Read Along With AJ

Bringing This Blog Back To Life!

2007-02-22T14:12:00.000-05:00

I'll be posting more in this blog soon! I'm having trouble with some things since a computer outage last night. Will be dealing with this later. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this blog is coming back to life...

HODGEPODGE History

2006-04-03T07:12:00.000-04:00

INTRODUCTION: I recently decided to start writing a column again--one that I began back in my college days. I'd found a decent place to publish it. However, there seems to be some bugs going on at the site now, and these bugs have eaten one partially-finished column and one totally-finished column. As the column that you'll be seeing here gives the rich history of this column (at least, part of the history), I didn't want to take the chance of having it turn up missing, so I decided to rescue it and post it here and a few other places.

How many baby-boomers does it take to make a HODGEPODGE?

The answer is five (minimum), and here are the main characters:

Ainsley Jo Phillips
John Tolley
Jim Lawley
Brian Thompson
Carol Herzog

This story takes place back in 1971 with the first act of it being played out at Epworth Forest near North Webster, Indiana.

The sleepy, little village of Epworth Forest on the north shore of Lake Webster primarily serves as the campground for United Methodists living in the northern half of the state.

Due to other schedules involving 4-H and family vacations, it seemed as if I'd never hit it right during any summer to be able to go to church camp--that is, until the summer after I'd graduated from high school.

In fact, Epworth Forest wouldn't have been my church camp the entire time anyway, as our church (Evangelical United Brethern) didn't merge with the Methodist church until I was in my early teens.

But it was now the summer of 1971, and I was finally going to church camp.

Upon arriving, I selected the workshops in which I'd be involved with one of those being the one where a small group of us would be in charge of putting out a daily newspaper for the entire camp.

Since I was the oldest of the group, the administrator who was putting everything together said that I would be the editor. I told him that I really didn't know enough about formal journalism to do that, and he told me that all I needed was to be willing, creative, and able to be a leader, because the newspaper was more like a newsletter. Sounded just fine to me, so an editor I was.

My workshop had, as best as I can recall, about four or five others.

In the mid-afternoon, we would get together to plan out the next day's newspaper--as well as planning ahead for interviews with different people who would make good human interest stories.

Our newspaper had three sheets of colored paper (a different color for each sheet) with copy for each side.

We would later find out that past newspapers had generally been one side of a single sheet with basic information about the agenda for the day. If we had known this to be true before we'd put out our ambitious newspaper...

What do YOU think!?!

If you said that it wouldn't have made one bit of difference to us, you would have been absolutely right!

We called our paper THE RAINBOW, and our motto was:

"All the news that's fit to print--and then some!"

As with the other papers of camp weeks past, we did have our strictly-business part with the agenda, but the rest of it was cartoons, jokes, stories, and articles.

This was, likely, illegal (though I didn't know it at the time, and neither did anyone else), but, when my folks sent a letter to me that included a clipping of one of Erma Bombeck's columns, I thought it was so funny that I decided that it should be included in one of the issues of THE RAINBOW.

Back at that time, we didn't have a photocopier--which meant that everything was sketched and typed onto the appropriate stencils and run through a mimeograph machine. (Note: In case you're too young to remember this dinosaur, you can find a description of it at Dictionary.com--where I confess, with out shame, to consulting just now to make sure that I was spelling it correctly.)

We really had a blast putting out that paper.

The formal time of our workshop was only an hour or two, but we'd be having so much fun together that we even missed our supper a time or two.

Not only did we put out the paper but we also just loved sitting around and talking about anything and everything.

On Monday afternoon (the day after camp began), I was heading towards my cottage (Embury Lodge) after putting the paper to bed when this adorable guy with the most beautiful, dark, curly and long (shoulder-length) hair approached me and asked me if I'd noticed the beautiful redbird that had just flown by.

He draped his right arm around my shoulders and pointed towards a tree with his left hand.

"Look! He's right up there!" and, as the bird took flight again, "There he goes!"

The guy introduced himself as John, and I recognized him as part of the team that had been sent from Indiana Central College to take charge of the entertainment, conduct a few workshops, etc.

John, as it turned out, had just graduated and would be attending Christian Theological Seminary in the fall.

Indiana Central College (which, by the time I graduated in 1976, had become Indiana Central University and is now known as University Of Indianapolis) was where I was headed that fall.

It seems as if the main things we discussed in our brief encounter were: the redbird; how excited I was to be at Epworth Forest; the newspaper; college; and Shasta Raspberry Soda (which I highly recommended to him and told him that he could buy a can of it in the pop machine over by the administration building).

Then, we parted ways, and I went on to my cottage, getting there just in time to join the others in singing the Doxology before we ate our evening meal.

After we'd eaten, we heard the bell atop the barnlike auditorium tolling, which meant that it was time to walk over there for the evening service/program.

The students from Indiana Central, along with various adults, made it a fun and inspirational evening for us.

All in all, it turned out to be a wonderful week at camp--and, by the time camp was over, I was more than a little sweet on John Tolley.

Soon, it was time for college to begin--and I was absolutely thrilled to find out how many of the upperclassmen there knew John and had nothing but good things to say about him.

Not long after the school year started, I happened to come across this bearded teddy bear of a guy whose hair was a bright-red--and, yes, he lived up to being a redhead very well. I told him one time that I thought he looked cute when he was mad--which made him even MORE mad.

Of course, he was only mad during certain times when I did something that annoyed him. Most times, he was very pleasant and easy to get along with.

His name was Jim Lawley, and he and John were good friends.

One evening when we were sitting in the concourse of the student center talking, Jim asked me if I'd ever thought about writing for the college paper. It seems as if John had told him that the paper that came out the week that I was up at camp was the best camp paper he'd ever seen.

I told him that doing a camp paper (a mere mimeographed newsletter) was one thing-but, as I'd told the administrator up at camp, I knew next to nothing about formal journalism.

Jim urged me to contact the editor of the college newspaper (which was called The Reflector) and just ask if there were any way that I might become part of the staff there.

When I talked to Brian Thompson, he asked me if I had any sort of idea regarding what I might be comfortable in doing when it came to the paper, and I told him that I could write a column on my typewriter and give it to him to be placed into the paper looking as it should.

That seemed to work for him, so he asked me what kind of column. Would it be about sports? Entertainment? Activities around college? Current events? or Something else alltogether?

I told him that my column wouldn't necessarily be about one particular subject but would, instead, be about whatever I happened to be in the mood to write about..

He thought that this sounded intriguing and asked me if I would write a sample column, and he would decide whether or not it would fit in with the editorial needs of the paper.

The paper came out once-a-week on Fridays, and I would need to have each column on his desk by at least a week before.

I set about writing my first column: a column with no name that would be about various things--and I was running a contest to get name ideas. The person whose name idea I chose for my column would receive a prize that would be chosen especially for him/her, so one of the rules for the contest was to write a little bit about yourself.

The winner was Carol Herzog, a pleasant, cheerful teddy bear in her senior year of college who was studying to be an elementary schoolteacher.

I gave her a bright, picture-filled children's book full of Aesop's Fables. When I talked with her several years after she had graduated, she told me that she still had that book as part of the library in her second grade class.

And, so, the name of my column from that time on was HODGEPODGE.

It was always thrilling to walk through the concourse on a Friday afternoon and see just how many people were relaxing on the different couches and chairs there while reading my column!

HODGEPODGE not only became a column for The Reflector but, in later years, also ran as a column in The Pendleton Times and The Greenwood Gazette.

For a short while, I ran it as a blog, but I was very busy at the time, and my computer was very unpredictable, so I decided to pull it and revive it again when the time felt right.

Now, it seems, the time feels right for reviving it, so expect to see my latest HODGEPODGE column (on the average) once or twice per week...

Three Outasite Writing Sites With Lots Of Possibilities & Interaction!

2006-03-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

This is just a note to introduce you to three great writing sites I've recently discovered:

FanStory.com, Care2.com, and newsvine.com

The above banner will take you to FanStory.com--and as referred by yours truly, no less. This will probably give me some kind of Brownie-points no matter what should you join using the banner--and it will also add a little jingle to my bank-account should you decide to upgrade to a level for which you pay a reasonable membership fee. My own choice has been to upgrade to a Premier level, and I've been very happy with it.

This is a place where you can enhance what you write by choosing (free of charge) pictures from an art gallery to go along with them.

There are hundreds--if not thousands--available!

Of course, the pictures (unless provided by you) aren't yours to take with you to other places, but they certainly make your writings look wonderful on the site.

Once you join, look me up by going to the author directory and setting it to names beginning with "a" or "A" with mine being:

Ainsley_Jo_Phillips

I've found it fun to go both ways with the pictures:

1. Look at pictures until one of them inspires me to write something.

2. Hunt through the pictures (which are found in different categories) for something that would go well with something about which you've either already written or else have decided to write about.

There's an incredible amount of contests going on--most of them with prizes with a value of $100--that can be sparked by anything from a specific picture or phrase to a general theme to an any subject kind of set-up.

There also never seems to be a shortage of people who are willing to give meaningful reviews and feedback to you.

The site also has a forum where you can get with others and discuss various things--everything from the sad to the silly to the serious to the sensational to the sweet to the spiritual to the smile-eliciting.

As with many sites, it also has its own post office of sorts for sending private messages.

Care2.com

Care2 is short for Care2connect, and this site is all about connecting to other caring people.

If you're looking for a love connection, there's a special area of the community for that, too.

You simply check off what you're hoping to be the results of using the site, and you're taken in that direction.

My purposes are to meet other people (though not for coupling-up but, instead, for sharing the things we have in common and putting them to use for the betterment of the world), get a wider audience for my writings, and be kept up on petitions I can be signing for various good causes. With all of the choices of templates, etc., one can build an interesting homepage on the site that's easy to change with just the click of a few boxes, links, etc.

This is a place where positive vibes and encouragement rule--where you receive butterflies for signing petitions and other positive activities and where you can give and receive green stars "just because."

Hopefully--even if it isn't stopped this year--2006 will be the last year for that horrible slaughter of beautiful, soft, wide-eyed, and innocent baby harp seals that is still going on in Canada.

Yes! I DO eat meat, but I believe that eating meat from animals that are raised for this purpose and killed quickly is a whole lot different than people going out into the wilderness and shooting (sometimes) or clubbing to death (most times) beautiful little babies (some as young as 14 days old!) right before the eyes of their heartbroken Mommies, only taking their skins and leaving the rest of them behind to rot in the blood-splattered snow.

When it comes time to skin them, the people doing the skinning often don't even have the patience to let the poor little babies die first but will, instead, literally skin them alive.

All of this for what? In order to have material for coats that can actually be made better using synthetic material.

Have you ever seen a fur coat or stole after a time when it hasn't been specially-treated (or even when it has)? It's usually falling apart.

Anyway, I'm off my soapbox for now and just want to invite you to be sure and check out this wonderful site...

newsvine.com

Finally...This is a site I've just discovered, but it looks very promising.

I've already read (and commented on) the story about one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the country becoming a victim of eminent domain, thanks to some townspeople who would like to see it turned into a public golf course.

To me, this just goes to show that nobody is safe when the power of eminent domain gets out-of-hand.

There is a section of this site called The Greenhouse where newbies can write their own articles and columns and hope to get noticed to where they can advance to the main part of the site when it comes to writing their own material and sharing links to other articles.

Of course, when it comes to reading and commenting, they're welcome all over.

I hope that you'll visit all three of these places and see what all they have to offer. Every one of them is very unique!

2006-03-05T21:44:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this anywhere right now, it can only mean one thing:

AJ's Absolutely Delicious Website

now open-to-the-public

!!!

What this means is that you will, hopefully, be very anxious to check it out.

If you see this, it means that everything on the website, itself, has been (for the near future, anyway) completed to the satisfaction of yours truly, and all that's needed now is to just add visitors that will, hopefully, sign my guestbook (even though it isn't required).

My message to people visiting is this:

Just make yourselves at home and check out whatever you might find interesting. With very few exceptions, all links make their destinations open into new windows, meaning that you don't have to even leave the website completely behind in order to take side-trips.

About those destinations...some will already be leading to places that are already going and active. Others will lead to places that are either relatively-new or else absolutely brand-new and not yet developed.

If you were to come back to every last one of those places in anything from a day or so to a week, you would see a lot of exciting changes there.

In short, what I'm offering as of today (March 5, 2006) is a completely built website, some exciting and completed destinations, and the chance to watch construction work going on.

That's all for now, so enjoy the journey...

!

2006-03-03T04:32:00.000-05:00

If you happened to be hanging around, you might be noticing a lot of changes going on in my neck of the woods.

New blogs are starting to be developed in different ways.

Old blogs are being promoted more (as in being added to Weblogs.com right along with the newer ones).

Are you becoming curious?

If you are, I'm going to enlighten you some...

At this time, I'm building a website that's state-of-the-art (that is, as state-of-the-art as it can be coming from someone who began using The Internet back in 1998 when almost 46 years old--anyway, I'm quite proud of it!), and I'm hooking up various blogs to it.

I'm being very thorough when it comes to building it, so I can't tell you just when it will be done, but I'm hoping that it will be done before the first of next week, and the sooner the better.

When my website opens, I'll be making another announcement here, so be watching for it.

In the meantime--when you have the time and want to--enjoy watching the construction going on...

Under Construction

2006-02-02T23:00:00.000-05:00

New blog opening soon!