So much for Sunday
Tag: tradition
So much for Sunday
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Habit
how use doth breed a habit in a man
William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona
In another part of the forest the view is not quite as idyllic, the “complaining notes” sung not by nightingales but rather those in search of a clean pair of socks, favourite t-shirt or escaped undergarment. Some tasks are unforgiving, sometimes quite painful yet oddly necessary in the greater scheme of things that we do only to please ourselves – ironing sheets would fall into that category and when asked Why? by incredulous acquaintances, their mouths agape and eyes wide as saucers, the answer would have to be because it makes a difference – it feels better. There is, of course, a whole raft of responses to that particular question (because my mother did, neatness, tradition, we’re used to it, it’s cheaper than therapy, etc.) but having tried out a few it was the reply that most quickly got the conversation off to more interesting topics.
Some skills we learn in the line of duty, some as a form of rudimentary self-preservation or just to improve our lot in life. A basic nugget of wisdom summed up, handed down through the generations and still getting some use in our household as anachronistic as it may seem is:
Know how to do all things domestic well so that if one marries money you will know whether the servants are doing their chores properly and if one marries for love then you will know how to do it yourself.
Such words are usually uttered with the ulterior motive of getting someone to do something they don’t already know how or to practice it so that we won’t have to do it – again. Sadly, we are still waiting for the day when afternoon tea will be served whilst we “tune (our) distresses and record (our) woes” and so have learnt much in the course of a lifetime. In being human we have certain obsessions, penchants and routines and so the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge asserts that we all have our own, unique – Habit.
“What does your habit look like?” – The velvet hat and crop you don to ride a horse, the path you take when walking the dog, a dirty ashtray or morning smoothie, a Friday night activity or the subject you can’t seem to stop photographing …
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?
- 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.
- 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!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- 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.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Resolution
The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice
must have strong wings
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Like Arthur Dent, circumstances beyond our control can sometimes infringe upon our routines and interrupt the flow of what we have become accustomed to calling our daily life. While the end of the year by no means compares to a Vogon constructor fleet ready to eliminate all earthly life in favour of a new galactic thoroughfare, it does hold in its last ticking minutes the promise of change. Affirmations of any kind signal the desire and courage to go forward into the future with purpose – while some pledges will be successful and others fall by the wayside, what we can ask for is to see things in a different light, view the ordinary in a new way and take into consideration that there is another side to every story.
As it is the first day of January and we have all decided upon directions for the coming year, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge proposes a – Resolution.
“What does resolution represent to you?” – the sharp outlines and incredible detail of a macro shot, that vow made to oneself on the 31st, a settlement in St. Thomas or some awesome Mahavishnu guitar orchestrations…
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?
- 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.
- 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!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Sweet
Some of us know a good thing when we see it and don’t hesitate to ask too many serious life questions upon their presentation. So it should be, in moderation of course, for at this time of year the temptation to partake in just one more small minty bonbon, to slide into a new pair of dancing shoes or max out the credit cards on that porsche you’ve always wanted to see sitting in the driveway, can be truly overwhelming.
December is the month for making a special effort to find or make those things which give others (hopefully) a modicum of pleasure within the parade of holidays from Ashura and Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa through to New Years. Strains of melodies ingrained from childhood, air redolent with ginger and spice, the simple acts of kindness one sometimes unexpectedly encounters – these are the things which restore our faith in humanity and remind us why we go to so much effort to do them in the first place. Across the Bored knows that more than a few of you have a little something on your lists that may fit this bill and so the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge whets its appetite for – Sweet.
“How does sweet appeal to you?” – as a little sugar coated nibbly confection or a baby’s smile, that steely Harley or the never-ending reply from a Dude, glam rock band or pioneer of phonetics…
We would love to see your vision.
This week’s challenge would like to thank GertyGiggles at Paradise has Mosquitoes for proving that we are not alone in our indulgences.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- 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.
- 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!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Illumination
It seems as though the younger elves have subconsciously begun to work-to-rule and some of Saint Nick’s helpers are starting to feel churlish being more than a little behind the eight ball as the big deadline looms close. In this part of town, the transformation from quiet residential neighbourhood to festive, holly-bedecked Santa beacon is eerily covert. All of a sudden a wreath appears here, an inflatable snow-globe pops up there, some shiny metallic globes or silver garland materialize where one wouldn’t have thought possible and one wonders whose busy hands have accomplished these feats in the dead of night. Which renegade gnome climbed high up onto that apartment balcony and rearranged the pair of glowing reindeer into a position that defies censorship?
It is an intense and kaleidoscopically eye-opening time, for the generations each have their own idea of how the season should be celebrated, or not – how much emphasis is placed on what it means to us and the myriad ways we bring it to fruition to make it visible. That is really what this century is all about – enlightening each other.
Across the Bored ponders whether tonight the view of Earth from space will be particularly colourful and so the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge shines a light on – Illumination.
“How does illumination appear to you?” – as a state of mind or fact of science, that long-awaited clarification or brilliant resolution, twinkly LEDs or burnt-out bulbs, the soft glow of the family hearth or brake lights in a traffic jam…
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?
- 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.
- 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!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Decoration
Small children are particularly adept at memorizing carols and seem to take particular glee in the act of singing them over and over again even if they don’t quite have all the words down. One such tune we used to inflict upon anyone who would listen was “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and our wobbly chorus would begin the 1st of December – in this reality, 12 days doesn’t seem quite enough to do much of anything let alone count the hours as they dance and leap away towards the Big One. Twenty-four seems a more reasonable number in which to get December tasks accomplished and also provides enough words to festoon and bedeck any of our holidays.
Saint Nick’s list comprises:
- Artefact – a man-made object taken as a whole; like the reindeer made out of a fossilized candy-cane and pipe cleaners from the Ghost’s kindergarten year
- Bow – a decorative interlacing of ribbons once fashioned by crafty hands and now bought by the dozen in a plastic bag
- Christmas tree – an ornamented evergreen used as a Christmas decoration now made out of plastic or recycled material because the real ones are considered a fire hazard
- Design – as in “the dog made a design near the neighbour’s inflatable manger”
- Embellishment – a superfluous ornament; pretty much everything hauled out of the 12 boxes marked “festive” in the garage
- Finial – an ornament at the top of a spire or gable; or that fancy thing that is always lost that holds the lampshade onto the arc
- Gimcrackery – ornamental objects of no great value; what’s inside those expensive crackers everyone insists must be placed on the holiday table and no, you cannot make them yourself
- Hood ornament – that metal bit on the front hood of a car emblematic of the manufacturer and usually broken off to be hung on a chain as a last minute gift
- Incrustation – a decorative coating of contrasting material that is applied to a surface as an overlay: see Happy– Part 1
- Jingle bells – those noisemakers that warn that carollers are coming
- Kringle – better than a kugel and sweeter than a knish
- Lunula – a crescent-shaped metal ornament of the Bronze Age hung by historians on their Christmas trees
- Marzipan – those cute little fruit, vegetables and animals that harden into sweet tree ornaments if not eaten immediately
- Necklet – a fur piece, precious metal or preferably gemstone necklace worn about the neck on Santa’s to-get list
- Oranges – laboriously stuck with cloves til fingers bleed
- Pattern – a decorative or artistic work; what happens to walls when felt pens are left out and small guests arrive
- Quills – better for writing letters and in baskets than in Rover’s inquisitive nose
- Rosemaling – a Scandinavian style of carved or painted decoration consisting of floral motifs best left to those who know how to do that type of thing
- Set decoration – part of the set of a theatrical or movie production that takes place in living rooms at this time of year
- Tinsel – a showy decoration that is basically valueless; those metal strands that took hours to place that the cat would eat like spaghetti
- Ugly – a matter of opinion but usually in reference to footed pyjamas with animal appendages
- Volute – a spiral or twisted formation more fun in food
- Wind chime – a decorative arrangement of pieces of metal that hang together loosely so the wind can cause them to tinkle and drive the squirrels crazy – enough said…
- X is for red lipstick kisses on cheeks, Y because….
- Z – is the sound of peace
Across the Bored would venture that this word is being used in some form this month as a noun or verb and so the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge is about – Decoration.
“What is decoration to you?” – minimal or elaborate, clutter or clean, eyesore or eye candy, holiday or everyday… and it doesn’t have to be seasonal….
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?
- 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.
- 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!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
ACROSS THE BORED 