beautiful darkness.
they find beauty in stars shining
a dark sky could never compare
in light, they dance and they sing
none brings them only despair
to me, they don’t know anything
brightness brings blinding glare
but when the night is starless
I have beautiful darkness
My online identity, that is…
I’ve been reluctant to change things much around here. It’s been long enough that my site’s design and style are pretty well ingrained. If I change things, will this place no longer feel like home? To me? Or to you? Will you wonder where you are? Where I’ve gone? I don’t want anyone to think it’s not the same blog they know and love and visit religiously a minimum of six times each day.
I’ve played around with redesign ideas but even if I love what I create, I abandon it because I don’t want to lose my identity. I still like the way this place looks. But… I also have this desire to change something. Even my avatar. I’m sick of looking at it… but I’m not sure I like anything else I’ve come up with either. And if I do change it… will I not look like me anymore? Will I be unrecognizable? I am crazy-indecisive about such silly things.
Is this identity crisis ridiculous? Kind of a rhetorical question… I already know it is…
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I haven’t really been doing awards for a while but I’m always up for the fun of answering questions. Plus, I’ve had a lot of new followers lately and I thought this might help them get to know me. Although that may backfire.
My new snarky friend at Supernatural Snark nominated me for the Mystery Blogger Award. Then… another new friend at Outside Perception, who was also nominated by my previously mentioned new friend, nominated me as well. Confused yet? Me, too.
I need names… or something! I don’t know what to call you…!
Supernatural Snark’s questions:
1. Fave Backstreet Boys song?
I was going to be a ‘snark’ and name an *NSYNC song but I don’t want anyone to hurt me (Bye Bye Bye *smirk*). Um… I’m choosing Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) because it’s at the end of the movie This Is the End which is inappropriately hilarious.
2. If you had a superpower what would it be and why?
Does time travel count? Well, The Flash can run fast enough to travel through time so I’m going with that. I have a few corrections I need to make in my past. I know… my whole current reality will be different. But… that’s kind of the point!
3. If I offered you the chance to become invisible or a million dollars which one would you accept?
I’m unemployed so I need the money. I’d say invisible but I don’t think, even while invisible, I could live with myself for robbing a bank. Plus whatever I steal wouldn’t be invisible… it would be mysteriously floating away…
4. Have you ever eaten ice cream with a fork?
Many times… at birthday parties. Cake with a scoop of ice cream – I eat the whole thing with a fork.
5. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? (I can’t, LOL).
No… I can only do the tie-a-cherry-stem-in-a-knot-with-my-tongue thing.
Outside Perception’s questions:
1. Tell us about something that you used to believe only to find out it was incorrect?
Santa Claus. Enough said.
2. If given the choice between Cake or Death… what would it be?
Why did I struggle with this question? Hm. Cake then death? Then restart?
3. What was your imaginary friends name and what special skills did they have?
I never had one as a child. I have an imaginary character in my head now… for writing fiction… he has several special skills, some of which are inappropriate for general audiences.
4. What is your all time most watched movie?
Tangled (yes, the Disney animated film)
5. When you have downtime… (Laugh.. yah I know) Ok, If you ever had downtime… What would you do?
As previously mentioned, I’m unemployed. But I’m also a mom so while you’d think I have lots of downtime, I really don’t have very much. When I do… I write. Or read. Sometimes I bake. Also, Candy Crush relaxes me.
There it is… Another reason for me to post a picture of Flynn Rider. And more stuff about me you probably didn’t need to know. But now that you do, try not to hold it against me.
Do you know what the worst thing is?
It’s when there is the potential for something to be very very wrong… or it could be fine… but you have to wait to find out. So you have waaay too much time to think about it and imagine all of the worst case scenarios.
That is the worst thing ever.
The powers that be must know I’ve been doing well lately so they had to fuck it up.
Thanks for ‘listening‘.
Before I say anything about the challenge itself, I want to acknowledge all of you. During this challenge, I’ve had 98 new followers. Thank you for visiting. I hope you stay… but I do also understand how difficult it is to keep up with everyone. I am behind as I type this… I’ve saved every new follower notification I’ve received throughout the month. Over the next few days (or weeks… I don’t know how long it’s going to take to catch up…), I’m going to visit every one of you.
Whether you’ve been here for days or months — thank you for your support. I’m a little reclusive offline… the friendship and support I find here means so much to me. Maybe even more than it should, if that makes any sense…
When I couldn’t decide on a theme for a-to-z this year, I turned to you. The top suggestion was music. And I did that. But I thought some cathartic bitching would be good for me as well. And it was… for a bunch of the letters. For others, it was just… hard. Imagine having to think of something to bitch about… I never thought I’d have a bit of trouble with that! But damn, some nights I was scrambling for a topic at 2am!
The interesting thing (well, one of them) is… despite the many suggestions that I do the music theme, the bitchfest posts were much more popular… in both likes and comments. Of course, likes can happen even if someone doesn’t bother reading the post. And… comments can multiply because I’m having a chat with someone. So who knows if the numbers really indicate popularity at all. But this is interesting (to me anyway)…
likes:
1st — bitchfest | d – decaf #atozchallenge
2nd — bitchfest | a – autocorrect #atozchallenge
3rd — bitchfest | k – kale #atozchallenge
4th — bitchfest | g – group texts #atozchallenge (tie)
4th — bitchfest | h – half wall #atozchallenge (tie)
5th — music | a – airborne toxic event, the #atozchallenge
comments:
1st — bitchfest | c – clichés #atozchallenge
2nd — bitchfest | k – kale #atozchallenge
3rd — bitchfest | r – reality tv #atozchallenge
4th — bitchfest | b – bad grammar #atozchallenge
5th — bitchfest | o – outdoors #atozchallenge (tie)
5th — music | u – u2 #atozchallenge (tie)
I think the most popular post — being the only one appearing on both lists — was kale. Kale for fuck’s sake! That was a six-word story. I wrote it in about 4 seconds! Holy shit. Maybe next year’s theme should be six-word stories…
Then there’s the bitch phenomenon. Look at all those bitchy posts! And only two music ones! And I bet the popularity of the music post for the letter a is only because it was the first letter. And the popularity of the U2 one is because people hate U2 (and you know, I don’t really like them either… it was only for the story).
Does this mean I can bitch all the time and you’ll love it? I was thinking I’d used up my bitch-allowance… like I am not permitted to bitch about anything for at least a month. We’ll see how that goes…
And does this mean you are done with my music-related thoughts and opinions? I bet you never want to know anything about my music collection ever again. Well… tough shit! I plan to continue with ‘song of the day’ whenever the mood strikes. But maybe not for a little while.
This month was exhausting. Seriously, what idiot thought doing two themes was a good idea? Oh yeah… me. I am never doing that again.
z | zwan
I’d like to thank Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins fame) for his short-lived side project, Zwan. Because it starts with Z.
I believe the love you talk about with me
Is it true, do I care?
Honestly, you can try to wipe the memories aside
But it’s you that you erase
‘Cause there’s no place that I could be without you
It’s too far to discard the life I once knew
Honestly, all the weather storms I bring
Are just a picture of my needs
‘Cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself with time
To lead into the life we want
I feel love, honestly
I feel love, yes, honestly
I believe you mean the best that life can bring
I believe in it all
Honestly, you can try
Your heart is just as long as mine
Is it ours to let go
‘Cause there’s no place that I could be without you
It’s too dark to discard the life I once knew
Honestly, a single wrong is not enough
To cover up the pain in us
‘Cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself the time
To lead into the life we want
I feel love, honestly
I’ll make a joke so you must laugh
I’ll break your heart so you must ask
Is this the way to get us back
I don’t know, honestly
I don’t know, yes, honestly
There’s no place that I could be without you
Honestly
• • •
Stay tuned for my a-to-z wrap-up post… coming soon!
other z artists worth a listen
Ha! Riiight.
[Disclaimer: I apologize if you are a huge Zippy fan. Do those exist?]
• • •
z | zippy the pinhead
Are we creeped the fuck out yet?
Zippy has been around for a long time… since the 70s… which is amazing because he may be the creepiest-looking comic character ever. It’s not that the strip is so awful… it’s really not. I just can’t get past how creepy he looks. He’s, like, an extra-creepy clown. And clowns don’t need extra creepiness. Do you watch American Horror? There was a murderous clown… it made me think of Zippy. That can’t be good.
Zippy scares people. For real. In college when my then-boyfriend and I started our own little comic newspaper, we used to read all the newspaper strips… including Zippy. (Yes, in the comics section of an actual newspaper… that was made of actual paper.) We had a friend who was particularly creeped out by Zippy so we would cut the strips out (Sunday’s color strip was best) and hide the clippings in her dorm room. I think we gave her nightmares. Damn, we were mean! But it was hilarious.
This isn’t much of a rant, but I’m burnt out. And z was too hard.
I hope I didn’t give you nightmares. Not from this, anyway…
*shudder*
• • •
Stay tuned for my a-to-z wrap-up post… coming soon!
[Disclaimer: This is just for a laugh… a fictional-rant.]
I have no strong emotions toward Yoda either way. Please don’t come at me with reasons no one should bitch about Yoda… this post does not reflect my actual opinion. I just didn’t know what to write… this was my son’s suggestion. I swear I am not as much of a nerd as this post implies… I’m just surrounded by the obsessions of my husband and son. I also know lots of crazy detail about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Oh, wait, that probably makes me a nerd, too.
• • •
y | yoda
Is Yoda supposed to be a lovable little grandpa-type character? Is he supposed to look (and therefore seem) old and wise? I can accept the old and wise. I can even accept that he represents the power of The Force well because he can defeat bad dudes despite his small stature.
But he’s a little troll.
Of course there is try. Success or failure… but one must try to get there.
I am so sick of people imitating his manner of speech. Bite me, you should. [I know, I just did it. I know.] It’s gotten old. Like, really old. Yoda-age old.
[Ahh… see I’m not that much of a nerd… I don’t know how old he is… but I bet if I ask my son or husband, they’ll know the answer. Hold please… … I knew it. The boy says, “He was about 900 when he died.”]
He’s a fucking Jedi Master… he can move shit with his mind but he can’t put words in order? Yeah, I know… maybe that’s the way his kind speak. I don’t care. When the Jedi Masters gather, all the others can manage proper word order… but not him. Silly little muppet. His voice is creepy, too. I know this because when my husband imitates it, he sounds like a pervy old man. I have forbidden him from doing it ever again.
So, in short (pun intended), he’s a wrinkly little green troll… I just want to kick him across the room. Mace Windu should clearly have been in charge.
Liam Sullivan's Ideas and Reflections
Wordpress simulcast of the official A to Z Challenge blog
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” — Maya Angelou
Photos, art, and a little bit of LIT.
A Look on the Brighter Side of Life
A writer with no name 👽
what sandra thinks 