Articles tagged with fopp
Review: Science Fiction Short Story : "Martians Never Die" by Lucius Daniel
This is a creepy little story, only that plays on greed and hatred. It is perhaps almost too subtle in some respects, but the ending is sad in more than one way. And there is a faint streak of misogyny. Beryl needs someone to take care of her. She
Update on My Blogging Projects ~ I'm Expanding!
Now active is several blogging communities and/or forums; many with income potential. MyLot.com – a discussion forum with a $5 payout. You don't have to start a discussion, just chime in on a lively conversation. You earn based on your interactio
Playing Word Games
Children's Games Like I Spy Lots of children enjoy playing these games, such as "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'T". They are great for their observation and learning the sounds of the letters. One of my grandchildren also plays a vari
Playing Word Games
Children's Games Like I Spy Lots of children enjoy playing these games, such as "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'T". They are great for their observation and learning the sounds of the letters. One of my grandchildren also plays a vari
Playing Word Games
Children's Games Like I Spy Lots of children enjoy playing these games, such as "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'T". They are great for their observation and learning the sounds of the letters. One of my grandchildren also plays a vari
Write Your Own Quiz
I just got a new Plugin for Word Press One of the software gurus I follow offered a new plugin this weekend with a 50% off voucher. One of the items was a plugin that creates social quizzes. Social Quizzes? Yes, you know the ones, especially on Facebook
UK Voted OUT
Referendum On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to remain part of the European Union (EU) or to leave. The votes have now all been counted and the decision is to LEAVE the EU. History The UK joined the EU on 1 January 1973, o
UK Voted OUT
Referendum One 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to remain part of the European Union (EU) or to leave. The votes have now all been counted and the decision is to LEAVE the EU. History The UK joined the EU on 1 January 1973,
English Member of Parliament Killed In Street
Shocking News in England, UK An MP, (Member of Parliament) has been shot and stabbed in the street in England. She was attacked outside a library where she had been holding meetings (a help session) with her constituents. A man approached her in the stree
Tips on Personal Development
Living Life To the Full Getting support for any big changes or tasks you need to do in life is crucial if you want to live life to its fullest and direct your efforts positively. This support can come from within if you know how to access it and you can a
Dealing With Real Fears
What Might We Be Really Afraid of? I am not talking about snakes or spiders. Sometimes things we are afraid of are things that could really happen, either to ourselves or to someone we know. And these are some of the fears that are hardest to deal with. W
Oh, Tormentor Of Tiny Animals!
Very Old Our cat must be about 16 years old now, I am not quite sure because she was "given" to us by our daughter when she moved back home from lodgings, many years ago. How Old Is That In Human Years? I always thought that to calculate a cat's a
No Hiding Place? Yes, for the Tiny Terror
There used to be a TV show in the UK called "No Hiding Place", a weekly crime series. The Tiny Terror's ability to hide reminded me of this title. Can Open The Door The Tiny Terror can open the door out into the hall and stairs now, so her mother ke
Escape Artist - A Tiny Terror Story
Back Yard We have a back yard attached to our house. A yard in the UK, is usually just an area with a hard base, whereas in the US, I believe it is what we would call a "garden". It's where I hang the clothes to dry in good weather and it has the oil tank
My Naughty Little Sister
Children's Book Review Having written about the "Tiny Terror" reminded me about a book I used to love reading to my children, called "My Naughty Little Sister", by Dorothy Edwards. She was an English writer and made these stories up to keep her daughter a
Tiny Terror Trapped
The Tiny Terror She is at the "Terrible Twos" stage and if you read my last article on her, you will know that she likes spreading milk around until the place is swimming in it! And in the comments below the article, I wrote about her climbing onto a
Bag of Surprises
What Do You Do With Your Grandchildren? When I am looking after my grandchildren, I like having something to do or play with them. Maybe a jigsaw, or crafts, stickers and colouring or reading a book. There are lots of things to do and after a morning spen
The Tiny Terror
The Terrible Twos One of my granddaughters is at the "terrible twos" stage. She has just turned two years old and is a very active child. You cannot turn your back on her for two seconds. She is a climber and gets up as high as possible at every opportuni
Cuckolded
Follow Up to Shock of Parentage I wrote about the shock that a high profile cleric had in the UK, when he found that the man who raised him and whom he had thought of as his father, was not actually his biological parent. Now a few more stories have arise
Not His Father's Son
Shock for Head Of Anglican Church Justin Welby, head of the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church in the UK, had a great shock in the past few weeks:he found out that his natural father was NOT his mother's (now deceased) first husband but Sir Anthony Montague B
He Identified Himself as the Criminal!
No Identification Parade Needed There was rioting in Belfast last summer (well it's almost obligatory over here at certain times) but these days, the police have cameras up and also many houses and shops have CCTV filming around the local area. Following
Collecting Anger Stamps
Prompted By &lookatdesktop's post &lookatdesktop posted an article about anger management and impulse control a few days ago. It reminded me of an analogy I heard maybe 30 years ago about this. Green Shield Stamps or Trading Stamps Many yea
Best House Design
What is the best design for your perfect house? Garden As a parent, I wanted my children to have a garden to play in, one that was completely enclosed, so they couldn't get out and where I could see them from the kitchen window. My first house had that,
Games People Play
Prompted By a Now Disappeared Article Back just after Christmas, there was a post on PP called "Gone is the Christmas Tree. I had saved the link, but don't bother following it as it has gone AWOL! http://www.personapaper.com/article/44370-gone-is-the-chri
Muscle Building
You may think this is an odd subject for me but I have had a go at building muscle in my time and it has served me well for looking after my grandchildren. I can lift and carry them all, even up and downstairs (not all at once though!). As a female, I cann
More on Affiliate Marketing
What is it again? Affiliate marketing is where you promote a product on your site, and you keep a small percentage of the sale money. It may sound easy, but many people fail at making a decent amount of money with this approach. Here are some things to th
Disabling A Car
Many Years Ago Cars used to be a lot simpler. I knew where to find the dipstick (no, not that one) and check the oil level. I even (gasp) knew where the rotor arm was. Nowadays I am not even sure that cars have one. Holiday in Belfast I first came to Be
Starting Affiliate Marketing
Starting Out With Affiliate Marketing Write About What You KNOW! If you are new to affiliate marketing, start with something you know. It is always easier to build a good site on a subject you're interested in. If you try to work on something "popular" b
Leadership Qualities Before The Age of Two Years?
Visit To KinderGarten My daughter and her husband play music and were asked to play at their eldest daughter's nursery class for 3 and 4 year olds, as part of St Patrick's Day celebrations. They have done this before. They also have a nearly-two year old.
Saturday In The City
Belfast Northern Ireland This is the nearest city to me and every few weeks I like to go into Belfast, either on a Friday or more usually on a Saturday. Quite often, I have a grandchild or even two with me. They like going in because they often get a bun
Decluttering For Your Health
Too Much Many of us have too many possessions these days and you know what? All that stuff is making us sick! How Does It Make Us Sick? It takes up space. We don't have enough room to move around and we yell at the kids if they trip over something It
Retelling Old Stories
Rewrite Them Many of the fairy stories and folk tales are cautionary, providing warnings and many of them also have a "damsel in distress" who is rescued by the Prince. I thought it would be interesting to look at telling old stories, like fairy stories a
Follow Them!
This is the Fifth Version, though I thought The Fourth Would Be the Last People are still providing information on where they have gone, there have been about 4 or 5 links added in the past week :-D . My 1st version of this dropped off the
AWESOME!
International Day of Awesomeness Did you know that March 10th is the International Day of Awesomeness EVERY YEAR? Not Perfect This day was proposed back in 2007 as a joke but it caught on. It says everyone can be awesome in their own way, even if nobody
It's NOT FAIR!
These Corrections Are NOT MINOR I had my viva for my PhD at the end of January and received the list of "minor corrections" about 4 weeks later. I am going through them, listing them in a table so I can tick off the corrections as I do them. But the
Where Did The Messages Go?
My Phone was Fast I have already written about my old fashioned phone being a day fast because it didn't know about the leap year and so counted the 29th February as the 1st of March. I changed the date early this morning. My Messages Disappeared
My Phone Was A Day Fast
My Phone is NOT Smart I don't have one of these Smart Phones, for several reasons: one being that I have no intention of taking out a contract with the mobile phone companies - I have heard too many horror stories of enormous bills and unfair charges, wit
Passion
Improve your Life With Passion! If you want to improve your life, your job or your relationships, you need to find your passion. The personal satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from doing something you love should be a goal in and of itself. Doing wo
Which Writers Went Where?
This is the Fourth Version and probably the Last My 1st version of this dropped off the front page when I wrote a third article and similarly with the 2nd version and the third. I have given the links to the previous article
Reduce Stress Levels
Simple Things To Reduce Stress When you want to make positive changes in your life, you also have to deal with any stress that might make it more difficult than necessary to make those changes. Focus Elsewhere If you are feeling stressed out by work or
Motivation Website Now Active
My new website has now been published to the world wide web I wrote about the new site I was getting in http://www.personapaper.com/article/46459-want-a-google-page-1-search-result a few weeks ago and it is now live! :-D There are 10 articles u
Restaurant Review Tullyglass Hotel Ballymena
I Met Former Work Colleagues We are all retired now and one of us is disabled, so meeting in Ballymena, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland makes it easier for him. This time,our venue was the Tullyglass Hotel. Being outside Ballymena town, there was plent
Find the Others
This is the Third Version My 1st version of this dropped off the front page when I wrote a third article and similarly with the 2nd version. I have given the links to the previous articles because people have made comments that others may w
Creating A Hub Page
Starting a New Hub on HubPages When I decide to create a new hub, I usually plan it out and write it in my word processor (Microsoft Word) but it can be any word processor you choose. It's easier to write it out there, then copy and paste one paragraph at
Steak And Kidney
As requested by &VinceSummers Steak and Kidney Pie and Pudding 3 different ways of serving steak and kidney All three use the same filling, a cooked filling, made from steak pieces and kidney pieces. The difference is in the type of covering and the
Their Other Sites
Had to Rewrite This My previous version of this dropped off the front page when I wrote a third article. I think it's important to keep a note of where others are going if you want to keep up with friendships from Personapaper, so I have copied
Who Stole The Money?
Wanted To Repay A Loan My daughter wanted to repay a loan she had from me. She had been saving the money up in a drawer in an upstairs chest, though I didn't know that. When she got home from work, she called me upstairs. She was pale. "Who has been upsta
Review - Neill's Hill Brasserie
Lunch with the Hen Party We have been meeting for over 40 years now, ever since we met at university as innocent teenagers, fresh from school. My husband called it "The Hen Party" because it seemed to him that we cackled when together. We used to meet at
Where To Find Everyone
Had to Rewrite This My previous version of this dropped off the front page when I wrote a third article. I think it's important to keep a note of where others are going if you want to keep up with friendships from Personapaper, so I have copied this over.
An On Line Presence
Being On Line And, no, I don't mean the ghost of the TV! Today's world REQUIRES an on line presence. Whether for personal expression, paying bills or promoting your own business, you need to use the web. Even my elderly sister in law, who does not have a
After the Abscess
Abscess Mostly Gone It is a week now, since I was at the dentist's and was prescribed a double dose of antibiotics to take for a tooth abscess. At the time, I did not realise how bad it was but after looking up the recommended treatments on the National H
Managing A Tooth Abscess
Update On The Tooth Abscess In my previous article on the abscess, I told you I was on two different antibiotics. I have taken those faithfully for four days now and just starting into day 5. There has been a lot of progress and a great reduction in pain
Git Aff The Boat!
Out Walking It was a beautiful day here and we were out walking along the promenade this afternoon, when we saw a young "gentleman" of our acquaintance and a friend walking towards us, both probably in their early twenties. We greeted them and our acquain
Abscess
Swollen Face and Aching Tooth I had to go to the dentist today for an emergency appointment. Apparently, I have an abscess. No wonder my cheek is swollen and I am smiling lop-sidedly! Back Tooth It's a back tooth at the top. The pain is not "killing" me
Jack Holcomb
Dead 40 years Jack Holcomb was an American Gospel Singer. He died at the age of 47 years of a heart attack but during his 15 year singing career, he was very popular. My husband had records (LPs) of him singing when we first met, nearly 50 years ago and w
Want a Google Page 1 search result?
My New Site I have just bought a site that MAY be able to get instant page 1 Google search rankings for chosen keywords. It has yet to get set up and this will take a few weeks. It is in the area of motivation. I will be putting articles on the site on mo
URGENT Free Webinar Tonight 5pm EST, 10pm UK
Free Webinar on 60 second ranking in Google I am writing this quickly because I only got notice yesterday and haven't had much time on line so far today. There is a webinar on tonight. It is billed as 60 second ranking in Google. I know nothing more about
It Arrived! Thanks Coral
&CoralLevang Said She Was Sending Me Something Well it arrived to day - a congratulations card! And a magnetic card inside too with a great motto on it - a winner is a loser who just tried one more time. It Plays Music! And it plays music too. When
Weird Secrets to Attraction
One Old Weird Secret That's one of the titles plastered over the internet at present, as well as the words, "tricks", "bizarre", "shocking", "sensational", "disturbing", "terrifying" "furious", "forbidden", "revealed" and "creepy" and phrases like "t
Tank of heating Oil for a Birthday Present
Winter Birthday I have a winter birthday, so does my husband. They are not too far apart. Nowadays we tend to give each other money, then we can buy something big by combining a number of gifts. I tend to save Christmas and birthday gifts towards a new co
Game of Thrones Trees Toppled by Gertrude
Game of Thrones Part of the US hit series, Game of Thrones, was filmed in Northern Ireland, at the "Dark Hedges in Armoy, County Antrim. These trees are well known by anyone who travels that road and they formed The King's Road in the Game of Thrones. St
Whaddya Mean You Don't Know About The Dress?
Just over An Hour To Go Now I have my Viva for my studies in just over an hour's time. I am sitting in University dressed in my interview finery, and will shortly make my way up to the room to set up my laptop etc, in readiness for the interview (2 - 3 ho
POTUS Dots on My Timeline: Eisenhower
It's 2016. Another election year in the United States of America. Thought this might be a good time to look back. For those who may be unfamiliar with the process, American presidents are voted in by the people. Although if you believe in the gospel accord
Building My Blog
Blog I have wanted to have a lively blog for a long time but never really found a way of writing it that I felt would interest people and provide a possible means of earning money from it, as well as one that I could keep up writing, because it can be har
Preparing For My Viva
Viva in Less Than 2 weeks Time I submitted my thesis (over 500 pages of it) at the end of October 2015, hoping to get a date for my Viva before Christmas. Well, that didn't happen, possibly just as well. :-D I Need to Prepare A viva is an interview. The
Are You Smarter Than a CIA Agent?
So You Think You're Smarter Than a CIA Agent : Parallels : NPR QUOTES EXTRACTED which sums up what the article is saying "According to one report, the predictions made by the Good Judgment Project are often better even than intelligence analyst
British
A number of People on PP are from Britain If you want to know more about British plants or about being a librarian in Britain, then take a look at &indexer's posts. He has written about a number of wild flowers growing in Britain, for instance so
Making Money on PersonaPaper
Help Others Reach Their Goals A number of people on PP are getting close to cash out. Often they are looking to increase their number of coins by posting more and commenting more. For instance &Paulie is looking to earn coins to cash out. I am helping
Brushed with the floor lamp
Childminding Day Today It was back to childminding yesterday after the Christmas break (break? What was that? No, I did NOT get 2 weeks free from childminding!). I landed up there at 9 am and got back home at 5pm or so. Well, they are only 5 minutes
Using DropBox or a Cloud Drive
DropBox Or Other Cloud Storage - What? Cloud Storage, for example DropBox, is storage that is available on line. It's rather like those storage boxes you can rent if you have too much furniture for your house, or are moving between houses, except that it'
Finding the fun without the Cancer
I have spent some time today going through some things that I wrote the year after I was diagnosed with stage 4 Carcinoid Cancer. I find it interesting to see how drastically my attitude and fears have changed, as I continue to live and have fun. * * * *
Moving Your Free Standing Blog Right Along
Thank you &DWDavisRSL for leaving a comment at one of my other #FOPP posts. Was going to simply reply back at the post but as I started typing my response, it got longer and longer and ... Figured I might as well turn it into a post. Thank you for the
What Were They Up To?
OK, So Only LOCAL Breaking News! Being New Year's Eve last night, of course SOME people just have to "celebrate" too much. I don't see that it is any fun. And for those who say the next day "I don't remember half of it", or even "What day is it", I think
I got a Christmas Card from America!
The Post Just Arrived I wasn't expecting anything in the post but I got a card, all the way from America, with a butterfly stamp, to ensure it fluttered here! :-D Thank you &CoralLevang It was from our own &CoralLevang on the Pacific North West
FOPP Pals on Tsunation
Hey! Noticed some PersonaPaper members who are also on #Tsu . Just wanted to say Thanks for #hashtagging your posts #PersonaPaper . Makes it super easy to find them. #FOPP findings on Tsu get a “like” from me. Sometimes I share too. But if
What's on Your Travel Itinerary?
In the #Travel section of the #NewYorkTimes for Oct 25, 2015, editors chose to shine the spotlight on #Africa. Uh oh! It looks like two of my previous #FOPP posts (below) could use some additional details or explanation. It turns out that in Durban, #South
My Last Week
To celebrate the last week of every year, it has become #tradition to make it my most awesome chill-out week. Time to slow down and do some things that kept getting pushed down to the bottom of my “To Do List” or my “What To Do When You D
Team Has No I but It Has ME
Famous Saying Many coaches and trainers tell players and participants that the word "Team" has no "I" in it and this is true - the letter "i" is not included in this word. When you are playing or working as part of a team, the work and achievements are al
2016 Diet Guide
Inspired by &FourWalls After reading &FourWalls' article on Annoying Diet Books, I decided to write a quick resume of what I know about dieting. When you read &FourWalls' post take the time also to read &Gossamer's responses on that articl
Finished the Front Page
Got the Time Every so often, I get the time to finish the front page on PP. I didn't plan on it today but I had finished my "Recent Acticity" list, though I may have missed some down at the very bottom and so started in to read the front page. I am babysi
To Fail To Prepare ....
That saying P² = P³ I learnt that saying when I became a management trainer. It stands for Poor Preparation = Pretty Poor Presentation, and it's true. If you learn nothing else about presentation, learn that. It Applies to Life Too
Why Is Traffic Important?
Thanks to &DawnWriter In my previous article I wrote that traffic is important because the blog owner can get money from adverts on their site and &DawnWriter said that people had to CLICK on the adverts on her site in order for her to get paid. S
Improving your ranking in the Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization SEO is the means of getting search engines to find your website and boost it up the rankings. A page one Google listing is VERY helpful for getting your site noticed! A number of people have written about this on here and I am
Totally Different Meal!
Please Feed The Children Today is one of my childminding days for two of my grandchildren and my daughter texted me during the morning to ask me to prepare a meal for the two girls for 4pm, because the elder one goes to a drama class at 5pm and she didn't
Food From the Compost Bin
Nothing to Eat With It! I decided to make a rice pudding last weekend. I had been considering making one for a few weeks but just hadn't got around to it. (That reminds me of a joke about round tuits - have you heard it?) Rice Pudding I think of r
Helping yourself AND fellow PP writers
Gaining Points For every post of yours that is viewed by people in certain countries (some are excluded) you get 2 points. If you comment on someone else's post, they get 2 points (for your view) and you get 1 point for your comment, provided it is over 3
Xenophobia is much more than just an impressive Scrabble word
Having read &DWDavisRSL's Thoughts on Diversity, I was reminded that the intent of those who want to wage fear in our hearts are far less likely to be successful than media or special interest groups may want us to believe. Mr. Davis is co
Reaching For Goals
Sticking to your goals creatively We nearly all want to change ourselves, usually by trying to develop better habits, like tidying up after ourselves, writing more, eating less, etc. It is not always easy. Changing those habits can be hard, it moves us ou
Found a Non-Advert?
Corner video Every so often a little video appears in the bottom left hand corner of my screen. I assume it's an advertisement. I have no idea what it is about because it's someone talking and I always surf with the sound "off" unless there is something I
It Turns Out that Having a Purpose in Life Is Good for Your Health
Having observed many older adults -- age 65 and over -- during my thirty years of nursing, there were a couple couple conclusions that I'd reached: 1.) The spunky, spirited folk seemed to live longer than their more placid counterparts and 2.) Having a goa
Consistency is Again Key--November Stats
Many have followed my journey through goals, successes, and failures here on Persona Paper. They have watched as I analyze what is needed for me to make my first payout by my 60th birthday last August. They have cheered me on to reach my second payout 15 w
Is this a story or an article?
I am not sure whether this is a story or an article. I am rational, I don't believe in ghosts or fairies at the bottom of the garden. I don't believe in luck either, it's just probabilities and possibilities BUT there are some people who undoubtedly recei
How would you feel if you received a gift such as this?
I am not the best at handiwork, but I taught myself to crochet. I know the basics--chain (ch), single crochet (sc), half-double crochet (hdc), and double crochet (dc). I know how to do things in a single line or row. I can skip a stitch and crochet in th
Tips and Tricks for Tumblr Bloggers
A few months back, wrote a post Explore Tumblr Using TumVue about a great site that made viewing my Tumblr blog much easier. Scratch that! Maybe there's a black cloud that follows me online, but for some unknown reason the site is now returning a 500 Erro
Christmas Songs Project - "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day"
As has become my annual custom, I will once again be sharing a holiday-themed song each day from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Day on Facebook. And, as I did last year, I will also be sharing some extra bonus information about some (although
It just shattered!
Dinner Is In The Oven My husband likes his meals at regular times, generally 5pm for dinner unless something else is going on. But today, our son was late. He then texted to say he would be "10 minutes". Omelette and Chips / Fries Today we were go
Persona Paper Absolutely Pays in Timely Fashion
Addressing Concerns There seems to have been more concerns or questions waged recently about earning coins and whether or not people get paid. I read recently that there were people who "have never known anyone who has been paid here." If that is t
What Do The numbers beside the Categories Mean?
Looking at Categories I have been looking at the categories following &Luisga814's post on the categories where he writes the most, including the "books" category where he is ranked 5th. In all of the categories, the names have a number beside them an
Cashed Out
Received my Payment I achieved my 15,000 coins goal on Sunday and applied for payout. The site pays out $20 and deducts the relevant number of coins. Email from PayPal Earlier today, I got an email from PayPal saying that $20 had been deposited in my Pa
Checking out the categories for new ideas!
He gave me an idea &luisga814 has been checking out the categories on Personapaper to see where he ranks and found he was in the top 10 for articles on Personapaper and in the top 5 for articles in the Books category. I wondered where I was in those c
Childhood Freedom
Kids Had More Freedom Then 60 years ago, children had a lot more freedom than they have now. As a child, I used to be away from the house for hours at a time. You just came back for meals. Climbing Trees and Playing at the Dam One of our favourite place
Make Your Own Video Free
Make a Video For those who have pictures from a long time ago, before video cameras were widely available, it would be nice to add still photographs into a movie program and create your own movie of still, together with music or commentary. Ma
School 60 years ago
Primary (Elementary) School I went to several primary schools as a child because my parents moved house quite a few times. The one I went to longest was in Wales, where I had to learn to pronounce the LL sound again after forgetting when I went to school
Through the Haze of New Ventures
Life circumstances have changed for me in recent months, necessitating that I find ways to increase my income. As many of us know who've been writing on the Internet for any time, finding lucrative ventures is often like looking for that proverbial needle
Follow All New Members
Joined this community in Feb 2015. As with most sites, after settling in (which took about 3 months), immediately developed my quirks (or “self-enforce rules”). These Are My Rules In addition to giving my fellow members a “Thumbs Up&r
Homework is doing my head in!
Doing My Head In? Just in case "doing my head in" is a Northern Ireland only phrase, it means "it's driving me crazy" or "I am really frustrated with this"! No Not My Homework My granddaughter's homework. She does it at our house once a week. She seems
Serendipitous find!
We Like the Crossword Well, my husband likes doing the crossword. I just chip in with answers if asked. One clue today was "small anchor" and he thought the answer started and ended with "k". I had absolutely no idea so I did a search using small anchor k
Prepare Yourself Emotionally for the Holidays Now
In an ideal world, each of us could expect to celebrate the upcoming family holidays in the finest traditions of our cultures, with abundant food, family gathered together and everyone feeling joy in their hearts. We don't live in an ideal world
FREE! (for a few hours)
Wondering Where I was? Probably not, but if you were, I am here to tell you that childminding is hard work and you don't have time for much else when you're doing it, especially if the children are young. I agreed (what am I saying? I was told) to look af
Two Tips For Fitting Exercise Into Your Life
You Can Fit Exercise Into Your Life It's not necessary to go to the gym for an hour a day if you don't have time. There are other ways to fit exercise into your life. There are also ways to get yourself to DO this. Lifting weights This is not all
On Line Graphing
Not Everyone Has a Spreadsheet I wrote an article about &CoralLevang's earnings and included graphs created using Excel spreadsheet.You can see those here and see Coral's original post here. After posting, I realised that not everyone has a
Look Out for Windows10 Updates in 2016
A little birdie told me -- no wait, it was an article by Woody Leonhard at InfoWorld.com -- that related that early in 2016, Microsoft intends to begin pushing automatic updates to Windows 10. The way the company will do this is via the automatic upda
I Voted
Call me whatever you wish, but today you can call me a voter because I did cast my ballot. It fills me with pride to go to my local voting place and go through the brief process to check in and be given the ballot form to be completed. My polling
Searching for Others to Take the Challenge
Last month, &Kasman was the landslide winner of the first ever BEST CAPTION contest with his winning caption. (Click here for the announcement and photograph of the first win.) We are now in full swing with the announcement of the seco
An Interesting Time Ahead for Anonymous and Ku Klux Klan
The hacker/activist group, Anonymous, made a public statement last week that it would be releasing 1,000 or more names of alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan by Nov. 5. On November 1, Anonymous made good on its statement by releasing over 50 email addresse
And You Thought the Plague Was a Thing of the Past
Earlier this month, a teenage girl in Oregon was diagnosed with bubonic plague. Authorities ascertained that her exposure to this bacterial infection came via a flea bite incurred during a hunting trip she was on in Morrow County, Oregon. Fortunately, the
Reading Is Such a Joy
I've just returned home from the library with an armful of books. I'm as excited as any kid in a candy store could be. Four unique reading adventures await me inside the the covers of those books. Which do I read first, which should be allowed to be the la
Looking Back: My Earliest Halloween Memory
My earliest Halloween memories go back to when I was five-years-old and my brother three-years-old. We wore the costumes of the time (early 1960s), those store-bought costumes with the plastic masks. He was cute as a button in his Sylvester the Cat c
My Most Memorable Halloween Costume
For the Halloween of my 12th year, a girlfriend and I planned to go trick-or-treating together. This would likely be the final time we'd be enjoying this childhood custom of going door-to-door for treats. Not just any costume would do and surely not
Recovering From Peeling Fingernails
I do my own nail care, preferring that to going to a salon for nail care. During the spring and summer months, I noticed that one by one, my fingernails were beginning to peel. In addition to not being attractive-looking, I realized the health of my nails
New Research Reveals Costs of Dementia Care Higher than for Any Other Condition
The information in the latest research results by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) won't come as a shock to those caring for, or having cared for, someone with dementia. The information that out-of-pocket costs in the care for those with dementia
Looking Back: Playing Football with My Brother
I have one sibling, a brother not quite two years younger than I. Until the age of 10 or so, I was the taller of the two of us, but from that point forward, he began to tower over me. Still, the two of us entertained ourselves playing the usual ch
Standardized Testing in Schools Comes Under Federal Scrutiny
Since George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law on January 8, 2002, standardized testing in schools has increased substantially from what it had been in years past. Federal guidelines were established that each state was mandated to follo
What is a Habit?
Habits A habit is something that is done automatically, without having to think about it consciously. It's like turning on the light as you come in through the door, or picking a candy from the bowl on the table. We all have a LOT of habits, both good and
Open Letter to Ad Network Administrators
Anyone who uses the Internet is familiar with the need for websites to be supported by ads. It's a reality we can live with, as long as it is done responsibly. Your purpose is to promote the products and services of the companies you represent. I don't k
Life of Writers: Website for Writers of all Skills, Levels
As I explained in an earlier post, Blasting News: Writing Site, I'm trying to take my writing more seriously than I have been. To that end, I've been searching the Internet for sites that may provide inspiration and direction. One result of that search has
Blasting News: Writing Site
I've been looking to expand my horizon in writing experiences and read "On Writing for Blasting News" by member &littlenancy. What she explained piqued my interest in the site, so I joined there and have thus far written almost two articles. (I'll expl
Ketch yerseils on!
Plastic Bag Tax A plastic bag tax has recently been imposed in England. It means you have to pay 5p (about 7c) for a plastic bag if you need one to carry your purchases home. People are complaining about paying 5p, they are stealing wire baskets and troll
Comparison of Writing Styles: Phillip Margolin VS. Jeffery Deaver
Although I've been an avid reader since childhood, I haven't read with a critical eye in many years. In reading other people's reviews and writing my own, I am once again learning to do more than enjoy the experience of the story at hand. The genr
New Members for October on Persona Paper
It's hard to keep good news quiet, so while I am stealing a bit of &Kasman's thunder, I wanted to share that 10 new members have joined Persona Paper so far this month. A hearty welcome to one and all, and hoping your experiences here will be positive
Finished Writing - I Think
On Target I am on target to submit my thesis by the end of the month, I think. I finished writing today, earlier this evening. I am waiting for my supervisors to get back to me on a part that I emailed them yesterday, to see if it is good enough. Next Jo
Forms of Support at Persona Paper
If you've ever felt as if you were floundering at Persona Paper, please know that there are multiple forms of support available. Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing in which direction to turn to find your way back to solid footing. Official Pe
Building Connections on Persona Paper
Connections online are just as important as networking is in the physical world, and are really two words that have the same meaning in the context of becoming known and knowing. With the exception of celebrities and other famous people, each of us is but
By The Sea
By The Sea This is really for &VisionOfHope who mentioned he loved to be by the sea. I have been taking a few photos recently. Not many come out the way I want, should really use a tripod. But the pictures are taken on walks, not photographic outings
Jelly Jello Worms
The Jelly / Jello has set I wrote about the difficulties in starting to make Jelly worms and left them ready to start setting. By this morning they were set. But even though I used less water than normal, they were not sufficiently firm to look like
Missed Opportunities
This Morning's Walk We walked by the sea for about 20 minutes this morning. The weather is absolutely fantastic at the moment, the sea was calm, the sky bright and the tide was coming in very calmly. By the Jetty Near the harbour car park and boat
Ohio 2015 General Election and Ballot Issues
With the Ohio General Election 2015 scheduled for November 3, it's time for those who plan to vote either in person or via absentee ballot to become familiar with the state ballot issues and the issues and candidates local to their community. Ohio has only
PP Anniversary!
Oh, yeah!! YES! It was October 12, 2014, exactly a year ago, that laksh joined Persona Paper!!! I know my activities here don't suggest that (with just 15 posts) but I never quit the site either..The fun part is that I was back on PP just a couple
Attracting and Keeping New Members
Any site thrives when it has an active community with new members coming aboard on a regular basis. Persona Paper is no different. As a member here who enjoys this site and the community, I want to do what I can as one individual to help the site thrive. W
Not the Best at Rating Books
As a member of the free community at GoodReads.com, one of the activities that I enjoy is being able to share my review of a book with others and engaging in conversations about the reading experience. Writing a review about a book you've read is
Lessons from exercise helping me with my thesis
Exercise in later Life I really only took up any kind of exercise in my late 40s. When I was younger, we all ran about and played outside all day if we could but there was little sports provision for girls. Running on a Treadmill The first exercis
Microsoft WORD is a right P.I.T.B!
Formatting I am having to redo some of the formatting in my thesis. I have used Microsoft Word(r) for many years but more for letters and short reports. Currently I am creating a list of figures, tables and photographs. I have about 250 or so figures, abo
Mother of the Bride: 10 Days and Counting
Ten days and counting...and then the bride and groom's big day will be here. Everything major has been decided, paid for and ready to go. The minor details continue to mount up, so much so that my daughter is sometimes overwrought with anxiety. It
Spreading the Word
Some days it's tough to find something about which to write. Some days finding something to bring a smile to your face is worth its weight in gold. Some days you're simply looking for a creative outlet. In one fell swoop, you can find an answer to all thre
Knee-Jerk Reactions Are Rarely the Solution
If your hand is too close to a fire or a heavy object is hurtling through the air toward you, then a quick reaction is both necessary and likely the solution to the problem. Now if your hand is too close to a fire because someone is doing his best to burn
Robert Urich, A Man Gone Too Soon
A native of Toronto, Ohio, Robert Urich credited his longevity in acting to being raised in a blue-collar family where hard work and respect for others were important principles. His acting career spanned three decades before his death at age 55
Parking Lot Blues
It is awe-inspiring to consider some of the magnificent structures and designs the human race has created, from super-highways to suspension bridges. As inspiring as those are, though, parking lots are often loathsome affairs. Perhaps some of the
Have to Work Hard
Met My Supervisors Today My supervisors are for my Ph.D studies. One has been through my draft thesis - over 500 pages - not an easy job. The other (the most experienced) has been through my "Conclusions". Presentation I was asked at a previous meeting
Skirt riding up
Swinging Sixties / Seventies This post was prompted by &Happylady's post about naked ladies at the bus stop. http://personapaper.com/article/38704-the-naked-ladies-at-the-bus-stop. Thought I looked So Good Many years ago, not long after I got m
In Farm Country, You Can Tell the Seasons By the Fields
Where I live on the central south shore of Lake Erie, this is farm country. To the east and the west are metropolitan areas that are converging on this rural area, but not any time soon will the family farmers give up their way of living that goes back gen
First Experience Having an MRI Scan
I've been experiencing a peculiar (for me) type of headache when I work out at the fitness center. I talked to the trainer there about the headaches, but not being a medical person, she advised me to discuss it with my health care provider. I did
Productive Day
I am smiling :-D I have had a productive day, no not in PP, and got some things off my back and my non-existent to-do-list too. Web sites I managed to get two of my web sites up and running again. The sites themselves were not down but I had been unable
Wild, by Cheryl Strayed - A Book Summary and Quickie Review
I became aware of the movie, Wild (starring Reese Witherspoon), late last year, just as it was being widely released. Since I rarely see movies in theaters anymore, I didn't pay much attention; I figured if it was worth watching, I'd find it on DVD later.
Resources: Top Ten Reasons to Switch -- or Not Switch -- to Windows 10
As I explained in an earlier post, "Windows 10 Snafu," my computer has just recovered from a Windows 10 crash. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fun, but it wasn't computer suicide either, thankfully. While browsing the World Wide Web to learn more about Win10 c
Windows 10 Snafu
I was one of those people who changed over to Windows 10 when the free "upgrade" was offered by Microsoft. The changeover from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 went smoothly on my Dell laptop. I thought I had "bit the bullet" and lived to tell about it.
Two Tacos to You, Too?
The problem is prevalent. Even native English speakers and writers have a problem knowing the differences of the simplest of words--to, too, and two. Some of us are old enough to remember English teachers hammering the rules into our heads (figurati
How To Use and Create SubHeadings
What is a Subheading? A subheading is a title for a paragraph. It encapsulates what the following paragraph is about. The question "What is a Subheading?" is an actual subheading in this article. Why Are Subheadings Useful? Subheadings are us
AntiVirus dealing with Fake Browser Pages
Annoying Fake Browser Pages Recently, an annoying fake browser page trying to get people to update their Adobe Reader program has been appearing. Apparently it comes in as an advertisement through the advertising companies but takes over the page and will
Book Lovers: A Social Website All About Books
No matter how you prefer your reading material -- e-reader, paperback, leather-bound or otherwise -- if you enjoy reading, reviewing and generally discussing books, authors, ideas, then goodreads.com may be what you're seeking. The site, run by Am
Closing in on the Halfway Mark
Having reached my first Persona Paper payout level toward the end of July, and redeeming once I reached the 15K coin level about 10 days later, I felt that it was easier to see progress by watching the coin level, rather then the value of the coins.
Mother of the Bride: 31 Days and Counting
Everyone involved in the planning and preparation for my daughter's upcoming nuptials is getting more tense, more jittery, more snappish as the day draws closer. My expectations were that this would occur, although I had hoped it might not happen until a b
$20 - Your Call?
What would YOU do With $20? As many of you may know, I am coming up close to the $20 mark. Currently, 12471 coins, worth $18.71. It may change by the time this article is posted! :-D $20 is the minimum cash out point n PersonaPaper. Cash It? So, what to
My Strategy at Persona Paper Has Changed This Week
I am truly behind in all that I want to accomplish this month. Last week, I was right on target for the week--21 articles and more than 800 coins for the week. With the second week nearly over at five and half days, I am sitting with this my
Late Night Rambling: Writing, People, Intention and Change, and the Choices We Make
On Writing I imagine that many who write or interact on the Internet maintain rather chaotic lives. Whether retired, unemployed, or working two jobs, each of us juggles so many things, and have this-or-that to fit in-between gaps and times. We
Making Money on Tsū - Pt 4
Want to report on my Tsū experiences while they are fresh. This #FOPP post is a clarification and further explanation. Will admit that it is very likely this feature was always available but since my "teacher" on how to use this social network is me, myse
Open Invitation to Virtual Persona Paper Potluck
Inspired by the camaraderie of the members here at Persona Paper and a number of comments to the post "Ravioli Lasagna -- My Interpretation," I've hit upon the idea of a virtual PP potluck, with one and all invited to attend and enjoy. Real life b
Ravioli Lasagna -- My Interpretation
Ravioli lasagna -- a best of two worlds as far as pasta dishes go and an ease of preparation that makes me wonder why I hadn't thought of this years ago. Inspirational credit for this dish goes to my daughter-in-law who, with the care and feeding of five c
Recent Updates from Persona Paper Management
Just passing on information to those who may not have connected to site managers/administrators &MaeLou (Heather) and &elitecodex (Will). If you haven't done so previously, you may want to do so now so you can stay in the loop of updates and news r
Front Page and New Strategy
Completing the Front Page Coins: 12230 Currently Worth: $18.35 I have managed to complete the front page again. I don't always manage that, in fact only occasionally but when I have the time, I like to try. On entering PP for the first time in the day o
Teaching Children to Take Ownership of Their Opinions
Gray is an ugly color...classical music is stupid...no one in their right mind eats anchovies...how could you not have liked that movie? Each of these are statements of opinion, but rather than the speaker taking responsibility for his/her opinion
The Quintessential Scotsman
Follow up to my #FOPP post Sean Connery Quit Acting? Rummaging through videos on YouTube and found this tribute to Mr. Connery. He received the AFI (American Film Institute) Life Achievement Award a few years back. Not a program watched very often like th
I don't think Ginger goes with Lamb
Leg of Lamb I splashed out and bought a leg of lamb for the middle of the week. It's a LLLOOOONNNNGGG time since we had lamb, it's very expensive but I just fancied some. (No, I am too old to be pregnant :-D ) I roasted it and we all enjoyed it but to get
Budget and Survival Skills versus In Sickness and In Health
The alternate title for this #FOPP post is: “Am I being callous, insensitive, lacking empathy, unsympathetic, cruel and unkind?” Perusing my eMail Inbox and quickly glanced at a question in one of the messages that made me chuckle. It was ab
Theories and Real Life
There are many ideas and practices that, in theory, should work. The difficulty, in my opinion, is that human nature often runs contrary to what is needed for many beautifully crafted theories to work. For example, a very basic premise of communis
Getting Writing Topics
OK, today's topics I haven't been on PP much recently, too many child minding duties but I got out for a walk with my husband today and I thought of a whole lot of possible topics while I was out: here are the topics that have arisen from one walk:
New Perspectives Come From Unexpected Sources
I've had the privilege of interacting with older adults my entire life, and in fact, my career both as a nurse and then social service worker centered on the senior population. I learned so much from those interactions. They've colored my thinking and open
Understanding the Commonwealth, the British Isles and More
I shared what little knowledge I had about the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. I found out that I wasn't the only one with this lack of understanding. To my surprise, there were a number of members who revealed they, too, were unaw
A Reluctant Admission of Ignorance
I've shared in the past that I have difficulty falling asleep at night, often due to the ongoing meanderings of my thoughts. An hour into lying in bed, yet awake, it came to me that I didn't know the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
Herb and Spice Spotlight : Capsicum (Red Pepper)
My late mother had a cabinet full of all kinds of herbs and spices in her kitchen. Cayenne pepper was always on her shelf. There were many of us living at home – mom and dad, my brothers and my one sister, and me. With so many varying taste buds to p
In Search of the Perfect Tomato
I don't know about you, but for myself, homegrown tomatoes are the best part of summer. Those ripe, red globes of juicy flesh beckon to me even in my sleep. But finding a truly delicious tomato isn't as easy at it might seem. Initially, I didn't t
Following
Spirituality is not normally a Category I Post in But this article was provoked / suggested by the music I wrote about here. Back in the 60s I was a teenager at that time and the term "swinging 60s" hadn't reached the Welsh Valleys or if it had, parents
I Will Follow Him
It's funny how something random occurs and just leads to something really big and interesting On my Facebook account, &paperdaisyflower7 shared a post by someone of a particular song, "I will follow him", from a concert. I listened and was really stru
A Walk Down Memory Lane: My First Week at Persona Paper
(Author's note: I want to thank &AbbyG for her comment, which inspired me to re-title this piece.) * * * * * * * * * * * * * I started with Persona Paper on Thursday, June 12, 2014. If I remember correctly, &SandraLynn was the one who refer
Sleepless Nights
For the last few years, I've had my share of difficulty getting a restful night's sleep. Sometimes I can't seem to fall asleep, other times I can't seem to remain asleep once I get there. Thankfully, such difficulties don't exist every single day, but seem
Mother of the Bride: 60 Days and Counting
Sixty days until the big event now! I've been cool as a cucumber in the months preceding this, but am beginning to get the jitters for my daughter and her fiance. Everything up until now has moved forward as planned, but there is still so much that must ha
Completed the Front Page
I did it I think it was &CoralLevang or maybe it was &AbbyG who suggested getting right through the front page of articles, commenting on every one. Well, I just did it! I have done it previously but it was quite a while ago. The reason I was able
Shopkick: Free App for Smart Phones and Tablets
Most of us are in and out of stores at least once a week. With the Shopkick app, you can make kicks - points --simply walking into a store, points that will earn you rewards as you accumulate them. Shopkick, founded in 2010, was, according to the
Setting My Goal for the Next $20
It has been just over a week since I reached the goal of 15K coins that I set for myself. Now that I have submitted and received my first payout of 20 dollars, and the bank has been adjusted, I feel as if I am in a bit of a crux without having set a new go
Are You Disorganized, Lazy, and Unable to Follow Through Like Me?
I have always been a more spontaneous person than many others in my life. Growing up, I thought that was a fault, because it was seen as "not following through," "getting sidetracked," "being ditzy," "disorganized," and, generally, not appreciated.&n
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 20 - A Song You Like to Play on a Road Trip - "Only the Young"
I've take a LOT of road trips. I've driven from an east coast state to a west coast state (or vice versa) four times in the last eight years. And I've lost track of how many times I've taken trips in my car that involve driving five or more hou
How I Made My Hot Chocolate Taste So Much Better!
I've never claimed to be a good cook. I can follow a recipe, as long as the steps aren't too complicated, but I don't have the wherewithal to be inventive about it, and there is actually very little I can do that doesn't involve reading some instruct
Tomorrow Is My Last Paycheck for Awhile
Thank goodness, I have a check coming in tomorrow from the contracted training position I hold. It was for the class that I taught in the second half of July. As it stands, I will have no other paycheck from them until the middle of October, as I to
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 19 - Your Favorite Duet - "Candy" - Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson
There are a LOT of great #duets scattered throughout music history: Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie ("Endless Love"), Elton John and Kiki Dee ("Don't Go Breaking My Heart"), Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley ("I've Had the Time of My Life")... And
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 18 - A Song in Your Favorite Style of Music - "Forces At Play"
Today's challenge is another really tough one. To choose a song in my favorite style of music assumes that I actually HAVE a favorite style of music. That assumption would be incorrect. I have a lot of favorite songs, and I have a lot of styles of music th
Do You Make People Feel Loved and Appreciated?
I am a very lucky lady to have learned the value of relationships to others. These others do not always come in the form of family or face-to-face friendships. With the advent of the Internet, our friendships can be forged through instant pen-pal r
Baptism by Tanning Bed
Summoning my courage and what I thought to be my common sense, I sign-in at the fitness center desk. The young woman there was all smiles, even through her eyes, so I determined she was approachable for my needs. "Excuse me, " I say, "I've never u
Decisions, Decisions
Sixty-seven days to my daughter's wedding. I have nothing beyond a slight farmer's tan (lower three-fourths of arms, face and neck). My dress for the wedding is sleeveless and a bit more low-cut in front and back than my usual summer shirts. Must look dece
Aw, Shucks!
Just peeking in to let you know that I am still alive. (I woke up at 4 a.m. after fitful sleep.) What a wonderful surprise to see so many birthday greetings! Thank you so much. You will never know just how much this means to me. (I
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 17 - The Most Surprising Song Remake You’ve Heard - "The Boys of Summer" by the Ataris
These days, there are a lot of singers that seem almost interchangeable to me. If I'm listening to the radio and I hear a song by a female pop singer, I have to admit that I can't always tell right away if it's Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, Kelly Clarkso
What's the word for...?
What's the word that means touting something a bit more than it deserves, but is no exaggeration? What's the more technical term for taking in food and liquids into the body, rather than simple "eat?" It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite remembe
Mother of the Bride: 67 Days and Counting
The year leading up to what will be, for our family, the only big wedding in decades has passed by much too quickly. You would think a year's notice would be plenty of time to organize an event without any last-minute anxiety, but such has not been the cas
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 16 - A Song that Was Remade Better than the Original - "Singin' In the Rain"
Gene Kelly's umbrella-in-the-rain dance in the 1952 movie "Singin' In the Rain" is a cinematic legend. Anyone with even a casual interest in classic films is familiar with the fun, playing-in-the-rain song and dance where Kelly's character, Don Lockwood, c
Are You Playing Along? Sleuth Challenge Week 2
Fellow member &CoralLevang developed a creative idea for a challenge, called the Sleuth Challenge. Rather than re-explain it here, I'll let Coral explain it in her own words. The "detective" work is for the reader and writer alike. The writer
Analysis and Why It Is Important to Me
The history Nineteen days ago, I wrote 99 Coins to Get to My Goal and a Bottle of Beer. (Click link to read.) My coin total was 12,675, as I was anticipating reaching the coins needed to make my first payout . As I write this, 19 days later, I
In Fewer than 48 Hours
The week has gone quickly. The last few days have passed as if I ignored them. And here I am, with just under 48 hours until the day I turn 60 years of age. I was born at 6:01 p.m., so I suppose that it is not official for another 66 hours
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 15 - A Song that you Would Like to Hear a Remake of - "St. Louis Blues"
If I love a song, having it remade is the last thing I'd want to have done. Because of that, today's song challenge is truly a CHALLENGE. The only real reason a song should be remade is if it just wasn't good enough in the first place. But if I di
PersonaPaper is to Search Engines AS ...
Got nothing but love for PersonaPaper. The publishing platform is simple and easy to use yet powerful and allows for lots of creativity. Your displays can be very visual and the ability to share interesting and related links enhances the content of your p
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 14 - A Song that You Think is Too Long - "Hey Jude"
Like the "too short" category (any song that I like), the "too long" category can be easily answered as "any song that I DON'T like", but really, that's a cop-out. Since this is a **CHALLENGE**, a cop-out answer like that just isn't going to cut i
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 13 - A Song that You Think is Too Short - "Time In a Bottle"
The easy answer to today's challenge is that any song that I love is too short. Perhaps that's why, as a child (OK, maybe even now as an adult), I was afflicted by that condition that caused me to play the same record over and over and over again. My favor
Review: 'Time's Up' by Janey Mack
Author Janey Mack's debut novel, "Time's Up," is mystery fiction at some of its finest. The development of the characters -- and there is a number of them -- essential to a good story is right where it should be without being over-the-top. The plot has eno
Crazy Nails Help Build Awareness
I teach people how to present as professionals, making sure that the image they portray is one that supports that goal. As a leader and trainer, I try to set an example in how I dress for work, down to my nails and jewelry I wear. I used to be a nai
MyLot.com – My First Impression
Joined the myLot community yesterday. My user name is “cmoneyspinner” (same as here). Regardless of what my husband thinks, there is only one me with one personality, not multiple personalities that are called by different names. ♥
A Sleepless Night Produced Results in Other Areas
I stayed awake much of the night. I dozed off a few times last night on the couch while watching several episodes of The Good Wife: Season 2. I was able to get through five episodes after I came home from dinner with a friend/colleague. I finally went to b
A Most Difficult Decision
After living with me for eleven years, my mother went to live with my sister last October. Her dementia, emphysema, mobility problems and her off-and-on battle with cancer had been going on for years, and my sister felt terrible that the brunt of all of th
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 12 - A Song from a Band with an Awesome Name - "Shiny Shiny"
As I alluded to yesterday, today's selection is from the early 1980's. The New Wave era of music gave us a treasure trove of bands and songs with fantastic names. "Shiny Shiny", released in 1983, is a song from the band, Haysi Fantayzee. Haysi Fan
Angels or Aliens? Part 2 of 2
One of the joys of publishing at this site is that my readers don't mind if my expressions of thoughts come out on paper the way they usually are in my brain --- scattered ... but make sense to me! :) Following up with my previous #FOPP post - Angels or A
Google Making Major Changes to Google Plus
If you don't use Google+ then this urgent news report published by Business Insider has no impact for you. However, if you remember the old YouTube and then the change when the Google owners and operators REQUIRED that you have a Google+ account in order t
Spiders: The Ultimate Optimists?
The eight-legged wonder of the world, the spider, seems surely to me to be the ultimate optimist. Unlike many other predators who go out in search of prey, the spider survives and thrives by spinning those intricate and delicate-looking webs. Ah,
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 11 - A Song with an Awesome Title - "Bailout At Frog Rock"
With these song challenges that &AliCanary throws out, I find that the best thing to do is to map them out ahead of time. That way, if I have multiple songs that fit a single category, or a single song that fits multiple categories, I can rearrange the
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 10 - A Song that Scares You - "Revolution 9"
Perhaps it's because I grew up not far from where the infamous Manson family lived and I read the book "Helter Skelter" too many times. Maybe it's because people made such a huge fuss when the movie "The Exorcist" was released. Or maybe it was because dumb
Undocumented Immigrants -- Let's Separate Fact From Fiction
No matter what term you use to describe the people who have immigrated to the United States other than through legitimate channels, this is an emotionally-charged topic for politicians and the general public alike. This means a lot of people are talking
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 9 - A Song that Inspires You - "Chicken Fat"
After an almost-three-week absence from the 30 Day Song Challenge, I am back and ready to pick it back up where I left off. My choice for a song that inspires me is very far off the beaten path. I first heard "Chicken Fat" by Robert Preston when I
Vacation Aftermath
It's a longstanding joke - I was so busy on my vacation that I had to come home to recover from it. Well, that might not be a fully accurate description of my vacation, but, as usual, my recovery from it has been taking some time. I went
Making Money on Tsu - Part 3
This #FOPP post is the third installment of “Life and Work in Tsū Village”. It's just a progress report. (Links to first two posts below.) ♦♦♦♦♦ My #makemoneyonline adventures continue. Work from home project
Treasure Hunt or Easter Egg Hunt - All Fun!
Always like to share treasure found via my #Internet travels. If you have read some of my other #FOPP posts you're probably saying to yourself: “Where does she find all these newsletters?” { My mom was junk mail junkie. Must have picked up the
Taking Care of Business
This morning at 1 a.m., I visited my bank and used the night depository to deposit a check. It felt odd "doing business" at that time, but if you cannot sleep, you might as well do what you can when and how you can do it! I was unable to sleep until afte
New to the Game: Sleuth Challenge Week I
Fellow Persona Paper community member &CoralLevang issued a challenge -- the Sleuth Challenge -- for anyone interested in looking back through the archives of other members here to discover/revisit previous posts. If you're interested in learning
I Thought that 60 Was the New 40--Has Someone Been Telling Fibs?
I Thought that 60 Was the New 40--Has Someone Been Telling Fibs?
Review: 'Cold Day in July' by Stella Cameron
In branching out to find authors of fictional crime/mystery with whom I have not yet become acquainted, I found "Cold Day in July" by Stella Cameron. Cameron is not a newcomer to writing, having published her first book in 1985. Her website has the t
Continuing the Upward Trend toward Goal
More than 24 hours ago, when I wrote Only 250 Coins to Go I pondered, "I wonder...will I be able to reach 13,300 coins in 24 hours?" Here we are, and I have not reached that level. The results, thus far are: The current balance i
Review: 'The Romanov Sisters' by Helen Rappaport
“The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra” written by Helen Rappaport, is the nonfictional historical account of the lives of the four daughters of the last czar in Russia, Nicholas II. Rap
Vacation Time: Exhausted, Concerned, and Excited
I tried to write last night, but fell asleep partially propped up on a few pillows with my keyboard on my lap. I managed to get about 100 characters written. Of course, I have scrapped them here his morning. Starting today, I am taking some ti
The Certificate
FICTION Four Generations "I wish I had achieved something", the low voice came from the bed. "What do you mean Grandpop?", little Eddie said, wriggling on the seat between his mother and his grandfather, looking at his great grandfather lying in th
What an Interesting Fun Game!
Finally got around to performing some of my work-at-home projects that kept being pushed to the bottom of the list. Signed up for PersonaPaper.com in February of this year (2015). But many members were here long before and have been meaning to rummag
Animal Encounters or the Romantic Kind - Who Was In the Wrong?
Animal Encounters or the Romantic Kind - Who Was In the Wrong?
It Is Time to Say Goodnight
It is now 12:30 p.m. PDT and I have been awake for 43 hours with a short nap a couple of hours. I have to be up by 6 o'clock so that I can be to work by 7:15, but wanted to get a quick note to wind down my day. I just finished watching the movi
Yawning My Way to a Nap
I really should get some sleep. It is already on its way to five o'clock in the morning, and I have yet to sleep tonight. After last night's hard sleep and the vivid dreams, I found myself rather alert up until an hour or so ago. Thankfully, I
Online Voter Registration in 21 States
Online voter registration became a reality in 2002, when Arizona became the first state to offer the service to its citizens. Since then, an additional 27 states have enacted online voter registration for residents, with 20 of those providing the service.
A Dollar and a Quarter to Go
On my road to my first payout here on Persona Paper, I have only $1.25 left. In June, I set my goal to make this first payout by my August 10th birthday, which is a big milestone birthday for me. When June ended, and July began, my coins totaled 10,588. T
Pull Yourself Together - Writing Up a Mess part 7
Final Part Previous Articles in this series Tip 1 was to keep a notebook, Tip 2 was to keep a journal, which was also covered from a different angle in this article, Tip 3 was to build a framework or outline, Tip 4 was
Making Time for What Is Important
Up at 6:30 a.m., I have so much to do today, that I do not even have time to make coffee. I will have to swing through McDonald's for a cup. It is funny to me when I say I "do not have time," because the truthfulness of the matter is
Introduction for Coral Levang
When I signed up for Persona Paper over a year ago, we were not required to write an "Introduction" piece for submission and approval. So, I thought it appropriate that my 350th article should be such. Some of these things may be things you already know or
The Phone Call
Story prompted by a real incident I was walking through the village when an odd engine noise alerted me to a lorry moving slowly and weaving on the road. I realised the driver was texting and not paying attention to his driving, so got the compa
Using On-line Backup
Backup - you know it makes sense! How many of you have lost files, folders, pictures, work, memories when a computer crashed? Probably most of us. So why do we not backup? Difficult Backing up our work and remembering to backup can be difficult or time
What Does That Mean at the End of Your Articles?
I was recently asked this question. It was after someone noticed a "tag" end, of sorts after my story. If you are unfamiliar, here is one of the most recent: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1315 PDT 11,989 17.98 3 hours--
Pontypridd South Wales UK
#Pontypridd Pontypridd is a medium sized market town about 10 miles or so from Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The word "Pontypridd" means "Bridge of the Mud Hut", according to my Primary School teacher many years ago, who spoke fluent Welsh. It is of
Dreadful Flying
I'm getting ready to fly on an #airplane tomorrow. There was a time when those words would conjure up excitement for me. #Flying was fun! I grew up in California, but my mom is from the South and my dad was from the Midwest. B
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 8 - A Song that Makes You Mad - "I Need To Know"
Perhaps what I'm about to say seems a bit irrational, but I'm putting it out there anyway. Marc Anthony's "I Need to Know" ticks me off. It came out at about the same time as a bunch of other Latin-influenced pop songs, many of which were
The Taff Trail
The River Taff in Wales The river that runs through the town of Pontypridd in South Wales is called the Taff. Pontypridd is actually the point where the Taff river and the Rhondda river join - it is at the confluence of the two rivers. The river Taff
Visiting the Old School
We Met over a Meal The ones who arranged the visit gave us the opportunity to sit and chat over a buffet meal. It was brilliant. The canteen is now in what was the old Assembly Hall, where we had PE lessons (Physical Exercise). The ropes had been removed
School Reunion
School Reunion I was at an old school reunion recently, with the emphasis on"old". The original school was built in about 1913 and is no longer used as a school but as a campus for the local university, with various courses advertised, including one on fo
Didn't brush my hair for 3 days!
Forgot When I went away for the weekend, I forgot my hairbrush. I don't carry deodorant or toothpaste with me because the security regulations, so I just buy some in the airport after passing security or else at my destination. But I forgot to buy a comb
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 7 - A Song that You Associate with a Funny Memory - "Achy Breaky Heart"
My sister's kids have provided me with an endless amount of entertainment through the years. My oldest niece loved to sing a little bit more than her siblings did, and when she was little, it wasn't unusual to catch her in the middle of any number of
Locked in the Toilet
Memories Having been to the school reunion and staying with my cousin, brought back memories of the time I got locked in the toilet on a school trip, many years ago. Field Trip The visit was a field course for biology and we went to stay in a ve
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 6 - A Song that You Associate with a Sad Memory - "Across the Universe"
I've had this #Beatles song in one form or another in my music library since I was in my teens. I bought my first copy of it on one of those Beatles compilation albums (on vinyl) when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, but I'll admit that this song
Ohayou Gozaimasu, Subha Bākhair, God Morgon, and Bon Matin by Any Other Name Is Still...
Good morning! After reading, commenting, writing, and interacting this morning, I am not sure where I am! It was a delightful learning experience of what words and experiences mean to one is not to another. Because of this, I am now three-and
How I Caught Up on an Entire Notification List at Persona Paper Without Going (Too) Crazy
Getting through one's notification list can be rather daunting, especially if one has not been around for a few days. I have found it difficult to know how to catch up, and I get confused and flustered with the list having all the notifications liste
Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities
Received a lot of positive feedback on the post about My Job. Constantly on the lookout for various income opportunities and am on several mailing lists. This info arrived in my Inbox today. Was going to bookmark these links for later review and/or share
I Would Not Want To Be a Psychic
For years, there seemed to be something weird going on with my dreams. They seemed to be able to predict death. I tried to reason my way through it - perhaps it was because I knew someone was sick and I was worried. That logic worked for
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 5 - A Song that You Associate with a Happy Memory - "Kung Fu Fighting"
When I was a kid, I had a friend with whom I listened to a lot of music. We would spend literally hours listening and dancing to whatever we had amongst our stacks of 45s or whatever we'd pick up from the radio. (You can read about our friendship o
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 4 - A Song that Describes Your Life - "Make Your Own Kind of Music"
Today's song challenge is to pick a song that describes my life; I kind of thought that I had already done that on Day 15 of the original 30-Day Song Challenge (30-Day Song Challenge - Day 15 - A Song That Describes You - "Life For Rent"). But the
NEW 30-Day Song Challenge - Day 3 - A Song that Reminds You of Your Crush - "Get the Balance Right"
I don't have a song yet that reminds me of my current crush (it's only been three weeks since our first date), so I decided to choose one from a long-ago crush (more specifically, an almost-thirty-years-ago fiance). I met my long-ago crush at work
Online Writing Communities – My Job
Recently read a post by a fellow #freelancewriter who has got to be one of the most ambitious #writers on the web. Her paw prints seem to be everywhere and ALL of her stuff is really good! ( &Ruby3881 ♥) She wrote a #FOPP post and indic
Going Backwards or is It Forwards?
Vehicle Test We got a new (new to us) car earlier this year and I only noticed a few days ago that it is due its annual vehicle test later this month. When we went to book the test, all the available dates were for August, which is well past the date the
Word Art
I have two primary reasons for writing. One is that I use writing as a tool, to get the jumbled mess of thoughts in my head out, and to put them into some kind of order that makes some sort of sense. The other is that I've always admired
NEW 30-Day Song Challenge - Day 2 - A Song from Your Favorite Solo Artist - "All I Wanna Do"
Like any challenge with the word "favorite" used as a qualifier, I had trouble determining just who my favorite solo artist is. It varies. I can have a different "favorite" solo artist every hour of every day. So today, at this particular time of
FOPP Project for July - The Juggling of the Three
Sorry to be getting a bit of a late start on July, but, as with the FOPP project for June, this is one you can start any time and, hopefully, continue forever--or, hey, 'til whenever (if you didn't see the #FOPP project for June, just click the above link-
Short Story Review: "Celephaïs" by H. P. Lovecraft
This is about a dreamer named Kuranes. At least, that’s his name in his dreams. His name in the work-a-day world is never given. He is the last of his family, having lost land and money, and is alone in London. He dreams and writes of his
NEW 30-Day Song Challenge - Day 1 - A Song You Always Sing Along To - "The Star-Spangled Banner"
In case you missed it, &AliCanary has done it again - she has created an all-new 30 Day Song Challenge. As a music lover, there is no way that I will allow myself to be left behind. You can find her original challenge here: HERE. Fo
Journal 07-06-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday, July 06, 2015. The temperature is 66.1°F and the humidity is 85% at 5:01 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was ove
A New Proverb?
What is a Proverb? A proverb is a wise saying. It embodies a truth in a few words that everyone can either understand straight away or learn to under stand very quickly. Some examples are: people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, or don't cross your
Continuing to Earn Coins
With three-and-a-half days into July (the 4th at 1:00 p.m. PDT), I am sitting at 10,900 coins in my bank here at Persona Paper. My initial goal is to be able to cash out my first payment by my 60th birthday. It requires only 2434 more coins to b
Ghost Story Review: "The Superstitious Man's Story" by Thomas Hardy
This is a short little tale, narrated by an anonymous man who listens to the “seedman’s father” explain why there was something strange about William’s death. The seedman’s father tells of a number of occurrences up until the
Journal 07-01-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday, July 01, 2015. The temperature is 69.2°F and the humidity is 76% at 5:23 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. There w
Journal 06-30-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday, June 30, 2015. The temperature is 66.1°F and the humidity is 85% at 5:23 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. There were
A Damnyankee on the Confederate Flag
When I first heard of the mass shooting of the nine people in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, I was as shocked and appalled as anyone else. The delusional white supremacist young man who slaughtered innocent people at prayer seemed to feel threaten
Active Tweeter Since April 2012
Responding to a #FOPP post by &bestwriter . Twitter asks me to follow Barack Obama!! My response was too long to just leave a comment. ◊ ◊ ◊ Some people can't have life on the #Internet without their #socialmedia accounts. Others could
Journal 06-29-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday, June 29, 2015. The temperature is 66.1°F and the humidity is 81% at 4:29 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. There were a
Journal 06-28-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Sunday, June 28, 2015. The temperature is 67.5°F and the humidity is 77% at 4:45 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was clo
Short Story Review: "Antarctica" by Laura van den Berg
“In Antarctica,” the reader is told, “there was nothing to identify because there was nothing left.” But Lee comes to Antarctica anyway to find out what she can about her brother’s death. A researcher, he’d be
Gone for the Afternoon to Hang Out with Friends
I am taking the afternoon off from here at home and the computer with my writing goals. I have some things I need to accomplish, and then will be meeting friends for coffee. First, I want to return the fourth season of The Boardwalk Empire to the library.
Journal 06-27-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday, June 27, 2015. The temperature is 63.8°F and the humidity is 84% at 5:43 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was c
Short Story Review: "Madame Bovary's Greyhound" by Karen Russell
This is an odd sort of tale, one that means more if one was subjected to—I mean if one has read—Guy Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. If it doesn’t happen to be on your just-read shelf, Flaubert’s book is about a dullard and a young w
One Hundred a Day? Are You Crazy?
Since I met my 10,000 coins level four and a half days before my goal of June 30th, I feel the need to set a new goal for June 30th. It is something that needs to keep me focused on the goal to reach my first payout by my 60th birthday on August
Journal 06-26-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Friday, June 26, 2015. The temperature is 64.9°F and the humidity is 61% at 4:56 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0.7 mph. There were
A Yankee In the South and the Confederate Flag
If you've been hiding from the internet lately, you might have missed the fact that there's been a lot of controversy about the #Confederate #flag in the last week or so. As a non-Southerner living in the American South, I can tell you that this i
Journal 06-25-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Thursday, June 25, 2015. The temperature is 64.3°F and the humidity is 88% at 4:48 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. There
The Best Way to Spend a Rainy Day
I love rain. I have always loved rain. When I was a child, I lived in a place where we didn't get enough rain - there was a drought that lasted for years - so whenever we got any rain, we, as kids, just savored it. Rain usually brought fr
Journal 06-24-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The temperature is 62°F and the humidity is 84% at 4:44 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was clea
Journal 06-23-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday, June 23, 2015. The temperature is 61.5°F and the humidity is 82% at 4:38 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was pa
Article Review: "TV as Birth Control" by Fred Pearce
Author Fred Pearce opens his short article by noting what many may find striking, that is, that the birth rate in India has fallen dramatically recently to 2.5 children per woman of child-bearing age. Many Indians are still very poor. What, the author asks
Journal 06-22-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday, June 22, 2015. The temperature is 64°F and the humidity is 92% at 4:55 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was overc
Journal 06-21-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Sunday, June 21, 2015. The temperature is 63.5°F and the humidity is 89% at 6:07 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It’s
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Skull" by Philip K. Dick
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 06-20-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday, June 20, 2015. The temperature is 70.1°F and the humidity is 73% at 9:07 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 2.2 mph with gusts of 3.8 mph. It&rsq
Children of the Moon
Many websites and/or blogs offer newsletters. Subscribing to receive updates via eMail is as simple as providing your mailing address. Although free newsletters abound, free does not always equate to worthwhile reading. If you have an interest in what's ha
Horror: Short Story Review: "Familiar Face" by Robert M. Price
Randy is a student at Ayelsbury State College where he’s studying enough to get by. He has a crush on his lab partner, Claudia, but she has nothing but contempt for him and his lewd remarks. The white rats they study together are objects of disgust f
On a Mission This Weekend, Care to Join Me?
I am on a mission this summer solstice weekend. Actually, I have several things I would like to accomplish, but since this weekend will be a lot of daylight, I am going to try to cram as much as I possibly can do to catch up on many things I have neglected
Journal 06-19-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Friday, June 19, 2015. The temperature is 60.8°F and the humidity is 88% at 4:28 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was clear
Article Review: "How to Use Public Relations to Promote Your Book and Your Career" by Lorena Beniquez
This is another one I haven’t tackled for a while. The book I’m dissecting is Writer’s Digest Guide to Self-Publishing 2015. Writer’s Digest aims its publications at the aspiring and the emerging writer. It produces how-to and guid
What's in Your Cornucopia?
In America we celebrate Thanksgiving. The cornucopia is a part of our American traditions. A cornucopia, also called “horn of plenty”, for those who may not know, is a symbol of a harvest – usually pictured as goat's horn overflowing with
Journal 06-18-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Thursday, June 18, 2015. The temperature is 64.1°F and the humidity is 87% at 5:10 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was o
My Mid-Week Agenda Will Not Be Announced
It's Wednesday. Mid-week and I have plans. Not written in stone. But plans just the same. See the related posts below. Well here's the story behind them. Long time ago a Jewish friend of mine shared this proverb with me: “We make pl
Journal 06-17-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday, June 17, 2015. The temperature is 64.3°F and the humidity is 84% at 5:05 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 4.5 mph. It was
Creating a Bibliography or Reference List
OK, so I am supposed to be editing my thesis but I wish I had known this at the start. Well, I probably did but not what was needed. This is just the "lite" version so if you are starting out on higher studies, you don't have to feel overwhelmed with readi
Apples to Apples
Ever since Suite.io convinced me that publishing #articles online was a work-at-home project worth pursuing, never looked back. Only looked for. Looked FOR more online writing sites that had free registration or sign up that would publish my writings. To c
Ghost Story Short Story Review: "The Haunted and the Haunters" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The unnamed narrator of this story is happy to hear of a haunted house in London that no one seems to be able to spend more than a night or two in. He takes his servant F—— and his dog (oh, just put a red shirt on the poor wee beastie!) and eng
Keyword phrases
Suggested By: &AliCanary's article maximize-your-page-views What Are Keywords? Keywords are the words AND PHRASES that Google and Bing and other search engines look for. Why? Because these are what people SEARCH FOR. Search engines want to find
Journal 06-16-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday, June 16, 2015. The temperature is 64°F and the humidity is 88% at 5:05 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was overca
Journal 06-15-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday, June 15, 2015. The temperature is 64.9°F and the humidity is 87% at 626 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was over
On the Way to 10K
Here it is at 3 o'clock in the morning on Monday morning and I awake again. I completely forgot about checking this around midnight, which is when I set my deadline. It is doubtful, based on how much I have been interacting this past hour, that I m
Journal 06-14-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Sunday, June 14, 2015. The temperature is 64.3°F and the humidity is 86% at 5:00 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was ove
It was his wife's panties or nothing!
DIY enthusiast A cousin of mine is married to a DIY enthusiast. He was not only a DIY enthusiast but also a music fanatic, with Hi Fi and all sorts of musical equipment. Loft Conversion He had so much equipment that there really was no space in the hous
Taking Another Plunge
Earlier today, I followed &valmnz's lead and started to challenge myself with a Crazy Race for Coins Challenge. I looked at the starting point and set a 39-hour goal, figuring that it would take me awhile to reach it. My starting point:
65 Questions You've Probably Never Been Asked
I saw the "65 Questions" game among &AliCanary's articles, and she picked it up from &alexdg1 on TheSiteWhichShallRemainNameless. Obviously, I'm VERY behind on my PP reading, but this one looked like it might be a fun way to help myself get ba
journal 06-13-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday, June 13, 2015. The temperature is 63.2°F and the humidity is 85% at 4:32 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 mph with gusts of 3.1 mph. It was
Journal 06-12-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Friday, June 12, 2015. The temperature is 64.6°F and the humidity is 86% at 4:54 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was ove
Create A Motivation Chart
How to make a Motivation Chart A motivation chart (well mine anyway) has 3 sections: the middle section, which is the biggest part, where you record what you do: the bottom section that reminds you of the habits you want to cultivate and a top section whe
Eleven Still Remain
It started seven months ago with four plants. They were planted into ordinary flower pots. Straight branches found and cut in a nearby forest were added for support. The plants were put closely to the eastern wall and under the roof. They would get enough
Four Top Secret Habits to Improve Your Time Management
Secret Habits? Dirty Rabbits, my husband used to call them when our children were small! But no, not those dirty rabbits, useful secret habits that no one even knows you are doing! Maybe you won't even realise you are dong them when you get them engrained
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Year of the Big Thaw" by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Reverend Doane is perplexed by Matthew Emmett’s scholarship application. Everyone knows that Mr. Emmett and his wife Martha are the boy’s parents, yet Emmett has written on the application that the boy’s birthplace is “unknown.&rdqu
Journal 06-11-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Thursday, June 11, 2015. The temperature is 63.1°F and the humidity is 44% at 4:37 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 3.1 mph. It&rsquo
The Secret To Time Management
Managing Time Managing time can be difficult. We all have the same amount as we keep getting told but some of us have to put more into that time than others. And some of us manage to get a whole LOT more done than some others so what's the secret? The Se
Today's Libraries Are Fantastic!
I recently heard the following exchange in the Biography section of my local library: "Hey, Simon, good to see you! What are you doing here?" "Uh, I'm at a LIBRARY. I'm here to get BOOKS." I'll admit that I found the exchange amu
It's Been a Year! A Review of My First Year at Persona Paper
Happy Anniversary to me, and to a lot of other people here on Persona Paper! I joined PP on June 10,2014, along with quite a few other folks. As a matter of fact, there was such a stampede at that time that the admins actually closed admissions for a time
Journal 6-10-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday, June 10, 2015. The temperature is 66.4°F and the humidity is 84% at 6:08 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 mph with gusts of 3.8 mph. It&rs
Journal 06-09-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday June 9, 2015. The temperature is 67.8°F and the humidity is 79% at 4:58 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was overca
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "They Twinkled Like Jewels" by Philip José Farmer
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 06-08-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday June 8, 2015. The temperature is 60.8°F and the humidity is 90% at 5:38 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was overcas
Using a Tablet On Here is Difficult
Middle of the Night I am on my Tablet at the minute (the technological one, not the medication). It's the early hours of the morning and I couldn't get back to sleep so am spending a short time here before going back to bed. The Tablet boots up very quick
Journal 06-07-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Sunday June 7, 2015. The temperature is 59.3°F and the humidity is 85% at 4:03 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was cloudy
This Scream and Shout is About Something Sweet
My last #FOPP post may have bummed people out. But needed some place to go scream and shout. Readers here are Persona Paper are great for that! Decided to follow up the post about albinos with an add-on to a previous post that was published abou
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The World Behind the Moon" by Paul Ernst
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 06-06-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday June 6, 2015. The temperature is 61.9°F and the humidity is 73% at 5:46 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 mph with gusts of 3.8 mph. It was o
Journal 06-05-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Friday May 5, 2015. The temperature is 61.4°F and the humidity is 67% at 5:59 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was cloudy
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Stoker and the Stars" by Algis Budrys
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 06-04-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Thursday June 4, 2015. The temperature is 62.2°F and the humidity is 83% at 5:00 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 3.8 mph. It was ove
Journal 06-03-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday June 3, 2015. The temperature is 62.8°F and the humidity is 80% at 5:41 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was ov
Journal 06-02-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday June 2, 2015. The temperature is 57.9°F and the humidity is 87% at 5:02 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 0 mph. It was clear
FOPP Project for June - The Front-Page Challenge!
I think I am still the Secretary of #FOPP , even though I have been egregiously lazy about my role as such, so I am herewith making an official post for June, but instead of just posting a list of members, some of whom aren't active any more, I've dec
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Nothing Equation" by Tom Godwin
Green was the third man to occupy the observation bubble, 10,000 light years beyond the galaxy’s outermost sun. A project of Earth’s Galactic Observation Bureau, it was positioned there to gather data that could not be made within t
Journal 05-30-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday May 30, 2015. The temperature is 61.5°F and the humidity is 89% at 4:40 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 mph with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was ove
Since AbbyG asked....
This is in response to &AbbyG’s post “How did you come up with your 'pen name'?” Way back in the mists of internet time, say 1997, I stumbled across a site dedicated to ancient history, then called Ancient Sites. Oh, boy. Kid/ca
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Memory of Mars" by Raymond F. Jones
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as
Journal 05-27-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday May 27, 2015. The temperature is 61.7°F and the humidity is 81% at 5:41 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was overca
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Man Who Saw the Future" by Edmond Hamilton
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 05-26-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Tuesday May 26, 2015. The temperature is 61.2°F and the humidity is 55% at 4:49 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 3.1 mph. It was o
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Last Evolution" by John Wood Campbell
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 05-25-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Monday May 25, 2015, Memorial Day. The temperature is 59.3°F and the humidity is 84% at 4:13 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 2.2 mph.
Science Fiction Short Story Review "The Hated" by Frederik Pohl
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Memorial Day is NOT Veterans Day
As I was perusing my Facebook feed this morning, I saw it again: someone posted a Memorial Day tribute to "the men and women serving our country". Um, there's a little problem with this. Memorial Day is set aside to #honor those who have
Journal 05-24-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today Sunday May 24, 2015. The temperature is 61.4°F and the humidity is 53% at 4:29 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was mostly clo
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Gifts of the Asti" by Andre Norton
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 05-22-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Friday May 22, 2015. The temperature is 59.4F and the humidity is 51% at 5:05 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 1.6 with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was cloudy when
Journal 05-21-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Thursday May 21, 2015. The temperature is 60.3°F and the humidity is 75% at 6:07 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 3.1 mph. It was overc
Journal 05-20-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Wednesday May 20, 2015. The temperature is 57.3°F and the humidity is 87% at 5:39 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was overca
My Baseline Mammogram and the Ensuing Nightmare
Apparently, the PersonaPaper Universe really wants me to write about my breast. I had written a response article last month about how my emotions reacted differently to two different incidents where there were lumps in my #breast (Life Is Calling), b
Jammin'
I have been up to my eyeballs in #strawberries this weekend. It's not a bad thing, although it may be a little excessive. Let me explain. I am not a domestic diva. I rarely spend a lot of time on cooking. In fact, I would even sa
Journal 05-16-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is for you. Today is Saturday May 16, 2015. The temperature is 53.6°F and the humidity is 84% at 5:21 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. It was mostly cl
Making Money on Tsu - Part 2
Sharing Links on Tsū – Three For One. Last month I shared this information with the #FOPP community: Making Money on Tsū Nation * * * Below is a link to a short article published via dailytwocents.com . Tsū A Social Network that Pays
Journal 05-15-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day is Friday May 15, 2015. The temperature is 54.8°F and the humidity is 93% at 3:48 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. It was overcast when I stuck my head
The Fair is in Town!
Having lived for several decades in Montreal, which at one point had not one but two sizable amusement parks to its credit, I used to take them for granted. It's not quite living next door to Disney World, but you do go through life assuming that anytime y
Journal 05-11-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday May 11, 2015. The temperature is 57.3°F and the humidity is 57% at 4:53 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. It was o
Frugal Tip: Eat Your Carrot Tops!
Most carrots some in a bag with the green top already removed. But if you shop at the farmers market, or if you are lucky enough to find bunched carrots at the grocery store with the greens intact, take advantage! Carrot greens have these lovely, lace-lik
Science Fiction Short Story Review "The Eternal Wall" by Raymond Z. Gallun
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Science Fiction Short Story Review: “The Day Time Stopped Moving” by Bradner Buckner
All Dave Miller wanted was to commit suicide in peace. He was drunk. His drugstore was going under and he was doing nothing but drinking only more. His refinance scheme involves race horses. Now Helen was leaving him. Well, he would show her! So he picked
Journal 05-09-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday May 9, 2015. The temperature is 55.7°F the humidity is 87% at 4:18 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. It was cloudy when
Short Story Review: "The Tree" by H.P. Lovecraft
A traveler to Mount Maenlus in Arcadia notices an olive grove and a ruined villa with a large tomb. Among the olive grove is a particularly large, misshapen olive tree with roots growing into the tomb. It looks almost like man, or perhaps a man’s bod
Journal 05-07-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday May 7, 2015. The temperature is 5°F 8.9 the humidity is 7% at 4:36 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 1.6 with gusts of 3.1 mph. It was cloudy
Perhaps It's Best Not To Leave Me Alone With a Smart Phone and Your Kids
Last night, I went out to dinner with some friends, and one of my friends regaled the others on something that happened last December. I introduced her children to "Fart Metal". Let me explain. I am unmarried. I have no children.
Short Story Review: "Mastiff" by Joyce Carol Oats
As this story begins, a middle-aged couple, hiking on a Northern California trail, meet a young man struggling to control his huge mastiff. The woman, who was attacked by a German shepherd as a child, is struck by dog’s size. That isn’t a
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Cosmic Express" by Jack Williamson
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
journal 05-06-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Wednesday May 6, 2015. The temperature is 59.3°F and the humidity is 76% at 4:57 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 2.2 mph. It was over
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "The Big Trip Up Yonder" by Kurt Vonnegut
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
journal 05-05-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Tuesday May 5, 2015. The temperature is 59.4°F and the humidity is 7% at 4:58 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 3.1 mph. It was overcas
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt 05-04-2015
I’d like to continue a (sorta) daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to i
Journal 05-04-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday May 4, 2015. The temperature is 60.5°F and the humidity is 74% at 6:04 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 3.1 mph. Still dawning.
Article Review: "Ants go Marching" by Jason Nobel
This article begins by describing a 1967 chemical attack by air on Solenopsis invicta, better known the fire ant or “ants from hell” or “them devils” to people in the Southeastern United States where the pest arrived from its native
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "Subspace Survivors" by Edward E. Smith
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt
I’d like to continue a (sorta) daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to i
Journal 05-03-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Sunday May 3, 2015. The temperature is 60.3°F and the humidity is 53% at 6:04 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 2.2 mph. Still dawning.
Short Story Review: "Fairy Gossamer" by Harry Harrison Kroll
William Thompson is looking for a specimen of the genus Arimnes, the most brilliantly colored of the spiders in temperate zones, for his work at Vanderbilt University. Here, in the cavernous limestone area of Kentucky, he’s sure he’ll find one.
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "Vital Ingredient" by Charles V. De Vet
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Sad and Disgusted over Allegations Against a Once Favorite Author
Two of the threads of reading I did when I was in my late teens and early 20s were Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books, about a lost colony from earth who’d intermarried with a native population on Darkover; and anything having to do with Ar
journal 05-02-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday May 2, 2015. The temperature is 59.9°F and the humidity is 61% at 4:32 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. Awfully quie
Ghost Story review: "A Shady Plot" by Elsie Brown
John Hallock has just sat down to write the ghost story that his editor ordered him to produce. It’s what the public wants and, since his magazine is the only one that’s been printing his work, Hallock is not going to argue. In the past, he&rs
My Weekend Agenda
This is a follow-up to a previous post: Already Shared? Repin and Hashtag It's on my #To Do List” however, the project went on a back burner because my other home business tasks kept screaming louder. A friend used to say: “Whichever makes t
Journal 05-01-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday May 1, 2015. The temperature is 58.3°F and the humidity is 69% at 6:39 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. The sunrise wa
Is Toya Graham, Mother of a Baltimore Protester, Really the Mother of the Year?
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that there have been some #riots in Baltimore, MD, over the death of Freddie Gray. And unless you're completely disconnected from social media and the media in general, you're aware of Toya Graham, the mothe
Science Fiction Short Story "Security" by Poul Anderson
“In a world where Security is all-important,” this story opens, “nothing can ever be secure.” Allen Lancaster’s tough day at the lab is made tougher by a visit from the Efficiency Inspector sticking his nose in and making mar
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt 04-30-2015
I’d like to continue a (sorta) daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to i
What we can do to help Persona Paper
I have seen a few posts recently commenting on how quiet it has been around here recently. I have also seen a few suggestions as to why this is, most of them saying that its the combination of low earnings and a high payment threshold that's causing the pr
Journal 04-30-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday April 30, 2015. The temperature is 67.8°F and the humidity is 47% at 8:33 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 1.6 mph. It&rsqu
Life Is Calling
A couple of weeks ago, &CoralLevang wrote of the moment of #worry that comes during that time when you don't know what the #doctor has to say ( Facing Another Diagnosis? ). I read it with a slight pang of familiarity. When I was 26 years
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "Salvage in Space" by Jack Williamson
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 04-29-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Wednesday April 29, 2015. The temperature is 57.3°F and the humidity is 61% at 5:18 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. It was cle
Some Greek Lyric Poetry
This is my entry into &valmnz ‘s #GreatPoetryReadingDay Challenge. As I mentioned in my earlier post on World Poetry, this book presents poetry chronology, further divided by culture. The first division is poets of Bronze and Iron Ages, which th
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt
I’d like to propose a daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to ins
Death by Back Pain
I have hurt my back. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be paralyzed for life. Or I'm going to die. Whatever. I'm being overdramatic, of course. Actually, all I did was get a twinge in my lower back when I was putting some dishes away on a lower sh
Science Fictions Short Story Review: "Remember the Alamo!" by T. R. Fehrenbach
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Journal 04-28-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday April 28, 2015. The temperature is 57.6°F and the humidity is 39% at 4:42 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. It was clea
These Are My Rules
These are my rules. Imposed on myself only. Nobody else has to follow them. If you're wondering how it is that the “Like” rectangle at the top of your post gets converted into a blue check mark which means it received a “Thumbs Up”
Science Fiction Short Story Review: "Pandemic" by Jesse F. Bone
Research pathologist Dr. Walter Kramer is hiring another new assistant. It’s not his pipe that’s driving them away. Thurston’s disease has wiped out nearly one billion of the three billion people on the planet. It’s particularly har
I am not a hero, but I do make a difference
I am currently watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where they are building a new home for a family in which both parents became first responders after losing their son in an accident. They have country singer Clint Black as one of the people helping an
Journal 04-26-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Sunday April 26, 2015. The temperature is 52.2°F and the humidity is 92% at 5:33 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. It was clea
Article Review: "It Takes a Village" by Mary Shafer
Writer’s Digest produces books for writers and aspiring writers without end in sight. Often, these books are collections of articles over a spectrum of a chosen topic with professional writers’ contributions. This is for the format for the curr
Journal 04-25-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday April 25, 2015. The temperature is 59.1°F and the humidity is 83% at 4:47 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. It was over
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt
I’d like to propose a daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to inspire, to get
Short Story Review: "The Cats of Ulthar" of H. P. Lovecraft
In Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, it’s said that there is a law forbidding men to kill cats. It wasn’t always this way. Indeed, once there was an old cotter and his wife who took it upon themselves to put an end to any cat they could
Journal 04-24-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday April 24, 2015. The temperature is 57.4°F and the humidity is 83% at 5:32 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. It’s
Please Don't Pressure Me to Get Married!
When I was in my 20's and early 30's, my mother was desperate to get me married off. I learned early on that any introduction to any new boyfriend would be met with a torrent of expectations that he was "the one". I also learned early that it was
We have so much to catch up on
I feel like I have been away for ages, actually I have still been about reading and commenting but I have been so busy with final exams and placement that I haven't written anything in over a week. I have noticed that its been kinda quiet around here rece
Journal 04-23-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday April 23, 2015. The temperature is 59.1°F and the humidity is 81% at 7:12 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 3.8 mph. Got up
(Sorta) Daily Writing Prompt April 22
I’d like to propose a daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to inspire, to get
short story review: "God" by Benjamin Nugent
“God” earned her nickname for writing a poem about the premature ejaculation of the president of the narrator’s fraternity. The reader is treated to this the ode in full, pull a few verses a fraternity brother adds on his own. It is every
Journal 04-22-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today Wednesday April 22, 2015. The temperature is 55.7°F and the humidity is 81% at 8:07 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was p
Article Review: "The Return of Measles" by Seth Mnookin
This short article, which first appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine in 2013, did not foretell the recent Disneyland measles outbreak, but anyone reading it could have seen something like this coming, sadly. What makes measles most frightening, according
Journal 04-21-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Tuesday April 21, 2015. Hard to believe we’ve been married for a month. The temperature is 60.2°F and the humidity is 43% at 8:07 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows
Short Story review: "The Next Logical Step" by Ben Bova
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Short Story Review: "Exhibit A" by Anne Harris Hadley
This story open as all that’s left of Captain Rowell’s plane has been cleaned up. He’d wrecked 1000 miles from where he’s taken off. In 2015, this distance is not all that remarkable, but this story was written in 1924, when planes
Short Short Review: "In the Barn" by Burges Johnson
The narrator of this story, a teacher, and his wife bring a group of students into an old barn that has been unused for some 30 years to tell them a seasonal ghost story. The girls arrange themselves in a circle on the hay. The teacher, already suspicious
Journal 04-20-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday April 20, 2015. The temperature is 59.3°F and the humidity is 79% at 4:46 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 3.1 mph. The sky w
Family Secrets
Skeletons in The Closet! Have you ever learned a long lost family secret? Some of them go to the grave with those involved but others surface unexpectedly. As children, probably grown-up secrets are kept hidden but as adults, sometimes we are let into a w
Journal 04-19-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Sunday April 19, 2015. The temperature is 54.1°F and the humidity is 74% at 4:33 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was c
Journal 04-17-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday April 17, 2015. The temperature is 5405°F and the humidity is 39% at 4:44 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky was
Might is Right!
UPDATE! This article has now been updated as things have changed since it was first written. Abuse Recently, there have been a number of high profile abuse cases involving very prominent people, including show business celebrities, politicians and even
Do Not Beam Us Up!
People! You make it very hard to leave this site and work on my other projects! There's really a lot of banter that goes on here. This morning my plan was to type up a quick post, and then go work on my other websites and blogs. Before I could blink, my po
Already Shared? Repin and Hashtag
Glad to have found this site, PersonaPaper.com . In searching for something to read, you can always quickly glance the home page to see “Most Recent” posts. Trying to do organic search for posts to read via Google, Bing or Yahoo or some other s
Journal 04-14-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Tuesday April 14, 2015. The temperature is 59.9°F and the humidity is 55% at 5:16 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky wa
What Does a Disabled Veteran Look Like?
One of my coworkers was at a marketing event last week, and while there, a representative from one of our local donut stores gave her several boxes of donuts to bring back to our office to share. As she was putting them into her car, a man approached her a
Journal 04-13-2015
As I mentioned in my earlier post on World Poetry, this book presents poetry chronology, further divided by culture. The first division is poets of Bronze and Iron Ages, which the book dates from 2200-250 BCE. That’s long period of time. The editors
Journal 04-13-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday April 13, 2015. The temperature is 55.4°F and the humidity is 85% at 5:22 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was c
Journal 04-12-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Sunday April 12, 2015. The temperature is 60°F and the humidity is 74% at 8:34 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0.7 with gusts of 3.1 mph. The sky is
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "Missing Link" by Frank Herbert
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Short Story review: "The Terrible Old Man" by H. P. Lovecraft
The Terrible Old Man lives on Water Street in an old house that the good New England folk shun. He keeps to himself, but it’s believed that he was once a captain of East India clipper ships. Among the gnarled trees in his front yard stand oddly arran
Journal 04-11-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday April 11, 2015. The temperature is 52.4°F and the humidity is 47% at 5:35 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was
Journal 04-10-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday April 10, 2015. The temperature is 53.6°F and the humidity is 79% at 7:03 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 2.2 mph. The sky is
One – Two – Three – Coffee!
One – two – three. That's how my kids remember how to make me a cup of coffee. One teaspoon of instant coffee. Two teaspoons of sugar. Real sugar! Three heaping teaspoons of coffee creamer. Every once in a while throw in a d
Short Story Review: "La Pulchra Nota" by Molly McNett
The 14th century world of the narrator, music instructor John Fuller, is ordered by god. The good things, the perfect things such as the beautiful song of the bird he heard as child can come only from god. The bad things also come from god, for purposes hu
Journal 04-09-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday April 9, 2015. The temperature is 51.5°F and the humidity is 75% at 4:30 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky is c
Article Review: "Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future" by Maryn McKenna
While I’ve enjoyed every article in this book up to this point and have been nearly unfailing in my praise, I think I’ve finally hit a stinker here. The topic is antibiotic resistance, something that is enormously scary and lurking—if not
Review: "The Edge of the Shadow" by R. Ernest Dupuy
This uses the popular device of an acquaintance of the narrator telling the main story. The narrator tells his reader that it’s remarkable that he should believe him. He has no explanation and only limited knowledge of the goings on, hear
Journal 04-08-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Wednesday April 8, 2015. The temperature is 50.4°F and the humidity is 94% at 5:18 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky i
Short Story Reveiw: Ghost Story: "The Specter of Tappington" by Richard Harris Barham
This story opens with Lt. Charles Seaforth looking under his bed. Seems his pants have gone missing. Seaforth, visiting some cousins, is on three years’ furlough from his regiment of Bombay Fencibles in the Hon. East India Company. He’s trying
Journal 04-07-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Tuesday April 7, 2015. The temperature is 51.1°F and the humidity is 42% at 4:20 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky is
Journal 04-06-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday April 6, 2015. The temperature is 56.2°F and the humidity is 80% at 5:11 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 1.6 with gusts of 3.1 mph. Th
Journal 04-04-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday April 4, 2015. The temperature is 59.7°F and the humidity is 39% at 8:11 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. The sky is
How to Use Rinse-Out Hair Conditioner
We all buy shampoo and conditioner, and they seem pretty easy to use. Lather up the shampoo, rinse it out, apply conditioner, rinse it out...wait a minute. Did you do that right? Hair conditioner needs to be left on your hair for two full minutes to do any
Captcha Challenge - "Streams of Oceanus"
I've been enjoying doing Captcha challenges because the Captchas have been very entertaining lately. I figured I would get some goofy little saying that I could riff about. Little did I know that I would get a Captcha that would require me to Google someth
Article Review: "30-Day Platform Challenge: Build Your Writer Platform in a Month" by Robert Lee Brewer
Writer’s Digest produces books for writers and aspiring writers without end in sight. Often, these books are collections of articles over a spectrum of a chosen topic with professional writers’ contributions. This is for the format for the curr
Journal 04-03-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday April 3, 2015. How did it get to be Friday already again? The temperature is 52.7°F and the humidity is 76% at 5:01 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained win
Don’t Underestimate the Intelligence of a Child Who Reads
A friend posted a question on Facebook for Throwback Thursday: "Readers - are there books you read in childhood which you've reread in adulthood that took on a whole different meaning?" As a voracious reader since childhood, this query was right up my alle
Short Story Review: "The Street" by H. P. Lovecraft
This story begins with the narrator saying that most people don’t believe things and places have souls. The narrator wishes to speak of The Street. Men of strength and honour fashioned that Street; good, valiant men of our blood who had come from th
Short Story Review: "This is Not a Love Song" by Brenden Mathews
This contemporary story is about two long-time friends, one a musician and the other photographer who always has her camera at the ready. And her favorite subject is the musician, Kat. The story is narrated by the photographer as if she were flipping thro
Journal 04-02-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday April 2, 2015. The temperature is 54.4°F and the humidity is 82% at 5:08 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was
Captcha Challenge - "loud music"
It's not time for my next song challenge, yet, but I want to do another Captcha challenge, because you never know what you'll get. This time I got "loud music". All RIGHT! I don't have to do any research on this one. Loud music can be great or it can be ho
PANDAS is not the same as Pandas
Pandas - lovely cuddly black and white animals, symbol of the World Wide Fund for animals, eaters of bamboo and shoots and possibly stars of the grammar book "Eats shoots and leaves" (or maybe not). What is PANDAS? Totally different from PANDAS which is
Another 11 Questions, by allen0187
Okay, I thought I had done my part of this challenge, but &allen0187 hooked me in with some interesting questions that are too interesting to not answer, as featured in this article. Here are his eleven questions, with my answers: 1. Board the Titanic
Just Write Anything - Writing Up a Mess - 6
How do you become a Writer? One writer, when asked, "how do you become a writer?" said, "Apply rear end to seat and write. Stay there until you have written to your target." I don't know what to write More advice says that if you don't know what to writ
Review of Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer is the second book I have read by much-lauded author Barbara Kingsolver. The first was The Poisonwood Bible, a novel about the tribulations of an American missionary family in the Belgian Congo, which was a runaway best-seller, and which I
Very Soon
I have been waiting for you. You told me "very soon." But I am losing track of time. "Very soon," you said. But now my dish has been empty of both food and water. My stomach feels as if it is tying itself in knots. Occasionally, I hear it talk to me. I w
11 Question Challenge
This is an 11-Question Challenge that I read from a post of &CoralLevang ‘s. The challenge is not simply to answer the questions and pass them on, but to answer the questions and write and new set. If you accept the ch
The Eleven-Question Challenge
A writer on another site posted a question challenge. To take the challenge, you have to answer the 11 questions in the post (the ones at the end, that I came up with), then come up with 11 questions of your own for people to answer in their own post. Tag
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "McIlvaine's Star" by August Derleth
This is one of author August Derleth’s stories involving newspaperman Tex Harrigan. In this, Tex is relating an odd story about an old man he came across, Thaddeus McIlvaine, one of the “lost people or strayed, crackpots or warped geniuses.&rdq
Article review: "Awakening" by Joshua Lang
This article explores the nature of consciousness by way of surgical anesthesia: How does the anesthesiologist know when the patient is out so that surgery can be performed painlessly? Though rare, there are instances of patients waking up during surgery.
Journal 03-29-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Sunday March 29, 2015. The temperature is 58.9°F and the humidity is 87% at 5:25 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky was
Just Explaining
Now that it's been almost a week since my last post it's about time I contributed something here. Right now though, I am busy avoiding the inevitable task of vacuuming. I really do dislike vacuuming. As one who has back problems, vacuuming always takes it
Jounal 03-28-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Saturday March 28, 2015. The temperature is 57°F and the humidity is 71% at 4:20 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky was c
Mirror Mirror Movie Review
My husband and I watched the movie Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer (the hottie McHotterson who played the Lone Ranger in 2013's flopapalooza of the same name, and also the twins in The Social Network--yeah, that was just one guy) and ne
Mandatory Church Attendance???
Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen recently floated a suggestion that church attendance should be mandatory to stop the "moral erosion" in America. She said this while debating a gun bill. Apparently, this woman has never heard of a little t
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "Lease to Doomsday" by Lee Archer
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
"What Does the Fox Say?" the Wackiest Video of 2013?
I saw an ad for eFax that features a guy dressed in a funny fox costume asking, "What does the fax say?". Clearly, the "What Does the Fox Say?" video took the world by storm in 2013, so much so that pretty much EVERYBODY has seen it, and therefore, th
Glitches Frustrate Me
I have noticed these past few articles that I have posted that there is some sort of "glitch." Once I am done writing, which I check for errors, and then upload to the system, the published piece has several words that run together. There does not s
I'll Take Half, Please
I spend half my time pondering things that half the people I know would not think of at all. Sometimes, I spend half again as much time considering too many options when I make decisions. It makes the other half of the people I know half-crazy, but
Daily Writing Prompt Challenge 03-26-2015
I’d like to propose a daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here: http://bit.ly/1OzvdTS The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intend
Review: "The Dump" by Joe R. Lansdale
The unnamed narrator of this little tale is talking to a guest, telling him he’s happy living by the dump he works at. Every so often, he breaks his story to call for Otto. He lets Otto wander on Sundays. Most of the time he keeps him tied up. Wouldn
Hey Ho, It's HBO!
I was recently offered a deal from Time Warner Cable in the wake of my otherwise EXTREMELY crappy experience with them http://personapaper.com/article/26825-time-warner-cable-almost-made-me-cry that I could get faster internet as well as a cable bundl
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "The Indulgence of Negu Mah" by Robert Andrew Arthur
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as
Journal 03-26-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Thursday March 26, 2015. The temperature is 56.2°F and the humidity is 70% at 5:24 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0.7 mph. The sky w
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 30 - Your Favorite Song At This Time Last Year - "Hallelujah"
I know that I've mentioned here in there in various comments sections, and perhaps even within one of my own articles, that I try to refrain from listening to music when I'm going through a really rough time, because I don't want a great song to have my sa
Daily Writing Prompt Challenge 03-25-2015
I’d like to propose a daily writing prompt challenge. The original post is here. The prompts come from a book titled More Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations. It consists of daily quotes from various Buddhist writings intended to inspire, to
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "In the Year 2889" attributed to Jules Verne
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
Not Employed does NOT mean Not Working
I am Retired Being retired means I am not employed. I receive a pension from my former employment and a state pension. Formally, I am considered too old to have to work to earn my living. Today's Non-employed Work I awoke about 6 am, and by 8.45 am I ha
Grammatical Mistakes that Very Intelligent People Make - That vs. Which
This one is very tricky, and an extremely common mistake, so heed the rule: 'That' starts a dependent (also called restrictive) clause; 'which', an independent (nonrestrictive) one. In the example, "The dog that chased me down the street was black and bro
Productive Procrastination
So, I have this portrait due on Friday, and I did work on it a little today, but not really enough. I was actually hoping to finish it early, and it would only take maybe two more hours of work; three, at most. Problem is, whenever I have some project I am
Captcha Challenge "meddling kids"
I got the Captcha "meddling kids", which made me laugh. Some of you will know instantly where that comes from, and for the others, I will help you out: Back in the 70s (I know; ancient times), there was a cartoon on Saturday mornings called Scooby Doo that
Journal 03-25-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Wednesday March 25, 2015. The temperature is 55.9°F and the humidity is 80% at 5:25 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 0 mph. The sky wa
Review: Science Fiction Short Story: "Hex" by Laurence Mark Janifer
This is another in the series of “It Came from the Pulps!” where I review science fiction short stories that were originally published in the pulp magazines of mid-20th century. Many of these have become available in electronic form as free dow
30-Day Song Challenge Extra – A Song I Loved from 2012
To jog my memory as to what was current on the radio three years ago, I decided to go to the website of Billboard Magazine, the official hit-list maker of the music industry. However, their website must have been designed by the same chowderheads that did
Need Some Positive Vibes Sent My Way
Good morning, Persona Peeps! Another Tuesday and I am getting ready for the workshop I have for this week. It is another separatee class--three in a row. I am not sure I am up for this task this week after getting beat up (figuratively speaking) for
30 Day Song Challenge # 23 A Song that You Want to Play at Your Wedding
I’ve finally decided to jump in and take up #Alicanary ‘s 30 day Song Challenge after reading &alexdg1 ‘s and #arthurchappell ‘s posts for so long. Alicanary suggested I try it as a writing challenge. So not to be taken too seri
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 30 - Your Favorite Song at this Time Last Year
Last year, I really liked “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. It has a lot of power and emotion. It was performed in a “Battle Round” on NBC’s The Voice, and they did a pretty good job, but of course the original recording has t
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 29 - A Song From Your Childhood - "Cracklin' Rosie"
Choosing a song from my childhood is yet another topic from the 30 Day Song Challenge that involves narrowing down my choices from a rather large pool of choices. My sister is eight years older than me; what that means is that, by the time I hit the
Journal 03-23-2015
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Monday March 23, 2015, my first post-wedding post. They tell me it was a beautiful ceremony. I’ll have to take their word for it. I barely remember it. I was a bit stressed. If someone
A New Challenge for Everyone
In my last post, http://www.personapaper.com/article/27704-i-think-the-fopp-challenge-is-losing-steam, I received many comments from those who had never heard of #FOPP and who did not know Jason, its founder. Here is a link to the original challenge: http:
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 29 - A Song from Your Childhood
When I was in second grade, my mother had to go to California for a while to stay with her mother, who was ailing. Since my sister and I fought all the time and my dad would have to deal with that on top of working full time, they sensibly decided to leave
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 28 - A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty - "Black To White"
I'm not sure what the difference is between a song that makes you feel guilty and a guilty pleasure. I have a lot of guilty pleasure songs, but I don't really have any songs that make me actually feel GUILTY. I suppose the closest thing I ca
I Think the FOPP Challenge Is Losing Steam.
Our founder seems lost to us, as far as I can tell, though he still logs in about once a week. He tweets to himself and retweets on Twitter, but that is the only place I've seen him active lately. Since those actions don't require many keystrokes, I'm stil
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 28 - A Song that Makes You Feel Guilty
I thought this song challenge would be pretty hard to do, because I couldn’t figure out anything bad that I have done that I would feel guilty about. I do drive pretty fast, sometimes, so Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” might
Beginning of Spring
After a relatively mild winter here in Minnesota, with about half the normal snowfall, Spring is here. Or, so we thought. Today the Twin Cities area is under a Winter Weather Advisory. We are expecting several inches of snowfall later today. While I
Comic History - The Decline And Fall Of Tank Girl
In 1988, a UK based magazine / comic strip magazine called Deadline launched, mixing anarchic violent pop-culture saturated comic strips and music reviews on the World. Unlike rival magazines launched at the same time, it lasted until the mid-1990’s
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 27 - A Song That You Wish You Could Play - "Pathetique 2nd Movement"
I was planning on posting an article about Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" for today's article for the 30 Day Song Challenge, but &AliCanary beat me to it. Not only did she post first about "Moonlight Sonata", she posted that, unlike me, she can a
The Ridiculousness of Spam
Fortunately, we do not have a spam problem here at Persona Paper, but I remember at "the other place" when every other comment was about how a person's aunt or neighbor makes a bazillion dollars on the internet. I usually passed those by without doing the
A Brush With History - the Passing of Ronald Reagan - A (Mostly) Non-Political Remembrance
&CoralLevang recently wrote about her attempts to meet President Reagan over the years ("I Tried to Meet President Reagan"), which inspired me to share my own non-meeting with him. I used to live within just a few miles from the Ronald Reagan
In Pursuit of Smoothness
This morning, I paid attention to how many products I used in simply getting washed up and dressed. My morning ablutions required, in this order: 1. toilet paper 2. soap 3. toothpaste 4. shampoo 5. conditioner 6. body wash 7. exfoliator (boys, this is a s
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 26 - A Song That You Can Play On an Instrument - "Chopsticks"
Since I failed miserably at accordion lessons when I was a child (see "But Mom, I Want To Play the (insert musical instrument here)!" for more details on that fiasco - and some of those details are in the comments section), I c
59 Cents to 50 Percent
Little-by-little, we continue to climb. Coin-by-coin, penny, nickel, and dime. When the bank gets close to that halfway mark, you know that (once surpassed) it is only a matter of time before the pay-out. I like that feeling. At $
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 27 - A Song that You Wish You Could Play
So, as I mentioned in the last entry, I can play piano a little bit, but of course I would like to play guitar, because not only is that portable and handy in its acoustic form, it’s also pretty badass in its electric form. I can imagine being a gui
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 26 - A Song that You Can Play on an Instrument
When I was a kid, in a vain attempt at instilling culture in my naturally heathen self, my parents insisted I take piano lessons. I was not, as you might imagine, super into them, and I would do obnoxious things like hang off the piano bench while my poor
An Atheistic Bible Study Of Isaiah Chapter 2
It’s been a while since I got round to submitting my atheistic Bible studies, but here goes. Isaiah has a stark vision of God’s own temple settling (like a UFO?) on a mountain-top overlooking the temporal temple at Jerusalem.
Journal 03-20-2015 The Countdown has Begun
Good morning or whatever part of the day it is for you. Today is Friday March 20, 2015. The temperature is 61.4F and the humidity is 86% at 3:23 a.m. PST (-8 GMT). Weather Underground shows sustained winds at 0 with gusts of 1.6 mph. The sky was over
six dollars to go
Before I am going to reach my $20 redemption here, I need $6.04 to go. As of now because of poor internet connection, I cannot even read or comment to other articles. I cannot even write an article. It is already few hours and it is already evening here in
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 25 - A Song That Makes You Laugh - "Jingle Cats Medley"
Right now, before I go any further with this, I'm going to apologize for the pure, unadulterated #silliness. There are a lot of songs that I think are funny - "King Tut" by Steve Martin, "Rubber Biscuit" by the Blues Brothers, several parody songs
End of a Long Day
My body is #tired. My head feels like it's about to fall off of my shoulders and onto the floor. My eyes feel like they've detached themselves and are now rolling around on my desk (sorry about that visual...) My brain thinks tha
What I Do With Dandelions in My Lawn
Some people really hate it when they see dandelions in their lawns. Not me. I welcome them. I'll admit that freaks my gardener out, though. I remember the day he suggested we needed to spray the lawn to get rid of them. I don't think he was happy with
I Have Been Caught Red-Pawed, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat. Well, the jig is up. No more such-a-good-kitty-for-coming-when-called. Although, in my defense, I did come when she showed up in the backyard looking for me. It's not my fault she was paying more attention to the jonqui
So I Don't Seem Like a Karate Teacher, Huh?
Okay, #twotruthsonelie players, it's time for the second reveal! In the "Jobs" category of my original post, I stated the following: 1. I was a snake handler 2. I taught karate 3. I was a volunteer firefighter and while one of those statements wa
I've had a Bit of Tunnel Vision Lately...
I logged onto PersonaPaper this morning, and when I went to my profile page, I noticed something monotonous. The entire first page of my profile contains 30 Day Song Challenge articles, along with the picture of the radio that I've been using from Pi
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 25 - A Song that Makes You Laugh
So many songs make me laugh. Pretty much anything from Monty Python, Adam Sandler or Weird Al Yankovic, and if you don’t know Tom Lehrer, you have to check him out, too (he’s older, from the 70s). But for sheer silliness, and also because they
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 24 - A Song That You Want Played At Your Funeral - "Imagine"
I prefer not to think about my own funeral for all of the obvious reasons. One thing that I hate about funerals is that oftentimes, people will wait until after someone they care about is gone before saying all the good things that they wanted to say
March 19 is the birthday of my father
Today is March 19, 2015 already in my timezone. Today is a special day for me because it is the birthday of my father. I do not know, if I will be happy to celebrate for his birthday because he is not with me. He is celebrating his 68th birthday if I am no
It's Reveal Day!
Those of you who are participating in #twotruthsonelie know that within a couple of days after posting, you should reveal which "fact" you wrote about yourself was less fact-y and more actually a big, fat lie. However, I am so besotted with this game that
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 24 - A Song that You Want to Play at Your Funeral
The title makes me laugh, because even though it’s technically correct, it sounds like I’m going to play the song, which makes it less of a funeral. In any case, I feel like I wouldn’t want to have something that made people cry. If they
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 23 - A Song That You Want To Play At Your Wedding - I've Got It Narrowed Down to Two Songs!
Since I'm a woman of a certain age and I've never been married, let's just say that I've had a lot of years to think about this one! I actually have several songs that I'd like to hear at my wedding (that is, *IF* I ever have one...) So....
AliCanary's 30 Day Song Challenge My Favorite Song
I’ve finally decided to jump in and take up &Alicanary ‘s 30 day Music Challenge after reading &alexdg1 ‘s and &arthurchappell ‘s posts for so long. &Alicanary suggested I try it as a writing challenge. So not to be
Irish Skin that Glows in the Dark
Another wee post for St Patrick's Day... This is a picture of me that a friend took a couple of years ago as we sat and had lunch. As you can see, my pale Irish complexion makes it quite unnecessary to use a flash. My face is so light-reflective, they cou
A Wee Limerick and a Few Irish Jokes for St. Patrick's Day
I can't compete with the wonderful Irish and St. Patrick's Day-themed limericks that are already out there, but since I am a foine Irish lass meself and can't resist a wee bit of silly verse, here is an original Irish limerick for Saint Patrick's Day: The
Happy Saint Patrick's Day from an Irish Lass
It's a great day for Irish people the world over. Well, okay, I was not born in Ireland, but my great-great-great-grandparents were, so there's that. Like so many others, they came to the United States seeking opportunity, and I must say, flourished handso
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 23 - A Song that You Want to Play at Your Wedding
“This Night” by Billy Joel, from the Innocent Man album, was “our song” when my husband and I were dating, so I always figured we would have that at our wedding. Well, times were kinda tight since my parents had just footed the bill
Hero by the heart
Around 2:30pm, (Manila time), an emergency happened in the library. A Psychology student then collapses while in the baggage counter. There were two lady classmates besides her. My immediate action was to assist her. She is a little taller than me if I am
Someone Please Explain to Me Why Deer Need a Salad Fork, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat with an urgent question. Why would a deer need a fork? With the lovely spring weather we've been having since it abruptly quit being winter, Debbi and I have been doing a lot of photo sessions outside, especially around the
200 is my failure
Good morning Tuesday from my country. Although, I am already online for about an hour already but due to busy schedule, this is only the time I created an article for my 200th post since I joined here in PersonaPaper. Before I am going to start my work, I
Another Weekend Flew By
In fact, this weekend flew by so fast I thought today was Tuesday, not Monday. Maybe my mind is programmed to skip Mondays. Or maybe I hurt so badly while trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in that I wanted it to be Tuesday so I could star
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 22 - A Song that You Listen to When You’re Sad
Oh, sad songs. They say so much, according to Sir Elton John, although "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" was not actually a sad song, and was quite uptempo. He didn't write very many sad songs, actually. "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" is the only that spring
Two Truths and One Lie about Me
I just ran across this game from a post by &Kasman, although I believe &allen0187 is the originator of this challenge. It seems like a lot of fun, so I am going to join in, as well, but it's too much fun to just do the three. I'm going to do two-tr
Congratulations to erikalui
I am very glad that there somebody in this community had received another milestone in persona of &erikalui. If I am not mistaken, she got her first payment here in PersonaPaper last month. I am in my $9 marked that time. And now, I am in my $13.68 mar
If I will click the ads? Do my country will remove in the blacklist?
I am happy that I am already a member before the new rules had been made. India and my precious included in the blacklisted because PersonaPaper is not earning from the two countries. According to the admin, ads from our country are not paying maybe we ar
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 21 - A Song You Listen To When You're Happy - "Chantilly Lace"
Today's song was another challenging one to narrow down - when I'm happy, I listen to a LOT of music. So I kind of decided to just randomly pick one. I don't know when I first heard "Chantilly Lace" by the Big Bopper, but I know I must have
Almost Spring
Not much longer until Spring officially arrives. Here in Minnesota it actually has appeared a bit early. Last year it didn't arrive until the middle of April. Although I love Winter weather, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in my backya
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 20 - A Song You Listen To When You're Angry - "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"
I don't actually listen to music so much when I'm angry. I usually channel my anger into a flurry of cursing, or possibly slamming a door or slamming shut a desk drawer. There have been exceptions, though. A few years ago, I lost 52
What They Told Me at the Bank Regarding My Business Checking Account
As you may already know from some of my posts like Water Leak Woes, my husband and I own a little condo that we rent out, and I have a checking account in our business name. We are not incorporated, so the account is a "DBA" ("doing business as") account t
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 21 - A Song that You Listen to When You’re Happy
What makes me happy? Cute animals, blue sky, sunshine, cuddles from my friends, yummy food, and music! I like all kinds of music, as you know if you have been following the series. From disco to big band, R&B to heavy metal, there are very few genres t
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 19 - A Song From Your Favorite Album - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
First of all, I need to apologize for being a day late on this day's challenge - yesterday was just a really rough day all around. I won't get into that here, since I'm trying to keep work stuff out of my writing life... Moving on.....
Laws that are meaningless
If I am not mistaken, this is my first time to write in this category. I just decided to write this after commenting to recent article of &SoundNFury about law. In my country, the Philippines, there are different laws that became meaningless because
Humans Are So Gullible, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat with the latest lame-brained thing my human did. She started out the day spending hours cleaning house. I don't know why. She's just going to get it dirty again. I kept telling her there were more important things to life.
Doctors - do you trust yours?
HOW MUCH DO you trust the medical profession? As someone who has had his fair share of health problems (some still ongoing) I must confess I trust them implicitly. I have had nothing but good service from doctors and nursing staff during my various re
The 30 Day Song Challenge – Day 4 – A Song That Makes Me Sad
My fourth contribution to the challenge set by &AliCanary There are sad songs, The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, about a woman attempting suicide, by Dr Hook and later Marianne Faithful, or Grocer Jack about a village green-grocer dying, by Keith Wes
I Am Now Negotiating to Buy Second Hand Phone
About an hour ago, I am negotiating to buy a second hand Nokia E6 phone to my library assistant who currently on leave. My wife is requesting to buy any phone that had a big memory. Capable of saving videos especially if there are special occasions but in
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 20 - A Song that You Listen to When You’re Angry
I do get angry from time to time, but rather than listen to something hard that would magnify my vile mood (although that’s a strategy that can work, if it helps you vent), I would choose a good song that can chill me out and give me a nice attitude
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 18 - A Song That You Wish You Heard On the Radio - "Pipeline"
One of the reasons I don't listen to much music #radio in my locality is because they don't play a lot of the kinds of music that I like. I'll get lucky sometimes, and I'll be able to pick up a station that's broadcasting from a city that's about 80
Good to See Friends Return
One of the things that troubles me about the "online world" is that people can come and go so quickly and we never know what happens. I suppose it is not really that dissimilar to what happens in our "real world," when we lose touch with people. I a
Diary – Wednesday 11th March 2015
One of those days when I kept thinking it was a different day entirely. I kept convincing myself it was already Thursday. During the day I was online throughout but with a real ale pub crawl round Eccles in the evening. We had planned to visit jus
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 19 - A Song from Your Favorite Album
This is actually very hard for me, as there are so many albums that I love. It’s hard to pick a favorite! I have a favorite band (Keane), a favorite artist (Kate Bush) and a favorite song (“Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart--don&
Time Warner Cable Almost Made Me Cry
At some point during the night on Thursday, the modem that was provided by Time Warner Cable, the company that provides my cable and internet service, quietly gave up the ghost. I called tech support on Friday morning when I discovered its lifeless corpse,
i do have 8888 coins
After the blackout in about thirty minutes ago, I have no idea what was my coins statistic here in my PersonaPaper account. When the power resumed about five minutes ago, after commenting to one of the articles posted by other members here, I found out tha
Back in Wine Country
Last night we had a political meeting at a winery that's off my usual beat, on the east side of Paso Robles. I've only driven through there a couple of times, and that was many years ago. It is a really #rural area and the roads have little room to park in
How to Play the Board Game Alhambra
A board game that I love to play is Alhambra, named after the walled fortress located in Granada, Spain (pictured). It is a tile-laying game. Each tile has a picture of a building or group of buildings, and you connect them to build a walled city or fortre
The Cat INSIDE the Hat
There have been a number of people in my family, going back a generation or two, who seemed to have been born with natural artistic talents. Last week my 7-year-old Grandson came home from school and brought one of his art projects home. He had d
13 articles to reach 200
As of this moment, this is my third article for the day. As well as my 187th article. I only need to write 13 more articles excluding this one before reaching my 200th post since I joined PersonaPaper last November 23, 2014. Although, I will not consider s
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 18- A Song that You Wish You Heard on the Radio
Many times I have bought a CD and found myself really liking a song that never got played on the radio, and I wondered why they wouldn’t have released it as a single. I mean, if I liked it that much, I couldn’t imagine that other people wouldn&
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 17 - A Song That You Hear Often On the Radio - "Stay With Me"
I don't listen to music #radio much. If I happen to have the radio on, it's a good bet that I'm listening to NPR. With over 16,000 songs on my iPod, I really don't feel a need to listen to anything that has commercials because I have plenty of
The Rush of Speed
This wonderful picture that was featured on the home page of Pixabay gives such a great sense of movement and speed that it is almost dizzying to look at. I wonder why people enjoy the feeling of speeding along so much? I personally love roller coasters (a
A Quick and Easy Way to Take Metamucil Fiber Powder
There are commercials out there that make fun of Metamucil as being "thick and gritty" and urge you to take a pill instead, but frankly, I stand by the effectiveness of Metamucil, or as I affectionately refer to it, "poo powder". However, since the directi
Did You Publish A Book?
In this era of electronic books and blogs and writing platforms everybody can be and most probably is a writer. Us at Persona Paper included. But did you publish a real old fashioned paper printed book? Or is it your wish to publish it? Maybe a novel or a
Dumb Stuff I Have Observed, Part V - for Very, Very Dumb
1. The only time Law and Order ever says, “The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event” is when they are TOTALLY going to do an absolutely nonfictional story about completely actual people and events. 2. The
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 16 - A Song That You Used To Love But Now Hate - "God Bless the U.S.A."
I know that this is a really, really #controversial choice for a song that I've come to "hate", so I'm going to say this up front: It's not the song itself...it's the way the song got co-opted by people of a certain political stripe in this country.
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 17 - A Song that You Hear Often on the Radio
A song I hear a lot on the radio--and wish I didn't--is "FourFive Seconds" by Rihanna with Kanye West and Paul McCartney. I don't care for the song, for so many reasons. Here are the ones I can think of at the moment: Kanye West cannot sing. He's a good
Doughnuts...You can't just resist them.
Yesterday as I was #shopping for groceries, my children insisted on buying some #doughnuts. They love to eat doughnuts very much and I bought them a box containing six of these mouth watering goodies. When we came back home, I lectured them about importa
That Was One Big Bird, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Investigative Reporter reporting on the phenomenon in my driveway. That's not paint, people. We are talking a lot of bird poop here. Isn't there some kind of law about pooping on the pavement? A county ordinance at least? Defa
Replacing toothbrushes
Okay, be very honest here. How often do you replace your #toothbrush with a new one? I went to someone’s house and had to take my daughter to the bathroom. The toothbrushes there made my eyes pop out. They were in such bad shape. The bristles were
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 16 - A Song that You Used to Love but Now Hate
Wow, there’s lots of hateration in this list, eh? I guess it’s because people feel passionately about music. I already mentioned back on Day Four that I song I used to enjoy but now find it hard to listen to is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 15 - A Song That Describes You - "Life For Rent"
Finding a song for today's challenge was easy. Writing about it...not so much. An article like this one is the reason why I choose to write under a pseudonym. I've always had an #independent streak. My mom has told me many, many
JAILED for early trash collection pick up
Rubbish, Trash, Refuse All names for the stuff WE throw out and want taken away! The job of collecting and disposing of OUR rubbish is not one that many of us possibly would want to do but we are all very glad that it gets taken away out of our sight and
What Happened to the Sun? by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat, and I'm a bit perplexed. After shining so brilliantly all weekend, the sun did not show up for work today. It was a nice, mild day … pretty much just right with the exception of the sun's conspicuous absence.
What Shall We Do with Your Body?
This post by &Feisty56 is about the various rituals associated with the death of a loved one and discusses her feelings about viewings, funerals and the like. &JeanC commented that she would like to have a fun wake, over which her mortal remai
Coffee or Tea? Not the Drink; the Container!
I've seen several articles recently asking what one's preferred beverage is--coffee or tea--but this is not one of those articles. I am more concerned with the handheld means by which one conveys the beverage to one's lips. I was drinking hot tea this mor
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 14 - A Song That No One Would Expect You To Love - "There Is a Time"
Given that last week, I professed a hatred for country music to the point where I offended &FourWalls ("30-Day Song Challenge - Day 8 - A Song That You Know All the Words To - "The Devil Went Down To Georgia""), I think it might be surprising to many t
I Went Back to Kindergarten Today
I have had a fun morning! I volunteered to be a "guest reader" at Hunter Elementary School here in Greensboro for their celebration of Dr. Seuss Day. All the kids (and many of the teachers) were dressed in various Seuss-related costumes, and we were all gi
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 15 - A Song that Describes You
I would say that a song that describes me is "Forever Young", by Alphaville. No, I'm not a vampire, although I do look younger than my age, but what I mean in this case is that I am still like a kid, in some ways. Sometimes I am terribly immature--I mean,
It's Been a Distracting Weekend
I won't say I've accomplished nothing, but I have a lot of incomplete jobs, including a post need a photo for on a Seekyt post. I'm reviewing a local business and I'm waiting for a photo he was going to send me by email. So I can't post that yet.
my youngest just lost his half tooth
During my lunch earlier, my youngest son showed me about his crack tooth and lost the other half. The age of my youngest is only four years old and that is his first tooth. He had no passion to do tooth brushing habit. I just said before it is alright beca
Gossipy DJ Trashes Christina Aguilera, Demi Lovato, and Others
At about this same time last year, I was out running errands, listening to my local pop station, and the DJ was filling up time between songs by talking about how Christina Aguilera had become engaged on Valentine's Day, and then it has just come out that
We All Remember Where We Were When We Heard About It - The Challenger Explosion
&Alexdg1 recently wrote about a song that reminds him of the #Challenger Explosion for the 30 Day Song Challenge (AliCanary's 30-Day Music Challenge, Day Seven: A Song (or Musical Composition) That Reminds You of a Certain Event - Challenger Explosion)
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 13 - A Song That Is a Guilty Pleasure - "V.S.M. - A Very Strange Medley"
I suppose you have to be a person of a certain age (and probably residing in a particular nation during a particular time) to appreciate this one. Barry Manilow did a lot of songwriting in the 1960's, including writing a lot of the commercial jing
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 14 - A Song that No One Would Expect You to Love
Based on my age, I’m quite sure no one would expect me to love Big Band music, but I do. I really do! It doesn’t matter by how many decades it predates me, good music is good music. Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes, Dinah Shore, Billie Holiday, Glenn M
Captcha Challenge – “LOL cat”
I love Captcha—nutty, nutty Captcha. I’m sure when the Captcha is for Progressive and those other advertisements, Persona Paper probably gets more money, but I love the goofy Captchas. I hope we still gets paid for those, because not only are t
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 13 - A Song that is a Guilty Pleasure
Okay, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I like Paris Hilton’s album. She’s a ridiculous human being, but she’s not a horrible singer, and it’s my kind of music--what can I say? Of course, I have a fondness for any remake of my
It's a Purrfect Caturday! by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat. It's a purrfect Caturday in the spring, and it's all about me! Yes, I know I was just saying it was winter, and then it was summer, and then it was winter, and now it's spring. All in one week. It's Georgia. Get o
The Creepiest Songs by The Beatles
A Creepy Song I guess you could call this a #30DaySongChallenge extra. I was reading this post by &alexdg1 for his entry for today in the Challenge http://personapaper.com/article/26213-alicanarys-30-day-music-challenge-day-six-a-song-from-your-favori
Rain, Rain, Go Away, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, it is me, the waterlogged Guiness the Cat, and I am seriously considering packing up my treats and heading to New Zealand to hang out with my friends Morpheus the Cat and Sylf the Feline Spy. Morph says it is 83 degrees, and he's hanging out in the
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 11 - A Song From Your Favorite Band - "I'll Stick Around"
Today's challenge seems like it should be easy, but it really isn't. The first issue is determining which band is my favorite, which is not a simple task - I rarely have any single favorite bands, so I had to narrow this one down. Once I
30-Day Song Challenge, Day 12 - A Song from a Band You Hate
This was a particularly challenging day, because there is no band that I hate. Even my least favorite song was by a band I actually like http://personapaper.com/article/25001-30-day-song-challenge-day-two---your-least-favorite-song . There are, however, a
Where I Live
Some people have expressed curiosity about where I live. Some think I may live on a farm. I don't. At the current time, we live between two #houses. The rural one is in wine country. It is a small converted barn #house on almost fourteen acres. We have a c
how many articles you have? mine is 175
While thinking of my possible topic to write. I checked a few minutes ago my profile page and i found out that i do have 174 posts already since i joined last November 23, 2014. And this article will be my 175th posts overall. But originally, I do have 177
A Quiet Night at the Library
I've been working from the library for the last couple of hours, and it has gotten quieter and quieter in here. It's not quiet because it's a library, it's quiet because of the weather. It's been raining all day, but now the ice and snow are creeping in, a
Best Advice for Writing a Book
Another writer posted about how difficult it is to get started on writing her novel. It IS difficult, but I have some tips you may find very helpful, not just for writing a book, but for writing anything, from an article to a term paper. 1. Get i
'From ghoulies and ghosties . . .
. . . LONG-LEGGEDY BEASTIES and things that go bump in the night, good Lord, deliver us’! This quotation forms part of an old Scottish prayer but the original quote is probably much older. It is an invocation to keep us safe and secure during t
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 10 - A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep - "Promenade"
I think that this is probably the toughest day of the 30 Day Song Challenge, or at least one of the toughest, because I can't think of any songs that specifically make me fall asleep. The best I can do is present a song that doesn't keep me awake. &
Help Me Count My Millions Or A Snake In The Grass !
I always do the lottery so this morning I checked the results and surprise! Nothing! Not one tiny number matched. Later on ,after a walk and, then a coffee I read a few emails then noticed one from Triond asking me to complete a survey. As I read on,my f
What Does FOPP Mean?
I have a thought. This might add more power to the Tweet and make articles published at PersonaPaper easier to find by way of an organic search on Twitter. Noticed y'all are using this hashtag #FOPP . Do you know how many others use that hashtag and it d
My life is in danger!
Bury an orange and a banana peel, a paper, a plastic plate, a tin can, a polythene bag and a piece of bread in soil to see if they decompose or not. Add sugar, talc, chalk, oil and salt to water and see if they dissolve. Mix lemon juice/vinegar with #ba
Most popular posts
I have been #writing #online for quite some time now and have observed a few things. My observation may or may not be accurate and I would love to hear your views about it. Posts regarding #book-reviews and #product-reviews usually flop. No one bothers t
Setting a couple of goals for myself
I am quite sure I will fail miserably but that's the fun about setting #goals and challenges at #Persona-Paper. Even if we don't succeed, we can still be happy that we tried and it is fun to see how far we can climb even if are not able to reach
1000 more in the bank!
At first, I thought it is too soon after the 100 posts #milestone post but then I thought why not? It is always fun to blow one's own trumpet and tell others about your successes and achievements so here goes: (Drum roll please) I have man
March 8 is International Women's Day
Coming up on March 8th is the holiday known as International Women's Day. International Women's Day was created way back in the early 20th century (1908 is one of the earliest dates of celebration) to advocate for women's rights around the world. Many wome
I Did It! 10,000 Coins Today
Well, first of all, I would like to thank everyone who helped me get here. Without your page views and your cool articles for me to comment on, I wouldn't have been able to make it to 10 coins, let alone 10,000. Also, I realize that I can't even cash out y
A Quick Cup of Coffee Before I Get Ready for Work
It has been nearly 24 hours since I was last online, so I thought I would share my coffee and a few minutes with you, my Persona Peeps. I just learned that I am not a member of #FOPP since reading the new mayor's post. I never realized that there wa
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Ten - A Song that Makes You Fall Asleep
A song I could fall asleep to is “Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright. When I was a little kid, I used to listen to a classic rock station that signed off at night, around midnight or maybe one a.m. (yeah, I stayed up late. Thank goodness I only had a
I've Been Chasing Clouds Again
Whenever it is even thinking about raining here, the clouds put on a wonderful sky show. This show lasted from about Thursday night until yesterday, but we got very little rain – just enough to make me worry that my camera might get wet. I'v
Watching TV...and smiling for a change
I am watching the #cricket match being played between #Pakistan and UAE in Napier (New Zealand) on television and for a change I am smiling. Pakistan has had a horrendous start to their #WorldCup2015 campaign with heavy losses inflict
Site Statistics: latest update - thank you, thank you, thank you!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU indeed! A big thank you to every one of our members for making Persona Paper a roaring success! There can now be little doubt that Persona Paper has established itself as a successful site for those writers, bloggers an
Ben & Jerry's Cookie Cores - Where ARE They???
In mid January, I saw a news release that Ben & Jerry will be releasing a new line of flavors of their ice cream. It's the Cookie Core line, and it includes the flavors Peanut Buttah, Spectacular Speculoos and Boom Chocolatta. I've been looking for the
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 8 - A Song That You Know All the Words To - "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"
So, I read the subject of today's music challenge, and thought that it must be a trick question. I mean, I have over 16,000 songs on my iPod, a large number of which I know all the words to (the fact that over a quarter of them are Christmas songs certainl
My Absence Lately
It has been over a month since I last posted an article here. The birth of my daughter's fifth child has kept me quite busy. When I am not giving my two-year-old Grandson the extra attention he needs of late, I am able to sit and simply enjoy holding my ne
Ouch! Why Did I Do That ?
Yesterday I turned the oven on then after about five minutes I realised I had left the large heavy frying pan inside the oven. In a spontaneous action I reached for the pan handle then screamed in agony,I managed to lift it on the top of the oven before w
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Nine - A Song that You Can Dance To
I love to dance, first of all. I took ballet when I was a kid, but I favor club-style dancing, and one of my favorite club music songs of all times is called "Sandstorm", by Darude. This song is getting some age on it--it was released in 1999. But it's a g
Today i did something, I did not think myself capable of doing
I don't have a temper really and I am more of forgive, forget and move on type of a person but once in a while, I do lose my temper and according to those around me, I do so rather spectacularly. I guess this is what happened today. After about 7-8 weeks
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Eight - A Song that You Know All the Words To
I’m rather proud to announce that I know all the words to “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem. I’m proud not just because there are a LOT of words, but also because they are delivered rather quickly (and yes, I can sing along), and furt
Movie Review - Mean Girls
2004 – spoiler alerts A cult movie high school comedy that works well both as a dark surreal comedy and as a real insight into education elitism and cliqueiness among American teenage girls. Lindsay Lohan is a new girl in High schoo
100th post on Persona Paper
It's really nice to read #celebration #milestone posts from others whether they are in terms of #coins earned or number of posts published and today I thought I will share my milestone with Persona Paper #community. This is my 100th post o
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 7 - A Song That Reminds You of a Certain Event - "It Ain't Necessarily So"
Like most people of my generation, I was "introduced" to Cab Calloway via the 1980 movie, "The Blues Brothers", where he played Curtis, the man who told Jake and Elwood that they "got to learn not to talk to nuns that way" and then instructed them to "get
I'm the New Mayor of FOPPTown!
...okay, okay, Clerk. And mainly because nobody else volunteered to do it, sticking &melody23 with the job for three months. In her last post about it (http://personapaper.com/article/25456-stepping-down-as-fopp-clerk-of-the-month ) she sounded a bit s
Move Review - Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Suffers from Stupid Sequel Syndrome
I rented Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters on DVD, and boy did they take an appealing concept, likable characters and great special effects and completely ruin it with a script that STANK. I don't want to give spoilers, here, so I will try to be kind of vagu
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Seven - A Song that Reminds You of a Certain Event
One of the most fun experiences I have had was going to Washington, DC in October, 2010, for The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, put on by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and co-hosted (or counter-pointed, if you will) by Stephen Colbert of the Colbert
100 Post Challenge
This is not my challenge. It comes from my dear friends &valmnz and &JeanC. I read about the challenge on &valmnz post and thought that I would join in on this one as well. I have not been here at Persona Paper very long.
Which One Would You Choose?
I caught caught in the rain on my way from the Templeton house to the Paso house around five. I must have been driving under this dark cloud. After taking the photo above and a few others around the Templeton house, I wanted to get over to Castoro Cellars
Only 14 Coins to 5000
Twenty-four hours ago, I needed 108 coins to reach the 5000 coin mark. Now, I am only 14 coins shy of that milestone. Of course, with 37 percent or $7.48 toward the cash out minimum of $20.00 before I can make my first redemption here, I still have awhile
Stepping down as FOPP Clerk of the month
Today is my last day as #FOPP clerk of the month and I just wanted to post one more update before handing the reigns over to &AliCanary who takes over tomorrow as our clerk for March. I have actually been clerk of the month for three months since, unt
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 5 - A Song That Reminds You of Someone - "Hitchin' a Ride"
I've never heard the song "Hitchin' a Ride", by Vanity Fare, on any radio station, ever. The only reason I even know that it exists is because of a young girl who lived down the street from me when I was also a young girl. During that year when I
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Six - A Song that Reminds You of Somewhere
A song that always takes me back to Phildelphia is "Easy Lover" by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. Philip Bailey was one of the lead singers from Earth, Wind and Fire (along with Maurice White) who went on to do a solo album, and this was the biggest hit f
Diary Friday 27th February 2015 My First Radio Play
A much awaited and exciting day for me as my radio play, Wendigo Water, about shipwreck survivors, and demonic possession, was to be recorded before a live theatre audience at Manchester’s delightful Three Minute Theatre. I checked the text
My Head Was in the Clouds, but I Got It All Done
It was a crazy day. I started for the other house after taking this photo of the sky to compare to the night sky later, since rain is predicted. The clouds have been amazing all day. I parked on the way to the other house to try to capture the green hills
Fitting Daily Life Puzzle Pieces Together
I got an order yesterday for a $3.88 book. To process it, I have to drive seven miles home to get it and do the paperwork and fight with the shipping software again. I was hoping if I waited to process it today, anoher order might come in so I could do mor
108 More
That is the number of coins needed to reach another milestone for me. 5000 Coins It really does not matter to me if those coins are US coins or international coins. I just love the clinking sound they make as they are put in a jar, or the ji
Goal Achieved - 200 Posts by the End of the Month!
My friend &valmnz mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she had set a goal for herself of reaching her 100th post by the end of February. I had already passed 100 a while back, but I noticed that I was in the 180s, myself, and reaching the nice, round n
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 4 - A Song That Makes Me Sad - "The Cat Carol"
A couple of days ago, I wrote about a Christmas song that I loathe because the entire point of it is to manipulate its listener to tears. I made the point of not mentioning the names of any sad Christmas songs that are actually good, because I didn't want
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Five - A Song that Reminds You of Someone
I was just listening last night to a song that reminds me of someone, although it’s not a good memory. When I was in high school, I hung out with a boy named Sean who had some issues. He had a tendency to do things for shock value. For example, he wa
Weeds and Chicken Stir Fry for Lunch
These are the #weeds. Mother Naure planted them in a pot where I grew basil last year. The ones with purple flowers are #henbit. It has a delicate flavor that is a bit like a mild parsley – a very mild parsley. I also cut all the dandelion that was g
Busy week
I am having such a busy week this week with starting placement. I am completely knackered after working the last two days on 12 hour shifts, yesterday I left the house at 6am and got home a few minutes before 9pm. I actually feel like I have a hangover,
Ode To Persona
I must stop abbreviating Persona Pages To PP Writing it in full takes ages But no one wants to Pee-Pee We should be proud To say our site name in full Shouting it loud Declaring how wonderful It is to have a Persona And A personali
Religious freedom and healthcare
I meant to write this post about five days ago, but got caught up in a few other projects. As I've mentioned before, by trade, I'm trained as a clinical mental health counselor. This is the first time I think I've even said this in writing, but I chose to
Been gone, but I'm back
I just realized that it's been five days since I posted, at least that's what the article interface says. I'm not even sure where time went. Honestly, I've gotten a little bit burned out on the site. Although I don't write here for the money, the money
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 3 - A Song That Makes Me Happy - "Hey Ya"
"Hey Ya", by OutKast is a song that never, EVER fails to make me happy. It's quite a peppy, uptempo song that doesn't beg your feet to dance; it impels them to - you just don't have a choice in the matter. And really, your feet don't mind it one l
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Four - A Song that Makes You Sad
A song that makes me sad is “Breathe Again” by Toni Braxton. The song is about a painful breakup, but it had never made me feel particularly sad until after my mom died. My mother died from cancer, and she had been receiving chemotherapy to shr
Time for a Celebration Progress report
It's my turn to feel excited about a few milestones here on Persona Paper. I love reading celebration milestone posts from others, so hope you don't mind me throwing mine into the mix here as well. It's not quite seven weeks since I signed up here and I fe
Keep On Climbing!
I am getting close to reaching a milestone here at Persona Paper. It is not a particularly big one, in some people's view, but it is to me. But I can get excited about the littlest of things, when I have the right attitude. This milestone is
Clearing Out the DVR - What TV Shows Do You Watch?
When I got back from my trip to Philadelphia, my husband complained that our DVR was about ready to fill up--we hadn't watched any of our recorded programs in a while, and it was reading 93% full. I really can't stand commercials, and sometimes we don'
Things to Do When You Are Bored Buttless
My new friend &Coffee wrote this article http://personapaper.com/article/25076-two-weeks-off-work , in which she wrote of finding herself very bored, with a lot of time on her hands. She came to the correct conclusion that writing on Persona Paper was
30-Day Song Challenge, Day Three - A Song that Makes You Happy
A song that really makes me happy when I hear it is "Two Hearts" by Phil Collins, from the soundtrack for the movie Buster, also available on the …Hits CD . I love to hear this song when I am driving, and I will pump it up and bop along to the music
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 2 - My least favorite song - "Christmas Shoes"
I have a deep, deep love for Christmas music. About a quarter of the over-16,000 songs in my iTunes library are Christmas songs. If you were to start playing all the Christmas songs in that library on any given day and play them 24/7 without turning it off
30-Day Song Challenge - Day 1 - My Favorite Song - "Amazing Grace"
#AliCanary threw down this new challenge yesterday (30-Day Song Challenge, Day One - Your Favorite Song), and since I do love all kinds of music, I thought I might give it a whirl. My favorite song of all time is "Amazing Grace". I don't
Stewart versus Esteves - Throw Down!
American TV personality Martha Stewart is the most famous housekeeper / homemaker in the world. That's what I thought until when mentioning her name in a casual discussion, the person who was not from America said they didn't know her. In case the reader d
Bucket list challenge - you'll like this one!
A CONNECTION OF mine, &Valmnz has posted a 'bucket list' challenge ( http://goo.gl/A32p8J ) and several others have responded with their 'bucket list'. In case you don't know what a 'bucket list' is it's a list of things to do or places to visit b
Poll Resubmitted , Photo Uploads and Another Glitch
I just deleted the poll that I had submitted earlier this morning on what you call the tomato-based condiment that most use on hamburgers or french fries and the like. (Thanks to all who had commented, but we cannot edit polls.) The voting function d
Are You Growing Food You Don't Recognize?
If you have #weeds in your garden, you just might be. When I paid a visit home to my Templeton property Saturday, I saw all kinds of wild food ready to harvest. Most of it is used just like spinach is used. I normally use mine in soups, fresh, or in salads
30-Day Song Challenge, Day One - Your Favorite Song
My favorite song of all time is "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by Rod Stewart. The way the title is spelled always bugged me. Even though Americans might pronounce it that way, sometimes, we would never spell it any way other than "Do". But Rod Stewart is from En
Triathlons Are Not Just For Young People
When we hear the word triathlon we think of ultra fit young athletes, powering their way through lengthy events. But triathlons, like all sports, can cater for all ages and abilities. Here in New Zealand triathlons for women are extremely popular, with the
Why Do Weeds Grow Faster Than Flowers?
The garden at our house is very small, just a narrow strip around the boundaries. Until recently my husband took responsibility, but now it's up to me to keep the garden looking its best. I'm still learning. One of my biggest mysteries is, why do weeds g
Unusual Customs In My Family
We have a few eccentric customs in the North Manchester area. Here are some that I have seen. 1/. Setting aside a little unconsumed ale or wine. It can be customary not to totally drain your glass but to leave a little beer or wine in the
Close Raptor Encounters - A Hawk on My Deck!
I live near a lake, so we get some interesting wildlife. Deer go rambling through my yard, blissfully munching the landscaping, much to my husband's discontent. But we aren't out in the country, by any stretch--really just the suburbs, basically. There's p
Birds Everywhere
Today it was cloudy and I was sure it would #rain. In fact, it had sprinkled a bit in the morning when I had gone to get something out of my car. But I know I need exercise, and in spite of my reluctance to go outside with such an ominous #sky, I went. I k
Zoom, zoom!
I HAVE JUST read a post by a new connection of mine &Gina145 It's one of those 'Guess The Photo' posts and, if Gina145 doesn't mind me saying so, it was quite an easy one to solve - but that didn't really take the fun out of it at all! Anyway, I
Can't Wait to "Spring Forward"!
It's that time again, when even if the temperatures are still cold, the days are noticeably longer. This makes me feel a lot better, because I am one of those solar-powered people (aren't we all?). And what makes me even more excited is that the time chang
Climbing the Mountain of Redemption
Milestones can feel like mountains climbed. As I continue to scale the Mountain of Redemption toward its summit, I have nearly completed one-third of the journey. 33% With coins numbering 4418 and a bank balance $6.63 (I am glad that I saw this before
Dishonesty as a way of life
HAVE YOU EVER wondered about dishonest people? I don’t mean those who will 'borrow' the odd pen from work I mean those people who are actively dishonest in virtually every facet of their lives. Now, admittedly, no-one is 100% honest. Have you n
My Cat Was Killed By A Dog Last Night
A real life horror story and the death of one of my cats last night. I was on my computer last night having a final e-mail check before going to bed. My computer is in my bedroom. My bed is my computer chair. I heard a dog barking, and re
Earliest Photo of Myself
A few weeks ago, near the beginning of February, I read a post where &Kasman challenged us to post the earliest known photo we have of ourselves. I knew I had a photo somewhere, but kept forgetting to look for it. However, today something triggered my
Oh Dear, Another Library Fine
The glossy cooking book, borrowed from the library, has been sitting on the coffee table, from where I pick it up and browse through it quite often. I'd almost forgotten it was a library book and had eventually to be returned. When our son called
Can You Actually Publish 15 Articles a Day on Persona Paper? Yes! Here's the Best Way to Do It
This article by &valmnz asked the question of whether anyone had published 15 articles a day http://personapaper.com/article/24577-does-anyone-submit-15-articles-a-day . Provided someone was prolific enough to actually write 15 articles a day, and so
My First Job(s), Part Two - Making REAL Money
So, you now have found out that, as a kid with no allowance, I was willing to sell just about anything to make some pocket money http://personapaper.com/article/24641-my-first-jobs-part-one---i-was-an-enterprising-child . The REAL money was in paper, thou
My First Job(s), Part One - I Was an Enterprising Child
I grew up with a work ethic--kind of. I was awfully unmotivated about doing chores, so my room was a mess. I was not prevailed upon to do laundry or clean up anywhere in the house besides my own space, although I think I did help with the dishes fairly fre
Hit and Run Crime at the Laundromat!
In Part Three of my "washing machine saga", http://personapaper.com/article/24544-can-you-believe-another-washing-machine-broke , the story of the broken washing machine continued when I found out yet ANOTHER washing machine that I thought I could use had
Today Did Not Go As Planned
This was one of those days when I really didn't want to do anything. I still ache from my first day back in the garden on Monday. It was the perfect day to curl up in my warm jammies and robe and spend the day in the chair, wrapped in a blanket, with an es
Learning to Ride a 50cc Motorcycle in the 1970s
I've read a few posts today about learning to drive and getting one's drivers licence. These sort of posts remind us all of our own background and how we did things. My first drivers licence was not for driving a car, but for riding a 50cc Suzuki motorcycl
Stupid Things that Always Happen in Movies and TV Shows, Item #2 -- I Really, Really, REALLY Will Shoot You
Another stupid thing they always do on TV shows for dramatic effect is have one character draw a gun and threaten to shoot another character if the other character doesn't do something--open the safe, throw away their own gun, give up some information--wha
Can You Believe ANOTHER Washing Machine Broke?
If you read my post http://personapaper.com/article/24516-my-washing-machine-broke-down---helpful-tips-for-using-the-dryer , you'll know that my old Kenmore washing machine finally gave up the ghost. Being that fishing all the wet laundry out and processin
An Unpleasant Surprise...Bedbugs!
This story follows on the heels of this one, about the washing machine http://personapaper.com/article/24516-my-washing-machine-broke-down---helpful-tips-for-using-the-dryer A couple of weeks before the washer broke, I went to Charleston, South Carolina.
My Washing Machine Broke Down - Helpful Tips for Using the Dryer
A while back, our 19-year-old washing machine stopped working i the middle of a load of laundry. It had already gone through the wash cycle and was full of water, but instead of draining, it just stopped. Our dryer still worked, so after fishing the clothe
I got 99 problems, but warm weather ain't one
This morning, the thermometer in my car said it was 11° outside. Being from Florida, I don't really understand 11°. It's a baffling, painful novelty. By that, I mean that the ice on the trees is cool and I kind of like the crunch of the grass, but other
I got 99 problems, but warm weather ain't one
This morning, the thermometer in my car said it was 11° outside. Being from Florida, I don't really understand 11°. It's a baffling, painful and novelty. By that, I mean that the ice on the trees is cool and I kind of like the crunch of the grass, but ot
I got 99 problems, but warm weather ain't one
This morning, the thermometer in my car said it was 11° outside. Being from Florida, I don't really understand 11°. It's a baffling, painful and novelty. By that, I mean that the ice on the trees is cool and I kind of like the crunch of the grass, but ot
SOS! I'm in Gmail Hell
Once upon a time I opened a Google+ account, long before there was Gmail. I also had Google Adsense and a Blogspot blog. And I had an email adress that ended in sbcglobal.net. A little later, Gmail came on the scene. So I got a gmail account. It ha
It's What We Had for Dinner
Today has been rather strange. Hubby has been home more than usual, so he was around when I was cooking dinner and we actually had an early dinner together before he left to do an errand. I like to cook when radio programs I like to listen to are on, and t
Writers: What projects are you working on right now?
As I've mentioned before, I'm slightly slowing down my counseling practice to free up time for my doctoral work. (I did accept a new client yesterday, but it was somebody I've seen before. In fact, it was my first client after I graduated from my counselin
My first baby-sitting job in almost 15 years
When I was in college, I was offered a job as a nanny for British diplomats. I have been working at a bookstore for most of my college years, but the pay was pretty low and I ended up spending all of my checks on books, so I never really came out ahead.
No Coffee Day 2: A Lent Story
No Coffee Day 2: A Lent Story Although I stopped going to my Catholic Church over the summer and have joined up with the Independent Fundamental Baptists, Southern Baptists, and Holiness, deep down, I'm still a Catholic. Why I walked away from the C
Another Milestone - 9K! 1,000 Coins in Half the Time
I'm really surprised at how fast I was able to earn the last thousand coins. My 8,000-coin post appeared on February 3, and now, only 16 days later, here's a 9,000 - coin post. They're almost starting to pile up. Are you getting bored? No worries, onc
How Worry Dolls Can Help as a Writing Prompt
The little dolls pictured here are Guatemalan Worry Dolls. Guatamalan children tell a worry to each doll before going to sleep at night, then place them under their pillow. In the morning the dolls will have carried their worries away. I bought these when
Sharing personal stories online
I try to be very careful about what and how much I share on the Internet. I maintains a blog that pretty much share every detail of my life for seven years. The good thing is, that was at the talents of my college years and my early 20s, when there wasn't
Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Day -- Wild Charolais Cattle of Venezuela
I find a lot of inspiration for writing in photographs, and Wikimedia Commons, one of my favorite sites for free-use pictures, features a "Picture of the Day"--a variety of subjects, but always stunning photography. I decided to let these pictures inspire
A few things going on
A few fun and interesting things are happening right now, rather than write a separate post for each I figured I would just post this one quick(ish) update before I go to bed. It's one am here and I really should think about getting some sleep. Even altho
Ads you hate!
I'm not a big fan of ads in general, but the ones I've been getting on here lately irk me to my core. The worst of them? "Date Russian women!" Setting aside that this is a pop up that just doesn't want to go away, I'm a married woman; I don't need a for
Crowd sourced publishing contracts
About a month ago, I discovered a company through one of my writers' newsletters. Here's the link to their website: http://unbound.co.uk The premise that individuals (prospective readers) pledge money toward the publication of the book. In short, if
Taste this!
THIS PRAWN COCKTAIL is a popular starter dish in restaurants but it is one thing I simply cannot eat! Now, I'm not a fussy eater but neither am I one of those cast-iron-stomach people who can eat anything and seafood is definitely not on my list of 'foods
Random Sums Up my Mind Today
I'm sitting at the computer, trying to adjust back to the reality of my daily life. My mind is all over the place, trying to balance how I would like to spend my day with the things I need to do. I thought this photo of the rocky shore on Wellington's sout
Mix It Up
My friend #AliCanary recently posted an article about discrimination being handed out by people who have been on the receiving end of it (No Excuse For Discrimination), and it inspired me to share my own experience. I, too, am a white woman. My si
30 Percent and Climbing
I have been rock climbing. Just once. It was in August 2012, just two and a half months after my surgery to remove part of my small colon and tumors from my mesentery and my liver. I had been diagnosed with stage IV carcinoid cancer just weeks before
I am NOT Something Else, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat. Debbi got up this morning and told me I was something else. I want to make one thing clear. I am not something else. Debbi is seriously not a morning person. Seriously. Do not expect intelligent brain function from her b
Diary Monday 16th February 2015
My phone has gone missing. It is either on silent or out of power so I can’t trace it, though it is somewhere in the house – very frustrating. Today marked the start of the three day warehousing work training programme in Gorton, Manch
Where is the Bird? A Photo Mystery Puzzle
Where is the bird? The bird is obviously perched on something in the air. So what's the mystery puzzle? The mystery has two parts. First, what exactly is the bird perched on and what is it attached to? Second, over what are the bird and its perch hanging?
The Art of the Semicolon
&LadyTrouble wrote in this article http://personapaper.com/article/23898-self-consciously-yours about how hard it was to remember whether to us a semi-colon or a comma. I decided to tackle the easier part, which is the use of the semi-colon (comma
No Excuse for Discrimination
I read an article about abuse that addresses the idea that children who are abused grow up to be abusers, and I agree with the author that while this is common, it is also a cop-out. Kids know they've been treated badly and that it's wrong; therefore they
Overcoming Hypothermia - brrrrr - I am cold, cold cold
Training Course Maybe 20 years ago, I was nominally in charge of a group of female trainers. I say nominally, because they had their own manager and they did the job they needed to do without much intervention from me. They wanted to go on a leadership de
Any creative writers out there?
In the professional sense, I'm mostly a nonfiction writer. That said, my passion is with fiction, but when the rubber meets the road, I freeze up. Although I have three fully-developed story lines, when I sit down to write, my anxiety gets the best of me a
Can You Find the Squirrel?
One thing you can say about #squirrels is that they move quickly. As I was walking down Oak Lane, the #rural road where the small farms near me are located, I first ran across the pig I saw last time I was there. I took a lot of #photos of her and wrote to
Playlist Diary For My Valentine’s Day Radio Show 14th February 2015
Getting to be on the air live on a special day is a radio broadcaster’s dream. The show can virtually create itself and much of the script I came up with was marginalized for improvisation and spontaneity which happens more and more now in general fo
Leaving My Computer Behind
Sometimes decisions have to be made. I've been struggling with writing the first part of my book, mainly because it involves a lot of research and is different from my usual style of writing. I've also been paying far too much attention to my online writin
In Quest of the Blooming Almond Trees
Before Paso Robles was known for its vineyards, it was known for its almonds. Back in the 1970’s when we would travel to Carmel Valley from Culver City, we would pass through Paso Robles on Interstate 101. We didn’t see wine tasting rooms back
Easy Food for People Who Hate Cooking - Super Ramen
It's not that I CAN'T cook, it's just that I don't like to. My mom didn't enjoy it, either, so I come by that naturally, I suppose. However, I have developed a skill for "assembling" things that are ridiculously easy to prepare, and this is one of them. E
Happy Valentines Day to Two of My Favorite Kitties, by Guiness the Cat
Hello, this is Guiness the Cat wishing a very happy Valentine's Day to everyone, but most especially two of my favorite kitties in the world: Mildred the Cat and Freya the Catblog Cat. I could not ask for any two smarter, more beautiful, or more talented
Who Was Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine is a legend as no real evidence exists about him but he is associated with stories of an early Christian martyr called Valentius who secretly carried out weddings in Rome, even for Roman soldiers who were secret converts to Christiani
Stupid Things that Always Happen in Movies and TV Shows, Item #1 - Drawing Blood in The Dumbest Way Possible
I watch a lot of TV shows with a dramatic or supernatural theme, and there are some devices that shows CONSTANTLY do that bug the crap out of me. Here's one: Whenever someone has to give a few drops of blood for a spell, or two characters make a "blood oa
