To Anonymous @ 4:15pm 2/24: When we give cash gifts for weddings we give $50 to relatives, $20 to others. Or we give Walmart gift cards in those amounts if they don’t have a gift registry (which is rare any more).
But we haven’t been invited to any weddings lately since all our children and their friends grew up, and most got married. However, the oldest grandchild is 15, so in fewer years than I realize she’ll walk the aisle.
Son told me he sometimes assigns compositions to be written where the students can choose between several topics. He said one topic they can choose is to write about a movie or film. I said that many must choose that. He said they don’t, and it is because their attention spans are so short that many don’t watch movies. I thought about the great loss our young have had for this to be the norm.
Janice, when I taught a couple semesters of English adjunct, I assigned a “worldview” paper, where I had students choose from a list of pieces to analyze. The chart listed short stories, novels, poetry, music, and films. In each case, the student was to take something from a theistic worldview and something from another worldview, and contrast them. For example, the “theistic” story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled “Earth’s Holocaust” contrasted with the atheistic existentialism in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Or in poetry, Hopkins’ “The World Is Charged” contrasted with the naturalistic (and horrid) “Invictus” by W. E. Henley.
For films, I listed two options. One was contrasting “Dead Man Walking” with “Dead Poets’ Society,” or “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” with “Jurassic Park.”
For music, I listed three hymns (including “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”) but, not being conversant with late-1990s music, I didn’t give an alternative, just said that students had to have prior approval of the non-theistic song they wanted to use.
Somehow it surprised me how many students chose the “music” option. That absolutely wouldn’t have been the one I chose. I don’t remember what other genres got large number of choices.
Janice, when I taught a couple semesters of English adjunct, I assigned a “worldview” paper, where I had students choose from a list of pieces to analyze. The chart listed short stories, novels, poetry, music, and films. In each case, the student was to take something from a theistic worldview and something from another worldview, and contrast them. For example, the “theistic” story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled “Earth’s Holocaust” contrasted with the atheistic existentialism in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Or in poetry, Hopkins’ “The World Is Charged” contrasted with the naturalistic (and horrid) “Invictus” by W. E. Henley.
For films, I listed two options. One was contrasting “Dead Man Walking” with “Dead Poets’ Society,” or “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” with “Jurassic Park.”
For music, I listed three hymns (including “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”) but, not being conversant with late-1990s music, I didn’t give an alternative, just said that students had to have prior approval of the non-theistic song they wanted to use.
Somehow it surprised me how many students chose the “music” option. That absolutely wouldn’t have been the one I chose. I don’t remember what other genres got large number of choices.
41 degrees heading to 60! I will take the car for a wash and it will certainly snow tomorrow for my having done so! ⛄️
Why are our youth so distracted? If they aren’t watching films are they reading? That would be the better of the two. 📚 😊
Wedding gifts. I tend to be an old soul preferring to give a gift from the heart. To suggest what guests give to me is off putting. For family and very close friends we give 100.00 if we aren’t certain of their needs. The very disappointing trend amongst some is the no acknowledgement nor thank you for a gift. That has happened with the last two wedding gifts sent .
This is a question that I just posted on Facebook, and would like to ask here, too:
~ “Hi friends. It is tax season again. Except for the year after Leon died, when I had them done professionally, I have been doing my taxes with TurboTax each year. The only problem is that (unless it has changed from past years) I cannot skip straight to doing a short form. I have to take the time to find and input all the info for the long form, and at the end of all of that, it tells me that I can file the short form.
Do any of you have experience with an online tax service that would allow me to just cut to the chase and fill out the short form?
If any of you have filed your taxes online on the IRS site, was it easy enough? Any problems with it? I am leery of doing that because government sites are often more confusing than they need be.” ~
The lady who used to go by Designer Girl (or something very similar) on the World blog (and is one of Kathaleena’s lovely daughters) commented that the IRS option is “definitely not easy like Turbo Tax.” So I will not be going that route. (So glad I asked!)
Of the fifteen, all could read and did so ravenously here. Eight at college level, four at tenth grade level, two at eighth, one at third. Of those fifteen, six report reading many books per year. The other nine report zero books per year though they continue to say they liked reading but no longer have time or interest, they prefer their phones. Nor do they read magazines or newspapers or anything but their phones.
Interesting topics, Cheryl. Music as first choice seems surprising to me. I may suggest that to son as I don’t believe in his listing that he mentioned music. He has a great love for music and could enjoy reading those papers.
My pet peeve is a lack of a thank you after giving a gift. This is especially true when it is sent, and this is the only way I know if it were even received.
I have some grandchildren who are readers and some who are not. All my daughters read. My husband used to read but no longer does so. I cannot fathom not reading.
Kizzie, Art says you might want to look at something IRS offers called Free File (he thinks that is the name of it and would look it up but our system is down). He said if it is a simple return and you can do it yourself, they won’t assist you with it, but you can file that way. He has never used it himself. You could check that out as an option.
Kathaleena, in Chicago I had an elderly friend who was super diligent about sending thank-you cards when her husband died. I know, because I asked what I could help her with, and she had me come and help her write thank-you cards. She had a sentence or two written down–“Thank you from the D— family for all your kindness during the loss . . . ” or something along that line–that I was to write on each card. (I think she wrote the ones to close friends and family herself, but left the ones that needed a simple acknowledgment to me.)
She sent thank-you cards even to people who only sent a sympathy card that they signed but didn’t add a note, as well as to everyone who attended the funeral.
She died herself perhaps three years later. I wanted to attend her funeral, but I had moved out of Chicago and money was tight, and I wasn’t sure anyone would care about my presence enough for me to pay for a plane ticket. But I ordered a bouquet to be sent.
I never received an acknowledgment of the bouquet, had no way of knowing if it had actually arrived, and it seemed “poor form” to ask her son or daughter if it had. But I thought she would have been heartily disappointed in her children for that omission!
Wandering Views 
Good morning from Atlanta! We are starting at 46° but will go up in the 60’s or 70’s so it feels like spring again. Sweet!
LikeLiked by 1 person
To Anonymous @ 4:15pm 2/24:
When we give cash gifts for weddings we give $50 to relatives, $20 to others. Or we give Walmart gift cards in those amounts if they don’t have a gift registry (which is rare any more).
But we haven’t been invited to any weddings lately since all our children and their friends grew up, and most got married. However, the oldest grandchild is 15, so in fewer years than I realize she’ll walk the aisle.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Son told me he sometimes assigns compositions to be written where the students can choose between several topics. He said one topic they can choose is to write about a movie or film. I said that many must choose that. He said they don’t, and it is because their attention spans are so short that many don’t watch movies. I thought about the great loss our young have had for this to be the norm.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Janice, when I taught a couple semesters of English adjunct, I assigned a “worldview” paper, where I had students choose from a list of pieces to analyze. The chart listed short stories, novels, poetry, music, and films. In each case, the student was to take something from a theistic worldview and something from another worldview, and contrast them. For example, the “theistic” story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled “Earth’s Holocaust” contrasted with the atheistic existentialism in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Or in poetry, Hopkins’ “The World Is Charged” contrasted with the naturalistic (and horrid) “Invictus” by W. E. Henley.
For films, I listed two options. One was contrasting “Dead Man Walking” with “Dead Poets’ Society,” or “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” with “Jurassic Park.”
For music, I listed three hymns (including “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”) but, not being conversant with late-1990s music, I didn’t give an alternative, just said that students had to have prior approval of the non-theistic song they wanted to use.
Somehow it surprised me how many students chose the “music” option. That absolutely wouldn’t have been the one I chose. I don’t remember what other genres got large number of choices.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Janice, when I taught a couple semesters of English adjunct, I assigned a “worldview” paper, where I had students choose from a list of pieces to analyze. The chart listed short stories, novels, poetry, music, and films. In each case, the student was to take something from a theistic worldview and something from another worldview, and contrast them. For example, the “theistic” story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled “Earth’s Holocaust” contrasted with the atheistic existentialism in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Or in poetry, Hopkins’ “The World Is Charged” contrasted with the naturalistic (and horrid) “Invictus” by W. E. Henley.
For films, I listed two options. One was contrasting “Dead Man Walking” with “Dead Poets’ Society,” or “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” with “Jurassic Park.”
For music, I listed three hymns (including “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”) but, not being conversant with late-1990s music, I didn’t give an alternative, just said that students had to have prior approval of the non-theistic song they wanted to use.
Somehow it surprised me how many students chose the “music” option. That absolutely wouldn’t have been the one I chose. I don’t remember what other genres got large number of choices.
LikeLike
41 degrees heading to 60! I will take the car for a wash and it will certainly snow tomorrow for my having done so! ⛄️
Why are our youth so distracted? If they aren’t watching films are they reading? That would be the better of the two. 📚 😊
Wedding gifts. I tend to be an old soul preferring to give a gift from the heart. To suggest what guests give to me is off putting. For family and very close friends we give 100.00 if we aren’t certain of their needs. The very disappointing trend amongst some is the no acknowledgement nor thank you for a gift. That has happened with the last two wedding gifts sent .
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a question that I just posted on Facebook, and would like to ask here, too:
~ “Hi friends. It is tax season again. Except for the year after Leon died, when I had them done professionally, I have been doing my taxes with TurboTax each year. The only problem is that (unless it has changed from past years) I cannot skip straight to doing a short form. I have to take the time to find and input all the info for the long form, and at the end of all of that, it tells me that I can file the short form.
Do any of you have experience with an online tax service that would allow me to just cut to the chase and fill out the short form?
If any of you have filed your taxes online on the IRS site, was it easy enough? Any problems with it? I am leery of doing that because government sites are often more confusing than they need be.” ~
The lady who used to go by Designer Girl (or something very similar) on the World blog (and is one of Kathaleena’s lovely daughters) commented that the IRS option is “definitely not easy like Turbo Tax.” So I will not be going that route. (So glad I asked!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Attention span has been shortened to tic tok and YouTube videos.
mumsee
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good morning on this beautiful day, thirty seven currently with a high of forty expected with rain and snow.
Sadly, all the new hatched chicks died last night when the breaker went off in the wind and rain.
mumsee
LikeLiked by 1 person
In a very small poll of fifteen young folk:
Of the fifteen, all could read and did so ravenously here. Eight at college level, four at tenth grade level, two at eighth, one at third. Of those fifteen, six report reading many books per year. The other nine report zero books per year though they continue to say they liked reading but no longer have time or interest, they prefer their phones. Nor do they read magazines or newspapers or anything but their phones.
mumsee
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you are right, Mumsee. They are all watching quick reels on social media.
LikeLike
Interesting topics, Cheryl. Music as first choice seems surprising to me. I may suggest that to son as I don’t believe in his listing that he mentioned music. He has a great love for music and could enjoy reading those papers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why do those two cats look like they might be indoors?
mumsee
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s just your imagination, Mumsee. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sad the chicks died, mumsee.
My pet peeve is a lack of a thank you after giving a gift. This is especially true when it is sent, and this is the only way I know if it were even received.
I have some grandchildren who are readers and some who are not. All my daughters read. My husband used to read but no longer does so. I cannot fathom not reading.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Kizzie, Art says you might want to look at something IRS offers called Free File (he thinks that is the name of it and would look it up but our system is down). He said if it is a simple return and you can do it yourself, they won’t assist you with it, but you can file that way. He has never used it himself. You could check that out as an option.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I found the l8nk 9n my phone:
https://www.irs.gov/filing/irs-free-file-do-your-taxes-for-free
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Janice.
LikeLike
Kizzie, if you already have the numbers for the short form, just use the Free Fillable Forms featuf
LikeLiked by 1 person
Free Fillable Forms feature to drop the numbers in and then e-file. Simple! Free!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Still having posting problems. WP needs to get that glitch solved!
LikeLike
Kathaleena, in Chicago I had an elderly friend who was super diligent about sending thank-you cards when her husband died. I know, because I asked what I could help her with, and she had me come and help her write thank-you cards. She had a sentence or two written down–“Thank you from the D— family for all your kindness during the loss . . . ” or something along that line–that I was to write on each card. (I think she wrote the ones to close friends and family herself, but left the ones that needed a simple acknowledgment to me.)
She sent thank-you cards even to people who only sent a sympathy card that they signed but didn’t add a note, as well as to everyone who attended the funeral.
She died herself perhaps three years later. I wanted to attend her funeral, but I had moved out of Chicago and money was tight, and I wasn’t sure anyone would care about my presence enough for me to pay for a plane ticket. But I ordered a bouquet to be sent.
I never received an acknowledgment of the bouquet, had no way of knowing if it had actually arrived, and it seemed “poor form” to ask her son or daughter if it had. But I thought she would have been heartily disappointed in her children for that omission!
LikeLiked by 2 people