Random Question of the Month: If the world fell apart tomorrow, what would you miss?

I thought of this question the other day getting ready for work, and it’s trickier to answer than I thought. There’s so much that goes into our daily lives, so much we’ve come to depend on, and just assume it’ll always be there, but what if it wasn’t? What if all the technological advancements of our modern world disappeared? And by ‘modern’, I mean the era that began after WW2, otherwise we might as well go back to pre-industrial or even post Medieval periods of history . . .

But I digress . . .

What is the one thing you would miss the most?

For me, I think it would be doing anything online. Sure, I can still write with a pen (barely though. Have you seen my handwriting?), but the loss of instant communications or the ability to immediately look information up for anything whenever I wanted, is a hard thing to let go of. I would adapt, eventually, but considering in this scenario there is no power—which runs EVERYTHING in our world—it would take a very long time before forms of communication and information gathering would return.

I’d miss the interaction with my online friends, that’s for sure. I think I have more friends online than I do in real life. Not that this bothers me, I’m picky about who I hang with, especially in the time of Covid. I’ve come to know a lot of great people, writers, and non-writers alike. They ‘get’ me when very few people do.

It would hit me hard in the writing department. Do I really need to look up Every. Single. Thing? FOMO is a real problem sometimes, compound that over the last couple of years and I’m amazed I even THINK about not being online Considering what I write, I don’t think I could do research for any of it without the help of Google. I’m used to doing quick research for a few items as I’m writing. I don’t think a library could hold up to that, let alone have the specific information I need. Do they have pictures of dead bodies at the library? Could I access them? Would they let me access them?   

What about you? What would you miss? Let me know because this really interests me.

Random Question of the Month: What’s something in your fridge right now that should probably be thrown out?

Probably everything in the back half of the fridge.

There are three people living in this house with a small fridge, and each one has different eating habits. My mother tends to buy a lot of fresh food in packages, while I prefer whole foods and make my own stuff. Unfortunately, this means that things get pushed to the back. Once a week I try to go through the fridge, especially on garbage day, but some weeks that’s not always the case.

Because I work short shifts, I tend to bring finger food items to snack on. I don’t know how many old packages of cheese and meat I’ve had to throw out. I’ve gotten smarter though, only buying in smaller quantities and forcing myself to make it last.

I’ve never been a big fan of leftovers, and I don’t know why. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve forced myself eat them. They’re good, and sometimes even more flavourful the second time around, but still things get forgotten. Especially after the holidays. There’s only so much turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes one can eat.

Our fridge is an old one. Pretty sure it was purchased in the late 80’s. I don’t think food items have gotten bigger, but I don’t understand how a fridge that once housed food for a family of six, can barely hold food for a family of three. We have tall, plastic cannisters we use for leftovers, and whenever we run short, I go rooting through the fridge to find the food no one has eaten in a while to throw out. Good thing we have a dishwasher too. Sometimes those containers are like science experiments.

I can’t be the only one that this happens too? Anyone else have this problem? Anyone?

Random Question: What was your most embarrassing moment?

What was your most embarrassing moment?

Years ago during the holiday season, our city used to have an event called Festival of Trees, where there would be dozens of Christmas trees elaborately decorated. It would last for a week, and the last day there would be a silent auction of the displays.

Every year hubby and I said we’d go, but never did. One year he bought tickets on the spur of the moment and I was so excited. The day came, and unfortunately, we had to work for most of the night, but he picked me up after work and we went right down. Now, I worked as a waitress so I was in my uniform and smelled like greasy food, and him being in construction, he was still in his work clothes and covered in crap.

Have that image in your mind? Good.

We walked into the building where the event was held and it was beautiful! The entire place was decorated from floor to ceiling and the trees were so beautiful, but it didn’t take us long to realize that we were standing out. Everyone was dressed so nice, and at first I thought it was a bit much, until we realized that he bought tickets for the night of the silent auction and the organizers had made it a black-tie affair.

Yeah. We were the ONLY ONES who weren’t dressed fancy. We felt so uncomfortable we left right away, and laughted about it when we got outside. Hubby is not a fancy dress person and of course he picked THE ONLY DAY. He said he didn’t pay any attention to the date, he just wanted to get tickets.

The event didn’t continued for a couple years after that, but at least we did finally go.

Random Question.

What’s the story behind one of your scars?

I have two scars on my lower abdomen from surgery to remove my appendix. They preformed a laparoscopic appendectomy so I don’t have the long scar that people generally think of with the surgery.

You can read for yourself what it’s about HERE.

The most interesting this is, the two scars I have not only show the incision, but the staples they used to close the incision. They kind of look like a long hashtag bent sideways. I’ve always thought they were cool, and at some point in the future, I plan on getting them tattooed.

Random Question

What is one place that you’ve visited, and will never go back?

Oh, that’s easy.

Every region has one of those parks that kids NEED to visit. In Ontario, it’s Marine Land. When Sithboy was young, he’d come running whenever he heard the commercial, and then just stand there, frozen in place and stare. When he was a few years older we decided to go. Big fucking mistake.

1. The poor animals were in pools that were WAY too small for the number they had. Beluga whales are big, and my heart broke to see them swimming around in a tank that could barely hold the three of them.
2. The park is HUGE. At one point, there used to be a small train that went through the park so you didn’t have to walk the whole way. It wasn’t there when we went and from the looks of the tracks, it hadn’t run in years. We had to walk, and there were barely any places for people to rest.
3. The treats they feed the animals, especially the bears – sugar pops.

There are many other reasons, but as I write this, I’m getting pissed off.

Marineland has a long history of people reporting them for animal abuse, and because of the reports, the Canadian Government has passed a bill to phase out captive aquatic animals (Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act (Previously Bill S-203).

https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/S-203/royal-assent

We’d hoped that this would be a wonderful last stop on our family vacation. I still can’t believe how wrong we were.

What about you? Did you travel someplace and vow never to return?

A Personal Observation – Pet peeve #1: Lack of Phone Manners

I know what you all are thinking; what is this nutcase going on about now? Well just this; when people don’t say goodbye to you before they hang up the phone. Drives. Me. Nuts! Seriously. It stems from my a**hole, ex-stepfather. He NEVER said goodbye, but had the nerve one day to chastise me for the way I started conversations.

STEP-FATHER: “Its ‘May I speak with so-in-so’, not ‘Is so-in-so there?’.

ME: *PUNCH* (note-I didn’t, but it was a fantasy of mine for years.)

I caught my mother doing it one time and immediately called her back and told her what she’d done wrong. I’ve even called Sithboy back when he was at a friend’s house and blasted him for doing it.

THEN, I got blasted on Twitter once because I said goodbye before I headed off. He sent a message saying he was un-following me because I cluttered up his stream with nonsense (or something stupid like that).

Really? Since when are manners nonsense? AND HE WAS BRITTISH!

 Okay, I’m better now…

Do We Need An Authors Code for Online Conduct?

Has it come to this? Just this past weekend I heard of another writer and their online meltdown on a forum and on Twitter. I’m not going to go into details. I think this guy has already got more attention than he deserves.

This latest disgrace has further blackened the face of self-publishing. Don’t be fooled into thinking this will pass without any ramifications. What hurts one of us, hurts us all, and self-published authors who are arrogant as this guy was, do more harm than good.

So what is the SP community supposed to do? Do we let these author’s go off and self-destruct? Do we try and compensate in some way for their public gaffe? Do we slam him/her in public as much as possible? It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, but each time we act or react to these ‘authors’, good or bad, it intensifies the already growing malice toward SP community. There are enough people out there who think all self-published authors are unprofessional. We don’t need to prove them right.

Personally, I’m for letting these people self-destruct. Attacking other writers under the guise of self-defence only makes them look more like the amateur they are. Let their own personal code of conduct bury their career. The rest of us will do just fine without them.

Facing One’s Mortality

A rather grim title for a blog post, but the events of the last few days have made me take a look at things.

Late Monday night I was at the hospital. I had heart flutters and was scared out of my mind. My grandfather died of a massive heart attack when he was fifty. That’s only six years from where I am now. My mother went health nuts around this age too. She was so afraid the same fate would happen to her, and at the time, I thought she was over-reacting. I know better now.

The doctor said I have a condition called Premature Ventricular Contraction.

http://www.medicinenet.com/premature_ventricular_contractions/article.htm

The doctor says it’s not as bad as it sounds, that it’s common, but still, it’s enough to make you wonder what the hell you were doing in your life to make your heart act like this.

Right now, I’m fine. A little worse for wear and I have some new life experiences to draw from, but I also realize that perhaps certain things in my life will have to be scaled back. Your heart and brain are two of the most important muscles in your body, and so many things can go wrong. Things may be fine now, but who’s to say that would continue without lifestyle changes.

Sometimes stubborn people need a good kick in the ass. I think I got mine Monday night.

My Quest to be Healthy.

Or at least, healthier.

One good thing about the warm weather starting early, it puts me in the mood to eat better. Cold weather makes me crave comfort food; all that process carbs and sugar. I can’t eat a salad during winter. I can’t even prepare one. Just the idea of putting one together; running veggies and stuff under cold water, eating food right out of the fridge, makes me cold. Gah, I’m getting cold just thinking about it now.

Maybe it’s the thought of tee-shirts and shorts and bathing suits that make me start eating healthier around this time of year. I’ve started doing my work-out again (I know, again), but I have to stick with it. I can do the whole hour no problem, so I bumped up the intensity with gloved hand weights. They’re so cool! Two pound weights sewn into these fingerless gloves. Found them in a box of exercise DVD’s my mom gave me. Kept the gloves, threw out the DVD’s.

I’ll use them until April, and then I’ll take them off and use three pound hand weights. I’ve also been doing the low impact version of the DVD but plan to integrate the high impact segment. Well, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.

I also need to eat better. Husband brought home fruit and stuff for smoothies. I like them and the fibre from the fruit does keep me going through the afternoon. I have green tea with ginseng too. I find that helps to keep me awake and not want to nap. Plus, I get more writing done! I haven’t eaten too many processed carbs this week (my week starts on Monday). The slice of pizza Monday at lunch, a hamburger Tuesday night, and two slices of bread yesterday, but I’ve been keeping away from Sithboy’s treats. And he’s got a lot of them.

I’ve lost weight before so I know what to do to succeed, it’s just a matter of me sticking with it and not giving in to my excuses.

Time travel; would you?

I recently finished reading a time travel/alternate reality book written by a good friend of mine Marlene Dotterer.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/84342

It got me to thinking, if time travel was possible, would I do it? Would I go back in time to witness historic events? Probably, I mean who wouldn’t right? There is so much about mankind’s history that is unknown, and most of what we know is tainted by either religion or other factors. After all, ‘History is written by the victor.’

Marlene’s book brought up another question; if I did go back would I change the outcome of a disaster? Her book takes place a few years before the Titanic set sail, but controversially, she has one of her characters fall in love with someone who originally died on during that disaster. Note I said ‘originally’. She speculates that because this person did not die, he went on to not only change maritime law, but Ireland as well. I remember the bloody fighting in Ireland. Imagine all the lives that would live on, if Ireland didn’t have those brutal conflicts.