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A place to keep my entries for various contests and challenges |
| This book is not only a place to create, keep, and store contest entries, it's also a log of items that may one day become something more. |
| P6. Interesting discovery in your closet or cupboard (go look and find something) I did have an interesting discovery when we went through our closet. Being so short on room, our closet doubled as a storage area for anything and everything. I had installed another shelf over the clothes rod and then put a shelving unit in as well to hold everything. As you can imagine, it was stuffed full with limited room left to hang clothes. After we gained access to the front apartment and had a whole house, we had plenty of room for everything and began unloading our closet. I knew what was packed in there, and I knew what a pain in the @ss it was to try and find anything. What I'm saying is, there wasn't anything surprising packed in the closet by us. But as we began moving things out, I discovered that someone or something had also been using our closet to store items it had pilfered from various family members. There were some storage tubs back in the corner, and when we pulled them out, there in the small area between them and the wall were multiple items along with some dog food, a dried-up apple, and a small bag of Planter's Peanuts. There was one of my socks, a winter glove, a handkerchief, my old watch, a couple of earrings, one black canvas tennis shoe that belonged to no one in our household, one of my cigars that was still in the little glass tube, and one of Hanna's favorite toys. Now, we did have a few mice that got in someplace, but we always keep a trap set and catch them before they have a chance to ever get established. Besides, I don't think a little mouse would be dragging a shoe (which we wonder where it came from) around the house and I doubt it would get onto my dresser where my old watch was buried under other items. Besides, when we first discovered we had mice getting in, we went around and sealed the foundation of any access, as well as looked and patched any holes or openings that would grant them entry into the house. What creature resides here with us? Is it of this world? Why have we never spotted it or any other signs of it? Did it get in through an opening, pull its shenanigans and then exit before we sealed its portal? I cannot answer any of these; all I know is we are completely dumfungled. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group"  "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| P2. Social Media - Good or Bad (opinion)? Should it be or can it be controlled? Let's break this down. Good or bad? Yes! Should it be controlled: No. Can it be controlled? It would not be easy, but yes, it can. Now, let's expand on this. Social Media in itself is neither good nor bad, but the people using it are. What I mean is, like with anything, how it's used may be good or bad, depending on who's using it and for what purpose. It's terrific for keeping in contact with friends and family, it's useful for information, and it's a great way to interact and meet new people. But, it is also a great way to spread gossip, rumors, and slander people. It's also a base for bullying and prejudice, and some of the information is false, misleading, and sometimes even dangerous. With this in mind, one would think controlling social media would be a good thing, then. But, who's going to set the standards, and would they be fair? Any kind of control could easily be turned into full censorship and a loss of our rights. If those who are in control hold different ideals, opinions, and beliefs, would they promote only their own? That's the risk we have to take because I do believe there should be some controls set and enforced. Without them, I fear, the bad would soon smother the good and social media would turn very ugly. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| P21. When did you last go re-read items you wrote over two years ago? Go read one now and tell us about what you thought of your writing from back then as compared to now. Whenever I get a review of an item, newer or older, I read the item before I read the review. It helps me to know what the reviewer is saying and refreshes my memory of that particular item. I also pick out items to share with family or friends if something in conversation triggers my memory. Quite recently, one of my children needed to write a poem for school and was having some problems coming up with content. I shared a few of my poems to help generate ideas and to provide some insight into how I write poetry. She soon had a rough draft and ended up with a very nice poem. As for the second part of this prompt, "What do I think of my older writing?" Not much has changed in my writing from then to now except back then I was writing and now I don't get much written. I enjoy reading past items and am reminded that I need to do editing. I have a lot of great material but it all needs to be edited and I'm not good at editing. I know, I will never get better at it if I don't do it. One of these days... Or, maybe I should hire an editor and stick to writing the stuff and letting someone who knows edit them. Any takers? A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| The April blogging event over at "Invalid Item" Requires the following: Here's how you can Not Be a Fool (NBF). 1. Write seven (7) blogs between April Fools Day (4/1) and the Ides of April (4/15). Use your own topic or select from any of the Prompts posted at the Banana Bar. Entries must be at least 250 words excluding any mention of this activity, Andre or the Banana Bar. 2. You Must Comment on at least seven (7) blog entries from others on WDC. Comments must be at least 25 words excluding any mention of this activity, Andre, or the Banana Bar. In other words, a real comment that is honest and respectful. There is more, but this is ample for my entry. Oh, and yes I did a word count on the above, just to ensure I have enough of my own material in this entry. Word count = 654 total less 159 for introduction = 495 Today is the Ides of April, so times up. I still have one more entry needed for my seven blog entries, but I do have my seven comments done. Actually, I think I have at least one other blog entry I did not list here, but I'm not going to go back through entries to see, since this one makes seven. I do know that I have a few, possibly quite a few other comments that I could have, and should have, listed. But, I did not read through the requirements very carefully when I started. I knew I needed seven entries, and seven comments, but I thought both required 250 words. Again, I'm not going to go back and hunt to find all the comments I have left that were over twenty-five words, since it was my own knuckleheaded mistake. Instead, I'm in here early, well kind of, writing my last blog entry so I can get my seven done today. I should have been past seven by now, but spring showed up and I ended up being very busy with melting snow and ice needing to be cleaned up as well as a driveway that was turning to mud. None of this would have been as bad, but I also took a nasty slip on icy steps and possibly dislocated my shoulder. I gave it a few days to see if I needed to see a doctor, and in those days the pain diminished some, a couple of loud and uncomfortable pops resulted in a gain in my range of motion, and it seemed there was no need to seek medical assistance. But, it still hurt, especially doing things that required reaching or lifting my arm. I'm happy to say, it has continued to heal. It's still a pain in the @ss shoulder, but it's not very bad and more discomfort that hurt. With this healing well, I'm hoping to be back in here doing a bit more, but there are still distractions and interruptions. Like yesterday; I had a small trench dug out through the semi-frozen gravel of the driveway so the melting snowbank would drain away onto the lawn instead of across the driveway, resulting in a pretty solid and dry surface and a few nasty blisters. Yesterday, our neighbor decided to plow the snowbank back for me, which was nice. But in the process of backing up and ramming forward to move the snow, he completely undid my trenching and the resulting water once again spread across the driveway and created some mud. This meant I had to spend a few hours re-digging and trenching to redirect the flowing water into the yard. He's a nice guy and means well, but he is very set in his ways. He also lacks common sense and can be more stubborn that a mule. But, as I said he has good intentions. We all, I think, know what they pave... A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| The April blogging event over at "Invalid Item" Requires the following: Here's how you can Not Be a Fool (NBF). 1. Write seven (7) blogs between April Fools Day (4/1) and the Ides of April (4/15). Use your own topic or select from any of the Prompts posted at the Banana Bar. Entries must be at least 250 words excluding any mention of this activity, Andre or the Banana Bar. 2. You Must Comment on at least seven (7) blog entries from others on WDC. Comments must be at least 25 words excluding any mention of this activity, Andre, or the Banana Bar. In other words, a real comment that is honest and respectful. There is more, but this is ample for my entry. Oh, and yes I did a word count on the above, just to ensure I have enough of my own material in this entry. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| The Ides of April are almost upon us which means I need to get my butt moving or I'll run out of time. I've been busy, with spring finally arriving for a day or two before summer set in. Hey, this is Minnesota, a couple of spring days is typical! Yes, it went from barely reaching a temperature high enough to thaw to mid and upper-thirties for a couple of days. But, the temperature over the last few days has been in the sixties. With all the snow and ice we had, this has resulted in vast amounts of flowing water, muck, and mud. I have been shoveling snow, chipping away at the ice, and playing in the mud contouring the driveway so the water will flow away instead of standing and making more mud. Now that I've made progress in ridding areas of snow, ice, and have a lot of the drive dried out and solid, we have the return of spring predicted for Friday, with highs in the mid-forties with rain. Then on Saturday, winter returns with highs near thirty and snow! Sunday's forecast is for me to start this process all over again, but this time around it should be easier and quicker. My older teen claims that Minnesota is bipolar, but I corrected her. With spring, summer, and winter all within three days, I think the state is tripolar. On the bright side, at least we haven't had autumn tossed into the mix again. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| P13. Should education start to require learning a second language? This is a very good question, but before we start talking about second languages, I think we should require education to teach a single language. Half of what passes for spoken language doesn't even make sense and then there's the written language, or what is passed on as language. There are more initialisms in a sentence than actual words. Why? Is it that hard to write out a few words instead of using initialisms? Sure, they are fine for texting, but I, as a writer, refuse to use them. What I'm talking about is when the education system uses them to communicate in place of proper language. But it goes further than just being too lazy to write out a few words. Punctuation is also too difficult, so let's not require or teach high school students to use proper punctuation, capitalization, or even correct sentence structure. I mean, that would require educators to actually work and hold students accountable. Maybe I'm wrong about your education systems, but I have two teens in high school and when they have me read items they've written for school, it's terrible; maybe if they were in third or fourth grade, but not high school. I point out punctuation and grammar mistakes the best I can (I'm terrible at editing) but they tell me it doesn't matter, it doesn't reflect on their grade. On a side note, even written communications from the faculty are full of errors and written poorly. Also, I now have to print. Well, not just now, but for the past few years. As a supervisor, I had to print or type out simple things because the younger people could not read cursive. Why? Again, is it too hard for modern students to learn? Or, maybe it's too difficult for modern teachers to teach? You ask, "Should education require learning a second language?" My answer is, "How in the Hell can anyone learn a second language when they still haven't learned the first!" A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| Four days into April, which should mean, spring is arriving and winter is over. Songbirds are showing up at the feeder, there's a flock of Robins hanging around the pine trees, the sun is higher in the sky and skunks and raccoons are coming out of their winter slumber. But is spring here? Oh, hell no! The songbirds are huddled in the shelter of the pine branches, the Robins are standing in the snow, and the skunks and raccoons are getting into trash receptacles in search of food. For the last two days, the weather has been warmer, just enough to thaw things out a bit and melt a little snow. Saturday the sun did shine, but yesterday was gray and looked like foul weather was approaching. This morning began with thawing temperatures, barely, but soon the snowflakes were fluttering down. Then the wind picked up, a cold, damp, and gusting wind that created the illusion that it was snowing horizontally. Soon enough, the light snow became heavy and by the time I drove home at ten o'clock, roads were slippery, visibility was greatly impaired, and the school was notifying us that the kids would be home early. I'm hoping the loathsome weather will soon pass over, but the folks at the National Weather Service are telling us it could last until Thursday morning. I'm also wishful for a small amount of the cold, wet, and unsavory snow, but those same folks are saying we may get over a foot of the unscrupulous stuff. My Mom used to say, "March winds bring April showers and April showers bring May flowers." I mentioned this in the Newsfeed earlier. Where are the showers? Will we have any Flowers? I'm tired of complaining about shoveling snow, I want to complain about mowing grass instead! Does anyone know if someone made a big mistake with the time change -- instead of an extra hour of daylight it seems we have an extra month of winter! I seriously think and blame world governments for this; they have jointly invented and built a weather machine and hid it in Antarctica. They are doing this without disclosure in an attempt to slow global warming... A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| P17. UFOs - what's the truth in your opinion? Have you ever seen one? Of course, UFO's exist. But what is a UFO? if it flies and it's unidentified, it's a UFO. It doesn't have to come from space, and it doesn't have to have extraterrestrial associations, it is just something flying that is not identified. Not that a UFO couldn't be from another world, anything is possible. But, if another civilization has developed the ability to travel faster than light, I think they could observe us quite well from a safe distance without being seen. Even more importantly, why would they want to visit us? We can't even get along with our own kind, so what would lure highly advanced travelers to fly to our planet? And, if they did want to travel light years to visit us, why wouldn't they make contact so they can visit us? To me, it would be like driving over a thousand miles to see a city, and just driving through without stopping. So no, I don't think we have aliens from other worlds doing fly-bys. That being said, I have to admit that I have, on a few occasions, witnessed UFOs. The first time was as a young teen. We lived in a small town on the Mesabi Iron Range of Minnesota, and being the introvert I still am, I spent a lot of time exploring the country and old mines around us. On one such occasion, my brother was with me and we had spent the afternoon exploring some old mining roads. It was getting late and we were hurrying home, knowing we had likely missed supper and were in trouble. As we climbed an old ore dump, we stopped to rest for a few minutes and saw a bright red orb fly overhead. It moved quickly, and at first, we thought it was a shooting star. But, it didn't fly straight, it curved and formed a sort of "S" pattern, then stopped in mid-flight, reversed, and returned the way it had come, soon vanishing over the southern horizon. We, being kids, were a bit scared and a bit panicky. I mean, what if it came back and abducted us? We rushed home and into the house out of breath to find my parents sitting very silently in the kitchen. Instead of the normal butt-chewing, however, we got hugs from our mom and dad. After a few minutes, they informed us that my grandmother had called to say grandpa had just passed away a few minutes earlier in the hospital; about the same time we saw the UFO! Another time, I had just got home during a very bad storm. We lived in a trailer and the tornado sirens were going off, it was raining very hard, and the wind was picking up to gale force. I could barely walk against the force of the wind and all sorts of debris was flying past. I heard a whistling sound overhead and when I looked up, something flew over that spinning or so it seemed. It was difficult to see with the rain but it barely passed above the bowing trees. After the storm had passed, my UFO turned out to be a porta-potty that had made an emergency landing just across the highway... Oh, and it was unmanned! A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| P24. Wisdom, Knowledge, or Humor. Which is most important and why? (You must select one and not claim they all are) "They all are!" I know, I have to select one and cannot claim all three, but hey, they are all three of equal importance and they are all three intertwined. Think about it! you cannot have wisdom without knowledge, and you cannot know without understanding. And, if one is lacking in either, they may think they are humorous, but let's face it, they aren't. Actually, as I think about this, I find wisdom holds more importance. "Why?" First, let's look at the difference between them; knowledge results in the understanding of a particular subject, whereas wisdom develops the discernment and reasoning ability of a person. What goes does it do to know something if you cannot apply that knowledge? I see a lot of this in society: intelligent people with knowledge, yet they do not apply it. They fail to use reason and no matter how smart they may be, they do dumb stuff and make stupid mistakes. As for humor, the same applies. A good sense of humor requires some knowledge, but even more importantly it requires sound reason and wisdom. It is what makes something funny instead of hurtful. In summary, wisdom equals common sense and without any common sense, it doesn't matter how much you know, what matters is the ability to reason and apply what you know. It is also what makes humor funny instead of cruel. I have a friend, our neighbor, who is a very nice guy, he has a lot of knowledge and can be very helpful, but he can also be challenging to be around because he lacks wisdom and his sense of humor is cruel more often than funny. He doesn't mean to be hurtful or crude, he just doesn't have the wisdom to know any different. A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
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Man, you know nothing about monkey business! Never poke your nose in them.
