Blog @ Work

Instruments, Labor Day and masks

"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  [13+]
Motivational Monday! "A lot of it starts with playing instruments and working with other people...some of the new generation is doing it on computers and they don't have a clue as to how to play anything." -Musician Ray Parker Jr., born on this day in 1954. How does "it" start for you, whatever "it" is?

I am not musical at all, although I played in a gamelan orchestra for a year a long time ago. I can’t read music but gamelan uses numbers instead of notes, so I could do that. These days a lot of people play music on the computer without really knowing how to play. My brother started out that way, playing the piano, but now he’s taking lessons and is composing little musical pieces. Very neat. I always envy people who play an instrument. In school as a child, I didn’t want to start music with a wooden flute. So I never bothered. Now I regret not taking the time and effort to play that instrument. A few years back I bought a Moroccan bongo. I can’t use it; I don’t have much rhythm, so it’s just a nice feature in my house.

Prompt: There are four special, bizarre or unique Holidays celebrated on May 1. These holidays are May Day (worldwide), Loyalty Day (official USA holiday), Mother Goose Day, and Save the Rhino Day. Chose one of these holidays and write a story, poem, or something else about it.(BCoFs)

May first is Labor Day in my country. From 1890 onwards this day is celebrated because of the implementation of the 8-hour workweek. It’s not an official day off, but in recent years with a socialist government, I thought it was an official holiday. Not now though!

Prompt: If a mask can make a person more obvious, why do people even wear masks, be it those masks may be psychological, social, or physical? In addition, do you let the characters you create in your writing wear a mask of any kind?(BC)

Wearing masks in the public domain is forbidden in my country. One has to show one’s face. Nowadays there is the question of wearing burkas for conservative Muslim women. On the streets, they can wear this but not at work or in the public domain. I like to see people’s faces. One time when I was working in an empty building during the weekend, I noticed two boys/men with clown’s masks approaching. It was kind of ominous since they wanted to enter the building. Fortunately, I had locked the door. I rang the police but they said it was probably kids playing. But since you don’t know what’s what with a mask, I was not amused.

People wear invisible masks all the time. They hide their true selves behind a correct public face. That’s the case with public figures who are arrested for crimes they committed. As public, you would have never guessed they were capable of committing those crimes.

One time I wrote something about a serial killer who was very well liked in his community. Nobody suspected that the nice man was indeed a vicious killer. Everybody, including his wife and kids, was surprised, astonished and appalled by what he did. Some people are a master in hiding behind a nice face.