Fireworks - Niagara Falls

When you go to Niagara Falls if you can schedule your visit to see the fireworks that take place over the falls, I would recommend that. Between the middle of May and the middle of October, the fireworks are every evening at 10 pm and it is a five minute show. If you are fortunate enough to have a hotel room that overlooks the falls, I would say at least one night just stand by your window and enjoy them from there.

We had a room at the Courtyard Marriott on Victoria, and the view was amazing as we seemed to be right where the fireworks were being let off so that was nice. We originally thought we might see the fireworks on the Friday evening, but we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy them two nights and both of them were from our room.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the fireworks that we saw, and being able to see them very well from our room was nice. If the weather is just right and you have a room that is facing the falls, I would recommend checking the schedule for the fireworks and be prepared for a nice view. 

Niagara Falls normally has fireworks all year on a Friday night and then some other special events like New Years Eve, so you need to check to see when they are happening so that you don't miss the opportunity to see the show.

One of the spots that we found that was really good to watch the fireworks from if you want to be closer to them is near the base of Clifton Hill because the fireworks are set off between there and the Canadian Falls. If you can get down near the Niagara River, it is a nice experience, but you also have to be prepared for crowds because a lot of people will be down there to watch the fireworks.

Here is a short video of some of the fireworks that we saw. Fireworks

 

Morning routine

 All of us have some sort of morning routine that we enjoy and when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go it seems to make the rest of the day a little harder. For those of us that work from home one thing we must remember is to not let work get into the morning routine until a specific time.

Something that I had noticed in my own morning routine was I was letting all these other things start to invade my quiet writing time. For quite a long time I would get to my computer before breakfast with a cup of tea and I would write for about an hour without thinking about all the other things that I needed to do. Having breakfast was when the signal for the rest of the things to start to be added into the schedule. This was great because I am someone that can sit and write each day and it could be blogs or just journal notes but at least I was writing.

Over the last few months, I have started to notice that my writing time or quiet time in the morning was getting a lot shorter and it wasn’t the time was less, it was I was allowing other things to enter this time and overtake my quiet writing time. Being able to realize what is happening is important because than is when you can make the necessary changes to get that time back and get your routine back. It doesn’t matter why I allowed all these things to break my morning routine, what is important is that I can start to get that quiet time back.

Here are some things that took over my quiet time:

• Social media – checking both Facebook and Instagram
• Emails – both personal and professional
• Work items – I just allowed them to happen earlier in the day instead of after breakfast.

Yes, it is nice to check social media to see what is happening, but it doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning. It can wait a little bit so that I can enjoy my personal time. Checking emails especially work ones that can wait until after breakfast. I do have specific email accounts to notify me when an email comes in so if my smartphone let’s me know I got that type of email I will quickly check but if it can wait it is going to wait. Now, the work items, this was something that I shouldn’t have allowed at all unless there as an emergency or the rest of the day was already full booked for work (conference, etc).

Having a morning routine no matter what it is like we all need to do what helps make the rest of the day work a little easier.  I know that if I was going into an office the work items wouldn’t get started until I arrived so why I am allowing them to intrude on my early morning quiet time. Being able to realize when things aren’t working is important and changing things back to what was working is also good. The simple process of not opening email accounts or social media accounts during the quiet time does help. It gives me the focus that I need to be able to get writing done before the rest of the world wants some of my time. I have started to take my quiet morning time back and I have already seen that the writing is starting to come back as well.

 

When is quiet, quiet?

For a lot of us we have had to say when is quiet, quiet?

For me it is when I can turn out the rest of the world and enjoy some time when I am not having to hear all the various sounds around me. Right now, I am sitting here trying to make sure that I can find some time to just hide from the world and not hear everything else that is around. When you live in a high destiny area you are going to constantly hear lots of sounds, and you need to figure out just how to escape some of them.

It would be nice to know that I have been able to get a bunch of things achieved, so we will see how things go. It would be nice to be able to continue to get more of the thoughts out of my head so we will see how things go but it depends on the noise that I am dealing with. It would be nice to have a bit of time to lose myself and have a bit of quiet time to just figure out what I would like to achieve.

Being able to spend some quiet time is very important because I know for someone like me just having those few minutes where I can sit and lose myself without hearing all the various sounds around me makes me feel so much better. Hearing sounds that are normal for a lot of people but a challenge for some people can really make a difference.

Sometimes the difference between noise cancelling and just quiet ear plugs can make such a difference. I had been wearing a quiet ear plug and one noise cancelling earphone and then I changed to both quiet ear plugs, and I found such a difference. What I have found putting the two ear plugs in is I have been able to block out a bunch of the sounds that I normally hear and that is great. I am not certain what noises I can still hear but at least having a bit of time where I can escape the sounds from outside makes me feel so much better. We have been dealing with several cars that have issues with back firing so have these ear plugs in have made a big difference.

When I can say that there are times when I just need quiet it means that I need to block out all the various arounds that are going on around me. Being able to focus on something and know that I have been able to take that time for myself and not hear all the surroundings sounds makes me feel great. Yes, having a chance to enjoy quiet is very important for a lot of us and for those that deal with extremely hearing, having a bit more quiet time is extremely important.

When writing works and when it doesn't

 For someone that write for both personal pleasure and for work when writing doesn’t seem to work it can be such a challenge. Finding the words that you want to put down on paper can be an issue and you have to accept that.

Some ideas to get your writing back:

• If you normally write on your computer, try writing on your tablet or on a piece a paper for a little while to see if that helps me get over the writing block.
• Change where you are doing your writing. Just moving to a different location if the same area can make a difference because you will see things a little differently as your view is different.
• Try doing a 10-minute writing blast and you don’t have to worry about what you are writing about as long as you are getting words done. This can make a big impact on your writing because sometimes having a time limit can help get the words out.
• Walk away from your writing for a little while to give your mind a break and do something else. Try going for a bit of a walk or even just going outside for a few minutes and looking around at your surroundings can help a lot.
• If you write blog entries, maybe look at a couple of your older entries and see what was important about that entry. This can sometimes spark another idea and off you go with your writing again.
• Change the location of where you write and this time get out of the normal spots and maybe go to a coffee shop or a bar and try and do some writing there. It can help you find your focus again because it is a different environment.

For me, I have found that when I can’t seem to get the words out very easily, I will give myself that 10-minute writing blat and it is amazing how the focus changes and suddenly writing works again. I have also found that I can quite often write more in a different environment, so we do put times aside to just escape the normal environment and writing seems to flow.

When your writing flows you have to allow it to happen and when there is a block accept that there is one and do something different for a little while and then get back to writing.  Write some people is for pleasure and for others it is also for work so knowing how to get the words flowing again is important.

If you have any ways that you get your writing focus back, I would love to hear them so please comment.

 

When a community stops being a community

There are so many times when people say that they want to be part of a community, but they aren’t willing to even pay a few dollars a month to be part of that community. I understand that every community is going to be different. I believe to a couple of communities online and the biggest value I get from these communities is feeling like I belong and are part of a group of people that share a common bond.

What bothers me is when a community goes from members only chat to subscriber chat and anyone can post questions/comments, and they can sometimes be frustrating. I know that we all try and help answer the questions and something the moderator needs to understand is that we will answer questions in a general way to let the person know that we know the answer will be coming up shortly.  What goes get frustrating is when we see a comment from a moderator saying, “Don’t answer questions in the chat”. Why can’t a member answer a question in a general way because that will help keep the community as a community. When you say that you are the only one that should be answering questions it shows that the community is breaking down and that is a major concern. If I am paying to be part of the community, I should have the right to answer questions unless there is a general rule posted that states “As a member you are not allowed to answer questions in the chat.” If this happens, I know I would leave that community because that is part of the joy that being part of the community gives me.

If a moderator is going to post such comments as, “Don’t answer questions in the community” they need to keep those comments available and not delete them later on because that doesn’t help either because members see what is going on and they are going to think about where their dollar is going. Saying something and then deleting what you have said doesn’t build a community, it starts to destroy a community.

As a community we cannot compare one stream with another stream because all of them are different, and they provide a different level of quality and service and value to the community they are serving. I know that I have put my money into a community that I enjoy being part of because of how things are monitored and controlled. The community might not have an open chat but that is part of what I enjoy.

An online community is built between the trust between the members of the community and the moderator. If the moderator starts to destroy the trust that is going to mean that the community is likely to fail moving forward.  It doesn’t matter who we all are but we need to ensure that we are their for either other and a community is such a key part of any who is involved in the chat.

Social Media

 How many times have you heard someone say I am taking a break from social media, and the break lasts them maybe a day if that. Social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other social media apps are a continual stream of posts.

I know for me I have set myself limits of the amount of time I will be on the social media apps because otherwise it can take over your entire life. There are people that have to constantly be checking their social media accounts because they might miss a post by a friend. My attitude is if I miss the post I wasn’t meant to see it. I know that I have missed quite a few posts from family and friends, but I have had to accept that. I have always told both family and friends that if there is something that I need to know they can either message me or send me an email and that way I will see it.

Another thing that can happen with social media is through the various messaging methods people will think that you are always available to chat no matter what time of day or night it is. This can be a challenge especially if there are time zones involved because your good time to chat might not work for them and vice versa. The best way to use the messaging methods is to write that message but know that it could take a while before you get a reply and don’t get upset if it takes a while.

Social media is a great way to stay in touch with people, but you must understand that not everyone is going to use each social media platform the same way that you do. I know that when it comes to Facebook, I know that there are quite a few people that aren’t on much at all and then there are people who live it in and post multiple times a day. I think this applies to all the various social media platforms because some people want to be seen doing things while others just want to manage their life their own way.

The one thing that you have to understand about any social media platform is it doesn’t work for everyone and if you like one platform more than another.  That is fine, but I might not use that platform at all, so I won’t see your posts and you must accept that.

 

 

What makes me happy

I have been thinking about what makes me happy and I can honestly say it depends on the day. For me a lot of the things are very simple, and I guess I could say obvious but now to try and write some of them down.

Spending time with family – being able to spend time with my husband and my sister and her family makes me happy. It is nice when my husband and I can just do-little simple things like going for a drive in the country just to escape the routine of everyday. Even sitting after dinner and just chatting about nothing in general is also what makes me happy.

Sitting on a patio – when the weather is nice, I enjoy being able to sit on a patio and either people watch or watch airplanes if the patio is near an airport. Being able to just enjoy the warm weather while sitting outside is so nice and something we try and do. I love watching airplanes so being able to watch them land or take off is a nice thing for me to do. The patio doesn’t have to be near an airport for me to be happy because there have been times we have just decided to go out and have a coffee and sit on a patio and that has been nice.

Crafting – my crafting makes me happy because I can lose myself in doing something that I enjoy doing. I can do this alone or sitting with others, but my crafting is a means for me to escape and recharge my personal battery. I do enjoy seeing things finished but I enjoy just working on the various projects and when they are close to being done, I am trying to figure out what the next project will be. My happiest place is the actual working on the projects and seeing a finish is secondary to the progress.

Writing – yes this might sound a little different but yes, my writing makes me happy when I can see that I have achieved something, be it a blog, a story or just some fun notes. My writing is what brings me joy a lot of the time.

There are so many little things that make me happy and I know that it depends on each person what makes them happy. For some people it is being among a group of friends and spending time with them and other’s it is just spending time at home and relaxing. It doesn’t matter what you do to make you happy if you realize that some of the simple things may be part of what makes you happy as well.