Life in progress

Category Archives: Opinion


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What To Do, Part 2

It’s been two days and I’m already going stir crazy, not having something to post daily on my blog. It’s habit-forming, damnit!

But there’s something else bugging me: whether or not to publish the Second Seat series.

If I turn it into a book to sell on Amazon (I’m leaning towards 99 cents and making it exclusive to ‘Zon so Prime members can get it for free), I’ll have to change some of the characters’ names. I can’t make money off Edward, Bella, and Alice, even though they’re really nothing like the Twilight characters. I’ll be sued to Forks and back. Whether or not I can get away with the ads that are referenced (Grey Poupon, anyone?) and Sylvester (ssthufferin’ ssthuckotash!), not to mention songs that are mentioned in a few episodes is also up in the air. I think most of them are vague enough, but I’d still need to consult a lawyer or take them out.

But the real question is, would anyone read them in the form of a 365-chapter book? I’m too close to the whole thing to see it clearly. Most of the episodes are only around 100 words, so it won’t be novel-length.

I just don’t know.

So here’s a poll. Let me know what you think.

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. Ta!

 


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#SoCS – Logical English

I’m a huge fan of logic. It might be my star sign (Aquarius) or it might be just good ol’ learnin’, but logic makes more sense to me than stuff like intuition.

Though I do trust my intuition a lot. But not when there’s logic to be had.

Then there are some things I’ve just learned to accept. There’s really no fighting things like the English language, and its refusal to conjugate, for instance, “specific” into “specifical” when “magic” is “magical” and, well, “logic” is “logical.”

So, I’ve had to memorize these illogical instances, as we do. Or we don’t if we never get good at spelling. I think one of the worst things invented is spellcheck. It, like modern checkout machines at cash registers has made us lazy. I’VE become a bit lazy. Imagine that! Illogical, if you ask me.

What’s most logical on my mind currently is getting this post posted. I keep losing my Internet connection, and I want to send it off before I go to bed. Maybe even while it’s still Saturday!

Hope everyone had a good one. 🙂

A fond farewell to our SoCS badge! I’ll miss that little stream. ❤

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click on the link to find all the other awesome posts in the comment section, and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2018/08/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-18-18/


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#SoCS – Tea, no matter what

When, as a child, I questioned the wisdom of drinking hot tea on a hot day, my parents told me that it made you sweat, which is better. Back then we didn’t have an air conditioner in the house. They weren’t really a “thing” in my neighbourhood, at least outside of public buildings. We never had a window unit and didn’t get central air until the late 70s, early 80s.

My parents came from the UK–let’s get that out of the way. They HAD to have their tea. So even when it was 90 degrees outside, we’d be sitting with our cuppa, vying for a spot where there was a bit of a wind to cool off our sweaty skin. All stiff-upper-lip/do-it-because-it-feels-good-when-you-stop behaviour.

But that’s turned out to be a good thing. I can’t stand iced (or cold) coffee, but I’ve been conditioned to bear the heat of summer AND a scorching hot drink. I’ve learned to appreciate that extra layer of perspiration that cools me off when I come in contact with even the slightest of breezes.

Or I drink it in an air conditioned room.

Because who needs a stiff upper lip when you have A/C?

BUT, having said that, I still take my cup of tea upstairs to bed with me every night. I have a fan on my bedside table that blasts me with cool air.

Ingenuity is the boon of all that ails.

 

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other posts in the comments, and the rules to join in too. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/07/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-28-18/


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#SoCS – Gimme some skin!

Skin is an organ, right? Sure it is. (Looked it up because I was only 99% sure.) You know what else I looked up? The phrase “give me some skin.” That was exactly what I thought it was too. But I was surprised at how many “give me some …”s there are in the Urban Dictionary. Many surprised me. Some even include other organs! Look if you dare.

Give me some skin is such a friendly one, though. As long as you don’t mind sharing your organs. Of course, some people go much further and share their kidneys. Not both, of course. That would be fatal. Potentially. Still, you don’t see people going around saying “gimme some kidney …” *Checks Urban Dictionary … OOh, if you click on the last one on the list, you get more. But no, there’s cabbage, but no kidney.

Then there’s the exchange of organs–an eye for an eye. That doesn’t make much sense, does it? Unless you jip someone out of an eye that has 20/20 vision when yours is less. Haha! Gotcha! But then you have the potential difficulty of having two eyes that don’t match in colour. How awkward! (I have one blue and one green … it’s really not that awkward. But you know, stream of consciousness and no editing …) I’m using a lot of ellipsis in this post. I don’t usually.

Anyhoo, lots to do. There are a couple of actual blog posts I’ve been meaning to write. *gasp! So much to do.

This silly post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find lots of other posts to read in the comment section, and join in yourself. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/07/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-21-18/


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#SoCS – How?

How am I supposed to do this? I’m asking myself that a lot lately. Between the advertising methods I need to learn, affiliate codes and links and landing pages … GDPR? Don’t even get me started. I need a privacy policy now just to have a newsletter … have you actually read one of those things? (A privacy policy, not a newsletter.) They’re pages of mumbo jumbo. But I have to get all this done soon because … I can’t say. Just know that there’s a big announcement coming  very soon. Maybe tomorrow.

I wonder if Shakespeare had to deal with all this stuff.

Thou’st are not compliant

Fie upon your dogg’d insistence!

Mine eyes cast daggers on thy curs’d GDPR!

Yeah, I doubt it. And no, Shakespeare I am most definitely not.

This short, sweet, archaic post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Click the following link and join in today! https://lindaghill.com/2018/07/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-14-18/


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#SoCS – Butterfly

The butterfly is one of the few insects we tend to be able to handle in profusion. Seriously, imagine going to tour a mayfly sanctuary. Or touring a housefly sanctuary, for that matter. Bleh.

Monarch butterfly

This observation was driven home to me the other day when I saw a video of Monarch migration. Here’s a fascinating video. https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/170306-mexico-monarch-butterfly-sanctuary-vin

Sorry for the short post today. Feeling better, but have to get to a birthday party at the bowling alley. Yay!

This short post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-23-18/


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#SoCS – Reservations

Used to be that I’d have hotel reservations all the time. For a while, my ex was taking over my house when he looked after the kids and I’d go to a hotel for the weekend. Which was lovely for me, but not so lovely on my wallet.  Since I kinda ran out of money (who knew that was coming?), I’m lucky to have reservations to see a movie. That’s what I wanted to talk about though. Movie tickets. Or tickets to anything for that matter.

And the weirdness that is the English language.

Why do we have reservations for a restaurant but we don’t call them reservations to a movie or an event? Because that’s really what a ticket does. It reserves a spot in the place you’re going.

Therefore, I want tickets to a restaurant and a reservation for a movie. So there.

The next thing I have reservations for is a Glorious Sons concert at the end of July.  On June 26th, the Sons–a Kingston, Ontario band–are opening for the Rolling Stones in France. That’s a HUGE DEAL! I predict that for Kingston bands, they’re going to be the next Tragically Hip.

And I have no reservations about saying that.

The last time I had a ticket to stay at a hotel was in October 2016. I’m seriously due for a vacation. With a reservation for a seat on a plane, preferably.

This somewhat rambling post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to check out all the other posts (which you can find in the comments) and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-16-18/


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#SoCS – Posts

Posts, of the blogging kind, can be very difficult to come up with. What do you talk about that hasn’t already been talked about? It’s really why I came up with this prompt (SoCS) in the first place. Because I wanted to be able to write … whatever. And the best way I’ve found to do that is to write by the seat of my pants, whatever comes to mind.

But there are times when I have just way too much going on in my head. I need to be relaxed when I write, not have a storm of accumulating cotton balls floating around between my ears. That’s really what it feels like. They accumulate and then they clog the path to output until I’m ready to explode. Yet nothing that comes out makes any sense. Can you tell I’m kinda there already? Haha.

Distractions don’t help either.

Nor do the little gems I want to publish that I want even more to save for something like One-Liner Wednesday (I have two lined up already), or to keep for a post when I have time to sit down and really do a good job on it. As opposed to what I’m doing here.

Hey! They put tartar sauce on my Filet-O-Fish tonight!

See what I mean?

I think it’s a matter of practice, too. (Not putting tartar sauce on a sandwich–I’m back to talking about posts again. Keep up! Hahahaha. Yeah, good luck with that.) When I post a lot, say during a prompt month like January (Just Jot It) and April (A-Z), I have no problems coming up with something to write. Blogging depends on momentum. Or at least the ease of it does. In my experience at least.

How about you?

This post about posts is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the other posts, and join in yourself! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-9-18/


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#SoCS – My Own Worst Enemy

I admit it: I wasn’t thinking straight when I came up with today’s SoCS prompt. If I had, I’d have realized that because my real favourite word isn’t fit for a family-friendly blog, I’d have to come up with another “favourite” word that wasn’t really my favourite. If I’m nothing else, I’m honest. However, the real reason I wanted to use this prompt was to see what other people’s favourite words are.

The question comes from my memory of watching “Inside the Actors Studio.” (The lack of an apostrophe is something I’d never noticed before. My editor’s brain has given me new insight–love it when that happens.) I remember thinking that if they asked me the same ten questions they ask the guests on the show, my favourite word would be the same as my favourite curse word. And I also remember thinking that if I answered the question honestly, I’d blush. I loved watching that show – I’m amazed to find upon researching it that it’s still running. Twenty-two seasons and counting.

I found this from the show:

I have so many second-favourite words, I can’t pinpoint one. Phenomena, because it reminds me of the “Me na me na” song from the Muppets; moist, because it’s the underdog of all words for some strange reason; coffee, by association; magic, because of what it represents to me; there are so many!!

But my favourite word of all …

…

…

Nope. Not telling.

This evasive post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the participants’ posts in the comments and join in with one of your own! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-2-18/


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#SoCS – Empty – My Whoa Moment of the Week

This is really what stream of consciousness writing is all about, isn’t it? Emptiness.

Every time I’ve thought about writing this post today (and in the end I almost forgot to do it–imagine that), the only thing that has come to me has been the Taoist philosophy on emptiness being useful. A room with no space in it isn’t livable. Take things out of it–make space–and the emptiness makes the room useful.

For a long time I’ve endeavored to, once in a while, empty my mind. The largely western idea of the purpose of meditation–to sit and think about something, or to meditate on something–is the opposite of the eastern philosophy. I meditate to empty my mind. To clear out all the thoughts and regrets and worries for the future–and stress. Because once my mind is empty, I can fill it up with new ideas, better solutions, and calmer thoughts.

So how is writing stream of consciousness about emptiness? It’s a form of meditation. It’s the act of emptying our minds onto the page.

All together now– WHOA!

This mind-blowing-out-the-cobwebs post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and find all the post links in the comments! https://lindaghill.com/2018/05/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-19-18/