Personal Style

Because You Asked I Answer YOUR 4 Questions. Got Anymore?

/ Ally Bean / 182 Comments

I’d hoped to have beautiful fall photos to share this week, but we’ve had an unusually warm fall and the trees have barely begun to turn colors. It’s not so pretty yet.   

Instead I’ll toss this out here. I was working on this before I took my break, intending on joining with other bloggers who were doing this. That is, asking for then answering, your questions.

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1: DID YOU EVER GET YOUR HAIR CUT?

I finally got my hair cut with Janelle. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she’s retiring, so it was a bittersweet appointment. We finally saw each other after all these pandemic months to laugh together one last time, then say good-bye probably forever.

2: WHY HAVE YOU BEGUN TO OCCASIONALLY USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IN YOUR WRITING?

Earlier this year a friend with lousy eyesight suggested that I needed to use more capital letters in my writing, spelling entire words with them. She knew they’re considered shouting, but she also likes to be able to read text easily.

I thought about her suggestion and realized she made a good point about visual clarity on little screens. Thus I  determined that quiet little me could, and should, shout more, but not all the time in an exhausting way, just sometimes for emphasis.

And you know what? I’ve learned IT’S FUN TO SHOUT.

3: IS ZEN-DEN A BUDDHIST?

No, Z-D isn’t a Buddhist. Like me he’s a lapsed Presbyterian. His nickname comes from my college roommate who used to call him Den-Den. Once he and I married I began to call him Zen-Den because of his ability to listen to my overwrought angst-ridden woes, then summarize my problem in one short sentence, like a Zen koan.

4: DOES THE DRAGON HAVE A NAME?

Kind of, maybe, probably yes. [Photos of him here and here]

You see, at first I tried to name him using this how to create a dragon name formula, but that name didn’t roll off the tongue. So in a post introducing my video directorial debut I asked you, my gentle readers, to name him. There were many great ideas, however none of them stuck.

In the meantime, whilst I was on my quixotic quest for a profoundly meaningful dragon name, Z-D began to refer to him, quite simply, as Drags. While not the most highbrow name, I’ll admit it suits this goofy dragon.

Thus he’s now known as Drags.

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Do you have more questions for me? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them to your satisfaction.

COMMENTS CLOSED: No longer taking questions but many thanks to those gentle readers who played along here. It’s been fun.

 

A Simply Questionable Post: Answering Four Questions, Acknowledging One Reality

/ Ally Bean / 212 Comments

THE ANSWERING FOUR QUESTIONS PART

We’re on staycation again this week, busy morphing a guest bedroom into a reading/yoga room. More on that later. In the meantime here is something I found when I read THIS POST by Martha at Seaside Simplicity. Because of her I know about the Tuesday 4 questions and this week the 4 questions are about blogging.

1.  Tell us about your blog.  When did you start blogging?

I started my first blog in 2004. My intentions were good, but our computer was unreliable and our internet connection was dodgy, resulting in an arbitrary posting schedule. Still, I stuck with it.
 
2.  What prompted you to begin blogging?

Pure curiosity to see if I could do it.
 
3.  What was your first blog about and why did you choose that subject/title?

My first blog was called sweetlyPAZZO. I don’t remember much of what I wrote about but the title came from my point of view. I was much sweeter back then and I thought that ‘pazzo’ [which means crazy in Italian] was a cool word so I used it in the title of the blog.
 
4.  How has your blog changed over time, and has it done for you what you hoped it would do in the first place?

Like many longtime bloggers I’ve had a few different blogs. For me this has made sense because I’ve wanted to try different approaches to blogging, different points of view, different platforms. Over the years blogging has helped keep my brain clicking by satisfiying my curiosity, so it has done what I hoped it’d do for me in the first place.

THE ACKNOWLEDGING ONE REALITY PART

I sometimes say that irony is my closest friend. In this case I’m referring to how difficult it has been for me, an accomplished blogger, to write this cute little post. It has been anything but fun; in fact it’s been hell.

There has been nothing simple about it.

The WordPress Block Editor has thwarted me at every turn, often blocking me from editing my words in a block so that I had to rewrite what I’d written again… and again… and again. Also there are some links in this post, but the system has inexplicably taken away the blue color from the links so you, kids, cannot see them anymore.

I guess you’re just supposed to know they’re there.

Whilst I’d like to say I’m filled with righteous indignation and the fervor that comes from knowing that there’s something wrong going on and you’re going to stop it, I’m too tired to do so. WordPress is slowly stealing the fun from personal blogging. I don’t know why, but I know this to be true.

Slow Down Hippy Child: The One About The Haircut That Wasn’t

/ Ally Bean / 214 Comments

Plans change. Often.

When I became fully vaccinated [Moderna] in late May, I made an appointment to get my hair cut. My last real haircut was February 2020, with a fast trim in August 2020.

The upshot of not getting my hair cut every few months is that I’ve got hippy hair now. It’s long and frizzy and curly. The texture looks similar to Carole King on the cover of Tapestry.

“My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue.” Her life, my hair. Of course in my case the royal hues are mostly dishwater blonde and gray, but you get my point.

My appointment was for late June, yesterday in fact.

HOWEVER a few weeks ago I got a text telling me my appointment had been cancelled. Not postponed, mind you. Cancelled.

Bummer, said I.

Then I went to check my email because I thought that Janelle, the stylist who has cut my hair for over 20 years, might have sent me an email explaining what was going on. And she had.

Come to find out Janelle was having hip replacement surgery, immediately. She didn’t say why she was having this surgery stat so I can’t explain the backstory, but she said that she’d be back to work by late July.

To me this seems a little too soon after surgery. Of course I know nothing about hip replacement surgery so maybe it’s okay, but I’m not scheduling another appointment until late August. That’d be one year after my last trim.

I figure I’ve got a good hippy vibe going on now and I’ve come to like wearing my hair in a plump curly ponytail. Bring me those colorful elastics, I can make this work.

The thing is that over the years I’ve spent time and money to keep my hair looking blonde and professional, *neat* as my late mother would have said. So the oddest part of having long unruly hair is that I’m not upset about looking like a hippy child.

MAYBE this who I am meant to be in my later years as I head into my dotage. That could be the message here.

Be that as it may or may not, in the meantime, I think we can all agree that plans change. And if the pandemic has taught me anything it’s you gotta make the best of whatever comes your way, whether it be Covid-19 vaccine availability or delayed haircut appointments.

Yes, with a hat tip to Simon & Garfunkel’s famous song ‘Feelin’ Groovy’ I’m slowing down, talking to lampposts, and living hippy for two more months.

Why not, huh?

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

You’ve made plans, which ones did not happen?

What did the pandemic teach you about making plans?

Are you feeling groovy?

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Darn Straight Skippy: I Have Things To Do, Links To Share, & A Fact To Tell

/ Ally Bean / 212 Comments

PLEASE NOTE: No story or article this week because we’re on staycation mostly doing projects around the house and in the garden. Instead of writing my usual flapdoodle & twaddle I’ll share a few interesting links I’ve saved for no reason in particular. Enjoy!

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About your style… As you may know ‘cheugy’ is a slang term adopted by Gen Z as a put down for Millennials. From what I can tell cheugy has two different, but maybe overlapping, meanings: 1) anything that is out-of-date, not trendy; or 2) someone who is trying too hard. Go HERE to read more or HERE to see a diagram [scroll down] that lets you decide if your style is cheugy.

About your spectacles… Naturally the topic of eyeglasses is one of great interest to me. Remember the name of this blog, my little seraphim. Go HERE, watch a short TED talk about the history of spectacles and be informed.

About your pee… I’m at a loss as to how to introduce this link other than to say I never would have thought to use Pantone colors in this way, but that’s just me. Go HERE to see a color chart plus some information about staying hydrated [including drinking beer!] for good health.

About your personality… I give you a way to determine your bean personality because who the heck doesn’t want to know that? Go HERE, answer a few simple questions, and then through the magic of a delightfully accurate algorithm discover your true bean personality.

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FUN FACT: When I started blogging this is the kind of post I planned on writing, lists of links with a bit of commentary. It never occurred to me that anyone would want to read about my daily life and random musings. That stuff I saved for friends and family.

However eventually it dawned on me that I could write about more personal things here and people would appreciate it. Thus it came to be that The Spectacled Bean was born.