Okay, I admit it; sometimes my grammar isn’t perfect. Oh sorry, did I forget to ask you to sit down before I dropped my bombshell? That’ll heal, don’t worry.
But seriously, I get tired of trying to write right all the time. It takes, like, brain cells and stuff to make sure I edit the hell out of every single solitary sentence I compose. And so while I do try to do my best here on my blog, I don’t always make sure my comments, my emails and (oh God) my texts are the essence of grammatical excellence. In fact when I’m in a hurry, I’ve actually been known to write things like “u” instead of “you” when tapping out a message on my phone. Don’t all gasp at once!
Is it lack of professionalism? Is it laziness? Or is it a bid to preserve the ever-decreasing amount of grey matter I possess due to the many things I have to deal with in any given moment?
What’s your excuse?
This grammatically questionable post has been brought to you in conjunction with Mr. Mark’s Roadshow
I used this prompt to look up a new word. A new word for me, at least. I’d always wondered what it meant; now I know. The word is “insouciant.” It means easy-going, gay, happy-go-lucky, and untroubled.
I want to be insouciant. It’s pronounced “in-soo-see-ant” if you’re wondering. I want to be carefree and not worried about anything. And I think I can be, if I really want to. How, you may ask, would someone with as many people relying on them as I have be insouciant?
I think the key (or one of them) is in not procrastinating. I find that if I put things off I end up with a whole ball of stress sitting with me at the end of the day – stress caused by all the things I need to do tomorrow because I did none of them today. It adds up and I end up worrying. And uninsouciant. According to my spellcheck that’s not a word… and neither is spellcheck. Go figure. But will I worry about that? Hell no!
How else can I be insouciant? I think just by deciding not to worry about things I can be a little more carefree. Not to say that I don’t consider my responsibilities important… but only concentrating on what’s in front of me rather than doing things I’m supposed to be doing AND worrying that I’m not doing something else – that’s senseless. In fact, by fully focusing on the task at hand, I’m more likely to be more efficient at it than if my mind is elsewhere.
So here’s to insouciance! Practice with me, won’t you?
Team Pepper (aka Team AWESOME) captain Mr. Mark has been kind enough to conduct a social media experiment on my behalf, to get Best Buy’s attention. Check out his post and let’s see how far this can go.
THANK YOU, MR. MARK!!!
She took her broken laptop to her Geek Squad reps with a battery problem half a year ago. The battery they ordered just came in. It was the wrong battery. They want her to wait around some more.
She wondered in her little story why they don’t give her a new laptop. Take a look at the happy Geek Squad agents in the logo I culled directly from their site above? Don’t they look like they might get on the phone, call headquarters, and get the OK to…
Me: I’ll start at the beginning, shall I? Here we go. In April, or maybe even March, I came in with my laptop because the battery was shutting the machine off at 70% power. You took it and you “fixed” it, but the battery was still fucked. So your manager promised me a new battery. Last week–yes, 7 or 8 months later–I finally got my new battery. I’d like to know if you can put it in for me. …oh wait! I can answer that question for you. NO! You can’t put my new battery in because you ordered the wrong one!
Geek Squad Mike: I have no idea which idiot ordered the wrong battery for you: here’s a new laptop, free of charge!
How it actually went:
Geek Squad Mike: How can I help you?
Me: I got the wrong battery.
Geek Squad Mike: What’s your phone number, I’ll look that up for you.
Ten minutes later:
Geek Squad Mike: (who has been joined by Geek Squad Dillon) We can order the new battery for you. I’ll leave you with Dillon: he knows more than I do. He’s the computer genius.
Me: Yes, he’s the computer genius who ordered the wrong battery for me last time.
For some reason, Geek Squad Dillon didn’t think that was funny.
True story.
This true story has been brought to you in conjunction with Mr. Mark:
Welcome to the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Here you will find fun and excitement in blogging excellence all in the comment section… But first, we need writers!
This week’s Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in-” Find a word that begins with the prefix “in” or use the word itself anywhere in your post. Easy!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
Thursday is the hardest day to blog for me lately. I have a major paper delivery to do on Thursdays – one free one for every house on my route, with fliers. They’re heavy, bulky, and 124 houses add up to a lot of front steps. Then I come home and nine times out of ten I have absolutely nothing to talk about because, believe it or not, delivering tomes that weigh as much as an entire collection of encyclopedias to each and every house on the block is usually uneventful. Unless you want to hear about how many cats I petted (5), or how many squirrels crossed my path, (35 1/2… don’t ask), then you’re not going to get much of anything out of me on a Thursday.
Is there a day of the week that’s more difficult, or less inspiring than all the others for you? Why do you think that is? I wanna know.
The above blather has been brought to you by Mr. Mark:
I saw these tracks in the snow this morning; they seemed odd.
I studied them for a while before I came to a definite conclusion as to what they meant. Obviously they were made by a disgruntled squirrel, dragging his wagon behind him.
And then I saw the note.
I’d say that pretty much confirms it. This snow is for the birds.
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
There’s more that one bit of good news in this though. The nine books only cost me $21, and the proceeds went to the Alzheimer’s Society.
But while I was browsing the thousands of books for sale that day, I got to thinking: what if I had my book published and gave away copies at events such as the Alzheimer’s book sale? Wouldn’t that be a neat way not only to get my novel out there, but to give to a worthwhile charity at the same time? Heck, I could even sit there and sign them. But then I got to thinking – does that make the sale suddenly more about me than the cause?
What do you think? Should this even be a tough call?