Sharing is Baring [SYW]

Questions from Melanie (who got them from some man but like who cares?)…

1. You’re walking in a forest and you find a black suitcase.  Inside it is one millions dollars and a piece of paper, stained in blood and bearing the single word “Don’t!”  Would you take the suitcase home or leave it?

– This is from Plots R Us. Greedy Gertie takes the money, which is marked, and then she’s tracked and murdered. No thx. Leave it alone. (PS: I wouldn’t be walking in a forest ~ that sounds waaay too much like a dreaded “hike.” 🙄)

2. Imagine you lapsed and cheated on your partner. You feel horrible and you know you’ll never do it again, because the feeling is so awful. Would you confess?

– No. Keep quiet and live with the guilt. That’s the punishment. Why make a second person miserable? Also, wait a few days and you’ll feel less horrible, just sayin’.

3. Would you live your life differently if nobody ever judged you for anything you did?

– Yes. Pesky judges, and juries too. I WUZ FRAMED!

4. Would a fly without wings be called a walk? No? What would you call it?

– A disgust.

5. What’s something that brought joy and lightness of being to you this past week?

– Pepperidge Farm c00kies.

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One-Liner Wednesday

Quote from Goodreads.

This is undeniably true; only a psychopath could witness certain kinds of horrors and stay serene and unaffected. I also believe that depression should be considered a normal reaction to experiencing profound grief. Why do we have to think of it as an illness? Whether medication is necessary or desirable is a separate topic. I’m only talking about the way we think about dark and prolonged sadness.

People don’t want to know. They want to see the phony smile. They want the bland “good” in reply to their meaningless “how ya doing?” They put artificial time limits on other people’s grief or heartbreak. A year is “long enough” to mourn, or you can’t be that upset over him ~ you only went on a handful of dates! Oh. My mistake. I’ll just take my ball of sad and go home.

Anyway. I think it’s good to remember that people can have different reactions to the same situation. We aren’t all carved from a monolithic mind.

~*~

One-Liner Wednesday

Don’t Look Back [flash 99]

They told her not to look back, but the road was long. She grew weary of the endless night.

She glanced back once and glimpsed Paradise: lush meadows, bright skies, sparkling rivers, a swirl of butterflies.

She glanced back twice and saw the rains had come, snakes forced from their dens, lightning flashing, children cold and crying.

She glanced back again and all was fire, horror, madness, and death. She quickly turned away.

Lavender dawn broke over the road in front of her, but it was too late, for the madness had seeped into her mind.

And they knew.

~*~

Prompt from the Carrot Ranch

Ask someone else… [SOCS]

Canola oil was en vogue for a while; now it’s bad. I forgot why it was bad so I looked it up… GMO blah de blah. That’s allowed cuz I checked before I began writing, did not break my SOC to google. My darling daughter gave me “canola” when I asked for a prompt… of course she couldn’t have given me something good like butterfly 🦋 or cupcake 🧁.

Anyway back to canola. So, I switched from olive to canola then to coconut 🥥 cuz that was the thing but now the nutritionists are freaking out about coconut again like they do once a decade or so… I remember giving up granola bars for a while in the 1970s cuz they said one more tsp of coconut oil was surely going to give me a stroke. Never really went back to granola in a major way though cuz even after the coconut freakout died down the dentists were all shrieking that granola was worse than candy so might as well just eat a Snickers and it’s cheaper besides.

Not that I eat much candy 🍫 these days either. I blogged about how I broke my Snickers habit and when I ate one months later it didn’t even taste that good anymore. Maybe I’ve finally developed an adult palate? Nah! Still love mac&cheese. Still love c00kies.

Just to clarify… of course I still have olive oil for things that aren’t desserts, should I ever make any. You peeps will be the first to know, rest assured. Who else would I tell? But I don’t cook much… it’s expensive and wasteful to cook for one person unless you are okay with eating one dish for a week.

Btw, my friend Cathy and I made c00kies last weekend with half real butter and half coconut oil and not only were the c00kies incredibly delicious but we ate lots and did not die. We will obviously, someday, but probably not from c00kies. Not that that’s a bad way to go. Mmm c00kies…

Next time pics!

~*~

SOCS prompt from Linda

Lazy Poast

I swear I was gonna write a story or a pome today from the prompts, but I haz a wicked migraine due to the windy cold weather, so you get this. Like it or lump it!

Questions from the Queen:

1. What is something you always put off for as long as you can?

– Death (mine).

2. Has time sped up or slowed down for you as you have aged?

– Up.

3. What time period do you think you most belong in?

– Post-historical.

4. What book would have a completely different feel if it was set in a different time period?

– The Bible.

5. How do you like to waste time?

– You’re looking at it.

6. Have you ever killed time since reading or watching The Phantom Tollbooth?

– Don’t remember what that means.

7. You have two hours to yourself…how do you spend it?

– Plotting, planning, scheming, dreaming.

8. How often do you think about the Doomsday Clock?

– Not a lot.

9. Do you think we are nearing the end of times (for those who believe in it)?

– Not in a religious sense, but it’s definitely possible we could be close to a massive-casualty world war.

10. Armageddon is upon us…do humans survive?

– Probably some in remote areas for a while.

11. How will human’s time on Earth be up?

– War, famine, disease, no medical care.

12. What is your favorite quote about time?

– “Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.”

13. What is one song that makes you time travel?

– “In the year 2525…”

14. Speaking of Time Travelers… The Doctor (Dr. Who), Time Traveller (H.G.Wells, The Time Machine), Phineas Bogg (Voyagers!), or The Traveler (Star Trek: TNG): Who would make the better traveling companion?

– Idk these peeps. I’ll take my cat. 🐱

Clouds [flash 208]

“I see a big dragon flying in the sky,” Billy said. “And soon he’s gonna come down here and gobble someone up!”

The children laughed. “I see a sweet fluffy bunny,” Melissa said. “What do you see in the clouds, Jana?”

“I don’t know,” the little girl whispered. “A soft pillow? Like the ones we used to have at–”

The back door banged open, startling the children into silence. Miz Anderson stomped into the backyard and glared at them.

“You lazy brats!” she yelled. “I told you to clean the kitchen before the Thomases arrive. Maybe you can make a good impression for once and I can get you off my hands. Too many mouths to feed around here. Go!”

Edging past her to avoid a swat, the children rushed into the house to finish their chores. “She hasn’t fed us in two days,” Billy grumbled.

“Shhhh,” Melissa said, hugging Jana who had begun to cry. Prospective parents hated tears, they had been told. Clean faces! Happy smiles!

Miz Anderson stayed in the yard a minute longer and gazed at the clouds. They sure did look interesting today. Right then a big dragon swooped out of the sky and gobbled her up.

The End.

~*~

Sue Vincent’s Photo Prompt

30-Day Song Challenge

Day 25: RIP. So many singers have passed who have songs I love. John Lennon. Tom Petty. David Bowie. Freddie Mercury. Johnny Cash. Today I think I’ll celebrate one from Leonard Cohen. Hope you enjoy.

The Artist’s Woo

Via Bee Halton. This is supposed to help unlock our creativity or summat, idk. It’s from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Can’t hurt eh? Plus, yay questions!

1. My favourite childhood toy was… those horribly unrealistic Barbies that warped my brain. I had bunches of lady dolls and only one Ken, so naturally I created a house of ill repute, as you do.

2. My favourite childhood game was… spies with my friend Cheryl with invisible James Bonds. It took a lot of imagination. I also liked Clue and Battleship with less fanciful friends.

3. The best movie I ever saw as a kid was… Love Story (1970).

4. I don’t do it much but I enjoy… going to museums.

5. If I could lighten up a little, I’d let myself… go to paint night again!

6. If it weren’t too late, I’d… have pizza 🍕!

7. My favourite musical instrument is… the piano.

8. The amount of money I spend on treating myself to entertainment each month is… not a lot.

9. If I weren’t so stingy with my artist, I’d buy him/her… more paint nights.

10. Taking time out for myself is… a luxury and a necessity.

11. I am afraid that if I start dreaming… the day will float by with nothing done. Which is what is happening…

12. I secretly enjoy reading… romance novels (not exactly a secret). 😂

13. If I had had a perfect childhood I’d have grown up to be… more confident and independent at a much earlier age.

14. If it didn’t sound so crazy, I’d write or make a… VOODOO DOLL BWAHAHAHA!

15. My parents think artists are… dunno, they’re in a freezer at UCI.

16. My God thinks artists are… spending too much time thinking about God’s thoughts… do we even know God haz a brain?

17. What makes me feel weird about this recovery is… nothing, since I’m not doing it, psych!

18. Learning to trust myself is probably… something I should have done decades earlier.

19. My most cheer-me-up music is… rock & pop oldies. 🎶🎶🎶

20. My favourite way to dress is… warm & cozy.

Technically speaking… [FPQ #6]

This week’s provocative question came up when I read an article that talked about how the extent that Russia used social media to influence the 2016 presidential election in the United States and the Brexit vote in Great Britain was more extensive than what was originally thought and that such disinformation and misinformation on social media sites continues almost unabated to this day.

With that in mind, here’s this week’s provocative question.

“Is technological advancement a net positive or a net negative?”

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And most important, have fun.

I am wavering on this week’s question, which is what makes it so provocative, I suppose.

On the one hand, technology has done amazingly wonderful things for the world. We’re able to grow more food, educate more people, cure more diseases, prevent more deaths in childbirth, respond faster in emergencies, etc. And we continue to advance exponentially in so many areas of science and medicine and engineering.

On the other hand, we’re as shitty toward our fellow humans, animals, and the planet we all live on as we’ve ever been. And now we can use technology to facilitate our terribleness. Instead of simply mocking some poor soul in a school hallway, we use social media to torment him 24/7 until he commits suicide. Sick people upload vids of themselves torturing animals for the amusement of other sickos around the world. And we all have so many gadgets and chargers and crap filling our lives, and we must have the latest versions, tossing the previous ones into the ever-expanding trash heap covering our earth and oceans.

Blech! 🤮

I haven’t even touched the part about our elections and the Rooskies and the hot new cold war and how our life spans are declining from sitting on our asses texting all day and how Spectrum has the goddamn nerve to increase my price yet again after my price increase last year when they switched me to “high speed” for people who game on multiple TV’s when I’m just a single person who doesn’t game on any device and singles are always being financially penalized for multi-person households who hog all the resources and pollute up the planet but at least Edison sends me a report card every month saying good job which is worth fuck all but hey.

What was this poast about again? Oh. It’s from Fandango. We hate Trump! Hells to the yeah! What do I win? 😂

30-Day Song Challenge: Sedaka

Day 18: a song from 1961. I’m going with the fun, upbeat “Calendar Girl” written and sung by Neil Sedaka.

I want you guys to understand how many “Calendar Girl” videos I started and rejected in order to find this most perfect one for you. Nothing, I repeat ~ nothing ~ is too much trouble for my peeps. Now, you have to click on it and watch, right?

Day 19: a song that makes me think about life. This would be another song written by Neil Sedaka (and Phil Cody) called “Solitaire.” I used to think it applied to one or more men I’ve known, but maybe it applies to me now. I’ve posted before that I prefer versions other than the Carpenters, and I haven’t changed my mind. Here’s my favorite version, sung by Sheryl Crow.