Life in progress

Category Archives: Random


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One-Liner Wednesday & #JusJoJan25 the 15th – Be colourful

Life is short. Be colourful.

Photo: The multi-coloured Christmas lights wrapped around the top rail of my deck in my back yard that I’m seriously considering leaving there because they’re pretty.

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.

Here are the simple JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

2 a) 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!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan25 and/or #JusJoJan25.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


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JusJoJan25 the 14th – The initiative

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “initiative,” comes to us from Fandango. Check out his blog here!

I never realized until I sat down to write this post how hard it is to take the initiative when you’re solely responsible for your work.

The first two definitions from Dictionary.com are:

1. the ability to assess and initiate things independently

If I didn’t, I’d do nothing at all.

2. the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do.

There are no others. There’s only me.

Back when I worked for other people, I loved taking the initiative.

Thinking about it again, maybe now I’m taking all the initiative.

Hmm.

This pondering post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Fandango for the prompt!


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JusJoJan25 the 13th – Embrace the chaos

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “embrace,” comes to us from Laura. Check out her blog here!

I’m trying. But it’s hard, I tell ya.

I mean, there’s always going to be chaos. Life is unpredictable, right? And no matter how determined we are to make our plans come to light, something is bound to throw its own brand of poopstorm into the mix.

So what is a girl to do?

Embrace the chaos.

Make friends with it, tell it to come on in and do its worst, because its going to come in whether it’s invited or not.

All the things that can go wrong, from the little stuff I’ve learned to deal with like WordPress absolutely refusing to change the title of a copied post unless I go out of it and come back in again (am I the only one?), or putting stress-related heartburn in my life almost every day for the last five years … I’ve got to try to go with the flow.

Because fighting it just isn’t helping.

This surrender-y post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Laura for the prompt!


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JusJoJan25 the 12th – Notifications on

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “notifications,” comes to us courtesy of Sadje. Check out her blog here!

Sometime in the last week or so, I wrote about my poor old laptop and that I was going to take her into the shop to either get her fixed or replace her.

Well, I think she heard me. Or maybe she got upset that I wrote my JusJoJan post on another computer, because lo and behold, when I turned her on to get a file off her that day, she stopped making the horrible noise that made me determined to take her in.

In other words, she knew she was on notice to behave.

Well, today the noise came back.

So I’m here posting on my other computer again.

I’m tempted to try starting the old gal up again to see if she’ll behave for another week—after all, if I hadn’t done it last time, I’d have been at the Geek Squad counter swearing up and down that really, the hard drive was making a noise. Honest! Just like that rattle the car was making before you took it to the mechanic. Machines, I tell you!

So I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Either way, the saga will surely continue.

Stay tuned.

This rather frustrated post is part of Just Jot it January. Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Sadje for the prompt!


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JusJoJan25 & #SoCS the 11th – It’s the little things

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

It’s the little things …

A row of knitting on top of a row of knitting that eventually makes a blanket.

A piece of paper I no longer need shredded and put out for recycling.

A word on my blog that leads to the next.

Without the little things, I’d never wrap my head around the idea that I can get the big things done.

Problem is, there’s always another big thing waiting to get done.

Still, I like the idea of the little things.

It’s the little things that make me happy.

This little post is part of Just Jot it January and SoCS! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

 


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JusJoJan25 the 10th – Echoes of Past Posts

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “echo,” comes to us courtesy of Dan. Check out his blog here!

I wonder sometimes if my posts are just echoes of posts I’ve already written. That I’m repeating myself.

I’m sure I do.

I’m slowly becoming one of those mums whose family rolls their eyes when I say at the dinner table, “I’m not sure if I’ve told you this …” and then proceed to tell a story they’ve heard a hundred times.

It’s the more friendly, more family and friend oriented version of “Get off my lawn!”

So yeah, I’m sure I’ve done it here. I have 3,772 posts on this blog, and only about 560 of them are Friday reminders for SoCS.

But you guys are like family, right?

You can put up with a bit of repetitiveness. ❤

 

This forgetful old lady-likenostalgic post is part of Just Jot it January. Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Dan for the prompt!


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JusJoJan25 the 9th – Shy?

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “shy,” comes to us courtesy of Di. Check out her blog here!

I don’t think I’ve been shy since I was a child. I do remember being shy, but at some point I must have figured out that if I didn’t stand up for myself, I wasn’t going to get what I wanted.

Figure skating helped a fair bit too—yes, I was terrified to get out there on the ice and skate in front of people when I was doing a test, a competition, or a show, but I had no choice. I got over it.

Still don’t ask me to speak in public. My mouth won’t work properly.

So now, I’m quite vocal when I’m advocating for my kids. I hate conflict, but I’m not shy if it’s important.

But advocating for myself when it comes to selling my books?

Ugh.

I don’t know if it’s shyness as much as it is imposter syndrome or just not wanting to put anyone out, but yeah. After eight years of publishing, I still have a problem with it.

Unless I have a free book on offer.

(See how I slipped that in there?)

This rambling post is part of Just Jot it January. Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Di for the prompt!


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One-Liner Wednesday & #JusJoJan25 the 8th – Stop following me!

Seriously, stop following me and just tell me how to make a billion dollars already.

Photo: A Facebook notification telling me “Prince Hamad Wali” and “Prince Hamad Wali” followed my author page. Yes, two different profiles.

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.

Here are the simple JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

2 a) 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!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan25 and/or #JusJoJan25.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


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JusJoJan25 the 7th – Pernickety technology

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “pernickety,” comes to us from Ritu. Check out her blog here!

I tell you, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

My laptop is dying. The hard drive is gasping out its last laboured breaths. It’s old (in laptop years), it’s reliable, it’s fast (still Windows 10), and I’m reluctant to let it go. I’ll take it to Best Buy today and see if it’s worth replacing the hard drive in it. And the battery because that’s almost gone too. And maybe the fan …

In the meantime, I’m on my newest laptop, a pernickety thing that came with Windows 11 even though I suspect it only just passed the specs to handle it by a whisker.

It’s too slow to do a video chat on Facebook, which I do with a friend every evening while we do writing sprints. It shuts down every once in a while without warning, so writing this post on it is far from ideal. It’s just … okay as a word processor as long as Word is doing auto updates on One Drive.

So yeah.

Wish me luck at Best Buy today. Fingers crossed I won’t have to say goodbye to my old reliable Asus Windows 10 laptop.

This rather ranty post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Ritu for the prompt!


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JusJoJan25 the 6th – Invigorating exercise

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “invigorating,” comes to us courtesy of Wendy. Check out her blog here!

Well, my son fixed the breaker that runs the treadmill, so I’m back in business. And without the awkwardness (on my part) or the cost (also on my part) of getting an electrician in. Yay!

So now I’m able to get my steps in and avoid the current -11C snowy cold outside.

True, walking outside would be far more invigorating. Frigidity like we have today tends to encourage one to walk faster to keep warm. Not to mention the restorative (lung-scorching) fresh air.

I think I may have just talked myself into going out for a walk.

This invigorating post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Wendy for the prompt!