Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

YEAR OF THE RAT – 2020, PART 2

In the first part of our Year of the Rat discussion, we considered the predictive value of certain political and economic matters over the ten presidential elections that have occurred in Rat Years since 1900. Of course, each of those elections was unique and was not decided by a single variable, so in this second part we will try to add some context by looking briefly at each election. The Rat Years, all of which were election years, are 1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 and 2008.Continue reading “YEAR OF THE RAT – 2020, PART 2”

YEAR OF THE RAT – 2020, PART 1

The Oriental Lunar Calendar marks the Year of the Metal Rat as beginning with the new moon on January 25, 2020. As you probably know, each year is symbolized by one of twelve animals and each of those animal years cycles through affinities to the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood. We now come to the Year of the Metal Rat, which occurs every 60 years. The Rat is the first animal in the hierarchy, so this is the beginning of a new 12-year cycle.

In this post, we will make some predictions for what may occur in the coming year. These predictions are not based on a belief that I am any more (or less) psychic than you are, or upon the traditional analysis used in Chinese astrology, Rather, we are looking at what has happened in previous Rat years and trying to extrapolate to the present.

A review of previous cycles is a bit difficult due to the nature of Rat years. Rats are seen as intelligent, shrewd, creative, freedom-loving and even downright sneaky. They don’t fall into established patterns like many of the other animals. Continue reading “YEAR OF THE RAT – 2020, PART 1”

A SHORT YEAR OF THE DOG RETROSPECTIVE

The Year of the Dog is officially over and we have begun the Year of the Earth Pig.  I asked our dog, Darcy, if she had any words of wisdom as we move on.  First, she said that she would like to think that this is now the Year of Groundhog (earth=ground, pig=hog), so we should pay attention to what goes on in the shadows.  I told her to stop being silly.  Then she suggested that I just go outside and look at the night sky for a few minutes.  We went to the back yard and had the following conversation:

ME:  It’s really clear tonight, and look at all you can see up there since it’s a new moon.  Is that red one Mars?  I had thought Mars would be a little lower in the sky.

DARCY:  And I would have thought that Mars would not be flashing on and off and moving from southeast to northwest.

ME:  Oh.  Yeah.  Look at that other bright star up by Orion.

DARCY:  That’s the Dog Star.

ME:  Sirius?

DARCY:  Oh, yes.  Dogs are very proud of the Dog Star and take it quite seriously – just as we took the Year of the Dog seriously.

ME:  I mean the star, Sirius.

DARCY:  I don’t know how to tell whether a star is joking.  By the way, who’s on first?

ME:  You’re right.  It was that kind of year.

It was a teaching/learning moment.

YEAR OF THE PIG – 2019

February 4-5, 2019 will be the first day of the Year of the Earth Pig (or Boar) on the Chinese and other Oriental calendars. This is the 12th and final year of the Chinese zodiac cycle, so it is a time for culmination of matters that have manifested over the previous 11 years. As you probably know, each year is symbolized by one of twelve animals and each of those animal years cycles through affinities to the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood. This will be the Year of the Earth Pig, which occurs every 60 years.

I am once again posting predictions for what may occur in the world during the upcoming year. Rather than claiming to be any more (or less) psychic than you are, I have assumed that the traditional cycles are valid, and have based the predictions on what has occurred in previous Pig years. You may review the history or jump directly to the predictions at the end of this post, after clicking the “continue reading” button.Continue reading “YEAR OF THE PIG – 2019”

WHY BOB DYLAN MATTERS

Richard F. Thomas, a professor of the Classics at Harvard University and a big Bob Dylan fan, has written a book called Why Bob Dylan Matters (2017).

Why Bob Dylan Matters is an interesting title, one that presupposes that Dylan does matter. Certainly he matters to this author; and in some 300 easy to read pages, you can get a pretty good idea why that is so. I enjoyed learning from Mr. Thomas, but would like to focus here on what I hope is constructive criticism.

Continue reading “WHY BOB DYLAN MATTERS”

YEAR OF THE DOG – 2018

Late on February 15, 2018, in the United States – February 16 in much of the world – the new moon will mark the end of the Year of the Rooster and the beginning of the Year of the Dog on the Chinese and other Oriental calendars. As you probably know, each year is symbolized by one of twelve animals and each of those animal years cycles through affinities to the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood. This will be the Year of the Earth Dog, which occurs every 60 years.

For the past several years, I have posted predictions for what may occur in the world during the upcoming year. Rather than claiming to be any more (or less) psychic than you are, my approach has been to assume that the traditional cycles are valid. Then, by looking at what occurred in previous Dog years, we should be able to extrapolate predictions for the coming year. The posts of previous predictions are available for review, and most have been quite accurate.

Continue reading “YEAR OF THE DOG – 2018”

COLORADO STATE SONG (BY GRUBSTAKE)

Now, you wouldn’t expect a great song about, say, Nebraska to be written by Hannah Montana.

And Tennessee Ernie Ford wasn’t known for his songs about Rhode Island.

And who would think John Denver would give us a song about West Virginia.

U. Utah Phillips

Well, that last thing may have happened …

Nevertheless, we are going to consider a Colorado song – the “Colorado State Song” – that was written by Mr. U. Utah Phillips.

Phillips, who passed away in 2008, at the age of 73, was sort of a latter-day Woody Guthrie, hopping freights and riding Greyhound Buses across the country to sing songs, tell stories and act as a labor organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (the “IWW” or “Wobblies”).  Wikipedia has a nice little piece on Mr. Phillips, so rather than repeat what has already been written, I will refer you to that article.

Although the “Colorado State Song” is a good song, the only recorded version of which I am aware is on the first album by the local group, Grubstake.  That brings up another name to know:  Harry Tuft.Continue reading “COLORADO STATE SONG (BY GRUBSTAKE)”

SONG OF THE WEEK – HOLY ARE YOU

For the past several days I have been thinking of the song “Holy Are You” from the Release of an Oath album by the Electric Prunes.  I had considered filing this with the “Colorado Songs,”  but decided that would not be appropriate.

Why would I even think of this as a Colorado Song, you may ask.  Well, if we accept that God is omnipresent, then God is here in Colorado (which may be a good song title for someone).  For a better reason, though, let us look briefly at the Electric Prunes.

The group was essentially four or five high school kids who played psychedelic-surf-garage rock and were fortunate enough to sign a contract with Reprise Records under the name Jim and the Lords.  A very successful recording engineer named David Hassinger was assigned to produce their album.  This was at just about the same time Hassinger was producing the first Grateful Dead album.  He thought the group needed a more catchy name, so they decided to be the Electric Prunes, and Hassinger became the owner of that name – sort of taking advantage of the kids.

In late 1966 and early 1967, the Electric Prunes had two minor hits with “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” and “Get Me to the World on Time.”  Hassinger believed that they were very close to great commercial success, and decided (for some reason) that it could be achieved by expanding the group’s horizons and having them become a psychedelic-surf-Gregorian Chant -garage rock band.  His suggestion was joined by their manager and the Electric Prunes agreed to do a concept album, which would be a mass – Mass in F Minor – composed by classically trained musician David Axelrod,  and sung in Latin with fairly intricate instrumentation.

The group began the recording, but soon found the music too difficult for them.  Hassinger – who owned the name, as you recall – augmented the Electric Prunes with other more polished musicians, and Mass in F Minor was released in January of 1968.  Although it was only a minor (get it?) commercial success, it did become a cult favorite.  The cult following was increased the next year when the “Kyrie” was used in the Easy Rider film.

The record’s reception was good enough for Hassinger, though, and he decided that the Electric Prunes (the name he owned) should try again.  So, once again, David Axelrod composed a complex set of songs; once again, the “real” Electric Prunes found the music exceedingly difficult; and once again, David Hassinger brought in other musicians so “his” Electric Prunes could complete the work.

This is where we finally get back to Colorado.  As the core of the added musicians, Hassinger recruited members of the Colorado band, Climax, some of whose members had previously played in Colorado’s own surf band, the Astronauts.

This album, released in November of 1968, was called Release of an Oath, referencing the first song on the album, “Kol Nidre.”  Kol Nidre is a Jewish prayer of sorts, recited in Aramaic on the first night of Yom Kippur.  It annuls any vows or oaths which might be made to God during the coming year in order to avoid the sin of breaking an oath.  The other songs on the album are a mixture of Jewish and Christian influences that do form an interesting and cohesive whole.  The best of those songs is “Holy Are You,” which could arise from any monotheistic tradition.

Continue reading “SONG OF THE WEEK – HOLY ARE YOU”

TAO TE CHING CHAPTER INDEX

For a project that was called “Tao Te Ching Tuesdays,” I wrote a series of essays commenting on one chapter of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) each week for 81 weeks.  This page has links to each of those essays.

TAO TE CHING CHAPTER INDEX

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81