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Friday, Nov. 8, 2024

5:19am EST

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PORCH PONDERINGS

by QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Rated: 13+ · Book · Biographical · #2198921

Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana

Well, hey there!
Welcome to Roundup, Montana! If it's a nice day, we'll sit a spell on my porch and talk awhile.

"All the resources we need are in the mind.” Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President of the United States of America.

I am the Captain of my ship.
God is my co-pilot.
Often I sail stormy seas,
Am flung onto rocky shores.

What's on your mind today?

Signature for use by anyone nominated for a Quill Award in 2020

Signature for nominees of the 2019 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 3, 2024 at 2:36pm
In response to "Update"

I don't celebrate Halloween. I don't do parties and the American version is silly imho. Samhain is different. I don't mind real witches and ghosts (hope to meet a ghost someday... but not too soon). If goblins existed I'd probably chat with them.

I did go to the Day of the Dead and the parade. Took photos and video. Honoring/remembering the dead is okay imho.

Odd how events "work" or don't. Call me crazy but... the churches have been there a looooong time. How could one NOT know. Same with you and Halloween... they don't know you by now?

I don't join groups because I can't deal with the drama.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 28, 2024 at 1:33pm
In response to "Ducks in a row"

Yep. The only cure to falling is not falling in the first place.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 19, 2024 at 4:14pm
In response to "Catching Up"

It helps to have the time and focus to do Octoprep or Nano. This year I have neither. No excuses and I shouldn't feel guilty. I did sign up for "13" but we'll see... so much depends...

...on the white rain on the black chickens...

We did have snow on the mountains. Today is gloomy.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:16pm
In response to "Equinox Storm"

Our Senior Center goes through cycles of drama. Right now the kitchen is fine. Today's meal was good.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:13pm
In response to "Chico"

We have various hot springs in our area but busses don't go there.

Will you have fish for dinner or is it catch and release?

I decided to not do Octo-Prep. I have an idea and I started a folder to keep my chapters. That seems to work best for me. I have a basic timeline and theme. I'll just start in one place and go from there (literally, like in my IRL travels) to the next stop and the next lesson my character (me) has to learn. Since the conflict is "discovery" instead of an action-driven arch... I should be fine as long as they logically flow from one to another.

I'll have to return to Thailand and spend time in each location.

QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Sep 12, 2024 at 11:20pm
In response to "School Drama"

Fear is contagious. Fear spreads just like wildfire, one spark from a fearful person and the whole town is crazed.

Drama is preferred these days. Who can get the most views on their page, who can garner the most interesting story to present to the world. Truth is irrelevant it seems. Just the drama is important.

You do assume correctly that the school handled it better, in my opinion. They threw the flame resistant blanket over the problem and extinguished the fire. For now. Until the next crisis. Which will be when all these crazed parents withdraw their students and claim they are now 'homeschooling' them. I see this happening - people threatened to do this.

And don't get me started on the whole homeschooling trend. Some parents do a good job. Great. But others don't and kids suffer. There is no real policing in Montana for homeschoolers. Sad but true.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Sep 12, 2024 at 6:10pm
In response to "School Drama"

Do people think that dog-eating black-skinned aliens are out to get them? As in crows versus Crows?

The real issue is fear boistered by fear-mongers.

Here... there have been 'threats' in God's Waiting Room. We can call 911 and ask for MST... someone trained in mental health. Instead of peaceful resolution though... we seem to prefer DRAMA. This free floating anxiety with no existential threat is widespread.

May I assume the school handled it better than the parents?

QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Sep 7, 2024 at 5:16pm
In response to "Fun Fact"

Who knew??? I love history.

AnotherDreamer

Sep 7, 2024 at 5:09pm
In response to "Fun Fact"

How funny. lol

1 Like

NaNotatoGo!

Sep 4, 2024 at 3:13pm
In response to "NaNoWriMo"

It certainly will.

September 18, 2024 at 11:44am

#1076951

Equinox Storm

Oh my word - we are in the midst of a great rain storm. My friend in Gardiner named these 'Equinox storms'. Every fall and spring we get rain, usually around the time of the autumnal and vernal equinoxes.

Rain started at my place about 10 PM last night. It hasn't stopped, and so far we have about 2 inches of rain and climbing. And for this part of Montana that is a gift, let me tell you.

But this will be interesting this morning as we do Meals on Wheels every Wednesday. Soggy and slippery I am sure will be the norm around town.

There is a great deal of drama at the Senior Center and kitchen these days. They installed a new manager some months ago, and it isn't going well. Numbers are down, food is decreasing in quality and quantity, volunteers are quitting. I have no idea why they installed this person in the job. No one knows if she has food service experience, management experience. No one knows where she worked before. It's quite curious and sad. And now the state health department and the county commissioners are getting into the mix.

Next week is a meeting to voice concerns. I've written a letter, and may attend. We are seriously thinking of not volunteering for this any more. We do feel a certain responsibility. But to give out bad food, hear constant complaints, get criticized on the way we do this volunteer job by this manager, it all just defeats you some days.

But a fun thing I'm doing now is a play with the Musselshell players. This play is hilarious. Just a lot of fun. We laugh all the time during rehearsal, which is good. Of course, we have to learn lines and stage directions, but to act and just be someone else for a time is a great creative exercise. And to do it with people you enjoy being with. Wonderful...

2 Like • Comment • View 1 comment

September 13, 2024 at 12:02pm

#1076743

Annie Lamott

I came across an article on Annie Lamott in Facebook today. Then followed a link to this little piece:
https://www.salon.com/2006/05/22/lamott_fight_son

Many years ago I too had an incident with my son. It didn't end as well as hers did. Mine ended in violence and jail and a permanent scar between my son and I.

The teenage years are trying, but my incident happened when my son was out of high school, and trying to figure out himself. I guess. I still don't know what the heck he was thinking.

But life goes on. We somehow make it through the trials.

1 Like • Comment

September 12, 2024 at 10:43am

#1076659

School Drama

Yesterday everyone in town that has kids in school was all atwitter. Seems the school was in a lockdown situation for about 45 minutes. It was not a shooter situation, it was not dangerous. It was a few students making threatening remarks, per my source. Incident was resolved, life in school went on.

But oh no! You will not do this without parental involvement in every step of the way. The outrage, the online ranting and raving. How dare you do this without our permission!

This was the info given online initially that started the firestorm:
Dear Community Members, RHS was placed into a lockdown a few moments ago. The lockdown has been lifted. We will get a more information out quickly.

Then that statement was followed by this one:
Subject Line: Safety Notification - Lockdown Ended at Roundup High School Dear Parent or Guardian, Roundup High School was placed in Lockdown from 9:45 am to 10:01 am due to a possible threat. Students and staff were asked to remain in their locked classrooms to keep the hallways empty. Thank you for your patience while we worked with first responders to respond to the situation. The safety and security of your child is our top priority. What is a Lockdown? Lockdown is called when there is a threat or hazard inside the school building. The Lockdown Action demands locking interior doors, moving occupants out of the line of sight of corridor windows, turning off lights to make the room seem unoccupied, and having occupants maintain silence. If students are unable to get behind a locked door, they are trained to self-evacuate. If your child contacts you to inform you that they safely self-evacuated, please contact the district at 406-323-1507 to notify us your child is safe. Sincerely, Riley Mayo Principal

Now I understand the anxiety of a threat in school so soon after that incident in Georgia and other places. But our school is in rural Montana. It's a smallish high school, with a graduating class each year of twenty or so. Most everyone in school knows everyone else, and quite a few are related to each other in some way. But it only takes one remark by some student to another that sounds like perhaps possibly maybe they are plotting revenge or mayhem or madness to get everyone all worked up.

The administration and teachers and staff are well-trained for these situations. They care very much about each student. Some have their own children in the school system. So I am sure in this situation no one was in any real danger. Thank goodness.

I perceive the anxiety in our town reflects the anxiety of our world at large. Everyone is all worked up and anxious and nervous. It's almost like we all need to have a giant dose of 'calm-the-heck-down'. Relax, things are never really as bad as you think they are. What is the saying? And it's an old one - 'tempest in a teacup'.

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September 4, 2024 at 12:02pm

#1076241

Fun Fact

I just had this pop up on my Facebook feed. Too good not to share.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used. So, why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since. And what about the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's a*s came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' as*es.) Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's a*s. And you thought being a horse's a*s wasn't important? Ancient horse's as*es control almost everything.
Read More: https://diaryamazing.com

2 Like • Comment • View 3 comments

September 4, 2024 at 10:41am

#1076237

NaNoWriMo

So it seems NaNoWriMo is under the gun for this whole Artificial Intelligence hoopla.

Their statements are especially bothersome to many:

1.Classism. Not all writers have the financial ability to hire humans to help at certain phases of their writing. For some writers, the decision to use AI is a practical, not an ideological, one. The financial ability to engage a human for feedback and review assumes a level of privilege that not all community members possess.

2.Ableism. Not all brains have same abilities and not all writers function at the same level of education or proficiency in the language in which they are writing. Some brains and ability levels require outside help or accommodations to achieve certain goals. The notion that all writers “should“ be able to perform certain functions independently or is a position that we disagree with wholeheartedly. There is a wealth of reasons why individuals can't "see" the issues in their writing without help.

3.General Access Issues. All of these considerations exist within a larger system in which writers don't always have equal access to resources along the chain. For example, underrepresented minorities are less likely to be offered traditional publishing contracts, which places some, by default, into the indie author space, which inequitably creates upfront cost burdens that authors who do not suffer from systemic discrimination may have to incur.

Then I find out that NaNoWriMo is sponsored by ProWritingAid, an AI-powered writing assistant.

This situation will be interesting to watch. What will happen next for NaNo? Perhaps nothing, perhaps they've dug their own grave.

Drama.

1 Like • Comment • View 3 comments

September 3, 2024 at 10:05am

#1076170

Just another day

Yesterday, bright blue skies and 95°, hot and dry. I took a walk around, since we really didn't do anything for the holiday. Don't get me started on the drama around that idea.

Today, I woke to cloudy skies, a cool temperature and a bit of rain. That's good, our lawn is just brown stubble. And we refuse to keep it green with nasty water that costs a fortune. Besides, conservation is always best. And a wet lawn breeds mosquitoes and grasshoppers.

It's less than a month til OctoPrep! How can that be possible? I think I'm ready. I've got my cheerleading crew all set up. We're ready to give prizes. So, get signed up you novelists!

And until then, it's the birthday celebration. I got a nice surprise from the Story Mistress. I won in the 7-11 contest. Yippee! I love gift points as prizes. So, everyone get on the stick and do those reviews!

Now to go on with the day. I am to call the publisher of the church newspaper, have to go to the county courthouse, write for the local newspaper, get the information from the post office for mailing out the filers for the charity I shepherd, and study my lines for the upcoming play I'm in.

Just another day...

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