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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.    |
| November 9, 2021 Prompt: You are having a very realistic dream. In this dream, you are approaching a castle. What unusual reason do you have to be at this castle? What do you say to the two guards standing outside it to gain entrance?     ...... I arrive clothed in a darkness blacker than night and climb the hill toward the castle, my staff grasped in my right hand. As I near the castle, the guards avert their gazes afraid of the darkness nearing them. "She has called for me," I say to them; my words, breathless whispers in the cool evening air. "Please enter," replies the one on the left, fear keeping both of their eyes toward the ground. As I walk the main road to the castle, commoners run and hide, pulling their children into their hovels and closing their doors and shutters. I take a moment to ruminate on the past as I continue along. These people didn't always show such fear toward me. There was a time I too was a bright flame of hope and joy in their lives; in the Before Times when I too called the castle home. My golden haired sister and I were the pride of our father and the kingdom. But pride and vanity corrupt the soul. Oh the pain, anger, and sorrow it took to turn me into what I now am! Years of envy led to this hate and malice, this fear and shunning from the people. I laugh like a madwoman as I walk toward my nemesis, my sister. "Let us see what Hope needs from me now! Let us see what the light requires of the darkness." |
November 8, 2021 - Day 3288 Prompt: Prompt: November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month. Write a story, poem, or something about peanut butter. I remember back in high school, what seems like forever ago now, I was on the Student Council and March rolled around. We decided to celebrate National Peanut Month by giving a talk about what peanuts are, how they're grown, and the benefits of eating peanuts and peanut butter. I was the one who was given the opportunity to wear the large peanut costume and host the talk. Being a huge peanut was fun. But anyway, the student council members were allowed to visit a peanut farm to see how it is all done, from planting to peanut butter production. It was awesome and we were able to taste raw peanuts, roasted peanuts, and the fresh peanut butter. I wouldn't advise eating peanuts raw, but if you had to they're edible - sort of. I was shocked at how simple the production of peanut butter is. You just take roasted peanuts and grind them up until they are the consistency of a paste. Super easy, right? Well it takes a whole heck of a lot of roasted peanuts to make even a little bit of peanut butter! You know, back then people really didn't consider peanut allergies like they do now days. Had they, I bet that fieldtrip would have never happened. Nutty Facts Did you know peanuts grow underground and prefer drier, sandy soil? They're like nodules that grow on the roots of the plants. I also find it interesting that while peanut butter originated in Canada, the US is the largest exporter and consumer of the delicious creaminess. Want more fun/interesting facts about peanuts and peanut butter? Follow this link: Peanutty Facts Have a Nutty Day! |
8 November 2021  Prompt: What would you have to start doing now so that in 10 years you feel like you just had the best decade of your life? Were I in a state where medical use of cannabis were legal, I would get a prescription for it and I would discontinue taking many of my daily medications. Other than that, I'd go visit my grandmother, parents, in-laws, and daughters more often. Finances allowing, I would also travel around the world visiting friends and making new ones. I'd play every disc golf course I came across, visit every zoo and botanical gardens, take tours of museums and observatories. Stay up late, sleep in, read as much as I could, go camping and fishing and walking among nature. And as I do now, I would continue to be grateful for every day God allows me to live and for everything I am blessed to experience. I'd live, love, laugh, and learn. What better life could there be? |
| 7 November 2021 Today's prompt is taken from a book I own. "Great Quotes From Great Leaders", published by Motorola, my employer. This one is from Norman Vincent Peale. "The trouble with most of us, is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism." Do you feel this is a valid statement? Tell us why you feel the way you do. If this were not a valid statement, would people have decided participation trophies were needed? Everyone is out for praise, for all the good things in life to happen - yet comparatively speaking, few want to put in the effort necessary to earn these things for themselves or to hear from others how they could change certain things to improve on what is there. I don't see it near as much here on WDC, but out in the world people don't want their flaws pointed out so they can be improved upon. What is losing but a lesson in the ways a person needs to better themselves? We can't all be winners after all. Criticism comes in all forms and not all of it is destructive. Where are we being led in this world where criticism is being shunned, losing is being avoided, and participation trophies are being given to all? We need those things to grow and evolve. Praise is great and all, but in order to grow as human beings, we also need the flip side of the coin. Life is not without struggle and conflict. All we are doing by seeking praise and closing our eyes, ears, and minds to the rest is deluding ourselves. We need them both to grow. We need a balance there. How will we evolve as human beings without that balance? Can we grow if all we are given is praise? It doesn't look like it from where I'm standing. |
6 November 2021  Prompt: You work alone from home, logged on to your work PC. One day you log on, and start your routine. You look at the clock on your desktop and eight hours have passed, but you have no memory of getting any tasks done. Tell us what might have happened to you during those eight hours. "Aww hell! I must've done it again," I thought to myself. "When am I going to learn not to open additional tabs when I'm supposed to be working?" Other Me: "Work is boring though. What's wrong with a little bit of time on WDC every now and then throughout the day?" Responsible Me again: "I don't get paid to go on WDC, or to play that farming game either. I need to get my priorities straight, work when it's time to work. There's plenty enough time to write and play after that." Other Me: "Whatever. Already know I'm gonna do the same thing again tomorrow. At least I was logged in to the work computer...that's what they go by. Not how much work I get done" Responsible Me: "This really is a losing battle. Work can't compete with WDC!" |
11/5/21 Prompt: “In November, the smell of food is different. It has an orange smell. A squash and pumpkin smell. It tastes like cinnamon and can fill up a house in the morning, can pull everyone from bed in a fog. Food is better in November than any other time of the year.”― Cynthia Rylant Do you agree or disagree? Is there a particular dish that you associate solely with November? The food/smell I associate most with November is pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice. It's everywhere this time of year. Candles and incense, air fresheners, coffee creamers, pumpkin nog, seasonal cookies, shakes, cappuccinos, iced coffees... and the list continues on. Don't get me wrong, I like pumpkin pie and I'll eat a slice of it each year on Thanksgiving but I think they've gone overboard with it over the last ten years or so.  |
| November 5, 2021 Prompt: You arrive at work today with five donuts and five coffees for the people who are scheduled to be there. But you have a problem. Counting you, six people are there, and all of you love coffee and donuts! How do you and your friends resolve this? So, how does one solve this dilemma? It would depend on the mood I was in that day... If I happened to be in a giving mood, I would allow the other five people in the office to have the coffee and donuts. Besides, they don't know that I had a dozen donut holes on the commute to work. I can afford to be giving. And I don't mind drinking the office coffee. If I felt like being "fair" in everyone's eyes, I'd divvy up the coffee and donuts equally amongst everyone, keeping the donut 6ths for myself. They more closely resemble donut holes. And besides, again - I had a dozen holes on my way to work. If I was "feeling a little froggy" that morning, I would devise some sort of game to determine who would and who wouldn't get the morning treat. What do I care? I've already had donut holes this morning. And if I was in the mood to be a b*tch, I'd take all the donuts and coffee into my office to enjoy by myself. They could have bought their own and I could use a little more caffeine and sugar to get me through my workday. It's all mine suckers! |
| November 4, 2021 Prompt: We've all heard of people who mysteriously 'go missing'. Tonight, write about a person who 'goes missing'. Someone that you read about in the newspaper or online, but nobody seems to know them, or remember them. I remember the kids on the milk cartons from back when I was in school. My parents had me scared to death that if I talked to strangers or went off on my own in the city, I could possibly become one of those kids. The Missing. But what happened in my world didn't involve me directly. One of my friends, we'll call her PJ, went missing, along with the rest of her family. It wasn't a case of moving away. PJ left school one Friday and never came back. School officials said that neither she nor her siblings had been withdrawn. Their mother and step-father couldn't be contacted. No one from the area heard from the family again - until I ran into her again some twenty-odd years later in an entirely different part of the massive state of Texas. I asked her what had happened to her and her family. Asked why no one had heard from them for so long. She relayed to me that her step-dad and mother had joined a "new church" near Waco Texas, the Branch Davidians; and the family was instructed to leave their former lives to move into the church compound. She told me of how crazy life was at the compound. How the families were separated so that the women and girls slept in a different part of the compound than the men and boys. Remembering the stand-off at Mount Carmel and how it ended, I asked her how she got out of there. She told me that they weren't prisoners there. They could leave at any time. But they believed the stories Koresh was telling them were actual prophesies. Her parents turned a blind eye to the fact Koresh and some of the other men were abusing the kids. Thought it was the actual will of God that all the women become Koresh's wives. That is, until PJ had her first feminine cycle and Koresh deemed her ready to become one of his wives. She said her mom and step-dad had a huge fight about it - her mom refusing to allow Koresh to "claim" PJ while her step-dad urged her to allow it - and so they parted ways. Her mom left the compound and took PJ, her little sister, and any of the other siblings who wanted to leave. They got out in January 1993, the siege began in February. But PJ said her mom was afraid for her safety and that of PJ and the two siblings that left the compound with her, so they moved to an area of Texas where no one knew them. And that's where we met again. In a trailer park in a small town in Texas, many miles and hours from Waco and the insanity that happened there. I didn't recognize her, then again we were no longer kids. It was she who recognized me; happy to have found a friend from "the before times." We visited on and off for the next year before she went on her way again. I think maybe she doesn't want people from back home, or from Waco, to know where she is. Maybe she feels safer that way. |
| November 3, 2021 Prompt: You live in a tourist town. There's always an 'interesting' mix of visitors. But this year they are especially... different. In what way? Being in more of a country type atmosphere and surrounded by lakes, our small town is beset upon each weekend by what we like to call "Weekenders". These are people who live in the Dallas - Ft. Worth metroplex and other larger cities, but own or rent homes and private ranches on/near the lakes. The full-time residents of the area have learned to live with these intruders coming in on weekends and holidays, adding to the traffic in the towns, and flocking to our stores. As a matter of fact, these weekenders are the reason many of the specialty stores stay in business. Locals don't have a daily reason to go to antiques stores and high priced boutiques. But when the US shut down, the weekenders came in droves to the country, ready to get away from the insanity of the cities while whiling away their time until they had to return to work and life as usual. But they didn't leave after the weekend, or even after a couple of weeks. Many of them assimilated themselves into our communities, bringing their city ideas and insanity with them. "This area of town needs more commerce," they said. So heritage homes that had been in the town as long as there has been a town were leveled and replaced by fast food joints and other "conveniences of the city." Service in stores has ebbed, as employees are no longer just catering to the laid back ways of the countryfolk; they have to deal with the "I want it my way and I want it right now" attitude of the once-city folk. Traffic has become a problem, as our road systems within the town were not designed to deal with the influx in the number of vehicles on the road. City council meetings have gotten out of hand. We have lifelong citizens fighting to retain what is left of the town while on the other side we have those who squawk that the town needs more of the amenities city life has to offer. These visitors have upset the peace and quiet of the country by bringing in their city ideals; the same things they were attempting to escape by coming here. I'm of the opinion that if you want the amenities of the city, go back to the city. We try to live quiet lives with as little stress as possible out here. Visitors are one thing, but don't come and stay and try to change our entire way of life! |
This particular prompt has been a challenge. I was all set to create a bobble head museum and found to my chagrin that there already is one in existence.  I wanted my exhibit to be unique, so I thought harder on what I would really like my museum exhibit to be about. What I decided on can be read below.November 2nd PROMPT: You are curator of a museum. This museum has an area of interest to you. Take us on a guided tour of your latest exhibition. Did you have a frisbee when you were a kid? Did you ever wonder where they came up with the idea? Were you aware there are multiple flying disc sports played in the world today? My museum exhibition takes you through the history of the flying disc and the sports that have blossomed around it. Our first display takes us back to the year 1926, when in Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada a group of bored elementary school kids began tossing metal lids into circles drawn in the dirt. Back then they called the game "Tin Lid Golf." This fun pastime spread... ** Next Display ** Then in the 1940's a guy by the name of Walter Frederick Morrison became so infatuated by tossing tin lids, he invented and produced the world's very first plastic flying saucers. (indicates a glass case containing one of the rare original plastic saucers for people to view) ** Next Display ** By the 1950's, flying discs were all the craze, as they captured a person's dreams and fascination for flight. "In the beginning, playing with the Frisbee in the 1950s and 60s wasn’t about competition, it was about playing with a Frisbee disc that flies." - The History of Frisbee and Disc Sports. The basics of throwing flying discs began during this time and continued to develop through the 1960's. And in 1958, the first International Frisbee Tournament was held in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. - (photos and discs from this era on display) ** Next Display ** The 1960's saw a rise in the popularity of the flying disc as a sport. It is in this decade that Wham-o designed and released the first “Official Pro Model” to introduce the Frisbee as a flying disc to be used as a sport. Disc sport's first skilled athletes began showing up on the scene and the world saw the birth of Freestyle, followed by sports such as Ultimate, Guts, and an early form of disc golf - which were all conceived from Freestyle play. It makes sense that it was also during this time that the two main manufacturers of flying discs, Wham-o and Irwin Toy, would begin throwing tournaments and tours to promote these sports, giving rise to organized disc sports. The first of the Frisbee clubs showed up on the scene at the end of this decade as well. - (glass cases would have original flyers from tours and tournaments from the late 60's, photos of disc athletes in action, and the discs of that time) ** Next Display ** The 1970's could be considered the Decade of Disc Sports. Building on the popularity of disc sports seen in the later years of the 60's, disc sports reached new heights. The first multi-event disc tournaments and tours were held across the US and in parts of Canada. Events such as the World Frisbee Championships, Indoor Frisbee Festival, International Frisbee Tournament, and both the Vancouver Open and Canadian Open Frisbee Championships were first held. These events presented all of the different disc sports which had been created to date including guts, freestyle, disc golf, ultimate, double disc court (DDC) and several Frisbee individual events like accuracy, distance, maximum time aloft, and the discathon. Frisbee sport publications appeared designed to help promote disc sports and the tours and tournaments held for them. Frisbee clubs became more widespread. Tournaments for single events like disc golf or ultimate began to appear, some with prizes like vehicles for the winners. Organizations like the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) and the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) were created. - (glass cases hold photos and clips of events, discs, flyers, examples of the Frisbee publications of the time, examples of the tone poles, original disc golf basket displayed) ** Next Display ** During the 1980's the disc sport ride sped on. Tours and tournaments continued. Canada get's its first 18 hole disc golf course on Toronto Island, and the PDGA becomes a player-run organization, formalizing the rules of play for disc golf. The World Flying Disc Federation made their debut as well. Players create new throws and make adjustments to old throws in order to throw farther, do harder tricks, and increase their accuracy. Innova, a new disc manufacturer appears, making their name with a new design for the flying disc, one with a beveled edge rim, that changes the way disc sports are played, especially disc golf. Discs begin to be made specifically for the different disc sports and new disc sports are created. Disc golf targets continue to evolve to allow for better catch etc. and courses began popping up in parks all over the place. - (cases include flyers, photos from tournaments and clubs, a first run Innova disc, some of the other new disc designs created in the 80's, common disc golf basket of the 80's) ** Next Display ** 1990's through present - The 1990's through 2020 showed a slow-down in the overall growth of disc sports but not a disappearance. New manufacturers of golf discs came on the scene and along with Innova, have made modifications to discs, using new molds and plastic blends to help with the weight, flight, and durability of the discs. As of 2021, there are now about twenty actively producing golf disc manufacturers and another fourteen who no longer produce/actively produce them. Better disc golf baskets have also been designed and continue to be upgraded. As far as regular flying discs, the number of companies manufacturing those are countless, as they are still produced as toys for children. Halls of Fame were created for Ultimate in both the US and Canada, and the PDGA Hall of Fame was created in Georgia. Soccer fields were and are used for Ultimate and Freestyle. More disc golf were installed and more continue to be installed. Disc sports continued progressing and growing, even when the popularity of the sports waned. When Covid-19 hit, disc sports like disc golf saw a resurgence in interest. Here was a set of sports that were social-distancing friendly that people could play outside rather than having to remain in their homes bored. And for many of us, disc sports aren't just sports, they've become a way of life.  ** Image ID #2261296 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #2261299 Unavailable ** |
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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.
