Life in progress

Category Archives: Blogs


by 20 Comments

#SoCS – Half

I don’t know why I keep buying books. It’s a compulsion. If I spent just half my time reading all the novels I have on shelves, Kindle, and Kobo, I’m sure it would still take me a year to get through them. And don’t even get me started on my to-be-read list of books that I haven’t bought yet.

As it is lately, I seem to be spending half my time on the computer, whether the laptop or working on my novels. I haven’t done a lot of real writing lately, which is why I’m trying to post every day on my fiction blog. …where I don’t have even near half of the traffic I get here. I wonder why that is? I suppose if you click my gravatar it brings you here, rather than there. Have you clicked your gravatar lately? Where does it go? Actually, your gravatar is only half of it. When you click your picture it should take you to a site where you have all your information, and your blogs lined up in a neat clickable row. If you click your name (we’re talking about in the comments section of any given post where you’ve commented, now), it should take you to your main site. It’s frustrating when I want to find someone’s blog but their information isn’t available.

I’m half of a mind to complain to WordPress about the pingbacks not working, but complaining never seems to do anything. I wonder if their own Daily Post blog is suffering, since it relies on the same idea of pingbacks. Anyway, if it’s not fixed half-way between now and Wednesday, I’ll go through the process of bitching about it.

That’s at least half of what I can come up with at the moment. The other half would be forcing it. Happy weekend, all, and don’t forget to manually add your link to the prompt post this week!

SoCS badge 2015

This post is part of SoCS. Click here and join us today! https://lindaghill.com/2016/04/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-916/


by 15 Comments

Pingbacks are NOT Working Today #SoCS

An important announcement for everyone participating in Stream of Consciousness Saturday: There are no pingbacks! I have no idea what’s going on with WordPress – I’ve checked my account settings, and nothing has changed. I should be receiving your pingbacks, but I’m not.

If you’ve already written a SoCS post, please come back and enter your link in my comments here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/04/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-916/

If you plan to write a SoCS post, please make sure to comment on the above linked post, and include the link to your post in your comment.

Thanks for your cooperation. And no thanks to WordPress for the latest glitch. :/


by 38 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 9/16

Edit: Pingbacks are not working today! (Saturday, April 9/16) Please manually include your SoCS post link in the comments below.

Well, all is back to normal after your unfortunate scare of last Friday. Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. 😀 The internet won’t tell me when April Fools Day will fall on a Friday again, but I believe you’re safe for at least another five years. Just time enough for you to forget… 😉 Anywho, it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! I’m going to do my bit again to potentially help you out if you’re participating in the A to Z Challenge. Here’ your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “ha.”  Use it as a word, or find a word that starts with those two letters. 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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!


by 26 Comments

Eyes – #AtoZ Challenge

My A to Z theme concerns the joys and challenges of being the hearing mother of my Deaf son, Alex.

They say being deaf makes the eyesight better, but I had no idea what that meant until I took American Sign Language classes. Not hearing doesn’t improve the quality of a person’s eyesight – no one is going to from 20/200 (being able to only read the giant “E” at the top of an eye chart) to 20/20 because they are deafened. “Having better eyesight” simply means the brain works faster with visual stimulation. Take, for instance, the alphabet. Say it out loud as fast as you can possibly say it, and then consider a native signer can fingerspell it as fast as you can say it, and the average Deaf person can understand every letter as well as someone who hears can understand your speaking of it. Mindboggling, isn’t it? I used to come home from my three-hour classes once a week exhausted like I’ve never been exhausted before, and just because of the level of concentration required.

A to Z in ASL

What this means for me as a parent is that Alex doesn’t miss much. Even as a toddler, he was far more observant than the average kid. His attention to detail was such that, even before he knew what the letters of the alphabet were, he could match seventy-odd black VHS tapes by the labels together with their covers. It also means that he can easily pick up on facial cues.

Alex watches the show Ellen every day. He loves the way she dances and often mimics it. Sexy hip-grinding stuff? He’s on it. He’s also the size of a six-year-old, even though he’s fifteen, so he looks very cute doing it. This makes it very difficult for me to tell him to stop dancing like that in public. No matter what I sign, (stop, that’s rude, etc.) there’s a part of me that finds it funny. It’s easy for him to ignore what I’m saying with my hands, when the slightest twitch of an eyebrow tells him that he’s amusing me.

Believe me, you never want your teenagers to be able to read your mind. Mine can.


by 22 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Some conversations go downhill faster

A conversation between myself and one of my kids (unnamed to protect his future employment prospects … his future anything prospects).

Son: Is it okay to give a dog undercooked meat?

Me: Traditionally, dogs don’t cook what they kill over a cab fire… I mean a camp fire.

Son: Cab fire?

Me: I know.

Son: Hey! I’m not pulling over for that dog!

Me: Shut up.

Son: That dog’s got raw meat!

Taxi! Winston, Alex, and John

Taxi!
(Winston, Alex, and my friend, John)

____________________________________________________________________

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.

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 new, very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com


by 73 Comments

There’s no Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 2/16

I’ve decided to stop doing SoCS.

 

 

Joking! It’s Friday, April Fool’s Day and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Since many of us have begun the AtoZ April Challenge, I thought for at least this weekend I’d make it potentially easy for those who haven’t already written tomorrow’s post. So your prompt for tomorrow is as follows:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “be.”  Use it as is or at the beginning of the word you decide to base your post on. 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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!


by 50 Comments

All About Alex – #AtoZ Challenge

I knew Alex was going to have health issues when I had my first ultrasound, 10 weeks into gestation. He had, I was told, fluid around his heart and at the back of his neck. Down Syndrome was ruled out a few weeks later via amniocentesis. It wasn’t until he was born and transferred to the nearby Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario that he was diagnosed with the second most prevalent syndrome: Noonan Syndrome. To the geneticist it was obvious at first glance. Barrel-chested; low-set ears; thickness in the neck; and widely spaced, bright blue eyes. It was all there, on top of the multiple heart issues.

His prognosis was bad. Without surgery, his cardiologist told us his heart could no longer pump oxygen through his bloodstream. He would die within a year. The surgery itself came with  a 50/50 chance of survival. It was a tough decision, yet an obvious choice. Just short of two months of age, he went to the operating room. About half-way through the procedure, the surgeon came in to let us know that Alex’s heart had stopped and he had lost all vital signs. They got him back after a few minutes by providing open-heart massage, but the surgeon said he would not resuscitate him again. It was time to close the suture and hope for the best. A couple of hours later we were told our little boy had survived.

The reason I go through this history when I’m here to talk about his deafness is, first, to explain why I reacted the way I did when I found out he couldn’t hear, and second, why he can’t hear. He was about four months old when I began to realize he wasn’t responding to noises. Since he was still in the hospital (he didn’t come home until he was eight months old), I had him tested right away. When the test proved he was profoundly deaf, I felt sad that he couldn’t hear me sing to him, and that he would never be quite like the rest of us, but hey – he was alive. Years later, I’m still realizing the impact of his difference in abilities, as you’ll see as the month goes on. Noonan Syndrome doesn’t include deafness as one of its genetic anomalies. The doctors told me it was likely the lapse in vital signs during the surgery which injured his brain. I had to wait to find out if he would have any other symptoms – as it turns out, I’ll probably never know.

It’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs, with oh so many laughs and challenges and opportunities to learn along the way. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the ride.

Just before Alex finally came home (if I remember correctly, the weekend of the CHEO telethon in 2001 was his last weekend at the hospital) they filmed some of the inpatients to show at the end of the news. The baby at the end (2:24) is Alex.


by 32 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Sad Lemon is Sad

We bought a lemon on Saturday just to add its zest to a recipe.

CAM01411

It seemed so very sad. When I thought about it, I realized why: it no longer has appeal.

 

 

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

____________________________________________________________________

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.

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 new, very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!


by 30 Comments

#SoCS – Reality

Is reality real? And if so, how do we know?

It was a question I and a few friends in high school used to like to ponder. It came up after an interesting discussion in one of my classes. We used to love to distract the teacher with such things – this particular discussion was about how you describe what is real, and how you prove it. One example was, if you’re talking on the phone with someone, how do you prove they’re real. You can’t see them. You can hear them, yes. But are they really there?

This makes actually far more sense now than ever before. What is “real” is far more a relevant question in light of the internet. We have Nigerian Prince-bots and people claiming to be someone they aren’t in order to lure people into bad situations every minute of every day. We can talk on the phone without being home: are we always honest about where we are? I’m not – at least not when my mother is on the other end of the line half the time. (Shhhh. Don’t tell her. I can’t edit.)

The wind. The wind is real. But it’s hard to describe.

It’s a scary world out there, and I believe it’s getting scarier. This reality changes our personal realities: or does it? If, when you were a child, you knew that nothing outside your front door could hurt you, and you walked freely, it meant that you were confident. If now you can’t step out the door without fearing your neighbours will assault you, it changes your level of confidence. Does your reality change your nature? Would it depend on how much time you spent in the wrong environment?

What do you think?

SoCS badge 2015This ponderous post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday: https://lindaghill.com/2016/03/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-2616/ Click the link to find out how you too can join in!


by 44 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 26/16

Is it really Friday today? Between the long weekend and yesterday’s snow day, my timing is all screwed up. Well, if it is Friday, then that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! They say spring is here, but that remains to be seen for many of us. I’m looking forward to sitting outside soon! Anyway, here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “real.”  Use it with a prefix and/or a suffix, or just as it is. 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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!