Behind the Blogger

THE RULES:

• Thank the person who nominated you

Thank you, Laura!

• Answer all the questions down below

Okay…

• Pingback to the creator: Ellyn @ Allonsythornraxx

• Nominate 5+ bloggers you’d like to know more about, to do this tag

🙄🙄🙄

1. Why did you start blogging & why have you kept blogging?

Began in 2003 because it seemed like fun. Have had various blogs through the years to connect with others who enjoy writing in public. It’s a great way to generate immediate feedback.

2. What is your favorite type of blog post to write?

Flash fiction or poetry.

3. What are your top 3 favorite blog posts?

Postcards from Afar

Valentines

Brumation

4. What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?

Read, write, repeat.

5. What are 3 of your favorite things?

My family, my kitty, and reading.

6. What are your proudest blogging moments?

My recent sci-fi stories.

7. What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

There’s something outside of blogging?

8. Describe your personality in 3 words:

Obsessive, solipsistic, and green.

9. What are your top 3 pet peeves?

1. Excessively loud people, including parents who let older children scream in public. (Yes, I realize a tiny percentage of these children are disabled in some way; I’m talking about all the other ones.) This also includes truck beepy backups. Yes, I know what they’re for. Do not care. And it includes grocery and other stores that need to shriek announcements to employees over an intercom system. Text them, ffs!

2. People who pollute the world with their disgusting garbage because the bin is full so hey toss it on the ground why not? And people who litter in general destroying our planet including and especially all the big corporations and the corrupt politicians they bribe.

3. Basically people. All of them.

10. What’s something your followers don’t know about you?

Nothing.

Tag – You’re It!

Anyone who hasn’t done this yet should have a go!

FPQ19: Is It Fate?

Fandango provocatively asks:

“Do you believe in fate and/or predestination? If so, what or who is the source? If you do believe in predestination, is there anything anyone can do to change their predestined fate?”

And bonus: “If you believe God is the source, and God has already determined the future for each of us, why should people bother to pray?”

This is a doozy. I’m probably not going to be able to explain my thoughts that well ~ I’ve been messing up a lot lately anyway. My posts are full of typos, errors, and calling people by the wrong name. I have no excuses.

I don’t believe in God or anything supernatural, but there’s a whole lot of “natural” I don’t fully grasp because I don’t have the science knowledge or the vocab to express my hazy thoughts. That said, I’ll answer the praying question anyway: people pray because it makes them feel good and gives them hope, which they then offer to others out of kindness, and what’s wrong with that? You don’t have to share their beliefs to understand that they’re doing something nice.

So, “fate.” Taking out any supernatural elements, there are two components left (imo): time and free will. I don’t fully understand the concept of time, but I lean toward the interesting idea that everything has already happened and we’re simply experiencing it in a way our minds can grasp it. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take precautions and do all our normal, sensible things. But whatever occurs next will occur regardless.

In the same way, I don’t much believe in free will. I think our actions are dependent upon and determined by what came before, biologically and environmentally. In this way, I believe we are “fated” to do the things we do, simply as a result of who we are, but not because some spirit in the sky is directing the show.

Sorry, if none of this makes any sense! 😜

The Weekly Smile

I’m excited to report that I’ve just finished my list of A2Z items for the April blogging challenge! YIPPEE!! 😀😀😀😀😀

I hope all my fellow bloggers are joining in for the joyous camaraderie of committing to post every day in April, except Sundays, and choosing a theme (or just go with misc.). I can’t wait to read the interesting entries I’ve seen so far ~ symbols and signs, creatures from mythology, a fruity motif, etc.

Anyway, my theme is romance reviews, and I’m doing about half novels and half romantic comedies. Tonight my focus has been on getting my list together, but I got stuck on some of the tough letters. That gave me a sad. I really didn’t want to end the day unsatisfied with an incomplete list. But then I had the idea to enter search words into my Kindle app (for iPhone) and OMG amazing! It found books I’ve already read and new ones that sound cool, so I grabbed samples to see if I want to buy them. Neato!

For example, I found a romance novel titled Until We Kissed, which is about a librarian and a writer. You really can’t get more perfect than that, amirite? I would never have found this book on my own without obsessively searching for a word starting with U.

I like apps that are dedicated to one thing. It’s becoming hard to search for things on Google and Amazon because they have too much ~ unless you already know what you want, of course. But sometimes it’s nice to browse. The Kindle app was more like being in a bookstore. I didn’t end up with kitchen gadgets when I wanted books. Not to besmirch gadgets. They have their place.

Laura’s Music Challenge

Laura has a new set of music challenges for us this week. Join in!

1. Post a video of a song by a solo artist from the year you were born.

It says this song was recorded in 1960 and released in 1961, so it’s a perfect match.

2. Post a video of a song in which the video stars a once or currently popular actress or actor.

I looked up songs that had actors in the vids, and they were all new songs I didn’t know, so I’m cheating.

3. Post a video for a song that has a color in the lyrics or title.

Promptapalooza

No, PROMPTS. 🙄

Gawd.

Questions from Melanie/Sparks:

1) Do You Have Any Guilty Pleasures?

So many! My first one today is boldly copypasting this post in its entirety from Kristian so I could also knock out a pile of prompts at once. I’m sure there will be more. It’s still early.

2) What Is The Worst Pick Up Line You Ever Heard?  

“Hey.”

3) What Slang Or Trend Makes You Feel Old?

When Ariana said dipped ~ I had to look that up. Also dropped, as in an artist dropping a song, which means putting out a song. But dropped still means what it used to mean too ~ dumped, fired, etc. So, I always do a double take when I see drop.

4) What Do You Consider The Most Over-rated Song?

I don’t listen to much current music, so my pick is something like “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. 🤮

5) You Find A Book And Begin To Read Only To Discover That It Is Your Life. You Get To The Point That You Are At Now, Do You Turn The Page Knowing That You Will Not Be Able To Change The Events To Come?

Is It Going To Be Written In All Initial Caps Like This? Cuz then I hope my death comes swiftly. Hehe.

Questions from Rory

7 and Three Quarters Nutty Questions

A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed in town for three days and rode out on Friday. How is that possible?

Either the horse was named Friday, or the days are lot longer there.

A rooster laid an egg on top of the barn roof. Which way did it roll?

Roosters don’t lay eggs, silly!

A truck driver is going down a one way street the wrong way, and passes at least ten cops. Why is he not caught?

Because he’s walking. And he has bagels to share. Cops love bagels ~ just ask Stan!

A farmer had 752 sheep and took one shot that got them all. How did he do it?

It was a shot of whiskey and it put him right to sleep 💤 … no more sheep to count.

What word is spelled incorrectly in every single dictionary?

Incorrectly. Also wrong is wrong.

What starts with “e” and ends with “e” but only has one letter in it?

Eve, eye, ere, eke, ewe.

What two keys can’t open any door?

Key Largo and Key West.

A man went outside in the pouring rain with no protection, but not a single hair on his head got wet. How come?

He was bald.

Would you rather be trapped in an elevator full of men with BO, three soaked dogs, a basket filled with week-old smelly socks or a box filled with used nappies?

Socks. 😳

Would you rather look like an octopus, act like an octopus or be an octopus?

It would be neat to be an octopus. I highly recommend The Soul of an Octopus. Excellent book! 🐙

If you had the world’s attention for 30 seconds, what would you say?

Buy my books!

Would you rather be able to copy and paste in real life, or undo in real life?

Undo. Or even better “restore to original settings.”

Hope someone got a laugh out of this. 😂

 

Little Bit of Soul

Soul mates are the stuff of poetry and romance novels, and who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? It’s hard to believe in a soul mate if you don’t believe in souls though; and souls come packaged up with all that other mystical glitter I can’t quite wrap my brain around. Despite my creative forays, my heart is made of math. One of my favorite lines from a romance novel was “she had his number, and it was 666.” I would credit the book and the author if I could remember either, but I can’t. I don’t think I ever dated the devil, just your ordinary liars and narcissists, but that guy wasn’t the devil of course. They never are, in romance novels. No matter what kind of terrible choice the romance novel heroine appears to be making with her wild and crazy attraction, it’s always exactly the right choice. But that’s because we’re writing her story. I have written my own stories, with my own heroes. Perhaps that’s why I’m solo.

Honestly Cosmopolitan FU

So, I’m reading about one of those scandal idiots, as you do, something something the dad is a major Trump supporter according to Tom Arnold… geez let’s dig him up out of the trash heap for a quote 🤮… clicking along mindlessly like a good robot when whoa I see a link to the worst movie from the year I was born.

Now, here’s some news I can use! I flip out of that site and over to Cosmopolitan and guess what? The list starts at 1983.

Nineteen fricken eighty three! 😳😳😳

Granted, that was a pretty shitty year. First, I was fat, not gonna lie. Maybe not fat by current standards or some chart, but by my standards, for me. Second, there was that whole thing with Mark. Gahhh. After that, I thought why not move to California? Who wants to face another Chicago winter, this time with a broken heart? But third, as soon as I moved here my migraines got worse. 😫

Back to Cosmo, a magazine I religiously supported for decades, but now it can’t be bothered with women my age. Nope. We’re stuck with Good Housekeeping and AARP. Anyway, Cosmo says the worst movie of 1983 is Jaws 3-D, which is not hard to believe, since it sounds stupid on its face.

Confession: I only very recently saw the original Jaws, like in the last year, because my friends kept teasing me for having not seen it. Meh.

Okay, so now let’s go waaaaaay back (cue caveman music 🎶) to find the worst movie of my birth year, 1961.

Psych! I haven’t seen most of the movies from that year, so I can’t judge. I do note however that there are some gems: The Hustler, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, West Side Story, 101 Dalmatians, etc.

Game of Thrones returns in less than 30 days! 👑🐉🔥❄️💫

Friday Noms

Well, just one nom actually, from the lovely Laura, but there might be more noms… how would I know, since WordPress has decided I shouldn’t have posts while I sleep. Meh, say the happiness engineers, why should we bother putting posts in her feed between 10pm and 6am? She’s not going to read them while she’s in dreamland, lol! Funny guys (guys being a gender inclusive term in this case). 🙄

Anyhoodle. Thank you, Laura. I appreciate the one nom. I was going to say one measly nom, but that makes me sound ungrateful plus also might get the whole vax debate started up, though why there should be a debate GOD ONLY KNOWS. What a bunch of idiots, amirite? If you don’t want to vax, move to Antarctica. Problem solved. ❄️

I’m supposed to tell all y’all 7 things about me now, as if there are even 7 things left you don’t know (well, there are, but I can’t post them), so I’ll just jabber on a bit and see where it goes. Beware of rambling. 😛

1. I’ve been thinking this week that I don’t have enough time and energy to finish my novel now that I have actual side work that pays. I don’t have hours of free time at night and on weekends to write the way I used to. And I’m not giving up paying work. 💰

2. I have written novels, so it’s not a matter of proving to myself or anyone else that I’m capable of doing it. They’re for sale and have been for years. They don’t sell though, since I’m a nobody with no marketing resources. 🎻

(Please don’t give me marketing advice in comments. I’ve read tons of it, and it’s all way too time intensive for me with minimal payoff. I already have paying work I am not willing to take time away from.)

3. The fact that my novels (and books of short stories and poetry) molder on Amazon year after year, bringing in only a measly dollar or two here or there, doesn’t give me much hope for the success of the next one. Sure, I still enjoy the process of writing because I’m a writer, and I’ll always write when there’s nothing else going on, but then when there’s no money or feedback? Sadness. 😢

4. If I can’t make money from writing, the next best thing is to get people to read my stuff. And I have that right here! Thanks to this fabulous community of supportive WP peeps (along with a few otters), my little blog poems and short stories get read all the time now, which is a great feeling. ❤️

5. I’m tired of feeling stressed every week that I didn’t get “enough” done when I work 7 days a week now, including most nights after my real job when I get home. This doesn’t include chores, shopping, etc. Yes, mostly everyone else does all this too, but there’s no need for me to feel like a failure because I didn’t work on my novel. I can simply take it off the list. ✅

6. Ironically, since the time change, I’ve gotten more sleep… and it’s nice. I don’t feel physically better at all, but it’s so great not to be exhausted and achy. So, perhaps that’s what’s prompted this line of thinking. I just don’t want to feel obligated to write for two hours after working after work. Wtf? That’s nuts. And I don’t want to get up at 4:30am and write. Wtfff??? Who does that?? (Well, I did, many years ago.) 😴

7. What I really should do, if I had any sense (lol) is to prioritize exercise, so I could live long enough to finish all my unfinished writings after I have more time once I retire in 12ish years. Danger, danger… adding more things to list! Assuming, that is, I make it to retirement without getting hit by a truck, drowning in a tsunami, or being bitten by someone’s pet cobra that escapes and comes boinging up in my toilet bowl.

Could happen. 🐍

K. That’s 7, arbitrarily broken into paragraphs and numbered. No tags. You’re all awesome and should jabber on about yourselves too. Not you, Becky. 😀

Nose & Sose

Another Guy Called Bloke Production…

Talked to a complete stranger about life.

Never! Well, except for my blog blabbing and how I used to blurt stuff out to weird men on dating sites and…

Gone skydiving.

That is a 100% no way!

Got a tattoo.

Also nopety nope.

Had an allergic reaction.

So way. My parents called emergency in Chicago for me because I went into anaphylactic shock. The doctor said his best guess was a bee sting from handling fruit. But we don’t really know.

Cried while watching a movie.

Sure, all the time.

Gotten gum stuck in my hair.

I don’t think so.

Fallen asleep in the sun and gotten burned.

Yep. But not recently ~ I avoid bright sun because it’s a migraine trigger.

Over-plucked my eyebrows.

So way, as a silly teenager.

Been in a haunted house.

Only pretend ones.

Fallen asleep during sex.

I don’t remember.

Wore a whipped cream bikini.

No way.

Been to an “adult store”.

So way. The first time was funny. I went with a girlfriend who was too scared to go in, but I was fearless back then. I went in alone. This was in Wisconsin, I think, and I was 18. But once I was inside I lost my nerve a bit, so I just grabbed two paperback books and bought them. They were dumb, of course.

Felt the presence of “paranormal activity”.

I thought it could have been, but I don’t believe in that, so it wasn’t. It makes for good stories and poetry though.

Asked someone when they were due when they weren’t pregnant.

No way. Never. I avoid commenting on people’s body sizes and looks generally except to give bland compliments.

Seen a sex therapist.

Not as a patient, but I had a date with a man who thought he was one. Lolololol. Yes, another one of my wonderful dating experiences. 🤮

Burst out laughing at a really inappropriate time.

Often have the urge but can usually stifle it.

Called someone the wrong name.

I’m sure I have, but I am pretty good with names.

Walked in on a stranger who was butt naked.

In gym locker rooms, yep.

Said you were minutes away when you haven’t even left the house yet.

No. And it’s sofa king irritating how many Californians say everything is 20 minutes from wherever they are when LITERALLY NOTHING IS 20 MINUTES FROM ANYWHERE!!!!! Gahhh why do I even live here???

Fun questions. 🙄

FPQ18: A-hole Artists

This week’s provocative question was spurred by the recent headlines about R. Kelly and Michael Jackson. A Lifetime docuseries, “Surviving R. Kelly,” along with Kelly’s bizarre interview with Gayle King of CBS News, has sparked renewed interest in allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and inappropriate encounters with girls and young women. And HBO’s documentary about Michael Jackson, “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on his alleged sexual abuses of young boys, has also put his inappropriate sexual proclivities under the spotlight.

As a result of the highly inappropriate behavior of these two artists, many radio stations have ceased playing their recordings and people are removing their songs from their personal playlists.

So, my question this week is about whether or not you think it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.

“When you learn about highly regarded artists being accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, especially with minors, can you separate the artists from their art, or would you refuse to listen to, watch, or read the artists’ works?”

Great question! First, I want to say that I am not convinced of MJ’s guilt by the conflicting testimony of people motivated by profit, especially given the fact that he’s no longer around to defend himself. But that’s a side issue to the question. My basic answer is that I do not separate the art from the artist. But in reality I am a bit more nuanced.

For example, I am disgusted with Woody Allen, from what I’ve read about him. He may not be a criminal, but he’s icky. And I don’t want to financially support that, no matter how “great” an artist he may be. So, I would not spend money on him. But if someone else had one of his films that I know I like (I only enjoy the ones where he isn’t a main character), I might re-watch.

Another example is Mel Gibson. He doesn’t fall into the above categories; he’s merely an anti-semite. Yes, I know he “apologized.” I think very little of apologies, especially from men after they’ve been caught doing something wrong. It’s easy for me not to spend money on any MG film, since I never liked him in the first place. The rest of you can wrestle with your consciences.

But what about the musical artists Fandango mentioned specifically? Okay. I don’t listen to R. Kelly, so he’s irrelevant to me. I do listen to old MJ songs sometimes, though I’m not a superfan. I will continue listening to them. I don’t see the big deal ~ he’s dead. I’m not enriching him.

What we need here is an example of a live artist I liked, who totally disappointed me, in order to discover what I would do. Luckily, we have such an example: Sean Penn. I loved him in several movies, such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Carlito’s Way. Then he became a traitor, so I quit liking him, and I will never see another one of his films.

NB: I don’t really want to debate the traitor thing. I respect that people have other views. This isn’t Facebook and I don’t intend to host a flamewar. I have no problem deleting nasty comments. Thanks for understanding. 🙂