Articles written by Joe DeShon - Page 4

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About me - Joe DeShon

I'm a former music teacher who discovered that music is best as my avocation, not my vocation. So now I work in the marketing department for a very large telecommunications company. The only thing keeping me from writing all the time is finding enough people

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Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: My hometown: 29 of 40
What Macon is to me Macon is my home town. I wasn't born there; we moved there right after I completed the first grade. But that's where I grew up, that's where my childhood memories are from, and that's where my hometown is. Macon is a small Midwestern county seat town of about 5,000 people in northeast Missouri, about 50 m... More..
Hobbies & Games > Hobbies & Games (Other) Tips for starting a baseball card collection: 3 of 4
There's a difference between having a baseball card "collection" and just having a "bunch" of baseball cards. You need to actually put some thought and some effort into a collection. But that shouldn't be a deterrent. Go ahead and have fun with it, too. When you first begin, you probably don't really know how to organize you... More..
Relationships & Family > Humor & Laughter What makes something funny?: 24 of 27
I have always wanted to write and get something published. There have been times that I thought the best way to do that would be to submit something to Readers' Digest. After all, every issue practically screams the words "Earn $300! Just send us your funny stories." Some of the stuff they publish is pretty lame. It's real e... More..
Arts & Humanities > Internet Writing & Blogging Experiences with blog writing: 12 of 13
My Blog Ranking Sometimes you get a particular piece of news and you just really don't know what to think of it. That's the dilemma recently faced. Technorati is the authority for tracking blogs on the World Wide Web. I mean THE authority. Nobody tracks blogs like Technorati does. The blog tracking business is specialized. N... More..
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Autumn: 39 of 42
Around the first part of October, we come upon the saddest season of all. It's fall. Or autumn. It's miserable enough that they thought it deserved two different names. The Earth revolves around the sun once a year. And it rotates on its axis once a day. I've always had a problem with people who never can remember the differ... More..
Sports & Recreation > Hockey Why hockey is a less popular than other sports: 14 of 15
Recently, a friend of mine encouraged me to become a hockey fan. "It's the fastest game in the world!" he exclaimed. Hah! Maybe he was referring to the speed of the puck, that flat, poor-excuse-for-a-ball - the size of a ham sandwich - that they use in the sport. Heck, when I watch hockey on television, the snow on the scree... More..
Arts & Humanities > Theater & Drama The first thing about acting...: 22 of 23
Study the details. Actors learn lines. Actors speak lines. Actors remember their blocking. And they remember to always face downstage. But then, so do cartoon characters. True thespians, on the other hand, spend the first five minutes of their career doing that. The rest of the time is spent working on the details. It's all ... More..
Relationships & Family > Divorce Psychology Why divorce rates have increased in recent times: 41 of 41
When I was young, I realized that I had two pairs of aunts and uncles that were related to each other both by blood and by marriage. Aunt #1 was married to Uncle #1 and Aunt #2 was married to Uncle #2. But Aunt #1 was the sister of Uncle #2. And Uncle #1 was the brother of Aunt #2. Nothing incestuous; it's just that a brothe... More..
Entertainment > TV Genres & Trends Remembering television in the 1960s: 14 of 14
There's nothing like comparing youthful memories of television with some young 30-something whipper-snapper to remind me exactly how old I am. I recently discovered that some of my co-workers didn't realize that TV stations used to play the Star-Spangled Banner every night at midnight. Why would they do that? That's silly. T... More..
Arts & Humanities > Thoughts on Writing Writing in a casual style: 14 of 14
Being somewhat of a linguistic snob, I take notice when I am accused of puncturing the Queen's English. So I was somewhat taken aback when I was privately chided for my use of the word "hopefully" in a recent article. I have chosen to come to my own defense. In the purist sense, "hopefully" means "in a hopeful manner". It is... More..