Monday, March 11, 2:30pm
The offspring is keeping himself busy.
So far, no unusual outbursts or requests to go out.
All is well.
Category Archives: Random
#SoCS – Abashed
I’m abashed to realize that I am, again, late to my own bash.
Meaning my prompt.
‘Coz I ain’t gonna make it before midnight.
But I needed a break. Alex has finally gone to his dad’s for the weekend, for the second time this year, and I’ve spent most of the day either working or catching up on the things I needed to get done.
Did I get a break? I got a break from the pressure I usually have hanging over me … but to really take a break,
you’d have to bash me over the head and drag me away.
What I need is an honest to goodness vacation.
Somewhere I have no access to social media,
somewhere that the sky is blue, the beach is warm, the sea spread out before me with waves glittering under the sunlight,
somewhere I can close my eyes.
And drift away, without a care in the world.
Hell, I’d even take a dingy hotel room in the middle of a strange city at this rate.
Tokyo is strange.
Why did the angry chicken cross the road? To get away from KFC …?
SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/
This rather late post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other posts in the comments, and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/03/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-9-19/
One-Liner Wednesday – Help wanted?
Dear Jane,
“Raw” and “uncooked” mean the same thing.
Love,
An applicant for the position of “editor”
Photo: Janes’ brand frozen chicken nuggets in a plastic bag on which is printed “Raw Uncooked Poultry.”
If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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 pingback 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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
5. Have fun!
One-Liner Wednesday – Waking on the weekend
It was interesting enough waking up to my eldest son’s cat on Saturday morning, since he (the cat) is supposed to stay in the basement,
but it was even more interesting to find out Alex was riding him (the cat).
If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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 pingback 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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
5. Have fun!
#SoCS – Critical Thinking
I don’t like criticizing people. Okay, maybe I do criticize members of my family and my best friend once in a while (shut up, John), but people I don’t know very well–people who might take my criticism the wrong way–I don’t like to criticize. Why not? Because I don’t want them to think I’m judging them. I like to think of myself as non-judgmental. Really, I don’t judge.
So what did I do? I chose editing as a career. Possibly one of the most critic-heavy jobs one can do. I criticize people’s writing for a living.
Maybe it’s being critical without being judgmental that’s the biggest challenge for me. And I do love a challenge. What I do NOT do is judge people’s writing. I don’t judge people on their ability to write a certain way, or on their lack of knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet,” for instance.
Look at it this way:
I can tell you your fly is open without judging you. That might be seen as criticizing your ability to remember to do your fly up, but still, I don’t judge you for it. I assume it was a mistake and that you’re not trying to flash me. My biggest reason for telling you is so you’ll do it up before someone comes along and laughs at you for it, less discreetly than I did.
The difference between that and editing? After all, ideally, I edit before someone indiscreetly points and at you and judges you for not knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet.”
The difference is, you don’t have to spend thousands of hours learning how to notice someone’s fly is down. You just have to have a good eye. Or a bad eye. Don’t judge me!!
SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/
This very late, very non-judgmental post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Sunday Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other critics posts for this week. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-23-19/
One-Liner Wednesday – I need to get out more
You know you don’t get out of the house often when your kid comes home from school and frowns, confused, asking you why you got dressed today.
(True story.)
If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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 pingback 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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
5. Have fun!
One-Liner Wednesday – Good or bad?
Nothing saves water better than a water heater that turns off after five minutes when you’re in the shower.
(Motivational poster made for free at canva.com.)
Just a nice story
Every once in a while, something happens that restores my faith in humanity a bit. At times like these I kind of kick myself for being so cynical in the first place. So yeah, there’s a lesson here somewhere. And it includes believing a little in serendipity, too.
To start at the beginning, I had my best friend, John, and his kids over for dinner on Saturday night. (Salmon on the barbecue with rice, corn, brussels, and a lovely lemon and dill sauce, if you’re wondering.) After dinner, John was chatting on his cell phone to his other son. Then the three of them left.
About half an hour later, John called me from his son’s phone to say he’d lost his mobile and would I look for it. I searched the house, I went outside to look in the snow bank, nothing. He couldn’t find it at his place either. We tried calling it but the automated voice came on to say the “customer you’re calling is unavailable.” John came over with a flashlight to see if I’d missed it. It was nowhere to be found.
He tried again the next morning, thinking maybe he’d find it in the daylight. The only thing he could think of was that he’d dropped it on the sidewalk and someone had come along and picked it up. He was about to leave to go home and get himself some breakfast, but I invited him to stay. I usually work during breakfast, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to eat together since he was already there.
We were just cleaning off the table after our toast when there was a knock at the door. This is where the serendipity comes in, because I never answer my door on a Sunday morning. It’s usually Jehovah’s witnesses, and I don’t like standing with the front door open chatting about religion in my pajamas, especially when the air outside is sub-zero. But John, being far braver than I, opened the door.
To find two ladies who had been walking up the street, knocking on doors, to find the owner of the phone they’d found in the middle of the street the night before. Where it could easily have been run over.
The first thing he did after turning the SIM card back on was put the message on his lock screen: “If found, please call …” and my home number.
Because you never know. Someone kind and considerate might find it again next time. At least I’ve got to believe they will.
The Blogging Habit
I always find it difficult after a month-long stretch of blogging to stop posting every day. I don’t know if it’s the momentum or just the fact that I love to write, to get my thoughts out there, or if it’s the sense of community that I miss.
Last time I felt this way, I just kind of stuttered to a stop. I had days at the end of last year when my daily views barely made double digits. I’d like to endeavor not to let that happen again this year. Then again, when you don’t get out much, it’s hard to find things to talk about.
I’ve gotta get out more, too.
In the meantime, Bee has a great prompt going on this month called “Love Is In Da Blog,” to celebrate the month of February: the month of love. She’s doing a musical theme this year, and it looks like fun! You can check her post for today, including tomorrow’s prompt, here: https://thebeewritesdownloads.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/love-is-in-da-blog-a-kitsch-love-song-prompt-post-for-february-4th/
In other news, you might have figured by the lack of jumping up and down with glee on my part that neither my book nor my series won the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewer’s Choice Award this year. But that’s okay. The Magician’s Blood came in third out of six entries, and The Great Dagmaru (the series) came in third out of five. It was an honour to be nominated at all out of the hundreds of books the Guild reviews every year. And I’m that much more grateful that The Magician’s Curse won in 2017.
Congratulations to all the 2018 winners! 🙂
And there you have my compulsion to blog satisfied for today.
I have to say, it feels weird not to finish off a post with a badge and a link.
…
Okay, here’s Bee’s again. Don’t forget to visit her! https://thebeewritesdownloads.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/love-is-in-da-blog-a-kitsch-love-song-prompt-post-for-february-4th/
#SoCS – Affirmative
Yes, I can affirm that today has been a challenging one with the child who is no longer a child but acts like one. I can state that unequivocally.
But is that the way the word “affirm” is really supposed to be used? An affirmation–the word affirmative–means yes. So to state something negative (like saying it’s been a bad day), would be a confirmation, wouldn’t it? Because, like, pros and cons. So is there such a thing as a proffirmation?
Gah! That makes my brain hurt.
Or is it a proclamation? Which would be the opposite of a conclamation. Haha.
I like making up words.
I do like affirming that I CAN do stuff. There are days when that’s easier than others. I can sometimes wake up in the morning and, for no apparent reason, feel like I can do anything.
Then there are days when I just want to throw in the towel because I can’t seem to do anything right.
And I have no idea why either of those things happen.
Except when I get a negative comment or review on my work and then I spend five minutes saying fuck it, I can’t write. What made me think I ever could?
I’m glad it only lasts five minutes. Most of the time.
So yeah, I’m hoping Alex will be able to go to school for a full week next week. I’m sure his behaviours are at least in part due to the fact that he’s getting bored staying home. I think he’s only been to school seven days so far this year.
But with this crazy weather …
Last week it was cold enough the balls off a snowman (the snowballs–get yer mind outta the gutter), and tomorrow we’re supposed to get freezing rain. Monday? Rain.
I may just take Alex to school on skates.
SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/
This very late, very random, very made-up post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to see how you, too, can join in the fun. And read the other participants’ posts while you’re there! You’ll find all the links in the comments. https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2-19/
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