Quiz

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

/ 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.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Assuming you don’t want to write in the passive voice, will you be utilizing the Zombie Test to make sure your voice is active?

Do you need to be hugged, heard, or helped today?

What color is your front door? What, if anything, does it say about your house?

Which kind of curiosity type are you? Did you take the quiz or are you guessing?

~ ~ 🍉 ~ ~

What A Hoot! 6 Random Things To Tell You On A Tuesday Morning In February

/ Ally Bean / 277 Comments

I am reminded. Many, many years ago around Valentine’s Day I learned about a simple Spanish cocktail called a Kalimotxo. It’s Red Wine & Coke, a take on the Cuba Libre cocktail of Rum & Coke. It’s not my favorite drink, but I won’t disparage it either. I remember it at this time of year because it was deemed the perfect Valentine’s Day cocktail. Think whimsically and look at how it is spelled: KalimotXO. Kisses and hugs automatically included with each drink.

I am grateful. Colette, a former blogger who is now HERE on IG, has a relaxed idea about how to embrace thankfulness. I am doing it. Instead of a daily gratitude journal, each week you decide what’s your one favorite gratitude experience from the week. Then you write it on a small piece of paper, fold the paper into a square, putting the square into a jar designated: Good Things. After a year you’ll have your bestest gratitude moments in a pile of notes in front of you.

I am irked. WordPress’s current commenting system is an exasperating multi-step process— if you can even get your words to show up in the comment box. I contacted WordPress yesterday and asked why I was unable to comment on WP blogs. The Happiness Engineer gave me the link to WP problem updates +  had many suggestions of various possible solutions. The one that worked for me was to change browsers, so now instead of Safari I’m using Chrome for iMac when I visit bloggy friends and want to leave a comment.

I am delighted. I’m a fan of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series of cozy mysteries that feature octogenarian sleuths. Thus I’m looking forward to the movie version with its perfect cast: Helen Mirren [Elizabeth], Ben Kingsley [Ibrahim], Pierce Brosnan [Ron], and Celia Imrie [Joyce]. The movie is set to release in 2025 and it well could be the best thing to happen this year.

I am underwhelmed. If you enjoy NYT’s Connections word game and would like to create your own, go HERE and have at it. However, a truth bomb: I put together a couple of these games and discovered that my results were weaksauce, not even worth saving. But you might be better at making one than I was.

I am nerdy. According to the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test I’m a Nerd who’s slouching toward Goth. To wit: “Nerds are sometimes seen as being more interested in academics, technology, or other ‘nerdy’ pursuits than in popular culture or mainstream social activities.” Hell yes, NAILED IT! A joiner I am not.

~ • ~

Questions of the Day

Do you have a particular drink that you think of around Valentine’s Day?

If you have a gratitude practice, what is it?

Are you finding it increasingly more difficult to leave comments on WordPress blogs? And how does that make you feel?

Do you read mysteries? Do you do the NYT’s Connections game?

And finally, if you took the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test, who is ‘ya? Spill the beans

~ ~ 🩷 ~ ~

Ain’t We Just: Rambling Thoughts About Superpowers And Using The Powers For Good

/ Ally Bean / 190 Comments

Let’s just say for purposes of discussion that my superpower is mind reading. A fact [?] I discerned after taking this nifty National Geographic Superpower Quiz.

You see, and this was news to me but considering the source we must conclude that, superpowers aren’t just for fictional characters anymore. To wit, I proudly tell you this is who I am:

“You can read minds! Well, not exactly, but you’re very aware of how others feel.” Yep, true dat

Naturally I wanted to get a deeper understanding of who I am so I went to my old friend, Merriam-Webster, to research the word.

As one does.

According to M-W a “mind reader” is “one that professes or is held to be able to perceive another’s thought without normal means of communication” and that the first known use of the word, which in this case is actually two words but who am I to argue with M-W’s way of explaining things, occurred in 1875.

[A studious aside: In case you’re unfamiliar with M-W’s Time Traveler feature it’s fun for a wordy person. To see what it is like, click HERE and learn what other words* were new in 1875. Information like this is available under most definitions, just scroll down the page to the feature.]

Anyhoo, getting back to the discussion aspect of this post, after learning the aforementioned I started pondering, in an abstract rhetorical way, about how does one use any superpower for good:

• In general do you think, like I do, that determining and acknowledging your superpower is one thing? But implementing it, like a hero** not a villain, is another thing? Two different skill sets, two different moral cores

• And further, specifically, what do you do with the ability to read minds? It’s one thing to know what someone else is thinking but that doesn’t mean you have the capacity, or desire, to change their mind. ‘Ya know?

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

If you took the quiz, what is your superpower? OR if you don’t need a quiz to know your superpower, what is it?

Are you a wordy person who likes knowing a bit more about interesting words that appear in your life? Is Merriam-Webster your old friend, too?

When you think about fictional heroes with superpowers who comes to mind? Is the source from myths, literature, movies, TV shows, cartoons, comics, or games? Other?

~ ~ • ~ ~

* Ilsa Rey from Writing and Martial Arts is going to find one of the words on the 1875 list, linked to above, especially pertinent. Yep, I’m a mind reader.

** When I think of the word “hero” this brief conversation from the TV show Firefly flashes through my mind:

  • Mal: “Well, look at this. It appears that we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?”
  • Mal: “Ain’t we just.”

Hello Cool Kids: A Test About Blues + A Conversation About A Paradox

/ Ally Bean / 229 Comments

A TEST

Neato!

Immediately above you see my results from a simple little online test called Is My Blue Your Blue? What I learned is that I see more blue than most people and consider turquoise to be green.

There are, of course, no right or wrong answers to this test, but there is something to be gleaned from realizing how one person sees color is not necessarily how you see color.

Kind of trippy‽

A CONVERSATION

Groovy!

While reading something on Threads I saw the above quote that is attributed to Widdershins Smith.

Mentioned in passing it wasn’t the point of conversation, but the idea of a Geezer’s Paradox stuck with me. I turned the quote into the little gem you see here figuring that we, my little blue birds of happiness, could discuss it.

Upon reading the quote I nodded my head in agreement but also felt that, while possibly being old enough to be of geezer age, I might not be a geezer because of my gender. I asked Zen-Den, a confirmed male geezer, what he thought and he suggested that BIDDY might be the female equivalent to GEEZER.

Sure, sure, could be.

So I decided to ask ye olde Google how to define ‘geezer’ and stumbled over this interesting article in Psychology Today that discusses exactly what  Z-D and I were talking about: What’s the Feminine Form of “Geezer”?

Hint: The answer has to do with the use of non-gendered language in modern society and your own personal opinion about how word meanings should, or should not, change.

Regardless of whether you prefer GEEZER or BIDDY, the point I’m taking away from this quote and brief research project is that once you stop caring about cool, it finds you.

And how cool is that‽

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

If you took the test about the color BLUE, what do think? Have you ever considered the idea that everyone sees color differently, sometimes very differently?

What’s your opinion about the word GEEZER versus the word BIDDY? Do you relate to either or neither? 

What do you think makes a person COOL? Is it an attitude or is it something more? Is being cool one of your goals?