Category: blogging

Another record!

I posted last week about a new record for likes.

I am shocked to report that that record, 66 likes, was shattered yesterday, setting a new record of 103 likes!

And, in the odd record-keeping of WordPress, I had only 79 views…

I realize part of that is that I allow full posts by email and in the reader, so some likes come in that don’t register as views.

I had four posts yesterday.

The first was a re-blog of gorgeous flowers from My Food and Flowers. It attracted likes and some new followers from the photo-blog sector, including one who went on to explore and like a lot of posts. Thank you, v4vikey!

My planned post yesterday was about the ever-popular subject of exercise, featuring adventures with Wii Fit.

Then, there were two spur-of-the-moment posts on my re-vamping of my blog theme, one on the new header and one on the menu.  Posts about blogging always seem to attract attention – among bloggers.  Go figure!

Part of the success of the post-likes in a single day is the time of day when the posts appear. All four posts appeared in the morning in my time zone, so it gave more hours for my readers to find them the same day.

Thanks to all my readers and “likers” – especially those of my followers who visit on a regular basis. I really do appreciate your visits, comments, and likes here at Top of JC’s Mind!

Wishing you all a great weekend,
Joanne

SoCS: trigger finger

Grandma has developed a trigger finger. It’s a cute name, but not a cute condition. Basically, the tendon rolls over the bones in the knuckle at the base of the finger down where the fingers meet the rest of the hand. This makes the finger bend down and catch so that it can only be straightened by taking the other hand and prying it out of the bent position.

And it hurts!

I brought her to see the orthopedic who had done a prior hand surgery for her – and who had done shoulder/arm surgeries on both my husband and me. He is the best person in our area to see for hand and arm things because he has done advanced fellowships.

He injected cortisone into the tendon sheath and, after a couple of days, the pain was gone. After a couple of more it would occasionally catch, but could be unbent without having to be pried open with the other hand.

In a few days, we have a follow-up with the doctor. I’m not sure what he will recommend. The original finger is still catching once in a while and now another finger is getting in on the act. He can do an in-office surgery, which may be necessary to have a permanent solution to the problem.

Trigger finger – not just a gangster term.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “finger.” Join us! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-616/

SoCS badge 2015

 

I have a menu!

In an attempt to make my new blog theme exploration almost as obnoxious as my poetry publication squealing, here is yet another post on my newest tweak to Top of JC’s Mind.

In my quest to discover what happened to my link to my About page, I found the menu feature of my new theme.  I had never done much with menus in my prior themes, but decided to expand my horizons.

Besides the About link and a Posts link to my main page, I added three category links. One is poetry, which will include anything that I have put in that category, so, while links to my poems are there, there are also links to other poets’ work and anything that relates to my writing, groups, workshops, submissions, etc.

The two other category links are to my posts in the two series of Linda’s Life in Progress blog to which I regularly contribute, One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

I was pleased to discover that the new menu links appear above the new header image, which has the happy effect of making the blog title and tagline font size more proportional and intentional-looking. They seemed puny and forlorn before.

So, yay! So much progress (that I wasn’t actually planning to make today)!

Comments welcome!
~ JC

New header photo

Thanks to all my blogger friends for their advice on my new theme!

I looked through my photos and found one I thought would crop well as a new header image.

Boiler House Poets and people familiar with North Adams, Massachusetts may recognize the street sign. It was just outside the apartments where we stayed during the Tupelo Press/Mass MoCA residency. (If you want to know more about the residency, check my blog archive for November, 2015.)

I will leave it to my readers to ponder the deep inner meaning of Center Street being one way and what that has to do with the Top of JC’s Mind…

I still wish I could make the title/tagline font larger, but I think it doesn’t look quite so tiny with the header image breaking it apart from the larger-font post title.

It just occurred to me that my link to my “About” page got lost in the shuffle of the theme change. I guess that will be my next problem to solve.

I’d appreciate any comments/musing/interpretations on the new header image.

With thanks,
JC

 

Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

Sharing some beautiful blossoms from one of my favorite photo-blogs.

myfoodandflowers's avatarMy Food And Flowers

Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

2016-01-31 132 (Medium) Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

2016-01-31 134 (Medium) Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

2016-01-31 131 (Medium) Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

2016-01-31 135 (Medium) Portuguese Squill/Hyacinth of Peru (Scilla peruviana) 地中海綿棗兒/地中海藍鐘花

Beautiful bulbous perennial.  Easy to grow.  Best growing in full sun to partial shade location but also tolerant light shade.   Small deep blue flowers in flower ball in spring.  Flowers attract bees and butterflies.  Good for cut flower.  USDA Zones:7-10.  Mature size:6″-1′(H) X 3″-6″(W).  Plant is toxic if ingested.  Propagate by seeds, bulb or division.

美麗的多年生球根花卉.  容易栽種.  最好栽種在全日照到半日照處但也能生長於散光處.  小朵深藍色小花聚成的花球於春天盛開.  花吸引蜂蝶.  也適合為插花的花材.  喜熱不甚耐寒.  成熟株高6吋到1呎,寬幅3-6吋.  植株全株有毒勿食.  繁殖以種子,球根或分株方式來進行.

Reference links: 參考網站資料連結:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scilla_peruviana                            https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%AD%E6%B5%B7%E7%B6%BF%E6%A3%97%E5%85%92                                      http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/59661/

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A new look

I’m trying out WordPress’s 2016 theme. I had been using Plane, but decided to give this new theme a go.

You don’t have to look at a header image of the top of my head!

I like that my tagline is more readable now, but I wish the title font was larger.

This theme does meet my main criteria for readability, black print in an easy to read font on a white background.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments section.

With thanks,
JC

One-Liner Wednesday: power

“What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.”
~~ Robert Caro

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/03/one-liner-wednesday-you-know-that-feeling/

 

Record likes

Here we are at the end of Just Jot It January 2016. I did a thank you post to Linda on Friday, hoping that I would have time to work on a long-delayed post for Sunday, but my brainpower had to be directed elsewhere.

The fun thing is that January 29 became a record-setting day here at Top of JC’s Mind with 66 likes on that day!  My old record had been 59, set on October 13, 2015.

While the thank you post to Linda for Just Jot It January generated the most views, I was happy to have generated views that spread news on behalf of poet- and blogger-friends and a couple of re-blogs. There was a post of links to the recently published poems of Merrill Oliver Douglas on Eunoia Review and one spreading the news about the change in platform for OM. I re-blogged anagram haiku from Mathemagical and a wonderful post explaining the true meaning of jihad from Perfect-The-Days. There were also likes for a post I had written the day before which included the Saint Francis Peace Prayer.

I know that part of the reason for the record-setting day was having had an unusually high number of posts in a short amount of time, while part was having the built-in promotion of Just Jot It January for a couple of the posts.

Setting records is fun, but not as gratifying as the knowledge that people are connecting with one another through Top of JC’s Mind.

Sending out a big THANK YOU to all the visitors who made this record possible and all those who pop in on all the non-record-setting days, too!

~ Joanne
*****
This is my final post for Linda’s Just Jot It January 2016. It’s been a blast!  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/31/just-jot-it-january-31st-clumsy/

JJJ 2016

 

SoCS: Animalia

When our older daughter E was in elementary school, there was a wonderful program called PASTtimes. PAST stood for Parents and Students Together. About once a month, there would be an early evening program for families centered around books. It was great because we could bring along our younger daughter T and have a fun evening together.

One of the books to which we were introduced through PASTtimes was Graeme Base’s Animalia. It is an alphabet book featuring fun and complex captions for fantastical paintings. For example, the letter I:  “Ingenious Iguanas Improvising an Intricate Impromptu on Impossibly Impractical Instruments”.  For V, a sign reading: “Victor V. Vulture The Vaudeville Ventriloquist Versatile Virtuoso of Vociferous Verbosity Vexatiously Vocalizing at the Valhalla Variety Venue”.

How could you not fall in love with such a book?

We went on to purchase Animalia and several other Graeme Base books for our home library. I think my favorite may be The Eleventh Hour, but it is hard to choose.

Even though our daughters are long grown, his books have remained on our shelves in the living room. I did look up the quotes above; my memory is not that good!

Wishing everyone some happy book memories today.  Have one to share? I’d love to hear about it in comments.
*****
Linda’s prompt for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “an-“. Join us! Find more information here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-3016/

SoCS badge 2015

This post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/30/just-jot-it-january-30th-an-socs/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

What Is Truly Jihad?

Many people think that the word jihad means terrorism, violence, and killing, but that is a not its true meaning to Islam. Please read this excellent post from Amra Ismail to discover what jihad means and how it is lived daily by Muslims around the world.