ODDS AND ENDS, JOURNAL FUN

There is a Jewish tradition to leave stones at grave sites. Just a pile of stones.

Witches bury stones and crystals as gifts for the fairy earth people.

In “Burning Man” by Alan Russell, the main character Michael Gideon interviews Dinah, a high school girl who has been bullied. He says to her,”You seem like a smart girl. Why did you let yourself be a victim?” Becoming a victim has nothing to do with being smart or dumb. It isn’t even about weakness, except for the bully’s weakness. I have been told that the German word for bully, translates to “half person.” Bullies are immature, and are usually themselves cowards. What could the girl in this book have done to make fellow students stop bullying her?

Social media sites that focus on books and authors: Goodreads, Shelfari and LibraryThing. There is also Writer’s cafe.

What was Perry Mason like as a student? Dr. Kildare? Think about a person whose smarts you admire. What was that person like as a student?

Arms up or out for a better attitude and mood. Here is a tip from my winter sojourn instructor. Feeling resistance? Spread your arms out. Let your body form a capital “T”.

Abe Lincoln was an unschooler. Where Lincoln did his best was in reading books. They were his teachers. I live in a wildlife refuge. There’s a frog in my throat; dust bunnies under my desk; a FOX on television; dear in my letters.

Bullycide: a term for bullying that is so bad it leads to suicide or a suicide attempt.

It is a kid thing to do. Bullies are immature. Adults try to bully each other too. Bosses try to bully; police and teachers. They try to say it is for their victim’s good.

Dog breeds: Toto in “Wizard of Oz was a cairn terrier.

Chauffeur: The word is French for stoker. Early cars ran on steam or battery power.

PRESIDENTS, KENT MCCORD AND COMEBACKS

Learn about a president each day for a month. Presidents 1-31 were George Washington to Herbert Hoover. On the 1st look up Washington in a good encyclopedia. On the second of the month look up John Adams. keep going. What about presidents 32-44? That would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama. The 22nd and the 24th would be Grover Cleveland who was president twice. On the 24th look up a president who came after Herbert Hoover. You might also want to skip number nine, William Henry Harrison, because he was only president for one month and he was sick for all of that time. He was, however, an interesting historical character, the victor at the battle of Tippecanoe. After you have done this for a month, on the second month look up the presidents who came after Hoover. That would be 13 names. After you have looked up all the presidents up to President Obama and whoever comes after him, go back and look up some presidents that you think had interesting terms.

For next month look up the Roman emperors or the kings and queens of England. You might start on the popes, or famous scientists or explorers. There are 365 days in a year. That’s 365 interesting people to learn about. When you study, be a kid again. We lost the joy of learning back when we were in school. Let’s get it back.

In “Burning Man” by Alan Russell, actor Kent McCord, tells the following joke: “So this man has to work late, and when he’s driving home he gets pulled over for speeding. Now the cop notices the driver has these tired looking eyes, so he says to him, ‘Sir, I can’t help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?’ The driver isn’t happy with the insinuation, so he says to the cop., ‘Officer, I can’t help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?’ “ Page 8.

Come backs: My dog doesn’t need a muzzle; my tongue does. Alan Russell. “Burning Man.”

HOW TO START WRITING A BOOK

Question: I want to write a book, but I have too many ideas, and I can’t settle on one genre. What should I do?

Writers are interesting people. We love to read. We love ideas. We have many interests. It’s amazing that any of us can settle on one topic long enough to finish a whole book.

Think about personal experiences. Most of us have had many painful experiences in our lives. Start from there. Write about a time in your life when something happened that changed you. Write about how you are different. Personal experiences are a great place to start.

Keep a journal. Natalie Goldberg tells her students not to start writing a book until they have kept a personal journal for at least two years. Then she tells them to read the journal, pick out entries to be developed into longer pieces, and go from there. I didn’t think I could write a memoir because I had so much hurt. (I’m autistic. When I grew up in the 1950’s we were considered different and sometimes even delinquent. My mother and two grade school teachers tried to beat the autism out of me.) I found a beginning for writing about this in my journal entries.

As a college study skills teacher, I discovered many fun ways to learn. I’ve discovered in the notes I wrote for teaching college classes, a possible book. If I hadn’t put these ideas in study plans, they could have gone into my journal.

My advice is start writing in your journal about some of your ideas. Then after a year or two start rereading those journals. Pull out similar entries and start a manuscript.

While Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron suggest writing a journal longhand, I have a computer journal. I can cut and paste entries into new documents that become articles.

Keep journaling. I hope this helps it works for me, and i have a similar problem.

HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY ESSAY WRITING SKILLS?

How can I improve my essay writing skills?

Read lots of very good essays. A good place to find these essays is in “Best American Essays.” A new edition is published each year. I seldom buy the latest edition because they tend to be expensive. I wait until a past year’s edition is down to one cent plus postage in amazon.com.

Op ed (Opposite the editorial) pages in newspapers are a good place to find some great short essays. I like to read articles by Leonard Pitts jr. and David Brooks. Pitts won the Pulitzer for his op ed articles. I was assigning him to my writing classes before he won the Pulitzer for commentary in 2004.

These writers often use personal experiences in their columns.

Think about things that have happened to you and what they mean. How are these universal themes? We have all lost good friends and pets. We’ve suffered unfairness. Write about an incident in your life that changed you in some way. What challenges have you faced?

Practice writing essays in a notebook or a journal. Keep practicing. Know the importance of revision. Reread and rework your essays until they are as good as you can make them.

HOW TO RESEARCH POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Who are the presidential candidates this year and what have they done for you?

I often wonder why voters vote against their best interests. It’s because they don’t pay enough attention. They may not even know who is representing them in Washington or in their state capitals.

Let’s look at some easy ways to research political candidates on all levels of government. First let’s find our state congressmen and women. To do this I google “(name of state) state congress representatives.”

For instance, I live in Michigan, so I google “Michigan state congress representatives.” I notice there are sites for both the Michigan senate and the Michigan House of Representatives. Let’s start with the House of Representatives. The first thing I notice when I go to house.michigan.gov is a picture of the Michigan Speaker of the House, Kevin Cotter. This is an important contact because the Speaker decides which bills are voted on and when. So I copy his information. I also found an organizational chart with extra phone numbers. Now I know who the Democrat and Republican leaders in my state are.

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the information. Most of us don’t have the time to follow everything that happens in our state or national government. Right now we just want to know who represents us, and how to contact him or her.

There is a link on the Michigan House page “Find your Representative.” I click on this link, and then put in my zip code. My representative is Jim Townsend. I not only get his name, but a link to his website. I can look up Congressman’s Townsend’s voting record and I can easily see a list of issues that affect Michiganders and Congressman’s Townsend’s stand on those issues.

Besides having a representative in the Michigan house, I also have a senator representing me in the state capital. I go to senate.michigan.gov and I notice a link called “Find Your Senator.” I put in my zip code. My state senator is Marty Knollenberg. There’s a link to his web page. Most congressmen send emails to their constituents. It’s easy to get on their lists.

I don’t always have time to read newsletters when they come to my inbox, but I try to always scroll down and read at least a few lines of each paragraph.

Now that I know who represents me in my state, I can go to congres.gov, and find out who represents me in Washington, D.C.

When elections happen, I am likely to visit their web sites and study their records.

If you have any questions, please email me.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

How can we get people to vote? We know from the few caucuses and primaries that Republican voters are showing up in record numbers. The Democrats have record low turnouts. I know about phone banks. Each party and each candidate has zillions of people out making phone calls.This does not seem to be working for the Democrats. What can we do?

Prevail upon businesses to give coupons to voters for dollars off meals or services.

Have a lottery with nice prizes. Show up and vote and your name goes in the lottery.

Free pizza.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

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When I took a college level U.S. government class in the mid 1980’s. my mother had satellite TV. This was a dish that sat on her lawn and pointed at the sky. She had hundreds of channels at her fingertips, but being interested in current events, she watched CV-Span. She watched the House of Representatives all day long.

After a day in the classroom, I called my mom and asked what was happening in the House. She said someone called Tip O’Neill, then Speaker of the House, a bad name.

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I admire Hillary Clinton. She wears high heels, not real high heels, but heels. I also admire that her outfits look comfortable. Mrs. Sanders also wears clothes that look comfortable, and I admire her look too.

Carly Fiorina’s dresses didn’t impress me. You couldn’t give me any of the dresses she wore in the debates. And her heels were too high. I’d be screaming in pain if I had to wear those shoes.

Donald Trump’s looks like a cover girl on “Cosmopolitan.” I can’t imagine her as first lady.

Michelle Obama always looks great. Her clothes don’t look as comfortable as those warm by Hillary Clinton and Jane Sanders, but Michelle can carry off the look. Michelle Obama is one of the few women who can look like a business professional and a super model at the same time.

I’m several years older than Michelle, so I need a fashion role model more like Hillary Clinton or Jane Sanders.

When I see a picture of candidates from debates, I can quickly figure out which debate by what Hillary and Carly wore. I don’t remember what the male candidates wear.

Sarah Palin would make a great Barbie Doll

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THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

The right to bear arms:

When the constitution was written, most Americans lived on the frontier surrounded by hostile British soldiers, French trappers and Indians. The right to bear arms meant the right to join a militia like the one at Lexington and Concord.

Times have changed. While we still have many Native Americans, they are no longer warlike. I haven’t seen a British redcoat except in movies, and Frenchmen no longer come to trap in our forests. If they did, they most likely would not bring guns with them.

Certainly the founding fathers here in America did not mean that citizens should carry concealed guns on the streets of big cities or into classrooms and churches.

The frontiersmen in 1787 when the Constitution was written didn’t have automatic rifles. They didn’t even have six shooters.

Do do not confuse the framers of the Constitution with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. The framers weren’t wearing gun belts. Sure Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington went to war and they probably went hunting too. They didn’t carry guns into their offices, or meeting rooms.