This month, January 2022, WordPress has kindly offered a blogging challenge, presenting a prompt for each day of the month to help bloggers, new and established alike, get into a mode of writing daily. I take a gander at it, since I appreciate composing, but am not, in every case, totally certain what road. I know that some bloggers become successful by capitalizing on trendy niches or that kind of thing, and that is great. They are welcome to their success. I mostly enjoy the exercise of writing, and I like the feedback I get from people who I manage to reach, who sometimes have a great sense of style to their own blogging.
I can remember doing well in high school English classes, and I was kind of neurotic, trying to write well and feeling I might be but not confident of success. I’ve altered my style since high school. For one thing, when I am blogging in my own “voice,” I tend to emphasize more simple meanings by what I say. There are a few reasons. A favourite quotation of mine is the Einstein quote where he is remembered to have said something like, “Unless you can explain it to an eight-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” To meet that challenge, and I tend to fall into the trap of wordy sentences and poor word choice, as the grammar app Grammarly characterizes those problems, I try to keep my words simple and also, quirky I suppose, I don’t usually emphasize negative expressions, as in trying to make an explanation by outlining what an idea is not. I lean toward positive perspectives that set forth what I need to catch or explain, rather than taking contradicting worries out of the air.
To think about pride, like for me familiarity with popular science fiction, it is true that in 2015, enthusiasm for the Star Wars films, Star Wars fandom, soared nearly beyond measure when Lucasfilm presented the Star Wars film The Force Awakens.
The realization was great that appreciation for the popular trilogy of films of the nineteen seventies and eighties was “striking back,” an achievement again like the success of Star Wars in the spring of 1977. George Lucas nearly didn’t get his 1977 film made, according to accounts of what happened, and even though it is true that most film projects whether original in scope or not fail to get made, it is an endearing success story that Lucas made the movie. The phrase “success story” lacks the weight behind what Star Wars actually did to Hollywood cinema, which was as expansive as what became of the Star Wars galaxy a long time ago and far away.
The fervor for Star Wars returning in 2015, helmed by J. J. Abrams, was awe-inspiring. In fact, Star Wars’ ability to create awe is what gives it such a punch. For The Force Awakens, original cast members from 1977 joined a new cast for a continuation of Return of the Jedi.
The Force Awakens was a giant success and seemed to bring with it the promise that Star Wars would be once more returning with aplomb and dedication. Despite unravelling the plot of the original Star Wars films by undoing the Rebel Alliance’s success destroying Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and failing to bring Harrison Ford, the late Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill together in The Force Awakens, it was implied that untied ends and more importantly the reunion between the actors from the original movies would appear in Star Wars Episode VIII in 2017, directed by Rian Johnson.
Discouragingly, Johnson’s film about Star Wars horrified and divided the Star Wars fandom, by dismantling thoughtlessly a trove of Star Wars lore, failing to shoot what would have been an extremely important reunion of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Han Solo, and, also front and centre, bringing identity politics into the movie.
There has always been a deep-felt pride in Star Wars and while I’m a Canadian, I felt pride when Star Wars returned loud and strong in 2015 with The Force Awakens. Then I felt that pride evaporate when I realized that The Last Jedi is potentially ruining Star Wars, which sounds catastrophic and yet is indeed a possibility. There is every chance that the best science fiction, at least science fiction on film, the best of the entire twentieth century, will be undone if Episode IX fails at the box office.
The rest of Star Wars will be history.
There are voices on the Internet, the fandom, divided by The Last Jedi, that organized and presented a call to Disney to save the glory of Star Wars by insisting CEO Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy do the work to successfully market Episode IX, for which we have not yet heard a title or seen a trailer. Star Wars Celebration is in a few days, helping Star Wars on its way. Youtuber and filmmaker Star Wars Theory has promised to upload video he’ll shoot at Celebration. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CbFnDTYkiVweaz8y9wd_Q
In the event that Episode IX is good, the Star Wars fandom will unite, and pride will spread throughout.
If the film flops, Star Wars will go to that great “clearance bin” in the sky. I hope very much for pride but chances are it is through.
You are welcome to click “like,” to follow the blog, and/or to comment.
Blogging is a hobby I have my hand in–I like to write a little. WordPress.com is the home for my blog, as you already know.
Fallen glove
One of the blogs that I enjoy reading is that of is the Christian blogger beautybeyondbones. Beautybeyondbones writes of her path in life with the guidance of Jesus, of her personal recovery years later from a troubles with anorexia, and, rounding out these themes, she blogs her recipes that connect her readers to an additional source of goodness in her life. She writes a message of hope for troubled and confused women, along with insight into her faith.
On top of that, she adds recipes that lend themselves to preparing food, right from her kitchen. She should consider being an entrant on Top Chef!
Photographer: Aidan Meyer
I believe beautybeyondbones goes “live” Monday evenings, Wednesday evenings, and Thursday evenings. Her latest recipe from her blog is here: https://t.co/34JoyrFSye
What I have found interesting about beautybeyondbones is her writing style. She is clearly writing from the heart, and her vigor and elegance are clear.
I think of myself as a fledgling writer. Sometimes I use a free word processing tool I downloaded called Jarte. It is a comparatively simple program (compared, say, to the Office Suite from Microsoft). I think if you are writing a straightforward document, as, for example, for blogging, Jarte’s been around a long time and matches many of the most important features that you can find in a word processor.
For example, you write onto the Jarte window the way you do most other word processors, and if you want to select a feature there are drop-down windows that facilitate this. It is very ease to use.
If you want to write a list, you can organize a list in Jarte that’s either bulleted or numerical. If you are listing ingredients for a splendid recipe, like you might find in the beautybeyondbones blog, you could write a bullet list of what’s necessary to make the dish. Or you could combine bulleted and numerical lists together, as in, perhaps, the method of preparation by number, and then a bullet list of the ingredients going into the recipe.
To make your recipe clear, you could introduce more than one font into your Jarte document to emphasize different sections of your recipe in a way that is visually aesthetic. As you probably know, the font is the visual aspect of the text in your document. You can change the size of the font and also italicize, make bold, or underline.
The font of your title could be underlined, for example, and the bullet list of ingredients could be one font and the numerical steps to do the preparation of the food could be in a third font.
The Jarte word processor can handle more than one document tabs, so you can have more than one document open at the same time you are working on them. If you are organizing your recipes, you can have several of them active, for instance, so that you can go from to another by clicking on the tabs for each at the top of the Jarte program window.
The Save and Save As features work similar to how they do in other word processors. To keep a copy of your recipe or of other documents on your device, you select Save. If you want a second copy with a different filename you select Save As.
I picked Jarte for the word processor I sometimes favor because I am familiar with it and because it is a free download that runs efficiently and appeals to me. The design of the word processor is intuitive and all of its commands are easy to find. The drop-down menus in Jarte are not unlike those of other small word processors.
You can run more than one instance of the Jarte software and close one Jarte window without negatively impacting the other. It never ever seems to give me an error and the performance of the program is consistent. As well, it doesn’t seem to trouble the user with software updates like some computer tools that frequently ask you to download a new update.
Jarte is freeware and if you are starting from scratch, you could do worse! I make use of Jarte on a frequent basis. You can download the Jarte word processor here: www.jarte.com/download.html
Remember that if you are interested in recipes or have someone in your life or you yourself that is troubled by the impact of anorexia, beautybeyondbones is an excellent resource to turn to.
Photographer: Aleksandar Spasojevic
Beautybeyondbones has also published a book inspired by her diary when she was afflicted the worst in her life by anorexia. The title of this book is bloom and you can find it on blurb: www.blurb.com/b/8086385
I appreciate very much the encouragement that beautybeyondbones has given me when she actually kindly left “likes” on posts of mine that spoke true to her.
You are likewise welcome to select like. Or even “follow” and/or comment. Have some fun in the kitchen, too!
Thank you for taking an interest in my blog. All the best to you in terms of your mental health, in your faith and in your blog or other writing. Good luck to you all the more if you are a blogger and on WordPress. Take care!
Like everybody else participating in the weekly photo challenges from WordPress, I also got the word that the challenges are finished. Naturally, people reacted.
It was part of my day-to-day life. I was drawing quite a bit of inspiration from the weekly essays intended to spark inspiration for bloggers taking photos.
I looked through photos I’d taken and picked a few favorites. It is the very last challenge.
I liked to write something to go with a photo. The photo challenges have been served up since 2011.
I only made it a hobby in the last few years. It has been fun.
I am sure others were far more dedicated to the hobby, but I am pleased I did as much as I did.
It was worthwhile to join in while the fun lasted, I think. It provided a little joy to be part of something like that.
I am not sure what to do next, but I know I will think of something. I’ve written it before, but my blog is tied to the operations I do at a local cemetery in a not-for-profit capacity. It is chiefly a hobby, but I am aware many businesses of all sizes utilize blogging to publicize what they do.
One photo I took, that I always liked, is a photo I took August 24, 2013. I haven’t shown it much at all, but it is the interior the church as it stood in the first several months we were working there. I liked how it turned out, and I haven’t taken that many inside the church proper.
Louth United Church and Maple Lawn Cemetery, Saint Catharines, ON
Another photo of the interior of the church I took October 11, 2013. There was something soothing about the peace of the church, and these two photos are the ones I like best of the ones I took there.
Louth United Church and Maple Lawn Cemetery, Saint Catharines, ON
The cemetery where I work has a small Facebook page.
Some of the photos I took where with done with the possibility they would fit into the space we have on Facebook for the not-for-profit. I learned photography “on the job” as I carried out my photos on a “trial-and-error” basis.
The end of 2017 I capped the experience I gained with the free ten-day Developing Your Eye I. The course suggested ten days of photos on specific themes, similar to the weekly photo challenges, which I was already pursuing.
Expertise is a hard road to master, and I learned a little about photography and a lot of what doesn’t work. Still, enough of the photos were pleasant such that they merited a look, I feel.
The Developing Your Eye I course helps break you out of your comfort zone, a touch, and teaches a little more clarity about the matter of taking photographs.
As I got the weekly photo challenges tackled I got included in posts curating people’s output for the photo challenges en masse. There were dozens of links to bloggers demonstrating photos put together by people who wanted the best out of their participation in the photo challenges. That was always a pleasure.
Some very talented people participated in the photo challenges.
I’d say I’ve been left better by the experience. It was a surprise to see this week that the challenges have ended. it is nonetheless interesting to possibly view the change as an opportunity to do something new that was never anticipated at all. I guess time will tell.
Thank you for showing support to this endeavor.
It was, I suppose, bittersweet to read this week’s photo challenge by Krista Stevens
WordPress commemorated fifteen years Sunday. It is a hideout for bloggers of all levels of ability and interests. It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve improved as a blogger.
Juxtapose is putting together things for a result greater than the sum of its parts. Today’s Prompt is the word juxtapose.
I thought of the photos that for the three months between January and March 2018 I “employed” as a header. https://twitter.com/findingenvirons ….
Winter 2018 @findingenvirons header photo
I did the juxtaposition with a paint program. I used other sources and mixed them into a juxtaposition.
You can see a photo of the late Roger Moore and Grace Jones. Jones is thriving these days at age seventy. The photo dates to 1985 when they were starring in A View To A Kill.
Some of the pictures were downloaded from StockSnap. That’s a site for getting stock photos for free. They’re not typically thought of as art.
The comic I found on Pinterest. Although Pinterest confused me, I would have liked to get to know it. The photo of the wallet was pilfered from some random website with the help of a friend.
Internet images should be used responsibly, but once in a while, something turns up that I want.
I tweet the link to a new post for when someone will want to see it. I also tweet trending content, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. It is quiet but rewarding.
Tonight is a full moon. If you are interested, you’re welcome to “like” it, “follow” the blog, or leave a comment, as you see fit. Thank you for having a look at my blog.
The Myth of the Independent Blogger and How I Learned to Love It 