Month: November 2015

Honored

/ fearsomebeard / 16 Comments

Yesterday I was honored to be nominated for The Liebster Award.

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I am not too familiar with blog awards. I’ve seen them on other blogs. I wasn’t sure what they meant or how people got them. Was there a blogging committee? Were nominees submitted and then your blog was judged? Or was an award put out to a blogging world vote? Then does someone contact you to notify you if you won the award? Was there a ceremony? We’re there runners up awarded? And how about the most congenial blogger award if you didn’t place?

After an in depth, more like 5 minute, Google search I find out that the Liebster Award is a nomination. All a blogger must do is accept if they wish and it’s yours! Yeah an award! There are rules that are simply recommendations that get bloggers involved to visit each other and help us connect. Liebster is a word apparently of German origins that has several meanings a few of which are kind, valued, sweet, nice and beloved.

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I was nominated by Jacob over at -jaywalks. Thank you Jacob and I accept!

My nominees are as follows:

Itsmyhusband&I

icanhasgrace

There is another way to live

TheINFP

From my brain to my mouth

Larry Muffin at Home

Raybeard

Ok the rules say “up to eleven”. Well I’m not Spinal Tap so Mine doesn’t even go up to eleven. I didn’t choose these as a top seven either, so if your not on there don’t be upset plus if any of them accept they need others to nominate as well. Besides, seven rhymes with eleven and seven is said to be lucky!😉

The Questions:

  1. Which literary genre do you prefer? ….Biography and autobiography, especially the positive motivating ones.
  2. Which book do you know and love? ….Personal History, Katherine Graham
  3. Which book are you passionate about now? ….Find A Way, Diana Nyad
  4. Why did you start blogging?  ….To look deeper into myself as part of my personal growth, referenced through the growth of Fearsome.
  5. Order or Chaos? ….I find order through chaos. One must accept to grow. Our world is chaos yet order in one.
  6. Where would you like to live? ….Right here in San Diego. If I couldn’t live here San Fransisco, Seattle or Sydney in that order.
  7. Starry sky or sunset? ….Sunset
  8. Better the paper book or rather the e-book? ….Paper
  9. What is the writing for? Do you see it as a hobby or hoping for a future as a writer? ….The writing is for personal growth, betterment of myself. For now it’s a hobby, que sera sera whatever will be will be the futures not mine to see que sera sera. I feel one should never close their minds to possibilities.
  10. What do you think about social networks? ….They can be an asset, but like all things one should practice manners, respect, restraint and maintain etiquette. Sometimes (most times actually) less is more.

 

Post holiday gratitude

/ fearsomebeard / 5 Comments

Whew!

The family packed up and left to go home today. It was a whirlwind of a week. I had a wonderful time. Our home was filled with love, laughter, chaos, children and food.

Most of the better half’s family lives in Fresno. Fresno is in central California about a 5-6 hour drive to the north east of here.  A tradition was established a number of years ago that they come for a week of vacation in San Diego. We host the dinner and a few of them stay here in our humble abode. The week is filled with activities in which our home is center stage.

As I write the dishwasher hums in the background competing with the washer and dryer. In a moment I will be making the guest beds. The house is quiet again and the worn out dogs slumber in the family room. The Christmas lights are already hung, giving the frontyard a warm holiday glow. I am full of gratitude. Gratitude for family, health, blessings and love.

Tomorrow life will gey back to normal. For that I am grateful as well.

I did make it to the gym this afternoon and to the barber shop as well. The workout felt good and the hair looks great. Along the way I heard this Eagles tune that reminded me that no matter how hectic the holiday season gets, stop and take a moment for myself to enjoy the life I have been given.

My avatar

/ fearsomebeard / 15 Comments

A long while back I got some criticism about my avatar.

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The person who was apparently offended by its upside down appearance strongly implied that I was too lazy or too dumb to correct it. They also let me know immediately that they preferred not to converse with others who were so lazy that they wouldn’t correct such errors. I decided it best to not respond to them as I didn’t care to waste my time conversing with someone so judgmental.

A year passed since that encounter.  Today another misunderstanding of a similar but different subject occurred out in blogland. I chose to not respond to that judgmental person either. I did decide it’s time to reflect on such encounters.

First of all I took my avatar as a selfie laying upside down on the couch. I experimented a lot with beard selfies in creating the blog. The photo is actually the way it was taken. I liked it and chose it. Second I do actually know how to right it and did, but still chose the original because I liked it better.

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The lesson this teaches me is to not judge. Just appreciate. Appreciate that each of us have different taste, perception, priorities, humor, likes/dislikes, self images and such. Differences are to be appreciated, not judged or suppressed.

This is the twist. I have to respect that these two persons I reflect on are different from me. While I chose to not respond to their “suggestions”, I have to be careful to not judge them. I learn to move on and appreciate myself and continue just being me. They have their opinion and that’s ok. It’s their opinion, and I have my own opinion. I own my own expression.

and what of a sense of Humor?

/ fearsomebeard / 3 Comments

For some sick and twisted adolescent reason I found yesterday’s Beard of the day pic hilarious. I pictured the two guys turning around, combined with the Beard in the rear’s expression, to mean they were blaming him for something.

Was it that the directions he had given were incorrect? Perhaps it was an ill planned music compilation? Or maybe that the inside of the vehicle suddenly smelled of a rather rotten flatulence?

Never the less, looking back on it made me realize that each of us have a very different sense of humor. We have different backgrounds, experiences and levels of maturity. Oops, what am I saying about my level of maturity here?

To examine myself I turn to my friend Google to look deeper and I found this definition from Jeb Brown’s dictionary at jebrown.us:
n.
1) The ability to create new humor. It is believed that humor creation requires the humorist to put himself in another person’s shoes, to hear the joke the way it sounds to a listener who doesn’t yet know the punch line.
2) The ability to provoke laughter in others.
3) The ability to sense or identify humor, whether that humor is created by oneself or by others.
4) Street Definition: In personal ads, esp. in the personal ads and dating profiles of those who describe themselves as “sarcastic” (i.e. verbally abusive), “sense of humor” means “the ability to be the target of my verbal abuse without getting upset like I said something wrong.” In personal ads, “has a sense of humor” is often a code word for “Doesn’t get upset when I abuse him or her (as if the fact that I abuse others is somehow a judgment on them and not on me).” Ironically, this definition of “sense of humor” is used by persons who can’t put themselves in the shoes of others, due to a lack of basic empathy.

Today I contemplate humor and the sense of it. The last sentence of the definition above gives me pause to expand this contemplation.

 

 

Gratitude through beginning

/ fearsomebeard / 4 Comments

One of my favorite lines to ever learn through a movie was Truvy’s line in Steel Magnolias. The line where she states that laughter through tears is her favorite emotion.

Desiring an inspiration to boost my morning, I stumbled upon this Justin Timberlake clip. May his insight give you the blessing it gives me.

Isn’t growth the point of this life? I’m sure grateful for the opportunity. Now let’s dance…