You never know what will bubble up when you poke around the interweb. I was browsing about, a bit blurry after couch snoozing all morning, and stumbled on a writing contest that tickled my fancy.
It’s funny how an idea can spring to life nearly fully formed after being seeded with an idea.
The seed that fertilized my mind was the current contest on the Trifecta Writing Challenge. The challenge went thusly:
I confess, I’m definitely a hedonist.
I deeply believe in the credo that life is short, eat dessert first. However, somewhat paradoxically, I’m also a delayer in that I eat the cake and then the icing. In a given moment, I’m very prone to saving the best for last.
But the main thing is that, when the arc of my life ends, I want as much as possible to be able to say I enjoyed it and had fun every possible minute. There is more in the world to enjoy than anyone can in a lifetime, so you have to apply yourself!
With life’s pleasures in mind, today’s edition of Brain Bubbles is about things that are pleasurable — tasty — to me.
Feeling kind of down today. Last day of a five-day vacation; the new position swings into full gear tomorrow. Could put a real dent in the fun I’ve been having here in the blogsphere.
Plus, after weeks of sunny weather, it’s totally cloudy and partly rainy. If it’s going to be that way, I want thunder and lightning! “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!”
Adding injury to insult, it seems I’ve once again proved my unfitness to be among the human race; once again intended to help, but caused hurt feelings instead. And per the weird synchronicity that inhabits my life, on the same day, a post on Talk To Diana speaks to that very issue!
I am the poster child for Foot-in-Mouth disease! Quasimodo thinking he can ever find a place among the townspeople.
It’s party time! Friday night, and everything’s right.
For your consideration, there’s celebration in the air (that’s no exaggeration). We’re talking ’bout elation; lookin’ for participation. Ya gotta feel the situation. Join with the recreation; enjoy the circulation (and the conversation).
Listen to that good vibration, trackin’ jubilation destination. Forget your reputation; forget your moderation; ain’t no humiliation (that’s a stipulation). There’s no registration, no identification authentication.
I’m sure it’s no revelation; fermentation fascination will bring inebriation (and hallucination). Hesitation just won’t do; you have an invitation! There is no limitation at this here presentation.
That was my narration; how ’bout a small ovation?
Do you all know the Gallagher bit about the Crazy English Language?
B.O.M.B. … “b-ah-m!”
T.O.M.B. … “t-ah-m?” … no T.O.M.B. “t-oo-m”
C.O.M.B. … “c-oo-m?” … no C.O.M.B. “c-oh-m”
P.O.M.B. … “p-oh-m?” … no P.O.E.M. “p-oh-m”
H.O.E.M. … “h-oh-m?” … no H.O.M.E. “h-oh-m”
S.O.M.E. … “s-oh-m?” … no S.O.M.E. “s-uh-m”
N.O.M.E. … “n-uh-m?” … no N.U.M.B. “n-uh-m”
This will make more sense when you get to the end of this Special Edition of Brain Bubbles.
I was digging through boxes I’ve carted around for four decades looking for a short science fiction story I wrote in high school. I haven’t found it, but I refuse to believe it’s not there somewhere. There’s a lot to go through; I’d forgotten how much writing I did in high school and into college. Most of it is embarrassing juvenile crap (I may share some of it with you just for laughs).
I did find a piece I wrote seven or so years after college. Reading it made me laugh out loud (but I’m easily amused). Perhaps it will tickle your funny bone as well.
[Update July 23, 2016: I did eventually find The Lost Story.]
The next time I decide to do a week-long series of articles about television shows, somebody hit me with a baseball bat! (But if you would, please make one of those plastic whiffleball bats; wouldn’t want brain bubbles scattered everywhere!)
Suffice to say TV Tuesday was a grueling exercise. Trying to pack so much into each post without going over my self-imposed limit of 1200-15oo words was tough, and I’m not entirely happy with the results. There wasn’t much depth to any of it, but I’m going to look at them as foundations for future discussion. And it was nice to record a list of my television raves and rants in interweb stone, so there is that.
Today I’m going to kick back a bit before getting into much meatier topics and just serve up some post editing notes:
I was wondering what, if anything, to post today. I woke up with a headache (okay, a hangover), and I find it hard to focus on writing when my head hurts. And today begins what is seeming more and more likely to be my last three weeks in a 33-year career. So I’m feeling a bit down, which also makes writing difficult.
I have been writing a lot lately. Some of that is catching up after nearly a year of writing very little here. I started strong a year ago July, kept it up for two months and then fell off the metaphorical horse. There was a personal and a work-related aspect to that. The latter involved beginning new tasks at work, so there were new systems to learn, and that took a lot of energy. The former is private; suffice to say it involved one of those life disappointments that takes some time to absorb and integrate.
The longer I didn’t write, the easier it was to not write. (Exercise is the same way for me.) I tried several times to get back into it, but never really got up a head of steam.
I was brought up pretty well, I think, in terms of having (and keeping) principles and honor and honesty. But my parents failed terribly in one regard: I have horrible eating habits. The stuff I love is, generally speaking, the wrong sort of stuff to be eating, and those wholesome and wonderful foods leave me cold. Some of them, cooked squash or most egg preparations for example, actually induce a gag reflex.
Given a choice between eating a fried (or boiled) egg or being water boarded, I would have to give the matter some serious thought.
It’s like the old Jack Benny joke about the time he was mugged. “Your money or your life!” cries the mugger. [long pause] “Well?” demands the mugger. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” replies Benny.
As fall slowly falls upon the region, the smell of wood smoke is in the air. Much as it evokes great times around countless camp and bonfires, the smell has been strong enough recently to really set off my sinuses. Two nights in a row (wait: sniff, sniff… make that three), it was less the fragrance of wood smoke and more the acrid nostril-irritating stench of wood smoke.
An age-old metaphor for life, perhaps.
Too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing.
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