Life in progress


83 Comments

And Now For Something Slightly Different

Due to the overwhelming response I’ve received for Just Jot It January 2016 participation, I’ve decided to go ahead and run it. Hard to believe it’ll be starting in just a few days, isn’t it? Anyhow, I’m working out ways to make it a little easier this year for everyone to connect. This is what I’ve come up with so far:

  1. I’ll schedule every one of my posts for early in the morning so you have the option of linking to a daily post instead of the Rules Post at the start of the month. This will make the ping backs easier to find. However, if you want to schedule your posts ahead of time, you can still link to the Rules Post – when I see it, I’ll link to the daily post for you. I hope to make this new addition to the rules less confusing when the time comes, so if you don’t understand what you just read, don’t worry about it. 😛
  2. Because I’m going to be on more of a deadline (see #1), I’m going to ask for prompts from you. Yes, you. The first 22 comments on this post that include a single word will be my prompts for the 22 days 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. Having said that, 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. The sixteenth word will be a special one. If you can figure out why, kudos to you.
  3. I’ll link back to the blog of whoever gives me a prompt on the day I use it, so make sure you get your comment in early!
  4. I’ll be sure to post my prompt word in the title of my post each day so if you need a little prompting yourself, you’ll be able to use it too if you want.

That’s all I can think of for now. The full list of rules will go up on January 1st, so get ready!

Now all I have to do is squint, hold my breath, and hit publish on this post. Let the prompts roll in!!


55 Comments

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


31 Comments

Don’t get fined for “free” use of photos on WordPress

Copyright infringement is a serious issue, and one we’re all, apparently, at risk of inadvertently committing here on WordPress. There’s so much more to free usage of Creative Commons material than meets the eye, and no one understands that better than author and blogger, D.G. Kaye.

In her article, she explains how it happened to her and what to look for in the fine print for what appears to be free-for-all-to-use images. You can read it  Listen Up – 5 Tips to Protect Yourself from Copyright Infringement by clicking this link.

Benefit from her experience before it happens to you!


24 Comments

What we make of things

They say some things in life only have as much significance as we give to them. I suppose you could say that about everything and everyone – the things and people we find dear to us are those that have a place in our hearts. A person can have significance to us because we relate to them, or because they’re family. An item can be meaningful for its monetary value (if money in general matters to us) or for the memories it conjures.

Then there are the things we make up meanings for; a recurring dream, the sighting of a black cat, or a ring around the moon for instance. For me, for the past twenty years or so, it’s a number sequence that keeps coming up. I think of it as maybe something that pops in once in a while to say, hey, I’m still here watching over you. The number sequence is 911. It doesn’t always have to be precisely in that order – sometimes it’s a whole jumble of 1s and 9s that gets my attention. Sometimes I even have to add up the numbers in a sequence to come up with it. Like this little gem I encountered the other day:

1111119999The 1s are obvious. But then 4+7=11 and for the 9s, 18 halved is two more. So out of this I got 1111119999. I think that’s pretty cool.

By now I predict you’re either you’re intrigued or your finger is hovering above the let’s-move-on button. But before you go, let me ask you; what have you invented a significance for? Is there anything? Or do you just stick to people, objects, or even places? Or hey, feel free to let me know if you think I’m just weird.


112 Comments

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.


4 Comments

Tuesday Use It In A Sentence – Cabalistic

Her cabalistic habits sometimes got in the way of her household budget – she couldn’t go to the grocery store without buying half a dozen candles in different shapes and sizes.

 

Join us at Tuesday Use It In a Sentence! Visit A Word Adventure this week to find out how. 😀

 

 


6 Comments

NanoPoblano Day 15 – kind of

Yes, I’ve posted every day this month so far. No, I haven’t linked every day to NanoPoblano. Coz you know what? It feels like the first thing that goes when I’m stressed is the enthusiasm for anything that’s not deathly necessary. And a lot of things right now are deathly necessary. On top of that, it seems the world is in turmoil and there’s nothing I can do about it. So I offer you a picture. I’ve been waiting for the right time to post it and this feels like it. It’s not a dove, but they are white birds.

May you have peace this evening, where ever you are.

CAM00994

https://rarasaur.wordpress.com/nanopoblano-2015/


11 Comments

NanoPoblano Day 10 – The “To or Not To Tuesday” Edition

I discovered a fantastic new prompt from Deborah of Container Chronicles, and it fit in so well with my NanoPoblano post for today, I thought I’d combine the two. I’ll leave the links for both at the end of this post – don’t forget to click on them.

So I’m thinking about what I should do about NanoPoblano when I’m on holiday. I haven’t scheduled any posts at all so far (which is what I figured would happen) and I’m thinking that even if I do, am I going to be able to reply to the comments? Probably not.

To do it or not to do it? Perhaps I’ll just schedule a post for the three days I’ll actually be traveling and leave the ones in between to chance. I know from experience that I’ll have equally good internet access there as I do here, and I don’t go out very much at night, so I’ll be sitting in my hotel rooms on the computer anyway. BUT, I could be doing something productive with that time, like reading, writing, or editing… Perhaps I’ll play it by ear.

What would you do?

After you leave me your valued advice in the comments, please check out Deborah’s prompt at: https://myriad234.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/to-or-not-to-tuesday-week-2/ and join in today!

nanopoblano2015dark

And don’t forget NanoPoblano, where you can find lots of great blogs to read and follow. 😀


72 Comments

I reached a milestone today!

The more you blog the longer it takes to get from point to point, but today I hit a milestone I’ve been working at for a while. Today, I made it to 100,000 views. 🙂

I’ve learned a lot over these past years of blogging. Most of all I’ve found that there are many wonderful people in this WordPress community who experience the same joys and the same tribulations as I do on a day to day basis. I’ve made friends – I’ve even met five of you in person! I hope to be here for a good long time and to meet a whole heck of a lot more of you!

And so I’d like to say thank you to all of the people who clicked on my posts in the past two years and ten months. And to the ones who visited today for the first time, no thanks to you… but thanks for helping me get to 200K! 😀

Cheers!


Leave a comment

Tuesday Use It In a Sentence

Yes, I know it’s not Tuesday. And I’m not here with a prompt. I’m actually here with an offer.

I started Tuesday Use It In a Sentence three weeks ago with visions of a prompt that would spread far and wide over the vastness that is the internet – and it still can! But I have neither the time nor the energy to host a third weekly get-together. I thought I did. I was wrong.

So I’m here tonight to see if there’s anyone who would like to take over. I’ll participate in it, and there were five bloggers and tweeters combined who joined in last week, which is about how many I started with when I began Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Any takers? Email me at bacamjoly at gmail dot com and we’ll talk about what’s involved. The first person who’s seriously interested can have it. Or maybe two people would like to share it… the possibilities are endless. If you’d like to see what it’s all about, click here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/20/tuesday-use-it-in-a-sentence-overrun/

It seems a shame to just let it die after three whole weeks. 😛

Edit: I’ve had one person respond. I’m just waiting for her to confirm.