Category: TWO CENTS TUESDAY CHALLENGE

Everything under the sun

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Expectations

16 Comments

expectations2

INTJ or INTP? Doesn’t matter, if i can so can everyone else…

Have you ever taken a personality test? The inscrutable Dr. Fu and the Ghost get great mileage out of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and its myriad applications from character reference guide for strategy games to deducing whether friends’ relationships will survive the test of time. The quick, online quizzes that lead to gaining an idea about our psychological types are by no means 100% accurate as they can be skewed by mood and the difference in answering what we think we do and what we actually do. They are fun conversation starters though and can often lead to an ah-hah moment or two on why our hair stands on end when the person in front of us at the checkout is fiddling idiotically with small change.

Our various foibles and idiosyncrasies wind up having a huge bearing on the way we interact with the rest of the world. Sadly, there is no manual for codes of conduct, no one-size-fits-all t-shirt proclaiming in easy to read text our handling instructions or even a warning label. Runs with scissors. Does not play well with others. For your own safety, do not feed the fears. A visual prompt would certainly take the guesswork out of many situations we become embroiled in and perhaps give those who just don’t get it a clue about the rules of the game. Not going to happen: that would take the fun out of it all. This fortnight, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge has come to the conclusion that, in the greater scheme of being a semi-functional member of society, our characters are the unwitting architects of our – Expectations – and the source of our contentment or dissatisfaction. Whether we can master the beast and get to some sort of happy medium can be a challenge in itself. 

“What do expectations represent for you?” – A quick response or satisfying result, respect for an effort made or just a gentle thank-you, the bloom of a spring bulb, bark of a dog at the postman, the sun to come up in the morn or the stars to shine at night…  We would love to see your vision.

This week’s topic was a suggestion from The Madwoman of Ghost Harbor – Got an idea or theme that you would like to see in words or pictures? Leave us a note in the comment box!

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Lost – Week 2

2 Comments

lost 2

when every step leads further away from where you started

Everyone misplaces stuff. The old joke about Grampa looking for his spectacles when they are perched on his head isn’t the material of urban legend, it is a fact: our own mother uses her sunglasses as a headband and then asks straight-faced where they may have gotten to. Such are the vagaries of age but they are also a greater indication of a pre-occupation with other things at hand that might be more interesting, important or just distracting. It is a given that the more stuff one has, be it material or what we carry around in our heads, at some point or another we are going to drop bits without even knowing where or when. Our metaphysical file cabinets can get so jammed that the drawers don’t close anymore. Remember that really significant, sentimental, valuable (insert appropriate adjective here) thing that suddenly loomed large, clear as day, in foggy 2AM insomniac brain wanderings?

Gone.

So you retrace your steps to the source. Or try to, but sometimes it has been a very long journey indeed since said thing has been reassigned to a new location. Organizational skills aren’t very helpful in this kind of situation, in fact, they can be a huge hindrance for what seemed like a really good idea at the time can make no sense at all later. Oh, I’ll just put it here and no, I don’t need to write that number down – I’m positive they said 4pm… Thankfully, many of these quandaries can be solved with a little detective work. Like Jack and Victor looking for the disappeared scone (oh, here it is next to the phone…) they can end in success  – or the sad realization that, like the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, they are irretrievably – Lost. 

Last week we wanted to know “Have you ever been lost?” – In a great book or symphony, in love or grief, in the magic of a sunset or the gaze of a newborn, in traffic or far from home…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Lost

26 Comments

lost

Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you – john Donne

Across the Bored once heard someone ask rather bluntly “how many times do you have to be punched in the head before you step to the side?” They weren’t speaking about boxing or any of the number of forms of abuse men heap upon each other but rather about how we react in regards to ourselves. There is no doubt that free will plays a huge part in the way we construct our plans for the future and how we will get there but like the glossy vacation brochure tempting us with the illusion of sunnier climes, we are often happily deluded into buying the deluxe package when we should be figuring out how to pay for our next transit pass. That we are agents of our own misery is the stuff of life and much great fiction; whether the steps we take towards individual purpose are feeble or epic is often besides the point. Sometimes by seeking to do the right thing, the good thing, we inadvertently veer off onto the shoulder and end up like the horrid saying goes, finishing last.

Keeping a balance while staying on track has always been man’s problem, especially for those who like to launch themselves into things headlong because the vision of what could be is so clear. Avoiding the huge chaotic pendulum of change that swings back and forth threatening to derail us isn’t easy. Nobody ever said it would be. Our resoluteness and pride, our determination and desire, can all conspire just as much as our good will and faith to bring us to very dark and dismal places indeed. No matter how well we lay the map upon the table or paint lovely watercolours of the places we could go, the path may not be that apparent to everyone else and even if it is, our travel companions don’t always want to taken on the 5-star guided tour. This fortnight, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge hopes that no matter how – Lost – we get, that there is always a way to our destination.

“Have you ever been lost?” – In a great book or symphony, in love or grief, in the magic of a sunset or the gaze of a newborn, in traffic or far from home…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Abstract – Week 2

11 Comments

ear art 2

I did this with my ear and thought you might like it

Across the Bored is sure that at some point in all our lives we have looked at our pets and wondered what was really going on in their heads. We look at people and think the same thing so it’s not much of a stretch to extend it to those furry partners we wander through life with.  Reams of paper have been filled with wise words and theories about the nature of the way we reason, be it concrete or logical, creative or emotional but the subject of animal cognition is still a subject of debate.

We know for a fact that our own smelly dog wishes he had squirrel superpowers – we can tell by the way he stares wistfully out the window when they taunt him from the lawn and the way he leaps up the side of the tree when in hot pursuit. Such desire is evident in the way his paws flex and rotate in very undoggy-like fashion when he lies dreaming upside down in our favourite chair.  If he had opposable thumbs things might be very different around our house and that he forces us to stop what we are doing and stare deeply into his eyes until we know exactly what he wants would certainly indicate that there is more going on in his fuzzy noggin than “eat, sleep, bark, pee, eat, sleep, chew on something…”. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight, therefore, puts forth that – Abstract – thinking is not solely the realm of those who stand upright. 

Last week we pondered “What is abstract for you” – A concept or theory, an artwork or query, a math problem, a description, philosophy or music, the very universe  …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Abstract

11 Comments

abstract

Rorschach’s field day

Across the Bored likes nothing better than to walk around in art museums contemplating the collections. What pleasure to work our way from the ancient to the modern in a few hours, lingering over the Renaissance, idling near the Impressionists, pondering the Cubists… but there are, depending on the curator’s choice of selections, some rooms we pass through at a brisk clip. Those walls where big, expensive panels glare at us in Webster’s best definition of art “expressing ideas and emotions by using elements such as colors and lines without attempting to create a realistic picture” and leave us, essentially, wondering why?

We do recognize most forms of artistic endeavour but there is a trend on many of the sites we visit online, both photographic and otherwise, that elicits the same reaction. One might assume by the number of purple leopards and fragmented flowers in the more purely conceptually dedicated galleries that there were a few who were asleep in Art Appreciation 101. A lot of people don’t get it, don’t care or just refuse to colour that boldly outside the lines. Does there have to be some reference point, some readily identifiable thing that puts it all into perspective and generates that “aha” moment where our brains are more comfortable being led to a conclusion? Or is it just easier?

We much prefer drifting along the stream of consciousness. With no man at the oars as it were, we are often spectators to the unusual, the unasked for, the unexpected.  The waters can be idyllically calm or we hit the rapids with such force that it knocks the wind out of us – there are times when we feel like a man overboard but there is always the consolation that we can swim to shore with the best of them. This fortnight the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge guesses that an enjoyment of most things – Abstract – depends on where one has been before and perhaps even how far one is willing to go.

“What is abstract for you” – A concept or theory, an artwork or query, a math problem, a description, philosophy or music, the very universe  …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Grateful – Week 2

6 Comments

watches for grateful

it’s all relative

Thanks goodness there is finally a reprieve from the longest winter ever with the delivery of the first thunder and lightening storm of the season. We usually moan about heavy rain and how it adds that extra bit of fun to the logistics of getting out and about but April showers are actually a blessing in disguise for city dwellers. One day of unseasonably warm weather reduced the last of the nasty frozen black detritus on our front lawn to a mix of gravel and unmentionables, relieving us of the temptation to go at it with a pick-axe and revealed in the flower beds where our procrastinating green thumb had turned brown late last fall. Most unkempt and while there is not much to be done about that but get out the shears and gardening gloves and hack down the offending mess, it remains a blatant reminder that we will be spending some time en plein air and off the keyboard. Then the rains came…

Mother Nature must feel much the way we do – that everything is looking a bit sad and worn around the corners, dusty, fingerprint-tagged, dog-nose snuffly window smeared and in need of a good scrub. The outdoor inundations wash away the mess of the passing seasons on a grand scale, too bad it’s not as easy in our little nest. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight, therefore, is – Grateful – for the excuse to stay indoors and pass a few hours putting things in order.

Last week we asked “Are you grateful”? – For socialized medicine, healing rotator cuffs, a like on your post or tribulations tough, family, friends, the children next door, muddy paws of loved dogs that muck up the floor …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Grateful

25 Comments

 

 

NEM Painterly 17Could be Worse.

2 Saturdays ago, Across the Bored was feeling very sorry for herself indeed having endured the emergency room and an unnecessarily long wait for a taxi to get ourselves back to the safety of bed and an icepack. We mustn’t have looked in too much distress though for the driver, when he finally arrived and was asked to hurry (because we were “in pain”) remarked “Did you have a stroke?”

Our first thought was “Do we look that old?” and the second was yes, it is true, it could have been worse. He was, of course, trying to lighten the mood and focus my attention on other matters for what, really, could ruin a perfectly good weekend morning for him than having some awful woman moaning or worse, throwing up, in the back of his cab…

We get used to being healthy. Or in pain. And it’s only when we’re not that we realize how much we should count our blessings. We were lucky enough to be able to take a week off from our usual pursuits without much ado. As much as that in itself was a little bit of system shock it brought home the happy thought that there are people out there thinking of us, and more importantly, willing to wait for our return.

In the hours spent offline alot happened no doubt. One hand thumb scrolling is a perilous pastime at best and we didn’t get around to visiting as much or as often as we would have liked to. We did get our work featured in the galleries above though (insert bloated ego here) which does give us the added incentive to keep on keeping on. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, we are truly – Grateful – that we are appreciated and that all our work in whatever form it takes is having an impact on those who view it. All we can do is say thanks….

“Are you grateful” – For socialized medicine, healing rotator cuffs, a like on your post or tribulations tough, family, friends, the children next door, muddy paws of loved dogs that muck up the floor …

We would love to see your vision.

 

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Bliss – Week 2

2 Comments

happiness is

it used to be just that simple

When we were very young, Charles Schulz was very much the epitome of truth-sayer: he had grasped all the important bits of being six, summed them up in very few words and then illustrated the profound with the relatable. In our mind, he knew very well what he was talking about because he had given Linus glasses (we shared his pain) and had concluded that there was not much that was better than ice cream. The Peanuts Gang had its trials and tribulations but on the whole they lived in a universe where having 18 different colours in a box of crayolas was very close to being in heaven.

Today Across the Bored wonders whether our capacity to be content has become tainted; not the “that’s nice, we’re feeling pleased, so happy to see you” range of emotion but rather that all-encompassing warm and fuzzy, push all other thought out of our heads feeling that happens less often as time goes by. Over-satiated by information and input, overwhelmed by emotion, experience and the seemingly endless drama of living life often at full-tilt for too long, simple joys appear to be hard won. Is it that we are too full of too much or is it just a 21st century version of the grass being infinitely greener on a larger monitor?  Some of us have to work longer at it than others, some make a life’s work of making others happy, there are a few who seem to float smiling along in their own rapturous bubble, lucky them. Perhaps we are looking too hard or in the wrong place and, like they say of love, should stop looking for it altogether and let it come to us unbidden. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight suggests that – Bliss – is much like treasure, find it where you may.

“Describe your own form of bliss” – In a box or under the sun, in a soft smile or sweet song, in a bath full of bubbles or a night on the town…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Bliss

36 Comments

bliss

Bite me

There comes a time when one has to start regulating diets, actually climbing on that exercise bike instead of using it as a clothes hanger and get down to some serious lifestyle adjustment to ensure a healthy segue into the next stage of existence. Across the Bored has been a very, very good girl for a few seasons and is starting to enjoy the rewards of the aforesaid but every once in a while… 

It was exactly one of those days where just a bite of heaven was needed to tide things over when the idea sprang to mind that it had been a very long time indeed since we had had any kind of indulgence. Little prodding was needed to get Miss Z to explore a newish patisserie and with the only proviso that she come home with something nice, the mission was set.  A long half-hour later, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge opened a red ribbon-tied, nondescript white box and discovered – Bliss – pure, unadulterated, non-processed just like the old days, ready to be devoured puff pastry delight. Truly a gastronomic manifestation of the divine, we both feel much better now.

“Describe your own form of bliss” – In a box or under the sun, in a soft smile or sweet song, in a bath full of bubbles or a night on the town…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts – Week 2

10 Comments

stupid t

misery loves company

Chances are that if someone has said it and someone else laughed, it’s probably been printed on a t-shirt. With over 2 billion of the little suckers being churned out a year,  everything from the sacred to the profane has became graphic fodder. From Buddha and Obama to Cookie Monster and Death’s Heads, alma maters, slogans and superheroes, corny catchphrases to the downright rude, anything in fact, can and probably has been screen-printed onto that otherwise innocuous garment.

Across the Bored will admit to breaking up at some of the funnier ones but certainly wouldn’t be caught dead wearing clothing with a message having a big enough problem already with those who do not understand when we “use our words”. Putting our ideas on our chests would seem to be inviting trouble, after all, one has to actually be willing to hold forth if a topic is brought up in the first place. Some say that the most popular print ever, one that has achieved an iconic pop-culture status, probably started the trend towards text abbreviation and is produced to this day, was derived from the longest running and successful marketing campaigns of 1977:
“I♥︎NY”  – well yes we do, but we’d look idiotic wearing that to the grocery store considering how much trouble our own politicians are stirring up on a daily basis… Is there a happy medium? Probably. Is it age specific to the wearer? Maybe it should be but as with most things, it is a matter of choice most of us being old enough not to be told what to wear. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight – T-shirts – clearly illustrates how the message can sometimes become easier to digest depending on where we see it.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts

18 Comments

BreX tshirt

wearing history

Long before the term fashionista was coined, Across the Bored reserved some articles of clothing for very specific occasions. That crew-neck number with the short, short sleeves and neon palm trees splashed across the front? Definitely non-public work-out wear. The grease-stained grey baby with the ragged hem? Saturday washing the car outfit number one. The one-size fits all Betty Boop blowing kisses sent by Mom? Bedtime for baby… Nowadays, with a decidedly different emphasis on comfort in the career department and a shifted view on what’s stylishly acceptable, that white supersoft, silk-thin pima v-neck is just the ticket. Add really good jewellery and a fab pair of shoes and this kind of simple top becomes an elegant option that no one will question.

The earliest record of this cotton coverup dates back to just after the Spanish-American War; what originally started out as part of the regulation uniform for the US Navy in 1913 has now become a billion dollar business. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge guesses that (apart from undergarments and perhaps jeans) – T-Shirts – are probably the most popular piece of clothing now worn by man.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Shoes – Week 2

18 Comments

flying-shoes

Roger dodg’em

If you have an afternoon to spend in leisurely pursuits of the completely unproductive kind, go on google and search as many different modifiers as you can to the word “shoe”: Shoes in history, bizarre shoes, shoe houses, shoe cartoons, new shoes, old shoes, even a timeline of shoes. A “shoes in politics” search will indubitably result in some of our favourites, with the famous George Bush shoe attack and Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe-banging incident topping the list. Can’t say we have never felt the same –  many are the time that throwing a good-sized boot would have given some relief and smacking a 4-inch stiletto on the dinner table would surely calm surly guests bringing out-of-control festivities to a quick end. Type in those four little letters on the keyboard often enough and by the time you are finished you may wonder why it is spelled like it is and google that leading to another slightly more educational pop-up.

They are everywhere: when they aren’t keeping our feet from the elements, they are populating our hallways and cupboards, overtaking the streets, multiplying in stores and luring us from magazines, posing in books and being immortalized on the web. Footwear has staked its claim in history. This fortnight, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Shoes – shows us that a pair of shoes cross all cultural borders and can even help us learn more about each other.

“What do your shoes say about you?” – Are they practical and sturdy, coquette with a heel,the pair that won’t be thrown out or a baby’s first, memories of your own or being put into someone else’s, wellies, waders, golfers with spikes, mountaineers, runners, ugly ones no one likes… We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Shoes

18 Comments

shoesblame the grandmothers

When we were very young one grandmother was known for squeezing her tootsies into too tight pumps – size 6 was just not dainty enough in her estimation. In her cupboard among black patent stilettos and dyed to match satin was a pair of clear plastic peep-toe sandals encrusted with rhinestones on the vamp and running up the lucite heel – an exotic object of desire that, to our 4 year old eyes, were fit for a princess. We would slip our tiny toes into the fronts and balance carefully, yearning for the day that they would fit like a glove and carry us across the dance floor in a dream. They taught us the importance of weight distribution (a skill that would come in handy many years later while running for the bus) and in some ways sowed the seeds of a life-long predilection for the embellished.

Our other grandmother had not been blessed with small feet. Her size 11s were the source for many a sailboat joke and fit much better on our forearms or as transportation for our Barbies – deep in our hearts we knew that we would never fit in any of them. There was an upside however in that she had a whole galaxy of choice on the sale racks; all the best brands were marked down to bargain-basement prices for lack of clientele and she would smile ever so slightly as she tried on pair after pair with great success. Lesson number 2: Never pay retail – expensive footwear is much more comfortable at 70% off.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge has more than a passing interest in what we protect our appendages with. From cavemen to astronauts, we put them on last and (usually) take them off first –  Shoes – love them or leave them, most people (and even some pets) wear them.

“What do your shoes say about you?” – Are they practical and sturdy, coquette with a heel,the pair that won’t be thrown out or a baby’s first, memories of your own or being put into someone else’s, wellies, waders, golfers with spikes, mountaineers, runners, ugly ones no one likes…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty – Week 2

13 Comments

barbara-smaller-here-s-to-even-lower-expectations-in-the-new-year-new-yorker-cartoon

tell me it’s not just me…

February in the icier regions of the northern hemisphere is a sore test of just how much many of us are willing to put with: the rosy glow of the holidays is long gone, Punxatawney Phil didn’t even bother coming up for air in our neighbourhood, Valentine’s is either boom or bust and the hours don’t seem to be getting any longer no matter how close daylight savings time gets. Tempers, like sunlight, are short and our capacity to tolerate much of what are typical daily annoyances is sadly reduced.

It is not that we expect the extraordinary but it would be nice, just once in a while, to be surprised by a quick response, a straight answer, no BS, a good word, a helpful hand, a brief acknowledgement that someone, somewhere out there that actually should be is paying attention. And that’s just people, never mind products or services… It makes one wonder why we should even bother and like Archie (in Still Game) we become quite content to seclude ourselves, the desire to be Oot having been greatly diminished.

One surmises that with an overwhelming amount of information flooding our consciousnesses every day that we have no choice but to be more selective but this can be problematic in itself. Having limited ourselves to less we desire better. It doesn’t seem much to ask but apparently it is and like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme, our – Loyalty – can become strained by what society construes as good enough.

“What does loyalty mean to you?” – A pledge of allegiance, personal devotion, a philosophical concept or biblical notion, a dog to his master, the bond between friends … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty

18 Comments

borax

at least something is still reliable

Our notion of what is truly important is being challenged these days – whether it is the dynamics of a constantly changing interaction with relatives, co-workers and acquaintances, picking out the true from the trite in the onslaught from the media and rampant materialism, right down to the manner in which we deal with the world and the way that the world treats us. No one said it would be easy and the tenets that we have chosen to live by expand and contract as we learn more about ourselves and our place in this time.

Everyday we favour one thing over another, sometimes bad decision-making in retrospect, but nonetheless an often intuitive, instinctual or habitual choice that reflects on who we have become. From breakfast cereal to detergent, religion to life partners, country to cause, when we are not actively seeking out what we hope is the best option then we usually reach for that which has always been there. The rewards can be great or sadly disappointing, the trick is to get the lag-time down to a minimum so that we don’t flail around wasting what little time we can sanely allot to the many things that fill up our days.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge suspects that it all boils down to a perhaps selfish sense of –  Loyalty – to what extent we are willing to go and how much we feel we need in return. It becomes problematic when one outweighs the other.

“What does loyalty mean to you?” – A pledge of allegiance, personal devotion, a philosophical concept or biblical notion, a dog to his master, the bond between friends…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting – Week 2

13 Comments

painting 2

way smaller – better or worse or just the same?

When pondering on just what we will post about for these bi-weekly challenges, we usually start with an image. The one above had a very different bit of content slated to accompany it until we opened the reader this morning: many of you will already have had a peek at our reblog of Aperture 64’s eye-opening reveal of just where our images wind up and it finally gave us the impetus to take a final sad step with our precious pictures.

Being a high-resolution junkie doesn’t seem to be a good thing when it comes to getting your own work out there – bigger, in this case, is not better and has become one of those pleasures to be indulged in on the privacy of your own screen or to be shared with a select few. We had already started to diminish the size of our images in an effort to speed up the loading time of the site for our far-away friends but such a reduction also carries with it the bonus of making them less appealing to those who would like to borrow or appropriate them without going through the proper channels – guess some out there have not read the “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT” in the sidebar. Either that or they just don’t care and think we won’t find out.

Out of curiosity, do these smaller images make any difference for your viewing pleasure? Please drop us a line in the comment box to let us know, complain about copyright infringement or rant about your own stolen pix.

In other times it might have been simpler just to paint a picture, but then we wouldn’t have as many friends that we want to share it with… This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Painting – has led us in all sorts of directions, “What does painting represent for you?” – Graffiti on a wall, framed flowers in the hall, a masterpiece old or abstract bold, the sides of a house, finish on a car, commercial or couture … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting

16 Comments

painting

no drying time

Art – you either love it or hate it, want to hang it on your wall or throw it in the dustbin, mortgage your house because you absolutely have to have it or wonder why someone would pay a nickel for it. It’s all a matter of taste… Our first round of post secondary studies at art school were spent with the idea that the milieu itself would drive us to create works of such beauty and resonance that the critics would fall swooning at our feet. The reality was somewhat colder – yes, we did produce a few good pieces but truth was, at that time, most of the really good artists we saw were young and starving, or old and starving, and the thought of spending the next 20 years following in their footsteps paled to the opportunities presenting themselves in the wonderful world of advertising. So off we went and putting our visions on canvas became a hobby rather than a career.

The years passed and so did our focus.  Today those projects which would have taken days, if not weeks, of toiling away can be accomplished in far less than an afternoon, sometimes instantaneously. We have the luxury of technology at our fingertips and switch with ease from one editing application to another, a few swipes and saves here, erase there, rework, restore, recombine and voila, we are very pleased indeed. Our masterpieces may never hang in the Met but we should at least get bonus points for creating them in less time than it takes to properly wash a good set of brushes…

From fingers to spatulas, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge knows that everyone everywhere has, at one point or another, tried –  Painting. 

“What does painting represent for you?” – Graffiti on a wall, framed flowers in the hall, a masterpiece old or abstract bold, the sides of a house, finish on a car, commercial or couture …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Cook – Week 2

Leave a comment

cook

not so easy as it looks

In another century (yes, literally) snack foods weren’t quite as common as they are today. It was a big deal if a small bowl of cheesies or plain salted potato chips were put out and one must have been a veritable angel of a grandchild to get a tall glass of ginger ale on the side to sip politely. These nibbles were usually the accompaniment to an occasion, not a filler because we were still hungry or craved something sweet or salty, and as such they were treated differently. Both our stylish grandmothers played bridge or canasta or whatever card game was in vogue at the time on a round table set up with dainty linens in the living room. The delicacies that accompanied their soirées seemed much more soigné than the peanuts thrown back by their cigar-smoking husbands playing poker or shooting pool in the basement…

A trip to the movies, then and now, is often a good excuse to eat popcorn. Salted or not, slathered in butter or caramel, everyone has their preference and according to statistics, the average American eats about 51 quarts annually. That’s 16 billion quarts of popped popcorn each and every year – probably enough to fill up a decent-sized football stadium! When we were young, this treat was occasionally made on top of the stove in a sizzling hot, covered pot and required considerable upper arm strength to shake without it all burning. It made Ed Sullivan that much better… In the 70s Harry Blackstone, the magician, touted Jiffy Pop popcorn in television commercials – “the magic treat–as much fun to make as it is to eat.” We all clamoured for this taste sensation and it was, for many consumers, the beginning of the instant food revolution. Orville Redenbacher struck gold with this trend; the odd-looking but seemingly trustworthy and likeable character whose obsession was creating the ultimate popcorn also appeared around this time and in the 80s he perfected microwaveable bags, bringing the treat into homes for good. Fast forward to the 21st century and there are more brands of popcorn available than toothpaste – junky, weird flavours popped or not, gourmet, organic, non GMO, packaged or bulk – there’s something for everyone’s taste and price range.

It brings us full circle to this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Cook – where we find our our own Miss Z refining the art of piping hot, golden perfection popped on the stovetop. Last week we asked “How do you cook?” – On a griddle, on a grill, on a Bbq in winter still, like a short-order guy, fritters, fish or fry, vegan or carnivore, a little less or a little more…  We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Cook

23 Comments

cook

a kitchen nymph

✑

As odd as it may seem, awhile back we had a conversation about the joys fruitcake with a fellow blogger. As a kid, we didn’t see its merits: only the candied cherries were worth picking out of the slices on the sideboard, the rest of it seemed uninspiring. Today, people fall into one of two camps with this traditional holiday fare – most hate it, probably due to the regifting of those tasteless convenience store cardboard bricks fobbed off as “delectable” once-a-year treats or memories of dry slices served up at Granny’s knee – and those of us who truly enjoy a thin slice of vintage, brandy-soaked nostalgia made with our own hands.

Across the Bored became a convert a few years back when a friend bestowed upon us about 5 pounds of very exotic dried fruit. Our first thought was that there was no way we would every be able to eat our way through it and the next idea was why not try to make a real Victorian fruitcake, one that would sit for a few months in a dark place soaking up some really good brandy, just to take the edge off. Consultation of The American Heritage Cookbook provided exactly the recipe we were hoping for and resulted in the absolutely best, sinfully tastiest potential doorstop ever.  The recipe follows with our additions in italics….

BLACK FRUITCAKE

This recipe is of English origin and is known variously as Dark Fruitcake, English Fruitcake, Black Fruitcake and Merry Christmas Cake.

1/4 pound candied citron
1/8 pound candied lemon peel
1/8 pound candied orange peel
1/2 pound candied cherries
1 pound candied pineapple
1 pound golden raisins
1/2 pound seeded raisins (we used sultanas)
1/4 pound currants
1/4 pound blanched shelled almonds
1/4 pound shelled walnuts or pecans
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup dark rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira (we used 1 1/4 cups Chemineaud brandy)

We also fudged on the 1 pound ingredients and added in dried prunes, papaya, pear, apple, blueberries, cherries, figs, dates, and cranberries…

The fruit and nuts should be prepared a day ahead as follows: sliver the citron, lemon and orange peel into very thin strips; cut the cherries in half and the pineapple in thin wedges. Set aside. Pick over the raisins and currants to eliminate stray stems or seeds and add to fruit. Coarsely chop the other dried fruit and add to mixture covering. Add rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira and soak overnight (we had so much fruit that 1/2 cup just wasn’t enough and soaked the whole in Brandy for 3 days just to be sure!) Chop the almonds and the walnuts or pecans coarsely. Set them aside, too. The day (of cooking) prepare the pan. Grease a 10-inch tube pan, four 1 pound coffee cans, or 2 bread pans, measuring 9 x5x3 inches (we used 3 vintage round spring-form pans with a side lock). Line with brown paper (there is a very good reason for this…)
To make the cake: Mix 1/2 cup of the sifted flour with all of the fruit and nuts in a large bowl. Sift remaining flour with spices and baking soda (you can add more of the spices to taste). Cream butter until soft, then work in granulated sugar and brown sugar, a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the eggs, milk, almond extract, and, finally, the flour mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour over the fruit and nuts and work together, with your hands, until the batter is well mixed. Lift the batter into the pan or pans and press it down firmly to make a compact cake when cooked. Bake in a preheated 275 degree oven. A tube pan that uses all of the batter will take 3 1/4 hours; the bread pans, which will hold half the batter, 2 1/4 hours; the coffee cans, which each hold one-fourth of the batter, 2 hours; (the round pans which we used were probably around 2 1/2 hours with lots of checking – being an intuitive cook is why we don’t write a food blog…) Remove cakes from the oven, let stand half an hour, then turn out onto cake racks. Peel off the brown paper very carefully. the four small, round cakes make attractive Christmas presents.

To age the Fruitcakes: Allow at least four weeks (we left ours for at least that many months, poking with a toothpick and watering liberally with brandy once a month, and they are still tasty over a year later). Wrap each cake in several layers of cheesecloth well soaked in rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira. Place in an airtight container, such as a large crock or kettle, and cover tightly (we wrapped ours further in 2 layers of tin foil and placed in metal cake tins). If the cheesecloth dries out, moisten it with a little of the wine or spirits. Do not overdo it. The cakes should be firm, not soft, at the end of the aging period. This will make them easy to slice in neat, compact slices. If you wish to frost fruitcakes after they have been properly aged, cover the top first with Almond Paste, then with Milk Frosting (this can be tricky as my mother and grandmother found out 2 days before our wedding and had to resort to blow-drying the almond paste onto the cake… but that is for another post). To decorate, make a garland of candied cherries, slivered angelica, and blanched whole almonds around the edge of the cake.

And that’s it.

Would We do it again? Probably. It is intensely time-consuming, expensive and requires a good knowledge beforehand of baking and some nursing throughout the aging period but it is also deliciously worth it, once in a very special while. Perhaps when this one is finished or for a wedding… So the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge for this fortnight is –  Cook – because we all have to eat, one way or another.

“How do you cook?” – On a griddle, on a grill, on a Bbq in winter still, like a short-order guy, fritters, fish or fry, vegan or carnivore, a little less or a little more…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wishes – Week 2

9 Comments

christmas wishes

for friends everywhere

And so another Christmas Eve is upon us. Did we get all that we had hoped to accomplish done, make everything as perfect as we had envisioned or perhaps cut back, refine, rediscover those simpler things that we had lost sight of? As we celebrate over the next few days our hope is, as always, for a most excellent coming year for everyone – Best Wishes for Health and Happiness –  the rest is just icing on the cake!

This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Wishes – is simple, it is whatever you want it to be. “What are your wishes for the coming year?” – Peace on earth, good will to men, more fun, more sun, more hours in the day like way back when, less noise, no batteries in toys, clear sailing or a new adventure …  We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wishes

33 Comments

chip n daleSometimes something silly is the only cure

✸

Across the Bored doesn’t subscribe to cable – this is a statement that often elicits reactions of shock and awe to those who couldn’t live without their daily dose of reality TV, sports network or gardening channel. It’s not that we have any ideological issues (well, maybe…) with commercial broadcasting but it was a conscious decision to boycott the usurious rates of the providers and hopefully foster some independent thought in our then-toddlers. Fast-forward 20 years and we realize that time does go really fast when one is otherwise occupied and we actually haven’t missed all that much that we didn’t find out by other means. Anything we could possibly be interested in now seems to be available digitally. Some of it, like the classic Christmas fare that just gets better every year is even, gasp, on VHS tapes made painstakingly before the advent of the internet…

It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without a dose of Chip ‘n’ Dale annoying Donald and Pluto, Burl Ives’ voice from the past placating a sad Rudolph or everyone’s favourite alter-ego, the Grinch. This harmless nostalgic yearning comes at a time of year when we are the most likely to get stressed and should be indulged – so we don’t get that one last thingamabob for Auntie or bake an extra batch of cookies just in case: will anyone notice but ourselves? And wouldn’t we be better served in the long run by telling those around us to do the same, come and cuddle on the couch, just laugh and forget about everything else for a few hours?  

These are the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge – Wishes – for the next few weeks, to slow down, reconnect, re-evaluate and relax.

This holiday season maybe we should all take a step to the side and let the hustle and bustle rush past us – “What are your wishes for the coming year?” – Peace on earth, good will to men, more fun, more sun, more hours in the day like way back when, less noise, no batteries in toys, clear sailing or a new adventure …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Paths – Week 2

2 Comments

crossed paths

Ronald searle – never a path untrodden

Some of our earliest memories involve art – the back studio where a big work was always in progress, inky-smelling magazines with weird abstract sculptures highlighted on the thick pages, compilations of odd cartoonists work, the seemingly constant to and fro of scraggly painters, artists models, ad execs, copy-writers and their hangers on coming into the house always, it seemed, around supper time and staying late into the night. Long past our bed-time we would steal into the living room, ducking dangling cigarette ash and navigate between the elbows and cocktail glasses to the coffee table piled high with Horizons and New Yorkers. A small, pyjama-clad child with an armload of magazines wasn’t of much interest and didn’t warrant much more than a raised eyebrow.

It is no wonder that we have wound up here with such childhood influences. Perhaps if the pages turned by the glow of a flashlight had been filled with the wonders of Arctic exploration, the miracles of science or how to rebuild the engine on a ’55 Chevy, life would have been considerably different. Not to say that those things don’t fascinate us but they don’t inform our daily work nor have they become as integral, in the long run, to the way we see the world. The choices we made along the way made us veer off on tangents, brought us back to the main or sent us off on wild goose chases but this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Paths – reminds us that we were set on the road to who we have become far further back than we might like to think.

Across the Bored noticed last week that everyone today seems to be going somewhere in a hurry – “Where do the paths lead in your world?” – Round in circles, up steep hills, through the countryside or urban jungle, away from family, back into a lover’s arms, down the road to perdition or happily forward into the future …  We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Paths

16 Comments

paths

far from the cradle of our ancestors

❄︎

The Ghost has rediscovered his Irish roots, much to both our pleasure, through a series of university courses, lectures and seminars.  It is all shaping up nicely to provide him with some sort of tangible evidence for why we sometimes act the way we do, choose to take a particular tack or get misty-eyed over certain strains of celtic viola.  Not that our boat landed recently – that side of the family has been in this country since before Confederation, making their way from the shores of Lake Ontario, through the dense forests and up into the wilds to carve a home from the rocky terrain. The lineage we trace, both paternal and maternal, meanders across the map: the reasons for self-imposed exodus lost like the details of their lives.

Ours was never a family to cast their lot enthusiastically with any one nationality, it was as if they willingly became anonymous in their homogeneity, their affiliations resting with the language they spoke rather than the places they came from. But some things are just in the blood – and they resurface, making themselves present in ways we never thought possible.  As we follow this backwards journey into a historicity rarely touched upon by those who would have done well to tell us more, the pieces slowly start to fall into place.

Sometimes, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge surmises, strange – Paths – lead us where we least expect to go.

Everyone today seems to be going somewhere in a hurry – “Where do the paths lead in your world?” – Round in circles, up steep hills, through the countryside or urban jungle, away from family, back into a lover’s arms, down the road to perdition or happily forward into the future …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Writing – Week 2

15 Comments

the-versatile-blogger-award

just pondering… not forgotten!

There aren’t enough hours in the day for Across the Bored to get even half the things we desire accomplished – and don’t even think of asking to cut back on the necessary luxury of a seven-hour beauty rest – for there are always those little ideas that need more thought, the bits and pieces that need fixing or filing, scrubbing or tossing, editing or revising. This stuff of life gets in the way of reading all those unopened novels, penning that prize-winning book and getting in shape – activities that ensure we don’t wind up as curmudgeonly as our DNA would like to have it. Would we had those extra minutes to scribe a few eloquent lines on the marvellous things we see on others’ pages and answer all their comments with more than just a “thanks!” –  so interacting with and especially thanking all those who follow and visit our little space in virtual reality comes in measured, but precious, doses.

We don’t know how some of you do it – we can barely keep our head above the bloggy waters let alone swim back to all the visitor’s corners of the world, as much as we long to. This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Writing – gives us that chance to reach out and today’s post is dedicated to Fill the Empty Spaces. Ideafill has a lovely clean blog filled with little gems of music and art, bits and pieces of pretty things and neat stuff we would gladly trade our clutter for. She has nominated Across the Bored for a Versatile Blogger Award for which we are most delighted!

Here are the basic rules for this award:
1. Display the badge on your blog
2. Write a post and link back to the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 15 bloggers (not going to happen, sorry – I’ll spring for 6) and inform them of the nomination via comment in their site
4. State 7 interesting things about yourself

The nominees that inspire us, make us smile and think are:

Abandoned Kansai
Diplomatic Dog
Hello Fig
Life: A Scot in Norway
Nylon Daze
Paris: People, Places and Bling!

7 interesting things about Across the Bored, not necessarily in any sort of order…

I would like to learn how to ride a motorcycle;
Have lost those 40 extra baby pounds gained 18 years ago in the last 9 months;
Can now fit into Miss Z’s cast-off jeans – whoopee!
Dyed my hair red just like in 1976, probably to my mother’s chagrin;
Need to learn how to travel lighter, both metaphorically and actually;
Enjoy speed-editing iphoneography;
With that said, and as much as I hate to admit it, cannot live without my iPhone…

Why not send us something interesting in return? To come full circle, last week Across the Bored put forward – “What form does writing take for you?” – Feather and quill, a typewriter still, texts and tweets, parking tickets in the street, a child’s first scrawl or graffiti on the wall … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Writing

17 Comments

writingthe long slow death of penmanship

✍

Those who have been following will know of Across the Bored’s continuing saga of the great thirty year triage project. Last weekend found us sifting through a banker’s box filled with birthday and christmas cards, letters from childhood pen pals long lost and the occasional unsent missive.  It was heartbreaking – not as the poignant reminder of those who had sent us these paper mementoes gone on to a better place, faces disappeared in the stretch of time between childhood and adolescence to their own worlds or friends just dropped off the face of the map but because of the sad realization that no one really writes anymore.

Our post box is filled with bills and flyers urging us to consume. The only time something comes in a lovely envelope is for an occasion and even then older family members have to be reminded to send something along so their grandchildren won’t be peeved. Our circle of acquaintances that are able to put pen to paper, don’t. They text, tweet or Facebook. We can’t remember the last time we got a letter on crisp vellum recounting the events of the year, the weddings, births, deaths, milestones of a life lived. We are not blameless either – we get on the phone to bring those closest to us up to date or pop off a funny card when the mood strikes, but it isn’t really the same. We miss getting mail….

Perhaps our blogs have replaced this gentle art – they have become our virtual diaries, daily journals, the place where we expose our secret thoughts and that which we sometimes wouldn’t dare to expose to the light of day otherwise. The code that brings our words to life and sends them off to those who love, appreciate and yes, even wait for, them is both a blessing and a curse. This week, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge puts it in – Writing.

“What form does writing take for you?” – Feather and quill, a typewriter still, texts and tweets, parking tickets in the street, a child’s first scrawl or graffiti on the wall …

We would love to see your vision…. write something today!

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Birthday – Week 2

7 Comments

our dog’s gifts are not quite as sophisticated…

In Across the Bored’s house most celebrations are fraught with some sort of melodrama. Whether it be a particularly challenging guest list for a dinner party, the extra-special nutritional requirements of very young or very old or just the general long and hard organization of an event we had hoped to keep secret but are being wheedled into revealing, things never seem to work out quite as planned.  The store where we had hoped to pick up last minute items debit machine is out of order as we stand at the counter cashless with an armful of purchases that took half and hour to pick out, the incredibly sugary, stroke-inducing icing being slathered on the cake melts unforgivingly under the halogens, invitees bail at the eleventh hour even though they had insisted their schedules were free when asked to attend one month in advance – So it goes.

We should know by now just to wing it but our OCD would sometimes have it otherwise. We stand in the middle of the mall or at the kitchen counter covered in dishes, close our eyes and remember – breathe deeply. It will be all right, there is a solution, no one will know the difference, we are our own worst critic. And if it does turn into a right fiasco? Blame it on the dog… This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Birthday – reminds us that no matter what, there should always be something to celebrate.

Seven days ago Across the Bored asked – “How do you envision birthday?” – With cake and candles, far from home, by the light of a fire with an ancient tome, kiddie balloons or grown-up winks, doggie treats or a nice cold  drink … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Birthday

9 Comments

birthday

happy birthday baby
❄︎

When Across the Bored began this challenge it was on a bit of a whim and as much for our own pleasure, the thought of forcing ourselves to come up with a response to a random subject in both words and images at an appointed time, as it was to inspire our faithful readers. Imagine our surprise when we realized it has been a little over a year since we first started to give our two cents on pretty much everything and anything that crossed our mind – some weeks were easier and some less so, depending on which way the wind was blowing…

 

The passage of time itself has been a bit like that as well –  rough, placid, rock ‘n roll, some hours and days so filled with change that we thought things would never be the same and indeed, they haven’t. But on the whole, we can’t complain – like our mantra, “it could be worse” and without divine inspiration and the support and encouragement of our virtual brethren, it might very well have been. Who would have thought that we could last this long? This week, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, like our own Miss Z, is celebrating a milestone – Birthday.

“How do you envision birthday?” – With cake and candles, far from home, by the light of a fire with an ancient tome, kiddie balloons or grown-up winks, doggie treats or a nice cold  drink …

We would love to see your vision…. and have a slice of something sweet to help us celebrate!

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wonder – Week 2

9 Comments

wonder2

there be dragons in tom’s garden – an iphoneography collaboration

Once upon a time, we stated rather emphatically that we didn’t see what the big deal was with fancy cel phones. As long as reception wasn’t tinny and the numbers on the keypad were large enough to see without changing glasses, everything was about as good as it could get. Texting was for kids who didn’t care about the nuances of conversation – we needed the very clear and easily decipherable tone of voice to let us know whether the response to our being late was fine or fine. The no-frills phone did its duty, suffered being dropped, stolen by the dog and left overnight in a -20C car but it eventually outlived its usefulness. Said device was unceremoniously passed to our elderly mother-in-law (who was more than pleased that she could now ring us from the aisles of her favourite grocery store) and replaced, much to Miss Z’s chagrin, with the then-latest iPhone. We were doubtful about the hype but soon smitten by its charms.

We now tell anyone who’ll listen that this phone is the best ever. Not because of the quality of pictures it takes or the fabulous editing apps, instant access to alarm clocks and weather reports, messages and colour-pickers, translators and maps or even the built-in dog whistle. It has let us become connected in ways we would never have thought possible, made us more productive in a spontaneous way, given us the tools to create every single day and most importantly, to share our vision with people all over the globe in a fraction of a second. We even use it to call home once in a while – such is the miracle of modern technology. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme, every time we swipe onto the homepage we – Wonder – where our little portable universe will take us.

Last week, Across the Bored enquired – ““What shape does wonder come to you in?” – Swirling leaves and sunlit skies, the grasp of a hand or babies’ sighs, lions that play as cats or cats who would be lions, fireworks, roller coasters, neon signs … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wonder

18 Comments

wonder

The elephant only appeared 4 days later
☁

There are some days when Across the Bored, like many of you, feels about 105 years old and others when our inner toddler takes over and makes everything easy, silly, laid back and wonderful.  A friend of ours said “growing old sucks” and our first thought was that it didn’t actually have to be that way – that there were choices we could make as we gained wisdom (to be politically correct) that would make the process a little easier and perhaps fade if not erase the battle scars of our misspent youth.

Young or old, modern life is complicated. Although some may argue otherwise, even if we don’t seem to accomplish much,  it does seem as though we are busier than our ancestors. Released from the constraints of nightfall, technology and the miracle of electricity almost dare us to shut down and just go to bed. Our mothers shake their heads, incredulous that we are tuned in to people and places that 50 years ago would only have appeared in National Geographic or Life magazine and that we are turned on (to and by) the vast virtual machine that once was only a mathematician’s puzzling dream. That many drop out is inevitable.

When we get just that little bit too stressed out, start losing it on a regular basis, grinding our teeth in the night or wondering just what is the point of it all anyway, that is the time to stop, take a step to the side and remember what it was like to see as a child. A post-it scrawled in tiny script on the Ghost’s computer sums it up just like this week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: “Regain the – Wonder“.

“What shape does wonder come to you in?” – Swirling leaves and sunlit skies, the grasp of a hand or babies’ sighs, lions that play as cats or cats who would be lions, fireworks, roller coasters, neon signs …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Harvest – Week 2

8 Comments

harvest2

here and there

Summer is gone. The air has changed bringing that tinge of frost to darker mornings and earlier nights. In the city, we judge how far into the season we are by the bend of wilted perennials and the gradations of leafy colour quickening along the avenues.  Nature seems to keep pace with the rhythm of the urban environment, never stopping to take a breath or ease into the season but leaping headlong in some frenetic rush to finish autumn before the snows come. The romantic in us longs to be out in the country, tromping about in big boots and woolly scarves, kicking around the edge of new-mown fields or just sitting on a fence taking in the glory of it all but we must content ourselves with more virtual views for the moment.

October reminds us it is time to make sure we are set for the duration, to check that all the plans we laid in spring, all the projects dreamed about on sunny afternoons and languid August nights, are in place and ready to be realized. It is as much about reflecting on what has been accomplished as it is to looking forward in hope, setting larger goals and taking the first steps towards the new. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Harvest – we reap what we have sown.

Last week, Across the Bored asked – “How do you see harvest at this time of year?” – Pumpkins sweet and squash to eat, family near,the holiday blear, pilgrims and the past or things that don’t last, falling leaves or the hopes we retrieve … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.