Ten Sensitive Ways to Break-Up with Another Blogger

Reblogged from The Brown Road Chronicles:

An unfortunate dynamic of blogging is that sometimes we have to break-up with another blogger with whom we have developed a blogging relationship. I've broken up with several bloggers in the last few years and many more have broken up with me. The usual technique that bloggers employ is the Vanish Method - just stop reading, stop leaving comments on posts and stop clicking the "like" button. 

Read more… 408 more words

Friend Steve over at The Brown Road Chronicles wrote a very sensitive post about breaking other bloggers' hearts. I just had to share it here at my place too!

when you blog, what comes first; the chicken or the egg?

In some respects, blogging transports me back in time.  It takes me back to one of the language classes in school.  The teacher is sitting (or standing) in front of the class, a small smile twitching at the corner of her mouth while we scramble in behind our school desks.

I loved my language classes.  I didn’t always get all the rules and stuff right.  But I loved … well, I loved the reading part of it - the oral classes, not so much.  I just wanted to understand what other people were saying.  I didn’t really see the need to talk to them.

Anyhoo, back to the language teach’s secretive (or was that evil?) smile.  It had to do with something she knew was not a particular favourite assignment for most students. “Today you will write an essay.  You can write about anything you like.  You have to use 350 words – no less, no more.  You have until the end of this class period to finish.”

BLANK.

Oh jeez, what will I write about?! 

BLANK.

Come on, come on.  Think of something!  She said to write about anything.  Think girl, think!!!

BLANK.  

Seriously?!  You only have 35 minutes.  Wait, no – it is now only 30 minutes.  Three hundred words and 30 minutes!  Too bad they got wise and took away line counts.  I could just write one, skip one.  Words, must be lots of words now.  Ugh!  Shouldn’t panic.

BLANK.

Everyone else is writing.  What is everyone else writing about?

 THOUGHT (fades away).  BLANK.  THOUGHT (fades in).

Okay, she wants me to write about anything?  Anything it is then.  She better not deduct points if she doesn’t like my topic!

Sometimes it is easier to write when someone gives you a topic.  I like having the chicken first.  But that only works when you have a clue about anything chicken.  Other times it really is nice to start with the egg.  You can let it grow into the chicken you want.

Yep, sometimes blogging really does transport me back in time.

Uhm… wanna guess how long it took me to write this post?  :D

random thought: tight spot

Would you rather reverse out of a tight spot or do (several) three-point turns?

dream, dream, dreeaaeam

I never really thought about it, but a person actually dreams in more ways than one.

The most familiar form of dreaming is when we are in a state of rest – what the experts call REM sleep.  Think about it.  Where do you go, what do you do, what do you experience when you are in dreamland?  There are so many connotations assigned to the perception of what and why we dream.  We might want to escape into a reality where we made better choices.  Or where our “bad” choices had better outcomes.  While in dream state we might actually be communicating in a higher, freer plain of existence.  Some of us may think of a dream as a message, a forewarning of what is to come.  A prediction of sorts.

The other form of dreaming is born from somewhere else.  The hankering to be more.  To make a difference.  It is the kind of dream I would refer to as a “life-dream”.  But how would one define a “life-dream”?  Or wait, a better question might be:  Should a “life-dream” be limited by a definition?.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”.  It is probably safe to assume that this question falls under the “life-dream” category.  It is also the question most often asked of young minds.  As children we see a hero at least once.  It might be a doctor or a nurse who helped heal a loved one.  It might be a policeman who helped your family out of a jam.  A veterinarian who saved your dear pet.  A fireman who rushed into a burning building to safe a total stranger or someone you know.  A teacher.  The list goes on.

There should be more questions under the “life-dream” category I think.  How often do we think to ask them?  Maybe we don’t ask them because we assume that a young mind is just that – too young to understand the question.  That might well be true. So we focus on the one question that everyone asks and everyone answers.  Isn’t there danger that choices will be ruled by the answer to that lone question?

In my opinion questions train us to search for answers.  Our brains work harder to find solutions, the truth… our truth.  It even helps with emotional growth.

So, what questions would you file under the “life-dream” category?  Here are some I would add.

* Who do you want to be as a person?

* Where would you like to live when you are a grown-up?

* Do you want to focus on only one career?

Who can say when a life-dream will be born?  Or what a person’s life-dream(s) will be?  It is different for everyone.   Some of us dream big, some dream small.  Some think they have no dream at all.  It is all a matter of perception and opinion.

One can never be too young or too old to start dreaming.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime

One of my “Hilda-moments” – just in time to join in the fun of the latest photo challenge.

We have a TV Soap here in South Africa called “7de Laan” (7th Avenue).  One of the characters is a reed thin lady called Hilda and she works in a Deli.  She loves to try new combinations of things and it doesn’t always come out tasting good or even edible.  I can relate.  I love playing with combinations in the kitchen and rarely use a cookbook.

Last weekend I offered to make a green salad to take to a braai (barbeque) and I went shopping with my taste buds.  Surprisingly enough it worked out pretty well.  It had a nice crisp, sharp and “mellow” taste, which I craved today… so voila!

most of what goes into the salad

What I love about “green” salads is that you can put anything you like in it.  This time I started my layers with banana at the bottom, add thin slices of onion, mushrooms sprinkled with ground black pepper.  To keep the banana from discoloring I drip over some of the gherkin dill sauce.  Next up are carrot sticks, thin slices of the various peppers and the diced apple.  Follow this with the cocktail tomatoes cut in half.  I usually add a little more black pepper at this stage.  Now add a couple of gherkins, some feta cheese and top off with lettuce.  Of course, to keep everything nice and moist I add some more of the dill sauce.  I don’t really like salad dressing, preferring the natural taste of the goodies.

filling the pita

While the flavours in the salad blended I browned a small pita bread.  Now I know one is supposed to use these things as a pocket, but I don’t like it.  I always end up with dry bits.  So I slice it open all the way through, spread a thin layer of margarine and a little bit of sweet chilly sauce on it while it is still warm.

salad pita

Fill it up with your salad and you’ve got yourself a salad pita for lunch!