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Guided by prompts from WDC blogging challenges... and of course, life |
HI! I'm Jenn - and I'm all over the place (well, at least my mind is). In this blog, I have attempted to gather my thoughts on things prompted/inspired by WDC blogging challenges from "Journalistic Intentions"  , "The Soundtrack of Your Life" , "Blogging Circle of Friends " , "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" and, well, LIFE.    |
19, February, 2022 **CAUTION: This song has explicit language. May not be suitable for young people or those offended by foul language** Since today is MY Day (well, it's my birthday at least) I decided to find a "happy" song (meaning happy for me) for the day's soundtrack. The song is a newish song (compared to my other tracks at least) by a virtual band (you can learn what a virtual band is by clicking the "Facts About the Band" link below) called Gorillaz. The song, Clint Eastwood, is considered Alternative Rock and was the debut single for the band in 2001. It was a hit both in Britain (where it peaked at No. 4 on the UK Singles chart) and America (where it reached No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100). Facts About the Band ▼ Cool Facts About the Song: ▼ Lyrics etc.: ▼ |
| "Journalistic Intentions" February 2022 Prompt: "Most of all, you feel unseen and unheard. The other person is demonstrating that there are two things more important than your pain: Their desire to avoid negative emotions Their need to offer unsolicited advice." I am sure this happens to everyone, everywhere, all the time. But it is so easily seen in interactions between someone with a chronic illness or emotional problem and people who do not suffer from such crippling ailments. I see it and experience it all the time. Is it so easy for a person to judge and offer their advice (no matter how unwanted)? It seems so. They seem put off when you call them out on their callousness. They were “just trying to help” after all. How is it helpful to be judgmental of a person when you have absolutely no idea as to their situation? In the infamous words of Tom Petty, “You don’t know what it’s like to be me.” These people have no idea how someone else is suffering, how much pain they are in, the depths of their depression. These aren’t things that are just going to go away just because someone told them, “Put your big girl panties on and get on with life.” A band-aid can’t be slapped on, the wound kissed, and the world return to normal. There is no bandage for my mental illness. The medication does all it can, and even so, sometimes it isn’t enough. When I am depressed, there is nothing that can be said or done to get me out of it. It takes time, but a little kindness does help lessen the grip of the depression a bit. My chronic illnesses cause me to live in pain. You get used to it after it’s been there for days on end. It doesn’t go away, but it becomes like a background hum in your life. If I give in to the pain, or on those really bad days where the illnesses are flaring, I am told that I am weak. I am told, “Oh, just take some pain pills and deal with it.” Or “If I were you, I’d go to the doctor and tell him you want something stronger for your pain.” Don’t you think I’ve tried that? First of all, doctors cannot prescribe opioids to patients living with chronic pain due to the addictiveness of the drugs. Secondly, I’m not in to popping pills every time the pain flares and the drugs they can prescribe don’t do much at all to help. So, if I express discomfort, or show my depression, or any of the myriad of problems that come along with being me, you don’t have to offer me your advice. It’s perfectly fine with me if you just change the subject if you don’t know how to respond to someone in my situation. I don’t care if I’m seen or heard by you. I have others in my life to fill those roles. If the situation is awkward for you and you can’t get over it, just mosey on along pardner! Sometimes, the best advice is no advice at all. Sometimes all you need to do is smile and wish a person well. **climbs down from soapbox and drops mic** |
| Written for: "Journalistic Intentions" February 2022 Prompt: “I think I would have been much happier being an actual scientist.” I thought and even said things similar to this while teaching, and even now I sometimes regret choosing to teach science rather than continue my research on botanical genetics. There is a peace that came to me while in the lab, a sense of pleasure in my work that I have yet to find in any other discipline I ventured into (with the exception of mowing lawns, but we’ll leave that for later). Have you ever performed any kind of scientific experiment? For me, the bigger the experiment, the more rewarding I found it. There was fun in it as well. When I first began my path down the road of biological study, the experiments were simple. The farther I went in my studies, the more difficult and time consuming the experiments became, the more enjoyable they were. At one point, we went to the local zoo to retrieve fecal specimens of the animals so we could see what bacteria lived in the guts of the animals. Just so you know, if you don’t already, when e. coli grows on Eozin Metilen Blue (EMB) agar, it takes on a most beautiful metallic and iridescent shade of green. In the study of aquatic biology, we had to get down into the wet of things, taking samples of the water, the sediments, and even some of the aquatic life from the areas. I thought herpetology would be the thing for me. After all, I husband all sorts of reptiles at home and scaled and slithery critters have never bothered me. Truth be known, they fascinate me. But that route was not meant to be either. I found my home among the plants. Finding species in the wild many hadn’t seen for years was a thrill. I found I had a knack for genetics, so I discovered the plant genetics lab was the place to be – at least for me. People can whine and complain about GMOs all they want, but what they don’t understand is that the food they eat that comes from plants are just that. They have been genetically modified through centuries in order to become what they are today. The corn, beans, fruit, practically all of the food plants we eat have been modified over time. But I didn’t find myself modifying plants that produce food. I was studying flowering plants. It’s a slow process, having to grow from seed and care for them daily, but it was where I found my happiness. I studied how changes to the plants’ environment could affect the way the plants responded during their flowering cycles. So much is happening on a molecular level in plants. And genes in a plant’s DNA strand can actually interact and that interaction will change some of the plant’s external function or appearance. I don’t remember the exact time I had to consider which path to take for my future in science – but now I know that I might have made the wrong choice when I decided to teach science. When I began teaching, gone were the days of quiet study, the days of new discoveries. Science became monotonous. Each year, teaching the same basic tenets of science to a room full of teens who didn’t care about the amazing things they were learning. I became burnt out and, yeah, I think I would have been happier if I had been an actual scientist. But my health came and saved me from my monotonous hell, forcing me to retire quite early from teaching. I still dream of those labs and plant growth chambers though, those places where I was happiest. Word Count: 619 |
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You're so right, they are definitely perceptive. They know when you need extra attention, and they know when to keep an eye out for you. They are definitely a blessing from God.
Gorillaz is an English "virtual" band
A virtual band is a fictional band or music group whose members are not depicted as corporeal musicians, but animated characters or virtual avatars. Although the characters are fictional, the band itself exists outside a television and film universe, in reality. The music is recorded by human musicians and producers, while any media related to the virtual band, including albums, video clips and the visual component of stage performances, feature the animated line-up; in many cases the virtual band members have been credited as the writers and performers of the songs. Live performances can become rather complex, requiring perfect synchronization between the visual and audio components of the show. 
The song is named Clint Eastwood due to its similarity to the theme music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The song is claimed as Gorillaz' big signature tune