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3 WordPress Social Sharing Plugins (Helping You Find the Right One for Your Site) - ManageWP

3 WordPress Social Sharing Plugins (Helping You Find the Right One for Your Site)

Finding a social sharing plugin for your WordPress site can be hit and miss.

Sometimes you’re used to using a certain plugin and then you realize that for styling reasons, it won’t work on a new site you’re making. Or perhaps you’re going along, using your usual social sharing plugin, and then you find out it has a conflict with another plugin, so you need to go find another one.

Testing and figuring out the pros and cons of each plugin can be seriously time consuming. With that in mind, I’ve gone to the trouble of thoroughly testing four major social sharing plugins. You can check out my findings below!

1. Simple Share Buttons Adder by David S. Neal

For those of you who want to know what my current favorite social sharing plugin is right off the bat, I’m going to start with this one, so you don’t have to read all the way to the end :)

It’s also worth mentioning that this plugin has a 4.9 star rating after being reviewed 109 times on WordPress.org. That’s quite an accomplishment. And it’s going to get awesome-er once I show you how grand it really is.

Simple Share Buttons offers you the option to add the following social network sharing options to your users:

The great thing about this plugin is that you can choose with a simple drag and drop interface exactly which social sharing buttons you want on your site. You don’t have to go by any defaults that are forced down your throat because there’s no better alternative that won’t break your site.

See, look at me add Facebook and Google+ sharing options with drag and drop flair:

social share plugins 1

What’s even better about this plugin is that you can add your own custom icons, and it totally works! You can tell I’m excited about this, and if you read the AddThis below review, you’ll know why.

The plugin author made it so that adding your own icon is as simple as uploading an image to the media library, right from the plugin’s settings screen:

social share plugins 2

See how easy that is? No messing with CSS or custom coding!

If you don’t have your own custom icon set to upload, that’s ok, because this plugin author has some amazing-looking icon sets you can use that might make a designer drool, such as these:

social share plugins 3

My favorite set is this:

social share plugins 4

You can decide if you want the social icons to appear in certain places using settings, or you can use shortcodes to show or hide your buttons at a per-post or per-page level. I tried this by simply inserting the shortcode “[ssba_hide]” at the top of my post, and it does hide it, but it leaves a big gap between the title and text, like this:

social share plugins 5

I’d say the 1-click Retweet/Share/Like Plugin described below makes this process easier with a checkbox for users to show or hide their social icons on the post and page editing screens.

The Simple Share Buttons Adder plugin also has styling settings for controlling button sizes, font appearance, borders, backgrounds and more. You can even enter your own custom CSS.

social share plugins 6

And yes, you can turn off the counters on social shares (this is important if you have a low-traffic site and don’t want to look like a loser because no one ever shares your posts). Oh, and surprise, surprise, the buttons don’t get cut off on mobile screens!

social share plugins 7

The plugin also comes with a widget so you can add its social sharing buttons in unique places, like on the sidebar or footer, for example, instead of just above and below your posts (it depends on your theme where these widgeted areas exist). Thankfully, it displays the buttons according to the settings you have set up for the plugin on its settings page, unlike another plugin I’m about to mention.

The Cons of Using the Simple Share Buttons Adder

There are hardly any really (unless someone wants to enlighten us in the comments below?). When you stack this plugin up against other ones mentioned in this article, it seems like it has the best of all worlds. But there are a few areas this plugin could get more awesome:

  1. Adding more social networks. I personally don’t see the need for hundreds of options here, since most of us don’t even know of or use more than a handful of social networks. But this can be helpful for international usage, such as for adding social networks that are relevant to a certain country. This plugin already does a great job, however, by keeping the most popular ones available.
  2. Adding the ability to use icon fonts. It certainly would help to have this for retina displays on mobile phones and tablets nowadays. Or at least the ability to easily set a CSS class or id for a button, instead of having to upload an image, so that the class or id can take the character code for the icon font.

Download Simple Share Buttons Adder from WordPress.org.

2. Share Buttons by AddThis

If you are looking for a gazillion social network sharing options and you want to track all the clicks and shares,  this plugin is probably going to be your best bet.

AddThis has an analytics tool you can sign up for to track user behaviour when it comes to social shares. It also has something like 333 social networks you’ve never heard of that can be added to your share buttons for customization. Or, if you don’t want to pick through a list of 333 social sharing buttons to add to your website, you can use their “More” button, which lets the user pick from all those social networks they’ve never heard of to share your post on. The default options are:

social share plugins 8

These are what your display options sort of look like, except when you customize your social share networks, it doesn’t give you an obvious preview of your buttons unless you scroll to the bottom of the settings page, which sometimes doesn’t scroll so well (don’t ask, it’s weird).

social share buttons 9

It does have settings that allow you to control where the social sharing buttons appear, and a bunch of confusing settings if you want to get into the nitty gritty of how it displays social buttons (like for example, if you have a lot of free time you can go find out about “service codes” or read about “customization documentation” because that sounds like a lot of fun…or you could forget that idea and go watch an episode of Downton Abbey, I hear season 4 just came out….).

If you really need some extreme customization I guess you could spend time reading all about AddThis documentation. I can’t judge. It might be fascinating. I wouldn’t know.

The Cons of Using the AddThis Plugin:

  1. That last thought leads me to point out the first caveat with using this plugin, which is that it’s not easy at all to customize these buttons, even though it advertises that it’s possible, which is one of its top selling features. If you are a non-coder, well, good luck. If you like coding and want to deal with some CSS, you should check out this article by Jeff Sauer that explains in great detail How to Customize the Buttons on the AddThis WordPress Plugin. Though he doesn’t show a sample of using custom buttons that are that different from what AddThis provides by default, following his CSS will get you somewhere if you’re trying to get your own icons in there. But don’t expect it to be an end-all-be-all solution, especially if you’re trying to use icon fonts. You’ll need to dig around in Firebug or some browser development tool to figure out what styles you need to override.
  2. This plugin also has a widget that you can drag into a widgetized area of your WordPress site. But, and this is a big “but”, it won’t show your customizations from your settings screen. If you’ve added Google+ as a sharing button in the AddThis settings, for some reason those ‘instructions’ don’t get sent to the widget feature of this plugin. This is extremely troublesome if you are also trying to set up custom icons, as explained above. It almost renders the widget feature useless, especially since it won’t include Google+ by default, which is really necessary for those of us who care about search.

Download Share Buttons by AddThis from WordPress.org.

3. 1-click Retweet/Share/Like by LinksAlpha

This is a pretty cool plugin if you are looking to be able to auto-publish your posts and pages to your configured social networks too. As a social sharing tool, it can allow users to:

You can also set it up to offer a LinkedIn sharing button as well, but it’s not a default setting. There is no Pinterest or other social networks. It does have the ability to control where the social share buttons appear with some user-side settings, and also with an option to add some code to your template manually. For some reason, you can’t get it to not show on single posts universally unless you enter comma-separated post IDs in a settings field or uncheck a button on a post editing page. No biggy, since it’s unlikely you’re going to want a social sharing plugin for the purpose of not showing social sharing buttons…

For styling, you can set relative positions in its settings and you can opt to take out the counters on specific social share buttons. You can also set a font from a predefined list and set the color of the counters, but that’s about it, no fancy shmancy stuff.

social share buttons 10

Here is what it looks like on the front end:

social share buttons 11

I know what you’re thinking: where is the Digg, StumbleUpon and e-mail option? Ah ha! Those are hidden behind the two little arrows. A user has to figure out to click on that to get the other social share buttons, which would look like this, and include some really weird buttons that link to pages on LinksAlpha.com that have nothing to do with your site or say anything a user would care about:

social share buttons 12

That down arrow is not a download button. It just advertises LinksAlpha. And that Privacy button with the misaligned triangle arrow, that takes users to a party-crashing page with bunch of legal gibberish about how they’re signing their right to privacy away if they want to share any content on your website because the LinksAlpha big brother is watching. I’d be weirded out by that if I were a user on a site and had no idea who on earth LinksAlpha was in connection to the site I was reading a cool article on. I’m just sayin’…

But, on to more important matters, a very cool feature of this plugin is that it offers you the ability to display the Facebook Like button (but only that one) in different languages. Like for example, “English (Upside Down).” I didn’t know that was a real language but now that we all have made this discovery, who wouldn’t want the word “Like” written upside down on their website?!

social share buttons 13

Just as a side note, I also love that it offers to spell the word “Like” in both “English US” and “English UK.” Very thoughtful of the plugin authors to think of all English speakers.

As noted above, this plugin can also auto-publish your posts and pages to social networks but you need an API key and a LinksAlpha account to do this. It’s fairly self explanatory if you like poking around settings screens but beware: if you do opt to auto-publish your posts, you’ll need to uncheck the “Publish this Post to configured Networks” on post and page editing settings for when you are publishing something you don’t want the world to see (like a password protected page, or a terms of service page, or things no one on Twitter will ever care about and think you are weird for publishing). Or if you hit the “Publish” button by accident it will be too late, the plugin will send out your unfinished or ‘secret’ post to all your social networks. I personally don’t like or use this feature because accidents happen. All my clients that I’ve set it up for in the past asked me to turn it off, even if they were the ones that asked for it.

The Cons of Using the 1-Click Retweet/Share/Like Plugin

  1. The social sharing networks available are limited. If you wanted Pinterest for example, you’d have to put that in with another plugin or code it in yourself.
  2. You can’t customize the icons.
  3. It advertises itself and its privacy settings too overtly (see above screenshots and explanations).
  4. It is poop when it comes to displaying LinkedIn Share with proper spacing and also poop on mobile phone display. You have to fix it yourself or give up on it for responsive sites because it cuts off on the edge of the screen and in reality, the arrow link to get to the StumbleUpon and Digg Share buttons is too small for fat fingers:

social share buttons 14

Other than that, it pretty much does what it says it’s going to do, so it’s a promising option.

Download 1-click Retweet/Share/Like from WordPress.org.

As you can see, this article definitely had a bias towards using the Simple Share Buttons Adder plugin, but that may not turn out to be everyone’s favourite and this list is by no means exhaustive at all.

If you are looking for a social sharing tool that can also automatically publish to social networks, then 1-Click Retweet/Share/Like may be the way for you to go. And if you’re looking for some advanced analytics as well as a list of 333 social networks for people to share your content on, then AddThis is your gem.

If anything, I hope this article helped you figure out which social sharing plugin is right for the site you’re working on today. Who knows, you may use a different plugin for different needs on different sites. Do share your experiences with these and other plugins in the comments below!

Joyce Grace

A Vancouver Internet marketer and freelance writer who loves making WordPress websites, writes with pencil, owns a paper agenda (still), gets ignited by anything Dutch, and is probably the only person on the planet who doesn't like cheesecake. Follow Joyce on: Instagram: @thoughtsofjoyce YouTube: /thoughtsofjoyce Twitter: @thoughtsofjoyce Google Plus: +JoyceGraceontheweb

  1. Thomas

    Hi, I recommend this useful plugin for websites https://youtu.be/EQ_4BExT1pc There is a lot of types customizable social buttons, but also email subscription widgets, pop up, header bar and many more :-)

  2. Sacha

    I love Monarch from Elegant Themes.

  3. Sharon

    Hi Joyce! Thanks for the article. I have Simple Share Buttons and I am having a problem because I use a Pinterest Hover Button plugin and how I have my pin it button hovering over the social media share buttons…and I can’t have that!

    Do you know how I can disable the hover?

    Thanks so much!!

    1. Ingrid

      Hi Sharon, I’m having the same exact problem than you! Did you manage to solve it? Let me know, plz! Thanks!

  4. Amy

    Do you know of a share plugin that will show you who clicked on the share buttons for each post? Thanks!

  5. Eiman

    Thank u , Actually i use my own buttons for the sharing the simple way

  6. Ben Protasio

    I have never laughed so hard at an article about choosing plugins. You my dear Joyce have a superb wit. Perhaps it’s funny to me because I’ve been scouring these social plugins, and sure enough we had the same thoughts. I mean really, 100zakladak(sic) will truly rocket my clients’ userbase 😉 Of course I’m going with your first choice. Seriously though, great article.

  7. Sal

    Hi Joyce,
    Thanks for the recommendation. I installed simple share , but be damned if I can find where I actually put the links to my social sites in!
    Would love some advice.

  8. frecrewebsite

    Hi. I would like to ask if its possible to add another social button(s) like Line or others? If its possible, how will we add it? in codes?

    Thank you. I used this plugin and i honestly appreciate it. Thanks much :). Kudos!

  9. Marjorie

    Thank you so much for your comprehensive reviews. I was starting to tear my hair out, trying to work out which way is up!

    1. Casey Burnett

      Agreed. Thanks for this review and saving my hair… this weekend was nearly wasted sorting out Framework’s / SEO / Social intergration

  10. balibagus

    Thank you, i need plugin for my web.

  11. Spyros

    We have published a couple of weeks ago WP Font Awesome Share Icons.

    We hope you will like it.

  12. Kamal

    It looks great sharing plugin but can it be placed vertically along with the page edge?

  13. David Neal

    I just wanted to say thanks for the really positive review for my plugin – ‘Simple Share Buttons Adder’!! Glad you like it :)

    1. Sharon

      How can I disable my Pinterest hover buttons over the social media icons ONLY? I can’t figure it out and I’m going to have to delete your plugin if I can’t. :(

  14. Jice Lavocat

    I ‘d like to suggest another plugin, i recently developed, for those who are using the authorship markup.
    This “most shared plugin” imports the articles you have authored, and displays the best ones, even if they have been published outside your blog (Most Shared Articles For WordPress : http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordiz-most-shared-articles-for-authors ).
    It would be great for me if you give it a try and give me some feedback
    If you have some time to give it a try, do not hesitate to drop me some feedback and suggestions so that i can improve it.

  15. Saleena

    Nice sharing… It seems like it might be good for e-commerce though. I can’t say much more, since I’ve never used it :)

  16. Linda Sherman

    Now using Simple Share Buttons on AskLindaSherman.com. That blog began it’s life as Posterous. I just finally re-opened to search after converting to WordPress.

    Doesn’t have the option to put just a few on the top doing it the easy way but I haven’t explored the short codes yet. Like his default design. Tried to register for his WordPress site twice but didn’t work.

    Thank you for the recommendation!

  17. Alex Smith

    I have used Sharethis, Addthis, Flare Plugin on my website http://codemink.com . But the sharing buttons on website generated by these plguins takes more than 3 seconds to load which increases the loading time from 700ms to 3.5ms. Moreover these slows down the scrolling of the webspage

    1. Joyce Grace

      Thanks for the input Alex. I also noticed that sharing buttons can really slow down a site. Let me know if the Simple Share Buttons does this for you, it would be an interesting experiment.

  18. Joyce Grace

    For anyone wondering, we have a post on the ManageWP blog about how we set up our own social sharing buttons:

  19. Kalle

    Hi there :-)

    Nice post.

    Small question: what is the name of the floating sidebar on THIS page?

    Thanks in advance :-)

  20. Leigh

    Do you mind telling me what you are using for your social buttons. I really like this concept and would love to implement it on my new site.

  21. giulio

    If you want to measure all the likes, tweets, pins, google +1s and linkedin shares you can use my plugin: Top Social Stories plugin for WordPress, it can tracks posts every day, make charts and ranks. You can find all the features here: http://codecanyon.net/item/top-social-stories-plugin-and-widget/5888553?ref=ginoplusio

  22. Dan

    For social media sharing buttons, Slocum Studios has a clean and flat designed plugin called “Simple Share Links” that is totally editable, if folks want to tweak the plugin for that website in any way.
    It comes with all necessary documentation.

    1. Linda Sherman

      I saw that searching on line Dan. Is there also a link to this plug-in in the WordPress repository? Thanks!

  23. john smith

    I need a plugin like zig zag that appears at left side while on home page not only on posts

  24. john smith

    what is name of that plugin which appears at left while scrolling down?

    1. Joyce Grace

      Hi John, there are probably some you can search on the WordPress repository. I know one that can be done with TF Social Share but last I checked it wasn’t on the WordPress repository anymore (we don’t use that on this site). These plugins can be hard to work with on responsive designs.

      1. Leigh

        Hi Joyce

        Do you mind telling me what plugin you’re using on this site? I really like it and would be keen to implement on a new site I am about to launch.

      2. Linda Sherman

        Joyce, you mention issues with responsive design. I assume that Simple Share Buttons adder DOES work with responsive? Has there been any update for URL shorteners after mentioning on their forum?

      3. George

        Is this sticky social share plugin appears at left custom made by you guys ?

  25. anand om sharma

    pls tell me the common plugin which display author details with social sharing icons. regards

  26. Big Geek Daddy

    You asked to be enlightened about the cons of Simple Share Buttons Adder so here’s one: Email Share Button opens the default email client on a PC. This is fine if you actually use something like Outlook or Windows Live Mail but what about the people that have an email client installed but don’t use it? If they are checking their email online and click the email share button it’s not going to open up Gmail, Yahoo, or whatever email service they use.

    I hope I am wrong about this feature but in the quick test I just did on an older machine running Vista (I use only for testing purposes) it started the setup process for Windows Live Mail when clicked.

    Other than this I love this Plugin and especially the colorful design options. I don’t know if I’ll switch from AddThis to it because of the email issue and not being able to track usage stats but it certainly has peaked my interest.

  27. Pam

    Hi Joyce,

    Thanks for this post. I first came across your mention of Simple Share Buttons on Carrie Dils’ site (http://www.carriedils.com/social-sharing-without-plugins-wp/)

    I considered going with this plugin for all of the reasons you mentioned above, but the lack of response to questions over the past month has made me hesitant to go to with it. Active support is important to me.

    For example, several people have posted issues with the counter for Pinterest, but as of my last look back (Wednesday, November 27th) at the support page there has been no response to the issue. Furthermore, the developler, from what I have seen, does not have a way to contact him. I hope that David is ok.

    1. Pam

      I found David’s contact information. He is doing well, just extremely busy. I think I still may give Simple Share Buttons a try. Thus far it is the best plugin out there fore non-coders and for those who would like to use custom icons.

      1. Joyce Grace

        Thanks Pam! Those are good points you brought up. Support is important that’s true, but I’ve learned not to expect anything with a free product :)

        If I were paying for something this amazing, then yes, of course, I would expect quick turn around times.

        But when a plugin author volunteers their time to contribute something to the community, then what else can we ask for? I guess we could offer to pay him his hourly rate to help us, which would be totally fair.

        But if he’s busy, well, c’est la vie!

        I’m glad you found out he is well, and I’m also glad to hear he is thriving (hopefully!)

        I do find it to be the easiest plugin for using when design matters to you, apart from custom coding it all yourself.

        Thanks for your comment!

        1. Pam

          Thanks for your response Joyce.

          I am very new to all of this, but yes, I am finding that people tend to expect the world, even when something is free. I will keep your train of thought in mind.

          I think this plugin is a great start. I have also learned that much can be learned from trying to figure out things on your own.

          Thanks for mentioning this plugin on Carrie’s site. You directed me to something that I needed.

          As for David, it does seem like he has several great life changing things going on at the same time.

          1. David Neal

            Hi all!

            I am back and about and have released a couple of new versions with lots of little improvements, including the addition of a print button!

            I’m trying to be a little more active in the WP support forums for everyone :)

            As for the forums on simplesharebuttons.com, I think they may need to be closed down as they are getting spammed a great deal!

  28. Sirpa

    I can also highly recommend David’s :-) http://www.simplesharebuttons.com. Not only is David a real nice guy, but the buttons are really clean, coding is very well done.

    And important for me it does not affect the speed of my site as much as others I’ve tried before, like https://shareaholic.com/ or http://www.addthis.com, etc.

    greetings from German :-)

    1. Pam

      Hi Sirpa,

      Thanks for the feedback. I had already decided to go with Simple Share Buttons. Your endorsement makes me feel even better about my decision.

      Have a good one.

      1. David Neal

        Great to see you have opted for Simple Share Buttons guys :)

    2. Technikaly

      The latest AddThis Layers is also cool one and faster. Sharrre can also be a good option.

      1. Linda Sherman

        Someone else just recommended “sharre-based plug in” to me. I have tried searching that and just sharre online and in the add new plugin space and not seeing it. Can you please give me the link to the actual plugin?

  29. eliz

    I do like Simple Share Buttons Adder and I’m trying it on one of my sites now. The only fault I can see is that it doesn’t have a URL shortener. If I’m missing something and there is one…please enlighten me :)

    1. joycegrace

      Hi Eliz! This is a good observation. I would make a suggestion on the Simple Share Buttons Adder forum about this. I guess nothing is going to be 110% perfect but out of all the ones I’ve used, I find this one to meet most of my “must have” requirements, so I am just glad for what it can do so far!

      1. eliz

        I do agree Joyce. I like the styling and other features enough to leave it on the site I have it on.

        1. Linda Sherman

          What site do you have it on Eliz? I’d like to see it in action.

        2. David Neal

          I did briefly have a URL shortener in place, but a lot of the code will need to be updated/replaced so that it shortens upon click, instead of upon page load. 1,000s were being created a minute! This is certainly still something I’d like to reinstate.

  30. Mitchell Abdullah

    Joyce, I highly recommend you look into the AddShoppers buttons as another great social media button. The analytics and extended capabilities are amazing, especially if the site is doing ecommerce.

    1. Joyce Grace

      Thanks for the suggestion Mitchel, it always helps to see what other people find useful. I had a look at the AddShoppers plugin and it looks similar to AddThis, which means it would present some of the same issues (and pluses!) that I’ve described in this article. I mainly find it too hard and too many steps to customize the icons. Some people may have no problem with it, but when I see a plugin makes it as simple as possible for the masses to get what they want, it scores points in my book :) Also the AddShoppers plugin only has two reviews and hasn’t been downloaded a lot thus far. So maybe it will take time before it really takes hold in the WordPress community.

      It seems like it might be good for e-commerce though. I can’t say much more, since I’ve never used it :)

      I’d love to hear more about it from you though to help contribute to this post. Do you know if it works well on responsive sites and retina displays? And have you customized the icons before, or the order of icons? If you have step-by-step resources for our non-developer readers to know how to do this, please do share! Or maybe you could write about it :)

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Archive for November, 2010|Monthly archive page

Vendor Emphasis, in Cloud focus

Good ‘summary of vendor emphasis’ I thought, contained in this Gartner release on cloud future…

but is there an alternate route?

ok, this is pretty good, guys at Google:

1. Go to Google Maps.

2. Go to “Get Directions”.

3.Type USA as the start location.

4. Type China as the end location.

5. Go to step #44.  And #104.

6 Laugh


text:
My Life as a Car

Remember the first car you ever owned – the sense of freedom you got just tossing the keys in your hand? And remember that company car, the Mondeo, the one you totaled first day on the job? Then there was the Volvo estate, with the Baby on Board sticker in the back window.  And what about the sports car when the mid-life crisis hit?

Everyone can recall the cars in their life.  They act like reference points and they all tell a story. Here are the cars I remember the best:  my life as a car.

1) 1966. My dad’s Morris Oxford,

Two tone blue, fins and lots of chrome;  a walnut dash and a front seat like a sofa. It was the best of all the cars we had as a family, and most memorable for the time we drove it down to Spain. My dad at the wheel smoking his pipe; mum in the front with a two-year old on her  lap; three more kids on the back seat, playing I spy and throwing-up for 2000 miles.

This was in the days when driving on the continent was still considered an intrepid thing to do – if you saw another GB vehicle you flashed your lights and waved.  We had two weeks on the beach on the Costa Brava,  but the road trip made a more lasting impression on me, in particular the trauma of breaking down on the way back.

A burst water pipe was the culprit. We were suddenly enveloped in steam.  My dad had a spare hose but it was the wrong size, which made him do a Basil Fawlty and  punch the engine.  My mother walked the kids miles across fields to get some water from a French farmhouse.  We managed to crawl to a garage and they fixed it on the spot. My dad gave the mechanic a bottle of wine and he shook our hands: “Bobby Charlton”  – England had just won the world cup.

When we got to the coast at St Malo the car was hoisted in a net and swung into the hold of the ship. (We weren’t in it).

2)  1970  The Morris 1000. (2577 ED)

My aunt developed a mental health problem. She saw the pope on the garage roof. She went into hospital and never came out, and when she died she left me her Morris 1000.

I learnt to drive in this car.  It wasn’t a sexy-looking vehicle – the design of a jelly mould,  and yellow indicator arrows that popped out of the side with a clunk – but the front passenger seat folded all the way forward,  and I was itching to pass my test so I could get up to no good in the back with my friend Paula.

I failed my first attempt, which was hardly surprising:  never has a driving test been racked with so much sexual tension. I took it again, and failed again. How long would Paula wait? I took it again and passed. I wanted to kiss the examiner almost as much as I wanted to kiss Paula.

That Morris was a good little runner, but it was at its best when it was stationary,  parked up behind the cricket pavilion at night.

3) 1976. The Leyland Terrier.

I was living in London and got a job as a van driver, delivering printing paper.  My Terrier was like a home on wheels. I had a Pink Floyd poster up in it, and a sheepskin cover on the seat. The best part of the job was every Thursday and Friday when I’d be given the East Anglia overnight run, and I’d tour Norfolk and Suffolk, taking printing paper to exotic places like Bungay. It was the hot, sunny summer of 1976 – I had a very suntanned right arm. I was given expenses for accommodation, but I used to sleep in the van on the paper. For company I picked up hitch-hikers. I would fill the back with them. I remember one American guy said he’d hitch-hiked round the whole of  Europe and the best place he’d been to was Ipswich.

Word got back to the company that I was running a bus service and I got fired. An endless summer that abruptly came to an end.

4)  1980. The Lincoln Continental.

I was traveling across America.  Now I was the hitch-hiker, but  I had a stock of good karma and everyone picked me up and took me home.

Then just outside De Moines I got a ride from a sales crew in a huge Lincoln Continental. They sold cleaner: “Presto, for the home industry and auto.”  They were a bunch of kids my age, traveling round the country, led by Jack who was an old hand and ran the company from his car. He  offered me a job and I  accepted  because I didn’t want to get out of the Lincoln.

For the next few months we headed west, over the mountains, across the desert, traveling in this black beast with red leather upholstery, stopping off in every town and selling Presto. Life seemed easy, and yet Jack was in trouble, the company was going under. He said he was going to have to sell the car, downsize. Then Mt St Helens exploded and covered the west in dust and mud and overnight everyone wanted to buy a tub of cleaner.

5) 1982  My Escort, the getaway car.

Back in London I’d started a gardening business. I used to cycle everywhere, but I thought if I had a car I could extend my range. I bought a very cheap, nondescript Ford Escort, so nondescript that it kept being stolen.  It would be used in a crime and then abandoned. Time after time this happened.  Crooks were using it for their work more than I was for mine.  The police would phone and tell me to come and pick it up from the station. I went on one occasion to find  it had been stolen from the pound. Basically, my car was having a more exciting life than I was.

I bought all sorts of locks, but they did no good. It was as if  it had a ring pull top. One night I woke up and heard the engine turning over. I jumped out of bed and ran outside to see it driving off. I called the police and they actually caught the thief.  He was there at the  station when I went to give a statement, and he gave me such an evil eye that it could only have been him who loosened the nuts on my front wheel a few days later. It came off as I was driving down Westbourne Grove.  Very embarrassing. Soon I went back to my bicycle.

6) 1986. The Triumph 6.

I wrote a book and it got into the best-sellers. With my first royalty cheque I decided to buy the car I had always wanted – a classic, a Triumph 6.  It was a convertible, in British racing green, and had an overdrive gear that made it leap forward with a roar. I paid cash and drove it away. It broke down before I got home.

I kept that car for two years and spent most of the time underneath it, which was pointless because I know nothing about engines. I just unscrewed things, put them back together and then threw away the bits. In desperation I joined the Triumph Owners Club. I went to meetings where guests speakers talked about the joys of a Solex carburetter. I went to rallies, and on stupid treasure hunts, and I spent my time in the company of other Triumph owners who had oily fingernails and no sex life. Looking back, it was a sad time. But what can you do when you love a car?  I was saved when I met a good woman. I was torn for a while, but she became pregnant the way the Triumph never could.

The Triumph was a two-seater. It had to go.

7) 1990. The Peugeot Estate.

A family car. We drove in it to antenatal classes, where my role in the miracle of childbirth was carefully explained.  My wife would take care of the cramps, the indigestion, the heartburn, the fluid retention, the high blood pressure and the excruciating pain, while I would make sure the car was topped up with oil and water and ready for the journey to the maternity ward on the big day.

I took this job of transportation manager very seriously.  I not only monitored oil and water, I checked tyre pressure and brake fluid, and took the car for a service. I became obsessed with getting the parking slot outside the house.  Then on the night my wife’s waters broke we piled into the Peugeot only for the bloody thing to break down halfway to the hospital. I called the AA. A very calm patrolman named Cliff arrived.  He examined the alternator, then examined my wife, and advised she was fully dilated and there was no time to get to the hospital. He delivered the baby using two 40mm spanners as forceps. We named the child Cliff.

I woke in a sweat from that one. But the real thing was no less of a nightmare. It coincided with the day the town’s new one-way system opened. Gridlock. It’s tough being a father.

8) 1999 The Camper Van.

What better vehicle for a growing family? A VW camper with a pop top.  We went to France. We went to Spain. I recreated the trips of my childhood. My wife and I even argued over picnic sites, just like my parents.

The van really came into its own though, when the boys got a band together . We piled equipment in and drove all over the place for gigs. I set up the gear and saw them play to an audience of four, then packed it all up again and drove home. They were convinced they were going to be rock stars. I was thrilled just to be the roadie

The band got better, the gigs got bigger, which meant the sound system expanded. The rusting van groaned under the weight of  a mixing desks and speakers. One Christmas they got through to a  regional final of a battle of the bands.  It snowed heavily that night. As the clock ticked down to their time-slot we were digging the van out of a drift, jettisoning bits of equipment. “You’ll have to play unplugged!”

9) 2009. Ford Focus.

This is the car we own now. We bought it from one of those car supermarkets. I entered my requirements into the computer:  I wanted something that wouldn’t break down,  was cheap to run and repair, something eco-friendly. The computer told me a Ford Focus estate 1400 would suit me perfectly. We walked round the parking lot to the Focus aisle. A row of them sat there as if on a shelf, all colours.  We picked a dark grey one.

We’ve had it three years now.  Nothing has ever gone wrong with it. Perhaps it’s become a little more grey since we bought it – I often lose it in car parks among all the other shapeless grey cars. I’ve no idea what the registration number is.

You can’t blame a car for being dull though. Cars are like dogs, they reflect the owner – the truth is I’ve gone pretty grey myself over the last two years.  It’s just that, unlike all my other cars, I feel no emotional attachment to this vehicle whatsoever. The only character it has comes from the dents that my children put in it  when they learned to drive. (One son actually managed to have an accident in the driveway – he hit our other car. Bless.)

I encouraged the children to pass their test as soon as they could, the way I had. I told them it would give them independence. But, of course, they can’t afford to drive now. Fuel and insurance costs make it impossible.  They don’t seem bothered to be honest. Driving doesn’t have the same allure these days. Cars are associated with traffic jams and climate change rather than the open road. It makes me think I’ve lived through the golden age of motoring.

Meanwhile the Focus just goes on and on. It starts every morning without fail; it uses no oil; no sign of rust.  I need to learn to love it. The way it’s bearing up it might be the last car I ever buy.

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4 responses to “My Life as a Car

  1. Pete

    Dear Mark,

    Strangely enough,my wife and I have just had a 3am talkie bit about all the cars our own family have owned since we were small.

    Our chat threw up some interesting stories we didn’t know about each other after twenty six years of marriage.

    I’m just reading and enjoying ‘Boogie Up The River’ in hardback at the moment.

    Inside the book I found a very touching note written by the last owner:

    33,Raeburn Road,
    NN2 7ET
    “To the Manager
    Dear Sir or Madam,

    Would you please send me the dress No.D4001 in hip size 48″ length 44″ colour blue or green second choice,also dress No.D4007 in 42” length….

    I have found this letter inside your book strangely touching and poignant and feel comforted to know that the last owner not only had good dress sense,but an admirable choice in books!

    All the very best and thanks for the enjoyable books.

  2. Mark, your books Boogie up the river and 400 mile walkies will always be in the list I recommend to others, along with Three Men in a Boat.
    Please be gentle with me as I love dogs (as well as your humour) but, what was Boogie’s demise?

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Saturday, June 30, 2012

I can't get over how much fun I'm having working through the stack of resist dyed felted wool pieces I made in a Chad Hagan workshop....

 This one is a bit larger than the majority of pieces we dyed.....measuring 12' x 8" (rather than 6" x 7").  I forgot to take a BEFORE photo....cause I was so anxious to get started....but happily I remembered to pull the camera out before stitching was too far along.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the on the photo for a closer look.  Sure.....there's not much to see yet.....truly, the stitching didn't take that long, but the thread color and stitch style decisions did.

All for now....MUST get my walking shoes on as 'the dog' and 'the husband' are both whining at the door.  It's unusually hot here in the Blue Ridge while the temperatures are still down from overnight.....the 90 minute daily 'forced march' must go on.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The family wedding we attended over the weekend was so special...we adore our niece and have a great kinship with her (now) husband already.

The wedding/reception followed most of the typical traditions.....however their special personal touches were so inventive.

For instance....look at this table marker......why on earth would anyone number a table like that?  NO.....there weren't 356 tables.  I was going to explain the significance but just now as I'm typing....I decided to ask if anyone knows before I reveal it.  Do you??

We loved that each table had their own cake....of course the bride and groom had their special one too AND the groom had a nice big chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that was offered to guests as well.'s the really amazing treat......  click here for a very short video taken by 'the husband' (mine...not the groom).  In case you aren't inclined or don't have time to click over to youtube....let me explain.  They hired the University of Wisconsin's Badger Marching Band to appear at the reception.  And did they make an appearance......only a few people knew this was imagine the commotion when we heard them playing (loudly, very loudly) as they marched down the hall and into the ballroom.....amazing!!

Who'd have thunk you could hire a small contingent of band members for such an appearance?  My clever SIL, that's who!

UPDATE.....Wendy asked about the table numbers.....(surprisingly was the only one)....guess that means personalizing is just that personal to those close by others...not so much.  Anyway....the numbers all referred to model numbers of Porsche's.  Our niece's guy shares our passion for autos that begin with a "P" and unfortunately end in dollar signs!  We got a big kick out of that!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

So......we just returned from a fast trip to Wisconsin to attend a family wedding.....and to meet our first grandson who at 7 weeks old, also made the trip from SFO (oh, along with his parents!)

 We'll admit to being foodies......and go out of our way to find our favorite comfort foods while back in the Midwest.  I'm guessing at least half the population in Wisconsin attends a 'fish fry' on Friday nights.  The other half wish they did!  Of course fried cheese curds replace the usual fresh fries!

We got hooked on Uno's deep dish pizza during our days living in's still my favorite.  I've come pretty close to duplicating the recipe....but not enough that I can pass up the real thing.

 Madison, WI has an excellent (though SUPER crowded) Saturday farmer's market where the cheese curds are so fresh they squeak.

My passion for Culver's concrete chocolate malts has been confessed to many a time on this blog......and you can be sure that craving was satisfied too!  We are excited to know that the chain is opening a restaurant in the Greenville, SC area....oh my....that's only 90 mins. away.....certainly doable!

BUT....the sweetest treat of them all was being able to spend time with Raiden....yup...he's a big boy of 13 lbs. at 7 weeks old.  However.....considering he was nearly 9 lbs when he was born.....we fully expect him to walk any day now!  Our darling DIL is holding this very well behaved child....seriously, I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

For those of you who haven't yet experienced this new phase in your life.....I'm here to tell you it's worth waiting for!

Monday, June 25, 2012

It's been awhile......and I have lots to share with you about my recent adventure.....but's a look at the project we've been following which I believe is complete. (Thanks Gwen for suggesting the name of this piece!)

TRACKS 6.5" X 7"
Artist resist dyed felted wool, hand embroidered and beaded.
Available here

 detail # 1
 detail # 2

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

For such a tiny piece....I still don't have much to show for my efforts.....No I've said many times....this isn't a race.....

The piece needs more texture and blending of materials...but not sure exactly how or what just yet.....but that's the fun isn't it??  Or it should be!

I expect to be quiet for the next few days while I'll be meeting our new grandbaby for the first distractions....just pure selfish joy.....

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

My time has been consumed working on Bookworm Gardens quilt which is now all basted and quilting has begun.  The reveal will be posted when it's complete.

In the meantime, the pile of felted resist dyed wool pieces I made at a Chad Hagan workshop began to call me.  LOVE, love, love all the different designs and colors, but am finding they are a big challenge for me.

 For instance, this little guy is only 6" x 7".  (a.) There's not a lot of room to develop a design (b.) the background is very busy  (c.) embellishments must be scaled quite small.

I'm really just doodling with needle/thread/beads.....not sure where it's going. Keeping my hands busy in the evening is my goal and if this piece turns out pleasing later....well, what more can a gal ask for?

I went to bed NOT liking the beadwork in the center black lines....first thing this morning it didn't look so bad, but now an hour later....Yuck.....  Maybe as I mull ideas over today during my other tasks some other direction will come to me.  Let's see if I can improve it.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Work on my brother's Bookworm Gardens Memorial quilt continues.  Even though I'll post one long process blog when the whole piece is's a peak.

Perhaps you'll feel kinship with the ever present 'decision' dilemma.  What's right?  What's wrong?  Am I forcing the design just so I can move the construction process along?  We've all been there.

Today I had planned to sandwich the quilt, but even as I said goodnight to it on my design wall last night....I had an inkling that the balance was off.

Here's what I saw.......Yes, it looks unfinished.....but I thought that when I bead the rays of the sun, it'd all pull together. This morning I knew better!

 So with rotary cutter in hand.....skinny rays of the sun were cut and arranged.  At first I thought....yeah....this is the right answer.  But as I gazed at it, clearly the sun was over-powering the entire quilt.

Okay....I can fix that.....what if I cut the long strips into shorter lengths....leaving spaces between them?  To see what that would look like...I cut pieces of white fabric and positioned them along some of the strips.  Again, I tried to talk myself into calling it....THE END.....but still wasn't right!

Here's what I settled on.  Since these pieces will be fused, obviously it would have been MUCH easier had these rays been added prior to stabilizing the top with the batting.  Now I'll remove the basting stitches behind this area...fuse the additional motifs and THEN hopefully find the entire composition pleasing enough to add the backing.

Sure I wish I could move onto the quilting....but getting it right is the first goal....  Always remind yourself....quilt making doesn't have to be a sprint.....there's nothing wrong with treating as a marathon!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Today was our June PTA meeting. Member, Georgia Bonesteel, arranged for us to tour Oriole Mill in Hendersonville, NC.  The opportunity to see a working weaving mill in operation is very special. Be sure to follow the lint above to learn more.

The following 3 photos are examples of some of their designs....we all loved the colorful pieces. The mill is expert at Jacquard this video....the speed of these machines will blow your mind.

 This 73,000 sq/ft. facility is on 4 acres, run by a very small yet high energy staff who are dedicated to keeping the tradition of this area alive.  If I'm remembering correctly, this is only 1 of 4 mills remaining in this state.

 Because I'm not a weaver, it took me awhile to comprehend the process, even though we had a guide who shared tons of information.

This gigantic machine was dedicated to making the warp....which is the set of lengthwise threads/yarns that are held in tension on a frame/loom...or in this case the huge industrial machines.

 That process begins with super sized spools of real true fine Egyptian cotton thread.....
 The threads come off hundreds of spools  and are threaded through various tension disks that ultimately merge down to one end.
 In this case each 'set' of warp was over 400 threads.
Many, many 'sets' are then loaded onto these huge spools on the machine. It can take a week to set up a machine with the thousands of warp threads!
Here several members are being tutored on how the weft threads are woven. (the horizontal thread that is sandwiched between the warp)
To conclude our day, owner/textile designer, Bethanne Knudson brought Georgia Bonesteel (left) an original Bonesteel Hardware store wood ruler.  The store is where Georgia had her quilting corner and where Lap Quilting began.

Bethanne's 80 year old mother's birthday was approaching and she hoped Georgia would autograph the ruler so she could present it to her Mom who is a big fan of Georgia's.

What a small world......Georgia was flattered, Bethanne was thrilled, and all PTA members were happy that we can call Georgia a friend!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Mountain Piecemakers in Burnsville, NC welcomed me so warmly yesterday.....these quilters live in quilt heaven.

This scenic mountain area features the largest collection of quilt blocks in the country.  They are displayed on everything from banks, to barns.

No wonder their members are so inspired!  If you ever get to the Asheville sure to drive about 45 minutes north/east and take a tour.  Follow this link to see the variety of blocks already displayed.....

You may also enjoy learning more about this unique and rapidly copied idea of paying homage to our quilt history.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Since I'm heading to visit the Mountain Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Burnsville, NC...I thought I'd leave you with something to ponder.  After all.....I hear from so many of you on a regular basis.....with blog comments or personal emails, this seems to fit.

My girlfriend and supreme quilter Linda Cantrell gave me permission to share something from her Facebook.

Friendship ~ None of that Sissy StuffAre you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good,
but never actually come close to reality?
Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship.
You will see no cute little smiley faces on this ~Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.
  • When you are sad ~ I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
  • When you are blue ~ I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
  • When you smile ~ I will know you are thinking of something that I would probably want to be involved in.
  • When you are scared ~ I will rag on you about it every chance I get until you're NOT.
  • When you are worried~ I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.
  • When you are confused ~ I will try to use only little words.
  • When you are sick ~Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.
  • When you fall ~ I will laugh at your clumsy ass, but I'll help you up.
This is my oath ..... I pledge it to the end. 'Why?' you may ask ~ because you are my friend.
Friendship is like peeing in your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

One major project has been consuming my time.  It's a quilt that will be donated to Bookworm Gardens as a memorial to my brother.

The piece is coming along slowly and I'm enjoying every minute.  Normally there is so much indecision when I'm designing a new piece, interestingly not this time.  Must be a reason!

I'll be sharing the entire process in a blog when it's complete but today I thought you might like to learn a trick I use during this process.  After arranging and rearranging placement of motifs.....I use my digital camera to document them.

In this case, there were several flower stems that were going to be placed behind the 'grass'.  That portion of the quilt has only been basted in position (to allow access behind it before adding machine decorative stitches.)  So, after playing with placement, I took a photo & then machine stitched the background rick rack stems.  The others were then removed....the green grass area was machine stitched. Then with the aid of my photo....I was able to reposition each of the stems where I had determined they should be!

What did we ever do without digital cameras?!?!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

........the finishing details for this AAQI 2012 donation Priority Quilt.  For those of you attending Quilt Festival.....I hope you will visit the AAQI booth and perhaps take home one of the hundreds of quilts that will be for sale. I'm donating 3 pieces, made especially for this event. Help us in our fight to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease!

 A simple facing seemed the best method to finish the edges of this small piece.  Naturally, beading would complete it!

One way to audition bead color choices for your work is to simply pin a few beads in place....step back and take a good look.  Originally, the plan was to use light purple seed beads.....but I didn't feel they 'framed' the quilt well enough.  So instead, matte black seeds where my choice.

9" X 12"
Hand painted cotton, hand dyed gauze, hand embroidered & bead embellished.

Incidentally, I learned the 'pinkish' stones I mentioned using for the two horizontal lines are actually rose quartz.  But I still have no memory of where I got them!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

AH.....back to beading....

Are you like me??  A bit crabby when you can't squeeze in a little sewing time each day??

Two lines of light pinkish beads.....not sure where I got them....have now been added to this AAQI donation quilt. They are more like uneven stones with holes in them so they sit in an interesting manner.

The small black wood beads came from a piece of costume jewelry I took apart.  I might be calling this finished.....will think about it today before deciding upon the edging treatment.....

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

This is pretty lame...hardly worth showing....however we've had a lot of drama going on in our household which has prevented me from progressing on much of anything.

Things should be settling down so hopefully there will be more to share soon....
In the meantime.....I'm slowing plugging along on my 3rd. AAQI donation piece for their sale in the fall.

I talked about this little piece here and here.....

 I'm not sure how much more stitching there will be.....cause you gotta know....I'm itchin' to get at the beading stage....
.....although I do enjoy some mindless hand embroidery as well.....really....this isn't a race!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Each year, at the end of May, we all look forward to the Shady Ladies Quilt Show held at Lake Logan in Canton, NC.

  The Shady Ladies are a group of local, national and international women who gather every Tuesday at the Shady Grove Methodist Church to quilt.

It's such fun to examine their self-portrait quilt that is displayed.  Each block is basically an individual bound quilt....the units are held together with safety pins!  What a clever way to be able to update the member's pieces!

 The highlight of the show is their annual challenge.  This year the theme was based on our quilting heritage.  The makers were required to include one of three historical quilt patterns..... (a.) Ohio Star  (b.) Log Cabin  (c.) Wedding Ring.  A few of those challenge quilts are posted here (as well as other pieces from the show).....most are available for purchase.  I'd be pleased to put you in touch with any of these quilt makers if you are interested....just email me using the link in the upper right side bar.

This piece made by Sally Pollock is entitled "Ohio Star" 27" x 26".  I love the simplicity of the design and how effectively she incorporated her block requirement into the patchwork sky.
 I personally always look forward to seeing Chris Regina's contribution for each challenge.  As always, it's striking!  "Cabin With a Twist" 32"x36" was made using hand dyed fabrics, machine quilted, and highlighted with Big Stitch hand quilting.

 "Serendipity" 27" x 29" was created by Jane Cole, a founder of the Shady Ladies.  It's machine pieced, quilted, fused, painted & hand stitched.  Jane's designs are always masterful, as are her construction skills.
 "Triplets" 25" x 17" is another Jane Cole original.  Made using cottons, synthetics, machine quilted, hand stitching, & applique.

 I didn't see anyone who didn't stop and make positive comments about this charming piece.  "If Andy Had Known Our Baxter" 17" x 24" (NFS) by Barbara Wilkins.
According to the signage, the image was photo transferred and thread painted.
 There was so much to study on this piece.  The use of large scale fabric was very effective as is her color placement.  See below for more details.
The signage is included in this post to source the design.  The photo also provides a view of the free hand thread sketching that framed the pieced area so beautifully.

The show concludes if you are in the area......consider taking a quick run up to Lake Logan to see it....if not...mark your calendar and watch for it next year!

Friday, June 1, 2012

In early April I became a student for a two day workshop with Chad Hagen....loved every minute of her resist dye wool felt workshop.

Happily I came away with a nice stack of dyed felt which are all (for me)  challenging designs to work with.  This is my first...

 As you all probably do too.......I begin by pulling materials that might work into the piece....
Some materials made the cut, others didn't.  And the 'others' may have been auditioned, stitched and then removed. That's the way these things go!

This type of background stretches my design skills and I usually don't know where I'm going till I try.....and try again...

Even though it was developing slowly......there was no spark.  So, I experimented trying out several color choices (using both beads and threads).  In the end, black seemed to work best.

I kept wanting to embellish the blue areas with beads, but all that did was mask the interesting aspect of the dyed sections.  Ultimately, I added random hand stitching, using two stands of a heavy rayon thread.

As the project developed.....this was the 'working' orientation.

But now that it's finished....I'm thinking this is better?  What do you think??
Due to the size, I'm planning on mounting it for it's smart to know which way I want it to hang before I begin!

**UPDATE....well, I went ahead and decided to use this vertical view.


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Indecent proposal

Indecent proposal

My first husband was no good for me. My second did no good for me. My third husband wasn’t much better and by the time I came to my fourth, I began to believe that what my mama had always said was right, men were just no good.
Maybe it was partly my fault for giving away that special part of me, that I should have kept for at least a little while longer when I was just sixteen years old. That foolish and freely given gift, was presented to my first husband Gerome four months before we were married. He was a handsome man, but beneath his initial charm lay a black heart. He was far too old for me.  I was just a foolish child but my daddy made sure he did the right thing, which of course was the wrong thing and he married me before the rest of the family’s reputation was dragged through the mud. I didn’t even shed a tear when he died eighteen months after we were wed. He fell from his horse and was so inebriated that he probably never even felt a thing.

While I say I had four husbands, in truth Gerome was the only man I was actually bound to in wedlock. The others that I refer to as ‘husbands’ served the purpose for the outside world only. There were many others that did not stay long enough to be considered as such.  I was always moving, whether it was from place to place or man to man, either way it was a shameful enough existence for a woman of my time. My only saving grace was that I could reinvent myself with a new husband in a new town, free from the truth of my past, gifted with a clean slate, at least for a while. The truth has a way to find the surface, no matter how deep you like to drown it. It was a near impossible task, moving all the time, hoping to stay one step ahead of my past, trying desperately not to put the other foot into the wrong future.

Gabriel my number two, took on the role of husband with gusto, but he used me more than I used him. Like I said he did no good for me. My desire was to be protected, to be taken care of, to have my needs catered for and to be managed, for I did need managing back then even though I didn’t quite know it. Sadly, Gabriel preferred the company of young men. I provided him with an alibi and he gave me financial security and a hint of respectability. But a girl has needs and it wasn’t long before those needs were looking to be satisfied elsewhere.

I fell pregnant for the second time in my young life at the age of twenty. My first pregnancy, the one that tied me to my vile, self-loathing first husband never made it to full term. Folks offered me sympathy but I was glad. Had they known the reality of my true feelings I would have been considered a monster, so I kept those feelings to myself. Gerome was not so pleased. It wasn’t that he felt sorry for the loss of his unborn child because he was unfeeling. The problem was that he had only married me in the first place because I was pregnant, so he felt cheated. He took to drinking and hating the two of us more than was healthy. Gerome despised me for trapping him into a loveless marriage and himself for being a fool. It was the drink that finally helped him from his horse and set me free of his loathing. It took a while after I was rid of his baby, but eventually I was rid of him too and I was twice glad. My second pregnancy did not end so well.

While Gabriel played with his young men, I found distraction with a coloured labourer, a liaison of such impropriety it only served to peak my interest. By the time I got bored of him it was too late. I was pregnant.  I didn’t realise until I was six months gone and though I half-heartedly tried some home remedies to end my potential shame, I think in hindsight I had a desire to get back at poor old Gabriel for loving his boys more than he loved me. He knew the child couldn’t be his, but feigned delight to the outside world, until that poor little child was born with a black face that told the world exactly who and what I was. I moved on to number three and that he accepted me with so little objection with my coloured, bastard child in tow, should have been a signal to tell me he was not the man for me….

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Solving the immunity puzzle takes collaboration among different fields

March 20, 2017
Oral therapeutics developed as a result of modeling the immune system may help sufferers of infections like those caused by E. coli (pictured here in purple). Credit: Virginia Tech

Studying the human immune system is like trying to work a vast, multidimensional jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are constantly changing shape. Billions of microbes interact with the host, shaping the processes that keep us healthy and protected from disease.

Sometimes, however, these interactions do not occur as one would hope, sending the immune system out of synch, causing that can lead to conditions like inflammatory bowel bisease (IBD), diabetes, arthritis, or even cancer.

Millions of Americans suffer from such diseases and incidences are on the rise. Until recently it has been difficult to understand what occurs during these interactions and how they might trigger chronic inflammation.

More importantly, efforts to stop inflammation have produced drugs and treatments that have modest efficacy and side effects nearly as difficult to deal with as the disease itself.

Scientists need to understand how inflammation occurs at the systems level and what might best recalibrate an immune system that has been pushed wildly off course into chronic inflammation. A recent paper in Trends in Immunology explores how the field of immunology can apply modeling approaches to solve the puzzle of immunity.

"By combining computational modeling and immunology experimentation," said Josep Bassaganya-Riera, director of the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory (NIMML) and professor at the Biocomplexity Institute, "we can ensure that we continue to make strides toward that help streamline the process of and move safer, more-effective therapies to patients more quickly."

In the past, different scientific fields have attempted to arrive at answers in a multitude of ways, often with much disagreement. At the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, NIMML is taking an integrative approach that transcends existing disciplines—and it's seeing some exciting results.

For instance, current models used by NIMML build on groundbreaking work to uncover new pathways leading to first-in-class therapeutics for IBD.

NIMML has integrated this approach with other forms of modeling and experimentation, allowing them to simulate inflammatory processes at an unprecedented scale. By applying this approach, researchers were able to model clinical responses to new IBD treatments with a high degree of accuracy for simulated patients using machine-learning algorithms.

"Applying modeling approaches to immunology can provide rigorously tested and efficient therapies very quickly with cost-effective use of resources," said Raquel Hontecillas, co-director of NIMML.

In a recent National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease workshop, Bassaganya-Riera presented about how solving immunity is a complex process requiring transdisciplinary solutions.

Bassaganya-Riera spoke about the advances precision medicine offers us during Virginia Tech's TEDx event. In his discussion, he explained how modeling and simulation of immunological systems offers clinicians and patients a more rapid pipeline between clinical trials and effective treatments and therapies.

This process also offers a chance for researchers to engage in "the art of the possible," using modeling to demonstrate the promise of new therapies even before they are tested in a living system. Building on these early successes, it is clear that collaboration between modelers and experimentalists will be key to ushering in an era of precision medicine.

Explore further: Novel therapy for Crohn's disease discovered

More information: Yoram Vodovotz et al. Solving Immunology?, Trends in Immunology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/

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Early History

Unearthing our roots

The medical school’s first home was a university building on Halifax's Grand Parade. One of the first anatomy teachers was Dr. Edward Farrell (from 1868-1870), assisted by Dr. Thomas Almon, who lectured and prosected cadavers for teaching purposes. Dr. Farrell was succeeded by Dr. Hugh A. Gordon (1871-1872), followed by Dr. George L. Sinclair (1873-1889), Dr. A.W.H. Lindsay (1889-1916) and Dr. John (Jock) Cameron (1916-1931).

Dr. G.L. Sinclair

Dr. A.W.H Lindsay

Dr. J. Cameron

Halifax Medical College - 1874

During this same time, the medical school was established as the Halifax Medical College, the name it kept until 1911. It also found a new home on College Street, across the road from where the Sir Charles Tupper Building now stands.

The start of a legacy

Dr. D. Mainland

In 1914, Dr. D.A. Campbell, who was an assistant to Dr. Sinclair, established a foundation, in memory of his son, to fund the Dr. D.G.J. Campbell Chair of Anatomy. Since then, the chair has been occupied by the head of the department.

In 1931, Dr. Donald Mainland (1931-1949) became the next professor of anatomy. His textbook of anatomy (Anatomy as a Basis for Medical and Dental Practice, 1945, Harper & Brothers, London) was well-known and used by Dalhousie medical and dental students of Dalhousie for years.


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Tangram for Apple TV
Tim Johnsen

Tim, thanks for sharing (and for developing Tangram). The lack of apps on Apple TV that take advantage of an individual’s social streams is of interest to me. Curious if Instagram deprecating the /users/self/feed and /media/popular API endpoints is crippling for Tangram or if you plan on a workaround (if it is even possible).

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Do something, be someone

If you want awesomeness, do something awesome.

If you want to be loved, love.

If you hate boredom, act.

If you want change, change.

Stop whining. Start living.

You’re privileged.

If you still happen to think life is tough — get tougher.

And if you can’t find a way — make one.


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Now your users can consume your content, build trust at their own pace, NOT some arbitrary timed drip.  And it works better than you could imagine.

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Think about this for a minute.  Imagine being able to automatically send an email 20 minutes after someone checks out your paid offer.  Imagine being able to send a TARGETED email to everyone who “signed up for freebie X, and completed module Y”.  With MemberVault, you can do exactly that!

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I put my Content that Converts replays inside of MemberVault, and it was great seeing what people were doing. I wouldn’t get all of that from looking at clicks inside of Mailchimp. This platform makes it easy!

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Make it easy to binge and buy

Give tasty samples of your available content (paid or free) using our teaser content, which encourages more engagement and purchases.

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Use automated rewards when someone finishes your content (i.e. free challenges, paid courses, etc) to encourage higher completion rates in your content.

Make it a game

We support a wide variety of gamification techniques, but one of the easiest is our automated leaderboard with scoring based on your user’s engagement points.

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Trigger automated emails based on actions your users take inside the content, like viewing teaser content and completing content.

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Play around with MemberVault using our free account (limited to 2 pieces of content, easy upgrade to unlimited for $69.99/mth or $699/annual) — it’s easy to set up your content, and really get it working for you using our automated tracking and tagging!

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People are becoming more savvy (and jaded), so it’s time to step up your content game using engagement techniques like gamification. Sound hard? Not to worry. We make it easy using MemberVault. And we’re only a click away with online chat, email support and a kickass online community to cheer you on inside our Collaborative group.

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Try us out by grabbing a free account (limited to 2 pieces of content) — and it’s an easy upgrade to unlimited content. Our pricing is simple. $69.99/month, unlimited everything or get two months free with our annual pricing option.


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Bound for Scotland

I booked a bus bound for Scotland and was looking forward to meeting up with Ross and Gill, a couple I met while touring Australia ages ago. They had invited me to stay with them and I was excited to reconnect and see how they were doing. Unfortunately, the journey from London to Glasgow took a wee bit longer than expected.

I woke early in the morning and checked out of the hostel in no time. Hopping on the Tube, I made my way to Victoria Coach Station for my bus to Scotland. I arrived with plenty of time as I’d already sussed out how to get there and which gate I needed to wait in front.

Dumping my backpack in the luggage compartment under the bus, I took my daypack of goodies and found a seat. The first part of the journey was rather uneventful and I managed to get in a fair amount of reading. However, things got a big wonky when the bus driver pulled into a petrol station for an unexpected stop. She rang her company to report a malfunction in the bus.

They told her to wait for a mechanic to arrive after at least 30 minutes of back and forth on the phone for her. When it appeared a mechanic wouldn’t be able to come for several hours, they told her to continue driving and a new bus would meet her at a different petrol station so the passengers could be transferred and continue on their way. Everyone was happy to hear this and welcomed being on the move again. But, 15 minutes later she got a call and pulled over into the nearest petrol station. They were dispatching new bus and we were to wait for it to arrive.

The driver advised us it’d probably be 90 minutes before the bus arrived so we should go inside and stay warm. It was a good thing this road house was well equipped with restaurants and a small grocery store. All of the passengers hurried inside out of the cold to await rescue from a new bus.

After waiting close to two hours, a new bus was nowhere to be seen. But, the mechanic finally arrived and it turned out that we had a flat in one of the tires. He spent the next half hour changing the tire for us as we looked on, and at last we were finally on the way. Who would’ve thought I’d experience my first massive bus breakdown in England? Isn’t this supposed to be a story from southeast Asian buses?

Upon arrival in Edinburgh, they informed us that we’d missed the connecting bus to Glasgow due to our (very) late arrival. We’d have to wait for a couple of hours until the next one showed up. I phoned Gill and told her the situation as she intended to pick me up after work in Glasgow. She recommended that I just take the train from Edinburgh to Falkirk and she’d collect me from there, so I disembarked, got my things and made my way to the train station.

Everything managed to go well from there on out. I found my way from the bus depot to the rail station despite the extensive maze created by a renovation project in progress. I bought my ticket and hopped on the right train and was finally able to relax a bit.

Listening to the chatter around me, I was in awe of the fact that I couldn’t understand a single thing anyone was saying! The Scottish brogue was thick here! I know it’d been a while since I saw and spoke to Ross and Gill, but I definitely didn’t remember accents like this. As the train chugged along, I smiled to myself at the “foreign-ness” of finally being in Scotland.

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A Wonderful Life

On my final day, I want to be able to say, “I have lived a wonderful life.” While reading a post recently, this statement stuck out to me. However, I didn’t think of my own life when I read it. Instead, I instantly thought of the lives of others.

My mother was my first thought. Ever since I was a child, all I have ever wanted was for her to be happy. While growing up, I witnessed her life and the many struggles she had to endure. There were times when I’m certain that she wanted to give up, but she never did. She always held on. At the end of every storm she was there, still standing. She’s an amazing woman.

My mother and I are the best of friends. Don’t misunderstand, she is my mom and I respect her. Plus, she’d probably still whoop me even now at 33 years old. But, we’re friends. We always have been. To see a smile on her face means the world to me. To see her hurting, tears me to pieces.

Because of that, I’ve always endeavored to be there when she needs me. To be silly when she needs to laugh and to listen when she needs to talk. Over the years, I had convinced myself that somehow I could always make her happy and take away anything that would cause her pain. Even though I’m her child, I felt as though I was also her protector. Not that she needed me to be, but that’s just how I felt.

However with the passing of my step-father, I learned that I can’t control everything. There are certain hurts that, no matter what I do, I can’t take them away. It’s impossible. That to me was a hard lesson to learn. I despised the fact that I couldn’t take my mother’s pain away from her. It crushed me and I was angry. So angry. There was nothing I could do. I was helpless.

It’s been almost a year and it’s been a slow one. All the months intertwined into a spring that never ended. Now suddenly, it’s the new year and we’re living it. For the first time in months, we’re alive. We’re breathing.

There will still be hard times and the mourning will never fully end, but today is finally here. Even though it may not be every day, my mother smiles now.  She even laughs. No longer is she just walking. She’s living.

I don’t know what’s in store for her or where the journey will lead. All I know for certain, is that on her final day I want to hear her say, “I have lived a wonderful life.”

That’s all I want from everyone I love. Regardless of what happens along the way or where the road leads, as long as they can say that at the end, that’s all that truly matters. To see your loved ones happy is the greatest gift of all.

This entry was posted in My Life and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

13 Responses to A Wonderful Life

  1. April says:

    This is a beautiful post.

  2. davecenker says:

    Life is certainly meant to be lived. And too often, I have found myself passively coasting through the minutes, hours, and days on autopilot. When we take the wheel in our hands and set the course we want, we are able to create our wonderful life. This is a beautiful story, about love, about relationships, and about living life. Thank you for sharing, your message is well received and very much appreciated 😉

    • mewhoami says:

      Create a wonderful life – that’s a good point. Create. Our life is what we make it, but in order to make it anything, we must live it. It’s easy to coast along, but life goes by much too quickly to coast our way through it. I was coasting for months and have nothing to show for it. It’s a tough realization to swallow, but a great lesson to learn from. Thank you so much for your kind comment.

  3. What a beautiful hope to have for your mom, and all those you love. Endearing and beautiful post.

  4. DailyMusings says:

    It is a hard thing to get used to living without the people we love in our lives. I feel for you and your mother. It is good to hear though that she is beginning to “live” again, and continue on. Reading your post I thought of my Uncle who was diagnosed with cancer years back, he was 78, and refused treatment as he knew it was not a cure, it would maybe give him a few months extra in a debilitated state. He told me “I have lived a wonderful life, I have no regrets.” His words always stayed with me as I thought what a wonderful way to leave this world.

    • mewhoami says:

      It is a difficult thing to do, but I’ve found that it does get easier day by day. Those are such beautiful words that your Uncle said. Refusing treatment is understandable in situations such as those, in my opinion. He had lived a wonderful life, why spoil it at the end by enduring the treatment? I don’t think I would either.

      • DailyMusings says:

        That was exactly how he felt.- he did not want to spoil what had been a great journey, a fulfilling life. He wanted to leave on his own terms too- that had always been his way in life.

  5. tric says:

    To love and be loved and to laugh loads, that is what I wish for in life. Every day is precious. Great post. Learning to live without someone is so painful. A friend of mine said, “you don’t lose the relationship you had with them, it just changes”. I think this is very true.

    • mewhoami says:

      That is a wonderful wish. I like the statement from your friend. “It just changes.” That’s true. Love is never lost and people who pass on are never truly gone. They are carried with us forever.

  6. Cindi says:

    This really is a wonderful and uplifting post!

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