Tag: post a week 2013

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wishes – Week 2

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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.

 

XXX – Challenge

3 Comments

xxx acorns

Xasperation
that would be
the X word for this day
a whole year for Xamining
nice or naughty
hard to say
many have been Xcellent
their comportment
above par
Xhausting in the efforts made
Xemplary by far
Xcitable were others
and Xcruciating were the worst
found to be Xecrable
Xcuseless from the first
an endless holiday nightmare
to Xtrapolate
it seems
Xtolling virtues by the score
highs and lows Xtreme
here Xtant vices disappear
while frayed nerves Xtend
’til Xmas Eve
when all is calm
the season’s joy
to you
we send

X

Xpand your horizons in the entries of Frizztext’s XXX – Challenge.

Fantabulous Four!

21 Comments

becauseurfantabulous

What a few weeks it has been! So many best-laid plans made with good intentions have been only somewhat accomplished but as the tendency to over-extend ourselves and to THINK BIG at this time of year seems to be the norm, one would think we would know better by now… Seems like a good time to put aside the holiday scurrying around and thank all the wonderful bloggers who have sent us some early Christmas treats!

Our favourite big dog with a blog, Clowie, over at Clowie’s Corner has sent along the Fantabulous Award. This one is truly fantabulous in every way because, according to the originator, there are “no-strings-attached” and can be “bestowed upon others as (we) see fit” – and it does seem to sum up the mood of the season in that here it really is the thought that counts! Do go and have a look at Clowie’s blog if you love all things humorous and canine, there are some doggy words of wisdom us bipeds would be wise to heed and a few felines thrown in for good measure… This little gem of an award is being passed along to Spumoni Caddo who is always there with a good word or piece of wise advice for those who need it and who certainly has her hands more than full enough without having to deal with the rigours of an award with a lot of rules!

Tom, who writes the tech-oriented blog TechnoTom filled with tips and reviews, has come up with a new award which he was nice enough to send our way:
read-on blogging award

The rules of this award are simple:
– When you receive the award, publish a post mentioning the award and thank the blogger that sent it along (linking back to their blog);
– Read their post on the award (don’t forget to give them a like!);
– Mention the rules above and below:
– Answer why you think you’ve been given the award
– Nominate 10 other bloggers you find interesting (linking to their blog) and leave a comment on their blog (leaving a link to the post you’ve just published)
– Post the “Read-On Blogging Award” image on your blog sidebar!

We are all for an award that has its roots in literacy, not only going forward but also going back – the beauty of our blogs (and reading in general) is that we can pick it up at any point in time and see what has gone before, re-read our favourites, pick and choose what strikes our fancy and thrill to the next post or page. We’d like to think that Across the Bored inspires everyone to “read-on”! Those who have followed us for awhile will know how hard it is for us to do 1 of anything let alone 10 so we are going to fudge (hey, it’s the holiday season and the elves are on strike in our neighbourhood) and nominate 5 blogs. These five have two things in common, they have followed us from the beginning and their authors make a special effort to craft posts that are word-oriented whether the emphasis is on a technical aspect, family, work, love or just the humorous side of life.

Island Traveler
Aperture 64
Naomikko
NMNPHX
The Bright Old Oak

Another thank-you goes out to Ann, at afriendofJESUS2013Blog, who has nominated us for a Blog of The Year Award 2013! She writes on all manner of topics religious and has visitors from over 111 countries reading her inspirational quotations. This award lets you collect stars and even if you or your nominee has already been given the award by someone else – you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum 6 stars!

Blog of the Year Award 1 star jpeg

This is a particularly nice touch and seeing that we were never very good with stars even at the most elementary level, we are going to help Ann with her collection. If anyone out there knows blogs that are collecting stars for this award, please leave a link in the comment box below and we will go and have a look. The instructions for this award are simple and the full set of rules are available at The Thought Palette where the award originated.

Imagine our surprise when we got a notification through our fledgling Twitter account that Destino had nominated us for the Versatile Blogger Award. Her blog combines observations on daily life with photography – how can you not want to visit someone who “laugh(s) really loud” and likes “change. And coffee”!

versatile-blogger

The rules for this award are:
– Display the Award Certificate on your blog
– Write a post and link back to the blogger who nominated you
– Nominate 15 other bloggers and inform them of their nomination via comment on their blog
– Post 7 interesting things about yourself

Here we go:
– I have taught the dog how to eat politely off a fork (but never at the table)
– I am equally wary of both the dentist and the hairdresser for both have my head in their hands
– I have enough needlepoint wool to open a store (it’s a long story – if you are interested, leave me a comment)
– I would gladly wear a white t-shirt and jeans daily BUT
– don’t ask me to give up stylish shoes
– I still dance around the living room when no one is home
– I have Christmas tree OCD, meaning that there is only my way to trim it so just sit back and watch, thank you…

Remember those elves from earlier on, well they are still working to rule so the 5 nominees are:

The Bookshelf Gargoyle
Hope* the happy hugger
West Seventh Freelance
Animalcouriers
Vastly Curious

Well, it looks as though we have a nice start to the season where the unexpected brings a smile and reminds us that the best gifts don’t always come in boxes.

May your days be merry and bright…

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.

WWW – Challenge

12 Comments

www wrapped

Would my Wits
Were about me
What in the World
Would I do
Wrestle with the orange ones
Wrangle with the blue
Waver over Whipped cream
Wine-soaked
or Whisky neat
Wolf down all the yellow
eat green ones in the street
Wherever are the pink
Wrapped Wondrous
sweet delights
I’ll save the purple
best for last
and Wish all
a good chocolate night

w

Waltz through the entries in Frizztext’s WWW – Challenge.

Travel Theme: Sky

3 Comments

sky“Everyday” – britney spears

Footsteps in the rain, memories wash away
Beyond the headlight glare, it’s kind of dark out there
And everywhere I’ve been, it’s hard to find a friend
I’ve got no alibis for the state I’m in

Everybody needs, needs a place to go
God know’s I have seen it’s a twisting, winding road

Every day, the sun comes up again
A little hope begins and it starts with you ’cause you get me through it
And every day, I’m closer to the shore, I smile a little more
And because of your faith, I get closer now every day

Said every day, I said every day, every day

It’s hard to recognize, across the great divide
Just what you left behind and what you keep inside
A ripple in the calm, you keep my safe from harm
Somehow you still believe, you believe in me
Where it starts and ends, only time must know
Wherever you will be is where I wanna go

Every day, the sun comes up again
A little hope begins and it starts with you ’cause you get me through it
And every day, I’m closer to the shore, I smile a little more
And because of your faith, I get closer now every day

‘Cause you set me free
‘Cause you set me free

And every day, the sun comes up again
A little hope begins and it starts with you ’cause you get me through it
And every day, I’m closer to the shore, I smile a little more
And because of your faith, I get closer now every day

⇡

Look up the entries of Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Sky.

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.

 

VVV – Challenge

8 Comments

vvv victory

Victory
cannot only be counted
in the Vestiges
of Vainglorious battle
but rather
in our Vested interests
Vagabond thoughts
that Vibrate
Vacillate
Vex
Spin
in Vicious circles
until Vanquished
Validated
thinly Veiled Victims
that fall
like crumbs
Vocalized
on the plate
of my love

V

Veni, Vidi, Vici.
Visit the valued entries in Frizztext’s VVV – Challenge.

Answer me this

29 Comments

tweaking

walk softly and carry a large…

Have been doing a little tweaking (what’s new…) with the format of the blog and was wondering how you, as our faithful navigators, felt about the changes. The row of image icon widgets under the header leading to those topics used to be buried in the sidebar. Does the site now take longer to load for you? Do you like the icons there? Does it make a difference to anyone but Across the Bored? Write a note in the comments box – if there are any other stylistic or technical issues that you’ve encountered when cruising our content, let us know but please do it gently as we are feeling a wee bit overwrought with the holiday season quickly approaching….

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.