Writing

Changes

The Castle
~ Guy Hall ~ Leave a comment

You might have noticed that I lost several months of posts. To make a long story short, I switched hosts. The old hosting service was slow. My blog would take seconds to load. Longer than was acceptable. But the learning curve for migrating a site from one service to another was steeper than I could handle, taking a few months to figure things out. After many hours this morning I managed to rectify the problem. I am now fully with Bluehost, a WordPress recommended hosting service which is providing fast service. Instead of the approximately 10 seconds to load, it’s almost instantaneous.

Damn! I used to wait an eternity for a preview to load. It’s instantaneous now. Same with loading pictures from the library, what took from 10 to 20 seconds now is instant. My efforts at blogging have become easier.

UPDATE: It looks like I did something wrong and caused my site to not load at the proper addy. Thanks to the excellent support team at Bluehost, they got it up and running! Yea!!!!!!

I wrote this!

~ Guy Hall

I hope you enjoy this very short story of mine.

Update: I somehow managed to delete the original post of my short short story. I have since managed to get it posted.

Please, go read my short story.

Because I Am Anal

~ Guy Hall

Can we all agree it’s “Eat your cake and have it too” and not “Have your cake and eat it too.” The latter is a proper and correct order. Of course, you can have your cake and eat it. If you don’t have the cake first, you obviously can’t eat it.

It’s the former that insinuates greed. Once you eat your cake, how can you then have it? You can’t. It’s gone!!!! So, clearly, “Eat your cake and have it too” is the right and proper saying.

Those of you that think otherwise, you’re mistaken. Just eat some cake and deal with it.

Handwriting vs Typing

~ Guy Hall ~ 2 Comments

It turns out there is an app that allows for writing into text boxes! In fact, I am writing by hand what you are reading. Well, I wrote what you are reading. It would be nice if I kept my tenses straight. In case you are wondering. It is just another keyboard. That is, it’s one selection out of several for keyboards. It provides an interface on my iPad that allows for writing with my Apple Pencil. It then converts the handwriting into text. I haven’t fully explored all of its functionality, but I’ve figured out enough so that I can write on my iPad like it is a piece of paper. It allows for spell checking on the fly, with a timer, so you have time to review. It gives each word a drop-down box to select the correct spelling and punctuation.
It has a learning curve, but I found it not too steep.
It works in conjunction with other apps. I have been able to write into word documents. And, of course, this was written into the WordPress interface. The app is called Handwriting which is available through the App Store.

Good Morning Blogstonia!

~ Guy Hall

Spring Semester is coming to a close. I’ve finished one of my classes. It was a Journalism class about how social media has drastically changed the news industry. My other class, an intro to art, also had a module about the possibility of social media engaging in behavioral modification and the art community’s protests against the commodification of personal data used for that supposed modification.

I’m not a big believer in Behavioral Psychology, which is the basis for some people’s fear of social media. Despite the claims of its founder and the researchers who followed, Behavioral Modification has never achieved its promises. So, I’m not particularly worried about “Big Other” replacing “Big Brother” as the new, scary monster. Facebook and Twitter are showing cracks. Impermanence is ever showing it is the only thing permanent in existence.

Anyway, I’ve decided it’s time for me to make an effort to resume blogging. I know it’s been a hell of a draught. Until the breakfast post of the other day, I’ve not put out anything for months. I’m not going to make any promises of newfound motivation. Hell, this might be the last post for months to come. Still, I’ve got a feeling Blogging will find its way back from the brink of obscurity.

Kevin Drum is Back!

~ Guy Hall

Kevin Drum is my Blog Father. He was the first political blog I ever read. He even once visited my first blog “Rook’s Rant’ which has long been retired from service, and left a comment or two. Anyway, after having blogged on his own back in the early 2000s, he became the blogger of two magazine sites……

You know what? I’ll let him explain:

I started blogging in 2002 at my own site. In 2004 I got hired by the Washington Monthly and then moved to Mother Jones in 2008, where I blogged and wrote for the print magazine for 12 years. Finally, in 2021, I came full circle, leaving MoJo to once again blog at my own site.

https://jabberwocking.com/

An Eclectic Post

Eclectic
~ Guy Hall ~ 1 Comment

So, I decided to attempt one today because it has been such an incredibly long time since my last post. However, my mind is blank. Nothing is pressing upon which I wish to write. I have no struggles needing to talk out to get a different perspective. Hell, I can’t even come up with a title for this post at the moment. No doubt, one will bubble up from this low expectation stream of conscious chatter.

Sigh. I guess I can recap.

Obviously, I’ve not written about any exercise. A while back, I switched from running to using Nordic Walking Sticks. However, my back continues to be bothersome. I decided to take a break. My last activity was on September 20th. I managed a long walk, but it paid hell on my back. Hence the break. However, I plan to attempt a walk or run today. I haven’t yet decided which.

Another area of my life upon which I have not written is education. I ended up dropping out of two semesters in a row. I just didn’t have the mental capacity to stay focused. I was quickly overwhelmed and found myself unable to muster the motivation to work on assignments. Well, that seems to have changed. I once again signed up for classes. Two, as usual, for the six-credit minimum to qualify for loans and scholarships. I find I can muster up the motivation to get my work completed on time. I also find I can get through assignments with relative ease. The prior semesters saw me struggling to comprehend class expectations.

Meanwhile, I have been moving through three different jobs over the past two years. The one job I lost due to, well, being fed up with the incompetent leadership. I finally decided to stand up to the mistreatment and was fired for “insubordination.” That’s corporate-speak for not being willing to put up with being mentally and emotionally abused. The following job found me working for a company that had no leadership at all. The owner, who titled themself as “Program Director,” showed up for all of three or four hours a week. And when they did show up, it was to proclaim edicts that would leave us unsupported. When the mandates didn’t deal with our situation, they would apologize and state they should have probably gone with what we wanted. When another problem arose, they would repeat the cycle. I have now found a new job. Suffice it to say; I don’t usually post about current employment. However, I will make a small exception and say I am happy with my job. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Wait. Was that a feather that just floated past?

Okay, let me backtrack a bit. I forgot to mention during my expounding on education that I received high praise from one of my instructors. They informed me I was a “powerful writer.” I would pat myself on the back, but my stiff and sore body does not allow for such actions. Oh, and I figured out a title for this post.