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 |   A terminal for all blogs coming in or going out. A view into my life. |
Started July 1st 2019 for contests, etc. as other blogs are filling up and have other purposes.  I'm starting a new blog because
I'll be linking to
I've started an appendix (I no longer have one personally) to keep track of my Space Cadet journals for Space Blog. It's a work constantly under construction. Mind the mess.
I needed to start a folder for contests as there are so many deadlines and details to remember.
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| Yesterday was the Null, today is the Fool. I've felt as numb as a null but I'm not wise enough to be a fool. 42 degrees at 10 p.m. Not supposed to go below freezing and it's going to warm up nicely in the afternoon. I'll be writing poetry, hope to do JI (lots of work, we'll see). It will hopefully be a month of opening up. 37 degrees and calm at midnight. Today's poetry prompt is "folly". I might go serious with it instead of humorous. Later, I guess. I have all day and the only other obligation is the market. 37 degrees at 10:10. Wokeup to a nice shiny ribbon in my inbox. This poem is from 2007! 3rd isn't bad for an old geezer.
66 degrees at 2:44 A scent of freesia ... from a jar of air freshener. A whiff is enough. Daffodils in bloom along with crocuses, chinodoxia. One week of warm weather will encourage other flowers. Road season has started. New white painted lanes on 5th street. And they've dug up the corner of 3rd and Higgins to put in the new ramp from the bridge. 70 degrees at 4:47. Will I have to get use to this? Gentle breeze and scents of spring. 4 warm days in the 60s followed by 4 cool days in the 50s. Maybe one morning of sprinkles. No storms. That's perfect for early April. I now have pansit from Bri. It's lavender and purple (cabbage). I put it in the fridge as Laxmi gifted me tuna salad earlier and I ate 1/4 of a lemon meringue pie. It was on sale...  Bri told me she's moving out tomorrow. I was quite upset until she told me she was joking. I don't joke so I didn't see it coming. I was surprised by my strong reaction. She's been a dear to everyone and one of the few people I get to talk with. For example ... today was the first day I put on normal clothes and stepped out of the building. Still 68 at 6:19 It was getting toasty inside but it'll cool to 40 tonight. A 30 degree difference high/low is very common in this high elevation (1.000 m) semi-desert valley. April Contest List: [FOREVER UNDER CONSTRUCTION]  2nd Shadows free verse "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  : "April Shadows"  DNP 2nd Time SS "Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special" : "Cleaning up the mess [270] (211 words)"  HM 2nd Time P by 14th: "i am behind the camera [358]" Oriental by the 14/15th: "Invalid Item" : "Three views [43] (3 Kōel) " DNP Stormy by the 16th "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contest" : "Transition [21]" DNP Traditional P by 30: "Regression"  3 Songs by 25th "Poetry Song Contest" : 2nd Dark Dreamscape by the 30th (Fool) "Invalid Item" : "Call us Boss" Senior "SENIOR CENTER FORUM" : Taboo SS "The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus" : DNP Taboo P "The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus" : "We are Yellow [42]" WDC essay "Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" : "A year playing dead [62]" "A year playing dead" 4 Kids "Writing 4 Kids Contest " : "What month am I? " Whatever "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now" free verse Whatever "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now" sestina "sestina for whatever " Sharmelle "Poetry Topic of the Month Contest~Closed" : Bard's (haiga) "The Bard's Hall Contest" : Humor SS "The Humorous Short Story Contest" : Dialog Werewolf "The Dialogue 500" : Mother Nature "Invalid Item" : Silkpunk Journal (Need 8) "Journalistic Intentions" : "Oink Oink Lane [73]" Musicology 12 SS due June 30 "Musicology Anthology" :4217 |
4207 After midnight ... cold ... 29 degrees. Spring comes back on Wednesday for an entire week ... or so they say. I'll look over my contest offerings. Some only need editing. Others will not be done. In April I'll be focusing on my poetry and hopefully pre-packing and pre-planning for travel. I need to get out of here! Spring weather should help though. If I don't get out today due to the cold then Wednesday I'll be looking for daffodils on my way to market. Need to find my camera. Bright at 11:34. A reluctant 32 degrees. I wrote this as a comment for Sue but deleted it there: "Memories ... a song pops up from childhood (from long before the musical "Cats"). Mine are entangled. A flash just came from Summer of '73 when I was at the U of Kansas ... I think! I know Gayle was in the flash and I know I stayed in Oliver Hall that summer; but it could be Spring of '73 in McCollum Hall. In other words ... just a flash image seen incompletely, no smell or sound. It's moment when nothing happened. No drama. No trauma. It was during a time when I was struggling with personal issues but obviously not hysterically. Hysterical was Spring of '72 and all of '74. Maybe we all, there were 4 of us, were at one of their places ... which would explain the fuzziness." Or maybe '74 just before I left for CR? That's the problem. I either have nothing to write about or simply cringe at the idea of sharing. The 30 Day Blog Challenge seems to focus on us 'getting to know each other's dirt' or 'recounting our bland E-rated existence'. I'm either triggered like a s***-flinging 80's talk-show or feel like I'm watching a '50s sit-com. These WDC bloggers can be interesting (even when their lives seem boring or conventional) and did interact quite a bit. Many are writers. Only a couple come from my background; yet, I'm sure I could connect with all of them on some level if they were interested. It was that way in Old Blogville. I survived one month. I'm not a story-teller. Time to just move on and do my own thing. The sad part? I'll continue blogging and I'll continue to be ignored. Noon. Will I change my tune? 5 p.m. 38 degrees windy cold. I'm procrastinating. I've had enough coffee and just ate two potatoes, boiled, fried, smashed. I've been reading. 35 degrees and slowly slipping at 8:43. I did some writing. When it flows it flows. Need to do some more otnight, maybe post a couple. These are for my eyes only at the moment but I put them here to easily access: Flash [18]: "Sally of the leeches 505 words" Two poems [16,17]: "Rain and tornadoes by March 31" In NCAA  it looks like, UConn (1) v. Arizona (3) and Stanford (1) v. South Carolina (1) Baylor (1) v. Houston (2) and Gonzaga (1) v. UCLA (11) |
  PROMPT March 30th Congratulations on making it to the last day of the competition! What was your favorite prompt from the last month? What was the most rewarding aspect of participating in the competition? The level of participation and the level of interactions was very good this past month. However, the prompts need some work. By having only one prompt it puts some participants in a bind when it's inappropriate, culturally or socially unacceptable or inapplicable. Those who are marginalized or a minority may feel unwelcome. Not intentionally so ... it's never "intentional" ... but it can be insensitive. Other prompts make me feel like I'm an eight year old writing about bunnies or much worse a ten year old being told to write about my lousy summer vacation by a teacher who has no clue... There's an easy solution. The Prompt Chest has hundreds of prompts. Give participants a choice of two, preferably three each day. Make them as different from each other as possible. Oh, and stop encouraging us to write about difficult times in our lives. This isn't a mandatory therapy session. I don't mind reading about people's pain if that's what they want to share. Good on them. It's alway surprising how many of us can relate. But expecting me to share (or skip the prompt) is inappropriate. Two that worked for me (but maybe not for everyone): PROMPT March 8th Where are some unusual places you’ve been? What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned or discovered about those places? PROMPT March 19th How are you different now than you were in the year 2010? What have been the most significant changes in your life in the last ten years? |
| Today will be cold. 42 degrees and falling just before midnight. Windy and raining. Written just before midnight and posted: "Before I leave [12]" I'm so thrilled that there's only one more day left in the 30 day blog challenge. Will any continue to blog? A couple maybe. Except for Robert and Neva there are few bloggers here at WDC. Anyhoo, I survived without a major meltdown. I often find the prompts triggering. There's more diversity than immediately meets the eye ... but there's also less, much much less, than there could be. The prompts seem bland, as if to not upset the Global White Middle Class and the spawn of English Colonialism. Real issues are avoided while the pain that personal questions elicit are seemingly okay. No, it's not okay to ask me to bare my soul so you can tear me apart with misplaced pity. I was able to get around a couple of them; a couple brought out my fangs, so I tried blunt and curt. I kept most of my responses short regardless. I ramble in these personal entries that anyone of them could read ... but don't. At least there were more comments back and forth this time and that's a good sign. A couple really have a gift with words; great story-tellers. I could be jealous but I'm not a story-teller and some of the prompts left me gasping for air. New suggested prompts? Puppies and kitties ... because that's safe? I should've suggested a prompt about the weather; like, "what's an interesting weather event you've experienced or would like to share?" which would be less triggering than, "name a weather event that killed friends or family ... and almost killed you!" I see no need to emulate those TV s***-flinging shows where people come on to attack each other for the bucks, f***s and drama. Tomorrow I expect the last question to be "what was your favorite prompt". I'll find three. But I'll also suggest that going forward that every day there should be two, preferably three prompts to choose from with only one uber-personal one among them. I would also suggest that an occasional current event be noted as an option, like maybe the Insurrection or Election or Abortion and Voting Legislation or the Daily Shooting. Heaven help us if any of us should share any insight or have an opinion. Thankfully the challenge isn't held in December. I cringe around the Christian Holy Days when folks ask "what is your fav Christmas morning memory?" or trying to be more 'secular' "what special foods are you eating during the holidays" (as if not mentioning that you mean "White European Christian" makes it somehow okay). What's nice about Blogville being a Ghost Town? I can rant and expect absolutely no comments.  Snowing heavily at 3:05 a.m. 32 degrees. 32 windy chill degrees at 1:25 p.m.Saw a stray flake. It must've got lost on the way down from the Bitterroots. NCAA Basketball: Three surprises, all from the Pac 12. Quite a few upsets to get to this point. Gonzaga still undefeated but USC cannot be taken lightly. Houston (2) v Oregon St. (12) Baylor (1) v Arkansas (3) Gonzaga (1) v USC (6) Michigan (1) v UCLA (11) Texas is the mild surprise here with their upset over Maryland. There have been very few exciting games but that should change. These teams are the creme de la creme. UConn (1) v Baylor (2) Arizona (3) v Indiana (4) S. Carolina (1) v Texas (6) Stanford (1) v Louisville (2) Baylor is still in the running to capture both titles. Only Connecticut did that in the past (twice! 2004 and 2014). A response I made to the parallels of Q-conspiracy (2020) and Anti-Masons (1820) to Holly: "The Vatican is historically secretive and exclusionary. The LDS can be secretive and certain rites like marriage are exclusionary. The Supreme Court has 6 Catholics and 8 graduates of Harvard/Yale, 4 each. When a group is perceived as homogenous or elite and tends towards secrecy then it's hard to debunk false narratives. The 'cure' is transparency. The 'smoke-filled back rooms' of Congress is a case in point. Televised public hearings has helped (grand-standing is another issue however... Sen. Cruz...)." 31 degrees at 8:40 p.m. Never did warm up but watch out come Wednesday!   New poem: "On Naw Ruz " 4198 |
  PROMPT March 29th What did you like / dislike about where you grew up? What do you like / dislike about where you live now? My high school colors were maroon and white. University colors here are maroon and silver. Growing up I had nothing to compare. I'd been nowhere. I had yet to learn that there were friendlier and not-so-friendly people elsewhere. There were 4 wet seasons, local festivals, local foods, sport teams, deep bitter divides that people only overcame when there was a blizzard. Growing up the sky was a dull shade of coal. Here the sky turns to ash during Smoke Season. There are few visible divides as people hide them. They are friendly in a keep-your-distance kinda way. There are 4 dry seasons, no weather to speak of. Local festivals and sport teams abound as do local markets for mushrooms, flowers and huckleberries. There's a vibrant art scene. I felt sad when I left home but felt free from the bullying and treachery. Here I have felt free but people are becoming more judgmental, the place is gentrifying and poor people are being pushed out in ways reminding me of Boulder. I deeply disliked Boulder when I visited. Nowhere is perfect; but, the inequities, then and now, here and there, are very American. I now compare. I've lived elsewhere and traveled extensively. When I tell Americans that they live in a dangerous third world country they take offense. I don't care. Most've been nowhere, just like I had been nowhere growing up. |
| If I'm wrong correct me: "We call many indigenous people by names that were given to them by others. Navajo, Cherokee, Seneca and Crow come to mind. Afrika isn't a s***hole country. Genetically, Afrikans may be more diverse than the rest of the world combined. I see tourists with water bottles ... as if the word potable means nothing. If the water is drinkable then a fancy imported bottle of water is merely a status symbol. Same with food. Dear Americans, if the US had the water and culinary standards of Japan, I wouldn't have to explain this to you." So I commented in Robert's blog. 43 degrees at 39 minutes after midnight. I'm leaving the window partially open. May get very windy later in the day. Gonna air this place out! I worked on some contests. I wasn't going to but the words just flowed. What I wrote wasn't too bad. Edit. Submit. Let others judge.  60 degrees and very windy at 12:45 p.m. Storms tonight? Had to close the window as having things inside blow about isn't good imho. Asterism (⁂) Death throes of human artifacts. Neva is providing me with prompts.  I wrote in Brian's blog: "I number poems and pieces of prose that no one will ever read. Even I, having never edited some, may never read them again. I scribble or carefully, almost like calligraphy, write in my journal, a 5 thousand page letter to a friend... It marks my passage." 63 degrees at 6. A letter delivered to my door on Sunday! From Jacob, a former neighbor. A half loaf of cranberry bread from Le Petit, a gift from Bri. Still breezy. Blow me away at 8 I told Elle, "I'm just checking in after perusing this book-length entry.  I do think that this allows for comments better than if it were a separate item; although, I think you should do that as well. Each part could be expanded into a chapter. I saw that you didn't read about Pern! Oh my... one of my favorites.  I do get the 'not going along with what everyone else was reading' comment. I teethed on Ibsen rather than Shakespeare, was raised with Japanese and French ideas rather than Hollywood. I suspect that that's one reason why what I write doesn't connect with many at WDC. It's not Americana, either historical nor present. My aesthetic is more Nordic-Bittersweet-Asian and that does not sell here in Missoula nor in WDC." |
| PROMPT March 28th We need your help filling the Challenge War Chest with prompts! In your entry today, write three of your own 30DBC prompts and then choose one to respond to. 1. Choose a Eurovision song and write a response. Some well known songs if you're stuck: Waterloo '74; Rise like a Phoenix '14 ; Fairy Tale '09; Toy '18. 2. There are over 50 countries in Africa. Which would you like to visit if you could? What would you see and do? 3. What do you prefer to write? Essays, non-fiction, prose, formal poetry, free verse, haiku, flash, stories, novels, technical pieces, blogs, letters... Share an example. Provide a link if you choose. Too tired to write much and give a proper response. 1. Rise like a Phoenix was an incredible pick by stodgy Austria. Not only could it be a James Bond theme song, the hint at pain, and hope rising from ashes inspires. 2. I have a bunch: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Uganda/Rwanda/Kenya. Malawi might be the easiest as they have hostels, few game hunters, and few high-end tourists that would allow me to just observe people and their culture. 3. I write poetry. Most is lyrical. I do best at a mix of free verse with heavy dosis of poetic devices: alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, all types of repetition. |
| 40 degrees at 11 p.m. I thought it was much later. I'm reading "Beakfast with Buddha" by Roland Merullo and enjoying it. "Why are you a good person" is a very good question. For me is it the fear of punishment, the fear of doing something wrong? I'm sure both have been a factor at various times in my life. There is a concept that we all come from God and to God we all return. It's not the Christian Hell-and-damnation nor the Gospel of Prosperity that equates money with goodness. It's more of the 'life is a gift on loan' as it were. We choose how we honor our loaner-body and how we honor others by our words and deeds. So for me? I'd like to see more tolerance, more acceptance, more love, more healing. My travels remind me of how far I have yet to go. It's easy to accept what you see around you as the Truth if that's the only truth you know. 42 degrees at 12:46 a.m. Finally starting to fade... Added after Krysha's and Robert's comments, in reponse to Robert's blog entry: "Alone at Low Interest" "I tend to overthink. It may be because I am not at ease in many social situations that call for conforming (why suburbs and certain religious groups are very stressful for me?). I don't inherently know how to act. I do well with strangers and crowds. Why? Anonymity. I'm not a 'joiner' (and that may explain why I'm not totally at ease at the Senior Center). What does this have to do with intelligence? I'm highly intelligent in some ways. My spatial and color acuity are way above normal. I understand connections and patterns in ways that many people don't. But social conventions, saying the right thing at the right time, knowing how to manipulate people or sell a product? Close to zilch. So-called 'intellectual' intelligence isn't the only factor in the success of individual or groups of individuals." 47 degrees and sunshine trying to break through the overcast skies at 11:11 a.m. Mr. Wong's message: 52 degrees at 2 p.m. I ate a fish sandwich but no interest in doing much else. I should write at least one poem today. Maybe a not-so-gloomy one since the sun is out and feels good where I sit by the window. I found an old poem to submit to the traditional poetry contest.
And wrote a pre-Dew pem: "Mazed [9]" In checking my 'highly rated' poems... most are old and date from when Blogville was thriving. I don't have readers now like I did then. There were periods I put poems in blogs and rarely made separate items for them. I'm approaching my limit on items, so I should dump about 100 of them as soon as I can make copies and store elsewhere. |
| 10 p.m. and I'm yawning. Not a good sign. Recent poems: "Þimbleberries Þieves (Thimbleberry Thieves) [178.4] " "What cannot die survives [5zm]" "Fifty years later her wrinkles still laugh [6]" But I'm toast when it comes to doing anything beyond cooking, eating, washing dishes. Right now that's my whole life. I shared elsewhere: "I'd love to sit down with all the lovely people I once knew. I think some of my friends would consider me intelligent ... but I know better! There are many types of intelligence I lack. I've cut back on the book of faces. Still check in but I needed a break. It'll be more important when I travel. My traveler friends care little about my writing. My writer friends care little about my travels. The people I know where I live care little about either. My family cares even less. 39 degrees at 11:30 and warming? Not that one can tell... The heavens must've heard ... a minute of sunshine. Beverly Clearly (1916-2021) died, age 104. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/beverly-cleary-legendary-children-s-author-who... Another day of 'not caring'? I don't dare lay back down. 44 degrees at 2 p.m. So far a lost day. Need to write, read, something. "Not giving in [7]" "Dwindling [8]" |
 PROMPT March 26th If you asked your friends to describe you using only three words, what would they say? And why do you think so? When I was a Jayhawk at the University of Kansas (crimson and blue) I was: Friendly in a talkative way. I met people from around the world for the first time, specifically Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Iran, Germany, Costa Rica, Mexico. It's why I wanted to study abroad. Innocent in a sweet way. I knew so little about the 'social' world and didn't even know how to learn about it! I transferred so that I could heal from my experiences elsewhere. My roommates were a godsend. Wide-eyed in a wondrous way. I enjoyed being in a collegiate setting. I thrived in my class work. The campus was beautiful and I've always responded to beauty. And the people were kind. I've always responded well to kindness. I was 20 when I arrived. Since then... innocence and sweetness was mostly lost in Costa Rica and later working in an office taught me that kindness and beauty are seldom rewarded. I was still friendly but perhaps too trusting. Now? People don't know me. We don't interact deeply nor for long periods of time. I don't trust but I still smile. I'm wide-eyed when I travel and respond to kindness and beauty. I've become worldly. What words now? Maybe moody, withdrawn, old. I'm worn out. My friendliness is considered annoying and I no longer have close friends where I live. Why? I've changed and become old. And Americans specifically have become meaner, suspicious and paranoid. |
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