22 04, 2013

How can we help West, Texas?

By judythemorgan|2013-04-22T06:50:29-05:00April 22nd, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|3 Comments

In a week filled with horrific events, West, a small Texas town 19 miles north of Waco, experienced a fiery explosion at the Texas fertilizer plant located there. Fourteen people, mostly volunteer firefighters who rushed to the fire at the plant, died. Two hundred people were injured, and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed.

Click these links to see the details, if you missed the news reports.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/key-facts-plant-explosion-west-texas-18990641

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/20/west-fertilizer-plant-explosion-recovery/2099591/

Rachel Firasek, an author who is a member of the West Community, shared the following first-hand account:

“I wanted to give everyone an update. I actually live about 10 miles away, but my children go to school in West and my husband grew up there. We felt the blast all the way at our house. The noise was deafening, even that far away. We’re still desperately waiting for word on names of the fallen. I know that my hubby has already lost one cousin and a very good friend is in critical condition.

We lost three of the four schools. The only thing left is the elementary school. My kids will finish the school year at schools 30 miles away. It’s going to be a hectic next few weeks for all of our family and friends, but this is a tight community and they are already rallying.

Please don’t feel obligated, but thanks for anything you can do for these families.”

So how can we help West, Texas?

Authorities said Friday that charitable organizations have received more donations of food, clothing and other items than are needed in West. Excess donations will be distributed to surrounding areas.

Cash donations to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army would be welcome.

With schools destroyed, donations to the education program are desperately needed. Rachel provided this link with for details.

Other places to donate and help:

Donate to West Fire Department – mail donations to:
West Fire Department, PO Box 97, West, TX 76691
Donate to the victims – PointWest Bank: POINTWEST Bank – Home Page
Donate Blood – during the next few months schedule appointment to donate blood. Blood will be needed and it has a limited shelf life. Go to Donating Blood | American Red Cross for additional information and to find a location near you.
Contact donation facilities for specific items still needed at this time:
Extraco Events Center (254) 776-1660
First Baptist Church of Lott (254) 829-2321
**packing materials are going to be needed when the families can enter their homes again

Medical help for animals is also needed. Contact these area animal clinics for specifics:

Happy Endings Animal Clinic 254-666-8240
Brazos Valley Boarding Kennels 254-854-4104
La Vega Vet Clinic 254-744-1948

And for those who want to share a word on social media sites:

https://www.facebook.com/PrayersforWest

https://www.facebook.com/WestFirefighters

Anything you can do, especially prayers, in this devastating time will be welcomed.

15 04, 2013

Unpredictable Days

By judythemorgan|2013-04-15T06:16:50-05:00April 15th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

Life happens. Plans get disrupted. Things we don’t expect (or we do expect) happen to sabotage our writing intentions.

Least that’s been my situation for the last month.

Everyone faces times where no matter how well we plan, we cannot stop unpredictable days from occurring.

You probably ran into at least a couple of days with unexpected roadblocks last week. I’m sure we’ll all have at least a couple of unpredictable days this week.

And every week for the rest of our lives. That’s how life works.

So how do you to stick to a daily plan when unpredictable things happen?

You can’t.

Unpredictable stuff can’t be avoided.

If bad stuff happens two days out of the week, it’s OK. Three off days isn’t a tragedy either. In fact, statistically, three unpredictable days out of seven is about normal for most of us.

What I’ve discovered is that I can usually count on having at least one extremely productive day a week. In one excellent day when life cooperates, I’m always surprised how much of my week’s work gets done.

Problem is I never know in advance which day will be excellent, and I can’t let that stop me from planning what I’d like to accomplish daily and weekly. If you missed my blog about how I plan, here’s the link: http://judythewriter.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/failure-to-plan-is-planning-to-fail-a-plan-for-success/

But I digress, we’re discussing unpredictable days.

Days when something goes wrong are always going to happen, however those rare days when everything does go well can make up for all the rest.

I find I can whip through my daily list at light speed when everything goes right, and that means I can check things off my weekly list.

In fact, I’ve learned if I have TWO or more great days in a week, I complete just about everything off my weekly list.

Impossible? No. And there’s a way you can test my theory.

Tryout this experiment from Randy Ingermanson’s The Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

For the rest of this week decide what you want to accomplish for the week then make daily lists. (Writers that means a writing goal for the week then daily ways you’ll reach that weekly goal.)
Keep the daily lists for five days and, at the end of each day—even the unpredictable days, count how many things you accomplished.
On the fifth day, check those daily lists against your weekly goals.

I’m predicting, even if you didn’t have a single “successful” day where you accomplished everything on your whole daily list, you’ll find you have at least one or two highly productive days in which you made huge progress toward your weekly goals.

You might discover that even if every day is “unsuccessful” the week as a whole is a SUCCESS just like I do.

“What,” you say, “how can five bad days add up to one good week?”

According to Randy, the reason is that we tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a week.

Now test Randy’s theory and my results by doing the experiment yourself, and I think you’ll see Randy and I are correct.

1 04, 2013

Six steps to tame an email dragon

By judythemorgan|2013-04-01T06:07:44-05:00April 1st, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

As I promised last week, I’ve studied my email dragon and I’m suggesting six steps to tame an email dragon. I understand how he grew to be such consuming demon.

I’ve always had a decent volume of email. Once I published The Pendant’s Promise that decent volume increased dramatically. After all, I had a book to promote.

I started a blog, signed up for FB and Twitter, and reader sites like Shelfari and Goodreads. As my visibility online grew, it compounded incoming mail.

Type A that I am, I felt obliged to stay “on top” of these emails and be responsive to my readers and community members.

Things quickly grew out of control. Then I discovered 900 emails in my inbox, I knew, clearly, it was time to tame the dragon.

But how?

Here are the six steps I’m taking.

1. Analyze

How much incoming email am I receiving daily? What types of messages? How urgent are these emails, really?

As I studied my avalanche of email, I concluded:

Total messages per day was close to 200.
Few emails contain truly urgent information.

Armed with these insights, I began to take action. My first course of action was to stop email at its source.

2. Unsubscribe

Over time, interests and needs change. Yet I continue to subscribe to dozens of newsletters and blogs that aren’t pertain to my current activities.

Systematically, I evaluated those newsletters and blogs I receive and unsubscribed to those that no longer provided information I need or want.

The result: my volume of email shrank.

Besides news and blog emails, I also receive a ton of social-media notices. LinkedIn sends an email each day. Facebook notifies me every time someone replies to a comment I’ve left or a friend updates his or her status. Each tweet also means an email.

Each notification brings the temptation to waste time on social media sites. I’m rethinking those daily notifications. I generally visit the social sites at least once a day anyway.

3. Read the subject-line

Instead of opening every email and reading a bit before deciding whether to delete, I now read the subject line, and if I suspect it’s something I don’t need to read, I delete it right then.

We all have favorite blogs. I’ve come to realize I don’t necessarily need to read every post the bloggers put up.

4. Delete

I used to save emails automatically because they were from X blog or newsletter. No more.

For the majority of the 900 emails I had accumulated in my inbox I sorted by sender, read the subject lines, and simply deleted whole clumps of emails. Bye-bye — zap! — gone.

Immediately, I felt a 100-pound weight lift from my shoulders.

5. Set Rules

Most email programs offer an option where the user can set up rules to automatically route email to an appropriate folder. This saves time because only important emails show up in your main inbox.

Caveat: This doesn’t work for me. I have a basic distrust of letting computers think for me. What if some time-sensitive email went to the wrong folder?

I have all emails come initially into my main inbox. I employ #3 above and, if there is something I want to save in a folder for future reading, I move the email into folders I’ve created, same as I used to do when I was a Department of Army Civilian secretary.

6. Use a Timer

FlyLady says, “A kitchen timer is our friend.” She’s correct!

I used to set my kitchen timer and limit my email time to fifteen minutes a.m., afternoon, and p.m. Mary Buckham’s comment suggestion on last week’s blog reminded me I needed to apply the timer again.

My goal is to spend no more than an hour a day checking email. I want to delete, file, or respond to each message and move on to writing.

Will these six steps completely de-flame my email dragon? I don’t know, but I do know applying them seems to be bringing him under my submission.

YOUR TURN: How about you? What ways do you keep email under control?

25 03, 2013

I’m drowning in email. Are you?

By judythemorgan|2013-03-25T06:26:08-05:00March 25th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|5 Comments

For two weeks we’ve packed, hauled away unwanted stuff, shared last-time-living-in-the-same-city meals with family and friends, packed our household, loaded a trailer and a U-Haul, and drove one thousand miles to our new home.

There was no time to spend on the computer checking email. Conversations were via text or cell phone.

I did skim email for personal correspondence, but didn’t stop to read or delete all the other email that came in. Every day I watched the total grow.

Newsletters, blogs, group digests, notifications from social media… an email tsunami.

When I checked today, I have over 900 emails in my inbox.

I can’t believe it. I’m drowning in email.

The whole situation makes me realize I’m handling over one hundred emails per day. That much email reading has to be cutting into my writing time and productivity.

I think it’s time to analyze my email. Something I’ve never done.

Do I need to be receiving that many newsletters, blogs, group digests, and notifications?

I’m not sure.

I am sure that culling through all the emails I’ve accumulated will take time even if it’s time pressing the delete key.

Time I don’t have with all those boxes to unpack and a deadline looming.

Email has got to be tamed.

What about you? Does your email cut into your productivity?

Next Monday, I’ll be sharing some tips on how I plan to wrestle my email situation into submission.

Be sure to stop by and, in the meantime, if you have any tips, please share.

18 03, 2013

Taking a Break

By judythemorgan|2013-03-18T06:39:36-05:00March 18th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday, Uncategorized|0 Comments

I am taking a break from blog writing today.

Well, I’m not taking a real break. I’m actually in the proces of loading a moving truck for the final leg of our tipping point adventure. [More on the adventure later.]

So I’m offering this adorable video instead of my usual lengthy blog to motivate or make you think.

Why don’t you take a break, too, and watch?

As you watch, note how many children’s storybook characters you recognize and can name.

Did you spot a favorite?

11 03, 2013

Been Hacked? Here’s what to do

By judythemorgan|2013-03-11T07:25:04-05:00March 11th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Recognize that you are not alone! From the Spamlaws.com site:

“Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages globally per day.”

A major portion of spam is generated by hacked email accounts. Being aware of such statistics, we must be diligent.

But that’s not always easy.

Crafty spammers lure victims into opening the email by using intriguing subject lines or a scary warning message or raise curiosity by using an enticing subject.

Most of us have received an email at one point or another with the subject need help and something about being stuck in some foreign place and needing money.

Likely as not, the email is not from a friend. The logical thing to do is simply delete, but, if you have world traveling friends, you hesitate.

When my email account was hacked and starting sending out the I’m stranded emails, relatives and friends who knew we did a lot of travel oversea actually called to verify the email was not from me.

But it’s not just those I’m stranded emails that suck us into responding.

Official looking mails with subjects like “Yahoo or PayPal or your Bank or Credit Card Company is verifying your account information” are a favorite ploy of hackers.

No matter how legitimate those emails appear, NEVER respond or click on any links. Credible sources will NOT ask for your password.

All that’s good to know information, you say, but it comes too late.

What should I do now that my email acount’s been hacked?

Here are my suggestions:

· Check your computer’s security.

This is the very first step. Until you do this, any other steps are useless.

Make sure, no matter which operating system you use, your anti-virus and anti-malware programs are up-to-date. With most programs, you can set the software program to automatically update when new security fixes are available.

If you cannot afford security software, you can find quality free security software. Simply search ’best free security software reviews’ in your preferred search engine.

· Change your password and make it stronger.

For tips and suggestions on how to do this, read the first part of this series here.

Next, and equally important, develop the habit of changing your passwords often.

· Send an email to all your contacts saying you were hacked.

Be sure to include notifying any site boards or loops to which you belong.

No reason to be embarrassed. Remember the statistics. Being hacked will happen to all of us at some point.

· Smarten up about spam, phishing, and scams.

If the little voice in your head says an email looks suspicious, it probably is!

Do NOT click on any links unless you are sure of the source. If you’re unsure, you should copy and paste the link into your browser.

· **Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.**

Statistics show that one out of every fourteen downloads contains malware, and planting malware on your computer is how hackers hijacked your email in the first place. Hackers crack anti-malware and anti-virus software almost as fast as it is developed.

Know the source you are downloading from!

And always be on guard.

YOUR TURN: What measures do you take to protect your email accounts?

26 11, 2012

Turkey Pitching Day

By judythemorgan|2022-11-27T16:08:39-06:00November 26th, 2012|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Last Thursday many in the U.S. sat down at tables loaded with enough food to feed a third world country for a week.

And we had leftovers.

The best part of Thanksgiving for me.

I love the smell of the stripped carcass simmering with onions and celery in our traditional turkey rice soup on Black Friday. We add brown rice before serving with whole wheat cornbread. Yummy!

This year I also found great, nutritious ideas from

Turkey Taco

Click the picture for the link.

Turkey Sliders

Click the picture for the link.

Are you still moving leftover turkey or dressing or sweet potatoes around in your fridge? You need to pitch ‘em today.

Why?

Foodborne illness – Isn’t that a lovely way to say food poisoning?

In years past, I remember sitting around the table for hours talking and visiting with the food still there. Or, worse yet, moving the serving dishes to the stove top or counter so everyone could nibble all afternoon while we watched football.

Once we figured out what was causing our tummy problems, we stopped that foolishness.

Happily, most cases of food poisoning can be prevented with proper food handling.

How did you handle your leftovers? Did you refrigerate perishable foods quickly?

According to Mayo Clinic nutritionist, Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. your goal is to minimize the time a food is in the “danger zone” — between 40 and 140 F (4 and 60 C) — when bacteria can quickly multiply. Meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs shouldn’t sit more than two hours at typical room temperature or more than one hour at temperatures above 90 F (32 C).

Because the bacteria doesn’t typically change the taste, smell, or look, you can’t tell until the bacteria attacks your digestive tract.

But leftovers can be kept for three to four days in the refrigerator before the risk of food poising increases.

There weren’t many leftovers at our Thanksgiving feast and what there was went quickly. If you still have leftovers after today, my advice:

PITCH IT.

8 10, 2012

My Alexander Day and Small Town Love

By judythemorgan|2021-10-07T07:52:42-05:00October 8th, 2012|Make Me Think Monday, writer, writing|4 Comments

I’m having an Alexander day. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day where nothing goes right.

I’m sure you’ve had those days too, but you may not be familiar with the term Alexander day.

If not, you HAVE to read, Judith Voirst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It’s a delightful children’s book that will warm your adult heart. Click on the cover to read more.

Like Alexander, I must decide what to do with this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I could grump and get nowhere with my editing or…

since I believe action can alter attitude,

I’m choosing to blog about a recent experience in a wonderful little Panhandle city called Clarendon.

For the non-Texan blog readers that would be the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The part that looks like the handle of a pan.

Panhandle counties

On our travels between Houston and Colorado, we’ve gone through Clarendon on US 287 many, many times. Not a big city. The population is under two thousand. It’s home to Clarendon College (established 1898), the oldest center of higher education in the Texas Panhandle.

On our most recent trip through, I was having another Alexander day. This time because I had strep throat. The penicillin hadn’t fully kicked in so I was feeling pretty rotten.

We arrived in Clarendon late – 7:30 p.m. – and hungry. For all you city dwellers who think that isn’t late, small towns tend to roll up the sidewalks early.

We saw a sign for the Clarendon Steakhouse and pulled in praying it would be open. I was hoping the buffet had some soup that would soothe my very raw throat.

The building is a former grocery store converted to a restaurant with funny cowboys on the windows and friendly people inside. Very friendly and very kind people.

When we went inside, the place was about empty and the buffet was bare. My hopes sank. They were closed.

A waitress, in an apron that Vera Bradley would give her eye tooth to claim, greeted us. Turns out the waitress’ grandmother made her apron. I asked.

I explained how we were passing through, tired of driving, hungry, and really wanted some soup. Okay, I admit I shared more detail than necessary, but I am a storyteller.

She walked us to a back table to check with the owner whose name was Mary. I think. Remember I was not having a good day and that affected my memory.

Mary pointed to her husband’s soup bowl filled with the most delicious-looking chicken soup I’d ever seen. I know I looked a bit peaked and I must have drooled because Mary said she had enough for a couple of bowls.

She directed us to the “non-smoking” section. A booth at the store window under a ceiling fan. (to disperse cigarette smoke)

Sitting in the next booth was Fred Gray, a local columnist for The Clarendon Enterprise. We shared writing stories. He even went next door to the newspaper office for old editions so we could read his “The Quick, the Dead and Fred” column. Check out some of his columns in the newspaper’s online edition you’ll enjoy them.

Naturally, I shared my business card with my website and told him all about my writing. And, I’d love for you to check out my Judythe Morgan books page. :-)

Sarah, a lovely young Clarendon High School student, served as our waitress. She was excited and bubbly about her coming class trip to Washington, D.C. Needless to say, we gave her a generous tip to go toward her expenses.

Suddenly our tiring, drive of 540 miles with another 145 more to go before we stopped had become a pleasant visit with friendly people and delicious down-home chicken soup.

And Mary wouldn’t let us pay for our dinner! Isn’t small-town America wonderful?

Sharing has helped refuel my creative juices and improved my terrible, horrible, really bad day dramatically. I’m back to editing.

YOUR TURN: What about you? How do you combat a really bad, terrible, horrible day?

16 05, 2012

Remember writing book reports?

By judythemorgan|2022-05-14T05:57:26-05:00May 16th, 2012|Book Review, Make Me Think Monday, writer, writing|7 Comments

I loved writing book reports when I was in school. Still do after a fashion.

Voracious reader that I am, I love to tell others about great books I read. So I’m constantly giving oral book reports in the form of “Have you read such and such?”

I also post reviews for the books I really, really love on review sites and at e-retailers.

That’s so important. All reviews help author sales. It doesn’t matter whether the review is good or bad.

People often say they don’t know how to write a review. It really isn’t difficult. A review doesn’t have to be long or detailed like those book reports for school. Even a sentence or two can convey whether you liked a book or didn’t.

Here are some suggestions:

“This story was well-told. I fell in love with the hero on page 2.”

“Always pleased with stories by this author.”

“Predictable, but still a good read.”

“So disappointed. Not up to her/his usual standard.”

If you’re still nervous about actually posting a review on Amazon. Check out this video I found by Douglas Goldstein. It demonstrates exactly how to post a review for a book.

29 02, 2012

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

By judythemorgan|2022-01-23T11:59:46-06:00February 29th, 2012|Make Me Think Monday, one word Wednesday, Procrastination, resistance to writing, writing|30 Comments

Today’s word is PROCRASTINATION

Dictionary.com defines procrastination as the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention

I really, really hate when a definition uses the word, don’t you? Still the meaning is very clear — putting off something.

Is procrastination deliberate or subconscious?

Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art calls procrastination a form of resistance. He believes creative types face lots of resistance and offers inspiration to overcome that resistance. If you don’t own a copy of Pressfield’s book you should, it’s gotten me over more than one bumpy writing slowdown. Btw, I don’t get any kickback.

I’m not sure what to call procrastination, but I know it’s a disease shared by too many writers, myself included. And, procrastination is a clever enemy.

Half the time, Mr. P (aka procrastination) disguises himself as very worthy endeavors like
A writer’s meeting to get a writer fix
A computer game to “clear your head”
A movie for “research”
Social media is one of Mr. P’s favorite tactics. Who among us doesn’t find Twitter or FB or web surfing sucking precious time from our day?

My favorite delay is a power nap to refresh my brain’s hard drive. Naps may work, but am I really just giving in to procrastination’s subtle ways when fifteen minutes slides into an hour or two?

Writing is hard work. A solitary work. Those two facts alone stall too many of us and allow Mr. P’s power to succeed.

“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” ~Wayne Dyer

So how do we cure the culprit that steals our words from the page?

Ali Luke in her blog How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Writing suggests four steps.

Great hints are offered on How to Stop Procrastinating

For me, and maybe other writers, I shoo Mr. P away by putting my butt in the chair and W-R-I-T-I-N-G every day whether I feel like it or not, whether what I write is worthy of a Hemingway or not. It works for me. What works for you?

As part of One Word Wednesday, I want to play a game I used when teaching spelling—writing a sentence with the word. Leave your sentence in a comment. No grading involved just for fun.

Dictionary.com suggests: She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment.

How would you use PROCRASTINATION in a sentence?

Make Me Think Monday

1. Analyze

2. Unsubscribe

3. Read the subject-line

4. Delete

5. Set Rules

6. Use a Timer

· Check your computer’s security.

· Change your password and make it stronger.

· Send an email to all your contacts saying you were hacked.

· Smarten up about spam, phishing, and scams.

· Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.

· **Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.**