The Monday Peeve 55

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the TMP tag, link back to me (or not), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen. I have feelings!

Random tech issues drive me bonkers! That’s today’s peeve, btw. If anything should be consistent in this world, it’s a computer, amirite? Computers aren’t whimsical beings, subject to mood swings and irrational decisions. They are meant to react the same way to the same thing every time. And yet… and yet… they don’t! Yesterday, I was literally in tears over the bizarre way my laptop behaved while I tried to do a smidge of work. It was so slow and so weird. And just when I thought, okay, this is it, I am totally buying a new one… it quit doing all the annoys, sped up, and was fine for the rest of the day. ARGH!!!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image altered from the original on Pixabay.

Four for Pondering

Rory has some great questions for us today as he continues his Friday Four prompt…

**What is more important to you – to be ‘Liked’ or to be Respected?’** What do you believe to be the difference between admiration and respect or do you find them to be the same?** Likability and friendship are two different things. Being likable to many is great, but being a great friend to a few (or one) is rare – what do you think to that statement – true or false, agree or disagree? How uniquely YOU are you in a world filled with variations of you anyway – what seperates YOU from the rest of the world and makes you Youniquely You??

1. Is it more important to me to be liked or respected? I know most people are going to say “respected” with some sort of comment about how they’re true to their values and would rather be respected for that than liked for smiling and going along. Well, I’m not most people. I would rather be liked as a helpful friend who is nice and funny and caring. I know for a fact there are people who see me this way but disrespect my values and political positions. I’m fine with that and I see no need to argue with them about issues none of us will budge on. This is why I don’t blather (much) about politics online. Not putting down those who do, but I’d rather keep my interactions positive.

2. Do I differentiate between admiration and respect? Yes, but it only works one way. What I mean is that if I respect someone, I can easily find something to admire about them, even something small. However, I can admire someone’s success without having respect for them as a person. Many celebs are in this category for me.

3. “Likability and friendship are two different things. Being likable to many is great, but being a great friend to a few (or one) is rare – what do you think to that statement – true or false, agree or disagree?” I obviously agree with this because I wrote it! Thanks, Rory, for including my thoughts. I know people who are liked by many ~ it seems important to them to collect as many “friends” as possible ~ but in my experience they are too busy spreading themselves around to have enough time and energy to focus on one true friendship. On the other hand, I know people who aren’t popular, but they will be there 100% for a few.

4. What makes me unique? Nothing! I don’t consider myself anything special, which is not meant to be a negative (see my remark about celebs). There’s nothing wrong with living a quiet, ordinary life and finding joy in small things.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images from Bitmoji

The Monday Peeve 54

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the TMP tag, link back to me (or not), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen. I have feelings!

Doesn’t it annoy you when someone says something like “you can do a thing because that person did the thing?” Whatever it is — quitting smoking, getting rid of migraines, exercising more, publishing a book, finding true love, etc. — the premise is that someone else did it so I can too. Huh. So we’re all the same, a giant mass of cookies cut from the same dough the same way, and if one of us survives being stomped on by an elephant, then the rest of us can too. Did you know that some woman somewhere wrote a novel in the middle of the night after taking care of kids, job, house, hubby, found an agent after querying 500,000 of them, and is now on the bestseller list, negotiating movie rights, and buying a mansion? Ergo, I should have been able to do this as well.

There are variations to this theme. A particular irksome one is that X group of people are successful, so Y group has no excuse for not being successful also. This not only assumes that all people are the same and started out in the same circumstances, BUT ALSO have been treated the same by others. Another variation is the person who got lucky with an investment, is now all smug about his “brilliance,” and drones on that other people should be smarter about money, when it was JUST LUCK that he hit it big. We don’t hear about his other thousand investments that tanked, just the one fabulous pick.

Blah. This year sucks!

RIP RBG 😢

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image altered from the original on Pixabay.

Friday Four on Saturday!

The Friday Four returns! Rory asks us to ponder thusly…

1. What three senses could you NOT live without? Discuss why…

This is purely financial: sight, hearing, touch. I could not work without being able to see and hear. If I felt nothing, I’d constantly hurt myself and be unable to work too. While I’d miss smell and taste, they aren’t necessary for my survival the way work is.

2. What is your favourite of these two and why? Pen or Pencil.

I love all writing tools, but if I’m forced to choose, I’ll go with pencil. I like being able to erase when I’m doing a puzzle and I love the variety of colored pencils for coloring. Not that I have been lately, but I might again!

3. What are your top 3 colours and why are they your favourites?

Turquoise because it’s so lush and vivid. Pure purple for drama and depth. Candy pink for laughter and happiness. (Also love sunflower yellow and lime green for tropical pops.)

4. Are you able to list 10 basic smells and if so what are they?

Vanilla, cinnamon, lemon, garlic, ocean, pine, mint, flowers, bread, wine…

Happy Rosh Hashanah! Have a sweet New Year! 🍯

RIP RBG 💔

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

5 Fave Burgers

Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things series by asking about our favorite burgers this week.

1. My most favorite burger isn’t on a bun ~ it’s a patty melt! Burger patties with grilled onions and melted cheese on grilled rye bread. Traditional cheese is Swiss, but I don’t like Swiss. American cheese, please! Mr. Food shares this image.

2. My next favorite burger is on a bun, but it’s a portobello mushroom not a hamburger patty. I like cheese on this one too, along with sauce. This one I found on Foodie Crush has avocado chimichurri. Not sure what that is, but it looks delicious!

3. Staying in the veggie family, next up is a burger I do at home. It’s a spicy black bean burger… and I like to melt a blob of brie cheese on it, yummm! Serve with pickles on a toasted English muffin. So good. Also good with guacamole if I don’t have brie. (Image from Target.)

4. Back to mushrooms… I occasionally grab a Five Guys beef burger with American cheese, pickles, mustard, ketchup, and a pile of grilled mushrooms. Mmm… (Image found on Reddit.)

5. Finally… a Bic Mac! Yep, I really do like these, though I don’t have them very often. So tasty. (Image from McDonald’s.)

And there you have it. Now you can go on with your day… betcha might feel like a burger later, huh? I know I will! 😋

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 53

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the TMP tag, link back to me (or not), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen. I have feelings!

Let’s get right to it, shall we? LITTERBUGS. Oh my god, they make me so annoyed! It’s like… this is YOUR earth also, so why do you want to crap it up? You live here too, doh. But more specifically, when the garbage bin is literally RIGHT THERE, why are people throwing stuff on the ground? I just don’t get it. At every apartment complex I’ve lived, there has been trash on the ground right next to the bin. Sometimes it’s from people who must put out their trash while the truck is dumping the bin because they can’t wait a minute until it’s put back. Other times it’s just from lazy people who can’t be bothered to expend that extra calorie of energy to toss their bag in. Finally, we have the garbage pickers who sneak in to find their “treasures” in our trash and make a mess while doing so. IT’S ALL DISGUSTING.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

My Turn [rant]

Soooo, I have tried to avoid bitching too much about WordPress, as imperfect as it is. Not to mention that I don’t hate the block editor (heresy!), though of course I have empathy for anyone experiencing difficulties getting their writing to publish. The thing is, blogging is my favorite form of social media by far, and I’m super grateful it’s surviving when almost everyone else just twitters and faceplops. I blame a short attention span… I remember when some of my writer friends kept interesting blogs, but now they just quote boring political crap on FB, or repost dumb memes. I guess it’s easier. 🙄

H O W E V E R!

I had the damndest time getting my last post to publish properly. And this has nothing to do with the cursed BE because I was using the app in classic mode. Ooh, maybe they’re screwing with the CE to get us to switch over entirely (I use the BE on my laptop). I had to keep fixing it and republishing it to get all the links to “take.” They would disappear in the process and I’d view the post only to find them poofed. So maddening!

I understand that the outcome of writing to WP for help is zippo, nada, crickets. So why bother? Instead I’m venting here, especially because this wasn’t a one-off. I’ve had to repost other pieces of writing due to formatting glitches. Sometimes my video links don’t show up with previews, and it looks stupid when the html link sits there alone instead of a nice music image. Btw, I’m in the process of labeling all my saved images, since the WP search function is crap. Not talking about their library, but trying to find something I’ve used before and saved in mine. Yes, that’s a different issue, but why not throw everything into the Big Casserole of Doom?

Must chillax somehow…

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images from Bitmoji

5 Fall Faves

Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things prompt series with fall favorites. Here are mine…

1. A break from oppressive heat. While I love summer days, by October I’m ready for cooler nights. Since I’m in Southern California, we’re not talking freezing temps (usually), just a civilized dip into the 50s or so.

2. The opportunity to wear boots!

3. Going north for Thanksgiving to visit my eldest and her hubby. Yay!

4. Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin candy. (These are peanut butter/chocolate cups in a pumpkin shape, which are even more delicious than regular ones because of the ratio or some other magic.)

5. Pumpkin pie!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images credited to Happy Color and Google.

Shared Labor

Happy Labor Day! To honor our workers, including me, I will answer Melanie’s SYW questions, as I do almost every Monday. Once again, there are two sets… one from Roger for HP fans and one from Melanie except she copied them from others. 🙃

Roger’s Magical, Mystical Questions:

1. What happened to cause you to discover ‘bullies” were real?

Starting school. Kids are monsters. 👹

2. Eavesdropping. When given the chance, how often do you eavesdrop? (this may be a similar question to what some folks said they’d do with an invisibility cloak)

It depends. Mostly I hate all noise, which includes other people’s jabber. But if I get the feeling something interesting is going on, I might listen to use it in a story. This doesn’t happen often though.

3. Escalators, at one time, were the ‘next big thing’. When was the last time you rode an escalator?

I don’t remember… possibly when I went to the mall pre-plague.

4. Have you ever ‘let’ someone win in a sports competition or a board game? How did it turn out?

Yes. It was fine. I’m not that competitive in games generally… I simply like to play (in person… zoom sucks).

Melanie’s Muggle Questions:

I’m very short on time today (Sunday) so I’m borrowing from Rory and Sandmanjazz to fill the questions today:

1. Do our fears start with our DNA? (Credit to Rory)

Some do, especially the fear of potentially deadly things. Others can be triggered by a traumatic event. 🐍

2. If you could have your hair any colour for 24 hours, what colour would you choose? (Credit to Sandmanjazz)

Turquoise.

3. When do you think a person gets old? (Credit to Rory)

When they’ve lived 2/3 or more of their predicted lifespan. Age is a number!

4. GRATITUDE SECTION (as always this is optional). Please feel free to write about an uplifting moment in your life this week!

I’m grateful Benadryl exists.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images credited to Melanie and Breaking Bad

The Monday Peeve 52

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the TMP tag, link back to me (or not), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen. I have feelings!

Today’s peeve is about those annoying website warnings. I understand that it’s the law to tell us about privacy and yada when we go to a site. Got it. But I go to the SAME SITES and the warning repeatedly pops up, sometimes EVERY TIME I visit, even multiple times per day! It’s so irritating, especially for news type sites because not only do you have to (yet again) agree to their privacy policy, but then you get the pop-ups asking you to please subscribe or get updates in your email, etc. etc.

JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME READ THE THING!

Take WordPress, one of the worst offenders imo… I am constantly getting the privacy/cookie message on my laptop when I have stayed logged in for months. WHY? It doesn’t happen on the phone app (though it does on the phone browser), which is another great reason (#758) why the app is better than the website.

I hugely resent giving up these precious two seconds a hundred times a day because that adds up to um well 200 seconds that I didn’t spend “working on my novel.” I could have been finished by now if it weren’t for these horrible time-wasting clicks. RAWR!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image altered from the original on Pixabay