Highlights From August: I’m Not A Flower. I’m Not A Fork. I’m Not A Foe.

September 4, 2025 / Ally Bean / 179 Comments

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The Flower Part

Late one afternoon while sitting outside on the deck, I was ~~viciously attacked~~ dive-bombed by a hummingbird who mistook me for a flower. Why, you may be wondering, did this little piece of flightiness think I was a flower?

Here’s the scene: I was wearing a pale pink baseball cap [similar here] + a medium pink fleece top [here] + raspberry-colored moccasin slippers [on sale now here] whilst drinking a pink grapefruit Italian soda [from here] that I’d poured into a clear plastic tumbler [here] with a bright red travel lid [here].

My basically pinkish-reddish ensemble + beverage were not intended to attract hummingbirds, but I nailed it. And that little birdie with the fluttering wings couldn’t take his sparkly little eyes off me.

I was startled, but flattered.

The Fork Part

Zen-Den and I finished watching Elementary, a TV series about Sherlock Holmes re-envisioned for modern times starring Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson. I enjoyed it and thought the final episode was a good way to end it. Apparently not all fans liked the ending, so I just wrote something potentially controversial here.

Anyhoo, like many TV shows or movies, we sometimes focus on one line that we find absurdly funny and start saying it to each other— like a goofy inside joke. And this show gave us a good one.

In a scene where Sherlock and Marcus, a NYC police detective assigned to work with Sherlock, are kicking back after a difficult day, Sherlock who is often quite full of himself tells Marcus that he knows why Marcus is so taken with him.

It’s a scene of arrogance gone wild.

Sherlock starts babbling on about how his astounding intellect magnetizes people who are then drawn to him. It’s a burden Sherlock must live with.

Marcus, who has the patience of Job when dealing with Sherlock’s ego, replies: “You’re not a magnet. And I sure as hell am not a fork.”

Thus I, too, want to establish the fact that I’m not a fork. You can’t magnetize me. Don’t even try.

The Foe Part

A friend, who seemed sincere when she said this, told me that she wanted to change something about her behavior so that she’d have more free time.

I was surprised BUT I am one to help others when they decide they want to change. To be clear I don’t believe I need to fix people, yet will help you fix yourself when you’re ready to do so. Think of me as your personal cheerleader.

A few weeks later I see this friend and compliment her on how she has changed herself, how she has followed through on doing that which she told me she wanted to do in order to have less stress in her busy life.

Welp, she lays into me for mentioning she was doing things differently now: things she told me she didn’t want to do anymore.

This was her idea, remember?

She got on her high horse and lectured me about how her well established M.O. was what she was known for and no way would she ever change it for fear of not being known for it.

This was slightly unhinged thinking— and a complete 180º from what she’d confided in me a few weeks earlier.

Obviously at this point I had a decision to make: do I remind her of what she told me about how she wanted to change? Or do I let the conversation drop knowing the more I say, the more she’ll think of me as her foe.

Thus I let the conversation drop, realizing that being a cheerleader for some people is a sure way of irritating them.

Go figure, huh?

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SO I’M BACK

WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU?

TELL ALL IN THE COMMENTS BELOW

I NEED TO KNOW!

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You Are The Sunshine Of My Life: 8 Things To Tell You On A Tuesday In July

July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 266 Comments

I am peeved. Last week WP spontaneously published this content before I’d finished writing it. When I realized the mistake I deleted what I’d started, SWORE AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS, & started over again to write this. To say I’m not pleased with WP would be an understatement. However many thanks to everyone who received a half-finished email & let me know something was off. Bloggy friends are the best.

I am fascinated. Do you know what a “nurdle” is? I didn’t until I stumbled over this article, Why Is a Blob of Toothpaste Called a “Nurdle?” While this nonsensical term has more to do with Madison Avenue than anything medical, it was used in a 1960s toothpaste advertisement for a brand of toothpaste called Vote. The best part of this snippet of advertising history is that the tagline for this now defunct toothpaste was: “A nurdle a day keeps the dragon away.” Words to live by, people.

I am uncertain. Recently an acquaintance told me why she doesn’t like personal blogs. Over the years I’ve heard many reasons why blogs suck, but her reason surprised me. She ignores them because she says “everyone does the same thing.”

She was referring to challenges &/or prompts wherein a group of like-minded bloggers commit to sharing their takes on the same topic. She finds that boring because she perceives no originality, only conformity. I take her point, but isn’t showing up in whatever way suits you, follower or free spirit, the whole point of personal blogging?

I am entertained. While checking out a new-to-me color at Sherwin-Williams called Slumber Sloth [9606], I found this Sherwin-Williams Color ID Quiz. Quizzes call to me. I took the quiz and learned that I am a Dreamer. Who’d probably sleep soundly in a room painted Slumber Sloth, don’t ‘ya suppose?

I am amused. For Christmas I got a page-a-day Peanuts calendar. It’s cute, featuring 6 comics per week total. From this calendar I learned that Charlie Brown’s favorite baseball team, a bush league team of course, is the Waffletown Syrups managed by Joe Shlabotnik. Because of course it was.

I am impressed. Never have I ever given a Bic pen a second thought. They just exist, ‘ya know? But come to find out they’re considered a game changer, a big deal in the world of pens. Read How the BIC Cristal Ballpoint Pen Became the Most Successful Product in History to learn more.

I am charmed. Well if you don’t find this link, Owls in Towels, to be about the sweetest ding-dang-darned thing that you ever did see, then are you even alive? ‘Nuff said. Go check it out.

I am snarky. The following is a WaPo chart about humidity. It’s a pretty chart in which a dew point number is correlated to how it feels to experience this dew point. This is all well and good if you happen to have straight hair, but I’m a woman with naturally curly frizzy hair all. the. time. THUS if I take this information verbatim I’m always living in a world with high humidity, aren’t I? And that just ain’t so.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

📌 On average how many nurdles a day do you use?

📌 If you’re a blogger do you do challenges &/or prompts? Thinking about them in general do you feel they:

empower you by providing you with a sense of community?
focus you by pointing you and your energy in one tangible direction?
restrict you by telling you what to do, but not how to do it?
limit you by squelching your inclination to do your own thing?
other?

📌 Would you paint your walls Slumber Sloth? If you took the S-W quiz what did your results tell you about you? Do you agree with the assessment?

📌 Got frizzy hair? How do you tame it? Or like me, have you given up on the idea?

📌 Anyone else about had it with WP? If so, whatcha gonna do about it?

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Love Many, Trust Few: 7 Random Things To Tell You On A Tuesday In May

May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 / Ally Bean / 246 Comments

As they say: Love many, Trust few, Always paddle your own canoe

1 – I am vexed. I was a fan of Tetris when it first came out, became pretty darned good at it on my Game Boy, so when I stumbled over 368 Chickens I was enthusiastic. But this free little online game is impossible to win and I resent this. I keep trying to get to the goal, zero chickens, but consistently fail. Apparently this game, like many things in life, is designed to frustrate more than empower.

2 – I am laughing. I’ve wondered about the origins of Pantone, the company that decides which colors are THE ones we’ll be seeing and wearing everywhere during a year. Here’s an infographic explaining the company’s history plus adds a few suggestions for *revised* color names. For example, I adore a shade of blue renamed from Classic Blue to Postman’s Trouser. A better name, yes?

3 – I am unsettled. I used BookRaid AI’s Title Generator, followed by their Pen Name Generator, then their Book Plot Generator to see what artificial intelligence would tell me about writing a fiction book. The experience was unnerving because the suggestions were almost instantaneous, the ideas weren’t bad, and the plot was believable enough.

Thus a head’s up: if you see Violet Whitley’s children’s book called Paws and Claws: Unraveling the Mystery of the Wall Destroyer, A Story about Mittens and Whiskers, Feline Detectives, you’ll know it was *written* by me.

4 – I am excited. On my radar is the May 8th return of the TV series, Poker Face. Starring Natasha Lyonne as detective Charlie Cale this show’s first season was wonderful and that’s no bull shit. It’s well-paced, quirky, and off-the-wall in a good way, just the kind of entertainment to keep me upbeat.

5 – I am nerdy. I find typography interesting and enjoy punctuation so when Zen-Den saw a copy of AN ADMIRABLE POINT, A Brief History of the Exclamation Point! he bought it for me. [Thank you Zen-Den.] The book describes itself as reclaiming “the exclamation point from its much-maligned place at the bottom of the punctuation hierarchy.” Reading along in this witty little book I have to admit that I’m now a recovering punctuation snob who will henceforth adopt a more respectful attitude toward exclamation points!!!

6 – I am amused. According to the results of an online survey sometimes grandparents do not like their grandchildren’s names feeling the names are “ugly, old-fashioned, weird.” This can be problematic. The top hated names are Aurora, Charlotte, Elijah, Finn, Jack, Lindsay, Noah, Sally, and Tabitha.

For what it’s worth as a child-free woman I like those names and have never taken issue with my friends’ kids’ names. Although I have wondered [quietly to myself] about unusual spellings of names: a Candace spelled Candyce OR a Dana spelled Dhana. Seems like you’re burdening your child with a lifetime of correcting everyone about how to spell their first name.

7 – I am contemplative. Years ago, as an adjunct to determining what I am grateful for at the end of each day, I began answering the question: what have I learned today? I ask myself this question every night, sometimes surprised by my answers. I do this because I find that framing my life as an ongoing learning experience prompts me to keep engaged in life itself.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Have you ever played Tetris? Have you watched Poker Face? How do you goof off in your free time?

Do you believe, like I do, that the naming of colors is a career you were meant for but never found?

Does the mere existence of AI make you mutter and start to get twitchy?

Thinking about children’s names, have you ever disliked a child’s name so much that you voiced an opinion about it? How did that work out for ‘ya?

What have you learned today?

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Don’t Let The Seeds Stop You: 6 Random Things To Tell You On A Tuesday In March

March 11, 2025 / Ally Bean / 216 Comments

1 – I am editing. After reading about the Zombie Test for writing I latched onto the idea. The test, created by Rebecca Johnson deputy director of the Marine Corps War College, is a rule of thumb that helps you discern if you’re writing in the passive voice. All you do is: “Try adding by zombies after the verb in your sentence. If it makes sense, congratulations! You’ve probably got yourself some passive voice.”

2 – I am laughing. So you know how everyone seems to want to stereotype other people by their generations? Well this snarky article, An Updated Guide To Generations, explains how to do this. I’ll just go ahead and tell you that I feel at home in this stereotype: “Maybe Boomers: Gen Xers who type on their phones using a single pointer finger.” Mock me as you will.

3 – I am communicating. I recently stumbled over the simple idea that there are three ways you can reply when someone tells you something about themself. You need to discern if this person is looking to be hugged, to be heard, or to be helped. If your response is what they expect, then you’ll easily connect. Never thought about interpersonal communication in this way, but now that I have I like it.

4 – I am dubious. On my radar is 25 Front Door Color Meanings Revealing the Personality of Your Home, an article that purports to intuit the personality of your home by noting your front door color. While I’m all about expressing yourself, I don’t believe front door color alone says much. It’s just one variable that contributes to the overall look of your property, so don’t get too hung up on it.

5 – I am remembering. This is the “do it now” Lockdown Manifesto written by Julian Hanna and published on April 17, 2020. It influenced me, in a positive way, about how I’d face the pandemic. Going back to re-read it five years later I am struck by two things: 1) it’s great timeless advice; and 2) we were so innocent about how Covid-19 would upend our lives forever.

6 – I am exploring. After a conversation with a friend about what it means to say you’re curious, I found this Britannica “Discovery Your Curiosity Type” Quiz. To be clear I wasn’t looking for a quiz, I was looking for a definition of the concept of curiosity, but the quiz popped up in my research. I took it, learning that of the 4 curiosity types I am an intuitive discoverer aka Explorer.