There’s a New Game in Town: Sextortion

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Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a busy week of work and writing. I’ve had a breakthrough on my story. Hopefully it’ll work. Fingers crossed. But enough about that, today I’m stepping on the parenting bandwagon, and I’d like to talk about sextortion. It’s something new that’s happening to our kids. This has me deeply concerned.

First of all, what is Sextorition?

This is blackmail in real time, as seen through messages from teenage victims of “sextortion,” who have been lured into sharing intimate images, then stung – in many cases, by criminal gangs. “

This starts as an innocent friend request on social media. Then the perpetrator chats with the teen and builds his trust. Then when they hook him, they ask for a naked selfie. Once the teen complies, they tell him to send money, or they’ll share the pic with all his friends and followers.

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Young teens will empty their bank accounts to prevent exposure. Some have even committed suicide because they’re so ashamed. As a parent this makes me so angry I could spit nails.

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We need to educate our children about this. I’ve spoken with my boys, and I’m confident they won’t fall for this kind of extortion, but there are millions of kids out there who don’t have an angry momma bear looking out for them.

Some kids grow up in stressful households where parents can’t give them the attention they need. So, they look elsewhere to get their needs met. Some kids only have their friends and followers for validation. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

We need to take care of the emotional needs of our kids. So, they won’t go looking for validation from other sources. It’s tough when they’re teens, though. They’re trying to be more independent, they don’t always share their thoughts and feelings with their parents. So, we need to keep a vigilant eye on them.

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Do they seem more stressed lately? Are they asking for money? Offering to do extra chores to make it? This is when we need to start asking questions. Your teen may feel you’re being intrusive, but a little discomfort is a small price to pay to keep them safe.

Thanks for reading my post. Have you had any experience with this? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Let’s Clean Up the Great Garbage Patch

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a busy week at work, writing, and running. It seems like things are picking up speed. My youngest graduates this year, and it is bittersweet to say the least.

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The highlight of the weekend was when I attended the play, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” starring Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch. The cast put on an amazing show and Richard Thomas did not disappoint.

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But enough about that. Today, I want to talk about Earth Day. It was April 22^nd. I’m surprised we only have one day to celebrate our planet. Shouldn’t Earth Day be every day?

Yes. It should. We should be celebrating our planet every day for sustaining our lives. Not only should we be celebrating it; we should be taking care of it. We need to for our future generations.

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We can start by cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean. It is about 620,000 square miles of debris. It’s so large it has its own ecosystem living on it. Let’s clean that up. It originated from the fishing industry. Fishing boats who dump their trash and damaged fishing nets into the sea.

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Cleaning up the ocean would be good for our economy. Just think about all the jobs it would create. Wouldn’t that be nice if we could create jobs that did something good for our planet? Why haven’t we thought about this before?

I know it’s a big job. It’s huge. There must be some way a corporation could make a profit cleaning it up. We could make it a government contract. That’ll work. We could have all the nations pitch in and clean it up. Split it right down the middle. Make it a global event. That would work. Don’t you think?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. Do you have any ideas on how to clean up the Great Garbage Patch? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Wednesday Wisdom

I love this.

Variety: The Key to any Successful Exercise Plan

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve had a busy week of work and writing. It has turned cooler to my chagrin. I’m ready for summer. I’m ready for running outside, boating, and hiking. I went on my first hike last weekend, and it was amazing. The earthy smell of the woods and the sun beating down on my shoulders lifted my spirits.

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Did you know you burn the same amount of calories walking as you do running? I find that interesting. If I hike four miles or run four miles, it’s the same number of calories. The benefits of both types of exercise are different, though.

For example, when I run, I burn calories, I build muscles, and my heart gets a workout. This is important because heart disease runs in my family, and this is the main reason why I run. Of course, there’s the runner’s high I get, but that’s a different benefit. It’s good for my brain, releasing those endorphins that make me feel good mentally.

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Running is also a stress reliever. It helps me deal with the stress from everyday living. It helps calm me down when I have to deal with an irritable neighbor or just dealing with people in general.

Hiking is also a stress reliever. It calms me when I walk in the woods. It’s also good for me because I breathe in Phytoncides. These are microbes that boost my immune system. Hiking also burns calories. The same number as running.

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So, where is all this leading? Good question. In my humble opinion, the secret to maintaining an exercise regiment is variety. Sometimes I hike and sometimes I run. Sometimes I walk on the treadmill when I can’t go outside, and sometimes I lift weights.

It’s this variety that keeps me exercising approximately five days a week. The experts say that exercising five days a week for approximately one hour is a great deterrent for a variety of health problems like cancer, obesity, and heart disease. It’s also good for your brain. Exercise releases those endorphins that make you feel good and brighten your mood.

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So, get out there and get moving. You’ll be glad you did. Thanks for reading my post. What are your favorite forms of exercise? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Ethan Crumbley’s Parents have been Sentenced: Is it Fair?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve had a busy week of work, family, and writing. All is going well, but enough about that.

Today, I want to talk about the verdict delivered this week for Ethan Crumbley’s parents. Ethan was the school shooter in Oxford Michigan. They both have been convicted to at least ten years in prison. This is the first school shooting in history where the parents are held accountable for their child’s actions.

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This case set a precedent, and it’s high time one has been set. Parents are responsible for their minor children’s actions. Period. End of story. I’m glad they’re held accountable. This should be a wake-up call for all parents. We need to make parenting our highest priority. But what about the school? Aren’t they responsible, too?

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That is a good question, and my response is YES. They’re responsible for the protection and care of all their students. In my opinion, Ethan should not have been able to return to classes after that fateful fifteen-minute meeting. I know, hindsight is always twenty-twenty, and I shouldn’t be an armchair quarter back, but seriously? He showed signs of being a danger to himself and others. Definite signs.

I’ve had this conversation/debate with friends, and the one issue that comes up is this. Predictability. The school doesn’t have the ability to predict which students will follow through on their urges and which ones won’t.  

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There is truth in this statement, however, since Ethan clearly showed signs he had issues, in my humble opinion that’s enough to keep him out of school until he gets a mental health assessment. The probability existed that he would act out his violent thoughts. After the assessment, if there are steps that need to be taken like counseling or medication, those steps should be taken. After those steps have been taken and a mental health professional feels the child should return to school, the child can return hopefully with new coping mechanisms in place.

We need to protect the other students. I would love to see schools integrate a system in preventing mass shootings by students. After all, we have shooter drills in many schools now. Why don’t we have steps to prevent a shooting to begin with?

Thanks for reading my post. What are your thoughts on this issue? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

When Do We Listen To Critics?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing. I’m making headway on my story. Spring is finally here, and although it has been a cold and rainy beginning, today the sun is shining bright. But enough about that, today I’d like to talk about why we need critics.

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Not everyone is going to like the story you write or the picture you paint. You can’t please everyone. We call these people critics. The ones who criticize your work after you’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into it. We don’t like critics. They can sweep into the room and tear our joy and work to ribbons, so we’re left with nothing but shreds of our confidence.

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But they are important. A critic can point out flaws in your work you didn’t see before, and now, they’re glaringly apparent. A critic can help you. They can show you how to make your work better. Make you improve your masterpiece.

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Sometimes we must listen to our critics to become better. The problem is, some of our critics aren’t there to help us, they’re there to tear us down to make themselves feel important. So, how do we know when to listen to our critics?

That is the burning question, and I have the answer. I don’t always so, it’s a good time to keep reading. 😉

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The only time you listen to a critic is when they give you constructive criticism. If someone’s just tearing down your work to feel better about themselves, tune them out and move on. They don’t have anything to offer you. It’s only the ones who see your brilliance behind the imperfections that will help you improve.

So, the next time someone leaves a hurtful review, look for constructive criticism. If there isn’t anything in the review that proves helpful, disregard it. Once you make this decision, those reviews won’t bother you.

How about you? How do you deal with critics? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

What I’ve been Reading

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing. It snowed this week. Boo. I’m ready for spring and summer. But enough about that. Today, I want to talk about a great book I finished a few weeks ago. It’s titled “In the Midnight Room.”

The cover and blurb are below.

“If McBride is trying to prove—that if you change one life, you change the world—she succeeds magnificently.”—Booklist

From the author of the acclaimed novel We Are Called to Rise comes a “jewel of a novel” (BookPage) about four vivid and complicated women in Las Vegas whose lives become connected by secrets, courage, tragedies, and small acts of kindness.

Fun-loving and rebellious, twenty-one-year-old June Stein abandons the safe world of her New Jersey childhood for edgy 1950s Las Vegas. For the next 60 years, June will dare to live boldly. She will upend conventions, risk her heart and her life, rear a child, lose a child, love more than one man, and stand up for more than one woman.

June’s story will intertwine with those of three unlikely strangers: a one-time mail order bride from the Philippines, a high school music teacher, and a young mother from Mexico working as a hotel maid. Knit together around June’s explosive secret, they forge a future that none of them foresee.

This jubilant, compassionate novel explores the unexpected ways that life connects us, changes us, and even perfects us. A powerful story of lust and of hope, of redemption and of compassion, In the Midnight Room is a smart, sagacious novel about womanhood, family bonds, and how we live in America now.

My Thoughts:

I love the characters in this story. They’re real and flawed just like we all are. There’s one aspect of this tale that broke my heart literally. That’s when June’s husband took her baby away. This story took place in an era when diversity wasn’t embraced. He did it to protect everything he’d built and to protect his wife because the baby was the result of an affair. June had an affair with a black man, and back in this era that was unacceptable.

This story shows the strength and resilience of the human spirit. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to have your child taken away from you. June courageously picked up the pieces and went about her life, but she always looked for that baby girl.

“In the Midnight Room” is a beautifully written tale about an era that has passed. It shows how much we’ve grown as a society, but there is still much work to be done. It’s a good read and worth the time. Laura McBride has made the list as one of my new favorite authors.

Artificial Intelligence: It’s Here to Stay

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’ve been busy this week with work, writing, and running. I’m trying to keep in shape so when I get old, I’ll still be able to move.

But enough about that, today I’d like to talk about artificial intelligence. First, what is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines or software, as opposed to the intelligence of living beings, primarily of humans.

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 This new technique has all the creatives up in arms, especially writers, and understandably so. Unscrupulous people have found a way to use artificial intelligence to make money unethically. They copy an established author’s style and create books and sell them on Amazon using the author’s name and reputation to make money for themselves, not the author. It’s up to the author to somehow let their fanbase know the book is not one they’ve written. Check out Jane Friedman’s post here.

I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)

There are ways for writers to protect themselves. They can familiarize themselves with Amazon’s policies on using AI. They can also trademark their work and their brand using Amazon’s Brand Registry.

Is there a way AI can be helpful to writers?

The answer to this question is yes. AI algorithms can be used to identify target audiences, crafting successful marketing campaigns, and tracking outcomes. I believe this is where authors can use AI to their advantage. So, there are some positives to Artificial Intelligence.

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Another area where AI can be used is in gaming. That’s right. I see a huge future for AI in gaming. Right now, most games have a storyline, and the storyline changes based on the choices of the characters. It takes a long time to write different story lines, but with AI, it will cut the time to develop alternate storylines dramatically.

So, I do see positive potential for Artificial Intelligence in the creative community. I just have to figure out how to use it, to track my progress only. My books will always be all me. 😉

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. How do you feel about Artificial Intelligence? Do you see it as a positive change or negative? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!