I have a best friend who, if you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know goes by the name of John (mostly because that’s his name) but I’ve thought about changing it. I already have, on occasion.
John is a fan of making sound effects. I don’t know if he really realizes he’s doing it, but often when he sits down across from me at my kitchen table he says “plonk” as his butt comes in contact with the chair. So I’ve started calling him Batman.
I wonder sometimes about my seeming obsession with grammar. Where some people may hear a “sound effect” when someone does what my BFF does, I identify it with onomatopoeia. Does that equal obsession? Or is it simply because I’m in the throes of editing that it’s with me constantly? I can tell you, it’s killing me that I’m not able to edit this.
My concentration is shot – Alex’s friend just came over to play video games. With the sound on. (Normally I don’t have to listen to movies, shows, and games since Alex is Deaf – his friend is hearing.) So my world is full of sound effects. Whoopie!
Did someone say Friday? Yes! It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! I can’t think of a thing to say to lead up to today’s prompt, so here we go, short and sweet:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “onomatopoeia.” An onomatopoeia is “the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.” (Source: Google) Find an onomatopoeic word of your own to base your post on or, as a last resort, use the word “drip.” You don’t have to use the word “onomatopoeia” in your post. Have fun!
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!
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. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), 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.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
I have to wonder sometimes at its fairness – how some of us get to stay relatively healthy while we watch our loved-ones fall apart.
Some believe it’s all predestined: were those who are put into the role of caregiver always meant to be one? Were they somehow chosen? I’ve heard it said that people who have ended up caring for others may be challenged by a higher power… that they are, by divine intervention, simply the person for the job. Some are able to make their own choice to work in the service of those who are less fortunate, or who are sick, some have no choice other than the choice to run away.
I’m a great believer that everything happens for a reason, though not necessarily in a mystical sense. Good and bad must always have a balance. The weights tip back and forth but nothing is ever absolute. Therefore what weakens us or challenges us can also strengthen us. Positivity can be found in the worst imaginable scenario, if we look hard enough.
What I struggle with mostly is deciding whether being the healthy one is a blessing or a curse. At first glance you think those who are ill have it the worst – and they do. There is no questioning that. But. What of the caregiver, having to watch those he or she loves suffer so?
I suppose it all comes down to the old adage, life is what you make it. In the darkest times, light can be found. But for whom is it hardest to find?
Good news! I received an email this morning from Jason, aka Opinionated Man, to say that his site, HarsH ReaLiTy, will be open for viewing, though he will no longer be blogging. He read your comments (I would imagine there were a fair few emails that went out to him too) on my previous post and decided that enough people were interested in reading his work that he has chosen not to delete it.
All is well with him and his family, and he says he’s keeping busy and having fun with other ventures, though he didn’t specify what they are.
My internet connectivity has been so spotty today it may as well have measles. So I’m on the little transformer – a glorified tablet with a keyboard attached – that I took to Japan with me. It fits in my purse but unlike my laptop seems to have a good, well, decent, wireless capability.
You see, I’m not at home. I’m out visiting a college campus as it’s the cheapest place I could find to stay. It’s my weekend off and since my ex has no where else to go, he’s looking after the kids at my house. It’s my only chance to get some work done. And working I have been! I’m so very happy to be almost at the end of my current edit. Then it will be back to the beginning of the novel once more and that should be it.
I do very much hope to start blogging again too, and to begin reading all the great blogs out there that I have sorely missed. I also hope to actually write something interesting soon… I think this post has failed miserably.
That’s enough information overload about me. What’s new with you?
It’s that time again; the moment you’ve all been waiting for… It’s Friday! And time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! This morning as I was getting dressed and wondering, as I do, what I might post for the prompt, I did something distinctly different: I put my left leg in my jeans before the right and it felt so weird! Too much information? Right, onto the reason we’re here:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “information.” Use it as your theme or use the word itself – it’s all up to you. Enjoy!
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!
So soon on the heels of the demise of the WordPress site “Mindful Digressions,” hosted by the amazing Doobster, comes the closure of HarsH ReaLiTy, brainchild of our beloved Opinionated Man, Jason Chandler Cushman.
I met Jason shortly after I started writing here on Life in Progress – I commented on one of his posts and was flabbergasted when he responded. From that day forward I knew what it took to gain a following, and quickly learned that there is a community at WordPress – one that is supportive, caring, and friendly. I thought about deleting my post “Save HarsH ReaLiTy,” but I think I’ll keep it open – it illustrates more than anything I’ve seen so far what a fantastic place we have here. You can view it here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/14/save-harsh-reality/ Most of all, read the comments. They are inspiring and heartwarming both.
Belinda at Idiot Writing – https://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/ – and I received an email:
If you have the chance please let people know that HarsH ReaLiTy is closed and is set to private until it can be deleted. I wish everyone the best and appreciate the connections I made over the past two years.
For all the lessons you taught us, for all the support you gave us with re-blogs, challenges, and posts to share our own sites, for all the lively and entertaining discussions, I wish to say thank you, Cush. It was a real pleasure to get to know you. Your footprints in the sand (or snow) of my memory will remain.
In the spirit of OM’s mission on WordPress, please feel free to leave your tribute to Jason in the comments, or a link to your own post about him and what he meant to you. And check out each other’s sites. Let’s make Jason proud of what he accomplished!
As we remember all the wonderful, humorous articles and lists, the amusing one-liners, the controversial opinion pieces, and the loving photos of his family, let us lift a glass to our friend.
Cheers, Jason! May you and your beautiful family live a long and prosperous life!
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. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), 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.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
lindaghill.com 