Life in progress

Tag Archives: NaBloPoMo


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Nano Poblano – Day 21: Oh yes, I went there

How it should have gone:

Geek Squad Mike: How can I help you?

Me: I’ll start at the beginning, shall I? Here we go. In April, or maybe even March, I came in with my laptop because the battery was shutting the machine off at 70% power. You took it and you “fixed” it, but the battery was still fucked. So your manager promised me a new battery. Last week–yes, 7 or 8 months later–I finally got my new battery. I’d like to know if you can put it in for me. …oh wait! I can answer that question for you. NO! You can’t put my new battery in because you ordered the wrong one!

Geek Squad Mike: I have no idea which idiot ordered the wrong battery for you: here’s a new laptop, free of charge!

 

How it actually went:

Geek Squad Mike: How can I help you?

Me: I got the wrong battery.

Geek Squad Mike: What’s your phone number, I’ll look that up for you.

Ten minutes later:

Geek Squad Mike: (who has been joined by Geek Squad Dillon) We can order the new battery for you. I’ll leave you with Dillon: he knows more than I do. He’s the computer genius.

Me: Yes, he’s the computer genius who ordered the wrong battery for me last time.

 

For some reason, Geek Squad Dillon didn’t think that was funny.

True story.

 

This true story has been brought to you in conjunction with Mr. Mark:

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and PoBloCompMo

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Nano Poblano – Day 20: Oh Woe is Thursday

Thursday is the hardest day to blog for me lately. I have a major paper delivery to do on Thursdays – one free one for every house on my route, with fliers. They’re heavy, bulky, and 124 houses add up to a lot of front steps. Then I come home and nine times out of ten I have absolutely nothing to talk about because, believe it or not, delivering tomes that weigh as much as an entire collection of encyclopedias to each and every house on the block is usually uneventful. Unless you want to hear about how many cats I petted (5), or how many squirrels crossed my path, (35 1/2… don’t ask), then you’re not going to get much of anything out of me on a Thursday.

Is there a day of the week that’s more difficult, or less inspiring than all the others for you? Why do you think that is? I wanna know.

The above blather has been brought to you by Mr. Mark:

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and BloSnoPoMo:

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Nano Poblano – Day 19: Leaving Home

I saw these tracks in the snow this morning; they seemed odd.

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I studied them for a while before I came to a definite conclusion as to what they meant. Obviously they were made by a disgruntled squirrel, dragging his wagon behind him.

And then I saw the note.

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I’d say that pretty much confirms it. This snow is for the birds.

This post in aid of the cause:
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and:
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Nano Poblano – Day 18: What to do about a Book Sale

Don’t ever let me loose at a used book sale.

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There’s more that one bit of good news in this though. The nine books only cost me $21, and the proceeds went to the Alzheimer’s Society.

But while I was browsing the thousands of books for sale that day, I got to thinking: what if I had my book published and gave away copies at events such as the Alzheimer’s book sale? Wouldn’t that be a neat way not only to get my novel out there, but to give to a worthwhile charity at the same time? Heck, I could even sit there and sign them. But then I got to thinking – does that make the sale suddenly more about me than the cause?

What do you think? Should this even be a tough call?

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Nano Poblano – Day 17: Somewhere Between

Somewhere between fall and winter there’s a stark contrast. They fight it out to the death. The clash between results in a riot – of colour.

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This post brought to you in cahoots with Mr. Mark:

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And:

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Nano Poblano – Day 16: 10 Random Whiches

1. Which witch is which?

2. Which is better: slapstick or dry?

3. Which beverage makes the most sense?

4. Which one?

5. Which would you rather be: a sandwich or a set of false teeth?

6. Which Disney character are you most like?

7. Which colour is the best colour in the world to paint a kitchen?

8. Which sound is the most annoying ever?

9. Which is better: digital or analogue?

10. Which musician would you bring back from the dead, if you could?

As always, a point for every good answer, and a bonus point for your “which” question to me. Funniest answer (decided by me) may be posted as my One-Liner Wednesday. Go!

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SoCS – Three out of Four

According to my horoscope I’m an Air sign, though I’m not sure that’s my favourite element – at least not all the time.

There have been times in my life when I was in my element out of doors, particularly when I worked with horses. I loved being out on horseback no matter what the weather. Except freezing rain. That sucked for everyone. But in general I love nature, and so sitting on a fence rail, breathing in the air and just watching the horses graze was a gem of a time for me.

I love being in a canoe as well. Floating on the water, paddling my little heart out is a great time as far as I’m concerned. Swimming as well – I used to enjoy holding my breath and just laying on the bottom of my neighbour’s pool for as long as I could. Sounds are muffled and it’s simply peaceful.

When I went camping when I was younger I was always the one to tend the fire. Keeping it going was a constant occupation and could keep me busy for hours. Sitting by the fire at night with the crickets singing and a million stars overhead could be heaven. As long as it wasn’t raining. Then again, crickets don’t sing when it rains, and chances are I wouldn’t see the stars either, so scratch that. Ah stream of consciousness and no editing, eh?

The one element I could never really get into is earth. Digging in the garden holds absolutely no appeal to me. Sitting in the garden reading a good book on a nice day… priceless.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-1514/ Come an join in!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

And Nano Poblano:

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And NaBloPoMo:

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Nano Poblano – Day 14: Missing Posts

How could I possibly go a day without having something new to love WordPress for? Today I have (that I’ve found so far) four posts missing from my page. They’re still accessible from the links made to them and I can still find them internally. On top of that, I can’t see my sidebar from my computer when I look at my home page, though my lovely friend Belinda says she can see it from hers.

Here are the missing posts:

One-Liner Wednesday – Grissom

Clever Mathematics 😉

WordPress view stats all over the place

The Nano Poblano Oddly Specific Gratitude Blog Hop

Note that one of them is a complaint over the view stats.

If I go missing completely, it means WordPress ate me for posting this. In the meantime, you might want to check out your own blogs and see if anything is missing from your site.  I’m waiting for support to get back to me on mine.

Edit: The Nano Poblano Oddly Specific Gratitude Blog Hop post just showed up but the other three are still missing.

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Nano Poblano – Day 13: Me compared to Stephen King

My manuscript is literally bigger than The Stand! I have proof!

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But seriously, wouldn’t you love to be able to say that about your body of work and actually mean it in more than a literal sense? Even if I’m that good, which I suspect that possibly I’m not, (ahem) there’s no chance in hell, or even Castle Rock that I can catch up to the great SK. I didn’t start early enough. In fact, by my calculations I’d have to live to be a hundred and twenty five and seven-eighths years old to write as many books as Stephen King has and will. And honestly, I can’t see myself writing much past my 120th birthday anyway.

Conclusion: I’m destined to spend the rest of my existence wheezing on his literary dust. And enjoying the Castle Rock out of his books.

Mr. Mark’s deal:

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Nano Poblano Day 12: NaNoWhatever

I’m starting to think writing a novel would have been easier than this NaBloPoMo thing. Writing a post every day, especially when I’m being forced into it, is HARD! Writing a novel when I’m being forced into it, on the other hand, is a piece of cake as long as life doesn’t come along and bite me in the arse like it did during NaNo ’11.

Yep, NaNo ’11 was a doozy. I was going along strong and then suddenly everyone got sick. Alex, my youngest, was in the hospital in Kingston, which was miles away and so I figured I’d sleep there, save the drive home. Only I got woken up at two in the morning to find out my eldest, Fred, was puking up blood. What do you do?

I rushed home as soon as I’d talked to Alex’s doctor the next day–which was almost dinner time–and I don’t even remember what happened after that, ‘coz I got sick. At least I knew Alex was taken care of.

The manuscript that came out of that there NaNo ’11 took me another year to complete, as it turned out. Today I printed out all 627 pages of it–again–so I can give it what I hope is a second-last once-over before it goes out to my beta readers. That should take, oh, a week or so if all goes well.

And no one gets sick.

This post was brought to you by Mr. Mark:

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and NaBloPoMo

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