I’m so proud and happy for all the teachers and educators and staff who are on strike today across Queensland.
It’s their first strike since 2009, and it’s well and truly needed.
Teaching has become a physically and mentally impossible job in this state over the past 50 years, and they deserve everything they’re asking for! (Scroll down to see the needs they’re asking for from the Qld government.)
As a student teacher (called a preservice teacher in Queensland), I was so hopeful going into my first prac this year.
But although the students were DELIGHTFUL, and the school itself was excellent, and I was receiving positive feedback from my incredible supervising teacher, I’m starting to think I may never be a teacher in this state.
It’s harder to say “happy new year” when you remember that 101 women were killed by men in 2024 (Femicide Watch Australia, 2024).
It might not sound like a huge number, until you compare it to the 46 women who were killed by men in the 2022-23 financial year (AIHW, 2024).
Men killing 101 women in 12 months is horrific because it is a doubling of violence against women in Australia.
Domestic and family violence is a national emergency, with 1 in 4 Australian women having experienced violence from a male partner (White Ribbon, 2024).
With that in mind, I read the following books last year, and I believe they would help any Australian man who wants to understand the current war on women and children in our nation.
More importantly, this information can help any person who wants to help us end the war on women.
I was thoroughly impressed by the way these writers gathered measurable data and research from all around Australia and sometimes internationally.
I’m sure you’ll find the statistics astounding – because I did, and I’ve already been reading on these topics for 20 years.
A note on gender references: All references in this article to “women” include trans women. Much of the data on “women” also includes non-binary people, who are routinely marked as female “for insurance purposes”.
It’s almost time to say happy new year and good riddance to 2023, so here’s how to write about dates and years in 2024.
This is based on the Australian government’s style manual and the most common usage that I’ve seen over the past few years as an editor of digital content.
The longest day of the year is fast approaching… or on the other side of the world, their shortest day of the world! So I thought we’d talk about how to write dates and days correctly in business writing.
(Image source: AI artwork of cats sitting next to window, watching fireworks, generated using Gencraft.com.)
Y’all know I simply cannot let November pass by without attempting the #nanowrimo hullaballo. (NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month. It’s a lot of fun trying to write a full novel in one month!)
And whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, you know playing music that matches the themes you’re writing can really get you in the mood … for prose. 😉
So if you, like me, are writing a fantasy novel this month, here’s some musical inspiration to listen to while you write…
Image credit: Fourth Wing fan art 🎨 by @jrtart_ (Jesslyn) as featured on X (Twitter)
I detest this word at the moment, and have for 2 years so far, but today’s grammar tip is important – the correct spelling of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Do you write it coronavirus, covid, or COVID-19?
The correct spelling is coronavirus (no capital letters) or COVID-19 (all capital letters).
Everyone on social media just writes covid – heck, even I do! – but it’s not actually correct.
Now here’s why…
There should be no capital letters for the word coronavirus, because it’s just a common noun used to group several new (“novel”) viruses under one term.
It’s similar to how we use the common nouns “influenza” or “flu” is used to describe several different strains.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 is a proper noun (a name) for a specific virus strain, and it uses maximum capitals because it is an acronym. The same way that SARS was both an acronym and a proper noun (a name).
Want to get even more nerdy?
The species Coronaviridae is the proper noun, and under this species, there are a bunch of coronaviruses that are all single-stranded RNA viruses that have things in common:
A “lipid envelope studded with club-shaped projections” – quoting the scientific explanation because I don’t understand it and will not attempt to try! … and
The ability to infect birds and mammals.
Want to get EVEN MORE NERDY?
The word coronavirus means “crown virus” or “crown poison” in Latin, after the way that lipid envelope studded with clubs looks a bit like a crown or a garland.
Scientists love our oldest languages, don’t they?
Image source: KnowYourMeme.com
So what does omicron mean?
In Latin/Greek, omicron just means “little o”. Same way delta is just the name for the “d” in the Greek alphabet.
To quote the experts directly for this one:
“The Greek alphabet has two letters corresponding to our letter ‘o’: omikron (also spelt omicron in English) whose name means ‘little o’ and omega, whose name means ‘big o’. In Greek today they are pronounced the same, but in the ancient language there was a difference between them, probably like that between the sound in the English words ‘hot’ and ’no’,” Roderick Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London, said.
We’re only a few days into 2016 but I have found some AMAZING reads in my first days of 2016, which have also been my last few days of annual leave.
As a writer and editor, my “to read” list is too long for me to ever actually read, if it’s really true that you can only get through about 3,000 in the average lifetime. In my Google Docs “Books” folder, the list of all the books I’ve read in my life (only about 600 that I can remember so far) is far smaller than the list of books I would like to read (about 1 million). So I’ve told you how I chose the books I read last year, and I can definitely say I’m sticking with that strategy in 2016.
If you don’t know what to get yourself in the Boxing Day sales, and you have money left over after purchasing some truly meaningful gifts from Gifts of Compassion, TEAR’s Useful Gifts, Christian Blind Mission’s Meaningful Gifts, or some other world-changing charity … then please consider the following reads for belated Christmas gifts to yourself.
Get ready.
They’ll knock your socks off.
…
Best books made of paper and stuff in January 2016
My January 2016 reads lined up. Image source: My camera.
The long road to Fort Scratchley lighthouse at Nobby’s Beach, Newcastle. Image source: My camera.
The end of the year is a great time for reflecting on our habits from the year and how they changed us as a person. Here is just one snippet from my reflections on my habits in 2015: How I chose which books to read during the year.
It’s an important topic. The books you read are part of the inspiration you get, and that shapes who you become as a person over the course of a year. We’re always changing, and the input we choose for our hearts and minds is a huge part of that.
What does the Bible say about the input you should give your heart and mind?
Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of your life and everything you do flows from it.”
Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things.”
(author’s paraphrase)
So in short, in 2015, I let God choose.
While standing at the shelves of my favourite bookshops or poring over new releases on my favourite online bookshops, or even leaning against my own bookshelves and wondering what to read next, I asked the Holy Spirit. I asked that God would reveal what book would help me the most in this season, or what book would give me encouragement, give me a laugh, show me afresh His power, or give me the key to spreading His power to others with my life.
Here’s my list of books read, how the let-God-pick method went, and the themes that emerged in what I read…
The Google Doodle designed by Olivia Huynh for the 141st birthday of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon, are just too beautiful not to share – so enjoy! I’ve posted what I could below in case you can’t get online today to check them out.
I’ve identified the major themes that I’d like to write about in the future, so I made a survey so you can vote on your favourites among these blog ideas!
I can’t say the survey results will make my decision for me re blogging, but I would 100% appreciate reader feedback on what you are most interested in reading about.
God bless,
TJ
Image source: TJ Ryan photo, icanhascheezburger lolcat builder
I was very touched to look up my blog statistics today and see that, gosh, pretty much as many people are reading my blog this month – when I’ve posted literally nothing – as any other month. In my head, this could be caused by many possibilities, all of them fairly positive – you actually find what I wrote in the past interesting, so you came back to reread it, or you told other people about it; or new people found the blog on Google and read something; or you all missed me and kept checking the blog daily to see if I’d written anything new yet.
Well, I haven’t written anything new. But I don’t feel bad about it – and here’s why you don’t need to feel bad about it either.
TJ Withers 