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 the idea of a book club, but I hate the actuality of a book club because every one I have ever been in goes the same way.  I read a book that I don’t really enjoy because it’s the selection, foregoing something I really do want to read, and then arrive at the meeting and discover that over half the group hasn’t read it at all, and no one really moves to discuss it.

But I thought this book club for two is a brilliant idea.  Rather than reading the book ahead of time, they read it over the phone to one another.  They can discuss it in real time or just relax and listen to the story.

I do this with the twins — we’re currently reading Sleeping Giants together, though the ChickieNob and I are also reading Twilight without the Wolvog — but I never thought to do it with someone my age.  I guess you would have to find someone who shares the same reading taste so you don’t run into the problem above — spending time with books that annoy you at the expense of spending time with a story you want to read.

What do you think about reading a book aloud with another person as a book club for two?

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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 post.

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

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The ChickieNob insisted that you can send a blank text.  “Watch,” she said, opening up her messaging app and making a single blank space using the space bar.  She hit send.

A moment later, Josh sent back a question mark.  She sent another blank text.  Thus began a long thread of blank texts met by increasingly confused return messages, including a screenshot of the conversation in case the ChickieNob didn’t understand that all of her texts were showing up as blank bubbles.

She laughed and laughed and laughed.

Okay, it was funny on our end.  And no one got hurt, though I told her that she wasn’t allowed to do this to other people.  That’s sort of the thing about pranks: they’re usually only funny to the giver and not the receiver.

But keep that one in your back pocket for April 1st.

Best prank ever pulled or seen?

Our favourite SNL sketch (Maya Angelou pranks Cornell West!)

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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 post.

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

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Justine told me about a game her child was playing called Little Alchemy.  You start off with four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), and you combine them to create 560 other items — from werewolves to cookies.

I love this game.

I’ll admit that I cheat and will pull up an item — let’s say, the sun — and then try it against every other item that I’ve already found.  You end up finding a lot of things that way.  Most of the combinations make sense: Wax and thread form a candle (of course!).  Others do not make sense:  Sugar cube and campfire form a marshmallow (what?).  And others are sobering: Gun plus human equals corpse.

Considering that I am not making actual candles and marshmallows, this app probably qualifies as a time waster.  But it’s a really fun time waster.

What is currently your favourite time waster?

And if you want to try Little Alchemy, it looks like you can play it via the website.

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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 post.

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

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On the day we brought home Linus, a few miles away at the airport, a family with two kids were being detained.  Not for anything they did or intended to do but because of their country of origin.

That imbalance: One family can afford to keep a rodent as a pet, another doesn’t have a safe home.

It’s not as if you only have a single refugee family to choose from if you want to note the imbalance in this country.  We are a nation that entertains itself by wasting food.  We have television shows where contestants make creative dishes with expensive ingredients so judges can critique them, and those shows are filmed in cities where there are children dreading snow days because staying home from school also means a lack of access to food provided through the FARMs program.

That is privilege.  That is advantage.

That is what is giving me pause today.  What is giving you pause?

Actually, pause is the wrong term, since that pause means taking action: Make calls.  Join a protest.  Write a post.  Get out there and change things.

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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 post.

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

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I miss Truman.  I am not shy about crying in front of the kids or Josh.  I am not shy about crying in public.  I cried in the grocery store buying parsley because it was unusually crisp, and it made me so sad to think about making soup stock without my baby wheeking through the whole thing.

I cry when I’m driving, especially if I see someone walking their dog.  I am aware that Truman wasn’t a dog, but that person has their pet and I don’t.  I cry when I walk downstairs and there is no one greeting me in the morning, and I cry when I look in the corner of the room and realize anew that there is no one to say goodnight to in the living room.

But I mostly cry in the shower.  I am a shower crier.  Sometimes I can feel my sadness or frustration building in the morning, and I wait to shower until it feels like every emotion is going to spill over.  Then I get under the water and wail.  I’m not just saying now, mourning Truman, but always.  I have always been a shower crier.

Do you cry in the shower, too?  Is it safe because you’re alone?  Because the sound of the water covers up any sounds of tears?  Because you can wash your face before stepping back out of the bathroom and facing the day?

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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 post.