Manuela Blanco Romasanto was born on November 18, 1809 in Regueiro, Spain. Not much was known about Manuela’s early life except that when she turned 6, her doctor determined that she was not a girl as they had previously believed. The family began to treat her as a boy, and when she was 8, her name was changed to Manuel Blanco Romasanto.

Manuel was well educated for the time. That would bring the assumption that the family was relatively well off. However, he excelled at more “feminine” skills such as sewing, cleaning, and cooking. He made his living as a…

Enriqueta Marti was born in a small town in the countryside of Spain in 1868. As a young lady, she moved into Barcelona to find a way to make her living. She worked as a maid and a nanny but soon found that she could make even more money by offering her body for sale.

Enriqueta worked as a prostitute for many years. She even opened her own brothel in 1909. She had been married, but the relationship could not survive her career path. Her brothel was very successful and had many affluent and influential clients. …

What are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are a direct reaction to the explosion of TikTok in the last year or so. Anyone can upload a vertically oriented video that is 58 seconds or less to YouTube and it can be considered a “short”. It helps if you include the hashtag #shorts in your title or your description if you don’t have the uploader.

Shorts can show up in your channel in their own section and there is a specific section that shows up on the YouTube homepage that shows just shorts. This is called the “short shelf”.

Why Should Small YouTubers Consider Using Shorts?

For the most part, shorts are easier…

The Story

Lara felt rushed that morning. There was so much to do before she made her yearly secret journey. Her husband had left for his work early and knew that she had some shopping to do. She had arranged for his sister to watch her precious three-year-old son for the day.

With a small bag and her entire savings, Lara set out for Hierapolis. She stopped at a barn outside of town and stealthily opened her bag. Inside, she had a change of clothes. Thankfully, the slaves in the city wore clothes that included a veil so she would not be…

With the recent Netflix documentary, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, public interest has risen yet again at this chilling landmark. The documentary focuses on the case of Elisa Lam, but it does mention some of the other horrific events in the history of the hotel. The story that fascinates me is the story of Jack Unterweger.

At the Cecil Hotel

In 1991, Jack Unterweger checked into the notorious Cecil Hotel. Some theorize that he chose the Cecil Hotel based upon his admiration for the other serial killer Robert Ramirez, the Night Stalker, who had supposedly spent time there as well (although…

I grew up in a small midwestern town in the United States. There was not a lot of diversity in our community, but I had a desire to learn Spanish. My 6th-grade teacher went out of her way to teach me a few basic phrases, but I didn’t get an opportunity to really start studying the language until high school.

I had a burning desire to learn Spanish and I went above and beyond my classroom lessons. With the technology available today, these ideas are even more effective.

1. Listen to the radio in your target language

When I was learning Spanish, this really wasn’t an option for me…

For the last couple of months, I have been focusing on making some positive changes in my life. I have always struggled with a very negative spiral of thoughts that has led me to a deep depression. There were lots of “causes” for my negative thoughts, but I have made a lot of progress in the last few years of quieting my mind.

About the Book

I picked up this book at Target not realizing that it was a “Christian” book. That’s not an issue for me, but there wasn’t anything in the title that hinted at spirituality. This is one of those…

It’s two o’clock in the morning on February 16, 2021. I’m in Texas. I’m in one of the worst winter storms that Texas has ever seen. I just got electricity back after being in the dark for more than 8 hours. Let’s just say I’m not a happy camper.

I grew up in Illinois. We had snowstorms and bad weather. Occasionally we would lose power, but it was usually due to a powerline that got taken out by a frozen tree branch. Not because of rolling blackouts.

We started hearing about the bad storm coming late last week. We were…