Inspiration Engine 11 – PhD, Stories and Maps

~ Sahara ~ 3 Comments

This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week – another car on my imagination train!

As you may or may not know, to make the most of my interest in relationships,to stimulate the research corners of my brain and to give legitimacy to my findings, I have been trying to get into a PhD program for the past two years. I have been turned down from 18 programs in total, both in social work and in social psychology, and I’m bummed.

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Crisis of Faith – What’s my Name?

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I am working on my blog, on my brand, (thanks to the zerotohero challenge, of course) and I have come to a very important conclusion: I think my blog needs a different name.

So far, I’ve called it “I didn’t just wake up this morning with a craving” because it made me think of a really funny line from the 9th Doctor.

But it doesn’t really “say anything,” does it?  It’s unusual, to be sure, and that’s good. It’s also long, and that’s bad. It also doesn’t really mean anything to this blog, and that’s bad, I think.

Why do I even blog in the first place?

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It’s on like Donkey Kong?

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At the end of March, President Obama made April 2014 National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

Sexual assault: Unwanted sexual contact that stops short of rape or attempted rape. This includes sexual touching and fondling.

I’ve survived this. I’ve never said it in this way before, but I have survived this. Twice.

Those times weren’t traumatic. They weren’t violent. I knew both the guys. (Many survivors know their assailant!) I didn’t like it and I felt icky afterward; I still feel icky to think about it. Despite this, I never thought of it as sexual assault. I’ve always thought: You know, we were both drinking the first time, and he said he was really ashamed about it afterward. And the second time, well, I was “sewing my oats” that summer and that was just part of it. You got burned. I never considered it assault.

But it was.

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Inspiration Engine 10 – History and Social Work

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This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week.

This has been a fun week for me!  As a burgeoning Rennie preparing for several weeks of being a Scottish storyteller, the blog Historically Speaking is highly relevant to me. In particular, he includes a post about what he wishes reenactors would start or stop doing, and another about best practices. (From that, I took: Research and Wash your clothes the way it would have been done in the period.)

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No one is so rich as to throw away a friend

~ Sahara ~ 15 Comments

Daily Prompt: Why Can’t We Be Friends? – Do you find it easy to make new friends? Tell us how you’ve mastered the art of befriending a new person.

I have memories of, in my youthy youth, going to the swimming pool with my mother.  We walked in and put our things down on the plastic lounge chairs, and I said, “Okay, I’m going to go make some friends now.”  I jumped into the shallow end and did just that.


I was even cuter than this, I’m sure.

It wasn’t so easy during my adolescence, but I have a better time of it now.

I think part of that is because I know myself and my interests. I’m a social worker that cares about economics and policy. I love to travel and have done a lot of it. I’m a fangirl of such things as Sherlock, renaissance fairs and biking.  Part of it is also that other people who share similar interests or backgrounds are eager to be friends with others; it’s easy to connect with people over these things. Finally, I’m out of the house a lot – cigar bars and coffee houses, friends’ houses and on the hiking trail – I have ample opportunity to meet people.

The Forest is my Imagination

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Sometimes, at the beginning of a week, I find that my attention and thoughts are focused in a beautiful place, like a forest of trees. Living in that forest is normal, and possibilities are paths through them.

In this forest, you don’t have to walk the paths, and if you choose to, you don’t do it for any purpose.  You do it because you want to walk the path. The passage and exploration are more important than the journey’s end.

And, oh, how I hate pulling myself out of this forest.

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NSFW

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After a short conversation about a klassy car parked outside the office with the pink words “Ms. Thickness” stickered across the top of the back window, my button-down supervisor says to us quietly:

“Just for your own safety, don’t Google “Ms. Thickness” while you’re at work.”

Oops.

Inspiration Engine 9 – Writing Historical Fiction

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This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week.

It is a short list this week, as this one blog has given me a whole week’s worth of inspiration. Thanks to NaNoWriMo 2013, I began seriously working on writing a work of historical fiction. I have become a ready sponge for information and hints about writing it well.

I stumbled upon the blog  A Writer of History by M.K. Tod and found a wealth of information. Not only insight from the blogger themselves, but also interviews with other writers of historical fiction, and it was awesome to read about their process and what advice for burgeoning authors. The blog also includes as surveys of readers of historical fiction, to learn what they like and why. Finally, in the blogroll and on separate pages are a wealth of resources about writing, historical fiction, and the WWI and WWII era, in particular.

Thank you, M.K. Tod, for the blog, and that you, reader, for reading about it!  What do you think of this choice? Do you know of or have other blogs that specialize in this?