Life in progress


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#JusJoJan 2/20 – UFO

It’s not the first time I’ve seen strange lights in the sky. I had a stationary light, too bright to be a star but too far away to be anything but celestial, shining in my bedroom window for weeks.

But this is the first time I’ve actually managed to get a picture of one.

Click and expand to get a better look.

It’s about 11 o’clock from the moon, which is right in the middle of the photo. To describe what it looked like with the naked eye, it was like a giant bird with two halves that looked like wings, and it was just as bright as the moon.

It didn’t move from its position in relation to the moon, even when I drove. I watched it for a good five minutes.

Did anyone else see it? Has anyone else seen such a thing?

Or are they just watching me …? (Heehee.)

This weird post is part of Just Jot it January 2020! Today’s prompt was “a picture you’ve taken in the last week.” If you’d like to join in, just click the following link to see how. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2020/01/02/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-2nd-2020/

 


45 Comments

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 2nd, 2020

Hi there! You’ve arrived at the first regular day of Just Jot it January 2020! I’m looking forward to blogging every day this month–hopefully you’ll see more from me than just the prompts.

If you’d like to see the “Rules” post for what I have so far on your prompt list, you can find it HERE (I hope).

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 2nd, 2020, is “a picture you’ve taken in the last week.” If you don’t want to share the photo itself, talk about it. If you haven’t taken any photos, talk about a moment you wish you had. Have fun!

Here are the rules:

1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 2nd, 2020.

2. 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!

3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). 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.

4. 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.

5. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

6. 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!

7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

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

9. Have fun!


58 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 27/19

Friday’s here, and I’m late for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I’m sorry. 😦 Explanation to follow–and no, it’s not that I forgot about you. During the month of April, I’ll use the appropriate letter of the day to correspond with the A to Z Challenge, so anyone who’s participating in both challenges can do so at the same time. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “xp.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “xp”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our pretty SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


43 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 20/19

Friday’s here, and that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! During the month of April, I’ll use the appropriate letter of the day to correspond with the A to Z Challenge, so anyone who’s participating in both challenges can do so at the same time. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “rib.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “rib”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our pretty SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


59 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 13/19

It’s Friday, so welcome to your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! During the month of April, I’ll use the appropriate letter of the day to correspond with the A to Z Challenge, so anyone who’s participating in both challenges can do so at the same time. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lip.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “lip”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our pretty SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


66 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 6/19

It’s Friday already! Where ever did the week go? Friday means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! During the month of April, I’ll use the appropriate letter of the day to correspond with the A to Z Challenge, to help out anyone who’s participating to do both challenges at the same time. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fab.” Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.” As always, use any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our pretty SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


21 Comments

Ah, the Angst

The angst of still not knowing what to do this month!

And it’s already this month!!

I was reading what looked like a great article on procrastination yesterday.

Looked like it, I say, because I didn’t finish reading it. I shit you not, I set it aside to finish later.

Link at the bottom of this post.

So here I am with my illegal “A” post that is in no way associated with the A to Z Challenge. Why don’t I just link to the challenge and get it over with? Let me tell you.

Got a cup of coffee? I don’t, hang on.

Okay, got my coffee. Aaaand, there’s a dog hair in it. Alex must have dropped the tea towel before he wiped my cup. Oh well. Pick it out and keep going. I’m sure it won’t be the first time I’ve eaten a dog hair if there are any more in there. Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, why I don’t link to the original AWESOME A to Z Challenge? Which is celebrating its 10th year this year, I might add.

Link at the bottom of this post.

Anyway, the reason I’m not joining officially is because of the spirit of the whole thing. The A to Z Challenge is all about finding your community of bloggers. It’s about visiting each other. And honestly? I just don’t have time to guarantee I’ll visit every new blogger who visits me. Some? Yes. All? No.

And, I’m not sure I’ll manage to write more than this one post anyway.

But you should definitely do it! Look for the link. Don’t be sneaky like me and do it on the side.

So my next question is, what do I do for the rest of the month?

How about giving my improv muscles a workout?

For tomorrow, I’ll use the first three suggestions for “B” words in the comments on this post. ONE per person. Just please, keep it clean. Ta.

And here are the links I promised you.

The A to Z Challenge sign-up.

And the procrastination article.

Now I’m off to cough up a hairball.

Oh! And I haven’t forgotten the Escapist Coloring Club post for April 1st. I’ll get at that after I’ve finished some other stuff …


6 Comments

We did it! Just Jot it January 2019

We made it through January! A big pat on the back and congratulations to all of you who posted and linked every day for Just Jot it January. It’s not easy for everyone to post every day, so if you fall into that category, well done!

And if you just linked once in a while, or even once, or if you went into the comments and read posts of other participants, I appreciate that too.

To celebrate our accomplishment, no matter how big or small, I’ve made a participant’s badge. Please feel free to take it and post it on your blog. If you’d like to write a post to congratulate yourself and others for completing the challenge, feel free to link back here.

I’d also like to offer this as an opportunity to drop a link to one of your JusJoJan posts into the comments below. I encourage everyone to visit at least one blogger who you might not have read before.

Most of all, let’s keep this community going! Keep in touch, visit one another. Have fun!


16 Comments

Serendipity – #JusJoJan 2019 Jot #20

I’ve written about serendipity a couple of times on this blog already. The last two times I wrote about phenomenal events. We all have those serendipitous moments occasionally. Once in a while they’re life-changing, but mostly they’re the little things that come to us. Unexpected good things.

Sometimes, it seems, the universe gives us things we don’t even know that we need. Like the money I received from the government a week before I dropped my laptop. It turned out to be the exact amount my new laptop cost. Yes, I could have used that money to pay for the things I’d already spent it on, but the situation also could have been worse.

And sometimes the motes of serendipity appear as things seemingly sent just to put a smile on our faces. A song that comes on the radio that lifts us when we’re down, or items we give significance to as a sign of hope.

Serendipity can be mind-blowing.

Or it can just help us get through the day.

 


The prompt word, “serendipity,” for today’s post is brought to you by Jill! Thanks, Jill! To find her “serendipity” post, click here. And say hi while you’re there!

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/20/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-20th/


49 Comments

Prompt Me Part 2 – #JusJoJan 2019

Hello there! It’s time once again to ask you for prompt words to help us finish off Just Jot it January. This is your chance to inspire other people and have your blog linked back on the day of your prompt.

This is the second of two parts. I’m only asking for 8 prompt words today–if you had your prompt word used in the last two weeks, you don’t qualify for this round. First timers only please!

I need 8 single words to use in the Just Jot It January challenge, for January 20th through to the 29th. I’ll post the prompt for the final day. Read the rules carefully! This is how you can be included:

  • The first 8 comments on this post that include a single word will be the prompts for the last two weeks in January that I won’t be writing my own prompts (aka One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday).  If you write more than one word in your comment, for example, “My word is antidisestablishmentarianism,” I’ll ignore it. Same thing if you try to slip in two, even in two different comments–I’ll only accept the first. If I get the same word twice, I’ll only accept the first person who got to it. If you’re the second, feel free to try again. And please, remember this is a relatively G-rated blog, so nothing too risque.
  • I’ll link back to the blog of whomever gives me a prompt on the day I use it.
  • Make sure you get your comment in early. You don’t want to miss out!
  • Please don’t bother entering a prompt if your blog is inactive or if it exists only to sell things. If you haven’t posted in over a month and you’re only looking for clicks, your prompt word will be rejected. If, on the other hand, you’re planning to use JusJoJan to inspire you to get back into the swing of things, let me know immediately in a second comment — NOT the one you give your prompt word in. Remember, that’s ONE word only. If I can’t find a reasonable number of posts written in the last month that aren’t trying to sell a product, your prompt word will be rejected.
  • I observed a couple of years ago that many of our prompt words were negative in nature. I found they didn’t do as well as the more positive words. I don’t want to limit you, but please keep in mind that if your word is on the sadder or angrier side, your prompt may not get as much participation.
  • If you provide a prompt, I encourage you to join in as much as possible throughout the rest of the month.

Please see the “Rules” post for a complete list of the prompt words. I’ll populate it as the words come in, if I’m home. Here’s the link in case you missed it: https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/31/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2019-rules/

Okay. Are you ready? Aaaaand… prompt! One word!

Edit: We have all our prompt words! I’ll turn off the commenting on this post now. Please check the above link for the prompt list. I’ll finish filling it in in a bit. Thanks to all our contributors this year!!