Life in progress

Category Archives: Opinion


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One-Liner Wednesday – It was The Beginning of the End

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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


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Twitter is Bizarre

I just had some random, young buxom blond on Twitter put me on her “delicious” list. I swear to God, no one on Twitter has tasted me. That I know of.

I find it interesting when celebrities follow me. Most of the time, if I follow them back, they unfollow me. It’s how they get the high numbers. So I don’t follow them but I keep them on my radar to see how long they’ll hang on. So far I’ve had the group, Foreigner, Kim Mitchell, Taye Diggs (I think he follows everyone), Braxton Cosby (Bill’s nephew), and the woman who voices Siri, among others attach themselves to my feed. Oh, and Sigmund Freud, but I don’t think it was really him.

There are some seriously weird attention-graspers over on Twitter.


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#SoCS – Advice needed from parents and horrible grammar

“If you let the dog out of his crate, you’re not getting your lemonade stand today.”

That’s how today’s disaster started. Over and over again I tell my mentally delayed son that if he doesn’t do as he’s told, he’ll suffer the consequences. And over and over he goes ahead and does the opposite anyway. And then we all suffer the consequences.

I’m sure he understands the “if/then” concept. But like a two-year-old (he’s 15), he enjoys pushing his boundaries. He is, in fact, caught somewhere between the terrible twos and puberty. The “what ifs” and “I can do what I want.” And it’s scary.

It’s been so long since I’ve raised a child in a normal situation, that I don’t really remember how long it usually takes a child to understand consequences. It’s normally after a few failures, isn’t it? I’m asking the parents of “normal” toddlers and young kids. If you add the deafness and the fact that Alex and I don’t speak the same language to the mental delay, my situation is hardly “normal.” I want to add to this that I am very consistent. If I say there will be a consequence, I stick to it, no matter how long the screaming, hitting, and breaking things goes on. Him, not me. But I’m tempted sometimes. 😛

To be fair, it’s not a very good day for a lemonade stand today anyway. It’s cool, cloudy, and there aren’t many people about. I promised him next week, if he can be good.

So instead he’s gone with his brother for a ride on the city bus. On the way back home I was listening to the radio in the car (from dropping them at the bus station) and the announcer said the following:

“Get your face painted or get your kids’ faces painted. It don’t matter.”

This in regards to a festival going on in the next town. Wouldn’t you think they’d hire people at a radio station with maybe not impeccable, but at least good grammar? Am I being too picky?

So anyhoo, if I’m not around too much next weekend, you’ll know I’m outside in my driveway selling lemonade. We’ll see what the weather’s like then.

SoCS badge 2015

This post is part of the fun that is Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to see how you can join in too! https://lindaghill.com/2016/07/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-1616/


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Totally Random and Somewhat Amusing

If it’s not one thing… I’m sure at some point or another I’ve started a post like this before. In fact if I have, it’ll probably show up in the “see also” previews below this post. And the truth is, I hate being negative. So I’ll just get this over and done with. It’s really not that bad. In fact it probably hasn’t even been worth all this intro to it.

You know I had a bug bite the other day that made my hand swell? Well, that’s better. Now I have a sore on the very tip of my “d” finger. Why do I refer to my finger as my “d” finger? It only hurts when I type. No idea what the problem is. Can’t see anything except a painful blister. Yeah, wasn’t worth the intro.

In other news:

I used a sprint (set a timer for 10 minutes and just typed until the buzzer went off) to kick-start my novel writing. I got less than 400 words written in that 10 minutes, but it got me back into my story. I managed to write another 1,600 words today. The moral of the story is, sprints work when you’re stuck. It’s kind of like stream of consciousness that no one will ever read.

Every time I see “Cookie Policy” on a website I think about my own cookie policy – don’t buy them if I don’t want to gain weight. And definitely not if I go to the store hungry.

How is it that people think by writing f*ck instead of fuck no one will be offended? Is an asterisk any less offensive than a “u” just because it looks like a pretty flower? Okay, maybe it is.

Getting back to not wanting to write about miserable things, I’m actually a funny person most of the time. You can tell by my humorous fiction over at my fiction blog. Oh, and the novelette I’ll be (hopefully) publishing next week! It’s a light, romantic comedy that you’ll be able to read over a lunchtime or two. On sale soon for just $0.99 at Amazon and Kobo. Watch out for my celebratory post when the details are finalized!

It’s hard to be funny when you’re under pressure to be though, isn’t it? Waaay back when my SoCS prompt was fairly new, I made the prompt for the week “funny.” We all found it difficult to write about anything that was laugh-out-loud funny, so most of us wrote about something peculiar instead.

Knock, knock! Hang on, that one doesn’t work very well in a post. Why did the chicken cross the road?


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One-Liner Wednesday – Nature

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In nature we find nothing but being: the act of existence, the cycle of life. Hate, jealousy, fear…none of that is present. But joy in the form of the vibrancy of life, that we can sense.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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 very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com


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#tuesdayuseitinasentence – To Serve

I often feel like a servant in my own house. Because of their disabilities, there’s a good chance I’ll always have to serve my children, to some extent.

But it’s something we all do, isn’t it? There are times when it’s much easier to do a thing ourselves than take the time to teach the kids to do it. In many cases it’s justified: while in the way out the door to an appointment, or getting ready for school in the morning, when we’re tired and just want to get the thing (whatever it is) over and done with. At some point we need to stop and teach though. We do our kids a disservice by waiting on them hand and foot.

Ah, but it’s so hard to be perfect.

This post is part of Tuesday Use It In A Sentence, brought to us by the lovely MLW. Click here and join in today!


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Stepping Back

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I’m tired. Not just from lack of sleep (though there is that) but because of the news. I’ve never paid much attention to what goes on in the USA except for the past few months. It is, of course, due to the Great Orange Threat. I find myself obsessed not only with what it spews but the reactions to what it spews as well, until I find myself mired in so much rhetoric that it leaves me distracted, miserable, and unable to create. A death knoll for someone like me.

My enabler is Facebook, that bottomless pit of drive-thru opinions and baseless regurgitation we all know and despise. So I’ve decided to walk away from it for a while. My posts from WordPress will continue to automatically post to my author page, but I won’t be around to comment. I’m giving it a week, if I’m strong enough. I’ll try to finish as many of the Scrabble games that I have going tonight, and that’ll be it. I’m pulling the plug.

It will be an experiment. To see how much more I get done; to spend the time I would have wasted scanning my newsfeed to write, edit, read books, read blogs, play with my family, exercise, and spend time in the place where I took the picture above. As I sat there this morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much we take for granted. That there will always be places like this. There won’t, unless we start doing something about changing our attitudes and caring about everyone and everything. Without exception.

I need to step back from the rhetoric and find out how I can make a difference, no matter how small. Do you know the definition of the word “rhetoric”? It is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing ~ Google. I find it necessary to stop listening to all the voices telling me how to go about doing what’s best for me. And especially, I have to stop watching what I have no power to control. I realize I must decide what is best for me, for my family, for the city I live in, for my country, and for my planet all by myself. Only then can I act. Facebook, for me, has become a means to pointless, futile worry. We’ll see what a week teaches me. Will it kill me? I’ll get back to you on it.


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Is it as sexist if a woman does it?

Saturday afternoon found yours truly enjoying a beer on the patio of one of Kingston’s livelier establishments. At this particular place, since it is Irish, the waiting staff wear kilts. Both the girls and the guys.

My table was adjacent to a table where three middle-aged women were sitting. Between us, a waiter stood talking to some customers. His back was to the other table. I watched as one of the women extended her arm and wiggled her fingers below the hem of the waiter’s kilt, as though she was going to reach up under it and tickle… something. I didn’t know whether to smile or be appalled. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

So let’s see… what is your reaction? Take the poll:

I could probably have come up with some more answers, but I’m interested to see what you have to say. Let’s discuss.

Edit for clarification: The woman didn’t come in contact with the waiter, and he didn’t notice she did it.


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#SoCS – In the Books

I think this year will go down in the books as the one when everyone died. Then again, all the pioneers of modern rock, the movie stars, and the famous people I’ve grown up with are getting older. Was it like this for my parents when the likes of the Rat Pack began to die off? I suppose. And I’m sure all the young’uns now will have an impact on our kids’ generation when they begin to pass away. Yet somehow I think this is a bit different. It seems to me that aging bands such as the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zepplin… they have a continued base in society unlike the greats of old. When the remainder of those bands disappear it won’t just affect we who are now in middle age. It will affect us all.

So today, Mohammad Ali. I found a meme on Facebook which included a quote:

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Things we should all strive to be remembered for.

On a lighter note…

I picked up a book off the bargain shelf a long while ago, and I’ve just started reading it. I have to say, half-way through I’m totally engrossed. It’s a little romantic, but mostly it delves into the quirks and psychology of its characters in an amazingly profound way. It’s humorous, sad, and absolutely entertaining. Faking It by Elisa Lorello is something you’ll want to pick up. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=faking+it+elisa+lorello

I use Booking.com a lot. In fact, I’m sitting in a room in a B&B as I type this. It’s warm in here. I’m in Kingston, and half-way between temptation to walk around and take pictures of doors and wander around the waterfront (and find a patio to sit and eat lunch) and take advantage of the quiet time away to work on one of my books. I’m this close to getting my novelette published (just have to go through proofreads and get a blurb written), I’m that close to my final edit of my epic novel, The Great Dagmaru, and I’m dying to work on finishing the first draft of the sequel.  Maybe I’ll work on one of those until I get really hungry… or my bum goes numb.

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to join in! https://lindaghill.com/2016/06/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-416/

SoCS badge 2015

 


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#tuesdayuseitinasentence – Phlegm and Forgiveness

She spat out her apology like phlegm, only to feel her unrepentant anger build to new and distasteful heights.

Writing this sentence has brought to mind how I feel about the questionable wisdom that by forgiving someone of a wrong done to us, we are freeing ourselves rather than the other person. I suppose it depends on whether or not we can believe we are truly forgiving.

The other popular adage is “forgive and forget.” Sometimes forgetting is much easier on the soul than forgiving. But does it teach us anything?

Tuesday Use It In A Sentence is brought to you by MLW at Word Adventures. Click here to join in today!