Saturday, October 31, 2015

Book Review: Fire Whisperer and Circle of Souls

"Fire Whisperer" - Keva Tait was injured in a hotel fire and was diagnosed with schizophrenia because she supposedly experiences hallucinations. Are these really hallucinations or are her spiritual visitors trying to comfort her? With the tenth anniversary of the fire looming, Keva wants to find out what really happened in the fire. This story could have been developed further to be more effective.

"Circle of Souls" - A young woman doing research at a small museum in Ottawa experiences unexplained "occurrences" and is almost pushed down a set of stairs. Her husband thinks she is under stress. Her sister-in-law experiences a presence. A videographer glimpses images of a crying doll while working. A paranormal investigator encounters a voice when he visits an old mill. Smirking and crying dolls? Are these ghosts and events connected? All find out at a seance.  This story is a blend of Canadian history and suspense.  The ending could have been developed better to support the suspense leading up to it; it was an anticlimax, disappointing. Overall, a good story from a beginning author.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Book Review: Self Defense Made Simple by Phil Pierce

This book is well-written, concise, and full of practical examples of personal self defense.It is easy to read and instructions are simple to follow.  There are recommendations for self defense classes, detailed instructions for strike points, and illustrated techniques. This is an all-you-will-ever-need self defense book.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Victims

Part of the reason there are many victims in today's USA society is because society partially creates them.  Consider what some parents do to their children in the name of tradition.  They probably don't realize that they are abusing their children.  Many children do not have the mental capacity to fight back.  Consider this article:  http://www.attn.com/stories/2587/what-negative-thinking-does-your-brain

Society teaches to ignore basic instincts.  You can judge many books by their covers or with whom people associate, "birds of a feather."  I have made many bad judgments by being "nice" to people.  Some people will even think that your even looking at them is a sign of approval, that they can talk to you or do whatever they are thinking that your look means.  I also seem to attract people with some serious personality issues because I talk to them or am nice to them or feel sorry for them.

I have learned a difficult lesson because I have wasted much of my hard-earned life with people who ended up harming me, are very toxic, and have serious mental issues.

Yes, wasted.  They got the benefits of my time and energy and I got nothing but harm in return.

So, if I am "rude," people, I am letting my instincts function as they should, like they used to.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

What a good article about bad therapy!

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/warning-signs-of-bad-therapy

I think group therapy is a bad idea, too.  You feel you are compelled to share what you don't want to share with total strangers who have absolutely no training, wrong training, give unsubstantiated advice.  Whose bright idea was group therapy anyway?  Even the trained "helpers" are not good; they just want you out of their hair so they can go on charging $300 per hour or keep their jobs that they're not good at anyway.  I am appalled at what passes for therapy, psychiatry, and mental health treatment in this country.  Treatment has barely improved since the 1950s. People end up worse for the "help" they ask for.  Treatment is also comprised of toxic drugs whose side effects in no way justify their use. Mental health treatment is anything but healthy!

What a system!  Scary, Very scary...

Saturday, October 10, 2015

WGBH illiterate captioners?

WGBH's captioning services are substandard.  There are  misspellings, obvious, misused words (homonyms).  Do the captioners even have high school diplomas?  No wonder illiteracy is on the rise in the almost richest country in the world.  Aren't education and creativity tenets of WGBH and public television?

Another disgusting Panera Bread commercial

Their new commercial shows a male holding the child as though the child were a food tray, eating a sandwich off of the (thank God) child's clothed rear end. That is unsanitary and disgusting. Is Panera just trying to irritate us? I would never eat there.

Friday, October 9, 2015

I have a BA in Spanish, a Masters in Education, and a MS in Library Science. I have certificates in educational technology and medical transcription. I taught technical writing and remedial writing as a graduate assistant.  I taught information literacy  as a librarian. I love to make jewelry, walk, read, and gather and organize Internet information. I feel strongly that everyone should know how to find, analyze, and use information.  With myriads of information at our fingertips, it is important to know where and how to look for it.  Finding the right information is a key to lifelong learning.

Penn Foster is a lousy school

Penn Foster is a lousy school.  Teachers grade exams from lessons they don't create and the tested material does not always match the lesson. Much of the content in courses is just filler; for example, I signed up for two courses and 2 of the modules in each course were exactly the same and they didn't have much to do with the overall subject.  I am taking the Medical Coding and Billing course ( I cancelled the other) and right now, we are enjoying an entire module on 8th grade English grammar. The lower prices of this school do not lead to a quality or accredited education.  Many of the expectations and delivery of course materials are not spelled out clearly.  When you try to call this Corinne in administration about issues she is never at her desk.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Do not take classes at Penn Foster unless you are truly desperate or have no money.  I just wrote this to my instructor, "I'm not going to argue with the grade I got, but these ABA rules were not discussed in detail in the lesson.  We were not instructed to research these rules in depth, nor was there any examples of how to apply them.  We are not training to be lawyers.  If you want someone to learn something, please include it in the lesson."

I am taking two classes and the lessons rarely tell you all you need to know, nor are they all up-to-date.