Tag: post a week 2014

The Big 5 – “What” are you reading? – Week 2

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bisquick

Surfing around the other day (and no, we stupidly didn’t bookmark it for future reference), we came across the following phrase: “Dialogue is the civilized form of Monologue”. Succinct and quite brilliant, it epitomizes what this still new challenge is really about: sharing with others, creating a discussion, venting, exploring and creating something out of “nothing” – putting out there what was previously ours alone, concretizing and verbalizing through our posts so that we may get something back or get something off our backs.

In retrospect, and from the variety of entries, we may not have completely thought this through but as with most things Across the Bored, chaos theory prevails and gives that bonus of the delightfully unpredictable and unforeseen – there are as many ways to respond as there are answers and who are we to quibble. We discovered new bloggers, received posts that answer each one of the Big 5 categories in relation to the question itself, unravelled acrostics, bantered fun replies in the comment box and even got reviews on books we suspect we may own but haven’t read! The least we can say is thank you… And that brings us round to this fortnight’s Big 5 Challenge where we hope that something more interesting than the back of the waffle mix box is occupying your time.

“What are you reading?” – A trashy romance, a book about dance, on a smartphone or tablet, as homework or habit, magazine, query, a newspaper, even the dictionary… We would love to know what you are poring over this week.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this challenge can be found here: Need more info, want to browse past themes or get the badge for your blog? See HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty – Week 2

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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.

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…

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty

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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.

 

Fiction in 50: The Best of Intentions

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the best of intentions

This is no time for a coffee break – stop chatting and don’t even think about putting those scissors down: I’ll be the laughing stock of the block!  Small lion, my eye – If you think I’m going to stay like this overnight, you’ll have a nice surprise in your shoe tomorrow…

The Bookshelf Gargoyle curates a Fiction in 50 mini-narrative challenge – the current theme is The Best of Intentions! Rack your brains, try your hardest or give it your best – but do sit down and write a piece of short, short fiction, send it in and go and have a peek at the other entries – GargoyleBruce writes wonderful reviews on all sorts of kid lit (big and small) with a cheeky tone guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Wander through the stacks, you are sure to find something you’ll like.

Click on the icon in the sidebar for previous entries…

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting – Week 2

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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.

tagged “C”

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tagged c cat

C is for Cat
Craving Camembert mice
Curled Coiled stretching
the yawn a device
of Carnivores striped
to Confound their prey
who scurry off
hurry off
all night and day
no sweet Condolences
no Colligation
of bright-eyed banter
dogged determination
no pangs of Conscience
or Cold Compromise
eat, play, sleep
and pounce
on the prize

C

Come Close to the entries in Frizztext’s A-Z Challenge: tagged “C”.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting

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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.