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This blog is a wide variety of things. Most titles are prompts I have followed. |
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This journal is a wide collection of things. Some of it is just a free flow of thoughts. Some of it is from Earl's 31-Day Challenge a long time ago. The rest is from given writing prompts that I have found around the Net from various groups to which I belong. It's not often that I rant about life in general, but you will find some of that here as well. Things here are mostly prompts I have followed. Maybe you will find a prompt that inspires you. Welcome to my blog! |
| Global warming is a problem. It is changing environments all over the globe. But, think of the implications for Santa at the North Pole! Reindeer are accustomed to the colder weather. Will the elves have to then shave the reindeer to keep them comfortable? Or will Santa be forced to switch to an animal more acclimated to the warmer weather… such as zebras? Their sense of direction may not be as good as the reindeer, bringing up an entire new wealth of complications for Santa (Elf, 2008). The sleigh can stay, at least. Although it is for use in the snow, he is currently able to deliver toys to children in all climates, so it is assumed the sleigh is an all-purpose vehicle. What about Santa’s red suit? Obviously this attire will prove to be far too warm for him (Claus, 2008). What’s next – Santa in a Speedo? I don’t think anyone wants to see that. Stop Global Warming Now!!! Sources: Elf, Charlie the. “Global Warming and the Reindeer.” The Reindeer Gazette 15 December 2008 Claus, Mrs. “Santa’s New Wardrobe.” The North Star Journal. 17 December 2008 ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable **   ** Image ID #1502496 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable **   |
| I wasn’t sure which prompt to pick today and, honestly, the tone of the message board was less than inspiring. But I’ll go with the season and choose the Christmas prompt. I like to celebrate Christmas by being home with my family. I like to take time away from the hustle and bustle of the world end enjoy my quiet home. We live in a very rural area. We have ten acres of land and can see no other houses from our yard. It’s very peaceful… we have deer and turkeys that visit us on a regular basis. I like to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch the snow or the animals outside. I like to talk to my family that I haven’t seen in a while, as they all live in different parts of the state, and some of them out of state. Sometimes we get together for a chat session online, which is incredibly fun. They are a witty bunch and usually have me laughing until tears are streaming down my face. In all, to me Christmas is a time for friends and family, and I enjoy the basics of the holiday more than anything. ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1502496 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
The first person who comes to mind in this category would be Tina Turner. She’s overcome so much in her life and she’s still going strong. She has such a resolve and such great character. If I look back to the days of her and Ike and the physical and psychological abuse his drug-addled self inflicted on her… and then look how she overcame it all and is still just a great woman… she would definitely make my short list. Gloria Estephan has also overcome some major problems in her past (I watched a documentary on her life, sort of on accident, actually), and she is among my favorites as well. Mississippi John Hurt is among my favorite musicians right now. My musical tastes vary so much (I just took my Finger Eleven CD out of the car and replaced it with Trans Siberian Orchestra…. The last two CDs I bought were a Disturbed CD and an Andrew Lloyd Webber compilation…. So I think you get my drift on that), that my favorite musician changes drastically from one week to the next. I also have a few friends on MySpace who have laid down some killer tracks in various genres, but I digress… Mississippi John Hurt plays some of the best slide guitar I’ve heard. It’s so clean and crisp, even in his old recordings. Although the quality of the recordings is not the best from 1936, his music is still so clean even compared to newer guys like Roy Rogers (the blues guy, not the cowboy). MJH is a great musician. Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Muddy Waters, BB King, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Mississippi Fred McDowell… To me, they are all great in their own right. They are the forerunners of rock music. They are the kings of blues. I believe that my love of history combines with this music to give a bigger, fuller picture of the lives and times of the musicians, making the stories in their songs all the more real. Favorite actors? Bogart tops the list there. He was the first actor to appear in film not wearing a T-shirt… very risqué for his day! Roy Scheider in All That Jazz is another favorite. John Wayne, of course… Chuck Connors as the Rifleman is up there on my list, too. Bella Lugosi, Vincent Price, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino (whose real name would take up half of this page, I found)… somebody stop me! There are so many great characters and actors playing those characters. There are so many great musicians with so many stories to tell in their lyrics. I could go on forever and, for the rest of the day, I’ll randomly shout, “OH! (s)he should have been on my list!” ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1502496 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
| "The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." -James M. Barrie At some point we all had a plan as to what we would do with our lives, what we would “be” when we “grew up.” Suddenly, we wake up at the age of 37 (or 25, or 63), and realize that we planned our lives around some ideal set of circumstances and, while we were busy planning, life was busy happening. When I looked at the quote originally, I took it to mean that one’s station is life, not being what it had originally been planned to be, was necessarily less…. But I don’t believe that to be the case, the longer I look at it. I am humbled, comparing the two volumes, by the fact that I have found my own road in life and was not swayed by the people who told me I would be a great chemical engineer ( due to my love of science, even at an early age) or that I should become a physicist, etc. Maybe those would have been great options. I’m sure I’d be making more money!! (I’m a restaurant manager, for those of you who don’t know – and a durn good one, and I love it, truly) Maybe I should have moved out of the rural area where I was born and raised (and I did for a while), for better opportunities. Maybe, maybe maybe. But, truly, I am happy with where I am in life. We are starting a business, which is truly my passion…. I love the idea of taking off with something and making it work because I believe in it. Building something from the ground up is what I need and what I love in life. In my time as a restaurant manager, I have taken over locations that no one else would attempt because they were “too far gone”, and I’ve gotten things to work there. I love that challenge. And now, the “impossible” writing career on top of that. My Dad, who I love dearly, always told me I didn’t want to be in management because it was too much of a headache. Also, if I would have ever told him I was serious about being a writer…. Welllll…… I guess he would have told me I was crazy and should rethink my idea (in a different tone and with different words, I’m sure. LOL). So, as I planned my life, I took the logical, pragmatic approach. Once I reached high school, though, I realized that the “cookie cutter” was not for me. I needed to make my own way, make my own mistakes, and push the envelope a little more. My diary was a book I intended to write one day. It’s much different than I planned it… and I’m much happier for it. People change. The world changes. Ideas change. I embrace change and see it as another learning experience. I’m glad I never wrote the story of my life – because it’s not over! There may be some hard times left for me, and that’s okay. I also know there are some really great times ahead (and in the past!) that I never would have experienced if I had written my diary too quickly. |
| “As I burn another page As I turn the other way I will try to find my place In the diary of Jane.” ~Breaking Benjamin~ Now that the last line has run through my head all day (I’ve heard the song a million times, but never knew all the words…LOL), I have time to reply to the post. To me, it means trying to find what you meant in someone else’s life. I guess sometimes you never really know. You know in the case of your close friends and family… most of the time. Then again, I have found some of my family are closer to me that I originally thought. My family isn’t huge, but there are 13 of us “grandkids” (no matter how old we are, we will always refer to ourselves that way. LOL), so there’s a good number of us. I guess if certain things hadn’t happened in life, we may not have known how close we really are, if that makes sense. In another aspect of relationships, you may not know what place you have in another’s life. The song reminds me of a person who was a good friend of mine long ago (I was a teenager, imagine that). We were such good friends, and everyone thought we were dating, which we vehemently denied. Then, we did date for a short while – we figured if everyone thought we were, we might as well say we were. We did the same things together… went to movies, went out to eat, went to parties, only the relationship changed. We grew apart after that, and I’m not sure that either one of us really knew why. We may have been better off just staying friends. He eventually moved away, but I caught up with him online quite a few years back. I think we both wonder what the pages of each other’s diary would say about our feelings at the time. What purpose did we serve in each other’s life? How did we really feel? Why in the heck did we ever start actually “dating” anyway, knowing that part of what we liked to talk about was different guys (in my case) or girls (in his case) that we liked or were interested in? Is that why we finally started dating? What the heck happened anyway? Sometimes I thought, maybe, that I held his friendship too close and that kept other guys from asking me out more… maybe he felt the same…. Maybe I liked him more than I was letting on… maybe he liked me more than he was letting on…. Maybe it was none of the above. To me, these are the questions that the line, “I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane” attempts to answer. Basically, “where do I fit in to this person’s life.”….. just my interpretation, and I may be wrong.  ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1502496 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
| “How would you pass the time if you were snowed in this winter?” This prompt isn’t a difficult one for me. I know that there will be several more days that, although you might not consider it being “snowed in” per se, I will definitely not leave my house is I don’t have to. I don’t really have the option of being “snowed in,” though. As a restaurant manager in northern Wisconsin, you need to be to work, no matter the weather. You make the 30-mile trip to work (even if it takes an hour and a half, rather than thirty-five minutes) in all weather. But it’s not all that bad…. On days off when it’s a blizzard all day… those are the best days! I curl up with a book, or do some writing or crocheting, and watch the snow fall. I also like baking on my off time. Cookies, breads, cakes, pies: when it snows, our home is filled with wonderful smells – and our stomachs with unlimited calories! Snow days remind me of waking up in the morning as a child and looking across the street to see if the buses were running yet. One of the school bus services was located across the highway from my house as a child. If I woke up in the morning and didn’t see the air full of diesel exhaust over there, I knew the buses weren’t running that day and I would have the day off! It was always great to be the first to know. I’d immediately plan my day… what I would do, what I would read, and have my schedule set before anyone else even knew we weren’t going to school. For me, sometimes the only days that I take a break and do “nothing” for the whole day, is when the weather demands it… so I love snow days and being “snowed in.” Not only does it bring back great memories of my childhood, but it helps me slow down and create more great memories. ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1502496 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
| “Blog on the spot – Spot the Blog” Interesting prompt for today. I do host blogs other places on the Net. One I wrote in for a long time, quite frequently. I have a following there and, although I do write in other places now, I tend to go back to my first blog quite a bit. Now that I’ve written in that one for a few years, it’s fun for me to go back to that blog and read things that happened and my reactions to them. Most of the situations in that blog are work-related. You may think that there wouldn’t be a lot of situations in the work place that bring out a lot of humor, but at the time I started the blog I had just taken over one of the worst-run restaurants in my corporation. I knew no one would believe the things I was going through on a daily basis unless I wrote them down as they happened! Now I look back and laugh at the ulcer-inducing times I had back then. I’ve gotten into other blogging communities as well, mostly through the prompting of my mom (who is an author) and some of her author friends. They host blogs as well, and I have found them truly enjoyable to read. Of course, I find a lot of blogs that I don’t care for (random rants including more four-letter-words than actual, intelligent arguments), but there are some really good reads out there, and I stop back often to learn and get new ideas. There are even a couple of blogs that I read from writers whose opinions I disagree with drastically. The reason I keep going back? To see how they present arguments and “pick them apart”, if you will, as I am sure they do with mine. Blogging, I’ve heard, is for people who have something to say. I think everyone has something to say… and I think we all have a lot to learn from one another. There are always two sides to every coin. Sometimes we change our opinions when we read the other side of the coin. Other times, it only serves to enforce our original thoughts. The point is, the more exposure to both sides of an argument, the better able I feel I am to make an intelligent argument! ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1320785 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
| It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand." I have never heard this put this way before, but I like the quote. It is basically the same, to me, as “Speak softly but carry a big stick.” And “Actions speak louder than words.” One of the first examples of this in my life I can think of was with children I babysat years ago. I remember their mother, a friend of mine, saying that she could never get them to listen. She yelled and yelled at them, and threatened, and threatened (not physically, of course… but things like, “keep it up, and you’re not getting any ice cream”, etc.), but they still didn’t listen. The problem was that they had become immune to her yelling. They also knew the odds were good they would still get whatever it was, or go wherever she told them they would not. One night, while she was at work, I told the kids that they needed to clean up all of their toys in the living room and put them in their toy box before bed, or I was throwing them all away. Of course, they didn’t do it (mom usually wound up picking them up, she told me). I took each toy, put them in a garbage bag, and set all the bags out in garage, where they kids wouldn’t find them. The next morning, when they woke up to no toys, their mom told them that I had thrown them all away because they didn’t listen to me. We pulled the stunt off beautifully (eventually giving all the toys back), and the kids learned that the “lightning” would follow the “thunder”, if you will. The two girls sat on the couch, very sad, for most of the morning and quietly watched TV. They knew they had been told the consequences of their actions – they just didn’t believe it would ever happen. Once words were reinforced… thing improved greatly! This is true in so many other avenues of life. Most often, it is better to do more and say less. It is better to show someone you care than to tell them. Looking back at the month before the election, I feel the same way. Actions speak louder than words there as well. As a manager, I apply the same thing to my employees. They know what I expect and they also know that praise and reprimand will follow uniformly for all actions or inactions taken on their part. I am consistent and fair. They know that, not because I tell them, but because they see it on a daily basis. ** Image ID #1482463 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1320785 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
| "Don't mistake changing headlines for changes" d.a. levy Changes, in reality, are not brought forth by changing headlines… although I do believe that public opinion is swayed by the doom and gloom headlines of late. Yes, we are in very serious financial times, but if the headlines weren’t constantly telling us how bad things are, and that they will get worse, we may not have had as big of a public panic as we did. My favorite headlines are the ones last year that predicted over $4 per gallon of gas… shortly after that, the price started to rise steadily. Now, did the price really need to go up, or did it just go up because the media had already prepped people for it? The oil companies still recorded record profits, so… you decide. The changes in the headlines didn’t make the change in some people getting foreclosed upon…. I know there are people who are in serious financial hurt that have done nothing wrong, and those are not the people I’m talking about (my heart truly goes out to them!). I am talking about the people who made investments in several condos and other properties that they never had an intention of living in... and then lost money. I do not feel sorry for someone who says someone else said it was a good investment … there’s always risk. I also don’t feel all that bad for people who are in a family of five making a total income of $30,000 a year and bought a $500,000 house because some banker told them they could afford it (until their ARM adjusted). I know that makes a lot of people mad that I say this, but let’s think about it rationally. What did they really think was going to happen? The headlines didn’t make a lot of these changes. People’s actions (or inactions, or greed, or what have you) make changes. I will climb down from my soapbox now, and I’m sorry if I offended anyone. That was not my intention. My intention is to say that we are adults and must think for ourselves at times. We need to look at our own lives and make the changes and decisions that are right for us, regardless of what the newspaper headlines say. ** Image ID #1464515 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
There is a global disaster. I am trapped in a library. I need to burn books for heat until I am rescued. I have the pick only three books that I would save. If I Could Only Save Three Books… Well, I’m stuck in the library and I need to burn books to stay warm. First off, I think I would wait until I got so incredibly cold that I couldn’t fee my fingers before I started burning books. I would probably be crying.. but that has nothing to do with the prompt. Okay, so I can only save three books. Of Course I’d have to save the biggest dictionary I could find. Like they say, the words to every other book every written are in there! And I’d have to save a World History book. If I think about it, I may be the one forced to re-write all of these things, and I’m pretty bad with dates, so I’d need some reference material. So, those are two books for sure that I would have to save. Another easy option, I guess, would be the Bible. But, that may not be necessary, depending on how many people survived this disaster, that may not be necessary (if there are enough people left such as ministers and whatnot, I think they could fill in any gaps for me). The third book – now I’m assuming that our main infrastructure system would be no longer in place. I would need a book on survival – trapping and slaying animals as well as growing my own food. If this disaster is so epic, I would imagine all of our technology would be obsolete. I would need to know how to feed myself and my family as people did long ago. I would need survival skills. Looking at it…. Maybe it wouldn’t be this “disaster” would not be the worst thing in the world. Ahhh… to go back to a “simpler” time………… ** Image ID #1464515 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1503218 Unavailable ** |
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