365 Creativity Project-Day 203

Journal entry:

I visited Trifecta for inspiration to create a poem today. It was a bit a challenge, but you should see if a visit to that site would help you make something.

Abnormality

I am not strictly
Normal, as in a standard
Interpretation
Of the word, but it is fine
To deviate a little.

Normal is easy,
Being unique is really
A bit challenging,
It takes special skill to stand
Out beyond the usual.

You want a normal,
Look for another person,
Because I do not
Belong to the class, I am
One who lives outside the norm.

Normal is a game
I rarely have any wish
To join in or play,
I am happy with myself
Doing everything my way.

Insanity does
Not conform to the normal,
But are we not all
Just a little bit crazy
In our own particulars?

Jo Ann J. A. Jordan
Monday, July 30, 2012

Photographs:

I am grateful:

1.   I lay back down this morning and took a nap.
2.   I have completed reading more than half the Bible aloud to my Mom this year.
3.   I am enjoying reading Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.
4.   Our ballots were already mailed for the election tomorrow.
5.   Mom and I enjoyed the supper I cooked this evening.

This Monday has been a quiet day for me. I hope your day has been good. Now you should take a little time to do something creative. Every day is an opportunity for you to exercise your talents. Do not waste your chance.

If you need a prompt, write about the beauty that surrounds you in the world at all times. No matter where you may be or what you are doing there is undoubtedly some beauty. If you use this prompt, please leave a link to your work in the comments.

I thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments would be much appreciated.

Always,
Jo Ann

365 Creativity Project-Day 178

Journal entry:

Please!

I do not believe
My life is the only one
Complicated by
The incompetence of those
Who are lacking in manners.

When you tell someone
To expect your arrival
And you are delayed,
As connected as this world
Is, you should contact someone.

If you should decide
Not to do something, do not
Leave those depending
On you without a notice
You have had a change of heart.

It does not cost you
Anything to be polite
And it is the kind
Of thing which builds positive
Reputation with others.

Have a little bit
Of respect for the people
Who put trust in you
Because it is not very
Nice to cause inconvenience.

Jo Ann J. A. Jordan
Thursday, July 5, 2012

Photographs:

Screenshot of Adobe Creative Cloud Applications… Wow!

Cover of the first issue of the magazine I published in 1995…

Cover of the second issue of the magazine I published in 1995…

Cover of the third issue of the magazine I published in 1995…

I am grateful:

1.   I save all important emails.
2.   I was able to pay my car and prescription insurance today.
3.   I called Rod and found out he was not coming with Alex’s stuff.
4.   Laura was not angry that I called Rod.
5.   I have copies of Original Creations Magazine.

I hope your Thursday has gone well. If you possibly can, take some time to do something creative now. It can be anything, just use your imagination to accomplish some work. Creativity is your right.

If you need a prompt, write about something that irritates you. You can approach this in any way that pleases you. I know it should not be too hard. If you use the prompt, please leave a link to your work in the comments.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Always,
Jo Ann

365 Creativity Project-Day 119

Journal entry:

Home

This was not my place
I lived out in my own space
With a distinct home,
So I only visited
My Mom who was living here.

My fortunes then changed
I was displaced, my space lost,
In that troubled time
My Mom kindly took me in,
Gave my son and I a home.

For years I have lived
Upon this fine property
Enjoying the gift
Of the place’s loveliness
And Mom’s generosity.

This has now become
The location my heart longs
To return after
I have been another place,
It is my permanent home.

Jo Ann J. A. Jordan
Monday, May 7, 2012

Photographs:

I am grateful:

1.   I did not have to go out today.
2.   I have a place to live.
3.   Mom is pleased with where I put the plant.
4.   I gave Hope a bath.
5.   Mom helped me clean out Hope’s ear.

I hope you had a good Monday. You can do something beautiful with your creativity if you try. Challenge yourself to accomplish at least one creative act this week.

Computers and the internet have brought us together. Share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Always,
Jo Ann

365 Creativity Project-Day 115

Journal entry:

My Computer

Every day I am
Called upon to do the work
My owner desires,
I process words and images
And navigate cyberspace.

I sometimes react
In ways that cause her to curse,
But usually
I am a devoted slave
Parsing her many demands.

My keyboard grows tired
Of finger’s steady impact
And my screen seeks rest,
But I am just a servant
Performing tasks on command.

Jo Ann J. A. Jordan
Thursday, May 3, 2012

Photographs:

My computer…

Petunias…

Beautiful ball of blooms…

Petunias…

Roses…

I am grateful:

1.   I picked up my glasses.
2.   I found a great notebook at Wal-Mart.
3.   We ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A.
4.   I was able to do the shopping while Mom rested in the truck.
5.   I paid my car insurance.

My day was busy. I hope you achieved all you wished during the day. Now, it would be wonderful if you took time to do something creative.

Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Always,
Jo Ann

365 Creativity Project-Day 86

Journal entry:

April PAD Challenge, poem 4:

100% Caring

The days amble by
With fertile moments
Filled by multiple tasks
That must be finished.

Giving medicine, preparing
Food, encouraging eating,
Following schedules, driving
Wherever we must go.

Never forgetting that
Others rely upon my
Constant dedication to
Keeping everything done.

Living and loving deeply
Keeping my household
Uppermost in my mind
And utmost in my heart.

Jo Ann J. A. Jordan
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Photographs:

Pitcher…

Cup…

I am grateful:

1.   I have a great eye doctor.
2.   I am able to write poems.
3.   The lasagna we had for supper was delicious.
4.   Hope ate better today.
5.   The lightning strike nearby only made the power go off for a few moments and did not damage anything.

Can you believe it is already Wednesday again? I hope you enjoyed your hump day. It is not hard to do something creative, so try your hand at it now.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of my project.

Always,
Jo Ann

365 Creativity Project-Day 59

Journal entry:

Photographs:

The moon in the early morning hours and an interesting effect my camera made. Sure most will see it as a defect, but after reading 1Q84 I found it particularly fascinating.

Another shot of the moon. Cue Twilight Zone music.

My Mom…

I am grateful:

1.   I slept well.
2.   It did not rain so that I was able to get my pictures of Mom.
3.   God gives us geniuses who change the world.
4.   I am drinking less sodas, and am beginning to like water more.
5.   I am so blessed to have great tools for working creatively.

I hope you have had a productive day where you put your creativity to work. When we use our imaginations to create we can make our dreams come true and have a lasting influence on our reality.

Always,
Jo Ann

When I Write… I Must Sacrifice

Unfortunately, I do not write as much as I should. I have some talent, and some say a way with words. There are things I concentrate on more than writing practice.

I am an avid reader. This year I have read forty-five books and they have not been thin volumes. I will read instead of taking time to write.

I have responsibilities that take up a large amount of my time: chores, shopping, caring for Mom and the dogs, and cooking. I also spend many moments computing: checking and answering email, chatting with my son, Alex, who is a U.S. Marine, updating and checking Facebook, and posting to Twitter and reading the posts of those I follow.

The truth is these pursuits do not prevent my writing. I could read and compute less, easily finding time to devote to writing, but I am not motivated to do so, because I enjoy reading and computing. Writing is exhausting mental work. It is much easier to take information in than to formulate meaningful sentences, which will hold the attention of another person. Often I think of writing, but am not inspired with a topic upon which to expound. I can come up with a 140-character thought to post to Twitter and Facebook, but going beyond that is more difficult.

I have a plethora of books on the art and craft of writing, and could probably find inspiration in some of those. I know I should write if I ever intend to produce work of value. I am so afraid of writing something of inferior quality that I avoid writing much at all.

I love writing and find it very satisfying. I feel a need to put my words into a permanent form, but I rarely make the sacrifice required to accomplish that goal. Perhaps there is an element of laziness in this shirking of effort.

I am sincerely considering reading less so that I may devote more time to writing. That would be a huge sacrifice to me because reading is one of my greatest joys.

If you write, what do you sacrifice to put out your words ?

Always,
Jo Ann

Note to Writers and Authors

I am an avid reader and I write. I do not know that I will ever be widely published because I have a great fear of failure. That stymies my creativity.

Today, I speak directly to writers and authors. I love reading and spend much of my time perusing the pages of books and eBooks. I am a kind reviewer, giving many of the books I read the highest ratings. However, I find it very distracting to read poorly edited books. To come upon one or two mistakes in a text is forgivable, but when pages are riddled with wrong words, omitted words, and grammatical problems, it pulls me out of the story. I see how careless the writer has been and how little respect he/she has for the reader. I like to give indie authors a chance when I read on my Kindle, but many of these eBooks appear to be totally unedited. The story may be marvelous, but the craft should be attended to as well.

I know most of us write on computers these days, and am thankful for spell-check. Even with the marvelous aids given by technology, a careful reading of what is written is required. If you, as a writer, lack the skill to recognize your own mistakes, have someone with some knowledge of English read over your work and suggest corrections. Please have enough respect for your readers to produce clear copy. You will earn more repeat readers by so doing.

I hope this will make an impression on those who are self-publishing, and even those with publishers.

Always,
Jo Ann

Thankful List

I am thankful:

1.   I was able to write many Christmas cards by hand this year.
2. Borders sent me a 50% off one item and a 33% off one item coupon so I bought two books I had been wanting.
3. My niece, Leigh, found an appropriate all-in-one for us to send to Alex so that he can copy, scan, fax, and print and hopefully get back in college classes.
4.   Laura visited Friday night and we had a good time.
5.   The sugar cookies I picked up at Sam’s Club were delicious.
6.   We were not stranded when the truck battery went dead because I had my BlackBerry and was able to call my nephew, Jeremy, for assistance.
7.   I have friends all over the world because I have access to my laptop with internet access.
8.   Mom is feeling fairly well.
9.   I am very fortunate and blessed.
10. Hope is a very loving puppy dog.

Hope relaxing in my chair. She always turns herself into positions that look uncomfortable, but she seems happy.

Another Day, Another Computer Fiasco

I have had some interesting moments with my computers of late.

Thursday, September 30, 2010, I had to call Microsoft Technical Support because Outlook was malfunctioning. After a couple of hours that problem was resolved again. I am not convinced it is permanently resolved, but for the time being it works.

Monday, October 4, 2010, I downloaded Google Chrome. That went well and worked smoothly, but that was the best of my recent adventures in computing. Also on Monday, I had to migrate my blog, Chronicles, from MSN Live Spaces to WordPress. Overall that has worked out okay, except that the photo albums, lists, and links I had on MSN Live Spaces did not migrate. These omissions are not pleasing to me.

Thursday, October 7, 2010, Alex called from Djibouti and informed me my yahoo email account had been hacked. He thought I might have a key-logger on my laptop. I spent a good bit of the day changing passwords on many of the sites I frequent. I also ran Norton scans to find out if there was anything wrong with my laptop which has become my primary computer. I found no problems and am fairly sure the laptop is secure.

Today, October 8, 2010, I turned on the monitor on my desktop computer which was already on and the screen was asking for a boot disk. I turned the computer off because I thought it was just an odd error. I turned it back on and it worked fine until it should have opened the desktop after the Windows loading screen. Instead it rebooted and brought up the HP opening screen. I found out this is called boot-looping and that it could be a software issue or it may be a hard-drive failure. I am hoping my niece’s husband can help me recover the computer from this failure or I will have to take it in to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I had no printer access with the laptop because it had been networked through the desktop, but I carried the laptop into the bedroom and plugged the printer cable directly into it. That worked, but I knew there was wireless access to the printer, so I called HP Technical Support to get their help setting up the connection. At first they told me my warranty was not active, but they finally verified that it covers my printer. The technician took about three hours to get everything working properly… there were several problems so it took longer than usual.

I sincerely hope that the desktop can be recovered because it has a great deal of programming and data on it that is not accessible any other way.

Hopefully nothing new will go wrong with the laptop, the network, or the printer. I do not think I can deal with another computer related fiasco any time soon.

Always,
Jo Ann

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