3-2-1 Quote Me: Expression

1. Rory tagged me to post two quotes about expression. Thanks Rory!

2A. Cat expresses self:

2B (or not). Regarding art/writing:

3. Now I tag:

A. J-Dubs

B. Salted Caramel

C. Kristian

Lucky Photo Find

This Reagan Museum photo has everything. It contains a circle and a square. It has something that begins with an R. And it’s colorful. I’m beyond thrilled that I can cross 4 things off my list in one swell foop.

Onward!

Laura’s Music Challenge 14

Hey hey! It’s time to join in and post some tunes for Laura’s Music Monday! 🎶💕🙂

1. Post a video of a song by a woman or a band led by a woman that youconsider to be a trailblazer in the music industry.

2. Post a video of a song by an all female band.

3. Post a video of a song by a woman that is about strength or finding your fight.

Not just my verse…

This is a chain verse, as you can see, starting with Guy, meandering to Di, and now apparently its fate rests with me!

A Guy Called Bloke’s Start

I am quite the writer you know, it has to be said,
My imagination runs wild, loose and amok,
Creating literary havoc within my head,
Luckily, however, I haven’t experienced writer’s block!

Fandango’s Addition

Each morning I think about topics on which to post
But what stirs my imagination by far the most
As I try to conjure up what it is I want to write
Is using the daily prompts while keeping my writing tight.

Leigha Robbins Addition

Sometimes the words leave me to struggle
But that’s when I take the words and juggle
To fit them into their proper place
Where they do more than take up space

Sandy’s Addition

The words they come, the words they go
At times MIA, a total no show
In the end, it’s all worthwhile
When flowing freely, one big smile

Angie of King Ben’s Grandma‘s Addition

More words do I read, than write, by far
Writers are my heros, like rock stars
Through all my troubles, pain and strife
Words have comforted me, saved my life

Grandma passes the baton to Beckie of Beckie’s Mental Mess

Writing is artistry without a brush but with a pen,
You start with a beginning and surprise yourself with the end
Word prompts, picture prompts, sentence prompts work on our imagination,
Where ever our minds take us, we end up with some kind of creation.

Beckie passed the challenge on to Tales From The Mind of Kristian

Here is Kristian’s addition:

These virtual worlds that we create in our heads
The possibilities, endless with more patterns to find
The plots, esoteric or quizzical with many varied threads.
Show the deepest, darkest recesses of the creative mind.

Kristian passed the baton to Sadje of Keep it Alive

I write for the love of writing and the need to say something
Crafting ideas and giving them expression on my space
Sometimes it is an effortless flow straight from my mind
Then there are days when nothing comes, it is all in a bind

Di delivers:

Writer’s Block can take a flying leap
As my imagination keeps me from sleep,
Dreams and music give me ideas
Though all is not as it originally appears……..

Now Me:

I always have much too much to say;
I could write endlessly night and day.
But don’t expect it to make any sense;
I can use migraines as a defense!

*

I’m sending this by raven across the USA to Larry on the other coast to see what he can add…

Song Lyric Sunday: Midnight

Bad blogger here! Forgot to schedule my song yesterday and now it’s 2AM Sunday. I’m choosing “Midnight Confessions” by the Grass Roots to go with Jim’s theme. I don’t have Jim’s link, the lyrics, or any info about the song. I’m tired. And it’s raining, so my head feels implodey. But I do have this fun video from Boston Legal to go with the song. Hope you enjoy! G’nite.

Updating with the link to Jim’s SLS post.

The Mighty Quinn

Jim writes about this song today and gives various ideas on what it might be about. An ex told me it was about a drug dealer. That makes sense. I nicknamed a character in a book “the Eskimo” because of that, and yes he was a drug dealer. I didn’t write much about the drugs themselves, since I don’t know anything and research is boring; instead I wrote about two guys having a long funny convo in the drug dealer’s house about which women they’d rather bang, such as Ginger or Mary Ann, etc. My story got way off-track because I began to enjoy writing these conversations more than the lurve scenes between the actual main characters, and I struggled with giving the protagonists enough screen time, so to speak. For some reason, this book isn’t even up for sale in my glob of books. That must be because I couldn’t decide which version to self-publish. Let’s take a vote.

1. The long one with all the off-track scenes left in that don’t even have much to do with the lurve story at all and make the book way too long for a romance novel but are funny?

2. The semi-cleaned up one that is less funny but more focused on the actual lurve story?

3. The super cleaned up version?

Then vote:

A. Prologue, which Elmore Leonard hates, but adds texture.

B. No prologue.

Title:

i. Attractive Nuisance (relevant legal term).

ii. Sweet Nothings (name of her lingerie store).

Thanks for your help!

P.S. Please remember that I still can’t read minds and you actually have to tell me in the comments what you want! 😀

Monocat

Here’s a recent pic of Mr. G looking a bit pensive for the B&W paws & claws prompt.

The Most Important Lesson from GOT

***WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GAME OF THRONES’ SPOILERS!***

It’s sport for GOT fans to mercilessly drag every episode of this last season, in gory detail, and I agree with the main criticism ~ the ending is rushed. The show runners spent 7 long seasons setting up an intricate story, and now they’re zooming to finish, stuffing two wars into three episodes out of six, and leaving lots of loose ends.

Meanwhile, I’m basically enjoying the eps, besides wishing there would have been more of them. I don’t share the common criticism that the plot twists and character arcs are “unearned.” The first seasons generally followed the books, so if you’d read them, you weren’t shocked by twists. Ned’s beheading was accepted because those of us who read the books knew it was coming, but normally the sudden death of a beloved character early on would have generated criticism from fans.

So, when I read today that people are upset about Varys’ death, I roll my eyes. The dude was a great character, but he was always plotting and scheming against rulers, and it was inevitable one would discover it and kill him. You have to wonder why it took so long really, except for the fact that he was smarter than all of them. Littlefinger was also, but Varys was not evil and selfish, so he caught more breaks. Both men were lucky they lasted as long as they did.

People who are carrying on today about Daenerys going “mad” haven’t been paying attention. She has stated all along that she was going to take what was hers “with fire and with blood.” She has torched people throughout the show, but that was okay with us because we didn’t like them. Her character has been stable, her mission unchanged, and her vision focused on one goal.

If you want to pick apart the military strategy of Euron and his crew, I get that. One day he takes out a dragon with his first shot and sinks the entire opposing navy; in the next encounter, he’s totally inept. What the hell happened there? Gotta say though I enjoyed his rambunctious battle to the death with Jaime. Good stuff, though I did think Euron would have mentioned the baby he thinks is his. Might have thrown Jaime off-balance.

Okay, so Jaime fooking Lannister, amirite? People are yelling about his character arc. Pffft, I say. You know what? It’s perfect. The more I think about it, the more perfect it is. Here we have a handsome, spoiled, rich jerk who is in love with his sister and does horrible things for a long time. Some of these things he does for her and some he does just because he’s an arrogant ass.

Then, Jaime gets captured, tortured, and has his comeuppance and epiphany. He begins to be a slightly better person. He sees that he could maybe love a woman who isn’t a monster and be loved in return. He could fight for the people instead of his shitty family name. Some of his interior ugliness is replaced with goodness.

But then… then… bratty, snotty Sansa (more about her in a sec), says nyah we’ve taken King’s Landing and your sis is gonna die! Jaime immediately reverts to form, dumps his new sweet love and breaks her heart, and gallops back to his wicked twin. Why?

Because people don’t change!

That’s the lesson here, folks. And it’s a good and important one. Dany never changed, not one iota. Jaime appeared to change, but he didn’t really. And what about Sansa, who began as a pretty wounded bird and allegedly turned into a strong confident woman? Nah fam. She’s still a petty, snide, gossipy bitch. Dishonest and backstabbing.

Jon/Aegon never changed either. He can’t help but be a noble, relentlessly honest lump of boring. Tyrion is still the same brilliant little scamp who puts his family first no matter how terrible they are. And he does sometimes back the wrong horse, especially when it’s very pretty. Sandor had one main mission in life, and though he did get sidetracked with other tasks along the way, ultimately he refocused on his goal, the Cleganebowl.

Arya? Let’s see what she does in the final ep. Any predictions? I admit I was wrong when I predicted Jaime would kill Cersei, and I’m glad to be wrong. I love that they stuck to the “people don’t change” theme instead, and decided to ignore Maggie’s prophecy. Now, the prediction is that Arya will kill Dany. I don’t know… What do you think?

Thanks for reading all this!

Laura’s Music Challenge 13

It’s that time again, peeps! Join us for Laura’s music Monday and share some tunes. 🎶😀🎉

1. Post a video clip from a movie that involves dancing.

2. Post a video of a song that makes you think of medieval times.

3. Post a video of a song about sex.

Mystery Prize

A big thanks to Sadje for nominating me as a recipient of the Mystery Blogger Award. I don’t think I’m very mysterious after 15 years of blogging non-anonymously, but I suppose there are always new things we can learn about each other.

Here are 3 things about me you may not know:

1. I don’t like posting lists of rules, so I’m not going to for this prize, sorry.

2. I don’t much like tagging people, so I’m not going to do that for this either.

3. I really love dried mango snacks!

Here are 3 of my favorite posts:

Dreamlove

Valentines

Gatsby’s Movie

Now I will answer Sadje’s questions:

1. Have you every been surprised by your own achievements?

Not really. I have high expectations for myself and am more often disappointed.

2. A surprise holiday is granted; What will you do?

I prefer to stay at home and read/write, watch movies, and spend time with my kitty.

3. Have you ever kept a diary or maybe a food diary? If so can you tell us something about it?

Yes. No, it’s a secret.

4. Jack and Jill went up the hill to…………..? (Funny, if it’s not apparent already!😜)

Sneak pics of baby Archie.

5. How do you think your input has made a difference in the world around you?

I hope I make people laugh occasionally.