Originally efforts for the 30 Day Blogging Challenge in July... now just a blog |
The 30 Day Blogging Challenge ..... lets see how far I get... Pretty far it seems! Winner (1st place) for the July 2013 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Second place for the September 2014 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" |
30-Blogging Challenge - Day twenty-four Prompt: Create something with this - "Okay, I've got this. After all, it's not the first time a ā¦ā Sigh A mountain Another so high Life's challenges are extended Winding rivers cascading No bridge for crossing Little strength Fall Fire Up your ass It's not the first time Quit farting around sucker Gather wood and build bridges Climb the mountain range Suck it up See... () Form: Joseph's Star Syllable Count: 1, 3, 5, 7, 7, 5, 3, and 1 |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - Day twenty three Prompt: Tell us that story about yourself or a family member that is sure to give us a chuckle. Ahh man, I am so behind and so tired! I'm now being forced to go out and be sociable. I'm not keen on the idea of going out: I'm in pain and sick of talking! Talking is my job... I've worked A LOT this week. Anywaaaay... something funny... Chris and I had a beef stew the other night. This stew involved chickpeas. Here's the conversation we had over dinner... C: Mmm interesting. What are chickpeas anyway? F: Well, a bean type thing I guess. C: Ahh I've been trying to work it out F: Now you know C: Yeah, I was thinking maybe meat... F: Wh- errr ... no. ... Meat??? C: It was an option F: In what universe? Meat?? My husband, Ladies and Gentlemen, the PhD!!!! |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - Day twenty-one Prompt: Write about your body. [from Writing Forward, writingforward.com] Hahahahaha My body doesnāt work like yours. The End. Iām kidding, Iām kidding! Letās talk bodiesā¦ After quite a lot of thought about this prompt, Iāve decided to go ahead and simply quote one of my old(ish) essays. The essay title was: Assess Paul Abberleyās (1987) contention that, for disabled people, the body is the principal site of oppression: āboth in form and what is done to itā Abberleyās (1987) article āThe Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disabilityā draws upon several aspects of impairment and disability in order to compare the similar experiences of other oppressed groups, such as black people and women. Furthermore, Abberley (1987) explores the economic and social deficits experienced by people with impairments (Abberley, 1987: 7). Whilst doing so, and perhaps controversially, Abberley (1987) argues that impairments themselves are socially created. Such line of reasoning somewhat undermines the social model of disability and enables questions to be raised about the universal experiences of oppression for people with impairments. Moreover, one of Abberleyās (1987) main contentions is that the body is disabled peopleās principal site of oppression, āboth in form and what is done to itā (1987: 14). Traditionally, the oppression of women, black people and people with impairments has been rationalised by relating to their biological āweaknessesā. There has, in recent times, been a distinct retreat from such beliefs, however impairment cannot be totally disassociated from biology. Indeed, as Abberley proposed, āfor disabled people the biological differenceā¦ is itself a part of the oppressionā (1987: 8). In other words, popular thinking continues to concern itself with the ādeficiencies of the disabled body/mindā, relating the cause of disability to individuals, rather than to the inadequate and unequal provisions of society (Barnes and Mercer, 2003: 20). Consequently, the medicalisation of disability, with offerings of corrective surgery and medication, is often accepted as a practical method of ātreatingā disability (ibid). In addition, there has been a long and indisputable divide between disabled and āable-bodiedā people, whereby āable-bodied normalcy is embedded in everyday thinking and behaviour as a privileged and desirable state of beingā (ibid). This able-bodied ā disabled dichotomy plays an important role in the development of personal identities and, often, sees all disabled people fused together into a solitary category that denies identity development (Shildrick, 2004: 124). Certainly, the disabled body has been misrepresented by societal norms (normalisation) and, therefore, has been portrayed as a āsymbol of shame and object of fearā (Paterson and Hughes, 2000: 32). Moreover, the mass media continues to produce somewhat derogatory representations of disability. However, with the disability movement concentrating its efforts upon the de-medicalisation of disability, asserting that people are disabled by social barrier, it has, somewhat ignored the importance of the body and the experiences of those who live with physical differences (Edwards and Imrie, 2003: 240). In other news: Tomorrow is going to be insane. I have to drive 90 miles to go to a 6 hour board meeting. Then I have to zoom 20 miles down the road to get to a meeting about joining another board. Then 110miles home to write a presentation for Friday morning. And I wonder why Iām feeling overwhelmed at the moment. Iāll still try and get my blog in though. |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - Day twenty Prompt: Two-fer Tuesdays: Choose from one of these two recent stories in the news, and write a blog entry in response to it. Rant or rave, stir up some emotion. My chosen video/story: [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] To kick things off, Iād like to chat about the desirability of George Clooney. Yes, I get that heās attractive. But, apparently, every woman (even lesbians) in the world āfanciesā him. I donāt get it. Women as a whole have pretty varying tastes in attractiveness. Therefore, it is impossible for every woman to fancy him. I reckon it is like one of those {x-link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology#Types_of_crowds}crowd phenomena{/xlink} things. You know, like when a few people start crying within a crowd and the whole crowd joins in. Yeah, a simple example but you get what I mean. So, I reckon a few people said āI fancy Clooneyā and everyone joined in. Thatās my theory, anyway. As you can tell, Iām not really in the mood to talk about the politics of this story. I only have one thought and three questions: Youāre damned if you do, youāre damned if you donāt. 1. Why is this news? 2. Did it really affect peopleās life when this photo wasnāt published? (by the way, I "get" it. I just... meh!) 3. Why is this news? |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - day nineteen Prompt: (persuasive articles) One for the judges - Recruit me as a new fan to your blog. Tell me what you and your blog are all about. Tell me what I have to look forward to in the coming week, and into the future. Engage your readers by soliciting them to leave comments endorsing your blog. My blog has something for everyone and no one. Iām not one to try and force anyone to like my writing, humour and taste in entertainment. I donāt promise genius, nor do I promise āroll on the floor crying with laughterā comedy. However, if I can, I do try andā¦ Offer a funny view of things that may not be funny, ordinarily Offer a little bit of colour in every post Be a genuine, down to earth, kinda gal Be boringly boring if the mood takes me Be interestingly interesting Offer honesty Add a touch of sarkiness to the blogging world Make it perfectly clear if I donāt like a prompt (no need to look too hard) Just be myself Pretend that there is no spoon! As I say, you might like this blog, you might not. If not, meh. But if you doā¦ show me the love. Go on, just a bit of loveā¦ Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! Go on! |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - day eighteen Prompt: Pick a random article from the headlines and talk about it. Share your opinions and feelings about it. Encourage a conversation. Iām sat at the End of the Earth (Weston-Super-Mare) in the biggest Ā£50 hotel room Iāve ever been in. Iāve driven FAR! 200 miles to do 90 minutes of work tomorrow. As I sit here Iām trying to remember if Iām being paid milege. Fingers crossed! NOTE: I know this was due yesterday (Sunday) and, therefore, the chosen news story should be taken from last week. I had a story all typed up and discussed. But then I heard one today that I much prefer. Get thisā¦ (BBC News) A five-year-old was billed for failing to attend a friend's birthday party - resulting in threats of legal action. This is brilliant. Even better when you can see both sides. The boyās father, while sounding a little high in the interview, is quite right: it is ridiculous. An actual invoice, in this instance, is a bit far fetched. Maybe he would have been more understanding if the woman had made a nice, polite phone call instead. On the other hand, how freaking rude of them to just not show up! I mean itās not as if the party was somewhere free. It was a ski centre, where I imagine they had to pay per head. Or, more likely, Ā£150 for 10 kids. Thus, the Ā£15 bill. Iām also wondering whether I should start doing this. Seriously, if I claimed money every time someone let me down (either for work or sociable), Iād be absolutely loaded! I might try it. Who is with me? |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - day seventeen Prompt: "Say what you will, and I'll fight to the death for your right to say it, but this here is mine." ā¦ Create something out of that. Hmm, what a day! Iām trying to think about what to write while I decide whether I want to order a Chinese, Indian or nothing. Both of these are hurting my head because I have no idea what to do on either count. Tricky! My initial response was just going to be: āFight! Fight! Fight!ā But then I decided that wasnāt very creative. Obviously. I looked at what happened on this day, whether there were any notable things to reflect on and then actually thought something else. In some circumstances the ability to say nothing is as powerful an expression as saying something, and the right to express myself in the way I choose is very important to me. So I choose to say nothing further, and wish you all a good day |
30-Day Blogging Challenge - day sixteen Prompt: Sneak over to your immature side for a moment (if you're not like me and haven't taken up a permanent residence there)...some words, regardless of their meaning, make us laugh for no reason (as an example, the word "gaggle" makes me giggle and conjures up images unrelated to its definition). What word (or words) does this for you All words can be funny if you want them to be. Try saying the word ātheā 100 times in quick succession, itāll soon become funny. Not necessarily funny haha, but funny strange, perhaps. For some reason, the word āsquashā made me chuckle the other day. I was thinking predominantly about the vegetable and it dawned on me: āwhatās so squashy about squash?ā - Have you ever tried to chop up a raw butternut squash, for example? If you have, youāll know that they definitely aināt squashy. If you havenāt, hit the gym for a few weeks before hand. OR just roast it whole, youāll be cool. No worries. Iāve just taken a look at The 100 Funniest Words in English. There are some cool words on that list, some of which Iād consider using in the future. But, none of them made me laugh. Hence, theyāre interesting words, not funny words! That is false advertising and BAD marketing. Iām just saying - donāt tell me something is funny if it clearly isnāt. Flail is a pretty funny word. Woah, maybe thatās why it is part of my blog title! Go figure. Scoobyā¦ as in āI donāt have a scoobyā - I can relate to that right now. Flange. Haha! Now, thatās a word that means something other than what it ought to mean. You see what I mean? Balls. Always funny for the immature! Something that isnāt funny but might be later: So, once again, I was thinking bout giving up smoking. I had two cigarettes left then that would be it - back on E-cigs for me (mainly because its cheaper). But I snapped my second to last one!!! Now Iām just so annoyed that donāt wanna give up! |
30-Day Blogging Challenge ā day Fourteen Prompt: Give us your opinion on ways that creative writing can remain relevant long into the 21st century. Maybe I am a little naĆÆve and hopeful, but I, personally, donāt even see this as an issue. I know the sales of physical books and writings must have gone down since the dawn of ebooks and audio books. But surely, people are still reading and always will. However, perhaps younger generations will stop ā maybe that is where my naivety comes in? Nevertheless, I still donāt see an issue with the future of creative writing. Hereās why: 1. When the world feels a little bit shit, people look to escape. Creative writing isnāt just about novels and poetry, it covers things like play and film scripts, too. So, the world will always look to creative writing to offer it a way out for a few hours. 2. As society develops, creative writers will continue to get new ideas by studying and exploring the human race (or, indeed, animal kingdom). So, unless we all get sucked into a black hole soon, I reckon weāll be okay for story ideas. 3. Everyone loves tales and stories; it seems to be part of human nature. Since we live in a society that is, whether you like it or not, ruled by the media, I canāt see this ending any time soon. 4. As long as people keep writing, people will keep reading. As long as people keep reading, people will keep writing. 5. Finally, as someone has just pointed out to me on Twitter, Shakespeare has lasted this longā¦ end of argument right there! Boom! In other news: I realise that my blogs havenāt quite been up to my usual standard . This is embarrassing since Iāve just been nominated for a Quill award for this stuff . But there is a reason and I wanted to explain it. Iām not always honest in real life, but I do try and be honest here. So, I need to continue that. As I said on Monday, I went to see my Doctor. I mostly went about my foot. Over Christmas it started hurting quite a lot again. I shrugged it off for a few weeks but finally decided I needed to do something. It turns out that I have acute Achilles Tendonitis. Presumably due to the way the cast my foot back in August. While I was at the Doctors, I decided I needed to stop avoiding things. So, I made the decision to ask to go back on anti-depressants. Donāt worry; Iām not absolutely, horrendously miserable. I just need something to give me a kick up the arse. If Iām honest, Iāve been thinking about it for a while. I noticed ages ago that to-do lists were becoming bigger than they needed to be (in my head that is). This is also why I havenāt finished a book since July ā I was a bit slow to notice that GIANT sign, huh? Then at the weekend I woke up every hour panicking about random things like crashing my car. I just thought, āthis is ridiculous!ā So, I just told my Dr I wanted to back on them and he didnāt argue. Iāve only just taken the first one because I got really bad nausea last time and needed to be ok for work today. Its no big deal though, I kinda knew Iād go back on at some point. But if youāre wondering why my prompt responses were so crap and literal at the moment, thatās why: my brain just ain't working! Therefore, a doozy of a prompt tomorrow would be awesome, Fivesixer . Something we can get our teeth stuck into, please? |