A Letter From An Angel

 Angel (fragment of the Baronci altarpiece)--by Raphael.jpg



I hope it's okay with the angel if I share the letter they sent to me.  I think it is good for others  who believe and those who would like to believe to know there are angels among us.

I was recently noodling around the Internet, looking up creative visualization or affirmations or something for my article.  I came to a Web site that had a smallish link for if you wanted to ask an angel a question.    There was something sacred about this Web site.  They didn't ask for money either.  So I wrote the following question to the angel:


On 6/14/2011 12:29 AM, Maryellen Grady wrote:

  Holiness,
  How do I know which of my dreams are what my life's purpose is?  I
  have so many things I want to do with my life yet, even at age 60, and
 I have a hard time getting things done.  How do I discern which paths
 are most important and in keeping with my life's purpose?

 Blessings on you.  Thank you for helping me.


--
Peace. :Love & Higher Consciousness,

Maryellen

(MsRefusenik)

------------------------------

This is what the angel wrote back to me:

Beloved Maryellen,
You are living your life's purpose with each breath. You do not see
what we see from our perspective. We see that for your time of 60
years your light has  touched many with love and generosity of heart.
Be at peace dear one with each day. Laugh with yourself and and allow
each moment to be a gift unto itself. Experiment with your dreams as
if you are trying on new clothing to see what feels wonderful, and
when you you feel joy in your expression proceed. You may do this as
you sit in a space you find peaceful, then choose to visit your dreams
one at a time. There are those that you will release like a feather to
the wind,  you will find clarity in this simple exercise. You are
asked to relax into each blessed moment and let go of your need to
qualify your worth. Know that as you believe  in your Sacredness,
Grace will guide you in ALL WAYS.
Love surrounds you.








It is perfect for where I am at in my life and the confused state I have been in.  I looked for the return email address and it was a different email account of mine



So what do you think of that?  I wish I could give you the name  and address of the Web site where I found the link to the angel, but I didn't pay attention at the time.  How was I to know that a real angel would be answering my question?

Pay attention, be mindful and listen for the still, small voice within and you too will be guided to miracles in your life.   I know and believe it.  Give synchronicity  free rein  and don't rationalize the miraculous coincidences when they visit your life.

Peace and Joy to you,

Maryellen

(MsRefusenik)

You Are What You Think


 Photo by Shellorz
Creative Commons Attribution License

You’ve heard the expression “You are what you eat?” More important than this notion is the truth that you are what you think. We create our own realities with our thoughts.
Quantum physics and quantum mechanics have shown that everything can be reduced to subatomic particles,  which consist of photons, leptons, electrons, neutrons, quarks, etc. and ultimately that all matter is actually pure energy. We have come a long way from the solid matter of Newtonian physics since Einstein gave us E=mc squared theory.


Quantum physics has also taught that what an observer sees depends on the observer observing. The power of thoughts creates energy that wouldn’t be there if no one was observing.
If we have this power to alter energy and transform it, wouldn't we want to use it to improve our lives?  Your vibrations from the thoughts you project create what you experience for better or worse.  Why not use mind programming techniques to have prosperity, health, love, opportunities and happiness? Change your negative thoughts  to the power of positive thinking.

You can't do this through willpower or some special discipline because the subconscious cannot be coerced.  It knows you are struggling and so creates a reality in which you struggle. 

You can have what you want and need by clearly knowing what that is, and using those thoughts to let the universe know what kind of reality you want to experience.

So you are reading this and you're  thinking "Just change my negative thoughts into positive thoughts and everything will be gravy.  Ha!"  It does sound unlikely from that cynical perspective.  First of all you have to learn what to do with the negative thoughts. 

It is very important not to limit yourself with negative thoughts of lack, illness, unhappiness and not believing that you are meant to be joyous in this life. The Dalai Lama writes that our main purpose in life is to experience joy. Joy is possible for all of us if we believe it and if we think it. We often limit ourselves with our thoughts and beliefs, and cannot look beyond the limited boundaries we have set for how much good we will allow into our lives.   The more open we can be towards the possibilities that exist, the bigger we dream and believe, the greater are our opportunities and abundance. 

What kind of a life are you creating with your thoughts? Limited thinking can result in not having what we need and want.  We know from research on the mind-body connection that we can create illness, health or healing with our thoughts.  We can also think ourselves into impoverished, sick,  unhappy, miserable lives.

How can you change your thinking to change your life?  How do stop the negative thoughts? Simply by not reacting to them or giving yourself to them. They lose their power and they fade away. Do not tell yourself I have to change my thoughts. Instead, relax, slow down and let the thoughts be. Alpha waves created in a relaxed state help the process.   Let the negative thoughts  do their own thing. Do nothing with them. Do not pay attention to them, and do not try to fight them. Don’t tell yourself you must stop the negative thoughts. Do not try to stop them.  It's like being on a diet and telling yourself, "I will not think about pizza."  The more you try not to think about pizza the more you obsess about it.  Soon you can  practically smell the sausage and onions and taste the cheese.  "Diets are made to be broken" you tell yourself as you grab the first slice. 

You may not be entirely comfortable with the concept of "re-programming" the mind, as though you are asking to have yourself brainwashed  to change your way of thinking.  But it is the fixed mindset that has been programmed into you already by your teachers, parents, government, society and the culture to consistently produce negative results.  You were born into a belief system that venerates the logical mind over all else including anything that can't be seen, touched, smelled, heard or tasted.  Your mind believes this is the case when it discounts things such as intuitive messages, vibrations from what you think and feel, and the power of the unconscious when it sends us dreams. 

The false self, the ego, guards and defends the mind to maintain the status quo. It is the false self ego, the karmic consequence of negative actions, that promote the negative thinking.  

The only way to defeat the negative, and the programmed logical mind is to identify and expose the components that form the sophisticated system of philosophical/psychological mind control we are all born into.  When you  know how to do this, it is a simple act to just remove the negative, which always begins with a thought and convert that negative into the positive.

Positive thinking is powerful and it changes realities. The universe is created through positive spiritual laws constantly and consistently converting the negative into the positive--the first law of creation.  Individuals, governments, corporate thinking have all used the the counterfeit world of a negative and false model which throws us into conflict with that first law of creation.

You can add the methods for treating negative thinking with affirmations and creative visualization.  Creative visualization is a mental technique that uses the imagination to visualize the life you want to have.  Once you can clearly see it, it will become your reality.  Creative visualization can improve our lives and bring forth new opportunites  and prosperity. It is a power that can alter our environment and circumstances, cause events to happen, and attract money, possessions, work, people and love into our life

We know that creative visualization is used by athletes with much success.  Basketball great Michael Jordan says he used to see the basketball going into the net before he shot it.  Golfing stars like Tiger Woods  hold the club at the ball and first visualize where they want that ball to go before swinging.  
  
The law of attraction is not a new idea. It has always been here from cave-dwelling times when hunters painted successful hunt scenes on the walls of caves.  They  used the law of attraction, and sodo people in business who visualize themselves successfully completing goals. You use it too, whenever you think, make plans or daydream.We attract into our lives what we believe and think.  


Use affirmations to strengthen your desires.  These short sentences should be in the present tense, positive and said aloud with feeling and gratitude as if they had already occurred.  For example, "The abundance that surrounds me has given me freedom to do what I love."    "Money comes easily to me as I am inspired and blessed with new opportunities each day." 


Set up a quiet location where you will be undisturbed as you say your daily affirmations aloud, and feel the impact of the images you are visualizing.  Watch for the positive changes that will come into your life once you begin this routine.  The  negative thinking will be a thing of the past and no longer in charge of your life.

I Am Enough! You Are Enough--Now, Not In 5-10 Years


Yes, as the motivational speakers like to say, we truly are human beings and not human doings.  You wouldn't know that or stay mindful of what that beings from the information we are deluged with on the Internet and everywhere else on productivity, personal development and schedules for it,  getting things done, becoming an entrepreneur, doing it, just do it, what we should with any free time,  and the whole "Be All You Can Be" themes of the writing, speakers and culture.  Let's not forget the emphasis in these medium on how to make more money.  That must be the hottest ticket on the auction markets for keywords.

Why can't we be enough just as we are for a minute?  Aren't I good enough as I am?  Why does everyone want to convince me that I'm lacking, a slacker and a bum if I just want enjoy who I am today and what I do?  Who do we have to be and what do we have to do to be loved, which is really all we want?  Can even God love me as I am?



Here are the top 50 productivity blogs for those of you who are human doings.  It wears you out just to read the titles of the articles:  "Five Ridiculous Reasons You're A Couch Potato," (being tired and wanting to rest is no excuse) (Dumb Little Man); "Top Ten Reasons to Upgrade Your Daily Routine, " (Lifehacker), "Tying to Pursue Too Many Goals At Once," (Lifehacker); "Thinking Only in the Short Term Halts Your Ability to Pursue Multiple Goals," (I feel another stern lecture coming on.  Lifehacker); "Putting First Things First," (Get Rich Slowly.  Are you surprised to learn that "first things" aren't developing more compassion, peace, your life's purpose, or anything that can't be measured, seen and touched.  No, things mentioned as coming first are investing as you can as early as possible for retirement, building an emergency fund ASAP, paying your bills as they arrive, being fit and following a fitness program and eating a good breakfast.) 

Oh there's so many more it makes me tired just to read the titles.  Why do we have to spend every free moment improving ourselves by making more money, working out, losing weight even if we aren't obese, building a platform, having good branding, on and on.  It never lets up.

Is it any wonder that there are so many unhappy frustrated people not getting enough rest or sleep who are driving themselves to early strokes and heart attacks because they cannot believe that they are enough as they are? 

The ego is driven.  The ego hates rest and tells you why you should pull another all-nighter on a work night.  The ego wants more money, fame, glamour, beautiful sex partners, and self-importance.  It wants you to make out that damn daily schedule where you write down what time you expect to be brushing your teeth at night and eating meals at six o'clock exactly, and making sure every free minute is scheduled for productivity and self-improvement. 

What do you want?  What does your higher consciousness want for your inner life?  What are your values, intentions and beliefs, and let's knock off goal setting for one day.  I don't want to learn more efficient ways to multi-task.  I have ADD and barely get things finished as it is. 

Don't I get a break at for what I have accomplished?  Doesn't any of the accomplishments we already have count for something?  Maybe only on LinkedIn and our resumes.  Some of us have had to overcome some major obstacles in our life such as alcoholism, addiction, mental or physical illnesses, losing loved ones, losing custody of our children, being homeless, being poor, being unemployed for long periods--just plain playing the cards we were given.  Don't these people get to rest on their laurels just a little bit?  Put that whip down please.  I never joined the Marines.  I don't want to go to boot camps of any variety.  My goals have subgoals and I work towards them everyday. 

I don't know about you, but as a result of all the mental conditioning to be more and do more and get more done, I don't let myself slow down for a minute.  I have too much to do to take the time to visit a friend or even call one.  Too much to do to read all the interesting information that drifts to my browser, but I really wish I could stop and read that.  I have too much to do to be bothered with taking walks, nature, meditation, cleaning and organizing, being compassionate to all, asking to know God's will for me...

Is God's will for me to go to grad school?  I hope not even if I can help others more with an advanced degree because it's more of too much to do.  I am already or planning to work on improving myself by learning French, Web design, digital photography, publishing my two novels, writing e-books, submitting mindful articles to major publications or at least getting the nerve up to query some of them, grant writing, start a grant writing business, start a nonprofit and mange it, find a solution and work towards using it on problems like homelessness, poverty, injustice of any kind, illiteracy, legal rights for only those who can afford them, Big Pharm's latest assaults, the artificial interference with our food, pesticide loading on fruits and vegetables, and more every day. 

What is my soul's mission and what was I put here on this Earth to do?  I hope it has nothing to do with Pilates, running, not eating cookies, shopping at Aldi's instead of health food grocery stores, being frugal till it hurts, having a brand and a platform, owning a second home for retirement, building anything with wood, bricks or paint, or reading more teeny tiny print and government publications.  I hope my soul's mission is to be joyous, learn, help, give, appreciate, develop and use my talents for the benefit of others not just me, provide humor and beauty to my small patch of the world, be a good role model for my children and others, listen to people with concerns and problems, and things of that nature.  Mostly I think I am here to love:  myself and my neighbor and everyone in the world. 

The Dalai Lama says we are here to find joy and be joyous.  I can go along with that.  It is the result of loving and giving.  I wasn't born with a soul and consciousness that are only meant for tangible accomplishments that result in getting more done, making more money or being successful in the business world.

I am enough.  I am enough right now, today, and I am worthy of love as I am.  I am enough in what I have accomplished and persevered to do,  and it's good I have dreams and plan to continue to contribute in a lot of different ways, but I need to make sure that I am not blocking today's self-acceptance on what I have yet to do to win approval by the world's standards.  It's good to  slow down to be attentive to the still, small voice within, and to pay attention to the synchronicity that delights with miraculous wonders and is always on time.

I think that for now I will just row, row, row my boat and be mindful that life is but a dream.  It is not a competition or a race.  There's no prize for who gets there first, wherever "there" is.   I will live in the eternal now or keep trying.

Medicare pays for smoking cessation counseling

Medicare will now pay for smoking cessation counseling. "It is considered preventive service if you haven't been diagnosed will an illness caused or complicated by tobacco use. As of Jan 1, 2011 you pay nothing. They also will pay for 8 face-to-face visits in a 12-month period if you're diagnosed with an illness caused or complicated by tobacco use, or you take a medicine that is affected by tobacco. You pay the doctor 20% of the Medicare-apprived aniybtm tge the Part B deductible applies."
It's all in prevention I guess, but they're mighty cold to those with smoking related diseases if you ask me.

Just Don't Drink Or Drug If You Can't Write and Try These Suggestions


This picture looks like the hills of Southern Illinois just south of Carbondale where I went to S.I.U. on the 10-year "never graduate or they'll make you get a job" plan. I used to like to take bicycle out on the paths through the hills and woods. I like to look at this picture and pretend that's my bike there, and I am off looking at a cave or rock formation.
I love getting comments on this blog, and I got a good one yesterday. It's published somewhere on here I think so I guess it will be okay if I reprint it here to share:
"Don't drink much anymore, maybe too young to die but already too old to die young....Great, visually attractive blog you have here. I'm supposed to be writing, have a 300 page memoir in need of a publisher or agent, and don't seem to be producing much these days, have to work to make the landlord's mortgage payment, keep the credit card companies at bay, subsidize fat bonuses for executives, and make sure the bombs keep falling....this, not writing could drive me to drink, illegal drugs or suicide, although the final option is highly unlikely, no matter how bad it gets, I have to find out what happens in the next episode..."
By D Mage on Writers Drink Too Much and Then They Kill Themselv... on 6/10/11
I can really identify with what this person says. (Thanks for the compliment on the bloc's looks. She's do for another makeover soon.) It's tough when your day job interferes with your passion. I really believe writing is sort of like drinking/drugging in my experience. If you don't write every day, things are not good in your world. If days and weeks go by, God forbid months, and you are only signing checks as far as writing goes, you get in deep shit.

When I don't write for even a day, I get down. I don't get seriously depressed, but I don't feel the surging of the spring of joy I like to have in my emotional fountain. I am just not right. I get irritated by store clerks, annoying phone calls, and focus on what my son who lives with me, age 21, isn't doing. As usual, I am in shit when I start wanting to control other people. It's usually when I am mad at myself for breaking my vow to myself that I will write 1,000 words a day.
Until two days ago I was really feeling bored, restless, negative. I was finding easy rationalizations for why I wouldn't write an overdue article for my alternative health job. Worse, I would not make myself write the articles on intuition and mind programming that I am hired to do. I wouldn't allow myself to go out anywhere or go get together with a friend. I couldn't do that or I'd be breaking the unspoken rule that if I am not writing, and I stuff that I should definitely be writing, then I am not allowed to have much joy or loosen up and have some fun. It's sort of like calling in sick for work. You hang up from talking to the job and start feeling, "Yeah, I am a little sick. I have a tickle in my throat and my tooth hurts." This way you don't feel quite as guilty for leaving the coworkers short-handed or missing a work deadline. Am I right?
So sometimes I must prefer spending my day feeling bummed, negative and guilty. Maybe it's my Catholic upbringing and I just feed the need to feel guilty once in a while. I mean I don't deserve to have a clear conscience. I don't put on stockings and skirt in the morning and report to my job in the cubicle working for the man. I haven't worked outside my home for years. I am sleeping when the employed people in the neighborhood have their lights on because it's some ungodly hour in the morning and they have to get ready for work. Some of them may be trying to get in some writing before they have to shuffle down to the job and put their creativity and inspiration on hold for eight or nine hours. Then they go home and they're too tired to write, or it's time to give the family some attention and time.

And all I have to do is write an article on mind programming, and I stubbornly refuse to do it because I am a life-long rebel and usually refuse to do what I'm supposed to when I should be doing it. No, I enjoy feeling free and joyous at times because I don't have a job to bring me down, but rebel because money is dirty and I'm getting paid to write or I'm not writing what I want to write but what someone else wants.
Childish and not pretty---those are the facts of my twisted thinking. I'm lazy and I procrastinate because I'm convinced I write better when tomorrow is the deadline and I've got nothing to submit. This is a lie. I really write during these all-nighters with acid in my stomach from the 12 cups of coffee I drank, sweating real B.O. sweat, and feeling that I need some drugs, some old-fashioned speeders to help me accomplish the task That was how I got through college as a straight "A" student: writing all-nighters fueled by white crosses.
Anyhow, before I went on an ADD distraction detour there, I was saying that I was recently feeling lousy because I have all these big plans to write a daily reflections sort of book, my articles are due, and I am still not submitting to major magazines so I can get some good clips for my portfolio--also so I know that I'm worthy and capable as a writer.
Wouldn't you know it? Synchronicity saved me again. I do try to keep in mind what the Divine wants me to do with my life, what my soul's mission is (to benefit others through my writing), and to be mindful and listen to the still, small voice of intuitions. As a result, I often get synchronicity shooting me signs, opportunities, reassurances and support among other things.

This time I was at the library getting books on developing intuition, when I happened to see my old friend, "The Artist's Way--A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," by the brilliant and wise Julia Cameron. I also spotted her "Walking in the World," which I hadn't read. There was nothing for it but to add these two to the 25 other library books I currently have checked out. (Most are on grant writing though so I don't them as part of my greedy total.)
Julia Cameron is famous not for the books, plays, and entertaining gigs she used to do, but for two other things that get written about in every book of hers, I think: The artist's date and the "morning pages." Julia is the one who helped me see how twisted and antsy I get when I don't write. She writes about the enormous difference in the lives of people who started writing three pages by longhand, absolutely stream-of-consciousness, every morning when they wake up.

So I was reading about all the bad things that happen to people who get out of their morning pages habit, and I realized I felt like dog dodo because I wasn't writing. Just wake up, grab your favorite writing implement and get anything from a journal to a notebook to a legal pad, and start putting down whatever comes into your head with no censoring or worries about grammar, punctuation and spelling. You are not supposed to re-read the pages when you are done. No second drafts of from the mind, heart and soul writing.
There's no wrong way to do these. Put down what's bugging you, your worries and why you're mad at yourself like I did this mornings. Even if something pops in your head that seems teeny weeny and too petty to write, put down that you are going to make yourself banana pancakes later in the morning.
Julia tells people how important they are for all writers and artists, anyone who wants to tune into more of their creativity, and people who just don't want to stay in shit all day. Read about it. You can go to The Artist's Way: Basic Tools Web site and download the first chapter. You can buy the book on Amazon for $15.99 hardcover, Kindle $13.99 or pick it up used for around $2.44. You should be able to get your library to get it for you, or maybe all the copies aren't checked out and it's on the shelf like it was for me, right when and where I needed it.

I needed to re-read it for a lot of reasons, but one major one was that I have been promising myself for months to go on an artist's date, but I just "couldn't" leave my work (Internet noodling). I tell you I am going to make a big, mean and menacing looking official sign to put over my desk that says, "Miss, step away from the computer." I may need someone with a gun to force me to step away as often as I should though.
An artist's date is a weekly one to two hour or more jaunt to some other place that you do solo. It helps put you back in touch with someone you haven't seen in a while: the real you. The kid inside you gets to explore, have an adventure, experience something they don't every day or have never experienced, and generally get their juices flowing again. We all need some time alone to get renewed and replenished, especially if you are blocked and not writing.
You set this artist's date on your calendar, and you keep this important appointment to "nurture your creative consciousness, your inner child." And it's just for you time. Don't bring a friend and go shopping because that's not an artist's date, although it's good to "get out and blow the stink off of you," as my dear, departed old Irish Dad used to say to us kids.
Make it a real adventure and take yourself off to some place you've never been: a museum, art gallery, neighborhood, a factory that makes something interesting like stained glass, or an ethnic restaurant you’ve never tried. Or you can keep it low-profile, and do something that tickles you when you let yourself slow down enough to be aware that your doing it. This could be like browsing the books at the book store, checking out what's new at the bead store, going to a automobile showroom or lot.. I don't know what in your world equals cotton candy at the carnival when you were five, but make a list of possible artist's date destinations and put them on your appointment calendar. Keep these appointments with yourself as you would if they were lunch dates with friends or a dental visit.
When synchronicity shined that big light bulb over my head, I realized how overdue I was for an artist's date. The kid in me doesn't like it when I keep breaking my promises to go. By the grace of God I was able to "step away from the computer" with my hands up and free from drafts I should revise. I took myself to one of my most favorite places, the Carousel Shop thrift store. I have wanted to go there for weeks and pick up some shorts and speakers for my computer. They didn't have speakers this particular day but often synchronicity sees to it that you find the perfect whatever it was you wanted.
The Carousel has a deal where you can fill up a regular size shopping bag with used books for a buck. I kept myself slowed down enough to look at every book. I was looking for books and magazines with pictures for the vision board I have started making, but I found a lot more. I also took my time looking at every craft and kitchen item in the store. I found the shorts I needed but in my distracted artist way lost them between the dressing room and the cashier so now I have a reason to go back.
Or you can break a dry period by writing out a weekly schedule and putting down what time you will report to the computer and for how long. Go for long walks every day or 20 minute ones, but get out of the house and into nature.
And don't forget to have a candle on your desk burning for the all the people you hope to touch with your writing by writing something they need or wanted to hear that benefits them in some way.
I broke my 1,000 word article cutoff promise to readers. This is over 2,000 words, but it was an important message to share with my reader who went to the trouble of leaving a comment and all readers.
Why don't you leave me a comment too? It doesn't have to be about the blog post for today. It can be about anything. Good quotes are also always appreciated and vocabulary words I may not know that might come in handy are a joy. Yesterday I learned the word "bedizen" from Julia. Here's the definition if you also don't know it. It's a good word to have in your toolkit:
Definition of BEDIZEN
transitive verb
: to dress or adorn gaudily
— be·di·zen·ment noun
First Known Use of BEDIZEN
1661
Love, Freedom & Lots of Belly Laughs,
MsRefusenik or is it Maryellen today?

Writers Drink Too Much and Then They Kill Themselves or Die Young


I am going back to 1,000 word a day commitment.  It keeps me writing, and it keeps my garrulousness in check, sort of.  I am too windy, I know.  I will really shoot to keep the limit.  I really will.

I've been reading sad things today about how the book is going out of style and soon will be nothing but trash heaps and memories or somethings.  People like Jane Friedman, media specialist, media critic, writer and professor with a new bookThe Future of Publishing: Enigma Variationsyou can read a free excerpt from on the future of publishing.  You can get 39 pages of the book for free if you follow the directions and go pay $1.99 to Scribed.   She thinks the end of normal published books you just buy in stores is within shouting distance.  She blames Google, Apple and Amazon for taking over publishing and leaving writers in the dust.  She says that multimedia is the future of writer's writing, and look for more online and Web site multimedia non-books.

That is exactly what my brother is intuitively doing with his book that I am editing, "A Fairy Tale Life Is No Fable, by Michael Grady.  It is aimed at teenagers, and he knows from having his own kids, now young adults, how hard it is to get them to read a book that's good for them.  It seriously would save any teen agony and tragic mistakes and show them how to lead a joyous, responsible life and be a contributing member of society.

Listen to this.  Mike was a C.P.A. before he retired and he knows a lot about investing money.  When he wrote the first version of this book, he put in a surprise for his wonderful children whom he knew were just waiting with bated breath to read his book.  He wrote right in one of the later chapters on investments that he was giving each kid a big sum of money to invest as they wanted with the advice in the book.  He also told them where and how to get the money.

Neither kid ever got that money because neither read the damn book their father spent all that time and energy writing. I begged my son, a teen too at the time, to read it.  I wrote him a long letter about all the mistakes in my life that I might have avoided had I read this book as a teenager.  I implored him to save himself some misery and just read the book, which I view as the instruction manual God didn't think to give us when we were born.  He would not read it.  He has a second chance now and not much is different in his sleep all day party all night life.  We'll see what happens.

Jane Friedman's newsletters and blogs are the greatest thing.  She writes about writing for writers.  She also gives away rare nuggets of goodies and information like the old drunk lady on the corner used to give out Halloween candy.  She is so generous.  If you don't get anything else, get these five free ebooks  she recommends and links you up with. If you're a writer or media entrepreneur wannbe sign up for her newsletter too.

About that title of this post...  I just recently submitted this blog to Top 100 Sober Blogs Directory.  The blog has to be about that. Hey, this blog is sober and so am I:  Two years sober this month--today for all I know. I am a proud recovering alcoholic/addict and I do try to instill hope and recovery from several things. I try to  help others find their purpose in life, grow and develop as human beings, and learn more about my personal story, what kinds of things I write in Chicago Alcohol &; Recovery Examiner, and recover from everything that keeps you a slave and doesn't let you be fully human, alive and bursting with joy, and free.

So the title, "Writers Drink Too Much and Then Kill Themselves or Die Young," is about what I most aspired to when I was in college.  I wanted to be like these writers--"Top 10 Drunk American Writers."  Check out those quotes below their name.  At least they were honest:

""First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you." -- F.S. Fitzgerald.  


I wanted to go back in time and hang with all those expatriate drinkers/writers in Paris in the 20's and 30's like Fitzgerald, Hemingway and go visit Henry Miller, Gertrude Stein, Anais Nin (not a drunk), and just be wild, free, creative, brilliant and drunk. 


Like this quote from a recent New York Times review of "Midnight in Paris."


"Many a writer or artist has longed to travel back in time to the sizzling Paris of the 1920s, to sip absinthe with Hemingway at Les Deux Magots or dine on choucroute garnie with Picasso at La Rotonde. Imagine the conversation! What has beguiled audiences about the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris is that the protagonist, Gil, a disenchanted Hollywood screenwriter played by Owen Wilson, gets to live exactly that fantasy."


It goes on with all the delicious details of drinking, writing and carousing in Paris that I know so well since I think I believed when I was a coed that I was not just some drunken, obnoxious, know-it-all but one of the hippest pack of them all.  If I had to be a woman I would be June Miller or Anais Nin.  I preferred to think of myself as that poor, tragic souse Fitzgerald with his partially glamorous life when he wasn't bankrupt, taking Zelda, his wife, to mental hospitals, or puking on his shoes while trying to get a loan from somebody like Max Perkins.   "Those were the days.  I thought they'd never end."   


My glamorous fantasy fueled by non-stop drinking and drugging (and the occasional college class) came to an abrupt halt.   I had to sober up at 28  or die.  I had to accept my complete ordinariness that came with homelessness, poverty, a liver that stuck out and hurt, an extra 50 pounds of beer bloat, a head so fogged I couldn't remember what address and phone number I was using when filling out job applications, and nursing a broken heart because my true love had just drowned.   Oh, yeah, and I didn't write shit, just as I had written not a whole lot of anything  in college in my creative writing workshops.  I cared too much what other people thought.  I worried the  hip cat graduate students might mock me, scorn my writing and pass swords through me during the public evaluation of my writing.  


What a crock!  


And that's 1,127 words, but some were quotes I didn't write.  See you later alligator.


Peace, 

Help Me Write You A Free Ebook You Will Really Love and Get Something From




It's 9 a.m. and I haven't been to bed yet.  I am too excited over the gold rivulet I found among the fools' gold on the Internet last night.  I have some real gifts for anyone who writes, wants to be an entrepreneur in a non-conformist way, wants to be a really good as well as successful blogger, is interested in traveling the world, wants to know more about the state of publishing in these digital times, and more.  Get your clickers out and clear your storage space--some of these are pretty big pdf's.


First off, as a result of all the freed up, wild, non-conformist, passionate writing I was reading all night, I am ready to write an 
ebook and give it away for free.  I have my book from "Plain Language At Work Newsletter," and i give up trying to get the web address right on that. Just Google it and it comes up right away. Then among the many interesting facts about writing in clear, easy to understand English, on the right side of the newsletter cover in the second box down you'll see "The Principles of Readability."  If you write much, download this free pdf file. It is like taking the gauzy film off your eyes when you see how simple it really is to make sure your writing is clear and understandable, and you are not talking down to your reader either.


If you are a writer who for most of their life has written for print mediums, do yourself a favor and order "The Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate 
Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World."  It has got everything you need to become digitalized and not turn readers off because you have dense, packed words with no empty white spaces that help the skimming digital reader feel he can quickly make short work of speed reading your content.  You also have to learn about navigation, coding, that "e-mail" is actually "email" and the old rules that no longer apply: (hold your hats on now).  The old "rules" that no longer apply in this cyber world of fast, loud music and most of your information in audio and video form, are:  1. Never split an infinitive.  2) Never end a sentence with a proposition. 3) Never start a sentence with a conjunction.  What a relief to step out of those chalk lines, especially since I frequently do all three.


But get this book, which if I have a criticism, and, of course, I do, it's that the generation 
digitalizers that wrote this book don't know how to write for print. In print there are no links to click on, but these writers don't let that stop them from giving you whiplash damn near as each sentence you read in the order that the book was supposedly written, the conventional order of page one to page 509, from front to back, sends you on a hike off to Chapter 11 or Chapter 14 or somewhere other than the next sentence.  It is maddening.  It's as if I am writing here to you and I tell you, wait, there's a better explanation and more examples of what I'm saying on page 295, and page 302.  Go check those out.  So you shuffle through the damn book, look at the measly little extra information or examples, come back to where you were and try to get your concentration back, and the very next section sends you scurrying to Chapter 14 and Chapter 16.  I tell you it's maddening.


Otherwise, I recommend you buy this book, but write and ask them if they plan to release it online anytime soon first.


I have been getting email from this guy for over two years I bet, and I have always meant to read one of his free 
ebooks, and finally last night something I read struck a chord in me, and I began to read in earnest. I'm talking about Chris Guillebeau, world traveler, writer, and guy who by his wits and non-conformity has never been anything but self-employed.  Go Chris.


I used to think he was sort of a 
wack job, but now that I want to do exactly what he's been doing these past years--writing for himself, making a little money but not selling out, and traveling around the world, he sounds like the first time I heard "I Am the Walrus."  I will be giving you some links to get his free books. If you've got money, maybe you'll buy some of his carefully selected products for sale that he lives off when he's not giving everything away.


He wrote this.  I like it's boldness. It's fresh.


Ways to Be 
Unremarkably Average


1.  Accept what people tell you at face value.

2.  Don't question authority.

3.  Go to college because you're supposed to, not because you want to learn something.

4. Go overseas once or twice in your life to some place safe like England.

5. Don't try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English.

6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it.

7. Think about writing a book, but never do it.

8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for, and spend the next 30 years paying it off.

9. Sit at a desk for 40 hours a week to do an average of 10 productive hours.

10. Don't stand out or draw attention to yourself.

11.  Jump through hoops.  Check off boxes.



If you haven't read what this free spirit has to say about ethically making a living by using your talents, and avoiding office cubicles like Tramp in Lady and the Tramp avoided the dog catchers, you get inspired like I did.  He also introduces you to some very interesting people who are characters in their own right.  Here is 279-Day Overnight Success.


I really think he is a visionary, and i respect what he's doing.  I hope to follow my dreams as courageously as  he.  I want to travel worldwide solo 
couchsurfing.  I want to support myself by doing photojournalism and travel writing.  I hope to soon learn how to write a grant proposal, and start a little home business writing grants. Then I'd like to choose a world problem that touches me like hunger, homelessness, untreated alcoholism and addiction, corruption of our food by Big Business, BigPharmaceutical pushing their poison on the innocent who don't know what's coming...  oh, there's so many.  Then I'd like to be like my hero, Scott, who went from whoring and partying his life away to starting a nonprofit charity called charity: water that has provided clean drinking water in so many countries and got contributors to give so much money for the cause.  






Until then I continue in my dream of recovering from alcoholism, addiction, ADD, depression, and bipolar disorder and feeling better and stronger every day.  I am sober two years this month.  I once was sober 15 years, and another time 5 years I think it was. I am not going back to hell this time.  The thing is you stupidly lie to 
yourself and say "I'll just have two beers," and you don't set that drink down for 5 - 7 or 12 years.  Time flies when you're busy leading a double life, retching, falling down, alienating your kids, and being a slug that just takes up room on the planet unnecessarily.


So I want to write an 
ebook and give it away.  I want to write about something  that I know well, that will benefit others and give them hope and maybe even joy.  Please help me choose a topic.  Again, here are the conditions and diseases I experienced, overcame and continue to heal from:

1. Bipolar disorder.  Diagnosed at 42. I am furious about the horrible drugs they give "crazy" people, even when they know like they did with those with dementia in the nursing homes that the drugs they were feeding these patients to keep them quiet and 
manageable were most likely going to kill them.  I call that murder.  I want to write about how a person with bipolar disease can get off the worst of the poisonous drugs.


2. Adult AD/HD (ADD).  I am thinking of writing a journal of recovering thoughts they can add their own insights to. I don't want to say too much because mine would be the first or one of the few.


3. Coping with depression.  I used to spend weeks and months just lying in bed too depressed to get up.  Today I don't go through depressions like that any more.  I want to help others who are told by friends and relatives to just "snap out of it" to find peace and some joy.  Healing is possible.  Snapping out of it isn't.


4. My heart aches for non-custodial mothers. I lost custody of my children when they were small because I had a bipolar breakdown and then I relapsed on alcohol and drugs.  My heart broke so badly I felt the rip and the hole.  One thing that helped me get through this dark, horrible, hell on earth period was the support of other non-custodial mothers in an email organization just for that issue.  I got help from so many women whose hearts were  also broken, but  who still could care about others.


5.  I know a lot about herbs and smart drugs.  I would like to put together some "recipes" for things like fatigue, lack of concentration, fogginess, 
distractibility like those of us with AD/HD suffer from, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, PMS, and other physical, mental and mood disorders.  It's a crime what we have to go through to get smart drugs known to be safe and effective but unavailable in the U.S., although some are but only by prescription.  I want to track them down all over the world and find safe, secure distributors.


6.  I know a lot about alternative, complementary and holistic health.  I would like to write a book of remedies and advice for various conditions and complaints.  The medical doctors don't let you in on information that is not traditional and standard, even if it's been used  in Europe for decades and proven to be safe and effective.  Also, I would list all  the various branches of these schools of medicine and outline what they are, how they work, what the pros and cons are, and how to find a practitioner. These would be things like energy medicine, 
chakra cleansing, meditation, the mind-body healing connection, Traditional Chinese Medicine, some of the many successful uses for acupuncture, and much more.  I can't get enough of healing and medicine and have been interested in it all my life.


7. I want to write some kind of book to help lonely people find a way out of their self-created prisons.  I want to give them some hope.  I would not tell them, like most of the books, to go volunteer, get out of themselves and give to others and get a pet.  Sure, that's all good advice, but you have to understand that a really lonely person suffers from such self-loathing, and lack of self-confidence in social situations, they are almost paralyzed by their own inner thoughts and feelings and cannot do things like reach out to others.  They are in too much pain. I have been there, and I was blessed to climb out of that pit.


8. I studied creative writing as my specialization in college.  I have written short stories, poetry and now novels for most of my life.   I also took classes that taught how to do it.  I could write about some aspect of writing.


What would you like to read about that could
ebooks about:  SEO, keywords, entrepreneurship, start-ups, making money online.  Although I could write about how to get freelance writing jobs that pay enough to be worth doing and are about your niche  areas of interest.


Let me know.  Write me an email at msrefusenik@gmail.com or leave a comment.  Thanks a lot.



TIME TO GET BACK TO FREELANCE LANCE WRITING TIPS AND RESOURCES


Photo: 
Books behind the bed, by zimpenfish
Creative Commons Share and Share Alike 

What happens if you want one from the bottom?
That's what the Vasoline is for.

Better in full size, about 390 books, about 40% zimpenfish




I am as a fired up about a new freelance writing blog I discovered in my email today, and I was the first time I read "Make A Living Writing," which I did not even know at the time was a top ten writing blog winner from a national contest held by Men with Pens.   Perhaps for best writing blog of 2011 we will see Writer Profits.  Susan Carter, author and blog owner, certainly seems compassionate and committed to seeing freelance writers get decent payment for their work.  If you doubt it, sign up on her blog for your free report on what to charge for your writing services.  This relatively short .pdf book packs a mighty powerful punch, and doesn't leave anything out  that I can think of offhand except I wished she had given editing rates.

 I am telling you, I have only done a handful of press releases for my own support group, but I am once again brushing off my free ebooks on how to write them.  It's remarkable what you can charge for writing a press release, and there really isn't all that much to it.  I can't imagine what they teach in courses on it.  I read one free ebook and was off sending them out to free distributors to the newspapers.

I am now going to make your trip down here worthwhile by sharing some of my best links.  I collect them in address books after learning the hard way, several times, that bookmarks drift away and disappear.  The last free bookmarks system I used went out of business and took my bookmarks with them.  The company offered to let me have some of other people's bookmarks, but fussy me, I wanted my own damn bookmarks back.  Now I write them down in my address books.

I collect links on everything I think is useful, interesting, will come in handy, or I might need down the road.  Here's a sample.  I will set them up as links so you can just click on them:

40,000 free online books.

Top 20 blogs for writers 2010.

Free Books & Articles, World Catalog

Alltop: Blogs By Category

Newsletter-Plain Languge-Everything You Need to Be A More Readable Writer.  Be sure to download "Principles of Readability.pdf"  It's all there--everything you need to know to make sure you are reaching your readers.

Cliche list.  (Hope you don't find any of your old reliables.)

Consumer Action Web site:   Get a free copy of the latest Consumer Action Handbook, invaluable.

Get paid to work as a Digital Journalist.  All the revenue goes in the "money pot" and everyone splits it up. I want to write for them and do photojournalism. No big clips or experience necessary. Just submit.

Mindful, spiritual entrepreneurship that sounds like the real deal.  Subscribe to the Mindful Business Newsletter and get your Free Mindful Business Visioning Toolkit!  It really helps you understand your spiritual/business goals and how they might work together for good.  


Okay, that's all for now.  I want to close by stealing a piece from Garrison's Keillor's "The Writer's Alamanac" for today, June 7, 2011 on Louise Erdrich.   I love how she describes the books, the writing life, and making up children to write about because we all know we can't write about our own.



"It's the birthday of novelist Louise Erdrich (books by this author), born in Little Falls, Minnesota (1954). She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Her mother was French-Ojibwe, and her father was German; she and her six brothers and sisters were raised in a close, loving family. Instead of watching TV—they didn't own one—the children were encouraged to write and to memorize poems.

She went off to Dartmouth in 1972, the same year the university started admitting women and the first year of its new Native American Studies program. The program's director was Michael Dorris. Years after she graduated, Erdrich was invited back to Dartmouth to read some of her poetry, and she became re-acquainted with Dorris, and they ended up getting married.

She started off as a poet. Her first book was Jacklight (1984), a book of poems based on the thesis she wrote for her master's degree in 1979. She said, "I began to tell stories in the poems and then realized that there was not enough room." So she moved on to fiction. She published her first short story, "The Red Convertible," in 1981, and "Scales" in 1982. Later that year, Dorris convinced her to enter a new fiction writing contest, so in the space of two weeks she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman," and she won the $5,000 prize. Two years later, she publishedLove Medicine (1984),a novel made up of 14 interrelated stories.

Love Medicine is populated with characters who live in the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota, or its nearby reservation. There is Marie Lazarre, who starts out life convinced she wants to be a nun—"I was that girl who thought the black hem of her garment would help me rise. Veils of love which was only hate petrified by longing—that was me." And her rival Lulu Lamartine—"Lulu Lamartine was usually controlled as a cat, and got her way through coaxing, cajoling, rubbing against your leg. An old woman who remained infuriatingly pretty, she bent others to her will before they knew what was happening." And Nector Kashpaw, the man who loved Lulu but married Marie anyway: "Here is what I do not understand: how instantly the course of your life can be changed. I only know that I went up the convent hill intending to sell geese and came down the hill with the geese still on my arm. Beside me walked a young girl with a mouth on her like a flophouse, although she was innocent. She grudged me to hold her hand. And yet I would not drop the hand and let her walk alone. Her taste was bitter. I craved the difference after all those years of easy sweetness." After Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich wrote many novels set in the same fictional universe, and Marie, Lulu, and Nector all reappeared, along with others connected to them. Her novels include Tracks (1988), The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001), The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003), The Plague of Doves (2008), and Shadow Tag(2010).

She said, "We have a lot of books in our house. They are our primary decorative motif—books in piles on the coffee table, framed book covers, books sorted into stacks on every available surface, and of course books on shelves along most walls. Besides the visible books, there are the boxes waiting in the wings, the basement books, the garage books, the storage locker books. They are a sort of insulation, soundproofing some walls. They function as furniture, they prop up sagging fixtures and disguised by quilts function as tables. The quantities and types of books are fluid, arriving like hysterical cousins in overnight shipping envelopes only to languish near the overflowing mail bench. Advance Reading Copies collect at beside, to be dutifully examined—to ignore them and read Henry James or Barbara Pym instead becomes a guilty pleasure. I can't imagine home without an overflow of books. The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough, or the right one at the right moment, but then sometimes to find you'd longed to fall asleep reading The Aspern Papers, and there it is."

She said, "By having children, I've both sabotaged and saved myself as a writer. [...] With a child you certainly can't be a Bruce Chatwin or a Hemingway, living the adventurer-writer life. No running with the bulls at Pamplona. If you value your relationships with your children, you can't write about them. You have to make up other, less convincing children. There is also one's inclination to be charming instead of presenting a grittier truth about the world. But then, having children has also made me this particular writer. Without my children, I'd have written with less fervor; I wouldn't understand life in the same way. I'd write fewer comic scenes, which are the most challenging. I'd probably have become obsessively self-absorbed, or slacked off. Maybe I'd have become an alcoholic. Many of the writers I love most were alcoholics. I've made my choice, I sometimes think: Wonderful children instead of hard liquor."


I'll Be 85 When I Go To That Mansion In The Sky--Find Out How Old You'll Be


I was born in 1949 and the Life Clock, located on the World Clock, claims I will live until the fairly decent age of 85.  I'm still shooting for 103 as long as I stay in good health.  I expect to be traveling around the world Couchsurfing until I'm 97.  Here:  Look at these actual Couchsurfing statistics by ages of travelers who only need a free crash on somebody's couch somewhere on one of the seven continents:

It's free.  No charge.  And so many of them speak English.  I am trying to take an email refresher course in French, which I studied in college and couldn't talk my way into a glass of wine with in Paris, but I still can't roll my "r's" and it's probably hopeless.  I studied Spanish in high school and finally gave up trying to roll my "r's".  So I took French, and they wanted the fancy tongue moves I seem incapable of performing in a standing or sitting position.  (I wonder if we lay down?)  If only they accepted French kissing as a language skill.  Everyone speaks English in Europe it seems.  And everyone hates you if you don't even try to speak their language.  They can get mean, even vicisious like one German postmaster in Munich that I thought my slap me for my poor Deutsch.  What did he want?  I took a four night crash course in it--one hour once a week--and I was ready, "Ein glass bier, bitte,"  That was all I cared to learn.  Oh yeah, and Danke.


    


Ages 50 to 5963,656 2.2%
Ages 60 to 6921,305 0.8%
Ages 70 to 792,856 0.1%
Ages 80 to 89516 0.0%


Want to see how old you will be when you move on to that greener pasture?  Go to Life Expectancy Test at Life Clock.

I hope you know your cholesterol numbers to get a more authentic reading.  Hell, I have such good "good" cholesterol for some strange reason that they hardly docked me for smoking.  Unless, of course, they would have said I'd live to 103 except for that.

I'm quitting June 10.  That has been my "Q" date for weeks now.  I got my shrink to take me off bloody awful Topamax that helps "maintain your mood" (yeah, one long nasty depressed one).  It was just featured in yet another study that proves people really do lose weight when they take it.  I'm only on 50 mg. but I keep wondering if the weight I lost this year and last will be right where I left it when I look behind me after a few months off of it.

Here's what the study I read yesterday said.  Even though 7 out of 10 people participating in the study were losing good amounts of weight, many elected to drop out because of Topamax's nasty side effects like tics, numbness around your mouth, strange leg and arm movements which can become a very bad condition called Tarditive Dyskinesia, but, I think, most of the people probably had the same big complaints as I:  It's like trying to function on some kind of crazy psychedelic somebody whipped up in their bathroom and put lots of cyanide and other goodies in.  I had some of that.  It was called, fittingly,"UFO's."  It hurt your cells when you were coming down off of it.  It was nasty, nasty shit.  The people who knew I had taken it before and asked me if they should take it and I said "Go for it," were very mad at me.  There were only one downer in the house, a Seconal, and the men all agreed that as much as they would love to have it for the horrible whips and jangles it should go to the lady of the house.  Nowadays, as feminism has made some progress since the 70's, that would never fly nor would I allow it. (That's a bloody lie. I'd gobble that sucker up before anyone knew we had it.)

Anyhow Topamax will put you in size 8 leather pants but you will be a total space cadet.  You can't think or focus even the day after you take it.  I can barely freelance write anymore.  I keep starting over until I have about seven rough drafts going and then I lose them or can't figure out which ones I've edited and which ones I haven't.  It's rough trying to concentrate on anything when that shit has been in you.

So as of today, Dr. Eyeball (close enough) told me I can stop the Topamax and instead take one of my favorite anti-depressants, Wellbutrin, which doesn't cause weight gain and can help you quit smoking.  I also have to take the second dose early in the evening because as I put it oh so professionally to the doc, "It will jack me up, huh?"  Yes, and that's always good news to a stimulant seeking heat missle like myself.

But for now, I'm living to 85 and I put this old body through some tricks, hairpin curves, chemical and alcohol benders where I didn't come up for air, addictions to everything from codeine, to Seconal, to Tuinal

I entered this old mixed bag blog in the Top 100 Sober Bloggers Directory.  So now the blog needs more booze, drugs and recovery in it.  Just as well. I am itching to write about all the things I have been finding and researching and thinking about on those topics, but I give up, as of tonight, on the Chicago Alcohol and Recovery Examiner pub tool which will not let me even make a simple link or paste my copy from my original to the tool.  And it really is a Capital T Tool. My first week on the job I left my article on the Tool and wrote a note to my supervisor/manager that she'd have to finish publishing it if she wanted it because they didn't pay me enough to deal with that crap.  She told me she had so many thousands of reporters that she manages and couldn't possibly, but she did it.  God love her. Maybe she wants to do the article that has been molding on the Tool for a week now.  We are all just slaves on the Examiner's content farm.  Yeah, they hate Google's new algorhythm which leaves their kind of content farm content written mostly by inexperienced writers who, no shit, write about "Alcoholism and Addition Problems" more than a few times to let you know that they really think that is how addiction is spelled.


  • If you want to read good writers, the cream of the formerly sotted crop, stick to reading "The Fix.:  Addiction and Recovery Straight Up."  They always have interesting stuff and information you don't see anywhere else.  It's how I found out about the Sober Blog Dir. and the new blog I'll be reading now "Stark Raving Sober."

HOW BIG OF A RISK TAKER ARE YOU? MORE ABOUT YOUR PERSONALITY THAT IS FASCINATING.

Photo: raYmon's Creative Commons Flickr Photostream
No title given:  Suggest:  Henna Hand (Take a walk on the wildside.)

Have I got some goodies for you today, all brought to via the kindness of the Universe and Intuitive Inner Wisdom gone wild on Internet research.

These aren't your "Magic 8-ball" gimmicks (free question at 8-ball Web site.)  They are scientific, Carl Jung, Myers-Briggs psychological/personality tests and you cannot believe how much interpretation you get, as well as advice for more successful living in reference to your type. 

The test takes about 10-15 minutes.  All are free except for one looking at whether or not you are the entrepreneur type, which is five bucks.  You get pages of interpretation and scores all from taking the Carl Jung-Briggs test.

I learned that I am way up there on the introvert charts, nary an extroverted cell in my body, but don't think I get walked on.  In terms of taking risks, measured at 0-100 percent with the lower the percentage being the lower the desire to take risks.  A real by the rules guy or woman is around 32 percent.  The mean is 53 percent.  My risk taking and desire for cheap thrills puts me near the top of the heap at 78 percent. 

The most interesting part, I thought, was reading about what type you are depending on your score, and famous people who share that type with you, and I'm talking Gandhi (me) category famous, not Lady Gaga or some other flash-in-the-pan using up the end of their 15 minutes of being famous.  I am first of all an "Inspired" type (I must have followers for my world view.  Sign up where it says followers.  Don't worry about the specifics of my view.)  I am #2 the Adventurer type, who in the old days were knights roaming castles and kingdoms, swashbucklers, and the crazy guys who didn't have to do it, but volunteered to fight lions when things were too slow for them.  Today the Adventurer type is most likely a terrorist, drug smuggler, revolutionary or conspirator, all personal dreams for my future.

Excited?  It is absurdly fascinating, unless, of course, you are a 0.3 percent on the risk scale and find it too scarry or revealing.

The main test is the Jung Typology Test.  I won't waste my clicks to tell you what little I know.  The info is there when you click it.  Although I did read some synchronomous (is that a word--"coincidental by divine plan") background on Jung's theories of introverts vs. extroverts while reading "Man and his Symbols." Google it for more, or read this book or any of his other books.  Right now I'm still on dreams and their interpretation. (I have no readers because I write at a 12th grade readability level I learned after finishing an article tonight.  That means I have to completely rewrite, but I have help. If you go to this great little readability utility Readers' Digest writes at a 8th grade level.  The lower the readability, the more the readers.)

Check out these readability stats:
Gunning Fog, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid are reading level algorithms that can be helpful in determining how readable your content is. Reading level algorithms only provide a rough guide, as they tend to reward short sentences made up of short words. Whilst they're rough guides, they can give a useful indication as to whether you've pitched your content at the right level for your intended audience.

Website address

This service analyses the readability of all rendered content. Unfortunately, this will include navigation items, and other short items of content that do not make up the part of the page that is intended to be the subject of the readability test. These items are likely to skew the results. The difference will be minimal in situations where the copy content is much larger than the navigation items, but documents with little content but lots of navigation items will return results that aren't correct.
Philip Chalmers of Benefit from IT  provided the following typical Fog Index scores, to help ascertain the readability of documents.

Typical Fog Index Scores
Fog IndexResources
6TV guides, The Bible, Mark Twain
8Reader's Digest
8 - 10Most popular novels
10Time, Newsweek
11Wall Street Journal
14The Times, The Guardian
15 - 20Academic papers
Over 20 -

Over 30              You know the government is up to something. 
Only government sites can get away with this, because you can't ignore them.
I'm pleased to say this blog comes in at a 7th grade reading level.


I've got to run.  Hackers/Google fooling with my Web page.  Margins are all over the place.