This site hosts the original broadcasts of the cult radio comedy show “A Half Hour Radio Show,” syndicated around the US in the early 1990’s.
Marilyn Armstrong‘s insight:
When I was in college, I worked at the radio station. This show was a very big hit at the time. Since then, it has gone through a lot of iterations, refinements, rewriting … and it’s still hilarious. Take a trip in time. Enjoy a type of entertainment that used your imagination instead of special effects. Fall in love with radio!
I was doing okay until Garry came back from the pharmacy having paid more than $250 in copays for prescriptions I hadn’t authorized. He assumed I knew those prescriptions were waiting and did what any good husband would do: he paid for them and brought them home. I had no idea they were there at all, so I assumed the pharmacy had taken it upon themselves to renew them without my asking them to do so.
Then I figured the doctors’ offices must have called them in … but three different offices were involved, which was confusing. The pharmacy was sure I’d done it. I assumed they’d done it because the doctors all said they hadn’t done it. Eventually after a lot of accusations which began to sound a lot like “Yo mama wears combat boots!” it turned out the insurance company did it. They were doing me a favor, bypassing the usual prior authorization process and called the refills into the pharmacy. I wish they’d told me.
“Oh,” I said.
“Oh,” said the pharmacist.
“Oh,” agreed the my doctor’s assistant.
Thing is, I’m sure they thought they were doing me a favor. I only wish someone had told me what was going on because I didn’t actually have $250 for prescriptions and would have picked them up in as money came available rather than emptying out my bank account in one quick move.
And then the pharmacy said they could give me the drugs I need for $26 as opposed to the $76 copay my insurance company wants and I discovered a friend has a drug company connection that may enable me to get the other really expensive prescription I need at wholesale prices so maybe I won’t die after all.
Sometime during this brouhaha, I realized I’d passed the 40,000 (41,356 but the day isn’t over) hit mark and may hit 42,000 next week. This could probably be considered success, especially since I’ve really only been blogging regularly since last June. I’ve posted 818 times, about 30% of which have been reblogs, so my own posts are probably around 550 or so. I’ve gotten 4,202 comments, but probably half of these are my responses to other peoples’ comments. So let’ call it 2150 give or take a few.
I’ve got 218 followers, 190 on WordPress and the rest on Twitter, an unknown number on Bloggers and Pinterest (WordPress doesn’t collect those statistics). My biggest day was November 9, 2012 when I got 1049 hits and otherwise, I average around 200 hits per day (not counting followers).
Am I successful? It’s not the numbers that define success. What makes me feel succesful is that some of my followers are authors who I greatly admire. Getting a thank you from an author whose books I love for a review I’ve written makes me hyperventilate.
Discovering I have a really famous basketball player who follows me, four or five authors whose books I read plus a variety of politicians (which means maybe something I say gets heard by someone who can make things change) … that’s pretty close to my definition of success. I have other photographers following me, as I follow them.
I admire artists, writers, photographers. I admire people who are dedicated to making the world a better place and am flattered that some of these people take the time to read my posts.
I think, in the end, success is when you feel that you are doing your best and people appreciate your work. By my own standards, I’m surprisingly successful. I haven’t made the earth shake, but I’ve made a difference. I haven’t saved the world, but maybe I’ve helped make the world a bit more civilized, more literate. Maybe I’ve told some stories that needed telling, fought a few battles that were worth fighting. Told people about books that deserved some publicity and a wider audience. Maybe I’ve been able to help a few artists find their place in the cyber world.
I love blogging. I love writing and taking pictures. I absolutely adore knowing I finally have an audience. People actually read my stuff, look at my pictures. That means, I guess, I’m a success … at least to myself and I suspect that I am the only one I really have to please. If I make others happy, that’s wonderful … but if I live up to my own standards, then I am well and truly pleased.
I have spent this day multi-tasking in the best way. Listening to the audiobook version of “A MEMORY OF LIGHT” for which it feels as if I have been waiting forever while simultaneously running the pictures from last night’s party through Photoshop. As expected, many pictures were too dark and too fuzzy to be worth rescuing, but there was a good selection of pictures that came out reasonably well.
It was a frustrating photographic venue for me and my Canon Powershot sx260 hs, which is a pretty good little point and shoot, does not have a fast enough lens to handle the low available light … nor does it have a good enough strobe to provide discriminating fill flash. Being short does not help either. Tall photographers can see and sometimes reach over the crowd. Even with arms fully extended, I’m still vertically challenged. And yet … I managed to come up with a fair number of acceptable, even good, pictures.
Speaking of celebrities, the place was crawling with them but most of them were people I’ve met at other parties and who were colleagues of my husband so it was amusing to realize that he was actually one of the celebrities … and for some obscure reason, I sort of was too, although I’m not really certain why. Some people turned out to follow my blog. One rarely never knows who is following. Just today, I learned Queen Mab of the Winter Fae is following me on Twitter.
I have little familiarity with court protocol, especially of the Fae, but I would certainly not want to be anything but highly respectful of the ruler of this high court! She has some serious magical powers and could make my life very difficult. And she would have been a fine addition to the party.
Mab, Queen of the Winter Fae
So who did we meet and who are in these pictures? First, The Examiner did a story about the party and you can pop on over and read all about it. Queen Mab was not in attendance though I’m sure she would have livened up the affair.
Garry and I chatted with — and I took some pictures of — Ray Flynn, Mayor of Boston. He was surely the most fun of any mayor Boston has had since the revered Mayor Curley.
Bob Lobel emceed the event and he and Garry also, having been colleagues, had a few memories to share. Derek “Turk” Sanderson, one of the greatest of the Boston Bruins and a Hall of Famer, in whose honor the event was being held was there and he and Garry remembered each other very well indeed. Edward Burns, actor/producer, director Doug Atchison, producer Shep Harmon. All were there to gather support for a movie about “Turk” and his battle against drugs and booze, a battle that many others at this party have also fought.
Noteworthy was that this was a very sober crowd and they still seemed to be having a good time. I’ve never been a drinker, and my one coke (the drink, not the drug) barely slaked my thirst which is not an allegory. I really was thirsty, but the line at the bars were too long to do twice.
Bob Lobel and Shep Harman (producer)
Don’t know the ladies, sorry!
Doug Atchison, director
Edward Burns, Actor/Producer
Garry and Turk
Derek “Turk” Sanderson with Bob Lobel
Garry and Turk (again)
Bob Lobel, emce
This was an amazing — huge — change from parties of the past. I’m pretty some of these people who knew each other from “the old days” had never spent any time together when all were sober. Something to ponder.
There comes a point with drugs and booze where you have only two choices: quit or die. Because after a certain point, your body isn’t going to tolerate the abuse.
I was glad to see so many people who made the good choice. They quit. Good for all of you. It is a hard battle to fight, harder to win, hardest of all to hang on to that victory. Since winning the battle over addiction is the theme of the movie, it was appropriate that a large number of the attendees knew the story up close and very personal.
I could not resist the opportunity to join the Sisterhood of World Bloggers. It’s not for the award, though awards are nice. It’s for the pleasure of sisterhood, something in which I believe with my whole heart. Throughout my life, my greatest supports and warmest relationships … and my most long-lasting relationships … have been with women.
Women have supported me, encouraged me, consoled me, and protected me. They have commiserated and rejoiced with me during the best and worst of times. I would be honored to be part of such a group. I am, not surprisingly, hoping to link up through my fine friend Sharla Shults at CatnipOfLife… a woman who deserves all the honors she gets and more.
There are rules for this award which are basically the same as for most any blog award received. The last part, deciding on recipients for this award, is exceptionally difficult. How does one choose from all those who have visited and provided support for catnipoflife? To me, you are all my ‘sisters’ (of course, there are ‘brothers’ too but their honor will need to come in a different form). For a sisterhood, why should some be selected while others are left out? Since there is no other criteria for selection other than choice and even though this is not exactly the intention of the rules, it is the decision of catnipoflife:
All of my ‘Sisters’ are Welcome to the
Sisterhood of the World Bloggers!
Acceptance is contingent upon the following:
Leave a comment that you would like to be a member of the Sisterhood.
Grab the badge for posting to your blog, thank whoever gave you this award and provide a link to her blogsite.
Answer the following 10 questions in your blog posting.
Nominate and provide the links to 10-12 blogs that you find a joy to read OR follow the same procedure as Catnip and I have used. [If you choose to bestow the award on special sisters, be sure to kindly let the recipients know they have been invited into the sisterhood.]
Return here as soon as your posting is complete to provide a link to your blogsite. Those links will be added to this posting as comments of completion are received.
Here are the 10 Questions
What is your favorite colour? Red
What is your favorite animal? Dogs but I could as easily say horses, cats, tigers, lions, or ferrets … If it’s furry and four-footed, I love it!
What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Coffee!!
Facebook or Twitter? Neither. Can you email me at fivedawgz@gmail.com?
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Giving unless it’s something really cool
What is your favorite number? 18, which in Hebrew means ” Chai” or life.
What is your favorite day of the week? Wednesday because that’s the day the social security checks come in.
What is your favorite flower? Lilacs
What is your passion? Reading, writing, and photography … and learning. Because learning is living and when you stop learning, you stop really being alive. Thus I have always been.
I started this blog in February 2012, but it wasn’t until the end of May that I started to write regularly. Before that, I posted erratically and rarely.
In September, I tossed off a very short post about Criminal Minds (the TV show, not politicians) that somehow wound up the first result in a Google search. It has stayed in the top 5 search results (out of 4,100,000 possible results) for more than a month. I have no idea how that happened. That single post has gotten more than 3,500 hits and keeps going. It took me 5 minutes to write and was a response to something that bothered me about the show. Who knew that so many people cared about a television series about profilers and serial killers?
The ups and downs of popularity remain a mystery. Immediately after that post, my numbers went way up, then as I expected, began to drop, then level out. Even so, I tripled the hits I get each day. Folks came for that post and stayed for others. I also have an unknown number of followers on Bloggers, Twitter, ScoopIt, Pinterest and StumbleUpon.
I am, as my blog title suggests, eclectic. By profession, I’m a writer. By inclination an historian. My hobby is photography. I have distinct audiences for writing and photography. I haven’t figured out how much these groups overlap. Even within my writing, subject matter varies quite a lot. Amongst philosophical ramblings, discussions of whatever current events are on my mind, and so on, I write a lot of stuff about movies and TV. There is a specific audience for the media posts.
Posts I labor over may be barely noticed; others that I just drop on the page get lots of hits. I have learned, through trial and error, a few things worth mentioning. I’m sure I’ll learn more. I need and want to learn more. Meanwhile, here are 10 things I’ve learned that seem to be true:
Less really is more. More than 1000 words is too long. 500 words is plenty, especially if you include pictures. Sometimes, just a caption is enough.
Use more pictures, fewer words. Everyone likes pictures especially nature, pretty girls, children, dogs, and for some peculiar reason, Arizona.
Funny gets more hits than depressing. Being serious is appropriate for serious subjects, but you can use a light touch even with heavy material.
Popularity is nice, but it’s your blog. Do your own thing. That’s the point, isn’t it?
Digress but remember to come back. When I tell stories, I ramble. It’s my style. I wander before I get to my destination, but there’s a limit to how far and how often you can roam without losing your reader.
Be economical in how much material you use per day and per post. If you set yourself an unsustainable pace, you’ll burn out.
Have fun. Have a lot of fun. Enjoyment is contagious.
Do what you love. Blog about the things you find beautiful, important, amusing, or interesting.
If you aren’t having fun, give it up.
On the graphics side, leave white space. At least 50% of the screen should be empty. This percentage includes the space between pictures and text, between paragraphs, margins at the top and both sides, space between columns. Clutter is hard on the eyes and gives your site a “rummage sale” look. Do you really need every widget?
With camera in hand, exploring European lands, cultures, food, and drink...mostly with a plan, but sometimes enjoying the adventure of just getting lost.
I could not resist the opportunity to join the Sisterhood of World Bloggers. It’s not for the award, though awards are nice. It’s for the pleasure of 
