Tag: JusJoJan

Record likes

Here we are at the end of Just Jot It January 2016. I did a thank you post to Linda on Friday, hoping that I would have time to work on a long-delayed post for Sunday, but my brainpower had to be directed elsewhere.

The fun thing is that January 29 became a record-setting day here at Top of JC’s Mind with 66 likes on that day!  My old record had been 59, set on October 13, 2015.

While the thank you post to Linda for Just Jot It January generated the most views, I was happy to have generated views that spread news on behalf of poet- and blogger-friends and a couple of re-blogs. There was a post of links to the recently published poems of Merrill Oliver Douglas on Eunoia Review and one spreading the news about the change in platform for OM. I re-blogged anagram haiku from Mathemagical and a wonderful post explaining the true meaning of jihad from Perfect-The-Days. There were also likes for a post I had written the day before which included the Saint Francis Peace Prayer.

I know that part of the reason for the record-setting day was having had an unusually high number of posts in a short amount of time, while part was having the built-in promotion of Just Jot It January for a couple of the posts.

Setting records is fun, but not as gratifying as the knowledge that people are connecting with one another through Top of JC’s Mind.

Sending out a big THANK YOU to all the visitors who made this record possible and all those who pop in on all the non-record-setting days, too!

~ Joanne
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This is my final post for Linda’s Just Jot It January 2016. It’s been a blast!  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/31/just-jot-it-january-31st-clumsy/

JJJ 2016

 

SoCS: Animalia

When our older daughter E was in elementary school, there was a wonderful program called PASTtimes. PAST stood for Parents and Students Together. About once a month, there would be an early evening program for families centered around books. It was great because we could bring along our younger daughter T and have a fun evening together.

One of the books to which we were introduced through PASTtimes was Graeme Base’s Animalia. It is an alphabet book featuring fun and complex captions for fantastical paintings. For example, the letter I:  “Ingenious Iguanas Improvising an Intricate Impromptu on Impossibly Impractical Instruments”.  For V, a sign reading: “Victor V. Vulture The Vaudeville Ventriloquist Versatile Virtuoso of Vociferous Verbosity Vexatiously Vocalizing at the Valhalla Variety Venue”.

How could you not fall in love with such a book?

We went on to purchase Animalia and several other Graeme Base books for our home library. I think my favorite may be The Eleventh Hour, but it is hard to choose.

Even though our daughters are long grown, his books have remained on our shelves in the living room. I did look up the quotes above; my memory is not that good!

Wishing everyone some happy book memories today.  Have one to share? I’d love to hear about it in comments.
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Linda’s prompt for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “an-“. Join us! Find more information here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-3016/

SoCS badge 2015

This post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/30/just-jot-it-january-30th-an-socs/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

Thanks, Linda!

This should probably be my Sunday post, but it’s never too early for gratitude…

A huge THANK YOU to Linda for creating, organizing, and shepherding Just Jot It January!

I’ve actually not missed a day (yet), which is unusual for me as I am not generally an every day poster. I do intend to post for the next two days, but tomorrow is Stream of Consciousness Saturday and, perhaps, by Sunday I will finish a post that I have been intending to work on for the last several weeks, but which still has only a few sentences completed.

I love that Linda is so creative in her ways of building and connecting the blogging community. I’ve found new blogs to follow through Just Jot It January and am grateful that other bloggers have visited Top of JC’s Mind because of it. I have gained some new views, likes, comments, and follows, which are always much appreciated.

For those of you who have been seeing this graphic

JJJ 2016

on my posts this month but haven’t joined in yet, the invitation still stands! Visit here first:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/just-jot-it-january-29th-ghost/.  To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

Again, many thanks, a round of applause, and a standing ovation to Linda! (You can imagine a cute, celebratory gif here. I am lucky to get regular photos and badges to post correctly. Images that move are too scary for me!)

Saint Francis Prayer

Because I have been (somewhat uncharacteristically) posting every day this month as part of Linda’s Just Jot It January, I have been more proactive than usual in planning my posts. I had a topic picked out for today and had written most of the post in my head.

Then, today happened.

My mom asked me this morning if I could send her a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which a friend who recently passed away had chosen for her prayer card. I wrote a note to remind myself to do it and set out on a day of errands, a meeting, and an appointment.

I wasn’t expecting it, but it became a day when human needs for peace, love, compassion, healing, strength, and joy were placed before me again and again.

The best that I can hope to offer is to share the words of the Saint Francis Peace Prayer, which, while it is a Christian prayer, can also speak in large measure to people regardless of their belief system.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Shared for my mom, for Wilhelmina, and for all those in need of any of the gifts that Francis calls for in this prayer.

In peace,
Joanne
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To join Just Jot It January, visit here:   http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/28/just-jot-it-january-28th-serendipity/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: outsider

“The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.”
~ Richard Rohr

During this time of tensions, if not outright hostility, between some individuals and groups that they deem as “outsiders” due to differences of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, gender expression, etc., this quote is especially meaningful. It reminds me to show respect for everyone, even when disagreeing on fact or principle with their viewpoint.
~ JC

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/one-liner-wednesday-it-really-sucks/

This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/just-jot-it-january-27th-mendaciloquent/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

mochi ice cream!

When I visited with daughter E in Honolulu for five weeks last year, one of our favorite treats was mochi ice cream, a Japanese-style bon bon made of pounded sticky rice wrapped around ice cream. The shops in Honolulu had many different flavors, a number of them tropical fruits.

When I returned home, I tried to find mochi ice cream. I finally found some green tea ones at Wegman’s, but my body doesn’t react well to tea, so I did’t buy them.

Yesterday, I happened to walk by the case and there were vanilla and strawberry mochi ice cream available.

I bought a box of strawberry and ate one after dinner last night.

It was delicious, but the memories of eating them with E made it all the sweeter.
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! First here first:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/25/just-jot-it-january-25th-prestidigitation/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Just when you thought things were as complicated as possible…

Last week, there was “breaking news” that former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. She has been campaigning with him this week in her own inscrutable style.

I thought things were about as complicated as they could be with Clinton and Sanders close in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and Trump still leading the giant Republican field with Cruz in second place.

And then billionaire and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, upset that it might turn into either Trump or Cruz versus Sanders in the general election, announced that he was considering running as an independent candidate, which he would finance on his own up to one-billion dollars. He will decide by early March after he sees the outcome of the first few state contests.

Bloomberg has been a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent. I am uneasy at the prospect of him running in the general election totally on the basis of having enough money to fund a campaign, without any participation of the voters.

If Trump gets the Republican nomination, Bloomberg enters as an independent, and either Sanders or Clinton get the Democratic nomination, we would have all the major candidates with ties to New York, which is a little strange.  (Although Bernie Sanders has spent most of his adult life in Vermont, you can still here the accent of his native Brooklyn when he speaks.)

I had already felt that this political cycle was chaotic.

I can’t come up with a word to adequately describe it now.
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Start here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/24/just-jot-it-january-24th-compelled/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

 

SoCS: an even keel

It’s hard to be on an even keel when the water is choppy and there are rocks and storms and all manner of unexpected happenings.

There is an old saying/blessing/curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

Times in both the public and private sphere are definitely interesting.

Is it odd to wish that, at least once in a while, things were on an even keel instead?
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Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! This week’s prompt was odd and/or even. Find out more here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-2316/

SoCS badge 2015

It is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January! Visit here to find out more:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/23/just-jot-it-january-23rd-oddeven-socs/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Stay safe!

This morning, I am thinking about all those facing severe weather. There is a blizzard approaching the mid-Atlantic region of the US. Seventy-five million people will be affected, including my sisters and their families and B’s brother and his family. The forecast calls for a large swath of 2-3 feet (0.75-0.95 meters) of snow coupled with strong winds.

I live further north where we will only catch a few inches, if anything at all.

I am also thinking of others in the United States and around the world who are suffering from floods, droughts, tornadoes, cyclones, mudslides, avalanches, dust storms, and all other weather disasters.

I wish everyone safety and and the swift arrival of whatever aid they need.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Start by visiting here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/22/just-jot-it-january-22nd-felicity/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Hate to say they told you so, but…

So the US stock market – and most of the other major world stock indices – have been tanking lately. Part of the reason given is the low price of crude oil, at a time of oversupply  and the added stress of Iranian oil entering the market.

Middle Eastern oil is cheap to produce and can still make money at $27/barrel.

US oil, especially shale oil, can not. Production costs can be double that amount, so, as one would expect, there has been a huge drop in the number of new wells being drilled.

To make matters worse, the companies were borrowing the money to drill wells, betting they could make enough profit to pay make loan payments and keep drilling.

Some economists and fossil fuel sector experts, such as Art Berman and Deborah Lawrence, had warned of a “shale bubble” which could burst, causing a wave of bankruptcies in the drilling sector and massive troubles for the banks loaning to them.

Their predictions are coming true.

We can’t say we weren’t warned.
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Start here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/21/just-jot-it-january-21st-mittens/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.