Awesome Anecdote About A Woman’s Experiences With Aging, Children, And Attractiveness, And How Men Respond
May 16, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Writing |
by meltygarden
I’m 40, and for me, the way I’m treated has more to do with my current weight and whether or not I have children in tow.
Regarding children: I had my first child very young – I was 20. Even though I was in the "full bloom of youth" at the time, have that stereotypical stuff that men tend to like (extreme hourglass figure, large boobs, blonde hair, blue eyes), and was rocking a body that a year of breastfeeding only made better, when my baby was with me in public I was invisible. I would see guys doing their normal thing of scanning the horizon all around them, their eyes settling on the ones they’d do and passing right over the ones they wouldn’t. They never even let their eyes settle on me. The baby made me effectively invisible. Going out in public without my baby elicited the normal car horns, animal noises, leers and whiplash double-takes.
At work the baby wasn’t an issue. There, it was my weight that determined my treatment. When thin I was constantly flirted with and treated to little special favors and extras. Getting hired to jobs was a breeze. Very few men found it inappropriate to constantly compliment me on my looks, my hair, my clothes, etc. Even in a professional environment the men were shameless about staring at my tits. Women were as catty to me as men were schmoozy. You’d think my tits grew out of the fertile compost of my moral failures or something.
However, for all the flirting and trivial favors and special treatment and such, getting promoted or acknowledged for my talents and strengths was difficult. In order to secure promotions and gain responsibility at work, I had to start pulling my hair back severely, stop wearing makeup and "frump up" my clothing a bit. Even that was not terribly successful.
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16 Undeniable And Universal Laws
May 13, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: LOL, Writing |
Law of Mechanical Repair – After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.
Law of Gravity – Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Probability -The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of Random Numbers – If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
Law of the Alibi – If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.
Variation Law – If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
Law of the Bath – When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters -The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
Law of the Result – When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will..
Law of Biomechanics – The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Law of the Theater and Hockey Arena – At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last and they are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. While those in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and who stay to the bitter end of the performance and beyond. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
The Starbucks Law – As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Murphy’s Law of Lockers – If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
Law of Logical Argument – Anything is possible if you don’t know what you are talking about.
Wilson’s Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy – As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
Doctors’ Law – If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better. Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.
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A Defense Of The Existence Of True, Romantic Love
May 13, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Love, Writing |
by sarahmj13
I have been a type I diabetic almost my entire life. I happen to also be intelligent, responsible, and mature beyond my years because when someone tells you at age four that every choice you make in life will affect your ability to live well, you grow up quickly. [This is going somewhere; stick with me]
I met a man while in college who knew from day one about this disabling condition. When my insulin pump was ripped out because I caught it on the door handle, he gave me a foot massage while I re-inserted a new tube. When my body began to resist the insulin I was taking, he made me a bed on his couch, kept my water bottle full, and made me an appointment with my doctor to get a new prescription. He tells me jokes while I change my pump to distract me from the pain. He has taken on my health-conscious diet and exercise plan to encourage me to remain healthy and live as long as I can.
I found out when I was eighteen that I will live until I am thirty five at the most. Due to diabetes not being an epidemic in 1990 like it has become, as my pancreas was dying, the doctors did not reach the correct diagnosis; diabetes simply wasn’t that common. My organs are shot, my body already resists one of two types of approved insulin, and every day is a process of checking my sugar, eating based on my numbers, exercising based on my numbers, existing based on what my blood tells me I have to do.
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Love Is A Decision
April 12, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Love, Writing |
ARE YOU WITH THE RIGHT PARTNER?
During a seminar, a woman asked," How do I know if I am with the right person?"
The author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, "It depends. Is that your partner?" In all seriousness, she answered "How do you know?" Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it’s weighing on your mind replied the author.
Here’s the answer.
Every relationship has a cycle… In the beginning; you fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn’t hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn’t have to DO anything. That’s why it’s called "falling" in love.
People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet."Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU.
Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It’s a natural cycle of EVERY relationship.
Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.
At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships breakdown.
The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the person you found.
People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes.
Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it.
I’m not saying that you couldn’t fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you’d feel better. But you’d be in the same situation a few years later.
Because (listen carefully to this):
The key to succeeding in a Relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the Person you found.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know
WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it.
Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner), Just as there are physical laws Of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know how to apply these laws, the results are predictable.
Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.
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“Happy Endings” By Margaret Atwood
April 3, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Writing |
Margaret Atwood
John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A.
A.
John and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile and remunerative jobs which they find stimulating and challenging. They buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they can afford live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted. The children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and challenging sex life and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story.
B.
Mary falls in love with John but John doesn’t fall in love with Mary. He merely uses her body for selfish pleasure and ego gratification of a tepid kind. He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you’ll notice that he doesn’t even consider her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he’s eaten dinner he fucks her and after that he falls asleep, while she does the dishes so he won’t think she’s untidy, having all those dirty dishes lying around, and puts on fresh lipstick so she’ll look good when he wakes up, but when he wakes up he doesn’t even notice, he puts on his socks and his shorts and his pants and his shirt and his tie and his shoes, the reverse order from the one in which he took them off. He doesn’t take off Mary’s clothes, she takes them off herself, she acts as if she’s dying for it every time, not because she likes sex exactly, she doesn’t, but she wants John to think she does because if they do it often enough surely he’ll get used to her, he’ll come to depend on her and they will get married, but John goes out the door with hardly so much as a good-night and three days later he turns up at six o’clock and they do the whole thing over again.
Mary gets run-down. Crying is bad for your face, everyone knows that and so does Mary but she can’t stop. People at work notice. Her friends tell her John is a rat, a pig, a dog, he isn’t good enough for her, but she can’t believe it. Inside John, she thinks, is another John, who is much nicer. This other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a Jack from a box, a pit from a prune, if the first John is only squeezed enough.
One evening John complains about the food. He has never complained about her food before. Mary is hurt.
Her friends tell her they’ve seen him in a restaurant with another woman, whose name is Madge. It’s not even Madge that finally gets to Mary: it’s the restaurant. John has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find, and takes them and a half a bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the fact that it’s not even whiskey. She leaves a note for John. She hopes he’ll discover her and get her to the hospital in time and repent and then they can get married, but this fails to happen and she dies.
John marries Madge and everything continues as in A.
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Survival Of The Fittest
March 18, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Uncategorized |
Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.
Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.
I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.
Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.
When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 U.S.A., along with a 3×5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."
This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.
There can be only one.
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What Does It Feel Like To Be Stupid?
March 14, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Writing |
The following is a very unusual account of a true but unusual experience:
I had an arterial problem for a couple of years, which reduced blood supply to my heart and brain and depleted B vitamins from my nerves (to keep the heart in good repair). Although there is some vagueness as to the mechanisms, this made me forgetful, slow, and easily overwhelmed. In short, I felt like I was stupid compared to what I was used to, and I was.
It was frightening at first because I knew something wasn’t right but didn’t know what, and very worrying for my career because I was simply not very good any more.
However, once I got used to it and resigned myself, it was great. Even though I knew I had a worrying illness, I was happy as a pig in mud. I no longer had the arrogance of being frustrated with slow people, I abandoned many projects which reduced a lot of stress, I could enjoy films without knowing what would happen (my nickname before this used to be ‘comic book guy’ if you get the reference), and I became amazingly laid back and happy go lucky. I got on with people much better. I developed much more respect for one of my friends in particular who I always considered slow – it turned out he is much deeper than I thought, I just never had the patience to notice before. You could say I had more time to look around. The world just made more sense. The only negative, apart from struggling to perform at work, and having to write everything down, was that I no longer found sci-fi interesting – it just didn’t seem important. (I’m not joking, although it sounds like a cliché.)
Eventually after more physical and life threatening symptoms developed I got the right tests and they found my arteries were blocked up (2 out of 3 of my main coronary arteries 100% blocked – they couldn’t work out why I was alive – it later turned out that I had unusually good peripheral circulation from my intense cycling). I’ve since had stents to open up the arteries again and made a full recovery.
After a year or so I am almost as ‘clever’ as I used to be, although I tend to ignore distractions more than I used to and focus on a smaller number of projects. I’m still more laid back than I used to be though, and have more patience with people. Most people still find me more socially competent. I also enjoy sci-fi again.
So an unusual perspective, from a fairly unusual circumstance, but that’s what it feels like to be be stupid when you used to be fairly bright. In some ways it was a great learning experience, although obviously in other ways it is a life changing fact I have to live with. Not many people get to walk about in other peoples shoes, and then pick up where they left off. Plus it’s obviously nice to still be alive.
In short I would say that the frustration of dealing with slower people is worse than being one of the slower people, even if you know you are slow. Obviously most people who are relatively slow, don’t know it, but I think I’ve glimpsed how they experience the world.
(via)
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Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
March 7, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Uncategorized |
These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist. Number 9 on the list - When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next – is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres.
- You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
- You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
- Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
- Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
- Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
- What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
- Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
- Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
- When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
- Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
- Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
- Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
- Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
- Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
- If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
- What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
- No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
- You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
- Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
- You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
- What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
(via)
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How To Explain ‘Work’ To A Cat
February 7, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: LOL, Writing |
by TheCat5001
Good afternoon there fellow feline. Enjoying a nice bit of sun, aren’t you? Let me join you. Our human works fairly well as a food dispenser lately, doesn’t he? Walk in front of him, break the eye contact with his glowing box, and chances are he’ll get up and feed you. It works wonders.
But on to the matter at hand. I overheard a most amusing rumor today. You know how our human tends to be out of the house during most of the day? It seems he spends his day in a building, staring at another glowing box. Not because he wants to, but because some other human tells him to. No, I don’t really know what the difference is, but I’ve been told that the glowing box in here is for fun, while the glowing box in the other building is not fun. Perhaps the other one is already deceased, while this one is still alive.
Anyway – and here’s the crux of the matter – the human in the other building gives him food for looking at the glowing box. Not just people food either, cat food too. The fellow I heard it from – Snookums from down the street – assured me his human acquires car food as well. I told him that’s the silliest jibber-jabber I’ve heard all week. Yet, he insists. He also speculated that the fun glowing box would not work if the human does not stare at the boring glowing box for eight hours a day, but he wasn’t entirely sure of this himself.
Needless to say, I left him to his mad ravings – poor ol’ chap must be starting to lose his marbles – and came down here to enjoy this exquisite spot of sunlight.
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A Collection Of Awesome 6 Word Stories
February 4, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Writing |
Sticks. Spears. Swords. Guns. Nukes. Sticks.
Five Zombies. Four bullets. Two zombies.
He bottle-feeds his wife’s killer.
Brought roses home. Keys didn’t fit.
Time traveler dies tragically; 1964 – 1514
You’re not a good artist, Adolf.
My Dads met at Bible Camp.
Lincoln awoke, still drunk…….”Freed who?”
The last human burned the slowest.
Cancer. Only three months left. Pregnant.
Last two people on earth – gay.
Selling Parachute: never opened, slightly stained.
Our bedroom. Two voices. I knock.
Misleadingly deep puddle. Curious child missing.
