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 |   Theses are my thoughts and ramblings as I forge my way through this thing they call life. |
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These are my thoughts and ramblings as I forge my way through this thing they call Life. I blog with these groups:     "Blogging Circle of Friends "  [E] 
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30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 18th Have you ever boycotted a company or product? If so, tell us the story. If not, what would a company have to do for you to boycott its products? Nestle is selling their water company out of Canada. It is being bought by a Canadian company. It was taking Aberfoyle water and bottling to sell. Not something we wanted here and it is leaving. https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/07/02/environmentalists-cheer-as-nestle-se... After years of criticism from environmental groups, Swiss-based consumer products giant Nestle is selling its Canadian bottled water business. The company announced Thursday it’s selling its Nestle Pure Life business in Canada to Shelburne-based Ice River Springs. Might as well keep the money in Canada. I find it funny that they are claiming that this decision is not based on public outcry... but I find that hard to believe. Our household tries very hard to buy Canadian. We want to support our local foods and services. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 17th How important is the role of music in your life and in your creative process? Do you write to music? If so, what kind and why do you think it helps? I love music. I love to listen to a wide variety of styles. I like to sing along to the music I know... so that makes writing while listening to music to difficult to do. I can do Classical as long as their are no words. Having been in choir I have learned many of the words to some of the pieces making me focus on the words to much to do other things. Listening to music while I draw or paint is easier. I find the tone of the piece prompts me into creativity. I have written pieces with music as the prompt. I am trying to do that now with the Rhythms & Writing contest -
I also love doing the Soundtrack of my Life Challenges. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 16th NEOWISE comet: “Enjoy it while you can. The frozen ball of ice won’t return to the inner solar system for 6,800 years.” Talk about it! https://www.nytimes.com/article/neowise-comet.html “Things are really tough right now for lots of people,” Dr. Mainzer said. “But this is a chance to look up and reconnect with the big picture stuff.” It kind of puts things into perspective. The natural world seems to be gong on as it always has. Covid-19 does not seem to be effected by it at all. There are no little squirrels running around with face masks... though they have always managed to keep their physical distance. Canada geese stay to their family bubbles and defend their space. I always give them a healthy distance when I pass them. Rain lands where it wants and tends to keep us confined, unless we are unlucky enough to get caught out in a downpour. Full sun also has us hurrying for the shade. If God keeps his eye on the sparrow, then I expect, if we abide by the guidelines and practice healthy love and respect for others, we will get through this too. I is supposed to be easier to see around the 23rd of the month.... so I may start watching the sky to catch a glimpse. I saved a few photos from the website onto my computer so I would know what to look for. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 15th Describe your sense of humor. Is it dark, sarcastic, slapstick, silly, or something else? Do you have any favorite comedians? What always makes you laugh? I love physical humour. Lee Evens always cracks me up. There is a bit of swearing Robin Williams is a classic! Definitely swearing in this. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 14th If you won a free trip to any foreign country, all expenses paid in your own private jet and had the time to go (and there were no travel restrictions due to a global pandemic *Pthb*), what is the first foreign country you would visit? Who would you bring with you? What would you spend your time doing? Oh, I love this kind of prompt... the problem is choice. France or Great Britian... both are close. Could I chose both? For this I would pick... France. I think I would bring my friend, Caroline because she inspires me and pushes me to try things outside my immediate comfort zone. She also speaks French and Polish as well as English. She would also love to do the literary things I love to do. Write in cafes, attend the Paris Writer's Workshops and go to some writing retreats around the country. This one is an hour north of Paris and one I would love to go to: https://www.creativewritingretreat.com/writing-retreat-in-france This is the hotel: https://www.abbayedecernay.com/abbaye-des-vaux-de-cernay/ This is the area: https://www.francethisway.com/tourism/place-map.php Perhaps after the retreat we could rent a little villa and explore the region even more. I would also want to get into Paris and visit some of my new friends I have met during the virtual 'Really, Set, Write!' sessions. Exploring Paris through their experience would be devine.... as would spending several long, blissful hours in the Shakespeare and Co. Bookshop. Blog City - Day 2186 Prompt: “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein What are your thoughts on the idea of the fearless feeling powerful? Fear is the sludge that fills our veins and keeps us immobile, unless we acknowledge the fears and find ways to work around them... moving forward despite their lingering effects. The thing is, if a person was truly fearless, they would be very powerful. There would be no need for them to second guess themselves, they would just strive out into what it was they wanted and take it. How powerful is that. Breathtakingly so, I would say. One would hope that they had a conscious to keep them from trampling those of us who hesitate. Remember the line - 'he who hesitates is lost'. A little Google search found me this little gem: One who cannot come to a decision will suffer for it, as in I couldn't make up my mind, and now the offer has expired—he who hesitates is lost. Although the idea is undoubtedly older, the present wording is a misquotation or an adaptation from Joseph Addison's play Cato (1712): “The woman that deliberates is lost.” Those without fear would not be hesitating. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 13th Write about your favorite summer activity. Day Tripping! One of the things I love doing - that I am restricted because of Covid-19 - is driving out to small towns and exploring their worlds for the day. I live in a part of the country where in 30 - 45 minutes, I can drive to wonderful little places like Stratford, Paris, Elora or Fergus. All of them have small town appeal, with lovely shops and great trails to walk and areas to explore. They also have great rivers running through them. I take my writing gear and my hiking shoes and head out... usually following my nose in search of adventure. I find a great coffee shop - a local spot, and enjoy watching the people. Tourism brings an influx of visitors so I am not the only one enjoying the sites and each place has its own identity. Stratford is the biggest of these small towns and also has the Stratford Festival. Because of that, they have an interesting variety of shops catering to a diverse mix of people. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 12th When did you first start blogging? (anywhere, not necessarily on WDC) Why? What did you blog about? (subjects, topics, personal news, etc.) Has your blogging style changed since you began? I first tried my hand at blogging here at WDC. I'm not sure if it was Blog City or Welcome To My Reality that first inspired me with their prompts. The date of my first blog was - December 9, 2013 at 10:10pm. "Why I Am Here And Why I Plan To Stay!" As I read it over I note my excitement at being part of this site and how I found my way to WDC - from a Facebook link. I am reminded of how someone reached out to me when I asked a question and how I found myself mentored and drawn into the Paper Doll Gang... I see my excitement has never really lagged. This is truly my online home. The fact that I have 93 pages in my blog tells me I have a lot to say... though I appreciate the prompts to help me focus on where I am going. I often find I start out with my blog to get myself limbered up to write for the day. It also helps me put into words what I really think. Thereby growing my confidence over the years. I don't think my blogging style has hanged all that much since I began. It has stayed like an informal, conversational bit that reflects who I am as a person. I touch on a lot of topics... but I tend to avoid anything controversial and stay out of politics. Being Canadian, I don't want to step on anyone's toes. Some of my blogs share favourite music and some even take a virtual trip with the Blog City bunch. I hope we do that again this year as a virtual trip is about all we're going to get. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 11th Imagine what the world would be like today if humans had never discovered/invented _________ (fill in the blank). These prompts always get me thinking... the first thing that pops in my head is computers, but that is too recent. Then my mind jumps to fire. Then it flits on the idea of how did discrimination start anyway? I drop that idea and consider television or music. Now those I can get my head around. No television. No time to sit around vegetating on nothing as we stare at some stupid screen. No TV babysitting our children. No children with the attention span of gnats. Have we really gotten anything good out out of the development of television, beyond being able to share information in the visual realm. Making reading less popular in terms of getting the information out there... and dumbing up the world. Some people don't even have televisions. The ones that get me are the ones that have televisions in their SUVs keeping their kids quiet while they drive. What ever happened to communication or driving games? Whatever happened to figuring out what to do when you're bored? Read a book. Invent a game. Tell a story. Sing along to the radio. Interact with your family! My family was a one TV family. We all grouped around and watched whatever was on at the time. There was not so much choice back then. My ex-husband's family had a TV on every floor - three floors, three TVs. That alone breaks up the family unit and makes it more challenging to monitor what others (your children) are watching. Sure, there are stations that you can block, but really, have you seen some of the idiotic shows that are out today? My aunt and uncle have a huge house... and only one TV. They both grew up without television. My aunt lived on a farm without electricity or flush toilets, my uncle's family is Italian. He grew up in Canada, but his mother did not speak much English and the family was taught the family traditions of wine making and the making of yummy salted pork - Prosciutto. As a family, they don't have a TV up at their cottage, but my uncle will rig up a sheet and a projector so that they can watch movies... as a family. My aunt, was a teacher, is into getting her family involved in projects... like learning to make pasta. The conversations are also fun and the laughter flows. I find I am much more productive if I limit my TV viewing time. I also gain less and am more active when I cut down or eliminate watching the 'idiot box'. I don't watch documentaries, though I have been enjoying Shark Week shows. But all too often I get sucked into reality TV which is the ultimate in CRAP TV. Blog City - Day 2184 - July 11, 2020 Tell us about your writing space. Where do you write your blog posts? Currently at home. Depending on the time of the day I write them, I am either in the basement at my writing table trying to stay cool or I am out on the front stoop of my house watching the people and cars go by as I work. I can even work out there if it is raining so long as the rain is coming straight down and not blowing in towards the house. I like working behind the curtain of rain. I have a huge tree in the front yard that blocks the beating down heat of the sun, but there are still some hours where I need to move when the sun creeps around. I can also write in the car port. We have wicker furniture set up and a power cord so that I can recharge. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 10th Go somewhere outside or where you can observe the happenings of the world beyond the walls of your home (looking out a window is fine). Spend at least five minutes watching and listening. What do you see, hear, and smell? Where does your mind wander when you sit quietly? This would have been a great one to do yesterday because I walked Uptown to hang out for awhile outside Starbucks and later the Bauer Bakery and Cafe. I walked around to see what kind of life was happening in Uptown Waterloo and compare it to the quiet, disappointing aspects of Downtown Kitchener. Living in a Twin City, you would think these two downtown areas would be similar, but they are vastly different. For one, Waterloo has made bathrooms available to customers in cafes and restaurants... that makes a big difference. Kitchener is still locked up. There are a few places open, but no bathrooms, making walking downtown not a great plan. Kitchener City Hall is also taking this summer to dig up the huge water fountain in its front courtyard, making the area loud and dusty. That, added to the excessive heat wave we are having, is another reason to stay out of downtown. Kitchener City Hall is the host of many summer music concerts all of which have been cancelled. Kitchener also has a more visible homeless situation, whereas Waterloo has more students (from two Universities - though students are mostly gone for the summer and Covid-19). I think there is also a creeping in of the drug issue... the City of Guelph (half an hour away) has a real problem with drugs in their core and I have a feeling that it is seeping this way. Cannabis shops are also cropping up... though the drug problem is associated with fentanyl. But if I focus on today.... it's pretty quiet out here on my front stoop. I like it here - I can sit and watch the action on my street, but today the heavy heat is keeping most people indoors. The only people I have seen or heard are postal workers making deliveries or cars driving through on a short cut to avoid the lights at the corner of Westmount and Greenbrooke. The cicadas are also starting to wind up with their high pitched buzzing in the tree tops. With the heat wave, I figure they are singing a month early. The sun just hightailed it behind a greyish cloud... I hope we get another downpour. A little rain relief would be appreciated... though it is usually far more sweltering after it is done. We did get that downpour later and it was glorious!!!! |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT July 9th Write about the last time you did something nice for yourself. I try to do something nice for myself on a regular basis - mostly something small, like walking to Uptown Waterloo to go to a coffee shop and watch people while sitting outside at their patio. This may seem pretty basic, but with the pandemic of Covid-19 still circulating, I think it is important to find little moments to be nice to yourself... and others. |
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