Tag: the big 5 challenge

The Big 5 – “When” do you get annoyed? – Week 2

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download

I swear it wasn’t there 2 days ago

It seems to take a lot of fancy dancing on our part just to keep up with all the innovations that Apple and the 400 or so app providers we use keep churning out, so we’re not always completely pleased when notified that it’s time to upgrade to the “latest version”. Half the time something really nifty and easy to use is gone, disappeared with no explanation, leaving us to Google and in worst case scenarios, search support (which more often than not doesn’t provide an answer).

We upgraded to Yosemite and had to spend way more time reconfiguring things we really don’t know much about than should be necessary. We’re more of the “turn it on, it works, let’s go” type of user, accustomed to having things where they are supposed to be and in working order.  Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the download icon was gone. Not there. It used to have it’s own pride of place with a lovely dropdown menu that you could track all that stuff you just had to have in one place. Endless navigation and clicking ensued to find out just what were we supposed to do now. And as much as we searched, all we could find was that it was no longer a familiar part of our browser window. No explanation, no logic for its removal. We finally figured out to set our preferences to desktop rather than a downloads folder just to make sure we were actually getting what we wanted.

This morning we noticed that our happy little icon is back. Let’s see whether it has the full functionality of its parent. We do love change, of sorts, but the Big 5 Challenge is not a fan when things that are supposed to streamline our workflow and make our lives easier are just dumbed-down. Don’t assume we don’t need those features that worked beautifully and were a part of what drew us to you in the first place – hello Apple… is there anybody actually out there that is not trying to justify their salary by fixing stuff that isn’t broken?

“When do you get annoyed?” – on the bus or in the car, up close and personal, way too far, by too much noise or too much talk, by things that stick on shoes when out for a walk… We would love to know when you get your knickers in a twist.

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.

The Big 5 – “Where” do you eat? – Week 2

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green apples

an apple a day

It’s been years since we had to pack a lunch for ourselves or, for that matter, walk further than a hundred feet to find something to snack on midday seeing we are “lucky” enough to live and work out of the same premises. We do, however, keep an eye on what the Ghost and Miss Z throw in their backpacks to sustain themselves through their busy schedules. Their food of choice these days tends towards the portable, bite-sized, not too smelly and unobtrusive.

The rigours of back-to-back seminars means that some days our monsters have to actually eat in their classrooms. Just as walking down the street with a coffee or bottle of water in hand wasn’t a common occurrence thirty years ago, neither was noshing down on a fragrant smoked-meat in a “State of the Media” symposium. Times change. Many of the unwritten rules of public comportment that we took for granted are long gone and we either go with the flow or run the risk of becoming stale-dated like that mystery meat sandwich from the vending machine.

Meal-time, under the best of circumstances, is no small effort and the Big 5 Challenge is curious about “Where do you eat?” – in bed or on the sofa, in front of the tv or in a cafeteria, on the road or in the air, alone or in a crowd, way too fast or without a care …

We would love to know where you chow down.

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.

The Big 5 – “What” do you do? – Week 2

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mason jars

nuts

Sometimes we get so busy that we just don’t want to do it anymore.  There are days when we’ve beaten a concept to within an inch of its message and still can’t manage to get that resounding pop of satisfaction and those are the hours when we’d really rather be doing something else. Like rearranging closets, cleaning the garage or taking every dry good out of its awful plastic packaging and putting it into lovely, aesthetically pleasing and ecologically conscious mason jars. If we are going to waste time, it can at least be constructive.

Such manias are labour intensive for the most part. They can be the stuff of drudgery or filled with the crisp exhilaration of industriousness at its best. Our organizational skills have been honed over a lifetime; they are legend, a repository of much wisdom and have been, at every opportunity, imparted to our offspring much to their chagrin.

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge pondered “What do you do?” – enigma or electrician, caregiver or taker, just starting out or enjoying the fruit of your labours, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief …

We would love to know what takes up most of your time.

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.

The Big 5 – “Who” do you resemble? – Week 2

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Dog-snarlingit’s not always pretty

Funny how the complete draft of a post can be so clear right before one falls asleep and then the next morning we find ourselves trying to pick up the rather frayed thread to weave it all back together… Some things set us off easily perhaps more than they should and with that being said, it is a good thing that we have the sense to value sleep more than firing off email responses at 12:30 am. In the light of day they make much better copy and transform us from snarling hell-hound to obstinate rat-catcher with a mission.

It all started with a simple message – “No notifications yet“. Perhaps some of you have also seen it recently on your mobile WP apps, maybe we’re the only lucky soul. In any event, we had been otherwise occupied with real-life stuff over the last few weeks and didn’t pay it much mind, but then it started to be a ridiculous reminder that something evidently wasn’t right and so we emailed Tech support with a query. Before we launch into this lengthy tirade, let it be known that we have had some amazing help in the past from people at WP who actually did get it and this whole incident unfortunately fell at the tail end of a series of less than inspiring customer-service encounters. Run-ins that left us wanting to shred something to bits and shake it ’til it gave up.

One would have thought that having a WP.com blog meant getting a simple, direct answer from our loving host but that would have been too easy: in order to find some resolution we were requested to open a new account at WP.org (oh joy, another password to keep track of) and repost the same query all over again. Now, being one who can appreciate the finer points of “staying organized” (.com’s  answer) we went through the motions. A day later we were asked whether we were actually logged into the right account and that’s where we almost lost it. Logged in? To the mobile app on our home screen that stays open all the time so we don’t have to clumsily type our lengthy coordinates into the tiny log-in window while we are being jostled on the bus or playing co-pilot in the car. Logged in to the one account that we’ve been logged into since we downloaded the app onto our mobile devices who knows how long ago? We guess the answer to that would be, well ya…. “Try logging in and then out again” was the stellar follow-up: sounds like someone has been taking lessons from tech support at our internet provider – should we try kicking it also?

We do realize that a lot of questions sent to tech support are inane and it must be frustrating to be on the receiving end of such silliness all day long but it really rankles when we’re lumped into a group that hasn’t even developed opposable thumbs. We don’t ask for help unless we’ve googled the problem, looked through all the forums, help centers, articles, yadda yadda and basically exhausted all our own resources. God forbid tech support should and not just assume we’re logged into the wrong account – we would know if we were and that’s not even the problem anyways.
So we went back into the app, without having to log in, and lo and behold the notifications had miraculously appeared. Basically the same but somehow… Different.

At the risk of sounding like an old codger irrevocably set in our ways, we are absolutely not thrilled with the new, improved WP mobile notifications. Now we have little stars (ooh, just what I need – another gold star for my collection) and word bubbles that (take a few clicks to) change colour to prompt us that this is what the attached content is about because no one knows how to read anymore. Sadly, the cross-platform links have not quite gotten the kinks ironed out so if you have read, answered, approved or commented on any of the notifications on, god forbid, your big clunker of a monitor that you can’t carry around in your pocket, the mobile versions haven’t gotten the memo: you’ll just have to read it again to change the colour of that nifty star/bubble – because you just have that much time. We always thought the point of mobile was to make life easier, simpler, less time-consuming, to let us get from A to Z in as few steps as possible. Apparently not, and that’s just the start….

Click on your notification and what do we find? Gravatars and relevant info on who liked what, ok, that looks good; what we commented and the reply – uh oh, there’s a star prompting us like the ghost of Facebook to attach significance to “Thanks for the info…” – really? Now we have this added feature to further an already overburdened sense of guilt that we’re not engaging enough as it is?  Aaaacccckkkk….. What happened to being able to click on the link in a notification to actually see what we are being prompted to approve? Not there anymore. It means we have to go back to the monitor, sometime later, today or tomorrow, and wonder what or who we are forgetting and why we need to do this all over – again. Why is the spam flag now hidden under “more” and why should we have to go through extra steps to get to something that used to be right there under our noses? What does “edit comment” mean? Are we censoring our reader’s replies now on top of everything else? Isn’t that rude and a bit pompous? If we don’t like what people have to say about us or what we’ve posted can’t we just not approve them, ignore them and eventually they’ll disappear like in the good old passive-aggressive days of yore?  It all smacks of the mega-corporation malaise, the one where someone in the back room is trying to justify their paycheque by tweaking things that don’t need to be fixed and taking away features that were actually useful and worked properly in the first place. Upgrades don’t always mean better, lately they seem to mean guess what’s gone. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a whole lot we can do about it but foam at the mouth like some rabid dog. Not nice at all. And it’s really not a good look for us.

Do we really need all this aggravation or should we just roll over onto our backs like an unconcerned puppy waiting for a scritch and something better to come along? It’s been exhausting and so we will follow our dog’s lead and go and lie down until we’ve forgotten about it and it’s time for dinner…

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge asked – “Who do you resemble?” – mom or pop, lion or lemur, celebrity or saint…

We would love to know who is on your list.

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.

The Big 5 – Challenger’s Choice – Week 2

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NY-In-The-Moment-788828

if only…  running really fast to try and catch it

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge is leaving it up to you – Challenger’s Choice!

What do you crave?    How old do you feel?    When was your last Duh moment?    Where do you relax?     Why did you start to blog?    Who is your Underdog?    What is your Favourite Flower?     When is the last time you really laughed?    How do you relax?     Who did you listen to?      Where are you from?     What are you reading?

We would love to know which topic gets you going…

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.

The Big 5 – “What” do you crave? – Week 2

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spock massageplease, please, please come to my house – i’ll pay anything

Have you ever had one of those days where everything that could possibly go wrong did? This particular Wednesday proved a fine example of that old adage: we woke at an ungodly hour to the sound of the sprinkler system kicking in like Niagara Falls in the duct work and discovered that the source of a prolonged hot flash was coming from the dog jammed quite contentedly into our armpit. It was dentist day part 2: despite the grey skies we decided to walk – it wasn’t that far but the swollen rain clouds looming overhead decided they couldn’t wait another five minutes and released the inundation upon us halfway there. Arriving early and waiting an additional half hour was a bonus that let us dry out a bit before the heavy demolition began in earnest. After an hour in the chair the silky strains of Respighi could not soften the blow that the simple filling we had gone in for had now turned into a hidden crack and future crown. Not feeling like a princess at all….

Murphy must have been laughing from on high when he saw us leave the dentist’s office. A break in the torrential weather, another bad decision to walk, more rain the size of spitballs, major construction tearing up the side streets causing us to skip and jump across puddles and piles of gravel, wrongly stocked items at the grocery store resulting in ludicrous prices at the cash, too many packages resulting in the forgotten umbrella, a return for the barely usable brolly and finally home.  All we could think about was a piece of Russian toast and a caramel macchiato, neither of which was going to happen seeing we resembled a wet-mouth Saint Bernard and most words came out crooked anyways.

The weather seemed to have put everyone on tenterhooks with the simplest questions having a cataclysmic effect quite unwarranted (us included). We told everyone in no uncertain terms not to ask what is for dinner. The invitation to Spock though has been extended to perpetuity for all we really want, right now, is not to be bothered. Could be worse…

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge is interested to know –  “What do you crave?” – peace and quiet, a hearty party, a chocolate-covered donut, pastrami sandwich or kale smoothie, to be alone, to be away, a 48-hour long day…

We would love to know what has been poking you to go for it.

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.

The Big 5 – “How” old do you feel? – Week 2

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anyone remember this decade?

Having been too old to enjoy Sesame Street when it first came out and not old enough to appreciate its finer comedic timing and pop culture references, Across the Bored was quite pleased when The Muppet Show made its debut in the late 1970s.  Sublimely ridiculous in its use of punmanship, with unabashed references to everyone from Shakespeare to the Village People, it was the one of the few shows that we watched faithfully. The combination of great silliness, snort-worthy parodies and even a few tear-inducing moments were exactly what we needed at that point in time.

We still do Swedish Chef impressions when trying to explain incomprehensible recipes, see the wisdom in Miss Piggy’s approach to life and yes, on some days know we have become Waldorf and Statler chiding and deriding from the best seats in the house. Watching reruns of this classic, truly unique in its genre, brings it all back and we laugh like pre-schoolers all over again.

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge prodded – “How old do you feel?” –  like a kid in a candy shoppe or drudge with a mop, like you could run a mile, need to rest a while, could change your style or rule the world…

We would love to know how you are reeling in the years.

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.

The Big 5 – “When” was your last Duh moment? – Week 2

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duh note

we’re going to need the bulk pack of these

We couldn’t stifle a laugh booking eye appointments recently, although to be fair some confusion may have arisen from the fact that there is a quite complicated system in place as regards family names/gender for anything medical or governmental in our province.  The optometrist’s secretary chirpily asked “Ok Mrs. X, your file is under your maiden name, now could you give me your husband and son’s last name, please?” Pffft!!! She knew as soon as she had let it slipped – brain on autopilot, all part of the job….

Everyone from the Urban to Oxford dictionaries has an entry for the word we most closely associate with this kind of event. On Wiktionary certain Slavic language etymologies roughly translate it to mean a ghost or spirit, which makes some sense as it seems as though the perpetrator of the action is usually not functioning at full capacity.  In Shabo, it means “breast”, a definition which is perhaps the most accurate as we all feel like boobs when when we realize just how idiotic what we have just said or done is. Duh….

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge pondered – “When was your last Duh moment?” – while reading a newspaper, watching TV, tripping over your own feet or someone else’s, silly or sad, complicated or bad, indescribably inane or just downright dense…

We would love to know when you last rolled your eyes to the heavens in exasperation.

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.

The Big 5 – “Where” do you relax? – Week 2

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charles-barsotti-relax-it-s-summertime-and-the-living-is-easy-new-yorker-cartoon

so much so that auto-schedule is also taking a break

Perhaps the old joke about this part of the continent having 10 months of winter and 2 months of lousy skating has more than a little to do with the fact that once this season comes we are all just a wee bit off kilter and though full of ideas about how best to take advantage of everything outdoorsy, we are at the same time stricken with that full-body paralysis that makes us just want to lie on something soft in the brightest patch of sun around.

Urban summer is a whole different season from blissful by-the-ocean or camping in the meadow endeavours and was proven by an unavoidable Sunday morning trek into the core of town only because we could not live one moment longer without power for the internet router. Of course, tech support sent us to the wrong outlet. The one with the not-so-happy to be working on the last day of a glorious weekend sales associate who was no help at all and who will not be winning any customer service/employee of the month awards; the one which opened a full two hours before the one that actually did carry the part we needed… Now our day of rest is usually spent in relative solitude, far from the madding crowds with perhaps a nice waffle and a cappuccino on the patio and the most aggravating it gets is lazy dog clamouring to visit his friend next door. So needless to say, we were not amused.

It did give us a chance to walk around for a bit and play tourist with those out for Grand Prix weekend but mostly it served to remind us that downtown is best enjoyed when everyone is working. What was supposed to be a quick trip turned into a five hour trek and resulted in one pitiful AC plug and the need to put our feet up for a bit when we finally did make it home. Could be worse, we could have paid a small fortune to broil with no earplugs in the stands at the racetrack. This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge asked – “Where do you relax?” – under a cozy duvet or at the beach, on skis or a motorcycle, in the garden or in the middle of the city, behind the wheel or in front of the pack…

We would love to know where you are the most at ease.

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.

The Big 5 – “Why” did you start to blog? – Week 2

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110926_cartoon_090_a15925_p465

all depends on the day…

Throughout the last week we have been reading some great entries into this challenge and have to say that many of the reasons that other bloggers got started are ones that we can easily associate with: as a journal, a place to vent, a vehicle for artistic expression, to connect with others and to see what the rest of the blogosphere is up to are just a few of the points offered up. We had been saving Roz Chast’s cartoon for a very long time in the knowledge that one day it would be just right for that very special post and lo and behold, it is. She knows us all and must have been perched on our shoulder the day we first pressed publish for we are All of the Above, though we would like to think that subtlety plays at least a small part in getting our point across.

Did we think we could change the world? Not realistically. Did we anticipate changing ourselves? Never in a million years, but we did. Would we do it all over again? In a heartbeat and we would venture that many of you would also. This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge is curious to know “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, 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.

The Big 5 – “Who” is your Underdog? – Week 2

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LightMyFire

Sometimes just a spark is all that’s necessary

Today’s post was originally going to explore the topic of small countries’ efforts towards independence but an entry in our Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Lost moved our train of thought in a different, yet quite related, direction. We were  reminded of a cigarette brand whose late 60s marketing was geared exclusively to women. Even though the memory had nothing to do with ponderings on smoking, advertising or even women’s liberation, the idea behind the campaign, the quest for determination, did.

Virginia Slims groovy slogan of “You’ve come a long way, baby!” reached back to those generations who had come through depression, a few world wars and huge changes to gender roles in both social and domestic milieus. Fast forward fifty years and it is all the more poignant for despite the radical adjustments we have all made, things really aren’t a whole lot better. In fact, one might argue that they are worse. Our own mum has been known to shake her head in disbelief and mutter “I don’t know how you do it” which is odd considering how both she and her own mother conducted their lives, taking risks and acting outside of accepted convention – besides, like them, it is not as if we have much choice in the matter.

We have, sadly, been duped by the media machine that decided we could be everything to everyone all the time: that we could not only wear the pants but have a closet filled with matching hats that we could defiantly don all at once or interchangeably on a whim. We were told, tempted, nagged, chided, berated and reminded that we could do anything we desired if we really wanted to – be saint and sinner, sacred and sex object, saboteur, sage and saviour. It is not true.

There is a dark and pervasive strain of something or other that has been poisoning the well of our being. As usual, we thought it was just us in our little bubble feeling put-out and put-upon but the more we read and created a dialogue, it became apparent that there are many of us out there suddenly realizing that the moment we stop to take a breath we feel like we are drowning. The author of the post that led to all this postulation wrote of a certain state of being lost, in a “fog… that suffocates the quality of daily life”. Is this malaise generationally endemic? Has it struck only North Americans who have been bombarded by false hope and the pipe dream of attaining super-womanhood or is it a plague that knows no borders? Who can say: it is the stuff of discourse but some days it makes us want to just start a fire under the whole thing…

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge is dedicated to all those of both genders who are still fighting the big battle, one in which a constantly metamorphosing enemy defies pinpointing and where the front lines keep moving from day to day.

“Who is your Underdog?” – young or old, timid or bold, flash in the pan or kicking the can, cartoon or larger than life …

We would love to know who flies above the crowd for you.

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.

The Big 5 – “What” is your favourite Flower ? – Week 2

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mauve flowers

we’ll be using this one for reference

It is a bit like watching a pot of water to see when it will boil: waiting for spring to grace us with her presence, we mean. Looking out the window every morning with the hopes that there will be a sudden burst of warm sunlight doesn’t seem to help and if the calendar didn’t say (almost) May one might assume that we were poised on the back end of summer expecting a first snow any day soon. Even though the grass on our front lawn is slowly turning green out of desperation for better days, temperatures refuse to be coaxed into decent double digits and the flower beds are still unremarkable.

We can’t remember what we planted last year but that doesn’t really matter for even if we did, it’s not guaranteed to come up this year anyways. The joke is on us for some of the blooms we thought would brighten things up have turned out to be biennial rather than perennial. Apparently this is a detail the garden centres think would be better to leave off the care label half-covered by a large orange price sticker. We do recall the kind of blossoms the larger plants will produce but most of those will likely appear when we’ve given up and gone on vacation.

The neighbours tell us it looks lovely in July, perhaps we will take our sabbatical a month earlier this year and return just as everything pops out in its wondrous glory all at the same time. The Big 5 Challenge will decide then which exotic cluster wins best of show…

“What is your favourite flower?” – Irises exotic, roses by the score, daffodils, sweet tendrils, petunias by the door, sweet peas, lilies or birds of paradise, grand or wild, fragrant or mild, a pot of something nice …

We would love to know what flora strikes your fancy.

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.

The Big 5 – “When” is the last time you really laughed? – Week 2

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07-The-Far-Side-Best-Comic-Strips-1

so accurate in so many ways

Humour is an intensely personal affair and we are lucky when others share and indulge it.  So needless to say we were heartbroken when Gary Larson decided to retire in 1995 – who would provide our daily dose, make us snort, who would be there with that little snippet of truth that summed up exactly how we felt? It was as if a long relationship was suddenly being ended by one of us saying that they “needed a little space”. Understandable perhaps but nonetheless traumatic…

In our local bookshop there was a massive compilation of the cartoonist’s work available at a horrific price; at that time, the needs of our then-quite-small children outweighed any amusingly adult indulgences and so it sat on their shelf collecting dust.  How we coveted that heavy tome and wondered what witty gems it hid within. Many years later, we found a copy online at less than a quarter of the list price – how could we resist?

It is an edition, like a select few others, that we go back to over and over again. There are cartoons that have become reference points, some of their phrases appropriated into private jokes and used to encapsulate a whole world of situational descriptors and the wonder of it all is that they are still as fresh as the day they were penned. So, yes Gary, we can appreciate how emotionally exhausting it must have been to be “on” all the time, and will respect your wishes not to redistribute your work, but want to let you know that even after all these years we are still amused and delighted. The Big 5 Challenge takes our guffaws where we can get ’em and this fortnight wonders…

“When is the last time you really laughed?” – over coffee and the comics, at the movies, with a friend, in the car or under the stars, at silly signs or awkward times…

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.

The Big 5 – “How” do you relax? – Week 2

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Call the Midwife … 'We don't go out on bikes.'fits and starts between bites of toast

We are not big television watchers. Not having 536 cable channels might have something to do with it but we compensate our viewing pleasure in other ways and our recent thrill (after marathoning Downton Abbey) is Call the Midwife. Being a dedicated multitasker, the small screen usually finds us doing something else at the same time but the late Jennifer Worth’s memoirs fleshed out with the BBC’s knack for colour continuity and period detail have proven that there are some things worth putting down your knitting for. This runaway hit about “women’s issues” and the field of midwifery pre-contraception in London’s East End in the 1950s has proven compelling – the characters are affable, the scenes range from the bittersweetly comic to the tragic and the plotlines broach all manner of “tough” subject without a moment’s hesitation. It is, as some have said, “magnificently subversive drama” that plays out with all the unexpectedness of life itself. We are fully engaged and the better for it.

It’s not hard to see ourselves reflected in the bits of dialogue between the nursing Nuns of Nonnatus House. Much like 90 year old Sister Monica Joan’s dismissal of the Dewey Decimal system as “altogether too earthbound” in favour of an arrangement more distinctly eclectic, we too have been known to shuffle tomes and “put Plato here, next to Freud, so they can be companions in their ignorance…” Well aware of the oddly calming effect of placing books where we think they should be, rather than where most libraries would have them, we pull and replace, urging the Noir Style to rub shoulders with Strange Days, Dangerous Nights and squeeze the Explorers next to a mint Maharaja just for good measure. This methodology works as well for us as it did for the aged sister stacking volumes on a makeshift bookshelf until someone jams an action-thriller into 1001 Kitchen Organizers and we are forced to do triage once again.

After all that, the Big 5 Challenge is ready to put its feet up, watch another episode and ask this fortnight…

“How do you relax?” – with a good book or crashed on the couch, watching a mindless movie or birds in the park, fixing the old or creating the new, hiking up that mountain, running a mile, window-watching or sight-seeing… We would love to know how you recharge and restore.

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.

The Big 5 – “Who” did you listen to? – Week 2

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cookbookSomewhere a Grasshopper and Ant are in lively discussion

Advice, whether good or unwanted, seems to be measured out much like ingredients in a recipe – either in pinches or tablespoons, pennyweights or pounds. Sometimes freely given, often with a price, this form of guidance can restate the obvious, impart the wisdom of the ages or make us wonder where it originated and much like cooking, depends on the messenger’s knowledge to have decent results.

Things that once seemed problematic like “Drink 8 glasses of water a day” (What? Who has time? Where am I going to get 8 glasses in this office? Really?) in retrospect and according to many an esthetician, make good healthy sense.  Others, like “Buy it! Everyone’s wearing neon this year!” should be avoided like the plague affecting the fashion victim uttering it.  Are the hundreds of recommendations we seem to be overwhelmed with actually helpful or even useful? Are they what we need to hear or are they what the bearer knows we want to hear? We could fill a book with all the well-intended bon mots heard over a lifetime and put Napoleon’s words along with a suitably witty illustration on the frontispiece:

Du sublime au ridicule il n’y a qu’un pas (There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous).

This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge hears the voice of the past in these few simple phrases handed down over the last two centuries that apply to more than just domestic issues:

Learn how things are done properly, for if you marry a rich man you will need to know whether your servants are doing their jobs as required and if you marry a poor man, you will be doing them yourself…

“Who did you listen to?” – Parents or peers, punk or piano, the beat of your heart or steps in the street, politicians, revolutionaries, strangers that you’d meet… We would love to know who influenced your youth.

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.

The Big 5 – “Where” are you from? – Week 2

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where are you from

When Across the Bored was little, the world was a very big place where letters came in envelopes delivered to the door and telephones only transmitted the sound of our voices. News was listened to on the radio, watched (once a day) at 6 in the evening or read about in the paper and much that happened outside of our immediate communities was digested pretty much after the fact.  If anyone we knew was lucky enough to travel we gave them a hug, tearfully wished them godspeed and au revoir, consoled ourselves with something sweet and then patiently waited for a postcard and their return.

Today, we spend a lot of our time in transit, our work and leisure takes us back and forth between neighbourhoods, cities, countries and continents. We tend to multitask at every available opportunity on all sorts of devices, convinced that the need to know what everyone is doing and how they are at any given moment is crucial. Maybe… or maybe not. Although we may feel some relief to find out that yes our loved ones did arrive safely at their destination, when batteries drain, lines of communication fail and links go “offline” our anxiety increases exponentially.

With the world seeming a much smaller place, and the ability to pinpoint where we all are right now at the touch of our fingertips, the question of where we began becomes moot. This fortnight the Big 5 Challenge has been reminded that we don’t always need to, or want to go back, that there is some truth to the phrase “You Can’t go Home Again“.

“Where are you from?” – City or farm, present or past, pedigrees and bloodlines, in the future or lost in time, adopted country or birthplace, Venus or Mars… We would love to know where you feel connected to.

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.