Respectful Disagreement? (Blogging 101, Commenting Bootcamp)

Blogging 101, Commenting Bootcamp, Day Four: Try Respectful Disagreement

One of the best things about reading blogs is being exposed to ideas, experiences, and viewpoints you might not otherwise encounter — at some point, you’re bound to read something you disagree with.

Today, leave a comment that disagrees with a post’s premise or challenges a post’s ideas… but respectfully!

If we never engage with difficult ideas, we shrink the internet down into our own little echo chambers. Disagreement helps us hone our viewpoints, and can change a mind or show people their common ground.

Of course, disagreeing needn’t (and shouldn’t!) be mean-spirited. Visit The Commons for some guidelines on how to disagree in a kind, productive way. And if you’re not sure whether your comment is helpful or respectful, your co-bloggers in The Commons will happily provide a second opinion!

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“Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘Blog’ is a fool’s errand.” Michael Conniff

Respectful Disagreement?

Left a few comments
I tried to be honest
Even though I did promise
No one to torment

“I cannot agree with thee
I cannot see the same you see
Don’t be too angry with me
I was on a commenting spree
They said the truth will set free
I realize now it upset a wee
So let’s just agree to disagree
And maybe go out for a cup of tea?”

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Throwback Thursday 2015-12-17

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“By Thursday morning, we’d gotten over the worst of it” William Scranton

Throwback Thursday 2015-12-17

Today is time for a walk down memory lane again and dig into the archives of Rantings Of A Third Kind since the beginning of time. Well at least from the beginning of this blog 😛

Here are a few featured today:

It’s About As Funny As A Root Canal (Repost for TBT)

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I am Out of Order for Today (Repost for TBT)

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Let the Rantings continue!!!

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I am Out of Order for Today (Repost for TBT)

“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs… one step at a time.” Joe Girard

I am Out of Order for Today

Call it
A writer’s block
Or a total lock
My mind just
Put up the sign

“Empty room
For hire”

I will not pine
Somewhere
The fire
Can be found
Lifting me
Off the ground

To unblock
I will catch
The hook
To unlock
My writer’s mind

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It’s About As Funny As A Root Canal (Repost for TBT)

“Born With Teeth” Kate Mulgrew

It’s About As Funny As A Root Canal

You know
That feeling
Lying
In the chair
Thinking
Life 
Is not fair

Staring
At the ceiling
Anticipating
Sweat
Covering
Your skin
Waiting for
The drilling
To begin
The sound
Resonating
In your skull

Totally bound
With feelings
Of dull
Contemplating
An escape
Looking
At the window
Wishing
For a cape
Like a superhero
Flying away

No time
The Dentist
Hovering
Covering
Your eyes
With sunglasses
Working
In a quick pace
Before I
Can plot my
Break

My mind
Wandering to
Molasses?
Am I
Loosing it?
Completely
Sugar
Would be
The last thing
I needed

Mouth
Agape
Drooling
Like an ape
Fooling
Not a chance
In a deep
Trance
Or a drug endused
State

After all
Is done
Wishing
I had
A gun
Somehow
Cooling down
Getting up
Staggering
Reeling
A sick
Feeling

A glance
In the mirror
Spittle
And blood
On my face
Must be
An error
Covering
My head
With a hood

Leaving quickly
No looking
Back
Oh what
A quack
Never mind
It’s all over
Until
Next time

When
You hear
It’s as funny
As A root canal
Time to fear
And run
As fast
As you
Can

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Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, Happy International Tea Day!

Happy International Tea Day!

“Enjoy life sip by sip, not gulp by gulp” The Minister of Leaves, The Republic of Tea

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Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

Slow down
Listen
To the world
Around
Forget
That strife
Just Enjoy
Without a ploy
The simple pleasures,
Purest treasures
Of life

A cup of tea,
Plain and simple
Easy as
Your A, B, C
Soon you’ll see
A dimple
On your cheek
Will sneak

Breathe in
Breathe out
Relinquish
All doubt
Nothing to it
You can do it
Relax a while
It is no guile

Soon enough
The moment
That should have
Forever lasted
Has passed
You are back
On track

Remembering,
Hoping
The moments
Between now
And running out
To the
wide open
Would last
Longer than
A token

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Upside Down or Opposite Day (Writing 101 Poem A Day)

Writing 101, A Poem A Day, Day Six: Fallacy
Poetry & Photography

Unsound arguments. Failures of reason.

Today, let’s write poems that are wholly illogical.

Let’s see how miserably we can get reason to fail; both our reason and the reason that guides our readers.

Try not to consider this prompt as a call to nonsense but rather a call to use your good (creative) sense to arrive at firmly misconstrued ends. Surprise yourself!

Alternatively, make poetry from known philosophical fallacies. Make that straw man stand by a red wheelbarrow, put the genius of the crowd to the test, or tell the tale of a (tautological) tub.

“Poetry…where magic is supreme and where therefore things happen which realistically-minded strangers find difficult to understand.” – Robert Graves

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“This is not the rhyming song!”

Upside Down or Opposite Day

Chocolate as a dietary measure
Which can be the ultimate pleasure
To get the same effect
From this heavenly confect
You would by eating a carrot

Oh don’t listen to the parrot!

At least double the amount
No no you don’t have to count
Per each pleasurable bite
When enjoying this healthiest of delights

Chocolate is the answer
Never mind what the question was!

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Quote a Week Tuesday, 2015-12-15

Posted in A Quote a Week Tuesday

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“I used to be Snow White, but I drifted” Mae West

Quote a Week Tuesday, 2015-12-15

Today’s quote is for something we all love, or as I do, love to hate, SNOW.

But seriously, snow is fun when you can travel to it and leave when you had enough, much like it is with my relatives. Snow is fun when you don’t have to shovel it, when it doesn’t cover your car in the morning and when it is not over a meter high. Snow is fun when it is a pictoresque view of which you can snap beautiful photographs and then leave for a warmer climate to publish them.

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water” Carl Reiner

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Some Social Media Bullshit (Repost for Blogging 201)

‘Connecting people – The artist formerly known as Nokia’

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Some Social Media Bullshit

You don’t have to like it, but have to be in there: The social media of the world wide web. After all, who wants to be a complete social outcast!

Here are a few examples of what can be used for keeping in touch with family, friends and even your favourite movie stars!

* Assbook: Like opinions, everyone has more than one
* Angstagram: I post photos of myself and my eating habits, therefore I am
* Bitter: You would be too if no one is following you, right?
* Benchpress: For every self aware blabber, but more artistic ;P
* Tiedup: A must for professionals, endorse endorse endorse until you drop!
* You-boob: You did something stupid, maybe flashed a body part usually hidden, it got on video and uploaded on the internet and now you are the star of your own show!

A typical modern person’s day

@In the morning
The alarm clock is going off, it’s time to get up.
What is the first thing you do?

#Pick up your phone from the night stand and:

A) Check your social media apps
B) Check your email

@Driving in the car to your place of work.
Listening to the radio and the DJ is urging you to snap a photo and upload it to their site:

#uploadfunnypic

A) You are snapping selfies and almost bumping into the car that stopped in front of you. (The other driver possibly doing the same thing as you).
B) You are twatting your social media buddies of what you just did.

@Lunch time everyone with their phones in their respective hands. Not one word is spoken to anyone ‘live’, but they all are:

A) Chatting (and oh yes, there are actually office use approved ones too: Yank!)
B) Updating statuses on various social media apps.
C) Uploading photos of what they ate (of course, a must for every self aware social medialite).
D) Someone shared a funny video and twatted the link to everyone else around the table.
E) Everyone watching the video.
F) Everyone twatting feedback to each other.

@Coffee break everyone is:

A) Uploading photos of coffee and doughnuts they will consume.
B) Chatting with the people around the coffee table.

Back home from the office.

@Dinner table the family is sharing a meal and their respective day:

A-F apply here too.

@Midnight, bedtime:

A) Time to recap today’s event in your “blab”.
B) Latest friend updates to be checked (so not to miss any important things such as what your friends ate or what they were watching on TV, etc.)
C) Twatting everyone

#g’night!

Sometimes though, you have to be more low tech. For example in the situation, where your respective spouse is not quite on the same level of enlightenment regarding the social conventions of the social media as you are. Then you have to resort to archaic methods like the SMS.

Wishing your spouse

#sweet dreams xoxo

Lesson learnt:
Getting anything done; 3% is talent, 97% is staying off the internet.

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Oops!, or one Big Boo-boo! (Daily Post)

The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Oops!

‘Tis the season to revel in photographic (and/or photogenic) disasters.

Last week, my fellow Daily Post contributor Robyn wrote about the liberating power of embarrassing stories. It got me thinking about our collective reluctance to show less-flattering sides of our lives and personalities.

The imperative to present a perfect facade is doubly strong when it comes to our photos. Here, it’s not just the subject matter we care about — the perfect day at the beach; smiling, well-dressed toddlers; a faux-nonchalant smirk at a party. The picture itself has to be Instagram- and/or blog-worthy. Our images are always photoshopped in spirit, even if we don’t use the actual software.

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“Never say “Oops” in the operating room”

Oops!, or one Big Boo-boo!

The sounds of the beeping machines
The operating theatre in full fling
“Just don’t remove my spleen”
My last thoughts, as I felt the sting
The needle pushed into my spine
Soon, I will be feeling really fine
A long time this moment did I stall
Into a light slumber will I fall
But the sounds of the hammer in my skull
Echoing loudly, even though my body dull
Soon enough the voices are beckoning
I must wake up I am reckoning
The procedure now is done
Feelings on my body quite numb
But alas in a day or two
I finally manage to take a step or few

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Related posts (Repost):
Invincible
Fixing It
Out of Order
Replaced by Metal
Ode to Bedpans

Ode to Bedpans (Repost for The Daily Post)

A homage to bedpans everywhere!

“A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running” Groucho Marx

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Ode to Bedpans

When you are
Down and out
Then just give
A small shout
Soon enough
Before things get tough
The nice nurses
Will come a running
In their purses
Carrying the plumbing
And without a doubt
Ease your pout

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