Why do we Blog?

The title was going to be “Why do we write”, but after careful consideration I changed the title, as I firmly believe that blogging belongs in the same basket as writing.

"It may be every professional writer’s nightmare to hear blogging and writing mentioned in the same sentence, but isn’t better to have written, than never to have written at all?"

Personally, I find there’s no better place than in our blogs to showcase our wordsmanship and images, and that for some, they are the incubators for greater works to come.

From day one, this blog was a means to an end. Finding the nurses that I trained and worked with at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst was all that it was supposed to do.

But in the process I discovered a new passion that goes well beyond finding that Holy Grail, and that is “Writing”.

I've even surprised myself by dabbling in poetry. The members of "The Society of Midnight Wanderers" act as my beacon and I hope to be a "Bloody good poet" one day, but don't hold your breath.

As I keep most things close to my heart, writing has opened the way for me to reveal to those that know me the most and to the ones that don’t know me at all, words that I have found near impossible to say in the past and in the present, out loud.

In my sidebar, alongside 2007, you’ll find the Latin words, “Meus vita lies intus”. If I’ve got it right, it means, “My life lies within.”

The posts that I have chiselled out since May 2007 are my way of showing to the ones that matter, what I’m all about.

The coward’s way out perhaps, but at least it’s a start after decades of being a closed oyster. As to whether you’ll find a pearl inside, it’s all up to you.

Now, it’s been quoted that Blogging is a free weblog publishing tool, but it’s not. When you consider the many hours we spend in creating them and then hoping someone will read them can cost us dearly, both mentally and physically. But I have to say, it’s well worth it. Don’t you think?

To the friends that I’ve made on the way, and you know who you are, I thank you from the bottom of my Aussie heart!

You may think I’m as “bold as brass” for asking this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway, “Why do you blog?”

To be continued...

The Poor Conversationalist

I can trace my poor conversational skills back to my childhood days, where eating meals in front of the television was the norm.

Any attempt at verbal communication during these times, be it a few words or looking as if it was going to turn into an attack of verbal diarrhoea, would be met with scorn, evil eyes and having the nearest thing thrown at me by my younger siblings. Mind you, I was no different.

Image Credit - Clara Natoli

Little has changed since then and with the benefit of hindsight, I wish it had been different. Now as an adult, I find myself working in an environment where actions speak louder than words. Conversations are kept to a minimum, with the only chance of having a good chinwag occurring during hurried meal breaks or outside having a gasper.

Having the flair of a good conversationalist or as I like to say, “The gift of the gab”, has eluded me for decades and is one of the reasons why I have turned to writing so late in life. It also gives me a chance of having a voice and being heard over the multitude of other voices that surround me.

All is not lost however; as I do pride myself on being a good listener and I hope that in some small way that it makes up for my shortcomings as a talker.

Looking at the world around me, I can only see conversational skills getting worse.

Where, as a child, my only form of modern distraction was the old black and white, I now see people of all ages spending an inordinate amount of time on: iPods, Text messaging and emailing devices, watching television and last but not least, computers. Heaven forbid that I should mention, blogging!

I know I’m not alone when I ask,

“What can we do to save the gift of the gab?”

To be continued...

CSS in Blogger - Part Two

This is the my second attempt at creating an image gallery within a Blogger Blog using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The code that I have used will allow for a larger image to appear when the cursor is passed over them.

In my previous post, I created a similar CSS image gallery effect that I found at Dynamic Drive. All went according to plan if you were using Internet Explorer. But for those using other Internet browsers, the larger image was cut off at my sidebar.

In my endeavour to learn more about CSS and CSS image galleries, I was lucky enough to come across a new acquaintance who goes by the name of, "Narrowband".

I am attempting to partly replicate his example which is based on Dynamic Drive's CSS and his invaluable assistance has enabled me to put this one up on the blogosphere.

NOTE: Within my template I have placed Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) into two sidebar widgets. The codes are similar but each CSS was given a unique gallerycontainer and thumbnail reference name.

Settings within each CSS were customized in order for the larger images to appear above and below the thumbnails that you see here.

Enjoy the images!

If you encounter any problems please let me know what they are, including the details of your Internet browser. This has taken a long time to do and even though I'm knackered, I loved doing it.

Thank you again, Dynamic Drive and Narrowband and as we say Downunder, "Your blood's worth bottling."

To be continued...

CSS in Blogger

This is the my first attempt using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in a post. All credit goes to Dynamic Drive, and from what I can gather this post should display correctly in most browsers.

When you pass your mouse over a thumbnail, a larger image will be displayed.

I first started off creating this within Windows Live Writer and after pulling out half my hair attempting to get this right, I then published the post to my Blogger Blog.

Unfortunately I hit a FEW hurdles as I hadn't used CSS in Live Writer before, but after some copying, pasting and deleting between the two, I put a few problems to sleep, permanently .

To make this all work in the end, I placed CSS code within a sidebar widget to get another piece of code within the post itself to work.

There was supposed to be text below each large image but I wasn't able to do it, due to a hitch with blogger or was it my. I'm not quite sure but it appears to work without the text.

If you have any problems could you please let me know what they are and what browser your using, in order to further educate myself and perhaps others as well.

Just to finish off, I would like to thank Dynamic Drive and the Windows Live Writer Team. You guys rock!

To be continued...

Three hearts beat as one

As we look to the north we remember the young lass who has not only captured the heart of our son, but ours as well.

This rare beauty with a mind for tidy estates and an eye for our son, works overtime making sure everything is just right. We love her dearly and proudly call her a member of our family.

With dogged determination and a deep longing for one another, that only lovers will know, these two have built their nest in far north tropical Queensland, Australia.

For her parents, it would seem like yesterday that their daughter and the beauty of this fruitful relationship, was seen riding a horse as a child. For us, recalling how our son bolted through his bedroom window after being grounded at the ripe old age of thirteen, left us in no doubt that he had a mind of his own.

After much ado, this combination of two distinctly different and unique souls has given rise to the planting of a seed that will break ground in the month of Feb 2009, and make us very proud grandparents for the first time.

As we now know that three hearts beat as one up north, we will make ourselves available to help out when the time comes.

Flexible rostering and a bottle of good cheer to christen our first grandchild will be appreciated, but not expected.

From the time our children were born, we always imagined they would hold their own one day. Now that it’s about to happen, we can hardly wait to behold the love of their lives. The first of many, perhaps!

I have never considered myself old, but when it comes time for the first of our children's children to make an appearance, I will have no choice but to finally concede, with a huge grin, tear filled eyes and a happy heart, that I am old.

"To Nicole and Steve, we love you both very, very much!"

To be continued...

Fear of the Known

I am making an assumption here but I think it is fair to say that most of us, from a very early age whilst at school, had impressed upon us, very much like a red-hot branding iron would do to cattle, to do our utmost when it came to doing anything that we had to put our hands to. If not, fear of the known was sure to follow.

Like an Gregorian chant passed down from generation to generation, the somewhat encouraging inspirational phrases of, “Heads down, tails up” and “knuckle down” were recited to us on countless occasions by many a teacher determined to set us straight and still echoes in my mind to this very day.

We were indoctrinated into believing that we had four things to fear if we failed to meet great expectations within a catholic education.

They were the fear of God, the fear of receiving six of the best via the cane, the fear of having to scrape bubble gum off school playgrounds and lastly the fear of having to take that dreaded letter marked “confidential”, back to our parents.

Seeing that avoiding immediate pain from the cane was the most compelling of the four, this took precedence over you know who. Who in our books, was supposed to be a pretty good bloke and loved all children, no matter whether they were good or bad and, as such, would probably leave us alone for the time being.

"Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."  Saint Francis of Assisi

The other two could be explained away with a lie and a cute serious face that explained to the ones that we held dear, “It’s all gone, Sir!” and “What letter! Mum!”.

You have all heard the old adage, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” But is it? May be, may be not. I’ll let you stew over that and perhaps you can let me know of your thoughts on that one.

These days, with humorous tone and without a hint of old school dictatorial overtones, I’m more likely to say to others and to myself on the quiet, “I don’t want excuses, I want results!”

On a serious note, I often wonder if my schooling days were nothing more than a fear driven exercise in order to get us to succeed.

I had hoped things would changed, but going on today’s alarming headlines that reveal a growing trend amongst senior high school students to contemplate life-threatening actions because of the excessive pressures placed upon them by unrealistic expectations from family, society and final exams that will determine their life path, it has only gotten worse.

I realise we only want the best for our children but at what cost will they have to pay for our fear.

To be continued...

The Independent Observer

Piercing stares from hollow eyes reveal your shallow soul

Long serving cohorts knowing your game

You bide your time until you can entrap another

Going for the jugular when it happens

 

Indifference and intolerance hide well behind your back

Calling them out like dogs of war

You set them loose on unsuspecting prey

Calling them off after they have had their fill

 

 

Time honoured practise has fine tuned your devilish skill

Starved of love elsewhere your chances of finding it here are slim

Perceived friends hide amongst actuals

Sadly, all are too few

 

Your purgatory ways are not the answer

Common decency and patience is what you need

Unlike your dogs of war these two will serve you well

But knowing you, Heaven knows!

 

- My Poetry Mentor -

To be continued...