Category: 80 Post Challenge



If you could tell the world just one thing, what would it be?


Okay, first of all, can I just say:

woman jumping on trampoline

Photo credit: Lynn Kelly Author, WANA Commons

I DID IT!
I FREAKING DID IT!

I made it to the end of the challenge! I never thought I’d keep up with the blog this long, let alone manage something as structured as a real challenge. ^_^
From the first post back in May last year, all the way through to now, I have been posting a response to the writing prompts provided by Tom Slatin at least once a week. Sometimes twice.

I’d like to thank Tom again for letting me use his prompts and providing them in the first place. At a time when I had no idea how to populate this blog, his list proved totally invaluable. Next I’d like to thank all of you guys for sticking with me while I worked my way through these questions. If you joined me half way through or have been around from the start, thank you for joining me on the ride (heh, starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, isn’t it?). I hope its been as much fun for you as it has been for me.

I do have ideas for where to head next, though I plan to allow myself a small break first before diving into another challenge. What I have in mind involves a rigorous and strict editing schedule and while I’m still stuck on SORB, I need to give that my full attention. Distractions are bad… even fun, creative ones.

So… I guess I’d better answer the question, huh?
 
 


 
 
cute penguin with one finger up, from OpenClipArtOne thing? Well, instead of cheating – like I usually do – I will actually pick just one thing.

It was a tricky decision, truth be told, but in the end, I think I’d give the world one sage piece of advice;’Be nice.’

Simple as that.

There are lots of religions in the world with big ideas, and fancy texts and rules that people should follow but its all pretty simple. Great deities and their various preferred methods of worship hold little to no interest to me. In fact, I took a giant step away from organised religion a long time ago (something else I’ve talked about in this challenge in a couple of places here, here and here), but I firmly believe that if you take each and every religion, any one of them, and strip them down to their most basic elements… the message is the same in every single one. And it is this: be nice, dude.

Think about it? All ten of those commandments? The path to enlightenment? All of it is about being nice to others and to yourself.

So if I could tell the world one thing (and expect them to listen), I’d say, just be nice.
That’s it!
Yellow happy smile from wikimedia commonsThink about it; how much nicer would the world be as a whole if everybody followed that advice?

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.


You just acquired a magic wand. What will you use it for?


gasping/shocked/surprised face OpenClipArtThe penultimate 80 Post Challenge post! Goodness, I never thought I’d make it this far. ^_^ Next week I’ll talk more about what the challenge has meant to me, but I just wanted to acknowledge… wow! Almost there…!

Anyway… a magic wand? Really?!

Thank you. Yes, I think that would be rather a lot of fun! ^_^

Would you like my serious answer, or my not-so-serious answer, because I can do both. Yeah, of course I’m going to give you both.

serious face from OpenClipArtSerious
With a magic wand I would try to fix some of my family up in ways they deserved to be fixed. And I’m not just talking about blood family here, I’m talking about friends who are close enough to me that they are called my family. They need houses, or help with bills. Or a good, long holiday. Or maybe a cleaner to take care of their houses. I would do these things for them with one sweep of my wand (in my mind called a lottery win – oooh, I’d better check my ticket!) to look after them. I want to look after them they way they have looked after me.
I would also ensure that my boys never want for anything.
Then, after rather selfishly taking care of all my wants, maybe I could look into a sure fire cure for cancer, the common cold and poverty.

goofy clown face from OpenClipArtNot So Serious
First… banish all politicians to a single desert island. They can rule themselves there in whatever manner they choose and will have regular drops of food, clothing and media. They will no longer be allowed to have any sort of influence on how we run our lives.
Give myself a new mode of transportation, probably a purple unicorn.
Finally, I would give myself the ability to understand everybody. Every language in any form, including baby babble. I would couple that with the ability to talk right back, in any language I chose and then proceed to have buckets of fun!

And I would!

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.


Are there any skills you’ve picked up in the last year?


Yeah, there are a couple of things all most centred around my kids.

 

I’ve learned

  1. How to distinguish an ‘I’m hungry’ cry from other cries such as ‘I’m bored!’ ‘I’m scared!’ ‘Hold me!’ ‘Okay, enough is enough, feed me now and ignore the other screaming brat who shares my face; I’mthe important one!’
  2. How to change two nappies in 60 seconds without getting poo on my fingers.
  3. How to feed two babies at the same time.
  4. How to push a pushchair, hold a baby and an umbrella and a sandwich all at the same time.
  5. That cold tea isn’t all that bad and that if you add just the right amounts of lemon, it tastes really good!
  6. How to type/run a radio show/eat/drink with one hand.

Animated juggler from Wikimedia CommonsHeh, yeah, you may not think these are skills in the traditional sense, but believe me, juggling all the things I want to do and my two boys is a skill that I never thought I’d learn.

My days really have started to look like this:
I have no idea how my mum did it, or how my grandmother did it with six kids. They are crazy superwomen with more respect from me now than they’ve ever had before. Funnily enough though, I seem to get the same sort of reaction from strangers; ‘how do you do it?’ ‘Oh, you’ve got your hands full.’ ‘Well I know I couldn’t do it.’ And so on.

Well… to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bring on the next set of skills required for when these little treasures begin walking! ^_^

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.


What form of exercise do you enjoy the most?


Moving shifty eyes from left to right

*snerk*

Um… how do I answer this without getting in trouble? I want, more than anything, to be always honest and open (within reason) in these blog posts and in answering these questions, however I don’t know that I can give you the answer I want to.

Oh the hell with it!

SEX!
Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex!
Best form of exercise in the land and soooooooooooo much fun. ^_^

I could give you a whole lot of facts and figures out how many calories a good romp in the sack can burn, but I’m not going to. That’s makes it a hell of a lot more scientific than it needs to be. Particularly when I can just say any exercise that raises your heart rate, uses multiples muscles in your body and causes you to break a sweat is good for you. Couple that with the additional pleasures involved, then who wouldn’t rank sex nice and high on their list?

I was going to start this point by pointing out that I’ve not had much exercise recently and now, looking at my answer, I’m not best happy with the implications. But… I suppose I (and Dave) can be forgiven. Its exercise enough looking after the twins and, frankly put, when they start crawling/walking I think its going to be even harder to have a restful, peaceful sort of day. Looking at how active they are now tells me that there is little chance of much rest once they start moving.

And there are other forms of exercise. I enjoy yoga, bike riding and Zumba. In fact, now I’m passed the 12 week marker of my caesarian, I can go back to those classes and shake my booty. That will be all sorts of fun. Not as fun as sex though…
 
 
 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.


Name someone who has a great voice.


Just one person? Nuuuu, that’s not fair!

Okay, I’m going to cheat just a little bit. Lil bit?
Thanks! ^_^

Right… I actually have a list of ‘sexy voices.’ I made it ages and ages ago and the fact that there is a question that kinda covers this (I know it says ‘great voice’ but for me that means – or can mean – ‘sexy voice) is awesome.

So… in no particular order here are my great voices.

Sean Connery
Not quite my favourite James Bond, but certainly close. I remember him best as the voice of Draco in Dragonheart. Probably the only time you will find an actor as distinguished as Sean saying ‘ooops!’ ^_^

Keith David
I love this guy. First heard his voice in the Disney series Gargoyles and made a point of remembering his name. Mainly because he has two first names and that always tickles me. A bit like Craig David, if you remember him from the 90s boom of male soul singers. He played Goliath; a big purple, beast of a gargoyle with a massive heart and it was an incredible match. Even now, when I catch him in a film I just settle myself in to listen.

John Gielgud
Amazing classic actor. I came across him listening to an audio version of King Lear. He took my breath away, absolutely took it away and I have never since forgotten the shivers that went through me when he spoke his speech in the driving rain and howling wind of the storm. Its an incredible scene, all the more powerful with a voice like that behind it.

Kenneth Branagh
I rave about this guy all the time. I really don’t know what else to say other than ‘huuhmuna huuhmuna huuhmuna huuhmuna!’

Ian Holm
Another one I’ve talked about before. I must have found him prior, but my first memory (since my brain decided to give out on me) is of him playing Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings. I believe it was his work there that made him a dead cert for Bilbo when Peter Jackson did his thing.

Jeremy Irons
Do you really need to ask me why? This man was and is soooooooooooooo sexy. Deliciously smooth tones that run on the ears like liquid chocolate, both when his happy, pissed or tearful. Just watch any film he’s been in… any…! I dare you. Gorgeous voice.

Alan Rickman
I think my fav character of his is Severus Snape (which I’m quite upset about) but his voice while playing that character sends chills through me. Slow, scornful, sibilant hissing that is as dark as the clothes the character always wears. What about that isn’t sexy?

Christopher Lee
The original and best Dracula. But… even with that aside, he’s another of those classically trained English veterans who knows how to use his voice like a weapon. Please, please, I surrender!

So… yes, I cheated. But I regularly do. So sue me. ;-P
 
 
 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.

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