Sally Ember's Blog, page 22

The USA Midterm Elections on 11/6/18 have never been more important than they are this year, 2018, when our democratic systems are STILL undergoing vicious internal and external attacks and many leaders are corrupt but still in office. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

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National Voter Registration Day is September 25, 2018, and LYFT is helping! See article, below.

Here’s a link to a candidates list for each race and the reasons that your vote matters.

—35 of 100 seats in the Senate are currently already held by “incumbents,” meaning, the Senator in that seat is running for re-election.

—Nine of these are Republicans: VOTE THEM OUT! They have RUINED our democratic process over the last 12 years. THEY HAVE TO GO!

—Twenty-six are Democrats, and some do NOT deserve to win, but voting for them DOES make sure a Republican will not win, so suck it up and vote for the less-worse candidate, PLEASE!

—“In the House midterm elections, Democrats need to flip 23 seats to capture the 218 seats necessary for control of the chamber. There are 194 likely or solidly Democratic seats and 175 likely or solidly Republican seats. The competitive races below are listed by state and district number. Get the latest updates here.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/us/elections/calendar-primary-results.html 

A reblogged article, below, is geared toward California voters, but info in it applies for ALL elections and has links to resources for ALL voters.  For example:

“’A candidate’s voting history is public. If the candidate is running for federal office as a representative or senator, you can find their voting record on Congress.gov. For those who have held state office, you can contact your state legislature website.’”

and

“You can find out who is on the ballot in your district using this sample ballot tool from www.ballotpedia.org. After doing some research and studying or comparing different candidates, you will then have a better idea of who you are interested in voting for.”

Link to article:  https://summitpsnews.org/2018/09/14/midterm-elections-are-coming-up-heres-how-to-make-an-informed-decision/

Remember: 

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REGISTER! 

Find out your state/locality’s deadlines and get in BEFORE that date (between 10/1 and 10/16/18 for most localities), especially if you’re registration is happening by mail, especially if you’re out of the country (much earlier deadlines!).
GET INFORMED!

Go to the above resources or those listed in the article, or go to http:///moveon.org or other progressive sites for specific issues and candidate position information.

For non-partisan candidate information for every locality, go to your state’s League of Women Voters site, which will list debates/town halls/panels, ballots, registration information, polling place information, election days’ ride requests procedure, written candidates’ position papers, and more: https://www.lwv.org/

For female candidates info and to contribute: Emily’s List is the best site for that: https://www.emilyslist.org/ 
ARRANGE TO VOTE!

ABSENTEE:

If you must vote by mail, PLEASE check deadlines (which vary by locality/state)—some are up to 10 days prior to the actual election date, which  means your ballot must ARRIVE no later than 10/26/18 to be counted!

https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot-deadlines/

IN-PERSON:

USE PAPER BALLOTS! They cannot be hacked!

You can find your local polling place here: http://www.vote411.org/

Get or give a ride! Check local announcements or the League of Women Voters site: https://www.lwv.org/

Also, LYFT is offering free and discounted rides to polling places on the day of the election! http://fortune.com/2018/08/23/lyft-free-ride-discount-election-day/ explains it, or go directly to http://lyft.com if you already have the app!  “Lyft will offer riders half-off rides booked anywhere in the U.S. on November 6. Organizations like http://Vote.org and http://TurboVote.org will help distribute a nationwide 50% off code that can be used within the Lyft app. The company says it will also provide free rides through nonpartisan, nonprofit partners like Voto Latino to help members of underserved communities who historically have had a harder time getting to the polls.”
We are all counting on each other! VOTE!

Most salient points:

For 60 years, doctors and researchers have known two things that could have improved, or even saved, millions of lives. The first is that diets do not work. Not just paleo or Atkins or Weight Watchers or Goop, but all diets. Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. The reasons are biological and irreversible. As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism—a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life.

https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/

“The 2018 #Dragon #Award Winners for the Best in #ScienceFiction and #Fantasy”

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https://www.amazonbookreview.com/post/faf0452e-50c0-447c-ac5a-9f5a3ae9d5c7/the-2018-dragon-award-winners-for-the-best-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy

On Sunday, September 2, the winners of the 2018 Dragon Awards were announced at Dragon Con in Atlanta. The Dragon Awards celebrate the best new science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, and more. The Dragon Awards nominations are made and voted on by fans, making it one of the few major science fiction and fantasy awards that puts the voting directly in the hands of readers without requiring a fee or a membership.

Below are a partial list of the 2018 Dragon Award winners. To see the full list of finalists on the ballot, including comics, role-playing games, and TV shows, visit the site, below.

2018 Recipients

Best Science Fiction Novel

Artemis by Andy Weir

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

A Call to Vengeance by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope

Best Alternate History Novel

Uncharted by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

Best Media Tie-In Novel

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray

Best Horror Novel

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King

Best Comic Book

Mighty Thor by Jason Aaron and James Harren, Marvel Comics

Best Graphic Novel

Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand Volume 1 by Brandon Sanderson, Rik Hoskin, and Julius M. Gopez, Dynamite Entertainment

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series

Game of Thrones, HBO

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game

Middle-earth: Shadow of War by Monolith Productions

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery by Jam City

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

Red Dragon Inn 6: Villains by Slugfest Games

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game

Magic: The Gathering Unstable by Wizards of the Coast

http://awards.dragoncon.org/2018-recipients/

2018 Ballot/Nominees

Best Science Fiction Novel

It Takes Death to Reach a Star by Gareth Worthington and Stu Jones

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey

The Mutineer’s Daughter by Chris Kennedy and Thomas A. Mays

Win by Vera Nazarian

Sins of Her Father by Mike Kupari

Artemis by Andy Weir

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

Shoot the Messenger by Pippa DaCosta

War Hammer by Shayne Silvers

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

The Land: Predators by Aleron Kong

The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston

A Tempered Warrior by Jon R. Osborne

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

Cold Bath Street by A.J. Hartley

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

When Tinker Met Bell by Alethea Kontis

Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne

Warcross by Marie Lu

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

Communications Failure by Joe Zieja

Points of Impact by Marko Kloos

Ghost Marines: Integration by Jonathan P. Brazee

Price of Freedom by Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle

Legend by Christopher Woods

A Call to Vengeance by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope

Best Alternate History Novel

Dark State by Charles Stross

The Sea Peoples by S.M. Stirling

Witchy Winter by D.J. Butler

Uncharted by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

Dream of the Iron Dragon by Robert Kroese

Minds of Men by Kacey Ezell

Best Media Tie-In Novel

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray

Before the Storm by Christie Golden

Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson

Fear Itself by James Swallow

Legacy of Onyx by Matt Forbeck

Desperate Hours by David Mack

Best Horror Novel

Beneath the Lighthouse by Julieanne Lynch

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

A Time to Run by Mark Wandrey

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King

Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry

Best Comic Book

Mighty Thor by Jason Aaron and James Harren, Marvel Comics

Doomsday Clock by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, DC Comics

Aliens: Dead Orbit by James Stokoe, Dark Horse Comics

Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads, DC Comics

Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, Image Comics

Star Wars: Darth Vader by Charles D. Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli, Marvel Comics

Best Graphic Novel

Chicago Typewriter: The Red Ribbon by Brandon Fiadino, Djibril Morissette-Phan, and James Greatorex, Dark Legion Comics

Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand Volume 1 by Brandon Sanderson, Rik Hoskin, and Julius M. Gopez, Dynamite Entertainment

Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol

Monstress Vol. 2: The Blood by Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Image Comics

Vision (The Vision) by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Marvel Comics

Paper Girls Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang, Image Comics

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series

The Expanse, Syfy

Game of Thrones, HBO

Lucifer, Fox

Supernatural, CW

Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access

Altered Carbon, Netflix

Stranger Things, Netflix

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Incredibles 2 directed by Brad Bird

Thor: Ragnorok directed by Taika Waititi

Blade Runner 2049 directed by Denis Villeneuve

Avengers: Infinity War directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler

Ready Player One directed by Steven Spielberg

Deadpool 2 directed by Dave Leitch

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game

Fortnite by Epic Games

Cuphead by Studio MDHR

Middle-earth: Shadow of War by Monolith Productions

Destiny 2 by Bungie

Battletech by Harebrained Schemes

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus by MachineGames

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game

Planescape: Torment, the Enhanced Edition by Beamdog

Nocked! by Andrew Schneider

Lineage 2: Revolution by Netmarble

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition by Square Enix

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery by Jam City

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

Rising Sun by CMON Games

When I Dream by Asmodee

Mysterium: Secrets and Lies Expansion by Asmodee

Azul by Plan B Games

Red Dragon Inn 6: Villains by Slugfest Games

Photosynthesis by Blue Orange

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game

Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition by Games Workshop

Force and Destiny Role-playing Game: Knights of Fate by Fantasy Flight Games

Bubblegumshoe – RPG by Evil Hat

Cooking with Dice: The Acid Test by Oddfish Games

D100 Dungeon by Martin Knight

Magic: The Gathering Unstable by Wizards of the Coast

More info, past recipients, archives here:

http://awards.dragoncon.org/2018-ballot/

“THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST FOR #FICTION”

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Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky Man

(Graywolf Press)
Jennifer Clement, Gun Love

(Hogarth / Penguin Random House)
Lauren Groff, Florida

(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
Daniel Gumbiner, The Boatbuilder

(McSweeney’s)
Brandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit Talking

(Soho Press)
Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

(Algonquin Books / Workman Publishing)
Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers

(Viking Books / Penguin Random House)
Sigrid Nunez, The Friend

(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
Tommy Orange, There There

(Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House)
Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People

(Atria Books / 37 INK / Simon & Schuster)

https://bookriot.com/2018/09/14/2018-national-book-award-longlist-for-fiction/

Read about the other #longlists released for the 2018 National Book Awards:

Young People’s Literature Longlist

Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X

(HarperTeen / HarperCollins Publishers)
M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin , The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge

(Candlewick Press)
Bryan Bliss , We’ll Fly Away

(Greenwillow Books / HarperCollins Publishers)
Leslie Connor , The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

(Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins Publishers)
Christopher Paul Curtis , The Journey of Little Charlie

(Scholastic Press / Scholastic, Inc.)
Jarrett J. Krosoczka , Hey, Kiddo

(Graphix / Scholastic, Inc.)
Tahereh Mafi , A Very Large Expanse of Sea

(HarperTeen / HarperCollins Publishers)
Joy McCullough , Blood Water Paint

(Dutton Children’s Books / Penguin Random House)
Elizabeth Partridge , Boots on the Ground: America’s War in Vietnam

(Viking Children’s Books / Penguin Random House)
Vesper Stamper , What the Night Sings

(Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House)

Translated Literature Longlist

Négar Djavadi , Disoriental

Translated by Tina Kover

(Europa Editions)
Roque Larraquy , Comemadre

Translated by Heather Cleary

(Coffee House Press)
Dunya Mikhail , The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq

Translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail

(New Directions Publishing)
Perumal Murugan , One Part Woman

Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan

(Black Cat / Grove Atlantic)
Hanne Ørstavik , Love

Translated by Martin Aitken

(Archipelago Books)
Gunnhild Øyehaug , Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life

Translated by Kari Dickson

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers)
Domenico Starnone , Trick

Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

(Europa Editions)
Yoko Tawada , The Emissary

Translated by Margaret Mitsutani

(New Directions Publishing)
Olga Tokarczuk, Flights

Translated by Jennifer Croft

(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
Tatyana Tolstaya , Aetherial Worlds

Translated by Anya Migdal

(Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House)

Nonfiction Longlist

Carol Anderson , One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

(Bloomsbury Publishing)
Colin G. Calloway , The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation

(Oxford University Press)
Steve Coll , Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

(Penguin Press / Penguin Random House)
Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple , Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War

(One World / Penguin Random House)
Victoria Johnson , American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic

(Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company)
David Quammen , The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

(Simon & Schuster)
Sarah Smarsh , Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

(Scribner / Simon & Schuster)

(Haymarket Books)
Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

(Oxford University Press)
Adam Winkler, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights

(Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company)

and

Poetry Longlist

Rae Armantrout, Wobble

(Wesleyan University Press)
Jos Charles, feeld

(Milkweed Editions)
Forrest Gander, Be With

(New Directions)
Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

(Penguin Books / Penguin Random House)
J. Michael Martinez, Museum of the Americas

(Penguin Books / Penguin Random House)
Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ghost Of

(Omnidawn Publishing)
Justin Phillip Reed, Indecency

(Coffee House Press)
Raquel Salas Rivera, lo terciario / the tertiary

(Timeless, Infinite Light)
Natasha Trethewey, Monument: Poems New and Selected

(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Jenny Xie, Eye Level

(Graywolf Press)

October 10: Finalists Announced

November 14: National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner (Winners announced)

The Sixty-Ninth National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner will be held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 14, and will also be live-streamed online in its entirety.

FMI, book covers, other years’ awards lists, to get tickets and more:  http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2018.html#.W6FbVs5Kipo

Scientific studies on the cleaning power of spit, a lone fruit fly’s ability to spoil wine, and cannibals’ caloric intake garnered top honors at the 28th Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The seriously silly citations, which “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then think,” were awarded on Sept. 13 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. […]

via 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes — It’s Interesting

https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/buddhist-teacher-sogyal-rinpoches-abuse-victim-speaks/

So horrible and sad.

These perpetrators are not actually deserving of affiliation with #Buddhism, because the foundation of all #Buddhist practice is to do no harm.

It’s not too late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.

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It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points.

Check out any local Partners with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners: Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].<

You can respond to all 10 Questions from September 9 through September 19, online, and have them put into the “vault” for yourself for next year’s reflections.

10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”

The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!

http://doyou10q.com/

“Answer one question per day [or more than one per day, if you have some to catch up on] in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.

“One year later, the ‘vault’ will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.

“Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.

“Next year, the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.

“Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:

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Click hereto get your 10Q on.

“10Q begins September 9, 2018, and goes for 10 days

http://doyou10q.com/ ”

Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014:

2017

-1) Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

This has been a very strange year, professionally.

—I went back to work as a teacher for the first time in many decades just before the new year started, but was mistreated, disrespected, slandered, libeled and driven out of the job within 6 months. Even though I felt somewhat satisfied as a teacher (reaching students no one else had been able to reach, helping several complete their G.E.D.s, and moving others along who had been stalled,) and a teacher trainer (my co-teacher had never had education to be a teacher; she had been a vet, so she had said that she learned a lot from me), the attendance dwindled so much that we often only had 1 or 2 students for weeks at after Jan. 2., It was a complete waste of my time and skills to be there. I was relieved to be “laid off” in mid-February, 2017.

—Despite much effort, many applications and several interviews, I still haven’t [as of September, 2018] found a good place to put my skills, experience, knowledge and expertise to use. Why is that?

—I also haven’t finished my fourth Volume in my sci-fi series even though it has been more than 3/4 finished for over [two years]. My urge to write has flown.

—I stopped doing my online conversational talk show about one year ago as well, due to technical problems (not mine; YouTube’s) that took more than a month to resolve. By the time I could return to it, I didn’t want to do that any longer, either.

I feel guilty, as if I’m wasting my life. I have so much to offer and nowhere to offer it.

What to do with myself, professionally, is the burning question of my 64th year on this planet. Hope I can figure that out.

-4) Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:

The stolen election (third one Republicans have stolen in my lifetime, that I know of) and its aftermath has impacted the entire planet adversely. I am appalled, disgusted, afraid and angry almost constantly because of all that. The worst-ever nominees and accepted Cabinet members and judges; the worst-ever Congress and Senate: cowards, liars, criminals and sociopaths are running our country into the ground and all its resources and the safety of the planet are at stake.

We need help. I wish the aliens of my series from the Many Worlds Collective would come NOW and save us all from ourselves. http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners for inspiration, hope and consolation.

-11) What are your predictions for the coming year?

 

My Answer:

#45 will resign to avoid impeachment but will NOT avoid criminal prosecution; as he leaves, he will take his whole damned criminal family, that moronic, lying, bigoted VP and most of his cabinet and other appointees with him.

The entire country will rise up to avoid having the lying, disgusting Paul Ryan or any other UNELECTED President to take office, so the USA will have a special election, paper ballots only, and Bernie Sanders will be elected.

We can dream, can’t we?

2016

–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.

I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.

I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.

USA justice isn’t.

–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.

2015

—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.

So happy about all that!

—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.

Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.

I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.

—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.

My Answer:

Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.

Returning to my practice is like coming home.

—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?

My Answer:

My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.

My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”

2014

—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!

Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!

—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?

My Answer:

Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.

Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.

Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.

—What are your predictions for 2015?

My Answer:

Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.

More states’ legalizing marijuana.

More states’ ratifying gay marriage.

Proof of alien life on other planets.

How do you want to 10Q? It’s up to you!

It’s not too late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.

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It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points.

Check out any local Partners with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners: Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].<

You can respond to all 10 Questions from September 9 through September 19, online, and have them put into the “vault” for yourself for next year’s reflections.

10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”

The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!

http://doyou10q.com/

“Answer one question per day [or more than one per day, if you have some to catch up on] in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.

“One year later, the ‘vault’ will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.

“Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.

“Next year, the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.

“Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:

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Click hereto get your 10Q on.

“10Q begins September 9, 2018, and goes for 10 days

http://doyou10q.com/ ”

Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014:

2017

-1) Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

This has been a very strange year, professionally.

—I went back to work as a teacher for the first time in many decades just before the new year started, but was mistreated, disrespected, slandered, libeled and driven out of the job within 6 months. Even though I felt somewhat satisfied as a teacher (reaching students no one else had been able to reach, helping several complete their G.E.D.s, and moving others along who had been stalled,) and a teacher trainer (my co-teacher had never had education to be a teacher; she had been a vet, so she had said that she learned a lot from me), the attendance dwindled so much that we often only had 1 or 2 students for weeks at after Jan. 2., It was a complete waste of my time and skills to be there. I was relieved to be “laid off” in mid-February, 2017.

—Despite much effort, many applications and several interviews, I still haven’t [as of September, 2018] found a good place to put my skills, experience, knowledge and expertise to use. Why is that?

—I also haven’t finished my fourth Volume in my sci-fi series even though it has been more than 3/4 finished for over [two years]. My urge to write has flown.

—I stopped doing my online conversational talk show about one year ago as well, due to technical problems (not mine; YouTube’s) that took more than a month to resolve. By the time I could return to it, I didn’t want to do that any longer, either.

I feel guilty, as if I’m wasting my life. I have so much to offer and nowhere to offer it.

What to do with myself, professionally, is the burning question of my 64th year on this planet. Hope I can figure that out.

-4) Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

The stolen election (third one Republicans have stolen in my lifetime, that I know of) and its aftermath has impacted the entire planet adversely. I am appalled, disgusted, afraid and angry almost constantly because of all that. The worst-ever nominees and accepted Cabinet members and judges; the worst-ever Congress and Senate: cowards, liars, criminals and sociopaths are running our country into the ground and all its resources and the safety of the planet are at stake.

We need help. I wish the aliens of my series from the Many Worlds Collective would come NOW and save us all from ourselves. http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners for inspiration, hope and consolation.

-11) What are your predictions for the coming year?

My Answer:

#45 will resign to avoid impeachment but will NOT avoid criminal prosecution; as he leaves, he will take his whole damned criminal family, that moronic, lying, bigoted VP and most of his cabinet and other appointees with him.

The entire country will rise up to avoid having the lying, disgusting Paul Ryan or any other UNELECTED President to take office, so the USA will have a special election, paper ballots only, and Bernie Sanders will be elected.

We can dream, can’t we?

2016

–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.

I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.

I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.

USA justice isn’t.

–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.

2015

—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?

My Answer:

I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.

So happy about all that!

—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.

Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.

I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.

—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.

My Answer:

Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.

Returning to my practice is like coming home.

—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?

My Answer:

My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.

My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”

2014

—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?

My Answer:

Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!

Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!

—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?

My Answer:

Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.

Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.

Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.

—What are your predictions for 2015?

My Answer:

Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.

More states’ legalizing marijuana.

More states’ ratifying gay marriage.

Proof of alien life on other planets.

How do you want to 10Q? It’s up to you!

If you will see Sophia Spencer in person, you would probably think that she’s like the rest of the kids of her age; someone who enjoys playing with dolls and tea parties. But instead of playing with dolls and dress-up games, Sophia busies herself playing with different insects! Despite her young age, Sophia is an expert in…

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