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Just Jot It January 24th – Compelled – We’re almost there!

So hard to believe, but there’s only a week to go ’til the last day of January. Then after a slightly elongated February we’ll be looking forward to spring, and looking to the weatherman to find out if we’ll have an early one or a late one. I think for many of us in North America, our mild December has made this month (or at least the winter so far) seem much shorter, don’t you?

The fact that there’s only a week left of January means we’re almost finished Just Jot It January too! If you’ve made it this far without missing a post, congratulations! If you’ve at least written a name and number down on a post-it note, good for you! You’ve jotted something every day. 😀

But we can’t stop here. We’ve got to keep going! Whether you’re compelled by the enjoyment of jotting out a post every day, or you’re simply on a roll and the momentum is carrying you, it doesn’t matter. JusJoJan is an exercise to remind ourselves that we can write something every day. We’re all writers after all, every one of us who has a blog. And yes, I’m talking to those who have art and photo blogs too – the titles and tags have got to come from somewhere, right?

So whatever your motivation, keep that compulsion going. We’re gonna do this! 😀

The “Compelled” prompt is brought to you by Willow at Willowdot21. Please stop by her blog to have a read and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 24th post here!


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Gotta make a decision

January is almost here, so I think it’s time to decide whether or not I’ll run “Just Jot It January” (JusJoJan) again this year. It’s been quite a success for the past two years running, so it seems a good idea to keep it going.

For those of you not familiar with it, JusJoJan is a challenge to write a blog post, whether a thousand words or just a few, every day in January. The benefit of joining in is that you can link your post to mine so more bloggers find and read yours. It’s a fun community event during which I and many other bloggers have made friends and gained followers.

So my question to you is this: are you up for it? Let’s see a show of hands!

JJJ Part 2015


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Mr. Paul Curran has been found!

If you read Mr. Mark Bialczak’s post yesterday, or if you came across one of the numerous reblogs of that post, you’ll know we were missing our favourite guest poster and frequent commenter, Paul Curran. Well. I happened to be going to Ottawa today for an appointment and another blogger happened to have Paul’s address so I went and knocked on his front door. And guess what? He was there!

As it turns out he had an infection that caused complications and he was hospitalized for two weeks. Then he got home to find that his modem had blown up, so he’s been without the Internet. He seemed a little flabbergasted to find that all of WordPress was missing him and he asked me to extend his apologies for causing everyone to worry and to let you all know he appreciates that we were thinking of him. It must have been a bit of a shock to have one of us show up at his house!

If all this has shown me anything (and believe me, I’m not patting myself on the back for the little detour I made – it was really nothing) it’s that our “friends” on the Internet are every bit as real as the ones we see in person. The next time it crosses my mind that the people here in this community don’t really care, I’ll think again.

Paul is actually the sixth person I’ve met with face to face who I first encountered here at WordPress. It was a great pleasure to shake his hand. He’s every bit the gentleman we all know and love. Thankfully he’ll be back as soon as his Internet provider replaces his modem.


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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/

SoCS badge 2015


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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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Three Years Later, My First Post

Twice now I’ve been nominated for the First Post Challenge. The first time by the lovely and talented Joey (you can find her challenge post here) and the second by the lovely and talented Willow (you can find her challenge post here) Yes, they’re both lovely and talented. You should get to know them if you don’t already! Thank you both so much, my lovely and talented friends, for thinking of me. 😀

I thought since today is my official 3rd Anniversary of Blogging (as opposed to my unofficial one, when I actually started writing posts on a regular basis) I’d choose this as the day to accept the challenge.

The rules are:
Copy-paste, link, pingback, etc. your first post.

Identify the post: introduction, story, poem.

Explain why it was your first post.

Nominate five other bloggers.

My first post, written July 26th, 2012:

Whatever am I doing here?

It’s a question that is asked by everyone once in a while, by some more often than others: what in the world am I doing here? And oh how we struggle with the answer!

My answer for the moment is, I am here to write, to please myself.

How about you?

That’s it. Short and sweet.

It was obviously an introduction post; more to introduce me to blogging than to introduce bloggers to me. I had no idea what I was doing, nor did I have any clue what I would eventually get out of WordPress. To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement of epic proportions. I do remember being told once upon a time that if I wanted to be a published author I had to get out of my room and onto social media. This blog was the first thing I ever put my real name on. It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in terms of being online. Now I’m very happy I took the plunge.

So now how do I choose five blogs among the hundreds I adore, and whose first posts I’d love to read? How about the last five people to comment on my blog? That works for me. 😀

They would be my dear friends:

Jeanne Owens

John W. Howell

Glazed

Hope Floats

and Dale Cooper

Of course anyone else reading this who would like to participate, please go right ahead. It’s on me!

So there we go! Here’s to another three years of glorious blogging. Cheers!


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HarsH ReaLiTy update

Good news! I received an email this morning from Jason, aka Opinionated Man, to say that his site, HarsH ReaLiTy, will be open for viewing, though he will no longer be blogging. He read your comments (I would imagine there were a fair few emails that went out to him too) on my previous post and decided that enough people were interested in reading his work that he has chosen not to delete it.

All is well with him and his family, and he says he’s keeping busy and having fun with other ventures, though he didn’t specify what they are.

You can find HarsH ReaLiTy here: http://aopinionatedman.com/

Cheers, all! I’m off for a walk in the park.


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SoCS – Info Overload

My internet connectivity has been so spotty today it may as well have measles. So I’m on the little transformer – a glorified tablet with a keyboard attached – that I took to Japan with me. It fits in my purse but unlike my laptop seems to have a good, well, decent, wireless capability.

You see, I’m not at home. I’m out visiting a college campus as it’s the cheapest place I could find to stay. It’s my weekend off and since my ex has no where else to go, he’s looking after the kids at my house. It’s my only chance to get some work done. And working I have been! I’m so very happy to be almost at the end of my current edit. Then it will be back to the beginning of the novel once more and that should be it.

I do very much hope to start blogging again too, and to begin reading all the great blogs out there that I have sorely missed. I also hope to actually write something interesting soon… I think this post has failed miserably.

That’s enough information overload about me. What’s new with you?

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Check out Stream of Consciousness Saturday and join in with a post of your own! https://lindaghill.com/2015/06/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-615/


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The HarsH ReaLiTy (another one bites the dust)

So soon on the heels of the demise of the WordPress site “Mindful Digressions,” hosted by the amazing Doobster, comes the closure of HarsH ReaLiTy, brainchild of our beloved Opinionated Man, Jason Chandler Cushman.

I met Jason shortly after I started writing here on Life in Progress – I commented on one of his posts and was flabbergasted when he responded. From that day forward I knew what it took to gain a following, and quickly learned that there is a community at WordPress – one that is supportive, caring, and friendly. I thought about deleting my post “Save HarsH ReaLiTy,” but I think I’ll keep it open – it illustrates more than anything I’ve seen so far what a fantastic place we have here. You can view it here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/14/save-harsh-reality/ Most of all, read the comments. They are inspiring and heartwarming both.

Belinda at Idiot Writing – https://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/ – and I received an email:

If you have the chance please let people know that HarsH ReaLiTy is closed and is set to private until it can be deleted. I wish everyone the best and appreciate the connections I made over the past two years.

Jason
-OM

He, like Doobster, is closing his site for personal reasons. Here is Belinda’s post: https://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/all-the-best-in-a-harsh-reality/

For all the lessons you taught us, for all the support you gave us with re-blogs, challenges, and posts to share our own sites, for all the lively and entertaining discussions, I wish to say thank you, Cush. It was a real pleasure to get to know you. Your footprints in the sand (or snow) of my memory will remain.

In the spirit of OM’s mission on WordPress, please feel free to leave your tribute to Jason in the comments, or a link to your own post about him and what he meant to you. And check out each other’s sites. Let’s make Jason proud of what he accomplished!

As we remember all the wonderful, humorous articles and lists, the amusing one-liners, the controversial opinion pieces, and the loving photos of his family, let us lift a glass to our friend.

Cheers, Jason! May you and your beautiful family live a long and prosperous life!


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Have or Thinking About Getting Your Own WP Domain? A Little Advice.

For a long time I sat on the fence, wondering whether or not to switch my account from “.wordpress.com” to a “.com” site. In fact, I paid for my own domain long before I actually switched over. I had a few concerns, but my main one was whether or not the links I already had out on the web would lead back to my site after I changed the address. As it turns out, they do. I can still ask people to drop by lindaghill.wordpress.com and they’ll show up here at lindaghill.com. Which is wonderful! But… (There had to be a “but” in there, right?)

When I was doing research for my article about dying before scheduled posts are published, entitled “Blogging from the Grave,” I asked in the forums whether my site would still exist if I failed to pay for it, i.e. if I die. The answer was yes. All of my content will just revert back to my old lindaghill.wordpress.com address and will be here forever as long as no one deletes my account. However, all the links I leave behind which lack the “.wordpress.com” will either go nowhere or they will go to whomever buys the domain after I allow my payments to lapse.

My point is this: if you own your own WordPress domain and you want your links to last forever, don’t leave off the extra part of the address! Just a little thing you might have missed when you paid…

Edit: Now that’s interesting – I added the “.wordpress.com” to my link for the “Blogging from the Grave” post and I didn’t get a pingback on it. Could that explain the mystery of why sometimes pingbacks don’t work? (This edit is also an experiment.)

Edit2: YES! The pingback worked that time. Double the advice in one post – pingbacks don’t work if the address isn’t precise!