Update

Someone kind (we will call her Jinjer) asked where I had been. She hadn’t seen any of my posts lately and she wondered if I had given up blogging. I haven’t given up blogging, but the truth is that I haven’t been blogging very much lately. I wish I had a better story to tell other than the same one I have been spreading for the past while. I just haven’t been moved to write anything. It isn’t writer’s block. I’ve got lots of ideas and lots of turns of phrase at my fingertips, but nothing for this particular outlet.

That being said, shortly after I post this short, picturless entry, I will get to work on another somewhat longer pictureless post that I have been moved to write. If I do a good job, they should appear with only a short time apart.

Only time will tell.

And in case you haven’t heard, I have been told that WP will stop allowing me to upload any more blogs any day now. I am well and truly past my limit, so I am getting a new blog ready. It will follow the style and tone of this one. I will continue to post here until they actually stop me, but I never know which post will be the last post. So, in case this is the last one, you can join me at the new blog at this link. Your continued readership would be appreciated.

Hopefully

If you are here, that is fantastic. You found me. If you’re here because you found the link in my old blog, that is amazing. If you are here because you found it accidentally, that is great too. Welcome aboard. Wipe your shoes on the mat.

To cut to the chase, my old blog was full. I exceeded the memory capacity and I could no longer post photos and possibly even blogs. This was quite stressful as I had amassed more than 1000 followers and had written over 1300 posts. My options included paying for more space, but since the pandemic has cut my work hours, there really wasn’t any money in the budget for that expense. Needless to say, I have not abandoned them or deleted them. They are all still up. You can read them at todaysperfectmoment.wordpress.com or just follow the link I will create here. If you have never been there, please take a look.

Please think of this blog as a continuation of that one.

Back to my Roots

I received a couple of messages today from people wondering what happened to my blog. They weren’t actually inquiring why I haven’t been writing, but where exactly my blog went to. As you can tell by the address, I have officially downgraded (sounds kind of depressing) …reverted (yeah, that sounds better) come back (ooooh! even better) to the free WordPress blog.

I also realized that I had better write something so email followers will get new, address correct notifications, and people who follow on the WP site will see me again. I hope this doesn’t cause me to lose any followers.

One of the nicest things to happen to me in relation to this were the words from my girlfriend. She texted me that she hadn’t been able to access my blog for the last couple of days. After explaining the change to her in detail–because like a lot of people men I sometimes talk in a shorthand that leaves out details–and telling her the new address, she reminded me that my blog is not only mine, but that “it’s part of her memories too” and that “it felt like she was losing it suddenly.”

Obviously, I was quite touched by that. She is the only person I can be sure has read every single post I have written. There may be others, but I know she has read them all.

One of my best friends wrote me as well. We rarely talk about my blog, so I was touched by his concern as well.

I sometimes lose sight of the fact that there are some people out there who actively follow this blog and have been very encouraging. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to write comments and thank you to everyone who is silently following. I should appreciate all of you more.

I know what is like when bloggers you like have gone silent. I miss Heide, Bike like Crazy, Hunida, Milly, When do I get the manual, and so many others. It is like I am missing something.

For those of you who are still around and the new ones I will discover, thank you for putting forth the effort. I am still reading, even if I don’t know what to write in your comment boxes.

February’s Accountability

It is the end of February beginning of March and I promised myself I would take stock every month to see where my resolutions are going. Hopefully this will keep me on track.

Reading

This year, I am setting a modest goal of 25 books.

I managed to read two Jim Butcher novels–the two latest in the Harry Dresden series. I got both of them from the library and due to their popularity, I had to read them both within the three week window they loaned them to me. While this was not ideal, it was at least motivating. I was going to read another book, but since my job hired me back part time, I had less time than I had planned and found other things to do with my time.

If you follow my instagram, you will know that this includes doing jigsaw puzzles. My girlfriend and I have become hooked on them and both of us are getting much better at them. Sometimes, even an all blue sky can reveal subtle colour variations when you have the right light to view them in.

I remember the days when the dollar store had lots of puzzles. That is no longer the case. I guess more and more people are doing them. I also discovered just like everything else on social media, there are people who are given free puzzles to promote the company. I wonder if being on a deadline to finish a puzzle and publish your results/reviews would take the fun out out it. What do you think?

I hope in the month of March I will read more. I have got a few books picked out, but since Hockey is on every other night, I find myself watching that instead of reading.

Writing/Blogging

I resolve to

1. write at least six short stories and one novel this year. I have been claiming that blogging was exercise for writing fiction and this year will see me finally follow through on that. Too long have I been sitting on things that need to see the light of day.
2. blog five times a week. Specifically, that means I will blog here four times and at least once on my other blogs. I know I should sort out a schedule, but that really isn’t something I am comfortable doing.

Well, in February, I lost my blogging mojo. I am not quite sure why, but I think the impending deadline for my premium WordPress site was definitely part of it. I have definitely decided to put that money someplace else. Once that happens, I will not have any room for pictures on this one, and I think you need pictures to entice people to read, so I might have to create a new WP site. If I do, I hope you all join me there. I will let you know.

I didn’t do any of the fiction writing I promised myself that I would do. I had planned to enter a short story contest, but didn’t. That’s on me. Part of my blogging funk invaded writing and everything became a gigantic funk. I hope March will be better.

Fitness/Cycling

I resolve to

1. Zwift at least 4 hours a week in January, 6 hours a week in February, and 7 hours a week in March and April. I didn’t wait for the New Year to start before jumping on this one.
2. get out on my bike as early as possible this year and put some road miles on my bike. This will also mean joining the club early, and using the technology in place to gather people for some casual rides before official club season.
3. stretch three times a week and follow all the stretches in my cycling stretching book. Obviously, I cannot do them all in the first week, but I hope to be doing all of them by April.
4. do body weight exercises at least twice a week.
5. drink fewer carbonated soft drinks and plan to eliminate them by summer.
6. be a serious and able B level rider within the club.
7. take part in the club time trials.
8. go on one cycling vacation this year.

I have been Zwifting 4 or 5 days a week. I am definitely increasing my ability to do the climbs, my speed, and my endurance. I am somewhere between 5 and 6 hours a week. I am really enjoying Zwift and I feel very positive about the coming cycling season.

I read that there is a new cycling path from Toronto to New York city and I think this sounds like an amazing journey. When things get back to normal, I would love to find a couple of people to do that trip with. It is either that or do the Bluets in Quebec. My only problem is that my cycling friend who would be up for that trip lives in England.

As riding season is approaching, I have to pay my yearly club membership and insurance (not expensive) and get some odds and ends for the bike and rider. I am going to be doing research in March about what I need in terms of electrolytes, fuels and such. Currently I am using the Hammer products, but I am wondering if there is a better alternative. I would love to hear from anyone who has a suggestion.

My weight loss continues and I definitely look and feel different. I have lost 11kgs since the last week of December. The weight loss is not as fast as it was in January, but that is understandable. I have drunk very little pop (soda) and eaten so much less junk food than before. This has been the biggest change and has been fantastic.

I have started incorporating other exercises into my fitness plan besides cycling and that is going well. However, my plan to try using kettlebell weights hasn’t come to fruition because there aren’t any in stores and the online places seem so expensive. I finally found a place that charges 2.20 a pound for them and will probably get a couple this week. I will also need to find a good online workout.

I resolve to

1. paint the kitchen and hobby room.
2. organize the kitchen cupboards and pantry.
3. organize the laundry room and get rid of the boxes that I was “saving in case I need them.”
4. get the e-waste to the e-waste depot as soon as they open to the public
5. replace the curtains in the bedroom.
6. cut down on the stuff in the filing cabinet.
7. Make planters for the back yard.

I reorganized my lower kitchen cabinets. I emptied out a lot of stuff from the filing cabinet. That was a horrendous task that involved shredding lots of stuff. I cleaned off the tops of both dressers in my bedroom and got a new humidifier up and working. I also fixed one of the drawers in the kitchen. I gave away my exercise bike (not the one I am using for Zwift) to my girlfriend. She seems to be enjoying it. I got rid of many of the boxes in the laundry room.

New tasks to add to the list above

1. Add some separation panels in the kitchen cabinets. I don’t have a saw that can do this yet, but it is a pretty easy job.
2. Build a tool holder for all those garden implements that can be wheeled out of place when not needed.
3. Get dedicated hooks for the giant winter snow shovel so it is out of the way.
4. Hang some pictures in the guest room.
5. Get some information on strength training for cyclists.
6. Organize the cabinet under the bathroom sink.

This is a list I will be updating as time goes on. When you see it at the end of March, I will have merged these two lists.

Travel

Nothing planned here except that one of my work colleagues invited me to her brother’s wedding in India. I don’t know her brother or his future wife, but I was invited. If not for Covid…….

Summary

Things have been looking up and I feel as though I have been very accountable for my fitness and finances. I haven’t done enough creatively, but that is why I thought it was important to write this post. I also haven’t done enough around the house, but if I am being honest, I think everyone could say that. There are a multitude of jobs that need tackling when you’re a homeowner.

See you at the end of March.

My Blog and I Both Need To Lose Weight

This hasn’t been a great week for blogging. I should explain why–in my normal convoluted way, of course. A couple of years ago, I switched to the Premium plan thinking I would love the new features, get lots of followers thrown my way by WP, and maybe even make enough money that it would be free by the end of the year.

That didn’t happen and now I have decided to end the experiment. In reality, having the followers that I have and the interaction with those followers is more than enough motivation. I enjoy it enough without having to worry about making it a career. I also didn’t use all the features that they offered and really didn’t see the point.

Now, going back to the free version is fine, except that my photo storage is over the limit of the free blog. I just uploaded images from my phone and they took up a lot of space. I tried editing them in the media section, but that doesn’t do anything. In fact, I think it makes a copy of the new size and doesn’t delete the previous version. A word of advice is to resize your pixels before you upload them to the library.

The good news is that they won’t delete anything when I downgrade to the free plan, but rather I might not be able to add any other photos to my posts. While my photo skills aren’t great, I think the blog might need some photos. The other option is to downgrade to their less expensive plan (the Personal), but I am not sure about that either. I should be economizing to the best of my ability since I am officially laid off right now.

While none of this is terribly upsetting, it has dominated my thoughts and not allowed me to really focus on writing anything. I am sure I have had some perfect moments–I am still losing weight, Zwift is still fun, I am eating better, relationship is going great, and curbside shopping has decreased my browsing and spending. Being out of work sucks, but everyone else has had to deal with that while I haven’t, so I shouldn’t be more upset than anyone else. I don’t have any great student stories for you, but that might be a good thing.

If you see any changes to the blog in the coming months, you will know why. I will try to get back to my positive ways shortly.

Update
I tried everything, but nothing worked. As a result, I have launched a continuation of this blog. Please check it out here. Some small things will be different, but not much. Thank you for your understanding.

What Blogging Can Do For Someone

A few weeks back, I helped my friend and co-worker bring his blog over to WP. I was hoping that his form of ranting would find a more willing to engage audience than he had on the other platform.  I also hoped that the features here on WP would appeal to him.

Since that time, he has thanked me on a couple of occasions and we have spent a few minutes talking about blogging. Since, at times,  I find blogging more interesting than my job, these have been wonderful distractions.  It’s nice to talk about things you have a passion for and not how to teach the present perfect or modals of obligation.

During today’s conversation, he mentioned his plan to use the blog to promote his upcoming e-book and some of his other ventures and ideas. That he was able to temper these ideas with a healthy dose of realistic expectations was no small feat in itself.

Some of you might be wondering where I am going to weave Today’s Perfect Moment from this. Still, some of you who know me well can probably guess where I am going wit this road I am making you follow.  There might even be a few of you out there who knew much earlier than the rest.  You all deserve a pat on the shoulder.

Today’s Perfect Moment comes from all of it. It was great to be of help to someone.  We all try to help people, but most often are efforts don’t result in anything.  My suggestions don’t always lead to other people taking action.  More often than not people tend to see my suggestions as hindrances or annoyances rather than genuine help.

It was also great to see someone expressing an ambition that they had never shown before. The effect on others listening, and even on the speaker himself, was interesting to watch and listen to.  I was caught up in it too.

Restful

Some weekends are jam packed. I am constantly on the move and there are so many things to do.  Those are great weekends.  The only problem is that you finish them and you’re in need another weekend to recover from them.  I had a great weekend last weekend, which was followed by a hospital visit and then three very long days at work.

Thankfully, this weekend was not like the last. This weekend had many restful moments and everyone seemed to understand that I needed to rest and made no demands of me.

Yeah, I wanted to cycle on Saturday morning, but the weather was just awful. I was pretty run down and I didn’t want to chance getting even sicker.  I think I made the right choice even though I don’t want to give up the gains I have made.

I managed to get to a stamp show. It was a small affair and it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I didn’t get to it.  However, because it was a small show, I didn’t need to get there early and I was relaxed about the whole thing.

For Saturday afternoon, Metro had on a fantastic pizza deal. I probably shouldn’t have indulged, but needed wanted to do so.  So, I did.  I just wish I had had some Cherry Coke or Root beer in a glass bottle to go with it.

Sunday, my girlfriend made me a delicious lunch. I didn’t take any photographs as I had put my blogging hat away for the weekend.

I might have missed a few days of blogging, but I feel much better now.

So That’s What 900 Feels Like

It wasn’t until after I finished writing the blog–several hours after–that I realized I had hit a kind of milestone. The last blog was my 900th blog.  I know, I know, 1000 is the milestone and 900 is just the speed bump.  Whatever.  It’s my speed bump.

Am I on Schedule?

No, probably not. I don’t think I have a schedule.  I try to be a consistent blogger, but life just seems to get in the way.  I might be out enjoying one of the Perfect Moments and can’t write.  I might be trying to overcome the consequences of one of those Perfect Moments–also called the less than Perfect Hangover) or I might be so tired from work and explaining relative clauses that I am too tired to string words together for the blog.

Am I where I planned to be?

I didn’t really have a plan. At best, I probably had a hope of where I would be.  I probably hoped I would be hip deep in followers, being courted by companies to review their products, and travelling around the world on someone else’s dime.

Am I happy with what I have accomplished?

Absolutely! Despite what I have written above, the whole experience has been excellent.  I have written a few good sentences and maybe even a few good pieces.  I have laughed, I have smirked, and once or twice I have even snorted.  If I have entertained anyone half as well as I have been entertained, I would consider that pretty amazing.  In addition to that I have interacted with some great people.

Greatest Hits?

With 900 posts there have got to be a few good ones. Here’s a selection of the ones that still make me smile and still have me dreaming of being a writer.  It may be one post, or one paragraph, or one sentence, or even just a word pair, but hopefully you find something to smile about.

• How long is 30 minutes? This post has been seen by more people than any other of the 900.
• The Woman Who Loved Chopin. This encounter, still vivid after so many years, was a lot of fun to write about.
• A Delicate Reveal of Ghost Blue–I would never describe myself as a visually oriented person, but there are moments when that is true.
• All the Colours of Red You Know
• Zero to Hero, Cellar to Stellar
• A Less Forgiving Sunset

Are you going to do this again when you hit 1000?

Yes.  Most likely yes.  You’ve got to celebrate any victory or occasion that you can.  What if I stopped blogging tomorrow?  I would never get to 1000.

The Future

The future is the next blog post.  I will tell you when I get there.

A Digital Experiment

I tried an experiment in my class on Monday, and I am a bit at a loss as to what to do with it.

You see, my students need to write better in English to progress through their levels. They are not allowed to progress on only one aspect.  They must show/make progress in the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).  Generally, I feel confident that my students do make progress—except when I don’t feel that way and feelings of inadequacy and job disillusionment take over, or when students don’t make progress based on their own laziness.

Nevertheless, the one skill that seems to get the least attention is writing. It could be because teachers don’t like to assign writing because it become homework for the teacher as well as the student, or because students grumble and complain or refuse/forget to do it.  I need them to do it, and I need them to do it quicker.  I also need them to take it seriously.  They also seem to love the digital world and crave the approval of others.

So, my novel idea was to set up a blog. That way, they could use the computer (replicating their test experience) and also up the stakes a little by making it public.  I considered that they might like it more because of the use of technology.  Sometimes, they criticize me for not being so technically “with it”.  Sometimes, I am not living in the 21st Century.  Additionally, this method makes it easy for them to submit it to me without giving them my email address.  My only problem is how to highlight their errors, and exploit the learning potential.

I have edited two of them, (purposefully not catching all their mistakes/perceived mistakes/ perceived errors in creativity). Basically, I have given them a road map they can follow to fix their blogs.

I am not sure this is the best way to help them. Perhaps, I should do what I have done, but in the classroom (traditionally what I would do).  Then, I could have them correct and edit their blogs again.  I just don’t know if this makes it serious enough for them.

Here is the address:   https://anthonysclass.home.blog/

If you prefer hyperlinks, Please check it out here.

I invite you to read them and give me your thoughts on how best to help them.  If you want to encourage them, they would like your positive comments.  No need to correct their English as that is what I am getting paid to do.

I will continue to be the administrator of the blog and might get other classes involved in it. I am not sure.

Typing Through the Typos

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Dear readers and members of the WordPress community, I need your help.

Let me explain. As of late, a friend has been pointing out the numerous typos and errors that I have been making while writing these posts.  Sometimes I am informed early enough that few readers are affected.  However, sometimes, I cannot get back to the post to correct the horrible mistakes early enough and my readers are exposed to my brutal butchery of the English language.

I don’t know whether I am making more mistakes lately, or if my friend is getting better at spotting my mistakes. Neither answer will leave me particularly satisfied, so let’s shelve it for a moment.

Being aware that my work has come under increased scrutiny, and genuinely wanting to be better, I tried hard to do a better job on the second most recent post. Instead of hitting “publish” quickly after I finished the last post, I let it “rest” for an hour before I went back over it.  I thought that this would be similar to “fresh eyes” on the task, or at least a more thorough look.  I had hoped this would do the trick. I hoped I would be able to look at the words as an objective reader.  Sadly, the result was not any better and I had to go back and fix my typos after it had already been published.

So, I am asking you your secret. How do you avoid making mistakes with your writing?  How do you edit your work?  Is there a way for you to look at your work as if it wasn’t your work?  Any tips or tricks, any helpful advice would be appreciated.

I’ve looked over this work, but I suspect my readers will find mistakes that I have made.