Last week, a fellow blogger and educator, Norah Colvin, commented on a post I had written about the "spotlight effect", suggesting that "a story based on this would be perfect for the ‘rock star’ prompt at the Flash Fiction Challenge at Carrot Ranch this week." I wasn't familiar with Flash Fiction or Carrot Ranch, but … Continue reading Challenge Accepted: Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction – Rock Star
This was our second visit to Cleveland, where our oldest son lives. I previously wrote about our first visit, where we discovered how nice all the people seemed to be. On this visit, we discovered how many wonderful things there are to do and see in "The Land". We arrived on Friday and had a … Continue reading A Wonderful Weekend Visit to The Land
About a week ago I wrote about my early attempts at blogging. My first venture into blogging involved creating a web site, sportsographies.blogspot.com, which would entail writing book reviews of sports-related biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. The venture only lasted about two months and included just five book reviews. Since I want to get all of … Continue reading Foul: The Connie Hawkins Story by David Wolfe
For whatever reason, the title of this blog, which is a line from a poem I read more than 50 years ago, has always stuck with me. I don't remember any of the context or anything else about the poem, but that image of a crane, going through the same motions over and over without … Continue reading “And Habit Like a Crane”
I started this blog on January 1, 2015 (here's that first post), and haven't missed a day since. The original intent was to see if I was up to the challenge of posting every day for 31 days. When I got to 31 days I said to myself why not try for 50 days, which … Continue reading A Look Back at My First Attempts at Blogging
I've been writing this daily blog for over four and a half years, and I have not done much to promote it during that time After I publish my post, I add a link to it on Facebook and Twitter, and that's about it. I had also assumed that since I used WordPress, I was … Continue reading WordPress Notifications 1, Jim Borden 0
This post was triggered by an essay in the Wall Street Journal by author Ann Patchett in which she notes that as children, many of us were forced to consume books over school break; as adults, we can enjoy those assigned classics without the academic burden. Here is the paragraph that resonated with me the … Continue reading Some Thoughts on Summer Reading Lists for High School Students
I've previously written about the potential beauty and simplicity (and challenge) of writing a six-word story, and today I discovered, thanks to WordPress Discover, a fun, but challenging twist to the genre - the five random emojis story. Friends James Hannaham and John W. Bateman created a game where one of them texts five random emoji … Continue reading Forget about the Six-Word Story, How about the Five Emoji Story?
A few years ago, I was in the habit of writing something every day in my online diary, using an app named My Wonderful Days. I still have the app on my iPhone, and as I scroll through my entries, it looks like I started using the app in December 2012, writing something down most … Continue reading A Simple, but Powerful, Bedtime Routine
Billy Joel wrote "Piano Man" when he was 24. I'm sure there are many other examples of young people writing best selling songs, but these two songs have always stood out in my mind because the lyrics seem to show wisdom beyond their ages. Here are the words to "Dream On": Every time when I … Continue reading Music Monday: How Did Steven and Billy Have Such Insight into Life at Such a Young Age?
Borden's Blather 