Thursday Thoughts: Online College Course & Distressed FX App

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because I want to be a better writer!*

I am thinking…casually…about taking online courses to earn a cool, new degree in something. That something is a big mystery to me, though. I want to give financially to our income. I have a desire to buy my our dream house one day, but that will take a lot of money. A lot of money we don’t have. I don’t want DH to be forced to work every single day of his life to pay off a new mortgage.

The soul of my passion lie within my writing. I enjoy giving of myself others, and to be a part of the same circle of people who share in the same passion. However, I am certain as night follows day my talents as an author in the sense of literary substance like a novel has many short comings. There are ideas floating inside that cavity I call my brain, but putting a story plot to paper, figuratively speaking, is a different matter entirely.

Bloggers are authors. There are many writers in Blogosphere who are excellent at penning their craft in a clever, informative, humorous, inspiring creative expressions of themselves. Me…not so much. My artistic niche is very much a work-in-progress. The one thing I can honestly say is consistent in my writing is the passing on of good information to my readers and I regard my efforts as “so-so” at best. I see myself as knowing little about much; meaning I have learned just enough from personal experience or research where I know a little about many things.

That is my cue to share with you, my discovered treasure, a free writing online course. This is an appealing and excellent opportunity to capitalize on freebie resources to boost one’s writing technique. Who knows, this venue may improve my blogging writing which could attract new sponsored posts, and it may springboard the novel hiding inside my head that’s just begging to climb the New York Times Best Sellers list. More money = dream house. More money = DH retires with ease. It’s time to put feet to my dreams so these things can come to pass. Join me in scooping out The Crafty Writer to unleashing one’s fullest potential!

Writing is a strong preoccupation of mine. Yes, I would love to build a career as a novelist or the blogger that I am. Another area of interest is photography. I am a novice, photo hobbyist with limited talent. A writer’s pen or in this case computer is like an artist’s brush. Both love to create. It doesn’t surprise me when my artsy side emerges when I am behind the camera or working with photo editing software to alter my picture to reshape the mood that my image will inspire.

Last week, my friend – Cheryl Tarrant, posted that her Apple photo editing app was newly upgraded. Intrigued by the process of adding layers and textures to redefine her original paintings or photographs produced cool results. As I said, I love to get creative and I didn’t hesitate to take advantage of Cheryl’s generous freebie offer.

You can either use images from your camera roll or snap a photo with the app to enhance your photo with one of several preset layering effects or you can do a custom layer, but I did not use that one. Here are a few examples from my iPhone – nothing fancy, just all in fun to road test the app using Cheryl’s preset backgrounds.

I give Distressed FX 4 out of 5 star approval rating and that’s only because I have minimal experience with the product. Get your copy now at the low price of 99¢. It’s not free, but it’s still a good deal!

Hmmm, I wonder… could my photo creations be the monetary highway to achieving my dream house come true?

We are never too old to learn new things. Years ago, I fantasized about returning to school after the kids were grown and left the nest. That day has come, but going back-to-school has gotten more expensive. I joined the 50s crowd almost two years ago. How many 50-year-old SAHM get a job after being out of the workplace 25 years? The cost of going back-to-school may or may not be justifiable in the end. DH’s retirement years are drawing near and aggressive money investment is mandatory now, if we wish to enjoy our golden years. However, realizing my vision doesn’t have to be fruitless.

Thanks to technology many universities across the country now offer free online courses for people to learn a new subject or earn a degree. When I was 18, I wanted to study architecture. I lacked the fortitude to pursue a degree in this field because it intimidated me. I’m not a timid girl today and welcome a mind stretch to succeed at something new.

In my search for free online courses, I stumbled upon Open Culture boasting about being the best free cultural & educational media on the web. I must admit, they do have an impressive list to choose from, including architecture which definitely sparked my desire to seriously consider enlightening my brain’s super power.

Another avenue worth investigating for online courses is iTuneU where you can choose from 14 career areas of study with completed lesson plans, lectures, assignments, and material lists. Education done a whole new way for those of us who did it old school first time around via online college courses.

1. Have you considered going back-to-school, what courses are you interested in?

2. Would you seek a new degree or expand upon an existing degree?

Visit Miss Jenny and the rest of the Alphabe-Thursday classroom for more homework assignments of the letter “O” and while you’re hopping around, be sure to play along with Miss Amanda in her latest edition of Thursday Two Questions.

Don’t forget to join my no-rule Thursday Thoughts linky party!