It Takes Time To Change

It is a big day politically! I hope that there is another historic election and that I wake up tomorrow morning to find out that the USA has elected their first female leader. Fingers crossed!

Also of note, in March of 2013 I identified that I had miss spelt one of my tags for Always Standing. Well it took me over three years but as of today there is no longer a 'Politcs' tag and everything has been moved to be included in the correctly spelled 'Politics.'

Now before you go telling me that I spelt the word spelled incorrectly I would like to you remind you that I have already discussed that use of the 't' for past tense is correct for some words.

Teri Wins Halloween

So many good costumes this year for Halloween but after hearing yesterday morning that Teri had wanted to dress her new son up as a piece of sushi but hadn't had time to put together the costume I had to see the little guy in edible form. I told her there was still time and she ended up doing it in the afternoon and sending along the photos. 

R.O.M. - October 2016

Photos taken by Teri

Teri: I even got him to hold a chopstick

Chris: I know, it is so cute, I am dying

Teri: Looks like he is trying to eat himself

Note: Teri and Greg are trying to keep a low digital footprint for R.O.M, hence the use of only his initials and the reason he hasn't been mentioned on Always Standing before. He won't have a 'tag' like Lochlan, Cadence, Avery, and Maya, but he is a very special baby in my life so you will probably catch a glimpse or two of him from time to time.

A Lovely Cadence

* Cadence Shirley Ann N. *

Born: Friday June 5, 2015
Time: 10:04pm
Weight: 9lbs, 4oz

Proud parents: Taylor and Mark
Proud Big Brother: Lochlan

 Welcome To The World Cadence!!

Photo stolen from Facebook

(I can't wait to meet her!)

Always Standing Note: I have adjusted a tag which previously was just BabyLoch to be BabyLochCade so as to reflect posts related to either or both of Taylor and Mark's children.

Search At The Top

I had a link to my Twitter account on the left but have removed it. If you would like to connect over Twitter please follow me at @SweetonChris.

I also used to have a Search Bar to the left that allowed you to search the content on Always Standing, over time it has become less accurate. I find it frequently returns nothing when I know for a fact the word I used is in multiple posts. I chose to integrate it initially because I found the one on the top bar of Blogger to be inconsistent with its returns. However, it now appears to be the reverse.

The search located in the top right corner is a great way to hunt through the 2319 posts currently on this blog. You can also use the tags to the left to review all the posts connected to a certain subject.

TB - August 2006

Throwback Thursday - Way back when I first did the tags for Always Standing I was trying to pick the best 3 for each post. That didn't work well and now as I go through old months I am trying to update the tagging too, which means that these seemingly easy to do Throwback posts end up taking me a lot of time.

AUGUST 2006

Man, did I party a lot that last month of the summer in 2006! It seems that I just threw caution to the wind and spent my time working insane hours and going out a whole bunch at night. The little trip I took to The Cottage looks like it went well too. That was SO long ago, it was the 'old' cottage back then.

Noted Post: I like the list I gave of important Moments in my life. I also like the post about finding my pink clothes, because I still remember that happening - almost 8 years later.

Most Useless Degree

I ran across this great article/rant on Thought Catalog (which as a 'digital magazine owned and operated by an experimental media group based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn' and might be a little too trendy for me to be reading.) I often talk about the uselessness of my TWO degrees in English (proof of this can be seen in the English, Carleton, Ryerson, or Grad School Always Standing tags.) However, I agree with author Tyler Vendetti when she says, "Yes, I’m An English Major. No, I Will Not Be Working At McDonald’s." and in fact I agree with her whole article, my favourite part being:

"I can be a publisher. I can be a journalist. I can be a research assistant. I can be a speechwriter. I can work with magazines. I can be a movie critic. I can review books. I can be a copywriter. I can be a news reporter. I can manage social media. I can be a lobbyist. I can be an editor. I can write for television or radio or movies. I can be a travel writer. I can work in advertising. I can do anything I want to do ... The skills that you develop through writing and reading (such as critical thinking), the skills that come with an English degree, are used in every single day of your entire life." - By Tyler Vendetti, Yes, I'm An English Major. No, I Will Not Be Working At McDonald's., Thought Catalog

I would have made the list of career options longer and more varied, and the list of famous people who were English majors is way too actor heavy, but the article as a whole hits home, hard.

Happy Birthday Anna

Today is Anna's birthday! To celebrate why not have a look through the ANNA tag on Always Standing? I don't know how old she is, I do know she is younger than me (but also more accomplished.) I do know that she was born on March 27th (it says so in my planner, I didn't get it from Facebook as you may have suspected, I actually don't think she lists it on there.)

And What Did You See?

----- from Facebook

My mom has mentioned a couple of times, both in person and in the comments, that she likes fully written posts on Always Standing. However, I really like posting these 'first word you see' type puzzles every now and then. Also, when I post them I tend to get tons of comments, you can see them all using the Quiz tag.

So, take note of the first word you see in the image below and share it as a comment:

So as not to influence you, I have included what I saw in the comments for this post. 

Answer To The Blog Quiz

Last week I asked you to look at my list of tags on Always Standing to find which one was spelt incorrectly. From her comment, I think Taylor is the only person who tried and so I will put her our of her misery and let you all off the hook. It is - Politcs - which I will now slowly switch over to the correctly spelt - Politics - for a while both will be listed.

Blog Quiz

One of the tags on Always Standing is spelt incorrectly. Which one is it? I hope to spend the week fixing it, which means going though all the posts tagged with it and then retagging it with the same thing only spelt correctly. Let me know in the comments if you figure it out!

Changes To The Back End

They redid Blogger! The writing of posts is very slick now; the interface has become quite trendy-looking. One major changes is that 'Tags' and now called 'Labels.' But really though whole layout of the posting page is different. I don't think it does anything to the look of the blog though, so no one else will notice.

Earth Hour

It has been a long time since I have had a good Ottawa Erin quote (Both Erins live in Ottawa now so I guess I should switch to the names used when they get tagged in Always Standing posts.) Erin AH has always had some of the funniest quotes. See: Balls, Bread, & Drugs.

So, out for breakfast with Steph and Erin AH. Talking about Earth Hour since it always falls around Steph's birthday and we usually do something fun, like play boardgames by candlelight. However, this year, Steph and I napped though it - which still meant lights off and energy conserved.

Me: So, what did you do for Earth Hour?
Erin AH: Oh, I don't do Earth Hour. I celebrate Human Achievement Hour.
Me: What?
Erin AH: Yes, I just go around and turn everything on.

Ad Banner!!

Yes, there is a glaring advertisement front and centre!!. (I'm a sellout - I'm also poor.) This choice comes from a long period of ad revenue coming in at under a dollar a month. So I moved the long vertical ad on the right side up, it is now above the huge list of Tags that I have going on for Always Standing.

I also changed a couple of other things in terms of format/template. I have moved My Links further down the page until I get time to update them. I have adjusted the look of the Blog Archive and I have moved the Search Blog Archive further down, since I think I am the only one who uses it.

These changes may not be permanent, just something I'm trying out.

Five Years And Counting!!

Here's to another five years of Always Standing!!

I missed my big Always Standing anniversary! I was so excited to announce five years of blogging that I often checked back to my first post to make sure I didn't miss the day. However, I still missed the day - it was last week. I started Always Standing on June 12th, 2006. I was 22 and living in Ottawa. Now, I'm 27 and living in Toronto. So much has happened over the last 5 years and almost all of it has been documented on this blog. I've changed houses, friends, cities, schools, boyfriends, jobs, and the list goes on. This is my 1,437th post. (I am going to try to watch for my 1,500th post and catch that one in time.)

Want a trip down memory lane? Randomly click an old year or month in the Archives on the Left side of the screen, or visit some of the Tags on the Right. And as always, feel free to comment on any and all posts!!! (Bloggers live for the comments.)

Now With Tags

Finally! All of my posts (at the moment there are over 1,100 of them) have been tagged. It took forever and I'm not kidding. I started mid-January so have been working on it off and on for months now. I was worried about not having enough tags or having too many or them being grossly uneven but I love how it turned out! One small thing, it scares me how big the 'Drinking' tag is.

Most of my friends have their own tags and depending on how often they are mentioned in Always Standing the tags are of various sizes. (This is not a reflection of our friendship.) Also note, tags will evolve and change over time. I have been blogging for more than 4 years now and plan to keep going. Enjoy flipping through the tags and posts they bring you to as it will bring you back to some really old ones.

Blog Plans

Oh I have plans! Big plans! I feel it is time to revamp my blog and I have a number of changes that I want to slowly incorporate over the next few months. It may not all happen and it will take forever because I am lazy, busy, and mainly I'm quite resistant to change, even change that I want.

The Plans
-Get Google Analytics
-Adjust the Links section
-Put myself and Always Standing on Wiki
-Add some ads
-Maybe do tags
-Post more often!!