Words, Words, Words ( #BOTB Results )

Did words evade me when it came to writing this post?  Was I just kind of lazy?  Or were the words too many with every expectation that the words would end up lost in the pages of this blog?   I wonder sometimes, but my wondering doesn't consume me.  The words are everywhere, but nowhere all at once...


Words in the Wind

          A lot of words have gone into the blog posts of Tossing It Out over the past decade plus.  I have played with words and dallied with ideas.  At times I have attempted to inspire, inform, and incite.  Perhaps there have been some successes while at other times I've considered just putting all the words aside and forgetting about this particular writing platform.  And yet I remain.

         In my third post back in September of 2009 ( a post upon which no one commented so I'm not sure it was ever actually read by anyone), I presented this mission statement for Tossing It Out:

The "Tossing It Out" blog is here to entertain, stimulate, and inform whenever possible. The author will make every attempt to be accurate and fair at all times and will be open to the input of any readership the blog may develop. There is no set course, no absolute purpose, and the content, though at times random, will strive for cohesion and clarity.

      While I do believe that I have mostly lived up to this statement in my acts of writing, my goal of  "tossing out" ideas, controversies, and other contemplations has fallen by the wayside to a great extent.  Though I have managed to keep a fairly consistent participatory readership returning to my music posts and my monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group posts, there is rarely the level of engagement in the comment section like I had once envisioned.  Now, to be sure, there are still some wonderful comments that continue to come my way, but something still seems to be lacking.

       What it comes down to is that there is so much more that I'd like to say at times and yet I hesitate to let the words flow.  Maybe it's a concern of losing readers because of controversial ideas that turn some of them off.  It has happened on my blog as well as others I've followed over the years--maybe even some of your blogs.  People get offended--they get mad.  They go away.

         "It's only words and words are all I have to take your heart away" says the Bee Gees song.  And when I've tried and failed and instead of taking hearts away, I've sometimes driven them away.  But that's life I guess when you have opinions. 

          So now I perfunctorily write words in regular monthly posts about music and writing.  Just to keep the blog alive in one respect, but also on a precipice of wanting to say something and yet stepping back when I'm too close to the edge of the cliffs of controversy. 

          Does anybody really want my words?  Do they need them?  Do they want or need your words?  We go on writing.  Or posting pictures maybe.  Or perhaps sharing videos.  We write words, speak words, read words, listen to words.  Does it matter? 

         Missing Persons said it pretty well in their song "Words":

Do you hear me
Do you care
My lips are moving and the sound's coming out
The words are audible but i have my doubts
That you realize what has been said
You look at me as if you're in a daze
It's like the feeling at the end of the page
When you realize you don't know what you just read
What are words for when no one listens anymore

     Those are my words on this Labor Day.  What are yours?  Maybe you can leave some thoughts in the comment section.


Battle of the Bands Results

         The Battle at hand was a three-way match between Bee Gees, Neil Young, and Missing Persons all performing different songs with the same title of "Words".   I know all three songs well and I like all three almost equally well.  However, in the interest of the Battle I must choose one as my own favorite.

         I began listening to Bee Gees early on in their career and their song "Words" was a standout favorite for me in their early years.  This is a classic hit that I still enjoy hearing.  I couldn't recall the Missing Persons song by title alone, but when I heard it I realized I'd heard it many many times and always liked it. It was an MTV and radio mainstay in the eighties and hearing their "Words" again reminded me how much fun eighties music was for many of us.  Most of my music buying was in the eighties, though never did I buy an album by Missing Persons.  But I think their song is excellent especially after focusing on the lyrics which have maybe more to say in our time than four decades ago.  "Words" by Missing Persons in my view is a great song and I almost gave my vote to that one.

       Which brings me to the song that really inspired this Battle.  Back when Neil Young's Harvest album came out, the song that most caught my attention was "Words" even though there were other songs that got more critical attention and airplay.  "Words" had that spacey dreamy sound that attracted me to Young's music so much.  At the time I commented to friends on a number of occasions that even though being the longest song on the album clocking in at over six minutes, I wished it were even longer. I wanted it to last the entire album side.  From the comments some readers left on my Battle, their is some disagreement about my thought to the point that some even think it's one of Young's worst songs.  It is one of my favorites. 

        After the Harvest album had been out for a while, my dream of the long version of "Words" came true when Young released the double album Journey Through the Past with a version of the song that lasts sixteen and a half minutes.  A nightmare for some of you I guess, but for me I was in "Words" heaven.

         And of course what this all means now is that my vote goes to Neil Young's "Words" even though I almost equally enjoy hearing any of these three songs.


Final Vote Tally

Bee Gees                  11 votes

Neil Young                 5 votes

Missing Persons         5 votes



      Next Battle of the Bands on Tuesday September 15th

       I've got plenty of words about plenty of subjects, but for now I'll keep them to myself.  When I vent these days it's usually on Facebook or Twitter.  Now those are places where words fly freely and I've only been placed in "Twitter jail" twice so far.  I'm trying to be careful.













  

Blogging Blues ( #AtoZChallenge )

I got those blogging every day in the A to Z April blogging blues...

Dang!  And we just started!







Blogging Blues

         My blogging blues have nothing to do with this year's Challenge.  My blog really started singing the blues five years ago.  Maybe even more.  Still I've blogged on since those blogging blues cast a pall on my online activities.  Perhaps it's partly my own fault, but expressing my opinions was part of my reason for getting into this blogging thing.

          Even the name of my blog, Tossing It Out, refers to the concept of tossing out ideas and opinions to anyone who will read.   Sometimes my opinions have annoyed--even pissed off--some readers.   Well, that's life I'd say.  I don't always like everything I hear either.  Thank goodness no one is around to hear me talking back to some of the idiots I see on the television.  Of course, my wife hears me sometimes, but now she's seen the light about so much of the stupidity being expressed on the airwaves and she's saying the same things I'm saying.   It's a matter of logic the way I see it.

         But blogging should be different.  Somehow I see the written word as a vehicle of somewhat passive provocation.  Reading a point of view and writing a response should entail reflection and reasoning.  Sadly this has become discarded only to be replaced by name-calling and linguistic vulgarities.  I sometimes wonder if opinionated writing is more a thing of emotionally driven venting with no reasoning behind it all.

         So should I blame the bloggers with whom I have interacted in the past or in some cases continue to interact with?   Or should I blame the media outlets that are disseminating skewed propaganda and outright lies?  What is truth anyway?

          Blogging doesn't have to be true if it is a matter of opinion.  And that's one of my opinions.


         Do you ever respond rudely when disagree with another blogger?   Have you ever tried to present a logical argument to another blogger only to receive a rude rebuttal?    If everyone kept their opinions to themselves do you think society would make more progress?

Deju Vu 2015

      Once again D.L. Hammons is hosting the Deju Vu Blogfest.  This is the blogging event where participants are invited to share one of their lesser performing blog posts in order to give a wider audience one more chance to read what they may have missed.  My post comes from early January of 2015.  This post addresses the subject of passion versus obsession.



Is It Passion or Obsession?

 On a pedestal in Another Place (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        When I first started Tossing It Out in late 2009 I became so excited about blogging that it became one of my main topics of conversation with anyone who might listen.  I began to research the topic of blogging and read everything I could find about it in order to become a better blogger.  My thoughts became focused on my blog most of my waking hours and sometimes even into sleep.

          There were probably those who thought my interest in blogging had become a somewhat annoying obsession.  Some supported me in helping me to grow my base of followers while others politely indulged me as I babbled incessantly about this or that aspect of social media.  After a few months I even had business cards printed so it would be easier for people to remember my blog address in order to read it later.   Few of those cards reaped new readers to my knowledge, but having them was helpful in some cases if for no other reason than to open up the conversation to the topic of blogging.

         It took me about a year and a half to temper my obsession to a point of more reasonably subdued passion.   These days I still maintain a strong interest in blogging, but I no longer see it as my big mission in life.  Now it is a tool for my platform, to use that common cliche of branding and marketing.   Blogging is fun for me, but I don't force it on anyone and only bring it up if the subject seems appropriate to introduce to a conversation.

         When I was younger I went through periods where I developed certain interests in which I invested time, thought, and money.   For example I had a passion for stamp collecting from about third grade until my early high school years.   Then there were the periods when I became very involved with model building or immersing myself in anything related to science fiction and monsters.   Like an artist who can be evaluated by his creative stages, my life has seen periods of interests, sometimes for prolonged periods and other times short-lived.

         My biggest material passion has been for music.  Once I started working in my late teens and had more money to spend, I began buying records albums on a regular basis.  This passion for music peaked in the 80's when I voraciously began to accumulate cassette tapes (that was the medium of choice at that time) until I was carrying hundreds of them in my van as I traveled about in my road show days.

        There have been many phases in my life when I have pursued interests with a fervency that might be called passion.  On the other hand, my pursuits might be more correctly considered as hobbies or interests.   I'm certainly no different than others in this respect.   If we don't have certain interests that define us to some extent then we can seem rather dimensionless and boring.

          In all of our lives we have each undoubtedly had best friends with whom we shared hours of time.  Many times those friendships can end in sweet--or sometimes bitter--parting as we move on in our lives.  We might be left with longings for their companionship and fond memories as life carries us onward into new relationships or life pursuits, but we often move on without those old friends.  This is just part of the progression of life--friends who become hazy happy memories as well as those friends with whom we might stay connected with for many years or even the rest of our lives.   It would be abnormal and uncomfortable  to obsess on a friend or acquaintance so most of us allow the space necessary to nurture the relationship or we quietly drift apart if that is the destiny of things.

          And then there is love in the sense of romance and long term bonds.  This is the love that leads to marriage and family for many of us.   We find that singular object of our affection with whom we want to share life in the deepest sense that lives can be shared.  The ideal societal goal is to find a monogamous partner with whom we can have children and build families.  This takes a strong commitment involving passion that falls short of stifling obsession of ownership yet an obsession to make the relationship work.   Things don't always turn out as planned, but most of us have that ideal to work toward.

          To love someone in a way that we idolize them in the purest sense, not in any bizarre obsessive way, should be a goal in committed relationships.   We should not burn with a possessive nature that stifles the other or desire to control another with some sense of ownership much like a stamp collector might long to possess a coveted stamp for his collection, but we should have a focus that makes that partner our one and only, the only shining star that we see in a celestial tapestry filled with stars.   If we walk into a roomful of people, our one true love is the one to whom our eyes are drawn with admiration and the deepest satisfaction in being a part of that person's life.  That is the ideal, though often not the reality.

         True love is the stuff of stories.  It's that irrational emotion that brings out the poet in many of us.  It can be fun, wonderful, and even scary. What we might define as love is the most scary when the obsession creeps within us creating the stalker mentality.   A criminal passion can make us do crazy things, but the pure beautiful passion that is true love brings us as close to heaven as any earthbound human can be.   I want a burning desire or yearning that transcends possessiveness or control and becomes more akin to personal sacrifice for the sake of love in a similar way that a believer might have toward God.  Not a replacement to loving God, but next in line to love for God.   The most reverent of feelings that two humans can have for one another.   This is a fine dream in my eyes and something for which to strive.

          When do you think a passionate love devolves into aberrant obsession?    Do you feel uncomfortable when someone admires you in the sense of placing you on a pedestal?   Do you enjoy blogging more or less now than when you first started?


Voting for Battle of the Bands continues until Sunday so if you've not yet voted please click here.

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Something to Look Forward to

Coming Tomorrow!

        Thanksgiving is now history and we've gotten through another weekend.  Now I'm looking forward to the next big thing--and I don't mean Christmas.

          What I'm talking about is my blog post for tomorrow.  Coming up I have another combination post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group and Battle of the Bands.  As has become my custom when I'm participating in more than one blog event, I've tied together my BOTB song pick with the theme of my #IWSG post.  Hope you'll enjoy what I have in store.   I'm anxious to free this song from my brain as it has been lingering in my head for many days now.

          I think it's a pretty great tune--not exactly a Christmas song, but certainly a timely song.  I was singing it yesterday as my wife and I were out driving and she liked it a lot.  And I can think of at least one blogger who will appreciate the song as well as one of the artists I'll be featuring.  In the end though I hope this song will stir souls and have meaning for most of you.  Considering the times in which we are living, I can't help but think the subject matter will touch all of you in some way.

         And that's just tomorrow.  There are more things coming your way in the days, weeks, and months to come.  Let's hope they're all or mostly all good things.

What's Ahead?

         We can count out those easy open beer cans since pop tops have long been the norm.  And who uses a "church key" anymore anyway?  No, I'm not talking technological advances here.  And I'm not talking Christmas, New Year's, or any other special event day though all of those are certainly coming and would be appropriate to talk about.  I'm just biding my Monday post day time to provide a preview of what's coming up at Tossing It Out.

          My BOTB results post will appear on Monday December 7th along with the December Question of the Month.   This month Michael at A Life Examined has posed what I think is kind of a tough one, but I'll come up with some kind of answer, you can be assured. 

           There will be another Battle of the Bands post on December 15th which will be similar to my first December BOTB post.  Then things might get a little sketchy between that post and the January 1st BOTB post--you know, Christmas holidays and all.   

            But then along with my January 15th Battle of the Bands post I'll be participating in the Backstage Blogathon hosted by Movies Silently and Sister Celluloid.  You might have noticed the badge for this at the top of my sidebar.  Once again the post of that day will be a combined post with a common theme.

             In February I'll be dwelling on thoughts of love and other unrelated things.  That's still a ways off, but I'm thinking on ideas already.

            Speaking of the not so distant future, something will be coming our way in April that I'm sure you can guess.  It has something to do with the alphabet.   Most of you probably know what I'm talking about, but if you scroll down my side bar you can get some hints.   It's something that I've been doing every April for the past few years along with many other bloggers.   We'll speak more of that later.

           No matter how troubled the times are that we live in, we just keep moving forward as though things will get better.  I for one believe they will.

           Do you sometimes feel unsettled about where our world is going?    What are some of the things that are troubling you these days?   Are you planning to participate in any of the events I've mentioned?   

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Do You Still Love Your Blog?

        I love my blog.   In a manner of speaking I can say that.  After all, the word "love" is perhaps one of the most misused and misunderstood words in the English language.  We all tend to say that we love certain foods, times of the year, places, or things.  Then of course we love certain people. There should probably be degrees of love or different words to actually express the kind of "love" we are trying to express.  Instead we lump a lot of things into one word that loses power in its overuse and misuse.

        So in thinking more about my blog post title today, maybe I should change the word "love" to something less enigmatic.  What is actually on my mind is enthusiasm or interest perhaps.   From my own standpoint I continue to be dedicated to my blog with a sense of commitment.   I don't post like I did in my first year of blogging and as I continue to blog I seem to be cutting back more.

        It's not that I dislike blogging or anything remotely like that.  I remain passionate about my blog, but in a different way that I once felt.  Blogging can be an enormous undertaking as those of you who have blogged as I do already know.   A time for reevaluation of blogging has come for me.  Now don't get me wrong here--I'm not indicating that I am going to quit blogging.   But I will continue to see a metamorphic cycle in my blogging activity and currently I'm not exactly sure where it will all take me.  For now, my blogging trend will be as it has been in the past months--a combination of Battle of the Bands, Insecure Writer's Support Group, and a random assortment of peculiar or even utterly normal thoughts. And let's not forget Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  In other words, business as usual.      

        My Blog Schedule tab at the top of my page has become more of a historical artifact of where Tossing It Out once was and no longer representative of what it has become at this time.   Next week my schedule might become more predictable, but then again maybe the schedule will go further awry.  I like my blog a lot.   Sometimes it has a mind of its own and I must respect that.

         But love?   There are many words that work better than the word love to describe certain things.   Likewise there are many synonyms that can work for the word love.  How can we say love?   Let us count the words...

       And speaking of Battle of the Bands, what a convenient Monday day-before-the-event post this is.   It's kind of a throwaway post that will likely pass as quickly as most of those I used to put up when I was posting daily.  

         Consider this post a prelude to tomorrow's BOTB post and a clue as to the song I'll be using this time around.   I will say that it's a love song.  It's also a song that I posted about a few months ago.  The song is one that I find very touching and meaningful in my own life.  Be sure to stop in tomorrow Tuesday September 15th for my next Battle of the Bands post.

          What do you "love" most about blogging?    What do you dislike most?   What replacement words for "love" can you think of?    Can you guess what song I'll be using for my next Battle of the Bands post?

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The Creeping Presence Crawling Toward Us

Night of the Living Dead-1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        It's coming.   There's a presence all around us taking control of the minds and bodies of bloggers everywhere.   To some it's a horror sucking innocents into its hungry maw.  Those who fear or even hate this thing may scream in futile horror, but their cries are barely heard as those of us who have been possessed by the monster smile, laugh, and chide those bitching moaning tormented souls.

         There is no stopping it--indeed, us.  We are upon you.  We are everywhere.  We are that damnable nightmare...

The Month of the Living Blogging from A to Z April Challenge!!!

        If you are not a part of the movement then you might be eaten alive or merely pummeled  and left by the internet roadside.   Don't resist us!   Look into our bloggy eyes and become one of us.  You can blog through the alphabet in April.   Don't succumb to that flimsy lie that you can't.  You can try to run.  You can pretend you're too busy writing.  Forget it!  You cannot hide from us.  You must join the A to Z Challenge!

        You must!  You must sign up!  Go to A to Z Sign-up list now!  Add your blog!   Add your blog!

       

Go Ahead and Ask Me Anything!

         If you've been visiting the Blogging from A to Z Challenge Blog--which of course you should be--you may have seen our co-hosts introducing themselves and fielding questions that have been put to them.   My day is coming up and it seems only appropriate to come on "A as in Arlee Bird Day" on April 1st--opening day of the Challenge. 

         Go ahead and ask me a question today in the comment section and I might choose your question for my A to Z Blog "Meet Your Co-hosts" post.  Don't be shy.  And if I don't use your question on my A to Z Blog post I can still use it in a future "Ask Arlee" post at Tossing It Out.

A to Z Starts Next Week!

        Can you believe that it's here again.  Wednesday April 1st marks the opening of the 6th Annual A to Z April Challenge.  There will be a lot going on that day, but I hope you'll be visiting my blog for a truly epic post of 4 EVENTS IN ONE POST and it will even be a relatively short post.  Nothing like it has been seen before!

          Yes, step right up to see me, Arlee Bird, worthily submit a combined post that will encompass the A to Z Challenge Opening Day, the Insecure Writer's Support  Group, Ask Arlee, and a Battle of the Bands post that will be related to everything else.  I may even be standing on my head and juggling at the same time.   You won't believe your eyes and ears, ladies and gentlemen and bloggers everywhere.

         That's right here next Wednesday April 1st at Tossing It Out.

And That's Not All!

        No, I will not be just piddling away at this blog Tossing It Out where my April theme will be "Elements of Blogging".   I have four other blogs with the tied in themes of:

 Elements of Memoir

Elements of Dreams

Elements of Existence

      Yes siree!   Four blogs with almost as many elements as the Periodic Table of the Elements and a darn sight more fun.  Don't miss a day or you'll miss a day.   And you wouldn't want to miss a day would you?

          What would you like to know about Arlee Bird that I haven't blabbed already in one of my many blabby blog posts?    Have I convinced you to sign up if you weren't already on the A to Z list?  Can you name all of the elements on the Periodic Table without looking?

The Ironic Post That I Didn't Post Today

 Private patient room at Sharp Memorial Hospital
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       This post that you are now reading is not the post that I originally planned to publish today.  Due to an ironic circumstance that post seemed somewhat inappropriate for me to put up right now, though in actuality it's probably very fitting.  But just not right now.

        To explain in part, in the wee early hours of Monday morning I woke up extremely ill.   My attempts to return to sleep were fitful and then about 4:30 I became violently ill.   I wasn't even able to see my wife off to work as is my custom.  Instead I stayed in bed and remained there for most of the day only getting up a couple of times to get check my email and respond to blog comments, but staying up for any length of time was out of the question.  All told I think I slept for about twenty of Monday's 24 hours.

       Tuesday morning I still didn't get up to see my wife off.  She understood.  However, I had an interview scheduled with a client with whom I am working on a writing project so I managed to get myself ready to take care of that bit of business.  I was still weak and achy, but feeling better by far than I had felt the previous day.  I've been eating a bit to get my strength back, but a big irony is that I'm not supposed to eat for the next couple of days and only take a liquid diet due to a colonoscopy scheduled for Thursday.

       The piece that I originally scheduled for today is kind of appropriate for my current state of being, but it can wait since it's been in my publish queue for quite a while now.   I had decided to use it now because it kind of fit in with my Battle of the Bands theme.   I think I'll just wait now and publish that post at a later date.  Or maybe never.

        If you haven't voted on my most recent Battle of the Bands post I hope you'll visit "Bring Me to Life" and cast a vote.   I'll be tallying the votes tomorrow (Thursday evening) and announcing the winner on Friday March 20th.

       Eventually--probably in May--I'll publish that post that was meant for today.  For the time being though I'll leave you with one question:   To what extent do you think our mind has the power over the illnesses that we feel and to which we succumb?  

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What If You Wrote a Book That Nobody Wanted? (#IWSG)

  And again it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.   This #IWSG event is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh.   You can follow the link to his blog for more information and the list of bloggers who are members of the group.  


          Just when I think I've found that really cool thing that will knock everyone's socks off, I get put in my place by those who think I've got weird tastes.   Well, maybe some of those people just aren't wearing socks or they are wearing those pajama things with the built in feet, but at least I try to metaphorically knock people off their feet on occasion.  But it doesn't always happen like that does it?

         Primarily I'm thinking about my Battle of the Bands (BOTB) posts which has been a big fixation for me over the past year or so.  If you haven't visited and voted on my most recent one you can find that post at Bye Bye Love.  I'll be tallying my votes tomorrow (Thursday) for my Friday announcement of the winner.   

         As you might surmise or know, the BOTB concept is a popularity contest of sorts.   It's an expression of preference.  The concept of preference is a topic that has popped up now and then on Tossing It Out because I find this topic of what we like and dislike to be infinitely interesting.  And it's not just me.  I ran into the same line of speculation at a recent post of my blogging friend Rob Z Tobor.   Rob asks The Big Question of "Why do people like different stuff?".

         Why indeed?   And more importantly from a marketing perspective, what is going to interest the widest ranging audience?  It's a question that authors might want to ask if they are looking for more readers.  It's what I try to explore to get more readers of my blog posts.  What about you?  Are you trying for the big audience or the niche audience?  

           I look toward a big niche.  When my book finally gets published I hope that a lot of people would be interested.  Then I think about what many people see as my weird, or perhaps I should say unique, tastes.   I'm not alone in what I like, but I do wish more people would experience what I like and see or hear it to be as great as I think it is.

          Maybe Ricky Nelson had it right when he famously sang, "You can't please everyone so you've got to please yourself."  Then again how distressing would it be if you hosted a party and nobody showed up because they knew you had out of the norm tastes.   Or more specifically, what if you wrote a book and nobody wanted to read it?


And now for an author who is confident about his book Junior Inquisitor.  Lincoln Farish is an author with whom I made recent contact and he's excited about his upcoming release.  You're invited to his party!  He's counting on a good turnout so don't be left out.



                    Coming Soon!

Brother Sebastian is halfway up a mountain in Vermont, hell-bent on interrogating an old woman in a shack, when he gets the order to abandon his quest for personal vengeance. He has to find a missing Inquisitor, or, more likely, his remains. He’s reluctant, to say the least. Not only will he have to stop chasing the best potential lead he’s had in years, this job—his first solo mission—will mean setting foot in the grubby black hole of Providence, Rhode Island. And, somehow, it only gets worse…

If he’d known he would end up ass deep in witches, werewolves, and ogres, and that this mission would jeopardize not only his sanity but also his immortal soul, he never would have answered the damn phone.

Available now for pre-order:

 

Amazon 

Smashwords 

Barnes and Noble Nook coming soon!

Author:  Lincoln Farish

Called an adventurer and quite possibly insane, Lincoln has traveled to many continents and countries on his own and at his country’s behest to determine from whence the darkness comes. Despite persistent rumors, Lincoln maintains that he had nothing to do with the tiger, was not involved in illicit wiener dog races, and has never used his knowledge of genetics to create a better life form. He lives in Virginia with a very patient wife, a Godzilla level engine of destruction named Veronica, and a helper dog named Calvin.

You can find Lincoln at:

Blog:  Farish's Freehold

Twitter: @LincolnFarish

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lincoln.farish.7

Email: lincolnfarish@gmail.com


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Be sure to stop by Tossing It Out this coming Friday for a special announcement (in addition to my BOTB winners announcement)!



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Deja Vu Again! 2014 Edition

        The Deja Vu Blogfest has become an annual event hosted by D.L. Hammons.   This is the time when bloggers can rerun a neglected or favorite blog post from the previous year in hopes that more will see it.  

       Looking over the past year, I realize that much of my blogging has pertained to the Battle of the Bands posts.  You can find these posts by looking at the first and fifteenth of each month on Tossing It Out.   My participation in BOTB has cut back on my visitation stats to some degree though traffic has remained fairly consistent so I'm okay with that for now.  After all I enjoy the Battle of the Bands a great deal and I hope more of you will join me for my upcoming BOTB posts and vote on them.

     However, I did post about other things as well.  My choice for the Deja Vu Blogfest of 2014 is one of my lesser visited posts.  The post I've chosen first appeared on March 17th.  There were actually quite a few comments so many of you might remember this post.  Whether or not you commented then I'll hope you'll enjoy this rerun and leave your thoughts in the comment section.

I Can Hardly Wait Until...

        There used to be this lady who worked at the corporate office of the company for which I worked.  She'd been working there for several years before I started managing the West Coast operation.  She handled things like payroll and accounts receivable and payable.  She would email me frequently when she had a question or a request concerning my office.  Her tag line before her signature was always "Hurry Friday!"

         She was one of those TGIF people who existed for the weekends.  I never understood that philosophy.  Maybe when I was in high school, but not really.  I had favorite TV shows during the week and I did okay going to school.  Didn't care for it all that much, but I very easily tolerated it.

          Still the "can hardly wait" idiom frequently appeared in my language. "I can hardly wait until my vacation" or Christmas or whatever.  I still catch myself saying these types of phrases or even thinking the thoughts.  The truth though is  that I can wait.  I don't want time to hurry any faster than it already does.  I'd like to savor every moment.  Or a least all the good ones.

          I don't really wish such and such a date would hurry and get here.  Life is short and I don't need to make it any shorter.  Even those times when I feel kind of bored.  In reality there's never a legitimate time for boredom as there is something interesting about every situation in every moment of the day.  I think of boredom as a stubborn display to reject what we think we don't want to do.  Or a tedious time as something I know I don't want to do.   The state of boredom is a lie which we begin to believe and if we openly express this lie we become more and more frustrated--or bored.

         But I digress.  My real point is that we--or I and you if you want to--we should savor each  present moment as much as we can.  They fly by so it's difficult to catch a moment, but sometimes time seems to pause--just for a moment to wait to see if I've noticed.

            "TGIF" or  "Hurry Friday!" even on a Monday the lady in our company would end her emails to me.  She still had a whole week ahead.  Every day would be a "Hurry Friday" day except for when it was "Yay! It's Friday!" day.

            You can wait for most things.   Sometimes you might need to go to the bathroom after waiting and there may come a point where you can't wait any longer.  There are things like throwing up    "Blechhhh!" If there's any waiting necessary for that then you can figure that waiting's not gonna happen.

            I wait if I have to.  What choice do I have in those cases?   There's always something to listen to and to look at or at least think about.  Waiting can be a blessing.  Waiting holds options if we choose to see them.     Waiting is not really all that bad.  Besides, once we've reached whatever we are waiting for then there's something else to wait for.

          That's life.  We're all ultimately waiting for something.

           Where do you dislike waiting?   Do you get impatient or unpleasant in any way when you have to wait?    What are you waiting for at this moment?

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My Point of Decision: Summer Blogging Plans

Lead the way, Happy (Seven Dwarves Topiary, Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2012) (Photo credit: ohhector)

            Remember when I said I was going to be doing shorter blog posts for the summer?    Over the past few weeks some of you might have been wondering what happened to those shorter blog posts that I was promising.   I've been laying some long complicated posts on you readers and a certain lack of comment participation has reflected this.   To be sure, I've been getting some of my best comments ever in the past several posts, but they've been coming from fewer commenters.   If you weren't involved in any of those discussions I think you missed out on some very interesting content.  Of course you're always welcome to go back to those posts and read some of the great comments that I received on what I think were posts on interesting topics.

          In any case, I said "short posts for the summer", but it hasn't been summer yet.   Now it's here.  The days are longer, but my posts will get shorter.  And perhaps stupider at times.  But that's okay.  After all it's summer and who needs to be serious in the summer?

         There will also be fewer posts.  I will continue to participate in the Battle of the Bands on the 1st and 15th of the month.  I will also post on the first Wednesday in order to be a part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group.    And I will post once a week on Wednesdays except on those weeks when there is a Battle of the Bands post on the day before.

          All I can say is that I'm going to go with the flow.  It's possible that I might add a post for something special or to announce the Battle of the Bands results.   Things will go back to normal in September.  Unless this new schedule becomes the new normal.

          That's what summer looks like for me--how about you?   Where will you be going during the summer and what will you be doing?   Do you have any blogging schedule changes in store?

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