Grammar Checker

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 29, 2011 . 8:42PM

We all know that I’ve been working on my dissertation, right? ((“Right!!”)) At least, the old blueshelled regulars know this. The new folks are probably worked up about occupy nashville, a bad book review, or other controversial opinions. Beyond all of that, though, I’ve been working on my dissertation. My blog is generally an afterthought when I have two seconds of free time to work on it, which is why I don’t post nearly as often as I’d like, but probably more often than you’d like to hear from me. What I’ve discovered in this process is that I am really good at writing papers, but as good as I am about it, my grammar leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve always considered myself something of a strict grammar-arian (is that a word?), so I was surprised to find out that I’m just not that into grammar. So, I typed up my first Chapter of my dissertation (introduction/literature review), which for most people is the worst part of this whole thing and then I sent it off to my committee where things like my use of pronouns were mightily massacred.

Ouch.

About that time, I received an email from the people at Grammarly.com who have a fantastic Grammar Checker that can be used for free for 7 days. I got to try out a paid membership au gratis (for freebies) on them from now until the end of 2012. As I am looking to make sure my document is grammatically correct (they frown on poor spelling and grammar when they read dissertations) and that I have been doubly sure that nothing I’ve said could be considered plagiarism, which it won’t because I’m too self-absorbed to use someone else’s words but it’ll check it anyway, Grammar Check is going to be a great fit for what I’m doing in my career right now. What I find most interesting about all of this is that I could have said this at any point in the last 14 years of my college education.

Full discloser: I’m not a shiller. No one pays me for my opinion. Not even my sponsor. Everything said here is my own thoughts. I ran a 30 page lit review through grammar check and it nuked me. However, my dissertation is sparkling at this point. I get free use of the grammar check (which anyone can use for free for 7 days along with their neat little set of English Grammar Rules, I just get the paid version for a year) and, they are going to offer a $30 donation in the name of my blog to one of the organizations they support, Wideawake.org.

Now, onto my thoughts. I’ve already told you that it nuked and then zestfully cleaned my dissertation. What I liked most about what it did was that it went beyond the basic Microsoft Office spelling and grammar check. I don’t know when the last time I’ve had to define a gerund was, but when I’d misused one, the program would define it for me and then would show me how I’d misused it so I would not only fix the mistake, I would LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE. I can really see this as a stellar learning tool from ages 10-??? because we all need better grammar skills. I would highly recommend it for those just learning grammar skills, those studying their writing skills for big tests such as the SAT/ACT, those just entering undergraduate studies, those getting ready to take their post graduate exams…really, there is never a bad time for it. Obviously, I’m excited about it. Which is a bit silly because it’s a grammar program, but I’m also the same girl that gets really excited to go to Staples because it’s OFFICE SUPPLIES!!! Don’t judge me. My friend April does, too.

I also like that I can place it under different headings for the type of paper I’m writing. Obviously, my dissertation was under “academic.” This one was under creative. “Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow.” Generates this:

I’m not sure how well you can read this, being that my main panel is so small on here, but it says that there is a citation audit because…well, because Mary had a little lamb is all over the internet! Clearly, I plagiarized that puppy and if I don’t cite it, my teacher is going to fail me for it! Seriously, I love this program. If you have kids, if you are a kid, if you are in school, have friends in school, if your parents in are school, direct them to this free 7-day trial period. And if they like it, have them get the paid version for all the awesome bells and whistles.

Book Review: Tempest (Tempest #1) by Julie Cross

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 29, 2011 . 7:57PM

Alright. I admit it. I read the Twilight books and liked them. If that doesn’t send some of you running from my reviews immediately, I don’t know what will. The thing about those books is that they had elements of fantastic literature, even if you can’t get over the sparkles, the angst, the sheer EMOness of them. For me, those very things appealed to me in a lot of ways because one of the reasons I read is the for the element of escapism that I find so frequently in novels. Not all novels can be Twilight-esque or I’d get bored very quickly and beat myself over the head with a ball-bat. Some must have other elements that intrigue me. The nature of books and reading is why I am ok with admitting to you that once upon a time I read and appreciated those novels. I could probably read and appreciate them now. They offer me something found outside of real life and I don’t pretend that they offer me something found here in the real world. It is because of that I can find appreciation in them.

Tempest, by Julie Cross, appeals to me in much the same fashion. It combines elements of a love story with a twist of Dr. Who time travel for good measure. In other words, it’s milkshakes brings us geeks to the yard and it could teach us, but it’d have to charge…I know. I know. Tempest brings us straight to 19-year old Jackson’s summer job and his relationship with his girlfriend, Holly and his friend, Adam. Within the first few pages, Holly is shot, Jackson is watching her die as he suddenly…jumps back through time? With his genius computer tech friend Adam helping him out, Jackson continues jumping through time to try to save Holly, save himself and Adam and figure out who the people around him really are, including his father. The book is never boring and I never quite could get two steps ahead of the author, Julie Cross, in her writing. I always thought I knew where she was headed, but the ending surprised me, but felt right. I’m excited to see where this trilogy leads. I am so, so glad that it didn’t end with this book.

I read this novel in about 2 evenings. I rarely do that and what it should tell you is that the book is exciting and spellbinding. I didn’t want to put it down. It caused me two cranky early mornings, to be sure. The author cites Stephanie Meyer, of Twilight author-hood, as an inspiration, and while I can see comparing the two because they are both in the young adult genre (hence my introduction), the writing styles are only similar in that they both easily held my interest and had a nicely flowing cadence. Julie Cross has figured out her hero and his voice is clear in this novel. I warn you, if you pick up this novel, you will be on your tippy toes waiting for the next one. Go for it, though! It’s well worth it. This was a great read and I am truly looking forward to Part 2!

Edit: I received this book for free in order to review it. Thank you for allowing me to share my opinions on it!

Click here to listen to a clip from the audiobook version of Tempest! For those of you that like listening to books this is right up your alley. Tempest_webclip

Pizza Hut loves me

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 20, 2011 . 11:39AM

On Friday night, we were all exhausted. I’d been sick with flu-like symptoms (but not the flu-NOT THE FLU-I got the shot-IT WAS NOT THE FLU) for two days, AJ had run a fever for 24 hours and Leon was coming down with some symptoms as well. I was still pretty coherent, but I was living off of Ramen and Coca-Cola. About 10pm, Leon was in the backyard with the dogs and I was in the kitchen. I thought I heard him knocking on the window. When I walked out to ask him what he needed, he looked at me with a strange face and asked what I was talking about and shrugged.

Well, ok then. I walked to the front door. Generally, if you aren’t expecting someone, a knock on the door at 10pm isn’t a good thing. I warily opened the door and hid behind it while only poking my face out–because, you know, if someone has a gun the first target you want them to see is your face.

“Yes?”

A girl stood in front of me with two small boxes. I looked at her in confusion, then to her red hat and to her car. “Did you happen to place an order for some cinnamon sticks? I’ve misplaced the name, but I’m always over here in this neighborhood delivering something to you guys, so I thought it MUST be the Blueshelled house! When I called my store, they confirmed it was the Blueshelled house!”

As I stood there trying to decide if I should be amused at the situation, offended by the implication that we live on Pizza Hut or happy that we are favored customers. She went on, “Gosh, I have an extra box of these anyway and I’m not going to find their owners in time. We’ll have to give the other people a refund. Would you like a box of these?”

In fairness to the sweet Pizza Hut girl, AJ believes the nice lady at the McDonald’s Drive Thru is our personal chef and that Pizza is a food group. “Well, sure! Thanks!”

So, thank you, Pizza Hut, for our late night snack on Friday night. It was well-appreciated by a family of sick people who longed for some cinnamon stick sweetness. There is something to be said for being a favored customer after all.

Book Review: The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 17, 2011 . 7:15PM

I’ve read quite a few books by Chris Bohjalian, and one of my favorites of his is The Double Bind. I haven’t read anything until this point that compared to that book as to how it evoked feeling within me. I was curious as to this book, The Night Strangers, when I read the synopsis because I do enjoy a good ghost story. When you throw in the aspect of psychological trauma and mental thriller, well, I wonder if Chris Bohjalian tailor-made this book for me? I began reading this book right around Halloween and that made it even better for me in that the skies around my house were turning gray and the wind was blowing and the day I finished this book it was a dark and spooky night that was pouring rain. It was one of those nights that gives you the shivers by its very nature and it added to the drama of this book. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about the plot for a minute.

The public fascination with a pilot’s heroic landing in the Hudson is at the forefront of every pilot’s mind. Some pilots have looked at “Sully’s” real life landing as the fantasy job–the chance to show off amazing skill, save the passengers and fly the best planes while gaining fame for being the best at his job. Chris Linton is one of those pilots. He’s fantasized and read about everything Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger did since he heard about the landing. What Chris doesn’t realize is that he is about to have his chance to pull a Sully.

The beginning of the novel takes us into the cockpit of a plane heading for disaster. Chris and his co-pilot Amy are flying a routine flight when they hit a flock of geese who are sucked into their engines, causing a stall-out and forcing Chris to make the decision to land in the local lake. When Chris makes a solid landing, a ferry sends a wave over the plane and capsizes it breaking it into pieces. Thirty-nine passengers die, including his co-pilot, and Chris is deeply traumatized. This trauma seeps into his homelife with his wife, Emily, and twin daughters, Hallie and Garnet. Emily makes the decision to leave her law-firm and move the family to the sleepy little town of Bethel, far from the paparazzi, so Chris can find himself again and the family can have some peace. What Emily doesn’t know is that the town of Bethel has secrets of its own.

Emily is immediately confronted by a couple of the townspeople who attempt to warn her about the “herbalists” that she spends her time with and the house that she and her family bought. They say little, though, and seem fearful to give her details. Eventually, these interactions will come back to haunt Emily as her family becomes more and more drawn into what is happening in the town greenhouses and a story of a murder that took place in her own home. Will Emily be able to save her family and keep Chris from falling into the madness that threatens to consume him?

The book was full of twists, paranormal turns and small truths. There were times that events in the book were incredibly plausible yet so far-fetched that it made me question the line between sanity and insanity and reality and fiction. Could it happen? Yes. Could it be true? Maybe. The ending was shocking to me, to say the least, and never did I feel like I knew with absolute certainty what was happening at any point. I did feel a couple of events were predictable, but only because Chris Bohjalian is a master at putting out the fishing line and then reeling me in.

If you like a thriller with a little bit of psychological mischief and little bit of shivering your timbers, grab this book. If you want a book that is entertaining and yet you might need to take a break from it at night, grab this book. If you want a book that is worth the money you spent on it because it will entertain you over the long haul, grab this book. By far, his best work to date.

Note: I got this book for free in order to review it. Thank you for allowing me to share my opinions with others.

10-year old Ashlynn Conner commits suicide

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 14, 2011 . 5:40PM

This is my kneejerk reaction, so I don’t know if this will be a well-thought out post that elicits the response of “thank you and I appreciate what you wrote.” I am ok with this. Right now, I keep repeating to myself, and over and over, “This is not ok. This is not ok. This is not ok.” I’m angry and no, this is not ok.

My son, AJ, is 10 years old. He is in the fifth grade.

Ashlynn Conner was 10 years old and in the fifth grade. Ashlynn’s mother reported that, last Thursday, Ashlynn came home from school and asked to be placed in homeschool because other children called her fat, a slut and bullied her constantly. Ashlynn’s mother declined, as most mother’s I know would. Unlike most mothers I know, she did not press the issue further. The following morning, Ashlynn’s sister found her hanging from a scarf in her closet.

I’m about to get judgmental and self-righteously angry. If that kind of behavior bothers you or you want to play the “no blame” game where the lives of children are concerned because the people who knew her are being punished enough right now, you should probably stop reading.

Ashlynn’s mother, Stacy, notes that Ashlynn had come home crying from school two weeks ago because kids were taunting her. She states that she “thought her kids were strong kids” implying that kids that can’t handle bullying are weak and that her own daughter, who committed suicide, wasn’t strong because she couldn’t handle what was coming at her because Stacy’s “guidance” should have been stronger than the constant barrage of nastiness coming at her at school. I want to challenge that statement with perhaps her daughter didn’t feel supported in any environment.

Stacy noted that kids both at school and in their neighborhood bullied Ashlynn and called her ugly and she hopes that Ashlynn’s story will prevent other kids from being bullied. What stopped this mother from preventing her own child from being bullied? What allowed her to step back and let kids in the neighborhood and in her school overtake adult sensibilities and prevent her from protecting her child in her learning environment, at the very least? How does allowing the death of her child to protect others absolve her from how very little she did to protect her child?

I understand Stacy is hurting. Never, in anything she tells the press, did anything she say indicate to me that she took any measure to protect her child. It takes a lot for a child to come to a parent begging to be removed from a school environment. I don’t pretend I know what kind of child Ashlynn Conner was. I don’t know if she was a dramatic child who overemphasized everything, but I highly doubt that there were no signs that this child was struggling, especially considering her mother admitted to them. There are national laws preventing bullying in school systems. Where was this child’s teacher? Where was this child’s school staff? Where was the communication between them and the parent? You can try to justify to me that a teacher has 30 students, but not every teacher in this child’s day had no time to notice what was going on if she was being called “fat,” “ugly,” and a “slut.”

Someone explain this to me, because I don’t understand why no one is being called on the inattention to her cries for help or the inaction by any adult in the life of this 10-year old child. On a personal note, my son left his last school, on the last day of school, with his school tshirt covered in black marker thanks to two bullies in his class. I immediately contacted his principal and informed him that the teacher was notified and she did nothing. I also let him know that she’d been notified that these two children had continued to bully my son throughout the year and she’d promised me that she was “taking care of it.” I was aware of the school bullying policy and the national laws regarding bullying and that he was welcome to call me to discuss it. That teacher was not asked back to teach this year.

This year, my son started school and one of those two children was in his class and immediately started the same issues. I contacted the teacher and stated that I would like a conference with her regarding this. Within 30 minutes of school starting the following morning, both boys were in the guidance office and the issue was fixed. I can’t discuss why the other boy bullies, as it has to do with his own personal issues, but he does not bully my son or the other children at that school anymore. I stepped in when his guardian wouldn’t due to her inattention or unwillingness because I have to protect MY child.

Being an interactive parent is one of the most important parts of parenting. There is no excuse for not being an interactive parent. I have as many irons in the fire as anyone I know, and if you read this blog, you understand why. I am as involved in my son’s life as I can be, even on the days where I don’t get home until it’s time for him to go to bed.

Not every parent has the proper skills for parenting. To me, that is not a get out of jail free card when you fail your children. It does not mean that you use your story as a warning to other parents to absolve yourself. It means you buck up and take the punishment when you fail them so miserably that you’ve caused neglect through inaction or death through negligence. Where were the school counselors? Where was the mental health help here?

Absolutely, use Ashlynn Conner’s death as a warning to other parents, but don’t let this slip into just another story we forget next week. Use it to promote better policies and procedures in school. Force interaction between staff and parents. Use it to promote outreach to parents on protocol when their child is bullied and for the sake of all this is good, parents and teachers, bullying is ZERO TOLERANCE. Don’t toe the line with it. Little bullies grow up to be big bullies.

Edit: Another 10 year old girl, this one from North Carolina, has hanged herself. Jasmine McClain hanged herself on Monday after being bullied badly in school and, apparently, on Facebook (it’s possible that the sheriff just noticed kids coming forward to comment on the abuse on Facebook). She had left her school for a while to escape the bullying, but returned a month ago. Her mother says she was “unaware that Jasmine was so tormented.” Again, in this situation, I have no idea how someone claims to be unaware after removing her child from school and only allowing her back last month. I’ve already backed my opinions up in the comments, though, so please read those if you would like to fricassee me for being upset with the mother in this case. If parents and school administration are not prompted at this point to take a hard stand about bullying TODAY, AT THIS INSTANT, then we as a society need to force the issue. ENOUGH. No one is allowed to claim ignorance about this anymore. No one is allowed to blame others. We must address this and it must happen now.

Also, I saw this while I was reading last night and I thought to myself, “If this is what our special needs kids are dealing with we need to flush out our schools completely and start over.”

Edit: 11/20/11 Excellent information on what a parent whose child is being bullied can do. I found this on Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is an amazing website. Please go look around on there. They have warning signs, a pledge to stop bullying, and a few other things that are tied to this specific topic. Plus, they are a good site to have on hand with the rate of suicide in our country.

Edit: 12/16/11 Jerome Sattler, considered a founding father where school psychology is considered because he writes the books that are considered the “bibles” for the profession, has done a great public presentation on bullying/cyber bullying that I highly recommend. You can find it here at the psychology page for San Diego State University where he is a Psychology Professor.