Muscle Memory is the Source of All Evil (Extra Spaces, Anyway)

When you type, how many times do you hit the space bar at the end of a sentence? Do you double tap or single tap? Two keystrokes or one?

A friend of mine sent me this link Space Invaders by Farhad Manjoo. The article made me think about my own space bar habits.

Random sentences from my MG manuscript (STATE SECRET KEEPERS) with extra spaces…

Go to my brand new website to read the rest…

🙂 Are you following my new site yet? It’s super easy to do! Thanks for your support.

ROW80 Check-In Week 2

Is it already time to check in for ROW80 Week 2?

I’ve been busy with the start of Kristen Lamb’s Blogging for Brand class, too, so this check-in is, well, what it is.  🙂  Too add a little bit of color, here’s a pretty pony my own princess made.  The most shocking thing is that it isn’t pink.

So far this week:

• Write an average of at least 500 words per day while doing much-needed research for my middle grade WIP. On track! 
• Submit and query my adult fantasy manuscript, HUNTER MOON. Query agents. Just started making a list.
• Work out at least 4 times a week. Halfway there!
• Read a book.  I’m still reading We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb. Haven’t picked it up in days–I’ve been too busy with the blogging class. 😉 
• Weather permitting goal:  Plant carrot, spinach, and lettuce seeds to accompany the broccoli plants.  Time permitting, too.
• Post at least 3 times a week here at Mermaids Don’t Do Windows.  Will keep this up!

How are you doing on your own goals this week?

Totes, Selfies, and Sharpies

In some regards, my high school daughter is the Anti-Teenager. She avoids trends (especially in social media) and is comfortable doing her own thing. I can’t say too much about her non-teenager habits, because she’d get mad at me for sharing. I’ve already said too much. In that regard, she is very much a teenager.

Enter The Best Friend. She is my daughter’s oldest friend and like another daughter to me. They say, “We’ve known each other since before we were born.” It’s true. We moms were pregnant together, and the girls are only three weeks apart. They did many things together: kiddie gym classes, preschool, dance, sleepovers, playdates, trips to DisneyWorld,and anything else we could come up with. They are very much like sisters.

The Daughter and The Best Friend couldn’t be more different.

Totes

The Best Friend keeps me abreast of the goings on in the world of teenagers. She’s my friend on Facebook. She tells me about stuff that I would never hear from The Daughter. She also speaks as if she’s texting—shortened words and acronyms.

“OMG, that’s totes awes.”

What? When did a tote bag get involved?

The Daughter translates for me (she doesn’t speak The Best Friend’s language, but she understands it). It means, “Oh my gosh, that is totally awesome.”

“Totes” is short for “totally.” It’s one of The Best Friend’s favorite words. It also doubles as “Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you.”

Selfies

The Best Friend loves Instagram. We haven’t ventured there yet. (I haven’t. No one else in the fam will.) TBF told me about a her friend at school who has tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. This girl gets five thousand likes or views or hits (whatever it’s called on Instagram) on any given picture on any given day. (She doesn’t use her real name, BTW.) Most of her photos are selfies.

What?

Selfies. Self portraits, of course. I’ve been enlightened.

My cartoon selfie

Sharpies

This ninth grader Instagram guru has very interesting hair. The Best Friend showed me one of her selfies. The brunette girl’s hair was pink. I mean pink. “Is that chalk?” I asked. After all, how are you going to get color to show up on brown hair like that?

Nope, not chalk. Sharpie.

What?

Hot pink Sharpie permanent marker. Evidently, it’s the latest way for teens to color their hair.
Who knew? I didn’t. When I was in high school, we used different colored and metallic hair mousse. Sharpies were permanent markers and were mostly just black. (And I walked to school in a hurricane uphill both ways—there’s not enough snow in Texas.)
I had so many questions. How permanent was it? Does the marker damage the hair? How do they get it out? What if they don’t like the color? The Daughter said that they probably just use another color on top. (What does she know? She’s the Anti-Teenager.)

I should have texted The Best Friend and asked her. Instead, I tried it myself. I sacrificed a lock of hair and an old towel. My brown hair is darker than Instagram Girl’s, but you can see the color.

The things I’ll do for a picture…

I’ll be smelling that Sharpie marker all day now. Totes.

Do you have teenagers with strange, sheepish, or independent ways? Do you monitor your child’s social media use?

Words to Play: Zax

I have fun playing Wordfeud, as I’ve mentioned before.  Sometimes I discover words by accident.  It’s a trick I learned from my husband who has a knack for throwing tiles down to spell a word that also racks up huge points.  (He’s cute, but an evil genius that way.)

Here’s a new word for you that uses both Z (10 points) and X (8 points): ZAX.  And I only had to use two of my own letters.

ZAX: At least 19 points!

I was pleasantly surprised when my play worked.  The double-word score was a nice bonus.   But what does the word mean?

It couldn’t be the Dr. Seuss characters he called the Zax.

From Dr. Seuss’s story “The Zax”

Wordfeud doesn’t accept proper names or characters from books.   Even after the nice score, I couldn’t leave it alone.  I had to look it up.

Besides, what if my opponent asked me what it meant?  I had to know what this special three-letter word was.

Dictionary.com defines it as a “hatchetlike tool for cutting and punching nail holes in roofing slate.”  Hey!  I turned my AX into a hammer.  (Yes, I often laugh at my own jokes.)

I discovered a new wordexpanded my vocabulary!  However, it’s not a word that I’ll ever use in a conversation.  I’ll have to find a roofer first.  “So, Mr. Rooferguy, you gonna use a zax on that roofing slate?”  I don’t think so.

What’s important is that I got *counting on fingers* 38 points for those three letters.  (What?  I’m a word girl.)  My husband is laughing that I think that’s a big score.  Sigh.

Played any unusual words lately?  Do you have a favorite word that’s nearly impossible to use in a normal conversation?  Have you had a slate roof put on your house, so you’ve seen a zax in person?  Share, share, share.   😉

Words to Play: Ixia

It’s Wednesday, which makes me think of words. Like many people with smart phones, I play word tile games on my phone.  My favorite is Wordfeud because you can play with randomly-placed score boxes. (I’ve played Words with Friends, too, but I don’t anymore because the Android app never seemed to work properly.  I might give it another chance sometime.)

My brother-in-law and I usually keep several games going at once, in addition to games with others.  We take turns kicking each other’s butts.  That random placement board is a killer!

Wordfeud random board: In-progress game, getting my butt kicked.

I love words, and now I pay attention to unusual words as never before.  I’ve learned words from other opponents and, in turn, played them against my brother-in-law.  I’d like to share them with you, so you can play them against someone else.  If they wonder what it means, you know the definition.  Expand your vocabulary.

This is one of my favorites: ixia

ixia [ik-see-uh] noun

any of various southern African plants of the genus Ixia, of the iris family, having sword-shaped leaves and showy, ornamental flowers.

Sources:

• I found the definition at Dictionary.com.
• Wikipedia has more detailed information and an image.

I dare you to use it in a sentence.  😉  Use it in Wordfeud.  Let me know if Words with Friends accepts it.

Do you have any favorite, unusual words that you know will play on a word game?  Do you read through a dictionary to arm yourself with new words?