Day: April 27, 2024

Judy’s Numbers Game — #18

Fandango4 Comments

Judy Dykstra-Brown has come up with a new weekly prompt for the new year that she calls “The Numbers Game.” This week’s number is 139. To play along, we need to go to our media/photo file and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos we find under that number and include a link to our blog in Judy’s Numbers Game blog of the week.

Here’s my collection of photos based upon “139.” All of the photos below have appeared in my blog posts. Some are photos posted by other bloggers as photo prompts. Some are screenshots or photos that I took. A few may have been generated by AI art apps, but most are photos I grabbed from free photo sources like Pixabay, Pexels, Pinterest, Unsplash, or Google photos.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Meaning of Life

Fandango11 Comments

Something was missing from my life, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. I was feeling disconnected and without purpose. I wanted to know why I am here and what the meaning of my life is.

I reached out to good friend who seemed to have his act together. He suggested I take a sabbatical, a journey, a quest, a pilgrimage. I traveled to the Himalayas trekking the ancient paths to find a wise man who could help me. When we finally met, I asked him my burning question.

(Exactly 93 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the challenge is “pilgrimage” in exactly 93 words. Image credit: toonpool.com.

SoCS/MLMM Saturday Mix Lucky Dip — Hodgepodge

Fandango5 Comments

“Whatcha doing, Jon?” his roommate asked him.

“I’m writing a script for a film,” Jon said.

“Cool, will you show it to me?” Archie asked.

“Well, I’m only on page one, so there’s not much to show you at this point,” Jon said, “but I can tell you about it.”

“Yes, please do,” Archie said.”

“It’s got a little bit of everything in it,” Jon explained. “It’s an action/adventure film with exploding hand grenades and it’s a musical comedy, too. It starts out with this woman, hat on her head, reading a self-help book when she decides she needs to turn over a new leaf. She fixes herself some bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then she grabs her baby boy, puts it him the baby carriage, and heads out onto the bustling streets of Manhattan. And that’s when the adventure begins.”

“Sounds like a bit of a hodgepodge if you ask me,” Archie said. “I think you ought to focus on one or two elements rather than on everything under the sun.”

“Don’t worry,” Jon said. “I’m only on page one. It will all come together by the end. I’ll prove to you what a great film show it will be.”

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday Mix Lucky Dip, where the story cubes are person in a hat reading a book, egg and bacon, pram, music note, leaf, grenade, and filmstrip.

Also for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where the word is “show.”

A2Z Challenge — The Letter X

Fandango3 Comments

I am unofficially participating in this year’s A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is girlfriends.

X is for Xin C.

I bet you didn’t think I had ever gone out with a girl whose name started with the letter “X,” but you’d have been wrong. Xin was a Chinese girl that I went out with for a few months during my junior year in college. She pronounced her name like Sheen, but she anglicized it to Jean to make it easier on everyone else.

Xin (or Jean) was, like me, a first-generation American and her parents raised her and her sister in a very traditional Chinese manner. I met her parents once and was surprised that, although they could understand and speak English, in their home no one did. They all spoke Chinese all the time. Xin had started kindergarten in American schools, so her English was perfect with no hint of an accent.

I met Xin in one of my classes and thought she was about the most exotic-looking young woman I’d ever seen in real life. We talked a bit in class and I found out that she was a speech and communication major with a focus on broadcast journalism, which intrigued me. I spent a lot of time asking her about her life, her major, and her future. After a few weeks we started dating and for a time it was great. We would talk for hours and hours and she was one of the most interesting and intelligent girls I’d ever gone out with and I loved the time we spent together.

We seemed to be about equally attracted to each other and the physical aspect of our relationship added a whole new and exciting dimension. However, there were limitations imposed by Xin’s heritage. She absolutely would not have sexual intercourse until she was married. We did just about everything else a couple could do sexually without going all the way, but it still, in me, anyway, left something to be desired. I was feeling unfulfilled and I know she was too. But she was immovable.

I was a junior in college and admittedly immature, so I was nowhere near even contemplating marriage. But not being able to have sex with her was driving me crazy. One night we were naked in bed. I was on top of her and we were making out, and I could easily have penetrated her, but I suddenly realized that if I had, it would be tantamount to rape, and I wouldn’t be able be able to live with myself. So I stopped, got off of her, got dressed, told Xin to get dressed, and drove her home.

Xin and I remained friendly after that, but we never went out on a real date again. She said she understood why we had to stop seeing each other, but she confessed later on that she wanted me inside of her that night as much as I wanted to be, but she was glad that I stopped before it happened.

Previous 2024 A2Z posts: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W

FOWC with Fandango — Sting

Fandango18 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “sting.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, ÿplease manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.