Diversions

As today we have posted to our WTF?! page and really want you to click over to read it, we’re keeping things to a fun minimum on this page. 

First, we want to encourage (beg) you to share with us any of your own fun WTF or Side of Slaw stories—email us at: radeckirites@gmail.com We’ll mete them out over time—while of course giving you credit and linking to your own blog. 

Second, if you guys remember our (*cough* Deb's) rant about Grammar a few weeks back, here’s a very funny video for your amusement that perfectly illustrates our (Deb's) point. 

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

And lastly, we want to give a shout-out to all our great readers who also have their own wonderful blogs, which have been amusing us and warming our hearts. You have only to link to any of our Followers or Commenters (is that a word?) to see what we mean. There are some extraordinary writers and dear hearts out there! 

And then, last week, three of our readers virtually simultaneously posted videos that brought a wee tear of joy to our eyes (Deb commented on the virtue of those kinds of tears in the Apron Strings comments). So, for your further enjoyment: 

An amazing skipping rope performance and audience reaction on Life at Golden Grain Farm.

A sweet Free Hugs video from Nag on the Lake. 

And a downtown Toronto flash dance performance celebrating inspirational women at Ramblings of a Woman. 

But don't forget WTF?!  Enjoy!!

A Primer For The Middle Ages

Okay, we know that many of you are blog aficionados, speeding along the internet highway in your snappy roadster, stopping in at all the fun places and meeting the most amazing people. But we also know there are a fair number of you who are new to this, cautiously visiting with your tin of fresh-baked cookies clutched in your hands and no idea where to leave them! So if you’re a roadster-type and know all this stuff, then you can just skip to the end of the post for the FUN STUFF.

But if you’re a cautious new visitor, then we thought we might walk you through the few basics we’ve picked up. Oy, talk about the blind leading the blind!

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here goes:

Finding us again: If you like our site, you can “bookmark”  or "favourite" it (top of the page in the toolbar) on your server (ie: Google) and come back with a mere click of the mouse. Or you can go to your “url” feed at the top of the server page (ie that long white oval where the web address shows up) and start typing “t-h-e-m-i-d” (etc), and the feed should give you our site (http://themiddle-ages.blogspot.com/) as an option: just click on it and voila. 

Links: If you see a word or words in our post that show/s up in another colour, that is a link to another page, site, article, or video. Just click on the word/s and off you go! And speaking of which, you can also check out our own blog page-links in the left-hand column (About Us, WTF?!, and Side of Slaw) with more—you guessed it—Fun Stuff!

Comments: Right underneath every post is a discreet little word: “comments”. If you click on this, then you can see how other readers weigh in––and often this is the best part! And, if you want, you can leave your own comment. Start a WHOLE discussion. (But you must "play nice", even if you disagree with us!) To leave a comment, just fill in the square. It will ask you for a profile of sorts, but that is up to you: full name, anonymous, pseudonym. And your privacy is as protected as you would like it to be. The first few times, most people feel shy commenting—but try it and you’ll see how quickly it becomes easy, and how suddenly the world feels like “a cozy place” (as we like to say).

** Edited to say: We've had some issues with people not being able to post comments, so we tried a pop-up window, but that didn't work on our side. If you're having problems, please keep trying. ••

In creating a profile (even with a pseudonym), you can link your name/icon to your OWN website or blog (or any other site you want to support). And that way, every time you comment, your icon shows up and anyone who’s interested can link to you and your stuff. That’s how we spread the blog love … or “blove”!!

Why be a “follower”, how does it work, and will my privacy be compromised? Turns out following is a two-way street. Nice for us as we know you’re out there and reading and we can click on your icon and maybe get to know you a bit too. Good for you because if you have a blogger feed, it’ll tell you the moment we’ve posted something new (on your “dashboard”). And either way, it’s another opportunity to link your profile to your own blog or website. To be a follower, you need to click on the "Follow" icon and it will talk you through the (very easy) steps.

Privacy? We will never pass any of your info over to anyone! But we can’t possibly know all the loopholes that may exist. So … if you’re interested in having a full profile for any of the above reasons but you have concerns, then you can create a free email account (ie: Google gmail or Yahoo) in literally 2 minutes and web-browse using that email address. To avoid missing any emails, just have the new account routed to your private account.

Sharing our blog: If there’s a post you particularly (b)love, you can “share it” on your Facebook or Twitter accounts. You simply click on those prompts (in the bottom left column) and our address and a short passage will go straight to your home page.

If ANYONE has any tweaks or suggestions or questions for this primer, PLEASE let us know and we will try to address them. We plan to create a separate page for the primer after this post, so it’s always there for newbies!

FUN STUFF. As that was (hopefully) helpful but (probably) boring, we have other PAGES you can check out (under “More Fun Stuff” in the column to the left) with new posts in WTF?! and SIDE OF SLAW… . Click over to read.

And speaking of which: We would love to hear and add YOUR anecdotes for WTF?! and/or Side of Slaw. If you want to share, email us your story at: radeckirites@gmail.com

Thanks and enjoy!

Thoughts to Share

From Deb: "Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends." Virginia Wolf

From Barbara's cousin: "What's great about THE MIDDLE AGES is that what comes next is the RENAISSANCE!"

From both of us: NEW: WTF?!  and SIDE OF SLAW!

And the pic? Just had to share this beauty taken by Deb's accountant, Lorne. Yes that's a fish (Nemo!) among the anemones.


A sweet video about friendship