365 Less Things

Reducing our stuff one day at a time.

Digging in the archives ~ Day 253 Friday’s Favourite Five 10 Sep 2010

by

As I mentioned on Monday it was Lena who inadvertently chose four of the five archived post I have been sharing with you this week. She had conveniently even chosen a Friday’s Favourite Five amount those four. I will point out that I was away on vacation during the period that this post was published so there are only three favourite comments.

Day 253 Friday’s Favourite Five 10 Sep 2010

This week’s favourite comments

  • All comment from Day 245… Read More
  • Jo on Day 247- All of us could use this wonderful perspective…  Read More
  • Deb J on Day 250 – Yes, yes, yes!! I so agree. Right now I use a carryon roller case but I am looking for what you have… Read More

Five great posts I dug up in blog archives before my vacation

Today’s Declutter Item

I know what you are all thinking “Colleen, I think you really need to keep this book because your grammar is often painful.” But never fear should I need help, and I often do, there is nothing I can’t find about grammar using google. My biggest problem is I don’t see the mistakes until it is already too late. My mistakes are often the source of great amusement for you all and who am I to spoil your fun anyway. I’ll take my chances with google, you, my readers, can help with the bloopers that slip through and this book can go to the thrift store.

One more book that sat unused

Comments

  2. I had one of those painless vocabulary books. I wanted to use it on others and give them some worldlyness. Needless to say it didn’t work and I too rid my shelves of it.

    • My son likes to be the grammar nazi with his friends but it just leaves him open to greater ridicule when it is he who stuffs up. One of his particular favourites is you’re and your. I, on the other hand, am in no position to even try to play that game.

  3. Colleen, you may not realize this but your writing has improved considerably since you started your blog. As a member of the Grammar Police (retired librarian – it’s part of my genetic material) I find fewer and fewer chances to gasp and turn green at your misuse of the language, and typos simply indicate that your brain works faster than your fingers do! We wouldn’t want to stifle your creativity. Everyone (well almost everyone) who reads your blog does so for your ideas, not for grammatical perfection. Keep the good stuff coming!

    Happy New Year. Wendy

    • Wendy B, perhaps I am still as bad as I ever was but it is you who has become imune to my imperfections. Either way so long as you are still here and I haven’t driven you away yet, I am happy. Are you trapped in your winter wonderland or have you been out and about enjoying nature or the Christmas period?

      • Thanks for asking. This was the year we planned to spend Christmas away. We fooled the weather gods by declaring that we were going to spend the winter in Texas. So, they’ve had some rotten weather down south and we are having a super winter at home, with just enough snow to be pretty and temperatures just cold enough to avoid mud! Lots of birds, even a few unexpected ones. Even managed a bit of sunbathing on the front porch one very sunny day! Still, we’re going to head off to Mexico in a few weeks, to chase birds around the Yucatan.
        Hope you’re enjoying your summer break. W

      • nope colleen, it definitly improved. I joined in around 6 months ago, and now I read through the archives, I can tell the difference…

        the last language I learned was danish, and that mostly by hearing and speaking. In my language class I was the best at conversations, but I failed the essay miserably. I understand now much better, how it is if you just dont get whats wrong… just because you dont get the spelling right, doesnt mean you are stupid 😉

        • Hi Lena,
          thank you for that. To be honest I believe I am and have always been a below average reader and speller. I don’t know why that is, I am sure that the rest of my brothers and sisters were much better than me. I was above average in Math & Science though, and also in artistic endeavours or anything physical. My foreign language skills are about the same as my reading, which I guess that makes sense because they are the same thing really. I have always been more of a “doing” kind of person rather than the academic type and there is nothing wrong with that.

  4. Haha,
    I probably should own your declutter item of the day. But today I just decluttered sooo many books that (literally, yeah, go ahead, gasp at that) surfaced at my parents’ house. I apparently once bought and never read them (and never missed them either except very few), so I think it is safe to say I probably would not have read this helpful one either – especially as all this kind of advice seems to be at your fingertips nowadays. And I can tell you: A decluttering of books on a larger scale within a short time does not only train your decluttering muscle but all the other ones, too. 😉

    • Well there you go getting decluttered and fit all at once. See, there is more to this decluttering thing than just reclaiming space. Well done with the books, your parents must be so please to finally see the back of them.

  6. Do you know, I’ve got a grammar book somwhere that I bought to improve on my non exsistant grammar education (grammar was the anti fashion in schools in the UK in the 70’s).
    Have I looked at it… big fat no. Next time I do a book purge maybe I will let that one go,lol.
    Had to book a van from our local hospice charity shop today to take away all the stuff I am getting rid of from the attic. Comes next Thursday.

    • Katharine, good grammar, it’s highly overrated. I don’t really mean that but it sounded like the appropriate flippant response. All the good grammar in the world isn’t going to improve my proof reading skills. My problem is that I know what I meant to write so that is what I read is there, whether it is or it isn’t.

      Wow good on you removing so much stuff from the attic that you need to book a van to pick it up. How is dear darling hubby dealing with all of this rampant decluttering or was this stuff that was there before he came along? Either way Yay!

  7. Colleen,
    Good riddance to the book – we always understand you, and enjoy your way of putting things.
    Loved your choice of posts, hadn’t read any of them before. Enjoyed reading the favourite with the recycling – funny/sad how that one keeps coming up!
    I’m currently having a “spare room cupboard purge”. Oh, my.
    Hope you/re enjoying your holiday.

    • Hi Ann,
      how are all the crocks getting along. I hope you had a nice Christmas. Good luck with that spare toom cupboard, mine is getting better all the time but most of the rest belongs to my daughter so I am stuck with that for a while.

  9. Oh Colleen, I am afraid, the three moving boxes of books only made a small dent in my parents accumulated stuff as they were hidden in the very back of a very deep shelf behind their own clutter. I had meant to declutter them for years (well, to be honest, at first I wanted to take them with me, but the longer my parents sort of denied access by placing tons of their own stuff in front of them the more it became obvious to me that it would only be a decluttering task because who am I fooling to NEED books I have not needed in more than ten years?!
    However I kept nagging from time to time because it was in the back of my head that there still was stuff to deal with AND I wanted to show my parents some decluttering skills in practise. Believe me: They need them ;-(
    I know where it’s coming from. But I also know where I am going and I like it.

  10. oh god, seems like you have to tackle a completly different issue over there with your parents. good for you digging out those books though.

    I am improving too. I went to my mums place and picked 3 books that I always wanted to read and never did. there is one book this year I am already excited to purchase (once started a series I really CANT just leave it unfinished). But beside that one, I am planning to borrow, reread, and if necessary to purchase re-gift books. no new in, until I am done with the old one. so far for me and new year resolutions…

    • Good for you Lena, I hope you find you can borrow all the books you want to read and don’t have to buy a single one. At the thrift shop I volunteer at they have at least five, five foot tall book shelves packed full of books for sale. We sell quite a lot so they are constantly turning over with new used books. $2 for paperbacks and $3 for hardcovers and quite often people donate back the ones they read and buy more then keep repeating that process. Much less expensive than buying new,