Tag Archives: NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo Day 10 Decades

Today is my National Blog Post Month Day 10 post. Ten days of blogging means ten blog posts. This on a blog that up until November 1st had about a handful of posts. I have to say that the daily posting hasn’t been as much of a challenge as I had originally thought. Granted there are still 20 more posts or should I say 2 more decades to go.  Not sure why I didn’t post as much before. I guess sometimes all that’s needed is a nice push of encouragement to get things done. In this case NaBloPoMo was the push and the inspiration.

Since this is day 10 it got me thinking about decades. Typically decades are used to describe the passage of years. As in there are 10 decades in a century. I’ve also heard it referred to in sets of prayers such as, “There are 5 decades of Hail Mary’s in a Rosary.”

I’m curious as to other uses for the word DECADE. While it may be most common to mark the passage of 10 years are there other common uses in every day life?

Enjoy your Saturday and we’ll chat more…….tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo Day 9 Endings

Just as there are beginnings to things there are endings. For our family this weekend will be the beginning of the end. Another year of Six-Man Football draws to a close with the Iron Man Football Tournament. The team ended the regular season play undefeated 9-0.

Why do I say it’s the beginning of the end? Once the Tournament is over so is the season. The team will meet once more to turn in their uniforms and the weeks and months of practice and play will draw to a close.

During the sports season we are a close knit group of families. Watching the growth of our young men and families with each new season. Football is a big commitment for the players but an even bigger commitment for the families. We interact with one another often during the months of August – November. I know during this time of the year I see my football family more than I see my real family. As a matter a fact my mom called recently to check up on me.

Football season will be ending this weekend and except for the end of year banquet, I don’t expect to see any of the folks on the team until the boys gear up for Spring Training in May. Yet, when we do get back together after a six month absence it will be as though no time passed at all. We’ll step right back into each others lives and become a close knit group once again.

NaBloPoMo Day 8 -Passion

Now don’t get too excited. This isn’t a blog post about things of the rated “R” nature. On the contrary it’s about the passion you have for the things that matter to you.

Do you enjoy cooking? Are you someone who could take 3 ingredients and make a gourmet meal? Or does the smell of wood in a lumber yard bring a smile to your face? Can you take some 2×4’s along with a few nails and turn them into something solid and beautiful? Or perhaps you have a green thumb that makes your neighbors green with envy.

We all have a passion. It may be called the Culinary Arts or Carpentry or Gardening. It’s what makes your soul sing. It’s your bliss. When you do that one thing it’s like the universe aligns and a Chorus of Angels sing. Well okay, maybe I’m getting carried away. But you understand where I’m coming from, right? If you could do that one blissful thing you would be…….well…… happy.

So what is it?

Do you know?

If so, are you doing it?

If not, why?

If you know your passion, when did you get to that point in your life where nothing was more important than following your bliss? Being passionate about something can make all the difference in how you do things and how you live your life.

Experiment.

For one day ONLY do things for which you have a passion. Block everything else out. Don’t worry. Those other things will be there waiting for you after your Day of Bliss.

What will you do?

Do you love reading? Spend the whole day in a good book or two or three.

Do you love knitting? Get your needles and yarn out. Go to town. Knit to your hearts content.

Have the fish been calling your name but your rod and reel are coated in a layer of dust? Put on that fishing hat and get your tackle box ready.

Will life try and interrupt you? Yep! As a matter of fact I can almost guarantee that strange and urgent things will come up to try and distract you.

Don’t let anything stop you!

What if you only get 1 hour of bliss or 1/2 a day of bliss? Congratulations! Regardless of how much time you actually spend in bliss you still win. Before your Bliss Experiment you were going to be do the same old stuff you do everyday. Not today. Today you spent time following your passion and that made all the difference.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes. I’m going to spend my day of bliss on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

NaBloPoMo Day 7 – Movement

Movement is all around us.

The minutes, hours, days, weeks months, weather, temperature, seasons, people, life. It’s all moving. Sometimes we move and sometimes we’re moved. There are times we don’t want to move at all. We wish time would stand still. Even if just for a moment. We seek stillness. We want to stop and take a deep breath. Rest. Quiet. Peace.

There are times we seek the stillness to capture a moment other times to escape one. Yet no matter how much we wish time would stand still, there is always movement.

The earth spins, the sun rises and sets, the tides roll in and out, birthdays come and go, the to-do list gets done, and tomorrow it begins again.

NaBloPoMo #6 Storing up for the Winter

The Pecan trees are doing it and the Chile Pequins are doing it.

Winding down production and getting ready for the dormant phase that winter will bring along.

I find myself doing it, too.

Gathering the nuts that have fallen to the ground. Picking the last of the chile from the bush.

Storing up for the Winter.

It’s a natural progression to prepare ourselves with the changing of the seasons. The A/C has been off for the last few weeks. Open windows had become a bit of the norm. Then with the first cool weather, darkness appears earlier, blankets on the sofas and we look forward to warm comforting food.

Yes, it’s definitely that time.

Time for change.

NaBloPoMo #5 Time Shifting our Entertainment

Over the summer our family decided to bite the bullet and sign up for premium TV content . We have been a no cable family for about 8 years. Paying for high speed internet was a no-brainer, but to pay for a bunch of nothing on TV? Forget it!

That was until we discovered the wonder of having premium content and a DVR or Digital Video ecorder for the uninitiated. It has changed television watching for us. For the most part TV watching is a one way conversation akin to how a conference or seminar works. The TV or speaker does the talking and we as the audience sit in a stupor listening.

If watching TV is like being in a seminar or conference. Then watching TV with a DVR is like an UnConference. Conversations abound! With the DVR we are free to pause the action to discuss what just happened, rewind the action to see it again and again and again (very handy with sports programming). Or even better you are able to fast forward through those pesky commercials.

We’re also able to pursue our interests outside of the house without ever worrying about missing anything. I have a friend who drives his wife batty on Sunday evenings because he rushes her family visits because he doesn’t want to miss a moment of his favorite program. Imagine if they had a DVR? He could stay at the in-laws all night long secure in the knowledge that his favorite program will be waiting for him.

Our television watching has never been so conversational as it is now. We stop and discuss everything! Now I’m not encouraging you to spend the day watching TV, but if you’re going to do it then I highly recommend using a DVR.

NaBloPoMo #4 – Lazy Sundays and Football

Like most folks I enjoy a nice lazy Sunday. A day to rest, enjoy, chill, relax, kick-back….you get the drift. However during the Fall I also enjoy watching football.

What?! A girl who likes watching football?!

Yep, and I even understand the plays, penalties and can discuss play clock management. I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. A place steeped in Dallas Cowboy football. This was when they were America’s Team back in the glory days of the ’70’s.

I was what you might call a tomboy and had plenty of boy cousins to play cops and robbers with or was that cowboys and indians? I could play a mean game of marbles and the boys didn’t count me out in chess or any game for that matter. So football or the understanding of football was a given.

Let’s fast forward a few years.  Our family moved to a different city where football or conversations about football weren’t as common. I grew up and my tomboy days were but distant memories. I married a man who could care less about the sport and that was fine by me. One year we were given tickets to a game and had such a great time! My husband was amazed I knew so much about the sport. It was the beginning of what is now a fun thing we do together. Watch football on Sundays.

NBPM #1 – NaPodPoMo & NaBloPoMo

You may be wondering, “Just what the heck are NaPodPoMo & NaBloPoMo?”

A foreign language? Like say….Pig Latin?

No. Nothing as fancy as that.

NaPodPoMo stands for National Podcast Post Month and NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Post Month.

Both of these are based off of the very popular NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month which kicks off today, November 1st. It lasts for 30 days and ends at 11:59pm on November 30th. The premise is to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the 30 days. It doesn’t have to be pretty or even good. As a matter of fact FAQ Reason #2 states, “Aiming low is the best way to succeed.” I do have a few books I’d like to belt out, but they all happen to be non-fiction so that counted me out.

In my continued search I found out there was also a NaBloPoMo happening at the same time. Post every day to your blog for 30 days. Once again the idea is to just get it out there.

So I said to myself, “Hey, I have a blog.

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to post to it more.”

“Hey, I think I’m gonna do it!”

So I signed up. I figure it’ll be a great way to find my blogging voice and by participating I’ll also end up with what I hope will be some kick ass blog posts. Whereas now I’ve only got a handful. Who knows after all is said and done maybe I’ll keep up the daily postings. And THAT would be great!

When I find something cool I tell my online buddies about it, too. I posted it to the SA Podcasters message board. The conversation continued on Twitter
with a joke that it would be too hard to do something like that in the Pod-O-Sphere.  The more I thought about it the more I wanted to do a podcast version. I wondered if there was already a group that I could join. My search turned up empty for podcasts but I did come across a NaVloPoMo or National Video Blog Post Month event. Wow! Vloggers were in on the fun, too? That clinched it for me. On Monday afternoon I jumped in and created the NaPodPoMo site on Ning.com

You see although I have a couple of podcasts in existance, there is a part of me that would like to post more shows more often. Due to the nature of the existing shows it’s not possible to do at this time. So what better way to get into practice of creating shows on a daily basis than NaPodPoMo? Since it doesn’t have to be pretty or amazing I’m free to experiment, be as creative as I want to be and use new tools to make this happen. I plan on using Utterz, BTR, my iRiver, my Phone, Jott to help augment my microphone and keyboard.

Since the premise of both events is focused on the DOING of a blog post and the DOING of a podcast, I think they go hand in hand.  So I’m diving in with both feet DOING both NaBloPoMo & NaPodPoMo.

Personally I’m looking forward to the challenge.