Archive
or not – Another Day of Rest
As another week comes to an end, it’s time for a little rest. Not a lot, but at least a bit to gather my thoughts and look forward to the coming week. There is still plenty of Housekeeping to do, both on the blog and at home. There is nothing really bugging me today!
Today is a day for sharing. Sharing things I have learned, sharing things I have found which could help some of my fellow bloggers, and to give thanks to those who have truly touched me, and praise to accomplishments this week.
My dear friend and fellow blogger, Piglet in Portugal, was Freshly Pressed this past week for her post on Gazanias in January.
My English Thoughts for being promoted from an intern job to Light House manager. I’ve missed her daily postings but I am so happy to see her so excited and following her passion.
A special hello and thanks to A Blog by PaPa Joe who has reminded me of what a Wonderfully Small World we live in. For reminding me how much clicking the Like button and leaving a comment can brighten a person’s day and put a smile on their face. 
Special mention to Alexy Saltekoff for his post on Witnessing Bravery and bringing to my attention the short stories they have put into publications of “Portraits in Courage” about the men and women overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those are some of the highlights of my past week. I’ve made new friends and look forward to getting to know them better.
Sharing new things is great when they can help others. Some of us struggle with our writing and are not so much worried about the spelling but by the grammar. One of my finds this week was PaperRater which is a free online tool.
- spelling and grammar checker
- plagiarism checker
- provides detailed report on your writing.
- plus many more with a final grade
This is definitely something worth checking out. Did I mention it is free!
reminderfox is an add-on for Firefox that sits on your Bookmarks tool bar
- Remember dates & todos
- Display reminders & alarms
- Subscribe to online calendars
Other handy Firefox Add-ons
That’s it for today, there is nothing bugging me today!
A Quote for Today
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people
than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Dale Carnegie
Recommended
© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
Tired Eyes From Reading…
Participating in the WordPress PostADay2011 Challenge is taking its toll on my eyes.
Visiting the sites of other bloggers and switching from light coloured backgrounds with dark texts, which my eyes like, and then arriving at the blogs with dark coloured backgrounds with light text can really tire my eyes. This is what’s bugging me today.
Actually, it was bugging me when the challenge started.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, the sites look fantastic but my poor little eyes don’t like the dark backgrounds. Put that together with a small font size and it’s a little difficult to read. I know I can’t be the only one having trouble with this.
When I started working with computers in the 70′s it was green text on a black background. After a couple of months, daily headaches and finally a visit to the eye doctor told me I needed eyeglasses but for distance only. Once I got the eyeglasses the headaches disappeared. Now I only wear them for watching television and driving, but never for reading.
I’ve tried out a few different bookmarklets and they each have their good points and bad. I have three of them for you.
The first one is Notforest, it strips away all the distractions like flash ads, and just leaves the text of the article or blog post you want to read. It centers the article in the middle of the page and it also increases the font size making it easier to read. All hyperlinks remain active and if you click on one it takes you out of Notforest view and goes to the page.
The second one is Readability. This is similar to Notforest for use on articles or postings, but gives you the added options to email or print the page. One thing I’ve noticed is that not all hyperlinks remain intact if they are at the bottom of the page.
The third one is ‘a lovely bookmarklet’. This one changes a dark background to white, and white and coloured text to black with everything else still in place. However, if you click on a link to another page you have to click on the bookmarklet again. This can be a little annoying but at least you can read the page now and not go blind.
I found it in a blog posting on 456 Berea Street and how I installed it on my tool bar. I’ve tried to post it here but can’t seem to get it to work so you will have to go to his blog posting and click on the link in the update to his post.
One of his readers left it in a comment.
Of the three, I would say that a lovely bookmarklet is my favourite.
Now there is nothing bugging me today! 
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
People who tell me what’s good for me
Okay, there’s been enough “or not” days, it’s time for a rant today!
What I find annoying are people who have no understanding of what it’s like to live with Crohn’s Disease and food sensitivities, yet insist on telling me what foods are good for me. This is what’s bugging me today!
There are plenty of foods which are good for you but not for me. Why? I don’t know.
The doctors don’t know. I’ve given up trying to figure it out, I just accept it and adjust my diet.
Yet, people still want to question my choice in food.
Why don’t you eat whole grain bread it’s good for you? It may be good for you but it’s not for me. I used to eat whole wheat bread, but now I’ve come to realize that causes me pain, yet eating a plain white bagel is fine. Why? I don’t know.
Just over a year ago, I really wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t figure out why. It seemed like everything I ate caused me pain. It was so painful, I could barely walk. After fiddling around with my diet for weeks, I determined that the cheese I was eating was causing me pain. I love my cheese! But I hate the pain. No more cheese in my diet. Why? I don’t know.
I would also be questioned about drinking whole milk instead of 2%. Whole milk is better for me because it has more fat and more calories and being skinny I need all I can get. But recently I found that milk causes me extreme pain, not all dairy products, just milk. I can now eat cheese and have butter, but not milk. Why? I don’t know.
Now one thing you guys don’t know about me is that I’m a caffeine addict. Yes, I am addicted to coffee, don’t ask my how many cups a day I have. I refuse to count them. Do not take my coffee away from me. I like drinking my coffee with 2 sugars and 1 milk, but I’ve had to start drinking it without the milk. It’s not bad, it’s just not the same. But every once in a while, I give myself a treat and add some Kahlua or Tia Maria. Now that’s flavoured coffee!!
I wish I had the answers. Doctors don’t have any answers for me, but still people want to question me on my choice of foods. They know I’ve lived with Crohn’s Disease for 30 years and have always watched my diet. I know what my body is telling me and I don’t need people telling me what’s good for me.
This is what’s bugging me today!
Related Info:
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- Stressed Out Over Being Called Skinny
- Researchers find vitamin D absorption is diminished in patients with Crohn’s disease
- The Basics of Crohn’s Disease
© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
or not – Brave Soldiers and Everyday Folks
There is nothing bugging me today!
How could there be when the topic of the day is to talk about bravery.
Brave has several definitions. You can talk about a brave soldier or a senior being brave enough to learn how to blog for the first time.
What is the bravest thing?
There are two I want to write about. The first is the challenge that so many have taken up to write a postaday2011 or a postaweek2011. Reading through the posts, there were many who were apprehensive and not sure if they could do it. But they are showing they are brave by showing no fear of what could be a difficult task.
Some have freely admitted in their posts that it would be hard for them, but they are hoping that with tips and encouragement from everyone they will be able to follow through on their commitment.
- Quite nervous, but let’s do this
- Like I said, I want to participate, but I’m terrified of failure.
Any attempt in improving oneself can be a challenge and they’ve accepted it and this could be the bravest thing they’ve done in a long time and they should be recognized for it.
And we can’t forget about our troops! I’m talking about all of them, not just from Canada and the U.S., but also Australia, Great Britain, and all the other NATO forces in Afghanistan and around the world.
Send a word of encouragement to your troops. Let them know you care and are thinking of them.
There is nothing bugging me today!
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
or not – Hoping That Someone Will …
Image via Wikipedia
Everyone is probably checking their stats and looking to see if they are going up or down. I’m pretty sure that everyone who has really engaged in the challenge and teamed up with a blogging buddy or two has. But now we’re all probably hoping that it will continue.
I know I was asking myself all these questions when I started my blog.
- Will anyone press the Like button?
- Will anyone leave a comment?
- Will anyone rate the post or the page?
- Will anyone subscribe to my blog?
- Will anyone use the Contact Me form?
- Will my visitors increase?
- Will I have return visitors?
- Will anyone add me to their blogroll?
- Will my writing improve?
- Will I have enough to write about every day?
Since the challenge started I’ve grown more confident and I’m not afraid to push the publish button anymore. I also know my writing has improved because the grammar and spellcheck has stopped telling me its passive voice and to change it to active voice. That was a nasty little habit of mine. It is so nice to hit the ABC button and have it say ‘No writing errors were found’.
Oh, I still have a way to go, but I do know that the more I write, the more comfortable I am about writing. For anyone who missed the post on writing, check out the related articles below.
What were you hoping for? Did you get it?
I’ve set up the above questions as a poll on a new page I’ve added today.
Won’t you please take a minute and vote to let me know how you were feeling when you started the challenge.
You will also find an infographic of The Evolution of the Blogger has just been added.
I’m happy to say you answered all my hopes. Thank you.
There is nothing bugging me today!
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
Housekeeping Can Be A Chore
With the challenge well on its way and blogging buddies a great success, it’s time to get down to some housekeeping – on the blog that is. This is what’s bugging me today.
Well, it’s not so much bugging me but it is a chore!
I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I put this blog fairly quickly. I found a simple clean theme to work with knowing I could always change it. I’ve added things haphazardly and it’s now time to clean it up a bit.
You will see some changes over the next few days with new pages added and hopefully a new theme. Which brings me to today.
I’ve always read that there are four principal pages every new blog should have and a navigation bar listing the pages either at the top or in the side panel.
- Home
- About
- Archives
- Contact
Since most of us here have our blogs on WordPress, not a self-hosted domain name, the theme we select takes care of the first two pages. The other two are fairly easy to add. It’s important to have a Contact page because some visitors may not want to post a comment but would prefer to send you an email.
But not all themes support a navigation bar at the top. The theme I am using, The Journalist v1.9, does not come with the navigation bar at the top. I liked this feature at first but not sure about it now. One thing I’ve tried to do during my visits to blogs is to make a note of the blog themes I like and don’t like.
I know that if you’re a techie you can edit CSS, but I’m talking to some new bloggers who just want the basics and to able to work with the options available in their theme.
Another important item you should have on your page is a way for your readers to subscribe. Remember not all visitors to your blog are WordPress members. Add your email subscription form to the side panel, along with giving your readers the ability to subscribe to your RSS news feed.
Well that’s enough for today, time to get to my housekeeping.
This is what’s bugging me today!
p.s I’ve decided to put the other blog, Your Place to Rant, on hold for now but more on that later.
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
or not – A Time to Rest
This last week has been exciting, tiring and the best week I’ve had here on the blog. There is nothing bugging me today and it’s time to take a rest.
So today, I am bringing you the
11 Commandments For An Enthusiastic Team
by Ian Percy.
- Help each other be right … not wrong
- Look for ways to make new ideas work … not for reasons they won’t
- If in doubt … check it out! Don’t make negative assumptions about each other
- Help each other win and take pride in each other’s victories
- Speak positively about each other and about your organization at every opportunity
- Maintain a positive mental attitude no matter what the circumstances
- Act with initiative and courage as if it all depends on you
- Do everything with enthusiasm … it’s contagious
- Whatever you want … give it away
- Don’t lose faith … never give up
- Have fun!
Something for the Blogging Buddies to ponder.
There is nothing bugging me today!
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
or not – maybe? How will PostADay2011 play out?
When I started this blog it had a different purpose, but joining the WordPress PostADay2011 Challenge and meeting some great fellow bloggers, I’m not sure if I can keep it on the same track. I don’t want to write about annoying things everyday. This is what’s bugging me today!
That’s the reason I have the “or not” posts. I had to add something to the title of the post otherwise people would think I found it annoying. Now I think it confuses them and they come to see what it’s all about.
But I don’t want to talk about what’s bugging me today.
What I want to do is share, what I think is some good information with my fellow bloggers in the postaday2011/postaweek2011 challenge. It’s been sitting in my Google Reader since the day this challenge started and I finally had a chance to read some of it today.
It’s a Best of 2010 list and there are 21 postings on it. I checked some of them out and the posting themselves have links to other postings with good information so I thought I would post it for everyone.
I especially wanted to share it with one of my readers, My English Thoughts, who is blogging in English daily when French is her first language. Now here is someone who has really taken on the challenge!
Here is one posting from the list I do want to share with you today.
10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer
1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.
About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger
Originally posted July 2007 423 Comments
as of Jan. 9, 2011 there are 201 sites linked to the post
This was one of the 21 posts on the list from The Best of CopyBlogger 2010.
There is so much information that I haven’t had time to go through it all, but I will point out some of the ones that did attract my attention and I did manage to read.
11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing
Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice
20 Warning Signs That Your Content Sucks
The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog
I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did.
There, now I feel better.
Now, there is nothing bugging me today!!
p.s. My English Thoughts likes the English bloggers. Read her comment, it will put a smile on your face
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
ClassyRose
I am not an angry person. Please click on the picture to read why I started this Blog.
Favourite Things
World Visitors
Human Spammers Posing as Genuine Bloggers
As some of you know, I had another blog set up, Your Place to Rant, where WordPress members who didn’t want to post a rant on their own blog, could come to rant. Don’t bother clicking on the link, I’ve changed it to private. After reading another blogger’s post on Human Spammers, I came back and checked mine and found that I was also a victim. This is what’s bugging me today!
Because I set it up as a Group blog where any registered WordPress member could post, they just came along and started posting either a rant or a comment. That also brought them over to this blog and they posted comments here too. They are a pest, a nuisance and I did not want to have to deal with them every day. When I realized this I changed the other blog so I would have to approve every post and comment before it appeared and then slowly realized that this would end up taking a lot of my time which I would rather spend writing or reading. So this weekend I shut it down.
They leave the same comments on blogs all over the Internet and if you do a search on the comment you will find it listed thousands of times. I am not going to rehash every thing that you can read in the post, but what I want to do is give some ideas on what to look out for. Akismet catches the most common ones, but I’ve found that the WordPress Challenge has brought out more of them.
Now I know that there are still new bloggers out there who haven’t linked their names and not updated their profile on their Gravatar and this is in no way meant to discredit them. If you are one of them please read Bloggers With No Links. Personalize your blog in some way, update your About page, include links to your favourite blogs or sites you visit. Add something to show people you are a real blogger.
When someone new leaves a comment on my blog, I check out the blog before I approve it. If it’s a new blog and questionable I go back to the comment that was left and search Google for the phrase using quotes to match it exactly. If I don’t like the results, the comment doesn’t get approved.
Be careful when you’re approving your comments. They are just looking for links.
This is what’s bugging me today!
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© 2010-2011 Things in life I find annoying
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