"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence." – Doyle
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September 06, 2025

Seven Things: Thoughts & Complaints

art - Greetings from Brooklyn -girl rides a bike passing a wall mural of a sun
Greetings From Brooklyn
Today is September 7th so I thought it is appropriate to post another Seven Things which I haven't done in awhile. Basically, these are just random thoughts, complaints, rants – stuff that annoys me enough to think about them a bit longer. (I created this new art (above) as a digital postcard for a pal so I thought I shared it. It said Free Cupcake on the little poster on the right.)

01 - A recent author was maybe considered a scammer because her book turned out to be crappy. She hyped up her book so readers were expecting something amazing and they didn't get it. Any book no matter how well is written or how great the author is, still have a chance to be crappy so why are people complaining? I can understand the disappointment of spending money on a book and then getting something crappy. But she is not completely to blame. I think it's your fault if you believe in the hype, right? I mean, a lot of books were hyped/marketed to be amazing and never delivered so why focus on this particular author? 

02 - Technology is a bit problematic if you can't get online. For example, once when I searched my computer for why I can't get online, the answer my computer showed me is to tell me I have to be online to see the answers - why is the help on your computer not on your computer but online? The problem is everything is online so if you can't get online, than you're screwed. But I suppose you can call someone instead...

03 - Some bloggers have made their blog to allow only members of the blog to leave comments which I thought is a form of exclusivity. This is saying 'you can only participate if you're a member' which irks me but it shouldn't because everyone have the rights to have their blog read only by the people they want. 
    When new readers comes along, how are they to comment? Supposedly, would-be readers can email the blogger but for me, I'm a bit of a shy reader when it comes to new blogs (or even blogs I have read for years) so I don't go about asking permissions to comment on blogs. A while back, when some bloggers closed a blog and started a new one, they left a post about sending them emails to get their new blog's url but I never did that either. I don't know why but I feel a bit awkward asking for permission or their new url when I didn't need it before. I guess on a personal level, I'm not good at asking such things when I don't know if those bloggers even remember me as one of their readers. 

04 - Recently, I saw a video about tips to living a better life and the first thing is to clean your toilet - does it sound like your life would be better if you clean your toilet? It might be true but it's not the kind of advice I care for. I think if you're a clean freak, that might actually be your first choice but I don't know. I think they probably should have listed it lower on the list because I didn't want to watch the rest after that advice.

05 - Last month, I had to sign out of my kobo ereader and then when I signed back in, all my preferences are gone. What happened was I accidentally removed a library book while trying to remove a different book and somehow hit on the wrong book. Then I tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't work. Even when I returned and re-borrowed the book, it wouldn't re-upload when I synced the device. So I signed out of Kobo and then re-signed in but damm, all my preferences (text sizes, margin width, brightness settings, words I saved when I looked up their definition, etc.) are all gone. I have to reset every preference I had ever changed. I used the same kobo account and everything but it was as it was treating me like a new user. Why aren't my preferences saved to my device or account? It didn't make sense. Supposedly signing out of something can fix problems because when there is no other option and I wasn't going to reset the whole device but I might as well have done it since I had to reset every preference anyway.
    I was dumb not to try to sign out of Overdrive first which might have saved me some headaches which hadn't occurred to me. Maybe my brain isn't working too well these days but not being able to have your saved preferences when you signed out of the device is just  stupid. 

06 - Sadly, I have exceeded my holds at the library because some of the books I had placed are taking a really long time. The longest one will take 20 weeks until it is my turn to borrow it which makes me wonder how I have the patience to wait for books. The longest time I had waited for a library book is a little over half a year and that book was such a disappointment but I still continue to wait. I don't know where I get the patience but I have plenty of it when it comes to waiting for library books. (Note: I read only borrowed library ebooks.)

07 - Do you ever hit the wrong keys on your computer and your screen or app or window that are opened does some crazy or inexplicable things you can't undo or fix? That's me most daily now. It's especially annoying when I'm using Firefox because they added features I didn't want and can't turn off because some of them have no turn off option and some makes no sense to me. 
    I hate it when users have to adapt to do things in new ways instead of doing it their way. Sometimes I think app creators or technology-related creators likes to annoy users by forcing them to do things their way or how else to explain why updates and upgrades are always so annoyingly dumber or worst?

What's on your mind these days? 

September 04, 2025

Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: conviviality, adoration, willpower, mellow, gentle, guitar.

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Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud
Vida's annual dinners were famous for their well-planned, delicious menus as well as their quirky and sometimes perilous locations. Always, Vida was a convivial host who never failed to delight her guests' tastebuds. For ten years, Vida's dinners had long been the neighborhood's most anticipated fall event.
    This year, Vida sent out invitations months before September but told no one of what she will be serving or where it will occur. People who had previously attended her dinners had such adoration for her cooking that no matter what, they would always show up. Rumors had it one of the guests missed out on the birth of his first child just to attend Vida's dinner. 

September 01, 2025

IWSG Sept 2025: Motivation, Procrastination

Supposedly I lied to myself because I thought I would be submitting some of my stories to literary online journals but all I managed to do is submitted one story and that's was it. So now I'm thinking I'm too cowardly or something. I don't think it's rejection that's stopping me.
    It would be nice if someone would take my stories and do the editing and the submitting because I certainly don't seem to be doing it. And I have a hard time deciding which stories to submit considering most of them I can't submit. (Sadly, most online journals do not accept stories that had been posted on your blog - that is considered published. And some have so much requirements that I'm not qualified.)
    In terms of writing and pretty much all my projects, I am constantly putting off what I can finish right away. For some odd reason, I seem to be waiting for something but I don't know what.
    I think it's due to lack of motivation that I haven't submitted more stories or finish writing them. I'm not as motivated as before. I keep  procrastinating thinking I'll get back to it. But of course if you keep procrastinating you'll probably never get to finish anything. But I think finish/do what you can and worry about the rest later but maybe that's another form of procrastination - you think later but there seems to be no later. I don't know where the motivation went. But hopefully, motivation will find me again or I'll find it somehow.
        
What do you do when you can't find that motivation? Do you like procrastinating?