Bourbon, Bunnies & Baffling Skies + Q[s]OTD

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015 / Ally Bean / 42 Comments

An acquaintance suggested that I needed to start an Instagram account. She’s there and loves it. She thinks that I could drive traffic to my blog from Instagram + she likes my photos and wants to see them all in one place.

Isn’t that sweet?

So last night, as a test run, I snapped some photos around here. I figure that these are the sort of photos that I’d probably put on Instagram, if I was there.

Which I’m not sure that I’m going to be.

As I was taking these pics I remembered a woman from years ago who had a unique blog, the name of which I don’t remember, in which she posted one photo per day of her kitchen table OR of what she saw while sitting at her kitchen table.

Her kitchen counter. Her backyard. Her sky.

And suddenly I was giggling to myself because what I’d snapped for my Instagram test run was exactly what this blogger, who I hadn’t thought of in years, used to do. Yet here I was doing the same thing, lending credence to: everything old is new again!

# # #

Q[s]OTD:

1) Are you on, or do you follow people on, Instagram? What do you like about it? What do not like about it? Should I be there?

2) In general, when viewing other people’s photos, what is your favorite kind of photo to see? And why?

For The Win: In Which I Bid Adieu To Jibber Jabber July

July 31, 2015August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 22 Comments

“What’s up, Doc Ms. Bean?”

I STARTED my #JibberJabberJuly challenge with Scrat, my blogging muse.

But now that July is almost over, I think that I’ll end my month of writing with Bugs Bunny.

Always loved him, too. Observant. Funny. Snarky. He makes a good counterbalance to Scrat’s earnestness.

* * *

THANKS TO my faithful gentle readers who followed The Spectacled Bean during this month of wordiness.

I appreciate your support via comments + likes + link backs. It’s only through those means that I, as a blogger, can know if what I write here resonates with my readers.

And rings true.

* * *

ALSO HELLO to my new followers. This has been a delightful unexpected consequence of #JibberJabberJuly.

As part of my writing challenge I also commented more often elsewhere, and in the process of that became visible to many new people who found it in their hearts to visit this blog.

Many of my new visitors even left a comment &/or started following The Spectacled Bean. Isn’t that cool?

Thank you!

* * *

AND ON that happy note, I’ll leave you, gentle readers + newbie followers, with Sweet Baby James singing Secret of Life. I’m going to take his words to heart and use them as my August mantra.

“… try not to try too hard, it’s just a lovely ride.”

* * *

WordPress Reader: So This Is What It Has Come To?

July 21, 2015August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 25 Comments

Opus the Penguin reacts.

LIKE SO MANY OTHER WP BLOGGERS, for the last week or so I’ve fussed around with my Reader* account. WordPress changed the thing and now it’s pretty whacked.

I’ve blogged hither and yon forever, so while I understand why people are upset about the change to Reader, I’ve shrugged it off. There are other ways to follow blogs.

For instance, now I’m using feedly.com to keep track of everyone until WordPress gets this latest kerfuffle under control.

• • •

Bill the Cat opines.

BUT GETTING TO MY POINT HERE, as the above screen shot shows you, what I’ve found to be curious + hilarious about my current Reader account is that it tells me that I’m now following -11 blogs.

This, I’m sure, is a first for me.

Apparently Reader has taken it upon itself to carry out peremptory measures to make sure that I will not read the next 11 blogs that I think that I want to follow here in WordPress.

I’m becoming concerned about Reader. It’s getting uppity.

Truthfully, I have to wonder if when the computers rise up and take over the world, we’ll all look back on this moment and realize that Reader was a leader in the revolution against the human race.

Be forewarned, people. 😉

• • •

* For those of you outside of the WP system, Reader is a way to follow WP blogs. It’s a free feature that involves minimal effort on my part to have access to a current feed of all the WP blogs that I choose to follow. In theory, it’s useful. However, in practice…

• • •

{ It’s back! Images from Bloom County. More here. }

Welcome To Jibber Jabber July

July 6, 2015May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 22 Comments

Scrat, my blogging muse, with acorn.

I STARTED KEEPING A BLOG when the earth was covered in ice.

Really. It’s true.

Like one of my favorite cartoon characters, Scrat, the Ice Age squirrel, back then I focused on getting ~~readers~~ my acorn. Keeping ~~readers~~ my acorn.

No matter what.

I posted almost daily. Sometimes more than once a day even. Can you imagine?

We all did. Egos demanded it.

# # #

I ONLY SHARE THIS RETROSPECTIVE with you, my gentle readers, as a way of introducing you to a concept I dreamed up last week while I sat stuck inside my house due to massive amounts of rain.

This has not been the kind of summer to be outside. Too wet. Too moldy. It makes me itch.

So I thought to myself…

Why not return to a modified version of old-time blogging and post here 3 or 4 days a week? For one month.

Like I used to do when I was new to blogging and commenters were a dime a dozen and there was a sense of community among those of us who were either courageous enough OR crazy enough to share all the details of our lives with virtual strangers.

# # #

WITH THE FOREGOING IN MIND I have taken the liberty of creating my very own unique hashtag: #JibberJabberJuly. It’s what all the cool kids do now, making hashtags that is.

Although they usually use some sort of acronym, or garbled words, that no one outside of their group understands. Which I think sort of defeats the purpose of connection among virtual strangers.

But whatever.

To wit, I have used my propensity toward creative alliteration + my love of clear communication to gift the world with my hashtag. Feel free, gentle readers, to adopt it, or the concept upon which it is based, as your own all month.

Let’s get it ~~started~~ jibber-jabbering in here. Shall we?