Side Quest Saturdays - An Introduction

 A new feature. You may join in the adventures.

I'm writing a bunch of random tasks on cards 

and putting them in a jar. 

Every Saturday morning, 

I will draw one out and commit to accomplishing 

that side quest by the end of the following Friday.

Here is the first one.

Say "Hello" to 5 strangers.

Friday Five - Movies

 I've seen more movies in the last few months 
than in the last several years.

Here they are in reverse order:

I was really enjoying this until the end. 

The action was great as well as the feels.

Momoa's character is hilarious.

The end ended rather abruptly.

That really pissed me off.

It was super unexpected.

Oh, my.

I love Rocket.

So much fun.

Definitely lives up to my image of the game.

John Wick is so full of 

destruction and mayhem.

There is great joy in the fantasy of 

being to beat the shit out of your enemies.

The graphics were wonderful.

The story was blah.

Friday Five - What's Your Spirit Animal?

The butterfly is my spirit animal. 

Always has been. 

And, yes, Virginia, insects are animals. 

That takes care of the teaching portion of our show.

An origami butterfly 

made by my daughter sitting on 

the custom glass pen and ink well 

she commissioned for me.

When I was a child, the name 

Vanessa was very uncommon.

Jonathan Swift is credited with creating 

the name in 1713 for his lover 

Esther Vanhomrigh in a poem he wrote dedicated to her.

Vanessa became a butterfly genus in 

1807 which includes 22 species. 

I always liked the idea that Phanessa 

was the mystic goddess of an ancient Greek brotherhood.

Butterflies represent change and 

the constant evolution of the soul.

My mother had this little pin. 

I took it from her jewelry box when 

I was quite young and made it mine. 

Hence we have my avatar.

The Vampire Butterfly

I have teeth.

I've been known to draw blood.

The End is Only the Beginning

The first draft of The Bastard's Battle is complete.

It must rest a bit before the final edits.

I like the way it ended.

This week, it's time to plot and outline Book 3 

in The Shadow Sword Trilogy, 

Unforgiven Love, Jon, and Stefan's story.

I have a script to write for a local film festival, too.

A possible submission for a local event.

More on this later once I figure out what's going on. 

Friday Five - Bad Habits in the Morning

I've developed some habits that I engage in first thing in the morning that I don't like because they bring little value to my life and they don't remain in the morning. They suck up hours of my day.

1.  My morning routine starts with coffee. While I often think I want to give it up entirely, that's not the truth. 

I have reduced how much I drink, though. I used to have four cups of coffee before noon. My cups of coffee means 16 oz each times four. That's a whopping 64 oz. I'm down to two 8 oz. cups. That's reasonable. Less than that, and I feel like a zombie or a sleepwalker. 

I do drink my coffee black like a true sociopath. Cream and sugar make it dessert.

2.  I inherited my mother's joints (not the good kind, puff puff.) I have a bad left knee that will eventually need some doctoring. I get a sharp stabbing pain in my right hip. The joints in my shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, etc, feel hot when I touch them and ache when a storm's on the horizon. Have done for ages and not just because I aged.

When I moved to Florida, I started adding collagen powder to my coffee. I did it for 6 months. Not everything went away, so I went off it for a month. Yeah, I'm back on the powder.

Feeling like a knife is being wedged into your hip joint makes sleeping difficult. A knee tight with fluid makes walking unpleasant. 

I'll let you know if it improves my skin. I didn't pay attention to that before.

EMails, News, Facebook, oh, my.

3.  There's never anything important, urgent, or desperately interesting in my Inbox, so why oh why am I compelled to open the damn thing up? Does it make me think I'm starting work? It is the first step on that path to Wasted Time, a destination I no longer wish to visit.

4.  I admit it. I am addicted to the "What horrible thing is happening now?' syndrome. Knowing it, especially first thing in the morning (or late at night when I can't sleep), is in no way helpful or healthy. I'm striking this activity off my ToDo list

5.  Facebook sucks up hours of my time. I have to figure out a reasonable solution for this behavior. I like it, so I think I'll make it some sort of limited reward. Details to follow.

These last three things will be activities I engage in only AFTER I finish writing for the day. That sounds like a good place to start. 

I did finally delete the blue bird. I consider that a win.