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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books.php/item_id/1903082-Alex-Lellas-Blog/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/sort_by_last/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/2
Rated: 13+ · Book · Opinion · #1903082
This is my blog which I intend to use for the new group that I am joining
I November 2012, I decided that I would like to join a blogging community on WDC. It basically required that we write blog entries according to specific prompts. Here is the result. . .
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April 11, 2013 at 10:42am
April 11, 2013 at 10:42am
#780302
An entry on tattoos. Now you're talking. You see, some years ago, when I was employed in a call center. I had a motherly boss who was really into tattoos. She was always talking about tattoos and somewhere along the line, we got to talking about the possibility that I might get one. Thing was, once I started considering the possibility, I began to really want one. I started reading those tattoo magazines and looking at the pictures of the beautiful women with tattoos all over their bodies. I think on some level, I was fantasizing that if I had a tattoo, I would somehow be closer to having one of them for a girlfriend.

Still, when I investigated the price of tattoos, I was a little shocked. On a side note, I said, "Who are these people who can afford this, but have jobs where it's permissable. They're to be envied."

Meanwhile, my motherly boss had another problem which was smoking. She did it too much. I was trying to get her to quit, so one day I said to her, "Every week that you go without smoking, I will--"

At that point, she interrupted and said. "I'm not sure I want to hear the rest of this."

I continued anyway. "I will get another tattoo."

"Oh really?" she said. "You realize that you have a right to get as many tattoos as you want. You don't need excuses from me."

Wow, she had me figured.

Anyway, not long after that, I made the appointment at the tattoo parlor and did it. There was no symbolism. I just picked a flash image of a dragon reading a book entitled, "Humans and Other Recipes" and had it done on my left forearm.

Anyway, not long after that, I visited my parents for the first time with the tattoo. I ended up telling them that I got it to keep my boss from smoking even though that was kind of a lie.

So there you have it. The tattoo is still on my forearm. My own take on tattoos is that you have to want them a real lot. I mean they're expensive, the process is painful, and once you've got them, you can't get rid of them.

The King Signature
April 8, 2013 at 10:41am
April 8, 2013 at 10:41am
#780010
A superpower for a day?

Superspeed would be a good thing. The ability to just run from one place to another without running out of time. I would never have to worry about being late. Actually, superspeed would be even cooler if I could run around the world. I could go back and forth between America and China.

The King Signature


April 5, 2013 at 9:43am
April 5, 2013 at 9:43am
#779766
Tears of Joy? Honestly, I can't remember shedding tears of joy for myself. That's just not something I do.

I may have shed some tears of joy when watching certain movies or reading certain books. Like Cindy just mentioned that she's not a Trekkie. Well, that made me think of Star Trek:Generations. That's the one where Kirk died at the end, but I didn't cry when Kirk died. Honestly, I cried a little while later when Data's cat, Spot, turned out to be Okay.

For a more classic example of a movie that made me shed tears of joy, there's It's a Wonderful Life which I saw in a movie theater a few Christmases ago. By the time, Jimmy Stuart said, "Attaboy, Clarence," there were some tears in my eyes.

I also just recently read Harpo Marx's autobiography, Harpo Speaks. I really loved the chapter where he tells about how he and his wife adopted four children, and how they told the children they were adopted early on, through a bedtime story about how they needed those children and so they looked everywhere. It's real tear jerker.

The King Signature
April 3, 2013 at 8:34am
April 3, 2013 at 8:34am
#779594
Had a nice little adventure the other day. I had to take a taxi from one end of Heze to another. I did it with an address card written in Chinese that I showed to the driver. The driver was a friendly older woman. She didn't speak English, but after I got out of the taxi, she handed me a pamphlet written in Chinese. I shrugged and thanked her. I looked at it, but the only thing English written on it was a web address printed at the end which I deduced was where to go for more information about whatever the pamphlet's topic was. The next day at work I showed it to some of the Chinese teachers at work. They looked at it nervously.

"The person must have wanted you to be healthy. It's about exercise," said one of the teachers. That didn't ring true, but I really got suspicious when she said, "I will keep it now." When I tried to protest, she said, "it's useless to you, so why do you want it?"

She had a point, but I wasn't satisfied. Luckily, I had memorized the web address, so that evening I went there on my computer and found a web site that was all in Chinese. No problem there, though. I copied and pasted the first few paragraphs into Google translator. That actually gave a fragmented translation that wasn't really comprehensible, but the fragments included phrases like, "Communist government is corrupt. . .Brainwashes youth. . " and some of it seemed oddly religious things like. . ."Chinese government work of devils."

Well, that's my story. I haven't said anything about the prompt of the day which is whether I would go for possibly illegal medical treatments if I needed them. The answer is "yes, if I really thought it was the best thing.

The King Signature
April 1, 2013 at 7:38pm
April 1, 2013 at 7:38pm
#779477
I've been away for a while. Honestly, while I enjoyed the Easter egg hunt, eventually I just reached a point where I had to throw the towel in until it was over.

The best prank ever played on me? Well, gong back a little. A year ago, I was in Ecuador. In Ecuador, as you may know, they have a festival called Carnival. Basically, the idea is to get all your sins out there so that Lent will be worth it. Anyway, I was getting ready for class when my boss announced that he had brought a cake for the occasion. I went into the common room and was enjoying a slice of the cake when he sprayed me with pink foam. The stuff stung my eyes and some of it got on the cake and made it taste soapy. After that, I watched while all of the other teachers and employees of the school got theirs. Even the receptionist, who not being a teacher, wore good clothes to school was not spared.

Anyway on another note. I learned that I won an Honorable Mention in a poetry contest. I think that's kind of cool because the poem was really a rush job. I've linked to it below. Warning: It's not one of my pleasanter poems.





 The Cry  (13+)
An Ottava Rima for a contest. Surprisingly, it won an Honorable Mention.
#1924508 by Weirdone-Back in the games

The King Signature
March 20, 2013 at 7:24am
March 20, 2013 at 7:24am
#778091
The Easter egg hunt has begun. I believe four of the eggs that I hid have have been found. So there are six more. I got so crazy searching for eggs yesterday, that I didn't really have time to blog.

Oh well. Today the prompt is What do colored Easter eggs make you think of?

You know, it's funny, but my first thought is chocolate. *Starstruck*

Then, I remembered that usually the actual colored eggs weren't chocolate. They were hard-boiled eggs, Yuck!*Sick*
Still, I liked Easter when I was a kid. I loved finding the basket of candy in the morning. I guess it wasn't as good as Christmas morning, because on Christmas you got to play with your new toys right away, but on Easter, you couldn't just start eating candy first thing in the morning. You had to have breakfast, and then go to church, and usually by the time church let out, it was getting too close to time for the ham lunch to get away with eating candy, so Easter morning felt was kind of a tease.

I also liked actually painting the eggs. We usually did that at my Grandma's house the day before Easter. One funny memory. To dye the eggs, we'd put the dye in cups and whatever else Grandma had. I remember, among other things, that we would use my grandmother's gravy boat as one of the dye cups. It stood out in my mind, because the same gravy boat would be used to hold the gravy on Thanksgiving. I don't know. Somehow the connection there seemed profound to my young self.

The King Signature
March 18, 2013 at 9:19am
March 18, 2013 at 9:19am
#777888
St. Patrick's day is long since over in China, and they don't really celebrate it here anyway. I actually have quite a few things which I would like to write about here. I'm not sure off hand if any of them are green. Oh well, we'll just see.

First announcement is that I did not qualify for the Original Character Tournament. That was kind of disappointing, after all the preparation that everyone went through for that Tournament. By the way, Calvin Reddick, my partner in the Valentine's Blog did not make it either which means that there will be no war between Flaming Pharoahs. *Sad*

On another note, I've already told you how my winter sonnet has somehow ended up in the Poetry newsletter, and has begun to get some unexpected reviews as a result. Well, another one came a few days ago. Nothing I can say about this review will adequately prepare you for it. Just click on it and read it. (It's short anyway.)
Review of "Winter Sonnet"

I don't know whether to be flattered or disturbed by that one. By now, I'm starting to wonder why it is that when a poem gets into the WDC poetry newsletter, all the nutjobs review it.

Still, I shouldn't complain too much. Another review of the same poem arrived just a few hours ago:

Review of "Winter Sonnet"

Now that is the kind of review I like the best. A few sentences telling me how great I am.

Have I mentioned anything green yet?

Damn, I don't think I have.

The success of that Winter sonnet is kind of surprising to me. I don't consider myself a poet at all. I only wrote that one to fill in some blanks for the "I Write in December. . ." contest, but it won third prize and it ended up in the above mentioned newsletter. This makes me wonder if I should do something more with it. Like submit it for publication? Do you even do that with poetry? It would be interesting if after all this time struggling to get to the point where I can make a living writing prose, I ended up selling poetry.

Oh, and if that happened the money they paid me for the poem would be green. There is that good enough, Cindy?

The King Signature
March 14, 2013 at 9:53am
March 14, 2013 at 9:53am
#777532
You know, the last few entries have been entirely too pleasant, so it's time for something gross.

I can't live without Western toilets. If you've never traveled to someplace like China, you won't really appreciate this. But the fact is in China, most public bathrooms and even some private ones consist of a just a little hole in the floor that you have to squat over. The first few times I tried to do this, I didn't even aim right and there was a mess, but even when you do aim right, it doesn't flush away that easily. Fortunately, the apartment where I live has a Western toilet, so I've gotten in the habit of always using it.

The King Signature
March 13, 2013 at 10:15am
March 13, 2013 at 10:15am
#777472
There are so many places that I would like to travel, but right now, I really wish that I could go back to Ecuador, because I have half a hope that my old girlfriend, Joanna and I could work things out.

Still, I admit that's not really what I want to write about now, so on to other news


Remember this poem?:
 Winter Sonnet  (E)
A Shakespearean sonnet about Winter. It won third prize in a contest!
#1910214 by Weirdone-Back in the games


Well, apparently it has somehow found its way into this week's poetry newsletter, which I don't even read. That's great. But I have begun to receive some reviews of that poem as a result.



Including this condescending thing:

Review of "Winter Sonnet"

I don't believe the author of that review has any connection to anyone in our circle, (although in the small crazy world that is WDC, who knows?) so I'm going to speak candidly about him. He's right about the iambic pentameter being imperfect, but that happens often when writing a Shakespearean sonnet. Even Bill didn't get it right 100 percent of the time. When he mentioned that the poem is not a Shakespearean sonnet, because it does not contain a volta, I admit my first reaction was to say, "picky", and I shrug it off. Then, I remembered what I knew about poetry and realized that it wasn't picky, it was wrong. Voltas go in Petrarchan sonnets, between the octet and the sextet, not Shakespearean sonnets.

Oh well. Thank you for listening.


The King Signature


March 12, 2013 at 9:12am
March 12, 2013 at 9:12am
#777364
Okay. Today they want me to write my obituary:

Alexander Lella, universally considered to be the premier American author of the twenty-first century has died today at the age of eighty-six. He is survived by his widow, the twenty-two year old supermodel and former Miss America contestant_________________.

I actually wrote that second sentence before I wrote the first.

In other news, I entered a contest last week. The contest is run by one of our own members, Radiation--Don't be Silly, whose birthday was today.


Here is the story that I entered
 The Rape of Lucy  (18+)
A horror story or a comedy. Or maybe both. . .
#1922422 by Weirdone-Back in the games





The King Signature

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books.php/item_id/1903082-Alex-Lellas-Blog/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/sort_by_last/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/2