Sally Ember's Blog, page 23
September 7, 2018
Do you #10Q? Starts this weekend!
It’s not too late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.
[image error]
It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points.
Check out any local Partners with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners: Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].<
You can respond to all 10 Questions from September 9 through September 19, online, and have them put into the “vault” for yourself for next year’s reflections.
10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!
http://doyou10q.com/
“Answer one question per day [or more than one per day, if you have some to catch up on] in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.
“One year later, the ‘vault’ will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.
“Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.
“Next year, the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.
“Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:
[image error]
Click hereto get your 10Q on.
“10Q begins September 9, 2018, and goes for 10 days
http://doyou10q.com/ ”
Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014:
2017
-1) Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
This has been a very strange year, professionally.
—I went back to work as a teacher for the first time in many decades just before the new year started, but was mistreated, disrespected, slandered, libeled and driven out of the job within 6 months. Even though I felt somewhat satisfied as a teacher (reaching students no one else had been able to reach, helping several complete their G.E.D.s, and moving others along who had been stalled,) and a teacher trainer (my co-teacher had never had education to be a teacher; she had been a vet, so she had said that she learned a lot from me), the attendance dwindled so much that we often only had 1 or 2 students for weeks at after Jan. 2., It was a complete waste of my time and skills to be there. I was relieved to be “laid off” in mid-February, 2017.
—Despite much effort, many applications and several interviews, I still haven’t [as of September, 2018] found a good place to put my skills, experience, knowledge and expertise to use. Why is that?
—I also haven’t finished my fourth Volume in my sci-fi series even though it has been more than 3/4 finished for over [two years]. My urge to write has flown.
—I stopped doing my online conversational talk show about one year ago as well, due to technical problems (not mine; YouTube’s) that took more than a month to resolve. By the time I could return to it, I didn’t want to do that any longer, either.
I feel guilty, as if I’m wasting my life. I have so much to offer and nowhere to offer it.
What to do with myself, professionally, is the burning question of my 64th year on this planet. Hope I can figure that out.
-4) Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The stolen election (third one Republicans have stolen in my lifetime, that I know of) and its aftermath has impacted the entire planet adversely. I am appalled, disgusted, afraid and angry almost constantly because of all that. The worst-ever nominees and accepted Cabinet members and judges; the worst-ever Congress and Senate: cowards, liars, criminals and sociopaths are running our country into the ground and all its resources and the safety of the planet are at stake.
We need help. I wish the aliens of my series from the Many Worlds Collective would come NOW and save us all from ourselves. http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners for inspiration, hope and consolation.
-11) What are your predictions for the coming year?
My Answer:
#45 will resign to avoid impeachment but will NOT avoid criminal prosecution; as he leaves, he will take his whole damned criminal family, that moronic, lying, bigoted VP and most of his cabinet and other appointees with him.
The entire country will rise up to avoid having the lying, disgusting Paul Ryan or any other UNELECTED President to take office, so the USA will have a special election, paper ballots only, and Bernie Sanders will be elected.
We can dream, can’t we?
2016
–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.
I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.
I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.
USA justice isn’t.
–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.
2015
—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.
So happy about all that!
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.
Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.
I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.
—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.
My Answer:
Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.
Returning to my practice is like coming home.
—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?
My Answer:
My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.
My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”
2014
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!
Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!
—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?
My Answer:
Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.
Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.
Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.
—What are your predictions for 2015?
My Answer:
Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.
More states’ legalizing marijuana.
More states’ ratifying gay marriage.
Proof of alien life on other planets.
How do you want to 10Q? It’s up to you!
September 6, 2018
It’s not too late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or cel...
It’s not too late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.
[image error]
It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points.
Check out any local Partners with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners: Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].<
You can respond to all 10 Questions from September 9 through September 19, online, and have them put into the “vault” for yourself for next year’s reflections.
10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!
http://doyou10q.com/
“Answer one question per day [or more than one per day, if you have some to catch up on] in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.
“One year later, the ‘vault’ will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.
“Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.
“Next year, the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.
“Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:
[image error]
Click hereto get your 10Q on.
“10Q begins September 9, 2018, and goes for 10 days
http://doyou10q.com/ ”
Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014:
2017
-1) Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
This has been a very strange year, professionally.
—I went back to work as a teacher for the first time in many decades just before the new year started, but was mistreated, disrespected, slandered, libeled and driven out of the job within 6 months. Even though I felt somewhat satisfied as a teacher (reaching students no one else had been able to reach, helping several complete their G.E.D.s, and moving others along who had been stalled,) and a teacher trainer (my co-teacher had never had education to be a teacher; she had been a vet, so she had said that she learned a lot from me), the attendance dwindled so much that we often only had 1 or 2 students for weeks at after Jan. 2., It was a complete waste of my time and skills to be there. I was relieved to be “laid off” in mid-February, 2017.
—Despite much effort, many applications and several interviews, I still haven’t [as of September, 2018] found a good place to put my skills, experience, knowledge and expertise to use. Why is that?
—I also haven’t finished my fourth Volume in my sci-fi series even though it has been more than 3/4 finished for over [two years]. My urge to write has flown.
—I stopped doing my online conversational talk show about one year ago as well, due to technical problems (not mine; YouTube’s) that took more than a month to resolve. By the time I could return to it, I didn’t want to do that any longer, either.
I feel guilty, as if I’m wasting my life. I have so much to offer and nowhere to offer it.
What to do with myself, professionally, is the burning question of my 64th year on this planet. Hope I can figure that out.
-4) Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The stolen election (third one Republicans have stolen in my lifetime, that I know of) and its aftermath has impacted the entire planet adversely. I am appalled, disgusted, afraid and angry almost constantly because of all that. The worst-ever nominees and accepted Cabinet members and judges; the worst-ever Congress and Senate: cowards, liars, criminals and sociopaths are running our country into the ground and all its resources and the safety of the planet are at stake.
We need help. I wish the aliens of my series from the Many Worlds Collective would come NOW and save us all from ourselves. http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners for inspiration, hope and consolation.
-11) What are your predictions for the coming year?
My Answer:
#45 will resign to avoid impeachment but will NOT avoid criminal prosecution; as he leaves, he will take his whole damned criminal family, that moronic, lying, bigoted VP and most of his cabinet and other appointees with him.
The entire country will rise up to avoid having the lying, disgusting Paul Ryan or any other UNELECTED President to take office, so the USA will have a special election, paper ballots only, and Bernie Sanders will be elected.
We can dream, can’t we?
2016
–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.
I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.
I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.
USA justice isn’t.
–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.
2015
—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.
So happy about all that!
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.
Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.
I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.
—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.
My Answer:
Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.
Returning to my practice is like coming home.
—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?
My Answer:
My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.
My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”
2014
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!
Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!
—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?
My Answer:
Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.
Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.
Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.
—What are your predictions for 2015?
My Answer:
Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.
More states’ legalizing marijuana.
More states’ ratifying gay marriage.
Proof of alien life on other planets.
How do you want to 10Q? It’s up to you!
August 30, 2018
“8-year-old who was bullied for her ‘Love of Bugs’ gets published in scientific journal” (reblog from Positive Outlooks)
If you will see Sophia Spencer in person, you would probably think that she’s like the rest of the kids of her age; someone who enjoys playing with dolls and tea parties. But instead of playing with dolls and dress-up games, Sophia busies herself playing with different insects! Despite her young age, Sophia is an expert in…
Nerds and Geeks are ruling at younger and younger ages! HAHAHAHA!
August 28, 2018
How Hot Is It? “Earth is the warmest it’s been in 120,000 years!”
Earth is the warmest it’s been in 120,000 years MARK KAUFMANAug 27, 2018 The last three Julys on Earth have been the three warmest ever recorded. But, they may also be the warmest months to occur on our planet in about 120,000 years. Following NASA’s recent announcement that July 2018 was the third warmest such […]
#auspol #qldpol #ClimateChange #StopAdani #EndCoal #Drought #Bushfire #Heatwave @SciNate @ScottMorrisonMP — jpratt27
August 27, 2018
“40 Writers’ ‘Rules for Writing'” from Emily Harstone at AUTHORS PUBLISH (reblog)
40 Writers’ ‘Rules for Writing’
curated and annotated by Emily Harstone at AUTHORS PUBLISH (reblog)
August 26, 2018
[image error]
What a great compendium of ideas about writing in the form of “rules,” so that we can argue with, agree/disagree, utilize, benefit from, whether we’re experienced or newbie writers or an interested readers/fans of some or these authorial rule-givers!
BTW: KUDOS for including a lot of women, writers from different eras, and various types of writers.
Saved the best one for last, IMO, from Phillip Pullman:
40. Phillip Pullman’s One Rule for Writing
“My main rule is to say ‘no’ to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.”
August 23, 2018
School drops archbishop’s name amid sex abuse report fallout — INKLING LEAGUE
HARRISBURG, Pa. – A Roman Catholic high school will shed the name of Washington’s archbishop, who was cited in a sweeping grand jury report as having allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children to be reassigned or reinstated while he was Pittsburgh’s bishop. The Diocese of Pittsburgh said Wednesday that Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl made […]
via
“We’re going to need a bigger boat.” The great white shark that is the corruption that riddles and has riddled the Catholic Church, from top to bottom, won’t all be able to be hunted down and killed, nor can those who are “trying to do good” be confined to a few renamings of schools.
The Catholic Church’s institutional leaders have to do way more than that to manage the damage they’ve inflicted on hundreds of thousands over centuries. Pulling down statues of Confederate “heroes” in the USA will pale in comparison to the backlash that is already being felt all around the world.
Good luck with all that.
August 21, 2018
2018 #Hugo Award Winners: A great year for women in #sciencefiction and #fantasy — Christchurch City Libraries Blog
[…]
Mazel Tov to all the finalists and winners!
Quoted from the above blog, everything below this line:
The World Science Fiction Convention* … hosting the Hugo Award ceremony has …this year’s Hugo Award winners … announced.
Women dominated this year’s Hugo Awards in what has turned out to be a great year for women in science fiction and fantasy; a genre, that it is fair to say, has been dominated historically by men….
Best Novel: The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin
This year’s Hugo Award for best novel goes to Book three of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Books one and two, The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate respectively, are both previous winners of the award. This also makes N.K. Jemisin the first author to win three Hugo Awards for best novel in a row as well as making The Broken Earth the only trilogy in which all three novels are best novel winners (the closest to doing so previously was Kim Stanley Robinson‘s Mars Trilogy with two wins and a finalist position).
Best Related Work: No Time to Spare, By Ursula Le Guin.
Essentially, this is the reward for best piece of non-fiction related to the world of science fiction and fantasy and understandably, recently deceased Ursula Le Guin, now six time winner of the Hugo Award and Science Fiction royalty, is the winner of this category. ‘No Time to Spare’ is a collection of Le Guin’s musings on various subjects from the mundane to the philosophical.
Best Graphic Story: Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
The best graphic novel of the year is the sequel to 2017’s winner: ‘Monstress Vol. 2’. Monstress is an apocalyptic steampunk fable notable for its exceptional artwork (with artist Sana Takeda also winning this year’s award for Best Professional Artist) and interesting world building.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Wonder Woman, screenplay by Allan Heinberg, story by Zack Snyder & Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs, directed by Patty Jenkins (DC Films / Warner Brothers).
What essentially amounts to the award for best film, Wonder Woman takes the cake for its adaptation of the DC Comic hero in a film that captures the essence of this year’s Hugo Awards winners.
Winners of all categories are as follows:
Best Novella: All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
Best Novelette: The Secret Life of Bots, by Suzanne Palmer
Best Short Story: Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience
, by Rebecca Roanhorse
Best Series: World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: The Good Place: “The Trolley Problem,” written by Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan, directed by Dean Holland
Best Editor, Short Form: Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Best Editor, Long Form: Sheila E. Gilbert
Best Professional Artist: Sana Takeda
Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Julia Rios; podcast produced by Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
Best Fanzine: File 770, edited by Mike Glyer
Best Fancast: Ditch Diggers, presented by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace
Best Fan Writer: Sarah Gailey
Best Fan Artist: Geneva Benton
August 19, 2018
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General dead — CAPIIC
Kofi Annan, the first black African to lead the United Nations, has died at age 80. He served as Secretary-General at a time when worries about the Cold War were replaced by threats of global terrorism, and his efforts to combat those threats and secure a more peaceful world brought him the Nobel Peace Prize. […]
via Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General dead — CAPIIC
Just lost another one of the great ones. RIP, Sec-Gen Annan.
August 16, 2018
RIP, Aretha Franklin: 10 Great Performances — “Rolling Stone”
Watch a selection of the Queen of Soul’s finest and most memorable onstage moments
via Aretha Franklin: 10 Great Performances — Rolling Stone
You will be remembered for centuries and very much missed by those who heard you live. Thank you for the music and the wisdom, #Aretha. Go well.
