Plagiarism, Dog on car roof, Kid handcuffed, and Other Stuff on My Mind

I haven’t posted in a while.  Life happened, as it often does, and it isn’t always pretty.  So, I haven’t been reading or writing as much, and I haven’t been participating in my usual activities.  Am I depressed?  Maybe a little, but I’m more unfocused than anything because of recent incidents.  No worries, though.  I’m slowly working my way back.

I may not have been writing, but I’ve had a lot on my mind.  So, let’s take a look into my brain and see what’s been happening there.  Okay?

Plagiarism.  What a word, and what an accusation.  In January, an apparently well-known blogger (I must admit– I didn’t know her) was accused of plagiarism by another blogger.  Wow!  When I think of plagiarism, I usually think of books, music, and school reports.  I rarely, if ever, think of blogs.  Why would anyone plagiarize a blog?  That’s just weird.  No really!  That’s just weird!  The story continued as another blogger wrote about the incident in April.  In her post, she provided additional information and responses that were allegedly written by the alleged “offender”.  Allegedly.  LOL!  Did she do it?  Follow the links, and decide for yourself.

Real-Life Barbie.  Hmmm… This story has circled the net before, and it generates a variety of opinions each time.  Self-proclaimed real-life Barbie, 21-year-old Valeria Lukyanova, says her bod is all natural.  Is it?  Do we care?  To each his own, eh?  However, some of her I’m-a-Barbie-doll poses are quite creepy in my opinion.  Remember all of the backlash from years ago?  Many parents (especially moms) were concerned about self-image, and the effect Barbie was having on young girls.  I don’t think young girls think about Barbie the way adults do.  They just play.  I do believe movies, TV shows, and actors play a much bigger role in influencing our children’s self-image.  Nevertheless, we have a live Barbie on our hands, and she has over 240,000 likes on facebook. One of the pages anyway.  No linky for you!  You’re on your own for that one.  :P  So, is she live or Memorex?  Oops!  Showed my age!  What I mean is… Is she natural?  Enhanced?  Weird?  Beautiful?  Kinda cute? Demented?  You decide.

6 yr old Girl Handcuffed for Misbehaving.  Well, isn’t that interesting.  In April,

 

How much hate is surrounding you, and what are you doing about it?

Photo by Christopher Scott http://christopherscottdesigner.wordpress.com/

Recent events on this site, as well as reactions to them, have caused me to once again think about the threads that surround my family and me.  Are these threads positive, or are they attaching negativity to my life?

Many years ago, when I was in my teens or early 20s, I had to “clean house” and push a few people out of my life.  At that time, I was still introverted (YES I WAS), but I had strong opinions about certain subjects– uh… kinda like I do now.

I was hanging with a few friends who were constantly hating on this group of dark-clothes wearing, tattoo-sporting, tongue-piercing teens.  You’ve seen the type.  Now, I’ve always been a fan of dark clothing, and I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but that isn’t what this is about.

My friends were mercilessly slinging insults

 

My Response to “Ellen DeGeneres and JCP: Where do you stand?” and The End of a Friendship

Yikes!  Forgive the length, but I had a lot to say!  You can take breaks between paragraphs if you need to.

I wanted to take a moment to THANK EVERYONE that commented on the post, Ellen DeGeneres and JCP: Where do you stand?.  Clearly, we all have feelings and opinions on this topic regardless of which side we’re on.

I knew posting about this topic would ruffle some feathers. I did not know that a personal friend, someone I haven’t spoken to in a long time, would

 

Ellen DeGeneres and JCP: Where do you stand?

As of late, there has been a lot of back-n-forth regarding the hiring of Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson by JC Penny.  A campaign to block this action, and remove Ellen was started by a “Christian” women’s group on facebook called One Million Moms. (I intentionally did not provide the link.)  This smear campaign, that began over a month ago, caused a huge uproar.  I was also quite offended when I read their propaganda, and I, along with several other people, reported their group as promoting hate.  As a matter of note, that page still doesn’t even have half a million likes.  Just sayin’.

As a counter measure, another FB page, 1 Million people who support Ellen for JC Penney, was born to… drum roll… support Ellen!  This page, created by Cathie Miller, currently has over 202,000 likes, and continues to grow.  Cathie was also interviewed by her local news station regarding her fight for justice.

Following the backlash,

 

Last chance to W!N a signed copy of Latter-Day of the Dead

Hello all!  You have 2 days left to win 1 of 2 signed copies of latter-day of the dead by Kevin Krohn. (Don’t get on me!  The title is written in all lower case letters on the book!)

From the author:

Publication Date: March 1, 2012

“Harrowing cries escaped the contorted faces of our flock. End of Days was a known truth but never a faced reality. Once the madness broke…we feared it would never subside.”A thrilling tale of horror from Kevin Krohn, “Latter-Day of the Dead” tells the story of a hallowed compound’s fight for survival against unbridled evil.

So, get on over to the Cabin Goddess site, scroll down to the Rafflecopter, and enter!  Remember, this contest ends on March 17th at midnight EST.  Good luck!

Dayle, this one is an actual printed book with real pages just for you!  :)

Thanks for reading!

 

Double-take Tales by Donna Brown

I recently ran across a smart little e-book consisting of three short stories, and I must say, the title intrigued me.  However, I’m such a picky reader that I wasn’t sure if the stories would hold my interest. I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised.

Double-take Tales by Donna Brown, is an interesting read. Hmmm… Or rather, three interesting reads.  This book contains three unrelated short stories– Round Trip, Poison, and C’est la vie.

From the author:

Publication Date: October 1, 2011

Three dark, sardonic short stories that will have you expecting the unexpected:In “Poison,” a psychologically abused wife discovers that her husband’s nut allergy may be the solution to all her problems.In “Round Trip,” a five pound note passes through desperate hands, greedy hands and tired hands before coming full circle…accompanied by a big surprise.

In “Ç’est La Vie,” the police bungle a murder investigation under the watchful eye of someone uncomfortably close to the killing.

Now, a long, overly detailed review is not necessary here.  If I say much more than what is written above, I could spoil it for you.  No spoilers here!  But, this is what I think:

 

Website vs Blog vs Domain! What?

Okay, I’ve had a few websites over the past few years.  They were all free because I just wasn’t (and I’m still not) willing to pay for something that I wasn’t sure about.  Through it all, I’ve always had a blog here on WP and on blogger.  Although, I haven’t touched blogger in a long, long time.

So, which is best?  Well, I guess that depends on your needs, and what you want to express.

I’ve recently (very recently) discovered that WP does offer a few more options than I realized.  Enough that maybe I can make it “look” more like a regular website.  Hmmm… Isn’t a blog already a regular “website”?  Well, a type of one anyway.

Decisions, decisions!  What to do?  I’m still at that

 

Checkin’ out BlogLovin’

Well, I’ve been trying out a few sites lately, and BlogLovin’ is one of them.  It allows me to view all of my favorite blogs in one place instead of bouncing all over the web.

Most of you know how finicky I am, so I’ll have to take this site for test drive and see how it stacks up.  If the mood strikes you, come join me.  If you do, leave a comment on this post either with your page link to BlogLovin’, or a link to your blog/website — or both.

Happy writing and thanks for reading!

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Thank you!!

Here’s a big fat THANK YOU to all of my new author and blogger followers, here as well as on Twitter and facebook!  I really appreciate you as I do all of my followers!

As life would have it, I’m getting a little behind in my record-keeping life.  Trying to keep up with my daughter’s studies, my bible studies, and my reading projects is getting a little overwhelming in this busy life of mine.  I am a single mom ya know, so the load gets a little heavy sometimes.  Regardless, I think I carry it well!  ;)  So, I have to take a little writing break so that I can pull it all back together… in my head anyway.

I’ll be back at it soon, so don’t give up on me!

Take care, and be good to each other!

Thanks for reading!

 

Reblogged from Author Azure Boone:

I thought this sounded quite interesting, and worth a re-blog! If you're interested, check it out!