MenoAZering; U=Ukraine

For April, I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z, and you will find original images created by me and some ramblings to go with them. I will capitalise words that begin with the featured letter (on first use only). Let me know what you think of the pics, words, or both in the comments! For more of this madness, you can visit Blogchatter.

It would be almost impossible, I feel, to go through the alphabet this year without acknowledging the most news-dominant conflict, that of UKRAINE against its much larger, darker cousin, Russia. Or, more specifically, Putin. It galvanised all of Europe and many of the world's other major powers into the more UNCONVENTIONAL battle methodology of economic sanctions against the aggressor. All the words have said, 'we are not at war and will not be drawn into war'... yet the effects of war reach out to us all.

Let the news channels of your own choice inform you more about this. Today I would like to share a recent discovery that tied me more to that country than my sympathies already did.

A few years back, I took the financial plunge into subscribing to an excellent software product called Grammarly. As a life-long touch typist and having experience in proofing and editing, I was ready to admit that menoplyxinaemia had robbed me somewhat of my sharper faculty in those things and was getting frustrated at the UNEXPECTED change in my typing wherein my fingers decided they could work independently of my brain and skip words, phrases, and switch letters around. I had to re-read my posts and messages nth of times to ensure they measured UP. And still, some escaped me. The discovery of Grammarly was a revelation. It was recommended on a writers forum I was frequenting at the time. It was also not cheap. However, I have never regretted the investment. (Just so you know, and if you are interested, you can try a reduced service free version from Chrome Store/Google Play. There are also extensions for Safari, Firefox and Edge.)

What has this to do with Ukraine? Well, it was only a few weeks back, when sharing a link for the software with a friend, that I came upon a piece of info that surprised me. USUALLY, I research everything, and I wondered how this info had not hit me before now. Perhaps because the business is homed in California. The "about" page of the product says nothing much about the founders - and it is not unusual to see names of eastern European origin in the USA. However, in going there in the spirit of sharing, I was interested that they had changed their logo to the colours of the Ukrainian flag. That's quite the move for a large corporation. Thus a little more digging was required by the YAMster, aka Miss Marple Heavy. (No one would ever class me as 'lite'.) 

It turns out the three gents who set it all going are Ukrainians. The programmer escapes focus in most articles. The two key guys, now Canadian citizens, are doing well out of their initiative. The recent logo change is part of broader support set up by Grammarly, wherein they are sending significant funds to the Ukraine war efforts. 

UNPAID advertorial post? Not intended as such... but I do actually love this writing companion and, while quite often I over-ride recommendations, and it is also not 100% accurate on spelling assessment, it says something that even on my very tight budget I am prepared to continue with the annual fee. And I think - weirdly - that fondness grew a few notches for its having Ukrainian roots. It is entirely possible that some of you beat me to the news of its origins... but that is no reason for me not to own up to my own increased awareness.