Found Not Lost

Today’s blog find is Write in My Journal. Again, I stumbled across this blog by chance and I got caught up in it. It’s amazing how wrong our assumptions can be about people sometimes; and the humans that they are, they never do what we expect them to do. That is fast becoming the pattern of Write in My Journal which is about a guy, David, who searches out random people to write in his journal. Amazingly, it sounds like not too many people turn away from him, thinking he’s a freak for asking them to write in his journal. Many of the ones who agreed to write in his journal are actually pretty candid about the things they write about.

He gets people from all walks of life to write in his journal. Why a cop and even Santa Clause wrote in his journal! One story that touched me though is the girl named Vicky Johnson. She’s only sixteen, she’s an alcoholic. She wrote him an update after her entry in the journal. She chronicled her battle with alcohol and how she got to where she is now; already at rock bottom at 16. Most 16 year olds that I know, their greatest worry is nose blackheads, acne, football games and being popular. This girl is dealing with something that most adults will not even encounter. It’s heartbreaking.

This write in my journal blog sound like it’s going to be another hit like post secret. I enjoyed reading David’s commentary and impressions of the people along with their entries in his journal. If you like reading human interest stories, this is a blog that definitely needs to be on your blogroll.

If you’ve ever wanted to see your words in print but can’t wait to be discovered by a publisher, the thing to do nowadays is to get it published yourself. Self-publishing. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you, get it done yourself, and now.

 I know a few people who have used lulu.com to publish their work and have been very happy with the results. If you have a manuscript, all you have to do to get it out there is publish it yourself. You can publish one for yourself and a few for your family; and if you really want to invest in yourself, publish enough to sell and start selling!

Another self-publishing place is blurb.com. You can print your book for as little as $12.95 and if you aren’t too comfortable about laying out your book, they also have a software program that can help you with your graphics, artwork and text to get that truly professional look.

So don’t let fate hold you back, if you have the next great American novel sitting on your desk, get it into bookform yourself!

Confusing Words, if you’ve ever wondered when to use either or neither or effect or affect, will get them untwisted for you. Here are some words that may have been confounding you too:

affect and effect
there, their, and they’re
capital and capitol
affluent and effluent
atheist and agnostic

According to the website, the most popular confusing words are:
1. lay
2. lay
3. affect
4. effect
5. canyon
6. arroyo

I was actually looking into the difference, if any, between ‘in spite’ and ‘despite’. You’d think those words would have been on the list of confusing words, but they were not. You’d be glad to know though, that it doesn’t matter which one you use, they mean or infer the same meaning, it is just the manner in which they are used that is different. The first should be used as ‘in spite of‘, a proposition and ‘despite’ can be used interchangeably with ‘in spite of’ (which should be 3 words, by the way, not two as in ‘inspite of’).

I recently decided to start a new journal to write my private thoughts. I enjoy buying cutesy notebooks and ink pens to use. Even with my blog, and journal programs which I can use on the computer, I still prefer to write things in a notebook. I like the feel of the paper, and being able to doodle, and have something you can touch hold your innermost feelings. The world is becoming highly dependent on all things cyber and electronic. I enjoy feeling grounded and relaxing with my pen and paper. I will always keep a journal, I always have.

I’ve always tried to instill in my girls a sense of pride in doing the best work that they are capable of. Their work does not have to be perfect, and they don’t always have to get excellent grades in their courses so long as they have put out the best effort they are capable of.

While one daughter loves to write and can whip out an excellent essay while sleeping, my other daughter may as well be subjected to water torture for the amount of groaning she does whenever an essay writing assignment is given.

There are now places where you can buy essays, but really, who are you kidding in the end? Would you really feel happy about yourself submitting work and getting a grade you did not deserve? These custom essay writing places claim to have professional writers writing how to essays that are available for purchase.

I visited the site and was disappointed at the quality of writing on the website. If they couldn’t be bothered to post something more impressive on their website, I guess you can’t blame them if they give you an “easy essay write” type of material to be graded on.

No matter how bad a writer you are, you can probably write better with one hand tied behind your back and blindfolded!