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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 8, 2014 [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] It's Creation Saturday! Prompt for March 8 , 2014 It's Saturday! Did you get to sleep in? Make a few creative excuses for why you were able to sleep in this morning. If you didn't get to sleep in, what woke you up? It's a beautiful day the temperature is -8 and there is a forecast for tomorrow's temperature to rise above freezing to +1. I'm in Sunset Bay and, yes, I did sleep in today. I don't have a creative excuse for sleeping in. Never apologize for something you have no control over, I say. Whenever I'm asked why I slept so late (like today) I answer by saying..." I wasn't sleeping - I was dreaming." This morning's dream was about sleeping. Sleeping was represented by two physical objects; something like a shiny coin in a picture frame. There was a small one and a larger one. the small one represented a short nap of light sleep, and the larger one represented a long coma like state. I was challenged to choose the one I wanted to have. I pondered the choices until I was awoken by Leslie, who was alerting me to an incoming phone call. My friend Tim was calling to change the plans I had for today. It was damn near noon. One day a long, long time ago I arrived at work twenty minutes late. The accountant asked me if I slept in, and I told her that I was actually dreaming that I was at work all night. I submitted an invoice for four hours of over-time... and they paid me for it. The voice of my grade five teacher kept repeating in my head, "Nobody is going to pay you for sleeping, Joel" (Wrong again Mr. Z - What an asshole!) Ottawa vs Winnipeg in an NHL afternoon match-up. This means it's time for me to watch hockey. Sleep well. Dream big. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item"  Made in Canada   |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 7, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Ha ha... Andre the Blog Monkey stole Norb's hat. It's Funny Friday! Prompt for March 7 , 2014 Who is your evil twin? Write about the mischievous deeds that he/she has done today. This evil twin thing is completely new to me. In fact, I just recently learned about the evil twin phenomenon. I would never have believed it, except that I learned about it right here on Writing.com. Still, I was skeptical, until I actually came in contact with a pair of evil twins. I'm not sure which one is the evil one; maybe they take turns. I bet one of those evil twins wrote this prompt for the war chest.. hmmm, that reminds me of something I was supposed to do. But, never mind that, I have a blog entry to write. I don't think I have an evil twin, or we haven't met yet I bet, no sweat. (sorry) (s'okay, carry on) Umm, yeah... evil twin. Well I guess it's no secret that I have a muse by the name of Andre the Blog Monkey. Andre writes most of my entries, well, the good ones, to be more specific. I'm not suggesting Andre is my evil twin, but he certainly is mischievous. Just this past February a mob of bloggers took over the 30Day Blogging Challenge Forum. I thought it would be a good thing... then again...I thought sharing an office with a primate would be all fun. As it turned out a family situation prompted me to step away from the mob (I thought I wouldn't be gone long) so I left the mob (unsupervised) in the forum. I'm not sure if Andre found the mob or the mob found Andre, but I'm pretty sure one of the evil twins hatched the plan to blogmonkeynap Andre and hold him for ransom to raise prize revenues for the 30Day Blogging Challenge. There were plenty of rum balls going around at the time and Andre is awfully fond of vodka, so I don't think anybody notice that Andre went along willingly with the blogmonkeynapping plan. So...What does this all have to do with mischievous deeds done to sheepdone by your evil twin, today? Nothing really. But, Andre has been acting strange all week and it's not just from spending too much time with evil twin #1 or #2 ... who ever. Today Andre has been typing away and giggling to himself. When I asked what he was up to he was very vague, and when I tried to peek at his work he intentionally blocked my view. Andre can rock a 1929 Underwood typewriter, but he's also an avid computer hacker, I sure hope non of my mob friends left Andre unsupervised around their computer. Anyhow...I'm outta gas, passing it over to the monkey. WARNING THIS BLOG ENTRY IS RATED ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** BY ANDRE & TROOP Global Management & Consulting Technology Services ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 6, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** COMPUTERS HAVE TAKEN OVER. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE It's Opinion Thursday! Prompt for March 6, 2014 Mac or PC? (One word answers aren't interesting to read, so please expand on your opinion) Frozen fire hydrants now! Hi there. I'll get straight to the prompt. Technology marches forward faster than I can type. Who am I trying to kid? turtles walk faster than I type. Anyhow...What I find interesting about today's prompt is: I understand the question, as it is written. It wasn't too long ago that: if you had asked me the same question; I would have responded by asking, What is a PC? I would have known a MAC is short for "Big Mac" the world famous hamburger made of: two whole beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun by McDonalds Inc. Maybe, if I didn't want to appear stupid, I'd just respond with a one word answer, even though it wouldn't be interesting. I'd say, "MAC" because I'd rather have a Big Mac than something I'm not sure what exactly it is. I could live with my decision either way, even if PC was something better than a Big Mac, like: Pork Center Loin. What if it's Pigeon Claws? ... eew. But that was then and this is now. Now... I'm heavily engaged in the MAC vs. PC debate. It's the computer age and computers have taken over. Mac or PC baby, who's going to be the next wireless phone and who's going to be the next Beta Max? Computers are calling the shots now. Technology is a violent player in it's conscienceless quest for world dominance. Have you ever stopped and thought about what happened to; Black and white TV; Wall mounted, corded, dial phones; the Ice Box; the VCR, Sensible Shoes; and a million other things that we used to depend on for our very survival? Well, the new technology killed all of those things, because that's just what technology does. I think someday we'll look back at these times and say, "Remember when the inter-net was only available online, and you had to have a MAC or a PC to access it?" I'm not sure what technology has in store for us in the future, but If I were MAC or PC, I'd be worried. Don't worry. There will always be Big Macs. Nothing beats special sauce. In a word - Bah. Next question. See you tomorrow  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 5, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Winnipeg street scene - March 4, 2014 (temperature: Hi -18 Low -31) It's War Chest Wednesday! Prompt for March 4, 2014 What is something you did as a kid that you still enjoy doing today? Or, what is something you did as a kid that you wish you could still do today? Hello, everyone. (SECRETLY IMAGINES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE READING BROTHER'S BLOG) This guy was driving through a street flooded by a water main break. The car got stuck! So, the guy just got out and walked away. A tow truck could have pulled the car out before the water froze - now it's too late. The number of homes without water due to frozen pipes has climbed to 615, (that's double the number three days ago) despite city crews working around the clock thawing lines. The city only has three thawing machines, they put out a call for adding ten more, but they won't be available until next year. In the meanwhile people are forced to wait, and the people who DO have running water, have to leave a tap flowing to prevent the lines from freezing. The city is offering rebates on their next billing and free entry to city swimming pools to use the showers and washroom facilities. And...here we are, all comfy - cozy in beautiful Sunset Bay, away from the city and they're frozen ways. I am blessed. In a silent prayer of gratitude to God and support of my smelly city brothers and sisters I will give up showering for lent. I'm not so certain Leslie will have the faith to support me on this one. Most of the things I did as a kid - I don't do anymore. It kind of makes me wonder why I did them in the first place. So much has changed since I was a kid, I enjoyed playing games and watching cartoons. I still enjoy both, but I'm not a fan of the new brand of cartoons, with the exception of Sponge Bob Square Pants who totally rocks. Playing games has been taken over by computers - can't say we weren't warned. What I miss about being a kid is something kids don't even do these days and that is - playing outside. We played outside when I was a kid. We had countless games that we played. As we grew older the games changed from children's games to more adult games. It's not what you're thinking! It's more like mainstream sports that we began playing. I would still play any of the old games or sports, my only problem is finding someone to join me. These are the games I remember playing... Red Rover Hide n Seek Statues Leap Frog Follow the Leader Hide n Ditch Kick the Can British Bulldog Fungalo 500 and Up Yards Tin-can Cricket Chicken fights Soccer Football Baseball Beetle Bop Pink Flamingo Golf Ball tag Broomball Roof Ball Tether Ball Basket Ball Horse Curling Bowling Lawn Darts (now a banned product) And...Naturally we played hockey (as is the requirement for citizenship) These are the types of hockey games we played... Ice Hockey Ball Hockey Road Hockey Field Hockey Floor Hockey Table Hockey Rod Hockey Hockey with your hands. (I am the inventor of this game) Showdown Hockey with Playing Cards and every hockey video/computer game that came along. I'm not sure if fighting and bumper shining count, but we did a lot of that too. Is it over yet? Yeah it's over. You can go now, Thanks for dropping by.  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 4, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This cracks me up every time I see it. It's War Chest Tuesday! Prompt for March 4, 2014 There are many new, fantastic changes happening around WDC. What thrills you about the community we call Writing.com? On a broader note, what does Writing.com mean to you? How would you "sell" a community like ours to a writer friend of yours who is looking for a good writing site? Welcome back! I sure hope the prompt is dated, because I didn't notice any changes happening on the site recently. There have been many changes to the site since I showed up about three years ago. All of the changes have been improvements to what was already an excellent writing website and community. I'll kick things off with a little rant... I bought a website through FatCow a little over a year ago. The cost was $34.00 for one year. After the first week I realized that I wasn't going to get what I was promised before signing up. I did not get a DOT COM domain name as promised. I did not get customer support as promised and the web tools they touted were the same tools readily available for free on other web hosting sites. Oh well, I figured, live and learn. Discouraged and somewhat angered, I dropped the site and pursued other interests. In January of 2014 FatCow sent me an email stating that they would AUTO-RENEW my account by charging $169.69 to my CC through my PayPal account. I sent FatCow an email stating that I had no intentions of renewing my account (at any price). I requested that they close my account, and I also instructed them to NOT take any money from me. FatCow sent me a carefully worded email that was truly offensive, because it basically said, we don't care what you want, we're going to take this money from you regardless, and that's exactly what they did. Yesterday I cancelled my account with PayPal and explained to them that they enabled one of their customers to steal money from me. So let it be known to everyone who reads this... The web hosting site FATCOW are thieves, and PAYPAL will allow unauthorized access to your money. One positive thing I can take away from this most recent experience is a much greater appreciation for the web site Writing.com. They have delivered on every promise; they have done business and built their business fairly, and with honor. I have never before (ANYWHERE ONLINE) found a web business where the owners make an effort to show a genuine appreciation for their customers - Where else does the site owner drop by and make a comment on your blog or give you a "like" on your newsfeed, or send you a Christmas card? Only here! That's where! I've recommended this site to everyone I know, several people have joined on my recommendation. I tell people that, if you like to write (regardless of the genre) you'll like this site. Also, I tell them, if you like to read you'll love Brother's Blog (exclusively available for free on Writing.com) The StoryMistress   , The StoryMaster  and Writing.Com Staff  Thank you for providing this wonderful website and supplying all of the writing tools, inspiration and appreciationto enable a nurturing family like community. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 3, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Andre the blog monkey posted this picture of me from 1971 It's Wildcard Monday! Prompt for March 2, 2014 Did you watch the Oscars? Tell us about a time in your life that was worthy of being made into a movie/TV show/novel/short story. Hello, Friends. This has been a frustrating day, and will be duly noted when the, "Write a threatening letter to a crooked thieving website" prompt comes up. If no such prompt comes up, I'll just tweak a "close enough" prompt to suit my rant, but not today. Today is about the Academy Awards, the Oscars and me.      These are a few of my fav - or - ite thingsI did not watch the Academy Awards show this year. I did see one movie in the theater this past year though. Leslie and I went to see, Philomenia. Philomenia was one of the best movies I have seen in a while, and it was nominated for an Oscar or two. I don't think it won any of the top categories; it may have been skunked; I haven't bothered to go look. Movies I like never win. John Wayne and the Cowboys didn't even get a nomination, and neither did Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Do you want to know what would make a real good movie?  A movie about me.That's right! But I mean it in a very humble sense. I believe that everybody's life story is worthy of movie production. Of course it would have to be a book first, but you know what I mean. I have three older brothers and an older sister. When I was five years old our youngest brother was born. My experiences growing up in our large family of mostly boys make for some entertaining stories. I've written several stories by mining my childhood memories, and I've written several more blog entries using the same memory pool. I'm starting to think that I could possibly string the stories together and produce an all most true and entertaining larger work. If and when my writing skills improve I'll get right on that. If I could write the story of my childhood and then make it into an animated motion picture - I would love it so much it would never win an Oscar. Coming to theater near you real soon! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 2, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Andre the blog monkey during his newspaper reporting days. The Sunday News! Prompt for March 2, 2014 Provide your thoughts/opinions on a newspaper/magazine article or a radio/television news story from the past week. I'm a bit of a news junkie. I begin everyday by watching CBC News Now. I switch over to CNN when I want to get the American top stories. I watch the local news at noon then I watch more local news from 5:00pm - 6:30pm when I switch over to Jeopardy at 6:30. Definitely watch Jeopardy at 6:30 definitely. From 11:00pm to 12:00am I watch the National news followed by another run of the local news. My day is not complete until I've watched "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Definitely with Jon Stewart. In local news the weather has been the leading story most days. The temperature here today was -31 and with the wind chill factored in it was -48. It's interesting to note that -30 is the same temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. It's as if it doesn't matter anymore after -20. No need to do the conversion after -20. The thermometer manufacturers can pretty much stop using numbers and just print "FUCKING COLD" on the bottom third of the thermometer. In the city of Winnipeg there is record snow fall combined with record cold temperatures. It's the third coldest winter since we began recording the weather conditions, and it's (winter) not over yet. The streets are basically impassable, and there are 375 plus homes that have no running water due to frozen pipes. The city crews can't keep up with thawing out frozen pipes or clearing the streets of snow. There is no more place to put the snow; there are already seven to eight foot piles of snow lining the length of every road; driving is getting pretty dangerous. The big breaking world news story which I learned about first through Sparky  's newsfeed is - Russia sending troops into the Ukraine. I predicted this to happen. I said, "as soon as the Olympics are over Putin will move into the Ukraine." Definitely invade the Ukraine.Hey, speaking of the Olympics... Canada won gold in both the men's and women's hockey tournament. Yeah! We win the Olympics, and I just have to mention our crack smoking Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford and Canada wins the news too...Hooray! Definitely win the news. Hooray! In the words of Lloyd Robertson - "That's the kind of day it's been." Have a great day; stay warm. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** March 1, 2014 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** It's Creation Saturday! Prompt for March 1, 2014 Write for fifteen minutes using "I used to think..." as your starter. I used to think... Sometimes I still do... But I try not to think about it. I used to think... Fifteen minutes was a long time. I used to think... Spending several hours writing something people MIGHT take two minutes to read was a good deal. I used to think... I would never change. I used to think... Winter was my favorite season. I used to think... I knew everything. I used to think... It mattered - but, it doesn't matter, because my fifteen minutes are up. This is my first blog entry in over a month of taking a break from blogging. I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed, focussed and stream-lined. Ready to take on the world. I will be keeping my entries short and sweet, and dedicating my blogging time - 100% to the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" I used to think writing a blog entry every day for thirty days was easy... it's not. Good luck to all of my fellow competitors in the challenge - I'll see you in the comments section. What now? The Winnipeg Jets are about face off against the Nashville Predators. That's my cue to go watch hockey. Have a great day! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Nothing seems to make any sense... Until now! January 27, 2014 Blog Prompt "Think about your journey as a writer. Which novel do you think represents or most relates to your journey? Why? Which book do you want it to be like?" Chill-O, friends. The temperature is -42C with the wind chill factored in. It's too cold to go outside; even if you get out of the wind; the temperature is still below 30C. Exposed skin freezes in less than two minutes. Vehicles become frozen hunks of metal, and unless you have no other choice, people tend to seek any form of shelter from the elements. Everything slows to a stop, and if you happen to be sheltered alone, (which I am) the world becomes a quiet, lifeless planet. It's not very hard to imagine that we really are traveling through the expanse of deep dark space at 108,000 km/h. It's a little like being on a train trip, and the train stops in the middle of nowhere. You wonder why your journey has come to a stop, and it isn't long before you begin to reflect on your journey thus far. So... Alone with my thoughts, comfortably sheltered from the freezing temperatures, I began to consider my journey as a writer, and I wondered - Which novel would best represent my journey into writing? I thought about all of the novels I have ever read. Most of them had absolutely nothing to do with anything I can relate to my writing journey. It serves me right for reading all of those Stephen King, and Clive Barker books. Eventually I identified with Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Like, Robinson Crusoe I also am isolated; alone with my thoughts. We share an inner struggle to balance resources, being certain to make enough of statement that will get you noticed, but conserving and dedicating the resources vital to your survival at the same time. In the same way Robinson Crusoe had, Friday for companionship and assistance - I have my muse, Andre the Blog Monkey. But wait! Another book came to mind that fits the bill - Pinocchio by, Carlo Collodi. I would be like Pinocchio - on a quest to become a real boy. Only I would be on a quest to become a published author - a real writer. Oh, but maybe I'd be better suited to the character Geppetto, who longed for his creation to live. Either way, Andre would take on the roll of Jiminy Cricket and guide me away from acting on foolish ventures. I never actually read Pinocchio, I think Jiminy Cricket was added in after the fact by Disney studios. Oh well, so was Andre. Not by Disney, mind you, but isn't it funny how the movie never captures the hearts and minds of the viewer, like a book captures the hearts and minds of the readers. I'd have to say that my writing journey is a book on it's own. It may (some day) be an actual book. I'd like it to be like a few different books mushed together. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, would mix science fiction and comedy with the American drug culture...that might be fun. I hope my, journey through writing book, would be like all of my reader's favorite books rolled up into to one fantastic read. Any way you slice it - the book of my writing journey will be an amazing best seller. Of course it will be made into a movie and the movie will fail to capture the hearts and minds of the viewers - like the book captured the hearts and minds of its readers. I will insist that the movie be animated, and Andre the Blog Monkey will be the director. It's not getting any warmer out there folks... ... even so... ... it turned out nice again. O M G ! Look at the time! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Nothing seems to make any sense... Until now! January 24, 2014 Blog Prompt "In high school my friend pointed out to me that humans can never create anything new; everything they create is a product of other created things. For example a unicorn is just a horse with a horn on it's head it isn't truly new, she argued. What do you think about this concept? Do you think she's right or wrong? How does this apply to you as a writer? (Remember that every story is just a different combination of 26 letters!)" Hi-di-ho, friends. This is the sort of prompt that motivates me to write, and promotes intriguing discussion. All of the creative possibilities and the desire to dissect and respond to the prompt fill my thoughts. My brain curses my fingers for typing too slow. My fingers (thinking they're smarter than my brain) make a head start, yet somehow it all turns out nice again. So lets get started. The prompt asks three questions; the first one being... What do you think of this concept? Well, it's not really a concept at all. It's a bit of a mix up of a few differing concepts. The first part refers to the concept of the philosopher who states, there is nothing new under the sun. I completely bought into this philosophy at one time, mainly because I first read this in the Bible. The philosopher in the Bible book droned on about, the sun goes up - the sun goes down, the tide comes in - the tide goes out. blah blah blah - and so on. He then goes on to question the existence of God, but ultimately in the end decides that, it's better to believe in something than not. When I was lesser experienced at life, it was easier to believe in the concept - nothing is new under the sun, but I've learned that, it is not true. When I was just a puppy, we had no video games, remote controls, computers, and countless dozens of other things. Now we have all of these things, and they are all new things; they were born of the dreams of creative thinkers; people who dared to try. I can also reason that I am (or at one time was) something new. I'm not Just another human or a reincarnation of a previous person. I'm a newly born individual with an everlasting spirit attachment; there will never be another me. (thank God) Also, my children were both born "new" not a combination of myself and their mother, but a brand new unique individual with minds of their own and dreams and desires. Oh boy, do they have desires. no money - just desires. So...things are not just re-creations of already created matter. But...that doesn't even matter because... your friend's example is some sort of pot inspired genre mix. A unicorn is a mythical beast, it's unlikely that one ever existed, so it can not be related to a horse in any way. A horse is a horse, of course of course. (two completely different things) Even if she wasn't wacked out on recreational drugs, she's still absolutely wrong. It's like saying, "A pigeon is just a rat with wings, or a cat is just a dog with a bad attitude, or Indian food is Chinese food with different spices. Anyhow, I guess my fingers got ahead of my brain and I prematurely answered the second question: She is wrong. The nice thing about it is: you had that conversation back in high school. I've had several good conversations back in high school, similar to the one you had with your friend. Now I look back on those conversations and wonder...how did we ever graduate? When it comes to writing - new things are created every day. When I write a poem, for example, it is a new poem. It did not exist before I created it, and there is nothing like it anywhere else. (thank God) And... Remember that every story is just a different combination of 26 letters; Provided the story is written in English and that you've used all 26 letters. I think I only used 24 in today's NEW and humble installment of Brother's Blog. See, it turned out nice again. Have a great day! O M G ! Look at the time! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please visit my blog @ "Invalid Item" Made in Canada |
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