The Weekly Write-Up #18

Jan 22, 2023

I have EVEN MORE book series that I need to read!
Quite possibly the funniest YouTube channel!
Definitely the BEST journaling app out there!
I can legally drive now, and this is how!

Something I Read

BOOKS TO-READ #4

Once again, I have more books to read! There are so many books that I want to read, and I don’t have enough time to read all of them. When I do get to reading them (because I will eventually), I will review them, as always!

High Water Series: The High Water series is written by Tim Shoemaker, who is the author of The Code of Silence series. I’ve mentioned The Code of Silence series in a previous newsletter and will do my complete review next week since I’m almost done with the final book. I have really enjoyed The Code of Silence thus far, so I think that I will really enjoy the High Water series! As of right now, the High Water series is only two books, but the third book comes out in Spring 2023. According to the cover, this series is recommended for 12-14 year olds. I’m excited to read this series, but I’m going to wait until the third book comes out.
Wars of the Realm: Wars of the Realm is a trilogy written by Chuck Black. Black also wrote The Kingdom series, which is another great series that I have read. According to a review by Heather Burch on the cover of the book, “Angels and demons clash in an epic story laden with spiritual warfare.” The cover art also looks really cool, which always adds to my desire to read a book. This series sounds very intriguing, and I cannot wait to read it!
The Prince Warriors: New York Times Best-Selling author, Priscilla Shirer, writes The Prince Warrior series, along with Gina Detwiler. This series consists of a trilogy that is followed by a sequel which was written later. As with Shoemaker and Black, I have read Priscilla Shirer’s work before, but in the form of a devotion book. I did a Bible study with some of my friends that was called The Armor of God. From this, I know that Shirer is a good author. She is also an actress in the movie War Room. I’m excited to read The Prince Warriors series shortly!

I hope that you enjoyed my preview of these three book series! Feel free to check them out on your own. You should consider reading them because I know from their other books that Tim Shoemaker, Chuck Black, and Priscilla Shirer are all great authors. You should also check out my other “Books To-Read” articles by clicking the links below:

Something I Watched

DANIEL LABELLE

A while back, my dad sent me this video from a YouTuber named Daniel LaBelle. LaBelle has a YouTube channel where he posts hilarious videos for his audience. I watched that video and thought it was hilarious. Recently, one of his videos came into my YouTube feed. I watched it and was immediately hooked. The videos posted on this channel are hilarious! Basically, Daniel imagines situations that are crazy and acts them out in the videos. For example, different types of people, how different ages do different activities, different ways to move around or do chores, and how animals would do things if they were people. Some of my favorites include:

Seriously, watch one of the 7 conveniently-linked above videos right now, and I promise that you will laugh! Most of the videos are really short, anywhere from a minute to a little over 5 minutes. He also has a lot of YouTube shorts, as well as longer compilations. I love these videos and spend a few minutes of my daily hour of screen time watching a few of these short videos. The videos are clean and hilarious because of how much he exaggerates! There is also Daniel LaBelle Plus with some of the bloopers and behind the scenes (I have only watched one of them). I hope that you enjoy watching some of his videos!

Tech Thoughts

DAY ONE

A common New Year’s resolution is to journal every day or at least every so often. Let’s be honest, though...most people break this resolution after what...three days? Today I want to talk about an amazing way to journal and quite possibly, even fulfill your New Year’s resolution to journal more often! Now, I know that we are way past New Year’s Day, but it is never too late to start! In addition, I would like to give you some journaling ideas since deciding what to journal about is often the hardest part of journaling.

DayOne is a simple app and is very easy to use. It is easy to create a journal entry and write within that journal entry. Anyone can use the DayOne app because it is just that convenient. It is easy to start writing, add attachments, and view your previous journal entries. Something else that is very important when it comes to journaling is accountability. DayOne definitely keeps you accountable. You can set up notifications to remind you to journal. It will show your streak and how often you write in your journal. Something else useful is the fact that within a journal entry, you can see the date and time it was written, the location, what activity you were doing at the time, what tags you have assigned to it, how long it took you to write it, the weather, the creation device, the length and stats, what music you were listening to, and even the phase of the moon! When it comes to organization, DayOne has no trouble. You can create separate journals for different kinds of entries (I will list some journal examples below). Finally, you can see journal entries that you have written ‘on this day’ in the past!

DayOne has so much more to offer including a passcode to lock the app, customizable colors and app icon, syncing across devices, texting to your journal, exporting, and book printing. With premium, you can use your journal across unlimited devices, have unlimited journals, add videos to your entry, use audio recording with optional voice transcription to text, drawing, text message reminders, email to entry, bonus journal colors and app icons, and so much more!

Entry Ideas:

Daily Gratitude: Each day write one thing that you are grateful for. This can just be one sentence or longer if you would like. I try to do this almost every day just to remind myself of God’s blessings to me.
Weekly Review: At the end of each week (or during the week), write about 3-5 of the biggest things that happened to you this week.
Daily Prompt: Another great thing about DayOne is the daily prompt. Each day, DayOne will give you a prompt which you can answer in a journal entry. The cool thing about these prompts is that they are pretty open-ended, so your entry can be short or much longer!
Daily Summary: Write a few sentences or even just bullet point about what you accomplished today and what you experienced.

Journal Ideas:

The following are actual journals that I have on DayOne currently:

Life Journal: This is where I keep everything that happens in my life. I write about how my day went and things I accomplished.
Gratitude Journal: Like I said above, I try to write something that I’m grateful for each day, and this is where I keep those entries.
Thoughts Journal: This could be combined with the life journal, but this journal is where I keep all of my thoughts (hence the name) and what is going on inside my head, whether it be emotionally, spiritually, etc.
Prayer Journal: Another good journal idea is writing out prayers in your journal so that you can look back on them and reflect.
Daily Prompt Journal: As I said above, DayOne has a daily prompt for each day and this journal is where I keep all of those!

Thanks for reading today’s Tech Thoughts! You should definitely check out DayOne by going to their website here. I hope that this section was helpful, whether it be the review of the app or giving you some journal ideas for your own journal!

Wild Card

DRIVER’S ED

A few weeks back, I was able to obtain my learner’s permit for driving. If you or your child is looking to get a learner’s permit, this article may be helpful to you. I will briefly go over some of the steps to getting a permit, but I am mostly focusing on reviewing my Driver’s ED course.

Buying a Driver’s ED course and taking it is the first step, and this is where the National Highway Safety Administration Driver’s ED Online course comes in to play. This is the Driver’s ED course that I used to get my permit. I would definitely recommend this course because it was easy to use and extremely well crafted. It actually looks great whether you use it on a computer, tablet, or phone. It was basically a slideshow that you went through with text on each slide, and after each slide there would be a question. There were also some videos thrown in. Some of these we fascinating, others informative, and others...terrifying. They get the point across, though, and that is the important part. I would say that overall this course definitely got the information to me that I needed. I was able to pass my permit knowledge exam without too much difficulty, so I would conclude that this course prepared me well. You can use it in any state, and they have sales very often. Click here to visit the website.

Before you go the BMV, you will also have to read the Driver’s manual for your state, which can be found as a PDF at the end of the Driver’s ED course. Next, you need to apply for a 6-hour behind-the-wheel Driver Education school. This is DIFFERENT than the Driver’s ED course. You should also apply for this a few days before planning to go to the BMV because it takes them a few days to mail you the CDE (certificate of Driver Education). Don’t end up like me: I thought I was going to be able to get my permit the day I finished the online course, but I didn’t know about this step so I had to wait multiple days before going. The next step is getting paperwork together (listed in an appendix of your Driver’s manual) to take to the BMV to prove that you are a citizen and so on. The final step is going to the BMV. You will take a knowledge exam about everything you learn in Driver’s ED (make sure you study) and also take a vision test. After this, you will get your permit and be able to start driving with your parent or with an instructor from the Driver’s Education school that you signed up for. So there you go! Those are the simple steps to be able to start driving. It will take time to complete these steps (mostly the course), but once you finish it, it will be worth it! Trust me!

Note: This outline stated above is not exhaustive, so check your Driver’s manual and the instructions stated by the BMV in your state.

This was definitely a long newsletter, so thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this newsletter or found it helpful, consider liking this post and subscribing if you haven’t already. See you next week!