No, I’m not talking about real coffee, although that’s pretty special. I’m talking about “Morning Coffee.” That is my contribution to this week’s Only The Good. It’s an application (or add-on) available for your Mozilla Firefox browser. I had no clue that it existed or that I wanted it until I read a post by Sheila at Newbie Lifeline.

Sheila explains the difference between a web browser and a search engine (if you need that information), but she also listed her top reasons for using Firefox to browse the internet. One of those reasons was Morning Coffee.

What does it do? For me, it’s replacing Google Reader. Basically, it keeps track of the sites or blogs you like to visit. When you want to use it, you open the application and each site opens simultaneously. That might seem crazy to you, but I’ve found I can open it in a new window and work my way through my reading much more efficiently than with Google Reader. I always get overwhelmed when I open a reader, because I see the number of unread posts. I get distracted, close a window, walk away … soon I didn’t get my reading done and I won’t get back to it!

Here’s a screenshot of Morning Coffee:

I was afraid it would be difficult to set the thing up, but it’s a snap. Can you see that itty bitty coffee cup in the toolbar? I’ll wait while you put on your glasses.

OK. When you download the application (which is free, mind you) that cup appears. To add blogs to your list, simply open a blog you read, hover your curser over the cup and options appear. Scroll to “add to my Morning Coffee” and pick what days you want to open it (daily … Wednesdays … MWF … etc). Click that and “Bob’s your uncle,” as they say. When you are ready to read, click on the “Load my Morning Coffee” link, and everything you have selected for that day will open across the browser bar. That’s why you might want to open it in a new window!

Do you use Morning Coffee already — or are you satisfied with a web browser?

I’m still in the process of setting up my Morning Coffee, so leave me a comment and I will add your blog. If you don’t blog … well, why not? You could de-lurk yourself, anyway. If you are participating in Only The Good, leave the URL for your post in the Mr. Linky below. I hope y’all have a weekend filled with good!

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: All Things "Blogging", Only The Good Friday

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

We had a dreary day this weekend, and I wanted to curl up under my electric blanket. Unfortunately, the cats didn’t want to share the bed! That’s alright. Since I couldn’t sleep, I got some of my work done. Imagine for a moment trying to actually sleep at night with those five cats on the bed and my spousal unit sprawled out beside me!

I want a king sized bed!

But, the cats will still curl up right on top of me! The good side is that they are warm (so I don’t have to use the electric blanket as much) and they are loving to me. Yes, I’m intelligent enough to know that “cat love” is conditional. If I feed them, and they feel like it, they will be loving to me.

Now, I want you to look at this picture and see Only The Good. If you are a cat hater, I know that might be difficult. I don’t want you to fuss about the cat hair and allergies (I already know about those). Find something good in this picture! If you can look at a picture and see good, you might be able to look around yourself and see your world with a less cynical eye. It really does work, and I decided that now is a good time to practice. I’m having a rough time seeing all of the good right now; it’ll get better, but life is a roller coaster ride at my house at the moment. I could tell you the good that I see in this picture, but I want your thoughts.

Marcia, at Tumbled Words, had the idea to practice seeing the good in things by looking at pictures and not seeing the negative. You can find other people practicing this at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. All of them are worth the read any day of the week.

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cats, Critters, Only The Good, optimism

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

This is the chaos I left behind in my guest room, as I headed down to Houston for two weeks of work. Of course, I brought a carload of afghan squares to work on while I sit in the hotel in the evenings. I’m not very adventurous when it is a working week, but maybe I will explore on the weekend. During the week, I’ll spend the time working on Share A Square.

Now, I know that poor guest room looks awful. However, there is a little bit of order to the chaos. Those granny squares are stacked according to who made them, and I can grab one from each stack when I’m wanting to put together an afghan. I want you to look beyond the mess and see Only The Good. Tell me what you see. Then, maybe you can go out into your own world and look for the good. It’s there, but sometimes when we get overwhelmed with living, we have to remember to stop and look for it.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. Or YOU could post a picture and challenge the rest of us to only find the good. Let me know if you do, and I’ll link you right here.

This trip I have a decent bathroom with a jacuzzi tub (unlike a previous trip that gave me a “sinking feeling”). Y’all excuse me now. I’ll get back to you tomorrow.

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Give From The Heart, Only The Good, Share A Square

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I can laugh about it now. But, when we walked into our room at the [tag]Mendocino Hotel[/tag], I was not amused! This was the extent of my “bathroom.”

The toilets and showers were down the hall!

People, people, people!

Do I look like the kind of person who would be OK with sharing bathrooms? If so, look harder! We did enough camping when I was a child that I prefer at least a four star hotel these days. After those vacations having to shower in skanky old KOA bathrooms, I won’t shower in a “public” bathroom without flip flops for my feet. I’m not exactly phobic about germs, but I don’t want someone else’s fungus. I also prefer to “do my business” in private, thank you.

“It is a minor glitch. The room is really quite charming, although tiny. No, no, it’s charming. The sink is pretty. It’s only a sink! At least you have that, Shelly. It is only for one night. A whole night? Can I “hold it” that long? Yes, you can, you’ve done it before.” This was the mantra I chanted while we stayed there. It wasn’t so bad. And, on the up side, I came home and discovered that I can make my closet into a bedroom that is as big as that hotel room!

I’m trying to see “[tag]only the good[/tag],” and I think I’m doing a fantastic job at it.

Look at the picture, and tell me the good that you see. It isn’t that hard to do. At least, it isn’t if we practice now and then. In fact, I credit this very exercise with helping me stay calm and in control when I saw I didn’t have a dadgum bathroom! OK, I didn’t stay totally calm, but it wasn’t a total rant.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that we had gotten to stay at The [tag]Hill House in Mendocino[/tag] the night before. Its exterior was used as The Hill House of Cabot Cove in the television series called Murder, She Wrote. You can see that they kept one of the signs. That room was spacious AND had a bathroom!

I can tell that you don’t feel the least bit sorry for me.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. Try it. It’s good for you.

© for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "Foreign" Travel, Only The Good, San Francisco, travel, vacation

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

As we were riding around Dallas, TX trying to find some good places to shop for vintage clothing, my husband and I passed a high school with some remarkable artwork on its walls. I didn’t even write down the name of the school, or on what street it was located. All I know is that the students painted this artwork of different faces. Now isn’t this a lot better than graffiti? I imagine that the kids were so delighted to be able to share their artwork that they now have no desire to junk up the walls with spray paint.

I wonder if these were self portraits? The artwork was very large, so I’m betting that they had fun splashing paint on such huge canvases. Wish I could remember where it was!

You may not enjoy modern art. That’s alright. The beauty of the exercise I am going to ask you to do, is that you don’t have to like it to see the good in it. This is a wonderful exercise to train our eyes to look for the good in the world around us. We have to be trained, you see, because we get accustomed to seeing the negative side of life.

Forget negative thoughts for just one moment, and tell me [tag]Only The Good[/tag]. THEN, I want you to take this exercise one step further!

I’m betting that in your life right now you have something that is bothering you and making you irritable. If you don’t, congratulations (but are you human?). Perhaps you grouse that your spouse leaves underwear in the middle of the bathroom floor. Maybe you have a teenager who is driving you up the wall. Have you got a project that bumfuzzles you? Or, a co-worker who makes you gnash your teeth and want to rant?

Stop and think about that “irritant” for just one moment. Try to think of one thing that is good about it. Just one thing. If you can see one good thing, perhaps it will help you deal with the situation. You can comment about that if you would like, or go write a blog post about it. Then, breathe in, breathe out, and move on.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters.

Are you looking for a topic as a prompt for a post? Inspiration Bit has another [tag]Group Writing Project[/tag] going on right now. She asks the question:

* Are you juggling a busy family life and career?
* Are you working full time and still manage to blog?
* Do you have your hands full with multiple projects but succeed in keeping all of them under a reasonable control?
* Can you still find time for your favourite hobby despite the loads of work and tons of daily responsibilities?

If so, write a post to tell us your time management tips. The deadline is Wednesday, September 26th, 2007—that’s tomorrow (sorry for the late notification!). I’ve been trying to claw my way out of a hole I had dug for myself, and remembering all the organizational tips that worked for me a long time ago. I hope to get my post in just under the wire. I participated in her last group writing project, and got a lot “hits” from it.

The Parent Bloggers Network is having a [tag]writing contest[/tag], with the prize of a portable dvd player up for grabs in a random drawing. This was in the e-mail they sent me:

How to participate?
1) On Friday, September 28, before midnight PST, write a post about your family vacations – past, present, or future. Title it creatively and descriptively.
2) In the text of your post, link to PBN (http://blog.parentbloggers.com) and PickPackGo (http://www.pickpackgo.com/family).
3) Send us the link to your post (email to parentbloggers@gmail.com).

We’ll round up all the posts on PBN and draw one winner at random (http://www.random.org is the website we use) who’ll get an 8″ Sony portable DVD player that you can use whether you travel by plane, train, or automobile.

Are you feeling lucky?

Any of y’all who enjoyed the [tag]Dear Abby Writing Contest[/tag] should stay on the alert. I will open it for postings on October 23rd, but you will only have 48 hours to make your entry. I’m looking forward to some more good laughs from you, and “Abby” is honing her advice skills.

Y’all go out and have a good day. I’ll see you on “the porch” another day.

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Artsy Fartsy Stuff, Links, Only The Good

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

When I saw this dog on the back of the truck at a gas station in Oklahoma, my first thought was, “Danger!” The dog could fall off the truck, harming himself or causing a wreck.

But, this is a farm dog; and an obviously happy farm dog, as evidenced by the twinkle in his eye (which wasn’t captured in the photograph). He has learned how to balance on the back of that truck.

I don’t want you to think about the fact that the dog shouldn’t be riding there. Just look at the picture, and tell me the good that you see in the picture. Tell me [tag]Only The Good[/tag]. It’s an exercise to help you train yourself to view the world with a positive eye. You can do it.

Tell me what you see. Then, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters.

1. Dork doofus
2. Refurbished renovated…architects…construction…$$$
3. Basket weave
4. Moussegel
5. Studio 54
6. 8 ball behind the
7. Masking tape painting
8. Love chocolate…no, I mean husband
9. Wilder Gene
10. Lindsey Waggoner

This just told me absolutely nothing.

Miscellaneous Matters entered:

Dear Abby,
Eleven years of marriage and three years of being first-time parents, hubby has yet to grasp reality that putting his dirty clothes in a washing machine, adding soap, and turning a knob are reasonable and customary in our current help-thyself-era. Though we may share common interests, I’m no June Cleaver!
Signed
Disobedient wife

Dear Disobedient,
Some men find it difficult to discover that Father Doesn’t Know Best. Leave his laundry until his dirty underwear can stand up and walk by itself. He will either learn to do the laundry or buy new underwear. Be glad you aren’t June Cleaver, dear. Those shoulder pads she wears are ridiculous, and her hairstyle is hopelessly outdated.
Signed,

Dear Abby

Why paisley??? submitted:

dear abby,

help!! there is a strange, matronly looking, middle aged woman living in my mirror… i have nothing against her personally,, but i believe she has stolen my reflection…. how can i send her packing,, and get ME back in my mirror?????

signed,

not my mirror image

Dear image,

Oh my, you are not alone! There is a marauding band of middle aged women and men roaming the country stealing reflections, and they have even admitted some senior citizens into their ranks! You could hide your mirror and hope they don’t find it. Or, you could hide your glasses so you don’t have to look at the thief. As you can see from my photograph, they haven’t found me yet. I look the same way I have for the past eighty years. It could be my magical helmet.

Signed,
Dear Abby

Teamouse entered:

Dear Abby,

I have two wretched step sisters and an evil step-mom. I
have to help them with their beauty regime, including much waxing!
I won a ticket to the MTV video awards! I’d love to go, but I have nothing to wear and Prince will be there.

What should I do?

All Plucked Out

Dear Plucked,
Stop whining and hoping for a fairy godmother to come and save you. That only happens in stories. These days, in fashion, anything goes. If Prince isn’t charmed by your inner beauty, then he’s a heel and you should give him the boot. Only a ninny waits around to be saved. That may seem harsh, but if the shoe fits—wear it.

Signed,
Dear Abby

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Critters, Dear Abby, humor, Only The Good

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

We had been driving around town looking for garish yard decorations to [tag]photograph[/tag]. I don’t know why. I think I wanted to poke fun at them, because sometimes I’m just ornery. We saw these birdhouses, and I shrieked, “Stop the car!”

My first thought when I saw this yard was, “Whooo Doggies! I bet they have some bird poo to clean up!” Yes, I laughed at the decorations. Then, I looked a little harder. Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. Someone spent a lot of love with this—-creation.

I don’t know about y’all, but sometimes it’s hard for me to look at the world and see beauty. I get cynical; I get frustrated; I get caught up in my own petty concerns. Marcia, at Tumbled Words, had the idea to practice seeing the good in things by looking at pictures and not seeing the negative, but seeing Only The Good. You can find other people practicing this at Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters.

You might think it’s silly at first, and you might find it difficult. I did. But, the more I practice it, the easier it is. I can assure you that if you try this regularly it will spill over into everyday life.

The more I look at this picture, the more it grows on me. While I have no desire to fill my yard with this kind of decoration (much to the relief of my husband and my neighbors), I can see a lot of good here. But, I want you to tell me the good that you see. Look at the picture, and tell me Only The Good.

1. Scrabble dictionary
2. NyQuil flu
3. Roadtrip Stuckeys
4. Idiot Nincompoop
5. Bandages Ace
6. Series sequence
7. Summer heat
8. Prompt late
9. September transition
10. Chicken Cacciatore

Hmmm. Nope. I still don’t have any sense. Do these word prompts mean anything to you?

© Shelly for This Eclectic Life, 2007. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: birds, Critters, Denton, Only The Good, Unconscious mutterings

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh