Image via Wikipedia

I’m not too excited by meme tag. You know, one blogger tells about his 6 favorite Star Wars movies and challenges 6 friends to do the same. It’s sorta like breaking your friends writer’s block with chain mail.

I don’t condemn the practice. I steal memes from other bloggers all the time. (A meme, you know, is an idea. We bloggers call things by different names so as to impress you with coolness.) I defy you to find an original idea.

It’s just that I worked through endless writing prompts all the way through college. And I’ve given hundreds more prompts to the teenagers who’ve populated my classroom chairs, lo these 25 years.

So now, S’mee over at Knot in the String has tagged me with a meme. The “NO TAGGING” neon sign seems to have not been working. I respect S’mee, and I think the idea she is spreading is a good one. So I will relent, partially. I will blog on this meme, because it’s worth stealing.

My plan is to be a stick in the mud, though. I’ve found that as a teacher, every time I open my mouth and assign a writing topic, sooner or later, somebody expects me to grade what they’ve written. They’ll be no grading here. That’s too much like work.

BTW, The writing prompt is:

• Write about a time when you were the recipient of service,
• Write about a time when you gave service,
• Write about a time when I witnessed service being done by one person to another.

I encourage you to steal this idea. When you are done with your version, let S’mee know. She grades hard but she has been known to give out stickers and cookies for good work.

Oh yeah, my response is the next post.

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I'm in the blue seats on the right. Pic taken by Alan Levine

Saturday’s Word Camp proved to be a good one. I learned a lot of things about WordPress and a lot about blogging. I got some inspiration, some great BBQ, and WP swag.

Perhaps best of all, I got to spend the weekend with son 3. He’s in SF studying programming and music. He lives with a house full of room mates and knows a really good Thai restaurant.

I took some pictures with my cell phone but I like this one taken by Alan Levine before his presentation. He started off the morning with an overview of WordPress in education.

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