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 A new blog to contain answers to prompts |
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one. Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.  |
| Prompt: What are your top five memories? Write about them in your Blog entry today. ------- In the archives of my mind, lots of memories exist because I've lived so long, but I can't tell which ones are at the top. This is because each take their top position in connection with my mood of the moment or a certain life event, which might have reminded me of an earlier experience. Nevertheless, here are a few of such memories. My most playful and happier memories usually have to do with my cousins. These memories feel like gifts when I look back. Because I was an only and overprotected child of my mother's, being with cousins let me have the fun and camaraderie of siblings and childhood friends that didn't exist in my real life. These memories surface when something in the present resembles the past or when I cajole them to surface if I am feeling low. Such memories steady me, especially in difficult times for they are not only records but resources and reminders that joy has existed and, if by some luck, may return. For example, I recall the day when a whole bunch of us. I think we were seven kids but it could have been more since I'm lucky with the number of cousins I have. We begged, and with some luck, grasped permission to go to a park, without adult supervision. Since we were a crowd, that permission was easily given by my uncles and aunts, and, however hesitantly, by my mother, too. On our way back, a sudden rainfall caught us unawares. While others on the street ran for shelter, we stayed out in the open on purpose. At the end, we were all soaked to the bone and laughing and giggling and having fun. When we finally got home, the adults couldn't reach for enough towels. I said earlier that I didn't have any top memories. Come to think of it this memory has to be at the top of it all, maybe because I felt so strongly, a belonging with my cousins and also felt so free to have done something possibly mischievous and forbidden. Other memories, too, obey the same or similar rules of association. My grandmother's hands braiding my hair, a new year's eve party much later, walking by the shore holding hands with my husband when we were newly engaged, the very rare occasion my two very different and, more often than not, incompatible sons watching TV or playing together also act as powerful triggers for a smile on my face. All these memories carry strong emotional weight for me, but good or bad, they are in the archive within me, so I can reach for them when I need to. This is because such recollections come to me with some strong emotions attached. Emotions like comfort, pride, love, because my brain does not store these experiences as cold facts. It records them along with my feelings that surrounded them. They are there to steady me, especially in difficult times. I remember the happy hours or hardships as milestones and reminders. Reminders that, as they say, "This, too, shall pass." . |
| Prompt: What are some things you would miss if you no longer had them? ---------- My list of things I truly cannot live without is probably much shorter than the list of things I've grown attached to. If it is for survival, I guess I can do with a lot less, but if it's for the satisfaction of a good-enough life, there would be a lot of things I'd miss, much more than probably the average person my age. So, at the most basic level, physically speaking, I cannot live without air, water, food, my health, and my home, and these are not luxuries, either. Yet, I am not just a physical creature. I need to be connected to others in some shape or form, be it through a computer, a cellphone, or friends and my sons calling and checking on me. Closely tied to these is my need for purpose. Wanting the best for my sons, my family and friends and, my country plus the world has to do something with my purpose. WdC, my books, music, my plants, all animals especially cats -- even though I don't have my cat anymore now-- plus some other attachments and obligations also fill that purpose. Then, a most important thing I cannot live without is hope. Hope makes everything, even pain and my ineptitude with some things  , more tolerable. Hope is probably my inner light.As to the today's world and technology, yes I realize that I have to, unfortunately, fit in. All the new technologies, plus the phone, stand in the first row. If I lost these suddenly, it would be like losing a limb, although I am still fond of books, notebooks, paper, and pen and pencil, and cannot do without those either. Added to them are the comfort of my bed, my reading nook in front of the window in my bedroom, the area in the living room where my computer is, and my kitchen. This goes to show that most things I really need, deep down inside, may not be required for basic survival, but they are my more personal essentials that make my days fuller, more tolerable, and more pleasant. . |
| Prompt: “Hot chocolate is like a hug from the inside.” Do you like hot chocolate, and what are your most favored hot drinks? -------------------- Do I like hot chocolate or what! I'm drinking, no, cross that, I'm sipping one right now as I write this entry. This may be partly because my pleasures come in cups. Cups that do not demand speed or productivity but just only comfort. This is when the aroma of melted chocolate rises first, rich and sweet, preparing my mind for pleasure before that first sip even reaches my lips. In addition, I have a deep emotional connection to hot chocolate. Hot chocolate makes me re-live my childhood again, especially when coming in from the cold, to taste its comfort, warmth and sweetness, as offered from my grandmother's loving hands, in a ceremonial importance. So I enjoy it, still, its taste of each sip heightened with cinnamon and whipped cream. To me, therefore, hot chocolate is more than a drink. It is a ritual of indulgence that has spanned cultures and generations. I always savor it and the moment, as I slow down and let the cold and my worries stay outside. Are there other hot drinks that can live up to hot chocolate's favorability? Well, my second favorite hot drink is tea, followed by hot apple cider. This goes to show that hot chocolate sometimes shares its throne with other hot drinks. Coffee is perhaps the most famous among all those, but as much as I love coffee, my cardiologist has banned it for me. If you ask me it was for no reason but professional gobbledygook. If you ask him, he'll utter his many reasons, which would take pages and pages of paper, if they were to be written down. Granted, after my insistence, he gave a half-hearted okay to tea and a possible chocolate candy once in a while. So, in my mind, this clears out hot chocolate, too.  Surely, there are other beloved hot drinks liked by other cultures. like Chai, that has cardamom, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon in it as a spiced milk tea. When brewed by one who is from somewhere in South Asia, it is quite tasty. I bought the commercial tea-bagged kind of it, but didn't like it as much as the one a friend from India had once made for us, decades ago. Then, I heard, there is the South American "atole," made from corn but I never tasted it and I wonder if I did, I would like it as much as my hot chocolate and other hot beverages. So, as I reach again, smugly, for my cup of hot chocolate, all I can say is, "To each, his own!" . |
| Prompt: “The trees were still leafless, and the land had the desolate look of a February that seemed never to end.” Ernest Hemingway Where you live now, what does February look like as it steps in? ------------ Where I am, today feels icy cold, even though it is South Florida on the first day of February. It is making me laugh at the travel commercials that claim warmth and fun under the sun to urge northerners to come to Florida. Last night, the temp went down to the 20s. Luckily, they have opened the shelters for those who may need it. This cold, however, is not a regular February event in Florida, although it can happen only once in a decade or two. I mean the grass, today, is still green, and the trees have their leaves on. Except last night, I went out and wrapped plastic around my rose-bushes and some other baby seedlings. As to the quote, it captures more of a mood than a moment in the season. It also points to the fluctuating sense of a winter, as if my world has paused now, waiting for permission to move forward. Although, it isn't anything like the northeast that I remember, where the snow piles darkened with road salt, lawns faded into dull straw, and rivers crept with rims of ice. But then, February has always been a month of contradiction. It just maybe that climate shifts with sudden warm spells to be erased by a blast of Arctic air is the personality of February. It always makes me emotional, restless, and checking forecasts often. This was so when I lived up north and it still is the same down here in far south FL, especially today. Yet, I know this is temporary and winters are known to test our patience, one way or another. I mean, maybe, where I am, we lack the desolate look of the frozen everything, the white of the snow, and stripped branches clawing at gray skies. Yet, the old man winter, even here, is trying to keep us on our toes for us not to get too smug with our more agreeable weather. Still, just beyond all this, up north and everywhere, sap will rise, daylight will lengthen, and the new green life will rise up from its sleep. And if luck will happen to be on our side, we'll have a beautiful spring. everywhere. |
| Prompt: Have fun with these random words--appoint, rifle, mill, wrong, diamond, toothless, debate, be, normal, and advertisement. ---------- That Sales Pitch! A polished *advertisement in bright display, they *appoint a smile to sell me the day, grinding doubt away in a slogan *mill words stacked like gold, *be it at will, the *diamond dream, gone slightly *wrong, shines loud and proud in a jingle’s song their facts go *toothless in perfumed air as a *debate between truth and flair, calling excess *normal, here is shown, they *rifle my hopes with that velvet tone, with billboards blessing a doubtful right my destiny's iffy, in this glittering sight. * |
| Prompt: Amazon announced they're discontinuing their Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh and converting their inventory back into Whole Foods. Did you use Amazon Fresh or Amazon Go? Do you prefer to go to the store yourself or depend on home deliveries from your grocery store or Walmart? Do you think home deliveries are a trend that will fade over time? -------------- There was a time, possibly 25-30 years ago, that I wouldn't touch Amazon, at all. Nowadays in old age, though, Amazon has been a life-saver for me. For us old folks, it is probably making the difference between living in a retirement home or in our own homes. So, yes, possibly I must have used Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh at one point or another. I can't tell for sure because when I need something, I check it if the store has it in whichever part of it that maybe. As to my preference, yes, I like going to store myself the best, but it is very rare, partly because, nowadays, I tell my son what I need as to the fresh produce and meats and such, and he gets those from Publix for me, once a week. The problem with this is that he has his own life and home and girlfriend, and I just won't ask him on my own to shop for me, unless he messages me before visiting and asks if I need anything. So my food store visits have dwindled down to once a month, or even, once in two months. So, for other things other than the fresh stuff, Amazon has been a lifesaver for several years, now. As to Whole Foods, there's a Whole Foods Market in West Palm, somewhat farther down south from me, and if they deliver something through Amazon, they take their time. Unfortunately, they refuse to deliver fresh produce and meats. In my area, there are home delivery companies like Door Dash, Instacart, and even Uber, which keeps messaging me if I'd like them to deliver this or that. Uber's app is in my cell because my son put it there, just in case, and that's how they know about me. I also used Door Dash once, when my car was in the shop and I needed my medication from Walgreens. Then, not all home delivery companies deliver from just any store. Some have their own choices, and we have to go along with those choices. In my case, I don't like their choice of food stores so far. I guess, for now, home deliveries are an important part of our existence. Possibly, their future depends on cost and their application. Ease-of-use, price, and function matter, too. I am hoping they get better and learn to be easier on the customers as well as making profit for themselves. |
| Prompt: "All The flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today. " Write about this in your Blog entry today -------- "Hope," I thought, the minute I read this quote that Megan asked us to write about, "Hope, the emotional anchor that makes us view our tomorrows positively." So hope! And let's celebrate hope! My son tells me the United Nations General Assembly has designated 12 July as the International Day of Hope. We're half a year away to July 12, today, but I think, it was a good idea to give hope its own day. After all, this world seems to come apart at its seams, as every nation picks on some other nation at this very moment. Yet, there's comfort in the idea of hope, even if it seems unattainable at this time. When life feels stalled or progress is unseen, this quote reassures me that growth often happens underground before it appears above the surface. This is a big encouragement, I think, as our flowers of tomorrow do wait inside the seeds of today. A seed is small and unremarkable. When I hold it in my hand, it gives no hint of color, fragrance, or abundance, which it may one day produce. Still, inside it lies a complete design like a hidden promise waiting for time, care, and the right conditions. The same goes for today's actions that often feel insignificant. Actions such as a single kind word, to see others from a positive angle, an hour spent practicing a skill, a decision to forgive, or the courage to start again. Then, repeated over time, they take root in our lives and shape who we become. In fact, such growth often happens underground before it shows up above the surface. For the seed has spent a long time hiding in the soil, gathering strength. The same goes for our efforts that don't show immediate results. Yet, who says they are wasted? Somethings, some beautiful flowers, may be forming quietly, preparing for their season of beauty and abundance. As such, I am not going to stop hoping for peace forever, for our world, for every nation, and for every person. It may happen. I have hope. Even if it'll take its time and I may not be around to see it. |
| Prompt: When it snows, nature listens. Write about this in your Blog entry today ---------- It's been such a long while since I came face to face with snow. Still, I have its memories from my younger days and I remember snow so well. The newly fallen snow felt, then, as if the earth had paused to hear its own breathing. With snow, during and after, a strange hush fell over the place. This was probably because snow changed more than how the landscapes looked. It changed how they felt, how I felt. This is because snow smooths the land into a blank page, inviting reflection. Snow also blocks some noises and enhances others. While car tires whisper instead of roaring, footsteps make a gentle crunch. Then, because people mostly try to stay indoors, snow's physical quiet turns into an emotional quiet. Even cities stop their sirens and engines, and focus on the fall of snowflakes and the bending twigs and trees and people's ways. It is as if the world tunes in to a subtler style of being. I remember, while it snowed, as I stood under a snowfall, I used to feel a stillness in me, if only to pay attention to cold air in my lungs, the white branches under the gray sky, the way the flakes descended on and around me. It felt as if I were being encouraged to listen to this wordless snow and realize that quiet has power, for the snowfall was offering me a leaning-inward as well as the fragile beauty of that very moment. . |
| "Being alone does not mean you are lonely, and being lonely does not mean you are alone." John Spence What are your thoughts on being alone or being lonely? --------------------- This quote made me chuckle as it reminded me of my much earlier experiences. I grew up in a very lively family with many members who lived close-by, and most of the time, our house would be full of family members and friends. If we didn't have guests at the dinner table, my grandmother would feel sad, and she'd weep and say, "We're alone, tonight." Even though four of us sat at the table around her, right at that moment. Maybe because of being around so many people, I grew a phobia about being alone. Or more likely, the reason might have been all the scary stories I kept reading or listening to about the supernatural and scary stuff. So I developed this fear...so much so that I couldn't stay alone in an empty room to study and do my homework. An adult usually had to sit in that room with me. Then, at nights, I shared a room with my grandmother, also. Fast forward 60+ years to today, for the last six years, I am now living in a large house all by myself, with my sons checking on me often, and a rare friend or two visiting, every now and then. The miracle is, I am just fine with it. In a nutshell, I found out solitude and loneliness are not the same state of being. Being alone is a factual condition. It means no other person is physically present. I might be sitting and fooling around on the computer in my quiet place, doing housework, walking in the yard by myself, or spending an evening at home reading, all without company. In these moments, being alone is all right, and I feel contented enough. Being lonely, however, is an emotional state. I can be lonely in a crowd, from lack of connection, belonging, or understanding. Loneliness is less about the number of people actually being present and more about a lack of meaning. Especially the absence of good relationships can make one feel unloved and insecure. So, the main difference, I believe, lies in the connection and choice. Being alone can be voluntary; loneliness is unwanted and painful. This means, if someone is lonely, the solution is not in the number of people with that person. It is in the content. It has to do with the people around with whom a deeper bond, honest talks, and mutual appreciation is missing. As such, loneliness isn't a personal failure, but it is a need that points to our human nature looking for connection. |
| Prompt: "Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world." Ralph Waldo Emerson Do thoughts really rule the world as Emerson claims? What do you think? -------- I doubt that anything created can rule the world on its own, alone. Certainly not the thoughts, and not by themselves. They are, however, the invisible forces behind much of what we people deal with. Those forces, such as actions of people, money, weapons, machines, natural resources, and now. artificial intelligence shape history and our time, and they almost always have power over our fears, hopes, and ideals. But then, I have to okay Emerson's point, too. Don't revolutions begin as arguments about justice? Scientific findings as hypotheses? My sons' rebellions, before having their own apartments? Likewise, the push for women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and the spread of civil liberties were driven by changing moral ideas. This meant thoughts acted as architects whose designs later took concrete forms. So, the way I see it, thoughts alone don't and can't rule the world. They need people, luck, institutions, circumstances, and resources. Take economic crises, political pressures, military power, for example. They always have ideas and thoughts behind them. Yet, history is full of people whose visions were ignored because the world around them was not prepared to change. Then, Emerson’s emphasis on the spiritual may be pointing to the way how we humans are choosing to respond to what we understand. Those choices can lead to resilience, reform, or worse, domination. So, I think, thoughts alone may not rule the world, but they may influence how the world is ruled. . |
| Prompt: If someone said "You've changed" to you, what would you think? Would this mean you’ve stopped living your life their way or just differently? ----------- If someone said, "You've changed," to me, I'd celebrate it. Surely, the context is what matters, but still, I can't imagine not being changed. After all, who stays the same as the day they are born? Life means change, and life changed me, even when I resisted. Plus, thanks to change, I could learn and understand and be able to do more and more things, hopefully better and better. Thanks to change, I could become more flexible and open-minded. With change, I learned how to resolve conflicts with difficult people. With change, I learned how to appreciate the people and the events in my life. This was because I grew, adapted to, and learned new things each time something changed, and along the way, I discovered new insights about life in general and who I am and who my friends and family are. A couple of questions that popped up into my mind now are: Is an unplanned and unexpected change bad for us? And on the other side of the coin, what if all changes were good by default? Inside my mind, the answers to both these questions end up in the same vein. Even if change may not be to our liking, we still learn a lot from it. True, a bad or a sad change would make us unhappy. But we still do learn from it, and that could be the default factor of a change. As to the second part of the question, "Would this mean you’ve stopped living your life their way or just differently?" I'd say I only want to live my life my way. I can take a good advice or a sincere criticism and work with it, too, but I am who I am, and I have lived a long time, and learned how to embrace change as my life teacher along the way. . |
| Prompt: The last time I saw---- it's your entry have fun! ----------- The last time I saw the airport in Rome was 55 years ago, when our first child was a baby. I thought it to be the worst and the most poorly functioning airport in the world, then. From what I have been hearing from others, it still is way below par, today. What happened with us was that 15 minutes before the plane was to take off, they changed the gate. All the passengers had to rush from the gate they had us waiting, to the other gate which was at the other end of the terminal. There were no vehicles or help to aid the passengers, and worse, no wheelchairs for those who needed them. My husband and I had our carry-on bags plus our 9 month-old son, and we were running toward the other gate. We made it into the plane possibly the last minute. I don't know what happened to those elderly passengers who were supposed to be on the same plane with us. All that rush and at the end, although we were among the younger set then, we were so exhausted! We both decided immediately, that we'd never get on any flight that stopped at Rome... ever. And we never did. A friend told me recently what she saw on the Rome airport from where she had a connecting flight. She saw a passenger using a walker getting off the plane, and she was looking for a wheelchair that was earlier reserved for her. There was a person waiting with a wheelchair. The crippled woman hobbled up to him. The guy checked his phone. He said she wasn't in his app, so she has to walk. My friend doesn't know what happened to her. The last she looked back several other passengers were arguing for the crippled woman. Another friend tells me that now, at the ground level, they have passport machines for the people from the EU, only. And even some people from the EU have had difficulty with that arrangement for the ticket machines have very long lines and a few get broken every now and then. There are other scary and weird stories I've heard on this very subject, also. And I had thought the problem had only been in where we left it, 55 years ago. Funny how it survived until today, and it seems, even flourished! I think our Italian friends have something to fix when it comes to their main central airport. |
| Prompt: Have fun with these words- tick, dialect, dependence, flush, mosaic, proof, guarantee, vain, and fresh. ---------- Words in Couplets At the *tick of dawn, *fresh winds have stirred my pain, their dark *dialect reflected light as if *mosaic in rain. I sought *proof in clouds, searched for some *guarantee, but the mind resisted my *dependence on what I longed to see. I tried to *flush out doubt from inside my brain, for chasing certainty is absurd and *vain yet, morning has my hopes up, I am not afraid for life and memories are still being made. * |
| Prompt: The Winter Olympics are almost here. What Winter Olympic sports will you be watching,? Write about this in your Blog entry today. ----------- To tell the truth, I am not going to watch any Winter Olympics. In fact, I don't watch much TV at all. My husband, on the other hand, wouldn't miss any sports events. He really loved the TV, especially the Olympics, for he himself was a long-distance runner in his late teens. Which reminds me of his adoration for Jesse Owens who upset Hitler's White Supremacy obsession during the !936 Olympics in Berlin by winning four Olympic medals that year. That might have been God's preliminary warning to racists, which must have been to alert them to the final result of World War II. I guess, black or white, or any color, doesn't a hero make. It is the person, the human being with his mettle, who is the most important. As for me and TV watching, I have never sat in front of a TV, unless I was doing something else as well. But I did sit next to my husband while he watched...always. As I sat across from the TV, then, I could have been writing down ideas, eating, knitting, sewing, peeling veggies. etc. I liked to stop what I was doing and watched figure skating, however. Nowadays, after my husband, I only have the TV on to news while eating supper. Considering today's news and happenings all around the world, it is a miracle I didn't get any ulcers...yet! |
| Prompt: Some of us are seeing snow, ice and cold weather. Describe a winter scene from your window where you live. If you live in an area without snow, describe what your winter scene looks like from your window today. ---------------- I see the outside from the window, from where I am now sitting at my computer. There are four people around the 7th. hole in their golf outfits, short-sleeved shirts, and one of them is trying to putt. The flag today on the hole is navy blue, but I don't know what it means since they change the flags everyday. One worker in the course had once told me that flags were for the weather conditions and from where the wind blows. Each day the flag's color and what's on it changes. We have some wind today, and the blue flag keeps waving. The course is lush green in the middle with a slight yellowing to its edges, and the trees around still keep their green leaves, not as light and happy green as in spring, but green nevertheless. Moreover, the sun is bright today, too bright if you ask me, and if I were out there, for sure, I'd be wearing sunglasses. We had a cold couple of days lately where the temp dipped to 39 in the middle of the night, but where I am in the far south, we don't get snow. To the north, here in Florida, they do get one inch or so in the Panhandle and, at times, on the Georgia border. Yet, I do remember snow from Long Island and other places. When we lived on Long Island, several inches of snow would cover the whole place, and especially our backyard with its tall trees would look as if some white angel spread its wings on our property. It would especially be a stunning scene under a full moon. I recall, one year, when there was a lot of snow and an ice-storm following it. Most people in our neighborhood ended up in the shelters because electricity was cut. We stayed home and camped by our fireplace and even cooked on the open fire. This was one good memory of family togetherness, for sure. Night thickened with white, branches bowed to borrowed weight, time held its breath still. Under frozen skin water dreamed of being free, patient as a pulse. Morning cracked the ice, my kids' laughter fogged the air winter learned our warmth. * |
| Prompt: Adaptation "My job is called adaptation. It's always about adapting to new situations, but the core team is going to be the same." Patrick Mouratoglou What’s one small example of something you wrote an adaptation of or have adapted to in your life for the better? -------------- To me, adaptation is how I adjust to a new or changed situation, form useful habits, and learn to cope and survive in this crazy world. Surely, my overgrown Christmas Cactus now has to adapt to its new pot and new location, as do polar bears, fish, birds and us humans to new situations. Scientifically speaking, adaptation happens over decades, centuries, and circumstances. In my little life it happens almost daily now, not only with ai butting into everything I do, but my own changing conditions due to aging. Case in point, this morning I got into my car to go to the drugstore, Walgreens, to be exact, to pick up a prescription. The ignition didn't catch on. It could be because the weather got colder the last two days, and also, I didn't use the car for a week. That I'm going to have my son look at. Which left the unpicked up prescription idea dangling over my head. I tried to call the pharmacy but they were constantly busy. So I went online and changed my prescription from pickup to "send home." It means a tiny fee but that's okay. Then, there's such a thing as literary adaptations. These involve transforming written works, such as novels, short stories, plays, or poems into different mediums such as film, television series, stage plays, or even video games. To do such an adaptation, the essence of the work stays but the writer or the creator of the adaptation can take the story to a very different direction. Off the top of my head, the film adaptations of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Poe's Tell-Tale Heart could be examples for adaptations. As such, I have done no adaptations, at least I haven't written anything while knowing its original source. Yet, I think adaptations are everywhere, even for us human beings, since our bodies and our minds are adaptations themselves, which nature saw fit to change according to its whim at any time. |
| Prompt: Necessary or Unnecessary? “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” Oscar Wilde What’s something you love today that you never even knew you needed in your life? ========= The line between what I truly need and what I like is so blurred. What was once optional now feels indispensable to me. This is such an irony, isn't it! Mostly, today, some things just soothe my life, and not because they are indispensable, either. Let me go back a few decades, since I am such an oldie. In my youth, only the government, Nasa, and such had computers, and we had black-and-white console TV's. Yes, those were the dark ages, for being colorless. Yet, we had other good stuff, but that stuff is not something I am going to address in this entry, today. On those earlier times, we thought we hit the jackpot, When, before the computers, arrived the DVRs. Our first DVR in 1968 cost over a thousand dollars and it was a huge and heavy prototype. I can't recall the make of it, but my husband got it from a salesman who visited him in his office and told him this offer was only open to some professionals like him. Sales shtick? Who knows. But my hubby bit, and brought the darn thing home, which kept my older son, a baby at the time, occupied with the reruns of the earliest forms of Sesame Street. This made me realize at that time that there could be something to this techno whatever revolution. which was taking its first baby steps, at the same time with my kids. Well,since then, we've come a long way, baby, haven't we! One thing I've noticed over the years is that what the younger generation of any era considered a commonplace convenience, the older generation before them applauded it as independence. Yet, in their earliest beginnings, things may proceed rather slowly. Then, fast forward it to our day when things have changed so much. Today, we--the older generation--are at a loss with today's technologies, and especially the ai based workings in companies. At first, I used to blame ai, with all my bad experiences with the banks, companies, online sites, etc. Then, I thought, later, ai is not to blame for our generation's flailing, but the companies themselves are, by falling behind each update and upgrade. At this time, I've changed my mind again. Now, I also realize, the constant changes and improvements bombarding the companies and businesses in lightning speed should be blamed much more. On the other hand, blaming will do no one any good, and things are what they are, as fast as they are coming down at and upon us. Also, some of this new technology is allowing us, the elderly, to live without constant help. Plus, with my eyesight problems, I have really been enjoying the pads, audiobooks, streaming, and cellphones. Yes, especially the cellphones because I can video-conference or visit my family and friends who are now scattered all over the world. In this sense, which had been "unnecessary” way back when, now answer very real human needs that were once met by larger families, closer communities, or slower lives. Just maybe, in essence, this quote reminds me that necessity isn't a fixed thing, but it is something greatly affected by fear, curiosity, convenience, and care. Today's necessary objects may also be the obsolete ones, tomorrow, but for the time being, they are holding my life together.  |
| Prompt: Imagine you're opening your own writing-themed restaurant. Name it and provide a list of signature dishes. Be creative! ------------- Joy's Misplaced Metaphor Cafe Welcome friends, welcome all, Lyn and Co, and WdC, to my colon-shaped cafe, although the sign out front misspells things, in strife I have crossed it with a comma-shaped knife and, sorry, inside, my chairs don't agree with the tables and the walls are papered in unfinished fables as menus ramble, sentences dangle at mid-thought, my theme trails off in ideas not well-caught so I propped my thesaurus on a wobbling leg then stamped the napkins, "Don't leave, I beg!" the chef is moi, once a writer, that I insist since I've stirred the soup with a pen as a deli twist I seasoned by mood, by mistake, or instinct but "now halt" said the man from the precinct to salt, pepper, and cumin in my signature dishes "I can't taste this twice," he said, but with good wishes my overwritten onion soup layered again and again, until me, the chef, forgets where it all began and my purple-prose pasta so floral and thick in adjective sauce, to any tummy will stick my run-on ravioli runs to spill off the plate then arrives back, still alive, long after you ate my show-don't-tell steak, juicy, profound it too is aggressive and stays around and every night, as my kitchen sighs I smile at my uneaten pies although my food sure is a narrative mess it's my cafe and I'll write nevertheless. * |
| Prompt: Use the following words to create a story or poem. Words: dance, castle, onion, grinder, screamer, glamor, cougar, reckless, zebra ----------- * Moon Dance A *zebra met a *cougar to *dance by the *castle gate, both twirled with *glamor, *reckless, laughing at their fate and at an *onion wearing a crown while a *grinder was humming down a tune, and then, the pair-- in stripes and spots--bowed to a *screamer owl's applause, howling wildly at their type, while these two moonwalked, side by side, making Michael Jackson jealous and so what, if my poem is too zealous! * |
| Prompt: What books are on your reading list? ------ I don't normally use a reading list. This means any book I could be interested in could be in the running. But I do buy or download books I could be interested in when I come across them. Making a list is pressuring myself because I'd be uncomfortable about something that says I have to do it. At least, this is the meaning that my mind conjures up. My only real list is a daily one I make in the morning or the night before, to give my everyday life some routine. so I don't forget to do anything important. When it comes to books, I read a lot, which means one book at a time, without others in the waiting line or maybe one or two if I'm really interested. This is because I tend to rush my reading if there's a long list. Still, at this time I have a few books in mind. As of today, I am now reading The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a hard-cover book gifted to me last month. What I want to read next is Mes amis, mes amours by Marc Levy. Then, in the waiting, comes The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, which is a three-book series. This is, if before or in the middle of these books I mentioned, another book pops up and grabs me in its claws.  . |
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