Life in progress

Monthly Archives: August 2015


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SoCS – The Build-Up before the Fall

I can’t be the only one this happens to: I’ll have something–an event–to look forward to and I’m so enthusiastic about it that I can’t wait. I look forward to this one thing so much that I’ll begin to imagine what it’ll be like. How much fun it will be. And then the day comes when it’s actually going to happen…

And I don’t feel like going.

I’ve been thinking about what this phenomenon must be caused by, and the only thing I can come up with is that I’m afraid whatever it is won’t measure up to my expectations. That I’ve built the event up so much in my mind that nothing can possibly match it. And the longer I wait for it, the more I don’t want to do it, because I’ve had so long to envision what it’s going to be like that I’ve basically already done it in my head.

Enthusiasm is such a fickle thing, isn’t it? It’s like when I get an idea for a story in my head that I just HAVE to get down on paper. It’s gonna be great! But if I don’t get to writing it almost immediately, it becomes, ehh, whatever.

There should be an opposite for enthusiasm. You’re either enthused or unenthused… but unenthusiastic isn’t quite the right word, in my mind. Disenthusiastic, on the other hand, comes closer. Un-, to me, means I never was. Dis-, to me, means I was and then I wasn’t.

Do you ever write a word so many times that it stops making sense anymore? Or just doesn’t look right. I’m getting that now…

This late entry is part of SoCS, which in this case stands for Stream of Consciousness Sunday. Feel free to use it occasionally. You can find the rules here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/08/07/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-815/

Happy Sunday, all.

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

P.S. Don’t forget the new badge contest! You can find it here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/08/06/get-out-your-crayons-kids-its-time-for-the-2nd-annual-socs-badge-contest/ Let’s have some enthusiasm! Go, artists and photographers, Go!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 8/15

Friday’s here, and once again it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. There aren’t a lot of new things going on in my life – I’ve been busy but oddly content. All in all I’d have to say it’s been a nice week. On with the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “enthuse.”  Add a prefix or suffix to it or leave it as it is and go to town with it! 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!! And don’t forget, there’s a contest for a new badge. Click here to enter! https://lindaghill.com/2015/08/06/get-out-your-crayons-kids-its-time-for-the-2nd-annual-socs-badge-contest/

socs-badge

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,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

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!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


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Step Through The Lost Door

Here’s a great deal on some really great books! I highly recommend this series – check it out!
Note: Comments closed here. Please visit the original post.

MishaBurnett's avatarmishaburnett

This week, starting today August 6th, through next Thursday, August 13th, all four volumes of my series The Book Of Lost Doors will be on sale for 99 cents each.

4Promo

Please help me spread the word!

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Get out your crayons, kids, it’s time for the 2nd Annual SoCS Badge Contest!

Contest closed: Please go here https://lindaghill.com/2015/08/13/please-vote-for-the-new-socs-badge-here/ to vote.

It was a year ago tomorrow that I announced the Saturday Stream of Consciousness Badge Contest, and a year ago next week that we voted on this beautiful badge

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

to represent us every week. The decision to make this an annual contest was a tough one. Many of us miss Doobster and using his badge seems a great way to remember him. What I’d like to propose is, anyone who has attached this amazing work of art to one of their posts might attach it as a widget to his or her page. Sometime in the next week I’ll endeavour to put a date on it for that purpose.

So, that out of the way, let’s move on!

I’ll be taking entries for the next seven days (today included) for Stream of Consciousness Saturday badge designs. Here are the guidelines:

1. The design can be anything you want it to be but it must include either “Stream of Consciousness Saturday” or “SoCS” and your name and/or the name of your website.

2. Any pictures (art or photo–it doesn’t have to be crayon) must be your own.

3. All entries will be posted here on my blog on Thursday August 13th, 2015, along with a poll that will close the next day, on Friday the 14th. I would ask that each of the entrants make a blog post on their own website with their artwork so that I can post links for voters to check them out, and that they link their post back HERE in the comment section no later than Wednesday August 12th. All links included here will be added to the voting list.

4. The winner’s badge will be available for anyone who participates in Stream of Consciousness Saturday to post permanently on their website as a widget and/or to embed in each weekly SoCS post.

5. One entry per person. The contest is open to anyone with a blog, WordPress or otherwise (see #3 for entry requirements).

6, Poll results will not be available while the poll is open. If there is a tie, I will choose the winner myself.

7. If I’ve missed anything, or if you have any questions please ask in the comment section below.

8. Have fun!

Note: The posting of the winning badge with a SoCS post/on a participant’s website will not be a requirement. It’s purely for entertainment/recognition purposes.


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One-Liner Wednesday – Either I’m really short…

Guess where I was yesterday.

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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:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use the tag #1lineWed for more exposure.

Have fun!


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SoCS – Ever Ready

The word “ready” has been tiptoeing around my head all day. Doing a ballet, actually. Unfortunately the pirouettes caused me to have to pop a couple of Tylenols, but I had them at the ready. So that was okay.

“Ready,” I’ve decided, should be an emotion. It’s an abstract sort of thing – ready isn’t something you can touch. It’s not something you can do. It’s the cusp of doing something… the edge of an action. When you’re teetering you may take the plunge before you’re ready just to find that you were ready after all. The opposite can be disastrous.

A machine can be ready but it still takes a human being (most of the time) to make it do what it’s ready for. Is the human ready? What decides us if we’re ready? Desperation, definitely. It’s a gathering of the emotions, isn’t it? Sometimes the gathering is slow – a culmination of years of want, of desire, of need. Sometimes the choice comes upon us suddenly, as in “it’s now or never!” Regardless, we take logic into account (sometimes), but in the end, “ready” is a feeling.

So next time you ask someone how they feel, give them the option: are you sad? happy? scared? content? ready?

And yeah, they’ll probably look at you with their eyebrows scrunched up in the middle and say, “Ready for what?” To which you may reply, “It was just something I read somewhere.”

This tired example of stream of consciousness writing is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/07/31/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-115/ Be sure to join in next week!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions