Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I love reading about Houdini.  I was interested in Houdini since I was a kid; even before I learned that he and his wife were infertile and remained childless.

Around this time of year, articles come out about him because for 10 years following his death, his wife, Bess, held a séance to try to contact him.  Every year on October 31st, people keep up the tradition for Bess and hold a séance.  The largest one is at the Magic Castle in California.

They were a wonderful couple — he often wrote her love letters, even when they were physically together — so it makes sense that they would continue to try to speak after death.  I would do the same for Josh.  But it made me think about who else I would hold an on-going séance to try to speak to again (or for the first time).

If you could call forth three spirits this Halloween — either people you once knew, people you never got to meet, or famous people — who would you want to speak to at your séance?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I read a bunch of stories last week concerning Amal Alamuddin taking her husband’s last name, as if this was earth-shattering news.  For example, The Stir wrote, “She, arguably, has an even more successful and lucrative career than her new husband, but that hasn’t stopped newlywed Amal Alamuddin from changing her last name after marriage and becoming Mrs. George Clooney.”

Beyond the judgment in the author’s word choice (so if you have a high salary, you should keep your name, but if you’re a poor, unknown sales clerk, it’s understandable if you want to head on down to the social security office?), it made me wonder why anyone is astonished by anyone else’s choice of whether or not to change their last name.  My friends are a pretty even mix of three options (keep last name, change last name, or create new last name that both people in the marriage use).

If you’re married, did you (or your partner) change your last name with marriage?  If you’re not married, do you know what you would do?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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It’s Monday the 13th.  Which has no scary significance, except that it is housed in October, and everything is sort of scary in October.

I used to love horror films.  Not just the good ones.  I saw the first 6 Children of the Corn films.  (Yes, there were more than 6.)  The Nightmare on Elm Streets.  The Friday the Thirteenths.  Poltergeist.  Blair Witch Project.  And horror books: everything Stephen King.

And then one day, the world started looking too scary, and I couldn’t understand the point in trying to scare myself when there were so many real things to be scared of in the here and now.  And I never saw another horror film.  Though I have a soft spot in my heart for vampires and haunted houses.

Horror films for you: yay or nay?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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After disgusting my children by saying on three separate occasions that I have a burning crush on Peter Capaldi, the ChickieNob informed me that I wasn’t allowed to have a crush on an actor.  That in getting married to Daddy, I checked my ability to visually appreciate other humans at the door.  So… could I leave the crushes for the young’uns?

I informed her that celebrity crushes are totally okay because (1) there is zero chance of ever even meeting Peter Capaldi and (2) because I wanted to have a celebrity crush so I needed to tell her it was okay in order to have one.

Plus, he’s totally cute.

The ChickieNob was not convinced and asked me to stop saying it before every episode because it made her feel bored to keep hearing me say it. (“We know!  You have a crush!”)  But I can say it here, and she can’t stop me: I have a crush on Peter Capaldi!

Who is your celebrity crush?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Gizmodo had an article about an Occulus-Rift-like contraption created by Marriott that turned virtuality into a 4D experience.  It’s not just seeing images in front of you: you’re inside a teleporter-like device that pipes in smells, wind, vibrations, etc.  The one-minute trip currently takes you to a beach and then London.

Of course I love to go to actual, physical spaces and explore them on my own, but there are many places that I know I will never get to in this lifetime, mostly due to physical limitations, fear, or fantasy: top of Everest, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Antarctica, Hogwarts, the Shire.  A machine like this would be perfect to simulate being there without actually having to go there or when you can’t actually go there.

Can you imagine a library-like space in the future where you could go and strap a machine on your head and order up any place you wish?  I’d go to places I’ve never been to and revisit places I’ve been.  It would be like being inside Google street view.  But anywhere.  And feel as if you’re there.

Where would you want to virtually go?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.