Tag: blogging

One Hour a Day

The other day I was poking around the website, and what did I find? That I’ve written only one post per month for the past few months. Wow, that’s pretty awful.

Which leads me to contemplate my writing goals. It certainly wasn’t my intention to post just once per month. Granted, I didn’t have a specific frequency in mind (maybe once per week?), but I’m a far cry from whatever that goal might have been be.

It’s not like I don’t have things to say. I have plenty to say. Currently, it’s mostly political stuff. I’m not a great follower of politics in general, but the past few months have made me care very much about this country. In the wake of January 6th, I’ve pondered questions such as “What defines a patriot?” Then there’s my curiosity about whether we’ll see an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among Texans and spring-break participants in the coming weeks. And let’s not forget all the ways Congress sucks.

Books by K.J. Charles: The Magpie Lord, Think of England, Slippery Creatures
A few of K.J. Charles’ books: 1) her first & most popular, 2) my personal favorite, and 3) my next read.

The problem is, whenever I try to write down my thoughts, the words fail me. Posts I’ve so eloquently organized in my mind just disappear. I envy people like Jim Beaver and K.J. Charles, who seem to be able to easily discuss even controversial topics in meaningful, intelligent ways.

Continue reading “One Hour a Day” →

Why Is WordPress Life So Hard?

How do bloggers do it? Not only provide content every day or so, but upload photos and other media with seeming ease?

I came to the blog today yesterday with the idea of writing a post, although I had no idea what to write about. Despite having 11 drafts, I’m just not inspired. Chalk it up to mid-winter and pandemic ennui. So I thought I’d spend some time organizing the website. Ha.

When I changed themes (last summer?) I created new stream-themed headers. But I had trouble loading them. Today Yesterday I decided to load one of a winter scene. Of course, the winter pic was one I hadn’t yet made, so I had to create it. That entailed resizing (not hard) and improving its general appearance. I’m not good with seeing optimum results, so I have to create several versions and decide which one is best. This photo entailed improving contrast and sharpness, both of which provide me with nearly infinite options. So it takes a long time for me to find those optimal results—and it eats into my writing time.

Then I screwed up and managed to “hide” all my headers. That required searching for a way to undo my mistake. The WordPress dashboard gave no option to “show” hidden headers. So I searched for an answer on the web, only to come up with nothing. Bummer. Through some trial and error I managed to show the one picture I’ve uploaded. So it will show on every page. I hope.

Eventually I’ll load more headers, but one is enough for now. As part of organizing my blog, I need to update several things. Like the copyright, which I first have to find. And categories and tags. And access to pages, which I’ve now realized isn’t obvious.

Perhaps I need to dedicate an hour or so to blog maintenance in addition to an hour to writing. But… but… it interferes with my game-playing. Yes, retirement is wonderful, with all its extra free time. But it can lead to an unscheduled life. And with above said ennui, that’s a slippery slope—which I have managed to slide down.

At least this stream of consciousness post (hey, it is the title of the blog!) has given me ideas for new posts: writing goals, retirement thoughts, and time-wasting games.

Now, if I could only find a picture to post. Ah, here we go…

Natalie’s dishcloth, which I STILL haven’t mailed.

Oh good God! How do I resize this damn thing? Once again WordPress has modified its dashboard and now I can’t find how to edit and resize this photo. (I finally gave up and resized it in my graphics program, but I still can’t find how to properly edit the photo, so it’s going out as is.) See? WordPress life is hard!

Now, if I can just figure out how to add categories and tags in the new interface…

Sunday Seven: Goals for April

My goodness, time flies when your having fun sleeping off drugs.  I have several Sunday Seven posts in the works, but they require time, care, and love to complete in the manner which they deserve.  Since I completely missed last week, let’s do something quick and dirty today.

A newly green tree adorns a calendar for April .2014
April showers bring… newly green trees.

Seven Goals for April

(No, filing taxes does not count.)

  1. Get up by ^^’ o’clock every day.  (The actual time is too embarrassing to post.)
  2. Eat more fruits and vegetables.  It’s not a “well-formed” goal, but it’s good enough for now.
  3. Reboot my Kitchen Survival series, searching for healthy substitutions to The Campus Survival Cookbook recipes and menus.
  4. Post at least once a week here and once a week at SciFi Chicks.
  5. Spend 15 minutes a day cleaning out the kitchen and/or paperwork.
  6. Make one trip to Goodwill.  Should be easy—the car is nearly full.
  7. Get out and walk twice a week—preferably with camera.

And let’s not forget—no television shopping!

I think that’s a pretty good list.  Let’s hop to it!  (Easter-ish pun intended.)

[Adorable calendar found at freedesignfile.com.]

Sunday Seven: More Dragons!

Yes, it’s another How to Train Your Dragon Sunday Seven list.  It won’t be the last.

Last June, in my first How to Train Your Dragon Sunday Seven, I listed seven unexpected or moving moments from the film.  Yet the movie is so rich in its story and animation, there were several things I missed upon first viewing.  So here are seven things I noticed upon watching the movie a second time.

Seven Things I Caught When Watching How to Train Your Dragon for a Second Time

  1. During the DreamWorks logo/credit, after the boy in the moon casts his fishing line,  a Night Fury flies across the night sky.
  2. Hiccup is left-handed.  At the time I hadn’t read any of the books, so I was curious as to why the creators made this choice.  Once I’d read How to be a Pirate (the second volume in the How to Train Your Dragon series of books), everything made sense.
  3. Gothi, the village elder, watches the teens’ dragon training session with the Deadly Nadder.  She also observes the Zippleback training session, and thereafter is joined by more and more villagers.
  4. Also during Nadder training session:  when Snotlout, trying to impress Astrid, throws his weapon at the dragon and misses, the Nadder laughs at him.
  5. Towards the end of the “Forbidden Friendship” scene (when Hiccup tries to befriend the dragon in the cove), after Hiccup has made it successfully through the dragon’s maze, his hand reaching out is in 3-D.  Since I’ve only seen the movie in 2-D, I hadn’t realized this was an obvious  3-D “gag.”
  6. When Hiccup and Toothless race through the archipelago without the aid of the cheat sheet at the end of their “Test Drive”), Toothless does a 360-degree barrel roll.
  7. After the teens arrive at the battle scene with the Green Death, Astrid throws a salute to the others when she and Hiccup peel off to save Toothless.

There you have just some of the delightful wonders this film provides.  What are your favorites?

And just because it must be said:

Only 88 days until How to Train Your Dragon 2 is in theaters!

In a scene from How to Train Your Dragon 2, Toothless plays with a large, colorful dragon.
Could it be that Toothless has a girlfriend?

Back on the Dragon Train!

The second season of DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk wrapped up this week, and FX aired How to Train You Dragon last Friday.  So this seems like a good time to return to my Dragons obsession.  This week we’ll look at the television series.  Next week we’ll revisit the movie, and after that we’ll take another look at John Powell’s fabulous soundtrack.

I wasn’t terribly consistent in reviewing the Defenders of Berk episodes at SciFi Chicks, but I never missed an episode (unless thwarted by electricity), and my obsession love for the franchise continues.  And so I present…

My Seven Favorite Defenders of Berk Episodes

Continue reading “Back on the Dragon Train!” →

Sunday Seven Is Back!

Downton Abbey.  It’s one of those shows I dislike, but always end up watching.  Given the unremarkable season 4 finale of television’s Second-Most Overrated Show (Game of Thrones being the first), I’ve come up with some ideas to make next season less predictable, more enjoyable and unexpected.

Seven Ways  Downton Abbey Could Improve… But Won‘t

1. Edith embraces Bohemia.
2. Violet updates her wardrobe.
5. Bates isn’t a killer.
3. Isobel becomes famous.
6. Baxter’s past is revealed.
4. Thomas loses his smirk
7. Daisy finds love.

Continue reading “Sunday Seven Is Back!” →

Sunday Seven: Winter Is Coming

Mega-Fluffies are available at QVC.
Fluffies come in all sorts of colors. Mine is yellow.

It’s snowing here in Northern Virginia.  To celebrate, here are:

Seven Things I Like about Cold Weather

  1. Drinking Cafe Escapes’ Chai Latte.  It’s warm and cinnamony, just perfect for a cold, wintery afternoon.
  2. Snuggling under my Mega Fluffie while watching television.
  3. The bottle of water in my car stays cold.

Yep.  That’s it.  Hurry up, Spring.

Sunday Seven: Around the Neighborhood

Picture #2 is so pretty I had to feature it.

On Columbus Day, I took my new camera on a stroll around the neighborhood.  It was the first sunny day in about a week.  Here’s what we (my camera and I) found.  (Picture #2 is above.)

Hibiscus (?) plant. Yeah, I’m going with that.
They deliver!
Lulu

  1. A potted plant (it’s a hibiscus, I think) in our pool area.  We filled in the kiddie pool years ago because it was too expensive to repair.
  2. The hibiscus bloom, taken from the same spot as #1, but with the zoom.  The photo is unretouched, except for size.  It turned out so lovely, it’s featured at the top of the post.
  3. A dry cleaner that delivers!  I took the photo to remember the name and contact info, since I’m always forgetting to take stuff to the dry cleaner’s.
  4. Lulu!  Is she not adorable?  She’s part Yorkie, part chihuahua. She looks it, doesn’t she?  (I also met Pepper, a shih tzu, and her owner, a Coast Guard officer who had the day off; but was too embarassed to ask if I could take Pepper’s picture.)
  5. The Leaning Tower of Alexandria, er, the George Washington Masonic Temple.  The fence between our property and theirs was recently reopened.  There had been a pass-through when I first moved in, but they closed it up years ago.  On my walk, I met a man coming out of the bushes, and voila!, learned the fence had been opened once again.  Yay!
  6. The Masonic Temple, full optical zoom.  Still tilted.  It’s claim to fame is an elevator that runs diagonally.
  7. And once again, this time using the “intelligent” (i.e., digital) zoom.  It too was tilted, but I straightened it (a little) with my graphics software. (Although I have Photoshop, I prefer Paint Shop Pro.  Simpler software for simpler minds.)

The Leaning Tower of Alexandria, er, the George Washington Masonic Temple
Masonic Temple, zoomed. Still leaning.
Zoomed even more. And straightened somewhat.

A Supernatural Sunday Seven

I have nothing planned for today’s list, so I’m going to cull from elsewhere.  Two recent posts at SciFi Chicks discuss the best episodes from season 4 of Supernatural (as determined by IMDB, TV.com and me).  Now I’m going to focus on just me.  Here are:

from “The Monster at the End of This Book”
from “In the Beginning”
from “On the Head of a Pin”
from “Monster Movie”
from “When the Levee Breaks”

My Seven Favorite Supernatural Episodes
from Season 4

Continue reading “A Supernatural Sunday Seven” →

Summer’s End

A Sunday Seven Post

[I can no longer write a post unless it’s in list form. I attribute this affliction to writing only Sunday Sevens for the past month.  I started a post earlier this week, but couldn’t seem to finish it.  Since I have nothing else planned for today, here it is in list form.]

It’s official.  Summer is over. I know this not because Labor Day has come and gone, not because school is in session once again, not because September hails the start of meteorological autumn.  Nope.  I know this because I can’t breathe.

fucking-fall-allergies

Continue reading “Summer’s End” →