Deborah Woehr - Part 3

Words You Should Know: An A to Z Guide to Perfect Spelling

Written by deborah.woehr on September 22, 2010 · 2 Comments

As I browsed through my local Barnes & Noble, I saw this reference book sitting on the shelf and remembered the engineers that I worked under twenty years ago. Most of them had PhD’s, but very few of them could spell to save their lives. We used to joke about this fact all the time. When I saw this reference guide, I picked it up and began sifting through the pages.

A Reference Guide for Correct Spelling of Words

I pride myself on being a good speller, but there are words that I have a hard time remembering. Hors d’ oeuvres is the hardest word for me. I found it listed in Words You Should Know, which is an alphabetized word list, starting with A and ending with Z. This reference guide gives you the correct spelling of words, as well as the incorrect spelling.

Each chapter is dedicated to a letter. The header page lists the most commonly misspelled words. Not surprisingly, hors d’ oeuvre was one of the words listed in the header for Chapter H.

The end of the book contains some useful Appendixes. The first appendix lists words that sound the same but are completely different. Here is an example, excerpted from the book.

censer: a dish for burning incense
sensor: detects the presence of something
censor: someone who tries to remove or suppress something considered objectionable
censure: to criticize harshly

The second appendix covers memory hooks for words that have almost identical spelling. An example is adopt and adapt. I found the appendix on Tricky Twins and Triplets to be very similar to the first appendix. The last appendix deals with alternating spellings for words such as dyeing.

Words You Should Know How to Spell is a handy reference guide that I plan to keep next to me when I’m writing. It contains 243 pages and is the size of a paperback, so it won’t take up too much room, like my outdated dictionaries. Highly recommended.

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Mac Word Games for Writer: Text Twist 2

Written by deborah.woehr on September 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I found this game about seven years ago and became addicted to it as it challenged me to unscramble as many words as I could before time ran out. Since then, I’ve been buried with writing projects and set the game aside. I found the update last weekend and decided to test it out. Text Twist 2 offers much more than the original game.

Crossword Mode

Fill every position in the puzzle with a word, made from the set of letters given to you. Once you fill the board, you move on to the next level.

You cannot go back and edit the words once you click enter. Also, you cannot position letters in specific spaces. The word has to be formed in your mind or on the letter row before you submit it.

Tip: Fill out the space with the dimmed letters first.

Lightning Mode

Find the word that uses all of the given letters before time runs out.

Bingo

Unscramble all the bingo words before time runs out.

Word of the Day

You are given a new word to play every day. Unscramble as many words as you can from the letters before time runs out.

Timed

Form as many words as you can before time runs out.

Untimed

This turned out to be my favorite game because I can take my time forming words and submitting them to the list. I don’t know about you, but this level will help build my vocabulary skills the most.

Conclusion

Text Twist 2 is a great upgrade from the original Text Twist. I like it so much that I am placing it on my “Games to Get for My Mac” list. It’s also available for the PC.

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Mac Word Games for Writers: Word Slinger

Written by deborah.woehr on September 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Word Slinger is a Mac word game that is very similar to Scrabble. Place the words from the list onto the board until you achieve the required number that allows you to advance to the next level.

Game Play

There are two levels of game play: Strategy Mode and Speed Mode. The Strategy Mode is not timed. When you reach the required number of words, you may advance to the next level or continue playing to rack up more bonus points. The Speed Mode is the time version of Word Slinger. If you manage to reach the required number of words before time runs out, you are given an optional bonus round.

Bonus Squares

Word Slinger offers several bonus squares to help you complete the round faster or build your point level.

Score Multipliers – increases your word scores. They look just like the multipliers we’ve seen on the traditional Scrabble board.

Word Adders – place a letter on this square to add more words to your word tally. This is the fastest way to complete the round.

Discard Accumulators – Have a word in the list that won’t fit anywhere? Get rid of it.

Hint Accumulators – highlights where to put the next word. This helps when you’re at the end of the round and you have no idea where to put the next word.

Conclusion

Word Slinger is not a hard game to learn, especially if you are familiar with Scrabble. The music is upbeat. I like the fact that I can continue on the same level where I left off, should I quit and restart the game. Download the free trial of this Mac word game and give it a go. It’s also available for the PC.

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Mac Word Games for Writers: Super WHATword?

Written by deborah.woehr on September 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I love word games because they sharpen my mind. That, and they help me get rid of the mental traffic jam that happens when I am working too long on a writing project. I’ve found three Mac word games that I’ve tested over the weekend and decide to review them. This article is the first in a short series.

Object of Super WHATword?

The object of Super WHATword? is to spell all the WHAT words before you run out of letters. To do that, you must rearrange the letters on the grid to form the words in the WHATwords box.

GOTwords

GOTwords is located in the top right corner of the screen. It will tell you how many words you spelled and any bonuses you earned from that word and any related words spelled. While this can rack up the points, what you need to focus on is spelling the WHATwords.

WHATwords

The WHATwords panel is directly beneath the GOTwords panel. You are given one word to spell for the first level. Once you spell it, you advance to the second level. If you fail to spell it before the letters run out, the game is over.

Playing the Game

You have two playing options: the timed mode and the puzzle mode. I prefer the puzzle mode because I can rack up more points. That, and it’s less stressful . . . until I accidentally wipe out the word I spell when I move a letter in a seemingly innocent place.

Letters will fall from the top of the grid when you spell a word. You can move the letters vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Click on the letter and move it to where you want it until you successfully spell the WHATword in the box. The higher the level you reach, the more WHATwords you will have to spell.

Power Letters

Throughout the game, you will see green letter pieces. These pieces will add bonus points to your word scores.

The second power letters are the yellow sunburst letters with the red lettering. Form words with these letters, and the piece will move into the SuperWHATword box, highlighting the letter you used in the SuperWHATword.

Once you use all the letters in the SuperWHATword, all the letters on the grid will turn green. If you still have your WHATword to spell, these green tiles will score high bonus points if you spell it before they run out. I earned almost a million points with one word this way.

Conclusion

Super WHATword? is a highly addictive game that will steal your whole day, if you’re not careful. The free trial gives you access to 18 or 19 games. After that, you must pay to use it.

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Chronories: Journal Software for the Mac

Written by deborah.woehr on September 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I found Chronories, a journal software for the Mac, when I went to download MacFamilyTree for an unrelated article. Curious as ever, I download the free trial so that I could add another article to my growing portfolio. Chronories is more than a piece of journal software.

Journal Entries

This is a standard feature of every journal software. Chronories allows you to import your MacJournal database so that you don’t have to start from scratch. I was surprised to discover that I couldn’t add images to my entries with the normal drag-and-drop feature that is prevalent in other Mac applications. I’d like to see this added to the next upgrade, as well as the ability to import or attach Word and PDF files.

Interesting Topics

Enter keywords for the topics that caught your attention in a positive, negative, or neutral way. Then check the Interesting Topics Tag Cloud. I’ll have to check this in a few days to see if there is anything significant about this feature other than seeing what you were interested in for that day and whether I will be able to bring up past articles on that topic.

Places

Enter keywords for the places you went to on the current day. I imagine this will bore most people, as we generally lead boring lives. It is a good feature to record the date of a favorite vacation or event, though.

Contacts

Import your contacts based on your email, iChat, or Adium. You can also manually type in your contacts by double-clicking on the space beneath the Contacts label. Type in a letter, and list from you AddressBook contacts will show up.

Computer Activity

This is an interesting feature, as it graphs your time spent on the computer and tells you when your busiest times are, versus your idle times.

Applications Used

This feature not only lists what applications you used on the current day, but whether they are active and when you opened them. Used in conjunction with the Applications Used Bar Chart, you will get an accurate report of the applications you use the most.

Music

Chronories creates a music database of the songs you play on iTunes. This is a great way to keep a record of what songs you liked at the time you wrote your journal entry. The only thing I wish for is the ability to click on the title to replay the song.

Images

iSight Photos takes shots from your webcam. I don’t know about you, but I found it disconcerting to see my face staring back at me from the computer screen. I appreciated the ability of seeing how my face looked before I snapped the pictures. This is a godsend for those who are not photogenic, like myself.

Desktop Screenshots is a utility that I will use often, since I enjoy writing step-by-step tutorials.

Other Images lets you collect images you find on your desktop.

Visited Websites

This utility told me that I check my email way too much throughout the day. Over an hour per day, to be exact.

iCal Appointments

I appreciate the integration of iCal because it saves me from having to open yet another program when I start my day.

Email

Chronories will integrate your email if you have the Mail app configured on your Mac. Otherwise this feature is useless.

Conclusion

I didn’t include everything in my rundown of Chronories, just the things that would help me, such as the time management. For more information about this journal software, you can visit the Synium website.

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One Month into My Smoke-Free Lifestyle

Written by deborah.woehr on August 27, 2010 · 2 Comments

Hello, Everyone,

I’m still alive and doing pretty well. As of August 24th, I have been smoke-free for one month. This is a major milestone for me, as I was not able to stay away from the cigarettes for longer than a week. I’ve been writing like crazy, although I haven’t touched Shades of Evil since I returned home from my father’s funeral. That and the e-cigarettes are helping. I’ll talk more about my writing in another post, hopefully before the month leaves us. Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your summer.

Deb

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Blu Cigs: A Great Alternative to Traditional Cigarettes

Written by deborah.woehr on July 27, 2010 · 2 Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been researching the e-cigarette as an alternative to traditional smoking. Blu Cigs won over the scores of other brands on the market for several reasons. Price was the first major factor. The glowing reviews from scores of heavy smokers that have said that they haven’t touched a traditional cigarette since they started “vaping” with the Blu Cigs was the second.

There’s one thing I realized when I experimented with the XHale 02 (see link below), and it makes me feel very stupid now. If you decide to switch from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes, you must stop smoking cigarettes immediately. Otherwise, you risk overdosing on nicotine and giving yourself a heart attack (like the patch). I read posts from several people in the e-cigarette forums that they alternated between the two.

I smoked my last cigarette on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at approximately 10am. My Blu Cigs package arrived shortly after that. Once I figured out how to put the e-cigarette together and charged everything, I took my first puff. I’ve since had a few cravings for traditional cigarettes, but all I have to do is puff on the Blu Cig and I’m okay. I can sit in front of my husband while he’s puffing away on his cigarette, and I’m okay. It’s wonderful to be able to “smoke” at my computer again.

This morning, I took a drag off the Blu Cig in front of my sons and blew the water vapor in their direction. The vapor dissipated within a foot away from me. When I asked them if they could smell anything from the e-cig, they said they couldn’t. So, I feel totally comfortable “smoking” inside the house.

I had my husband try the tobacco-flavored Blu Cig. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He’s very pleased that I’ve made the switch. I told him that I want to throw out all of the ashtrays on August 31st. That gives him over a month to get himself mentally prepared.

My Experience with the XHale 02 E-Cigarette
My Experience with Blue Cigs, Day 1

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My Father’s Passing

Written by deborah.woehr on July 22, 2010 · 2 Comments

My father was diagnosed with emphysema and COPD in January of 2006, when he went to see the doctor over a bout with pneumonia. He had tried to quit smoking a few times while I was growing up, but always went back to it. He was finally able to quit when the doctor told him that he was going to die.

I’ll never forget the sight of him when I went down to Austin to see my parents. He looked like a walking, smiling skeleton when he picked me up from the airport. He was always a skinny guy, but I had never seen him look this bad. My gut instinct told me that he had maybe two to five years before he would succumb.

The sight of him in that airport continues to haunt me, as does the coughing fits that I heard at night while my children and I were staying at my parents’ house. We were never particularly close, but we got along better as adults. He tried to encourage me to quit, telling me how he filled a water bottle full of cigarettes and set them on the counter as a deterrent. That, and the doctor’s prognosis worked for him.

It didn’t work for me. Over the next couple of years, I would try the Chantix pill in 2008 and the cold turkey method in April of 2009. Neither worked. The longest I’ve been able to stop is a week.

I called my parents on Christmas Day. The first thing my father said to me was, “Get off those goddamned cigarettes, Deb. Please. I love you very much.” He went on to say that he thought I had emphysema, due to my smoker’s cough. That conversation haunts me more now than it ever did.

At any rate, his condition continued to worsen to the point where he could barely walk across the kitchen for a glass of water without getting winded. My mother had to help him do the most basic things that he had done all of his life. The last time I spoke with him was on his birthday this past January. I could hear the effort it took to breathe, much less talk.

My mother’s birthday and Father’s Day fall during the same week. I called her to wish her a happy birthday and to ask how Dad was doing. She told me that he was in the hospital so the doctors could adjust his medication. We were both under the impression that he would be home by the weekend. When I called on Father’s Day and no one was home, I got a bad feeling. I left a message for him, which he never got to hear.

My mother called me that night and told me that the doctor had asked him about the DNR option. Then she said that he was moved to a hospice center. She told me that he had six months left and that hospice was preparing him to go home to die. He held on for a week before he passed away on June 25, 2010 at 1:30am.

My brother and I got the news while we were standing at the gate, getting ready to board the plane. I was glad that he died before I got there because I did not want to see him in that condition. The last time I saw my father was in June of 2008. He had put on weight and was looking better. That was the way I wanted to remember my father.

It was strange walking out into the Austin airport and not seeing him standing there. Instead, my mother, my sister and my aunt were there. It was even weirder walking into my parents’ house and getting confronted by the silence. My father was a dominant force and always had to be in the middle of everything, whether we wanted him to be or not. All of us were in shock because we couldn’t believe how fast he went. But we were also relieved, especially for my mother.

Ever since my grandparents got sick and died, my parents had always talked about the quality of life. They felt that if they were not leading their normal quality of life, then it was time to go. I have the same attitude.

He’s been gone for almost a month now, and I find myself feeling bittersweet about the whole thing. I keep hearing that conversation at Christmas. I look at my two boys and think: I don’t want to put them through what my mother went through. It’s time to quit. It’s time my husband quit, too. I’m currently researching the e-cigarette and its success rate with heavy smokers.

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Designing with Frugal

Written by deborah.woehr on June 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

After months of tinkering with the Thesis framework, I decided that I wasn’t happy with it. Not that Thesis is a poor framework. Far from it. The problem is, I just haven’t mastered the fine art of coding and decided that I don’t really want to. I’d rather write actual words and create eye-catching designs rather than fiddle with HTML, CSS and PHP. With that thought in mind, I began looking for an alternative to Thesis.

I’ve known about Headway for as long as I’ve known about Thesis. I no longer remember why I chose Thesis over Headway, a “drag and drop” framework that has garnered some good reviews. Maybe it was because I was impressed by how large the Thesis community was, as well as the sheer number of glowing reviews. On Thursday I found myself checking out the popular WordPress theme frameworks once again because I not only wanted to improve the look and feel of my blogs, but I also wanted to give my husband’s website a more professional appearance. Up until Thursday, I had been using a modified version of a free theme for his site, which isn’t always a good thing.

I found a great article from Aaron Brazell, where he reviews some of the top WordPress theme frameworks. While he didn’t consider Frugal to be one of the top frameworks, I followed the link to the site to check it out for myself. Based on the size of their community, I’d say that this company is relatively new.

The first thing I did was check the showcase of themes from other customers and was delighted to find that Men with Pens uses Frugal with awesome results. After reading more testimonials and watching the tutorials, I decided to give this framework a try for my husband’s website. I figured that if it didn’t work, I could always ask for my money back.

Because you have 600+ customizations available to you, the interface is daunting at first. Once you figure out where everything is, designing your site becomes less time consuming. What I really like about Frugal is that you can design through the interface or you can go into the backend and change the code to suit your needs.

The result turned out much better than I expected and with minor frustrations, most of which I was able to solve either by watching the tutorials or experimenting with the settings. My husband’s website looks professional now. I was so thrilled with what I was able to accomplish with his site that I decided to work on mine. I still have to tweak the footer a bit, but I consider the overall design project for this blog done . . . at long last.

Update: Well, everything was going fine until I decided to install a plugin that broke my theme. Until I can figure out how to fix that, I’ve reverted back to the Thesis theme.

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Writing Progress: Surpassed My 40K Goal

Written by deborah.woehr on June 19, 2010 · 1 Comment

This novel is nowhere near complete yet, but I’m happy to say that I surpassed the 40K milestone last Sunday. I still need to work on my descriptions, and I still need to flesh out the antagonist some more. I’m making progress, albeit slowly. Due to some other projects, I haven’t worked on this story at all this week. Sundays tend to be my best day to write. So, I’ll aim to reach 50K tomorrow.