Life in progress

Monthly Archives: October 2015


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#SoCS – Strangely Enough

Strangely enough, I’m still tired after sleeping until 10am (thanks, Alex for letting me lay in) and so I’m writing this while I wait for my tea to steep. I’m a bit picky about how I make my tea. I used to have a teapot, but it broke and I haven’t bothered to get another one. So I have this cup that came with a lid and a plastic basket for the tea bag that I use all the time. I still always put the milk in first, even though I’m pouring boiling water over the tea bag in the cup. (I can hear all you teaophiles gasping. But I’m halfway there, aren’t I?) It makes a pretty decent cup of tea.

I find it strange how things work out sometimes too. For instance, as I already noted, I woke up at 10, which means I didn’t start Alex’s first feed on his feeding pump until 10:20. The feed takes about 2 hours to go through, so he finished his breakfast at 12 or so. He’s having his lunch now, at 3:46pm, which means it’s going to be a late night for me as he’ll want to go out trick or treating before he has his dinner. BUT. I’m hanging on to the fact that we have an extra hour tonight. It’s like a gift from the g-tube god. Or the clock god. Or maybe it’s some sort of spooky Halloween god-type-vampire who goes around giving rest instead of taking blood. Or something. Did I mention I’m tired?

I went for a walk with, Alex, my best friend John, and his two young granddaughters today.  There was an elderly gentleman walking a little dog (we were on the path that runs along the water) and the two girls ran up to the man and asked if they could pet the dog. It both amazes and scares me how easy it is for little children to run up and talk to strangers. I do say hello to people I pass on the trail all the time, but at least I’m more than two and a half feet tall and weigh more than 40 pounds.

Anyway, now I’m rambling and my tea is ready. I’ll leave you with a pretty picture of the water though, that I took a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

CAM00971

This post has been brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in today: https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-3115/

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Get a Free Kindle Book!

It’s a free book, but only if you get it today! You can read my review on Amazon.ca or at Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27202547-business-as-usual
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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Oct 31/15

It’s the Friday before Hallowe’en and guess what? I’m still posting a prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Did you know there won’t be another Saturday Hallowe’en until 2020? It’s true. I looked it up. It’s made me wonder what I’m going to do if and when Christmas falls on a Saturday… Oh well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes. On to the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “strange/stranger/strangest.”  Use one, use ’em all, or just let them inspire you. 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!!

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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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I reached a milestone today!

The more you blog the longer it takes to get from point to point, but today I hit a milestone I’ve been working at for a while. Today, I made it to 100,000 views. 🙂

I’ve learned a lot over these past years of blogging. Most of all I’ve found that there are many wonderful people in this WordPress community who experience the same joys and the same tribulations as I do on a day to day basis. I’ve made friends – I’ve even met five of you in person! I hope to be here for a good long time and to meet a whole heck of a lot more of you!

And so I’d like to say thank you to all of the people who clicked on my posts in the past two years and ten months. And to the ones who visited today for the first time, no thanks to you… but thanks for helping me get to 200K! 😀

Cheers!


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One-Liner Wednesday – It’s a faux pas

Ha!

From Q107 Toronto on Facebook

From Q107 Toronto on Facebook

“I hate when people think they can just waltz into my room when what I’m listening to is clearly in 4/4.”

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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 our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Have fun!


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Tuesday Use It In A Sentence – Pride

The lion took pride in his pride. The zoo tried, and they tried until they finally pried him from his enclosure; he was just getting too old and they needed more young’uns.

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Here are the prompt rules:

  1. Make a sentence with the word of the week. Leave it as just a sentence or write a post to go with it.
  2. Try to do it on Tuesday.
  3. Include the hashtag #tuesdayuseitinasentence.
  4. Post it on Twitter and/or Facebook (if you have a public site) and/or Pinterest and/or WordPress and/or any other social media site you belong to.
  5. Participate as many times as you’d like. You can write a different sentence for each platform, but please keep it to one sentence per post.
  6. I will be trolling Twitter for the hashtag, so watch my Twitter feed in the sidebar for retweets. Make sure to connect on Twitter with other participants!
  7. If you post your sentence here on WordPress or on any other site where there’s a clickable link, include the link in the comment section for this week.
  8. Google #tuesdayuseitinasentence to find other participants! The more you connect, the bigger it gets and the more views and followers you’ll have.
  9. Have fun!

 

What are you waiting for? Make up a sentence and join in!

P.S. This is my last week doing this prompt: we’ll have a team of two taking over next week. I hope you’ll continue to participate!


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Tuesday Use It In a Sentence

Yes, I know it’s not Tuesday. And I’m not here with a prompt. I’m actually here with an offer.

I started Tuesday Use It In a Sentence three weeks ago with visions of a prompt that would spread far and wide over the vastness that is the internet – and it still can! But I have neither the time nor the energy to host a third weekly get-together. I thought I did. I was wrong.

So I’m here tonight to see if there’s anyone who would like to take over. I’ll participate in it, and there were five bloggers and tweeters combined who joined in last week, which is about how many I started with when I began Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Any takers? Email me at bacamjoly at gmail dot com and we’ll talk about what’s involved. The first person who’s seriously interested can have it. Or maybe two people would like to share it… the possibilities are endless. If you’d like to see what it’s all about, click here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/20/tuesday-use-it-in-a-sentence-overrun/

It seems a shame to just let it die after three whole weeks. 😛

Edit: I’ve had one person respond. I’m just waiting for her to confirm.


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Under the Category of…

…things one thinks about at one in the morning after a couple of glasses of wine…

Something the people who have met me in person know that most of you cannot is that I have a slight English accent. I acquired it from my parents, even though I was born and raised in Canada. I used to say I was born with an accent – I was teased relentlessly as a child for it. Most of it has disappeared but…

I was talking to myself at one this morning after a couple of glasses of wine (did I mention that?) and I said to myself, I wonder if I think in Canadian or English? And then I got to thinking.

What accent do we think in? Do we think how we speak? Or is there a language of thought?

In the immortal word of Bill and Ted on their excellent adventure, Whoa!!

bill_ted_whoa


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Business As Usual by Sirius Bizinus – A Book Review

Business As UsualBusiness As Usual by Sirius Bizinus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes irreverent, always bizarre, Business As Usual is a hard book to put down. Set in a freakishly corrupt world through which the main character wades through her first day on the job, it balances between social commentary and how society worships both its deities and the almighty buck. I found myself nodding my head as many times as I laughed out loud.

It’s a fantastic first time out for a new author. I recommend this novel to anyone who wants a combination of a good giggle and a thought-provoking read; as I said, bizarre. In a good way.

View all my reviews

And now it’s out in print too! Click here for details.


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Why Beef? #SoCS

I’m not sure what I was hoping for when I made “beef” the word of the week in my prompt. Was I looking for recipes? Perhaps. A bunch of rants on what people had complaints or “beefs” about? Maybe. A throwing up of hands from the vegetarians who follow me? Diatribes from people who can’t seem to put on weight? That might be fun. I actually wanted to wait until I had my own post written before I read anyone else’s, so that’s what I’ve done.

I rarely air my own “beefs” in public. Or even in private for that matter. When people or situations (but mostly people) get on my nerves I normally first try to determine why they’re getting on my nerves. Is it just me? Is there a reason behind it? It’s not until I’m pretty sure they (the people or the situations) are really out to get me that I’ll go off on my own little rant.

There are words that get my goat. And phrases too. Most of the phrases are made up of bad grammar, but words like “portion,” OH OH and when someone describes a certain aspect of a problem as a “piece” it really pisses me off. Inside. Because I don’t actually say anything.

I suppose it’s possible that I just have a problem with words that start with a “p.” Whatever. I just have to keep reminding myself, in the words of the great Bart Simpson, “Don’t have a cow!” Or a beef.

This strange and wondrous post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Please join in! Click here to find out how.

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