Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you all had a good week, and a good time with the prompts I provided for creative writing during the last five weeks. Time to go back to regularly scheduled programming, and since I haven't posted a real update in the past five weeks, I will use today's blog to catch up.
Classes have been going well. I signed up for two more grant writing classes, and a project management class. All of the classes are self-paced, and I spent the time to download all the reading material for each class. I downloaded everything first so that I don't have to log in to the online classroom in order to study, and so far I have enjoyed the material.
Job hunting is mostly the same, though I have noticed a significant jump in applicants via LinkedIn for remote positions, which is in no way surprising. I am waiting for restrictions to ease in my county before contacting my agency to ask if the positions I interviewed for prior to lock-down are still interested in hiring me. In the meantime, I have applied to many positions, some of which let me know they were happy to get my application and resume, but they were freezing hiring until further notice.
I took some time at the beginning of quarantine to hand-sew myself a mask, and then a headband to go with it. The headband has buttons sewed onto it, for the elastic of the mask to loop on to, and works well. I wear glasses, and having both the stems of glasses and elastic loops was proving to be too much pressure on the cartilage-filled skin-ridges that help me hear. I also made a mask and headband set which I sent to my sister, who also wears glasses, so that she could be more comfortable when she went out.
I used to consume a lot of news, but since the Stay At Home order, and everything that has happened in the last month-and-a-half (and I had to check a calendar to make sure it has only been a month-and-a-half, because Yikes), I had to cut down on how many hours I spent consuming news for my own mental well-being. I have invested the time into my classes and some de-stressing measures, to keep me on an even keel.
That is the basic round-up for me, Dear Readers. I hope you have a good week!
-A.M.W.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part 5
Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers! Hopefully this week will be the last full week of stay-at-home, as some people are ordered to do so until April 26th, and most others are April 30th. As such, I'm planning an actual blog for next week, so barring any evolving circumstances, this will be the last writing prompt blog for the time being. Let's begin.
1. In a fit of pique, your beloved decides to send you a letter written in Victorian love-letter style, and beseeches you to write one to them in return. What do you say to your beloved? If you have no current beloved, write one to your ideal partner.
2. You are on vacation! It's just you and a pile of books, and some puzzles, and a lovely cabin in a heavily forested area, which your rich grandfather built himself back in the 1950s. The cabin is fully furnished, and has gas, electricity, and running water. All of the systems have their main controls in a small shack off to the side of the clearing where you parked your car. One night, just after the sun has gone down, the power goes out. There is no storm or heavy wind which could have caused this, so you get ready to go out with a flashlight to reset everything from the shed when you notice the complete and utter absence of sound outside. No animal noises at all, not even the song of crickets or the family of raccoons you know nests in a tree not too far from the house. The hair on the back of your arms and neck stands up as you finally hear the sound of skittering on the front porch, and you hold your breath as the storm door is jostled, then slowly let out your breath after the action is not repeated. After a few moments, the skittering noise is heard moving away. What do you do?
3. You have been turned into an animal familiar as part of your training to become a magical apprentice of a warlock/enchantress. They can communicate with you telepathically, so you can still talk to somebody while you are like this, but everybody else will just assume you are just an animal. What animal do you turn into, and what sort of shenanigans does your magical teacher order you into while you are like that?
4. It is a beautiful day outside. You start to take a walk, and notice a calico cat, fluffy and friendly, on your path. She turns about your legs for a few moments, purring as she receives pets, and then trots off down the path. You are going the same way, so you travel with her for a few moments, before she turns off the path and after about 10 feet, looks back at you and mews. On a whim, you decide to leave the path and follow her. You swear you only follow her for maybe 20 minutes, the fluffy plume of her tail easy to see, but when you look at the darkening sky and your watch, you realize it's been four hours, and nothing except the cat looks familiar. You keep following her, as trying to backtrack seems futile right now, and soon you come to a clearing. The clearing has stone pillars, carved with runes, at the four cardinal directions, and a single stone stand, carved intricately and three feet tall in the center. The stand has a small wooden chest on top of it, and just enough room for the cat to leap up and sit on the corner. She blinks slowly at you and mews again, and you get the distinct impression that she is smiling. What do you do?
5. Big businesses no longer push for a boring "formal business" aesthetic, and let people dress and style themselves however they want, because as long as you do a good job, your aesthetics do not matter. Facial piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, and wacky outfits are totally fine, though if you prefer something more conservative that is fine too. What is your preferred aesthetic, and how do you get to change how you look now to look how you want? How do you feel about going to work and comparing styles with your coworkers? Thinking about your coworkers, do you think you can guess the style they would wear if given complete freedom to do it without repercussions?
As always, think these scenarios over, have fun, and enjoy playing in a different head-space. I hope you are all staying safe, are healthy, and are washing your hands. Until next week, Dear Readers!
-A.M.W.
1. In a fit of pique, your beloved decides to send you a letter written in Victorian love-letter style, and beseeches you to write one to them in return. What do you say to your beloved? If you have no current beloved, write one to your ideal partner.
2. You are on vacation! It's just you and a pile of books, and some puzzles, and a lovely cabin in a heavily forested area, which your rich grandfather built himself back in the 1950s. The cabin is fully furnished, and has gas, electricity, and running water. All of the systems have their main controls in a small shack off to the side of the clearing where you parked your car. One night, just after the sun has gone down, the power goes out. There is no storm or heavy wind which could have caused this, so you get ready to go out with a flashlight to reset everything from the shed when you notice the complete and utter absence of sound outside. No animal noises at all, not even the song of crickets or the family of raccoons you know nests in a tree not too far from the house. The hair on the back of your arms and neck stands up as you finally hear the sound of skittering on the front porch, and you hold your breath as the storm door is jostled, then slowly let out your breath after the action is not repeated. After a few moments, the skittering noise is heard moving away. What do you do?
3. You have been turned into an animal familiar as part of your training to become a magical apprentice of a warlock/enchantress. They can communicate with you telepathically, so you can still talk to somebody while you are like this, but everybody else will just assume you are just an animal. What animal do you turn into, and what sort of shenanigans does your magical teacher order you into while you are like that?
4. It is a beautiful day outside. You start to take a walk, and notice a calico cat, fluffy and friendly, on your path. She turns about your legs for a few moments, purring as she receives pets, and then trots off down the path. You are going the same way, so you travel with her for a few moments, before she turns off the path and after about 10 feet, looks back at you and mews. On a whim, you decide to leave the path and follow her. You swear you only follow her for maybe 20 minutes, the fluffy plume of her tail easy to see, but when you look at the darkening sky and your watch, you realize it's been four hours, and nothing except the cat looks familiar. You keep following her, as trying to backtrack seems futile right now, and soon you come to a clearing. The clearing has stone pillars, carved with runes, at the four cardinal directions, and a single stone stand, carved intricately and three feet tall in the center. The stand has a small wooden chest on top of it, and just enough room for the cat to leap up and sit on the corner. She blinks slowly at you and mews again, and you get the distinct impression that she is smiling. What do you do?
5. Big businesses no longer push for a boring "formal business" aesthetic, and let people dress and style themselves however they want, because as long as you do a good job, your aesthetics do not matter. Facial piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, and wacky outfits are totally fine, though if you prefer something more conservative that is fine too. What is your preferred aesthetic, and how do you get to change how you look now to look how you want? How do you feel about going to work and comparing styles with your coworkers? Thinking about your coworkers, do you think you can guess the style they would wear if given complete freedom to do it without repercussions?
As always, think these scenarios over, have fun, and enjoy playing in a different head-space. I hope you are all staying safe, are healthy, and are washing your hands. Until next week, Dear Readers!
-A.M.W.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part 4
Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you are all doing well in this time of pandemic. General update about me: I have signed up for more online classes, and I will be diving into those as soon as I post this entry. I have hand-sewn a mask for myself along with headband, and then did a second one which I sent to my sister. I have made soup and applied for jobs and stayed home as much as possible. I'm still holding out hope that when the stay at home order is lifted, the office I interviewed with right before all this went down does want to employ me in some capacity, as I was up for two different positions in their office, and I was very impressed with the place.
Now that all the personal stuff is out of the way, here are your writing prompts for this week:
1. Great news! Your cousin invented a working hovercraft, about the size of a small sedan which floats, and they want you to be the pilot while they video proof that it works. They give you a how-to manual and a minimum instruction about the control panel, which is less them piloting while you observe and more of them making you sit in the pilot's seat while they point to different things and say "this one does x". Do you read through the how-to manual, or do you wing it? What shenanigans do you get up to while learning how to pilot this vehicle?
2. You've taken up a handicraft (e.g. knitting, crochet, embroidery, spinning, weaving, etc.), and you've gotten rather good. The next time you join a march/parade, you decide to use your craft to make a sign/banner. How fabulous is it, and what does it depict/say?
3. A bored billionaire wants you to be their player piece in a life-sized game of Monopoly, which goes strictly by the actual rule-book. You get to walk around a constructed city set up like a Monopoly board, with holograms to simulate houses/hotels, wearing a hat that looks like one of the Monopoly tokens and doubles as a headset so your billionaire can tell you how many places to move. Whenever the billionaire "buys" a property, you have to place a sign on the property saying your billionaire owns it, and when they "buy" houses/hotels, you have to activate the hologram to display the appropriate amount of buildings. The jail is a real building that you have to get locked into, with an on-duty warden. For this ridiculous job, which takes a full day to play, the billionaire will only refer to you as the Monopoly token on your head, but they promise to pay you $100 per hour, and double that if they win. Do you take the job?
4. You, as an archaeologist, are on a dig when one of your diggers uncovers a stone door, slanted down like a cellar door you might find behind a house. You read the inscription and it appears benign, so you document everything, and open it up. There is a set of stone stairs descending into the dark gloom of the earth, but as you contemplate who goes on the expedition down with you, a whistle-like screech emanates from somewhere deep within the opening. The sound gets stronger and stronger for 10 seconds and then abruptly cuts off, leaving your ears ringing. You look at your team and they look at you. Do you go down into the ancient underground, or do you look to see if maybe there are other ruins topside to look at first? No matter which you choose, what do you find?
5. For video game nerds: You get sucked into the last video game you last played, and you can choose to be a non-player character, or a new antagonist (think mid-level boss), or a new option for people to play as the protagonist. What game are you in? Which do you choose? If you choose to be a non-player character, what do you choose to do? If you choose to be a new antagonist, what is your aesthetic and attack type?
As always, enjoy these, have fun, and I hope you have a good week! Stay healthy, stay occupied, and wash your hands!
-A.M.W.
Now that all the personal stuff is out of the way, here are your writing prompts for this week:
1. Great news! Your cousin invented a working hovercraft, about the size of a small sedan which floats, and they want you to be the pilot while they video proof that it works. They give you a how-to manual and a minimum instruction about the control panel, which is less them piloting while you observe and more of them making you sit in the pilot's seat while they point to different things and say "this one does x". Do you read through the how-to manual, or do you wing it? What shenanigans do you get up to while learning how to pilot this vehicle?
2. You've taken up a handicraft (e.g. knitting, crochet, embroidery, spinning, weaving, etc.), and you've gotten rather good. The next time you join a march/parade, you decide to use your craft to make a sign/banner. How fabulous is it, and what does it depict/say?
3. A bored billionaire wants you to be their player piece in a life-sized game of Monopoly, which goes strictly by the actual rule-book. You get to walk around a constructed city set up like a Monopoly board, with holograms to simulate houses/hotels, wearing a hat that looks like one of the Monopoly tokens and doubles as a headset so your billionaire can tell you how many places to move. Whenever the billionaire "buys" a property, you have to place a sign on the property saying your billionaire owns it, and when they "buy" houses/hotels, you have to activate the hologram to display the appropriate amount of buildings. The jail is a real building that you have to get locked into, with an on-duty warden. For this ridiculous job, which takes a full day to play, the billionaire will only refer to you as the Monopoly token on your head, but they promise to pay you $100 per hour, and double that if they win. Do you take the job?
4. You, as an archaeologist, are on a dig when one of your diggers uncovers a stone door, slanted down like a cellar door you might find behind a house. You read the inscription and it appears benign, so you document everything, and open it up. There is a set of stone stairs descending into the dark gloom of the earth, but as you contemplate who goes on the expedition down with you, a whistle-like screech emanates from somewhere deep within the opening. The sound gets stronger and stronger for 10 seconds and then abruptly cuts off, leaving your ears ringing. You look at your team and they look at you. Do you go down into the ancient underground, or do you look to see if maybe there are other ruins topside to look at first? No matter which you choose, what do you find?
5. For video game nerds: You get sucked into the last video game you last played, and you can choose to be a non-player character, or a new antagonist (think mid-level boss), or a new option for people to play as the protagonist. What game are you in? Which do you choose? If you choose to be a non-player character, what do you choose to do? If you choose to be a new antagonist, what is your aesthetic and attack type?
As always, enjoy these, have fun, and I hope you have a good week! Stay healthy, stay occupied, and wash your hands!
-A.M.W.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part Three
Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. Colorado has extended the stay at home order until April 26th, so I find myself with even more time on my hands and more time to think up prompts for you. Wear your masks outside, remember to wash your hands, and stay safe! Below are five more writing prompts to give your brain a dose of fantastic what-ifs to contemplate.
1. Congratulations! All that hard work paid off and you are being recognized for your achievements. They're running a feature article about you in a magazine specific to your field of achievement. What did you do, what magazine are you in, what title would you really like the article to have, and for bonus points, are there any photographer shenanigans getting you to pose Just Right for the lighting, or suggestions for odd costuming?
2. Submarine technology has improved so you, as a marine biologist, get to explore some for the deepest places on Earth. You come across an odd expanse where the rock looks different, but not in a way you can readily explain, and it gives way to a cave definitely large enough for you to explore should you choose to go in. What are you the first human being to discover?
3. Getting to know the ghosts in your new house. They aren't scary, but they do have some house rules they left for you as their new roommate. What rules do they give you, are they reasonable, and how do they enforce them? Shenanigans encouraged.
4. Due to a genie who was incredibly salty that you didn't choose to use your last wish to free them, they decided to take your last wish and be incredibly petty in regards to your wording. As such, when you wished that all clothing and shoes you wear for the rest of your life, no matter what you put on or what material it is made of, turns into the most comfortable-feeling clothing you could ever wear. Instead of having comfortable clothing for the rest of your life no matter if you wear a starched shirt or towering heels, the genie has decided that, once your outfit is fully on, it will turn into the outfit you loved to wear the most because it made you feel the most comfortable in your own skin. The sizing changes to fit you as you are now, so the outfit can be from when you are an adult or teen, pre-teen or toddler. What are you wearing for the rest of your life?
5. You are an inventor, and just before the order came to hunker down, you placed a large order for various materials to help you tinker. It has finally arrived, and everything is here...plus some interesting extras that you thought were only science fiction, such as crystals for power conversion, a working power armor frame, tiny little stable fusion cores, and a dozen coronets with some sort of wifi programming tablet. The Inventor's Warehouse let you know that they are free to you for being a loyal customer. What do you invent? You can use as much or as little of your new hoard as you like, and as always, shenanigans are encouraged.
As always, have fun! I'm rooting for all of us to make it through this together.
-A.M.W.
1. Congratulations! All that hard work paid off and you are being recognized for your achievements. They're running a feature article about you in a magazine specific to your field of achievement. What did you do, what magazine are you in, what title would you really like the article to have, and for bonus points, are there any photographer shenanigans getting you to pose Just Right for the lighting, or suggestions for odd costuming?
2. Submarine technology has improved so you, as a marine biologist, get to explore some for the deepest places on Earth. You come across an odd expanse where the rock looks different, but not in a way you can readily explain, and it gives way to a cave definitely large enough for you to explore should you choose to go in. What are you the first human being to discover?
3. Getting to know the ghosts in your new house. They aren't scary, but they do have some house rules they left for you as their new roommate. What rules do they give you, are they reasonable, and how do they enforce them? Shenanigans encouraged.
4. Due to a genie who was incredibly salty that you didn't choose to use your last wish to free them, they decided to take your last wish and be incredibly petty in regards to your wording. As such, when you wished that all clothing and shoes you wear for the rest of your life, no matter what you put on or what material it is made of, turns into the most comfortable-feeling clothing you could ever wear. Instead of having comfortable clothing for the rest of your life no matter if you wear a starched shirt or towering heels, the genie has decided that, once your outfit is fully on, it will turn into the outfit you loved to wear the most because it made you feel the most comfortable in your own skin. The sizing changes to fit you as you are now, so the outfit can be from when you are an adult or teen, pre-teen or toddler. What are you wearing for the rest of your life?
5. You are an inventor, and just before the order came to hunker down, you placed a large order for various materials to help you tinker. It has finally arrived, and everything is here...plus some interesting extras that you thought were only science fiction, such as crystals for power conversion, a working power armor frame, tiny little stable fusion cores, and a dozen coronets with some sort of wifi programming tablet. The Inventor's Warehouse let you know that they are free to you for being a loyal customer. What do you invent? You can use as much or as little of your new hoard as you like, and as always, shenanigans are encouraged.
As always, have fun! I'm rooting for all of us to make it through this together.
-A.M.W.
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