Three Thoughts Thursday | Doing. Listening. Watching. + A Postscript

December 13, 2018October 9, 2021 / Ally Bean / 97 Comments

This is that thing, my gentle readers, when I tell you stuff and don’t make a story of it. Here we go.

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ONE

I think that Creating My Dragon Name by following the how-to from pine.and.birch is the most perfectly silly thing I’ve done this month.

I am: Ylla the Tired, Hoarder of Toast and Potted Ferns.

To figure out your dragon name do this: it’s { your first name spelled backward } the { how you’re feeling now } hoarder of { the last thing you ate } and { an object to the right of where you’re sitting }. That’s it, easy peasy mac and cheesy.

TWO

I think that Happy Face, a podcast, is worth listening to and will chill you to your bones.

It’s the story of serial killer Keith Jesperson, known as the Happy Face killer, told by his daughter, Melissa Moore. She’s an adult now, but as a child she lived with/had contact with her father– while he was on his killing spree. Her examination of what was going on then and its impact on her now is fascinating.

And horrifying.

THREE

I think that The Good Cop is quietly hilarious, but will admit that there’s not much to it.

It’s a light TV comedy that’s reminiscent of [but nowhere near as wonderful as] Monk or Psych. The plots aren’t complex, but honestly, the chemistry between Tony Danza as the ex-con father and Josh Groban as the perfectionist cop, well– those two are a hoot to watch together. Plus the supporting cast is great.

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Questions of the Day

What’s your dragon name? Listen to any good podcasts lately? Do you admit to watching brain candy TV shows?

• • •

P.S. This will be my last blog post of 2018. It’s been a heck of a weird year; if you ask me, it’s one that has gone too long. I’m sick of it.

Soooo I’m going to take a short blogging break by ending 2018 early and starting next year late, which is to say I’ll be back here sometime in mid-January 2019. Until then, my gentle readers…

Be safe. Be happy. Be. 🐝

3 True Confessions Because You, My Gentle Readers, Need To Know

February 15, 2018 / Ally Bean / 102 Comments

One

It’s entirely possible that I’m not going to be an Instagram star.

Since November I’ve tried to get into my Instagram groove by posting three photos a week, usually all at once (because I forget to post them when I take them). Also, I’m following a few people there because social media is, after all, social.

HOWEVER, easy and sweet as I think Instagram is, it isn’t calling to me. For some reason its charms have yet to woo me. I like it, I enjoy glancing at the photos posted there, but I’m vague about why it’s a thing– and why/how someone becomes a star.

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Two

I’m enjoying the Winter Olympics this year because they are Bob-Costas-free.

Sure, some people somewhere must have liked Bob Costas as the host of the Olympics, but I was not one of them. To me he combined Alex Trebek’s know-it-all-ness with Tom Cruise’s smugness– and I did not like him because of it.

HOWEVER, NBC’s new Winter Olympics host, Mike Tirico, is delightful. He reports on what is happening in a pleasant, informative way that does not make me want to yell at him. And guess thee what? Because of him I’m not changing the channel away from the Olympics when the host is on the screen.

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Three

I’ve increased the size of my font on my computer.

There is no surer sign of impending decrepitude than the size of the font that one uses. Tiny font, great eyes– young. Medium font, okay eyes– middle age. Large font, lousy eyes– one foot in the grave.

HOWEVER, on the flip side of this depressing thought, I have to admit that seeing the words clearly on the screen has encouraged me to sit up straighter, thereby improving my posture. And that, Alas, poor Yorick, might be enough to keep my other foot out of the grave… for a while longer.

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Gentle Readers, feel free to share your true confessions in the comment section below. How else are we going to get the party started in here?

Tell all. No matter what it is. You know I love it.

An Experiment: Photographing The Woods With My iPhone

November 4, 2016August 28, 2018 / Ally Bean / 72 Comments

I need something new + creative to do in my life so I’ve thought about maybe joining Instagram.

In order to get an idea of what it’d be like to be an Instagramer, I wandered down our backyard stone steps to the terrace-level…

walked across some crunchy leaves…

then sat down on a chair where I started taking photos of the autumnal beauty around me with my iPhone.

Looking at the blah results of my experiment I wonder if I’d ever be happy using a phone to photograph my life. I do well capturing my life using my camera, but if I was on Instagram I’d be using my iPhone. I dunno. Maybe yes, maybe no.

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QOTD:

Are you on Instagram? What do you like about it? What do you photograph? How often do you go there?

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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?