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.

Friday Five - Words of Wisdom from Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh wrote his brother, Theo often. 
You can find many of his letters at the site 
van Gogh's letter: unabridged and annotated.

"I'd like to walk with you there to find out 

whether we look at things the same way."

"In life and in painting too, 

I can easily do without the dear Lord, 

but I can't, suffering as I do, 

do without something greater than myself, 

which is my life, the power to create." 

“What am I in the eyes of most people — 

a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — 

somebody who has no position in society and will never have; 

in short, the lowest of the low. 

All right, then — 

even if that were absolutely true, 

then I should one day like to show 

by my work what such an eccentric, 

such a nobody, has in his heart."

"... find things beautiful as much as you can, 

most people find too little beautiful."

“I also believe that it may happen 
that one succeeds and 
one mustn't begin by despairing; 
even if one loses here and there, 
and even if one sometimes feels a sort of decline, 
the point is nevertheless to revive and 
have courage, even though things don't 
turn out as one first thought.”

*Images are photographs taken at the

Beyond Van Gogh Exhibit

in Jacksonville, FL,

20221113

I am a Techno Wizard

 Look at me with the QR Code skills.

I used these to make some car window decals

for some advertising.

I'll show you when I get them.

Friday Five - How You Doin'?

 

1.   I wrote ten chapters this week, two a day, for a total of  12,500 words. 

I have about ten chapters left, so the first draft of 

The Bastard's Battle should be done by next weekend.

I worked out four days this week. 

Monday and Wednesday were cardio days. 

Tuesday and Thursday were weight days with our trainer at the local YMCA.  

Sore shoulders and cramping feet, but yeah, this is good for me. 

Valerian root helped with the muscle soreness, and 

a tennis ball massaged my feet. 

Build that body strong, baby.

2.   This will be a beanie.

I've been making stuff for St. Jude's Hospital Fund Raiser in April. 

Crocheted items. I love to crochet but not knit. 

Check out my Facebook page for pictures of a basket, tote, and heart garland. 

I will raffle off all of the items I make to people who donate to St. Jude's at my link.

3.   I now have these cool labels I can put on my handmade items.

4.   Wednesday, my grandson and I had lunch on 

the Jacksonville River Walk along the St. John's River. 

We saw ships.

5.   I'm rereading Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

I read it when it first came out in 2000. 

That was twenty-three years ago.

Holy Moly.

I'll let you know how it held up.

You can read previous book reviews over at 

Nessa's Reading Room.

Oh, and I'm tired.

April Fool's and Other Games

~Rabbit, Rabbit~

I participated in the 555 Story Challenge sponsored by Nicole Breit, creator of the Spark Your Story Lab.

The challenge was to write 5 new stories in 5 days on 5 themes as Creative Nonfiction/Memoir. The five themes were Origin Stories, The Emergent Self, The Body, Where the Heart Is, Nature + Spirit. She provided explanations, examples, guidance, and writing exercises to focus images and sensations into the condensed format. If you are interested in checking out the videos for the challenge, you can find the Day 1 Video HERE.

To read my five stories ...

Friday Five - Fancy Writing Implements

~ click images to make biggerer ~

I love anything to do with writing. 

Here we have some pen and ink-related items.

1. This is an oriental-style ink and brush set. 

I have no idea where or how I got this. 

You grind up dry ink, mix it with water and write with the brushes.

2. Made of glass and given to me as gifts. 

The green pen and pot were custom-made for me.

They are only to look at, so don't touch them.

3. Not technically quill pens

as the hawk and black feathers have 

pens and nibs attached to them.

I found the white feather. 

It is not trimmed into a quill, but it could be.

4. Ink wells I found in second-hand shops.

They are only for looking, too.

I have no idea how old they may be.

5. My grandson gave me the sparkly pen for Christmas 2022.

He made the "splash" pen holder on his 3D printer in January 2023.

These are only for visual appreciation also. 

Let's just say they are all no-touchy.

Februa's Festival, Illuminated

 

~ click to make image biggerer ~

"Illuminated F", watercolor & black Sharpie on 

Strathmore watercolor cold press, 20230217

I'm calling this experiment finished.

I had one sheet of wood pulp watercolor paper left so I gave myself permission to go crazy with color and this certainly has a look of chaotic pigment which makes me uncomfortable. I suppose I should explore why that is. I suspect it has something to do with my penchant for hiding. I prefer working in black and white.

I used Prang OVL-16H watercolors. They are really pretty for a $10 set of paints. If you want to play, you can't beat these for a starter set.

Enough psyco-babble.

Things learned:

Background is too busy for letter illumination.

Use a smooth paper if you want smooth inked lines.

Use 100% cotton paper because you use a lot of water.

Patience, Grasshopper. Patience. Lots of waiting for the paint to dry.

Here's the poem I wrote that is featured in the bands on the painting.

Februa's Festival

as long as February frightens away feelings forlorn, fragmented, and faithless, this faery song fades like failure on failure. 

fancy me a fool, fate defied upon Fortune’s Wheel, turning, fumbling, frustrated from all that is found and forfeit as first love. 

Friendship, Freedom, Forgotten Books, and Forget-Me-Nots, florets flourishing on flood-tides where father and child fish, fishing, fished all flushed and fevered finds, forced fervor feeding the falcons and doves flying amongst fireflies in Fairyland. 

foreshadowed in fresh flesh frozen in fifty shades of faint fuschia, fallen petals, fallen fame, fingers in the belly. 

Fly, just not yet, fickle Fortuna. 

Februa fire fans the footsteps of angels, a funeral pyre of false prophets fleeing the phantom’s finale.

Friday Five - Running Around in Circles

 

I wear five rings when I go somewhere. 

I don't wear them all of the time because 

they are too irritating when I'm trying to do things. 

I don't understand how people play 

instruments or knit or draw when 

their fingers are full of heavy metal.

This is how I wear them on my left "Thing" hand.

The right only gets one.

1. Gold Xs and crystal Os.

2. A spinner ring, "KEEP FUCKING GOING"

3. Silver sleeve ring with crystals.

4. "Dream"

5. "BELIEVE"

The really expensive stuff is locked up.

I lose things.