Tag: Learning Curve

Life lessons

5 Reasons you are important

Posted in essay

Volunteers Wanted

When I go to meetings, I often see the same faces. These are dedicated folks who believe in making a difference, and who believe there is a difference to be made. They Will Rogerssometimes suffer criticism instead of praise for their efforts, but this does not deter them. They show up, give their opinions, lend their support, stand up for the promise of a better tomorrow, and forge ahead. They volunteer for business groups, animal welfare activities, social justice causes, civic improvement organizations, and anything else you can think of that will make your life and mine a little better. They don’t get paid, and most go unrecognized. These engines for change are the lifeblood of a vibrant community. If you aren’t currently working for the betterment of the community as a volunteer, here are a five reasons you might want to come to the next meeting of interest to you, and sit down at the table.

Ideas

Ideas are the seeds of change. Without ideas, there would be no iPad, iPhone, or iMac. There would be no interactive notebook that responds to a touch. There would be no music, no art, no books, no invention of any kind. It all begins with an idea. If you think your ideas aren’t important, think again. You can and will make a difference, but only if you are at the table.

Perspective

I’ve been at the table many times, perhaps too many times, some might say. My perspective comes from my frame of reference. I still believe my perspective has value, but so does yours. When decisions are being made your thoughts count. If you aren’t present, those thoughts won’t be heard, not because your perspective is being ignored, but because you aren’t there to present it.

Kick the lid off the box

It is an unfortunate fact of organizations that sometimes leaders become mired in procedure and process and forget their primary purpose, whatever that may be. The board and membership ages. Individual members become complacent or overburdened. In either case the lid must be kicked off the box so new energy, new leaders, new members can come pouring in. Leadership development is as critical as new ideas. Your presence and participation as a new volunteer can make that happen. You can learn from and be mentored by seasoned volunteers.

Your Experience

Nobody brings to the table what you bring. Your experience at every level will help inform and define the organization you become involved in. You will get out of it exactly what you put into it. Your experience will make the organization better and stronger for your participation.

Self-development

Getting acquainted with people you don’t ordinarily encounter is an excellent way to expand your horizons. Their energy, their ideas, their dedication will energize you, inspire you, and broaden your creativity. Studies have shown that people who are more involved and engaged in life are happier. Volunteering is good for you. So, come to the table. Be a part of making your community great. Just as seeds need water and sun to grow, organizations need your fresh ideas, perspective, and experience. They need you to kick the lid off the box and pour in your creativity and energy. And isn’t it encouraging to know you will benefit from the experience?

Thank you for being a reader/subscriber. It is my goal to present informative, interesting and creative content on this site. Your likes, shares and comments are welcomed and hugely appreciated.

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6 Terrific Gardening Sites

Posted in Inspiration1 Comment

Farmer’s Almanac 2015:

This is a respected guide book chock full of information. The gardening calendar stretches from spring through fall Farmer's Almanacplanting and tells you when to sow indoors, plant in the ground, and when to harvest. It is customized by location based on the nearest weather station. Click this link for Las Vegas, NM.

Giant Veggie Gardener:

Jannine Cabossel calls herself an artisan farmer because she likes to create beauty in her gardens combining art, flowers, and vegetables, and because her gardens are not big enough to be called a farm, but too large to be an urban garden. Her garden is in Santa Fe, NM. Her tips and advice are  applicable to growers in the central and northern highlands of New Mexico, but can be applied elsewhere. She blogs about growing specific vegetables and about a variety of other gardening questions for the avid grower. Click this link for more tips, calendar of classes, and garden tours.

20 Perennials

Blanket FlowerWhen it comes to flowers, I love to plant once and have beauty come back year after year. This link is a slide presentation from Better Homes and Gardens that shows and tells you about 20 fabulous perennial choices, most of which are drought resistant. Since I haven’t had the courage to put anything in the ground yet – it is April in Northern New Mexico after all – I’m going to be looking for some of these for the little bit of area I will be cultivating, mostly in pots.

 Perennials vs Annuals

And wouldn’t it be nice to know which flowers will be back year after year and which will be in bloom for a season and then gone? This HGTV post is all about perennials and annuals. The site is a good resource overall for gardeners.

 Home Vegetable Gardening in New Mexico

VegetablesThis guide is available online and can be downloaded as a PDF.  Home Vegetable Gardening in New Mexico provides general information for growing vegetables. Use this publication with its companion, Circular 457-B, Growing Zones, Recommended Crop Varieties, and Planting and Harvesting Information for Home Vegetable Gardens in New Mexico. Circular 457-B includes a map showing New Mexico growing zones, as well as a table providing crop variety recommendations, recommended planting dates, days to harvest, planting instructions, and yield information.

Container Gardening

Container GardenSeveral sites on the web focus on container gardening. This link takes you to a High Country Garden blog about the care of pots as well as the plants inside them. Worth a read if you are into patio container gardening.

There are a number of show gardens in Las Vegas. A late summer tour organized by the Citizens’ Committee for Historic Preservation showcases several of them. With help from these sites, and a lot of hard work, your garden could be on the 2015 tour.

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5 Reasons you are important

Posted in Uncategorized

Volunteers Wanted

When I go to meetings, I often see the same faces. These are dedicated folks who believe in making a difference, and who believe there is a difference to be made. They Will Rogerssometimes suffer criticism instead of praise for their efforts, but this does not deter them. They show up, give their opinions, lend their support, stand up for the promise of a better tomorrow, and forge ahead. They volunteer for business groups, animal welfare activities, social justice causes, civic improvement organizations, and anything else you can think of that will make your life and mine a little better. They don’t get paid, and most go unrecognized. These engines for change are the lifeblood of a vibrant community. If you aren’t currently working for the betterment of the community as a volunteer, here are a five reasons you might want to come to the next meeting of interest to you, and sit down at the table.

Ideas

Ideas are the seeds of change. Without ideas, there would be no iPad, iPhone, or iMac. There would be no interactive notebook that responds to a touch. There would be no music, no art, no books, no invention of any kind. It all begins with an idea. If you think your ideas aren’t important, think again. You can and will make a difference, but only if you are at the table.

Perspective

I’ve been at the table many times, perhaps too many times, some might say. My perspective comes from my frame of reference. I still believe my perspective has value, but so does yours. When decisions are being made your thoughts count. If you aren’t present, those thoughts won’t be heard, not because your perspective is being ignored, but because you aren’t there to represent it.

Kick the lid off the box

It is an unfortunate fact of organizations that sometimes leaders become mired in procedure and process and forget their primary purpose, whatever that may be. The board and membership ages. Individual members become complacent or overburdened. In either case the lid must be kicked off the box so new energy, new leaders, new members can come pouring in. Leadership development is as critical as new ideas. Your presence and participation as a new volunteer can make that happen. You can learn from and be mentored by seasoned volunteers.

Your Experience

Nobody brings to the table what you bring. Your experience at every level will help inform and define the organization you become involved in. You will get out of it exactly what you put into it. Your experience will make the organization better and stronger for your participation.

Self-development

Getting acquainted with people you don’t ordinarily encounter is an excellent way to expand your horizons. Their energy, their ideas, their dedication will energize you, inspire you, and broaden your creativity. Studies have shown that people who are more involved and engaged in life are happier. Volunteering is good for you. So, come to the table. Be a part of making your community great. Just as seeds need water and sun to grow, organizations need your fresh ideas, perspective, and experience. They need you to kick the lid off the box and pour in your creativity and energy. And isn’t it encouraging to know you will benefit from the experience?

5 Benefits of Grammarly

Posted in Writer's Block

InspirationI hate editing my copy. It’s the trickiest part of writing. There are so many ways to go wrong when you are producing words by the hundreds. For all the value word processing programs have brought to writers, their biggest flaw is literal non-contextual interpretation of words.

She went their to see her mother. Their is spelled correctly, but it’s wrong in this context.

The bear truth, is misleading unless you are talking about a big brown animal you came across in the woods.

Grammarly.com, an online instant grammar checker and more,  is a wake-up call: Commas, periods, exclamation points, oh my! Spelling, context, confused words, oh my! Voice, mixed metaphors, unclear comparisons, oh my! Grammarly points to the word or phrase and suggests an alternative, or that you rethink what you’ve written, oh my (head in my hands here), and sigh. I am not a horrible writer, but I am too often a lazy one. Grammarly is worth every cent of the $139 I paid for it.

Grammarly forces me to think: Yikes, what a thought. Think more about what I write. Perish the thought. However… (Picture me thinking here: Hmmm, Grammarly might not be happy about that ellipse. Does it have a purpose? It does come in handy now and again, because as I write I may want to slow my readers down. Still, is the ellipse necessary, or am I slowing down the reader too much?) I hope you get the idea. As a writer you do want to think about every aspect of what you’re writing – spelling, grammar, voice, tone, and readability, and yes the occasional ellipse.

Grammarly hates, hates, hates, passive voice: If you use this product be ready for a rude awakening. You think you’re writing in electrifying ways, until you see how many times you slip into passive voice. Why do you slip into passive voice? Because passive voice is easy, and it’s sloppy, that’s why. Things happen, and you tell about what happened, yadda, yadda, yadda. Have you put the reader to sleep in the process? I look over some of the things I’ve written, and I cringe. Instead of engaging the reader, I see where I dumped information in globs. Bad form; sloppy writing.

Grammarly gives you options: You can use the basic mode and Grammarly checks for contextual spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and style. Or you can select plagiarism to learn whether you have inadvertently “borrowed” someone’s words and made them yours. There is a vocabulary enhancement function, which points out vague words that can be changed to another word or phrase to make the sentence stronger or clearer.

Grammarly will send you to a professional proofreader: I believe there is a charge for this service, but if you want another pair of eyes to look at your work, the option is there.

A caution here. Grammarly doesn’t do your work for you. You still must read your copy. The suggestions in Grammarly are just that, suggestions. As the writer, it’s up to you to accept or reject the program’s recommendations.

In summary this is a good product for writers whether you are writing a business letter, an op-ed piece for the local paper, a school paper, an essay or a book. Punctuation and grammar are the building blocks of written communication.

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Note: I am in no way affiliated with Grammarly.com. These are my thoughts based on my experience. There are other similar programs in the marketplace. I have not tried them.