Life in progress

Category Archives: Random


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What Type of Believer Are You?

There are different types of believers in this world. Those who are religious (or not) are usually the first to come to mind. Some believe devoutly in one political party over another, others are positive there are aliens hovering, just waiting for the right time to be taken to our leader (which may or may not have something to do with the example before). But none of these have anything to do with my ponderings, nor my question to you.

This morning, while I was preparing my son’s tube-feeding, I started thinking about the difference between people who believe in superstitions versus those who swear things that happen which are related to one another are mere coincidence. And then I thought about Murphy’s Law. You know, the one that goes something like, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” I then started to wonder if there’s any correlation between the pessimistic old Irishman and the half full/half empty glass.

Keeping in mind the fact that I was thinking all this at 5:30am, I’m sure you’ll bear with me through my semi-conclusions to this riot of contemplation. Right? Okay. Here we go.

If a person believes in Mr. Murphy’s doom and gloom prophesy, he (using male pronoun for no other reason than ease) is more likely to be superstitious. Why? Because it’s his only defense against a probable negative outcome. It follows then (or at least it did in the wee hours of this morning), that superstitious people are glass half-empty people. So, Murphy = superstition = pessimist.

Alternatively, if a person does not believe the infamous Mr. Murphy had a leg to stand on, then she (see above pronoun explanation) is more likely to believe that relatable happenings are coincidence. Why? Because why not. This happens, that happens, chances are if we do it right in the first place then it’ll be okay. You see where I’m going next… she is the glass half-full person. The coincidence believer. No Murphy = coincidence = optimist.

All cut and dry, right? It is until I take into account that I believe in some superstitions and most of the time our dear old Murphy AND I’m an optimistic glass half-full type. What to do with this confusing information… Hmm… Oh I know! Ask my wonderful friends in WordPress land! Where do you fit in to all of this gobbledigook?

To make it easier, I’ve created a poll.

Please answer it as best you can.

Further to the poll, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I way out to lunch? (Or breakfast, as the case may be.) Should I keep my 5:30am thoughts to myself? Let me know. And don’t forget to vote! This is science, people!

 


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Envy me if you must…

This is the sort of thing I wake up to in the morning:

Minion stuck in a roll of paper towel

Minion stuck in a roll of paper towel

It’s a hard life.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!


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Creepy or Convenient? Part 2

Google is at it again, reading my gmail. You might remember the first time, when Google noticed I had written the word “attached” in the body of my email but I hadn’t attached anything. This time it waited until the right time to pounce.

I received a notification yesterday to let me know the good people (computers?) at their organization had added the flight information for my upcoming trip to Tokyo to my Google calendar. So I won’t forget I’m going, I suppose.

So I have decided: If I receive an email suggesting that I drink less before I go to bed so I won’t have to get up to go to the bathroom at 1:37 am, 3:03 am, and 4:26 am again the next night, I’m going offline permanently.


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#SoCS – Living

Living is really only part of what we do on this planet, isn’t it? When you think that most things (and if you ask some, they’ll say all things) we do affects something or someone else, our “living” goes beyond just existence. Our attitude has a lot to do with how we affect other people … and other things. Are things any less important than people? It depends. The rock you kick down the street because your bored and you’re walking (have you ever kicked a rock all the way home from school or a friend’s house? I used to do it all the time as a kid) may not seem like much of a big deal. But if you get mad and kick it and it breaks a window, your attitude has affected a person, not just a thing. Unless the window is attached to an abandoned house, in which case it probably won’t matter to anyone. But what if you kicked every stone out of someone’s gravel driveway? Okay, I’m pushing it here, aren’t I?

So I’m making up a new word. We don’t just “live,” we “attitude.” Like it or not, my new word is “attituding” as in “Stop attituding!” Feel free to use it any time. My treat.

(Half a point for making up a new word?) hehe

This deep yet rambling post has been brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in today! https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-1015/

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A Strange Experience

I don’t want to call it an out-of-body experience because I didn’t feel like I’d floated out of myself, nor was I looking at myself from a distance. What happened was, I was sitting in the small audience of fifty people at the writer’s Masterclass last weekend, and had finally gathered the courage to ask a question. I was shaking in my boots. (Not literally: I was a bit nervous and I was wearing running shoes.) About half way through my question, I noticed I could hear myself as other people might. I actually remember thinking to myself as I spoke that I could hear my voice, and I had time to wonder in amazement that I didn’t stutter or screw up what I was saying as I was saying it. It was kind of surreal. Like mentally multitasking.

Has this happened to you? If so, what were the circumstances?


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#SoCS – Eating and Other Minutiae

You know you’re tired when:

I had my toast on my plate on the kitchen table along with the tub of margarine (open) and jam (open-can’t remember what kind but it has three fruits in it), and since I was talking to my friend John about something completely unrelated to getting my toast ready, I put the jam on before the margarine.

Wow, that was not as exciting a story as I thought it would be.

I had a dream the other morning that I was at the concert I’m going to in Tokyo in November and I was stuck at the back of the hall and there were no lights on the stage (which was tucked into the corner of the room) so I missed the entire show. I think that qualifies as a nightmare, don’t you?

So I’m going to Kingston today and staying over night to get a break. The Kingston Writer’s Fest is on this weekend and I’m hoping to get tickets to an event tomorrow – if I do, I’ll try to write about the experience next week. I’m also hoping to get together for coffee this afternoon with our gracious badge-maker and host of the blog, “My Leaky Boat.” It’s gonna be fun!

Now I’m off to wash all my sheets and blankets – the cat peed on my bed sometime yesterday. Luckily it’s a nice day out, so it should all dry on the line.

See you on the flipside!

This post has been brought to you via Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in today! https://lindaghill.com/2015/09/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-2615/

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Who Needs Glue When You Can Sniff Fruit Flies?

I’m completely and utterly discouraged tonight.

I had a weekend off but had very little sleep, but that’s not why I’m discouraged.

I got barely any work done on my novels, but that’s not why either.

I have a sink full of dishes that I haven’t the energy to do, but that’s not entirely what’s got me down.

I killed a fruit fly this afternoon by breathing it forcefully (by accident) up my nose and blowing it back out into a kleenex – that was actually the highlight of my day.

I want to go to bed but I have to wait for kids to go to sleep, but that’s not what’s really killing me.

I have so much to do that I don’t know where to start, but that’s not the worst of it.

What really has me discouraged? It’s all of the above combined. Except the fruit fly thing. That’s just funny.

How was your weekend? Please tell me it was better than mine.


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SoCS – Distemper

Distemper, datemper… which temper do you want? You know, sometimes you just want to edit. But you can’t. So here we go.

I’ve been sitting here for the past fifteen minutes trying to come up with a word with “temp” in it that doesn’t mean it will soon go away: temporary, CONtemporary (new now, old tomorrow), tempus fugit (time flies), temperature (when does that ever stay consistent?) (okay, if you live in the desert maybe it pretty much does), template. Template! It’s something you use so that you can recreate the same thing over and over – without changing it!

Now what?

I suppose I can still talk about how things change, but that’s so depressing, isn’t it? Unless I’m sad, then I want things to change for the better. Contentment is so rare though, isn’t it? When I am content I try my best to stay in the moment, to remember details, and to enjoy it to the fullest. Contentment scares me though. I have to say I’m pretty happy with the way my life is at the moment. All three of my kids live at home, and they’re all relatively healthy (Alex has a lingering cough, but it’s nothing life-threatening) and they’re all relatively happy as well, and busy with their lives. It all makes me wonder what’s going to happen next. I try not to speculate. Again, stay in the moment. Just stay in the moment, Linda. Enjoy it. Even when I’m being kept awake at 2 am by a coughing kid… Yeah.

Sometimes enjoying my contentment is more of a challenge than others.

I have a hard time staying seated. When I’m writing or editing I have to get up at least every half an hour or so. I sometimes walk into the kitchen, see that there’s really nothing to munch on (because I’ve been smart enough not to buy anything to munch on) and go back to the computer empty-handed. That’s a good thing. I could so easily gain a hundred pounds without even trying if I gave in to all the temptations. Hey, there’s another word that’s not temporary… or is it? I suppose if temptations were constant they’d grind us down so much that they would no longer be temptations but reality instead. So yeah, temporary.

I’m going to temporarily leave reality now… (which means temporary unconsciousness… stream of unconsciousness Saturday… SoUS… French for suck… this really sucks, doesn’t it? Hahahahahahahaha!)

This ramble has been brought to you by SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/09/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1215/ Join in earlier than I do next week and have some fun!

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Time for a WordPress Rant

Okay WordPress, what’s up with the missing “Reblog” and “Follow” buttons at the top of my screen when I’m viewing someone else’s blog? There have been a few instances in which I’ve wanted to re-blog something but I can’t. Am I the only one who’s still seeing (or actually, not seeing) this?

I have looked on the forums and apparently you’re “working on it.” Please “work on it” faster. Thank you.

On a lighter note, I’ve had one visitor so far today. It seems they were careful not to peek though. 😛

the visitor


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Creepy or Convenient? You Decide

I wrote an email to a friend this morning using my gmail account. Just a regular event, nothing special, right? That’s what I thought. And then I hit the send button. A message popped up to let me know that in the body of the email I had written the word “attached,” but that I had not added an attachment to my email. “Are you sure you want to send it?” Google asked.

Two thoughts came to mind in such quick succession that I’m not sure which one I thought first: Oh, isn’t that a handy feature! and What the hell is Google doing reading my email?

I mean seriously, if they’re flagging the word “attached” then what else are they flagging? And who are they sharing it with? If they’re not sharing it with anyone, are they just proving a point? As in, “See? We know what you’re writing. We’re watching you.”

So I decided to read their privacy policy. This is the only thing I could find on the subject of emails:

Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection.

Hmm…

To say this feature is disconcerting is an understatement. I’ve been thinking about it all day. And I still can’t decide – is it the best thing since sliced bread? Or is this Google’s way of buttering me up while they keep an eye on my private communications?

What do you think?