What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
I couldn’t possibly say. I make no claims to clairvoyance. Life happens. Sometimes the complicated things go smoothly and the simple things frustrate.
PROMPT: Challenge
4
Category Archives: Life
PROMPT: Advice
Eat more veggies, mind your joints, beauty is everywhere, all is impermanence, and very few things in life actually matter (see item 4.)
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: Break
Do you need a break? From what?
I travel for a break from the ordinary. I spend time at home (wherever that might be) for a break from novelty.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
How Worldly Are You? Take My Quiz and Find Out
I see so many of these life experience quizzes, and – mostly – they all seem the same. So, I decided to go bigger for all those souls who are maxxed out on the questionnaires that deal in questions like: “Have you ever been married?” and “Have you ever ridden a horse?”
So, give yourself one point for each yes answer (or partial points as described) tally up your points, and be sure to see the scoring guide at the bottom. Best of luck! [Also, please do NOT post your score in the comments section. I do not want any legal / moral hassles.]
[WARNING: Maybe distressing to: a.) those who’ve suffered trauma; or b.) those who are easily traumatized.]
1.) Have you ever plotted a coup? [Give yourself ½ point if it was only a workplace coup – unless your workplace is / was a military (or another part of the national security complex,) then it’s definitely a full point.]
2.) Has anyone ever died while having sex with you? [Give yourself a ½ point if you were a tertiary participant in an orgy or ménage à trois at the time.]
3.) Have you ever hired an expert in the removal of bloodstains?
4.) Have you ever been mauled by a bear or any other mammal heavier than a badger?
5.) Have you ever poisoned anyone? [Give yourself ½ point if it was entirely by accident.]
6.) Have you ever been hunted for sport? [Note: that does NOT say “been hunting” – i.e. have you ever been chased around by one or more armed persons who intended you harm?]
7.) Have you ever eaten human flesh? [Give yourself a full point even if you were not aware of what you were eating beforehand.]
8.) Have you ever participated in a mutiny? [A full point for mutiny both on the high sea and on the low sea, but only a ½ point if it was on a cruise ship.]
9.) Have you ever been on a private island that took full advantage of the fact that no national laws applied there?
10.) Have you ever forgotten the name of someone you are related to by blood or marriage for more than two minutes? [If you have dementia or Alzheimer’s, you should not be completing this survey.]
11.) Have you ever helped someone dispose of a package that you have reason to believe was once a human body? [Give yourself a 1/2 point if you were completely oblivious to the possibility until after the fact – e.g. you really and truly believed you were dumping some rolled up carpets until you saw the news story about the disappearance of your best friend’s nemesis. FYI – If your best friend has someone in his or her life who can legitimately be called a “nemesis,” you should be less gullible – and should reevaluate your friendships.]
12.) Have you ever woken up in a country where you didn’t speak the language, having no recollection of how you got there?
13.) Have you ever had a scare whereby you thought one or more of your organs had been harvested?
14.) Have you ever thought you were abducted by aliens, only to piece together what truly happened from memory scraps and witness testimony over subsequent days, and then earnestly wished you had been abducted by aliens?
15.) Have you ever been trapped under rubble?
16.) Have you ever engaged in a bare-knuckle cage fight in which there was neither a cage nor protective equipment of any kind? [Zero points for light sparring at local gym or dojo.]
17.) Have you ever fallen through a portal to another dimension only to later realize you consumed (or licked) something that was not safe for human consumption?
18.) Have you ever slid or fallen down a mountain into a tree or rock devoid of a sled, skis, a snowboard, a bobsled, or any other means of downhill conveyance?
19.) Have you ever been a hostage? [Zero points if other people would call it an “intervention” or being institutionalized for not being of sound mind. On second thought, give yourself a 1/2 point for being institutionalized for not being of sound mind.]
20.) Have you ever unwittingly joined a cult?
SCORING GUIDE:
15 – 20 points: Congratulations, you may have lived one of the most interesting – not to mention, luck-filled – lives of any living human. You should definitely sell your memiors to Random House. Alternatively, you are a compulsive liar and should seek therapy. Also, if you are not a compulsive liar, seek therapy anyway. [Your advance will more than cover it.]
10 – 14 points: Congratulations, you have made — oh so — many poor life decisions and lived to tell the tale. If you are not institutionalized, you soon will be.
5 – 9 points: You, too, have made a number of poor life choices, but not necessarily with the nine lives of a cat or the people with scores above you. Be careful, you probably occupy the most dangerous scoring segment.
1 – 4 point(s): I’m going to take a wild swing and say that you slipped and fell down (or off) a mountain, or you nodded “yes” and briefly ended up in a cult — but you got away before they extracted all your worldly possessions [or maybe both of the above.] Your memory may be slipping, and quite possibly your definition of a mountain is in question, but you’re probably going to be okay.
0 points: Congratulations on a nice safe life… but maybe you should get out more?
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: To-do
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
Write a to-do list.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Roosters of Youth [Haiku]
when I was a child,
roosters aggressively charged;
now: they flee, clucking.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“On a Journey” by Hermann Hesse [w/ Audio]
Don't be downcast, soon the night will come,
When we can see the cool moon laughing in secret
Over the faint countryside,
And we rest, hand in hand.
Don't be downcast, the time will soon come
When we can have rest. Our small crosses will stand
On the bright edge of the road together,
And rain fall, and snow fall,
And the winds come and go.
James Wright Translation
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: Youthful Attachments
Daily writing prompt
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
I had a guitar, a black and white Fender Stratocaster knock-off. [Actually, technically, I don’t think it was a knock-off, but rather the lowest of low-end mass-produced Strats made by a subsidiary of Fender, Squier.] What happened to it? I realized I was tone deaf and lacked the finger dexterity to be the sequel to Eddie Van Halen. So, ostensibly, it ended up donated or sold in a garage sale. There’s a small chance it’s taking up space in a closet somewhere, but not in my closet.
Not to reveal a pattern, but I also had a yellow and blue BMX bike that I was quite fond of. What happened to it? I learned that I lacked the flight characteristics to be a great BMX racer (or possibly I rode it until it fell apart into its component pieces.) Youth was a long time ago.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: Mission
BOOKS: “Bohemian Manifesto” by Laren Stover, Paul Himmelein, and Patrisha Robertson
Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Laren StoverMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
The central premise of this book is that not only does the Bohemian artist live on, but she does so in five distinct varieties: the Beat, the Zen Bohemian, the Dandy, the Folkloric Bohemian, and the Nouveau Bohemian. While the title calls this book a “manifesto,” the term used in the subtitle, i.e. “field guide,” is far more apropos. Like a field guide to birds or mushrooms, it lays out
characteristics and distinctions, the characteristics of Bohemians, generally, and the five flavors thereof, more specifically, and it does so in a way that separates them from the other varieties of human.
One might be wondering, why are these varied categories classed as Bohemian, as it seems they are their own distinct class. One way to understand this is to consider the “Zen Bohemian,” who often bears little resemblance to the “Zen Buddhist” for which one might mistake him. The Zen Buddhist has both a strong connection to and a depth of knowledge of Zen Buddhism, but the Zen Bohemian often rather has a strong connection to a broad hodge-podge of Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions that he may or may not properly understand the distinctions between.
This book is quite readable, and informative in an easy-going way, but it’s also perplexing. It’s informative in that it clarifies the characteristics of Bohemians across many criteria (e.g. food, clothing, tastes in literature, art, movies, and music, interest in boxing, etc.) It’s perplexing in that it starts with the premise that Bohemians are, at their core, free spirits who refuse to be hemmed in by convention, but then the bulk of the book is about the various tribe-signaling boxes that the Bohemian puts himself within to conform to the norms of the group. It seems that the authors are aware of this and actually produce humor through oddly specific statements such as, “They [Bohemians] still adore Laurie Anderson even though their yuppie brother went to see her.” It feels like they are aware that, to the extent Bohemians are truly free spirits, any description the authors give will be wrong at some level of granularity, and so they lean into it with great (sometimes comedic) specificity.
I enjoyed reading this book and picked up a number of interesting references to other books and whatnot. (I’m currently reading Kliph Nesteroff’s “The Comedians” because of a reference to it in this book.) I did find bits on subjects like wardrobes and astrology to be a bit tedious, but just skimmed through them.
View all my reviews
Tiger Riding for Beginners 