Maz's confused virtuality

... although you wouldn't know that from my recent LJ activity (read: total lack of) but I've surfaced now because today is a very important day - it's sparrow2000's birthday!!!

Happy birthday, my dear. Wishing you the best of days.



I also send belated happy birthday wishes to spikesgirl58, to lilachigh and to trepkos who all had their birthdays during the summer. And also today, lindahoyland.

I'll go crawl back under my rock now. Well, I will in a minute. Since I'm here now... I'm not sure why I've not been on LJ since when?

May?

Yes, May.

What have I been doing?

Much the same as before - gardening, reading, listening to the radio, avoiding housework. I've taken up exercise, which is enjoyable - swimming, walking, cycling, football, etc. But I've no real reason for not checking in here occasionally. I'm not going to make some kind of pious promise to do better in future. I'll be back at some point. Maybe once winter settles in again. In the mean time, I wish you all a lovely autumn.

Random thought - there's been a lot of ceremony in the last week. Charles has had to make a lot of public speeches, but every time I hear the phrase "The King's speech" I get a really strong mental image of Colin Firth. It still sounds odd to hear the words "God save the king" and "King Charles III" said on the radio. I don't have anything to say about the late queen that has not already been said better by others. I never really thought much about the royal family, they were just there. And I am very glad to have a head of state who is not also the head of government - a non-political head of state strikes me as a much better arrangement than the opposite. But constitutional monarch or constitutional president has never really been an issue for me... except that if we get rid of the monarchy we'll have too actually formulate a written constitution and I fear the rigidity such a thing could impose upon our legal system.

Oh, that's enough serious thinking for the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPARROW
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

...although, I am in self-isolation because I've tested positive for covid. That means I'm stuck in the house until the end of the week. And it could be longer if I continue positive. My symptoms are mild, courtesy of three jabs. Mainly a slight temperature and a cough. Thank science for the vaccine that means I get away with only that.

However, forced inactivity has reminded me to login to LJ for the first time since February. *waves sheepishly* Hi, everyone, how you all?

Firstly, I want to wish very, very belated Happy Birthday wishes to skargasm for February, texanfan and ani_mama for March, tabaqui, snycock and twilightofmagic for April and laazikaat and janedavitt for the first half of May. I hope you all had a wonderful day on your birthdays, although not everyone on that list is really active on LJ these days.

If you'd asked me last year I'd have said that there was no way I could start the day without logging into LiveJournal to see what was going on. I have no explanation or excuse for having dropped out of sight for so long. What I can say is I've been moderately busy, although the definition of moderately busy has shifted quite dramatically since I retired.

I know everybody says this when they've been absent for a while, but I really mean it – if there are any posts from the last umpteen weeks that will bring me up-to-date with what's going on in your lives I would love to see them. Please do point me at them.

Back in 2019 I engaged with ljbookbingo and I had half determined to do the same again this year. This year it's all about reading books with titles that begin with each letter of the alphabet. So I've been stocking up on short reviews of the books I've read so far this year. I'll try and post them occasionally and see if I manage to fill the alphabet bingo card.

Meanwhile, spring is finally in the air, my little garden is bursting with colour and I've made myself a totally new flowerbed which is just waiting to be planted up as soon as I can get myself to a garden centre. Which I hope *fingers crossed* might be at the weekend.

Happy new season to you all. And I'll try and do better about being around in future.

The last day of the month and I remembered to post the last few questions on the meme. Yay! Go me!

28. Who was your best teacher/professor? Why?
My English teacher in the first years of secondary school, who gave me extra time outside class to finally teach me to spell. Or, at least, to spell better. She taught me some simple rules that have stood me in good stead ever since.

29. If you are an only child, do you wish you had siblings? If you have siblings, do you wish you were an only child?
No. When we were kids we moved around so much that my parents and my siblings were the only constants in my world. We have stayed close.

30. Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out? If you don't use top sheets, if you stay somewhere that does, do you prefer your sheets tucked in or out?
In the summer I usually sleep with my feet sticking out of the bottom of the duvet, but in the winter I definitely tuck my feet in.

31. Toilet paper: over or under?
It took me a moment to figure out what this question meant. In my case the answer is neither. My toilet paper sits on a small table next to the toilet, along with a clock and occasionally a book.

I went to see the new Macbeth at the cinema the other day. It's certainly very dramatic. The black and white format is very stylish and the sets manage to tread a neatly balanced line between cinematic landscape and stage set. The weird sisters were absolutely amazing. Brilliantly done! But... but... it always takes me a moment or three to adapt my ear to Shakespeare's speech rhythms, but in this case it took so much longer. I had real trouble making out the words the actors were saying. Such a shame.

I won't say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but I do wish I could have better heard what they were saying.

Once again time has got away from me. I've been a bit busy and didn't realise how many days had gone by. So my catch-up is behind a cut, because it's almost 2 weeks worth.
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And that's me caught up. I will admit to running out of steam a bit *g*
I'll try not to let so long go by in future.

I just realised it's a week since I posted the first 6 days of January. If I'm not going to end up posting a month at a time, I begin to suspect I might need to log a reminder in my diary *g*
So here's another week...

7. Have you ever saved an animal's life? How about a person's life?
I can't remember ever saving an animal's life. Maybe the occasional wasp, bee, or moth. And I'm pretty sure I'd remember if I'd ever saved a person.

8. Would you rather be able to see 10 minutes into your own future, or 10 minutes into the future of anyone but yourself?
That would have to be a constant ability to be in any way interesting. Seeing ten minutes into my own future right now would just show me sitting here doing this*g*
Being able to see ten minutes into other peoples' futures might be uncomfortable, but might, potentially, change my answer to question 7, since I might be able to distract someone from crossing the road at a time when they shouldn't... except I've never seen a person knocked down by a car, so would I suddenly start seeing that potential? Probably not.
Hmm... if I had to choose, I think I'd go for me, over everybody else, if only because in a crowded place being able to see everybody else's ten minutes future could end up being very confusing and a bit hallucinatory.

9. Would you rather lose the ability to read, or the ability to speak?
Assuming the question is saying 'permanently' I think I'd rather lose the ability to speak. Sign language and writing can serve most purposes, even if sign language has limited coverage and writing is time-consuming. And I'm not much of a talker, anyway. But being unable to read and unable to learn how to do so again, would be awful in both emotional and practical ways.

10. What Olympic (or other) sport would be the funniest to add a mandatory amount of alcohol to?
No. Not going there. It all sounds far too dangerous *g*
Oh, okay then. Umm... beach volleyball?
Most sports are risky or require physical coordination, so alcohol would either result in a dangerous situation (fencing, javelin, ski jumping, toboggan, etc) or something very boring to watch (who wants to see a tennis player fail to return every single serve?) At least with beach volleyball you'd get to see people falling over in silly ways, but not really harming themselves.

11. What do you think are three things that are pretty great or interesting about you?
My past adventures (which I am keeping to myself). All three of them *g*

12. What's your favourite number? Why?
I haven't really got one, but if pushed I'd go for 9, since that is both my birth date and three times three.

13. Would you rather have all illicit drugs be legalized, or duelling between consenting adults be legalized?
Drugs. If they always had been, there'd have been no need for organised crime to get involved, there'd be far fewer people sick and involved in crime to pay for a hit and society would have evolved social means of avoiding too much abuse, just as it has with both alcohol and tobacco.

Looks like I am going to do this again. I need an excuse to post occasionally. I'm also considering taking part in this year's LJ Book Bingo (at https://ljbookbingo.livejournal.co…), but I'll see whether I can get a couple of book reviews in stock before I decide about that. This year, rather than subject and title, the bingo card is purely alphabetical.

It's Epiphany, the day that Christmas Decorations are traditionally taken down. Except I did that on January 1st *g*

So, January. My goodness, it's 2022. How did that happen and where did the years go? I remember when the idea that the world would ever reach the year 2000 seemed so futuristic as to be almost impossible. On the radio yesterday they did a little piece about the fact that the film Soylent Green was set in 2022. I remember watching that on the television in the mid-seventies.

January. And the first six questions of the year. Behind a cut, to save your flists.
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I did so badly at posting during the last half of this year, I'm not sure I'll do this meme again. But on the other hand, these questions have been the only posts I've made this year.

I need to think about this.

However, for now I'll finish off the year.

21. Do you have memories from preschool?
Yes. I have a lot of early memories. I always feel kind of sorry for the people who say that their first day at school is their earliest memory, because it makes me think that the event was so traumatic for them that it became somehow dominant and overwhelmed anything earlier.

22. Is there anything about technology that scares you?
By technology I suppose the question is referring to the various manifestations of IT? In that case, loss of privacy.
If the question is referring to electrical and electronic technology in generally, it's the fact that 'things' nowadays can't be mended. When I was younger every high street had a television and household machine repair shop.

23. What’s a word/phrase that’s commonly heard in your region, but not anywhere else?
The dialect of this part of the North East of England is called Geordie and is heavily influenced by both Eastern Scots and Norse, but obviously they're not exactly the same as the words used in those places.
There's a whole list here. But a particular phrase I heard a long time ago and still love was the question asked of me as a child, new to the area, when I tore my coat at school. A friend asked me. "Will yer mam play war wi yer?" (Trans for those who need it: Will your Mum play war with you?)

24. Do you bite on straws, lollipop handles, or ice cream sticks?
No, nor pencils.

25. Do your parents still live in the same house they raised you in?
No, my parents moved house when the children all left home and they retired.

26. What’s your favourite flavour of soda, pop or whatever else you call it?
I like ginger beer. And I like Sicilian lemonade. But I don't drink fizzy drinks very much... except tonic with gin in.

27. What time do you usually have dinner?
I eat early, because I don't like going to bed with a full stomach, so not later than five or six, by preference.

28. Do you keep the cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom organized?
I think the best I can say is that I try.

29. What do you wish you’d spent more time doing five years ago?
I try not to have regrets. It's bad for my piece of mind.

30. How often do you light candles?
Only when suffering from a power cut at night.

31. What are you looking forward to in the next year?
Summer! *g*

Once again, I've not really been online lately, so I'm sure I've missed things. If I have missed something you think I'd like to see, please do let me know.

Somehow, I think that I shouldn't engage with this meme next year. I haven't done very well with it lately. But the completest in me is determined that I will manage to finish this year's questions. So under the cut are the last 11 days and goodness knows when I'll post the last few *g*

In case I don't manage to do so before next weekend, I wish all my flist a very, very Merry Christmas!


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Oh my goodness, it's almost mid-December and I suddenly realised I have once again failed to post for the meme since the end of November. So once again, behind a cut to save your flists.
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I've suddenly realised how long ago I last posted. I've been under the weather for a while, which is why I've only been around intermittently. Then I got my booster jab and spent a couple of days feeling rather unwell in a different way. Don't get me wrong - I'm very pleased to get it, but I'm also really concerned about the large parts of the world where people haven't even got a first jab. For all the early chorus of "None of us are safe until all of us are safe" the rich countries are not making enough of an effort to get vaccine to the rest of the world.

Given the amount of time, I did consider giving up on the meme, but the completest in me insisted that that was silly, since it's the end of November so there are only a couple of weeks left to make the whole year. So I have done it, but with so many questions I've put them under a cut, to spare both your flists and your patience.

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