Just a Note: December 2, 2013

Hello World!

New day

November passed with its various novels in a month and monthly post a day etc.  Things now calm down for the folly that is the Christmas season, in the sense of going shopping, decorating house and lawn or whatever it is you do for the Christmas season.  For many of us the Christmas season has already begun early.  The Christmas Markets have been open for business here in Arco (just the weekends for now) for the past two weeks.  I wrote a couple of short posts about it already and you can find the most recent one here, but also here because I made a mistake and posted it on the Library!

Just a Note: September 2, 2013

Hello world!

As I’m running late this morning, let me just jump right into this note!

Awards!

This week I was nominated by Canadian Travelbug’s for three awards!  They are: The best Moments Award, Reader Appreciation Award, and Semper Fedelis Award.

Her nomination for me read: for poetry and a weekly photo challenge she sets. She also posts some great photos.  You may also recognise her from putting me on her Saturday Close Up

She also gave a description behind the meaning of each award!  let me quote her here:

“The Best Moment Award… This award is given to a blog that has a literary piece defining a specific moment that is thought-provoking, creative, honest, and or inspiring.

Reader Appreciation was created by my blogging friend Jennifer at My Sardinian Life for people who read and commented on her blog and gave a worthwhile contribution by doing so.

The last one Semper Fidelis shows appreciation for fellow on-line friends who you consider part of your ‘wolf pack’ (that is their words not mine )”

I’d already received the above awards except for the Reader Appreciation award, so I’ll just show you this award, which I appreciated very much!

Thank you so much for you expression of appreciation!

And as always, I’d like to dedicate these awards to my faithful readers!  It’s great to have a lot of followers, but what is really special is to have faithful readers and commenters, like Canadian Travelbugs!  So for you who read, here’s a warm hug and award.  Thanks for existing!

Publishing:

As those of you that read me on Saturday discovered Sahm King from We Drink Because We’re Poets finished editing and published the first anthology which also encluded 10 of my poems!  I’ve already written a whole post dedicated to this, for me, wonderful event.  You can go and look at it here!  On both pages you can find the link to Smashwords where you can download your free copy!  Yes, it’s free…this one is an introduction to our different voices in poetry.  Go get your copy and tell us what you think!

Blogging:

I had a melancholy week, only to be expected when the season begins to change, as you can see from Bastet’s Pixelventure’s 27 August 2013.  The middle season, can be a time of great inspiration, but alas it can also be a moment melancholy reflection.

However, in my lifetime I’ve faced melancholy over and over again, and I’ve found what works for me is accepting that it’s there and then move on.  So, I’ve decided to participate in a daily Haiga challenge!  Here’s the first Haiga:

The initiative has been taken by The 19th Planets Art Blog 210/2013 if you want to participate go to the link and get the instructions!  This is the second prompt, which you may or may not want to use.

I was so very happy this week, when one of my favorite writers participated in Wordless Wednesday with her photographs!  Cranky aka ME McMahon related her fantastic adventure trying to photograph her first progressive sunrise…I think it was fantastic!  Have a look: “Shh…It’s Wordless Wednesday!” and as any great writer would do on her other blog she wrote of the adventure it was to get those photos “A Wacky Walk“.  Take a few minutes if you haven’t done so yet and have a look.  You’ll love the Wacky Walk 🙂 !

Well, I actually have lots of stuff to tell you, but not much time left, as I woke up late this morning!  I’d just like to indicate a few great bloggers that i think you might like to read and follow:  Cubby did a great blog on the Ghazal, which has inspired me to try another of those great poems.  Ese’s Weekly Quote and Shoot Challenge is another inspiration, and its through her I discovered the Haibun at The Ligo Haibun Challenge!  Have you ever wondered what would happen if a famous poet or author were to be edited in our day and age…I do often, this is a very funny post: “What if Emily Dickinson Attended a Writer’s Workshop?” some food for thought!  And, as we’re all getting ready for autumn, I thought that this blog kind of puts everything in a Zen perspective: Spring from My Dogablog, Monty reminds us that in Australia the seasons are really very relative!  And last but not least a special word for the 13th Floor Paradigm…there are some pretty interesting workshops that have recently opened up, go have a look into writing sonnets and mythology, just to name two…oh and I do something from time to time about Japanese Poetry and Literature 😉 .

Have a nice week everyone and see you in blogosphere!

Bastet (via Georgia)

Just a Note: Monday 15 July 2013

Hello World!

Mid summer…heat, flash storms, emotions raise suddenly and go off without warning.  Mostly though, mid summer is a slow-paced time of year still, heat plays havoc with humans!

Senryu: Heat Storm

air is heavy…humid
their nerves on edge…electric
summer storm explodes

That was the sense of my Senryu on the 11th of July…Gerswhen wrote a whole folk opera which takes place in this period of the year and a lovely song…Summertime…

This has been a slow week, productively speaking.  On the other hand, I’ve been out and about going to concerts and for walks…shooting away with my camera!  My monitor’s desktop is full of files that have to be archived, I’ve a few drafts that I have to complete and there are things I still haven’t done with my blog and site that really need doing…ah but summertime…

Awards:

This week Sweetness 6645 manager of Chronicles of a Public Transit User   nominated me for a Bouquet of 7 Awards!The awards she nominated me for were: The ABC award, Inner Peace Award, Most influential Blogger Award, Sunshine Award, Versatile Blogger Award, WordPress Family Award and the The Wonderful Readership Award (Ooooo, never got that one before!).  Thank you so much Sweetness for all this bounty!

Awards are
Bounties that
Cement our
Delicious and
Etherial as well as eternal
Friendships!
Georgia,
Has received more than her due
I believe…
Justice would dictate that other’s be
Known…through these
Lauds and acclaims!
Many awards in just one bouquet…
Nominations so abundant
Oh but they make a…
Pretty collage!
Quickly then I must finish this poem…
Readers are awaiting my weekly journal
Simply put I
Thank you dear Sweetness!
Understand me when I say:
Verily…
Well I’m nearly without words!!!
Xyst!
You’ve swamped me with love and I’m
Zany with getting the x and z done!

All you great readers…have a look at Sweetness’ blog…it’s fun and funny!  She also takes some really great photographs…I’m wondering, Sweetness, did you know I run a Photo Challenge at We Drink Because We’re Poets  that would be right up your alley! 😉
You all…choose yourself from this cornucopia of awards…you’re all nominated by Bastet and Sekhmet!

Blogging:

As I said I’ve been just kind of drifting (by my personal standards) this week and I haven’t really been reading very much…but one thing that did pop up and made me very happy indeed was a little snippet of information about Barb Taub!  The post is entitled: The Big Reveal!  and a revelation it is…her book is coming out this week, the first of a series under the general title of Null City, One Way Fare, will be coming out this week…she shows us the cover design for her new book and a brief outline of what the story is about…go have a look, don’t just take it from me…it sounds really interesting!

King Midget on King Midget’s Ramblings has also made the announcement that his long-awaited “Weed Therapy” is in the final stages to being published and reveals that he wants to open a website to that will:

“invite people to discuss the ideas I weave through this story”.

Good luck on your launch and website old bean!

Photography:

“Well, we’ve been lazy, but not completely negligent of our duties!” says Sekhmet.

Yes, true, I’ve done a few photo posts this week and of course launched the Weekly We Drink Photo Challenge this week dedicated to “OLD”, you can find the link above with my invite to Sweetness and I hope you too will want to contribute!  I’m seriously thinking of changing the title of the Challenge…everybody and their uncle are suddenly coming up with challenges and Sekhmet does not like to be “one of a many”…  If you have an idea or suggestions…I’m here waiting to read them!

On Saturday, after a great evening at the “Viva Mamanera!” African festival held in Riva del Garda…I was inspired to elaborate one of the photos I took during a dance-music concert:

along with a poem dedicated to African music…or at least the African music I experienced in Chad…the music in that region of Africa is very similar, the players that evening were from Burkina Faso…but I could close my eyes and the music just penetrated my brain bringing back memories.  Day-time music is so very different from the night-time music…I try to convey those memories through my Poem: African Night.

Oh!  And I posted the results of a few of my walks, did some Haiku and poems with photos…but I’m late on writing a very important short story!!!!

I also put up a couple of posts for the We Drink Photo Challenge…so people could maybe be inspired!

And reblogged this fine photo with Haiku by Cathy Ulrich entitled: Saturday’s Hike…take a look at this and you won’t be disappointed, especially if you, like I love Vincent Van Gogh…and no, this isn’t a trip to a museum…it’s the photo that looks as though the master had gone out to the American west and painted a picture!  The Haiku is really lovely too!  I hope one day to interview this artist of the camera…if I can find her e-mail address!  😉

Oh dear…I also misdated my Sunday Walk post yesterday, which I’ve corrected…for some reason I was convinced that yesterday was July 13th!  Then, this morning I realized, as it is the 15th that I had made a really grave error!  The French would guillotine me for sure!  I hope they had a great Bastille Day!  Vive la France!  Vive la Liberté!  Ect. ect….

Conclusions:

Well…there’s so much more to say, but I’ll conclude this week’s Just a Note here, as I really have to run off…but if there is anything you’d like to add…the comments are waiting for you…don’t be shy, add your bit to Just a Note!

Have a great week everyone and don’t let the heat get you down!

Just a Note: Monday 24 June 2013

Good Morning World!

We went out for the evening to Riva del Garda…Chinese food and a splendid walk!

As you might be able to see, if you’re reading me from Europe, Australia, Africa or Asia I’m late this morning!

Well I have to admit I had a lovely Sunday, visiting with a friend in the early afternoon and then going for dinner and a late night stroll along the lake at Riva del Garda.  The end result is that I had a late raise this morning!  Ah yes!  It was 6:00 instead of my usual 4:30-5:00.  So let’s get to it!

You all saw the special issue and now know about the big news of the week.  Bastet and Sekhmet will be collaborating with We Drink Because We Are Poets with a Tuesday Photo Challenge!  Each Tuesday I will post a prompt and see what you come up with…this is really something quite new for me and very exciting too.  I’m also hoping to be able to interview a few great photographers and feature them on We Drink.  We’ll see what I come up with and you are all encouraged to run your feedback past me and give me your comments so I can better serve you!

Awards!

 

This week Lisa did it again!  This time with a bucket of three awards. The first was for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award the second, three awards: Inner Peace, The Rose of Kindness and The Loyal Reader Award!  Sweetness 6645 has also done me the honor of nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award!

I wish to thank you lovely ladies for this great honor…and to all you who follow this post please feel free to accept a nomination and write a post in my name!

Blogging

The summer heat has been a bother here in Trentino…we touched 36° Celsius and I was feeling pretty washed out (or would that be sweated out?) Still, although I had to cut back on some of my regular blogging activity, mostly the wonderful but time-consuming blog reading and commenting, it wasn’t a total loss!

I reblogged an article that I think should really become part of “The Manual for a Carefree Blogger” entitled: Finding and using images online – legally by Timslatter.  I think there’s one thing that probably wounds us all is someone using our material for their personal profit, without even mentioning us.  I’ve personally found it difficult to wade through what’s protected by what and how in the image department, and finally resolved to just make my own illustrations wherever possible.  But, for example, I’m not taking pictures from Hubble, so if I want to show you deep space how can I do that without someone popping up and saying:  “Woah!  That’s my stuff!  Take it down and apologize!”  This article will help in that department!

Dom Di Francesco on “Black and Write”, writes some of the most beautiful and suggestive Haiku and Tanka around…and last week he inspired me with his Tanka: Once a Home which really struck me as so very sad I mentioned this and he told me of his experience behind the Tanka…I’ve asked him if I can use his comment and Tanka as a prompt for a story that popped into my head.  He has given me permission and I’ve begun the story…this week we’ll see how it goes!

On of my favorite photographers, Jerry at Keeping my Eye on the Sparrow has impressed me once more with his proess…he’s made some fantastic photos of sunrises, sunsets, deer and now he has captured “The Gulf Fritillary Butterfly” a goal he se himself not long ago…congratulations on some great work.

At We Drink Because We Are Poets, we had two great prompts by Papizilla, whose been absent for a while due to his personal problems and the heavy workload he’s been under, as he explains himself on his blog and at We Drink…the Wednesday Short Story Prompt and the Thursday Poetry Prompt can be found here…he must have worked overtime to give us these great challenging prompts!  Thanks again Papi!

The Friday Weekly Photo Challenge has been great fun this week, it is dedicated to The World Through Your Eyes…and I’ve seen some really fantastic photos believe me…go over and have a look…of course you can start from my own entries which you will find in the Photography Reflections category!

See you soon!

Thanks everyone it was a great week and hope the upcoming week will be a great experience for you all!  I’m certainly going to be working at trying to entertain and why not, inspire you all.

Have a nice day and a wonderful week!

Just a Note: 17 June 2013

Hello World!

Summer is here and so, the heat is making itself felt when just a week ago I was still running around in a hoody or a sweater!  However summer also means traveling and getting out more, and alas, less time for blogging!
It’s a good thing I’m an early riser or there would probably not be a Bastet and Sekhmet blog to read!  One of my bigger blogging problems, is convincing my hubby that blogging is in fact a form of art!  Well, I think he’s convinced on that point now, but he’d prefer to see me away from the computer when he’s up and about!  Three months or so ago, I read a blog at Blogher that spoke of the problem…I think the title went something like: Does Blogging Create A Problem In Your Family, and I guess I’d have to answer; YES!  Alas such is life.  But of course, he’s not all wrong, it is summer and I should be out walking and sunning and not sitting behind a monitor. So a little time organization is required here to see how to save “goats and cabbages” as the Italians say…that comes from a little word game by the way:  How can you in three trips take your goats and cabbages across your tiny row-boat without losing both.

Awards

Thanks to Belinda at Busy Mind Thinking for her nomination of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award!  Now she is a lady who is an inspiration to us all and I feel privileged to be nominated to her.

I must also thank Patty from Petite Magique for her nomination of the Rose of Kindness Award!  To receive this nomination from such a kind person herself leaves me without any other words than a sincere, thank you Patty!

A new exciting and earth-shaking award has been created by Sahm King at The Arkside of Thought its: The Friggin’ Awesome Blogger award, from now on FAB award.  Here is the award of all awards for the blogger of all bloggers…and I thank him for his nomination.  This I consider also a prompt, so I will write an individual piece to extol that FAB blogger that is me!

I don’t usually nominate people individually…that is not because I don’t have or can’t think of specific persons to nominate.  My problem is TIME, and you need time to go to bloggers and nominate them one by one, linking etc.  Time I do not have!  So, please, please forgive if I don’t name you one by one.  You are all great bloggers!  I have a category dedicated to Awards…go have a look and feel free to choose one for yourself and post back (ping-back) to me that you have done so…easy no?

Blogging

Blogging takes you not only into your own mind and soul, but sometimes it takes you into the mind and soul of others…which if you think about it is not really odd.  As Charles wrote in his poem: Unseen Friends:

They live close to our heart
Though we have never met
Friends from the ether
Connected by words
Read off the screen

And so it is!  The WordPress community life, something I personally wasn’t expecting, gives us not only a wonderful opportunity to blog with visible responses, something that doesn’t always happen blogging individually, unless of course you’re already famous, but it also creates friendships and alas clashes.  It’s a real world, even though we may never meet the people we speak to daily face to face.

This week was a bit of a roller coaster for me.  A blogging friend disappeared without a clue (he later showed up to comment one of my poems about him) and a dear lady shared with us her health problems, for which I hope she will soon find a cure.  Others have had problems with their book sales, others share their perplexities about love, anger, racism and well life .  It’s not Facebook atmosphere that’s for sure!

My blogging buddies from Cranky Caregiver to Barb Taub in the short story range onwards to Lilith Colbert, MT Blu, Belinda, Sahm King and Shainbird for Poetry and Sweetness 6645, Frizztext and Judith at Sustainabilitea for photography plus Patty, Charles and Eric in general as well as others I’ve not named but whom you can see on my posts through their messages, all give me a wonderful feeling of encouragement to keep this blog running.  You all deserve some special award, maybe the Encouraging Commenter Award!

This Week

To tell the truth, I don’t have anything special planned for this week…I’d hope that everyone will have a look at the Photo Comment I made yesterday about the adventure I had in Padova entitled: Photo Chronicle – 1387 etc it was a great trip and I took oodles of photos only a small portion of which was posted in that service.

Last week I tried my hand for the first time writing an Epic Fantasy entitled. Grace’s Cove and I think I want to try another, well not quite the same thing, but in the same ambiance.

Lilith at We Drink Because We are Poets gave us 3 photos from which to choose to inspire ourselves, I chose the kitten.  The story I wrote met with mixed results. It seemed to me that letting a bird be eaten by a kitten somewhere in the world did not meet with enthusiasm.  But in my opinion, as the song that was attached to that kitten was about a crazy lady who eventually ate a horse who “died of course”, I felt that death was actually the main subject, hidden behind a nonsense song and a cute kitten.  I later wrote an alternate ending so each reader could choose which one was to be preferred.  I asked that a comment be made to explain the reader’s choice…none was forthcoming…sigh.  The title of the story was: The Kitten’s Tale. Oh!  what I was going to say is that I’ll try to write a story for the other two prompts!  🙂 got lost there for a mo’ .

Ok everyone…hope you have a wonderful blogging week and write lots of fantastic posts!  I’ll be waiting, with my arms akimbo as I look over the valleys and rivers here in Arco, imagining what you all would think or write if you were here with me!

Arrivaderci until next week!

 

Just a Note: June 10th 2013

Good Morning World!

This is going to be a bit different from my usual Monday direct “Just a Note” basically because, I’m not home!

That’s right I’m off in the “real world” in fact, I’m in Padova at this moment.  I came here for a very special reason.  My son, is a member of group of swordsmen who do Medieval Reenactments (hmmm…that’s a Google Translation)…Picture live D&D, but based on historical fact and you’ve got it!  I’ll be doing a Photo post to show you what it’s all about!  In the meantime, I’ll post a photo of Padova (yes, WordPress I know it’s Padua in English sheesh) and just tell you that this was where Galileo Galilei taught mathematics here from 1592 until 1610…and most importantly “Aperol Spritz” was invented here!

Awards

Well, Lisa Elkskeravid has nominated me for: The Very Inspiring Blogger Award, and a Bucket award…thank you so much Lisa!  And you my fellow bloggers are my nominees!

One of my English group members, Carmen sent me a poem in reply to the Haiku that I wrote for my students…that was a great surprise!

Short time it was
Soul nourishment
September is here

Blogging Along!

From scheduling to digital light drawing this has been a week of discovery.  Scheduling has been  essential just to keep this bog running!  And the digital program called “Silk ” has inspired a couple of poems.  What a great age to live in…

My last English conversion meeting took place on Thursday last…we had a great time toasting the closing of the season with pizza…which inspired the Haiku with that title…that evening as we sat around the table, Carmen, mentioned the “Spoon River Anthology“…it is a collection of short free style poems, published in 1915, that describe the life in the small fictional town of Spoon River.  The town was named after the river that flowed near  author’s (Edgar Lee Masters) home town.  Someone said: “Well we have a river too…and a writer!  Why not an anthology too!”

That got the group going and a few began to tell us a story.  Haim’s story was about a couple of girls that were afraid to take a short cut through a cemetery.   It had happened whilst he was visiting the States on vacation and it got my mind working.  From his story, my short fiction, The Two Girls was born, I’ve linked it here just in case you haven’t read it yet.

I thought I’d take up the challenge and try to collect some more stories (I’ve already got 4 from that evening) and write an anthology in both short fiction and poems.  Wish me luck, and if you have a story you think I might be able to use as a prompt, either e-mail me or add a comment.  It needn’t be a story…just an idea, maybe a couple of words, I’ll take it from there!

Down To Work

This morning, I’ll be able to blog, and in what a beautiful place!  Of course there’s the downside that I’ll be writing on My netbook’s keyboard…but  I’m going to be at the History Department’s library.  I’ll be going there with one of my son’s friends and  she’s warned  that I’ll be snapping away with my camera.  When I mentioned this to her she replied: “You know, I’ve been studying here for 4 years and I’ve never looked at Padova through the eyes of a tourist…it’d be great to see the beauty of a place that I’ve taken for granted!”  So photography and writing this morning.

And you all…have yourself a great week!

Just a note – June 3, 2013

Hello world!

This has been a very busy week for me…and here I thought I’d just breeze through the week with nary a hitch.  It was also exciting as I met two interesting artists that live here near me and on Friday we will have a little “happening” which we hope will be an opportunity to join forces to create a spot for young artists in our zone.  The present artistic community is rather monopolized by two groups that effectively keep out original ideas, unless they follow the elders lead…I’ll try to post a couple of pieces in the future and show our progress.

My English conversation meeting are about to close for the summer…so I’ll be speaking even less English than I do now!  For alas dear friends, outside of this blog and my meetings (and o course a Skype call with the family) I rarely use my mother tongue!  I’m organizing a closing pizza dinner with my wonderful group, it’ll be an opportunity to speak English outside a classroom…it should be fun!

This week was rich with comments that I truly appreciated and a few new friends who have joined me here appreciated my reblogs and in fact said one of the reasons they decided to join was because of them.  The pointed used the word “useful”, and here we are talking about the links to blogs like We Drink Because we are Poets, The Daily Prompt,  the new “The Self Publisher” and The Community Storyboard (Where I posted one of my poems this week 😉 ).  They also appreciated those reblogs about how to blog more effectively etc.  I’m happy everyone found my tastes in reblogs useful and entertaining!

Some other’s have commented on my poems and one was very dear to me from Rosemarie it was a simple line commenting my poem Poem: Leo’s question and it went like this: “Very effective medium for the message.”  It doesn’t take much to make me happy, but I love insight.  Rosemarie picked up on something that I appreciated.  When I began blogging there were some things I wanted to say about the world, some relating to my experience some about my ideas…I look back on those posts and I see a lot of words that tend to be stilted and well, verbose, I was writing more in an Italian English way…Italians are very verbose.  I began to write power shorts and flash fiction and Haiku to whittle down and get to essentials…so Rosemarie gave me a precious confirmation that things are going in the right direction for me!

To conclude this part about me let me tell you what I did to catch up on my blogging week’s work.  My e-mails seemed to grow each day as I could not evade the traffic from my subscriptions and notifications about my blog.  The notifications were easy…as I evaded them as soon as they came in, no problem, I eliminated them…but the subscriptions were another matter.  Some I took care of through the reader daily, but others were waiting there for me until Saturday morning when I found I had about 200 to read!  I eliminated the ones I’d gone through in the reader and  then did a two day marathon of reading and commenting what I found interesting. Each night I was drunk with reading and commenting…so my loves, I do what I do when I’m in this state, I got verbose…so if you got a long-winded reply, please know that this is the reason (she blushed and shook her head).

Awards

Now for the awards! Yeah!  Lisa Elskeravid nominated me for the “Liebster Award”. Tusen Takk Lisa!

Shainbird kindly nominated me for “The Very Inspiring Blogger Award”!  I really appreciate that Shainbird, thanks!

I would like to nominate all you readers and commenters for both these awards…you lovely people are hard workers all and I wish you to know how much I appreciate you!  So, if you do awards…feel free to click the links and post the awards on you page in my name…you have been nominated!

Now, there are two awards that really impressed me this weekend.  They are not the usual awards but something very special.

One came to me through MT BLU and it was entitled:  “Who is Bastet and Sekhmet” And here it is:

I’m not good at capturing using Screen Cap yet…but the real McCoy can be found on the link to Blu’s post!  I wish to sincerely thank you Blu once again for this beautiful thought!

The other great award came to me from “Baldy” and it is a lovely poem and drawing:  Bastet’s Bridge which nearly left me without words for the happiness it brought me.  Thank you Baldy once again! 😉

Dear friends, these to my mind are awards as are your comments and feedback.  The lovely awards in the blogging world are many and all are appreciated…an award as defined by The Merrian-Webster  on-line dictionary are two…you can reach them through the link 🙂 .

Getting Help

To conclude today’s “Just a Note” I’d like to reflect for a moment on the wonderful opportunity we have to ask for help.

I did a Photographic Challenge last week on background and one of my presentations was of a photo I’d taken of an artist’s work, a sort of installation on a mirror, a failed attempt to as all I got was a lot of background… good for the challenge bad for my photograph attempt!

It occurred to me that with all the great photographers out in blog space that I might as them for assistance! So I wrote another blog entitled “Photography: Help! Need some suggestions!“.   Both Arkside of Thought and Keeping my Eye on the Sparrow answered my appeal! I was very pleased with the result and have some useful suggestions now to work with!

Then I saw a blog by King Midget Ramblings about Wordles, once you make the lovely things how can us use them in a decent size? How can you download them! I’d come up against the same problem a week before, but never thought to do the sensible thing and ask!  The result was that he got many suggestions but Blu gave us the solution to the problem!

Here is my poem Bridge recreated in Wordle (medium size here) and downloaded thanks to Blu!

Conclusion: If in doubt ask, write a blog, send out a message…there are many out there in blog cyberspace who’ve come up against a problem you might have and have already solved it or they will be willing to think about it with you.  So never hesitate to ask.

Well here we begin a new week of blogging and slogging…make it fun, enjoy yourself and have a great week!

Just a Note – 27 May 2013

Good Morning World!

I hope you’ve all had a fabulous week.  For my part, it was intense but a lot better than I thought it would be when I was sitting back there contemplating it last Monday.

This promises to be a slower week, with more reading time…for alas, when it came time to choose between writing posts or reading other’s, I chose the former last week.  I found too, that I could cut out a 10 minute blitz from time to time to read some of my mail and look at the reader.  It’s wonderful the things you can get done in 24 hours if you organize, came to my mind.

Now for some stats: I don’t know about most of you, but I try to figure out who and why people look at my blog.  I’ve found, by looking at the stats that most of you come from The United States, but I also have readers from Singapore, Australia, Canada and Europe…well as far as that goes…I seem to have viewers in India, Pakistan, South American…hmmm…WOW!!! from all over the World…gives me a shivery nice feeling.

Many are interested in my photo blogs and quite a few in my poetry, the fiction or flash fiction just so-so,  I’ll have to work on that aspect as, alas I like writing short stories.  A friend has given me the address for the Novel Writer’s Camp…hmmm…I just don’t feel ready for a novel at this time.

Today’s stats tell me that I’ve reached 4,894 views with 1,297 comments…those who have decided to become part of my blogging community are 290 between Facebook and WordPress bloggers.  Thanks everyone for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it!

But it is your comments that are most appreciated and are responsable for making me a better blogger, both through your encouragement and feedback…infinite thanks to you all!

Awards

Well..this has been a crazy week for awards!

The first award mention to come this way, was from Patty at PetiteMagique  for the Best Moments Award

Then in the middle of the week came the avalanche!!!
Lisa Elkskeravid mentioned me for two huge accumulative awards, a 7 in 1 and a 6 in 1, which prompted me to write the post “Awards Galore!”

I created this mosaic for the occasion…some of the awards were actually doubles, so there are 10 awards here.

Lisa Elkskeravid nominated me again for the Most influential Blogger award and another bucket of awards….
Finally, yesterday Othrezhenie  for the Wonderful Team Membership Award!

 

I’d like to thank these ladies for their consideration, Othrezhenie mentions in her nomination:

“Last month I was swamped with awards. I believe that passing on awards is an important part of ‘blogosphere membership’, as it allows bloggers to get to know each other better and develop closer relationship in a virtual world.”

I’m not sure that I agree with Othrezhenie…I personally believe that visiting other people’s blogs, commenting as well as just liking and posting is how we get to know one another in the virtual world.  Awards may be fun or they may give us a boost, but I’m not sure that they actually create better and closer relationships.  Your ideas on this matter would be appreciated.

In the meantime…I nominate all of you lovely people who have commented and followed my blog throughout these past months…choose one if you like and write a lovely post!  If you wish to put one or all of the above onto your blog page feel free to do so, you are nominated! 🙂

Two New Blogs

Last week two new exciting blogs were born!
Th Community Storyboard

In their own words:
“The purpose his site is to showcase poems, short stories, and anything else that falls into the category of writing.  Here you can wander the aisles and read to your heart’s content.  If you wish to regale us with a tale of your own then we welcome you to do so.  Most importantly, you can meet other readers and writers to make new friends and have a blast without leaving your laptop.  I’m sure all of our introverts in the audience appreciates that.”
They have many lovely stories already and this weekend put up an interesting prompt: Pearl…one could write a poem or short story, or whatever inspired one from that one word.  So I wrote a flash fiction for the occasion entitled: Pearl 1963.  I love prompts!

The second blog is: The Self Publisher who are they, what is this site about?  here they are in their own words:
“Who are we?  What are we?  What is this site about?  It’s about supporting, encouraging and promoting writers who pursue their dreams in the face of a traditional publishing industry that doesn’t get it.  It’s about sharing our successes, our failures, our experiences with other writers and asking for other writers to share their own experiences as well.  It’s about creating a community that is supportive and informative where we share lessons learned.

What will we be doing here?  Discussing our own experiences.  What sites helped.  What sites didn’t.  Are those editing packages worth it?  How do we create cover art?  What about copyright?  What about this?  What about that?  In the days and weeks and months ahead, hopefully, we’ll cover it all.”

I think this could be a very interesting blog, not only for the self publishers already doing their thing, but it could be very interesting to those of us who may someday decide to publish themselves.

Give these great bloggers a warm well-wishing…and visit their blogs…it’s well worth the time!

Photography

This weeks Weekly Photo Challenge is background!

“In the Background: The places that we pass through day after day, or even once in a lifetime, leave in their small way, echoes and traces of themselves upon us. But so often when taking self portraits or pictures of friends, the places themselves become a soft blurred mush of indistinct semi-nothingness, the limelight stolen by our smiling faces. In today’s challenge, let’s turn the tables. Take a picture of yourself or someone else as a shadow, a reflection, or a lesser part of a scene, making the background, or — as in the example above — the foreground, the center of attention.”

If you like photography and would like to find new and interesting ways to look through your viewfinder…this is a great challenge for you!  Why not give it a try?

Poetry and Prose

This week I’ve continued with my daily Haiku and have had some interesting comments and responses.  One, entitled Space

had some lovely comments!  It was prompted by We Drink Because We Are Poets  along with an invitation to participate in the Nasa contest: send you Haiku to Mars.  Well…I sent along a Haiku…the activity began on May 1 and the last day for submitting is July 1…voting one the Haiku begin on July 15…have a go people!  Even if your Haiku is not chosen, your name will be on the DVD sent to Mars!  Imagine 10 thousand years from now, some crazy archeologist from Arcturus comes along and says: lo!  A list of kinky Martian names and three Haiku…. 😀

I tried my hand at two nearly spooky stories I hope you’ll look into:
The first is entitled:
The Staircase and it was inspired by two of Leanne Coles fantastic photographs!  Leanne has sent out an invitation to be inspired by her photos…write a poem, write a story…you may use her photos for inspiration…but I add please ping your work back to the photo that inspired you!
I’ve reblogged several of Leanne’s photos to my blog…she is just sooooooooo great!  Have a look!

The other is:
The Offer I didn’t Refuse inspired by my friends at We Drink Because we Are Poets!  I really liked the response from my fellow bloggers on this one…great comments…have a look at it!

Yesterday I wrote a Photography and Poem post I hope you’ll look into entitled: Intrepid Lords and  Ladies I was inspired by the Lords and Ladies themselves as well as the crazy weather we’ve been having lately!  😉

Blogging Friends

Over the months, I through this blog have become closer to many people.  I see sometimes our friends are very happy, sometimes angry and sometimes very sad.  Many are working away trying to get their worked published, other’s are editing other’s promoting. It’s not what I thought blogging would be about, it’s a bit of added value and I find that it is an interesting experience.  Best wishes to you promoters and self editors!

One of my blogging friends has been hit by tragedy and I would like to just say, I hope all will soon be well for you and yours.  May serenity come to visit your house again soon.

Everyone have a Wondeful Week and see you in the blogging world!

Senryu: Awards

Awards not needed!

Life nominates me daily

Rewarding me love!

Awards Galore!

Yesterday evening when I finally found a little time to stop by WordPress to at least look at my notifications, I was surprised by two posts I’d received from Lisa Elkskeravid from Norway.  They are in fact the Award nominations divided  that in two posts she’d sent me for a  total of 13 awards (some repeated)!

http://lisaelskerarvid.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/mange-nominasjoner/
For this award I said: Fortell meg kjære man velge hvilken pris å svare snakke om? Jeg har aldri sett det gjort på denne måten, er det nytt for meg! Takk for at du tenker på meg!
And she replied: 😃Er en Bislett av nominasjoner💗Du skal kopiere alle på siden din og svare på spørsmål linke tilbake til den som har nominert deg og nominere 17 stykker💗

http://lisaelskerarvid.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/more-awards%f0%9f%92%97%f0%9f%98/  For this award I said:  Gratulerer for din nominasjon og du er så sjenerøs! Tusen takk for oversettelse! Jeg vil snakke om denne måten å gjøre tildelinger i nyhetsbrevet mitt på mandag.

These are the rules for the 7 in 1 award:

Reglene😃

The rules for this 7 in 1 Award are easy: (love easy!)

1-Answer the 10 random questions.

2-Nominate 10 other bloggers for the Award and link their blog sites.

3-Notify the bloggers of their awards.

4-Ask the award winners to answer the 10 questions when they accept their Award.

Svar på spørsmål😃
1-Do you have a goal in life? –

2-City or Countryside? –

3-What was the last word you looked up in the dictionary? –

4-If you had a time machine where would you go? –

5-Pirate or Vampire? –

6-Are you easily satisfied or do you keep working to obtain something? –

7-Sweet or Savoury? –

8-Do you believe in Karma? –

9-Which is your favorite Comedy film? –

10-Fantasy or Sci-fi? –

Oversatt til Norsk😃

1-Har du et mål i livet? – og alltid være lojal, trofast, vennlig og snill mot alle💗

2-Byen eller landskapet? -landskapet🎀

3-Hva var det siste ordet du så opp i ordlisten? Lenge siden så husker ikke😃

4-Hvis du hadde en tidsmaskin hvor ville du dra? Et sted hvor alle var venner og lykkelige 💗

5-Pirat eller vampyr? – Vampyr😜

6-Er du lett fornøyd eller gjør du jobber hardt for å få noe? – Jobber alltid hardt

7-Søte eller krydrede? – Søtt😘

8-tror på Karma? -Nei😜

9-Som er din favoritt komedie film? -Dum og Dummere😍

10-Fantasi eller Sci-fi? – fantasi😘

De jeg vil nominere💗😘😘 fler enn jeg skal😜

There were no rules etc. on the first post with the nomination of another 6 in 1 awards.

Ah…you think I speak Norwegian… 😉 no, I know how to click Google Translate!

About Lisa

I met Lisa on my Front page…and it was an interesting opportunity for me to use Google Translate!  Lisa in fact always writes in Norwegian, and why shouldn’t she, she’s from Norway!  We Anglophones have a tendency to think everyone should slog it along writing in English, and we rarely even bother to to read or reply to someone who answers our questions in their own language.  Some in fact I’ve read find it suspicious that people do comment in anything but English.  I teach ESL (English as a Second Language) and many of my students are quite proficient readers…but have difficulties writing our language…and they are also afraid of embarrassing themselves.  So, in the era of the computer and internet…why not read those wonderful comments in Norwegian, Chinese, Italian or whatever that comes our way?  Just a though.

Back to the awards

Anyway…I’ve just “collaged” the awards from the two posts of nominations into one huge award.

I’ve found that there are mixed feeling towards awards.  Many people either ignore them, or feel obliged to follow the instructions to the letter (which can be very time-consuming, I’ve found).  And other’s still make a block post with all the awards they’ve acquired over a period of time and then nominate the whole blogging world, or their community, the way was new to me…

I’ve chosen to nominate all my community friends as the best way to administer these lovely and troublesome blogging awards because:

1.I had a very disconcerting reaction not long after I had begun blogging because of awards.  In fact two of my nominees were in clash mode.  It put everyone in an embarrassing situation.  On the same line, several people whom I’ve personally nominated have replied that they prefer not to be so, and have been put into an embarassing position having to do so.

2. I don’t like chain letters.

3. They are terribly time-consuming and it takes away from my limited time resources for writing and posting photos.

4. I don’t like answering the questions etc. that these awards usually have tied to them.

5. I like an uncluttered page.

So, as much as I appreciate being complimented with a mention for an award…and it’s a nice feeling to be smiled upon by my fellow bloggers I assure you…I will not nominate any single person for this massive award, but I will once again nominate my fellow bloggers and my community friends.

There are those who really deserve awards…so please feel free to accept and follow the rules for this and other awards that I have dedicated to you all…I mean, If someone has created a way to answer various nominations creating a super award…why not reply with massive acceptances!  😉

I would love to hear some comments on what you all think about my idea and about awards in particular.

Have a wonderful day everyone and happy blogging!

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