Writing challenge #2

  Hello fellow bloggers

I'm creating another writing challenge: I'll start, you continue with a sentence or paragraph in the comments. Only one rule. It has to be positive. It can be mysterious or whatever direction you choose, but it has to be positive.

You continue were the last person left off until there is a short short story. No reason, just fun what type of story can come together as a collaborative project. Continue the story and comment as often as you wish, even after I post something else until the story is finished.

I am limiting the genres: no romance, nothing rude or vulgar, no horror. Fantasy, scifi, mystery, humor is fine.

Michael was gardening and digging holes for the fruit trees he was about to plant. As he dug deeper he discovered an iridescent oval shape. He removed it and showed it to his wife Linda who was pruning shrubs. "What is this?" he asked. "Looks like a dragon's egg" she replied.

Little Snafu but doing better

 Hello Readers

It's me. Well. Friday was not fun. The stressors of the last few months were a bit too much, both irl and through bloggers and I'm not allowing it to happen again. My body reminded me of that.

I wanted to thank everyone for your well wishes, they worked.

I'm exhausted and bored. Spouse is angry and I'm rambling. Blogging is supposed to be fun not stressful.

Here are ten minutes of cats imitating humans, unless it's frilly vintage stickers or capybara or a Penguin race in Japan or whatever other relaxing mindless videos I've been watching.

Cats are always a good thing.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZmuHa9l1-Ns

Comment moderation is enabled.

I no longer believe in the good of humanity, but thank decent people for their comments.

This Is Codex' Wife

Codex had a serious health issue. He is resting now. I do not know which blogger upset him yesterday, but he is dealing with long Covid and is to avoid stress as it exacerbates his symptoms. He has been through hell and still cares deeply about other human beings.

I have told him not to start blogging again. He would not listen. He has been nothing but kind, helpful and supportive to many of you. If you are not capable of that, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

His spouse.

Solidarity?

 I'm supposed to do other things. Insomnia is back so I haven't slept well the last few nights. And with it a recurrent memory that has been nagging and pestering me without rhyme or reason for the last decade.

It was back last night. My subconscious tugging at my conscious mind, demanding attention. I'm not at an age where an old brain remembers the early years and not much in between. So why a preteen memory?

One of the high schools I went to was a very good one. I could not appreciate at the time because I had no other reference point. We were a class composed of students from all sociodemographics. We valued eachothers interest; the student who was into photography and gave those who are interested a copy. The other student whose parents bred greyhounds and whippets. The student who went through a semi punk phase. A few crafters. The ones who could draw. Our teachers didn't do this; we did. Random luck of non cliques. When I watched the old john Hughes movies like breakfast club; it represented our individualities, but I couldn't relate to the stereotypes not interacting with eachother.

One day we had a two hour class, with a fifteen minute break. The teacher announced a surprise test after the break. We were scared and shocked. For the straight A students it meant that we weren't prepared enough. For the failing students it could mean failing the year. During the break we discussed what to do. Diane who was politically active told us it's against the rules. Andrew, the tall guy had already failed two school years and couldn't risk it. The more we discussed it the more outraged we became. We decided on a collective walk out, a protest of sorts. An entire class couldn't get into trouble, we decided.

The student who listened was Katie. Daughter of two physicians. Top student, quiet. She had a muscle tone disability and couldn't run. Anytime we rotated through picking a team in phys ed, some of the kids would pick her last, others picked her second so they weren't mean.

How to convince her? She always followed the rules. Are you in Katie? To our surprise she said yes. We worked out that we were going to do it alphabetically. We were going to walk out one by one. It felt great. It felt right.

The teacher came back in after the break. The test was distributed. No one got up to leave. There was nervous shifting. We looked at eachother. Andrew got up out of alphabetical order. No one followed. We waited. Then wrote the test. After the test we had a short break. Andrew had waited in the hallway. He was angry. Where were you guys?

I remember that we were silent as we walked past him. Looking down. Embarrassed. Feeling like cowards. I have not encountered a surprise quiz since. And I forgot about this event that lay in the past. We were kids, obeying authority.

I have a vague recollection that it was against school policy to count the mark as it can destroy someone's future.

Over the last decade I witnessed this behavior in adults. Outrage at various injustices. Inciting and encouraging others to take the fall, then backing away. Adults that behave like frightened children. Not wanting to get involved. 

The Outrage? Never more than a Netflix popcorn movie, fueled by self-righteous hypocrisy.

Comment moderation enabled

About books, writing and a little venting.

 Books have been a part of my whole life. My parents had a library and I could freely read whatever I chose. Whenever I could, I would encourage reading. 

I have published, collaborated, even managed to publish some short stories (more of an ego passion project), and anyone who has done the latter knows that the pay is negligible and it's a lot of work. It's also getting harder; professional fiction writers, not only have to go on tour but are expected to manage advertising, marketing and maintaining websites.

Meanwhile, the industry is changing, there will be no more mass market paperbacks and digital renting is increasing. It's not wishful thinking, when people realize that e books will become problematic, both will continue to run in parallel. I'm going to be right on this one. I grew up at a time where high quality TV programming existed AND everyone read. Lots to choose from. People are starting to read more again, paper books are increasing again and with what's on digital offer declining in quality, people will turn back to books.

In my twenties, where the majority of my course load and life was science, I took it upon myself to read world literature. Every summer I picked an era or country; Russian lit, German lit, Austin, Bronte, Allende, Canadian lit, American lit and so on. It was eye opening. I'm very much a snob about books in general. And today I feel like cathartic venting about the ignorance people have about anything to do with research or writing in any genre.

Here's one of my more bizarre encounters. My thoughts are in brackets.

1. I was buying writing supplies. It's my ritual when I start a new project. The cashier, was a woman in her fifties, who had helped me find a few things in the store. Cashier stops scanning. What do you do?

I write. (Please continue to scan)

Ooooooh. What kind of books?

Non fiction. Research. Very boring.

Oh. I have an idea of a book we could write together.

I don't write those kind of books.

Let me tell you about my idea. It's about all the experiences with crazy customers I've had. You wouldn't BELIEEEEEEVE the stories I have to tell. It's going to be a bestseller.

(Please tell me she's kidding. Scan lady scan.)

I think that's already been done and I don't write those kind of books. (I vaguely recalled a recent bestseller. Indeed there was a 2011 bestseller My life on the tills.)

Yeeeees. There was a bestseller. I can do that too. We're going to be rich. I'll tell you the stories and you write it. Well go 50/50 after that.

(Oh dear lord for the life of monk illuminated palimpsests and parchments; she's not kidding.)

I don't write those kind of stories. You need to write it and see if you can find a publisher. Alternatively, you hire someone to write it for you. That's at least $20,000 for a book.

You want how much?

I don't want anything. I.dont.write.those.type.of.books. (Please scan and ring me out). I need to go.

You'll regret  not saying yes to this. 

What's wrong with people?

Any unusual writing experience or comments about books or writing?

A message from Norway

 From Norways consumer council:

Enjoy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ

Women in STEM

 A very brief note with names not links, because they take time and no one is reading the articles on science it seems.

First of all and I was really surprised, google doodle celebrated with this as its 2026 topic.

There is some criticism which I partially agree with: "girly colors" and the wave length in a cube looks like a mustache. It also doesn't link to any recent scientists.

So here are a few, if interested there's always wiki.

1. Ilaria Capua-preeminent virologist from Italy, who cracked/discovered the H5N1 avian flu in 2006, which later became zoonotic (jumped to humans) as Capua predicted. Her prior work specialized in vaccinating poultry. She wanted the data shared among scientists around the world, was prevented from doing so, went into politics to change legislation to prevent illness and....

was accused of being a [bio]/#ter....ten year battle wrote a book about it and left for Uni Florida and Texas. This doesn't even come close to what she went through.

2. Charpentier and Doudna who codeveloped the Crispr technology and won the Nobel for it.

3. Lisa Randall mostly known for string theory and hyperspace, who despite holding most of the most important positions in physics still spends the majority of her time being asked what it's like being a female physicist (she hates the question) instead of the research she does.

There's one anecdote about Italian perception.  she attended a conference in Italy and could not get in. When she gave them her name repeatedly she was asked when Dr. Lisa (first name Randall) would show up. She was the key note speaker but it was assumed that she was HIS secretary.

4. Roberta Bondar first Canadian female Astronaut at 46, pilot and neurologist and subsequently Head of NASAs medical department. Also published some amazing photography of glaciers.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-january-16-2022-1.6313448/roberta-bondar-flew-into-space-30-years-ago-and-never-saw-earth-the-same-after-that-1.6313449

might add a few more, but for now only 27% of scientists are female