Life in progress

Monthly Archives: November 2016


by 79 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 19/16

Friday’s here, and that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. The weather’s lovely and I’m indoors… that’s it, I’m running away. But first, here’s this week’s prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “yes.” Use it as a word, use it in a word, extra points if you start and finish your post 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 our 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!!

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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

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!


by 40 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Words and Grace

Walking along the trail a few days ago, I passed a woman who said to me, “It’s hard being graceful, isn’t it?”
I smiled, feeling an oaf. Had I the quick wit to do so immediately, I would have replied, “Some of us are graceful on the outside; some express grace through our words.”

img_20161013_173449

_____________________________________________________________________________

Anyone who would like to participate, 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.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

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. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com


by

3 Things I Learned from Self-Publishing – A Guest Post by Linda G. Hill

I guest-posted over at Harsh Reality. Please come over and have a read! 😀 Thanks!


by 6 Comments

#TuesdayUseItInASentence – Super Moon Zone

When I’m walking down this path, I sometimes get into my writing zone,

img_20161113_165925but when I dragged my three kids out to watch the moon rise, the zone was more about finding the best place for a good view.

Sunday, November 13th, 2016

Sunday, November 13th, 2016

This post is part of Tuesday Use It In A Sentence! Please visit the lovely Stephanie to see how you can join in, too! https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/tuesdayuseitinasentence-zone/


by 41 Comments

#SoCS – Meme + Memory

Sitting at the dinner table yesterday with my 22-year-old son, I mentioned the spider meme ( https://lindaghill.com/2016/10/12/one-liner-wednesday-i-thought-we-were-roommates/ ) I came across months ago that I found very funny, and he laughed at me. When I asked why, he said I was too old to be saying words like “meme.” So today I decided to look up the origin of the word.

Turns out it was first coined by Richard Dawkins in his book, “The Selfish Gene” in 1976, but he shortened it from the Ancient Greek word, mimeme, meaning “imitated thing.” (Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Fathering_the_meme ) HA! I can now say to my son. Though if I’m too old to say the word, how old does that make me? Still feeling a little weird about that.

Getting older is weird though. We have memories which give us the wisdom not to repeat our mistakes (with any luck) and yet our memory, or our capacity to remember, decreases with the shrinking of our brains. As much as I don’t like this, it’s inevitable. I either accept it or I fight it – fighting it takes so much more energy.

Having said that, I can fight it to some extent by continuing to learn and challenge myself. I wonder, often, if people who refuse to change their mindsets, form new opinions, or think they already know everything worth knowing lose their memories faster. I had an aunt who was very set in her ways. When she made a decision, she stuck with it no matter what. It might have been that she just hated making decisions so she got them over and done with as quickly as possible. But her decisions also were very predictable, because she never changed her preferences. She was stuck in a certain time, probably her childhood or early adulthood. I’m not sure I was born when she stopped trying new things. I always knew her as completely focused on the way things should be.

And, of course, the memories she shared never changed. The stories we all hear from our older family members are inevitably told as though they’ve never been told before. The polite thing to do is sound surprised, no matter how many times we’ve heard them. I wonder if people who are closed-minded have a narrower memory. Something my ever-learning mind will likely look into one day.

Now that I’ve veered totally off-course from my original intent for this post, I’ll have to go back and change the title. Coming up with titles for posts is hard, isn’t it?

socsbadge2016-17

Stream of Consciousness is for everyone! Click the link to see how you can join in today: https://lindaghill.com/2016/11/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-1216/

 


by 54 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 12/16

It’s Friday again, and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. It’s Remembrance Day here in Canada, and in a few countries it is also a day where we take the time to thank those who have and are fighting our wars. Thank you.

In my usual way of prompting, where you may take the obvious or go with something much more your own style, here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “mem.” Choose a word or words with the letters “mem” in that order and run 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 our new 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!!

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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

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!


by 45 Comments

For You, For Us, For Humanity. Please Share

On this, November 11th, the day we remember the people who have given their lives  for their countries, I find the disparity between the ultimate in self-sacrifice and the continuing reports of disrespect and lack of empathy discouraging. I had a discussion on Facebook this morning with a man who told me that his daughter-in-law had been verbally accosted in a store while holding her 18-month-old child; there are so very many reports such as this and even worse coming in, it almost makes me want to hide. But I won’t, because there is something I can do.

For all the people who lack empathy in the world, I believe there are more who understand that we all have our struggles. And whether we deem them bigger than ours or not, a struggle is a struggle. An exhausted single mother washing her own dishes in an effort to control something, a rich man wanting to protect his children from bullying, the only true perspective is in the circumstances of the individual.

Let us show that there are more of us who care. That there are greater numbers of those who would rather give than receive. I challenge you today and every day to show love and kindness to a stranger. Find a way to go out of your way to help. Even a smile could make a difference in someone’s life, but especially now. Especially today, when we face the very real imbalance between selflessness and hate.

Please share this. We may not have the power to fix the world, but we possess the ability to communicate. And with this amazing means, we can help make the world a better place to live. Let this go viral. At this point I don’t even care if you copy and paste these words and pretend you wrote them yourself. What is important is that we can make a difference for the good of humanity.

For you, and for all of us.


by 18 Comments

#ThursdayDoors and Cee’s Fun Photos – Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada

In August, I went with my museum-loving son to Ottawa to visit, among others, the Canadian Museum of Nature. The museum is housed in a beautiful, historic building.

There’s more history to this place than I can recount in one sitting. Here’s just a small sample:
img_20160828_133900

“After the burning of the Parliament Buildings on the night of 3rd February, 1916, the House of Commons assembled in this building on the 4th and the Senate on the 8th February. Parliament met here for the last time on the 10th November, 1919 and assembled for the first time in the rebuilt Parliament Buildings on 26th February, 1920.”

I love taking pictures of doors when I can see them from the outside as well as in. Please click on any of the images to take a closer look.

It’s impossible to get the whole building in one shot from the front because the road is too narrow and there are houses across the street. But I did find this neat site, where you can slide the cursor back and forth to see a before (1912) and after (2013, when they renovated): http://www.pastottawa.com/comparison/canadian-museum-of-nature/113/ The photo is taken from the northeast – apparently the road was too narrow to get a full shot even a century ago.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more doors and participate, too, please visit Norm Frampton’s site here for links and instructions.

Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge this week is also all about entrances and doors! Here’s her link as well: https://ceenphotography.com/2016/11/08/cees-fun-foto-challenge-entrances-and-doors/

Thanks to Norm and Cee for the prompts!


by 25 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Turn, turn, turn

benchb

Plus ça change,

 

benchaplus c’est la même chose.

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/pluscachange.htm

_____________________________________________________________________________

Anyone who would like to participate, 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.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

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. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com


by 21 Comments

Ultimately a Living

I have a passion for language. Ultimately, I hope to make a living through it.

“Ultimate” is the word of the day for the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt. Click here to visit our lovely host, Stephanie, and join in today!

Okay, now for my news:

I’ve been busy these past couple of months taking a course in editing through Simon Fraser University. I received my final mark last week and I passed – with 95%.

editing-and-editors-an-introduction-grade

I realize it seems a bit self-indulgent to share my mark publicly, but there’s a sound reason behind it. I have no practical experience in editing anything but my own work and as it turns out, I need that just to apply to get into the Certificate program at SFU. I plan to hang out my proverbial shingle in the new year, so posting my results will, I hope, inspire confidence in my abilities. I’ve just started my second course of 12, but I can’t take the twelfth one until I qualify.

I have a passion for learning, for the English language, and also for helping people fulfill their own passions. I think I’m on the right path.