Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Last month, I bookmarked or jotted down notes from open tabs in my phone’s browser. I wanted to bring it down to 100 tabs, though I only succeeded in bringing the open tab count closer to 150. It is currently back up at 236.

Scrolling back through open tabs is like an archaeological dig through my brain. There are the sneakers I saw a woman wearing when we picked up takeaway. (I made ChickieNob casually walk back and forth, trying to read the tag on the back.) And the bio for an artist who had a painting I liked in a gallery. And a list of plant-based fake meat products. And a recipe for Cornish pudding. If you go back far enough, you will find tabs for things I was thinking about at least 10 years ago. Things that were important enough to leave open all this time later.

I love scrolling back and seeing what was important years ago. They are snapshots of a moment in time, an hour of wondering.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Can you tell that we’re in high-distraction mode? The third game I started playing feels very close to a random guess-the-word game I used to play and stopped because it felt too hard. So I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with Betweenle, but I like that I’ve been getting the word in a few guesses.

It helps that it has to be a five-letter word vs. any random word of any length in the dictionary.

Leaving this here in case you also need a distraction.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I am admittedly terrible at this game — I’ve yet to win — and I don’t like timed games in general, but I keep coming back to this quick word-scramble game.

You start with three letters and have to put them in the correct order. Then the game adds another letter, and you have to rearrange them again, and so on and so on, until you are unscrambling an 8-letter word.

I will pass along advice that I never remember in the moment. If the game adds an “S” or “L” followed by a “Y” — really, anything that can be tacked on as an ending to a word — look back at the earlier words that you created and just tack on the ending to that word. I forget this every time I play, but hopefully, writing that down will help me remember that shortcut.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There was a great essay written while I was away, and I just got a chance to read it. Catriona Innes puts the thesis in the title: “All my life, society has told us to be mothers. How can we break free from that conditioning?”

Describing it as conditioning drives the point home. “There are things we want, then there are things we don’t want and then there are the things we’re not sure we want, but are told we should.”

It’s really a great piece on the ache and the joy in her life.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

You can take a photograph and remember how something looked. You can make a recording and remember how something sounded. But you can’t capture a scent.

The moment I stepped out of the Tube in South Kensington, I smelled the air, a permanent mixture of diesel, burnt sugar, and petrichor. It smells the same in every season, and I always forget how it smells days after we get back until I get to breathe it in again.

It’s not a good scent. It’s not baking bread or coffee or soap. But it’s this scent that anchors me to a place. And I wish there was a way to capture a smell like you do a photo or a recording and return to it when you’re far away.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.