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| Just read an article on "the secret language of emojis and text abbreviation." I wasn't part of the smart phone generation; I seriously want to yeet the part of my brain that has that information in it into the garbage. Two things I just realized: 1) I'll never be able to look at another eggplant, peach or donut emoji again!(and will no longer use them.) 2) I was never a normal teenager and I'm so glad I wasn't. |
| Why do we let teens dictate these things? Take them back. Reclaim them. They don't run the world. |
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| Waltz Invictus - unfortunately, the parents that "micromanage" and educators do run the world. And they know that their kids know these things. Plus if I ever publish the novel I started for Nano, if I put any of that in there, and then try to pitch it as a Young Adult book, I'm screwed.(There's a reason that so many banned books exist. Unfortunately.) |
Reply| I'm glad I already got my degrees. I feel for the next generation of college students who will have to pore through mountains of tweets as part of their research. |
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It took me too long but I hope it's up to snuff:
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| I was looking at this because my 8th(?) great grandma in Colonial Maryland is a woman with one name: Katherine. Her sons and grandsons followed an interesting migration pattern from Virginia to Indiana to Iowa. They all used the surname Briscoe and were always on the move. The link I'm posting is about African Heritage. While they aren't for sure African this may answer some questions i had about my family. https://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/chesapeakeb.htm Why am I posting this here? I don't know. Because the best part of secular Christmas is family. And by learning something about them I feel we honor them.(not sure this counts.) Ok I'm done being an idiot keep scrolling. |
| Another friend of mine stopped by last night. She went to school with my Father-In-Law. She didn't know why I'd chosen to stay here when he had gone to visit my sister-in-law for Christmas. I didn't want to tell her the whole truth so I only told her "because I'm tired of the cat pissing all over my stuff." I love my sister in law and her family. What I can't stand is the ever present literal darkness in her house. It makes my mind take a bad turn. My depression is so much worse without sunlight coming in during these short days. I stayed home because I didn't want to sit in the darkness and have my mood get progressively worse. That almost invariably leads to increased and unnecessary crankiness. I've ruined enough with my bad temper. I don't need to destroy Christmas for everyone else. |
| Hallo SAD Holiday Potato! Hoping this holiday season will contain a lot of POTATOES but no GROUCHINESS for you and your family! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! "12 Days Of Christmas 2024"  |
| So, I have a friend who lost their home due to an abusive landlord. Luckily he owns an RV so he and his dog have been living in that. He doesn't do anything wrong on purpose. He's not violent and he helped us out with our house a lot. Except for palliative care for his terminal cancer, he doesn't take drugs. Yet, he's been kicked out of every campground around Cape May. And forced to shuffle from parking lot to parking lot. Middle Township has told him if he ever comes back there he'll be arrested. Why? Well Cape May County is a tourist "resort" where all the rich and entitled come for summer vacations. They don't want to acknowledge the fact that bad crap happens to basically decent people. Nor do they want to have a campground open year round or build a shelter for these people. (Oh yeah, apparently it's illegal to even live in an RV in Cape May County, so the police chase off this friend of ours!) Our friend is in pain. Will not go to the hospital or doctor because he's afraid of the bills that he has no mailing address to send them to.(He also can't get medicaid because he "makes too much money".) My father-in-law and I try to help our friend when we can. But it still chaps my hide to see humans who just happen to be different than the "haves" be treated so terribly. I want policy to change—not just run a soup kitchen or hand people money. I want to write something to change peoples minds. Show the humanity of the homeless make people realize how prejudiced they are being. Essays, editorials and news articles don't seem to be doing this. I was wondering if maybe a novel or series of stories might change public opinion. Feel free to comment but please be polite and constructive. |
| Many resorts nowadays, don't allow campers/RVs in over ten years old. There was a resort in AZ that would not allow our A-frame hard-side (no canvas) camper because it was a pop-up, even though it's six years old. There are more and more regulations going on now. I'm sure some are good, but others are questionable. We mostly camp on BLM land, but that's a whole other situation without any hookups. It doesn't sound like that would be a good fit for your friend. I've also heard some BLM areas are closing because of all the homeless people who are making it their homes. The permit is only $75 a year (in CA/AZ area) but you can only stay there for two weeks at a time, then go somewhere else for two weeks before returning. Then there's LT (long term) land with an unlimited stay, for $180 annual permit. Different states might have different rules, plus there's the heat/cold factors. Generators, solar panels, access to drinking water and dump stations is a must. Couldn't he get into low-income housing somewhere? It's so sad that he's dealing with cancer on top of being homeless.  I would be interested in reading your novel if you decide to write it! |
CHRISTMAS cub-BELLS R RINGING!  - Nope! Our county refuses to acknowledge or help the homeless. Those laws you mentioned are prohibitory to homeless people. Thats why I'm so upset! The county makes all these by laws to "erase" the homeless. So they can say to people who believe the stereotypes "We don't have a homeless problem." They're people; the homeless are peoples' cousins, siblings, or any other family relation you wish to list. Only less than 20% of them suffer from mental illness. A lot of them aren't criminals or if they are, do it because they have no choice. Some become homeless because their family or landlord kicked them out. Sometimes without legitimate reason. They get kicked out because they're different(insert group that gets persecuted because they don't fit in with all the so called normal society.) Sometimes they become homeless because they're desperate or fleeing persecution. Our friend got conned into selling his family home for less than it was actually worth. He can't find a steady job because of prejudice that is rampant in Southern Jersey and the United States in general. We help him by allowing him to work with us for money. We bring him food. But any housing around here won't take people like him. There are no shelters. Low income housing requires a job. First and last month's rent. References. You have to know people and he only has a few contacts who haven't cut him out of their life! Do you know that in the United States you can't hire someone with no home address?A PO Box isn't accepted as an address. Employers around here know the address for social services and willingly discriminate against anyone who uses that address as their home address. The legal mumbo jumbo at the end of every job application allows them to do that. They say "well this person lied on their job application." That's grounds for termination or not hiring this homeless person in the first place! There needs to be a change. And unless everyone becomes less prejudiced. Until the corporate image and profit are not the most important consideration. The change will not happen. That is why I want to write a novel. Movies and books have moved mountains debate and essays can't. |
I've just edited an item in my portfolio:
A bit weird but I'm a cat person. |
I forgot a couple of merit badges last night. ![Merit Badge in High Five
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For sprinting in the NaNo Sprint Writers Forum in 2024. You made this a wonderful experience, even if you only sprinted once or twice. *^*Smile*^*
Thank you!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/Kudos-High_Five.gif) And ![Merit Badge in WdC Community Hero
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"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."
Coretta Scott King
*^*People*^* *^*Heart*^* *^*People*^*
Thank you for your support, friendship, and spirit of community-building. You are appreciated.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/community-WdC_Community_Hero.gif) Were both in my inbox. I am happy to get both of these as well! |
Just got back from the family reunion. So much fun and then I found these.  ![Merit Badge in NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon 3
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WE DID IT! The [Link To Item #writeathon] has now officially raised over 100,000,000 Gift Points for Writing.com contests and activities over the years! We couldn't have done it without your support and participation this year. Whether you were a writer, a sponsor, a donor (or all of the above!) we're so grateful for your help in reaching our lofty goal this year. THANK YOU SO MUCH! *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-NaNoWriMo_Write=45A=45Thon_3-1546311_12.gif) ![Merit Badge in Nano Participant
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Congratulations to you for taking part in November 2024's around-the-globe 50k writing challenge! Great job!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Nano_Participant-2180.gif) Thanks to the people who gave me these! It made coming home easier.  |
| Made it to December with only 16,000-ish words. Five falls in three weeks and a visit with some cute yet stressful kids I call niece and nephew. I've had fun but I am so glad I don't have osteoporosis...yet. I hope I can be a good, crazy, fun aunty till we get to go home and get to real life. Will return to writing soon. |
| My niece and nephew came to visit...when I told my niece no more hide and seek, she stuck her head between my legs and started licking my feet and pants. I had two epiphanies. 1) I never thought I'd have to tell anyone "stop licking my pants"; 2) my niece telling me my feet taste like hamburger is extremely worrying.   I'm sleeping with one eye open tonight and hiding the steak sauce! |
| I'm going on another tangent. "What if Santa was a Key Stone Cop and had to solve a mystery?!" Heaven help us all.. Not my Bally wick but I'm writing a Holiday detective Noir-esque story. Coming soon to a port near...WDC! |
My moment ended up with reindeer assassins!
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| I've been surprised to find several collections of murder mysteries all based on Christmas. They were excellent stories. |
Because I got bored and thought it was funny that a large metal vase with gunpowder was called a "Thunder Jug" and a chamber pot was sometimes called a "Thunder Mug". I wrote this.
Set in a time when people dressed like this. |
| The music video for Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" was filmed in 1985 Some of the performers wore this style of clothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA |
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but not a {e:potato}. 
