Tuesday, October 13, 2015

personification story

            My grandfather has a sword leaning against the wall at his home.  It is not sharp enough to cut anything, but as a member of the marines it was given to him, in honor of his service. My friend has a stylish sword and wants a samurai sword.  I got to thinking, in the more ancient times swords were used to defend ourselves.  Now, swords are a fun thing to have, but there is not much use to them other than just a fun thing to look at and admire.  All of these kind of thoughts inspired this short story.
TWO SWORDS
            For as long as I’ve been alive I have learned that inanimate objects cannot talk. I’ve been told that if an inanimate object is talking to you then odds are you are crazy.  I believed that until recently.  
            Just the other day I was minding my own business when I heard some voices. Curious I went in the direction of these voices and realized that the voices were coming from two swords, lying side by side.  Amazed I kept a safe distance and hid in hope that they wouldn’t know I was there. I overheard their conversation. For the reader I have transcribed what I heard.
Sword 1 (We’ll call him Sharp): “. . . You’ve been going on and on telling me that your master is such a great master, the greatest man that ever lived, but you haven’t provided any examples.  I think that MY master is the best master a sword could hope for.   What makes your master so great?”
Sword 2 (We’ll call him Shiny): “Why don’t we compare stories? At the end we can truly know who has the better master.  I’ll be courteous and let you go first.”
Sharp:  “My master has fought many battles and never lost a single battle. I get to truly enjoy the feeling of my blade tearing through the skin and muscles of my enemies. One of my favorite parts is when he stabs me right through someone’s heart.  Feeling that heart pump. A soft, warm, moist heart. Feeling it squirt its wonderful sticky blood, feeling it tighten and loosen a few times massaging my blade until it shudders and pumps for the last time. My master never lets me get dull. He sharpens me after each fight. While you, on the other hand, don’t look sharp enough to pierce a cotton ball, I doubt you’d even leave a dent.
I have traveled the world and seen some of the great sights of the world. Have you ever left the city?”
Shiny: “It’s true that I’m not kept sharp, but my master is still an amazing man.  He shines me daily and sometimes he takes me out just to admire my gleam. He’ll proudly show me off to any visitor who asks to see me.  Have you ever felt that warm glow when someone admires you? When they look at you with love and admiration? I notice that you have some of the blood of your past victims still on you. He may keep you sharp, but he doesn’t seem to keep you the cleanest. I don’t need to be kept sharp, because my master never engages in fights.
I haven’t traveled much, but I always know what to expect. I always know that at the end of the day my master will lay me against the wall. I am satisfied knowing that he loves me and will keep me looking good.”
Sharp: “Your master seems like the most boring man that ever lived I much prefer the adventurous life hacking and slashing my enemies.”
Shiny: “I enjoy the quiet life, having a normal routine that doesn’t change depending on who, where, and/or when I’m fighting. I prefer my life.”
Sharp has lived a life full of adventure and traveled the world.  He may not know what tomorrow brings and may have rust on his blade, but he will always be kept sharp and he can be sure that it will bring a new adventure.
Shiny has not traveled very much, but he is always gleaming and in nice condition.  He is not kept sharp but he does not need to be sharp. He just needs to look good and is content with the fact that his master loves him.

They both have very different lives, but each think their life is better. They wouldn’t change their life for anything. So I guess in the end the choice is yours. Which sword has the better life? Which sword would you rather be?

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

not-fictional

I do a lot of reading and I have many favorite books and there are lot of books that are a series that I enjoy. in one of them the author does "Author's notes" at the very end and I enjoy those (I once returned a book because the chapter "author's notes) was missing.  I think I enjoy them because it reminds me that the author is a real person with his life separate from his books.  So this is not my first factual post and it will not be my last.  I wrote this 6 days ago and stayed up a bit later than usual as a result. If you don't like non-fiction feel free to give this one a miss. And now I'm proud to present. . . 
                                         THE NECESSITY OF BREAK UPS.
Everyone knows how hard break ups can be, but they are essential if you are to ever find who you are looking for. At least, that’s my opinion. It might sound ridiculous to you but hear me out. If you are going through a recent break up, or have never been through a break up you might not fully appreciate it. But for the rest of you, I think you’ll understand me in the end.  
You may or may not find this hard to believe, but I don’t have the greatest track record with dating. Don’t get me wrong I dated a decent amount in high school, I went on a fair amount of first dates, but they didn’t start until my Junior year and that was all they were, first dates. Now I am a guy, so I am partly at fault, unless the date was incredible I never tried for a second date.  My second date was actually the first girl (out of three) who I have been on more than one date with. That’s right, I can count on my limbs the number of girls who I’ve gone on a second date with.  And some were my fault, ok most were my fault, but there was one girl who told me (as nicely as she could) that one date with me was enough to decide she didn’t want to date me anymore. So my first girlfriend (who I met in my Junior year was awesome. In my eyes she was perfection and could do no wrong.  That’s what happens for too many of us, in the early part of dating we put the other person on a pedestal and put expectations on them that they can never hope to live up to.  (We do the same thing with real life heroes.) In the end, she dumped me for personal reasons and I saw it coming, I was actually considering whether or not I should end thing with her.  
After that break up, my first break up I was understandably mad. I had devoted myself to her, I had only been dating her and then she dumps me because another guy who she’d been dating had proposed to her.  Now don’t get me wrong, I knew she was dating another guy, she hadn’t tried to hide it, but I had hoped that we would get past that (and the fact that our religious beliefs were different) and find some way to be together.  She had broke the news to me over email. At the time I hated her for not doing it face to face, but in the end I got over my anger and emailed her a polite email thanking her and we were still polite when we saw each other in the future.  Which is a good thing because she worked at a store that I went to a fair amount.  If she had told me in person, I might have exploded and said some things I’d later regret or broken down and made her feel like a horrible person. So, in this case, email was actually the perfect way to do it. 
I won’t bore you with the details of the second person I had more than one date with, but let’s just say that (once again) she broke up with me. She did it in person on our fourth date, so neither of us were highly invested in it and we also parted on good terms. 
Fast forward to the third person I have been on more than one date with and I thought she was the one.  We were all but married, I’d proposed to her and (for reasons of our own) we had a commitment ceremony and didn’t turn any papers in to the state. I highly recommend doing the same because it makes the divorce a lot less messy considering the fact that the law never knew you were married in the first place.  This time I let her know it was over.  This time I broke up with her.  I wasn’t exactly happy about it, but I knew that, in the end, I was better off without her.  With the help of our therapist I convinced her to refrain from any contact with me for eight weeks and she almost did it. She dropped by some cookies (incognito) and she sent my roommate a letter THE DAY BEFORE those eight weeks were up.  Now understand, if I had decided that we were better together, that she made my life better, I would have overlooked those two infractions of the rules.  However, in the end, I decided that my life was better without her in it. I still had a place in my heart for her and I don’t wish her any ill will (even if I do occasionally say things to the contrary) but I couldn’t be involved with her any longer.  
Now you might be saying thanks for boring me to tears with your life story, but I still don’t agree that break-ups are a necessary part of life that’s because I haven’t gotten to that part yet. In my first relationship I was just happy to be in love. I was in love with the idea of being in love. She is and was an awesome person, don’t get me wrong, but if I had taken a step back and really examined things I would have realized that our relationship wouldn’t end with “happily ever after,” But when she broke up with me I exploded inside and almost sent her an angry reply, until I had a talk with a person who had experienced break up before and I realized that I would rather be her friend instead of losing her forever. In my second relationship, I was just glad to be dating again, happy to have someone of the opposite sex to hang out with, but we only dated once a month for it didn’t hold a lot of promise and I still wouldn’t have broken up with her if it had been my choice. I was starting to believe that there was something wrong with ME and that I would be happy to have any girl. Then in walks Miss Wrong disguised as Miss Right.  I don’t regret my relationship with her, if I regret anything it’s that it lasted as long as it did. I didn’t truly appreciate that line until just barely.  It only lasted for about eight months before we did our trial separation, but there were warning bells that I should have noticed, but instead I ignored them. She was my first in more ways than one and she was willing to offer “pleasure” every night, if I felt up to it.  Such a woman can make you ignore even the worst things about her. In addition to that, we were always on the go I didn’t really have time for reflective thinking or I might have realized there was something wrong sooner. 
But where is my point, right? After breaking up with Emily I realized all the things that were wrong with her, all the things I had ignored. I had known beforehand what I wanted in a woman, but I hadn’t realized what I didn’t want.  Because of this far too many women had met my qualifications, almost any woman met my qualifications with only a few women being ruled out.  I ruled out some women and back then I couldn’t have told you why, I can now.  If someone breaks up with you, you can say, they don’t know what they’re missing out on.  And you can blame it all on them. 
Some people ever says “It’s not you, it’s me.”  But if you break up with someone you can’t say “They don’t know what they’re missing” or anything like that. They might be totally aware of what they are missing out on, but YOU broke up with THEM.  When I broke up with Emily I realized why it was necessary to cut her loose and my dating pool drew smaller. Before her I had known what I wanted, but I hadn’t realized what would make or break a relationship for me.  Overall, it was an experience I needed to have and learn from.  
When you break up with someone you have to take a step back and think why did I break up with this person? What should I look for in my next relationship?  What should I avoid so I don’t make the same mistake I made this time? Now I’m not saying that I have all the answers, I’m also not saying that I have solved life, hell, I’m not even sure I know ALL the things I don’t want in a woman. My next long term girlfriend might make Emily look like a walk in the park, God forbid.  All I’m saying is that, for me, breaking up with a woman was necessary and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Sure it’s painful and I miss having a warm body to sleep next to. I miss having a woman who can make me feel things I can’t experience alone.  But I learned and have more dimension to myself because of it.  Dating Emily built character and having more character is not something to complain about.  That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and now I am stronger and understand more about life than I ever have. Life is experience, it’s not all bad it’s not all good, but you can benefit from everything if you just cast it in the right light. And that’s my two bits. Thanks for bearing with me and reading to the end. I know it took a while to get here but I think it was worth the wait and I hope you agree.
Your friend,
Mike. 

Thursday, July 16, 2015

ramblings then topic

Others may say that I’m naïve (for you dyslexics out there I’m referencing the symptom where you are gullible and inexperienced in the world, instead of fancy spring water) or that I‘m suffering from “Pollyanna syndrome“, but I truly believe that, with the right outlook, you can turn negatives to a positive. It may take a while depending on what the negative is, but it is possible.  One thing I have read in the past is that you should write what you know and it took me a while to understand what that were saying. I think what it means is, if you don’t know about X don’t write about it without doing the proper research. If I was to write about what it is like to be a female instead of a male I would fail miserably, because I have not experienced life as a female. (If I have experienced being a female in a past life I certainly don’t remember it.)
You will always write about things you have experience in better than thing you are inexperienced in. It seems like a no-brainer, but some people forget that. I’m not saying that fiction writing is a bad choice, but if you are writing a story that has a lot of fighting in it, don’t try to name karate moves that you have seen in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it is possible to throw a flaming fireball from your hands without a lot of preparation.  However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot write about talents like that. Just make sure that your readers know that this character has supernatural powers and/or set the story in a world that is different from the one we all live in.  I have written about some moves in the past, but I did not specify the fighting style, I do not know that all the moves in my book are possible, but I painted my characters as ones that have done ridiculous amounts of study on different fighting styles, so I think I’m covered.
I am rambling on and on and getting off topic and I apologize. If you can’t handle this maybe you are reading the wrong author. I don’t think this will be the last time I ramble or get off topic.
I started writing this with a totally different objective and it got away from me.  What I was trying to say, back in the beginning is that there are pros and cons to every situation (nothing is all bad or all good) and life experiences are the one thing you can write about without having to worry about extensive research. I have recently thought about something I have experienced that needs to be examined so now, without further ado I give you . . .
THE PROS AND CONS OF HAVING A SPEECH DISORDER.

Pro: You will rarely be called upon to give a speech or say the prayer unless the people in the group hardly know you (If you don‘t like talking in front of people, no problem).
Con: You are rarely called upon to give a speech or say a prayer unless people in the group hardly know you (How else are they going to get to know you?).

Pro: If you stumble and stammer when talking to an attractive member of the opposite sex you can blame it on your speech disorder.
Con: You and I both know that’s not the ONLY reason you failed to impress that person who causes your heart to skip a beat.

Pro: People will understand if you aren’t as talkative as some people, they might even appreciate the fact that you aren’t talking their ear off
Con: People don’t always know it if you are giving them the “silent treatment.”

Pro: You don’t get asked stupid questions.
Con: You don’t always get to ask your stupid questions.

Pro: You don’t have to talk to those annoying people.
Con: You might be perceived as one of those annoying people (plus you might miss out on talking to amazing people.)

Pro: You can tell if people are interested in what you have to say because they’ll ask you to repeat what you said, repeat what they understood, and/or sometimes try to fill in the blanks.
Con: You have to repeat yourself several times and hear what you say repeated, and sometimes it‘s repeated incorrectly

Pro: You might become amazingly proficient in another form of communication to compensate. Example: writing ;)
Con: You had to find other ways to communicate in the first place.

Pro: If you‘ve been to tons of different speech therapists you can practically teach speech therapy.
Con: It’s hard to get clients if you aren’t licensed and/or don’t have a diploma claiming as much. (That’s when you get out a printer and the fancy writing, DIY diploma anyone? [Tip: Make sure you use an obscure college, you don‘t want anyone calling the school to check your degree])