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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. |
| Compare living in downtown, rural or suburbs and which one you'd like and why not the others. Okay, I can answer this with two words: Too peoply! I grew up in a small town (No! not the song, I really did grow up in a small town on the Mesabi Iron Range). Sure we had a pervert, we had some troublemakers, and we had some dishonest people. But unlike a larger community, everybody knew who they were. In addition, we lived at the very end of town, so all I had to do was walk across a non-busy street and I was out of town. Being introverted all my life, I spent more time on that side of the street than on the town side. After high school, I lived and worked in the Twin Cities for a bit, but I never cared for all the people, crime, and traffic. So, I returned to the Mesabi Iron Range, found a job in Hibbing, and started my family. But, being young, I longed for more so I enlisted in the United States Air Force and traveled a bit. Then it was back to a different small town. After my kids were grown, my current wife and I moved to South Dakota for a bit, lived in the country for a while, and then lived in a town that didn't really qualify as small, it was more like a wee-town. When we decided to adopt our grandchildren to get them out of the foster system, we had to live in the St. Cloud area. It didn't take long to remember why I moved from a metro area. Sure, there was about anything you could ever want right close by, but unfortunately, there was also everything you didn't want just as close. Eventually, the adoptions were final and we could move out of the chaos and crime. Now, I live in the country, but there is a medium size town close by and if they don't have what I want, there're bigger communities within an hour of me. I don't mind the drive, it's not like city traffic where there are a trazillion cars filling up multifarious lanes driven by psychopathic and homicidal people. There may be a few, but not a trazillion. I think this about wraps it up: A proud member of "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group"  "Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J. |
| Where should the line be for the common good on personal freedoms (yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, etc.) and who should draw it)? The first thing that comes to mind when reading this prompt is freedom. How would you define freedom? Does anyone really have total freedom? Freedom is not being able to do anything you want anytime you want, in fact, that would be anarchy. There is no total freedom, but there are a lot of freedoms people can enjoy. To define where the line should be drawn is actually not a matter of freedom, it's a matter of ethics. Will having this freedom cause harm or discomfort to another? Will my freedom restrict another's freedom? But it's here where the line really gets fuzzy, blurred, and filled with a lot of nasty, gray, and stinky, sludge. If I say I like oysters and someone is offended by it because they can't stand oysters, should they be able to restrict my freedom to say that? But, they order a pizza with dead fish anchovies all over it. I do not like anchovies, so they shouldn't be able to order them. In the name of all that is sacred, what if I see (and smell) those terrible and disgusting things? The problem is, nobody's being hurtful, or restricting another's freedom, we're just being selfish knuckleheads complaining just to make noise and get attention! The problem arises when people become hyper-sensitive jerks that get butt-hurt whenever anyone says or does something they don't approve of. And, this does cause hurt, and it does restrict others' freedoms. This is why we need laws to decipher and protect freedoms and to clarify that line. Who should draw this line? We the people, through legitimate legislation and respectable politicians (can those two words be used in the same sentence?), that can make legitimate decisions about how this freedom, or lack of it, affects others. (Unfortunately finding this would be more difficult than locating Santa at the north pole) In the end, however, personal freedoms come down to what was once known as common sense, and what I know refer to as uncommon sense. Notice: I hope and have tried to word this in a way that nobody will feel like a butt-hurt baboon after reading this. If however, you do get butt-hurt, please do not react like a molested monkey, just post your own thoughts and opinions in your own blog. I will respect yours if you respect mine. Please and Thank You 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.
