The power of storytelling in our life

I’ve been thinking long and hard on why I blog, why I write stories, and today I was actually interviewed, via Skype, by a student in the Netherlands who is writing a thesis on this idea. Renee Meijer, who like me, writes on Cowbird, is writing about the storytelling aspect of Cowbird and why and how we tell our stories. It was a fascinating conversation, and she certainly stirred my thinking even more so.

She told me about live storytelling events that I had never heard about before. I thought such an event would be interesting to see. Sort of like a poetry reading, but different in that the storyteller must tell a true-life tale. We chatted about what story means and what I enjoy about Cowbird. And that brings me to why I write. The stories on Cowbird give me a glimpse into other people’s lives and how they make order of their world. Same for reading other’s blogs. It’s undoubtedly the voyeur in me. I also like to share my own life through stories knowing that there are readers who are getting to know more about me.

I told Renee about my experience with my students to whom I would tell stories. They would remember the story but not some pertinent fact about marketing or economics. That’s when I realized the power of stories. We definitely affect the lives of others through our stories. That’s why Jesus told stories to get his message across.

So, dear Reader, thank you for reading my stories here. And, if you have a blog,  thank you for sharing a part of your life with me.  Your stories are powerful. Don’t stop telling them.

 

Writing great comments that no one ever gets to read

Again, I am so frustrated with Blogger. I sometimes wonder why I even go to those blogs. Today I have written three comments, all at Blogger blogs, to have them disappear. One claimed I wasn’t logged into WordPress, yet there was my blog heading right at the top of the screen. Another had some fatal error when I clicked on post and another had one of those crazy captchas that said I didn’t have the right combination of letters and numbers. There is no chance to go back and try again, the comment is GONE!

So, if you have a Blogger blog, and you don’t see any comment from me, it’s probably because it is  being deleted, not because I’m not writing a witty piece to your lovely post.

It’s not mine to give

If you are like me, you have come to think of these blogs we write and read like a back fence, an office break room, a neighborhood coffee klatch, but they are not. We are not all sitting, or standing, around, seeing each other face to face. These posts go all over the world, and unless we take down the post or the whole blog, they are here for anyone and everyone to see, forever. Speak and your words disappear into the air; write a blog and your words can be retrieved. I am well aware that I cannot say just anything like I would if you, dear Reader, were sitting here beside me, in my office today, as I write. I cannot give you the recipe, or write down the quote, or tell you the story I just made, read, or heard from some other source. That’s called PLAGIARISM.

Last week, and again this week, I wrote posts about cookie recipes I am trying. Someone asked me to share, and since the recipes aren’t mine, I contacted CRISCO for permission to print, in my blog, the recipe for brown sugar cookies. This morning I received their answer-NO. They cannot allow me to use what they have copyrighted. I understand. It’s not like I’m passing on a recipe across the table to my friend or coworker. Instead, I would be publishing it.

So, as you, dear Reader, travel around Blogland, be aware of constraints put on the published, printed word. I sometimes wonder about those recipes that people share, as if we were talking over the back fence. If the recipe is your own creation, and you are willing to share with the world, go ahead, but if you got the recipe from another source, you need to seek permission to print it. And be prepared; the owner of the recipe, story, photo, etc., may say NO.

 

So very sad

Oh, why, oh, why, oh why do some of you make it so hard to leave a comment on your blog? You write lovely things and I so want to say something. Often, I will get my whole long-winded comment typed, only to find that I must now decode some hieroglyphics to gain access. I will try and try again, to no avail. I give up and go away. You never get to know how much I liked your writing.

May I make a suggestion? If you are a blogger who doesn’t want comments, just disengage the comment box and I will move on after reading. If you want comments, please make it easy for a reader to do so.

Blogs, friends, & skillets

That skillet up there, the one in the forefront, with the tortilla sitting in enchilada sauce? It has a story.

A friend of mine, whom I met through her blog, is leaving Fresno and moving to a small house in Washington state. When I read she was majorly downsizing, it was just after the handle had broken on one of my skillets. Knowing this young lady has very good taste, I thought she might have a skillet she would not be moving two states away. So, I did what I often do, I asked.

And she did have an extra one that she offered to me. Wasnt that super kind of her? She’s that kind of girl.

Terry and I went over last evening and picked it up, and today I put it to use, making enchiladas which takes two skillets, as you can see from the photo. The filling is in the back skillet.

I will miss Kimberly being in town, but I will get to read about her new adventures. And I will think of her every time I pull out the skillet to make something.

What brings you here?

 

Do you ever look at what brings people to your blog? I’m always fascinated with the list. Here are a few of the searches that landed the seeker at my site:

digital media academy reviews	1,026
red dinosaur	443
http://www.starbucks.com/rewards	316
digital media academy review	205
fall leaves	183
fall foliage	163
how to wear a hoodie	140
purple tulips	124
uc merced campus	121
delaine zody	117
dinosaur	98
starbucks.com/rewards	96
uc merced	89

As I am about to depart the hallowed halls of learning

…I get put on a top 100 list.  Thank you to online colleges. net for the honor.  Please check out some of the other educator blogs that are listed.  I feel very privileged to be among such illustrious company.

With apologies

So, you want to comment and have not been able to do so?  Betty tweeted me to let me know that she has been unable to comment here.  I am so sorry if that has happened to you, dear Reader.  It aggravates me when I cannot leave a comment (seems to happen a lot on Blogger blogs) yet I know it’s the system and not the writer’s fault.  Should that happen to you, please feel free to tweet me and I will pass along the complaints to WordPress.  And if you’re not on Twitter, bear with me until we can get this figured out.

Christmas lights have been put away

Christmas lights

Originally uploaded by dkzody

This picture was taken last week, actually the last night we had the tree up. I took everything down and put it in the big bins to go back to storage when we returned from San Francisco, which we now have.

I have been ultra lazy this morning, catching up on other blogs and doing a few loads of laundry. It is pure luxury to be so lazy.

You will notice a few new blogs over there on the blogroll. I found two ladies who have recently moved into apartments in New York City and are writing about it. It will be interesting to read about their adventures as we continue our own.

I am heading for the storage unit this afternoon to return the Christmas bins and a few other items that I don’t think I need around here. Tomorrow I am going to be brave and head to some big box stores. If I live to tell about it, I will return and write more.

Some updates

See that list over there?  The one on the right with all those names?  That’s my list of favorite blogs that I love to check in on with some regularity.  I just updated it.  Some people had to go.  Their blogs no longer interested me or their links no longer worked.  Some made me sad to delete (like the news photographer up the road apiece whose blog got rolled into a local paper’s site).

I am thrilled, though, to add some new blogs and hope you can check out some of them yourself, dear Reader.  A couple, Jen in berkeley and A knitted frenzy, have been in my inbox for months and I go back to them on a regular basis.  I just hadn’t taken the time to move them here.  I started reading Jen while she was still teaching in LA, but she moved and still writes interesting, funny posts, now from Berkeley, another favorite town.  Kim writes a knitted frenzy from just up the road and works for a school district I know.  We have another connection in that she attended the same high school as my son-in-law.  We share war stories from our classrooms.

I love to go to blogs that have blog rolls posted so that I can try out new reads.  Some work, some don’t.  We all have different tastes, which is what makes this blogland so interesting and compels me to keep coming back.  I hope you too, dear Reader, can find something new when you check out some of my favorites.