Anastasia

September

Mazotos

We are already in mid September, however it still feels like summer in Cyprus. It's got 35*C (95F) inland right now and 33*C (91F) on the coast. This is no surprise. In my part of the world, September has always been..... the fourth summer month!  This is why it is so hard for all primary and high school students to get up at 6:30 am and get ready for the first day at school after the summer break! Primary school here starts at 7:30 am and finishes at 1:10 pm. High school starts at 7:45 am and finishes at 1:30 pm. Soon after school, most children  take up English, French or German, piano, swimming, football, computer, taekwodo or ballet lessons at private schools.  Lessons at my school start a bit later - on September 17.  I am looking forward to meeting my students and beginning together a new school year.

As you may realise, September is for me that time of year when- regardless of the weather - I go back to work and get ready for the new school year.  However, this year, September is also the time when I'm going back to the beach and swimming in the sea. Because of some health issues (angioplasty), I wasn't able to swim at all during my summer break. I now wish the hot weather continues till the end of October!

What's September like in your part of the world?

Personal Blogging Vs Niche Blogging And 13 Blog Post Topic Ideas

When I started out on TypePad almost seven years ago, I wasn't sure what a blog was. I had previously read an article on blogging in a British magazine at my hairdresser's and thought I'd give it a try. I googled "blogging platforms" and eventually chose TypePad as it seemed to me the most reliable one. So, I set up my TypePad account in September 2004 - that was very easy to do, even for a computer illiterate like me! "And now what?", I asked myself. I clicked Compose and started writing about my day. To my mind, a blog was something like an online journal which you share with the world.

A few months later, having done some online and offline reading, I realised that blogging was far beyond that. Experts on blogging still recommend choosing a niche. I decided to keep my personal blog as my default blog but, in the course of time, I created three niche blogs: Cypria which is all about information on holidays in Greece and the Greek islands, English Today - a free online course of English as a second language and quite recently My Photo Blog - a collection of my favourite photos. According to experts, a personal blog isn't very popular with search engines unlike niche blogs. Funnily enough, my personal blog is much more popular than my niche blogs - although, I must admit that I have occasionally departed from my niche.

Not having a niche, on the other hand, may often lead to a blank computer screen  and you can't think of a word to write. I admire bloggers who claim their problem is quite the opposite - they generate a horde of ideas and always have something to write about. However, I've often hit a dry spell and found it relatively hard to break through a blank computer screen. So, I decided to carry a small notebook in which I jot down things that I find interesting while sitting at a café or waiting for my turn in a queue. More often than not, when I'm short of ideas, I click Compose and start writing straight from the heart. This is the greatest priviledge of personal blogging, isn't it?

Just in case you blog and get stuck at times , here are a few suggestions. You are very welcome to complete the list with your own ideas:

1. Create specific, step-by-step how-to posts (like how to use Windows 7, Facebook or Twitter)

2. Create a beginner’s guide to something - e,g, how to start a blog or how to make pomegranate jam

3. Write a Things You Don’t Know About Me post

4.  Write about your home and family first thing on Monday morning.

5. Write about something funny you overheard in public.

6. Describe what you consider to be the ideal way to bring up children.

7. Write a post about a dear friend.

8. Write about your first blog post.

9 Write about something amazing or frightening that happened to you.

10. Introduce your friends from a social network

11. Write about a typical day in the year 2099.

12. Write about a day that went disastrously wrong!

13. Write about the person you admire most in life.

 

 

Cartoon of the Day

via www.cartoonstock.com

Five Eggs and an Explosion !

 I first published the post below on June 15 2005 in one of my Diary Entries and came across it as I was reading through my paper-minded, paper-oriented electronic diary that TypePad has saved for me all these years. Well, I thought I'd share it with you again but from a different perspective and considering all the changes that have occurred since June 2005:

(a) Unfortunately, Zeus  refused to promote me to the highly divine status of goddess. So, let it be! I'm still a semi-goddess!!

(b) Since June 2005,  my cooking skills have been improving nicely, so now I know how to boil five eggs at the same time without causing an explosion! 

Dear Diary,

Considering that I am a semi-goddess sent to Earth by Zeus to study the humans - I might just as well be promoted to the highly divine status of goddess...remains to be seen ...(end of digression!)...... I have a sneaking suspicion that Era, feeling terribly jealous of my semi-divinity, has placed a curse on me !

The curse being ....something connected with fire or ...burning ! Not long ago, my ethernet card was burnt out ... I can still recall the weird smell. The following day, while I was driving to work, I saw a car on fire !! Thank God, it wasn't mine ! Today, I had come home from work when I came back home from work, I thought I'd boil some eggs to use them in my new invention : Anastasia's Olympian Salad (I'll give you the recipe one of these days).

While waiting for the eggs to boil , I called my best friend in Athens and started chatting away the hours when ...all of a sudden ... I heard a terrible explosion ! Undoubtedly, something was cooking in the kitchen !!! I dropped my mobile phone on the floor and went to the kitchen to ....check on things !! I could not believe what I saw! It was a scary sight ! All five eggs would pop up and burst in all directions! I was so terrified that I forgot to switch off the cooker ! As a result, the pan was burnt , too! And there was practically no water in it!

And because of Era's divine curse ....just at that very moment ... hubby came back from work !! I ran away and went to hide under the bed amidst the shoe boxes ! ...while the eggs would still busrst in all directions...and the pan would keep burning...

I heard hubby saying  .....yelling out"What on earth is happening here ?????"...and judging by the tone of his voice ..I thought it was much wiser to remain in my hiding place....

When I finally got out ....he made me clean the mess....told me off saying that I could have easily set the flat on fire ! I was even more terrified....and started crying...It always works with hubby !!! Thank God I was able to cry ! Because , after having cleaned up, he took me in his arms to console me ! And gave me his present ! Three pink roses!

The aftermath: we had spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner ( hubby cooked it ! ). As for the eggs ...and considering my semi-divine nature, they were a burnt offering to the altar of love !

Password Selection Rules

Photo Credit

CORPORATE DIRECTIVE NUMBER 88-570471

In order to increase the security of all company computing facilities, and to avoid the possibility of unauthorized use of these facilities, new rules are being put into effect concerning the selection of passwords. All users of computing facilities are instructed to change their passwords to conform to these rules immediately.

RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF PASSWORDS:

1. A password must be at least six characters long, and must not contain two occurrences of a character in a row, or a sequence of two or more characters from the alphabet in forward or reverse order. Example: HGQQXP is an invalid password. GFEDCB is an invalid password.

2. A password may not contain two or more letters in the same position as any previous password. Example: If a previous password was GKPWTZ, then NRPWHS would be invalid because PW occurs in the same position in both passwords.

3. A password may not contain the name of a month or an abbreviation for a month. Example: MARCHBC is an invalid password. VWMARBC is an invalid password.

4. A password may not contain the numeric representation of a month. Therefore, a password containing any number except zero is invalid. Example: WKBH3LG is invalid because it contains the numeric representation for the month of March.

5. A password may not contain any words from any language. Thus, a password may not contain the letters A, or I, or sequences such as AT, ME, or TO because these are all words.

6. A password may not contain sequences of two or more characters which are adjacent to each other on a keyboard in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. Example: QWERTY is an invalid password. GHNLWT is an invalid password because G and H are horizontally adjacent to each other. HUKWVM is an invalid password because H and U are diagonally adjacent to each other.

7. A password may not contain the name of a person, place, or thing. Example: JOHNBOY is an invalid password.

Because of the complexity of the password selection rules, there is actually only one password which passes all the tests. To make the selection of this password simpler for the user, it will be distributed to all supervisors. All users are instructed to obtain this password from his or her supervisor and begin using it immediately.

via ahajokes.com

How To Become a Famous Blogger And A Blogthing

Cartoon by Dave Walker

You Are Fantasy / Sci Fi

You have an amazing imagination, and in your mind, all things are possible. You are open minded, and you find the future exciting. You crave novelty and progress. Compared to most people, you are quirky and even a bit eccentric. You have some wacky ideas. And while you may be a bit off the wall, there's no denying how insightful and creative you are.

What Kind of Book Are You?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!