Paltry Pickings

There have been somewhat paltry pickings from me blog-wise lately – many apologies for my lack of input.

Lots of stuff seems to be going on in life that stops me from seeing the best in the world right now, so apart from the odd outburst in a frustrated political rant or two (but considering that our current political situation would probably test the patience of a saint, I feel reasonably vindicated on that front) I’m feeling a bit quiet and withdrawn… not particularly chatty at all.

I’m still planning taking part in the April A-Z Challenge next month though, so with daily posting for that I’ll no doubt make up for it then 🙂

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Paltry

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A-Z Challenge 2019 Theme Reveal

My theme for this year’s A-Z Challenge is the straightforward and simple fun of colouring in. I absolutely loved colouring in as a child, loved colouring in with my own children and now my grandchildren, and still love colouring in all on my own. If you like colouring in too, or would perhaps like to have a go yourself but aren’t sure where to start, or are simply intrigued as to why a grown woman would want to spend her spare time playing around with colouring books and pens and pencils, please do come and have a look every day during April to see for yourself the kind of colouring in I love best 🙂

A-Z Challenge 2019 Theme Reveal

Blogging from A-Z April Challenge 2019

It’s time for me to think about taking part in this years Blogging from A-Z April Challenge – I’ve actually taken part three times before, but have deleted my old blogs so this will be my first time on this particular iteration of an online me 🙂

I’m going for a theme of colouring-in this year, as I’ve really been enjoying the fun of finding such pleasure in such a simple task – I thought I’d share some of my ongoing experience with you all in a more condensed format rather than in the usual dribs and drabs.

If anyone is interested in having a look at what is involved in the A-Z Challenge, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, just click on the link above for more information – hope to see you there! 🙂

Blogging from my Phone

I’ve decided to try to blog from my phone, which is not something I’ve done before – well, I’ve occasionally logged on and read and liked some stuff while I’ve been away somewhere, but I’d never tried posting anything new until this morning.

My last three short-but-sweet posts were written and uploaded today via my phone, including images – go me! Except I haven’t yet worked out how to add categories or tags or add links, but I’ll get there eventually, probably through my usual system of trial and error coupled with much frustration and failure along the way.

I’m a bit slow with embracing too much new technology, so I tend to dig my heels in and stick with what I know for a lot longer than I ought to. I don’t like the idea of my technology being so much smarter than me and making decisions for me because it thinks it knows best – I like to be in control of me and exactly what and how I post stuff, so I resist what I consider to be too much ‘helpful interference’, often to my detriment.

Anyway, I’m sure we’ll see soon enough how I get on with my adventures in phone blogging – or not as the case may be – and as time passes we can all start to draw our own conclusions one way or another 🙂

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Draw

Digital Artifacts

Why do WordPress have to mess about with my uploaded images?

I always make sure to resize all my images to a reasonable resolution for online viewing, particularly as I use the free version of WordPress so have an eventual upload limit and like to save space, and yet whenever I try to insert them into my blog post as a tiled gallery they often look all pixelated and full of digital artifacts.

The thing is, once you click on any image in the gallery, all tiled images render perfectly well, so I know it’s not my uploaded images at source that are the problem. I’ve even tried inserting images individually into posts rather than as a gallery, but still they do not render correctly to my chosen resolution – it’s so frustrating.

I probably need to experiment more to find an improved optimum size and resolution for uploading to this particular platform to stop this from happening, but it really annoys me that ultimately WordPress gets to decide how my images display on my blog – surely there should be a setting somewhere to switch off any further image compression for control freaks like me?

Or am I just doing it all wrong in the first place? What does everyone else do to keep their images looking good across their blog? All advice gratefully received… 🙂

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Artifact

Reservations and Lack of Gumption

There are so many thought-provoking subjects I’d like to write multiple blog posts about, but just don’t have the gumption – my reservations relate mainly to the way some topics can act as red rags to a bull and cause no end of upset to others, and being a bit of a people-pleaser myself I find the resulting nastiness in response deeply upsetting to me, so I just don’t bother going there.

Political opinion, religious beliefs, and feminist views in particular seem to rile some people up way beyond sensible discussion and debate, so although I do have quite strong opinions, beliefs and views I find I tend to avoid sharing them online as a rule. But I absolutely love reading what everyone else has to say about all those things I don’t dare write about for myself, and dream of one day being brave enough to join in… 🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Reservations

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Gumption 

Rivulets of Thought

I’m having one of those confusing days when I’m questioning why I’m even writing a blog, why I persevere in sharing a little piece of my very ordinary life online every now and then? Is there a proper purpose underlying my very public pondering, or is it more a vein of personal vanity running through my multiple musings month on month?

It’s as though I have all these little rivulets of thought constantly drip, drip dripping out of my head with nowhere particular to go. Some of these random thoughts coalesce with enough creativity to make it onto the page, onto the screen, and ultimately find themselves posted on my blog for posterity, while others simply evaporate into empty nothingness…

Daily Prompt: Rivulet