O-Dark-Thirty

My Darling Daughter Elizabeth is currently finishing up her Master's in English at ACU, where she had to complete a  "comprehensive exam" this weekend . Her professors gave her a topic (a writing prompt) and she had 36 short hours to write a ten-page, comprehensive paper. She succeeded, of course, and celebrated by writing a short story, similar to   If You Give a Mouse a Cookie   by Laura Joffe Numeroff (Author) and Felicia Bond (Illustrator). Of course, in this case it's really a true story. Well done, Lass. Well done. If You Give a Writer a Prompt by Elizabeth Bernhardt When you give Elizabeth a writing prompt... She'll want some books to go with it. When you give her the books, she'll want to mark some quotes. So then she'll want some Post-its to mark the quotes. After she uses the Post-its, she'll ask you for a computer to retype the quotes. After she retypes the quotes, she'll probably be hungry. She mi...

What was Sunday's sermon at your church? Think fast… Yeah, most of us struggle with that one. The sermon engages us. We understand it. We perhaps even feel a small tug in our hearts. We walk out of church and by the time we're done with lunch we hardly remember the sermon. I had the same problems in my math classes in college. Well, that's why we should take notes, right? Of course, taking notes and never looking at them again is almost meaningless, but the act of writing down the sermon helps you to retain the message anyway. But if you know you have to share the sermon - well, that's a different story. There is a statement about learning that seems true, though I cannot find a definitive source (some reference the book Keys to Success , but there are a few books with that title): “We retain 10 percent of what we read, 20 percent of what we hear, 30 percent of what we see, 50 percent of what we hear and see, 70 percent of what we say, and 90 per...

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Years ago Darling and I went to a seminar and one of the speakers talked about an old woman he met that was so nice he had to ask her secret. She said when she was a young girl she memorized Romans 12 and lived by it. That impressed me so much I came home and asked my two youngest to memorize the chapter They memorized it a lot faster than I did (and I still stutter over parts of it). Here is the entire text (in NAS, since that’s the version I prefer, though I know people disagree with me on that topic). Romans 12 (New American Standard) Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly ...

I just received a notice of a Presidential Proclamation -- National African American History Month, 2014. I'm glad for the proclamation, but does that mean it is only for 2014? I think it should be celebrated every year. My friend Jaki Rivon's poetry book ON THE WINGS: COLLECTIVE WORKS OF POETRY has a couple amazing poems in it that fit this theme: The Signature of a Black Man and The Signature of a Black Woman , two of my favorite poems in the book! Both her books are now available as e-books on Amazon, published by our own company Undefined Logic, LLC (creators of the awesome iOS app Techno-Jargon!). We'll get them available pretty soon in print as well, though if you want a printed copy, Jaki has some at her home and she would be delighted to sign a copy for you! To order signed copies of either book Call 713-436-3227 or e-mail dovemail@aol.com ON THE WINGS: COLLECTIVE WORKS OF POETRY TIMELESS GOOD NEWS I love both her books, but Amaz...

This is almost a duplicate of what I posted last year. It's still a great article, and the ideas are still worthwhile. My additional comments for this year are italicized. In March of 2010 The New York Times posted an article titled 31 Steps to a Financial Tuneup .  It's still available and is an interactive site, allowing you to check off the ones you finish. It also gives estimated time for each step. I consider it one of the best sites out there for yearly financial planning. The following list has a couple personal recommendations. Other than that, it comes directly from the New York Times site. A. If you go to church check your tithing amount. If you aren't giving ten percent, bump it up a little bit to get closer to the ten percent goal. You should know all the good your church does with the money. If you don't, think about a different church! (~ 5 minutes) If you don't believe in a personal God, then you're probably on the wrong blog post, bu...