A is for Alpha α

The first letter of the Greek alphabet.  The root of alphabet along with the second Greek letter, beta. Another way of indicating a first rank – my school divided its years up into three classes, labelled 1, A and Alpha, indicating none was any better than the other.  I was in Alpha and, of course, we thought we were the best!

The alpha male is the top dog, the alpha star is (or was, in some cases) the brightest in its constellation.  Alpha can also be given as a first class rank for a piece of work in school or an examination.  An alpha particle (or ray) is a helium nucleus emitted by a radioactive substance – beta and gamma radiation are also listed, and are more deadly.

Alpha is also the amplifier for the NATO phonetic alphabet, where you spell out a word with these codewords for each letter.  JEMIMA is Juliet – Echo – Mike – India – Mike – Alpha.  The NATO alphabet is also known as the International Telemetry System, and it was devised for ease of understanding in radio messages.

That is my theme for the 2014 April A to Z Blog Challenge: to blog from Alpha to Zulu. I’ll be including some of my usual features within the Challenge – Tuesday’s haiku, Friday’s Flash Fiction – quite a challenge when Chuck Wendig has no connection with the A to Z team and I don’t know whether the task he sets each week will lend itself to the necessary keywords.  Saturday is Book Review day, and I’ve had to stretch that a bit to get my required word in.  It’ll be fun!  Leave comments, come and visit often, and watch out for tomorrow’s cover reveal and Giveaway, which will run throughout April.

Hang on – today’s Tuesday!  Where’s the haiku?

Here:

Alpha to Zulu

April’s challenge finds new friends

Blogging round the world

 

Tuesday haiku – Alpha
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47 thoughts on “Tuesday haiku – Alpha

  • 1 April, 2014 at 6:16 am
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    So much information, love it! Great 1st post. See you again tomorrow. 🙂

    • 1 April, 2014 at 11:50 am
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      Thanks, Sharon – looking forward to hopping over to see you 🙂

  • 1 April, 2014 at 9:03 am
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    Great bits of information!
    “1, A and Alpha” is a great idea! If there are more than 3 classes per year, one can add 1A, A1, 1Alpha, Alpha1, etc..

    • 1 April, 2014 at 11:51 am
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      You could name an awful lot of classes that way 🙂

  • 1 April, 2014 at 11:38 am
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    I’ve visited a lot of blogs today and I think the best thing about A-Z is connections and building friendships! Interesting theme and cute haiku! 🙂

    • 1 April, 2014 at 11:52 am
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      I agree, Aditi – AtoZ is wonderful for finding new friends 🙂 I’m off visiting, now!

    • 1 April, 2014 at 12:45 pm
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      Thanks, Noelle – hope yours goes well too 🙂

  • 1 April, 2014 at 1:49 pm
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    Alpha is the perfect A. It is a challenge to fit regular challenges into the A-Z challenge.

    • 1 April, 2014 at 5:56 pm
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      Hi Kristin – yes it is hard to fit the regular stuff in. Haikus are fine, and books can be selected well ahead – but I was lucky with this week’s flash fiction. I hope other weeks will go as well! Thanks for visiting 🙂

    • 1 April, 2014 at 6:08 pm
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      Thanks, Alex! I’ll get over to see you shortly 🙂

  • 1 April, 2014 at 3:18 pm
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    Hey, no fair! I’m just getting started on my day out here in the West, and you’re half done! And of COURSE you were in the best class! (We just got named by the grade and teacher’s initial, or the room number).

    • 1 April, 2014 at 6:11 pm
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      This is when you realise just how global AtoZ is now – I’m as far west of some of my visitors as you are from me!

  • 1 April, 2014 at 5:53 pm
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    🙂 I remember when we were in school, our classes were divided into three sections, A, B and C according to the second language we opted for.Somehow those in section A always thought they were superior.!

    Love your theme and the haiku at the end has my heart, Jemima!

    Love,

    Vidya

    • 1 April, 2014 at 6:12 pm
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      Glad you like it, Vidya. It’s been delightful being on Damyanti’s team with you!

  • 1 April, 2014 at 6:18 pm
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    Perfectly said, Jemima. Blogging around the world and finding new friends. Loving your choice for A, and the nice, succinct way in which you got the point across.
    Silvia @
    SilviaWrites

  • 1 April, 2014 at 7:14 pm
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    That is a great post and I love that it made me stop and think.

    • 1 April, 2014 at 8:29 pm
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      Thanks, Glenda. There are so many wonderful posts around – we’ll be doing a lot of stopping and thinking 🙂

  • 1 April, 2014 at 7:44 pm
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    It’s hard to find the time to make new friends AND keep the old AND blog! But It’s April and I’m going to give it a shot 🙂 Fun haiku

    • 1 April, 2014 at 8:30 pm
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      I know! It’s nearly the end of 1st April for me and I haven’t done half the visits that I wanted to!

  • 1 April, 2014 at 7:48 pm
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    How cute that you could make a haiju out of your A word and a very nice one at that!

    betty

    • 1 April, 2014 at 8:31 pm
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      Thanks, Betty. Tuesdays are haiku days here, so come back each Tuesday to see what I’ve done with the word of the day!

  • 2 April, 2014 at 12:16 am
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    When I worked at IBM, we deployed usage of the NATO or military phonetic alphabet, because “B” “C” and “D” wouldn’t cut it over the phone, when solving complicated strings of code with computer engineers. Rather than having everyone in a huge room of 100 engineers hollering “C as in Cat, MEOW!” or “D as in Dog, WOOF-WOOF” this was instituted, shortly after I arrived to cut down on the zoo-like quality that had pervaded our cube-farm. We needn’t have worried. Engineers are nigh untameable! Great post, Jemima!

    • 3 April, 2014 at 10:18 am
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      Thanks, Mary! I know what you mean about engineers!

  • 2 April, 2014 at 12:30 am
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    Cool theme, Jemima. Thank you for this post.
    Erica in Brisbane, Australia.

    • 2 April, 2014 at 8:28 pm
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      Thanks for visiting, Erica. How’s Brisbane today? (ir rather, tomorrow? You’re already well into Thursday!)

  • 2 April, 2014 at 3:57 pm
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    Hi, love your A letter, it’s A for Awesome…just love it. superb:)

    • 2 April, 2014 at 8:26 pm
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      Thank you – so nice of you to visit and say so 🙂

  • 2 April, 2014 at 8:52 pm
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    AtoZ is a challenge and fitting Haiku into A2Z id another challenge. Hats Off!

    • 2 April, 2014 at 10:11 pm
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      You’ll find a haiku here each Tuesday, Charu! Thanks for visiting 🙂

  • 11 April, 2014 at 5:47 am
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    Alpha is always a great place to start! Returning your visit in the A-Z Challenge!

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