Book Review: Be Successful in School - - - A great stocking stuffer for students!

Be Successful in School

A Student’s Guide for Junior High and High School

Tyler Matthew Ricks and Marie Calder Ricks

My parents each had about a year of college before World War 11 interrupted their plans. Later in life they went back to college with my two older sisters, and both earned master’s degrees. I could see first-hand how hard they worked to achieve their educational goals and I was very proud of them for never giving up, even though both worked full-time and went to school part-time. I was in junior high at the time, the only child left at home, so I heard a steady diet of higher education conversation at the table every night. There was no question about college for me. The only questions were where I would go, what scholarships and financial aid I could earn, and what my field would be.

My three sons tell me that college was never a question for them, just as it never was for me. I’m thrilled that they have earned twelve higher education degrees (three associate’s, four bachelor’s, four and a half master’s degrees, and an M.D.) among the three of them, with at least one more master’s in process, so I’d have to say our example and encouragement plus their natural gifts and a lot of hard work and student loans helped them get there. However, I think the whole process it would have been a little simpler if we’d all had this handy manual to guide us through those challenging junior high and high school years.

In Be Successful in School by Tyler and Marie Ricks, this dynamic mother-son duo cover what it takes to be successful in secondary school. Chapter headings include Life after Graduation, Why You’re Doing All of This, How to Believe in Yourself, How to Get A’s All the Time, How to Smart Without Being a Nerd, Extracurricular Activities, How to Pass Any Test, What Equipment to Bring, Having a Good Home Environment, Hobbies that Help in School, How to Deal with Adults, When You Mess Up, How to Deal with Teachers, Preparing for Graduation, How To Have Fun.

“Truly successful students find their own way in school,” Tyler writes. “They think, analyze, and form goals that will help them accomplish what they need to gain in their own environment . . . A great man once said it was amazing what people will do to not think. Thinking is one of the hardest activities you can participate in. Many students try to find an easy way through school by trying to never think about their own potential success.”

Tyler is more than qualified to pen a book on being a successful student, as he is one himself. When the book went to press this award-winning student was pursuing an advanced degree in animation. He comes from a multi-talented family of four sons. His mother, Marie, is a professional organizer who has a website, and it is truly wonderful. Spending time there is well worth the investment. Visit her at http://houseoforder.com . One of my favorite downloads is the Twenty-Year Map Form “to plan out your family’s goals, activities, and potential accomplishments. It will help you get a pacing and a head’s up about what you can expect in the future. Then, you can plan accordingly.” In other words, think bucket list, and then think of a twenty-year bucket list. Just imagine the focus you could have developed if you’d had this chart twenty years ago! It’s only natural that Marie and her son would focus on success in school as part of an organized, successful life.

Organized people save time and effort. Organization reduces stress. (Think of the time we’ve wasted searching for lost items, etc.!) Good organizational habits are very important for students to learn. This book also encourages students to think of future accomplishments and goals that can be accomplished by learning to be successful students now.

On Marie’s website there are many more free and useful charts and calendars, etc. for free download. Marie’s publications include:The Children You Want with the Kids You Have, House of Order Handbook, Organized For a Mission, a Guide for Parents and Missionaries, Organize As You Go, Project Organization, Master Menu Cookbook, and Be Successful in School, A Student Guide for Junior High and High School.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Marie, and she generously shares her unique gifts for organization and personal and home management through workshops, publications, her website, publications, and radio and television appearances. She is always developing new and creative approaches to a rich and satisfying lifestyle. I cannot recommend her website or books highly enough.

Tuck a copy of Be Successful in School in your student’s Christmas stocking this year. They'll appreciate it.


Be Successful in School, A Student’s Guide for Junior High School and High School
By Tyler Matthew Ricks and Marie Calder Ricks 

Pages: 163

Price: $14.95
©2010 Tyler Matthew Ricks
Publisher: Marie Calder Ricks
ISBN 13: 978-0-9788579-5-0

Words we learned in 2011

10 Words We Learned in 2011

By Danielle Kurtzleben | US News – Thu, Dec 22, 2011 11:36 AM EST

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Americans who resolved to improve their vocabularies in 2011 can take heart. It was almost impossible to pay attention to the news this year without learning a new word or phrase, or perhaps learning new definitions for old standbys. To celebrate the new knowledge we all acquired in 2011, here is a list of 10 words that entered the national lexicon or gained new significance over the last year.

Supercommittee (noun)

Origin: U.S. debt ceiling crisis

1. Colloquial term for Congress' Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, formed to forge bipartisan agreement around the debt-ceiling crisis. 2. Sometimes used ironically; given the committee's ultimate failure, "super" suddenly seemed like an unfortunate misnomer.

[See the latest political cartoons.]

Rapture (noun)

Origin: from Latin raptus; recent notable usage: Harold Camping

1. According to some Christian theology, the time during the second coming of Christ when the faithful will ascend to heaven. 2. An event that failed to happen in 2011, causing a big disappointment for Harold Camping and his followers.

Cone of Uncertainty (noun)

Origin: Countless forecasters during Hurricane Irene

1. The cone-shaped swath representing the breadth of possible paths that Hurricane Irene might have taken during her trip up the East Coast in August. 2. A reason to buy all of the bottled water at the grocery store. And Target. And the corner store. And the sidewalk vendors.

Endgame (noun)

First known usage: 1881; recent notable usage: countless news articles about the Europe sovereign debt crisis.

1. The final actions in a larger process. 2. The eagerly-awaited roadmap for how the European sovereign debt crisis will play out, thus allowing the rest of the world to breathe easily again.

[See the Best Pictures of 2011.]

Bunga bunga (noun)

Origin: Italy

1. A phrase of indeterminate origin and meaning, often used in reference to the sexual exploits of Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister of Italy. 2. Just one way in which Berlusconi embarrassed many Italians (see also Berlusconi's definition of "Tanned").

Tebow (verb)

Origin: Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow's high propensity for praying midgame.

1. According to tebowing.com, a website that celebrates the practice, to "Tebow" is "to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different." 2. An Internet craze that explains all of those awkward-looking photos you see people taking everywhere.

Gunwalking (gerund)

Origin: Operation Fast and Furious

1. A law-enforcement tactic in which U.S. officials allow guns to "walk" across the border into Mexico in order to better identify arms traffickers working for Mexican drug cartels. 2. With the current scrutiny into Operation Fast and Furious, potentially the biggest embarrassment to date for Attorney General Eric Holder.

Human microphone (noun)

Origin: protests in the 1980s and 1990s; gained new prominence during Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, New York City

1. A method of communicating. 1. A METHOD OF COMMUNICATING. 2. To a large audience. 2. TO A LARGE AUDIENCE. 3. When the police won't let you. 3. WHEN THE POLICE WON'T LET YOU. 4. Use megaphones and microphones. 4. USE MEGAPHONES AND MICROPHONES.

"Oops." (interjection)

First known usage: 1933; recent notable usage: Rick Perry

1. Expression typically expressing dismay or an apology, often at a mistake. 2. The sound of one of the biggest presidential debate gaffes ever.

[See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates.]

Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan (noun)

Origin: Herman Cain

1. A mangled but intentional mispronunciation of one of central Asia's "-stan" countries, presumably Uzbekistan. 2. A way of illustrating to one's voting base that one's lack of depth on foreign affairs may indeed be a selling point.

The angel chorus

THE ANGEL CHORUS:

When at night I go to sleep,

Fourteen angels watch do keep.

Two my head are guarding.

Two my feet are guiding
Two are at my right hand.

Two are at my left hand.

Two who warmly cover.

Two who o'er me hover.

Two to whom 'tis given

To guide my steps to Heaven.

This picture is about two years old. It's one of my favorites,

and this song has been playing in my head since I posted a picture of

Hansel and Gretel last week.

The Angel Chorus is from the opera "Hansel and Gretel"
by Engelbert Humperdink.

Rosemarie Urquico: Date a girl who reads

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Rosemarie Urquico 


http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/201

Autobrainography on front page of Toronto Star

Book Review

Ricky Tsang’s book is a journey into a brilliant mind: the reader will find humor (dark/bawdy and/or hilarious), love, tenderness, truth and fantasy within its pages.

Diagnosed with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy at age seven, Ricky has witnessed the gradual wasting of his muscles as a result of this cruel, incurable disease. When he lost of the use of his hands, he turned to writing (with the aid of his computer) to express himself. This book is a result of several years of posts on his popular blog.

I enjoyed his original and creative style, and because of his humor and sense of the ridiculous, the reader does not read about his life with pity but with interest and respect. Though many of his essays are philosophical or humorous, an occasional mention of incompetent nurses (on whom he must depend for every physical need) illustrates the fragility of his daily existence. He finds daily support from his dedicated family, of whom he writes with great love and admiration.

He also writes with great tenderness of love, especially romantic love, and criticizes our cultural obsession with beauty; in a series of essays dedicated to women of every nationality and culture, he expounds upon their particular qualities that he finds beautiful and encourages them to celebrate these features, while expressing his great admiration for them.

This is a touching and intriguing book; no one label can describe this multifaceted look into the genius of Ricky Tsang’s mind. I hope he continues to blog and publish, as his is a most original voice.

You can read an article about Ricky on the front page of The Toronto Star: www.thestar.com/living Saturday January 21, 2012

And you can visit him on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DearRicky
Ricky's website: http://www.rickytsang.ca/

From BookMovement  

Top Ten List

1. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins 

2. Unbroken-Laura Hillenbrand 

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-Rebecca Skloot 

4. The Paris Wife-Paula McLain 

5. Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verghese 

6. Sarah's Key-Tatiana de Rosnay

7. The Language of Flowers-Vanessa Diffenbaugh 

8. The Kitchen House-Kathleen Grissom 

9. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet-Jamie Ford 

10. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand-Helen Simonson

read 'em and weep

        "Blood and gore eventually make the audience gag; sobbing and moaning eventually earn the audience's laughter or contempt. On the other hand, if you make us understand how intensely the character loved before losing the loved one, or trusted before being betrayed, then his grief will have far greater power, even if you show it with great economy. If you show a character coping with her pain or grief, refusing to succumb to it, then readers will wince or weep for her. Another rule of thumb: If your characters cry, your readers won't have to; if your characters have good reason to cry, and don't, your readers will do the weeping."


- - - Orson Scott Card, Character and Viewpoint, p. 70

Great quote from Stephen King

. . .  By understanding how real speech works—with its half-spoken phrases, false starts, interruptions, and misdirection--you can begin to play dialogue like an instrument. Sometimes your characters may speak without listening, with interesting possibilities for plot. Or maybe someone is enraged, her words saying one thing, but her tone revealing another. Or another character may barely know what he feels or means, and you might make him inarticulate on purpose. The results can be either comic or tragic. Either way, let your dialogue reveal character and advance the plot.

all for the want of a comma . . .

Words she wouldn't miss

source of quote: copywriters power word list

Writer Pam Williams has an exceptional vocabulary. For a moment I was going to use the word "incredible", but I think that's one of those words that has earned a well-deserved rest.  


With Pam's permission, I decided to use her comments as a guest post. 


And I adore malaprops. Here's a little history on them from Wikipedia: The word malapropos is an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "ill-suited").^[2] The earliest English usage of the word cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1630. Malaprop used in the linguistic sense was first used by Lord Byron in 1814 according to the OED.

The terms malapropism and the earlier variant malaprop come from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, and in particular the character Mrs. Malaprop. Sheridan presumably named his character Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misspoke (to great comic effect), in joking reference to the word malapropos.

The alternative term "Dogberryism" comes from the 1598 Shakespearean play Much Ado About Nothing, in which the character Dogberry produces many malapropisms with humorous effect.^[3]

Here are Pam's thoughts:

Some popular buzz words have come and gone before I pick up on the trend, although I agree with the ones you listed which should be released with a vote of thanks. They're definitely on the way out of fashion. In my novel I have a teenage subplot, and I saved at least a dozen pages by NOT having them say "like" and "ya know" every other word, as we hear in real life. It makes them far more interesting people. Most of my language complaints would be about journalists--oil-rich country, hammer out an agreement--and the cliches that unimaginative writers depend on. 


My mother had a genius for using cliches, but she was so funny we forgave her. I love malaprops. A character in my book is the malaprop queen, but much to my dismay, very few people know what a malaprop is, not even the critique group reading that novel. It means using a wrong word that sounds like the right word, with unintended humorous effect. For example, the character says the chicken dish she ate must have been laminated in honey and soy sauce, when she means marinated. I think that's dang funny. She tells someone she's glad they found their glitch in life when she means niche. In fact, a friend of mine read through a manuscript of the book and corrected all the intended malaprops, which was in itself wildly funny. 


A comedian years ago based his whole act on malaprops--and got a standing ovulation. So I'd say fad words come because people are charmed by them, stay long enough to become cliches (before I get in on the trend), and go when people get tired of them and something else more charming comes along. Cliches and buzz words should challenge writers to be more original with our flexible language. This is not turning out to be the long list you thought I'd have, but I'm more offended by badly written, boring language, and there's not space here to list all the cliches. 


You can visit Pam here: http://pamwrite.blogspot.com/