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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books.php/item_id/1378400-Colors-of-the-Rainbows/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/sort_by_last/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/10
Rated: 18+ · Book · Experience · #1378400
Some rainbows are bright, some gray, some in colors you've never seen.
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **



The sun is always shining and there are always rainbows. If it's cloudy, the rainbow may be covered or in shades of gray. If the rain has just passed, the rainbow may be strong, clear, and brilliant. If the sky is crystal clear, the rainbow may appear in colors unexpected.

Whatever is going on for you, there's a rainbow out there somewhere. Look for it. And if you find it, let it brighten your day. Keep it in your heart to tide you over until you see the next one.

Gonna give this Johari Window thing a shot. If you think you know me or want to see what others think about me, follow the link then follow the directions.




Life is words in motion:
Flowing from mind, to hand, to page;
Sung from heart, to voice, to ear;
Life is words in motion.

~Douglas



The Human Touch
By Spencer Michael Free


‘Tis the human touch in this world that counts,
The touch of your hand and mine,
Which means far more to the fainting heart,
Than shelter and bread and wine;
For shelter is gone when the night is o’er,
And bread lasts only a day,
But the touch of the hand and the sound of the voice
Sing on in the soul always.
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May 1, 2008 at 9:26am
May 1, 2008 at 9:26am
#582637
May has become something of a National Month of Giving for me. In the spirit of that when I hear a story that celebrates the best of giving in any way, I'll share it here with you.

This story shows the best of what defines "sportsmanship". Good Morning America's Around the Water Cooler segment brought it to light for me.

In a Division II Softball game between Western Oregon and Central Washington, one girl from Western hit her first homerun. However, as she rounded the bases, she "blew out" (tore) her ACL and was unable to continue running. Umpires told her that, unless she completed the round of the bases, her homerun would not count for the team; nor would it count for her stats. To make matters worse, her teammates could not touch or assist her as that would be illegal.

The members of Central Washington knew it was her first homer. So two of the Central team members carried the injured Western base runner around the diamond thereby completing the homerun for the opposing team and allowing the gal from Western to have a homer count in her stats.

When the game was over, Central lost to Western by a score of 4-2 and Western moved on in the NCAA Division II championship.

Despite that loss, though, I think they won something much more important: the respect of their opposing sports team and the friendship of the team members, and whether they know it or not, the admiration of many people who hear this story.

You can also read more about this story (with photos) at:
https://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631


Way to go, ladies! Thanks for showing us all where the line in sports rivalry should be.


SHAMELESS PLUG (what else is a blog for? *Laugh*)
And don't forget to continue that spirit of sharing by stopping by my new raffle that starts today and goes all month. The drawing will be on June 1 and the prizes are getting better all the time. And the tickets are only 25 GPs each, cheap enough to buy several for yourself and then some more to share with others. Check it out: "Invalid Item

April 30, 2008 at 2:49pm
April 30, 2008 at 2:49pm
#582472
I'm not ready to quit smoking yet, but I just found a product that is insidiously evil. To save money, I've been smoking "little cigars". They look like and are packaged like cigarettes, but they cost a whole lot less. The Supreme Menthols I'm smoking are only $1 a pack versus the $4-$5 per pack of regular cigarettes. Now, however, they are putting out other "flavored little cigars". And besides caffeine/coffee, my other biggest weakness is - chocolate. And Supreme is making chocolate flavored little cigars. Isn't that just the most devious thing to for a tobacco company to do? All right, so maybe not the most devious, but it ranks right up there among them. *Laugh*
April 29, 2008 at 11:56am
April 29, 2008 at 11:56am
#582214
I usually love to take on challenges, but this particular contest challenge was something else. The genre was not part of the prompt, but the "A World Torn Apart" prompt suggested, to me, a particular genre - one that I've not written before: Dark. It's not exactly horror, but there is certainly not a happy ending with an evil twist at the end. On top of that, I had to write it in color(s) as the contest main key for entry. So I ended up doing about 50 edits as I tried to "draw" a picture in colors in the words. Curious what I'm talking about? Check it out and tell me what you think:

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This item number is not valid.
#1419952 by Not Available.
April 28, 2008 at 8:14am
April 28, 2008 at 8:14am
#581974
I wrote this acrostic last week. Well, a paid, professional poet or a creative writing teacher may find a lot to gripe about and refuse to call it a poem. But I love it. It's more humorous than anything. Tell me what you think.

Procrastination

I

H
A
V
E

N
O
T

Y
E
T

B
E
G
U
N

T
O

P
R
O
C
R
A
S
T
I
N
A
T
Erm... was I supposed to write something here?


Check out Paige Turner 's blog entry on procrastination. "Invalid Entry
April 28, 2008 at 12:51am
April 28, 2008 at 12:51am
#581926
Do you? What? You didn't notice my new siggy up there *Up*? I know, I know. My writing is so interesting you just wanted to get to the meat of my blog entry for today. *Laugh*

I won three sigs from the Seekers of the Unknown (SOTU) first sig auction. Now I'm broke.

At least I know how to remedy that situation. Review, review, review (and hopefully win a few contests that have GP prizes). I will hopefully be successful with my own raffle that starts next month. I just really want to get a few more donations. Then, with a 25 GP per ticket price, sell tons of tickets.

I really do hope that the raffle is successful for more reasons than getting my share of the GPs from it. I also want to have a good sized donation to the four selected charities (well, three now, but I'll have a fourth when the raffle opens). Plus I really want the winners to have good sized prizes. But that will also mean having some generous donations of strictly GPs transfered into the bank.

Hey! If you're interested in helping out. Email me and I'll send you the links - or you can just find them in my port. *Delight*

Okay, enough self promotion like that.

I thought I had set my alarm clock for 7 AM this morning. Turns out I had set the time, but forgot to turn the alarm ON! *Pthb* So I ended up waking at 8 AM. Just about the time my ride to church was supposed to arrive and pick me up. Fortunately, he was running a bit late himself. So 12 minutes after I wake up, I'm dressed and out the door. Without even a single cup of coffee. *Sick*

In my church choir I sing bass. Not because I necessarily want to, but because it's the easier of the two men's voices for my baritone to fit into. Well this morning I ended up being a bass's bass. No vocal warm up (or wake up) and no coffee.

Yes, I can hear every choir director screaming now - NO CAFFEINE BEFORE YOU SING! Well, sorry to disappoint y'all. But on Sunday mornings - that soon after waking up - it is required for me to be able to hit those F3's and Eflat3's. At any rate, I don't think I've hit the F3 with quite so much volume before as I did today because I was singing in just over an hour after waking up.

We sang three of the songs that we performed in the concert Saturday night. We got standing ovations for all three songs in both services. WOW! That's not happened, that I can remember, since I've been singing in that church.

Aside from all that, not much really happened today. Home after church I paid my rent, grabbed something to eat for lunch and have been on the computer ever since. But I've had some nice rewards. Namely the three sigs that I mentioned above. Here they all are so you can see them.

** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **

** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **

** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **


I did get the last one without words in case I decide to use it as a chapter illustration for my book, but I haven't put it in my port just yet. I think I want to pare down my image collection first. It's not that I'm in any danger of running out of port item space yet, but I am at just over the halfway point and over 20% of my items are sigs and images right now. Perhaps by the time I need to renew my upgrade, I'll be able to get the next level up and not have to worry about running out of space... unless I somehow manage to gather over 2000 items at some point in time.*Rolleyes* If only I were that prolific.

Well, guess that's all for now. Got more reviewing and writing to do. Lots of it.
April 25, 2008 at 11:07pm
April 25, 2008 at 11:07pm
#581593
I just got finished watching a 20/20 "What Would You Do?" special that they've been advertising all week. The results were both disturbing and pleasing.

The proposition was what would you do if you saw a public display of affection between a same-sex couple?

They went to Birmingham, AL, and had a male couple (real life couple in a committed relationship who were both actors) make out on a park bench. They started the segment with a 911 call that someone made on the couple. You read that right. Someone called 9-1-1 to register a complaint. Ultimately they sent out a police officer to ask the men to calm it down. But when he arrived on the scene and began to address the lovers, he got a phone call advising him what was really going on. 20/20 had advised the city and police chief what they were going to be doing, both of whom signed off on the project. The officer then moved on with just a word of caution for them.

That call, however, seemed to be the worst of what happened. And it was the worst of the minority reaction. One man did make a rude comment, something to the effect of "Why don't you two get a fucking motel room?!" But most of the minority just rolled their eyes or shot them looks of disgust.

However, the majority showed they had no problem with it and some even spoke encouragingly to the men. One lady even said (paraphrased), "Love is good wherever you can get it."

The majority attitude shown here is encouraging.

So 20/20 thought: Ok. So what if the couple was a lesbian couple?

Again, they used a committed couple, this time of 8 years. No one called the police on them this time, but the general reaction was about the same. The minority finding it disgusting and the majority either all right with it or openly glad for it. The only difference really was that men were more at ease with a couple of women kissing than a couple of men. They even found it "exciting". ~ Oh, brother!*Rolleyes*

20/20 then thought: Well, that was in the deep south. And in a very red state. How would people in a blue state react?

So they took the lesbian couple to New Jersey. And they found the results to be almost identical with the majority being just a bit more of a majority than it was in the south. And as a closing note, they showed a police vehicle coming up the road toward the female couple (in New Jersey) and then just drive on by.

So, are we, the GLBT community finally winning acceptance? It would seem we are, though slowly. But that would seem to be the more secure route, to me. I would love to see the day when all these state constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage (or at least defining marriage as between one man and one woman) be overturned. And as long as the attitude shown tonight on a television program continues to grow in the way of the majority presented, I have hope that one day I will see that day. Maybe even sooner than that day seems now.

I hope.
I wish.
I pray.
April 24, 2008 at 3:26pm
April 24, 2008 at 3:26pm
#581365
Last night something happened while I was at choir rehearsal that caused concern in some of my friends, but only was painful and very bothersome for me.

I've got a heart condition that is commonly found in Americans though many who have it are unaware of its existence. It's called Mitral Valve Prolapse. The valve between the two left chambers of the heart (the mitral valve) seizes open or flutters loosely (like a persons lips when they make the raspberry sound) or reverses direction (valve flaps invert). It's not anything fatal, but when it acts up so that blood flows back and forth between the chambers thus overfilling one when it's not supposed to, it causes a lot of localized chest pain which becomes even more painful if you try to take a big breath. There is no cure or treatment for it (that I'm aware of) except for valve replacement surgery.

Now things may have physiologically changed in me since I was first diagnosed when I was 17 years old, but any pain that I've had since then has been minor and barely noticeable. Until recently, that is. Last night the pain caused me to walk out of the rehearsal until it passed then started up again later when I got home. And in the course of the past few week I've been woken up at night a couple of times because it decided to act up.

Now the doctor told me that I need to keep stress low to avoid the problem acting up much. But if it acts up when I'm supposedly at the most calm a person can be - asleep - the doctor's statements begin to become somewhat suspect in my opinion.

So, if you read this regularly and/or know me, I want to reassure you and tell you not to get too worried about it. I'm fine. My heart is as fine as it's ever been. And there's no fear of dying from this condition. I just needed to make mention of it.

And moving on.

Tonight there's another choir rehearsal. Two in a row? No, actually three. Had one on Tuesday, too. Why so many? Well, Saturday we are putting on a combined choral contata joining the voices of the Sanctuary Choir, the Gospel Ensemble, and the Resurrection Singers. Plus we'll have the Drama team and the Angels in Motion dance group and a 35 piece orchestra. All of this is supposed to be for the church's 36th anniversary celebration weekend. The only group not participating is HeavenSounds, the handbell choir that I ring in. (The reason for that is our bells are at the factory being refurbished right now. They should be back within the next month all nice and shiny and scratch free and in tune. Bells should be refurbished every three years and these never have been though the church has had them for over a decade. Anyway....)

Our director finally relented and said that we could use our music books for the performance. Originally he wanted to have everyone memorize everything, but after last week's rehearsal, it was painfully obvious that that wasn't going to happen. Not in this lifetime.

So tonight is the technical rehearsal and Saturday at noon we'll be having our dress rehearsal. The performance will be Saturday night at 7. The only thing that may really cause any problems is the fact that the founder of our denomination (UFMCC), the Rev. Troy Perry, will be in attendance. He'll also be speaking at both services on Sunday. So, yeah, this is something of a big thing for us.

I guess that'll be all for now. Talk later.
April 21, 2008 at 6:08pm
April 21, 2008 at 6:08pm
#580718
I didn't win the big prize I was hoping for from the WDC official March contest, but another one of my acrostic poems did take a first place ribbon in another contest. Whispers in the Dark's ribbon makes the second awardicon I've gotten from around here. (Thanks, 🦄ðŸ³ï¸â€ðŸŒˆSapph , for your editing help with it.) Let's see how Nature's New Son does now at the end of the month.

I just got finished doing an unofficial review of a story Max Griffin ðŸ³ï¸â€ðŸŒˆ is preparing to submit for publication. Unfortunately for you it is under lock and key. It's really good and gives a new meaning to the old adage "There's always a bigger fish in the pond." Nice twist at the end of the tale. But let this be an official plug for him and encourage you to visit his port and read the available works of this published author.

Well, busy night ahead. So I'll cut this short. Have a good night all. Yak at ya later.
April 20, 2008 at 7:09pm
April 20, 2008 at 7:09pm
#580501
For today's blog entry, please read the following Article:

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This item number is not valid.
#1416380 by Not Available.


Thank you.
April 18, 2008 at 7:01pm
April 18, 2008 at 7:01pm
#580151
I think I now know what at least one of the problems was with my being unable to write the next chapter in Unguarded. Actually this is a second reason for the difficulty, the first one I'm in the process of dealing with by using a survey "Invalid Item. (Take a few moments to fill it out if you get the opportunity. It'll help me out tremendously.)

But this one was more difficult to face and write. It was because of what I had to do to one of the main characters, Neil. And I didn't want to do it. His doctor had to come back and give him the diagnosis of being HIV positive. I didn't want to do this to Neil because of the other difficulties that are going to follow for him. I also didn't want to put Daniel through the emotional strain that this diagnosis and its following challenges are going to bring. Especially when you consider that Daniel is based in large part on me and my experiences.

Consider further that until the past couple of years, I've never had to deal with the trauma and challenges of HIV/AIDS. I didn't know anyone who had to deal with the diagnosis and various physical difficulties. Didn't know anyone who had died from the monster of disease called AIDS. As good as I can do for his responses right now is take other instances of my life and how I handled them (none of which deal with any kind of life threatening diseases) and speculate how both I and Daniel would handle them. The first instance of this happens in the last couple paragraphs of the chapter I just finished tonight.

One thing that is a little helpful in the writing is that the primary focus of this story is how Daniel responds to the assorted events and people around him and to what happens to him. So while I do need to do research on HIV/AIDS to keep it all believable, I don't need to use a lot of the information because it is not what the story is about. Only a part of it.

Now that I have the principle challenge out of the way, hopefully the next few chapters will be a little easier to write. At least until I have to kill off a character (though that character will not be one of the primary characters -- I think).

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books.php/item_id/1378400-Colors-of-the-Rainbows/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/sort_by_last/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/10