Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part Two

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I am back, with more writing prompts. Firstly because I want to entertain you while you are stuck inside, and secondly because coming up with these is entertaining to me.

1) You are an ecological scientist, working in the Southwest USA. You and your lab partner spend most of your days cataloging the flora and fauna of the desert biome, noting minute mutations for study. You are friendly with the locals, both townies and farmers, and in particular one man who helps trap and relocate raccoons, who has your phone number in case he catches something odd. Tonight, your phone rings and it's him, begging you to come see what he caught when trying to rid a farmer of some pests, and gives you the address. When you get there, you stare dumbly at the creature in the trap, not wanting to believe what your eyes are telling you is real.

"But...they're a myth," you whisper to the trapper.
"Tell that to the chupacabra in my raccoon trap," he replies.

What do you do next?

2) You, in your boredom, have created a new sport which can be played while social distancing. Describe it, and any rules which might help those who seem interested in participating.

3) Thanks to a gifted DNA test from Christmas that you finally got around to taking, you find out you are actually related to a recently deceased Baron from a small country in Eastern Europe, who had taken a test hoping to find a blood-related heir. He had no kids or direct relatives, so the firm handling the estate has contacted you and claimed that as you are the only person who can prove their bloodline connection, you can claim the title, the land, and the sweet castle in the middle of nowhere countryside. There is, however, a catch; you have to live in the castle for at least 75% of the year, as per the last Baron's instructions, and attain citizenship in this European country you are going to be living in for the rest of your life. Do you go, or do you get your entire family to take DNA tests so one of them has to move instead, while keeping the estate in the family?

4) You've won a lifetime supply of your favorite food! Difficulty: The contest bankrupted the company that produces it, so as a last act to make good on the offer, they shipped the lifetime supply to you all at once instead of in manageable monthly shipments. What foodstuff is it, and how do you deal with the excess?

5) Due to an industrial accident, you were put in a coma. Upon awakening a week later, you find yourself perfectly fine...but you now understand what animals are saying when they vocalize. How do you prove you are not insane, or, what kind of shenanigans do you get up to with this new knowledge?

Have fun, Dear Readers!

-A.M.W.

Stretch Those Imagination Muscles!

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you are all okay.

This week, instead of me writing on about a topic that is current-events relevant (because I did that last week, and it's all the more pressing now), I want to set up something fun for all of you who might be stuck at home and are suffering from a case of Being An Extrovert Forced To Act Like An Introvert. This will be both a mental exercise and a writing diversion from the news and what is happening outside your houses/apartments. Come with me on this journey.

Imagine the following scenarios, and use the ones that grab you as writing prompts:

1) Cryptids are real and are seen a lot more than they have been in centuries previous, in areas they have never been seen before, and it is surmised that these species have had some sort of population explosion, so they are expanding and sharing territories. Some aspiring vloggers, sensing The Big View Numbers, have gone into the woods outside of town to figure out how to interview either a Mothman or a Sasquatch, while others are going out and trying to capture a Jersey Devil. It's been two weeks and nobody has returned or uploaded new footage remotely. You're part of the search and rescue team, and just as you look up into the thickening canopy of the forest, you spot the one thing you never wanted to; the Blair Witch stick symbol, done up in twigs and twine. You resignedly pull out your phone, report your findings to the Sheriff, and ask for a recording setup before going further into the woods.

2) Due to a wizard's meddling and a severely miscast spell, Minecraft rules about building and crafting things now apply to our world, and all the hostile creatures now spawn at night, with some staying around during the day. Do you choose to change the world outside using these new rules, and if so, how? If you choose not to change the world, do you use the rules to do personal projects (create potions, update your home interior easily, etc.)?

3) You're house hunting, and you found a house that's in the perfect neighborhood. It's beautiful on the inside and out, but the real estate agent seems resigned that you won't want it, as it's been on the market for three years without a single bid. They take you down to the basement, which is finished, with the exception of the side room which has the furnace. As you are down there, looking at the furnace, your teenage kid points and asks "Why is that door there?". You look, and there is indeed a door in the very back of the room...with three deadbolts on it.

4) Congratulations! You just won three million dollars in a mail-in sweepstakes you entered! There is a catch in all of that fine print, though; you have to spend ten percent of it on frivolous things (nothing necessary, nothing you've been saving up for to improve your house or life, nothing that will significantly improve your net worth, no giving it away, no donating it to charity or buying things that you will then donate to charity). How do you spend $300,000 in the most frivolous way possible?

5) You've been shot back in time, back into your body when you were 10 years old. There is no going back to the future for you, but you retain all of your knowledge. How much of an Agent of Chaos do you become, having all that adult knowledge in a 10 year old body, in the era in which you were a 10 year old? Shenanigans are most definitely encouraged.

Have fun, Dear Readers.

-A.M.W.

Searching For Work In A Time of Pandemic

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. For those of you who celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I hope you are having a good one.

We have to talk about it; COVID-19 and how it affects literally all aspects of our lives now.

I'm not going to lie; I have been mostly a hermit and doing all of my job searching online, which keeps me inside all the time. I go out to get groceries once every two weeks or so, and the rare in-person interview, and other than that, I've been communicating with people via phone or email or chat. So now that COVID-19 has forced governments to tell people to not go out so much and to not congregate in large groups, I find my way of life largely unchanged, with the exception that the general atmosphere has changed when I go run errands.

I went to get groceries this weekend, and the atmosphere was tense; sections of shelves were completely bare (they were completely out of every size box of original Cheerios, which I had literally never seen happen before), and people spoke to each other in whispers. It was so quiet that it was almost surreal.

A week ago today, I went to a job interview via a staffing agency. It was a good interview, and I am waiting to hear back as there were several other candidates for the position and they needed time to interview others. The atmosphere was not tense, and everybody was carrying on with business as usual. I wonder, if I am sent to other in-person interviews by this staffing company, if that will remain true, or if it will go the way of the supermarkets. I wonder if I will be doing a lot more video interviews instead. I wonder if, in the case that I do get a job through this agency, will I be expected to just work from home and learn via online resources they send me on how to do the job.

However, dwelling on "what if" scenarios will absolutely run me spare, so I know the best thing to do is to wait and see what happens, one day at a time. Either the scenario shows up, or it doesn't, and I will do what I must to keep going. It is important to keep moving forward, and keep yourself busy.

I am still applying to jobs, I am still keeping my house tidy, I am still writing and reading and learning. Do not panic, and do not hoard. Be good to yourself, but be good to those around you too. We either get through this together, or not at all.

Stay safe, Dear Readers; I wish good health for all of you.

-A.M.W.

Using Humor As An Awkward Nerd

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers.

When meeting new people, I can get social anxiety, which should surprise nobody considering that I am a massive nerd and growing up I had a significant stutter, so my positive social interactions were, to put it mildly, less than optimal. It is why I gravitated to written communications; with written words, I could get out what I wanted to say, without being an awkward, stuttering mess.

I was able, over a couple years, to stop stuttering (well, stop stuttering mostly; there are still times if I am extremely flustered that it will happen, and yes, it makes me want to cringe myself inside-out when it happens), but the awkwardness stuck around for quite a bit longer, which is when I learned a very valuable lesson which helped me out immensely: if you can get people to laugh first with you, they are less likely to laugh at you for being awkward or stuttering.

I love comedy, but I love comedic timing more; you can turn lots of stories you have from okay to engaging with a bit of timing, and with a turn of phrase and an expression as you pause, you can get people who were not expecting to laugh to do so. I like making people smile, and if I can use humor to leave a good impression, then it is a win-win for me. Laughing relieves tension, and it makes engaging and interacting with people to have a conversation easier.

I am by no means a stand-up comic of any sort, but I work with what I have, and what I have is an absurd lexicon, an ability to use timing in my stories to my advantage, and knowledge of how language and a little bit of hyperbole can go a long way. It works for me, as I can usually get my friends and family to laugh, and just today I was able to get two businesswomen to laugh during an interview I was having to work for their company. In the moments they laughed, I wasn't nervous during that interview and I didn't feel as awkward as I usually do; I was just one professional telling two other professionals a funny anecdote of my past that tied in to what I can help them with in the future.

I hope that you laugh today, Dear Readers. Really, I hope that you laugh every day, but in case laughs are few and far between for you, I hope today is the day.

-A.M.W.

Drive to Succeed

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers.

I took my second course's final exam and passed, so that is one more thing off my plate, and a lovely new certificate to add to my resume. I am figuring out which courses to take next, so I am by no means done. I spent a large part of last week going through the research needed to figure out which staffing service I wanted to sign up with, along with applying to jobs on my own. I was able to narrow it down, and I signed up today. I was contacted by the staffing service and I have an appointment for an interview with them tomorrow morning.

I like jobs which are laid out logically, but have an element of unpredictability to them. The core of the job does not change, but the circumstances around the job can change depending on whom I interact with in order to do said job. To an extent, temporary assignments do this in spades, and depending on the type of temporary job you get, could be a stepping stone to a full-time, permanent position in which you fit.

This is how I found the last permanent job I had; I was a temp for the customer support department, and then the business was bought out by a different company, and at the end of my temp contract they hired me permanently, and after a couple years I was able to earn a promotion into a different department, where I stayed until I was laid off as the company went bankrupt.

I want to succeed and do a good job at whatever job I am handed. I want to be seen as somebody who, after almost 20 years in the workforce, is somebody people can depend upon both as a team player and an individual.

I hope that, whatever it is that drives you, Dear Readers, you are acknowledged for it. Now if you will excuse me, I have an interview to prepare for and clothes to pick out.

-A.M.W.