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Short Stories, Poetry, NaNo, Ideas & Articles about writing. |
| Short Stories, Poetry, NaNo, Ideas & Articles about writing. https://elfindragonlisag.blog |
| With all the talk about favorite authors this week I've begun to think about who it was who inspired the will of reading in me, and of course the why and how of it. My father was always reading something. I can't remember if either my folks actually read to me, but I remember it was important to them that when we read the books we retained what we read. When we did book reports we would have to tell my folks what the book was about before writing the report. Talk about pressure! But he also introduced me to authors like Piers Anthony, Robert Aspirin, Orson Scott Card, and Jack London. I also remember we had a book mobile which came around every couple weeks so we could pick different kinds of books to read. As I grew up he encouraged me to get involved in helping with our public library. So every weekend I spent at least one day, sometimes more, gathering books from the table or returned books and filing them back on shelves. (and yes it was the dewey decimal system). Even now books are an essential part of my life. In the middle of e-books on kindles and I-Pads, I've stood firm in my passion of needing to feel the weight of a book in my hand. Due to medical issues, I may need to do my writing on a computer, but my actual reading will be done with an actual book until they make them no more. Now I do have a cell phone now (after 44 years of not having one); and I can get books on it or my HTC notepad, or even my laptop. And I don't mind reading everyone's stories here on WDC. But there's something about holding an actual book in my hands that somehow gets me more involved in the story I'm reading. Perhaps it's the memory of who originally got me involved in reading in the first place, or perhaps it's just the smell of the pages themselves. Whatever the reason is, my mind stays firm that I will continue to haunt bookstores everywhere for that elusive, wonderful story I haven't read yet. Whether it's an author I've never read before, or one I'm familiar with. I love books and I love the fact my father inspired me to read. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
For my first entry I'd like to share with everyone something I found which might remind those of us who might be younger than 30 what those of us who grew up in the 80's didn't grow up with.  Subject: GROWING UP WITHOUT A CELL PHONE Growing up without a cell phone If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious! When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning...Uphill...Barefoot... BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents! Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt! Nowhere was safe! There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig? We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it! There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD!!! Think of the horror...not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are. And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent...you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?! There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks! And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that! And our parents told us to stay outside and play...all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside...you were doing chores! And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before! Regards, The Over 30 Crowd (Send this to someone you'd like to make smile) |
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That is like A LOT of accomplishments. 
Rock the Red Cross!!!
