Category — Microblog Mondays

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

*******

So yesterday’s quote from Followers was funny, but today’s is sobering. On page 166, a person in 2051 is speaking with a robot name Mateo at an archive who offers her earphones so she can listen to the audio portion of a video. Most people in 2051 have devices embedded on their bodies by the time they’re seven, so they would have no trouble hearing the audio sans earphones. This person, on the other hand, does not have a device and asks about the earphones.

Mateo nodded. “The Archive currently uses them for our guests younger than seven, and our guests whose income indicates that they live below the information line,” it said. “In other words, our guests who do not have devices.”

Which, of course, is a scenario that plays out in our world daily. In many cases, despite the best efforts of schools and libraries, the poverty line IS the information line. How can you keep up with the flow of information if you can’t afford to access it? And accessing information, in the here and now, involves a computer or digital device. It’s sobering how many assumptions are made about access. That everyone will be reachable or be able to access information online, whether they’re at work/school or home.

*******

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 post.

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

*******

I spent my life putting two spaces after every period. One space after a comma, two spaces after a period. Four publishing houses were unable to break me of this habit. I wrote my manuscript with two spaces, then did a search for two spaces throughout the document, and changed them to one space, as per each publishing house’s stylistic rules.

I don’t know what made me change, but a few months ago, I switched to one space. It was hard at first, but now I don’t think about it when I get to the end of the sentence. I just tap the spacebar once and move on to the next thought.

Sometimes I think to myself that I don’t have it in me to change. But I proved myself wrong this year. I went from two spaces to one. Though you won’t get me to change my mind on the Oxford comma.

*******

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 post.

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

*******

People magazine had an article about an infertility podcast called Infertile AF. It’s in its second season. The podcast’s description: “In this unfiltered podcast about infertility, Brooklyn-based journalist and mom-of-two Ali Prato, who went through IVF herself, talks to women—and some men—about the messy, frustrating, painful, heartbreaking, absurd and sometimes hilarious journey to have a baby. Or in some cases, to not have a baby.”

Or if listening to 42 minutes about infertility after living 42 months of infertility, I’ll direct you to my favourite new escape: Shedunnit. Someone linked to one of her older episodes, and I decided to download the first ones and listen to it in the car. It is FANTASTIC. I mean, especially if you love mysteries. But completely fascinating history stuff, too.

What are you listening to?

*******

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 post.

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

*******

My friend commented last week on how new our carpets look even though we’ve had them for years. The secret is the Dyson. That thing is like a Biore strip for the floor.

But we’re also a shoes off home. We became a shoes off home after we bought a place and realized how (1) expensive and (2) pain-in-the-ass it was to replace carpet. But even if we had hardwood floors or tiling throughout the house, we would be a shoes off home.

The four of us also wash our hands when we enter the house, and it sort of feels like the same thing as taking off our shoes. It’s about not tracking the outside world through the inside world. Leaving the dirt and germs and whatever else we come in contact with by the door.

Are you a shoes off or shoes on home?

*******

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 post.

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

*******

I just learned the greatest term: Contronym! They are words that are their own opposite. For example, “cleave,” which can mean both split apart or cling to.

Mental Floss rounded up a long list of contronyms, but beyond that, they also rounded up a list of synonyms for contronyms: “auto-antonym, antagonym, enantiodrome, self-antonym, antilogy and Janus word.”

This was my fun find for the week. What have you found on the internet?

*******

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 post.