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 |   Here you will find my daily journal of small stones and inspiration! |
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I hope you will take the time to enjoy my blog! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Yesterday's prompt lied. Money isn't evil - politics are evil! Tell us how do you escape the political situations and what you think about political correctness, politicians, government, office/school/church/neighborhood politics and how you can escape them - if you do. I hate politics! But, in July, I decided I was going to explore local politics and try to become more involved, possibly to the point of running for Town Board office! see "Invalid Item"  by A Guest Visitor Then Donald Trump began his pompous run for office! What an arrogant ass! His ascent to power has left me reeling and I have no desire to enter the hell pit known as the American Political Machine.His 'constituents' are a bunch of red-neck bigots who have no right to speak about immigration policy in the US! How many of them are 'native' to this country? I know that my grandparents arrived here in the late 1800's at Ellis Island on a boat from Germany and whether it is was 'legal' or 'illegal' immigration has little impact in my opinion because it was not the Native Americans who determined the legality of the immigration it was the Europeans who arrived after Christopher Columbus "discovered" an already inhabited land! I believe that the only reason Trump has so much of the support of the Democrats is because right now there are too many Pigs in the Pen. Once the front runners have been chosen and the candidates have been whittled sown the more intelligent less ignorant voters will stand behind a more intelligent choice! (again, my blog my opinion!) Don't get me wrong, I don't like the fact that there are so many illegal immigrants in the US but I think Trump is arrogant in his tactics for eliminating them! I have decided though to join the American Legion Auxiliary. From what I have read they are a great political force in Washington and I believe I can do more good supporting Veteran's issues by beginning there than by trying to join political friends in town. *Panda descends from soapbox, but doesn't back away* |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Day Three: It's the root of all evil, so they say. Tell us what you think about money. For years, people survived by bartering. Every country has its own currency, and people make more money out of exchanging it when you buy there. Let's not forget those people who manipulate trade stocks. Or is it bankers? But the big question may be, Do you have enough or need it at all? What's your escape plan - the lottery, marriage, bitcoin ? Money is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. I don't see how anyone can escape it, except for landing on a deserted island or going to some remote area of a third world country. I wish I could live without it but I can't and enjoy any sort of comforts in life. I certainly did not use marriage to escape money concerns - and this is by no means a complaint about Papa Panda, I love him with all my heart! He became disabled about five years into our marriage and that is a huge issue if you don't realize it! The government doesn't give any money until you PROVE the disability and even then the medical portion isn't covered until you have been on disability for two years. Landlords don't care WHY you can't make the rent payments, they just want their money, same with the utility company, banks and everyone else! It is difficult to qualify for food stamps if one person is working. I make what is considered POVERTY level but it is still too much for food stamps! It sounds cliche, but if we had kids and I didn't work we could have collected money that we don't qualify for now! NOT EVERYONE WHO NEEDS ASSISTANCE IS LAZY! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Day Two: OK. Time to get serious. Tell us your opinion and how you escape age's affect on you - physical, mental, perception. By the latter I mean how others expect you to act because of your age. Can the fun-loving kid in you still get out or can you control your inner child. Or talk about staying healthy in hopes of living longer, better - Blue Zone I have seen too many people act their age and die as old withered men and women. I have seen young vibrant people stricken with disease die fighting. You need to live your life as you can. Stay young as long as you can, chase butterflies and climb trees, because one day you will look back and not be able to. Play in the leaves with the younger generation, they will remember it for years to come. Don't hang out with the old folks, hang with the generation younger, it will keep you young and the younger folks won;t mind you hanging with them as long as you are 'cool'. My mother-in-law is 71 and can barely walk and gets winded at the sight of exercise. She sits in the house and moans about the weather, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. She rarely goes outside and stays in her temperature controlled house. Why should she care if it is hot or cold outside? She just complains and makes it tough for the rest of us. I TRY to ignore her! My cousin's husband is 72, he raises turkeys and drives the seniors around in a bus. He LIVES life and enjoys every minute of it! I enjoy hanging with him because his happiness is contagious! My brother is in his sixties, he is a fireman who just so happens to have Multiple Myeloma cancer. This past year he received his second stem cell transplant. I went to visit him shortly after he came home from the hospital. We sat on his front porch and he heard the fire whistle blow, grabbed the scanned and listened to the call. It took a while for the department to respond and I could tell he was itching to go to the call. He couldn't then, he can now! HE LIVES life! Can you see the difference? I can! I want to live each day like it is my last. Smelling the flowers, playing in the leaves, taking the time to enjoy! Don't you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9TShlMkQnc&list=RD_9TShlMkQnc |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Day One: Let's start with something easy to get you in the mood of escaping. Tell us how you escape distractions to be able to write? Explain the most annoying ones and the schemes you use. If this is too easy, maybe you can relate it creatively like this "poem"My Writing Place Wordsmitty ✍️   Oh, let me find my happy place, where I can try to keep my pace. Where there is no loud distraction and no type of any action. My husband doesn't comprehend that what I need to reach the end is quiet silence through the house not even a squeak from a mouse. Please turn the music way down low, or in another room I'll go. I need quiet! I need it still! and now I need ink for my quill. Papa Panda is my worst distraction. I will be pounding away at a story line and he will start yip-yapping about something. Usually, it just causes a delay in my writing but there have been times that I have lost total train of thought on a story! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Write about a two different smells...one that triggers an unpleasant memory, and one that triggers a happier moment. Nope, I am not following the prompt today! I am going to write about two smells; one that is unpleasant that triggers a pleasant memory and a pleasant smell that triggers a happy moment. What are you going to do Brother Nature  and Fivesixer  , fire me? Ha!The first smell is rotten, icky seaweed. The kind that has been on the shore for a while in the sun. You know the kind, when it is really ripe! This reminds me of "stinky poo bay". It was the bay right before the turn off to the road the cottage was on. I know you all have heard about the cottage before but I really loved that place. I wish I could go back to it but even if I did it would be totally different! The second smell is odd, almost indescribable. It reminds me of my Aunt Marge's house in the country. I used to love to visit with my cousins there. The smell though...the smell wafted from the back room at her house. The room where the summer things were stored, where onions and other bulbs hung in old pantyhose. Old tools hung on the walls. But the smell... it was a cross between basement, attic and old. I can smell it as I write this but in all the world I can not describe it. |
| 30D Blogging Challenge According to the now scientifically unproven "taste belt" or "tongue map", things we taste are generally bitter, sour, salty, or sweet. Of these four, how would you say people most identify you? I would most definitely be salty. Salt preserves food to last on long trips and adds great flavor to foods. It brings out the sweetness of some foods like salted caramel anything! A meal just wouldn't be the same if you didn't add a bit of salt to it. You can't make homemade ice cream with our salt mixed with the ice! So, that's the way I see it. I am the flavor enhancer, I might not be sweet but I make sweet, well, sweeter! But.... Too much just might kill you...    |
| 30D Blogging Challenge How do you contrast a physical touch versus an emotional touch? Do you feel that one is any more of the five senses than the other? Physical slaps hurt but an emotional slap from someone you love hurts deeper, worse. A hug is pleasant but an emotional hug from someone you love comforts beyond words. Emotional touches are not felt the same way as physical ones but they are felt deeper and the effects last much longer.  |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Describe three sounds that are important to you, and one sound that drives you absolutely nuts. Or, answer this the other way around, if that suits you. Three sounds that I love or at least associate things that I love to are; The high pitched whine of a fire truck. I don't like the emergencies they are headed to. I don't like the thought that someone might be hurt. My brother is a fireman and he is my hero so every time I hear a fire siren I think of him!  The sound of crashing waves. Not the little ripple ones but the huge ones that come during a storm. I love to watch them but even more I love to be inside a cottage on a windy night and fall asleep to them crashing on the sand or rocks. Toby's bark. He welcomes me home with it and keeps strangers away. It is both welcoming and protecting depending on what he is barking at. A sound I hate is... People smacking their lips while eating or chewing gum! This has to be the MOST ANNOYING NOISE EVER! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Monday: Sight. Prompt: Children are often scolded "You see with your eyes, not with your hands!" Why do you think it's important that we see with more than just our eyes? I think it is most important to see with your heart. That is when you sense you have hurt someone's feelings or pleased them. You need to see with your heart. See with your heart the person you hurt, the person you love. See with your heart the dream you lost, the progress you make. See with your heart the promise you break, the promise you keep. See with your heart See with your heart See, with your heart. |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Wood - It's everything from food to fuel. It's biggest enemy is plastic. Where would you rather live, in a world without wood, or a world without plastic? I would rather live in a world without plastic than a world without wood. What would a world without wood lack? Oh, my! The list is endless. There would be so many unhappy beavers! Several pharmaceutical companies would have nothing to produce without wood! I think the world's population would drop dramatically with no wood! Yup, I had to! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Water is the most precious of all the elements. We can't live without water. Write a rant or a rave related to water grey-blue undulations crash under the fiery sky I watch in admiration from a cliff up high I marvel at the peace and the serenity of something so powerful to take out a city whether waves upon the ocean or a quaint farmer's pond I feel as one with nature the most powerful bond grey-blue undulations upon the beaten shore I find a relaxation in knowing less is more |
| 30D Blogging Challenge The third element on the list is metal. Robots are made of metal. Let's talk about robots. What, if anything, do robots do for you, to make your life a little bit easier? Are there any tasks you would prefer a robot perform for you? Personally, robots don't do anything for me, but I am sure that behind the scenes they do plenty to make my life easier. How many of you remember the Jetsons? I want Rosie. She was the housekeeper robot who did the cooking, cleaning, and general house stuff. I wouldn't want her to cook because I enjoy doing that but if she could so the cleaning and taking the garbage out and scrubbing the toilet, I would be ecstatic. But, alas there is no Rosie so I am off to do the dishes and the laundry! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Day Two Prompt. The second element on the list is earth, let's do this in order then. I've often wondered if we are the only ones, if our planet earth is the only planet which supports intelligent life. Then, it was confirmed in the 'tag line' from the TV series, X Files... We are not alone! Convince me that this is true by describing meeting the people from one of these other planets, while you visited there. A MB from the host for the most convincing blog entry.   My shuttle landed on the blue planet in summer. We had been orbiting the planet, cloaked, for months, all the while we were silently observing the inhabitants. The information we obtained during the observations would prove crucial to where and how we would approach these peoples. Being aliens to their planet meant we needed to be cautious on arrival and have an escape plan if things were not going our way. As the senior alien adviser on board I was given the daunting task of landing on the planet and making first contact. I landed the craft in an open meadow, far from the large buildings, clustered together like cities. There were a few dwellings in the area so I assumed I would encounter life quickly. I hoped to present a peaceful persona as I noticed some of the inhabitants approaching me. They were strange figures. Pink toned skin on their faces, with appendages coming from the sides of their heads. These appendages were almost flat against the side of their heads and took up about a third of the area. Two round slits were in the middle of their faces with colorful orbs in them. Between them and reaching down the faces was a bridge of some sort with holes at the bottom. The worst feature on their faces were large gaping holes that opened and shut. When open, large white things were exposed and there was a large snake like appendage inside. Noises seemed to come from the large gaping holes. Loud, horrible noises. They grab at me and detain me. I am writing this from a cell that they put me in. This planet does not seem to know about life on other planets and it has put me at great risk. I don't understand their ignorance, they have satellites and all kinds of equipment to detect life but they don't really seem to be looking that hard for it. They apprehended me almost immediately but I have heard I will be meeting with two of their leaders; The Fbi and The Cia. I certainly hope these leaders have more tolerance for life from other planets. |
| 30 D Blogging Challenge Day One Prompt. We may as well start from the beginning. Today the theme for your blog entry will be 'Fire' the first element listed. Find a creative way to talk about fire in your blog entry. Here's a little twist - Write how the element of fire relates to the five senses. I wonder how the first primitive peoples discovered fire. Did they accidentally rub two sticks together and get a flame? I don't think so. My guess is lightning struck and caught some brush on fire. While it consumed the forest, one caveman grew closer feeling the heat from the orange-red flames. He was mesmerized by the dancing embers until a few landed near him and on him. The pain of the searing ember caused him to yell at the top of his lungs, drawing others of his tribe near. They could smell the smoke as it entered their lungs and smell the burnt fleas has they pulled him away from the inferno. The others also marveled at the glow and heat and listened to the crackles coming from the burning interior of the forest. After the fire extinguished itself a group from the tribe investigated and found seared meat from animals caught in the flames. One brave soul tasted the meat and found it delightful. Thus, from the desire for heat and cooking, the tribe now would attempt to control this element! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Finish this story... More than 35,000 cheering fans are standing on their feet, chanting your name. You step up to the microphone and... YOU PUKE... |
| 30D Blogging Challenge Prompt Write a short bio for yourself in today's blog. Tell us all of your likes and dislikes. Hello, My name is PandaPaws. *Hello PandaPaws* I have a problem, I like to write. *group nods in agreement* I live in Western NY, I enjoy hockey and football. My favorite teams are the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. I watch baby pandas on zoo webcams (they are my addiction) I mostly write poems and have recently started pushing the envelope by writing short stories. I blog occasionally but only if there are prompts, otherwise my blog turns into a journal and ain't nobody got time for that. I tend to be sarcastic and funny or sarcastically funny. I don't like brussel sprouts. Ummm. okay bye now |
| PROMPT Make us laugh with some classroom humor from your years in grade-school, or write a related poem or story. We had a substitute English teacher in 7th grade and she was a push-over. We got in class one day and one of my friends lost his contact. We spent the forty-five minutes of class time scouring the floor for that contact. Funny thing is when the class bell rang we all left, without the contact. Funnier thing is, my friend had 20/20 vision... |
| 30DBC Here's an optional blog prompt for October 1, 2015, to get you started. What did you do in September? Did you have any writing goals or other goals? Do you have any writing goals or other goals for October? What do you like most about the month of October? By now I am about all written out! I spent the month of October writing at least twice a day. One activity I joined, FSFS September Flash consisted of writing a piece of flash fiction each day based on the posted prompt or challenge. As many of you know, I don't write much in short stories and fantasy/scifi are not my 'go to' genres. But I made it, I only had one late submission and (so far) I have won a few of the daily prizes! I improved my writing and even ventured into the world of fantasy and scifi! If you want to check out any of my stories see "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor . Of course, I also participated in the 30 Day Blogging Challenge, Official month. I managed to get an entry in for every day, too! I didn't comment on other blogs as much as I wanted to, or should have. But, I participated. I plan on taking part in the Unofficial Month this month as well. As far as other writing goals for October, I will be reinstating the FSFS (Fantasy and Science Fiction Society) Poetry Workshop beginning Monday 10/5. I plan on partaking in Marci Missing Everyone Halloween Contest "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor . I will also be running my raffle "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor and my poetry contest "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor starting 10/5 (or when I get the images set up, which ever is first). Please feel free to join the fun at these two activities!On a personal note; I am down 23 pounds since the end of April (coming off slow but at least coming off) and I am using the 30 Day Ab Challenge on my phone. I am currently on Day 16, which is 70 situps, 90 crunches and a 55 second plank. I expect to get through Day 30 by the end of the month. (sometimes it takes more than one day for me to accomplish the right amount of exercises). I love October, the crisp air, the smell of the leaves and spices of the season! |
| 30D Blogging Challenge War Chest Wednesday! Last entry of the month! Sometime Wednesday afternoon Joel and I should have details ready for October. Until then, here's your prompt, from the War Chest: What is the most annoying sound you have ever heard? I totally lose it when people chew their gum like a cow and snap it. I hate listening to other people chew and smack, it is the Worst! I really hate it when I am working at the store and the customer I am talking to is doing it. I find it disgusting and distracting! They ask a question and the whole time they are chewing and smacking! I want to reach across the counter, grab them by the collar, get within two inches of their face and scream, FOR GOD'S SAKE I SHOULD NOT HEAR YOU CHEWING YOUR F*^&ING GUM!!!!!! *Panda steps off soapbox* |
| 30D Blogging Challenge I know people often joke about TMI (too much information)...but all kidding aside, can too much information ever be a bad thing? I do think there can be way too much information! Especially when it is bad or outdated information. The example I can think of is when my mom was first diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. I got out the old (and I mean OLD) medical books that were hanging around the house. I read all I could about the disease, which these books said was, of course, deadly. According to the books I read she had about six months to live and it would be a terrible six months. My brother found out what I had read and went ballistic! Old information is NOT good information. When researching anything CHECK YOUR SOURCES! |
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