Tag: blogs

The Big 5 – Why did you start to blog?

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ablution

ablution by keyboard

WordPress.com boasts many millions of users worldwide making it quite the community to splash around in. For every taste, hobby, interest, field of study or reflection, there is something to fit the bill. All one has to do is explore and an incredible number of tag-related blogs pop up in the reader. Across the Bored would love to have that many hours of free time to peruse the stacks as it were but real life prohibits any concerted effort at getting lost in the multiverse. We are lucky to have a wide variety of readers and usually find our way by following links and clicking on gravatars.

Blame it on Google. Our work relies on searches and it seems as though a vast number of results lead back to blogs. Although many consider this form of self-publication citation unworthy, the fact remains that there is a lot of interesting stuff floating around out there with as many attached images and opinions to fill a small community library a few times over. That was our hook, a digital dare from the ether that we had better get with it, to coin a dated phrase, or lose momentum. Our primary motivation for constructing Across the Bored was as virtual repository for all that stuff that would have just been jammed into a drawer, filed away on a CD or buried in a hard drive otherwise. We had no idea it would take on a life of its own. Many of you have probably answered this very simple yet complex question on your ABOUT page or under a nifty image widget in the sidebar but for the Big 5 Challenge this fortnight it seemed worth asking all the same:

“Why did you start to blog?” – forum or fancy, news or reviews, to find friend or battle foe, seek source of satisfaction or sound out discussion, to expound, extoll, expand, in song, full-colour, poetry or prose …

We would love to know why you decided to put it all out there.

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 such as the above on one of the five Ws (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN or WHY and sometimes HOW) 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 reply in the comment box, in a new post with 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. Challenge yourself to dig deep for an answer.
  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 Big 5 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 “The Big 5 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 “Big 5” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on The Big 5 Challenge page.
  5. Remember to Follow to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Awards on a Grey day

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grey day

Spring can’t seem to come fast enough in this neck of the woods but our day was brightened considerably when fellow blogger Cee at Cee’s Photography nominated us for the 2 awards below. She is a prolific photographer and hosts many wonderful challenges that include a little bit of something for everyone.  Have a look at her absolutely stunning botanical photos; the colours and detail are incredible. Thank you so much Cee for all your support!

And now, down to business…

Inner Peace Award

inner peace award badge

Rules

  • Display the logo on a post.
  • Thank the person who nominated you and link to his/her site.
  • State seven things about you.
  • Nominate fourteen other bloggers & inform them via a comment on their blog.

7 (more) Things you wouldn’t know about us until now:

  • Am convinced that how-to manuals are written by people who have never seen the product
  • Am horrified at the unexpected development of bingo wings. Not funny, summer’s coming…
  • Feel sure that the dog just thinks I am a larger dog with opposable thumbs and a communication problem
  • Have taught the Ghost and Miss Z how to forage: seems to be working, no one has starved yet…
  • Have way too many shades of nail polish most of which winds up on toes as a decent manicure is impossible to maintain
  • Am still trying to become a minimalist. Don’t laugh…
  • Have still not formulated a decent answer for “What do you do?”

This is the part we always get stuck on: sorry, but 7 is one of our favourite numbers so that is how many
We Nominate:

A New Day
Scrapydo
Beyond the Brush
The Serenity Space
Zeebra Designs & Destinations
rfljenksy – Practicing Simplicity
This is not Bangkok

 The Lighthouse Award

Rules

the-lighthouse-award

  • Display the Award certificate on your blog.
  • Write a post and link back to the blogger that nominated you.
  • Inform your nominees of their award nominations
  • Share three ways that you like to help other people.
  • There is no limit to the number of people that you can nominate.
  •  HAVE FUN!!!

3 ways we like to help:

  • We are huge believers in Reduce, Recycle and Reuse and, as many of you are aware from previous posts, we have been blessed with an abundance of MUCH. So much, in fact, that we periodically do triage and pass along what can be spared to our local community resource centre for their “boutique”.  Items not given away to young families in need are offered at rock-bottom prices or sold at their bi-annual garage sale to raise funds for the in-house education programmes.  We love this domino effect!
  • When the Ghost and Miss Z were in school we volunteered our talents without reservation, now we use our blog to (hopefully) inspire a whole new audience!
  • By listening carefully, biting our tongue, swallowing our words and taking a deep breath…. Sometimes you have to.

We nominate:

Ohm Sweet Ohm – Allan always finds an illuminating perspective to offer, whether an observation, helpful tip, interesting clip, memoir or letting us accompany him to places we could never go through his photography of the Golden Gate Bridge, he truly does “bring light to a dark world”.

As with all things, it is the thought that counts… We wish there were more hours in the day to visit so a very many, many heartfelt thanks to all those who have followed, read, liked, commented, cajoled, inspired and encouraged since we began this endeavour – this one’s for you…

Just what the Doctor ordered

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super-sweet-blogging-awardhow can one forget something this sweet?

Across the Bored tends to get easily waylaid – doggy daily constitutionals, Miss Z’s litany of wardrobe woes, the Ghost’s ongoing forays into the depths of academia and the editorial reviews they engender, the supposed approach of spring/summer and the garden that is not (yet), laundry, laundry, the lure of the iPhone, never mind work – the basic stuff of life – so inevitably we sometimes lose bits.  Luckily, there are outside prompts to remind us of those things that we meant to get to but didn’t and so now we are.

Heyjude from Travel Words was kind enough to pass along the Super Sweet Blogging award to us ( a fave ‘cuz it has cupcakes)! She has a lovely blog filled with tons of lush pictures from her travels, tidbits of history, neighbourhood trivia and fun facts about places that we might not get to otherwise – well worth settling yourself in for a little armchair afternoon’s journey.

As with most, if not all, awards there are some Rules…

The Rules for accepting your nomination:

  • Thank the Super Sweet Blogger who awarded
  • Answer five Super Sweet questions.
  • Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award image in your blog post.
  • Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) other bloggers, or half a baker’s dozen (7) if 13 seems like a lot.
  • Notify your nominees on their blog.

The Five Super Sweet Questions:

  1. Cookies or Cake?
  2. Chocolate or Vanilla?
  3. Favourite Sweet Treat?
  4. When do you crave sweet things the most?
  5. Sweet nickname?
  1. How about a torte…
  2. Is there anything else besides Chocolate?
  3. LaDurée Macarons
  4. 4 pm melt-down or after dinner
  5. The ones I have for family members are more savoury!

Now for the nominees – half a baker’s dozen because we are on a diet!

Gracie Binoya Photography
Talker Huge
A is for Amuseless
3rdculturechildren
PragueByKaty
PhotographyArtPlus
VisualRiver’s Blog

Pass by and have a look, there’s something for everyone!  Thank you once again to Heyjude for taking time out of her travels to pop by – we appreciate it.

Awards – Christmas comes twice this year

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Across the Bored finds itself, going forward into this wondrous year 2013, the recipient of an embarassment of riches courtesy of Richard at The Future is Papier Mâché. Author of a photography blog that documents the denizens of Greater London, with the bonus of book reviews and collaborations, it is well worth more than the occasional look. He has nominated us for a few choice awards below.

According to Google, the origins of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award are lost in the primal swirl of the mulitverse – no matter, it is still a lovely thing to receive at this time of year when more is going out than coming in…

very-inspiring-blog-award20121

The Rules of this award, in shortform, are:

  • Link back to the blog that nominated you
  • Tell the world 7 facts about yourself
  • Nominate 15 (yes, that’s 15 – count’em) fellow bloggers

You may, of course, grab the badge and display it as prominently as you see fit!

7 facts about Across the Bored:

  1. There are at least 7 different language dictionaries in our library, none of which I fluently speak apart from French
  2. I used to darn socks but soon discovered it was a futile and annoying pastime
  3. I am always at a loss when asked what I do
  4. People who ask me what I have been up to then proceed to cut me off and talk about their own jobs, vacations, spouses and children soon find themselves in a one way conversation
  5. The desire to reconnect on facebook is not anywhere near the top of my list of priorities
  6. I wanted to open a candy shop near a high school
  7. Despite the inconvenience, I like snow and PETA be damned will wear a fur coat when it is -20☃

For all their inspiration, here are my 15 Nominees:

A New Day
bentorrific
Canadian Hiking Photography
Cee’s Photography
Ivanterzic
Lateral Love Australia
Milners Blog
Ohm Sweet Ohm
Rarasaur
Stephen Kelly Creative
Tahira’s Shenanigan’s
Travel. Garden. Eat.
Where’s My Backpack?
The World according to Dina
Zeebra Designs & Destinations

The Reality Blog Award

reality-blog-award

The Rules are concise:

  • Link back to the blogger that nominated you
  • Post the badge on your blog where you see fit
  • Answer the 5 questions below
  • Nominate 8 bloggers

Questions and Answers:

Q: If you could change something what would you change?
A: The interface between my creaking fingers and my mouse

Q: If you could repeat an age, what age would it be?
A: The Age of Enlightenment with an unlimited battery iphone and a teleporter

Q: What one thing really scares you?
A: The power of bureaucracy

Q: What one dream have you not completed yet and do you think you will be able to complete it?
A: Yes, the current project that I have been procrastinating on

Q: If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?
A: The dog – so that I could laze around on a comfy pillow in a sunny window for hours on end, without the least bit of guilt at not being productive, while someone fed me treats at the bat of an eyelash…

The 8 Nominees are:

Caddo Veil
Clowie’s Corner
Loving Life: A Green Journey
masadiso79’s Blog
Naomikko
NMNPHX
Scrapydo
What’s [in] the picture?

A double nomination for The Blog of the Year 2012 Award was from both Richard at The Future is Papier Mâché and Nutsfortreasure at Living and Lovin, a blog that has a little bit of everything for everyone! The Rules for this award, in their entirety, may be viewed at the Thought Palette where it originated. While a lovely award and greatly appreciated, Across the Bored doesn’t do facebook or collect stars (a long story the gory details of which may one day be the subject of another post) – besides 2012 has wrapped itself up in a post-nonapocalyptic shroud so that pretty much settles that…

Blog of the Year Award 2 star jpeg

The One Lovely Blog Award was sent along by Katy of PragueByKaty – Thank you so much for thinking of Across the Bored as lovely enough to grace your readings.  Katy shows us a side of her city and travels that make one want to throw our gear in a bag and get on the next plane!

one-lovely-blog-award

As with the other awards, there are some Rules:

  • Link back to the person who nominated you
  • Post the badge in a lovely place
  • State 7 things about yourself
  • Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them

Across the Bored has taken the liberty of fudging and applying a bit of  blog math as follows:
≧17 hours of post time ÷ 4 awards × 38+ nominees = 10 stiff fingers + 7 more random facts ± the last 8/15 nominees

So here we have 7 more Random things about Across the Bored:

  1. Cold hands, warm heart
  2. I don’t have much use for horror movies
  3. With that said, I own way too many VHS tapes and DVDs
  4. I make a mean fried egg but won’t eat them
  5. and fantasize about the ultimate in kitchen storage
  6. I enjoy the Ghost and Miss Z’s playlists (everything from Aussie rap and hipster unknowns to gamer symphonics)
  7. but cannot stand those nasty little earbuds

The 8 Nominees are:

Ania Archer
Backseat Mafia
Corina Lăzărescu
Diamond Mike Watson
Grishmanphotography
Retireediary
Richard Sugden Photography
The Bright Old Oak

Some blogs deserve recognition but don’t want any awards, so we will bestow upon them an Honourable Mention – Please have a look at the incredible work of Gary Schollmeier at http://garyschollmeier.com.

Thanks once again to Richard, Nutsfortreasure and Katy!

Gargoyles for your Blogs

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gargoyle reading classics

The best kind of presents are those that are not expected and at this time of year when we are all anticipating something other than a lump of coal in our respective stockings, Nicole at NMNPHX was kind enough to send Across the Bored a Gargie Award.  Have a look at her entries in all sorts of Challenges as well as a cracker set of Spam Comments of the Week.

The Gargie Award is the creation of blogger gargoylebruce from thebookshelfgargoyle (you can visit there for a less seasonal set of regulations).

gargiebasemark3-washout-golden-words-mini

The rules of this award are (such a relief) simple:

1.  Display the award badge as prominently on your site as you are inclined… if you like.

2.  Publish a post to inform the world of your great achievement… unless you can’t be bothered or are too busy playing Santa, in which case you are excused until December 26th.

3.  Nominate some fellow bloggers (who have been outstanding in their field… figuratively or literally)… if you feel inclined – it would be the right thing to do considering the date.

4.  Indicate to your nominees that they have received the award… provided you have completed step three.

The gargoyle has a long history among many cultures and its incarnations in countless mediums range from the grotesque and horrifying to the more garden-variety guardians now gracing the aisles of the garden section in big-box stores.  Like the mythic figure small children will await in their beds on the 24th, the gargoyle has also worked his way into our consciousness as a figure one is intrigued by and yet still slightly afraid of.  As a generation, we are probably less concerned with the symbolism of these grotesques than our medieval predecessors – this may not necessarily be a good thing, for it is always wise to know what exactly one is looking at or placing on the front porch, but we cannot argue their newfound popularity.

So my little monsters, here are the nominees:

This Man’s Journey
Lauren Olivia and Company Passport
bentorrific
Flickr Comments
The Future Is Papier Mâché

Thanks again to Nicole at NMNPHX for thinking of Across the Bored!