers to reach out at beginning of our MNINB April challenge, generous in spirit and knowledge
http://bridgetasher.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
terrifically informative re writing
http://debbieohi.com/home/atom.xml I love her art
Okay this is for the lovely Mars – 7 things about myself
1. I am 73, but have the writing voice of a 35 year old;p spunky, funny, deep, spiritual, whatever.
2. I am a twin; fraternal, she died a few years ago.
3. I am a member of the Baha’i Faith – since 1966 – was Catholic from Boston
4. I am a pug dog devotee
5. I have lived in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, Minsk, Belarus, spent time at Lake Baikal in Siberia, looked across borders to Mongolia, stared at the biggest fattest head of Lenin in Ulan Ude, Siberia, and crawled across railroad tracks and clung to barely the inside of a train in Eastern Ukraine, and last I road on a bus with our interpreter who thought beings from Mars would soon pop up, and where the bus driver stopped the bus, and said about the quacking goose in our midst, “Off with his head,” but of course, the goose lived, and we did too.
6. I am a memoir addict, and started reading 4 books a day when I was 7; since then, my addiction has grown.
7. I teach several writing workshops, one of which to homeless women, and they rock.
Larry: The Most Famous Feline in England.
I’m reposting this from http://kofegeek.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/larry-the-most-famous-feline-in-england/
She’s an artist, and I like her blogs. I find this one enchanting. Best to all!
I definitely am a communications maven, the drawback being, I wasn’t savvy about social media management tools. Last night, or night before, I read a whole page describing social media, but it would not enter my brain. I think the Blog is my favorite (Psst, don’t tell the others). I’ve also added many blogs to follow, conquered LinkedIn, decided against shrinking my URL now, and am considering the blogs mentioned in MNINB, April 21. I think I’m up to date, theory only. I have to assimilate.
This morning I awakened thinking about Tweeting, Twittering, you catch my drift.
Before I started my blog, I communicated with a couple of hundred people around the world. It helps to move a lot. Al, my recent graduated from marketing at Yale, with his MBA, said, “You have to have a blog.” I did. I was grateful to my 2-3 followers; bless their stalwart qualities.
I blogged, FB’d, emailed everyone about everything. I’ve written 2 books and can promote them well. I teach writing, so there you go, more computer time. I like FB. I didn’t think Twitter could be used for ordinary computers. I thought it was for cell phones, the kind of cellies my young friends carry, i.e., sleek black, red, buttons, icons, push here, push there. I felt Twitter was the scoop-up-words type of thing, words from the top of my head. I like to go deeper. Too brief, too shallow, too Valley Girl almost.
LinkedIn repelled me. I grew up in a family that regarded their status proudly. Boston was glutted with those families who know their social divides. I didn’t retain these traditions.
So I thought, Linked-in-schminked-in.
Now, I’m a Twitterer, a FBer, definitely a blogger, an email, and a Yenta of sorts locally for people who look for work, relationships, just anything. A new friend, in from India, said I’m like a local Google, except with a small g.
I write because I must. I write to weave humor, pain, suffering, and I write about anything, from sow bugs and sorry gnats to concepts of racial justice, oneness, and I glut Goodreads with my I’ve read or to read type of thing. I subscribe to Powell’s on line, Book browse, locally, and on.
I am like an untrained Dalmatian. I bound into life. But, a concern I have, throwing aside professional need, is Twitter.
I wonder what sociologists will make of our current culture. We have invisible lace webs over our heads that cartoon out – “didja eat,” “how bout them Dodgers,” and every other light through, phrase or sentence that settles tentatively on our brains.
What does this say indicate about attention span in the future?
I’m light, I’m funny, and I love whimsy and playing with words. We do a lot of that on CHPercolatorcoffeehouseforwriters, and I guffaw on the floor over our hilarious exchanges. But, I wonder, if we just go to a restaurant, casual, Marie Calender’s, Denny’s, Cocos, and see kids to adults to seniors. A lot of heads are bent over their cell phones tweeting.
What about social skills?
We live in a society that is tremendously immediate. Instant news. “You heard it first at Blah Blah News.” I can multitask without a blink of an eyelash. But, can I sit down and study things, reflect at great length. At this point in our world, is the speed of light winning, and reflection of the light losing?
I want quality. I’m naturally speedy and can type rapidly. But I want depth too. It seems in the world today we inhale. We inhale words, sounds, pressures, work, you name it.
A Hopi prophecy said, “When the world speeds up, slow down.”
That said. I throw myself into my day and am enormously busy, but my relationships are fun and solid, and we form friendships in our writing circles, in my Baha’i life.
Sure, I’d like to be recognized; what writer wouldn’t. But life is more than that. I tell my students, we are reaching a time on the planet where arts should be everywhere, an Arts Rising type of thing. The world is so busy, so full, why can’t we soar locally, forget the star system, a Kingdom of Names type of thing. It’s all about bringing life and love and creativity to one another. We don’t always need a stage.
I’d love and welcome other comments. These are mine at the end of a busy Sunday.
Brandi’s prompts today or yesterday from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CHPercolator/ and my response today:
Tell us why you became a part of this fabulous league of writers!
2. “According to the hard-hitting journalism of cosmos…”
3. Of all the skeletons in my closet, you are my favorite.
List your personal comfort foods, bonus points if you tell us why each one is comforting.
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One day, when the earth was young, and bubbling, in a cute kind of primordial way, I was sitting, driving, thinking, wondering, if I were anorexic and a fiction writer, could I, just possibly, write about all the skeletons in my closet and how I admired their paucity of flesh.
Exactly dear reader. They had no flesh.
Then I mulled over which type of comfort food I was in the mood to eat. I couldn’t decide on either bowlS of Hagen Das vanilla ice cream with buckets of Hersey syrup or my old standby; that balled-up-in-a-fist peanut butter and jam sandwich on wheat if you please, but a friend, a writer from CHPercolator sent me an
email encouraging me. He encourages well, and to all I note.
Soooo, long story short, I had just finished several advanced writing classes with Jack Grapes,http://jackgrapes.com/grapes_approach.php – superb writing workshop leader, and I had blasted out of the gate of Write Like You Talk, into Write Like You Sing, Absence of Field, Teeth and Mouth writing (feel your mouth and teeth going over syllables and words you produce), Write Like You Sing, (think Martin Luther King, or Dickens, “It was the best of times, the worst of times…”) literary, heavy on the multisyllabic, so reader, you catch my drift. Are you with me? (Straight talk) and I thought why not try CHPercolatorCoffeehouseforwriters, and the rest is history. Two years later, enter into my crooked pathways of a brain, a book, You Carry the Heavy Stuff – (Lulu, Amazon, my house), a combination of writing styles, homage to Oakley Hall, Jack Grapes, and stuff from their workshops, plus my responses
to CHPerc prompts.
The lesson: A little prompt goes a long way.
So how do you feel about prompts? Writing Workshops? Do they help?
P.S. Open House to my blog, no visitor turned away, sign up, and we’ll dance together among the words.
http://educationunderfire.com/the-vision/
Rainn Wilson did a college tour, not for the sake of comedy, but for that of human rights. Along with other panelists from Amnesty International, Education Under Fire, and the Bahá’í faith,Wilson spoke to a packed auditorium about a serious topic: the religious persecution of over 300,000 Iranian members of the Bahá’í faith.
The history of Bahá’í persecution dates back to the group’s inception. However recent government-sanctified systemic disenfranchisement (or as it’s called in polite circles, the passing of discriminating laws that bar Iranians identifying as Bahá’í from basic human rights like public services and education) has escalated to the point of attempts to shutter the underground university, Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, and mass arrests of BIHE professors.
Many teachers are serving 4-5 year prison sentences from their arrest in May, 2011.
But why is the funnyman on a college campus for something so grave? “My family is Bahá’í. Had our family been living in Iran, my 7-year-old son would not be allowed go to school.”Wilsonhas appeared in Baha’i conferences before, but it was the events in May that helped organize these groups together. Amnesty International had been trackingIran’s human rights violations since the overthrow of the Shah during the 1970′s. Another group produced its namesake documentary, Education Under Fire, was born from the reactions of volunteers to keep the secret school operating and to spread the news of the persecution. The team spoke at several local Boston colleges like Boston University,Wheelock College, Harvard, and Tufts.
Director Jeff Kaufman, actor Rainn Wilson, BIHL graduate Mojdeh Rohani , and Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International Joshua Rubenstein .
The documentary screening and subsequent talk was intended to be a call to action.Wilsontold the audience, “Go and ask your schools to accept BIHE credits or help teach an online class.” Flyers given to attendees listed over a dozen ways potential activists could help their cause. But perhaps the best testimony came from a BIHE graduate, Mojdeh Rohani, now a graduate of BU’sSchoolofSocial Work.
“I still love my country. But when I’ve been asked to go and help them with disasters they find out I’m a Bahá’í, and I am rejected immediately. I have not been able to go back.”
The panel disbanded, and Wilson was whisked off towards the next stop of his tour, the airport.
To find out more about Education Under Fire, check out their website.
I hope people can respond to this! Thank you, Esther
Somewhere down in San Diego, away in some hilly area, a retreat happened today, a women’s yearly retreat. Last year they asked me to write a meditation for the last day, and I did. They liked it. They asked the same this year and suggested the title of Building Community. Reader, frankly I was stuck. I was stuck until I shared with my writing students how stuck I was, and the following images came to me of getting up, getting dressed, knitting, knitting friendships. I hope you like it. It is mostly Baha’i related, but I never write to just Baha’is, but rather, write to people – their inner essence, for we are all connected.
Building community. Esther Bradley-DeTally for the women who gather at retreat –Spring, 2012.
Building Community
Oh dear, that heavy block-like phrase, so necessary for foundations, so hard to wield for the artistic mind, the mind that wants to build angel wings into the phosphorescent sky.
Oh well, you, out there, you women, sitting, standing, laughing, crying inside, with not enough to do, too much to do, do you feel as if a large building, let’s take an image of the Empire State Building, is over your head, descending on a crane, and the wires are frayed, as is your psyche, when this building obliterates all sun and light, and only shadows eclipse your tiny, puny, human frame?
No worries my duckies! Take up words, and paints and colors, and throw some tea with jasmine, coffee with creamed soy of buttercup, butternut essence, grab a friend, a kid, a knitting needle, find a canopy, from arbors of Bougainvillea to hard, green, snappy, umbrellas over the outwardly composed urban woman.
In other words duckies, don’t sweat it.
There’s no one golden bricked path to building communities, no one particular hard hat to wear. Think:
Mornings: get up.
This in itself is an immense achievement, because we do it, day after day, year after year. That’s what women do best. They get up.
Okay, put on clean underwear. Any kind duckies. I still wear granny types, but thongs will do. Count your blessings if said inner garment is not inside out. That’s part of getting up.
Shovel the body together, teeth, nails, and do whatever you have to do, the laundry, the work, the subway, the elevated, the car with too big a tank, or the silent runs on the latest tech – you catch my drift.
Think – knit, purl. Yes, that’s right, knit, and purl. Duckies, this is what we do. Let all the manly Germanic phrases of “build community” slide off your head, like excess water in the ears from the swimming pool. Let it slide down your neck, off your shoulders, down your thighs, your ankles and into the ground. This is California, and we could use the water.
Knit one stitch at a time, because that’s you, creating whatever base you need, tight, little bits of yarn sitting next to each other like sparrows on a telephone wire, keeping each other company, overseeing the world. Then if you want to be bon vivant, try the pearl, a backward knit? Who knows, but you catch my drift. Pull things together one stitch at a time.
You’ll make it; soon you will have knit friendships into this fabric of yours. Find someone you like, maybe very different from you, but you like that person. You want his/her qualities. Knit her into your heart’s edges.
Places to find loose stitches:
The library
Writing Groups
12 Step Programs
Coffee places where everyone shouts and hollers to each other,or whispers, take your pick.
Dogs, talk to them all, if they are on a leash and their canines aren’t fanged and pointed right at you.
Extra points:
Long obligatory prayer in morning, Tablet of Ahmad for yourself, any others
Prayers, prayers for others, i.e., parents, kids, healing, protection, the Baha’is in Iran, help immensely.
Private talk with trusted friends, the ones you can bay at the moon with and grow German shepherd fur on your throat. (We’ve all been there)
Time to make your own list; this is just from an old gal with a writing voice of a 35-year-old, but this is something I count upon for sure, and I’m 73 and in thrive right now:
“Nothing save that which profiteth them shall ever befall My loved ones.”
Baha’u’llah
Check the quote, not sure I have it just picture perfect in print.
Have a glorious hour, day, week, month, and life.
Esther
learning modes
Reader, may I call you reader. help me in my hour of trouble and affliction. Here’s the deal. I’m blogging. Bless me Lord, for I am blogging. I am FB-ing, with about 700 of my cronies around the world. I twitted over to tweet and succumbed, barely. I checked my name, Esther Bradley-DeTally, against Google, Bing, and a whole bunch of little places with interesting names of which I have forgotten. In other words, I am in Brain-Stretch, big time. Before I toddle through this page with episodic thoughts, first let me say, My Name is Not Bob is great, and Not Bob is a generous man. As a respondee to my blog, Keith, of the winsome words with a touch of dry flour around them, said, “Bob sounds like an inspirational fellow.” Indeed he is. As you are my fellow bloggers.
I am concerned about my long-time 7-10 hard-core followers, since my blog has grown, and since this challenge came along. I fear they all could fit inside a telephone booth, but I’ve been known to exaggerate.
I am back from the dentist – 2 crowns needed, and as I walked in the door, I received a call from an older woman I revere. She called to tell me a writing suggestion given years ago in one of my workshops changed her life. It was simple, “Make a timeline,” and in her early years, she was heavily burned at 2, her father died in a fire later, she added all the good transformational stuff, and saw the wisdom and purpose of all things and people in her life, even the original accident, for which she had numerous plastic surgeries. We yukked and jawed, and I got off the phone buoyant to have given a shred of anything light to this incredible lady who is now 88.
So far so good Reader. Are you with me? Do you catch my drift? I had a tuna sandwich, picture a round tuna with bits of green heap, the heel of my hand smashing two slices of bread around it and my eating it as I walked to my laptop. Open I am Not Bob. April 11 – challenge. This is so wonderful. I read down to Not Bob’s list of five popular URL shorteners. I checked out http://bit.ly because Not Bob said, “This is my favorite.”
I cannot be responsible for the way my eyes which rolled around like loose pinballs shooting out of an Arcade game because of broken curly wires. I went to the Techy God for explanations: Wikipedia.
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URL shortening Pro:
is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page. This is achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a domain name that is short, which links to the web page that has a long URL. For example, the URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening can be shortened to http://bit.ly/urlwiki or http://tinyurl.com/urlwiki. This is especially convenient for messaging technologies such as Twitter and Identi.ca, which severely limit the number of characters that may be used in a message. Short URLs allow otherwise long web addresses to be referred to in a tweet. In November 2009, the shortened links on one URL shortening service were accessed 2.1 billion times.[1]
Normally, a URL shortening service will use the top-level domain of a country that allows foreign sites to use its extension, and is a common ending in the English language, such as .ly (Libya), to redirect worldwide using a short alphanumeric sequence after the provider’s site address in order to point to the long URL.
Another use of URL shortening is to disguise the underlying address. Although this may be desired for legitimate business or personal reasons, it is open to abuse and for this reason, some URL shortening service providers have found themselves on spam blacklists, because of the use of their redirect services by sites trying to bypass those very same blacklists. Some websites prevent short, redirected URLs from being posted
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There are con views so as readers you can Google Wikipedia, but I think to myself, “not right now Esther.” Later. I can shorten my own words within Twitter Texts, and because I drip, exude words in every other social media area, shortening my URL doesn’t seem to amount to a hill of beans.
That said, I’m off to read Best Blogs: I do so like Rain Wilson’s Soul Pancake, http://soulpancake.com/; now there’s a mind with many tunnels.
Reader, may I call you reader. This is a response to my blog of yesterday about being an old gal with a 35-year-old voice. You see that blog had its genesis in CHPercolatorCoffeeHouseforWriters – a yahoo site. My friend Steve encouraged me. Steve is responsible for my latest book You Carry the Heavy Stuff, and ChPercolator. It’s free; we only encourage, never criticize, check it out.
Keith is a funny writer, and any email or comments from him make me yuck and chortle. Steve and I even drove down to Disneyland area, Anaheim area, to visit Keith and his wife, who were in from New Jersey. Keith also wrote a blurb on the back of Carry Heavy Stuff, and this is his response to my blog of yesterday, soon to be yesteryear:
I underlined Bob sounds like an inspiration person because it was so deadpan. Yes, I roll on floors over stuff like this.
Re: SUB: Dingbat and stuff
Is that at all related to being a dingbat?
Are frabjous and frabulous synonyms?
If I had a canary I would let it perch on my shoulders.
Bob sounds like an inspirational person.
My mother-in-law and you could climb mountains together.
What, what, oh what ever happened to the cardboard pug?
Jessica wouldn’t be that fictional writer/sleuth who murdered all those people and then hypnotized someone else into confessing to the crime? It’s just too much of a coincidence that she lives in a tiny hamlet in Maine with the highest murder rate in the world when she’s home and someone gets murdered wherever she travels. If that’s the same Jessica I would exercise caution.
Jessica and I make cardboard pug
I am a missing dingbat. I retreated last night to desserts, and I awakened this morning, with snakes snarling and hissing on my head, a nervous tension, and just disgruntled wormy thoughts that wouldn’t even coalesce with one another. I think that fits under missing dingbat category.
If I had a canary, it would be tempestuous, or lascivious, or frabulous, and mirror the excesses of my personality which I sometimes think goes into spillage too much. I’d like to retreat to the desert, but instead will go for a walk, under the trees in Pasadena.
The reason for all of this. I am in a “I’m Not Bob Challenge”. I’m Not Bob is this wonderful man’s personal blog, (He’s a Writer’s Digest person) and he’s helping us would-be, be, being, and all range of bloggers and writers to meet the challenge of expansion, construction too. Each day the anonymous amongst us arise and blow out our thoughts in Twitter, i.e., “I jmp ovr mts & Valleys, and I wl nt hiss at LinkedIn”, type of thing. Then we hook up FB pages, or simply chat, and sometimes, like today, my hands will click over the keys, which click sounds like Old Puggy’s (God rest his lardy soul) nails on linoleum at Grandma Anna’s place.
I’m becoming an old gal writer, whose voice is 35, and I am like a mountain goat. It’s a saga, this trudging up the mountains of words. Some days are tempestuous, a word in one of my CHPercolator prompts today, and one I’d use more if I were in a multisyllabic mode. Today I feel more Germanic, almost high boots and marching because I’m frustrated by my inabilities or level of knowledge (think ankle level) on the computer.
Today I’ll stick to dingbat, and walk heavy hoofed for hopefully 5 miles, and then my ding will be danged, and tomorrow will be another day.
The theme was forgiveness, i.e., “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:26-34
First a group poem – in a writing session each woman took 2 lines and voila:
Friday, April 6, 2012 – Women’s Room Group Poem – Jennifer Robinson read:
Women Speak
Voices from the Women’s Room, a Group Poem
Forgiveness is such a big word of many colors,
bruise yellow, anger red, wounded blue, white hope.
Most of the time we feel unforgiven.
The world would be a better place if we acknowledge we are forgiven.
“Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” Even their
unforgiveness causes us to be unforgiving.
Forgive us, Father, for we sometimes know what we do.
Though my flesh is torn and our hearts are broken.
Forgiveness comes from love we received
when we were made in God’s own image.
I see the world of peace within my eyes growing together as we do our part.
The days seem long, and the nights seem short.
and
FORGIVENESS by Esther Bradley-DeTally For Good Friday Service April 6, 2012
To everything but anguish the mind will soon adjust…Roger White
After a great wound no feeling comes,
But, a white hot pain settles upon you.
You stand shivering in a fire of agony,
“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,”
is a whispered voice, hidden deep within cumulus clouds,
blocked tributaries of feeling, your heart a mere stump.
Enough, enough, enough.
The well-intentioned speak of forgiveness.
Skippingly on the tongue they toss
“Turn the other cheek” which produces
a yellow, curled up feeling within.
You’ve turned the other cheek so much,
you have whiplash, and your chiropractor
is upping his fees.
You are so done
Chumped out by the world
Sick of greed lurch on the planet
Numb to the scalding rhetoric of gossip,
absolute abandonment of your Lord’s teaching
on mercy, on love Thy neighbor,
Dormancy pokes its head up, a tickling feeling
Your nerve endings prickle, and you realize
not wanting to, you are coming to life.
It’s a crucible this world, and you have
gone through the white heat of change
Ignorance and love will not cohabit within
You cast away the purple bruise of resentment
Which led you to the heart of your journey.
Your crucible.
You will no longer resent
You will not forget
Never forget
But, you are a leaf in the wind
Of the Will of your Lord
And you will love again.
It was a good day.
A friend, Al, who is in advertising, said to me one day over coffee at Peets in California, “You need to have a blog,” and so because of that casual remark and my faith in his techy wisdom. I commenced walking over rocks and pebbles of techy knowledge, and a blog was born.
September 5, 2006, Sorry-Gnat enters hyperspace life letting those who are interested know that in the Baha’i Writings one can go on the path of transformation and be a sorry gnat and become a giant eagle.
“I’ve just had lunch at Tuohey’s Restaurant in Alhambra and had dinner there last night. No I’m not trying to be giant like an eagle physically. I’ve ruminated a good deal about stuff to put into this blog: poetry? pug dogs? notes about books? human rights? racial justice: schlepping, Esther, don’t forget schlepping. I have a lot to learn on this blog, and will consult with my techy friends as to how, what, why, when! I’m reading The Earth is Flat, Thomas Friedman, excellent. Very good writer. We just saw Jessica, our granddaughter, at an early soccer practice. She’s almost 7-going into first grade, and all the little girls are not aggressive players at all, but very cute.
Today, April 5, 2012.
Well Jessica is 12 now, and has an equanimity about her and kindness to all that I adore. My family was like a Rorschach test, and I used to wonder what it’s like if my kid had the soul of an accountant. He didn’t, and that’s okay, but Jessica, my granddaughter’s mom, leans to that side: stable, and a tremendous educator with regards to child rearing.
Okay, I do blogs, and at times in my life the only themes seem to be pug dogs or spirituality, and for a while pug dogs were winning. Of late, it’s books, and maybe a while or so about my adequacy level down by my ankle bones, blogging wise-the techy side. I’ve avoided Twitter. Facebook? Boys and girls, I’ve got FB down; I have friends all over the globe. The good thing about moving 17 different times in 25 years is you meet a lot of people.
Sure I grieved over leaving some, but I tell you, I’ve met incredible people and to this day I never cease to wonder. Today we had lunch at Farideh’s and we had Tadiq, golden crusted flat slabs of potato under Basmati rice. Oink. We had wild salmon, vegetables even turnip. Then we had dessert served on creamy white china and looked like a vibrant water color: blueberries, peachy colored mango, and a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream. I’m so slogged with fatigue and memories of good food, my brain turns to sludge. Later I hooked up with Jean a new person in our Baha’i community.
She’s new to Pasadena, and hasn’t been in the States for 10 years. She has lived in India, and I can’t remember the name of her city; small – 5 million, but she’s traveled all over. Did I mention she’s blind and gets around by cane. We’ve hung out before. She’s done everything; social worker, worked in radio stations, done voice over, teaches ESL, works via the computer. No dust on her heels! It gave me just another chance to marvel.
Tomorrow, I’m off at a little before noon to a Christian church up the Street on Lake, in Altadena/Pasadena area, where the Ecumenical Council is observing Good Friday. I remember Good Friday when I was Catholic, sitting in the silence of the church, the religious figures draped in purple silk, and I remember a day before, called Holy Thursday, when Liz, my twin, and her best friend Jannie Cleary, walked and visited the 7 Catholic churches, a tradition we participated in only once. When we got home that day my sister Meb (Mary Ellen Bradley) was hanging her head out of the bath room window on the second floor, showing a newly bleached blonde.
We were three sisters; close in many ways, and yet Meb would die of alcoholism, as my mother did. They were terrific. They both played classical music, and I can’t not stop when I hear Chopin’s polonaise in something Minor. My mom died when we were 17, and my sister died when I was living in Dnepropetrovsk. She was the size of a twig, ravished by emphysema and years of alcoholism which I think she kicked towards the end. She had once survived on the streets for five years.
So back to homeless women. I’ve done two things in my life influenced by these two women so close to my heart. My mom had Latvian Babushkas come to our little house on Wren Street, tuck into the small kitchen with the red checkered oilcloth table covering, and she’d teach them English for free. They talked of their husbands, “lost behind the Iron Curtain,” and I’d visualize a large iron shower curtain stretched across a vast empty land.
Years later, in 1990, I traveled to Siberia with Bill, my husband. I wrote a book Without A Net: A Sojourn in Russia, which tells about Meb, Russia,Ukraine, and all. People like it. I often thought my mother’s selfless act of reaching out had reverberations into the future, when I, her daughter, very much her daughter, went into Slavic countries for service only.
That said, we’ve lived in Pasadena for 11 years, and it’s the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere. Bill is 77 and I am 73, and first we house sat in a gorgeous condo for 3 years and then found this pool house, and we can afford the rent they charge which is not high. I’ve survived open heart surgery, having the surgeons write the whole business off for free, and I’ve had a lot of trips to Cardiology at Kaiser, bleeding out, stuff like that, but now I thrive. I’m like a Russian doll that tips over and bounces back. Someone said to me the other day, “You have a strong life force,” and I do. I feel life gets better and better for women as they age. I am no longer moth-holed by self-doubt and scalding inner words of rebuke. I’m me now, and I sort of glow at times, at least when I’m teaching writing, meeting friends for coffee and always stretching to do more.
poetry of women from women's room - fund raiser flyer
A few years ago I gave a goodly amount of writing workshops-method, process, and did so for free at the local library branch of La Pintoresca in Northwest Pasadena. The Women’s Room a group formed and created by members who were connected to an Ecumenical Council realized women in Pasadena, either homeless or in transition, had nowhere to go. This is a day refuge, but oh what a refuge. Showers, laundry, good food, make up suggestions now and then are available, and oh, my writing class. Long story short, a room above the food pantry of Friends in Deed was created, like a small living room, dusty peach walls, art with symbols of 3 poppies, art on the wall, small kitchen and on Tuesdays 1-3 I teach writing. Everyone is welcome, the volunteers and the guests (homeless/in transition) and it is truly solidified in love and community. The bonds are strong.
We were asked to have something for tomorrow’s program at this Church. I wrote a poem on forgiveness. I’ll publish it later. Then I had the women do a group poem, each writing 2 lines.
They’ve performed before; different women, different voices, and at first they were terrified. But after they had the guts to get up behind a microphone and say their piece, their pieces, they were and are proud. You can’t take that away from anyone. Above is a poem written by Chris Annick which graced our first fundraiser flyer.
I always say to them before they read, “Own this. Own your voice,” and by golly they do. So with that, I didn’t expect this to be such a rattle on blog, but here you go, and that’s the facts Jack.
