Rory’s S’mores

Another Guy Called Bloke Production!

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At what point in our lives do you think we think we are good enough?

Speaking only for myself… never! I wake every day knowing there are goals to achieve and improvements to make.

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In life, what do you consider beautiful?

Cats, poetry, art of various forms, nature (flowers, sunsets, birds, butterflies, etc.), and of course my family.

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Do you think that when we dream, we can dream within a dream? But if you don’t dream, why do you think that is?

Yes, definitely. I have dreamt about dreaming.

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How do you manage your stress or do you not suffer from stress?

It varies. I don’t handle stress well at all, so I try to eliminate it at the source ~ this is why I gave up dating, where others persevere through unpleasantness. I can’t tolerate the bad. It literally makes me sick. But some things can’t be helped; stuff appears out of the blue. I will get physically ill and have to deal with that. I’ll get migraines and take medicine. My sleep will suffer. Etc. I severely manage down interactions with people so that my stress is minimized.

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Are there things or maybe just one thing you wish to achieve before you die?

I did want to have success as a writer, but I don’t see that happening. I’m not talented enough, nor do I have the patience to endlessly slog away on a novel anymore when I can get instant feedback via short blog posts.

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Some experience many things during their lifetimes, but do you think there is something that everyone should experience at least once?

No.

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Are you afriad to be different? To stand out from the crowd, to push away your peers if needs be and say “I am ME!”

No. I’m more afraid of being one of them, though generally I blend in wherever I go, at least superficially. I realize that sounds contradictory, but it’s not. I blend in just enough so that no one notices/bothers me, and then I get away as fast as I can to be apart from them.

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Which do you think is easier ‘to hate or to love?’

To hate obviously. Humans are all about forming groups and excluding other humans in order to hate and possibly kill them.

Opposites Attract: Challenges 6 & 7

Generally, I find keeping a list (or multiple lists) to be the most efficacious method of accomplishing my goals. I stay focused on the high-priority items near the top, and I experience a nice feeling of satisfaction when an item gets deleted.

If I grocery shop without a list, I end up being very inefficient, buying things I already have and forgetting stuff I need. I’ll usually have to make a second trip a few days later instead of the next week. Same goes for weekend chores and even longer-term things I want to get done. It’s unproductive for me to “wing it.”

However, I feel very discouraged right now. Due to the time change, I ended up taking a nap when I returned from Los Angeles this afternoon, and now my weekend plans are in disarray. Not only didn’t I write as much as I planned to, but I haven’t finished the work I promised someone, nor have I vacuumed! Obviously, I’m going to do the latter two things, but my nerves are a bit frayed thinking of all the uncrossed-out items on my list.

I like to think of myself as a person with a will of steel who does whatever I decide I’m going to do. But… naps happen. 😴

Till A Verse

This time, it’s the lovely Dr Tanya of Salted Caramel who has given me the nom nom. Thank you! I do enjoy displaying this pretty award. 🙂 As we all know, I’m not a tagger, but I’m happy to jabber on about myself a bit more.

7. I received an invitation from an editor I worked with 7 years ago to submit a story to her new anthology, and that’s what I’ve been writing this past week (will send it to her today probably).

6. After I do that, I’ll return to writing Ghosted, the novel I worked on during the last two NaNoWriMos.

5. My latest poetry book Monochrome hasn’t done well, so I’ve just created a free promotion for it beginning tomorrow for 5 days.

4. I would be extremely grateful if people who have read any of my books would leave reviews, if you haven’t already.

3. I watched Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot last night on Amazon Prime (lots of the movies I missed after Movie Pass died are now free or inexpensive on Prime). It was pretty good, but depressing. I know it wasn’t supposed to be, but I don’t always emotionally react as moviemakers intend. Unless there’s an animal involved. Then you can count on me to react properly.

2. I paid to have ads removed from my blog, and now I’m happy when I view it in a browser (not signed in) and don’t see all those obnoxious ads cluttering it up. It’s not that expensive, especially considering that I’m using my blog to promote my writing.

1. I bought Rod Stewart’s new CD Blood Red Roses without hearing even one track first, and guess what? I love it! I’ve already played it repeatedly in the car, and it’s so good. Highly recommend. I’ve always loved him. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NB: I found this interesting article about Rod and the new album just now while trying to google if BRR was the name of a shipwreck or what. Idk what the deal is with the title song, since peeps across the pond are so confusing with their slang and metaphors. Maybe a British blogger can help me out. 😀

For My Next Husband

My first husband and I “eloped” to Vegas. We told both sets of parents (mine were upset), but basically we wanted to do something impulsive and fun ~ we were in our mid-20s, independent, so no big deal. When we returned, my mother bought us a cake from the grocery store. The marriage lasted one year.

My second husband and I had a nice wedding, though small. It was at a hotel with a snooty French chef who didn’t “do” pastry. He also refused to allow outside food in “his” restaurant. He made us a baked Alaska as a compromise. That marriage lasted 21 years.

So, the one thing I absolutely require at my next wedding, should there be one, is a real actual proper WEDDING CAKE. And that brings us to this song: “Doll Parts,” written by Courtney Love in 1994. It’s not exactly a romantic song, but it’s honest, dammit, and that’s what counts.

These songs are for Bee’s month of music prompts. 🌹

One-Line Wednesday

One bite at a time.

Bird by bird.

Focus.

These are my mantras for when I get overwhelmed with the idea of finishing my novel and all my other works in progress.

Just do the next thing.

Last weekend I completed the task of integrating everything I wrote during November for Ghosted into my main document. Most of that has been edited. Now I need to edit the rest of it. Then I have to write the last third of the novel. After that, I plan on finishing every other story I have started and saved.

One sentence at a time. 🙂

~*~

One-Line Wednesday

The Madding Crowd

Nice writing prompt from Sarah Elizabeth Moore.

I stand out from the crowd because… I try to avoid the crowd in the first place. With rare exceptions, I make it a point to stay away from the obvious places where there will be masses of people: Disneyland, the malls near holidays, large concert arenas. This is not because I’m a snob; it’s because the feeling of being squashed in with a bunch of bodies and noise makes me feel like I can’t breathe.

Last March, I dumped Facebook and its related products. This makes me a little unusual, though by no means unique ~ plenty of people are getting by just fine without FB. And more are exiting every day. You do not have to be a prisoner of the Zuckerborg. Real friends will stay friends. There are lots of ways to communicate.

I decided in 2017 to stop dating, since all it did was cause me misery. I self-recovered from my depression since quitting and have been doing much better. Both things are a little unusual, I think: giving up romance at age 56 (in 2017) and curing myself of depression sans therapy or medication. I find myself to be happiest when I stay focused narrowly on work, health, family, home, and hobbies, and avoid any expansion sets.

Except for Game of Thrones, I’ve given up TV to read and write. GOT will be finished in April/May, so I imagine I will rarely if ever turn on my television except to do an exercise video. This is unusual ~ most people watch television. And again, it’s not snobbery on my part, but an unfortunate reality of time management. There’s no way I can finish everything I want to do if I’m distracted by the TV. I have a great need to see all my writings completed, not that I expect many sales. That isn’t the point. It’s the satisfaction of completion.

Everyone likes to think they’re special, and I suppose we all have at least something a little bit unusual about us, but with so many people in the world, there are likely others with that “unique” trait or combo of traits. I know there are those who don’t watch TV, who don’t date, who hate crowds, etc. Perhaps my daughters would choose different traits about me to label unique.

This is definitely an eye of the beholder question, and quite an interesting one! 🙂

Furious News Barrage [IOW]

Three of today’s prompt words wrote themselves into a title today.

Don’t you love it when that happens?

It’s so delicious, like a secret treasure candy stash you forgot about in a cookie tin.

In any case, I try to stay away from the furious news barrage and stick with prompts and games.

I find that so much better for my emotional state.

Journal: Week 1

(Thanks to Nova)

1. I’m most looking forward to making progress on my novel.

2. Three goals for this month: edit everything I wrote on my novel in November, exercise daily, blog daily.

3. Today is quiet and productive; wish I had Diet Coke.

4. Looking forward to seeing my grandbaby again soon.

5. I don’t want to forget how much fun I had over the holidays when my whole little family was together.

6. This year I’ll be going up to NorCal at least twice.

7. My top three priorities are: work, health, writing.

8. Places I have visited so far this year would be… home and work! Target and the gas station. Costco for an eye exam and to order new glasses and sunglasses. Oh, and the restaurant that didn’t have hot tea. 🙄

The Mysterious New Math

A bouquet 💐 of thanks to Rory for giving me a Liebster award! I don’t keep track of these things, so idk if this is my first Lieb, or what.

Can we talk about the directions for a minute? (I’m adding periods because these are sentences.)

“Acknowledge the blogger that gave it to you and display the award.”

Okay, that’s clear enough.

“Answer 11 questions that the blogger gave you.”

We’ll come back to this one.

“Give 8 random thoughts about yourself.”

Kaaay.

“Nominate 8 other bloggers and notify them of their nomination.”

Meh. But even if…

“Ask your nominees 8 questions.”

Now, hang on. Does anyone else see the problem here? How the heck are you supposed to answer the eleven questions the blogger gives you when here it tells you to give the next pile of peeps eight questions? Is this the new-new math? No wonder peeps can’t make change without computers.

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My 8 Questions

If vampires can’t see their reflections, why is their hair always so neat?

– Obviously they have a stylist on payroll. I heard it’s the same one Mooch uses.

If a kid refuses to sleep during nap time, are they guilty of resisting a rest?

– I’d take that with a grain assault.

If they weren’t called grapes and you had the opportunity to rename them, what would you call them?

– Blumps

If the grass wasn’t green what colour would you make it?

– Purple

Has your imaginary friend ever had an imaginary friend, or just you?

– She cheated on me way back, just like in the movie Her, which is why I have a cat meow.

So, dance in the rain, wallow in the mud or naked angel in the snow?

– It’s a marvelous night for a raindance…

Can you describe your blog to me without using the letters i and e?

– A crazy salad

What are you afraid of becoming?

– Homeless

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Okay. Here are 8 random thoughts about me, which will also segue into 8 questions, should anyone care to answer them here or elsewhere. If you’d like to grab the award to display and answer the questions on your own blog, consider yourself tagged. Again, 8 =/= 11, in my world.

1. I love math, though I’ve forgotten a lot. I think it would be fun to take it all again, starting from geometry (my favorite). Is there any subject from school you wish you could remember more of?

2. I would love to be able to afford to quit working and get a masters degree, or just take poetry and other classes for fun. What would you do if you didn’t have to work?

3. Travel is not high on my list of priorities. This makes me an outlier, since most people are always going on and on about traveling. It’s just so expensive and disruptive to my routines. Plus, I don’t like to leave my kitty. 🐱 What makes you an outlier?

4. I’m very aware of time slipping away now, and each day that passes is one less I will have to spend with family, finish my writing projects, read the books in my queue, etc. This is why I’ve pretty much stopped watching TV and going to movies. What unfinished projects are on your list?

5. I live in an area I can’t really afford, and if for whatever reason I am forced to move from the affordable place I have now, I don’t know what I will do. I think about this all the time and there is no good solution. What is your top fear at the moment?

6. I get super annoyed when restaurants don’t have hot tea, or even offer to nuke a cup of hot water for me in their microwave (then I can use my own tea bag, which I always have a supply of). Is this so unreasonably difficult? Not talking about fast food, but normal restaurants. What makes you crazy irritated at a restaurant?

7. I’m trying to be healthier this year, which for me means exercise, but it’s really hard to get motivated to exercise when I’m constantly cold and achy, even if I know logically that (eventually) the exercise will help me feel less cold and achy. Do you have any circular issues of this nature?

8. Once you’ve broken a bad habit, it’s easier to break others ~ this is true for me! I gave up afternoon candy breaks. Then dating sites. Then Facebook. Somewhere in there I gave up arguing with people online (long, long time ago I gave up trolling for reactions). More recently I’ve begun simply blocking people on any forum when they annoy me, rather than reading their posts and gloating to myself about what an ass they are. That’s just more wasted time, as is reading the jerks who comment on Fox News’ articles. Time is too precious and it’s running out. Describe your thoughts on time and/or bad habits.

Fandango Made Me Do It

I thought I was gonna get away with just one post today because it was that long FTS thingie, but now Fandango accused me of saying his prompts aren’t fun, which I did not! If he still believes I did, I’ll issue a politician’s apology: please forgive me if you feel offended.

Now that I’ve bothered to begin more jabberish, I may as well shovel in the rest of the prompts. I hope you’ll all show me the proper amount of gratitude for that.

You may have noticed I’m spelling post the normal way. Getting bored with lolcat. It’s been a while. The dogs bark, and the circus moves on. (Look it up.) I don’t like to get too predictable, too trapped into a pattern of behavior. That stifles creativity.

As part of my recovery, my reclaiming of my time and my own goals, I have not been Ms. Hospitality. I can’t be. In order to do all my paying work, take care of my health, and focus on my writing, I’ve had to cut back dramatically on entertainment. I no longer go to movies or meetups. I don’t date or chat on FB. I don’t watch the newest stuff on Prime and Netflix. I accept very few social invites and issue even fewer. Etc.

I do, however, blog and tweet, since I find both of these communities conducive to writing. I was going to join a book club, but that didn’t work out, which is probably for the best. I do try to read a few books per month, except for November when I NaNo. Because family is everything, they get priority… but luckily they’re mostly too busy for me!