Category Archives: writer’s challenge

fear of pain, mama kat, reading, writer's challenge

Writing in Code and Other Topics

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This weeks topics:

1.) Baby fever is in the air. Describe what you would do differently as a first time mom.

2.) What book captured your heart? Write about why the first book you loved is the first book you loved.

3.) Who is a bird-brain? Think about all the birds you’ve seen–from songbirds to hunters. Compare one or more people you know to different types of birds in a piece of writing.

4.) Why do we need 26? If you could change the alphabet, what would you do? Add? Subtract? Combine? Simplify? Write about it.

5.) Where does that fear come from? Write about something that frightens you that other people might find ridiculous. Write about it in a poem, a story, or whatever.

So off we go into the gloom and doom.

#1 – First Time Mom
I feel left out since I am clearly not the requisite gender to be a mom. Sexism is alive and well on the web!

#2 – Book O’My Heart
This has different answers depending on how you define first and love. (Sounds like a lawyer blithering, doesn’t it?)

The book I loved and read often as a wee tyke is “Digger Dan“, written by Patricia Lynn and illustrated by Si Frenkel.

Who can resist the story of the steam shovel that does so many interesting things? Besides, a book with my name on the cover – priceless. Thanks to my mom, I have this book around the house even now. The Son learned to read with it, but it just didn’t have the same appeal to him as he was growing up as it did to me.

The first book that I read and fell in love with for the content and the way it was handled was also my first experience of the love of science fiction. The book was Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress“

followed closely by “Podkayne of Mars” by the same author.

Both books appealed to my pre-teen imagination with adventure, science, emotion, and youngsters thinking deeply and doing well in an adult world. I have both books in my library today and still enjoy reading them, despite the fact they are classified as Heinlein “Juveniles”. They led me to other science fiction authors including Heinlein’s opus, “Stranger In A Strange Land“. It was a summer of intense joy and discovery as I read every science fiction book I could get from the library, my mind and horizons literally expanding with each new word. I’d love to go back to that time.

#3 – Bird of a Feather
(The name used here has no relationship to anyone in real life. If you want to get annoyed, remember it is all in *your* mind. {*grin*})

Long ago, I spent several years serving on an adjunct to the district school board known as the District Accountability Committee (DAC). The DAC did a lot of the detail and grunt work that was used by the school board to make decisions on curriculum, student accomplishment, building maintenance, etc. So we had the joy of seeing many members of the community during our meetings, almost invariably with something of great importance to them on their minds to impart to us.

It was during a DAC meeting that I saw Jim resemble a sage grouse to the point I was sure it had to be an act. You remember the sage grouse mating ritual? Where the male puffs up his chest and struts back and forth cooing and prancing to impress the female grouse. Well Jim pranced back and forth, fingers in his suspenders, chest jutting out through the whole of his speech before the committee. The only thing missing was the hen gallery to appreciate the performance.

#4 – Alphabet
I think 26 letters is too restrictive. We should switch to Mayan with close to 800 identified symbols. Of course as it turns out, there are considerably less 800 real letters. It seems the Mayans liked to represent the same sound by 6 or more different symbols. And then they went the extra step by combining several symbols into one common word/sound. But just think of the beautiful calligraphy and lack of repetition such a scheme makes possible. In any case, allow me to introduce a simple 52 letter roman alphabet mapping for your consideration:

Let me know when you have your message written. {*grin*}

#5 – Fear
Most things don’t scare me. But one thing consistently gives me the falling sensation of riding a down elevator. You know, where it feels like your stomach has just crawled up your throat and is heading for the exit? Yeah, that one.

What causes the momentary swell of panic? Stepping close to something solid and not being able to see it. I.e. walking along a path with a cinder block on the edge and not being able to see the block as I pass. Why does this particular act cause that rush of fear and panic? Because after many years as a diabetic, I have lost a lot of sensation in my feet. So if I were to kick or hit the obstruction, the pain warning me to stop comes too late and I have already rammed my foot into the object and probably broken a few toes before the pain can warn me not to do that. It happens often enough that I get that panicky feeling in anticipation of the possible happenstance quite often.

How’s that for a rational but seemingly irrational fear?

mama kat, writer's challenge

Ten Alternate Realities

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Time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. (Which I wouldn’t miss in spite of my scarcity earlier in the week.)

This weeks topics:

1.) List of 10 things blogging has taught you.

2.) “Oh please make this a topic for Writer’s Workshop. Pick your favorite song and record your own personal bathroom concert series. I’ll totally do a concert series, I bet I could get my hubby or brother to join in. Now I just need a song… (inspired by Kerri from I’m Just Sayin)

3.) “Sometimes when it’s hard to see with the eyes I’ve been given, I strap on my camera and pray for new ones. I did that yesterday. It helped.” (inspired by Emily from Chatting At The Sky)

4.) “let he who hath no sin cast the first stone…” Is there anything you have judged prematurely, only to find yourself walking in the same shoes later? (inspired by Stephanie from This Blessed Life)

5.) List your top 10 “Spring Trends”. (inspired by Tricia from Desperately Seeking Silence)

#1 – Ten Things Blogging Has Taught Me

  • Bloggers come and go; rare is the 3+year blogger.
  • Newbies are always welcome.
  • A touch of graphical panache helps the words go down.
  • There is no predicting what will be popular with readers.
  • Taste is a individual thing.
  • Subject matter can compensate a lack of writing skill, at least temporarily.
  • Interesting blogs (to me) feature lives and interests disjunct from my own.
  • Blogging takes a back seat to life and work for most of us from time to time.
  • Blogging is addictive in the sense of feeling guilty when you haven’t written for a few days.
  • Powerful blogs are emotionally raw and uncensored. The rest of us have to be amusing or erudite to make up for lack of raw.

#2 – Bathroom Concert

Given that I am not even allowed to sing in the shower here by myself, there is no chance of me singing and exposing the world. I want at least some people to remain amidst the living to read this blog. {*grin*}

#3 – Camera Eyes

My approach is a bit different. When I can’t see with the eyes I have, I put on a new pair of eyes in my imagination and look at the world in a new light. I find that is usually very helpful. With a camera, you can only look at what is really there in a different way; with your imagination you can look at what isn’t really there in a way that illuminates what is really there in a different way. One might say that they are two different means to reaching the same end – a different way of seeing reality.

#4 – Getting Stoned

I don’t know if I have ever cast the first stone and then been stoned myself, but I have certainly had moments of utter non-understanding and cluelessness towards others. There is one judgment that lingers powerfully; friends and I have discussed it several times over the years.

When we were young, we often thought of some of our classmates/friends as weird, wild, flighty, or just plain out there. This judgment was often made without much deep thought or attempts at understanding. Now more than 40 years later and with additional information in hand, we realize that many times they had home and life situations that made them the way they were.

Somehow you always assume that everyone has a life like yours, free of abuse and exploitation. Unfortunately, that isn’t always true. I doubt that it would have changed anything, but I rue making those judgments and not being able to spot the underlying problem. Even one understanding friend could have made all the difference in dealing with the problem they faced. It might have kept those who took their own lives amidst the living.

At least there is hope that it *is* getting better.

#5 – Spring Trends

Fashion advice? From me? I don’t think so.

haiku, mama kat, writer's challenge

Haiku To You Too

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Time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge.

Being short of time and long of tooth, I choose to persue

3.) Write a Haiku that describes what you love about an ordinary day.
(inspired by Jade from Now that I’m no longer 25…)

as my topic of choice.

The Ordinary Day Haikus
Morning comes upon us
Life renews again
A gift from the sun
Snow atop
Rain below
The mountain reigns
Hot dry itchy wind
Cold wet soothing stream
Balance is inherent
football, mama kat, vain, writer's challenge

The Vain Blindsided Ego

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Time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge.

This week the prompts are:

1.) You’re so vain. You probably think this post is about you…don’t you?
2.) Tell us about your trip!
3.) A difficult conversation.
4.) Can you almost stop time with your words? Write about the fastest ride you ever had, but describe only a few seconds of it…as though it was happening to slow motion.
(writingfix.com)
5.) Who blind-sided you? Write about a time someone caught you totally off guard.
(writingfix.com)

I will cogitate and then scribe, scribble, set forth, type, etc. on #1 and #5 for the nonce.

#1 – I don’t think the post is about me, I know it is! After all, there could be no more interesting subject for a post than the illustrious trio of me, myself, and I.

Your post is about women’s feminine products – it is still about me. I just know it. Even if your post is about some horrible TV show I have never seen such as American Idol or Lost or The Bachelor or … I still know it is about me, if for no other reason than to annoy me.

Every since the moment of my birth, I’ve known that it is all about me. There was never the slightest doubt in my mind. But I am glad that you are finally catching on, it is tiring to keep reminding everyone to stay on topic -ME!!!

Now if you don’t mind, I have to get back to checking out what everyone is saying about me.

#5 – Blindside

Verb 1. blindside – catch unawares, especially with harmful consequences;
2. blindside – attack or hit on or from the side where the attacked person’s view is obstructed

So let’s go with a combination of definitions 1 and 2.

Way back in the time of the dinosaurs, I played football. It was so long ago that it was in the first years of allowing freshman to play on the varsity teams. I was one of the fortunate (or unfortunate) persons selected to play on the varsity during my freshman year. Given that it was the first year that frosh were allowed to play varsity, there was a certain amount of animosity from the upperclassmen about the intrusion onto their turf.

One fine day we were practicing kickoff coverage. You know, where you run like mad at each other from great distances with the goal of killing each other and then tackling the guy with the ball. The whistle blew signaling the end of the drill and I started to relax when I heard my name shouted from behind me. I turned just in time to be blindsided by the person whose place I had taken. He had a 30 yard run to get up to speed and imparted all of his momentum to me. I must have flown 20 feet through the air to land on my butt. Of course, the perpetrator was laughing his rear end off. He thought it was pretty funny.

I filed his poor behavior away under the revenge area of my mind and continued on. The chance for revenge came the very next day during practice, but I didn’t even get a chance to do anything. Seems that his behavior wasn’t well accepted by his classmates (and my teammates) and they took turns blindsiding him in every drill we did that day. He wasn’t real bright and didn’t catch on until near the end of practice and so suffered a number of trips through the air. I actually felt a bit sorry for him.

I never had another bit of trouble with him. It was a great lesson to me about the power of teammates.

Now I come prepared for all blindsides, for in politics and fund raising, everything is allowed. {*grin*}

better off gone, mama kat, writer's challenge

I’m Better Off Without It

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Time once more for the wonders of Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week I take on the topic of:

1.) 10 Reasons why you’re better off without him….or her….or it.

My reasons why I am better off without it:

  • It is slow.
  • It is old.
  • It generates enough heat in operation to warm the whole house.
  • It generates more noise than a jet idling by your ear.
  • It uses proprietary accessories.
  • It is “No longer supported” hardware.
  • It is “No longer supported” software.
  • The optical drive is broken.
  • The built in Ethernet is broken.
  • It burns more electricity per year than the cost of a modern replacement.
  • It weighs more than 150 lbs.

Have you figured out what it is? It is my old domain backup system manufactured by the no longer extant Sun Microsystems. It was top of the line back in the late 90’s when I acquired it, but today its job can be done faster by a cheap Intel box. The only bad thing is that the beast has been reliable as heck. For the last 11 years it has had less than 10 minutes of unplanned downtime. Its replacement box averages that much downtime per month.

So long old friend.