allwritenow

[allwritenow]

I love this cartoon. It hits hard.

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[allwritenow]

5 Things No One Tells You About Getting Older

Let’s face it — we live in a culture that worships youth. When you’re young, the idea that you will continue to age and you’ll eventually reach the age of 30 and then 40 and then 50 seems unthinkable. Then one day you reach the age of 18, and it feels so odd that you’re considered to be an adult.

The development and maturation of the prefrontal cortex occurs primarily during adolescence and is fully accomplished at the age of 25 years. The development of the prefrontal cortex is very important for complex behavioral performance, as this region of the brain helps accomplish executive brain functions. Even though you are considered an adult at the age of 18, the brain isn’t quite yet fully grown. Neuroscientists discovered that up until this age of 25, the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that helps curb impulsive behavior — is not yet fully developed. In fact, at a meeting of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Oxford in London in 2019, researchers explained that they now believe that our brains slowly transition to adulthood, which is finally reached in our 30s.

The average female will continue to mature emotionally until the age of 32. You will still change and grow emotionally up to the age of 32 but the growth won’t be as extreme as it was in your teens. The emotional growth from 12 to 14 is much steeper than the growth from 20 to 22. Males tend to be slower at becoming emotionally mature, but they’ll catch up to the females at approximately 43 years old.

As you get older, you’ll realize that your peak learning years are not necessarily always in your childhood years, or in your high school days, or in your early adult years, as you might expect. At almost any given age, most of us are getting better at some things and worse at others. Overall brain processing power and detail memory peaks around age 18, according to scientific studies, but other things we do related to learning don’t reach their peak until our 30s or 40s. A 2015 study from researchers at Harvard University and the Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory suggests that our ability to sustain attention improves with age, reaching its peak at the age of 43. Other studies have shown that the ability to learn and understand new information peaks around age 50. Research has shown us that our peak vocabulary skills don’t happen until around age 67.

Statistically speaking, you will be the most unhappiest when you are 45 to 49 years old. This is generally true no matter where you live in the world. Labour economist and researcher David Blanchflower studied this phenomenon by studying happiness in 132 countries around the world, and found strong evidence that people’s happiness forms a U shape over their lifetime, hitting its lowest point in midlife.

You’ll go into your 50s with more brain function than you had when you were 25. The amount of white matter — a mix of nerve fibers and their protective covering — in your brain will keep increasing with age until you are about 50 years old. Mid-life is a prime-time for brain-building.

[allwritenow]

The Chase for AZ: My Brigante Moment

There’s a scene in the 1993 film Carlito’s Way that has stuck with me through the years. Carlito has a plan to build a new life, but various setbacks and obstacles keep popping up as he is tightening his grip on this new life. It feels as if his destination is simultaneously moving away from him just as he is reaching for it. “The dream don’t come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now,” he says, and he adjusts his action plan to ensure his dream doesn’t slip away and instead he can get closer to this new reality.

I had one of those moments a week ago, a “Carlito Brigante Moment,” when I realized I had to put my efforts into high gear or else I’d end up with nothing. When it was announced that the AstraZeneca vaccine was going to be available to the 40+ group in Canada, I knew my opportunity to get vaccinated was finally here, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and I had to act fast.

I work in retail, and for over a year now I’ve been dealing with the public during a time when a virus has become a worldwide threat. I wear a mask, I wear gloves, and I wash my hands and follow the protocols but my job has changed so much. The biggest change is that there is now an added element of risk that wasn’t there before. The second biggest change is that working a retail job during this time means that every day I hear stories from customers that concern me, make me anxious, and shake me up.

At first the stories were about people losing their jobs. A store owner told me casually that she had to lay off all of her workers. Then the stories changed to stories about businesses that had to completely close down. A pizza place went belly up. A small retail shop that sold women’s clothing went under. A few of the people who lost their jobs were coming in with their resumes to ask about job openings in the grocery store. Then it got worse. An older customer told me 2 of her friends died of Covid-19. Then another told me one of the buddies in his circle died, and he was only in his 40s. One woman told me when was feeling so blue all of the time because her husband died and when I asked her what happened she said his death wasn’t due to Covid-19 but she thought it was because he had all of the symptoms and died alone in the hospital after respiratory distress. Every day it seemed there was another story that rattled me.

Washing my hands and wearing a mask felt like my only way out of this new world and it felt like it was only a matter of time before I caught Covid-19. But then sometime happened that changed my outlook. It was announced that there was a vaccine!

We were on our way out of this, right? Not so fast.

Suddenly there’s a global competition to get vaccines.

Then right around the corner from where I work, a 19-year old died of Covid-19. It was shocking. When I told people about this, they just shook their head up and down or they told me that the risk is very low and that even my age group has a high survival rate and they would repeat the obvious point that what happened to him was tragic. It felt like people were becoming numb to the deaths and my fear of getting Covid-19 was treated as if I was afraid of aliens or maybe they were just tired of hearing from people like me who felt vulnerable and yet had no way to get better protection. My risk felt high and I needed to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

When they announced AztraZeneca would be available for the 40+ group, I was more than ready. I had booked appointments for both of my non-internet friendly parents, so I knew how this would go. Or at least I thought I knew how it would go, but it was much worse though. There wasn’t just one website to navigate. It took me 2 hours to book an appointment for my mom, but to book an appointment for myself it took 3 days of adding my name to wait lists and calling around. I saw on Vaccine Hunter that there was a small pharmacy that was taking calls for appointments, so I got on the phone as soon as they opened and I called and called and called and eventually someone answered and I was booked in for one of the last appointment they have on Sunday, April 25th. Richmond Hill is almost 3 hours away. There was also a concern that perhaps because it was in a “hot spot” that I wouldn’t be eligible because I didn’t live in that area, but I wasn’t about to give up the only appointment I had. I was going to continue the search and see if I could get something closer before the 25th.

I heard about a No Frills that was taking appointments, but after a lot of calling and being put on hold and asking to page the pharmacy repeatedly, it turned out to be a dead end. I then got a call and was told that a Shopper’s Drug Mart in the mall close to me was still booking appointments, but after calling and calling and trying to get a hold of a pharmacist by pressing “3” and waiting as it rang a few times and then the system kicked me back into the automated voice choice, it seemed that option was also a no-go. I then got a call about a Superstore across town that was doing walk-in vaccinations. I was already on their waiting list already but I don’t think they were calling the people on their list, so I drove off to get there in time before they closed at 4pm. I was there at 3:10pm but I was told they were done for the day and were only vaccinating the people who were in the line already. I was told to come back tomorrow. I asked if they had a lot of vaccines left and I was told, “oh yeah.” This location was all the way across town and opened at 9am the next day, but the actual store that housed the pharmacy opened at 7am, so I my plan was to be there at 7am so that I could be first in line so that I wouldn’t have to drive all the way to Richmond Hill to get my first shot.

On a whim, I saw a small pharmacy across the street and my husband said to check into it. I almost didn’t want to bother as I had already had so many frustrating dead ends and I had resolved to be back at 7am but I checked into it anyway. To my surprise, this pharmacy had a dose they needed to use up by the end of the day so I was able to wait just 10 minutes to get vaccinated.

Finally, I was vaccinated!

I knew that if I didn’t get it done, I might have had to wait until September to get my first shot. I needed to be vaccinated so that I was protected, but I must admit that I felt that I deserved more. People who were much younger than me got the vaccine before I did. People who are able to work from home and therefore be 100% protected got their vaccine before me. No one ushered me to the front of the line. I was not fast-tracked. I had to be my own advocate and I had to run-around and get it done myself. 

My persistence and my hustle was the key to me getting my first vaccine on April 23rd.

I ended up being in the right place at the right time but I had to get myself to that right place at the right time.

Fortunately for me, Benny Blanco wasn’t waiting for me at the pharmacy.

My dream of things going back to normal begins with this first vaccination. It can’t come soon enough.

[allwritenow]

The space debate: Is it Over?

Last month, Microsoft Word began highlighting two spaces after a period as an error. As a one-spacer, I think this should finally end the debate. 

Do you agree?

I mean you can still use two spaces, but you can also wear sunglasses indoors. Do you really need to?

[allwritenow]

I love this clip of Fraser Krane correcting a caller on his use of literally. It figuratively blew my mind.

[allwritenow]

How to Create a Great Résumé

With computers and word processing software readily available, creating a résumé may seem like a relatively easy task. Many people try to write their own résumé instead of hiring a professional. If you put it together yourself, remember that you need to make sure the résumé you create is on par with what a professional would produce.

To create an effective résumé that looks like it was done by a professional, keep these 5 things in mind:

Your résumé cannot have any errors. Even if you do have a grasp on spelling and grammar, you may not realize there are a few errors. It’s a good idea to have someone check it over for errors.

Your résumé should be eye-catching. Employers often have a stack of resumes and give each only a few seconds for an initial screening. If it is not visually appealing, it won’t make it to the next level of screening. To make sure your résumé gets the attention it deserves, it should be pleasing to the eye and easy to read.

Your résumé needs to capitalize on your skills as a job seeker. Many job-seekers are not objective enough to know what their most marketable skills are and how to highlight their best selling points on a résumé. Make a list of your skills and accomplishments and ensure these are captured in your résumé. If you think you might be under-selling yourself, consider hiring an experienced résumé writer that knows how to highlight your best selling points and can help you to identify skills that employers seek out that you haven’t included.

Your résumé should be focused. It should clearly show what you want to do and what you are good at doing and how this aligns with the job you’re applying for. Any career objectives listed on your résumé should match the job you are applying for whenever possible. The employer needs to choose the right person for the job and your résumé should showcase that the position is the perfect fit for your skills, drive, experience, and personality.

Your résumé needs to be compelling. Not everyone can write a compelling resume. It takes a lot of skill to describe a person’s unique abilities, accomplishments, and character with just one formal word document. Your résumé may be free of errors, it may be visually appealing, and it may be focused but it still might not motivate the employer to give you a call for an interview. Your résumé should reflect who you are and create interest about what you are all about.

[allwritenow]

It's raining cats and dogs out there!

Every once in a while, I hear a phrase in conversation that is very familiar and which I understand, but since I love words and language, I can’t help wondering where it came from and how it came to be.

"It’s raining cats and dogs" is one of these phrases. How did this become a phrase to convey it is raining heavily? I assumed this was just metaphorical – the size of the rain drops are so big that they are the size of a dog or a cat. So, I looked it up to see if I was correct, and here’s the info I found on the etymology of this phrase from (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/raining-cats-and-dogs.html):

The much more probable source of ‘raining cats and dogs’ is the prosaic fact that, in the filthy streets of 17th/18th century England, heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn’t fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could well have caused the coining of this colourful phrase. Jonathan Swift described such an event in his satirical poem ’A Description of a City Shower’, first published in the 1710 collection of the Tatler magazine. The poem was a denunciation of contemporary London society and its meaning has been much debated. While the poem is metaphorical and doesn’t describe a specific flood, it seems that, in describing water-borne animal corpses, Swift was referring to an occurrence that his readers would have been well familiar with:

Now in contiguous Drops the Flood comes down, Threat'ning with Deluge this devoted Town. … Sweeping from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts, and Blood, Drown’d Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench’d in Mud, Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood.

So, the commonly accepted origin of this phrase is 17th or 18th century England when heavy rain would carry along dead animals! I am suddenly grateful for the good sanitation practices of the 21st century.

[allwritenow]

But could you care less, or have you hit rock bottom on caring yet?

[allwritenow]

Weird Al shares hates flat adverbs,

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3 Oddly Spelled Words

Quinoa

Colonel

Queue  

I first came across the word quinoa on a recipe blog, and my first attempt to pronounce it was met with a puzzled gaze. "Oh, you mean KEAN-WA," was the reply. That's how I learned to pronounce it. Wikipedia reveals that it is spelt this way because its name is derived from the Spanish spelling of the Quechua namekinwa or occasionally "Qin-wah") originated in the Andean region

is a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 8 million to 10 million speakers.[3]

of Ecuador,Bolivia, Colombia and Peru,

The word colonel is the same as kernal. How can that be? 

The story turns out to be that the Italian word colonello, from Latin columnellus, the leader of a (military) column, got borrowed into French twice. The first time, it became coronel in French, possibly on the notion that it was from Latin corona 'crown' rather than columna.  The form coronel spread to English and Spanish before being replaced in French itself by a second borrowing from Italian, this time more correctly as colonel. The spelling, but not the pronunciation, of this second form then entered English, leaving us with l in the spelling and r in the pronunciation.

The word queue is an odd one, because you when you speak it you don’t pronounce all the vowels in the spelling in this word. It’s odd that you pronounce ‘queue’ the same way as the letter ‘q’ or ‘cue’ as in the a thing said or done that serves as a signal to an actor or other performer to enter or to begin their speech or performance.

[allwritenow]

If you want a tattoo that correctly uses the apostrophe, you may want to avoid this store!

[allwritenow]

Excuse me, is this tattoo permanent? Make sure these 10 errors don’t happen to you and don’t  happen ON you.

[allwritenow]

A few of my favourite quotes about writing from writers

I can’t write five words but that I change seven. - Dorothy Parker

Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible. -Leo Tolstoy

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes. - André Gide, Journals, 1894

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. - Ernest Hemingway

Writers aren't exactly people.... they're a whole bunch of people trying to be one person. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I have never heard a dancer asking for advice about how to stay focused on her footwork, or a painter complaining about the dull day-to-day task of painting. What task worth doing isn't worth daily effort? Do you think Michelangelo was having fun the whole time he was on his back painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling?  - Ursula K. Le Guin

[allwritenow]

Grammar Pet Peeve #9 - Double Negatives

INCORRECT:

Never use no double negatives.

CORRECT:

Don’t use double negatives.

[allwritenow]

Lie versus Lay

What is the difference and how do you remember which is which when you're writing?

Lie, (the one with the "I" in it) is AN INTRANSITIVE VERB.

To lie means ‘to recline’. Its conjugations are: I lie on the bed (present); I lay on the bed (past); I will lie on the bed (future); I am lying on the bed (right now); I have lain on the bed (continuous).

Lay (the one without the "I" in it) is A TRANSITIVE VERB.

To lay means ‘to place’ or ‘to put’. It needs a direct object because it describes an action that is ‘done to’. Its conjugations are: I lay the scarf on the table (present); I laid the scarf on the table (past); I will lay the scarf on the table (future); I am laying the scarf on the table (right now); I have laid the scarf on the table (continuous). Here the word ‘scarf’ is the direct object to which the action has been done to.

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Practice versus practise

Some people are not aware that although these words sound the same, these are two very different words. The key difference between the two words is that one is a noun, one is a verb. Practice, with a ‘c’, is a nouns, whereas practise, with an 's, is a verb. You can remember which is which by reminding yourself that a block of ‘ice’ is a noun (a thing), and therefore ‘practice’ with a ‘c’ is also a noun. Examples: The medical practice was located on a busy street. The practice of stretching before going for a run is no longer advised. If you don’t practise singing at all, come opening day, you’re going to wish you’d had more practice. Go off and practise, because practice makes perfect Tip: When trying to determine whether to use practice or practise, test which one you need by substituting them with these words: - ‘lesson’, ‘process’, ‘preparation’ If one of these works, then use the noun form, ‘practice’. Or try substituting one of these words: - ‘prepare’, ‘preparing’, ‘prepared’, ‘prepares’ If one of these works, you’re using the verb form, ‘practise’. This is a Canadianism - in the USA you generally won’t find the distinction between practise and practice in anything produced there, as they’ve almost done away with ‘practise’ all together.