Wishing You a Blessed 2009

As we begin a new year, I thank you for reading and commenting on my blog, for buying and reading my book, for working with you on your writing and editing projects.

I wish each of you a blessed 2009, a year of health, happiness, and success. And when your blessings are interspersed with trials and tribulations, may you enjoy the peace that passes understanding as you become stronger and wiser.

Happy New Year 2009!

ALMIGHTY God, who alone gavest us the breath of life, and alone canst keep alive in us the holy desires thou dost impart; We beseech thee, for thy compassion’s sake, to sanctify all our thoughts and endeavours; that in the coming year we may neither begin an action without a pure intention nor continue it without thy blessing. And grant that, having the eyes of the mind opened to behold things invisible and unseen, we may in heart be inspired by thy wisdom, and in work be upheld by thy strength, and in the end be accepted of thee as thy faithful servants; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Christmas Memories

Karen Swim’s post I Gave at the Office started me thinking about past Christmases. Karen wrote about obligatory office gift-giving and offered several excellent alternatives. 

I’ve worked alone for a dozen years or so now so I don’t deal with these issues. But when I owned an interior landscape company, we always had a dinner for our employees and their families. We set up tables in the warehouse, so obviously it was a casual affair. Everyone brought a dish, and  we had a good time relaxing together and getting to know everyone’s spouses and kids.

We also gave the employees a chance to volunteer together to distribute toys to needy children. The Elf Louise Project  was started in 1969 by a college student who collected toys for 13 families. Now the charity delivers toys to more than 20,000 children in about 6,000 families with the help of nearly 5,000 volunteers.

Employees of our interior landscape company who wanted to participate signed up to join a company Elf Louise team. Our company usually fielded several 3-man teams at different times during the holiday season.

One person was assigned to be Santa—the organization provided a Santa suit. One was the driver who had to stay with the car at all times, and the third was the elf responsible for navigating and keeping track of which kid got what toy.

We were given safety warnings, such as never park in a position where we couldn’t make a fast getaway, because many of the homes we delivered toys to were in high-crime neighborhoods. One night the team I was with ended up on a dead-end street. As we were leaving, a carload of rough-looking teenagers pulled in front of us and screeched to a stop. All four doors were thrown open and what looked like a gang of youths jumped out and ran over to our car.

We sat there frantically trying to figure a way out. The boys ran up to the window, yelling, “Santa! Santa! Santa!” We gave them candy from Santa’s bag—Elf Louise provided lots of candy to give away to the kids not on Santa’s list who inevitably showed up when Santa arrived. All our candy that night went to the “gang” of tough-looking guys, who grinned and high-fived each other and said, “Thanks, Santa!” Then they jumped back in their car and drove away.

Experiences like that are worth more than any gifts we could exchange with coworkers.

That memory sparked a memory of another Santa experience.

photo credit: Philms

When I was a member of a local organization for women business owners, we wanted to do something for the Battered Women’s Shelter for Christmas. Our contact told us they had lots of gifts and parties already donated for Shelter residents, but they had just started a program to help women and their children transition to life on their own. Women who had been placed in jobs and moved into apartments needed Christmas presents for their children. We volunteered to host a party and give gifts to those families. That first year there were only 12 families with about 20 children in the program. A church near the Shelter provided space, and the Shelter gave us a list of families, including the names and ages of the children. We solicited donations for the gifts, and half a dozen of us planned the party.

One of our members had played Santa for other organizations and offered to wear her Santa suit to the party. As I was preparing to go to the party, on impulse I picked up my Polaroid camera. I didn’t have any film, so Santa and I stopped at a drugstore on the way to the church. It was quite a sight to see Santa walk through the store—kids materialized from everywhere and followed Santa like kids in the story followed the Pied Piper.

We got to the church, decorated the room, and set up refreshments. As the families arrived, they were quiet and reserved. The kids looked at Santa but shyly clung to their mothers. We had to encourage them to help themselves to cookies and punch, but once the kids had the refreshments in their hands, they grinned between bites and inched a little closer to Santa.

We told the children to sit on Santa’s lap to get their presents and have their picture taken. They hesitated, but the lure of all the gifts stacked beside Santa finally pulled them forward. The children sat on Santa’s lap and received their gifts. I took a picture of each child, then invited the mothers to join all their children for a family photo. They smiled and shook their heads. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t want a picture until one mother shyly asked, “How much does it cost?” They thought we were going to make them pay for the pictures, and when we said they were free, they hurried over to stand beside Santa with their children. Several of the mothers had tears in their eyes and said, “This is the first picture I’ve ever had with my children.” 

We gave a gift to each mother and some food items for the families. When no one made any move to open the gifts, I said, “Don’t you want to open your presents?” The mothers gave me a puzzled look and one said, “Oh no, we want the kids to have the gifts on Christmas morning. These are the only presents they’ll get.”

We thought we were making the families’ Christmas a little brighter. In fact, we were giving them the only Christmas they would have. And my impulsive grabbing of my Polaroid camera resulted in one of the best gifts of all.

Through the years, the program grew to the point that the last time we hosted the party (shortly before the women business owners’ organization dissolved), there were about 300 families and 700 or 800 children. We had dozens of volunteers instead of the original half dozen, tons of donated food, and gifts for every child and every mother. I knew to invite the mothers and children to have their pictures taken for free, and we expected that the families would head to the bus stop with bags of unopened gifts so they would have presents to open on Christmas Day.

Participating in these annual parties made me appreciate anew my childhood. When I was growing up, we didn’t have many material goods, but we always had a joyous Christmas. My parents told me that when I was in the first grade or so, I begged for a dollhouse for Christmas. That dollhouse was far beyond Santa’s budget, and my parents felt so bad that they couldn’t give me what I wanted. They saved up and gave me the dolhouse the next Christmas. By that time, I was no longer interested and seldom played with it. I don’t remember any of that—obviously I wasn’t traumatized by being deprived of the dollhouse the year I wanted it so desperately, but it made such a deep impression on my parents that they mentioned it for years afterward.

Daddy always built our Christmas tree. He chopped down several soapbush trees on the farm. He used the largest and most shapely one as the base, then he filled in with branches from the others bushes to make a huge tree. Unlike traditional Christmas trees, it was almost round. Then he loaded it down with lights and decorations and dotted snow (made from whipped Ivory Snow soap) on the branches. I’ve never seen another tree that looked anything like Daddy’s Christmas trees. You can get a glimpse of it in this family photo of my parents and their grown children. Christmas meant lots of family, food, faith, and love.

Christmas is quieter for us now. My parents are gone, and the rest of the family is scattered. Jack and I will go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and have  dinner on Christmas Day with my sister and her friend at a local restaurant. The next day, we’ll all get together with my brother and his family from Phoenix, who will spend Christmas Day with my sister-in-law’s family.

There are fewer people than when my parents were alive, but we’ll still have plenty of food, faith, and love. We’ll still remember the reason for Christmas—to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came that we might have eternal life.

Merry Christmas!

Spam Again …

photo credit: Gauravonomics

For some strange reason, I had a few spam-free days when I moved my blog from a subdirectory to the main directory of my Web site. In the previous two years, Akismet had caught 97,000+ spam comments. Then for a day or two i had zero spam comments!

Then the spam started coming again—a trickle, a stream, a river, a flood. Now, a month later, Akismet has caught 10,000+ spam comments. 10,000 in one month! During the same time, I’ve had about 500 legitimate comments—20 spam comments for every real comment.

The bulk of the spam can be classified as porn, pills, and plagiarism …

Porn: Ads about perverted sex are wasted on a person who openly expresses her Christian faith and values on the blog.

Pills: If the pill purveyors only knew of the adverse reactions I’ve had from prescription medicine they’re trying to sell without prescriptions, they would know there’s nothing for them here.

Plagiarism: Perhaps the thing that amazes me the most are those spammers who plagiarize earlier comments—or even my post! At first, these were hard to catch because they showed up on old posts with lots of comments. But now I’m getting comments that repeat a sentence from my post within minutes of posting.

Thank heavens for Akismet. I’ve been checking comments in spam to look for legitimate comments. A few of my regular commenters end up in spam—I don’t know why, but I try to catch them. But skimming through hundreds of spam comments each day is time-consuming and very unpleasant, and I may stop doing it. If your comment doesn’t appear, e-mail me and I’ll look for it. Otherwise, I may miss it.

Can anyone explain to me why in the world spammers spam?

Comment Spam, Do Follow, Keyword Names, and You

I’m pleased with the number of insightful comments this blog gets, and I appreciate comments from diverse readers from around the world.

As my comment policy specifies, first-time comments are moderated; after the first comment is approved, future comments from that person are not subject to moderation. In theory, at least. Recently Akismet, which generally does an excellent job of catching spam and not blocking legitimate comments, has blocked comments from regular commenters. I usually delete spam comments without looking at them, so it’s possible that some valuable comments have slipped through and been deleted. If you have commented before and your comment doesn’t appear immediately, e-mail me.

If you haven’t commented before, your comment won’t appear until I have approved it. If your comment hasn’t appeared within 24 hours, you can contact me.

However, if you leave a comment that says “great post,” “now there are more reasons than ever to comment,” or any other comment that doesn’t even indicate you’ve read the post, expect it to be deleted. The first time, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and delete the comment; if it happens again, the comment will be marked spam and any other comments you leave will go into spam.

This blog is a Do Follow blog, which encourages comments. It also attracts spammers. If you come here to comment because you want a link that search engines will follow, I’m happy to have you … IF you read the post before you comment and leave a comment that says something. If the comment is so generic it doesn’t relate to the post … that’s a different story.

The most egregious case of inappropriate commenting started with a comment I approved. The comment related to the post, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so I approved it. The next day that person left about 15 comments—all of which posted immediately because the previous comment had been approved. The first comment I read sounded familiar so I read through all the comments on that post, only to discover that a comment left by another person had been copied. I checked all the comments, and all were duplicates of other comments. The comments were made on older posts with a lot of comments to make it more difficult to catch. Since they were copied from relevant comments, they were appropriate for the post and seemed like legitimate comments. In fact, they were legitimate comments from the original commenter—but plagiarized by the spammer. I marked all the comments, including the first one (which had also been copied though I didn’t recognize at first), as spam. So now we have spam and plagairism in the same comment!

Commenters we bloggers love. Spammers are not welcome.

I do appreciate all legitimate comments, and I reply to every comment. I like to address the commenter by name, but I won’t address someone as California Liposuction or Timbuktu Real Estate. I will approve and reply to the comment, but I’d much rather respond to Susie of California Liposuction or John @ Timbuktu Real Estate. Including keywords with your name is fine—you get a keyword link, and I know I’m replying to a real person. I have a hard time relating to Fat-Burning Miracle.

If you are a blogger, what is your comment policy? If you comment on blogs, what do you think of my comment policy? How do you feel about using keywords rather than names?

My Olympic (Festival) Experience

With the Olympics dominating TV, “proud sponsor …” and “official sponsor …” ads abound. Every time I hear those words, I’m reminded of my own experience as a  “proud sponsor of the Olympic Festival.” I have a framed photo and a framed poster hanging on my office wall as souvenirs.

If you’ve read this blog for even a short while, you probably know I’m not a sports fan. You’re likely surprised that I would have any Olympic experience and may not even know what Olympic Festival was.

I had never heard of Olympic Festival until one day in 1991 when a representative of the Olympic Festival ‘93 called on me to ask my interior landscape company to be a sponsor. For several years ending in 1995, the Olympic Festival was held between Olympics, a sort of mini-Olympics for US athletes competing to be on the US Olympic team. 

We were asked to provide plants to decorate the festival venues. Business was good, I liked to support the community, and we had two years to prepare. So I said “yes” and became an “Official Sponsor of the Olympic Festival”—based on the value of our contribution, LIllie’s Plantscapes was a “Key Supplier.”

By 1993, circumstances had changed. I still wanted to support the community, but business had suffered from my absence while recovering from a stroke. We were short on preparation time since planning for this event had dropped to the bottom of the priority list when my staff focused on business survival during my absence. I was still in a wheelchair and easily fatigued, making it more difficult to manage large projects. Then we discovered that not only did the Festival organizers want green plants (which we could use later) for decorations, they wanted hundreds of blooming plants (which would have to be discarded after the event), increasing our out-of-pocket costs tremendously.

Nevertheless, we had made a commitment and were determined to honor it. The Olympic Festival treated it sponsors very well. We were given a great deal of publicity, invited to breakfasts and other events where we were given gifts (such a leather-bound diary/calendar featuring all the Festival events), and given private tours of the venues. That VIP treatment made participating in the Festival fun and exciting, but it didn’t alleviate the financial and labor strains we incurred.

Fortunately, I had a wonderful workforce. Often we had to break down one venue at midnight, move the plants to another location across town, and set up by 6:00 AM. We were given several VIP passes—identification as a Key Supplier that hung from a chain and allowed us anywhere in the venues. Workers could deliver the plants to a venue, wander around behind the scenes and see the athletes preparing to compete, watch the event, then go back to work.

We created a schedule that covered all the indoor events—the outdoor events used nature rather than our plants for decoration—and asked staff to volunteer for specific venues so they would have a chance to see their favorite sports. We even allowed office personnel to work as laborers so they could participate in the Festival as well. Although some events were more popular than others, we managed to schedule all the workers for events they wanted to see and cover all the events. Sometimes we had crews setting up plants in a number of venues around town at the same time … and we were still taking care of hundreds of clients’ plants on a regular schedule.

Everyone in the company spent an intense, stressful ten days ensuring that plants were in place to decorate the venues on time—even when events ran late and caused a rush to get the plants to the next venue. Every staff member was proud of the company and thrilled to participate in the Olympic Festival, which was a huge event for San Antonio. The thousands of dollars and hundreds of manhours of labor it cost us were well-spent.

Even though I’m not a sports fan, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to see performances by athletes who might become Olympic champions so I attended some of the gymnastics events. I found this video on YouTube of some of these events. Shannon Miller, performing here, went on to win a number of gold medals in the next Olympics and is the most decorated American gymnast in history.

You can even see some of our plants in the background early in the video!

Remembering My Parents

Five years ago today, my mother departed this earth to join my father in Heaven, where he had resided for more than eight years. Today, I still thank God regularly for the blessing of being born to these two remarkable people.

By the standards of the world, they never accomplished much. Neither had more than a high school education until Mama trained to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse after the youngest children were in high school and the others had left home. Daddy ran a small farm, but for many years he had to supplement his income by working as a rural letter carrier, a.k.a. mailman. I never realized we were poor until I learned I was eligible for financial assistance for college because we were below the poverty level.

Yet Mama and Daddy were two of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and, more importantly, the kindest, most generous, and most loving. Their world revolved around their six kids. They had high standards for behavior and school performance, and Daddy wouldn’t hesitate to enforce his standards with a spanking. However, I - and I believe all my siblings - were less concerned about being punished for misbehavior than seeing the look of disappointment on my parents’ faces.

Daddy was born on the farm he grew up on, and he lived there his entire life except for three years in the Army and the last few years of his life in a nursing home. Mama was born in California and moved around with her parents who were migrant workers. When she was in high school, she moved to Utah to live with her grandmother after her grandfather died.  She and Daddy met while Daddy was stationed in Utah in the Army.

After the war, Mama left her family and her Mormon religion and moved to Texas to marry Daddy and join his church (Methodist). Just a little over nine months later, I was born, the first of six children. They raised their children, worked their farm, befriended their neighbors, and served their community together for nearly 50 years.

They were simple, unassuming people, but they both had a wonderful sense of humor. You can see their proud smiles in this photo with me as a tiny baby, but the camera didn’t catch Daddy’s mischievous grin that he characteristically wore.

Daddy loved walking through the farm checking on the cattle he knew individually. When I was growing up, south Texas was going through a terrible drought. Daddy found a way to keep going. He couldn’t grow crops or raise cattle, but he discovered that caged chickens didn’t need rain … so he went into the egg business with 20,000 chickens. After the drought ended, he went back to farming crops and cattle.

Patients in the hospital and nursing home loved Mama because she was sweet and thoughtful. She worked for many years as a nurse’s aide before training as a nurse, and in both capacities, she cared for the emotional needs as well as the medical needs of her patients.

Daddy was a whiz at math. He could work any problem in his head, but he couldn’t tell you how he arrived at the answer. As a kid, I used to test him.

“How much is 1,392 times 847?” I’d ask as I punched the numbers into a calculator.

“1,179,024,” Daddy would answer before the calculator processed the problem.

“How did you know that?” I’d ask when the calculator agreed with him.

“That’s just what it is,” Daddy would say.

Mama loved to read and do crossword puzzles and word games. She always had a novel or two along with several puzzle books and pencils handy.

When I was in high school, I was president of the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) Subdistrict (a group of several churches in a small geographic area). Back in those days, churches, like everything else, were segregated. I was invited to speak to the MYF at a black church in San Antonio (nearly a hundred miles from the rural area we lived in). I was thrilled at the invitation but was flabbergasted at the response when I told my parents and asked them to take me. 

Daddy said, “I’m not going to any n- church.”

I think my mouth must have dropped open in shock. I had no idea my father was prejudiced. He did business with and was friendly with many Hispanics at a time and place where there was a lot of prejudice against Mexicans, as Hispanics were called then. There were no black people anywhere around where we lived, so Daddy wasn’t prejudiced against blacks from personal experience. It seemed to be just “the way things were” back then.

My mother, on the hand, was completely different. When she was a child, her father had become very ill and the family couldn’t afford a doctor. A black family in the migrant camp, who must have been just about as poor as my grandparents, helped them out. So my mother had a totally different reaction than my father. She may well have talked to him in private about his reaction, but she would not have done anything he didn’t agree with.

But the thing I so admired about my father was that in spite of his own prejudice, he didn’t pass it on to me. He didn’t forbid me to speak to the black youth group. He even drove me the nearly hundred miles to attend. However, he wouldn’t get out of the car. He and Mama drove around and around until I was finished.

I don’t remember any details of the event except that I was very happy about it. But I will never forget how my father helped me do something he couldn’t bring himself to do because he knew he was wrong (though he would never admit that).

No one on either side of the family had attended college, but all of us kids took it for granted that we would go to college. I’m sure my parents must have worried about how that would happen, but they never discouraged us. All four of the girls eventually earned college degrees, though two dropped out of college and returned much later in life. The two boys had technical training and have gone to professional careers in real estate and technology. This picture is our family the year I left for college.

During my first year of college, my family’s house caught on fire in the middle of the night. Mama woke up smelling smoke and herded everyone outside, though one of my brothers kept trying to get back in bed and go to sleep. Daddy managed to get in and rescue a few business records from the file cabinet in the front room, but then the fire was too hot to save anything else. Everyone sat in the front yard watching the house burn while they waited for the volunteer fire department to arrive from the town seven miles away. Daddy looked around and counted kids.

“There’s only five kids here,” he screamed. “Someone’s missing.” He started to run back into the house, now an inferno in full bloom.

Mama had a hard time making him understand that I was away at college and not in the burning house.

The rest of the family had only the night clothes they were wearing. Everyone in the family wears glasses, and all the glasses burned up in the fire. My parents and siblings spent the rest of the night at my grandmother’s, just a few hundred yards away on the same farm. The next morning, when the school bus stopped at the end of the lane, someone (maybe my grandmother) notified the bus driver that the children wouldn’t be going to school because of the fire. That afternoon, the bus stopped again, this time filled with clothing and household goods that the townspeople had donated. For several months, the family lived in the “egg house,” the building that was used to grade and pack eggs for market. Daddy bought an old frame house, moved it on to the farm, and renovated it for the family’s new home.

My folks didn’t let that fire—or any of the other difficulties they encountered in life—shake their strong faith or change their positive, kind, and loving personalities.

I will always be grateful for being blessed with their love, faith, and nurturing.

More on Magical Thinking

I didn’t intend to write a series on magical thinking. I planned just one post on the subject, my entry in What I Learned From People. However, this has been a learning experience all on its own. Because I used words that many people consider positive in a negative context, my message apparently didn’t get through to a lot of people. Perhaps the following little joke will put magical thinking in context.

A man of faith, Sam, answered a knock on his door to find a sheriff’s deputy standing on the porch. “Sir,” the deputy said, “the dam has broken and the river is flooding. Come get in my patrol car, and I’ll drive you to safety.”

Sam answered, “Thank you, but God will take care of me.”

A little while later, the floodwaters had reached Sam’s house and were starting to cover the porch. A man arrived in a small rowboat. “Sir,” he called out, “I’ll maneuver my boat right up next to your porch. Jump in the boat, and I’ll row you to safety.”

Sam answered, “Thank you, but God will take care of me.”

Some time later, the water had reached the second floor, and Sam was watching the rising river from a bedroom window. Two men appeared in a much larger boat. “Sir,” one called through a megaphone, “We’ll pull the boat up beside the house and toss you a rope ladder. Grab the ladder and climb down into the boat, and we’ll take you to safety.”

Sam answered, “Thank you, but God will take care of me.”

Soon the floodwaters had filled the house, and Sam was standing on his rooftop. A rescue team arrived in a helicopter. “Sir,” a rescuer called through a bullhorn, “we’re dropping a line. Grab the line; we’ll pull you up into the helicopter and fly you to safety.”

Sam answered, “Thank you, but God will take care of me.”

A short time later, Sam was washed away in the flood. When he came to stand before the Lord, he said, “God, I’ve been a man of faith all my life. I put all my trust in you. I knew you would save me. Why did you let me drown?”

“Son, I sent you a car, two boats, and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

Sam didn’t recognize his salvation in the ordinary people and tools of rescue. He expected God to work a supernatural miracle to save him.

In the same way, the man who expects the government to provide him financial security doesn’t recognize the seeds of his security in the entry level job he disdains because it’s menial work at low pay.

In the same way, the cancer patient who wants healing doesn’t recognize God’s healing hand in months of chemotherapy or radical surgery but wants an instant and miraculous cure.

In the same way, the writer who wants to become a best-selling author doesn’t recognize editing and revising and proofreading as early steps in the road to bestsellerdom but thinks her first draft should be good enough.

Magical thinkers rely on supernatural powers rather than the power of hard work. Magic can happen … but I don’t think any of us can count on it!

Can you remember … or imagine … life without spell check or life with a manual typewriter?

Recently, a client sent me a document to edit that was filled with spelling errors that should have been caught by spell check. I sent my client a note offering to help her new assistant turn on automatic spell checking.

A few days later, I was working on a new document for the same client. I typed a word and realized I had misspelled it … but there was no squiggly red line under the word. Was it right? No, it looked wrong, but Word said it was correct when I manually checked the spelling. So I looked the word up in the dictionary, and it was wrong. Maybe there something wrong for the listing of that word in Word’s dictionary. So I typed another misspelled word … and another … and another. Word said all were correct. I typed gibberish. Word said it was correct. I opened all the other Office programs and typed the same gibberish and spell check put squiggly red lines under every “word.”

Thus began a three-hour process of researching and experimenting to correct the problem. I read Word help and checked all the settings. I logged into the Microsoft forums and tried the numerous suggestions for spell check problems. I changed settings and edited the registry and rebooted the computer after each change. Word still told me my gibberish was correctly spelled.

Finally, I came across a message that sometimes a “bad” add-in can cause a problem with spell-check. So I decided to disable add-ins one at a time, then see if spell-check worked. When I opened Add-ins and looked at the drop down menu to manage add-ins, I saw a selection for Disabled Add-ins. I opened Disabled Add-ins and discovered spell check was disabled! Word said the add-in was disabled because it caused a serious problem the last time it was used. I don’t recall any “serious problems” with Word - and I’m not likely to forget “serious problems” - but whatever happened, the problem is solved!

Spell check can be easily misused and abused. I continually see words that are spelled correctly but are the wrong word for the context because the writer accepted Word’s spelling suggestion. However, I know much time it can save and how much it can improve accuracy if used correctly.

That thought led to the memory of the typewriter. There wouldn’t be nearly as many writers as there are today if we still used manual (or even electric) typewriters.

Several years ago, I transcribed my mother-in-law’s life story from tape recordings she made. I had helped my mother with her story (which I’ll talk about in a few months in a series on writing memoirs and family histories), and my husband and I had encouraged my mother-in-law to write her own life story. She finally agreed to talk into a recorder if I would transcribe the recordings.

After I typed the manuscript, we took it to her to edit, especially to be sure I spelled unfamiliar names and places correctly. She asked how I wanted her to mark the changes. When I told her to just mark the manuscript pages, she said, “Oh, I don’t want you to have to re-type the whole page for a small error!”

She had used the same manual typewriter since her college days in the 1920s. She had never used a computer and was amazed when I told her I could make the corrections on the computer and print out a new manuscript.

Jack picked her up and brought her to my office to spend the afternoon while I was making the corrections. Cut and paste amazed her. She kept saying, “I would have had to re-type the whole thing to move things around like that.”

That experience gave me a new appreciation for the computer and word processing. It also gave me a wonderful visit with my mother-in-law and lovely memories years after she is no longer with us.

[tags]spell check, computer problem[/tags]

Beginning the Year with Thanks

I’m not sure whether to thank or blame Lisa Gates at Design Your Writing Life for A Gratitude “MeMe” for “YouYou.”

On one hand, this post has taken more time and effort to compile than any other single post I’ve ever written. Lisa said it would be a challenge to do it manually, but I didn’t realize what a challenge until I spent hours at a time for several days copying and pasting from WordPress into a spreadsheet to compile the list. In fact, I intended to post this before the end of the year, but it’s taken this long to put the post together.

On the other hand, what a treat is has been to review a year’s worth of comments, remember great conversations, and think of commenters who have become good friends.

In the past year, 324 commenters have left more than a thousand comments on 230 posts. I have replied to every one, bringing the total number of comments to more than 2000. In addition to replying, I always visit the blog of every commenter who includes a link and end up subscribing to many of the blogs I visit.

More than the numbers impressed me as I went back through every comment in the last year. Some were short comments agreeing with something I said. Others were longer discourses that advanced the conversation by answering a question, providing more information, or sharing new insights. A few were lengthy explanations of why I was wrong, but all were respectful and thoughtful. I am awed and humbled by the amazing conversations we’ve had. Thank you to each commenter for your contributions to this blog in 2007. I look forward to your continued participation in the coming year.

About a third of the commenters left multiple comments. While I appreciate each comment, there are a few individuals who have to be singled out for being so much a part of this blog.

Top Contributors (50+ comments):
Mihaela (Mig) Lica, Pamil Visions’ E-Writings (60 comments)
Laura, Writing Thoughts (57 comments)
Yvonne Russell, Grow Your Writing Business (54 comments)
Jeanne Dininni, Writer’s Notes (51 comments)

Major Contributors (20 to 40 comments):
Matt Keegan, The Article Writer
Helen Ginger, Straight from Hel
Joanna Young, Confident Writing

Outstanding Contributors (10 to 20 comments):
Jack J Ammann Jr aka Mr. Lillie, Jack Ammann
Robert Hruzek, Middle Zone Musings
Lisa Vella, Getting it Write for You
Michi, Content Done Better
Thomma Lyn, Tennessee Text Wrestling
Michele Tune, Writing the Cyber Highway
Misti Sandefur, Life of a Writer
Mike Olbinski, A Mike Life
Hummie, Hummie’s World

Significant Contributors (2 to 10 comments):
Merry Jelinek, Mom and More
Karen Putz, A Deaf Mom Shares Her World
Writing Nag
Edith Brown, Jeteak Press Writer Blog
Sam Chan, Acquire Wisdom and Live with Passion
Stephen Hopson, Adversity University
Alcohol Rehabilitation, Drug Rehab Center
Alicia, Writing Spark
Theda K., Crayon Writer
Angela Williams Duea, Pearl Writing
Bryan, One Man’s Goal
David, Blog Raters
Mary Emma Allen, Home Biz Notes
Brad Shorr, Word Sell, Inc.
Cade, Write to Right
Jasia, Creative Gene
Jeane Michelle Culp, Binding Ink
Liz Strauss, Successful Blog
Lori Widmer, Words on the Page
wordvixen, Quest to Write
A Mom and More
Angela/The Gack Ink Girls, Gack Ink
Char, Essential Keystrokes
chrisblogging.com, ChrisBlogging
Code4Gold
Denise, Freelancing Journey
doris chua, Home Office Women
Fr. Jerry Sherbourne, Fr. Jerry’s Jottings
Georganna Hancock, A Writer’s Edge
Jenny, Up the Hill Gang
Julia Temlyn, Mrs. Write Right, Word Therapist (aka writer-editor)
Jyn Smith
Lara Kulpa, Anubis Marketing
Lisa, Work at Home Mom Revolution
Mike DeWitt, Spooky Action
Mike Seth, Hammer & Duct Tape
Pfunk, Pfunk’s Foolsophy
Phil Davis, How to Publish a Book
Ponn Sabra, Empower Women Now
raz godelnik, Eco-Libris
Sharon Hurley Hall, Get Paid to Write Online
Sheila, Go Visit Hawaii
website copywriter, Webmaster Labor
Amy Derby, Write from Home
AnitoKid, The AnitoKid on Billiards|Philippine Sports
Beth G. Sanders, bgsblog
Breezie, Shooting the Breeze with Breezie
Carpentry Jobs
Chamonix, Chalet 1802
cooliojones, My New Hustle
CyberCelt, Endangered Spaces
Dave RH, The Ancient Standard
David, Cooking, Recipes, and Kitchen Tools
David Airey
Deb, Punctuality Rules
Dorothy Thompson, Pump up Your Online Book Promotion
Ed, Dingmo
Evelyn, Productive Pen
GnomeyNewt, Blue Jar
Heather, Desperately Seeking Sanity
Jason A. Clark, Inner 88
Jerseygirl89, Dirty Little Secret
Jobs in Israel, Job Mob
Kate Baggott, Babylune
Linden man, Chinoy Ray
Liz, My year of getting published
Louiss, Blogging Secret
Manchild, When Least Expected
Mark, Mark (Unemployed)
MDB, Million Dollar Blog
Newspaper Printers, Archant Print
Paula Mooney, Paula Neal Mooney
Priscilla Palmer, Priscilla Palmer.com
Rabat Travel, Morocco Emotions
rob, robinsongo
Robyn, Brain Based Biz
Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa das, Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa
Sincerity
Solomon
Sue, I Breathe; Therefore I Write
surjit, Gurushabad
Sylvia C., Sylvia’s Insight
Tammi, Drawing on Words
Thisbe, Discount Spies
Timothy Lim, Singapore Chiropractic
Vic, bu.bulicio.us
Vikk, Down the Writer’s Path
Yang Yang, Stumble Upon Yang

Important Contributors (1 comment):
@Stephen, Productivity in Context
Ace, IM Panama
Adam_Y, Flow Field Unity
Alex, Personal Finance Views in the UK
Alex, Science of Identity
Alice
Alina Popescu, Words of a Broken Mirror
Amana Mission Publishing Ink, Amana Mission Publishing Ink
Andrew, F&C Directory
Angela, Serien-IM Blog
Annie, If Only I Could Learn ‘How to Write,’ Right!
Annie, Super Fast Reader
Anupreet
AOV Philippines Outsourcing Service
At Home Mom
Aureliusz Kalliokoski, Iscribbler
Bape, Bapestas.net
The Barrow-Wight, Raven’s Barrow
Barry Cox - Scottsdale Homes, Relocate to AZ Homes
bellevelma, Running with Books
Benjamin, Benjamin On WOWNDADI
Bob, Every, Every Minute
Brenda G. Wooley, One Kentucky Writer
Cameron, The Tech Scoop
Car Titans, CarTitans.com
Carol Webb
Cass, Cass Knits
Catherine, the Redhead, A Week in the Life of a Redhead
Cathy Marley
Charles Sheehan-Miles
Cheap HDTV
Cherie Lee
Children oil portraits, Guaranteed Portraits
Chris, Leadership in Action
Chris Moore
Church of Integrity
Cindy, Kaleidoscope
Clock Man
constructicle boy
Court, Court’s Internet Marketing School
cm
Comfy - Educational toys, Comfyland
Cricket Videos
Cyberpartygal, She Rambles On
Dan, Rent Bits
Dana, The Writer’s Blog by Dana Pri nce
Darlene, Tough Questions Great Answers
Dave
Dave, Go Backpacking
David, OnTheWebEd
David Bowles, Writing the Westward Sagas
davis, In the Arms of God
dcr, dcr blogs
Deborah Gamble, Uncommon Notions
Denise, Freelance Writing
Denise, Tired of Working? Take a Break
Diana Brandmeyer, Next in Dianaland
Diogenes, Fine Art of Blogging
Dirk, Fun Paradise City
djahna, Sure 2 Profit
Jen/domestika, Domestik Goddess
Don, Affiliate Watcher
DRM remover
Dubai, Update Dubai
Dylan, Link It For Me
Emma, It’s Write Now
Environmental News Service, Environmental Graffiti
Eve, WordPress Reworked
Every Square Inch
everysquareinch.blogspot.com
Everything Anything and Nothing
Fashion Directory
Felix Ker
Forrest Croce
Franck Silvestre, Make Money with Affiliate Programs
Free Online Coupons
Funny Picture Woman
Gaming servers
Glenda Watson Hyatt, Do It Myself Blog
green tea benefits, Tea Scoop
Hank, hoodiaweightloss
Harmony, Writer in the Making
headshot photographer los angles
Heather, A Creative Journal
Holly, Woman Tribune
Hoto
Howard, Mead on Manhattan
isabella mori, Change Therapy
Ivan, Zona Cerebral
J, Workout Review
Jackie, Practical Wisdom
Jacky, Vermont 251 Club
James, Digital Key
Jan, Circular Communication
Janie
Jason , Stock Market Investors
JasonJ, Ask Jason
Jay, Between Looking and Seeing
JC, rnb Dirt
Jeff, Jeff Hendricks on Design
Jenn Mattern, All Freelance Writing
Jennifer, Tree Hugging Family
Jeremy Hobbs, Consumer’s Corner
John, Business Opportunities and Ideas
John Kremer, BookMarket.com
John Wilberforce, Hit Flip
John Wolf, Author
Joint Venture Partner
JoLynn Braley, The Fit Shack
Jos, NoDirectOn
Jose Tudor, Tried It Myself
Joyce Bowling, Kentucky the Mountains I Call Home
June
kalpesh, Implanting Ideas
Kamal, Why Must Visit Malaysia
Karen Alaniz, Write Now
Kate, Electric Venom
Kay Ross
KCLau, KC Lau’s Money Tips
Kersson
Kevin, Fuel My Blog
Kristie, Christianity.com
Kwiz, Women Walking in Wisdom’s Footsteps
ladysown
Lakshmi Mareddy, Chilligava
Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer
Layouts, My Space Now
Lazy Boy
legbamel, One Step Forward
Linda Haden
Linda Cano
Linda R. Moore, Raven’s Roads
Lisa Gates, Design Your Writing Life
Lisa Saper-Bloom
Liza, Top Tutorials
Lori Rosmus
Lowell Crabb, Acceleration of Money
Lucid, Spiritual Suggestions
Malignition
Malok, Sold by Jennifer
Manila Mom
Martha Hilliard
Mary Evelyn Lewis, Virtual Wordsmith
matt
Matt, Cheap Air Soft Guns
Matt Jones, Random Acts of Verbiage
Matthew, Blog about Your Blog
Matthew Cornell, Matthew’s Idea Blog
Max, UK Cottage Rental
Melanie, Thrifty and Creative
Michael, Mobile Phone Geek
Michael Werner, Dream Jobs Dialog
Michelle Gartner, Smart Not Cheap
Miller Caldwell
Mirko, Designer Daily
Mister EDgAr
Moultrie Creek
Moving Master
moxy, Blogocola
Mr Pasadena Lasik Surgery
Nico Lorenz T. Panlican, Life Essentials
Okinawa, HDR Japan
On Web Check
Ouch!
Patricia
Patti McQuillen, Gaslight Writers
pelf, pelf-ism is contagious
perros, Sobre Perros
Peter, Hit Meister
Peter, tarife’s xanga site
PeterK, High Salary Careers
Pips, Pips Net Future Trends
PODs Print staff, 3-D Printers and Printing Technology
Randa Clay
Randy, The Garden of the King
Renae, Morning Coffee
Rick Cockrum, Shards of Consciousness
Rinsem
Robb, I Need One of Those
Robin Bayne
Robin Yap, Yap 3.0
Ron, Into the Bit
ru4real, Are You for Real?
sami m, Birch Bolete
Sarakastic, Fibromyalgia Experiment
satellite tv
Sauna
Scott, The Directory Dude
SEO Ninji, Search Engine Optimization
Simon, Yeepage
Sophisticated Writer, Confessions of a Sophisticated Writer
Sports Videos, Dekhona
Steve, 123 Look2Me
Steve Hayes, Notes from Underground
Steven Snell, Vandelay Design
subconscious mind, Erupting Mind
Summer, Summer’s Nook
Sunset Pearl
Susan Hetrick, Advice from the Blender
Susan J, The Urban Muse
Suzanne Wells, Moms in Business
svend
SYH, Women Mumbles
Takeoff Zone
therapydoc, Everyone Needs Therapy
Travelinoma
Troy Worman, Process Geek
Two Write Hands
UtahCateringMan, Culinary Crafts
Vahsek, Jack of Some [sic} Trades, Master of Stupidity
Virginia, Katalusis
Virtual Impax
wagi
Web Design Business, FocusMinded.com
web dev, Make a Website
Wedding Cake Lady
Wholesale Cameras, Safety Tech Spy
Wii Fit
WildwoodNJ
Yuwanda, How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career
Xavier, TechNov Blog

Disclaimer and advance apology: Although I tried to be accurate, I’m sure there are mistakes in the list. If I left you off or made an error in your listing, please accept my advance apology and post a correction in a comment below.

Note that if whatever was listed as the commenter’s name was the same as the name of the blog, I listed and linked to the blog without repeating the name.

If there is no link for a listing, 1) the commenter doesn’t have a blog; 2) the link was removed from the comment because I found the site offensive (there are only a couple of those); or 3) the link led to a parked domain. I did not check each link, but I clicked on ones that I didn’t recognize the site name from the URL. If the link led to a parked domain, I removed the link as the site no longer exists. If I knew of a URL change since the comment was left, I linked to the current blog.

I also want to thank those who read and reviewed the manuscript of my forthcoming novel, Dream or Destiny. Others offered to read; however, either I already had enough volunteers or they were unable to finish because of schedule conflicts. I appreciate those offers as well.

Special thanks to the following who took the time to read and review the manuscript. Your comments, edits, and insights will make the book stronger, and for that I am grateful.
Diana Lesire Brandmeyer, Next in Dianaland
Helen Ginger, Straight from Hel
Mihaela (Mig) Lica, Pamil Visions’ E-Writings
Misti Sandefur, Life of a Writer
Tammi Reynolds, Drawing on Words

Thank you all for a fabulous 2007! I’m looking forward to an even better 2008.

What Do You Think of Weekly/Monthly Roundups, Themes, and Link Love Posts?

As I read blogs, I notice an increasing trend in certain kinds of posts.

Some blogs have a weekly or monthly roundup drawing attention to some of the posts on their blog. I look at the headline and click away from these posts. If the topic interested me, I read the post when it first appeared. If I didn’t read it then, I’m not going to read it now just because it’s listed in a roundup of posts. Of course, I realize new readers find blogs all the time, and these roundup posts might be helpful to them. What do you think about writing a post at the end of the week or the month linking to earlier posts on your own blog?

Other bloggers post roundups with links to posts on other blogs they found interesting. Lisa Gates at Design Your Writing Life and Liz Lewis at My year of getting published have recently linked to a post on this blog, and Matt Keegan at The Article Writer regularly publishes link love posts. I enjoy link posts that include a few links related to a particular subject, especially if there is information about why the link is worthwhile instead of just a list. I’m less apt