While I started looking for posts to make today one of those blast from the past ones, a chance encounter with an old post inspired me to write this one. Since my first thought was for a wordless Wednesday post, I do have photos I had planned for that and then some words, well about 500 is what I planned so I better get writing!!! And that can work well as a writing tip too.

If you want to get better at writing, you better get writing! – Vidya

Wordless Wednesday

This stunning sunset simply spoke volumes.. The photo does not do justice to its awesomeness, but here it is anyways. A SLO Sunset (during Family Weekend at our son’s college – CalPoly in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California; he is a freshman there this year, so we try to meet him every chance we can!!!) (For Wordless Wednesday)

The No-Less-Than-500-Words Better Get Writing Hodgepodge

So every once in a while, I am stumped for ideas and dive into my archives for long forgotten posts that can easily be dusted and given a fresh breath of air. Facing a similar situation earlier today, I went looking at older posts and chanced upon this previous Wednesday post from not too long ago (2017). On a whim, I clicked through to the hosting blog and noticed a comment there that I am including below:

“(another blogger) prompted me to look back at my first Hodgepodge post. Turns out it was November 10, 2010 which seems ridiculous and also impossible, but ’tis true. To mark that event we’re turning back the clock here today and repeating a few of those very first questions.”

It seemed coincidental that I chose today to pick this post from my archives and then click through to the Hodgepodge post, but since I did, here are those first questions and my answers to them. You can play along as well and link back to From This Side of the Pond.

The Q & A

1. How did you name your blog and do you now wish you had thought about it maybe another five minutes before hitting publish? Would you change your blog title if it were not a huge pain in the derriere? 

My initial blog started out as my spot for my R&R, and I named it as MyRandRSpace (this blogspot site now redirects here). This could easily mean the traditional ‘rest and recreation’ or my little twist on the traditional ‘Recreation and Relaxation’ or my very own ‘Raving and Ranting’.  When I wanted to move to my own domain, it got me thinking and thanks to a friend who suggested the pseudonym LadyInRead years ago, I expanded on that to get the name for my current blog.

Would I change it? Well, I don’t think I would. I am happy with it!

2. What bill do you least like to pay? 

While I would like to say all of them, I would be kidding. Honestly, like the quote often mis-attributed to Mark Twain, bills (like taxes) are a certainty and have to be paid. They are just there – an FOL (Fact of Life).

3. What is your favorite word? Okay okay, calm down. How about one of your favorite words? 

It is tough to pick one, so thanks for rewording that question. I think I will go with murmuration, wait, no, I will pick serendipity, or…. no, I should stop here and let you look at this list that can easily be one set of my favorite words.

4. Is the glass half full or half empty? Elaborate. 

Well, I prefer to think I am the half full person, and while I might see the glass upside down at times (and wondrously, still half-full the right way), I believe in treasuring life’s little moments which end up with me seeing the magic that is our lives. So yes, half full it is!!

5. Were you here for that very first Hodgepodge post? If so, were your answers then similar to what they are today? Tell us what was happening in your life in November of 2010? 

No, my blog was still just a thought at that time (I started blogging, though not actively at first, in December 2010). Trying to look back to then is definitely stretching the limits of my brain :-): but in November 2010, we had just spent about one year in our new home at that time; my kids (well, teens now) were truly at that teeny tiny adorbs stage; and we were looking forward to a trip to India via Indonesia (where my dad was working then) in January of 2011.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – Dalai Lama

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, pick any one of the questions (feel free to skip #5 though you can always take a trip down memory lane and answer the second part of that question) and drop your answer in the comments.