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 |  Life, Adventure, Family, Writing what else is there? Random thoughts. |
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WELCOME TO: GEMINI RISING   UPDATED INTRO 28 MAY 2024: Just a little about me. I've been married for 32 years this past NOV and currently live in Southern California, but I grew up in New Hampshire. I've got 2 boys who are young adults. I work as a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. I enjoy my job a lot. Still. If you can believe that. I love to write. Thankfully both of my boys achieved Eagle Scout. My Scouting days are over and I'm back to focusing on my writing. I like to get out in nature, drink coffee and watch football. Here's a little bio about my zodiac. GEMINI: Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory. On the one hand it produces the virtue of versatility, and on the other the vices of two-facedness and flightiness. The sign is linked with Mercury, the planet of childhood and youth, and its subjects tend to have the graces and faults of the young. When they are good, they are very attractive; when they are bad they are more the worse for being the charmers they are. Like children they are lively, and happy, if circumstances are right for them, or egocentric, imaginative and restless. Their good qualities are attractive and come easily to them. They are affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, and thoughtful towards the poor and suffering - provided none of the activities resulting from expressing these traits interferes too greatly with their own lives and comforts. Geminians can be successful in many walks of life though their general characteristics tend to make them unreliable. They are often skilled manipulators of language, in speech and writing, and may be: debaters, diplomats (though in politics they are more interested in theory than practice), orators, preachers (brilliant rather than profound), teachers, authors, poets, journalists, or lawyers. This is me. I am a Gemini. Pure, Raw, passionate. The NEW focus of this blog is to share my adventures, travels, random thoughts, book reviews, thoughts, opinions, and writing adventures from actual writing, writing/editing tips, marketing, research. I'll get there. BLOG ACCOMPLISHMENTS: SEPTEMBER 2024: I participated in the
![Merit Badge in Nonfiction
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Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Nonfiction.gif) Big thanks to WakeUpAndLive~doingNaNo'24   for hosting the contest! OCTOBER 2024: I participated in the
![Merit Badge in Halloween
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Congratulations on completing the 13 Poetic Days of Halloween.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Halloween-2026567.gif) Big Thanks to Lyn's a Witchy Woman  for hosting the contest!Find me at: WEBSITE: http://www.stephanieburkhart.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor GOOD READS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart YOU TUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee Previous GRATITIOUS Warning, that I decided to keep in case I post about something that might offend.  WARNING I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare"  check out the "Gemini Rising..." 
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| Just some musings on the 4th on July. They're fairly positive, upbeat musings... What does the 4th of July mean to me? A lot.  One of my earliest memories was my parents and family going down to the bi-centennial parade in Manchester, NH. I was just a kid, but it was impressed on me that it was a big day and I wouldn’t experience another milestone like this. I have a few pics from that day, but they’re a bit faded now. I often think back of my family walking up from my house to Deerfield Park in Manchester to watch the fireworks. Fireworks bring out the little kid in me. They capture an “awe factor” It’s a reminder of Freedom to me and having an appreciation of that freedom. Growing up when I did in NH, civics was important. I learned a lot about NH government as well as the nation’s. I think the one of the lasting impressions I have from that period is that “Fair” means a lot. And it’s important to me that I’m a fair minded person. In 1986, I entered military service on 8 July. Not quite the 4th, but I remember the spirit of patriotism was soaring high in the nation. It was the time of Reagan, and I was very proud to serve under Reagan as a president. Between 1986-to about 2005ish, the 4th meant a time to relax, enjoy the lazy summer day, BBQ, fly your flag and tip your hat to American’s birthday with a fireworks display. Then in 2005, our family went to Avalon, CA on Catalina Island for the 4th. It was amazing. Nothing said “home” California style than the golf cart parade and the USC marching band. After a BBQ on the beach, we went and saw the fireworks on the beach in Avalon. We went to Avalon from about 2005 to 2012. It was a memorable time for us and the boys. They still have warm memories of the 4th. Even 2012 which was overrun by the in-laws. This year we're off to Ventura for a picnic, relaxing times, patriotic music and fireworks. So to all the founding fathers – thank you. Happy 4th to the USA!! Home of the Brave and Land of the Free. We have a Republic. Let’s keep it. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Fun Facts: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 2 of our founding fathers, died on the same day - 4th July 1826. 50 years after the Declaration of Independence. 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence were drafted, but only 27 are accounted for. Congress declared the 4th of July an official holiday - in 1870! The Star Spangled Banner was inspired by the War of 1812. A poem put to music, it became the USA's official national anthem in 1931. What did you do for the 4th? |
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