If I had a million dollars…

October 10, 2024 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?

I would like to help people, I think. I’d get myself a house and a car. Give some to members of my family, to pay off debts or their mortgage. It would be nice to make people I love have an easier life. I have a few good friends, so I’d maybe give them some too.

I’d like to help fund a counselling programme. Something so folk who have struggled with mental health issues long term, can use their experiences to help those in their communities. Because, I find, a lot of the best advice about mental health, come from those who have dealt with it. And, as someone who has had issues since my teenage years, I would like something productive to come out of it.

I would also like to put money to a conservation project at Preston hill Quarry, in my home town. Set up facilities so people can use the area safely. Try and find a way to protect the area, because it’s the Fife coast, it is an area companies want to build on. I’d like it to be looked after, as proper woodland and coastal areas. Create cycle paths, nature walks, seating areas, curated boards telling you about the history of the area, and the wildlife that call it home. Help generate a bit of local pride about it.

Looking at it all, I’d maybe need slightly more than £1 million.

What to do…

October 9, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.

I have had lots of jobs I wanted to do over the years, so I will have to think on what I would do.

Maybe I would like to write a book. Whilst all my interests that I have enjoyed have had peaks and troughs of my attention, books are the one thing that has always been a part of my life. To be able to create something that could reach so many different people would be kind of magical to me.

I do love writing, although I am not always the best at it. I would have no idea what I’d write between fiction and non-fiction. It would be nice to go on an adventure and write about it. Or to be able to create a new fantasy world that would allow the escape of the real world.

It would be nice if I had the focus.

Autumnal Colours

October 8, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

I am one of those people that is cursed by those around me, as Autumn is my favourite season. I love the changing of the seasons, where things get a wee bit more cozy, and trees turn that wonderful shade of orange. Don’t ask where I got the romanticising of dead leaves from, I just like it. The snoods are on, the slippers are own, and we survive of cups of tea. I just like it. I could do without the dark mornings, but that is it.

I think I like this time of year because I really struggle with summer. I have never done very well in the heat, so it is nice when it is over. I am a person who prefers the cooler climate, as you can always put extra layers on, but there is so many you can take off without getting in trouble. It is nice, sitting all cozy and reading a book. I always read more during the darker months, which is something that I have been struggling with over the last few months. The only issue is that the weather is doing that back and forth thing, which has left everyone I know with the cold. Yesterday, I was walking around in my t-shirt, today it is back to layering up. No ideal.

I am not the biggest fan of Halloween, pumpkin spice isn’t that great, and fireworks give me the fear. You would think I wouldn’t like this time of year. I do think that it is mostly the change in foliage that I focus on the most.

Back to school

October 7, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

My course with Open University has officially started, and I have been doing some studying today. It is all textbook work so far, and I am trying to write my own notes to put things down in a way that makes sense to me. Which isn’t easy, because a lot of things don’t make sense to me. Something that is not purely unique to uni work. The world can be a confusing place.

I just need to make sure that now things have got started that I sort out my time management, and stick to my schedule. It has always been a weakness for me. As said before, I am okay with work, it is my days off I struggle with. So, maybe I need to run a day off like my work day. Get up, start at 7.30, have my regular break times ( like I would at work), and then finish at 6pm. Or whenever my work is finished. It might be a good shout, because I have been having a lot of problems with my arthritis, so I can’t always be a reliable studier after work. But, that may enable me to read or write in the evenings.

The fear I have is that I may start of alright, but I know I am really bad at sticking to a plan. I am such a defeatist. If I can work this out properly, it’ll be okay. I just need a bit of faith in myself. I know work is about to get real busy, and I have lots of things on, so I will have to be rigid enough that I will stick to a study day, but if something is on, then I can move that study day to another day. And still stick to it.

Life is about challenging yourself, so this will be a good challenge. Well… a hard challenge. But it is said that if a challenge is easy, it isn’t a challenge.

Scheduled it

October 6, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

If this post is online, it means I have not got round to posting today. When I decided to post every day, I wrote up a few backups for if I had a day where I struggled. Either I am busy, or my health has got in the way. The reason I decided to post a backup to schedule in, is because sometimes it’s okay to make plans so that you are still moving forward towards your goals.

So this is a wee message to keep going. Get some backups going for days life isn’t going to plan. Means that things can keep ticking over, whilst you get yourself back together. We got this.

Lost My Stuff

October 5, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

What would you do if you lost all your possessions?

I would like to be a rational person and say ‘I don’t need possessions, as long as I have friends and family around me’. But I am not. Sorry to all my loved ones.

I would probably get pretty upset. I am not very good at throwing things away, especially if it’s served a purpose well. Like my slippers, they have holes, they need the bin, but I can’t find any like them, so they must stay. And if I lose anything, I get myself in an angry rage, as if I needed the item yesterday. All that happens is I usually make things worse.

However, if stuff were to just disappear, I’d probably be calm. Like, I’d maybe get upset my computer was gone, or my kindle. But I wouldn’t go out my way to replace everything. Can’t have a messy room if there is nothing in it. So, there would be some element of relief that I didn’t need to actually declutter my mess.

The stuff I’d probably be most upset about losing would be my phone, earphones, and my stuffed Simba toy. Which, when I look at how much stuff I have, is absurd that I’d get worked up over so little.

Photos: Graffiti

October 4, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

Today’s post is a few of my favourite photos taken from over the years.

I like graffiti, especially when it is stylised lettering. I guess another term is ‘street art’, which keeps it separate from the ‘Jonny woz ere’ scrawlings. It can sometimes give colour and character to places people would normally ignore.

By the Sea

October 3, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

I live in Scotland, mainly the Kingdom of Fife, which has lots of coastal areas and beaches. Which is scenic, but may not be perfect for a swim due to it being on the North Sea. I have read that the cold water is good for your health, but I have yet to personally experience. I don’t mind the cold, but I have my limits.

Forth Rail Bridge goes across the Firth of Forth.

I grew up seeing the sea from my bedroom, in fact I still do. It’s something that is calming, the sounds of the waves and the smell of salt in the air. In these times, where my mental health has been so poor, being near the water has a grounding affect. If I have a bad day, I try to will myself outside for a walk, and hopefully down to the water. If I can’t, go and watch the cars drive past on the motorway, for some reason this has a similar affect.

I was speaking to a friend, who lives in the USA, and they have about 30 hours to travel to the coast. I have no idea what I’d do. Even when I stayed in a city for study, it was Glasgow and there was the Clyde. Which was great to walk along. I really feel grateful to live in Scotland, in a place where I am so close to the sea.

Subscribed

October 2, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 2 Comments

See when apps like Netflix launched and allowed us to stream our favourite TV shows, it was revolutionary. Finally, we weren’t stuck watching shows at inconvenient times, we could watch what we wanted, when we wanted. And over the years, more services came online, and we had more choice than ever. It was a viewers market.

Until it wasn’t.

I can only speak for myself, but if you want to view all the content you may want, you can easily pay for 6-7 different streaming services at once. Which, considering streaming was originally a cheaper option to Satellite/cable, is now getting more and more expensive. The thing is, if people really use a service, and get their moneys worth, it’s fine. But, I find that most people don’t use their subscribed streaming services to their value.

I can only speak from my experience, and I think that there is too much stuff, spread across too many providers. I am a very indecisive person and really struggle with choosing to watch something new. It is why I am watching Gilmore Girls for the thousandth time on Netflix. It is also why I decided to shut my Disney+ account. I have an option activated across my devices, where they automatically ‘offload’ apps I haven’t used in like a month or so. Disney+ had been removed across all my devices. So I just cancelled my subscription.

The thing is, I am a huge Disney fan. I have so many of the movies on DVD still. I was trying to collect the whole animated classics series of films. But then, DVDs became harder to find, and people streamed instead. And when I was faced with all my favourite animated movies and tv shows, as well as new series and films and documentaries, I just got overwhelmed. I don’t know what it is about Disney+, but I just did not like the app’s layout at all. Don’t really know why. But I’d just open the app, look at the homepage, close the app, go into Netflix and put Gilmore Girls on.

I know terrestrial TV is struggling, as advertising money is shrinking. People don’t watch scheduled tv anymore. They prefer to watch 2-3 episodes of the same show in a row. Programs that make it to standard tv, has more chance of being renewed. Netflix and Disney are very good at cancelling shows after one season. And, if you look at things like Netflix’s Wednesday, by the time season 2 launches it will be 3 years since the first season premiered. That would never happen with traditional TV. For me, it means I have no intention of watching till I find out if the series is going any further, and that is a growing opinion amongst people. People aren’t going to invest their time and heart into a show that isn’t going to deliver in length or content.

It’s all a bit crazy.

Blogtober? A Personal Challenge

October 1, 2024 ~ Sue ~ 4 Comments

About 10 years ago, there were different challenges almost every month. Where people would attempt to do something creative every day over the course of a month. It could be drawing, sketching, writing blogs, recording video diaries, making songs… there were so many options. The idea was to transform a hobby that you love into a habit, in that you do it regularly. It is a sound idea, but in practice it takes a lot of dedication to do properly. Something that I always start out well with, but then stop.

I am having a lot of self-esteem issues right now. I don’t particularly like myself, and I don’t really know what to do about it. I made this promise a few months ago, where I would make attempts to improve my life by the end of the year, and have done nothing. Nothing of value anyway. And, it is making me feel really useless. Which is why I thought I would try a wee creative challenge, as being creative, writing especially, does make me feel better.

I am very good at giving up at the first obstacle. And I know it is because failure is something I expect, I start things and don’t actually think I’ll see it through to the end. I know it sounds really stupid. Why even start something that you don’t think you’ll actually complete? Optimism? I think I start thinking that I can do whatever I aim, but quickly I can get overwhelmed and frustrated by it all. So, then I break down, and everything grinds to a halt, and any progress I had made is for nothing. It is a personal trait that I do not particularly like about myself, but it is a thing that can change. It will just take a lot of effort and work.

So, that is where I thought that doing a ‘no pressure’ challenge like blogtober would maybe help. Because, there is no real consequences if I fail, but there may be real encouragement in my real life. Because, there are a lot of things that do need to change, and I NEED to be proactive. And my uni course officially starts this month, although I started looking at stuff a few weeks ago. So being proactive is the right way to be.

A lot of people seem to start new challenges in October. Are you trying something for the month?