Creative expression challenge

Over the past two days, I went back and re-read hundreds, thousands of my old tweets. It should come as no surprise that it left me feeling quite nostalgic.
I miss the interactions I had with many of those people, particularly my friends Bonnie and Betty

You, my faithful readers, know that I just adore my friend, Betty. She’s been someone who I’ve leaned on, and in turn supported. Betty possesses a creative soul, but has not always found the time, inspiration, or motivation to give expression to the butterfly within her.

So, caught up in the spirit of all those past tweets, I asked her if she was currently pursuing any kind of creative challenge, and if not, would she be open to one.
She was game, so I’ve issued her the following challenge:

Phase 1: Write a short story (between 800 – 3000 words) with a title selected from the following:

One More River to Cross
Girl On A Raft
The Magic Pencil

I have two more phases in mind, but I didn’t want to overwhelm her up front. She has until Dec 7 to deliver her story.

Only 19


Create Your Own Visited States Map

Cuvette verte

Last weekend I attended a multi-game event. In truth, I was somewhat disappointed. Very few skaters signed up to come play. For the black and white scrimmages, each side typically only had 6 or 7 skaters. There were enough skating officials for 2 crews, but not enough NSOs for even a single full crew. I found out when I arrived at the event that I was sort of a crew head and I was expected to do some on-the-job training for the other NSOs. Some of these NSOs were the freshest of the fresh, only experienced in a single position (and not well trained at even that one). Others were of middling experience and did fine. And a couple who were pretty inexperienced really ended up doing quite well.

Some expected games got cancelled due to lack of teams to compete, and an already short schedule got shorter as the weekend progressed.

From what I could tell, the weekend was pretty beneficial for skating officials. They each got a lot of individual feedback from the tournament head ref. So, good for them and all.

The biggest problem is that this event was so far away from home. It took 4-5 hours to get there and I spent a lot more $$ on food (eating out) than I would have had I stayed home.

 

Ah well. It could have been worse. And I did get to see some people I already knew and meet some other cool people. And any weekend in which I have plans is better than a weekend wherein I have nothing to do.

Full, but not too busy

Had a good weekend.

 

Friday after work I went over to Liz’s place to feed her cat, water her plant, and do laundry. Watched an 80s movie on Netflix while I waited for clothes to cycle. Had plans to meet some people for dinner at Don Pedro’s Time on Portland Road that night, and in order to get in my scheduled run, I timed my departure to put me at the restaurant (3.4 miles away) at the correct time. Had a couple tacos, rice & beans. The point of going to this place was to check out their alleged cabbage salsa. #fail 😉 My source had mistaken what was available there. The food was good nonetheless. Afterwards, I ran back to pick up my car and laundry, taking a shorter route (2 miles). Rather surprised that I was able to do the distance and especially that running after I ate seemed easier than the first leg!

 

Saturday I went to help paint at the Mad House, then tried another Mexican place, El Grullense, for lunch. No cabbage salsa there, but a delicious fried chicken meal! Later in the afternoon I rode up to the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove to complete my passport. Nice place. Fed cat, watered plant.

Couple hours later, rode in to Portland to Darth Bling/Andy Oakley’s place to stay the night. Bling had fixed up some rice and curry (which was delicious) and we spent the evening watching derby movies (Brutal Beauty and Blood on the Flat Track).

 

Early Sunday AM, Bling and I rode our bikes up to Centralia to get some breakfast. The Rainy City Roller Girls were doing a fundraiser at Applebees. Nice ride. Cold on the way up, but pleasant on the ride back.

Made it back to Portland by 12:15/12:30, took a few minutes to stretch, then back to Salem. Fed cat, watered plant.

Spent the late afternoon/early evening with my gaming group getting started with Shadowrun. I think I’m going to like this game. Finished off the evening by re-watching the last 3 episodes of series 1 of Dr Who and watching episode 1 of series 2. That endeavor is going to be painful.